Here it is, chapter 3! You can probably tell what this chapter is about by the title. This one is a long one, so better get comfy.
I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS
With disclaimers out of the way, enjoy:
Chapter 3: Storm
Sora rubbed his tender shoulder, rotating it, trying in vain to get rid of the soreness. Vayn noticed this and decided to rub it in. "You shouldn't have carried all of the supplies at once, and then sparred with each of us," Vayn said, complacently. "Hey," Sora shot back, "I wanted to get it done fast!"
Vayn gave an insincere apology for the harmless joke, and the four of them, being Vayn, Sora, Riku, and Kairi, went back to gazing at the vast ocean from the paopu tree that grew on the lone islet right next to the island they usually spent their free time on. It was one of their favorite places to spend brief moments of twilight, before they had to row back to the main land.
The four of them continued to sit in silence, until Sora, who had ceased caring for his shoulder after Vayn's comment, broke it with one of his famous, naive questions, "So, Kairi's world is out there somewhere, right?"
"Could be," Riku answered quickly, "Though we'll never know by staying here."
"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora asked, leaning past Kairi to see the silver headed teen.
"Spiky's got a point," Vayn said between Kairi and Riku, using his nickname for Sora that said teen didn't like at all, "What do we do if the raft idea fails?" Sora gave Vayn a serious glare. "Don't call me that!" he yelled, even though he knew it was just a joke.
"Who knows?" Riku said in response, ignoring the brunette's outburst. "If we have to, we'll think of something else."
Kairi sat in thought for a couple seconds. "What if we do get to another world," she asked with her usual cheerful attitude, "what would you do there?"
Riku mused over this question for a brief moment. "You know, I haven't really thought about," he said at last. "It's just that I've always wondered why we're here, on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?" Riku continued his monologue, in a more enthusiastic tone, "And if there really are other worlds, then are world is just a little piece of something much greater. So, we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
Sora folded his arms behind his back and laid himself down on the tree. "I don't know," he answered, not even caring to think that hard. "Exactly," Riku pointed out, as if he was expecting that answer. "That's why we have get out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing; it's the same old stuff. So let's go."
Vayn gave a small applause from his spot between Riku and Kairi as he said lazily, "Nice speech."
Riku scoffed at the smiling teen's comment, folding his arms over his chest, having nothing to say in response. (Vayn just loved poking fun at his good friends.)
"What made you think about all this," Vayn asked, changing to a more serious tone of voice.
"Actually, it was thanks to you and Kairi," Riku answered coolly, running a hand through his sleek hair. "If Kairi didn't come here, I probably wouldn't have thought of any of this. Plus, your arrival on the islands made me wonder of the outside world even more." Riku turned his head towards Kairi and Vayn and said, "Kairi, Vayn, thanks."
"Um…you're welcome," Kairi answered hesitantly, not quite sure how she was of help. Vayn however, smiled and answered, "Glad I could be of service," although, on the inside, he wasn't so sure that he was.
Shortly after the conversation, the four decided to head back. Kairi was the first to cross the old, yet sturdy wooden bridge, followed by Vayn who stopped half way when he heard Riku shout "Sora."
Sora caught a yellow star shaped object that was thrown to him by the silver haired teenager. "You wanted one, didn't you?"
"A paopu fruit?" Sora said, confused, staring at the star as Riku passed by him.
"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined and they remain in each other's lives, no matter what." Riku then motioned his head towards Kairi, who was walking out of the sea-side shack and out of ear-shot. "Come on, I know you what to try it out," he finished with a teasing smirk.
"What are you ta-…?" Sora's sentence was cut short when he finally realized what his best friend meant, which was followed by his face adopting a faint, but visible, shade of red. Riku laughed playfully and hopped off of the bridge, dropping seven feet below to the sand, and ran off towards Kairi, still laughing as he went. Sora tossed the paopu fruit to the side and followed suit, hopping off of the bridge, and landing sands with an audibly thud of his large (really large in Vayn's opinion) yellow shoes, and went into pursuit after Riku.
Vayn sighed and hopped off of the bridge too, taking a small glance at the discarded paopu fruit before he did. The legend of the paopu fruit, which Riku took the time to describe, was something that Vayn never believed in, no matter how many times he was told otherwise. I mean, how could a fruit have the power to do that, right?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Disney Castle------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Donald Duck, Disney Castle's greatest mage, aside from the king himself, made his daily routine rounds down the castle hallway that overlooked the perfectly kept garden on its left. As a couple of magic-controlled brooms marched by the mage, carrying their own buckets full of soap water, Donald gave them a passing nod, tipping his hat, which was oddly curved at the top.
The duck mage, dressed in his blue magician's outfit (minus the pants) with black sleeves over the smaller, blue ones, made his final stop of the morning, stepping up to a HUGE white double-door that was as exuberant as it was large. He cleared his throat and knocked on the door. A small portion of it, probably about ten times smaller than the whole thing, swung inwards, allowing the duck to enter.
The next room was also huge, with white walls covering the perimeter. Donald, his head lowered in a bow, waddled towards the throne that sat at the far end of the room, his footsteps muffled by the red carpet that stretched from the doorway to the throne. "Good morning, your majesty," Donald greeted, his voice resembling a quack of a duck, "How are you doing this-…" Donald finally picked his head up and saw that he was talking to air. The throne was empty, except for a curled up yellow-orange canine that was partly asleep on the pillow of the throne.
