Light in the Darkness Chapter 6: It's a Deep Jungle Out There, a Kingdom Hearts + Code Lyoko Crossover fanfic

A/N: SO sorry that this took so long, but this chapter's longer than all of the others before it! I hope that will satisfy you all until the next one is done!

Please support the official release. Watch Code Lyoko Evolution and wait for Kingdom Hearts III.

Chapter 6 – It's a Deep Jungle Out There

"Okay, so my friends are probably in some of these worlds with this Sora person," Aelita said, "and he's trying to defeat the Heartless to restore the worlds back to how they used to be?"

"Indeed," Belle replied.

"And when the worlds are restored, then my friends and I can go back home?" Aelita asked.

"That's precisely the idea, Aelita," Jasmine nodded.

"Do you know where Sora is now?" Aelita asked, her face beginning to light up.

"I'm sorry," Alice said, shaking her head, "but we don't know where he is right now. We have no way of contacting him or knowing where he is."

"Oh," Aelita frowned. "But how did you know that Jeremy is with Sora?"

"We can occasionally see visions of Sora in this place of wisdom," Aurora explained, "and our latest one showed Sora and a boy about your age with blond hair and glasses, perfectly matching your description of Jeremy, travelling with Sora and his companions."

"But these visions are completely random," Snow White said, "and we have no power over what we see or when these events may be taking place."

Aelita sighed sadly, hanging her head. "Well, that just stinks."

"However," Cinderella said, "We do know that he is going throughout the worlds, and that your friend Jeremy looks eagerly and restlessly for you."

Aelita smiled. "Well, there's one thing that I can count on. Jeremy's coming for me." She then stared at the design above the altar in the chapel and sighed contentedly. "I just hope he knows where I am."

[=]====m

"So we've all been zapped to different worlds because our world is gone?" Yumi asked us.

"That's the story," I nodded sadly.

"But when Sora will defeat Ansem, everything will go back to normal," Ulrich said.

"So all we have to do is find Odd, then?" Yumi asked.

I nodded. "According to the letter, he should be in the world that Sora calls Deep Jungle."

"And we're coming up on that right now!" Donald said, pointing at the map on the screen.

We all moved to the screen, which showed a map of all of the worlds that Sora had been to in his entire adventure. The style of the layout reminded me of the holomap on the supercomputer from back home. It showed our journeys from Traverse Town to Olympus Coliseum, then to Wonderland, and it showed our path to Deep Jungle as well.

"So how close are we?" Ulrich asked.

"We'll be there when we get there," Donald said irritably. "It probably won't be for a while."

"Gawrsh," Goofy said, "The map says we'll get there in less than a minute. Fifteen seconds, if I'm reading it right."

"Oh, what do you know about this kind of stuff, you big palooka?" Donald quacked.

"More than you may give him credit for, Donald," I said. "He's right, look at the map! We'll be at Deep Jungle any second now!"

"All right!" Yumi said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll be glad to have Odd back with us!"

"Wow, I guess I know a lot about this after all, a-hyuck!" Goofy chuckled.

"Ah, phooey," Donald huffed.

"We've arrived!" Sora cheered. "Everyone get ready to jump ship!"

"Jump ship?" Yumi gasped. "We're not really jumping out of this thing, are we?"

"Of course not," I laughed. "It'll only take a second to warp to the world's surface. You won't feel a thing. You'll barely even notice anything."

"Well, apart from your whole vision shifting to the new world," Ulrich pointed out.

"That's a good point," I nodded. "But like I said before, it's barely noticeable."

"Forgive me if I'm a little bit unconvinced about all of this," Yumi sighed.

"There's no need to be nervous," I said, gesturing around. "We're already here."

Yumi looked around, and saw that we were not inside of the Gummi Ship as she thought, but we were all surrounded by tall, thick trees, with the sound of a living jungle all around us. Everything around us seemed to be just bursting with life. When she turned around and took another look, she saw that we were standing on the surface of a large stone cliff overlooking an expansive and crystal clear lake which was filled by a large crashing waterfall on the other side of the cliff.

"Wow," Yumi gasped, staring in awe at the majesty of this natural wonder. "This is really amazing."

"Well, it's about to get less amazing right about now," Sora growled, pointing behind us. "Look over there!"

We all looked over the other side of the cliff to the jungle behind us, and saw what we had dreaded to see: a plethora of monkey-shaped Heartless heading right for us. Sora drew his Keyblade, Donald and Goofy drew their weapons, and Ulrich drew his katana. As they jumped down the sides of the cliff, I followed them. Noticing that someone missing, I looked back at Yumi.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked. "Those are Heartless, after all."

