A/N Hey guys! I reread Broken Log Pose earlier this month and got interested enough in it again that I decided to write a bunch of chapters almost to the end of the story. I've currently got up to 34 completed, so look forward to some quick uploads of the next chapters!
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the related properties it contained, nor do I own One Piece
BLP 28:
"BOW BEFORE MY POWER!" Ursula shouted, and explosions went off all around her body. The four fighters facing her had to back up before the blast, but they all rushed forward as soon as the explosions settled.
The witch larger and darker than ever laughed madly as they attacked her. Goofy's turtle shell spun into the giant octopus monster's black neck, while Donald smacked his wand into the side of her head to try and recover some MP. Sora was slashing his Keyblade back and forth in the center of her face, while her eyes just above where he was hitting were pointed straight down at him. Her mouth was twisted in a big smile with her sharp teeth locked together.
"Gum Gum GIGANTO PISTOL!" Luffy slammed his right giant fist forward from Ursula's left side. She shot her eyes that direction, and then a circle of orange pillars illuminated around her.
Two more hits, Sora thought, trying to finish up his combo before backing away. Donald and Goofy were quicker to back up, and Donald saw Sora caught finishing up his combo. "Sora!" the duck shouted. Donald waved his wand in the air and Sora surrounded in green healing magic. The explosion went off a second later, no longer a circle of individual pillars of explosions but an entire closed circle of raging infernos. Sora winced inside it, but the healing magic Donald cast on him a second before kept him fighting with the start of a new combo.
Sora's new combo got cut off only one strike in though, as Luffy's huge fist pushed through the explosion and slammed into the top of Ursula's head not far from the huge golden crowd sticking off the top of it. Ursula's head snapped away, her huge body actually moving through the water from that hit. Then she spun, and Sora's eyes went wide while he backed away from the witch's head. Goofy gulped as he had looked down for a moment, and he saw a huge increase in the thickness of the stream of darkness rising from the ocean floor. The darkness rose up under what had been Ursula's dress but was now just a giant expanding darkness beneath the massive witch's body. The black coating pressed tight to her body got thicker, and the trident she held in her left hand glowed brighter golden to suck up more wisps of darkness that were ripping off of her body. Ursula's face started steaming with black lines, the whites of her eyes filled with dark swirls, and even between her sharpened teeth the tendrils started spilling out.
Then Ursula's furious look faltered for a second, because the man she was so mad at became visible on the other side of the faded explosion. Luffy floated there, a tiny merman only a foot tall who was pouting as he looked down at his hands. "What happened?" He wondered in a much higher pitch than his usual voice. Donald, Goofy, and Sora all spun away from Ursula who they had started to charge again despite her scary look intensifying.
"I thought you fixed that!" Donald shouted at the tiny pirate who had been using Gear Third without shrinking lately.
"Me too!" Luffy yelled right back.
"YOU INSIGNIFICANT FOOL!" Ursula roared, and Luffy spun back only to drop his bottom lip at how much bigger she looked while he was a fraction of his normal size. She panted a few times, then she rose up her huge arms that were dripping with darkness and grabbed her trident with both hands on the shaft.
"Oh that's not good," Sora said, and he charged at Ursula to start hitting her in the face: in the eyes, the teeth, everywhere he thought he could distract her.
"Swim away, Luffy!" Goofy called up.
"Yeah," Luffy said and started swimming, though he was panting hard just from being in that small form. He started swimming, made it three feet, then did a somersault in the water while flailing his arms at his sides. "I don't know how to swim," he said, confused at why it didn't feel the same anymore.
Donald gawked at the pirate, then he realized it himself. Luffy's arms and tail won't push the same amount of water away, and he's weaker! WAACK! He's gonna get hit! That's not gonna be a simple Cure fix either! "Sora…" Donald yelled as he started swimming up towards Luffy using his tentacles.
"NOW! TASTE MY WRATH!" Ursula's glowing golden trident trembled in her grip, and she laughed madly, "HAAAHAHAHA!" The beam of golden light flew out of Ursula's towards the rubber merman who turned towards it with wide eyes.
Sora had just pulled back from Ursula's face that he was hitting until the last second still in hopes of distracting her or even just beating her before she could get the attack off. He pulled away and spun, as Goofy came around the other side of Ursula's head from where he was attacking similarly to Sora. They each stared over in shock as a strange duck-octopus hybrid creature grabbed a one foot tall merman with one of its tentacles. Donald wound up while Luffy was turning his head, and Donald finished his shout towards Sora from a few seconds ago, "DON'T LOSE-" The beam of yellow slammed into Donald and his encouraging final shout turned into a scream of pain in a second. "AAHHWAWAAAA!"
