Marie and her keyblade:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Marie-and-her-Shooting-Star-Keyblade-38350 2787

Marie in pridelands:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Marie-in-pridelands-coloured-240540217

A/N:
We are now entering the pride lands for the second time—where we fight spirit Scar? Sure. After this it's Atlantica, Tron's world, and 100 acre woods. I don't think I'm missing anything, right? If so, then I might want to make this story pass 60 chapters.


Chapter Fifty-Three

Pride Rock

Aura and Axel walked around Halloween Town for a bit more, and he kept a smirk on his face the whole time they did. He knew about how she dropped a mistletoe on Sora and Marie, and she grew annoyed at his constant teasing. He kept calling her a good girl and teased about the fact that she could be cupid for a living. Of course, he received a punch to the stomach after too much teasing, and he walked around rubbing the area where she punched him.

"Why'd you do it, anyway?" he asked, looking at her as she crossed her arms. She didn't know why she did it, but she figured after all of the things that she had seen being with Sora, Marie, Donald and Goofy, she might as well do one good deed before she ends up disappearing. Axel scratched the back of his head and didn't like the words 'disappear' as much as she did, but he knew she would become whole if she went back to Marie. Aura didn't want to think about it much, since she wanted to spend as much time as she could with Axel—Roxas too if he hadn't disappeared.

"Guess you'll be staying with me for a while," Aura said as she placed a hand on her hip. Axel was only staying with Aura for a while to keep her company, since he had a few things to do. He still had Roxas, Sora, and Marie stuck in his mind, and wasn't sure what to do about Isa.

How were things going to end?

-x-

Marie

We were back to the Pride Lands after getting back from Halloween Town, and the first thing that Goofy told me was how different I looked. I kept smiling to myself and blushing, and Donald said Sora looked a bit different too. They didn't know what happened, but I think Goofy knew, since he made such slight comments towards it. Either way, it didn't bother me, and I don't think it bothered Sora. We kept close while the ship flew us, and it felt so peaceful.

Well, back to now, we were walking along the lands until we saw those three hyenas, and I stood on my guard. Shenzi kissed her teeth when she noticed it was us, hoping to find food. Sora greeted them with a friendly smile, and we all followed with smiles as well, but they didn't seem so happy.

"Don't gimme any of that "hiya" stuff! Thanks to you clowns, we're back to scavenging scraps for a living," Banzai retorted. I sat on my behind and watched as he got annoyed, but Shenzi didn't mind all that much, saying they enjoyed the elephant they had…which sounds completely morbid to be honest. Sora asked how Simba was doing, and Shenzi started laughing uncontrollably. I raised my eyebrow, and Banzai looked over to her. "We gotta laugh every time we hear that's dude's name."

She told Banzai to say his name again, and when he did she started laughing. He kept saying Simba's name, and even Ed started laughing with her. They kept saying his name and they just straight out started laughing, and I wondered what was wrong with the name. Sora grew annoyed and told them to stop, but Shenzi just laughed at us as she walked away. Before doing so, though, she turned back and told us to go see Simba.

"Simba is one wishy-washy king," she said. Banzai laughed and told us that he was betting the lionesses were wishing they had a different king, and I assumed they were probably referencing to Scar. They completely left the area, and I looked over to Donald and Goofy, who seemed confused about the whole thing.

"We should probably go see Simba," I suggested. Sora agreed along with Donald and Goofy, and we all walked over towards Pride Rock. Once there, however, we stopped when dark smoke appeared, and Scar came out. I gasped when we saw him, but he quickly disappeared, and I looked around—he was nowhere in sight.

"We better tell Simba about this," Goofy suggested. I was quick to agree, since Scar was enemy number on for him. Sora and Donald also agreed, but I could tell that it was bothering Sora more than it should. Well, it was bothering all of us to be honest. We walked up a bit until we saw a lioness, and she asked if we were here to see Simba.

"Yeah, we saw Scar's ghost!" Sora pointed out. She lowered her head a bit and then looked at us while saying that something like that could only foretell the end of their pride, and I was starting to get really worried now. She said that Simba wouldn't do anything, and commented on how he wasn't ready to rule the kingdom his father left behind. I was getting a bit down with this lioness' pessimistic attitude, but she left after. I looked ahead and saw the cave where Simba probably was, and we all started walking towards it. We saw Simba lying down in the center, and we smiled towards us.

