Second Interlude: A Search Delayed
The boy-warrior had left finally, and Goofy allowed himself the small luxury of a sigh of relief. Not that he was particularly impatient. Leon and Aerith and Yuffie were busy folks, after all, what with their Trinity thing and going out and trying to save as many people and fight as many Heartless as they could. At least with them doing their jobs, he and Donald wouldn't have to fight as much as they might have during their search for the king. So, of course, training and recruiting was an important duty for Trinity just as searching for King Mickey was an important duty for his faithful vassals. Even watching the boy-warrior knocking up that almost-Heartless machine had been an impressive sight.
The issue with this training stuff was that as much as he could understand and even appreciate the agenda of the Trinity organization, the one standing next to him most assuredly did not. In front of the residents of this world, Donald had struggled to keep his cool as the leaders took their time handling the new recruit, and he had done so with startling success, though Goofy suspected that he'd get the brunt of the duck's barely contained frustration as soon as business was taken care of here. He patted the shield strapped to his right arm, reassured by the heaviness of the steel and the king's symbol emblazoned on the front. While the latter served no practical protective function, King Mickey's symbol reminded him of the trust and the confidence that the ruler of the kingdom had placed in him. And now it nagged at him for some reason because he swore he had seen it somewhere else just a few minutes ago. He shrugged, dismissing that as one of the many unimportant thoughts he had that would fly out of his head within a few minutes.
Lightning hit him, and Goofy realized that he'd let his random thoughts get in the way of the moment as they usually did. Of course, Donald had been kind enough to alert him to this. The leaders of this world motioned for them to make their way to headquarters, and both obliged.
At first, Goofy only listened to enough of the conversation to ascertain that it was still idle, as conversation often tended to be as people talked around what was important and instead chose innocuous subjects, in this case a bit of propaganda about Trinity's organization and mission. As fascinating as this forgettable information was, he really focused on the numerous obvious differences between this world and the only one he'd ever seen since he was born. Lines were straighter, for one thing, and all the walls and buildings and stairs were at perfect cookie-cutter 90 degree angles. Home was freeform and curved as the buildings took the shapes that fit them best while this world seemed very stiff and uniform. Even the people, though they were very nice for the most part, seemed bizarrely uniform to him. If he looked hard enough, perhaps he would notice the subtle differences between them, but for now he took note of their clothing and pretended that was enough. Leon was the male, dressed all in black, Yuffie the girl wearing green and shorts, and Aerith the woman in pink.
The house was small for the headquarters of a great organization, although the use of space was efficient. Aerith led them to a small corner and invited them to sit on the bed while Yuffie and Leon were clearing the house of possible eavesdroppers. That's right, Donald must have told them that they wanted to keep their activities as much a secret as they could while they were on another world. Just as they wouldn't muddle in the affairs of others, others should not be given the opportunity to muddle in the affairs of their world.
As Goofy sat on the bed and tried to make himself comfortable while the last of the non-leader Trinity members left, Donald paced the floor in front of the bed, muttering something under his breath.
At last, the Trinity members turned towards them and nodded, and Donald came out of his pacing trance. Awkward silence filled the room for a moment, as everybody waited for someone else to start the conversation. Maybe, Goofy thought, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith were under the same condition as Donald and him to not muddle in the affairs of others and to share as little information with outsiders as they could manage. He decided to break the silence, trusting that these people, as odd-looking as they might be, were trustworthy.
"Umm...our king has been missing for a while, and just a day ago we got notice to talk to Leon. Said there was something about a key or something."
The three humans glanced at each other, and finally Leon spoke up. "The Keyblade. Of course the king would want to find it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Donald asked, too quick to take offense. Already Goofy could see the little feathers on his neck standing up, a sure sign that the duck was ready to unleash his fury upon Leon.
However, Aerith managed to step in before anything disastrous could come from the potential misunderstanding. "The worlds are locked in a spiral of destruction. Heartless take over a world and spawn more Heartless in its destruction, who spread to other worlds. The Keyblade is the only thing that can stop the spiral before everything is destroyed."
"Gawrsh," Goofy said, resorting to his favorite word, "Sounds important. Where can we find it?"
The three of them looked at each other again in what Goofy thought was uncertainty. Finally Yuffie shuffled forward nervously, looking like an airsick person about to enter a Gummi ship, pale and a little frightened. "You see.... the Keyblade isn't what saves the worlds. It's up to the person who uses it, the Keyblade Master, to decide what happens. The Keyblade can also be a powerful instrument of destruction."
"You don't have to worry about that," Donald said. "The king would only use it for a good purpose."
There was total silence before Aerith spoke up. "Of course we know that your king would only use the Keyblade for a good purpose. The problem is that we have no control over who the Keyblade goes to. You see..."
Leon put his hand on his temple and shook his head. "Don't mince words with them. The Keyblade chooses its master, and it already chose somebody else. Believe me, if it were up to us, your king would have it."
Tension reigned supreme in the house for a few minutes. Though his companion was quiet, Goofy could tell that Donald was absolutely livid and nearly ready to burn the headquarters down. The Trinity members avoided looking at either of them, and even Goofy wanted to talk of something else beside the Keyblade. Although he did have to ask one more thing.
"What happened to this Keyblade Master?"
"He showed up at this town two years ago, Keyblade in hand, and slaughtered hundreds of Heartless with about as much effort as a child cutting up imaginary enemies. We tried to get him on our side, but he left before we could talk to him. The spiral of destruction accelerated soon afterward. While we don't have proof of what he did or whether he's still alive, we do believe that he and his key turned the tide of this war in the wrong direction," Aerith explained, trying to keep herself composed.
What else could Goofy say? "Gawrsh... that's terrible."
Donald, looking as crestfallen as Goofy felt, nodded in agreement instead of going into his impending outburst. "We're doomed then." He resumed his pacing, polishing the wood floors with his webbed feet.
Yuffie, ever optimistic, started up again, "Not yet. Have you ever heard of a man named Ansem?"
"An-sem?" The name sounded familiar to Goofy, although he couldn't quite remember where he knew it from. An-sem was probably one of King Mickey's friends. After all, the king did have a reputation for knowing a lot of strange people. And An-sem certainly had a strange name, so it made sense that he was strange.
"Yes, Ansem. He was the ruler of our home world before Heartless overran it. He was a great scholar who did research on the Heartless and the nature of the worlds and put his findings in a detailed report. Unfortunately, it's been scattered across the worlds. If we could find it–"
"Then we could find another way to save the worlds!" Donald completed Aerith's last sentence, and Goofy admired his companion's penchant for quick thinking. Of course. The king had always said that knowledge was power, and having that report would help them. It might even save them all.
"Exactly." Leon said, seeming ready to end the conversation. "So we should concentrate on looking for the report." He too began pacing the floor, although his strides resembled a soldier's march while Donald's pacing was still his usual angry waddle.
At the last part of Leon's assessment of the situation, Donald stopped his pacing and the foul temper that he'd kept admirably in check since the beginning of the conversation finally began to emerge. "No!! We have to find the king first! Then we'll find your report." He crossed his feathered arms across his chest and glared at the three humans.
Leon's reaction to this outburst was a stoic look at the duck and a bored, "Fine. Whatever. Search for your king, but what can he do without the Keyblade or the report?"
"We can figure that out!" Donald stormed out of the house with his trademark waddling walk, hopefully to calm down a bit before they figured out their next course of action. For his part, Goofy began apologizing profusely for Donald. Although the duck was much smarter than he could ever be, Goofy understood that his job accompanying Donald on diplomatic missions was to smooth over the misunderstandings that the well-intentioned but easily-irritated wizard often initiated.
Aerith nodded as if she understood, although Yuffie remained silent and Leon just glowered. "We understand your commitment to finding your king, and we don't want to undermine that at all. However, if you're going to be searching many worlds, perhaps finding the missing pages of the reports doesn't have to interfere."
Now that someone had mentioned the idea of searching for the king and the report at the same time, Goofy had no clue why one would interfere with the other. "Gawrsh. That sounds pretty reasonable. If we're going on a hunt for the king, why shouldn't we find that report for you guys too? I'll go talk to Donald for you if you'd like."
Continuing her role as spokesperson for the group, Aerith bowed graciously. "Thank you. You wouldn't believe how much this means to us, having the help of King Mickey's most trusted advisers."
Goofy supposed that he really wouldn't believe it and waved good-bye to the Trinity Members before he started trying to find Donald. It didn't take long, however, as Goofy saw Donald as he peered into the lower area of Third District, the duck skulking by and probably glaring at the fountain nestled in the corner of the stairwell.
Still in a foul mood, Donald hissed as Goofy approached. "You know, Donald..." Goofy started hesitantly, half-expecting to get cursed at. When Donald merely turned away and marched off towards the exit to First District, Goofy sighed with a mixture of relief and frustration. His friend was in one of those moods again, and all Goofy could do about it was press on as if he hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. "Donald... I was talking to Aerith and them, and what they want seems pretty reasonable. Why can't we look for King Mickey and the report at the same time?"
Donald continued his pacing, this time up the staircase behind the fountain he'd been glaring at earlier, and Goofy continued talking. "He pretty much told us to trust these guys, right? If they help us out, then it's fair that we help them in return, right? It's the law of recipes."
"Reciprocality!" The duck finally shouted. Goofy knew that it was... that word... but like 'muddling',=,' he liked the sound of 'recipes' better, and it was easier to pronounce than that other word. It was proof also that Donald was listening to him even if he ignored the message.
"Right. That word. So, if it doesn't interrupt our search, why not help them out? The king would have wanted us to do it."
After a long pause, Donald finally answered his pleas with a steely quack. "We'll see. We still have business to do here first."
Business? Oh right. Donald's nephews still needed to be sent back to the Disney Kingdom, and judging from the number of refugees packed into the First District, they were going to have to spend awhile searching. "Right, your nephews. Where to look?" Goofy's first thought was to go back to Leon and the rest and just ask, but as he headed up to the headquarters, Donald tugged on his sleeve.
"No!" The duck spat. "We can't go back there!"
Goofy smiled good-naturedly, although his patience was wearing thin. "Donald... they'd probably know where to find them."
"Fine. Then you talk to them! I'm not going back." Donald stormed down an alleyway leading to a red door, and while Goofy noticed one of the world's residents heading into a head-on collision with Donald, neither of those two did. Goofy prepared to shout out a warning when they bumped into each other and fell to the ground.
The high-pitched shriek and the slightly lower-pitched quack did no favors for Goofy's eardrums. He was about to take refuge in Trinity Headquarters when he realized that, in a situation like this, Donald's infamous temper would require that someone supervise the duck in case something got out of hand.
And sure enough, Donald began a magical rampage on the poor soul he had bumped into, and Goofy nearly tripped over his feet trying to restrain Donald before he could cause any harm only to be rewarded by a bolt of lightning striking him straight on the noggin.
"You want to mess with me, ducky?" The resident, a pale female youth, said, using her slightly taller frame to intimidate Donald. "Huh? You want to mess with me?" Apparently, she tore her glare away from Donald long enough to see who she had really hit. "Get out of here. You don't need to get involved."
Goofy elbowed his way between the girl and Donald, reasonably afraid that they were about to start a fight. "Look, we're don't want any trouble, miss..."
"Lana." The girl grumbled her name.
"Miss Lana. We're just looking for some people."
Lana pulled her jacket around her and walked off in a huff. "I'm sorry, but I'm really busy. Maybe you should go ask Sir Leon or Lady Aerith or Yuffie."
With his longer stride, he caught up to her quickly. "Sorry, Miss Lana, but Donald here... he's not on the best terms with them right now, and we're looking for his nephews."
"Try the Item Shop. They've got annoying ducks there too." Lana waved them off and continued into the Trinity Headquarters. As she opened the door, Pluto ran out and toppled her over before bounding over to Donald and Goofy. Goofy gave a dopily apologetic look to Lana while patting Pluto on the head.
"Hey boy," Goofy addressed Pluto, "Do you know where Donald's nephews are?"
Pluto ran clumsily on big paws towards the exit to First District and started scratching at the door and barking.
Goofy chuckled. "I guess so." He pushed the door open, relieved that at least someone in this place could be helpful.
To be Continued
Author's Notes: Holy chocolate bovines, I'm finally done with all the Traverse Town stuff. For now. So off to the next world and to figure out how Sora is going to get by without that little thing... what's it called? Oh yes, the Keyblade.
A great big thanks to my beta-reader Koorino Megumi, who takes time from her busy life to make sure that this thing turns out legible, and an even bigger thanks to all the reviewers who are still following this silly little story. To Ginger who brought up the tone thing, yes, it will get darker. Eventually. However, considering that the next world on the itinerary is Wonderland, I'm going to have fun with that cracked-up place. Fun, of course, sometimes meaning sadistic.
Toodles.