I am different than most people. Grant it, everyone is different. I am more so. I'm a prince. Prince Lucas Cross. I always liked the sound of it… But, I guess I'm not the prince I thought I'd grow up to be. I thought I'd be a normal prince, I never would've expected to be…..different.
I guess I should explain, I kinda need to go over it myself so I can keep it fresh in my mind, my dad is having me take a test on this stuff. Ok, so, the world is separated into many different kingdoms, with the areas in between them being called "Battlefield". Each kingdom is run by a family, and these families all have one special trait. These traits have been passed down from generation to generation. My family has always had the power of darkness. Each kingdom is named after whatever trait that the royal family has. I'm the prince of the Kingdom of Darkness, and we're allies with the two closest kingdoms to us, the Kingdoms of Acid and Lunar. I don't know too much about how these traits came to be, or even what importance they hold, but dad said I don't have to worry about that part of the powers.
After taking the test on my knowledge of that stuff I enter my room. It's large and the bed is about twice the size that I probably should have. It's very comfortable though. I lay down on the bed and stretch my back. I hear a loud crack. "Ouch…" I sit up and rub my back. "Damn." That's when the door knocks. I get off the bed and walk over to the door. I open it and see one of the servants. I don't really know him. He's tall and white, but not much else is notable about him.
"Your royal highness?" the servant bows. Man, he has one deep ass voice. Could probably shake the Earth.
"Yes?"
"Your father said he finished grading the test."
"Already?" The servant doesn't answer and simply steps aside and stops right next to the door with his arms by his waist. How did dad already finish the grading? I should just go with it. I walk out and give a bow to the servant. The castle is a bit hard for me to traverse, less so for my brother, but still. I walk down the stairs facing my room to enter the massive foyer. This foyer takes up most of the castle, and the room used for those boring ass royal parties. There are large golden double doors on the far side of the foyer. That leads to the throne room.
I enter the throne room and see my dad talking to the leader of our army, Wess. I walk toward them and when I get close I bow. "It's good to see you, Wess." Wess turns around as I stand up straight. Wess smiles and bows.
"You too, your royal highness," Wess says. Wess stands back up straight and turns to Dad. "Your majesty, should we deploy?"
"Not yet, wait on my call," dad says. Man, I can't believe everything he does. He has to lead the army, lead the kingdom, and deal with mom. I can't even think about being a king, I'm kinda glad I won't be. Wess gives a small bow before walking toward the exit. Once Wess leaves, dad stands up and puts his hand on my back. "About your scores." I gulp. I've gotta be honest, I wasn't all that confident. Sure, I studied beforehand...but then I started to play games. Dad must've seen my expression because he starts chuckling. He gives one powerful pat on my back. "Don't worry, you did wonderfully."
"R-really?" I ask. He nods.
"Better then Claus, that's for sure." Dad starts laughing as he walks over to a large table at the side of the throne room. On this table is a list of the families invited to the party tonight. This party is definitely gonna be the least boring since it's main purpose is to find a spouse for Claus. As if he'd ever attract someone. But I guess we do need a queen...or king, I won't judge. "Lucas?" Crap, I slouched. I fix my posture. "What's up with you, you're not military." Oh right. I relax a bit.
"So, what's wrong?" Dad looks at the paper.
"Me and your mother were talking…"
"Uh-huh." What's he getting at?
"We kind of want to fix relations with the Kingdom of Light."
"What? But they're like the complete opposite of us. We hate each other." Dad nods. He steps aside, allowing me to look at the invitations. There it is. The royal family of the Kingdom of Light is invited. "..."
"We want to bury the hatchet with them." I turn to Dad, kinda confused as to why he'd tell me this anyway.
"Ok. But, why're you telling me this?"
"You see this boy?" Dad asks as he points down at a name. I follow where he points to and see that the name is Ness Dime. "We were hoping you'd be able to befriend that boy." I slowly look back at Dad. He knows I'm not the best when it comes to chatting with other people, hell, I rarely talk to my own people.
"B-but—"
"I know, I know. But we really want to end this war between us, we've lost too many men already." Dad looks very sad and seems to be on the verge of crying.
"This is about Duster, isn't it?" I look up and down Dad and see that he's balling up his fists.
"...He didn't deserve to die...so please, to prevent further unnecessary deaths, try?" Dad really wants this. What's the deal with the army though? Why was he talking to them if he wanted to end the conflict? Are we at war with another kingdom, I don't doubt it. "And plus, I don't want Claus to become king during a war." That's true. I forgot about that. Claus is almost 18. Two years, but still close. He starts taking on king duties from there, and when he's 21 he gets to fully be king. A war wouldn't be very good on him. I look up at Dad.
"I'll try." Dad smiles and pulls me into a hug. He pulls away and looks at what I'm wearing, it's just my casual wear. I'm not a fan of that fancy stuff. I like my simple jean shorts with a striped shirt. He slaps my shoulder.
"You should go change, the guests'll be here soon enough." I nod. I run toward my room and come across another servant. This servant I do know. She's my age, so it's quite odd for her to be a servant, but I'm not one to judge. Her name is Kumatora. She's kinda a bitch, but very caring at the same time. She smiles.
"What're you running around for?" she asks in a very tomboyish voice. I'm glad to have someone else, outside of my family, who's casual with me. If only she didn't have to wear the maid outfit.
"Oh, I've gotta change for that ball."
"Hmm, I see…" she says with a nod. "They tryna find Claus, someone?" I nod. "I see, well, come on. I'll get you the perfect outfit." She grabs my arm and runs me upstairs and into my room.
