KINGDOM HEARTS III: SECOND WAR.
Author's Note: I get the feeling that most of you are impatient for me to get to the Tangled world. Well, that will probably be much later in the story as will Port Royal, meaning that neither of them will be after Atlantis, unfortunately, but both will be in this story. Please be patient and sorry for the inconvinence.
And that tomorrow is my Birthday, so I won't be updating until Monday at the earliest.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH21: New Discovery.
Sora's Dream...
Something jolted Sora awake in his tent. He wasn't certain how or why, but something else...completely wrong. He could sense darkness just outside and he knew that he should investigate. But the moment he opened his tent...he was in a completely different and new area. All of the other tents and vehicles were gone. Everyone had disappeared. He wasn't even in the cavern leading to Atlantis either.
Instead, he found himself in what appears to be the ruins of an old town. Buildings that had flowers were smashed and destroyed, a fountain was in pieces, and up in the distance, a tall clock tower's roof was completely gone.
Was he really awake?
"...Is this...a dream?" Sora wondered aloud.
"Well, duh. Of course it's a dream." A unwelcoming familiar voice spoke behind him, causing the sixteen year old to whirl around and to his dismay, was Vanitas who stood there casually, his arms crossed to his chest, as the raven-haired embodiment of Ven's darkness continued, "Though I don't know about you, but I think what you and I seeing are a bit of Ventus' memory from his time here in this dump of a town."
"So you're saying that I'm seeing Ven's memories through you, since you're his darkness and his other half, right? Doesn't make much sense, but at the same time, it kinda does." Sora theoried, before stating as a thought came to mind, "Let me guess; you're doing this because you want to take over my heart, right?"
Vanitas chuckled somewhat evilly, "Weeeell, I do kinda like to live again. This isn't my doing, though. But since we're both here...let's see how far you've come. If you win, I'm still stuck as a ghost until you figure out how to really get rid of me."
"And if you win...you take over my heart." Sora finished for him, glaring. Well, Ven's darkness was in for a major disappointment, as the spiky-haired teen summoned his Keyblade and got into a fighting stance, declaring, "Well, when I'm through with you, you can forget it!"
"Good. You react quicker than Ventus does." Vanitas sneered, summoning his own dark Keyblade he hasn't used in ages. "But as they say, overconfidence will destroy you."
Vanitas then teleported and appeared behind Sora who quickly reacted by whirling around and blocked his opponent's Keyblade with his own, both of them pushing hard against each other, struggling to over-power one another until Sora found an opening to try and knock him back, but to his shock, the raven-haired boy instantly vanished.
"Too slow." Vanitas mocked, appearing at Sora's right before knocking him aside.
The young Keyblade Master reflected and recovered quickly by flipping through the air and landed safely before dodge-rolling out of the way when Vanitas chanted Dark Lightning at him. Sora quickly chanted his own Lightning which struck Vanitas when the former found an opening, before following up by tossing his Keyblade at him, hitting him successfully twice while Vanitas cried out in shocked and surprised alarm.
When Sora then attempted to use Blizzaraga to lower the enemy's defense lower, Vantias teleported and reappeared right in front of him, hitting him several times in the stomach as Ven's former Darkness said in disappointment, "Pathetic!"
Sora's eyes narrowed while holding in the growing anger, focusing on the good memories of his friends and this time managed to block another one of Vanitas's combos with his Keyblade before he spun and thrusted the weapon at the embodiment's face, then quickly used his Flowmotion that made him glow in blue light, entrapping Vanitas as he spun around and around him before catching him off guard and with much of his strength, tossed him to the side where Vanitas crashed into the side of a building.
Vanitas, though, wasn't giving up so easily before he fired Dark Fire at him which hit Sora in the chest and stomach, sending him flying backwards where he crashed onto the ground on his back. But Sora wasn't giving up easily either, quickly flipping onto his feet and once again avoided Vanitas who had teleported right in front of him, narrowly avoiding in being sliced in half by the latter's Keyblade by dodge-rolling once more.
He used this to his advantage, channeling the power of light from his heart, allowing Sora to create his own Orb of Light which glowed in blue instead of golden white like Mickey's and pinkish white like Kairi's, whacking it straight towards Vanitas who teleported to avoid it, but to the latter's shock, it followed him and successfully engulfed him in the power of light, causing him to yell in agony as the light was weakening him due to being an embodiment of darkness.
It allowed Sora to deliver strikes and combos against the distracted and weakened Vanitas who for once couldn't defend himself due to the power of Sora's light. However, Sora gasped when Vanitas then disappeared and as the teenager quickly looked around, a shadow covered and looked up just in time to see his enemy doing to stab him by diving down from the air. Sora responded by jumping out of the way and using Barrier to protect himself when the impact of Vanitas stabbing his Keyblade into the ground caused the earth to tremor a little which, as Sora knew, would cause more damage.
He had to end this; now.
So he stood waiting, allowing Vanitas to think that he surrendered. Once the latter teleported in front of him, Vanitas realised too late as Sora quickly went into his Valor Form which allowed him to summon the other Keyblade, quickly knocking the Dark Gear Keyblade out of Vanitas' grasp before Sora used both of his Keyblades deliver a finishing slash blow right at him, knocking Vanitas back once more. Sora wasn't finished yet, though, because he leaped into the air and tossed his Keyblade right at Vanitas' chest and head, knocking him out cold and crashing into the ground.