"Huh?" she looked at me with confusion before noticing Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ulrich fighting the Heartless. "Oh, right!" She then jumped off the cliff and threw her Tessen fans at some of the Heartless, which evaporated into dark matter upon impact, the captured hearts floating up for a while before fading away. Yumi stared up wt them for a while, very confused.

"What was that all about?" Yumi asked Sora. "I thought the Heartless just fade away, not spit something out when they've been defeated. When I faced the Heartless, they just turned to nothing before my eyes after I beat them."

"Well, they're not the only kind of Heartless, Yumi," Sora said. "In fact, there are two kinds of Heartless. First, there's the group like Shadows and Darkballs. They're Heartless of the purest darkness itself, and they can't hold the hearts that they take. Then there's the Heartless with those emblems. They are the ones who hold the hearts that they took, and they can wrap their essence around any separated heart they happen to come across."

"Separated heart?" Yumi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You remember what Sora said about the Heartless stealing people's hearts, don't you?" I asked her.

"Yeah, kinda," she replied.

"Well, that's what happens to the hearts when the darkness takes hold of them," I said.

"Okay," she said. "So if we defeat the Heartless, the hearts go back to where they belong?"

"That's the theory," I nodded.

"Well, that settles it, then," she grinned, taking her fans out. "Beat the Heartless and restore the hearts. It can't get simpler than that." She then unfolded them and threw them at two of the Powerwilds, and the fans ripped through their shadowy bodies like tissue paper. When the fans came back to Yumi, she flashed a sly smile.

"Well, this was easy," she said.

"Perhaps too easy," I added, frowning.

Just then, there came a loud crashing noise from deeper in the jungle and an equally loud and very high-pitched scream shortly followed it. After all of that, we all were almost knocked off our feet by a sudden vibration. We all turned around to face the mass of greenery and saw scores of various birds flying away from the trees in a panic.

"Somebody heeeeeelp meeeee!" the voice shrieked.

"Who the heck was that?" Sora asked.

"As if that voice could belong to anyone else," Ulrich laughed.

"There's no doubt in my mind about it," Yumi chuckled. "That's Odd, all right."

"And knowing him," I added, "he's probably close to the cause of the noise and the vibration."

"What do you mean by that?" Sora asked.

"Well, Odd's well known around our world for getting himself in a pot-load of trouble," I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Well, that sounds a lot like Goofy over here," Donald quipped.

"Hey, that's not nice, Donald," Goofy piped up. "I'm not that clumsy, right?"

"Trust me," Donald said, folding his arms, "you really don't want me to answer that."

"Alright, enough bickering," I said. "Need I remind you that we have a situation at hand?"

"Oh, right," Donald said. "Where do you think it's coming from?"

"It looked like it was coming from over there," Yumi said, pointing to the distance, where I saw a tree whose sheer mass and height dominated every other tree in the jungle. Not only was it enormous and thick, but it also supported what appeared from this distance to be a house.

"That's on the way to Jane's campsite!" Sora said. "We'd better warn her!"

"Who's Jane?" Ulrich and I asked.

"She's someone from this world," Sora replied. "She has a camp somewhere at the edge of the jungle, and she could be in danger if whatever's in there comes after her. She also mentioned that the tree house over there used to be hers when she landed here. That also could have been where your friend Odd ended up when he was flung into this world. I know that's where I ended up."

"Well then, what are we standing around here for?" I said. "Let's go find him!"

"I know the quickest way to get there," Sora said, and it leads right by Jane's campsite! Follow us, guys!"

Sora ran towards a bamboo thicket, and Ulrich, Yumi, and I followed behind him, Donald, and Goofy. After a few minutes, we cleared out of the thicket and found ourselves in an open space, surrounded by tons of crates, tents, tables, and assorted scientific equipment. In the center of the clearing was a tall flagstaff, which flew the Union Jack, the symbol of England.

"Wait a minute," I said. "How can something from our world be here? Does that mean that England is in these other worlds as well? Or is England itself another world?"

"What do you mean, Jeremy?" Ulrich asked.

"Look at that flag," I said. "It's the flag of England. But this isn't our world, so England can't be here. How can one possibly explain this?"

"I'd just chalk it up as something that doesn't need explaining, Einstein," Yumi joked. "Maybe our world and other worlds are more connected than we think."

"That is a possibility," I said. "Alright, enough other world physics for one day, let's try to find Odd here."

"Our thoughts exactly," Yumi said. "Hey, Donald! Do you think you and Goofy can lend us a hand in trying to find some clues about Odd?"

"No problem," Goofy said.

Donald looked like he was going to interject, but then sighed and followed Goofy. She and Ulrich, along with Donald and Goofy, began sorting through the tools and boxes, trying to find some clue as to where Odd may be. I followed Sora to the tent, and we both went inside.

