Chapter 11: Timeless River
A/N: Now we get to see everyone in an old school fashion. How will they deal with going in the past? Will they be tempted to try to change it? Or will they follow orders and do what they're told?
I also finally posted Ankoku, Tsukiko and Taiyouko's images on my Deviantart account.
I also have a poll for you guys to vote on. Since I'm doing the Atlantica world next, do you want to see Hikari sing a song on that world?
Please vote!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts; I just own Hikari.
Enjoy!
/
When the doors opened up on the other side, the group fell out and landed on each other.
Hikari groaned and opened her eyes.
When she saw the scenery, she gasped.
Everything was in black and white.
They weren't in the castle anymore, but were instead out in some sort of meadow.
"Hey, look. There's the Cornerstone of light" Goofy said.
Sure enough, the Cornerstone of light stood proudly in the middle of the meadow.
When Hikari got up, she finally looked at her friends.
She was surprised to see them look all retro and old fashioned.
Sora looked more cartoonish and sported his original outfit from their first journey while Donald and Goofy looked like they were from very old cartoons.
Hikari looked at herself and noticed that she was back in the outfit she wore on their first journey.
"Aww man, I thought I would never see this hideous outfit again" she said.
Sora was amazed by the scenery as well.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Everything is all black and white"
Donald and Goofy looked at themselves.
Donald looked a little frazzled as he checked himself out.
"Hey, this is kind of like…um….uh"
"Déjà vu?" Goofy asked.
"Yeah" Donald replied.
Sora and Hikari looked at them.
"Really?" Hikari asked.
"You mean you've guys been here before?" Sora added.
Just then, a retro version of Pete came up to them.
He didn't wear the fancy outfit like the one they saw him in, but instead wore a set of overalls that only had one strap buttoned up.
He looked at the group and walked up to them.
"Hey, you" he said.
"Seen any bad guys running around here?"
They all pointed their fingers at him.
Pete took offensive to that.
"Why I oughta" he said.
He looked like he was about to fight, but thought better of it.
"I don't have time to waste on punks like you. So I guess I'll go easy" he said.
He ran off to a place that said the piers.
"Well, there's our villain" Hikari said.
They ran after Pete before the evil cat could do anything worse to this world.
/
When they caught up to him, they saw him standing near the docks.
He appeared to be looking for something, but they didn't want him to find whatever it was.
When they walked up to him, he glared at them.
"What's with you guys?" he asked.
"You got some bone to pick with me?"
"More than one" Sora replied.
Pete glared at him.
"Them's fightin' words!" he said.
He brandished a fist at them.
He was about to hit Sora, but when he heard a boat whistle, he stopped.
He looked down the lake for a sec and started to walk off.
The group got in front of him and pulled out their weapons.
"Not so fast" Hikari said.
Pete held up his fists in a fighting matter.
When they were fighting with Pete, they noticed he wasn't as outgoing with his fights as he was before.
Or rather, he wasn't as crafty.
He was really clumsy and he would take their hits badly, even when he blocked them.
When the fight was over Pete glared at him.
"What do you punks have beef with me anyway?" he asked.
He studied them for a moment.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"You new around here?"
Sora scoffed.
"Cut the act" he said.
The sound of a boat whistle could be heard again.
Pete jumped up and was about to run off, but his back gave out on him and he fell flat on his butt.
Hikari raised an eyebrow at him.
Goofy came up to Sora and Hikari.
"Ya know- something doesn't seem quite right here" he said.
He looked at Pete.
"Are you sure you're Pete?"
Pete glared at them.
"Well, of course I'm Pete-I'm the captain of the steamboat" he said.
"So stop bothering me!"
He stood up painfully.
"So hit the road" he said.
"I gotta go find the little runt what's stole my boat!"
The group looked away from Pete and huddled together.
"Gawrsh, maybe we made a mistake" Goofy said.
Hikari looked at Pete more closely and started to make that conclusion.
If this was the Pete that they met before, he would have known who they were and fought with them right away.