Sora in the meantime landed back onto the ground safely while reversing out of his Valor Form, but still stood vigilant with his Kingdom Key in his tight grasp, just in case Vanitas was still unwilling to give up. To half of his relief, Vanitas, groaning a little, just sat up before standing up, brushing himself off.
"Heh. Not bad, for a kid." Vanitas admitted, chuckling. "You did a lot better in beating me the first time against me than Ventus did twelve years ago. I can see why the Keyblade chose you over Riku that day."
"You just don't get it." Sora shook his head, lowering his stance a little, but still kept firm. "It's the friendship I have in all of my friends in my heart that give me strength. Whether they're with me or not, our hearts are connected."
Vanitas rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Friendship this, friendship that. Yadda yadda." Before smirking, "But seriously, do you have what it takes to be able to defeat Chaos or Bhunivelze?"
"Maybe not." Sora admitted, before quickly adding, "But I'm not just gonna sit around and run away from either of them and watch them destroy everything. I'll probably end up dead either way, but I'm willing to at least try."
"...Spoken like a man." Vanitas snickered, before strangely sniffing the air a little, "...Am I imagining things, or do you smell smoke?"
Before Sora could answer that, while he had to admit that Vanitas was right...
"FIRE!"
"Whoa!" Sora jolted upright, eyes wide when the exclaimation was heard, looking around as he quickly realised that he was back in his tent, and through the material, he could see an orange glow while realising that he had just had a dream of fighting Vanitas. Did Vanitas really attempted to take control of his heart and body?
If that was the case, Sora then realised, to his horror, that the embodiment was getting stronger inside him. If he didn't do something soon...then Sora's screwed.
"Fire! Fire!" The same yell from the dream was heard again, making Sora realise that it was Milo who had been calling out which is what woke him up from the dream of the unfamiliar town and the fight.
In alarm and wondering what was going on, Sora immediately raced out of the tent, only to freeze in horror as most of the tents were really on fire and they were caused by...strange Fireflies? Whatever was happening, the fireflies were setting everyone on fire by a single touch. Where did they come from? Soon enough, everyone was jumping out of their tents and were all in different reactions due to this and Sora quickly hurried over to pull Kairi from her just starting to burn tent as she nearly slipped and fell.
"Kairi! Are you alright?" Sora asked, worriedly.
"Y-yeah. Thanks, Sora." Kairi nodded, shakily as she allowed him to drag her away from the burning wreckage before the two of them quickly hurried to join the rest of the worldly companions.
"Dance, water! Dance!" Myde called out as he summoned his Sitar and called out his Water Abilities to extinguish the fire as much as he could with the help of Aqua's magic and Skuld. Donald tried to use Blizzard, but he and Goofy were both slightly on fire themselves.
"Yeouch!" Goofy screamed comically.
"WAAK!" Donald screamed as his tail was on fire as well.
Fortunately, Xion used Blizzard to cool them off, and while made them chilly, at least it put out the fire.
"I have nothing to do with this!" Lea called out, holding out his hands while avoiding the fireflies that were causing the fire, but still thought that everyone would blame him due to being a Pyro. "I'm innocent!"
Just then, a semi-asleep and irritated Rourke emerged from his tent, calling out to Milo, "Thatch, go back to bed."
"Why not look for yourself, mate!" Jack shouted, trying to use both his Cutlass and his Keyblade to swipe away the fireflies, but the little buggers were too fast and were threatening to set him in fire, which he really didn't want.
Rourke's eyes then widened in utter dumbfoundment and disbelief when he saw that Milo and Jack were both right about everything being on fire. How in the world did this happen came into his mind before more safety measures quickly came.
"Get some more water on that fire!" Helga shouted to a random soldier.
"No time!" Rourke shouted while pointing at into the distance where a long natural bridge led into some shadow-filled caves. "Get us into those caves. C'mon! Move it, move it!"
Hurriedly everyone made for the vehicles and hurried inside. Jack and Myde both jumped into the van with Vinny and Sweet along with Aqua, Ven and Terra. Lea, Isa, Xion, Roxas and Skuld were in their own. Riku, Mickey, Donald and Goofy hurried into Commander Rourke's with Helga. Mole's driller took the lead as one by one everyone followed onto the stone bridge. Finally, Sora and Milo, with Milo's truck already gone, hurried over to another truck where both Kairi and Audrey were in the back off.
"Sora, Milo, jump!" Kairi screamed out.
"Right now!" Audrey added.
Both Sora and Milo leaped into the air at the same time and landed into the back of the other truck just as the truck behind them that couldn't make it suddenly exploded and pieces of machinery flew everywhere. But the insects were obviously not allowing anyone to leave that easily, as a couple of more trucks were set on fire, and to make things worse, the entire and strangely now empty stalactite fell from the ceiling and crashed and impaled the bridge which, by the force of it and the weight of all of the vehicles, the part of the bridge everyone had just escaped from began to crack and crumble and to everyone's horror, collasping behind them.
The weight of the drilling machine was pushing it back and forcing everything to slide back dangerously.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Mole cried out, panicking, futilessly trying to push the driller forward with the gears.
