-o- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX -o-

where's your rebel base now

The vessel barely seemed to move at all. There was just the slightest, gentlest tug, like being in a horse-drawn carriage. I could see that Scrooge had clearly designed this for the everyday user. We sat quietly on the smooth white benches, while nondescript jazz music played through inauspicious speakers. It was maybe a twenty minute ride. I marveled that a travel option as easy as this existed, and none of us had known.

The end of the ride was signaled by a soothing chime, and a computerized woman's voice announced, "Destination reached. Thank you for choosing McDuck Interworld Transit."

The automatic door swooshed open and, tepidly, our party exited into unknown territory. The vessel was parked at an impromptu waystation in the middle of a grassy meadow. It was nightfall.

There was a deep cacophony of rumbling explosions in the distance; it sounded like the Fourth of July. Near the waystation was a simple dirt road, leading in one direction to the vast forest beyond, and in the other direction to a hilly region. The valley glowed with torchlight, signs of a village nestled within.

"Which way do we go?" asked Simba, peering up at me. Axel was right; I was in command now.

"The Heartless want hearts," I said with a shrug, pointing toward the lighted valley. "So I say we head where the people are. Whatever Scrooge wanted us to do here, our best chance of finding it is to head toward the town."

"Toward the battle noise, you mean," Riku chimed in with a snort. He pointed as well. "Look at all that smoke rising from the valley. We've shown up right on the outskirts of a war zone."

Axel shrugged. "Sounds like exactly where soldiers belong." He looked at me, and I was flustered by the disarming closeness I felt in his gaze. I could no longer tell if I was reading his mind, or if we just understood one another that well by now. "Fucking heroes, right?" he prodded.

I nodded, and led our band of AWOL warriors down the dirt road. Our journey was not as long as I imagined it would be, because in mere minutes we heard the clicking grid of horse hooves and squeaking wooden wheels coming toward us. There was a tense moment of uncertainty; we clutched our weapons as a clunky, old timey cart came into view.

"I'll be damned," an unmistakable Scottish brogue called out into the darkness. The driver, obviously Scrooge, pulled the reins and lifted his lantern for a moment's closer look. "Princess Kairi, of all souls."

I felt a wave of relief. "We were worried about you," I called back, walking close enough to the cart to see his face. And, surprisingly, Donald Duck sat on the passenger's side of the driver's bench.

Scrooge nodded at me. "Likewise, milady. If I'd known what an utter shitshow we were facing, I never would have left you back in Radiant Garden. Even with Launchpad to look after you… Huge mistake."

"Don't you ever get full on saying 'I told you so,' old man?" Donald quacked irritably. "Maleficent's reinforcements are less than six hours away, if they maintain their current speed. If there's anyone left alive by daybreak, you can brag all you like to the survivors."

Scrooge nodded his tired head. "Right then, well, hop in the back, the lot of you, and I'll tell you what's going on here if you tell me what the hell is going on out there."

We climbed into the wooden cart and Scrooge whipped the reigns. The horses pulled the cart down the road, passing a sign nailed to a giant round oak that read, Sherwood Forest. The ride was bumpy as we entered the forest of pines and oak that buffered the town that Scrooge had identified as Nottingham. Only Scrooge's lantern and swarming fireflies provided light in the dark wood. They illuminated parchment posters nailed to many of the trees, offering rewards for the capture of a fox in a green tunic named Robin Hood.

"Is the King's Army here?" Riku asked on the brief journey. "We were told you were a traitor not to be trusted… seems odd you'd be here in the middle of the King's war."

Scrooge let out a singular, icy blast of a laugh. "Call me a traitor, will he? Bloody pot and kettle, isn't it?"

I grew more mystified each minute of our ride. "So wait, why are you still fighting? Why is the King telling everyone you betrayed him?"

"Mickey gave up on this war a long time ago." He pointed ahead down the road, where the battle smoke was growing more visible as the trees thinned. "The soldiers you hear just ahead are those who weren't willing to die for the King's lies; this is the rebel army, the ones who think there's still a chance. We're the last ones standing- and based on the appearance of these Heartless scouts a few hours ago, it looks like Maleficent has tracked down the last gasp of resistance." Scrooge leaned out and spit angrily into the dusty road. "Smart bastard. The King may be a coward but I never said he wasn't smart."

"So what about the forces Goofy was leading? They've all come here?" asked Riku.

"Goofy's dead," Donald interjected angrily, causing a wave of shocked silence. It hit like a quick blow to the gut, the wind knocked out of me, but Donald barreled on like he was too destroyed inside to linger on the sad truth. "The King disbanded the army weeks ago. He's drawn up a treaty with Maleficent. Those here fighting are the ones who refused to give in." Donald's dark motives were clear; I was terrified to think what he had lost, what he must feel.

Weeks ago… before we had left the Coliseum? Before we saw the King, and he told us how important our mission was? How could that be true? Why would he bother training us, letting us bond as a team, if he had already decided to stop fighting?

I felt dizzy trying to understand. Goofy was dead and the King was a liar… Something was missing. Something so off-putting that I glanced toward Scrooge once more, carefully this time, now wondering if I could trust him at all. Who was telling the truth? What was real?