We ended up trying many different types of tuxedos for me to wear, there was even a hot pink one for some reason. After a while, we ended up choosing the classic black suit. She helps me put it on and we end up putting it on at the right time. There's a knock at the door. Kumatora walks over as I look in the tall mirror to fix my tie. I hate ties, they're so tight around my neck, but I guess that's the point. "Lucas?" I turn to see Kumatora pointing out of the room. "Your father says he wants you downstairs before the guests come in." I nod and stand up after making a final check of my tie. I walk to Kumatora.
"How do I look?"
"You look perfect, now hurry on." I chuckle to myself and leave the room. Down in the foyer, I see the rest of my family outside the door to the throne room. Dad and Claus are in a classic suit like me, but Mom is in a beautiful baby blue dress with golden gems running through the dress. I stand next to Claus on the left.
"So much for diversity," Claus whispers.
"No other suit looked good," I whisper back.
"Shh," Mom shoots. Dad clears his throat and nods toward the two servants manning the doors. I stand up straight and look at the door. I instantly start seeing families. Some look very royal, but I can tell that some are more middle class. They start walking in, with a lot of the girls quietly screeching over Claus and me, at least I hope. Dad steps forward.
"Welcome, I'm glad all of you could make it. I understand we are going through a tough time right now, but I'm really happy you all understand the importance of this party. For the first hour, there won't be much happening. After that, though, we'll start introducing the girls to Claus, your future king. Of course, you may also introduce yourselves to Lucas," Dad welcomes. Man, it kinda sucks to get the short end of the stick. Even this party is for Claus, but I guess I can't complain. I won't have to worry about being king so that's a plus. "Boys?" We both look at Dad who motions for us to step forward. We do. "What do you have to say to these lovely people."
"Uhh, thanks for coming to this ball?" Claus says, but he seems to make it a question. It's probably the stress, I don't blame him. "Uhh, we really do enjoy all of you being here. Lucas and I will be walking around for the first hour so don't fret coming over to talk to us...just please don't crowd." Some of the crowd starts to laugh.
"Now then," Mom starts. "You may start."
"Boys?" Dad asks. We look to him. He walks over and kneels in front of us. "Walk around here and introduce yourself to the people. These are your people." Easy for him to say. I look down.
"Don't worry Lucas, if anything goes awry, call me," Claus says. I nod prompting him to walk away. I begin to move before Dad grips on my shirt to keep me with him. I look at him and he seems to hesitate on saying something, he just ends up shaking his head.
"Sorry, go on." He lets go of me. He's hiding something, I can tell. He walks into the throne room with Mom, leaving me to myself. I turn toward the crowd. Claus is already getting people to talk to him, and he seems to enjoy it. Well, I've got nothing else to do. I guess I can go toward the cookie section.
I finally make it, since it's at the far end of the room. I rub my hands together as I reach for a cookie. Right when I touch the cookie, another hand touches it. I look to my left and see a boy in his very own cliche suit. I retract my hand. "S-sorry," I stutter.
"I'm sorry too...go ahead," he eggs on. I shake my head. He hesitates before reaching forward and grabbing the cookie. His hair is kinda oily. It's black, but I can tell he uses a lot of gel. It's kind of a mess if I'm honest. My hair's always been on fleek. When he retracts with a cookie I can see his eyes. They're purple. Purple eyes? Never saw anyone with 'em. He looks around my age and slightly shorter than me. "Hello?" Aw crap.
"S-sorry." I reach for my cookie, completely ready to run away from this boy. I can feel something different about him, but I can't pinpoint it. It's not an inherently bad feeling...I kinda feel like this boy has some type of power.
"You sure do say sorry a lot." I rub my neck.
"S-sorry." I instantly cover my mouth. The boy giggles. That giggle sounds like it should belong to a girl. It was surprisingly high pitched for the low voiced boy. To say the least, it was cute. I can kinda feel my cheeks heat up.
"You're funny." I hear someone yell, but it mainly gets drained by the loud chatter of everything else. The boy looks off and seems disappointed. He sighs. "Well, that's my dad, I've gotta go." I lower my hand...I don't want him to go, not yet at least.
"See you later?" I ask as he's about to get out of sight. The boy turns his head and smirks.
"I feel like we will." I get strangely happy about this. I don't know what this is about. "Oh and, you dropped your cookie." I look down. He's right. It broke into five pieces.
"Sorry little cookie." I hear the boy laugh some more, making my cheeks heat up.
"See ya." I look up and see him walk away. I sigh in disappointment as I kneel to clean up my mess. I walk over to the trash can. Right as I trash the cookie someone slams their hand into my back. I turn around to see Claus.
"Yo! I just saw you chatting with someone," Claus says with a smile.
"Yea…"
"How was it?" he asks as he removes his hand from my back. I rub my neck.
"It was...different." Claus seems to notice something about my face, causing his head to tilt.
"Huh?"
"W-what is it?" He gives me a single chuckle before shaking his head.
"No worries, anyway, someone wants to meet you. Come on." He grabs my arm, I don't have a choice anyway. But, who would really want to meet both of us? Claus seems eager to introduce me though, so it must be someone important. We soon make it to the other side of the foyer, near the stairs, where another boy is standing. This boy looks similar to the boy from before, but this one has yellow eyes. He smiles as he looks our way. We stop right in front of the boy. "Ninten, this is Lucas, Lucas, this is Ninten." Ninten extends a hand and I grab it. We give each other a firm handshake. "He's the son of a fisherman down in New Pork."
