School has started again. It's going to be a long, long, long, LONG year. Anywho, I wrote some new insight into Bariss's character in this chapter.

Nehrut: "And so far, I like her!"

(Smiles widely) Yes, I know. That's how I wrote you.

Nehrut: "What?"

Just do the disclaimer.

Nehrut: "DarthKingdom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else he wants to use. Just O.C.s like me, and the plot... Seriously though, what are you smiling about?"

--

Chapter 29: Nightmare and an Alliance

Chaos.

That was the only word that could describe it. Everywhere there were horrible, black creatures with shining yellow eyes. The humble villiage was swarming with them. The night air was filled with screams, and people were scrambling up and down the streets running from the creatures.

Some tried to fight, with limited success. One of the more successful ones was a man with dark hair and a scar across his face. But in the end, he too was forced to retreat.

In the midst of all of them was one little blonde girl clutching an emrald necklace in her tiny hands. She was clearly terrified, and with good reason.

Very near her was a taller woman in her late twenties with blonde hair like hers, in her hand was a gleaming silver and green sai. It spun and slashed, cutting through the creatures. Beside her was a man of about thirty. He was tall, red-haired with a good build and held a black and green whip in his hand. He lashed out against the creatures.

Her parents were giving it all to protect their girl. And for a while, it seemed that they would be able to get away from the villiage and the creatures to seek refuge elsewhere.

But that hope died soon.

The creatures abandoned the family, and instead went after the other fleeing people. In front of them, a portal appeared. Out stepped a man.

He was tall, and looked fairly young. He had a dark tan. His long silver hair flowed down his back, and on either side of his head it stuck up, almost like horns. He was wearing an outer robe of black and white, with gloves to match. On his chest was a small symbol of a black heart with a red 'X' across it.

He smirked contemptuously at the family as they prepared to fight.

The father ran at him first, and his whip came down fast toward his head. With unbelievable reflexes, the man reached up and caught it. He gave it a firm tug, and the father was pulled toward him. The man reached out and grabbed him around the throat.

His hand let out a flash of eerie blue light, and the father went limp, his whip clattering to the ground.

The mother shrieked as the man tossed her husband's body aside like a limp rag doll. Her eyes streamed with tears, and she ran at him with the sai flashing. The man sidestepped her attack and grabbed her as well. Her sai fell out of her hands, but she was still alive.

Through the pain in her eyes, she looked over at her daughter cowering in between the gap between two houses (one of which was mostly demolished).

"Bariss, run!" She said, before the portal appeared around the man again, and her mother dissapeared along with him.

All around her, the creatures stopped attacking, and vanished in portals like that dark man. The girl stepped tentatively out of her hiding space, and walked toward her father's body, stopping to pick up the fallen sai and whip along the way.

He looked down into his face, which bore an expression of surprise that only sudden death could bring. She collapsed onto his chest, and cried her eyes dry.

Suddenly there was a voice that didn't belong there, one of a young man. "Bariss! Wake up! Wake up!"

--

"Bariss! Wake up! Wake up!" Nehrut was trying desperately to awaken the poor girl. She was thrashing about in her sleep, and tears were running down her eyes. He turned to the two transparent teenagers in the room. "Get Sora and Kairi, I may need help!"

"Got it!" Namine said, and they vanished. Nehrut couldn't keep away the thought that the two of them made a handy telephone.

After another full, horrible minute of trying to wake her, Bariss snapped up in bed. Her hair was sticking to her face from the sweat. She was panting heavily, and pulling in heavy, choked breaths. Her eyes were glistening with tears yet shed. She sat on the bed with her elbows on her knees, and her face in her hands.

"Bariss..."

Suddenly she realized where she was. She kicked off the covers and lept out of the bed to the opposite side from Nehrut. She reached for her weapons that should have been on her belt, but they were on his instead. She settled for the next best thing and took up an unarmed fighting stance.

Nehrut never moved from his chair. "Are you alright?"

Bariss hardly moved, but her eyes (still puffy from crying) betrayed her surprise. She didn't answer his question, perhaps because it seemed pretty obvious anyway. Instead she asked, "What do you want?"

