CHAPTER XXVIII

SILVER'S GOLD

Jim stared up at the heartless. "Mr. Silver?" he said, aloud. In a much quieter voice, he clenched his teeth and whispered to himself, "what have they done to you…"

Sora looked at Jim with concern in his eyes. "Jim…we have to destroy him…you know that…" but Jim interrupted him again.

"Goofy said…that you could make him whole again. I said I didn't care before…but…just for Silver. Can you make just Silver whole again?"

Sora nodded at Jim. They smiled and looked back at Heartless Silver, standing just inside the portal now.

Without warning, he raised his massive metallic arms and shouted "SYSTEM SHUTDOWN!", causing the room to darken. The converters that were shooting energy stopped momentarily, and kicked back in, shooting dark waves into the center of the core, missing the receptors entirely. The core shook and large cracks started forming all over it. Coins were spilling down the cracks like waterfalls…if any of them fell, they'd surely be crushed in the center…

Heartless Silver slashed downward with his battle axe, dug deep into the ground, and vaulted upward straight down at Sora and his friends. Sora and Jim parried Silver, bouncing him off in another direction, knocking him straight into the power couplers that were shooting dark waves…

They started to rejoice, thinking they had harmed Silver…but unfortunately, the waves seemed to make him larger and angrier than before. As they were absorbed into his body, his stomach grew larger and his axe became twice as wide. He swung it over his head and laughed, firing five rockets toward the friends.

"Split up!" Sora yelled, as he, Jim and Kairi ran farther from the portal and Goofy, B.E.N. and Donald ran toward it. The five rockets split – three followed Sora, two followed Goofy – as Sora gathered Jim and Kairi close to him, and Donald did the same with Goofy and B.E.N. They simultaneously called 'reflega!', and as the rockets hit the strong shields they exploded without harming any of them. Silver's arms twisted and turned again, this time revealing one large laser cannon on each arm.

"Donald, Goofy, B.E.N., get to the Legacy and go get the Barrett!" he called out, reflecting a laser beam shot out of the newly formed cannons with his keyblade. It sliced through a treasure chest and coins spilled everywhere, adding to the piles.

Donald, Goofy and B.E.N. listened, and soon they were through the portal and Jim, Sora and Kairi could see the Legacy fly off into the distance.

Silver tucked his tiny legs into his stomach – they completely disappeared, as Silver started to bounce his way around the rapidly crumbling core. It cracked and shook with each bounce and dark wave it absorbed, setting the friends off-balance more than once. Silver landed in the direct path of another wave of darkness, absorbing more. His arms shifted once more, whirring until they were each holding five barrels that each shot laser balls.

"We've got to take out the converters shooting those waves!" Jim said, diving out of the way of one laser ball and slashing another down with his scimitar. But how the heck are we supposed to get up there!"

Kairi and Sora nodded and dashed straight at each other, grabbing hands as they met – another flash of white light later, Gravity Sora stood there, whipping the Golden Moment and Treasure Hunter keyblades around his head. He vaulted upwards, bounding from one giant pillar to the next, as they sprang from the disintegrating core. When he reached the outer core of the treasure room, he jumped up and stood on the ceiling, staring down at Heartless Silver and Jim, far below on the piles of gold.

"Enough to make you kind of…dizzy…" Sora said, temporarily losing his balance. He quickly focused, driving straight ahead at the first converter and pummeling it with his blades. It quickly exploded, and the waves that were issuing forth ceased at once.

Down below, Jim and Silver were engaged in a sword fight – the last wave Silver had landed in made his arms sprout two long, thin blades. He swung them masterfully toward Jim, but he managed to parry every attack that he didn't roll under. After a few moments of this, Silver started to gasp for breath, obviously tired from all the force he had exerted. He looked around for a dark beam to absorb…but Sora had destroyed all but two…he quickly rolled upward and bounded toward one of the final beams…

Sora dealt a critical blow to the second to last converter with a powerful blizzagun attack. Ice crystals formed around the keyblades, and they themselves launched out of his hands toward the target, like two gigantic ice-tipped arrows, returning like boomerangs after they had destroyed their mark. Sora turned around and saw the final converter, hovering directly over Silver…

Silver's body engorged once more, as his arms spun and clicked until they stopped on two large, clawed hands. They reached out to grab Jim, but he swiftly hopped out of their reach. It was getting hard for Silver to move, and now that he didn't have any projectiles, it was time for some payback…

Sora concentrated as he fell from the ceiling, back down toward the gold plating that now had huge craters running along it. There wasn't much left of the core, and explosions went off left and right, scattering what remained of the treasure in all directions. A white light quickly flashed, as Sora and Kairi awkwardly hit the ground together, back in their normal state.

