Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Pieces of Heart ❯ Prolouge - Trial ( Prologue )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

__awakening[trial]

The sound of wind blew around through the nothingness despite the fact there was no wind to be flew. Yet there was no sound either... Well, voices atleast. The brown haired girl glanced around at the new surroundings, seeing nothing but a dark, cloudy background and a platform underneath her feet. One minute, she was falling, fighting, running, as if it was a puzzle or visions of things to come and now there was just this place. Rena was rather curious about this place but wanted out more than anything...

So much to do, so little time...

She jerked her head behind her, hearing a voice come out of nowhere. 'Hello...?' she questioned, her mouth moving yet she could only hear the word floating aimlessly in her mind. Turning herself around, she walked over to the edge of the platform and bent down, seeing nothing but the edge and the nothingness below it. Her mind questioned again and her mouth moved along with the words, 'Er... anyone there??' Nothing. Great... Her deep blue eyes darted behind her, looking across the platform as the same voice as before spoke again.

Take your time. Don't be afraid... The door is still shut.

The voice rang in the girl's mind rather than her ears and she jerked herself around, seeing no one there yet again. But it had said to not be afraid, yet she couldn't help but be afraid. She was in the middle of nowhere, listening to a voice that talked in her mind, and she couldn't even say anything; of course she was a little bit scared! Yet there was a feeling in her gut and it wasn't too great either. She probably wasn't going to get out of there anytime soon... Her eyes glazed across the stain glass floor over into the bleak emptiness surrounding it.

This is a trial... To test the strength and will... Do not be afraid... Now step forward, can you do it?

A trial, huh? A trial for what exactly besides to test "the strength and will"? Rena didn't exactly reply to the question she asked but instead, gave a slight nod while she clenched her hands into tight fists. Walk, step, run was what she had to do, so she basically had to run across the platform, right? Easy enough... Though, she was way too cocky for her own good. The brown haired tomboy gave a battle ready smile before she stomped her foot against the ground, taking off across the stained glass. But what happened as soon as she put her foot down was rather alarming to her. She felt as if she was floating through the air, as if time had slowed itself, while the glass crumbled into shards underneath her foot. The next moment, she was falling into an even darker blackness than the clouds around her. She went to let out a scream, anything as she fell, but it only echoed in her mind. Yet she managed to grab onto the edge of the hole her foot created, now dangling in mid air with her hand grasped on the broken edge of glass.

Okay, maybe getting cocky wasn't the greatest idea. But Rena attempted to get back onto her feet yet managed to after struggling onto the platform. The voice spoke again while the hole her foot made reformed as if nothing had happened in the first place yet this voice thing was already starting to annoy her...

Those who fear the unknown become weak, cowering in fear at the smallest things. Don't hide fear, but disintegrate it instead.

A small pout formed on the girl's dark yet pale lips as she glared up into space where she thought this supposed voice was. It was going around telling her what to do when she was perfectly capable of doing that herself! If it was trying to teach her how to do things, it was doing a very bad job of it. While she continued to pout over being treated like a little kid, three balls of light appeared hovering over the edges of the stained glass. One shifted into a silver bladed sword with a gold handle and an emblem on it's handle that looked like mouse ears; another ball changed into a blue staff with that same mouse emblem at the top; and the last ball turned into a gold shield with the same emblem on each of the other weapons.

There are times when you must fight but you cannot when you have nothing to defend with. Choose wisely...

Another coded sentence, brought to you by this freaky voice thing. Rena let out a grumble, only to hear it in her mind as usual, and rubbed her forehead out of annoyance. Well, what else was she supposed to do? Turn around and dive off of the platform in hopes of getting out of this dream world? No, that would be stupid. It was better to go with the flow than be washed away by the tide, anyways. So, the girl took a deep breath, thankfully calming down a bit, and shifted her deep blue eyes from one weapon to the next. Something to defend herself with? What about a staff; no, it would only smack things in the head and wasn't pointy or anything. A shield; no, how can you slash with that thing? There was only one weapon left and her eyes lit up as soon as they glanced at it. It was none other than the sword, it was perfect for hacking, slashing, and defending so it basically seemed like the perfect weapon... The girl's eyes still lit up, she took a step forwards before going into a fast run. But it seemed as if her eyes were in a trance, or herself actually. This sword was weird than normal, like it had magical attributes to it or something, and the force around it only kept Rena's gaze on it while ignoring everything else. It seemed so close, yet so far away...

