Chapter 51: Cure-All
Radiant Garden...
Sora and co.'s ship landed in the Radiant Garden and as they departed, the group, plus one (Crescent) looked around and found no sign of Sakuzy and Joyex's ship.
"Where could they be?" asked Sora.
Crescent shrugged, then gave what was probably a very stupid answer. "Pittsburgh?"
Sora folded his arms, then gave Crescent a scolding look. "THAT was a rhetorical question." he pointed out.
"Oh." Crescent said, then pointed a scolding finger at Sora and said, "Well, WARN ME NEXT TIME!"
Goofy, it seemed, had a more reasonable answer. "Maybe they're late." he suggested, "After all, we didn't get our Pure Hearts easily."
"Point taken. Well, might as well see…"
The rest of Sora's sentence was drowned out by a VERY familiar voice. "Oh, so THAT'S where you got to, Crescent!" Everyone turned to see Blader standing behind them, tapping his real foot impatiently. He was right outside where the Restoration Committee East Side's base was.
Crescent waved and said, "Hey, Blader!"
Blader unfolded his arms, then strode over to the group before giving them a very scolding look. "Crescent, where've you been the last..." he did a quick count on his fingers. "Twenty-seven chapters?!" he finished.
Crescent answered as though being asked a simple question: with relative calmness. "I was on a Gummi Ship with Sora and his friends." he answered, "Helped them out of the Carnival of Chaos, too. Kefka never knew what hit him."
Blader let out an exasperated sigh and sarcasm filled his voice up to the brim. "Who could've seen THAT comin'?"
Sora decided to take the two's attention off their conversation and asked, "Hey, Blader, have you seen Sakuzy and Joyex?"
Blader thought it over, then shook his head. "Actually, no. But, how about you guys come over?" he asked, "There's somethin' we gotta check out and it could give us a lead on these Crystalli guys."
Blader turned to leave, then looked at Kairi and scratched his chin. "Y'know, I think I've seen someone like Kairi. Can't put my finger on it, though..." Blader racked his thoughts a little longer, then waved it off. "Ah, heck! Let's just get going! And by the by, Petross would like to examine Riku."
Sora and co. followed Blader into the East Side's base. On entering, they found Petross examining a pod with what looked like a monocle mixed with a microscope and several handheld devices.
Crescent broke the silence in the base as he raised a hand and said, "Hey, Pete (1)! How are ya?"
Petross looked up, slightly startled, then glowered at Crescent. "NEVER call me as that." he said with a growl, "That name reminds me of that oaf that works with Maleficent."
"Whatever."
Sora walked over to Petross and asked, "Petross? Uh…what's this?" the Keyblade Master gestured toward the pod, which appeared to be made of pure crystal.
Petross gave the pod one last look-down and answered, "I found it yesterday. You remember Emerald?"
Blader scoffed, remembering the fight he had with him. "Yeah. A guy never forgets a wimp like that." he said with a slight chuckle in his voice.
"Well, apparently THIS is one of those Crystalli." Petross explained. The pod looked big enough to hold a person and seemed to be made of various layers of pure crystal. Donald tapped on it a few times and heard that it was hollow, judging by the tone it produced on impact. "According to X-Ray scans of it, there should be a Crystalli in this pod." Petross added.
"Then, why're WE standin' here talkin' and lettin' the guy snooze?" Blader asked. He tapped the pod's surface with his knuckles, as though knocking on a door and said, "Let's crack the egg and see what he knows."
Petross shook his head as he gestured to it with both his large hands. "Not this one." he replied.
Crescent peered at the pod, followed by Sora and co. They could see right through it and could easily make out a person in there. However, it wasn't moving and a gem lodged in its chest had a large, jagged crack in it. As usual, the ninja had to point out something that was both obvious and stupid. "He looks dead!"
Petross looked up at Crescent, a sour look on the medical officer's face. "For once in your life, Crescent, you said something sensible."
Crescent's violet eyes widened in mock-surprise. "I did?" he asked.
Ignoring Crescent, Petross held up a clipboard with what was probably a few lab results. "My best guess is that he either died coming here or was dead to begin with. Still, it could provide us with answers on what we're up against. And I have a feeling that our leader is doing the same thing."
Blader looked severely crestfallen at Petross' news. "Aw man! If that don't make the cut!" he cursed, then turned to Petross, "I mean what good news is gonna come out of here?!"
"Not much, for the moment." Petross answered, then looked upward as though he was staring right through the ceiling, " We can only hope that the other pods across the multiverse were as unfortunate as this guy here."
Riku had apparently waited long enough, because he addressed Petross directly. "Hey, didn't you want to do something about this?" Having grabbed Petross' attention, Riku removed his shirt to show his diamond arm and the top part of his chest. The crystal-skin disease had gone well past his shoulder and was beginning to affect part of his neck, too.
"As a matter of fact, yes. Riku, lay on that table." Petross pointed at a table that you'd find at your local doctor's office. Riku did so and Petross started examining him. After a few seconds, he lifted a brow in amusement. "Interesting...Parts of your body might be changing into diamond, but the rest of it acts as if nothing's wrong."
Riku rolled his eyes. "Exactly how LONG do I have left to live?"
Petross looked up from his work with a surprised look on his face. "That's a bit extreme. But, judging by how the disease easily broke through Donald's spell that slowed it down…,"
"Sorry!" Donald quickly apologized.
Petross ignored the duck, then answered, "I'd say that you have…about a week."
