Chapter 43 Turning over a New Feather.
The Gummi Ship sailed across the stars as it approached its next world.
"The next world is coming up, and it's one we know." Donald called out.
"Which one?" Corrin asked.
"Agrabah." Donald answered.
"That's cool! We never did get a chance to check on Jasmine after she was returned home." Corrin said.
"A little information pleased?" Takumi asked annoyed at being kept in the dark.
"Right. Agrabah is a town in a desert that is ruled by some Sultan guy. His former Vizier Jafar conspired with Maleficent to use the Heartless to overthrow the Sultan and take over Agrabah in exchange for Jasmine, who is the Sultan's daughter." Sora explained.
"Why did Maleficent want the princess?" Kaze asked.
"Like Belle, Jasmine is one of the Seven Princesses of Hearts." Goofy explained.
"Seven Princesses of Hearts?" Takumi asked confused.
"From what we were told, they are seven maidens with no darkness in their hearts, or something like that. Apparently, Maleficent needed them to get to the Heart of all worlds Kingdom Hearts." Kaze explained.
"Basically." Sora said.
"So, what happened to Jafar?" Sakura asked.
"Well, there was a genie's lamp that Jafar got his hands on and…" Sora began but Takumi cut him off.
"Genie's lamp?" Takumi asked baffled.
"Yep! There was a Genie named…Genie, and he would grant three wishes to whoever was holding his lamp. We made friends with this guy named Aladdin who held Genie's lamp. Aladdin wanted to use Genie to stop Jafar, and then use it to help win Jasmine's heart." Sora explained.
"He wanted to win the princess's heart?" Kaze asked.
"Yeah. There was apparently a rule that a princess can't get together with a street rat as he was called. Is it like that in Hoshido?" Sora asked curiously.
"Not that I'm aware of." Sakura muttered thinking about it for a bit.
"There isn't any law that says we have to marry a royal or noble, but we do have to be careful as the citizens may become cautious on who we marry and possibly protest." Takumi explained. "From what I was told, our mother was originally a commoner and there was some uproar of some nobody becoming the queen, but both our father and eventually Ryoma helped her adjust. When our father was killed, she took up the mantle as queen gracefully that there were no protests due to all of her efforts to mend the pain Hoshido felt from the loss of our king, even with the immense pain she was feeling. Ryoma helped out more as he got older."
"Wow! Your mother sounds like an amazing person." Sora said in awe.
"She was." Takumi smiled softly.
"Hey! I got you to smile!" Sora cheered.
Takumi's face grew red as a result. "Sh-Shut up!"
Sora just laughed as Takumi sighed. He then glanced over at Corrin who was looking out the window lost in thought and his mood soured.
'Why? Why isn't he asking anything about our home? Or our mother? Why is it always Sora asking and trying to learn about our home or our parents? He wanted to get to know us back at Disney Castle, but as never made any effort to do so!' Takumi growled.
"Back to the matter at hand, Jafar managed to steal Genie's lamp so he could find the world's keyhole which would allow the Heartless to completely destroy it. But when our fight wasn't going his way, he wished to become a Genie himself. Thankfully, he didn't know about the binding of a Genie and was trapped inside his lamp, lost somewhere in the desert." Corrin soon said still glancing out the window.
"We're about to land, so get ready to disembark." Donald ordered as the ship made a stop on Agrabah.
The streets of Agrabah were definitely different than how they were last year. Where last year the place was like a ghost town, this time the streets were filled with people and many shops down the streets.
"The place is reminding me on Hollow Bastion with how different it was last year." Goofy commented as he looked around.
"I know right? Last year the place was such a ghost town and filled with nothing but Heartless. This year, the place looks like a normal town." Sora said.
"Let's head to the palace. Aladdin and Jasmine might be there." Corrin offered as he pointed to the giant building in the center of the city.
As the group exited the plaza and to a more quite street on their way to the palace, a familiar red bird flew up to them, catching Kaze and Goofy's attention. Kaze didn't think much of the bird, but Goofy got worried.
"Guys! It's Iago!" Goofy cried out.
Sora, Corrin, and Donald immediately turned with their weapons drawn as the Hoshidans looked confused.
"Wait! You got me all wrong!" Iago cried out in fear when he saw the weapons being drawn.
"You're Iago all right." Donald spat.
"No! I'm a new me! I turned over a new feather! No more scams! I promise!" Iago pleaded.
"Who is this Iago?" Kaze asked the question all the Hoshidans thought.
"He was Jafar's right hand. It was because of him, that Jafar got his hands on Genie's lamp." Corrin explained.
