Author's Note: Not much to say here, but due to chapter 18 earlier, I'm considering on making a side-story of the "Second Chance" series to explain more on Strelizia's revival and her journey with Serah.
In the meantime, here's another chapter.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH20: Journey to the Center of Atlantis.
A little while later, all of the team's surviving vehicles had been unloaded from the two smaller submarines and were now parked along the road that led into the fish's mouth. However, no one was smiling or enjoying themselves. Instead, the survivors gathered by the pool of water. Donald and Goofy took their hats off to show their respects. Aqua had placed her left hand to her chest. Kairi rested her head on Sora's shoulder while the latter had his arm around her shoulders. The rest of the worldly travellers, Milo, and the rest of the survivors which were Rourke, Helga, Dr. Sweet, Audrey, Cookie, Mrs. Packard, Mole, and only a handful of the soldiers all lowered their heads as did the other five.
Sweet turned his hat upside down, placed a small candle into it, and solemnly placed the hat into the water. There was total silence as the candle started to float away. As the flickering light drifted into the distance, Rourke gave a very short and very, very deep sigh, saying somberly, "Seven hours ago, we started this expedition with two hundred of the finest men and women I've ever known. We're all that's left."
The worldly travellers sighed deeply, knowing that so many lives were lost in a short span of time. Kairi softly sobbed onto Sora's shoulder after turning away. Her friend could only hug her to try and soothe her and give her comfort. Even Mickey shed a tear that he wiped away, but it didn't stop the aching his heart was feeling, while Riku bend down to his level and placed a comforting hand onto his good friend's shoulder. Terra placed a hand onto Aqua's shoulder, while Ven and Skuld shared a sombered look. Lea placed both hands onto Roxas and Xion's shoulders. Isa sighed, slowly closing his eyes. Donald and Goofy both continued to gaze to the ground. Jack, without his hat, did the next best thing and placed a hand to his heart to show his respect to the fallen people. Finally, Myde sighed, struggling not to let his emotions get the better of him.
"I won't sugar-coat it, gentlemen. We have a crisis on our hands." Rourke continued as everyone had their heads down. "But we've been up this particular creek before. We've always come through—paddle or no paddle. I see no reason to change that policy now."
He glanced at all of the remaining survivors, continuing, "From here on end, everyone pulls double-duty. Everyone drives, everyone works." before gazing at Milo after walking up the steps from the waterfront to the road, "Looks like all our chances for survival rest with you, Mr. Thatch—you and that little book."
"We're all gonna die." Mrs. Packard muttered with a sigh, tossing her cigarette to the ground.
"Gee, thanks for the cheery thought." Myde said sarcastically.
"My pleasure." The old woman replied in equal sarcasm.
Sora rolled his eyes at this comment, after managing to calm Kairi down before the two of them gazed at the road ahead, seeing but dark shadows. If they had to guess, it would lead towards Atlantis itself.
"Okay people, saddle up. Lieutenant, I wanted this convoy moving five minutes ago." Rourke was saying and giving out orders.
Helga nodded, giving out orders to Mole and shortly afterwards scolding Vinny as well as saying to Packard, all in order, "Molière, you're on point! No, Vinny! Audrey's taking the oiler! You know the rules! I want you fifty yards behind that truck at all times! Packard, put out that cigarette."
All of the sudden, there was a honking noise that caused most of the worldly travellers turn to see Milo playing with the horn on the truck, with Goofy chuckling, causing most of them to sigh, Mickey rolling his eyes while shaking his head with a knowing exasperated smile. Donald on the other hand slapped his hand onto his face and let it slide down and slip off his bill. Jack just shook his head slightly in a tired manner.
As the worldly travellers approached the other two with louds of trucks, Rourke, who was apparently as irritated as Donald, single-handedly snatched the horn off the truck, much of the disappointment of Goofy and Milo, and relief to Myde, Lea, Isa and Jack.
"Are you sure you're checked out on this class of vehicle?" The commander asked the group and Milo.
"Eh?" Jack asked, slightly caught off-guard.
"Uh..." Milo said, hesitatedly.
"Can you drive a truck?" Rourke added, pointing at the vehicle.
The pirate paused for a moment, before admitting, "No...the only vessel I steered were mainly ships most of my lifetime."
"I'll drive. Let me!" Donald said eagerly, holding a hand up like a small child.
Mickey approached his friend and mage, and pointed out apologetically, "Sorry, Donald. But your feet won't be able to reach the brakes. You and I are both too small for these cars."
Glancing at his legs, then at the driver's seat of the trucks, then back and forth a few times, Donald realised that the king was right, and pouted while crossing his arms childishly, "Aw, Phooey."
Everyone glanced at Milo who gave a nervous smile. "Pfft! Of course I can drive a truck," he answered, before climbing into the driver's seat and began fiddling with the equipment around the dashboard. "I mean, sure, you've got your steering, and your gas, and your brake, and this metal...uh...looking... thing."
