A/N
Hoo boy...I can't believe I got to this chapter. Had this planned all the way back when I was writing the KH2 portion of this project, didn't think I'd get this far...But here it is, big reveal time...hoo boy...hope you all are ready for this one, because I'm not...and I wrote it...but it will never be perfect enough, so I might as well upload it before I overthink it to Oblivion...
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, nor the Disney and Square Enix characters. Please support the original works.
Chapter Twenty One: The Armor
"Excuse me, Majesty Minnie."
Minnie's quill stopped moving. Looking up from her work, she spotted Belle and Daisy entering the castle library. Minnie met Belle by the door, giving the young woman an elegant curtsy.
"My, this is a surprise. I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow morning."
Belle reached out, offering a book to the queen.
"Cogsworth and I compiled a ledger of everyone we've housed at Beast's castle. We've also added details about where the refugees come from."
Taking the leather bound book, Minnie flipped through the pages. "How organized. Thank you, Ms. Belle. After the world crashing problem is solved, this will help us greatly in sending our visitors home."
Daisy peeked at the book's pages. "We should start making our own ledger soon. If only we weren't so busy."
There was a knock on the door. Belle opened it, watching Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth walk in. Beast lumbered in behind them. His placed several large baskets on the floor.
"Oh? What's all this?" Minnie got up on her tip toes, looking at all the bread, cheese, and fruit in the baskets.
"Well, dears," Mrs. Potts began cheerfully, "we had an abundance of food at our castle, so we thought it would be in good faith to bring some to the refugees staying in Majesty Minnie's audience hall."
Daisy clapped her hands. "What a splendid idea!"
Cogsworth proudly patted his chest. "It was my idea, I'll have you know." Queen Minnie bent down and picked up a basket.
Beast made a motion to take the basket from her. "I-I can carry them."
"Nonsense. You've brought all of these here. Let me lighten your load. Come, let us talk on the way to the audience hall."
Belle and Daisy shared a giggle when the Beast made a nervous, growling sound. He walked alongside Minnie, his back stiff as a pole.
"How is the space at your castle?" Minnie asked Beast.
"We still have plenty of room in the castle's west wing," Beast replied. "And there haven't been any heartless attacks since Belle and Kairi combined their powers. How about your town?"
"Pete and Mortimer may be complaining, but they are managing their soldiers with PJ and Bobby. Mr. McDuck also comes and goes to make sure his men don't get lazy. They've been keeping the citizens at ease and the heartless at bay."
Beast grunted a low sound of approval. The party entered the castle's audience chamber. The spacious room was filled with sleeping matts, pillows, blankets, stools, and several crates that served as chairs or tables. Dozens of people moved about the room. Some rested in their bedrolls. Others sat in circles, talking in the late evening hours.
Three children, two boys and one girl, ran up to Belle.
All of the children had thick, curly hair. They spoke so loud and fast that Belle had to put her hands on her hips to get them to settle down. Seeing her calm yet strict expression, the children relaxed.
One of them, a girl with red hair, shoved the tall boy next to her. The tall boy bowed his head, his green eyes shyly flashing up to Belle and then back to down to his bare feet. Rather then talk to her, the green eyed boy elbowed the boy on his right. Only this boy had the bravery to talk.
"Ciao, Miss Belle. Um, Alberto, Giulia and I were wondering if you had the time to finish that book you were reading to us a few days ago."
Belle reached down and put her hand on the boy's head.
"Of course, Luca. Just let me finish passing out food and I'll be right there."
"Let us help," said the red headed girl, Giulia. She didn't even wait for Belle to agree. She simply picked up a basket of bread and began moving about the room, handing out a bun to each family, or group of friends.
The two boys, Luca and Alberto, shared a look. Then, they followed their friend's example. They passed out bottles of water and milk to various refugees, though their efforts were a little more clumsy then Giulia's. At one point, Alberto got too excited and tripped. The bottle of water that he'd had in his hand flew up into the air. The water rained down all over Luca and Alberto.
