At this moment, heartlesses magically appear in front of them. Yes, heartlesses, like the ones Sora used to defeat.
"Withdraw, everyone!" Riku yelled, opening the gummi ship shaft.
Everybody got off the ship without any trouble (although Donald got stuck at the door but Goofy quickly kicked him to help) and fell into the world they faced.
The heartless destroyed the ship completely and engaged Mickey and the others into battle.
"Our ship... you're going to pay, dumbasses!" Riku threats.
"Leave that with me." Mickey says. He hands his keyblade and, among two spins and slashes, the heartlesses are gone. Mickey doesn't seem tired.
"Wow, that was some good excibition." Riku says, without enthusiasm.
"You try wielding a keyblade, I mean, without being possessed." Sora said then.
"Not funny. Let's explore this place up. I smell trouble."
"You can always smell trouble from a place you don't know." Mickey says, while walking. "We just have to find this place's governor and..."
"...be hung up, fed to the lions, what?" Riku completes.
"Just don't think like that. It's bad." Sora says.
They reach a funny building. It's formed by wood all around it, and lots of plants around it, until the top. The windows were small and so was the door in front of them. A strange music was echoing, too.
"So, what do we do? Do we come in?" Riku asks Mickey.
"That's what we have to do." Mickey replies.
"This looks like one of those crazy civilizations that kill any strangers!" Donald was freaking out, "I'm not going in!"
"So stay there." Riku said. Donald was left behind.
The four got in and Donald waited at the entrace.
"Big... big fat palookas! They won't listen to me. We could just lurk around and maybe find a blasting gummi ship. But, oh, no, it's better to come in like a bunch of blasting invaders and be deheaded!" he was saying.
Donald then finds a small gummi piece on the floor. It looked like one of the Navi Gummis he, Goofy and Sora found last year.
When he got it, there was another one just a few feet ahead. When facing the whole way, it was an entire trail of gummi pieces.
"Holy crap! I have to collect these!" Donald said, collecting all pieces quickly and noisily.
When he was storing the very last piece in his pack, he decided to go inside that building and telling his friends, alive or dead, about the pieces. Or maybe sell them to the governor to free his friends. But he wouldn't have much time to think about that, at that time.
It was a trap. A cage fell into him, locking the poor duck, surrounded by almost-unpenetrable trees.
"Ooooh, I knew it was going to happen! Who's there? Who's theeeere?" Donald yelled.
Meanwhile, Sora was examining each detail of that building, the inside was very beautiful. The people there used wood and plants in a great harmony, creating a very charming place. Riku was starting to get impatient.
"This world must be empty as well."
"Hey, guys, quiet! Listen..." Mickey said, making them all stop and listen. The sound looked like steps. And the steps were getting closer.
"Let's all hide! Quick!" Mickey said, and eveybody obeyed.
A funny-looking old man came into the room they were hiding and was holding a torch.
"Is there anyone there?" the old man said. No answer.
"Let's corner him." Riku said.
"You crazy? What if he calls the guards, yawn!" Goofy argued.
"Sora?" Mickey gives Sora the decision power.
"Let's corner him!" Sora said, in low voice. "Goofy, you got your weapon?"
"Oh yeah! I mean, if you call a shield a weapon."
"Ok. Let's all scare him to death. Then we'll inquire for information."
But they didn't even have time to scare the guy. In fact, the opposite happened. He scared them.
Some shadows began to corner him until completely filling his body up. He was shadow-only, then.
"It's a heartless! Engage!!" Mickey yelled.
Riku handed his knife, Goofy, his shield, Mickey, his keyblade and Sora... kept watching them.
"When I get my keyblade back... I'm gonna show them I'm not just an spectator. I... I BEAT RIKU ONCE. TWICE!!" he was yelling to himself.
When the shadow had already dissipated, and Goofy was doing his victory dance, Riku concluded:
"This is it. Every world is empty. But every world has heartlesses. We must rush to Hollow Bastion. Let's finish Ansem off and make everything back to normal."
"You look like me, saying that. What makes you think that Ansem will be beaten AND that it will make all worlds go back to normal?" Sora said, puzzling them all.
Meanwhile, the poor duck was still yelling, complaining, yelling and complaining.
"That's it. I'm gonna die here. I'll dry to death. Nice, calm... and delaying!" he was saying.
