Author's Note: I somehow managed to find time to post this chapter since I've been on the urge to write, but the last four days have been really busy. Thankfully, the conclusion of Kingdom of Corona is herem as well as the beginning of another Disney world I've been wanting to go to for a while! And thanks again for your help with another boss fight, Bopdog111. You've been a great help!
I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or Final Fantasy.
CH44: Resolved Secrets and Mystery.
"Uh, am I the only one who thinks that the lady who supposed to be Rapunzel's mom isn't her real parent or something?" Myde asked, worriedly. When everyone looked at him, he shrugged while adding, "I mean, if Xion said that there was no resemblence, then the Heartless attacked and Eugene got arrested even though he was about to return what he stole, don't you think it's a bit suspicious that the lady somehow knew where we all were?"
The rest of the worldly travellers' eyes slowly widened in realization before sharing a concerned glance, then Goofy muttered, "Gawrsh, now that I remember, I saw a paintin' on the wall in the Kingdom and the lost Princess in that had long hair, just like Rapunzel."
"You're right. Plus, when I asked about the Lantern festival earlier before the dance, I was told that they send out the Lanterns in hopes that the King and Queen's daughter would return to them since it was her birthday." Terra frowned.
"While it's Rapunzel's birthday too and she did look just like the lost Princess..." Mickey gasped in realization and said firmly to his friends, "Because Rapunzel is the Lost Princess and her 'mother' isn't her real mother and had kidnapped her when she was very young! That's why she wasn't allowed to leave the tower, because she was a prisoner!"
Sora grunted as it finally dawned onto him. "So since Rapunzel's hair is magical, the woman who's supposed to be Rapunzel's mother is the one that started all of this eighteen years ago! She lied to Rapunzel so that she can keep the hair's powers to herself."
"Myde, you just helped solve the mystery and find the real answer." Isa praised with a smirk to the mullet-haired man who blinked, surprised.
"We have to save Eugene and Rapunzel!" Ven told everyone with determination.
"To do that, we need to get Eugene out of jail." Roxas nodded.
Lea nodded, "Right. And as much as doing so would get us on the criminal record, we're gonna do a jailbreak."
Even Maximus whined with determination and pointed into the direction of the castle dungeon, gesturing the others to follow him quickly which surprised the worldly travellers who all then smiled in realization. Apparently even he wanted to help rescue Eugene and Rapunzel after hearing what Sora's group had said.
"You wanna help us out to save them?" Sora asked the horse who nodded. The young Keyblade Master nodded in return before turning to the rest of the group with determination, "All right. Let's go!"
The group nodded and followed Maximus in hopes of saving Eugene and then save Rapunzel from Gothel.
Eugene sat miserably in the cell of the castle and hung his head low, worried about Rapunzel and the worldly travellers and wondering if they were okay or something bad happened. One thing for certain, starting tomorrow at dawn, he would never see them again, because he was being sentenced to death.
The doors then suddenly opened when heard the lock being unlocked, and to his shock and surprise, Sora appeared and silently gestured him to follow him. Relieved and puzzled, Eugene hurried over to him and was even more surprised that, once he was out of the cell, the rest of the worldly travellers were there.
"Sora! Guys!" Eugene whispered in relief, afraid that they'd end up getting attention. He then sighed and tried to explain, "Look, this isn't what it looks like. I-"
"It's okay. We already know what you were doing." Skuld interrupted kindly. "That's why we're here, to help you."
"Not your fault that that Heartless attacked and the bad lady who took Rapunzel caught us off-guard. Besides, we'd never leave a friend behind. Got it memorized?" Lea added with a smirk.
Eugene felt really emotional. This was the first time in his life he actually met people who he can call his real friends. "Thanks, guys." He said, before asking, "But how'd you get here? This place was crawling with guards."
"Aw, don't worry. Maximus let us in while keeping the guards busy." Mickey explained, before saying firmly, "But we'd better hurry on outta here, and fast and save Rapunzel."
"Yeah, that lady who's supposed to be her mom kidnapped her, and from what we found out, she's the reason how the lost Princess disappeared in the first place." Myde added.
Eugene clutched his fists, "I knew something sounded off with blondie's mother. Let's go rescue Rapunzel!"
The others nodded and hurried on out of the dungeons, but as they reached the outside, to their shock there were Heartless lingering all over the place and on top of everything else, Maximus was cornered and the guards were all turning into Heartless before their eyes. Except some who the Captain of the Guards noticed and hissed when he and the remaining men saw Eugene and the worldly travellers.
"Uh, oooooh!" Donald muttered, as he and the others grunted.
"Intruders! And they broke the prisoner out!" The Captain of the Guards yelled the alarm, and turned to Maximus, adding, "And this horse betrayed us! Seize them and make sure they ALL get executed by dawn!"
"Looks like we have to fight our way out." Riku grunted, summoning his Keyblade which prompted his travelling companions to summon their weapons as well.
Sora blocked one of the guards' swords and the two ended up clashing before the former knocked it away and knocked him out with his Keyblade, before dodge-rolling a Heartless shaped like tower who missed clobbering him with a sword-axe and hit the ground, creating a small crater. The Keyblade wielder then tossed his Keyblade at it which hit his target before he caught the weapon and changed Thundaga which destoyed it.
