KhAndTwilightFan15: Oh my paopu fruit! This turned out better than I expected! I'm hoping we get more reviews soon but you have to admit we're doing pretty Good so far! XD
CrystalAngelHeart: Yeah and remember we still have to work on the you-know-what's for you- know-who!
KhAndTwilightFan15: I have the others done but this one is taking a lot longer than I thought, :(
CrystalAngelHeart: It's ok! I'll work on it while you do the disclaimer!
KhAndTwilightFan15: Alright. So we are not Tetsuya Nomura or Mattel so we own nothing...except for me because I own my OC Alona! :D
… Strange … Bailey … maybe … destroyed? … hurt … strong heart…
Cerise steadily regained consciousness upon hearing someone talking, yet was only able to pick up bits and pieces. She tried to move, straining to hear the rest of whatever was being said, yet was dragged back into the empty pit of unconsciousness when a wave of pain washed over her upon her movement.
It wasn't long after when she finally struggled free of the sudden unconsciousness, her eyes finally opening after a few tries. Allowing them to wonder without moving much, she found herself in an unknown room.
'Where am I?' Cerise wondered. 'A secret room of the school?'
Cerise raised a hand, noticing that it had bandages wrapped around it right before she placed it on her head out of habit. She swore her heart skipped a bit when she didn't feel her fingers brush the hood of her cloak. She immediately sat up, looking around frantically for her mother's old cloak. She noticed as she searched for the object she sought, more detail of the room. It was of decent size, at least to her. The bed she'd awoken in was against the wall facing the door. Two windows allowed light to pour in from the wall facing her, with another bed between them. As her sights fell upon another door in which Cerise guessed led to a bathroom or a closet, she noticed a desk with a chair and a floor lamp right beside it, and along the far wall were a dresser and wardrobe.
Looking down after unsuccessfully finding her cloak, Cerise saw bandages on her arms and on her left shoulder when she glanced at it. She wondered what had happened to her, but wasn't as worried about that as much as where her cloak was. If anyone else found out about her family secret, she was doomed! She had to find it, regardless if she was in an unfamiliar room or not!
Just as she had flung the covers off her form, the door unexpectedly opened. Cerise's eyes widened in fear when a girl who looked to be around sixteen and had a short build like Maddie's entered the room, her dark brown hair giving of a blazing red color the moment she stood in the light coming in through one of the windows. In her light skinned hands was something that scared Cerise out of her wits and made her wish to disappear – her cloak.
In her moment of panic, Cerise quickly used the covers as a makeshift cloak right as the girl turned to her and smiled.
"Oh, you're awake," She said with much relief in her voice.
"U-Uh, yeah. I just woke up," Cerise replied nervously, looking down at her hands that were in her lap.
"It's a good thing you did. Was starting to get worried that you weren't going to." The girl walked over to the bedside.
"What do you mean?"
"You were in pretty bad shape when I came across you in the Bailey. Not only that, you had a swarm of Heartless all around you. But don't worry. I took care of them all and got you here safely."
Cerise lifted her head to look at the girl, confusion written on her face.
"Heartless?"
"I think it's best if you come downstairs so my friends and I can explain," The girl said and turned to leave, only to turn back around and reach for the blanket Cerise had over her head, making the fairy tale gasp and growl at her. The result was as Cerise wanted. The girl pulled her hand back in surprise. "It's okay. We already know about your ears. And around here, we don't judge people by how they look."
The girl smiled comfortingly and draped Cerise's cloak over the end of the bed and walked out. Cerise had barely moved to get up when the girl popped her head in again.
"Oh, and by the way, there are some towels and another set of clothes in the bathroom for you in case you wanted to take a shower," She informed Cerise, who nodded. The girl then shut the door, telling Cerise to take her time as she left.
I guess a shower would be nice… Cerise thought as she stood up and walked over to the other door in the room.
KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2KH2
After a quick shower, redressing her wounds that were still healing, Cerise put on the clothes in which were exactly like the ones she had been wearing prior to getting in the shower. She brushed her hair and exited the bathroom, seizing hold of her cloak and putting it on before she left the room.
Walking down the hallway, Cerise passed by six more doors, making her wonder who else lived there as she neared the stairs that ended with the hall. Voices sounded at the landing, causing her to get the feeling that she was about to find out.
When she finally got to the bottom, her sights fell upon six other people, who she guessed were the occupants of the rooms she had passed back upstairs, along with the girl from earlier. A woman with light brown hair tied back in a ponytail-like braid, emerald colored eyes, and wore a pink and white dress noticed Cerise and smiled in her direction.
"Oh, it's good to see you're up," She said in a soft, yet happy voice, making everyone in the room turn their attention to the fairy tale in their presence.
Cerise only nodded, unsure of what to say. She looked at the girl from earlier, watching as she giggled.
"Guess it's time for introductions." The girl pointed to herself with her thumb. "I'm Alona. And soft-voice flower girl over there is Aerith." She gestured to the woman in pink.
Cerise gave a polite wave right as Alona pointed to a man dressed in black leather and had a diagonal scar on his face.
"That's Leon." Alona continued.
"Hey," Leon greeted with a curt nod.
"Then we have the 'greatest ninja ever', Yuffie." A young girl around Alona's age that was clad in a midriff shirt, shorts, and knee-high boots and a bandana around her forehead gave Cerise a cheerful "Hi!" as Alona went on.
"Tifa." A woman with dark brown hair and dressed in a black outfit waved.
"Cloud." The man with spiky blond hair and had a large sword that was wrapped in bandages on his back did as Leon had and simply nodded at her.
"And finally our tech expert, Cid." Alona pointed to a slightly older man who had a toothpick sticking out of his mouth and was sitting in a stool in front of a computer.
"Nice to meet 'cha!" He greeted. "And who're you, kid?"
"Cerise Hood, daughter of Red Riding Hood," Cerise said.
"You mean as in the fairy tale character?" Yuffie asked, her brown eyes brightening.
Cerise nodded.
"Well if you're here, then that must mean the world of fairy tales got destroyed by the Heartless," Aerith said with a sad and sympathetic look toward her.
"What are Heartless?"
"Beings born of the darkness in people's hearts," Alona answered Cerise.
"And they go around stealing other people's hearts and turning them into a Heartless themselves." Yuffie added somberly.
"They're more prone to go after the wielders of a Keyblade because they fear its power." Leon spoke.
"Keyblade?" Cerise scratched her head in confusion.
Alona sighed in response and closed her eyes. She held out her hand as if preparing to grab something. In a flash of light, an odd looking sword appeared in her hand. The blade looked like a white wing and its handle a lavender halo, and attached to the bottom of the handle was a gold chain in which had a charm that had half a pink heart with half a gold crown above it and a white wing coming out of the left end of it.
"This is one of my Keyblade's, called the Angel of Light," Alona began, smiling a bit as Cerise stared at it in awe. "I'm a Keyblade Master and have had my keyblades since I was five. (A/N: If you want to know Alona's story it's on my profile!)
Cerise nodded before getting a nervous look as she tore her gaze from Alona's Keyblades and to each of the others.
"So … what happened to the Land of Ever After? My home world?"
Everyone got grave looks on their faces or avoided eye contact with Cerise. That is, until Alona spoke up.
"Want to go for a walk? I'd like to show you the town anyways." She offered while her Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light.
Cerise gave Alona an uncertain nod as her answer and followed her out the main door.
((Start Kingdom Hearts II - Reviving Hollow Bastion (Extended)))
After Alona had finished giving Cerise a tour of the town known as Hollow Bastion, they headed back through the Marketplace so they could go somewhere privet to talk. As they passed by the item synthesis shop, the Moogle running it stopped them.
