DISCAIMER: don't own KH.
I hope that wasn't too long of a wait. Anyways, on with chapter 11!
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Chapter 11: One Jump Ahead
This world was very different from the last world he visited. For one thing, this world was a lot hotter. Maybe that's because I'm crossing a desert. Aros laughed to himself as he flew on Night Flyer over the endless golden sand. It wasn't like Deep Jungle wasn't hot, it was that the jungle plants and trees kept a cool atmosphere within the world. This place had none of that. It was just pure golden sand. Aros sighed. Things were going to be different this time. He wasn't going to let father down, especially not Virgo. He didn't know if he sent another member along with him or not, but it didn't matter. He was going to do his job perfectly. If he did send someone, he'd find him and help him in any way he could. At las, something worth seeing was coming into sight. It looked like a town with a couple of large pillars in the background. He scanned the information on the paper one last time, before preparing for a landing. He chose to land behind a square of small stores to keep out of sight. He jumped off the Night Flyer and pushed his goggles back on top of his head. He walked a couple of steps out into the open area where the streets were crowded with buyers and beggars, sellers and thieves, street rats and monkeys?
A small brown monkey was apparently being chased by a large vendor who was shouting a string of curses at it for stealing his fruit. Aros stood and watched as the little ape leaped right at him and ran all over his body in a panick. He eventually took cover in his coat. "Hey get out of there will ya!" "You!" "Me?" "Where is he? That little thief! That little monster!" "That little monster happens to be my friend." A young boy stood behind the vendor in a vest and baggy pants. "Oh is that so? Well your little friend just stole one of my most precious mangos. Who's going to pay for it?" "I am of course." "A street rat like you have enough money to pay? " He started laughing, but stopped when the boy pulled out a pocket full of gold. He winked at Aros. The little monkey peaked out of Aros's coat to watch. The vendor scratched his head in confusion. It's not everyday that a poor boy carried around a pocket full of gold. The vendor took it and started a new string of curses in which he cursed the fact that street rats were making more money than he did. "Hey Sora! The sultan was being extra generous today. He lent me a little spending money to treat Jasmin to something nice. What do you think I should get her?" Aros searched his brain to recall the data Aries gave him about Agrabah. "Aladdin, right, well-" "Hey Al!"
Aros turned in time to see the big blue genie heading their way with an arm full of an assortment of what looked liked valentines gifts. He piled them all down in front of them. "Al, you could have asked me to provide you with all the necessary essentials for a romantic date with your lady love." Aros was taken aback by genie's energetic behavior and wild transformations when his eyes became the beating red hearts of love. He had a brief description of genie, but the description was completely different in person. He obviously has a lot of powers. I can feel it. Maybe he's not as dumb as he looks. "Sora! You're back, it's great to see you!" He reached down and hugged him tight. "Say you look different. Get a haircut? Lost weight? Get a tan? You look good." Genie was so fast in examining him, Aros could barely keep up. "Ah, thanks." After recovering from genie's dizzying effect, Aros looked back at him. "No, it's just the clothes." Abu leaped onto Aladdin's shoulders when Aladdin proposed his next question. "There isn't any trouble is there?" "No no no, can't a guy visit another guy once in a while?" "Well, that's great Sora, but you see, me and Jasmine are ah--"
Aros studied him for a moment and actually felt a small tweak of embarassment. "Oh, right, I understand, don't worry about it. " He paced a couple of steps forward before continuing. "Actually, I've got to be honest." Genie and Aladdin looked at each other. They never expected Sora to lie to them. "You see, there might be trouble, but I didn't want to worry you or drag you into trouble." Aladdin scoffed. "Hah, trouble? Please, trouble is my middle name." Before Aros could reply, a loud mouth parrot came flying as fast as he could toward them. "Al! Al! We got trouble!"
"Can't this thing go any faster?" Sora was in such a hurry to reach Aladdin before anything bad happened to him. He couldn't get the image of Tarzan out of his head; it kept haunting him. Goofy and Donald were doing all they could to get there. Kairi tried to offer comfort to Sora, but he was too focused on finding Aladdin before the imposter did. Riku was taking in the sights of this world. He turned back to Sora. "Is there really a big treasure out there?" He wanted to ease Sora's mind by creating a topic to discuss. "Sora?" "Huh? Oh, yeah. It's in the Cave of Wonders." "And you didn't bring any back with you? Sora, we could have been the richest guys on the island." Sora looked at Riku's silly greedy expression and laughed. He was pleased to have Riku along with him. It really helped. "Feeling better now?," Kairi asked. "Yeah, a lot." His mood shifted to dread when the ship recieved an unexpected bump. "What was that?"
