Clear Skies
Chapter 6: Vessels
-"Nobodies? Where Did They Come From?"-
A/N: Hi, how's everyone holding up during the quarantine? I'm proud to report that I'm still not dead. I'm pretty sure I've fought the virus off already, but I'm playing it safe. It's been a major shakeup to my routine, though, which is one reason why this took a while.
In fact, it took so long that I came up with a better idea for how it should go, heh heh heh...
Anyway, let's take a step back in time and check in on the other teams as they make their way through the KH3 worlds. Not everything is as you remember it to be, even for the Organization...
Be sure to check the previous chapter; some GummiNet conversations have changed to reflect a major event in this chapter. Even I can't organize the entire KH timeline without retconning a few things, it seems...
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[Team Roxas] Kingdom of Corona: The Tower...
Roxas and Co. stepped through a Gate Between and into a box canyon in the middle of nowhere. There was a beautiful waterfall coming down the cliff at the far end, feeding a clear and calm stream around the base of the most prominent feature of the area: a huge tower with only one window and no doors.
Lea, the tallest member of the group, bent down to address Xion, the shortest. "Are you sure we're in the right place, Xion? There are no trees."
"Good point. Let me check..." Xion stepped away from the others and summoned her favorite weapon set: the Sonic Blade sword and wings. A few heavy flaps brought her over the wall of the canyon, where she could see the forest they'd gotten lost in last time completely surrounding this natural hidey-hole. She called on the way back down, "Yep, the trees are everywhere else! Looks like we just hit the jackpot!"
"Then let's check out that tower," Roxas decided. "It's not like there's anything else to see here."
A new voice joined the conversation. "Nothing else? That's perfect!" A man came stumbling out of the tunnel behind Team Roxas - the only way in or out of the area for people without wings. He was cradling a brown leather satchel and seemed to have put a lot of effort into grooming his goatee, but otherwise seemed entirely normal. "I've had quite enough excitement for one day. Now, if you'll excuse me..." The man scrambled over to the tower and climbed right up the side in a big hurry.
Roxas watched him go with a bemused expression. "Okay...I wonder what his deal is?"
"He's a thief," Lea replied matter-of-factly. "He obviously stole whatever's in that satchel, and now he's on the run. The only question is, should we care?" Noticing the astounded looks the other two were giving him, he added, "What? It's not like this is my first recon mission. I worked a few shifts in Agrabah."
"Well, we were headed to the tower anyway," Xion pointed out. "And he might be on the run from the Heartless or something." Right on cue, a flock of bat-like Purebloods - Flutterings - swooped out of the cave, followed by the appearance of various colored spellcaster Heartless. The trio's Gummiphones pinged with each new Heartless entry being automatically added, although there wasn't time to check their Jiminy's Journal apps at the moment.
"First things first..." Roxas summoned his dual Keyblades and called down thin beams of Light from the sky to wipe out Heartless one by one. Xion switched from Sonic Blade to Ouroboros and fired off a Ragnarok to thin out the flying enemies further. Lea took the opportunity to work on switching seamlessly between his "Keyblade" and his chakrams, but Roxas worked too fast to get much practice in. The enemies didn't even last a minute.
"H-hey down there!" The man from earlier called down from the tower's window. "You guys are still there? Great! Have I got something to show you!"
"There are other people out there?!" An unknown girl's voice carried from somewhere inside the tower. "A-anyway, we're coming down!" The man hastily pulled back from the window as a long, fluffy, gold...something, extended from inside and wrapped around a hook above the windowsill that was seemingly installed for this specific purpose.
"What's that?" Xion asked Lea, who seemed to know things.
"Beats me." ...Or not.
"Whatever it is, I can feel the Light rolling off it from here," Roxas murmured.
They didn't have to wait long to find out. More of the gold stuff was funneled out the window by a girl in a purple dress, who was seemingly attached to the other end of it. It was...her hair? As if the sight of seventy feet of golden hair wasn't weird enough, the girl used it as a rope and pulley to lower herself down the side of the tower, carrying the man from earlier in her free arm. She dropped the last few inches to the ground and landed on her bare feet, working her toes into the dirt around the tower as though she'd never felt anything so novel before.
Then she noticed the trio of strangers in black coats and instantly put on a mask of suspicion. "Flynn, you said you came alone!"
"I-I did! They're not with me! But, since they seem to have handled the monsters that were chasing me well enough, maybe it'd be worth asking them to join us on this 'deal' of yours."
"Deal?" Roxas asked.
"Flynn" gestured to the girl. "This crazy hooligan," a glare from the girl instantly changed his tune, "er, I mean, this assertive girl knocked me out the instant I got inside. I woke up tied to a chair, and my precious satchel was missing. So now if I want to ever see it again, I have to bring her to the kingdom of Corona to see the Festival of Lights that's happening tonight."
Xion giggled. "All of that happened in the minute or two when we couldn't see you? You do need help."
"Who are you people, anyway?" The girl demanded, though her shaky expression betrayed her lack of confidence.
Roxas stepped forward and spoke for his team. "I'm Roxas, he's Lea, and she's Xion. We're here because...well, I wasn't sure, really, until I saw your hair. It's not often you find that much Light concentrated in one thing."
The girl jumped backward, only to run into the wall of the tower. "I knew it! Mother told me the outside world was full of bad people who would want to take advantage of my hair!" She pointed at Flynn. "Bodyguard, get rid of them!"
Lea put his palms up in a placating gesture. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, there's a big misunderstanding going on here! We're not the bad guys, we're here to protect people like you from the bad guys!"
"Oh? And who are the 'real' bad guys, then?"
