Ahahahaha oh boy! I'm pretty dang excited about this chapter, I gotta say. For while the first half of it is pretty standard, its second half is where things really start to go off the rails and I'm sooooo glad to have finally gotten to it! But I won't spoil any of that for you right here. You'll just have to read on to find out what happens... ;) Enjoy!
Chapter 20: Immortals
'Cause we could be immortals, immortals,
Just not for long, for long
And live with me forever now,
You pull the blackout curtains down,
Just not for long, for long,
We could be immortals
As a stark contrast to the chaos that had beset the city and its residents earlier in the day, night seemed to have fallen peacefully over San Fransokyo. In light of their hard-won triumph over the Heartless, it was a sort of calm that the members of Big Hero 6, as well as Sora, Donald, and Goofy, certainly welcomed. With no rampaging monsters to distract them, the collective group was making their way back to the garage to plan out their next move when it came to finding the Key. A goal that the young heroes of Big Hero 6 were more than happy to assist the trio in accomplishing considering the invaluable help they'd offered them thus far.
"So once you guys get all 13 of those Keys," Hiro began, ever curious. "What exactly are you planning on doing with them?"
"That's a… good question…" Sora exchanged a quizzical look with Donald and Goofy. Though all the pair had for him were a set of shared shrugs, an obvious sign that they were just as clueless about their endgame as he was. Not that they could really divulge that information if they did have it, especially when the matter of the world order came into account. "We don't really know. But what we do know is that we need to get them all before Organization XIII can."
"Organization XIII?" Go Go glanced back at the trio. "What's that, some kind of gang?"
"A gang of villainous scoundrels, bent on complete and utter world domination!" Fred zealously spun around to walk backward. "Am I right, or am I right?"
"You're… not too far off, actually," Sora admitted. "Whenever somebody from the Organization shows up, they bring nothing but trouble with them."
"Ya know, maybe they're the reason why Heartless started showin' up here in the city in the first place," Goofy pointed out. "They had to've come from somewhere, right?"
"Which means that Organization member could still be here, looking for the Key too!" Donald piped up urgently.
"And that means they could bring the Heartless back again to attack the city," Sora concluded, every bit as serious as his companions.
"Well if they do, then we'll be ready for them," Hiro said, resolved. "Right, Baymax?"
Oddly, the robot didn't answer, his attention instead focused on the nearby street they were passing by. Or rather, what was speeding down it toward them.
It flew behind them all in a flash, though as it turned a broad corner down the next street, they were all able to see it clearly just as Baymax had just seconds before them. Countless small, black, yet gently glowing cubes, converged together in a large, writhing mass that hovered on its own accord somehow. It continued swiftly navigating its way down the street, seeming to pay no attention to the baffled group watching it with balking, baffled stares.
"Uh, w-what the heck is that thing?!" Wasabi squeaked, alarmed.
"Looks like you guys weren't wrong," Go Go glanced over at the trio. "Those creatures are back for more."
"Then let's give them what they're after," Honey Lemon's tone was resolved as she pulled a chem ball from her purse. "It's time for a lesson."
"Chaaaaaarge!" Fred bellowed, rushing forward to meet this newfound threat. Wasabi, Go Go, and Honey Lemon were quick to follow after him, and Hiro nearly did the same. At least until he caught another look at the mass of cubes, now arranged into the three-dimensional shape of a heart, positioned atop a building not too far away from their current location.
"W-wait!" He gasped as his helmet's visor offered him a timely scan of their latest foe. "Guys! This one's not like the others!"
Despite this warning, the other members of the team didn't hear him, still running ahead to fight the cubes. Hiro made no such move to follow them however, worry filling him instead at the mere thought of having to face the very first threat they'd ever tackled together as a team all over again. "It can't be…" he whispered incredulously. "Microbots...?"
"Microbots?" Sora asked, having overheard him. "You know what they are?"
"Well, they're different from the Heartless," Goofy noted, scratching his head.
"But they still look like they're here to cause trouble, just like the Heartless!" Donald scowled up at the distant mass of darkened cubes.
"N-no, that's not-" Hiro cut himself off with a leveling sigh. "Microbots are designed to do whatever you think via a neural transmitter that communicates whatever you're…" He trailed off, quickly realizing from their absolutely blank expressions that the trio wasn't following his rather technical explanation. "Uh, they're kind of a mini-bot I invented. Some… bad stuff happened and I thought that meant they were totally gone. But those new enemies are way too similar. Which means someone's controlling them. The question is who." Hiro paused once more, his already palpable dread increasing tenfold as he remembered all too well exactly who had controlled, or rather stole, his microbots before. And, even more painfully, what that theft had cost his friends, his family, himself, both at the start of it all and at the end. "No way…" he muttered, trying to believe that it wasn't true, that it couldn't be true. And yet… "Could it be…?"
"Hiro?" Sora leaned in, concerned.
Pulling himself out of his multitude of anxiety-ridden thoughts, Hiro looked up, his expression set and stern with newfound determination to make this right. Regardless of whoever might be behind it. "I'm gonna go back to the garage and look into this. You guys mind helping out the rest of the team out here?"
"Of course," Sora smiled, Donald and Goofy nodding alongside him. "After all, we need you taking care of all of the sciency stuff so we can take care of the Heartless."
"Right," Hiro agreed, more than happy to help his team-and his friends-in any way he could. "Baymax," he turned to his robot. "Stick with 'em. They might need your help."
"All right, Hiro," Baymax stepped forward to join the trio as they began to set out. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, I will be your personal healthcare companion."
"Thanks, Baymax," Sora readily accepted the robot's aid. Especially given how he'd already more than proven himself in a fight earlier that day. "We're in good hands. Now, c'mon, everyone!" he beckoned the others forward so they could join the rest of Big Hero 6. "Let's move."
By now, the mass of microbots had moved from its original position, the members of Big Hero 6 following suit as it sped through the winding city streets. Because of this, Baymax and the trio had already lost sight of the others as they parted ways with Hiro, leaving them largely on their own to find them and their new foe. While that was their main priority, however, they found that getting to it wouldn't be as quick as they'd hoped. Especially as Heartless began to appear around almost every turn.
"Aw, come on!" Donald huffed, annoyed as they came face-to-face with a particularly large horde of the creatures. "Not again!"
"Just when ya think ya got 'em all, they always manage to come back," Goofy scowled, just as exasperated as he pulled his shield out.
"Whatever's controlling those microbot things must have something to do with the Heartless too," Sora mused, knowing that the likelihood of the Heartless reappearing now couldn't be a mere coincidence.
"That's exactly what I was thinking too," Hiro suddenly piped up over the intercom system. "If we can find out who that is, then I think it's a safe bet that we'll be able to stop them both.."
"Find out who's behind all this. Sounds easy enough," Sora agreed. "Don't worry, Hiro, we're on it."
"Thanks, I knew I could count on you guys," Hiro said, allayed.
"But how are we supposed to do that?" Donald shot Sora an incredulous look amidst firing off a thunder spell to help clear the crowd of Heartless besetting them. "We don't have any idea who's sending these Heartless or those microbots!"
"Well it's bound to be someone from the Organization," Sora countered as he knocked down a few Heartless himself. "That narrows it down at least a little, right?"
"Yep, to about 13," Goofy noted, blocking an attack from one of the winged creatures. "Unless they got any new members we don't know about."
"I sure hope not," Donald grumbled. "Dealing thirteen is bad enough."
"Tell me about it…" Sora sighed, especially as even more Heartless came into view.
"I am unable to scan for Organization XIII," Baymax reported, fending several more of the creatures off on his own. "However I am able to track our current target… there."
The robot pointed to a tall building afar in the distance, where, sure enough, the swarm of microbots shifted and shimmered, even as the various attacks of the members of Big Hero 6 tried their best to damage it. An effort that didn't seem to be doing much as the mass of cubes didn't even seem to so much as budge, even under the countless strikes hitting it at once.
"The others need our help!" Sora exclaimed, already rushing through the horde of monsters ahead.
"But what about the Heartless?" Goofy asked, exchanging an alarmed glance with Donald.
"Leave 'em! We've got to go!"
Baymax was the first to act on Sora's call onward, his thrusters kicking up as he flew through the crowd of Heartless, knocking most of them aside in the process. While they were stunned by the sudden blow, Donald and Goofy readily followed suit. They joined Sora in catching a lift from the robot, narrowly latching onto his hands as their young companion took his back. And with his trio of passengers in tow, Baymax took off, rocketing to the skies so they could all get a better view of exactly what they were dealing with.
For its part, the microbot mass had remained stationary, allowing the members of Big Hero 6 to attack it nearly endlessly, though still to no avail. Still, the young heroes were more than relieved to spot a familiar crimson bot closing in, carrying an accompanying trio who was more than ready to join in on the fray.
Just as Baymax flew in high above the microbots, Sora took the initiative, diving off the robot's back with his Keyblade already at the ready. He struck the writhing mass squarely, his Keyblade slicing through several of the unseen bonds connecting the cubes it was composed of together. And yet, as he rebounded away from it to stick a solid landing on the street below, he quickly found that his heavy attack was nowhere near as effective as he thought it would be. The cubes rippled and wavered briefly, though they just as quickly wove themselves back together into their steady, heart-shaped form, not at all impacted by what should have been a devastating blow.
"W-what?" Sora was baffled, even as Donald, Goofy, and Baymax came to join him on the ground. "No fair! Why can't we hurt it?"
"It's because they aren't microbots!" Hiro exclaimed over the intercom, finally able to glean more about this new threat now that he had made it back to the garage. "I just scanned them again and those things aren't what I invented. They're… well, I don't really know what they are, but we've gotta take it down."
"Uh, yeah, we've been trying to do that," Wasabi chimed in, clearly struggling based on his tone alone. "But we aren't exactly making a ton of progress on that front…"
"It's like it's impenetrable!" Honey Lemon added just as frantically. "None of our weapons are working against it!"
"Our shugyo didn't prepare us for the combined power of millions of tiny evil CUBES!" Fred wailed, dramatic as ever.
"Greaaat, it's like we're back to square one all over again," Go Go deadpanned, annoyed.
"I am detecting a change in the target's structural integrity," Baymax interjected. Sure enough, as he pointed to the mass of cubes, it had shifted forms once again, spiraling out as it began to glide through the city streets at a swift pace once more. Not willing to let it get away again, the group raced after it, even if most of them were well aware they still wouldn't have much luck in fighting it once they caught up to it.
"Gee, I wonder what it's doin' now?" Goofy asked, aptly confused by the horde's strange, dodgy behavior.
"You mean aside from being impossible to attack?" Donald retorted, disgruntled.
"This is starting to get weird…" Sora frowned, stopping to watch the mass of cubes continue on its way to whatever unknown destination it had in mind. "Hiro, you got any leads on that thing?"
"I'm starting to," Hiro confirmed, working at a rapid pace on his computer to gather as much information as he could as quickly as possible. "Somewhere inside of that thing, there's a core. It's what powers the whole cluster. And if my data is right, attacking that core is the only way to really damage it."
"Oh, now you tell us…" Wasabi huffed, the sharp din of a fierce ongoing fight echoing in the background of his feed.
"Would have been great to know that a LONG time ago, genius!" Go Go snapped, apparently distressed.
"G-guys! What's going on!?" Hiro asked anxiously, switching gears to check the status of his teammates instead.
"Let's just say… it's a lot," Honey Lemon said, her voice wavering under some sort of strain.
"Is everyone ok?" Sora asked, immediately sharing Hiro's growing concern for the others.
"Team, check in!" Hiro ordered, and for their part, the team did their best to comply.
"S-so far so good," Honey Lemon said, albeit somewhat unsteadily.
"Just peachy," Go Go growled, irritated. "It'd be even better if we could just land a hit on this thing."
"Freddie's getting frustrated!" Fred huffed, also quite out of sorts.
"Alright, that's it." Back at the garage, Hiro stood up from his computer, determined to do his part to help his team, his friends, out in the field rather than from a safe distance. "I'm on my way.
Somewhere atop one of the city's larger buildings, Honey Lemon made use of one of her chem balls to create a landing platform for her to take some sort of refuge from the cube's continued attack. She nearly fell off of that platform entirely, however, when she heard Hiro's risky resolve. "No, Hiro!"
"Hiro, you analyze the Darkubes!" Fred agreed, narrowly dodging a swarm of cubes in the square just below Honey Lemon's current position.
"Wait, did you just say 'Darkubes'?" Wasabi asked incredulously as he trailed and failed to slice through several of the cluster's swiftly moving tendrils about a block away.