"Donald!" Sora and Goofy shouted at the same time back towards the beam.
"HAAAHAHAHA!" Ursula laughed at the top of her lungs. The beam started to fade as it flew off into the depths of the dark ocean, and the ocean itself seemed even darker in the following seconds as a darkened form fell out of the beam around where Donald was engulfed.
Luffy was spinning out away from the edge of the beam that just barely missed him, and he stared over with eyes as wide as plates as well. Then his eyes widened even more and the black pupils in the centers of them dilated, smaller white circles appearing in the centers. "Hey! DONALD!" Luffy screamed down. He reached, then his body wobbled in the water. He grit his teeth and knew he could not swim down to him at the speed Donald was sinking, and he couldn't even try throwing an arm or it would flip him over. His eyes lit up though as there was one thing he could do, and Luffy held up his hands and created a white hilt in them with a black Keyblade sticking out of it. "Cure!"
"Cure!" Sora shouted at the same time.
Green light shimmered around the form sinking through the water. The fact that it locked on at all made Sora let out a deep breath of relief, then he spun his head towards Ursula. A huge part of him wanted to swim right after Donald, but the court magician's final words to him before taking that blast echoed in his head. "You're going to pay for that, Ursula!" Sora yelled. Goofy looked to Sora, then to where Donald just sank, then he nodded his head and spun back to the sea witch as well.
"Oi," Luffy began, his voice low and chilling. Neither Sora nor Goofy flinched though, as they felt where his tone was coming from. Then again, Ursula just grinned as well and started laughing at the serious pirate who was floating forward as a tiny man. Then he grew big again, and her laughter caught in her throat at the actual menacing look on the pirate's face. His teeth were bared, his right fist clenched hard at his side and a Keyblade tightly grasped in his left. "What do you think you just did?" Luffy asked, and then his eyelids snapped open wider and a pulse of energy blasted off of him and straight into Ursula.
The sea witch had not noticed, but since the moment she fired the huge burst of energy from her new trident, the weapon was no longer sucking in all of the excess darkness coming off of her. Instead, she had dark wisps seeping off her body all over the place and getting thicker every second. At Luffy's question though, every single one of those waving strands of darkness hesitated. It was like there were snakes coming out of her body and every one just stopped slithering at the sound of his voice. The dark swirls in Ursula's eyes stopped moving too, and it looked for a moment like time had froze for the witch. This time, Goofy and Sora did turn away from Ursula, in order to just stare at Luffy with wide eyes at what he just did.
Luffy did not seem to notice though. He just thought of the burnt duck sinking through the sea, and he rushed at the sea hag and started slashing at her face with his Keyblade again. Ursula growled and the darkness all around her started pulsing again and wisping more than ever. "I destroyed your friend! Because this is MY ocean, and I can do whatever I want!" Ursula slammed her arms out to the sides. A massive shockwave pushed out away from her and knocked Luffy, Sora, and Goofy way back.
"You hurt my nakama!" Luffy yelled towards the witch who screamed back at them and released hundred of bubbles from her mouth that looked darker this time. They still exploded when they popped, but some of them also burst and released Heartless creations out of them that swam after the dodging enemies.
"This one's for Donald!" Sora swung his Keyblade over his head after slashing up some of the Heartless that Ursula summoned. He restored his MP with the physical attacks, and he cast Thunder while on the swim that he could not stop for even a second. Bolts fell down on Ursula's head and made her screech in rage, which also cut off the constant stream of bubbles and allowed the fighters some time to thin the Heartless' numbers while she took a few panting breaths.
A pulse of darkness came out of the grotto down below. It shot up into Ursula's dress, and the sea witch tried to absorb more of it into her trident. All of the excess that she had been burning away though had already been the maximum amount that the trident could take. Dark wisps burning up on the glowing trident started getting thicker, and the trident itself lost some of its shine as the darkness thickened even more.
Sora's eyes darted towards the trident while he dodged huge pillars of orange explosions going off around him. "Even King Triton's trident isn't enough," he whispered. "Ursula!" Sora yelled over the sounds of her cackling and the explosions around them. "You won't be able to control this power! It's going to destroy Atlantica, and you with it!"
