I. Hate. My. Liiiiifffffeeeeeeeee.
It's been forever. And despite all the hits that my counter says I'm getting, I still haven't got any reviews. I don't want to complain, but come on people...
Sorry about that. Anyway, I thought that I had a little less than half of this chapter done but then I realized that it sucked and was boring. So I started from scratch.
:(
Chapter 4: Inflight Entertainment
Radiant Garden
Landing Platform
Local Time: Noon
Jacob was hoping to avoid any questions regarding Terra, but he had no such luck. Sora, Zidane, and Merlin all showed up at about the same exact time as he did, making it impossible to disregard their inquiries about the unconscious girl in his arms.
Luckily, before he was so annoyed that he absolutely had to answer, Emily came running up through the rain. Apparently she had been invited to come along. Cid was going to be thrilled.
There was something in her eyes though. A sort of determination. From what Sora was saying, she had been reluctant before. Now it seemed she needed to get on the Shera, no matter what. She had seen or heard something since their last meeting.
Jacob used the opportunity to slip away. Eventually someone had the good sense to advise that they all go aboard instead of standing in the rain (it had been going on for so long that no one really noticed it anymore). As they walked aboard, Merlin grabbed Sora and quickly asked him, "I say, do you still have any of the summon charms you collected on your last little adventure?"
"No, unfortunately," Sora answered. "I'm not sure when it happened... The last time I used one of them was at the World That Never Was. I didn't notice that they'd gone until after I got back to Destiny Islands... and it still took a couple of days."
"Well, then here," Merlin said, reaching into his robe. "Someone in town had one, and they couldn't figure out how to use it... I suppose you could put it to good use, my boy." He held it up. It was a sort of green-yellow color, with a picture of a fedora in the middle. "I haven't tried it, but I'm sure you'll find some use for this little trinket."
Sora took it with a small smile. "Thanks Merlin. Now let's get inside..."
They both stepped into the ship. When they did, Cid and Jacob had already engaged each other.
"-hours ago," Cid was saying. "I told em' that I hadn't seen her. Where the hell'd you find her? What happened? And who the shit's the red-head?"
"Please, Cid, not now..." Jacob grumbled. He turned back to the others as he walked into the ship. "Sora, what happened to Kairi?"
"I left her at Rinoa's," Sora answered. "Terra stayed there as well. What happ-?"
"I don't know, okay?" Jacob yelled. "You need to go and find Kairi and tell her we're leaving a soon as possible." With that, Jacob stormed off into the ship.
"What's up his ass?" Cid asked.
"You know as much as we do," Zidane replied. He looked back at Sora. "If Kairi was out looking for Terra, there's no telling where she is."
"Maybe she'll come back here?" Emily suggested.
"If she doesn't, Stitch will," Zidane said. "And he could sniff her out easy."
"I'd rather not wait for him to show up," Sora said. "Jacob didn't look very happy. A speedy departure is probably what we need, even if we haven't had much time to visit."
"I'd be happy to carry on an messages for you," Merlin suggested. "And I could find Kairi easily enough... though I'm not very familiar with Stitch, so that could take some time."
Zidane shook his head. "No, I can get Stitch. Just watch." He grabbed one of his daggers and very carefully pricked the tip of his finger. "He could smell my blood from halfway across the city. That'll bring him running."
"Very well. I'll track down Princess Kairi, then," Merlin said. With that, he drew his wand from his beard, flicked his wrist, and vanished.
Even though Sora knew that Merlin referred to Kairi as princess because of her position and not her lost status, it still bothered him slightly. Trying to force it out of his mind, he turned to Emily and said, "So, you've been here less than a minute and things are already heating up. Exciting, huh?"
Before she had the opportunity to answer, Cid cut in. "Hold it just a damn second! What the hell's she doin' here, huh?"
Sora replied, "She's coming along." Then, remembering that she hadn't actually said for sure that she was coming, he looked back and said, "You are coming, right?"
"Yes. Definitely. Are you guys going to regroup with the Rebel fleet eventually?"
Sora opened his mouth to reply, but Cid said, "What's it to ya?"
Emily stammered out, "I-I'm just curious..."
The 'bull' in "Bullshit!" seemed to pop out of Cid's mouth. "Why're you asking such specific questions?"
"Cid, chill out!" Sora said, coming to Emily's aid. "She's fine! She's not like an Imperial spy or something."
Cid growled, but didn't say anything. He walked off into the ship, presumably heading off to make last-minute checks before they took off. Sora looked to Emily and said, "He doesn't know what he's talking about. Don't worry about it."
"R-right. Thanks, Sora."
Just then, Zidane spotted something moving towards them in the dark. Small, and low to the ground. As it got closer, he confirmed that it was definitely Stitch. The small blue alien jumped up the ramp onto the ship and landed right in front of Zidane.
"Zidane! Me smell-!"
"I'm fine, Stitch," Zidane said. "Just needed to call you here somehow. We're leaving."
