ACT II
For several days, the Legacy made its way across the Etherium, and its crew and passengers settled into a comfortable routine. Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle chipped in wherever they could, especially helping Jim get comfortable with his many duties as cabin boy. Cooking and cleaning went a lot faster with four more people involved. Conversely, Jim and Silver were never far away whenever another batch of Heartless appeared on deck, and between them and the Keybearing trio, they were an unstoppable force against the likes of the Pirate and Air Pirate Heartless that plagued the ship so often. Belle and Doppler had taken rather a shine to each other as friends, and together they would stare in wonder at the odd creatures and strangely shaped celestial bodies that the Legacy passed. Of course, Amelia was never far away, keeping everything shipshape as she saw fit, with Arrow in tow. She warmed up to Jim, Sora, Riku, and Belle quite a bit more, and always had a pleasant word for Mickey. Conversely, she tended to scoff at Silver. At first, whenever she and Doppler engaged in a conversation, an argument of some scale was just around the corner, but lately this had been happening less and less.
...
One night found Jim, Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle all scrubbing the deck long after the rest of the crew had gone to sleep…or so they thought. As it turned out, there was one left awake. Silver trod out onto the deck's floorboards, with Morph hovering about as usual.
"Couldn't sleep?" Riku asked him. He'd learned to become used to the aura of Darkness that followed Silver everywhere. It had still seemed to be nothing more than a mere presence. Perhaps, he thought, it was just an imprint that would never go away.
"Just wanted to check in on me crew," Silver replied jovially. "Especially Jimbo here. The captain had some complaints that ye missed a spot last night, and I got the brunt of it in the mornin'!"
"Oh, not fair!" Jim sighed. "How do you know it was even me? It could've been Sora!"
"Thanks," Sora replied sarcastically.
"Oh, and, uh…I'd been meaning to tell you," Jim went on, his tone now more reticent. "When the first Heartless attack happened, and I screwed up and let them hit me. What you did then. I just…" He sighed. "Thanks. And…thanks for looking out for me during the other attacks, too."
"'T'weren't nothin'," Silver replied. "Ye've made good progress with that pistol, Jimbo. Surprises me nowadays…I remember me pap teachin' me to hit a mark from thirty yards when I was just a lad. Forget sometimes that not everyone grows up learnin' that."
"I wouldn't know," Jim said gruffly before turning away from Silver and mopping the deck rather furiously.
An awkward silence reigned before Silver broke it: "Yer father weren't the teachin' sort."
"No," Jim grunted. "He was more of the 'taking of and never coming back' sort."
"What?" Sora broke in. "That's awful! Why would he want to leave you?"
"I don't know," Jim sighed. "I've asked myself that question…I don't know how many times."
"But – " Sora tried again.
Riku put a hand on Sora's shoulder, signaling that he had best not probe too far; Sora got the hint. "I'm sorry," Riku said briskly. "About your father."
"Me too," Mickey chimed in sadly. "Real sorry."
"Hey, it's no big deal," Jim said in an attempt to brush it off. "I'm doing just fine."
He was clearly lying. Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle looked to one another, each wondering what they should say and wondering if the others had the answer.
But it was Silver who knew exactly what to do. Breaking into a broad grin, he asked, "Is that so? Well, the captain has put ye in my charge, and like it or not, I'll be poundin' a few skills into that thick head of yours to keep ye out of trouble! From now on, I'm not lettin' ye out of me sight!"
"Wait, WHAT?" Jim retaliated. "You can't – "
"From now on, you won't sleep, eat, or scratch your bum without my sayin' so!" Silver insisted.
"Don't do me any favors!" Jim cried.
"Oh, you can be sure of THAT!" Silver laughed, tapping Jim on the chest with his mechanical fingers. With that, he turned to move belowdeck. "You can be sure of that!"
After he'd gone, Jim cried, "Can you BELIEVE him? I shouldn't have told him about my dad!"
"I think you did the right thing," Riku told Jim. "You do realize what he's doing now, right?"
"WHAT?" Jim asked in exasperation.
"Acting like a dad," Riku spelled out.
"He almost reminds me of my own father, sometimes," Belle chimed in. "When he gets excited. I know that gleam in his eye."
"The real one, or the robot one?" Sora asked. This question didn't warrant an answer.
"It looks like I was wrong about him," Riku resolved. "The Darkness was just in his past. We don't have anything to worry about."
But it was that statement that was wrong.
...
Silver was good for his word, and soon had Jim doing far more duties than he was originally assigned. Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle had to pick up the slack with cooking and mopping while Silver coached Jim in scraping barnacles off the bottom of the ship, tying intricate rope knots, scrubbing out dishes, wrangling longboats, and hitting targets from faraway distances with his pistol so as not to slip up again in another Heartless invasion.
"I like them together," Riku commented after watching Silver correct Jim's aim during another marksmanship session. "I think they're good for each other."
"I do too," Belle agreed. "I think Jim really has taken to Silver as a father."
"And call me crazy," Mickey added, "but I think Silver's starting to think of Jim as a son!"
"MR. SILVER!" Amelia barked from the helm. "MR. HAWKINS! KINDLY REFRAIN FROM SETTING OFF FIREARMS WITHOUT WARNING ON MY DECK!"
That put an end to weapons training for the day.
...
Wandering to the reading room to look for some new material – for she'd finished almost everything on the shelf – Belle came across an unusual sight. Doppler was seated at the single small table there, attempting to read a book, his face knotted in consternation. Unaware he was being watched, he suddenly slammed his forehead down onto the book. "Oh, it's hopeless!" he groaned. "Simply hopeless!"
"Dr. Doppler?" Belle tentatively approached him at the table. "Are you all right?"
"OH!" Doppler's head shot up, and he attempted the visage of someone who was casually reading. "Of course. Just a momentary breakdown. Happens to the best of us. You know us scientific types. We've always got so much on our mind that we…that it…" He sighed dramatically. "Oh, forget it. It's no use trying to pretend. Belle, I consider you a trustworthy person and a fellow lover of academia. Can I confide a secret in you?"
"Of course," Belle answered sympathetically.
"Shut the door, will you please?" Doppler asked. "I'm…not sure I want anyone else hearing."
"All right." Belle genty pulled the door closed behind her. Then she took a seat across from Doppler.
"I don't quite know how to say this," he admitted, "but…I think I'm starting to develop…FEELINGS for the captain."
Belle had to fight back a proud smirk. She'd been right after all. "Why don't you tell her?"
"Because it's just not meant to be." Doppler closed the book in front of him, eyes cast downward to its cover. "She's confident, she's competent, she always knows what to do in every situation, she has the respect of everyone onboard, she's got a highbrow sense of humor…and look at me. All I have to offer is a head full of facts and numbers. I'm not athletic. I'm not good at handling a crowd. I don't have half the confidence she does. And in her eyes, I haven't done one thing right since I set foot aboard this ship. She deserves someone who can be her equal. And most of all, she'd never have feelings for me. Not in that way. I don't see why she would." A pause. "Or…why anyone would."