The rest of the worldly travellers and Eugene, along with Maximus who was saved by the others, all charged and attacked the Heartless and the guards as much as they could, blocking the opponents attacks and while they did get scrapes themselves, it was an all going-out battle in the dungeon field, though to their dismay, more guards began to appear at the Captain's signal, getting Sora and his friends cornered with swords, bow and arrows, and spears ready to kill them or make them surrender.
To their surprise, though, the guards were suddenly shoved and locked into nearby cells by the sudden arrival of the Thugs they and Rapunzel met back at the Snuggly Duckling.
"What is this? Open up!" The Captain of the Guards demanded as he reached the locked door from the cell he was trapped in.
The short Thug, with the help of one of the other Thugs, opened up the prison door's window and teasingly asked, "What's the password?"
"What?"
"Nope." The Short Thug shook his head and closed the window.
"Open this door!"
"Not even close."
As Sora's group, Eugene and Maximus stared in awe and surprise that the guards that cornered them were silently and quickly taken out by the Thugs one at the time until one of the Thugs whacked one of the remaining guards on the back of the head with a Frying Pan.
"Frying Pans!" Eugene exclaimed in awe, turning to the worldly travellers and the horse, asking, "Who knew, right?"
"You came to save us!" Roxas said in relief to the Thugs.
"We heard parts of what happened and well, we decided to help you so you can save Blondie." The Hook Thug told them, before saying urgently, "There's no time. You guys get on outta here." while pointing at the catapault they stolen earlier. "This will help ya's get outta here quicker; that includes the horse."
"Not that I'm lookin' forward to that, but I'll take it!" Lea nodded in agreement, and the others did the same, before they all hurried over and climbed onboard, though it was a bit of a tight squeeze and they hoped that it wasn't going to be a crash landing.
"Head down." Hook Thug instructed.
"Head down." Eugene repeated while and his friends and Maximus lowered their heads.
"Arms in."
"Arms in."
"Knees together."
"Knees together."
After the group did as they were told while shutting their eyes tightly as they braced themselves, the next thing Sora and his friends knew, at Hook Thug's signal, they were catapaulted right into the air and flying away from the castle and over the kingdom, screaming before they were out of the kingdom's sight and were descending towards the ground. As soon as they were about to land into the forest, Terra, Aqua, Skuld and Mickey quickly used the Gravita spell and the descend slowed to a soft stop before they landed on the ground safely.
"That was close." Myde panted, nearly hyperlating.
"No time to take a break! We have to save Rapunzel!" Kairi pointed out, already standing up.
"Right! Let's go!" Sora declared, and the others nodded.
While fighting their way through the forest while fighting the Heartless that grew in numbers the closer they got, the worldly travellers, Eugene and Maximus finally managed to reach the Tower where Rapunzel was trapped inside with Gothel.
However, just as they neared it, blasted appeared which almost knocked everyone away, but Sora, seeing this, successfully pushed both Eugene and Maximus further towards the tower while he and the rest of the group soon found themselves cornered by the same Heartless that knocked Sora and Kairi into the river earlier. The Heartless in question resembled to the tower, but it also had poison flowers growing on it's shoulders, sharp clawed hands and a massive jawed mouth that can easily swallow up someone.
"Guys!" Eugene cried out worriedly to the group, and Maximus whined horrified at the same time.
"Just go! Rapunzel needs you two!" Sora told the duo as he and his companions summoned their weapons once more and faced the Heartless once again.
Despite not wanting to leave them to this, Eugene shared a worried glance with Maximus who nodded and after telling them to be careful, they both hurried to climb the stone tower to rescue Rapunzel from Gothel while Sora and his friends were left into fighting the giant Heartless.
The Heartless attacked first by attempting to claw at the worldly travellers who all leaped out of the way and dodged the attack. However, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Terra, Ven, Aqua, Skuld and Myde were forced to continue dodging it when it continued to claw at them, in a similiar way the Armored Heartless back in Traverse Town would attack, only this time it had more attacks, which was a bit of a problem for the group. They knew they had to be careful with this one.
Sora, Ven and Roxas all tossed their Keyblades at the Heartless' arms which knocked the clawed hands back and causing the Heartless to roar in pain at the sudden attack when they found an opening, but as the Keyblades returned to their owners, the Heartless then summoned huge bricks that began to rain down on them. However, Terra and Isa leaped into the air and knocked the bricks back to save the trio who nodded their thanks.
While it is distracted Terra charged, and whacked it's leg as it roared before trying to attack him, but he dodged while Aqua used fire magic at the face which cause it to roar from the burn as Mickey used Kingdom Key D to attack the Heartless in fast pace as the Heartless recovered, and fired couple of darkness orbs on the heroes.
Mickey summoned the Orbs of Light to counterattack it before sending more towards the Heartless' head, but was forced to leap out of the way before it claw poison him with the poison fluids from the flowers. The King then casted Firaga as did Aqua and Xion which weakened the flowers and causing more pain to the Heartless, but it did claw the group who were knocked back and nearly crashed into the ground, though they managed to righten themselves up and landed safely before Donald casted his Fireworks Spell to rapidly hit the Heartless who was surrounded by the attack.
Skuld attacked the Heartless by the legs while avoiding it's claws as everyone else kept it busy. She gave it a good thrusts and Thundaga, but was knocked away when she was forced to leap to avoid in getting stomped, but the impact caused the ground to shake which also caused some damage to the others as well, before they were forced to use Curaga and Cure to bring back some of their strength.