Soon everyone had to hold on tight to something as the bridge broke free. The whole thing descended straight down, taking all the remaining team's vehicles with it. The flames disappeared from view as the bridge fell.
When the bridge landed down below, Mole's drilling machine slide backwards. It did so with such haste, the machine shoved all the other vehicles downward. Soon, everyone had lost control of their trucks and were slamming, banging, and colliding with each other. The worldly travellers continued to hold on as the trucks they were all in slid around like a marble rolling freely down a ramp. All at once, the vehicles slid off what seemed to resemble a ski jump and vanished into a shadow pit as everyone yelled in alarm.
The sounds of crashing, crunching, and crushing filled the air. Then, everything went dark and silent.
In the mist of darkness, Lea gradually sat up, and rubbed the back of his head, winching as he felt a bit of a lump there when he hit the ground at the unexpected fall. All around him was complete darkness, and his first thought was that he died and gone right back into the Realm of Darkness. But he couldn't feel the intense darkness here, and the ground was gritty and dirty, and strangely somewhat soft.
Standing up slowly while winching again, Lea then summoned a small fire in his hand which lit up the...wherever he was, asking around, with concern, "Is anybody there? Rox? Xi? Isa? Anybody?"
To his relief, there were several groans filled the air, most of them familiar.
"Dang lightnin' bugs done bit me on my sit-upon! Someone's gonna have to get over here and suck out this poison. Now don't everybody jump up at once." Cookie's voice rose above everyone.
Lea couldn't help but snort in amusement at this comment. Trust Cookie to come up with something like that. He then dismissed the small flame when a bright light lit up the entire room, revealing that pretty much all of his friends in the worldly companion league and most of the crew were all alive, much to his relief. The light came from a headlamp from one of the team's vehicles. They were all standing up and recovering from the unexpected crash.
"Okay, can somebody please tell me how the heck those fireflies put literally everything on fire?" Myde groaned, rubbing his butt which was sore. "I thought it was just their name and they only glow at night."
"Apparently not those bloody insects." Jack grumbled, dusting himself off the dust that covered his leather coat.
"Is everybody alright?" Mickey asked, looking around.
Rourke, who had been the one to turn on the headlamp of the truck, called out to Audrey, "Audrey, give me a damage report."
"Not as bad as it could've been," Audrey announced to the commander, as she held out a flashlight which she had immediately looked around the area, seeing the digger next to her before continuing, "We totaled rigs two and seven, but the Digger looks like it'll still run. Lucky for us we landed in something soft."
"But where are we, though?" Skuld asked, glancing around the entire area.
"Pumice ash." Mole announced as he stood next to her. "We are sitting at the base of a dormant volcano." extending his goggle eyes to her, only for the female Keyblade wielder to shove them back in slight annoyance.
"Volcano!?" Donald exclaimed, quickly horrified, screaming as he then leaped into Goofy's arms, shaking.
"I don't think we're in that much of danger right now." Terra said, after he and Aqua figured that there was no heat or lava at the moment, but still, they knew that everyone had to be extra careful now, while Helga pulled out a pistol and pulled the trigger and a small ball of fire went sailing up, up, up.
"It just keeps going." Helga said.
"Maybe it's a way out." Roxas thought.
The ball of fire suddenly exploded when it hit the ceiling above them.
"Maybe not." Isa sighed.
"The magma has solidified in the bowels of the volcano! It's effectively blocking the exit!" Mole explained in amazement as he gazed at the distant ceiling in realization.
"That makes sense." Riku admitted, though he was also confused on another subject.
"Hold on. Back up." Sweet spoke up, before asking as he quickly became worried, "Are you saying this whole volcano can blow at any time?" which quickly made Roxas, Xion, Ven, Mickey, Donald and Goofy gulp worriedly and fearfully.
Fortunately, Mole quickly answered, "No, no, no, no. That would take an explosive force of great magnitude."
The sound of a spring popping caught the others' attention. There stood Vinny trying to assemble and fix a time bomb using a screwdriver. When he realised they were looking at him and also quickly caught on where they were, the demolition man muttered, "Maybe I should do this later, huh?"
"Well, I don't fancy in being stuck in a volcano and some idiot deciding to blow us up into smithereens, that's for sure." Myde muttered, glancing worriedly at the ground where lava could be just maybe a few inches below. Suddenly this entire scenario was almost exactly like the episode of Woody's Roundup that ended in a permament cliff-hanger.
"If we could blow the top off of that thing, we'd have a straight shot to the surface." Rourke said as he was gazing towards the top of the darkness-filled shaft, not paying attention to what the other two men were saying, before glancing at the group, asking, "Mr. Thatch, what do you think?"
There was no answer. "Mr. Thatch?" Rourke called out. "Thatch?"
"Hey, where are Sora and Kairi?" Goofy asked, looking around as everyone flipped on their flashlights and swung the beams around the cavern. There was no sign of the young linguist or the two other teenagers.
"Sora! Kairi!" Riku called out, worriedly.
"Oh no! I hope nothin' awful happened to them." Mickey gasped, gravely worried.
"But where could they be?" Xion asked.
"They gotta be here somewhere." Lea pointed out.
Isa sighed, "But the question is...where?"