"Oh, Dr. Doppler…" Belle already knew exactly what to say, and she offered him a warm smile. "You shouldn't think like that. You have a lot to offer. You're intelligent, you're kind, you're organized enough to pull together an entire crew…I think you and Amelia are equals. Well, outside of the fact that she is the captain. I don't know how she feels about you, but I don't think it's impossible for her to feel that way about you at all. I've seen her face when she used to argue with you all the time. I got the feeling part of her was happy just to talk with you. And she hasn't had a complaint about you at all lately. If nothing else, I think she thinks of you as a very good friend."
"I'd thought even that was too much to ask for," Doppler admitted. "That was…all very astute observations, Belle. You don't…" He was stricken with a fear. "You don't have feelings like that for me, do you? It's not that there's anything wrong with you, of course. You're a true friend and a respectably voracious reader. But with me besotted with Amelia like this, I'm afraid I simply don't – "
"Oh, it's not like that," Belle reassured him. "I'm already in love with someone else. But the things you said reminded me of both things I said and things he said before we knew each other. He didn't think he could ever be loved. He thought he was…beastly. And he was, at first, but deep down, there couldn't be a kinder person in all of the worlds. And while love wasn't on my mind as much at first, I thought I was undesirable too. Everyone in town always called me odd because of my love of books and the way I always wanted to help my father with his unique inventions. The most handsome man in town wanted to marry me, but he didn't know anything about who I really was. All he knew was that I looked beautiful to him. And he was the real monster. Even now, I miss Adam. It's hard being apart from him…but we each have our own things to take care of, and that's what we're doing now. I just know that no matter where either of us goes or what either of us looks like, we'll always have each other, and someday, we'll be back together again, dancing and sharing stories and playing in the snow."
Belle's dreamy smile infected Doppler with a grin of his own. "Adam is a very lucky man," he stated sincerely. "And from the sounds of it, you are a very lucky woman."
"And I think that you and Amelia both have the chance to be that lucky," Belle replied. "With each other, or with other people you've yet to meet who are your true loves. But if you want to know the truth, I'm hoping for you two to be each other's love. You bickered the way Adam and I used to, after all. And now, I can tell she's happy you're here."
"Thank you for this, Belle," Doppler told her. "It means a lot."
There came a knock at the door. "You okay in there?" Sora asked.
"Can I tell him to come in?" Belle asked.
"Oh, why not?" Doppler shrugged.
"Come in!" Belle called out to the door.
Sora entered, walking up to the table. "What're you two talking about?" he asked.
"Just good books we've been reading," Belle answered.
"Actually…" Filled with just that much more confidence, Doppler decided to let Sora in on some of the details. "I've…fallen for someone. Someone I think is far better than me in every way."
"Y'know what?" Sora told him, recalling a conversation once had on a dark beach. "If you think like that, I bet that person's actually jealous of you and is afraid you're better than them at everything. And what's really going on is you're both good at your own thing, and you just need to stop trying to decide who's better and work together!"
"I suppose that happened with you and the one you love as well," Doppler speculated.
"Um…" Sora thought it over. "Yes and no. It happened, but we're not…well, we're not exactly…not yet."
"Then I wish you the best with that person," Doppler told Sora.
"Same to you," he replied.
...
"D'ye want to come out with me on one of the longboats for surveillance?" Silver asked Jim as the regular gang was gathered in the kitchen.
"DO I?" Jim was awestruck. "Of COURSE! I've been wanting to try out one of those things for days!"
"We should go too!" Sora told Riku.
"Sora," Riku reminded him, "we have our Keyblade skimmers. We don't need to ride the longboats."
"It's not the same thing!" Sora emphasized. "It could be totally different! I think the longboats go a little faster. Besides, we can't BOTH ride a Keyblade. Not comfortably, anyway. If we take a longboat, the two of us will have plenty of room to stretch out and ride together!"
Riku wondered if Sora was implying what he thought Sora was implying…or if it was just his inner hopes getting up again. "Then let's do it," he agreed.
"Whaddaya say, Belle?" Mickey asked. "Should the two of us go out on a little joyride of our own?"
"I think I'd like that," Belle confirmed.
...
Three longboats jettisoned, one after the other: Jim and Silver's, Sora and Riku's, and Mickey and Belle's.
"Now, Jimbo," Silver began to explain, "the longboat's controls are finicky. One wrong move, and you could send it careenin' across the – "
"Yeah, yeah!" Jim interrupted. "Let's just put some speed on this thing!" He cranked the gear shift lever, and the longboat rocketed into high velocity, nearly causing Silver to lose his hat. Silver had just the slightest flash of panic, but it was clear Jim knew what he was doing; the boy had a gift with vehicles and with mechanics. In no time, Jim had spotted a comet soaring through the Etherium space, and set his sights on catching up with it. The longboat did so, entering the comet's wake and accumulating a layer of sparkling white stardust, before overtaking the comet and continuing its journey forward.
"Ye're a natural!" Silver laughed.
"I've had a lot of practice on my board!" Jim replied. "You better hold on to that hat!"
He took the longboat on another sharp turn, zipping over open space, Jim's cry of "WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!" echoing.
Sora and Riku watched this display from afar. They hadn't put too much distance between themselves and the Legacy, and Jim and Silver's boat was slowly becoming a dot on the horizon.
"They look like they're having fun," Sora commented.
"They really do," Riku agreed.
Their longboat drifted more casually through space, and from where they sat in it, Sora and Riku had a good view of the stars that speckled the sky like so many diamonds.
"Y'know, Riku…" Sora turned to face Riku directly.
"Yeah, Sora?" Riku faced him in return, and once again, the eyes connected, sending that jolt through him. But this time, he didn't look away.
"I like this," Sora remarked. "Being out here with you, under all the stars."
"Me too," Riku concurred. "It's…really beautiful."
"The thing is…" Sora went on. "We're out here in the middle of this endless-looking space in a giant world that's the farthest away from home we've ever gone. But I don't really feel homesick. I don't really feel…like I'm not at home. I figured it out during our Mark of Mastery, when we were helping each other in those parallel dreams. Whenever I'm with you, I just feel like I'm right where I need to be. And I wanted to thank you for being with me so much, even when I didn't know I needed you."
"I…" Riku tried to figure out what to possibly say to that. "Thank…you." He was aware that his face was flushed with heat. "Sora, I…" It was tempting to break contact with those blue, blue eyes and look back out at the stars, but it would have been a coward's act. He needed to face this with confidence and say what needed to be said. "I feel the same way. I only ever felt lost when I was running away from you. I've done too much of that, and for all the wrong reasons. It still haunts me that when I was working with Maleficent, I tried to hurt you. I never want to put you in that kind of danger again."
"How many times do I have to tell you it's okay before you start believing me, Riku?" Sora asked. "Because I can say it as many times as you need. But I don't want you to beat yourself up about that anymore! So…cut it out!"
Riku let himself smile. "It's hard to just…cut it out. But I'll try. Besides…things like that are easier with you around. You make me feel like I can be anything. Even…something better. I guess that's my responsibility in the long run, but you always help. So…thank you. For being there for me."
"Hey, it's nothin'!" Sora replied happily. "So, uh, Riku…if…you don't mind…there's something I kinda wanted to tell you, but I wasn't sure if I should say it. Promise you won't think it's weird?"
