Chapter 4
(Kittens and Books)
"Well, what did Yen Sid say while I was getting new clothes?" she asked, taking a seat in the center chair while Goofy and Donald took their usual chairs.
"That we should go to Disney Castle," Goofy replied, "Donald was trying to explain why we thought your memory was gone, but Gawrsh, Master Yen Sid just didn't seem to be listening..."
Looking down, she tapped her toes on the floor under her chair and said, "I got the feeling that he's the type that only says things once, so you'd better shut up and listen." Lifting her eyes, she smiled at them both and added, "But he said there was nothing wrong with my memory, so maybe the Organization hasn't messed it up. I think... something happened to me shortly before you found me, something that knocked things loose. Maybe the train wreck... I just need time for everything to rattle its way back into place, and that doesn't need baby-sitting. So let's get to something we possibly can do something about- which is getting the King, Kairi, and Riku back."
"Right," Donald agreed, "Let'sh get to Dishney Cashtle!"
"Hyuck!" Goofy agreed, lifting a hand enthusiastically.
She sat back in her chair, glad that they'd not had to ride the train again- she just wondered why she'd not had that problem riding the trolley through Twilight Town. Perhaps it had something to do with the little she'd remembered about the argument with Gary? A cascade of memories? Maybe.
Shaking her head, she lifted her feet to admire her new sneakers. They were black and gold to match the rest of her outfit. How cool was that? Way cool.
Lifting her hands, she cracked her knuckles and grinned, "So, how about we give getting to the castle another shot?"
Giving a cheer, Donald and Goofy grinned and turned towards their screens, and a moment later, Donald turned towards her and said, "Why don't you take ush to the door thish time, Shora?"
Looking towards the controls in front of her, she though on that, then nodded, "Alright. It's less dangerous than the last thing you had me doing." She laughed lightly and leaned forward to take the controls. Again, Donald and Goofy laughed with her and she pushed the joystick forward, experimented with a few more of the buttons, and discovered the other weapons and how to boost forward, then took them in the direction Donald told her to go.
It took nearly ten minutes to reach the door they needed, and Donald said, "I think thish ish the door we need."
"Well, better to try than to not. Besides," she said reasonably, "We may need this path again later, even if it's not the right one."
"Gawrsh Sora, hadn't really thought of it that way," Goofy said, scratching the side of his head, then shrugged. "Let's try it then!"
Nodding, she punched forward, diving through the door as it opened. This time, they leapt through the light into a field of asteroids. Ships immediately began popping out of nowhere, shooting at them from all directions. More familiar with the controls this time, she dived and dodged, destroying her enemies with a gleeful grin. "Woo! I'm a Space Pirate Blaster extraordinaire!"
"SHORA!" Donald shrieked, throwing his wings up in front of his face in terror as they punched forward- straight towards a spinning asteroid. Abruptly, she jammed the joystick forward and they dived straight downwards, leaving their pursuing enemies to crash into the obstacle before they knew what had happened. Sliding by just under the asteroid, she shot forward again with a hard jab on the thrusters, then rolled aside as a spike from the asteroid loomed up ahead.
"SORA!" Goofy shouted this time, covering his eyes as an enemy appeared right in front of them. Again, she rolled aside, then darted around their enemy, hitting the button that would kick out some mines behind them.
"Donald! Take the controls!" she shouted and aimed for the approaching keyhole.
Spurred to action, the duck took hold and she let go, calling her Keyblade and aimed it at the hole. "Open Says Me!" she said cheerfully and light shot out, unlocking the path.
A flash of light later and they were through, her companions panting.
"The paths sure've gotten a lot more dangerous lately," Goofy breathed.
"Look!" Donald bounced in his seat, "Dishney Cashtel! We made it Shora!"
She grinned, "Yeah, I'm good!" she proclaimed and flexed her non-existent biceps. This made her companions laugh once more, which was a good thing to hear, and Donald took over the controls, giving her time to flex her fingers and wipe her sweaty palms on her knees. "So, our itinerary here is to talk to the Queen, check out the scene of the crime, and do some general info-snooping to turn up any other possible leads. Having more than one string to follow is good, especially when all paths lead to the same place."
Donald glanced over, but Goofy was the one who spoke, "Hyuck, that sounds like a plan to me, Sora!" he exclaimed and once their ship was parked in orbit, the three of them got up and headed to the teleport pad. This time, she closed her eyes well in advance and opened them once the flash had gone past her eyelids.
"Well," Goofy murmured, "That's odd. There's no one here."
The room they'd teleported to was a small library and it was also entirely empty of people.
"She'sh ushually here thish time of day," Donald admitted.
"Uh, maybe she's taking care of things the King usually takes care of. After all, someone's got to do his job while he's away," she offered. "More power to her, yeah?" she lifted a fist briefly in rally of female rights and all that jazz. "Let's hunt around," she volunteered as she stepped away from her companions, then paused, turning back towards the other two, "Uh, what does the queen look like now?"
