Author's Note: Sorry for the mistake in the previous chapter. But just so you know, I went back and re-edited it before posting this chapter, so it's all fixed up now.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or Kingdom Hearts. All rights belong to Sega, Square Enix and Disney. I only own the OCs.
Chapter 9: Magical Council.
After Tails landed the X Tornado between the altar and the Mysterious Tower, Sonic decided to go with Sora to meet with Yen Sid while telling the two-tailed fox and Knuckles to remain behind to watch over the Master Emerald and the plane until they got back. With promises to be careful, the hero of Mobius and the Keyblade Wielder hurried over to the Tower itself.
By the time the two teenagers approached, Sonic skid to a stop after carrying Sora, who still wasn't used to the hedgehog's incredible speed, and gazed up at the twisted tower that lived up to it's name.
Sonic whistled. "Cool place."
"Yeah. Master Yen Sid's been here for a really long time, even before I was born." Sora nodded in agreement, having the nostalgic feeling of being here again despite that it had ended up in this dimension rather than him returning home. Still, he was in trouble and he knew it. More ways than one.
Nodding, he approached the huge doors and pushed them open before stepping inside, with Sonic, sensing his friend's concern, guilt and slight fear, followed while being on his guard as he knew very little of Yen Sid's personality and he didn't want to push the old guy's limits of patience. Come to think of it, how did Mickey Mouse really get here, how much was his life was told into being partially secret, and did something happen to make him save Mobius before leaving and his appearance was left in belief that he was some other guy's imagination, to the point of re-creating the King's past as a franchise for people to keep learning of his legend?
Or was it the same thing Sonic was having despite that the teenage hedgehog was still alive today and was born in this world? The more Sonic thought of it, the more scared he became. As the blue hedgehog followed the just as nervous teenage human up the spiraling staircase, the hero of Mobius ended up hugging himself while having second thoughts. Maybe he should've had Knuckles come along. At least then both of them wouldn't feel as terrified. Sonic then realized part of the problem and shook his head to get a hold of himself.
Since when did he start being so scared so easily lately? Was it because of what Eggman did to him? With the whole Dark Gaia thing? Come to think of it, he had been feeling more uneasy despite having returned to his normal self a few months ago. Maybe part of him was still healing from the horrible experience, and now Mobius has five other worlds from another reality attached to it.
'Maybe I should go and talk to Mnyambo about this. He knows about this sort of stuff.' Sonic thought to himself as he and Sora finally reached the door at the very top floor, wooden with a door handle shaped like a bone and suddenly his nervous system only increased.
Sonic then realized the reason why: It was the fear of being blamed for what was happening, and has happened before in the past. The blue hedgehog gulped softly, but he forced himself to calm down as he knew that fear, guilt, sorrow, hate and anger would only distract him and maybe cause him to hallucinate again. Though given the circumstances, he kind of wished he had been hallucinating the Werehog right now and not Sora. Was Terrance's plans really made to revive the terrible beast, to revive Dark Gaia and destroy the world?
'Oh man...We're so in big trouble.' The hero of Mobius thought to himself, but he knew that the situation had to be shorted out quickly.
'Man, am I in big trouble? But...at least I'll be able to see everybody again.' Sora thought to himself, feeling a little excited and wondered if some of his friends were here. He just hoped that the tower wasn't empty, but that still left another huge problem.
How was this mess going to be fixed?
With a sigh and bracing himself for a hopeful reunion and the mother of all scolding from Yen Sid, the Keyblade Wielder knocked before opening the door widely, and announced cheerfully. "Hey! Guess who's here?"
However, to his disappointment yet one bit of relief, the room once again only had Master Yen Sid who, having seen the boy arrive, alive and well, along with a blue hedgehog who, similar to Mickey, Donald and Goofy, but with five fingers like humans instead of just four, had raced over carrying the young Keybearer with outstanding speed and a heart of pure light, different to what he was used to sense, but pure none the less, had once again seated himself behind his desk.
"Uh...Master Yen Sid? It's just you?" Sora awkwardly greeted as he and Sonic entered the room, while the spiky-haired teen scratched the back of his head after quickly adding apologetically. "I-I mean, not that I'm not happy to see you but, well, you know..."
'Whoa. This guy means real business, for a Sorcerer. Guess I'd better mind my manners. For a guy who helped out Sora and his friends, he's kinda creepy.' Sonic, having noticed the firm no-nonsense expression on the elder human's face that made his insides squirm. If he wasn't careful, he could be put under a spell or something.
"Sora, thank goodness you are safe, alive and well." The elderly Sorcerer responded, firm as always, but with a tone that held a hint of absolute relief to see the teenage heroic boy once again. "Though this reunion is not what I would have expected."
"That makes the both of us, sir." The sixteen year old chuckled sheepishly, scratching the side of his face with one finger. He then quickly remembered who else was in the room and gestured ath the increasingly nervous hedgehog who managed to mask his fear slightly. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! This is my new friend Sonic, who helped me out since yesterday along with his friends."
"Pleasure to meet ya, Master Yen Sir, sir." Sonic replied, and knowing that he should show his respects to the former Keyblade Master, the blue hedgehog bowed, still scared but attempted to hide it.