"NONSENSE! This world, is MINE!"
"That's what Oogie Boogie thought too!" Goofy exclaimed while flipping backwards in his turtle shell after getting hit by an exploding bubble.
Luffy's head snapped down and he glared below only to open his eyes huge at the sight of how much darkness was pouring out of the grotto below them. "You fat idiot hag!" Luffy yelled while looking back up towards Ursula. "You're going to-"
"'Idiot?' 'Fat?' 'Hag?' I have had enough of YOU!" Ursula roared while turning her giant head to glare towards Luffy. Then a dangerous smirk covered the woman's face, and her eyes shifted down below. "You were quite upset when I hurt your 'nakama' weren't you? In that case, why don't I take away the gills I so kindly gave your cook?" Luffy's eyes bulged and his head snapped down while Ursula's shadowing trident flashed bright gold again.
"No," Sora whispered. That's why!
"SANJI!" Luffy screamed down.
"HAAAhaha HAAAA!" Ursula blasted Luffy with a beam of light out the end of her trident when he got distracted for a second. "With this power, I have no need for that pawn any longer!"
Farther down in the depths of the ocean, Sanji's merman tail pressed against the flat edge of Usopp's sword. Heartless around them got hit by a wall of smoke that Smoker was getting better at controlling even under the water. Other Heartless were hit by a cluster of lightning bolts that Nami called down. Her eyes darted over nervously though as she saw Robin backing away and getting saved by Chopper who could not do much but called out Robin's name as he tackled a Heartless away behind her.
"Sanji, please stop fighting us," Nami begged towards the man pressing harder into Usopp's sword.
"You're, a lot stronger, Usopp," Sanji gasped out as his tail got parried backwards and Usopp rushed him. Sanji kicked his tail to dodge, but he was not as fast as before. His eyes darted towards Nami and Robin. And Usopp's sword stopped short. Sanji's eyes darted back to the man in front of him who could have slashed him there easily. "What are you…"
"I don't want to fight you, Sanji. I- I can't do this again." Usopp's teeth clenched harder. Tears were in his sad eyes that stared back in sheer frustration at his comrade who was fighting him while the ocean darkened and shook around them. "This world is going to fall like the last one. Do you understand that? The Keyhole she's controlling is spreading darkness everywhere! All over the worlds." Usopp whispered. He could see behind his comrade and the dark grotto that Smoker also shot a nervous look at, worried it might break apart which would destroy the Keyhole and prevent their keybearers from closing it. Sanji darted a look behind him too then back to the long-nosed man in front of him who gasped out, "It's going to collapse, and you're helping that happen. Sanji! Wake up already!"
Sanji bit down harder and harder as Usopp pleaded with him. His eyes darted past his comrade's head and to Nami, Chopper, and Robin who all darted looks towards him while they fought against an ever-increasing number of Heartless. "I have saved your life. Now, a debt is owed…"
"Your gills are a gift. A gift I can take away at any time. Including right this moment. So, Sanji, bow your head to ME! And swear your allegiance. Or suffer the consequences…."
Sanji's eyes snapped open. He kicked his tail behind him and swam past Usopp. Did she know?! Sanji was shocked that his punishment was happening so quickly. His tail was already disappearing though after one kick. The gills he had been given were vanishing. Usopp spun his head in shock himself as Sanji kicked human legs behind his body and did not slow down despite losing his merman tail.
Sanji flutter-kicked his legs and flew through the water with a stream of white moving behind him from how fast he moved. He shot by Usopp and straight towards Nami who had been distracted when she looked towards him. And he spun himself around while still moving at his top speed, extending out a leg into one of the green scary Heartless that he indented his foot into and knocked it straight back into two others.
"Sanji!" Nami exclaimed at the sight of him. His cheeks puffed out but he flashed her his teeth in a bright smile. Smoker spun his head and stared with his eyes growing wide too as he saw this man without any of the special alterations to his body that allowed all of them to survive down here. Sanji spun his head though and kicked behind him to dodge an attack from a Ghost Heartless, and he kicked down on a trident being stabbed at him before speeding up more and slamming a heel down on the top of a jellyfish Heartless that broke apart into several smaller ones.
Some air bubbles pushed out of his mouth. He clenched his teeth harder, and he forced his lips into a smile while rushing towards Robin and right by her side to kick away another of those green Heartless with tridents that he saw stabbing towards her. He kicked, and he kicked, and every kick forced more air out of his lungs. But he spun himself around and brought his leg far back as more Heartless rushed up behind the one he had been kicking consecutively in the body. And he put all of his remaining force into a kick that pushed the rest of the air out of his human lungs and into the ocean as bubbles. He kicked away the Heartless into its friends and made five of them burst into dark bubbles with smaller green and clear ones exploding out from them.
"Sanji, hey Sanji," Usopp started swimming over but had to stop and slash at another Heartless rushing him. "Damn it! Is that why you were following Ursula?! Hey! SANJI!"
"Sanji!" Chopper yelled with tears flowing out of his eyes. He swam up next to the man who stopped moving and was sinking down in the ocean with half-opened eyes not looking at anything. "Come on! Stay with me-" Chopper's eyes widened and he spun to the woman next to him who just leaned down over Sanji's sinking body. Robin put her lips against Sanji's and blew into his lungs.
She stopped though after a second. She grimaced with a sad look to the doctor next to her, apologizing and saying, "I believe our own lungs are full of water too." Sanji had breathed in water, but she could not give him CPR when her own lungs were actively breathing in and out water. She did it out of a moment of desperation, but she could instantly tell that that was not going to work.
"He didn't even react," Nami whispered in disbelief to Robin putting her lips on Sanji's only for him to keep sinking without even flinching.
"He saw it," Usopp whispered back. Nami shot him a stunned look, but Usopp was saying it as if in consolation to her that he definitely felt that kiss before he fell unconscious. Tears welled up in Nami's eyes like they already were in Usopp's…
Smoker spotted something up above him. He grit his teeth but swam away from the others and up into the darker ocean above.
"Sanji!"
"Sanji!"
Sanji's partly-opened eyes were barely transmitting images into his brain anymore. It was happening slower too. But the corners of his lips were curling up a little as he finally processed something that just happened. A trickle of blood came out of his right nostril and made Robin smile at the sight, even as a tear filled her right eye and slid down her face.
"Sanji!"
"Sanji!"
"Wawawa! Alright!"
"Ah- aaaah," Sanji sucked in a huge breath of water. "Ack- kah- ugh ack ack-" he coughed up a storm and spun himself over while looking down at his legs that were mid-transformation back into a merman tail. He stared at it in shock, then he lifted his bloodshot eyes and stared towards a magical duck that Smoker had dragged down towards them. Donald was burnt and looked worse-for-the-wear, and he just shook his head around then looked back up and swam for the intense battle going on above them.
"Thanks," Smoker muttered. Saving pirates, he cut off the thought but still felt some sort of way about what he just did.
"Sanji," Chopper whispered as he looked over the man a few more times. Then he rushed forward and the turtle wrapped its arms around the chef. "Sanji! Ahhh- ah, you're okay!" Chopper sobbed while holding onto the man for dear life.
"Chef-san," Robin began. He turned his head in shock towards the dark-haired woman floating next to him. She shook her head disapprovingly at him. "When you saw that we had tails and were well-suited for this undersea world, you should have come out and told us what Ursula had on you. Donald could have restored your merman body, and we would not be in this mess."
Sanji had something he wanted to exclaim happily at Robin about what he just remembered happened while he was drowning. But he dropped his jaw instead at what she just scolded him about that he should have figured out on his own sooner. Robin hesitated and then added, "Though, Donald was not with us when you first attacked. So I suppose you would have drowned if you had done that. Hm," Robin tilted her head to the side then turned it and crossed her arms. Dozens of new arms appeared on the Heartless monsters rushing at them, and Sanji turned to face them as well and help her. "No. Sanji," she said his name this time. "Go apologize to our captain."
Sanji's eyes widened and then snapped up in the direction that Donald just swam back to. "Do it, Sanji!" Usopp yelled his way. "You've been with her for a while. If she has a weakness, help them use it against her!"
"Don't come back until she's defeated…" Nami stopped yelling towards the chef who pulled his head back in frustration at what they were all yelling at him.
"Oh you have to be kidding me," Usopp muttered when he saw that look on Sanji's face. "Just help them! It doesn't mean you have to hit Ursula!" He yelled it in anger and just shook his head as Sanji nodded and swam up into the upper ocean to face Ursula without actually fighting her. That hesitation though made Usopp and Nami both smile towards each other for a second after he had left their sights. Because they knew for sure after seeing it that the man they knew was the same one with them now.
"All of Atlantica is mine! The oceans, are MINE! And this world is under MY control!"
Ursula swung her trident around above her head. The circle of orange explosions around her doubled in size, and then another ring appeared past it, and then another.
"Move into the gaps!" Sora yelled out.
"Goofy!" Luffy yelled towards the other side of Ursula's massive body where the dog knight was slouched with his head bowed. He had been hit too many times and could not dodge. Luffy's Keyblade would not cast any Cure magic down on him though as he was out of mana. "Sora!"
"I'm all out too!"
"Here, ya big palooka!" Donald yelled out.
The keybearers both darted happy looks down to hear Donald's voice. The octopus was swimming back up, but someone faster was kicking below and sped right by Donald. Luffy's eyes widened at the sight of a man who he feared something terrible had happened to after what Ursula yelled a minute ago. "Sanji!" Luffy yelled at the sight of him. He got a hesitant look on his face for a second, only for Sanji to dart him a glance and nod at the captain in a way that made Luffy's eyes enlarge and then brighten.
"YOU! I took your undersea power- Rrrrg, the court magician. DAMN YOU!" Ursula was frustrated that the execution of her pawn had been foiled. She smiled though a second later, and the giant sea witch covered in growing wisps of darkness lifted her trident up and made it glow a dark golden color. "No matter. I will be rid of you pests now. And take these oceans, this world- ALL THE WORLDS! Maleficent's power PALES in comparison to my own! AHAHAHAHAAAA!"
"Just shut up already!" Sora yelled towards the witch as the explosions in front and behind him faded away. He rushed towards her and slashed into her face with his Keyblade in a rapid combo that he felt knocking down some of her health but nothing on its own strong enough to even make her react. He had to back up again too as her mouth opened and he got ready for one of her attacks that he recognized. The fight had been going on long enough now that they could see the patterns, but their own attacks were too weak to knock her out for good.
Sanji nodded towards Luffy. He had a dark look on his face, but he told himself, Not now. Wait until after. Sanji swam towards Ursula's face. "Lady Ursula!" He yelled out. He got her attention. Luffy swam around behind Ursula's head. And he bit down on both of his thumbs at the same time. Sanji bowed his head and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Thank you for saving my life! I will never forget your kindness!"
Ursula rose her eyebrows up and stared in disbelief at the man who she just tried to kill a couple minutes ago. "No one has ever accused me of 'kindness' before! You BRAT!" Ursula roared at the man who dared thank her.
"GIGANTO BAZOOKA!"
Ursula heard the scream and started turning her head. Then two giant palms slammed her in the side of the head and in her face. She gasped out and leaned away. Then a dozen bolts of lightning dropped down on her head from two distinct dark clouds. A shield slammed into the back of her head, then pulled back and smashed into her again. Sora rushed forward while lowering his Keyblade, and Donald lowered his wand and swam forward as well while yelling out, "WawawaAAA!"
They beat up Ursula's head while Luffy's arms snapped back to him. He did not want to shrink down just yet though. The huge mass from his arms moved down into his torso. Luffy made his Keyblade appear again and flung it up in the water above him. Then all the mass in his giant torso shot down into his merman tail. Luffy kicked his tail up in the air above him and pinched the two ends of it onto the hilt of his Keyblade that grew in size too. "Bone Balloon! Giganto KEYBLADE TAIL-AXE!"
Luffy flipped himself down and kicked his giant merman tail with a proportionally-sized Keyblade gripped in it down onto Ursula's head. Goofy, Donald, and Sora all swam backwards right before the giant Keyblade slammed onto the top of Ursula's head. Her head snapped down, all her teeth clenching and her face looking to struggle as she pushed back against it… and then the Keyblade followed through and Luffy flipped over in the ocean while Ursula gasped out in pain.
The trident fell out of her hands. "Noo- NOOO!" All the darkness around Ursula rippled. The ocean around her shook while her body glowed in the middle. "I can't- not here! I was so close! AHHHH-EEEAAAHH!" Ursula's scream came simultaneously with all the Heartless in the ocean below not moving anymore. Those fighting against them were panting and desperate. They were out of potions and had no friends with healing magic around them to recover their strength any longer. But the Heartless all stopped moving, and then they exploded into dark bubbles and faded away.
Ursula herself was shrinking down and sinking into the ocean. "We did it!" Sora exclaimed.
Luffy shrank down again with all the air inside his body pushing out of his mouth and making him fly around until he slammed into the chest of a man who swam up behind him. Luffy gasped, then he lifted his head and the surprised look turned into a bright smile aimed at the face of the chef looking down at him. "Shishishi, Sanji!"