Even so, the Heartless then leaned foward in rapid speed to gobble someone up, but the worldly travellers dodged this attempt as well, which gave them the opening to attack it's head. Riku used his Flowmotion and leaped all over it's body before thrusting his Keyblade into it's eyes and leaped off to avoid the poisoned fluids just in time.
While that happened Xion ran, and struck the Heartless at the legs, and while that is happening Roxas charged, and attacked it as he, and Xion grabbed each other's hands, and attacked the Heartless in fast motions switching back, and forth before they finished it with a slash up it's chin to Kairi who bashed it as it landed on the ground. Getting up the Heartless attacked the group with it's fluid all around.
They all dodged the attack though some got poisoned, but thanks to Donald, Skuld and Aqua's cure magic, they managed to heal up and rid the poison. Kairi shot a Blizzard attack on the Heartless' flowers before following it up with the Pink Orbs of Light and then she thrusted her Keyblade into the claws that attempted to grab her before leaping out of the way to avoid another attack.
Xion tossed her Oathkeeper Keyblade at it's other clawed arm before catching it and then she leaped into the air to spin her weapon at it's head, hitting it repeatedly until she landed safely on the ground, causing the Heartless to become dazed. Aqua used this to her advantage while she switched out of her Rainfall Keyblade and summoned Eraqus' Keyblade, shooting out orange chains of light that entrapped the Heartless, allowing her and her friends to attack it with multiple attacks.
When it broke out it attacked with a huge swipe from it's claw as Isa charged it with his Keyblade and struck it hard along with casting a powerful beam with a bit of Moonlight at it's chest, as Lea attacked it with his Keyblade as the Heartless avoided the attacks, and sharpened it's claws charging at Kairi and Sora who both nodded and held hands before leaping up and avoiding it's attack before they shot out Magic Orbs which both the Blue and the Pink combined together, hitting the Heartless head on. However, just as they landed, it swiped at them again and knocked everyone back before it reached down at it's closed target; Ven.
"Ven, look out!" Skuld screamed as she ran up before pushing him out of the way, but was quickly engulfed herself, much to her friends' horror.
"Skuld!" Ven cried out, unable to believe that a friend he hardly remembered risked her life to save him.
"Hey, you ugly towering-Rock Heartless!" Myde yelled, using his Sitar to create large water pillars to surround the Heartless and attack it's stone parts, which knocked it back and causing it to stumble, while Lea held up his Keyblade while summoning one of his Chakrams and created a large Fire Serphant before sending it towards the Heartless, burning off it's flowers which faded away into darkness and causing massive pain to the monster, combined with Myde's attack.
"Let's finish this creep off!" Sora declared.
"Right!" Everyone else nodded, before they blinked in surprise that the Heartless winched as they heard thrusting and whacking from inside the Heartless' stomach.
"Skuld's fighting the Heartless from within!" Aqua exclaimed in realization.
"Hold on, Skuld! We'll save ya!" Goofy called out, tossing his Shield at the Heartless' stomach, causing it to roar in agony again.
Ven threw his Keyblade which hit the Heartless at the eye which made him wince, "Man, talk about a eye bashing. I really need to be careful where I aim."
Sora then held up his Keyblade, but rather than the Light Pistols he'd been expecting, Sora and everyone got a surprise when instead he summoned a large pirate ship light up with lights like in a festival. This gave him an idea as he hopped onto it as did everyone else who got the message before they rocked back and forth on the magic Ship, sending out attacks while Sora commanded the ship with his Keyblade, thrusting at the Heartless who couldn't escaping until the ship spun around and around and made a finishing move, sending the Heartless back and hitting it's stomach, causing it to heave out before it spat out Skuld who cried out in alarm.
"Skuld!" Ven cried out as soon as the ship Sora summoned vanished and everyone landed safely. He quickly jumped and had Skuld land in his arms while landing hard on the ground himself. Sora, and Riku charged at the Heartless who looked up before being slashed as the two struck hard at it's chest before they landed and the Heartless groaned before a heart escaped it from it. The moment it did, the Heartless vanished, fading into oblivion.
As Ven panted, he asked Skuld worriedly, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Skuld replied, and she smiled warmly at him. "Thanks for breaking my fall." She told him, which made Ven blush a little and then softly chuckle.
"Skuld! You're okay!" Lea exclaimed in relief as he and everyone else gathered.
"Thanks to you guys." Skuld replied as she and Ven stood up, before she added with a concerned expression, "But we have to hurry and help Eugene to save Rapunzel!"
"Yeah! Let's go!" Sora told them.
The worldly travellers hurried towards the tower and despite the awkwardness, they climbed up as fast as they could, but by the time they reached the rather cosy chamber that had been decoracted, no doubt by Rapunzel in all her years of being locked up in the tower, they froze in horror as they spotted Eugene collapsed in painful agony not three feet away, his right wrist chained to a chair nearby, and a horrified Rapunzel preparing to heal him. Also in the room was a disapproved Gothel who noticed them and glared at the worldly travellers, pulling out a dagger and held it out to them.
"Eugene!" Sora exclaimed, horrified.
"What did you do!?" Kairi demanded at Gothel who grinned evilly.