"...'Metal looking thing'?" Lea asked, skeptically with a quirked eye-brow. In fact, everyone else, including Rourke, stared at Milo with confusion, disbelief and skepticalness.
"Okay, so it was a bumper car at Coney Island." Milo admitted, before adding, "But it's the same basic principle!"
Rourke sighed deeply while rolling his eyes before walking off. Sora and most of his companions turned their gaze to Myde who flinched, quickly realising what they were thinking and by their expressions, the mullet-haired man knew they were about to tell him no, and he wasn't going to push his luck.
"Hey, I'm not gonna even try." Myde quickly said, holding his hands up in defense. "Knowing my luck, I'll just end up driving it like it is a bumper car."
"Good call." Terra commented, half-sarcastically, while going to the driver's seat of another truck himself, with Aqua sitting next to him. Ven and Skuld both took seats behind the driver's seat. Lea likewise took the driver's seat with Isa sitting next to him and Roxas and Xion behind the redhead. Myde and Jack both sat behind Milo with Sora and Kairi. Riku took the driver's seat with Mickey next to him and Donald and Goofy behind them.
It was extremely slow going for a couple of minutes with Milo in the lead, and for both Myde and Jack Sparrow, it was a very bumpy and hurtful ride. The two of them were jerked forward and then back multiple times, because Milo repeatedly pushed the break which stopped the vehicle, then pushed the gear forward multiple times while trying to correct his driving, and most of the crew were quickly impatient.
"Milo!" Lea shouted from his seat, while Isa pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, and Roxas and Xion glanced at each other. Fortunately, he, Terra and Riku were all making much better luck than Milo was and none of them even had ridden in bumper carts since none of their worlds even had any, for cryin' out loud!
"Oi! Stop that!" Jack yelled at the 'driver' next to him.
"Sorry abou—sorry about that!" Milo apologized, sheepishly.
"Come on, civilian!" Someone shouted from one of the vehicles behind them, while Mole honked from the horn of the huge drilling machine angrily.
Few minutes later, the truck had been tied to the back of Mole's drilling machine and towed along. Milo disappointingly just fiddled with the steering wheel with a finger.
"No offence, Milo, but I think you need serious driving lessons." Myde muttered, while mentally thankful for this more somewhat smooth ride. The way how the linguist was driving had quickly been killing his back.
"It would've been far worse with you at it, mate." Jack commented at the younger man who glared at him behind his back.
"Ha, ha. You crack me up." Myde deadpanned.
During the long journey towards Atlantis, everyone had encountered the Heartless which the worldly travellers took care off with slight aid of the soldiers, making everyone impressed with Sora's group's skilled fighting styles in different ways. It wasn't long before they all hit a fork in the road, which was a giagantic head of a statue with two eyeholes leading to the paths of left and right.
"Well, which way?" Roxas asked.
"I say we go...this way." Myde said, pointing at the left road.
Jack, uncertain, pulled out his compass and opened it, while praying that it wouldn't misbehave itself this time. Fortunately, for once, since his current desire was to see what Atlantis looked like even though his heart still longed for the Black Pearl—and his hat—it spun the needle back and forth a few times before finally settling to the right.
"It would be more accurate to go that way." The pirate Captain announced, closing the compass shut.
"I think Jack's right. I got a bad feelin' about the left road." Goofy said, suddenly worried.
Milo checked the journal, before smiling and then pointed to the left road, with Myde giving a victorious grin. Unfortunately, when the caravan of vehicles had attempted to head down the road, a giant millipede had appeared threateningly, forcing everyone back in alarm, which meant that Goofy was right about the bad feeling.
Due to this, Milo double-checked the Journal, only to realise that when he held it sideways the left side, Jack and Goofy were both correct and apologetically pointed to the right side. Both Milo and Myde gave nervous and sheepish looks at the mistake while everyone, especially both Donald and Mole, glared at the two of them.
"At least it was heads up." Sora sighed, shaking his head.
Taking a break near an underground lake and waterfall of fresh water, Jack had been dying for Rum, but since there wasn't any, the canteens of fresh water was the next best thing since he was thirsty. Fortunately, the back of Vinny's truck had plently, so the pirate stole one and drank of the water with ease, just as the demolition expert appeared behind him.
"You didn't just drink that, did you?" Vinny asked.
"'Course I did." Jack replied, before furrowing his eyebrows in quick concern, "Why?"
"That's not good. That's nitroglycerin!" Vinny told him warningly.
The sudden realization caused Jack to freeze in horror for having apparently drank poisonous liquid, while Vinny told him calmly, "Don't move. Eh, don't breathe. Don't do anything, except pray maybe."
"BOOM!" A loud noise shouted behind the pirate.
"AH!" Jack jumped and screamed in a high-pitched squeal in fright. To his relief and utter annoyance, it was just Mole to scare the wits out of him. He glared at both Mole and Vinny who both laughed hysterically while walking off, realising that the nitroglycerin thing was just a prank.
