CHAPTER XIII

The Crows are Coming For Us

(NOTE)

Wow. This has gotten quite far. Yuffie's gone, Kiur is rising in power, and the Order of Keys is in serious danger of heart lossage. XD Read and review, and I don't own anything except the plot and my characters. Which I technically never put a copyright on anyway. :3

(/NOTE)

The atmosphere just wasn't the same without Yuffie around. Nothing seemed cheerful anymore, even with Aerith's overall positive demeanor. Things surely were a lot quieter, and Cloud refused to speak to anybody.

Cid had told them that a strange red heartless had taken Yuffie's heart, but instead of sending her to the darkness and making her a heartless, it seemed to examine it and then crush it right in front of them. Charity didn't even want to think about what it would feel like to lose a good friend right in front of her eyes in such a way.

"We've got another unsealed world," Cid called to them. Charity was thankful for something to break the unwanted silence, and she almost rushed over to the computer screen. "It's a new one, I don't think it was ever unsealed before."

"Looks like it," Sora mumbled, pressing his face to the screen, "What's it called?"

"Universally, it's called the Great Valley." Cid replied. (Author's Note: For those of you who know what's coming up next, I realize that The Land Before Time isn't a Disney movie, but I had to. I grew up on that stuff. ;)

"Great," said Leander, "Another valley."

"We've never been to a valley," Kairi told him, her eyes narrowing, "what are you complaining about?"

"There are valleys EVERYWHERE where we live." Nessa sighed.

"Even just having to go there for school can make someone crazy." Leander clarified.

"Alright, let's get going." Sora said. Charity, Riku, Nessa, Leander, and Kairi walked out the door, when they realized they were being followed.

"Hey!" said Axel smoothly, as he walked out the door, "It's hard to hang around in tear fest up in there, so I'ma come with you. Got it memorized?" he asked.

Something lit up within Sora, "Sure." he said.

They all boarded the Gummi Ship, and made their way towards this undiscovered world.

xxxxx

"What's the point in luring the Order to a new world when we can just go after their hearts in Hollow Bastion?" asked Anton, swatting at a fly with his keyblade.

"Because they're ready for us in Hollow Bastion now." Kiur told him.

"You can't be too sure of that," cooed Anton unnecessarily at the fly, "After that Heartless got rid of that Ninja, they probably aren't ready for anything over there."

"Don't question me." said Kiur, who just didn't like to be outsmarted. Odol threw his keyblade down on the floor.

"That's it, I've kept my mouth shut too long." he said. His keyblade, naturally, reappeared into his hand, "If you guys don't shut up with your arguing I'm going to pull my own eye— no, I'm going to pull Anton's eye out. Just stop talking."

Anton glared at Kiur.

"Why should I stop talking?" Anton began to coo softly, "After all, at least I'm the one with the right to be."

At this, Kiur let out a low growl, and grabbed Anton by the collar of his shirt. "Do you want the power of darkness or not?"

Anton snorted, and looked over at Odol, who wasn't even paying attention to them anymore.

"I'm debating."

xxxxx

"What in all of hell?" Nessa somberly, for once, asked herself. Looking down at her own being, she was most definitely no longer covered in her own skin, but an odd, reddish, coarse skin. She had a long tail, short arms, long legs, and a small horn on the top of her head.

"Wow," said Charity, "You're an oviraptor!" she smiled.

Sora, who seemed to be a Brontosaurus of some kind, just hung his mouth open, "How do you know that?"

"I studied dinosaurs once," she said, and she looked down at herself, "I'm a pterodactyl." she stated happily.

"Well, I could figure that one out." Sora mentioned, as she was the only one with wings. She was just standing; obviously unable to fly as she never learned.

"Riku's an anodontosaurus. I remember that because they're really cool with this spikey armor." Charity obviously had a passion for dinosaurs.

"My back's really heavy." Riku complained sheepishly.

"Kairi's a Nanosaurus, and... wow. I have no idea what you are." she said, looking over at Leander. He gave them a lopsided smile.

