Chapter VI: Fate of the Unknown
"Sora! Sora!" Chip, the Gummi engineer, shouted over the intercom of the Gummi ship. The boy shot up in his seat, wide eyed in panic after being disturbed from his sleep.
"Wha wha?!" he groaned, feeling dizzy. "What's going on?"
Kairi was still sound asleep in her chair, untouched and untarnished. Her hair was gently swaying with the ship's movement. Sora reached a hand over and brushed the tips of his fingers over her cheek. "Kairi wake up," he yawned.
"Hmm go away Sora…" she waved him away.
"Kairi it's half off fruit smoothies today at the seaside shack," he mumbled, still trying to wake up.
She yawned. "Nice try Sora I'm not going to fa…"
"Sora! Kairi!" Dale shouted in the intercom. "We got a situation!"
The two shot up in their seats.
"Situation? Where?" Kairi asked, dazed from being torn from her sleep.
Donald and Goofy were out in their own seats. Autopilot was turned on.
"What's up?" Sora pressed the button on the intercom to respond.
"It's horrible! The Castle is in danger!" Chip and Dale said together.
Donald and Goofy shot up, wide awake. "What?!" the two screamed.
"There are thorns in the Hall of the Cornerstone and Heartless…" the two engineers were cut off by static. Donald slammed the manual pilot back on.
"We gotta get to Queen Minnie right now!" Donald declared, slamming on the gas. Sora, Kairi, and Goofy jerked back in their seats from the force.
"What's going on?" Kairi asked.
"The Castle is in danger! We gotta go there now!" Goofy said.
Sora readied himself. "If there's Heartless running around, then it's a good thing we got the message."
"Maybe we'll find the King there," Goofy hoped.
Kairi squinted at the wide window. "Um…guys?"
"What is it Kairi?" said Goofy.
She pointed up to the right. "What's that?"
A giant shadowy glowing portal swirled about. It was moving, and it was getting closer and closer to their ship.
"I don't think I want to know what that is!" Sora panicked.
Donald spotted the blue and white Disney Castle down below. Without any other thought, he slammed down on the gas and dive-bombed towards the castle. "Brace yourselves! That vortex is getting closer!"
The gravity of the vortex was pulling them closer and closer to the right, but to add insult to injury, a giant red and black Heartless with four limbs came flying out from above and slammed into the ship.
"Wak!" Donald exclaimed, trying to re-align the ship towards the castle. The rest of the gang clutched their seats.
"What was that?!" Sora shouted. "And why are there no seatbelts?!"
"Hunter-X!" Goofy cried out, gripping his seat for dear life.
The giant Heartless took aim at the ship. Donald jerked the steering wheel several directions, trying to dodge the laser bullets.
Then Hunter-X formed a red beam and shot it straight at the ship. "Look out!" Goofy cried out. Donald slammed the ship downwards, trying to get near the castle. The red x-shaped laser beam hit the side of the ship, taking out the entire lower right side. Kairi went flying out of her seat.
"Sora!" she cried out, getting sucked into the lanes in-between.
Sora released his grip on his seat and jumped up, reaching out for her hand. "Kairi!" He too went flying, latching onto both Kairi's hand and the edge of the torn ship. It was diving at a fast speed, an alert sounding off and blaring in their ears. "I won't let you go!" he shouted, trying to hold on as best as he could. The vortex was incredibly close to them, narrowly passing by the Castle and being flung in a different direction.
Sora could hold onto the ship no more, the force of the vortex of doom pulling too much on Kairi. He slipped away, with Kairi clinging to him tightly.
"Sora! Kairi!" cried Donald and Goofy.
Hunter-X stopped its pursuit, the Light of Disney Castle too powerful to even go near.
The two teenagers were sucked into the vortex. Kairi and Sora clung to each other. The Light of their emotions shone forth. The concern they had for each other powered up a shield of Light from their hearts, protecting against the Darkness of the lanes in-between.
The vortex pulled them into its depths, slowly closing up.
Donald struggled to slow down the ship, zooming down at max velocity towards the center courtyard of Disney Castle. The ship clipped the top of the hedge shaped like a mini-castle and slammed into a wall.
Goofy and Donald stumbled out of the ship, greeted by two chipmunks in engineering gear. "Donald! Goofy!" squeaked Chip.