Then a shadow appeared. It wasn't a heartless but a real shadow, like the ones we get when we light something up. The person approached.
"Donald! It was you?" the person said.
"Quaaack! You moron!! WHY DID YOU LOCK ME UP???"
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't know it was you..."
Then a shadow appeared. It wasn't a heartless but a real shadow, like the ones we get when we light something up. The person approached.
"Donald! It was you?" the person said.
"Quaaack! You moron!! WHY DID YOU LOCK ME UP???"
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't know it was you..."
This person was Leon!
"You squaack-bookle squackar!!! We were just looking for you! Why the waacka-baacka did you lock me up?" Donald was a bit more annoyed than unsual.
"Calm down, calm down... CALM DOWN STUPID DUCK!!" Leon got pissed. "I didn't know it was you, I already said it. So tell me, are your friends here, as well?"
"Yep. They went inside that building over there." Donald pointed the big construction Sora, Mickey, Goofy and Riku went in before.
"Uh-oh... well... I guess Sora knows how to deal with heartlesses just fine. But... did you say Mickey? 'The' Mickey? The King?"
"Oh, yeah. He's back, and is the only one who is really fighting. Oh, you see, Sora lost his keyblade, and his two most important keychains."
"Sora... lost his keyblade?" Leon looked puzzled and scared, at the same time. "How... could this... be possible?" he stared at the sky. He didn't remember of unlocking Donald.
"So stop blabba-wabba and unlock me up!" Donald began yelling again. "Let's just go meet up with them and then you can chat all you want." he was yelling while Leon was trying to untie the trap's ropes.
"Here." he said, finally.
Donald faced his regained freedom happily. But a few seconds later...
"Why don't you just LOOK who you have locked up? I kept waiting for... what, ten minutes! I could have died! What if I didn't eat anything for uh, three years?"
"If you haven't eaten anything in three years, it wouldn't be ten minutes which would make any difference. Now let's go." Leon said, then began to walk carefully, with his hands almost touching his gunblade.
Meanwhile, Sora was asking Mickey how was it possible that old man becoming a heartless without any reason.
"They don't need reasons, you know." Riku answered before Mickey. "Heartlesses could have been called Mindlesses as well."
"Um, yeah, it's true. But even so, we still don't know what that old man was doing there, alone in this empty world." Mickey said.
"Well, we don't know if it's empty, we haven't looked around yet, just this building." Goofy said.
Then Donald came running, and before him came Leon.
"Squaaack! I almost died! It was that squaack-bookle squackar! He locked me up and made me wait for, what, one hour!" Donald yelled.
"It was ten minutes max, duck." Leon said, when finally reaching them.
"Leon!" they welcomed him.
"We were just looking for you! Then the engine broke and..." Sora was saying.
"Yeah, I can imagine what happened. It happened to us too." Leon said, puzzling everyone.
"Us... who?" they asked.
"Me and the guys, Cloud, Cid and Aeris. We were separated after the engine blew up after we tried to speed it up. Me and Cid got here and we split up to find someone. Then I saw the heartlesses and got curious to see why they were here."
"...And you tried to trap them and analyze them?" Donald tried to guess.
"Exactly." Leon said.
"But what about those gummies?" Donald said, showing the pieces.
"Oh, those are fake." Leon said, frustrating everyone. "Heartlesses love shiny things. Like hearts."
...
"What the waacka-baacka is wrong with you? You're lost in a strange place, only with your barking friend, and you have the brilliant idea of making a trap?!" Donald was yelling again.
"In case you didn't know, me and the guys used to make experiments with Heartlesses. It was a long time ago but I have a good memory. But let's focus on what we're gonna do, we got to find Cid."
"Yes. Let's go." Sora said.
They were leaving the building when Goofy said:
"Uhh... hey... this place looks huge. Where are we gonna look first?"
"Sora?" Mickey gave Sora the decision power again, that was making him nervous.
"Let's go trought that jungle over there..." Sora pointed the place. "We've come from that other side..." he pointed the other stop then, "Let's try to get to the other side, where Cid may be."
"Wise choice. Although..." Riku started.
"Let's just go. We don't have time for this!" Donald said, he was still a bit angry.
The group moved, then, to the jungle pointed by Sora.
"Let's be ready for any heartless encounters." Mickey said, his keyblade was in hands.
"Humph. They're all gonna face the same fate." Leon said, confident.
