"Why can't I have one? All my friends have one!" I shouted at my mom. She made me so angry.
"You're not buying Kingdom Hearts!" Mom yelled back. No matter how many times I ask her, she never lets me have it. That's unfair, don't you think?
"Why? How come all my friends have that game except me? Everyone has it!"
"I'm not letting you buy that game. Don't give me that look. I have my reasons, and I'll explain it to you when you're taller."
"Mom, you've said that to me, like, the entire year. I'm not a baby. I'm certainly able to make my own choices."
"You're still not buying that game. I don't care if everyone has it or not. You're not getting it."
I growled in disgust, stormed into my room, and slammed the door. I could not believe it. Mom knows I love Kingdom Hearts. I always doodled something about it in my notebook, checked out the different websites, and looked through the strategy guides. Ever since I learned about it, I've asked Mom everyday to buy that game. But, she always gave me the same answer.
"Honey, open the door," my mom's voice said calmly but sternly.
"What do you want?" I whined.
"Your grandmother's here."
I felt my heart jump. I pushed the door open, slamming it into Mom. "Grandma! You're here!" I yelled so loud that the entire house could hear me. My sister and brother came running out of their rooms.
"Grandma! Grandma!" they shouted.
Into the living room came a sixty five-year-old woman with white hair, a black traveler's cloak, and her red paisley handbag. "Hello, all of you," came her calm voice. "Oh, my. Look how you've grown."
"How come you've been gone for so long, Grandma?" my sister, Annie, asked. Annie was six years old with light brown hair and hazel eyes.
"Well, you know, one thing or another," Grandma said. "But the important thing is that I'm here now. Come on, I have something to show you."
Before following Grandma, I went to Mom and asked her, "Could you and Grandma not fight for a change? I mean, we haven't seen her in a year. She's been gone for so long."
As I headed towards the family room, my brother Derek, who's twelve years old, has dark brown hair, and brown eyes, blocked my path and said, "Grandma always starts the fights. Ask her to not fight."
"She doesn't, Derek. You know she doesn't. Stop acting like a jerk."
When Derek and I entered the room, Grandma pulled from her handbag what seemed to be a key with a gold handle and a silver body. "The keyblade!" I exclaimed. Grandma just smiled, chuckled to herself, and handed me the replica of the keyblade. It was really a bracelet with a keyblade charm.
"Mother!" Mom was surprised as well. She dropped her jaw and stared at the bracelet.
"It's a gift. I hope you like it, Kiara. It took me a while to find."
"Like it? I love it!" I gave Grandma a quick hug.
"I also have something for Annie." She reached inside her handbag and brought out a mahogany box with the Kingdom Hearts logo carved on the top. All the cards found in the video game were inside.
"Whoa! Thanks, Grandma! These cards are cool!" Annie cried out.
I peeked at my mom. She looked unhappy. 'Well, she doesn't understand my passion for Kingdom Hearts,' I thought.
"Here, Derek," I heard Grandma say. I turned to look at Grandma as she handed Derek a blue jar with handles, and decorated with a picture of a golden flame.
"What's this?" he snapped.
"Awesome! You have an Elixir!" I shouted with glee. "An Elixir can restore HP and MP to the entire party."
"Right you are," Grandma said.
"Mother, could I talk to you for a second in the kitchen?" Mom questioned.
"Sure dear-as soon as I give the children their costumes," replied Grandma.
Everyone was excited, while Mom was upset, when Grandma drew out three costumes-Sora's regular outfit for me, an Organization XIII member's outfit for Annie, and a Heartless outfit for Derek. Annie and I loved our costumes-even though Derek looked like a mini-sized Defender.
"All right! That's it! Mother, these kids will not have anything to do with that game, and now it is time for dinner!" Mom said angrily.
After dinner, we convinced Mom to let Grandma tell us a bedtime story before she left. Mom agreed, as long as Grandma didn't mention "you-know-where." Grandma agreed, but gave a sly smile.
Everyone got ready for bed and came into my room to hear the story. We all sat on top of my bed. "The story I'm going to tell you is about a wonderful place filled with many people of all kinds."
"You mean like Cleveland?" Derek blurted out. "I hear they have a nice school district." I rolled my eyes.
"No, not really. The people here are a bit more…exotic. Magicians, skeletons, kings, princesses, travelers, merchants, pirates…"
"Hey, Grandma," I stated. "Those kinds of people can be found in Kingdom Hearts from all the different worlds. Every single kind of person you mentioned."
"Very good. Guess I don't need to explain it. You already know about it."
"Excuse me," Derek butted in, "but we have a very young child here. I think we should at least say this place is fictional. It can't be real."