"They...well, they wear the same coats as us..." Roxas dismissed his Black Coat and returned to his casual outfit, and Xion followed suit. "...but unlike them, we only wear them for travel. Well, and Lea doesn't have anything else to wear right now. There's one guy in particular we're on the lookout for: Long pink hair - not as long as yours, of course - and has power to control flowers and vines. His name's Marluxia."
"That doesn't sound like a 'guy'..." Flynn mused.
"I know, right?" Lea chuckled. "But he's one dangerous fellow. Got it memorized? Anyway, isn't it kind of rude to demand our names before offering your own, young lady?"
"It is? Uh, I mean, it is! I'm Rapunzel, and this is my first time venturing out of the tower."
Roxas chuckled. "Well, that explains a lot. It's nice to meet you, Rapunzel! Anyway, I think it'd be best if we joined your expedition to the kingdom for now. Besides Marluxia, there are a bunch of other monsters in the woods to watch out for, and our weapons are the best way to defeat them."
"Much appreciated! Then, without further adieu, let us be on our way!" Flynn strode past Team Roxas, but Rapunzel didn't take a step. "Er...Rapunzel? You aren't going to get to the kingdom unless you start walking. I'm certainly not going to carry you all the way there!"
Rapunzel was busy biting her fingernails. "I'm just worried...Mother will be so angry when she finds out I left the tower..."
Flynn waved her over. "C'mon, the woods are great! Aside from the monsters, and the guards, and that horse...but I'd much rather be done with this deal as soon as possible. Or you could just go home...and give me back my satchel?"
"We can deal with the monsters," Xion added, "but we got lost in the woods earlier. I guess we'll need your help, too, Flynn."
"I suppose you will. Just leave it to the dashing rogue, Flynn Ryder! I know these woods like the back of my hand." He gave Xion what he clearly thought was a charming, smoldering smile, but it just made the girl laugh. "Rapunzel, you did break my smolder with that frying pan!"
Xion changed her T-shirt to read, "Made from 100% Smolder-proof Materials", and gave Flynn a consoling pat on the arm. "I'm sure you tried your best, but I'm already spoken for."
Flynn groaned. "Whatever. Follow me, everyone." As he passed Lea, he whispered into the taller man's ear, "I washoping you'd get me out of this deal!"
Lea whispered back, "Let's call this little field trip your punishment for whatever stolen goods are in that satchel."
Flynn stumbled. "How did you...no one could possibly recognize me from the posters..."
Lea snorted. "Unlike the rest of this little group, I've got a little experience under my belt. Got it memorized?"
Flynn retorted, "You, uh...you don't have a belt."
Lea looked down at his Black Coat and pants. "Huh, I guess you're right. Well, lead on, then!"
Flynn led the group through the tunnel, under a curtain of vines that did a surprisingly good job of hiding the tunnel opening from the outside, and out into the woods.
"Wow, It's so beautiful!" Rapunzel ran ahead, turning this way and that to try and take in all of it. "I never knew the outside world had so many trees in it!"
"Tell me about it," Roxas grumbled, remembering the hour he'd spent out here earlier, looking at trees and nothing else.
Rapunzel's enthusiasm suddenly petered out. "Surely Mother must have had some reason not to let me see this..."
"I highly doubt that," Lea muttered. This "Mother" person sounded mighty suspicious, but maybe she was just overprotective of her daughter.
"The sun feels so good!" But that fervor had nothing on Rapunzel's sunny disposition.
Xion was equally excited to show off the world to a new friend. "Hey, try splashing through the puddle over here!"
Rapunzel hung her head in shame. "I'm a bad person. I should go back."
"Yes, let's do that," Flynn suggested, but he was ignored.
"I am NEVER going back!" Rapunzel rolled down a hill, getting wrapped up completely in her hair.
"Wow. Bipolar much?" Lea watched Rapunzel ping-pong back and forth between extreme joy and guilt.
Flynn got her attention. "Rapunzel, I can't help but notice you've been a little...conflicted...about this idea of yours."
"What did you want to find out there, anyway?" Roxas asked. "If you're so worried about going against your mom's wishes, there must be something really important to you out here, right?"
Rapunzel explained, "Well, every year on the night of my birthday, a bunch of floating lights come up over the horizon. Not the stars - these are different. It only happens on my birthday, so I can't help but think there's some connection to me. Every year, I ask Mother what the lights are, and she claims it's not important. I ask to go out and see them close up, but she says the outside world is too dangerous."
Xion cut in, "Then that means it's your birthday today? Happy birthday, Rapunzel!"
Rapunzel agreed, "Yes, I'm eighteen years old today. So I'm an adult now, so I should be able to go against Mother's wishes if I want to, right?"
"That's right." Roxas affirmed. "You've been locked up in that tower for eighteen years? Sorry to say it, but that's just dumb. No one else has to put up with that from their parents. Even I know that, and I don't even have parents."
"I knew it! Thanks, Roxas. I feel a lot better about doing this now. Ooh, look! A dandelion!" Instantly distracted, Rapunzel bent down to pick the fluffy plant and blow its seeds off, letting them drift away on the breeze. "Yeah, I thought that might work."
Flynn resigned himself to seeing this quest through to the end, since clearly the other three weren't going to let him talk Rapunzel out of it. When he looked up again, he noticed something odd. It was like a dandelion, but huge.
"What's this? It's so big and fluffy!" Rapunzel approached the fluff ball and poked it tentatively.
Roxas dashed in to pull her back as the ball of fluff suddenly came alive and burst out of the ground, revealing a round black body with glowing yellow eyes and two more dandelion-topped arms. "It's a Heartless! Watch out!" The Chief Puff scattered several seeds, which popped into smaller Puffs with yellow flowers on their heads.