"WHAT!" Donald shouted incoherently from his bill, awaking the sleeping dog. The dog picked something up with his mouth and walked over to the duck with a wagging tail. Donald rocketed up to the dog and quickly grabbed the object, an envelope with a seal comprised of three circles, from its mouth. He tore open the envelope and skimmed through the note inside. He doubled-blinked afterwards…
And sprinted through the door, almost mowing down several broom-servants on his way to the garden, squawking as he went.
Goofy, the captain of the royal guards of Disney castle was making good use of the peaceful times that covered the world and was sleeping lazily on the garden. Even when Donald charged up the slightly inclined hill and began shouting to him, the dog-like captain, dressed in a gray/orange shirt, black/brown pants and metallic armor around his arms and waist, continued to snore rather loudly. "Wake up, Goofy! This is serious!"
When his shouting proved ineffective, Donald decided to take a different approach. He raised his index finger (Or feather, whichever is right) and chanted, "Thunder!"
A small bolt came down and struck Goofy, filling his body with enough jolts to awaken him. He gradually picked himself up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Oh, hey there Donald," Goofy slurred, "Good morn-"
"We've got a problem Goofy!" Donald interrupted, waving his arms dramatically. Then he stopped and leaned in closer, cupping his hands and whispered, "But don't tell anybody."
Goofy blinked, confused. "Queen Minnie?" Donald put his hands/feathers on his hips and pointed his bill up haughtily. "Not even the queen," he said. "Daisy?" Goofy asked, still dazed. "NO!" Donald shouted, annoyed. "It's top secret."
"G'morning ladies," Goofy greeted, waving his gloved hand and looking beyond the court mage. Donald blinked and nervously turned around. Behind him was none other than the Queen of Disney, Minnie, and Daisy (Also a duck like Donald). Daisy glared back at Donald, tapping her webbed foot impatiently while Minnie simply stared back gently, a trace amount of worry on her kind face.
Donald laughed nervously and, under his breath, mumbled, "Oh boy…"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Destiny Islands-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the morning of the next day, Vayn groggily left his bed, and poked his head out of the window, talking a deep breath of the ocean air. However, there was a sinking feeling inside of him. Something was different about this particular day…
"Vayn!"
Vayn blinked and saw Sora ridding by on his skateboard, dressed in his usual red, baggy shorts that had a chain coming out of one pocket and were tied tightly around his waist with a blue belt, a red shirt, white and black vest, and his silver crown necklace around his neck. The spiky head kid waved as he went, yelling cheerfully, "You better hurry up, sleepy-head!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'," Vayn grumbled, heading for the door. He threw on a white, sleeve-less T-shirt and a black vest (His personal favorite) and clumsily put on his favorite pair of white shoes with black bottoms and red laces, which were, on a unrelated note, about half of Sora's size.
As he reached for the handle of the door, he felt a chill run down his spine, an evil, malicious chill that caused his hair to stand up on end.
"This world's time is coming to an end," a dark voice said in a monotone. Vayn instinctively spun around, but saw no one there. "This world will soon be eclipsed by the darkness, never to return."
Vayn's eyes darted around franticly, trying to find the source of the voice. "Who's there?" Vayn shouted, sounding a bit shaky as he did, "Show yourself!"
"All in good time."
Just like that, the chill was gone. Vayn took several shaky breaths, trying to ease his nerves.
"Hurry up, Vayn! What's taking you?" came a voice from outside. Finally, Vayn opened the door and left the house, trying to tell himself that it was all in his head, although, in the back of his head, he could feel it was more than that.
"About time!" Sora said, standing next to a tree with one foot on his board. Sora then noticed that Vayn's face was a bit flushed, like he had seen a ghost. "What's wrong?" Vayn blinked, barely realizing that he was asked a question. "U-um, nothing," he lied, not wanting to go into detail about what he had just experienced.
"If you say so," Sora replied, kicking off the tree and skating away, grinding off the occasional rail.
Sora landed on his boat, along with his board, and struck a victorious pose. "How was that!" he exclaimed.
Vayn ambled onto the docks, hands dug into the pockets of his black pants. "Showoff," he mumbled, secretly jealous that he couldn't do that to save his life.
"Seagulls eggs?!"
On the beach, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Vayn were looking over the rest of the needed supplies, as said by Riku, the self-proclaimed leader of the expedition, dressed in his usual black/ yellow shirt with black straps around the front and shoulders, tight blue pants, and white and blue shoes.
"You expect us to eat seagull eggs?!" Vayn shouted again, looking at his specific list incredulously.
"What's wrong with seagull eggs?" Sora asked innocently, his head cocked to the side.
Vayn stared back at the brunette with a 'Do-I-even-have-to-say-it' look.
"Don't complain," Riku said calmly, "Remember, we are leaving tomorrow, so we need to finish getting our supplies today."
With that, Riku sauntered away. "But why seagull eggs?" Vayn asked again, still not liking the idea of eating those things. The other two just shrugged and left to get their supplies.
