Arthur stirred around on the floor, but nobody seemed to notice, Arthur felt the ship come to an abrupt halt, before the trio hopped out of their seats and peered back at Arthur, but before he could say anything, they all jumped on him, smothering him in a big hug. They all shouted out
"You're okay!" Arthur rubbed his head and managed to get them off.
"Yeah… Yeah I am" Arthur did not seem too happy about it, and they all noticed. Sora interjected
"Arthur, what's-"
"Nothing, I'm fine". Arthur responded with little emotion, startling the trio, Sora tried to say something, but got shut down with the same response
"Arthur, I don't care what Vanitas told me, I'm not mad, I know who you are". Arthur just shook his head, and promptly exited the gummi ship, and vanished from sight.
He was falling, very fast, and it was very unexpected. He only saw the whites of the ground below him, and it was approaching, very fast. Arthur braced himself to roll on impact, he succeeded and rolled his damage away. Sora, Donald and Goofy followed suit, and when he turned around to confront them. Sora ran up and put a hand on his shoulder. Sora gave him a firm look and said
"I had never seen anyone that angry, the second he hit you, well, he just exploded in rage, if it weren't for Mike and Sulley, we would all be gone". Arthur sighed and asked
"Am I to blame for his anger and bitterness?". Sora vehemently shook his head and said
"You didn't know any better, and now, you're trying to make it right, that's all anyone can ask of you now, and I support you 100%, no matter what!" Goofy and Donald chimed in with enthusiastic agreement. But a new voice chimed in as well
"Yeah, that guy sure does have a stick up his butt if I say so". Everyone looked over and Arthur gasped at who he saw. It was none other than the runt of the nobodies, Demyx. Sora instinctively pulled out his keyblade and Arthur had to quickly stop him
"No, no, no, no, no, this is, um, this is my friend, Demyx, the one from the reserve slots". Something in Sora's mind clicked and he pieced it together
"Oh! I get it, this is your boyfriend!" Arthur nearly choked on the air and Demyx had the wind taken out of him by sheer surprise, they were both beat red and unable to do anything but stammer out denials, before just sighing in defeat and nodding. Sora held out his hand and Demyx, as uncomfortable as could be, shook it. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sora! Boy, you wouldn't believe what Arthur has said about-ow!" Sora was cut off, as Sora dealt a harsh punch to his shoulder, shutting him up. This made Demyx smirk as he said
"Why, Arthur, you should let him say what he has to say, it's rude to cut someone off". Demyx was greeted by a death beam of a glare and backed up. Arthur said
"He wasn't saying anything important, right Sora?" It was framed in such a way that if Sora disagreed Arthur would straight up delete him from the universe, so Sora shyly nodded while fidgeting with his fingers, not looking at Arthur. Demyx was about to say something, but was cut off by a new voice calling out to them
"Sora, Donald, Goofy! That you, mates?" They all turned to see a man in an odd looking outfit running at them, but Sora called back
"Jack? Is that you, where are we?!" Jack offered no explanation as he bolted past them
"No time! We've gotta catch the Black Pearl, now come on! Get a move on!" Sora, Donald and Goofy ran off with Jack, but Demyx and Arthur never budged, they decided that since they didn't know that guy, they didn't need to bother, instead, they caught up a bit.
"That Vanitas guy seems really mad, he got into a fist fight with your nobody, what happened?" Arthur sighed
"It's just… I… I don't know how to explain it, I just want to be his friend, and he's not making it easy". Demyx pondered about, out loud
"Why make friends with someone so broody and angry all the time?" Arthur let out another sigh, and shook his head
"That's a long, long story, let's not get into it, I don't fully understand it myself, let's just leave that there". Demyx nodded, and not too subtly, wrapped an arm around Arthur and Arthur leaned into his side. They both let out their breaths
"I don't ever want to leave you ever again" Demyx heard Arthur whisper, and he nodded to that. Demyx and Arthur looked off into the distance to see Sora and the others fighting heartless beings in red coats. Demyx then asked
"Could I see you journal?" Arthur tossed the idea about in his head, before nodding, and handing it over.
"Just ONE entry?! Come on, Arthur, you gotta fill up the whole book! Here, write one up right now". Arthur looked shocked, what else could he say?