The Gummi ship answered by shaking violently and dropping a few feet from the sky. Everyone tried to hold on the best they could. Goofy and Donald were working extra hard at the controls. "The ship is breaking down!," Donald shouted. "Gosh, you don't think we ran out of gas do ya?" Donald gave him an "Oh please " look, before the ship fell into a dive. "EVERYBODY HOLD ON!"
The
ship continued until it eventually crashed into the golden sand. No
one was seriously hurt, not even the Gummi ship. As soon as everyone
made sure everyone else was okay, they got out and inspected the
damage done to their ship. They were in the middle of the desert;
Agrabah must be a couple of miles up. Goofy and Donald inspected the
back of the ship. "Hmm. It looks like something got stuck in the
engine department." "What is it Goofy?" Sora and the
others gathered around. There was some unusual black goo that was
trapped inside. "That dark sticky stuff must be what caused the
ship to break down." Sora sighed and kicked sand at the ship.
"How long are we stuck here then?"
"Hmm, well, I
know if Chip and Dale were with us, we'd be out ot here in no time,
but since they're not, I guess I'll have to take a crack at it."
"Oh no you don't." Donald stepped in. "I'll take care
of it." He started fumbline with the wires and pulling this and
pushing that, until the engine ended up shooting some of the black
goo in his face. "Our enemies must be behind this. Or maybe that
imposter," Riku stated. Sora leaned against the ship, looking
just as upset as he did when he left to find Aladdin. "What does
it matter. We're going to fail again."
Aros and his company, however, were making good time by riding carpet to the palace. When it came into sight, Aros was in awe of its beauty. He had never seen such a magnificent palace, though he couldn't let Aladdin know that. The castle that he lived in was inside the mountain. There was no outside to gaze in wonder at. Aros was feeling troubled as they got closer. He didn't want to end up rescuing anyone again. It was not his job to be doing so. He tried to relax and listen as Iago explained what had happened.
"Okay, I was just sitting there, minding my own buisness on my very own persian pillow, having a nice delectable din din of ripe golden mangos and a few grapes, though they were kind of sour, but-"
"Iago get on with it!," cried Aladdin. Aros smiled. He'd have to tell Virgo about all the strange and loudmouth characters he met on his journey. "Okay, okay. Anyways like I was saying, I was minding my own business when a group of shady looking guys came rushing past me. They ran to hold the princess and his majesty hostage while they gathered the gold." "What did you do?" "Me? I got my tail feathers out of there." Aros rolled his eyes. Such a coward. But then what could he do? "Well I'm going to do something. I guess this wasn't the trouble you were refering to was it Sora?" Aros shook his head. "No, but I'm sure it's the trouble I can handle."
Carpet and the rest of the group snuck through one of the huge windows and peaked around corners to find the theives. As they slowly made their way down the hall, with a cop for a genie, Aros began to question the shady men. He wondered if any of them were from the Zodiac. Aladdin stopped them from going any further. Right in front of them, in the thrown room, was a group of four theives hauling off large amounts of gold and jewlry. Aladdin nodded to the others and stepped out. "Hey! I don't think that belongs to you!" They stopped their hauling and readied themselves with their swords. "It does now."