"You fellers okay?" Dale asked.
Goofy held his head. "Uhhh I think so."
Donald brushed off his feathers. "But Sora and Kairi got sucked up in a vortex of Darkness…"
Chip and Dale looked at each other with wide eyes. "We lost contact with ya before we could do anything."
Chip stomped his foot. "That no good Hunter-X must've shown up…"
Goofy nodded. "We gotta find them somehow."
Dale raised his hand up to stop the two. "Queen Minnie still needs you! I'm sure you'll be able to find them with her help."
Donald and Goofy had to comply. Queen Minnie's safety was of utmost importance. But they still felt a great concern for their two friends, who had probably been lost in the void…
Kairi opened her eyes to a dusty and hard ground beneath her nose. Her body ached greatly, drained of energy from the burst of Light from her heart. It protected her and Sora, but at her own cost. She probably would have been in a longer slumber if Sora's own Light didn't aid hers. She sat up. The dusty landscape was barren, only the sound of the wind could be heard. There was no chance of them finding any people here.
She looked around and spotted a passed out Sora beside her. "Sora!" she crawled over to him. She shook him to see if he was just asleep. "You okay Sora?" He had no injuries to his person. She sighed in relief.
He stirred. "Nghh, Kairi?" he asked, wobbling awake. All he could see was her beautiful face covered in dirt and scratches above his. The sunless sky cast no shadow upon them. The arid wind brushed against the tall rocks.
Something about this place was eerily familiar to the both of them. "Where are we?" Sora asked her, sitting up and squinting at the covered sky.
"I…I don't know," Kairi said, standing up. "But we won't know until we find out…" She began walking forward towards a cliff. Her keyblade appeared in her grip as she peered over the cliff. More desolate wastelands stretched for miles and miles, no end in sight.
Sora got up. His heartbeat increased. He didn't know this place, yet he felt a sense of dread. A desolation such as this had to have been the result of some catastrophe. But he had no recollection of this place at all; his heart however said otherwise. "Kairi? Do we know this place?"
Kairi turned around, her keyblade still in her grip. "My keyblade knows, but I don't."
Sora looked up to the sky in thought. "Maybe we should figure out a way out of here then. This place feels…Dead."
She shook her head. "Come on Sora, where's your sense of adventure, hmm?" She took off jogging away from the cliff, leaving him baffled.
"Wha, Kairi wait up!"
"Oh dear!" exclaimed a tiny mouse in a red dress and a crown. Beside her was a duck in a purple dress. "Are you sure they will be alright?"
Goofy and Donald nodded as the four of them marched over to the Hall of the Cornerstone. Entering the main wide throne room of the Castle, Goofy reassured her, "Yeah Queen Minnie, Sora and Kairi are smart.".
"And reckless," grumbled Donald.
"Do we know of anyone who can help with our problem of the Cornerstone?" the duck in purple asked. "I think we might need Sora and Kairi for that."
Donald agreed. "You're right Daisy."
Daisy beamed. "Of course I am."
"But uh, how are we gonna get them back?" Goofy asked, a finger on his head, wracking his brain to find a solution.
"Your Majesty!" Chip and Dale scampered into the throne room, avoiding the horde of Heartless trying to get inside. They ran up to the group, out of breath.
"We figured out what that vortex did," Chip explained. "It led to a long forgotten place. Unfortunately using a gummi ship would tear it to pieces."
"An' I don't think Sora and Kairi know how to travel without a gummi ship," Dale added.
"Who do we know that can travel between worlds then?" Goofy asked out loud. He got it. "Merlin!"
"You're right!" Donald agreed.
Minnie walked over to the King's throne and pressed a button underneath the armrest. "That's perfect. He can figure out what's wrong with the castle and bring Sora and Kairi back to us."
The throne moved over on its blue platform, opening up a set of stairs to a dim basement below.
The desolation was large. For miles Sora and Kairi walked, unsure if they were going in the right direction or were getting even more lost. Rocks and cliffs overlooked them, worn down by the test of time.
Sora had a strange feeling he was once there before, but that couldn't have been true, could it? He didn't have the feeling he had forgotten, but the feeling of once being there lingered at the back of his mind.
Kairi saw a figure in the distance. Was there an actual person there? She ran off towards the figure.