"Well, to be honest, I heard about this place in a book." And from behind her, Grandma pulled out a book that had a picture of a castle on the front and the title, Kingdom Hearts: Travel Guide.
I gasped in delight. "Let me see it," I part-said, part-whispered. I opened the book and there were tons of facts about Kingdom Hearts, different things to see, and a section about the different worlds you could visit-as if Kingdom Hearts was a real place.
She seemed really happy that I was reading this book. "So, dear," she brought up with a smile. "Have you used any magic? Or, perhaps, battled a heartless?" She seemed eager to hear my response.
I shook my head. "I wish, but the truth is…there's nothing special about me." How could someone like me be special in any way? Grandma, though, didn't seem to believe what I had told her.
"Oh, yes there is," she assured me. "You're a Pombrooke. A very special Pombrooke on that note. And since the dawn of time, the Pombrooke's have been the most powerful…" Her voice got cut off by an angry voice.
"Mother," interrupted Mom. She scowled at Grandma. "It's getting late. You don't want to miss your bus home." She really didn't want Grandma here. Annie begged Mom to let Grandma stay one more night.
"Well, your mother's right. If I don't leave by midnight, it's-it's-just a long time till the next bus comes. So come say goodnight." When it was five minutes after Grandma left my room, I crawled out of bed, hoping to get a drink of water. Instead, when I crept down the stairs, I heard Mom and Grandma in the kitchen arguing again-this time about something I've never heard them talking about.
"I just did what you should've done long ago," I heard Grandma say. "I mean look at you, you can use magic the king gave you. But no, you always do things the hard way. And Robert's gone now, there's no reason to stay."
"For years, Mother, you've come to me and begged me to start Kiara's training. I know that's why you came here tonight, Mother. But the fight is over. At midnight, Kiara will lose her powers forever and become a pure mortal."
"Well, even though I think you're making a bad decision, you're wrong about why I came here tonight. Actually, I came to ask for your help."
"My help? With what?"
"Well, something's wrong at home. Every day, I find someone is filled with evil and hatred. Then, they mysteriously disappear. I fear that my powers alone will not stop this mayhem. I need another Pombrooke witch. I need you."
"Mother, there are plenty of witches, wizards, fairies, Moogles, and other magic people and items in Kingdom Hearts. Why not try them before coming to see me for help? They can do as much as I can."
"Oh, I've tried. But you know how it is at this time. No one wants to get involved. We're dealing with something very dark here. I just thought you had the sense to help. Guess I was wrong with my decision."
I tiptoed up the stairs, woke up Derek and told him about what I heard. "Are you crazy? There's no such thing as magic." As I was about to make a remark, I looked through the window and saw Grandma start to walk out the door.
"She's leaving. She's leaving for Kingdom Hearts. I've got to follow her." I looked at Derek, hoping he'd say, "Sure, let's go." Instead, he gives me a look that seemed to say, "Are you insane?"
"Derek," I said while I got dressed and put on my bracelet, "haven't you ever wondered why Mom won't let us play Kingdom Hearts or have anything to do with it? Or how whenever Annie is mad, books fly off their shelves?" He shook his head no. "Well I have. And now that I know the truth, I'm going after her. And I'm not just gonna sit here and wait around to turn into a boring mortal like you."
Derek was taken aback. "What do you mean 'boring like me?' You're the one who believes in everything." I gave him a disgusted look before pushing him aside so I could follow Grandma.
Afterwards, I crept down the stairs to the front door, making sure to avoid Mom's gaze. She kept looking back once in a while, so it was very hard to get by. When I finally got past her, I gave a sigh of relief. "Whew, I made it," I whispered.
"You mean 'we made it,'" Derek said from behind me. He was dressed as if he rushed through getting changed. He was panting really deeply from trying to catch up with me and slowed down to rest.
I was very surprised to see him here. "What are you doing here? I thought you didn't believe me." I was convinced that he would tell Mom and get us both grounded. 'No way will that happen,' I thought.
"I'm the man of the house, I've got to make sure you're okay. Plus, I'm not gonna sleep well until I find out if you're insane or not." I socked him in the arm after hearing that last remark.
We sneaked across the lawn and ducked behind a bush, still keeping an eye on Grandma. "There she is," I whispered. Then, we heard an engine whirring. "It's the bus."
Grandma looked around, then grabbed her handbag and climbed on. We, on the other hand, sneaked in through the back emergency door. "Quick!" whispered Derek. "Duck behind the seat!" We barely did so as Grandma turned around.
"Oi," I groaned from being pulled down. I looked at the passengers, and saw magicians, skeletons, pirates, princesses-in fact all the people Grandma told us about were on the bus. "Whoa, look at the different kinds of people."
