Arabian Knights
Sora ran at a fast pace through a marketplace in the middle of a large desert city named Agrabah. The latest of worlds he had traveled, this place looked completely run down and decaying. Sora stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the people he passed by, many of them in rags of scarfs, some with large bushy beards while other veiled their faces.
What stood out though from this strange and exotic new world though was the magnificent palace that stood at the very edge of the city. It towered over everyone, with large golden circular turrets, and white marble walls completely surrounded by a mighty gate. Apparently the locals said that it was the home of the Sultan himself, who was the ruler of this city.
None of that mattered now though as Sora found himself being chased by several Heartless lead by rowdy thugs through the city streets. Originally he, Riku, Donald and Goofy had come here when they had learned of another one of the King's Gummi's using the GummiTrackers. Sora was just happy to be with Riku and show him a world and share the sights with him. It was honestly the first world he went too were he actually felt confidence, maybe this time he could actually be a Keyblade Master.
Sadly once again it seemed trouble kept finding him.
Sora turned a corner to see the Heartless spreading out, the thug in question was a balding looking wide eyed man with red turban and pudgy small frame by the name of Abis Mal.
"Alright you yutzy's two up, two down there and two with me because I don't want to get jumped on."
Sora eyed the street as he outstretched his hand, trying to summon his Keyblade. "Come on stupid thing?"
"Having trouble?" Sora looked up as Riku came jumping down from one of the buildings showing off his Soul Eater.
Sora glared at the weapon. "Sure you can use your weapon," He whined.
"Heh, at least mines sharp and actually do damage not like that Key thing of yours," Riku snickered.
"It's called a Keyblade and you know it's really powerful," Sora hissed becoming annoyed, "If only I could summon the dang thing."
"Well you might wanna figure that out now because-" Riku pointed forward as several Heartless emerged in front of them.
Sora grimace. "Ah phooey,"
Abis Mal now cornered them, the pudgy thug smiled wickedly as he pointed his sword toward them, the sharp point ready to cut necks.
"Finally, caught by the greatness of the great Abis Mal," He declared, "Jafar warned us about yuh see, and oh boy am I going to get a big award for turning you in...maybe a million, no...A BILLION gold and silver."
Sora rolled his eyes, "Well, yeah….Well...You said great twice."
"Ha, can't even think of a witty remark," Abis Mal smirked, "You know good Key brat!"
"Key brat," Sora scoffed, "That's a new one."
"Well any bright suggestions." Riku asked.
"I got one." Sora suggested.
"What?"
"There's an old Riku," Sora said giving him, "When you're in trouble sometimes you GOTTA KEEP…."
Sora
One Jump ahead of the Heartless.
One skip ahead of the sword.
I run, only when I can't afford...To die anyway.
One Jump ahead of the darkness.
That's all and that's no joke.
Hey guys don't you know I'm broke.
Thugs
Riff Raff
Key brat!
Scoundrel!
Take that!
Sora
Just
A
Little
Break guys!
Thugs
Rip
Him
Open
Take
His
Heart guys!
Sora
I can take a hint gotta face the facts
You're my only friend Riku!
True!
Donald and Goofy
There goes Sora, constantly on the run
While we try to find our friend the King.
Goofy
Gosh, Donald how do you work this machine.
Sora
Gotta run to live
Gotta live to run
Tell you all about it while I got the time!
One jump ahead of the slowpokes
One skip ahead of my doom
Next time gonna use a nom de plume
One jump ahead of the hitmen
One hit ahead of the flock
I think I'll take a stroll around the block
Peseants
Stop kid!
Vandal!
Outrage!
Scandal!
Sora
Let's
Not
Be
To
Hasty!
Woman
Still
I
Think
He's
Rather
Tasty
Sora
Gotta fight to live
Gotta live to fight.
Otherwise we'd get along
Wrong
One Jump ahead of the hoofbeats
One hop ahead of the hop
One trick ahead of disaster
They're quick but i'm much faster
Here goes
Better through my hands in
Wish me happy landin
All I gotta do is jump!