"Maybe he's a mutt." suggested Kairi.

"Axel... Axel's a tyrannosaurus." Charity mumbled, scratching the back of her head.

"Great, now that I know what I am, I don't see any Heartless anywhere." he complained.

"SHARP TOOTH!" came a small shout. They looked downwards at some dinosaurs that were only slightly smaller than them. In the area they were dropped off at, this group of five dinosaurs were the only ones there.

"Wait, what?" asked Charity.

"Are you blind?! What's wrong with you? Fly from the sharp tooth! Fly, fly, fly!" came another, slightly smaller pterodactyl, pulling on Charity's wing.

"Wait, wait, wait, hang on a second, I'm not a pterodactyl, really, I—!"

He was lifting her with all his might, "What's a pterodactyl?" he asked in a small voice, "You're a flier!"

"I'm not— Oh, it doesn't matter. Forget it. Okay, I'm a flier."

"Great, now fly!" came an angry looking Triceratops.

"From what?!" asked Nessa angrily.

"The sharp tooth! There!" stuttered a Brontosaurus, slightly smaller than Sora, pointing his long neck at Axel.

"My teeth aren't that sharp." said Axel, looking crestfallen.

"He's talking to us! Run, run!" the pterodactyl screamed.

"This is Axel, he isn't dangerous," cooed Kairi, trying to calm them down, "Now I need your help with something," she said, and the pterodactyl let go of Charity, letting her drop to the ground. "Have you seen any strange black, white, or red creatures here?"

"Well, I've seen a bunch of red three-horns, but that's just when they get angry." a small duck-like dinosaur called a Parasaurolophus joked. Apparently, this was funny. It was funny to everyone except the Triceratops and the Order.

"So what are we doing here?" asked Axel, upset. Apparently his mere presence scared the other dinosaurs.

"Okay, so what are your names?" Sora asked them.

"I'm Ducky," said the duck-like dinosaur.

"Big shocker there." Charity mumbled to herself.

"I'm Littlefoot," said the Brontosaurus, which greatly confused the group.

"I'm Petrie." said the hyper Pterodactyl.

"And I'm Cera," said the Triceratops, the group seeming delighted to hear a normal name, considering it was pronounced like 'Sarah'. "What are your names? Are you new to the valley or something?"

They all stated their names, "And yeah, we're... er... tourists?" asked Kairi to the rest of them.

"...What?" asked Littlefoot.

"Nothing," said Charity quickly, trying to change the subject, "Are you sure you haven't seen anything weird happening?"

"Well," Ducky started, getting on top of the dinosaur that was never introduced to them, "There's this cave, and—"

Littlefoot scowled, "Ducky..."

"There's this cave. Three long-necks went in there already, and none of them ever came back out!" she told them.

"That... might be it." said Riku.

"Well, let's get going then. Which way is the cave?" Charity asked them.

"Oh, nononono, you can't go anywhere walking! You have to fly!" Petrie insisted.

"That's okay, shorty, I've walked my whole life I'll walk some more." Charity said. She called upon her keyblade, and looked at it sadly. "Oh crap."

"What's wrong— Oh." Riku stopped, looking at Charity. Her keyblade was at least twice her size. "That can be a problem."

"I guess you can't fight then." Kairi mentioned. She was quite small, too, although she seemed to be able to carry her keyblade in her mouth.

Riku picked Charity up by his mouth, and put her in between two of the plates on his back. Charity mumbled stubbornly as Littlefoot showed them the way to the cave.

xxxxx

"Are you sure you want to go in here?" asked Littlefoot, "It's really scary. A bunch of dinosaurs went in here just five minutes ago and—!"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP?" shouted Nessa, intimidating this dinosaur even with her size. Littlefoot whimpered, and backed up a few steps.

"Are you guys coming in?" asked Kairi, who thankfully wasn't in a pissed off mood, trying to calm down the other dinosaurs.

