- Riku
The debrief for Aria was extensive, Yen Sid sparing no detail as to who the enemy was and the plan at hand. Block and hinder them as much as possible until the people we need are back. From the get-go, she was standing perfectly still, hands gathered in front of her listening to every word that Yen Sid and Mickey said to explain what was going on. Sometimes her eyebrows furrowed or raised in shock, mouth open. She bit the inside of her cheek in thought, grabbing the charm on her necklace, feeling the grooves and gems. We were waiting outside on the steps of the Tower, waiting for our ship to arrive. Aria was taking it all in, her eyes darting back and forth on the scenery, nails tapping the concrete of the steps in thought.
"Sounds like you all have been busy." She exhaled. Aria looked at all of us.
"What can I do?" She added, but she specifically looked to me for an answer catching me by surprise.
"Just you joining the effort is enough. They don't know who you are, which gives us an advantage." I explained, she tilted her head at the comment. "If they are moving as quickly as you all say they are, we should be getting a move on," Aria said.
"We will, just waiting on our ride." Kairi chimed in.
"A... ride?" She repeated. "You guys don't use the Lanes to travel?"
"We do, but since there are more of us, Gummi ship is the best way to fit everyone." As she said this, Gummi ship engines started to sound, careening into the horizon, flanking to both sides slightly to get our attention. Aria's shoulders dropped looking at the clunky machine hovering within eyesight.
"Sora, I don't think that's the right model," Kairi said sheepishly folding herself inward more, knees hitting her chest. The size was rather small, and it looked like there was only one seat in the cockpit.
Sora's spiky hair bounced as he whipped his head to the Gummi ship, then to Kairi.
"You're right, we're gonna need a bigger ship." Kairi tucked her lips in and gave one of the funniest looks of 'I can't believe this kid' I think I have ever seen.
"So, you...never confirmed with Chip and Dale about the model of the Gummi Ship they were sending us?" Her voice was high pitched and strained.
"I thought you were doing it?" Sora exclaimed. "I don't know the model names!" She yelled back.
Aria leaned in close to me, "are they always like this?"
"This is a good day for them," I said with a smile in my voice.
Those two were bantering back and forth with who should get on the radio to tell them to send that ship back. Aria kept glancing over at the ship while they were still arguing. She chewed the inside of her cheek in thought.
"Something up?" I asked. She shot a side glance at me.
"I am not getting in that metal...Gummi, whatever death trap." She said simply, slowly shaking her head a few times.
"You're...scared of flying?" I asked amazed. "How did you travel before?"
"The Lanes it takes a bit, but it gets me where I need to go."
"Never on a ship?"
"Never."
"It's not so bad, as long as Sora isn't driving."
"He does seem like the type."
"What gave it away?" I chuckled. Aria pursed her lips and jerked her head in the direction where he and Kairi were still bantering about calling Chip and Dale. She then shrugged, "just something about him." She joked.
"We will be here all day if we let them decide." She said with her arms crossed a small smirk resting on her face, in a better mood than before.
"Fine, I'll call." I hopped down the stairs, lifting myself into the cockpit, messing with the controls to get a good signal. I would have preferred by Glider over flying in a ship. But since Sora and Kairi can't get theirs to summon right, I guess this will be our best bet to get to places in one piece.
"Chip, Dale, can you hear me?" I called out on the communicator.
"Riku! Everything smooth sailing?" Dale asked voice as stuffy as I remember it being. "We actually haven't let yet, you gave us a one-seat model, do you have one with four seats and maybe even personal quarters? We've got someone else joining us."
"We asked Sora about it before!" He exclaimed I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling the irritation from here. "I'm sure you did and he's still arguing about it with Kairi, mind swapping ships for us?" I asked as kindly as I could.
"Sure thing, mind holding tight for a bit while we get it ready?" Chip chimed in. "yeah, thanks you two, I owe you one."
"Don't even worry about it!" And I heard static on the other end. I slid down the wing of the ship and watched it speed off into the distance. Kairi and Sora stopped bantering and were facing away from each other in annoyance. Kairi's hair was cut short from the encounter with Master Aqua, while Aqua was healing from her injuries back with the King in his castle. Lea was doing reconnaissance trying to find Vexen's research about replicating people based on data. It was just us three, well, now four. I couldn't tell if Aria was excited or nervous with her stature seeming...small like she wanted to disappear from the conversation until Sora snapped her out of it, not at all upset about the banter or even now Aria showed him a lesson or ten about fighting.
"Hey, so if you've been doing this a while, how come we've never met?" Sora asked curiously. Her mouth twisted contemplating the answer, the charm on her necklace giving an iridescent glow on her white tank top.
"The Realm of Light is a really big place, bigger than you think." She explained with a shrug.
"How many worlds have you visited?" Kairi asked. Aria put out her hand with her pointer finger extended, a signal to wait. She undid the button and zipper on the pouch of her thigh and pulled out a small field journal with stars hand painted different colors under a black sky. She flipped through the pages haphazardly. Her eyes skimming the pages rapidly for the thing she was looking for.
"Twenty-five...no, thirty-five worlds so far." She said with confidence. Sora whistled low impressed.
"You traveled to those all by yourself?" Kairi asked. Aria nodded, "I would camp out for as long as I needed to before moving onto the next world." She explained.
"How did you find those worlds without a ship or a Glider?" Now it was my turn to ask questions.