Xion summoned Ouroboros and stood beside Roxas. "We'll handle this! You just stay back."
Instead, Rapunzel gathered her hair into a huge bundle and brandished it like a bludgeoning weapon. "I...I'm not afraid. I won't let these things stop me!" Cowed by peer pressure, Flynn also moved to the front line, stealing Rapunzel's frying pan for self-defense. After all, it worked well enough on himself.
"Can you actually fight with your hair?" Lea tossed his chakrams at the smaller Puffs.
"Yeah, my hair is pretty much indestructible most of the time, unless it's intentionally cut off. But that makes it lose its power, so I haven't had a haircut since I was a baby." Well, that almost explained her hair's ridiculous length. Rapunzel swung her golden locks at the Heartless like a whip, surprising everyone with flower-shaped bursts of Light that appeared whenever she hit the monsters, destroying them easily. But it bounced off the fluffy body of the Chief Puff, which also repelled Roxas' Keyblades.
Roxas backed off for a moment. "I can tell I'm making headway, but it's such a pain to get through!"
Rapunzel wondered, "Maybe we can blow its fluff away like the other dandelion?"
To test it, Xion raised Ouroboros and cast Aerora. A swirling pocket of air snaked its way toward the Chief Puff, bursting on impact and scattering the monster's fluffy armor to the sky. The monster itself was launched into the air and began to drift helplessly back down.
Its fluff started to grow back right away, but Lea wasn't having any of that. "Firaga!" The exploding fireball he lobbed at the monster consumed it and its entire group of minions. "And that's that. Let's move on."
"We've got a long way to go before we reach the kingdom, but it should be almost a straight shot to the north. This way!" Flynn led the way past a helpful signpost that read, "This way to the Kingdom of Corona".
The sign led them through a short ravine populated by a few groups of long-ranged Heartless like Bizarre Archers and Parasol Beauties, which fired rapid bolts and continuous lasers from their umbrellas. Xion tanked the first volley of beams for Flynn and Rapunzel with her Bot Armor's defense screen while Roxas zipped ahead to clear out the enemies. Five seconds later, he returned.
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At the end of the ravine was a small clearing, dominated by a large, off-white bulb that looked like some kind of out-of-place plant. Roxas was uncomfortably reminded of the stasis pods underneath the Old Mansion, but this clearly wasn't one of those. "Is that some sort of Nobody? I've never seen this kind."
Lea grunted in annoyance. "Yeah, Marluxia doesn't like sending his Reapers out very often."
"Should we beat it up?" Rapunzel asked.
"No, let us handle it. When they're curled up like that, they're only vulnerable to fire, and when they're unfurled, they can cut your hair off with their scythes. You two should run on ahead; we'll catch up after we clear up some unfinished business with those guys I was telling you about." Lea tossed a fireball at the bulb, knocking the Reaper into temporary disarray as it unfolded itself. "Go!"
"With pleasure! Knowing when to flee is one of my specialties! C'mon, Rapunzel, let's leave this to my bodyguards!" Flynn grabbed Rapunzel's hand and tugged her ahead; the two vanished into a darker part of the forest.
The Reaper finished untangling itself and called up two of its buddies, and the fight was on. The first thing they did was team up to scatter explosive flower petals through the air, forcing Team Roxas to back off for a bit. Of course, that just put them in the perfect position for Lea to roast the Nobody Servants some more. He couldn't quite put out enough firepower to destroy them with his "Keyblade", but he did stagger them, leaving them open for Roxas' Keyblades and Xion's ScimitArs to double-decapitate all three enemies.
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Defeat Marluxia!
Roxas dismissed his Keyblades and crossed his arms. "Okay, that's enough of that! Marluxia, come on out! I know you're there."
"Certainly." Marluxia suddenly appeared in a puff of rose petals...right behind Lea. Rather than whisper his Doom spell into Lea's ear, Marluxia swung his pink scythe right through the taller man's neck.
Lea's decapitated head began to fall from his shoulders, trailing blood.
"AXEL!" Calling the wrong name in panic as his Keyblades reappeared, Roxas dashed to his former mentor's side.
A pillar of Light shoved Marluxia away as Roxas simultaneously slammed Oathkeeper into Lea's chest.
A glowing heart rose from Lea's corpse when Roxas pulled the Keyblade back out and dismissed it. The boy locked his gaze on the tiny mass of Light, and his eyes flashed blue as he Observed it all. Then he grabbed the heart and rammed it into his own chest.
Lea's body vanished into sparkles.
All of this happened before Lea's head could hit the ground.
"MARLUXIA!" Finally able to react, Xion summoned Final Weapon. Wisps of Darkness rose from her shoulders as she gripped the handle, which was as tall as herself.
In her fit of rage, she actually managed to lift the fifty-foot sword and swung it horizontally. She carved a deep gash into the ravine around them and nearly bisected Marluxia, had he not vanished in a puff of rose petals while the blade was halfway through his chest.
The adrenaline began to fade, and Xion suddenly felt the weight of her weapon, dropping it with a resounding crash. "What...the HELL...just happened?!"
Roxas grabbed Xion's shoulders and forced her to make eye contact, blue eyes burning into green. "Xion, calm down! Lea's not dead! I managed to save his heart! If we can find or make a new body for him, he can come back!"
Xion shot back, "Then let's go round up Kairi and Lambda! They can do for Lea what they did for us, right?!"
Roxas began, "No, I don't think so..."
"WHY NOT!?"
Roxas tried to stay calm enough for both of them. "Because it would tie Lea to Lambda's Observation. He would have to stay on the same world as her, and he can't go to the Realm of Darkness with the rest of Team Riku. Lea would need to exist for a while before she could cut the link like she did with Terumi. No, what we need is a Replica."
