Author's Note: This chapter will be updated early because of an extremely
unstable schedule next week that may compromise my promise to update once a
week. Also, am I really making you suffer from my cliffhangers? Perhaps
this will make you anticipate the next chapter even more! Have fun!
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 18: Reign of Thunder
"I'm scared," Pooh whispered to Meg as they listened to the Heartless ships attack the doors to Coliseum relentlessly.
"Me, too," Meg replied. "I thought I'd never see the day when the Heartless could have a serious chance of conquering Coliseum."
"If they're going to, we'll give them hell," Riku gave a surefire answer. "If they're not, we'll still give them hell."
"Kid, I've got two words for you," Phil told him as he produced himself a spear. "I like how you talk but I hope you really can give them hell."
"Phil, I can give everybody here hell if I wanted to," Riku answered truthfully.
Tarzan, who had been twirling the spear in his fingers lazily, looked like he was concentrating furiously, his brows furrowed. Then he said, "But Phil...that's fourteen words, not two."
Phil glared at him, saying, "Tarzan, I've got two words for you: its my say!"
"That's three," Riku was grinning; it was rather hilarious making Phil angry.
"Meg, how are you going to fight?" Tarzan changed the subject quickly. " Do you use a weapon?"
Meg said, "Maybe. But I've got Hercules' friend here, Pegasus."
"Pegasus?" Pooh repeated.
Meg nodded, then put her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly. The whistle was answered by the unmistakable neigh of a horse and a white, winged horse flew from somewhere around the building of the Coliseum and landed before them all.
"This is Pegasus," Meg gestured to the majestic white horse. "Together, we can give the Heartless hell as well."
The doors began to crack; everybody looked to it. Pegasus' tail plumed and the look of astonishment passed through his face. Riku called the Dark Keyblade to his side; he really did begin to doubt the powers of the Dark Keyblade. Can it defeat Heartless?
This Keyblade was made to unlock hearts, he told himself. But the Heartless don't have hearts, hence their name. Then can this Keyblade be an effective weapon against them, like the Kingdom Key?
"Blizzaga!" he heard Pooh shout out at once.
"Pooh!" Riku exclaimed. "What in-"
Then he saw what Pooh did. He froze the doors so they were incredibly stiff and rather resistant to the Heartless ships.
"Wow," Tarzan commented. "Smart."
But they could all hear the ice chip off on the other side.
Tarzan shrugged. "I was kidding."
Then Riku became eerily aware of the sound of scratching to their left. He cocked his head that way, listening in carefully to the sound of what seemed to be claws scratching furiously at stone...marble stone.
"Phil," his voice dropped dangerously low. "I think they're trying to tear down the left wall."
Phil scoffed it off, "They can't dig through marble! Their nails would be gone before they make even a dent in that wall!"
"You sure?" Riku was very worried. Heartless were unpredictable and he told Phil that.
"Positive," Meg answered instead. "Almighty Zeus blessed these walls. He wouldn't have if it weren't for Hercules."
"Zeus?" Tarzan was puzzled. "Who's-"
Riku held up his hand immediately. "We can't keep asking questions. Phil, Meg, even if Zeus blessed these darn walls, they can't keep Heartless out forever. You have to ask for a miracle-beg for one, actually. These Heartless are very hard to evade or push aside."
"If you're saying that Heartless are very hard to evade or push aside," Meg was turning critical, "are you saying that we have no chance of holding up against these Heartless and might as well run away from Coliseum?"
Riku hit himself on the head. "No, I'm saying that walls alone cannot defeat Heartless! We're going to have to be like Phil's Mr. Superman in order to stop them from conquering this place."
"Kid," Phil was staring at the left wall. "I've got another two words for you: I think they're coming."
"That's four," Tarzan gave what was now becoming a customary reply while everybody else turned to the left wall.
A long crack ran down the pale wall. The scratching was now accompanied by a strange rat-tat-tat sound. The Heartless ships' weapons.
"It looks like they gave up on the doors when Pooh froze them," Meg decided as she mounted Pegasus and snatched a metal spear from one of the broken statues. "We're going to be assaulted from the left."
"I froze them?" Pooh had a confused look on her face.
"Never mind," Meg quickly replied, then looked to the wall. The crack was widening and smaller cracks branched off from the large one. "Why don't we give these Heartless the kind of hell I went through before?"
"You went through hell?" Riku asked.
"It ain't easy to explain, kid," Phil answered, rummaging through broken statues and marble. He pulled out a Gladius and a bronze shield. "I think these two will do. Defense and offence, perfectly balanced."
While the trio gave him puzzled looks, Meg explained, "Phil not only trains 'heroes', he knows weaponry and the balance between weaponry. Of course he knows nothing about magic so he can't exactly equip Pooh for this battle. I assume you two are ready?"
Tarzan nodded, tapping his spear on the ground. "I am ready."
Riku nodded, though he knew everyone was aware of his hesitance with the Dark Keyblade. "I am ready as well."
There was a huge cracking noise and the crack widened drastically.
"We must keep the Heartless from reaching our gummi ship," Riku stated seriously as they backed towards the right wall with the gummi ship. "If we fail, we can at least get out of here."
"I'm not leaving this place," Phil growled. "They want this place, they gotta do it over my dead body."
Riku sighed over this familiar statement. "Phil? I've got some actual two words for you: too bad. You're coming with us, whether you like it or not. The guys back at Traverse Town ordered it."
Phil growled something about, "What are they, the wise guys?..." under his breath but made no serious protest.
Riku opened his mouth to state a comeback...
...and the left wall crumbled.
From the dust cloud that billowed up, the result of the wall's collapse, Shadows, Search Ghosts, Wyverns, and Soldiers shot forward. Riku was surprised by two things. One, there were only four groups of Heartless. Two, even if there were only four groups of Heartless, there certainly was a shitload of them.
"Athena, grant me accuracy for this battle," Meg prayed, then hoisted up a spear, readying it for throwing, while she gripped another spear in her left hand.