In unison, Goofy and Donald slapped hands over their faces, then pointed towards a portrait hanging on the wall.
Raising her brows, she murmured, "Oh. Right!" shrugging, she turned away and headed on a self-guided tour around the room. "It's said," she murmured, "You can tell what a person is like by the books they read." She eyed the titles of the books. There was one on the second shelf that had neither title nor author, which was odd amidst the line of books that contained both. The book was about an inch thick with a green cover- a cover that looked very familiar. At first, her heart had skipped upon seeing it, 'My diary?' she asked herself. However, upon opening it, she'd found she was wrong and instead decided to continue her joke. Putting a hand to her chin, she murmured a few, "Um-hmm," and "I see," noises. Donald and Goofy snuck closer to listen, watching her intently. "I think..." she murmured finally, and trailed off.
"What!" Donald demanded, "what do you think!"
Closing the book she was holding with a snap, she turned an about-face to look at them and puffed out her chest before stating, "I think I know absolutely nothing about judging people by the books they read," she announced, then turned and put the book she was holding back into it's place on the shelf as Donald and Goofy collapsed to the floor behind her.
Behind them, the door banged open and instinct had her dodging immediately to the left and turning. The words 'I didn't do it!' dying on her lips as she spotted a female duck in a purple dress and the queen standing in the doorway. The female duck had apparently been the one to kick the door open, for the queen, a short mouse in a pink and red dress, was saying, "Daisy, I wish you wouldn't abuse my doors like that..."
"Donald!" Daisy shouted, "You skipped out on yet another of our dates!"
"Ouu, busted," the tall humanoid girl sniggered.
"Sora!" the queen exclaimed, "I'm so glad they found you!" she padded across the room towards them. Goofy came to attention while Donald tried to explain to his girlfriend about how it was slightly impossible for him to schedule disasters around their dating calendar, and the girl took her cue from Goofy. "I was so worried when Goofy and Donald didn't report back within a few days!"
"Sorry ma'am," the girl explained, "The paths have closed and it took them longer to find me than anticipated. We also had a layover at Twilight Town. Seems the Organization is back, and working with Maleficent."
This caught both Minnie and Daisy's attention and they both gasped. "Oh no! This is terrible!" the queen gasped and clasped her hands together and began pacing. "And on top of that, Maleficent captured King Mickey."
"She's got Kairi and Riku as well," the girl added. "Our enemies are trying to use them against me." Except that she had no clue who Kairi and Riku were, but suspected that she should have felt very concerned about the fact that they were captured. After all, why use bait that wasn't tasty to the fish you were trying to catch? Empty hooks only caught old boots after all.
Minnie put her hands to her mouth, "Oh- this just gets worse and worse!" she cried. "All the old paths have been closed and Chip and Dale say they've gotten readings from new worlds!"
"Well- the old ones should be safe. They're closed to the Darkness..." Goofy pointed out, though she suspected that was for her benefit rather than to really remind the Queen about it.
Nodding, the girl added, "then we'll concentrate on doing the same for the new worlds." For confirmation of that, she looked up at Goofy who nodded. "For now though, I'd like to know where and when the King was kidnapped? I'm hoping to get some leads as to where he was taken."
Immediately, Minnie nodded, "In fact, he was right here in this room," she explained, turning and pacing over to the book case the girl had just been standing at. "He'd been looking at one of these books. I- I'm afraid I don't remember which one, though I know it was green." The queen looked over at her, "I had just finished speaking with him about the new worlds and the paths and was leaving when I heard a thump and turned around. That was when Heartless appeared and tackled Mickey before he could draw his Keyblade, then they disappeared."
"Hm." The girl said softly, then turned towards the books, "Can you remember which shelf was missing a book while you were speaking with him?"
Starting to shake her head, the queen paused, then looked and pointed, "Unfortunately, the brooms have cleaned since then, but I believe it was the second shelf."
Blinking, the girl reached out and touched a book, the one she'd been looking at before the queen had come in and pulled it out. The Queen paused, eyes narrowing before she looked up at the girl and said, "You think that's the book he was looking at, Sora?"
"It's out of order with the others," she replied, "The others are in alphabetical order by their authors," the girl pointed out, "This one has no author. I was looking at it a second ago because it was so odd. Maybe there's something more than intuition going on?" she cast a smile at Goofy and Donald and flipped the book open again, taking a closer look. 'Or maybe my luck is finally changing,' she added mentally.
Smiling to herself cheerfully, she skimmed her eyes over the pages and leaned back against the shelf behind her as she flipped through the book, unaware that the others were staring at her, waiting for her to come up with something, though usually being the center of attention gave her the creeps. "Hey, can I borrow this?" she asked, looking at the queen, who actually nodded.