In the meantime, Aqua had just finished off her drink of water when suddenly, she snapped her head up when something caught her eye in the distance at the opposite of the lake. The blue-haired woman's brows furrowed when she could've sworn she saw...about five mysterious figures move.
"What is it, Aqua?" Kairi asked as she walked up to the 28 year old woman in a 18 year old's body.
"I don't think we're alone here in this cave." Aqua muttered with seriousness, turning back as she guided the teenager to the others, "We have to be more careful."
Kairi blinked in confusion, wondering what was on the Keyblade Master's mind. Then again, she saw the Leviathan earlier before it's attack, so the Princess of Heart quickly decided to trust her and be more cautious.
Continuing on and fighting more Heartless along the way, the worldly travellers and the expedition stopped at the edge of a crevice where two enormous stone columns rose high into the air. By this point, the team had gone so far underground that the only lighting available was being emitted through the headlights of the expedition's vehicles. The columns were huge, it reminded the worldly travellers of the ones back at Olympus Coliseum, but it was still amazing enough.
"Good night! Will you look at the size of this! It's gotta be half a mile high at least." Milo exclaimed when he saw it.
"Maybe a bit taller." Lea commented.
"Who would've built this thing?" Roxas asked, awestruck.
"How many years did it take for anyone to build this?" Xion asked, amazed.
The redhead shrugged, "Probably...thousands of years, at least." while Milo was dragged aside by Vinny. He and the others followed in suit.
"Thousands of years!?" Roxas and Xion both exclaimed, shocked.
"That kind of sounds right." Riku muttered, only to cringe when he realised that Vinny had placed explosives all around the column's base and then a moment later when the demolition man hit the switch, a shockwave struck the ground and the structure tipped towards the crevice before landing upon the opposite side.
Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Riku, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Terra, Ven, Skuld, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Jack, Myde and Milo stepped up to what was left of the structure in shock and disappointment.
"Hey, look! I made a bridge." Vinny said as he stepped up to the seventeen of them, shrugging, "It only took me like, what, ten seconds. Eleven tops."
As the caravan of vehicles proceeded across the makeshift bridge which was really a snail's pace, or so it seemed like it, Aqua suddenly sensed something and gazed up at the nearby carvern wall. Kairi did the same and while the latter's eyes widened in concern, the former's narrowed at the sight of an unusual figure with glowing blue eyes who was...staring at them and everyone else from a cliff high-up before running off into the darkness.
Whoever it was, both of them knew that it was keeping an eye on them.
Thirty minutes later after crossing the stone bridge, everyone came to a halt when they found themselves stuck with a giant stone wall of a fallen building right in front of them, blocking their path. Everyone except for Mole got out of the vehicles and gazed up at the wall.
"Well, that's just great." Isa grumbled.
Lea shook his head while placing his hands on his hips, asking around, "Any bright ideas?" shrugging with his left shoulder and arm.
"Vinny, what do you think?" Rourke asked to the demolition man next to him.
"I could unroadblock that if I had about 200 of these." Vinny explained while holding out a dynamite, "Problem is, I only got about...ten."
At the commander's look, Vinny then teasingly said to Jack, "Hey, too bad we don't have some nitroglycerin, eh, Jackie?" which only made the pirate glare at him irritatingly, which also resulted Mole to laugh hysterically at that memory a short time ago.
Rourke ignored the commotion and instead turned his attention to Mole at the drilling machine, declaring, "Looks like we're gonna have to dig." much to the digger's delight.
Finally! He can dig.
"It will be my pleasure." Mole said, before starting up the driller of the machine, and began to dig through the wall, only to cry out in alarm when the panel in front of them sparked electricity, causing it to explode a little, and the entire machine stopped working all together.
"You okay, Mole?" Terra called up to the digger.
Mole, after coughing at the smoke, tried to get it to work in irritation, and only ended up smacking his face onto the horn of the wheel, cursing loudly, "Stupid! You! Are! STUPID!"
"I'd say he's fine. It's the stupid digger I'm worried about." Myde commented dryly, while Audrey was opening the engine hatch on the back of the vehicle and tried to figure out what the problem was.
"It looks like the rotor's shot!" The teenage engineer called up, before heading towards the other vehicles, "I'm gonna have to pull a spare from one of the trucks."
"Hey, can we-?" Sora began as he, the rest of the worldly travellers and Milo observed the machinery within the engine on the rear.
"No toques nada!" Audrey said, "I'll be right back."
"I guess we're a bit stuck for a little while." Mickey shrugged.
Ven, who'd been observing the machinery, thought of something as he stared at the knobs and then the monkey wrench on the floor on the rear, before a crazy idea hit him. Ignoring Aqua and Terra's questioning and protests, the teenager reached his hands into the engine and turned two wheel-shaped knobs at the same time until the sound of steam escaping filled the air before grabbing the monkey bar and with a great thrust of his arm, slammed it onto the engine.
A moment later, the engine jolted back into life as clouds of exhaust flew from the vehicle's pipe-shaped chimneys. Ven grinned victoriously, "It worked!"
