Author's Note: While I had a great day on my birthday, my heart goes out to the people of Texas that are struggling with the floods and I wish they will be able to rebuild their lives and recover soon.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH22: The Heart of Atlantis.
It wasn't that far that Kida wanted to show them something. In fact, it was just only a few feet away from where they all had the conversation. To Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo, it looked like a large, fish-like object made out of metal which also had some octagon-shaped panel. If Terra had been here, he would've thought it looked familiar to his Keyblade glider.
"Wow...It kinda looks like a vehicle." Mickey concluded, examining the object. Sora and Milo both knelt down to examinie it next to him.
"It looks like can fly to me." Kairi thought, bending to look at it more closely on the other side.
Kida sighed as she paced back and forth, "Yes. But no matter what I tried, it will not respond."
"Maybe you made a bit of a mistake?" Sora shrugged.
Mickey examined the panel before noticing familiar gibberish writting and frowned, "Hmmm...Well, it has instructions, but it's too bad I can't read Atlantian." before gazing at the linguist, "Say, Milo. Maybe you c-"
"Way ahead of you." Milo said as he proceeded to glance over the vehicle, and then pointed his right index finger at it and started to read. "Okay, 'Place crystal into slot...'"
"Yes, yes! I have done that!" Kida grumbled.
"'Gently place your hand on the inscription pad...'"
"Yes."
"Okay. Did you turn the crystal one quarter-turn back... "
"Yes, yes!"
"…While your hand was on the inscription pad?"
"Ye—" Kida paused in her mid response, before realising that the very thought Milo had mentioned had slipped from her mind, and instead muttered in surprise, "...No."
Milo shook his head and smiled. "Ah, well, see, there's your problem right there. That's an easy thing to miss. You know, you deserve credit for even...for even gettin' this far."
The princess crossed her arms while Kairi placed her hands on her hips and both young women stared at the linguist. Sora and Mickey both glanced at each other and shrugged with knowing and sheepish smiles.
"...Okay, give it a try." Milo said, sheepishly.
Kida nodded slightly before strolling up to the vehicle. She placed her crystal into the slot and put her hand onto the panel. After turning the crystal like Milo had instructed, the vehicle's design became a light-blue color. The vehicle started to rise into the air. All five of them stepped back surprised, staring in awe.
"Whoa!" Sora gapped.
"That's amazing!" Kairi marveled in awe.
"Yeah, you got that right." Milo said, equally amazed.
The group gathered around the floating vehicle, as Milo declared, "This is great! With this thing, we can see the whole city in no time at all!"
Mickey, with his curiousity getting the better of him, climbed up onto the vehicle to get to it's current height before saying aloud, "Gosh, I wonder how fast it goes?"
But as the king reached out and pressed his finger on the panel, the vehicle zoomed way, with Mickey on it.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! WHOA!" Mickey screamed out as he hanged onto the vehicle for dear life while the said flying object bounced off a nearby wall, then was sent towards the ceiling, bounced off, bounced off a nearby corner, and then headed straight for the others and while he knew that they would duck, he also realised that it would also crash right into the wall behind them.
Apparently, Sora saw this as well.
"Jump, Your Majesty!" Sora called out.
Trusting Sora, Mickey immediately did jump as it almost hit the group and while Kairi, Kida and Milo ducked, Sora jumped to the right and held out his arms and caught the Mouse King in his arms, but the force of it sent the teenager falling to the ground while the vehicle came to a sudden stop when it slammed into the floor a few feet in front of their eyes. The impact left a small crater.
"Oops." Mickey chuckled, nervously as he realised he made a bit of mistake as the eyes of the others were on him. "Guess I shoud'a been more careful. Sorry 'bout that."
"Remind me to be gentle with those things." Sora requested with a grin, quickly adding, "And tell Goofy to be careful too."
Five minutes later, the group was climbing the side of a nearby tower close to the Atlantian palace, with Kida having taken the lead. Milo was directly behind her, and was in front of Sora who was helping and supporting Kairi to his right, and Mickey was to his left. The higher they got, the more the cool wind was gusting around them.
"By the way, we were never properly introduced." Milo called up to Kida, "My name's Milo."
"I'm Sora." Sora called up next.
"And I'm Mickey." Mickey added.
"My name's Kairi." Kairi said, while mentally thankful that Sora was there to support her, and had to fight the blush that was forming on her face when Sora's arm was around her back to keep her from falling.
"My name is Kidagakash." Kida looked down with a smile.
Sora, Milo, Kairi and Mickey had a bit of trouble pronouncing Kida's full name before Mickey called up, "Uh...Do'ya have a shorter name?"
Kida giggled, "Kida."
The others acknowlaged this and can easily remember it as they all made it to the top of the tower, standing, their eyes scanning around. The view was amazing and beautiful as they could see the entire city from where they were. In the distance, clouds were suspended beyond the plateau. Various other towers and ruined buildings were positioned throughout the city. Plants of various forms were growing all around.
"It's beautiful." Kairi said, smiling warmly.
"Aw, I wish I could show Minnie this place." Mickey said, somewhat emotionally.
As Milo glanced around, he was showing signs of tears which Sora and Kida both noticed.
"What is wrong?" Kida asked, slightly concerned.
"Oh, it's nothing," Milo hastily said. He wiped his eyeglasses on his sweater. "I just..got something in my eye."
"You sure about that?" Sora asked, doubtful.
Milo nodded, before admitting, somewhat emotionally, "You know, my grandpa used to tell me stories about this place as far back as I can remember. I just wish he could be standing here with me."
"Your grandpa is always with you. In your heart." Sora said, pointing at the linguist's chest. Milo placed his right hand upon the left side of his chest before smiling at the spiky-brown haired teen who smiled in return. Kairi, Mickey and Kida smiled when they saw this.