Sora landed heads down into a back and got on his knees and began breathing heavily. Finally he managed to lose the thugs seeing them rush off in various directions deep into the city now.
"Yeesh, you'd think the Heartless would give me a breather whenever I visit a world but NOOOOOO."
He took a minute and laid on his knees, feeling them ache from all the running he had did during that chase. Thankfully all the years of exercise and energy he had from the Island definitely was starting to pay off. Yet the intensity of it was still something he had to get used too.
"Tired?" Riku asked jumping down and landing behind him. "Here?"
He handed Sora a flash of water who quickly drank it trying to re-hydrate himself as quickly as possible. Yet then of all of a sudden Sora paused and looked at the flask of water curiously and then at Riku with a suspicious gaze.
"Where did you get this?" Sora asked wiping the water from his face.
"Nicked it." Riku said snickering giggling the canister.
Sora gasped and held back the flash as if it were diseased. "Riku-that's stealing."
"Gotta do what you gotta do right?" He asked putting a arm over Sora shoulder. "Beside, it's just water, not like we're stealing gold or anything valuable."
"This is the desert Riku, I think water is pretty valuable to some of these people, especially with this heat. Besides it's not like i was stealing it from someone who needed it or anything. Trust me I think the guy selling it can afford to buy another flash"
"Yeah well-what about people who can't.
Then as if the universe had heard Sora's concern he heard a soft muttering come from outside the alley way. Quickly he turned to look outside and see what was up and see to his surprise two children, a boy and girl, rummaging through what looked like garbage. Both seemed quite famished and dirty looking. Instantly Sora felt felt a sense of guilt just looking at them, seeing how tire they looked, he gazed at the flask and began to approach.
"Sora what are you doing?" Riku hissed angrily.
Sora shushed him and turned back to the children, causing them to jump as they saw him approach. "Hey-hey it's okay, you guys look thirsty, here, you can mine, I don't really need that much."
Slowly the boy took it and looked inside beaming when he saw the water. He took a sip and handed it to the girl who took another sip. Instantly the two children looked much better just by having a bit of liquid in their system.
"See- that's better." Sora tussled the boy hair and smiled. "Sorry if I spooked yuh, take care."
They both smiled up at Sora and nodded before running off.
Once they were gone Sora stood back up to see how the rest of the streets had become emptier than normal. Everything seemed quite hollowed out and broken, holes in every building, rats running around the streets. It seemed nothing in this placed seem nice.
"This place looks so run down, wonder if it was always like this?" Sora sighed as he walked back into the alley way, he seemed tired.
Riku sneered eyeing those kids as they ran off angrily, "Oh come on Sora-stop being mr. goody goody all of time, sometimes you can't be like that all the time if your gonna survive. Right now your dehydrated so drink the water already so we can get a move on."
"They need it more than me Riku, we got plenty of supplies back on the Gummi Ship."
"Yes but we needed it now." Riku rebutted, anger rising in his voice.
Sora seemed taken aback by how aggressive Riku was behaving, at the end of the day it was just a flash of water, and he had felt he had done the right thing by giving it to those two kids.
"Sometimes you gotta wait Riku, you don't always have to take things if you can get them later."
Riku rolled his eyes. "Not if you don't wanna die right away."
Sora sighed, he hated when Riku did bad things even if there were so called 'good' reasons. Even when they were kids Riku would be the mischief maker of his trio of friends like sneaking into his father's study to steal tools so they could build a rocket wagon hoping that would get them to space. Or worse when Riku showed off a switch blade only to stab Sora in the foot, something his mother did not appreciate when he got home. Still Sora always appreciated that at the end of the day no matter what questionable things Riku would do, he would always find a way to make up for it, band stand by his friends. That sort of nobleness was something Sora admired and always looked up too, Riku always would look after him, be his protector in a lot of ways.