"It must be a charter bus," said Derek. "You know, the kind that pick people up from parties. These people've obviously gone to one."
"Or maybe they're real. You hardly ever give people a chance." Before I could say anything else, the bus started going really fast and heading downward.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Derek and I yelled. No one heard us because they were yelling, too. Soon, the bus came to a complete halt. Not wanting to be noticed, we escaped back through the emergency door. I couldn't believe what I saw.
"Derek, this is it! We're in Kingdom Hearts!" I cried. None of the passersby seemed to notice. I didn't care. I was so excited to be here.
"This can't be real. Mom said it was a fantasy. We must've fallen asleep on the bus. Oh, god. Annie's followed us!" Derek also shouted.
I turned around. Sure enough, there was Annie, holding the box of cards. "Annie, what are you doing here? I thought we left you asleep."
"I was pretending," Annie declared. "I wanted to see Grandma. But the people here seem really evil."
I stared at her. "How do you know about that?" Before anyone could say anything else, a man wearing pressed clothes, a big hat, and a cane came up to us.
"Well, hello there," he said in a surprised tone. "I don't think we've met. And that means I'm in trouble, 'cause the mayor should know everyone."
"I'm Kiara. This is my brother, Derek, and my sister, Annie. We're Gwen Pombrooke's grandkids."
"Wait a minute. You're Jane's kids? The three of you?" I nodded.
"You know our mom?" Derek asked. "That's weird. She never mentioned you."
"Uh, we were following our grandma here," I interrupted. "Then, we sort of lost her getting off the bus. Do you know where she lives?"
"Of course I do. Follow me." We followed the mayor to a big Victorian house guarded by a big, iron gate. "Here we are. I gotta go kids. Tell your grandma I said hi!" He shouted as he went back the way we came.
"Okay," I said. "Let's go." I pushed the gate, but it wouldn't budge. I tried again, but it still wouldn't work. "Man, if only Derek brought his costume."
"I have a Defender card here," Annie offered. She opened her box and took out a Defender card. It was long and black. "The writing on the back says, 'use to destroy enemies and blockades.'"
"Wow," I said. "Looks like Grandma gave us some pretty useful stuff." I took the card and used it to break down the gate. "Let's go." We followed the path that led to Grandma's front door, then knocked. Grandma was surprised to see us when she opened the door. After the hug-fest, we told her about what I heard and what happened afterward.
"Oh, Kanapar," Grandma said to herself. "Always there to help people. He's been like that since the king's disappearance. Come on, let me show you something."
We followed Grandma into the kitchen where a glass ball lay in a silver frame. "Pretty, Grandma," Annie said. "It looks like a magic wand with glass."
"Well, you see dear, this is Merlin's Talisman. He gave it to me to protect it from evil. If I can get it lit up again, we'll rid this world of it. That's why I asked for your mother's help. Magic is stronger when more than one witch joins in."
"Well I can help," I offered. Things were getting better by the seconds. I could actually fight real heartless!
"A kind offer, but you haven't been trained yet. And since your mother doesn't want to help, I'll have to make the potion to light the talisman by myself. Now, where did I put the recipe?"
"Well, that's something I could help you with. I can cook. And that doesn't count pouring cereal."
"Well, then. You can help me once I find that recipe. I'm sure I left it here right next to the talisman. But, maybe it's in my room. Stay here children, and don't touch anything."
As soon as Grandma was out of sight, we began exploring her house. She had a variety of magical items, including cauldrons, books, wands, and some attack cards from Kingdom Hearts. "Now I know where your obsession comes from, Kiara," Derek teased.
"Moron," I muttered as I walked by an ancient-looking mirror. I picked it up and looked at it, but I saw no reflection. Then, I saw a boy about thirteen get attacked by something that was dark black. I gasped. The boy getting attacked was Riku! As soon as the black thing vanished, Riku started acting very strange-as if he were evil. "I've got to help him," I almost cried out.
"Oh, I'm sorry dear," Grandma sighed, coming back in. "If you'd been properly trained, then you could help him. But this is dark magic we're dealing with. Not even a witch of first-class magic like me can be of match to that…thing. Besides, your mother would probably wonder what happened to you."
"Oh, great," Derek said angrily. " We forgot about Mom. We're so busted. We're definitely gonna be grounded after we get back to our house."
"You bet you will be," came the voice of Mom. "All of you. And Mother, I can't believe you brought them here in the first place."
"I didn't," assured Grandma. "They came to see me. And Kiara wants to start her training. She overheard our little chat."
