Author's Note: Not much, but I'm glad to have made you happy that I've added Noctis into this. FFXV has grown on me(and admittedly, I still find it heaps better than FFXIII-storywise).
Anywhere, here's the new chapter of this adventure!
I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or Anastasia.
CH28: The Unknown Pursuit.
While protecting Anya and fighting Heartless along the pathway, the group passed a small wooden house of a family of four, a mother, a father and two young children who, on their way out to somewhere, briefly played with the puppy Anya had decided to adopt and named Pooka before they moved on, the young woman watched the family leave, with a somewhat saddened and longing look.
This Kairi and Ven caught on, as the former asked Anya, "You really miss your family, don't you?"
"Of course I do." Anya nodded as she and her new companions continued onward. "Sure when I was in the Orphanage, I've been taught, I've fed, and I even had a roof over my head, I've always wanted to how about my family and where I even came from, and even who I am. Even my name, I want to know about it."
"So the people in the Ophanage gave you the name 'Anya' then?" Sora asked, sympathized.
"I think she pretty much told us that, Sora." Lea pointed out.
The teenager, realising the silliness, sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "Oh, sorry."
"Other than the necklace I've had for ten years, the other clue I have to made me lose my memories that I probably got hit on the head somehow." Anya continued while accepting Sora's apology.
"Gawrsh, that's strange. 'Cause I get bumped on the head all the time." Goofy thought worriedly, making the other worldly travellers sigh or laugh weakly, or in both Jack and Noct's case, stare at him incrediously.
Kairi shook her head and then said to Anya, "I know what you're going through. When I was five years old, I was taken away from my hometown and ended up in Sora and Riku's hometown and the only thing I could remember for nine years was my name. It was two years ago that I finally remembered where I came from and remembered my grandmother."
"That must have been hard." Anya thought.
"Well, not really. I had an adopted family and I was happy there, and I still am. Plus, I grew up with Sora and Riku." Kairi smiled warmly, while both said boys nodded with smiles of their own.
"Which makes the three of us." Ven added, "I couldn't remember much of my past either except for my name and admittedly, I still don't. But I have great friends like everyone here, especially since Terra and Aqua and even Skuld are my best friends."
Anya, while feeling sorry for both Kairi and Ven, couldn't help but sigh in some relief. "Well, at least I'm not the only one who had that problem."
"Ah, memory loss is not uncommon, but it doesn't happen to everyone either." Lea pointed out with a shrug. "But seriously, I have a feelin' you'll get your memories back. If Kairi got hers back and Ven's slowly remembering too, then there's at least 95% chance you'll get yours back, Anya."
"And that you'll find your family, and we're gonna help all the way!" Sora added optimistically.
The young eighteen year old woman smiled gratefully at the group who most of them nodded in agreement, and she said, "I know we only just met, but you guys are really sweet." before laughing when Sora, Ven, Roxas, Terra, and Lea all blushed deeply, which also most Isa and Noctis snicker, Myde, Donald and Goofy laughing, Mickey, Kairi, Aqua, Skuld and Xion giggle, and Jack smirking.
Eventually the group of seventeen finally arrived to St. Petersburg which was a bustling city with people going about on their business in the winter of this world before they decided to head straight to getting tickets to Paris when the worldly travellers had no luck in finding the missing Gummi-Block need to at least reach another world to find the second missing piece. Then again, they didn't have to wander around here, so they decided to hope in finding it in Paris.
At the moment, their main priority was helping Anya to find her missing family as well as regaining her lost memory, so when they arrived at the ticket booth at the train station, they decided to divide into three groups; one group had Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Anya, the second group had Ven, Terra, Aqua, Skuld, Mickey and Riku, and the third had Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Noctis and Jack.
"Seven tickets to Paris, please." Noctis said politedly when he reached the window of the booth.
"Exit Visas." The Ticket man replied.
"Excuse me?" Noctis blinked, turning to the others who shrugged. Even Anya shook her head, having no clue either.
Apparently the man didn't take that kindly, as he then yelled, "No Exit Visas? NO TICKETS!" and slammed the window doors shut at Noct's face, startling him and everyone else
They then grumbled at this.
"What the devil is a 'exit visa'?" Jack asked, dumbfounded, before commenting, "Judging by that man's rudeness, I'm betting that without those, we can't get tickets to Paris."
"You just answered your own question." Terra pointed out, rolling his eyes, only for an old lady who was in line behind the group to 'psst' at them, gesturing them to get closer to her once she had their attention.
"See Dimitri." She whispered to them. "He can help."
Anya, suddenly curious, asked quietly, "Where can we find him?"
"At the old palace." The old woman muttered, before quickly adding, "But all of you didn't hear it from me."
Myde, somehow getting the hint, and despite the old lady giving him the creeps, whispered, "Our lips our sealed."
"Yes. Now go! Go go go!" The old lady muttered while shooing them off.
"Dimitri?" Aqua muttered as she and the others began to walk away, their thoughts on finding this Dimitri person. Surely he could help them get to Paris. Though they had questions in their heads; What did he look like, and where was the Palace?