Such a small accident wouldn't normally cause a stir. However, Luca and Alberto were special. When they got wet, their human skin vanished, to be replaced by blue and green scales. Fins appeared where their hair had been. The boys ducked their heads shyly when this happened, but Giulia was there a moment later to smooth things over. The old man that the boys had been serving didn't seem too bothered by the change in appearance. He simply handed the boys a towel. The refugees in the castle's audience hall were from a mismatch of all sorts of worlds. Some of the refugees were people, others were animals, and a few were robots. So it wasn't too strange that Luca and Alberto were sea monsters. When the boys dried off, their scaly appearances vanished. They now looked like regular children.
Once the food was passed out, Belle gathered up the children and took them to the throne. She sat down and the children gathered in circle around her. Standing across the audience hall, Beast watched as Belle began to read. She waved her arms, changing her voice for each character in the story. Luca, Alberto, and Giulia stared at her without blinking, as though afraid that moisturizing their eyes would make them miss a detail.
"The children really enjoy reading books with Belle," Daisy said as she came to stand next to Beast. "Only Mary Poppins may rival her in keeping them enraptured." Daisy pressed her fingertips to her beak. "You certainly are lucky to have such a brilliant young woman in your castle."
If it weren't for the thick layer of fur covering the Beast's face, one could have seen the shiny sheen of red that rose up in his cheeks. He cleared his throat and followed Minnie and Daisy back to the library. There, everyone was treated to a spot of tea, curtesy of Mrs. Potts. The teacup looked ridiculously small in Beast's paws. While he tried his best to take a sip without spilling, a feat that was incredibly difficult due to his large mouth and fangs, Daisy had already drained half her cup.
"Delicious! Why, I am tempted to ask you to stay in our castle and brew tea forever."
Mrs. Potts bent forward, taking a bow.
"Now then," Cogsworth paced on Minnie's desk like a drill sergeant. "We are not yet at max capacity at either castle, and reports from Lumière have confirmed that heartless sightings are decreasing. But we must remain vigilant. Any news from the keyblade wielders?"
Minnie shook her head. "Nothing new so far, but Mickey did inform me that the worlds are crashing together because of a sudden overabundance of light."
"How is that possible?" Beast asked.
"That's what the keyblade master and his team are investigating."
The door to the library burst open. Luca, Alberto, and Guilia ran into the room. Their eyes were full of tears, snot running down their noses. They swarmed Minnie's desk.
"Your Majesty! It's Belle! She's disappeared!"
The wind slapped Sora's cheeks and eyelids, ripping him out of the gentle pull of sleep. The air crept through his clothes and make his skin prickle. Raising his head from the hard dirt, Sora spotted the dark, stormy sky above. There was no rain, but the dark, purple clouds, and the distant growls of thunder told him that this would be the storm at its calmest.
Sora shuddered. He'd faced such a storm before, the night that the islands were destroyed. The same uneasy feeling of impending loss, separation, and dread filled the atmosphere. He needed to move. He needed to do something. Standing, Sora stared at the mountains all around him. The large, flat space he stood in reminded him of a park. A park that looked as though it had been bombed. Patches of lawn grass grew in between massive craters and cracks. Just before the cliffs, there was a set of crumbling, stone benches and tables. It must have been an overlook once. Now, the stone railing, which had once stood as a barrier between the benches and the cliffs, had crumbled away, having fallen into the massive canyons below.
The wind howled as if mourning the broken world. Sora watched a few leaves move through the air, before his eyes focused on something in the distance, just beyond his position. There was a castle in the mountains above him. Though he couldn't make out the details because of the distance and the storm's low lighting, Sora was able to see that the castle was broken.
The chains that held the castle up, tethering it to the two, tower-like mountains that straddled it, were rusted. Sora climbed, moving toward the castle and the summit. As he hiked upward, the castle came into focus. The design reminded Sora of a church. The white and gold accents of the castle must been beautiful once, but now they were ashen, grey. The castle walls had deep cracks, and half of it had crumbled away, making the building look lopsided and unfinished.