Yet, while her feet stomped against the glass like the rhythmic beating of a drum, her eyes didn't see what was happening to the stained glass; it was breaking just like it had before but something invisible was keeping her afloat. And the barrier disappeared as soon as the girl's hand tightly grabbed onto the sword floating in the air in front of her. There was a loud crack and the sound of a million shards of glass crashing together echoed in Rena's ears while her eyes stared in horror as the remains of the platform shattered into a thousand pieces of glass. The invisible barrier was gone, the two weapons once there were gone in a flash, and Rena was left to find herself falling into the dark oblivion she set sight on once before while the sword was tightly clenched between her fist. The deep blue eyes were covered by the girl's somewhat pale eyelids while she felt the shards of glass seemingly scratching her face, though there was nothing there but an illusion. Yet that wasn't the only illusion there... Something seemed weird to Rena; like there was someone else there falling with her. And this wasn't just anyone. It was a spikey brown haired boy clad in red, navy blue, and black colors but he was falling in the same exact place that Rena was. It seemed as if she was the boy himself...

Rena felt her back slam onto a glass platform after falling through the darkness. The sword leapt from her hand and she laid limply next to it. This trial was already starting to hurt, and she hadn't even fought anything yet. 'Wimp.' The words violently echoed in the girl's mind and a small frown formed on her face. Of course she was a wimp, lying on the ground as if she had taken a hard hit in battle. No. She had to get it, sit up, something! This was a trial of some sort and she already had a feeling she was losing in it, so she just had to fight to win. She just couldn't push herself to get up. Her back throbbed with a bit of pain and she winced. That voice was right... She was weak, and it was because she was afraid. 'Get up, you idiot...' She pushed herself to get to her feet but nothing happened, well yet atleast. Her fingers twitched and she watched as they coiled themselves around the sword's handle. Just by gripping the handle, you could tell it was a hero's blade. And she definitely wasn't a hero. But, still. Holding it made her feel a whole lot stronger than she was... Which was why she was up on her feet. Her hand on her shoulder and the sword in her left hand, she glanced around and waited for this voice to talk once again.

There will be times when you must fight but, remember, your heart is your strongest weapon of all. Keep your light burning strong.

More gibberish, great. So, that obviously meant that Rena would have to fight soon, right? That's exactly what the girl wanted to hear! If this was a trial, there had to be fighting involved and she couldn't wait slash and hack with her newly acquired sword! But, little did she know that the fights were going to be much tougher than it seemed. Or, rather, much weirder. The platform that she was now standing on was a royal blue color and had a weird sorcerer's hat on it. The hat had white stars on it and black round 'ears' on them as well as a white gloved hand pointing it's finger away from the hat. The edges had star shapes on them and made the whole thing a bit happier than the last one. But, something was weird about it; several black shapes were scattered around the stained glass and were mostly surrounding Rena yet they didn't even seem like they were apart of the picture itself. Soon the black shapes morphed out of the ground and turned into small shadowy creatures with menacing, long black claws and chilling yellow eyes. The girl stared at the creatures in awe and a bit of horror. These were what she was supposed to fight? She had never seen anything like them before! But she didn't manage to have any time to turn around and question this voice thing about what exactly these shadowy creatures were because one of the things had jumped up with it's claws outstretched and it's comrades were ready to follow.

One sweep of the new sword and Rena was already blocked from the vicious claws of the Shadow, stumbling a bit backwards as she did so. Both of her gloved hands were tightly gripped around the golden yellow handle of the magical sword while her teeth were clenched tightly. 'Okay... I'm gonna fail this thing,' the girl thought silently while she brought the sword down, shaking the Shadow off of it. The sword was now spinning in the girl's hand as soon as she had jumped off to the side, and the rest of the Shadows launched themselves forwards at the sword wielder. But they only found themselves smashing into the spinning blade of the sword once Rena had brought it up in front of her as sort of a shield. With that one attack, several of the shadows were already caught in the spinning blade and vanished, leaving behind a black, runny liquid dripping off of the sword's steel, silver blade. Now for the rest. There were only a few lingering around and, from what she could tell with the first ones, they were pretty stupid. If this was supposed to be a challenge, whoever was doing this trial thing would have to do better than that! With both hands now tightly clenched around the gold handle of the newly acquired sword, she charged forwards at a quick speed and started hacking and slashing away at the shadowy creatures. This was way too easy!