And she was certain that he wouldn't be focused on finding a boat while here.
"I'm starting to think the same thing" Hikari said.
Sora and Donald nodded.
"He hasn't even called any heartless" Sora added.
Goofy went up to Pete.
"Sorry we attacked you like that, Captain Pete" he said.
Pete glared at them.
"Oh yeah?" he asked.
"Well if you're really sorry, then go find my steamboat!"
They nodded.
It was the least they could do for him.
"Yes sir" Sora said.
They headed back to where the Cornerstone was to see if they could find any clues.
/
"I thought for sure Pete was the bad guy" Sora said.
"It was a possibility" Hikari said.
"He's been giving us trouble since we started this journey"
"Aw, that would be too easy" Donald said.
"C'mon fellas" Goofy said.
"Let's try to find that steamboat"
Sora rubbed his head.
"I guess we DID saw we would" he said.
Donald stomped his foot in frustration.
"Hey! We've got a door to find!" he said.
Hikari looked around.
"I don't see any doors" she said.
Sora looked around and saw something up ahead.
"What's that?"
They went up to it and saw it was a small floating theater of some kind.
The curtains were closed, so they couldn't see what was inside.
" I can't see a thing…" Sora said.
Donald pulled on this rope that was hanging on the side and pulled the screen back.
They saw heartless going through these little theaters as well and disappeared just as they came to this world.
They saw themselves talking about the Cornerstone of Light and mulling over their retro looks.
The screen went blank when it was over.
"What was that?" Hikari asked.
"Heartless, goin' out…" Goofy said.
"…and us coming in" Donald finished.
Sora looked confused.
"What does this mean?" he asked.
Hikari looked over across the meadow and saw the four mini theaters.
"Let's get rid of those heartless" she said.
"Then what'll we do?" Goofy asked.
"We'll worry about that later" Sora said.
They went over to the first theater and wound up in some sort of construction site.
/
They all stood on some sort of scaffolding.
It seemed like people were constructing something, including the building they were all standing on.
"What are they building?" Hikari asked.
They carefully walked on the support beam they were on and looked around.
Just then, a heartless appeared behind them.
"Look out!" Goofy cried.
Sora and Hikari were about to summon their keyblades, but a very familiar person came to their rescue.
Mickey came swinging on a rope and knocked the heartless off before landing on an upper level.
Everyone was surprised to see him in retro form as well.
"The King!" Donald cried.
Mickey smiled at them and waved.
He didn't even say anything to them.
"Gee, he seems kinda different somehow…"Goofy said.
Hikari looked up and saw a set of heartless.
"Heartless! I knew it!" she said.
The heartless jumped off and came down to their level.
Everyone pulled out their weapons and faced them.
"Now let's go get those heartless!" Sora said.
While they were fighting, they had to be very careful.
Since they were on a support beam, the board they were on would move around with their movement and would tip over sometimes or would act like a catapult and shot them up in the air.
When the heartless were gone, the scaffolding was steady enough for everyone to stand on it again.
Sora pumped his fist.
"How do you like that?" he said.
"That'll show them" Hikari added.
Mickey ran up to them and shook their hands before running off.
Goofy found a mini theater floating on the scaffolding.
"Hey look" he said.
They went over to it and pulled the room that controlled the screen.
When the screen went up, they saw the little movie it provided.
/
The scene opened up with Maleficent looked angry.
"You absolute idiot!" she said.
"You've managed to fail at everything!"
She turned around to face the person.
"And what's more…you foolishly thought you could take my place while I was away" she said.
"Well, as of now, you're finished"
She glared at the person.
"Mark my words, there'll be no place for you when our time comes!"
She turned away.
"Useless imbecile!"
She walked away.
That's when the person revealed to be Pete.
"But-but …but I…" he said.
Maleficent just ignored him and walked away.
/
When the movie was over, the group went back to where the Cornerstone was.
Everyone was confused over what they just saw.
"What in the world was that just now?" Hikari asked.