Xion pointed out, "But where are we going to find one? Vessels don't grow on trees!"
"I think it's time we paid the Organization a visit." Roxas pointed Oblivion ahead, prepared to open a Gate Between...and paused. "Wait...do you know where the Keyblade Graveyard is?"
"Uh...no." Xion was still breathing heavily, but grew calmer the longer her rage had no target. "We should report this to the others." She pulled out her Gummiphone and began typing with a shaking finger.
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A short chat later...
Xion slipped her phone back into her pouch. "So that's it, then. I guess we'll just have to do our best without Lea until Aqua comes back."
Roxas shrugged helplessly. "Looks like it. Now, where did Rapunzel and Flynn run off to? I'm glad they didn't have to see...that, but it's dangerous for them to wander around without us."
"We know they're headed to the capital, and we know it's this way. Can we just fly over there?" Xion summoned her Sonic Blade wings.
Roxas shook his head. "They could've run into more Heartless, and I don't think we could see them from up there; look at that swamp up ahead."
Just ahead, the trees thickened to the point that barely any light reached the ground, even on a bright day like this. It reminded Roxas of what Yen Sid said: as long as Kingdom Hearts remains lost, even the brightest worlds will have their dark corners.
Seeing Roxas' point, Xion dismissed her wings. "But if we can't fly over it, then the only alternative is...oh, I'm not looking forward to this."
"Is someone there? Please, you have to help me!" A raven-haired woman rounded the corner behind them, looking wide-eyed and hysterical. "My beautiful little flower, Rapunzel, she's vanished! She ran away from her Mother! Oh, I don't know what I'd do without her! Call me Gothel, by the way."
Xion answered, "Rapunzel? Oh, you must be the 'Mother' she was talking about! Yeah, she went this way, but we kind of got separated. She says she'll come back as soon as she's seen those floating lights that are supposed to show up tonight."
"Oh, that silly girl! I told her it's dangerous out here!"
"That's what we're here for, ma'am. Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to catch up with her and protect her from the Heartless...and anyone else who has plans for her."
Roxas was talking about Marluxia, but Gothel reeled back like a Wight Knight being parried. "E-even so, I simply must ensure..."
Suddenly, the two youngsters were gone. It was just Mother Gothel and a plume of dust in the clearing after Roxas grabbed Xion and ran.
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A few seconds later...
"Was that the right call?" Xion yelled over the wind rushing past them and Roxas' shoes splashing through the muck.
Roxas rolled his eyes and kept skirting the edge of the swamp, looking for the exit. "C'mon, you've met Xemnas. Spouting such obviously fake concern, she can't be up to any good. And the way she reacted when I mentioned people targeting Rapunzel...that wasn't a concerned mother, that was a thief caught red-handed."
Xion had to agree, "Good point. I mean, it's not like we could've taken her along with us, anyway."
"Speaking of villains, couldn't Marluxia just heal that cut you gave him with a Cure or two?" Roxas chopped up a few Flutterings as he continued to run.
Xion smirked. "He could've...if he had his Panel Grid. I could tell he's a Nobody again, not a heart in a Replica. So he'd need to have a Panel Grid to cast magic. Thank Namine he doesn't!"
"Look, there's an exit!" Or not. It was a cave entrance that dead-ended right away at a flat wall, but Roxas didn't slow down. "Going up!" Roxas ran straight up the wall inside the cave, slicing through a gang of Powerwilds on the way up, and arrived at a ravine with very close walls covered in yet more Powerwilds. At least there was sunlight here, though, and Roxas could hear Rapunzel's worried voice up ahead.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy, boy! Easy! No need to fight!" She was trying to de-escalate a potential violent situation between Flynn and...a horse? Roxas and Xion slowed down to stay hidden for a bit.
Flynn backed away slowly. "It's no use, that horse has had a bone to pick with me for ages."
"And why would that be?" Rapunzel asked innocently. In reply, Maximus nodded toward one of the "Wanted" posters that seemed to be attached to every other tree, calling for the arrest of Flynn Ryder for multiple counts of larceny, breaking and entering in the royal palace, theft of a royal treasure, disturbing the peace, etc. The sketch on the posters bore an obvious resemblance to Flynn...but every single poster got his nose wrong in a different way.
Rapunzel put on her biggest, saddest eyes. "I know, I know. You've been hunting this guy for a long time, haven't you..." She looked closer at the horse's harness and saddle, which it still wore despite losing its rider earlier that morning, "...Maximus? No one appreciates you, do they? But the thing is, today is kind of the most important day of my life, and I need you two to not fight with each other, so he can lead me to the festival before sundown. It's...also my birthday! So could you do me a favor? Please?"
Maximus actually calmed down and obediently lowered his head, seemingly due to Rapunzel's Princess of Heart-like animal empathy talents...but Roxas and Xion could see the real reason: A little green chameleon perched on top of Rapunzel's head, staring down Maximus with an impressively intimidating and dominant aura, especially for a creature barely a fraction the horse's size.
Roxas decided now was as good a time as any to make himself known. "Was that chameleon always on your head, Rapunzel?"
Rapunzel looked up at the critter, who hung down from her bangs and waved at her. "Oh, Pascal, there you are! Good to see we didn't lose you in the swamp! ...Oh! Roxas! Xion! I'm glad you're o...wait a minute, where's Lea?"
Roxas and Xion both flinched. After a moment, Roxas hesitantly replied, "He...was injured fighting that guy we were talking about...and he had to go home for a while to recover. We managed to drive off Marluxia, though."
