Secrets of Memories Chapter 39: The Longest Story
"Damn right that's a long story!" were Riku's first words in the three minutes and a half that followed Sally's words. " What the hell's going around here?"
" He's right," Ariel agreed vehemently. " What is going on here? How is this person guarding Sora if he did a billion and one bad things to this universe?"
" Like I said, it's a long story," Sally replied calmly. " And a story that's still incomplete."
" Too many holes in this one," King Triton agreed just as vehemently as his daughter. " It may start fifteen years ago, or five years ago, or even a few months ago. It's a story that still is a mystery to us of the Order and it's a story we have been trying to solve."
" Why have you been trying to solve a story?" Tarzan wondered. " Stories always solve themselves; they tell themselves out."
" This is a story, like I said, that is incomplete," Sally repeated calmly. " We know only so much and that is really very little. We of the Order have been trying to sort out the past but to no avail; there are not enough books out there in the universe that have recorded fully the history of the universe. Hollow Bastion has an extensive library but the Heartless have once again taken over that world."
" That realm is cursed," King Triton commented. " It was once Ansem's kingdom and many that you know once lived under his rule. But it is cursed; the Heartless are attracted to that particular world and it will not be easy to force them to give it up."
" Riku, we need access to that library in order to achieve anything," Sally explained. " King Triton, are you aware of what is hidden around here?"
" Father, is it the Crystal Trident?" Ariel demanded. " I've heard you say something about it to Sebastian before."
" Indeed it is, Ariel," King Triton affirmed. " The library has sealed itself against the Heartless so that only the one with the Crystal Trident and a phial of fairy dust can get in. Quite an odd mix but sea and air are important to the universe."
" And we are trying to prevent the sea and air from destroying the universe," Sally said softly. " If Sora is enveloped by death, sea and air will be the only things left of the universe."
" What do you mean, 'enveloped by death'?" Tarzan asked.
" Someone's gonna die?" Flounder was horrified.
" That's basically it," Sally answered. " If Sora dies, all the worlds will collapse into a sea of loneliness. We will all drown in its dark depths. Light and Dark will exist no more. And there will no longer be a sun or a moon."
" All will be clouded sky, howling wind, and lonely sea," King Triton said. " It is a fate nobody would want but the Darkness does not understand, would not listen."
" You mean more like " Let's take the Light down with us", right?" Tarzan asked.
" You can say that," Sally agreed.
" Wait a minute…" Riku was basically being confused as hell. How was it that Tarzan could understand what was going on and he couldn't? Life was unbearably unfair! " How do you know what will happen if Sora dies?"
" We have people who can see quite well into alternate futures," King Triton was the one who explained. " Some can see how certain events can change the course of the future. But we cannot see enough, far enough to understand what the consequences are. And we cannot look behind us."
" Nobody can look behind us for that is the impossible," Sally put forward. " What is behind has already taken place and there is nothing to see back then."
" But there are the minor details, the small things that most people miss," Ariel objected. " Why can't you look to the past, if only to look at the specific stuff?"
" She's right," Tarzan nodded. " Can't we focus on a certain point in time? A time when this happened or that happened, something that we all really need to know?"
" I'm afraid it's quite impossible," King Triton replied. " The past has already happened and its story already written or at least witnessed by someone or something. As for the future, we cannot look into the specific, we cannot watch every detail, but we can see the basics of the future, we can see a stormy ocean and a clouded sky and we can see war."
" War?" Riku was surprised. " You can see war? How can that be? We're trying to prevent war! Does that mean we fail?"
" Fail or fall is the question," Sally said. " What troubles us is that no matter how hard we try, we can only see two things: fall and the sea and sky materialize; fail and war will result. Those are the two paths set out before Sora and we have yet to discover the third way."
" How do you know about death and failure?" Flounder asked a curious, disturbing question.
" Ah…." King Triton and Sally seemed pretty speechless. Either that or they didn't want to explain anything outright.
" You saw Sora die," Ariel stated matter – of –factly. " But I don't get it. If Sora fails, that means he dies, right?"
" That is the one thing we really don't understand," Sally replied. " That is something we're trying to put a stop to. Dying gives us two answers and so if Sora dies in the near future, one thing will happen or another. I suspect something must happen along the way for either one of those results to take effect. "
" It is also something we're trying to prevent," King Triton added. " We cannot allow Sora to die!"
" Well no duh!" Riku shouted. " Walking around with the guy who opened Kingdom Hearts! He's walking around with danger right there!"
" Actually, Riku- " Sally began to say.
" Really, how can Sora let someone like that near him?" Riku continued to rant. " The idiot; he should know better than that! I am quite certain Sora is smart enough to know who's right and who's not."
" It's harder than it looks, Riku," Sally managed to inject, " because the person is supposed to protect Sora. He had to open that door, Riku, or else you and King Mickey never would've escaped. He's not evil; he's actually a very lost human being."
" VERY lost, I must emphasize," King Triton agreed. " But Riku, that is something we cannot pay attention to right now. Sora's fate is the most important to us all but, Riku, there are things that only you can do. Only you can find what we are looking for."
" And it will be you who will close Kingdom Hearts," Sebastian added with arrogant finesse. It seemed he had nipped up that information from secret meetings.
" I close Kingdom Hearts?" Riku asked, his voice fading into the waters of Atlantica.
" That is something that will depend on Sora's guardian," Sally explained. " He is the only one who holds the key to you closing Kingdom Hearts for good."
" Why is it that nothing is resolved when Kingdom Hearts is closed?" Ariel asked curiously of them. " Sora and King Mickey closed Kingdom Hearts a year ago yet nothing much changed. And when that kid opened up Kingdom Hearts, everything got worse. I don't understand."
" We don't either," Sally replied. " But what I believe is that it takes quite a while for the Heartless to go away. They just don't die once you close Kingdom Hearts because they will still be able to feed off the hearts of people who have them. They will simply become 'freelance', if you call it, because they can no longer be controlled with the doors close. Well, that's what I believe but that's not always the case."
" What do you mean, that's not always the case?" Riku asked sharply.
" I've been here longer than you think, Riku," Sally replied matter – of –factly. " There are few of us who have been in existence longer than people can remember. I happen to be one of them. Kingdom Hearts have been closed and opened quite a few times. Most of the time the Heartless would be listless heart eaters and they are easily disposed off. But only once have I seen the Heartless become controllable monsters even after Kingdom Hearts was closed."
" There was a man named Crimson," King Triton began. " He was a wise and just ruler, a flawless leader of a world. But he had a fault, a shameful mark in his past. He may have been one of the best kings I've seen but he was not the rightful king of the world he ruled."
" It was King Mickey, wasn't it?" Ariel asked. " I remember this story; you used to tell me this story all the time when I couldn't sleep."
" King Mickey was the rightful ruler of the world Crimson ruled," Sally continued with a nod in Ariel's direction. " Mickey was the son of kings and his mother was a descendent of one of the two first Keyblade Masters. He was, and still is, one of the current wielders of the two Kingdom Keys in existence."
" You're joking," Tarzan stated. " King Mickey's a descendent?"
" Well, yes, he was," Sally affirmed. " But anyways, Mickey confronted Crimson and demanded to have his kingdom returned to him. Naturally Crimson refused, then told Mickey that if he closed Kingdom Hearts, Crimson would consider transferring power to this young heir and hereby erasing the mark from his record."
" But Crimson was in truth not willing to give up the kingdom he had created with his own hand," King Triton said. " He had been studying the Heartless as Ansem did and he was able to control Heartless with the greatest of ease. The Heartless were, you can say, the guards of the world and they were quick to hunt out any person who committed injustice and destroy him by taking his heart. Without the Heartless, Crimson was considerably weaker than he was."
" So Crimson sent the Heartless to kill Mickey before he reached and closed Kingdom Hearts," Ariel added. " They kept failing each time and then Mickey closed Kingdom Hearts, locking the door from Heartless and keeping new Heartless from entering the universe."
" When Mickey returned, he found his inheritance in turmoil, for Crimson would not give up the world," Sally said. " With only his friends Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Daisy, and his mysterious ally, a man named Eldest, he fought his way past the Heartless that Crimson was able to control and confronted Crimson in the palace. The battle became a fireball – literally – and half the world burned. Crimson escaped, but was so badly burnt that most believed he later died. Mickey took back what was his and rebuilt the world, renaming it Disney and his home Disney Castle."
When Sally did not say anymore, Riku made a comment. " Bullshit, that's crazy."
" Is it?" Sally asked ambiguously. " King Mickey Disney later married Minnie, Donald became the court wizard, Goofy became the captain of the royal knights, Daisy became Minnie's confident, friend, and lady – in – waiting. Eldest remains King Mickey's friend to this day but…he's in trouble."
" What trouble?" Tarzan asked curiously.
" That is something we are working on," King Triton answered as ambiguously as Sally. " King Mickey rebuilt Disney and began to hunt out ways to travel between worlds without worrying about when the world barriers would suddenly shut."
" Then, quite suddenly, Heartless started pouring into worlds again and the world barriers crashed," Sally said. " King Mickey quickly rushed to Kingdom Hearts and found the doors wide open, darkness billowing out of it in ways he had never seen before. King Mickey could not close Kingdom Hearts, for Kingdom Hearts is a peculiar door. If you use one key, it will open and you will have to use one key to close it; if you use two keys to open it, well you're gonna need two keys to close it. King Mickey discovered that two keys were used in opening the door and suspected foul play of the very worst kind."
" That is all we know," King Triton sighed resignedly. " The story stops right there, of all things. Riku, you have to find out what happened right afterwards."
" Holes remain, for what we do know is that several worlds were destroyed and King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy came back changed, permanently changed. The last true Keyblade Master vanished and it was only last year that the Silver Kingdom Key reappeared, in the hands of Sora. That was why it took both Sora and King Mickey to close Kingdom Hearts, Riku. And now, because this certain teenager used a Keyblade of darkness to open Kingdom Hearts, we need you to use a Keyblade of darkness to close it. Darkness that seals doors of light to keep darkness within would balance the powers keeping the locks on the doors; after you seal it, Kingdom Hearts would never open again."
" The only way to get into Hollow Bastion's library, as mentioned before," King Triton said, " is to use the Crystal Trident and Fairy Dust, the symbols of the sea and sky. We have the Crystal Trident in Ariel's grove. Isn't that right, Ariel?"
" Father, are you sure its there?" Ariel was uncertain. " I haven't been to the grove in quite a while and I hope it hasn't been ransacked or anything."
" Ariel, the grove sealed itself when you left," Sebastian said. " Flounder and I tried to get in one time and we couldn't. There is no way anybody could've touched anything within because nobody could get in."
"Well then, its settled," Sally turned to go. " Ariel, we're gonna need help getting in to find that Crystal Trident. You wouldn't mind giving us a hand, would you?"
" Not at all," Ariel replied cheerfully. " It's of utmost importance so I can't refuse."
" There's only one little problem," Flounder offered timidly. " The dolphin that Sora used so that he could find the grove, too, it's gone."
" Gone?" Ariel was stunned. " Gone? How can that be?"
" Why, what's wrong?" Tarzan demanded. " What's so important about this dolphin-creature?"
" Usually, when someone other than us mer – people try to enter the grove, they can't," Ariel explained. " The grove seals itself against them and you need to have a ride around with this dolphin in order for the grove to unseal itself against you. Hopefully we won't need the dolphin."
" The only thing is that so far everyone had to ride the dolphin in order to enter the grove," Sebastian input.
" Aw who gives," Riku muttered. " Let's just try and get into this grove of yours, Ariel. Get in, retrieve that Crystal Trident, and then find some fairy dust."
And, as they silently trailed out of Triton's Palace, Riku was also heard muttering, " Fairy dust, my ass."
""
King Triton watched them leave the palace, his stern eyes never leaving Riku. He was disturbed, very much disturbed by the teenager.
" The darkness has never left him, has it Sebastian?" the king of the sea asked the crab wearily.
" I do not know, Your Majesty," Sebastian replied rather meekly. " I really don't like the looks of him."
" Look under the shark appearance, Sebastian," King Triton suggested. " Didn't you see the turmoil in his eyes? I hope he closes Kingdom Hearts in time."
" Agreed, Your Majesty," Sebastian agreed. His tone of voice suggested otherwise, however.
The rebellious nature is still in him, he thought. How will that affect the future?
""
" And why was that dolphin so important, may I ask?" Riku demanded half-impatiently and half-sullenly as he trailed behind the group. " I don't get it; why are we so worried over this dolphin? Can't Ariel just go into her treasure place and get the crystal trident out without us worrying over this or that?"
" Because, Riku, the dolphin is also a guardian of Ariel's Grotto," Flounder replied. " I say it's a magicked dolphin because it guards her grotto and only lets in certain people."
" What's so important about Ariel's Grotto?" Tarzan asked curiously.
" This world's Keyhole is in there," Ariel offered an answer. " Sora sealed it. But lately, Heartless have been coming in so I think something really is going wrong."
" We have yet to find out why the Keyholes are failing," Sally told Riku as they entered the Undersea Gorge. " We're hoping Hollow Bastion's library explains enough but we really need the Crystal Trident and the fair dust for that. But I just don't understand; why is everything getting so complicated?"
" Wouldn't we all like to know?" Riku muttered. " Makes this part of my life a pain in the -"
" You don't think the Heartless are behind this, do you?" Flounder asked nervously, his eyes roving around the rocky terrain of the Undersea Gorge. " Making everything all complicated for us?"
" But I don't see any Heartless," Tarzan countered, swimming just a bit more ahead. The silver of the fish part of Tarzan flashed as he moved forward towards the center of the Undersea Gorge. Somehow, for some reason, Riku felt naked, watching the silver glint. It was like a beacon, attracting all who see it, good and bad…
Riku felt a disturbance in the water like never before; it was a tingling sensation in the water that screamed into his brain. He wondered whether or not that came with being a complete shark but he didn't' have time to think about it much.
" Tarzan, pull back!" Riku shouted and quickly charged as a swarm of Screwdivers burst in his face. " We're under attack."
As usual, he added into his mind as he opened his jaws and charged – what?
Too late to pull off the charge, he smashed into the strange, green undersea Heartless, smashing one against the rock wall and throwing the others off course.
What the?! Riku's mind screamed as he drifted away from the wall, slightly disoriented by the crash. Why am I acting like a monster?
" Riku, Riku!" Ariel rushed to the black shark's side. " Are you alright?"
" Just…fine…" Riku replied unevenly when his senses began to tingle again. His jaws sprung open and he charged straight down, his teeth digging into the round form of an ambushing Aquatank.
" Oh my, such brutal slaughter," Sally murmured as she watched a stunned Riku try to pull his teeth out of the dying Heartless.
" Ariel, go to your place," Riku told the mermaid awkwardly, his teeth hurting a bit from the impact. " Find that Crystal Trident! We'll hold off whatever Heartless is here!"
Ariel nodded and quickly swam to his left, descending to near the sea floor. Tarzan hovered a few feet above her, watching for any signs of Heartless and killing the occasional Sea Neon that approached her.
" I thought they were gone," Flounder whimpered while hiding behind Sally. " Why are they back? I don't understand."
" Neither do we," Sally answered extremely serenely.
Riku wondered at his suddenly aggressive nature as he rammed at a Sheltering Zone. He regretted that move less than ten seconds later as the Sheltering Zone died into a mass of Sea Neons. Opening the jaws of his shark form, he charged at them as they swam in their awkward way towards Ariel, who was headed straight for a huge round boulder that just happened to stick out of the sea floor of the Undersea Gorge.
Tarzan, who somehow managed to retain his long spear through the transformation from completely human to half human, half fish, had a more difficult time maneuvering to keep Sea Neons from interfering with Ariel's attempts to access her Grotto. That job became more complicated when Screwdivers and Aquatanks appeared en masse from a hidden nook to the left of the round boulder.
Much to Riku and Tarzan's surprise, Ariel calmly dispatched the Heartless – or at least dispersed them – with a Spiral Wave. She didn't have to go a long distance in using one of her special abilities but it was enough to scatter the Heartless.
" Tarzan, just keep them away a little longer," Ariel told him as she quickly swam back to the round boulder and scrutinized it. " Flounder, you think this thing's stuck or something? I don't know why but its not budging."
" Uh oh," the yellow and blue fish swam over to Ariel and looked over the boulder as well. " It does look stuck; how are we gonna get the Crystal Trident?"
" Make it soon, please," Riku replied woozily as he slammed into a Screwdiver headfirst, like he did with a whole pack of Screwdivers, who were currently swimming away as fast as they could, their armor dented all over.
" Sebastian!" Ariel spotted the red crab, who was scurrying towards them and cowering every time a shadow passed over him. " See what's wrong with the boulder; its not budging!"
" If I must," the crab replied with a rather resigned sigh and scurried into the tiny gaps between the boulder and whatever passageway it was blocking. " There's nothing blocking it, Ariel. You're gonna need someone strong to shove it along."
Tarzan quickly slammed himself against it but the boulder didn't budge.
" That hurt," was his only comment as Tarzan came away nursing his right shoulder.
Sally tried to push the boulder away but she failed as well, owing to the fact that sunfish are just very flat fish, like pancakes and therefore, while big, were not the strongest around.
" Tarzan, watch our backs," Riku ordered. " Let me try."
" That's gonna hurt," Flounder commented, having seen the black shark's earlier antics.
" It already does," Riku replied briskly as he readied for a charge. " Can't get any worse."
While Tarzan kept back the Heartless, Riku charged. Swimming at full speed, doing his best to stay aimed at the boulder and not swerve off to the right or left, he charged the boulder fiercely…until a Darkball ballooned up in his face.
" Wha?!" Riku screeched but couldn't stop in time. He rammed into the Darkball and, unable to stop, rammed into the boulder as well.
Stars danced in his mind and eyes as darkness, as black as the Darkball that interfered with his charge, swept over Riku.
" "
"…I hope that crash didn't addle his brains…" he heard Sally's voice say through the fog in his mind.
" Aren't they already addled?" Sebastian replied as Riku slowly opened his eyes and the world came into focus.
He was floating rather listlessly in a strange room, with walls that reached the surface of the ocean. The walls went in a circle around the room and the water carved shelves into them. Crammed to the top were miscellaneous items, from forks and plates to a broken mirror and an arm from what was apparently a stone statue.
Ariel, Tarzan, and Flounder were searching through each and every shelf in the room, while Sally and Sebastian were watching him. Riku shook his head a bit to clear his head and, much to his surprise, he could feel no pain, no pain at all.
" Nothing!" Tarzan reported from the highest shelf in the room.
" Nothing, Ariel!" Flounder yelled as he tried in vain to pull his head out of a rusted teapot.
" Where could it have gone?" Ariel was distressed as she sorted through a pile of miscellaneous objects in front of Riku. He then noted a rather huge dent in the wall that had caused several shelves to topple, resulting in the mess before him.
Riku had a very bad feeling that he was at fault for the huge mess.
" Where could've that crystal trident gone?" Ariel cried out in frustration as she tore at the pile.
Tarzan and Flounder helped her look through the pile but it was too big for all three of them and the work soon overwhelmed them.
" Did I create that great big mess?" Riku asked of Sally.
" Sadly, yes," she replied serenely.
Riku wondered at how it was that she could keep so calm in the most extreme and the most insane of situations. No matter what was going on around her, Sally just never seemed to panic or go wild.
However, that really was an understatement. If Riku had known what was going through Sally's mind, well, he'd probably be stunned into silence. For there are things in Sally's mind that could frighten the living daylights out of him. Well, they could frighten the living daylights out of anyone, for that matter.
" The slightest miscalculation can bring all down into death and doom," Riku heard her murmuring under her breath, something which sent shivers up his shark spine. " Darkness surrounds us all…the slightest mistake and we'll all fall."
" What are you talking about?" Riku demanded when Flounder shouted quite triumphantly, " I've found it! I've found the Crystal Trident!"
The thing was, they didn't know where Flounder was.
" Flounder, where are you?" Ariel asked.
" The Crystal Trident's underneath all this," his muffled voice replied. " I'm with it right now."
" Flounder," Ariel groaned in exasperation. " You're making it hard on us already…"
Riku merely rolled his eyes as he coasted over to help. He rammed his head at the pile in an attempt to shove everything over and that succeeded in an avalanche of miscellaneous items.
Flounder came flying out, lugging with him a three-pronged crystal figurine. It shimmered in the light of the waters and cast a white aura in the room. Riku wondered at this holy-like object.
" It's the Crystal Trident, Riku," Sally replied, as if she had read his mind. " It won't hurt you; it'll help you."
" Right," Riku said vacantly, staring at the Crystal Trident. " I knew that."
" Now what?" Tarzan asked as he touched the object.
" We have to go to Neverland next," Sally said calmly as Tarzan took the Crystal Trident from Flounder, who was getting very tired of carrying the object. " This world is safe from the Heartless; the numbers that manages to reach here are too few to cause any real damage at all. King Triton's trident guards this realm in ways we can only imagine. Neverland, on the other hand, is under attack, I hear. We should go there quickly and retrieve the fairy dust that we need from Peter Pan's companion. If we don't hurry, the world may fall and we may never reach the library in time."
" What's so important about this library anyways?" Riku demanded irritatedly. His mood had grown darker and darker by the moment, especially since he had to resort to using his head in many situations. His brain was starting to pound against his skull again and he now very desperately wanted to get out of Atlantica as soon as possible.
" There's a report there that we have to find," Sally explained with patience. " When we said there were books in the library that would help us, we were not telling you half the truth. There is a report in the library left behind by Ansem. I suspect this report could tell us of the truth behind the demise of Deep Tranquility, for that world is of extreme importance to us."
" Ansem wrote a report, eh?" Riku was rather displeased with hearing the name. " Why does he end up everywhere? Damn him."
" Fate's choice, I suppose," Sally said just as serenely. " But now we must go. Ariel, tell your father that he must be prepared for the worst until we manage to prevent it. I fear the feathers will fall…warn him."
Riku looked at Ariel's rather stern gaze. Something was going on that he did not know of and he could tell nobody was going to tell him, either.
" I will," Ariel replied calmly, " but I pray it will never come to pass."
Sally gave a sad smile as she looked at her, Flounder, and Sebastian. " We have but one life to give. Unless one breaks that rule, we must do all we can with this one life we have. Remember that Ariel, for you may be one of those who do great things to preserve the one life this universe has. Good bye…and good luck."
With that, she headed out of Ariel's Grotto, and towards the far end of the Undersea Gorge. Riku and Tarzan, who was carrying the Crystal Trident, turned to follow her. Riku looked back once, wondering when he could see them again. There was a sensation in his bones, something that told him but they all would go through very hard times before they would all have a chance to reunite. Sora and Kairi included.
Sora, I hope this is helping you, Riku thought silently as he followed in last behind Sally and Tarzan. I know you have never given up and I hope I can do the same. I know Kairi's in good hands; now let us finish what's been set in front of us.
He didn't know that Kairi was somewhere way beyond this world. The universe, too.