"Yeah. They're dark, they're cubes," Fred reiterated. "I call 'em like I see 'em. Every baddie needs a cool name!"
"Yeah, that's not cool," Go Go rolled her eyes as she continued skating in between the newly-dubbed Darkubes' rapid strikes.
Honey Lemon flinched as the mass of cubes slammed into the building beside her, rattling the entire alleyway as they reeled back for another attack. "We'll gather as much data from the Darkubes as we can," she said, using a chem ball to dissipate her current platform to dodge that attack.
At the same time, Wasabi continued firing off laser projectiles at the horde of cubes attacking him, though much to his frustration they tirelessly persisted all the same. Even so, he completely agreed with Honey Lemon, largely for the sake of putting an end to this seemingly endless threat as soon as possible. "Yeah! Figure out a way for us to beat this thing!"
"But guys," Hiro protested, desperate to do something to help his friends out of harm's way. "I can't just leave you out there all alone against that thing."
"Hiro," Go Go's voice was stern, even as she sped down a winding street with a cluster of Darkubes in hot persuit all the while. "We are a team. And teams delegate. We need you at the garage. We trust you, so you trust us."
For a moment, Hiro still hesitated on the other end of the intercom line. Despite being the unofficial leader of Big Hero 6, he'd always known he was the least combat-ready among them, usually having to rely on Baymax sticking close by his side in most dangerous encounters. But that had never stopped him from wanting to stand by his friends, no matter what they had to face. And yet, perhaps this time, the best way for him to do that was just as his teammates were imploring him to do: to stay put and offer his aid in a different way entirely. By uncovering intel that could very well spell the difference between success or defeat.
"Fine," Hiro finally agreed with an accepting smile. "I'll look for a way for us to expose the Darkubes' core. Just keep that data coming."
"Copy!" the members of Big Hero 6 all chimed in, ready to do just that.
"Hiro, what should we do?" Sora asked, more than eager to aid the team's valiant effort.
"You protect the others," Hiro advised. "Everyone's spread out across the city, but you should be able to find them once I send their positions over to your AR display."
"Right. We're on it!" Sora grinned, summoning his Keyblade for the brawl ahead. Likewise, Donald and Goofy called upon their own weapons, and with that, they were all off, Baymax keeping pace with the trio all the while.
"Thanks, but be careful," Hiro said as the group began to set out to their nearest objective. "The Darkubes are gonna be tricky to bust open. You'll have to assess everyone's situations and-"
"Improvise!" Sora finished, easily vaulting onto a shorter rooftop as the others followed suit. "I know."
"Cool," Hiro laughed for the first time since this predicament started. "Good luck out there!"
So far, luck seemed to be exactly what the group was having as they made their way towards a nearby skyscraper without being slowed down by any bothersome Heartless in the process. Sure enough, the coordinates Hiro had sent over were accurate, for the first member of the team they came across seemed to be Honey Lemon. Or at least, they assumed it was her based on the abandoned chem purse that had fallen onto the roof. Honey Lemon herself was nowhere to be found, though there was a rather conspicuous cluster of Darkubes above it, its tendrils latched onto several nearby structures. It remained anchored by various shades of chemical globs that Honey Lemon had tried to use to weigh it down, a plan that had largely worked, aside from the Darkubes managing to snag her within her own trap first.
"Honey Lemon!" Sora called as he and the others made their approach.
"Sora? Is that you?" Honey Lemon shouted from within the Darkube orb. "Oh, thank goodness! I think I'm stuck. B-but I have an idea! See if you can find the residue from my chem balls; if you hit them with fire or electricity, it might trigger a chain reaction!"
"And that would be… a good thing, right?" Sora asked, still somewhat out of the loop when it came to most matters of science.
"In this case? Absolutely," Honey Lemon confirmed.
So the group got to work to act on her helpful hint, though not without a bit of trouble from the crowd of Heartless that materialized as soon as they did. Fortunately, Baymax took the initiative in handling them while the trio moved on to help Honey Lemon. They did so with a mix between solid physical attacks and magic, namely fire and electric, just as they'd been advised. It took a bit of doing and outmaneuvering Heartless between the two roofs the Darkubes were spread across, but one by one, they managed to clear the grounding globs of color out, loosening the bonds keeping Honey Lemon trapped in the process.
With the orb holding her weakened, she easily busted out of it, breaking the cluster's strongly-held shape to land squarely back on the roof. "Gracias, Sora!" she grinned brightly, reclaiming her fallen chem purse before running onto rejoin the fray. "Next time, I won't go easy on them!"
Baymax and the trio waved her off as they headed separate ways, their next target appearing to be on one of the city's tallest buildings. Even so, Baymax's thrusters made easy work of scaling it, allowing the group to see that another member of Big Hero 6 had been trapped much like Honey Lemon had before.
"Uh, c-can a fella get a little help in here?!" Wasabi shouted he tried his hardest to cut away at the inside of the large orb of Darkubes he was stuck within. And yet, even his laser blades seemed to be doing little to whittle away at the hard inner shell the Darkubes had created, much to Wasabi's rising panic.
"Wasabi! Can you hear me?" Sora called as him, Donald, and Goofy dismounted Baymax to land on the roof. A roof that was once again beset by Heartless intent on guarding the Darkube prison hovering above them.
"Sora! Am I glad to see you!" Wasabi choked out a relieved laugh. "I am not a big fan of heights. Hey, you think it dragged me up here 'cause it's scared of being attacked from above?"
"Above?" Donald repeated, exchanging a knowing glance with Sora and Goofy.
"That's it!" Sora grinned, putting their impromptu plan into action.
Goofy joined in, poising his shield just right as Sora got a running start toward it. The shield always made for a surprisingly strong springboard, one that propelled him up into the air just enough to gain some air above the Darkubes. All it took was one single, swift swing of his Keyblade to disrupt their outer shell, allowing Wasabi to take care of the rest from the inside as the cubes began to ripple and waver under the force of the blow.
With a broad swing of his laser blades, Wasabi broke free, elated to be out of the rather claustrophobic cage he'd been trapped in. "Finally!" he cheered, touching down on the roof. "Thanks for the save, you guys. I'll go see if anyone else needs help." He rushed to do just that, though his fear of heights did hold him back a bit as he stopped short on the edge of the roof before taking a deep breath and taking the plunge to make his way back down into the city proper.
That was a leap that the group also took, largely since the next member of the team in peril was also being held inside another cluster of Darkubes, though this time it was steadily rolling through the city streets. "Augh!" Go Go slammed against the side of that cluster for what seemed like the hundredth time, her megalev disks doing little to break it to free her from it. "I'm really, really starting to hate these things…"
"Go Go! Is that you in there?" Sora shouted as he began to pursue the rolling Darkubes down the street first, the others following not too far behind.
"Yeah!" Go Go answered as loudly as she could. "I don't know how to stop this thing. I tried slowing it down with my discs but it was no use. You see anything big you can smash against it?"
"Gawrsh, I think I do!" Goofy exclaimed, pointing out another large orb sitting on the corner nearby. The very same massive, decorative red ball that had been an accidental casualty of the group's shugyo the previous night.
"That's perfect!" Sora agreed, already heading over to it. The others offered him plenty of cover against the Heartless swarming the streets as he scaled the ball, taking a moment to properly gain his balance on it before running it forward. Still, despite his best efforts, he wasn't really able to catch up to the Darkubes as they continued rolling about with no real direction in mind. That quickly changed, however, as Sora decided to act on a whim and change his strategy by taking a sharp turn down an adjacent street instead. This shortcut proved to be quite effective as the Darkubes clearly hadn't anticipated it, especially as Sora came wheeling around the corner it just so happened to be approaching. The red ball crashed into the Darkubes hard enough to create a sizable opening in the side of it, one that was more than enough to allow Go Go an easy getaway as she widened it using her megalev discs.
"Thanks," she nodded to the trio tersely before she skated off to continue the fight. "I owe you!"
For their part, Baymax and the trio likewise continued on their way, knowing that the only member of the team left to find now was Fred. It didn't take them very long either, as they rounded down another road to spot him, caught up in a much more stationary Darkube trap, though still a trap all the same.
"Fred! You ok?" Sora asked, stopping short just as another horde of Heartless made their appearance.
"B-been better!" Fred called back amidst the Darkube tendrils relentlessly pulling each of his limbs taunt. "I'm getting pulled in too many directions! Do you think you can free my arms and legs? Gotta find a weak point and loosen the Darkube's grip!"
"I am detecting a weak point in the Darkubes' structural integrity there," Baymax pointed out a nearby street light post, one that the Darkubes had latched onto as they continued pulling against Fred all the while. The tendrils wrapped around them seemed to be surprisingly thin though, an advantage the group readily took advantage of as they each took to one of the four surrounding poles they were connected to. They all attacked the cubes in tandem, breaking the chain of cubes in one fell swoop and allowing Fred to break himself free in the process.
"Suuuuper jump!" He emerged from the Darkubes with a high, ecstatic leap, more than glad to have his limbs free from the Darkube's stretching hold. "Pure appreciation, man. My citizens! They need me!" As he landed a moment later, he acknowledged the group who'd come to his rescue with a grateful nod before bounding off to face whatever foe came next.
"Is everyone alright?" Hiro chimed in over the intercom.
"Just fine," Honey Lemon confirmed warmly.
"Never better!" Wasabi agreed.
"Raring to go and ready to save the day, as usual," Fred quipped with his usual bravado.
"So what's next?" Go Go asked, getting to the point.
"Ok, everyone, listen up," Hiro's tone was serious as he read over the data the team had managed to gather in their various frays. "The Darkubes have converged on a single location. Whatever's happening can't be good. I'm almost done pinpointing the core. If you need me to help-"
"Nah, it's ok, Hiro," Sora assured. "We're on it."
Hiro let out what almost sounded like a disappointed sigh on the other end of the line, but ultimately he agreed. "Thanks. Now, get going, before things can get any worse!"
"Right!" Everyone agreed in unison, all of them setting out from their respective positions toward the place where the Darkubes were rapidly gathering: a tall building in the city's south district, one that towered high above the rest of the town. Cubes were swirling in toward its concealed central core from all over San Fransokyo, though they weren't the only ones gravitating toward it. The members of Big Hero 6 raced to meet up there, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Baymax doing the exact same as they took to the sky to get there faster. The Heartless seemed to have strangely thinned out in numbers to let them make their approach, though the reason behind this was anyone's guess. Even so, by the time everyone had regrouped atop their targeted building, the cluster of Darkcubes was massive, to say the least, hovering high above the rooftop as it shimmered with its usual, unknown, yet clearly dangerous energy. And, if Hiro's lead was correct, buried somewhere deep within that rippling, yet sturdy exterior was a hidden core that could be the key to bringing it all down once and for all.
"Ok, so there's like… a lot of them," Go Go noted, exchanging a baffled glance with her teammates at the sheer uncountable number of Darkubes they'd be up against.
"What do ya suppose they'll do?" Goofy wondered, frowning.
"I don't think we wanna find out," Wasabi shook his head, already taking up a defensive pose.
"I say we destroy this thing!" Fred boldly proclaimed, stepping forward.
"Yeah!" Donald agreed, raising his staff to attack.
"But without a strategy, we'd just be wasting our strength," Honey Lemon countered evenly.
"If only we knew where to strike…" Sora muttered, carefully looking the Darkube cluster over.
"Wait! Sora! I got it!" Hiro excitedly announced through the intercom. "I'm sending you an AR software update. It'll show you where the core is-the Darkubes' weak point. And since we now know where to attack it, I'm coming to help!"
"Wait, Hiro-" Sora stopped short, wincing as a sudden burst of noisy static rippled across the intercom, his AR visor flashing a bright, sharp red as it failed to pinpoint any sort of core as Hiro had said it would. "Huh?" Sora frowned, confused by the strange interference. "That's weird. Is it busted?" Unsure of how to get the device working properly again, he looked to the Darkubes once more, only for static to continue rolling in across the visor, disrupting the display and Sora's vision along with it. However, as he happened to glance down, he quickly noticed another disconcerting sight: a lone figure, clad in an all-too-familiar black coat, slowly making their way across the roof toward the group. "Uh, Hiro?" Sora began warily as he kept his sights set on that unknown figure. "Who's that on the display?"
Strangely, Hiro didn't answer, but Goofy did instead, stepping forward to stand supportively by Sora's side as Donald did the same. "That's not on the display," the captain said sternly, raising his shield. "He's really here."