Mom looked shocked. "Training? You will not. I spent my entire life hiding this family's secret from Kiara, and she expects me to train her as a Royal Witch of Kingdom Hearts? She doesn't belong here, Mother. Her father was a mortal, she was born in the mortal world, and mortal is what she'll be!" Mom yelled.
"No, I won't be mortal. I love this place. It has a nice mayor, friendly residents, many shops, adventure, and excitement. And this is where I belong. You can't make me be a mortal."
"Oh, Kiara. There's more to living in this world than you understand. I promise I'll tell you why when we get home and you're a pure mortal."
"No! I'm not going back! And I'm tired of you always keeping secrets from me! I want to know now why we can't live here! I want to stay, and that's final!" By now, I was shouting.
"You put that mirror down, young lady. You are grounded." Mom's word's stung inside.
Mom led us to the door. "Bye," we said at the same time. 'Who will help Riku?' I thought. 'Who will help this world?'
When we were heading for the Gummi Garage, Annie waved her arms and pointed. "Look! Look! Grandma's going somewhere with the Evil Riku!" she shouted. Sure enough, Riku and Grandma were walking together. I didn't care about being grounded. Someone had to do something. I ran after the pair, avoiding the black things coming up from the ground and Mom's screams telling me to go back.
"Grandma!" I shouted. But with the noise from the crowd, she couldn't hear me. Finally, after a lot of running, they entered the Haunted Mansion. "From Kingdom Hearts 2," I muttered. Hey, I don't own the game, but I still know something about it. The pair went through the winding hallways until they came to the ballroom. They went inside. "Okay, go inside and help Grandma, or wait outside and don't help. I choose inside." Before I could touch the doorknob, I heard voices shouting for me to wait.
"Kiara!" came a tired-from-running Annie, still holding the box. "Mom's looking all over for you. Where's Grandma?"
"Grandma's inside. Come on we have to help her. Who knows what's gonna happen?"
"Hey, wait for me," panted Derek as he joined us. "Mom's looking for you in Traverse Town. It's hard to avoid her."
"Come on guys. Let's go help Grandma!" On that note, I banged the door open and saw Grandma and Riku talking to a black-hooded figure, hovering in the air. Scattered around the room were living statues of people I well recognized, such as Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Cid, Peter Pan, Roxas, Olette, and Aerith. "Grandma!" we all shouted as the three faced us.
"Get them!" cried the figure, pointing at us. I figured he was the one causing all this mayhem. The question was, why?
"Leave my family alone!" Grandma shouted back as Riku came toward us. Luckily, Mom found us and used her magic to attack Riku before he got us. Unfortunately, when she went to protect Grandma, the figure hit her with a thunder/gravity/fire/blizzard spell that turned her into a living statue.
"No!" I cried. I would've helped Grandma, but Derek grabbed my arm. At least I knew how the people were disappearing.
"Sleep now, Gwen Pombrooke!" The figure said in a creepy tone. "And when you wake up, I shall be your master!" He hit Grandma with the same spell he used on Mom. "That's what you get for not giving me the talisman!" He turned to us.
"We've gotta get outta here before he gets us!" Annie cried. We all agreed on that. But the door was mysteriously locked.
"Okay," I started panicking. "This is officially scary. If only we had a good enough weapon to defeat him." On that note, my bracelet started to vibrate, the charm getting bigger and bigger. Soon, it became a real-sized keyblade. 'How helpful,' I thought. I grabbed the handle and started swinging it at the figure. He still came for us. Then, a thought hit me. The light here was dim, so he must hate light! "Annie, give me a fire card!" After she handed it to me, I cast the spell and illuminated the entire room. The figure shrieked and retreated, shielding itself from the light. Now lit up, I saw about half of the room filled with the statues, with Sora among them. I was shocked to see him here, let alone he was missing the keyblade. 'Wait a minute,' I realized. 'Missing the keyblade? Oh, no! That means I have the real keyblade! If the figure finds out, he'll come after me!' I wasted no time. I broke the door with the keyblade and we ran until we were a ways from the Mansion.
"I want Mommy and Grandma," Annie whined. Derek and I looked at each other. We wanted them too. Then, I remembered what Grandma told us at her house.
"We gotta get that talisman lit. It's the only way to save Mom and Grandma. But, I wonder where that potion recipe she mentioned is."
"I have it," Derek said, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket. "I thought it would come in handy. Plus, I wanted to check it out."
"You had it all along? Why didn't you tell anyone? Then none of this would've happened."
"I thought if you knew, you'd teased me about believing in it. But now I guess you probably wouldn't have. Okay, first stop…Hewey, Dewey, and Louie's Moogle Shop. We need to buy a thunder crystal."