Sora stopped on a wide, circular platform, a courtyard, right in front of the castle. He looked up the set of stairs leading to the castle's grand, front doors. The staircase was just as forsaken as the rest of the castle. The steps were perilous, covered in cracks and dents. Some of the steps were missing completely. The storm continued to rage behind the castle. Flashes of lightning cast eerie shadows over the broken towers and jagged edges.
Footsteps.
Sora spun on his heel, drawing his keyblade. He froze. Kairi had climbed up to the courtyard. She surveyed the destruction, eyes widening at the pathetic remains of the castle before her. A look of surprise appeared on her features when she spotted Sora.
The two friends rushed toward each other.
"Are you okay?" they asked at the same time.
Kairi spoke first. "I'm fine. Where are we? And what happened here? Why is everything destroyed?"
"Here's a better question: why were we all brought here?"
Sora and Kairi turned around. Riku stepped into the courtyard. He came to stand next to his friends. Of the three, he looked the most uncomfortable. His hand was on his neck and his jaw was clenched tight.
"What's wrong?" Sora and Kairi asked.
"Darkness," Riku replied. "It's everywhere. I can feel it lingering in all the rubble."
Sora rubbed his forehead. "I remember being Halloween Town. Oh!" He dug into his pocket, pulling out the green star charm that he had picked up in Hollow Bastion. "This charm started burning all of a sudden."
"Mine too," said Riku, digging into his own pocket. He held up his orange charm.
"So did mine." Kairi reached into the pouch on her belt. Her star charm was blue in color.
"Where did you find that?" Sora asked.
"In the mansion that swallowed us up."
"So now, we have all three," Riku mused. "But why did they heat up all of a sudden? And why bring us here?"
From deep within the surrounding mountains, there was a low, dreadful rumble. The clouds shuddered, lightning flashing across the sky. The mountains shook, undulating like an ocean wave in a hurricane. Sora, Riku, and Kairi fell over, sliding this way and that. The shaking stopped, mercifully before any of the three friends could be thrown off the mountain.
Riku flashed to his feet, hands coming up to clutch his neck. He heaved. In between coughing fits, he rasped.
"Heartless. Coming."
Sora stood, searching the air and keeping his ears open for the strange popping sounds that signaled the arrival of heartless. He didn't see or hear anything, but he did feel something cold and sharp squeezing his ankle.
Sora's heart iced over when he looked down. A pool of darkness spread beneath his feet. A hand, with long, spindly fingers, tightened around his ankle. The long antennae of a neoshadow stuck out from the dark puddle. The heartless' claws sunk into Sora's skin. Hissing, Sora summoned his keyblade and sliced off the neoshadow's hand. The heartless sunk back down into the pool of darkness.
But the dark puddle didn't disappear. It multiplied. Thirteen dark puddles appeared in the courtyard. They spread out in a circle, surrounding the trio. Thirteen neoshadows rose up from the black liquid. Red veins pulsed all through the heartless' black bodies. Each pair of eyes turned to stare hungrily at Sora. His heart seized. The heartless' eyes were not yellow. They were as red as blood.
The creatures blurred. Ribbons of fire erupted on Sora, Riku, and Kairi's skin as the heartless' claws and kicks landed. Sora and Kairi brought up their weapons, defending against mere after images. More pain followed the first attack, as neither of them could follow the neoshadows' quick movements. The only way they even knew that the heartless were moving, was because of the streaks of red left behind by their glowing veins. While Riku had an advantage, in that he wasn't distracted by the afterimages, he was not quick enough to dodge and block every strike.
The three friends gathered close, back to back, searching for openings to counterattack. The red eyed neoshadows alternated their attacks. Some would swoop in, strike, and then retreat before Sora and Riku could slash at them. Kairi defended her friends with reflect spells, but many of the enemy attacks landed before she was able to throw up a shield. The moment the heartless came in contact with a barrier, they rushed it, tearing it down within seconds, like a crazed mob.