"You came back…" he said, trying to force a smile. We noticed he didn't look so good, in fact, he looked downright miserable. I really wondered what had happened during the time we were away, but it looks like nothing really changed all that much. The lionesses were still upset, and their only king was off in lala-land.

"Hey, Simba. Why don't we team up and do something about that Scar ghost?" Sora asked. Simba didn't say anything, so he continued, "Seems like everyone's worried about it. So, now's your big chance to show 'em what you're really made of!"

"That doesn't concern you!" Simba shouted, which caused us to jump. He obviously didn't look too happy, and he growled a bit. We stopped for a moment, and looked down as he sighed and apologized. "I just wish I knew what my father would do."

If it were that easy we'd help him find out, and Goofy told him that he wasn't here and he had to do the important thing and that was what he was going to do as king, not what his father would have done. It was all up to Simba, and he was starting to realize that. Timon and Pumbaa appeared, and they encouraged him as well. I jumped a bit at their sudden entrance, but I was very happy to see them nonetheless.

"We know your dad was a great king and all, but now it's your turn. Remember what I taught ya, 'you gotta put the past behind you'," Timon said as he walked up to Simba. He had a confident smile on his face as he looked at the king, and he continued. "It's time to go out there and show everybody things are gonna be just fine!"

We all offered words of encouragement, but the most came from Timon and Pumbaa, who told him that he had to live for today and find his own path; not his father's. Simba repeated the words, and we kept encouraging him. Nala appeared from behind and was glad to hear Simba realize what he had to do, and stood beside him as she asked us to help him. There was so question we were going to help, and she smiled at us and looked at Simba.

"I'm counting on you, Simba…and so is our baby," she said as she nuzzled him. Aww, a baby! Hearing that news was so exciting, now we have to work ten times harder for Simba's little blessing! I smiled so widely about it, and Timon sighed as he thought about babysitting. We all gave out a good laugh, and Simba seemed to have returned to his former self, which we were glad for.

"Let's go see Rafiki first. I'm sure he'll be able to tell us something about that ghost," Simba suggested. If I recall, Rafiki is that baboon we saw on our first journey here. Well, we agreed, and started making our way towards this guy's place. It wasn't that far as it was still in the area, and when we entered we saw Rafiki, who turned to us.

"Oh ho ho! The king—is he ready to be king?" Rafiki asked. Simba wasn't so sure, but he wanted to be. Sora asked if Rafiki could tell us about Scar's ghost, and he told us that the ghost was created whenever the evil heart of Scar met the hesitating heart of Simba. The definition of that sounded so much like a heartless, and Goofy thought the same when he told it aloud.

"Hmm, I don't know," replied Sora. Rafiki told us that we didn't know, but that it was upsetting not only us but everyone in the Pride Lands. The world was filled with things we didn't know, and Rafiki told us that it was something Simba, as king, should face—a sort of test for him.

"That's it? Come on, there was to be more," Simba said. Rafiki was unwilling to give out more details, but he told us that the hyenas would know something. I sighed, and we started heading out towards the elephant graveyard, where the hyenas were. I guess the only good thing was that I was finally getting adjusted to walking in this form, but that sadly didn't help the situation at hand.

-x-

"Whoa…" Sora said in awe as we reached the elephant graveyard. Honestly, it was a huge place with bones and sticks lit up with fire. The size was pretty impressive on its own. We quickly spotted the three hyenas, and they didn't seem happy at all to see us, but Simba asked away about Scar's ghost.

"Huh? Scar's ghost?" Shenzi asked. Ed started doing that really annoying laugh, and Banzai ran away, hinting that they probably did know something. All three of them started running away, and I lowered my head at the thought of running in this form. Still, I dragged my feet, err—paw around until I started running. I willed my Keyblade to my mouth and started chasing the closest one near me, which happened to Shenzi. She started laughing and mocking the fact that I was slow for a lioness, and I groaned in annoyance—are all hyenas so mean?

"I'm not gonna stop running, you know!" I shouted. She laughed at me, and I looked through the corners of my eye to find that Donald and Goofy had Ed under control. I ran a bit faster, and I was pretty close to Shenzi, so I tried jumping on her. Unfortunately, it didn't end well, but I managed to roll up and keep running. "If I ask nicely will you slow down?" I asked.