Aladding looked at Aros in confusion. Usually Sora would instantly be by his side. Aros got the hint and stepped up with his keyblade. "Whoa Sora, I've never seen you use that keyblade before." "Well you will now." He ran forward to take on the theif that stood there acting as a supervisor. Aladdin moved in to take on a couple as well, while Abu, Iago and genie cheered from the sidelines. Aladdin was able to fight off two, while Aros remained fighting one. The one, called to the 4th to take as much gold as he could and leave. He tried to, but was caught off gaurd when he reached into the chest of gold and found handcuffs on his hands. Genie appeared behind him, along with a small jail cell. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will affect you in a court of law." That theif is now serving time behind bars. Aros took it easy on the theif he was fighting. He didn't want to seem out of the ordinary. Their weapons clashed, until they remained frozen that way. "Give it up boy, you don't have what it takes." "Oh no?" Aros swerved and struck his blade into the theif's stomach so fast he didn't have time to think of what happened. Aros released an uppercut and knocked him straight into the air and into the jail cell with the other theif. Aros turned and watched as Aladdin swered, turned and hopped out of danger of his enemies and knocked them both out. Everyone praised his work. "Alright Aladdin!," Aros jojined in. He was impressed. Genie now became a judge who banged his gavel. "Order, order. Now let me see here. What are the charges? " He was reading from a list of all their wicked acts. "Ah yes, breaking into a palace, holding a princess and a sultan hostage, stealing all the treasure-" "Don't forget ruining my afternoon luch!," Iago added. "Yes, and ruining Iago's afternoon luch. Hmm, I see no choice but to sentence you for life! Take them away!.'' Two other officer genies threw the theives into the jail cell. "Alright genie!," Aladdin called, while Aros laughed at his entertaining act. "Come on, let's save Jasmine and the Sultan!" Iago flew down to the mounds of treasure the crooks left behind. Abu joined him as well. "Ah, you guys go ahead. I'll just stay here and gaurd the treasure." "Oh no you don't. You're coming too." Aros grabbed Iago and Aladdin grabbed Abu and headed off to find the others.
Jasmine and the Sultan were tied up in the treasure room. Jasmine was trying hard to comfort her father. "Don't worry father. Aladdin will come." "I know he will. It's those crooks making off with my treasure." "Guess again." "Aladdin!," Jasmin cried in joy. He and Aros moved in to untie them. "Are you okay?" "I am now." Jasmine said as she hugged Aladdin. "Sora, you're here! Thank you for coming to my rescue." Aros didn't know what to say. No one had ever thanked him before. It would have been nice if his father did. He shifted on his feet and smiled. "No problem." "Why it's a big problem." The Sultan exclaimed. "Huh?"
"I don't know what your reward shall be for helping us." "Ah you don't need to reward us, we're glad to help," said Aladdin. Aros frowned. A nice reward would have been nice for all the trouble they put him through. Way to go Aladdin. "That may be, but I'd still like to reward you. What would you like?" Aros shifted again. "Well I would like one thing, from each of you." They all looked expectantly at him. A flush of guilt stirred within him, but it was not yet strong enough to affect him. "Well." He walked up to genie. "I need your help genie." Genie became the host of his own game show. "You name it kid! Whatever you want!" The guilt increased. "I need your help, not like that, but like...like this!"
In one quick movement, Aros struck his keyblade into genie's heart, filling him with the same cruel darkness that filled Tarzan. Aladdin and the others watched in horror, too stunned that Sora would do such a thing. "SORA NO!" Aladin ran forward, but Aros knocked him into the wall with his keyblade. He fell unconcious. Jasmin screamed. "Sora! How could you!" Genie slumped over as the darkness worked its way in. Aros turned to the others. He was getting tired of that name and their expectations of him. He had enough to deal with when his father expected so much more of him as well. "Because princess. This is the new Sora. Get used to it. Genie! See that they don't escape!" Genie straightened up. He was no longer the bright blue, hyper-active genie they had come to love, he was now a disturbing blackish blue, miserable genie with glowing white eyes and full of hate. A dark aura glowed around him and he grew in size as he came up to the sultan and the princess and created a jail cell around them with sharp spikes pointed at them so they couldn't move. Aladdin became locked up in chains on the wall. Iago was locked in a cold birdcage and Abu was trapped in a steel barrel with no escape. Finally, carpet was pinned to the wall. Aros turned to them before he left. "I helped you, now you helped me. Genie, by beind the darkness protector and you all by staying out of my way."
That pang of guilt started up again, so he ignored it. Instead, he made his way back into the throne room and out into the garden area. He looked at the new genie that followed him. He was unfeeling and unenjoyable. He wasn't the kind of genie that joked around like before. This worried Aros slightly, however, he had to get on with the mission.
"Genie, I need to locate the keyhole of this world. Do you know where to find it?" Genie did nothing but float there with his arms folded in a state of fury. Aros was starting to feel uncomfortable around him. The faster I can get away from him, the better. Finally, genie unfolded his arms and pointed at the sky. Aros looked up.