Kairi felt her head throb as she was laying sideways against a rock the moment she hit it and lost consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and everything around her was blurry and spinning, making her slightly disorientated. As soon as her vision came to focus, she gasped in horror.
Hovering over her were a trio of of creatures with large, strange-looking faces. They didn't exactly resemble Heartless. In fact, the designs of their faces were exactly what she and Aqua had briefly saw earlier during the voyage. When she then saw human hands holding spears and human legs, Kairi realised that they must be people; natives wearing large masks.
Still, the Princess of Heart leaned back as far as she could, but felt trapped as she had no room to even summon her Keyblade, and was terrified.
"Sora? Riku? Milo? Anyone?" Kairi called out, fearfully, before crying out softly as she felt an intensed painful stinging on her upper left arm and grasped it with her right hand, immediately taking it away when she felt something wet and sticky on her hand. She gazed at it and realised that it was a small trace of blood, as she also then realised that there was a small cut on her upper arm close to her shoulder, and it was bleeding slowly.
As Kairi was really starting to panic, one of the people, which this one had a bluish mask, bend down to her and got closer, before lifting it's mask when it saw her. To Kairi's surprise, it was a young woman, possibly in her 20's, with white hair and dark skin. She also had a blue-colored tattoo that seemed to resemble teardrops on her left cheek. She was wearing a blue bikini top, aqua skirt with a pink stripe and gold outlines.
Who was this girl? Kairi then realised that the woman in front of her was staring at her in surprise, before the former leaned back a little when she reached out for her arm. She frowned for a moment before reaching for a perfectly-shaped crystal shard on a cord around her neck. She placed the crystal against the wound and then placed her hand over it. A faint glow came from the spot until she removed her hand.
To Kairi's amazement, the pain was gone and as she looked, the cut had instantly disappeared, as though it was never there. Then she realised something else; the healing magic she felt was warm and familiar...
"That was...Light." Kairi whispered, amazed. She gazed up at the woman again who smiled before replacing her mask.
"Kairi!" Sora's voice suddenly called out.
Kairi and the strange natives looked to the left and saw Sora and Milo hurrying over before stopping, the spiky-haired teen then yelling at the natives, "Hey, leave her alone!"
"Wait, wait!" Kairi quickly said to Sora, "They healed the cut on my arm."
"Huh?" Sora blinked, confused. Milo looked confused as well as amazed at these people.
But before anyone else could say anything, a loud rumbling sound filled the cavern. The woman and the other two with her fled down the tunnel to the right.
"Wait!" Kairi called out to the people, chasing after them, with Sora and Milo just one second behind, wondering what was in the teenage girl's mind. The trio clambered up a rocky slope after the three individuals.
"Kairi! Wait!" Sora cried out.
"Where are you going? Come back!" Milo cried out.
When the three creatures jumped through a gap in the wall, Kairi, Sora and Milo climbed through one-by-one. Upon reaching the other side, the trio found themselves standing on a rocky cliff on the edge of an enormous underground chamber. The three creatures were nowhere to be found.
"Wait, please!" Kairi called out, her voice echoing. "Tell me who you are!"
Sora scanned his eyes around the immediate area. To his and Kairi's surprise, the space above the cavern was full of puffy, white clouds. In the distance was a gigantic plateau covered by water. Waterfalls ran off the edge of the landmass. The peak of what seemed to be some kind of mountain stuck out in the middle of the plateau. In the distance, they and Milo saw the distant ruins of an ancient city. The architecture seemed to resemble the design of the coliseum from Olympus Coliseum.
A deafening noise came from behind as Mole's drilling machine widening the gap in the rock wall behind the trio. Riku, who was just as relieved to see the three of them safe and alive, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Ven, Skuld, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Myde, Jack, Audrey, Vinny, Mole, Dr. Sweet, Ms. Packard, Cookie, Helga and Rourke all came through along side it, before they all saw what Sora, Kairi and Milo were looking at, and were completely speechless.
"My god..." Jack muttered, stunned.
"Oh my gosh...!" Mickey said, mouth slightly open in amazement.
"Sweet mother of Jefferson Davis!" Cookie exclaimed.
"This must be Atlantis." Aqua mumured.
"Wow!" Ven gapped.
Audrey smiled. "It's beautiful!"
"It's more beautiful than I thought." Skuld admitted, and Xion nodded in agreement.
Sweet smiled and placed his hand onto Milo's shoulder. "Milo, I gotta hand it to you. You really came through."
"Man, I wish I can take a photo of this cool place!" Myde said with a smile.
All of the sudden, without warning, a number of creatures appeared behind the team. The group spun around and to their alarm, the creatures donned masks and were pointing spears at them.
"Uh, maybe not." Myde quickly added, nervously as he held up his hands in quick surrender. Donald and Goofy both did the same.
"Holy cats!" Rourke exclaimed, admittedly shocked, reaching out for his gun, "Who're these guys?"
"Hang on a minute." Jack muttered, glancing back and forth at least once between the creatures and Atlantis in the distance, before gazing back at the donned masked people and realised, "These are natives of the city."
"Y-you're right! They gotta be Atlantians!" Milo agreed.
"What? That's impossible!" Helga protested, puzzled.
"I seen this back in the Dakota," Cookie said, worriedly. "They can smell fear just by looking at you, so keep quiet."
Donald and Goofy both gulped nervously, while Mickey shivered scaredly, and Sora and Riku both had Kairi stand behind them to try and protect her. Despite what Kairi had told him and Milo a short time ago, Sora wasn't taking any chances. One of the creatures approached a few feet, before speaking to the group in an unfamiliar voice. Most of them couldn't figure out what they were saying, as it sounded like strange gibberish.
"I think she's talkin' to you, Milo." Goofy whispered.
"She?" Myde asked, incrediously.
"Does sound like a girl." Lea whispered so softly that one would think that the couldn't hear him.
The creature spoke again. Milo started to talk back to it, but no one else had any clue what he was saying. Somehow, he must have been understood by the creature as it removed its mask to reveal the same young woman that healed Kairi's wound. The Princess of Heart could also tell the woman had blue eyes, brown eyebrows, small gold triangular earrings, a gold band on her upper left arm, and a couple gold anklets on her right ankle.
Milo and the woman continued to converse in what sounded like a number of different languages, and some that surprisingly Jack managed to recongise.
"Ita, sum amice viator." Milo said in another language.
"Dices linguam Romae." The girl spoke, this time im Roman, which Jack caught on.
"Parlez-vous francais?" Milo asked, this time in French.
"Oui, monsieur!" The girl said, also in French, which Sora, Roxas, Xion, Donald and Goofy recongised due to Lumière speaking with a French Accent, and of course Jack recongised due to his days of sailing in his world.
"They speak my language!" Mole said excitedly when he heard this, strolling up and gestured at the young lady, "Pardon, mademoiselle? Ah, voulez-vous..."
But when he whispered something in her ear, a second later she punched him in the face and knocked him onto the ground. Whatever he said disgusted her.
Lea bursted out laughing when he saw this, "Good shot!" he praised, and Donald bursted into hysterical laughter while holding his stomach.
Xion, Skuld and Aqua giggled while Mole glared up at them in annoyance. Served him right!
"I wouldn't wanna get on that girl's bad side." Myde shuddered, and Jack nodded in agreement.
"Oh! I like her!" Sweet clapped away.
"'Bout time someone hit him. I'm just sorry it wasn't me." Audrey approved.
The other individuals removed their masks and revealed themselves to be kind, friendly people. They started speaking to everyone else in a variety of different languages.
"Wow. How do these people know so many languages?" Mickey asked to Milo.
"Their language must be based on a root dialect. It's just like the Tower of Babel." Milo explained to the young king.
Jack somehow doubted that, "Or maybe they learned it from other explorers before us in their spare them." He pointed out, which to him made more sense, before he winched in pain when Isa pulled at his right ear.
"Just don't go and say something stupid in Cannibal language or any other language if you want to live." Isa said with a knowing smirk.
"If that were either the case, you would think they'd speak English too, right?" Lea asked, folding his arms in thought.
"Well, only one way to find out." Rourke said to the redhead, before speaking out for everyone to hear, which given his speech, most of the worldly travellers became even more suspicious about the man but didn't show it on their expressions, "We are explorers from the surface world. We come in peace." he said with a friendly grin.
"Welcome to the city of Atlantis." The young woman replied, gesturing at the ruins. She then pulled at Milo's arm and said, "Come! You must speak with my father now."
Rourke gave some last minute instructions to some of the soldiers before joining everyone else in two trucks that had been driven to the cliff behind Mole's drilling machine. It wasn't long before the young woman and the other Atlantians were escorting the caravan across a long, wooden bridge and straight to the ruined city. Terra, Ven, Skuld, Jack, Myde, Donald, Goofy, Audrey, Sweet and Isa were in the truck with Vinny and Mole. Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Riku, Aqua, Lea, Roxas, Xion, Milo, Helga and Rourke were in another.
As they drove into the ruins, Sora and the other seven worldly travellers with him smirked when they noticed Milo explaining how unique the Atlantian language was in comparison to all the other languages and smiled. It had been the linguist who brought all of them and everyone else here to Atlantis and had known it's exact location.
"Never thought we'd make it this far a little while back." Lea commented.
"Well, I knew we'd make it. I'm so excited to explore the city!" Xion said happily.
Roxas, Sora, Kairi, Mickey and even Riku nodded in agreement, while Aqua giggled, before she caught on what Helga and Rourke were saying, and listened in carefully, glancing at the two who weren't aware of the blue-haired young woman listening in.
"Someone's having a good time." Helga was saying to Rourke about Milo.
"Like a kid at Christmas." Rourke joked.
The grin faded from Helga's face and it was replaced by a look of concern and a hint of uncertainty, "Commander, there were not supposed to be people down here. This changes everything."
"This changes nothing." Rourke replied as his expression turned into a frown.
The sudden wave of anxiety and suspicion flushed into Aqua's body, and now only grew worse. The same feeling she felt back when they first met the two before boarding the Ulysses submarine, which meant that they were hiding something. She would have to inform this to her friends later to avoid in getting caught by Rourke and Helga.
For now, she focused on the scenery, unaware that Lea caught on her worried expression, and he too frowned in concern. Whatever she heard from Helga and Rourke, he was beginning to think along the same lines as Aqua.