"Somebody sure was angry" Goofy said.
Donald shook his head.
"I don't understand" he said.
Sora just shrugged.
"Let's just try to clear the heartless out first" he said.
"We've got three more places that need our help"
They went to the next theater panel and wound up in some sort of town with a giant cannon in the center.
The group noticed that they were like giants compared to the place.
"The town's shrunk!" Sora said.
"Or it could be that we got bigger" Hikari said.
They spotted the cannon that stood in the center.
"Check out the toy cannon!" Sora said.
They went up to it for a closer look.
Just then, Mickey ran up to them and was jumping around frantically.
He didn't say anything, but just waved his hands around.
"What's he saying?" Hikari asked.
Mickey pointed behind them and showed that there were heartless all over the place.
"Heartless!" Sora cried.
They started attacking the heartless before the town could be destroyed by them.
It seemed that the toy cannon proved to be helpful because whenever they used it, it would shoot cannon balls at the heartless and finish them off with one shot.
When the town was free of the heartless, Mickey went up to Sora and Hikari and shook their hands before running off.
Goofy found another floating theater near the cannon and activated it.
They watched another movie that seemed to be about Pete.
/
Pete still stood where he was after Maleficent left.
"Oh, for crying out loud…she didn't have to say that" he said.
"Okay, I messed up every now and then…but I'm a lot more things than useless…"
He sniffled a tiny bit.
"Why, when I was startin' out…oh…I miss those good ol' days….what I wouldn't give to go back in time…what I wouldn't give…"
He sniffled a bit more.
Just then, a bright light appeared out of the corner of his eyes.
"Huh?"
He turned around to see a silver door off to the side.
He went up to it and opened it up.
When he saw what was on the other side, he gasped.
"Hey, I think that's my…."
/
Sora crossed his arms in thought.
"A door?" he asked.
"It does look familiar" Donald admitted.
Goofy nodded.
"Yup-it's the door Merlin magic'd up" he said.
"So it could come straight here, right?" Hikari asked.
"Sure!" Goofy said.
"I think…"
"Let's see if we can find any more clues" Sora said.
They went through the next portal and appeared at a building that was on fire.
"Fire!" Hikari cried.
They saw Mickey was trying to put the fire out, but was having trouble doing so.
"Come on! He needs our help!" Sora said.
They were about to help him, but heartless appeared in front of them.
"Aw, come on!" Sora said.
Hikari looked at him.
"Donald and I can try to put out the fire while you and Goofy take care of the heartless" she said.
Sora nodded and teamed up with Goofy while Hikari teamed up with Donald.
"Let's put this fire out before it burns the place down" she said.
They put out the fire from the windows before they took care of the ones that were burning outside.
Every now and then a heartless would sneak past Sora and tried to attack them, but they managed to fend them off before rescuing the building.
When the fires were put out, Mickey ran up to them and shook Sora and Hikari's hand again before running off.
"Well, that takes care of that" Sora said.
They found another floating theater screen and watched another clip from Pete's memories.
/
Pete has brought Maleficent over to show what he found.
The evil sorceress looked amazed at what she saw on the other side of the door.
"Fascinating" she said.
"This appears to be a portal to the past!"
Pete nodded.
"Yeah. It was the strangest thing!" he said.
Maleficent glared at him.
"Stop gawking!" she said.
"And start thinking of a way we could use it to our advantage"
Pete nodded.
"Okay" she said.
Maleficent looked at him.
"Now, perhaps I could give you one more chance to redeem yourself" she said.
Pete looked relieved.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" he said.
"You can count on me!...so what do I do?"
Maleficent looked back at the door.
"Patience , my dear" she said.
She smiled darkly.
"What have we here?" she asked.
"Well if it isn't the Cornerstone of Light….hmmm…now we can take that castle from those fools-but we'll have to proceed with the utmost of care…"
/
"Maleficent!" Donald cried.
"She must have known all along!" Hikari said.
Goofy mulled this over.
