I almost didn't get this one done on time since it was longer than normal, and I kept rewriting certain things. Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy.
Inverted Sky: Kingdom Hearts II
Chapter 87: Kairi
"Another door?" the auburn-haired teen muttered with a blinking gaze.
Her, Donald and Goofy each standing in front of Queen Minnie at Disney Castle. The mouse giving the three a slow nod of her head as she sat in her throne with both hands in her lap. "Yes...not long ago, we were informed by Even that another door leading to the past was found in Hollow Bastion." she responded, her gaze thoughtful as she looked to each of them.
"However, when he was investigating it, it vanished. The only thing that he could tell us, was a rough estimate of when and where the time period it led to." Minnie continued as she glanced to the side for a moment.
"So I called Merlin to come and help us create another door to the same era." she claimed, to which said wizard came walking up to her side.
"While it will be difficult to make one based off the information Even gave to us...I feel confident that I'll be able to do it." the elder man said wisely, stroking his beard in the meantime.
"Of course...because I must maintain the magic, I cannot go through the door myself. And because Queen Minnie has a high probability of seeing her past self...we ask the three of you to journey into the past and stop whatever might be happening." he continued with a glance to each of the trio.
All of whom blinked a few times, yet slowly nodded their heads in response to this request. "We'd be honored to accept this mission." Donald stated while bowing for a moment.
"We'll do our very best, Queen Minnie." Goofy added, offering a salute instead.
Kairi simply smiled lightly as she clasped her hands together behind her back; "And we'll be very careful." she said in a somewhat teasing manner as she glanced toward Donald.
Whom huffed and crossed his arms; "Hey...why are you only looking at me?" he questioned with narrowed eyes of suspicion.
The teen giggled softly and shook her head; "No reason." she hummed softly before looking to Merlin as he lead them in the direction he came in from.
After arriving in a side chamber, the wizard then began a few hand motions and closed both eyes. Within mere seconds, a silver door appeared directly in front of the group. The reflective sections around the frame shimmered brightly from the candle light around them. But as they looked to the design at the top, each of them blinked many times, particularly Donald. As, where the previous door they encountered held a dragon, this one held what looked to be a duck's grinning face in the middle of a circle.
"I feel like I've seen that face somewhere before." Donald muttered silently, yet simply shook his head as he couldn't think of the individual.
"Be careful...all of you." Merlin spoke up, his tone being serious as he gave the three an expression to match it.
"Traveling into the past comes with great responsibilities, so tread carefully and don't reveal your true identities to anyone. Understand?" he continued, waving his hand through the air briefly as to further his words.
Immediately following this, the trio nodded their heads in response and headed through the door one after the other. Upon reaching the other side, the three found themselves standing in an alleyway of what they could only guess was a rundown area of a town. As they glanced around, none of them could see anyone else nearby. But there were obvious sounds of a busy street nearby, thanks to the dozens of footfalls and multiple conversations going on at once.
With a brief glance to one another, they slowly made their way to the end of the alleyway and saw the street ahead. Where multiple anthropomorphic animals walked by, each one just going about their day as per normal. The three moved back into the alley and looked to one another yet again. It being clear that they were going to stick out. Not just from their clothing, but also of Kairi simply being a human.
"Guess it's time for a bit of magic." the duck whispered, summoning and lifting his staff up slightly.
Kairi nodded in agreement while lifting a hand to the staff, to which they both cast the same spell in unison. This not only changing their clothes to something more bland and inconspicuous, but also turning the teen into an auburn-furred anthropomorphic cat. Upon looking herself over, Kairi grinned slightly and gave a nod. "Perfect." she muttered with a small grin.
"Now we'll blend in better." Donald muttered, yet glanced toward the now feline girl and sighed.
Him knowing that Kairi would likely still attract attention, merely from her fur color. Thanks to their bland clothes though, they seemed to be just another couple of faces in the crowd when moving onto the street. As they followed along with the traffic of people, each of the three kept their eyes and ears open for anything strange going on. But due to the sheer cacophony of voices speaking around them, listening for things became quite a challenge.
However, one rang out over all the rest, as it sounded young and almost desperate. "Shoe shine~! Come get a shoe shine~!"
Hearing this, Donald froze up for a moment before immediately rushing in the direction of the voice. Kairi and Goofy quickly ran after him, to which they came upon the scene of a young duckling looking around to the people passing by. Him merely asking if they'd like a shoe shine, yet almost appeared to be ignored by everyone passing by. Despite Kairi not understanding what was going on, both Donald and Goofy instantly knew what event this was.