We left behind the trees of Sherwood Forest and came upon Nottingham quicker than I realized. The battle noise was discernible now; a single booming cannon seemed to go off every ten minutes or so. Abandoned thatch-roofed houses lined the narrow streets. All the villagers had taken refuge in the granite-walled feudal castle at the center of town.

"Waves of Shadows keep cropping up at the perimeter," Donald explained, as the cart rolled across the drawbridge into the castle walls. The drawbridge creaked shut behind us as we started piling out of the vehicle. The open yard of the castle was filled mostly with animals in medieval garb, the natural inhabitants of this world. But there were dozens of others, refugees and renegades from every kind of world.

Donald continued. "It's enough to keep our main guard occupied, but not enough to pose any real threat. Based on our reconnaissance, the reinforcements will be here by dawn."

The cranky duck heaved a great sigh, and bid the lot of us farewell with a limp, near-sarcastic soldier's salute. "I'm going to look over the battle plan again. That was always Goofy's department but…" hearing his name cut through the whole of us, cold and sharp as an icicle. I could feel the hurt in Donald's eyes.

"I'll go with you," Riku offered. Donald gave him a grudgingly appreciative nod and the two of them wandered in the direction of battlements.

"How can we help?" Launchpad asked.

Scrooge gave a weary, maudlin chuckle as he pulled a metal flask from his jacket pocket. "I'm a businessman, old friend. I should think I know the least about mounting offensives than anyone."

"But you did bring us here, didn't you?" Axel prodded. "You gave Goliath the medallion with the coordinates to your transit station?"

Scrooge looked at Axel blankly while taking a slurp from the flask. "Medallion? I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about- not that I'm not happy that you've arrived. Not surprised Goliath worked it out, either, bloody brilliant gargoyle. I'm afraid there's no grand plan here, children. Just a final stand, whatever our odds may be."

I took a deep breath as I tried to read the faces of the others. Had we followed the right lead? Or had we simply abandonned one suicide mission for another?

If my team was disappointed, it didn't show. Their eyes were determined, looking around the bleak and muddy yard as if they simply needed to know what they could do to prepare for battle.

Launchpad clapped his hands together. "All right, old bird, show me what you're working with," he said to Scrooge. "Guns, cars, dare I wish for planes? Is that a giant catapult I spy over yonder? Whatever gear you've got, I'll do what I can to equip us."

Scrooge nodded, smiling gratefully at Launchpad. "We are fortunate enough to have Professor Jumba here with us, and he brought with him as many of his space weapons as he could…"

Off they walked, and I had barely watched them leave before I noticed Simba and Lulu wander off in another direction, introducing themselves to the hodge podge soldiers assembled throughout the yard. So we were doing this thing. We were committed- as Scrooge said, whatever the odds.

This left me suddenly standing alone with Axel, which was both unnerving and comforting at the same time.

"Looking a little green there, Kairi," he said, putting his finger pensively to his chin. "How's it going?"

Just glancing at his lips made me blush. Despite the worried lurch in my stomach, I still had room enough somewhere in me to feel a tinge of warmth to hear the way my name rolled off his tongue. Kairi, not "princess" or some other silly superlative.

"This isn't the battle I'd expected to be fighting," I answered carefully, watching Scrooge's assemblage of warriors, some keeping busy, some talking nervously, some just pacing. "Or maybe it's the right battle, but the wrong way. How could Mickey honestly cut a deal with Maleficent? What would that even look like? What kind of peace would even satisfy Maleficent? What… did he agree to give up?" I rubbed my eyes, suddenly exhausted from how far the day had brought us from steak and eggs in Scrooge's apartment. "I'm still confused by it all. I don't know who we can even trust."

I said we, I realized, because I did trust Axel. I couldn't pinpoint when it happened, but I trusted Axel with my feelings as much as my own life. Whatever he was, he wasn't going to hurt me. Whatever he was, he cared about me. He loved me, even without a heart.

It's real, isn't it? He had asked me that morning.

And it was, because I could feel it, could feel his feelings, in every fiber of my heart.

This realization had my head spinning. How could I trust someone so deeply who was supposedly inhuman? He was a Nobody, and weren't Nobodies as bad as Heartless? And weren't Heartless the enemies? And wasn't our general supposed to destroy the Heartless, not negotiate with the sorceress who was controlling them all?

A desperate voice inside me whimpered. What are we really fighting for, and who are we really fighting against?

With a gut-wrenching agony, I thought of Goofy. I remembered holding his hand, sitting on the gummi ship on the eve of war, as he told me the fears he had for his son. And now, he was gone. He would never see his son again- we would never hear his laugh again. Goofy's life- what had it been given up for? Was it worth it? Was any of this worth it?

I needed answers.

Well, I thought. Am I a witch or am I a witch?

I looked at Axel. "I need your help with something," I said decisively. "Who knows if it's even possible, or how much time we have, but it's the only thing I can think of to help me make sense of everything."

Axel reached over and squeezed my hand. He smiled gently, eyes blazing with emotions people said he couldn't feel. "Let's get to work, eh?"