"Damn seagulls…" Vayn muttered under his breath as he climbed one of the tall palm trees. On top sat a seagull egg, which Vayn reluctantly was aiming for.
Finally, Vayn reached the top and picked up the large egg. "Okay, now-- ow! Who-a--AHHH!"
Just as Vayn had retrieved the egg, a stray blizball struck him straight on the forehead, knocking him off balance, and resulted in him falling of the tree.
Vayn slowly unveiled his eyes and blinked several times to clear his vision. Seconds later, a sandy blonde headed kid and another teen with orange-red hair appeared. "Are you okay, man?" asked Wakka, a blizball tucked under his arm.
"What happened?" Vayn slurred, hoisting himself up and finding the seagull egg on his stomach; luckily, its fall was broken by Vayn's gut.
"Yeah, about that," Tidus began to explain, chuckling falsely, "funny story: we were playing around on the beach and Wakka, here, kicked it a little bit too hard."
"Sorry!" Wakka chimed in, and the rest didn't have to be explained.
Tidus and Wakka helped the dazed Vayn to his feet, and once he had steadied himself, Vayn grabbed his egg. After reassuring the two blizball playing boys that he was fine, Vayn went off towards the other side of the island.
For a brief moment, he could've sworn that he saw a Shadow creature, one from his dream, crawl his way into the secret place next to the waterfall, but after a quick blink, it was gone. Must've hit my head harder than I thought, Vayn mumbled to himself, and, after taking another look at the cave entrance, he continued towards the back of the island.
Vayn pushed the heavy wooden door open, and just as he stepped past the threshold, a blur of silver rushed by him, followed closely by another blur, this one being brown. Vayn stumbled back a bit, almost getting flattened by the two rushing figures.
"All right, I win! Looks like the ship's name is gonna be Highwind after all Sora!"
The two blurs had been Riku and Sora, racing each other. "What was that about?" Vayn asked Kairi as she stepped by him. "They were racing to decide what the name of the raft was going to be and who the captain would be," she answered. "Ah." Vayn strolled over towards the two boys, both of them sweating from the run, and overhead a small bit of their conversation; something about a 'paopu fruit' and a 'joke'.
"I got your stupid egg," Vayn muttered, holding said item up to prove it, "It wasn't easy to get, either." He rubbed his forehead, recalling his little trip down the tree. "Nice, Vayn," Riku said, "Place it by the raft with the rest of the supplies."
"Oh, right," Sora interrupted suddenly, "I still need one more mushroom! Be right back!" Sora ran out the door, the door shutting loudly when he was gone.
"Yo, Vayn," Riku shouted as Vayn was walking off towards the raft to drop off the seagull egg, holding a wooden sword in his gloved hand, "Wanna go a round?"
"Sure, why not?" Vayn said, and broke out into a run to drop off the egg.
Riku and Vayn faced off on the small islet, the same one that bore the paopu tree, which was Riku's favorite place to spar. "What's the score again?" Riku asked, having trouble remembering just how many times he had beaten Vayn and vice versa.
"4-to-5, you're leading, for now," Vayn answered, saying the last part confidently, raising his wooden sword next to his head, both hands gripping the hilt, right elbow bent upwards, left elbow bent down, and the tip of the sword pointed at Riku. "We'll see about that," he said, equally as cocky, and rose his wooden sword next to his head, like Vayn, but held his left arm out, practically taunting his opponent to come get some.
Vayn lunged forward and wood hit wood as Riku quickly guarded the strike. Then, Riku pushed his weapon upward, unbalancing Vayn, and followed up with a jump-strike. Vayn side-stepped this and swung for Riku's midsection in a wide arc. Riku dodged this with a high jump, and he turned in the middle of the jump, landing a few meters from Vayn and facing him.
He assumed his fighting stance, and added, "Is that all you've got?" Vayn advanced and the two exchanged blows, but never landed a hit. Finally, Vayn stepped back and continued to retreat, deflecting attacks from Riku as he did. Soon, his back was against the nearest palm tree. "Not good," Vayn grunted as he guarded a blow from Riku. He pushed up and kicked Riku in the gut, which Riku countered by pushing hard off the ground and kicked Vayn hard against the tree, causing a coconut to fall to the ground.
(A/N: If you've played KH 1, you know how annoying that attack is.)
Vayn shook off the dizziness that had engulfed him and managed to groan, "I hate it when you do that." Riku just shrugged, a smug smile plastered on his face.
Just as Vayn managed to pick himself up, Riku lunged forward and swung at him. Vayn quickly hopped to the left spun clockwise, swinging his weapon simultaneously. Riku calmly reacted and jumped back, gracefully landing atop the paopu tree. "Heh, is that it?" Riku asked in a belittling voice.
Vayn glared competitively at Riku, but soon his gaze drifted upwards, where he saw an opportunity. "Not exactly," he stated, and struck the trunk of the palm tree he was standing next to.
This action was met with a bemused stare from Riku. "What are you-"
Konk
Riku didn't even finish his sentence before a coconut from the palm tree fell and struck his head. He stumbled around for a few moments, numbly, and then dropped of the tree, seeing stars.
Next thing he knew, Vayn's head was looming over him, a victorious and somewhat amused smile spread across his face. "5-5," Vayn cited, extending a hand down to Riku. Riku glowered and reluctantly took the hand, and was helped to his feet. Vayn put an arm around Riku's next, still smiling. "Ya have to admit, that was a nice move," Vayn gloated, unable to remain humble.
