Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor One Piece.

BLP 25:

"This is all your fault!" Sora shoved his hands into Luffy's chest and pushed the pirate backwards.

"Me?" Luffy yelled back at him, more in surprise and confusion than anything else.

"Yeah you!" Sora yelled out.

"Hey Sora, calm down," Usopp began.

"No!" Sora shouted. He glared at Usopp and then snapped his attention right back to Luffy, "You haven't been taking this seriously! All the worlds are at stake and you're acting like a child! You can't just do whatever you want!"

"Sora, come on," Nami began. She looked down at the wooden floor and clenched her eyes shut as she thought about the world that collapsed behind them, and everyone they met while on it. "We tried-"

"Nami," Luffy scolded, quieting his navigator down. Luffy frowned at the spiky-haired boy standing on his ship and he stated, "I'm a pirate-"

"I don't care!" Sora yelled at him. The boy shook his head a few times despite the disapproving look Luffy was giving him. Sora snapped his gaze up and glared into Luffy's eyes, "I can't believe I actually considered joining your crew! I could never be a pirate. All you care about is yourself!"

Luffy had enough. He punched a fist forward. Luffy's fist went towards Sora's stomach, and then it slammed into a steel shaft that appeared in front of the kid. Luffy looked surprised that Sora saw him coming and blocked in time. Sora parried Luffy's fist away but he did skid back far enough to put some distance between them. He frowned deeply and slashed his Keyblade in front of him, "That's right Luffy, you're selfish! You don't care about anyone but yourself, I realize that now!"

"That's not true Sora!" Chopper yelled at the kid. "Stop saying that about Luffy!"

"It's the truth!" Sora shouted. "All this time, I've been going to other worlds trying to save them from the darkness. Leon told us that we have the keys to saving the worlds, and you never once looked like you cared about that!"

"That's because I don't," Luffy said casually. He kept his dark expression though and continued, "But I care about my crew, and I'm going to find them-"

"Do you really?" Sora asked, and the tone of his voice showed his was serious. Luffy's face took on a look of genuine surprise, and a little bit of hurt that Sora thought that way about him. Sora could see that his question hurt, but he did not feel bad at the moment, "Because Luffy, I've been with you since the worlds fell apart, and I don't think you care about your crew one bit."

"Sora that's enough," Usopp growled at the kid.

"That's not okay, or true," Nami began.

"Then why," Sora muttered. "Then why did we spend so long at the WMAT?!" Everyone closed their mouths, except Chopper who looked around confusedly, wondering what that was. "You know why?" Sora asked, and he took a step back towards Luffy. "It's because you decided it's what you wanted to do. You were looking for your crew because you wanted to, but as soon as something else came up that seemed like fun, you forgot all about getting to other worlds to look for our friends!"

"That's not fair Sora, you wanted to stay too," Nami said in a scolding tone.

"But I was willing to leave!" Sora yelled back at her. She looked taken aback by his loud tone but Sora continued in it, "We were only there because Luffy crashed the ship in the first place! We didn't find any of our friends! There were barely any Heartless there! The Heartless that showed up were all after us anyway! And we still spent more time on that world than any other, all because of you!" He shouted and pointed a finger back at Luffy, who now opened his eyes a little wider as he actually listened to what Sora said.

"We were stuck there for days while Donald fixed the ship, and then stayed for days after because you wanted to see the end of the tournament! Because you wanted to eat more meals, and if we did things your way, we would still be there, off fighting that Demon King or whatever, trying to avenge Krillin!" Sora was panting hard and he needed to take a breath for a second. "Almost an entire week," Sora muttered, his eyes shadowed over. "We wasted so much time, and now Halloween Town has paid the price."

"You don't know-" Usopp started.

"If we got here a few days earlier," Sora interrupted. "Do you really not think we could have stopped Oogie Boogie? We were so close, and he already had his plan under way. Jack said the Heartless weren't even attacking anyone a few days ago, and we could have been there a few days ago. We could have been there a week ago, because that was our original destination that day we crashed anyway." He turned from Usopp and looked back at Luffy who was no longer making eye contact with him. "An entire world, lost, because we were too late to save it."