Yet Yen Sid wasn't fooled as he could sense the hedgehog child's nervousness, and understood. At the sight of the teenage Mobian along with his power and that Sora had spoken the name, he knew that the cobalt speedster was the one that Kairi had heard of from Light Gaia in her dream.
"Hmmm...Just as I suspected. It is an honor to meet you, Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of the world of Mobius." Yen Sid replied, which shocked and confused the two teenagers as Sonic stood up straight again. "I am grateful that you have found Sora and brought him here when this world and four others traversed from our reality to yours."
"Huh? You...heard of me?" Sonic asked, blinking in confusion. How was that even possible?
"Wait, so if you knew Sonic, then you knew I was here in this world?" Sora asked, just as confused.
"Your where abouts have remained unknown, and Sonic's reality was a clue in finding you. As for the knowledge of Sonic the Hedgehog himself, Kairi has unintentionally made a connection with the Gaia of Light of this world within her dream a night ago, and it was through him that she has learned of Sonic's existence and bravery in saving his own world from the forces of darkness." The powerful Sorcerer explained.
"What!?" Both boys exclaimed in shock, unable to believe what they were hearing.
"Kairi...she..." Sora trailed off, stunned that his closest friend had managed to even figure out where he was.
"No way..." Sonic murmured, his eyes widened in shock and disbelief. His very dear friend whom he missed so much...was somehow connected to this situation that unfolded. "Sora's friend dreamt of meeting Chip? How can that be?"
"I'm afraid I do not know the answer to that, Sonic the Hedgehog. However, I can only surmise that your connection with Light Gaia, whom you call Chip, sensed that Sora has arrived in your world and thus he may have provided his power through sleep to reach out for Kairi's aid." Yen Sid responded, before questioning the blue hedgehog. "Tell me, was there an incident that may have informed you of what is yet to happen?"
Now realizing that it was all connected, Sonic rubbed his chin with his right hand in deep thought. "Hmmm...Now that you mention it, I did have a dream that Chip's necklace he gave me glowed during a nice dream I had last night, and when I woke up, I found out that it was glowing for real. This is it right here."
The blue hedgehog raised his left arm slightly to show off his bracelet as the green gem shone from the sunlight from the window.
"Where did you get that gem stone?" The Sorcerer asked, as he sensed a powerful light coming from it, yet it was inactive right now.
"He gave me to me after the two of us and all of my friends, including my other new friend and brother Sun the Hedgehog saved the world from Dark Gaia, and Dr. Eggman five months ago." Sonic explained, feeling even more uneasy once more as he lowered his gaze as his guilt began to increase slightly again. "I...kinda failed to stop Eggman from waking both Light and Dark Gaia 20,000 years too early, and messed up by falling into his trap even when I knew he was trying to trick me...and I wasn't careful enough."
"I trust this Dr. Eggman is the enemy of your world."
"Pretty much. Been fighting him since almost five years ago when I was eleven. Long story short, I was the only one fast enough to stop him when he first attacked my home on South Island by kidnapping all of my Mobini animal friends to use them as batteries for his robots and try to take over the world. Not to mention in trying to use seven powerful gems called the Chaos Emeralds." The blue hedgehog shrugged.
While stunned that the Chaos Emeralds had been under threat already, Yen Sid knew he shouldn't be surprised, so he hummed thoughtfully once again while running his fingers through his beard. "So Mickey was correct. The Chaos Emeralds are part of this world."
"Wait, so you're sayin'..." Sonic was once again shocked, along with Sora. 'So Mickey Mouse is the same one. He is real. But how did he get here?'
"You mean...the King came here before?" Sora asked, bewildered.
The powerful Sorcerer confirmed the suspicions and told Sonic and Sora of how Mickey came to this world via space and time travel through a forbidden spell during the King's apprentice days, how he met Gerald Robotnik, learned of this world's existence and saving it along with the knowledge of the Chaos Emeralds before returning home. By the time Yen Sid finished, the hero of Mobius was stunned beyond belief.
"Gerald Robotnik!? Are you kidding!?" Sonic exclaimed, unable to believe it. The guy who was the grandfather of Eggman, his late brother Julius and their late cousin Maria, and who had created Shadow...actually knew Mickey ten years before the disaster on the ARK happened?
"Gerald Robotnik? Do you know him, Sonic?" The Keyblade Wielder asked, confused.
The hero of Mobius shrugged, very uneasy. "I never met the guy, 'cause he died 50 years ago, which now was ten years after King Mickey came over. Heck, I haven't even heard of him 'til two years ago. He's...Eggman's late grandfather."
"Whaaaaaaat!?" Sora exclaimed loudly in shock, while Yen Sid's eyes also widened, just as shocked. "No way! Eggman's grandfather was the guy who helped the King?"
"Yeah, unfortunately." Sonic shrugged, before scratching the top of his head uneasily as he explained the story of what happened fifty years ago, ten years after Mickey left to return to his reality and the future, from Black Doom's arrival on the Black Comet, to Shadow's creation and Maria, the corrupted government and GUN, everything which matches to what Mickey had told Yen Sid and the others earlier.