Meanwhile, in an old theatre that had been abandoned for many years, Arlene, on an assignment with Shalua and Shelke, stormed up to them after leaving the stage and stood on the side, where to men, one who is a young man with brown hair, white shirt, brown pants, black shoes, and teal vest and about 20 years old, and another man, a portly older man with graying beard, mustache and hair, with a dark red shirt and dark pants with black boots and purple glasses, sitting together.
"Been told that I'm not who they're looking for!" Arlene growled in irritation.
"Neither was I, but I doubt they would allow us to find what we're looking for just by simply accompying them." Shalua pointed out, her arms folded to her chest.
"Perhaps we should approach things differently." Shelke stated in a monotone. "The Master did predict that Sora and his friends would be here."
The blond-haired woman rolled her eyes, "Well, our best shot was asking these two con-artists who are looking for an 'Anastasia' look-a-like, and now that's ruined. I don't care anymore. I'm out of here!" before she stormed off.
The two sisters sighed, before turning their gaze back to the said men who were observing another volunteer on stage.
"Thank you, thank you. Next please." The younger man requested.
Another woman, slightly older, to husky and snobby appeared, before drooping her coat, holding a cigar-stick in one hand, while saying fakely as though she was a model, "Grandma, it's me, Anastasia." and swayed her hips.
The older man, in response, groaned in dismay before dropping his head onto the table and began to whimper, while Shalua and Shelke shared a glance of exasperation before silently walking away to find their comrade to continue their own mission in secret.
"Oh, brother." The younger man groaned in equal disgust and dismay.
While walking down the hallways of the building, the two sisters found and caught up to Arlene who was still fuming, "Ugh! Men and kids! Two of the worst lifeforms in history. I can't stand them!"
"Then how it is you are able to cope with Lamuria?" Shalua pointed out.
"Or Master Aced?" Shelke added.
The former Nobody rolled her eyes, "As much as you two have a point, I'm not in the mood to be lectured. Besides, if those two idiots back there think they can get money from an old lady who's grand-kid is pretty much dead, they're in for a real shock. I've seen old ladies; She might be old, but even she's not that stupid."
"I agree on that. She will easily see through the disguise of the imposter." Shalua muttered.
"If she had a close relationship with her deceased granddaughter, then she will immediately know the truth." Shelke agreed. "Those two men are fools to believe that she won't...especially with that jewelry box that they have."
Arlene snorted, "Well, good luck to them. Not like I care what will happen to them. Let's go to another world and go right back to plan A."
With that, she held out a hand and summoned a corridor of darkness before stepping through, with the two sisters following her...unaware that, as the corridor closed up, a familiar man with purple-ish pink hair had overheard the conversation from around the corner and grinned sinisterly.
A little while later after asking around, Sora and his friends eventually came to the said old Palace which, while large and possibily amazing, had lost his charm and luster since had been abandoned for possibly around ten years. It was all boarded up, the entrance and windows all blocked off by wood.
"Nice place, even though it's fitting for a guy who has nothing else to do." Noctis commented.
"I'm beginning to have my doubts with this Dimitri lad." Jack muttered as he and the others looked for a possible way to get into the place.
Myde looked around, before turning to the others and asked, "So...we just let ourselves in?"
"Ever heard of knocking?" Lea glared at the younger man who shrunk back a little in fright.
By then, Pooka, curious as the puppy was, found a hole big enough for him to squeeze through the wood and wandered in inside. Anya and Skuld saw what happened and hurried over to try and get their way through. When they and everyone else realised that the only way in was to pull the wood off, Terra, Sora, Anya, Goofy and Donald grabbed hold on one of the planks and pulled hard, successfully yanking it off, but the force of it caused them to fall onto the ground.
"Are you alright?" Aqua asked, worriedly.
"I'm fine." Anya nodded, standing up along with the others.
"A little fall like that's nothing." Sora smirked.
Goofy then knocked on the side of the wall and waited along with the others. After a few minutes of waiting, everyone shared a look of confusion before the silliest member of the group thoughtfully said, "Gawrsh, looks like nobody's home."
"Well, I'm going in. I'm worried about Pooka." Anya stated, and without waiting, she eased her way inside, with Sora and everyone else hurrying to follow her.
Clear signs of dust has been apparent to the grand place, with different stair levels and rooms with old abandoned royalty items and such having not been touched in years. They found Pooka and continued to venture inside for any signs of Dimitri. Xion carefully picked up an old but rather beautiful vase and gently blowed the dust off it, which, with Myde standing next to her, the dust got up his nose and caused him to sniffle.
"Ah-ah-ah-ah-Ahchoo!" Myde sneezed, and then coughed. "Geez, I can see why nobody even bothered in living in this place. It's too dusty."
"That's because no one's been here in years." Noctis pointed out, glancing around the apparently dining room they were in. "Though I'm a little curious on what happened to the royal family who used to live here."
"There must've been some kind of attack, but the only evidence I can see were the doors and windows that had been broken." Skuld muttered as she had returned from her own investigation. "And given that no one has been here for years, I'm afraid something tragic happened to the royal family."
Ven folded his arms and nodded, "Yeah. I feel sorry for them."
Sora was about to reply when he and Kairi noticed that Anya had approached a vase on a dresser-table with a mirror, and the way how she was gently touching it, it looked as though...she was familiar with it.
"Anya? What's up?" Sora asked, curiously as he and Kairi approached.
"This place..." Anya began, softly. "It's...It's like a memory from a dream."
This got everyone's attentions, as Mickey asked, "You mean...this place is familiar to you?"
"I'm not sure why, but...I think you're right." Anya muttered thoughtfully.
"Maybe you been here before and you're starting to remember." Roxas suggested.
"Yeah." Lea agreed, "If you feel that this place is familiar, then you must've come here at some point. Maybe even...lived here when you were a kid."
Despite that it sounded crazy, Anya had to admit, with no memories of her past, it was a good point. Plus, given that she did feel like she was here at sometime in her childhood, it adds all up. So, she and the others continued onward through their investigation, eventually finding themselves in a large ball room, with family portraits of, what everyone quickly realised was the royal family.
Needless to say that the worldly travellers were amazed would've been an understatement.
"Wow!" Donald and Goofy said in unison.
"Whoa...this ballroom's huge!" Sora exclaimed in amazement.
Kairi nodded in agreement, "If things had been different, I'd love to dance here."
"With who? Sora?" Noctis asked with a smirk, which caused both Sora and Kairi to blush heavily at this comment and the rest of the companions, except for Aqua and Mickey who both shook their heads, either rolled their eyes, giggled or chuckled.
"Aww! Why is everyone picking on us?" Sora groaned while referring to himself and Kairi who nodded in annoyed agreement.
"Come on, leave them alone. It's not funny!" Anya scolded at the rest of the group who tried to dim their amusement. She then sighed and gazed at the dance floor, admitting, "For some reason...this is more familiar than I thought, and it's crazy."
"Like...how familiar?" Riku asked, carefully.
"Something I can almost remember..." Anya, as though going into her memories. "...In my head, I can see dancing figures...someone holding me...safe and warm...and a song...'Once upon a December'..."
The worldly travellers glanced at each other with a shared confusion and thoughtful expressions, wondering if Anya's memories were suddenly coming back due to being in this place. But before they could ask their thoughts on this, an unfamiliar man's voice suddenly called out from the other side of the room.
"HEY! What are you all doing here?"
Startled, the group looked to see a man, about twenty years old with brown hair, white shirt, brown pants, black shoes, and teal vest as he approached them, calling out before they could make a run for it, "Hold on a minute! Hold on!"
When he reached at the tip of the bottom of the stairs, he asked the group, "How did you all...ge-get in-in...here?" only to trail off as he gazed solely on Anya, with an expression of apparent amazement, much to everyone else's confusion.
Judging by his sudden apparence, Sora betted a guess that this guy was Dimitri. The man was quickly joined by a portly older man with graying beard, mustache and hair, with a dark red shirt and dark pants with black boots and purple glasses.
"Excuse me, people!" The older man, with his glasses on his forehead, called up, only to be interrupted by his companion while Pooka approached and sniffed at the two men as though to investigate them.
"Vlad! Do you see what I see?" The younger man whispered.
"Mm...No." The older man, named Vlad, shrugged, due to not wearing his glasses, much to his friend's slight annoyance. So when he lowered Vlad's glasses back to his eyes, the older man, seeing what the other had seen, gasped in surprise and apparent delight, "Yes! Yes!"
Deciding to get to the point, Anya was the first to ask the younger man who was two years older than her, "Are you Dimitri?" as her dog was picked up by the said man who handed him over to Vlad.
"Perhaps. Depends on who's looking for him." The man, confirmed as Dimitri, answered as he and Vlad approached the group.
"My name's Anya, and these are my friends; Sora, Kairi, Riku, Lea, Isa, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Ven, Terra, Roxas, Xion, Jack, Myde, Skuld and Noctis, and we need travel papers." Anya introduced herself and the group and explained.
Myde then approached Dimitri and whispered, "They say you're the guy for the job, but whomever told us is top-secret." only to realise that Dimitri was circling around Anya, much to the young woman's sudden annoyance.
"Hey, why are you circling me? Wha-What were you, a vulture in another life?" Anya asked, feeling vaguely insulted. Despite needing help, she instantly began to think this man wasn't whom she thought he was and that she wasn't liking him already.
Sora and the others had the same suspicion.
"I'm sorry, Enya." Dimitri said, while saying Anya's name incorrectly.
"It's Anya." Anya corrected.
"Anya." Dimitri said, holding his hands up apologetically, before commenting, "It's just-It's just that you look an awful lot like-" while glancing up at the portrait, which had Sora, Anya and everyone else in their group look up at the painting of the royal family which they didn't notice.
To the worldly traveller's surprise, the youngest girl in the painting...resembled to Anya.
"Uh, nevermind." Dimitri muttered when they turned to look at him, before asking, "Now, you said something about travel papers?"
"Yeah, all of us want to go to Paris." Sora explained, gesturing at himself, his friends and Anya.
Vlad in the meantime, was quickly loving Pooka as he asked at the adorable puppy, "Who is this fellow?" and when Pooka, quickly liking him, licked him on the face, causing the older man to coo, "Oh! Oh, he likes me!"
"Nice dog." Dimitri, not fond of the dog, said dryly, before saying to Anya, "Now, let me ask you something...Anya, was it? There's a last name that goes with that?"
Anya shook her head, "This is gonna sound crazy, but...I don't know my last name. I know it's strange, but I have very few memories of my past."
"Hm...well that's...perfect." Dimitri deadpanned to himself. Great, a girl who he finally found as a definite look-a-like, and the downside to that is that she doesn't even know her last name or even remember much of her past.
"But I do have one clue, and that is Paris." Anya continued, gesturing at her necklace.
"And we're helping to get to Paris to help her find her family." Kairi added.
"Who could be anywhere in Paris for all we know." Jack couldn't help but add, "None the less, it is this young woman's quest to find who her family is who will remind her who of she is in a place where originally once was. Savvy?"
While Sora and most of the worldly travellers shook their heads with slight groans, Noctis, Anya, Dimitri and Vlad gazed at the Pirate with confused and dumbfounded expressions and quirked eye-brows. Whatever Jack had said...sounded more like gibberish to the four of them.
"Jack, you're one of the most weirdest guys I've ever met." Noctis sighed.
"So um, can you help us, Dimitri?" Mickey asked, pretending to ignore what the pirate had mentioned.
Dimitri, suddenly having an idea, beckoned Vlad to show him something, as the older man pulled out three tickets...which really were actually Circus Tickets, while the younger man explained, "Sure would like to. In fact, oddly enough, we're going to Paris ourselves." and as Vlad handed Dimitri the tickets, the younger man continued, "And I got thre-Uh, well, that one isn't...but I've got three tickets here. Unfortunately, the third one is for her."
"Who?" Lea questioned, suspiciously as he crossed his arms. Something about these two guys set him the wrong way. He caught on how Dimitri and Vlad had been making whispers and that, he knew from experience, was always something to watch out for.
"Anastasia." Dimitri answered while gesturing at the portrait, especially to the youngest girl in the painting. He and Vlad then gathered around Anya and dragged her upstairs with Sora and the others quickly following.
"We are doing to reunite the Grand Duchess Anastasia with her grandmother." Vlad explained.
"You do kind of resemble to her, though." Dimitri admitted to Anya, who by now was starting to get a bit more annoyed, and Sora and his group quickly felt the same.
"The same blue eyes." Vlad added.
"The Romanov eyes."
"Nicholas' smile."
"Alexandra's chin."
"She even has the grandmother's hands."
"She's the same age, the same physical type."
Anya rolled her eyes, and while she was a little flattered, asked skeptically to the two men, "Are you two trying to tell me you think that I am Anastasia?"
"All I know is that I seen thousands of girls all over the country. Not one of them looks as much like the Grand Duchess as you. I mean, look at the portraits!" Dimitri explained.
Not buying it, Anya flat out told them, "I knew you were crazy, but now I think you both and Jack are all mad."
"Why not? He does have a point and you do look like her and she in turn looks like you, luv." Jack pointed, hurriedly correcting himself when Anya glared at him, "Anya." a little scaredly.
"Besides, you don't remember who you were." Noctis added.
"No one knows what happened to her." Vlad added.
"You're looking for family in Paris." Dimitri added.
"And her only family is in Paris." Vlad finished.
"Have you ever considered the possibility?" Dimitri asked.
"That I could be royalty?" Anya questioned in return, and Dimitri and Vlad both nodded.
Sora glanced at the others, asking, "Do you think Anya could be the missing Princess?"
"Well, she does look like her." Riku admitted. "The girl in the paintings, I mean."
"What do you think, Anya?" Skuld inquired.
Anya, after a pause, shrugged, "Well, I don't know. It's hard to think you're a Princess when you're sleeping on a damp floor...but sure...yeah, I think every lonely girl would hope she's a Princess."
'Not every girl.' Jack muttered under his breath, as memories of Elizabeth resurfaced...which unfortunately included the ones when she forced him to go into exile from their own world to avoid Davy Jones and the Kracken. In Elizabeth's case, when she was a girl, and due to growing up in a wealthy household, she wanted to meet Pirates and lole and behold, that woman was now a pirate herself.
Kairi shook her head. In her case, while she wasn't born royal, she was a Princess of Heart and a Keyblade wielder.
"And somewhere, one little girl is." Vlad told Anya, "After all, the name Anastasia means, 'she will rise again'." while in the background, un-noticed by everyone else, Dimitri was checking his watch and sighed in exasperation while his friend rambled on.
"Wish we could help, but the third ticket is for Anastasia." Dimitri apologetically said to Anya who sighed in disappointment.
"Hey, what about us?" Donald asked, annoyed.
"Well, maybe when we find her, you can be her royal escorts or bodyguards." Dimitri shrugged as he pulled Vlad back to where they came from, waving at the group, "Good luck."
The group paused, while Anya continued to gaze at the painting.
With Dimitri and Vlad...
"Why didn't you tell them of our brilliant plan?" Vlad whispered.
"All Anya wants to do is go to Paris and those guys with the girls and kids don't strike me as con artist types..except for that Jack guy, but he gives me the creeps." Dimitri whispered in return as they were nearing the lowest floor. "Why give away a bunch of the reward money?"
"I'm telling you! We're walking away too soon." Vlad scolded.
"Not to worry. I've got it all under control. Walk a little slower." Dimitri smiled.
With Sora's group and Anya...
"So...what do you think?" Terra inquired to the group.
"That Dimitri guy just screams suspicious, if you ask me." Myde said with a frown.
"Yeah...I don't trust him one bit." Donald nodded in agreement.
Aqua, while she was in agreement herself, stated, "Even so, he does have a point. Maybe Anya really is the missing Anastasia."
"Yeah, especially since she said earlier that this place is familiar to her." Xion shrugged.
"And considering how the Princess herself had been missing while her grandmother is in Paris...that might be where we should go to help Anya find out who she is." Isa nodded.
"What do you think, Anya?" Sora asked, turning to the young woman who fingered the painting as she was holding Pooka in one arm.
Now that she thought about it, maybe she was Anastasia, and as Dimitri, Vlad and the others had said, Anya did look just like the young girl, only older than the one in the painting. Plus, the Grandmother was in Paris...
Back with Dimitri and Vlad...
"Three...two...one..." Dimitri counted softly.
"Dimitri!" Anya called out.
"Yes!" Dimitri softly cheered at the perfect timing.
"Ha! Right in the palms of our hands." Vlad muttered cheerfully softly.
"Hey, Dimitri! Hold up!" Sora called out as he and his companions followed Anya back to the lowest floor.
"Did you call?" Dimitri asked, as he and Vlad stopped and turned around.
Anya nodded while she made up her mind, "If I don't remember who I am, then who's to say I'm not a princess or a duchess or a whatever she is...Right?"
"Mm-hm...Go on."
"And if she's not Anastasia, the Empress will certainly know right away... and it's all just an honest mistake." Skuld added.
"Sounds plausible." Dimitri agreed, which, in reality, that was a good point.
Vlad then added to Anya, "But, if you are the Princess, you would finally know who you are and have your family back."
"And whether it's a honest mistake or not, both options are in the same place." Noctis shrugged.
"Yeah, and maybe the Empress might help in locating your family if you're not her granddaughter." Sora concluded, with the rest of the group nodded.
Dimitri nodded as well, "You know, they're right. Either way, it gets you to Paris."
"Right!" Anya said, making the agreement as she held a rather tight grip on Dimitri's hand for a solid shake.
"Ow!" Dimitri grunted as he pulled his hand from the woman's grip. Boy, that woman may be skinny, but she surprisingly had a bit of strength. Ignoring the smirks from the group, he then said grandly, "May I present, Her Royal Highness, the Grand Duchess Anastasia?"
"Pooka, guys, we are going to Paris!" Anya declared, and the group nodded with smiles and chuckles, and in Myde, Donald, Goofy and Sora's cases, cheered.
"Sora and the others came come, but uh, the dog stays." Dimitri quickly said.
"What do you mean? The dog goes." Anya argued.
"The dog does not go."
"I say he goes."
"I'm allergic to dogs."
"Didn't see or hear you sneeze when you were close up to the little guy." Lea pointed out.
"I don't see what the problem is in having the doggy to come along." Jack shrugged slightly.
Mickey, while patting Pooka, agreed, "I agree. Pooka is a very friendly little fella."
While the group were having the conversation and Dimitri and Anya arguing over Pooka's behalf, from the ceiling above the group, a small white albino bat was watching them and having heard what was going on. Next to him was a reliquary that had a demon patten on it. Inside the glass was green glowing mist.
"Anastasia?" The bat asked, before saying to the group despite knowing that they wouldn't hear him. "Just one problem there, fellas. Anastasia's dead. All the Romanovs are dead. They're dead! Dead dead dead!"
As he talked, the bat was unaware that the green mist glowed brighter and a demon-like spirit hovered over next to him, before he asked when he vaguely noticed it's pressence. "Am I right, my friend? I mean, how can that be Ana..."
He cut himself off immediately when he realised who was talking to and the demon-like evil expression caused him to scream in fright, "WAAHH!" and jumped and yelped in fear when he noticed more evil spirits appearing and nearly fell off the ledge, but managed to save himself.
Calming down, the bat then sighed as he pulled himself back up, "Oh, come on. Am I supposed to believe that thing woke up after ten years just because some guy claims she's a Romanov?" and flinched when the spirits came on floating around.
Not wanting to see anymore of these ghosts, the bat exclaimed, "Okay, okay! I get the message! Enough already, with the glowing and the smoke-people."
Thankfully, the spirits stopped appearing, but then a thought began to occure to the bat, as he muttered, beginning to believe that whatever it meant about the girl Dimitri was claiming to be Anastasia, "If that thing's come back to life, that means...Anastasia's alive!"
He spun around to get a better look at Anya who made her point that Pooka was going and she, the worldly travellers, Dimitrai and Vlad were preparing to leave to catch the train. Now that the bat got a good looke at Anya, he realised that she did strongly resemble to the Princess, only having grown up into a young woman.
It was her. Anya is Anastasia!
Suddenly, the reliquary sprung to life, much to the bat's fright. To make things worse, as it began to float, his foot got caught on the string part and to his dismay, he was suddenly pulled down to the floor after the group had left the ballroom.
"Mayday! Mayday!" The white bat cried out, and was pulled through the floor and into the ground and it didn't stop there. He had no idea where the reliquary was taking him or where it was going, but the ride was quite painful; first he nearly drowned, then nearly buried, then eletrocuted, and then nearly burnt when he was riden over lava, and he wanted it to stop, crying out for help along the way.
He even passed the Realm of Darkness and came close in getting snatched by the Heartless which gave the bat the bigger creeps. He soon found himself in a strange murky-blue water-like realm with floating rock spheres and landed into one with a hard crash, which briefly shook the sphere.
Freed from the reliquary which carefully dropped onto the floor, the bat rubbed his sore face, muttering to himself, "Oh, boy...Ow! I'll tell you what...ow."
He didn't have time to look around the cave-like sphere when the bat suddenly felt that he wasn't alone, and he was right.
"WHO DARES INTRUDE ON MY SOLITUDE?!" A man's voice bellowed, which belonged to an old man with a long black beard and hair with a redish-dark brown robe. He kicked a slab a stone that shattered and demanded the bat, "GET OUT!" and grasped him to crush him.
But the instant he got a very close up look to the bat, the man immediately released him as he recongised who the bat was, the anger he felt switched to relief as he asked nostalgically, "Bartok? Is that you?"
Bartok, relieved to have not been crushed to death, fell off the man's hand and back onto the rock that acted as a table, and when he got a better look of the man, his eyes widened in disbelief for the second time in less than an hour today.
"Master Rasputin? You're alive!?" Bartok asked, never having thought he'd see the man whom he came to know as his master again, especially after ten years. Last he saw him was the man, known for his powerful sorcerery and having cursed the Romanov family to death ten years ago, had drowned when the ice in the frozen river gave way due to his weight.
"Yeah, in a matter of speaking!" Rasputin scoffed as Bartok climbed onto his beard, and when he said 'speaking', his right eye popped out and landed into Bartok's hands.
"Whoa! That fell right out there, sir." Bartok commented, while cringing in disgust at how slimy the eye-ball was. It didn't take him long to realise that, despite looking exactly the same, Rasputin was indeed dead, and obviously falling apart. He was under a curse himself.
"Something's happened." Rasputin muttered as he sensed something, while snatching his eyeball from the bat and put it back into his socket. He felt a familiar sense lurking and because he was a sorcerer, he knew why. Plus, with Bartok suddenly here, it was starting to make sense. "I knew it. I can fell the Darkness stirring."
"I'm not surprised, because I saw her; Anastasia." Bartok explained.
That surprised and angered Rasputin, and as he asked in disbelief, "Anastasia? Alive!?" his lips slid off and stopped halfway on the beard...much to Bartok's discomfort.
"Uh, sir. Your lips, they're, um..." Bartok muttered, awkwardly.
"That Romanvo brat!" Rasputin spat, remembering that day, when he tried to kill the child, she managed to escape while he sank into the ice and drowned.
Bartok nodded in agreement, and while he placed Rasputin's lips back at it's rightful place, he said, "Ain't that a kick in the head? I guess darkness just ain't what it used to be, huh sir?"
"That's why I'm stuck here in limbo and not in the Realm of Darkness!" Rasputin continued to rant, "My curse is unfufilled!"
But as the evil sorcerer strected out his arms strongly, his left hand flew right off his arm, taking Bartok with it as both crashed into the wall before crashing onto the floor with a thud. Quickly seeing what happened, Rasputin gasped in pure horror and dismay, waving his right hand over where his left hand was meant to be and then began to sob dramatically.
"Look at me...I'm falling apart!" Rasputin groaned and sobbed as he collasped onto a rock. "I'M A WRECK!" He declared as he fell flat onto his back on the rock, his head hanging slightly over the edge, sobbing away.
"Actually, considering how long you've been dead, you look pretty good." Bartok pointed out as he heaved and carried his master's hand over to it's owner. Rasputin sadly scoffed while waving him off. "Sir, you do! You do!"
"Really?" The man asked, brightening up a little as it somehow made him feel better already.
"Sir, is this a face of a bat who would lie to you?" Bartok asked, while putting up a cute face. "Come on! For a minute there, you had your old spark back!"
That was a good point. Feeling a little bit better, there was another problem that angered Rasputin, especially since he was powerless to finish off what he started, "If only I hadn't lost that gift from the dark forces...the key to my powers...!"
"What? You mean this reliquary?" Bartok asked, as he also pulled up the said item and Rasputin's hand.
When he looked, Rasputin gasped in disbelief and hope. "Where did you get that?"
"Oh, I found it-"
"Give it to me!" Rasputin cut the bat off as he snatched the reliquary while startling Bartok.
"Alright, alright! Don't get so grabby!" Bartok muttered, flinching a little.
While Rasputin then screwed his hand back onto his arm, he held his restored reliquary and powers close, "My old friend, together again." and laughed evilly. This was it; this was his chance he waited for so long.
"Now, my dark purpose will be fulfilled! And the last of the Romanovs will DIE!" Rasputin declared, as a bolt of dark lightning surged under his command and nearly shocked Bartok who was blown off the rock and onto the ground.
"Good thing she doesn't remember who she is." Bartok groaned, rubbing the back of his head.
"So she also survived amnesia? Excellent!" Rasputin sneered, before he and Bartok suddenly sensed that they had unexpected company, before the former demanded to his right, "Who goes there!?"
The uninvited visitor walked from around the corner with a smirk as he spoke, "My apologises. Did I interrupt something?"
Unknown to the two, it was Arydn.
"I don't remember this guy!" Bartok muttered nervously as he climbed back onto the rock.
"How dare you intrude!?" Rasputin demanded to Arydn.
"My humble apologises. I came to my own accord and I must say, you and I share comman sense of revenge. Allow me to introduce myself: Ardyn Izunia." Arydn replied.
"Comman sense in revenge, you say?" Rasputin inquired, glaring at the man.
"I couldn't help but over-hear what you said. Well, unfortunately, there's a bit of a flaw in your plot." Arydn continued, "You see, the Princess whom you wish to kill, is among many others; young warriors of special powers of Light; a group of sixteen."
Bartok blinked in confusion as he remembered seeing Sora and his friends. "What? Those kids, and guys that were with Anastasia? What's so special about teenagers, a mouse, a dog, a duck, four guys, one woman and a pirate?"
Arydn shook his head, saying with a serious frown this time, "They will get in the way in defeating the darkness. Especially to keep the Princess alive. Actually, they do are my enemies, especially the one who joined them recently; he too is royalty, and like you, I have been banished long ago."
"Why should I trust you?" Rasputin inquired with suspicion.
"Because one certain boy has brought all those people he is with now back from the darkness; his name is Sora, and he is destined to protect the Light. He and his friends are needed to be exposed and killed. So if I were you, I'd get rid of them as well." Arydn explained.
Despite his distrust in the man, Rasputin had made the mistake of underestimating the Romanovs, especially now that he was aware of Anastasia's survival. And if Arydn was telling the truth about this 'Sora' and his companions, the sorcerer would rather be safe than sorry.
"Fine. But if I discover you have lied, I will destroy you!" Rasputin warned, before chanting at the reliquary while a series of the green spirits came flowing out, "Find Anastasia, Sora and these people, and KILL THEM!"
The Spirits, as commanded, flew out above and into the darkness back into the Realm of Light to the world of Romanov Empire.
The following morning, the train, with an engine blowing its whistle, and carrying Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Ventus, Terra, Aqua, Skuld, Myde, Jack, Noctis, Dimitri, Anya, Pooka, and Vladmir, chugs through the beautiful snow covered countryside, leaving the city of St. Petersburg behind. The mighty locomotive is plowing up huge furrows of snow as it steams toward its intended destination; Paris.
In one of the seating-rooms of the carriage that was carrying passengers, Lea stretched out his arms as he yawned as he sat in one of the seats, before placing his hands behind his head. Luckily this time around, he and everyone else all had tickets and were now on way to Paris itself.
"At least the seats are nice and comfy." Lea commented.
"And the scenery's beautiful too, especially in winter." Xion added as she gazed out at the window, watching the snow and trees pass by.
"So, we should be in Paris by tomorrow, right?" Roxas asked.
"It's what Dimitri had said." Isa nodded in agreement. "I still have my doubts on that man, however."
Lea nodded, "Yeah, somethin' about him and Vlad...I'm not too sure. Then again, whatever results that may be, at least it's getting Anya to where she wants to be, right?"
Meanwhile, Noct and Jack had finished helping Dimitri get their luggage up before the they found their seats. Jack sat on the seat next to Vlad, while Noctis sat next to door on the seat Anya was on. Dimitri tried to sit next to the pirate, only to be growled off by Pooka who had been there first.
"Mutt gets the window seat." Dimitri dryly commented, before taking a seat between Noctis and Anya.
"Once it got there, the dog is never going to move." Jack shook his head.
"Who asked you? You've ever been near dogs before?" Dimitri asked, glaring at him.
"'Course I have. Dogs never been my enemy, and I actually like dogs." Jack nodded, before cringing as memories of a certain rodent came to mind. "It's monkeys and toads that I don't like."
"What's a monkey ever done to you?" Noctis asked, smirking a little as he made himself comfortable.
Jack shuddered, "What hasn't a monkey not do? Especially one that belonged to a man who you don't want to meet. That little flea-bag would steal everything on sight and jump out on you to scare your wits off."
"That's no way to speak to the Princess." Dimitri scolded, before turning to scold Anya who was fiddling with her necklace, "And stop fiddling with that thing, and sit up straight! Remember, you're a Grand Duchess."
Anya glared back while folding her arms, questioning, "How is it that you know what Grand Duchesses do or don't do?"
"I make my businesses, you know."
"You sound just like a friend of mine everytime I refuse to eat my vegetables." Noctis rolled his eyes.
"How appropitate." Anya said, sarcastically.
Dimitri sighed, saying, "Look, Anya. I'm just trying to help, alright?"
Both Jack and Vlad begged to differ, as the two men shared a skeptical look before rolling their eyes while making humming noises that sounded suspiciously like, 'Riiiiiight.'
"Dimitri, do you really think I'm royalty?" Anya asked.
"You know I do." The man replied charmingly.
"Then stop bossing me around!" She snapped before turning away, leaving Dimitri with a look of a slightly disgusted and dumbfounded expression of shock, while the other three men laughed.
"Way to fall for that trick." Noctis chuckled with a smug grin.
"She certainly has a mind of her own." Vlad muttered with a grin to Dimirti.
Jack nodded and added, "All women do, and they're all difficult to understand."
Anya sticked out her tongue childishly to the pirate most of the men didn't notice.
"Yeah, I hate that in a woman." Dimitri grumbled, and this time Anya stuck out her tongue at him and turned back before he even noticed.
Vlad continued to smirk as he then secretly wrote in the book he was holding, pulling out a piece of paper over the travel papers, making a mark which had Anya and Dimitri's names on it, revealling lines on who was out-witting who, and at the moment, Anya was already way ahead of Dimirti.
A few hours passed, Sora and the others were venturing around the carriage out of boredom when the group, and Vlad who had come out with Pooka, heard two familiar voices from one of the seating rooms...and it appeared to be aguring.
"-What?" Came Dimitri's voice from within.
"Oh, just forget it! Urrgh!" Anya's voice growled.
Glancing at each other, Sora, Riku and Vlad slid the door open and entered, with Dimitri having his arms folded to his chest and gazing out at the window, while Anya noticed the three and sighed.
"Oh, thank goodness it's you three. Just please remove him from my sight!" Anya snapped while the group didn't see Dimitri mocking and mimicking her silently.
"What did you do?" Sora demanded to Dimitri.
"Yes, what have you done to her?" Vlad added.
"Surely she's angry 'cause you did something." Riku finished.
"Me?" Dimitri demanded, before pointing at the woman, "It's her!"
"HA!" She scoffed with her arms in the air before storming out, not even acknowlaging the rest of the group who backed up a little.
Sharing looks, Aqua then opened the door and asked, "What was that about?" even though Sora and Riku both silently pointed at Dimitri who didn't even notice.
"Oh, no! An unspoken attraction?" Vlad muttered off-handly while playing with Pooka.
"ATTRACTION!? For THAT skinny little brat? Have you lost your mind!?" Dimitri snapped before storming out now himself, passing the group who split ouf the way to make path.
"He wasn't talking to you!" Sora snapped at the retreating man, but by then, Dimitri was already gone, going into the opposite direction that Anya took.
"Attraction? Ridiculous!" Dimitri muttered madly to himself.
Very annoyed, Sora rolled his eyes and muttered even though he knew Dimitri wouldn't hear him, "Hmph! Whatever!"
Meanwhile, crashing through brittle limbs, as they navigate their way toward the train and the suspecting travelers, Rasputin's spirits catching up with the train, and as they rocket beneath the train and the engine, Rasputin's green minions leave a wake of flames on the tracks behind them. The spirits, now tiny little green demons, crawl all over the train engine and enters its boiler, and when it starts to overheat, the engine glows red, speeds up, and rattles as if it is about to fall apart.
Unaware of the dangers as it was getting late, while the worldly travellers and Anya were resting and/or sleeping, Vlad was passing by other passengers, all of them showing off their passports.
"The travelling papers were blue, now they're red." One passenger was saying.
When Vlad glanced at his after he heard this, he yelped in horror and panic, before hurrying towards where he knew Dimitri was. When the older man closed the door behind him, he muttered to the younger man, "It's what I hate about this government. Everything's in red."
"Red!?" Dimitri exclaimed softly. Just great; now they were in trouble because their travel papers were outdated.
"I propose we get the others and move to the baggage car, quickly, before the guards come." Vlad muttered worriedly, as Dimitri handed him a baggage.
"I propose we get off this train." Dimitri replied.
In one seating room, Pooka noticed something unusual and began barking at the window, which woke up Jack and Noctis who'd both been sleeping. Groggily, the two men sat up and noticed something green and strange outside.
When the three of them peered out at the window, one of the demon spirits got up to the window and made a wide-scary grin that scared them to the floor.
"WHOA!" Noctis cried out, while Pooka whimpered and hid behind him.
"AAHHH!" Jack shrieked.
"What the hell was that!?" The younger man breathed, his heart hammering in his chest.
"Demon Spirit." Jack muttered, horrified.
By then, Mickey came in running and said worriedly, "I heard screams. What happened?"
"You don't want to know." Noctis and Jack both said in unison.
"Well, Dimitrai and Vlad said we gotta move." The king told the two men who glanced at each other before they and Pooka got up and followed him out, along with Sora and the rest of the group, the worldly travellers and Anya who didn't know what was going on.
"Where are we going?" Skuld asked, confused.
"Anya, you broke my nose!" Dimitri was whining, as apparently Anya had hit him squarely in the face when he tried to wake her up from her sleep.
"You sure screamed loudly like a girl." Noctis couldn't help but comment at Jack who looked insulted.
"I did not." The pirate pouted.
"Did too."
"Did not!"
"Did too."
"Did not!"
"Did too, did too!" Noctis grinned.
Anya rolled her eyes, whispering to herself in exasperation, "Men are such babies."
The group were strongly unaware, however, of the dangers that were about to put their lives at risk.
A/N: I know that it's slow in this chapter, but I will try to make fight scenes in the next chapter. In the meantime, Kelsey Grammer, who voiced Vlad in the Anastasia movie, also voiced the Prospector(Stinky Pete) in Toy Story 2.
See you in the next chapter!