"Ha! You wish!" she mocked. I narrowed my eyes and got tired of this, so I ran as fast as I could, which wasn't by enough, and got pretty close to her. I jumped up a bit to cast a spell, and when the ice hit her feet she yelped and slipped down. I took the chance to cast aero, just to make her dizzy, and she groaned and struggled to move around. I smiled, quickly ran up and jumped on her while I stuck my tongue out. This Marie is on fire! I looked over to Simba and Sora, who had Banzai cornered, and brought him along with Ed to where I was. I jumped off Shenzi, and the three of them got up as we all cornered them.

"Oh no…I guess you caught us all," Banzai mocked. These guys obviously weren't at all threatened by us, but Simba demanded to know about Scar's ghost. They joked about how Scar was the one who hung around people who were scared, and right off cue he appeared behind us.

"Must be a fraidy cat around here somewhere!" Shenzi laughed. We turned around to face Scar, and Simba was, in fact, scared to do anything. The ghost asked Simba how it felt to be king, saying he must be a truly inspiring since he was the son of Mufasa. Simba backed away and ran off, and we all called out to him.

"Ah, Simba…running away as always," said the Scar ghost. He disappeared after, and the hyenas left laughing their butts off. I was about ready to yell at them, but Goofy made a point saying that Rafiki was right—Simba was scared and unsure about taking up the throne.

"We should talk to Simba about it some more," I suggested. They agreed, and we walked back to Pride Rock. When we returned, we saw Nala and Rafiki standing right outside, and Nala asked where Simba was. It was hard to tell her, but Rafiki pretty much answered for us that he ran away. He then told us that if Simba wanted to face his fears, he needed to go somewhere where the only thing he could do was think about what to do. Timon mentioned he was by the oasis, since it was their favorite hangout, and so we set off finding Simba at the oasis…

I noticed the amount of walking we're doing, and I feel lazy. Soooooo lazy.

-x-

Well, despite my laziness, we managed to make it to the oasis. We walked through it a bit, and we saw Simba being cornered by the ghost of Scar. We quickly ran towards him, and the ghost disappeared, but Simba seemed pretty bummed about it.

"It's no use. I'll never be the king my father was," Simba groaned.

"You shouldn't strive to be someone else, Simba," I said. He still looked bummed, but I decided to continue. "There can only be one of us, so we should really be ourselves."

"Yeah, you can't be Mufasa. You can only be you," Sora added. I nodded along, and Sora spoke again. "Everybody believes in you as a king. They just want to see what you'll do. And if anyone's saying they liked your father better, it's because you haven't done much yet, that's all."

"So you just gotta stop thinking of what your dad would do, and do what you feel is right," I added. Simba looked down a bit, until he looked back at us and told us he knew all of what we were trying to tell him.

"So stop moping and do something!" Sora retorted.

"I can't!" Simba shouted back. We stood in silence for a moment, until Sora reluctantly agreed with him. Donald suggested we go, and Sora turned around complaining how we shouldn't stick around if Simba wasn't even going to try. Goofy and I stood there staring at each other, unsure of what to do, since I didn't want to be rude and put Simba down even more.

"C'mon guys," Sora said as he turned his head towards us. I frowned a bit, but I guess if Simba sees people aren't willing to wait…maybe he'll start doing something? I hoped so. Goofy and I walked away and followed Sora and Donald down towards bottom, but once Simba turned around Sora dragged us behind a log near Simba. I was about to ask what was going on, but then I saw ghost Scar appear behind him, and Sora hushed us.

"The hesitant king will one day lose all his friends," Sora said, impersonating Scar. I raised my eyebrow, but soon Donald started taking over.

"King Simba the doubtful," he said. Goofy walked up a bit further beside us, and spoke right after.

"Worried by a silly ol' ghost…," he said. They looked at me, and I ducked my head—how do I sound all scary and mean? I cleared my throat as quietly as I could and looked over to Simba; man... Ryan would be better suited with these kinds of things.

"Uhh, Simba the 'I can't do anything' king," I said. They started snickering and I groaned in embarrassment, I suck at trying to be a ghost—and here I thought it would be easy!

