Chapter 4: Passage through Nightmare
Sora walked around the Gummi ship as a feeling of nostalgia washed over him like a wave. He had discovered so many things in this quirky little vessel, traveled across the stars with it. He felt almost giddy looking around, like he was a little boy again.
Even Riku's sullen and serious expression faded a little as he looked around him. It seemed nearly impossible how something so small and unimpressive on the outside could look so large and fantastic on the inside.
"So this is how you got to all those worlds, huh?" Riku asked softly.
"Yep!" Goofy said as he moseyed past him on his way up to the cockpit. "Not a bad way of getting around, huh?"
Riku chuckled lightly, "No, I guess not." he smiled.
"Hey watch where you're stepping!" a tiny voice shouted suddenly. Riku looked left and right but saw no one. "Huh? Who said—" he looked down, and too his surprise found two chipmunk leering up at him. "–that. Great. Rodents." Riku mused.
"We are not rodents!" they squeaked.
"Be nice, Riku." Sora insisted, coming up to him. He bent and scooped the two small woodland animals in the palms of his hands. "They're our mechanics."
Riku's right eye had a distinct twitch. "Are you serious?" he asked.
"You bet he is!" the chipmunk with the bulbous red nose insisted, jumping up and down.
"Easy guys, easy!" Sora assured them. "He's a good guy, honest."
"Well alright, if you say so, Sora." the one with the black nose answered. "I'm Chip!"
"And I'm Dale!" The red nosed chipmunk exclaimed, throwing his arm around his brother.
"Ah. Nice to meet you...I think." Riku nodded. They bounced out of Sora's hand and scattered about the ship, totting tiny tool-boxes in their paws.
"Well...what do you think?" Sora asked, putting his arm around Riku's waist.
"I guess I'm just trying to take it all in." Riku answered. "I feel like there's a so much of you I don't even know about."
Sora gave a him a soft smile and kissed his cheek. "Not as much as you think." he answered.
Riku smiled and put his arms around him, kissing him hard. It was then the brunette felt a tickle at his ear. "Oh my! Pardon the interruption!" a tiny voice said.
Sora's eyes snapped open and he glanced to his shoulder, to find a green cricket sporting a top-hat and suit looking up at him with an air of embarrassment.
"Jiminy!" Sora gasped, still holding onto Riku.
"Is that a bug?" the silver-haired boy blinked. His lover was talking to a very well articulated insect, they were on a ship piloted by two men who were really a duck and a dog and engineered by chipmunks. It seemed like a bizarre dream.
"Good to see you again, Sora! And you too Riku!" Jiminy nodded, tipping his hat. "You two seem to be getting along very well indeed!"
"I'm sorry...have we met before?" Riku asked, blinking at the cricket.
"Oh my, forgive me! You probably don't remember me, we met very briefly when you and Sora were reunited." Jiminy explains.
"Oh." Riku nodded.
"You two had better get up here and take a seat, the ride's gonna get a little bumpy!" Goofy called.
They scrambled up the ladder that lead to the upper part of the ship containing the cockpit. It seemed they had already covered quite a bit of distance since their take-off. Sora and Riku strapped themselves into their seats, watching eagerly out the window as the velvety blackness of space passed them by.
"Any trouble on the way here?" Sora asked, looking to Goofy.
"Well...now that you mention it..." Goofy began.
Donald glared at him. "He didn't mention anything." he hissed. He glanced backwards at Sora. "Why don't you two try to get some sleep? It's a long trip ahead."
Sora looked sternly at the white-haired blue-clad wizard. "No secrets Donald." he said firmly. Donald only stared stubbornly back at him, but Goofy squirmed under Sora's piercing gaze.
"You see, there's been these strange dark patches between the paths to the worlds." He blurted out.
"Goofy!" Donald almost barked. "Don't you dare..."
"He should know, Donald!" Goofy gasped, trying to appeal to Donald's reasonable side.
But it was not Donald, or even Sora that answered. It was Riku. "What do you mean dark patches?" he asked. He leaned forward in his seat, anticipating an answer.
Donald was looking severely at Goofy and glancing quizzically at Riku almost at the same time. Goofy gave the silver-haired young man his full attention at this point, as did Sora. "Do you know something about it?" he asked.
