Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Disney.

Thanks to ANMProductions for correcting my mistake regarding Sora's fish identity

The five keywielders followed Ariel to the depths of the sea before they really noticed what they looked like. It was all new to Riku, Roxas, Namine, and Kairi, though Sora had seen himself as a half-man, half-shark before. He looked down to once again study his sharktale. Kairi was staring as well. She saw him more clearly now than the night before. He looked so graceful, obviously, he knew how to use his fin. His strong chest was flawless, except for one thing, which made him all the more appealing to her. He had a six inch slash-like scar on the left side of his chest, just over his heart. She winced at the memory that suddenly clouded her vision.

She was fourteen, and though she was there, she had no heart, and no soul, they had been taken by Maleficent. When Sora learned he carried her heart inside of his own, he selflessly plunged the keyblade into his heart in hopes to give his life for hers. She woke up. Crushed, she didn't know how she could go on. At first she thought the tears that she shed came from guilt at the fact that he stabbed himself so that she could live. It was only until she was in his arms again that she realized that that wasn't it at all. She was irrevocably in love with her best friend. His touch made her renewed heart flutter, and her stomach churn, but in a good way. She felt her very being levitate in his arms, though it was only in her mind. His scent, his heat, his looks, and every fiber in his body overwhelmed her. For a moment she wasn't sure if any of this was actually happening, or if his attempt at saving her had been unsuccessful and this was her heaven.

Somehow, that scar drew her even closer to him than she had been before, once again reminding her of the very rare, strong connection that they had to each other, the one that would never thin. His hair in the water made her want to go closer to him and run her fingers through it, but she held back, and forced herself to quit daydreaming. She had to focus to help them find Melody. She didn't notice Sora watching her, the way she noticed him doing it the night before.

Sora watched her yet again, admiring her the way he did so frequently. And although he'd just seen her not ten hours ago, she still knocked the breath from his lungs and made his heart stop beating for a moment. She was still mesmerizing to him. She was a mermaid now, her fin was salmon-pink, just a bit lighter than the color of her hair. Her top was blood-red. She looked like fire in a world of water. He shook his head to refocus his attention on the others. The others were mermaids and mermen as well. Namine was wearing white, her top and her fin. Roxas' fin was red, and Riku's was yellow. That was all he noticed about them, none of them seemed to capture his attention as much as Kairi did. Ever. He once again forced his eyes off of the red-haired beauty and back to Ariel, who they were all following in hopes of finding her daughter.

When he followed Ariel, along with the rest of them, out of a hole in the wall, they came out onto the other side with a view of the ice castle he'd been too not that long ago. He swam closer to Kairi and linked his arm in hers. He looked at her, then back to the ice castle. "Atlantica," he told her. Her eyes went from him to the glorious ice sculpture in front of them. She looked into the distance and saw the castle. As they moved closer and closer, the more in awe she became. "It's beautiful," she heard Namine say. "Yeah, to say the least," she added.

When they reached the entrance to the castle, they swam through the long winding hallway that led to King Triton's throne. He was there as well, he swam ahead and he was anxiously awaiting them. "Any news, daddy?" Ariel asked him, worried. He took a deep breath. "No, I'm afraid not Ariel. I've consulted with all of my soldiers, none of them have seen her. I swear, she's just like you…" She stopped listening to him when she noticed something terrible. "DADDY!" He looked to where she was pointing. "Your trident, it's gone!" A look of horror crossed his face as he noticed it as well. Riku picked something golden up off the ground and handed it to Ariel. "Oh no," she said, horrified. "I know where she is." She hurriedly placed the golden locket around her neck and swam swiftly back through the winding hallway.

Kairi, Namine, Roxas, and Riku were having a hard time keeping up, so Sora had to keep a half distance away from Ariel, so that he would be in view for them to follow, so no one got lost. Sora began to recognize the place they were swimming to. It was the way they got to Ursula's lair when she was still alive. The same haunting passageway full of skulls and unknown sea creatures stared them down as they passed. They reached the end of the passageway into the good sized room that held an evil woman who looked an awful lot like Ursula, except she was considerably smaller. "Melody, no!" Ariel shrieked as she saw Melody about to hand the trident to the Morgana.

"Melody, what are you doing?!"

"She helped me."

"Melody no! Look, there's something I need to tell you…"

"It's too late, Mom." She handed the trident to Morgana, who then laughed evily, before raising the trident into the air, scaring the child. "Now it's mine!" The old woman shouted.

The mermaids and mermen were all trapped by the trident that was now in the hands of Morgana. Kairi looked at Sora, afraid. "It's going to be fine. It always works itself out," he told her, but he wasn't even sure this time. There seemed to be no way out, but then Melody's flipper turned back to feet, and then he watched her bravely get up to where Morgana was wreaking havoc on the sea and snatch the trident, throwing it back to her grandfather. He caught it and freed them all, thanking Melody. He then turned Morgana to ice, who then floated back into the depths of the sea.

After everyone breathed a sigh of relief, a dark shadow emerged from the water. It was big, and shaped much like a giant squid. Sora squinted and saw a small shiny object in the middle of the chaser's chest. A keyblade. He drew his, and the others did also, preparing for the battle. This chaser was an easy one, considering the fact that they had King Trident to help them. Each lightning bolt that struck the chaser left it paralyzed for a few seconds, giving them a lot of time to bring him down without having to focus half of their attention on their defense. Finally, the chaser fell, and Roxas plunged into the water after the keyblade that sunk at a fast rate. He emerged about a minute later, gold-plated keyblade in hand. Then Sora turned to the King. "Thanks."

"No worries, you've helped us many times."

"There is one more favor I need to ask of you, your majesty." He nodded him, suggesting him to go on. "There's a war coming, between darkness and light. The witch known as Maleficent will have all evil forces in all worlds on her side, and I was informed it was my duty to get anyone and everyone I can to help us out…"
"Say no more, I and half of my soldiers will be there. The rest need to stay here to protect Atlantica."

"I understand, and thanks again."

"I'm sorry, Melody. I should have told you the truth," Sora heard Ariel explain to her daughter. He was too busy staring at Kairi again to pay attention to what Melody's reply was. His thoughts were interrupted Ariel swam over to thank them. "You always show up at the perfect times, Sora. Thanks again. And thank you guys as well," she said to the rest of them. They nodded. "We should get back to land to let your father know that you are alright." She turned her attention back to Melody. "Okay." Melody said goodbye to her grandfather one last time, but promised that she would be back since it was safe now. Ariel put her arm around her daughter and they swam together back to the shore, where they were greeted welcomly by everyone there.

"Does this mean you have to go?" Melody asked Riku. He smiled and looked at Sora. Sora turned to her to answer her question. "I'm afraid that we do. But, we can still go for one last swim in the ocean with you if you want." She beamed and ran off towards the sand, that was now unseparated from their castle. The wall had been torn down.

A few hours later, they got back out of the sea water and headed back to the castle to dress and pack. Sora just finished getting changed when he slowly started to disintegrate. "What?"…

Sora opened his eyes again, and looked down to be sure that his body reattached as well. He then looked to the side of him, to see Kairi. He went to stand next to her. He put his arm around her, pulling her close to him. Then he looked ahead of him. King Mickey was standing directly in front of them, holding a small piece of paper in his hand. He had a strange expression on his face. Sora and Kairi both studied it, but couldn't tell exactly what it was. They hadn't seem him look this way before. "I told you that I would summon you here once I read and interpreted the last page of the book." They nodded. "Well, I have. It's not what I expected at all, but it is definitely good news." He looked to Sora, and then to Kairi. "What does it say?" Sora asked the King. "I'm not permitted to tell you."

"Why not?" Sora asked again. The king looked like he wished he could say something. "I'm sorry Sora, but I can't tell you that either. All you need to know, is that there will be an end, but of course you already knew that. I just had to let you know that. Good luck on the rest of your journey." The King dropped the paper on his way out the door. Sora didn't notice, but Kairi did. "Are you coming?" Sora asked, following King Mickey out the door. "Yeah, just give me a minute, k?" Sora looked confused, but agreed. He shut the door. Kairi picked up the small piece of paper. She thought twice about looking at it, but in the end, curiosity got the best of her and she began to read it. She was confused after she read it, trying to interpret what exactly it meant. But then she understood, and shock washed across her face. She shoved the paper into her pocket and tried to calmly walk out the door, as if nothing happened.

She rejoined Sora at the gummi ship. The others had driven it there to pick them up on their way to their next world. She sat next to him in the front and the ship started to move. "Where to?" Riku asked. Sora touched a button on the screen in front of him again. "Uh, a new world. But it's inside of our world, earth. It's in Paris, France. How odd…"