Chapter 38
Hinata sat down and dangled her feet off the edge of the clock tower as she felt the cool night wind breeze past her, causing her to shiver. She looked up at the endless sea of stars trying to think of a way to get out of London. Wendy stood beside her quietly with her hands behind her back. Not much time had passed since Riku left abruptly for Hollow Bastion and not much else had happened. Hinata felt stuck to say the least.
Without looking away from the stars, Hinata asked Wendy, "How are you getting home?"
"Peter Pan said he would be back for me." Wendy informed her, "He said he had to go back to Neverland to help Sora."
Hinata smiled, "Well maybe I'm not completely stuck then. I'll just ask Peter Pan to take me back to Neverland when he comes for you." She leaned back on her hands, "I just hope he comes back soon."
"As do I," Wendy admitted, "It's awfully cold up here and poor John and Michael must be worried sick about me."
"Are those your brothers you mentioned earlier?" Hinata asked, looking up at Wendy.
She nodded, "Yes, both of them are younger… I do hope they're alright."
"You said Riku took you in front of them?" Hinata struggled to believe he would do such a thing.
Wendy sighed and sat down beside Hinata with her hands folded in her lap. "Yes he did." She admitted, "Something seemed off about him the moment I saw him. He just seemed… lost."
Hinata gave a sad bitter laugh at her observation. Looking over the rooftops of London she agreed, "He is. He's very lost right now. I hope I can help him find his way again."
"What he needs is a mother." Wendy said rather adamantly. "My mother is always there to help me."
"Yeah, well his parents were never really the helping type." Hinata mumbled under her breath.
"Are you lost?" She asked Hinata, not hearing what she said about Riku's parents.
Hinata shook her head and spilled out, "Not lost… more misplaced. I feel like I don't belong here."
"What about your mother?" Wendy pried. "Surely she can help you."
"I don't really remember her. I haven't seen her in a long time." Hinata admitted closing her eyes.
"What do you remember about her?" she asked.
Opening one of her eyes, Hinata inquired, "Why?"
"Well, it's important to remember our mothers." Wendy paused thinking it over, "A mother is the most wonderful person in the world. The helping hand that helps guide you through what is right or wrong."
Hinata stayed silent from Wendy's words, not sure how to respond. She really didn't remember much of her mother and Riku's mother was nothing like that description. Sighing, she lay down on her back and placed her hands behind her head. Looking up at the arched stone ceiling she thought back to the dream she had on Prydain; when she had seen Aiko, or Kairi, and her mom. That was all she remembered of them.
"Hinata?" Sora's voice caused Hinata to sit back up and gasp at the sight in front of her.
Unbeknownst to how he was able to accomplish it; Hinata saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy flying over the rooftops towards her and Wendy being led by a young boy with bright orange hair wearing a green tunic. Wendy smiled and stood as she saw the group approaching, not at all taken aback by them floating off the ground; while Hinata sat there bewildered and mouth gaped open. As Sora approached he grinned at Hinata's expression and flew up beside her.
Landing on the stone walkway on the clock tower he laughed, "You should see your face!"
Tightly closing her mouth, Hinata shook her head to bring her back to reality. Looking back over at Sora she asked, "How did you know I was here?"
"We didn't," Sora admitted, "After we beat Hook we followed Peter here to London. Chip and Dale brought our ship too."
"Oh," Hinata rubbed the back of her neck, "Well I'm glad you found me. Riku left me here and I had no idea how to get back."
"That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't run off in the first place!" Donald pointed out as he landed beside Sora and crossing his winged arms tapping his webbed foot on the stone ground.
"I know." Hinata seceded any arguments and looked away to avoid eye contact. "It was reckless of me to run off without you guys. I just couldn't let Riku leave with Kairi like that… but I didn't accomplish anything by following him either."
"It's alright." Sora smiled, bringing Hinata's attention back to him from his kind demeanor. "I wanted to do the same thing." He was about to ask something else when he widened his eyes, "Your cut is almost completely healed!"
Hinata looked down and self-consciously placed her hand over the rough scab above her chest. Her gray blue vest was unbuttoned and stained with blood leaving her injury out in the open. Giving a sad smile she informed him, "Yeah, when Riku saw it he healed it, or at least as much as he could." She looked over at Donald, "It really hurt when he was doing it, is it supposed to?"
Donald shook his head, getting over his previous anger when Goofy landed and cut in, "Gawrsh, Donald's healed me tons of times and it's never hurt before." Goofy scratched under his chin thinking when he got an idea, "It must have been that there darkness he's been using."
"My magic comes from my staff," Donald explained, stomping on Goofy's foot for interrupting him. "Dark magic comes from a person's life force."
"Life force?" Both Sora and Hinata repeated taken aback.
"Wait," Hinata began piecing it together, "So when Riku uses the darkness it makes him weak because it's literally sapping his energy? That must be how people can get consumed by the darkness. They rely on it so much that it eventually takes so much of their life force that it is replaced by darkness itself…" She looked up worried at Sora, "And I just let Riku leave in some dark portal he made after he was already exhausted from healing me!"
"Aw gee, Hinata, it ain't your fault!" Goofy cut in, rubbing his hurt foot after Donald had stomped on it.
"Yeah, you didn't know." Sora assured her, trying to force a smile but was becoming increasingly worried.
Hinata crossed her arms and paced restlessly, "It doesn't matter whether I knew or not; I messed up. We need to get to Hollow Bastion as soon as possible. I don't know what Maleficent has planned exactly but she wants Kairi for something. Riku told me that there are seven princesses that can give Kairi her heart back but I don't really know how that works."
"Give Kairi back her heart?" Sora asked bewildered as his eyes widened, "So do you know what happened to her?"
"Look, I'll tell you everything once we are on route to Hollow Bastion." Hinata told him as she stopped walking. "Every moment we waste here talking gives Maleficent more time with Riku and Kairi."
Sora gave a discontented look, wanting to know more immediately, especially about Kairi; but nodded and sighed, "All right, I'll be right back." He motioned his head towards Donald and Goofy before walking off the edge of the clock tower immediately floating.
Peter Pan was flying near Wendy when he noticed Sora and the others heading towards the clock face. Flying towards them he told Sora, "Tink says that one of the clock faces is all wrong."
"Alright," Sora quickly nodded, "Let's fix it."
Hinata watched as Sora flew around the clock tower with the young boy. When they were out of sight she approached Wendy and assumed, "So I take it that boy was Peter Pan."
"Yes indeed." Wendy acknowledged, "He came back just as he promised."
Giving a small smile, Hinata looked out amongst the miles of surrounding city; absently examining the lights in the windows that illuminated the homes. Folding her hands in front of her she spoke up, "Wendy, I'm sorry for what Riku did."
"He's quite the codfish as Peter would say." Wendy noted
Hinata laughed, not expecting that answer, "A codfish? I'll have to remember that one."
Wendy giggled in response and then suddenly staggered as the stone ground around them began to tremor. An almost deafening clock bell vibrated through the air, resonating through them and causing both the girls to cover their ears. As Wendy grabbed onto one of the stone columns, Hinata ran to find where the noise was originating from; no doubt it was Sora's doing. She turned the corner and spotted Sora with the others, floating in front of one of the bright clock faces as the time struck midnight. She kept her hands over her ears as the bell continued to ding while she watched what the floating group was doing. A sudden bright light flashed into the night sky from the clock's face, reminding Hinata of what she had seen on the fountain back in Traverse Town. As the light faded a small keyhole appeared on the right side of the clock. Immediately, Sora pointed his Keyblade towards the lock and a beam shot from the tip of his weapon into the keyhole. Once the beam penetrated the lock, the keyhole was consumed in a light and the clock tower returned to normal.
"What was that?" Wendy approached Hinata once the tremors had passed.
"He locked the heart of the world." Hinata told her, "Or at least, I think that's what he did."
Within seconds, Sora was back on the clock tower with the others. Landing beside Hinata, Sora, Donald, and Goofy each smiled at her.
"This is just regular business for you, isn't it?" Hinata noted, "Saving every world you go to."
"Yeah, it's hard work, but somebody's got to do it." Sora dissipated his Keyblade and put his hands behind his head with a smirk.
"Well I better get back to Neverland." Peter flew up to Sora.
"But Peter," Wendy interrupted, "Must you really go back to Neverland?"
"Afraid so," Peter flew next to Wendy, "But we can see each other any time." He flew up and grabbed her hands, "As long as you never forget about Neverland that is."
Hinata stood with Sora and the others as they watched Peter talk with Wendy. She saw the way Peter and Wendy looked at each other and it made her miss the times Riku would look at her like that. Before Maleficent came in with her manipulative ways and ruined everything. Feeling her heart sink she looked over at Sora and noticed a similar saddened look on his face; no doubt he was thinking about Kairi.
Suddenly, a bright yellow ball of light that had been floating by Donald flew up around Peter before flying back to Sora. Once the light was in front of Sora, Hinata realized that it was in fact a small blonde fairy. She smiled at the tiny fairy that flew in place with her arms crossed seemingly miffed.
Peter looked over at the pixie, "Oh boy, she's getting steamed again." Placing his hands on his hips he gave the fairy a smirk. Looking over at Sora he said, "Do me a favor. Look after her for me, will ya?"
The small fairy flew and spun in front of Sora's face as he looked back confused at Peter Pan, "What? You want me to take Tinker Bell with me?"
"Sure why not?" Peter flew towards them, "She's great at healing spells and is small enough that she won't get in the way. Isn't that right Tink?"
Tinker Bell smiled and nodded her head with a small ring of bells.
"She'll be back once you finish your mission." Peter noted.
"Well thanks." Sora grinned, and then looked over at his friends, "We better get going."
"Do take care!" Wendy waved as she walked up beside Peter Pan and grabbed his hand.
"We will, thanks." Hinata spoke up and smiled at Wendy; then she looked over at Sora, "How do we get back to your ship?"
"That would be me." A small voice came from Sora's shirt.
"What was that?" Hinata asked staring at Sora's shirt.
"Jiminy Cricket's the name!" A cricket wearing a blue top hat and black suit climbed up on Sora's shoulder.
Hinata bent down slightly to see Jiminy better, "Oh so you're Jiminy. Chip and Dale told me about you. I'm Hinata."
Slightly lifting his hat he greeted, "Pleasure to finally make your acquaintance; but as you mentioned earlier we are on a tight schedule. I'll just let Chip and Dale know that we are ready to board." With that he fully took off his hat and reached inside, seemingly pressing down on something. Before Hinata could ask what he was doing a bright light beamed around them and they immediately appeared inside Sora's gummi ship.
As Hinata slowly spun around examining her surroundings she asked, "Can you bring me back to my ship in Neverland?"
"No problem!" Chip spoke up as he scurried over to Hinata, "There was something I wanted to look at on your ship's navigation anyways. We will be there in about an hour; it's not too far away from here."
Hinata smiled her thanks as she continued to look around. She recalled what she had seen from the video calls she had with the chipmunks; but seeing everything in person was an entirely new experience. A glass dome surrounded them as three white chairs stood in the center of the area. The control board seemed more like a hologram rather than the actual board that was on Hinata's ship.
As the ship began to move on its way back to Neverland, Hinata noted, "This seems to be a newer model than my ship."
"Yeah, your ship did seem older." Sora commented walking towards a set of stairs, "Come on, I'll show you downstairs."
Hinata nodded as she followed Sora into the bottom room. Her eyes widened as she saw the new area. She didn't get a good look of the gummi ship from the outside from her own ship when she was flying behind them but she could swear that it was bigger on the inside. It was a long hallway with blue flooring and pale yellow walls. There were two red doors, one on either side of the hall and at the end of the walkway was a small kitchen complete with a fridge, counter space, and stove. In front of the counter was a table with four chairs bolted into the ground.
"What in the world?" Hinata said under her breath as she walked into the hall. "There is no way your ship is this big! It looks so small on the outside."
"I know! that's what I thought!" Sora agreed as he went to the kitchen; no doubt hungry. "According to Donald and Goofy, their King found the technology to make things bigger on the inside while he was travelling years ago."
Hinata approached the counter and leaned her hands on it before noting, "Well, it's amazing. You have your own house down here."
Sora chuckled as he turned around holding a bowl of fruit for them to snack on. Placing it on the counter his smile faded away.
"What's wrong?" Hinata asked when she noticed his expression.
"It's hard to imagine that just a couple months ago we were all back on the island." Sora began, absently picking at the fruit. "I can't believe what happened to Riku and to Kairi." His voice trailed off. Turning around he leaned his back against the counter so Hinata couldn't see his face. "I want to do everything I can to protect everyone I care about; but the more I try to get through to Riku the worse he gets. And I don't even know what happened to Kairi." Holding out his hand he summoned the Keyblade and examined it, "I have the Keyblade but I still feel… like I'm not actually making a difference; at least not where it matters most."
Hinata listened to Sora's words feeling her heart sink. With a small scoff she replied, "I've been really selfish." Sora turned around confused by her words as she continued, "I didn't even think about how hard this must be for you too." She looked up at Sora and assured him, "We are making a difference. Once we get my ship back we are going to make our way to Hollow Bastion to stop Maleficent and help our friends. They won't be helpless for long."
"But Riku won't listen to anything either of us say!" Sora countered, dissipating his blade.
"I know," Hinata admitted, "But that doesn't mean we should stop trying to get through to him. There is always hope."
Sora crossed his arms and closed his eyes before agreeing, "You're right. My heart knows that there is still good in him. Thanks." He looked back up at Hinata and smiled, before taking a deep breath and asking, "What do you know about Kairi?"
"She lost her heart." Hinata told him honestly, "I don't know how or why, it doesn't make any sense; there isn't any darkness inside Kairi so I don't know how her heart supposedly fell to the darkness."
"So you don't know how it happened…" Sora sighed disappointed.
"There's also… something else you should know." Hinata fidgeted her hands in front of her as she stammered out the words.
"What is it?" Sora looked up confused.
"Well, it's just that… you know how," Hinata fumbled her words, trying to figure out how she was going to say it. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and blurted out, "Kairi's my sister!"
"What?" Sora gasped as he leaned forward, "But that's impossible! You said Aiko was six when you came to Destiny Islands. Kairi isn't six; I mean sure she looks a lot like you but that's still an eight year difference."
"I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out." Hinata put up her hands as she began to explain, "When I went down to Christmas Town and met Santa he told me that my gifts were piling up when I was gone."
"While you were gone?" Sora repeated coming around the counter so he could stand in front of her.
"Yeah, don't interrupt." Hinata scolded him with a small smile before continuing, "Well as I talked with Santa he mentioned that my sister was closer than I thought. Then when I came back to my ship I found eight presents." She noticed Sora open his mouth to say something but she gave him a look that made him shut it immediately. "I haven't opened all of them yet, I still have three more to open; but each one, well except the one with my dog, has been giving me back some memories. And one of the presents was a Wayfinder; just like the one Kairi got back on the islands."
"But that doesn't prove anything." Sora interrupted as he couldn't help himself.
Hinata sighed and shook her head, "I know that, but when I turned it over it had a note from my sister. And at the end of the note it had Kairi's name."
"So you think that means Kairi is your sister?" Sora asked as he put a hand under his chin, "But that doesn't explain how she could be eight years older than how you remember her. Where were you during those years?"
"Well think about it," Hinata leaned her elbows on the table, thankful she was having someone to talk with about it. "I came here the same way as Kairi, eight years after she got here. What if I somehow got stuck in some sort of limbo?"
Sora crossed his arms, "Is that even possible?"
"Do you have any other ideas?" Hinata asked.
Sora thought about it for a while, "Well… no. I guess it's just a lot to take in."
Hinata lightly laughed, "You're telling me. I still haven't fully understood it yet. It was really hard for me at first. To think that I was with my sister the entire time I was on the islands and didn't realize it; and then when I do find out she's in that state." As she finished her sentence, reality began to set in as she slumped her shoulders and felt her heart sink.
"Now we really have to get Kairi back." Sora noted as he sat in one of the chairs by the table. "I can't believe it… Kairi was your sister the whole time." When Hinata nodded he slammed his hand on the table and exclaimed, "We are going to set everything right! We're going to save Kairi and Riku, and then we can all go back to the island together!"
Grabbing the bowl of fruit, Hinata made her way to the table and sat down across from Sora. Setting the bowl down she agreed, "Yeah, we have to do whatever it takes to save them."
The two of them ate the fruit and remained mostly silent until Goofy came down the stairs. "Hey fellas, we reached Hinata's ship!"
Both of them quickly got up from their seats and made their way back up to the cockpit. Sure enough, Hinata's ship was right in front of them and Jack could be faintly seen floating by the windshield wagging his tail. Hinata smiled as she pulled her black device off her vest.
"Thank you guys for bringing me here." She told Chip and Dale, "So am I following you guys to Traverse Town now?"
Chip and Dale scurried over to Hinata and climbed onto her shoulders. "Actually," Chip spoke up as he reached her shoulder, "Dale and I need to check out your navigation. We think we may have a way to get you straight to Hollow Bastion."
"Really?" Sora exclaimed, "Can we follow her?"
"We aren't sure yet." Dale admitted, "That's why we need to go look."
"Well alright." Hinata smiled as she was about to press the beaming button on her device when Sora grabbed her arm.
"I want to come over to see your gifts." Sora told her and Hinata nodded as she beamed them over.
Instantly they appeared in the cockpit of Hinata's ship. Chip and Dale scurried off of Hinata onto the control board and immediately went to work. As Hinata was taking off her blood stained vest she heard Sora laugh. Looking over she saw Jack sniffing and licking Sora's face making him laugh and half-heatedly try to push the ghost dog away.
"So this is your dog?" Sora asked as he rubbed the dog's head.
Hinata smiled, "Yeah, I named him Jack."
"Jack?" Sora repeated, "You mean like Jack Skellington? Did you even meet him?"
"No," Hinata shook her head and admitted, "When I opened the gift with Jack inside there was a note that had the name Jack on it. I didn't know who the name belonged to so I just gave it to him."
Sora chuckled as Jack licked his cheek, "Well he's great."
Hinata smiled as she walked out of the cockpit, "The other presents are in here."
As Hinata left, Jack turned away from Sora and floated ahead of her to land on the table. Hinata tossed her vest onto one of the beds next to her brown satchel as she sat down in a chair in front of her remaining presents.
"Wow!" Sora exclaimed as he saw the bright wrapping paper and empty boxes around the room. "What have you gotten so far?"
Hinata pointed behind her towards the other bed in the room. On top of the navy blue comforter were the opened presents all lined up next to each other. Sora walked over to the bed and looked inside each box.
"You can have one of the ice-creams if you want." Hinata told him as he lifted the dark blue lid of the box.
"Oh sure, thanks," Sora smiled as he grabbed one of the remaining two light blue popsicles. About to take a bite he asked, "How is this still frozen?"
"I have no idea." Hinata shrugged as she watched Sora take a bite.
"It's salty!" Sora noted as he quickly took the frozen treat out of his mouth.
"But also sweet right?" Hinata finished, "It's called Sea-salt Ice cream."
Sora put the treat back into his mouth as he continued looking at the gifts, pausing when he reached the Wayfinder. Lifting it out of the box he traced his finger along the message written along the back; stopping when he read Kairi's name engraved in the shell. Using his free hand to hold his popsicle he pondered aloud, "I wonder why Kairi doesn't remember you. It makes sense for you not to remember with how long you were gone; but Kairi came to the island right away. So why did she forget?"
Hinata sighed, "I don't know."
Reluctantly placing the Wayfinding back in the box, Sora stuck the ice cream back in his mouth and went to sit in the other chair by the table across from Hinata. He reached out his hand and pet Jack behind the ears before asking, "You got Jack as a present? Was he floating around with a bow when you came back here from Christmas Town or something?"
"I wish!" Hinata laughed, "No, he was inside this creepy coffin box and when I opened it he was only a pile of bones."
"What?" Sora looked up confused, almost losing his ice cream.
"There was a letter from Santa inside that smoothed things over." Hinata explained, "Something about a mishap with Halloween Town."
"Maybe that's why Jack never mentioned Christmas Town." Sora pondered as he looked over at the remaining three wrapped presents. "Are you going to open those?"
Hinata reached over and grabbed a shoe box sized gift wrapped with dark green wrapping paper tied with white ribbon. "I guess I can open at least one in front of you." She gave in and pulled at the ribbon.
Sora waited impatiently as Hinata slowly tore away the paper and lifted the lid of the white box underneath. Once the lid was off and Hinata had yet to react he blurted, "Well what is it?"
"I'm not entirely sure." Hinata admitted as she lifted two gauntlet like gloves out of the box. "I think they are gloves."
Placing them on the table so Sora could get a look at them, she took off one of her own brown gloves. She grabbed one of the gauntlets and placed it on her bare hand. She had to roll up her sleeve a little bit to let the entire thing fit. It was a soft comfortable fabric around her hand and then turned to metal at her wrist reaching all the way up to her mid forearm. All of her fingers spare her thumb were covered by the dark brown fabric while a maroon color went over the front of her hand. The metal was a gold accented with maroon and brown details. The top of the gauntlet was rather thick as if it housed something inside of it with a small golden button on the side. Clenching her hand into a fist then relaxing it she noted, "Well it's comfortable."
Sora picked up the other gauntlet that was still on the table and examined it. Turning it in his hands he said, "It looks like something is inside of it." Holding it away from his face he reached his thumb over to press the golden button.
Hinata noticed Sora's intentions and yelled out, "Sora don't!" But she was too late as Sora pressed the button.
Immediately a small hatch opened on the front of the metal casing and a thin black wire hooked on the edge shot out to the other end of the ship; hooking into a pillow on top of the bed across from them and whipping the gauntlet from Sora's loose grip. As the hook delved into the pillow a burst of feathers puffed into the air in a chaotic cloud causing both Sora and Hinata to let out surprised yelps. Once the feathers had floated softly to the floor, the gauntlet could be seen protruding from the now empty pillow.
Hinata sent Sora a glare as she scolded him, "You need to be more careful! What if that thing hooked you in the face?"
Rubbing his hand behind his neck, Sora chuckled, "Well at least now you know what it does!"
"Well thanks a lot; you ruined one of my pillows." Hinata grumbled as she got up from her chair to grab her stray gauntlet. Unhooking it from the pillow she remarked, "They must be some sort of hook shot gauntlets. I've read about them, but never thought I would ever actually have a pair of my own."
"Everything okay out there?" Chip squeaked from the cockpit.
"Yeah, Sora was just being a Numbskull." Hinata called back getting a pout from Sora. She laughed under her breath, maybe Sora didn't change as much as she had thought; which wasn't entirely a bad thing.
Chip and Dale giggled in response before Dale told her, "We are almost done with what we are doing; just a few more minutes."
"Alright thanks." Hinata told them as she made her way back to the table and sat down.
"What's in the other two?" Sora asked excitably, already over the mishap with the hook shot.
Hinata looked at him bewildered before breaking out into a laugh. "You are unbelievable." She snickered under her breath as she took off her gauntlet and placed both of them back in the box before reaching for the next gift. She had to admit, it was nice to take a moment to enjoy friendly company when there were so many other negative things going on.
Reaching for the next gift she grabbed a rectangular present wrapped with red and white pinstriped paper and a thin black ribbon. Pulling away the wrapping and lifting the lid of the box, Hinata saw a brown book with the golden letters saying 'Journey Journal'. Pulling out the surprisingly light book, she placed it on the table.
"Journey Journal," Sora read aloud, "What's that?"
"I'm not sure." Hinata answered honestly as she flipped open the first page, surprised to see a picture of her with Sora, Kairi, and Riku by the paopu tree back on Destiny Islands.
"Is that a picture of us?" Sora asked as he turned the book towards him to get a better look. "Yeah, that's you, me, and Kairi sitting on the paopu tree and Riku leaning against it."
"And we are watching the sun set like we did almost every day." Hinata whispered, trying to figure out why Santa would give her a book like this.
Turning the page Sora exclaimed excitedly, "And look; here we all are in front of the raft we built before the island was destroyed!"
Hinata stood and walked behind Sora so she could get a better look at the picture; Kairi and Hinata were standing on the raft tying up the tan sail as Sora lay on his back on the sand with Riku sitting next to him watching the girls. Hinata smiled sadly as she noticed the look on Riku's face; it looked just like the one Peter had given Wendy back on the clock tower. Shaking the thought away, Hinata asked, "What's on the next page?"
Sora turned the page and held the book up at the next picture, "Was this in Wonderland?"
Sure enough, it was Riku and Hinata walking together through the field of colorful flowers of Wonderland, except that all the plants were towering feet above them creating a rainbow colored canopy with thin beams of sunlight shining through.
Hinata nodded, "Yeah that was when Riku and I were looking for Alice." She felt her heart sink as the words left her mouth; she had tried to forget what she and Riku had to done to poor Alice.
"Donald, Goofy, and I never got to see this part of Wonderland." Sora noted sadly, "I wish we did, it looks beautiful."
"It was." Hinata told him as she reached over and turned the page to find a picture of her in Prydain holding a long tree branch about to spar with Taran.
"Where was this?" Sora asked, "Are you wearing a dress?"
Hinata sighed, "It wasn't my choice. That was Prydain. Riku and I were stopping the evil king from getting something called the Black Cauldron." She laughed, "That was a boy named Taran that challenged me to a sparring match. He didn't last long."
Laughing, Sora asked, "So somehow you got a book from Santa that has pictures from every place you've been. How is that possible?"
Shrugging, Hinata admitted, "I've learned that Santa is a lot more powerful that I've ever given him credit for. He knew about me getting hurt from Ursula when I met him. He even knew the moment you, Donald, and Goofy landed in Halloween Town."
"He did?" Sora exclaimed, looking up at Hinata.
"He did." Hinata affirmed, "I have no idea how, and I tried asking but he wasn't too keen on sharing his secrets."
Sora laughed in return and was about to turn the page when Chip and Dale called from the cockpit. "We're done!"
In a rush, both of them made their way to the cockpit to see what Chip and Dale had accomplished. They were enjoying having some relaxation time, but they couldn't forget their real mission.
"What did you find out?" Hinata asked as she beat Sora into the cockpit by slightly pushing him out of the way when they were racing to the room.
"You can go straight to Hollow Bastion!" Dale informed her, jumping up and down.
"I can?" Hinata grinned, "That's great news!"
"Can we follow her?" Sora asked as he entered the room and elbowed Hinata for pushing him earlier.
"Well not exactly." Chip broke the news getting discontented looks from both Sora and Hinata. "Hinata's ship is equipped with a special gummi that allows her to travel to Hollow Bastion."
"And since her ship is originally from there, it was a simple matter a digging in the navigation database to find the coordinates." Dale jumped in.
"Right," Chip agreed, "But, our ship doesn't have the navi-gummi we need to get there."
"But can't we just copy Hinata's coordinates?" Sora pointed out, crossing his arms.
Chip shook his head, "Sorry Sora, even with the coordinates, without that gummi installed we wouldn't be able to make orbit."
"I bet Leon and Cid will know where we can get a gummi!" Dale assured Sora when he saw the way Sora slumped.
"Yeah, but that's just another world we have to stop at before we can help Riku and Kairi." Sora mumbled under his breath.
"You can come with me on my ship." Hinata suggested.
Sora thought about it for a moment, "Thanks, I wish I could take you up on that; but if we are going to take down Maleficent and help our friends we need to be at full strength. I'm going to need Donald and Goofy's help and even Chip and Dale might be needed. It's too risky to just leave my ship even if it means getting to Hollow Bastion quicker."
"Wow…" Hinata said under her breath, "That was a surprisingly mature thing of you to say."
"Thanks." Sora smiled and then placed his hands on his hips, "Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it." Hinata chuckled as she placed her hand on Sora's shoulder. "I can follow you still to Traverse Town if you need me to. That way we can storm Hollow Bastion together."
Sora shook his head, "No, you need to get to Hollow Bastion now and try to do what you can to stop Maleficent. We won't be in Traverse Town long and will be right behind you. Something tells me that you need to be there as soon as you can."
Hinata took her hand off Sora's shoulder; she was taken aback at how he could still act like the small child she knew from the island but then suddenly change gears to be this authoritative mature young man in front of her. Taking a deep breath she nodded, "Alright, I'll head to Hollow Bastion right now."
"We set your navigation to go straight to Hollow Bastion." Chip told Hinata as he and Dale scurried onto Sora. "Once we leave, your ship will automatically start moving."
"Thank you." Hinata told them, "I don't know what I would do if you guys weren't here."
"Happy flying!" Both Chip and Dale chimed to her, jumping up and down on Sora's shoulder.
She smiled at them before addressing Sora, taking note of his sullen look she assured him, "Everything's going to be fine Sora. Don't lose hope."
"You're right…" Sora mumbled as he looked down at his feet. "Thanks."
"Sure." She replied simply.
"Be careful alright?" Sora told her, "I don't know what to expect when we get there."
"Me neither." Hinata agreed, "But thank you, I will be careful."
"Alright, I'm ready." Sora looked out the windshield towards his own ship where Donald and Goofy could be seen in front of the controls and nodded to them. Donald waved back and pressed a few buttons on the holographic controls, causing a bright beam to surround Sora. Within seconds he was beamed back to his own ship with Chip and Dale. Once there, all of them looked out their windshield towards Hinata's ship and waved her goodbye as her ship began to fly away towards Hollow Bastion. Hinata stood waving back, feeling herself become more uneasy the farther away she went. When they were out of sight she sighed and made her way back to the other room to endure the long trip back to where she began.
*** Author's Note: Thank you everyone for reading! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any questions or thoughts, please let me know. I genuinely appreciate every piece of feedback. Have a wonderful week! ***