"Geez, Vayn," Riku complained, rubbing his sore scalp, "You could've given me a concussion."
"Yeah, yeah," Vayn said, sarcastically. Riku shook his head and mumbled, "First Sora, and now Vayn beats me. I must be slipping."
"Maybe you're out of shape," Vayn shot back calmly. "Whatever…" Riku muttered and then walked off; raising his hand over his head as he said that he was going to double-check the supplies.
Feeling a bit overbearing over his victory, Vayn decided to spar with Sora to see who'd win. Sora was second best fighter among the seven, as said by the group. When Sora and Riku sparred, everyone watched. Usually, Riku would be the victor, but Sora did win at times, which was more often than Vayn.
"Oi, Wakka," Vayn called as he walked down the beach, raising his voice to be heard over the roaring falls nearby, "Have you seen Sora?"
"I saw him go back into the secret place a while back," Wakka answered back in his accent. "Ya wanna play some blizball?"
"No thanks," Vayn answered back, and he entered the cave.
"W-who's there?"
Previous, Sora had been touching up on the drawing of him and Kairi that the two of them had made years back, adding an image of him handing the Kairi head a star shaped object. Just as he finished, he felt a presence behind him, and when he turned around to confirm it, he found that a man in a black trench coat, face veiled.
"This world has been connected; tied to the darkness…Soon to be completely eclipsed," the hooded man said in an emotionless monotone.
"Uh…what?" Sora asked, clueless.
"You do not yet know what lies beyond the door," the man continued, ignoring Sora's question. "Are you from another world?" Sora asked, a bit nervous about what the man was describing.
"There is so very much to learn; you understand so little," the man still continued, still paying no heed to the boy. Sora's nature coaxed him to respond with, "Oh yeah?" Well you'll see! I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there!"
"A meaningless effort," the man said, actually responding to Sora this time, "One who knows nothing can understand nothing."
Sora glared at the man, then turned towards the wooden door next to him. For as long as he could remember, that wooden door had been there, built into the back of the cave wall. Also for as long as he could recall, he and the others, that being himself, Riku and Vayn, couldn't open the door since it lacked door handles.
Sora turned back towards the hooded man, but he was gone, vanished in the brief moment that Sora looked away. "Yo, Sora! You in here?" Sora snapped his vision from the cloaked man's previous position and looked over to the mouth of the cave where Vayn was now leaning against the stone. "What's taking you so long?" Vayn asked, raising an eyebrow.
"D-did you see that man?" Sora stammered, pointing to the wall adjacent to him. "Um…what are you talking about?" Vayn asked, looking from the wall Sora was pointing and the brunette. "That man!" Sora repeated hastily, almost shouting. "He said some stuff about darkness and-…"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down there," Vayn interrupted, motioning his hands for Sora to calm himself. "Did you get high off the mushrooms or something," Vayn added, sarcastically.
"What?! No," Sora shouted, "There was a man in a trench coat here just a few seconds ago!"
"Uh, Sora," Vayn interjected before Sora could say more, "If he was here and he left, then he would've had to have gone through the tunnel and I didn't see any man in a trench coat go by as I came through."
"B-but, I…"
Sora fell silent, unable to perceive whether or not the man he saw was real or just a figment of his imagination. He didn't get much time to mull it over, though, because Vayn soon pinched Sora by the ear and dragged him away from the door saying, "Come on, dreamer-boy, let's go."
"Owowow, all right, I'm going!" Sora shouted, slapping Vayn's hand off of his ear and then walking out of the cave, rubbing his sore ear.
Vayn began to follow, but froze. An odd sensation filled his senses, like he was being called out to by something. He turned around, and, on the mysterious wooden door, he saw an amazingly brilliant golden keyhole etched in the center. "What the…" Vayn gaped, and then rubbed his eyes with his forearm, unable to believe what he was seeing.
When he looked back at the door, the keyhole was gone, like it was never there in the first place. "Okay…Maybe I'm just tired," Vayn said aloud to himself, and slowly started out of the cave, taking one last glance at the door.
With the supply collection finished, Vayn and Riku stayed with the raft to sort them out, in easy chore.
With everything set for the next morning, Vayn said his farewells to Riku and headed for the docks. On the pier, Vayn could make out the figures of Sora and Kairi sitting, apparently conversing.
"Y'know, Riku's changed," Kairi said, swinging her legs happily over the edge of the pier. "What do you mean?" Sora asked. "Well…" Kairi hummed thoughtfully.
"You okay?"
"Sora, let's take the raft and go-just the two of us!" Kairi suddenly exclaimed. "What?!"
"Just kidding!" Kairi giggled. "What's gotten into you?" Sora asked, gigging as he did. "You're the one who's changed, Kairi."
"Maybe…"
An uneasy silence fell over the two friends, Sora having trouble to find anything to say. "I was a little scared at first," Kairi said at last, "but now I'm ready. I know that, no matter where we go or what we see, I'll be able to come back here, right?"