Finally, after gathering 1000 orbs for Dewey's collection, we had a crystal. "Now we need a magic staff," Derek directed. We soon ran into the Court Wizard of Disney Castle, Donald Duck. After five minutes of persuasion, he gave us his magic staff. "Finally we need…oh, god. Not this item."
I was puzzled. What kind of ingredient would Derek not want? I peeked at the recipe and my heart sank low. We needed three Orichalcum+ as the last ingredients. "As if finding one wasn't hard enough," I moaned. "All right, let's get the stuff." We didn't have to go far. We ran into Leon who agreed to give us an Orichalcum, in return for a rare White Mushroom card. While Annie searched for the card, I found Yen Sid, who only gave me another Orichalcum, as it was of no use to him. Meanwhile, Derek was trying to convince a Moogle to give him the last Orichalcum we needed. It finally gave it to us when I showed it the keyblade.
"Yay, we have everything!" cheered Annie. "Now, let's go back to the house and light up that talisman!" We ran all the way to the house, as we noticed that Riku was coming after us. "Found the talisman!"
"Okay," I said calmly. "I think we should do item synthesis. We can't just drop crystals and wood into something like this." After getting all the items placed in a pile, I tried to cast a spell. "Drat. It's not working."
"Remember what Grandma said?" Annie mentioned. "She said that magic is stronger when more than one joins in. We should try that." We all grabbed hands, closed our eyes, and chanted:
"Rock of thunder,
Share your wonder.
Magic staff,
Light the path.
Orichalcum,
You are welcome.
Magic never end
For our friends."
"Hey, it worked!" I heard Derek shout. I opened my eyes. Where the items were was now a silver liquid. As if someone invisible were doing it, the potion poured itself into the talisman. Merlin's Talisman lit up pure white.
"We did it!" I cried. "We're real witches! And wizard! Now, let's go back to the Mansion." As we headed out the door, I grabbed Grandma's black traveling cloak. We hurried over to the Haunted Mansion, hitting the black things with the keyblade when needed. As soon as we entered the ballroom, we noticed the room was filled with lots more statues. We made our way through the statues until we found Mom's and Grandma's. Derek grabbed the talisman from me and waved it around the statues, but nothing happened. "Wait, Derek! I just remembered. Grandma told me before we could use this, we had to install it."
"Install it?" he hissed. "Install it where?In the book Grandma gave us?"
"The book!" Annie yelled. "I remember something in the book! There's a place where we can install it! At the heart of Kingdom Hearts! Hey, why are you guys staring at me?"
"The heart of Kingdom Hearts!" I shouted, furious. "That could be anywhere! Did the book say anything about where it is, Annie?"
She thought for a second. "Well, all I remember is that the heart…oh, snap. You need the Seven Princesses of Light to get to the heart."
"What?" Derek blurted out. "We can't just go up to someone and say, 'Hi, we need you to help open the heart of this world.' How are we gonna do it?"
"I have an idea," I offered. "But we need to hurry. The light in the talisman's starting to dim."
It took us fifteen minutes, but we finally found the Princesses talking outside a shop. "Excuse me," I said. The Princesses stopped talking and stared at us. "Uh, we were wondering if…you could help us out."
"We'd love to help," Jasmine said. "What do you need help with? Can it help get rid of this…darkness?"
"Yeah, it can. But we need you to open a place. You might know where it is: the heart of Kingdom Hearts."
All the Princesses gasped. "We're very sorry," Alice said, "but we can't open it for you. No one's allowed in there. Only we are."
"That's good," Derek interrupted. "Then you can go in there and do the task for us." I hit him in the arm.
"How can we trust that you're not working with the darkness?" Cinderella asked. "Last time we trusted someone, we got kidnapped. And now the same thing is happening again."
"Look, kids," Snow White added. "We'd love to help. But we have to help ourselves too. We can't just open the heart for people. We're sorry."
"Oh, man," Annie whined in a tone she only uses to get someone to do something she wants. "Why isn't Grandma Pombrooke here? She could really help us out."
"You mean the Pombrooke witch?" Aurora gasped. "She helped free us from the darkness before we could open the heart. We'd love to open it for her grandkids. Wouldn't we?"
"Yeah," Kairi answered. "We would. Follow us. We'll take you to the heart so you can rid this place of evil."
"Finally," I whispered to myself. I trailed the group, until Riku intersected me. "Out of my way."
"Look, about what happened earlier, I didn't know he was gonna do that to your mom and grandma." I got a feeling as if he were returning back to good. But I still didn't trust him. "Just don't go into that plaza. He's waiting for you."
"Nice try. But I'm not buying your lie. I need to go now."
"No. He'll do the same thing to you he did to everyone else. Please don't go into the plaza…just yet. I have a plan, but I need this cloak."
As soon as Riku joined the crowd of people watching the sky go black and the figure appearing, I made my way to where the Princesses were. "What's going on?" I asked them. All they did was point and say, "There's the heart. Go now before it closes up." I looked at where they were pointing. I dropped down to the ground and crawled the long ways it took to get there. "Man, I wish I could see its location, but it's too dark."
Then, I heard the figure say, "…reveal ourselves as we truly are!" Then, his face formed a familiar-looking face. Everyone gasped at who it was. It was Kanapar! "Follow me. And together we can take back the world the mortals have stolen from us. But to make sure we're successful, we must find the one that is half-human." Then, he must've spotted the decoy, because he said, "Oh, young Pombrooke. You think you can hide from me? Stop, give me the talisman." The response was silence. In my head I was thanking Riku for covering. "I said stop! Give me the talisman!" There was silence again. "How dare you disobey me!" Finally, I reached the heart! I was getting ready to throw it in there when I heard Kanapar yell, "Nooo!" I turned around. He'd turned Riku into a statue and now he saw me and hit me with the same spell. I felt numb, my body was stiff, and my vision became fuzzy, and I heard the distant voices of the Princesses screaming in fear as I fell unconscious.
Then, I heard voices talking while I was struggling to see clearly to see who was talking. "She was born in the mortal world and mortal is what she'll be!" I heard Mom shout. But she already said that a while ago. Then, I heard my voice say, "There's nothing special about me." My vision was clear again, but no one was there. My grandma's voice responded; "You're a Pombrooke. Remember Kiara, magic is really very simple. All you have to do is want something, then let yourself have it." Grandma's last words echoed as I threw the talisman inside the heart. 'Believe,' I told myself. Then, there was a flash of bright light as soon as the talisman touched the heart that lit up the entire world. I slowly got out of being numb and smiled at what I'd done.
"Congratulations!" I heard a voice from behind me. "You did it!" I turned around to see the Princesses with Derek and Annie. It was the princess Belle who spoke. "I can't believe it was Kanapar the entire time."
"It was Kanapar?" Grandma's voice said. We turned around to see Mom and Grandma looking shocked to discover the mastermind. The crowd parted to reveal Kanapar with a scowl on his face, glaring at us.
Mom stepped forward. "So it was you all along. But why Kanapar? Why did you even summon the darkness, turn everyone into statues, use the heartless, and turn people evil to take over this world?"
"Didn't you realize what could've happened to us on those dates when we were young?" Derek, Annie, and I looked at each other with disgusted faces at the fact that Mom actually dated that guy. "You could've chosen me, the most powerful wizard of them all. You could've stayed here and rule with me…as my queen. But you chose…a mortal…instead."
"Well, she ended up being a great judge of character," I butted in. There was no way Mom could even be with that guy. He was an evil, cruel, cold-hearted person. "You're going down."
Kanapar just laughed. "You really think you can stop me? An untrained witch against a powerful wizard? How amusing this should be. I get to take over this world and defeat a powerless witch."
"Well, let's see. My magic with my grandma's, my mom's, my sister's, and my brother's probably will defeat you. Five to one, a pretty good deal."
"Do not underestimate me." He jerked his hand and Merlin's Talisman came zooming out of the heart and into his hands. "Ha, ha, ha. Now, I'll be the most powerful wizard of both worlds."
Annie then whispered something to Derek who passed it onto me. "Hey, Candy Bar, you forgot the rules of the book. Unless you remember how to use it, I highly doubt you can use the talisman's power."
"Foolish little girl." I glared at him for calling me a 'little girl.' He was so going down. "You think you know more than me? Of course I know the 'rules of the book.' Why else would I've been after it?"
"Well then, do you remember how to get its magic going?" I slipped off my bracelet and hid the keyblade behind me. "You need the bearer of the keyblade to get it going." He'd use the wrong person because he didn't pay attention to which person he needed.
"I already knew that. Why else would I've captured him?" He reached into the crowd and pulled out Sora. "The keyblade master, right here!" Behind me I heard the Princesses giggle at how stupid Candy Bar, I mean Kanapar, can be.
"Dude, that's the keyblade master. You need the keyblade bearer." I got ready with the keyblade. I could hear Mom, Grandma, Derek, and Annie chanting a spell under their breath to summon the talisman.
"He bears the keyblade! I know he does! Give it to me, Sora! Or you'll never see the light of day again!" I glared at him for threatening him.