Only problem these days was that Sora was learning more and more to look after himself and handle things on his own without Riku's help. Something perhaps that Riku himself didn't quite yet understand.
"Well-what do you wanna do next?" Riku asked putting a his hands in his pocket. "Not like we can just leave without finding whatever those two idiot friends are yours are looking.
"Come on Riku that's not fair, give them a chance." Sora pleased. "They wanna get to know you."
Riku moaned rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I still don't like them, especially the duck, I don't think he likes me very much."
"Kairi didn't like you very much at first either." Sora reminded him giving a cheeky grin. "Yet she grew to like you over time."
"I still have my doubts some days."
"Oh don't do that Riku she likes you, and when we find her I'm sure she'll-"
Suddenly, the sounds of shrieks echoed around them as people began to run in fear and terror.
"It's Jafar!" One peasant shouted as he ran past them. "Run! Run for your lives!"
As they looked into the crowd, Sora could see the arrival of a patrol of Heartless gathering towards the main square. In the middle of the group stood a man tall and proud wearing long black robes that drenched his body and an elegant black turban with blood red feather that adorned his head. The appearance was almost snake like thin and sleek, a greasy curly beard along his chin. But the most striking item on him was a golden snake staff he carried in his right hand, it's eyes glowing a sick shade of hypnotic red as he passed through the crowd.
"That's the guy?" Sora hissed as he looked from behind the alley way, "The one with Maleficent."
Riku sneered, "Yeah...Him."
Many of the peasants bowed or coward as he crossed the streets. Hovering over him, a red parrot flew by landing on his shoulder. He had a very angry expression to him as he glared at everyone sneering with his big yellow beak. Sora could feel fear overcome him, remembering the small bit of power he had unleashed against him.
"Yeah, that's right!" It spoke in a high pitch gravelly annoying voice that edged daggers into one's eardrums. "Bow before the boss Jafar! That's right on your knees you no good yutzes...I wanna see those knees bend! Come on, you people can do better!"
"Enough, Iago." Jafar said in a cold voice, he then firmly glared at the peasants. "Citizens of Agrabah! As your new Sultan, great change will soon come to our fair city! For to long criminals and street rats have roamed around the lands, it is time we restored order!"
The citizens muttered to one another wondering what that meant, Jafar stood before the prisoners pride in his eyes as he gestured to his subjects, his voice rose so they could all hear him as he spoke. It seemed as if his voice had been magically altered to sound louder than it actually way.
"Behold my subjects! The punishment for these… Heartless criminals. Rebel's plotting with the former princess and Sultan to try and dethrone me."
"Heartless...Now that's a bit too far don't yuh think," One of them with a fuzzy beard said.
From behind him Jafar summoned forth a group of Heartless dragging citizens in chains. They all seemed beaten down and broken, eyes red from crying as they all shuttered in fear. Sora could only watch in horror the urge to help out strong. He clenched his fist in anger but Riku held him back putting a hand over his shoulder.
"Now now-" Riku whispered. "There are to many of them, we can't do anything."
"But they might be-"
"Hush Sora, not now."
"Oh, this is gonna be good!" Iago grinned wickedly at the prisoners rubbing his feathers together in excitement.
"Behold the punishment to those who disobey me, let this be a lesson to all, that in the end you will all bow to me! There will be no one who oppose me, no rebellion, not even you're former princess."
All the citizens watching did, quickly they got to their knees and bowed even the prisoners did as well.
Three prisoners in particular stood out, two skinny one chunky, one wearing fezzes and vest, colored coded, Red, Blue and Green. It reminded Sora of Huey, Duey and Louie to a degree.
Jafar holds out a scroll and reads out there names, "Babak, Omar, Kazim...You have charged with trying to overthrow the throne, conspiracy….and thievery"
"Thievery" Kazim said looking incensed, "Conspiracy, maybe, rebellion, okay...but thievery...We are legit thank you".
"I mean….I stole that Biryani soup a few hours ago," Babak said smiling cheekily
Kazim rolled his eyes glaring at him, "Really? Really!"
