Title: Fire, Light, and Floodwater's Height
By: Dr. Kim-chan
(Today me and the Organization are in a Japanese-style room in Marluxia's greenhouse, where we're learning flower arranging from the pansy—I mean, the man himself.)
Me: I've noticed you people fight a lot…and not with Sora, either. So I'm going to do what Xemnas was either simply unable or too uncaring to do—make you all get along.
Xemnas (sitting in front of a pot full of hydrangeas and dry branches): Hah! Good luck!
Vexen (has genetically-enhanced blue and white flowers): Well, we would be able to establish some sort of brotherhood in this association if CERTAIN PEOPLE were more RELUCTANT about KILLING others with no mercy! (glares in Axel's direction, and for those who don't know it's explained in Chain of Memories)
Axel (with red roses): Well, YOU were going to tell Sora about Roxas! (sadly) I…I don't know what I'd do without him. (picks off a rose and gives it to Roxas, who's handling daisies and bare twigs)
Me: (choked up) Aww…Vixen, that's just the thing I'm talking about! Now shut up and fix your damn lilies! (Axel turns his head around and smiles evilly)
Vexen: My name is NOT Vixen…and my lilies are just fine! They're lying in an exact 90-degree parallel.
Marluxia: When will you learn that it's not about the exactness but about the beauty?
Vexen: When you realize we've all been making fun of your PINK scythe behind your back.
Marluxia: Care to see what I can do with it? (Vexen—I mean, Vixen—runs for his life while everyone's cheering Marluxia on, even Axel.)
Me: Um…I don't own KH, blah blah blah, and if you didn't get the memo the first time, I'd like to remind you that three dots before the start of a paragraph indicate a change in time, location, or both. Read on! (barely misses the scythe's blade) Dammit, watch where you're swinging that thing!
(Begin Chap. 4)
…Kairi's face was pressed against the side window of the Highwind Five, one of many modified versions of the original Highwind design. She never flew through interspace in a Gummi Ship before, of course, and little by little she was realizing her growing envy of Sora and his past adventures. Interspace was a myriad of color, stars, odd shapes, and…well, space. It was simple, but beautiful. Sora was in the main seat, and Riku, who was somehow roped into being second pilot, was trying to figure out how the damn thing worked.
Apparently Cid had been inspired; there had been more than ten models to choose from. After taking an agonizingly long time, Sora finally decided on the Highwind Five. On this one were two small ships on the side. Cid called these new inventions Teeny Ships—mini-ships that provided extra firepower and defense. The chipmunk engineers Chip and Dale were aboard Sora's ship; King Mickey alone had more than enough experience. On the other hand, Sora tended to be a reckless driver (great, but reckless) and don't get us started on the lack of talent the other two had. But Kairi was simply content to stare out the window.
Suddenly a thought struck her. "Sora?"
"Yeah?"
"A year ago, when we made that raft…if this is what's in-between all the worlds, would we have run into interspace eventually?" she asked. Sora didn't answer right away, stalled by that question himself.
"Well, unless the ocean on our world is never-ending or leads to another place on our world we never heard about, I seriously doubt it," Riku answered for him. He sighed and crossed his arms behind his head, leaning back into the seat. "Speaking of which, where should we head first?"
Sora was about to suggest a place when Chip's high-pitched voice came over the intercom on the dashboard.
"We're getting a transmission from the Falcon Two. Push the flashing yellow button at the top left to patch it through."
The Falcon Two was one of the newest Gummi Ship models: no Teeny Ships, but it was a sleek black, yellow, and purple vessel with "speed like you won't believe", or so Cid said. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy had taken it, which had almost made Sora change his mind about choosing the Highwind Five until a thinly-veiled death threat by Riku made him stick with his first decision. Sora looked for the identified button and pressed it.
"Donald Duck to Sora and crew. You copy?"
"Yeah, we copy," Sora said. "What's up?"
"We're heading for the Land of Dragons. What's your course?"
"There's a piece in the Land of Dragons?" Sora asked. "What part of the poem says that?"
Jiminy popped up out of nowhere onto Sora's shoulder and opened his journal to the copied poem. "Let's see…here it is. The second is an arrow, with a dragon so small and narrow/He quickly sought to borrow, just for a while."
"A dragon small and narrow…Mushu!"
"Yep," Goofy's voice replied. "Sounds like he found one of Xigbar's arrows. We're goin' in order from closest to farthest world. The King says Pete's most likely followin' the same pattern."
"Sounds like a plan. I think we'll go by number order on the list. Who's the first we're supposed to look for?"
"Number Six. Zexion," Riku said. "But I think we should save him for last. All he left was a scent, and Pete doesn't know what he smells like, so that's the least of our worries. Who's after Zexion?"
Jiminy looked through the page. "Number Seven."
"Saïx," Kairi immediately piped up, and Sora looked at her. "He kidnapped me when I escaped Axel and went to Twilight Town. Riku saved me—I mean, me and Naminè—from him."
Riku seemed to be either indifferent or embarrassed.
"The poem says: The seventh cannot be measured, though within a solitary ledger/The magic to capturing this treasure will be revealed. Hmm…a solitary ledger…"
"What book is a world, though?" Kairi wondered.
Without warning, Sora pushed the yellow button again to switch channels. "Chip! Dale! Set coordinates back to Radiant Garden!"
…"Back already?"
Despite protests from nearly everyone on the Gummi Ship, Sora had turned it around and raced right back to Radiant Garden without explaining why. Now they were back in Merlin's house where they started, where the Restoration Committee was starting to raise a stink of their own.
"The seventh piece is here! I'm sure of it!"
"What makes you think that?" demanded Leon.
"It says so in the poem. The seventh cannot be measured, though within a solitary ledger/The magic to capturing this treasure will be revealed."
"A ledger? As in a book? The poem could be talking about any book," Yuffie argued. "One of Merlin's books, maybe?"
"This one's special. It's a world in itself. It's Pooh's storybook."
Sora walked over to a dusty little cabinet desk next to a large pile of Merlin's spell books and other collected writings. It was the book on top of the desk that interested him: a decorative red storybook with a golden buckle strap. On the cover was an adorable illustration of Sora and Winnie the Pooh sitting on a grassy hill, staring up at the starry sky together. Kairi moved over to him and picked it up, a bemused grin on her face she was trying to suppress.
"This search is turning out to be easier than I thought," Riku said confidently.
"It's kind of funny to think Saïx is in a place like this," Kairi commented. "So all I have to do is open it?"
"Yep. I'll be back before you know it."
Throwing caution to the wind, Kairi flipped open the book to a middle page, showing various pop-up scenes. She just barely set it back on the counter when a blinding yellow light emitted from the pages and enveloped the room. To everyone's surprise, though, when the light subsided, all three of them had disappeared.
"Well now, that's never happened before," Merlin said.
…A few seconds later Sora was thinking the exact same thing.
Inside the book it was just as peaceful as ever. The sun was shining, a light breeze rustling through all the leaves in the forest. Bar none, this was Sora's favorite world to visit, although it was always the hardest to put together due to the pages constantly being torn and scattered. But for once not having to fight Heartless or Nobodies or run into anything else nasty (other than angry swarms of honeybees) was worth it.
He found himself on the dirt path leading between two oak trees towards Pooh's House, as usual, but this time Riku and Kairi had been sucked in along with him.
"That's weird. What're you guys doing here?"
"We weren't supposed to come with you?"
"It's just that the book's always taken just me in." For a moment Sora looked worried, his arms crossed in contemplation. Suddenly he adopted a huge grin on his face. "But this is way better! You'll love it here, and Pooh and his friends are the best! Pooh's House is just up this way. C'mon!"
Before they could say anything, Sora grabbed the both of them by the wrist and dragged them towards the large tree Pooh used as a house. Pooh wasn't sitting outside on his log thinking. He stepped up to the door and rang the bell beside the door.
"Pooh? You home?"
Silence. Sora checked the doorknob. It was unlocked. Cautiously, he opened the door and stepped inside. Everything looked the same as usual. There was the small wooden table, the window, the cuckoo clock beside the door, the full-length mirror, the small cabinet at the back of the room crammed with honey jars. It was obvious he wasn't home; Sora closed the door.
"He must be in another page with the others. This way!"
The trio continued down the path, and found themselves tumbling headlong into white light. The next few seconds were a blur of off-white paper, illustrations, and text. Then, as if nothing happened, they were on another path, but in a completely different location. This place had a small stream passing through it, the path leading over a bridge, through carrot and lettuce patches and stopping just short of another house, this one dug out from under a hill.
"It's quiet here, too," Riku noted immediately.
"Still doesn't hurt to check," said Kairi. But after a thorough inspection of the place, they concluded that neither Rabbit nor anyone else was here either. Sora was starting to get a little creeped out, but there he couldn't panic just yet. There were a lot of chapters to look through.
They were about to jump to the next page when a faint sound was heard below their knees. Sora looked around and spotted a line of raised dirt rushing right at them. He jumped back as it stopped just short of his toes. Something underground shook violently and then popped out, revealing itself to be Gopher.
"Hi, Gopher. Where's—?" Sora began to ask, but was cut short.
"Sssssss-Sora! I'm ssssss-so glad you came! We gotsssss trouble!"
"What kind of trouble?"
"Sssssssss-some big guy came into the book usssing sssss-some kinda magic, rounded everybody up, and trapped 'em in the Ssssss-Spooky Cave! He's at the hill; ssssss-said he was lookin' fer a piece o'…um…somethin'…"
Riku's eyebrows arched. "Pete."
"How'd HE get into the book?"
"You know those new powers the King mentioned in the letter? That's how. If he could sneak past the guys outside and into the book, I bet he doesn't even have to use a Gummi Ship to get to all the worlds." He snickered darkly. "Guess I was wrong about this being easy."
First they wanted obtain Kingdom Hearts, then they want to resurrect Organization XIII, and now they were interrupting a peaceful world like this and terrorizing Pooh Bear and his friends?
They had just crossed the line.
"Time to teach him a lesson," Sora growled. "I'll go deal with Pete. You two rescue the others."
"Wait! Sora, how do we—?" Kairi called after him. He shouted back, "It's the second-to-last chapter! Just follow the story!", and with that he was gone. Gopher looked up at the other two and quickly assessed the situation. Obviously Sora knew and trusted these people enough that he'd be traveling with them and had told them to rescue Pooh and the others on his behalf.
"You mus-st be sssss-Sora'ssss friendsss. I can guide ya through the book. Don't get lossssst now."
He dove back underground and burrowed in the same direction Sora left, Riku and Kairi closely tailing him.
…About two or three pages ahead of them, Sora found himself at the path leading to the grassy hill, the last page in the story, where Sora and Pooh always parted before he rushed off to his main quest. An enormous, yellow, round disc of a moon hung in the deep blue summer night sky, casting its soft light over the land. It reminded him of…
A silhouette of a large, bulgy figure appeared at the top of the hill, catching Sora's eye. He had caught the stranger's eye, too, for it stepped into the moonlight.
"You runts again?" it shouted. "Guess you're looking for the pieces of Organization XIII, too."
"They sure won't be safe with you and Maleficent. We found the CD you left behind in Ansem's computer. I see you haven't changed; you're just as dumb as ever," Sora called back.
"As it so happens, Maleficent specifically told me to leave that CD there for you to find. She said if there was anyone else who'd know where the pieces were, it'd be the runts who defeated 'em. All you runts hafta do is find 'em for us and everything'll be peachy-keen."
Sora sniffed derisively and summoned his Keyblade to his hand, rushing towards the hill. "Sorry. We don't do deliveries!"
Before he could get to him, Pete snapped his fingers. A mass of darkness appeared from thin air and began to stretch and mutate into some sort of hovering creature, blocking nearly the entire hill. After just a minute it took the form of a huge, grotesque, black and yellow honeybee. The red and black Heartless insignia was emblazoned on the top of its thorax. Sora stopped in his tracks, taken aback at both this weird…thing and the fact Pete was able to summon it. The only people he knew that possessed the ability to summon these extremely advanced forms of Heartless and Nobodies were the members of Organization XIII, Maleficent, and Xehanort's Heartless. Stronger powers indeed.
"KillerBee, get 'im!"
At the sound of Pete's attack command, it reared up on its back to reveal a sharp, four-foot long stinger. Sora rushed forward, but a lethal spray of stingers filled the air, the dangerous ends coming right for the Keybearer. Purely by instinct he pointed his Keyblade forward and shouted, "Reflega!"
A shield of light surrounded him, and the projectiles were thrown back at the KillerBee, but it rose further up into the air to avoid them. Sora sighed in relief, glad that he remembered his magic. He got into position and rushed forward.
…Meanwhile, on the previous page, Riku and Kairi were standing in front of the Spooky Cave's entrance, but they couldn't get in. A swarm of Heartless and Nobodies were blocking the cave. Riku closed his eyes.
"I may not have the powers of darkness anymore, but I can still feel it. There's more inside. Probably wanted to make sure they wouldn't escape." He opened his eyes and stared down at Gopher. "Can you go back inside and tell them help's on the way?"
Gopher saluted and dove down to burrow again, this time so deep inside not even the Heartless and Nobodies could detect him. As soon as he was gone, the two friends met their eyes, unafraid, at their enemies. Riku bent at the knees, prepared to go into combat, and swung an arm behind his head. In a flash of light the Way to the Dawn appeared in his hand. Following suit, Kairi reached out towards the air in front of her and concentrated. Another flash, and she reclaimed her flowery "Paradise Regained" Keyblade.
"Ready?" asked Riku.
"Just say the word," Kairi answered.
(End Chap. 4, and TBC)
Me: Yeah, no "girls having Keystaffs" crap here. Kairi has a Keyblade like any man! The name for it I chose carefully. Paradise Regained is the title of the sequel to John Milton's classic poem Paradise Lost, and what happened at the end of Kingdom Hearts II? "Paradise" was "regained".
Axel: You're such a literary freak.
Me: That's what happens when you're an aspiring novelist who's about to go to college for creative writing. You become a literary freak. And speaking of freaking out…(surveys the scene in front of her. Everyone's flower arrangements are strewn all over the place, and the rice-paper doors are shredded. Everyone ran for cover at some point, particularly when Marluxia accidentally chopped a piece of hair from Saïx, and that yellow "Berserk" bar showed up in midair and filled up.)
Me: None of this crap better happen next chapter. There's gonna be enough action as it is. It's the Battle of the Hundred Acre Wood, coming next!