Author's Note: I must warn you all, to prevent confusion, that in later
chapters I have found some mix ups involving numbers, dates, and years. If
you find any mistakes starting with this chapter involving numbers, dates,
and years, please do us all a favor and e-mail me the mistakes so I have a
chance to correct them. Thank you and enjoy!
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 14: Nothing Ever Known
Riku was rather silent as they followed Phil and Meg into the Coliseum. Through the blindfold, his mind threw out 'feelers' and felt the cracks, the crumbles, the burns, the damage the Coliseum suffered lately. The Heartless really had been at it, trying to destroy this place.
"This ain't the prettiest place around," Phil, the little goat-man, was telling Tarzan and Pooh, "since those damn Heartless started pounding this place to pulp. An' Hercules ain't here, which makes everything a hell lot worse."
"Where did he go, then?" Tarzan asked curiously as Phil pushed through a pile of broken marble.
"We don't really know," Meg answered sadly. "Pegasus came to him one day and, before you knew it, his flying horse morphed into this huge white thing and set out to do battle with him. They were banging away at each other when, with a sudden flash of light, Hercules was gone. Then the white thing tried to attack the Coliseum as well but Phil got his father to help us and we zapped the white thing into nothingness."
"A white thing?" Tarzan repeated. Meg nodded.
"Helluva creature, that thing was," Phil growled as he pushed away more rubble. "Caused more damage than those blasted ships or Cerberus. Curse that white thing; we don't have Mr. Superman and without him, we're all as good as dead here."
"We don't suck when it comes to fighting," Riku retorted immediately. "We more than held our own when white Heartless came at us!"
Phil froze for a moment; he then turned on Riku and barked, "White Heartless? There ain't no such thing as white Heartless!"
"But we've fought them," Tarzan answered in a smooth tone; he wasn't about to make Phil any madder. "They are white, with flattish heads and the sigh of the Heartless upon their foreheads. They are, indeed, Heartless."
Phil didn't look too happy. While Meg drifted away to drag Pooh away from a rather molten golden statue, he muttered, "Kida was right after all...they have the ability to look like the..."
Riku and Tarzan looked at the goat-man curiously but he did not speak audibly about it again. Instead, he looked at all of them, Pooh, Tarzan, and him, and said, "You gonna help us defend this place? I've a feeling they're going to attack big time pretty soon. You guys up to it?"
"We fight again?" Pooh asked curiously, not with complaint.
Tarzan nodded, holding his spear tight in his hand. "Looks like we're all going to have to, until Sora can make the Heartless go away."
"I hope that's soon, really soon," Riku agreed, applying a lot of emphasis on 'really'.
While the odd trio discussed amongst themselves about the ruined place they were going to defend, Meg took Phil aside and demanded of him, "The one with the blindfold; didn't he work for Maleficent?"
Phil quickly shushed her; he peered back at the trio carefully, then took Meg somewhere even further from them. Then he answered with a nod.
"Yes Meg, he did work for Maleficent," he admitted and, before Meg could say anymore, he added, "but I think he suffered a lot in the process, don't ya think?"
Meg began to protest, then stopped; Riku had stopped moving and his head was cocked, as though he was listening in on them. But Meg knew they were too far away to be heard clearly.
She studied the tall teenager. Phil had a good point; the teenager seemed very worn, very weather-beaten, and, something she thought was very odd from the start, he had on a blindfold. Why?
"I think his eyesight suffered or sumptin'," Phil agreed upon her questioning. "I was talking with Cloud about this and he said that sometimes, one has been in the dark for so long he cannot stand the light. And I know he's been in darkness. If he's shielding his eyes, he's been in the darkness for a long time. That's a helluva guts the guy has. I don't think anyone in their right mind would last!"
"I agree," Meg said, rather halfheartedly. Can you trust one who had given himself willingly to darkness, even if it was a year ago?
It was though Phil was telepathic; he replied, rather briskly, "If Cloud and the others trust him, we should trust him, too. Those guys know who's right and who's wrong; this kid ain't wrong or else he wouldn't be here."
"How can you be sure?" Meg shot back skeptically. "This kid's been under Maleficent's wing, for Zeus' sake! Who knows what he might've learned from that old witch! Don't you think she knows plenty bit about trickery and treachery? Look what she had done to the Society! She betrayed them before, to the Heartless she's been dealing with for years! Who knows what she could've drilled into that boy's head! How can we trust him? How?"
Phil glared at her steadily through her rampage and then answered, "And now you've got to wonder: why did the Society take her back? Ain't the world a little odd? So tell me this: if Maleficent betrays the Society, why is she back in it?! That means anything can happen! Riku can be trusted, Meg! He's been through enough; even the King trusted him! And you know the King can look deeper into one's heart than the rest of us, Meg, even the gods!"
A bolt of lightening streaked across the sky and just about fried Phil.
"Okay, I was lying," the fried satyr coughed while Meg looked on skeptically. "But still, Meg, you've got to trust the King's judgment! After all, he was the one who told you it was time to break away from Hades' bondage, right? And that really was the right thing to do! Perfect timing at that, too! So believe me, Meg, if the King says he's alright, he's alright. Now no more fussin'. We've got a job to do and it's a helluva job at that!"
Riku was unusually silent as they cleared the rubble from the courtyard in the Coliseum. Tarzan watched him worriedly as Riku calmly hoisted broken pieces of marble onto his shoulder and marched past Phil and Meg, with something like defiance in his steps. He would then unceremoniously chuck the pieces of stone into a heap before the double doors, keeping the doors barricaded from any likely invaders. He would then march with even more defiance past Phil and Meg, beginning the cycle again.
Pooh, heaving a small piece of marble into his arms, toppled over and the piece of marble went rolling quickly, stopping only inches from slicing off Tarzan's toes. Tarzan looked down at the marble piece, sighed, helped Pooh up, and carried the marble piece to the doorway.
Riku was brooding, he knew that. He told himself how many times not to brood around other people but he was still at it, still pulling up an emotional shield all around him, trying to repel other people. He knew it wasn't the best way to express his feelings but he did not know any other way. It was either that or attempting to choke Meg. He chose to brood because he knew nothing would come out of choking a person.
He had overheard what Meg had demanded of Phil, why Riku was there, of all the people in her known universe. He was mildly surprised at how she was able to find out everything about him but he quickly became enraged when he found out about how she thought of him. She had never met him before but already she believed that he could not be trusted?
He was more intrigued, however, by something she had said during that heated conversation. She said something about that accursed Maleficent being in some sort of a society. He was genuinely puzzled by that. What society?
As he literally stomped past Meg, his arms preoccupied by the two massive broken arms of a marble statue, he felt Meg's disproval. He forced his feet on the ground in militarily rhythm continuously, until he felt like he was stomping wells into the ground. After depositing his load, he marched back in carefully controlled staccato, irritating Phil so much he barked, " Riku, this ain't a military academy! No need to put holes in your shoes!"
Riku, wilting under Phil's words, dragged his feet back to the fallen statue he had plucked the broken arms from. There he found Tarzan standing, his arms crossed, with a very stern expression on his face. Pooh was there as well and, to Riku's complete and utter shock, had the same expression as Tarzan did.
"What happened?" was Tarzan's brisk question as soon as Riku reached them. "Why you don't like them?"
Broken English in terms of grammar and such but the meaning of the question was very understandable; Riku sighed, reluctant to answer.
"They're our friends," Pooh spoke up. "We shouldn't do that to them."
Riku scratched his head, contemplating his situation. He briefly considered using the untapped power within him to escape the Coliseum and go on his own after Sora and even more briefly contemplated pulling out his Dark Keyblade, beheading everybody in the court, and then running away. He quickly shoved that thought aside; he was such an ass to think of that.
"I..." he faltered before saying any more, shifting from foot to foot, acting wary and hesitant in general. "I heard Meg talking to Phil...about me."
"Indeed," Tarzan had a knowing smile on his face. Riku scowled; he didn't need to see the face, just hear the voice, to know that Tarzan knew of the conversation that took place. Ape-man had some strange sense of hearing.
"Look, I just don't like it when people talk about me like that!" Riku finally exploded. "Do you think I enjoyed being with Maleficent all the time? She gave me the creeps, no matter how many times I told myself she might be able to help me! In the end, it was Ansem who told me he could help me. Then what did he do? He stole my body, that's what! That's right-" Pooh had let loose a gasp of shock "-that idiot took my body. I found myself in Kingdom Hearts with King Mickey's voice playing in my head! I thought I finally lost it but lucky me, I wasn't! One year in that stinking black hole and now I can't even see out here! You think I like that?! Well I hate it! I hate not being trusted just because of what I had to go through! Sure I jumped into the same boat as that ol' witch! Don't you think I regretted that? Or did you think I was the one chosen to 'carry' on her 'teachings' or something? I don't like the darkness anymore than any one of you do but I've got an insider's look and it's the worst nightmare imaginable! Don't penalize me for something I've regretted doing since I first joined the Heartless! Don't pity me either because I hate that! Got that?!"
He faced them, his face taut with anger, his teeth practically bared like those of an angry wolf, but his heart felt a stunning release, like something foul had been swept away from his soul by the wind. He was breathing hard, with the anger he forced out on them.
"I'm sorry," Meg's voice spoke quietly, apologetically, behind him. "I didn't mean...I didn't know that."
Riku froze. He had just vented out his anger on his two colleagues but didn't take the time-er, breathe, to realize that the other two could hear his voice.
"I'm sorry," he gave a brisk answer. "I didn't mean for you to overhear. I-"
"You were merely taking out your anger on some people, on anything nearby, to feel better. I bet you would've been shouting at that broken statue like a deranged maniac if your two friends ain't here. Well kiddo, there ain't no need to apologize. There's no one to blame 'cuz letting your anger go is actually a good thing. People saw me yelling at a donkey I used to own because I felt like such a crazy idiot. Even more people saw me when I started yelling at this statue of Zeus 'cuz my life sucked. That was until he fried me for it. Kiddo," Phil wagged at finger in Riku's face, "if you gotta yell, yell. Just don't do it on something stupid like a tree. Them nymphs will get you for shouting at them."
Riku felt immensely relieved. Yelling at his friends wasn't the best thing to do, especially in front of other people. But Phil and the others understood, which was something he never expected.
"I-I'm sorry, Pooh, Tarzan," Riku said shakily. "I didn't mean to shout at you guys. I-I hope you'd understand."
Tarzan patted him on the back good-naturedly. "Better out than in. Brooding no good for anybody."
Pooh actually hugged Riku and the seasoned warrior had some trouble convincing the yellow teddy bear in a red shirt to actually let go. Then Meg stepped forward.
"I apologize for the words I spoke," she said, her face shameful. "I didn't mean to. I have a habit of being critical of other people and people say my tongue was too sharp for me to speak of other people like so; I'd murder them. I hope you'll accept my apology."
Riku flashed a careworn smile. "Of course. We're all in this together; its time to put aside all of our differences and defeat the darkness."
He spoke ' darkness' with a weary tenseness, making everybody very much aware of his hatred of the Heartless.
Tarzan turned his stern gaze to Phil and suddenly demanded, "Who is Kida?"
Silence tumbled through the courtyard while every eye turned to the suddenly nervous satyr.
"Kida? Princess Kida?" Meg snapped briskly, her demure nature swiftly changing. "What news, Phil?"
"What news?" Pooh wondered. Now all three were genuinely confused and, with Meg, looked to Phil for an answer.
Phil pondered Tarzan's and Meg's questions quietly, then said, "Princess Kida is a close ally of King Mickey and has been reporting to him from her post in New Universe."
"New Universe?" Riku came very close to shouting.
"So New Universe still exists after all, nearly complete," Meg was nodding slowly.
"That's right, Meg," Phil affirmed. "New Universe. Kida's been sighting white Heartless, Heartless, and some new enemies called Nobodies. They..."
Riku's face paled quickly. Nobodies...he's heard of them before...
The double doors of the Coliseum suddenly rattled in their hinges against the blockade of stone set against it. Everyone turned to the entrance into the Coliseum. Smoke was seeping through the cracks in the doors; there must've been a bomb or something set off to try and blast out the door.
Riku cursed violently as the distinct sound of machine guns rattled against the doors. The Heartless were using the machinery on their gummi ships to blast open the double doors.
Everybody else looked to Phil, who was looking to Riku.
"Well, kiddo," Phil said with a sad smile. "I hope you and your friends can all be like Mr. Superman. They're here."
"Hercules, are you sure you know where the Shade is?" Kairi asked uncertainly as the buff warrior peered into the gray haze.
"Absolutely," he answered with as much confidence as he could muster. " I've got brains, Kairi; I should remember where the Shade was."
"He should remember where the Shade was," Selphie muttered.
" Oh cheer up!" Hercules exclaimed, slapping Selphie on the shoulder and jolting her. "I came here from...there!"
He pointed in one direction. He strode confidently in that direction, prompting the other two to catch up.
"Where did you come from anyways?" Kairi demanded as they walked down what seemed to be a very lonely, bare dirt road.
"Where as in ' in In-between' or where as in...where?" Hercules asked.
"Where 'here', Herc," Kairi rephrased her question.
"Hm..." Hercules was rather thoughtful. "Let's see now...I just came back from this really creepy place-" Selphie began to look around nervously "- the weirdest place ever known to exist, in my opinion. I had to argue with this door knob for at least two hours, until he told me to drink from this bottle on the round table in the middle of the room-"
"You argued with a door knob?" Selphie began to laugh hysterically.
The other two stopped and waited while Selphie clutched her stomach, bent over, and laughed.
"Was that really funny?" Hercules was quite befuddled.
"Argued...with...a...door knob! Oh my lord, this is hilarious..." tears were coming out of Selphie's eyes.
"It wasn't all that funny when I was there," Hercules said half-heartedly. "But, I must say, he knows plenty bit about everything, INCLUDING how Sora sealed the world to the Heartless."
Selphie stopped laughing instantaneously. Kairi whirled around at Hercules.
"What did you say, Herc?" she demanded.
"I knew you two would pay attention," Hercules laughed before continuing to walk. "The door knob told me everything, you know? He said he couldn't understand why his world was destroyed, even though Sora sealed the world. But then he told me he was rather suspicious of the white creatures that invaded and destroyed his home. He told me he thought they were Heartless, still at it to try and conquer the world. But then he remembered that he hadn't seen Heartless in his part of the world in a year, so he got really suspicious. Then the white creatures started destroying everything and the doorknob told me this guy in a long black coat and hood strode into the fray and went after Alice. I don't know who Alice is but she seemed pretty important-"
"Alice?" Kairi demanded. "Why her? I mean, what can she still do?"
"You know her?" Hercules asked.
Kairi gave a brief nod and her face fell. "We've been through enough together. But the Heartless should have no more use for her, Herc. Who were the white creatures?"
"I think," Selphie voiced, "they could be another enemy. Like the Nobodies Hercules mentioned."
All three of them stopped and Kairi and Selphie looked to Hercules.
"Nobodies?" Hercules' voice had suddenly weakened. "They aren't supposed to be in the Old Universe. The doorknob told me that personally. Said nobody else was supposed to- as in nobody, not as in those monsters-know about this."
Kairi and Selphie stared at Hercules. After a few moments of silence, Kairi finally demanded, "Old Universe? And what does the doorknob know of anything?"
Hercules was rather hesitant in giving his answer. "The Old Universe consists of the worlds 'we' know, the worlds that are Wonderland, Coliseum, Deep Jungle, Agrabah, Halloweentown, Atlantica, Neverland, and Hollow Bastion, not the mention the roaming Monstro. And also there's Traverse Town. All those worlds and the wandering whale are part of the side of the universe known as Old Universe. And so, if there's Old Universe-"
"There's New Universe?" Selphie supplied.
Hercules nodded. "Exactly. And the doorknob seems to know a lot more than any of us thinks. He's actually the one who directed me to the Shade."
"A doorknob is smarter than us..." Selphie shook her head in amazement. " Amazing."
"Still can't get over the fact that Herc talked to a doorknob," Kairi grinned before sobering up. "What else does the doorknob know?"
"Here, in In-between, there are many puzzles to solve," Hercules was concentrating very hard now. Kairi began to wonder what Hercules did have in that noggin of his. "He told me it was a pity he couldn't go walking around searching for the past that had eluded us. I told him I didn't get what in the name of Hades he was trying to say. He then told me to find this Shade, some dude named Kenaii or something. Then he fell asleep on me."
"A past that had eluded us?" Kairi pondered.
"I wonder what that means..." Selphie had a very distant look in her face. Kairi groaned. She had a feeling that Selphie was onto something irrelevant.
"Stop being such a romantic over everything, Selphie!" Kairi exclaimed. " I don't even know what you think is romantic!"
Selphie looked very put off by this. "I was not being a romantic, Kairi! I was just thinking what kind of past 'eluded' us. Whose past are we talking about, anyways?"
"That is for the doorknob and the Shade to know and for us to find out," Hercules replied immediately. "I reckon, though, it has something to do with a message my father left me not too long ago."
"Who's your father?" Selphie asked very innocently.
"Zeus, the god of the sky and the top god up there," Hercules pointed up into the gray sky.
The look Selphie gave him spoke of a thousand words.
"Your father was a god?" Kairi demanded.
Hercules shook his head. "Not was. Is. He is the top one up there, above the gods and goddesses that exist. He's my father and he's been aware of these sorts of things for some time now."
"What can he tell us?" Selphie asked, skepticism etched into her face.
"Depends," Hercules shrugged. "But he did tell me that there was once a King here, some very powerful King. He told me something terrible happened a long time ago, something so terrible it had never been recorded properly. Something about betrayal and blood feuds or something. He might've gotten it all confused with this other thing-okay, okay, I'll get back on track. Anyways, he told me that the Fates sent me here- I'll tell you who the Fates are later, other than they're a trio of old hags-because I can help uncover some of the truth behind this terrible something. Something about the Line of Kings-meh, beats me."
It took time for Kairi and Selphie to digest all the information but still, they were stunned. And confused. A King?
"I thought King Mickey was...well, King," Kairi finally ventured to say.
Hercules shook his head at this. "Its not King Mickey, though he was involved in the whole chaos my father labeled this whole Long of Kings thing as. If anybody can tell of this 'whole chaos', its King Mickey but I've heard he and his subjects are really tight-lipped about the whole thing. In fact, they act as though the incident never happened-oh here we are!"
Hercules stopped walking abruptly. He peered eagerly into the mist, while Kairi and Selphie looked about each other warily; the mists seemed to swallow them into the gray bowels of the hazy atmosphere.
"There's the abandoned town!" Hercules suddenly, and rather grandly, marched into the haziness. Biting off exclamations, Kairi and Selphie ran after him, each praying that they wouldn't lose their way.
"It was here I met the Shade," Hercules gestured to a literal ghost town; rickety buildings were built out of wood now rotted, the bolts and all bits of metal there were mightily rusted, window shutters hung from their hinges, and everything was covered in a fine layer of gray dust.
"Here?" Selphie grew very worried. She fingered her nunchaku.
"This place is literally abandoned," Kairi told Hercules doubtfully.
"Well yeah but this is where the Shade dwells," Hercules answered with as much confidence as allowed in this sort of environment. "
Selphie peered into the surroundings...and gave a squeal of surprise when Hercules boomed out, "Hey, Shade?! You here?!"
Kairi was quite glad his cries could not echo. His voice rang out strongly and she knew you had to be deaf in order not to hear him shout.
"I don't see anything," Selphie spoke up tentatively after three minutes.
The two girls looked at Hercules accusingly.
"What's to it, Herc?" Kairi demanded. "Speak up now or forever hold your peace."
Hercules began to lose his composure. "I'm sure he's here...this was where I met him; I know it..."
"You know, this whole 'meet the Shade' thing could be totally pointless," Selphie pointed out. "We could just forget finding him and continue to Wonder-what?"
She was suddenly aware of the fact that Kairi and Hercules were staring at her. Or at what was behind her.
"Ahem, you were saying?" an elderly, high-pitched and very eccentric voice creaked into her left ear.
Selphie froze. Kairi was gaping at something to her left but Hercules had a giddy grin on his face.
"Oracle Kenaii," Hercules made a sweeping bow. "I've been looking for you."
Selphie slowly inched to the right and when she felt she was a safe distance away, she turned around and saw what was at her left.
He was in a purple cloak, a purple cloak with a hood. He wasn't wearing the hood now, so Selphie was able to see the slightly dark, stern face, a face that looked like it was etched out of stone. A grim mouth and with glittering blue eyes, it was actually surprising to see that the eyes were smiling. Red marks streaked across his left cheek and he had long white hair.
What unnerved her was the fact that he faded downward, so his feet were...not there. And he was faint, like a ghost. He was a ghost.
"Oracle Kenaii," Hercules gestured to a frozen Kairi and an absolutely terrified Selphie. "The one with the red hair is Kairi and the other is Selphie. You were right after all."
"When was I not right, boy?" the Oracle quipped. He peered into Kairi's face. "You have the face of his mother. It would make sense after all; you share her blood..."
"What?" Kairi squeaked out. "What?"
"Its for me to know and for you to find out," the Oracle answered. "What I mean by that is that you will find out. Now Selphie here, she has a very quick mind. Would do well in the future. And he is still out there, Hercules my boy. Take your two friends and begin the search to find him. Begin, mind you."
"Who's 'him'?" Selphie asked nervously. "Who are you talking about?"
"An old friend, of course," the Oracle actually looked surprised at this. "You do have an old friend, right?"
Kairi's first thought was Sora. But then she realized that there would be absolutely no reason why Sora would be here in In-between. So what old friend?
Oracle Kenaii must've seen her puzzled look because he quickly added, "Oh not that friend. He can never take a step into In-between. An anomaly. But there are others here, many others, I think. You have some friends and one of them will be waiting for you."
"Will be?" Selphie looked pleadingly to both Hercules and the Oracle. " Can you two please explain? I don't get any of this?!"
"Nothing is ever known," Oracle Kenaii said rather pleasantly, "until it is known. You will not know until you will know. That is a basic fact of life. You won't be aware of it until you come across it. You will understand with time, I hope you will understand that."
Selphie was still lost; Kairi, however, nodded her head slowly.
"Oracle, I thought you were going to tell us something," Hercules said rather impatiently. "You said it would be good!"
"Patience, boy," Oracle Kenaii held up one purple sleeve at Hercules. " Sometimes patience is needed. But nay, I must be wrong. I take back my word; patience is not the key. No, there is no time for that. It is time for you to know what you must know."
"Which is?" Kairi left the question hanging in the air for the Oracle to answer.
"There is a 'cryptic future' of In-between-" Oracle Kenaii explained.
"He means ' prophecy' or 'riddle'," Hercules informed.
"- that the three of you and an old friend of yours must decipher and complete," the Shade finished. "Boy, don't interrupt me; time is pressing."
Hercules mumbled, "I am very sorry."
Oracle Kenaii looked rather pleased by this show of obedience. "Now, there are some worlds here whose hearts or souls had not been eaten away completely. They are the only worlds with the clues. If you are too late, the worlds would be gone and all will be lost."
"How do we know if the world is going to disappear or not?" Selphie demanded.
"For me to know and for you to find out," was the Oracle's reply. Selphie fumed at this.
"Hold your temper, girl, and let me say what must be spoken," the Oracle said. "This is what I must say. This I say, no more I will say after:
Where the mazes twist and turn
With certain uncertainty.
Purple is the clue,
Gold is all the rage.
Royalty still resides
And the mystery of the white is told.
Deep into the heart of the wild,
They await to help the ones who are brave.
Puzzle box be found
In a clever shade of jade.
Love still is scattered
And the truth of the seal is strewn.
The desert lion is the only key
For a certain book to sing.
Purple is the sand,
Golden is the light.
Deserted but not undone
Four forces and a gathering are unwound.
A circle and the deepest peace
Holds the key to the puzzle.
Dreams bring the light of the moon
A pathway is made to the door.
Do not tarry, do not stall
Unless you want the feathers to fall."
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 14: Nothing Ever Known
Riku was rather silent as they followed Phil and Meg into the Coliseum. Through the blindfold, his mind threw out 'feelers' and felt the cracks, the crumbles, the burns, the damage the Coliseum suffered lately. The Heartless really had been at it, trying to destroy this place.
"This ain't the prettiest place around," Phil, the little goat-man, was telling Tarzan and Pooh, "since those damn Heartless started pounding this place to pulp. An' Hercules ain't here, which makes everything a hell lot worse."
"Where did he go, then?" Tarzan asked curiously as Phil pushed through a pile of broken marble.
"We don't really know," Meg answered sadly. "Pegasus came to him one day and, before you knew it, his flying horse morphed into this huge white thing and set out to do battle with him. They were banging away at each other when, with a sudden flash of light, Hercules was gone. Then the white thing tried to attack the Coliseum as well but Phil got his father to help us and we zapped the white thing into nothingness."
"A white thing?" Tarzan repeated. Meg nodded.
"Helluva creature, that thing was," Phil growled as he pushed away more rubble. "Caused more damage than those blasted ships or Cerberus. Curse that white thing; we don't have Mr. Superman and without him, we're all as good as dead here."
"We don't suck when it comes to fighting," Riku retorted immediately. "We more than held our own when white Heartless came at us!"
Phil froze for a moment; he then turned on Riku and barked, "White Heartless? There ain't no such thing as white Heartless!"
"But we've fought them," Tarzan answered in a smooth tone; he wasn't about to make Phil any madder. "They are white, with flattish heads and the sigh of the Heartless upon their foreheads. They are, indeed, Heartless."
Phil didn't look too happy. While Meg drifted away to drag Pooh away from a rather molten golden statue, he muttered, "Kida was right after all...they have the ability to look like the..."
Riku and Tarzan looked at the goat-man curiously but he did not speak audibly about it again. Instead, he looked at all of them, Pooh, Tarzan, and him, and said, "You gonna help us defend this place? I've a feeling they're going to attack big time pretty soon. You guys up to it?"
"We fight again?" Pooh asked curiously, not with complaint.
Tarzan nodded, holding his spear tight in his hand. "Looks like we're all going to have to, until Sora can make the Heartless go away."
"I hope that's soon, really soon," Riku agreed, applying a lot of emphasis on 'really'.
While the odd trio discussed amongst themselves about the ruined place they were going to defend, Meg took Phil aside and demanded of him, "The one with the blindfold; didn't he work for Maleficent?"
Phil quickly shushed her; he peered back at the trio carefully, then took Meg somewhere even further from them. Then he answered with a nod.
"Yes Meg, he did work for Maleficent," he admitted and, before Meg could say anymore, he added, "but I think he suffered a lot in the process, don't ya think?"
Meg began to protest, then stopped; Riku had stopped moving and his head was cocked, as though he was listening in on them. But Meg knew they were too far away to be heard clearly.
She studied the tall teenager. Phil had a good point; the teenager seemed very worn, very weather-beaten, and, something she thought was very odd from the start, he had on a blindfold. Why?
"I think his eyesight suffered or sumptin'," Phil agreed upon her questioning. "I was talking with Cloud about this and he said that sometimes, one has been in the dark for so long he cannot stand the light. And I know he's been in darkness. If he's shielding his eyes, he's been in the darkness for a long time. That's a helluva guts the guy has. I don't think anyone in their right mind would last!"
"I agree," Meg said, rather halfheartedly. Can you trust one who had given himself willingly to darkness, even if it was a year ago?
It was though Phil was telepathic; he replied, rather briskly, "If Cloud and the others trust him, we should trust him, too. Those guys know who's right and who's wrong; this kid ain't wrong or else he wouldn't be here."
"How can you be sure?" Meg shot back skeptically. "This kid's been under Maleficent's wing, for Zeus' sake! Who knows what he might've learned from that old witch! Don't you think she knows plenty bit about trickery and treachery? Look what she had done to the Society! She betrayed them before, to the Heartless she's been dealing with for years! Who knows what she could've drilled into that boy's head! How can we trust him? How?"
Phil glared at her steadily through her rampage and then answered, "And now you've got to wonder: why did the Society take her back? Ain't the world a little odd? So tell me this: if Maleficent betrays the Society, why is she back in it?! That means anything can happen! Riku can be trusted, Meg! He's been through enough; even the King trusted him! And you know the King can look deeper into one's heart than the rest of us, Meg, even the gods!"
A bolt of lightening streaked across the sky and just about fried Phil.
"Okay, I was lying," the fried satyr coughed while Meg looked on skeptically. "But still, Meg, you've got to trust the King's judgment! After all, he was the one who told you it was time to break away from Hades' bondage, right? And that really was the right thing to do! Perfect timing at that, too! So believe me, Meg, if the King says he's alright, he's alright. Now no more fussin'. We've got a job to do and it's a helluva job at that!"
Riku was unusually silent as they cleared the rubble from the courtyard in the Coliseum. Tarzan watched him worriedly as Riku calmly hoisted broken pieces of marble onto his shoulder and marched past Phil and Meg, with something like defiance in his steps. He would then unceremoniously chuck the pieces of stone into a heap before the double doors, keeping the doors barricaded from any likely invaders. He would then march with even more defiance past Phil and Meg, beginning the cycle again.
Pooh, heaving a small piece of marble into his arms, toppled over and the piece of marble went rolling quickly, stopping only inches from slicing off Tarzan's toes. Tarzan looked down at the marble piece, sighed, helped Pooh up, and carried the marble piece to the doorway.
Riku was brooding, he knew that. He told himself how many times not to brood around other people but he was still at it, still pulling up an emotional shield all around him, trying to repel other people. He knew it wasn't the best way to express his feelings but he did not know any other way. It was either that or attempting to choke Meg. He chose to brood because he knew nothing would come out of choking a person.
He had overheard what Meg had demanded of Phil, why Riku was there, of all the people in her known universe. He was mildly surprised at how she was able to find out everything about him but he quickly became enraged when he found out about how she thought of him. She had never met him before but already she believed that he could not be trusted?
He was more intrigued, however, by something she had said during that heated conversation. She said something about that accursed Maleficent being in some sort of a society. He was genuinely puzzled by that. What society?
As he literally stomped past Meg, his arms preoccupied by the two massive broken arms of a marble statue, he felt Meg's disproval. He forced his feet on the ground in militarily rhythm continuously, until he felt like he was stomping wells into the ground. After depositing his load, he marched back in carefully controlled staccato, irritating Phil so much he barked, " Riku, this ain't a military academy! No need to put holes in your shoes!"
Riku, wilting under Phil's words, dragged his feet back to the fallen statue he had plucked the broken arms from. There he found Tarzan standing, his arms crossed, with a very stern expression on his face. Pooh was there as well and, to Riku's complete and utter shock, had the same expression as Tarzan did.
"What happened?" was Tarzan's brisk question as soon as Riku reached them. "Why you don't like them?"
Broken English in terms of grammar and such but the meaning of the question was very understandable; Riku sighed, reluctant to answer.
"They're our friends," Pooh spoke up. "We shouldn't do that to them."
Riku scratched his head, contemplating his situation. He briefly considered using the untapped power within him to escape the Coliseum and go on his own after Sora and even more briefly contemplated pulling out his Dark Keyblade, beheading everybody in the court, and then running away. He quickly shoved that thought aside; he was such an ass to think of that.
"I..." he faltered before saying any more, shifting from foot to foot, acting wary and hesitant in general. "I heard Meg talking to Phil...about me."
"Indeed," Tarzan had a knowing smile on his face. Riku scowled; he didn't need to see the face, just hear the voice, to know that Tarzan knew of the conversation that took place. Ape-man had some strange sense of hearing.
"Look, I just don't like it when people talk about me like that!" Riku finally exploded. "Do you think I enjoyed being with Maleficent all the time? She gave me the creeps, no matter how many times I told myself she might be able to help me! In the end, it was Ansem who told me he could help me. Then what did he do? He stole my body, that's what! That's right-" Pooh had let loose a gasp of shock "-that idiot took my body. I found myself in Kingdom Hearts with King Mickey's voice playing in my head! I thought I finally lost it but lucky me, I wasn't! One year in that stinking black hole and now I can't even see out here! You think I like that?! Well I hate it! I hate not being trusted just because of what I had to go through! Sure I jumped into the same boat as that ol' witch! Don't you think I regretted that? Or did you think I was the one chosen to 'carry' on her 'teachings' or something? I don't like the darkness anymore than any one of you do but I've got an insider's look and it's the worst nightmare imaginable! Don't penalize me for something I've regretted doing since I first joined the Heartless! Don't pity me either because I hate that! Got that?!"
He faced them, his face taut with anger, his teeth practically bared like those of an angry wolf, but his heart felt a stunning release, like something foul had been swept away from his soul by the wind. He was breathing hard, with the anger he forced out on them.
"I'm sorry," Meg's voice spoke quietly, apologetically, behind him. "I didn't mean...I didn't know that."
Riku froze. He had just vented out his anger on his two colleagues but didn't take the time-er, breathe, to realize that the other two could hear his voice.
"I'm sorry," he gave a brisk answer. "I didn't mean for you to overhear. I-"
"You were merely taking out your anger on some people, on anything nearby, to feel better. I bet you would've been shouting at that broken statue like a deranged maniac if your two friends ain't here. Well kiddo, there ain't no need to apologize. There's no one to blame 'cuz letting your anger go is actually a good thing. People saw me yelling at a donkey I used to own because I felt like such a crazy idiot. Even more people saw me when I started yelling at this statue of Zeus 'cuz my life sucked. That was until he fried me for it. Kiddo," Phil wagged at finger in Riku's face, "if you gotta yell, yell. Just don't do it on something stupid like a tree. Them nymphs will get you for shouting at them."
Riku felt immensely relieved. Yelling at his friends wasn't the best thing to do, especially in front of other people. But Phil and the others understood, which was something he never expected.
"I-I'm sorry, Pooh, Tarzan," Riku said shakily. "I didn't mean to shout at you guys. I-I hope you'd understand."
Tarzan patted him on the back good-naturedly. "Better out than in. Brooding no good for anybody."
Pooh actually hugged Riku and the seasoned warrior had some trouble convincing the yellow teddy bear in a red shirt to actually let go. Then Meg stepped forward.
"I apologize for the words I spoke," she said, her face shameful. "I didn't mean to. I have a habit of being critical of other people and people say my tongue was too sharp for me to speak of other people like so; I'd murder them. I hope you'll accept my apology."
Riku flashed a careworn smile. "Of course. We're all in this together; its time to put aside all of our differences and defeat the darkness."
He spoke ' darkness' with a weary tenseness, making everybody very much aware of his hatred of the Heartless.
Tarzan turned his stern gaze to Phil and suddenly demanded, "Who is Kida?"
Silence tumbled through the courtyard while every eye turned to the suddenly nervous satyr.
"Kida? Princess Kida?" Meg snapped briskly, her demure nature swiftly changing. "What news, Phil?"
"What news?" Pooh wondered. Now all three were genuinely confused and, with Meg, looked to Phil for an answer.
Phil pondered Tarzan's and Meg's questions quietly, then said, "Princess Kida is a close ally of King Mickey and has been reporting to him from her post in New Universe."
"New Universe?" Riku came very close to shouting.
"So New Universe still exists after all, nearly complete," Meg was nodding slowly.
"That's right, Meg," Phil affirmed. "New Universe. Kida's been sighting white Heartless, Heartless, and some new enemies called Nobodies. They..."
Riku's face paled quickly. Nobodies...he's heard of them before...
The double doors of the Coliseum suddenly rattled in their hinges against the blockade of stone set against it. Everyone turned to the entrance into the Coliseum. Smoke was seeping through the cracks in the doors; there must've been a bomb or something set off to try and blast out the door.
Riku cursed violently as the distinct sound of machine guns rattled against the doors. The Heartless were using the machinery on their gummi ships to blast open the double doors.
Everybody else looked to Phil, who was looking to Riku.
"Well, kiddo," Phil said with a sad smile. "I hope you and your friends can all be like Mr. Superman. They're here."
"Hercules, are you sure you know where the Shade is?" Kairi asked uncertainly as the buff warrior peered into the gray haze.
"Absolutely," he answered with as much confidence as he could muster. " I've got brains, Kairi; I should remember where the Shade was."
"He should remember where the Shade was," Selphie muttered.
" Oh cheer up!" Hercules exclaimed, slapping Selphie on the shoulder and jolting her. "I came here from...there!"
He pointed in one direction. He strode confidently in that direction, prompting the other two to catch up.
"Where did you come from anyways?" Kairi demanded as they walked down what seemed to be a very lonely, bare dirt road.
"Where as in ' in In-between' or where as in...where?" Hercules asked.
"Where 'here', Herc," Kairi rephrased her question.
"Hm..." Hercules was rather thoughtful. "Let's see now...I just came back from this really creepy place-" Selphie began to look around nervously "- the weirdest place ever known to exist, in my opinion. I had to argue with this door knob for at least two hours, until he told me to drink from this bottle on the round table in the middle of the room-"
"You argued with a door knob?" Selphie began to laugh hysterically.
The other two stopped and waited while Selphie clutched her stomach, bent over, and laughed.
"Was that really funny?" Hercules was quite befuddled.
"Argued...with...a...door knob! Oh my lord, this is hilarious..." tears were coming out of Selphie's eyes.
"It wasn't all that funny when I was there," Hercules said half-heartedly. "But, I must say, he knows plenty bit about everything, INCLUDING how Sora sealed the world to the Heartless."
Selphie stopped laughing instantaneously. Kairi whirled around at Hercules.
"What did you say, Herc?" she demanded.
"I knew you two would pay attention," Hercules laughed before continuing to walk. "The door knob told me everything, you know? He said he couldn't understand why his world was destroyed, even though Sora sealed the world. But then he told me he was rather suspicious of the white creatures that invaded and destroyed his home. He told me he thought they were Heartless, still at it to try and conquer the world. But then he remembered that he hadn't seen Heartless in his part of the world in a year, so he got really suspicious. Then the white creatures started destroying everything and the doorknob told me this guy in a long black coat and hood strode into the fray and went after Alice. I don't know who Alice is but she seemed pretty important-"
"Alice?" Kairi demanded. "Why her? I mean, what can she still do?"
"You know her?" Hercules asked.
Kairi gave a brief nod and her face fell. "We've been through enough together. But the Heartless should have no more use for her, Herc. Who were the white creatures?"
"I think," Selphie voiced, "they could be another enemy. Like the Nobodies Hercules mentioned."
All three of them stopped and Kairi and Selphie looked to Hercules.
"Nobodies?" Hercules' voice had suddenly weakened. "They aren't supposed to be in the Old Universe. The doorknob told me that personally. Said nobody else was supposed to- as in nobody, not as in those monsters-know about this."
Kairi and Selphie stared at Hercules. After a few moments of silence, Kairi finally demanded, "Old Universe? And what does the doorknob know of anything?"
Hercules was rather hesitant in giving his answer. "The Old Universe consists of the worlds 'we' know, the worlds that are Wonderland, Coliseum, Deep Jungle, Agrabah, Halloweentown, Atlantica, Neverland, and Hollow Bastion, not the mention the roaming Monstro. And also there's Traverse Town. All those worlds and the wandering whale are part of the side of the universe known as Old Universe. And so, if there's Old Universe-"
"There's New Universe?" Selphie supplied.
Hercules nodded. "Exactly. And the doorknob seems to know a lot more than any of us thinks. He's actually the one who directed me to the Shade."
"A doorknob is smarter than us..." Selphie shook her head in amazement. " Amazing."
"Still can't get over the fact that Herc talked to a doorknob," Kairi grinned before sobering up. "What else does the doorknob know?"
"Here, in In-between, there are many puzzles to solve," Hercules was concentrating very hard now. Kairi began to wonder what Hercules did have in that noggin of his. "He told me it was a pity he couldn't go walking around searching for the past that had eluded us. I told him I didn't get what in the name of Hades he was trying to say. He then told me to find this Shade, some dude named Kenaii or something. Then he fell asleep on me."
"A past that had eluded us?" Kairi pondered.
"I wonder what that means..." Selphie had a very distant look in her face. Kairi groaned. She had a feeling that Selphie was onto something irrelevant.
"Stop being such a romantic over everything, Selphie!" Kairi exclaimed. " I don't even know what you think is romantic!"
Selphie looked very put off by this. "I was not being a romantic, Kairi! I was just thinking what kind of past 'eluded' us. Whose past are we talking about, anyways?"
"That is for the doorknob and the Shade to know and for us to find out," Hercules replied immediately. "I reckon, though, it has something to do with a message my father left me not too long ago."
"Who's your father?" Selphie asked very innocently.
"Zeus, the god of the sky and the top god up there," Hercules pointed up into the gray sky.
The look Selphie gave him spoke of a thousand words.
"Your father was a god?" Kairi demanded.
Hercules shook his head. "Not was. Is. He is the top one up there, above the gods and goddesses that exist. He's my father and he's been aware of these sorts of things for some time now."
"What can he tell us?" Selphie asked, skepticism etched into her face.
"Depends," Hercules shrugged. "But he did tell me that there was once a King here, some very powerful King. He told me something terrible happened a long time ago, something so terrible it had never been recorded properly. Something about betrayal and blood feuds or something. He might've gotten it all confused with this other thing-okay, okay, I'll get back on track. Anyways, he told me that the Fates sent me here- I'll tell you who the Fates are later, other than they're a trio of old hags-because I can help uncover some of the truth behind this terrible something. Something about the Line of Kings-meh, beats me."
It took time for Kairi and Selphie to digest all the information but still, they were stunned. And confused. A King?
"I thought King Mickey was...well, King," Kairi finally ventured to say.
Hercules shook his head at this. "Its not King Mickey, though he was involved in the whole chaos my father labeled this whole Long of Kings thing as. If anybody can tell of this 'whole chaos', its King Mickey but I've heard he and his subjects are really tight-lipped about the whole thing. In fact, they act as though the incident never happened-oh here we are!"
Hercules stopped walking abruptly. He peered eagerly into the mist, while Kairi and Selphie looked about each other warily; the mists seemed to swallow them into the gray bowels of the hazy atmosphere.
"There's the abandoned town!" Hercules suddenly, and rather grandly, marched into the haziness. Biting off exclamations, Kairi and Selphie ran after him, each praying that they wouldn't lose their way.
"It was here I met the Shade," Hercules gestured to a literal ghost town; rickety buildings were built out of wood now rotted, the bolts and all bits of metal there were mightily rusted, window shutters hung from their hinges, and everything was covered in a fine layer of gray dust.
"Here?" Selphie grew very worried. She fingered her nunchaku.
"This place is literally abandoned," Kairi told Hercules doubtfully.
"Well yeah but this is where the Shade dwells," Hercules answered with as much confidence as allowed in this sort of environment. "
Selphie peered into the surroundings...and gave a squeal of surprise when Hercules boomed out, "Hey, Shade?! You here?!"
Kairi was quite glad his cries could not echo. His voice rang out strongly and she knew you had to be deaf in order not to hear him shout.
"I don't see anything," Selphie spoke up tentatively after three minutes.
The two girls looked at Hercules accusingly.
"What's to it, Herc?" Kairi demanded. "Speak up now or forever hold your peace."
Hercules began to lose his composure. "I'm sure he's here...this was where I met him; I know it..."
"You know, this whole 'meet the Shade' thing could be totally pointless," Selphie pointed out. "We could just forget finding him and continue to Wonder-what?"
She was suddenly aware of the fact that Kairi and Hercules were staring at her. Or at what was behind her.
"Ahem, you were saying?" an elderly, high-pitched and very eccentric voice creaked into her left ear.
Selphie froze. Kairi was gaping at something to her left but Hercules had a giddy grin on his face.
"Oracle Kenaii," Hercules made a sweeping bow. "I've been looking for you."
Selphie slowly inched to the right and when she felt she was a safe distance away, she turned around and saw what was at her left.
He was in a purple cloak, a purple cloak with a hood. He wasn't wearing the hood now, so Selphie was able to see the slightly dark, stern face, a face that looked like it was etched out of stone. A grim mouth and with glittering blue eyes, it was actually surprising to see that the eyes were smiling. Red marks streaked across his left cheek and he had long white hair.
What unnerved her was the fact that he faded downward, so his feet were...not there. And he was faint, like a ghost. He was a ghost.
"Oracle Kenaii," Hercules gestured to a frozen Kairi and an absolutely terrified Selphie. "The one with the red hair is Kairi and the other is Selphie. You were right after all."
"When was I not right, boy?" the Oracle quipped. He peered into Kairi's face. "You have the face of his mother. It would make sense after all; you share her blood..."
"What?" Kairi squeaked out. "What?"
"Its for me to know and for you to find out," the Oracle answered. "What I mean by that is that you will find out. Now Selphie here, she has a very quick mind. Would do well in the future. And he is still out there, Hercules my boy. Take your two friends and begin the search to find him. Begin, mind you."
"Who's 'him'?" Selphie asked nervously. "Who are you talking about?"
"An old friend, of course," the Oracle actually looked surprised at this. "You do have an old friend, right?"
Kairi's first thought was Sora. But then she realized that there would be absolutely no reason why Sora would be here in In-between. So what old friend?
Oracle Kenaii must've seen her puzzled look because he quickly added, "Oh not that friend. He can never take a step into In-between. An anomaly. But there are others here, many others, I think. You have some friends and one of them will be waiting for you."
"Will be?" Selphie looked pleadingly to both Hercules and the Oracle. " Can you two please explain? I don't get any of this?!"
"Nothing is ever known," Oracle Kenaii said rather pleasantly, "until it is known. You will not know until you will know. That is a basic fact of life. You won't be aware of it until you come across it. You will understand with time, I hope you will understand that."
Selphie was still lost; Kairi, however, nodded her head slowly.
"Oracle, I thought you were going to tell us something," Hercules said rather impatiently. "You said it would be good!"
"Patience, boy," Oracle Kenaii held up one purple sleeve at Hercules. " Sometimes patience is needed. But nay, I must be wrong. I take back my word; patience is not the key. No, there is no time for that. It is time for you to know what you must know."
"Which is?" Kairi left the question hanging in the air for the Oracle to answer.
"There is a 'cryptic future' of In-between-" Oracle Kenaii explained.
"He means ' prophecy' or 'riddle'," Hercules informed.
"- that the three of you and an old friend of yours must decipher and complete," the Shade finished. "Boy, don't interrupt me; time is pressing."
Hercules mumbled, "I am very sorry."
Oracle Kenaii looked rather pleased by this show of obedience. "Now, there are some worlds here whose hearts or souls had not been eaten away completely. They are the only worlds with the clues. If you are too late, the worlds would be gone and all will be lost."
"How do we know if the world is going to disappear or not?" Selphie demanded.
"For me to know and for you to find out," was the Oracle's reply. Selphie fumed at this.
"Hold your temper, girl, and let me say what must be spoken," the Oracle said. "This is what I must say. This I say, no more I will say after:
Where the mazes twist and turn
With certain uncertainty.
Purple is the clue,
Gold is all the rage.
Royalty still resides
And the mystery of the white is told.
Deep into the heart of the wild,
They await to help the ones who are brave.
Puzzle box be found
In a clever shade of jade.
Love still is scattered
And the truth of the seal is strewn.
The desert lion is the only key
For a certain book to sing.
Purple is the sand,
Golden is the light.
Deserted but not undone
Four forces and a gathering are unwound.
A circle and the deepest peace
Holds the key to the puzzle.
Dreams bring the light of the moon
A pathway is made to the door.
Do not tarry, do not stall
Unless you want the feathers to fall."