The others on the ship looked down sadly, some with ashamed looks on their faces. Goofy frowned and bowed his head, more sad that Sora was acting this way than anything, but a part of him agreeing with Sora's speech.

"Awww," Donald quacked in a sad tone, bowing his head as well as he thought about Jack, and Zero, and Sally, and all the residents of Halloween Town they failed to save. Even the three mischievous kids, Shock, Lock, and Barrel, did not deserve to be lost to the darkness like that.

Zoro told me we should have left Destiny Islands when we had the chance, but I wanted to see other worlds. I didn't think I would be responsible for saving them though! I don't, I didn't want to have to do that. Why'd the Keyblade choose me? Luffy looked down at his hands and clenched them in front of himself angrily. I wanted to win the tournament, and see it to the end, so why do I… feel guilty? Those were things I wanted to do, that I enjoyed, I shouldn't regret them. The pirate closed his eyes and frowned deeper as he shook his head a few times.

"You may have been the captain of your pirate ship, Luffy," Sora started up again. "But on this adventure, our priority has to be saving the worlds. If you can't make that your number one most important goal, then-"

"But it's not your goal either, right?" Nami suddenly stated. Sora was so into his speech that he was surprised Nami interrupted him, but when he thought about it he himself had to bow his head a little. "You may have been closing all those Keyholes, but you're just here looking for Kairi and Riku right?" Nami said. Usopp glanced at her nervously and Nami also felt strange bringing up the topic. She did not like making Sora feel sad, but the way he was acting right now, insulting Luffy, her captain, she couldn't take it.

Sora stayed quiet for quite a while. He stood there looking down and Nami thought she hit a chord with him, until he snapped his head up with a determined expression on his face. "Maybe at first," he began, and Nami looked surprised at the answer. "And I plan on saving Kairi, and getting Riku to stop using the darkness, but I have another goal now. Wonderland, the Coliseum, Bikini Bottom, the Deep Jungle, Agrabah, Earth, Neverland and London, and Traverse Town too. Every world I've been to has people on it, people I've made friends with, friends who are being threatened by the Heartless, who need me to save them." He looked around at all the passengers on the Going Merry, "They need us to save them."

Smoker nodded at the boy and though he had been staying silent this whole time, he one hundred percent agreed with everything the kid was saying. Nami and Usopp looked at each other and frowned, but nodded their heads. Robin had a straight look on her face, her lips neither in a smile nor a frown, but she did nod slightly, wondering what happened that made her turn into such an important person for the survival of the worlds. Donald and Goofy looked at each other seriously and nodded their heads, before looking back in to Sora who opened his mouth again.

"Luffy," he started speaking directly to the pirate again and Luffy rose back up his gaze to look Sora in the eyes. "We have the keys to stopping Maleficent. We were given the Keyblades for a reason. Hook said that Riku was going to Ruins of Hollow Bastion, the castle where Maleficent resides." Sora rose up a hand and pointed towards the back of the Going Merry where the Gummi Ship was parked, "Now the navigation system has one world left on it that we have not visited yet, but we also have the navigation gummi we got from closing the Keyhole on Big Ben. I suggest we go visit this last world, see if Sanji's there, and then leave as soon as we can. Then we go back to Traverse Town and have Cid install the last navigation gummi, because I have a feeling we're close Luffy. The Heartless are getting stronger as fast as we are. If we don't stop Maleficent soon, she's going to win."

"We won't let that happen," Luffy muttered. Sora nodded at him and opened his mouth, but Luffy continued first, "But Sora, I don't like what you said before. About me not caring about my nakama," he growled. Sora looked a little nervous suddenly as it seemed like what he said before was more out of the anger he was in than what he really wanted to say to Luffy, his friend. "And how Halloween Town was all my fault."

Sora looked down and realized that may have been a little too harsh. "You're right, we were all there, it's on me too-"

"You want to be a hero don't you?" Luffy questioned, his voice grim.