"To help you. And after that, maybe you could answer a few questions for my friends and I." he said it in a calm, reassuring tone that said he didn't want to harm her in any way. But she was wary, and he couldn't really blame her, he had basically sucker-punched her in their last fight.

"Look, I'll put the weapons down."

Carefully, he drew his sword, and put it on the ground. Using his foot, he pushed it away from him, and closer to her. He then removed the whip and sai from his belt and set them on the bed. He folded his arms in front of him. A sign of trust.

"C'mon, sit." He indicated the bed with a nod of his head, and sent a wave of reassurance into the rapidly approaching minds of Sora and Kairi. He could feel their relief, and immediately went back to Bariss's mind. He was sad to discover that her mind was clouded with confusion, as if she had never been shown kindness before.

And judging by that dream, she may never have been.

He had peeked into her dreams to discover what had her so terrified, and almost wished he hadn't. So he mentally tried to calm her, sending her reassurance, and a sense of safety. It was worth it to see her face relax, and cautiously sit down on the end of the bed.

"Now come on, I don't bite."

She scooted a bit closer to him, and sat at the center, facing him.

"How do you feel?" Small talk was often the best way to help somebody open up.

"I'm fine." She answered quietly. She wouldn't face him, and instead looked at the space of bed between her feet.

"Listen, I'm sorry about sucker-punching you at the end of that fight." He said. "Call me crazy, but I've become sort of fond of living."

For the first time in the brief hours since he had met her, she cracked a smile, and laughed softly.

"So you can laugh!" He said, grinning. Good, he had successfully lightened the mood, she'd be much easier to talk to now. "It's good to see."

"Don't worry about that last bit." She said, finally looking up. Her sadness had vanished, and she wore a small smile. "I did do something along those same lines."

"Twice."

"Twice."

There was silence between them. They just looked at each other for a moment, wondering what they were supposed to say now. 'Sorry for trying to kill you'?

"Listen," Bariss said, her voice soft, "I'm sorry about what I did. I had no choice."

So Kairi was right. They're holding something over her. Jerks.

"We thought you might have some motive apart from the Brotherhood's." He said gently, as if she had only apologized for eating the last slice of pizza. Nothing important. "We know you didn't enjoy what you were doing."

"Oh, I enjoyed the fight." At his look she ammended, "It was the part about imminent death that I had a problem with."

He laughed. "Same here."

There were a few minutes of silence again, but it was comfortable this time. And then she asked something surprising, "Could I stay with you guys?"

Nehrut was silent for a moment, before he smiled widely. "I don't think the guys will have a problem with that. Why the sudden interest?"

She was silent, and then said, "I'm tired of working for the Brotherhood of the Dark. I need to... do something," She fingered the emrald heart necklace around her neck, "And I just feel that I should help you."

She took a deep breath and said, "I've been on the wrong side. In you people, I see a chance to start over and find what I'm looking for."

"May I ask what that is?"

"Not until I know you better."

He smiled, and held out his hand to shake. "Fair enough. Welcome aboard, Bariss."

She looked at his outstretched hand, and smiled. She extended her own and shook it. "Thank you."

He covered her hand in both of hers and shook it warmly, smiling. And just then he felt four familiar presenses just outside the room. Turning around, he lifted his hands and pushed the doors open, to where they made a loud bang against the walls.

Sora and Kairi fell backwards in their surprise, and Roxas and Namine jumped. "And you four can stop eavesdropping, she's not going to attack me!"

"It was his idea!" Roxas exclaimed, pointing at Sora and vanishing along with Namine. Sora blushed and waved akwardly.

"Welcome to the party!" He shouted and ran off. Kairi just rolled her eyes, bade them goodnight and went after him.

He turned back to Bariss and discovered her clutching her sides in an attempt to stop laughing. It hadn't been that funny, but then again it didn't have to be. Laughter could make anything better.

"Congratulations Bariss, you just made five extremely weird friends." She smiled at him again. "So would you like to stay in here for the night with the snoring knights who talk in their sleep, or share my room?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, and he realized what his offer had implied.

"Oh! Not like that! I'll sleep on the couch."

