Chapter 9: Mount Olympus:
The Lanes Between – Donald and Goofy's Gummi Ship
"We don't stand a chance," Sora sighed as he slumped in his chair in the cockpit. "No matter how hard we try Xehanort and the Organization are grabbing the Princesses, and they're toying with us. They have enough people that they can grab all of them except Kairi at once. The only reason we've even had time to react is because they want to rub their victory in our faces." Donald and Goofy exchanged glances. They knew Sora kept a lot of his feelings bottled up but it was still rare to see their usually optimistic friend this upset. Putting the Gummi Ship on autopilot, they turned around for some motivational therapy.
"Come on, Sora," Donald said, "You can't keep beating yourself up every time something goes wrong, or we'll never get anything done."
"Besides," Goofy added, "Just because Xehanort got a head start going after the Princesses doesn't mean we can't catch up. We'll rescue them all from Xehanort eventually, just like last time."
"But last time we didn't even know that the Princesses were there in Hollow Bastion, or even what the Princesses of Heart were," Sora replied glumly.
"Don't try to play that card Sora," the duck retorted. "We didn't know for a fact that they were in Hollow Bastion, but we still had a pretty good idea of it because we knew that Maleficent had taken Alice and Jasmine, and we figured that when we found Maleficent we would find the Princesses."
"And I think I know what's really got you upset," Goofy put in. "You're scared that since Xehanort has been capturing the Princesses so easily, he'll be able to just walk into Master Yen Sid's tower and kidnap Kairi, and you won't be able to protect her." Sora nodded silently before putting his head in his hands.
"Yeah," he admitted. "I know she's learning to fight with the Keyblade so she can defend herself but she's still a beginner. And even if she wasn't the Organization's in a league of their own at this point and I just don't know what we're supposed to do…."
"Well," Donald said, trying to cheer the young man up, "the only thing we can do for now is hope we get lucky, bring the rest of the princesses back to the tower as fast as possible, and trust that Master Yen Sid's shields will hold."
"I guess you're right," Sora replied as he looked up, wiping his eyes a bit. "There's not much else we can do at this point. So where's the next world with a Princess of Heart?" But before either of his friends could answer the ship rocked and sirens began to blare as Sora flew up out of his seat and landed face first on the surface of the cockpit's observation dome. His eyes widened when he saw the a massive ship – the kind that traveled by water, not through space – sailing through the lanes between past where the Gummi Ship had previously been sailing.
"What happened?" Goofy asked as Donald scrambled over from where he'd fallen to make sure Sora was okay. "Is it the Heartless?"
"I don't think so," Sora groaned in reply as Donald helped him to his feet. "I saw a wooden ship sailing past. It looked like Captain Hook's pirate ship, but different. Whoever it was probably didn't see us."
"So what's the damage?" Donald asked as Goofy went over to the main console to check the readouts.
"The good news is the ship's fine," he announced. "Our shields just took a beating and we've got a few dents in the hull that can be hammered out easily enough. The bad news is we got knocked way off course, we're caught in the gravity of another world and the engines went offline after we got hit so we can't pull up until all our systems reboot." There was no question of if they were going to be stranded or not. Gummi Ships were designed to withstand crash landings such as this.
"Alright everyone," Donald cried out as the trio scrambled into their seats. "Buckle up. It's going to be bumpy." With the engines down all Donald could do was steer as the ship accelerated through the atmosphere of the world. "Do we know which world it is?" he asked as they approached the ground and the minimum altitude for the ejector seats to automatically jettison. If they were going to land in a world they had been to before, it would be good to know which one before they were ejected from the cockpit.
"Olympus," Goofy called out from his seat near the navigation computer. Oh Good, the Coliseum, Sora thought to himself as the dome retracted and the three travelers were ejected into the air. At least it's somewhere familiar. Maybe Phil, Hercules, and Meg can help us get to the Gummi Ship's crash site faster. The three watched their Gummi Ship crash into a mountainside before they drifted down below the clouds, blissfully unaware of the danger coming after them.
The World That Never Was - Altar of Naught
"They're headed for Olympus," Master Xehanort said as he opened his eyes. "Make sure that they do not return."
"And what makes you think I'll help you," his guest retorted. The old man smiled. He knew any alliance made with the feared "One – Winged Angel" was tenuous at best, but with his vessels and incarnations occupied elsewhere he was forced to turn to outside assistance in eliminating this three pests. Still, there was no harm in outsourcing the murder of the young boy who had interfered his plans for three years to someone of Sephiroth's skill and reputation. If you've got to make alliances, there are far worse options, he thought to himself before addressing the warrior.
"Because my allies have been monitoring the progress of all the so-called "heroes," and your enemy aided King Mickey of Disney Town in repelling an attack by my rival, Maleficent. Her group's retreat from Disney Town knocked your targets off their intended course and toward Olympus. He will likely seek to aid them and leave Maleficent to the mouse."
Sephiroth paused, contemplating whether or not to accept the job. Up until two years ago, he'd spent the years since the fall of Radiant Garden hiring himself out as a mercenary for the highest bidder. He'd done a few jobs for Maleficent early on in her campaign, assassinating potential rivals on her behalf and scoping out potential targets in exchange for leads on Cloud's location. Sephiroth's plans would be easier to fulfill when he knew where Cloud was and could keep tabs on him. Even if Cloud failed to show up on Olympus, he had no desire to tangle with Maleficent's re-forged circle of allies.
"If he doesn't come to Olympus," he told Xehanort, "I'll be coming for you next." And with that, he was gone in a burst of darkness and feathers. After he left, the old Keyblade Master smiled his insidious grin.
Mount Olympus – Mountain Slopes
The Next Morning...