Stitch stared blankly up at him for a second, then hissed and swiped his claws in the air, as if demanding an apology for making him worry. Without waiting for any further comment, he darted off into the interior of the ship.
Shortly...
Sora lead Emily into the ship's interior, towards Kairi's room. "There's an empty room next to her," he said. "I bet she'll be happy to have the company."
"Don't you think we should wait until she gets here to ask?" Emily asked, glancing around at the doors. "So... are there a ton of rooms on this ship?"
"There are certain areas that have rooms," Sora replied. "Basically wherever there didn't need to be stuff that ran the ship. Just in case, you know, we need to help evacuate a world or something."
"Oh... that's cool, I guess..."
Just then they heard footsteps coming down the hall behind them. They turned around to see Kairi coming around the corner into the hall. When she saw Emily, she didn't seem all that surprised. "Merlin said that you were coming along," she said as she approached. "What are you guys doing down here?"
"I was thinking she could set up next door to you?" Sora asked.
"Is that what Emily wants?" Kairi said, looking at the not-as-red-red-head.
"Er... I don't really know..."
"I just thought you could use the female company," Sora said.
Kairi looked at him out the corner of her eye. "What, is he discriminating against me now?" she thought. "What is wrong with him?"
"Is that okay?" Emily questioned.
Kairi regained her composure and smiled. "Yeah, sure. That sounds like it'll be great." She looked at Sora and said in a somewhat condescending tone. "Care to tell me why we're leaving so soon? I wasted the entire time we were here scrambling around looking for Terra. I would have liked to actually spend some time with my sister."
"Hey, it's not my fault," Sora said, holding his hands up defensively. "Jacob said we're leaving, and he didn't say why. He carried Terra back onto the ship and she was unconscious and he was pissed off about something. That's all I know."
"This Jacob guy..." Emily said. "He isn't very... uh... stable, is he?"
"I guess that's one way of putting it," Sora replied. Just as Kairi was about to say something else, Sora started up again. "Oh! I forgot. I walked in on him making a call with someone on the way here."
"In the middle of space?" Kairi asked.
Sora ignored her and said, "He was talking with someone named Ben. And he said that he had you with him, and some other people he wanted Ben to meet. And... that... uh, some weird stuff that was only letters. Like the CRI and the NCA or something. Said that they would be 'more attentive', so he was going to land at the car. Whatever the heck that means."
"Shouldn't we just go ask him?" Emily inquired.
Sora and Kairi laughed sarcastically.
On the bridge...
"Would you mind telling me just where in the hell we're going?" Cid demanded as he stepped up to the controls.
"I told you, just take off," Jacob muttered in response, straightening his glasses. "I've got the coordinates, so you don't have to worry about that."
"I ain't asking because I need directions," Cid said. "I'm asking because I want to know where we're going. So you better tell me or this ship ain't getting two feet off the ground, ya' hear?"
Jacob rolled his eyes. "Nowhere special. Just Land of Liberty."
Cid looked at him strangely. "You mean that place where you were stuck after Radiant Garden collapsed?"
"Exactly."
"And just why are we goin' there?"
"I've got a friend who needs help with something," Jacob replied simply. "We can go straight to the Rebellion fleet after."
Cid shook his head as though he didn't approve, and then started up his craft. The rain slowed as the engines were warming up, and just as they picked up off the ground, it stopped entirely. "Do you have any idea how long this little detour is going to last us?"
"Probably just a couple of days," Jacob answered. "Shouldn't be anything too exciting." He looked at Cid seriously. "We can't land the ship there, though."
"Fine, I'll just stay with it in orbit."
"We can't do that either. I told you they are capable of short-range space travel, didn't I? They can see even farther."
"Well then just what the hell do you propose I do for your 'couple of days'?" Cid asked as they passed through the clouds.
"I don't care. You can come back here if you like."
Cid didn't reply.
"Did I ever upload the coordinates for the Earth system?" Jacob asked.
"I don't think so."
Jacob turned and approached a computer console. "Then I'll just input them now..."
They passed out of the atmosphere of the world just as Jacob set their course. "Go ahead and engage warp as soon as you're clear," Jacob told Cid.
They pushed a little farther away from Radiant Garden, checked to make sure there weren't any other obstacles or ships in their vicinity, and then Cid launched them.
Later...
Zidane, Sora, Emily, and Kairi had all been called to the room that was commonly referred to as the ship's lounge, but that was primarily just because it included two sofas and a TV off behind the table where they ate meals. Jacob met them there, and made an announcement.
"We're going to the Earth system."
He received confused looks, or annoyed looks from people who were used to being confused.
"A system is a group of worlds packed so tightly together that they form one massive world with small boundaries connecting them."
All confused looks.
"It'll make sense when we get there. And, by the way, we'll get there in..." he glanced at his watch, "A little less that twenty-seven hours."
"Are you kidding?" Emily asked. "We're going to be on this thing for more than a day?"
"It's not so bad," Sora started. But before he could finish, Jacob jumped in. "Yes, it isn't all that bad. I've got some inflight entertainment for you."