"I was hungry!" Babkak argued
"They made me do it," Omar cried, "I just wanted to have a nice day and relax on the sand. Maybe get a nice tan, ladies like a tand…."
"Really Omar, come on guys we need to seem tough, were rebels remember" Kazim said
"Sorry! I can't help myself, I'm sensitive"
"Of course you are," Kazim sighed
Jafar sneered, "Regardless you three are said to be conspiring with the Princess to dethrone me, I will not allow that to stand in my new order"
"Yeah," Iago shrieked, "We are the most New Order to ever order the order bubs"
"Did that parrot talk?" Babak whisper edt to Kazim, "Wonder if it taste good?"
"Hey," Iago squalked, "I ain't lunch"
"Yet," Jafar muttered, "Regardless, you three will bow to me or perish".
The three thieves looked at one another unsure.
"Now, when you say bow," Kazim asked, "How deep are we talking about, low, really, low...super duper low….There is only so much we bow".
"Yeah, my knee is already killing me," Omar muttered
The trio started bowing looking nervous, along with some of the other prisoners
All except one, a elderly women who's wrinkled face showed the story of someone who had lived long and seen much in her lifetime. Even in her chains she had a stern toughness to her as she stood tall glaring at the evil sorcerer who stood before her. Slowly she lifted he arm and pointed a bony finger right at Jafar who seemed taken aback by her defiance.
"I will never bow to you-" She said her voice raspy yet strong. "You are not the sultan, and I have seen tyrants like you rise and fall every time."
"Oh really?" Jafar turned to Iago and snickered. "And tell me old women did those tyrants have the darkness on their side."
"Oh come on she doesn't mean it," Babak said, "She's old...Deranged, ain't yah grandma"
"Yes."
Quickly Jafar's mood turned sour as he glared at this woman who dared defied him. Quickly he slammed his gold snake staff into the ground, a dark aura overtaking him as the staffs ruby eyes began to glow bright red. Suddenly the elderly women and the three thieves Kazim, Omar and Babak began to be encompassed in that same dark aura as well, her face flinched and twisted as it consumed her. Everyone stepped back in shock to avoid getting hit by the magical aura themselves.
"Oh this isn't good," Kazim said
"I'm commin Mama," Babak shouted
"Your mother is around the corner," Omar reminded
"Oh right"
From the alley way Riku held Sora back as he struggled to get out of his grip and help.
"There isn't anything you can do." Riku hissed violently. "Hush or will get caught."
Sora struggled even harder now but it was to later, he heard a scream and shock before Riku finally let him go. Looking outside he no longer saw the elderly women but instead a Shadow Heartless standing in the center of the square, its' antennas twitching and body dancing as it saw potential hearts for it to swallow in the light.
Everyone gathered took a step back in shock as Jafar merely cackled with victorious glee.
"Learn well citizens of Agrabah, the chaotic reign of the sultan is over, with the blessed darkness I will insure a new golden age of this city, but to those who defy me, let this be a lesson to everyone."
With those last words Jafar vanished in the dark, everyone else quickly scattering as the Hearteless continued to escort the prisoners away.
Sora just looked out towards the streets for a few more minutes in silence before turning to Riku glaring at him.
"I could stopped him!" he shouted giving Riku a soft push off of him. "I could have stopped him if you just let me handle it!"
"No you couldn't he would have killed you." Riku yelled back pushing Sora back in response. "That's the kind of magic that would have killed you like that."
Sora took a deep breath yet he was still angry the image of the woman being turned into a Heartless continued to play in his mind. The fact that Riku prevented him from doing anything about it just made him more upset.
"Those people that old women needed someone to help them Riku, I'm the Keyblade Master, that kinda comes with the job description, I could have stopped them."
"What?" Riku scoffed. "You can barley summon that Key let alone fight with it, face it Sora there was nothing you could have done. Life isn't fair that way but you just have to deal with it. Sometimes there isn't anything you can do okay."