The fight went on like that for what felt like hours, though it couldn't have been more then a few minutes. Sora, Riku, and Kairi took hit after hit. Ambushes caught them off guard, and the pain of their wounds slowed them down. The were pinned, and no attack, or magic spell was quick enough to catch the red eyes.
"This is getting old," Sora grunted. He slashed at air, the neoshadow having already retreated.
"Tell me about it," Kairi panted. "Would it be too much to ask for them to hold still for two seconds?"
Riku hissed. His leg sunk into a puddle of darkness. A neoshadow was pulling him down, its claws sinking into his calf. He thrust his soul eater, and was able to stab the heartless, but it vanished the moment it was wounded. While Kairi healed Riku's wounds, Sora waved his keyblade in total frustration. He ended up whacking a neoshadow completely by accident. The creature had been sneaking up on him, and it was pure chance that Sora's keyblade had been moving right when it had chosen to attack. Just as it was hit, the heartless retreated, allowing Sora a second of time to cast an aero spell around himself and his friends.
He had hoped that the wind spell could keep the heartless back, but he had been wrong. Heartless still rushed him, despite the damage they received from the aero spell's razoring winds. Desperate, Sora waved his keyblade around in every direction he could think of. He wasn't successful in hitting every heartless, but he did catch a few off guard, buying his friends some time to think.
"There has to be some way to increase our speed," Sora panted.
"Or a way to slow them down," Kairi replied. She copied Sora's strategy, succeeding in blocking a few strikes to her face and torso, but taking hits on her arms and legs.
"The only way we could hit something this fast would be if we were waving our weapons around like Hook on fury tirade." Riku gasped. "Wait. That's it!"
"We need to fight like Hook?" Sora and Kairi asked.
"No. Like Peter. Kairi, hold them off for a few seconds."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Just trust me. On my signal, summon a," Riku put his fingertips together, creating a ball with his hands.
A fierce look shined in Kairi's eyes. "Got it."
Riku grabbed Sora's arm, pulling the boy close to his side. "Get ready to fly."
"What are you talking-"
Kairi jumped back as Riku bent his legs and jumped. Once airborne, he had pointed his soul eater at the ground and fired several dark firaga spells below him. The force from the spells rocketed Riku and Sora up into the sky. Kairi didn't see her friends disappear into the clouds. With only one target to focus on, the neoshadows had dropped their alternating attack strategy. They all rushed her and she had to focus on running, jumping, ducking, blocking, and casting reflect spells in order to keep herself from being ripped apart by red eyed neoshadows.
The aero spell Sora had cast around her was weakening. Kairi grunted, taking another hit on her hip, but managing to roll away from three of the neoshadows. She ended up in the center of the courtyard, completely surrounded.
Thunder roared from the sky. Only it wasn't thunder. It was a scream.
"Reflect," Kairi chanted.
Sora roared from above. His battle cry was quickly followed by Riku's. Their voices drew the red eyes' attention upward. Kairi watched as orbs of dark fire and hot bolts of lightning rained down onto the mountain. All around her, the deadly rain slammed into the red eyed neoshadows. Though the heartless were fast, even they couldn't dodge an endless ariel stream of dark fire spells and lightning. From above, Sora could see the heartless flashing from one side of the courtyard to another. He and Riku bombarded the entire courtyard, leaving no room for the heartless to run or escape.
Kairi lowered her defense.
"Waterga!"
Her water spell did two things. It made the distracted heartless slip. And it also empowered Sora's lightning spells. Only six neoshadows remained. Casting one last reflect spell, Kairi fell to her knees, all of her energy spent. But she wasn't afraid. Even as the heartless destroyed her defensive spell, she didn't move. Sora and Riku came down like a pair of axes, slicing through the unsuspecting heartless that had surrounded Kairi. The force from their attacks created gash marks in the ground.
The red eyes were defeated. The boys landed on their feet, but then quickly fell to their knees, collapsing right next to Kairi. The three friends gasped for air.
"I've never," Kairi hacked, "fought small fry heartless that fast."
Sora paused after each of his words so that he could send air to his screaming lungs. "W-what kind of heartless were those?"
Riku opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was a yelp of pain. He curled up into a ball on his side, pressing his hands against his temples as though he were afraid that his head was going to split in two. His friends reached out, to try and comfort him, but neither of them had any strength left for healing magic.
Riku writhed. "That thing! It's here!"
The moment Sora and Kairi touched Riku, they felt...
Pressure.
Like the mountains were pressing down on their chests. Sora and Kairi held on to their own heads as a storm pounded in their brains. Something spoke. But it didn't have a voice. Words echoed in Sora's mind, as though they were being carved onto the inside of his skull.
Such brave, young heroes. So full of hope. Knowing so little of the truth.
The sound of metal grinding on metal needled its way into Sora's ear. He and Kairi unconsciously squeezed closer to Riku as something appeared at the top of the stairs, in front of the broken castle's doors.
How strong you all think you are. All this time, facing nothing but mere foot soldiers that come from the top of the abyss.
A pair of metal feet walked down the stairs. Sora squinted, focusing on the jagged edges of a suit of armor as it walked ever closer to the bottom of the stairs.
Imagine having to face heartless from the lowest, deepest ring of the realm of darkness. Heartless that have accumulated the purest and most potent darkness for thousands of years.
The armor stopped at the base of the stairs. The helmet twitched, facing the trio of frightened children on the ground. Its movements were jerky, like a mechanical doll.
"What are you?" Riku gasped.
The armor shook, vibrating as though it were...laughing?
I am you. Your future. Or perhaps, your end.
The armor charged.
Kairi and Sora lifted their arms. Both friends were drained and could barley lift their blades to defend themselves. They knew that pain was a very real thing in their future. But the agony never came.
Sora and Kairi froze, their hands and weapons hanging in the air. Though they could blink, breathe, and swallow, the rest of their muscles and bones refused to obey. They were completely immobilized. All Sora and Kairi could do was close their eyes as the armor came to loom over them.
Nothing happened.
Squeezing open an eye, Sora saw something swinging above him. The armor was holding the three star charms that he, Riku, and Kairi had collected. They dangled from the armor's gauntlet.
Back where they belong. Perhaps I should thank you for finding my wayfinders.
The armor extended its hand. White light shined in its palm. Magic flowed through Sora, rejuvenating his body. He still wasn't able to move, but he did furrow his eyebrows in confusion as all of his pain and exhaustion melted away. The armor blurred, vanishing. Suddenly, Sora jerked forward as his body was freed from whatever freezing spell he had been under. Standing, he searched the courtyard and the surrounding mountains. He spotted the armor standing across from him, on the other side of the courtyard. No. He was no longer in a courtyard. He was now in an arena. And he was going to fight for his friends' lives.
Think you can break through, hero?
The armor waved its hand in a smooth, horizontal slashing motion. A ball of electric energy flew toward Sora. He easily sidestepped it, raising his keyblade, preparing his first attack. The air behind Sora shifted. An explosion banged into his back. The spark ball he had sidestepped had exploded behind him. Reeling from the buzzing electricity coursing through his spine, Sora gasped, bringing up his keyblade, barely knocking away the armor when it got close enough to reach for his neck.
Jumping back, Sora threw a blizzard spell at the armor. The spell didn't hit, the armor simply cartwheeled away. Upon landing back on its steel feet, the armor raised its arm to the sky. Lightning came crashing down around Sora's feet. Protecting himself with a quick aero spell, Sora ducked and rolled. The lightning stopped, but Sora still had to dodge the three fire spells that the armor sent his way next.
Sora threw his keyblade. It sailed through the air, about to hit the armor in its shoulder. The armor's arm flashed outward, the metal gloves grabbing the keyblade's handle. It sent the keyblade hurling back toward Sora.
"What?"
In midair, Sora summoned the keyblade back, stopping it before he could be hit by his own weapon. Then, three hot balls of fire hit him on his side, throwing him to the ground. Sora bounced and rolled along, kicking up dirt until he stopped. He got up on his hands and knees, hissing in pain. Had the three fire spells he dodged earlier looped back around to hit him?
He didn't have time to ponder such powerful magic. The armor was facing him again. He rose back up to his feet, lifting his keyblade, ready to defend. Yet, the armor didn't attack. Terror seized Sora's heart as he watched the armor's helmet move. It had turned toward his friends. It raised its arms, another set of fire spells charging in its hands.
Sora threw his keyblade out behind him and roared. The lightning spell he casted sent him zooming toward the armor. He didn't succeed in hitting it, but he did manage to get it away from his friends. The armor cartwheeled backward, putting some distance between itself and Sora. Not wasting a moment, Sora felt all of his hopes and determination gathering in his heart, feet, and hands. He focused every last bit of strength within him, charging at the armor and swinging relentlessly. How a clunky suit of armor was able to flip and flash across the small platform, like an expert acrobat, Sora did not know, or care.
He chased the armor around, summoning sonic energy around his keyblade and flashing toward it with quick thrusts. Once. Just once, he managed to slash the armor's thigh. The armor stumbled for one second, and Sora seized the opportunity.
Golden light shined on the keyblade as Sora pooled all of his strength and charged, slicing a line of sonic energy right through the armor's helmet. Sora skid to a stop behind the armor. He could only hear the sound his own panting and the metal clanging of the armor falling to the ground behind him.
Turning around, Sora looked down at the blue, back armor. It lay prone on the ground, not moving. He didn't spare it a thought. He ran to Kairi and Riku. He got down on his knees, and used the last of his magic to chant a series of healing spells. Riku and Kairi were finally able to stand.
"You guys okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you," said Riku.
Kairi gave Sora a warm smile. The next second, her face paled. She summoned her sword, pointing it over Sora shoulder. Sora turned.
The armor was twitching.
It lifted itself to its knees. The helmet cracked, metal chips falling off, revealing a set of lips underneath.
"Finally."
A fresh wave of unease rippled through Sora, Riku, and Kairi. The armor's eerie, voiceless words were gone. What they had just heard, was a husky voice. The bulky, thick armor cracked. Chunks of metal clattered to the ground as someone stood. A woman.
When she reached her full height, all that was left of her armor was her broken helmet. She reached up with her sinewy, red fingers, and pressed her palm to the front of the helmet. Pulling the helmet away from her face, she threw the broken headwear carelessly over her shoulder. It tumbled off the mountain, vanishing into the chasm below.
"How many years has it been since I could taste air without a mask?" The woman spread her arms, tilting her head back to the sky and breathing in deeply through her nose. "Or come back home."
Sora, Riku, and Kairi wobbled as they got to their feet. They focused on the woman, unsure if she was friend or foe, but heavily leaning toward the latter.
Her short, layered, blue hair framed her face. She was beautiful, even with the touches of darkness all over her. Her leather top, shorts, and the long skirts on her hips were stained black. Her arms and legs were a deep, ashen, purple, unlike the pale, peachy color of her face. Her hands were black, her fingertips sinewy and red, as though she had dipped them in ash and blood. Since removing her helmet, she had not opened her eyes. The only light part of her outfit, was a metal charm on her chest.
Kairi gasped, whispering in Sora's ear.
"That's the same symbol that was on the book I gave to Master Yen Sid. The one only I could touch."
"Who is she?" Riku wondered.
The woman's eyes opened, and she turned her head, locking her piercing, yellow gaze on the three friends. Kairi grabbed Sora's arm. Sora grit his teeth. The woman's eyes were cruel, full of despair, like Ansem's had once been. Riku stumbled, pressing a hand to his temple as another wave of darkness threatened to squash him. The woman didn't smile, but there was a mocking note in her voice.
"To answer your question, my name is Aqua. And now that you have so graciously freed me from my armor, I have many a task to complete before the end comes. So thank you." She raised her arm toward the clouds. "But I would prefer if you stay out of my way for now."
The storm clouds roared. A blast of concussive air slammed into Sora, Riku, and Kairi, knocking them off the courtyard, off the mountain. They bulleted through the air so fast that the destroyed world, a world who's name they never learned, completely disappeared. The vastness of interspace swallowed them.
If he hadn't been tumbling through the air, trying his best not to barf, Sora would have wondered how he was even breathing. The swirling nebulae of interspace were all he could see as his feet flipped over his head. He turned and turned, until something crashed into him from above. Riku had collided with Sora on his way down. Reaching out, Sora grabbed a fistful of Riku's shirt, holding on to his friend. Their collision stopped the spinning, and Sora spotted Kairi below.
Straightening their bodies, the boys dove toward Kairi, reaching out and grabbing her hands when they got close enough. Though they were together, they still fell. One would expect that confusion and panic would take hold in such a state, but that wasn't what happened.
A pink, shooting star raced across the sky, crashing into Sora, Riku, and Kairi. The three friends dangled like a rope, with Riku on top, Sora in the middle, and Kairi on the bottom. The pink light-no-a person, was holding onto Riku's arm. Sora squinted.
It was a girl. Her body glowed a brilliant rose gold. Her hair was wild, messy, and free. She zoomed through the air, pulling them toward something. Sora gasped. It was a crescent moon. A moon that was in fact, not a floating rock in the sky, but a giant space port covered in ships, docks, and buildings.
The glowing girl gently brought them down on the moon. Sora, Riku, and Kairi only let go of each other when their feet were firmly on the ground. The pink girl came down next to them. When her feet touched the ground, her pink glow faded. Her looks completely changed. Her body was no longer covered in a layer of fur and pink light. She wore a red dress, gloves, boots, white tights, and a violet cape.
The young lady peered curiously at Sora, tilting her head, making the curly, green hair in her ponytail dangle over her shoulder. Then her blue-green eyes lit up with recognition and she reached forward, grabbing Sora's cheeks.
"Sora! It is you! I thought I felt something familiar! I'm so glad I caught you! You were about to hit an asteroid!"
"Thanks," Sora mumbled, trying his best to enunciate his words. Squished cheeks made it hard to speak properly. "Do I know you?"
The girl let him go, laughing. "You don't recognize me?"
Sora squinted at the girl. "Uhhh..."
"I'll give you a hint," said the girl. "You carried me around in your pocket for half of your last adventure."
Riku snorted. "He did what?"
Kairi gave Sora a sideways glance. "Is there something you want to share with us, Sora?"
"I don't remember ever carrying a tiny person in my pocket. Well, besides Jiminy."
The girl let Sora go so that she could wave her hands, a heavy blush settling on her cheeks. "No, no, not like that! Um, maybe it would just be better if just I tell you out right. It's me: Terra. Terra Branford. Locke's friend."
Jiminy's Journal:
Aqua (First Appeared in Kingdom Hearts, Birth By Sleep, 2010): The woman that had been trapped inside the mysterious armor that Alice had seen back in Neverland. Her armor exuded such dark pressure so intense that it had momentarily immobilized Riku. Aqua has been watching Sora and his friends this entire time. She has proven herself to be a deadly opponent, able to use darkness, magic, and weapons in her arsenal. What's her game now that Sora has freed her from the armor?
Luca, Alberto & Giulia (First Appeared in Luka, 2021): Three best friends from a small seaside town. They've been thrown out of their own world and have taken refuge at Disney Castle. Guilia is the most responsible of the three children, Luca is the most curious, and Alberto is the one that wants the most approval. The three have a strong bond, with Giulia being a little bit protective of Luca and Alberto, as the pair of them are actually sea monsters that can take human form when they are not wet or underwater. They enjoy reading books with Belle.