"Stopping him from taking away the only thing that keeps me young forever. I know that you all know of Rapunzel's power within her hair." Gothel told them coldly.
"Let them go!" Aqua demanded, glaring at the evil witch.
Gothel just simply laughed, "Not a chance. She's mine; we made an agreement that should she heal this thief, she is mine forever! There isn't a thing either of you can do, so it doesn't concern you."
"So you kidnapped Rapunzel so that you can use her hair to live forever?" Lea asked, disgusted.
"Only because those guards stole the flower I used in order to save their Queen! That power is rightfully mine!" Gothel snapped angrily.
Myde blinked, dumbfounded. "Sheesh, you got no concept of sharing, do you? Nothing lasts forever, you know!"
"Oh, but I will, and if you all don't stay out of my way, you will suffer the same fate as your friend." Gothel told them darkly, before noticing Kairi and grinned evilly again. "On the other hand, that young lady looks too precious to leave or kill. Hand her over and I will spare your lives; I could use another with a bit of Light."
Kairi gasped before grunting, though Sora and Riku both stood in front of her as Sora told Gothel, "Forget it! You're not getting Kairi!"
"Then I will make you!" Gothel hissed, preparing to charge at the group who stood ready.
However, before anyone could do anything, Eugene, with the last of his strength, unprecedentedly cut Rapunzel's golden hair straight through with a shard of glass from the broken mirror that Gothel knocked into earlier. Rapunzel was alarmed as were the worldly travellers who gasped in shock. Rapunzel's long, golden hair had been cut off entirely to the same length as Aqua's blue hair. The result was every strand of hair quickly transforming from a golden color to a brownish color.
"No!" Gothel exclaimed in panic and horror, hurriedly grabbing the large armful of hair. "What have you done!? What have you done!?"
By then, it was too late as the rest of the hair turned fully brown, and along with it, the evil woman's skin became so pale that it was ghostly white. The woman's hair swiftly became grey before turning white as well. Having aged rapidly, Gothel desperately stared at her appearance in the remains of the broken mirror and screamed in horror that all of her youth was done right before her eyes. In horror and panic at her new appearence, she covered her head with a black blanket, though totally unaware of the fact she was currently stepping towards the tower's window which was the only way in and out.
Pascal, who'd been hiding in fear, had an idea and quickly used the remains of Rapunzel's cut hair as a tight rope and pulled hard, which caused Gothel to blindly trip onto and stumble out of the window where she screamed and fell head first. Within seconds, she had landed upon the grass, but there was nothing but than a cloud of dust rising from the blanket.
"Well...there she goes." Myde muttered.
"Eugene! No! Stay with me, Eugene!" Rapunzel's devasated cries brought the worldly travellers back to reality and they all gasped in horrified realization that Eugene had just sacrificed his chances to stay alive to stop Gothel and give Rapunzel the freedom she longed for. Rapunzel was urgently attempting to revive Eugene with her hair — to no success. Her hair had been cut and all its power was lost forever.
Suddenly Sora, seeing this, had memories of when he, Jack and Elizabeth watched Will slowly die, but unlike that time since Will had been revived though he had to serve as the Dutchmen's new Captain, there was no saving Eugene.
"Rapunzel?" Eugene asked weakly, in his dying breathe.
"What?" A tearful Rapunzel inquired, not wanting to lose him. To lose the man she had come to fall in love with.
"You were my new dream..." Eugene told her as his eyes slid closed.
The former blonde smiled sadly as she replied, "And you were mine."
Eugene managed to smile in response before took his final breath and then went limp in Rapunzel's arms. Rapunzel's eyes began to swell in tears as she cried and hugged the man's body. Sora and everyone couldn't believe that Eugene was dead, and some lowered their heads, Kairi bursting into tears as she threw herself into Sora's arms, crying in his chest while he held her to try his best to be comforting even though he tried not to cry himself. Aqua, Skuld and Xion did the same, crying in the chests of Terra, Ven and Roxas. Mickey sniffled in sorrow, Goofy and Donald hugged each other, sobbing, Myde tried not to cry pathetically, and Riku, Lea and Isa lowered their eyes, trying not to let their own tears show.
Rapunzel by then began to sing her healing song, even though she and the others knew, Eugene was gone. However, as she leaned onto his head, a single tear fell from her eye and landed upon Eugene's cheek and the tear absorbing into the cheek, flowing down his body. A glimmer of golden light forming on Eugene's stomach stole everyone's focus from mourning, and they looked up to see what was happening. Rapunzel's eyes grew in surprise as did everyone else's. All at once, bright strands of golden light flooded the dark, shadow-infested room of the tower's solitary chamber.
The light then became a shape of a flower over Eugene's body before it vanished. Everyone watched in awe as Eugene's head began to move before his eyes blinked open and he gasped in the air, before looking up at the stunned Rapunzel, muttering, "Rapunzel?"
"Eugene?" Rapunzel replied, relief and happiness looming her expression as did everyone else's.
Eugene smiled, saying, "Did I ever tell you I've got a thing for brunettes?"
"Eugene!" Rapunzel cried happily and hugged Eugene as tightly as she could. When the two were at eye level, a sudden kiss occurred between them. The worldly travellers all smiled in relief and happiness, and some were shedding tears happily.
"It's a miracle." Aqua whispered happily.
The others nodded.