When the carvans came to a stop at the base of the mountain which was actually a pyramid, the young woman led Milo, Rourke, Helga, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mickey and Aqua who voulenteered to go with, up the long flight of stairs and to a stone doorway. A pair of guards opened the door for them, and inside was a large pool of water laid at the center of the room with a spiral of stones in the middle. The remains of a giant statue were located on the far side. Situated before the ruins was a colorful canopy providing shade for a stone throne. A pile of various things was to the left of the throne.
Seated in the throne was an elderly man who seemed to be well over a thousand years old. He was half-bald, had a tattooed face, blind eyes, tanned skin, and long white hair and beard. He was wearing a long, blue robe and holding a long, wooden walking stick.
To show their respect, Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Riku and Aqua bend low to their knees with their heads down, bowing to the elderly man before them as they immediately knew was the king of Atlantis, which quickly made them and Milo who copied the young woman who also showed her respects, that the young woman herself was the Princess.
"Greetings, Your Highness. I have brought the visitors." The young woman spoke to the elder man in Atlantian, though only Milo managed to catch on what she was saying, while everyone else had no idea.
"You know the law, Kida. No outsiders may see the city and live." The elder man spoke in Atlantian, and he didn't seem all that happy with the 'visitors'.
"Father." The young woman, named Kida, though no one else noticed this, began to explain. "These people may be able to help us."
"We do not need their help." The King said.
"But father..."
"That is enough. We will discuss this later."
"He doesn't seem happy to see us." Sora whispered to Riku, Mickey, Kairi and Aqua who, along with Milo, all nodded in sad agreement.
"Maybe it's because he's worried that we could do somethin' wrong to the kingdom, and I really don't blame him for that." Mickey whispered. Being a King himself, he knew the responsibilities to a kingdom, and right now he wished he was home to protect Minnie and everyone else in their world.
Too bad Rourke hadn't noticed and thought that they were welcomed, so he spoke with respect and in a friendly tone, "Your Majesty, on behalf of my crew, may I saw it is an honor to be welcomed into your city."
"Uh, excuse me? Commander?" Milo tried to say, but was ignored.
"You presume much to think you are welcome here." The Atlantian King shook his head.
"Sir, we have come a long way looking for-"
"I know what you seek, and you will not find it here." The king interrupted Rourke, as the Princess's head lowered in sadness. "Your journey has been in vain."
"But we are peaceful explorers. Men of science." Rourke reassured.
The king chuckled a little. He gazed at the gun in the commander's side-pocket. "And yet, you bring weapons."
'He has a point.' Riku thought in agreement with the Atlantian King. Plus, like his worldly companions, the silver-haired teen didn't trust Rourke or Helga even the slightest.
Suddenly he, Mickey, Sora, Kairi and Aqua felt their right hands tingle slightly before those feelings faded, which meant that, to the five Keyblade wielder's alarm, their Keyblades nearly summoned themselves before calming down. What just happened?
"Our 'weapons' allow us to remove certain obstacles we may encounter." Rourke shook his head to the elderly man.
"Some obstacles cannot be removed with a mere show of force." The Atlantian King said, before standing up as he glared at Rourke and the others, "Return to your people. You must leave Atlantis, at once."
Before Rourke could say anything further, Aqua immediately stood up and placed a hand onto his shoulder.
"Sir, you should listen to him and obey his command. We don't want to anger him any further." Aqua told him wisely, holding back her suspicion of the man she was holding back herself.
Milo stood up and said in agreement, "Aqua's right, sir. You better do as he says."
As Sora, Kairi, Riku and Mickey stood up hesitatedly when Rourke paused, they were worried that the man was about to make the wrong decision and none of them or Aqua wanted to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives or worse, executed.
"May I respectfully request that we stay one night, sir? That would give us time to rest, resupply, and be ready to travel by morning." Rourke spoke once more, much to the five Keyblade wielders and Milo's shock.
To their surprise and slight relief, the Atlantian King snorted his disapproval, but accepted the request, "Very well. One night. That is all."
"Well, thank you, your majesty." Rourke politely bowed with the others.
As the group turned and began to leave, Sora, Kairi and Milo glanced back. The princess was watching them leave, a look of disappointment evident on her face. It almost seemed like she was about to shed lots of tears. The guards shut the doorway behind the others as soon as the group went through the doorway.
Kida felt her heart sink as she watched them leave. It discouraged her that her father, the king, had refused to even ask for their help to save Atlantis from being destroyed, especially by darkness.
"Your heart has softened, Kida." The Atlantian King mumured as he took a seat once more. "A thousand years ago, you would have slain them upon sight."
"A thousand years ago, the streets were lit!" Kida spun around after rolling her eyes, approaching her father, "There were no strange black monsters roaming and our people did not have to scavenge for food on the edge of a crumbling city!"
"The people are content," Her father replied.
"They do not know any better!" Kida almost yelled, but held it back. "We were once a great people, now we live in ruins!"
As she was nursing her father with a wet cloth of cold water to bring down the fever as the King was showing signs of weakening due to his age, "The kings of our past
would weep if they could see how far we have fallen."
"Kida..." The king scolded.
"If these outsiders can unlock the secrets of our past...perhaps we can save our future, and the light of our world." Kida continued, desperately trying to get her father to understand.
Her father shook his head, saying, "What they have to teach us, we have already learned."