"Wait, if you're out, is Jafar as well?" Donald asked worried.
"No! He's still lost somewhere in the desert still stuck in his lamp. I managed to escape and came back here." Iago said.
"Well, I suppose that's a relief, but why would you come back to Agrabah? You aren't exactly well loved here." Corrin asked.
"Because I want to apologies to Aladdin and Jasmine! You're heading to the palace, right? Then take me with you!" Iago pleaded.
"Go by yourself." Donald spat.
"They wouldn't let me in!" Iago cried out.
"Gee. I wonder why?" Corrin retorted sarcastically.
"Look. I know what I did in the past was bad, but I assure you that I've changed. I was trapped in that tiny lamp for months! Haven't I been punished enough?" Iago cried out.
"Genie did say those lamps were rather cramped." Sora admitted.
"And he does look rather sorry." Goofy added.
"I don't know…" Corrin said rather cautious.
"Plus, I've got a celebrity's constitution! I can't survive outside the palace!" Iago cried out.
'How pathetic!' The group, including the Hoshidans all thought simultaneously.
"Forget it. This guy just wants to live a palace life. When you can provide some evidence that you've actually changed, maybe we'll talk." Corrin dismissed as the group started to walk away.
Iago was about to beg again, but instead, he saw something else.
"Watch out!" Iago shouted.
On cue, the group was surrounded by Heartless.
These Heartless did bare some resemblance to the Bandit Heartless Sora and the gang fought a year ago in Agrabah, but these Heartless were more orange and yellow in color, and lacked the turban that the Bandits from last year had. They also wielded two swords instead of one.
The Luna Bandits immediately went on the attack as the group was quick to try and defend themselves.
Kaze jumped away to avoid an attack by a Luna Bandit, but one tried to attack from behind. Kaze brought his daggers up to block the swords.
'These things are pretty quick. Better be careful.' Kaze thought as he activated Thunder Sword Magic.
Takumi was having a rougher time. Close range combat was not his strongest, and the number of Luna Bandits gave him no way to gain some distance, as he was surrounded by four of them on all sides.
One charged at Takumi with his blades, as Takumi brought up the Fujin Yumi as a means to block the attack. While he was successful in stopping that Luna Bandit's swords, the other three then charged at him.
'Only one option left.' Takumi thought. "Aero!"
A small gust of wind surrounded Takumi, blowing the four Heartless back, giving Takumi the space he needed. Quickly aiming the Fujin Yumi, Takumi shot and destroyed all four Heartless before they could recover.
"Unbelievable...I guess I am getting stronger." Takumi muttered to himself in awe.
Sakura and Donald got to work on their magic. Donald used Thunder to better hit the quick Heartless, while Sakura used the Pearl spell to knock some around.
"Goofy Tornado!" Goofy shouted as he spun himself around, hitting the Heartless Donald and Sakura were attacking.
"Thanks Goofy!" Donald said.
"No problem." Goofy said a bit dizzy.
Sora and Corrin were locking blades with the Heartless. While they were doing well, more Luna Bandits showed up, along with a Fat Bandit Heartless.
'Great. More of them. Maybe if I..." Sora began, but was cut off with another image of Vanitas.
"That Anti Form really suits you Sora. Why not give it a try?" Vanitas's voice rang out.
Sora froze, leaving him open for an attack, but a blast of a Pearl spell from Sakura, destroyed the Luna Bandit before it could attack Sora.
"Th-Thanks." Sora muttered.
"Are you okay?" Sakura asked in concern.
"I'll be fine." Sora tried to assure, but there was some falter in his voice.
"Where did these guys come from?" Corrin grunted as he knocked one back.
"I don't know, but we need to think of something and soon." Donald grunted.
"Perhaps a tactical retreat would be wise?" Kaze offered.
"If we can find an opening." Corrin pointed out.
As if on cue, Iago accidentally rammed into some boxes that were stacked up as he tried to avoid getting sliced to ribbons from some of the Lunar Bandits that tried to attack him.
"There's one!" Takumi called out as the group took their chance to flee with Iago following them.
The group managed to flee into a small warehouse to hide in as the Heartless soon gave up and vanished.
"That was a close one." Sora sighed.
"It seems that there are still a lot of Heartless running around, but not in plain sight." Corrin stated.
"Then we'd best be careful when moving about from here on out." Kaze said as everyone nodded.
"Man this place is a dump." Donald said looking around. There were shelves across the walls that had what looked like junk on it.
"Now, about Iago…" Sora began as the group turned to the panting bird.
"W-We can't deny that he did save us back there." Sakura pointed out.