"Yeah, of course!" Sora proclaimed. "That's good…"
"Sora, don't ever change," Kairi said, catching Sora off guard. She stood up, folding one of her arms behind her back and held the other arm. "I just can't wait, 'til we set sail," she said quietly looking beyond the sunset horizon, "It'll be great…"
Sora stared at Kairi. She looked so beautiful, the disappearing sunlight setting on her smooth skin, her hair blowing in the soft wind…
"HEY guys! What'cha talking 'bout over here!"
Right on cue, Vayn appeared wrapping his arms around Kairi and Sora, nearly scaring Sora out of his skin. Smilingly broadly at both of them, he said, "Am I interrupting something important?" He stressed the last part in a way that suggested romance between the two. "What?!" Sora shouted looking between Vayn and Kairi, feeling his cheeks burning brightly. "Ha ha, Vayn, very funny," Kairi laughed cynically, escaping Vayn's grip.
"Did I miss something?"
The group turned around and found that Riku and finally arrived. "Nope, just messing around with these two," Vayn answered, pointing at said two with his thumbs. He could feel the two of them bore holes into the side of his heads, but he did his best to ignore it.
Riku looked confusedly at Sora, Kairi, and Vayn, but shrugged and sighed, "Whatever."
He hopped onto his boat, painted on the stern with 'Riku Akemi'. Sora followed suit, hopping onto the boat marked with 'Sora Hikari', in sloppier hand writing then Riku's. Kairi did the same, stepping onto her own boat, with 'Kairi Aidane'. (Kairi had been adopted by the mayor on the day of the meteor shower, so she had been given his last name.)
Vayn, however, stayed on the pier looking back at the entrance to the secret place, deep in thought.
"Hey, you comin'?" Sora asked. Vayn blinked and turned to Sora. "Maybe later," he answered, and walked off.
Sora stared after Vayn, then turned to the other two and asked, "What's up with him?" He got a pair of shrugs as a response, but nevertheless, the three of them rowed back to the mainland.
Vayn was now on the back end of the island, pushing a boulder out of the way of a hole in the wall, making a miniature cavern. This mini-cave was a quiet place that Vayn visited at times when he needed to think; needless to say, this was one of those times. The cave was virtually empty, now devoid of the mushroom that grew in the back corner.
Vayn laid back against the sandy floor, folding his hands behind his head for comfort. He looked up at the stone ceiling as he reflected upon the events that occurred that day as well as yesterday: The 'dream', the voice in his house, the key-hole thing on the wooden door.
He was thinking back hard for several minutes, so hard in fact, that he didn't even realize it when he began to drift off into sleep.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Disney Castle----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Donald: Sorry to rush off without sayin' goodbye, but there's big trouble brewin'. Not sure why, but the stars have been blinkin' out, one by one. And that means disaster can't be far behind. I hate to leave you all but I've gotta go check into it. There's someone with a 'key'—the key to our survival. So I need you and Goofy to find him, and stick with him. Got it? We need that key or we're doomed! So go to Traverse Town and find Leon. He'll point you in the right direction.
P.S.
Would ya apologize to Minnie for me? Thanks, pal.
Donald sighed and looked up, sharing a worried look with Daisy and the Queen. "What could this mean?" Daisy asked. "It means we'll just have to trust the king," Minnie replied, forcing a smile.
"Gwarsh," Goofy put in, "I sure hope he's alright."
"Your highness," Donald spoke up, saluting, "Don't worry, we'll the king and this key!"
Minnie sighed, gratefully, and smiled, "Thank you, both of you."
Donald switched his vision to Daisy. "Daisy, can you take care of the nephews for me?" Daisy smiled back. "Of course. Now you two be careful, now.
The mage turned to leave but the queen stopped him with, "Oh, I almost forgot." She motioned her gloved hand towards the only table in the study. "He will accompany you to chronicle your travels."
Donald leaned in, staining to see who she was mentioning. He heard a faint 'thud' and the scampering of tiny feet, followed by the feeling of something jumping up onto his small tail, then onto his hat.
A cricket wearing a nice suit and a top hat dropped down onto his bill, startling the duck. "Here I am!" he said, then bowed, tipping his tip hat. "Cricket's the name; Jiminy Cricket at you service."
"We hope for your safe return," Minnie said, "Please, help the king."
Donald saluted, and Goofy stepped back, saluting to Donald. "Oh, no you don't," said Donald, grabbing Goofy by the arm, dragging him through the door out of the study, "You're coming too!"
The three residents of Disney Castle marched down the flight of stairs that lead down to the Gummi Ship Hanger. Not liking the silence of the dim lit stairway, Goofy asked, "Gwarsh, Jiminy, your world disappeared too?"
Jiminy sighed, and looked down at the floor. "It was terrible. We were scattered…as far as I can see, I was the only one to make it to this castle," he said solemnly. Donald nudged Goofy firmly. "Goofy, you know that asking those kind of questions is not allowed," he whispered vehemently. "Oh, right," Goofy said dumbly, "I gotcha. While we are on other worlds, we can't let on where we're from. We hafta protect the world border!"
Donald sighed in annoyance. "Order," he corrected. "Right, a-hyuck, world order," Goofy said. Donald sighed again, only louder. Goofy then fiddled with his helmet. "I guess we're gonna need new duds when he get there."