Sora was confused by the question so he glanced next to him at Goofy, then looked down at his other side where Donald stood. Both of the animals shrugged at him since they were confused by the question as well. "Um, yeah, of course," Sora replied, like it was obvious. "I thought we already were really, but heroes wouldn't let worlds get destroyed right out from under them…"

"I don't want to be a hero," Luffy stated. Everyone there looked at the pirate captain in surprise. "Don't get me wrong, I like heroes, but I am a pirate," Luffy continued. Most people were still looking at him confusedly so he decided to explain. "Say there's a plate of meat, a hero would share the meat. I want all the meat!" He looked up to see if Sora understood what he was saying, but not a single person on the ship understood the words coming out of his mouth. "I want all the meat Sora! All of it!"

On the second repetition, Sora's eyes widened and he nodded his head once. Luffy was admitting that Sora was right, at least in part. Sora called him selfish, and Luffy was not denying that. "I wanted to do the tournament, and I want to save my nakama, and beat up Maleficent too!" Luffy's mouth curled up in a smile, and he yelled, "I want all of it!"

Oddly enough, the others felt like Luffy was actually making sense with this analogy, which kind of scared them. Sora smiled for a few seconds, but he frowned again and said, "We can't have all of it though. That's just being greedy," Luffy frowned at him again and Sora kept going, "We can try to do everything, like revisit all the worlds we've already been to. I want to see Tarzan, and Spongebob, Peter Pan, and Hercules again. We all do. But time's running out, and when we stop Maleficent the worlds will go back to normal and we won't be able to visit those worlds anymore."

Luffy's eyes went wide and Sora continued while looking him straight in the eyes, "You understand, right Luffy?" He waited for the pirate to respond and when he didn't, Sora took a step forward and called out, "We can't have it all! There's no time! When we beat Maleficent we won't be able to travel between worlds anymore. Everything will be back the way it should be. You can go back to being a pirate, I'll have my friends back, Smoker can return to the Marines, and Donald and Goofy will find the King! I know there are still things you want to do. I still want to go back to the Coliseum and enter in that Hades Cup that Chip and Dale keep telling us about. I want to visit Aladdin and Abu again, but instead of that I'm going to try and find Jasmine and get her back to them! Even though I know that if I manage to do that, then I myself won't be able to visit them ever again."

Luffy ground his teeth together and he was hating everything coming out of Sora's mouth. There was no denying the truth in his words though and that only made him more upset. "Let's get going," Luffy said. "We're in a hurry aren't we?" He turned and started walking away, his fists clenched and his mind full of different, negative thoughts. He wanted to do so much, so much that was now becoming clear to him that he would never be able to do. Instead he had a set goal that he did not choose for himself, that some weird weapon chose for him. I never wanted this, he thought angrily. I never wanted this responsibility. Why, why me?

Sora turned his head to Donald and his expression was serious, and sad, and he spoke up, "Check the Gummi Ship. Let's get going to that next world."

Donald wanted to quack at him not to tell him what to do, but Sora turned away after saying it and walked away on his own. He still looked depressed and when the boy closed his eyes all he could see was Jack waving at him, before the world under the skeleton's feet came out from under him. He imagined Jack, and Sally, and Zero's faces as they fell up into the void before vanishing into darkness.

Sora rubbed his eyes with his sleeve and he lowered his arm to show a much more determined expression on his face. He stared off the side of the ship and clenched a fist in front of him, Kairi, Riku, I'm on my way. He imagined Riku disappearing into the dark portal with Kairi limp in his arms and his heart started racing even faster. No matter what it takes, I'm going to save you. Both of you. And we're going to make it back to the islands someday. We just have to.

Hours passed on the Going Merry flying through space. Donald worked on fixing the Gummi Ship until he could finally turn on its engines without clouds of smoke billowing out of it. When the duck finished up, he walked around the oddly quiet deck of the ship.

Donald turned the corner and as he turned it a smaller animal creature was turning the other way. The two of them bumped into each other and both fell back on their butts. Donald shook around his head and then glared forward at the furry reindeer sitting in front of him. Chopper jumped to his feet fast, "Ah! Sorry Donald," Chopper apologized, still a little nervous around the duck who did not want him traveling with them.