"Of
course. This one may have been unleased from an object." Aros
readied the Dark heart and pointed it up at the sky. A dark energy
flowed from the end and created the outline of the keyhole in the
sky. It began to release the energy into the hole. It shone brightly
for a moment. Aros brought it down and watched as a dark cloud poured
out from within the hole. A variety of heartless escaped from it.
They spread all over the land; in the sky and on the ground. Since
the keyhole was right above the palace, it imediately started to
change the look. It looked dark and haunted. Aros regreted that such
a magnificent palace was turning into a less magnificent structure.
He sighed and turned away. Then another feeling enterd. It was an
intense feeling of frustration. He put his hand on his chest. He
didn't know where it was coming from; it certainly wasn't his own. He
decided to worry about it later.
He had completed his job and it
was time to move on. Before he left this place completly, he decided
it might be best to scout out his fellow Zodiac members. His fahter
was angry at him last time for not saving one of them. If any one of
them had a run-in with Libra's killers and died, he might be next so
suffer under Aries' wrath. But where to look? He wasn't
at all sure if he even should be trying to track them down. He knew
they'd despise him even more and try to attack him for intervening.
"It wouldn't hurt just to have a look around before I left."
He turned to the genie. "Uh, I'm leaving now. Stay here and
gaurd this world." The genie made no gesture to signify that he
had heard him. Aros watched him for a second, wishing he still
contained his waky humor. He quietly made his way out of the palace
and back into the market streets.
"There!, " Donald
cried triuphantly,"All finished."
"Alright!"
Donald, with Goofy's help of course, was able to fix the Gummi ship.
"All aboard, huh?" Sora looked back to see what had upset
Goofy. The sky over Agrabah was darkening and turning just at it did
in Tarzan's world. Sora could see small figures escaping from the
sky. Heartless! Oh no! He instantly leaped into the
ship. "We have to go now!" No one needed telling twice;
they all jumped in and headed straight to the palace. Donald and
Goofy were starting to remember what the king had said as they got
closer. "Gosh Sora, maybe this isn't such a good idea. The king
said this darkness-" "I know what he said, but we have to
get there and save Aladdin and the others! We've got to do what we
can!" Everyone looked at one another and hoped that Sora's wish
would come true and that they wouldn't be hurt by the darkness.
Aros was still walking the street. He had walked around most of the corners trying to find any sign of the Zodiac. So far, there was no sign of any of them. He paused for a moment as he stepped back onto the street that would lead him to his Night Flyer. He decided to take that path. Along the way, he took in the last sights of this world; the stands where vendors sold fruit, clothing and jewlery, the buyers who walked around in the hot sun buying from vendors, the poor tired folks who lay around begging others. In a matter of minutes, the darkness would take them and turn them into cold hearted zombies. Aros wished he had taken better notice of the last world before it changed. It was really beautiful; he had to admit that. Now, he might never see it again. "Maybe I can come back." "Maybe, but it is unlikely."
Aros turned at the voice of Capri, who was hidden in the shadows, watching him. He walked up to him with a look of concern on his face. "I trust you have taken care of your business, just as he asked." "Ah-huh. What are you doing here?"
"Keeping an eye out for trouble." "You mean Virgo sent you here." Aros grinned at being able to figure out why he was really here. Virgo and Capri treated each other like family. Even though Capri never tried to spend much time with him, he knew he was a caring person. He was simply too busy with Aries. "Yes, indeed she did, but there's no reason to be watching you now. You're on your way out, right?" Aros nodded. "Better get a move on." "Right." He turned to leave, but another thought occurred to him. "Capri, you're not gonna-" He was going to ask if he was going to fight Libra's killers, but he was already gone.
Sora didn't wait for the ship to land properly; he jumped right out before it touched the ground and raced to the palace doors. He pounded on the doors, but it was no use. The others reached him, but the doors remained closed. "Sora!," Kairi shouted. "It's no use! It won't open!" "What can we do?" Just when Sora felt he should give up, the doors opened with the help of a dark aura that glowed around it. "Huh?" "Be on your gaurd Sora," Riku warned, "Something's not right here." Once they came face to face with the palace, they noticed it's haunted look which they didn't see before. Sora charged forward with one thing on his mind. "Sora! Wait!" The others had to follow to take on anything he couldn't handle alone. The palace was dark and creepy inside. There was no sign of anyone, but there were a few heartless standing in their way, like shadows and fat bandits. Riku and Sora took care of the fat bandits, while Goofy and Donald handled the shadows. Kairi was starting to feel like she had come for nothing. So far she had been unable to get involved. They were in a room across from the throne room. As Sora was in the middle of taking on a fat bandit, he caught a glimpse of something that ran by in the throne room. He looked familiar."Aladdin?" Riku took notice of Sora's fading focus and called out to him.