Sora followed after Kairi. The girl stopped as soon as she could see the figure in full. It was a man in supposedly a suit of armor, kneeling. His hands grasped his blade deep in the ground. A cape attached to him whipped around in the wind.
"Who is this?" Sora said to Kairi.
The girl shrugged. "I don't know. Sir? You okay?"
Her heart of Light felt no Light or Darkness from the man. Instead, a rage radiated off the armor. It was as if the armor was possessed by something, animating it.
"Aqua…Ven…" a whisper of a voice spoke to them. "I sense…your presence…"
Sora on instinct grabbed Kairi's hand.
"Sora?" she said, still unsure of the armor. "I don't think there's a person in that armor."
His eyes widened. "Uhhh, then what is making it move?"
"My…will…lingers…" the voice whispered in response.
Kairi and Sora summoned their keyblades to their grasp.
"A keyblade...Her keyblade…My keyblade...No, you're not the one. You're not the one I chose…You weren't chosen at all…Inherited nothing… Where is he? Xe...ha...nort. Xeha...nort. Xehanort!" The armor stood up and pulled his blade out of the ground. Sora and Kairi's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets at the weapon. It was a huge keyblade, taller than them.
The Lingering Will leapt up into the air and swooped down towards the two. Sora and Kairi dodged out of the way, but the armor swooped back in, aiming towards Kairi. She ran and rolled behind the rocks, the Lingering Will just slicing through it and causing it to collapse. Kairi created a dome shield to reflect the rocks back.
Sora was behind the Lingering Will when he saw the rocks collapse on Kairi. "Kairi!"
The Lingering Will was hovering in the air over the wreckage, his attention turned to Sora. The teen took a step back and prepared his keyblade as the Lingering Will darted at him. He whirled around and slammed his keyblade into the Lingering Will's, pulling all of his strength into pushing the armor back. The armor however had extreme strength to rival a giant Heartless and blasted back Sora.
Sora skidded across the ground, his keyblade tossed away. Kairi climbed on the rocks and leapt down with a battle cry towards the Lingering Will. Her blade collided with his. Her keyblade charged up with a bright light, engulfing the entire blade. She released the pressure on the Lingering Will and flipped back and tried to slice him, but he dodged out in seconds. He took his keyblade and flung it around him, forming a whip with the air. Kairi got tossed aside like a rag doll by the air whip.
Sora got up to get to Kairi, who had used a potion to heal her wounds. Whoever possessed this armor radiated anger and rage. What had happened to the man underneath his will that had latched onto the armor? "That guy is angry," Kairi said, wiping the side of her mouth of blood as Sora pulled her up.
"You can say that again," Sora said, summoning his keyblade back to his grip and bracing himself for the next attack.
The Lingering Will planted himself in the ground and turned his keyblade into a magical cannon. He shot out a giant orb of light the size of the fissure rock formations surrounding them. Sora deflected it back with the Kingdom Key while Kairi ran off behind a rock, but it circled right back around. Sora was engulfed by the white flames of the explosion.
Kairi peeked out from the rock and charged up ice from the tip of her keyblade. "Freeze!" The crystal honed in on the armor, freezing his arm. Breaking it off with just a squeeze of his fist, the Lingering Will shot another orb of light at Sora and turned his cannon keyblade into a hover bike. He jumped onto it and zoomed straight towards Kairi.
Sora deflected the shot again, and again, and again, and again. He reversed away from it and deflected it into the rock Kairi was hiding behind. Kairi rolled closer to the rock, failing to see the orb.
"Kairi look out!" Sora cried out, unable to move very far. She was slammed into the ground by the explosion from the rock, debris flying everywhere. She landed flat on her back, the wind knocked out of her. The Lingering Will zipped past her and made a quick turn, heading for the wounded girl.
Sora had never ran so fast in his life. Fear grew in his heart. He skidded across the ground to her side. He lifted his keyblade up. "Defend!" he said, forming a dome around them.
The Lingering Will's bike shattered the dome shield.
Merlin the Wizard stood in the Hall of the Cornerstone. Minnie and Daisy were anxious to know how to save the castle. The hall was covered in thorns, eating away at the light the Cornerstone emitted, thanks to Maleficent. It was an orb of light in a giant glass bubble sitting on a pedestal. Donald and Goofy were conferring with Chip and Dale about the whereabouts of Sora and Kairi, but made no progress.
"I got it," Merlin said. He closed his eyes and conjured up a white door with a "T" emblem on the top. "There's a door inside that world that needs to be closed by the keyblade. Fellas, mind showing me where the Keybladers are?"
Chip and Dale handed him a map. "They're where the badlands are. No one ever goes there so we can't figure out their exact location," Chip explained.
"It's very dangerous, even for a ship," Dale added.
Merlin nodded. "Hmm yes, I can open up a portal that can bring Sora and Kairi back, but it will take some time to cast it. The spell has to locate them first. Since we have a general idea, it will be much faster."
Donald was impatient. "But we gotta stop Maleficent from taking over the castle fast," he stomped his foot.
Goofy agreed. "I know! Merlin can stay here and cast the spell an' we go and find that there door we're supposed to close."
Minnie looked down at the floor. "It will have to do. We haven't got much time, and who knows if Sora and Kairi are okay?"
"They're tough and brave; they'll be okay," Daisy reassured her best friend. "Besides, what trouble could those two get into?"
Donald and Goofy looked towards the white door. "Welp, here goes nothing," Goofy reached out to open the door.
"Wait," Merlin stopped the dog. "That is a gateway to a very special world. The nature of it will tempt you, but you must resist at all costs."
Donald narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the wizard. "What is it?"
"You'll know," Merlin answered. He waved his wand and conjured up a spell book. "Now, to bring back Sora and Kairi."
The two entered the white door, unsure of what they would find on the other side.
The dome surrounding Sora and Kairi shattered and blasted the Lingering Will off his bike. Sora reached into his pocket and shoved a potion into her hands. She threw it on herself, her wounds healing but not her stamina.
"Sora look out!" she warned, seeing the Lingering will stand back up.
The boy prepared for the onslaught, planting himself firmly on the ground. His keyblade was in front of him, ready for what the armor was going to do next.
The Lingering Will took his keyblade bike and transformed it again, this time bending it into a large bow. He teleported to Sora and Kairi and shot a black and blue arrow at them. Sora reflected it, but Lingering Will teleported to his side and shot again. Sora reflected again, trying to protect Kairi most importantly. His magic was draining; soon he wouldn't be able to reflect any more arrows. The Lingering Will continued teleporting and shooting.
"How can he teleport so much like this?" Sora gritted his teeth, his magic waning. Kairi used her keyblade to stand back up, her muscles aching and her back hurting.
Sora's magic ran out. The Lingering Will saw his opportunity and shot a beam of light and darkness out of his keyblade towards Sora, locking him in the air.
"Sora! No!" Kairi cried out, stumbling forwards. She reached up to grab him out of the energy's hold but was shocked. She shot out a beam of light from her keyblade and freed Sora from the Lingering Will's energy hold.
Sora landed flat on the ground, his legs shaking. Both of them were covered in dirt, blood, and grime. The Lingering Will was unstoppable.
Kairi jumped in front of Sora. The armor sent out little homing missiles to surround the two. It shot out lasers after lasers at the girl, hitting her body over and over and over. She cried in pain, doing everything she could to prevent Sora from taking the blows. His heart hurt at hearing her pain.
The Lingering Will was running towards them as the lasers finished firing at the girl. She collapsed to the ground, her body beaten. Sora looked to Kairi, mustering up as much strength as he could to grab his keyblade and raise it to the sunless sky. "Heal!" he shouted. All the burns Kairi took and all the pain in Sora's gut faded. The two got up and saw the incoming armor.
"We have to get out of here," Kairi said, wincing at the lingering pain in her joints. Sora got up, helping her to stand as well.
"We gotta run," he told her. She nodded, and the two took off running. They linked arms and activated their clothes. Their shoes felt faster, propelling them forward away from the enraged armor.
They had no idea where they were going, but they needed to flee right then and there to survive.
"Ven…" the Lingering Will's words whispered in their ears as they fled. "I can sense you…"
Sora looked back at the armor chasing them.
"Aqua…You chose a disciple at long last…" The armor's will said. "You're the light of the worlds…Not…Xe…ha…nort…"
Kairi, too, looked behind her.
"Keep running!" Sora exclaimed, the two snapping back to face forward. They had to run; they had to flee. "Whoa what?!"
A man in a black cloak was off in the distance.
