You know the worst part about writing a story? Is when you can't find a quiet spot to write. All day I had tried to sit and write, but this house has been way to active today. I blame it on the warm weather. It's been cold and icky for so long that everyone's got a lot of energy with the nice few days we've had.
Disclaimer! I would love to say I owned Kingdom Hearts, but I don't. It along with all related characters belongs to Disney and Square Enix.
Chapter Seven
Maleficent had been unable to rest now that Pete had pulled his foolish stunt. Now she simply sat in her throne, contemplating the demise of the king and that sorry excuse of a resistance. Pathetic rabble. It was only a matter of time before she learned of the location of their base. Once she knew where it was she would crush them all swiftly and painfully. And if the key bearer and the king hadn't been turned into a heartless first then they would be forced to watch as their friends fell one by one...then again, if Sora had become a heartless first then she would order him to be the one to finish them off. Yes, they would be wiped out by the very hero they had hoped would save them.
The more she thought about it, the bigger her evil grin grew. But it turned to a frown when she heard a familiar humming sound and the Cheshire Cat appeared.
"Greetings your evilness." He bowed.
Maleficent stared at the cat with an annoyed expression. "Where have you been?" she asked.
"Where have any of us been?" He replied in his usual riddle speech. But, for once he decided to throw her a bone. "Oh~ I've been around."
Maleficent tilted her head slightly. "And what have you to report."
The Cheshire Cat's large grin grew wider. "Many things." She listened in as he reported, but soon became annoyed when he spoke in riddles.
"With mice that fly and children that hide, it's not easy to find what you seek.
Through space of stone, to unlock thy throne, the key has fallen deep.
Search for fire red atop of head and water of a musical party,
To find the key to thy victory who knows where, but nobody."
With that the cat vanished without uttering another word, leaving the witch to figure out his riddles. Despite her vast knowledge and mastery of the dark arts Maleficent was not good at solving riddles.
A distant commotion told her she wouldn't get a chance to try solving this one anytime soon.
~*~STL~*~
A corridor of darkness opened up and Riku took one step forward out of the shadows. It was a strange sight that greeted him. He was on the deck of a ship. He looked around for the girl, but the portal closed behind him and the girl never emerged with him.
Riku knew he couldn't do anything about that now. His only option was to see where he was, then he could get a better understanding of his situa-...he stopped and closed his eyes as a gust of wind blew around him. It had been so long since he had felt the wind. It was a comforting feeling, knowing he was finally free.
A sudden clanking sound of glass pulled him back to the world around him. He snuck up along the side of the deck and listened in to the man who was moving about his cabin.
"Why is the rum always gone?" His words were slurred, as if he had consumed one too many. A glass bottle fell and shattered to the ground and the man spoke up again. "Oh, that's why."
Riku didn't know if this man was friend or foe and looked around for anything he could use in case he was the latter. It was then that he heard a small explosion coming from somewhere over the rail of the ship.
Hurrying over to the rail Riku realized where he was. He was at the docks near the Forbidden Palace! And there was something going on in the courtyard. Without worrying about the man drunk in his cabin, Riku hurried over and hoisted the anchor. Once the ship was free he began to steer it over towards the castle, secretly glad it could fly, even if it wasn't Captain Hook's pirate ship.
. . .
Jack, Mulan and Aladdin were now having an easy time getting out. Every new hall brought more heartless. Soon there was at least three score after them and not just simple shadows or soldiers. Several Gargoyles, and a few large bodies, some of which were breathing fire!
Without the broom to help them navigate they were trusting everything to luck and praying they wouldn't come upon a dead end. Mulan cut down two heartless as they rounded a corner while Jack focused on countering the oncoming fire with his own. The flames collided and burst on impact creating more explosions. The Pumpkin King used this to his advantage and timed it right so that the explosions would also take out some of their pursuers.
Aladdin took the lead with Abu running a little ways ahead, darting between heartless and scanning every new path for a way out. More heartless appeared from under their feet as they ran as if their very foot steps were summoning them.
"There's too many!" Aladdin shouted as he struck another soldier with his sword. Mulan was right behind him, pulling Abu to safety from the soldier who had appeared in the defeated one's place.
Their luck soon ran out when they came across the sight they had been dreading. A dead end. There was one glimmer of hope. The dead end had a window.
Mulan looked out the window and noticed a large vine with thorns digging into the structure. It looked strong enough for them to descend.
"Star climbing!" Jack told the others. "I'll hold them back!"
"We're not leaving without you!" Mulan replied.
The famous skeleton grin appeared on Jack's face. "I hope not. I'm just going to buy us some time to give you a head start! I'll be down in a jiffy!"
Jack turned and smiled at the heartless. "Besides, you can't kill a skeleton. I'm already dead!"
A fire began to swirl around the pumpkin king's arms. "And since I am dead..." he began laughing with a chattering cackle as the flames traveled along his arms to his hands as he raised them up in the air like the branches of a creepy old tree. "...I can take off my head!"
With that he pulled his head right off from his neck and channeled the flames around his skull and threw it at the heartless. His mouth opened and out came a powerful wall of fire that incinerated anything and everything it made contact with.
Aladdin and Mulan were halfway down the vine when a flaming pumpkin king jumped from the window and landed in the small fountain below. They sped up their efforts and rushed to the fountain once they were safely on the ground.
Jack emerged from the water and brushed off his shoulder.
"Are you alright!?" Mulan asked him, stunned by his actions.
"Never better!" Came his cheerful reply.
"Guys, we got company!" Aladdin pointed to the heartless that were pouring from the main doors with Pete urging them on.
. . .
In a very short time Jack, Mulan and Aladdin had been cornered in the castle's lawn. They could see the small gate from where they had entered from, but there was no way of getting to it now. Pete really knew which heartless to call this time. Four large bodies, seven gargoyles and various soldier and shadow heartless. The team was tired and had run out of potions. Even Jack had used the last of his magical abilities with that last attack.
"Hehe, just wait 'til Maleficent gets ahold of you three. Why, you'd be wishin' you had stayed in yer little hide away instead of coming back here." Pete told them. "You might as well save yourselves the trouble and tell me where the resistance base is now."
"And hand over our friends on a silver platter? No thanks!" Jack replied.
"Yeah! You must be pretty desperate to impress her after she caught you with a stuffed dolly." Aladdin taunted.
This made the group smirk and even earned a chuckle and some sneers from the surrounding heartless. Pete growled in response.
"That does it! I was gonna go easy on ya, but not after that! No way! Heartless!" He pointed at the three. "Take 'em out-huh?!"
He looked up at as a shadow had cast itself over the group from above. With his hand still pointing at the trio Pete looked up and saw the Black Pearl hovering above them.
"Way to go Sparrow!" Aladdin shouted.
"Guess it was a good idea he came along after all!" Mulan and Jack agreed.
A rope ladder unfurled itself as it came to a stop in front of Abu. The moment the monkey jumped onto the ladder Pete snapped out of his shock.
"Well don't just stand there! Don't let 'em get away!"
The heartless all attacked at once. The group couldn't climb the ropes and fight them off at the same time. Pete saw this and chuckled gleefully. His victory was only moments away and he'd have three new prisoners for Maleficent. She'd have to admit that she had been wrong about the intruders and finally give him the respect he deserved!
The sound of glass breaking shattered any hopes Pete had of a success. All around the area glass bottles were dropping like missiles on to the mass of heartless below. Defeating some on impact while stunning others. A large body who had been struck in the head fell backwards and crushed a gargoyle and two soldiers.
This gave the three the chance they needed. Once they were high enough and out of the firing range of the heartless the bottles stopped falling and the ship began to take off.
"Hang on!" The driver called down as the ship began its accent into the sky. The trio clung on tight to the ropes until the ship stabled itself. With a breath or relief they climbed up and onto the deck where they lay for a moment to rest.
"I'll have to apologize to Sparrow later. I sorely misjudged him." Jack admitted.
The others nodded in agreement when the cabin doors burst open and a wobbly Jack Sparrow stumbled over to the main mast. "Oyi! Who in name of thunder are you? Takin' a man's rum like that and chuckin' it overboard, and then commendeering 'is vessel while e's still aboard! How dare you sir!"
The group exchanged confused glances between each other. If it wasn't Sparrow who saved them then who?
"My apologies, Captain." Came the same voice from before. A teen with silver hair looked down at the group with a smile.
Mulan was the first to speak. "Is that...are you Riku?"
Aladdin looked over at Mulan. "But, how? The cell was empty! Don't tell me he wasn't even in there!"
Jack scratched his head. "And how did he end up on the ship?"
"I'm don't know how." Riku replied. "One minute I was in the cell and the next a corridor of darkness appeared and-"
A whistling sound cut Riku off as he saw a cannon ball coming at them fast. He turned wheel to avoid the hit. "Explanations will have to wait! Let's get out of here!" No one was going to argue with that. Even Sparrow focused on countering the blasts from the enemies with cannons aboard the Black Pearl.
Riku was trying to steer the ship away and leave, but as one of the cannon balls that Aladdin fired struck one of the castle's towers he got an idea.
"Guys!" He shouted as he turned the ship closer to the palace.
"What are you doing? We'll be in their line of fire if we sail in too close!" Mulan shouted towards the teen, but she stopped when she noticed the calm smile he wore.
"Aim for the castle! Try to make as much damage as you can. I'm only going to do this once!"
. . .
For the third time that night, Maleficent had been interrupted and it was working her last nerve. She vowed to herself that if it was Pete again she'd turn him into a bug just so she could squash him. She slowly made her way to look out the window when suddenly her eyes grew wide and she was forced to leap out of the way as a cannon came flying through the air and struck the wall where the window was. Bricks and other debris crumbled and fell where she had stood merely seconds ago.
The witch was almost beside herself with that she was seeing. The castle she had waited so long to obtain was being bombarded by cannon balls from...a flying pirate ship. She recognized the ship as the Black Pearl instantly and remembered when Pete had warned her that he had seen it. The very notion that he had been correct made her sick to her stomach, but that wasn't the worst of it. From her vantage point she could see some of the ship's crew. There was the Pumpkin King, the female warrior from the Land of Dragons, that street rat and his pet, Jack Sparrow and...!
Maleficent couldn't see his face, but that silver hair was unmistakable. How could he have escaped right under her nose? It was impossible! She looked down and saw Pete trying to order his heartless to get a better aim on the ship. their efforts were sad at best. One group of heartless took out another from across the lawn.
She was infuriated and made it clear by rasing her staff. A massive storm cloud appeared above the ship and lightning began striking down. Hitting both heartless and heroes alike. Pete had to dance just to avoid a few strikes before running away as Maleficent personally sent a few bolts his way.
Back on the ship the crew was getting pounded. "She can't take much more of this!" Sparrow shouted, pleading to leave before he lost his ship again, this time forever.
"He's right!" Mulan called. "We've already done more than enough!"
"Alright!" Riku replied. "Hang on!" He tried turning the ship away, but it was hard as the winds were working against him.
"Move!" Sparrow cried as he took control of the wheel and managed to get the ship moving in the right direction. Or at least it was to him.
The other four were knocked all over the place as they struggled to hang on.
"What are you doing?!" Aladdin shouted.
"He's gonna get us killed!" Jack skellington shouted.
"How can a skeleton die?" Sparrow asked as he calmly steered the ship.
"I don't want to find out anytime soon!" The master of fright replied as the ship began heading straight up.
Everything around them grew dark except for the flashes of lightning that struck dangerously close to them every few seconds. The group went silent as they clung onto the ship for dear life.
Finally after what seemed like forever the ship broke through the top layer of clouds and sailed into open air.
The group opened their eyes, wondering if it was really over. All they saw was open space ahead with not a heartless in sight.
"Did we do it?" Mulan asked.
"I think so." Riku replied.
"Aye!" Jack Sparrow replied as he proudly steered his ship. "The storm's far behind us and it's smooth sailin' for home!"
As the other three cheered and applauded each other and the questionable pirate Riku took a moment to fully grasp the idea...he was free.
Someone wanted to see Maleficent knocked off her high horse for once. Well, there ya go. ;) Of course, this isn't even close to being done. Who knows what the next chapter will bring?