"Oh...well, I hope Lea feels better soon, then! Anyway, with all of you guys to escort me, I'm sure we can make it to the Kingdom before the festival starts!"
Flynn quickly agreed, "I suppose that's settled then, Maximus! The sooner we get there, the sooner you and I can get back to business as usual. Shake on it?"
He presented a hand, and Maximus reluctantly raised a hoof to shake. Then the horse stooped down to let Rapunzel ride the rest of the way...but refused to let Flynn, Roxas, or Xion board, even though he could have easily carried at least two of them. He did start trotting slowly enough for the others to keep up, though.
Roxas shrugged and set off. "I guess we do look kind of suspicious..."
Xion matched his stride, then whispered in his ear, "It wasn't nice to lie to Rapunzel like that."
Roxas whispered back, "I didn't lie. Axel said it himself: 'Heart is where the home is.' I'm sure he's gorging himself on sea salt ice cream at the Station Tower while we're still stuck with the escort mission."
"Yeah...I bet he is."
After a few minutes of walking and reminiscing, Flynn called over his shoulder with mild urgency, "Look sharp, you two! We've got company!" They'd arrived at another large clearing. Roxas vaguely recalled Maximus leading the group to a shortcut through the mountains, but the Heartless had set up this ambush right before the home stretch.
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Defeat the Heartless!
At first, it seemed to just be yet another horde of Powerwilds - those monkeys seemed to have infested every forested world in the sky - but one of them was bouncing on top of what looked like a multi-tiered stone watchtower on carriage wheels. It stood four times as tall as Flynn and sported many holes for cannons. The Powerwild on top stomped on a button that took up most of the tower's roof, causing the whole contraption to careen wildly around the clearing, blasting cannonballs every which way.
Roxas jumped in front of Rapunzel and Maximus to repel the cannon fire, then rushed at the tower and struck...but his Keyblades just bounced off. "If Lambda was here, she could've found this thing's weak point in a snap..."
Flynn pointed out, "That monkey on top is making it go, right? If we could knock it down, we could figure out how to break it later!"
Xion shouted, "I'll handle it!" She summoned a Ripple Bomb and heaved it at the Powerwild on top of the tower, destroying the lesser Heartless with a blast of multicolored fireworks.
Another Powerwild tried to jump up and take the fallen one's place, but Roxas zipped forward and intercepted it. "I guess we'll have to clear them all out."
Rapunzel shrieked, "Whoa, Max, that's way too fast! Eek! And where did you get a sword!?"
Sure enough, Maximus had a sword in his mouth, having somehow fished it out of his own saddle's side pack, and was mowing down monkeys at a breakneck pace. It was all Rapunzel could do just to hang on to the reins. Between the horse and Team Roxas, all the Powerwilds were mopped up before Flynn had a chance to do much of anything, either.
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Defeat the Chaos Carriage!
"And that just leaves the tower..." Flynn squinted at the rolling fortress, trying to find a weak point.
Rapunzel murmured, "Did someone just say something? ...Chaos Carriage?"
Seemingly in response, the tower collapsed. Its sections bounced down to the ground and arranged themselves in a line, connected by purple strings of energy like reins. The one closest to the travelers opened up, and the front legs and head of a Heartless horse burst out of it, pulling the rest of the tower behind it.
"What is it with me and horses? Get out of our way!" Flynn angrily flung his frying pan at the foe's face, and scored a direct hit. The horse slumped over in a daze, allowing Roxas to combo up on it while Flynn caught the frying pan that bounced right back to his hand. "...I have got to get me one of these!"
Unfortunately, the Chaos Carriage recovered before Roxas could finish it off, and swept its cargo in wide circles to get him to back off.
Xion responded by summoning Sonic Blade and another Ripple Bomb to bombard it from overhead. It quickly became clear that the Chaos Carriage had no anti-air options now that it was out of its tower form; after a few more bombs, the horse slumped over. To ensure the released heart wouldn't just reform a new Heartless somewhere else, Roxas jabbed the horse with Oblivion as it burst...
...Only to reveal that the cart behind it had its own horse inside, ready to continue the battle with a shorter cargo train. Rapunzel groaned, "So we have to beat them all? This is gonna take all day!"
"We've got its number now, so this'll be over quick. Just watch!" Working together, Roxas and Xion shredded the remaining three carts in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, aside from a pile of munny, they didn't get any particularly special rewards for the victory.
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Get through the forest and reach the Kingdom!
"As entertaining as that was, we should get going." Flynn led the way to another flowery spot with a few short trees.
Rapunzel was enchanted by the colorful little birds flying around the trees, so Roxas spent a few moments coaxing them closer. To his chagrin, they seemed to like sitting in his hair so much that he couldn't get them to leave until they'd finished singing a little song for Rapunzel.
The last stretch before the group could finally leave the woods and reach the Kingdom was a huge hill covered with flowers. Xion took one step down the hill and immediately found herself sliding all the way to the bottom, so everyone followed suit, laughing the whole way down.
At last, they left the shade of the trees behind and found themselves on a calm beach. The capital city of the Kingdom of Corona proudly stood at the far end of this harbor. They'd made it, and with plenty of time to enjoy the festival before the lanterns would rise into the sky!
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The Kingdom of Corona...
Maximus seemed intent on forcing Flynn to enjoy the festival in a supervised manner, shoving the poor rogue across the long bridge to the Kingdom. Rapunzel was about to follow, but a familiar voice from behind stopped her.
"Rapunzel." Mother Gothel stood by the side of the road, carrying a lantern and hiding something else behind her back.
Xion could've sworn the woman looked decades older than the last time they'd met, even though that was just a few hours ago...
"Mother..." The girl haltingly turned around to face the one she'd been running away from.
"So this is why you ran away from your tower. For some...guy?"
"No! ...Not...not just him. I'm here to see the floating lights, like I ask you to let me do every year. After that, I'll come right home to give him his satchel back."
"Satchel? You mean...this?" Mother Gothel produced the very same leather satchel Rapunzel had hidden from Flynn. "Fine then. Since you're so mature and capable now, you can go visit the festival without your doddering old mother."
"I can?! Oh, thank you, Mother!"
Gothel held up a hand to stop Rapunzel from talking. "On two conditions: One, sing that song for me, just like always. It'll put my poor heart at ease while you're away."
"Okay..." Rapunzel turned around and let Gothel comb her hair, which began to glow as she sang:
"Flower, gleam and glow
Let your power shine
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine...
Make the clock reverse
Change the Fates' design
Heal what has been hurt
Bring back what once was mine
What once was mine..."
Roxas and Xion were still there, apparently being completely ignored, as a powerful and unique kind of magic spell took effect. They watched as the wrinkles vanished from Mother Gothel's skin, and her hair went from fraying gray to shiny black tresses. Roxas breathed, "So that's why..."
Oblivious to what just happened to Gothel, Rapunzel took a deep breath and asked, "Okay, can I go now?"
"Not yet, dear. The other condition: As soon as you see that ruffian, Flynn Ryder-"
Rapunzel protested, "He's not a ruffian! He's a great guy and he's stuck with me all day just to show me the way to-"
Gothel cut Rapunzel off again by tossing the satchel to her, forcing the girl to stumble to catch it. "The point is, the next time you see him, give this back to him. You'll see - he doesn't care about you; he only cares about his precious satchel. They're all the same, outside your safe tower. When you see it for yourself, you'll beg to come home to me."
"Fine. It's a bet, then." Rapunzel glared at her mother, but ultimately nodded and left for the festival, satchel in tow.
"I don't think she will," Roxas spoke up.
"This isn't your business, boy. Run along - you'll miss the festival." Gothel waved dismissively and started to stalk back into the shadows of the forest.
"You're wrong. Rapunzel's safety and emotional security is our business. We've fought a lot of monsters on the way here to protect her, and during the last big battle, I finally confirmed that she's one of the Princesses we're supposed to protect."
Mother Gothel freaked out. "W-what?! How did you know?!"
Xion was equally taken aback. "Wait, you actually know about the Princesses of Heart?"
Gothel visibly relaxed. "Princesses of what now? Rapunzel is just my dear daughter, my sweet flower."
Roxas pressed, "But you clearly know she's a princess of some kind, and the only kingdom around here for her to be a princess of is right over there. You're no queen; you just kidnapped her so you could use her hair and that song to have eternal youth. How petty and irresponsible; hardly ideal traits for a mother."
"How dare you? What am I, some kind of bad guy? Well, if you insist...alright, now I'm the bad guy." She vanished into the trees.
"Ooh, ominous," Xion snarked. "Almost like she thinks she's actually any sort of threat."
Roxas shook his head. "Not physically, no, but we should keep an eye on Rapunzel so she doesn't try to trick her anymore. C'mon, we've gotta find them." The two Keyblade wielders finally made their way into town, searching for Rapunzel amid the festival that had a deeper connection to her than she yet knew.
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Enjoy the Festival until sundown.
Unfortunately, Flynn had managed to link up with Rapunzel, and somehow gave Maximus the slip with the girl in tow. Roxas and Xion found the horse near the entrance to town and got the gist of it from him - Max turned out to be quite good at charades, on top of his talents in tracking, swordfighting, and enforcing military protocol. They promised to find Flynn and Rapunzel while Maximus reported back to the guards, and Xion bought the horse an apple from a nearby vendor as a thank-you for his help up to now. Then they got to work.
For the next several hours, Team Roxas bounced from market stall to carnival attraction to corner shop, barely missing the other pair each time. Rapunzel and Flynn grew closer to each other with each new place they visited together, enough that Flynn revealed his real name over a copy of a book he'd spent his life trying to emulate. "Flynn Ryder", the (fictional) handsome rogue who was always dashing off to a new adventure armed with nothing but his wits and a smoldering smile, had always seemed so much more interesting than plain old Eugene Fitzherbert. Rapunzel disagreed, claiming to like the real Eugene just as much...but she couldn't yet bring herself to hand over the satchel. What if...?
As the day continued, Roxas and Xion got lost by the harbor long enough that Rapunzel was able to enlist a group of little kids to put her incredibly long hair in a braid with flowers woven throughout, during which she spied another little girl leaving a few flowers as an offering "for the lost princess." Something about the mosaic tugged at Rapunzel's oldest memories, but before she could figure it out, a street musician started playing a tune so jolly that she just had to start dancing! Her enthusiasm, as infectious as ever, eventually pulled the entire city's population into an impromptu dance.
At this point, Roxas and Xion finally found Rapunzel...and got pulled into the dance themselves. They spent most of it dancing with each other (not very well, but no one seemed to mind) and snickering as Rapunzel and "Flynn" kept getting dragged off with different partners while trying to reach each other. Maximus had apparently found Flynn and decided to mess with him by forcing him to join the dance, even though he was more awkward on the dance floor than anyone.
When the two pairs finally collided, it was just in time for someone to bellow, "To the boats!" The final ceremony of the Festival of Lights was about to begin.
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The Festival of Lights...
Everyone in the kingdom was handed a paper lantern and boarded a fleet of tiny canoes, similar to the kind used on Destiny Islands. Each boat was only big enough for two people, and there were exactly enough boats for all the kingdom's citizens.