"Hey, Jane?" Sora called out. "Are you in here?"

"Oh, Sora!" a cheery female voice rang out, with a light British accent. "I didn't expect to see you here again."

As I entered the rather large tent, my eyes met a tall woman with light brown hair that fell past her shoulders, deep and clear blue eyes, and was dressed in a plain white tank top shirt and a long dark brown skirt that fell to her feet. As she noticed Sora, she also glanced at me and looked confused.

"Oh, who's this?" she asked. "Is he a new friend?"

"Yeah, actually," Sora answered. "Jane, this is Jeremy Belpois. Jeremy, this is Jane Porter."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Porter," I said, extending my hand.

"Nice to meet you as well, Mr. Belpois," she said, shaking my hand.

"Do you happen to know if a friend of mine is around here?" I asked. "Sora took me here because I told him that I have reason to believe that he's somewhere in this jungle."

"Well, what does he look like?" Jane asked.

"He's kind of short, maybe a few centimeters shorter than me," I said, acting out a bit to visualize Odd's appearance. "He's kind of skinny, he's got blond hair spiked up into a single point, he's all dressed in a purple theme, and he may also have a long purple tail."

"A tail?" Sora and Jane exclaimed together.

"Yeah, that's a bit of a long story," I said, sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck. "I think I may have heard him earlier when a loud noise came from the jungle."

"You mean that awful crash and rumbling?" she said. "I felt it as well. I wonder what could have caused it."

As I thought on this, I heard a deep grunt come from outside the tent. When Jane heard it, her face lit up.

"Oh, he's back!" she said, and went to the tent flaps. "Jeremy, I'd like you to meet someone." When she pulled the flaps back, a hunched over figure crawled into the room. At first I thought it was a strange kind of monkey, but as I took another look, I saw that it was an adult human. His dark brown hair was styled in natural dreadlocks that hung loosely around his face, which was wild and strange. He looked at me, and I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my gut.

"Jeremy," Jane said, snapping me out of my trance, "this is Tarzan." She then spoke to the man, but spoke much slower, pronouncing every syllable. "Tarzan, Jeremy."

"Je-re-my," Tarzan slowly grunted, and he then made a grunting noise that sounded kind of like a heart beating.

"That sound was something that Sora and I figured out earlier," Jane said. "It means that he sees your heart. That grunt means 'heart' in his language."

"Oh," I said, "that's interesting."

"Strong heart," Tarzan said. "Looking for friends. Friends have strong heart."

"Yes, yes I am looking for friends!" I said, becoming excited at Tarzan's statement. "He's kind of small, smaller than me, and his hair's all spiked back like this." I made a pyramid shape with my hands. "He may also have a tail. His name's Odd, have you seen him?"

"Odd," he said, and then scratched his head, staring at me the whole time. "Friend, small, tail, Odd." After a while of this, he spoke up. "Tarzan came to tell Jane."

"Came to tell me what?" Jane asked.

"Tarzan found strange panther deep in jungle," he gutturally replied, and then turned to me. "Panther looked like Jeremy. Panther was not right color."

"What color was it?" I asked, thinking that he had seen who I was looking for.

"Panther was color of hippo," he said. "Panther was also scrawny."

"That's Odd alright!" I said happily. "Where is he?"

"Panther at tree house," he replied, pointing to the tree house in the distance. "Panther in trouble."

"In what kind of trouble?" Jane asked.

"Panther was attacked," he replied. "Same kind of monster Tarzan fought with Sora. Different monster than one with Clayton."

"Clayton?" I asked.

"He's someone who I was working with," Jane explained. "He said he was here to study the gorillas like me, but he really wanted to hunt them all. He paired with a Heartless that tried to destroy the jungle, but Sora and his friends, along with Tarzan, stopped the Heartless and Clayton before they could do any harm to the jungle."

"It wasn't easy, though," Sora said. "That Heartless was tough, really tough."

"Oh, really?" I gulped. "That doesn't sound good. Odd doesn't know about the Heartless, so he could be in some serious trouble!"

"Then you'd better go find him!" Jane said.

"My thoughts exactly," I said, and then turned to Tarzan. "Tarzan take Jeremy and Sora to tree house?"

Tarzan nodded and grunted in reply. "Tarzan take friends to tree house. Friends help panther Odd."

"Thank you, Tarzan," I said, and then rushed outside the tent. "Yumi! Ulrich! Donald! Goofy! I found someone who's seen Odd! He's going to take us to him!"

"You did?" Yumi glanced at the tent.

"That's great, Jeremy!" Ulrich cheered.