The hero of Mobius then explained as briefly as possible of how he found out, beginning from his adventures five years earlier in fighting Eggman, admitting that his real name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik, to meeting his friends, eventually leading up to the ARK incident. Sonic even admitted to how he knew of Light Gaia and Dark Gaia, which, with nervousness and the linger of guilt in fear of what Yen Sid would think, about how he ended up being caught despite his best efforts, the creation of his new brother Sun the Hedgehog, everything leading up to the amusement park and why Sonic even hallucinated for two days including that of Chip who was his support and thanks to Shadow's advice as he went the similar thing with Black Doom and Maria straight to the situation they dealing with now.
"...So now all of this happened and we had thought that Terrance was the biggest threa 'cause of what happened earlier." Sonic concluded, lowering his gaze in guilt, gently rubbing his right arm once more, frightened that Yen Sid would spell out his deep disappointment and anger towards him. "I'm really sorry for not being careful enough back then..."
Once again, Sonic was surprised when those thoughts were dashed out of the window.
"Do not blame yourself, Sonic the Hedgehog. I admit that your actions those months ago were rash and reckless being on your own. However, you have immediately took it upon yourself to restore the world and the Chaos Emeralds, while aiding Light Gaia to restore his memories, and saving your brother Sun the Hedgehog from the darkness of this Werehog Beast inside him." Yen Sid kindly reassured, shocking the blue hedgehog. "Your heart is pure as the light of the Chaos Emeralds. You understand from right and wrong."
Relieved that even the stern Sorcerer wasn't angry with him, Sonic sighed in relief and shrugged a little. "I like helping others. Plus I can't take all of the credit. My friends are all heroes too. Though now the main problem besides what's happened today is Terrance, and if it weren't for him, Eggman would've still been a jail by now."
Then came the real problem as he realized. Terrance attempted to steal his guilt and the image of the Werehog from inside him, yet the weird device he had after scanning a copy of Eggman's intelligence helped the evil Hybrian-Hedgehog to gain those plans, and instead since Sonic had forgiven himself, the dark hallucination came from Sora.
"What I don't get is why Sora is seeing the Werehog in his nightmares and in hallucinations, even when he had nightmares of that Xehanort guy." Sonic muttered in concern, and gazed at his bracelet once more. "I kinda figured that Chip might be part of this, and given what's going on now, maybe he's trying to tell me something and maybe he saved Sora from disappearing forever by bringing him here."
"I cannot confirm the reasons for all of this. But it would seem that in spite of the world being fully restored, and you Sonic have overcome your own guilt, Light Gaia must have sensed the dangers and attempted to warn you. While Sora's arrival was against his will, his survival as you say could have been the power of Light Gaia himself. The answers you seek may as well lie in what know and are seeking as of now." Yen Sid replied.
"Then I guess we'd better keep on finding those clues that Professor Pickle talked about, and the Chaos Emeralds before Eggman and Terrance do." Sonic decided, determined to get to the bottom of this.
"More than that, you must also seek out Mickey, Kairi and all the others who have attempted to come here to find Sora, and seek the Chaos Emeralds to return home." The Sorcerer added, shocking the teenagers once more. "In an attempt to use the spell, I sensed darkness interfered with the King's magic, and with that, it has caused this my Tower as well as the other four worlds to merge with Mobius."
"That explains how this happened." Sonic realized, folding his arms in deep though, before a realization dawned onto him. "Whoever's behind that must've been waiting to attack or didn't want Sora to come back, or maybe even both."
"But, who would've tried to stop the others from finding me?" Sora asked, horrified that while he was realized his friends had guessed correctly where he was, another source of darkness tried to stop them and caused all of this to happen.
Yen Sid closed his eyes, before responding. "It is still unclear as the darkness interfered with my magic. While Master Xehanort and the Organization are no more, there are still other threats that could and will put the realm of light in mortal danger. Furthermore, if this Terrance seeks the guilt from Sonic but has gained from you instead, Sora, then the darkness of this world still lingers and crossed to you. As I had warned all of your friends before their departure, light and darkness differ in the two realities. The lingering darkness of this world would cause you and possibly them to hallucinate in a dangerous peak, slowly swallowing you whole based on your memories of the horrors you have endured."
Sonic and Sora both shared horrified glances which meant that the situation was more serious and that the Keyblade Wielder and now all of his friends were in grave danger even after Dark Gaia had been defeated. Which meant that Terrance was just the trigger and he could replicate the darkness from the Werehog through the memories and guilt. How, that was still a mystery.
"So even without Dark Gaia around and Sun being made a real hedgehog, Terrance still can do whatever he wants. Especially how he stole Eggman's intelligence by copying it somehow through a brain scan or something." Sonic realized, then he narrowed his eyes with determination. "We'd better stop him and whoever's caused this mess to happen before it gets any worse!"
"You should not be rash, Sonic. It will be far dangerous should your enemies have more intelligence and plans which will cause harm to the world." Yen Sid cautioned firmly.
"I don't care. I've fought Eggman and his giant robots lots of times over the past five years, and I've fought other people with evil purposes and giant monsters." Sonic replied bravely. "Even with the help of my friends or on my own, I'm not one to give up. Everybody's in danger and both worlds belong to them. I know it's a huge risk, but we've got to at least try. I know how to handle light and darkness. If we don't do something about it then everything will be gone before we know it. We can't let that happen."