"Dude, lay off," Sora said. "I don't have it. I synthesized it to go to a new bearer and master. You have the wrong person. Oh, by the way, where's the talisman?" he taunted. Grandma obviously told him about the plan before meeting us.
Kanapar looked at us with fear. Just when I was going to strike the talisman with the keyblade, he grew to be four-stories high, knocked the talisman out of my hands, shoved the Princesses away, put a sleeping spell on Grandma, Derek, and Annie, and grabbed Mom and brought her up high. I could hear her screams of fear mixed with the screams of the anxious crowd seeking shelter. "You will be my queen and I will rule both worlds if I have to kill everyone. Heartless, attack!" The black things came up through the ground. I prepared for an attack.
"This is so very bad," I murmured to myself. "Good thing I'm a black belt in karate and tae kwon do." I thrust the keyblade into the ground and kicked at the incoming heartless. As I landed, I noticed a green card floating three feet away from me. I picked it up and saw a Mickey Mouse face. I remembered it. It was a trick card. "Please tell me this boss battle allows trick cards." I was really starting to panic. Fighting a load of heartless with the fate of the world in your hands can really stress someone out. I squeezed my eyes shut as I whispered, "Mickey, help me please!" I heard Kanapar yell. I opened my eyes and saw King Mickey standing in front of me, holding a Soul Eater. I looked at the damage done and grinned as Kanapar tried to regain HP from the attack from the king.
"I'd love to help, Keyblade Master," he said in a friendly tone. "I'll distract him while you activate the talisman. Are you ready?" I nodded, not paying any attention to his words. "Good luck."
I realized I'd zoned out again. "Hey, hold on. What am I doing?" Then, I noticed Alice pointing. I followed her point and saw Hollow Bastion being overrun with heartless as they struggled to start up the talisman. "Oh, snap. Just my luck." Then, I glanced at the big clock on my right. "Oh, no! It's almost midnight! Mom said I'd lose my powers at midnight if I never trained! What am I going to do?"
"Kiara, look out!" Cinderella shouted. I turned around and saw I was dealing with the Guard Armor. "Use the box of cards! Right by the shop!" Sure enough, Annie's box was right there. I frantically searched for a certain card to use. "Come on, come on. Blizzard, Divine Rose, Gravity, aha! Thunder!" I used my powers to transport the card into the keyblade. I thrust it in the air and called out, "Thunder!" The Guard Armor's right foot crumbled into dust from the spell. I smiled at the fact that evil can't handle light very well. Then I frowned as I realized there were hundreds of thousands of heartless everywhere. One Thunder card didn't do much. "But a synthesized card from Thunder, Fire, and Blizzard could. Thunder and Fire produce light and Blizzard reflects light from the ice crystals. Am I smart or what?" Not wanting to use Annie's, I battled heartless to see what kinds of goodies I could get. After defeating what felt like a thousand, I spotted Riku hurrying towards Hollow Bastion. "Hey, Riku! I need Thunder, Fire, and Blizzard cards, three of each. Got any?"
"I'm not giving you my cards. Look, I'd love to help fight the heartless, but that talisman is in grave danger if the heartless have it. Besides, I need them." We both gasped as Kanapar just missed us with a lethal spell. "Then again, here you go. I'll get the talisman for you." As soon as he gave me his, I took out Annie's Thunder and put in Thundaga, Firaga, and Blizzaga. I looked up and saw Aurora, Jasmine, and Kairi backing against a wall, staring with fear at the Defenders and Wight Knights surrounding them. "Nobody attacks my friends!" I shouted as I rushed over to the heartless and unleashed some painful punches and kicks. They disappeared in an instant. "What was that all about?"
"We closed the heart before the heartless could get inside," explained Kairi, still stricken with fear. "The heartless got so mad they were going to kill us. That was awesome fighting you just did, by the way."
"Thanks, but now we've got a bigger problem. Kanapar has my mom, unearthed the biggest heartless attack ever, and he won't rest until he's the head honcho. I've already got two people helping me and it's just not working."
"You'd better hurry," Aurora cautioned. "Only ten minutes to midnight. Would you like it if we get the other Princesses and help you out? Just so that you're not feeling overwhelmed with things?"
"That would be a life-saver. Please do. If you need any help, whatsoever, everyone scream. 'Kay? Great, let's do this." I ran over to finish off the Guard Armor and found Riku trying to heal Mickey from a very bad blow. "Oh, no!" I said as I ran over to them. "Is he dead? Please don't tell me he's dead."
"He's not dead," Riku responded. "Just badly injured. Oh, by the way, here's the talisman. Don't ask how I got it. By the way, got any heal cards?" I shook my head, not wanting to lose my sister's cards. "Well, go fight the Guard Armor. We defeated a lot more of the heartless for you. It should be a lot easier now."