"As much as I hate to admit it, she is right." Takumi sighed.
"Fine. We'll take you to the palace." Sora relented.
"Really?" Iago gasped in delight.
"However, you have to win Aladdin and Jasmine's forgiveness yourself." Sora said firmly.
"That's right. If you want to show you've changed, you have to be the one to do it." Corrin added.
Takumi only looked at Corrin.
"You'd better be on your best behavior." Donald warned and Iago nodded.
"Alright. Let's go to the palace." Corrin said as the group exited the Warehouse.
The group arrived at the courtyard to the palace. The palace itself was easily he biggest in all of Agrabah, and the courtyard was very wide open with quite a large amount of grass on each side of the path to the gates. Standing in front of the gate was a familiar beautiful woman in a blue bedlah outfit with harem-style pants and an off-shoulder crop top. She seemed to be in deep thought as she failed to notice the group approaching her.
"Jasmine!" Sora called out.
Upon hearing her name, Jasmine turned and smiled at the sight of the four familiar faces. There were three unfamiliar ones behind them though.
"Sora, Corrin, Donald, Goofy!" She greeted.
"Your majesty." Donald greeted as he bowed. The rest followed in suit causing her to giggle a bit.
"After everything that happened last year, I never got a chance to personally thank you four for helping Aladdin taking care of that awful Jafar." Jasmine said.
"Yeah. Things happened pretty fast at the end. Glad to see that you made it home safely though." Corrin smiled.
"Yes. We all were transported back to our homes after you four defeated Ansem." Jasmine said. "By the way, who are those three behind you?"
"These two are Sakura and Takumi. They're Corrin's siblings. The third guy is Kaze." Sora said introducing the three.
"Your siblings? Are they able to transform like you can Corrin?" Jasmine asked remembering seeing Corrin's Dragon form after she had awakened in Hollow Bastion upon the return of her heart.
Takumi shook his head. "To my knowledge, no. Corrin is a special case."
"I see…" Jasmine muttered before shacking her head. "I suppose it doesn't matter. My name is Jasmine. Princess of Agrabah."
"Likewise." Takumi greeted with a bow.
"N-Nice to meet you." Sakura said with a bow.
"If I may ask princess, is it wise to be outside with no protection?" Kaze asked.
"I'm fine." Jasmine assured.
"Anyway, I've noticed the Heartless are popping up again." Corrin said.
"Yes. They've definitely gone down quite a lot since last year, but they are still causing problems." Jasmine sighed.
"Anything we can do to help?" Sora asked.
"I think we're all right for now." Jasmine said.
"How's Aladdin doing?" Goofy asked.
Jasmine's face changed from happy to concern at that. "He hasn't been himself lately."
"Hasn't been himself? How so?" Corrin asked.
"Well, sometimes, he's still his old cheerful self, but other times, he's just sad. He leaves the palace and goes out all the time by himself. I've asked him what's wrong, but he just says everything's fine. He went off again today, but I'm worried he won't come back." Jasmine said.
"Hey, maybe he's got a secret girlfriend!" Iago suggested jumping out of his hiding space behind Goofy much to Jasmine's shock. "Tell you what, I'll go find out who she is."
Jasmine's shock was quickly replaced by anger. "Iago! Quick Sora, catch him! I'll go warn the guards in the palace."
"Wait, Iago's not…" Sora began but Jasmine had already run inside the palace.
"Smooth." Corrin said flatly.
"You come here for forgiveness, but instead you open up by suggesting an affair?" Kaze asked.
"I'm sorry!" Iago cried out.
"We'd better leave for now. If the guards catch Iago, it likely won't be pretty for him." Corrin suggested as Iago gulped. The others nodded and ran back into the streets of Agrabah.
Once the group was at a safe enough distance from the palace, they stopped to think their next move.
"So, where do we go from here?" Takumi asked.
"Well, talking to Jasmine is out of the question at the moment. Maybe we should try Aladdin?" Corrin suggested.
"Are you sure that will work?" Iago asked.
"It's your best chance now. Jasmine said he's somewhere in town, so let's go find him." Corrin said.
"But where do we start looking?" Donald asked.
"STOP THIEF!" Someone shouted.
Everyone turned to the sound, as they saw Abu run right by them holding something. A second later, a rather short peddler wearing a turban and a blue rob ran by them along with Aladdin.
"Hi Sora!" Aladdin waved as he ran by them.
The group stared at silent for a moment until Sora spoke up. "That answers that question."
Everyone immediately gave chase after the three.
The group caught up to Aladdin and the Peddler who had cornered Abu. Aladdin took something that Abu was holding and handed it to the Peddler.