Kairi looked at him quizzically. "What?"
"Well, these worlds that we are going to... or specifically, the world we are going to, Land of Liberty... has a long history and many different advances and customs that will be utterly foreign to you. Luckily for you-"
"Hold on a second," Kairi said. "Land of Liberty... you've mentioned that before. That was where you were stuck after Radiant Garden fell."
"Yes," he replied. "And I'm afraid that I developed something of an unhealthy interest in the place. Spent almost all of my time there studying the history and cultures of Earth. Wrote several journals on different topics and such." He reached into a pocket in his pants and pulled out a disk. "Luckily for you, I've compiled the most important bits about Earth onto this one DVD. I thought it would be good if you were to watch this on the way there."
All of the teens looked at each other, and then back at Jacob.
"This sounds a lot like school," Sora said.
"I assure you, it's very interesting," Jacob replied. "You know me, I'm a boring humorless stick in the mud, right?"
"No, you've got a sense of humor, you're just a jerk," Kairi said.
Jacob ignored her comment and continued. "Well, if it interested me for years, it's got to be riveting, right?"
"We'll watch the stupid movie," Zidane said. "But only if you get out and shut up."
Jacob smiled and put the disk down on the table. "It's only a couple of hours long. I'm not saying that you have to watch it in one sitting." With that, he turned and walked out.
The Jedi Temple...
Scarecrow kicked the grate blocking the way out of a vent, and it came out of position and fell to the ground below. He glanced out and saw the vast Jedi Archives below him, with high blue walls full of data storage units climbing all the way to the ceiling. None of them were close enough that he could climb down them, though.
He looked back at Tex and Router, who were in the vent behind him. "You sure there isn't another way in?" he asked.
"Not one that wouldn't take us through old security systems, which may or may not be offline," Router replied. She spoke quickly; she wasn't much for wasted time.
Tex detached the magnetic grappling hook that she had been provided with from her hip. She stuck it's magnetic tip to the vent directly above the hole Scarecrow had opened. "You first," she said to Scarecrow, tossing the rope into the hole.
Scarecrow grabbed the rope and slid down it all the way to the floor of the room. Tex and Router were close behind.
When Router hit the ground, she immediately started talking again. "Those fake jedi will probably have a way in here, if they aren't already watching us right now. I'm going to try and hack into the temple's security system and secure us a faster way out of here. Bring the grappling hook with us just in case."
Tex didn't respond verbally, instead yanking on the chord. It detached from the vent and came falling down towards her, but the entire rope magnetically looped back up and locked into place. She reattached the object and turned to Router. "So while you're doing that, where are we?"
"Well having someone to watch my back would be great," she replied in a very 'only because I need it' tone. She started to walk off, and then added, "One of you should actually start looking for the information we came here for in the first place."
They walked through the vast chamber for a few minutes before they came to an area which sported several computer consoles. Router sat down at one and held up her wrist. "Alice, get in there."
There was a flash, and what appeared to be a hologram of a woman flickered above her arm for a moment, then vanished.
"Is it safe to assume that one of you knows how to operate a computer?" Router asked sarcastically as she started typing.
"I'll do it," Tex replied, sitting down at the next station. The computer was slow, and the screen flickered every now and then, but it was still operational. She clicked through a couple of windows before she came to a 'Database Search' page. She quickly typed in, 'Temple of the Princesses of Heart'. She was about to initiate the search when a glowing female head appeared on screen.
"Do you require assistance?" it asked. It flickered, and he voice stuttered a bit, but the program was operational.
"I was just imputing my search topic," Tex replied. "Can you pull up the information on this world?"
"The Temple of the Princesses of Heart," the voice read. "Do you have authorization to access this file?"
Tex glanced at Router. "How do I get past this thing?"
Router sighed. "Alice, get into her system. Shut down that A.I. and get us past whatever security blocks there are."
For a moment nothing happened, but then the head on Tex's screen flickered one last time and then vanished. Then a window came up, which read 'Access granted'.
"Simple enough," Router said. "Get back over here, I'm not finished with our escape route."
Tex realized that she was talking to her A.I., and went back to the file. It read:
The Temple of the Princesses of Heart. Classification level 0. Original headquarters of the ancient Legion of Light. Home to the Princesses of Heart after the first Great War and until The Keyblade War. This world contained a door which allowed passage directly into Kingdom Hearts. It also housed the largest pooling of pure, physical light in the physical galaxy. All routes to this world were sealed off several years after the Keyblade War. No one has reached this world or departed from it in thousands of years. It's location is completely unknown.
"Shit," Tex said aloud. "Even the smartest people in the galaxy don't know where it is."
"I suspected as much," Router said, still feverishly typing on her computer.
"Wait, you thought we wouldn't find anything?" Scarecrow asked. "They why are we here?"
"Well, what I think doesn't really matter," Router replied. "Besides, you only looked at the page for the world itself. How about giving the related worlds a look? We might find a link."
"We don't have time to go through everything in here," Tex said, looking back at the screen and quickly skimming the known statistics about the world.