Sora was still feeling useless, while everybody had their weapons, he was just an spectator.
"But when I get my keyblade... I'm gonna show them..." he thought, "I'll kick all heartlesses' asses!".
They finally reached the jungle's border. Now they were inside that cozy and scary outdoor cavern. The trees were scary as well, looked like they had eyes and mouthes, and they were all staring at them, planning something evil against them.
"Yawn... when... are we going to get to the other side?" Goofy asked, a bit scared.
"Stop complaining you big squaack-squackar! We're already tense in here!" Donald said. It was clear that he was the most terrified of them all.
"Why don't we split up and..." Riku began.
"No... that never works." Sora interrupted.
"What? Why?" Riku asked.
"Let's just... stay together! Something tells me that we must... stay together. Just..." Sora was saying.
"'Something tells you'?" Riku asked, almost mocking him, "Come on, Sora, we got to find that guy Cid. If someone finds him, just give a signal."
"What signal?" Goofy asked.
Sora was no longer talking.
"I don't know. Let's just yell or... I don't know..." Riku was saying.
"Let's stay together." No, it wasn't Sora who said that. It was Mickey.
"Uh? You too think that?" Riku asked.
"Of course. Anyone with a bit of counciousness would think that. This is a dangerous and deep jungle. We can't take risks." Mickey stated.
"Hmm, very well, then. Let's stay together." Riku said, and the group moved.
"Thanks, Mickey. He wouldn't listen, you saw it." Sora said.
"You're welcome, fella."
They walked for three hours and some minutes. Donald had already complained enough and was voiceless. They finally reached the jungle border.
"Whoooo-hooo! Finally!" Goofy celebrated, along with the others.
That's when they realize someone was staring at them. It was... a Darkside!
"WHOA!" Sora screamed.
The shadowy creature quickly began cyrcling around them, but then quickly Mickey jumped to it and began slashing it with his keyblade. Riku tried to attack it too but his knife made no damage against the huge shadow.
The darkside raised its hand, then, and a black ball began to grow above it.
"Hide! Hide, it's gonna blow!" Mickey yelled.
"Again... I'm... useless..., I'm watching, I'm hiding, I'm doing nothing!" Sora was thinking again.
We was angry, he couldn't stand that regection anymore.
"I must do something! I MUST!" he said, when jumping in front of Mickey, trying to stop the black ball with his bare fists.
"Sora, NO!" Mickey said...
For Sora, then, everything became dark. There was darkness all over.
"There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong." a voice echoed in Sora's head.
"Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away." another voice echoed, then.
"What... is happening?" Sora asked himself.
He woke up after some minutes. He wasn't with his friends. He was alone. He wasn't at the jungle anymore, it seemed that he had already passed the border.
"MICKEEEEEEEY! RIKUUUUUUU!" he called, but no one answered. "Great... just great..." he was becoming impatient.
He got up and looked at the ways that remained. The world had a huge mountain that could be viewed completely from where Sora was.
Sora decided to go to a near meadow he spotted when he woke up.
Walking around it made Sora reflect about what he did.
"I was an idiot... how could I stop that using only my hands?" he then remembered how useless he's been feeling since he lost his keyblade.
Suddenly all the colorness and beautiness of the meadow become dark and hazy. Sora, then, sees Riku approaching him.
"Riku!" Sora calls him.
"The door has opened..." he was saying, he looked numb.
"We can't let fear stop us... I'm... I'M NOT AFRAID OF DARKNESS!" Riku yells, handing Sora's old Kingdom Key!
"That's my keyblade!" Sora says.
Riku didn't answer. He tried to attack Sora but he quickly avoided the slashing, and ran away.
"What is going on, Riku?" he was asking while running. "Why are you like this again?"
Then Sora got tired of so much running, and in front of him was Leon. He looked as numb as Riku. He was with his gunblade in hand.
"Come with us. There's nothing to fear." he said.
"Wh-what? What's wrong with you guys?" Sora was getting frightened.
"Come on, Sora!" a voice echoed behind him. It was Mickey, and, guess, he was the one who was worse-looking.
"Let's close this door... for good..." he said.
"What door, Mickey?" Sora asked.
"The door... of light... it must be closed! It's..." Mickey stopped, then.
Everything turned black again. Sora was back at the meadow, but there was something in his feet. The Keyblade!
"Keyblade... Keyblade..." a voice was echoing and Sora finally opened his eyes.
"MY KEYBLADE!" he screamed, and quickly got it and examined it.
Meanwhile, in a place very, very, very far from there, a bell was ringing. Its ringing made a blonde kid run faster. He was wearing a backpack and looked nervous.
"Maran! You forgot your prisms!" someone was yelling at him.
"I have plenty here. Thanks!" Maran said, running even faster.
He reaches a clocktower and comes in. The stairs are narrow and old but he jumps two or three floors to get to the top quickly.
There is a girl sitting at the top of the clocktower, above from the clock itself. She was beautiful, she had a long black hair and blue eyes. Looked short for her age.
"What took you so long? I was almost leaving." she said.
"Sorry, but I..." Maran was afraid of telling her what took him so long. He's been having serious headaches these days. But he doesn't want to tell his friend that, because if he do she will make this a big deal and tell him to look for a doctor.
"You... what?" she said.
"Nothing. Here are the prisms..." he took some shiny stones of his backpack.
"Ok..." she got the stones and examined them. "You really thing these are the real stuff?"
"I don't know, Rina, you're the one who can tell the differences."
"Nowadays it's too hard to find an autentic prism laying around. Ok, ok, this is nice but that's not why I called you up here."
"So why?"
"Come here." she took him inside the clocktower, where the stairs were. She opened a door there, somehow she had the key.
"This is for you. I found it at the town's border." she pointed it. It was...
"This is for you. I found it at the town's border." she pointed it. It was a Keyblade!
"Whoa! Wh-why would I need such a big key?"
Rina looked thoughtfully to Maran.
"A man asked me to give this to you. Yesterday night. He was wearing a spooky dark cloak, I couldn't see his face. I thought he was going to mug me but no, he handed me a case and this key was inside."
Maran took the Keyblade and noticed something odd. Pressing it between his hands, he found out it wasn't one Keyblade, but two, attached to each other.
"Whoosh! They're two!" he said, amused.
"I wonder why you would need two. In fact, I don't even know why you would need it at all."
"Maybe to open a door? A big door?" Maran remembered some weird dreams he's had. "Or maybe to lock a big door..."
"Well that's it. What are you going to do? Huh?"
"Well, I am... going to sell them." Rina got scared after hearing that.
"What? You crazy? Don't you feel that these things are special, or something?" she argued. "You're selling those only under my dead body."
"Ok, ok, I got it. So what do you suggest?"
"Let's look for this man. I met him around the INN, maybe he's staying there."
"So let's go! I'll keep them here, nobody ever comes here, anyway."
"Ok, let's go!" Rina said, pulling Maran.
They lived at Feartia Town, a big and busy town with lots of buildings and houses. However, they lived at the suburb, and the clocktower was the highest they could get.
Maran and Rina ran very fast to the INN. In fact, running fast was what they did best, they were always in a rush. Feartia was a very fast-moving city, and its citizens seemed to be like that, too.
"Here we are! Now stay in here while I ask if there was anyone suspicious there." Maran said, making Rina nervous.
"Why? You think the recepcionist is going to bite me or something? I'm going with you, I'm going to the bottom of this along with you." she said, once again pulling him.
Thirty seconds later they were leaving the hotel. 'No, nobody suspicious, I think. Now, leave, if you're not going to rent a room.' the robot-like guy at the counter said.
"What are we gonna do?" Maran asked.
"Don't know. Ahhh, well, I think I'll call it a day. Gotta sleep a lot, tomorrow is going to be a full day at the farm." she said, leaving.
"Hey, uh, Rina!"
"What?"
"Do you remember anything else about that guy? The guy who gave you the keys?"
"Uhhh... he was... short. Very short. Even I was taller than him. Yeah, that's it. See ya!" she said.
That night, Maran didn't dream the same things he's been dreaming. He dreamed about himself, holding those two keyblades. The darker one and the lighter one. He was in a arena-like place, surrounded by fire.
He woke up after hearing someone calling his name. It was there. The short cloaked man, next to his bed.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Does... does this have something to do with... those keys?" Maran asked, scared.
The cloaked figure took off its hood and its face was visible. It had long ears and a ponty nose. It was Mickey.
Meanwhile, there was Sora, wielding his old Keyblade, still not believing he'd got it back.
"Now I just have to find the guys. They will see, now, how I fight!"
Sora continued his way trought the meadow. It seemed neverending, but it was beautiful too, this beauty distracted Sora for some miles.
"Withdraw, everyone!" Riku yelled, opening the gummi ship shaft.
Everybody got off the ship without any trouble (although Donald got stuck at the door but Goofy quickly kicked him to help) and fell into the world they faced.
The heartless destroyed the ship completely and engaged Mickey and the others into battle.
"Our ship... you're going to pay, dumbasses!" Riku threats.
"Leave that with me." Mickey says. He hands his keyblade and, among two spins and slashes, the heartlesses are gone. Mickey doesn't seem tired.
"Wow, that was some good excibition." Riku says, without enthusiasm.
"You try wielding a keyblade, I mean, without being possessed." Sora said then.
"Not funny. Let's explore this place up. I smell trouble."
"You can always smell trouble from a place you don't know." Mickey says, while walking. "We just have to find this place's governor and..."
"...be hung up, fed to the lions, what?" Riku completes.
"Just don't think like that. It's bad." Sora says.
They reach a funny building. It's formed by wood all around it, and lots of plants around it, until the top. The windows were small and so was the door in front of them. A strange music was echoing, too.
"So, what do we do? Do we come in?" Riku asks Mickey.
"That's what we have to do." Mickey replies.
"This looks like one of those crazy civilizations that kill any strangers!" Donald was freaking out, "I'm not going in!"
"So stay there." Riku said. Donald was left behind.
The four got in and Donald waited at the entrace.
"Big... big fat palookas! They won't listen to me. We could just lurk around and maybe find a blasting gummi ship. But, oh, no, it's better to come in like a bunch of blasting invaders and be deheaded!" he was saying.
Donald then finds a small gummi piece on the floor. It looked like one of the Navi Gummis he, Goofy and Sora found last year.
When he got it, there was another one just a few feet ahead. When facing the whole way, it was an entire trail of gummi pieces.
"Holy crap! I have to collect these!" Donald said, collecting all pieces quickly and noisily.
When he was storing the very last piece in his pack, he decided to go inside that building and telling his friends, alive or dead, about the pieces. Or maybe sell them to the governor to free his friends. But he wouldn't have much time to think about that, at that time.
It was a trap. A cage fell into him, locking the poor duck, surrounded by almost-unpenetrable trees.
"Ooooh, I knew it was going to happen! Who's there? Who's theeeere?" Donald yelled.
Meanwhile, Sora was examining each detail of that building, the inside was very beautiful. The people there used wood and plants in a great harmony, creating a very charming place. Riku was starting to get impatient.
"This world must be empty as well."
"Hey, guys, quiet! Listen..." Mickey said, making them all stop and listen. The sound looked like steps. And the steps were getting closer.
"Let's all hide! Quick!" Mickey said, and eveybody obeyed.
A funny-looking old man came into the room they were hiding and was holding a torch.
"Is there anyone there?" the old man said. No answer.
"Let's corner him." Riku said.
"You crazy? What if he calls the guards, yawn!" Goofy argued.
"Sora?" Mickey gives Sora the decision power.
"Let's corner him!" Sora said, in low voice. "Goofy, you got your weapon?"
"Oh yeah! I mean, if you call a shield a weapon."
"Ok. Let's all scare him to death. Then we'll inquire for information."
But they didn't even have time to scare the guy. In fact, the opposite happened. He scared them.
Some shadows began to corner him until completely filling his body up. He was shadow-only, then.
"It's a heartless! Engage!!" Mickey yelled.
Riku handed his knife, Goofy, his shield, Mickey, his keyblade and Sora... kept watching them.
"When I get my keyblade back... I'm gonna show them I'm not just an spectator. I... I BEAT RIKU ONCE. TWICE!!" he was yelling to himself.
When the shadow had already dissipated, and Goofy was doing his victory dance, Riku concluded:
"This is it. Every world is empty. But every world has heartlesses. We must rush to Hollow Bastion. Let's finish Ansem off and make everything back to normal."
"You look like me, saying that. What makes you think that Ansem will be beaten AND that it will make all worlds go back to normal?" Sora said, puzzling them all.
Meanwhile, the poor duck was still yelling, complaining, yelling and complaining.
"That's it. I'm gonna die here. I'll dry to death. Nice, calm... and delaying!" he was saying.
Then a shadow appeared. It wasn't a heartless but a real shadow, like the ones we get when we light something up. The person approached.