"Whoa...Who knew the former blondie still had a tiny bit of that healing power to bring her boyfriend back?" Vanitas muttered in Sora's mind, admittedly impressed before he groaned again. "Oh, yuck. I did it again."
Sora mentally chuckled and simply ignored the dark embodiment.
A short time later, after Sora freed the healed Eugene, they and everyone else, including Rapunzel, Maximus and Pascal all returned to the Kingdom, where they watched the speechless guard into the castle to bring the King and Queen, Rapunzel's real parents.
They had used Rapunzel's cut off hair to slid down and then returned, though a couple of locks from it were in Rapunzel's hand as they waited. All at once, the brown doors bearing the sun-shaped emblem of the kingdom opened and out stepped two people — the king and queen of the land. The king was tall and slender with blue eyes, and sporting a brown beard that matched his hair under a golden crown. The queen was tall and slender with green eyes, long, silky drown hair under a golden crown, and wearing a purple dress.
It didn't take anyone long to notice that the Queen resembled an older version of Rapunzel, and both of them realised this as the former placed her hand upon the latter's cheek. In an instant, she recognized her as her daughter and hugged Rapunzel who emotionally returned the hug. A moment later, the king joined the embrace, knowing his precious daughter had come home at long last.
Sora and his companions all smiled warmly, and chuckled when the Queen brought in a slightly nervous Eugene into the reunion, knowing that had helped to bring her daughter home.
Few minutes later, everyone gathered outside the Kingdom as the worldly travellers prepared to leave the Kingdom of Corona behind, with Rapunzel, Eugene, Pascal, Maximus, and the King and Queen seeing them off.
"Thank you for everything, guys." Rapunzel told Sora's group. "You're all really good friends."
"We're more than happy to help." Mickey replied, smiling.
"We're gonna miss you." Eugene said. "It was awesome to meet you guys."
"Along with Eugene, all of you have our deepest gratitude." The King told them with a warming smile.
The Queen nodded, adding, "Thank you for returning our beloved daughter home."
"We're all glad that things turned out okay." Sora replied, and his friends nodded.
Just then, the tiara that Rapunzel now wore on her head glowed and floated up slightly, surprising everyone while Sora's Keyblade appeared in his hand. Knowing what this meant, he held it out as the crown shape appearing underneath him as the world's Keyhole appeared via a beam of light shooting out from the Tiara. Sora then thrusted the Kingdom Key upward and via another beam of light, he locked up the world's keyhole, protecting it from the darkness before things returned to normal.
"Wow!" Rapunzel breathed in awe.
"Whoa! What was that?" Eugene asked, amazed. Even the King and Queen were amazed by the unusual display.
"The world's safe from the darkness." Lea answered. "That means we'd better get goin'."
"We'll be back soon." Riku told Rapunzel and the others.
"Thanks, guys! Come and visit anytime." Rapunzel said as she, Eugene, Pascal, Maximus, the King and Queen waved a goodbye to the worldly travellers who waved a farewell to them before leaving the kingdom, and once they were in the forest, the group teleported back into the Gummiship and left the Kingdom of Corona behind to continue their journey.
{Kingdom of Corona}
Meanwhile, Ardyn was reporting to Chaos in the dark domain on the situation that occured recently.
"Those fools had returned that Pirate to his world, and eliminated Davy Jones. Yet they freed Calypso from her human flesh prison. This could be useful." Chaos surmised.
"Indeed. Yet, we're still short on other Gods, but that can easily be fixed." Ardyn replied.
Chaos snorted, "Yet, the chosen who can summon the Gods will get in our way along with that boy. Should they soon arrive, they will prevent us from achieving my goal. They must be stopped."
Apparently the magenta haired man had thought of a loop hole, because he pointed out, "Ah, but there's one thing they didn't count on; in order to summon and destroy Kingdom Hearts, the Seven Princesses and the Thirteen Darknesses are needed."
"Oh?"
"While those fools took their sweet time in locating Aced and a way to stop you, I visited the Realm of Sleep and found each and every fragments of the dark heart that attempted to replicate himself into thirteen pieces, which placed together has indeed been the thirteen original pieces of the only weapon that can summon Kingdom Hearts. All that is left is gathering the seven hearts of light." Ardyn told him.
This admittedly surprised Chaos, who, realising what Arydn meant, grinned evilly. "Yes. That is the key. Tell me; how many Princesses did you collect so far?"
Ardyn chuckled before turning and gestured behind him, where in sleeping crystals, were four figures of Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, and Alice, having been captured during his mission. "All we need now is Princess Jasmine, Belle and the seventh Princess who had become a Keyblade wielder."
He then frowned and added, "However, the moment her Nobody became human and parts of the Nobody returned to Kairi, due to also wielding the Keyblade, she has become stronger within her heart."
"Why do you say that?" Chaos questioned, frowning.
"She has become so strong that her heart has created a shield. In order to break it, a sacrifice must be made to retrieve it to bring forth the X-Blade." Ardyn told him. He then grinned again and added, "But I have discovered an alternative; new generations of Princesses of heart can work, even just one would do. With or without Kairi, it certainly would not matter, because death is waiting for her and everyone else in the Realm of Light."
Chaos considered Ardyn's words, and knew that the latter was right. With Kairi now a Keyblade wielder, it complicates things. Yet with or without her, it did not matter if Ardyn had found a loophole into this. "Very well. And what of you...Blaine?"