"Gotta work on those landings…" Kairi said to Sora, half-joking, as she brushed off her knees. They pulled out their keyblades and ran to Jim's side. They were wondering why Jim was staring behind them, but when they turned, they saw the reason – bearing straight at the portal was the Legacy, and next to that was the Barrett. The Legacy burst through the portal and hovered close to Jim, Sora and Kairi. A rope dangled down, nearly touching the surface of the core.

"Go get on the Legacy. We'll finish Silver!" Sora ordered Jim. Jim shot him a halfway dirty look, but grabbed the rope and hung on as the Legacy shot back through the portal to meet the Barrett on the planet's surface.

Sora and Kairi looked at each other, and then the engorged Silver, whose efforts to reach them with his current arms was futile. Sora and Kairi ran toward him, keyblades spinning overhead, as they began a powerful limit attack.

Sora crouched down as Kairi bounded up to his back, and stood on his shoulders. Kairi pushed off of Sora's shoulders, hovering momentarily in midair. They yelled 'KEYBLADE BUSTER!' as they pointed their keyblades at Silver, holding them with two arms each. A shimmering wave of energy shot from the tips of each keyblade, crossing just before they hit Silver – at the point they crossed, a massive explosion started, sending beams of light in all directions. The beams pierced through Silver, as he yelled in agony. When the light had dimmed, Heartless Silver was reduced to a puddle of black sludge.

Just like Sully's heartless, a white beam shot up from the puddle and it formed into a giant, silver heart. Kairi pointed her keyblade at it, and in a flourish of light, the heart was tucked safely in Kairi's heart harvester, as she landed on the ground with the grace of a cat.

The Legacy burst back through the portal as the battle concluded. Doctor Doppler hung over the side of the ship, panicked as usual.

"Get on board or be vaporized!" was the first thing he said without stuttering. Sora and Kairi grabbed onto the rope that was still dangling and rode it out of the core as explosions engulfed the room.

When they hit the planet's surface, Jim yelled down to them, "Sora! We've got to escape through the portal!"

Doppler looked at Jim as though he was mad. "You mean the portal that leads into a raging torrent of explosions?"

But Sora, on the other hand, understood exactly what he needed to do. The explosions were spreading now, causing large chunks of the fake planet to shoot upwards without any notice. The core was completely destroyed…it was only a matter of time until the entire planet blew…Sora stared ahead at the hologram of the universe…he reached his arm out as the rope got closer…

Kairi climbed all the way to the top of the Legacy and joined the crew, worrying about Sora. Suddenly, the portal behind her shut and reopened to reveal a stretch of space with absolutely no explosions. There was a small planetoid and a large crescent shaped spaceport. Sora remembered this to be Montressor, Jim's home planet. He climbed the rope to the deck, as the Barrett and the Legacy turned around and slid through the portal, explosions and flames engulfing Treasure Planet behind them.

When they emerged in the remote section of space, the Barrett landed on the deck of the Legacy. The friends all met near the wheel to say their goodbyes.

"Are you sure you don't need any help? Our friend Cid could fix this ship up just like new…" Sora offered.

"No assistance necessary, Sora, my lad," Amelia proudly rejected. "With the treasure Jim recovered from the trove, we'll be able to buy several new ships…" she bragged.

"I guess that we'll be going on our way, then," Kairi said. "We're going to miss you guys!" she said, hugging Jim tightly. Goofy, Donald and B.E.N. shared and awkward hug, as Doctor Doppler and Captain Amelia hugged warmly.

"Hey…you guys aren't going anywhere…why are you…" Jim mentally placed two and two together and slapped Doppler on the shoulder. He winked as the Doctor and Amelia both blushed a deep crimson. Morph turned into Doctor Doppler and turned his entire head red, as he flew around the ship. Everyone shared a hearty laugh as Goofy, Kairi and Donald climbed into the Barrett.

Before he left, Jim grabbed Sora on the shoulder and asked him very quietly, "please…try to make Silver whole again. He's not exactly the most honest man alive…but he's a friend. He's the closest thing to a father I've ever had."

Sora nodded, and without saying a word, hopped into the Barrett and took off into space with Amelia, Doppler, Morph, Jim and B.E.N. waving from the Legacy.

Not until they were miles away did Donald scream. "Hey! Dey forgot to pay us!"