Donald stood up as well and he tapped his right flipper on the ground in annoyance. Chopper thought the duck was going to start angrily quacking, but Donald spoke up in his normal high-pitched voice, "Why aren't any Heartless appearing?" The court magician had been wondering it from the first time he got on the ship. Captain Hook's ship was crawling with Heartless so he did not see why the Going Merry was not.

Chopper relaxed and smiled at the duck wearing blue clothes and a blue wizard's hat. "It was the King," Chopper replied, making Donald's eyes turn huge. "He cast magic protection over Merry to keep Heartless out."

"Whaaa?" Donald questioned in disbelief. "My magic's only good enough to cover the Gummi Ship! And I thought that was big," he quacked in annoyance as a feat he had previously bragged about to Sora suddenly became a lot less impressive in his eyes.

Chopper started sweating and he held up his hands. "Wow! Your magic can cover that whole ship? That's amazing too!"

Donald grinned and he crossed his arms. "That's right," he said, and he stuck out his chest. "I am the court magician after all."

Usopp stepped out of the cabin of the Merry and he glanced right to see the two animals in the middle of a conversation. He was about to walk over to them when he spotted someone else and turned his gaze to the bow of the ship. His eyebrows dipped in and he frowned at the sight of the man's back.

The long-nosed pirate started walking across the deck to the bow. He glanced up at the sail of the Going Merry and smiled nostalgically as he remembered painting Luffy's skull and crossbones on it so many years before. He looked back down more seriously though as he approached the front railing and the man with white hair crossing his arms and glaring out into the void of space. Lasers shot off the ship occasionally to clear their path or blow up Heartless ships, but it seemed like Sora or whoever was piloting did not need any help. Usopp stepped up to Smoker's back and he stood there silently for a moment. "You can feel me standing here, can't you?" Usopp finally asked, and considering Smoker did not flinch or act surprised at all that there was someone standing behind him, he figured he was correct.

Smoker's eyebrows lifted up and he turned his head a little. "What do you want?" He asked the muscular man behind him.

Usopp's teeth clenched as he stepped up so he was on Smoker's side. He looked out into the void and imagined himself in the square of Halloween Town. People were running from the Heartless and darkness all around them, but whenever he tried helping them he got stopped by Heartless that attacked him. He thought about how he had to use potions to keep himself going until it was time to leave, and how the Heartless were so strong that it took several combos just to take down a single Shadow. "The Heartless are getting stronger," Usopp stated, his voice quiet but loud enough for Smoker to hear him. "I need your help."

"My help?" Smoker asked, annoyed and confused at the same time.

Usopp turned and looked at the older man seriously. "I saw you hurt Luffy. He's made of rubber, but you punched him and he bruised." Smoker frowned deeper and turned away from Usopp. "Don't pretend like it was the darkness, and I know it had nothing to do with your Devil Fruit. There's this, energy, that you used to fight him, and I've seen you use it against the Heartless too. It works! If I could-"

"There's no chance," Smoker started to growl, interrupting Usopp. He stopped himself, but his message was clear. He knew the more muscular man who was also wearing a white toga knew what he meant too, so he turned and glared into his eyes. "You are a pirate. For me, a Marine, to teach you Haki- it's unthinkable."

Usopp became quiet for a few seconds, and then his own face got darker and he growled, "This 'Haki,' a rubberman isn't the only one who can get affected by it huh?" Smoker's eyes turned huge and Usopp narrowed his own even more at the reaction.

"That has nothing to do with it," Smoker snarled back. He saw Usopp opening his mouth to counter and he snapped first, "But yes, I am also against teaching pirates my weaknesses. Even if we are working towards the same goal right now, when this is over you don't really think Straw Hat is going to stop trying to be the King of the Pirates, do you?" Usopp closed his mouth as he had no response.

Smoker looked back out over the void and nodded, "You may say that you changed and became a hero, but I can see it in your eyes that if we return, you're going to stay with Straw Hat and become a pirate again."

Usopp looked out into the void as well, and his voice became softer though it kept the serious edge to it. "You just said 'if,'" Usopp started, confusing the Marine at first. "Which tells me" the long-nosed man continued, "that you understand we're fighting a losing battle." Usopp's fists clenched over the railing, "Then you also understand that we need to be as strong as possible when the next fight arises. Next time Maleficent appears," Usopp added, and both he and Smoker felt the shame of their last encounter with her in Agrabah. "Or Zoro," Usopp continued, and Smoker grimaced even more thinking about the WMAT, while Usopp thought about the scar across his torso.