"Xehanort!" the armor whispered in renewed rage, getting onto his keyblade hover bike and zooming straight towards the two.
A portal opened up before Sora and Kairi only a few feet away. Within was an image of Merlin, a radiant orb of light on a pedestal, and a mouse with big ears.
The two pushed themselves to move faster, jumping straight into the portal.
The portal closed immediately, leaving the Lingering Will alone in the desolation once more.
Sora and Kairi landed on the smooth glossy floor. Their body ached, and dirt and scratches covered them.
"Oh dear!" Queen Minnie exclaimed. "Heal!" she conjured up an orb of light in her hands. It floated over to the two beaten teens and healed their wounds.
"Are they okay?" Chip asked, looking over them.
Sora weakly lifted up a thumb. "We're okay," he muttered into the floor.
Minnie sighed in relief. "They're okay."
Merlin looked over them. "What manner of a creature attacked you?"
Kairi lay on her side, ready to take a nap. "A suit of armor…"
Chip and Dale jumped for joy. "You two are back! Now we can save the castle!" they both shouted together.
Sora and Kairi groaned. Sora sat up, his keyblade appearing in hand. He pointed it in some direction. "Hmm okay where's the Heartless?" he muttered.
Merlin pointed with his wand to the white door. "Inside there is a special door. Donald and Goofy went on ahead to find it so you can lock it with your keyblade."
Queen Minnie casted another spell to get the two back up with some energy. "Indeed. They probably found it by now. The Cornerstone of Light," she gestured to the giant light on a pedestal. "Protects our castle from evil worlds. Go, Keybladers, and protect our Cornerstone."
Energy renewed, even for a short time, Sora and Kairi stood up and wandered over to the door.
"I can't wait to nap after this…" Kairi whispered, leaning on Sora's shoulder before grabbing the door handle to help.
The boy pulled open the door with great effort, his strength not all there yet. "You can say that again."
Entering the white door, the two ended up in a very strange world. Everything was monochromatic. Sora and Kairi themselves were changed; their intricate outfits were simplified down. Kairi only had one zipper on her dress and wore her old shoes, while Sora was back in his old jumpsuit.
Sora noticed immediately that a bunch of blocks in a circle laid in the middle of the grass before them. "What's going on? Everything's black and white!" he looked at his hands, freaked out that all the other colors vanished.
A woman wearing a long skirt and a cowbell gasped at the empty space of blocks. "Oh no! Our Cornerstone is missin'!" She ran off in a panic.
"Hmm," Kairi thought about it. "The Cornerstone was supposed to be here? I think we're in the past."
Sora hadn't thought of that. "Ooooh, right. So uh, where are Donald and Goofy? And who took the Cornerstone?"
Just then, Pete ran past them down a path with a giant sign that said "Waterway." He snickered evilly. "The Cornerstone is mine!" he declared.
Another Pete, one in simple overalls chased after Evil Pete. "Get back here with my boat you pipsqueak!"
Donald and Goofy, also wearing simple outfits, chased after the two Petes towards the Waterway.
"I think I found them Sora," Kairi pointed to the two Petes and Donald and Goofy.
"Let's go!"
The two chased after the four down by the river. Evil Pete was on a giant steamboat, pulling the Cornerstone of Light away from them in a wooden cage.
Donald raised his staff to the sky. "Thunder!" he declared. The bolt of lightning hit Old Pete instead. He leapt several feet into the air and ran about screaming.
"Oops," Donald said sheepishly.
Sora and Kairi arrived just in time, curious as to why Old Pete was running around in a panic. "Uh what's going on?" Sora asked.
"I don't think I want to know," Kairi said.
"Sora! Kairi!" Goofy pointed at Evil Pete on top of the steamboat. "He's gettin' away!" He took his shield and threw it at the mocking cat.
"Ouch!" he yelped, getting slammed on his back on top of the boat. Tiny birds circled his head.
The boat swung around and got right by the shore. Kairi slammed her keyblade as hard as she could to break apart the wooden cage. In a puff of dust clouds, the container for the Cornerstone was broken.
Sora glared as he threw his keyblade at Pete and knocked him into the water. "That's for kidnapping me!"
The steamboat came to a stop. Pete came up for air, shaking his fist at the gang. "I'll get you yet!" His head got bumped from behind by the platform the Cornerstone was sitting upon.