"Ya'know, Kida. It's the same thing with your mother too. Even though she isn't here, she's always been with you in your heart." Mickey told the Atlantian Princess with a warm smile.
Kida copied what Milo did and in so smiled at the small king in return. Kairi smiled happily at all four of them before she and her friends gazed out at the city once more.
Kida took Milo, Sora, Kairi and Mickey on a tour around the city and the five of them were now at the docks on the edge of the city, where several men were on slits fishing out purple lobsters from the water.
Though they were a bit delayed when more Heartless appeared which Sora, Mickey, Kairi and even Kida took care off with surprisingly good teamwork.
Sora tossed his Keyblade looked a boomarang that knocked out and destroyed three Heartless with this before slashing at another one and finished it off. Kairi spun around, thrusting her Keyblade upward that finished off a Fish-like Heartless that was smiliar to the ones in Atlantica. Mickey defeated four Heartless with his air-somursaults. Kida jumped into the air and dove her spear into three of the flying Heartless, sending them back into darkness where they disappeared.
"You were amazing, Kida!" Kairi remarked once all of the Heartless were eliminated.
"Thank you, Kairi. You, Sora and Mickey are impressive too." Kida replied, making the Princess of Heart, Mickey and Sora blush a little at the compliment.
"So, tell me about more of your companions. The two blond-haired boys, are they brothers?"
"Ven and Roxas?" Sora asked, blinking, before anxiously said, "Well...no. They're not even related. It is weird for them to look like one another and even I kinda look like them, except for my hair, but, yeah, some people look exactly the same."
"You mean your people?" Kida asked.
"Yeah. Even Lea, the red-haired guy, looks just like another guy we met recently." Sora explained, chuckling as he shook his head at that memory, "We were all pretty much shocked when we found that out."
"I think Lea was the most shocked outta all of us." Mickey commented, "'Cuz' I was there when we first met Reno."
"Is this Reno the man who resembles to your friend, Lea?" Kida quired. Sora, Kairi and Mickey nodded to confirm it. Kida then looked at Milo and asked, "And your physician. He is called 'Cookie'?"
"No, that's Sweet." Milo replied.
Kinda seemed perplexed. "What is?"
"The doctor. He's Sweet."
"Oh! He is kindly."
"No, no, no. That's his name."
"His name is 'Kindly'?"
"No, Sweet. B-but he's kindly, too."
"So… all of your doctors are sweet and kindly?"
"No," Milo corrected. "W-well, I'm sure some are — ours is, but that's not a requirement. You're missing the point."
Kida threw her hands into the air. "You are confusing me."
As the group walked by the made-shift buildings and shops and ectera, the rest of the worldly travellers and some of the group from the expedition were touring the city themselves. Lea, Roxas, Xion, Audrey and Cookie found themselves between the shops of different kinds of colourful material and body painters of blue tattoos every Atlantian apparently have on their bodies as part of the Atlantian culture.
"These materials are so pretty. I can hardly know which one is my favourite." Xion said enthusiastically.
"I'll say. This place is amazing." Lea nodded in agreement.
"Wow! Look at all of these tattoos." Audrey said behind the Sea-Salt Trio who turned around and also noticed the body paint.
"They look so cool." Roxas remarked.
Cookie on the other hand, scoffed, "Shoot. That ain't nothin'. Look here what I got."
He pulled up his shirt to reveal a large tattoo of the world map of the surface world of this world, which somewhat grossed out the four younger people, "Watch me make Rhode Island dance. Go on, baby, dance. Dance."
To Lea, Roxas, Xion and Audrey's disgust, Cookie wriggled his stomach which bounched flop up and down, in and out and it made disgusting sloshing noise as the lower part of 'Rhode Island' was 'dancing'. The faces of the four of them turned green that they all fought the urge to vomit.
Kida by then had lead Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo towards a nearby building that had been built on a large rock just off the shoreline. A series of rope bridges led to and from the building. As they approached, they noticed Riku, Donald, Goofy, Isa, Myde, Jack, Ven, Aqua, Terra, and even Lea, Xion, Roxas, Skuld, Audrey, Packard, Sweet, Mole, Vinny and Sweet all approaching the building as well.
The restaurant was crowded as everyone sat on comfy cushions. It wasn't too crowded but still crowded enough. It was a different kind of food that the travellers were not used to, but at least it smlled good. Much better than Cookie's Beacon Grease and Mudka's cooked beetles, that's for sure.
Sora, Kairi and Mickey all had salads with special kinds of pasta and orangey mashed food with strange and new utensils. Despite the weirdness, the food actually tasted good.
"Cookies are sweet, but yours is not. Sweet is kindly, but that is not his name. Audrey is sweet, but she is not your doctor." Kida was saying thoughtfully to Milo, before asking with uncertainty, "...And the little digging animal called Mole...He's your pet?"
"Close enough." Milo replied after swallowing his portion of food.
The princess then turned her attention to the three worldly travellers and continued, "Riku is the kind young man and you two grew up with him on these islands that you three live, Roxas and Ven look exactly the same, but they are not related, Xion is sweet and kindly, Isa is stern but kind as well, Lea is caring, like he treats Roxas and Xion like his own family, Aqua is sweet and has a mother-nature in her, Terra is strong and kindly, Myde is strange but has funniess in him..."
Again she paused, and then asked to Sora, "And that man with a little box called Jack Sparrow. He was a bird?"
"Close enough." Sora parroted Milo in words.
Nearby, Goofy and Mole were chowing down on their food in their bowls, but the same wouldn't be said for the others. Vinny, Myde, Jack, Isa and Donald picked up small, green, wriggly insect-like things that were alive with multiple googly eyes. The five of them stared at the things in their hands with slightly horrified wide-eyed expressions.