"Thetis, this is Achilles' trainer, Phil," Phil was saying gruffly. " Grant me luck."
"Firaga," Pooh whispered, pointing at the mass of darkness and a fireball soared in a wide arc. Everyone froze, even the Heartless, and their heads and eyes followed the fireball as it landed with a violent explosion in the mass of Heartless.
"Nice," Tarzan whistled as a cloud of black smoke and red hearts shot up into the sky. Then he gave an undistinguishable war cry and, with spear in hand, rushed at the Heartless, which had charged as well. Tarzan gracefully jumped up and sliced at a Wyvern, taking off its head. He then bounded at a Search Ghost, dodged its dislocated hands and stabbed it in the body.
"Blizzaga!" another blast of ice soared in an arc and landed in another part of the mass of black.
"Forward, Pegasus!" Meg cried and Pegasus charged. As they rushed the enemy, Meg leveled the spear in her right hand, then threw it. The spear penetrated several Heartless before vanishing into the mist of darkness.
"Gods, this ain't pretty," Phil told Riku as Pooh sent a sphere of water in another arc. "Especially if you were me."
"I'm glad I'm not," Riku quickly quipped. "I'd hate to be as short as you."
Before Phil could make an angry remark, Riku rushed into battle. He threw out feelers, sensing out Heartless, their types, and in which direction they were moving. Then, executing a couple of exhilarating steps, he smoothly sent several red hearts floating up into the sky.
"He looks like he's dancin'," Phil was staring as though he was seeing the sun for the first time. "By the gods, this kid could've been a hero!"
"Phil, you lazy bum!" Meg yelled from the south end of Coliseum; she stabbed Heartless with the spear while Pegasus kicked out and pounded at Heartless with his hooves. "Do something! Don't just stand there! Move!"
"Move, move, move!" Phil repeated angrily, then ran to the battlefield, looking extremely odd bounding in an uneven gait with a bobbling large shield and Gladius in his hands. "I wish they had satyr-made weapons...Hermes, Thetis, Athena, Zeus, all you guys on Mt. Olympus, help us!"
He threw himself recklessly at a group of Soldier Heartless and nearly went out shrieking in shock. But his fighting instincts took over and he got down to the dirty stuff; he sent up a regular train of red hearts.
Pooh, staying with the gummi ship, did an excellent job of protecting the gummi ship. His arm continued to cannon balls of flame, ice, or water into multitudes of Heartless, destroying handfuls at a time. Tarzan was the most graceful warrior. His stealthy, leopard-like movements in combat were like ballet and his spear gave many a Heartless the Kiss of Death. Riku was probably the most astonishing fighter. He slaughtered the Heartless with such regularity and such recklessness it seemed that the silver-haired teenager was going to be stabbed by Heartless every five seconds. Phil wasn't doing bad himself, though he needed to stay behind or around large, inanimate objects in order to better defend himself against Heartless.
Meg and Pegasus had the bad luck of being on the south end of the Coliseum- that was where the double doors were. Pooh encasing the doors in ice didn't help; the Heartless gummi ships had pounded the doors with such monotony, it was impossible to be distracted by the rat-tat-tat noise.
But everyone became aware of the pounding on the doors once they shattered. Pegasus reared in surprise when splinters from the doors entered his hindquarters. Meg cried out in surprise as splinters dug into her, releasing tiny streams of blood that dripped onto Pegasus' white body.
Pegasus' reaction actually destroyed some Heartless but the trouble was really coming when Heartless were seen marching in on Coliseum from the south end of the huge marble building. Once Pegasus and Meg got away, Riku and the others were able to see how much in trouble they were.
The masses of Heartless rapidly subtracting the distance between themselves and Coliseum intimidated them. And there was nothing to block the advancements. Then more of the walls crumbled as more Heartless entered the Coliseum. As everyone backed up towards the gummi ship, it became increasingly clear their fight was a lost cause.
"We have to get out of here, Phil," Riku told Phil as they looked at the Heartless rather nervously. Tarzan noted Heartless climbing on the rooftop of the building to the north and said so.
"Phil, they're swarmed the place," Meg said desperately, her left hand gripping her right forearm. Blood streamed underneath her hand. "We've got to get out of here or they're gonna take us all!"
"Quickly!" Pooh had opened the door into the gummi ship and waved them in. "No time, no time, no time for honey, no time for fun talks, no time for walks, we must hurry, hurry, hurry..."
Phil looked at Pooh with a critical eye; Meg told him to drop it before the satyr even opened his mouth.
As Meg shoved Phil into the gummi ship, then followed him, Riku and Tarzan looked at Pegasus. A big horse. In an average-sized gummi ship. With a teddy bear, a woman, a satyr, a jungle warrior, and a teenager.
Pegasus seemed to know what they were thinking. He snorted contemptuously at them and trotted into the gummi ship as though it was the most natural thing in life.
Riku and Tarzan shrugged, then the seasoned warrior pointed upward. Riku turned his head up, threw out feelers and felt, to his horror, hundreds of Heartless gummi ships hovering over Coliseum. The Heartless were hell-bent to Hades in pulverizing Coliseum into dust.
"What to we do?" Tarzan demanded.
Riku thought for a moment as they rushed to the door. Phil and Meg said something about gods...
"Phil!" Riku yelled as he pulled closed the door and Tarzan put the gummi ship's engine into high gear. "We've got a billion Heartless gummi ships over our heads right now! Who do we pray to help us?"
Phil thought for a moment as Pooh began to level out Heartless with the ship's set of weapons. But Meg was quick with her answer.
"Zeus," she quickly answered. "Pray to Zeus. He'll help us. 'Us' especially, right Phil?"
Phil had the oddest expression on his face, agreement mixed in with contempt. But he nodded. Very reluctantly but he nodded.
"Zeus," Riku shouted right out as the gummi ship rose up into the sky, " help us get out of here!"
"Kid, that ain't no way to ask for Zeus' help-" Phil began to criticize.
A flash of thunder materialized inside the gummi ship and just about fried Phil. Again.