Of course, Team Roxas weren't included in that number. They were left behind to watch from the shoreline as Rapunzel and Flynn's boat got lost in the crowd. From back here, though, it seemed like the lanterns were all released without any problems - Rapunzel's dream had come true.
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Elsewhere...
Marluxia gasped and groaned; the best he could do about the gaping wound in his gut was to wrap vines around it - thorns included - to try and prevent the Nothing-smoke from escaping.
Suddenly, it occurred to him that he might be better off seeking his own destruction than trying to survive; he would be reconstructed eventually, after all, and he might even free himself of Xehanort's influence in the process.
Of course, the very thought of escaping his fate got the attention of the fragment of Xehanort's heart lodged in his chest, and another of Xehanort's pawns instantly responded. "Ah-ah-ah, we can't have you sneaking off the board just yet." Another man in a Black Coat stood over Marluxia with an Elixir in hand. He casually dropped the healing item on the wound and instantly repaired it. "Now get back up and do your damn job."
Marluxia sighed in defeat. "If I must...Terumi."
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Defeat the Nobodies and defend the Festival!
"I hope you two are enjoying the festival." At the sound of Marluxia's voice, Xion and Roxas instantly tensed up and readied their Keyblades.
Roxas turned left and right, trying to find the source of the voice. "Yeah. The three of us were having a great time until you showed up."
"Do you want some more of this!?" Xion summoned Ouroboros and ScimitArs to cover her sides and rear.
"I'm afraid I lack the time to play with abandoned children right now. My subordinates, on the other hand..." A large squad of Reapers appeared, spreading swathes of explosive petals that actually added to the beauty of the floating lanterns that still filled the night sky.
Defeating the Reapers was much more difficult this time, since Lea's fire wasn't around to destroy them in their bulb forms. Xion was able to cast Fira to force them into a vulnerable state, but Roxas' weak grasp of non-Light magic couldn't achieve the same. Instead, he focused on keeping Xion from being surrounded as she picked off Reapers one by one.
Five minutes of combat later, the pair got a chance to catch their breath and watch the boats returning from the harbor. Rapunzel and Eugene seemed to only have eyes for each other as they stepped off the canoe...until Rapunzel saw something over Eugene's shoulder that made her pause. She presented the satchel to Flynn and ran away without waiting for his reaction.
That was when Marluxia rammed the butt of his scythe into Flynn's skull and vanished with him before Team Roxas could react.
Xion screamed, "Why, Marluxia?! What does Xehanort want with these people?"
"You aren't the only ones who wish for the New Seven Hearts to stay safe and protected."
"What does that mean?" Roxas demanded.
"They are Xehanort's backup plan. If your Lights fail to gather for the final battle, or if you number too few or too many when the time comes, the New Seven Hearts will serve as the Light of the X-Blade. For that, we need to make sure they're safe, in a predictable location, and as bright as possible. Gothel's machinations will ensure the protection of naive and flighty Rapunzel with little effort on our part."
Xion crossed her arms. "Figures. And what will you do if we throw a wrench in those plans?"
"By now, it's already too late. One pinpoint strike and a long enough conversation...far more effective than a direct confrontation, wouldn't you say?"
Roxas and Xion gasped and bolted to the edge of the kingdom, hoping to catch up to Rapunzel...
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Too late!
Roxas and Xion rounded the corner just in time to see Mother Gothel pointing at a boat out on the water as Rapunzel collapsed to her knees. On the boat was a hunched-over silhouette that looked kind of like Flynn. "Eugene, why? I thought..."
"It hardly matters why, does it, my flower? A thug like him doesn't matter at all. We had a bet going, and of course I won. Now come along, child..." Rapunzel followed Gothel into the woods...
Roxas guessed what Marluxia had done. He turned into Light and blitzed across the water to the boat, cleaved off the vines tying Flynn up, cast Cure on him, and zipped back with him before he could wake up and complain about the speed.
Flynn woke and mumbled, "Y...you two saved me? Why? I didn't think we were particularly chummy before..."
Roxas chuckled. "It's for Rapunzel's sake more than anything."
Xion chimed in, "Speaking of her, we should probably go after her. Gothel took her back to the tower!"
Flynn snapped awake. "Rapunzel! Oh gosh, we gotta save her!"
Roxas clapped him on the back and helped him stand up. "That's the spirit, 'Eugene'! Let's go."
Eugene blinked in surprise. "Wait, where did you hear that name?"
Xion shrugged. "Just now, when Rapunzel was crying out to you. I'm fine with calling you either name, really."
"Then let's not waste any more time! Come on-Oof!" Eugene was suddenly flipped onto Maximus' back - the horse had snuck up on them and joined the party. Roxas and Xion squeezed aboard as well, and they were off like a shot.
Unfortunately, they ran into more Nobodies halfway there, right on the far end of the swamp. Roxas and Xion dismounted and readied their Keyblades. "We'll draw their attention; you two go on ahead!"
"Thanks, I owe you one!" Eugene leaned forward as Max shoved a pair of Reapers aside and kept going. When the Reapers tried to retaliate, they found themselves impaled on Keyblades.
Roxas began glowing with an aura of Light bright enough to draw the focus of every monster in the woods. Puffs, Chief Puffs, Parasol Beauties, and Flutterings arrived in droves, along with a platoon of Dusks and Reapers. Each one was a monster Flynn and Maximus wouldn't have to get through.
"I wonder why there aren't any Creepers?" Xion wondered as she zipped around with her Bot Armor's dash boots, cleaving through the monsters she passed.
