Wow it has been some time since this was last updated, but now it has finally returned!
Ch.16
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Juliana started to make their way through the hold, meeting Peter Pan fairly soon after they started. Sora did enjoy having a conversation with Peter again and then getting the ability to fly. As soon as the pixie dust was sprinkled over his head he floated off the ground and laughed with joy. Though he watched ash Donald and Goofy seemed to struggle with it. It was then that he remembered he wasn't supposed to figure out how to fly yet… but he saw that there was no harm in it.
"If things are already changing, it shouldn't matter if I learn to fly now rather than later," Sora thought to himself. "It's only a minor thing anyways compared to the rest."
Though he was still worried about the situation at hand, he didn't know what else he could do while trapped in the bottom of the ship. He was still making his way through it though, to get to the point where he was supposed to see Kairi. She was supposed to be in the room with Wendy, but now with what the seeker said, he felt that may no longer be the case.
While they searched in the bellows of the ship, Hook was storming around on the upper levels. He had yet to find the cloaked person from before, but he still kept a keen eye out for him. If there was one thing Hook hated, it was stollways on his ship. And this one stollway was one that he knew could be a serious problem. He knew that it would be dangerous to trifle with his new person, but he wanted to get him off his ship as soon as possible.
But he couldn't find anything so far. He had searched all over the upper levels of the ship, yet there was no cloaked person to be seen anywhere. "Maybe he went below deck. If that is the case then the brat with the keyblade can deal with him."
Hook made his way back to the Captain's Hold and walked over to the tube he could use to communicate with to different areas of the ship. "Smee. Have you found anything yet on the stollway?"
Hook waited a minute before he heard the voice of his first mate. "No sir! B-But you should know that the prisoners have escaped! And Peter Pan is with them!"
Hook gritted his teeth. "Blast that Peter Pan. First the strange stollway and now this! This was not the plan." Hook sighed heavily as he tried to regain his thoughts. "We will have to deal with these stowaways, one way or another. Smee! Bring the hostages to me cabin! Hop to it!
Meanwhile back with Sora and his group, they had made it to where Wendy was. At least they technically had made it. They were a floor below, but there was a grate in which they could look through to see her.
After Peter checked to make sure it was Wendy, he began looking for another way up. Sora on the other hand, approached the grate, holding his questions to himself until he got close enough.
"Uh hey, Wendy?"
"Yes?" The young girl asked.
"Um… is there anyone else in the room with you? Perhaps another girl?"
"No, I'm sorry. I'm the only one who's here," Wendy replied.
"She really is gone then…" Sora thought to himself. He lowered his head, feeling the worry and fear sink into his skin.
"Sora?" Juliana asked. "Are you okay?"
"Kairi's not here…" Sora whispered. He made sure to keep his voice low even though Donald and Goofy were currently over helping Peter Pan. "She's supposed to be here, I think that seeker has something to do with it."
"What did they say?"
"He said something about a knight chasing after a pawn bait, but I don't understand what that means…"
"I'm not sure either… from what I can gather, Riku went after someone. Maybe it was the other seeker, but we know one of them is here still. And we need to find him and fast."
"Right, let's go," Sora said as they went over to where the others were.
After some more searching and wandering, the group finally made their way higher up on the ship. When they got to the room where Wendy was, the door was locked. Though Sora already knew this so he went on looking for the room that would lead them up to the captain's hold.
Sora breathed in deeply as he climbed the ladder leading up. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he knew things were already changing. With the seeker there and not Riku, it only left Sora to wonder more what the goal of the seekers were. What were they getting out of this?
Once Sora got to the top of the lander he scanned the room, hoping that he would see Riku holding Kairi like how it had originally happened. Deep down every part of him wanted to believe that things would be fine, that he wouldn't have to worry. But the longer this went on, the less likely it felt like that.
"Check, Queenie. Your move," came a comment from shadows in the corner.
Sora whipped his head to the sound of the voice. It was the same hooded figure from before. "You! You're the one I met before!" Sora shouted before summoning his keyblade and stepping into an offensive position.
"You're lucky I got time kill Queen Obvious." With a flick of both wrists, the figure summoned a pair of large indigo yo-yos. "Idiot fight!" Charging at Sora, he flicked one of the yo-yos so that it's 'string' wrapped around the keyblade, and yanked hard on the connection.
Sora gasped as he tried to keep a hold on his keyblade, but the force was enough to cause him to stumble forward. Thankfully in the moment of his struggle Donald and Goofy charged forward. Donald cast a fire spell at the cloaked person while Goofy prepared to ram forward with his shield. Peter Pan, though confused by the newcomer took to the space above and tried to see how he could best attack.