Sephiroth grinned maliciously. It felt good to be hunting again. He hadn't killed anything since Xehanort had hired him to kill some purple – skinned warlord with delusions of godhood the old Keyblade Master considered a potential rival, and that had been a year ago. He was eager to add a few more kills to his resume, especially a Keyblade Wielder. Now all I have to do is set my trap, and wait for them to walk into it, he thought to himself.
Though he could not sense the vessel itself, he had arrived on this world in time to see a large flaming object that could only be his targets' so-called "Gummi Ship" streak across the sky into the clouds surrounding a massive mountain. Figuring that his targets would have ejected by that point and could see the general direction their ship landed in, he decided that rather than try to track them down (which would be a challenge in a world this large), he would wait for them at their ship and kill all three in one strike.
An earth shaking roar distracted the silver – haired assassin from his thoughts of preparing an ambush. Sephiroth looked down the slopes of Olympus to find a massive stone golem climbing the mountain. Lythos, he thought to himself. The Titan. One of five that dwell on this world. They are allied with Hades, and since Hades is part of Maleficent's cabal, the Titans should be considered her allies by extension. The fact that they're throwing such a juggernaut at the gate of Olympus means that they're probably still in the market for a new base of operations since they lost Radiant Garden three years ago.
Not wanting to get involved in the struggle between Maleficent and Xehanort, Sephiroth decided that the best way to eliminate the Key bearer and his companions was to wait until they'd toppled this giant – and given their persistence in helping out those around them, he knew they inevitably would – and annihilate them when their guards were down. Satisfied with his new plan, the assassin slipped into the shadows to wait for his victims to arrive.
The trio in question were currently battling a horde of Minotaur – like Heartless near the base of the mountain. At first it had only been one, until it had pulled out a golden horn that it used to summon more like it. Now the three heroes were attempting to eliminate the monsters before they could spread out and start attacking innocent people. One of them managed to break away from the pack while the Sora, Donald, and Goofy were busy with its fellows and made a beeline for the nearby town. But before it could even leave the clearing, a lone figure came charging in, destroying the beast in a single punch.
"Herc!" Sora called out when he saw the new arrival as the man pulled out a sword before slicing his way into the swarm. With the help of their old friend Hercules, the Heartless were quickly destroyed in a matter of minutes. Once the last monster was destroyed, the four friends came together to talk.
"Hey guys," Hercules began. "It's been a while."
"Yeah," Sora replied. "Almost two years. So how've things been going for you?" Despite the urgency of getting to their ship, talking to their old friend helped distract Sora from his earlier moping.
"Pretty well for a while," the demi-god answered. "But recently the Heartless have been appearing more and more frequently."
"It's probably because Xehanort's on the loose," Goofy explained.
"Who?" their friend asked, confused. Goofy quickly covered his mouth and the three travelers turned to look at each other. Donald was looking back and forth at the two of them reminding them that they weren't supposed to interfere with the affairs of other worlds or tell them about the Heartless. However it was Sora's look which said "With Xehanort out there we need all the help we can get, and the "no meddling" rule never stopped us anyway," that convinced Goofy that they should tell as many people as they could about Xehanort. So he explained to Herc everything about the current conflict – the existence of other worlds, the Keyblade, the Princesses of Heart, and the genocidal madman willing to trigger the apocalypse out of sheer curiosity.
"I can't believe that one rogue Keyblade Master has been the cause of so much pain and suffering," he said when Goofy finished. "I'd be happy to help bring this tyrant down however I can."
"Our ship was built to survive a crash landing," Sora began as he pointed at the nearby mountain, "but it crashed at the top of that mountain."
"On Olympus?" Herc asked. "That's where my parents live. I'm busy keeping the Heartless from attacking the town over here, but when you get to the top just tell them that you're friends of mine and that your ship crashed. They should let you right in." The four of them shook hands before an ear-splitting roar shook the earth. Their jaws dropped when they turned to see the Rock Titan climbing the slopes of the mountain.
"I thought that thing was destroyed," Hercules said in shock while Sora, Donald, and Goofy took off running with determined looks on their faces.
"Don't worry!" Sora shouted back. "We beat that thing before and we can do it again."
Hercules smiled as he watched his old friends recede into the distance to face the titan. They've got that titan handled, he thought to himself as he headed off to patrol the nearby village for Heartless. They probably won't even have to tell my parents that I sent them there. All they need to do is defeat Lythos and they'll be welcomed with open arms.
So now Sephiroth is a story boss now. Fun. In all seriousness, I felt (with the help of reading through the franchise's WMG page on TV Tropes) that having Sephiroth playing an active role in the story was a nice evolution of his role in the series. In KH1 he was a non-canon bonus boss who has no contribution to the story whatsoever. In 2, he's still a bonus boss but is part of a small subplot that impacts the story. Actively contributing to the story and being a main story-mode boss felt like the logical next step for him. As the second-to-last paragraph indicates, I will be digging into the backstory of the whole Cloud, Sephiroth, Tifa, and Zack subplot. I will be coming up with answers to questions like "Why did Sephiroth kill Zack at the end of BBS?"
For those of you who understood that reference at the beginning, yes. Sephiroth did what you think he did. The only Marvel-based world in this fic will be the Big Hero 6 world announced this past summer, but I will occasionally make a few references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I still have my post-KH3 saga planned out even though it's on hold until my KH3 fic is done.) No need to worry about this story feeling like it sets up future plot lines more than it resolves the current ones. This story is going to be the conclusive end of all the current story lines. Nothing will be left hanging in this fic. Any references to my post-III saga are deliberately written to be vague enough that they don't feel like they're setting anything up, yet also serve to fill in a bit of what Maleficent and her original KH1 group were up to between BBS and KH1.