"Don't know, don't care." Roxas didn't need any fancy tech to move and swing that quickly. Between the two of them, the army of monsters wilted and dispersed, so the pair moved deeper into the woods, retracing their steps back to the Tower.
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The Tower...
When they arrived (after crashing through a Chaos Carriage in the hidden tunnel), they witnessed Gothel falling out of the Tower's only window. Before their eyes, the forest witch grew older and more decrepit with every foot she fell, finally dissolving into dust halfway down. Only her cloak remained fluttering to the ground.
Maximus was close to the tunnel entrance; he gave the spectacle a satisfied grin and trotted away, confident that the pair would return to the kingdom on their own.
Marluxia, lurking by the base of the Tower, had other ideas. "Fallen to Darkness...we can't allow her near our precious Light now. She would only cast a pall over it." With a dismissive gesture, he sent a puff of rose petals and Darkness out to the falling cloak, which combined with the lingering greed of Gothel to form a giant Heartless.
It looked like a snake mixed with a tree, with four grasping arms, a large head, a spiraling tail, and no legs. It moved by hovering, and fixed brightly-glowing spiral eyes on Roxas and Xion.
Roxas yelled, "What the hell, Marluxia? She was already dead!" But Marluxia was already leaving through a Dark Corridor.
"Lea was already dead, too. Why do you object to me doing as I see fit to a dying heart when you did the same?" His presence vanished before they could reply.
Roxas and Xion couldn't hear anything from inside the Tower at this distance, but Rapunzel and Eugene were presumably still in there. Team Roxas would have to defeat the Heartless boss before it went looking for food.
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Defeat the Grim Guardianess!
The first thing the boss did was spit out a flock of ethereal ravens that surrounded it for a moment before dive-bombing at the heroes. Xion met them halfway with a Ragnarok, and both attacks canceled each other out.
Roxas rushed in as the boss settled down after the attack, sawing at its wood-like face with spinning Keyblades. Soon, though, he noticed it rising up higher, as though it was about to...
...Crash down on him! He managed to dodge the bulk of the Heartless, but the impact knocked some kind of pollen loose from the foliage atop its head. The powder got into his eyes, nose, and mouth, causing an embarrassing sneezing fit.
Xion rushed in and pulled Roxas away as the boss tried to clamp its arms around him in a deadly parody of a hug. Luckily, Roxas managed to work through the sniffles in time to dodge the boss as it came spiraling through the air at them. Xion summoned her Bot Armor and peppered it with arm cannon shots as it passed them by.
"Holy!" *PSSSEEEEEEEWWWW!* Roxas dropped beam after beam of Holy spells on the boss, demonstrating a much deeper reserve of Light than even Kairi had. He only stopped when the boss glared at him, its eyes flashing bright enough to blind the heroes momentarily.
When their vision cleared, the Grim Guardianess had wrapped itself around the Tower and begun pelting the entire area with exploding nuts. The pair rushed forward to keep the monster away from Rapunzel, but found themselves locked inside a tall cage of vines that suddenly sprouted up around them. Roxas quickly located a section that was open and jumped through it; the vines withered and popped up around him again.
As they tried to catch Roxas, though, Xion was free to...get her leg snagged by more vines from some kind of flower trap. The Guardianess was really dead set on hampering their movement. A Fira spell destroyed the offending plant, and Xion launched into the air with Sonic Blade to slam the boss off the tower.
Before it hit the ground, Roxas zipped through it and cut it in half, releasing a heart and ending the battle.
Xion dismissed her Bot Armor to find that her T-shirt had changed its slogan on its own: "Guardians of Light: 1, Grim Guardianess: 0".
"Huh, so that's what it was called."
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Rendezvous with Rapunzel!
"I'll go check on Rapunzel. You wait here and holler if Marluxia shows up again." Roxas ran right up the side of the Tower and hopped in the window to deliver the good news...but found a tragic scene waiting for him. Rapunzel knelt sobbing over Eugene, who lay still, pale, and clearly dead.
This was Roxas' first time witnessing an actual dead body, and he found he couldn't bear to keep looking at it. Instead, he gazed around the room and spotted some clues to what happened here: a bloody dagger, manacles attached to the wall, some shards of glass, and 98% of Rapunzel's hair. Now that he looked closer, Roxas could see that both the lengthy locks on the floor and the messy short hair still on Rapunzel's head were now brown instead of blonde, and the Power of Light didn't flow through the hair like it did before. The power was still inside Rapunzel, though. If anything, it was stronger than before.
Rapunzel sobbed out the lyrics to Gothel's magic song, desperately trying to reverse the clock and bring Eugene back from the dead, but nothing happened. "No..." Now the tears hanging heavy in Rapunzel's eyes began to fall...but were tears supposed to glow golden like that? A drop of Light fell on Eugene's wound, and the corpse began to glow as well. Ethereal images of flowers and trees filled the room, centered on the spot the tear fell, and a sharp intake of breath was heard as Eugene's eyes shot open.
Rapunzel was ecstatic, of course. "Eugene! You're alive! It's a miracle!"
Finding himself with an unexpected second lease on life, Eugene decided it was now or never - he had to try the smolder one more time. "Rapunzel...did I ever tell you I have a thing for brunettes?"
The fierce hug she gave him was as good a reply as any.
Roxas smiled genuinely at the scene, but decided he had no place in this picture. He stepped back outside (yes, out the window) and returned to Xion to report their success and new information to the rest of the Guardians of Light.
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A/N: Happy Halloween, everyone!
I HATED this chapter. It's nowhere near my best work, and I couldn't muster up the motivation to work on it for months. At least it's out of the way. Now I have to decide whether to check up on Team Sora or go back to Team Riku. Leave your opinion in the comments and you can help steer the story!