The blue hedgehog then recalled what Mnyambo once told him. "A shaman once told me, our emotions and memories are not like storing a library of books that stay in one place. They flow everywhere within our minds and hearts, and we can only have the power on what happens to them, even if they can be misplaced. Like a river flow that washes away small rocks. He also said that we can't have darkness without light and light without darkness. They're both the halves of night and day."
He then gazed at Sora, adding. "And like Sora said, light and darkness is inside of everybody. They might be different in both worlds, but that's one thing we all have in common. Plus, I'm used to stuff like this."
The more Yen Sid listened to the young blue hedgehog's declaration, the more he could see pure courage, inner strength and strong heart within him. Even though Sonic was a bit like Sora, Terra, Mickey, Ventus and Aqua, it was clear that the fifteen year old held a very powerful justice and compassion. He understood many things for his age, and based on the stories, fought bravely. He knew the risks, yet Sonic was willing to risk his own life to save everyone, and many times has always survived along with his friends. The boy's heart was pure, much like Sora's, and perhaps it was because of that that Sora was drawn not by the light of Light Gaia, but the light from Sonic's heart.
He really is the hero of Mobius.
"Then I shall not have it any other way. You have found Sora, and thus the key in solving this crisis along with him and all of your friends, is you, Sonic the Hedgehog. Your task is to find Sora's friends as well as the Chaos Emeralds and the clues of what links both realities." Yen Sid finally agreed.
"We already got a head start, but we'll find the others and the Emeralds and make sure everything goes back to normal. I promise." Sonic replied with a nod.
"Yeah, and if we all work together, we should be able to handle it, right?" Sora added, even though he was still feeling uneasy.
The blue hedgehog nodded. "Plus with Merlina's help since the darkness can be different, it's still darkness. With all of us on both sides and in King Arthur's world helping out a little since it's also connected, I just know that everything will be okay. It won't be easy, but no adventure is ever easy."
As if to prove the point, Caliburn suddenly emerged from Sonic's sapphire bracelet, this time at his own will and hovered beside Sonic's right, again startling the teenagers and Yen Sid was admittedly surprised to see this as well.
"Forgive me for my rude appearance, but I felt it was best to prove Sir Sonic's courageous words." Caliburn spoke, leaning forward to bow his respects to the powerful sorcerer.
"So you possess an ancient weapon capable of speech." The powerful Sorcerer remarked.
Sonic shrugged. "Thanks to Merlina. Like you, she's a powerful wizard. She even summoned me to her world to save the King-King Arthur, I mean. In fact, he saw Sora in a dream with either him or me wielding his sword. This is Caliburn, the Sacred Sword. Caliburn, met Master Yen Sid, who helped out Sora and the others and is a powerful sorcerer."
"Greetings, Master Yen Sid." Caliburn said once more.
"Greetings to you as well, Caliburn, Sacred Sword of another world." Yen Sid replied. "I can sense that you have a connection with Sonic and King Arthur as you are to be wielded by both. Merlina has made a wise decision to summon the hero of Mobius."
"Indeed." The Sacred Sword replied, before he and Sonic explained how the former can be summoned now just in case including the bracelet that would theoretically protect him and the others from the darkness.
"Don't worry, sir. We'll handle this." The fifteen year old hedgehog vowed.
"And even though I don't have the Power of Waking anymore, I didn't need it before the war. Like I said, losing and regaining my power happens all the time." Sora added, willing to regain his confidence once again despite what was happening.
"While your actions have forced you to leave the Realm of Light, Sora, there is no doubt with it, all would have been lost. However, you will need more guidence for the forseeable future in case it were to happen again. I understand your love for Kairi was burning strong you were willing to sacrifice yourself to being her and all our friends back, even to break the ancient tabuu for it to happen to change history, but it must not be repeated." Yen Sid cautioned.
"Oh...R-right..." The sixteen year old murmured, lowering his gaze while Sonic gently placed a hand onto the teenage boy's shoulder.
"The same must be said to you, Sonic. If one overuses their power, their life force will cease to be." The Sorcerer continued to the blue hedgehog.
Sonic nodded, understanding. "I know. I only use the Chaos Emeralds in case of emergancy. I've been lucky before and I know that if I use too much it'll leave me exhausted, but if I had to choose, I'd give up my life to save the universe. Plus, too much power can make people crazy and even cause them to go down the wrong path. Especially when it comes to negative thoughts and feelings. Greed, anger and hate are everybody's enemies. Guilt, fear and sadness can increase those negative thoughts. It happened with Chaos and those feelings, apart from guilt and sorrow are what destroyed the echidna tribe 4,000 years ago and Kaiser when he got eaten by the giant Werehog who like the dark side of Chaos Emeralds feeds on negative feelings to grow stronger."
'Negative feelings...it's just like the Unversed and Heartless.' Sora thought to himself in realization, thinking about all of the villains he thought; Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, Maleficent, the villains in all of the worlds he visited. 'They had darkness in their hearts, but...they also wanted things their way. Like the villians here in this world. Maybe it isn't just hate and anger that brings out the darkness. Could we have been wrong all this time?'
"Then you both know what to do. Sora, Sonic and Caliburn, I shall leave the rest to you and your friends. Go forth, young champions, and may your hearts be your guiding keys." Yen Sid finally agreed.
