"Pull yourself together, Sora! We haven't lost them yet. They still have their Hearts. But we have to protect them."
"We stand together."
"It can't be…no…"
A rush of shadows, and then nothing.
"They're gone. Kairi, Donald, Goofy, the King…gone forever…what do we do? Without them, I…all my strength comes from them. Alone, I'm worthless."
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
The Ocean Between Worlds
There was not really a night on the Gummi Ship. The Gummi Ship constantly moved through space, and time was always different on each world. However, there was a universally acknowledged bed time, just as soon they had gotten off of one world and Donald was able to set a course for the next one.
Just because their bed time was set up by exhaustion didn't mean that insomnia didn't exist on the Gummi Ship.
Hanna curled up in the copilot's chair. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep on the ship, but she hadn't been comfortable sleeping since she got on the ship. Besides the fact she was in a small vehicle with six other people, she had no pajamas, what blankets there were worn and thin, and there was only one bed for all seven of them; there was an overwhelming sense of panic and fear just being on the ship. Not to mention, the adrenaline boosts she got whenever she even stepped off on the ship. And the realization she kept pushing back that everything she knew was gone…
The point was, Hanna couldn't sleep.
She adjusted the privacy curtain between the pilot and passenger's sides of the ship. If she couldn't sleep, than she should do something productive with her time. She had the fortune of having her backpack with her the entire trip, but that only had so many books, and you can only read about the Pythagorean Theorem so many times before you wanted to scream. Screaming, in the middle of the night, in the middle of space, was ill advised.
Instead, she grabbed Genie's lamp and the papers found inside. The papers were crinkled and old, so much so that Hanna worried that if she applied too much pressure to any spot the whole thing would turn to dust. The handwriting was unbearably neat, thick cursive in thicker ink. And yet…
She caught a glimpse of movement and glanced up, catching the curtain parting in the dashboard reflection.
"Thought you were asleep." Hanna said as Sora sat in the pilot seat beside her. "Did I wake you up?"
"No, nightmares." Sora said, still wiping the sleep out of his eyes.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Don't really remember that much. Just…something about Riku. And Kairi, I think."
"It's no wonder. It would be weird if you weren't worried about it." Hanna said.
"Yeah, well…this ship runs on happy faces, right?" Sora said. "What are you working on, anyway?"
"I'm reading over the secret reports Genie had." Hanna said.
"Any info on the Heartless?"
"Oh, tons. But it's…strange."
To illustrate, Hanna laid out three pieces of the report onto the dashboard.
"It's all different handwriting."
"Well, maybe Ansem had a scribe. Can't expect him to be writing down all of his research while he's doing it."
"That's what I thought, but…" Hanna pulled the third off the dashboard. "This one isn't about the Heartless. And what it is about…well…"
I have seen it through; the Keyblade War exactly as written on the Lost Page. Now, the Keyblade the Master entrusted to me must be bequeathed to another. Five Union leaders have been chosen from the surviving Dandelions. I will pass the Keyblade to one of them, and then continue watching the future unfold.
Yet, it seems someone has pulled the old switcheroo. One of the Five is an imposter, someone the Master did not choose. They represent a virus in the program he so carefully wrote.
The virus has begun a strange undertaking: a reckless plot to allow the Five to escape into another worldline. Surely such a thing can't be possible? We're talking about the same trick that allowed the Dandelions to transfer to other worldlines after the Keyblade War. But these children are no Masters. They haven't the means...unless, of course, a certain lady of magic summoned here from the future knows more than I do.
The whole Union leader thing was supposed to be by the books. Are these new events just another phase in the Master's grand plan?
"Woah, a Keyblade War!" Sora exclaimed. "Wait, does that mean there are multiple Keyblade wielders? Not just us?"
"And what's this about world-lines?" Hanna asked. "They say it so differently than just 'other worlds'…"
"Hey, what's that red flashing light?"
"I mean, it's already wild that other worlds exist at all, but shouldn't Keyblade wielders know about that? And who is the Master?"
The ship lurched. Sora and Hanna both looked up.
"Is that a sperm whale?"
Monstro
"I didn't touch anything, I swear! There was just this…huge whale!"
"In space?" Donald asked, suspicion in his voice as thick as his lisp.
Katie stepped out of the Gummi Ship and immediately regretted it. The floor was soft and squishy, making it hard for her to hold her balance. The walls were made of a similar material. Wet noises sounded under her shoes in a way that would make her nauseous if it weren't for the prickly feeling that covered her when she touched something wrong being more overwhelming. The way the floor pushed against her confirmed her suspicions: whatever she was standing on was alive. But…this place did not really look like what was in her biology textbook diagrams. It looked more like a cave, with tons of ledges and platforms to climb around.