"She lives!" Mole cheered loudly from the cockpit.
"Amazing!" Skuld said, impressed.
"Nice one!" Sora cheered.
"Way to go, Ven!" Myde cheered happily.
"I didn't know ya' could that, Ven." Mickey praised happily.
Before the rest of the worldly travellers could say anything as they were proud of Ven for having fixed the problem, Audrey came back and asked when she realised that the driller was back up and running, "Hey! What'd you do?"
Ven shrugged, "I just turned the two knobs of the engine before hitting it with a bar. Kinda thought that might actually work."
"Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much, shut up." Audrey said as she strode up to the vehicle, closed the engine hatch, and secured it. When the mechanic turned to Ven who scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
Despite that he didn't realise what she was about to do, Audrey instead said, "Two for flinching!" and socked Ven's left shoulder twice before walking off.
"Ow." Ven muttered once she was out of earshot, rubbing his arm.
"Nice gratitude." Sora remarked sarcastically, and the rest of the worldly travellers nodded in agreement.
"Ven, I didn't know you could do that sort of thing." Skuld remarked to her friend.
"Neither did I. Guess it looked really easy to handle." Ven replied, blushing a little.
As the caravan reached the other end of the tunnel Molière's drilling machine had created, Milo clambered out of the truck's cab and pulled the journal out of his shoulder bag. The worldly travellers followed him as the linguist gazed at the journal. The only landmarks were a bridge that stretched out towards a cave on the opposite side, a chasm under the bridge which appeared to lead into engulfing darkness, and a cone-shaped stalactite that hung from the ceiling. The stalactite itself had holes and was strangely glowing green on the inside.
"This is it." Milo remarked as he gazed at the page which had a picture of the exact same thing in the book. "It's gotta be!"
"What is that?" Lea asked, dumbstruck.
"Whatever it is, it's giving me the creeps." Myde muttered.
"Me too." Donald admitted, shivering.
"All right!" Rourke called out, "We'll make camp here!"
Mickey gazed at the stalactite in awe, before asking aloud, "I wonder why it's glowin'."
"Pah!" Mole waved off, "It is a natural phosphorescence."
Vinny pointed at the thing on the ceiling and muttered grumbling, "That thing is going to keep me up all night. I know it."
"Nah, I don't think so. No idea why, but I think it'll dim later in the evening." Terra shrugged.
Later that evening...
Turns out Terra was right. The stalactite had indeed dimmed and the campsite was almost completely set up. Now was the matter of dinner before bedtime...
If you call Cookie's cooking dinner, of course.
"Come and get it!"
Nearby from Milo and the worldly travellers' spot of camp, Cookie was handing each member of the team a tray, reach into his portable cooking pot with a ladle, and scoop out Beacon Grease, announcing each individual item he had thrown into the meal the campfire that had Sweet, Vinny, Packard, Audrey and Mole who all looked at the food in disgust while careful not to let the chef to notice. The only one who was looking forward to the meal was Mole, and was disappointed when his tray had much less than the others.
"I wanted the escargot." Mole pouted, only for Audrey, who had groaned and sticked her tongue out in disgust, hand over her tray to him, much to his delight.
"Knock yourself out." Audrey said, sarcastically while taking the much less pile of food from Mole instead, but still wasn't looking forward to the slop, nor were anyone else.
Cookie went over to Sora and the others, handing them trays and said, "There you go, lads and lassies. Put some meat on them bones."
The worldly travellers tried very hard not to let their disgusted expressions show, though it was really difficult as the slop unfortunately reminded them of the roasted giant beetle at the Resturant in Kuzco-Topia that only Pacha had enjoyed.
Even Milo had a look of disgust, while saying, "Thanks, Cookie. It looks...greasier than usual." with the others nodding in agreement.
"Ya' all like it?" Cookie asked in delight, before dumping more onto all of the seven trays, "Well, have some more!" before wheeling his cart back to his makeshift kitchen.
"I wish we had Kronk's Spinich Puffs." Myde groaned, feeling nausous.
"Blegh." Jack said, sticking his tongue out as he looked away from the slop in disgust.
Skuld covered her mouth with her hand as she dumped her content of 'food' behind the rock on the cavern floor, trying not to get sick. Everyone else just stared, while they, Skuld, Myde and Jack then gazed at Milo incrediously as the linguist hesitatedly ate the Beacon Grease while reading through the journal once more.
"...Here we go again." Lea muttered, referring to the yellow slop at Mudka's Resturant.
"Next time, I'm cooking." Xion announced softly.
"You can cook?" Terra asked, surprised.
The former replica nodded, "Aerith taught me back in Radiant Garden last year. First thing I made was pancakes."
"Xion invited all of us for a little party a couple of months after Xemnas was defeated. Gosh, she really has talent for that." Mickey explained, while the very thought of it was making his mouth water, while the sight of the slop on his tray was making him feel green.
"Can't wait to try that out. On the other hand, anything's better than...this junk." Isa muttered.