"Yes, sir!" Sonic and Sora both stood in attention and saluted.
"As you wish, Master." Caliburn agreed firmly.
With that, once Caliburn returned to the Sapphire Bracelet, Sonic and Sora both immediately raced out of the Tower to meet with Tails and Knuckles before heading back to the Workshop to tell Amy, Sun, Star, Cream and Cheese of the news. Left on his own once more, Yen Sid was left to his thoughts on what has been discussed and the knowledge Sonic knew of given the teenage hedgehog's experience.
"Perhaps the knowledge of darkness was not yet fully learned in our world. Anger and Hate trigger it, fear leads to obsession which beckons the darkness. However..." The elder man's eyes widenedly in realization. "Greed can lead one down the path of evil. It is what lead Maleficent to her dark desires. The same said for Professor Gerald's grandson, Dr. Ivo Robotnik."
Either way, he knew for certain that Mickey was going to be devastated once he learns of what became of his old friend of Mobius.
Kairi's Dream:
Feeling like she has passed out, Kairi let out a groan as she felt like she was simply in a dream-like state. At first her memories were foggy, but as she slowly blinked her eyes open, the sixteen year old girl placed a hand to her head as she sat up, before looking around and found that she was in an unfamiliar place.
It was a place filled with beautiful flowers with mountains, beaches, tropical trees and forests all in one area with the sun shining down. The Princess of Heart had to raise a hand to shield her eyes as she stood up, gazing at her new surroundings.
"Where am I? Is this...another dream?" Kairi asked herself, puzzled.
"Kairi? Is that you?" A familiar voice called out, startling her as the arburn teenage girl looked and saw, to her surprise, the pixie-dog she met in her previous dream the night before hover towards her.
"Chip?" The sixteen year old girl asked, feeling a little relieved yet confused at the same time. "What are you doing here?"
"I sensed you and your friends coming, but I didn't think it would be this soon." The Light Gaia spoke, which stunned her even more.
"You knew we were coming?"
"Yep! Your light shines brightly, and I could sense it through my necklace that I gave to Sonic."
"Your necklace you gave...to Sonic?" Kairi tilted her head a little, puzzled.
Chip nodded. "I gave it to him after he helped me to restore the world, and, well, to defeat Dark Gaia."
"Dark Gaia? So this Dark Gaia is like you, but with the strong power of darkness?" Kairi asked, now getting a little nervous.
"Oh, right. I guess you wouldn't know that, huh? It's a long story, but I can tell you're in Mobius now. If you're lucky, Sonic and the others might tell you what you need to know. But Dark Gaia remains asleep for the next millienia. Yet I can sense that someone is trying to replicate one of it's spawns recently created and rejoined. The dark soul of the creation, I mean. The other half, who became Sun the Hedgehog, Sonic's new brother and former clone, is a real Mobian. Sonic's love and my power helped to save him from suffering the fate of becoming absorbed." Light Gaia explained.
"I'm not sure if I understand, but the world has already been saved from Dark Gaia?" The Princess of Heart asked.
"Yes. Normally, Dark Gaia would awaken once every ten millienia to cause destruction, and I awaken to fix up the world and restore everything. We have been doing it for ages and ages, since the beginning of time. But this time, we have been awoken 20,000 years too early, by Sonic's enemy who attempts to rule the planet: Dr. Eggman." He explained.
"Dr...Eggman?"
"Sonic tried to stop him, but Eggman caught him and used the power of the Chaos Emeralds to split the world apart to try and control Dark Gaia. In that turn, the events, along with tiny threads of Sonic's quills, his feelings of sorrow and anger, the power of the Emeralds and Dark Gaia accidentally created Sun and the dark beast within him and forcing Sun to change shape every night, into a Werehog."
"What!?" She exclaimed in horror.
"It also caused me to forget everything, even who I was. Sonic blamed himself for all that's happened, and even Sun was in confusion because he thought he had always been a hedgehog and suffered amnesia like I did. Sun would become a hedgehog during the day and a Werehog at night, and the beast's soul inside along with his own that has grown with his heart and mind attempted to get him to, well, eat Sonic. It was through him that both of us were called Chip and Sun. I know it wasn't Sonic's fault and in the end we have saved the world and restored the Chaos Emeralds, and Sun can no longer change into a Werehog." Chip continued.
"So this Dr. Eggman attempted to control Dark Gaia...did he really control it to destroy the world?" Kairi asked, frightened yet now understanding why Sonic had been so sad given Chip's earlier explanation: He thought he was at fault for being captured when he tried to stop his own enemy.
But Light Gaia shook his head. "Nope. The moment Dark Gaia was fully awakened, the first thing he did was bash Dr. Eggman and his robots far away to some place. From what Sonic and his friends told me, Eggman attempted to control Chaos before he learned of Dark Gaia, but failed. He's evil and crazy, and uses giant robots to cause problems, but he wants to only rule the planet, not completely destroy it. Plus he isn't all that smart even though he's a bad scientist."
"I had an experience with a bad scientist too, or at least, a piece of the man who caused so much suffering to many people for twelve years." Kairi admitted, feeling a little uneasy considering that Sonic's enemy Dr. Eggman was around and she wasn't sure about the man, yet the fact that he was an evil scientist reminded her of Xehanort's incarnations, one including where he had taken over Terra's body.
