DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, nor the Disney and Square Enix characters. Please support the original works.

Chapter Two: Under the Sea

Sora was sinking, sinking, sinking, through an endless black void. Finally, after countless hours of sleep, he landed softly on top of a large disk. The round platform beneath his feet was covered in shimmering, stained glass. Images of his friends were etched into the colorful surface. A peaceful, silver haired boy with closed eyes, a redheaded girl with a smile full of happy tears, a dog with silly, yet kind face, a duck with a sneaky smirk, and a king with a noble spirit. Hovering over all of them was Sora's image, a sleeping boy with a key.

He had never seen this image before, but he had known it in his heart. The echos of his last adventure, the lingering touch of Kairi's and Riku's light, the pictures of his friends in the glass, all filled him with a sugary-sweet warmth. But something was wrong. Something was heading his way. Something cold. Something sad. Something...ancient.

You are being pulled toward your destiny.

Sora shivered, watching as a tiny spout of ink burst up from under the glass. The glass didn't crack, or break, but soon, the comforting images were covered in splotches of messy, black paint.

But it is not the right time. It is too soon.

The paint spread, covering his friends one by one. Sora got on his hands and knees, trying to rub the paint away from the image of the boy with the silver hair, then the girl, then the duck, the dog, and the king. But the paint moved quickly and soon, each one of his friends had vanished. Sora flinched, looking down at his palms. The ink burned, stabbing his skin like shards of broken glass.

It may destroy you.

The ink was moving over his stained glass image now. It had started at his shoes and was rising up to his legs, inching, quickly, toward his heart.

Will you still fight?

Despite the pain and the despair of watching the glass fade into nothing, the answer echoed from within his heart, long before the word even came out of his mouth.

"Yes."

The glass shifted below his feet, rumbling like a current of powerful waves under a pier.

The door will open soon.

The platform was completely covered. He stood on a dais of oil and filth. The smell of mold reached his nose, boiling the acid in his stomach. The black void around him closed in, and he fell to his hands and knees, watching as the ink moved over his hands, rising up to his wrists, then his arms, then his shoulders. Struggling was like trying to break out of tar. The ink pulled him down, and soon, only his neck was untouched from the darkness. As the cold moved up to his chin, he heard one final warning from a soundless voice.

Do not be tempted by the light.

Most people will tell you that the need to go to the bathroom is the most annoying way to wake up. Others will say that the sound of the alarm clock is the worst. But no. The worst way to wake up, is with an itch that won't go away no matter how many times you groggily scratch it. Whatever bug was dumb enough to land on Sora's nose was going to deal with a keyblade fly swatter if they actually succeeded in waking him up. Sora waved his hands in front of his face, but the itching only got worse.

"Come on. Let me sleep!"

"Hey, buddy, I was swimming here! You don't have to be rude," said a gruff voice.

"Swimming?"

Consciousness slowly creeped in, bringing with it an even more frustrating sense of discomfort. Wherever he was, it felt cold, like he had been soaking in a bath that had stopped being warm hours ago. The blubbling of water met his ears, and he felt the liquid entering his nose and mouth. Odd though, there wasn't any need to breathe, and that thought finally made Sora open his eyes.

Blurry, rainbow inkblots slowly came into focus. A manta ray flew over head, grumbling something about rude fish people. Surprised, Sora's hand balled into a fist, his fingers sliding over something gooey and rough. It stung. Pulling his hand back, he looked down, and realized three things. First, he was sitting on a large brain coral, with sea anemones all around him. That explained the sting. Second, his legs had been replaced by a long, navy-blue dolphin tail. Third, the underwater garden he found himself in was too breathtaking to look away from. A great reef, alive with fish, crabs, seals, stingrays, eels, and even clams, filled his eyes.

"Wow!"

The only thing that forced Sora's eyes away from his first person aquarium experience was Ariel. She floated in front of him, a breathe of relief escaping her lips.

"You're okay. Thank goodness."

"Where are we," Sora pointed to his tail, "and how did I get this?"

With a sheepish smile, Ariel tucked the trident behind her. "I know I shouldn't use the Daddy's trident without permission, but..."

"You saved me?"

"I couldn't let my friend drown, now could I?"

"Thanks Ariel."

"Any time."

Sora gave her his trademark, toothy grin. Moving his face gave him a slight headache though and he grimaced, rubbing his forehead.

"What happened before I blacked out?"

"That giant whale swam off and I dove to save you." Ariel looked away. "I don't know what happened to Riku and Kairi. By the time I was sure you were okay, I lost track of them. I'm sorry."

Sora closed his eyes, replaying Kairi's words in his mind. "Don't worry. I'll take more then a few waves and a giant whale to get rid of those two. I'm sure they're all right, just like I'm sure King Triton, Flounder and Sebastian are all right."