"I really don't know, I have a knack for finding things." Aria shrugged
"Like a scout, right?" Sora guessed out loud.
"I guess you can say that." she chuckled scratching her cheek. Her eyes went to the horizon, seeing a ship come into view. They went wide and suddenly nervous.
"That was...really quick," Kairi said picking herself up from the stairs covering her eyes from the sun. The ship was brightly colored red with gold trim, two giant turbines to help push it off into the dark without a problem, it even had a dock for us to walk up into the ship compared to climbing into the cockpit.
"Look at the size of it, I can't wait to pilot," Sora said, hands on his hips rather confidently.
"You're not the one flying this thing, I am," I stated. Sora scowled and tried to pout his way out of it.
"We have a nervous flyer here and I am not having you traumatize her this early on." Aria's cheeks went a slight pink.
"I wouldn't say nervous flyer...I just don't know what to expect." She said sheepishly.
"No, you're afraid of flying," Sora said with a laugh before Kairi smacked his arm.
"You and I can sit by each other if anything." Kairi offered. "Let the idiots be idiots."
"We're right here you know." Sora and I groaned. Kairi rolled her eyes grabbing Aria by the wrist and leading her towards the ramp inside, she looked like she was about to protest but couldn't in time.
It was nice knowing Kairi had a girl her age to talk to now since Aqua was a little older than the rest of us. If Aria was overwhelmed, she was doing a good job of covering it up.
- Aria
The ship inside was a cool silver metal, air conditioning going on full blast, enough to make me shrug on my jacket and tuck the folds in, adjusting the drawstrings to be tighter around my body. There were four chairs welded into the ground in the cockpit. An array of screens showing statuses of different systems on the ship. The shields, engine, turbo and even turrets were all online and ready to go. The window wasn't filtered and showed the view from outside perfectly. The sky was a mix of brilliant oranges and reds and was permanently set there by that old Master...Yen Sid, I'm sure. They were all so friendly and they weren't putting from fronts just for my sake, I could tell from the banter and debating they have been friends since they were kids. It almost felt like I was invading their time to bond and their journey. Yet both his Majesty and his Master insisted, how could I have said no? I wasn't used to the floor giving in, so it started to hurt the balls and heels of my feet a little. I made a mental note not to walk so heavy footed on here. My boots would sound off from yards away.
"Cool right?" Sora asked behind me almost giving me a scare. Mechanical, but it had a homey feel to it since they were all here.
"It is really nice," I walked around the controls and the chairs, "seems like this model was made just for you guys." All the chairs had corresponding colors. Sora's was a deep blue around the edges, lights streaming from the base of the chair down to the floor and the rest of the ship. Kairi's was gold and even pink like the jacket dress she wore. Riku's was an aquamarine almost, right front in center.
"Hey, your chair has color too!" Kairi noted, going from a basic white to a dusty blue color. Riku was by one of the main computers gliding his hands on a color wheel on the screen. I shot him a thankful smile.
"I would take a seat, we should get going soon." He said.
The seat was freezing so I curled myself up in a ball as best as I could, straightening my posture.
'Found something.' A voice sounded in my head, I tried to contain my excitement. Something within me stirred, it's been silent for the past couple of weeks before I bumped into Riku in Twilight Town, 'we're close,' The ship lurched into motion sending my stomach up to my throat, I grabbed onto the arms rest as tight as I could. The colors of the sky rushed past us as it faded into the dark of empty space.
"You look like you might hurl," Sora said worriedly.
"Yeah well, you saying the word doesn't help." I shot back. My hands were shaking, and I tried to ease the thought of my stomach burning within me. I could have walked in The Lanes and it would have been fine. Soon the ship slowed down to a pace where it felt like we were just drifting in space. I blew out air from my mouth and bent over in the chair.
"Not bad for a first-time flyer," Kairi said patting my back. I rested my cheek on the cold armchair. I looked at her, lip curled in trying hard not to laugh at me out of courtesy, but I couldn't help to burst out laughing as well. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, not even trying to put on a brave face for my new teammates. Could they call me the same thing?
"Where to? We don't have a lot of leads." Riku sighed, slumped over in the pilot's seat.
"Somewhere new, for sure," Sora replied. He stood up, looking at the heart's lights flickering in and out of view. There was one spot he was looking at intently, a cluster of shimmers. The sky was warped in gorgeous colors of purple and blue. Yet the heart of the world, the real heart wasn't in the center for that cluster but on the outer rim. It's light dim but still there, waiting to be balanced. I wonder if I was off about the coordinates of the 'new' thing.
"Gun it for that cluster there," Sora said over Riku's shoulder. He looked confused, yet there was a sparkle in his eyes that was contagious. He liked to explore, that was obvious. I was the same way, yet what drew him to that spot.
"Where are we?" I asked quietly hearing the engines rev towards the blue and purple. The crescent moon in the distance wasn't a moon at all. It was a gigantic port, with old sailor ships, outfitted with solar sails, catching the light of the sun to make them disappear into the inky black sky filled with stars. There was no shield protecting them from the lack of air...unless. The space they inhabit was breathable. It took everything within me not to have the cockpit windshield open to see if that was true. But the sailors didn't wear protective gear at all. I was mesmerized by it, the hustle and bustle of the port, the small world down below it, covered in green land and ravines with stone mills. They knew about the other worlds, they were trying to get to the outside gates.
'Montressor.'