"At least Barbossa had an appetite for apples." Jack muttered, shaking his head. As much as he still had a dislike for his dead enemy, he had to hand it out for the late Pirate that he had good taste in food. In fact, Jack was certain that Barbossa was probably mocking him in the Afterlife if he saw Captain Jack Sparrow eating this, as Isa quoted, 'junk'.
"Hey, guys! Why don't you come sit with us?" Audrey called out as she waved over to Milo and the worldly travellers.
"Really?" Milo asked with a small smile.
"You really don't mind?" Kairi asked, smiling as did the others while picking up their trays and Milo picking up the journal.
"Nah, park it here." Audrey replied.
The group shared a glance before shrugging and then walked over to the group of team members, sitting on the opposite side of Audrey, Sweet, Vinny, Packard and Mole, with Milo in between both teams. But as Milo took a seat...
PFFFFTT!
The sound of spluttering and balloon releasing air filled the air as everyone turned to see that Milo had just sat on a whoopy cushion. It was followed by a burst of laughter which everyone realised came from Mole who had fallen onto his back and was holding his stomach, laughing hysterically.
"Mole!" Audrey, Sweet and Vinny snapped.
"Ah, forgive me." Mole said while finally managed to catch his breath, adding through giggling, "I could not resist."
"Classic." Myde chuckled, resisting the urge to burst out laughing himself. "Brings back some good old memories."
Lea glared at him with a scowl, saying dryly, "Ha, ha. Makes me laugh so hard." before commenting, "Ya'know, I still haven't figured out if it was you or Larxene that did that trick to me two years ago."
Flashback: Day 7 of "Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days"...
After Axel made sure Roxas, who was still completely zombie-like after a week of bringing the kid in, the redhaired Nobody groaned, "Phew." in relief while sitting on his own chair.
But as he did, a loud, "PFFFT!" was heard and he nearly jumped out of his skin, before feeling something unusual on his seat. Shifting, he pulled out a whoppy cushion, and glared at it, before demanding, "What is this!?"
"Kya-hahahahaha!" Larxene bursted out laughing from the floor while standing in front of Demyx's chair who was trying not to fall off it, but he layed on his side.
"Ah ha, ah ha, ahh, ha ha ha!" Demyx laughed hysterically, making Axel glare at both of them as he realised that one of them must be the culprit of this prank.
End of Flashback.
"Could've been worse." Jack pointed out.
"I guess." Lea sighed, "Still, it was totally annoying and embarrassing."
The others shook their heads, before Kairi noticed Milo was still reading the journal and asked, "Milo, doesn't it make your eyes hurt a little?"
"You've gotta have closed the book at least once or twice since we got here." Mickey added.
"Yeah, you must've read it a dozen times by now." Sweet added, while still cringing at his tray of 'food'.
Milo nodded before explaining, "I know, but this — this doesn't make any sense."
"What do you mean?" Aqua asked.
"In this passage here, the Shepherd seems to be leading up to something he calls 'The Heart of Atlantis'," Milo explained while pointing at a particular page. "It could be the power source the legend is referring to."
Hearing the part 'The Heart of Atlantis' quickly made Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Myde, Ven, Skuld, Terra, Aqua, and Jack share slightly alarmed glances. While they realised that Milo could be thinking that it might be an item to a power source, the fact that it could very all be the heart of this world didn't slip from their minds. To actually get to see the actual heart of the world itself...was unbelievable and if it was real, then it would be an unforgettable experience.
"But then it, it cuts off." Milo said as he flipped through the page, "Almost like there's a missing page."
Goofy leaned sideways to Mickey and whispered, "Garwsh, kinda sounds like Jiminy's Journal and the Datascape." referring to how Namine erased the words in Jiminy's journal and how they and Donald with the help of Data-Sora fixed it up through the Datascape and thus had learned Sora's connections with Roxas, Xion, Namine herself, Axel, Ventus, Terra and Aqua.
Mickey nodded in agreement, already figuring out what his friend was talking about. The way how Milo described the journal troubled him. If there was a missing page, that meant someone must've ripped it out before Milo's grandfather gave it to Mr. Whitmore. Problem is, who had done it?
Apparently Lea was thinking along the same lines, because in his mind, the image of Rourke slipped into his head, and a sinister look on the commander's face troubled him. He could be over-racting, but he still didn't trust the guy. But if Rourke really is the culprit of the missing page, then he's after something. The Heart of Atlantis.
What could he want with it, though?
"Kid, relax." Vinny's voice snapped Lea out of his thoughts, before the redhead realised the older man was talking to Milo. "We don't get paid overtime."
"I know. Sometimes I get carried away." Milo replied, before adding, "But, hey, you know, that's what this is all about, right? I mean, discovery, teamwork, adventure!"
After applying emphasis on the term "adventure", Milo paused, before correcting himself, "Unless, maybe, you're just in it for the money?"
After a short pause.
"Money." Audrey shrugged.
"Money." Sweet added.
"Money." Packard said.
