Shadows of Dream: Final Mix
Chapter Thirteen – In the Dark of the Night
Despite her dark appearance, she had never liked black all that much. It was suffocating, with nothing but the unknown within it. Maybe that was the point though. She wasn't a being of light, nor was she anything good, that much was obvious. However, she wasn't dark and she wasn't a hundred percent evil, maybe about ninety-nine percent, but not one hundred. It was easy to fight enemies that were evil and from the dark. There were no questions about it, and no second guesses. When the enemy wasn't completely dark though, that was when the lines of what was right and wrong became blurred.
Her eyes were closed as she tried to concentrate to find them. It had been a mistake, confronting Roxas so early on. She hadn't been able to track their unique signature since.
Eyes sliding open, Crysita crossed her arms in front of her as she looked out of the large window in front of her. She had tried to find them, she really did, but any time she got close to finding the Keyblade Master or the Princess of Heart (for she knew that they would be together), something blocked her off. She thought, for a moment, that it might have been Roxas blocking her from entering the Station of Awakening and covering it with enough darkness so that the Keyblade Bearer didn't recognize where he was, but that wasn't possible. Roxas wouldn't have known how to stop her.
She frowned a bit. It was possible, just maybe, that there was a third person affecting her. A person blocking her, wanting to stop the master plan.
'Now Crysita,' a voice echoed from her memory, 'You know the role you have to fulfill. I expect you to do it without question.'
'Yes,' she had said, 'I understand that, but I can do so much more to help.'
'You could. You are powerful. All the pieces have been put into place though. Everything will make sense in the end.'
Those instructions were so simple, yet so complicated. She knew her place, and she knew what she had to do. It was frustrating, because she had the ability to do so much more than she was instructed to.
For now though, she would stay in line. If an opportunity presented itself though, she would take it. She was obedient and loyal, but at the same time, she was also ambitious.
Crysita fiddled with the clasp on one of her gloves, turning it into a sparkling crystal unconsciously. She would do what she had to do to make sure everything went according to plan.
Moving out of the room, she walked down the dim halls swiftly, not the least bit bothered that most of it was a only rocky cavern.
She moved down a narrow passage way and pushed open a door. That was when the sobs and cries reached her ears. The cries for their mothers, for their fathers, and for help landed on uncaring ears as she walked through the room. Crysita had never cared for children.
"How many?" she asked Sarlio as she found him with a list in his hand.
"Not nearly enough," he replied simply, "we need more."
"I was under the impression that everyone only required a few from time to time," Crysita said thoughtfully.
"We do," Sarlio replied, "but keeping ahead of the Keyblade Bearers will probably require even more, let alone for when we fight them. You remember why we need to do this, right?"
"Oh I'm well aware of what we're doing sweetheart," she said before taking a step forward. "I'm the one who brought you in on this, or do you not remember that?"
His silver eyes glanced at her brown ones before he said, "It'll all be done. Don't worry. No one else knows though, right?"
"No," she answered before turning to leave the room. She didn't want to deal with the sobbing children. She left that duty to the others.
As she moved back to her room, she heard the distinct slaps of feet meeting the floor in a hurry. She turned around, staring at the corner as Lilanti appeared around corner. She brushed her golden-blonde hair away from her violet eyes as she approached, and Crysita knew that the other girl had important news. The grin on the blonde's face was far too cocky for anything else.
"So," Lilanti said, "I discovered something today while I was out fixing Jorix's mistake in Dwarf Woodland. I don't think here is a good place to talk about it though."
Understanding, Crysita motioned for Lilanti to follow her down the hall. The two moved swiftly, neither speaking, until they reached Crysita's room. She closed the door tightly before asking, "Well?"
"I stumbled across two interesting figures there, two people that didn't belong. What surprised me more than anything though, was the fact that they both had Keyblades."
"They?" Crysita asked. This was almost too good to hope for. "Were they a boy with spiky brown hair and a redheaded girl?"
"Yeah, that's right," the blonde agreed. "I'm assuming they're important."
"More than you know," she muttered before straightening up a bit. "You just rediscovered the Keyblade Master and the Princess of Heart that I lost track of."
Lilanti didn't say a word about this, but her smug grin annoyed Crysita. The girl, while her ally, annoyed her to no end and was her biggest challenge with keeping everything in order.