"Don't forget to eat the head," Sweet informed them as he willingly and happily chomped off the head of the same thing, sucking it clean from it's now empty shell. "That's where all the nutrients are."
"...I'm gonna starve at this rate." Myde whispered as he carefully put his 'food' back into the bowl, feeling green in the face.
"Me too." Donald agreed.
They, Jack, Isa, Vinny and Sweet all then shrank back in disturbed disgust when Mole swallowed his food and belched loudly. It was even more disturbing that the force of it made his goggles do side-ways in opposite directions of each other briefly. Only Goofy didn't notice as he happily finished off his food too.
That did it for Myde. The young man immediately covered his mouth with his hand and stood up quickly before running out of the resturant, catching the eyes of everyone who noticed the young man run out of the door to find a place to puke his contents out. Donald in the meantime, fainted a second later.
"You okay there, Donald?" Goofy asked, when he noticed this.
After a slight eerie moment of silence, Vinny glanced at Isa who pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation while closing his eyes, groaning. The demolition man then leaned to the side to Jack and whispered, "That mullet-head kid's a whimp and gets on Isa's nerves, eh?"
"You've no idea." Jack sighed while shaking his head, in a a manner of a tired parent, still staring at where Myde had speed off to.
Myde moaned pitifully as he at last managed to calm himself down from his little episode. That was the second time he had to do that under the shade of a month. What was it with some worlds having a crazy desire to cook strange insects or slop and then eat them?
Finally after five minutes, which felt more like five hours, Myde shakily stood up, wrapping his arms around his stomach protectively, still moaning.
"I wanna go to bed." Myde groaned.
Just then, he felt something grab him on the arm from his left and pulled him into the bushes and just as Myde let out an alarmed cry, a hand was roughly clampsed around his mouth that muffled his scream while his left arm was pulled to his back and felt a tight iron grip on his wrist. The young man tried to pull himself free as his right hand struggled to pull whoever's hand off his face.
"Sorry, kid. But you're not going to sleep anytime soon." An awfully familiar voice sneered cruely in a whisper, lips barely touching his earknob.
Myde's eyes widened in shock, as he recongised the voice, but didn't want to believe it. Instead, he continued to muffle his cries for help as he was pulled further and further into the bushes.
Five minutes later...
While Kida led Milo, Sora, Kairi and Mickey to another area, the expediation wandered off to somewhere which led the worldly travellers on their own, wondering where Myde has gotten to. So, the group decided to split up to find the mullet-haired man. Jack wandered off to where he suspected Myde had gone off too. The pirate then spotted something on the ground near the bushes and furrowed his brows in slight confusion.
As he knelt on one knee, Jack picked up the object and realised that it was a photo...a photo of a younger Myde, close to twelve years of age, pulling off a stupid grin as he stood next to another young boy similiar in appearence. This boy had messy spiky blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing a blue and white t-shirt and black shorts, and on his right wrist was a band of some kind.
'Myde?' Jack mouthed silently, before standing up and began to trace back, suspicions growing as he suddenly realised that Myde was in trouble again; abducted none the less. Visions of Rourke and Helga came into mind as being the suspects.
But he only managed to take three steps, because when Jack glanced forward, he came to a jolting stop as two men wearing gas masks stood in front of him, holding rifles, aiming the weapons right at him. He immediately recongised these men as Rourke's soldiers that travelled with them, and Jack immediately knew, he and the rest of his companions were right for being suspicious about the Commander.
"Oh, bugger." Jack muttered the moment he came to a halt.
"Hands on your head, now!" One of the soldiers commanded.
Jack paused, before grinning nervously, pocketing Myde's childhood photo, then pulled out some small metal jar from another pocket and twisted the lid open, shaking orange powder onto his shoulders one at the time, making the masked men glance at each other in confusion.
"For proper dressed meeting, eh?" Jack randomly said.
Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Milo and Kida in the meantime were gathered alongside some various ruins alongside the water as nightfall descended onto the ancient city of Atlantis. They had two wooden rods that had pink laterns at the end, filled with fireflies that some of them were gathering and/or watching.
Kairi held out a hand as one of the fireflies landed softly on the side of her forefinger and smiled at the little insect, before letting it fly away. "It's really beautiful here at night. I could just spend the rest of day just being here."
"Cute little fellas." Mickey chuckled as one firefly sat on one of his ears for a minute before flying off.
"You know, Kida, the most we ever hoped to find was some crumbling buildings, maybe some broken pottery." Milo said to Kida while gathering fireflies for the lantern. "Instead, we find a living, thriving society."
"Yeah, it's amazing to find people still living down here." Sora agreed as he carefully placed a firefly into the lantern Kida was hilding, before adding, "You know, these little guys are cute, when they're, you know, not setting everything on fire."
Kida shook her head in sadness, "We are not thriving. True, our people live, but our culture is dying. We are like a stone the ocean beats against. With each passing year...a little more of us is worn away."
"I'm really sorry to hear that, Kida." Mickey said, understanding with Sora and Kairi both nodding in agreement. They and Milo knew the reason of Kida's words; based on what she told them earlier, with the Great Flood having drowned most of the civilization and with Atlantis and it's people here underground for thousands of years and only being able to have knowlage in how to survive, there was no knowlage of reading or writting, or learning anything much of past history...Kida and her people are being left into darkness.
"Wish there was something I could do… " Milo said with a nod.
"Me too." Kairi agreed.
"Yeah, me too." Sora added.
Kida gazed at Milo and told him, "I have brought you to this place to ask you for your help. There is a mural here with writing all around the pictures."
"Well, you came to the right guy." Milo replied, planting the lantern onto the ground next to him as he examined the crumbled wall. "Okay, let's see... let's start with this column right here."