"Money." Mole said with his mouthful of Beacon Grease which made Myde, Kairi, Donald and Skuld want to throw up.
"I'm gonna say...money." Vinny concluded.
Sighing, Milo replied, "Well, I guess I set myself up for that one." before turning to the worldly travellers, "What about you guys?"
"Adventure." Sora smirked.
"Adventure." Kairi giggled.
"Definitely adventure." Riku added.
"Adventure." Ven replied.
"Yeah, I'm more into the adventure." Terra admitted.
Aqua nodded in agreement, "I'm more interested in what Atlantis looks like than the money."
"Me too." Skuld added.
Lea shrugged, "I never really cared for money. Besides, goin' on adventures with my friends is way more fun!" with Isa, Roxas and Xion all nodding in agreement.
"You said it!" Donald said, smiling. Though when Mickey, Goofy, Sora and Jack stared at him skeptically, he sheepishly chuckled before admitting, "Oookay, I'm kinda hoping there's treasure in Atlantis too, but I still wanna see what the place itself looks like!"
"I'm a sucker for what the inside of the place looks like if it's safe to get to." Myde said, shrugging.
"Goin' to new places, even to where they've never been discovered before are always fun. I love adventures!" Mickey said, smiling.
"Me too. Ay-yhuck!" Goofy said.
"As I learned with one voyage eleven years ago, if not longer," Jack began, sighing as memories of the Black Pearl came into his mind, and the fact of Will and Elizabeth's love to one another, "Not all treasure is silver and gold. Or any kinds of jewels, as a matter of fact."
"But don't you like adventures?" Sora asked.
"Of course I do. Wouldn't know half of lots of things if I didn't. Savvy?" The pirate responded.
"That explains the Black Pearl." Isa rolled his eyes, sarcastically, while noticing that Milo was rubbing his neck.
"Is there something wrong with your neck?" Dr. Sweet inquired.
"Yeah," Milo affirmed. "I guess I hurt it when—Aah! Ow!"
Sweet didn't give the young linguist a chance to talk before he placed his hands upon the latter's neck and jerked it to the right, then the left. The doctor then asked, "Better?"
Milo felt his neck before saying as he realised that it was a lot better, "Yeah!"
"Hey, how'd you do that?" Lea asked, impressed.
"An Arapaho medicine man," Sweet answered.
"Gosh, really?" Mickey asked, surprised, as were all of his friends.
"Born and raised with 'em. My father was an army medic. He settled down in the Kansas Territory after he met my mother." Sweet explained.
"You're not kiddin', right?" Myde asked.
"Nope. Halfway through medical school, I was drafted. One day, I'm studying gross and anatomy in the classroom. The next, I'm one of them Rough Riders soarin' on San-Juan Hill!" Sweet continued.
The group was listening to the story when Cookie returned, announcing, "Main course!"
All this brought was a sudden wave of shock and dismay from the group, which quickly became a range of excuses, sarcasm, kind and polite declines and careful not to hurt the man's feelings. Fortunately, Cookie bought it, hook, line and sinker.
"Oh, don't you worry. It'll keep and keep and keep." Cookie said as he marched off.
"I'd rather he keep this stuff to himself." Myde muttered sarcastically once Cookie was out of earshot.
"Thank goodness someone managed to make that pointed sarcasm." Packard said, stuffing her cigarette into the slop to put it out.
Once they made sure Cookie was well out of sight, everyone dumped everything on their trays onto the campfire pit which the flames went out quickly and also made a small harmless explosion that looked a bit like a nuclear bomb going off.
A little while later, everybody was setting up their tents. A few long rows of tents were positioned along the cavern floor rather evenly. The worldly travellers had a bit of trouble, but fortunately, Lea, Isa, Terra, Aqua, Ven, Mickey, Donald and Goofy helped their friends and showed them how it was done before the rest of the travellers began doing it, and they were grateful that they did.
"You know a lot about camping, don't you, Mickey?" Skuld questioned with a fond smile.
"Well, sure." Mickey replied with a smile. "Donald, Goofy and I used to go camping together every third weekend. I remember one time Goofy showed me the perfect cast."
"The Perfect what?" Sora asked, having overheard.
"The perfect cast." Goofy answered this time as he also heard this, explaining, "Muh dad taught it to me. Said it's been handed down for about twelve or thirteen Goof generations."
"Twelve or thirteen Goof generations?" Roxas asked, curiously.
Before Goofy can continued, Donald quickly waved his hand and said, "Why don't you ask him to show you later when we're at a beach or something!"
"Aw, you're still not mad at him about that, are ya' Donald?" Mickey asked, even though he knew that time as well.
"About what?" Riku asked.
"It's a long story." Mickey shrugged, "Well, huh...Goofy showed us the Perfect Cast and uh...accidently reeled in Big-Foot. That was about eighteen years ago when this happened."
"Never thought I'd hear about you guys messing up on a camping trip." Lea chuckled as he and everyone else rolled flat their bed rolls underneath each of their tent's canvas.
The King shrugged sheepisly as he layed down on his bedroll, saying, "It was a long time ago. I used to be really naive and foolish before I met Yen Sid. Sometimes I'm still kinda like that."
"You really haven't changed, Mickey." Aqua giggled, which resulted in Mickey and almost everyone else laugh as well.
"Aren't you gonna pitch up your tent?" Vinny inquired suddenly to Milo who was setting up his tent...which wasn't set up right at all. The canvas was wrinkled, the poles were leaning at odd angles, and the string had too much slack.
"Uh...I did." Milo said.
When Myde saw the tent, he cringed, "And I thought my tent was bad when I first set up a few minutes ago." as he and the others watched Vinny straightened it out for the linguist.
"Yeah, at least you managed to set it up right for a second before it collasped." Isa nodded in agreement.
"I guess I'm still a little rusty at this," Milo apologized as he watched. "I haven't gone camping since... well, since the last time my grandpa took me."
"I get what you mean." Sora nodded in agreement with a knowing smile. "I haven't gone camping in years, either. Me, Riku and Kairi would hang out on the beach almost every day, and when the sky was clear, we used to watch and count the stars during school break. It was fun."
"Yeah, I remember that too. I used to pretend to form the stars in lines to make all kinds of different shapes." Riku chuckled fondly.
"And I used to sing the old lullaby about the stars that time too. We've been doing it since I first arrived eleven years ago." Kairi said fondly.
"You weren't born in that time knowing them?" Jack asked, admittedly surprised.
The Princess of Heart shook her head, "No. I lived with my Grandma until I was five years old. The mayor of Sora and Riku's town adopted me when I first arrived, washed up on the beach. I don't remember who my parents are."
She sighed, before admitting, "I don't even know what happened to her. The only memories I have of her is that she was a kind person, and used to tell me stories all the time."
"She sounds like a mother to you, huh?" Milo asked.
Kairi nodded, before asking, "Hey, Milo. What was your grandpa like?"
"Where do you start?" Milo smiled, "H-he was like a father to me, really. My parents died when I was a little kid, and, he took me in."
"I guess that's something some of us have in common." Lea commented, his hands behind his head he was briefly using as a pillow. "Me and Isa lost our parents eleven years ago too, and...well, a lot things happened for the past years after that, and most of them aren't pleasant."
"What about the good things you did?" Audrey asked, curiously.
"If you call our usual obnoxious teenage antics 'good things' to everyone else, let me know." Isa snorted in amusement.
Lea chuckled, "Yeah, before we met everybody else, the two of us kinda used to get into all kinds of trouble into places we weren't allowed to sneak into, but we did anyway, before the guards would catch us and throw us back out again. I'm still surprised they haven't even arrested us yet. Anyway, me and Isa usually hanged out together, doin' a lotta things at our hometown. Fast forward to two years ago, well, the two of us kinda had a bit of a hinch, so I met Roxas and Xion who don't have parents at all."
"Yeah, I hardly remember much of my childhood." Roxas said, though this was a lie, but he knew that saying that he used to be Sora's Nobody would make things bad. "First week when I met Lea, I kinda acted like a Zombie. The two of us would sit on top of the clock tower and eat ice cream. Few weeks later we met Xion and she joined us. The three of us and eventually Isa and another friend Namine became best friends ever since."
Xion nodded in agreement.
"How about you guys?" Milo asked to Terra, Ven, Aqua, Jack, Myde and Audrey.
"I took this job when I dad retired," Audrey began, giggling, "The funny thing was, he always wanted sons, right? One to run his machine shop, and another to be middleweight boxing champion. But he got my sister and me instead."
"So...what does you sister do?" Myde asked.
"She's 24 and 0, with a shot at the title next month. Anyway, I'm saving up so my Papi and I can open another shop." Audrey answered.
"Sounds kinda cool." Myde said, gazing up at the cavern ceiling. "My parents had a divorce when I was ten years old, which a year later my dad died when he got struck by lightning. Then again, I never got on with him or my Mom that much. Started to take interest in my Sitar and had dreams of joining a band. Buuut, I got stuck with a lousy job and the rest is history. Joining up with these guys is probably the best thing that's ever happened to be, really."
His worldy companions were quite stunned when he said this. As far as Lea and Isa could recall, Myde, as Demyx, never talked much about his past since he once said that, 'The only thing I want back of my past is my heart.' during their time in Organization XIII when they were Axel and Saix.
"I don't even remember who my parents are." Ven asked sighed, while feeling sorry for Myde at the same time. "I don't even remember where I come from. The only memories I have are from sixteen years ago, and even those are still foggy, except for the times when me, Terra and Aqua would hang out together and every night we sit together to watch the stars. I...was actually comatose for twelve years, and just woke up recently this year."
"I was imprisoned for twelve years by someone who is also the reason for most of us having been brought together in different circumstances. He tried to cause such a terrible incident that almost costed our lives." Terra admitted, "But thanks to Sora and the others, me, Aqua and Ven are finally back together."
