Secrets of Memories Chapter 28: Not the Only One
Why do I have a bad feeling Oogie Boogie isn't the only one returning from the dead? Riku wondered to himself as they watched Oogie Boogie's every action.
The bag of bugs seemed to be conversing with all the Heartless there. Riku wondered what it was he was telling them.
" I can't seem to figure out what we should do," Jack was saying to both him and Tarzan. "There's so many Heartless and it's Oogie Boogie, which is a very terrible thing and-"
" We should at least get rid of him," Riku said dejectedly. "Might as well sacrifice Halloweentown for the greater good. At least the Mayor, Dr. Finkelstein, and Sally's getting all the civilians outta here-"
" Duck!" Tarzan hissed and they all went down on their knees. Jack couldn't do that; he'd still be seen so he laid down on the green river, while the other two crouched up against the side of the river. "Heartless looking this way-"
A fireball sailed over their heads and fizzled in the green waters.
" Too late," Riku growled back.
" Come on out!" Oogie Boogie's voice boomed out from behind them. "There's no need to hide, Jack! We've got you cornered and you've nowhere else to run in this world now."
" Why are you back?" Riku found himself shouting as he stood up and faced a massive army of Heartless assembled at the edge of the artificial river they were in. Holy crud, we're in deep shit now, if we weren't in it already.
He moved his feet about in the green water for a bit of emphasis to his thoughts.
" How many of us are coming back, you should ask, Maleficent's spawn!" Oogie Boogie snapped back. " After all-"
" What did you call me?" Riku asked in a low voice, a voice that trembled with an unspeakable rage.
" Maleficent's spawn, child," Oogie Boogie taunted. "Always under her wing you were, her pet, her pride, and then Ansem came and went and destroyed everything but not anymore! Under the wing of the Society, we who returned are more powerful than before. I'm afraid, child, you're going to die before you can kill us all."
" That means," Tarzan spoke calmly as he stood up as well. "That means we can kill you."
" Go ahead and try," Oogie Boogie was slightly taken by surprise at his appearance. "But first, you have to get through these guys."
He waved his pointy arm at the Heartless around him.
" Oh no," Riku moaned. The only knowledge he had of taking out a group this big was an unstable spell he learned from King Mickey half a year ago and he had never even tried it out.
" Oogie Boogie, who else is coming back?" Jack demanded as he stood up next to Riku. His tall figure was rather imposing and the Heartless pulled back ever so slightly.
" Ah, Jack, how very nice to meet you," Oogie Boogie had a rather dark grin on his ugly face. "Who's coming back? Not only me, I'm sure you know by now."
I wonder why, Riku thought sarcastically, knowing Oogie Boogie had already told them that he was not the only one coming back from the 'dead'.
" I'm here, aren't I," Oogie Boogie gestured to himself. "You cannot kill gods for that is a completely different matter. A guy may be chased by a crocodile but that does not spell out his demise. And lamps, well, just be careful which one you rub."
" Holy shit," Riku let loose. He had a very good idea of who was coming back. And that was not good. But-
" Agrabah's been destroyed," Riku turned to Oogie Boogie.
" That means nothing to us," Oogie Boogie answered.
Which is a very bad thing indeed, Riku realized. He turned to Oogie Boogie, only to see that he was gone.
" Let's get on with the show, shall we?" Oogie Boogie suggested from a location a little distance away.
And the Heartless swarmed on them.
Dr. Finkelstein, the Mayor, and Pooh were helping the usher the last of the citizens of Halloweentown into Dr. Finkelstein's portal when they heard the last thing they wanted to hear.
Explosions off in the distance, towards Moonlight Hill.
They all looked at each other, with Dr. Finkelstein and the Mayor sharing horrified looks and Pooh being Pooh and being totally confused.
" The war has reached Halloweentown, Mayor," Dr. Finkelstein admitted to the horrorstruck Mayor sadly. " Now it is too late. You have to follow your people to Traverse Town. Leon will take over from there."
