Disclaimer: The cover art is mine, however Kingdom Hearts and the Shantae series are not.

(Yes, I drew the cover art, not the best I know, but I am thinking of doing yet another new drawing due to the trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 coming out a few days ago)


Chapter 8: Frostbite Island part 2 the abandoned factory, and Vani

"Well, We're here, now hurry up and let's get this over with runt, being around you is making me too kind for my tastes." Risky said, shooing Shantae away.

"Aw, come on Risky! Being a good guy isn't so bad. And I do believe you can be good company." The keyblade wielding former half-genie said with a smile.

"Nope! I am NOT going to be a good guy. After the Pirate Master's Return is stopped for good I'm going back to my own business." The pirate woman huffed.

"Now SCRAM!" She said, pushing Shantae off her ship and onto the dock of the freezing island, much to her displeasure. But she had to agree, the faster this den was found and destroyed, the faster she could hopefully stop Ammo Baron's plans.

She made her way to the crater she heard was made earlier, thanks to the misfire of Ammo Baron's cannon. While she walked she noticed shadows moving in the distance, they were faster than her, but they were going somewhere she couldn't see as the Sun was starting to set.

She would make it to her destination soon enough, keeping her keyblade at the ready, as well as Risky's Scimitar. Shantae looked down into the crater that was made by Ammo Baron's long ranged cannon.

It was amazing at how long ranged it was, but she had no real compliments for a weapon that was made to cause destruction to the Sequin Land Palace.

The crater led into a hole that seemed to lead directly into an abandoned factory, she jumped down into the hole, landing safely with a spell she learned on the way there, a wind spell.

It was rather handy, but she was learning this magic at a very slow rate, having to rely on random memories of Ventus she had seen pop up here and there, practicing the magic in secret.

"This place is dark." She said as she walked around the place, holding her keyblade and producing a small light from it, it was the beginning of a light spell, but she couldn't complete it as she was woken up before she could memorize it.

She saw shadows moving about around her as she continued deeper into the factory, opening door after door that she could find. There were places she couldn't reach though, it was annoying.

However, half an hour into her journey she found something that could help her, it was Risky's cannon, which was able to fire three shots in a row, enchanted to be light weight, have an infinite ammo supply, and was able to change size.

She hated to compliment the Pirate Master, but if he was the one who designed and enchanted this weapon, it was brilliant. She used it as a sort of triple jump, helping her reach the places she couldn't before.

She continued her journey through the abandoned factory, fighting against several machines that were still somehow activated. She made it into a large chamber after her hour long journey, a chamber that held what looked to be the remains of a machine, a giant metal slug.

It was torn apart completely, the metal slug was disfigured and sitting on top of the wreck a girl wearing a mask, and a strange set of black armor. The armor had dark crimson boots, red gauntlets which faded from black. It looked like a muscular structure one would see in an anatomy book.

However, it had a belt which attached to a strange skirt which wasn't completed in the middle of the front half.

"So this is where you slivered off too, Ventus." The girl said, in a voice similar to Shantae's own, despite being slightly deeper and dark in tone.

She summoned a keyblade of her own, a dark keyblade which had an eye close to the end. The teeth were shaped like partially broken gears and cogs, chains wrapped around the main portion of the blade.

The blade was pointed directly at Shantae's Heart, and this creeped out Shantae quite a bit.

"It has taken me so long to find you, Brother, yet your heart is inside such a pathetic looking place." The masked girl said, laughing.

"Who are you!?" Shantae asked.

"Who am I? Haven't you seen any of my brother's memories? I am Vani.. well, Vanitas, but the full name doesn't suit a gal like me." The girl, now known as Vani said, hopping down onto the ground.

"I am Ventus' darkness given a physical form, his better half.. though he'd never admit it." She explained further while she approached Shantae slowly.

"Unfortunately, I was unable to find you so soon, as my form was incomplete." Vani laughed. "But thanks to my Unversed, I was reformed in a different world, so I've now come to collect my light half's heart." She added with a sinister tone.

Shantae glared at the girl, readying her keyblade to fight, only to be met by more laughing.

"You think you're really cute, don't you?" Vani said, lunging at Shantae, swinging down with her keyblade, knocking Shantae's away.

"The heart that has joined with yours, Ventus, is needed to complete a plan to create a weapon that will bring about a fated war." Vani explained as she readied to strike Shantae again.

As she swung her keyblade down once more, it was stopped, Shantae's body seemingly moving on it's own and in her hand wasn't her own keyblade, it was a keyblade she had seen before, inside the Memories of Ventus' she had seen. It was blocking Vani's attack, which seemed to amuse the girl.