"The black coat… He's back?" Go Go muttered incredulously. Both her and the rest of Big Hero 6 all vaguely recognized this mysterious figure who'd been spotted more than a few times around the city just prior to the Heartless sieging it. Something that, in retrospect, couldn't simply be a mere coincidence.
"Are you done messing around?" the hooded figure finally spoke, addressing Sora in particular with an air of haughty confidence in his tone. A tone that Sora had heard many times before and would recognize just about anywhere. Even though it made absolutely no sense for him to be hearing it here of all places.
"Wait… that voice…" Sora stilled his Keyblade, straining to get a better glimpse of exactly who that dark hood was hiding away. "It can't be…"
"Hold on," Wasabi interjected. "You know this guy?"
Before Sora could really offer an answer, Fred cut in with his usual round of on-the-nose narration. "And now… enter the supervillian!"
"He definitely has the vibe…" Honey Lemon agreed, a chem ball already in her hand and at the ready if need be.
"Hmph, funny," the mysterious figure let out something of a dry, mocking laugh. By now, however, he'd clearly grown tired of the ongoing banter as he finally removed his hood. And the very moment he did, at least for Sora, everything else seemed to come to a grinding halt altogether.
"R-Riku…" he barely managed to choke out, wondering if the AR device or his eyes or something else entirely were playing tricks on him and desperately hoping they were. "But… how-"
"Riku" held up a hand to silence him, his already knowing grin deepening as he regarded the shocked expression Sora was sending his way silently. Sure enough, he certainly seemed to be Riku, though even upon a first glance, he was clearly different. His fairly new clothing had, of course, been replaced by the Organization's tell-tale black coat, and at the same time, he looked strangely younger by at least a year or two. His silver hair was once again longer as it used to be, and, most disconcerting of all, his eyes, which should have been a familiar, easy turquoise, were now a stark, bitter yellow instead.
"N-no…" Sora whispered, so quietly that none of the others heard him. It took almost no time at all for his mind to whirl through the myriad of distressing thoughts that filled it as he took in the simple sight of Riku. Being here, looking like this, after everything that had happened, after everything they'd been through. And yet out of all those countless, crushing thoughts, one still persisted above them all. "I-I thought… I thought I was the one they wanted…"
And by all accounts, he figured it would have been better if he was the one they had. Especially if it was in the place of one of his two closest friends who had seemed to have fallen into the Organization's sinister clutches instead.
"Riku" still said nothing as he turned his attention toward the small data chip that had materialized above his hand, one that was drenched in a clear, shadowy aura just as much as the Darkubes still swarming above him were. "As if this stupid Key hunt wasn't already enough of a hassle…" His cool smile finally fell into cold annoyance as he looked over the chip, one that Hiro also managed to catch sight of as functionality finally returned to Sora's AR visor.
"Wait… W-where'd he get that?" he asked incredulously, zooming in on the familiar skull etched onto the side of the chip.
"Hiro?" Sora shook his head to clear it, grounding himself back into the more urgent matter at hand. Even if his sights never left "Riku" all the while. "Do you recognize that thing?"
"...Yeah," Hiro hesitantly admitted. "That's the first chip I made for Baymax. It's full of combat programs." Upon hearing this, the other members of Big Hero 6 all let out a round of startled gasps, recognizing the chip themselves and immediately understanding just how downright impossible it was for it to be here. Especially considering what it's supposed fate had been.
"Programs?" Sora asked, finally breaking his gaze away from "Riku" to exchange a confused glance with Donald and Goofy.
"Yeah, they tell Baymax how to react," Hiro explained. "Together, they're basically what makes Baymax… well, Baymax."
"So what you're sayin' is… they're like his heart?" Goofy wondered quizzically.
"Kind of?" Donald ventured even if he wasn't quite sure himself.
At the same time, "Riku" looked over the chip once more, glancing between it and the Darkube cluster above him almost thoughtfully. "Not quite ready…" he mused, turning away from the group and to the cubes instead. "More then!" With that, he tossed the chip up, right into the Darkubes, which eagerly swallowed it into their ever-shifting form. Without any apparent reason to linger, the unmistakable shadows of a dark corridor began to converge around "Riku", though Sora wasn't about to let him leave so easily without some sort of explanation at the very least.
"Riku!" He rushed forward to catch him, though the dark corridor disappeared before he could even get close. And yet, while Sora continued anxiously glancing around for any signs of "Riku" reappearing, the others were met with a much more urgent sight instead.
As if reinvigorated by the attack chip that had just been fed to it, the Darkubes' form shifted once more, reshaping themselves over and over again as they took on a sharp, warning glow. The members of Big Hero 6 all took up fighting stances, Donald and Goofy doing the same, especially as the Darkubes lashed out for their first attack. And yet, if there was one thing none of them could have seen coming, it was the sheer speed of that attack as its tendrils all whipped down toward the young heroes at once. It brutally knocked just about each of them aside before any of them had so much of a chance to retaliate, though fortunately, they didn't have to as Baymax did so for them.
The robot rocketed forward, his sturdy armor allowing him to take more than a few heavy hits from the Darkubes as he collided with the bulk of the cluster in an attempt at striking the core buried somewhere within it. And yet, that seemed to do little as the Darkubes reacted harshly, tossing Baymax away with little effort.
"Oh no," was all the robot had to say just shy of his hard collision with the rooftop, one that fortunately didn't land too much damage to him as much as it did to the roof. Even so, the members of Big Hero 6 all panicked upon seeing Baymax fall, even amidst their attempts to recover from the Darkubes' attack themselves.
"Baymax!" they all shouted in unison, rushing to pick themselves back up and hurry back into the fray. And sure enough, they bravely did so, with Go Go launching her megalev discs as Wasabi fired off a series of quick laser blasts toward the mass in hopes of slicing through its swiftly-moving tendrils. At the same time, Honey Lemon and Fred teamed up to use their respective abilities in tandem to try to freeze the cluster entirely. All valiant efforts that proved to do little against the Darkube's endless, aggressive onslaught.
For their part, Donald and Goofy did their best to aid the cause, sending an ice spell and a shield flying toward the Darkubes respectively. However, they quickly noticed that Sora hadn't joined the fight, even as he seemed every bit ready to do so with his Keyblade held as tightly in his grip as it was. And yet, he had turned away from the ongoing brawl, his sights instead set on the city as he frantically surveyed it, desperate to catch so much as even a glimpse of "Riku" within it.
"Where is he…?" he muttered to himself, dread filling him more and more with each passing second. Even as his companions ran over to his side to interrupt his anxious search.
"Sora, come on!" Donald called urgently. "We have to help the others!"
"Those Darkubes aren't holding back and neither should we!" Goofy agreed just as sternly.
"B-but we need to find Riku!" Sora turned to his companions, distraught. "I-I don't know what happened, but the Organization must have done something to him, a-and I can't-we can't just-"
"Aw, don't worry, Sora!" Goofy warmly reassured. "We'll figure out what happened to Riku. And we'll help him too!"
"But right now everyone else needs our help first!" Donald reminded, nodding back to the still-struggling team behind them.
Sora hesitated, torn between searching the city and the much more immediate threat the Darkubes posed. But in the end, he couldn't really argue with his companion's stance, especially as he watched the members of Big Hero 6 all be tossed back by yet another brutal blow. As much as it pained him-and it certainly did pain him to think that his best friend might have fallen victim to the Organization's treacherous schemes in such a short, unknown amount of time-"Riku" would just have to wait. "Right," he nodded, resolved as he turned back to the fight. "Let's go."
The trio did exactly that, rushing forward toward the Darkubes, helping their fallen friends back up along the way. Still, it was clear that fatigue and injury was starting to weigh heavily upon the group of young heroes, their morale low in light of the fact that none of their attacks seemed to be doing any sort of damage whatsoever. And yet their spirits were lifted in more ways than one as they watched the trio hurry on ahead to confront the Darkubes in their stead. And as the only absent member of their time finally arrived just in the nick of time.
"Guys! I'm here!" Hiro announced, emerging onto the rooftop from the lower floors of the building's interior. He wasted no time in hurrying to rejoin his teammates, knowing that they'd need all the help they could get in a battle this intense and dangerous. "Is everyone ok?"
"Define 'ok'," Wasabi deadpanned, massaging his sore shoulder.
"We'd be better if we could actually beat this thing once and for all," Go Go said, scowling up at the Darkubes.
"We should be able to if we strike its core," Hiro said, turning to the trio currently attacking the cubes. "Sora! The core's position should be showing up on your AR device now, do you see it?"
Sora paused, though only for a beat, focusing on the AR display, which, sure enough, had pinpointed an exact target, one that was frantically moving around inside of the Darkubes cluster. "Yeah! We'll-"
He stopped short, however, as Darkubes cluster suddenly began to waver. The energy rippling through its massive form strangely stopped entirely, and with it, so too did their movements. All at once, the cluster began to fall apart, cubes spilling from it and leaving nothing hoving in its place other than a single, larger, dark red cube: the core.
"What? It stopped?" Donald frowned, confused.
"Do ya reckon this might be some kind of trap?" Goofy asked, eyeing the core suspiciously.
"I don't want to wait to find out," Sora said, charging forward to attack the core. And surprisingly enough, he managed to do so, landing a heavy enough blow to defeat and dismiss the Heartless inhabiting it in one fell swoop.
As the core dissipated, the attack chip also fell out of it, skidding across the roof and ultimately coming to a stop on the far side of it, in the direct line of sight of Big Hero 6. "Baymax…" Hiro sighed wistfully, knowing exactly what, or rather who had been lost alongside that chip in the first place. And yet, unlike the chip, he showed no signs of returning. Even so, Hiro couldn't help but rush forward to reclaim it all the same, to, at the very least, hold onto one small remnant of his lost friend all the same.
Yet just before he could, another hand happened to reach in to take the chip instead.
"Oh, this isn't for you," "Riku's" tone was calm as he snatched it away. "At least… not until we're done."
Still, Hiro lashed out, wanting nothing more than the chip as he swung a fist in an attempt to take it back. "Riku" easily dodged the impromptu attack, however, deftly leaping away before making a solid landing atop the building's HVAC unit, in full view of all the others. And as soon as Sora saw him, he didn't hesitate to make an attempt to try to make some sort of sense out of a situation that, by all accounts, didn't seem to make any at all.
"Riku, i-is that… really you?" he asked, admittedly nervous, especially as "Riku" looked down at him with an icy, leering grin. "Why do you look like that?"
"Looks are deceiving," "Riku" replied evenly. "But the heart? It never lies. Come on, Sora. You know it's me."
Sora couldn't help but flinch at this, "Riku's" all-too-familiar teasing tone filling him with doubts he wished he could shake. Doubts that he forced himself to shake as he tried to reason, really more with himself than anyone else. "I know Riku wouldn't do this. Not without a good reason."
"A reason?" "Riku" chuckled lightly. "When did that ever matter? We've been trying to one-up each other ever since we were kids."
"W-what…?" The mention of their childhood spent together caught Sora off guard more than anything else could have. A childhood filled with memories that were so precious to both of them that they couldn't be faked or replicated. Which meant that this had to be the real Riku, and yet... some small, persistent part of Sora's heart knew that couldn't possibly be the case. As much as he looked and sounded and even somewhat acted like Riku, the aura and intentions surrounding this Riku were dark, malicious, and cruel. A far cry from the calm, kind, and caring heart he'd always known the real Riku to have.
It seemed as though Donald and Goofy shared his suspicions, for sure enough the pair leapt forward to their young, shaken companion's defense. "Don't listen to him, Sora!" Donald boldly exclaimed.
"That coat means he's with Organization XIII!" Goofy added, shield raised. "And that means he's not really Riku!"
"N-no, that's right…" Sora said softly, still awash in a mix of dread and doubts and rising hope that were all starting to become too much to bear. "H-he couldn't be. Riku would never-"
"Never join the Organization?" the other Riku finished, having overheard him. "Then maybe you don't really know me as well as you thought. Then again, it's not like I can really blame you. You don't seem to know yourself that well either, Sora."
"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, trying his best not to let just how anxious and uneasy this entire encounter was making him show. "I know myself just fine."
"So you say," the other Riku smirked. "But if that's true, then what's taking you so long? You already know you're bound to join our side one way or another; so why don't you just speed things along for everyone and just do it already?"