"No, my grandparents won't let me in there." Littlefoot responded. The rest of them didn't seem to need an excuse; their scared-out-of-our-minds faces were enough to tell the group that they just didn't want to go in.

"Pussies." Charity mumbled.

As they walked into the cave, it was dark, damp, and disgusting. It smelled of rotting bodies and darkness, which oddly enough, had a smell.

"We couldn't turn into dragons," Nessa mumbled, "Have some light in here."

"I'd help if I could... I don't know, carry my keyblade." Charity laughed.

Axel pulled out his two weapons, and fire surrounded them. "Perfect." Sora responded, as they got further into the cave. It seemed as though it went on forever, and any small little noise could send rocks falling.

"Well, well, well, look who's here?" came Anton's voice. Somehow, he was still a human, and he was resting his back against the cave wall. It had already bothered Axel how much their personalities were similar.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sora, as choppy as his voice was with his keyblade in his mouth.

"It's called a distraction."

At this, the rest of the group swung their heads around. A mysterious barrier appeared around them, and at least a hundred red shadows had slid out from the ground. Author's Note: If you don't know where the barrier came from, just remember the game.

"See ya never," Anton saluted them, and disappeared backwards in one of Kiur's swirling vortexes.

"There are too many here," Nessa complained, who refused to have her back open for one second. Being the only one, along with Axel, standing on two feet, they guarded each other's backs as they attacked at the small, but powerful, Heartless.

Charity, on the other hand, was desperately trying to hang on to Riku's back. She had no idea before how agilely he moved in battle, but it was a lot less smooth than intended to the actual persona. She would often tell Riku where to go to avoid Heartless that were behind him, which helped in the slightest, anyway.

Finally finishing off the last Heartless, Sora sighed as he gasped for breath. "I get it now. I think I really get it."

"Get what?" asked Kairi, happy when the invisible barrier seemed to disappear.

"Kiur thinks that the only heart that will work for him is Riku's, so he's attacking all of us; his friends, where Riku said his heart is."

"Dammit." Riku muttered to himself, "so it's my fault you guys are mixed up in all of this."

"We would have been mixed up anyway," Charity told him comfortingly, "That damn King wants us to do everything. And besides, we'd never leave you to deal with your maniac of a Nobody, er, Heartless-thing on your own."

Riku smiled. He wanted to kiss her, but found it a bit hard. "Thanks." he responded, although he still felt a twinge of guilt.

"Well, they didn't get it this time. Where's the—?" Sora stopped.

"Keyhole?" asked Charity, "Over there," she pointed to a small carving in the rock of the cave walls, along with many others. They were probably done by younger dinosaurs earlier on.

"It's just a drawing," Kairi told her.

"The heart of our world lies in children." Charity told her.

"Is that a proverb?" asked Nessa, who seemed to finally get her sense of humor back after blowing up at the young dinosaur.

"Probably."

Sora, nonetheless, pointed his keyblade at the wall. A light flashed, reassuring Sora that this was definitely the heart of the Great Valley, and created an outline around the keyhole. As it sealed, Sora let his keyblade rest at his side, and it soon enough disappeared.

"Let's get back now." Charity suggested, "We'll probably have to fight Anton soon enough, if Kiur hasn't killed him already for his failing."

xxxxx

"You're an idiot." Kiur reminded Anton, "What you should have done was stayed with them until they destroyed all of the heartless, and sent in more."

"You're the one that sent the portal." Anton reminded him.

"It doesn't mean you had to go through it!" Kiur argued.

"The point is," Odol stopped them, "You didn't get any hearts, and that's okay, because I just sent more Heartless to three new worlds, and unlocked all three of them."

"Right. Good." Kiur said, settling down, "You told me earlier that you did something worth noting as well. For once. What?" he asked.

Anton smirked, and smugly rested his back against the wall, "I destroyed their precious Azure Daybreak and everyone in it."

xxxxx

"This is weird," Chip told everybody, "Azure Daybreak isn't on the radar anymore."

"Is it full of Heartless?" asked Nessa, rushing up to see the radar herself.