Juliana on the other hand stayed near Sora examined the strings that were coming from the yo-yo. She attempted a blizzard spell but nothing happened.
The cloaked Kuri slid under the fireball while throwing his other yo-yo at Donald. It proceed to wrap around the duck while Kuri sprung back to his feet, flicking both his wrists. One sent the squawking duck at Goofy while the other yanked the keyblade upwards.
Donald and Goofy crashed and tumbled to the ground while Sora was thrown up into the air before falling to the floor. He let out a grunt as his face collided with the floor. Though he quickly tried to regain himself, pulling back his keyblade as hard as he could.
Kuri stumbled slightly before regaining his footing. In that brief moment, the strings of the yo-yos flickered before he flicked his wrists, making the lines vanish completely, freeing Donald and the keyblade. With a snap of his fingers, Kuri made new strings for the yo-yos before sending one at Juliana and the other at Peter Pan.
While Peter Pan was caught off guard by such a unique weapon, causing him to get snagged by the string, Juliana was more prepared. She cast a light barrier around herself, blocked off the oncoming attack. She kept her eyes locked on the hooded person before jumping off to the side and began to generate a field of electricity.
Yanking on the string that had caught Peter Pan, Kuri attempted to throw him at Juliana.. Despite Peter Pan trying to break free, it wasn't enough and he collided into Juliana, who wasn't able to stop her electricity in time. The two cried out as they stumbled to the ground.
Sora charged and made a quick dash to slide by the hooded figure on his right, trying to slash him as he passed. The keyblade was angled right at the figures waistline.
Upon impact, Kuri tumble-flipped over the keyblade onto the floor, the lines connecting to his yo-yos vanishing. Quickly, he rolled over back onto his feet before anyone else could get a shot at him. His weapons vanished as he sprung at Sora in a flying tackle.
Before Sora could even react, the force of impact caused him to stumble backwards towards the ground. Without even realizing it, they had crashed into the door and were now out on the deck of the ship. There were Heartless flying around, but right in the center of the deck stood Hook. It was clear that he was shocked as well as extremely ticked off at what he saw before him.
"You boy!" he exclaimed as he pointed to Kuri. "You are the stollway I have been trying to find."
Throwing himself off of Sora, Kuri sprung over so that he, Sora, amd Hook were now standing equidistant from each other. With a flick of both wrists, Kuri resommoned his yo-yos.
"And you have other idiots to preoccupy your time."
"I will deal with Pan and the others after you. You boy are the stowaway that has messed up the plan," Hook replied, taking out his sword and pointed it at the boy.
"I've messed up the plan?" Kuri spoke with annoyance. "You're the fool who focused on the wrong target."
He jumped up to the first crossbeam of the mast, flinging his yo-yos at hook. The strings wrapped around the captain's arms while the actual yo-yos returned to the hooded Kuri. Sora managed to push himself to his feet as he saw Captain Hook struggle against the strings that were wrapped around his arms.
"Blast! What magic is this that you are using!" Hook grumbled angrly. "Release me at once you scurvy brat!"
"Now now captain, we're all pieces on this board, but it's time for you to make the move you've been directed to."
Sora ran closer to them and brought his keyblade out again. He didn't even bat an eye to Hook anymore. "Stop talking nonsense. Just who are you? What's your goal?"
"Why me? I'm just a pawn a few moves away from matching your rank queeny, but if you must see my human face..." With a quick movement of his right arm, Kuri threw off his hood, causing the link that held Hook's right arm to jerk back. He had finally revealed his appearance of a young teenager with short, shaggy black hair and off-shade brown eyes.
"Kuri!" Juliana shouted, finally making her way over to Sora.
"Long time no see Juliana. It seems that you've finally joined the rest of us on the board."
"Tell me why you and Yutaka are doing this! I can't understand it! And where exactly is he?" Juliana shouted as soon as she as given the chance to speak.
"You won't understand. We've chosen our own side in this game after everything was lost," Kuri began. "And Yutaka, he's off playing keep away with queeny's knight friend."
Sora watched as Juliana kept a serious gazed tied to Kuri. With a quick glance over his shoulder, Sora saw that Donald, Goofy, and Peter Pan were fending off Heartless. There were much more on the ship than he had recalled and they had been trying to close in on them, but thanks to the help of his friends that wasn't happening. Now that left more open space to confront this seeker more directly.
"What are you talking about? Just what was lost that made you come back and try to change things? What reasons do you have, like what is Xehanort gaining from you two doing this?" Sora asked.
"You're asking questions that you don't need to know the answers to." Kuri responded. "Now, lets stop dilly dallying." With a flick of both wrists, Kuri forced Hook into something resembling a fighting stance.