"Cough, cough...I lied," Phil hacked out as thunder flashed outside the gummi ship.
As Riku watched in awe, Tarzan carefully stirred around the bolts of lightening that came out from a suddenly darkened sky, destroying one Heartless ship after another in quick succession. A reign of thunder. Zeus ruled the sky and thunder. It was power.
"Amazing," Riku whispered as Pooh shot down more Heartless ships.
As the gummi ship rose up and away, Heartless tore down Coliseum. They began to destroy everything that was on that world, until it was barren.
Then, by some unknown force, the world exploded.
By then, the gummi ship was too distant to be affected by the blast. But it was horrible to see.
"No..." Phil moaned sadly. Riku did not know the best way to comfort the now- devastated satyr.
"Some poem," Selphie commentated as soon as they got away from the Oracle Kenaii, who was fast becoming one of those preachers that can talk for hours without stopping.
"What a strange prophecy..." Kairi was musing as they walked down a rather hazy rode. "Why didn't Sora or me or the others hear of it before?"
"What others?" Selphie asked curiously.
"Oracle Kenaii told me it was the prophecy of In-between," Hercules explained good-naturedly. "Those who live in the real worlds normally don't go to In-between to hear a prophecy of that place. They wouldn't care about a place they don't live in. And Oracle Kenaii can't exactly materialize in the real world; he'd scare the hell out of them!"
"Obviously," Selphie agreed emphatically.
Kairi had to agree. It wasn't everyday a ghost walked up to you and preached about a prophecy.
"Where is this place with mazes supposed to be?" Selphie peered up the foggy path. "I can't see anything beyond this stupid fog!"
Kairi shrugged. "Oracle Kenaii told us to follow this road so we might as well follow-"
To the astonishment of Selphie and Hercules, Kairi disappeared.
"Where'd she go?" Selphie was trembling, on the verge of panic.
"Don't panic, don't panic," Hercules muttered. "She can't just disappear in In-between. That's not possible, that's not possible-THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"
Selphie stared at him. He was saying not to panic and he was panicking.
"Geezes, man, you guys are so loud!" they heard Kairi's faint voice from somewhere down below. "I'm here!"
"Where's here?" Selphie demanded. "Where the hell are you?"
"I agree," Hercules added, his voice still a little high from his bout with panic. "Where in Hades' hell are you?"
"In a hole!" Kairi responded. "You should come on down; it's weird. I don't like the looks of it, either."
"Where can there be a hole?" Selphie wondered and she inched a foot forward, to test the ground for the hole.
Within seconds, she was gone, screaming her head off.
Hercules thought it was a good idea to jump in the direction of Selphie's screaming.
Kairi was waiting with a look of exaggerated exasperation on her face as Selphie came down screaming. She was soon followed by Hercules, with a rather happy-go-lucky look on his face. He thought he was having fun.
"I. Am. NEVER. Going. To. Do. That. Again," Selphie spoke each word like it had its own sentence as she picked herself up. "That was creepy."
"Really?" Hercules picked himself up and brushed dirt and dust off his armor. "I thought it was fun."
Selphie was staring at the grin on Hercules' face.
Kairi shook her head, her purplish-blue eyes serious. "There's no time to be laughing. Look around u."
The other two obliged.
They were in a round room, with destruction screaming everywhere at them. The walls were torn into and whatever was on the walls was crushed into undistinguishable pieces. The marble-tile floor, or whatever it was, was littered with pieces of objects and marred with horrible scratches and slices.
Then there was the blood.
Horrified, the three stared at the long stains of dried, dark red blood and their eyes followed its grotesque path down a long, crooked hallway. They all looked at each other and slowly crept down the hallway, looking about warily. The bloody markings all over the walls of the hallway did not reassure them, nor did the pieces of several doors before them. The doorframes disturbed them just as much as the pieces of wood hanging from the hinges and the splinters and sawdust lying on the floor everywhere.
Each doorframe got smaller.
"How do we get through there?" Selphie wondered, gesturing to the barely marred last door, which was small for Kairi and Selphie and tiny for Hercules. "One, we don't know what's beyond it and two, Hercules can't fit through it."
She jabbed her thumb in the warrior's direction.
"Herc, do you think you can get through without busting the door?" Kairi asked rather sweetly.
Hercules scratched his head, looking baffled. "Uh...I don't know. Besides, I met the doorknob by a different route..."
Selphie reached out tentatively and turned the doorknob on the door.
"Oh, do come in, come in, its alright," they heard a sleepy voice drawl to them. "I wired the door to explode if one of those blasted Nobodies or Heartless came in but you three are human or are supposed to be so its quite safe. Do come in; I just finished a nap and need some people to talk to."
All three froze, daring each other to breathe loudly.
"What was that?" Selphie demanded to Hercules.
"Must be the Doorknob," Hercules answered happily. "He sleeps all the time, or so he tells me."
"He may seem to be sleeping, "a teasing, rather creepy voice sang from within, "but sleeping helps him become aware of problems you cannot see."
They all froze again.
"Now what was that?" Selphie demanded again.
This time Hercules had no answer. "I really don't know..."
Kairi reached out and pushed the door open. She crept into a mightily strange room and looked around, while Selphie tried to get Hercules in.
The room was spacious, with a blue table in the middle of the room, two bottles sitting on it in their own lonely way. There was a table in one corner of the room, with a drawing of a chair next to it. There was a vase in another corner; a fireplace stood out not far from it. There were openings and closings here and there, things drawn into walls, things sticking out.
And before them, beyond the blue table, was a sleepy-looking doorknob on a small door. And a grinning mouth.
"There is a grinning mouth," Selphie said slowly, "without a body to go with it."
She was rather right. They stared at the mouth for quite some time, until the doorknob stirred and said, "Ahem."
The tension in the room was so stiff that uttering one little word caused them to jump. The room shook in the process, as Hercules hit himself on the head.
"Ow..." he winced, rubbing his head, while Kairi and Selphie turned nervously back to the doorknob.
"Well, at least you're here," the doorknob spoke, in a very odd voice. Not only did his voice sound sleepy, it sounded snobbish. "I've been waiting quite a long time, you see, and I fell asleep. Lucky I did, though, for my mind went wandering around our still-mysteriously world and I think the Queen is aware of your arrival."
"What Queen?" Selphie whispered to Hercules.
"No idea," he replied rather honestly.
"The Queen of Hearts," the mouth spoke up with teasing enthusiasm. "But that's not the whole point. When he falls asleep, his mind wanders and whenever he wakes up, he spits up useless information."
"Oh shut up, you cat, you're causing quite a racquet," the doorknob snapped back.
"Cat?" Kairi turned nervously to the mouth.
"Purple is the clue, after all," the mouth answered and a cat gradually formed from the mouth, a striped cat of purple and pink.
"A pink and purple cat?" Selphie was flabbergasted. "And it talks, too!"
"The Cheshire Cat at your service, ladies and gent," the Cat bowed. "The purple is the clue, after all."
"Funny you should mention the Oracle's prophecy," Hercules mused.
"There are two prophecies, spoken by two oracles," the doorknob stated. Or rather, one prophecy here and several prophecies back in the real universe. But you should only concern yourselves with this one."
"Purple is the clue," Kairi said. "Gold is all the rage. Royalty still resides..."
"And the mystery of the white is told," the doorknob finished." I happen to be gold, you see, but I don't understand the ' all the rage' part."
"Because you are privy to many things we all must know," the Cheshire Cat rolled his eyes.
Kairi and Selphie cringed; the pupils rolled in opposite directions.
"And you're purple," Hercules was looking at the two bottles on the table and did not see the rolling eyes. "So you have some clue to what we have to do here, right?"
"So the royalty would be this Queen of Hearts of yours, right?" Selphie ventured to conclude.
"Right on target," the Cheshire Cat praised. He then vanished into thin air and materialized on Hercules' head. "But of course, we're only clues and little 'eavesdroppers'. You're real purpose here in Wonderland is to find out the mystery of the white. In this case, the Nobodies."
"Nobodies?" Selphie was genuinely confused.
"Not again," Hercules groaned.
"The Nobodies are at it again, conquering worlds," the doorknob muttered. "Or so they are trying. The Heartless are at it again as well; very interesting. Of course, then again, they do not know of that little report he wrote about the Nobodies."
"Not the Other Report, right?" the Cheshire Cat spoke up from his high position.
"No, not that report," the doorknob and the Cheshire Cat were carrying on a conversation as though Kairi, Selphie, and Hercules didn't even exist. Or, in the case of the Cheshire Cat, they were inanimate objects. "You know who is to find that report."
"The son is to find his father's report on the Nobodies?" the Cat was amused. "Then what about her?"
He pointed at Kairi.
"What is going on?" Hercules demanded. "Can you two please explain?"
"Of course, of course," the doorknob looked to the Cheshire Cat. "You're the clue; go tell them."
"Ahem," the Cheshire Cat made himself comfortable on Hercules' lofty brow. "The Queen of Hearts knows something of this other report that we were previously talking about. Which is why royalty is mentioned in the first place. Doorknob here is 'all the rage' because you all will eventually want to go back to him for any ideas of what's going on in the real world. And I am the clue because I know of this report that you must find the pieces of."
"Pieces?" Kairi exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
"This other report of ours had been exploded into pieces following the destruction of a few worlds here," the doorknob input, with him happening to sound very sleepy. "They're scattered all over the place. What that Oracle wanted you three to do was to find the pieces of figure out what happened about thirteen years ago and what the Nobodies are."
"Why do we have to do it?" Selphie pouted.
"You three were special from the moment you were born," the Cheshire Cat spoke, leisurely and patiently. "You and the others back in the real universe."
"I know the Queen of Hearts knows something about where the piece on the Nobodies is," the doorknob blurted out, then began to snore.
They all stared at him for a moment, then the Cheshire Cat waved him aside and said, "Ignore him, he always does that. But yes, the Queen of Hearts knows about where the piece may be. But it won't be easy getting it from her. She's a witch when it comes to getting information from her. You either have to do something for her, argue it out, or go searching for it by yourselves."
"What's the best thing to do?" Hercules asked.
"Whatever you do for her, she'll still order for her remaining guards to chop of your heads," the Cheshire Cat ignored their looks of horror. " Searching for the information is impossible here in Wonderland, hence the line "Where the mazes twist and turn/ with certain uncertainty." And arguing it out with her may still result in your heads coming off."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Selphie shouted.
"Argue it out; she may let out some information," the Cheshire Cat grinned. "I did that last time and, though I nearly lost my tail, I came to understand where Alice had gone."
"She said she got taken by the Heartless; what did the Queen had to do with it?" Kairi demanded.
"Oh the Queen got threatened into setting up the trial in order to draw out Sora, Court Wizard Donald, and Captain Goofy," the Cheshire Cat mused. "Then, during that disastrous battle, she was whisked away. A trail of clues was set to lead those three fine heroes here to battle the Trickmaster, in an attempt to snuff out their lives. What a failure. It was the most incredible failure I would ever witness. But yes, you should argue with her. It's better than getting your head chopped off or never finding the piece of this other report."
"In order to go," the doorknob's voice caused them all to jump, "drink that...which one was it?"
"Might by the blue one," the Cheshire Cat answered.
"Yes, drink out of that bottle," the doorknob yawned. "Or else you'll never fit through the opening."
"That one," the Cheshire Cat gestured to the little opening at the bottom of the wall to the left of the doorknob (when you face the doorknob heads on).
"Oh, I see," Selphie bent over and looked at the wall. "That's really small."
"Well, here goes," Hercules was about to chug in the liquid from the blue- labeled bottle. "Wait, it doesn't run out, does it?"
"Never had," the doorknob yawned.
"One last question," Kairi asked. "Who wrote this 'other report' of yours? I wanted to ask but with all this information, I almost forgot."
"Ah, do you really want to know?" the Cheshire Cat, which now sat on the blue table, asked with a sly grin.
They all nodded.
"Ansem wrote two 'other reports'," the doorknob stated.
The looks on their faces were worth more than a thousand words.
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 18: Reign of Thunder
"I'm scared," Pooh whispered to Meg as they listened to the Heartless ships attack the doors to Coliseum relentlessly.
"Me, too," Meg replied. "I thought I'd never see the day when the Heartless could have a serious chance of conquering Coliseum."
"If they're going to, we'll give them hell," Riku gave a surefire answer. "If they're not, we'll still give them hell."
"Kid, I've got two words for you," Phil told him as he produced himself a spear. "I like how you talk but I hope you really can give them hell."
"Phil, I can give everybody here hell if I wanted to," Riku answered truthfully.
Tarzan, who had been twirling the spear in his fingers lazily, looked like he was concentrating furiously, his brows furrowed. Then he said, "But Phil...that's fourteen words, not two."
Phil glared at him, saying, "Tarzan, I've got two words for you: its my say!"
"That's three," Riku was grinning; it was rather hilarious making Phil angry.
"Meg, how are you going to fight?" Tarzan changed the subject quickly. " Do you use a weapon?"
Meg said, "Maybe. But I've got Hercules' friend here, Pegasus."
"Pegasus?" Pooh repeated.
Meg nodded, then put her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly. The whistle was answered by the unmistakable neigh of a horse and a white, winged horse flew from somewhere around the building of the Coliseum and landed before them all.
"This is Pegasus," Meg gestured to the majestic white horse. "Together, we can give the Heartless hell as well."
The doors began to crack; everybody looked to it. Pegasus' tail plumed and the look of astonishment passed through his face. Riku called the Dark Keyblade to his side; he really did begin to doubt the powers of the Dark Keyblade. Can it defeat Heartless?
This Keyblade was made to unlock hearts, he told himself. But the Heartless don't have hearts, hence their name. Then can this Keyblade be an effective weapon against them, like the Kingdom Key?
"Blizzaga!" he heard Pooh shout out at once.
"Pooh!" Riku exclaimed. "What in-"
Then he saw what Pooh did. He froze the doors so they were incredibly stiff and rather resistant to the Heartless ships.
"Wow," Tarzan commented. "Smart."
But they could all hear the ice chip off on the other side.
Tarzan shrugged. "I was kidding."
Then Riku became eerily aware of the sound of scratching to their left. He cocked his head that way, listening in carefully to the sound of what seemed to be claws scratching furiously at stone...marble stone.
"Phil," his voice dropped dangerously low. "I think they're trying to tear down the left wall."
Phil scoffed it off, "They can't dig through marble! Their nails would be gone before they make even a dent in that wall!"
"You sure?" Riku was very worried. Heartless were unpredictable and he told Phil that.
"Positive," Meg answered instead. "Almighty Zeus blessed these walls. He wouldn't have if it weren't for Hercules."
"Zeus?" Tarzan was puzzled. "Who's-"
Riku held up his hand immediately. "We can't keep asking questions. Phil, Meg, even if Zeus blessed these darn walls, they can't keep Heartless out forever. You have to ask for a miracle-beg for one, actually. These Heartless are very hard to evade or push aside."
"If you're saying that Heartless are very hard to evade or push aside," Meg was turning critical, "are you saying that we have no chance of holding up against these Heartless and might as well run away from Coliseum?"
Riku hit himself on the head. "No, I'm saying that walls alone cannot defeat Heartless! We're going to have to be like Phil's Mr. Superman in order to stop them from conquering this place."
"Kid," Phil was staring at the left wall. "I've got another two words for you: I think they're coming."
"That's four," Tarzan gave what was now becoming a customary reply while everybody else turned to the left wall.
A long crack ran down the pale wall. The scratching was now accompanied by a strange rat-tat-tat sound. The Heartless ships' weapons.
"It looks like they gave up on the doors when Pooh froze them," Meg decided as she mounted Pegasus and snatched a metal spear from one of the broken statues. "We're going to be assaulted from the left."
"I froze them?" Pooh had a confused look on her face.
"Never mind," Meg quickly replied, then looked to the wall. The crack was widening and smaller cracks branched off from the large one. "Why don't we give these Heartless the kind of hell I went through before?"
"You went through hell?" Riku asked.
"It ain't easy to explain, kid," Phil answered, rummaging through broken statues and marble. He pulled out a Gladius and a bronze shield. "I think these two will do. Defense and offence, perfectly balanced."
While the trio gave him puzzled looks, Meg explained, "Phil not only trains 'heroes', he knows weaponry and the balance between weaponry. Of course he knows nothing about magic so he can't exactly equip Pooh for this battle. I assume you two are ready?"
Tarzan nodded, tapping his spear on the ground. "I am ready."
Riku nodded, though he knew everyone was aware of his hesitance with the Dark Keyblade. "I am ready as well."
There was a huge cracking noise and the crack widened drastically.
"We must keep the Heartless from reaching our gummi ship," Riku stated seriously as they backed towards the right wall with the gummi ship. "If we fail, we can at least get out of here."
"I'm not leaving this place," Phil growled. "They want this place, they gotta do it over my dead body."
Riku sighed over this familiar statement. "Phil? I've got some actual two words for you: too bad. You're coming with us, whether you like it or not. The guys back at Traverse Town ordered it."
Phil growled something about, "What are they, the wise guys?..." under his breath but made no serious protest.
Riku opened his mouth to state a comeback...
...and the left wall crumbled.
From the dust cloud that billowed up, the result of the wall's collapse, Shadows, Search Ghosts, Wyverns, and Soldiers shot forward. Riku was surprised by two things. One, there were only four groups of Heartless. Two, even if there were only four groups of Heartless, there certainly was a shitload of them.
"Athena, grant me accuracy for this battle," Meg prayed, then hoisted up a spear, readying it for throwing, while she gripped another spear in her left hand.
"Thetis, this is Achilles' trainer, Phil," Phil was saying gruffly. " Grant me luck."