"I probably will think it's weird," Riku teased. "You're always weird." He nudged Sora playfully. "But I think I wanna hear it anyway. After all, there are times I think I'm not weird enough."
"Well…" Sora thought of how best to phrase it. "I've been feeling this way for a while. You know we're good friends, right?"
"Right."
"And…we've been through a lot together!"
"We have."
"I think I might see you a little differently now than I did before," Sora stated.
Riku nodded. "The Darkness changes – "
"No. Not like that." Sora shook his head. "In a better way. I don't know if I can call it 'love' yet. But it's…closer to how Belle and Beast are."
Riku flinched. He hadn't expected to hear that at all.
"…I knew it would be weird," Sora groaned.
"No," Riku said quickly. "It's not! I'm just…surprised. I didn't have any idea. You're just so…confident about it. I'm not really sure how. I know I'm…not."
Sora missed the hint. "I dunno. It's not that it isn't a big deal. But it's not something I really get worried about. I know that no matter what, I can count on you. I'm guessing you probably don't like me like that, and that's okay. Just being around you and having you as a friend is important to me, and I'd rather have that than nothing at all. Or have us be enemies again. I just thought that you should know. And maybe, if you liked me back, it'd be nice if we could be…more. Does that make sense?"
"It does," Riku said with a nod. Then a thought occurred to him, one that had gotten in the way of his own feelings for so long. "What about Kairi?"
"What about her?"
"I always thought you felt that way about her."
"I had a little crush on her for a bit," Sora confessed. "But not anymore. She's a great friend too, and if I had to fight my way across the worlds to keep her safe, I'd do it all over again. But she's more like a sister. Somebody fun to hang out with. And trust me, I'd fight forever to keep you safe. You're fun to hang out with, too, but now, when I see Esmeralda and Phoebus holding hands, or Cinderella and Charming dancing, or Ariel and Eric kissing, I just think…I wanna do that with you."
"Sora…" It was time. He had to just let it out. "I've been thinking the same thing about you. For a long time now."
"WHAT?" Sora's eyes widened; he was stunned. "That's AWESOME! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO EARLIER?"
He took that as his cue that it was okay to lace his fingers in between Riku's, gripping his hand tightly. Riku gave Sora's hand an affectionate squeeze in return. The ever-present fingerless gloves they wore to better grip their blades somewhat dulled the contact, but only in the physical sense.
"I didn't know when it would be right to say," Riku explained. "Or if it would be right at all. Part of me thought you were in love with Kairi. But I think a bigger part of me just thought that…you couldn't love me. Not after everything I've done. I'm…nothing like you. I gave in to the Darkness. I've hurt people, I've destroyed things, and I could never be as confident about anything as you are. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm the one who was made a Master."
"I can," Sora told him. "Because you overcame all that stuff. You did mess up, but you fixed it. And it wasn't easy. The other people I met who abused the Darkness, like Shan-Yu and Captain Hook, they didn't care one bit about what they did wrong. But even when you were completely swallowed by it, you remembered who your real friends were and what you wanted to protect. That's what makes you so special, Riku." He put his right palm over Riku's chest. "Your heart took a beating, but it always bounces back!"
"I'd rather be like you," Riku confessed. "Unable to be hurt for very long. Able to just face your fears with a smile."
"But you're not me," Sora reminded him. "You're you. And I wouldn't feel this way about you if you weren't you. Trust me, Riku, if I wanted to date myself, I'd be talking to Roxas right about now."
Riku broke into laughter at that. "Sorry. That was funny."
"I try!"
They spent some moments in silence, just enjoying the stars and each other, before Riku pointed out, "This could be dangerous."
"How?" Sora asked.
"People like Maleficent and Xehanort already know that if they want to get to you, they have to go after your friends," Riku explained. "Saïx demonstrated that pretty well. If we become something more, then they might never stop going after me to get to you, and they might never stop going after you to get to me."
"I think if there's one thing I've learned through all of this," Sora countered, "ever since the night we first left the Destiny Islands, it's that we can overcome way more together than we can on our own. If they're going to come after us, then we should stick together so we can knock 'em all down! Especially you and me. Don't tell Donald and Goofy, but I think we make the best team there is out of anyone!"
"We do," Riku agreed.
"So…would it be all right if I kissed you now?" Sora asked, and for the first time, he felt truly nervous. Even in the dim lighting of Etherium space, it was apparent he was blushing.
"More than all right," Riku told him.
They moved toward each other until they were connected at the lips, both pairs of eyes so blue closed in absolute bliss.
On a path a little higher than either other longboat, and running a bit closer to the Legacy, Mickey and Belle's boat floated lazily along. Though Mickey had seen such things as starscapes before, many times, Belle was awestruck, practically leaning over the side of the boat in order to get a better look at things such as the comet that Jim had decided to race.
"So, Belle," Mickey asked, "I know ya weren't all that happy about this whole thing earlier. I wanted to make sure you were doin' okay."
Belle settled back into the boat. "Thank you," she told Mickey. "To tell you the truth, I still don't feel like I've been all that much help. Every time the Heartless come on board, all I can do is run and hide. But all the same…I'm glad I came. This has been the adventure of a lifetime."
"Oh, I think you've been a big help!" Mickey countered. "Dr. Doppler mentioned to me earlier that you talked to him about some kind of problem, and he really liked whatcha said! Anyway, I'm glad you came along. Y'know, after this, I think you and Adam should take the time to explore even more worlds!"
"Maybe we should," Belle agreed. "But…not all the time. This is wonderful, but it will be just as wonderful when Adam and I can sit by the fire at home and talk about books for a while."
The boat's course took them above Sora and Riku's vessel, and glancing down, Mickey gasped. Belle immediately looked at what he had spied, wondering what could get that kind of reaction out of him, and got a full view of Sora and Riku's kiss.
"Y'know what?" Mickey realized out loud. "I really shoulda seen that comin' earlier! But we should probably give 'em some privacy!" He turned the longboat around so that it was steering away from the happy couple. "And more importantly, not tip 'em off that we saw!"
"I'm happy for them," Belle said earnestly, realizing what Sora had meant earlier after her conversation with Doppler.
"So am I," Mickey told her. "I think everyone but Donald's gonna be happy about this!"
"Why wouldn't Donald be happy?" Belle asked quizzically.
"Because if they're really together," Mickey laughed, "then he owes Goofy, Kairi, and me ten munny each!"
...
The six reunited in the hold of the Legacy, where Silver was unendingly awed by Jim's skill with the boat: "If I coulda done that at your age, they'd've been bowin' to me in the streets!"
"Well, when I left home, they weren't exactly singing my praises," Jim scoffed. "But I've got some plans to change the way they see me."
The words struck both Silver and Riku. They'd both thought that exact thing before. "…Plans change," Silver said softly.
"Be careful," Riku warned. "Sometimes the plans you make for yourself end up making a bigger mess."
"Why are you all being so negative about this?" Sora asked. "I think it's great that Jim has dreams!"
Dreams, Riku thought, looking again at Silver's mechanical arm.
"It has something to do with the Darkness, doesn't it?" Belle guessed.
"Aye," Silver confirmed. "It's altogether too easy to fall to it. It can work out for some. But not always." He looked to Jim. "Be wary of it."