"No!" Simba shouted. Donald continued and told him to try and stop him, still pretending to be Scar, and we saw Simba running straight at it. The ghost disappeared and we ran over to Simba, glad that he finally took a literal step forward to stand up to the ghost. Simba smiled as he looked at us, "you know, I'm really lucky to have friends who'll stand by me…and help me see clearly. My father…wasn't so fortunate."

We were a bit weary hearing him talk about his dad but Simba told us that everyone wants him to succeed, and that he had all of us, including Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki and Nala wanting the best for him. His dad, however, always had Scar behind him trying to bring him down. Simba had to make the best from his blessings and rebuild his kingdom, but there was a difference between talking about it and doing it… I learned that from Aura.

"Simba! Simba! Come quick!" we heard Timon shouting out towards us, he was in such a panic, and jittered everywhere he walked. He told us there were a lot of ghosts of Scar haunting the Pride Lands, "Everyone but Nala high-tailed it outta there and now she needs your help."

Simba didn't let Timon finish as he went running straight to the ghosts, but he was definitely happy to see Simba growing up and finding his place in the world. Simba turned back and told us we were going too, and I chuckled as we started running with Simba.

-x-

Back at Pride Rock, we saw a ghost of Scar cornering Nala and Pumbaa, and quickly ran up to them. Nala asked where Simba was and we all made way and bowed as Simba, the great king he will be, came walking with a strut as he was ready to take the throne again.

"I've come back, Nala," he told her. The ghost of Scar walked up to Simba, and they were inches away from each other. I was on my toes as we watched them stare at each other, but Simba had it all under control as he ordered the ghost to get out of his lands. He disappeared, and we all cheered for the guy. Simba walked up to Nala and were glad to see each other, and I smiled as Sora came up and nuzzled me with his chin. I gave him a lick, which was the equivalent of a kiss I guess, and he laughed as he licked me back.

However, that was short lived as we saw specks of black smoke gather around towards the middle of the land. Simba turned around and asked if we were with him and we were all ready to kick evil butt, "Now and forever, your majesty!" Sora added.

We all ran down the rocks and headed straight towards the black smoke, and once we were there, we saw it gather into a giant ball of black smoke. It got bigger for a while until out appeared a giant, four-legged Heartless with plants all over its body. Its body looked like it was made out of rocks or something, but this thing was huge. Sora and Simba stood on one side while Donald, Goofy and I dealt with the other side, and we began casting a couple of spells. Immediately, I chanted one of the spells I had just learned, which caused a tornado to surround the Heartless. It spun around for a while and fell down while being unconscious for a bit.

Sora and Simba took the chance to hit it, while I also joined in with my Keyblade. I wasn't really well adjusted to this form, even though I spent so much time running around in it, but I was able to get in a few attacks. Donald kept casting thunder, while Goofy spun around hitting the hind legs. I ran up behind the Heartless and attacked the side of its leg, and I saw it trying to get up. When I stopped attacking, I noticed something moving around on top of it, and I took a closer look to see another Heartless there. When the bigger Heartless got up, the other one stopped moving, and I figured it must be the main Heartless or the 'heart' of the Heartless.

"Sora, we gotta attack the Heartless on top of the bigger one," I said. We both ran around, but when we couldn't get on top he was a bit confused. "Let's bring it down first, and then we'll climb on top."

He nodded, and we both started attacking the legs of the Heartless. Donald and Goofy tried doing the same, while Simba attacked evenly on all legs. I cast my tornado spell again with Donald casting aero, and the Heartless fell down as he went unconscious. Sora, Simba and I climbed on its head and ran up until we saw another Heartless on top of it. Sora and Simba started attacking it while I kept casting my magic, but the Heartless used wind magic to blow all of us off. I shouted at the sudden attack, but I used my aero spell to soften the landing. I quickly healed us in case of any wounds and we all got to attack the legs again, except this time the Heartless starting using its legs to stomp the ground.

"Watch out!" I heard Sora shout. I looked ahead and saw the shockwave heading to me when it stomped, and I jumped just in time to avoid it. My landing wasn't so neat, since I fell on my back, but at least I was safe from the stomp. This would probably be a lot easier if we were in human form, but I couldn't sulk on it. Donald and Goofy managed to bring down the Heartless, and I saw Sora and Simba run up its head. I followed close behind and decided to attack it with my Keyblade, which proved a little difficult. I swung myself at the Heartless on top and I moved my Keyblade with my mouth to attack it a couple of times, but it went down when Simba attacked it.