"We don't need to," Router said. "As soon as Alice is done with our exit route she can download all related files. Anything that even mentions Princesses of Heart. Any other keywords she should add to the range?"
Tex looked back up at the description. "Yeah. Try... 'Legion of Light', 'the Great War', and 'The Keyblade War', and 'Kingdom Hearts'."
"Did you get that, Alice?" Router asked. Apparently she got an answer, because she said, "Good. Keep digging, then."
"Digging?" Scarecrow asked. He and Tex both glanced at Router's screen, which was filled with text. "That doesn't look like a map of the Templ-"
"That's enough looking!" Router shouted, waving them away. The pages all closed instantly, and a blueprint of the temple came up. "It looks like there's a small utility hallway near the rear entrance to the library. There are a couple of small, out of the way halls that we can follow that will eventually take us to an outdoor landing platform. We can have the rest of the team pick us up there."
Scarecrow and Tex gave each other suspicious looks before going back to Router. "And security?" Tex asked.
"Just some motion detecting lasers that'll lock us in if they're tripped," she answered. "No big deal, I can shut them off."
"And what if one of the jedi-impostor-guys gets on a computer and turns them back on?" Scarecrow said.
"Alice is writing a program that'll lock all control of the system," Router replied. "After she's done with that, she'll download all relevant files on the Temple, and we're good to go."
Tex glanced back at her computer, and after a few moments, she started a new search.
Princess of Heart Kairi.
"That won't do any good," Router said. "Princess Kairi was born four years after the Empire was established and the jedi were defeated. There won't be any record of her."
Tex hit enter anyway. The only page that came up was 'Princesses of Heart', and it didn't have any information on the actual identities of individual Princesses.
"Alice started the download," Router said. "Close your stuff up, she'll be ready in just a second."
Tex sighed and closed her search before standing up. "That was a waste of time."
"I told you there wouldn't be any-"
"No, I meant overall. We still don't have anything on the Temple."
"We'll find something," Router said. "We'll find at least one world that's connected to it, and we'll find another clue there. It shouldn't be too difficult." There were a few moments of silence before Router started again. "Alice is done. We're going." She held up her arm, there was a flicker like before, and then there was nothing. Router stood and started talking again, this time with the radio on. "Sienex, we've found our exit route. Go to a small landing platform on the north west side of the temple, about fifty floors up. You'll probably beat us there, but we'll go as fast as we can."
"Alright. We'll see you there. Do you have the information?"
"No direct coordinates," Router replied. "But I downloaded all the information we could find as well as all related articles. If anything we'll be able to find a world that was once connected to our Temple."
"Good. See you soon."
As Sienex hung up, Tex asked, "So how come the the Empire didn't just download the whole archives when they first overthrew the jedi?"
Router didn't bother to turn around when she answered, "They were very illusive on that topic."
On the Shera...
Jacob hovered over Terra's unconscious body in a manner that most people would have found obsessive. He stared down at her face, watching for any slight change of expression or movement, but there was nothing. Just the same blank, ever-so-slightly pained face she'd had since he struck her.
Of course, now Jacob was feeling something like regret at hitting her. Was it the right thing to do? She had been talking as if she was a computer, so it seemed like the best thing to do was to take her out before some sort of pre-programmed suggestion took over or something. But now she was gone, and she could have been floating in nightmares for all he knew.
He heard a noise behind him. Jacob turned to see Stitch standing in the door, looking in a concerned manner towards Terra.
"She's going to be alright," Jacob promised. "But I actually have a favor I wanted to ask of you."
Stitch walked towards Jacob, standing on his hind legs, with his ears flattened down to his head. "Ih?"
"Well, I was wondering if you could stay and watch over Terra when we get to this world. In the first place, I don't think that the world we're going to would take kindly to small blue aliens- no offense-, And secondly, I've got to go down to this place and I'd like to take all of the others with me, other than Cid, of course. And I'd rather not leave her with just Cid, do you know what I mean?"
Stitch gave a sort of menacing giggle, indicating that he got Jacob's drift.
"So do you think you could do that for me?" Jacob asked.
"Ih! Stitch stay with Terra!" he replied. But then he seemed to have a second thought. "... Zidane stay with Stitch?"
"I'm not so sure about that," Jacob replied. "Depends on whether or not we can hide his tail... 'cause if we can, he's probably going to come with us."
Stitch looked slightly disappointed, but since nothing was certain, he wasn't too bothered.
"They're in the break room watching a little documentary on the world we're about to go to. If you want to go join them-"
Stitch stuck his tongue out and pointed at the back of his mouth before darting out of the room.
Jacob spared him a short laugh before sitting down and casting his never blinking gaze upon Terra. After a few minutes, he turned to his desk and slid open a drawer. There was a single pistol- subtle for him. The only reason there weren't more fire arms and weapons was because most of the drawer was taken up by a large stack of paper and a couple of pencils. He withdrew a single sheet, as well as a writing utensil, and began jotting something down.