"I'm not gonna fall to Darkness!" Jim protested. "What do you think I am? You're starting to sound just like everyone back home!"
"Sorry," Riku apologized quickly. "I just remember when I thought I was going to change the way everyone saw me, and what I did."
"An' I s'pose at the end of the day, no one's perfect," Silver added.
Now Jim was again fixated on Silver's false arm and leg. "Your dream," he asked. "Was it worth it?"
"I hope it is, Jimbo," Silver replied. "I sure hope it is."
...
That night, as the Heartless extermination squad dispersed to their cabins, Belle and Mickey made sure they were in bed as quickly as possible so as to give Sora and Riku some time alone.
"I had a great time tonight," Sora told Riku. "Then again, I always do with you."
"One of these days, you're gonna flatter me too much," Riku laughed.
"G'night!" Sora quickly pecked Riku on the cheek before heading into his cabin and closing the door.
Riku stood in the hallway, frozen, for a little while. Then he softly knocked on Sora's cabin door.
"Yeah?" Sora answered as he opened the door.
Riku quickly lay a kiss between Sora's brows as soon as he had the chance. "Goodnight yourself."
When Sora closed the door this time, Riku realized that if things kept going in this direction, one day they wouldn't be picking separate cabins to sleep in, and his heart leapt at the thought.
...
Silver entered his meager cabin, then turned to lock the door behind him. As he did so, he became aware of the sound of a Corridor of Darkness opening up in his room, and a chilling aura was at his back, as though the room had suddenly filled with ice. He knew who had come. And he knew exactly why.
"Mr. Silver," the cold female voice said calmly, all too calmly. "Your relationship with Mr. Hawkins grows ever more touching."
"I don't see how that's any of yer business," Silver grunted. Reluctantly, he turned to face the tall, thin woman draped in black. "He ain't one of the ones you asked me to take care of."
"And how is your progress on that front, Mr. Silver?" Maleficent asked coyly. "After all, I made good on my half of the bargain already. You are en route to the greatest treasure in all the Etherium, as you always dreamed. And yet the hearts of Sora, Riku, the mouse, and the princess still burn bright."
"I ain't at that treasure yet," Silver growled. "So don't talk to me of yer half of the deal bein' fulfilled. An' I can't just kill 'em in plain sight of the crew. It's called earnin' their trust."
"Which you've well earned," Maleficent reminded him. "Even Riku no longer suspects you. Surely there has been an opportunity to throw one of them over the side of the ship, or to arrange an accident in the kitchens that could be blamed on a burner or a spill. It would even be forgivable if you found the Keybearers too difficult to take on, or if you found it all too suspicious for all four to be doused at once. But the one I specifically asked you to remove from the equation…"
"Why her, anyhow?" Silver snapped.
"She holds one seventh of a key even greater than anything the three warriors possess," Maleficent explained. "I once tried to use that key for myself, to no avail. Now I wish to see to it that if I cannot, neither can a particularly persistent adversary."
"I'll put yer princess' head on the choppin' block when the mutiny occurs, an' not a second before," Silver insisted. "I've planned this from the beginnin', y'know! Ye just couldn't trust me when I said I had t'ings under control, could ye now?"
"I had taken you for an altogether different sort of man, Silver." Maleficent's tone had turned threatening. "In fact, I found your willingness to turn to deceit and false friendship similar to that of a far more promising associate of mine. He earned the trust and love of the second in line to the throne of a kingdom crucial to my endeavors within a matter of hours, and nearly had that throne for himself within a few more. Had he chosen to behead a girl on the spot rather than leave her to freeze to death, perhaps he would have won me what I wanted. That was what you had that he lacked: the ability to pull a trigger. Or so I thought. But watching you with that Hawkins boy makes me wonder. Are you truly as willing to do anything to get what you want as I believed? Or are you a coward who lets others toy with his heart?"
"I'm NO coward!" Silver roared before remembering to keep his voice down; no one could know he was conversing with the Mistress of All Evil. "Ye might be used to crashin' through life, cuttin' down everyone who stands in yer way, but that's what ends ye up with a dagger t'rough the heart sooner than not!"
"I know well of daggers to the heart," Maleficent replied.
"Then ye know not all of us can survive more than one," Silver challenged. "If I ain't given ye what ye want by the time I've got Flint's trove in me fingers, then do what ye will to me. But if ye want the job done right, then ye'll stop interruptin' it and trust I know what I'm doin'!"
"And the Hawkins boy…?"
Now Silver's tone was playful. "I'll be throwin' 'is bones out with the potato peelin's he so kindly skinned for me."
"Listen well, John Silver," Maleficent told him as the Corridor reopened behind her. "There is many a dark heart I can turn to my purposes. And should you fail me, one of those purposes shall be to destroy you."
"Yer clear as crystal, yer evilness," Silver replied, whipping off his hat and bowing.
Maleficent stepped backward twice, into the Corridor, and it whisked her away. Silver let out a sigh of relief once she was gone. The temperature in the room began to climb back up to lukewarm.
What he didn't know was that she hadn't left to watch him from her faraway lair. She'd had enough of waiting for Silver to act, and so was seeking out another prospect in the Etherium: one she was sure could net her some results.
...
Every night, Scroop was assigned to check the rigging. And every night, he contemplated just severing all the ropes. Why should he have to wait any longer? But no, giving the game away would ruin Silver's perfect plan. His plan that never, ever seemed to get anywhere.
Finishing up his work, Scroop dropped onto the deck with a thud, his spidery legs all clickety-clacking beneath him into place. He was the only one on deck, and took the moment to enjoy the absence of idiots' chatter.
But he wasn't alone for long.
A Corridor materialized. Scroop was at first confused by what seemed to be a miniature black hole on the deck of the Legacy. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of it when a woman stepped out of it.
"Mr. Scroop," Maleficent greeted.
"Who'ssssss assssssking?" Scroop growled.
"I have come with a proposition for you," Maleficent told him with a grin.
"I don't want to lisssssten to any more proposssssitionssss," Scroop hissed.
No sooner had he said that than he found his entire body pricked with sharp pains; he sucked air in through a clenched jaw and squeezed his eyelids shut. A black vine studded with thorns had wrapped itself around him at its mistress' command, binding Scroop's arms to his sides and tangling around his legs so that he knew if he tried to take a step, he would collapse.
"Perhaps now you shall listen," Maleficent went on. "I believe, however, that you shall appreciate what I have to say."
...
It was another fine afternoon for travel, Amelia thought as she regarded the deck below. Perfect, in fact. The ship hadn't seen trouble from the Heartless all day, and the weather was clear.
She strode down onto the deck to take a look around. Sora, Riku, and Mickey were passing the time by playing a game where they tried to keep a ball aloft by each hitting it in turn with their key-shaped swords; Mickey fumbled the ball, and it bopped him on the head, right between the ears, causing the other two to laugh heartily and slap a high-five. Jim sat on a nearby barrel, slicing a purp; he offered bits of the violet fruit to the three Heartless exterminators before putting one in his own mouth. Silver came abovedeck only shortly to inform them that he was putting together another stew and could use extra hands; Jim eagerly slid off the barrel to answer the call, followed by Mickey, then by Sora and Riku, who came arm in arm. At one end of the deck, Belle hadn't been able to decide whether she wanted to spend the day outside taking in the sights or inside reading, so she'd split the difference, bringing the book up to read beneath the Etherium air. At the opposite end of the deck, Doppler had his camera ready for Amelia-knew-not-what. When a school of sky rays came by, flapping their makeshift wings and twitching their electrically charged stingers, the captain knew what the doctor had been waiting for; he clicked the trigger of his camera rapidly in order to document his sighting of the creatures.