Sora, Kairi and Mickey were about to approach the linguist when they noticed Kida approach the water. To the two boys' alarm, Kida was removing her sarong which revealled her blue bikini bottoms and long dazzling legs. Immediately both Sora and Mickey tried to avoid staring at...that and focused on gazing at Kida's face, but both still felt uncomfortably warm. Kairi also noticed, and giggled a little at their expressions. There was one thing she could never doubt about those two; they never wanted to anger a woman.
Milo turned to speak when he too felt his face flush, just as flustered as Sora and Mickey, "Uh, Kida? Uh, heh...What are you doin'?"
"You do swim, do you not?" Kida quired with a smile.
"Oh, I swim pretty girl. Pr-pretty good! Pretty good. Sw... Good, swim good. Pretty good. I swim pretty good." Milo stuttered and correcting himself.
At this, Sora, Kairi and Mickey all immediately had the feeling that Milo was starting to like Kida more than just a friend. The three of them made a quick note not to tell the others about this; otherwise poor Milo will never hear the end of it.
"I can swim too." Sora announced.
"Me too. Plus, Sora, Riku and I grew up on the islands." Kairi added.
"I can swim well too, Kida. You don't have to worry about that." Mickey said.
Kida nodded in acknowlagement, "Good. It's a fair distance to where we are going."
Milo removed his shoulder bag, pulled off his sweater and undershirt, and took off his shoes before clambering into the water and said, "Hey, you are talkin' to the belly flop champ at Camp Runamuck."
Sora, Kairi and Mickey didn't borther in taking any of their clothes off and instead followed the others in the water. But as Milo went into the water, his boxer shorts caught the air-bubbles that caused it to enflate like balloons over the water. Kida, Sora, Kairi and Mickey all giggled at the sight while Milo sheepishly let the air out, returning his shorts to normal.
With that, Milo was about to jump into the water, when he then turned to Kida and suggested in slight embarrassment, "Why don't you lead the way? Because...I have no idea where we're going."
Kida smiled before taking a deep breath and diving straight into the water. After grabbing deep breaths of their own, Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo were seconds behind, and they were glad they grabbed huge gulps of air. As the group followed Kida through thedark waters, the light of her crystal necklace being the only source of light, remains of stone structures that had collapsed who knows how long ago laid strewn about the seafloor. No fish could be seen. No sea creatures either, except the occasional purple lobster.
There were occasional Under-water Heartless that appeared in their path, but Sora, Kairi and Mickey, with slight difficulty in trying to not let their air out, defeated the Heartless until they, Kida and Milo finally reached a large opening in one of the ruined buildings which resembled a mouth of a cavern, and into the darkness inside.
The five of them swam straight up to an air pocket above, where they gasped for breath.
"Are you all right?" Kida asked.
"I'm okay." Kairi nodded, though she felt admittedly dizzy, but she shook that off.
"I'm good." Sora replied.
"Me too." Mickey added, "Just a bit light-headed, but I'll be okay."
"Well, I didn't drown, so—"
"Good," Kida returned before Milo could finish speaking. "Follow me." She grabbed another breath and dove back down. Kairi, Mickey, Sora and Milo each took a deep breath of their own before following her.
About twenty feet beneath the pocket of air, Kida the crystal around her neck to illuminate a colorful mural of what the three worldly travellers thought looked like a shiny star with four points. A series of symbols were written around the perimeter of the image in the form of sentences. Milo swam closer to get a better look at the text. Sora, Kairi and Mickey drew closer, wondering what the linguist was reading. To them, it looked more like gibberish in strange writting.
Milo was thouroughly amazed, as the writting was exactly like the Journal was talking about, though there were a few off details. The group approached a large picture in the mural. To Sora, Kairi and Mickey, it seemed to resemble a pair of robotic humans. Like before, there was text written all around the painting. Milo took his time reading through the Atlantian sentences.
Finally after a few minutes of reading, Milo gazed at Kida's crystal before gesturing her and the others back up to the air pocket and they all swam up.
"The heart of Atlantis!" Milo declared after returning to the air-pocket.
"What?" Kida, Sora, Kairi and Mickey all asked, confused.
"It's the heart of Atlantis! T-that's what the shepherd was talking about. It wasn't a 'star', it was some kind of crystal like," Milo then lifted Kida's crystal above the water's surface, continuing to explain, "Like these. Don't you get it? The power source I've been looking for, the bright light Kida remembers, they're the same thing! It's what's keeping all these everything—You, Kida and all of Atlantis alive!"
"Really? It can do that?" Kairi asked, beyond amazed.
"It cannot be!" Kida gasped, nearly speechless.
"So that's how everybody's been alive for so long." Mickey realised, wide-eyed.
Sora blinked in confusion and amazement. If the Heart of Atlantis, the Heart of this world, was keeping all people and animals in the city alive, then maybe it's what the Heartless are after. But something didn't add up to this, even though he was aware of all worlds having hearts of their own and the only way to access them is through the Keyhole.
"Then, where is it now?" Kida asked.
Milo shook his head, "I don't know, I don't know. You'd think something this important would've been in the journal, but—" He paused abruptly and his eyes grew wide and alert. Sora and Kida stared at him. "Unless... the missing page."
'Milo did say that there was a missing page in the book...' Kairi thought, worriedly. Her mind instantly reverted to both Rourke and Helga and instantly knew that they would have something to do with it. The moment she and her friends met the two, they were suspicious through out the journey.
"Let's head back and find out." Sora suggested.
The others nodded, making to return to the spot where they started.
One by one, Sora, Kairi, Milo and Mickey all emerged from the water so quickly emerged from the water so quickly, they had clambered onto a stone tile, gasping for a few seconds before relaxing a little. Suddenly, their eyes widened as a familiar tall man knelt down in front of them on dry land. It was Rourke.
"You all had a nice swim?" Rourke asked the four of them with a semi-friendly grin.