Usopp darted his eyes to the side and asked, "Do you really think we can half-ass this and make it back?" Smoker's eyes shadowed and he clenched his fists hard. "Do you think it's going to be easy getting Tashigi back? So easy that I won't even need any Haki to be able to help you out?" Smoker's teeth clenched harder and a vein popped on his forehead. Usopp whispered, "There're less than a dozen of us, trying to stop entire armies of Heartless. We are fighting the literal embodiment of darkness. If there is any way for me to become stronger, I need to try it. So if you're going to force my hand," Smoker turned, expecting Usopp to be getting ready for a fight. Usopp knew he could not fight Smoker though, and the Marine's eyes went wide as he saw Usopp's head bowing. "Then I will beg you," Usopp said through clenched teeth. "If that is what it takes," he finished, and bowed even farther.

Smoker's clenched fists shook and his body trembled. Then, he stopped all at once. His hands opened up, and he grabbed a cigar with one hand and a lighter with his other. He lit the cigar in his mouth and took a puff, "Stand up."

Usopp rose his head and saw Smoker glaring at him. The Marine Captain nodded his head once at the look Usopp gave him and the long-nosed pirate grinned wide. "Let's start right now," Usopp said. "There's no telling how soon the next world will come up."

Smoker glowered at the tan-skinned younger man for a second, before sighing and starting off exactly as he remembered being taught. He could see Aokiji's face in his mind and imagined the Ice Man telling him all about the three types of Haki. Smoker looked over Usopp's head as he talked and looked back at the cabin. Conqueror's... Straw Hat... Might leave that part out of the lesson.

Inside the cabin of the Going Merry, Robin stood behind the kitchen counter, going through the shelves looking for something. She pushed a large pot to the side and a smile lifted on her face. Robin reached in and grabbed a book that she had quickly stored there a day that seemed so long ago to her now. She was only reminded of it because of the destruction of Halloween Town, as once she saw that black sphere of darkness in the sky, everything that happened the day Destiny Islands fell came rushing back to her.

Robin thought about the screams of her fellow crewmates, and how she did not have time to go back to her room to store her book, so she quickly put it in a random cupboard before heading to the deck. She was reading the book on that fateful day to distract herself from the ominous message she received earlier in the day from a man in a black cloak. As she looked at the book in her hands, she felt shivers down her spine thinking about that day, that horrible day. So much of it after leaving the ship was blurry to her, but earlier in the day, she could remember every word that strange man said to her and Sora.

"I've come to see the door to this world… This world has been connected. Tied to the darkness, soon to be completely eclipsed…" Robin's eyes suddenly widened and she lowered the book in her hands down to the counter in front of her. Wait a second. That man, who- who was he? Robin got a bead of sweat on the side of her face and she wracked her mind over the stories her other comrades had talked about since she reunited with them, along with her own experiences. Jafar did not know me when I first introduced myself to him, and Zoro, Zoro was not yet the villain he is now. Is Maleficent not our true enemy?

Robin's face started sweating and her hands clenched on the side of the counter. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." The twenty-eight year old woman's eyes opened wide, What if, we still do not know what, or who, it is we are fighting? Maleficent, the Keyholes, what if they are not the true problem? What about, the door? He mentioned something being beyond the door, and I thought he meant the one in the cave. It's why I went there when the world was collapsing, but, but maybe that was just the door to that world like he said earlier. The door- Robin's eyes opened wide and she started sweating more. The door! "It seemed that my opening the door has opened a path to interworld travel… I must know what this Keyblade is. A key opens doors. It must be connected to the door I have opened."

She stepped around the corner of the counter looking deep in thought, not even noticing that she left her book behind. Ansem's Report 9. It mentioned the "door" too. If this doorway can allow interworld travel, if it is what I believe it to be, then we still do not know anything! We don't, we don't understand anything.