"I'm so sorry about this." Aladdin apologized. "No hard feelings?"
"If you can't control that furball, then put him on a leash!" The peddler snapped as he took his item and stormed off.
As he pasted by the group, Corrin caught noticed of what was in the Peddler's hands. It was a black lamp.
'Why dose that look so familiar?' Corrin thought.
"You should be ashamed of yourself Abu!" Aladdin scolded his monkey. "But we'll have a talk about this later."
Aladdin then turned to the group.
"Hey guys. Sorry about earlier. I was in a hurry" Aladdin greeted as he approached the group.
"It's no problem, but what happened exactly?" Sora asked.
Aladdin sighed. "Abu stole that lamp from that Peddler. He just can't keep his paws off things, and it's causing trouble. I know we used to do it in the past, but we shouldn't anymore."
"You stole in the past?" Kaze asked.
Aladdin blinked. "Who are your friends?"
"This is Kaze, Sakura, and Takumi. The last two are actually Corrin's siblings." Sora introduced.
"Really? Can they turn into a dragon as well?" Aladdin asked with some concern.
Sakura and Takumi shook their heads.
"That's a relief. Jasmine told me about when you did it. No offense." Aladdin said to Corrin.
"It's fine. And don't worry. I can control it now." Corrin assured.
"I see. Anyway, back to that earlier question, before I met Jasmine, I used to be a thief, though it was more food I stole rather than money. When I was little, my father vanished and my mother died shortly after from illness. I had to fend for myself, and sometimes…most of the time, that meant stealing something so I can even have breakfast." Aladdin explained.
"I-I'm sorry to hear that. I know the pain of losing parents." Sakura muttered.
"It's fine. It was a long time ago. Plus, I'm not alone. I've always had Abu, and now I have Jasmine." Aladdin assured.
"Speaking of Jasmine, we just saw her a little while ago and she was rather worried about you. She said you were down in the dumps and going into town." Corrin said.
"Got a new girlfriend?" Donald asked.
"No way! It's just…I miss Genie and Carpet. They went to explore the world with Genie's new freedom, and I wish him the best but, I still miss him. But I guess I can't fool Jasmine." Aladdin said sadly.
"You should just tell her that. I'm sure she misses them too." Sora said.
"I know…" Aladdin muttered. "As for why I'm always in town, I just kind of miss the people and the action. There's always something going on down here. Heck, I ran into you today after all."
Goofy then noticed Iago off to the corner rather shaken.
"Uh guys?" Goofy pointed to the bird.
"Iago?" Aladdin gasped.
"Oh right. Iago said he's here to apologize for what he did last year." Sora quickly said before Aladdin reacted like Jasmine did earlier.
"He does, huh?" Aladdin said not really buying it.
"Look at him. He's so sorry he's shaking." Goofy said.
"Th-th-that lamp…" Iago muttered rather shaken with fear.
"What about it?" Aladdin asked.
"That's THE lamp!" Iago shouted.
"I thought that lamp looked familiar!" Corrin gasped.
"Are you sure that's Jafar's lamp?" Donald asked.
"I was trapped in that thing for months! I know that lamp!" Iago argued.
Abu had a smirk on his face for his stunt earlier, but no one was paying attention.
"So, that lamp is the one you guys stuck that Jafar guy in?" Takumi asked.
"If it is, we'd better get it. If anyone rubs that lamp, Jafar will be free." Aladdin said. The group nodded and followed after the Peddler.
The group arrived in the storage house they were hiding in earlier from the Heartless.
"Wait. This place is a store?" Donald asked surprised. "I just thought that this was some closet of junk or something."
"Okay guys. I want you to go in and see if you can buy the lamp." Aladdin whispered.
"Why can't you do it?" Takumi asked annoyed.
"I'm too well known due to my relationship with the princess. If I go in, he's just going to charge some outrageous amount for the lamp." Aladdin said.
"M-Maybe we could tell him that Jafar is in that lamp. I mean, from what I heard, I doubt anyone wants him back." Sakura offered.
"While you aren't wrong, there's a strong chance he won't believe us and may rub it to test it out. Even with Jafar bound by the lamp now, he's still dangerous." Aladdin explained.
"Okay then. Let's go." Corrin said as the group minus Aladdin, Abu, and Iago went inside.
"Welcome friends! We have plenty of items for sale, and they are all cheap!" The Peddler sang as he saw the group enter the store.
'Somehow, I doubt that.' Corrin, Takumi, and Kaze thought flatly.