Behind him, were the crowd of people gathered behind the commander; Helga, Audrey, Dr. Sweet, Vinny, Mole, Cookie, and Ms. Packard, as well as several soldiers in gas masks and carrying rifles. Everyone was armed with some kind of a gun; Mole had a small machine gun.
"Hey, guys," Milo smiled nervously. "What's goin' on? What's with… what's with all the guns? Guys?"
"Ow! Hey, watch it, will ya?" Lea's voice suddenly filled the air.
"Move it!" A rough voice ordered sternly.
Behind the crowd as they slightly departed, a few more soldiers, and to Milo, Sora, Kairi and Mickey's shock, gathering Heartless pushing Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Riku, Donald, Goofy, Skuld, Ven, Aqua, Terra and Jack forward before stopping and holding their rifles up at the rest of the worldly travellers.
"You! You're the one that's controlling the Heartless!" Kairi yelled accusingly at Rourke.
Realising this, also combining what Kairi had said, Milo gave a deep sigh, muttering to himself in self-disgust, "I am such an idiot!"
"I knew you were up to no good!" Sora grunted angrily at Rourke.
"Why you no good commander!" Mickey yelled at Rourke, realising the whole reason of this. "You want that Crystal, don'tcha!?"
Rourke smiled as the mouse had figured it out, pulling out a piece of wrinkled parchment, holding it up for the four of them to see. "Oh, you mean this?"
On the page was a depiction of a large sphere surrounded by several stones. Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo realised that it was indeed Rourke who had ripped out the page and had plotted this from the very beginning.
"The heart of Atlantis." Milo realised.
"Why are you doing this!?" Kairi demanded.
"Well, about that, little lady." Rourke said in a tone that sounded like a witness having a difficult time revealing the truth at a trial. "For one thing, you and your friends should have picked sides more carefully. You and your boyfriend next to you, the blond-twins and black-haired girl are too naive to be soldiers. Your mouse-friend is too much like both of you and too small. The blue-haired woman, her boyfriend and your silver-haired friend knew we were suspicious, as did the blue-haired man. Your dog-friend and mullet-haired friend are both too clumsy. Your 'pirate' friend thinks that not all treasure are shiny but rather useless things. Your red-haired friend is too brother-material and caring, and your duck-friend is greedy enough, but, well... he lacks enough height to prove useful."
"You were using Milo from the beginning and I bet you even using his grandfather to get the book too!" Sora yelled angrily.
"Well, I would've told Milo sooner, but it was strictly on a need-to-know basis, and well... now you know. I had to be sure he were one of us; same with you and your friends, Sora. At least one of you passed the test." Rourke extended a hand for Milo. "Welcome to the club, son."
Milo jerked back a few inches, snapping, "I'm no mercenary!"
"You couldn't have taken control of the Heartless on your own!" Mickey snapped at the evil commander. "Your heart would've been swallowed up because you're the reason they're here in the first place!"
"No, but he had my help, li'l pipsqueak." A familiar voice sneered evilly, as from a poof of cloud, a familiar large fat cat appeared, laughing evilly. "With a bit of bargain, though."
Skuld's eyes narrowed at the unfamiliar cat, demanding, "And who are you?"
"Pete!?" Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Riku, Donald, Goofy, Lea, Roxas, Xion, Isa exclaimed in shock.
"PETE!?" Terra, Ven and Aqua exclaimed, shocked and horrified as they recongsied the cat as one from Disney Town, who went under to ridiculous disguises, one was 'Captain Justice' which both Ven and Aqua knew when they first arrived in that world, and 'Captain Dark' which Terra knew when he first arrived in that world.
Myde quirked an eyebrow, blinking, "Don't remember seeing this guy."
Jack was shocked himself, holding up a finger pointing at Pete accusing, "Oi. You're that fat lard that was helping Barbossa one year ago."
At that moment, the sound of water splashing filled the air. Kida had emerged from below the surface, but before Sora and the others could warn her, he, Kairi and Mickey were all immediately grabbed by six soldiers who pulled them out of the water and held tight grips on their upper arms to keep them from escaping, and Kida in return was grasped by her air by a Heartless. Milo wanted to reach to her and his friends, but rifles were quickly aimed to stop him and all he could do was glare.
Kida threw one in the water and grabbed her spear from the ground. She was about to fight back when the sound of a gunshot echoed in the air. The spear went flying into the water. Kida spun around to see Rourke's pistol smoking. The Heartless soldiers grabbed the princess and held her in place.
"Looks like the tables finally turned in my favor." Pete said evilly with a grin, gazing at the worldly travellers who were held captive, before quickly realising that the pirate was there, as well as Terra, Aqua and Ven who he recongised from twelve years ago and gapped in surprise, "Hey! You're that dim-witted pirate from before! And you three! You're that racer that beat me, you're that kid that helped with the Ice Cream machine, and YOU'RE the pipsqueak I've seen before! What are you four numbskulls doin' here!?"
"What are YOU doing here, Pete?" Ven snapped back in return.
"Shut up!" One of the masked soldiers snapped, smacking Ven on the back of the head, causing the teenager to grunt painfully.
"'Mercenary'?" Rourke said to Milo, "I prefer the term 'adventure capitalist'. Plus, the 'Heartless' came in handy as a test and trial. Pete may be fat and stupid, but he's more fit for this job than your friends are, Milo. And you're the one who got us here. You led us right to the treasure chest."
"You don't know what you're tampering with, Rourke!" Milo said in a firm tone as he clambered out of the water, ignoring Sweet who tried to hand the linguist his clothes and instead the young man stormed up to Rourke.
"What's to know?" Rourke shrugged carelessly. "It's big, it's shiny, it's gonna make us all rich."
"You think it's some kind of diamond, I thought it was some kind of a battery. But we're both wrong! It's their life force!" Milo shook his head.
"That crystal is what's keeping everybody in Atlantis alive!" Mickey added, "It's not an object! It's a powerful light that lightens the darkness!"
"If you take it away, everyone in Atlantis will die!" Kairi added, pleadingly.
"And then the entire world will be destroyed and sent into darkness!" Sora concluded.
Rourke paused for a moment, pretending to think as he approached Helga, "Well, that changes things. Helga, what do you think?"
Helga smiled evilly, "Knowing that, I'd double the price."
"I was thinkin' triple." Rourke smirked in return.
The worldly travellers glared angrily at Rourke and Helga, knowing that words alone wouldn't be enough. The two villians' hearts were clouded in darkness and were utterly selfish, caring all about themselves and not believing the crystal to be anything more than just a giant piece of floating jewel.
"You're evil hearted, dishonest, cold and cruel people." Jack growled low at both Rourke and Helga in anger.
"Rourke, don't do this!" Milo pleaded, utterly dismayed and astounded alike.
Rourke rolled his eyes, "Academics, you never want to get your hands dirty." before continuing to the linguist, "Think about it. If you gave back every stolen artifact from a museum, you'd be left with an empty building. We're just providing a necessary service to the archeological community."
"Stop lying!" Kairi shouted.
"Not interested," Milo said, glaring.
Rourke frowned at Milo, "I gotta admit, I'm disappointed. You're an idealist, just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor, Milo. Don't be like him." He tapped the side of his head. "For once, do the smart thing."
The young linguist just contined to glare at the commander, not willing to budge at all.
"I really hate it when negotiations go sour." Rourke sighed deepily, before muttering, "Pete?"
Pete snickered evilly, before snapping his fingers. The human soldiers and the Heartless soldiers tossed Sora, his group and Kida onto the ground, surrounding them and pointed their weapons at the seventeen of them who could only glare at all of the villians and the people who they had thought were their friends but had all been a lie. Milo was horrified when he saw this, knowing that all of his friends were in danger.
"Let's try this again." Rourke held the torn page of the journal for Milo's eyes.
"One false move or if you say no, then all of your paly's are goin' bye-bye's. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Pete laughed with a warning.
Milo sighed, knowing that there was no other choice. If he didn't obey, then Sora's group and Kida will all get killed, and he wouldn't forgive himself for that. So with no choice, he read the page and revealed the location of the Heart of Atlantis.
BOOM!
The dynamite Vinny had used to blow open the doors of the throne room exploded fifteen minutes later. Vinny stood tossing a few sticks of tied dynamite in his hand and said in a jokingly manner in his usual bored monotone voice, "Knock! Knock!"
"Room service!" Cookie said, continuing the taunting humor as he pulled up a shotgun. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Terra, Ven, Aqua, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Skuld, Myde, Jack and Kida all had their hands tied behind their backs by pieces of rope, while the mercenaries all had their weapons, Pete having Heartless around him, and Milo having a guilty look on his expression, knowing that it was all his fault that it came to this.
As Helga saw the two Atlantian Guards stood firm and determined despite the situation that was happening, she continued to hold on to the princess of Atlantis who's arms were being pinned back by her strong free left arm, holding a gun up to her back.
"Tell them to drop their weapons!" Helga demanded, impatiently, "Now!"
Realising the situation and knowing he had no choice due to the safety of his daughter, the Atlantian King cooperated with the lieutenant's demand, commanding his two guards in Atlantian to drop their weapons, which they hesitatedly did so.
"Spread out! Search everywhere!" Helga ordered to the rest of the mercenaries.
With that the crew began the raid as they all pulled and wrecked everything that was in sight, throwing things aside, ripping plants out of their vases, and simply making a mess, while Sora and his friends were shoved to the corner and trapped when some Heartless stood guard to prevent them from escaping. The teenager lowered his head in guilt. The way things were going, this world will be lost in darkness, and no doubt Maleficent would take control of it.
When there was no sight of the Crystal, Rourke turned to Milo and snapped, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and shoving the journal into his face, "You're not applying yourself, son! There's gotta be something else!"
"Well, there isn't!" Milo replied, reluctantly reading the page, "It just says, 'The Heart of Atlantis lies the eyes of our king'."
Rourke scowled before tossing Milo to the ground behind him and stormed over to the Atlantian King who was now trapped between two human soldiers, "Well, maybe Old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks."
"No! Don't!" Mickey yelled as he immediately sensed something horrible was going to happen, only to be shoved back into Riku.
"You just stay outta this, Mouse!" Pete snapped, glaring at his old enemy.
Rourke ignored the commotion that was happening and instead he started his interrogation, "How 'bout, chief? Where's the Crystal Chamber?"
"You will destroy yourselves." The Atlantian King told him defiantly, not intimidated.
"Maybe I'm not being clear." Rourke said as his patience was thinning so quickly, that before anyone could blink he shoved his right fist swiftly and crushingly into the kings chest making him collapse in moments as he gasped in agony.
The worldly travellers and Kida all gasped in horror, before the latter yelled furiously at Rourke in Atlantian.
"Gawrsh!" Goofy gasped, horrified.
Even Pete flinched slightly, "Oh, that's gotta hurt." He knew that Rourke was violent, but not that violent. Especially to old people, and he suddenly had a feeling that the punch the commander sent into the Old King's chest was going to be the end of the old guy.
"You monster!" Aqua yelled at the commander.
Lea gritted his teeth angrily, "Seriously cold and low, you creep."
Sweet rushed to the king and bent down to examine him, before seeing how bad the damage is as he felt the man's ancient heart, glaring angrily at the commander, "Rourke, this was not part of the plan!"
"Plans change, Doctor." Rourke said, completely unfazed of his actions. "I suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary."