Sanji opened his mouth, but they both stopped and looked back towards Ursula first who was gripping at her chest while Donald grabbed her trident and got it away from her. He stopped swimming away with it too though and looked back like everyone else including those swimming up from below who wanted to see what had happened. They all stared towards the sea witch who grabbed her glowing chest and smirked despite looking defeated. "Haha, you fools. Without my power to control the Keyhole, the darkness is going to spread over the entire world."
Those who had defeated her looked down below Ursula to see that unlike the Heartless, the grotto with the Keyhole in it had not stopped with Ursula's defeat. Darkness continued to spew out from there even more than before. "HaaHAHA ha HAAA-ack ack- hahahaaa… It will engulf this world just like Halloween Town. Enjoy your victory… for as short as it lasts," with that, Ursula's hands got knocked aside by the light bursting out of her. A bright blue heart shot up out of her chest with the darkness fading off of it. Her body left behind started to bubble into darkness and then faded away.
The boss of the Heartless on this world had been defeated, but their victory did not seem like one. She had gotten the last laugh. Everyone stared towards the grotto in fear, but Sora started swimming down for it. "Sora!" Nami called out.
"It's not over yet," Sora called out without looking back. He swam down towards the darkness, and then he grit his teeth and kicked his merman tail behind him to swim right into the dark wisps coming out of the top of the grotto and pouring out into the ocean. The ocean had gotten a bit lighter without Ursula in control of the darkness, but the Keyhole was still spewing out black ooze and he needed to stop it.
Sora pointed his Keyblade out in front of him while swimming down through darkness. He tried slashing it apart, but there was too much and it was surrounding him. "Not, again," he gasped out while struggling to push himself down harder. He swam against the force of the exuding darkness. "I won't… I can't…" he was panting and pushing with all his strength. He had exhausted himself against Ursula but knew that the fight was not over yet. And yet, he was not pushing any farther down. "If I don't do this," he whispered at himself frustratedly. "If I don't close it-" his eyes clenched tightly shut.
Then his eyes snapped open wide as he was pushed backwards. "I… I can't-"
He felt a hand on his shoulder. Right at the moment that despair started to fill him, Sora felt a hand and spun his head. In the dark veil around him it was hard to see, but light came out from the two boys floating there near the top of the grotto. The others outside could see through it as well and to the two of them. Luffy's Keyblade appeared in his hand and he said with a smile at his younger friend, "Maybe we can."
Sora stared back with his head tilting away for a moment in guilt as he thought about something terrible he had said to Luffy not long ago. But he smiled a second later and nodded back at his friend. They looked down together and started kicking their tails above them to swim down into the grotto. They slashed back and forth. Two Keyblades instead of one.
They broke through the darkness and to where the dark feeling was strongest. They swam towards where their Keyblades were naturally drawn to. The walls of the grotto around it were cracking. Items from "other worlds" were falling off of Ariel's shelves. The two spun their Keyblades around and pointed into that thickest darkness. Beams of light shot off the tips of both of their Keyblades.
The wall around the Keyhole cracked more. They fired brighter light into the hole. Everyone outside of the grotto held their breaths. Click!
The sound of a key locking clicked out and they all heard it. The darkness stopped pouring out of the Keyhole. Everyone looked around them and watched as the dark color of the ocean started to lighten back up. Smoker's eyes were wide, and he whispered in shock, "They did it." He had been convinced up until he heard that locking noise that this world was about to fall like the last.
Sanji gulped as he imagined how close that just was. Because of me, he added to himself in a guilty way. The wall of the grotto closer to them collapsed, and he winced as he thought about how close that just was. A collective breath of relief was released by the group who had feared a total collapse of this world. Sanji swam forward as he spotted a man inside of the fading darkness. He slowed down as that man turned himself and looked towards Sanji. Just like the younger boy next to him, Luffy looked exhausted and was wobbly in the water.
"Luffy!" Sanji swam faster and held out his arms, catching his captain who was falling unconscious after swimming straight into the darkness like that.
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy swam up to him and grabbed onto an arm each to steady him too. Then they looked next to them at Luffy who lifted his head a little and flashed a weak smile at the blond man holding onto him.
Outside of the grotto, Robin glanced up towards where Ursula's body had faded into darkness. Something had been left behind in the water up there. A sheet of paper that her eyes locked onto and narrowed at. Another report?
"Sanji," Luffy whispered. Sanji bit down on his bottom lip and scrunched up his face trying to come up with something to say. He did not know how to apologize for attacking his captain who he had seen look at him feeling so betrayed all day. "Food?" Luffy asked him. He was tired, but he questioned his chef for some food that he had been looking forward to tasting again ever since they separated.
Sanji's eyes welled up with water at the forgiving look on Luffy's face. He smiled back after a second and nodded at the captain. "When you wake up, I'll have the best meal you've ever had ready."
"Hah," Nami breathed out in relief behind them. She tilted her head to the right and rested it against Usopp's left shoulder.
Usopp licked his lips after hearing what Sanji just said. "You'll make it up, to all of us right?" Usopp wondered. Sanji looked back and started nodding to show that he was going to make that meal for everyone. He froze though and his eyes grew wider and wider while darting from Usopp's face to the face of the woman who was leaning on his shoulder, back to Usopp's face, to Nami's that got a bead of sweat on the side of it, just like the multiple beads on Usopp's face that Sanji snapped his darkening glare back onto.
"Oh no! Sanji's been corrupted by the Heartless!" Sora exclaimed while leaning away from Sanji whose darkening expression could only be explained away by that. Donald and Goofy also panicked, and Donald swung his wand above his head without giving anyone time for explanation.
Sanji's teeth were sharpening and he opened his mouth to shout a very important question at Usopp. Donald did not care that Sanji was holding onto Luffy, because he knew that Luffy could take this without getting hurt. And everyone just gawked at the dark cloud that appeared above Sanji and dropped lightning onto the man who spazzed out from getting electrocuted.
"Well… that should give us some time to, explain," Usopp muttered while scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Explain what?" Robin wondered while swimming back down to them. She had a piece of paper held in her hand.
"Uhh, nothing! Is that another of Ansem's reports?" Nami wondered.
"Wait, is Sanji not affected by the Heartless?" Sora asked confusedly with his eyelids flickering shut.
Luffy's eyes were already closed, but he just laughed himself to sleep at the question. Sora shrugged his shoulders, before passing out as well.
At a grand hall of the royal palace of Atlantic, Ariel happily swam around the table and next to her friend Sora who smiled at her and then at the food that Sanji brought before them. "This looks amazing, Sanji!" Sora called out.
"It better be," King Triton said in a dark voice while glaring at the chef who had made this meal in part as an apology to the King who accepted it due to understanding why Sanji had to do what Ursula said. He looked down at the food himself and wondered, "Though a man who is not from our world, should not understand the ingredients of… Oh my," Triton stopped his skeptical attitude on the spot after tasting one bite. "That is, truly something." A large smile spread on his face that made Ariel and Sebastian gasp in shock as they had never seen him with such a huge smile before.
"I'm sorry, Usopp," Donald glanced away while the long-nosed man on his right looked back in confusion at him. Usopp finished chewing his food that he had been a bit anxious about tasting. Sanji had either forgotten about what he had seen due to the lightning strike before he passed out, or the chef was in absolute denial about what he had suspected and what Nami and Usopp thought they might need to explain for the first time.
"For what?" Usopp asked him.
"Saying you didn't care," Donald said. He glanced back then spun to his food and shoved some in his mouth. He chewed and mumbled quieter and in a regretful voice, "I know, that's not true. You're all always helping." Donald finished chewing then looked back at Usopp with a more serious look. "My mission is to follow the key though, and I should have kept Luffy and Sora together to do that. We shouldn't have swam ahead."
Usopp nodded in agreement with that. But he did glance down himself then look back at the court magician, "It's okay. We also, haven't been taking it seriously enough, to be honest. That's over though now. You understand that, right? After Halloween Town, we all get it."
Donald nodded back accepting that Usopp meant that. He knew the group well enough to understand that they had really learned from that experience too, as much as he wished they could have just taken it seriously from the beginning without needing such a horrible first-hand lesson.
"And for Robin-chwan!" Sanji spun around and leaned in front of the dark-haired woman who he looked back at with his eyes in the shapes of hearts. He placed a plate in front of her that had some seaweed in the shape of a heart on the corner of it. She smiled back at him and thanked him for the food before getting to her own delicious meal like the others.
"This is really good, Sanji!" Ariel called over to him.
"Man, I wish we had found you first!" Sora called out in agreement. "We could have been eating like this the whole time!"