He stopped after only a few words, and threw another glance at Terra, almost as if he had expected her to suddenly wake up the moment he turned his back on her. No such luck. He went back to his writing.
The Castle That Never Was...
Maleficent hovered over her crystal ball, as usual. She was rather stressed, and it showed in the strained expression that oh so selfishly obstructed her beauty. She was, almost subconsciously, making little circles in the air with her left hand, the green mist that filled the room following it in a spiral shape.
She had been observing the Shera, but seeing that there was nothing interesting at the moment since it was merely flying through space, she had decided to look for Cobb, who had yet to return for his payment. He had seemingly dropped off the grid- he wasn't on Hoth, obviously, and he didn't seem to be on his way to the castle, unless he was taking some strange, backwards, overly-complicated route.
He would have been back by now. He wouldn't have procrastinated. Something was amiss.
She needed to clear her head. She walked out of the dark room and into the hall, which she followed to the cockpit, where Pete was piloting the ship whilst carrying out conversation with Captain Hook.
"I don't get how you can just sail about aimlessly forever and ever like you do!" Pete said. "I'd 've loved to get out to sea, but without a purpose, or a course, what's the point?"
"The rivers you sailed confined you, me boy!" Hook replied with a hearty laugh, swishing his hook through the air once or twice. "Just sail'n is fine, but you're always bogged down with yer' jobs an' yer' destinations. And a river's nothn' but linearity! A man can truly be free at sea, I tells ya! Give me a dinghy in the ocean o'er a luxury steam boat on the river any day!"
"Excuse me, gentlemen," Maleficent said, announcing her presence. They both turned to look at her, though they wore different expressions. Hook looked slightly awkward, where Pete was trying and failing to conceal a 'I know why you're here and it's the same answer' look behind a polite smile.
"Good news, Maleficent," Pete said. "We've eliminated another forty worlds!"
"You say that every time I come here, Pete," she said.
"I guess you just have an uncanny sense of timing, then," Pete replied. He rarely got snippy with his master, but lately, now that he had a slightly longer leash and he was actually doing something he enjoyed (and wasn't padding out gameplay with incredibly easy boss fights), he was getting a bit bolder.
Maleficent had decided, thus far, not to squash him back into his place. "Very well then," she said simply. "Carry on, you two."
She turned and exited the bridge, but on the way back to her room, she ran into Hades, who was in a rather chatty mood.
He was leaning against the wall, clearly awaiting her return. When she showed up, he said, "Not that you aren't doing a bang-up job as the leader of a massive, threatening villain group or anything, but I, and some of the others, are getting a bit restless."
"Then what do you suggest I do?" Maleficent asked. "Stoop so low as to accommodate their petty wishes and let them lose? That lot wouldn't know what to do with themselves if I let them run wild."
"Well then how about we do something active... but organized?" Hades said. "And I'm not talking like a field day here. I say, we go and grab the Key kid, grab his Princess of Heart girlfriend, and then we go through with the stupid plan."
Even without telling Hades, or any of the others, about the Light leaving Kairi, there were still plenty of holes in what he was suggesting. "You know full well that we aren't ready to carry out our plan. There are many more layers to this than just obtaining two individuals."
"You keep saying that, but I'm not seeing any blueprints other than 'obtaining two individuals', you get me? You reading my mail, lady?"
"I merely wish to avoid any of the others getting bold and setting out to complete 'step 1' on their own. That is why I haven't talked about step one. But we'll be there soon enough."
"If we haven't gotten there yet, it sounds more like step twenty-three to me," Hades said sarcastically. "Whatever. But we all had pretty good things going back on our own worlds, not just me. I won't be the first to skedaddle out of here if things stay this way, but I sure as hell won't be the last." He walked off down the hall without another word.
On the Shera, a few hours later...
Kairi just felt like she had watched a two-hour movie that should have been three weeks long.
Jacob hadn't tried to cram too much material into a short time span or anything... it just felt like he had barely touched upon something much bigger. It was like watching a trailer. A really, really long trailer. For an insanely long movie.
She was reminded of a concept that one of her teachers back on Destiny Islands brought up. Something called 'tangential learning'. The idea was that someone is introduced to a concept briefly but in an interesting way so that they wanted to go and learn more about the topic. That felt a bit like what Jacob had done with his little movie. Not intentionally... or at least she didn't think. But he had been right, the history of this 'Earth', or specifically, Land of Liberty, was indeed interesting. Kairi couldn't help but wonder if Radiant Garden had a long, interesting history or not.
Well, why didn't she just ask? Not Jacob, of course, heavens no.
"Hey Emily?"
"Yeah?" the other girl replied. They were still in the lounge; Zidane had departed, and Sora fiddling with some sort of pendent on the other side of the room.
"After watching that video, it makes me wonder... Uh, does Radiant Garden have a history like Land of Liberty did?"
Emily looked at her strangely. "Well... I guess... I mean, everywhere's got history, right?"
"Well, then what is it?" Kairi pressed.