The door slid open, revealing a large, futuristic-looking hanger, machinery clinking and clanking everywhere. Donald led the way to a tube. "Hello up there! Donald Duck to launch crew! Any time you're ready!" he shouted into the tube that came from the ground, waking up two chipmunks in a booth at the top of the hanger. The one named Chip, who had a black nose and one prominent tooth, yawned. "Ah, right, be right with you," he slurred. Behind him, his look alike (Besides his nose, which was red, and his two buck teeth), Dale, busily pressed several buttons.
A large, red and yellow ship with white wings rose from the floor through a hole that slide open in the ground. "Here we go, the Kingdom Model," Dale said, cheerfully, "This would do nicely." Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy, along with Pluto, boarded the ship, preparing to launch. The Queen and Daisy entered the hanger to see off the party.
Donald gave the two a confident thumbs-up coupled with a wink. "Alright, which exit do you guys want to take," Chip asked, still half-asleep. "Front door, please," Donald replied.
"Um…okay," Chip said, pressing a large red button. The floor slid open and the party dropped through, screaming all the way. "I-I SAID FR-ONT!!!" Donald screeched, waking Chip up fully. Dale stared hard at him. "Heh," Chip chuckled half-heartedly, "I thought he said 'through the floor'."
The Gummi Ship popped out the other end of the pipe and rocketed into the vast expanse of space. "N-next stop," Donald slurred, hiccupping, and feeling a bit uneasy from the fall, as was the rest of the troupe, "Traverse Town, ugh…I think I'm gonna be sick…"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Destiny Islands------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sora was lying down on his bed, looking up at a toy pirate ship that hung from the ceiling (It was a small personal fantasy of his to be a pirate). As he was staring at the model ship, he began to remember the words Kairi had spoken: "I just can't wait, 'til we set sail…It'll be great,"
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard lighting crackling in the distance. "A storm?" He turned over to see that it was raining, the wind beginning to pick up. He could make out the outline of storm clouds hovering over the island. Sora shot up in a panic and blurted, "Oh no, the raft!"
He opened the window quickly and jumped out, running over to the pier. Soon after, his mother's voice rang out in the house. "Sora! dinners ready, come on down. Sora?"
Sora hopped onto the pier on the island and quickly made a note of something. "Riku's boat, and Kairi's, and Vayn's too!"
He turned to look at the stormy sky and saw what was at the time the most amazing and strange, thing he had ever seen.
"Wha-what is that thing?"
Shadows everywhere, surrounding him, suffocating him; there was nothing he could do…
Vayn snapped awake, gasping heavily. "It...was just a dream," Vayn panted to himself reassuringly. He checked his surroundings. He was still in the cave, now darker than it was when he entered. "Wow it's late. Guess I'd better get moving."
He pushed the boulder away and stepped outside, surprised by the rain that began to pelt him. A lightning bolt cracked, striking the ocean just east of Vayn's position. "A storm?" Vayn thought out loud, covering his eyes. He looked up to see how bad the clouds looked, and saw the one thing he had hoped to never have seen again. "No…," he whispered.
A massive ball of dark energy hovered over him, sucking in debris from the island, just like it had done four years ago. "No, no, no, NO!" Vayn repeated over and over to himself, falling to his knees.
Suddenly, he felt the presence of evil around him. He quickly looked up, and saw the yet another horrible sight. Several blobs of shadow rushed around him, then emerged from the ground, paralyzing Vayn with a deadly gaze from beady yellow eyes. Vayn's breath locked in his throat, and he stumbled back, clawing the muddy sand behind him to get away.
The Shadows leapt and tackled Vayn to the ground, binding him. The ground below him gave way, becoming a black portal. Slowly, he felt himself being sucked in, his skin burning from the extreme cold of the darkness. I'm going to die, Vayn thought in a panic. He shut his eyes, struggling to breathe. Visions of his friends, his home, and his parent's death began to flash in his head.
Don't be afraid-you hold a powerful weapon…Your heart…: These words echoed inside Vayn's mind.
Vayn's eyes shot open. "GET! AWAY!!!"
As if it was by command—and maybe it was—A light exploded around Vayn, scattering and destroying the Shadows. Vayn breathed deep and steady, then finally noticed that he was now holding an item, a somewhat heavy item at that.
In his right hand, he was gripping a sword—well sort of. It had more of an appearance of a key then a sword. Its blade was white with key-like teeth at the end. Its guard was conversely black as was the handle. From the bottom of the guard hung a keychain sort of object that appeared to be a rising/setting sun.
"No way…" Vayn gasped his voice distant. It's that sword from my dream!
A Shadow emerged in front of Vayn and jumped up, extending its short arm forward. Vayn reacted quickly and sliced upwards, cutting the creature in half with one blow, creating purple/black mist. Vayn blinked and stared at his new blade with a joyful look. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" Vayn exclaimed enthusiastically. He ran up the hill and jumped over to the small window/cave that led back to the front of the island, ineptly slicing through more Shadows as he went, finding it difficult since he wasn't used to fighting with a actually metal sword.
Sora ran across the old bridge between the island and its small islet beside it.
"Riku!" Sora called half away across. "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!" Sora shouted, now across the bridge.