Ariel's eyes softened. "Oh Sora, you nearly drowned and you're worried about me?"

"Of course. And now that I can swim with no problem, finding out what happened to Atlantica and your dad should be way easier."

Just then, a blue fish darted right in front of Ariel's nose. The mermaid leaned back, squinting as the fish waved its fins to get her attention.

"Excuse me," said the fish, "I couldn't help overhearing that you're looking for your father? Maybe you can give us a fin. You see this little guy here," she pointed to a nearby orange fish with white stripes.

"I'm not little," the orange fish huffed. "And don't talk to the weird fish people. What if they're humans in disguise?"

"He's looking for his son," continued the blue fish. "Have you guys seen a little clownfish with one tiny fin? What's his name again? Chico?"

"Nemo," the orange fish rolled his eyes. "For the tenth time, my son's name is Nemo."

"Okay, Mr. Grumpy Gills," the blue fish giggled, not an ounce of sarcasm in her cheerful tone. "Cheer up! Things will work out, you'll see."

"Uh huh," Mr. Orange responded dryly, his eyes narrowing in a mix of annoyance and hopelessness.

Ariel covered her mouth. "You lost your son?"

Mr. Orange's eyes widened when she spoke, and he shivered so harshly it looked as though he were vibrating.

"Y-yes."

"What happened to him?"

Mr. Orange covered his eyes with his fins. He swam in circles, muttering, his three white stripes blurring into one as he swam faster and faster.

"I told him not to swim off without me. I promised to protect him, and now he's gone! This is all my fault! I never should have let him go to school. How am I going to find him? What will he do without me? What if he forgets how to swim with his lucky fin? What if I never find him?"

"Oh no," gasped the blue fish, "you lost your son?" Then she turned around and pointed to Sora and Ariel. "Oh! Maybe these nice fish people have seen him. Excuse me, have you seen his son? What's his name again?"

Sora and Ariel exchanged a confused look.

Mr. Orange stopped mid swim and snapped. "Nemo! His name is Nemo!"

Carefully, Ariel put her hands around the angry fish, guiding him closer so that he floated between her and Sora. When she pulled her hands away from him, he nearly went belly up from terror.

"It's okay, just take a moment to calm down. Deep breaths."

Mr. Orange looked from Ariel to Sora, and then to the blue fish, who had her eyes closed and was happily meditating with relaxed, deep breathing exercises. Sucking in water through his trembling lips, Mr. Orange was able to at least stop shaking.

"Okay. Okay. I'm calm."

Sora wasn't convinced, as Mr. Orange still looked as though he would lose consciousness if someone so much as sneezed in his direction. It was a good thing Ariel was around. Her fearless curiosity and relaxed nature pushed the conversation forward.

"Why don't we start by introducing ourselves. My name is Ariel. This is my friend, Sora."

It took a few seconds for the Mr. Orange to stop panting long enough to introduce himself. "I'm Marlin." He pointed to the blue fish. "And that's Dory."

"Hi!" She put out her fin.

Gently, using only his thumb and forefinger, Sora gave Dory a handshake. Fin shake? Or was it hand-fin shake? Whatever, thought Sora as he shook his head.

"Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine. So, what are you two doing on this fine underwater day? And what's with the golden thingy?" Dory pointed to Ariel's trident.

The two merfolk shrugged. "It's a long story," they said.

"Oh! I love stories!" Dory darted excitedly in font of Sora's face. "Tell me, tell me!"

Marlin sighed. "Listen folks, thanks for humoring us, but I've really got to get going. I'd got to find clues on Nemo and the longer I wait, the further he gets. Nice meeting you."

"Wait," Ariel darted forward, getting in Marlin's way, "maybe we can look for Nemo together?"

"That's really nice of you, but I think I'll be better off on my own."

"Aw come on," Dory swam around Marlin. "Let them come, the more the merrier!"

Marlin groaned. "Funny, I don't remember asking you to come with me either."

"Don't be like that. Teamwork makes the dream work, ya know."

"She's right," said Sora, catching up with the rest of the fish folk. "Ariel and I have to explore the sea anyway. Why don't we come along and help look for Nemo at the same time?"

"What are exploring the sea for?" asked Dory. "Wait, don't tell me, let me guess." She pointed at Sora, speaking in a low voice. "You are searching for the clues to a strange phenomenon you can't explain."

Sora wrinkled his nose. "How did you-"

"And you," Dory continued, moving on to Ariel, "want the freedom to explore a world outside your own but are held back by a responsibility you never saw coming."

Ariel's mouth opened. Leaning toward Marlin, she whispered, "Is Dory able to read thoughts?"

"No," Marlin groaned, "she has an overactive mind as well as short term memory loss."

"Oh, so that's why she keeps forgetting Nemo's name."