"Really?" Ninten nods.
"Yuppers, not the most exciting gig, but hey, it pays the bills," Ninten says. His voice is slightly higher pitched than the other boy's. That's when I realize, Claus and Ninten know each other. I look at him.
"How do you know each other?" Claus starts to blush and looks away. Why's he blushing? I turn to Ninten.
"I met him disguised at a gay bar in New Pork." I slowly turn my head to Claus, whose face might as well be turned into a tomato.
"Why were you there?"
"D-don't tell Dad…" Claus pleads. Wait, Claus went to a gay bar. Gay bar equals gay. Gay equals boy love. Boy love equals two kings. Two kings do not equal a queen. Claus is….WHAT.
"W-wait, does that mean…?" Claus faintly nods.
"I can't believe you didn't even tell him," Ninten says. I turn to Ninten.
"Since you were there, you are also…."
"Go one, you're almost there." I alternate looks between Claus and Ninten. Each look I give Claus makes him go further and further into his shell. Oh wait, I see.
"You guys are bang brothers?" I ask. I just hear Claus literally explode with embarrassment. He ends up falling to the ground, while Ninten just looks confused.
"Uhh, I wouldn't say that...more like we're together. I'm technically a prince too," Ninten proudly says. He then helps Claus to his feet and he looks at me, almost like he feels guilty.
"Sorry I didn't tell ya," he apologies. I shake my head, I probably wouldn't tell either.
"It's cool, but what about this ball?" I ask.
"I've already got that covered, don't worry about me." He looks around to seemingly make sure no one is looking their way and gives a quick smooch to Ninten's cheek. "I'm gonna go help Lucas talk to the guests."
"Don't be late," Ninten winks. Claus chuckles then looks at me.
"Let's go." He grabs my arm and pulls me around. I kinda hate being pushed around like this. I don't even get a choice. I kinda just wanna stay away from these people, well, maybe not that boy. Oh, and I guess I'm fine with Ninten. But that boy, I wanna see him again. Strange though, I don't remember seeing that boy when I had to stand in front of everyone. Maybe he came later? I don't know.
The hour went by, and Mom and Dad came out of the throne room. They announced that Claus gets to dance with every girl. I wanted to stay and keep my firm eye on Claus to make sure no girl steals him from Ninten, but Mom and Dad called me into the throne room. I enter the room and see their backs toward me. Mom looks back at me. "Come, Lucas, hurry," she says. I run over and get next to them and see the boy from earlier, and he's with...the king and queen of the Kingdom of Light. I look back at the boy...at Ness, who just looks away, disappointed.
"I don't trust you," Ness's dad angrily says. He looks odd, something about this man worries me. I'm not sure what it is, but he seems...different I guess. I can sense his darkness. Despite being the king of the Kingdom of Light, he's filled with darkness. Perhaps Ness's mom is the one with the light powers.
"Listen, all we want is to bury the hatchet. We're both raising our sons to be kings. They shouldn't grow during a time of war," Dad tries to convince. Ness's dad looks away.
"I trusted you...and you ruined everything." Ruined….everything? While it's true I don't know much of Dad's past, he doesn't seem like the "bad" type. He clenches his fist. "It's all your fault." I look to Ness, he's pissed off. Why? What happened?
"I understand your hatred toward me, but don't let this feud go down to our children. Lucas is a good kid, you have to trust me." Ness's dad's shoots toward Dad.
"I don't trust any of you dark folk."
"Please...just let them hang out once and you'll see." Ness's dad looks down. I...what's going on? My dad, what did he do? Why isn't Mom standing up for him? Why isn't Ness's mom doing anything...actually, she seems sad.
"Fine, but if this one chance fails, the war continues." Ness's dad looks down at Ness. "Take him." Ness looks at me, with a sight I wished never to see from him, anger. He's mad at me. He just scoffs and grabs my hand. He grabs so tight that he starts to dig his nails into my hand. He forces me to leave the throne room, and eventually out of the entire castle. Once we get rather deep into Tazmily, he lets go. He then looks around.
"I can't believe you're his son…" Ness says with pure anger in his voice. He seems to want to say more, but he doesn't seem like he can. He just looks around is a surprisingly tearful mess. "Fuck you." He storms off. I rub my hand.
"W-what did my dad do?" I ask. He stops and turns his head.
"Bullshit that you don't know."
"I don't, I-I truly don't…" I say as I take a step forward. Ness fully turns around. He then walks over to me and his eyes start to glow with light. He seems to scan my body.
"...Well"—Ness's eyes go back to normal—"I'm sorry." Ness looks around. He grabs my hand softly and walks me over to a bench that overlooks the fountain. He sighs then grabs the hand that he dug his nails in.
"What'd you see?" He seems to just shake his head at the indents, seemingly disappointed in himself. He lets go of my hand but moves closer to me.
"Enough to know to trust what you say." There's little space between us, barely enough for both of our hands to fit. We turn to look at the fountain and slouch lower on the bench. "Do you know of the fear ability you have?"
"I can look into someone's eyes and force them to go through their darkest fears?"
"Yea...your dad purposely did that to my dad." My dad...why? He told me to be very careful or it could ruin someone's life. He told me to never do it to someone. He's just one big hypocrite? We're both looking at this fountain. Even though I can't see Ness, I know he's doing it with me. This fountain...there's nothing special about it. It's a normal old fountain, which makes it easier to focus on...especially learning this part of my dad. "My dad acted out, thinking he was fighting against his fears, he was actually fighting against the girls he was meant to try and swoon."
"Oh...what kingdom was he from?"
"The Kingdom of Ivy, he was meant to be the future king of that place, he was the only person in that spot. But he lost that chance by attacking the girls. He was forced to go to a school in the middle of Battlefield."
"How'd he meet your mom?"
"..." Ness is quiet, that can't be good. I finally break my glance from the fountain to look at Ness. He's in very deep thought, I can tell. Ness turns to me. "He was forced to marry my mom...and forced to have sex….forced to have me." Forced? Ness came about because of force?
"What about the Kingdom of Ivy?" Ness gives some pitiful laughter.
"They replaced my dad with a fucking plant, giving that plant the power over Ivy. But I guess they didn't have a choice, dad was banished from his own kingdom, stripped of his powers over the ivy." Ness sits up straight and looks me dead in my eyes. "My dad said to never do this with the prince of this kingdom. He told me that the prince would ruin my life….are you going to do that? Are you going to ruin my life?" Why is he asking me this? Of course, I wouldn't. I look down.
"I'm sorry for what my dad did you yours...I-I didn't know." Ness gives that cute giggle again.
"There you go again, apologizing." I look up. He smiling. He's no longer mad at me. Ness stands up, stretches his back, then turns to me. "Now then, why don't you show me the best place to eat here, I'll pay for us." I stand up. He wants to go eating with me? My God...is this a date? OH MY GOD, MY FIRST DATE! "Well?"
"Huh, o-oh, sorry. Follow me." I instantly start to walk, but I turn around as I hear Ness giggle once more, making my cheeks heat up. He steps next to me to keep up.
"Should I keep up a "sorry counter" for ya?"
"Please don't." Ness giggles once more. I look forward to know where I'm going. Oh, God, I hope I take him to the right place. What if I don't? What if I take him to a dump? Or what if I take him to the Clayman Factory, he'd hate that….wait, what's this warm feeling in my hand? I look down and see what's causing the feeling, Ness's hand. I look up at him.
"No need to be worried, we're just frie—um….we're just having fun." I grow a smile, which he seems to like. "You should smile more, it looks good on you." He reaches forward to run his thumb over my lips...huh. This feels odd. It feels too good to be true. That's when Ness kisses me right on the lips. It's the best feeling ever, but I still can't shake the feeling that this shouldn't be happening. Ness breaks the kiss and smiles. "I like you." I force Ness to let go of me. "W-what's wrong?" I should've known, I should've known from the beginning. I look straight into Ness's eyes.
"Bring. Me. Back." Ness seems surprised, but smiles. That's when he disappears. I look around and see Ness still on the bench. He claps his hands as he walks over to me.
"Well I'll be, I didn't expect you to break through that."
"What was the point of that?"
"Well, my dad told me that I could tell someone's true intentions by allowing them to go through their dreams. Much like how you can force someone to go through their fears, I do the opposite," Ness explains. He then looks down the path I already partly walked down. "Who woulda thought that going on a date with me was your biggest dream." Oh crap, I guess he knows what happens in that sequence. I just nervously laugh.
"W-well, about that." Ness looks up at me and smiles. He holds out his hand.
"Let's go then." I give him a suspicious look. "Don't worry, this is real." I still hesitate to put my hand in his, feeling that warm feeling once more, but it's a little different. This feels a tad bit better, more real I guess. He looks back down the path. "Don't go expecting a kiss though."
"Uh, o-of course." Ness giggles. He's really ok with going on a date with me? Well, I definitely don't mind it. Who would've thought that the Prince of Darkness and the Prince of Light would go on a date? I kinda like it though, it has a Yin and Yang feel to it.
The date was wonderful. It didn't really feel like a date, although I don't know what it's supposed to feel like. We were just having fun, and just to be safe I checked on multiple occasions that we were in reality. That's when Ness told me there's always one thing about his dream reality that hints that I am in his reality; the feeling of his hand. I definitely need to look out for that. Anyway, after that date, we decided to meet back at my castle.
We enter the castle as our hands separate. I look at him, kind of confused as to why he'd do that. "I want my dad to know in private, not with these people around," he whispers. We look around and see Ness's family at the cookie table. They see us and run over. Ness's dad gives me a dirty look. Man, I feel bad for him. He's lost everything, because of my dad. Ness's dad grabs Ness's hand tightly.
"What'd he do to you?" Ness's dad asks. Ness smiles.
"Can I tell you in private? I don't want everyone here to know." Ness then looks at me, expecting me to find a place for this.
"O-oh, right. There's my room, follow me." Ness breaks away from his dad's grip and runs to me. He smiles, motioning for me to show them the way. I start walking away. I can hear Ness and his parents following. We soon make it to my room. When Ness and I enter I see Kumatora cleaning. She looks up at me.
"Lucas?" Kumatora asks, confused. She only seems to get more confused and Ness's parents appear behind us. "Uhh, I'll just be leaving." She walks toward us to leave the room. I open my mouth to tell her not to tell anyone, but… "Don't tell anyone, yea, don't worry." She then walks out. I chuckle to myself. I can really trust her with anything. I further enter the room and soon the others do too. Ness's mom closes the door and joins Ness's dad in looking at me.
"So, what did he do?" Ness's dad firmly asks Ness, who's sitting on my bed.
"He took me out on a date," Ness casually drops. I flinch up. That's when I bow forward.
"I-I'm sorry your highnesses for not asking permission beforehand. I-I—" I plead.
"Stand up boy," Ness's dad orders. I do as he says. He looks like he could beat my ass every way to Sunday, I don't want to get on his bad side. He walks over to me and looks down at me. I gulp, man he's tall. "You took my son out on a date?"
"Y-yes, your majesty."
"How was it?" Man, why's he so intimidating?
"Uh, it was great...N-Ness is a v-very nice boy, and I-I enjoyed my time."
"Come on Bert, back up from the poor boy," Ness's mom steps up. Bert is Ness's dad's name? It severely lowers his intimidation. Bert backs up for Ness's mom to walk forward. She kneels down and feels around my face. She then grows a smile, the first smile I've seen her grow. Ness seems to choke on his spit because he just starts coughing. I look over at him.
"Ness!? Are you ok?" I ask. Ness isn't able to answer, but Bert goes over to slap his back. Ness's mom then stands up, making me look at her.
"You're worried about my boy?"
"Yea. I-I am." She then places her hand on the right side of my face.
"You're a sweet boy. Ness is smart. Treat him well, will you?"
"Y-yes your majesty."
"Oh please," she laughs, "Call me Liz." Liz then turns back to Bert, who was able to stop Ness's coughing. Bert also grows a smile and looks at me. Liz walks back as Bert walks to me. About how Bert lowers his intimidation, that was a lie. He's still so fucking intimidating. He's just standing over me. He has quite broad shoulders, large and bulging muscles, and overall large build. But, he's smiling this time.
"You're different from that asshole Flint," he says. He places his hand on my shoulder, growing his smile. "I trust you." He then looks at Liz and they start to walk toward the door. They don't even say anything when they leave. I instantly run to my bed where Ness is still recovering from his cough.
"Ness?" I ask, concerned. "What happened?" Ness stops rubbing his throat and looks at me with a smile. He pulls me into a hug. A hug? I never really saw myself as the hugger type, but this hug feels nice. I can't help but wrap my arms around Ness.
"My mom smiled."
The rest of the day went on wonderfully. Ness and I spent the rest of the day together. Ness...I can't believe him. I know we just met today, but there's this feeling I have with him. It could be love, but I don't know. Well, anyhow, everyone is starting to leave. Ness's family is last, that's when I notice he has a sister. Huh, wonder what's her deal. She doesn't stay long enough for me to talk to her, but Ness and his parents do. Ness looks over at me and grows a smile. He then forms a heart with his fingers before leaving. His parents just nod at me and leave. I feel on the verge of melting, at least, until Claus slams his hand into my back. I shoot to look at him. "Well, I see you two already hit it off, surprising," Claus says.
"I-I guess so. It just feels very nice to be around him." Claus smirks.
"Just know…" He leans toward my ear. "Don't trust dad." He knows? He knows and he never told me? He pats my back. I turn around and see him walking toward Dad, who's walking toward us. "Hey pops."
"Hi. Did you find any girls worth your time?" he asks.
"I'll have to sleep on it, but I think so." Dad pats Claus's back and sends him off. While Dad starts walking toward me, Claus turns around and simply nods. Dad stops in front of me. He kneels to get to my eye-level. He grows a fake smile, I can tell it's fake now. What's his deal?
"Well, I have to thank you for what you've done. We worked out a peace deal."
"Y-yea, no p-problem." Crap, I'm stuttering. God, I can't take this. I'm nervous as hell. I'm hoping he's used to my slight stutter already. He stands up.
"Next time...maybe you can try out that fear power on Ness." ...he wants me to do what?! That's what he wanted the whole time. He wants me to ruin Ness's chances of being the king.
"W-why?"
"Well, the Kingdom of Light is evil, we need to deal with them. I trust you'll do it."
"Uh, s-sure. Whatever you say, dad." Dad smiles and gives me a powerful slap to the back before walking off. I watch as Dad walks upstairs. Before I can even move, Claus calls for me. He runs over from the throne room and stops next to me.
"It's time you met someone...someone important," Claus says.
"What do you mean?" Claus looks around the foyer.
"KUMATORA!" Claus yells. "THERE'S A DAMN STAIN ON THE SOFA!" It doesn't take long for Kumatora to rush down the stairs and to us. She doesn't have anything to clean the stain though. I have a feeling this has nothing to do with a simple stain. "He's ready." Kumatora grins. Kumatora then holds out her hands. Claus grabs one. "Come on."
I grab onto Kumatora's other hand, and all of a sudden the room around us starts changing. Not into another room, but to some odd dark purple area. It almost looks like space, but eviler. I look down and see that we're just standing on the same stuff that makes up the walls and the sky. There is zero difference other than the ground is slightly lighter. Kumatora lets go of our hands and turns toward something. When I look that way I see a building. She starts to walk to that building. "What is this place?" I ask as I see Claus follow Kumatora. They both stop, with Kumatora looking back at me.
"This place is called Subspace. A place that resides between the real world, and the Hub. I'll explain more in the building," Kumatora says. That's when she starts to glow some very bright light. I cover my eyes, but when I uncover them I just see a young boy in place of Kumatora. The young boy looks out at the building. "We best get there before the Subspace Army finds us.
"W-who're you?"
"Name's X, now hurry." Claus continues to walk. I run up to him. Running on this floor feels weird. It feels like I shouldn't be able to walk on them, like I should just fall down, but I don't. Is this what levitating feels like?
"Where's Kumatora?"
"Right there," Claus says as he points to X. It takes a few moments to register, but then I remember, he changed me into this tux. He saw me naked.