The Mayor seemed unable to process what Dr. Finkelstein had just said. His terrified face continued to look towards Moonlight Hill.
" My friends are there," Pooh suddenly seemed to realize. "I must go; I must go and help them."
" How?" Dr. Finkelstein turned to the small bear. "What can you do?"
" If Sally is good at piloting gummi ships, then I will help my friends," Pooh explained in incredibly simplistic terms. "If not, then I will go to them anyways. Friends do not abandon friends."
Dr. Finkelstein and the Mayor looked at each other and nodded, understanding.
" I will await you, Sally, and Jack at Traverse Town," the Mayor sighed dejectedly as he headed for the portal.
" It will depend on whether or not we can survive," Dr. Finkelstein warned as the Mayor stepped into the swirling vortex and vanished like his people.
Pooh dawdled off in search of Sally and the gummi ship. Dr. Finkelstein wheeled himself towards his lab. He had a weapon, a certain weapon that no doubt could be of use to Pooh and Sally.
After all, it was a long lost artifact of the past, a dangerous weapon that was originally set on a gummi ship of old stories and used to wipe out hundreds of minions of the dark.
Riku dodged the fireball the Spectral Mage threw at him, then practically dropped face down on the ground to dodge a ball of ice cast by a Blue Rhapsody. Ten seconds later, he dodged a whirlwind created by an Angel Star and got rid of a Green Requiem in the process with his Dark Keyblade. It surprised him when he got rid of that green Heartless; he didn't realize the Dark Keyblade was actually effective against the Heartless.
What was it in the Dark Keyblade, then, that made it so dangerous against the Heartless?
Jack had cut a huge swath of space all around him, thanks largely to the long reach of his arms, hands, legs, and feet. He was an incredibly adept fighter for his huge and lanky size, and he did particularly well against the Soldiers, Darkballs, and Large Bodies that threw themselves against him.
It was only when Defenders began to materialize in place of the Large Bodies and the Gargoyles took place of the Darkballs that Jack began to have problems. Gargoyles moved about in their own place of origin at least twice as fast as the Darkballs and Defenders were rather frightening, not to mention powerful.
Tarzan was swamped mostly by Shadows but he had the honor of facing not only Shadows but Red Nocturnes, Search Ghosts, Yellow Operas, Wight Knights, and the ultimate nightmare- the Black Fungus.
With Wizards appearing on the scene to cast magic in aid of the Heartless and against Riku, Tarzan, and Jack, the situation was growing steadily worse.
Riku was fuming mad; he got zapped in the arm by a Yellow Opera and a Wight Knight scratched him. The mummy Heartless paid dearly for having such long fingernails; within seconds of scratching the teenager, it no longer existed. Then a Black Fungus approached him and began to release a strange gas. Riku did not risk being there when the cloud of gas touched him; he fled, while the nearby Heartless began to drop dead, with some having seizures before they died.
Riku was extremely thankful he got away from the Black Fungus. He then aimed at the dark creature with his Dark Keyblade and let off some Firaga.
The third fireball to reach the Black Fungus merely bounced off it; Riku noted it was glowing purple. The next two fireballs to touch the Black Fungus also had no affect on it.
" Shit!" Riku swore as the Black Fungus sought him out again, releasing a cloud of gas all the while.
The only thing that made Riku very glad was that the Black Fungus was killing off many of its comrades and, over time, the purplish shield faded away. Riku then quickly assaulted the Black Fungus with Blizzaga and finally destroyed it.
Jack had done well in piling up Heartless 'dead' all around him; they acted as a sort of a melting shield for the pumpkin king. The Heartless seemed fearful of their own dead; they chose to attack him from afar while the corpses were still piled up around him. Jack knew magic; he knew enough to hurt the Heartless even though they had put a considerable distance between themselves and the pumpkin king. Then Tarzan cut a path through them into the clearing the pumpkin king created and began something like a massive slaughter.