"Kupo! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" The little Moogle told Alona while flying up to them, freaking Cerise out a bit.
"Oh, hey Mog. What's up?" Alona asked the small creature.
"I got all the ingredients for that new potion you wanted to try to make, Kupo." The creature told her, pointing back at the crate resting on the stop counter.
"That's great! I'll stop by and try making it as soon as I can." Alona smiled before finally noticing Cerise staring at the Moogle. "Oh, right. Cerise, this is Mog. He's the Moogle that runs the synthesis shop here in town and taught me how to do synthesis on my own. Mog, this is Cerise. As you can probably tell, she's from another world."
Mog held out his paw for Cerise to shake.
"Nice to meet you, Kupo! I look forward to your business!" He said as Cerise carefully took his paw and shook it while giving him a nod. "Well, with that said, I best be getting back to the shop, Kupo's!"
The Moogle then turned around and flew away, Alona and Cerise watching as he left.
"Kupo? Does he address everyone like that?" Cerise asked.
"It's just something all Moogles do," Alona replied with a shrug, signaling she had no clue why herself.
Things fell silent as they continued walking before coming upon the Bailey.
"So this is where you found me?" Cerise asked curiously as they walked up to one of the balconies overlooking the Great Maw with a clear view of Villain's Vale.
"Yup." Alona answered, jumping up and sitting on the wall of the balcony with Cerise doing the same. Another brief silence ensued before Alona spoke again, only she sounded a bit nervous as she spoke. "So would you get mad if I asked you something?"
"That depends on what you want to ask," Cerise said quietly.
Alona took in a deep breath, as if to try to get up the courage to get the words out.
"Um … How do I put this? … Uh, my friends and I … we were all kind of wondering why your ears are the way they are?" She mumbled her questioned out, but Cerise still caught what she had said and pulled her hood farther over her head self-consciously. "I mean, you don't have to tell if you don't want to. If it's personal, I understand."
"No, it's okay. You disserve to know. But you nor any of your friends can breathe a word of it to anyone else," Cerise said with a sigh. "You know my story, right?"
Alona nodded.
"And you know about the Big Bad Wolf, correct?
"Uh-Huh…" Alona gave another nod.
Cerise gulped before she continued, "Well, my mom, Red Riding Hood, married him…"
Her voice trailed off, waiting for a reaction from Alona, who just sat there with a shocked and excited expression on her face.
"That is so cool!" She exclaimed, her reaction shocking Cerise.
"You don't think I'm an abomination?"
"Of course not!" Alona assured her. "Like I said before, I nor anyone here ever judge anyone by their outward appearance! It's what's in your heart that counts!"
"Thanks, Alona." Cerise smiled.
"Don't mention it." Alona gave Cerise a thumbs up and a wink before she got serious. "Now I have a very important question to ask you."
"Okay…"
"What exactly happened when your world disappeared?" The female Keyblade Master turned her attention to the Great Maw below while watching as a small pack of Soldier Heartless clattered towards Villain's Vale as Cerise thought back to what happened before everything went black…
((End Kingdom Hearts II - Reviving Hollow Bastion (Extended)))
Cerise's POV
It all started in class. I'd been sitting in my usual seat next to Lizzie Hearts when I overheard Kitty telling Raven about the Heartless that had been popping up around Book End and some parts of the forest lately. Professor Hubbard had gotten upset at Kitty for interrupting her class and was just about to resume upon announcing Headmaster Grimm's decree when Duchess Swan blatantly blamed one of my best friends forever after, Raven Queen, for the Heartless. And knowing myself, I was not going to let any one of my friends, especially Raven, be accused of for something I know she would not do, I stuck up for her.
"You've no proof Raven did it! Don't make such accusations!" I'd shouted, standing up in my seat, surprising myself as well as the whole class. But I was too far gone to try to recover my low profile.
"How do you know she hasn't done it?" Duchess had countered as she glared at me intensely.
