Chapter Nine The Mistress of Magic
That evening Vincent, Matilda and Lulu all arrived for the queen's ball. Despite much persistence from the queen, Vincent was not convinced into changing his clothing. Matilda, however, was given a new dress and even Piff had a ribbon tied around his neck. Lulu met the two just outside the ballroom so she and Vincent could be introduced to the rest of the party. She wore a similar dress to the one she had on in the afternoon, except this one had fur trim, lace on the sleeves and the hem trailed on the ground, and like earlier, she was holding a teddy bear. And also like earlier, she seemed less than thrilled to be with Vincent. Hesitantly, Vincent offered his left arm out to Lulu, something the Heartless desperately did not want to do, as it could risk revealing his clawed hand. Lulu didn't look at him when she grabbed his arm and stared straight ahead as they were introduced, "Mistress Lulu, Master Vincent and Miss Matilda,"
They walked through and Vincent and Lulu tried to break away to head for opposite sides of the room but the queen stepped right up to them, "Well, don't you look lovely! Come on cheer up, this is a party and their playing the first song!"
The queen just about shoved the two older people in the middle of the dance floor. Matilda gave Vincent a confused look, and he indicated to her to wait by the food. Lulu put on hand on Vincent's shoulder and the grabbed the other, expecting Vincent to place his other hand on her waist. He didn't. He had no plans to reveal his deformed metal hand, but Lulu seemed relieved he wasn't going to put his hands on her. They avoided looking at each other as the music played, and Vincent couldn't help but notice that this song seemed entirely too long. Had the Heartless had the capacity to feel awkward, this would certainly be one of those moments.
Lulu finally broke the uncomfortable silence between them, "I am very sorry about this, the queen tends to get very carried away. I promise we can stop after the first song," Vincent nodded.
The song finally ended and everyone stopped dancing to applaud the orchestra. Vincent and Lulu headed over to Matilda by the food. They separated and stood on opposite sides of the confused teen. Lulu grabbed a glass of champagne and studied it, "I get the distinct feeling you don't like me."
"I don't trust you," Vincent said bluntly, "I can tell you're hiding something,"
"I feel the same way about you," Lulu said emotionlessly, "I wonder why that is?" Vincent just shrugged. Matilda felt extremely uncomfortable between the two grim adults and was not good at hiding it. Lulu sipped her drink and turned one of her intense purple eyes towards the girl, "You are not from here, are you?"
Matilda was shocked to have the woman talk to her. Lulu may have been cold and severe, but Matilda still found the lady elegant and beautiful and admired her, "N-no, it doesn't look like I am,"
"So you don't know?" Lulu suddenly seemed interested.
"N-no ma'am, I'm not sure where I'm from," Matilda looked at the floor, "I don't remember who I am…"
"You have no memory? None whatsoever?" Lulu's interest intensified and her tone became less curt.
"No, not yet. But Vincent is taking me from world to world-" Matilda began.
"You seem awfully interested in Matilda," Vincent interrupted.
"I'm just making conversation," Lulu returned her interest to her half empty drink and the tension once again returned. Suddenly the queen came over and tried to get Lulu to dance with Vincent again, but before she could force the two again, a window behind her broke.
Crashing in from several windows, a series of crocodiles with feathered caps and capes began grabbing the hippos and dancing. The orchestra began playing a more up-tempo tune from the waltzes they had been playing earlier. The hippos screamed and the queen tried to stop the whole event when suddenly a crocodile grabbed her and began dancing as well. The scene quickly turned very chaotic as dozens of crocodiles were spinning and throwing screaming hippos in tutus across the dance floor. Lulu seemed unconcerned.
"If you two want to get out of here, now is a good time," Lulu said nonchalantly.
Matilda seemed puzzled, "Shouldn't we help the queen?"
"The queen is fine. Truthfully she is in love with the crocodile prince, she is just too stubborn to admit it to him. She mostly holds all these balls in hopes he will crash it," Lulu explained.
"Let's go," Vincent said and began leaving. Matilda looked to the tall man and seeing he was serious, skipped out after him.
It was very dark in the gardens when the two got outside. Vincent barely gave any time to Matilda to change back into her other clothes. He kept increasing the pace and the poor girl had a hard time keeping up. Suddenly just as she caught up to him, he stopped dead and she crashed into the back of him, "Something wrong?"
"Heartless." Vincent said decisively. Some of the shadows of the statues and trees that littered the garden changed shape and crept over to the two. Soon they were surrounded by a hoard of the evil creatures. Matilda became scared and nudged closer to Vincent. The Heartless man whipped off his shotgun and began blasting away the monsters, but it seemed for every one Vincent had killed, three more seemed to take their place. The red caped man was furious that more weren't being destroyed, but seeing the danger, grabbed Matilda's hand and began running.
Vincent tried desperately to remember the way back to the forest where the Seaduck II was parked, but the dark was confusing him, and he could hear the Heartless grow closer. The two continued running, but found themselves trapped at the side of a mountain. Vincent shoved Matilda behind himself and continued shooting at the creatures in vain. He knew they were in danger, but he could not think of a way to get himself out of it. Suddenly a familiar husky feminine voice called out into the night, "Firaga!"