"Firaga," Pooh whispered, pointing at the mass of darkness and a fireball soared in a wide arc. Everyone froze, even the Heartless, and their heads and eyes followed the fireball as it landed with a violent explosion in the mass of Heartless.
"Nice," Tarzan whistled as a cloud of black smoke and red hearts shot up into the sky. Then he gave an undistinguishable war cry and, with spear in hand, rushed at the Heartless, which had charged as well. Tarzan gracefully jumped up and sliced at a Wyvern, taking off its head. He then bounded at a Search Ghost, dodged its dislocated hands and stabbed it in the body.
"Blizzaga!" another blast of ice soared in an arc and landed in another part of the mass of black.
"Forward, Pegasus!" Meg cried and Pegasus charged. As they rushed the enemy, Meg leveled the spear in her right hand, then threw it. The spear penetrated several Heartless before vanishing into the mist of darkness.
"Gods, this ain't pretty," Phil told Riku as Pooh sent a sphere of water in another arc. "Especially if you were me."
"I'm glad I'm not," Riku quickly quipped. "I'd hate to be as short as you."
Before Phil could make an angry remark, Riku rushed into battle. He threw out feelers, sensing out Heartless, their types, and in which direction they were moving. Then, executing a couple of exhilarating steps, he smoothly sent several red hearts floating up into the sky.
"He looks like he's dancin'," Phil was staring as though he was seeing the sun for the first time. "By the gods, this kid could've been a hero!"
"Phil, you lazy bum!" Meg yelled from the south end of Coliseum; she stabbed Heartless with the spear while Pegasus kicked out and pounded at Heartless with his hooves. "Do something! Don't just stand there! Move!"
"Move, move, move!" Phil repeated angrily, then ran to the battlefield, looking extremely odd bounding in an uneven gait with a bobbling large shield and Gladius in his hands. "I wish they had satyr-made weapons...Hermes, Thetis, Athena, Zeus, all you guys on Mt. Olympus, help us!"
He threw himself recklessly at a group of Soldier Heartless and nearly went out shrieking in shock. But his fighting instincts took over and he got down to the dirty stuff; he sent up a regular train of red hearts.
Pooh, staying with the gummi ship, did an excellent job of protecting the gummi ship. His arm continued to cannon balls of flame, ice, or water into multitudes of Heartless, destroying handfuls at a time. Tarzan was the most graceful warrior. His stealthy, leopard-like movements in combat were like ballet and his spear gave many a Heartless the Kiss of Death. Riku was probably the most astonishing fighter. He slaughtered the Heartless with such regularity and such recklessness it seemed that the silver-haired teenager was going to be stabbed by Heartless every five seconds. Phil wasn't doing bad himself, though he needed to stay behind or around large, inanimate objects in order to better defend himself against Heartless.
Meg and Pegasus had the bad luck of being on the south end of the Coliseum- that was where the double doors were. Pooh encasing the doors in ice didn't help; the Heartless gummi ships had pounded the doors with such monotony, it was impossible to be distracted by the rat-tat-tat noise.
But everyone became aware of the pounding on the doors once they shattered. Pegasus reared in surprise when splinters from the doors entered his hindquarters. Meg cried out in surprise as splinters dug into her, releasing tiny streams of blood that dripped onto Pegasus' white body.
Pegasus' reaction actually destroyed some Heartless but the trouble was really coming when Heartless were seen marching in on Coliseum from the south end of the huge marble building. Once Pegasus and Meg got away, Riku and the others were able to see how much in trouble they were.
The masses of Heartless rapidly subtracting the distance between themselves and Coliseum intimidated them. And there was nothing to block the advancements. Then more of the walls crumbled as more Heartless entered the Coliseum. As everyone backed up towards the gummi ship, it became increasingly clear their fight was a lost cause.
"We have to get out of here, Phil," Riku told Phil as they looked at the Heartless rather nervously. Tarzan noted Heartless climbing on the rooftop of the building to the north and said so.
"Phil, they're swarmed the place," Meg said desperately, her left hand gripping her right forearm. Blood streamed underneath her hand. "We've got to get out of here or they're gonna take us all!"
"Quickly!" Pooh had opened the door into the gummi ship and waved them in. "No time, no time, no time for honey, no time for fun talks, no time for walks, we must hurry, hurry, hurry..."
Phil looked at Pooh with a critical eye; Meg told him to drop it before the satyr even opened his mouth.
As Meg shoved Phil into the gummi ship, then followed him, Riku and Tarzan looked at Pegasus. A big horse. In an average-sized gummi ship. With a teddy bear, a woman, a satyr, a jungle warrior, and a teenager.
Pegasus seemed to know what they were thinking. He snorted contemptuously at them and trotted into the gummi ship as though it was the most natural thing in life.
Riku and Tarzan shrugged, then the seasoned warrior pointed upward. Riku turned his head up, threw out feelers and felt, to his horror, hundreds of Heartless gummi ships hovering over Coliseum. The Heartless were hell-bent to Hades in pulverizing Coliseum into dust.
"What to we do?" Tarzan demanded.
Riku thought for a moment as they rushed to the door. Phil and Meg said something about gods...
"Phil!" Riku yelled as he pulled closed the door and Tarzan put the gummi ship's engine into high gear. "We've got a billion Heartless gummi ships over our heads right now! Who do we pray to help us?"
Phil thought for a moment as Pooh began to level out Heartless with the ship's set of weapons. But Meg was quick with her answer.
"Zeus," she quickly answered. "Pray to Zeus. He'll help us. 'Us' especially, right Phil?"
Phil had the oddest expression on his face, agreement mixed in with contempt. But he nodded. Very reluctantly but he nodded.
"Zeus," Riku shouted right out as the gummi ship rose up into the sky, " help us get out of here!"
"Kid, that ain't no way to ask for Zeus' help-" Phil began to criticize.
A flash of thunder materialized inside the gummi ship and just about fried Phil. Again.
"Cough, cough...I lied," Phil hacked out as thunder flashed outside the gummi ship.
As Riku watched in awe, Tarzan carefully stirred around the bolts of lightening that came out from a suddenly darkened sky, destroying one Heartless ship after another in quick succession. A reign of thunder. Zeus ruled the sky and thunder. It was power.
"Amazing," Riku whispered as Pooh shot down more Heartless ships.
As the gummi ship rose up and away, Heartless tore down Coliseum. They began to destroy everything that was on that world, until it was barren.
Then, by some unknown force, the world exploded.
By then, the gummi ship was too distant to be affected by the blast. But it was horrible to see.
"No..." Phil moaned sadly. Riku did not know the best way to comfort the now- devastated satyr.
"Some poem," Selphie commentated as soon as they got away from the Oracle Kenaii, who was fast becoming one of those preachers that can talk for hours without stopping.
"What a strange prophecy..." Kairi was musing as they walked down a rather hazy rode. "Why didn't Sora or me or the others hear of it before?"
"What others?" Selphie asked curiously.
"Oracle Kenaii told me it was the prophecy of In-between," Hercules explained good-naturedly. "Those who live in the real worlds normally don't go to In-between to hear a prophecy of that place. They wouldn't care about a place they don't live in. And Oracle Kenaii can't exactly materialize in the real world; he'd scare the hell out of them!"
"Obviously," Selphie agreed emphatically.
Kairi had to agree. It wasn't everyday a ghost walked up to you and preached about a prophecy.
"Where is this place with mazes supposed to be?" Selphie peered up the foggy path. "I can't see anything beyond this stupid fog!"
Kairi shrugged. "Oracle Kenaii told us to follow this road so we might as well follow-"
To the astonishment of Selphie and Hercules, Kairi disappeared.
"Where'd she go?" Selphie was trembling, on the verge of panic.
"Don't panic, don't panic," Hercules muttered. "She can't just disappear in In-between. That's not possible, that's not possible-THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"
Selphie stared at him. He was saying not to panic and he was panicking.
"Geezes, man, you guys are so loud!" they heard Kairi's faint voice from somewhere down below. "I'm here!"
"Where's here?" Selphie demanded. "Where the hell are you?"
"I agree," Hercules added, his voice still a little high from his bout with panic. "Where in Hades' hell are you?"
"In a hole!" Kairi responded. "You should come on down; it's weird. I don't like the looks of it, either."
"Where can there be a hole?" Selphie wondered and she inched a foot forward, to test the ground for the hole.
Within seconds, she was gone, screaming her head off.
Hercules thought it was a good idea to jump in the direction of Selphie's screaming.
Kairi was waiting with a look of exaggerated exasperation on her face as Selphie came down screaming. She was soon followed by Hercules, with a rather happy-go-lucky look on his face. He thought he was having fun.
"I. Am. NEVER. Going. To. Do. That. Again," Selphie spoke each word like it had its own sentence as she picked herself up. "That was creepy."
"Really?" Hercules picked himself up and brushed dirt and dust off his armor. "I thought it was fun."
Selphie was staring at the grin on Hercules' face.
Kairi shook her head, her purplish-blue eyes serious. "There's no time to be laughing. Look around u."
The other two obliged.
They were in a round room, with destruction screaming everywhere at them. The walls were torn into and whatever was on the walls was crushed into undistinguishable pieces. The marble-tile floor, or whatever it was, was littered with pieces of objects and marred with horrible scratches and slices.
Then there was the blood.
Horrified, the three stared at the long stains of dried, dark red blood and their eyes followed its grotesque path down a long, crooked hallway. They all looked at each other and slowly crept down the hallway, looking about warily. The bloody markings all over the walls of the hallway did not reassure them, nor did the pieces of several doors before them. The doorframes disturbed them just as much as the pieces of wood hanging from the hinges and the splinters and sawdust lying on the floor everywhere.
Each doorframe got smaller.
"How do we get through there?" Selphie wondered, gesturing to the barely marred last door, which was small for Kairi and Selphie and tiny for Hercules. "One, we don't know what's beyond it and two, Hercules can't fit through it."
She jabbed her thumb in the warrior's direction.
"Herc, do you think you can get through without busting the door?" Kairi asked rather sweetly.
Hercules scratched his head, looking baffled. "Uh...I don't know. Besides, I met the doorknob by a different route..."
Selphie reached out tentatively and turned the doorknob on the door.
"Oh, do come in, come in, its alright," they heard a sleepy voice drawl to them. "I wired the door to explode if one of those blasted Nobodies or Heartless came in but you three are human or are supposed to be so its quite safe. Do come in; I just finished a nap and need some people to talk to."
All three froze, daring each other to breathe loudly.
"What was that?" Selphie demanded to Hercules.
"Must be the Doorknob," Hercules answered happily. "He sleeps all the time, or so he tells me."
"He may seem to be sleeping, "a teasing, rather creepy voice sang from within, "but sleeping helps him become aware of problems you cannot see."
They all froze again.
"Now what was that?" Selphie demanded again.
This time Hercules had no answer. "I really don't know..."
Kairi reached out and pushed the door open. She crept into a mightily strange room and looked around, while Selphie tried to get Hercules in.
The room was spacious, with a blue table in the middle of the room, two bottles sitting on it in their own lonely way. There was a table in one corner of the room, with a drawing of a chair next to it. There was a vase in another corner; a fireplace stood out not far from it. There were openings and closings here and there, things drawn into walls, things sticking out.
And before them, beyond the blue table, was a sleepy-looking doorknob on a small door. And a grinning mouth.
"There is a grinning mouth," Selphie said slowly, "without a body to go with it."
She was rather right. They stared at the mouth for quite some time, until the doorknob stirred and said, "Ahem."
The tension in the room was so stiff that uttering one little word caused them to jump. The room shook in the process, as Hercules hit himself on the head.
"Ow..." he winced, rubbing his head, while Kairi and Selphie turned nervously back to the doorknob.
"Well, at least you're here," the doorknob spoke, in a very odd voice. Not only did his voice sound sleepy, it sounded snobbish. "I've been waiting quite a long time, you see, and I fell asleep. Lucky I did, though, for my mind went wandering around our still-mysteriously world and I think the Queen is aware of your arrival."