"Whew," Kairi said, ready to sit down and nap. "Now that that's over…"
Donald and Goofy noticed Evil Pete crawling out of the river and booking it down the path conveniently labelled "The Wharf". "He's headin' for the doorway!" Goofy shouted.
Other Pete ran off in a rage after his future self.
Sora just stood there, unsure whether to be confused or mind blown that there were two Petes. "My head hurts…"
Kairi grabbed his hand and dragged him down to the Wharf. "Let's go and lock that door!"
The gang chased after them, Other Pete sucker punched Evil Pete in the face. Evil Pete retaliated by blasting back his other self with a fist of darkness.
Evil Pete turned to face the gang. "You pipsqueaks don't know when to quit eh?"
They summoned their weapons.
"Neither do you," Sora pointed the keyblade at him.
"Heh, how about a change in scenery?" Pete said, throwing bombs at the group. They were made of little eggs that exploded upon contact.
"Ack!" Kairi, Donald, and Goofy danced around them, trying to avoid their feet being blasted off. Sora leapt at Pete with his keyblade, but he ran off as the curtains fell. They went back up a second later, and the five were in front of a giant building on fire. The fire leapt around, spreading destruction in its wake.
"Wha…How?" Kairi asked, shooting a blizzard crystal at the fire. "How did he do that?"
Sora shrugged as he charged towards the laughing Pete. "I don't know, but we'll just stop him anyways!"
Pete snickered. "You two couldn't harm a fly even if you wanted to."
Sora slammed him straight into the fiery building, collapsing it on top of the cat.
Pete pushed aside the debris, glaring down the teen. "You…" He snapped his fingers and summoned Heartless Hammers. "How about…another change?"
The curtains fell, then rose again. The gang was now inside someone's house. A giant black hole of darkness was in the center, pulling everything into it. Pete laughed as he put up a shield of protection.
"Whoa!" Sora, Kairi, Donald, and goofy yelped as they were being sucked into the black hole with the furniture. Sora gritted his teeth and used the black hole to swing himself over to Pete. He cut through Pete's shield and uppercut him. The cat flung back and stomped, sending out a shockwave that sent Other Pete flying.
Sora jumped up in time, descending down at Evil Pete to swing at him again.
The curtains fell again. That time, the group was on a scaffolding high in the sky.
"Oh no!" Goofy exclaimed, trying to balance himself and Donald on the wobbly scaffold.
Kairi stood on one corner opposite of Sora and Pete. She glared at Pete trying to punch Sora in the face. "Oh no you won't," she declared. She jumped up and slammed all of her body weight down on the corner.
The result was Sora and Evil Pete being launched into the air. Sora latched onto the ropes holding the scaffolding up and swung his keyblade around. It knocked Pete clear off the platform.
The curtains fell and rose for a final time. They were back at the Wharf.
Pete was on his back in pain, his ego deflated. He'd been beaten by a pathetic kid with a key and his lackeys. "Hmph," he grumbled, getting back up. He summoned his version of the white door before him and entered, returning back home.
"And stay out!" Other Pete shook his fist.
Sora raised his keyblade and locked the door. "Glad that's over."
Kairi sat down on the ground, her legs taking a bit of a beating. Minnie's energy spell wore off. "My head…" she groaned.
"Who was that creep anyways?" Pete asked. Sora raised an eyebrow at him. How did he not recognize himself?
"Hello? That was…" Sora began to explain but Goofy put his hands over his mouth.
"Sora, that's a secret," Goofy reminded Sora, releasing him.
"Secret? What kind of secret…Oh never mind," Pete said.
Sora walked over to Kairi. "You okay Kairi?"
Her legs were jelly, and her joints ached. Her eyes wanted to close and nap for a few good hours. "I'm so tired…"
Sora smiled. He was quite worn out as well, but not as bad as she was. He leaned down and picked her up in his arms. She gripped his jacket tightly, almost nodding off.
"Let's go," he said, walking back to the white door. "Gotta put the Cornerstone back."
Donald and Goofy nodded. "We'll take care of that, okay?" Goofy said, waving them off.
"Need some help?" Pete asked the two, heading down to the waterway to retrieve the Cornerstone.
Donald held a small knife in his hand, snickering as he spotted the Cornerstone. "Yeah, thanks."
Present day Pete stumbled back into Maleficent's castle in Hollow Bastion.