"Donald! It was you?" the person said.
"Quaaack! You moron!! WHY DID YOU LOCK ME UP???"
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't know it was you..."
Then a shadow appeared. It wasn't a heartless but a real shadow, like the ones we get when we light something up. The person approached.
"Donald! It was you?" the person said.
"Quaaack! You moron!! WHY DID YOU LOCK ME UP???"
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't know it was you..."
This person was Leon!
"You squaack-bookle squackar!!! We were just looking for you! Why the waacka-baacka did you lock me up?" Donald was a bit more annoyed than unsual.
"Calm down, calm down... CALM DOWN STUPID DUCK!!" Leon got pissed. "I didn't know it was you, I already said it. So tell me, are your friends here, as well?"
"Yep. They went inside that building over there." Donald pointed the big construction Sora, Mickey, Goofy and Riku went in before.
"Uh-oh... well... I guess Sora knows how to deal with heartlesses just fine. But... did you say Mickey? 'The' Mickey? The King?"
"Oh, yeah. He's back, and is the only one who is really fighting. Oh, you see, Sora lost his keyblade, and his two most important keychains."
"Sora... lost his keyblade?" Leon looked puzzled and scared, at the same time. "How... could this... be possible?" he stared at the sky. He didn't remember of unlocking Donald.
"So stop blabba-wabba and unlock me up!" Donald began yelling again. "Let's just go meet up with them and then you can chat all you want." he was yelling while Leon was trying to untie the trap's ropes.
"Here." he said, finally.
Donald faced his regained freedom happily. But a few seconds later...
"Why don't you just LOOK who you have locked up? I kept waiting for... what, ten minutes! I could have died! What if I didn't eat anything for uh, three years?"
"If you haven't eaten anything in three years, it wouldn't be ten minutes which would make any difference. Now let's go." Leon said, then began to walk carefully, with his hands almost touching his gunblade.
Meanwhile, Sora was asking Mickey how was it possible that old man becoming a heartless without any reason.
"They don't need reasons, you know." Riku answered before Mickey. "Heartlesses could have been called Mindlesses as well."
"Um, yeah, it's true. But even so, we still don't know what that old man was doing there, alone in this empty world." Mickey said.
"Well, we don't know if it's empty, we haven't looked around yet, just this building." Goofy said.
Then Donald came running, and before him came Leon.
"Squaaack! I almost died! It was that squaack-bookle squackar! He locked me up and made me wait for, what, one hour!" Donald yelled.
"It was ten minutes max, duck." Leon said, when finally reaching them.
"Leon!" they welcomed him.
"We were just looking for you! Then the engine broke and..." Sora was saying.
"Yeah, I can imagine what happened. It happened to us too." Leon said, puzzling everyone.
"Us... who?" they asked.
"Me and the guys, Cloud, Cid and Aeris. We were separated after the engine blew up after we tried to speed it up. Me and Cid got here and we split up to find someone. Then I saw the heartlesses and got curious to see why they were here."
"...And you tried to trap them and analyze them?" Donald tried to guess.
"Exactly." Leon said.
"But what about those gummies?" Donald said, showing the pieces.
"Oh, those are fake." Leon said, frustrating everyone. "Heartlesses love shiny things. Like hearts."
...
"What the waacka-baacka is wrong with you? You're lost in a strange place, only with your barking friend, and you have the brilliant idea of making a trap?!" Donald was yelling again.
"In case you didn't know, me and the guys used to make experiments with Heartlesses. It was a long time ago but I have a good memory. But let's focus on what we're gonna do, we got to find Cid."
"Yes. Let's go." Sora said.
They were leaving the building when Goofy said:
"Uhh... hey... this place looks huge. Where are we gonna look first?"
"Sora?" Mickey gave Sora the decision power again, that was making him nervous.
"Let's go trought that jungle over there..." Sora pointed the place. "We've come from that other side..." he pointed the other stop then, "Let's try to get to the other side, where Cid may be."
"Wise choice. Although..." Riku started.
"Let's just go. We don't have time for this!" Donald said, he was still a bit angry.
The group moved, then, to the jungle pointed by Sora.
"Let's be ready for any heartless encounters." Mickey said, his keyblade was in hands.
"Humph. They're all gonna face the same fate." Leon said, confident.
Sora was still feeling useless, while everybody had their weapons, he was just an spectator.