"Because Raven isn't like that! If anything, she'd use her magic to get rid of the creatures if she could!"
Almost as soon as I told Duchess that, a cocky little smirk came to her face as she asked Raven how many fairy tales she had convinced that she was good and not evil. I was ready to march over to her seat and ruffle her feathers for her comment when Professor Hubbard cleared her throat and resumed class again.
When class was dismissed, I decided to go to the woods to meet up with Carmine despite the Headmaster's decree that no students were allowed to leave campus until the Heartless were gone. Right before I was about to walk outside, however, Cupid came walking up to me at a brisk pace.
"Hey Cerise," She'd greeted.
"Hi, Cupid. What's up?" I greeted back politely.
"Oh, nothing much … though Kitty wanted me to ask you something…" Cupid stepped a little closer to me. Normally, I would give other fairy tales a warning glare, but I allowed the myth a slightly closer proximity, watching as she put a hand to the side of her mouth as she continued in a whisper, "She's conducting an investigation on the black creatures and had you in mind for the team she's putting together, but it's up to you if you want to or not. Just keep it secret if you don't."
"Who else did she have in mind?" I asked curiously and cautiously, knowing Kitty.
"Uh … Raven, Maddie, Hunter, Ashlynn, and Lizzie, if I remember correctly," Cupid answered as she counted off on her fingers. "But what about you, Cerise? You gonna help out?"
I stared at Cupid for a long moment. Of course, Kitty would plan to have me on the team so she could attempted to expose my family secret at some point or another…
"Sorry, Cupid, but I have a big project I have to do tonight." I lied.
Cupid gave me a sympathetic look.
"Awww. That's a shame. What class?" She asked.
"Um … Professor Blue's class." Once again, it was a lie, and I hoped that Cupid would buy it.
To my relief, she did.
"Oh. Good luck then," She said as she walked off.
I kept my gaze upon her until she was out of sight, sighing once she was. I'd felt so conflicted then. I wanted to be there for Raven and Maddie at least, but I just couldn't risk Kitty exposing my secret to everyone! Sure, Raven knew of it, but I could trust her. As for anyone else, they would surly go telling other fairy tales about it and it would end up on Blondie Lockes' Mirror Cast show in less than an hour.
Stressed, I went outside, using my cloak's magical properties to sneak into the forest without being seen. I needed to visit Carmine. He was the only one I could talk to right now, even if he was a wolf.
I found him in the small clearing we usually met up in. Somehow, he always knew whenever I'd be coming, making me smile as I sat down at the base of a tree. Carmine came over to me, resting his head on my lap, and I petted him while telling him about everything. He nodded every once in a while in understanding.
After telling Carmine all the things that had happened, I started contemplating on the reason why I couldn't join Kitty's investigation team other than the fact that she would likely attempt to expose my secret. The fact was that I didn't want people to judge me because of the family secret or my parent's choice. That was the whole reason I never took off my hood when around others. I had to hide my ears at all times.
Carmine whimpered in sympathy like a true friend would rather than a pet. After all, he knew where I really belonged and understood me.
So maybe if Carmine was with me, I could at least join Kitty's group…
After saying goodbye to Carmine, yet telling him to meet me at the tree line by the running track at least an hour and a half after curfew (to which he'd nodded in conformation), I left the Enchanted Forest and went into the school to see if I could find Cupid or Kitty.
I was walking past Headmaster Grimm's office when I heard him talking about the Heartless. It sounded like he was speaking with someone else, too, so I paused and once again used my cloak to blend in with the shadows so no one would catch me snooping. Yet, even with my keen hearing, I couldn't make out what the Headmaster nor what the other person was saying. All I could make out was that it sounded really serious and I got the feeling that I had to warn Raven about it.
So after it got dark out, I snuck out an hour early and met up with Carmine at the track like I'd said earlier. Informing him of the situation, we went out in search of Kitty and the investigation team she and Cupid pulled together. And even if I wasn't part of the team, I knew I had to help them.
