The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Fiore's Castle, Zack's room]

"Well, if I'm not wrong, they should be in here." Emily thought as she mustered the courage to knock on the wooden door for a couple of times. "Besides, if I'm wrong, I could just apologise... and get scarred for the rest of my life."

She then let out a reluctant laugh as she began to think about things that most peo— most NORMAL people wouldn't think about.

Luckily, the door swung after a quick few seconds, pulling her back to reality. With the door wide open, Zack stood there, looking at her in surprise, "P-Princess! What are doing here?!"

Heaving a sigh of relief, her lips began to curved up to form a small smile, "First of all, call me Emily. I don't like the 'Princess' title. And, why am I here? Well because... I don't know. I just came here for fun, I guess."

Upon listening to that, Zack relaxed his posture and invited her in while Kate looked at her with her big and beautiful green eyes.

Looking around, Emily noticed that there was no seats in their room, so she decided to take a seat n the carpeted floor.

At this point, she felt like she made a grave mistake as the siblings stared at her as if she was insane.

She stared back at them.

"You know... You can sit on the bed or something, right?" Zack informed her.

"Oh! Right, yeah." She replied as she silently insulted herself, "Emily... Princess or not, your ethnics are still the worst, huh."

Seeing how the princess was ridiculously oblivious, he couldn't help but to let out a laugh.

"You're really different from what I thought you were." He said as he joined her on the floor, followed by Kate. "I expected you to be... You know, serious about everything."

Emily wrapped her arms around her knees as she ċȯċked her head slightly, "Well, I grew up as a normal human, without some fancy princess title. So, I guess that shaped who I am now."

"Erm... No." Emily answered, "...She's human."

"Really? Is she some famous martial artist?" Zack asked with a hint of disbelief, "I mean she has to be someone with an amazing set of skills to actually protect you, right?"

"Um, no. She actually just works for a company as a consultant..." Emily replied reluctantly, "...But, you have a point though."

"...You're joking, right?"

"Nope."

"Then, why did the king and queen put you with her?" Zack asked, as his curiosity grew, "Isn't this a little too weird?"

"I don't know..." Emily replied, "...Maybe I should ask them, when I can, that is."

"Oh, well. Leaving that aside, what happened to you?" Zack asked as he tapped the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, this?" She said touched her nose gingerly, "I got kicked in the face during my training with Yukiko."

Emily felt sorry for him, he needed to cope with so much more than she needed to, even though he was four years younger than her.

"Sorry."

He gave her a sad laugh before he spoke, "It's fine, it happened five years ago, so I'll get over it soon."

The room went silent for good minute as Emily thought about a response. However, she knew how awkward the situation was starting to be, so she blurted out something at the top of his head.

"...Well, there's no need to get over it, right? You can keep remembering it and turned those feelings into strength."

Surprisingly, what she said kind of make senses. Honestly, she most properly heard this from a television series. But hey, it was still something.

"I know it's easier said than done, but you just got to do it, you know? That's just how it is."

Zack did not know what to say, instead he just stared at her for a while. He didn't expect a reply from her since she remained silent for quite some time.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable under his gaze, Emily started waving her hand in front of him. This is when he finally caught himself staring at her.

He then sighed as he fell onto the ground, on his back, "You remind me of Erik... Before he did all those crazy stuff of course. He's always there to listen to me when I'm... Well, sulking. And give me some advices here and there."

"Erik? Who is that?" Emily heard about his clan and the ȧssassination of all their clan members in a matter of a night. She knew that Zack and Kate were in the clan, but she never heard of the name, Erik. "Another member, maybe?"

"Oh yeah, you don't know about him." He said as he glanced over to her with his green eyes, "...He's my cousin who turned to the Phantoms."

"I see, is he an ex-member of the clan?" She asked based solely on her curiosity.

"Hmm..." He breathed out as he looked up to the ceiling, "Not really, he was adopted my uncle. But, he is a pretty good fighter and he did picked up many of Jackson clan's techniques at an inhumane rate. I guess you can say he is a prodigy."

"Wow, if he had such an amazing set of skills why did he turned to Phantom, when he could have just come here like you two did." She asked once more as she tilted her head slightly, waiting for the twelve year boy's response.

"...Don't know." He answered as he closed his eyes, "Honestly, I would really want to ask him, but... Knowing that he is part of the group that was responsible for the deaths of my entire clan and... My parents. I just can't bring myself to just quietly sit down and ask him about it, without feeling angry."

As a surge of sadness swept him, he instinctively placed his forearm over his eyes, which prompted Kate to give him a comforting squeeze on his other arm, "Zack..."

Emily just had no idea what do in this situation.

She turned to Zack and told him what Patricia frequently reminded her, "You know, my guardian used to tell me that sometimes you just got to let go of that anger. Otherwise... You'll get old quicker if you hold that anger at heart. Like you will have wrinkles and stuff."

He lowered his forearm and looked at her in shock.

It was almost as if he was giving her the "What-the- heck" face.

However, soon, he couldn't hold back his laughter anymore and started laughing. "Pfft-- What was that?" He asked in the midst of his laughter, "Well... thanks for the advice, then."

Emily smiled sheepishly and nodded, "Yeah."

Zack then raised up to his feet and looked at Emily, "I think you should go now, dinner should be ready by now."

"You're right." She agreed as she stood up as well, "I guess I'll be going now."

She went for the door but, just before she left their room, she waved and said, "I'll see you guys later then."

To that, they then smiled and waved back.

Emily then went to the dining room to have dinner with her parents and the others. She noticed Beck and Ben were absented, but she did not asked much about it. Since her parents told her that Ben went out and Beck was on a mission. However, she still felt a little uneasy...

After her dinner, she went back to her room to memorise the thick rule book that Yukiko gave her.

"How many pages are there...?" Emily thought as she flipped from pages to pages through the never ending rule book. Yukiko wanted her to finish reading and memorising the rules as soon as possible, which seemed harmless, until she started.

As she read through line after line, the more tired she got. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, hoping that she would stay awake. However, the comfy bed that she sat on was definitely not helping one bit. Subconsciously, she just fell asleep with the thick book on her ŀȧp...

As she drifted deeper and deeper into sleep, she found herself fleeting to a dream... A nightmare, to be exact.

Emily stood at a dimly lit room, she could see her hands, they were bloodied. She looked across the room and saw her friends. They were laying on the ground, lifeless. Some of their eyes were rolled backwards, showing nothing but white, Terrified, she looked away to see that the whole room was splashed with the thick crimson liquid.

Suddenly a voice whispered into her ears, "You killed them..."

She jumped and gyrated, to only found nothing behind. As her breathing became more and more irregular, her heart beat faster and faster, louder and louder. It was as if it was about to pop right out of her ċhėst.

"You're a monster... Just a monster."

"Just admit it! ...You killed them. They are dead because if you."

She quivered in fear as the voice repeatedly mocked and ridiculed her.

"MONSTER! MONSTER! MONSTER!"

"THEY TREATED YOU SO WELL AND THAT'S HOW YOU REPAY THEM?"

"YOU'RE USELESS! YOU CAN'T EVEN CONTROL YOUR POWERS!"

All of a sudden, the voice calmed down in the midst of all that insanity, "...Just accept me already."

Emily looked up and saw a girl. Besides, the white hair and grey eyes, she looked exactly like herself. The height, the body shape and even the hair length.

Emily was too scared to say anything. The girl got closer to her and whispered. This time her voice was distorted and staticky, "...JuSt do It... AccEpT mE!..."