We all jumped down and watched both the Heartless on top and the giant Heartless disappear into smoke, with the heart floating its way up to Kingdom Hearts. I sighed in relief as it disappeared, but Simba still wasn't done, so we headed back to Pride Rock.

-x-

"Simba seems fine now," Sora said as we all watched him stand on the ledge with Nala. Rafiki was glad that he was back, and told us how the Pride Lands would not forget his courage, and our courage for that matter. All I hope is that the Pride Lands don't forget how much we ran around, since my paws felt worn out.

"Do you think your quest will ever be over?" Simba asked, looking at all of us. We weren't sure, but Sora said that as long as the Keyblades stayed with us, we'd have to keep fighting. I frowned at this, because fighting is something I've never had to do—and to do it in a matter of a year or two seemed so much for me. I could probably never be as good as Sora or Riku, since those two have been playing with wooden swords their whole life, but I'll find something that I'm good at.

"Ahh… the struggle never ends, that is the great Circle of Life," Rafiki said. Sora seemed disappointed at the words never, but Rafiki told us that the secret to victory was a strong heart. He pointed towards the sky and we looked up for a moment, but then he started laughing and told us to go and fight.

"Till we meet again, Your Majesty," Sora said as we all bowed down. Simba smiled and hoped it would be soon, and we hoped as well. We said goodbye to everyone else and ran off towards the teleporter, which would take us back to the ship. Before doing so though, I jumped on Sora and tackled him down the floor. When I got up I started running a bit ahead and laughed as I stopped to turn around, and I saw Sora laughing.

"Come on, we're in the wilderness! Let's have a race!" I shouted. I started running ahead and I heard Sora reaching up to me, which caused me to jump a bit. He started laughing again, and I felt him tackle me as he got on top.

"If I become a king one day, you'll be my queen," he said as he licked my cheek. I smiled at him and gave a short giggle, until I lifted myself and got on top of him.

"I'd be with you either way," I nuzzled his chin with my head, and he gave me another lick. We started giggling until we heard Donald clear his throat, and I got off as we both stood staring at him. They started laughing though, and we all laughed our way towards the ship.


Yay, that's one world down, about three more to go. The next world is the dreaded Altantica and that means musicals and I hate musicals. Well, not all…but still.

Grapejuice101:
Haha, thank you! I tried my best to make it as perfect as I could.

JoojKA:
Awww, thanks so much, but you don't know how hard it was for me to write that scene. Since this is my first time actually writing kissing scenes, I thought I was going to ruin it, so I spent a great deal of time making it sound just right. Haha, right? The mistletoe was such a great thing to add, Halloween Town world is such a great place! I'll try not to make him OOC next time, but I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'll have a couple of more cute moments I hope, so stay tuned for that :D Aura helped a lot more thank you think ;) thank you for supporting! Love you too~

Shadow 1n2:
Ahh, it sounds sooo much better than the original and it was just so nice with the scene and agggh. She'll be so shocked about Isa, since she's already met Axel/Lea. The worst will be when she finds out about Saix in Kingdom Hearts 3D/3, but she'll be so happy to see Lea though. Aqua? I guess Terra lol, I don't know, they seem like a cute couple. xD I probably won't, and really? That's so sad I love RDJ! I'm glad he'll be in the avengers though, that's a great relief because I LOVE the avengers.

Dracula X:
It's the most beautiful time of the year, and winter is such a lovely sight to see when the trees are all decorated with lights and people singing and children playing in the snow. :D

Captainface:
Welcome back to Earth! Glad to see you again. :D aha, yes I have finally provided a scene where I promised a kiss! Oh gosh, tell me about it. I still don't know if I want Marie to enter Tron's world, but I'm still debating. Atlantica… -shudder-

WingOfHope:
Aha, I'm glad you thought so! I thought it be sweeter this way if I made him imagine Marie, and totally! Donald and Goofy would definitely do that and I saw it in my head as I wrote the chapter haha. Ah yes, the reunion. I won't have to worry so much about Riku, since Aura is kinda there, but Kairi… well, I guess we'll have to wait.