At Chip's confusion, she shook her head and apologetically said. "Sorry, it's a long story. The reason why my friends and I are here is because we think Sora somehow ended up in your world and, I thought that maybe Sonic might help us. Because the King, King Mickey I mean, who's a friend, came to your world years ago."
Before Chip could ask why, once again the area brightened which caused Kairi to shield her eyes and found herself fading away before she and her new friend could continue the conversation, much to her dismay.
"I think we'll talk more later. Whatever's going on, I might have to wake up again, but for a different reason. In the meantime, Sonic will help, but tell him I said hi." Chip's voice echoed before everything turned white...
"Kairi!"
Sharply gasping awake at the sound of Riku's voice, Kairi jolted upright panting from the latest dream she just had, with her silver-haired best friend kneeling beside her, already awake.
"Kairi, are you alright?" The seventeen year old asked, worriedly.
"Riku..." The sixteen year old girl murmured, feeling relieved upon seeing him. She then looked around and found Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Terra, Ven, Axel, Roxas, Xion, Namine, and Isa groaning and awakening as they were all sprawled all over the place. "Master Aqua...Everyone..."
"Ouch..." Mickey groaned, placing a hand to his head as he felt the mother of all headaches. "Gosh, I forgot how bumpy of a ride that was, but this was even worse."
"Ow..." Donald complained, shaking his head while his eyes rolled comically.
"Gawsh, I thought we were goners." Goofy muttered, rubbing his head as he ended up seeing stars circling in his vision.
"That makes the two of us." Axel groaned, rubbing the back of his head as he and the others slowly stood up. "At least we're in one piece."
"But, where did we end up?" Roxas asked, looking around the unfamiliar surroundings.
The place the group ended up in was near a light house with a mill slowly turning in the wind, the green fields of the shores of the continent behind them, the ocean in front of them, and a road the lead towards a greek-like town in the distance with seagulls squawking as they flew.
"Do you know where we are, your majesty?" Donald asked, hopefully.
Mickey frowned thoughtfully, trying to recall only to shrug apologetically. "Well, it's nowhere near Station Square or the rocket station leading to the ARK, that's for sure."
"So then, we ended up in another random world?" Ven asked in dismay.
The King however shook his head. "No, I gotta feelin' this is definitely Mobius. We're just...in the wrong continent."
Everyone else all groaned, with Axel, Donald and Goofy groaning the loudest as the three of them slumped low.
"Well, at least we're in the right world. Now we just need to find a way to this city and maybe find Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds to find Sora." Xion pointed out optimistically.
The others nodded and decided to give it a shot, before they all headed off to the city in the distance. Though the closer they got, the more Kairi began to realize that it was somehow and strangely familiar. Once they were nearing the gates, her eyes widened as she gasped, realizing it was familiar!
"Wait!" She cried out, startling her friends who jumped slightly, with Donald jumping the highest.
"What is it, Kairi?" Aqua asked, worriedly.
"I know this place!" Kairi exclaimed, hurrying over and true to her thoughts, it was the entrance she saw before. "This is...We're in Apotos!"
"Whaaaaat!?" Everyone else exclaimed in disbelief.
"This is the place Light Gaia, Sonic and their friend Sun the Hedgehog came to." The Princess of Heart continued, now taking the lead. She led the group through the same archway and into the side, gazing around and needless to say everyone was impressed by it's beauty.
"Wow...!" Ven and Roxas both murmured in awe.
"Wow!" Donald breathed, amazed.
"It's so lovely here." Namine remarked with a bright smile.
"Sure is pretty. Ayhuck." Goofy agreed.
"It's beautiful." Aqua agreed.
"Nice and sunny, bright and cheerful, near the beach and a town and field all in one hit, I could get used to this place." Axel smirked, liking Apotos already. It was no Twilight Town or Radiant Garden, but hey, at least it was cool new place to explore. And thank Kingdom Hearts it was nothing like Atlantica!
"So this is the city Light Gaia has shown you in your dream, yes?" Isa questioned, admittedly impressed himself. It had a nice, comfortable and relaxing feeling to it.
"Yeah." Kairi nodded, "Though this is the only section of the place I've seen. Chip would dream of this place from his memories with Sonic, and also have some ice cream."
"You mean from that stand?" Riku teasingly asked, gazing at a nearby small stand.
The others looked up and saw it as well with a delicious looking ice cream being made by the owner, unbeknownst to them the same one that Sonic, Sun and Chip met months ago.
"It's the same ice cream!" The Princess of Heart softly exclaimed.
"Wow! I guess Light Gaia really did make a connection with you, especially with the ice cream bein' here." Mickey gaped in amazement.
"The mention of ice cream makes me feel a little hungry." Xion admitted, reminded of the Sea-Salt Ice Cream.
"As much as I am too, we don't have time for that. We have to find the Chaos Emeralds and Sonic first." Terra reminded.
"Aww, c'mon, Terra! It's not like we know where we are. Don't you think we should get to know this place first?" Ven pouted, folding his arms.
"Well, he has a point. Maybe we should relax a little and we might be lucky to find both or Sora while we're here." Riku reluctantly agreed.