"Lovely things, aren't they?" Amelia remarked, walking toward Doppler. It seemed that was what she'd been doing a lot lately: moving close to him to talk to him about one thing or another, relevant or not. Perhaps she'd been doing it longer than she'd realized, looking for excuses to pick on him in the early stages. He was simply magnetic, she thought, what with the absolute enthusiasm for life he radiated. He was hardly ever quiet about any emotion he had; when he was frustrated, sad, afraid, what have you, everything within a ten foot radius seemed to take that emotion on for itself. But it was best when he was happy. That was when it seemed the entire Etherium had a reason to smile.
"Absolutely!" Doppler replied. He recognized her voice – it was now impossible for him not to – but he kept his camera trained on the rays. Affection or not, he wasn't about to let a photo opportunity like this slide. Besides that, he wasn't quite sure how he'd react to having her piercing gaze turned fully upon him. "Do you know I'd always dreamed of seeing a sky ray in person? Well, I'd seen one in the zoo, of course. Everyone has. But it was what you'd expect of a zoo specimen: domesticated to the point where it didn't seem like itself. Now, these…these are WILD sky rays! Rays that have had the freedom to grow into whatever they wanted to be! Flapping through the sky! Feeding on infinitesimally small biological forms! Whipping their electric stingers in defense from anything that might get too close – "
Just as Doppler said this, one of the rays took to him as a potential threat, lashing its stinger at him, the current pulsing through it with a nearly audible buzz.
"LOOK OUT, DOCTOR!" Amelia gripped Doppler by the shoulders and jerked him backward, hard, out of range of the ray's whip by just a hair. Once the ray had passed, Amelia let go, feeling somewhat flustered, though she wouldn't dare show it.
Doppler, on the other hand, was incredibly flustered, and visibly so. "Thank you," he said almost breathlessly. "I was nearly on the receiving end of two thousand volts of undiluted electricity!"
"Two thousand?" Amelia remarked. "Quite a lot."
"Indeed so."
"You know," Amelia recalled, "when I was younger, my family would oft take me to the zoo in my hometown of Smollett, on the planet Alexandra. Father was quite an emphatic fan of your sky rays, though he had the tendency to refer to them as 'flap-flaps.'"
"Not quite the scientific term," Doppler commented, "but neither is it wholly inaccurate."
"But I quite agree with your analysis," Amelia went on. "Pity to see those lovely beasties penned up in close quarters when they should be flying free as all that. Such creatures deserve at least that much."
"Just like some deckhands," Doppler risked. "They don't deserve to spend their lives mopping and scrubbing. They deserve to become captains and fly wherever they wish in all the Etherium."
"If you're trying to win a pass for Hawkins out of his duties as cabin boy, Doctor, it's simply not going to work."
"I wasn't talking about Jim."
Amelia nodded. "I think I'm starting to understand your comparison. It's like keeping an intellectual penned up in a claustrophobic library instead of letting him out to experience all he's read about for himself."
"Claustrophobic libraries aren't all bad," Doppler argued. "They're quite comfortable, really! But in certain cases, nothing can compare to firsthand experience."
"It seems we've finally come to an agreement on something," Amelia remarked. "Other than that Silver's stew is delicious enough that the thought of it makes one salivate, but really, who doesn't agree with that?"
"I'm not about to argue," Doppler stated, looking Amelia directly in the eye for the first time since they'd begun this conversation.
The sudden shockwave seemed to come from nowhere. Both Doppler and Amelia stumbled. Belle's book went over the edge, dropping into infinite space.
Sora was the first of the group in the kitchen to skid onto the deck. "What was THAT?" he cried.
Doppler looked back over the railing. The sky rays had long passed, but another sight was making itself clear: an enormous explosion growing on the horizon. "Good heavens…" He drew a collapsible telescope from his pocket as Amelia looked on anxiously. "The star Pelusa. It's gone SUPERNOVA!"
That was all Amelia needed to hear. Without wasting a single second, she was racing to the helm, barking out orders: "EVASIVE ACTION, MR. TURNBUCKLE!"
"AYE!" The many-tentacled helmsman pulled the Legacy into a U-turn to bring it on a direct course away from the combusting star.
"ALL HANDS FASTEN YOUR LIFELINES!" Arrow called out; by this time, Riku, Mickey, Silver, and Jim had arrived on deck. The entire crew fumbled for a series of ropes fastened to the main mast, each wrapping a lifeline around themselves and tightening it against the mast as a precautionary measure to potentially being thrown off the ship. There were enough lines to go all around, even to Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle.
By then, the entire sky had taken on a shade of bright orange as the explosion from the enormous star was gaining on the Legacy like a behemoth of a whale sweeping for krill. Windows shattered. Meteorites punctured the solar sails.
"MR. ARROW!" Amelia cried. "SECURE THOSE SAILS!"
"SECURE ALL SAILS!" Arrow repeated. "BRING THEM DOWN, MEN!"
As the crew struggled to furl the sails atop the masts, a projectile became silhouetted against the background of fire and flame. At first, it looked like just another meteor, but as it got closer, Doppler could see that it was not rock tinged with flame, but rather something jet-black tinged with red and gold.
"No!" he cried in disbelief. "IT CAN'T BE!"
"WHAT IS IT, DOCTOR?" Amelia yelled to him.
"IN VERY RARE CASES, SUPERNOVAS CAN PLAY HOST TO AN IMMENSE QUANTITY OF RAW DARKNESS!" Doppler yelled back. "IN OTHER WORDS, THE DEATH OF THAT STAR JUST SPAWNED AN ENORMOUS – "
It landed on the deck. Vaguely draconian in shape and twenty feet tall, it had six black limbs, and used four to dig its claws into the floor and the frontmost pair to reach out and swipe at the crewmen. At the end of a snakelike neck was a lizardlike head; all of its skin was jet-black. Parts of it, such as the abdomen, were covered in golden armor studded with fire-red gemstones. Its eyes were two pools of brilliant yellow.
Sora, Riku, and Mickey all finished Doppler's statement for him: "HEARTLESS!"
The Heartless, which would later be documented as a "Magma Miser," opened its maw to let out several spherical masses of flame.
"REFLEGA!" all three Keybearers cried at once, putting out their blades. The resulting barrier knocked the balls of fire backward and into the air, toward the wave of flame from the supernova.
"C'mon, fellas!" Mickey encouraged. "Let's take that thing out!"
"Get somewhere safe!" Riku yelled to Belle. The princess nodded and obliged, charging to the opposite side of the deck from the Miser. On that note, Riku turned back to the immense Heartless, raising his blade. Without a further announcement, he leapt, speeding toward it with a Dark Splicer attack that allowed him to come at it again and again, striking it in the armored chest. That didn't seem to do much to the Miser itself, but it cracked the armor, and once that fell off, revealing the Heartless' exposed underside – scaly, with red glowing in the cracks between the scales, as if its center were made of glowing-hot coals.
