Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts
BLP 30:
Flashback
"Zoro, get Riku!"
Zoro dropped down next to the silver-haired kid on the bridge. He saw Luffy reaching out and wrapping an arm around Sora. Riku was already sinking though. And the second he touched the ground, that strange darkness started wrapping him up too. "What the hell-" Zoro reached out but Riku was gone. He spun in Luffy's direction but the darkness pulled up past his face first and he could see nothing around him.
Zoro reached for his swords and pulled them out. He slashed through the darkness in front of him. Sinking. I'm sinking- I can't breathe! Zoro slashed around harder to try and get free from the darkness that had enveloped him. Every second the feeling of darkness got even more crushing. The pitch black void around him somehow got even darker. He was falling. Endlessly falling. He stopped slashing his swords around. Zoro breathed in and everything got hazier around him as he could only breathe darkness.
His eyes half-open, Zoro sank down deeper and deeper into nothingness. Then he felt something. The sensation was a warning signal. A danger sense of some kind. What is that? His half-closed eyes started to open back up. Inside of the darkness, what felt like a hand started to curl around him. Is that- Zoro spotted something else. Besides the ominous hand grasping him, he saw another person sinking near him. We all must have gotten sucked up by whatever was going on. I don't get this at all, but this feeling is something more than just the regular darkness!
The grasping darkness seemed to have a mind of its own. As if it was actually trying to grab him. Zoro swung his arms at his sides and slashed his swords, but he moved the Yubashiri into his right hand and reached his left out with no sword in it. "Us-opp," Zoro reached out and grabbed hold. The second he was grabbing onto his comrade he spotted in the darkness though, Zoro felt the tightening grip lock around his body. It yanked him down deeper into the darkness and moving rapidly so the air was pushed out of his lungs, not that he knew he even had any air in the first place.
Zoro swung his left arm out to the side and threw Usopp away. His comrade spiraled off and shot out of the tunnel and into the void somewhere. Whatever had him, it felt like a monster that was too dangerous for Usopp to help him against. He spun himself around and tried tossing himself his other sword back from his right hand to use. He slashed his Wado Ichimonji around in his mouth. His left hand grabbed at the Yubashiri, but the sword was out of his grip for an instant, and in that moment it dissolved into dark particles in this void. Zoro's hand grasped through empty darkness as he shot through the emptiness at a rapid speed yet passing nothing.
He gripped the Sandai Kitetsu harder in his right hand. His whole right arm bulged with muscles. He bent his arm, and then he twisted his body and slashed so hard that a slice flew through the darkness up the dark arm he felt was grabbing him. The grip released. He was sent plummeting through the void. Dark wisps pushed past his face. He gasped but bit down hard to not risk losing his Wado in this insanity. His right arm hurt from putting so much force into the swing that he had been able to turn his slash into a projectile, and while his arm was shaking he snapped his gaze towards his hand to see the blade he had just used was fizzling away into dark bubbles. He grasped the hilt harder but the Kitetsu vanished from his grasp, and so both of his hands shot up to his mouth and held onto his Wado with all his might to ensure he did not lose it too. His face was being pushed back as if by a huge force of wind and his lips flapped while he reached up and grabbed the sword that meant most to him.
Whatever had gripped onto him released while still moving way too fast that Zoro kept that speed. Zoro shot out of the dark wisps. He was still falling though. And the place he had found himself falling inside of, had no more light than the dark wispy tunnel through nothing he had been in. There seemed to almost be a light in the far distance, but just by gazing towards it Zoro felt that it was less a light and more a hole in the dark world he was landing in. He lowered his gaze down and then bent his legs as he neared an archway above the dark surface.
Zoro dropped onto it and felt weird that such a long drop could end without him feeling pain upon landing. He stood back up straight and looked around him, then he stepped forward and dropped to the surface below this arch. On either side of him were other archways, strange rock formations, everything looking black or deep purple. Dark purple clouds with black wisps coming out floated through the sky. There was no sun. There were no stars. No moon.
He looked back towards the light. Is that a light? He did not feel like he was looking at something illuminating the world. Rather, his eyes just adjusted to the darkness. He walked towards that dim glow though, but he had to stop when he reached water. Where the hell am I? "Luffy?" Zoro called out. He cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled it out louder, "Luffy! Usopp!" Zoro shouted his other comrade's name who he had seen not long ago.
He called out a few more times then lowered his hands from his mouth. "Huh," he muttered. A bead of sweat formed on the side of his face. "This, isn't good," Zoro mumbled. He dropped down onto his butt and took a few deep breaths. He leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "I've got no idea where to go though," he mentioned aloud. "Kitetsu and Yubashiri," Zoro whispered. He glanced down to his waist, but even the sheaths for those two swords were gone. He resheathed the Wado Ichimonji and held the sheathed sword over his body while laying flat on his back. "What the hell just happened?"
Zoro shook his head around. He lay there for a few hours, then he got up. Zoro stepped down the beach to the edge of the world and stared out over the empty ocean. He glanced over his shoulder and into the dark world behind him. Then he looked forward again and out over the nothingness to a light he imagined on the other side. Don't swim towards the light, Zoro thought, just in case this world was actually just a metaphor and going to the light was where it ended. He gulped then scratched the back of his head and let out a frustrated groan. "I'm alone."
The fact of the matter had set in after a few hours. "I don't know what to do," he added to himself. He was speaking aloud because if he didn't, it would have been abnormally quiet in there. He needed to break the silence with something. "Guess I'll start training," he suggested. Zoro turned and walked back up the beach and for a deeper darkness of this strange realm. "Luffy'll come looking for me," Zoro mentioned to himself.
He looked to his right and over an archway to where he thought he saw movement for a second. He stared closely then examined the structures around him that looked like nothing he had ever seen before. This is a new world, huh? Those kids actually knew what they were talking about? That island was weird. How will, Luffy find another world? Zoro's small smile lowered flat and then rose back up and he laughed once. "He'll find a way," Zoro said. If anyone could…
End Flashback
"An uninvited guest has appeared on this world," Maleficent mentioned with a hint of interest. She stood in front of a sparking heart-shaped door that was incomplete for the moment. She was at the top of a short flight of stairs and held her staff out in front of her with the ball on top shimmering with light. The boy next to her was more surprised than she was though while looking into the crystal ball she was showing him this on.
"How, did it get here?" Riku wondered in confusion while staring at the hairy beast in the images that let out a roar.
