Kingdom Hearts: Warriors of Light
Lost and Found-Chapter 28
Donald's Gummi Ship was far-gone by now. The place where it had previously stood was now swept by a cold gust of wind that marked the deserted area. Riku had reentered the broken ship. He walked through the corridors in search of the voice that called his name. Looking everywhere with no luck, he was lead to the remaining top floor where Captain Hook's headquarters was. Riku slowly approached the Captain's room unsure if the freeze spell Ti-Day had put on him was still in effect. The glowing lanterns inside revealed a shadow crossing the room.
Riku flew against a wall into a shadow in the hall to avoid being seen. There was a voice coming from the room. "Well, I see you've managed to fail in capturing the Key Blade Master," said a devilish woman's voice. There was a blast of light and suddenly Captain Hook was speaking again.
"It's not my fault!" Hook said sniffling from being frozen in ice. "Them brats travel together. The one had a poisonous attitude. He was looking for Miss Nite."
"Well, it's a shame he'll never get her back," the woman said. "Now that she has surrendered to the darkness within, she is an unstoppable creature of the night! And no little Warrior of Light is going to change that."
Riku had to muster all his courage to move and burst into the room to confront the enemies. He bolted away from the wall and stood fast in the doorway. A tall woman with green skin, dressed in raggy black clothes stood next to Captain Hook who was looking rather blue. "Ah, a stowaway," the woman said. "Riku isn't it?"
"How do you know my name?" Riku said sounding defensive and curious at the same time.
The tall woman laughed. She had horns growing out of her head and held a powerful staff in hand. Riku wasn't about to come any closer. "My boy I know who you are, why you are here and who you are looking for."
"Oh? Then tell me!" Riku said unbelievingly.
"Better yet, I'll show you," the woman said. She waved her staff over the ground in front of her. There was a dark cloud of mist and a body formed on the spot. It was a lifeless Kairi.
"Kairi!" Riku said stepping forward. He was still hesitant to run towards the woman, but he couldn't let her take Kairi away again.
"Judging by your reaction, I'd say I may have hit the nail on the head," the woman said. "Perhaps you've heard of me? I am the sorceress Maleficent."
"Yeah, I've heard of you," Riku said gritting his teeth. He was so focused on getting Kairi back, but how to do it?
"Where is your little friend Sora?" Maleficent asked. Riku didn't answer. He could tell she was just trying to get to him. "If he cares so much about Kairi, why isn't he here to save her? Why are you here alone? Didn't they want you with them anymore?"
"For your information, I volunteered to stay behind," Riku said. "Now hand over Kairi!"
"You don't really think I'm just going to give her to you do you?" Maleficent questioned. "You see I've been protecting Kairi from Ansem. It was I who rescued her from the darkness. How do I know you'll get her back home safely? And will you stay with her always to protect her? Are you strong enough to do that?"
"Yes! Now hand her over!" Riku shouted growing impatient.
"What about Sora, your best friend? He clearly doesn't care about either of you. I don't see him anywhere," Maleficent taunted. "Can you trust him to live on Destiny Island with you and Kairi and not turn on you?" Something was so entrancing about Maleficent's words. She was gazing into Riku's eyes as though trying to hypnotize him. Riku couldn't help but stare back as though no matter how hard he fought, the words were pouring into his brain. "You must destroy Sora. Protect Kairi. Keep her safe."
"He'll only try to take her away," Riku said. He looked at Kairi like a zombie. Maleficent turned to Hook to give him a sneaky look as though trying to intimidate him with her persuasive ways. Riku kneeled next to Kairi and touched her face. She was cold and lifeless. Her heart was nowhere to be found. "Kairi, I'll find your heart and give it back to you. I'll protect you from Sora and the others. We don't need them."
"I knew you were perfect for the job," Maleficent said. She took Riku's hand and helped him to stand. "You must come with me to Hallow Bastion. There I can give you power beyond your wildest dreams. And then, taking Sora down will be no problem at all." Riku nodded his head in agreement. "Are you coming?" Maleficent asked Hook who was lost in a blank stare.
"Alright, alright," Hook said standing up. Maleficent smiled and waved her staff. The dark mist surrounded them all and everybody in the room except unconscious Smee was swept away and disappeared.
Donald was pulling into Hallow Bastion a bit too slowly for Kita. Hercules and Ti-Day had to hold her back from jumping the controls and crashing the ship altogether. "Come on! She's down there, lets move!" Hallow Bastion was looking rather dark these days. All its inhabitants had abandoned it to escape the heartless. Donald decided to land a safe distance from the castle. There was a large canyon down below where the water from the surrounding ocean rose upwards from the bottom to the top. Inside were many flat stones, one of which Donald chose as the landing spot. As soon as the ship hit ground Kita leapt for the door and ran out first. She looked up at the awesome sight of the Hallow Bastion Castle above them.
"No…" Kita said softly falling to her knees. She looked as though she was on the verge of tears. There before the warriors was the once beautiful Hallow Bastion Castle. Most of its burn pink bricks were busted out and replaced with large bundles of copper pipes. Windows and doors alike were missing. A huge heartless symbol hung in plain view like a landmark on the front of the castle. Electrical bolts of lightening were constantly shooting out and traveling along the copper pipes. Worst of all, there was a dark aura fuming around it making it look possessed.
"Man, that's gotta be ten times worse than when we were last here," Hercules said gazing up. There was a glow coming from Sora's pocket as one of his summon gems started to activate on its own. A ghost image of a lion started to appear just before Simba materialized before them all.
"Man, I needed to stretch," Simba said yawning. "Hey, isn't this..?"
"Hallow Bastion," Ti-Day said looking up in the same shock as everyone else. "Well, at least it was."
Everyone stared at the castle in silence for a moment. However the silence was broken by a loud growl coming from above. "What was that?" Goofy asked.
"Not a lion," Simba said. He perked up his ears to listen more closely. The roar sounded again. "It's coming from the top of the highest peak up there."
"Go home, Belle's not going anywhere," said a boy's voice.
"Hey, that was-," Kita started to say upon hearing the voice.
"Riku!" Sora shouted. He took off to start climbing the mountain of stone up to the castle. The growls continued as everyone followed Sora up the mountain. The cold-wet breeze coming from the rising waterfalls was making it difficult to climb fast without slipping. After at least ten minutes of climbing, Sora reached the top. He pulled himself up only to find a large Beast lying on the ground. Riku was nowhere to be found. Ti-Day arrived next followed by Hercules and then Simba, Goofy, Donald, Pom-Pom and lastly Kita.
"Hey, are you alright?" Ti-Day asked approaching the Beast. The Beast moved slowly and struggled to stand. Goofy and Ti-Day each took an arm to help him up. "What happened? We heard someone else up here too."
"I came to find Belle and that punk stopped me," the Beast said.
"Doesn't really sound like something Riku would do," Sora said looking confused. "Did he have short white hair and a yellow shirt and blue pants?"
"You know that punk?" the Beast asked sounding a bit tense.
Sora looked a little afraid. "Well, yeah, he's sort of our friend."
"Who's Belle?" Kita asked still catching her breath from the climb.
"A girl I care about very much," the Beast answered. "I came to find her after she was taken away by those heartless. But that kid appeared out of no where and attacked me."
"Man, are we sure this is Riku you're talking about?" Sora asked. "He wouldn't do that. He's been helping us all this time. There's no way he'd turn against us."
"Well, maybe if we work together, we'll stand a chance getting inside," the Beast said. "Are you looking for someone too?"
"Actually we're looking for a bunch of people," Kita explained. "Some princesses, a girl named Kairi, our friend Ni-Ne who was only just separated from us a short time ago, and I would say Riku, but if he's gonna be like that maybe we should just leave him behind."
"Kita," Sora said looking appalled. "He's just as much my friend as you are. We're not leaving him here."
"Your loss," Kita said shrugging her shoulders. "Actually… if we do make it out of this alive and par say defeat my father, please do take Riku with you cause I don't want him in my town."
Ti-Day cracked a tiny smile but it didn't last long as he thought back to Ni-Ne who was still missing. He looked up at the castle pretending he had x-ray vision and could pinpoint her location. "I'm coming Ni-Ne." Kita stepped forward to what looked like a lift-stop in front of them. There was a beam of light that led up to the castle. Kita pulled a lever that would call the lift down to pick them up.
"Oh boy. I remember these things," Hercules said looking at the beam.
"Me too," Simba said eyeing the water below like it was dangerous. "What?" He said looking at Kita's dumbfounded expression. "Cats don't like oceans!" In no time at all the lift appeared through the mist rising off of the water's surface. Kita jumped on first and everyone else followed. Simba was looking more nervous than ever knowing the lift was probably past its weight limit.
"Do you think this is where all the princesses are?" Kita asked Ti-Day who still looked quite focused on the castle ahead.
"I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised," Ti-Day said plainly.
"I feel so stupid," Kita said. "We were here before. What if some of the princesses were here then too?"
"Don't beat yourself up," Hercules suggested. "You can't blame yourself for all that's happened, but now's our chance to put it all to an end. I can feel it. We're closer now than ever before!"
"I hope your right about that," Sora said quietly. "I still can't believe that was Riku we heard before. How would he have beaten us here anyway? We left Neverland before him…"