"Yup," Marlin continued. "Don't take anything she says too seriously. She'll forget about it in a few minutes anyway."

"Forget what?" asked Dory.

Marlin gasped, pointing at something overhead. "Look! A boat!"

"Where?" said Sora, Ariel and Dory, looking around excitedly.

"Beyond the reef, let's go!"

Marlin led the way, swimming away from the reef. It was about five minutes of swimming before Sora and Ariel realized that Marlin hadn't seen a boat at all. By then, Dory had forgotten all about Marlin's fib and was content to float after the sourly fish. As they swam away from the bustling reef and into the quiet, calm sea ahead of them, Sora thought about Dory's oddly specific words. He leaned toward Ariel and whispered.

"Now that I think about it, I've never seen fish like Dory and Marlin on my islands."

Ariel nodded, matching Sora's lowered voice.

"And I've never seen a whale like Monstro before. At least not in my father's oceans. I'm not sure how other worlds work. Daddy refused to talk to me about it when I asked him last time."

"I've been to a bunch of different oceans," Sora explained. "And each one has been separate. My islands, Atlantica, Atlantis, even Neverland and Hollow Bastion had their own seas. The fish in Atlantis were different then the ones in Atlantica. Neverland had a crocodile that I haven't seen anywhere else. Monstro should be in Pinocchio and Jiminy's world. And was it just me or did it seem like Marlin had never seen merfolk before?"

Ariel leaned her head on her trident. "When I helped you down safely to the bottom of the reef, I had gotten some weird looks from the fish and crustaceans. I thought it was just because I had turned a human into a merman, but, now that you mention it, Marlin was seriously afraid of me before."

"Either my islands, Atlantica, Monstro's and Marlin's worlds are somehow melting together, or people and animals are getting thrown out of their worlds into others."

Ariel squeezed her trident to her chest. "If it's true that the oceans are connecting, then my search has gotten even harder. I would have loved to explore all the people and things of other worlds, but I have to make sure Daddy and the others are safe first."

"And we have to help Marlin and Dory," Sora added. "Speaking of, hey Marlin!"

The clownfish turned around.

"Can you tell us exactly what happened to Nemo? How did he get lost?"

Marlin slumped, floating downward. "He swam out to touch a boat. I told him not to! And then, the boat turned all dark, like it was covered in ink or toxic sludge. Nemo disappeared with it."

Ariel bit her lip, whispering in Sora's ear. "The ink. That sounds like the heartless that attacked Atlantica."

"So the boat must have been covered in darkness," Sora whispered back.

Marlin narrowed his eyes at Sora and Ariel. "You two know something."

"Are you guys sharing secrets?" Dory swam to Sora's ear. "You can tell me! I'm great at keeping secrets!"

"Yeah, out with it! It might help me find Nemo."

Not for the first time in months, Sora dearly missed Donald and Goofy. Their presence would have helped him wrap his head around the big mess he found himself in. He could already imagine Goody's kind words of reassurance. If he were there, Goofy would have placated Marlin without giving too much away. And Donald's angry commentary would have sparked some idea in Sora about how to deal with the situation. Even Jiminy's insight would have set Sora straight. But he was on his own, so he had to think fast.

Lucky for him, Dory picked that moment to be distracted by something.

"Hey! I bet there are loads of neat stuff in there."

Before anyone could stop her, Dory darted straight ahead. They had crossed into a deeper section of the sea. Down below was a great chasm of grey and blue shadows. Dory swam down toward it without a care in the world, swimming through the field of metal balloons that were tethered to the sand by rusted chains. On the sea floor, there was a long, metal oval. Marlin swallowed at the sight of it.

Ariel pointed at the oval wreckage. "Sora, I've never seen anything like it. Isn't it fantastic? What is it?"

"Cool, a submarine! Humans use it to explore under the sea."

Ariel's eyes widened and she swam after Dory exclaiming. "A ship that can explore below the waves! Is there anything humans can't think up?"

Marlin cringed. "Does your friend have short term memory loss too?"

"No," Sora laughed. "She just loves to explore anything related to humans."

Marlin glared at Sora. "Why would she want to do that? Humans are dangerous! Those two are going to hurt themselves! Dory, Ariel! Wait for me!"

"Relax Marlin," Sora said as he swam down, "there's nothing in there that Ariel and I can't handle."

"Oh sure, you say that now, but none of you know just how dangerous the sea actually is! If Nemo had just listened to me, we never would have come to such a gloomy place! Dory, Ariel, where are you?"

Sora was about to comfort Marlin, but his patented "don't worry" speech was stopped by a scream that echoed up from the submarine down below. The next thing Sora knew, he was kicking his tail as hard as he could. He burst into the sub through a broken porthole. Marlin darted in behind him, bumping into Sora's back. When he recovered from his slight crash, he covered his mouth at the sight of the tiny space they found themselves in.