"Not this again…" By now, Sora had grown quite frustrated with contending with this Riku, whether he be real or fake, especially as he served to remind him, yet again, of the very fate he was absolutely determined to avoid at all costs. "How many times do I have to tell all of you? I will never, ever be part of the Organization, and neither would Riku! Which is why I know that, whoever you are, you're not him!"
The other Riku simply scowled down at Sora for a moment, seemingly unamused before he broke into a small, confident smirk. "Smarter than you look. But if I'm really a fake, then what does that make you, Sora? You're going around, acting like you're one of the guardians of light, but between that scar and those cracks on your Keyblade, I'd say you've got more of the mark of a seeker of darkness instead. So then, who's really pretending to be something they're not around here?"
Such a cruel, callous remark was more than enough to push Sora over the edge, something that Donald and Goofy picked up on from the severe expression on his face alone. But what neither of them did see was the aura of darkness and light, mingled together as it began to mist over his Keyblade-bearing hand. "S-Sora…?" Goofy ventured, though neither him nor Donald really had much of a chance at calming their young companion down.
Instead, Sora acted on his rising anger, letting out a loud, furious shout as he leapt forward, his Keyblade ready to strike the other Riku as he easily allowed himself to forget the resemblance this duplicate even bore to his best friend. The attack didn't land, however, as the other Riku sidestepped out of the way before calling upon his own darkened Keyblade to evenly meet Sora's next strike.
"Enough!" Sora shouted harshly, sending the imposter a hateful glare. "Who are you-really!? Why are you even doing any of this?! Are you after the Key?"
"Of course, I am," the other Riku scoffed, rolling his eyes as he blocked another heavy swing. "Why else would I even bother coming here in the first place if I wasn't? We've let you get away with far too many of them already. But this time, that's all about to change!" The other Riku lashed out, swinging his Keyblade out wide and fast and catching Sora in a forceful blow backward in the process. He landed back onto the roof itself, Donald and Goofy rushing to his side as they all glared up at the other Riku just as he pulled the attack chip out once again.
"A heart, recreated from data," he began, going off on a seemingly unrelated tangent entirely. "Who would've thought it'd be this easy to create? Still, I guess it's not that surprising. After all, that walking balloon over there has a 'heart'," he cast an uncaring nod over at Baymax, who lingered, protective and close, by Hiro's side. "Or at least that's the nonsense I'm supposed to believe."
"Where'd you get that chip?" Hiro spoke up, stepping forward. "That's mine, I made it!"
"Oh, well, I'm sorry about that," the other Riku's tone was dry, unsympathetic. "But I promise I'll put it right back where I found it."
Hiro's eyes widened at this, especially as he remembered exactly where he'd left that chip to begin with. "W-what do you mean?"
"You'll see," the other Riku grinned as he turned to leave. "Anyway, I think I'll be getting back to work now. Got a certain Key to track down. Unless, of course, you all beat me to it first."
On that oddly ominous note, the other Riku disappeared into the darkness once more, much to Sora and Hiro's shared protest. "Wait!" they called after him, though of course, it was to no avail. He was gone, and had taken the attack chip right along with him, his purpose confirmed, but his plan to achieve it still completely unknown.
"We gotta stop him!" Hiro urged as he turned to Sora first, then to his team. "Guys, we-" He stopped short as he glanced over his friends, all of whom were clearly beleaguered and beaten by the preceding battle. Baymax did his best to tend to their various injuries, but even so, the robot's healthcare intel was easily able to confirm that they'd all heal up much better off of the field.
"You are all suffering from acute exhaustion," Baymax noted. "I recommend rest."
"Rest? No way!" Sora countered, still clearly on edge even now that the other Riku was long gone. "We have to go after him and figure out what he's up to and stop him from getting the Key and-"
"Sora," Hiro interrupted much more calmly. "Baymax is right. We won't stand a chance out here if we don't take some time to heal up first. Let's regroup."
The tired members of Big Hero 6 all readily agreed to this course of action, all of them following Hiro as he began to lead the way back to the garage. Donald and Goofy started to do the same, at least until they noticed Sora lingering behind.
"Sora," Goofy began, his tone and expression both fretful. "What that other Riku said about your scar and your Keyblade…"
"You don't think it could be true," Donald finished, worried yet stern. "Do you?"
"I don't know," is what Sora would have said if he was being honest with both his companions and himself. Because in truth, he didn't know, just as much as he didn't know if the darkness on his hands or his newfound power had anything to do with the Organization's claim to his heart either. And yet, outside of a few factors that, as far as he knew, might not even be connected after all, what other proof did he have outside of a single nightmare or the persistent harmful rhetoric the Organization's members always seemed to be so skilled at? The sparse scraps of evidence he seemed to be showing now paled in comparison to his own hope that it was all a lie, as well as his willingness to do everything in his power to resist it even if it wasn't. And as far as he was concerned, that was all his companions really needed to know too. At least, for the moment.
"No," he turned to them, his expression a solid mask of unyielding resolve. "Not for a minute. He was doing the same thing Ansem and Xemnas and even Xehanort did before. They're just trying to trip us up, distract us with something that isn't even real so we'll waste our time worrying about that while they get the rest of the Keys."
"But what if it is real?" Donald pressed apprehensively.
"It's not," Sora countered as evenly as he could. Even so, he didn't look either of them in the eyes as he said it. "I know it's not. I-I mean, if it really was true and I knew it was, then wouldn't I at least tell you guys about it? I mean, the scar and my Keyblade were one thing, but I wouldn't keep something like that from you. You both know that just as much as I do." And yet they didn't, because he hadn't. And the mere thought of that alone made every word he'd said to them feel like an increasing weight of guilt bearing down upon him, threatening to crush him completely in the process, but a weight he knew he had to bear all the same.
"Mm, maybe you do have a point…" Goofy noted somewhat hesitantly.
"I do," Sora nodded, desperate to end this conversation as quickly as possible as he pressed on ahead. "Now, c'mon. Let's get all rested up so we can finally get that Key!"
As tired as they were, Donald and Goofy didn't argue, the trio all leaving the rooftop behind so they could catch up with Big Hero 6. And yet, as they did, none of them happened to see the pair standing silently in the shadows of another building, observing from afar and waiting for their own moment to finally make their move.
A solemn sort of feeling permeated the garage the next morning, the previous night's chaotic events weighing heavy on most of them, even after resting and refreshing themselves anew. Still, not everyone's spirits hadn't entirely bottomed out yet, as Fred spoke up first to hopefully raise the morale of the forlorn group.
"C'mon, you guys!" he boldly leapt forward. "What's with all the long faces? Did you forget that we WON!?"
"Fred, not now," Go Go shook her head disapprovingly.
"...You said his name is Riku, right?" Hiro started the conversation over again, looking to Sora inquisitively. "And you know him?"
"Yeah-well, I know a "him"," Sora said, an undeniable edge of bitterness in his tone at the mere thought of the other Riku.
"That one is a fake!" Donald stomped his foot petulantly.
"And that fake one's with Organization XIII," Goofy explained. "That group of bad guys we were tellin' you about earlier."
"Ok, so assuming that all makes sense," Wasabi said, still a bit lost. "How'd he get Hiro's chip?"
"And what did he mean about recreating a heart?" Honey Lemon added, just as confused.
"And why'd he send those Darkubes to attack us in the first place?" Go Go finished, wanting to get to the bottom of all of this.
"Well, for starters, he's after the same thing we are: the Key," Sora began. "So I guess the Darkubes had something to do with that? But I have no idea what he meant with the whole 'recreating a heart from data' thing. These guys-they show up, and instead of fighting fair and square, they go for the heart and say things to try and get under your skin." He let out a small, somewhat ashamed sigh, knowing that the other Riku had done exactly that to him the previous night, his sharp words cutting far deeper than he should have ever let them. "They're cowards. And now they're doing it to you too. And that's our fault…"
Donald and Goofy mirrored Sora's disappointment, but it was something Hiro didn't necessarily accept as he spoke up with newfound hope instead. "No. This could be good. That chip might finally be able to give me some answers."
"You said you made it, right?" Sora asked, curious.
"Yeah," Hiro nodded, his tone turning somewhat somber as he glanced over at the robot standing alongside him. "This Baymax-he's actually the second model. Uh, no offense, Baymax."
"I am a robot. I cannot be offended," Baymax assured.
Hiro offered him a brief smile at this, though it ultimately faded as he began to divulge the rest of his solemn tale. "It's… a long story. But the first Baymax and the chip I made vanished into another dimension along with the microbots. But now, the chip's back… So… the first Baymax might be back too."
"Oh, Hiro…" Honey Lemon spoke softly. "Do you really think…?"
"I-I… don't really know," Hiro closed his eyes, shaking his head gently. "But…" He trailed off into a small, sad sigh, the mere thought of seeing the original Baymax, the Baymax that Tadashi had built, filling him with far too many thoughts and feelings to even count.
"Those who suffer from a loss require support from friends and loved ones," Baymax pointed out, looking to the group gathered before him so that they could offer Hiro just that. And yet, they didn't get much of a chance to as the entire garage was rocked by a shockwave that likewise shook the entire city as a whole.
"What was that!?" Go Go demanded as she and the others managed to steady themselves.
Hiro wasted no time in finding out, rolling over to his computer to dig up whatever information he could. And that information came quickly in the form of another news bulletin, reporting that sure enough, the Darkubes had returned in full force and were besetting San Fransokyo and its innocent residents once more.
"It's time to finish this," Hiro said firmly as he turned to face the others. "We're taking those Darkubes down, for real this time."
"And we're getting that Key!" Sora added, just as resolved.
"The final battle is upon us!" Fred dramatically proclaimed as everyone geared up to set out to face that battle head-on. "Who will win? The band of brave and noble heroes? Or the dastardly forces of evil?! Let's FIND OUT!"
Just as they had the night before, the Darkubes had clustered together atop another skyscraper, the cluster's core safely tucked away inside it. And yet, unlike before, the group that came to confront it felt much more prepared, more determined than ever to put an end to its violent siege on the city once and for all.
"Hope it's learned some new tricks," Go Go remarked as they made their approach toward it.
"Yeah, now it's gotta face all of us," Wasabi added just as confidently.
"Together!" Honey Lemon chimed in brightly.
"Freddie wants to DESTROY!" Fred exclaimed, zealous and eager.
"Our probability of success is-"
"You don't have to crunch the numbers, Baymax," Hiro interrupted with a determined grin. "It's not the sum of our parts that matters; it's the sum of our hearts."
"Yeah," Sora warmly agreed, ready to face whatever tricks the Organization might throw at them next. So long as he had his friends, both old and new, to stand by his side through it all.
"The sum of your 'hearts', huh? Which adds up to what?"
As soon as they heard the other Riku's voice, the entirety of the group was instantly on their guard, though his position was largely unknown. At least until he moved to dive down from the wind turbine he was standing on far above the rooftop they were on. "Show me!" he challenged, slicing his Keyblade across the Darkubes' core as he flew past it. While he landed squarely on the roof, the Darkubes immediately fell apart once more, a tactic that threw everyone off even more than they already were.
"Almost there…" the other Riku held the attack chip up, a shadowy aura still surrounding it as he kicked a few of the fallen Darkubes aside carelessly. "This pile of junk collected the data we needed. The terror of being attacked without warning… the despair of having no place to run… the longing for vengeance… All emotions that, if put to the right use, could just end up leading us to more than a few of those Keys…"
And just like that, the other Riku's plan suddenly made much more sense. The Organization clearly knew, just as well as anyone, that the Keys to the Kingdom were tied to emotions. Which was why collecting data, doing their research on the emotions that could bring them about, was something that seemed right up their alley. And yet, the realization hardly satisfied Sora, especially since he'd been the one to gather three of them so far firsthand.
"But a heart's more than that!" he countered firmly, the others all agreeing as they chimed in.
"It's working together!" Wasabi brazenly proclaimed.
"Smiling at something funny!" Donald and Goofy chipped in together.
"Trusting friends," Hiro added, smiling to his own.
"In every heart," Sora finished just as resolved as he'd begun. "There's hope. And that hope is the reason why you guys will never win!"
The other Riku said nothing to this, instead taking a pause to glance around, almost as if he was waiting for something. Ultimately though, he let out a disappointed sigh, shaking his head as he looked back to the chip in his hand. "Still nothing? I would have thought that an inspirational outburst like that would have definitely gotten that Key to show up. Oh well. Guess some other emotion is the ticket instead. And if that didn't work," His already ominous grin widened as he summoned a dark corridor high above him. "Then I'm sure this will bring plenty of emotions-and that Key-out instead…"
As the dark void filled in the sky, it also began to pull the fallen Darkubes to it, eagerly swallowing each of them up. And while everyone else watched with growing dread and confusion as to what this turn of events could bring, the other Riku readily commanded his sinister intentions onward. "First, we need a vessel," he said as the Darkubes continued to surge into the portal to retrieve just that. It didn't take them very long either, for soon enough they re-emerged from the dark corridor in a thick, heavy amalgamation, one that shimmered with harsh and heavy crimson energy.