"But what if I can Riku? What if I could, I've been fighting a lot of monsters and Heartless since I've started this trip, I think I could have done it."
Riku rolled his eyes. "Those are mindless Heartless Sora, that was a actual man, who thinks and can do magic! He's going to try and outthink you, and let's face it Sora you and thinking don't mix well."
"Yeah well I-"
BAMM
Behind them a few boxes that were stacked at the end of the alleyway tumbled behind them, a shadow could be seen plastered on the mud wall. Both boys jumped back and took defensive positions, Riku holding his sword firm, Sora struggling to summon his Keyblade-again.
"Who's there?" Riku yelled.
Silence.
"Come out or I'll make you come out!"
Sora seemed unsure. "Riku? What if they aren't a threat."
"If they were hiding they're a threat, so COME OUT!"
Slowly. a young woman, scared and innocent looking, began to emerge from the crates. Looking too unsure that she was not being spotted by anyone else but the two boys. She wore a brown sweater rag and a scarf adorned her head covering most of her black hair. She was quite beautiful looking with sleek tan skin and thin figure, yet there was something fierce about her, for even if she held out her arms she seems ready to jump back if need be.
Sora seemed quite taken with her right away, thinking she was quite beautiful and looked like she was in trouble. Riku seemed more cynical and glared keeping his defensive stance and tight grip of his sword.
"Who are you?" She said to them much to the boys surprise. "And why are you wearing such strange clothes."
The young woman straighted herself and glared back at them looking stern arms folded together, acting much tougher than both boys would have believed. She kept her stern look waiting for one of them to answer there question.
Riku spoke up after a few seconds of silence.
"We could ask you the same question, your clothes are weird looking too, how do we know you aren't a outsider.."
"Riku!" Sora hissed nudging his shoulder. "I think she lives here so we are kinda the weird looking one here.
"I'm trying to not give us away." Riku whispered back.
The woman sighed and lowered her arms realizing these two were not a threat, at least not purposely one. " Very well, I am Jasmine and this is traditional Agrabahian garb! You do not look like you even live in this land."
Quickly Sora smiled and held out his hand. "Well I'm Sora, sorry if scared yuh, we aren't really from around here, and trying to hide."
"Nice show of strength and secrecy Sora." Riku muttered sarcastically walking up to the both of them now.
Slowly, Jasmine lowered her guard and gently shook Sora's hand. "Sorry, I've just been a bit paranoid lately, these strange shadow creatures have been after me."
"The Heartless." Sora said, his mood souring. "Yeah, we saw a few of them around the city just now. They've been swarming all over the place...I would have been able to help if SOMEONE had let me.."
He glared at Riku angirly before turning back to Jasmine.
"No, no...It's not just that it's...um…" Jasmine looked around the corner to make sure no one was watching. "Look, I shouldn't be here I should go."
"Hey, if the Heartless are after you, maybe we can help? I have something can protect people from them."
Jasmine looked at Sora curiously. "What?"
"It's called a-"
Immediately Riku put his hand over Sora mouth. "Sora! Don't go blabbing, how can we trust her? She could be working for the Heartless for all we know."
"You are always so paranoid." Sora pushed Riku's hands off him. "She doesn't look like she's working for the Heartless, I trust her."
"Yeah well I have trouble trusting people I just met."
"If trust is a issue, then I'll take you somewhere safe away from Jafar and his minions. Then perhaps we can talk."
Riku looked at Jasmine with suspicion before nodding. "Fine, take us."
"Sora!"
"Sora!"
Donald and Goofy arrived both tired and confused, both looking up the scene without having any idea what was going on.
"Sora ...Uh…." Donald had no words for wear.
Goofy smiled and winked. "I know that look, looks like we are helping someone."
Donald could only sigh. "Aw phooey, it's Wonderland all over again."
"So what's up with that Vizer guy anyway." Sora asked Jasmine as they began to head off to the palace.
"His name is Jafar- and he is a traitor to this world."