"Someone is out to make sure Uncle Scrooge never becomes who is." the duck whispered to the others as they slowly moved themselves off to the side of the street.
"What do you mean?" Kairi questioned in confusion as she looked between the two.
"Scrooge told us that he became as rich as he is, thanks to his number one dime." Goofy answered as he glanced around briefly.
"Which means that if he doesn't make that dime..." Donald started, yet didn't need to finish as the implication was already there.
"So someone is going to try and stop that event from happening. And if we prevent them, we've won." Kairi claimed with a small smirk as she looked to each individual passing by.
While nodding in agreement, the other two also began glancing to the surrounding area. All of them wondering just whom it was that would show up, yet no one noticed the figure walking by with boots coated in mud. Since none of them ever saw the one whom Scrooge talked about giving him his first dime, they didn't realize their big mistake. Thanks to their bizarre presence, they were enough of a distraction for Burt the ditch-digger to simply walk right past the young duckling offering shoe shines.
"See? I knew we wouldn't need to do anything." Magica claimed from the roof of one of the buildings.
Said duck having white feathers, black hair and wore a simple ebony dress with matching high-heels. She then turned toward Maleficent as the witch stood next to her, the woman having a pleased expression on her features. "I'm impressed, you allowed them to be the makers of their own downfall." she muttered silently, following the ditch-digger with her gaze.
"Of course. Not only is it more amusing that way, but it's also poetic that the family Scrooge values so much...is his undoing." Magica declared proudly, yet her form soon began to shimmer slightly.
Something of which caught Maleficent's attention, but by the time she turned to look, this shimmering was gone. Leaving Magica looking no different than she did before with the green feathers, a long black dress and a similarly colored cape. While the witch briefly felt as though the duck's staff was something new, it was something she always had. 'Strange.' Maleficent thought briefly to herself before looking to the ditch-digger once more.
At which point, she raised a brow and smirked slightly in amusement. "It seems that destiny has other plans." she stated with a gesture to the duck speaking to Burt.
Magica turned to the woman before these two talking from around a corner, to which she growled a bit in frustration as she knew that duck was Scrooge's father. Yet she became even more annoyed when the ditch-digger headed back to the young duckling on the street. "Tch! It's just never easy." she muttered, stepping toward the edge of the building they were atop of.
"Careful now...traveling through time has many consequences if you're reckless. One misstep...and you might no longer exist, or the entire history of your world could be altered." Maleficent warned as she took a few steps back, yet felt a strange sensation like the later had somehow already happened.
"Hmph...I'm the very soul of caution." Magica said confidently, tapping her staff firmly on the roof.
This caused an extension of her shadow to move forward and down the side of the building. It weaving across the street and eventually up to Burt, whom was just now beginning his shoe shine. The shadow then began wrapping around his leg and to his coat pocket where his single dime lay. However, during the casting of this spell, both Kairi and Donald turned their gaze in Magica's direction. But before they could make their counter, the dime had already been lifted out of its owner's pocket.
"Oh no you don't." the auburn-furred teen claimed as she placed a hand on the ground, causing a brief glow of light to emanate from the street.
As this happened, Magica's shadow disbursed, causing the dime to drop and begin rolling away. The ditch-digger and Scrooge not even noticing, as the latter's future was currently tumbling down the street. "Get that dime!" Donald exclaimed, to which the three began rushing after the small silver coin.
Magica growled briefly from this, but she too gave chase across the roof tops. 'I just need to keep them occupied long enough for Scrooge not to get paid. Then the future will have been changed.' she thought to herself as she lept to another roof.
"He'll be so crushed that he'll never become the one whom seals me away, then I'll be the most powerful duck in all the world!" she called out gleefully to no one.
Though, she had to come to an immediate stop as she reached the end of the current block of buildings. Her looking down and around quickly, allowing Magica to see the dime approaching an intersection just before a downward hill. Something of which the trio also saw as they kept rushing to try and catch up. But the thing that all of them noticed, were the sparks of electricity crackling around the dime. These actually seeming to increase the further away it got.
'I remember Merlin talking about this once...just after Sora and Namine came back from their trip into the past.' Kairi thought, her watching the dime somehow avoiding being kicked or stepped on as it kept rolling.