"Go Sora, I can handle this!" Sora left his heartless to Riku and ran to the throne room. Once he was there, he saw no sign of Aladdin or any heartless. "Aladdin? Jasmine?" He had a funny feeling that someone was watching him. He whirled around and came face to face with a gigantic, dark genie full of hate. "Genie?" Sora was blasted back by his sudden power. He crashed through the doors and out into the entrance. He fell down the stairs one step at a time, until he hit the pavement. He raised himself up and shook off. He didn't get much time to rest, as he had to move out of the way of the sword that came right at him. He dodge rolled aside and stood up to face his attacker. "Aladdin? Aladdin you're alright!"
"Yeah, but you won't be!" Sora kept dodging out of the way of his attacks. Aladdin showed no mercy as he attempted to cut off his head, while Sora's back was to a pillar. He ducked just in time. "Aladdin...stop...it's me...Sora...remember?" "I remember alright," He swung his sword to Sora's middle, but he blocked it,"I remember you were once, my friend." "What!"
"And now..." blocked. "You betrayed" blocked. "Us all!" Aladdin finally caught Sora off gaurd and made him fall to the ground, weaponless. Aladdin held his sword to his heart. Sora finally realized what must have happened. When Aladdin started attacking, he started to think he had been changed into a heartless, but it wasn't so. "Aladdin listen, it wasn't me! It was some imposter! You've gotta believe me!" Aladdin couldn't answer, because they were joined by another. Genie blasted his way through the door. He loomed over them. They looked at one another, before doing all they could to dodge, jump and roll out of the way of his blasts. They both took refuge behind the Sultan's new elephant statues. Sora watched genie for a bit as he started stiring up an electric darkness in the palm of his hands. Sora pulled back and tried to calm himself and figure out a way to stop genie without hurting him. The same went for Aladdin since Sora noticed him glaring back at him from behind his statue.
"SORA! Over here!" He looked up to see the Gummi Ship ready for take off. We can't run away again! Not when Aladdin needs us the most! "NO! We gotta help them!" Riiku jumped out of the ship. "We've got to help ourselves first! Look!" He pointed up to the sky. Sora and the others were able to see the dark cloud about to descend on them. If they were touched by it, they were lost. Sora's anger increased into a furious growl. They had failed once more. The worlds covered in darkness were too strong for them to handle. They couldn't take any chances. It didn't get any better as genie's electric energy transformed into a cloud which rained deadly lightning strikes down upon them. Sora ran, while dodging to the ship. He jumped in behind Riku.
"Sora! Sora! I'll get you for this!"
Sora wanted to make one more attempt at making Aladdin believe him, but the ship's door closed on him. The last thing Sora saw was the murderous look in Aladdin's eyes, a friend who was betrayed by another.
Next to the palace walls, watching the whole scenario of Sora trying to board the ship, was viewed by Capri and an accomplice. "Damn! I wanted that, I could have had him Capri." "It's not yours to deal with as of yet Aqua. This one's Aros's." Aqua turned to glare at him. "You keep cheering him on for Virgo. She'll learn soon enough. Besides, he's not taking care of it himself, he's letting someone else do it. It's a mark of how pathetic he is." He walked away from Capri. "I'll handle the next one. Without anyone's help."
Capri watched him for a moment, then turned back to the scene before him. He knew Aqua was working himself up to get into the same kind of battle Libra died in. That time, Libra had to be there with Aros not too far along. Though they did not work together, it still sickened her to know that he was in the same place as her. Aqua was feeling the same way, dreading when his turn came up. He would instead, jump to Aros's world before Aros got there. If Aros should meet up with him, he would surely fall to Aqua's attacks. "Be careful Aros." Capri prayed.
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I'm currently developing another story, while finishing this one up. Don't worry, I'll keep updating.