"That should make this easier!" Mickey remarked. He leapt into the air, firing a Pearl spell at the Miser's head. It struck, and the Heartless roared in agony; it had been dealt a fair amount of damage. In retaliation, it breathed a row of flames across the deck, setting the Legacy afire.
"OHHHHH NO YA DON'T!" Mickey hit the ground and immediately began dousing the flames with magic, running alongside the path carved in flame and occasionally getting too close: "BLIZZAGA! BLIZZAGA! OOH-OW-HOTHOTHOTHOTHOT! BLIZZAGA! BLIZZAGA!"
"Now this be a REAL challenge!" Silver laughed, equipping the cutlass blade of his arm. "HAVE AT YE, BEASTIE!" He rammed the blade into one of the Heartless' central legs, causing the Miser to tip slightly off balance.
"JIM!" Sora cried. "DO A LIMIT WITH ME!"
"Do a WHAT?" Jim had no idea what Sora was talking about.
"JUST FOLLOW MY LEAD!" Sora ran over to him. "FIRE WHEN I SAY!"
"OKAY!" Jim agreed.
The two of them began a dance, back to back. First, Sora would face the Miser and send a blast of Light energy directly at its exposed and glowing chest. Then he and Jim would quickly exchange places in a single movement, a quickstep, putting Jim at the proper angle to fire a shot at the same target. Round and round they went, light, bullet, light, bullet, until Sora, remembering a conversation he and Jim had once had about Jim's proficiency with a solar surfer. Sora threw his Keyblade up into the air, transforming it into his personal skimmer, which was not unlike a red and gold surfboard in shape, meant to be ridden on while balancing on just the feet. It was an ability that Yen Sid had made sure to teach Sora and Riku in reflection of the Keybearers of old.
"You know what to do!" Sora told Jim.
Jim rode the skimmer as high as the top of the mast before turning and speeding down toward the Miser, pummeling it directly in the back with the edge of the vehicle. As he leapt off, the skimmer reverted to a Keyblade once more, and Sora caught it on a leap upward, slashing at the Miser from the opposite angle before backflipping through the air and landing next to Jim. This had done far more damage to the Miser, which staggered and shuddered, seemingly about to collapse.
"WE DID IT!" Sora yelled in triumph.
Before it could fall completely apart, the Miser opened its wide mouth again, this time breathing in instead of out. A small vortex appeared within its jaws, and only one thing was being pulled toward it. Sora and Riku were both stunned to see the munny crystals they'd accumulated levitating out of their pockets and flying right into the hungry maw. As soon as it had consumed one thousand of the currency, the Miser regained its balance.
"It gets strength through MUNNY?" Sora cried in disbelief.
The Miser's first move since recovery was to spin a 360, hitting Silver square in the stomach with its tail. Silver was thrown over the railing of the boat.
"SILVER!" In a blind panic, Jim raced to the place where he'd seen his companion fall.
Over the side of the boat, Silver had jammed the blade of his arm into the Legacy's boards, preventing himself from falling further. He was in the process of getting a grip on his lifeline with his biological hand. Jim immediately reached down to grab that arm, and with that additional anchor, Silver was able to jam the cutlass into higher and higher points on the wall until he was able to clamber back onto the deck.
"Thanks, lad," he breathed in sincere relief.
Jim just gave him a relieved smile.
Things weren't going any better on the other parts of the deck. Doppler was safe from the Miser's reach up at the helm, but he was privy to the view when the flare faded and retracted. This at first seemed like a reduction in the Legacy's problems, but when the orange fire gelled into its new shape, he was filled with dread. "It's…devolving into a…" He required a great gasp in order to force out the awful truth: "A black hole!"
The great vortex in the sky pulled in all the debris and flame from the supernova, and it threatened to do the same to the Legacy, which found itself on an unplanned course toward oblivion.
As the helmsman lost his struggle with the steering wheel, Amelia took it over with a growl of "Ohhhhh, no you DON'T!" She was barely able to pull it against the black hole's gravity.
Then the Legacy was rocked with an enormous shockwave that emitted from the hole. "Blast these waves," Amelia grunted. "They're so deucedly erratic!"
"Captain, they're not erratic at all!" Doppler called over from the dashboard, where he was taking readings from the black hole. "There'll be one more in precisely 47.2 seconds!"
"Of course!" Amelia's face lit up. "You're brilliant, Doctor! We'll ride that last one out of here!"
No sooner had all the sails been furled than Amelia ordered them unfurled again.
"MR. HAWKINS!" Amelia called down. "MAKE SURE ALL LIFELINES ARE SECURED GOOD AND TIGHT!"
"AYE, CAPTAIN!" Jim abandoned the Miser in order to double-check all of the ropes, tying them tightly.
All the while, Sora, Riku, and Mickey kept the Miser at bay. "One last shot, fellas!" Mickey encouraged.
The Miser opened up its mouth to absorb more munny.
"NOW!" Sora yelled. "BEFORE IT GETS ANY STRENGTH BACK!" He tossed the Keyblade in a Strike Raid toward the Miser's chest, catching it on the rebound only to throw it again. Mickey practically transformed into a spinning ball in the air, Keyblade out, to act as a living chainsaw cutting into the Miser through its back. Riku vaulted into the air, performing a single Zantetsuken slash on the dragonesque head.
With one last shudder, the Miser dissolved, a single blood-red heart erupting from the shadows that had once composed it and disappearing into the aether.
"LIFELINES ARE SECURE, CAPTAIN!" Jim called up to Amelia before leaving the mast alone. Scroop witnessed all this and thought back to his conversation with Maleficent. She'd been quite reasonable after all. She had given Scroop a single task and promised him an immense reward should he pull it off, and she'd even lent him quite a fair bit of Darkness in order to complete it. It was a task he had no qualms with, either. And it looked like he wouldn't even need to use her extraneous powers after all. It was as simple as cutting a rope.
The ship lurched as the black hole belched. Many of the crew stumbled, and some nearly fell overboard. It was Belle who actually did, and what a stroke of luck for Scroop! His job was half done for him!
Belle was at first stricken with terror, afraid she was to fall to her death, but the tautening of the rope around her reminded her that she was still connected to the ship. She could pull herself up. As she started to do just that, she was unaware of Scroop leaning over the railing, grinning at her.
"CAPTAIN!" Doppler screamed. "THE LAST WAVE!"
Amelia looked up to see that a few men were struggling to open the last sail. "WE'RE NOT READY!" she cried.
"I'M ON IT!" Sora yelled, transforming his Keyblade into a skimmer once more in order to ride up the mast. Balancing on the skimmer in midair, Sora lent his hand to the sail, getting it opened and shimmering once more.
Scroop clicked his claw once before bringing it down and severing Belle's lifeline.
As Sora maneuvered to float back to the deck, he heard a faint scream. Turning to look in its direction, he saw Belle falling away from the ship, untethered, toward the black hole. "NO!" he screamed before severing his own lifeline and revving the skimmer into a direct course for the falling princess.
