Sorry, I thought this would have been up sooner. This chapter ended up longer than I expected it to be.
Disclaimer: Except my one OC, none of the characters here belong to me.
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Chapter 9: Partings and Plans
Sora and the others took several moments for this to sink in.
"I guess we start by traveling the worlds again," Sora said.
Looking around, he saw that all of his companions were ready to go with him everywhere he had to go.
"Thank you, Yen Sid, I know what I must do now. Shall we all start our new journey?" Sora said with optimism and excitement.
"Oh, before you go," Yen Sid spoke up, "I would like to ask for a few things."
"Sure, what?" Sora replied.
"First off, if you have them with you, I would like to have both sets of Ansem Reports, so that I may examine them myself. The second, and I realize you will be hesitant to agree to this, is to have Kairi stay here with me for a short while, so that I can hone her skills with the Keyblade, as I did with Mickey long ago. There has never before been someone who is both a Princess of Heart, and a Keyblade wielder, I believe I can help her develop unique powers that could aid greatly later in your journey later on."
"Kairi…stay with you? Are you okay with this Kairi?" Sora asked with shock in his voice.
"I…I would rather stay with you, Sora. But, I wasn't very useful in that last fight, and we all will be busy for you to sneak in some lessons for me. I'll agree to stay for a short time Master Yen Sid, so that I can be more useful to Sora and the others," Kairi said with determination.
"If that's what you want, Kairi, I won't stop you," Sora said worryingly.
"Don't worry, lover boy," Tifa said, coming over to Sora and pinching his cheek. "If it will calm your mind, I'll stay here with Kairi and help with her training. I'm sure she could use some combat practice as well. If that's okay with you, Yen Sid."
"Yes, I believe that would be agreeable. And I guess I will have to use good use of the little time I have. After you visit a couple worlds, you may come back here to retrieve your friends," Yen Sid stated.
"I'll come back soon this time Kairi, I promise."
"I know you will Sora."
"And if you don't, I'll make sure you pay for it," Tifa said threateningly.
While Sora flinched at the expression on Tifa's face, Donald seemed unaffected, and decided to retort back.
"Hey, who do you think Sora is, Cloud?" Donald said unashamedly.
There are people who are tactful with words. People who know not to mention things of a sensitive nature in a rude way to people who can cause extreme amounts of pain.
Judging by the punch that Tifa sent Donald out of the office and rolling down a spiraling staircase, Donald is not one of those people.
While most of the group flinched and were caught with gaping holes for mouths, Goofy, used to these sort of things went to check that Donald still had all his brain functions, and Tifa simply smiled while flicking her hair back, acting like nothing serious had happened.
"See Kairi, I'll have you taking care of jerks like that in no time," Tifa said sweetly.
Kairi just stood there silently, her face carrying a shocked expression. If this were an anime, there would be a large sweat drop visible from the back of her head right now.
Meanwhile, Riku edged over to Sora, whispering, "We would rather face Xemnas again then go against her, agreed?" To which Sora nodded quickly.
"Um," started a rarely startled Yen Sid, "the day has gotten late with my tale. You should all stay here till tomorrow morning, when you can set out on your journey. You can go look around Twilight Town if you want, but be my guests at my tower tonight."
"Come on, Sora, Kairi, I'll show you the top of the clock-tower here. Your Nobody Roxas would hang out there all the time," Riku said quickly.
"Hey, how do you know so much about him anyway I didn't even know that," Sora said indignantly. Kairi giggled at Sora's expression.
"Hey, DiZ and I had to keep tabs on him for a stretch of time," Riku said while rushing out of the office and down the stairs.
"Wait up!" Sora said, rushing after Riku, Kairi coming right behind.
Leon simply shrugged his shoulders, figuring he would check the town out, and left after politely excusing himself. Tifa figured she would go wonder too, though as she headed down the stairs, she looked at a Donald who had just regained consciousness, and upon making eye contact with her, panicked and started running away, Goofy following after him with a "Gawrsh."
Back in Yen Sid's study, Mickey and his former master were still present. Mickey, looking over at Yen Sid, decided to raise the question he had withheld for when everyone else was gone.
"Should we tell Sora about his connection to Ven? He's bound to wonder, if he caught a glimpse of what Ven looked like."
"As I said earlier," Yen Sid responded, "I believe this is something Sora needs to find out on his own. There may even be more than I am aware of, as I am not sure why Sora was able to have that vision. But we'll keep it quiet for now."
In The World That Never Was, a conversation between villains was taking place.
In the Hall of Empty Melodies, with a thorn-like table set up, and chairs that seemed to be made out of the same material as the table, without the thorns, was where this conversation transpired. Among those notably present, were Maleficent, Pete, a snake-like man, a silver-haired person wearing glasses at his right, and leaning against the wall a few feet back, a teenage boy with black hair, eyes currently closed, his other features hidden by a shadow.
"Are you satisfied with your own personal research into the nature of the Heartless?" Maleficent asked to the snake-like man.
