Chapter 35: Infiltration
Riku and Mickey never knew what really happened: one minute, they were fighting a few eight-foot Nobodies. The next minute, they were in an alleyway that could have been miles away from where they started.
"You draw too much attention to yourself." A voice said.
Riku turned in surprise and summoned the Way to Dawn only to meet an odd weapon of sorts. It looked sort of like a sword, but its hilt was slightly longer and its blade slightly shorter. It all-in-all looked like a cross between a short sword and a small polearm.
The figure holding this weapon was a man clad in dark armor. Riku could tell it was a man by his broad-shouldered build. At first glance, one would probably mistake him for a Heartless with the bright eyes, blue tracings on the armor's outlines, and the fearsome-looking horns and spikes.
"Who are you?" Riku asked, his voice on edge.
"Lower your weapon." The man ordered, "I mean you no harm."
Riku hesitated, then heaved a reluctant sigh and lowered Way to Dawn. The man sheathed his lance, then spoke again.
"My name is Cecil Harvey: secret agent of Radiant Garden." He introduced, "I was on my way back, but my warp drive malfunctioned and I ended up here. Now that I think about it, I think it's a good thing I landed here."
Riku suddenly realized that this Cecil guy was trying to save this world. And, guessing that Cecil had been here a rather long time, Riku took a leap of faith and asked a question.
"Do you have any idea where everyone is?"
Cecil nodded. "Yes. Thanks to this armor, the Heartless almost pass me off as one of their own."
Mickey hummed, as though getting the picture. "I can understand why."
"Didn't you hear me say 'almost'?" Cecil asked, though he was oddly patient with his statement, "I can go undetected by them as long as I stay like this. But I can only harm them in a way that WILL get their attention."
Riku thought it over in his head. So, when this guy COULD harm the Heartless, he'd be detected and outnumbered thousands to one.
"Back to the problem at hand; the townsfolk are all indoors, hiding from the Heartless. The ocean-dwellers, I believe, are hiding in deeper water." Cecil said, getting back to business, "And, from what I've seen in the Heartless behavior, they're the most numerous near that castle."
Cecil pointed to a white castle in the distance, which was crawling with Heartless like some kind of parasites. Then Riku remembered a certain sea-witch that was here the last time he and his friends paid Atlantica a visit.
"Morgana…"
"What?" Cecil asked.
"Morgana." Riku repeated, "I've been here before and she was the one controlling the Heartless. If we find her, we can take care of these Heartless much easier."
"I had that idea for a while, but with security of this scale, it is anything BUT easy to get in." Cecil explained, "But maybe two people have a better chance of getting in than one…"
"Well, you can kinda count me out." Mickey said, downheartedly, "I can't really fight in this form unless I'm underwater."
Riku thought about the situation. King Mickey had a point; flippers, though excellent to have in water, were a handicap on land.
"Okay, your Majesty, you can sit this one out. But maybe you should try to find Depth and give him a hand." Riku suggested.
On receiving a nod from Mickey, Cecil lifted a hand and a portal of darkness appeared in front of Mickey. Slightly surprised, Mickey got over it in no time and crawled into it. The water awaited him, after all…
"Now that he's in his natural element, I'll warp us to the castle as close as I can." Cecil said, then formed a dark portal in front of them.
"Wait, you have a limit?" Riku asked, a bit confused.
"Unfortunately." Cecil answered, "Something in the castle can see me if I try to warp in and block me with a horde of Heartless. So, stealth is our best option…"
With that, Cecil disappeared into the portal and Riku ALMOST followed. The reason being that, a split-second later, Cecil came out with a coat of sorts in hand. It looked similar to the one that DiZ gave him long ago, only it was gray instead of black.
"Take this." Cecil said, throwing it to Riku, "I can't imagine that walking around in just a pair of shorts can be comfortable."
Riku looked himself over and realized that Cecil was right. This WAS uncomfortable.
"Good point."
Mickey found himself back in the water and the fact that he could move much easier down here made it feel good to be on land. To test his newfound maneuverability, he did a few backflips in the water and propelled himself with a simple movement of his back flippers.
Wanting to test a little more, he summoned his Keyblade in his flipper and took a few swings. He could fight like this in no time flat…because water was where a seal felt most at home.
"Well, that certainly…"
CRASH!
Mickey started and turned to the source of the noise. Not seeing much, he swam up to the surface and looked around.
What he saw surprised him.
A purple-haired, shark-toothed man with a star-blade of sorts was currently hopping from rock-to-rock. He would occasionally thrust one of the blades of his weapon into the water. The next second, the man would jump off the rock which would explode into pebbles.
Wanting a better explanation, Mickey submerged again and took another look around. He saw the source in no time.
Depth now had a new Keyblade. The Omega symbol, rather than form sharp teeth of the Keyblade, had now formed a bone-crushing, axe-like blade on the top with electricity pulsing around it…which he was using to chase Xiklub.
"Oh, THIS is far longer than a second, wouldn't you say?" Xiklub asked with a cackle, "Guess I'm stronger than you originally figured."
SMASH! Depth had swung his Keyblade at the rock, shattering it into tiny, little pebbles
"Not quite." Depth deadpanned, "I'm barely even trying."
Mickey then got a closer look at Depth and saw that a crimson tattoo was patterned onto his bald head, the bottom part of the symbol ending at his eyebrows.
"THUNDAGA!" he shouted as he brought the blade of his new Key down. A disc of raw energy flew out of the swing's arc…but was blocked by Xiklub's hand.
"Don't you know that magnetism and electricity are closely related?" the berserker asked as the disc dissipated in his palm, "Blocking it is all too easy."
"How about this, then?"
Xiklub turned at the squeaky voice, then raised his star blade to block Mickey's oncoming Keyblade. The mouse-turned-seal had sprung out of the water like a dolphin and took a swing at the bulky Nobody. However, Xiklub's star blade immediately came to block the blow and swing it out of Mickey's mouth. He then swung his other blade…only for it to be intercepted by Depth's Keyblade.
"How about I show you what this thing can REALLY do?!" Depth snarled as he stabbed with his blade. Xiklub blocked, but energy began to gather in the Keyblade's tip, "Did you think my Keyblade can ONLY use Thundaga? It's just my preference. I CAN use other spells with it. FIRAGA!"
A burst of fire the size of a watermelon erupted from the Keyblade and sent Xiklub into the water as a smoking wreck. He resurfaced only in time to see Depth speeding towards him. The manta-man pulled back his blade and slammed it as hard as he could into Xiklub, who could only raise his star blade to block.
The sheer impact of the Omega Weapon sent Xiklub rocketing backward. The Nobody flew back faster than a bullet and proceeded to smash into the rocky shore with a more-than-audible CRASH.
As Depth remained in his position, panting from exhaustion, he cracked a smile…until the dust from Xiklub's impact settled. Xiklub, though heavily injured, was still alive. Using his star blade as leverage, Xiklub heaved himself up to his feet.
"Hehehehe…" the Bloodlust Soldier wheezed, "Well…that was-hehe-most impressive. And, as fun as it would be to continue this fight, I think it would be even better if I was at full strength. So…until next time, playmate."
And with a vortex of darkness, Xiklub had vanished entirely.
Depth grunted in disdain, then turned to face King Mickey as the Omega tattoo faded from his brow and the Omega Weapon returned to its original form.
"What was that?" Mickey asked.
Mickey didn't get a response as Depth closed his eyes and began to slowly descend towards the bottom of the ocean. Mickey immediately sped towards Depth's drifting form and caught him. How the mouse was able to hold up a guy almost five times his size…even he didn't know.
"What could cause him to just pass out like that?" Mickey asked. From what he heard, Depth was probably one of the toughest people in the Keyblade Order. Passing out for him was pretty much the definition of impossible.
Depth was certainly going to do some explaining when he woke up.
Riku and Cecil emerged from the portal and saw that they were just a football-field away from the Castle.
"My apologies, but this is as far as I can get to the castle." Cecil apologized, "Any further and the source of these Heartless will spot me."
"Don't worry," Riku assured, "Knowing the Heartless, we could get past them with ease…"
Riku turned the corner of a cottage and found, to his surprise, that the Heartless seemed prepared for all this. A new kind had emerged from the shadows.
The most noticeable feature about these Heartless were their eyes, which were the size of car headlights. Their heads were also abnormally large and a light from their large eyes made them seem like some kind of searchlight. Their bodies, however, were thin and spindly. Obviously these guys weren't meant to fight so much as they were to detect and alert.
These were known as Searcher Heartless.
"Care to rephrase that?" Cecil asked, obviously irritated by this all-too sudden change of events.
Riku didn't answer, instead, running across the hall, ducking behind a wall as one of the Searchers walked past. Its searchlight-esque eyes roamed past the wall. Upon not seeing anything, it continued on its way. Riku then motioned for Cecil to follow him. Cecil quickly darted across the room.
"What is this?" Cecil asked, "A cheap, video-game knock-off?"
"Funny you should ask." Riku simply said, but the two soon took off as a Searcher's lamp-like eyes moved away.
The two began to catch their breath as they hid behind another pillar. Unfortunately, they didn't know that this pillar was on the path of one of the Searchers.
"Oh, CRAP!" Riku swore as one rounded the corner and saw it.
Immediately, its eyes turned red and it began to emit a strange, whistling noise. Before it could get much further than that, Cecil pulled back his polearm and threw it like a javelin. The weapon whistled through the air and impaled the Heartless, causing it to vanish in a puff of smoke and the whistling ended.
"Well, it's a safe guess that Morgana knows we're here." Cecil said, grimly, then summoned his lance back in his hand.
The two exchanged looks that pretty much said the same thing: 'THIS is gonna be tough…'. They then continued on their way.
Mickey gasped as he got above water, barely managing to keep Depth from sinking. He made an almighty heave and managed to get his body onto the beach, but keeping Depth in as much water as possible in the shallows. Depth emitted a low grumble before slowly opening his eyes. He shot up and tried to struggle, but (considering he didn't have feet) simply flailed around.
"WHA-WHERE AM I?!" he roared as he pulled out his Keyblade.
"Depth, CALM DOWN." Mickey said, trying to do persuade the future Keywielder to do just that.
Depth took a deep breath before his facial features, once again, became solid as rock.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You fought Xiklub and passed out." Mickey replied, "But…why did that happen? Your Keyblade was different and you had a tattoo on your face. What was with that?"
Depth kept his gaze on Mickey, then answered, "Now's not the time to explain that."
"So, I trust that you'll explain later?" Mickey asked.
"MUCH later." Depth deadpanned, "NOW, we've gotta find that piece of map."
"Riku and someone named Cecil went to get it." Mickey reported.
"Perfect." Depth murmured. He knew that he and Mickey had no hand in this
Cecil ran another Heartless through with his lance as Riku sliced another in half with Way to Dawn. The two had barely made it into the castle, hoping things would be easier.
They hadn't counted on these Searchers being IN the castle as well as OUTSIDE it.
"Y'know, I don't think our job's getting any easier." Cecil grunted.
"Considering that Heartless went off, I didn't think you'd be surprised." Riku muttered. He shot a Dark Firaga at another Heartless as it appeared, "How far are we from the main throne room?"
"It should probably be just down the hall." Cecil replied.
The two then walked down and opened the door. But both kept a good hand on their weapons
"What? No Heartless?" Cecil asked, though he was obviously relieved.
"Don't be so sure of that, boys." Replied a familiar voice. The two were facing a familiar, green sea witch. She smirked before saying, "Well, well. Glad to see you've returned, Riku."
"Feeling's not so mutual." Riku replied. He pulled out his Keyblade as he asked, "One thing's still bugging me—how'd you manage to take over? I thought that trident would keep you at bay."
"Well…let's just say that I had some help." Morgana replied, "That sadist in the cloak for one."
"Sadist in a cloak?" Riku asked before sudden realization dawned on his face, "You mean you got help from the Seekers?"
"Riku, what're you talking about?" Cecil asked, his grip not weakening on his weapon.
"You're right, honey." Morgana replied, "Not that it will help you. I've found something interesting…"
Morgana stretched out her hand and a small group of Shadow Heartless appeared. At first, Riku and Cecil thought it was something they could take out in no time…
But then something new happened.
The jittery, little Heartless distorted and molded together, becoming like a giant churning orb of black liquid. For a few tense moments, Riku and Cecil could only watch in shock, and then the unthinkable happened: tendrils of the darkmatter shot out, attached to Morgana's body and began to slowly suck out the dark matter."
"That Nobody showed me a lot…like how I can MERGE my body with the Heartless!" Morgana boasted as the dark matter turned her green skin black.
"That's sick…" Cecil said, feeling oddly nauseous.
Morgana, her transformation complete, looked herself over and decided to test something. With just a mere thought, her arm pulsed and sprouted eight tentacles similar to those of a squid.
"KILL THEM!" she ordered.
"Not good…" Cecil growled.
A tentacle of darkmatter lashed out at him and the dark knight's reflexes were enough to jump over a tentacle in one bound. He spun his lance, then brought it down hard on the appendage, but much to his disdain and knowledge, he did no damage whatsoever.
Riku quickly got in front of him, parrying another tentacle of darkness with Way to Dawn. He chopped at it with all his might, barely doing any scratch.
"Silly boy." Morgana taunted, "My arm is pure darkness and the way you use it, you can't do anything against it."
More tentacles followed Riku as he slashed, wildly. Nothing he did seemed to get through them, a hack like an axe or a slash like a samurai sword, NOTHING did anything to them.
Morgana tried to sweep the ground to trip them up, but Riku jumped over it, as did Cecil. Cecil then brought his foot slamming into the ground as purple flame engulfed the immediate area around him.
The flames scorched the tentacles, but like last time, they proved ineffective against such concentrated darkness. And by the time Cecil realized this mistake, he was halfway across the room as a tentacle of shadow swatted him across the room.
Riku, an idea springing to his mind, reached into a pouch and pulled out one of the Summon Charms that Mandy had supplied them with: the one with a robotic face on it.
"BUMBLEBEE!" he shouted.
In a flash of light and the roar of an engine, a yellow 2008 Camarro with racing stripes rode in. In a burst of moving parts, it shifted into a twelve-foot-tall robot. Bumblebee held up his fists, then picked up Riku and placed him on its shoulder.
Cannons emerged from Bumblebee's shoulder and his hand also turned into a blaster of sorts. Bumblebee aimed his arm-cannon and fired a burst of energy at Morgana and, to everyone's surprise, the cannon actually did something. It blew a piece of darkness off her, revealing her true self underneath it.
Morgana lashed out with a tentacle, but Bumblebee jumped clean into the air and performed a complex leap over the lashing tendril: a feat that was amazing, especially for a giant like this. When Bumblebee came down, he blasted one tentacle, putting a sizeable wound in it and crushed another one with his foot.
As Morgana began a series of whip-like attacks, Bumblebee rolled across the ground and upon finishing it, he turned into a flurry of shifting parts. When the shifting ended, he was back in his Camarro form with Riku in the driver's seat. And the Autobot was speeding past a barrage of whiplashes.
Bumblebee shifted back into his robot form, then took a hold of Riku and took careful aim before lobbing him at Morgana. Bumblebee, at possibly the worst of times, saluted and made his exit back to his homeworld.
Riku flew through the air like a missile, then pulled back his fist before driving it into Morgana's face.
At that point, he realized that what he was doing was both brave AND stupid. The punch had done absolutely nothing to her darkened form.
"Slow learner, aren't we?" Morgana asked, then smirked as more tentacles sprung up to wrap themselves around Riku's arms, legs, midsection, and neck "You and your friend have focused so much on just one path to travel. You only used that path, but when you met someone who's so far advanced into darkness, you're clearly outmatched."
She tightened her grip on Riku's neck, causing him to strain in pain. She then brought him in closer and asked, "Now, this would be an ideal time to surrender.
"I hate to ruin this moment," Morgana turned to meet the dark form of Cecil, who was still standing and was currently sheathing his lance. "But Darkness isn't the only path I've wandered…"
Cecil held up a hand and suddenly vanished in a burst of light, causing both Riku and Morgana to shield their eyes. When the light cleared, a new form stood before them, causing both of them to stare in surprise.
The dark-armored figure was now gone, instead replaced with a young man with flowing, white hair, somewhat-pale skin, and pearly-white armor complete with a cape. The lance was mysteriously absent, instead replaced with a dazzling sword.
THIS was a completely new thing. At least, that was what Riku thought. And at that point, he realized what Cecil had meant by 'having a method to kill them'.
"I wield the great balance of Light and Darkness." Cecil explained.
The knight twirled his sword, then flew forward faster than the eye could perceive and proceeded to cut through the dark tentacles binding Riku like a butcher knife through a tortilla. sliced at a tentacle, severing it in an instant.
Morgana cried out in surprise and looked up at Cecil, who was now suspended in the air, cape flowing behind him, despite there not being any wind.
"Care to try again, Riku?" Cecil asked.
Riku nodded, then called out, "CECIL!"
"Beneath the Light…" Cecil grabbed Riku's forearm, then sent him rocketing at Morgana, or at least behind her. Riku, for some reason, was actually flying in a manner similar to Cecil.
Both made their move as they raced at Morgana from opposite sides.
"Darkness!" Riku said, then both made their move.
Riku jammed Way to Dawn into Morgana as wreaths of dark fire flowed from his body and washed her over.
"COMES JUDGMENT!" Cecil roared.
"WRAITH OF ANGUISH!" Riku added.
The Dark flame coiled down Morgana's body like a serpent, and when it reached the floor, Cecil dove at Morgana, dragging her enlarged, Heartless-powered form into the air. One last move of his shining blade was enough to send her careening out the window.
Morgana flew out of the castle, her Heartless form dissipating like a deactivated Barrier, and landed in the ocean. The sea witch shook the cobwebs out of her head, but was just about to find some place to plot revenge when someone spoke up.
"I WOULD attack,"
Morgana turned in surprise to see a bald manta-ray guy standing right in front of her. And the fact that he was close enough to punch her helped nothing.
"But my previous scrap took a lot out of me." Depth stated, "So, someone else will be willing to do the honors…?"
"Wha?"
That was all Morgana had to say because the Manta moved to the side as a small, black seal came rushing up to her with a Keyblade in its flipper. Said seal spoke, which would have been odd to anyone. But in Atlantica, talking sea creatures were not the least bit rare.
"LIGHT!"
A beam of light shot from the Keyblade's tip and hit Morgana full in the face before sending her flying out of the water and landing far, FAR away. Mickey sighed as he dismissed his Keyblade. Depth just snorted.
He could've sent her farther.
Back at the castle, Riku and Cecil were searching the castle grounds. If there were any prisoners or people in hiding here, they had to know of Morgana's defeat.
"Hello?" Riku called, "Anyone here?"
Cecil, on the other hand, kept a wary eye on the hallways they were passing. If there was an enemy in hiding or a small clue as to where these people were hiding, it would need immediate attention.
Cecil's eyes suddenly fell on something dead ahead: a doorway that was slightly ajar.
"Over there." Cecil said, catching Riku's attention.
Riku noticed the jarred door then slowly approached it. He opened it, then made his way inside, ready for anything that could be on the other side.
Cecil kept his sword at the ready, until Riku came out with a red-haired woman, slung over his shoulder in exhaustion.
"It's okay." Riku said, coaxing the woman, "Everything's gone now." Upon seeing Cecil's curious expression, he quickly explained, "This is the real queen of this world: Ariel. Morgana had captured her when she took the kingdom."
Cecil sheathed his sword, then asked, "Is she okay?"
"Yeah. Morgana had been starving her, but she should be fine in due time." Riku answered, "There are others in that room. Maybe you should take care of them…"
"Right away." Cecil said with a nod, then headed into the room.
POHPOHPOHPOHPOHPOHPOHPOHPOHP OH
A few minutes later, Ariel and her husband Eric were freed along with their daughter Melody.
"Thank you very much, Riku." Ariel said with a nod, "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come back."
"We're in your debt for this." Eric added, "Twice now, you've saved us."
"Hey, give some credit to Cecil here." Riku said, jerking his head to the knight, "He helped us get this far."
Cecil kneeled, a gesture of honor, then said, "All in the safety of you, your people, and your land."
Riku was about to get his friend back up when his Keyblade suddenly jerked to the right. In no time, it had shifted to the gilded Treasure Seeker and had pointed out a window that gave a viewpoint to the ocean.
"What's going on?!" Ariel exclaimed.
A beam of light flew from the Treasure Seeker's tip and struck a giant clam out in the great ocean of the world. The bivalve slowly opened up and a piece of parchment flew out of its mouth, racing along the light like a puppet on a line.
The minute it came within reach of Riku's arm, the dark-wielder caught it in his outstretched hand.
"Riku, I think you have some explaining to do." Cecil stated.
Riku looked around: Ariel and Eric were also expecting some sort of explanation.
"Fine." Riku sighed before explaining, long-story-short style.
Cecil didn't talk at all during the whole thing, nodding if he was understanding one point. Riku explained everything: the Seekers that they faced, why they were after this map, and what would happen if they should fail.
And when Riku finished speaking, he silently awaited the knight's answer.
"Well, this is something that cannot be ignored." Cecil said, his voice stern, "Do you think I could accompany you and your friends for a while? My ship is done for, so I have no way of getting off this world."
"Alright." Riku said. He began to walk away, but stopped, "Hey, Cecil."
"Yes?" Cecil asked.
"You have powers of both light AND darkness?" Riku asked.
"Yes." Cecil replied.
"Could you teach me to do that?" Riku asked.
Cecil thought for a few moments before saying, "I will. But I must warn you that acquiring the powers of both sides is far from an easy task. You'll be in for some serious training."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take to take care of my problem." Riku said, making a small (and short) bow. He pulled out a Gummi Caller and pressed a button.
"Your ship?" Cecil asked.
"Yeah." Riku replied. The Gummi then beamed the two inside the castle and the two in the ocean up.
Cecil Harvey
A member of the Restoration Committee (which side is unknown). He was passing Atlantica when his ship conked out and he decided to fight off the current Heartless invasion. He's a loyal friend who believes strongly in team-work and staying together. He's armed with the powers of both light AND dark. He first appeared in Final Fantasy IV.
Bumblebee
An Autobot from the planet Cybertron. Whenever Riku calls, he'll lend him a hand by changing from Robot to Vehicle and using a wide variety of rockets and cannons. He first appeared in Transformers.
Ariel
Formerly a mermaid and the princess of Atlantica, she gave up her life in the sea to live with the man she loved. She had become prisoner of Morgana, but with the help of Riku and Cecil, she was able to escape. She first appeared in The Little Mermaid.
Eric
A prince of a kingdom on the land and the one who snared the heart of Ariel. He had been prisoner of Morgana, but with the help of Riku and Cecil, he was freed to rule his world once more. He first appeared in The Little Mermaid.
Bumblebee's Mechanized Melee.