Author's Note: I was meant to post this on Tuesday, but writer's block and being torn to either update this or "Dissidia Crystal" or even "Kingdom Hearts: Before Crisis" hit me hard. Sorry about that. Well, anyway, here's the new chapter of KH3 for 2018 which is(hopefully it won't be delayed to 2019 next year) the very year the real KH3 game finally comes out and the conclusion of the Xehanort Saga.
But do note that I still suck at battles. Sorry about that, guys. Anywho, let's continue onward! Oh, and one more thing, due to Disney having bought the 21st Century Studios, the next world at the near end of this chapter will not be Disney or Pixar.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH27: A Clue.
The moment Sora's group left Merlin's house, and while on their way to the castle through the Bailey, Heartless kept on appearing which they had to fight their way through. But as they were almost there, all of the sudden, a large, massive Heartless appeared before them; one of those Behemoth Heartless which nearly freaked everyone else. Other smaller Heartless appeared as well, surrounding it; from Shadows to Soldier-Heartless and the knife-armed Heartless.
"Ugh...I hate these guys!" Myde whined, as he summoned his Sitar, Lea summoned his Chakrams, Isa summoned his Claymore, Donald summoned his Staff, Goofy summoned his Shield, Namine stood her ground despite only having some training in magic, and everyone else summoned their Keyblades to fight the Heartless.
"So do I." Jack shook his head, before he and everyone else jumped out of the way when the Behemoth summoned a strong Thunder attack which missed the group when they saw it coming. Seeing this as their chance, they immediately attacked while avoided it's dangerous abilities when it summoned more Thunder and then powerful dark orbs of energy which rained down. Sora and Skuld used Barrier Spells to protect themselves and their friends while Xion, via Sora's memories, leaped up onto the Heartless' back before attacking it's horn since everyone knows that it's the Behemoth's weak spot.
Mickey then used the Stopza Spell onto the Heartless before it could attack again, allowing Roxas to toss his Keyblade at the Horn after Xion jumped off having finished attacking it several times, damaging the beast even more while the King aided them by shooting out Orbs of Light at the Horn as well. In the meantime, Goofy spun around and around with his Shield with his Goofy-Nado skill, destroying the Heartless that tried to attack him and the others, while Donald and Namine casted magic spells of Fire, Blizzard and Thunder at the Shadow Heartless that swiped at them before being destroyed.
Sora dodge-rolled from the Soldier-Heartless before low-cutting one and then striked another five in different angles with his Keyblade. He finished off the move by reverting into his Wisdom Form that allows him to shoot out multiple spells with temporely upgrade. Kairi, Skuld and Aqua teamed up in defeating the Knife-armed Heartless with multiple skills of magic and combo, while Lea burnt and sliced seven Heartless by tossing his Chakrams and then catching them, before switching them out for his Keyblade to finish the job. Isa blasted some away with a Wind Spell at the thrust of his Claymore, knocking them into the wall where they slumped and disappeared into oblivion.
Myde summoned Water Pillars to eliminate the Heartless who, trying to get to him, were hit by his attacks instead and he then whacked them with his Sitar, sending them flying. Riku and Terra preformed a double-Combo at several Heartless before thrusting their Keyblades upward or downward to the monsters' defeats. Jack just slashed and sliced at the Heartless that came his way as quickly as he could which worked out well since he was built for speed.
When Mickey's Stopza spell wore off, the Behemoth felt the effects of the attacks before it slumped to the ground with a roar, landing on top of the Heartless Sora and the others pushed back, crushing the smaller Heartless who, along with the giant Heartless, faded away completely.
"Well...that takes care of them for now." Sora commented, relaxing a little as did his friends. "C'mon. Leon and the others are waiting."
The group nodded.
Finally, after another fifteen minutes, Sora and the gang arrived in the familiar office where, to Sora, Donald and Goofy's slight surprise since they weren't here lately, it was cleaned up a little bit than the last time they were here. To Skuld and Jack, this place was new to them.
"This is...?" Skuld began, glancing around at the room. It was around, with book shelves, portraits and still broken lava-lamps, with a desk and chair in the middle.
"This is Ansem's office. He used to be here most of them before eleven years ago." Mickey explained, gazing at the desk as memories of his old friend filled his mind. A friend whom he would never see again. It still ached him, but the King was determined not to lost any memories of Ansem the Wise again.
"So, just outta curosity, what happened to him, anyway?" Myde asked, folding his arms against his chest.
"He sacrificed himself in damaging Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts with a machine. It not only allowed the captured Hearts to be released, it also restored me back to normal." Riku explained with a sigh.
"And it's also part of the reason how I got my heart back in the first place, with Cosmos', Rox' and Sora's help." Lea added.
Mickey nodded, adding, "Ansem did say anything could happen when the machine blew up. It was what his heart told him to do."
"His heart guided him to do that, you mean." Skuld muttered, sympathized for the noble man's sacrifice. "That was his guiding Key."
"Mickey...I'm sorry." Ven muttered to his friend, feeling sympathized as well. The King gave him a soft sad smile in return as his way of saying thanks.
Jack, while the conversation went on, noticed the large portrait of a familiar young man, but with silver hair, dark-red eyes, a purple scarf and a white coat, next to wall of the DTD wordings. Confusion and curosity getting the better of him, the Pirate approached to get a better look and when he did, it confirmed his suspicion; the man in the picture looked like Terra.
"Why is there a portrait of you, Terra?" Jack spoke up, catching everyone's attentions and it took them a second to realise what he was talking about. "Or rather, someone who looks just like you? Either one."
"Well...pretty much both, actually." Terra awkwardly answered.
"Ay?"
"Huh?" Skuld echoed, confused.
Myde blinked, before pointing out, "Looks more like Xemnas, if you ask me."
"It is Terra, but with Xehanort having taken over his body twelve years ago." Aqua explained. "Somehow, Xehanort had discovered a way to transfere his own heart and taking over another when their heart has been engulfed with darkness."
Terra, looking away slightly in shame, added, "Yeah...and because of me being stupid, I was gullible and naive to the point of being tricked by Xehanort who wanted me to surrender my heart to darkness so that he could take over my body. Even though my mind and soul survived, I wasn't strong enough back then to regain control."
A slight pause.
"That just makes me more wiry of darkness even more." Jack shuddered slightly.