Smoker grunted in agreement. Nami got a tick mark on the side of her head though and shouted over, "Are you sure about that, Sora? You really wish you'd found Sanji first? Huh? Huh?!"
Sora leaned back in his seat and then scratched the back of his head while laughing and calling back, "Of course not, Nami!"
Sanji looked around the table and smiled brightly at the large group they had gathered with everyone enjoying a feast he had made them. "Hm," Sanji hummed. He had a carefree smile on his face, and he said softly, "Not that I care, but only the marimo bastard isn't here."
Robin heard him. He glanced to his side at her when she lowered her fork and turned to him with her lips flattened out. "What?" Sanji wondered, his own expression getting more serious and less apathetic about this. "Did something happen?"
Robin glanced towards Chopper a few seats down from her who was laughing with Luffy and not paying attention. "Chopper does not know yet," Robin began. Sanji nodded his head slowly, frowning already as he feared what she was about to tell him. Robin shook her head though to show that he was assuming something else. Sanji became confused though. If Zoro was not dead, then why was she looking at him like this?
"Just as Usopp spent three years on a world before Sora and Luffy found him, Zoro has also spent an inordinate amount of time lost out here. After our world fell," Robin spoke softly and her voice had a touch of sadness in it too. "A long, long time." She thought about the man who had tried his hardest to treat her as an enemy back on the ship and gave her darker and colder looks, but she could tell that was just him being a cautious man. I could see that his caution was out of care for the rest of the crew. That he would not trust me, in order to protect them. A man like that. That's who we lost.
"Zoro is on Hollow Bastion," Robin said to her comrade who was processing what she just told him. "With our enemies, and the ones we are trying to save. He is an agent of darkness. Helping Maleficent."
Sanji nodded his head while thinking of the evil witch he had seen in Ursula's crystal ball. So beautiful- evil, Sanji corrected himself, trying to remind himself of the horrible things she had said and not how that other witch had appeared. He grimaced deeper too thinking that the next enemy they had to face was also a woman who he would be unable to fight. Though, I guess I may be fighting the shitty marimo instead. Zoro's our enemy?
"After the feast, it's about time we get going," Sora said while looking around at his friends.
"Oh, are you sure?" Ariel wondered sadly.
Sora nodded back at her with an apologetic look. "Unfortunately." He said it to her but did not mean it. It's time to go. Sora's expression hardened a bit while he looked back across the table at Luffy, then to his right towards Donald and Goofy. He looked at all the others, "Let's get back to Traverse Town first. Have Cid install the navigation Gummi we got from sealing the keyhole at Big Ben. And then, we'll head for Hollow Bastion."
"Are you sure that's where that navigation piece is going to lead?" Nami wondered towards him.
Sora nodded back at her though. The look of certainty he had made her not even feel like doubting him. Robin nodded while humming as she believed in Sora's instinct on this one too. Sora put his right hand over his chest though and added, "I can feel it. Kairi's close. They're going to be there." His hand curled into a fist and he swung it out in front of him. "And when we get there, we'll stop Maleficent for good!"
"Yeah!" Luffy agreed with an enthusiastic shout. "I'm gonna kick that witch's butt!"
"We all want a piece of her," Usopp agreed in a low voice, thinking of the last time they faced each other.
Smoker grunted and nodded his head in agreement with that. He looked towards Usopp who gave him a questioning look, and Smoker nodded again without hesitation to show that he would give Usopp another lesson on Haki while they were stopped in Traverse Town in preparation for the tough fight ahead.
"To Hollow Bastion then," Robin said. "Where Maleficent…"
"And Zoro…" Nami added with a look to Usopp, only to freeze and glance softly at a confused Chopper who tilted his head to the side wondering what she meant by that.
"Tashigi," Smoker said under his breath.
"Riku and Kairi all are," Sora finished. His fist held over the table flashed with light, and he slashed the Keyblade out to the side while flashing a smile that they all needed to see right now. "That's where this will end."
A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter of this story I started 6 and a half years ago! XD It has really been a long time. I saw some of my old Author's Notes from years ago back when I was in high school. Crazy to imagine it's been years since I graduated college! If you've been reading this story from back then, I hope you're excited to see a new chapter! Maybe reread the story like I did earlier this month. I really liked rereading it myself, so maybe you will too! I'll get chapter 29 out soon as I can. Maybe tomorrow? Probably tomorrow. ;) Merry Christmas everyone, and see you tomorrow!