All right! You've got it!

The black liquid dripped from Rena's sword while she gazed around the platform, looking for any of those heartless things. Well, she managed to kill all of them and it was much simpler than it looked too! But something sent a chill down her spine; the voice wasn't talking, not yet atleast, and the place seemed so quiet now... What else was there to do besides roam around boredly? Thankfully, the voice started to talk once again and broke the silence with doing so.

At points in your journey, some will tempt to take something precious to you...

Rena couldn't help but blink a few times? Takes something precious to her? What did they mean by that? She soon found out and, while she gazed at the grey clouds hovering around the magical royal blue platform, another shadow slunk out of the ground with it's yellow eyes glaring up at the girl.

That object is your heart.

A cold, cold chill ran down the young sword wielder's spine as she felt her breath become cold. What would anyone want with her heart!? She didn't exactly know what the question meant or what this voice was talking about but while she wondered, something stabbed itself through Rena's back; black, inky, and menacing sharp claws. Rena jolted forwards a bit and glanced around, seeing the source of those claws. A shadow heartless now sat behind her, with a red, shining object inbetween it's nails. And she couldn't help but stare at this object with horror. So that was what the voice was talking about! Something had just taken her heart but, what exactly did it really want with it? Rena didn't bother to ask but, instead, lung forwards at the shadow in hopes of grabbing the object out of it's claws. 'GIVE THAT BACK!!!!' she shouted silently but furiously. Her mouth said the words but no sound had come out of it like it normally did. Now a chase was about to start and this shadow was running up onto a set of stairs that had appeared out of the blue. Where did they lead? Another platform, probably. But what would await on that one? Rena fiercely slashed her sword at the small shadow as it crawled across the glass floor with the girl following close behind. The stairs looked like stained glass like all of the other platforms there but, each step looked like colors in squares arranged to look like stained glass. Yet Rena didn't play much attention to that because she was too busy chasing this stupid little shadow around. 'Give it back!!' she tempted to shout angrily again, not glancing behind to see the platform she once stood on now disappearing into oblivion. The floating blocks that made up the stairway did the same; as soon as Rena stomped on one of them, the one behind it disappeared into oblivion as well. But her attention was too tightly caught on the shadow as it made it's way onto another platform that the stairs led to.

'GIVE IT!!!' Rena shouted silently, but angrily, and slashed the shadow with one clean sweep of the sword. Something wasn't right, though. The heart that it had inbetween it's claws was no longer intact. It laid across the stained glass platform in the form of pale shards of glass. The icy hand of fear gripped the girl as she gazed at the shards. What just happened?

Don't fight for what is fake, protect what's laying right in front of you, but don't forget...

The voice rang in Rena's ears as she glanced down at the new platform laying underneath her feet. It was much darker and eviler than the two from before; it was mainly black and red and in the middle of it was a sign that looked like a heart crossed out. Whatever it was, it was pretty creepy... Shuddering a bit, Rena glanced around to find the stairs she had ran up only a few seconds ago but saw that it wasn't there anymore. So, her attention shifted once again to in front of her where a light was shining over the center of the stained glass and it seemed like it was trying to get the sword wielder to come towards it. Well, that's exactly what she did. Her sapphire, deep blue eyes gazed up at the point of light coming from the clouds and walked towards it as if she was hypnotized. It seemed so warm and inviting yet menacing at the same time and Rena just kept on walking closer and closer towards it.

The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.