"But how did Xehanort use that kind of power?" Skuld questioned.
"I think it has something do to with his Keyblade. The one that Riku and I destroyed." Sora theoried.
"The one with the moving eye-ball?" Jack blinked.
"Wait. What?" Myde asked, shocked and quickly disturbed.
Before any of them could say anything else, however, an unfamiliar and youngish male voice called out behind them that seemed close, "Hello? Anybody ho-" only to cut off when Sora and his friends turned around and saw the uninvited visitor, and to Sora, Donald and Goofy, they were feeling deja vu when they first met Tifa a year ago in this very same room.
Stopping the doorway was a young man about in his very early 20's, with young features on his face and dark eyes blue eyes. His hair was raven black and slightly spiky on the top and short. He wore a black t-shirt underneath a black coat-like vest, black pants with pockets, black boots, and on his left hand was a black glove.
When he noticed the group of seventeen, the young man somewhat sheepishly said, "Oh! Hey there. Sorry for coming in like this."
"Nah, it's no problem at all." Myde was the first to response as he waved dismissively and it took the rest of the group strong will to resist the urge to either roll their eyes, facepalm or groan. Or in Isa's case, smack the mullet-headed young man upward on the back of the head or tug him by the ear...again.
Namine on the other hand, blinked in surprise as she muttered, "Noctis?"
The man, apparently known as Noctis, blinked in return as he gazed at the girl before greeting, "Hey, Namine. I guess these guys are friends of yours, right?"
"Yes." Namine nodded as she then introduced Noctis to the rest of the group, "These are Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, Jack Sparrow, Myde and our new friend Skuld."
"Hey there." Sora greeted to Noctis, with the others giving their own greetings to the latter.
"So, you know him?" Lea inquried to Namine.
"He came to Radiant Garden a week back while the rest of you were busy." Namine explained. "Actually, Leon and Yuffie saw him fighting Heartless."
"I see that you guys met Noct." A familiar voice spoke from the worldly travellers' right, causing them and Noctis to turn to see Leon standing there, as though he just materalized from nowhere.
"Leon!" Sora acknowlaged.
"Oi. Where did you come from?" Jack asked, dumbfounded. Skuld and Noctis both shared the Pirate's expression as they had no idea how the Gunblade wielder appeared like that either.
"Yeah, I don't see gramps with you right now." Noctis added.
"By gramps, ya' mean Merlin, right?" Lea smirked, catching on what the younger man was saying. Apparently even Noctis had come to know Merlin who liked to poof all over the place when he felt like it to get to places a lot faster than anyone else in the entire multiverse.
"I guess you know him already, huh? Uh, do me a favor and don't let him hear that. Last time I made that mistake...he kinda made me learn a lesson when it comes to vague insult and magic." Noctis nervously scratched the back of the head. "Not to mention that I didn't pay attention to Cid's warning."
"You could say that the older a man and a woman can get, the more ill-tempered they get." Jack commented, before grinning as he told the two younger men, and to Myde, "You lot will be like that one day."
"Ha, ha." Lea deadpanned. "And you won't?"
Jack faulted a little, and Myde couldn't help but grin, saying, "He's gotcha there, Jackie!" which made the pirate groan this time in dismay.
"Okay, boys. That's enough." Kairi told them, even though she, Aqua, Skuld, Xion and Namine couldn't stop the giggles.
Sastified and mentally grateful for Kairi, Leon placed his hand on the wall where the secret button for the secret door lit up upon his touch and it illuminated, the wall vanishing and revealling the secret passage into Ansem's computer room. Needless to say, Skuld, Noctis and especially Captain Jack Sparrow were impressed.
"Astonding." Skuld mumured.
Noctis let out an impressed whistle. "Didn't see that one coming."
"Oh...a secret door." Jack commented the obvious.
The group and Noctis followed Leon into the computer room where Yuffie, Tifa, Cid, Aerith, Even, Ienzo, Von Drake, Dilan, Aeleus and Merlin were, with Cid typing away at the computer when he and the others greeted Sora's group and even Noctis.
"Where're Yuna and the others?" Sora inquired after greeting the group and noticed the Gullwings' absence.
"The misbehaved miscrents?" Even snorted, looking annoyed at the mention of the treasure-hunting trio. "Somewhere in the castle looking for things valueble, I gather. It's a pity that they won't find something of their own desires."
"In other words, Yuffie made up a rumor about treasure chests somewhere around here to get them out of her, Cid and Even's faces." Tifa giggled but with some exasperation at the same time.
Donald snickered at that, winking at the teenaged ninja who winked back, while the others rolled their eyes at that.
"Sounds like when Donald lied to them about Leon having treasure to pick sides when the Organization attacked with the Heartless and Nobodies last year." Sora shook his head with a smirk. He also did know, given Yuffie and Rikku's squabbling, the two girls had formed a rivally at one another. Similiar to Merlin and Cid's bickering.
"Hey, it was either that or those brats causin' trouble and distractin'!" Cid grumbled as he typed away.
"Indeed. It's nice and quiet without them." Even nodded in agreement. He then turned to glare at Myde and grumbled, "Though now we're stuck with another nuisance who constantly likes to be lazy."
"Hey, I helped out a lot lately!" Myde pouted. He then muttered something about 'Cranky old man' while Even began grumbling about, 'Teenagers and this one is always the same. No respect'.
"If yer not stuck with just one cranky old loon, you're stuck with two." Cid grumbled.
"I heard that!" Even shouted, as he and Merlin glared at Cid's back. "How dare you!"
"Hoo boy." Von Drake sighed, facepalming himself. "At this rate, all of us are going to be driven up the wall." Ienzo, Aeleus and Dilan all nodded in agreement, while Aerith sighed.
"Say, fellas. What was it that you wanted to show us?" Mickey spoke up, hoping to break off the tension and possible future argument that was about to take place between the older men.
"For one thing, we figured out a clue." Leon said, "Not sure if it'll prove useful, but I think it's related to what you guys told us earlier."
"Told them what?" Noctis asked. Everyone glanced at him and he sheepishly shrugged, "Sorry. I'm still kinda lost here."
"Dude, we only just met. Of course you're kinda lost in all of this." Myde shrugged.
"It's a really long story." Ven apologetically said to Noctis.