Sora, at that moment, let it out. If anything, he didn't want to let hope (or Riku) die. "Sakuzy and Joyex will be here soon! I know they will!"
"Someone called?" an all-too-familiar voice asked.
Sora wheeled at the sound of a voice to see Sakuzy and Joyex. Kairi, much to everyone's surprise, hugged Sakuzy. Upon seeing her doing that, Joyex held his arms out hopefully. "Daddy's home!" he called out. Kairi just walked past him, leaving him hanging. "What? No hug for me?" he asked.
Kairi smiled, then said, "Ah, don't kid yourself, Joyex." She turned on the spot and hugged him, too.
"Okay, enough already." Joyex said, trying not to laugh, "I was joking."
Kairi let go of the Nobody, then Sora went over, his hands in his pockets. "Well, we've got OUR Pure Hearts." he said as he took his hands out of his pants pockets, then held out the purple one from Land of Horrors and the acid-green one from the Marshlands with one in each hand. Kairi, on the other hand, took out the golden one from Narnia from her own pocket.
"Ditto." Sakuzy said as he held out the orange heart from Camp Greenlake and the indigo one from Port Royal.
"Now, Riku, how about we get rid of that pesky little skin disease?" Joyex asked with a grin.
Sora also pointed out to the others a quick fact that he learned thanks to Sakuzy. "Riku will use them for himself, because we can't use them without the Prince of Heart." Sora paused, then asked, "Sakuzy, do YOU know him?"
"We've…met." Sakuzy answered. On receiving a curious glance from Sora, he said, "So, Riku, you ready to be cured?"
"What do you think?" asked Riku.
The group handed their Pure Hearts to Riku and the crystalline hearts started hovering around him. They then started rotating like a multi-colored wheel, getting faster and faster with each rotation until they were a blur of colors. In seconds, the diamond parts of Riku's body cracked and shattered to reveal normal skin. When the crystal parts of Riku's body vanished, the Pure Hearts stopped circling and fell to the ground with a clatter. Riku moved his now-normal arm, cracking his elbow once or twice.
"Man. It's good to have my old flesh and bones back...And I can finally let go of this Keyblade!" he said with every hint of relief. Riku dismissed his Keyblade and flexed his fingers, admiring his hand like it was some priceless treasure. He then put his shirt back on, because the table he was laying on was as cold as ice.
"We're still gonna need these for Mickey and Minnie, so…" Sora said as he reached for the Pure Hearts, but he hadn't even gotten a finger's length from them when the hearts vanished in bursts of their respective colored glitter. They then flew up into the air and flew in opposite directions, though bits of gold dust landed on Sora and a bit of purple on Kairi. They both felt a bit tingly after that, but they felt fine save that fact.
Sakuzy's eyes widened as he almost fell to the ground. "UH-OH! NOT good!" he said
Sora felt the place where the dust hit, but nothing appeared to have happened. Ignoring this, the Keyblade Master stared at Sakuzy with a questioning look. "What're you talking about, Sakuzy?" he asked.
"I forgot the MAJOR drawback of using Pure Hearts on ANYTHING!" Sakuzy groaned to himself, "After you use the Pure Hearts, they'll disappear back into their own worlds!"
After a few seconds, the impact hit the entire group. It was similar to when Sora, Donald, and Goofy found out about "Ansem" and Xehanort. "WHAT?!" they said, altogether.
"All that hard work and we're back where we started?!" Sora asked in disbelief.
"Looks like those Pure Hearts are back in the worlds we found 'em in…" Sakuzy said, hanging his head.
On thinking it over, the group decided it was better not to make second trips to where they came from.
"No. I am NOT going back to Land of Horrors! ONE werewolf was enough for me!" Sora said, scratching the back of his head. It wasn't exactly the most fun he'd had...
"Same about me and Port Royal. Jack Sparrow drove me insane…" Joyex said with a shudder.
Sakuzy looked at the ground, closed his eyes, then shook his head with a heaved sigh. "Nothing to do NOW, but keep moving on. BUT..." Sakuzy's mood seemed to brighten up as he pointed out one fact that seemed to affect everyone. "Those were only FIVE Pure Hearts and there are MANY other worlds out there. I suppose we could give THOSE a shot."
Kairi smiled and gave a shrug. "He's got a point, Sora."
"Alright, guys," Sora straightened back up, then said, "Let's go!" Sora would have gone right out the door there and then, but an explosion loud enough and strong enough to shake the base almost made him lose his balance.
As Sora got steady from the shockwave, Blader rushed over, his shield in hand. "Hate to ruin your party, kid. BUT it looks like we've got trouble!" he said, urgently.
The group ran outside to see a figure in a purple cloak, which was (to Sakuzy and Joyex) similarly dressed to Pearl and Aquamarine. It was the same one that interrogated Aquamarine at Port Royal.
Sakuzy gave the Crystalli a glare, then said, "Hello, Adrian."
Though they couldn't see under this person's hood, they could tell he was ticked. "I thought I told you that I abandoned that name. It's AMETHYST now!"
The Crystalli called "Amethyst" removed his cloak to reveal a boy, not much older than Sakuzy himself, though he was a head taller. He had a grim face with lavender hair, purple eyes, and an amethyst crystal lodged in his thigh.
(1) I got THAT part, because Petross means rock. And we, eventually, got the name Peter from the word Petross (all credit for that goes to Dimensiondude for searchin' it up).