When Chaos said this while gazing behind, as Ardyn turned to follow the direction, out of the shadows came a young-looking man in a long jacket, a hat that was similiar to Ardyn's but with a feather, black and white shirt, with dark hair.
"An army of fallen Keyblade have already been assembled and brought to you, as you requested. All we need now is the rest of the pieces." The young man, Blaine, replied as his eyes glowed red.
Kairi didn't know where she was. Or put it more correctly, she knew where she was, she just didn't know how she got here. Yet, her heart ached at the devastation around her as everyone she knew...were laying all over the Keyblade Graveyard, and to her horror, three feet in front of her, was the familiar figure of Sora who layed there, barely breathing.
"Sora!" Kairi cried out, but as she was about to run towards him, everyone including Sora then instantly vanished, which made her confused. Then a large shadow loomed over her which was followed by a strong light. Turning to her right, her eyes widened as the same figure she saw in her previous nightmares appeared, and floating in front it were many figures; six lights and thirteen darknesses, all then being absorbed into a terrifying weapon.
She then cried out in pain before collasping onto her knees, her hands flying to her chest. Kairi squeezed her eyes tightly before she screamed as a piece of light flew out of her chest, before it was absorbed into the weapon which was grasped into the hands of the being, along with Chaos. Yet Kairi didn't feel herself fading or the darkness taking her heart. In fact, she could still feel it in her chest and some of her light. What was going on?
"The Light of the ordinary boy...some transfered into your heart and protected your heart...the light of the X-Blade has been extracted...but I still need you!" The figure bellowed, before reaching out towards Kairi who gasped and before she could do anything, she was grabbed and the giant long fingers wrapped around her body.
"Let me go! Let, me, go!" Kairi screamed as she pounded onto the massive fingers, but she was held tightly while being drawn closer and closer towards the figure who opened it's sharp-toothed mouth to engulf her...
Kairi let out a gasp as she awoke with a jolt, which alarmed everyone else who turned to face her. It took her a moment to realise that she just had another nightmare as she panted. She and some of the others had taken a nap after their adventure in Kingdom of Corona.
"Kairi! Are you alright?" Sora asked, worriedly as he and the others approached her while Mickey placed the Gummiship on auto-pilot.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Kairi replied, trying to will her heart to calm down even though the rawness of the intensed fear of the nightmare. Still, it felt very real to simply be a dream, and it was the third time she had it. Was it some kind of warning? Who was that figure? It wasn't Chaos, and Xehanort is dead.
Could it be...Bhunivelze?
"That dream..." She muttered to herself.
"Dream?" Aqua asked, concerned.
"What is it about?" Xion asked.
Kairi frowned, before deciding to tell everyone what she had been seeing in her nightmares lately and every thing she remembered in it, which horrified the rest of the worldly travellers on the description and how the one she just had now involved the X-Blade.
"Okay, I'd be panicking away too if I had that nightmare." Myde shuddered, nervously. He felt sorry for Kairi having a bad dream like that.
"If Kairi's having these awful dreams, then it's not a good thing." Mickey said, concerned and firmly. "And if she's right, that monster-giant could be Bhunivelze and he's after Kingdom Hearts."
"But why would Bhunivelze want Kingdom Hearts? I thought he wanted to turn humanity into his puppets." Lea pointed out, worriedly.
Isa frowned deeply, "Unless he needs Kingdom Hearts to gain his goal. He had been weakened by the savior all those years ago."
"But who's to say that the dreams are visions of the warning? We still don't know much about what will happen." Skuld pointed out, concerned. "I think we should keep an eye on this and look further into the situation.
Realising that she was right, the others nodded while Sora placed a comforting hand on Kairi's shoulder, saying, "It'll be okay. I won't let anything more happen to you."
Despite that she had a feeling that something else was going to happen, Kairi smiled warmly at her friend, gently covering his hand with hers. Though this moment between was cut short when they heard Donald snicker and both turned to see him and Goofy, along with Riku and Lea, smirk knowingly. Blushing heavily, Sora and Kairi looked away while lowering their hands, embarrassed. Neither one told the rest of the group of their...amazing moment together where they kissed.
Just then, the navigator alerted everyone which had Sora and Goofy to take control this time and looked to see another world that came into view. It had a giant Clock Tower that resembled to the Big Ben in another world they, Donald and even Riku were familiar with.
"That looks like London in Neverland." Sora muttered, puzzled.
"Yeah, but I don't see Neverland near it, though." Goofy said, confused.
Donald rolled his eyes, and told him in annoyance, "That's because it's not Neverland."
"Looks like it's another new world. Let's go take a look." Mickey suggested. The others nodded and prepared for landing.
{MOUSEDOM}
The atmosphere was dark and dank as the giant clock tower rang it's bell within the city streets, the lights from most houses out, though there were lights coming from the street lamps shining in random places. A horse drawn carriage rode on by near the building and the moment it passed, fifteen beams of light rained down before they dimmed and revealed the worldly travellers who looked around to see...that the surrounding buildings were much larger than they expected.
"Don't tell me...we're small again, aren't we?" Myde grumbled, already annoyed as memories of Toy Mania filled his mind.
Ven sighed, just as annoyed. "Yeah, we are...I hate being small."