Emily scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "Well, you've got to take into account that I got cast out when I was four... I really don't remember the current events all that well, if you know what I mean. And my dad wasn't too keen on talking about it."
"Why, did you ask him?"
"Well, yeah. I wanted to know where I had come from. For a while he tried to convince me that it had just been a bad dream, and that we had always lived where we were then... I never believed him, even though my memories of Radiant Garden were blurry. I went along with it, for his sake... I guess it was his way of trying to forget about my mom."
There was an awkward pause. "So... uh... not to be rude, but-"
"She didn't come out with us after Radiant Garden collapsed," Emily replied swiftly. "I already told Sora and Zidane. Forgot you didn't know."
"Oh... wow..." Kairi murmured. "I'm... I'm really sorry."
"It's okay," Emily said. "I mean, you didn't have either of your parents, and you didn't remember anything!"
Kairi giggled mildly. "Well, really didn't care, to be honest. Sora and-" Words caught in her throat for a moment before she continued as though she hadn't stopped. "-Riku were more interested in where I came from than I was myself. They pestered me about it all the time." She laughed and threw a glance over at Sora. "It was really annoying."
"Yeah, well, you were the one being weird and not caring about where you came from," Sora replied, not looking away from his pendant, which he was dangling in the air before him. "Who was more annoying?"
"You. Definitely. You were still bothering me about it after ten years."
"Hmm."
Kairi turned back to Emily. "So, back to how this all started. Radiant Garden...?"
Emily let her head loll to the side and looked up. "I'm probably wrong about the details... and what little I understand about politics today was completely lost on me back then, so a lot was probably lost in translation."
"Well, do your best."
"Well... again, this could be wrong... years before we were born- I don't know how long, it could have been ten, it could have been twenty-, the ruling king at the time was tyrannical. I'm not sure if it was an internal power struggle, or an citizen takeover, or what, but Ansem took things over and started a new government that was controled by a ruling body, not just one figure. The positions of King and Queen and such still existed, but most of the power of the positions was taken away. People really, really liked Ansem... or at least my dad really liked Ansem. No one knew that he was doing anything sciencey on the side. He was just a political leader."
"Anything about me? Or Rinoa? Or my parents?" Kairi asked, trying her best not to sound too emotional over it.
"No," Emily answered flatly. "I'm sure I knew there were Princesses, but if I knew anything about you, I don't remember it."
Kairi was clearly disappointed, but she did her best to hide it. Her best wasn't very good, though.
Clearly Emily felt as though she was guilty of something. "I-I'm sorry, I really don't-"
"No no, it's fine..." Kairi murmured, looking down to the side. When she realized how incredibly 'not fine' that was, she looked back up and smiled. "Really!"
Emily was unconvinced, and looked a bit sad herself. "I suppose we both lost our homes at the same age, didn't we?" Before Kairi responded, Emily said, "But who was it more painful for, do you think? Me, the one who had vague memories of it and a missing mother, or you, the one who knew absolutely nothing?"
"She was in shock for the first few weeks," Sora cut in. "I remember it distinctly. I was the one who found her, washed up on the shore. I... well, I kept tabs on her after that."
"From what Riku said, it sounded sort of like you stalked me," Kairi joked. A sort of dead, empty look came over Sora's eyes. Realizing her mistake, Kairi moved the conversation along as quickly as possible. "Yeah, I was out of it, and when I started... you know, living again, I was scared and confused for a while, but... I dunno, I wasn't curious for whatever reason, and I was happy where I was, so I didn't have any reason to be scared."
Emily didn't comment. She didn't need to. Kairi felt like she already had a pretty good idea of how it must have felt. The closest parallel she could find was two years ago, when she woke up in Hollow Bastion, with Sora's body falling backwards as though in slow motion, a huge blade jutting from his chest. She was in a strange place, with strange creatures attacking her, two strange creatures trying to defend her, and a ghost of Riku appearing in front of a tall, formidable man. She had no idea what was going on... and then after she did finally understand, she was left on Traverse Town with people she didn't know, and the one person who she was familiar with, Sora, leaving just a few days later to return to Hollow Bastion. She hadn't thought it was fair at the time... but even though the severity of the situation had been explained to her, she hadn't held much respect for it. She just wanted to know why she couldn't stay with her friend...
Actually, that was pretty different from Emily's situation. But... at the same time, they had both been sucked out of familiar surroundings and left with only one familiar face, and the other person they so desperately wanted to be okay off in some unknown location. Kairi wasn't sure how much that counted for, but she did truly feel sorry for Emily, whether she fully understood the other girl's pain or not.
"Can we... uh, talk about something else?" Emily asked. Kairi suddenly realized that they had been stuck on a pretty morbid topic for quite a while. Emily quickly added, "Not that I mind talking about me and... well, all that stuff, but I just feel like we should lighten the mood or something."
"Yeah, sure!" Kairi replied as cheerily as she could.
Sora was the one to offer the subject change, though. "Emily, have you ever seen summon magic?"
"Uh... no? What's that?"