"Thank you, Riku." I zoomed over to the Guard Armor and, using my anger and hate as energy, unleashed serious tae kwon do, never stopping to rest until he was gone for good. I heard seven voices screaming loudly. It was the Princesses! Kanapar had them cornered and was about to squish them like bugs. "Use the talisman!" was the urgent message I got from them. Then I heard Riku and Mickey shouting it too. Soon, the entire plaza was shouting. I glanced at the clock. Three minutes left. Then, Kanapar cast a sleeping spell on every good guy in the area, including Mom and I. I heard her shout out, "The magic is in you. Use it wisely!" I felt so tired, but then I felt something else. It felt like…love. Love for my family and friends pulsed through my blood and released me of the spell.
"Impossible!" Kanapar gasped. "No one can revive like that. Even I can't do that. You have powers far more superior than mine! But, you've never been trained to be this powerful! How are you able to do this?"
"Dude, I have the most powerful force in any world. There's no way you can possess it either. The funny thing is people say that something's not gonna hurt, and it does. Me, I'm honest. Now this is gonna hurt big-time, pal!" I grabbed the talisman, struck it with the keyblade, and watched as the light demolished the darkness.
"Noooo! I'll be back, Kiara! You can expect that!" Kanapar didn't go quietly. The good thing was, though, the darkness was gone, light returned to this world, the king was healed, and everyone woke up. I ran towards Riku and King Mickey.
"I wanted to thank you guys. There's no way I could've done it without you." Riku and Mickey looked at each other and smirked. "What's so funny about a huge heartless attack? It was hard to defeat them."
"We're laughing because we did nothing," Mickey said through laughs. "We said we defeated the heartless, but we did nothing. We just said we defeated the heartless so you could defeat them all by yourself."
"Kiara!" Mom called. I turned around and saw my family waiting for me by a gummi ship. "Hurry up! It's time to go!" I glanced at the clock filled with pride. But that pride sank as I saw the time was 12:05. My powers were gone.
Everyone gathered around us and applauded our heroic efforts. I hid in the back so no one could see me. Unfortunately, Belle saw me. She came to me and asked, "What's wrong? Don't you feel good that you defeated the entire army of heartless?"
"Oh, Belle. I wish I were happy. But my powers are gone-for good." I turned my head away, not wanting to show Belle that I was crying. 'Please tell me she can help me get my powers back,' I said over and over again in my head.
Instead, she took my hand in hers and said, "I'm so sorry. I wish I could help. But I'm no sorceress or enchantress. There's nothing I can do. Again, I'm sorry." I looked at her and saw a sincere look on her face. She gave me a hug to cheer me up; then we had to go because Grandma was shouting for us to go over to the gummi ship. I dried my tears up before anyone else saw them.
"That was some fighting you did, Kiara," Grandma said enthusiastically. "Too bad you lost your powers. I would've loved to have trained you." Everyone around me had an air of sympathy around him or her.
"No, Mother," Mom said. "That's where you're wrong.I tampered with that clock to make it betwelve minutes ahead.Kiara's still ableto use her magic. And I'll be the one finishing your training."
I brightened up. "You mean it, Mom? I still have my powers? Oh, that's so awesome!" I gave her a very tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is so cool!" I had to let Mom go because she claimed I was choking her.
"Oh, before I forget, I was wondering, mother, if you could baby-sit on Tuesdays? My PTA meetings just seem to go on forever. Could you do that?" Everyone waited for Grandma's response.
"I'd love to, dear, but you know that as soon as we drop you off the portal between both worlds closes for the next 366 days. I can't visit every Tuesday. It's impossible." Annie, Derek, and I felt down.
"Well then," Mom said, "I guess you're just gonna have to come live with us. I mean, if that's all right with you." Immediately, I started telling Grandma what we'd be doing there. Everyone cheered. While they were cheering Mom whispered to me, "You can buy Kingdom Hearts if you like, now."
"That's so cool!" I shouted. "I can't wait! I've been waiting for this moment for a long time!" I did a little "happy dance" and thankfully no one saw me. Everyone waved at us when we got on the gummi ship for home. Before we left, Snow White gave me a necklace to use to communicate between the worlds, the king gave Derek a magic staff (similar to Donald's), and Louie (from the shop) gave Annie half of his collection of crystals and shards. After we got home, Mom started training me to be a Royal Witch, Annie showed Grandma all the Kingdom Hearts fan stuff she and I worked on, and Derek tried to convince himself that it was just a dream. Compared to that night, the rest of the year was boring. But were we in for a big surprise the next time the portal opened up.