By then, Scroop had scuttled out of sight, and Sora was none the wiser to his plan.
Faster and faster and faster Sora made the skimmer go. Belle was nearly blind with terror, now believing that this was to be her end, and that she wouldn't even get to tell Adam goodbye, but then Sora came speeding into her view. "Come on…" the boy muttered, nearly at pace with Belle. "Come onnnnnnnnn…"
He swept behind her, catching her around the waist; she planted her feet firmly next to him on the skimmer. "GOTCHA!" Sora cried triumphantly.
"Thank you!" Belle said breathlessly.
"Hang on!" Sora steered the skimmer back up toward the Legacy. It was a bit awkward for two to ride on it, but they managed all the same.
"HERE IT COMES!" Doppler screamed.
"HOLD ON TO YOUR LIFELINES, GENTS!" Amelia yelled. "IT'S GONNA BE A BUMPY RIDE!"
Riku rushed to the edge of the deck, seeing Sora and Belle flying toward the edge from a dangerously close proximity to the black hole. "SORA!" he cried in fear, reaching out a hand.
"WE'RE OKAY!" Sora yelled back at him.
Onboard, Silver held Jim tightly against the mast, shielding him with his own body.
For a moment, the entire Legacy seemed about to be swallowed for good.
Sora's skimmer nearly touched the edge of the deck.
Then came the wave.
Brilliant and bright, it reignited the sails of the Legacy as the thrusters were kicked into gear. The ship was propelled a long ways away from where Pelusa once was, rocketing through Etherium space at unpredecented speed.
Mickey held tight to Riku's lifeline, which was doing the job of keeping Riku from flying off the ship after his feet left the deck. Riku had ahold of Sora's hand, and Sora's other arm was wrapped around Belle's shoulders; by keeping a tight grip, they managed to keep the skimmer riding right alongside the Legacy on the shockwave. When the boat finally started to slow down, the skimmer docked, and Sora and Belle stepped onto solid floor once more; gravity then dropped Riku as well.
"Sora – " Riku quickly enveloped Sora in a tight embrace. He'd feared losing him many times before, but it never seemed to get any less harrowing to do so.
"I'm okay." Sora returned the hug fervently. "I knew I could count on you, Riku."
The entire ship broke into celebration; the crew leapt up and down and cheered. Silver and Jim at last felt comfortable detaching themselves from the mast. Arrow mopped his forehead with his sleeve; that had felt far too close for comfort.
Amelia strode regally down the stairs from the helm. "Well, I must congratulate you, Mr. Silver. It seems your cabin boy did a bang-up job with those life…lines…" She trailed off as her gaze maneuvered over Sora and Belle. "And what happened to you two?"
"Her lifeline wassssss not ssssecure," Scroop hissed, stepping forth. "I sssssaw it with my own eyessssssss. The boy had to improvisssssse to sssstop her from falling to her death."
"Is this true?" Amelia asked. "Did you fall?"
"Yes…" Belle answered. "But it wasn't because of my lifeline! It couldn't have been! I saw Jim tie it with MY eyes!"
Whispers surged through the crowd. Had Jim failed? Was he responsible?
"Mr. Hawkins," Amelia said sternly, glowering at Jim. "You realize that she could have perished."
"But…but I didn't…I HAD them!" Jim stammered.
"Couldn't it have been an accident?" Sora asked. "What if the line just broke on its own?"
"Nonsense," Amelia told him. "These lines are reinforced. If her line BROKE, then it would have been an act of pure sabotage."
"Then maybe it was," Riku suggested. There was a new stench onboard. Someone had acquired a veritable load of Dark magic, and Riku was willing to bet that the timing was no coincidence. "And I think it was HIM!" He pointed to Scroop.
"Watch your accusssssationsssss," Scroop hissed.
"Why would Mr. Scroop try and murder Belle?" Doppler asked. "He doesn't have any reason to!"
"Maybe he didn't need a reason," Riku went on. "Maybe it came as an instinct. Or maybe it was part of a bigger play for power. But he stinks of Darkness in a way he didn't before!"
"Why you…" Scroop growled. He gave a glare at Silver.
Silver got the message loud and clear. He'd taken too long, and Maleficent had found someone else to do her dirty work. If he didn't step it up, it would be his lifeline cut next. For a moment, he felt fear.
Then that fear evolved into something else. Excitement. Scroop hadn't truly threatened him. He'd given him an excuse so that he didn't have to play the game any longer.
"Change in plans, lads," Silver announced, looking not at Amelia, not at Doppler, not at Arrow, not at Jim, but at the other members of the crew.
"Wha – " Jim began.
"We move NOW!" Silver hoisted the cutlass blade high.
The rest of the crew produced guns and blades that Amelia hadn't been aware they had, and most of them were pointed at Amelia, Doppler, Arrow, Jim, Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle.
"What the DEVIL is going on?" Amelia cried angrily.
"HOIST THE COLORS!" Silver commanded.
"AYE-AYE!" The crewman in the crow's nest threw the royal banner down. The others set about hoisting a new flag, rising behind Silver's back, revealing his own true colors: black, embossed with a white skull and crossbones.
"You…" Jim realized. "You TRICKED me! I TRUSTED you!"
"An' a fool you were for it!" Silver laughed.
"I should never have let my guard down," Riku added through gritted teeth. "I thought you were like me. I thought you learned from the Darkness. But you never put it behind you at all!"
"Regretfully so," Silver confirmed with a fake pout. "And even more regretfully, now we've got to get rid of the lot of ye. After all, they say dead men tell no tales, and 'tis true. Ye've already taken us most of the way to Treasure Planet, after all."
"Treasure Planet?" Sora repeated. "What's Treasure Planet?"
"Ye didn't know?" Silver laughed. "Seems yer new 'friends' 'ave been keepin' secrets! And now ye'll never know."
"Oh yeah?" Sora braced his Keyblade. "Just TRY and take us!" Mickey and Riku held their blades in similar positions. Behind them, still shaking with disbelief, Jim drew his pistol.
"Doctor," Amelia hissed. She had withdrawn a higher caliber pistol than Jim's from within her jacket, then another, keeping one in her hand as she passed the other to Doppler. "You have used one of these before, right?"
"Well, I've read about – " Doppler accidentally blasted a hole in the ground as he fumbled the trigger. "Er, no. No, I haven't."
Arrow rolled his eyes as he brought out his own pistol.
"So it's a fight ye want, is it?" Silver taunted. "Then it's a fight ye'll get!"
His cutlass blade clashed directly with Sora's. Riku engaged one of the stronger pirates in a Dark Splicer; Scroop attempted to pounce Riku from behind, but Mickey swatted the arachnid pirate away before he could lay a claw on him. Jim, Amelia, and Arrow opened fire, keeping quite a few of the crew at bay. Doppler simply fired at random, which actually worked to his advantage; the pirates were far more afraid of getting hit by one of his errant bullets. Belle stood behind him, feeling utterly useless and helpless, not knowing what to do.
"GET TO THE STATEROOM!" Amelia yelled. "DON'T LET THEM HAVE IT!"
Hearing this, Jim took off immediately for Amelia's stateroom.