"Let's see…if that door's connected to the past…"
Donald shook his head.
"No, no, no! It comes here" he said.
Sora looked confused.
"Huh?"
Hikari and Goofy caught on to what Donald was saying.
"Then that means we're in the past!" Goofy said.
Sora looked amazed.
"Wow" he said.
"If we're in the past…"
"…we can change the future!" Donald added.
Hikari whacked Donald upside the head.
"You idiot!" she said.
"Remember what Merlin said? He has faith in us, and we have to resist temptation no matter what!"
Sora and Donald laughed nervously.
"Aw, I was just joking" Donald said.
"Who'd want to change the future anyway?" Sora asked.
He placed his hands behind his head.
"So…what are we gonna do?" he asked.
Goofy rubbed his head.
"Doors, bad guys…my brain hurts" he said.
"Well, we know we're on the right track" Donald said.
They went to the last portal that led them to someone's house.
/
When they arrived at the house, they saw that Mickey was already there.
"This must be his house" Hikari said.
They saw this great big black portal in the middle of the room and it seemed to be sucking everything within it.
Mickey ran around the room, trying desperately to keep everything from being sucked in.
"Come on! He needs our help!" Sora said.
They helped out by trying to close the portal using magic.
They had to do this a couple of times before they closed the portal completely.
When they did, Mickey went up to Sora and Hikari and shook their hands once again before running off.
"Why does he keep doing that?" Hikari asked.
They found another floating theater and saw the last bit of Pete's memories.
/
Maleficent gave Pete a serious look.
"Listen well" she said.
"On the other side of this portal, they're about to begin construction on that wretched castle. But until then, their treasured Cornerstone of Light lies unguarded, with all of its power still contained!"
Pete looked at the door.
"The Cornerstone…of Light?" he asked.
"Yes!" Maleficent said.
"That cursed sphere is the very thing that prevents us from entering the castle"
"Oh" Pete said.
"You know what must be done?" Maleficent asked.
Pete nodded.
"Go then" Maleficent said.
"Time to prove your worth! And don't dare to fail me again!"
She walked off to let Pete ponder over this.
"Don't fail her…again" he said.
He suddenly came up with an idea.
"I just gotta smash that Cornerstone to smithereens!"
He laughed at the idea and headed for the door.
"But first…I gotta go get my old boat back"
/
"It was Pete after all!" Sora said.
"Why, he tricked us!" Donald said.
"Still, something doesn't seem right" Goofy pointed out.
Hikari mulled this over.
"The Pete we met here had kind of an attitude, but he didn't seem like a bad guy…" she said.
Donald looked over to the waterway and saw someone.
"Look!"
They all looked and saw the future Pete standing there.
He laughed darkly over something.
"Now that castle's as good as ours!" he said.
He ran towards the waterway.
"That's the Pete we know!" Sora said.
Goofy suddenly gasped.
"Oh no!"
He pointed to where the Cornerstone was, only to show that it was gone.
"The Cornerstone's gone!" Hikari cried.
"But that means…" Donald said.
"They're gonna fill the castle with darkness!" Goofy cried.
"We gotta hurry!"
They saw the past Pete running towards the waterway.
The cat held his chest as he wheezed.
"Hey, hold it right there!" Sora said.
The past Pete glared at him.
"No way, small fry!" he said.
"I finally found the pipsqueak what stole my steamboat!"
"Yeah! It was you!" Donald said.
The past Pete nodded.
"Right me!" he said.
He realized what he said and shook his head.
"No, no! It wasn't me! It's just somebody who looks like me!"
He quickly ran towards the waterway.
"Oh, which one is it?" Sora asked.
"Let's go after him and find out" Hikari said.
They ran towards the waterway to see what the past Pete was talking about.
/
"Waaait!"
"Shut up!"
The group saw the past Pete and present Pete fighting over some type of boat with the Cornerstone hanging from the back.
The present Pete shoved the past one.
"Your future's on the line, pallie, so back off and give me the boat!" the present Pete said.