"And how related is this clue to what we've told you lot on the situation that's happened?" Jack asked, which, to pretty much everyone, sounded more like babble.
"Why dont'cha's ask Tron to translate?" Cid suggested sarcastically, and while Sora, Donald and Goofy smiled in relief even though they were aware that the mechanic was being sarcastic yet being serious, Jack, Skuld and Noctis were once again confused.
"Who?" Jack asked.
As soon as the question left the Pirate, Cid finished typing and a eletrontic-like voice echoed from the computer, "Greetings, friends. System is up, and ready for User input." much to Jack, Skuld and Noctis' surprise.
"The Computer just spoke!" Skuld cried out, amazed.
Sora, grinning widely, approached the computer and happily greeted, "Hey there, Tron!" with Donald and Goofy gathering behind him with large grins as well.
"Sora! Donald! Goofy! It's been a while." The voice, identified as Tron, greeted back, and from the sounds of things, even he was happy.
"Whoa...it does speak." Myde asked, wide-eyed in awe and disbelief.
"Yeah, I'll say...kinda weird but impressive." Noctis nodded in agreement.
Jack on the other hand, shook his head in exasperation and dismay. "Fish people, Goat-People, flying Horses, giant moving rocks, living Toys, talking Snowmen, glowing books and now this...at this rate, I'll be losing me mind entirely. I really want some Rum right now, close my eyes and pretend this entire adventure is all a strange dream."
"Be lucky you haven't been to Wonderland yet." Lea chuckled at the Pirate's comments. "Trust me, that place is just as creepy."
After Sora introduced Tron to the rest of the Worldly Travellers and Noctis introduced himself, the Keyblade wielder then asked, "So, Tron. What's going on?"
"I gathered information what the others had told you and through research from some of Ansem's hidden files, we discovered something...quite disturbing." Tron began.
"Whaddya mean?" Goofy asked.
"It's only half of the report, but from what we gathered, it's making some kind of sense; From what the two men you encountered before said, it's connected. It was originally a Myth that got Ansem's eye. A Myth of the War of the Gods."
"War of...the Gods?" Sora muttered.
"Back in the time of the previous War, there was another that happened. Jealously and hatred towards those of free will; Bhunivelze had followers against Gods of Free Will that created Hearts and Souls. Gods from different Realms gathered into a single place that would cause massive destruction. He created a few Gods himself, two whom one world worshipped before his own defeat and eternal slumber, and another whom he created of Discord that was weakened into fragment state from the Unseen Realm."
"Chaos..." Riku surmised.
Tron seemed to agree, because he continued, "Right. But then, from what we also gathered, Bhunivelze and Chaos awoke a hundred years ago since they awoken by the man who lived for now than 2,000 years, and a Goddess of the Sea."
"Calypso?" Jack asked, dumbfounded. "May I ask why she was involved in that when she was in love with Davy Jones?"
"I'm...not sure." Tron admitted after a pause, much to everyone's disappointment. "Though they were defeated by someone with a Keyblade, at the cost of their memories and massive power, replaced by that of a simplier power of something else, almost like a short-cut. They were aided by another who was said to have the power to hand over another to a True King of another world who was said to summon Gods once he defeats them."
"The Astrals?" Noctis suddenly spoke up after a gasp of realization, causing everyone else to glance at him in confusion. "Is that why...is that why I was sent to other worlds?"
"Noct?" Sora asked, confused and becoming worried.
Much to Sora's chargin, though, Vanitas materalized even though the former was still the only one to see him, as the former darkness of Ventus muttered with a sadist smirk, "Looks like Mr. Raven boy here knows something you don't, and I get a feeling that the said Keyblade wielder who stopped Bhunivelze, Chaos and those other losers before is Ventus. That would probably explain why he doesn't remember."
'Vanitas, would you just shut up?' Sora grumbled mentally and quickly done his best to ignore him, which, thankfully, Vanitas snorted before taking the hint and vanished for the time being.
"There was something about Noctis you wanted to tell us with this information, didn't you, Merlin?" Ienzo suddenly spoke to the Wizard who by now got everyone else's attentions.
"Well, the thing is about the young man...Prince Noctis may have a strong connection to this since I saw a future that concerns everyone. While it is blurry, it concerns not only him, but also Sora, Kairi and Ventus, I'm afraid, and even Cloud and everyone else, but mainly Sora." Merlin explained.
"Me?" Sora muttered. But then the first part of Merlin's sentence quickly registered in his and everyone else's minds and they all turned to Noctis, exclaiming in shock, "PRINCE NOCTIS!?"
"Uh...you knew, gramps?" Noctis asked, nervously, before quickly correcting himself when Merlin gave him a glare, "Uh, Merlin?"
"I may be old, but I am a powerful Wizard! And I'll have you know, you should be paying more attention to your education, especially with your status as king of your world." Merlin scolded.
"You're sounding like Ignis." Noctis groaned.
"Uh...S-sorry, your majesty! We didn't know you were...uh, um...!" Goofy stuttered, he, Donald, Aqua, Terra, Isa, and the rest of the worldly travellers, except for Sora, Myde and Lea who stood there, gob-smacked in shock, bowing to Noctis like they would to all royalties, including Mickey.
"Guys, there's no need to do that. Just call me Noct." Noctis quickly told them. "Besides, I'd like to keep a low profile."
"That's okay, Noct." Mickey assured to the young Prince that was now fully identified. "Gosh, I happen to be King of Disney Castle, but I'm quite happy for my friends to call me by my name too."
"At least you didn't get seperated from your friends like I did." Noctis smiled a little.
"Oh, we had our fair share of being seperated when we didn't want to." Lea shook his head. "So uh...what are Astrals, anyway?"
"Gods connected to my world. Long story short. My family on my father's side were known as Kings of Lucis, having the power connected to a Crystal. Me; I'm supposed to have the power of the Astral Gods to help me on my quest to drive away the darkness forming in my world and also help someone to stop this second 'God War' or something." Noctis explained, before shrugging, "I still don't have a clue about that either."
"And the Keyblade wielder who stopped the previous War of Gods but lost his memories..." Skuld began, frowning in concern.
"And who had his powers replaced to that of being a short cut to another...Could that really be me?" Ven added, guilt starting to form. "If that's true...then no wonder I don't remember much except my name, and it's no wonder Xehanort wanted to use me to recreate the X-Blade even if it was a fake one compared to that of the Princesses."