"What's going on?" Go Go asked, staring up at the cluster suspiciously.
"Another Darkube form?" Honey Lemon wondered, confused.
"Doesn't look as bad as the last one," Fred noted, somewhat relieved.
"But it could be a trick!" Goofy warned, both him and Donald as well-aware of the Organization's usual malicious tactics as Sora was.
Hiro, on the other hand, was the first to notice the Darkubes' cluster starting to diminish a bit, revealing at least a piece of what they had gathered: a large, inflated white hand, one that he recognized instantly. And as soon as he did, a sheer spark of both fear and grief coursed through him as he realized exactly what was about to happen here. A spark that only grew as he watched the others all ready their weapons for the inevitable fight ahead.
"W-wait!" he interjected anxiously. "That's… Baymax. The first one."
"What?!" Sora quickly glanced back at the Darkubes cluster as it began to peel away more and more. And as it did, it fully, finally revealed that Hiro was indeed right, even if none of the others wished he was.
For the Darkubes had certainly recovered the original Baymax, though in the process, they'd twisted his robotic form with the very same sort of darkness they were composed of. Much like the second model, he was clad in similar steady armor, though instead of a heroic crimson, this armor was painted in a shade of cold shadows, threatening horns poking up from both his shoulder pads and his helmet. And even more alarming was the mass of Darkcubes encasing one of his arms, still very much alive with their usual violent energy, even if their new host didn't seem to be at all.
Needless to say the other members of Big Hero 6 were just as shocked as Hiro was to see the original Baymax brought back in such a twisted way for such a horrific purpose. And even as the newer Baymax stood loyally by his side, Hiro couldn't help but look to the model he'd thought he'd lost forever, knowing that this was the last way he would have ever wanted to see him again. "Baymax…"
"Don't bother," the other Riku scoffed, clearly not done rubbing salt in the wound yet. "This puppet has lost his heart. He won't wake up."
"He's not a puppet!" Hiro brazenly ran forward, refusing to let this cruelty go on any longer. "Baymax-he's like my family! Please! Just… just give me back my friend!"
Of course, the other Riku simply regarded this plea with another callous sneer, though his response did admittedly caught Hiro, as well as the others, quite off guard. "Yes… I did promise I'd put this back where I found it, right?" He held the attack chip up, allowing darkness to overtake it as it pulled it toward the lifeless original Baymax. His otherwise empty data port opened to receive it, sliding the chip in before sealing itself shut, allowing the robot to awaken once more. Though just like his sinister armor, as his eyes lit up in a bright, bitter blood red glow, it was clear that this Baymax was clearly just a twisted shadow of the caring healthcare companion he was supposed to be.
"That Key should be making an appearance any second now," the other Riku confidently mused. "Especially since you're going to be the one to make it show up, Sora."
"For you?" Sora scoffed resiliently. "Yeah right."
"But you've already gotten your hands on three so far, haven't you?" the other Riku asked knowingly. "It's almost a guarantee by now that you'll be able to access the next one too, especially now. After all, sadness, loss, they're just as powerful emotions as any, definitely powerful to bring a Key out somewhere, so why not here? Which is why you're going to make those emotions happen… by destroying Hiro's friend right in front of him."
With that, the other Riku vanished once more into another dark corridor, though not before Sora rushed forward to try to stop him and his vicious tricks in their tracks. "Wait!" He stopped short, however, the moment the other Baymax jolted into action, his wings and thrusters both propelling him into the air at a breakneck speed. Without hesitation, the members of Big Hero 6 leapt into action to counter him, especially as he made an aggressive beeline for one of their own.
"Hiro!" the young heroes all shouted in worried unison. Not caring about the fact that the foe they now had to face was indeed a form of Baymax, they all leapt into action to stop him. Though with the Darkubes assisting him, they didn't get very far before they were all flung aside carelessly. The trio hurried to Hiro's defense next, having a bit more luck in holding him back, though he still pushed them back aggressively. At least until the second model flew in with a heavy blow to knock his dark double aside, sending him flying over the side of the building, though he didn't stay down for long.
Baymax's dark double slowly hovered back onto the rooftop, the Darkubes clinging to his hand now formed into the shape of a sinister claw. Though Donald and Goofy rushed forward to momentarily fend off the threat, the members of Big Hero 6 all hesitated to fight a former iteration of their mutual friend, as Sora hung back alongside them.
"Tell us, Hiro," he glanced over at the still rather distraught boy. "What should we do?"
It was a question Hiro didn't really have much of an answer to, at least not at first. And yet, as he took another look between the two Baymaxes-the one standing at his side and the one that no longer could-ultimately, he knew exactly what needed to be done. "Baymax means everything to me," his tone was steady and stern as he stepped forward. "But that chip isn't who he is. I already made this mistake once before. Tadashi wouldn't want there to be a Baymax that hurts people." Hiro paused briefly, though his treasured memories of his brother, the desire to make him proud even still, pushed him forward, just as they always did. "Sora… he has to be stopped."
"Ok," Sora firmly agreed. "Then let's do it!"
"Yeah!" the members of Big Hero 6 all cheered in unison. They all rushed forward, weapons at the ready, coming together as a team to save the day, just as they always strived to do. Still, before any of them could attack the dark version of Baymax, he reeled back into the air away from Donald and Goofy's struggling attempts at holding him off. And, without even engaging any of the young heroes running for him, the robot flew off, plunging down into the city to add onto the already palpable threat the re-emerging Heartless were posing to it. Big Hero 6 wasted no time in chasing after him, intent on putting a stop to this ongoing disaster and, if at all possible, restore the original Baymax back to the way he truly should have been.
Donald and Goofy weren't too far behind the team in heading back down into the city below and Sora was practically running alongside them. At least, until a familiar voice stopped him dead in his tracks. "What's the rush?" the other Riku said as he reappeared on the far side of the roof. "You're in such a hurry to stop that stupid robot, when you should be racing to find that Key instead."
"The Key can wait," Sora offered the other Riku a severe glare as he turned to face him, his Keyblade held tight in his grasp. "My friends come first!"
"Tch, typical," the other Riku rolled his eyes. "It's always about your friends, isn't it? Guess it's a real shame then, that they don't really need you. Not like how you need to be needed by them."
"W-what?" Sora saked, his voice not as steady as he would have liked it to be. "I don't-"
"Don't waste your breath trying to argue," the other Riku interrupted impatiently. "I'm trying to speed this whole thing along for everyone, and you're not helping. So, if you really want to help your friends so much, why not tackle this problem at its source?"
Initially, Sora didn't quite pick up on what he meant, though he soon understood as he glanced over the edge of the building he was standing on. Down below, sure enough, his friends were all engaged in a brutal brawl against the other Baymax, a fight that, Sora quickly remembered, had only broken out because of the cruel tactics of the Organization member standing right in front of him. "Great idea," his grip on his Keyblade tightened as he steeled himself for a different battle entirely. "Why don't I?"
The other Riku's already constant smirk deepened with some unknown satisfaction as he summoned his own familiar Keyblade. Sora's first swing came right after, one that the other Riku readily dodged as he lashed out with his own, hardly even seeming to care as it was parried away. A few brief, yet sharp clashes between the blades ensured, neither of them landing any real damage as their duel got off to a rhythmic start.
Soon enough, however, the other Riku decided to change the pace up a bit, deftly leaping out of the path of another wide swing to land atop a lower, nearby rooftop instead. Though he was caught off guard by this, Sora didn't hesitate to give chase, jumping over to meet him Keyblade first in a strike that only struck the roof itself as the other Riku seamlessly teleported to another building entirely.
"Augh! Stay still, will you?!" Sora shouted, running after him once more. The other Riku said nothing as he easily dodged yet another attack, though strangely all the while, he seemed to be making no effort to land any of his own. Instead, he was more content in letting Sora continue to chase him, the two of them bounding above the city in a rapid, frenetic pace in a pursuit that seemed to be going absolutely nowhere at all. Much to Sora's quickly growing frustration.
"What are you doing?!" he yelled, finally pausing as he watched the other Riku reappear atop the building right in front of him. "If you want a fight so badly, then just fight me already!"
"I will, as soon as you actually make it worth my while with a real challenge," the other Riku sneered, unimpressed. "I thought after all this time you'd finally learn how to put up a good fight, Sora. But here you are, still running around in circles and swinging your weapon around like it's some toy. Just like you always used to do when we were kids."
This callous comment alone was enough to infuriate Sora even more than he already was just by the unfolding fight alone. And this time, he didn't hesitate to make that fury known as his Keyblade finally landed against the other Riku's in a heavy, brutal swing, one that he repeated over and over again, each in rapid, heated succession. "Stop pretending to be him!" he demanded, his Keyblade landing in perfect percussion with every word. "You're NOT him and you'll never be him! No matter how hard you try to act like it! Y-you're just… just a FAKE!"
Something about this fierce proclamation finally broke the calm composure the other Riku usually carried. Bitter rage flooded in to take its place, rage that he thoroughly acted upon as he sent Sora flying back hard with a single swing of his sharpened Keyblade. In the process, the AR device went flying off of his face, thrown off the side of the building by the sheer force of the attack until it was completely lost to the city streets below.
"I am not a fake," the other Riku's voice was surprisingly quiet, though still shaking with anger as he slowly approached Sora to come in for another attack. "The only reason you're even saying that is because you know… You know that I'm better than you. I always have been… and I always will be. Without your friends to always be there to hold your hand, to hold your heart, then it's so easy to see just how weak you really are. Face it, Sora, you're nothing."
As that constant goading, grating grin took its place on the other Riku's face once more, something inside Sora suddenly snapped, completely shattering any form of restraint he might have had against someone who looked so much like one of his closest friends. In an instant, he was on his feet, dark and light energy blooming around both of his hands, around practically his entire body as he lunged forward, letting out a furious shout as he raised his Keyblade high for an unforgiving attack. And strangely, it was an attack the other Riku didn't even try to block or dodge, instead almost welcoming the devastating blow, even as it knocked him back brutally.
The other Riku landed on a lower rooftop, hitting it hard and painfully, yet that pain hardly even seemed to matter to him as he maintained his steady, cocky grin, even as Sora landed on the rooftop just a few feet away from him. For his own part, Sora was still clearly livid, his Keyblade shaking with the rage that was rippling through his hands as an uneven aura of both shadows and light continued to envelop him all the while.
"So," he began, his tone uncharacteristically icy as he aimed the tip of his Keyblade at his foe. "Who's weak now?"
The other Riku simply smirked at this, hardly phased by Sora's practically vicious attack or his unrelenting manner as he noticed something truly satisfying. "You are," he accompanied his short, ominous answer with a simple nod over at the windowed wall to their left. Though quite suspicious, Sora hesitantly followed his gaze there, only to find a sight that seemed to bring everything to a grinding halt.
For standing there, etched into the glass was indeed his own reflection. Complete with stark, unmistakable golden eyes that stared right back into his.
Sora stumbled backward the moment he saw it, blinking hard in the hopes that he was merely seeing things, yet when he looked again, his now horrifically yellow eyes remained. He even went as far as to glance down at his Keyblade, catching another glimpse of his reflection, albeit a cracked one, in its silver surface. And even there, his eyes were still painted that awful shade of amber, not a single speck of the blue he knew should have been there instead to be found.
"W-what…?" he choked, his already racing heart picking up even more as he happened to look down at his hands. His Keyblade disappeared as he frantically pulled one of his gloves off, only to find something that nearly made him sick. The small blot of darkness that had only really ever rested on his palm before had spread, seeping down past his wrist and onto his arm as it began to leak onto the other side of his hand as well. The case was exactly the same for his other hand as well, both of them now entrenched in the shadowy evidence of a secret he'd been desperately trying to hide from everyone. Including himself.
"That's some new power you have there, Sora," the other Riku taunted as he began to pick himself up, leaning against his Keyblade for support. Despite his injuries, a cold, knowing grin still hung on his face, one that Sora barely even bothered to regard as he opted to fearfully stare at his reflection once more. "But I guess you didn't know: all power comes with a price."