"If it's important, I'm sure he would want you to have it," the short mouse-woman said.
Goofy spoke up, "What's in it, Sora?"
"I'm not sure. It's mostly diagrams, but it looks like the plans to a machine of some sort," she said softly, "Not sure of the purpose of it yet, but my rough guess would be a weapon of some kind. I'd have to look at the labels on the diagrams more closely. The writing is faded and hard to read."
"Then take it, Sora," the queen replied.
Closing the book, she opened one of her side-packs and put the book in, "However, that leaves us back on square one with where the Heartless took the King. Common sense says that wherever the king is, Maleficent and the Organization Thirteen leader are, and we can only hope to God that the two of them are squabbling- since that makes our job easier. Divide and conquer!" she pumped a fist into the air, then down and gave a victory sign. Sobering once more, she concluded, "Looks like we'll have to play along with their game for now, boys. Keep the bad-guys happy so they don't eliminate me from the game before we've got our counter attack planned. Let's close those new worlds to the Darkness first. Maybe we'll meet a few Heartless Generals along the way and pump them for information?"
Looking up, the queen nodded, worry still in her eyes, "You be careful, Sora. They probably want you to re-create Kingdom Hearts."
Daisy spoke up once more, "And you," she said accusingly at Donald, "Get back in time for our next date! Or else!"
Donald cowered back from her and said, "Yesh Daishy!"
Sniggering, the girl linked her hands together and put them behind her head, "What a functional relationship," she mused then dropped her hands to look around again, her eyes drifting downwards to a small black and white kitten with a large pink bow that had wandered into the room.
"Hey, who's this?" the girl asked, crouching to hold a hand out to the little kitten. Approaching, the kitten sniffed at her fingers, stretching its neck out as far as it could to keep from getting too close to the stranger.
"That's Figaro," Minnie introduced- just as the kitten took a vicious swat at the girl's hand.
Hissing her breath in, she retracted her finger and frowned, "Beelzebub more like." The kitten hissed, and for some odd reason, that made her want to smile- the little beast was oddly charismatic. Sticking her scratched finger into her mouth and sucking on it, she stood, ignoring the kitten now, since it was determined to be mean. "In any case, I think that's all the information we'll get here for now. We'll try to check in soon- once we know a bit more."
"Please do," Minnie said, sounding almost pleading.
'Does NO ONE keep this woman informed?' the girl thought, meeting the queen's gaze. 'From that look she's giving me... probably not. Poor woman.' Taking a breath, she lowered her hand from her mouth and said, "I'll do my best." With that, she, Goofy, and Donald saluted.
"We should go," Donald said sadly. "Shorry Daishy, I'll try to make it back for our nexsht date!"
Grinning, the girl added, "I'll drag him back by his tail, Ma'am."
Daisy laughed, "You do that, Sora. Good bye! Be careful!"
They nodded and stepped away from the two women, the girl adding as an afterthought, "You two stay safe as well. Wouldn't want more hostages added to the mix." 'Or worse,' her Negative Voice added sourly.
Again, she failed to blink in time and stood on the teleport pad on their ship for a long moment, thoroughly blinded. "Ahg! Didn't blink again!" she exclaimed, scrubbing her eyes. Donald and Goofy laughed, though it was in sympathy. Finally, able to see slightly, she headed back to her seat and flopped down, "So. Where to, Donald?"
"We're recsheiving the locationsh of the new worldsh from Chip and Dale right now," the duck replied. "Done!"
Her screen lit up with what was apparently a map of the known universe, then the new worlds, highlighted in green question marks. "Mmm," she murmured, gazing at the map. "I guess go to the nearest unknown path and see where it leads." 'Since when did I become an adventuring spirit?' she asked herself.
'Since you had no choice,' her Negative Voice sighed, 'You're just setting yourself up for a big fall, going along with all this idiocy. You should have refused them first thing.'
'How COULD I? ...maybe I'll never get the chance to BE something again? They seemed to know me anyway...' she argued with herself while Donald took their ship in hand and started off.
Her Negative Voice replied, 'Sure, the name Sora is familiar, but... for some reason, I don't think it's OUR name.'
'Of course it is. Everyone calls me Sora. How can it not be our name? ...Our. Oh Lord! I'm plural now!'
'We were always plural, dummy. Since the beginning,' the Negative Voice sighed and subsided into silence.
That left her sitting in confusion as she tried asking her Negative Voice, 'Beginning? Of what? When?' However, her other voice declined to respond and she was left sitting there by her mental lonesome. Thankfully distraction came when Donald announced that they had reached their destination and she was forced to take the controls yet again.
AN: If any paragraphs or sentences look odd, please tell me and they will be fixed ASAP.
Next Chapter: Sky and Ocean- there's a point on the horizon where the ocean and sky meet, a haze that makes the boundary indistinct; where does one end and the other begin?