In the murky, mossy, corroded innards of the submarine, there were round creatures. Yellow eyes swiveled about, searching for prey. Like burnt meatballs with teeth, the creatures flashed forward, chewing on the water, ready to turn Sora and Marlin into minced tuna.

Marlin yowled, darting about in absolute panic. His tiny shape made it easy for him to slip though the open spaces between the heartless. Once he was out of the way, Sora stabbed his keyblade into the mouth of the nearest heartless. The creature burst, the dark dust it left behind dissipating into the water.

Marlin, still screaming, ducked and weaved away from black teeth and frayed tentacles. It was the perfect distraction. While the heartless tried to take a bite out of the slippery clownfish, Sora swam forward, slicing through the dark spheres one by one.

Marlin stopped for a few seconds to catch his breathe. Now that the space had less heartless in it, he was able to spot something blue and yellow.

"Dory! Get away from those things! Swim away!"

But Dory wasn't listening. She was "ooh-ing" and "ah-ing" at the light show that was erupting from Ariel's trident as the little mermaid blasted the heartless one by one. Maneuvering around Ariel's attacks, Marlin got to Dory. He grabbed her fin and tried to pull her up through the sunken staircase overhead.

"Aw, I wanted to watch," Dory complained, pulling her fin back.

"Are you crazy? We have to get out of here!"

With the two fish over Ariel's head, arguing but otherwise out of danger, the mermaid was able to knock a few heartless at Sora, swinging the trident like a baseball bat. Sora sliced through the heartless that were thrown his way. Then, one of the darkballs thrashed in the water, darting back and forth, seemingly in random directions, but it moved in just the right way to avoid Ariel's blasts, getting dangerously close to her. Ariel flipped in the water, whacking the heartless back with her tail. It spun toward the floor of the submarine corridor. A second later, it was stabbed through by an icicle, courtesy of Sora's blizzard spell. He used that opening to swim to Ariel's side.

"Can I take the trident for a spin?"

Ariel winked, understanding dancing in her eyes. Grabbing the end of the weapon with Ariel, the two of them spun, kicking their fins so hard and fast that they blurred into a miniature whirlpool. Whatever heartless was unlucky enough to be too close got cleaved in half by the edge of the trident. The rest were smacked into the barnacles that had long since invaded the walls of the forgotten sub. Sora broke the whirlpool, dispatching the rest of the heartless with a few blizzard spells.

Once the heartless were gone, the tiny submarine corridor felt less like a can of sardines, the extra breathing room giving Sora and Ariel enough space to high five their victory. Now that the danger had passed, they looked up the stairs to find Dory clapping her fins.

"Fantastic! Bravo!"

Marlin slumped against the top stair. "Oh man, I thought we were goners. Thanks for protecting us."

"Ooh, what's up here?"

Now that the show was over, Dory was finally interested in going up the staircase that Marlin had tried to yank her through earlier. Marlin was the first to follow, grumbling at Dory for being easily distracted. As Ariel and Sora entered the upstairs control room, they shared a knowing laugh.

The room above was full of broken dials and rusted buttons. Dory and Ariel swam around, pressing the switches while Marlin complained that they shouldn't touch anything.

"Come on, let them have a little fun," said Sora.

"What if more of those chewy ball things appear? We should get out of here."

Ariel huffed at Marlin. "Don't be such a guppy."

"I'm not a guppy, I'm a clownfish. And I'm also careful, something this group could use a lot more of."

"You sound like my father. Not everything is dangerous, you know. Sometimes you need to take a little risk to find something amazing."

Marlin turned on his side, as though he were lying down in the water. He sank. Sora threw out his hands, catching Marlin before he could smack the cold, rusty, submarine floor. Lying down in Sora's palms, Marlin hiccuped. All of the adrenaline and bluster from earlier had turned his muscles into jelly.

"Oh my stomach."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just give me a second. Taking care of these-"

Marlin flipped back upright, staring at something over Sora's head. Just as the boy turned to look up, Marlin's exhaustion was suddenly forgotten as he zipped up toward the broken ceiling. Outside, Marlin swam around a green diver's mask that was stuck on a twisted metal piece of the submarine's outer wall.

"I know this mask! The boat that took Nemo had it hanging off the side!" He squinted at the letters on the mask's headband. "What do these markings mean? Shoot, I can't read human!"

The word "human" caught Ariel's attention. She swam up to stare at the mask, her eyes as wide as her smile.

"What's this gizmo? Sora, have you ever see something so amazing? What do humans use this for?"

"It's a diving mask. Humans can't see through water very well, so they wear those when they swim."

"Wow, you sure are knowledgable," said Dory, giving Sora a light smack on his arm.