"What Queen?" Selphie whispered to Hercules.
"No idea," he replied rather honestly.
"The Queen of Hearts," the mouth spoke up with teasing enthusiasm. "But that's not the whole point. When he falls asleep, his mind wanders and whenever he wakes up, he spits up useless information."
"Oh shut up, you cat, you're causing quite a racquet," the doorknob snapped back.
"Cat?" Kairi turned nervously to the mouth.
"Purple is the clue, after all," the mouth answered and a cat gradually formed from the mouth, a striped cat of purple and pink.
"A pink and purple cat?" Selphie was flabbergasted. "And it talks, too!"
"The Cheshire Cat at your service, ladies and gent," the Cat bowed. "The purple is the clue, after all."
"Funny you should mention the Oracle's prophecy," Hercules mused.
"There are two prophecies, spoken by two oracles," the doorknob stated. Or rather, one prophecy here and several prophecies back in the real universe. But you should only concern yourselves with this one."
"Purple is the clue," Kairi said. "Gold is all the rage. Royalty still resides..."
"And the mystery of the white is told," the doorknob finished." I happen to be gold, you see, but I don't understand the ' all the rage' part."
"Because you are privy to many things we all must know," the Cheshire Cat rolled his eyes.
Kairi and Selphie cringed; the pupils rolled in opposite directions.
"And you're purple," Hercules was looking at the two bottles on the table and did not see the rolling eyes. "So you have some clue to what we have to do here, right?"
"So the royalty would be this Queen of Hearts of yours, right?" Selphie ventured to conclude.
"Right on target," the Cheshire Cat praised. He then vanished into thin air and materialized on Hercules' head. "But of course, we're only clues and little 'eavesdroppers'. You're real purpose here in Wonderland is to find out the mystery of the white. In this case, the Nobodies."
"Nobodies?" Selphie was genuinely confused.
"Not again," Hercules groaned.
"The Nobodies are at it again, conquering worlds," the doorknob muttered. "Or so they are trying. The Heartless are at it again as well; very interesting. Of course, then again, they do not know of that little report he wrote about the Nobodies."
"Not the Other Report, right?" the Cheshire Cat spoke up from his high position.
"No, not that report," the doorknob and the Cheshire Cat were carrying on a conversation as though Kairi, Selphie, and Hercules didn't even exist. Or, in the case of the Cheshire Cat, they were inanimate objects. "You know who is to find that report."
"The son is to find his father's report on the Nobodies?" the Cat was amused. "Then what about her?"
He pointed at Kairi.
"What is going on?" Hercules demanded. "Can you two please explain?"
"Of course, of course," the doorknob looked to the Cheshire Cat. "You're the clue; go tell them."
"Ahem," the Cheshire Cat made himself comfortable on Hercules' lofty brow. "The Queen of Hearts knows something of this other report that we were previously talking about. Which is why royalty is mentioned in the first place. Doorknob here is 'all the rage' because you all will eventually want to go back to him for any ideas of what's going on in the real world. And I am the clue because I know of this report that you must find the pieces of."
"Pieces?" Kairi exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
"This other report of ours had been exploded into pieces following the destruction of a few worlds here," the doorknob input, with him happening to sound very sleepy. "They're scattered all over the place. What that Oracle wanted you three to do was to find the pieces of figure out what happened about thirteen years ago and what the Nobodies are."
"Why do we have to do it?" Selphie pouted.
"You three were special from the moment you were born," the Cheshire Cat spoke, leisurely and patiently. "You and the others back in the real universe."
"I know the Queen of Hearts knows something about where the piece on the Nobodies is," the doorknob blurted out, then began to snore.
They all stared at him for a moment, then the Cheshire Cat waved him aside and said, "Ignore him, he always does that. But yes, the Queen of Hearts knows about where the piece may be. But it won't be easy getting it from her. She's a witch when it comes to getting information from her. You either have to do something for her, argue it out, or go searching for it by yourselves."
"What's the best thing to do?" Hercules asked.
"Whatever you do for her, she'll still order for her remaining guards to chop of your heads," the Cheshire Cat ignored their looks of horror. " Searching for the information is impossible here in Wonderland, hence the line "Where the mazes twist and turn/ with certain uncertainty." And arguing it out with her may still result in your heads coming off."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Selphie shouted.
"Argue it out; she may let out some information," the Cheshire Cat grinned. "I did that last time and, though I nearly lost my tail, I came to understand where Alice had gone."
"She said she got taken by the Heartless; what did the Queen had to do with it?" Kairi demanded.
"Oh the Queen got threatened into setting up the trial in order to draw out Sora, Court Wizard Donald, and Captain Goofy," the Cheshire Cat mused. "Then, during that disastrous battle, she was whisked away. A trail of clues was set to lead those three fine heroes here to battle the Trickmaster, in an attempt to snuff out their lives. What a failure. It was the most incredible failure I would ever witness. But yes, you should argue with her. It's better than getting your head chopped off or never finding the piece of this other report."
"In order to go," the doorknob's voice caused them all to jump, "drink that...which one was it?"
"Might by the blue one," the Cheshire Cat answered.
"Yes, drink out of that bottle," the doorknob yawned. "Or else you'll never fit through the opening."
"That one," the Cheshire Cat gestured to the little opening at the bottom of the wall to the left of the doorknob (when you face the doorknob heads on).
"Oh, I see," Selphie bent over and looked at the wall. "That's really small."
"Well, here goes," Hercules was about to chug in the liquid from the blue- labeled bottle. "Wait, it doesn't run out, does it?"
"Never had," the doorknob yawned.
"One last question," Kairi asked. "Who wrote this 'other report' of yours? I wanted to ask but with all this information, I almost forgot."
"Ah, do you really want to know?" the Cheshire Cat, which now sat on the blue table, asked with a sly grin.
They all nodded.
"Ansem wrote two 'other reports'," the doorknob stated.
The looks on their faces were worth more than a thousand words.