Just as she heard the words floating around in the air, the young sword wielder glanced around to see something was equally as creepy as the platform she was standing on; it was her shadow but it had grown taller and taller as she had walked towards that light! It suddenly turned around and morphed itself out of the glass, a huge shadowy version of herself hovering right over her. The calmness that could be seen in her deep blue eyes only a few moments ago was long gone and was replaced with fright. The icy hand of fear now gripped her once again and now she felt so cold from horror. 'Run...' The shadow shifted more and started to change it's shape, the dark coiling around it to change it's appearance to something even more menacing. It looked like one of those shadows she had faced before, only it looked more human now and it towered over her on the platform. Rena's heart was pounding so hard, beating with anxiety as she continued to gaze up at this thing in horror. 'Run...' she told herself silently once again, her left foot taking a step backwards while her hand was loosely gripping the sword she wielded. She couldn't run; there was nowhere to go but there had to be! Where could she run off to? Without even thinking, the girl jerked herself around and took off running over the platform. She stumbled forwards a bit and founded herself balancing on the edge of this dark platform. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide... The shadow continued to tower over her while it's hand was surrounded by a glowing, dark aura, balls of purple yet dark light spinning around it's claw. There was only one way out: to fight. The shadow slammed it's hand into the ground and the whole platform shook, a swirling vortex of inky blackness coming out of the stained glass where it's hand was. The shadowy creatures she had fought earlier morphed out of the vortex and glared at the sword wielder with their glowing yellow eyes. 'There's only one way out... I gotta fight...' she told herself silently once again, her fist now tightly clenched around the sword's handle. This couldn't be too hard, right?

But don't be afraid. And don't forget...

The shadows lunged forwards at Rena and they didn't give her much time to react against them. Slash. Slash. Jump. Slash some more. Spin and throw it... It seemed pretty simple, right? Just hack-and-slash all of these enemies like before, and she could beat them. But her real opponent was that giant shadow, the heartless were just the beginning of this. And she quickly defeated them all, charged forwards at the giant Darkside towering over the glass. It's hand was still in the vortex, giving Rena the change to attack it while she could. With the sword back in her hand, she sent out a few slashes at the hand before it sunk out of the ground with the giant shadow standing up straight. The girl's heart pounded as she fought and she awaited the next attack the shadow would do, which was blasting giant blasts out of the heart shaped hole in it's chest. It's hand was once again lowered towards the ground and Rena took the time to attack it, unleashing a few combo attacks on the oversized shadow. She couldn't be afraid of this thing, or else it might cost her which was something she didn't want at all. But her attacks weren't taking this thing down quickly like it should have. Sure, she wasn't that experienced with fighting, especially with a sword, but there had to be another way to defeat this thing faster... Maybe, attacking it's head? Worth a try... While the shadowy creature still blasted balls of dark energy out of it's hollow chest, Rena took the chance to jump up onto it's arm and climb up to it's head. 'Hey big 'n ugly! Your face is wide open!!' she shouted silently once again, just hoping that the creature would hear her. Well, it didn't manage to.

With one long, vertical strike of the blade while hovering in mid air, the shadow was defeated and Rena was more than happy about it. But her happiness didn't last very long. Her shoes stomped on the ground as she landed and the sword disappeared from her grip. 'What the...' She glanced at her hand as the swirls of light surrounded the weapon but then glanced up to see what made her eyes widened with horror once more. The Darkside thing was slamming it's fists into the ground in hopes of squishing the young sword wielder. Rena had no choice but to jump backwards so she didn't get it hit but the huge fists. A hard gulp ran down her throat as she gazed up in horror at the creature as soon as she was pulled to the ground. Darkness coiled around her wrists, her ankles her feet, her hands just so it could suffocate her but all she could do was watch the huge shadow pounding the ground in hopes of defeating her in this dream world. 'Not yet...!' she cried out as the darkness grew bigger and turned into quick sand basically. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be scared, but how could she face her fear when it was towering over her, attempting to drown or defeat her? It was sinking, coiling around her and attempting to drown the once sword wielder. Her vision grew black and she couldn't see, couldn't breathe. What was it like to drown in nothing but blackness? In one last attempt to struggle before she sank, she reached out her hand as the dark coiled around her arm as well. She could hear every sound her voice could make, she could hear it not in her mind. It was suffocating but she struggled one last time...

"Help me!!"