I apologize for this chapter being a week late. I had a lot on my plate the past week, but I'm back into the groove of things...mostly. Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy this chapter. It's not overly exciting or such, but it is bringing back an old friend. ;) Well...not exactly old but...well, you'll see.
Inverted Sky: Kingdom Hearts II
Chapter 4: Mysterious Tower part I
Fifteen minutes had passed on the train, and the group had yet to arrive at their destination. Despite the fact that the locomotive itself seemed to cross into a different area of space, they were still riding along on tracks made from pure magic. Though the occupants of the train were all scattered in the single car, they still spoke to one another quite easily. Sora was sitting beside Kairi, while Namine was in the seat in front of them. Riku simply laid down in the seat to the left of Sora's, which left the remaining three to all share the one opposite of his.
"So they called their group; 'The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee'?" Sora asked with blinking eyes and a tilt of her head.
"Yep." Riku uttered with a nod in response, yet soon shrugged his shoulders.
"Though...it was either that, or; 'The Hollow Bastion Group of Helping Hands'." he continued, him giving a sweat drop and quick glance toward Kairi, as if to show that the name had been her idea.
"Hey...I thought it sounded nice." the auburn-haired teen stated with a huff and pout toward her older friend.
Sora chuckled lightly and patted her on the shoulder in comfort, to which she then looked toward Namine. "So all of our friends from Traverse Town are the current members?" she questioned as it was the blond giving most of the information that the teen was asking about.
"Yes, we too are included. Leon and Merlin were the ones to get everyone organized, but it was actually Cid whom started their missions in keeping the town safe." Namine explained with a nod of her head at the beginning.
"I guess that sort of figures." Sora muttered as a light laugh escaped her lips.
"Though I didn't get to talk to Cid that much, he definitely seemed like a 'down to business' type of guy." she continued silently, to which she then looked out the window.
Upon doing so, the teen saw what appeared to be a small, floating island. Of which was tear drop in shape and had many trees of various sizes that lined the edges. However, it was the tall tower at the far end that drew the most interest as it had a surrealistic, and rather crooked formation. The color of it was mostly golden-brown, with blue-green roofs that were each pointed like wizard's hats. These also having star and moon shaped on the surface, which were a lighter shade of blue-green so that they could be seen.
"Cool~." the brown-haired teen hummed out while standing up from her seat to get a better look.
"I had almost forgotten my favorite part about coming to a new world." she whispered to herself, the girl quickly recalling the fact that she didn't stop and really appreciate Twilight Town.
'Even if I already saw it through Xion's eyes, I was still seeing it with my own eyes for the first time. I guess I'll have a better look around the next time I go there.' Sora thought quickly while the train slowly came to a stop in front of the island.
But it was during this time that everyone spotted a large person standing at the foot of the stairs, leading up to the tower's entrance. Once the seven exited the locomotive, they stepped toward the unidentified individual in a slow and cautious manner. However, as the group came closer, a loud growling could be heard directly in front of the tall person.
This made Sora blink a few times and circle around the large individual, to which her eyes widened when she saw a familiar feline. "Zola!" she cheered out happily while rushing toward the leopard.
Whom was now even longer than Sora was tall, yet stood roughly around knee height to the brown-haired teen. The cat's fur had also become less fluffy and much more streamlined, yet her spots remained pretty much identical. Of which made it easy to tell it was indeed Zola as she still had the same formation of spots on her head.
Upon hearing her voice, Zola lifted her head to look at Sora, to which she immediately rushed toward the teen and tackled her. Sora herself grinned widely to this and hugged the large cat. Meanwhile, Zola let out a make-shift purr, as well as head-butted the teen over and over again to show her happiness. "Aw~! I missed you too~!" the brown-haired girl sang out happily as she scratched behind the cat's ears.
"You've grown so much~!" Sora continued in a singing-like voice as Zola even licked her face a few times.
All the while, the individual whom had been standing in front of Zola quickly breathed out a sigh of relief. However, they then turned toward the rest of the group and blinked many times to them. Him revealing himself to be a very large, anthropomorphic cat with two big front teeth very similar to Goofy's. "Gah! What are all you you nimrods doing here?" he demanded with a huff and an almost accusing finger pointed in their general direction.
"Pete?" Donald and Goofy uttered out in surprised while looking at this man.
"How did you get here?" Mickey questioned while jumping out into the front of the others in a defensive pose.
"Hmph...wouldn't you like to know." was all Pete responded with before quickly whistling and stepping to the side.
Immediately following this whistle, dozens of Heartless emerged from the ground and surrounded the group. This was then followed by Pete's laughter as he watched the creatures of darkness attack the six, none of whom actually making a move to fight. However, no sooner had they appeared, the Heartless all vanished with a single Thunder spell from Mickey's summoned weapon. Him not even using a hint of effort as if knowing that Pete's ability to control the Heartless was still quite small right now.
When seeing this display, Pete seemed to let out a frightened whimper and backpedal a few steps. "F-Fine! If you must know...I'm here to get that old man Yen Sid and turn him into a Heartless!" he claimed while huffing and looking up to the tower.
"I even heard that Merlin the Wizard was here too, so I decided to try and get them both! It would have been the perfect gift to Maleficent and her army!" Pete continued firmly, the others looking to him with slightly narrowed eyes.
This even catching Sora's attention as she looked over to Pete with a slightly raised brow. 'Is he someone you know?' she questioned inwardly, to which Maleficent moved in from the corner of her eye.
"Unfortunately so." the woman stated with a roll of her eyes, her gazing at Pete in obvious disappointment.