'There is a focal point to nearly every event in history, and without them...the future would change drastically.' she continued, to which she started picking up her pace even more so.
The girl's actual cat reflexes showing themselves now, as she bobbed and weaved around the people walking in the opposite direction. Magica narrowed her eyes heavily, as she could tell the girl would reach the dime before it would get to the hill. Her then glancing around briefly before sinking into her own shadow, seeming to disappear. Yet as Kairi was rushing closer and closer to the dime, she noticed Donald out of the corner of her eye.
Said duck running significantly faster than normal, and was even starting to overtake the teen. His movements however, seemed very unnatural, as though he wasn't actually the one moving. But just as Kairi saw this, she and Donald reached the silver coin at the same time. Diving forward and between a few people's legs, they grasping the dime between their hands. With an intense stare at one another, they immediately began tugging for possession of the coin.
In the middle of this however, the sparking of electricity increased more and more before it actually overtook the two. This gaining a great amount of attention from the people watching, yet they were even more surprised when the two completely vanished. But after a few seconds of nothing, most just continued on their way. Goofy even hearing some mutter something about how the circus must be in town. Yet this only served to make Goofy all the more nervous that they might have drawn too much attention.
After a few more seconds passed, the pair reappeared in another surge of electricity. It once again drawing attention from the surrounding people, some of whom were clapping as they believed it to be a show. Thinking fast, Goofy rushed forward and smacked both of their hands upward, sending the dime into the air. With everyone's attention following the coin, Kairi used the opportunity to send a pulse of Light into and through Donald.
Of which sent a shadow flying out of the duck and into an alley in the opposite direction. But a shadowy hand immediately stretched out and up toward the dime. Goofy then laced his fingers together and held them down, giving the teen an obvious motion to jump and catch the dime. With a quick nod, Kairi lept off his hands and into the air, not only grabbing the coin before the shadow could, but also doing a flip in the process. This earning another series of claps from the crowd that had gathered.
While Donald and Kairi were confused, Goofy gave a brief bow, leading for the other two to do the same. This helping to sell the illusion that all of this was indeed a show and that nothing else was going on. Yet they them began rushing back toward Scrooge as they knew the duckling might be almost finished by now. All the while, Magica groaned silently as she removed a banana peal from her bill, her having been knocked into a garbage can.
"That's it...no more being 'nice'." she growled out, slowly standing up and gaining a purple aura.
But in that moment, she barely heard someone call; 'Watch out!' before a plant pot fell onto her head. Not only dazing the woman, but also making her fall back into the trash can. "I'll...get you...for that." she muttered out almost lazily while pointing at the sky, not even knowing where the pot came from.
As the trio rushed along the street, they finally reached near of where Scrooge and Burt the ditch-digger were. The former having just finished the job, while the latter was reaching into his pocket. Thankfully, despite being a few yards away, Kairi was able to use her magic to place the dime back into the owner's pocket. It would then instantly swap owners to Scrooge McDuck, becoming his number one dime in the future.
"Hmph...how predictable." Maleficent muttered silently from the roof top, her having watched everything transpire through her staff's crystal.
However, as she lifted a hand up as if to step in, her gaze moved to Kairi. "Or perhaps..." the witch began as a wicked smile curled her lips.
With a brief chuckle, she simply turned around and tapped her staff on the roof. This causing a silver door to appear in front of her, of which she slowly moved through. Though, not before giving one last glance toward Kairi, as said teen felt her magic and turned in the witch's direction. Maleficent just offered a small smile as she walked through the door. Moments later, Magica did the same, not wanting to be left behind. Despite the fact that she was covered in dirt and even had a flower on the top of her head. Yet she made sure to shake a fist at the group watching from the street below, clearly marking them for revenge.
But just before the door closed, Kairi rushed to the alley on the side of this building. Her then using her parkour skills to get to the top and summon her Keyblade. After a quick twirl of the weapon, a keyhole appeared in the now closed door. Instantly following this, a beam of light shot from the Keyblade and into the keyhole. It creating a locking sound before the door vanished into specks of light. "Looks like we can head back now." she muttered with a heavy sigh.
Ah, the butterfly effect is such a fun concept to play with. Just because Scrooge's origin of how he got his dime changed, it changed the whole world. And while it's kind of a cheap excuse for how and why I'm gonna use the rebooted Ducktales, instead of the original, I hope you guys still enjoyed this mini arc, as well as any future parts that involve these characters. Anyway, let me know what you thought. Until next time.