Riku simply tilted his head back, apparently oblivious to Sora's question. "The door…had opened," he said quietly. "What?" Sora gulped, unnerved by his best friend's statement. "The door had opened, Sora," Riku repeated, almost excited by this, seemingly unaware of the destruction occurring around him, "Now he can go to the outside world!"
Sora threw his to the side in disagreement. "What are you talking about?! We gotta find Kairi-."
"Kairi's coming with us," Riku interrupted, rather forcibly. Sora recoiled in slight shock, then glowered at Riku. "Once we step though, we might not be able to come back," Riku observed, staring deep into the dark mass overhead. "We may never see our parents again," he continued, a hint of excitement in his voice. "There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance; we can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
Riku took his eyes off the black sphere and looked at Sora, extending an arm to him. "Riku…" Sora whispered, not believing what he was hearing.
Suddenly, a pit of darkness opened up below Riku, slowly reaching out black tendrils that wrapped around Riku, although said teen didn't even flinch.
Sora lunged forward, ready to grab Riku and pull him away, but his feet abruptly froze, stuck to the earth below him. A similar darkness appeared below Sora, also binding him with tendrils. He struggled to free himself while at the same time trying to reach out to Riku, winching as the dark vines burned his skin with its extreme coldness.
Their hands were mere centimeters apart. "Riku!" Sora gasped. He was then quickly smothered by darkness, cutting off his air supply. For several seconds he stayed like this, senses frozen over, unable to breathe; He felt like this was it…
There was a sudden flooding of light, and in an instant, Sora was back on the islands.
Sora looked at his right hand, finding that he was now holding a sword…or was it a key? Whatever it was, its blade was silver with key-like teeth at the end and its guard was golden yellow with a black handle. From the guard hung a symbol composed of three circles, two small ones and a big one.
Keyblade…Keyblade…whispered a voice in Sora's mind.
He instinctively spun around, finding more dark shadows from his dreams crawling at him. "Let's see if this works," he said hopefully, and he lunged forward, bashing a Shadow into mist. Happy with the result, he spun counter-clockwise, slicing the other two in half. "How you like me now?!" Sora shouted, swinging his new found sword. In response, even more Shadows rose from the ground. "Oh…"
Vayn was now at the front of the island, running by the pier. "So, the others are here too," he noted, seeing three more boats docked, pelted by the stormy waters. Slicing through more Shadows, Vayn made his way down the beach, getting steadily tired.
He stopped momentarily to catch his breath, and turned around, finding more Shadows. "Geez, can't you bastards bother someone else?" he complained, slowly stepping backwards.
Sora was in a similar situation, flanked by two groups of Shadows. He jumped down and, taking a step backwards, bumped into Vayn. Both key-wielding teens spun around, poised to attack.
"Oh, Sora, it's just you."
"Oh, hey Vayn!"
Both then took notice of the other's blades and simultaneously pointed at them. Also concurrently, they saw Shadows advancing from behind the other. "Watch out!" They warned at the same time. Vayn advanced and sliced upwards while Sora stepped forwards and sliced down, both of the Shadows fading away into mist.
Sora and Vayn stood back to back, facing the group of Shadows that slowly formed before each of them. "So," Sora began, stabbing at a Shadow, "You got one too, eh?" Vayn swung to the right horizontally and then to the left diagonally. "Apparently," he answered.
"What's going on?" Sora asked, swinging wide and destroying three more Shadows.
"How the hell should I know?!" Vayn retorted, quickly spinning around, giving himself the momentum to slice through another Shadow that was in the air.
After about a minute of fighting off the army of darkness, both teens were exhausted, approaching the point of collapse. "There's too many," Vayn panted, "We have to find shelter, and soon."
"Let's try the secret place," Sora advised, pushing back against a pesky Shadow. The two did this, stumbling through the hellish army. Upon reaching the entrance of the 'secret place', they made an odd discovery. "Uh, Sora, since when was there a door here?" Vayn asked, pointing at the decorative door framed over the former cave. Sora was about to say something, but another offense by a Shadow cut him off.
"Never mind that, just open the door," Sora shouted, hitting one Shadow over the head. Vayn complied, forcing the double doors open. With a deep rumble, the door opened and the two ran inside, shutting it behind them. They sat there at the entrance, catching their breath, their hair and clothes drenched in rain water.
At length, Sora stood up and marched down the tunnel. "Where…are you going…Sora?" Vayn panted. "I'm gonna check out the cave. Y'know, just to make sure it's safe," he answered, in seeminly better shape then Vayn. "You do that," Vayn said back, staying where he was.
Sora was now in the main part of the cave and found a certain girl standing in front of the wooden door. "Kairi!"
At the sound of her name, Kairi turned around, zombie-like. "Sora…" she murmured monotonously. Sora raised his eyebrow as she extended her arm out to him.
FWOOSH
The door swung open suddenly, blasting the two with a cold gust of black wind. Sora crossed his arms in front of his face, trying his best to hold his ground. Kairi was forced forward and flew towards Sora, still with an expressionless face.
Sora saw her coming and opened his arms to catch her. Here she comes…, he thought actually anxious. Just as she began to enter his grasp, she disappeared into thin air.
"Wha-," Sora began, but was soon blasted back by the wind, which increased. "AAAHHHH!!"