"Our way of life is dying!" Kida's tears were now starting to show.
"Our way of life is preserved." The king countered, taking hold of his daughter's hands into his, saying once more, "Kida, when you take the throne, you will understand."
As much as she loved her father, Kida knew that he was wrong. She thought of the outsiders, especially the red-haired girl who like her, somehow had a warm light in her heart, which made her very special. If her father won't do anything, then Kida herself would.
She would speak to the young girl, the two young men, and even the small and kind mouse who also had a nobleness, perhaps even being a king himself, but unlike the Atlantian king, the Mouse was good, kind and very understanding.
Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Aqua, Milo, Rourke and Helga met up with the other crew members outside the palace doorway, while the guards had returned to their original posts.
"So, how'd it go?" Lea asked, shrugging.
"Well, not too bad, I guess." Mickey said, shrugging in return.
"Like how?" Sweet asked.
"Well, the King and his daughter don't exactly see eye to eye. She seems to like us okay, but the King...I don't know, I think he's hiding somethin'." Milo explained.
"I don't think so." Kairi disagreed, "Maybe it's because he doesn't like outsiders."
"I can't blame him for that if that's the case." Aqua nodded in agreement. "It's like Mickey said, the king could be worried about us harming the city."
"Being superstitious, that would make sense. As I know in places I visited, some villages and cities and kingdoms and whatnot always had a mistrust of the outside world and those who come from the outside world." Jack said, in agreement, in very Jack Sparrow like.
When everyone just gave him questioning looks, the pirate continued, "So how can we know that what Mickey and Kairi said would not be the case, if the king himself doesn't even want us here?"
"So...he wants to kick us out because he thinks were all bad guys." Myde theoried.
"...You're not making any sense at all." Jack grumbled to the younger man.
"And you are?" Isa asked, skeptically.
"I think I get what Jack's saying. If the king is worried that people outside of Atlantis would know more about this place, then things might go wrong." Roxas said, thoughtfully.
"Precisly!" Jack praised to the former Nobody.
Rourke shrugged, "Well, either way, I want to know what's goin' on."
"Someone needs to talk to that girl." Helga suggested with a smirk.
"I think so...but who?" Sora asked, crossing his arms.
"I will go!" Mole spoke up.
"Someone who already has her interest." Myde suggested.
"I will give my trust!" Mole continued.
"Someone with good people's skill." Vinny added.
"I will do it!" Mole continued.
"Someone who won't make her angry." Lea nodded.
"I will cheer her up!" Mole continued.
"Someone who won't scare her away." Sweet said, thoughtfully.
"I voulenteer!" Mole continued.
"Someone who can speak the same language." Donald concluded.
"For the good of the mission, I will go!" Mole saluted.
Everyone had all pointly ignored Mole and instead Rourke said to the unaware Milo, "Good man, Thatch. Thanks for volunteering."
"Wait, what?" Milo asked, shocked, eyes wide.
Sora and Kairi both glanced at each other, before the latter said, "I want to talk to her to. I still have to thank her for helping me earlier."
"I'll go with you and Milo." Sora voulenteered.
"I'll go too. I kinda wanna help out since I gotta a feelin' the girl would want our help." Mickey concluded.
Mole was utterly devastated that he wasn't picked or even acknowlaged, before bursting into tears dramatically, flying out of his eyes like water-works or rain. The rest of the worldly travellers shook their heads, except Goofy who pulled out a hanky to the digger who cried his eyes into it.
"Aw, there, there, Mole." Goofy said comfortingly. "At least I heard ya' voulenteer."
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a drama queen of a digger." Isa announced sarcastically. Riku, Terra, Lea, Roxas, and Ven snorted in amusement at this comment.
After the rest of the worldly travellers and the crew strolled off, Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo turned their eyes toward the entrance to the Atlantian throne room. They ducked behind a pillar as the doors open. Peering from around the column, they saw the princess strolling out.
Nodding, Milo turned to the other three, "Okay, this is what we're gonna do. We're not going to take 'no' for an answer."
"What are you going to say to her?" Mickey asked, curiously.
"This is what I'm gonna say." Milo began, "'Look, I have some questions for you, and I am not leaving the city until they're answered'."
"Sounds good to me." Sora nodded.
"It might be harsh, but I think we can manage." Kairi agreed.
But as she, Sora, Mickey and Milo peered around the column, Kida wasn't there. The four of them searched around with their eyes, but there was no sign of her...until suddenly a hand grabbed Milo from behind. Sora, Kairi and Mickey spun around to see the princess had snuck up on them and grabbed the young linguist by surprise as she gazed at all four of them.
"I have some questions for you, and none of you are leaving the city until they are answered." The princess told them.
"Uh, okay." Sora muttered, only for the young woman to shush him while releasing Milo.
"Come with me." She instructed, taking the lead.
Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo shrugged before following the Princess around a corner leading away from the throne room entranceway and along the side of the gigantic pyramid. They passed by a few waterfalls. Beyond there, the crawl space ended and the group clambered down a short wall of stone to the floor.
Upon getting his feet down on the ground, Sora gazed up and saw the ceiling of the room they were in was a cracked, peaked roof with a few gaping holes on one side. A pile of damaged stone blocks laid below indicating where they'd come from. The scent of warm, humid air was all around. A few distant bird calls could be heard in the distance. All around the room various plants and long vines could be seen.