"Do think that's what Caius was trying to tell us?" Kairi asked, worriedly. Other than that, she was also deepily worried on what else Merlin had said; it made her think about the nightmare she had back in Kuzcotopia-the death of everyone, the giant humaniod thing that had no love for souls or hearts, calling her nothing more than a vessel.
"Let us not forget about the Brethren Court imprisoning Calypso-unless, of course, she had a sister who had similiar disregard." Jack piped up. "That is, if the legend is true."
"I guess the only way to find out is to find the Book of Prophecies. That's the only way to know for sure." Skuld suggested firmly, "And to make sure Aced does not stop us from stopping the threats that are happening to other worlds."
Mickey then thought of something before realising, "Maybe, if Ansem had the diary of the God War, then maybe he might have the Book of Prophecies too. Let's check the library, just in case."
"Yeah, before Maleficent and Pete do." Riku nodded in agreement.
"Thanks for the help, Tron." Sora said to his computer-friend.
"Happy to help. You and the other users be careful." Tron replied.
"Users?" Skuld blinked, confused.
"That's what everybody in Tron's world call everybody in the outside world." Goofy explained.
Five minutes later, everyone ventured into the Castle's Library after coming up empty-handed in Ansem's office since none of the bookshelves had what they were looking for. So that left the Library as their next best option in hopes of finding the very book before Maleficent. If they didn't, then either it wasn't here either or the worst thing that could happen, she already had it.
Apparently, she and Pete were apparently already one step ahead, because the moment Sora and the others arrived in the familiar maze-like Library, they heard two familiar voices...close by.
"Just hand over that box, pipsqueak!" Pete's undeniably familair voice grunted, and sounding that he was losing his patience.
"Forget, tubby! This chest has treasure in it! Go get your own!" Rikku's voice grunted back. "I'm taking this back to Yunie and Paine!"
"Ugh...Him again." Roxas groaned, quickly irritated.
The group followed the sources of the voices, until they skid to a stop when coming from their left was Rikku, holding a small red chest in her hands, running past them. Right behind her was Pete who was chasing after the young former fairy.
"Oh no, you don't! Nuh-uh! Get back here, you l'il brat!" Pete growled, already catching up to Rikku.
"Hold it, Pete!" Mickey spoke very firmly in his king-mode, causing Pete to suddenly freeze at the sound of a familiar voice behind him. "You're not goin' anywhere!"
The large fat cat slowly turned around, now nervously as he saw not only his small but fast and powerful nemesis, but also the other 'pipsqueaks' and their friends who stood there, glaring at him and ready to fight, just in case. Even Noctis, who never met Pete before, glared at him as he already could tell that this guy, clumsy as he looked, was trouble. The moment Pete saw them, he groaned in dismay at the sight of Sora's group there. Not to mention the large numbers that were against him.
"D'oooooh! Why do you bozos always mess up with my plans!?" Pete groaned, sounding as though he was whining.
"Because your plans stink! Can't you do something else other than trying to cause trouble to the worlds?" Sora responded.
Pete smirked at that. "What, and do all the goody goody things you numbskulls do? I don't think so!"
"What did you want in that box anyway?" Noctis questioned firmly with a frown.
"Oh, new kid, eh? Well, it's the Book of Prophecies! See, that book is gonna help Maleficent take over all the worlds!" Pete grinned.
"How do you know that it's not what you're after?" Yuffie pointed out, skeptically. "For all you know, it's probably just a potion or junk."
"She has a point." Myde nodded in agreement.
"Maybe so, but then d'at would mean you all know where it is!" Pete declared.
"Actually, we don't. And even if we did, we wouldn't tell you!" Terra pointed out, glaring at the enemy.
This made Pete angry, as he then stood in a fighting postion despite the numbers, though he did have a plan-B and it does come in handy in having powers of darkness on his side. "Then I'll just make youse and even if you nitwits don't, nobody messes with me, see!"
He then snapped his fingers and several Heartless appeared, surrounding the group who most of them quickly brought out their weapons, including Noctis who summoned a sword in a similiar fashion on how the worldly travellers summon their weapons. Von Drake just hid behind a bookshelf just in case since he couldn't fight.
The fight was quickly on.
Sora, Mickey and Ven took on Pete while everyone else took on the Heartless. The trio leaped out of the way when Pete surprisingly jumped into the air and attempted to squash them with his fists but missed. Mickey then chanted Firaga at his old enemy, right at on the, er, butt. Feeling the unusual heat after he smelled something cooking, Pete realised too late and ran around in circles panicking as his butt was on fire, allowing Sora and Ven to throw their Keyblades Boomarang style, knocking the villian over to the side. After the fire went out, Pete growled in fury before summoning a Thunder Spell at the trio who dodged repeatedly and then delivered combos at him before he counter-attacked by using the Silence spell, disabling the group from using their magic temporarily.
None the less, it didn't stop anyone from using their weapons against both Pete and the Heartless. Sora blocked Pete's attempt's of using his fists, as Ven thrusted his Keyblade at the villian's head and Mickey kicked him in the face, making him dazed and having Sora knock him back after a few whacks and hits with the Kingdom Key. This act allowed their and the others magic to return and continue the battle with their other skills. Though those like Jack, Tifa and Yuffie didn't have that problem since they mainly relied on their weapons or in Tifa's case, her martial arts. To their annoyance, Pete summoned his shield that protected him from any kind of attacks and he laughed manically, before rolling in his shield to try and knock everyone off-guard which would also help the Heartless to attack the heroes.
Unfortunately for Pete, he didn't count on that Noctis, whom no one saw him fight before, suddening tossing his Sword and wrapping around in blue light from one end of the room to another as he saw what was going on. Deciding to lend Sora, Ven and Mickey a hand, the young Prince then summoned another Sword and used it to whack Pete in his shield backwards and causing it to roll out of control. Sora, Ven and Mickey, thanking Noctis, did the similiar thing by using their Keyblades to whack Pete like a golf-ball until finally the villian hit the wall and bounced all over the place, inadvertedly squashing and knocking out his own Heartless as it did so. Everyone else then had the oppotunity to do the same at Pete while taking out the Heartless along the way which made things easier until finally Pete's shield deflected and faded away, leaving him on the ground.