"Aw geez, I'm soaked," Vayn complained to himself, shaking his black pants and vest. "AAAHHHH!!" Vayn heard down the tunnel. "Sora, you all right?" he asked, a bit nervously, but he got his answer soon as Sora suddenly rammed into him and pushed them both out of the cave and onto the sandy ground.
"Ah, ouch…What the hell was that about, Sora?!" Vayn shouted, pushing himself up, causing one dazed Sora to roll off of his back. Sora seemed like he was about to answer, but his words fell silent when they both felt a sudden jolt and then a floating sensation.
The little piece of land that they were on was split off the rest and was rising up towards the dark mass in the sky. "O-h…" Sora began, gawking at the approaching mass. "Crap…" Vayn finished, doing the same.
There was a loud, deep rumble, snapping the two teen's attention to a statuesque, black monster that slowly rose to a vertical position.
"No way…" whispered Sora, while Vayn whispered, "Oh my god…"
"It's that thing from my dream!" They both shouted at once. They quickly turned to one another. "You've seen this thing before?" They asked each other, simultaneously.
They got over this strange coincidence in time to roll out of the way of the monster's, which Vayn decided to dub 'Darkside', fist. "Yo, Sora," Vayn called from the other side of the fist, "As strange as this sounds, you remember how to kill this thing?"
"You know it!" Sora answered back. They exchanged a nod, and Sora charged at the Darkside's legs, spinning counter-clockwise and sliced its right leg. The Darkside howled and dropped onto its right knee. Vayn took his chance and ran up, jumping from the side of the arm and striking the forehead of the Darkside hard with the teeth of his new blade.
Sora and Vayn retreated back a safe distance from the Darkside's feet as it roared in pain. Even through its beady yellow eyes, the two could see that they had really pissed the monstrosity off now.
It slammed the patch of land with two fists, hard enough to knock both teens of balance. A space of darkness appeared below the fists, summoning several Shadows. "Aw, great, just what we needed." Vayn said this last part through gritted teeth as he guarded an attack from a Shadow. He pushed back hard, and spun a 360, hopping in the air half way, and slammed the blunt end of his key/sword onto the Shadow, killing it almost in an instant.
Across from him, Sora crushed another Shadow, and to the dismay of both of them, multiple more Shadows arose to replace the few that were destroyed. "This isn't gonna work," Vayn grumbled to himself. "Sora! We need to kill the big one first!"
Sora glanced at him quickly before turning his attention back onto the Darkside. "I know. Look out!"
Vayn returned his vision to the Darkside and barely managed to move to the right before its palm slammed the ground where he stood. Thinking quickly, Vayn forced his blade through the black palm of the Darkside, resulting in an outcry of the palm's owner.
"Sora," Vayn grunted, struggling to keep the blade lodged in the palm, "Now's your chance!"
Without wasting any time, Sora ran up the Darkside's arm, gripping his blade so that it was pointed opposite of the masked face of the Darkside. Sora jumped high into the air, higher then Vayn ever seen him jump before. "HEY UGLY!" Sora roared, "YOUR FACE IS OPEN!!"
Sora's blade mashed into the Darkside's face, creating a crushing sound that was audible even over the whooshing of air blowing violently around them. There was a shot pause as Sora dropped to the ground and back stepped next to Vayn, who had by now removed his blade from the palm of the Darkside.
The Darkside screeched, deafeningly, floating up into the black mass, now only 50 meter, approximately, from the patch of dry land Sora and Vayn stood on. Upon impact with the sphere, the Darkside dissolved into nothingness.
With one threat down, Sora and Vayn were faced with another, one they could not avoid: The dark sphere drawing closer to them.
They were so close now, the mass's suction was strong enough to pull them in. With difficulty, the two managed to grab onto the remains of the shack, hoping only to prolong the short time they had left. Sora grasp on the splinted wood began to give way. One hand slipped off, leaving Sora with but one more before…whatever fate awaited him on the other side.
"Sora!" Vayn shouted, barely able to be heard over the noise of destruction all around the two. "Don't you dare let go!"
Sora couldn't respond, we were too focused on his fading grip. One by one, each of his fingers slipped off: first his pinky, then his ring finger, then…
Sora gasped as his hand was forcively removed from the wood. Reflexively, Vayn clasped his friends hand with his left, trying with all of his remaining strength and will to hold on to their only anchor to solid earth. "Come…on…COME ON!!"
Vayn could feel tears build up on the side of his face. Was this it? Losing his home, his family, then, just when his life felt like it was coming back to normalcy, his was to die like this? Why? Why him?
He didn't even feel it when his hand lost its grip. He felt numb, numb to everything. There was a faint rumble in his head from the dark mass, but that was it, the rest was silence.
His vision became blurry, the colors before his mixing together into various hues.
Then black.
Holy moogles, it's a cliffhanger! Well, this is the longest chapter I've ever written, so I hope you've enjoyed it!
Please rate and comment. Oh but first, translations:
'Hikari' is Japanese for light. (Fitting for Sora, you think?)
'Aidane' is Japanese for kind, cheerful. (I thought that this describes Kairi pretty well.)
'Akemi' is Japanese for 'Beauty of Dawn' (With Riku being the Keyblader of the Dawn, this one felt right for him.)
Thanks for reading! The next chpater will be up sooner!