The others also followed as the Princess stood proudly in the chamber with a friendly smile. "There is so much to ask about your world."
She spun around to the four of them and asked, "You are scholars. Are you not?" before gesturing at Milo, "Judging from your diminished physique and very large forehead, you are suited for nothing else."
"Well, uh..." Mickey began, hesitatedly.
"When did the floodwaters recede? What does the outside world look like? What kind of culture do you come from?" The princess continued.
"Whoa, whoa. One question at a time." Sora shook his hands.
"W-Wait a minute. The three of us have questions for you too." Milo said.
"I know. How 'bout we take turns in asking and answering questions." Mickey suggested, "Ya' know, you ask first and we answer, and then we ask and you answer."
The Princess nodded simply, "Very well. What is your first question?"
"Um, I have one." Kairi began, before asking, "How did this entire place end up here underground?"
The Atlantian Princess sighed deeply, before explaining "It is the said that the gods became jealous of Atlantis. They sent a great cataclysm and banished us here."
Sora, Kairi and Mickey glanced at each other, shocked and confused. Was it because Zeus was jealous? No, that didn't make any sense. He wouldn't have done something like this. Maybe it was Bhunivelze before he was sent into a deep sleep. Could this world be connected to the Unseen Realm.
The Princess then continued, "All I can remember is the sky going dark, people shouting and running. Then, a bright Light—like a star—floating above the city. My father said it called my mother to it. I never saw her again."
Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo were shocked and saddened to hear this. The Princess lost her mother and never got her back, especially since her childhood. All of them knew that the worst thing of losing someone is never getting them back.
"Aw, gee. That's terrible." Mickey said, knowing the feeling too well. Memories of the sacrifice of Ansem the Wise, and the lingering fear of never seeing Master Yen Sid ever again. "I know how you feel."
"Me too." Sora remarked.
"So do I. I lost my parents and grandmother when I was a little girl too." Kairi added, feeling tears form in her eyes, feeling sorry for her fellow princess.
"I know how you feel too. Cause if it's any consolation, I lost my—" Milo began, before suddenly realising what else the princess said and became dumbfounded, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute! Whoa, back up! What are you telling us? You remember because you were there? No, that...that's impossible, because that would make you, you know, eighty-five… eighty-eight hundred years old!"
Sora, Kairi and Mickey stared at the young woman in total disbelief. Was Milo saying the princess was well over two thousand years old? How could anyone live that long? It was starting to sound like Ven, Skuld, Ephemer, Aced, and this Lauriam, only without the princess having been in the Realm of Darkness where time doesn't exist.
"Yes?" The Princess asked with a shrug, as though not getting what the problem is.
As everyone turned to the linguist, Milo said shyly, "Well, uh… hey, looking good." which made Kairi giggle.
"You have a question for me?" Milo asked.
"Yes," The princess confirmed with a nod. "How is it you found your way to this place?"
Milo reached into his brown shoulder bag and pulled out the Shepherd's Journal for the woman to see, "Well, I'll tell you. It wasn't easy. If it weren't for this book, we never would've made it."
"The only one who can read it out of all of us is Milo. The three of us don't have a clue what it even says." Sora admitted sheepishly as the Princess took the book from Milo and flipped through the pages.
"You mean...he can understand this?" The Princess asked, with a tone of disbelief."Yes," Milo acknowledged. "I'm a linguist. That's what I do — that's my job."
The young woman was unconvinced. She held the open booklet before the young linguist's eyes. "This — right here. You can read this?"
"Yes," Milo replied. "I can read Atlantian—Just like you."
The princess turned away and continued to stare at the pages as though they were written in an unknown language. Her puzzled expression grabbed the attention of Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo. "You can't," Milo realized. "Can you?"
"No one can," The young woman answered. "Such knowledge has been lost to us since the time of the Mehbelmok."
"The Mebe-what?" Sora asked, puzzled at the new word.
"The Great Flood." Milo translated.
"Say uh, I got've a question too." Mickey spoke up to the Princess. "Have you seen anything very unsual recently? Like say...monsters?"
The princess's eyes widened, "Yes! Shady black creatures. They've been attacking the edge of our city for a few years now!" before asking, "Do you know what they are?"
"They're called the Heartless, and they're very dangerous." Mickey nodded, explaining, "They've been attacking other places in the surface too."
"That reminds me. Before the rest of us, like you know, the four of us and the others we came with, have you seen any other people? A guy in a bear mask or another guy with pink hair?" Sora asked this time.
The princess thought deeply, before shaking her head, "No. Only you and your allies." she then said, "I want to show the four of you something."
Once again, she took the lead, and Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo followed her once more to another place.
A/N: I'll update again hopefully on Monday or Tuesday at the latest and sorry that this chapter seemed shorter. It's too bad Leonard Nimoy passed away, other wise if KH3 had Atlantis and he'd been up to it, he'd voice both Master Xehanort and reprise his role as the Atlantian King for the real game.
The Vanitas dream fight makes up for the no boss battle just outside of Atlantis, I hope. See you in the next chapter! Meanwhile, I'm going to bed and prepare myself for a day out on my Birthday tomorrow.
See you real soon!