Ariel picked up the mask, turning it over. She put the goggles over her eyes, marveling at the distorted images she saw through the plastic.

"Wow, is this how humans see? How are you able to stay standing, Sora?"

"I want to try," Dory said.

She swam under the googles, balancing them on top of her head.

"Dory, that's not a toy."

The moment Marlin's fins got on it, Dory tried to pull it back.

"Hey, wait your turn! I had it first!"

"Just give it here, before your hurt yourself."

"No, it's mine! Gimme!"

Dory and Marlin stretched the mask between them, each pulling it in a fishy tug of war until the rubber headband reached its maximum limit for stretching and snapped back into place. The two fish flew backward into Sora and Ariel's hands. Marlin shook his head, gasping, pointed downward.

The goggles were sinking and fast, straight toward a dark abyss right under the submarine. Sora and Ariel dove after it, but stopped when a wall of heartless appeared in their way. These weren't darkballs. Instead, they looked like demonic umbrellas with two, small, bat-like wings coming out of their backs. Blue tentacles with swirling blue veins, grew out from under their round, open, umbrella-shaped heads.

Forgetting about the mask for a second, Sora lunged to the left, barley avoiding getting rammed by the heartless. Within seconds, the heartless surrounded the swimmers, trapping them in a whirlpool. Marlin and Dory heaved, getting sick as the heartless manipulated the water around them to make them spin faster. Sora felt as though he were being flushed down a toilet and he couldn't stop the feeling of his brain summersaulting in his own skull.

Turning like a top, Ariel raised the trident over her head.

"Aeroga!"

A sphere of wind surrounded the group, fighting back against the current and allowing Sora to stay still just long enough to throw his keyblade out of the whirlpool. It flew in an arc, slicing through the circle of water core heartless and breaking the whirlpool.

"Now I'm really going to hurl," Marlin groaned.

Ariel pressed her forehead on the cool surface of the trident. Sora raised his keyblade and chanted a healing spell. As the green petals of the spell came over them, Dory was the first to recover. She looked at the tired faces and swam around them to catch their attention, completely forgetting the spiraling trap that had put them in that state in the first place.

"Hey, what's with all the mopey faces, people?"

"Are you kidding me?" Marlin snapped. The dizziness may have faded thanks to Sora's healing spell, but there was no magic that could cure a sour mood. Still, it seemed as though Marlin's intensity had lessened a bit, as he sounded more tired then furious. "We get attacked by water monsters and to top it all off, we lose the mask. What now?"

Marlin covered his eyes, letting out yet another long suffering sigh.

Dory puckered her lips, swimming close to Marlin. "You know what you do when life gets ya down?"

"What?" Marlin barked, not uncovering his eyes.

"Just keep swimming." Dory bounced, waving her fins, singing. "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming."

Holding Marlin's fin, Dory began to pull him down below the submarine. Marlin grit his teeth at the sight of the underwater cliff they were about to dive into. Complete blackness waited for them down below. Still, Dory had absolutely no fear, and soon Sora and Ariel were singing along with her song.

Marlin turned around to glare at the two merfolk as if to say "you too?" Before he got the chance to bluster, darkness descended around them, and he was completely blind in the black void at the bottom of the sea. The trident began to glow in Arial's hand, illuminating their surroundings like an underwater flashlight.

Finding the mask turned out to be easy, thanks to teamwork, just as Dory had said. It had been stuck on a wayward coral all the way at the bottom of the sea.

"Great, we found it." Marlin said. "But I still can't read human."

"Don't worry," Sora said, picking up the goggles and turning them over so that he could take a look at the writing on the rubber headband. "I can read it."

Dory floated over the mask in Sora's hands. "It's a good thing we've got someone like you on our side. Gee, I wish I could read 'P. Sherman, Forty Two, Wallaby Way, Sidney.'"

Marlin gave Dory a wide eyed, twitchy stare. "Did you just read the mask? You can read?"

Dory blinked, and then gasped. "Oh! I guess I can! Hey, I can read!"

Ariel and Sora shared a laugh, both at Dory's cluelessness and at Marlin's rather exasperated expression.

"What was it?" Marlin repeated. "P. Herman, something."

"P. Sherman, forty two, Wallaby Way, Sidney." Dory gasped, putting her fins around her mouth. "I remembered it! I usually have a hard time remembering things, but I remembered it this time!"

"Sidney," Marlin repeated. "That's where we need to go."

Arial took the goggles and tied them under the three spikes of her trident. "Well, what are waiting for?"

Traveling with Marlin and Dory was like watching a grumpy grandpa trying in vain to reign in his hyperactive grandchild. It didn't help that Sora and Ariel meshed a little too well with Dory's excitement. Swimming through an endless ocean, Dory, Sora and Ariel messed around, while Marlin, trying his best to ignore them, led the way, letting out a loud, tired sigh every so often.