He gave the past Pete a right hook punch and sent him flying.
"Wow, seeing the two Pete's together like this, I have to say that the past one is a lot slimmer than the present one" Hikari said.
"He must have really let himself go by being with Maleficent"
They saw the present Pete jump on the boat with the Cornerstone attached to it.
"The Cornerstone!" Donald cried.
"After him!" Sora cried.
They watched as Pete started up the boat.
He just laughed as he saw the group trying to chase after him.
"Later loser!" he cried.
They watched as he started swimming off down the current.
"Time to go fishing" Hikari said.
She used her magic and created chains of light and hooked them to the back of the boat.
"Heave Ho!"
She and the others tugged on the chains and brought the boat back.
Pete glared at them.
"Hey! Back off!" he said.
Sora just whacked him with his keyblade and knocked him out.
"Shut up" he said.
While Pete was knocked out, they tried breaking the cage the Cornerstone was in.
Sora grabbed onto the hook that was connected to the boat and pried the top off with his keyblade while the others took out the bars.
When they finally broke the cage, Pete fell into the water.
The cat glared at them and held up a fist.
"You'll pay for this!"
He didn't realize the boat was behind him, so when it floated alongside him, it decked him in the back of the head and dazed him.
"Actually, I think it's you who's going to pay" Hikari said.
They pulled the boat back towards them while Pete made his escape.
They put the Cornerstone somewhere safe so they could chase after Pete.
"He's heading for the doorway!" Goofy cried.
They chased after him until they made it into town.
/
They feared that it might have been too late to stop Pete, but they were surprised to see the past Pete fighting with the present one.
The present one punched the past one square in the face and sent him flying.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow , ow!" The past one cried.
The present one scoffed.
"Ha! You're still wet behind the ears!" he said.
They group faced him and gripped their weapons.
"Then try us!" Sora said.
The past Pete ran up to them and held up his fists.
"The past Pete is going to help us fight the present one?" Hikari thought.
She shrugged.
"Oh well, we need all the help we can get"
Even thought the past Pete wasn't a really god fighter, he was able to break through the present Pete's shields whenever he activated them.
It seemed that the present Pete picked up a few things from their last encounter and used that to his advantage.
It really didn't bother Sora and Hikari since they always had a few tricks up their sleeves.
If they couldn't attack him normally, they would just use magic or go into Valor form.
They would get the upper hand at few times, but whenever the present Pete felt like he was about to lose, he would send them to one of the portals that lead them to other parts of this world and use their surroundings to his advantage.
It didn't matter where they went, Sora and Hikari would always find a way to beat Pete using their surroundings.
When they finally managed to beat him, he glared at them and summoned the door that he came through.
"The door!" Donald cried.
The past Pete held up his fist when he saw the present one going through it.
"Yeah! And stay out!" he said.
When the door was closed, Sora and Hikari held out their keyblades and locked the door for good so Maleficent wouldn't use it again.
The past Pete went up to them.
"Would somebody tell me what's going on here?" he asked.
"Who was that creep, anyways?"
Sora looked at him as if he was stupid.
"Hello? That creep was you from the fu-"
Goofy quickly covered his mouth before he could say anymore.
"Sora! That's a secret!" he said.
Pete tilted his head.
"Secret?" he asked.
"What secret?"
He shook his head.
"Oh never mind" he said.
"Sorry I put you guys through all that trouble"
"Yeah, well, just don't make a habit out of it" Hikari said.
Pete looked confused at that, but shrugged it off.
"And to show you my appreciation, I'll let you pilot my steamboat" Pete said.
"Best little craft on the river. My deck hand Mickey's late anyways"
/
And so, out heroes enjoyed their reward by steering the steamboat back towards where the meadow was.
They had to return the Cornerstone somehow.
Sora smiled as he steered the boat while Donald blew the horns.
Hikari looked out at the view and smiled.
Her mind wandered over where Mickey might be.
"I guess he's probably off helping other people out" she thought.