"No vessel. No ship. And, no use of the darkness either," Maleficent said and scratched her own chin. "Perhaps you could go head him off, and ask him how it is he arrived?"
Riku frowned but shrugged his shoulders and pulled out his red and black blade. "Might as well. Sora's sure taking his sweet time getting here," Riku swung his blade up and rested it on his shoulder. He turned and jogged off to head out of the castle. Riku ignored the man leaning back against the wall across the room from where Maleficent and her apprentice had been speaking. Zoro did not know if Riku intentionally ignored him, or if the boy was just trying not to look past the six glass cases all filled with beautiful young women. Or maybe Riku was just trying not to look at the one girl not behind a glass case like the other princesses. Kairi lay flat in the middle of the hall, unmoving.
Maleficent glanced over her shoulder after Riku left. She looked back down at her crystal ball but wondered loudly, "And you? Are you as ready for their arrival as Riku is? I hope your side project does not have you too distracted. Remember, separating the keybearers is your task. What you do to your old crew, I will let you decide."
Let me? I'll decide on my own anyway. Zoro grumbled but nodded his head back at the woman who turned her head slightly to the side and glared back at him for a response. "Yeah, I'll do it." Zoro turned and walked out of the room. He glanced down at the three black swords on his waist. Then he lifted his gaze and walked down the hallway, around a corner, to a huge open elevator-like room. He stepped up to a sparking teleporter and just waited for a second, before appearing down a level. He stepped through a door there and then into another room.
Heartless appeared in the hallway around him. They ignored him though. Stronger than ever, Zoro thought with a glance at the huge blue lion-like Heartless with shielded manes. Darkballs flew around above them, moving rapidly and in seemingly random patterns that had taken him a while to figure out a rhythm to back when fighting just one of them had been difficult.
Zoro stepped into a large hall only a little smaller than the one upstairs that Maleficent was in. In this hall there was only one glass tube. A floating figure inside it had her eyes closed. Her black hair fell to her shoulders but floated in a messy way around her head. Some strands went over her face and crossed over her nose. She wore a dark blue coat opened down the middle that showed the red button-down shirt she had on underneath, and she wore a pair of blue jeans as well. Zoro had not seen the woman's red glasses when he found her. The lack of those glasses made the person he stared at now look all the more familiar to him though.
He walked across the room and stopped in front of the glass case. Resting up against the base of the case, was the Wado Ichimonji. The hilt was on the floor with the top of the sheath resting against the front of the casing and as close to the woman as Zoro could get it without just tossing the blade into the restorative liquids with her. It meant nothing without her heart. No amount of potions or Cure magic could ever restore the heart. Why do I care so much? I know it's not her. I, knew that, once. Zoro countered himself as he was not so certain of what he had once known. That face though. It's the same. On our world I knew it wasn't true. But to have found her out here? In the darkness? For it to have been me who located her, instead of Smoker. That only makes sense if you're her.
Zoro reached his right hand out and carefully pressed his palm up to the glass case.
Flashback
A year went by, and Roronoa Zoro sat on a beach all by himself. He had a scratch on the right side of his face from where a Shadow standing on two legs had scratched him the day before. The strange creature had been stronger than the smaller dog-like Shadows he fought back on Destiny Islands. It had been taller too; more than half his own height. When it died it did not drop enough green balls full of magical curing power to seal up the wound on his face, though the bleeding had slowed at the time.
There was a gap in the Heartless' attacks though. It was not endless. They were scattered. Mostly weak. This world was enormous, and the majority of the time he was alone, like he was now. Zoro had his back resting against what he considered a rock, even though it was softer and had changed shape from the last time he put his back against it. His Wado Ichimonji was stuck down in the sand in front of his feet. His hilt was pointed up in the air after he had stabbed the blade down in exhaustion hours ago when he finally made it back after a very long trek where he felt he had been lost for days.
Zoro tilted his head back. He was not panting any longer, but he still felt tired. Yet he did not feel the need to sleep. Nor did he feel the need to get some food in him to recover. Or water to soothe a thirst that was not there. Despite how hard he panted, his mouth was not dry. His body did not yearn for water. Not that the water ahead of him would help, as he had tried a taste and found it to taste worse than salt water and was even less thirst-quenching. He stared towards that water and past it. Out into the endless abyss of this Realm of Darkness.
Zoro stared out in silence as he had many times before. All alone. Sitting in the sand. Then his jaw dropped. His eyes shifted to the right. He stared at the figure walking along the beach. She just walked calmly, an orange staff in her right hand with a crystal ball at the top of it. Her skin was pale and she had two tall horns sticking off the top of her head. She was tall, looked as tall as him at least but taller with those horns. She wore a long black cloak that dragged on the floor behind her and hid her legs so it almost looked like she was gliding forward rather than walking.
The middle of her black cloak had a dark purple line that rose up from the ground to her collar. Her lips were blood red. Her eyes small and cold. She glanced to her left and over at the man sitting there and staring at her in absolute shock at the sight of another person. Then she looked back ahead and just walked past him while he gawked. "Who- ahh- ack, kah-kah-" Zoro started. He gasped and coughed a few times, wondering if that was what his voice sounded like. It had been a long time since he last talked to himself, and there was no other need to speak in this empty world.
Zoro reached behind him and grabbed onto the dark object he was sitting back on. He stopped coughing but narrowed his eyes at this figure ahead of him who gave him the chills to look at. Zoro carefully pushed himself up to his feet while looking at the left side of her face closely. She had stopped just after walking past him so her back was partially to him, but she was still able to turn to her left and have her whole face pointing towards him. "What are you doing here?" She wondered to the man.
Her voice was cold. It sounded like she was not surprised to see him, nor like she necessarily cared what his answer was. Her apathy unnerved the man who had not seen another living thing in a year. She doesn't look like one of those things. "You're not, one of the dark monster things-"
"The Heartless?" Maleficent wondered amusedly towards the man. The right corner of her lips lifted up slightly and she explained, "Those without hearts. They infest this world, as they do many others. Have you been fighting them all alone?"
Zoro frowned deeply back at her. "What's your name?" He asked. He stepped forward and grabbed the white hilt in front of him. He pulled the Wado Ichimonji out of the sand but kept the sword down at his side. He was not trying to be intimidating, and yet he needed to have his weapon ready as his instincts warned him to be careful of the woman in front of him.
"I am Maleficent. You?"
"…Roronoa, Zoro."
"And how long have you been stuck here, Roronoa Zoro?" Maleficent wondered. She looked forward and started gliding forward again. Her movement appeared weird to the man who could not see her feet under her cloak.
Zoro cautiously walked to his left and kept constant the distance between himself and the woman as he replied to her. "I'm… not sure. There aren't days-"
Maleficent glanced down at her staff that she held diagonally in front of her for a moment without stopping her walk. The crystal ball shimmered green for a second. "Ah, a year. Quite a bit of time. You must be strong to have survived here for so long. Though, not that strong," Maleficent added with a chuckle while moving her staff back to her right side and tapping the bottom on the sand as she continued forward.
Zoro froze in place. Has it really been a year? No one came for that long? How would they even come here? Did I die- I'm not dead. She doesn't seem, like she thinks we're dead. "What are you, doing here?"
Maleficent hummed to herself and stopped walking. Zoro had stopped behind her and wondered that to her back. She continued facing away from him after she stopped. "I came to look at you. A fool, trapped here in the darkness."
"Oi," Zoro snapped.
"Am I wrong?" Maleficent wondered. She tilted her head to the side without looking back at him. "You're trapped, are you not?"
"And, you aren't?" Zoro wondered back skeptically.
"Haha," Maleficent chuckled. Her head tilted back and she laughed louder, "HAHAHA! Me? Oh, you poor fool. I can leave at any time." Her head turned back to the left and she looked out the corners of her eyes back at him. "As could you." His eyebrows rose up while his eyes widened at what she just told him. "It would be easy for you to leave here as well, if, you just gained control over the darkness."
"Red flag," Zoro told himself. He bit down hard as he realized he just said that aloud too. Maleficent rolled her eyes at him then refaced forward. "Wait-" Zoro started. He cut himself off, but then he continued, "Take me with you. When you leave here."
Maleficent hummed to herself again. "What is it you want?" She wondered.
"To get out of here," Zoro replied in a deadpan voice, as he had pretty much just told her that.
"No," Maleficent countered him. "That is not what I mean. What is it that you want? Most of all. What is your desire? Your goal?"
Zoro hesitated for a few seconds. Do I lie? Who is this lady? Looks and sounds like a witch. Will she know if I'm lying? Will she, leave me behind if I do? He shrugged when he thought that. The risk of being left here was too great to just not say anything when he had no real reason not to tell her. "To be the strongest," Zoro responded.
"Truly?" Maleficent looked his way. Her thin eyebrows rose up and then lowered back and narrowed at the man who her small eyes narrowed even more at. He stared back calmly, strongly, holding the Wado Ichimonji tightly in his right hand as he did. "No," Maleficent said after examining him closely. "I don't believe that's it."
"Huh?" Zoro lifted his head confusedly. "Yeah, it is," he replied to her. And I was worried she'd know if I was lying. I'm not lying and she's still accusing me of it-
"You have other ties," Maleficent said. "You, are waiting for someone," she observed. Zoro's eyes narrowed back at the witch he started to suspect knew more than she was letting on. "Other important goals," Maleficent added.
Zoro hesitated now as she brought that up. Something he had said himself, apparently a year ago now, echoed in the back of his own mind. "…Since we've been together so long, another purpose has started to emerge… Sorry, I can't really tell what it is." How would she know even that? I, haven't even thought about that for a while.
"Being the strongest isn't something one can do while so scattered in their desires," Maleficent mocked the man. "A goal like that must be singular. Or your heart will be too weak to escape from here. If your goal's importance fluctuates with other ambitions taking precedence, none will be strong enough for you to accomplish. So tell me, what is most important to you? It is not this desire you claim it to be."
"It is," Zoro retorted. "What do you know?" He snapped in more annoyance at the weird things she was saying. "Just get me out of-"
"If you want to leave, you can obtain the power to do so with ease. Your heart is powerful enough."
Zoro looked at her in confusion and even more aggravation at these weird cryptic things she was saying. "Thought you said it wasn't," Zoro muttered.
"Not at the moment. There is evil, and darkness in your heart. Something you can use to open yourself up to its power. The power of darkness," Maleficent specified.
"You're crazy," Zoro growled. What the hell is she talking about? Why am I even listening to-
Maleficent frowned deeply at his response. She tapped her staff down on the floor. A pitch black void swirled up from the ground underneath her and engulfed her whole body. Zoro leaned back and stared with wide eyes into that darkness and at the witch's face that turned to him while shrouded in it. Her frown at his insult turned into a small smirk, as she was able to open up a portal and leave. She vanished. Leaving Zoro once again, all alone in the darkness.
He stumbled forward as he realized what just happened. "W-Wait! Hey. HEY!" Zoro spun his head around and looked all over for a sign of the woman. The sword in his right hand shook. His whole body was shaking. "Rrrgg- RRAAA! Damn it! HEY!" Zoro screamed. He yelled and yelled. "Come back! OI! You hear me? I know you can hear me!"
"I know you're watching! COME BACK HERE! RAAAA!"
"God DAMN IT! HEY! HEYYYYYY!" Zoro screamed his lungs out and then panted and panted. He put his hands down on his knees. His face was covered in sweat and his eyes trembled as he stared down between his feet. It was deathly silent in there. The solitude was something he had learned to deal with over the past year. But for a moment he had another person with him, and now that she was gone, the silence had never been so deafening. His own heavy breathing sounded like a train passing through his ears. "Hey," Zoro whispered, but there was no response.
He was isolated. Complete isolation. Solitary confinement in a dark prison where he was the only living thing. A realm all to himself. His mouth opened back up and his whisper came out even quieter, "Don't leave."
End Flashback
Zoro's right hand pressed up against the glass casing curled up. His fingers curled against the glass and his hand balled into a fist. He stared past his fist and to the face of the woman that looked uncanny to the face of his childhood friend. Zoro looked back at his fist and remembered when they had met each other. "Hey, looking for these?"
"I-I'm sorry… Thank you so much." Tashigi had smiled up at him while he held her glasses out for her to take. She had been feeling around for them on the ground, and he picked them up to hand to her. His hand that he had outstretched had curled tightly around the pair and shattered them, and both he and Tashigi had exclaimed in panic a second later as they realized what he had done. He could not help himself though. He had lost focus on his own strength and flinched into tightening a curled fist, because he had seen this woman's face. Her face that looked no older now than it did that day he met her, and which looked so remarkably similar to another girl's.