"Are they still there?" Crysita asked after a moment of silence.
"No. They sealed the Keyhole and left."
Crysita nodded and asked, "Did you put a tracker on them?"
"Unfortunately, they got away before I could. I do know that they're traveling through corridors of darkness though."
Folding her arms across her chest, she said, "Well, that's a good thing. Both of them have a lot of light, and together they'll stand out like a lighthouse in the dark. We just have to wait for them to jump worlds again, and once they do we can find them again. Good job."
Lilanti nodded and asked, "So, everything's going to plan so far?"
"Everything."
"Right, and no one else knows about this, right?"
Crysita turned away from her, and nodded her head slowly. "No one."
She may have not been completely dark or one hundred percent evil, but one thing Crysita was, was a liar.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Riku wished that he had first seen Disney Castle under better circumstances. It was a magnificent place, and he was sure that the outside town was probably just as interesting. He would have loved to explore such a peaceful world, and he was sure that Sora and Kairi would have enjoyed it as well.
Sora had told him about Disney before. He described it as a calming and comforting place. It was like a safe haven away from the dark where he could be safe forever. While he did agree with Sora that it was certainly calming and comforting there, he couldn't help but feel a little weighed down. It was like there was a pressure building within his heart. It wasn't a painful feeling, but it did leave him a bit winded at times.
It was Queen Minnie who suggested the Cornerstone of Light. Riku, while not evil, still had more darkness than the average person did. It didn't keep him away from the castle like it did real darkness, but it did bother him more.
Others, like Sora, Kairi, King Mickey and Minnie, felt extremely comforted by the Cornerstone of Light because of how much light they had in them. It was like an extra security blanket. They were much more aware of the warmth produced by the light.
No one had heard anything about Sora or Kairi in the past week. There wasn't any news of any overly large Heartless attacks since Destiny Islands, but something didn't feel right. Riku knew something terrible was happening to the worlds, but whatever it was, it wasn't necessarily darkness doing it. There was something else in the works, something that twisted natural magic so that they couldn't pinpoint the differences until they were too late.
He heard the clanking of metal behind him, and turned around, his silver hair moving in the soft breeze. His calculating green eyes took in the tall dog approaching him, decked out in armor, followed by a slightly smaller creature that looked almost identical to him.
"This here is Maxie," Goofy said to Riku as he got close enough. "He's my son and he's gonna be helping us."
"He's coming?" Riku asked.
Max opened his mouth to speak but Goofy cut in, saying, "No, Maxie's gonna stay here and do commutation."
"Communication, dad," he said with a sigh before turning to Riku. "You can call me Max." He rolled his eyes at his father.
Riku grinned a bit, recognizing the teen's annoyance with his parent. It was something he felt towards his own father all of the time. His grin faded as he asked, "Are Mickey and Donald coming?"
"Yeah," Goofy answered, "just taking care of some last minute things. Now Maxie, you're in charge of keeping in touch with the worlds. If you hear anything 'bout Sora or Kairi, you call us. Or anything bout them there Heartless too."
"I know dad," Max insisted, "we've gone over this a billion times."
"Just making sure."
"Hey, if Huey, Dewey and Louie can run a business, I can handle a computer," Max said with a shrug. It was a legitimate point, because Scrooge had those three running businesses for years.
They all looked around as they heard a loud crash. Donald pulled himself off of the ground and turned around, yelling at his three nephews for leaving their stuff around. Max wasn't going to point out that it was his skateboard. He would just have to make it up to the ducks later. There were some things in life no one wanted to deal with, and a raging Donald Duck was one of them. Daisy was left trying to calm him down, but her temper was just as short. Riku came to appreciate the live comedy during his short stay at the castle.
King Mickey and Queen Minnie appeared out of a different door, most likely haven seen Donald fall and decided to avoid him. Naturally, the only ones that knew almost as much about the castle as Mickey were Chip and Dale, because they were so small that they could fit anywhere. Aside from that, no one knew every nook and cranny of the castle like Mickey Mouse did.
Mickey shook his head as he looked back at Donald before glancing at Riku. "We don't know where Sora and Kairi are, but the best we can do is search for them. Riku, you know as well as I do that that has to come second though."