Little did she know, that Mickey was on the raft with the Cornerstone and enjoyed the ride.
/
The group smiled when they placed the Cornerstone back where it belonged.
"I betcha the castle's safe now" Goofy said.
"Guess we should head back" Sora said.
"Wait!" Donald said.
"As long as we're here…"
The group glared at him when they realized what he was talking about.
"Donald" they said.
Sora and Goofy dragged him towards the door while Hikari opened it.
They swung the duck a little and flung him through the door before following him.
/Back at the Castle, Merlin and Queen Minnie saw the thorns disappearing.
"The thorns have disappeared!" Minnie said.
"By George!" Merlin cried.
"They accomplished their mission!"
Chip and Dale jumped up and down.
"Hurray!" Chip cried.
"Let's have an acorn fest to celebrate!" Dale said.
The doors opened and out came Sora and the others.
Hikari sighed with relief when she saw color again.
"Yay! I'm in my new outfit!" she said.
Minnie smiled at them.
"Welcome back!" she said.
"Because of your bravery, the castle is safe and protected again. Thank you so much for what you've done"
Merlin looked at them seriously.
"Now, I hope you didn't do anything reckless while you were there?" he said.
Donald smiled.
"Of course not!" he said.
The others snorted knowing that he was lying.
Donald glared at them, but noticed someone standing near the door to the Cornerstone.
A female duck slowly walked over to them, unsure about what was going on.
Donald's face lit up when he saw her.
"Daisy!" he cried.
"Daisy, I'm back!"
They watched as Donald went up to her.
"Who?" Sora asked.
"Daisy is Donald's very special sweetheart" Goofy said.
Hikari smiled softly.
It seemed that even Donald has a special someone.
Donald smiled at his girlfriend, but frowned when he saw her scowling at him.
"Donald, you forgot our date again!" she said.
"You better have a good excuse this time!"
Donald gulped slightly.
"But Daisy…I…" he said.
Daisy placed her hands on her hips.
"I know it's an important mission, but you could at least check in every once in a while" she said.
Donald looked at his friends helplessly.
"You guys" he said.
He looked at the door.
An idea suddenly popped into his head.
"Donald" Merlin warned.
Donald bowed to him.
"Just be a minute…"
He was about to run for the door, but Daisy stopped him.
"Going somewhere?" she asked.
Donald ran from her.
"Of course not!"
Daisy ran after him while the others laughed.
Just then, the Cornerstone glowed brightly.
Sora and Hikari knew that this was connected to the keyhole and quickly sealed it.
After they did that, they went over to Daisy.
"Daisy, we need Donald for just a bit longer" Sora said.
Daisy looked at them sadly.
"How much longer?" she asked.
Donald went up to his girlfriend.
"I'll be back soon, Daisy!" he said.
They went over to Queen Minnie.
"Don't you worry, Queen Minnie. We'll return" Goofy said.
Minnie smiled.
"Please tell the King we're still looking for him" Hikari said.
Minnie smiled.
"I will"
She pulled something out from her dress.
"And this is to show you my gratitude"
She handed them a sphere, which unlocked the Wisdom form for Sora and Hikari.
Hikari smiled at Minnie.
"Thank you very much, Your Majesty" she said.
Minnie smiled sweetly at her.
"There's no need to be formal anymore" she said.
"After all, we're friends now. Just call me Minnie"
Hikari blushed at that.
"I-if you insist Your Maje-I mean, Minnie" she said.
The inhabitants waved at the group as they left.
As they were walking, Hikari realized that her heart didn't act up at all.
"That's odd. I wonder why that didn't happen?"
When she looked at the Cornerstone, she sensed a protective aura coming from it.
"Did the Cornerstone protect me?"
She smiled thoughtfully at that.
"The power of light is so mysterious"
On that note, she had a slight skip to her step as they headed back to the Gummi Ship.
/
A/N: And there you have it. I hoped you guys liked everyone being in the past.
Please review and tell me what you think, and please respond to my poll!
Ja ne!