"It sounds familiar, is all." Riku answered. "Like how the Nobody used to open portals."
Donald shook his head. "It's not the same thing, we've already looked into that." he answered quickly. "It's like a living tunnel of blackness. If you get stuck in it, there's no telling where you'll come out, or if you'll come out at all." he added.
Sora and Riku exchanged glances, but Riku seemed just as lost as him at this point.
"People have...disappeared going through these?" Sora asked.
"Far as we can gather." Goofy shrugged.
"Sounds like Heartless mischief." Sora nodded, reclining in his seat. "Is that what the King wants to see me about?" he added.
"It's possible." Donald said.
"Probable." Goofy nodded.
Sora nodded and contented himself with staring out the window.
The trip from Destiny Island to Disney Castle was longer than Sora remembered. At one point, he remembered explaining to Riku how Goofy had gotten himself stuck in one of the hedges in the gardens surrounding the castle, and the next he found himself blinking awake, feeling groggy and stiff. He felt extremely warm, almost to the point of discomfort, and found that the source was the body-heat coming from what he had been resting on. Riku.
The older boy was also asleep, his head resting on Sora's, one arm hung limping around his waist. Sora shifted gently so not to wake him and unbuckled himself. His left arm was suffering from that irritating pins-and-needled phase, and when he stood up he felt like he might immediately fall back down.
In front of him, Goofy was snoring loudly, his large feet propped up in front of him on the panel, and Donald was also snoozing. The ship was on autopilot. Sora peered into the star-speckled blackness, and could make out what appeared like a world coming into view.
He started to wake Donald, when he realized he had an urgent need to use the restroom. He slunk down the ladder and into the lower deck of the ship, to find at least some of the ship's crew was still hard at work.
Chip and Dale scurried about, cleaning this, adjusting that, dusting here and there and so on. Sora apologized for nearly stepping on Dale as he staggered his way towards the restroom. He couldn't understand why he felt so groggy, as if he'd been sleeping for ages.
After thoroughly relieving himself–and glad of it–he splashed cold water on his face and headed back out into the ship. Just as he was about to reach the ladder, the ship jerked violently to the right, and threw the boy from his feet.
Sora slammed against the wall, hard enough to make him yell. Feeling the air knocked out of him, he laid there for a moment stunned as the ship rocked hard to the left, and then again to the right. Donald was squawking from the cockpit, and he could here Riku yelling above the noise.
"Hey watch it out there, Sora!" Jiminy yelled suddenly from his place inside Sora's pocket. "You almost squashed me!"
"Jiminy, I told you that's not a good—" The boy started to scold the cricket, but had no time when was once again thrown violently across the ship. This time Sora managed grab one of the ladder rungs before he slammed into something else.
"What's going on?!" he shouted up into the cockpit.
"We seem to be experiencing some turbulence!" Goofy called back. He appeared at the hatch and helped pull Sora up into the cockpit. Riku was standing behind Goofy, eyes wide.
The space around them had changed. No longer were they passing through the nothingness of space, the blackness around them seemed to be a living thing. It moved and churned, and hurled the ship back and forth violently within itself.
"Is this what you were talking about?" Sora gasped, looking at the others.
"Yep!" Goofy gasped, grasping onto his seat as the cockpit shook and rattled.
"There's no choice but to ride it out, if we try to break out of it before we reach the other side, it could dump us anywhere." Donald yelled, struggling with the controls.
"Gwarsh!" Goofy gasped.
"Everybody brace yourselves!" Sora cried. He leaned over Donald, helping him take control of the ship. Chip and Dale scrambled up Goofy's arms and legs and took shelter in his cap, while Riku braced himself against the seat.
The ship plummeted through the living blackness, and Sora gritted his teeth as he fought against the unsteadiness of the ship and the G-force pulling on him.
"We're not going to make it!" Donald yelped.
"Yes were are, I see the end of the portal!" Riku gasped. But the darkness wasn't finished with them yet. With one last great churn, it sent to ship into a wild tailspin. Riku went flying across the cockpit, as did Donald.
"RIKU!" Sora cried, letting go of the controls.
"SORA NO!" Goofy yelped, but it was too late.