Riku nodded slowly, although he didn't want to believe it. He knew that they had to stop the darkness from spreading more than it already was. He knew Sora and Kairi were in danger (they all agreed that the Heartless were probably sent to Destiny Islands after the two of them), but he also knew that one of the best ways to help them was to get rid of the darkness. Still, if they found them in the mean time, that was all the better.
Mickey also wanted to try and locate all of the different Keyblade Wielders. Not necessarily to take them from their homes yet, but he at least wanted to know who they all were. If they could keep track of how many were appearing, then maybe they could try to predict what was going to happen next.
"Riku," Mickey asked suddenly as they walked down into the Gummi Ship hanger. "Do you happen to have a picture of Roxas or Naminé?"
"No," he replied, startled by the question. "No I don't. Why?"
Mickey looked a little hesitant, so Minnie put a hand on his shoulder and said, "He wanted it just in case they come here so that Daisy and I would know who they are. Can you describe them, then?"
"Yeah. Roxas, he's almost identical to Sora, but he has blond hair that's spiked a little differently. He had a checkered wristband and an X pendant on the zipper of his shirt. Naminé, likewise, looks exactly like Kairi, but she's blonde as well. Her hair's a little lighter than Roxas'. She would probably be wearing a white dress with blue sandals. Why would you need to know what they look like though? They're inside of Sora and Kairi."
Minnie looked down and Mickey said, "Just in case we find Roxas and Naminé, but not Sora and Kairi."
Riku froze as he realized what Mickey was saying. It had honestly never occurred to him that there was a possibility that Sora and Kairi would have lost their hearts after falling through the portal. If they had landed in a place with a lot of Heartless and were already unconscious—
He shuddered at the thought. Kairi, she wouldn't have a Heartless, so she would just be laying on the ground, an empty body left to the elements. Sora, he would become a small, rather docile Heartless that would probably stay by her side, trying to protect her even if he didn't know why.
"I never thought about that," Riku said honestly. "If they are—"
"Where are we heading first?" Donald asked, changing the subject.
"Agrabah," Mickey explained. "There has been some trouble there and while I know Aladdin and Genie could probably handle it, the darkness in that world seems to be escalating."
"Genie I get, but how could Aladdin handle it?" Riku asked.
"He has a Keyblade," Mickey explained. "Wishing Lamp."
"Didn't Sora have that Keychain with him?" Riku wondered, remembering Sora's wide variety of keychains that he had stored carefully in a box in his room.
"He did at one point of time. I'm willing to bet that didn't have it with him when the islands were attacked though. I don't know how Aladdin got it, and he doesn't know either. He did mention having a dream with Sora in it though, and he said Sora gave him the Keyblade. At the time, he didn't actually have a Keyblade yet. Genie popped in and told us about it later, after Destiny Islands was attacked."
"Is that possible?" Riku asked slowly, focusing on the part about Aladdin having a dream where Sora gave him a Keyblade. "Cause Sora didn't mention anything."
"Maybe something chose Sora's form because Aladdin was familiar with him in association to the Keyblade, or maybe Sora did it subconsciously, but something gave him that Keyblade for a reason. Besides, the only way to get a Keyblade is through some sort of ritual except in the rare case like Sora and myself. I don't know if it has to be done physically or if it could be preformed in a dream, but its the best guess we've got."
Riku stared at the gummi ship in thought as Donald and Goofy boarded it after wishing everyone goodbye. He had never had any dream, but maybe he just didn't remember it. Maybe someone else gave him his Keyblade, and not Sora. Suddenly, an odd thought came to his head: Mickey had said that he and Sora were the odd ones, meaning that Riku and even Kairi had gone through this ritual before. That really didn't make sense though, because he didn't remember it. For a moment, he thought he saw a tall man kneeling in front of him, holding out a Keyblade, but that quickly went away. Shaking his head, he walked up the ramp and into the ship. There would be plenty of time to think about that on the way to Agrabah, but for now, he would let it go.
Mickey watched Riku with knowing eyes. The Mouse knew a lot more than he let on. More than Riku, or even Sora and Kairi, were ready to know yet.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Crysita, as mentioned before, was ambitious. While she was loyal and she knew the plan down to a T, she also knew when opportunity presented itself to her. She kept a blank expression on her face so that no one else could see how excited she really was.