And still the Heartless hugely outnumbered them.
" Ho, ho, ho, Jack! Still think you can beat me?" Oogie Boogie laughed at them from a distance away. "Guess again!"
With that he pulled out three purplish black dice and threw them at them.
Riku's sense began to scream madly in his brain and to his horror, three Invisibles made themselves known as they came out of the three dice.
The fight against the sea of Heartless and Oogie Boogie in Halloweentown had become more of a desperate struggle against hell.
Riku was grim as he faced the nightmarish 'generals' of the Heartless. The ends of his blindfold flapping before him and his silver hair blowing into his face, he turned to face the soldiers of Darkness.
The ends of his blindfold flapping before him? There was no wind blowing in Halloweentown and yet there was a breeze now, blowing behind him! What the-
He noticed that everything had become silent, deathly silent. His sense told him everyone was staring at him-no, behind him and above him. Riku followed their lead and threw out feelers in the direction they were staring at.
His feelers made out the form of a gummi ship. A very familiar gummi ship with a huge, speed lined device attacked to its nose. And he could sense a furious, blinding energy pulsing within the device.
The device was a weapon. And it was powering up, fast.
" How much higher?" Pooh asked worriedly as he stared at the screen before him and Sally.
The gauge was reading at 106%. The limit was 200%. Pooh definitely wanted it higher.
" It takes a while to charge the weapon," Sally explained calmly. "I suggest, Pooh, that you use the weapons installed into this gummi ship while I handle Dr. Finkelstein's device."
Pooh scratched his head, nodded, and bounded off for that hidden room where the weapon controls lay. Sally watched him go off calmly, then turned to the gauge, which was now running at 124%. Fast, but will it be fast enough?
" Many things will happen that will change the future," she was murmuring to herself as she saw bolts of energy fire from the gummi ship's guns and onto the Heartless below. "And tonight's just the start."
HookWings appeared in the distance, a dark cloud of bat wings and huge red hooks that descended on Riku, Tarzan, and Jack. Riku sensed their arrival and welcomed them with a rich curse.
" More Heartless," Tarzan said in resignation as he hefted his spear in preparation for more fighting. But he didn't really get a chance to.
The bolt of energy fried nearly half the cloud before it even got close to Riku. Riku knew where that life-saving blast of energy came from and he flashed whoever was in the gummi ship a thumbs-up sign.
" Get rid of that gummi ship!" Oogie Boogie shouted at the Heartless and all winged Heartless went flying at the gummi ship.
Riku knew of the only one who could use the weapons on that gummi ship. And, incredible as it seems, that forgetful little bear was quite adept at using very modern weapons. Truth be told, he was a master.
A torpedo of energy launched itself from underneath the gummi ship and punched its way though two Gargoyles and a HookWing before sizzling on a Yellow Opera. A spray of small bits of energy pummeled into the swarm of Red Nocturnes, Blue Rhapsodies, Yellow Operas, and Green Requiems before exploding on a sea of Heartless.
Riku nodded in approval, then aimed at a swarm and cried out, " Graviga!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Riku cursed. Graviga, a powerful spell of darkness, had grown unstable over the months and it was becoming increasingly difficult for even King Mickey to control.
Luckily for Riku, the spell hit only the swarm of spell casting Heartless and not the gummi ship itself. That was how dangerous the Graviga spell was becoming. And he had already told Pooh about not testing out thunder because Thundaga was becoming more volatile as well. When King Mickey used it back in Kingdom Hearts, both of them were nearly fried-
No, I can't think about Kingdom Hearts! I just can't!
Pushing the memories of the ordeal out of his mind, Riku focused on his energy and forced it out into his arms and the Dark Keyblade. Then he began to literally slaughter the Heartless all around him. There was desperation now, a need of time that was not there so now there was a call for speed.