"No, it's just... not on the radar. It's gone." said Dale.

Something dropped heavily in Charity's stomach. Her world was gone; her family, friends, pets, everything. "You-you're kidding," she said, a tear forming in her eye, even though she was almost positive it was a joke, "Right?" she asked them.

There was no response from Chip and Dale, but Nessa was pressing odd buttons next to the radar, "No way, no way. It has to be here, it's just malfunctioning!" she cried out.

"Stop touching those!" Chip told her sternly, but it was too late. The Gummi Ship was crash landing, seemingly into nothing, but it wasn't before long that they realized they were heading for a giant whale.

The thing opened its mouth and swallowed the ship whole.

xxxxx

"Hm? Riku, Charity's up." came Nessa's voice. Charity pulled her head up, giving her a quick headache. She looked around; they seemed to be on a broken ship in a dank cave.

"Where are we?" asked Charity.

"Welcome to Monstro." Riku told her.

Charity rubbed her head, "Where's Kairi, Leander, and Sora?" she asked, trying to stand up, and almost failing. "And Axel?"

"We're not sure. They're probably in here somewhere." Nessa smiled.

"Well, at least we're in a whale." said Charity. Earning two odd looks, she finished it by saying, "Not like that, I mean, there aren't any Heartless in here, right? Because we're in a whale. ...Right?" she asked, not being able to read the look on Riku's face. "How can there be Heartless in a whale?" she asked angrily. "Whoever in Square decided that there should be Heartless in a whale should be beaten with a wet noodle."

"There isn't a keyhole, though, so I don't understand what the point of being here is," Riku said, "It's best that we just find the rest and get back to Hollow Bastion."

If only it had been that easy. Angrily trying to maneuver their way through Monstro, even Riku seemed kind of confused.

"Okay, so this doorway takes you to his stomach, right?" asked Nessa, as she jumped through.

"No, that takes you... right to the beginning... Why am I bothering?" asked Riku, who followed her. Charity tagged close along.

Meanwhile, Sora, Kairi, and Leander were being smart and waiting in Monstro's mouth for them.

"I can't believe Nessa and Charity's world was destroyed." Leander said, who must have been in the strongest disbelief because he had gone to school there every day. Axel was sitting with them, randomly touching fire to Monstro's tongue to see it's reaction.

"I think they're still in denial." Sora said, rubbing the back of his head, "I was, too when the islands were sucked in by darkness."

"This is different," said Kairi, "it's not even on the radar now, it's totally gone, including everybody in it. The world can't be brought back now, it's been, probably, blown up."

"That's positive." Leander said.

"In comparison to your statements? Yeah, it kind of is." Kairi argued.

"There you are!" Riku called, running up to them.

"I told you all we should have just waited at the mouth." Nessa said.

"No, you didn't, you kept insisting on going through the same doorway that brought us to the beginning." Charity joked, and jumped on Nessa's back.

Thankfully, the Gummi Ship was still resting peacefully on top of Monstro's baleen, and they all got on it to make their way back to Hollow Bastion.

xxxxx

"It's really true then." Charity tried to convince herself as they sat around the table with everyone in the Hollow Bastion restoration committee and the Order. "Azure Daybreak's gone. All of it." She felt her eyes well up again, and wasn't sure how much more crying she could take.

"I'm sick of this guy. Riku, your Nobody's a real asshole." Nessa said, fighting back some tears of her own. Same old Nessa; unafraid to speak her mind.

"You can say that again." Riku said.

"It looks like we all have a reason to hate Kiur right now." said Cloud, his first set of words in two days. "This is just all the more reason to destroy him."

"He's going after you three," Riku stated, looking at Charity, Sora, and Kairi, "and he always will be, so always be on your guard. For right now, I have a plan."

Author's Note: This isn't technically a cliffhanger because it's just a plan, right? Right:dodges flying kitchen supplies: Aheh. Right. Well, I'll be sure to update soon, see you next chapter! Heh. :runs away: