With some careful planning, and a few detours through a strange gizmo shop and a lovely house of Dalmatians, Sora and Akira had found their way to Traverse Town's Third District. The abundance of street lamps made the district seem brighter than the second, yet it was just as empty and desolate; a perfect place for Heartless to be lurking around. The pair of them scurried through to the large opening at the center of the district overlooking a beautiful fountain with an elegant statue of a cocker spaniel and a mixed-breed stray.
"Do we even know where we're going?" Akira huffed, out of breath.
Sora shrugged his shoulders while forcing a smile. "Um, I'm sure we'll find something!"
A sudden explosion from a balcony overhead caught them completely by surprise. They raised their eyes in the explosion's direction, yet the smoke made it impossible to discern exactly what happened. Did the Heartless cause this? As Akira squinted to get a better look, she was able to perceive two figures flying through the air, obviously knocked back by the force of the impact. One seemed human-sized while the other seemed questionably small…
"I think we just did," she said in a panicked tone when she realized their trajectory was headed right for them.
She braced for impact while Sora attempted to escape. They both came crashing to the ground, struggling under the weight of the collision. Surprisingly enough, they weren't knocked out cold. Akira was knocked sideways while Sora was knocked flat on his stomach, his Keyblade colliding with the ground. She opened her eyes to find an oddly dressed duck had been the one who fell from the sky and crashed into her.
"Thank goodness it isn't a Heartless," she thought, "… wait. WAIT."
"A duck?" she screeched.
"A dog?" Sora yelled under the weight of the just as oddly dressed dog that had fallen onto him.
"The Key!" the other two cried in unison when they happily discovered Sora's Keyblade.
The almost humanlike animals quickly lifted themselves off the actual humans, fawning over the Keyblade in the process. Sora tightly gripped onto it, while Akira summoned her weapon as well.
"You know about the Keyblade?" Sora asked curiously.
Before they could answer, another smaller explosion was heard overhead. They watched in horror as a mountain of heavy rocks rolled down the staircases, barring all their exits from the centre of the district, effectively trapping them. Sure enough, there was reason to be worried; a massive Heartless unlike any they had ever seen descended from the sky, ready to attack. It had been watching them from the shadows and had finally found the perfect opportunity to strike.
This Heartless was fully clad in a suit of armour, unlike the smaller armoured ones which only wore a helmet of iron. It seemed to move in a single unit yet, upon closer inspection, it was really five different pieces; both its arms and legs were disconnected from its torso. Its head was fully covered by an iron sallet as well, but a very distinct symbol was visible on its chest; a black heart with a red outline and design on its centre.
Akira pointed to the symbol. "That emblem. The other Heartless have it too."
Sora nodded. "Then we'll have to take care of it quickly!"
"Don't forget about us!" the duck quacked, raising a short staff into the air with his feathered hand.
Akira was at a complete loss for words. Not only did he half-talk, half-quack, but he was using what should have been his wing as a real human hand. "The duck talked," she said as her eyes widened.
The duck stomped his foot angrily. "Of course I can talk!"
"Uh guys? Maybe we oughta save this for later!" the dog interrupted, raising his combat shield, ready for battle.
Akira's jaw would have hit the floor if it opened any more. "Are you kidding me?"
The Heartless balled its hand into a fist and slammed the ground before it. The force of the impact knocked Akira and the duck over, while the other two were able to stay balanced. This was the final straw that sent the royal court magician into a rage. "Aw forget this!" Donald Duck quacked as he picked himself up, "We have bigger problems! Can you fight?"
Akira used her weapon to help herself up. "Yes. Can you?"
He quacked something incomprehensible, which Akira took as an agreement. "Well then," she said, still baffled by the sheer madness of everything that had just transpired, "I guess we're doing this."
The Heartless put up quite the fight, even when outnumbered four to one. Its limbs would either support its torso or seem to go off with a mind of their own. Their unpredictability threw everyone for a loop, making it difficult to keep up. The hardest contenders were definitely its hands, which it used to spin like a windmill to knock everyone away, or punched the ground to create reverberations that knocked them off their feet. Not to mention, the arms floated high up, making it hard to even reach them.
"Ugh, how are we supposed to reach them?" Akira wondered aloud as she held her blade in front of her with both hands to shield herself from the impact of the Heartless' windmill attack.
"Just use magic!" Donald instructed.
The surprises never ended. "Magic!?" she asked in confusion.
"You've never cast magic before?" he asked, growing increasingly irritated.
"Of course not!" she responded, surprised that he'd even ask that.
He sighed heavily. "Then today is the day you learn!"
He scurried to her side, pointing his weapon at the Heartless while standing straight. "Do as I do!"
Akira nodded and pointed her staff to the enemy, ready to learn.
"Feet apart!"
Akira moved her feet apart.
"Bend your knees!"
She bent her knees, copying his movements.
"Concentrate!"
Concentrate… on what exactly?
"And say Fire!"
Akira's eyes widened with panic and confusion. "Fire?!"
A ball of flame erupted from the tip of her staff and shot towards the hand, destroying one of them with a blazing explosion. However, the force of the impact knocked her off her feet and sent her staff flying into the air.
"Good try, but next time, try to hold your balance," he said as she raised herself off the ground.
"Okay, I just didn't expect I'd be burning things!" she said as she summoned her staff back to her hands.
Donald quacked in confusion. "What were you expecting?"
She sighed. "I don't know, not setting everyone on fire?"
"You stop paying attention for even a second and you will! Magic is something to be taken seriously!"
Akira was preparing a response when they suddenly witnessed the Heartless' remaining hand aiming for them, balled into a fist. Yet, before it was able to hit them, Sora's Keyblade came spinning through the air, crashing against the hand and destroying it.
"Are you guys paying attention?" he called as he caught his Keyblade when it twirled back towards him like a boomerang.
Akira was in awe of what he had just done. "Um, who taught you that?"
"Oh! Goofy did! He throws his shield like a frisbee!" Sora answered, smiling. Akira could only deduce that the dog that was accompanying the rather annoying duck must be the one he referred to as Goofy.
"Alright, fellers!" the dog named Goofy said as he approached them, "We've gotta finish this one off!"
The four of them smiled and nodded together. Their efforts had successfully destroyed the Heartless' limbs. If they could just get the torso, the battle would be won.
"I have a magic spell I can use, but I'll need to get closer!" Donald explained.
"Then we'll make you a path!" Sora said with conviction.
Goofy marched up to the menacing Heartless' torso and bent his knees in wait. Sora followed suit and jumped, seating himself on Goofy's shoulders. Akira did the same and placed herself on Sora's shoulders. Finally, Donald leaped to the top of the makeshift tower they had created. Akira threw the duck into the air, propelling him towards the Heartless' head.
"Thunder!" Donald cried, releasing several bolts of thunder from his staff.
The Heartless couldn't handle the force of the attack, and the torso came crashing towards the ground, the clanking of stone and steel echoing across the district. Before disappearing, a bright heart was released from its core and vanished in the air. The Heartless took the barricading rocks with it as it vanished in a puff of black smoke, and the district fell quiet once more.
"We did it!" Goofy cheered as the teens hopped back to the ground.
"That was pretty amazing!" Akira added.
"Yeah," Sora agreed, "We make a great team!"
"Good!" Donald quacked, "Because you're exactly the person we've been looking for!"
Sora and Akira looked at each other with confusion before Sora spoke. "You've been looking for me?"
"They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade," a familiar voice added.
Leon approached them at a steady pace as Yuffie shut the door leading to the First District behind her. Sora silently wondered if they purposefully took their time to avoid confronting that monstrosity of a Heartless...
"Our King sent us on a mission to find the 'key', so we left our world to come find you!" Goofy explained.
Akira snapped her fingers, finally understanding why these anthropomorphized animals could talk. They must be from a place where this kind of thing is normal. "So you came from another world!"
Goofy nodded. "Yup, we came on our vessel! Say, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds together!"
Sora hung his head sadly. "I wonder if we could find Riku and Kairi…."
"Of course!" Donald said excitedly.
Goofy wasn't so sure. He bent over towards the duck, whispering to him. "Are you sure?"
"Who knows?" Donald whispered back, "But we need him to come with us to help us find the King."
"Sora, Akira, go with them," Leon said firmly, "Especially if you want to find your friends."
Donald suddenly quacked. "What? No! Only the Keyblade wielder comes with us!"
Akira glared at him, miffed. "Excuse me?"
"Our King specifically said 'key' and nothing else!"
She gritted her teeth. "Oh no no no! Our world was destroyed, and we lost our friends. We have no idea where they are and all we have left from that ordeal is each other!" She summoned her staff. "Plus, I wield the, uh… Staffblade! I protect the… balance of the world! With the key! Always by the key's side! Y-yeah!"
She knew she didn't sound convincing but she was never the best actress. Yuffie gave her a thumbs up from the sidelines, but Donald still wasn't impressed. "The answer is no!" he quacked.
"You can't be serious!" she argued.
"I'm just following orders. No means no."
Akira slumped her shoulders in defeat. The only chance either of them had to search for their friends further beyond the borders of Traverse Town wouldn't even give her a second look. Well... it was just her, wasn't it? Donald was willing to travel with Sora without a fuss; she was the problem. She wanted to speak on his behalf with all her heart but she knew asking him to stay in this town with her was the selfish option. Kairi or Riku could be on any other world, facing terrible danger; Sora had to go with them. She had to stay here... alone once more.
"I'm not going then."
Akira, Donald, and Goofy switched their gazes over to Sora, whom watched Donald with a stern look.
"What?" Donald quacked, "But-"
"I said I'm not going. Akira's right. She's all I have left of my home. We'll find another way to leave this world. So... best of luck to you," he said without dropping his gaze.
"Sora, why...?" Akira began, but couldn't find the words to express what she wanted to say.
Goofy bent over to be within earshot of the short duck. "Aw, come on Donald," he said softly, "After all, there are four seats in the ship, isn't there?"
Donald quacked angrily, but knew he was right. The King never specifically said not to fill that last seat... and this kid certainly wasn't going to go with them unless he let both of them come along for the ride. As much as he disliked it, it wasn't the worst compromise.
"Alright alright, you both can come but you can't come looking like that. No frowning. No sad face. Okay?" Donald ordered.
Akira clapped her hands and smiled, but Sora still looked as gloomy as ever.
"Yeah, you gotta look funny like us!" Goofy said with a laugh.
"This boat runs on happy faces!" Donald continued.
"Happy?" Sora asked solemnly.
The rest of them waited patiently to see his next reaction. Would he smile? Or would he simply lose all hope? They watched with anticipation as he finally raised his head to meet their gaze, smiling quite the silly smile. The three of them burst out laughing as his smile fell once he realized how strange he must have looked.
"That's one funny face!" Goofy managed to say between laughs.
Sora shook his head to clear his mind of the embarrassment. "Okay, I'll go with you guys!" he said, changing the subject.
Donald smiled, raising his hand before him. "Donald Duck."
Goofy put his on top of Donald's. "Name's Goofy."
Akira followed suit with hers. "My name's Akira. Nice to meet you."
Sora was last. "And I'm Sora."
Even though they had just met, they felt like a real team. Fighting the Heartless with them felt natural, and they were good company on top of that. Besides, if these two were able to travel to other worlds, their best bet in finding Riku and Kairi would be to team up with them.
"All for one and one for all!" Goofy proclaimed with a chuckle.
In a land far away from the peace that had settled onto Traverse Town, a group had settled around a glowing magical table, watching Sora's movements and interactions from a distance. The air reeked with contempt, each member of this group eviller and more villainous than the last.
"That little squirt took down that Heartless! Who would have thought it?"
"Such is the power of the Keyblade. The child's strength is not his own."
"Why don't we turn him into a Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough."
"And the brat's new friends are the King's lackeys. Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them!"
"You're no prize yourself!"
"Shut up!"
"Enough."
The most wicked of all had entered the room, a most familiar witch draped in dark tattered robes, with lips an aubergine violet.
"The Keyblade has chosen him. Will it be he who conquers the darkness? Or will the darkness swallow him? Either way, he could be quite useful…"