Despite this, Pete got up quickly and then summoned another Thunder Spell all over the place, causing everyone to either dodge or block the attack, though he didn't count on Namine using Blizzard which briefly froze him into a Cat-cicle. This allowed Donald to get a little bit of revenge as he casted Thunderaga on Pete and a few lingering Heartless that were left. Mickey countered by using an Orb of Light spell on the fat-enemy and Sora and Ven finished him off by smacking him on the chest and then on the head so hard that not only Squall, Tifa, Yuffie, Even, Ienzo, Dilan, Aeleus, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Namine, Riku, Kairi, Terra, Aqua, Myde, Donald, Goofy, Jack, Skuld, and even Merlin and Cid(who had a spear with him for once), and Noctis to finish off the Heartless, but also allowed Sora, Ven and Mickey to knock Pete into the wall which ended the battle.
Pete by then, standing up wobbily, was seeing stars circle around his head and hearing birds chirping before he stumbled and landed on his bottom, still completely dazed from his yet another humilating defeat.
"I'm gettin' sick of this..." Pete moaned.
"And we're getting sick of you!" Donald retorted back.
This made Maleficent's Second in Command shake the dizzy spells off and stand up, grunting angrily, "Youse just wait! Next time, I'll crush you pipsqueaks and get that box with that book in it!"
"Uh, correction. There is no 'book' in this box, meanie!" Rikku's voice spoke from near by.
Pete turned just in time for a small now empty box hit him squarely in the face, and the Gullwings stood there, approaching Sora and the others while glaring at the villian. In Rikku's hand was just a small trinklet as the young girl continued, "You're the LAME-est treasure fanantic in history!"
"You shouldn't join with Maleficent because she is just no good!" Yuna added, glaring at Pete.
"Like us when we briefly worked for her, you picked the wrong side." Paine simply concluded.
"How 'bout you get out of our faces before we make you, Pete?" Lea warned the tubby-villian with a dangerous glare that he use to use often when he was Axel in Xemnas' Organization XIII.
"Face it, Pete. Maleficent will never win and neither will you!" Mickey added, folding his arms across his chest as he glared at the villian.
"That's what you think, Boat-Boy King!" Pete yelled back. "One of these days, you and your palies are ancient history!" before he poofed away to get himself out of here for the time being.
"That guy's such a sore loser." Myde commented after a moment of silence.
Sora nodded in agreement, "And Maleficent's a total hag."
"None the less, we should be extra regards to both of them." Ienzo muttered, before adding, "And just in case the Book is not here, perhaps it's best that you and your friends continue to search other worlds, just in case."
"I think he's right about that." Isa nodded once he thought about it. "If we linger here for too long, we're wasting time."
"Not to mention that it'll take us hours just to look all over this place." Lea sighed.
"Maybe Aced might know more about what's going on. If we can fight him and ask him about this, it might give us a better idea about Chaos and Bhunivelze." Kairi agreed.
"Unless Chaos is looking to revive Bhunivelze. That's another possibility." Aqua said firmly with strong concern.
Everyone else shared a concerned glance; Maybe Aqua was right. Perhaps Chaos is looking into reviving the God who created him and other Gods that caused not only the Keyblade War but also the War of the Gods. Not to mention that they still had to find Master Yen Sid, Angeal and Genesis.
"First I lost track of my friends and now this...Can't take a break." Noctis sighed.
"Join the club." Roxas sighed, before turning to Noctis and admitted, "You were pretty awesome there, Noct. I didn't know you could wrap and fight!"
"Yeah, the way how you did that makes my old abilities look pathetic." Lea agreed with a grin.
Noctis blushed a little at the compliment, "Thanks. Though Gladio thinks I'm still lacking in strength a little."
The name the Prince mentioned caught the Worldly Travellers off-guard as Sora asked, "Wait! Did you just say Gladio?"
"He wouldn't happen to be a tall man with a large sword and muscle, would he?" Skuld inquired.
"Yeah...why?" Noctis asked, a little nervous and suddenly kicking himself for having revealed too much information to people who he barely knew already. Then he quickly asked when he realised that they knew one of his friends. "Wait! You've seen him?"
"Gawrsh, he was at the Coliseum we were at a while ago." Goofy remembered.
"He disappeared after he helped us, though. But I think he'd still be there." Xion added.
"But he's okay, right?" Noctis urged, and suddenly the group were reminded of how Sora and Ven would react.
"I'm sure he's fine." Riku told him. "He's a tough fighter."
Lea nodded, "Yeah, he saved us once or twice."
Noctis sighed in relief, "Yeah, that sounds like Gladio, alright." before he gazed at the Worldly Travellers, saying, "I have to get to where he's at. I'm not gonna sit around and not to anything."
"Noct, it's too dangerous." Aqua told him firmly.
"I don't care. Gladio, Ignis and my other best friend Prompto mean a lot to me! It's my fault we got separated in the first place." Noctis pointed out just as firmly.
"I get what you mean, Noct." Sora nodded, already understanding what the Prince was talking about. "I've done the same thing when me, Donald and Goofy were looking for Riku, Kairi and King Mickey. Even Roxas, Xion, Namine, Lea and Isa feel the same way; Ven too." which the aforemented group nodded in agreement.
"And when I was looking for my friend Cloud too. We know what you're going through, Noct." Tifa concluded.
"Guys...!" Aqua began, only for Mickey to approach her.
"Aqua...I know that you're worried, but even Princes and Kings have to go out and make sure things are alright, even by risking their lives. Gosh, I pretty much do that all the time!" Mickey kindly pointed out.
Realising that Mickey was right, and that memories of having pushed Ven away rather than letting him grow up and prove himself were returning to her, Aqua sighed and reluctantedly nodded. She had to stop being overly-protective and protect her friends while at the same time allow them to make their own right choices in life. Besides, it irked her to admit it and despite how he didn't look or act like it, but Ven was actually way older than she and Terra were.
Come to think of it, so were Aced, Ephemer, Skuld and Strelitzia.
"Right...I'm sorry." Aqua nodded eventually.
"So,whaddya' say, guys? Let's help Noct find Gladio and maybe their other friends too, and we can find Master Yen Sid, Angeal and Genesis along the way too!" Sora declared.
"Yeah! Good idea!" Donald agreed enthusiastically
"I don't mind." Jack shrugged.