Something fell close to her head, causing Katie to jump. A treasure chest, recently looted, now sat at her feet.
"So if there was a whale, where is it now?" Penny asked.
"I think the whale just swallowed us up." Goofy said, voicing her suspicions.
He swung his shield up, just in time to block another falling treasure chest.
"Thanks." She said to Goofy. Then, to whoever threw that, "Knock it off up there!"
They responded by throwing another one.
The floor shifted and shifted some more as the others left the Gummi Ship.
"What's going on?" Dani asked.
"We're expecting showers." Goofy said.
Another treasure chest fell. This time Goofy didn't get a chance to block it. It collided with his head before tumbling to the floor.
"Heavy showers." Goofy added, nonplussed.
"You're made of steel, aren't you?" Katie asked. "Like, not even in a metaphorical sense; you're just solid metal, aren't you?"
"Garwsh," Goofy said. "Pete always told me I had a thick skull, but..."
"Who's up there, anyway!" Donald said.
"It's me!" A voice called from above the ledge.
Jiminy stuck his head out from Dani's hair.
"Oh, it's just Pinocchio." He said. "Wait, Pino-"
"Pinocchio!" Jiminy jumped out, using his umbrella to float to the ground. "Hey! Pinnoch! What are you doing? Pinnochio, come back here! Gepetto won't like this!"
"I'm off to find father right now!" Pinocchio called. He sounded very far away.
"What! Why you—come back here!"
The cricket scampered off.
"Should we go after him?" Katie asked.
"Might as well." Donald said. "Maybe we can find a way out of here."
"But how do we even follow him?" Penny asked.
Katie looked about her. There were the ledges, but they were a bit too high to climb up. There was the floor, which was too hard to climb about on. The only thing they could cross through was a body of water, which could either be saltwater, saliva, or some combination of both and other things Katie didn't want to think about.
"Gross…"
To nobody's surprise, Pinocchio wasn't holding up for Jiminy. This was perfect! He had all the pieces he needed now! All he had to do was take it back to Father and-
He froze as he caught something out of the corner of his eye. There were more people in Monstro. He only caught a glimpse of them, but he knew for a fact it was not someone he recognized. Even worse, he was entered one of the stomach chambers.
That wasn't good. Even without the Heartless, it was dangerous to explore around Monstro.
Well, a quick detour wouldn't hurt. Besides, helping people was a good thing, right? Jiminy couldn't judge him for that!
The interior of Monstro turned out to be very stable. Sure, it was still a living breathing organism, but nothing seemed to be passed along to lower digestive systems. This included a whole house. Admittedly, it wasn't as much a house as it was a fort, with only a few pieces of furniture made of remnants of ships. There was no denying, however, it was lived in. It had been lived in. For a while.
"Oh, hello there!" The houses' occupant said once he saw them. "Have you seen my son?"
"That depends. What does he look like?" Katie asked.
"Let's see…he's about this tall, black hair, blue eyes, big nose…oh, and he was wearing the lederhosen I made for him." The man said. "Oh, and he's also made of wood."
"It's a good thing we've already met him or else I'd think you're crazy." Penny said. "But he said he was running off to find his father."
"He was? Oh dear...he might have gotten lost in one of the stomach chambers." The man said. "He's been helping me build a ship to get us out of here."
He gestured behind him to a Gummi Ship, mostly finished.
"We can help with that!" Donald said.
"Yeah!" Goofy said. "We've learned to always keep some extra gummi parts on the ship!"
"You would? Oh, thank you, thank you! We have been in this beast for far too long!"
"How long?" Hanna asked.
"What year is it?" The man answered.
"How about we go look for Pinnochio for you?" Dani asked. "We needed to go find our cricket anyway."
"Cricket? Jiminy Cricket?" The man said. "Well, at least I know he won't get into trouble by his own hand…but do be careful in there. Even without the Heartless, they're a bit tricky to navigate."
"Relax." Dani said as she summoned her Keyblade. "We're heroes."
They had been wandering around Monstro for at least 2 hours now.
"Where even are we?" Penny asked. "Do whales usually have more stomach chambers than this?"
"If they do, I don't think they're usually a labyrinth like this is." Hanna said.
"How do you think this thing functions?" Katie said. "Because I'm not a marine biologist, but I generally don't think whales generally have platforming sections around its stomach."