With a great wrenching lurch the ship rolled onto it's side as it was being sucked down through the black tunnel away from the small glimpse of light at the other end. It gained speed as it hurtled through the unknown and threatened to tear itself apart.
The ship's wheel was spinning so fast Sora did not dare try to grab it. Instead he summoned the Keyblade once more, and jammed it into the spokes between the wheel.
The ship twisted to the left as a result, and Sora yelled for Goofy to take control. The young man obeyed at once, and just in time. As abruptly as it had come upon them, the portal spit them out, and almost directly into the atmosphere of some other world.
Space disappeared, replaced by bright blue sky, and the ground coming up all too quickly to greet them. Somehow, Goofy managed to even them out, but the crash was inevitable.
They rumbled through rocky grey canyon walls and fell to the ground, sliding across the rock and stone as the ship ground itself to a halt.
Goofy lifted his head slowly from the steering wheel, pushing his hat out of his eyes. From it, Chip and Dale moaned woozily. "Gwarsh, is everyone okay?" he asked, looking around.
Donald moaned and pulled himself shakily to him feet with the help of the seat. He started to stand then lurched forward. Goofy caught the shorter boy before he hit the floor again and propped him up against him.
"Thanks Goofy..." Donald said holding his stomach, sweat visible on his forehead. Goofy smiled and patted the shorter boy on the back.
Sora was bent over Riku, holding the taller boy in his arms.
"Riku! Riku!" he gasped.
Riku groaned painfully and put a hand to his head, sitting up slowly. "I'm okay..." he mumbled. Sora grinned and held him tightly.
"Everyone in one piece?" Jiminy asked, poking out of Sora's hood.
"Everyone except the ship." Sora replied, helping Riku to his feet. Slowly they made their way outside, Chip and Dale bemoaning every damage they saw.
Donald touched the door hatch to open it, only to have it fall open on it's own and land with a clunk on the ground below.
They peered out at their surroundings, taking in the steep canyon walls that surrounded them on both sides.
"Close call..." Goofy nodded, stepping out of the ship, helping Donald along the way.
"No kidding." Donald mumbled. He glanced back at Sora and Riku as the other two boys climbed out of the ship as well.
"This place...looks familiar." Sora mused. He was certain this was a world they had been to before, which could only mean good things.
"Yeah, it does." Goofy nodded.
"I know where we are." Riku said from behind him. He pointed into the distance at the canyon wall. "See the castle spires?"
Sora squinted into the distance, but was able to make them out after a moment or two. "Yeah! I see it!" he grinned. "We're in Hallow Bastion!"
"Well it's a long way from Disney Castle." Donald muttered, adjusting his clothing and taking further stock of the ship. "And with a damaged ship it doesn't look like we'll be making it anytime soon."
As he said this he rubbed the side of his head, which had begun to itch for some reason. Goofy gasped then. "Donald! You're bleeding!"
Donald turned to look at his now human companion and saw that his face was white and his eyes wide. "Goofy what are you–?" he started, the lowered his hand. His fingers were red and sticky.
"Okay, okay, don't move." Riku said stepping along side the much shorter boy's head, using his other hand to take Donald's, which was now shaking. "It's just a scratch, Donald, you're okay."
Donald didn't say anything until he heard a distinct ripping sound and felt Sora tugging on his pant leg. "Hey!" he gasped as Sora tore a sizeable piece of fabric from the cuff.
"Well we need something to stop the bleeding." Sora answered, wrapping the blue fabric around Donald's head in place of Riku's hand. "That should do it."
Donald frowned at him and pulled out his wand, tapping it to his pant leg. "Mend." A moment later his pant leg was restored to it's previous condition.
"Why couldn't you just do that you're head?" Sora asked, hands on his hip. Donald frowned. "It doesn't work on people. Only potions do that." he replied. He took a step forward and then swayed on his feet.
Again Goofy caught him before he fell but instead of simply righting him, he scooped him up.
"Put me down!" Donald squawked.
"It'll be easier this way, I think." Goofy winked.
Riku and Sora giggled, then turned to look in the distance. "Well, if we're in Hallow Bastion then I think I know where we can patch up Donald and the Gummi ship in one stop."