Dozens of the creatures erupted into flames and collapsed into piles of ash. Lulu was using the teddy bear as a weapon and repeated the various powerful words of magic, "Firaga! Blizzarga! Stoppaga! Graviga!"
The amount of Heartless significantly decreased but there were still many more left. Seeing his gun had little effect, Vincent replaced it on his back and began slashing through others with his metal claw. He found himself next to Lulu and the two began fighting together. With their combined power finally all the Heartless were destroyed. Panting, Vincent turned to his partner, "Not bad,"
"You weren't bad yourself," Lulu replied, she was laughing nervously.
"You're a Nobody," Vincent straightened himself out. Matilda ran over to the two adults.
"And you're a Heartless," Lulu replied matter-of-factly, "Now what?"
"At least I know now what you were hiding," It was a known fact that by nature Heartless and Nobodies hate one and other and Vincent finally figured out why he didn't trust the woman, "But I still wonder why you were following us,"
"I sensed the Heartless after you left the party and was worried about Matilda," Lulu explained, "It turns out we both have something in common. I am a Nobody, but I don't have any memories of what my real self was. I thought she might be a Nobody as well,"
"She's not," Vincent turned to Matilda, "Come on, let's go,"
"Wait!" Lulu called, "There was something else I wanted but I wasn't able to ask you with the queen there, I didn't want to insult her. You were too far away by the time I came out to the garden. I want to come with you, travel to other worlds,"
"Forget it,"
"I want to remember who I am. I was looking when I got stranded here. I've been trapped on this world for five years. If you can travel from world to world that means something is wrong with Kingdom Hearts, not to mention I've never seen a single Heartless in Fantasia until tonight. I can help you," Lulu was almost to the point of begging, "Listen, I'm a strong witch, I can help. You saw it tonight. Just take me to one other world and I'll not bother you after that,"
Vincent was still skeptical, "You weren't honest with me, why should I trust you?"
"You weren't honest with me either. What did you expect me to say 'I'm Lulu and I'm a Nobody'? You didn't say you were a Heartless either, and you hid your hand the whole time," Lulu indicated the Heartless man's claw, "This is foolish to be enemies when it's so clear we're on the same side, we only don't like each other because of what we are. But I think it's clear to each other now that neither of us is evil, we should help each other. I bet you want your heart back just as much as I want to find my real self,"
Vincent frowned, she had a point. The only reason he didn't like her was because she was a Nobody, but Nobodies hate Heartless just as much as he does. And she was powerful, and even if she wanted a ride, she did seem concerned about Matilda. He looked at Matilda and saw the admiration of Lulu in her strange eyes. This girl trusted him and trusted this woman too, there had to be a reason, "Fine, you can hitch a ride with us to the next world,"
Lulu smiled, the first genuine smile she had in a long time. She helped Vincent and Matilda back to the forest where the Seaduck II was. Vincent opened the hatch and let the two young women in. Matilda buckled herself in and put Piff on her lap, while Lulu waited patiently for Vincent to fly the ship. The Heartless man had not figured out how to start it in the meantime. After a few minutes, Lulu decisively interrupted, "I know how to fly a Gummi Ship,"
"Great, then you can get us to the next world," Vincent was not reluctant to leave the frustrating duty of flying to the Nobody, he only hoped she was a better flyer than Cid. Lulu got into the pilot's seat and in a matter of moments had the ship on and hovering over the ground.
"So where are we going next?" Lulu asked.
"Vincent, I think I just remembered something!" the teen girl said suddenly. Vincent's eyes met with hers, she seemed exhilarated momentarily, "The Heartless, they reminded me of something. I was looking for somebody and I thought that if I allied myself with the darkness, I'd somehow manipulate it to my advantage. But it didn't work and that person used me and tried to get me to hurt people. Then somebody saved me. I remember the world, it had all kinds of ruins and a big arena there,"
Vincent recognized what Matilda was talking about. His friend Cloud had talked about a place like that. He turned to the Nobody woman and ordered, "We're going to Olympus Coliseum,"
Don Carnage may have been a buffoon, but there was no denying he was an excellent fighter. Riku was barely holding him back with his sword and found himself getting cornered to the back of the cave, "Hurry it up, Sora!"
"I'm trying! Something's wrong!" Sora kept swinging the weapon back and forth, hoping the beam of light locking the world would somehow appear. Baloo, Donald, Kairi and Goofy stopped their pirate ghost act and were running to help.
"Sora, what's going on?" Donald asked.
"The Keyhole won't seal. I keep trying and nothing's happening," Sora replied.
"Listen, if it's not working we've got to talk to King Mickey, we shouldn't stay here any longer," Goofy added.
"Yeah, the pirates will probably be back any second," Baloo continued.
"You're right, we do need to get out of here. But first we've got to help Riku," Sora stopped swinging the Keyblade but saw that Riku was in trouble.