"I also don't think they fly in space and eat things that aren't krill, let alone at least two ships full of people." Penny said.
"Well that makes sense. What about the Heartless, how do they function?" Katie asked.
More Heartless materialized.
"We can't keep fighting them." Hanna said. "I'm out of potions and Donald's out of magic."
"I have an idea!" Dani reached for the Genie's lamp. "Genie, we need your help!"
Blue smoke billowed out of the lamp, followed by fireworks and a game show jingle.
"Alright kids, what's the sitch?" Genie said as he poured out of the lamp. "Need me to wipe out a horde of Heartless? Lead you to a hidden world? Rewrite time and space so you can defeat the boss?"
"Can you just tell us where Pinocchio is?" Dani asked.
Genie deflated. Literally, turned himself in a balloon and deflated.
"That's all? No infinite cosmic power?"
"We're desperate!" Hanna cried as she kicked a Heartless off of her.
"Oh, alright."
Genie snapped his fingers, and all of a sudden they were somewhere else. To their credit, Katie doubted they would have been able to find this chamber on their own. It looked completely different than any other chamber they had been in so far, with domed walls instead of sprawling caverns and a stomach acid moat surrounding them. But more pressing was the Heartless in the chamber, a gourd-shaped cage propped up by tentacles. More pressing was the puppet boy trapped inside.
"Interesting, isn't it?" A voice spoke.
"Riku?" Sora asked.
That was Riku? Katie's eyes shot upward as a figure perched on one of the platforms above. White hair, evil-looking smirk, and eyes that glistened with dark…Katie didn't like him.
"A puppet with a Heart." Riku said. Too bad he's about to lose it."
"The proper response to that is hi, by the way." Katie said.
Riku gave her a look and she suddenly regretted speaking up.
"Still trying to make new friends instead of helping your old ones?" He asked.
"I'm not replacing you, Riku." Sora said, defensively. "And what are you talking about anyway?"
Riku let out barely a breath. A scoff, half of one, at least.
"Maybe your new friends can help you with this." He said. He vanished, tendrils of Darkness snapping where his feet were supposed to be.
The Heartless chose that moment to move. Its tendrils shot towards them.
Katie jumped out of the way. She didn't dare summon her Keyblade now, not when there was a possibility that she could hit the Heartless and hurt Pinocchio. But what else was there?
"Hey Genie, do you have any ideas?" She shouted, hoping the djinni would hear her through the lamp.
"Hmm, what's that?" Genie hummed, sticking his head out of the lamp. "Couldn't hear you over this walkthrough I'm reading."
"People are dying, Genie!"
"I did my good deed for the day, you do yours!"
Katie jumped out of the way of the tendrils again. Bad timing. Her feet slipped on stomach acid, just as slippery as water but just as burning as a Fire spell. She managed to fall onto her butt onto one of the softer platforms, although ever bone in her body still screamed at her that the texture was wrong, this was wrong wrong wrong
She had to finish this fast, if not for Pinocchio's sake then her own. If only she had two Keyblades to work with...
She charged towards the Parasite Cage. She slammed the Keyblade towards the bars holding Pinocchio back. Inside, then sideways, like a crowbar. Perfect. The tooth broke off, allowing a hole big enough for Pinocchio to jump through.
The bad news though was that she had just pissed off the giant monster that was quite close to her. The creature roared and slammed its tentacles down on her. Katie held her hands above-head, trying to shield herself as best she could.
The attack never hit, but her head did feel a little heavy with the pressure of two Keyblades on it.
"Two Keyblades!?" Dani asked. "Man, I should have asked Phil to teach me that!"
The Celestial Bronze was a shorter Keyblade than the Oblivion, a deep gold that contrasted with the deep purple. It felt weird to carry them both in her hands. But the Parasite Cage was not going to wait for her to figure this out. It attacked again. Katie jumped backwards and charged once more.
Moving two Keyblades at once was easier done that said. It almost felt like second nature, hacking and slashing her way through the Parasite Cage's teeth. She slammed both Keyblades on the ground, and tossed the Heartless high into the air with its impact. That gave Dani enough time to jump up after it and pound it back into the ground again.
The Parasite Cage dissolved in stomach acid, and then into Darkness.
"Can you lower me down, please?" Jiminy asked.
Sora held out a hand. The cricket scrambled down it, and stood firm against Sora's palm. He looked Pinocchio dead in the nose.