She was floating in a mist of gray-
No, wait a minute, she was floating in a mist of gray. The mist of gray was In-Between and she was floating on what felt like water.
Kairi jolted and sat upright on the shores of a small lake. She looked around wildly, wondering where she was and what she was doing.
" Selphie?" she called out tentatively. She was in foreign territory and she did not know what was out there. Not that there had been any life since she had started her strange journey with Selphie but still, if the Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit, the Spades and Hearts, the doorknob, and the Cheshire Cat were still alive, who knew what was alive here, in this dense jungle.
" Selphie?" she called out, her voice a little stronger, as she stood up and water dribbled off of her. She was soaked but she didn't seem to notice that.
Silence answered her. And then she realized she didn't have the small wooden chest the Queen of Hearts gave her. Her heart sank.
Where could it be?
"...I'm telling you, there can be no Heartless here," a voice was saying in the distance, "because we haven't seen any Heartless in a while."
" I know that, Terk," a weary woman's voice was saying. "But I'm not taking any chances."
" Just don't point the gun," the voice labeled Terk answered. "Pointing the gun is a threat and we don't want to look like a threat. Yet."
Kairi's heart started to beat madly. Where they hunters or something? Or where they sent by the Heartless to track her down?
" If only Tarzan were here-" the woman's voice was saying.
" Tarzan isn't here, Jane, and that's the problem," Terk answered. "He doesn't act like a threat first so don't act like a threat. If whatever was screaming is dangerous, then you can point the gun."
Tarzan? Kairi was sure she heard that name before, while being held by the Heartless. Didn't they speak that name like it was some sort of a curse?
" Hello?" Kairi called out weakly. She cleared her throat and repeated, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
" Sounds like a human to me, Terk," the woman named Jane seemed to be telling Terk.
" What's a human doing here?" Terk was wondering. "Let alone something breathing, for one."
" I don't know-oh!" and the two voices appeared from the underbrush of the jungle before Kairi.
Jane was a young woman in simple clothing suited for the jungle; in her arm was a rifle. Terk was a mid-sized gorilla with a tuft of hair shaped strangely on her head.
" Oh, hello, what's your name?" Terk the gorilla asked cheerfully.
" My-my name?" Kairi was rather surprised to see something living in this dead realm of In-Between. " I-I am Kairi."
" Kairi..." Jane mused. "I've heard of that name before..."
" I think I did," Terk agreed. " Were you the one screaming?"
Kairi flushed with embarrassment. "I lost my balance was I fell from somewhere above. My friend, her name is Selphie; have you seen her?"
Jane and Terk looked at each other and they shook their heads. "No, we haven't. You're the only one in several weeks to come by here, and from the Vines to the Hippo's Lagoon, no less."
" Oh..." Kairi was upset. Not only did she lose sight of Selphie, she had no idea what became of the box.
" Why are you here anyways?" Terk asked in a rather accusing voice.
" Terk, be nice," Jane reprimanded.
" I really don't know," Kairi answered. "Me and my friend, Selphie, went to Destiny Islands, our home. There we were attacked by Heartless and escaped through this door we managed to finally open in this secret hiding place of ours. We ended up here and met this man named Hercules and a ghost of some sort who was an oracle. The oracle told Selphie, Hercules, and I to find out the secrets concerning the past, whatever that was. We went to Wonderland and found the first piece of the past, called the Other Report. Have you heard of the Nobodies?"
" They were white creatures weren't they?" Jane asked as they slowly shifted towards where Jane and Terk had come from.
" They went fighting against the Heartless like this and that," Terk added, imitating a boxer's moves for emphasis.
" Tarzan went to find the source of the Heartless and those white creatures while Jane, me, and Tantor fended for ourselves," Terk continued before Jane could say more. "The next thing you knew, Tantor went trumpeting off because his family was being nailed and the whole world went kablooey! Then it was Jane and me, sitting in Camp all alone."