A price, and a heavy one at that. For while he'd been freely, eagerly using that new power, desperately feeding off of the illusion of momentary strength it had provided him with, he'd failed to see what that power was really doing to him in return. What it was costing him, what it was taking from him and what it was filling the holes it left behind with instead. And only now that he could clearly see the horrendous effects of the dark pall cast over his heart that power, a power he'd so willingly, foolishly used, did he realize that it wasn't the surprising blessing he'd thought it was at all. It was a curse.
His breathing shuddered harshly, his darkened hands held close to him as he took a shaky step backward. Another look over at his reflection revealed his eyes were still so yellow, so unlike his own that they nearly seemed to make him look like someone else entirely. He'd all but forgotten the other Riku as his own rapid thoughts soon gave rise to panic. He finally tore his gaze away from his reflection, back toward the city instead for any signs of Donald and Goofy, out of a sheer, desperate need to have someone to lean on at a moment like this. Yet he didn't find them in the streets below, the fight they and the members of Big Hero 6 were all caught up in taking place on the other side of town entirely. And in light of that, his hand twitched toward his pocket, toward where the Gummiphone was to be exact, knowing that he had to tell Riku, the real Riku, that something was wrong. He had to tell him, he promised he would, and yet-
He had no idea what he'd even say. Or what he'd show him. Or what excuse he'd be able to give as to why he'd kept this hidden for so long because when it came right down to it, Sora knew he had no good excuse. He'd secreted the warning signs away, pretended as though they didn't even exist for so long now that he'd essentially convinced himself that there was nothing to worry about. But now, clearly, there was, even if he didn't know just how severe or serious or what it even really was to begin with. The only thing he really did know was that he had to tell them the truth: Donald, Goofy, Riku-they all had to know. He had to tell them… and yet he couldn't. He couldn't bear the thought of genuine fear sparking in Donald and Goofy's faces if he showed them his new dangerous power. He couldn't bear the thought of hearing the disappointment, possibly even anger in Riku's voice for him barring the truth he should have known about from the very beginning from him for so long. He couldn't bear the thought of all of this pointing toward his worst fear being true, the thought that his heart truly was starting the long, agonizing, endless fall into darkness, the thought that Xehanort had been right after all.
The thought of becoming the thirteenth vessel.
And that single, solitary thought alone was exactly why he needed to tell them… and exactly why he couldn't.
As awash in his frantic thoughts as he was, Sora didn't even notice as the cityscape suddenly shifted around him, dissipating into a warm, golden aura instead. In fact, he hardly even paid any attention to the familiar, gentle voice that called to him once more, posing yet another question, just as it had done three times before.
"Is there conflict in your heart?"
He barely even felt cognizant as he offered his answer, albeit not a verbal one this time around as he simply nodded, unable to deny the surging tidal wave of conflict crashing over his heart repeatedly. Yet for his answer he was still rewarded as the light disappeared, and left a shimmering Key behind in its wake.
It was only as he felt that Key's weight in his hand that Sora let out a small gasp, finally breaking out of his thoughts to glance down at the prize he'd somehow won. And yet, he didn't even have a chance to revel in the fact that he'd earned it before it fell out of his grip entirely.
The attack was so sudden there was no way he could have seen it coming. A blast of heavy dark energy struck him squarely in the back, sending him flying across the rooftop and ripping the Key out of his grip in the process. Pain lanced through his shoulder as he landed on it, rolling sharply before skidding to a stop just shy of the roof's edge. The Key fell only about a foot or so in front of him, and even as disoriented as he was by the unforeseen blow, he still tried to reach for it all the same. That is, until his approach was stopped by a sudden foot slamming down hard onto his hand, crushing it to the ground in the process.
"Hm, looks like you dropped this," the other Riku remarked with a dry smirk as he picked the fallen Key up. "Maybe I should hold onto it for safekeeping instead."
"N-no!" Sora protested, struggling to pick himself back up and reclaim the Key before it was too late. "Y-you can't-"
"Oh, don't worry, Sora," the other Riku proudly slung the Key over his shoulder as he called upon a dark corridor to take his leave. "I'm sure you'll see this Key again… once you've finally taken your proper place within the Organization that is."
"S-stop!" Sora shouted, rising as much as he could to do something, anything to keep the Key from falling into the wrong hands like this. He even went as far as firing off a haphazard blast of light and dark energy, as much as he hated to even think about that treacherous sort of magic anymore, but the other Riku easily deflected it by using the innate power of the Key now held in his possession.
"Still, thanks for all your help, Sora," the other Riku glanced over his shoulder one final time. "We couldn't have gotten it without you."
With nothing more to say, he disappeared into the darkness, the Key going right along with him. "Wait! Please!" Despite his body still aching from that last attack, Sora forced himself to his feet, desperate to follow, to take the Key back, to finally put an end to all of this. And yet, before he could even get close, the dark corridor disappeared into thin air.
And just like that, the Key was gone.
Sora collapsed to his knees in the very place the dark portal had once been, his eyes wide in as he stared at the rooftop beneath him. And with that disbelief came a torrent of countless other emotions: shock, anger, grief, any of which would have certainly been strong enough to bring a Key about… that is, if this world's hadn't already been claimed. And yet, what rose above all of the rest was an unshakable sense of shame, so deep and heavy that Sora felt as though he was drowning in it and being crushed by it all at once. And as engulfed in that shame as he was, he didn't even notice the trio that was arriving on the roof group to meet him.
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy called in worried unison, jumping down out of Baymax's grip to rush over to him. The robot landed after they did, though he likewise joined them in hurring over to Sora's side, all three of them immediately noticing just how distraught he clearly was.
"Sora, you have sustained a heavy blow to your shoulder," Baymax pointed out evenly. "In addition, your abnormally high heart rate, involuntary full-body trembling, and shortness of breath are all signs of distress that point towards an oncoming panic attack."
Donald and Goofy's already immense concern only doubled for their young companion upon hearing this, especially as they realized that, sure enough, he was shivering uncontrollably, his breaths coming out in sharp, harsh gasps as tears started to well up in his eyes-which, unbeknownst to him, had somehow turned back to their usual blue yet again. "S-Sora, what's wrong?" Goofy asked softly, both him and Donald placing comforting hands on their young companion's shuddering shoulders.
"Why'd you go off on your own like that?" Donald asked just as worriedly. "What happened?"
Sora didn't bother looking up at either of them, shaking his head as a few of his building tears grew dangerously close to falling. "I-I… I lost it…" he finally muttered, his voice so tight and small that it was barely even audible.
"Lost what?" Goofy asked, confused.
"T-the Key," Sora struggled to even admit it, choking back a sob as he did so. "I had it, it was right here," he glanced down at his hands, admittedly glad he'd thought to slip his gloves back on before his companions arrived. "B-but then… R-Riku-no, not Riku-caught me by surprise a-and took it and I tried to stop him, b-but I couldn't-he just… I-I… t-the Key… it's… gone…"
Donald and Goofy exchanged a forlorn glance at this, both of them instantly understanding just why Sora was so upset. After all, the loss of a Key to the Organization was something they hadn't faced before, and after already claiming three of them so far, it seemed as though the chances of it ever happening were slim. In many ways, they'd grown content, complacent in the idea that they'd find them all that they never even bothered to consider what might happen if one of them happened to slip out of their hands. A possibility that had since become a frightening reality.
"Aw, Sora…" Donald began, genuinely sympathetic. "We… we're sorry we weren't there to help you…"
"B-but don't worry!" Goofy encouraged. "We've still got three Keys and the Organization only has one-well, 'least as far as we know…"
"One…" Sora softly repeated as he finally stood, his hands balling into tight fists as his grief gave way to anger. "O-one that they should have never gotten in the first place… but they did. A-and I just… I let it happen! Don't you guys get it?! This is all my fault!"
"No, it's not!" Donald protested firmly.
"Sora, we know ya didn't mean to lose the Key," Goofy agreed. "A-and like Donald said, maybe if we had been there to help you, that other Riku wouldn't have gotten away with it in the first place!"
"Well it doesn't matter now…" Sora said glumly, absently wiping a few of his pressing tears away. "No matter whose fault it is, it's still gone…"
At this, Baymax suddenly spoke up, a hint of what almost seemed like genuine concern entering his otherwise steady robotic tone. "Sora, Hiro asked me to be your temporary healthcare companion. That means that you are my patient. I would like to help."
Sora let out a small, sad sigh, glancing away from the robot as he rubbed his sore shoulder. "Thanks, Baymax, b-but… I don't think there's anything any of us can do about this…"
Even so, Baymax persisted, doing so in a way that caught Sora completely off guard as the robot's steady arms folded him into a secure, comforting embrace. "You will be alright," Baymax calmly assured. "It is okay to cry. Crying is a natural response to pain and loss."
Upon hearing this, Sora was unable to stop himself from caving completely, his held-back tears finally falling as he tightly returned Baymax's hug in full. Donald and Goofy were quick to join in, more than willing to offer their dejected young companion some much-needed support at a time of crisis such as this.
Still, it ultimately didn't last too long as the immense clamor of the battle still raging on down in the city streets below soon carried up to the top of the building they were all on. As the group hug disbanded, they all headed over to the rooftop's edge to see what was happening. Sure enough, the members of Big Hero 6 were all still deeply embroiled in their fight against the other Baymax, a fight they were clearly struggling to win. With the dangerous edge the Darkubes gave him, the dark robot was practically unstoppable, flanked by a sizable army of Heartless that continued to swarm the city on all sides. As spread thin as they were, the young heroes were mutually having a hard time standing strong against this overwhelming force, to the point that it was clear they wouldn't be able to hold out much longer against them.
And as Sora watched all this unfold, he readily let his tears fade away, allowing them to be replaced by a sense of righteous resolve to set things right. "The Organization already won once today," he began sternly. "But we can't let them win twice. You guys with me?"
"Yeah!" Donald cheered, more than glad to see that Sora's usual verve was back.
"Of course!" Goofy chimed in just as daringly.
"Yes," Baymax answered simply.
"Good," Sora finally smiled as he turned back to the action down below. "Donald, Goofy, you guys go help the others. Baymax, you're with me. Let's finish this."
The others all firmly agreed with this plan as they all set off, Donald and Goofy hurrying to get back down into the streets to offer Big Hero 6 some much needed assistance. At the same time, Baymax rocketed forward, allowing Sora to leap onto him, Keyblade summoned and ready, as the two took flight to face the other Baymax head on.
It didn't take them very long to find the dark robot either as he hovered high above the rest of the action going on down below. Still, what he didn't see coming was Sora and Baymax as they came in for a surprise attack, the former firing off a heavy fire spell while the later pummeled into his dark double with a strong, well-timed punch.
The other Baymax reeled back, but shook the pair of blows off quickly, retaliating by launching a burst of Darkubes at the pair, an attack that Baymax took the brunt of, shielding Sora from it and in the process allowing him to fire off another round of magic at the dark bot. He made sure to avoid even coming close to using any light or dark magic, knowing just how risky practicing it could now be, so instead, he opted for ice, hoping to freeze the other Baymax's Darkube claw entirely. This tactic proved effective, though only for a brief moment as the cubes easily busted out of the ice to spiral out toward the pair in a heavy, wild swing.
Despite Baymax's best efforts, he wasn't able to completely dodge this attack as the mass of Darkubes struck him hard, sending him flying back across the sky. Likewise, the heavy jolt of the attack was enough to knock Sora off the robot's back entirely, sending him into a freefall toward the city streets far below. Yet instead of panicking, he decided to take advantage of what would have otherwise been a perilous situation as he noticed the other Baymax flying past him toward the ground.
Acting quickly, Sora turned his fall into a dive, his Keyblade pushing him through the air as he used a small aero spell to give him a boost in the right direction. Baymax seemed to understand his intent, flying in after him, but not interfering as Sora willingly fell toward the dark robot. His Keyblade connected with the other Baymax's back squarely, slamming into the dark bot with enough force to break his armor's wings entirely. Unable to keep itself airbound after such a heavy blow, the other Baymax began to plummet just as the second model flew in to safely catch Sora before he could begin falling again.
The pair didn't get very far, however, before Baymax jolted to a sudden stop midair, all thanks to his dark double latching onto his leg with his Darkube claw. The other Baymax threw him down hard, though for his own part, Baymax did the same as he caught the dark bot's leg in a similar tactic on the way down. The two robots grappled with each other as they fell into a rapid plunge from the sky, leaving Sora with no other options than to hold onto Baymax for dear life as the robot wrestled against his dark double.