"I use charms like this one to summon allies to help me in battle. I lost all the ones I had gotten my hands on after I defeated Organization XIII... I'm still not sure where they got to. But I kind of want to know what this one calls. You know, so I can better use it in battle if I need to."
"That might not be a good idea, Sora," Kairi said. "Didn't two of your old summons call a lion and an elephant?"
"Yeah, but as soon as I use the summon, I forge, like, a connection with whatever it was that I called. We know each others' names and stuff. It's kind of weird. They won't go wrecking stuff."
"I don't doubt that," Kairi continued. "But their size might not be very good for this room."
Sora frowned. "Huh... I guess that's a good point. But then again, I don't think that a lion or an elephant would wear a fedora."
"A little chicken was called by a baseball charm and a giant blue man was called by a lamp charm." Emily laughed quietly at the absurdity of Kairi's statement. "I don't think the image is enough to go on here."
Disappointed, Sora slipped the charm back into his pocket. "Well, don't blame me if we get caught in an intense combat situation and the charm only calls a healer or something."
"I'm sure you'll be able to manage just fine on your own," Kairi teased, an undertone of admiration in her voice. Sora sighed, reminded once again of the awkward truth that Kairi didn't know about... well, herself. He stood up from the sofa he had been sitting on and departed without another word, leaving both Emily and Kairi feeling confused, and the latter a tad defeated.
Zidane's Room...
Zidane was laying on his side, staring at the wall his bed was pushed against. When he heard the door to his room open, he didn't bother to turn, but he did when someone said, "Can I cut off your tail?"
Zidane jumped up and looked at Jacob, trying to read the impossible man's face and figure out if he was being serious or not.
"I'm just kidding. But if you want to come to Earth, we're going to need to find a way to conceal it."
"Can't we just say I'm on my way to a costume party?" Zidane suggested, only partly in jest.
"Your tail moves a little too realistically for that, if you know what I'm saying." There was a pause. "Can I ask why you have a tail, anyway?"
"You can ask, but I'm not going to answer."
"That's my line, jerk."
"It takes one to know one."
"That's what she said."
"Said the liar."
"That's not what your mom said last night."
"Do you seriously want to keep going with this?"
"Nah, I think I hit my quota for today."
"So then," Zidane said, "In all seriousness, do you really think it's all that big of a deal that I have a tail?"
"There is literally no magic on this world," Jacob replied. "I'm actually uncertain if Sora will even be able to summon his Keyblade. I don't think that people will just forget about seeing a teenager with a furry, realistic, moving tail sticking out of his ass."
"Well, from the video, everyone seemed to dress very... differently than the way I do. Perhaps I really could say that I was going to a costume party if I just did my best to hold my tail still?"
Jacob pondered the idea for a moment, then said, "That could work... With Sora's hair and your and Kairi's clothes, I suppose we could pull that off."
"Problem solved," Zidane said. "Now... was there anything else you wanted to say?"
"You'll need to either leave your knives here or let me hold onto them for you."
"What? Why?"
"Because just putting them in those leather sheathes isn't going to conceal them well enough. You'll get arrested."
"Are the people on this world pussies or something?"
"You're hilarious," Jacob said without humor, turning for the door. "I'm going to go now."
"I'm going to cry," Zidane replied in the flattest voice he could muster. Jacob walked out, leaving Zidane alone.
Several hours later...
It was a little strange to think that they had left Hoth not that long ago. Everyone was still on that time, so pretty much everyone turned in before Emily did, who was, obviously, several hours behind everyone else. Kairi had tried to go to bed, but eventually found that she couldn't go to sleep knowing that the other girl was still awake in the other room. She got up, still in her night things, and snuck next door. She listened for movement, but she didn't hear anything, even though the lights were still on inside. She opened the door.
Emily wasn't there. Winnie the Pooh's book was on the floor, open.
They had taken the time to explain what had happened with Emily, and where they had decided to keep her things. Kairi felt like she should probably let Emily have her space...
No. It wasn't going to last. Kairi dove nose first into the book.
After a few moments, she was standing in a wide open field, with colorful flowers blooming on all sides. There were widely spread trees off in the distance, and a large log laying in the middle of the clearing. It was cloudy, and looked as though a rainstorm might start soon. Suddenly she regretted coming in her sleeping clothes. Though, perhaps it hadn't been that bad. It looked as though it was late afternoon. Perhaps she could sleep here tonight.
Then, of course, Kairi realized she had absolutely no idea where Emily was, or where she had stored her things. But that shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
Then again, the woods were 100 acres...
"Hurry old Piglet old pal! If we don't get back soon we're gonna get all soaked!"
"O d-d-d-d-d-dear! I'm c-coming!"
Kairi instantly recognized the voices of Tigger and Piglet. She whipped around to see the two of them darting through the trees. "Hey! Guys!"
At her cry, Piglet jumped in fear and ducked behind a tree. Tigger, on the other hand, dropped onto all fours and growled in her direction for just a moment before he realized who it was. He bounced back to his feet and said, "Hey Piglet, there ain't nothin' to be scared of! It's Kairi!"