Bariss took one hard look around the room, just as as the knight sleeping across from them let out a snore that rattled the glass in the windows. "Lead the way."

Nehrut stooped over and picked his sword up from the ground where he had pushed it. He held it up to check it in the moonlight. Behind him, Bariss said, "That's a very nice sword."

"Thanks. It's been in my family for years. My great great great-grandfather named it 'Presul'."

"'Presul'?"

"It means 'Protector' in our language." He held it out to her, "Here, try it out."

She took it and held it in the light, examining the blue crystal blade that glowed softly with it's own inner light. She swung it in an arc around the air, captivated by the trail of light it seemed to leave behind. She did this a few more times, and handed it back.

"Beautiful." Was all she could say.

Nehrut found that it was taking all his strength not to say some lame comment like, 'Yes you are'. He had to admit it to himself, the moonlight shining on her blonde hair made her look almost angelic.

He gestured to the sai still sitting on the bed. "May I?"

At her nod, he picked it up almost reverantly. He held it up to admire it in the light as she had, turning it over in his hands. He wasn't adept at using knife-like weapons, preferring a bit more distance between himself and an opponent, but this was a beautiful weapon, to use her word. Now that the blade wasn't flashing at his neck, he could see the intricate green patterns on it.

"Magnificant." He said. He turned the sai back over to it's proper owner. "It's hand-crafted, correct?"

"Yes, it belonged to my mother." She took the compliment with a smile, but her eyes told him that she wasn't ready to talk about her family yet.

All in due time.

She did a little knife trick for him, spinning the blade around in her fingers like a baton. She ended it by tossing it twenty feet in the air. It fell all the way back -point down- and she caught it with two fingers.

He applauded her, causing a touch of red to rise to her cheeks.

Then he decided to go one better, and showed her an improvised trick of his own. He picked up his own blade with his mind and spun it around in a circle in front of him, creating a small zone filled with blue light. He mirrored her and threw the blade into the air. It fell point down, and he stopped it on a dime, floating just over his palm.

She clapped for him, too.

He inclined his head towards the door, "I'll show you to my room. You can take the bed."

She wandered out of the room slightly ahead of him, and he closed the doors silently behind them. They wandered through the hall in companionable silence. They walked past a wide balcony, and Bariss stopped for a second. She walked out onto it and placed her hands on the railing, leaning on it and gazing into the star-covered sky. The moon here was a silver crescent tonight. Nehrut walked out to join her, and stood silently at her right.

"Beautiful place, isn't it?" He asked off-handedly.

"Hmmm..." Was her response. He turned to face her.

Her eyes were closed, and a small smile graced her lips. Her face was turned up slightly, and her hair blew into her face at a slight breeze. She was the picture of someone who was at complete peace with the world, if only for a moment. Her eyes opened slowly, and she faced him.

"It is." She then walked over and pulled him into a tight hug. Nehrut was a bit surprised at first, and unsure how to react, but then he wrapped his arms around her and returned her embrace. "Thanks for caring, Nehrut."

--

My my... What could that reasonably obvious dream have meant? Well, there you have it. Bariss is one of the good guys now, and I have a new relationship to play with!

Please review!

Shinku Ryuuga: Well, now you have a little hint...

Hermitgenius: Thank you!

Sailor Winx: Thank you. Originally, I didn't like it that much, but it grew on me soon.

Shire Folk: Thank you! That's just what I was going for with her. And you were right on the second part weren't you? And time limits are the ultimate fun-killers in video games, I agree.

Quartermass: You'll know soon. And you can also expect more fluff soon.

Wwecat: Well thank you very much! And hey, ranting is always welcome here, I don't mind. And thanks for your sympathy. Couldn't agree more.

DaemonArts: Actually, the cards fade away after the defeat of their owners, or their own deaths. But I like the way you're thinking!

SamuraiJedi: It's always worked for me!

Garuto: (Evil laughter) Anyway, Aladar is an iguanadon dinosaur from the computer animated Disney film 'Dinosaur' released in 2000. I've actually never seen anyone else use him as a Summon.

Veradon: Thanks. And your idea was... interesting!