"WHAT! He saw me naked multiple times without me knowing?" X turns around. Claus stops and looks at me.
"Pretty much." X just laughs, and he really sounds like a boy. Not only does his voice show his age, but so does his laugh. He's clearly no older than ten.
"Oh please, not like I don't know what you have. A Penis is just a Penis, now HURRY THE HELL UP!." He continues to walk, with the two of us not having much other choice.
"Why is a ten-year-old talking like this?" I whisper to Claus. He chuckles, finding something I said humorous.
"He's actually 17," Claus simply says.
"Oh." Wait, 17. But….what? "WHAT? YOU MEAN HE…" I point to X.
"Yup."
"IS OLDER THAN ME?!"
"Yup."
"The hell?" That's when some groans can be heard.
"Crap, they found us. Hurry, we can't fight them here," X bolts into a run for the building. Claus grabs my arm and rushes me toward the building. We're able to get in before I can get a good look at whatever this Subspace Army is about. X takes a breather before brightening up the area. This building is a bunker. It seems to be a place where tests are being done, and where there seems to be some mechanical creations part done. X levitates over to the far end of the bunker and grabs a large gun thing. It at least looks like a gun. He turns to us and floats toward us. He hands me the large gun. And now I realize just how small he is. He had to levitate in order to give me the gun. I'm barely able to pick it up, it's very heavy. It's odd. It's black with some red veins running through it. It kinda looks like the head of a dragon. "That is the Dark Cannon, you'll need to shoot Nightshade with it."
"Ok….wait, who's Nightshade?" Claus looks at X.
"You should probably start from the beginning," Claus suggests. I put the heavy Dark Cannon on the ground and look at X. X nods.
"I guess so, take a seat," X says as he clenches his fist. When he does this, the ground behind us raises and forms a chair. Claus sits without worry, but I still don't know about this seat. I still sit anyways, though. X then explains everything.
There's a lot to keep up with. So, apparently, X is the person that gifted our ancestors with these powers. X calls them artifacts. His job was to be the Overseer of the world, but there wasn't much to oversee, so he gifted our ancestors with the artifacts allowing them to make factions, which grew to cities, then to the kingdoms we know. He also told us that Battlefield is where he and our ancestors fought someone named Nightshade. Nightshade seems to be the sole reason everything goes bad. X described him as Darkness given a voice. Nightshade is infinitely powerful. As long as there is a hint of darkness in the world, he lives. "Why don't we just get rid of all the darkness?" I ask.
"Well, if we get rid of the darkness, we won't know what the light is, and thus lose that too. Like it or not, we need evil to counter the good," X answers. It still doesn't make sense to me, but whatever. Apparently, Nightshade took over my dad, converting his darkness and using that against Bert, to then ruin the Kingdom of Ivy. Now he wants me to ruin the Kingdom of Light, and most importantly, Ness. Now, I have to shoot my own dad with this large Dark Cannon.
"Isn't this too big for him?" Claus asks, picking up the cannon. Wait, Claus knew about this the whole time, right? Why couldn't he do it?
"Well, true…" X snaps his fingers and the cannon changes into a small pistol. But it just looks like a mini version of the cannon.
"Um, X?" X turns to me. "Why can't Claus do this, why's it gotta be me?" X grabs the pistol from Claus and looks at it.
"Because of this…" X then holds the pistol facing me. Before I can even react, he shoots it. But it doesn't hit me, it just bounces off my chest. I look where the bullet, which just looked like a black arrow, hit. There's not even a hint that I was struck. I look back at X. "You're not affected by it, everyone else is."
"Why ain't I affected?" X tosses the gun up and holds the barrel as he holds the gun toward me. I hesitate to take it. Nothing happens when I do. I place the gun in my pocket, with the holster sticking out.
"I am forbidden to say, but just know. You need to force Nightshade out of your father." I open my mouth to ask more questions, but then there's a loud banging from outside the bunker. "Crap, I'll send you guys back. Remember, lure Nightshade out of your father." Before I can say anything further, the bunker starts turning back into our foyer. Once the transformation is complete Claus puts his hand on my shoulder.
"You'll need to tell Ness and his family about what Dad told you to do, got it?" I hesitate a bit, but then I nod. I don't even know where the Kingdom of Light is. Either, I'm pooped. After learning all that stuff, I just want to sleep.
The next day came, and it started out normal. It was rather tough to go around acting like I don't know Dad—Nightshade's true intentions. I also saw Kumatora, or X I guess, again. He just did what Kumatora has always done, work. Being in the castle is kinda overwhelming. With both X in Kumatora's body and Nightshade in Dad's, I decided to just go outside.
Once I get outside I see Ness trying to talk to the guard at the gates. Ness looks up at me and smiles. "LUCAS, TELL THIS DUDE TO LET ME BY!" Ness yells. I chuckle. I walk down the steps and make it to the guard's stop. He opens the door, allowing me to leave.
"Hey Ness," I say. He puts his arm around the back of my neck before we start to walk down the path to town.
"Heyo. I've got some good news."
"You do?"
"Mhmm, my mom and dad are happier, it's all 'cause of you." I stop walking. He truly has no clue about this. I sigh, which gets his attention. "Lucas?"
"About that…" I tell Ness about what X told me. But, Ness doesn't seem surprised. Well, not as surprised as I'd expect him to be at least.
"I-I see. So, are you going to do what your dad says?" Ness is sad. Does he really expect me to go with what he said rather than X?