Carmine and I followed them for an hour until suddenly we saw a black shadow moving along the ground, but when I ran after it, I accidentally hit some bushes. They shook and I thought I heard Lizzie Hearts yell something but I was too focused on the small moving shadow in front of me to hear what she said.
When I finally snapped out of my concentration, I saw everyone stop in the middle of the heart of the forest sighing in relief when I saw nothing in the clearing. However, my relief was short lived when I witnessed a huge black monster form from their shadows and rise up from the ground and started attacking the group.
All I could do watch. Watch my friends and acquaintances get into danger and possibly hurt. I had to do something. With Carmine by my side, we began to fight off as many of the smaller Heartless in the surrounding area as we could without being seen. Not long afterwards, I got the sense that something was wrong, and almost immediately afterward, an extremely strong wind picked up and the huge creature had fallen. I couldn't see everything that happened after that since the wind had gotten to be so strong that it was pulling things up into the air.
I grabbed hold of a tree to keep from being pulled up, Carmine holding onto my leg with his teeth, but a few minutes later, I heard him whimper. His whimper was then followed by a yelp as he suddenly let go. When I turned around to grab him, I lost my grip on the tree, and as I was in the air, I tried to grab Carmine, but I was too late. He was gone.
Normal POV
((Start Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days- Xion's Theme))
By the time Cerise was done telling Alona what happened she was in tears which was rare because she normally never let people see her cry, Alona stood there for a few seconds before throwing her arms around Cerise in a hug trying to comfort her as she sobbed into her shoulder. When Cerise's sobs finally stopped a few minutes later she pulled away and looked at Alona, who gave her a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, I give you my word we will find your friends and restore your world! I promise!" Alona told her confidently, Cerise nodded determinedly, it was then though that Alona realized that the sun was setting.
"Uh Oh! The sun's setting we better hurry and get back to the house" Alona said walking toward the gate.
"Why?" Cerise asked as she followed her
"The Heartless are even wore at night" Alona told her as they started running
Even though Alona had to whip out her Keyblade's a couple of times they made it back to the house safely.
"We're back!" Alona called walking through the door
"What took you two so long?" Yuffie asked eating a rice ball off her plate
"Traffic." Alona said sarcastically
"Aerith saved you guys some dinner" Yuffie told them as she went back to whatever she was watching on TV.
Alona looked towards Cerise "you hungry?" she asked her, Cerise shook her head "not really."
"Ok, you can go ahead and put the left over's in the fridge Yuff" Alona told Yuffie "we're gonna hit the hay"
"Ok Yuffie responded "Night"
After Alona and Cerise got ready for bed in Alona's room they got in their beds and went to sleep, but little did Cerise know was that she was going to have a dream unlike any other...
((End Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days- Xion's Theme))
((VERY IMPORTIANT!))
KhAndTwilightFan15: I'm so excited! Special thanks to all of you that reviewed! Please oh Please share this with everyone you know! share it on Tumbler, Twitter, Facebook, etc! ^^ we want this fic to get as much recognition from both fandom's as we possibly can! ^^ (especially the EAH fandom because there aren't very many fics for it yet! ;) ) I also want to warn you guys that this fic might be bouncing back and forth between normal and character POV's it just depends on the situation I guess, but we're just writing this as we go. So it might get a little rocky, the other thing is that I recently got a Deviantart so I can post the fic and the pictures for the fic on it, the only problem is that my brother unhooked our printer and won't hook it back up! And I have no idea how to do it myself so it might be a bit before anything gets posted on it. And last but not least THE MUSIC FOR THIS FIC IS ON MY PROFILE!
CrystalAngelHeart: Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to favorite, follow, and review! ^^
KhAndTwilightFan15: Yes please review. It makes us really happy and gives us the drive to continue this fic! XD