"My brother is hellbent on keeping you safe. Well, it's only natural for someone to protect their home." She said as she hopped back, Ventus' keyblade fading, being replaced by Shantae's once more.

"Why is it that he willingly crawled his way to your heart, while he rejected our destiny? That is a question I've asked myself several times." Vani sighed. "But, that doesn't matter right now, this isn't truly fun unless I see my brother's face."

"I'll leave you with a parting gift, something to see if you're up to snuff despite being such a novice keyblade wielder." She said as suddenly several shadows connected to Vani's, a large beast crawling it's way out of Vani's shadow.

The creature was 5 times Shantae's height, it was dressed similarly to how she was, however, in the place of it's face was a twisted smile with what looked to be painted on eyes that made it look morbidly amused.

In it's hands were what looked to be large pike balls, which it swung around as it let out a loud and chaotic laugh. The battle begun, and the beast swung one of it's pikeballs down at her, she was knocked into the wall as she did her best to block it.

She got up in time to just barely dodge the second attack, as she did the unversed prepared another attack. Shantae sent a fireball at the unversed's face, blinding it for a brief enough moment for Shantae to get behind it.

She struck the beast's ankles, knocking it off balance, but it caught itself and kicked backwards, sending Shantae into another wall as it turned around.

Shantae cursed under her breath, the hits felt like boulders hitting her every single time she received them. She knew that the source of evil was cut-off since that Vani girl must've defeated it, but she left behind something worse.

She got to her feet, swiftly drinking a potion to heal her wounds before she attacked the beast again. Doing her best to dodge the attacks, getting hit by several of them as she continued.

Anyone watching the battle wouldn't notice it, But Shantae was slowly but surely chipping away at the large monster. She got up for one final time, rushing the monster, jumping onto it's arm, running up it and jumping onto it's head.

She pulled it's ponytail-like tendril which stuck out of it's head, she dropped off of it's head as it sent a fireball at it's feet to knock it off balance.

The beast fell backwards, Shantae pulling it down onto the remains of the metal slug, impaling the creature in the back during the process.

It let out a shrill cry of pain and distress, as if it was calling out to it's creator. Shantae wasn't focused on that now, she got back onto the creature's head and stabbed into it with her keyblade. It exploded into a wisp of black smoke, black smoke which dissipated as it wasn't magic, but rather darkness itself.

She pushed herself off the ground, limping her way out of the abandoned factory, finding a map for what looked to be the location of the Pirate Master's grave. She headed back to Risky's ship, injured but still in one piece.

The pirate woman noticed her limp and rushed to help her, despite not wanting to get too close to the girl.

"What happened?" Risky asked as she helped the keyblade wielder onto her ship.

"The den was already cut off from the source of evil.. but.. there was someone there... I believe that the pirate master isn't the only threat I have to deal with." Shantae said, sitting down while Risky got her a potion.

"Who?" Risky asked, worried.

"Her name was Vani.. she.. she claimed to be related to Ventus.. she called him her brother. Or rather, his darkness given a physical form. She.. she sounded like an evil version of me.. her voice was mine... but sinister." The former half-genie said.

"She called upon a creature she called an "Unversed" But, she said it like there were more than just the one she left for me to fight." She explained further.

"Well.. whatever happens, we deal with the Pirate Master first, then you can try to go chase after that "Vani" person." Risky said, cursing under her breath as she took the map from Shantae.

"Take sometime to rest, you've collected all the dark magic, haven't you?" Risky asked.

"Yeah, I did find one final one back in Scuttle town before we made our way back here, though I forgot to mention it." Shantae answered.

"Good, we will be on our way to the Pirate Master's Grave soon enough." The pirate woman said, walking to the steering wheel of the ship while she left Shantae to rest.

It was time to put an end to the Pirate Master's plans to come back from the dead.


Chapter end

Before you all comment saying "But Vanitas is a Boy." Remember something, Vanitas' appearance was based on Sora when Sora's heart first connected to Ven's when his heart was damaged from having the darkness stripped from it.

In this crossover fanfic, Ventus'heart never connected to Sora's, instead it connected to Shantae's. Which in turn made Vanitas, or rather, Vani, a female, and a Shantae look-a-like.

Also, if you want to think of how Vani would look. Just picture Shantae with darker purple hair, yellow eyes, and Vanitas' regular armor, but suited to Shantae's own body type.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed.