Kingdom Hearts: Warriors of Light
Without A Trace-Chapter 21
Kita was wakened by the sound of chaos. She opened her eyes to find a heartless staring down at her. "Don't move!" Riku said. He swung his sword like a golf club and knocked the heartless away. Kita still laid, frozen on the floor with her eyes wide open. She didn't think it was safe for someone to use their weapon that close to her eyeballs.
"What are thinking!" Kita finally said.
"Did you want it to attack you?" Riku said seeing nothing wrong with his valiant efforts to save Kita.
"You could have taken my eyes out just now! Do you want me blind!" Kita asked sounding irritated.
"Just get up," Riku said pulling her arm to lift her off the ground. "We've got a big problem." The group of warriors who had been sleeping only moments ago, were now up and panicked to find heartless surrounding them.
"I thought sealing the keyhole meant the heartless couldn't come in anymore," Sora said sounding confused.
"It does," Donald said. "But someone or something must have opened it up again."
"How?" Goofy asked.
"Beats me," Donald answered. He rushed forward and cast a gravity spell that flattened a few of the heartless. Sora came up behind him and took them out with his key blade. Ti-Day and Ni-Ne used fire spells to destroy a few. Kita, still groggy, was swinging and missing most of the heartless she went after. Riku had to finish the job for her, but she didn't seem to appose it. Hercules was also a bit amiss with his sword skills having been up so late. "How did this happen?" Donald said destroying the last heartless with a freeze spell.
"Sora, you didn't open the keyhole again somehow, right?" Hercules asked.
"No," Sora said. "We left right after you all heard it lock. Remember?"
"Yeah… but what happened after that?" Donald asked.
"I remember Ni-Ne and Ti-Day disappeared for a bit," Goofy said. Everyone's eyes turned to them.
"Well?" Riku asked.
"You honestly think we opened the keyhole?" Ti-Day asked looking offended. "Get real."
"You did disappear," Goofy said.
"You just said yourselves it was Sora's Key Blade that did that kind of stuff," Ti-Day said.
"Yeah, but Ni-Ne can do it too…" Riku said, thinking out loud. "In Wonderland."
"He's got a point," Kita said.
"We didn't do anything!" Ti-Day said getting angry. "I don't even remember anything happening. It was like all the sudden we were just really far behind you."
"Sora was with us," Riku persisted. "Ni-Ne's key blade can seal world's too. And everyone knows keys work two ways. To lock and unlock. Ni-Ne had to be the one who opened it!" Riku pointed at Ni-Ne who was looking shy and embarrassed because she had no idea what they were talking about.
"Me?" she said pointing to herself innocently.
"Riku! Stop." Kita said. No one's pointing fingers here.
"She did it. There's no other explanation," Riku said. "She's got that thing inside her. I'll bet she went back in the room and that heartless unlocked the world!"
"Riku!" Kita persisted in yelling at him to stop. "It's not her fault!"
"This wouldn't have happened if she had stayed with the group," Riku continued.
Ni-Ne's eyes were starting to water. Her friends were fighting, and it was all her fault. "Now look what you've done you jerk," Ti-Day said seriously to Riku. Riku just turned his shoulder and ignored Ti-Day's comment. He knew it was true and he was sticking with his words.
Just then Aladdin came running onto the scene. "You guys! Something bad has happened. Jasmine's gone!"
"Oh no!" Kita said. "They got another Princess."
"I thought you guys were getting rid of the heartless," Aladdin said looking worried.
"We were," Riku said. "But someone opened the keyhole again before we even left the cave." Riku was looking right at Ni-Ne who was tearing.
"Riku! Cut it out!" Kita said kicking him in the face. "Ti-Day's right. You are a jerk." Riku kept his mouth closed, but it didn't change how he felt. "I'm sorry Aladdin. I promise we'll rescue Jasmine. Another princess was kidnapped too and we have to find her."
"I'll go with you," Aladdin said.
"Sorry, we can't take you," Kita said. "King Mickey told us not to bring along people we meet."
"I see," Aladdin said. "Well, I wish you luck. Maybe Genie could go with you?" He handed Sora Genie's lamp. "Please," Aladdin said.
"Ok, but we need to take care of something first," Sora said. He rubbed the magic lamp and Genie came out.
"Can I help ya out little buddy," Genie asked.
"Genie, I wish to return to the keyhole alone," Sora said. With a puff of smoke Sora and Genie disappeared.
"Should have done that the first time," Riku said.
"I'm sorry!" Ni-Ne yelled, mostly to Riku. "I can't control the monster inside my heart. I can't help that I was born this way! I'm just a hazard to everyone. I shouldn't be here. I'll hurt you all…" Ni-Ne had tears streaming down her face. She looked like she was having a storm of internal conflict taking over her soul. "I wanna go home. I want to see Jack. Right now…" she said falling to the ground and covering her face. Ti-Day bent down beside her and put his arm around her.
"Let's go back to Halloween Town," Ti-Day said. "She needs to see Jack." Sora appeared in the next second with Genie by his side.
"Ok, lets go," Sora said. "Just need to find Jasmine and it'll be like this never happened. Good-bye Aladdin. I'm sorry about all this. I promise we'll get Jasmine back."
"Thanks. Be carefully, all of you," Aladdin said looking sad to see them go. Everyone headed back into town to find the Gummi Ships, which were still hidden in an ally. Kita was especially cold shouldered to Riku after accusing Ni-Ne repeatedly for something she couldn't control. Ni-Ne was still crying in Ti-Day's arms. It was a silent trip as everyone avoided speaking to one another. Even Pom-Pom who had been guarding the ships the whole time seemed unhappy. He was glum the entire trip as well sensing the tensions between everyone.
Halloween Town's coordinates proved not to be far from Agrabah. The silent ride didn't last too horribly long. "We're here," Kita said being the first to speak the entire trip. She landed next to Donald's ship in the ally where she and Ti-Day had been before. It looked as though Jack still hadn't gotten around to putting up a new gate yet to replace the one Ti-Day had blown to bits.
Ni-Ne was the fist to race from the ship straight into town. She didn't say anything to anyone else. Kita and Ti-Day were back in their Halloween town costumes. Sora, Donald Goofy, Hercules and Riku had never been there before, so it was obvious they were confused as to how their clothes changed.
Sora was wearing a ragged suit that had little bat wings sprouting out of this back. A pumpkin covered one of his eyes and vampire fangs were sticking out of his mouth. Donald looked like a mummy, but the parts of his body that were exposed were invisible all together. Goofy was also wearing rags, but his nose was now pointed with a little pumpkin stuck to the end. Strangest of all his eyes no longer matched which may have been caused by the gigantic screw sticking out of his head. Hercules looked like Frankenstein. He was a greenish color with bolts coming out of is muscular neck. Riku quite simply had sprouted fur and turned into a werewolf.
"What gives?" Riku said examining himself and the others.
"It's just a special part of this world," Kita explained. Riku's werewolf ears perked up upon seeing Kita in her form fitting bat costume. Kita failed to notice his expression as she turned towards town and started making her way into follow Ni-Ne. Ni-Ne didn't get far as everyone saw her standing in Town Square looking horrified. The Town Square was in ruins. The fountain that usually stood in the middle was now crumbled and leaking everywhere. Many of the lampposts were doubled over. An iron fence was laying flat on the ground. Many of the stones in the surrounding buildings had fallen out of the walls. There were a few small fires burning in piles of broken wood.
"What happened?" Ni-Ne asked quietly starting to cry again. She had forgotten about the entire Agrabah incident and instead started to worry about Jack. "Papa?" Ni-Ne started yelling in all directions. "Papa, where are you?"
"Jack!" Ti-Day joined in. "It's us. Ni-Ne, Kita and Ti-Day! Please come out if you're here!"
"Ni-Ne?" Jack's voice said. He sounded weak. He came out from behind a pile of ruins. "Ni-Ne? You came back?" Ni-Ne ran as fast as she could towards Jack. She wrapped her arms around his thin, boney body.
"What happened?" she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"The heartless destroyed everything after you left," Jack explained. "I had most of the residence leave town to hide somewhere else. I've been living with Dr. Finkelstein and Sally. We've had to fight the heartless off but they just keep coming back."
"This world hasn't been sealed yet," Sora explained. "They'll keep coming until then."
"Papa, I'll fix this. I promise," Ni-Ne said. "We'll rebuild Halloween Town."
"That could take forever," Kita said. "We've got princesses to find, remember?"
"Then go," Ti-Day said. "We'll stay here. Ni-Ne can seal this world. Jack needs our help."
"You're not coming?" Kita asked looking shocked.
"You've got Sora," Ti-Day said. "Just go Kita. I have faith you guys will be ok without us. Ni-Ne needs some time to recover." Ti-Day looked at Riku for a moment and looked away again. Kita looked worried. Ni-Ne hadn't been herself lately and anything could happen if Kita wasn't there to help if something went wrong. She was devastated the first time Ti-Day had been taken away when the dark hole swallowed him up, and now she was left with the choice to keep going on this journey without him. They had grown up together and he had always been there for her when she needed him. How could she be brave if he was so far away?
As if Ti-Day could read her mind he walked up to her and gave her a big hug. "I promise, we'll be together again," he said. "Just for a while, I need to be here for Ni-Ne and Jack." Kita looked like she could have cried, but because she was so tough, she didn't let a single tear fall. "Riku will take care of you."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Kita said rolling her eyes to look back at him.
"Try not to kill each other, ok?" Ti-Day said half joking, half serious.
"It won't be easy," Kita said. Finally Kita was able to turn and head back to the ships. "I got some extra seats, anyone wanna come?"
"I call Sora!" Riku shouted making the decision for everyone else.
"What? Who says?" Donald asked.
"Yeah, who says?" Goofy asked looking just as defensive.
"Me. Come on Sora," Riku said. In the end his plan didn't work and so no one from Donald's ship came over to Kita's, which Kita was rather uncomfortable with. She didn't really want to be left alone with Riku of all people. Even Pom-Pom had decided to leave to camp out with Ni-Ne and Ti-Day in Halloween town. Kita looked out the front window of the ship as Ti-Day, Ni-Ne, Pom-Pom and Jack waved their good-byes to everyone. A tear fell from her eye to see her friends left behind.
"Cheer up," Riku said suddenly appearing out the corner of her eye. He was back to looking like himself again as they departed from Halloween Town.
"Why don't you shut up!" Kita said coldly. "You think you can go around pointing fingers at people and then be all buddy buddy? I don't think so!"
"Ok, fine. I'm sorry about that," Riku said. "I got all mad cause we went through all that hard work for nothing. Princess Jasmine got taken anyway. Don't you ever get mad when things go wrong?" Kita didn't say anything. "What if you had been taken?"
"Why do you say that?" Kita asked. "I'd think you'd be happy cause then we wouldn't fight anymore."
"No," Riku said. "I'd be worried. And so would Ti-Day and everyone else. If Princess Jasmine was kidnapped, then it could have been any of us." Kita had a feeling in the back of her mind that Riku was playing some kind of psychological game with her mind, but the look on his face suggested other wise. He did look scared.
"Kairi's missing," Riku said. "I thought the three of us would always be together and then she vanished without a trace. We have no idea where she is. It's not fair that Sora found me and she's still lost out there somewhere."
Kita had never thought about it that way. She would easily go on a raging warpath if Ti-Day or Ni-Ne had been kidnapped that night. Perhaps she and Riku shared the same sort of rage when it came to fighting for people they cared about. More than anything, Kita was starting to get freaked out by the way she was beginning to understand these things as though Hercules had been right about 'talking' being the answer.
The Gummi Ship's had been traveling for nearly an hour and no new world was in sight. Kita was feeling sleepy having been waken long before she would have liked to be. Her eyes were droopy and she felt like she was falling into some sort of dream. "Kita?" a voice called out to her in the back of her mind.
"Huh?" Kita asked.
"Are you ok?" Riku said looking at Kita like she was crazy. He was only just now noticing the sleepy expression on her face. "Why'd you just say, 'huh?"
"Someone said my name," Kita said. She looked out the window for some reason thinking it had come from outside.
"Maybe, I should drive for a while," Riku suggested. "You don't look so good."
"No… you don't know how," Kita said in a monotone. It was almost as if her mind was completely gone. She was dazed and for all Riku could guess, sleepwalking. "What's that?" Kita asked looking out the window and a tiny mass floating through space.
"I think you're seeing… things," Riku finished catching sight of the mass Kita was looking at. He didn't believe there was anything out there, but in fact there was. "What the?" Riku reached for the radio to talk to Donald about it feeling Donald had missed a world on the map. However, Kita slapped his hand to stop him.
"Let's just go check it out really fast," Kita said. She turned the ship towards the land to find that it was in fact like a world. It reminded her of the Deep Jungle where Tarzan lived, but there was much more water. Riku was crossing his fingers hoping with all hope that Kita was conscious enough to land the ship without crashing and killing them both.
"Hey, where'd Kita's ship go?" Hercules asked looking back. He got up and looked at Donald's radar screen. Kita's Gummi Ship was nowhere in sight.
"Huh?" Donald said noticing her absence. "She was right behind me!"
"Is this bad?" Sora asked seeing the same blank screen.
"Yep," Goofy said looking worried. "Did they get attacked while we weren't watching?"
"I don't know, but if they landed anywhere, it would show up," Donald said looking panicked.
"Maybe she went back to Halloween Town?" Sora suggested.
"Nope," Donald said. "Impossible. I am a hundred percent positive she was behind me five minutes ago and even if she turned around, she would still show up right now."
"I hope the Gummi Ship isn't flinching," Goofy said.
"Glitching!" Donald corrected him.
"Do you think Ansem got them?" Sora asked sounding scared.'
"I really don't know," Donald said.
Hercules looked out the back of the Gummi Ship searching for Kita's ship. "Where did you go?" he said quietly to himself.