"But when I get my keyblade... I'm gonna show them..." he thought, "I'll kick all heartlesses' asses!".
They finally reached the jungle's border. Now they were inside that cozy and scary outdoor cavern. The trees were scary as well, looked like they had eyes and mouthes, and they were all staring at them, planning something evil against them.
"Yawn... when... are we going to get to the other side?" Goofy asked, a bit scared.
"Stop complaining you big squaack-squackar! We're already tense in here!" Donald said. It was clear that he was the most terrified of them all.
"Why don't we split up and..." Riku began.
"No... that never works." Sora interrupted.
"What? Why?" Riku asked.
"Let's just... stay together! Something tells me that we must... stay together. Just..." Sora was saying.
"'Something tells you'?" Riku asked, almost mocking him, "Come on, Sora, we got to find that guy Cid. If someone finds him, just give a signal."
"What signal?" Goofy asked.
Sora was no longer talking.
"I don't know. Let's just yell or... I don't know..." Riku was saying.
"Let's stay together." No, it wasn't Sora who said that. It was Mickey.
"Uh? You too think that?" Riku asked.
"Of course. Anyone with a bit of counciousness would think that. This is a dangerous and deep jungle. We can't take risks." Mickey stated.
"Hmm, very well, then. Let's stay together." Riku said, and the group moved.
"Thanks, Mickey. He wouldn't listen, you saw it." Sora said.
"You're welcome, fella."
They walked for three hours and some minutes. Donald had already complained enough and was voiceless. They finally reached the jungle border.
"Whoooo-hooo! Finally!" Goofy celebrated, along with the others.
That's when they realize someone was staring at them. It was... a Darkside!
"WHOA!" Sora screamed.
The shadowy creature quickly began cyrcling around them, but then quickly Mickey jumped to it and began slashing it with his keyblade. Riku tried to attack it too but his knife made no damage against the huge shadow.
The darkside raised its hand, then, and a black ball began to grow above it.
"Hide! Hide, it's gonna blow!" Mickey yelled.
"Again... I'm... useless..., I'm watching, I'm hiding, I'm doing nothing!" Sora was thinking again.
We was angry, he couldn't stand that regection anymore.
"I must do something! I MUST!" he said, when jumping in front of Mickey, trying to stop the black ball with his bare fists.
"Sora, NO!" Mickey said...
For Sora, then, everything became dark. There was darkness all over.
"There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong." a voice echoed in Sora's head.
"Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away." another voice echoed, then.
"What... is happening?" Sora asked himself.
He woke up after some minutes. He wasn't with his friends. He was alone. He wasn't at the jungle anymore, it seemed that he had already passed the border.
"MICKEEEEEEEY! RIKUUUUUUU!" he called, but no one answered. "Great... just great..." he was becoming impatient.
He got up and looked at the ways that remained. The world had a huge mountain that could be viewed completely from where Sora was.
Sora decided to go to a near meadow he spotted when he woke up.
Walking around it made Sora reflect about what he did.
"I was an idiot... how could I stop that using only my hands?" he then remembered how useless he's been feeling since he lost his keyblade.
Suddenly all the colorness and beautiness of the meadow become dark and hazy. Sora, then, sees Riku approaching him.
"Riku!" Sora calls him.
"The door has opened..." he was saying, he looked numb.
"We can't let fear stop us... I'm... I'M NOT AFRAID OF DARKNESS!" Riku yells, handing Sora's old Kingdom Key!
"That's my keyblade!" Sora says.
Riku didn't answer. He tried to attack Sora but he quickly avoided the slashing, and ran away.
"What is going on, Riku?" he was asking while running. "Why are you like this again?"
Then Sora got tired of so much running, and in front of him was Leon. He looked as numb as Riku. He was with his gunblade in hand.
"Come with us. There's nothing to fear." he said.
"Wh-what? What's wrong with you guys?" Sora was getting frightened.
"Come on, Sora!" a voice echoed behind him. It was Mickey, and, guess, he was the one who was worse-looking.
"Let's close this door... for good..." he said.
"What door, Mickey?" Sora asked.
"The door... of light... it must be closed! It's..." Mickey stopped, then.
Everything turned black again. Sora was back at the meadow, but there was something in his feet. The Keyblade!
"Keyblade... Keyblade..." a voice was echoing and Sora finally opened his eyes.
"MY KEYBLADE!" he screamed, and quickly got it and examined it.