"No, of course not. I just don't know how to deal with Nightshade." Ness looks down. He then hums as he snaps his fingers.
"He wants you to ruin me, correct?" I nod. Ness smirks. "I've got an idea. It's risky, but it should work."
Ness told me the idea he had, and it's indeed risky. If I do something wrong, we're screwed. We just need to trust each other...but, we just met yesterday. However, it feels like….I can't pinpoint it. Like we're meant to be connected somehow. Anyway, the plan starts tonight. We don't know if this will work, because we don't know the extent of our powers, but we have no other choice. We need to lure Nightshade out of my dad, this is how we've decided to do it.
Ness and I are standing out in front of my castle. We turn to look at each other in the eyes before giving a nod. We look back at the door and open it. I grab Ness's hand...ok. This feeling, it's the feeling I'm supposed to be feeling. So far, so good. We walk in. "DAD!" I yell. It doesn't take long for him to come downstairs. He tilts his head when he sees Ness.
"Lucas? What're you doing?" Dad asks. I turn to Ness and force him to his knees. Before I look at him, I look at my dad. He grows a smile...an evil one. I turn back to look into Ness's eyes. Here we go. I start channeling my dark powers into my eyes, temporally blinding me in red. The red soon disappears and I remove my hand from Ness's. I walk over to my dad and watch as Ness starts twitching, jerking in almost an almost haunting manner. In little time, he starts screaming. It's such a painful scream...I can barely contain myself from trying to help him. He's screaming like a banshee. He stands up and starts running around the castle as if he sees something, but he never leaves the foyer. After a while, three large slashes go across Ness's chest, surely killing him. He falls down and bleeds out. Dad starts laughing. I shoot my head to him.
"Dad?" I question. Dad starts laughing maniacally. His eyes turn pitch black, then his teeth, then soon Dad falls over leaving just a floating cloud of darkness. This cloud simply has red eyes and a red mouth. I take a few steps back.
"You stupid, stupid child," Nightshade says. His voice is expectedly dark, but it still sends a shiver through me. He sounds so sadistic. "I do have to thank you, getting rid of the boy was a massive help. Perhaps we could work together," Nightshade smirks. I copy his sly smirk which seems to throw him off.
"Like hell, NOW NESS!" I yell.
"Huh?!" That's when Ness's dead body disappears. I don't hesitate to materialize some darkness into a rope to pull Dad to me, who's still unconscious. The front doors slam open with Ness, completely fine, standing in the doorway. He walks over to me in such a cocky way. He grabs my hand, and the feeling is perfect. Our plan worked.
The plan was simple, er, not so simple, but simple enough. Ness was to send me into my "dream" reality. I would have to make sure I'm in that reality by feeling Ness's hand. In this reality, I'd have to put Ness through his darkest fears in front of Nightshade. This was the difficult part. We didn't know if it would work. We didn't know if I did it in the "dream" reality if it would affect the real Ness, but it seems to not. The other difficult part is knowing if Nightshade would actually leave Dad if the plan worked, I'm glad he did. This is when…
I draw the dark pistol. I smirk then shoot. But, it just bounces off of Nightshade, not affecting him at all. Nightshade laughs. "Really? That was your plan? You were planning to defeat me-the darkness given a voice-with darkness?"
"B-but, he said…?" I question.
"What, that kid X. He couldn't beat me millenia ago, what makes him able to beat me now." Ness leans to Lucas's ear.
"What do we do?" he asks.
"I-I dunno. I-I thought that'd work," I start to tear up.
"Awww, is the little baby crying. Well, I take back my offer, I'll just kill you both right now," Nightshade says in a mocking tone. Before either of us are able to react, he sends spikes of darkness out of his cloudy body and they stab through us, and right through our hearts. The darkness disappears, and we start to fall forward. My vision is getting blurry and I'm starting to lose feeling in my body. But the one feeling I still have is in my hand, the one holding Ness's. Once we land on the ground, my eyes close.
I wake up to find myself in Subspace. I look around and don't see the building from before. "Come on, Lucas. This isn't your time. You still can win this," X's voice can be heard. But, I hear it from all around me, disorienting me. "All you've gotta do is embrace your inner darkness. Embrace being who you are, don't hide anymore….You need to be Yin. You've already found the Yang to your Yin, you've just gotta embrace it...you can do it." Embrace...my darkness? I need to be Yin? I continue looking around until I see the dark pistol on the ground. I walk over and pick it up. I remember when X shot at me that it didn't affect me….
"Lucas?" I hear Ness say from behind me. I turn around and see him with a similar gun. This time, the gun is white though. A light pistol? He holds the gun toward me. "I met with him too...I already knew all that stuff you told me." I, for some reason, grow a smile. I hold my gun pointing at Ness.
"S-sorry for wasting your time then," I say. Ness giggles.
"That's what I like about you...ready?" I nod. Right after the nod, we both shoot. A white arrow goes right through my chest. That's when something starts to flow through my body. The light arrow soon gets surrounded in darkness...and I close my eyes.