"Uh-uh, Demy, that-"
"Oh no you don't! You aren't going to weasel your way out of this one! Now go on, write something". Arthur blushed and shakily took it back, his voice was also shaky as he stuttered out
"y-you better not laugh". Demyx got really serious as he held Arthur's shaking hand
"I would never". That gave Arthur all the reassurance he needed to write up something
Demyx wanted me to write up something else, wonder why he'd ask such a thing, I can write at my own speed. Anyways, it's been a while since I've seen spoken to him, I really want him to stay with us, but I know he can't. Right now, we're… Somewhere, I don't exactly know, but it seems that Sora knows. I journeyed with Sora to a world called Monstropolis, there, I discovered my strange connection to Vanitas, and his Unversed, which were found at that factory. My attempts to befriend him went as well as could be expected, he's so defensive and I just go too quick that we can never see eye level on anything.
Demyx looked over it and beamed back a smile
"There you are! Now, just continue to fill up all those pages with your thoughts!" Arthur chuckled and nodded, but before he could say anything, they got called over by Sora, to which they ran towards them, well, Arthur did, Demyx simply teleported.
They found themselves on a ship, sat around Sora, Donald and Goofy, as this odd lady began speaking about how rare Sora's courage was to see. They were cut off by the sound of cannon fire, and Jack yelling out "Brace for impact!". Right after he yelled that out, they were pelted with cannonballs, rocking the boat. They all looked towards the direction it came from, and saw a very large ship, it had way more cannons on its side than the Black Pearl did, it also looked a lot more stylish.
"Barbosa! Have you been conspiring with those fiends?" The man, who was Barbosa, looked offended
"I wouldn't impune me honor by being caught conspiring with these sorts" Jack seemed to have a retort for that, as he immediately responded
"Ah, but you have done before!" Sora broke up the argument by yelling
"Look!" Everyone diverted their attention to whatever Sora was pointing at, it was a giant… Bird like creature, as well as several smaller, flying heartless trailing after it and leaving behind dust, colored gold, pink, and blue. The giant bird heartless circled around the, while spitting out massive fireballs. They once again braced for impact, when it hit, it was clear the ship wouldn't survive. Sora, quick to his feet, jumped onto one of the streams of dust and called back to them
"I'll deal with the big heartless, you guys protect the ship!" Sora ordered to his companions, Arthur attempted to defy Sora's orders, but Demyx stopped him and directed him to the swarms of heartless swamping Donald and Goofy. With a sigh, Arthur and Demyx charged at the heartless on deck. Arthur was surprised to see Demyx swinging wildly with his Sitar, and playing it like he were at a rock band concert. Water figures erupted from below, slashing at the heartless, doing quite a bit of damage, before combusting and doing splash damage, literally. Arthur hack and slashed at the enemies before him, dispatching them with general ease, Arthur and Demyx teamed up with Donald and Goofy to form a small circle, jack and the others took over to return cannonball fire back at the massive ship, occasionally targeting the large heartless, to help Sora, as he was entirely on his own. The waves of heartless were endless, and it seemed there was no ending to the swarming pests. That was until they all vanished, even the ones whom they had not gotten to yet, all vanished, including their trails of colored dust. They heard a familiar voice shout out
"Oh no!" The 'no' was dragged out as the voice got closer and closer, and upon perceiving that the young boy was in danger, Arthur ran in the direction of his endangered idol, jumping into the water, and momentarily forgetting that he could not swim, just as he plunged into the watery depths below. Though his body screamed at him to not go any further, he could still see Sora, and raced towards him, his self preservation instincts, muted. He latched onto Sora's hand and would not let go of him, but he realized he would not be able to get up to the surface, they were both sinking fast. Not thinking, Arthur shook the boy, but he was knocked unconscious from the high fall. Arthur was panicking, and wasn't sure if either of them would live to see the sun, this situation rang familiar, he had deserted his friends for Sora, again, and again, he didn't entirely regret it. In a brief moment of clarity, Arthur used all his might to swing Sora above him, so he could be guided back to the surface, at least he would survive. Just as his vision seemed to dim, Arthur felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around his torso and he was being dragged back up to the surface, but he passed out before reaching the top.