" And then this old man came around," Jane finally spoke. "He was an old man, with a long white beard and moustache. He had little spectacles and he was dressed all in blue. I thought he was walking around in some sort of an old nightgown but it really was his clothing."
" He gave us some strange box," Terk said, "with funny carvings on them. A very green box and we can't open it or anything. Sealed completely shut for sure."
" The old man seems to sound familiar..." Kairi mused as they walked into a very dusty campsite, with tents and canopies rather filmy and supplies half-pulled from containers or completely gone.
" This is Camp," Jane told her. " Make yourselves at home and then we'll go off looking for this Selphie of yours. She can't have wandered off too far around here these days. The gray mist hinders you and Deep Jungle isn't explorable for the most part."
" Tell that to Selphie," Kairi quipped. "She's rather determined for a girl our age; put an obstacle in front of her and she'll go through any means necessary in order to overcome it."
Jane chuckled while Terk hustled off to a tent to search out whatever it was she was looking for.
" Jane, where's that box that old man gave us?" she yelled out, her voice muffled either by the walls of the canvas tent or by the fact she may be under some covers of sorts.
" Out here, Terk," Jane said calmly and Terk came shuffling out, embarrassed.
" This is the box the old man gave us," Jane said as she strode purposely to a wooden crate and lifted up a greenish box made entirely of stone. "He told us to give it to the right person at the right moment in time. I really have no idea when is when and who is who but I guess I'll know when the time comes."
" What's in the box?" Kairi asked curiously.
" Try as I might," Terk answered, " I can't figure out nothing more than some shuffling somethings. You can't break the box either or open it; the stone's strong and the lid's practically glued shut."
" What a queer box already," Kairi commented.
" No time to waste now," Jane said as she set the box on the crate and grabbed her rifle, which she had set against another crate. "We have to go find your friend."
Kairi nodded. She wondered where Selphie was and fervently prayed she wasn't hurt.
But where she was will be interesting.
" The only place left is the Tree House," Jane announced as she struggled through vines into the Climbing Trees. Terk came swinging down gracefully besides her from a vine while Kairi, gasping from the effort to keep up with Jane and Terk's pace through an unfamiliar terrain, staggered after them.
" Either that or the Waterfall Cavern," Terk added. "Nobody's been there in quite a while, nobody at least since Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Tarzan worked together to seal the Keyhole back then-hey, we haven't heard from Sora in a while, haven't we?"
Terk continued to ramble on until Jane interrupted. "Kairi, what's wrong?"
" You met Sora, too?" Kairi was astounded and astonished. First Hercules, then no doubt everyone from Wonderland, and now Jane and Terk.
" Why yes, we have met the Keyblade Master," Jane answered, slightly confused. "Why, do you know him?"
" We grew up on Destiny Islands together," Kairi answered, a dreamy haze covering her eyes. " With...Riku, yes, and Selphie as well. There were also Tidus and Wakka, both who we haven't seen in a year along with Sora and Riku..."
Terk elbowed Jane and gave her a rather lewd wink but Jane chose to ignore it.
" We haven't seen the Keyblade Master in quite a while, too," Jane answered as she moved towards a passageway shrouded in grayish vines. "He came to our world not too long ago, on his way back to Traverse Town to restock. He had received disturbing information from Coliseum and went straight for Hollow Bastion. I've heard he tried to go beyond but didn't make it and was forced to land at Hollow Bastion. Then, he told us, Donald, Goofy, and he left the place in a jiffy. They came flying back for Traverse Town but was forced to land here to avoid a terrifying meteor shower."
" What disturbing information?" Kairi asked as they emerged from the passageway onto a long fat tree trunk that wandered its way up towards a tree house of sorts, made out of odds and ends from what was obviously a large sailing ship.
" Scary ones," Terk offered an explanation.
" He was told of some strange activity in this other side of our Universe, called New Universe," Jane explained. "Something about Heartless. He thought New Universe was beyond Hollow Bastion but whatever happened at Hollow Bastion, I still don't' know. Whatever happened, he came back. Afterwards, he went straight for Traverse Town. That was it."
" Did he seem...happy or something?" Kairi asked tentatively.
"He actually grew more serious," Terk answered. "More serious, more moody; I swear if Goofy wasn't there, he'd have a scowl on his face."
" Stop exaggerating, Terk; you're making her worry," Jane reprimanded. "Truth is, he did get more serious but he seems fine...to me at least. Tarzan later told me he felt something was wrong but couldn't pinpoint it. Two days later, there went Tarzan, Tantor, everybody else except us and Deep Jungle."
By then, they had entered the empty expanse of Tree House. And, wonders of wonders, there was Selphie sitting on a crate, reading some old book.
" Selphie!" Kairi exclaimed and rushed over to her friend.
Selphie looked up with a halfhearted smile. "Kairi, you'd better see this."
With that, she shoved the book into Kairi's hand. Kairi took it up and read:
"...we have finally come to the conclusion which was what the professors had been telling us for years. For years they have foretold of a mighty meteor storm across the sky and finally, thirty years ago, we witnessed the great streaks of white across the sky at night. I fear this forewarns us of a great doom that will settle across many lands for generations to come-"
Kairi squinted at the text. The smooth writing suddenly became illegible and there was a spray of some strange dark liquid. Something that seemed suspiciously like blood.
" The next part, it was written by a different hand," Selphie pointed out to the next section.
Kairi wondered why she should be reading this in the first place, since it seemed so meaningless.
"Ten years ago, a meteor storm screamed across the sky on the third Saturday of June. This was not unlike the meteor storm professors had predicted to see thirty two years ago yet I suspect the meteor storm they predicted was this one, not the other. But what they said, of a great doom falling across many lands for generations to come, has happened, though we should call it many worlds for a great and terrible event took place on the world known as Deep Tranquility. The consequences, the results of this occurrence will resonate across the universe for ages to come.
I fear the Three Keys have been lost, for their original owner had turned traitor against the light and the only heirs of the Keys have vanished. They say the King is a Vessel of a Key but this I have yet to see with my own eyes. I pity the King, for now he and his people are cursed, cursed to take on the forms of animals, animals distorted into human-like creatures. What the King had tried to do but failed. I should've stepped in as well but Wart needed my most devoted attention and I, foolishly, looked to my personal problems and not the problems of the universe.
Rumors are flying though, of a boy taken under the King's wing. I have made a diagnosis of this boy, for the rumors are true, and I find many strange and odd things: he is obvious adept in all arts, from weaponry to academics, and his eyes are the strangest bronze, like the ones of the Betrayer. I sensed the great power within him; is he one of the lost Heirs? Time will tell. Most certainly, Time will tell.
It has been prophesized that the Heirs of the Keys each bear a mark. I do not know much but this much I know: one bears a scar that will make him remember of what he had come here, to the universe, for and one bears a star marking his ordeals beginning from his birth. I can understand what a scar is but what is the meaning of the star?
Until further notice, I hereby sign my name: Merlin."
Merlin?!
" I know who Merlin is!" Kairi exclaimed.
" Indeed you should," a strangely happy-go-lucky yet grandfatherly voice stated behind them. " Selphie, do be a good girl, and not go through my things again."
Selphie turned bright red. "But...it was in the bookshelf..."
" I have taken up 'shop' here until we have solved the jade box," and Merlin approached them.
" You're the one who gave us the box!" Jane and Terk cried out as he drew nearer.
" Indeed," Merlin said with a twinkle in his eye. "Now, Kairi, shall we begin?"
" Explain what you have written first!" Kairi demanded. "Explain to me that, then tell me why I'm here with Selphie in the first place!"
Merlin nodded, acknowledging her demands, but with a grimmer look on his face. "It's a long story, Kairi but I shall tell you for you may have the right to know. Sit down; I shall tell you what I know and what I think you should know."