Meanwhile, in a place very, very, very far from there, a bell was ringing. Its ringing made a blonde kid run faster. He was wearing a backpack and looked nervous.
"Maran! You forgot your prisms!" someone was yelling at him.
"I have plenty here. Thanks!" Maran said, running even faster.
He reaches a clocktower and comes in. The stairs are narrow and old but he jumps two or three floors to get to the top quickly.
There is a girl sitting at the top of the clocktower, above from the clock itself. She was beautiful, she had a long black hair and blue eyes. Looked short for her age.
"What took you so long? I was almost leaving." she said.
"Sorry, but I..." Maran was afraid of telling her what took him so long. He's been having serious headaches these days. But he doesn't want to tell his friend that, because if he do she will make this a big deal and tell him to look for a doctor.
"You... what?" she said.
"Nothing. Here are the prisms..." he took some shiny stones of his backpack.
"Ok..." she got the stones and examined them. "You really thing these are the real stuff?"
"I don't know, Rina, you're the one who can tell the differences."
"Nowadays it's too hard to find an autentic prism laying around. Ok, ok, this is nice but that's not why I called you up here."
"So why?"
"Come here." she took him inside the clocktower, where the stairs were. She opened a door there, somehow she had the key.
"This is for you. I found it at the town's border." she pointed it. It was...
"This is for you. I found it at the town's border." she pointed it. It was a Keyblade!
"Whoa! Wh-why would I need such a big key?"
Rina looked thoughtfully to Maran.
"A man asked me to give this to you. Yesterday night. He was wearing a spooky dark cloak, I couldn't see his face. I thought he was going to mug me but no, he handed me a case and this key was inside."
Maran took the Keyblade and noticed something odd. Pressing it between his hands, he found out it wasn't one Keyblade, but two, attached to each other.
"Whoosh! They're two!" he said, amused.
"I wonder why you would need two. In fact, I don't even know why you would need it at all."
"Maybe to open a door? A big door?" Maran remembered some weird dreams he's had. "Or maybe to lock a big door..."
"Well that's it. What are you going to do? Huh?"
"Well, I am... going to sell them." Rina got scared after hearing that.
"What? You crazy? Don't you feel that these things are special, or something?" she argued. "You're selling those only under my dead body."
"Ok, ok, I got it. So what do you suggest?"
"Let's look for this man. I met him around the INN, maybe he's staying there."
"So let's go! I'll keep them here, nobody ever comes here, anyway."
"Ok, let's go!" Rina said, pulling Maran.
They lived at Feartia Town, a big and busy town with lots of buildings and houses. However, they lived at the suburb, and the clocktower was the highest they could get.
Maran and Rina ran very fast to the INN. In fact, running fast was what they did best, they were always in a rush. Feartia was a very fast-moving city, and its citizens seemed to be like that, too.
"Here we are! Now stay in here while I ask if there was anyone suspicious there." Maran said, making Rina nervous.
"Why? You think the recepcionist is going to bite me or something? I'm going with you, I'm going to the bottom of this along with you." she said, once again pulling him.
Thirty seconds later they were leaving the hotel. 'No, nobody suspicious, I think. Now, leave, if you're not going to rent a room.' the robot-like guy at the counter said.
"What are we gonna do?" Maran asked.
"Don't know. Ahhh, well, I think I'll call it a day. Gotta sleep a lot, tomorrow is going to be a full day at the farm." she said, leaving.
"Hey, uh, Rina!"
"What?"
"Do you remember anything else about that guy? The guy who gave you the keys?"
"Uhhh... he was... short. Very short. Even I was taller than him. Yeah, that's it. See ya!" she said.
That night, Maran didn't dream the same things he's been dreaming. He dreamed about himself, holding those two keyblades. The darker one and the lighter one. He was in a arena-like place, surrounded by fire.
He woke up after hearing someone calling his name. It was there. The short cloaked man, next to his bed.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Does... does this have something to do with... those keys?" Maran asked, scared.
The cloaked figure took off its hood and its face was visible. It had long ears and a ponty nose. It was Mickey.
Meanwhile, there was Sora, wielding his old Keyblade, still not believing he'd got it back.
"Now I just have to find the guys. They will see, now, how I fight!"
Sora continued his way trought the meadow. It seemed neverending, but it was beautiful too, this beauty distracted Sora for some miles.