"My research concerning them has indeed been fascinating. Pure instinctual creatures of darkness! I will be ready to use them soon in my own revenge. However, even more questions are raised," the man said with a creepy yet excited voice.
"And what would those be?" Maleficent replied darkly.
This time, the one wearing glasses answered.
"For whatever reason, the bodies of those whom we have subjected to the Heartless that you gave us simply vanished, leaving only more Heartless, whom, according to you, lack proper physical bodies. We were wondering, what happens to them? In addition, we were wondering if there was any research done on this by someone else before us, especially if they left a written record that we could examine. And personally, I would like to experiment on any bodies left behind, a personally hobby of mine to hone my skills." All of this was said politely, but a gleam in his eyes revealed a mischievous intent, hidden behind the glare of his glasses.
"Sometimes, there is a body left behind, called a Nobody, though it would appear somewhere else. This world in fact was once one of the prime areas for them to come into being. There may still be a few left; most have been eliminated already by that wretched boy and his Keyblade. As for those who have studied the Heartless before, there was one by the name of Xehanort, who had written a set of reports under the name of 'Ansem,' the person whom he served as an apprentice."
"And where would we find this 'Xehanort,' and his 'Ansem Reports?" The snake-like man said with enthusiasm.
"You can't," Maleficent harshly replied. "Both his Heartless and his Nobody have been thwarted by that brat and his lackeys. As for his reports, they were collected together by that brat, and I can surmise only a few possible locations that they could be now. Either they are on his person, which by the time we obtained them, we would already have had my revenge, they are at Disney Castle, which is protected by a light even my darkness can't penetrate, or they are with the former King's mentor, who is extremely powerful. A confrontation with him at this point would be foolhardy."
At that moment, someone else entered the hall, with purple metal armor, a cape that was black on the outside, but red on the inside, and a purple metal mask with gray horns. Approaching them, the man gave his report.
"My combined robotic and Heartless fleets have kept tabs on the movements of out enemies' gummi ship. After leaving Hollow Bastion, which disappeared into darkness, they are now currently in Twilight Town, my lady," he said with glee.
"Thank you Zurg. But did you say Hollow Bastion had fallen into darkness. Who could've done that?" Maleficent asked with amused curiosity in her voice.
"I had assumed you had done something, Maleficent, to begin your revenge against that kid with the Keyblade."
"I was completely unaware of it. I wonder?
"Perhaps we can hit two birds with one stone," the snake-like man said. "If this kid is in Twilight town, that means that we have two of the three locations for those reports together, and I would like to know what is in those reports. And if we can find out from them who brought about the darkness in Hollow Bastion, then we will have answered your question as well."
"And how will you go about doing that huh?" Pete spoke up boastfully.
"I think one person should be enough to accomplish what we need. Sasuke, were you paying attention to our little conversation?" The snake-like man looked over to the person leaning against the wall.
"Yes, despite how boring it was, Orochimaru," Sasuke said emotionlessly.
"Well, consider this part of your training, to infiltrate this old man's tower to steal the reports, and if you can figure out who was behind the other mystery we were discussing." Orochimaru said.
"Ha, you think this punk can…can…" Pete couldn't finish the rest of his sentence, as he had now locked eyes with Sasuke, who had opened his, revealing red eyes with black dots surrounding the black pupil. After mere seconds, Pete had fallen onto his butt, panting, sweating, a look of absolute fear on his face.
"I'll do it, as long as I never have to work together with that idiotic fat piece of shit," Sasuke said, not giving Pete a second glance (one was clearly enough,) and instead looked at Maleficent and Orochimaru, both wearing grins on their faces.
"Very well then," Maleficent said, "I'll be sure to keep this imbecile away from you, if you can accomplish your goal."
"I'll go prepare now," Sasuke said, leaving the Hall of Empty Melodies to his room in the castle.
"How did you acquire such a powerful boy, Orochimaru?" Maleficent asked with amusement and curiosity in her voice again.
"He came to me, forsaking his friends, for power to obtain revenge against his brother, who is also powerful."
"I would watch out for him," Maleficent frowned, "it would not be the first time that someone betrayed the person who gave that someone power, to return to their friends."
Oh, that won't matter. Very soon, his body and his eyes will be mine personally. Besides, he won't rest till he kills his brother," Orochimaru said confidently.
"Nevertheless, keep an eye out for him," Maleficent warned again.
As she was about to leave, she turned a glance at Pete, who was still sitting on the ground.
"Get up you useless imbecile!"
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Author's Notes: Thank you to my 3 reviewers for the last chapter. I'm glad you all are enjoying the plot so far.
Forgive me for what will be a temporary separation for Sora and Kairi, I realize I'm using an overused plot device to make Kairi stronger in a short amount of time off-screen.
And Donald, I'm sorry, you are much too fun to abuse.
Oh, and forgive me for the language for that one line, as I think that is how an IC Sasuke would probably refer to Pete. I'm glad I was able to get some attention back to the other forces of darkness this chapter.
I don't know when I'll update again, as the writing will probably start to get sticky for me soon. I know where I want to send Sora first though.
Till next time,
Prophetic Lion