Piglet looked out from his hiding place and laughed in embarrassment. "Oh, hello Kairi!"
"Hey guys," she said, jogging up to them. "You wouldn't have happened to see anyone else recently, would you?"
"Well, what sort of person?" Tigger asked.
"You guys don't know Emily, do you?" she continued.
"Oh yeah, Emily!" Tigger laughed. "Shucks, she got here ages ago! I figure she's still over at bunny-boy's place!" He refereed to Rabbit's house. "That's where we was heading! Gotta get out of the rain, ya' know?"
Kairi was surprised that they possessed that much foresight. "You won't mind if I come with you, right?"
"Oh, of course not!" Piglet squeaked. "I'm sure someone as big and brave as yourself will be very helpful with scaring off spookables!"
"I'm sure Tigger could have done that," Kairi commented.
Tigger puffed out his chest proudly at the comment. "Well, I don't mean to brag or nothing, but plain-old spookables ain't no match for this Tigger!"
Kairi looked back up at the clouds, which looked angrier than they had when she first arrived. "We should get going," she said. The other two nodded and they all started off through the woods.
On the Shera...
Sora couldn't sleep. Thoughts of Kairi and Hearts swarmed around his mind like picky locust, completely smothering him yet not picking at his brain just yet. He felt as though he should have been thinking of something, but nothing was coming to him. Should he have been thinking about Kairi's Heart? Or just Kairi?
Suddenly something came to mind. Now that she wasn't a Princess, would she no longer be a target of the Empire? That woman Tex had come after her twice on Midgar. He had actually been looking forward to meeting her so that he could teach her a lesson, but now... did this mean that Kairi was safe? Well, safer than she was before.
But how would the Empire know she had lost her status? It wasn't like she was wearing a sign or something. But all the same...
Sora rolled over. He didn't feel any better. He rolled over again. The same. Actually, worse. In frustration, he threw his sheets off and sat up, placing his face in his hand in frustration.
What happened after a Princess of Heart died?
Was another one born or something? Or had Kairi been reincarnating for hundreds of years? No, that wouldn't have made any sense, because now there would be two Kairis. But had whatever process there was screwed up since Kairi hadn't actually died?
Jacob would know. He would ask Jacob. And if Jacob didn't answer, he would summon his Keyblade. This was Kairi he was worried about. He would get to the bottom of it.
Sora rose and walked out of his room. He went straight to Jacob's with no detours. The door opened to admit him, and he was greeted by bright lights and the sound of water running. The only person asleep was Terra.
Sora looked to the side and saw the door to the bathroom open, and Jacob splashing water on his face, a wild sort of look on his face.
"Damn it," he muttered. "(R-Rated) me... Shit..."
Sora was about to speak up when Jacob suddenly swatted violently at some invisible person next to him. "NO! Get the (R-Rated) out of here! WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU IDIOT!"
"Jacob!" Sora yelled.
Jacob whipped his head around. His glasses were gone from his face, obviously, but his eyes were still concealed by wet hair which draped over his head.
"GET THE (R-Rated) OUT!" This time, he was clearly speaking to Sora. The Keybearer didn't have a chance to say anything else before Jacob charged at him, water flying off his wet head all over the room. "I SAID GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, YOU COCK-SUCKER! MOVE!"
Sora ducked out of the room, and the door closed behind him. Sora backed up, fearful, against the wall behind him, summoning his blade into his hands, as though expecting Jacob to pursue him further.
But no such assault came. In fact, after a few seconds, Sora thought that he could hear Jacob weeping on the other side of the door.
Yes, he's hallucinating now. But he saw Sora perfectly clear. Jacob's starting to fall apart... and things are going to get worse before they get better... or maybe they'll just keep getting worse. I figure the best way to make a character not a Sue is to drag them through as much shit as possible but not actually make them emo. I guess I made him a little too awesome in the last fic... he's going to be toned down a bit in this one.
Disclaimers: Don't own Simba or Dumbo, who of course are mentioned as summons here. I don't own whoever/whatever is in the fedora charm. Just to save you some brian power, it isn't Indiana Jones. I don't own 'Ben'. You'll find out who he is next chapter.
Did I claim Router last time? Because she's mine. So is Alice. The 'Legion of Light', and the first 'Great War' and all that stuff is mine too.
Hopefully I don't need to explain what Earth is. 'Land of Liberty'... well, I'm not sure exactly what it covers, so let's just say North America and leave it at that. Roughly North America. I didn't really bother to work out the exacts of 'systems'... it's just my excuse for making irregularly large worlds. Or is it...?
No, that's pretty much it.
Oh by the way, there's a great little button just below here. It's one of the best, most buttony buttons ever seen on the web. Just a simple click and then a few words of written text can improve someone's life. And how much would I pay for this? Nothing, it's free! But wait, there's more! Click on the button within the next forty seconds and you'll get the Flame Shield, absolutely free! So come on, what are you waiting for? Click the buttony button today, and improve an author's life!