"Don't thank me," I said, as I opened the tent flaps and Tarzan came out. "Thank Tarzan here." I gestured to Ulrich and Yumi. "Tarzan, these are my friends, Ulrich and Yumi."

"Ulrich," Tarzan said, staring at the virtual samurai. He then turned to his geisha girlfriend. "Yumi." He then made another heart-grunt, and smiled. "Friends follow Tarzan. Tarzan show where Odd panther is. Have little time." He then dashed off into the jungle, leaping into the treetops and swinging from branch to branch like a monkey.

"Mind explaining this a little bit, Einstein?" Yumi asked.

"No time, guys!" I said. "Odd's in trouble. You heard what Tarzan said, we don't have much time! There's a powerful Heartless in the jungle about to make mincemeat out of Odd!"

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Ulrich said, rushing after Tarzan. "Let's go, guys!"

"About time," I said, running after him. "Yumi! Sora! Donald! Goofy! Come on!"

"We're coming!" Sora said, following us. "I know the way to the tree house too, you know!"

We all followed Sora and Tarzan along the trail though the lush jungle to get to the tree house and Odd. A few Heartless came out here and there, but Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ulrich made quick work of them. After a while, we came to a large tree with thick vines running up its middle. When Tarzan, Sora, and Ulrich began to climb up, we all got the message and climbed up the vines as well. After a long while of climbing, during which I was sweating like a pig on Christmas Day, we reached the top of the tree, where the tree house was. I turned around and got a grand view of the entire jungle spread out beneath us.

"Wow," I said. "That's remarkable."

"No time for sightseeing, Einstein!" Ulrich said, pointing to the tree house behind us. "Look over there!"

I turned around, and saw arrows of some sort flying from the tree house's already broken windows. Just then, a huge chunk of the wall just blew off, and Odd, dressed in his Lyoko attire as I thought, flew out of the tree house and onto a large fishing net spread out under the tree house in an enormous semicircle. As he got to his feet, he looked at all of us, who had now gathered around him.

"Oh, hey guys!" Odd said, tired but happy. "You found me!"

"Yeah, lucky us," Ulrich said. "Barley into this new world and already you've made a mess. That should be a new personal best."

"Would you quit trying to steal my jokes and help me?" Odd whined. "There's this weird chameleon thing that's trying to kill me here!"

I looked back up at the tree house, and saw, as Odd had mentioned, a large chameleon like creature. This creature had gray skin, wild gold eyes, and was branded with the Heartless emblem on its chest.

"It's a Heartless, all right," I said. "I believe that's your cue, Sora."

"This one's not like the Stealth Sneak I faced when I was last here," he said, brandishing his Keyblade. "This one looks different, maybe it's stronger."

"Well, I can see one thing that help us out," Donald said. "If the Stealth Sneak was weakened by magic, maybe this one is too!" He shot a bolt of lightning from his staff, and the lizard-like Heartless was then paralyzed, giving off quite a lot of static.

"Allow us," Sora said, and motioned to Ulrich. Ulrich jumped up and slashed the beast's legs from underneath him, and Sora slashed at the emblem with the Keyblade. The beast slashed its claws at them, but Sora and Ulrich deflected the attack and countered. They both brought their weapons together and slashed at the monster's back, sending it off the tree house. With the strength of these two fierce attacks, the Heartless fell from the tree house's net and into the trees below, fading away as it fell. Ulrich and Sora slowly climbed down to the net, a bit winded but unharmed.

"You guys okay?" I asked.

"Just fine, Einstein," Ulrich grinned. "So now that we've found Odd, what next?"

"Simple," I replied. "We go to Hollow Bastion and find Aelita. Then we can help Sora beat Ansem and free our world."

"Uh, what are you guys on about?" Odd asked. "Did I just miss something here?"

"We'll explain it all once we get back to the ship," I said, and then turned to Tarzan. "Can you tell Jane that we found Odd and that we're leaving to find our last friend?"

Tarzan nodded. "I will tell her. All will be well. Go and find her, Jeremy. Aelita is your light, and you both need each other."

I gasped at Tarzan's sudden comprehensible sentence, but he then turned his back and flew off into the jungle, giving off a war cry as he went.

"Well, that was interesting," I said. "Are you ready to find Aelita, Odd?"

"But Jeremy," Odd said, tensing up. "I thought you'd know by now that she's…"

"She's not dead, Odd!" I laughed. "She's still alive! I've seen it for myself! She's in another world, but she's alive!"

"What are you on about now?" Odd asked, clearly confused.

"Trust me, Odd," I said, as Donald whisked us back to the Gummi ship, "you'll know soon enough."

A/N: At last, this story is coming to its best part! I hope you will be patient with me as I write away!

-JeremyX signing off!