"The fool thought that he could just defeat Yen Sid and Merlin with a few measly Heartless at his command? Hmph...he insults my name just by being part of my army." she continued in near anger while giving Pete a rather hateful gaze.
Sora raised a brow in response to this, yet she continued to pet Zola regardless. 'Well first of all...that's a mean thing to say. Second...since when did you have an army?' she questioned with a slight tilt of her head to the right side.
"Hmph...since when did you think I didn't have an army?" the woman asked back as a small smirk curled her beautiful features.
"As for this buffoon...he's a moron whose only purpose thus far has been to collect weak and disposable Heartless to be 'sent to the front lines', as they say. My army requires numbers as well as quality fighters, so I brought him into my army for that exact purpose." Maleficent claimed, yet it was clear from her tone that it was only a very small portion of the full story.
But upon realizing this, the brown-haired teen narrowed her eyes slightly on the woman. 'You're hiding something. And the only reason why you would hide something from me at this point is because it has to do with some sort of future plan you have.' she claimed inwardly, to which the witch turned toward her with a raised brow.
"Oh~, I'm glad all those lessons I gave you have paid off. Your mind is much sharper than before, lets just hope that fool Merlin doesn't dull it with all his pointless studying of utterly useless information." Maleficent commented with a roll of her eyes.
This sudden change in subject instantly told Sora that the woman intended on keeping her plans a secret, no matter what. Despite the girl wanting to know what Maleficent was up to, she decided to just drop the conversation and look to Pete. "Well...I'm sure she appreciates the effort, but maybe you're biting off a bit more than you can chew?" she explained in a rather soft and understanding voice, her standing back to her feet midway through.
"Hmph! I don't need advice from you, pipsqueak!" Pete claimed with a huff before looking around to everyone.
"And you lot might have won this time, but I'll be back soon even better than ever!" he continued before throwing a small orb at the ground.
This producing a great amount of smoke, yet because of his size, Pete was still mostly visible while running away. But even during this, the smoke had already cleared by the time the large anthropomorphic dog reached halfway to the other side of the island. At which point, he tripped briefly before quickly getting back up and used some sort of portal to escape.
Once he was gone, the group just let out a breath in response, yet many of them turned to Namine as she was patting Sora on the shoulder. "It's okay, I don't think he meant it literally." the blond whispered as even Zola was pushing her head against Sora's leg to get her attention.
"B-But...he called me a pipsqueak." the brown-haired girl half whispered, half whined.
"Ugh...you realize you haven't been the shortest on the island since Kairi arrived?" Riku commented with a light sweat drop to his friend's behavior.
"Hey!" Kairi huffed out, her giving a pout toward the boy as he just cleared his throat quickly.
"N-Not that being short is a bad thing, she just didn't like being called 'short'...or anything similar to it." Riku explained while gesturing to Sora as if to make his point.
Whom was still being consoled by Namine as the blond kept patting the teen on her shoulder. "And apparently still doesn't." Donald added from the side with a heavy sigh.
"W-Well...we should head inside, Master Yen Sid is waiting for us." Mickey chimed in, him walking over to each of the teens as they slowly nodded in response.
After a brief sniffle to regather her composure, Sora cleared her throat and gave Namine a thankful smile. Though when the blond returned it with a nod, the brown-haired girl then looked to Mickey as he guided the group through the entrance of the tower. "So..." she started, to which she sent a quick glance around the small room that mostly was just there for the winding staircase leading up.
"...who exactly is this; 'Yen Sid'? And what is he like?" the girl finished in a highly curious tone as she had only heard of him by name.
"You'll see for yourself soon, but in general...he's the most powerful sorcerer there has ever been. He knows every single spell that has ever existed, as well as created a number of his own." Mickey said with a very proud sounding tone as they all walked up the many stairs.
"It's even been rumored that he is the only person to master a higher tier of magic than the greatest tier known to the worlds." he continued, his voice turning rather excited now as well.
Sora blinked many times in response to this as she recalled Xion experimenting with her magic many times. Of which had allowed her to determine that there had to be a higher levels of magic, than what she and Sora had achieved thus far. This getting the teen to thinking a great deal, as Xion's thoughts were now confirmed. But they were even more so when Maleficent let out a 'Tch' in annoyance, which instantly showed Sora that she withheld that information from her on purpose.
"So then..." the brown-haired teen began as she sent the witch within her mind an almost taunting grin.
"...how many tiers of magic are there?" she finished while tilting her head slightly inquisitively.
"Well, excluding the one only Yen Sid knows of...there are five tiers." Mickey began with a gesture to Sora immediately afterward.
"You've only reached the third tier, which is known to be the highest most mages can reach. The reason being is that...only those with extreme prowess for magic, as well as high magical reserves can even preform spells in the higher levels. After all...just one fourth tier spell has the same required power as a dozen third tier spells cast at the same time. But the power unleashed is far beyond even twenty third tier spells, so it's a tough level to reach for most." the mouse continued, causing Sora to blink many times as she quickly recalled just how powerful some of her third tier magic had been.
Yet this also explained Xemnas' power to her, to which she let out a breath and tapped her chin. "Do you think Master Yen Sid would teach me higher tier magic?" she asked just as they reached a set of doors at the top of the tower.
Mickey looked to her with blinking eyes before he soon gave a smile in response. "Without a doubt!" he claimed confidently before pushing the doors open.
There you have it, Zola is back~! Pete made his first appearance~! And Sora has finally learned about the magic tiers. ;D I hope all of you enjoyed and will let me know what you thought in a review. Anyway, until next time everyone.