"I'll ask again boy!" Hook shouted, trying not to sound too frantic, though it could clearly be seen on his face. "Just what do you think you are doing?! Release me from this magic bind!"
"Can it Captain. If you're not going to play your part, I'm going to make you, pawn."
"Wait," Sora whispered to Juliana. "He is using those strings to control him, right?"
Juliana nodded. "Looks like it. So if we can manage to break those strings, we will get Hook out of Kuri's control. Then we go straight for Kuri and try to get our answers."
"Enough chit chat from you two. If you won't start, then I will." Making dramatic gestures, Kuri puppeteered Hook into attacking by lunging forward with his cutlass.
Sora raised his keyblade to block while Juliana jumped back. While Sora kept Hook at bay for as long as he could, Juliana sent out a spell of ice that formed underneath Hook's feet. The captain slipped to the ground as a result, letting out a series of grumles and hard to understand pirate curse words.
Kuri stumbled forward, trying to keep the string held tight. He narrowed his eyes as he yanked on the string, pulling Hook rather quickly back to his feet. He caused the man to move forward carefully across the ice and over to Juliana and Sora, making him attack once more.
Sora blocked the oncoming attack while Juliana did her best to get out of the way. She created a glow of light that surrounded Sora, a defensive barrier. With that now around him Sora jumped back before jumping up in the air to perform an aerial dive. Hook cursed out as he was forced down, pulling the strings along with him.
"Tsk." Kuri dismissed the strings before he was yanked down along with Hook. With a quick flick of his wrists, Kuri then quickly summoned his yo-yos and flung them as frisbees, one at Sora's feet, and the other at Juliana's torso.
With the barriers already fading, both of them had to think fast. Sora managed to dodge roll out of the way with time to spare. Juliana on the other hand only managed to get out of the way partly before the yo-yo collided with her leg. Tumbling to the ground she cried out in pain, gripping her ankle.
Sora turned to look. "Juliana!"
"I'm fine, just focus on Hook and Kuri!"
Sora nodded and turned towards Hook, who now looked like he was in a daze. Seeing that Hook was more preoccupied in regaining his senses Sora jumped up again, this time at Kuri and swung his keyblade down.
Taking a step back, off the beam, Kuri dropped down slightly. Summoning a single yoyo back to his right hand and throwing it, wrapping the string around the rigging. Using it as a rope or vine of sorts, Kuri swung down to the upper section of the deck.
Sora landed back on the ground, staggering slightly, and then quickly faced Kuri again. "Hey! Get back here!" Sora started to run to the upper section to get to Kuri.
Kuri flicked a yo-yo out directly at Sora, giving him only seconds to try to deflect it. Kuri then spoke seconds later. "I'm not your opponent, he's down there."
"Hook is not who I need to go after right now! You're the one causing all the trouble!"
"Oh please, I'm just a distraction. Isn't he supposed to be the final boss here?"
"What are you even talking about? None of that matters since you and the other seeker went back in time trying to change things."
"But isn't your goal for things to stay the same? After all I'm only here in place of your shadow," Kuri replied nonchalantly.
Sora gripped the handle of his keyblade tightly. Anymore he would go for the attack, but he was still needing answers. "We want things to be the same, but with you messing things up, you need to be stopped first."
"But am I really the bigger threat here? After all who's the one to open the door?"
"Well how should I know?!" Sora yelled, surprised that Kuri had not attack again. If he wanted his attempt at answers, now seemed like better time than any. "You're trying to change things, so all of that could change for all I know!"
Kuri chuckled. "With your silver knight having chosen his side, someone has to take his place."
"Silver knight…?" Sora asked slowly. "What… you mean Riku? Tell me what you mean by that!"
"You'll find out soon enough queeny. Now if you excuse me, I've done enough distraction." Kuri gave a theatrical bow. "Until next time. Geronimo!" He then just out of the blue swan dived over the railing into a dark corridor.
Sora blinked, feeling far more confused than before. He wanted to run after Kuri, but the corridor closed moments later. Seeing as that was all he was going to get, he turned his attention back down to the main deck.
Donald, Goofy and Peter Pan had fought off the Heartless, and Juliana had cast a blizzard spell onto Hook, freezing him in his place. Everything seemed like it could go back on track now and he could seal up the keyhole in his world, but he was starting to have a bit of trouble thoughts.
"I don't get it… what does he mean by silver knight and someone taking his place. If he means Riku… what is he planning?" Sora asked himself, even though he knew he wouldn't get any answers. All he knew though was that they would have to get to Hollow Bastion as fast as they could if he wanted them any time soon.
Finally we are building up to the good stuff, so sorry it took us so long. Thanks for reading though!