Just as Robin was about to freak out, a door on the inside of the cabin opened up. She turned her head and looked at the young man walking into the kitchen with a deep frown on his face. "Hello, Luffy-san," she began, still a little shaken by what she was just thinking. She thought about bringing it up with him for a moment, but shook her head as he would not understand, nor did she think he would care to. "Why the troubled face?"

"Food," Luffy moaned.

Someone else came walking in behind him and she bonked him lightly on the head as she walked by. "I told you, the Merry is all out. We'll stock up on more at the next world."

"You said that last time," Luffy groaned.

"Well, before I could go buy some," Nami began, but she fell silent. There was no need to finish the sentence anyway and both of them looked down. Nami shifted her gaze after a second and looked at the counter. "What's this?" She questioned, and reached over to grab the book on it. "The Rainbow Mist?" Nami wondered.

"That would be mine," Robin said to the younger woman who turned back to her. Nami somewhat remembered seeing Robin reading something of the sort on the ship before and she nodded, handing the story to the woman in front of her. "Would you like to read it Nami-san?"

"Maybe some other time," Nami replied. Her stomach rumbled and she glanced over at her captain who frowned disappointedly some more at her. "What am I going to do about it?!" She yelled at him, and he just pouted and sat down at the counter with his chin in his hands.

The door to the cabin opened up and the three of them glanced over at the doorway. The boy who walked in looked around at them, and Sora made eye contact with Luffy for a second. He could not hold his gaze there for long though and he turned his head to the side. "Goofy says we'll be at the next world soon," Sora said. He turned fully around and walked out of the cabin, letting the door close behind him.

Nami sighed and she tilted her head to the side. "It's going to be awkward now isn't it?" She mumbled, and glanced back at her captain to see what he thought. Luffy was not paying attention to her though, staring across the counter instead at the opposite wall with a distant look in his eyes. "Aahhh," Nami sighed exhaustedly. This needs to end soon. As soon as she thought it she shivered, because for some reason she felt that it really was going to end soon, and that feeling did not give her any relief.

Hollow Bastion

"I don't get it," Riku snapped at the evil woman in front of him. "You said I could have Kairi."

"And there she is," Maleficent replied, motioning towards the still girl lying on the floor near them. The two of them stood in front of the large glowing heart covered in sparking electricity to show it was still not working. Maleficent was not in the mood for Riku's whining as she stared at the Keyhole that should have been working by now.

"Her heart," Riku growled. "I may have her body, but that's not her if she does not have her heart."

Maleficent hummed to herself. "You are indeed correct," she said, turning from the portal and slamming her staff down. "The other Princesses of Heart are all here, and now with Kairi here as well, the Keyhole should be ours. However," she turned her head and glared back at the sparking heart of different colors. The top left of the heart was red, the bottom portion was dark blue, and the top right was green, but there were lightning bolts sparking out of each section and forming a mass of electricity in the middle that kept the Keyhole from becoming complete.

Riku's green eyes lit up as he spun back to Kairi. "Maybe the reason your door won't open, is that Kairi doesn't have her heart," he suggested. The green-faced woman frowned and Riku glared at her, "Which means, getting Kairi's heart back is our top priority now. Not capturing more of those Keyholes," he said the last part in disgust, and had to turn away as he finished.

Maleficent saw him turn and she herself grinned. She walked towards the silver haired boy and spoke, "Is something troubling you?" Riku did not respond and she put a hand on his shoulder, "You can tell me. Remember, I am here if ever you need help."

He brushed her hand off and stepped back, "Yeah, whatever." He turned away and under his breath muttered, "What was the point of taking that Keyhole? All you did was throw a world into darkness." Riku turned back to her and glared in her eyes, "Are you just insane? Did you get a kick out of it?"

"Hahaha!" Maleficent cackled and held her arms out to the sides. "You caught me," she said in a sarcastic, condescending tone. "Come now Riku, you must know me better than that."

Riku frowned as that did not seem like Maleficent's way of doing things. "Then," Riku started, and an idea came to his mind. To test the idea, he held out his right hand, and to his surprise, ten Shadows emerged out of black holes on the floor simultaneously. Even Maleficent stared at the Heartless in surprise, He is so powerful. Just testing his strength he can create so many! "So it's true," Riku muttered out loud. "The more worlds that fall to the darkness, the more powerful it becomes."

"Very good my boy," Maleficent responded. "And with those newfound powers of yours, soon you will be able to reclaim Kairi's heart, and we will complete the Keyhole."

"Sure," Riku said, not really caring about that last part as much as the saving Kairi's heart bit. Riku pulled out his sword, a long curved blade with a black hilt and a sharp red blade edge. "But-" he began, but stopped himself before he continued. Maleficent looked at him, awaiting the rest of his sentence, and Riku finally blurted it out. "What was the point of Pinocchio?"

Maleficent's eyebrows rose. The teen had never mentioned it when she gave him the mission, as his reward was getting Kairi back. Even after the deed was done, he did not question the orders as Maleficent fulfilled her part of the deal and he now had Kairi, as incomplete as she was. "Did you start to care for that thing? It was a puppet, no more-"

"If he was just a puppet, why was he so important to you?" Riku snapped. The fact that he used the pronoun 'he' did not go unnoticed by the witch in front of him. "When I got Kairi back, I figured maybe the heart you got from a puppet could, I don't know, restore hers! But, it just feels like it had no purpose now."

"Put the puppet's heart in that girl's body?" Maleficent asked. "Ridiculous. You do not yet understand the intricacies of the heart." Maleficent paused and looked across the hall, past the steps and all the princesses in their tubes where they currently rested. "Perhaps," she continued, her mouth curling into a smirk, "our mutual friend can explain to you what you want to know."

Riku looked at her oddly before turning around and looking across the hall himself. He spotted a man in a black cloak on the other end, standing there with his back against the wall like he had been there the whole time. Riku walked closer to the edge, and his eyes widened at the sight of the green haired man standing there. Without a glance back at Maleficent, he ran forwards and jumped down from the top section all the way to the floor below.

"What are you doing here?" Riku called out as he approached. He slowed down in front of the green haired man, the swordsman with one black hilt at his side, whose body was bigger than the last time Riku saw him, even if it was hidden underneath his cloak. "Zoro?" Riku questioned.

Zoro glared down at the kid but Riku did not flinch at his gaze. Zoro suddenly imagined himself somewhere distant, somewhere he had long since forgotten about. He saw himself on that beach, facing off against this kid who picked up a wooden sword and tried to fight him, who fought better than Zoro remembered himself being at the boy's age. And on that beach, other blurry images started to form in his mind, and Zoro wiped the mental image away as he refocused on the kid in front of him.

"Riku," Zoro said. "You look, the same," he sounded almost, annoyed, and Riku looked at the man in confusion.

"Yeah," the boy replied slowly. He looked Zoro up and down, "You don't though." Riku thought for a second about asking him why he looked so much older, but he decided against it and questioned instead, "Do you know what makes a heart tick?" Zoro looked down into the boy's green eyes and could see Riku was being completely serious. "It's Kairi," Riku continued, "her heart is, well, it's not working. Maleficent says it's missing, but-"

"So the Heartless got to her too," Zoro muttered, mainly to himself.

Riku heard him though, and his eyebrows lifted up. "'Too?' What do you mean?"

Zoro frowned, but he did not have anything better to do at the moment and he turned around. Riku did not know where he was going, but it seemed like the swordsman wanted him to follow along so he did. They walked out of the room and across another dark hall until they reached one of the inner hallways of the castle. There was a large hollow area in the middle of the hall with electric bars working as railings on the sides of the platforms.

The two of them navigated the maze of a castle to a much lower floor. While they walked down a flight of stairs towards a circular area that had a fountain in it and many marble pillars near the walls, Riku finally spoke up, "Where are we going? It feels like we're about to leave the castle."

Zoro did not answer and just kept walking. "Hey!" Riku shouted, and came to a full stop. "Answer me!" Zoro took another step towards the door on the other side of the stairs, then stopped completely as he felt something behind him.

"There is a woman here who has also lost her heart," Zoro said calmly. The boy holding up a black and red sword lowered it a little while staring at Zoro's back. Suddenly, Riku's body froze and his hair stuck up on the back of his neck. The reason, of course, was the voice speaking directly behind him. "A sword is not a toy. Raise it towards me again, and you will never raise it again."

Zoro's image disappeared in front of Riku and the young teen gulped at how fast the older swordsman moved. Zoro walked past him and finished stepping down the stairs again. He walked halfway across the room to where he was when he vanished before glancing back, and Riku jumped as he remembered what he was doing. He jogged across the room to catch up with Zoro and he regained his nerves as he followed behind the man. This is how strong he became after accepting the power of darkness. Maleficent was right, only by using the darkness will I have a chance at saving Kairi. Sorry Sora, you can run around playing hero if you like, I know what I need to do.

Back up at the top of Hollow Bastion, Maleficent had a crystal ball sitting on top of a platform floating in front of her. The crystal was foggy, but she rubbed her hands on it and it became clearer. "What is it?" Maleficent asked. "Have you found your world's Keyhole?"

"Not yet," the higher-pitched voice on the other side replied. Her voice was scratchy and she spoke like she was shrieking all the time. "But the plan is all set! I can't believe that fool Oogie Boogie allowed his world to collapse!"

"You must be careful," Maleficent said. "The Keyhole's power is beyond that of the darkness we already utilize. Be careful of its hold, and if it becomes too strong, retreat to Hollow Bastion."

"HAHAHAHA! Be careful? If I get the Keyhole, that means I'll already have my hands on that damn Triton's trident. And once I get that, no one, will be able to stop me! Hahahahaaa!"

The crystal ball started to get foggy again, but it stopped and the frowning witch with green skin looked down at it confused. She thought the octopus-woman talking to her would end with that passive aggressive remark, but there seemed to be more on Ursula's mind. "Those brats with the Keyblades, my scouts tell me they're on their way here," she began.

"They were too late to save Halloween Town," Maleficent remarked. "Soon, Atlantica will fall to the same fate." This time, Maleficent allowed the crystal ball to lose focus and cut the connection between their worlds. She smirked as she imagined the flustered, furious look on Ursula's face at the moment considering the veiled insult she made at the end there.

Maleficent turned away from her crystal ball and looked around the room at the six princesses lined up on her walls. She turned back and stared up at the Keyhole that was one step away from being completed. Then, her gaze shifted down and her grin lowered at the auburn haired girl lying on her back, motionless. All my plans are coming to fruition, but you are holding them back. Why? Why does it all come down to you? What makes you so special? Maleficent snarled and her fists clenched hard, so hard she could hear creaking in the staff in her right hand. She relaxed after a moment though, and her grin returned to her. No matter though. Soon, very soon, I will finish the Keyhole. It is only a matter of time. And the only ones who could possibly stop me, are about to meet their fates at the bottom of the ocean.

A/N Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! The stakes have been raised as a world sinks into darkness just like Destiny Islands did. The crew may be getting larger, but the darkness is getting stronger so their larger numbers will not mean as much. Riku makes it back to Hollow Bastion with Kairi, but neither him nor Maleficent are able to get her heart back. It seems like that's everyone's goal now, getting Kairi her heart. Sora wants to for obvious reasons, just like Riku, while Maleficent wants Kairi's heart so that she can complete the Keyhole. The Straw Hats are almost all reunited now, and Tashigi is not far from Smoker's grasp. Things are quickly escalating to a climax, but Robin notices something as she thinks back on their journey so far. There may be one other player in the game who no one is accounting for, and just the thought of him gives Robin the chills! Well, I hope I built up some suspense for the upcoming chapters! Thanks for reading! 'Till next time!

avatoa chapter 24 . 8h ago

Dude, your ass is so grass right now, you hear me?! You basically destroyed one of my most favorite Disney Worlds! I am so ticked right now!

;) Sorry about that, but hopefully the heroes will be able to put things right by the end of the story. Without some consequences, I could see Luffy wanting to fly all over space and going to every world imaginable. Things have finally gotten serious here, and they're going to be rushing to Hollow Bastion now to prevent another Halloween Town type of disaster. Thanks for the review! (Even if my ass is grass in it)