I open them back up to see myself standing in front of a surprised Nightshade. I turn to see that Ness is still in my hand, and he's standing too. We just smirk before looking back at Nightshade, letting go of each other. Nightshade tries to do the dark spike move again, but there seems to be some kind of invisible dome in front of us protecting us from his attacks. "Impossible…" Nightshade nervously says. Ness and I stomp our back feet and this causes the Yin and Yang symbol to form above us. The two sides start to separate as the dots reveal themselves to be eyes. The now separate shapes start shifting and soon….become dragons. They're classic serpent dragons of black and white respectively. My dragon is black with white eyes while Ness's is white with black eyes. The dragons growl. "T-the Yin and Yang artifact...n-no way." Ness and I point toward Nightshade. The dragons give a single chuckle as they fly over and chomp on Nightshade. We just hear Nightshade's screaming, but then the dragons stop and fly up. This is when we find out that the castle is actually starting to crumble from the roof being broken, but we need to fight Nightshade so we don't bother with it. We watch as the dragons start spinning around in a circle, reforming the Yin and Yang symbol but still with their dragon forms. They then shoot two sharp-looking lasers down at Nightshade, one black, and one white. The instant it explodes into Nightshade, Ness and I go unconscious.
I wake up to find myself in the hospital. Liz and my mom instantly run toward me. That's when I realize Ness is in a bed next to mine and is waking up as well. I try to sit up, but I hear a crack and decide it's probably not a good idea. Mom grabs my hand and shows her tears. "Hun...I'm so glad you're ok…" Mom's sniffles are painful to hear. I can tell she was really worried about me.
"W-where's Dad?" I ask.
"He decided to atone for all that Nightshade put him though...he'll be fine though." That's when there is a knock at the door to our room. My mom walks over to open it. She steps aside to reveal X, no longer in the body of Kumatora. X bows.
"May I have some time with these two?"
"Do you know this kid?" Liz asks Ness.
"Yea...he's a friend," Ness answers. He's clearly in a lot of pain as well. Liz simply nods and walks over to my mom and leaves. X stands up straight and smirks.
"You guys did great...sorry I kinda had to mislead you," X says. He's truly proud of us. "While Nightshade is impossible to kill, he'll forever feel this impact. We won't have to worry about him for a while."
"W-what was that we did back there?" Ness asks.
"Fused your powers. It's only possible with certain powers, like light and dark for example. What that was specifically was the Ultimate Artifact, or Yin and Yang Artifact. One of the—no, the most powerful artifact ever. You two are the first and only people capable of that power." I turn to Ness. He must've had the same idea because he looks at me as well. I hold my right arm to him. The same hand he's always held on to, and he grabs it. He smiles at me. "Two opposites, truly staying together." Ness chuckles.
"Sounds rather cliche…" Ness says, be he's not complaining.
"Wanna change it?" I ask. He shakes his head.
"Not now, not ever." There's another knock at the door. This is when X teleports away and the door opens. Bert sticks his head in.
"Mind if I come in? I brought some snacks for the two heroes," Bert asks. Ness simply nods his head while I'm thinking about what he said. Snacks? He brought snacks? He doesn't seem like the type to do that, he seems like the type to just beat us up for disobeying him. Not only are these basic snacks, but they're pink frosted cupcakes, the cutest things in the world. I chuckle at the sight of the big burly man with the small plate of cupcakes.
"He likes baking." Bert places the plate of cupcakes onto my bed and looks at me.
"Lucas?"
"Y-yes?" I ask. Man, despite his name and the cupcakes, he's still menacing. I'd probably crap my pants if I had any feeling in my...anything.
"We've been trying to find Ness a partner, you know, to rule our kingdom and all, but I don't think we'll have to do that."
"Y-you're saying I can…?"
"Not now, you two are still too young. You'll have to work it out over the years to see if it's truly what you both want, but yes, you won't have to worry about asking permission...it's already granted." Bert seems so sweet. He pats on my leg and turns to Ness. I do too, and I see Ness kind of worried.
"Dad, are you sure you're ok with me marrying a prince from the Kingdom of Darkness?" Ness asks. Bert chuckles. He sits on Ness's bed and looks at me. He shakes his head.
"Not at all. Hell, he's sweeter than most princes I've met so far...I'm more than ok with having him in the family….and to help rule my kingdom."
"R-rule?" I question. Ness gives me a cute giggle before rubbing my hand with his thumb.
"Of course, did you already forget that I'm the first in line to be the king," Ness says, trying to be reassuring, but it didn't work. If I marry Ness, I'll have to take on king duties. I don't know if I can handle such a thing. Sure, I can defeat the literal embodiment of darkness, but no way in hell am I able to deal with real people...shit.
"I-I'll have to b-be a king?" Ness sits up. He groans in pain, but despite the obvious pain he's going through, he steps off his bed. He then crawls next to me, accidentally knocking the cupcakes down. Bert gives a surprisingly cute "Awww," at the fallen cupcakes he's probably spent some decent time on. Ness tucks himself next to me, not once letting go of my hand. He then closes his eyes and rests his head on my shoulder.
"You're already my king." I'm his king….he's my king. I'll be a king. It'll be tough, but I guess I could always ask Bert what to do. Yea, I think this'll be good. I'm Ness's king, he's mine, and we'll both be ruling together...as a family. Wait, family?
"What're we gonna do about kids?" I ask. Ness puts his arms around my body like he's trying to hug me.
"Don't worry, we'll see if we can have kids later...at least I have an excuse not to wear protection." ….what….
"Ooook, I'll leave you two alone," Bert simply gets up, with the ruined cupcakes in his hand, and leaves. This is when Ness kisses my cheek. I just grow a smile and rest my head on his head.
"I appreci—"
"Go to sleep, I'm tired."
"...ok, I-I'm sorry…." Ness chuckles his cute chuckle. He just wanted me to apologize again, he's very sly. But, he's also my king...my Yang that I'll like to bang….but that can wait. Darkness and Light….can coincide.