"Where are we going," giggled Ariel.

"I'll tell ya where we're going. Straight to P. Sherman," Dory pointed at Sora. "Take it away!"

"Forty two," Sora sang.

Ariel flipped. "Wallaby way!"

Dory, Ariel and Sora clapped. "SIDNEY!"

Dory swam, belly up, chanting. "I can say it all day. P. Sherman..."

Marlin rubbed his temples with his fins, trying to block out the rather repetitive cheers his three companions had been saying for the last two hours. Lucky for him, there were several schools of fish in the reefs up ahead.

Leaving Sora, Dory and Ariel behind him, Marlin swam up to the other fish, waving. "Excuse me? Can someone give me directions, please?"

A school of fish moved toward him.

"Ah, thank you. I need-"

The fish swam around Marlin, going past him and past Sora, Ariel and Dory, who where still working on their coordinated cheers.

Sighing, Marlin tried to ask a passing moorish idol for help, but the black, white and yellow fish swam right past time.

"Can someone help me please?"

A yellowtail corris swam by, then a zebra lionfish, and even a tumpetfish, but none of them stopped to give poor Marlin the time of day.

"Excuse me...can someone just...and no one's listening. Great."

By this time, Sora, Ariel and Dory had caught up.

"Hey buddy! What's got you down?" said Dory.

"You really have to ask? All I want to do is find my son, and no one here," he raised his voice, screaming, "has a single bit of courtesy to stop for five seconds and give me some stupid directions!"

"Whoa there! I'm sensing a lot of frustration. Relax. Someone will give us a fin, right? Ooh, how about those guys!"

Whole crowds of fish were rushing through the reef, straight toward Marlin.

Dory smiled, waving at the oncoming underwater stampede. "Hi there! Would one of you fine gentlefish give us some-"

Marlin reached out, grabbed Dory's fin and pulled her behind a brain coral. Sora and Ariel ducked, watching as the fish swam overhead.

"Wow, you weren't kidding, they really are rude," said Dory as she stared at the retreating tail-fins.

More fish flashed by, and Sora spotted a series of panicked expressions on their scaly faces.

"Something feels off."

"Look there!"

Ariel pointed up. The underside of a boat appeared by the surface of the ocean. Something was being dragged underneath it. Slowly, Ariel moved up, unable to tear her eyes away from the long, black net under the boat.

The crisscrossed ropes were smoking. Black flakes crumbled off the nets, spreading into the surrounding water, making it hotter. The net was empty, except for one fish. Sora's gut twisted, but it was Ariel that swam out toward the net first.

"Flounder!"

The yellow and blue fish in the net, turned around, his eyes filling with joy for one second before he frantically waved his fins in warning.

"No! Ariel, don't come near it! You won't be able to get out once you're caught!"

Ariel froze, inches away from the net. She raised her trident.

"Flounder, head to the top of the net. I'm going to blast the bottom."

"Don't!"

But Ariel didn't listen. A golden bolt of lightning slammed into the bottom of the net. The energy fizzled out along the interwoven strands. The net trembled, growing wider. Like an a series of tentacles, the net split open, and wrapping around Ariel, pulling her inside. The trident slipped from her fingers as she struggled.

Sora kicked his fin as hard as he could, but he wasn't able to reach her before she was pulled into the net with Flounder. Catching the trident before it landed on the sea floor, Sora swam toward the net, careful not to get too close.

Inside the dark trap, Ariel and Flounder reunited. She hugged the pudgy, yellow fish.

"I'm so glad you're all right."

Flounder sniffed, burying his face into Ariel's shoulder.

"Hold on, you guys," Sora called, "I'll get you out."

He neared the net, but was stopped when Marlin popped up right in front of his face.

"Are you crazy? You can't just swim up to a boat!"

"We can't just leave Ariel and Flounder in there!"

"But you saw what that net did! If you try attacking it, it could swallow us up next!"

"Ooh, shiny!"

Sora and Marlin cringed, turning toward Dory's voice. While they had been busy arguing, she had gone up to the underside of the boat, where something pink and purple was glowing.

"I want to touch it."

"DORY, NO!"

Marlin swam, crashing into Dory and knocking her away from the boat's underbelly. With Dory out of the way, Sora was able to get a good look at the sparkling thing that had distracted her. Under the boat was a giant, black barnacle. Something glimmered from inside it. Shades of white, pink, and gold sparkled, almost like...

"A heart! That barnacle has been taken over by darkness!"

From the central hole of the barnacle came out several tentacles that looked a lot like the net lines that Ariel and Flounder were trapped in. The tentacles wiggled, stretching, chasing after Dory and Marlin. The two fish let out into a pair of terrified screams as they swam over and under the attacking tentacles.