The woman glared down at him. "You've failed me…again."
Pete gulped. "It was the uh…the brats…again…"
She said nothing as she pointed to a mop and bucket with a pink lace apron on a hook. "Get to work you useless ingrate."
The cat walked over, head hanging as he grabbed the mop and put on the apron.
"Welcome back!" Minnie greeted Sora carrying Kairi. "The thorns have disappeared!"
Sora sighed in relief. "Thanks."
Kairi opened her eyes, smiling at the queen. "Yeah, thank goodness the castle is safe."
"Oh, will she be alright?" Daisy asked.
Sora nodded. "Yeah she'll be fine."
Chip and Dale skittered back in. "We finished buildin' the new ship!" Chip said, excited.
"Yeah, it will be able to withstand further attacks from Hunter-X," Dale added.
"Say, Your Majesty," Daisy pointed to the Cornerstone. "There's a scratch mark on the glass. I couldn't decipher it before but it makes sense to me now," she looked to the two teenagers.
"What does it say?" Sora asked.
"It's a heart with the letters S + K inside of it," Daisy explained.
Minnie's eyes widened. "Oh…Was that there before?"
Sora's eye twitched. Kairi was too tired to care.
Merlin shook his head. "No it was put there, a long time ago…"
"Donald…" Sora muttered. Someone was roast duck.
In the dark steps of the basement, a mouse in a black coat smiled. "Thanks guys, for protecting them when I couldn't," he whispered, running off to continue his search.
The ship took off at full speed. Donald stepped on the gas, giving a fake smile. It wasn't Sora who was torture for his mischief, it was Daisy.
"So uh, where to next Sora?" Goofy asked behind him cheerfully.
Donald grumbled at the lack of a response. "Grumpy teenagers more like…" The two turned around to see Sora asleep in his seat. Kairi clung to him tightly, also sleeping.
Donald snapped a picture to hold as blackmail and snickered quietly.
Goofy felt his heart warm at the sight.
The two rested peacefully, dreaming of the warmth of the islands, and Riku with them once more.
Missing Journal Entry 21
A bracelet like no other. It took awhile to make it, but I did it. The charms were made to reflect her. A star to reflect the skies above that she represents. A pink sketchbook to represent her drawings. The third charm, a silver X shape because I couldn't think of anything else. I imbued it with my powers of light, so no harm will come to her, even in the deepest of darkness.
I had no idea where I got the silly idea to make her a gift like this. It was just a bracelet, why would she even wear it? Why am I freaking out about this?
VIII wondered why I asked for a chain for the bracelet. Now he's curious as to who this secret girl is. Maybe I should tell him about her. Maybe…We are friends enough that I can tell him, right? Tomorrow I will give her the bracelet.
Hello! I got distracted with my other long abandoned project I decided to breathe life into again and it's taken up all my time but here it is!
I keep forgetting like an absent-minded person to respond to reviews!
Umbrella6661: Thank you for your reviews and suggestions! :D I did get a lot of inspiration from your FF character suggestion and I thought Y'shtola being in Olympus would get her amazing character more exposure. On PRide Lands, the ultimate reasoning is the KH cast has little to do in that world the most, and the pacing wouldn't work out since I want to get to the good plot heavy stuff after Halloween Town.
The Keeper Of Worlds: Thank you! I hope the story exceeds your expectations!
MoonlightDragonEmperor: Next chapter will be handling that section of the game for sure, and I hope it will work out for readers. :) On skipping Cerberus, he'll be back second visit.
Q-A the Authoress: Haha, if I did the Atlantica Chapter I will keep that in mind, I love teases like that. You keep on rockin'!
Scooby2394: I hope this chapter lives up to the hype! I had a lot of fun writing it. :D I am surprised too a premise like this hasn't been written in all the Sokai fics I searched for.
CrazyAnimeFanGirl7: Kick-butt Kairi is the main goal here, so i'm glad I'm in the right direction with her. Character development will be coming soon like a sledge hammer to the gut for Kairi :D
tommy tennyson: Nice to met you. Unfortunately this story is heavily based in canon and no characters outside of the KH/Final Fantasy/Disney realm will be in it.
Guest: Thank you so much! I hope I'm not too samey with the plot since we are going to several of the same worlds again like in KH2.
Thank you all for the support and reviews!