'At least Sweet still has some light in his heart.' Isa thought in his mind, seeing how Sweet had been horrifed and angered himself when Rourke fatally wounded the old king.
With that Rourke helped himself as he sat on the throne enjoying the power he was exerting as he put his feet up on the table throwing off a bowl that contained ripe and delicious fruit destroying the ceramic work in moments as the sweet contents rolled over here there and everywhere, smugly smiling as he said, "Well, as usual, diplomacy has failed us. Now I'm going to count to ten and you're going to tell me where the crystal is."
While Rourke was saying this, the two human masked soldiers lifted the Atlantian King to meet the villian's eyes.
Mickey gasped in sheer horror, struggling against his binds once more, "No! STOP! You can't do this!" He screamed out, realising that Rourke was going to kill the Atlantian King.
Sora, Kairi, Aqua, Lea, Roxas, Xion, Riku, Terra, Ven, Skuld, Donald and Goofy all strugged against their binds, while Myde shut his eyes while trying not to hear the dreaded sound of gunshot or death, and even Jack fought against the ropes that held his back.
"Oh, I can, mouse-boy, and I'm going make you watch this." Rourke said, coldly, his impaitence getting the better of him, reloading his pistol.
Most of the worldly travellers noticed that Sweet, Audrey, Vinny, Mole and Cookie stared in alarm. Even Pete looked quite shocked at this.
"Uh, Commander. I think ya' might wanna reconsider d'is—"
"One," Rourke counted, cutting Pete off, "Two...Nine..."
Unable to do anything, the worldly travellers could only shut their eyes, and Mickey was feeling tears form in his eyes threatening to escape, his heart aching. He never felt so powerless in his life.
"Te—" Rourke stopped the very short countdown and stared at the middle of the room in surprise.
When met with silence, Sora and his companions hesitatedly opened their eyes and saw that Rourke fired a shot and instead was gazing at the swirl of stones in the middle of the pond. To Sora and his friends, it looked like the symbol on the Shepherd's Journal.
"The Heart of Atlantis lies the eyes of our King?" Rourke repeated from memory. That's when he realised the final piece of the puzzle and was actually amazed by his own sudden mind skill. "This is it! We're in!" tossing the book right at Milo.
"Okay, how did he manage to do that?" Myde asked, shocked.
"With minds like his, the cleverness always works, unfortunately." Jack muttered in defeat, thinking back of Beckett, Davy Jones and Barbossa, how the three of them managed to out-wit him quite a few times.
"Pete, bring that mouse, the redhead and her boyfriend over." Rourke ordered, while now stepping into the water after getting off the throne.
"Uh...okay." Pete muttered, uncertainly, ordering the Heartless to bring the said trio over as he followed the obviously crazed Commander, while the ropes that binded Sora, Kairi and Mickey were untied, but they were still shoved forward, while the soldiers dropped the Atlantian King to the ground and Sweet went back to attend to him.
"Rourke, for the last time, you've gotta listen to me!" Milo tried to reason as he followed him. "You don't have the slightest idea what this power is capable of."
"True," Helga said as she pulled Kida(who's hands were also freed from the binds) along with, "But I can think of a few countries who'd pay anything to find out."
Rourke stepped onto the platform which began to rumble upon being stepped on. Before anyone knew it, the platform beneath the commander began to descend. He quickly pulled both Milo and Sora onto it. Helga pulled Kairi and Kida with her onto it, and Pete grabbed hold of Mickey in a single grasp around the king's lower body, leaving Mickey helpless and struggling to pull himself free while Pete himself stepped onto the platform with the others.
The stone column descended like an elevator. Somehow everyone managed to maintain their balance. The further down they went, the darker the shaft grew. After roughly forty seconds, the platform reached an enormous cavern. On the far end of the cave was a pool of water so deep, only a series of reflections could be seen in it. When the platform reached the cavern floor, Rourke, Helga, Milo, Sora, Kairi, Pete and Kida stepped off of it.
The group looked toward the ceiling on the far side of the cavern. A glowing, blue sphere that resembled a ball of burning matter was hovering motionless above. A number of huge stones with images of faces floated around it like a series of planets orbiting a parent star.
"Jackpot." Rourke grinned at the sphere.
"That's it?" Pete asked, bewilded and dumbfounded, mindlessly dropping and releasing Mickey who fell to the ground, landing on his bottom, shaking his head to rid the slight dizzy spells. Pete in the meantime stepped up to the left side of Rourke, "Ya' mean that glowly blue ball is the Crystal? I was expectin' it to be, you know, more solid and...diamond shape."
Sora and Kairi both hurried to help Mickey stand up which he thanked them before the trio glared at the backs of Rourke, Helga and Pete while the latter continued talking to the commander.
Kida in the meantime, stared at the sphere above. Her eyes showed signs of someone who'd just seen a ghost, muttering, "Kings of our past."
She then fell to her knees and started speaking in Atlantian, and while Sora, Kairi and Mickey hurried over to her worriedly, the trio glanced back up at the Crystal and then realised that she must be apologizing to her ancestors and to the great heavens above for her and everyone's trespasses into this ancient and holy ground.
"Hey, what's got her into doin' that?" Pete muttered after he noticed Kida was on the ground, speaking...well, to him, it was pretty much gibberish.
Rourke rolled his eyes when he noticed this as well, and ordering Milo, "Thatch, tell her to wrap it up. We got a schedule to meet."
Milo glared at Rourke, before moving over to Kida and others who helped Milo to gently bring the Princess to her feet.
"Um...Kida...I'm sorry." Milo said, somberly.
Sora, Mickey and Kairi could only gaze at their Atlantian friend in sympathy and guilt for everything that's happened. Had they and their companions known about Rourke's evil plans sooner, none of this would've happened and Atlantis would be on the brink of destruction. None of the three of them were certain how Rourke and Helga will be able to move the crystal, as it seemed bright and warm in light, but it also looked dangerous to even touch.
This was the very heart of Atlantis itself and to have actually see it as well as feel the warmth of it's powerful light was astonishing.
Rourke stepped to the edge of the lake that Crystal was hovering over, and as though to test something, he kicked a small pebble into the water. As though reacting to the noise it made when landing in the water, the Crystal suddenly changed from bluish light into a red one.
"Huh? What's goin' on?" Mickey asked when he and the others noticed this.
Helga felt uneasy about this, "Come on, let's get this over with. I don't like this place."
"Y-yeah, me neither." Pete suttered, nervously. "I think it's time to hit the road."
Rourke gazed at the red sphere a moment longer before turning to Milo. "Alright, Thatch. What's next?"
Milo flipped open the journal in his hands. He scanned his eyes across the pages to find the part discussing where they were, saying, "Okay, there's a giant crystal hovering 150 feet above our heads over a bottomless pit of water. Doesn't anything surprise you?"
Sora, Kairi and Mickey shared concerned glances, before turning back to Kida, but to their surprise, one of the red lights the Crystal was flashing turned back and now shined onto the Princess. The Crystal around her neck suddenly began floating and glowing in blue light as the blue light on the crystal returned.
"Kida?" Sora asked, blinking.
"Mother." Was all Kida said, before her eyes changed into glowing blue.
"What's happening to her?" Kairi asked, worriedly, about to step up to her.
Mickey, suddenly sensing very powerful and unusual light controlling the Atlantian Princess, quickly grabbed hold of the Princess of Heart's hand and pulled her back slightly to stop her. "Hold on, Kairi. I think this is the Crystal's doin'."
Sora gazed at Mickey in confusion, "The Crystal's doing?"
To the trio's concern, Kida, as though hypnotized, strolled up to the water, which was then noticed by everyone else. Rourke stopped Milo from getting to her, his impatience getting worse.
"What's with that lady?" Pete asked, confused. He then turned to Milo and said, "Hey, gibberish boy! Tell us what's goin' on!"
"Look," Milo said, pointing to the journal. "All it says here is that the Crystal is 'alive' somehow. I-I don't know how to explain it. It's their deity. It's their power source."
Rourke rolled his eyes again, "Speak English, professor."
"They're a part of it, it's a part of them. I-I'm doing the best I can here."
"Well, do better." Rourke reached for his pistol.
Milo glared as he angrily suggested in sarcasm, "I know! Why don't you translate, and I'll wave the gun around!"
"Stop fighting! Both of you! This isn't getting us nowhere!" Kairi finally snapped, which startled everyone except Kida who didn't seem to notice.
Sora was about to add to what his friend was saying when a voice spoke. Everyone spun their focus to Kida. She was turning around to face them, still in a trance. Her voice sounded a little like an echo, even though she was clearly speaking in Atlantian.
"All will be well, Milo Thatch. Sora, protect Princess Kairi. King Mickey Mouse, your teacher, Yen Sid the Sorcerer is still alive. Be not afraid, either of you."
"Okay, now she's scarin' me." Pete muttered, worriedly.
"What did she say?" Rourke asked to Milo.
Milo shrugged, a bit dazzled about the unexpected moment of speech, confessing, "I-I don't know. I didn't catch it."
Sora, Kairi and Mickey shared stunned and confused expressions, none of them understanding what Kida was saying, and even though they suddenly felt she was telling them not to be afraid...they couldn't help but feel afraid of this experience. Kida turned away and strolled onto the water, and quite literally too. Everyone stared in silent shocked and wide-eyed expressions, with both Pete and Rourke admittedly dumbfounded.
The Atlantian Princess was walking away from the group, step-by-step, on the water. She continued as she approached the Crystal. Within minutes, she was directly underneath the sphere and the stones around it seemed to rise until they were floating on their sides.
Right before Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Milo, Rourke, Helga and Pete's eyes, a series of light-blue light beams circled the cavern. They closed in around the young woman below the Crystal. When the collided, there was a bright flash of light. Kida went unconscious. Her body was lifted into the air like it had been picked up by an alien spaceship. Her hair was blowing like it had been caught in a gust of wind. Kida's body finally entered the glowing sphere above. Sora was certain this meant the Atlantian princess was now inside the world's heart. The stones around it started to spin faster and faster and quicker. The result was a light display so brilliant, most of the group had to shield their eyes with their arms.
The lights dimmed down. When everyone looked up again, a figurine was descending from above. It was light-blue like the Crystal's sphere, only it seemed to have taken the sphere's place. That, and it looked like a perfect replica of Kida. When she set down on the water below, Sora, Mickey, Kairi and Milo were stunned in surprise and worry. Pete rubbed his eyes several times before stopping and gazed in the center of the water again, not sure whether this was a dream or not.
Milo made to go to Kida, but was held back by Rourke who said mockingly, "Hold your horses, loverboy." and all Milo could do was mutter Kida's name twice.
"Did she...did she just...merge with the Crystal? This is unbelievable...!" Mickey muttered, shocked, awed and horrified.
As soon as the Crystallized Kida opened her eyes, she came walking towards the group. Behind her, all the stones floating in the air fell and splashed into the water as their glow faded, leaving behind lifeless stones. As she grew closer, Rourke reached out to grab her, but Milo warned him, "No, don't! Don't touch her."
Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Milo could only watch in concern as their Crystallized friend approached the platform. It seemed like all was lost for the world of Atlantis.
A/N: I wasn't originally going to add Pete into this world, but I changed my mind and did so instead. As for the boy in the photo next to a younger Myde...well, I'll give you a hint; He's from FFXV.
See you in the final chapter of the Atlantis world but the story itself still continues.