Don Carnage had him in the back of the cave and Riku looked like he was getting tired. Sora motioned to come and join in the fight. Just when Don Carnage aimed to slice off Riku's head his parry was countered by a floral Keyblade. He next got slammed in the back by a giant shield and had his tail shocked by an electric spell. Baloo grabbed the Air Pirate by the back of his collar and Sora pointed the Keyblade at his neck.
"Took you long enough," Riku panted.
"I thought you could handle it," Sora laughed. Riku smiled. Sora then turned his attention back to Don Carnage, "Who do you work for? Who unlocked Kingdom Hearts?"
"Kingdom Hearts has been unlocked?" the pirate seemed genuinely surprised, "I'm not working for anybody…anymore,"
"Then why do you keep attacking the pilots? What were you doing with the Heartless?" Sora pressed, the pirate yelped.
"I was hired to attack the pilots to keep the people from Toon Town and Cape Suzette separated. I don't know why, but the money was good. My boss told me to also look for a girl with strangely colored hair and eyes and that the Heartless would listen to me as long as I worked for him. I shot the girl out of the air and tracked her down but she escaped with her brute bodyguard I was fired—er, I quit. And now I just do it get money. It takes a lot of money to keep up the great Don Carnage's lifestyle,"
"A girl?" Sora whispered. Once again he remembered what Cid and King Mickey had told him
"This yahoo doesn't know anything," Riku remarked, "He's just a pawn,"
Sora nodded, "You're right. Listen 'Donny', you're going to stop attacking the pilots, because if you don't we'll come after you again,"
"Fine, fine," Don Carnage sighed. Baloo dropped him unceremoniously on the ground and the pirate scampered to his red plane ship and took off. When they were sure he was really gone, everyone left the pirate cave.
Baloo flew the group back to Louie's to pick up Launchpad. Cid had told Sora not worry about him and so the party flew Toon Town where Donald's uncle forgave the debt, though he wasn't thrilled to hear about Launchpad's refusal to fly. After speaking with the older duck, they returned to the castle to speak with King Mickey. They told him all about the disappearing Heartless and the Keyblade's failure.
"So do you think something's wrong with the Keyblade?" Sora asked at the end of the story, "Did it somehow break, or did I lose my power?"
King Mickey shook his head and leaned back in his chair. They had all gathered in the library for privacy, "Nothing is wrong with the Keyblade, which is what worries me greatly, one of the many things actually. The reason the Keyblade didn't lock the Keyhole was only because the Keyhole wasn't unlocked in the first place,"
"So what does that mean?" Kairi asked.
"It means that there aren't Heartless in this world," the King replied.
"But Cid and everybody said they saw them," Riku added.
"I have no doubts he did, but from what it sounds like and the fact this world was never unsealed or disconnected the Heartless aren't here anymore. Which means they came looking for something specific, and aren't interested in destroying all the worlds," he finally explained. He seemed deeply troubled and barely paid attention when he petted Pluto.
"Cid said he came from Hollow Bastion with a girl and his friend 'Vinny' and that Don Carnage came after them with the Heartless, but they disappeared when Vinny and the girl got away. And then when we talked with the pirate he said he the person who hired him gave him command over the Heartless to find a strange looking girl in addition to attacking the pilots," Sora stated, "Are these people the same ones who told you about Kingdom Hearts?"
Mickey suddenly went from simply worried to genuinely frightened, "Oh no, I was right, she was connected to these events," Sora and the others gave Mickey a confused look, "You are correct, the people who warned me about Kingdom Hearts are the same people Cid told you about. I had told them to look for the girl's world because she had no memory and her memory might have a connection to these events. But it has come clear to me that I was correct, but not in a way I had realized. This girl doesn't seem to be just connected to the Heartless, it seems it is her the Heartless are after. Sora, I have a very important mission for you,"
Sora waited with baited breath, "Find Vincent and the girl, and make sure you protect them until she finds her world and her memories. And if you discover what world she is from and who she really is report back to me immediately. The fate of all worlds may very well rest on her shoulders,"
"Right!" Sora stood up suddenly, "We'll find her and protect her. You can count on us!"
"One question though: what world did she go to?" Riku asked.
"Truthfully I have no idea," the king laughed nervously. Everyone in the room sighed, "You'll just have to look from world to world and hope she hasn't gone too far ahead,"
Before leaving Riku, Sora and Kairi all received new battle gear and Chip and Dale escorted the five: Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku and Kairi to their Gummi Ship the Excalibur. Daisy, Minnie and the King all said goodbye before the ship launched. The Excalibur rose high above the castle and watched as the world of Magic Kingdom disappeared beneath them.
Sora was somewhat relieved to be put on a mission, given something that he could possible do to help. On the other hand he knew what he was about to face could be more dangerous than anything he had ever done before. He was just grateful he was once again with his friends, "So where should we go first?"
"How about Olympus Coliseum?" Goofy suggested.
"Great idea!" Sora agreed, "That's a perfect place to start!"