"Hi. We're interested in that lamp you're holding." Sora said pointing to Jafar's lamp that was still in the peddler's hands.
"This thing? I yes. I found it buried in the sand when I was digging for treasure." The Peddler said as he was about to rub it, but Kaze stopped him.
"If you rub it, it might decrease the value." Kaze said. Thankfully, it worked.
'He found it buried in the dessert…Yeah. It most likely is Jafar's lamp.' Corrin thought with a frown.
"I should warn you though, this lamp won't be as cheap." The Peddler warned.
"No worries." Sora said.
"Yeah. We can pay you in Royal-Hmph!" Donald was cut off by Kaze clamming his beak shut.
Sadly, the Peddler heard all he needed.
"Perhaps I can find you another lamp instead?" The Peddler offered.
"Uh no. We're interested in that one." Corrin said.
"Well then. If you want this lamp, then I want to see this royal treasure first. If it truly is something say, fit for a sultan, then the lamp is yours." The Peddler said much to the group's disappointment.
Outside the store:
"Way to go Donald." Corrin said flatly.
"I'm sorry!" Donald cried out.
"Well now we need some royal treasure." Sora said as he glanced to Sakura and Takumi. They were royalty after all.
"Don't look at us. All Sakura and I have is a few gold pieces on hand each." Takumi said and Sakura nodded.
"We could just go ask Jasmine." Goofy offered.
"I don't want her or the Sultan to worry. The Heartless have been rather stressful. More than Jasmine will admit, and if the Sultan finds out Jaffar's lamp is in town, he'd likely have a panic attack." Aladdin said.
"Well, what about the Cave of Wonders? There's lots of treasures there!" Iago offered.
"Didn't that place collapse after our fight with Jafar?" Corrin asked.
"It did, but it's still there. And so is the treasure that was inside it. I would know. I had to escape from there to get here." Iago said.
"While that is true, there is also a lot of traps in there as well." Aladdin pointed out remembering the first time he went into that cave.
"True, but there aren't that many options now are there? Besides, most of the traps were busted when the cave collapsed." Iago said.
Aladdin was in deep thought for a moment and then sighed.
"All right Iago. Take us to the treasure, and I might consider your apology." Aladdin offered.
"Deal!" Iago promised.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Corrin said flatly.
Regardless, the group set out to the desert. They had to get that lamp and fast. Before someone would release Jafar.
And that's a wrap!
I am deeply sorry to make you guys wait on this chapter. Like I mentioned in my Golden Emblem chapter, I came down with another writer's block, along with some laziness that just didn't put me in the mood to write.
As for the writer's block...I went back to edit some dialogue to build up for the fall out you all know is coming with Takumi, but I had a hard time figuring out how I wanted it to go. I did revise Chapter 22, where Takumi first appeared before Corrin and the others, and that's about it. I decided to try and write out the fallout first, and then revise chapters. (Though it will be released when I'm done revising.) And as for why it's been a challenge? Well, if you remember the fall out I did with Donald back in Of Key and Sword Kingdom Hearts, I don't want it to be completely one-sided. Sure it will mostly be on Takumi, but I do want some of it to be on Corrin. I think it makes it better.
Ether way, I apologies for the wait. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.
But for now, onto the chapter. I did change some things with the cave, since not only was it buried, but Kingdom Hearts 2 dose just forget that there are traps that goes off when someone touches the forbidden treasure. The manga remembered it, but that story got a little too odd in some places, that I didn't want to do it.
Next chapter will be the Cave of Wonders. See you guys then.
On a side note, Union Cross is coming to an end, and Dark Road will be ending soon as well. Since Union Cross is finished, I'll give my opinions on that story. There are some spoilers, but not too much. Still, word of caution if you want to read bellow:
While the overall story was fine, it did have some poor pacing. Part of it I kind of blame on the quest stuff, as it really made each world feel longer than it needed to. The story of the Disney worlds while started off decent, were mostly even more copy-paste from the original movie with a self-insert than the main series games were. I mean we did get a Wreak it Rolf world, and that was neat, but overall, it was just the movie with my OC helping out. The main plot was fine though. The Keyblade Wars was pretty intense, the characters were nice, and it did give some characters like Marluxia some more information. Also, while her inclusion was overall stupid, it was neat to see Maleficent show she can still be powerful. The main antagonist though was very cliche for what they went with. I mean, it fits Kingdom Hearts, and it isn't that big of a shock, but still...But overall, like I said, it was fine and it dose make me more curious to what's happening next. Especially for Ventus and Marluxia, and sort of Larxene.
Be sure to follow and review and I will see you guys next time.