The Path to the Body
Chapter 6: Disney Castle
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters involved except Kira
Kira left Olympus Coliseum with a farewell to her old friends and Aubren as company. She set their course for a new world that had appeared on her sensors. It appeared as a large white castle with blue pillar tops. Kira set course to land there and in a flash of light she and Aubren disembarked to the world below. They appeared on a sunlit day in the middle of the castle's garden. A smaller model of the castle was in the middle, surrounded by rose bushes, daisies, dandelions, and every kind of flower imaginable. Kira bent down and plucked one before smelling the flower and smiling. It reminded her of her home world.
"I wonder how everyone's doing, how long it's been since I've been home,"
"Hello," A voice called to them.
Kira returned to reality and looked down to see a mouse in a pink ball-gown. Aubren was standing nearby.
"Hello," She replied.
"I'm Minnie Mouse, queen of this castle, who might you be?" She asked sweetly.
"My name is Kira, I'm a wielder of the keyblade, sent here on a quest by the master Yen Sid," She said.
"My name is Aubren, I'm also a wielder of the keyblade,"
"Ah, I've heard from King Mickey about you," She said.
"King Mickey?"
Minnie nodded, "It seems there's a lot you need to know, come with me and we'll discuss events over tea," She said.
Kira and Aubren followed the mouse-queen to a large library where the walls themselves were bookshelves of crazy dimensions. Minnie sat down a table and made a sign for them to join her, Kira smoothed her skirt as she sat down and looked around. Aubren remained standing.
"So, what do you remember last?" Minnie asked.
"I was fighting Heartless, destroying them to decrease the populations in each world, but toward the end of my journey I was sucked into a portal that shut down my systems and made me pass out. When I awoke I was eight years older and everything I knew no longer worked," Kira explained.
Minnie nodded, "Alright, I'll start from the beginning then,"
Minnie recounted the tales of Sora, much like Cid had already explained, filling in details about how Sora had come to discover the secret plotting of a man named Ansem, who was the former ruler of 'Hallow Bastion' before he was consumed by darkness. Sora defeated him and restored peace to the worlds, but not before he lost his friend Riku and the King behind the door to Kingdom Hearts. Since then Sora went on a quest to find his friend and the King, but in recent months the young keyblade wielder and his comrades Donald and Goofy, the court magician and Captain of the Castle's knightly guard, have gone missing. Shortly after their disappearance Kira re-surfaced.
"So Sora is trapped somewhere?" Kira asked.
Minnie nodded, "But we've heard rumors of King Mickey and Riku running around between the worlds, so we assume they might know what happened to Sora and his friends, but we haven't been able to pin them down,"
Kira crossed her arms over her chest as she thought about this.
"Thank you for the information Queen Minnie, if there's anything I can do to repay you,"
Minnie nodded, "Actually there is," She said.
Kira looked at her with curiosity,
"There's something you need to see,"
Minnie stood up and led the way back down the corridor they'd come through and led Kira and Aubren into the throne room of the castle, two thrones sat side by side at the end of a large chamber. Minnie led the way over and on the left side throne she pressed a button and the thrones slid aside, revealing a secret staircase.
Kira whistled in amazement as she approached.
"Come on," Minnie said leading the way down.
They followed her and gasped as they arrived at the bottom. A room filled with light was where she found herself. A large glow emanated from an object in the middle of the room, a simple stone.
"That's the Cornerstone, the power of the whole castle is drawn from it," Minnie explained.
"What's the problem?" Kira asked.
"The power of the Cornerstone is being diminished, we think something is tampering with it in the past," Minnie said.
"How can I help then?" Kira asked, sounding confused.
"There's a portal I can open to take you to the past where you can hopefully stop whoever's trying to destroy the Cornerstone," Minnie said.
Kira nodded, but she seemed uncertain.
Minnie took a few steps forward and lifted her hand, a light from the Cornerstone shone brilliantly before it formed into the shape of a gateway.
"If you step through that gateway, it'll take you to the past, before this castle was built,"
"So all I need to do is find out who's tampering with the cornerstone in the past and stop them?"
"Yes," Minnie replied.
"Alright, here goes nothing,"
"I shall wait here Kira, until your return," Aubren told her.
Kira stepped through the light, and for a moment, she was blinded, but when it faded she looked around to see everything was dyed black, white, and gray. She looked down at herself and her eyes widened. Her outfit was dyed in monochrome to match the world around her, but the outfit's curves and design were exaggerated, it looked like an old cartoon design.
"What in the world?" She asked herself before something caught her eye.
A heartless, at least, she thought it was a heartless. It was slender and completely white. A strange hourglass variant symbol was on its head.
She summoned her keyblades in their normal forms before charging at the creature.
Dusks, Nobodies, These slender beings are fast on their feet and can dodge most attacks, though if you're quick you can confuse it, allowing you to make the killing blow.
Kira swung her keyblades at the Dusk, but it dodged the attack easily. She continued her relentless assault, and it continued to weave effortlessly around her attacks. She leapt back and rushed around it, the Dusk lost sight of her before she managed to defeat it.
"What was that?"
She caught her breath before advancing through the world, fighting off hordes of heartless before finding the cornerstone. The large sphere was sitting on the same pedestal as the castle in the present. Kira waited to see if something approached, and it paid off as she saw a figure of white approach her.
The figure was wearing what looked like a jacket over a shirt, tights, and a skirt with shoes. Its long 'hair' trailed behind it. Kira summoned her keyblades and the creature stopped. It colored in exactly like Kira.
"What?"
"Hello Kira," it said with her voice.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"My name is Karix," she said with a smile.
"Karix?"
"I'm your nobody,"
"Nobody?"
"Oh, so much you don't know," Karix told her.
She summoned her own versions of Kira's keyblades and the two stared each other down.
In a flash they were engaged, their keyblades locked and their faces inches apart.
"Are you the one who's been messing with the Cornerstone?" Kira asked.
"What if I am?" Karix replied.
"Then I'm gonna stop you,"
"I'd like to see you try,"
They separated and Kira activated her Valor form, her increased speed and strength gave her the advantage of Karix who was now barely keeping her own. The two went on for hours, trading blow after blow, Kira's Valor form kicked out during the fight, but even then they continued to battle, until eventually they were both exhausted, lying on the grass near the cornerstone.
"Are you ready to give up?" Kira asked.
"I was about to ask you that," Karix replied.
"Never,"
"Then I suppose it's pointless for me to stay here," Karix began to sink into the ground, and after a minute, she was gone.
"What was that all about?" Kira asked herself before she stood up. She made her way back to the portal and stepped through.
Aubren and Queen Minnie were waiting for her return, as she stepped through Minnie approached her.
"Thank you for saving my castle Kira,"
"Of course your majesty," Kira bowed to her
"For your trouble," Minnie proffered a keychain that was monochrome like the world Kira had just left.
"Thank you," Kira bowed again before she and Aubren set off for the Gummi Ship. The pair disappeared in a flash of light before setting course for the new world.