"You're right. We should act as normal citizens of this world before we rush in. Right, fellas?" Mickey turned to Donald and Goofy...only to find that his two closest friends who were also his Royal Court Magican and Captain of the Royal Knights mysteriously disappeared. "Fellas?"
"Huh? Where'd Donald and Goofy go?" Roxas asked, puzzled.
"They're drooling over the ice cream." Isa deadpanned.
When everyone looked at the stand once again to see that the blue-haired man was right. Donald and Goofy, unable to resist, were staring dreamily at the Chocolate Chip Sundae Supreme the owner was making.
"Looks good, don't it, fellas?" The Ice Cream Man asked, feeling a bit of deja vu, as the two nodded hungrily. "That there Chocolate Chip Sundae Supreme is the pride of the city! The whole world can come getting new odd places appearin' out of nowhere, and they'll still be lining up for a taste!"
"Sure looks mighty tasty, sir. Ayhuck!" Goofy agreed.
"Ooooh...Chocolate Chip...Sundae...Supreme!" Donald said in a trance.
"Yep! Enjoy, kiddos! If not, you can get your money back garantee!" The Ice Cream man promised.
"Oh boy!" The white duck cheered.
By then the rest of the group approached as Kairi, amazed that the real ice cream was just like in her dream, turned to the man hoping for answers.
"Um, excuse me, sir. If you don't mind me asking, you wouldn't happen to know of a blue hedgehog name Sonic around here?" The Princess asked, politely.
"Sonic? The Hero of Mobius? Sure I do! Had the honor to meet him five months ago, with a little guy and another hedgehog. Pretty sure I also saw two of his friends, one being Knuckles the Echidna, and the little cute two-tailed fox named Tails, and maybe a bat girl at some point." The Ice Cream Man replied.
"Five...months ago?" Kairi asked, disheartened. While the rest of the group were also disappointed that Sonic wasn't here, some of them were puzzled at the mention of Sonic's friends, especially a two-tailed fox named Tails. There couldn't by anybody by that description, could it?
"Yeah. It was when the world was crumbling before it was put back together. Rumors say that crazy guy Dr. Eggman was behind it and Sonic saved the day like he always does."
That made the group shocked, puzzled and confused. Kairi was the most shocked to hear that even Eggman was real.
"Dr. Eggman?" Donald asked, bewildered.
"What kind of a weird name is that?" Axel asked, skeptically.
"Dunno." The Ice Cream man shrugged. "He used to be called Dr. Ivo Robotnik, but I'm not sure when he decided to call himself Eggman. Rumors say that Sonic the Hedgehog came up with the name himself two years ago and seeing how that weirdo, dangerous as he is, is shaped like a giant egg, it's no wonder too."
"ROBOTNIK!?" Mickey exclaimed as the others gasped in shock, causing the people around them to pause on what they were doing and stared at the group, new tourists they guessed, in confusion. Realizing this, the King recollected himself and cleared his throat sheepishly. "Um, sorry. It's just, well, n-never mind. C'mon, fellas. Let's get goin'."
"But we don't know where Sonic is yet." Ven protested.
"Well, if you're lookin' for 'im, the best place to be would be Station Square. Otherwise you'd be chasing him forever since Sonic runs around all over the place where he wants to go, being the fastest thing alive, an adventurer, hero and all." The owner, confused at Mickey's outburst, shrugged.
"Well, if you see him, or a kid that kinda looks like these two here but with brown spiky hair in red clothes named Sora, tell them that Riku and the gang are looking for them." Riku requested politely, while gesturing at Roxas and Ven who both nodded.
"Sure, no problem! Don't know any Sora around, but if I see anybody with that description or Sonic, I'll let 'em know."
"Thank you, sir." Kairi replied as she and most of her friends bowed in gratitude, before they quickly walked away...except for Donald and Goofy who were both still staring at the ice cream hungrily.
"Sorry, guys, but ice cream's put on hold." Axel deadpanned as he picked up Donald by the shirt while Isa dragged Goofy away.
"Hey, put me down! Put me down!" Donald protested in a temper tantrum, but was completely ignored, leaving the Ice Cream man puzzled before he shrugged at the oddness of the group's behavior.
Once the group were at the more quieter part of Apotos up the slope, Axel and Isa both let go of Donald and Goofy while they and the others thought about their latest discovery.
"Dr. Ivo Robotnik...the enemy of Mobius." Mickey said thoughtfully, deep in concern, arms folded to his chest having an uneasy feeling. "What could've happened to Gerald?"
"Well, it has been years. Unless the darkness got to him and travelled through time, changing his name or somethin'." Axel suggested.
"Hmmm...Maybe Dr. Robotnik is Professor Gerald's son or nephew or grandson and somethin' awful must'a happened to 'im." Goofy thought, tapping the side of his head.
"That would make sense. Except why would Ivo Robotnik turn against the world? Unless Axel is right about the darkness getting to him." Riku frowned.
"I don't think it was the darkness. Or it is was, it shouldn't have been for at least another 20,000 years, and the Ice Cream said that Sonic called him Eggman two years ago. Maybe it all started back then?" Kairi asked, very worriedly which made her friends gaze at her. "Before Riku woke me up, I had another dream about Light Gaia. He told me more about what happened, or at least, part it."
The Princess of Heart then explained the dream and what Chip/Light Gaia told her, about Eggman awakening Dark Gaia 20,000 years too early, how Sonic helped Chip to regain his memories and along with Sun put the world back together while restoring the Chaos Emeralds, and everything else she learned so far, much to their shock.
"Eggman did what!?" Ven, Roxas, Xion, Mickey, Donald and Goofy exclaimed bewildered.
"So the darkness in Dr. Robotnik's heart brought him into doing that, and in the end not even he could control Dark Gaia." Aqua murmured thoughtfully, feeling very uneasy over this new discovery.
"By using the Chaos Emeralds?" Terra added, narrowing his eyes in disgust. "That is unforgivable!"
"And Sonic saved the world. But, was this two years ago, or five months ago?" Namine asked, worriedly. "Everything we know so far still doesn't quite add up into what is going on."
"And if Kairi is still having these dreams of Light Gaia, then perhaps she is needed to do what Sonic may have failed to finish. Dark Gaia may return or it's linger of darkness is still here." Isa pointed out, frowning deeply.
"There's more to the mystery than that. We gotta find Sonic and ask 'im about all this." Mickey declared, knowing that the situation has gotten even worse.
"Well I say that Sonic trying to stop Dr. Eggman that way was reckless!" Donald grumbled, very annoyed and angry over Sonic's actions for failing to stop Eggman from splitting up the world.
But Kairi quickly shook her head as she pointed out, "Sonic already felt terrible for that to happen. It wasn't even his fault. I know we don't know him, but Chip does and he's still worried about him. If we let our anger get to us and let it all out on Sonic, it will cause him to sink further into the darkness of his guilt, and the darkness some of us may still have will put him and this world in danger."
"She's right." The King agreed. "Remember, Sonic's our only hope and if he's anythin' like Sora in strength in the heart, we can't let what happened before to him get to any of us. The real enemy of this world is Robotnik's relative Dr. Eggman, and we gotta help in figurin' out what's goin' on right now."
"And if we get angry at Sonic, he might not wanna help us. We could be hurtin' his feelings, especially when he put the whole world back together." Goofy added.
"But, how could he have put the world back together? If it was attacked by the forces of darkness, it should've disappeared in this reality's Realm of Darkness, right? How did everyone survive?" Ven asked, puzzled.
"And this world's heart and keyhole, they have survived too with a Keyblade." Aqua nodded in agreement.
"Isn't it obvious?" A familiar dark voice echoed.
Softly gasping and sensing a familiar haunting pressence, Aqua spun around and saw, to her horror and shock...herself, but in her dark possessed form, slowly becoming a Heartless Hybrid, the grey hair and golden evil eyes of darkness, hands blood red and wielding Xehanort's Keyblade instead of Mickey's transformed one.
'What?' Aqua thought to herself, horrified as her heart stopped for a split moment. Was this...another hallucination? And why was this feeling so horribly familiar?
"You know nothing of this world's darkness. The darkness has seeped into those of this world. Sonic the Hedgehog must not be trusted. He has become one of the darkness..." Anti-Aqua spoke darkly.
'It can't be true. This isn't real! This is-'
"Aqua? Aqua!" Ven's voice cried out, startling the blue-haired woman out of her hallucination episode, causing her to turn to face her younger friend as he and everybody else gazed at her worriedly.
"Are you okay, Master Aqua?" Kairi asked in concern.
Blinking before turning back to where she spotted her darker self only to notice that she was gone, Aqua's eyes widened before clutching her chest in deep concern, a deep pain of guilt and uncertainty stronger than it was before creeping up into her heart.
"I...I may have seen a phantom. From the past." She muttered, her stomach dropping a little, much to the shock and worry of her friends who all shared glances.
"Oh no..." Mickey murmured worriedly as Yen Sid's warning came back to him.
The effects of this world's darkness was already creep up to them...and targeting them through hallucinations. By bringing out their worst traumatic experiences.
In another part of Mobius, the desert, sprawled slightly was Vanitas Remnant, who, after the spell of King Mickey's dimensional travel went wrong, the evil clone of the original Vanitas groaned, before standing up and gazed around his surroundings.
Not sure where he was, the dark Remnant then sensed a presence and leaped and jumped before he landed on top of a rock formation. There he saw an unfamiliar city that was Shamar, and the piece of Agrabah from the Realm of Light joined together with a purple lining showing that the fusion was not yet fully complete.
"Well, this is interesting. It looks like I damaged the puny King's spell so much that it caused parts of other worlds to merge with this one. A new world joined and I ended up in a different place. This will be good." Vanitas Remnant smirked under his helmet, chuckling evilly. "With this happening, there is no way Sora will return and no way his pathetic friends will be able to fix this up. They'll be completely distracted, it will give me a chance to find Ventus..."
He then removed his helmet and revealed his face: Same as Vanitas and Sora's, but with white streaks in his hair similar to Xigbar's, his eyes still golden evil, but with a tinge of deep red in the middle and replacing the black pupil.
"And become whole once again." Vanitas Remnant smirked.
Once he gained his goal, he will be unstoppable.
A/N: Sonic and Sora both know of the others' involvements, but now even Aqua is starting to experience horrible hallucinations. What will happen next? We'll have to wait and see.
See you later!