"In the meantime, the rest of us will keep things busy here and let you know if we found the book." Leon muttered.
Namine, as much as she wanted to join her friends, decided, "I think I'll stay here, just in case. Maybe I can figure something out."
"We'll be back before you know it." Roxas promised, adding, "And don't worry, we'll be careful."
"And we'll help look for this book too." Yuna offered.
"Sounds boring but also important, too." Rikku muttered.
"I'm in." Paine nodded.
Just then, the trinklet Rikku found began to glow and hover and Sora's Keyblade glowed as well, making him realise what was going on. He held it out as the crown shape appearing underneath him as the world's Keyhole appeared via a beam of light shooting out from the Trinklet. Sora then thrusted the Kingdom Key upward and via another beam of light, he locked up the world's keyhole, protecting it from the darkness before things returned to normal.
"What's that light?" Noctis asked, amazed.
"The world's safe for now, and a gateway to another world's opened up." Sora explained.
It came to an agreement that Prince Noctis would be joining Sora's party temporarily while Leon, Namine and the others continued defending Radiant Garden while at the same time search for the Book of Prophecies in case it was here in this world.
Yet none of them or their friends in other worlds know that things were only just going to get more and more complicated.
Meanwhile, at Nibelhiem in Midgar...
In hopes of finding more clues to Chaos, Cloud, Vincent, Zack, and the Turks decided to head over to Nibelheim to find any more of the research papers that could help them solve the problem. They also hoped in finding the Book of Prophecies here while they were at it. So far...no luck as of yet.
"Geez, there's no way we're gonna find a needle in a haystack this size." Reno grumbled as he pulled out yet another large stack of books and plonked them onto the table, where the dust coming off them made him sneeze.
"Do we even know what the Book of Prophecies even looks like? I'm not even sure what we're looking for." Zack sighed, flipping through another useless book with diagrams that he couldn't understand and it was giving him a bit of a headache trying to figure it out.
Cloud did was everyone else had been doing, flipping through page after page, then closing the book and tried another, saying, "From what Skuld said, it's supposed to have information on what the 'Master of Masters' written down after he saw the future of anything and everything he can see. Though, given how much of these books are scientific, I don't think we'll have much luck here."
"I'm thinking that you're right. If such a book did exist, it wouldn't be here." Vincent agreed. "And the only information we found on Chaos is what we already learned. Especially from Lucrecia's research."
"Then, why the hell are we here to begin with?" Reno groaned, getting frustrated. "That this rate, it's turnin' into a wild goose chase!"
"It was just in case we did find both the answers. Or at least, some of it." Rude pointed out.
The redhead sighed and searched through yet another book, before shaking his head and concluding, "Guys, I think it's gettin' to the point where we came here for nothing."
Cloud was about to say something when the hairs on his neck prickled and he heard a faint sound of foot steps, which alarmed him to turn rapidly, thrusting out his Fusion Sword and he heard the others who also heard this do the similiar thing, taking defense stances, the blond-haired man demanding, "Who's there!?"
The man who they saw gave them chills; he was tall, in a complete black coat that was strikingly familiar. The only minor difference is the zipper that was heart-shaped. The rest of it, Cloud and the others recongised instantly.
"Organization XIII?" Cloud asked softly, completely shocked.
"I thought we got rid of those guys when Xehanort was killed!" Zack exclaimed. "What the hell is going on?"
The cloaked man chuckled, as though finding their reactions amusing. "What? You think I'm with the guys who messed things up with the worlds? Oh, I get it! It's because of my coat right? It's just like the Organization. 'Oh no! It's the Organization XIII guys! It's the end of the worlds!'"
"What the hell is so funny!?" Reno growled, his EMR clutched tightly in his hand.
"Ah, calm down. I'm not with the Organization. I'm just some old guy lurking around; a wanderer, if you like." The man in the coat said dismissively, as though this was a casual day.
"For a wanderer, you seem to know quite a lot that you shouldn't." Vincent said, supiciously.
Reno nodded in agreement, "Yeah, didn't anybody tell ya to mind your own damn business?"
The man in the black coat paused for a moment, before slumping a little while pouting rather childishly, "Way to kill the suspense. Thanks alot, guys!"
"This guy is totally weird." Zack muttered to his friends and the two Turks.
"I think he's trying to mess with our heads...like how Sephiroth would." Cloud muttered, concerned. There was something about the man in front of them that just felt...completely off. Like this man was the master of manipulation.
"Nice to see you thinking logically!" The man in the black coat spoke up again, apparently having heard what Cloud just said, catching the five other men off-guard. "Just so you know, you're not gonna be finding what you're looking for here. Another thing, you really should watch out for the two guys who went through life, death and immortality."
"You know of Davy Jones, I gather." Vincent narrowed his eyes.
The man in the black coat calmly turned around, which his hands behind his back, saying, "Well, him too. So I guess that makes three. The ones you really should be looking for, is one who once had the heart of a Goddess, and another, who cannot be killed by anyone except for one with powerful light. And even then, it'll be difficult. Not to mention that he's more dangerous at manipulation, and even more dangerously cruel."
"And you expect us to believe you?" Zack asked, skeptically.
"Nah, not really. It's up to you guys whether you do believe me or not. Just so you know, everything that you thought of before is much more different than what you and the Keyblade wielders know now." The man in the coat told them.
"Meaning?" Rude grunted.
"You'll see." The man in the coat held up his right hand and slowly clitched it, before waving a farewell to the group as he disappeared into a corridor of light and darkness, stunning the men in the room of the old lab in the Manor.
After a tensed moments of silence, the group shared an uncertain glance, with Reno muttering nervously, "So...what do you guys think?"
"While I don't trust him, I don't think he was completely lying. He even mentioned about Keyblade wielders, and if he does know about everything we went through..." Cloud began, before nodding, more to himself than the others, concluding, "You guys go and warn Reeve and Rufus. I have to go find Sora and the others and warn them."
"I'm coming with you." Zack quickly spoke up, taking a lead to follow Cloud out of the manor.
"Whoa, whoa!" Reno quickly spoke up, hurrying after them, pointing out, "Do you even know where that kid is right now, Chocobo-Head? He and the others could be anywhere by now."
Cloud paused, before saying, "It doesn't matter how long it takes. I know what my heart is telling me. I just have to think about them and my heart will lead me the way."
"He does have a point. Not only that, they might need a little more help in finding Yen Sid, Angeal and Genesis too, and stop Aced's crazy ideas." Zack agreed.
"Besides," Cloud continued, "We can't just stay around here in our world during a crisis like this. At least I can't..."
"He's right. Who knows what is happening as of now. Even though Sora and the others can handle anything, there is a chance that something might go wrong." Vincent agreed.
Sighing in defeat, Reno muttered, "Point taken. Fine, you two guys go ahead and warn the kid and the others. The three of us will head back to HQ and warn Tseng, 'Lena and everyone else, just in case."
"Cloud, Zack. Be careful." Vincent told the younger men who both nodded, silently promising that they will.
While the two Turks and Vincent left to head back to Edge, Cloud and Zack left Nibelhiem and via Cloud's motorcycle, left the world all together to travel to other worlds to find Sora and the others as soon as possible.
None of them really trusting or knowing what the coated man's true intentions were.
Back with Sora and his group...
The group, having Noctis join them until they returned to Olympus Coliseum in hopes of finding Gladio, were enroute to the said world in the Gummi-Ship, where they hoped that they were at least getting a step closer to figuring out how to stop the new crisis that was threatening all of the worlds, and also finding the location of Aced, Yen Sid, Genesis, Angeal, and in Skuld's case, Ephemer. Maybe even Lauriam, whom Skuld still thinks is similiar to Lamuria, the original of Marluxia.
Though not only was Myde sleeping, as usual, but Noctis also dozed off in his seat after the Prince found them to be quite comfortable. Much to Donald's annoyance.
"Ooh! How can he sleep like that?" Donald grumbled, glaring at Noct's direction.
"The same way Sleeping Lazy is, apparently." Lea smirked, pointing at Myde's sleeping form with his thumb.
Mickey smiled, "Aw, I'm sure Noct's just exhausted from fighting the Heartless at Radiant Garden. There's nothin' wrong in fallen asleep before the next adventure."
"You know what? Noct kind of reminds of how Sora would sleep on the beach back at home." Kairi admitted with a smile.
"Yeah, he liked to slack off too." Riku grinned teasingly.
Sora blushed, pouting at his two best friends, "Gimme a break, guys!" and blushed harder when everyone else save for the two sleeping companions chuckled.
However, all of the sudden the entire vessle jerked, catching everyone off-guard and startling both Noctis and Myde awake and the alarm blared and flashed red light. Outside, electricity covered the Gummi-Ship just as a figure disappeared into a corridor of darkness, cackling away.
"What's going on!?" Ven cried out.
"I don't know! The Gummi-Ship's covered in electricity, though!" Mickey cried out, as he struggled to regain control of their ship. "We gotta land somewhere fast!"
"Why now of all bloody times!?" Jack exclaimed, while trying to hang on for dear life.
"Hey! There's a world close to us!" Goofy hurriedly pointed, as a new World was coming into distance towards them.
Knowing what has to be done, Sora turned the group, "Guys, hold on tight! Gotta prepare for a hard landing!"
"It'll only be damaged if we all stay here! If we can teleport, everything will be okay!" Mickey informed them.
The good news is, they all safely teleported out and the Gummi-Ship didn't explode or crash. Bad news is, it wasn't going anywhere for a little bit...and Sora's group were about to face another problem in the certain world they landed into.
Translation; it delayed their return to Olympus Coliseum.
{ROMANOV EMPIRE}
The landing Sora had was pretty much a bit of a crash landing when he teleported out of the damaged Gummi-Ship. The teenager was laying on in front in the snow of a new world he landed into. Groaning as he regained conscious after a bit of a knock out, Sora pushed himself up.
"Ugh...nice way to welcome someone." The sixteen year old remarked sarcastically, standing up as he found himself in an unfamiliar forest in the middle of winter, and then felt a slight flash of deja vu.
Thankfully, he hasn't lost track of his friends as they all stood up as well, with slight groans and sighs themselves. That was always a good thing.
"Is everyone alright?" Terra asked, and was relieved when they replied that they were all fine. Just a bit shaken and not just from the unexpected drop of tempreture.
"Gawrsh...I wonder what attacked us." Goofy muttered, worriedly.
"A Heartless?" Xion suggested with concern.
"Yeah, probably. Especially those darn electric-type ones. The magic-element Heartless are the most annoying in my opinion." Lea shrugged in agreement.
Myde shuddered, "Even when they remind you of how Larxene liked to fry everyone when they push one of her wrong buttons. If you ask me, she was practically covered in them."
"Wrong buttons?" Xion asked, confused. Kairi, Aqua and Skuld on the other hand, looked a bit miffed and crossed their arms as they glared at the mullet-haired young man.
"You mean you don't know?" Noctis asked, while brushing snow off his shoulders and surpressed a shudder at the cold while it began to snow.
"How Xion doesn't know is a long story." Roxas told him, a bit awkwardly. "Come to think it, I only found out about that a year and half ago."
The young Prince stared at 'Ven's Twin' with wide eyes of disbelief, muttering incrediously, "You gotta be kidding me."
"Would that be another new way of saying how a man crosses a woman?" Jack asked, nervously.
"Ugh, seriously? You too?" Noctis groaned.
"Hardly my fault the world that I come from isn't that advanced. The only advanced thing I've seen so far before I even met the lads and lasses are clocks." The pirate pointed out.
"Good point." The younger man sighed.
"How bad is the damage?" Riku asked, as Mickey fiddled with a small remote that was saved from the Gummi-Ship.
The king sighed, shrugging, "Welp, the good news is that it still fly. Bad news is, it lost two of the Gummi-blocks that scattered needed to fly safely to other worlds. One landed somewhere here in this world, and another closer by which, unless we retrieve the one here, we're not goin' anywhere for a while." making everyone else groan.
"Well, at least we're all in one piece. We'll be alright." Sora said optimistically after a moment of silence.
"And there are two signs leading to places here too." Kairi added, pointing at a tree they were standing next to. One sign on the left said to a Fish Factory, and the one on the right said to a place called St. Petersburg.
"That's another bonus. Question is, which way should we go?" Roxas thought.
"Well, I don't think we'll have luck at a Fish factory." Isa deadpanned.
"So, to St. Petersburg, then?" Lea shrugged.
Before anyone could answer to that, they heard a woman's scream coming from behind them. When the worldly travellers turned in alarm, they saw a young, possibly eighteen year old young woman with brown/red hair in a bun, blue hat, blue eyes, wearing a brown warm coat, dirty-yellow raggy outfit, thin brown pants with dark boots and fingerless gloves to keep her hands warm, running from three familiar monsters that were chasing her.
"Heartless!" The group exclaimed.
"Look out!" Mickey cried out, rushing for the girl's aid as he leaped and as the girl ducked, the King summoned his Keyblade and slashed at the Heartless, destroying them with three single hits before landing on the ground safely and asked the girl, "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for saving me from those...whatever they are." The girl panted slightly, standing up with Kairi's help.
"I'm glad that you're okay." Mickey replied with a smile.
"Did you have problems with those things before?" Kairi asked gently.
The girl shook her head, "No. I can honestly say that it's the first time I saw those things, and that's just after I left the Orphanage."
"You're on your own?" Ven asked, already sympathetic to the girl. It didn't take him or the others long to figure it out; this girl was an orphan.
"Well...as far as I know, pretty much. I know this is gonna sound really weird, but I have no idea where I really came from or who my family is or if I have any. I was found wondering around when I was eight years old. That's all I remember, because I don't know anything else apart from wandering in the streets ten years ago." The girl explained.
"Soooooooo, you somehow lost your memories and your family because something happened ten years ago and you were then taken into the Orphange up until now, right?" Myde shrugged, speaking of the logic. Again, he cried out in comical pain when Isa tugged him hard by the ear. Again.
"She just told us that, Captain Obvious." The blue-haired man muttered in exasperation.
"Don't mind them. This happens all the time." Sora shrugged when the girl glanced at them questionly.
"So how come you left the Orphange?" Goofy asked, curiously.
The girl shrugged, "Well, I'm eighteen, so I'm old enough to go to work. So the owner, who is a bit of a hag, no offence, got me a job at the Fish Factory. Like I said, I was on my there when those monsters attacked me for some reason, and I'm flat broke. I don't even have food on me."
"They are very un-sympathetic, luv'." Jack shook his head. "Those things attack anyone in their sight. Like us, for example."
"My name is Anya, not 'love'." The girl, introducing herself as Anya, muttered in annoyance and glaring at the pirate who shrank back, as though expecting her to slap him on the face.
"Apologises. Honest mistake." Jack muttered back, raising his hands up slowly in surrender.
"Is he always like this?" Noctis asked to the other Worldly Travellers.
"Unfortunately, yes." Skuld sighed, slightly exasperated.
Anya caught on and asked to the Prince, "You mean you just met him too?"
The young man nodded, "Yeah, all of them, actually." before introducing himself, "My name's Noctis. My friends call me Noct."
"I'm Sora." Sora said next to Anya.
"I'm Ventus, but you can call me Ven." Ven said next.
"My name's Kairi." Kairi added.
"My name's Riku." Riku added.
"I'm Roxas." Roxas added.
"I'm Xion." Xion added.
"My name is Aqua." Aqua added.
"I'm Terra." Terra added.
"And I'm Mickey." Mickey added.
"Donald." Donald introduced himself.
"Name's Goofy." Goofy added.
"I'm Lea. Got it memorized?" Lea introduced himself, saying his usual catch-phrase.
"I'm Isa. And this is Myde." Isa added, while finally letting go of Myde who began to fan his now sore ear with his left hand while waving a hello to Anya with his right hand.
"My name's Skuld. Pleased to meet you." Skuld nodded.
"Jack Sparrow." Jack concluded, adding 'Captain Jack Sparrow' in his mind.
"Nice to meet all of you." Anya said back, before asking, "Just curious, are you all of you going to St. Petersburg?"
"We were considering in doing that. Why?" Lea replied.
Anya shook her head, "It's just...St. Petersburg is the only way to get to Paris."
"Paris?" Donald asked, confused.
"I think that's where I'll find out about my past, because I have a clue that I had around my neck even before I was found." Anya explained, showing the group a small golden necklace with writting all around inside it. It was tiny, but eventually Aqua figured out what it said.
"'Together in Paris'." Aqua read aloud, before realising what this meant. As did everyone else.
"I get it. You think your family's there, right?" Sora realised.
"Yup!" Anya nodded, before sighing dramatically, "But me? Going to Paris? What should I do? Go to the Fish Factory and spend the rest of my life as Anya the Orphan or go to Paris to find out who I am? There's gotta be a sign or hint or something!"
"I think she's havin' trouble deciding." Goofy said worriedly to the rest of the group.
Noctis scoffed, "You think?"
Just then, a small grey puppy with long floppy ears popped out of the snow and ran around the surprised group and Anya who suddenly found her scarf tugged by the young dog.
"Hey! H-hey! I don't have time to play around, okay?" Anya said to the dog. "I'm waiting for a sign."
It soon turned into a small game of chase, and even Sora and the others had trouble in getting Anya's scarf back from the puppy as they all fell into the snow after accidently bumping into each other...right into the path towards St. Petersburg.
"Uh...this is gonna sound weird, but I think the dog wants all of us to go to St. Petersburg." Myde muttered.
The group glanced at each other, before glancing at Anya who, as though the answer was right in front of her, muttered, a little nervously but was willing to go along with it, "Okay...I'll take the hint."
"Welp, why don't we all go together and maybe we can help Anya get to Paris and find her family?" Mickey suggested as he and everyone else got up and brushed the snow off them.
"Sounds good to me." Kairi nodded.
"Yeah!" Sora nodded, as did everyone else.
"You guys sure about that?" Anya asked.
"Of course. If you like." Aqua offered.
The younger woman thought about it, then nodded with a smile and said, "Okay! Let's all go the Paris!"
'I was meant to find Gladio, but I'm sure he and the others can wait a bit longer. Besides, it's not very polite to say no to someone who needs help.' Noctis thought to himself.
Even though the group were now joined by Anya on a new quest in this new world, the challenges ahead of them and two others was about to get more challenging and dangerous.
A/N: Anastasia is one of my childhood movies my sister and I used to watch all the time. It's not a Disney movie, but still. The adventures in Romanov Empire(that I named for this world) continues in the next chapter and Noctis as temporarily joined the group! See you soon!