Nearing the underside of the boat, Sora threw his keyblade at the barnacle, cracking its outer shell. Realizing it couldn't capture its prey with Sora posing as a threat, the tentacles turned around, flashing toward Sora.

"Blizzaga!"

Spears of ice surrounded Sora, providing cover, allowing him to swim far enough not to be caught by the net tentacles. One of the spears got through, crashing into the barnacle. A piece of the outer shell fell off the barnacle, and through the hole, Sora could see the cloud of darkness inside. The black smoke swirled around a captured heart. For one second, the net around Ariel and Flounder slacked. Then the strings tightened again, pulsing angrily. The net began to shrink.

Ariel and Flounder moved away from the sides of the net, but soon they would have no room to maneuver, and Sora didn't want to guess what the dark netting would do once the two of them were out of wiggle room.

Marlin and Dory swam around Sora's head. Marlin, panicked, chanting, "what do we do, what do we do, what do we do" while Dory swam after him singing, "Ring Around the Rosy." The whiplash of anxiety and obliviousness was giving Sora a massive headache and he felt as though his skull was going to crack open any second! If only the net would bust open instead, at least it would solve one of his problems.

"That's it! Marlin, Dory, swim toward the net." "Okay," said Dory.

"What? No! Don't you dare!"

Too late, Dory was halfway to the net. Marlin hesitated, unsure if he should go after her or scream at Sora.

"Trust me," Sora winked. "I got this! Teamwork, remember? But if we don't hurry, we'll lose our chance."

Marlin pressed his lips together, looked at the net, back at Sora and back at the net again. Though it felt like hours, when it was really less then a second, Marlin finally moved toward the net, muttering under his breath.

"Okay, okay. This is crazy, but I'll be okay. I can't believe I'm doing this! This is so stupid!"

Dory was inches away from the net, and Marlin was right behind her. Sora swam back toward the boat as quickly as he could, raising Ariel's trident. The moment the two little fish got near the dark edges of the net, Sora fired a blast of energy from the trident. The second the spell hit the net, it opened up, ready to swallow Dory and Marlin. The two fish screamed, their disorganized swimming somehow too random to be caught by the tentacles. The net struggled to close around the pair of them, especially Marlin. He darted back and forth between the dark strings so fast that he started to tie the lines into knots. Dory was caught, but Marlin was still zigzagging through the strings.

The net opened up as it tried to add more tentacles to catch Marlin. Ariel, Flounder and Dory finally had space to move, but couldn't escape the net as the bottom was still violently trying to catch Marlin.

Sora ignored the net entirely, swimming toward the top, near the barnacle. The net swallowed Marlin a second later, but it didn't matter. Sora slammed his keyblade into the barnacle's shell, shattering it, and slicing through the darkness inside. The heart popped out of the darkness, floating up toward the surface of the water, vanishing.

With nothing to sustain it, the barnacle heartless faded away. The remaining pieces of the shell, the tentacles and the netting disintegrated. Ariel, Flounder, Dory and Marlin swam out.

Marlin whooped, singing. "We did it! We did it! Oh yeah, yeah, yeah! I won't be caught today! I am free, hooray! Look out Nemo, I am on my way!"

Dory followed his zigzagging swim pattern, joining in, "P. Sherman Forty two, Wallaby way, is what I say!"

The boat, now that it wasn't weighed down by the heartless underneath it, sailed away. Even Ariel ignored it as she happily reunited with Sora and Flounder, giving the pair of them a hug. Dory, not wanting to be left out, hugged Sora's shoulder.

"Come on," she waved at Marlin.

"Oh all right," Marlin smiled, squeezing Sora's other shoulder.

"That was awesome," said Flounder. "How you zip zapped through those tentacles so fast that they got all tangled! You're so brave!"

For the first time since meeting him, Marlin wore a grin that didn't have a hint of nervousness in it. While he was enjoying the compliments, Ariel took the trident back from Sora.

"Thank you for saving us," she said.

"Of course. We're even now."

Something green floated down from overhead, swimming around Sora and Marlin.

"That was gnarly, dudes!"

A sea turtle flew through the water, winking at Sora.

"Yo, that was awesome, dude! First you were like, 'Oh no! How do I save my bros?' And then you, mini man," the turtle pointed his fin at Marlin, "you were like, 'WHOA!'"

Marlin tilted his head to the side. "Sorry, I'm kind of confused. We did what now?"

"You and dolphin boy here! Takin' on the dark barnacle net. Sick moves bro. Respect."

Sora bowed. "Thanks, Mr. Turtle."

The turtle snorted. "Naw, dude. Mr. Turtle is my father, Name's Crush."

"Really? Crush?" Marlin shook his head. "Okay, Crush. Maybe you can help us out."

"After that spectacular show, for sure. What do you need, dude?"

"We need to get to Sidney."

Crush slapped his fins on his head. "Yo! I got ya! We'll surf on the EAC! It'll take you straight there."

"EAC?" Sora, Ariel, Dory and Flounder repeated.

"The East Australian Current, man. It's not that far. Come. Follow, my dudes."

Sora relaxed, for once, letting the water move him. He floated in a long, wide, underwater tube that was made entirely out of fast moving water. The East Australian current was stronger then the rest of the ocean and it pushed him along under Crush, Marlin and Dory. He barely had to kick his tail to be propelled forward. Ariel and Flounder swam at Sora's side, catching up.

"I'm so glad you are all right," said Ariel. "When I couldn't find you in Atlantica, I was so worried."

Flounder looped around Ariel's shoulders, delighted to be moving about freely. "I was worried too! I got blown around by a huge dark current! Next time I knew, I woke up on a reef I didn't recognize. While I was looking for you, I got caught by that net!"

"Do you know what happened to Daddy? Or Sebastian?"

Flounder shook his head. "I thought I was the only one that escaped."

Sora waved, catching Flounder's attention. "Did you notice anything weird about the ocean, the darkness, or the heartless?"

Flounder pressed his lips and tapped his fin on his temple, giving him a look that was equal parts nervous and introspective. "Those chewy ball things-"

"Darkballs."

"Right, those. I did notice a few of them heading to the surface, leaving the water. I don't know where they were going though."

"You're talking about those burnt looking ball monsters, right dude?"

Flounder, Ariel and Sora looked up. Crush nodded down at them.

"Seeing a lot of those weirdos in the sea. They're a total bummer man, along with the darkening."

"Darkening?" Sora repeated.

"Yeah, dude! Rumors from all over about coral going all black and acting all possessed."

"Like the barnacle I fought earlier?"

"That's the one. Even the seagulls got the nerves, bro. Been hearing stories of about weird stuff going down in Sydney too."

Marlin paled. "But Nemo is there. This is all my fault. I promised I'd never let anything happen to him and now those weird creatures..." he shuddered.

"You've got to have a little more faith, mini man," said Crush.

"What do you mean?"

"You're looking for your son, right? Your lil dude's going to have to face the world sooner or later. See, we sea turtles let your little guys fly solo, try things out for themselves, so when it's their turn to shred the waves, they know what to do, ya know?"

Marlin shook his head. "But Nemo is different. He has a little fin, and if something happens to him, I..."

"I can understand why you're worried," said Sora. "It's because you care. So much that it hurts sometimes. But if I hadn't believed in you before, I never would have taken down that barnacle heartless. You just have to be brave enough to give Nemo a chance. If you've got it in you, then I'm sure Nemo has it too."

"Righteous," nodded Crush. "I like the way you think, dude."

Marlin shook his head. "But what if I let him try, and he messes up? Or gets hurt?"

"My father is a lot like you," said Ariel. "He wants to protect me, so he never lets me do anything." Ariel crossed her arms. "I wish he didn't treat me like a child. I can take care of myself just fine."

Marlin expression saddened. "Do you wish he would leave you alone? Did you run away?"

Ariel shook her head. "No. We got separated. So, whether Daddy likes it or not, I have to do things on my own. I still miss Daddy, and I know in my heart that he's all right. I want to believe in him. I'm sure Nemo believes in you too."

Marlin turned away, but he wasn't very good at hiding the shuddering hiccups that made his body bounce up and down. Ariel and Sora exchanged grins. Dory burst into obnoxious tears.

"That's so touching! I love family stories!"

"Chya," Crush agreed.

Jiminy's Journal

Marlin (First appeared in Finding Nemo, 2003): An overprotective and impatient clownfish that is looking for his son, Nemo. Although he's a bit too cautious, Marlin didn't run away when Dory and his friends are in danger. He will do everything in his power to find Nemo, even if it means traveling through the very same ocean he's terrified of.

Dory (First appeared in Finding Nemo, 2003): A surgeonfish that suffers from short term memory loss. This doesn't seem to bother Dory much, especially since her natural optimism gets her through the toughest of situations. It's a good thing too because it seems as though Marlin could use a lot of cheering up on his journey.

Crush (First Appeared in Finding Nemo, 2003): Even though he's one hundred and fifty years old, Crush has the exuberance and relaxed attitude of someone much younger. Thanks to his guidance, in both life and in directions, it seems as though Marlin and the others are on the right path.

Flounder (First Appeared in The Little Mermaid, 1989): Ariel's best friend. Flounder is a pudgy, yellow fish with blue stripes. Although he's not as fearless as Ariel, he is loyal and always willing to join her on her adventures.