Fortunately though, Baymax got exactly the edge he needed in this fight as he wisely utilized his rocket fist just in the nick of time. The robot sent it flying right in the face of his dark copy, beating him back and allowing Baymax to finally right himself in the air just before him and Sora hit the ground. In their place, the other Baymax crashed down to it instead, his armor damaged beyond repair as he lay there, unmoving and defeated at last.
With the dark robot downed, the Heartless swarming the city likewise began to die down, allowing the members of Big Hero 6, as well as Donald and Goofy, a chance to rush over to the center of all the action. They arrived just as Sora and Baymax landed before the beaten bot, the battle finally over, though it came with a victory that felt more bittersweet than anything else, in more ways than one.
"Guys…" Sora began breathlessly, almost apologetically as the others all rushed forward, though one led the pack as he made a beeline for the defeated dark bot. "Hiro…"
Hiro stopped short just a few feet shy of the other Baymax, his teammates falling in line right beside him as they looked over their fallen former friend. "So… did we stop him?" Wasabi asked apprehensively.
"Safety mode kicks in if he's put under too much stress," Hiro let out a solemn sigh as he stepped closer to the other Baymax. "So he's probably just in stasis. But… we'll have to destroy the chip if we want to be certain."
"But… are you sure?" Honey Lemon frowned fretfully.
"Yeah, dude," Fred agreed. "You don't need to go that far."
"Maybe we can find another way," Go Go suggested, but even so, Hiro wasn't hearing it.
Instead, he gently accessed the other Baymax's data port, hesitating only for a moment as the attack chip slid out of it before he took out of the fallen bot. Darkness still swelled around the chip, yet another reminder of just how much this Baymax had been forcefully morphed and twisted into something he was never meant to be. "It's the right thing to do…" Hiro said, watching as the Darkubes began to dissipate from the other Baymax's arm. In a similar way, the dark armor he'd been wrongfully vested with steadily disappeared as well, vanishing into nothing more than the shadows it had been composed of to begin with. And in the wake of those shadows, all that remained was the simple, white, huggable design Tadashi had first designed: the original Baymax.
Hiro couldn't help but smile as he looked over his once-lost friend, placing a gentle hand on him as he remembered the agonizing moment that had separated them to begin with:
"Hiro, I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with your care-"
"Please! No! I-I… I can't lose you too…"
"Hiro. I will always be with you. Are you satisfied with your care?"
"...Y-yes. I… I'm satisfied with my care…"
And he had been, and he still was. Satisfied with the care and support and friendship that Baymax had always offered him, both old and new. Which was exactly why Hiro had every intention of returning that care in full. "Tadashi would have wanted the same thing," he said, to his teammates, to himself, and to the other Baymax. Even if he knew the fallen robot couldn't hear him.
"But Hiro," Sora interjected earnestly. "Isn't that chip like Baymax's heart?"
Hiro nodded, yet there was still a small, hopeful smile on his face as he turned to the other Baymax once more. "It's ok," he said, placing a hand over his chest. "Baymax is here." In the very same place Tadashi was, where those who had been lost always made sure to live on, their memories carried by those who remained: the heart.
Which was why Hiro felt essentially no grief as he snapped the attack chip in two, knowing that even despite its destruction, the Baymax his brother had built would live on. Both in his heart, and, perhaps, outside of it as well.
"Ow...?"
Right on cue, the robot inflated into activation, his round eyes opening to take in the large group gathered in the garage before him. A group that he greeted with a calm, cordial wave, a far cry from the fabricated malice he'd been fueled by before.
"Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."
The burst of relief and joy that filled the garage at this was immediate as everyone broke out into bright, elated smiles. Sure enough, Hiro's plan had worked, and in record time too, for all it took to bring the other Baymax back, outside of a few other minor patches and repairs, was to make a copy of the data chip the second model now possessed. And with that chip now installed in his own port, the original Baymax's healthcare database, personality, and even memories were now completely restored in full. A fact that Hiro readily celebrated by racing forward to hug the friend he'd thought he'd lost.
"Hey, Baymax," he whispered warmly as the robot enveloped him in a caring, familiar embrace.
"Hello, Hiro," the original Baymax bid his primary patient a kindly greeting. At the same time, the second Baymax stepped forward to join in on the hug, securing Hiro on both sides as he gladly welcomed the bots' shared embrace.
At the same time, the other members of Big Hero 6 all reveled in the original Baymax's return, Sora, Donald, and Goofy easily joining in on the celebration as well. "Two Baymaxes?! AWESOME!" Fred cheered, pumping his fist excitedly.
"Definitely a major upgrade," Go Go grinned, genuinely impressed.
"Two heads are always better than one!" Honey Lemon chimed in.
"Especially if those heads belong to two robots," Wasabi added with a small laugh.
"Yeah! This is great, Hiro!" Sora exclaimed brightly. "So, uh, do you think we could maybe take one of them with us?"
"Uh, that's a no," Hiro chuckled as both Baymaxes released him from their hug.
"What? Come on!" Sora pleaded, albeit insincerely.
"No," Hiro crossed his arms with a playful smirk. "Who's gonna repair him if he gets broken?"
"Definitely not you," Donald sent Sora a wry, teasing look.
"Hey!"
"Besides, he's my personal healthcare companion, remember?" Hiro added lightly.
"Aw, I guess you're right," Sora sighed, disappointed. "Still, it'd be really cool to bring at least one Baymax along with us to find the rest of the Keys. I bet if we did, we wouldn't end up losing any more of them, at least…"
"Oh that's right," Hiro's tone turned sympathetic at this. "We heard about what happened with the Key-"
"And we're so sorry we weren't there to help you, Sora," Honey Lemon said just as earnestly.
"Don't be," Sora shook his head. "It's not your fault." "It's mine," he wanted to add, still firmly believing that painful sentiment. But even so, he refrained on that front, for now at least.
"But even if we didn't get the Key-" Donald began, holding a small smile.
"We still appreciate all you did to help us try to find it!" Goofy finished warmly.
"Is there anything we can do to help you get it back?" Hiro offered. "It's the least we can do after you guys helped us save San Fransokyo. And Baymax."
"I can still scan for strong emotional impulses to assist in finding additional Keys," the second Baymax pointed out.
"My scanners are capable of doing the same," the original Baymax nodded in agreement.
"Yeah! Let's keep this magical macguffin hunt going!" Fred daringly proclaimed.
"A-as long as we're done diving off the sides of skyscrapers, consider me there," Wasabi said with something of a weary smile.
"Just point us in the right direction," Go Go agreed as coolly as ever. "And we'll be ready to go."
"Thanks, you guys," Sora smiled, genuinely grateful for their kind willingness to help when they really didn't have to. And when they really couldn't to begin with. "But… finding the rest of the Keys, and trying to get the one we just lost back, is something we need to do on our own."
"Are you sure?" Honey Lemon asked worriedly.
"You're not just saying that because of that guy in the black coat, are you?" Go Go raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"That dude's no match for the ultimate team power of Big Hero 6!" Fred exclaimed, an air of challenge in his tone.
"It's… not just him," Sora sighed. "It's a whole group of other people who are just like him. The Organization is a problem, and it's one that we need to take care of. Which means…"
"It's time for us to go," Donald finished where Sora had left off.
"Yeah…" Goofy nodded, just as forlorn.
A beat of sad silence passed among the members of Big Hero 6 at this, but ultimately, Hiro was the one to break it as he stepped forward to the trio with a fond, reassuring smile. "Well, if your minds are made up, then… I guess we can't stop you, can we?"
"Guess we can't," Go Go offered the trio a wry, yet respectful smirk. "Though not for a lack of trying."
"Make sure to come back and visit us any time you can!" Honey Lemon chimed in sweetly.
"You guys are welcome here any time," Wasabi nodded in solid agreement.
"Yeah! You're like members of the team!" Fred quipped. "Wait… does that mean we have to change our name to… 6, 7, 8, 9-Big Hero 9?!"
"Eh, doesn't have the same ring to it," Wasabi shrugged.
"It really doesn't…" Honey Lemon shook her head.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Hiro opened the garage door for the trio, standing alongside the pair of Baymaxes as they both offered them a wave of farwell. "Good luck you there, you guys. If you ever need any help, you know where to look."
"Thanks, Hiro," Sora smiled as they began to set off on their way. Donald and Goofy returned the two Baymaxes' kindly wave, one that the other members of Big Hero 6 all sent back their way in turn. "See you guys again soon!"
"Yeah," Hiro nodded warmly, calling out to the trio one last time as they began their way down the street. "Oh! By the way, even if you didn't get this one, I hope you guys are able to find the rest of those Keys you're looking for!"
"Yeah…" Sora's hopeful manner finally faded at this as he turned away, a familiar sort of shame settling over him instead as he looked down at his hand. And at the very small specks of shadow just starting to peek out from underneath his glove upon it. "So do I…"
Despite their bright, spirited parting with Big Hero 6, the levity didn't quite last as Sora, Donald, and Goofy made their way down one of San Fransokyo's quieter streets on their way out of town. With no Key to be found anymore, they had no real reason to linger in this world, especially when the pressure was on, now more than ever, to beat the Organization in finding the rest. Yet even so, Sora's pace in particular was slow, lagging even, something that Donald and Goofy picked up on just as much as they did the fact that he was much quieter, much more solemn than he usually was. The reason behind his saddened silence was obvious, yet even so, that reason hardly satisfied the pair as they still made an effort to break him out of it all the same.
"Sora," Goofy began gently. "Are you ok?"
Sora let something of a bitter, incredulous laugh out at this, one that soon broke into a defeated sigh as he shook his head, still refusing to glance back at the pair. "How can I be? One of the Keys is gone, a-and… and it's all because of me…"
"Stop saying that!" Donald scolded sternly. "It's not like you just handed the Key over to that other Riku!"
"No, but I might as well have!" Sora argued, finally turning around to face his companions. "Everyone's depending on us to get these Keys, all of the Keys, and I just… let the Organization have one, like it was nothing!"
"B-but didn't you say you tried to stop him from taking it?" Goofy asked, still remaining calm where his companions weren't.
"Yeah, and a lot of good that did me," Sora scoffed harshly. "You guys can talk all you want about how we've already got three of them, or how we'll get more of them, but none of that matters now! The Organization has one, a-and that means they can-they will get more-" He abruptly turned away from the pair again, his shoulders shaking with an oncoming sob that he fiercely fought back by wrapping his arms around himself tightly. "They'll get more, m-maybe even all of them, and that means that Xehanort will win, and if he wins, t-then that means that I'll-"
He stopped himself sharply, unable to even voice the horrific possibility out loud lest it somehow become an even more horrific reality right there on the spot. Still, the domino effect the loss of even a single Key could have was undeniable, to the point that Sora wondered-and genuinely feared-if there was any way to stop it at all. And if they couldn't stop it, if even more Keys continued to fall into the clutches of darkness, then really, there was no telling what disastrous turn things could end up taking.
Still, despite the clear hopelessness Sora had fallen into, Donald and Goofy refused to share it, sharing the resolve to pull their dejected young companion out of it instead. "Sora…" Donald began much more evenly this time around, both him and Goofy stepping forward to comfort him in any way they could. Even so, before either of them could get another word out, Sora interrupted them, his voice much softer, somehow even sadder as he kept his back turned to them all the while.
"Donald, Goofy…" He let out a small, shaking sigh as he briefly considered staying the course he had been for so long now, the course of keeping it all safely tucked away as a series of well-kept secrets. And yet, he knew he couldn't anymore. Not now, not when so much was at stake. "I-I… t-there's… something I need to tell you guys…"
The pair exchanged a glance at this, both of them equally confused, though they offered their young companion their full attention regardless, intent on listening to whatever it was he had to say. And yet… despite his willingness to finally put everything out in the open for the first time, ultimately Sora wouldn't get a chance to say any of it at all.
For just before he could, the telltale clamor of an emerging group of Heartless suddenly filled in the space behind them, a massive horde of the creatures materializing from the shadows along with it.
"More of them?!" Donald asked incredulously, not hesitating to pull out his staff.
"But I thought we got rid of all of 'em here!" Goofy exclaimed, just as baffled by the sudden show of monsters.
As caught off guard as he was by the ambush, Sora wasted no time in summoning his Keyblade, falling in line behind his companions as they rushed forward to take the Heartless head on. And yet, just as he was about to properly join them in battle, he was abruptly stopped altogether the moment he ran into some unknown invisible force. A transparent wall, blocking off the entire other end of the road and keeping him from rejoining his companions, no matter how many times he fiercely slammed his Keyblade against it.