"Don't let them have WHAT?" Sora wondered out loud.
Inside the stateroom, Jim was faced with a large locked cabinet. He blasted the lock open with one burst from his pistol, removing a coppery sphere carved with intricate curving lines and inset with buttons of all sorts. As he held it in his hand, he was aware of the sudden appearance of Morph, who admired his reflection in the ball's shine.
"MORPH!" Jim swatted him aside. "GET OUTTA HERE!" He ran back out to the deck, pocketing the bronze device.
Certain Jim had retrieved the invaluable object, Amelia announced, "To the longboats!"
"Sorry about this, Silver," Sora growled after parrying another blow from the newly self-crowned captain. "But you just earned THIS! GRAVIGA!"
Silver suddenly felt the gravity around him increase enough to throw him to the deck, though only for a moment. By the time he got back up, he saw the retreating backs of Amelia, Doppler, Arrow, Jim, Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Belle.
"AFTER THEM!" Silver bellowed, and the crew gave chase.
The eight being chased headed belowdecks, to the longboat hangar. Amelia was the first to reach the door and pried it open, waving a hand to usher them through one by one. Doppler was last, and he momentarily tripped only to have Amelia forcefully grip the back of his jacket and throw him into the hangar. "THANK YOU!" he called back at her as she slammed and locked the hangar door. As soon as it was slammed shut, the door was assaulted from the other side: someone was using a torch to burn through the metal.
"Quickly!" Amelia commanded. "Quickly now!"
The hatch at the bottom of the hangar opened. They loaded up two to a longboat: Amelia and Doppler in one, Mickey and Belle in another, Sora and Riku in a third. Arrow waited for Jim in the last remaining longboat.
As Jim made for the final seat, he was aware of his pocket lightening considerably. Morph had somehow slipped into the room with Jim unaware, and the tiny gelatinous critter seized the sphere in Jim's pocket, flying it across the hangar.
"MORPH, NO!" Jim immediately gave chase.
At that moment, the door was entirely blasted in, and the crew burst through it. Roughly five pirates immediately turned their pistols on Amelia, who retrieved a larger rifle from the bottom of her longboat and returned fire. All were surprised when Doppler shot instead at one of the overhead pulley mechanisms, dislodging it from the ceiling and bringing it crashing down on the floor where the pirates stood, forming a gaping hole through which they all tumbled down into Etherium space.
Amelia turned to Doppler with a coy smile. "Did you actually aim for that?" she teased.
"You know, actually, I DID!" Doppler remarked, still unable to believe it himself.
"We need to get moving!" Riku commanded.
"Not without Jim!" Sora begged.
"You lads go!" Arrow urged. "I'll make sure Jim departs with me – "
All of this was cut off by the sound of the hatch closing. Silver had gotten within the proper proximity of the control panel.
"Aw, BLAST IT!" Amelia cursed.
"You really think that'll open the hatch…?" Sora pointed the Keyblade at the control panel, wondering if she'd meant with fire or thunder.
"I don't think she meant it literally - " Riku began.
"THUNDER!"
Sora's spell fried the control panel, and by some miracle, this got the hatch opening once more.
Silver stared at the now unresponsive levers, trying a few. Before he could even begin to contemplate shooting Sora in the face for that, Morph zipped through his peripheral vision, clutching a shiny object. Silver didn't need to activate his cyborg eye to be sure of what it was. He ran after Morph only to find Jim coming from the opposite direction. Silver was sure his pet would loyally come to him –
Morph, feeling altogether too playful to show respect to anybody, dove into a coiled-up rope.
Jim snatched the sphere out of the rope, glowering at Silver momentarily before hurrying toward Arrow's longboat. Silver detached a relatively massive cannon from his robotic leg, affixing it to his arm, and aimed through the scope at Jim, ready to blast him to hell. And yet he faltered. He simply could not.
Mickey and Belle's longboat had descended and blasted off, and Sora and Riku were not far behind. Amelia and Doppler didn't waste time unfurling the sail before simply letting their longboat drop; after Jim leapt into Arrow's boat, Arrow did the same, gripping Jim tightly in one arm to secure him.
Once all four longboats were airborne, one of Silver's men on deck pointed the onboard cannon at boat after boat, trying to pick which would be the best target. "Which one of ye'll rack me up the best score?" he laughed.
"HOLD YER FIRE!" Silver interrupted. From there, it was impossible to see which boat was carrying Jim, and, by extension, the device he'd carried away with him. "WE'LL LOSE THE MAP!"
He tried to wrench the cannon away, but it fired all the same, a hot chunk of pure energy rocketing down toward the longboats.
"SCATTER!" Riku commanded. He, Mickey, Arrow, and Amelia all hurriedly worked the controls of their boats so as to avoid the laser ball. However, it hit home on the stern of Amelia and Doppler's boat. Doppler, horrified, watched as Amelia cringed with pain; his second priority was to notice that the solar sail had been blown out and the rudder annihilated.
"TAKE OURS!" Sora yelled, throwing his Keyblade into the air. It transformed into the red-and-gold skimmer, and he hopped onto it, levitating above the longboat. Riku manned the controls, bringing the longboat to Doppler and Amelia's craft, which was swiftly falling.
"Can you make it?" Doppler asked Amelia worriedly.
"Of course!" Amelia grunted, her teeth clenched shut. "Don't start doubting me now, Doctor!" She vaulted over the gap into Riku's longboat, taking the controls from him. "Now follow me!"
Doppler could see from there that a dark stain was spreading out on her jacket from the inside of it. He forced his worries down so he could prepare for making the jump.
Riku then threw his Keyblade overboard, and it transformed into a skimmer more of the traditional sort, with a seat and handlebars. Its design was black and red, and featured two metal, batlike wings on the sides. Riku dropped over the side of the longboat and onto his skimmer. Amelia moved into the space he had occupied, not taking her hand off the controls, as Doppler made the leap. His stomach landed right on the railing, quite painfully, and he feared falling out into the boundless sky before Amelia dropped the controls momentarily to grasp him beneath the arms and hoist him into the boat.
"Will you just let me drive?" Jim groaned to Arrow. "I can get us away faster!"
"The situation is far too dangerous!" Arrow scolded. "Leave the piloting to me!"
"He can do it." Riku's skimmer floated up next to Arrow and Jim's craft. "I've seen him. Just give him a chance."
"All right." Arrow handed the controls over to Jim. No sooner did he do that then his vessel shot forth at unprecedented speed, leaving the other two surviving longboats and the two Keyblade skimmers to attempt to catch up. The destroyed longboat drifted away, becoming debris that would never again be found.
"No way," Jim remarked under his breath. "We can't be. We weren't that close…"
"Close to what?" Arrow asked. But by that time, they could all see it.
"Captain!" Silver's cannon man aboard the Legacy asked worriedly. "Should I continue firing?"
"No." Silver was overtaken with a sly grin. "We know where they're going. Look ahead!"
On the horizon, the atmosphere turned entirely green. Partially obscured behind dark clouds was a gleaming planet, almost emerald, ringed twice with debris.
"What IS that place?" Sora asked Jim, pulling his skimmer parallel to the foremost longboat.
"That," Jim told him, "is Treasure Planet."
END OF ACT II