The others looked around, and indeed, they were now no bigger than mice...well, mice that aren't like Mickey, anyway. Much smaller than they were when they were toy forms in Toy Mania...back when Captain Jack Sparrow had been travelling with them.
Just then, a loud sound of thunder startled the group and when they looked up at the dark stormy clouds, and large rain droplets began to patter down at them which made the group sigh.
"Well, that's just great." Lea muttered sarcastically. "Not even ten minutes here and already we're not gettin' a warm welcome."
"Let's find shelter and quickly." Terra advised.
The group hurried down a nearby alleyway where there were boxes and a broken mattress. There sat a discarded boot which, while not really a good place to wait for the rain to stop, it was better than nothing. Despite Myde's protests, they went to approach it but paused when they heard, to their concern, the sound of a little girl crying.
"Do you hear that?" Roxas whispered.
When they peaked inside, there sat a little mouse girl, clad in a blue coat, and a lighter blue scarf with a blue hat that had a red cotton barble in the center, white socks and black shoes, sitting on an old medicine box and sobbing quietly. Seeing her in tears nearly broke all of their hearts as they shared a concerned glance, before Kairi approached the little girl.
"Hey." She said softly, making the girl mouse to look at her. "Are you okay?"
The little mouse girl sniffled, though she felt a ease when everyone, even Isa, looked at her gently. All of them then heard an unfamiliar voice speak behind them, "Oh, oh my." causing the group to turn and see another, somewhat chubby mouse with a moustche peaking through the shoe.
He had an umbrella that kept him dry from the rain and wore a smart purple suit with a blue bow tie, a bowler hat, pants and black shoes, carrying a bag in his left hand. He also had brown fur with blonde eyebrows that matched his moustche.
When he noticed the worldly travellers, he muttered in surprise, "I say. In all my years, I've never seen mice like you chaps and ladies before."
Myde nearly blurted out that Mickey was the only mouse in their group, but he quickly remembered the world order and kept his mouth shut.
"What are you all doing here in this weather?" The mouse asked.
"Well, sir, we needed a place to dry off and then, we found this little girl in here." Roxas answered as he and most of the others stepped aside to reveal the little mouse girl, with Kairi doing her best to comfort her.
"We're not sure what happened, but I think something awful happened." Mickey added.
"I see." The mouse said, before he approached the little girl mouse and Kairi, asking the younger one, "Are you alright, my dear?"
The little girl mouse still sniffled, which made the older mouse pull out a handkerchief out of his pocket and handing it to the girl, saying comfortingly, "Come now. Here, dry your eyes." which the little girl took the hankie and blew her nose before handing it back to Dawson, who put it in his pocket.
"There, that's better," The male mouse said. "Now tell us, what's troubling you, my dear?"
"I'm-I'm lost. I'm trying to find Basil of Baker Street." The little girl mouse explained, as she pulled out an old piece of newspaper from her pockets and gave it to the male mouse as the worldly travellers gathered closer, curious on who this Basil of Baker Street was.
The male Mouse took out a pair of reading glasses as he read the newspaper clip, reading aloud, "Famous detective solves baffling disappearance."
He and the worldly travellers shared glances of realization, before Lea asked gently, "Uh, but what 'bout your Mom and Dad?"
"That's why I must find Basil!" The girl choked out before she sobbed into her scarf which made Lea wince, realising that he made her cry again.
"Hey, whoa, whoa. Take it easy." Lea quickly told her, "It's gonna be okay, really."
"Shhh, it's okay. Come here." Kairi said soothingly, wrapping an arm around the crying little girl.
The male mouse removed his glasses and told the little girl, "Well, I don't know any Basil, but I do remember where Baker Street is." with a small smile. This was enough to brighten the little girl as she smiled while the others smiled in relief.
"We can help you find him." Kairi added with a smile. "What's your name?"
"My name's Olivia Flaversham." Olivia replied, smiling at her.
"I'm Kairi." Kairi replied, then introduced the rest of her group to her and the mouse.
"And you, sir?" Terra kindly asked the male mouse.
"My name is Dr. David Q. Dawson." Dawson replied, before he, the worldly travellers and Olivia began their journey towards Baker Street in hopes of finding this detective Basil.
The group, with a handful of Heartless having appeared randomly as usual which the Worldly Travellers took care off while protecting both Olivia and Dawson who both never saw these monsters before, found themselves standing in front of a small mousehole on the outside of 221B Baker Street. Mickey was in front of the group with Olivia at his side as he knocked on the door.
The door opened to reveal a female middle aged mouse, clearly the maid, with her arms loaded down with clothes and books.
"Excuse me, ma'am. Is this where Basil of Baker Street lives?" Mickey politely asked.
"I'm afraid it is, young man." The maid replied with deep sigh. "He's not here at the moment, but you're welcome to come in and wait."
"Gosh, we love to but we don't wanna be too long. See, this young girl here-" Mickey began as he gestured at Olivia, only to realise to his, and everyone else's concern, she wasn't there. "Huh? Where'd so go?"
"She ran inside." Myde pointed, and true to his word, Olivia was seated on the large red chair near the fireplace as she looked curiously through a magnifying glass.
"Oh my!" The maid cried out the moment she saw the little girl and all but stuffed everything she was holding into Lea and Dawson's arms while the said two nearly dropped everything was she hurried over to Olivia. "You poor dear! You must be chilled to the bone!"