The two that she needed were already presented to her. They were both on their own, and they were both walking into her territory, barely aware of exactly how much danger they were wandering into. They had very little knowledge of the enemy they faced, and she wanted to keep it that was.
These two were, without a doubt, deeply in love. The scene that Lilanti had described between the two was sickeningly sweet, and she had been told that the easiest way to manipulate the Keyblade Master was through the girl that he cherished. It was very easy to manipulate a person, when their greatest weakness was another person.
She had been told some very interesting information on both Sora Hikari and Kairi Kokoro. Sora, although he had barely any darkness in his heart, he had an anti-form that was extremely vicious and wild. It would attack anyone, friend or foe, until they were all destroyed. It was curious, because as she understood, his drive forms let him use different styles of fighting from the one he was naturally comfortable with. These forms threatened Crysita a bit, because it made him unpredictable unless someone could memorize what each form meant, but he if got strong enough there was a chance that there would be no actual change in his appearance. The anti-form, she knew, was just like these other forms, not him turning into another type of Heartless. It wasn't a being that could communicate with Sora like Roxas could, it was just him wild with darkness for a few moments. She needed to be cautious with how she handled the Princess, because Crysita had a feeling that the Heartless-like form would appear if anything really bad happened.
His Nobody, Roxas, was a member of Organization XIII who turned on them. That had interested her even more than the anti-form had. She wondered if he remember exactly what had happened that forced him to leave the Organization in the first place. Probably not. From what she gathered, that memory witch, Naminé, had done a lot of damage on both parts of Sora.
Then there was Kairi, the Princess of Heart you wanted to play knight. She was a fighter, yes, but odds were that she would never amount to quite the same status as Sora as a Keyblade Bearer. Still, she had a powerful, pure heart, and on top of that, if she could get her, Sora was be like play-doh in her hands.
Naminé was a factor Crysita was a little worried about to be honest, more so than even Kairi herself, or Roxas for that matter. She had a feeling that the blonde Nobody knew more than she let on about everything. The girl had been playing with Sora and Roxas' memories for a year! She must have seen some thing that maybe they didn't event remember. Crysita had heard that Naminé's powers were limited to controlling them and those they were connected to, but if that was wrong, she really didn't want to get on the wrong side of the blonde.
All the factors aside, the thought of two people with extremely strong hearts with very little or no light in them made Crysita grin. Such a thing was exactly what she needed, and that was why there was so many children locked in the cages down in the lower levels of the sculpted caves. Sure, the children had a different purpose from what Sora and Kairi did, but that didn't really matter.
She was walked up the steep slant that led from a secret door to the top of the mountains that they had made their base in secret. She folded her arms across her chest, looking up at the clouded skies. She looked out into the distance, focusing on a spot kilometers away from where she was. To most, it would have just looked like the dead land stretched on for ages, but she knew where to look to see the difference. If a person knew where to look and what to look for, they could see a faint translucent sphere dome, protecting what was inside of it. It was fairly far away and hard to see, but she knew it was there.
"No entry way in here," she muttered with a shake of her head. If only she could get the Keyblade Master and the Princess of Heart. It would have made her job so much easier. She wasn't stupid though. She knew that they would be extremely hard to capture and manipulate. What would have made it even easier than getting Sora and Kairi to do what she needed was if there was a child with an incredibly strong heart with no darkness. A Keyblade Master and a Princess or Prince of Heart mixed into one.
Crysita sighed, knowing that the only way she was going to get something like that was if the Keyblade Master and the Princess procreated. It was a tease of a dream for the moment, and she didn't have time to wait until they actually had a child. Even if the girl got pregnant that night, putting the plan on hold for over nine extra months wouldn't do.
No, she wouldn't get too far ahead of herself. She knew the plan, and she would fulfill her part. The child wasn't important yet.
She suddenly heard static, and looked around in confusion. She was glad that no one was there to see her moment of stupidity as she realized that it was her communicator going off.
"What?" she asked into it. It was an old thing, but it worked and it was the best they could get on such short notice.
"Carverin here," came his scratchy voice. "We were trying to take some of the children in Atlantis, but someone with a Keyblade stopped us. We needed to leave. She even managed to knock Jorix unconscious."