"It's the similiar thing with me. I risked my life to save Terra and...was lost in a place I couldn't get out of on my own. But most my memories are with Terra and Ven, and sometimes I wish we could do that again, gaze at the stars." Aqua responded.
Mole, who was wearing stripy pajamas and hugging a stuffed teddy bear, walked by and said, "That's so sad." looking like he's ready to cry before walking off.
"I admit, I don't remember much of my past either. Ven doesn't remember me, but the two of us come from a town that is long gone. The two of us and three others thought we'd try and rebuild it...but things went wrong." Skuld sighed, rubbing her forehead, "I do remember meeting someone...someone whom Sora reminds me of. That person was kind and brave, and would worry about friends and the safety of others as well. After I joined a certain group...I never saw that person again."
"Aw, gee. I'm really sorry, Skuld." Mickey said with feeling, and the rest of the group and everyone around them nodded in agreement.
The young girl shook her head, "It's alright. The past can't be changed, but I want to make sure the future isn't dark or grim, and at the same time, I want to be what I never got the full chance to; a kid."
"What about you, Jack? What's your story?" Goofy asked, curiously.
The pirate shifted uncomfortably at this question, before finally admitting, "I never had such that good of a childhood meself. Kairi and Mr. Thatch are both lucky to have loving grandparents. Me Grandmama always caused me pain; literally. Mum was...pretty stressed, I should say. As for my father...I don't like talking much about him."
"Why not?" Sora asked.
"Quite a lot times when I was a child, I never knew whether he was my real father or not. So, one day, when I was seventeen, I snuck onboard ship to Tortuga and left. Sailed the seas since then for the rest of my life. Discovered quite a lot in that year, though." Jack continued, before he remembered something and added, "I once saved a ship from a murderous Spaniard named...something in Spanish."
"Was this before you met Barbossa?" Donald asked, skeptically.
"Yes, it was." Jack confirmed, before noticing Packard walk way dressed in the trench coat, her face covered in goop, wearing a pink bathing cap, carrying a news paper. "Don't have your night gown, Mrs. Packard?"
"I sleep in the nude." Packard said, going over to her tent.
"Ya' all want to close up your tents." Sweet told Milo and the worldly travellers, "She sleep walks." much to their slight horror when they heard this.
Myde had a terrified look on his face, and took the advice, "I'm not opening my tent 'til everyone else does." and Jack, Donald, Isa, Lea and Roxas all nodded in agreement.
Vinny in the meantime, layed flat on his bedroll with an eyecap over his eyes, saying, "Well, as far as me goes, I just like to blow things up."
"No, really?" Terra mocked, ignoring Aqua's small glare.
But then Sweet walked over to Vinny and pulled the eyecap, saying, "C'mon, Vinny. Tell the kids the truth." letting go and let the cap to slap the demolition's face before heading over to his tent.
Realising that he wasn't getting out of this, Vinny pulled off his eyecap and confessed, "My family owned a flower shop. We would sell roses, carnations, baby's breath, you name it."
"Really?" Sora asked, surprised.
"So, what happened that made you into a demolition expert?" Kairi asked.
"Well, one day," Vinny continued, "I'm making about three dozen corsages for this prom—you know, the kind they put on the wrist. And everybody, they come. 'Where is it?' 'When is it?' 'Does it match my dress?' It's a nightmare!" slapping his hand over his eyes.
"Ouch." Lea commented.
Vinny then went on, "Anyway, I guess there was this leak next door of gas or what. BOOM! No more Chinese laundry..." turning over on his bedroll, lit up a match which went out in seconds as he concluded, "Threw me right out of the front window. It was like a sign of god. I found myself that boom."
"That explains everything." Roxas commented.
Just then, a few specks of dirt came flying through the air and when everyone turned to see what was going on, they saw Mole digging himself a large hole into the ground close by, before he switched off his headlamp. Within seconds, a happy groan was heard.
"What's Mole's story?" Milo asked with unease, and the worldly travellers shared that unease.
"Do we really wanna know?" Myde asked, obviously a little too scared to even think about the past of Mole.
"Trust me on this, you really don't wanna know." Sweet answered immediately, before pointing at Audrey accusingly, "Audrey, don't tell them. You shouldn't have told me, but you did." before saying to Myde, Milo and the rest of the worldly travellers, "And now I'm tellin' you guys. You don't wanna know."
"Yeeeah, thanks for the warnin', man. I really didn't wanna know in the first place." Lea smiled weakly, shuddering at the thought, "It'd probably give me nightmares." while snuggling up under the blanket.
No one argued with him on that. As soon as Sweet blew out the lamp, it wasn't long before everyone went to sleep...fully unaware that the next time they wake up, something else was going to happen.
A/N: Yeah, I know that there aren't much Heartless activity, but I think this world will be a breather from the previous fighters until we reach Atlantis itself. I made up Myde's backstory since we really don't know much of his past. *Shrugs*
I also used one of the flash-backs from "Second Chance" where Axel starts to remember Xion.
See you in the next chapter!