"Sora!" Donald shouted over his shoulder amidst firing off a string of spells. "What are you doing?! Get over here!"
"W-we could really use your help!" Goofy added, wavering under his shield as a group of winged Heartless beat away at it.
"I-I'm trying!" Sora protested, swinging his Keyblade against the invisible wall once again to no avail. "But I-I don't-something's wrong! It's like I can't-"
"Can't help your friends? What a shame that must be…"
The moment he heard this familiar voice, Sora froze, both out of shock and out of immediate anger, his Keyblade hanging above his head in a swing he didn't bring down as he stole a sharp glance over his shoulder instead. Sure enough, just a few feet behind him, a dark corridor was forming, and out of that corridor stepped just about the last pair he could have ever expected to see here, all things considered.
"Maleficent! Pete!" Sora immediately turned his Keyblade on the villainous pair as they emerged from the dark portal. Donald and Goofy couldn't quite join him in standing against them given how tied up they were with the swarm of Heartless besetting them, but suffice to say they were every bit as dumbfounded to see these familiar foes as Sora was.
"Ah, Sora…" Maleficent greeted, her tone falsely cordial. "What ages have passed since we last met?"
"Wha-huh?" Pete frowned, confused upon hearing this. "But… wasn't it just a little while ago that we were in that jungle and you-"
"Silence, you buffoon," Maleficent impatiently glared at her henchman before easing back into an icy smile as she looked over at Sora once more. "But oh dear, it seems as though your friends there seem to be in quite the predicament. The Heartless really can be such a bothersome rabble, aren't they?"
"You mean the Heartless that you came here with, right?" Sora scowled, not loosening his grip on his Keyblade for an instant. "What do you even want anyway? If you're after the Key, then sorry to disappoint you, but it's not here anymore."
"Key?" Maleficent merely raised an eyebrow at this. "I have no interest in any sort of Key."
"T-the black box, then?" Sora ventured, remembering the pair bringing it up before. "'Cause if you are, we don't know anything about-"
"The black box is no longer my most pressing concern," Maleficent coolly interrupted, her malicious grin deepening as she finally got right to the point. "Rather, I'm after an entirely new prize instead… you, Sora."
"W-what?" Sora gasped, completely caught off guard by this. And yet he didn't have time to press Maleficent for any further answers as the panicked cries of his pair of companions immediately reached him right after.
"S-Sora!" Goofy shouted, dropping to one knee out of sheer exhaustion and various minor injuries. "There's too many of 'em! We really need your help!"
"And soon!" Donald added, frantically casting some healing magic the captain's way amidst several attack spells aimed for the Heartless. All of which were clearly starting to waver and weaken as the magician started to wear down from the creatures' relentless attacks as well.
Upon seeing his friends in such peril, Sora wasted no time in beating against the barrier keeping them separated once again. Though much like before, his Keyblade did little to break it, much to his increasing aggravation, especially as he heard a goading laugh coming from behind him.
"Aw, what's the matter?" Pete taunted, snickering. "Your fancy Keyblade ain't enough to bust down some fancy magic force field thingy?"
"Get lost!" Sora shouted, fiercely turning back to the pair behind him. " And take those Heartless with you!"
"Oh, we have every intention of leaving," Maleficent said smoothly. "And fret not; to show we mean no ill will, we'll even call the Heartless when we do. But if, and only if, you agree to come along with us, Sora."
"And why would I ever do that?" Sora asked, eyeing the pair suspiciously.
Maleficent let out something of a small, coy chuckle as she nodded back to the ongoing brawl behind him. "Because if you don't, then your precious friends will certainly perish under my pall of Heartless. And all the while, you'll stand by, powerless to do anything to help them as you watch their lives fade right in front of you, leaving you completely and utterly alone."
By now, Sora had had more than enough of whatever kind of mysterious, sadistic game Maleficent was trying to play with him as he instead opted to take a more direct approach instead. "Yeah, right!" he shouted, rushing for the villainous pair with his Keyblade at the ready to strike. And yet, as he brought it down, he did so not on either of them, but on yet another transparent barricade blocking him from landing any sort of hit against either of them. Not that he didn't try as he continued striking at the invisible force over and over again in a furious attempt at ending this chaos on his own terms instead of Maleficent's.
"Whoa, you weren't kidding with these magical walls, huh?" Pete muttered to Maleficent, impressed. "It's like he can't even touch us!"
"Precisely," Maleficent smirked before she coldly addressed Sora once more. "Though perhaps I didn't make myself completely clear before…" She raised her scepter, dark energy pulsating through it before it rippled through the invisible barrier before her. The force of that energy was more than enough to knock Sora back as he tried swinging at the wall once more, throwing him against the other one that was still preventing him from giving his friends the assistance they desperately needed. "Allow me to reiterate," Maleficent said, sending him an authoritative glare. "Either you surrender yourself over to me, or the king's fools, your dearest friends, pay the price for your stubborn insolence. The choice is entirely up to you."
Despite the hectic battle they were still embroiled in, Donald and Goofy heard this cruel ultimatum clearly, and the moment they did, their shared concerns immediately fell away from their ongoing fight and toward their young companion instead. "No! Sora!" Donald swiftly turned away from the Heartless to run toward the invisible barricade, Goofy following not too far behind. "Don't listen to her!"
"Y-yeah! You don't gotta worry about us!" Goofy assured, especially as Sora glanced back to face the pair with wide, alarmed eyes. "We can handle a few Heartless just fine, you know that!"
Sora didn't even get a chance to respond before another Heartless entered the fray, a massive, shadowy beast that slammed to the ground right in front of Donald and Goofy just as they were a few feet shy of the invisible wall. The resounding quake the monster caused knocked them back quite a bit, but the Heartless gave them no time to recover as it immediately attacked, lashing its large, clawed hands at the pair repeatedly. And as he watched some of those brutal swings actually land on the pair, Sora found that all he could do to merely try to stop it was beat against the wall keeping them apart, this time with his bare fists. All in a desperate, yet futile effort to rush to their aid in a moment when they needed it most.
"Time is running out, Sora," Maleficent chimed in, her voice cool and calm, frustratingly so. "I can afford to wait as long as you'd like, but I doubt your dear friends have the same luxury…"
Sora couldn't help but flinch anxiously as he watched the large Heartless toss Donald and Goofy back painfully, the other creatures swarming them in what was undeniably turning into an incredibly unfair fight. Especially as the pair began to wear down more and more from both exhaustion and injury alike. "Why are you doing this?!" he demanded, turning back to Maleficent and Pete. "What do you even want with me?"
"Oh, that's easy!" Pete grinned obliviously. "Maleficent here says she's gonna-"
Maleficent immediately stopped him, swiftly swinging her staff out in front of him to silence him before he could say too much. Her brief, annoyed scowl quickly shifted back into her steady, confident smile, one that only infuriated Sora more and more with each passing second. "Now, now, all will be revealed in due time," she assured patiently. "After all, I can't just go around divulging all of my ingenious plans before they have a chance to even really begin. That would ruin the surprise."
Sora let out a small, irritated huff at this, though he quickly realized he had no time to press for any further answers as he heard another round of his companion's pained shouts behind him. The large Heartless was in a full-on rampage by now, to the point that Goofy's shield and Donald's magic could do little to stop it, much less protect themselves from it. Despite their courageous, tireless efforts to stand strong, they were losing this fight. And as this horrifying realization set in, Sora knew that there was really only one thing he could do in place of actually rushing in to help them himself. "I-if I go with you, you'll call the Heartless off?" he asked diffidently, sending Maleficent a distrustful glare all the while.
"Absolutely," she nodded, her sinister smile spreading even wider upon hearing this.
"How do I know you're not lying?"
"My dear boy, what reason have I to lie to you?" Maleficent let out a small, almost gentle gale of amused laughter. "I came here seeking one thing, and one thing alone. And once I have that which I seek in my possession, then neither I nor my heartless will have any reason to linger in this world any longer."
"J-just as long as I go with you, right?" Sora pressed, wanting to make sure he had every last base covered. Especially if he was going into whatever Maleficent had planned completely blind like this. "You promise you'll leave them alone?"
"You have my word," Maleficent agreed, her tone surprisingly sincere.
Yet even so, that didn't mean Sora necessarily believed her, though as he stole another look back at Donald and Goofy. The pair had practically reached their limit by this point, both of them struggling to simply remain standing as the Heartless continued swarming all around them, ready to finish off what they had started. Still, even amidst all this, they managed to notice the fretful, fearful look Sora was sending their way. A look that immediately told them exactly what he was planning on doing far more than words ever could have.
"S-Sora!" Goofy yelled in frantic alarm.
"No!" Donald shouted, just as panicked, especially as Sora silently turned away from them once more.
For a moment, he was silent, his eyes closed as he let out a small, soft sigh. He'd started the unknown straight in the face more times than he could really count by now. And each time, he'd done so boldly, brazenly, probably more recklessly than he should have. But now, this was an entirely different kind of unknown, one that offered him with no other options, no other ways out but to simply accept it and see what came next. And for the sake of two of his closest, constant companions, that was exactly what he was going to do.
"Fine," he finally said, his manner showing nothing but the deepest resolve. He let his Keyblade disappear as a sign of his surrender as he looked to Maleficent squarely, his expression showing not a trace of fear. Because really, it wasn't her that he feared; it was all of the unnecessary pain and peril she had his friends through, the suffering they'd undergone while he'd stood by, unable to help, that he truly feared instead. "I'll go with you."
"No!" Donald and Goofy cried in horrified unison. Without hesitating, they immediately began to try to break through the heavy line of Heartless around them, their various injuries all but forgotten as they raced forward to stop this horrendous transaction from taking place.
And yet, as far as Maleficent was concerned, the deal was soundly struck as she readily called forth a dark corridor to take her leave, and her "prize" along with her. "Very good," she smirked deviously as she let only one of the two invisible barricades down. The one that would have kept Sora from entering the dark corridor rather than the one that was still keeping him from offering his companions a proper goodbye. "Then let us be on our way."
"Yeah!" Pete added, just as smugly triumphant. "You're comin' with us, kid!"
"Not so fast," Sora countered sternly. "The Heartless go before we do. You promised."
"Hm, so I did," Maleficent scoffed, waving her hand with little concern. As she did, the Heartless all disappeared entirely, finally freeing Donald and Goofy from their violent, relentless siege as Sora took their place, albeit in a different sort of way entirely. "Now, if that's quite all, I do believe it's time for us to go."
"Right…" Sora sighed, though he still took a first step toward that awful unknown all the same. Even if his companions refused to let him submit himself to it so easily.
"Sora, wait!" Donald shouted, both furious and distraught as he pounded against the invisible barrier. "Don't do this!"
"W-we're ok now, see?" Goofy added, just as panicked. "You don't have to go with 'em!"
"Sorry…" Sora didn't look back at either of them, his admittedly anxious sights set on the shadows of the dark corridor right in front of him instead. "But I do…" After all, he nearly added, whatever was about to befall him was exactly the kind of punishment he believed he deserved for letting a Key slip out of their possession so easily.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Maleficent silently motioned for Pete to enter the dark corridor first, which he cheerfully did since their success was now all but assured. Even so, for her own part, Maleficent remained, her smile malicious and icy as she beckoned Sora forward, knowing she had him exactly where she wanted him. And, with no choice left but to honor his end of their bargain, he glumly, quietly, obediently followed.
"Sora! Stop!" Donald ordered, intensely pounding against the barrier that, no matter how hard they tried, simply refused to break.
"P-please…" Goofy solemnly pleaded, the tears starting to well up in his eyes matching Donald's quite well.
Even so, Sora kept going, saying nothing to either of them as he continued to approach whatever mysterious, no-doubt disastrous fate Maleficent had in mind for him. And yet, just before he took that final step into the unknown, he briefly turned back toward his pair of desperate, dejected companions.
And offered them one small, sad, silent smile just before he disappeared into the darkness altogether.
AhahahaHAHAHAHAHA OH MAN LIKE I SAID WE'RE FINALLY OFF THE RAILS! Yep that's right, with this we plunge headfirst into what I like to think of as Keys' second act. And what a second act its going to be... Either way, don't you just love cliffhangers? I sure do! Can't wait to see where this one is going to lead (even though I already know, let's just say the next chapter is going to be... a lot.) But for now, feel free to let me know what you thought of this one in the REVIEWS! Until next time! :D