As the maid squeezed the water out of Olivia's hat and scarf before hanging them up to dry, she told the little girl, "Oh, but I know just the thing. Let me fetch you a pot of tea and some of my fresh cheese crumpets." and with that she dashed out of the room, leaving the group to their own devices.
When they entered the room as both Lea and Dawson carefully put the stuff they were holding down, they and Olivia glanced around the room which, while very warm and cosy, was filled with a bizarre contraption: a small propeller operating a bellow, with several cigarettes and a pipe attached, all of which were puffing. There was also another contraption with four different pairs of shoes that were being turned in a circular motion, first being brushed with black paint, and then setting a print on a stack of paper.
"I'm not so sure about this Basil." Donald muttered, getting a suspicious feeling about all this.
All of the sudden, an unfamiliar voice called out behind them in a tone of truimpht, "Aha! The villain's slipped this time! I shall have him!" which made Donald scream and clinged onto Goofy's back while wrapping his arms around his neck, quivering. Everyone else turned to see a fat white mouse dressed in Chinese robes, a revolver in hand and a crazed look in his eyes, as thunder boomed and lightning flashed.
This made Dawson and the worldly travellers quite alarmed, while the white mouse ran in madly with a gun in his hand, calling out, "Out of my way! Out of my way!" while tossing his hat.
"I say! Who-" Dawson was cut off when the hat landed on his head, and it got a bit stuck since it was tight. He then pulled it off with a tug and tried again, demanding to the strange behaving mouse, "Who are you?"
"What? Oh?" The white mouse muttered, turning to face Dawson and the worldly travellers, before he grabbed to top of his head and at first it looked like he was pulling his head off which disturbed Sora's group, the said head was revealled to be mask, because underneath was a real head of a brown slender mouse as he introduced himself, "Basil of Baker Street, my good fellow."
Basil just smirked at the group's confused looks as he pulled a cord inside his robe, deflating it and revealing himself to be wearing a fat suit while he was a thin, tall mouse.
"What a weird guy." Sora whispered to his group who all nodded in agreement with dumbfounded looks.
"And his costume is creepy as heck." Lea whispered, shuddering slightly, while Donald grumbled in annoyance as he climbed down from Goofy who just stood there blinking with a puzzled look.
Olivia on the other hand, smiled in delight as the person she'd been waiting for had finally arrived. "Mr. Basil! I need your help and-"
"All in good time," Basil replied, clearly not listening to her as he approached a house robe hanging on the wall by a dart, removing it and putting on the robe before scoring a perfect bullseye on the dartboard.
"But you don't understand!" Olivia pleaded. "I'm in terrible trouble!"
"If you'll excuse me." Basil said, clearly not listening as he walked past, causing the girl to sigh and the rest of the group to become agitated and annoyed.
"Hey, that's not nice, ignoring a little girl who needs your help here!" Sora exclaimed, only to groan in annoyance as Basil ignored him as well.
So Dawson tried his luck this time, "Now see here! This young lady is in need of assistance! I think you ought to-"
"Will you hold this please, Doctor?" Basil interrupted, handing him the gun.
"Of course." Dawson said, only to jump in alarm as he had the gun aimed at himself and held out out in an arm's length until Basil retrieved it.
"This is the great detective?" Isa deadpanned in a whisper.
Skuld blinked uncomfortably, "Well, he does seem..."
"Strange?" Aqua guessed.
"Weird?" Xion suggested.
"Obnoxious?" Kairi added.
"Eccentric." Skuld finally settled.
"Wait a moment." Dawson realised, asking Basil in confusion, "How did you know I was a doctor?" which surprised the worldly travellers as well, while Basil was placing a single bullet in the revolver.
Basil then turned to him and explained, "A surgeon, to be exact. Just returned from military duty in Afghanistan. Am I right?"
"Why, yes." Dawson chuckled. "Major David Q. Dawson. But how could you possibly-?"
"Quite simple, really," Basil said, holding up Dawson's arm to reveal a stitch mark on his coat sleeve. "You've sewn your torn cuff together with the Lembert stitch, which of course, only a surgeon uses."
While he gathered several pillows and tossed them to Dawson, Basil continued. "And the thread is a unique form of catgut distinguished by its peculiar pungency found only in the Afghan provinces."
"Amazing!" Dawson said in awe.
"Actually, it's elementary, my dear Dawson," Basil said simply as he aimed the revolver at the pillows... that were still in Dawson's hands. Dawson gasped before throwing the pillows onto an armchair and everyone else gasped in alarm.
"Incoming!" Lea shouted as he, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mickey who grabbed Olivia, Donald, Goofy who screamed in panic, Terra, Ven, Aqua, Skuld, Myde and Dawson either dove onto the ground while covering their heads, hid under the table or hid behind another chair or even used the barrier spell to shield themselves and the others.
BANG!
Basil fired the gun, and the pillows exploded into a cloud of feathers as the others cautiously peaked out, with freaked out expressions.
"This guy is nuts." Myde muttered, scaredly.
No one disagreed with him.
A/N: So we ended Kingdom of Corona and already started on Mousedom. Again, thank you Bopdog111 for helping me with the Heartless battle.
Hopefully I'll post another chapter soon(if my computer survives. Maybe not). See you then!