"The Princess of Atlantis, maybe?" she asked.
"No," Carverin replied, "but she had green hair and brown eyes. It was weird, because she looked almost exactly like—"
"I know who it was," she snapped suddenly. "Don't worry about it. Go to another place. We'll deal with Atlantis later."
There was a pause before he said, "You're the boss."
She put the communicator back in her pocket and frowned. She shook her head and said, "I knew I should have kept you under better security, Midori."
Jiminy's Journal
Crysita – A cruel girl slightly older than Sora and his friends. She has purple hair and brown eyes. Not much is known about her past. Her weapon of choice is a staff made out of crystals. She can turn anything she wants into gemstones, even altering already existing ones. When she turns a victim into crystal, they can still feel any sort of pain she inflicts on them. She also seems to have the ability to enter minds and controlling darkness.
Sarlio – One of the people working with Crysita. He is very loyal and follows all of her plans without question, not realizing that she may be manipulating him. He can turn things into wood, and he enjoys destroying those things he changes. He uses a wooden club, which is a lot stronger than it sounds. He has moments where he becomes more insane than normal, and becomes even more vicious at this moments.
Lilanti – The only other girl of the group. She's a pretty girl who uses her looks to her advantage. She enjoys to toy with people's feelings, and she is overly confident in herself to the point where it's annoying. She is stubborn, often not caring about Crysita's orders. She can control any sort of vegetation minus the wood on trees. She carries a pair of metal sais with her that have vines woven around them.
Carverin – The silent one of their group. He's as cold and calculating, and is rather intelligent. He is the hardest of the group for Crysita to manipulate. He is often skeptical of her, but he keep silent about it. He has the ability to turn things into ice and snow, and he uses an axe made of pure ice.
Queen Minnie Mouse – She is the Queen of Disney and has been running the kingdom in her husband's absences. Minnie is a kind creature who is always willing to help others, and has a bit of a stubborn streak in her. She can use light magic and has helped Sora in the past with it. She first appeared in Plane Crazy (1928).
Max Goof – Max is the teenage sun of Goofy. He often finds himself acting a lot like his father, much to his dismay. He admittedly finds Goofy a bit embarrassing (or a lot, depending on the issue). His best friend is Pete's son, PJ, but he is also friends with Duey, Dewey and Louie. He first appeared in Fathers Are People (1951)
Huey, Dewey, Louie Duck – Nephew's of Donald Duck, they are always looking to make some money (much like their Uncle Scrooge) and often get on Donald's nerves. They first appeared in the Donald Duck Sunday newspaper strip (1937). Their first animated appearance was in Donald's Nephews (1938)
Daisy Duck – Daisy is the girlfriend to Donald Duck and best friends with Minnie Mouse, and is a countess of Disney. She is just as stubborn and hotheaded as Donald, but she tends to keep herself calm more often, except with him. She first appeared in Mr. Duck Steps Out (1940)
Disney – A peaceful world ruled by Mickey and Minnie. The castle itself was built by a man named Walt who was the original ruler. The cornerstone of light protects this world from the darkness. Key characters from this world are Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy Goof and Minnie Mouse.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Why did I up the rating to M? Looking through the original, I came to a conclusion. I implied that Crysita, Lilanti, Jorix, Carverin and Sarlio were pretty terrible to deal with, but I never really demonstrated it. That's all changing here. I guarantee that there is one of them that you will absolutely despise by the end of this, but the others are no better. I was rewriting some parts when I realized just how tame I was making them as opposed to what I wanted, so I decided to change that so I had to up the rating with it. You'll see why. I AM NOT WRITING LEMONS THOUGH. If I wanted to do that, I'd write and post them to a website where you are technically allowed to do so.
Who is girl with black hair mentioned in Sora's dream...well keep in mind that this is a rewrite of the original, which was written before we even knew who the fourteenth member of Organization XIII was. When I wrote it we didn't even know what her face looked like even though we knew it was a girl. As such Xion was not written into the story at all because she didn't really exist then to the public eye. I know we know who is she now, and I personally like her more than I like either Kairi or Namine (Aqua still pwns all though) but I'm not changing this so much as to add her in when she wasn't in the original. But—well...I'll just got with 'but' for now and leave you wondering.
Lots of love!
Krystal Lily Potter