"Now Pinocchio," Jiminy said. "I've got a very important responsibility to assist the Queen. As such, I will not be able to officially act as your Conscious for a while. But that's no excuse not to be on your best behavior. I know you're capable of great things. Now take care of your father,"
Pinocchio's smiled wobbled, like he wasn't sure if he should be sad that he was leaving Jiminy or happy that he was being praised. "Right!"
"And don't follow strangers who say they're going to make you famous,"
Pinocchio's face dropped at that. "Right."
"And if you any need any help, go find Miss Aerith."
"Right!"
Jiminy looked very proud of himself, and started the climb back up to Sora's head.
"Why Aerith?" Sora asked.
"Leon, Yuffie and Cid are all my friends, but I don't exactly trust them with the care of a little boy."
That was fair. He waited until Jiminy was safe on his scalp before withdrawing his hand.
"Now Dani," Donald started. He stopped. It looked like it took a considerable amount of effort to say the next part. "You can drive Gepetto's ship."
"Hooray!"
"But don't get any ideas!" He snapped. "That thing's top speed is 35 miles and hour, and we'll be right in front of you!"
Her triumph deflated. "Then what's the point?"
"You at least have some experience seeing how the ship is run, where Gepetto doesn't!"
"I make toys for a living." Gepetto shrugged.
"Jiminy, can you go with them?" Donald asked. "I would feel a lot safer with somebody that has a good head on their shoulders and doesn't take up a whole lot of space inside."
"Well that's my specialty!" Jiminy said.
The groups divided. The ships were loaded. But Sora remained where he was, too lost in thought to move. Dani noticed first.
"What's up?" She asked.
"I dunno." Sora said. "I should have been able to do something."
"What? About Riku?"
"No…yes? Just…about everything."
Dani gestured for him to follow her into the ship. He followed. There was room in Gepetto's ship…barely. While their Gummi Ship was about the size of half a room, Gepetto's Gummi ship was about the size of half a boat. Between the five of them, there was barely any room left.
They squeezed in closer to the captain's seat.
"I just feel like I could have done something else. Maybe Riku was right."
"About what?"
"Maybe I can't find Kairi."
"Pull yourself together, Sora! We haven't lost them yet. They still have their Hearts. But we have to protect them."
"We stand together."
"It can't be…no…"
A rush of shadows, and then nothing.
"They're gone. Kairi, Donald, Goofy, the King…gone forever…what do we do? Without them, I…all my strength comes from them. Alone, I'm worthless."
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
It snapped Sora out of thoughts he was not aware he was having. He fought to focus back to Dani.
"I mean, c'mon!" Dani said. "You're a Keyblade master! You've travelled through other worlds! Who cares if you don't have as many flashy powers! I think you make up for it in the fact that you're also one of the only ones who actually knows how to wield their sword."
He couldn't argue that one, he realized with a laugh.
"Now, we're gonna go find Kairi, save the King, and prove to the whole universe we're awesome!"
The ship kicked into life and began to fly. And Sora realized she was right. He was just as good a Keyblade master as the rest of them.
SORA obtained WISHING STAR
DANI obtained DREAMS COME TRUE
A shorter Keyblade that makes up for its lack of reach in strong critical hits and combos
Author's Note: Katie can have little a projection of the author's autism, as a treat. (I would die if I had to walk through a whale's stomach in real life, even if it is a cartoon whale)
I came up with who gets what Keyblade at the end of the chapter based mostly on design and ability first, but I do try to foreshadow it a little by giving that character more screen time or development in the chapter itself. And while this chapter was mostly focused on Katie, I believe that Dani's final statement on how awesome she is is not just a good thesis statement for her character, but for the work itself and a lot of my feelings on Kingdom Hearts as a work. In its original form, my premise for this work was that no matter what Sora does, he never gets the respect he deserves. Kingdom Hearts 3 has a pretty good example of it when Maleficent and Pete take one good look at Sora and say "this isn't worth our time" after he's beaten them at least 6 times combined, but the one that really got me was 3D. I'm sure 3D is a good game (I would die for Meow Wow) but I can't get past the premise. "Take our test to prove you're a Keyblade Master even though you've saved the universe at least twice and our test has a success rate of literally only one mouse. Oh no you failed because of outside circumstances that we did nothing about, you'll never be a true Keyblade Master". I feel that Sora needs someone on his side. Then again, Dani might not be the best person for the job...
One day I'll get around to drawing the art for the new Keyblades.
The original work was about Sora losing the Mark of Mastery test. But there are a lot of hints for how that's changed in this chapter...