Kuina, Zoro stared closely at that face. The resemblance is there. She's a swordsman. Prideful. She said the same things. What if she's not a copycat? Just, the same person. Or, what if their hearts were intertwined? That could have been it. When Kuina was dying on our world, her heart was too strong. Her desire, unlike my own would become, had never stopped being singular in purpose. Her heart was dedicated solely to becoming the strongest. And so it was strong enough to latch onto someone else's. Maybe this copycat was comatose as a kid. Dying. And Kuina's heart grabbed onto her body. That makes sense. It's, the only thing that makes sense. Right?
"I-I'm sorry! I had no idea it was such a terrifying sword! I should have minded my own business." Zoro frowned. That didn't sound like her. He thought of the woman bowing in apology at the sword-shop in Loguetown after they learned about the Sandai Kitetsu's curse. His fist moved off the glass and he looked away from the woman whose bowed posture and shaky voice he saw and heard in his mind. He grit his teeth as he thought about the memory. Kuina never would have acted like that. The copycat has a different personality. Some of the things were the same… but that just means they aren't the same person. If it really was Kuina's heart, then I need to find it. Maybe there were two hearts in one body. Or maybe it was just Kuina's. But the fact that her body has remained, means her heart should be salvageable.
I should be able to locate it. If I focus. Through the darkness. It is her! Convince yourself. If you don't, you'll never be able to find it. If your purpose does not become singular. The one burning desire. And it will only be so, if I know it's hers. I do know that. So find it. Zoro closed his eyes and turned his back to the glass case. In his head, the woman behind him changed her appearance even more. Her clothes changed. The sword at rest next to him appeared inside of that case, in her hand. He sat down and slowly rested his back up against the glass tube.
In his mind, he pictured the girl inside opening her eyes. Everything was hazy, but she sank down right behind him and reached her free hand out, as the other hand was gripped on her Wado. He could imagine her hand pressed up against the glass directly behind his back. He could feel that hand he was imagining, pressed up against him. Directly behind his heart that glowed while the man scrunched his face up with a void of darkness opening in front of him. Where is it?
Flashback
Another year passed. Zoro stood at the edge of the shore. Is Luffy ever coming? Most days he could go without thinking about it. The thought that had always lingered in the back of his mind was more prominent now though. It was harder to ignore, because doubt was a difficult thing to erase. Doubt grew like a weed in his heart. Now he stood there, doubt all that he could think about. "That idiot," Zoro muttered. The mutter did not come out as a caring one but frustrated, annoyed yet in yearning, not like it used to. It was just angry.
He got us separated with his damn stupidity. Ignoring me when I warned him that this would happen. Zoro's fists clenched at his sides. His right hand touched the hilt of his Wado Ichimonji sticking past the front of his waist. Dark swirls rose up from arches and black objects behind him. They rose and swirled in with the black clouds of dark that had surrounded him for years. Years. It has been years now. It feels like it. It feels like I've been here forever. Does time even pass here? Or is it just passing outside? What is outside?
All I know, is that I'm stuck. And, no one is coming. Zoro closed his eyes. His angry eyes closed and he scrunched his face up at the thought. It was pessimistic. It was a terrible attitude to have. He knew it. Being stuck but thinking that Luffy was coming was better. This is… oh this fucking sucks. It was instantaneous. I guess I really haven't had any hope for a while. Admitting it though? This sucks. I'm stuck. I am stuck here. Alone. In the darkness. Maybe forever. All because, because Luffy broke our Log Pose…
Zoro squinted his eyes back open and just glared out into the void in anger. The anger started to fade a bit though as his right hand curled around the hilt at his side. Doesn't matter if they don't find me. I, still have my goal. The more important one. The original goal. Not, the new one that started to form. But my goal since I was a kid. Long before I started helping Luffy become the Pirate King. That was it. I can tell, I really cared about that. I wanted Luffy to become Pirate King. Hell, I'd have staked my life on it. And he went and broke the one thing that we needed to get us through the Grand Line. Like an idiot. The idiot I knew he was… The thought became too nostalgic and it made Zoro grind his teeth angrily at that feeling.
That goal is gone now. I'm not even on our world. The idea of a "Pirate King" doesn't exist out here. But becoming the strongest is still possible. It's still something, that I swore I would do. Our promise. Zoro opened his eyes more and imagined a girl's face. He could see it cast in the light of the moon that night. As they clasped hands and swore to each other their shared goal.
Then Zoro imagined holding up a coffin and walking in the rain. He shook his head around to get that dark thought out of his head. But it crept back in. There was too much time to just stand there thinking. I should train, he thought. It was one of the few things he could do in this world. His right hand curled around the Wado's hilt, and then Zoro froze and his head spun to the left.
Zoro stared down the beach and looked towards a swirling black portal. He kicked off the ground and started running towards it, but he slowed and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the woman who stepped out already facing him. "How are you doing?" She wondered towards the man who drew the Wado Ichimonji from its sheath. "I have been doing great this past year. Have you had fun here?"
"You," Zoro pointed his Wado towards her while stopping for a second. His knees stayed bent and his expression was furious and ready to fight. He aimed the sharp point of his blade towards the witch. "Get me out of here. Or I'll kill you."
"Ohh?" Maleficent wondered with her voice getting louder. Her lips curled up in a menacing smile. She rose her staff and tapped it down on the ground then swung both arms out to her sides. "Is that so? Hahaha! Why don't you try it then?!" A rift ripped through the air behind her. Zoro just took another step while leaning his body forward and pulling the Wado down to his side in a ready position to slash. He had been training for a long time, and now was time to show off the results…
Zoro leaned backwards and pulled his head away with a look of shock covering his face. "You're fucking joking," he muttered while stepping backwards.
"HAHAHA!" Maleficent laughed madly towards the man who jumped backwards to get farther away. There was no escaping though. Her attack was much too massive. He slashed forward, then he cut to the right. He only had one sword though, and there were far too many meteors flying out of the rift towards him. He managed to cut two of them before the rest slammed into him in fiery explosions that rippled off the beach. BOOOM!
Fire covered the dark waterfront. Zoro rolled onto his stomach and then dragged himself to his hands and knees inside of a deep crater he had just been slammed into. "The fuck, was that?" Zoro gasped and lifted his head. He looked up the edge of the crater to the woman who glided herself to it and stared condescendingly down at him. His right hand gripped tighter on the Wado in rage at the way she stared down at him like he was a weakling.
He stood back up. "You are strong," Maleficent commented to the man she was fighting. Her staff glowed bright green, and the slash he cut towards her from a distance broke apart on her body without Maleficent even flinching. Her whole body had flashed with white light and seemed to be surrounded in a protective veil that Zoro's slash could not break through. "But not that strong. Behold, MY power!" Maleficent brought both of her arms up in front of her and then slammed them down. Her staff's vibration reverberated all around them as the butt hit the floor.
Cracks broke through the ground around Zoro. Green flames shot out of them while he sprinted forward and then up the slant towards the witch who rose up in the air with a platform of dark ground glowing and rising up below her. He slashed at that platform and cut it, but Maleficent stayed flying in the air and just summoned more meteors that Zoro sprinted away from rather than try to cut them all this time.
The two fought for a few minutes. Zoro was desperate, but he ground his teeth in frustration while failing to strike the witch who had so many amazing abilities at her disposal. What would I even do if I cut her down? I could, force her to save me. That's it. Zoro charged, but the ground under his right foot broke apart on his next step. Some of the ground lifted, and green flames hit him and burned the man who screamed out inside them.
Their fight did not last any longer. "Very skillful," Maleficent said. Zoro did not know if she was talking to him or just saying it aloud as she stepped towards him. He was defeated. Huge vines covered in thorns had lifted him up. Some of those thorns were cutting through his skin as they held him off the ground. "Zoro. You have such promise."
Maleficent stood right before the man whose head was bowed. His body was burnt and bloodied. The witch who defeated him looked into his eyes that opened slightly and glared down furiously into hers. "I will not take you away from here," she said, and the man flinched. His dark look became anxious and scared for a moment as he feared she was about to leave him again. "But I could show you the power of darkness if you would like to leave on your own."
There she goes talking about "darkness" again. Way too creepy. I do not like it. I don't like being here either! I hate this place. What the hell is "dark" power though? She even called it "evil" last time. Why would I ever accept- Zoro was wondering about it. He appeared thoughtful but not too curious, yet willing to accept it perhaps. Maleficent lifted her left hand that covered in a thin veil of pitch blackness. When she did so, five dog-like Shadows emerged out of the ground behind her.
Zoro's eyes shook as he saw what she had created and put together this power she kept speaking of. "No, fucking, way," Zoro growled at her. Those things? That's the kind of power she's talking about? That's not what I'm after. The strength I desire- I'll use it now, and break free from these binds. Grab her and make her take me with her! TORTURE HER IF I NEED TO!
Zoro strained himself against her vines that pulled with his body towards Maleficent. She did not lean back but her eyebrows did raise as how far Zoro managed to pull her binds. Blood spilled out of his wounds faster as he dug the thorns deeper into them by struggling so much. Such potential. Maybe, too much. Should he become accustomed to the darkness, he could become almost as strong as myself. Interesting.
The Heartless behind Maleficent danced around. They hopped back and forth on their small feet, idly staring at Zoro with their beady glowing eyes. "What keeps you from accepting this power?" Maleficent wondered to the man who stopped struggling and just groaned in pain as her thorns had dug too deep into him. "Are you just being cautious, because of what the Heartless did to your world?"
Zoro's head that bowed as he gasped out in pain and struggled for breath twitched. He rose it back up and looked confusedly at the woman he was furious at. "I don't know, what you're talking about," he growled at her.
"Hahaha, oh? Then, allow me to show you." Maleficent waved her left hand over the top of her staff. She held out her blackening crystal ball in between them and showed Zoro. His eyes focused on the images that she was showing him. He watched in absolute shock what became of the Destiny Islands after he left them. He saw the Going Merry flying up into the void. The islands collapsing. Then he watched as the water collapsed down. The oceans falling. The entire world, gone.
Maleficent spoke as he watched the end of his world, "Such is the power of the darkness."
"Did you think that you were all the Heartless took? Do you see now, why it is that your 'dream' of becoming the strongest means nothing?" Zoro lifted his gaze from the staff to the face of the woman behind it. She was close up to him now. Maleficent stared into his eyes and said, "If you wish to become stronger then you must learn to use this power. Or your strength will mean nothing. Insignificant in the face of such overwhelming destructive might. You must ask yourself what holds you back, and then cast off that weakness. If you are ever to become truly strong…"
Darkness swirled behind the witch. Zoro struggled against the vines that started to sink back into the ground. They dissolved away and dropped the swordsman down to his knees. His sword fell on the floor at his side. He reached his bloody right hand up towards the closing portal, and he gasped out in pain as he watched it close. Leaving him all alone once more in the Realm of Darkness with more questions than ever.
After the portal had closed, Maleficent took a few steps and then stopped herself. She paused and took a few heavy, panting breaths. The witch glanced back over her shoulder. "He is stronger than I imagined." Her lips lifted into a menacing smirk, "I am glad that I found him…"
End Flashback
Zoro's eyes were closed. Darkness swirled in front of him and he could feel the hand pressing on his back through the glass vat behind him. But something else struck his heart. Something else snuck into his mind when he felt the feeling on his heart that unsettled him in its familiarity. They're getting close. Zoro's eyes opened and he ground his teeth in anger that the shaking dark wisps in front of him had not given him what he desired.
If I need to stop them first before I can focus solely on this mission, then so be it. I can feel an uncertainty in my heart. The same I felt in Traverse Town. And on Earth. In Bikini Bottom. Everywhere I come close, but I stop myself. Can't put it off any longer though. Why is it that I don't want to see him? Straw Hat is no longer my captain. Seeing Chopper though… I, felt nostalgic. It was not Chopper's fault though.
It wasn't Usopp's either. Zoro frowned deeper and leaned back against the glass while staring silently ahead. Sitting in this position, quietly gazing forward, reminded him of that dark world he had spent so long abandoned in. It made his teeth grind in anger and his expression to darken quickly. Had I not taught him that lesson, he would have spent the rest of his life waiting. Imagining that someone would come and save him. But, someone ultimately did… not for years! But, he still did. Zoro rose his left hand to his head and rubbed the side of it in mild aggravation. Three years for Usopp. Had it been three for me, before he showed up, would I have still gone with him?
Flashback
Well over another year had passed since Zoro had seen Maleficent. More than three years in the dark realm by himself. Zoro sat on a beach near the water. His expression was flat and devoid of emotion. His jilted eyes cold and glaring thoughtlessly into the abyss. The forsaken man did not flinch when his loneliness was interrupted by a woman who was walking towards him on his left side.
He just kept staring out ahead. "Tell me, Zoro. When you first got here-"
"Teach me," Zoro interrupted.
Maleficent was surprised. Only for a second though. "Hm," she watched him stand up and turn to face her. He did not look angry about how their last meeting had went. Zoro had just been staring out over the water by himself as he had been for years now. He had not needed to eat, or drink, nor talk to anyone except Maleficent on her occasional visits. For years now.
"You wish to learn how to use the darkness?" Maleficent wondered to the pirate. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Zoro replied. "All I want, is out of this place. Whatever it takes to do that, I'm in." Zoro had no uncertainty in his voice. This was not something he needed a second to think about. He had had more than enough time for that. He had long since decided that he would do whatever it took next time he had the opportunity. This kind of solitude could drive a man mad, and it was only the thought that she would one day return and give him another chance that kept him clinging onto sanity. He had stayed stoic when she approached, but the relief he felt at her appearance was beyond description. "Please," he added while bowing his head to the witch.
Maleficent grinned at the tone the man took with her this time. He was showing her respect unlike before. "Alright then," Maleficent replied. He rose his head back up and breathed out in relief, only for his breath to hitch and speed up fast. "There are conditions though," she told him. Zoro nodded. He did breathe a bit faster but nodded, as he had not expected it to be easy anyway. He just realized that he had felt too relieved too quickly and instantly got back on edge.
"If I do teach you how to use the darkness, if I get you out of here, I will be your new leader." Maleficent said it with her head tilting back so she stared down her nose at him. She appeared to have a powerful stature. The witch held her staff in her right hand out to her side while speaking to this swordsman she was recruiting onto her side. He had seen her power first hand, but she still gave off an ominous pressure as she declared this for him to hear and agree to. "You will assist me with my mission however you can. With whatever I ask of you. You will carry out my orders to the best of your ability." She made these demands and then stared down at the man questioningly to see if he would agree to those caveats.
"You get me out of here, you've got yourself a deal," Zoro responded. As much as she was demanding from him, all those details sounded insignificant compared to the downside of refusing and being trapped here forever. Getting stronger while stuck in here means nothing. I need to see what else there is. Our world may be gone, but Maleficent has the ability to travel between worlds. And soon, I will be able to as well. Which means I will have the ability to test my strength and become strongest not just of one world, but all worlds.
"In that case, follow me," Maleficent told the man. "We will train elsewhere. I wanted you to use the darkness to get yourself out of here, but it has been too long. I believe you are due some time in the light. If you ever betray me though," Maleficent added while waving her staff and making a portal appear next to Zoro for him to step through. "I will send you back to this place and never return. Abandoning you here for all time."
"I won't betray you. I give you my word," Zoro said with a glance back towards the woman before turning towards that portal again. He gulped while looking at it.
Maleficent looked surprised again as he said that to her in a way as if telling her that there was no need for her to be concerned because he would never break his word. She grinned as she believed it, and she stepped towards and through the portal herself. "Come, Zoro. Return to the Realm of Light. The worlds we have yet to steep in darkness…"
Zoro was walking into that swirling black portal already. He did not look back once. He did not look around this realm that he had called home for over three and a half years now. He did stop for a second though. Zoro's foot came down and he stopped moving. His eyes stared through the portal after the woman who just said something ominous and unsettling to him. He steadied his mind though. Zoro's right hand moved down to the hilt on his side and he gripped it as tightly as he could. Whatever her ambitions are will not interfere with my own.
This is a similar situation to my last one. Zoro kept walking and stepped through the portal, back into the light. His eyes squinted and he pulled his head away as the light was blinding after so much time in the darkness. Where I was trapped and he freed me from that cross. But this time I won't make the mistake of getting attached. Attachments like that are just distractions from my goal.
I'll follow Maleficent and do what she says, but I'm not going to pretend like we're friends. She's freeing me from that prison, and I am grateful, but she is evil. That is very clear to me. We are not friends. That doesn't mean I can't learn from her. That doesn't mean I won't help her with her goals. But I'll do it while focused on my own. She doesn't seem like she's going to interfere with that. So I will do what I want, and I will not make the mistake of starting to think of her goals as my own… like I did with that man.
End Flashback
Zoro stood up. She got all seven princesses. Her ambition from the day I met her. From long before then. She found them all. Weird that Kairi happened to be one of them. The seventh princess, was a girl I met on those islands right before our world fell. Stranger coincidences have occurred.
Zoro started walking off from the glass case that he left the copycat inside of. His old sword stayed where it was resting up against it. Zoro's right hand moved down to one of the black hilts on his side though. The cloaked man walked for the exit of the hall as he felt the approach in his heart. "Remember, Zoro. Separate the keybearers first to assist young Riku."
Zoro nodded without responding to the witch who commanded him telepathically. The Straw Hats are going to come for me. Sora will head for Riku. He continued forward and then thought to himself, I wonder if things will really go the way Maleficent wants. I doubt she could predict-
It doesn't matter to me, Zoro reminded himself. Her goals, are separate from my own. But I swore I would assist her and I am a man of my word. It's time. Darkness bubbled up underneath his feet and engulfed the swordsman from his legs to the top of his head. He vanished from the castle of Hollow Bastion, and he appeared outside on top of a glacier.
"Wawa! Passing Neverland," Donald announced. The duck's squeaky voice echoed around the Merry from where he sat in the Gummi Ship's cockpit on the Merry's bow. Cid has installed a television inside the Merry's cabin as well as speakers that connected to the Gummi Ship, so Chopper and Donald were better able to communicate and work together as they flew through space. Nami stood next to Chopper and helped guide them, but she looked over towards the windows of the cabin and out into space nearby where they were passing another world.
Sanji stepped over to the railing and stared off the ship towards the world they were going by. He leaned forward and rested his crossed arms on the railing while staring off at another world he had heard something about but never saw himself. On his right side approached a dark-haired woman who he turned to with a bright smile and straightened up a bit. She shook her head at him though showing he did not have to move around or offer her any snacks or anything.
Robin stepped up next to Sanji and she stared off the ship and towards the world everyone on this vessel had been to other than him. "On that world, people had the ability to fly. Only if they believed in fairies, however." Sanji shook his head while blowing some air through his lips at the insanity of those statements. "Luffy asked Sora to join the crew there."
This Sanji had not heard. He spun to Robin in surprise and she nodded once in response to his questioning look. Her lips flattened from the small smile she had though. "Sora would not join him. He believed our captain did not take their mission seriously enough… And considering what happened to Halloween Town." Robin frowned and glanced sadly towards the bow of their ship. "I think, Luffy hurts more over that than he lets on." Sanji was in front of her now as he turned to the left and looked up towards the bow too.
She stood closer to the stern. Robin lifted her left hand up to her chest for a moment and lightly pressed against it as she felt her heart pounding. Her hand squeezed, but she lowered it when Sanji turned back forward and then looked back towards the stern a bit himself to try and see the world they had gone past now. They were moving through one of the set pathways in their navigation systems that were more clear of space debris. The path was full of Heartless ships, but Sora was in the Gummi Ship with Donald and they had been constantly blasting away together along with Chopper to clear the path ahead.
"Think so?" Sanji wondered. He had not noticed. Sanji reached for his pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. "Was it, bad?" Sanji asked. He kept his voice low. He did not want to think much about it.
"It was," Robin replied softly to him. She gave the man next to her a small smile as she examined his bleak expression. "We all understand why you worked with Ursula." Sanji spun to her in surprise. Robin could tell what had Sanji looking disturbed though as he lit up his cigarette, imagining what might have befell Atlantica if he had kept helping Ursula for a little bit longer. "I understand more than anyone. When the crew found me, I was working with another of Maleficent's cohort."
Sanji turned his body more to her and nodded his head for her to continue. She sounded like she wanted to tell him something, and he was happy to hear it from the woman he had missed despite them not knowing each other for long before they were all separated. Robin hesitated though instead of continuing on with the story she considered telling him to make his own betrayal feel not as bad, and also to explain why the others had been quick to accept it. Sanji had imagined it was all because of Zoro. He got an even more confused look on his face though as Robin was not explaining what she was talking about.
"…And yet," Robin started. "That man I worked for, Jafar…" Robin stopped herself. She turned again and looked past Sanji and towards the bow of their ship. She looked past the bow and through the Heartless-infested space ahead blocking their next destination. "He was evil. Like Maleficent, whose power and dark malevolence are unparalleled. Jafar was evil like her. Like Hook, and Ursula, and yet," Robin said those words again. She cut herself off and pursed her lips before looking back into Sanji's eyes with an expression that really unnerved him, because it looked like this always-collected woman herself was unnerved too.
Do I say it aloud? Do I dare speak it? "I, am afraid," Robin admitted to her crewmate.
"Do not fear!" Sanji exclaimed. "Robin-chwan! I will be there to protect you the whole-" A hand popped out of the side of Sanji's head and covered his mouth. Robin shook her head at the man for immaturely shouting that when she was trying to be serious. She had just admitted something that she could not imagine confessing to anyone not so long ago.
Robin said it though because she needed to say it to someone. She gave Sanji a darker look for being loud about what she had just said, and his eyes bulged as he realized that she was telling him this in confidence. She allowed her extra arm to vanish, and Sanji whispered vehement apologies to the older woman who nodded back at him now that he understood. "Sanji-san," Robin said, using his name while she looked into his eyes. "As terrifying as those dark enemies are. The group that use the Heartless, capture princesses, spread darkness over the worlds… They are terrible. Evil. And not one of them could send chills down my spine, like the man in the cave on Sora's island." Robin whispered the end of her sentence and stared back at Sanji with extreme intensity that allowed him to really grasp what she was saying.
Sanji remembered what she had told them back on Destiny Islands. He took a drag from his cigarette and shifted his gaze back towards the bow of their ship himself. Robin spoke to the back of his head, "I have not seen him since. He warned me: 'One who knows nothing can understand nothing.' Well Sanji-san, I still do not know who he was. What he was doing on our world that day. Or, what he is doing now."
Sanji shivered at the thought. Robin spoke her true concerns to a crewmate because she needed to speak them to someone. "Maleficent is without a doubt our enemy. She is evil. Her plans need to be stopped. But, I fear that strange figure from the cave. More than any of those who we have faced. That person has yet to show themselves."
Sanji gulped. I wish I had been there all those other times, Robin-chan. This time though! "I mean it, Robin-chwan," Sanji said with his tone as serious as hers was. She tilted her head to the side wondering what he meant. Then she smiled as the blond-haired man told her while putting his right hand over one of hers that rested on the railing, "I will protect you if you're scared. If it costs me my life, I will protect you."
Oddly enough, I believe you. Robin smiled. She smiled back at this man who she barely knew but whose personality she had enough of a grasp on to know that those were not empty words. "Thank you, Sanji-san."
"Hey guys," Sanji and Robin turned and saw Nami standing in the doorway of the Merry's cabin. She looked serious and just told the two out there, "The next location on the map is our 'unknown' destination. It's Hollow Bastion."
"And we're certain of that?" Sanji wondered.
"Sora seems to be," Nami replied. "And, it just feels like it's going to be, doesn't it?"
Robin nodded back at Nami. Sanji put out his cigarette and took in a deep breath. Then he said intensely, "Nami-san, I swear to you, I will protect you with my life." Robin chuckled at his side and started walking away as Sanji started swearing on his life again to protect the ladies of this crew. She still felt reassured by him, but it amused her nonetheless. Nami just rolled her eyes at him though before thanking him and heading back in to help Chopper for the rest of their short remaining journey.
Everyone prepared themselves as the pirate ship hurtled through space towards their final destination. "Coming up on it," Sora said while leaning in front of Donald and checking the map again. "Riku, Kairi, I'm coming," he whispered aloud.
Luffy sat on the sheep head that was Merry's figurehead. He sat at the front of the ship watching the amazing display of fireworks that space looked like ahead of him. Space itself was already brilliantly lit up with bright colors and amazing flying objects of all different shapes and sizes. Exploding Heartless ships mixed in with that amazing sight made for an epic trip through space that he enjoyed front row tickets of. It was hard not to smile as he watched it all. He reached up rubbed over his shirt on the left side as he felt a strange panging feeling in his chest. Luffy turned his head and looked over his shoulder and past the Gummi Ship behind him. He watched as Robin walked across the middle deck and glanced up towards the bow herself, and he smiled back towards the woman who hesitated at his look and then flashed him a small smile back in response.
Luffy lowered his hand from his chest but felt strange as he stared out into the battle ahead of him. Watching Heartless ships explode had never been so easy to ignore. Zoro, Luffy felt his heart clench up even more. I, don't want to… I don't, want to fight.
The Gummi Ship floated outside of a world that one look at and anyone could tell the darkness had a hold over it. Dark purple clouds swirled underneath the world and on all sides. A massive castle floated above the planet they descended towards. "This is Leon and the others' home world, huh?" Nami wondered while looking around off the pirate ship sailing down towards the world's surface.
"That castle's going to be really well-guarded," Usopp said. He glared towards the castle in the distance and swore he could already see some huge Heartless monsters flying around the upper sections. "No way we get the Merry close."
"Over there!" Chopper called out and pointed for Donald who turned his head and nodded in agreement.
"Looks like a good spot to set down," Donald said. "Just got to find somewhere to hide the ships! Let's see…" Donald glanced at Sora to see if he had any ideas, but Sora was not looking around the icy surface they were flying towards. His gaze was locked on that huge floating castle that looked amazing and had Luffy smiling ear-to-ear while gawking at it too. Sora's expression was different though. Smoker glanced next to him at the boy who saw Donald looking at him first and spun to look around for a landing area.
"Over there," Sora pointed.
There was a gap in the ice wide enough for their ship to lower into. Inside of the gap were some large floating glaciers that lifted and lowered as if by magic. The area had some chests laying on top of some icebergs that could have useful items in them based on what they had seen on other worlds. There was also a noticeable lack of Heartless there compared to most other places around them. "Bringing her down!" Donald shouted.
Everyone prepared themselves. They had been preparing for a while now, but the fact that they were landing on the most dangerous world they had been to so far was not lost on any of them. "Cloaking," Chopper said, pressing a button when Donald looked back at him and quacked for him to do it.
"Let's go," Sora hopped over the railing. Goofy and Luffy dropped down with him. Robin hopped over the railing. Smoker turned his lower body into smoke and flew up and then down to land with the others. Usopp tossed a rope over for Nami, then he jumped off as did a disappointed Sanji who had called out at Nami that he would carry her down. Usopp frowned but had tossed the rope for a reason anyway, because Nami did not want him picking her up and jumping off like Sanji had offered to.
Donald and Chopper ran over last and jumped to join the rest of the group. They all dropped off the side of their hovering pirate ship that they cloaked on the edge of an ice wall inside of a glacial gap. They dropped down onto a low ice platform before the floating ones that they could jump up in the direction of the floating castle. There was a huge gap between the ice section they were on and the castle in the distance, but there was nowhere closer that they could land considering what they had seen below the castle any closer than this icy landscape.
In every direction below the base of that giant castle in the sky, Heartless filled up every inch of the surface. It had looked like the ground was just pitch black on their flight in, but as they got closer they could see that the dark ground was actually moving. Heartless packed so closely together that it looked like a hole in the world. No one had suggested landing any closer than they did after seeing that.
"How are we going to get up there?" Usopp muttered while staring a long ways towards the castle their enemies were surely at.
"Hmm," Nami hummed. "Well I think-" Nami saw Luffy's head turning around with concern all over it. The navigator spun to her side after dropping from the rope off the bow of the Merry. "Robin?" Nami cut herself off and said her friend's name in concern. The others had stepped forward on the ice platform, and most of them spun around at Nami's concerned tone. They stared in surprise at the darker-haired woman who had her right hand clenched over her shirt and was panting heavily.
"Nico Robin?" Smoker looked at the woman just behind him who gasped for breath.
Nico Robin opened her mouth to speak, but she dropped down to her right knee and bowed her head with sweat covering it. "Robin! What's happening?" Luffy exclaimed towards the woman. He took a step back towards her himself, feeling his heart pound as he watched her pained expression.
"I- I'm fine," Robin whispered. She shook her head back and forth and rose her gaze up to her friends. She pushed a hand down below her and struggled back onto her feet.
"Are you sure?" Nami wondered while stepping towards the woman she wanted to help up like Sanji who was already at Robin's side.
She shook her head at him though and gave around a serious look telling them to drop it. "Yes. I don't know what came over me."
Sora looked over his shoulder and was watching Robin with concern like the others. He nodded though as she said she was alright, and he looked back forward and stepped to the edge of the iceberg. Donald and Goofy walked up to his sides. They stared up the floating ice platforms towards the distant castle. Sora stopped. "I know this place," he said. Recognition filled his eyes as he stared at an image he knew he had seen before.
Goofy cocked his head to the side and replied, "Hmm, that's strange."
"It's your first time here, isn't it?" Smoker wondered to the teen's back.
"Y-Yeah," Sora replied. He shook his head around. "I mean, it has to be. But I," Sora lifted a hand to his own chest. "I wonder why, I feel this warmth inside. Right here."
"Maybe," Nami smiled, "it's because Kairi is-"
"Aw you're just hungry," Donald quacked at Sora. Nami frowned angrily that the duck interrupted her when she was enjoying this cute moment.
Robin gave Sora a more serious look though while he was speaking. She glanced to Luffy again who was still staring back in some concern at her, and she hesitated longer this time before nodding at him. I know it is not smart to ignore feelings in the heart. Luffy has only been my captain for a short time. I should not feel, like this. Something is resonating within him though. He has been looking towards me whenever I am feeling like this!
Just then, several Heartless Shadows sprung to life on the three closest floating ice platforms ahead of them. Sora and Luffy swung their arms out to their left and right sides respectively. Keyblades appeared in their hands. "We should get moving," Usopp said. "They're going to appear endlessly, so the faster we move the fewer we'll have to fight."
"Aw, we can take 'em!" Sora called out back.
"We don't want to use up all our energy before the big fights," Usopp countered the kid who lowered his confident smile a little and nodded as that made sense too.
Though if we fight more, we'll be stronger before those fights happen, Sora reasoned with himself.
"Alright then, let's get move…" Sora turned his head to the right. Luffy just turned that way too. They both turned and looked up the ice wall on that side of them. They rose their gazes and looked up to the edge of the glacier where someone was walking forward. Stepping closer, and closer, and then stopping just on the edge where he looked down at them.
Luffy's eyes shook. Everyone else turned their heads and stared up as well. Donald and Goofy gulped at the same time as they got a look at this man. His green hair falling to his shoulders was messy. He wore a black cloak with the hood down to reveal the man's face clearer and the three earrings in one of his ears. Three sword hilts stuck out in front of his waist. "Zoro," Luffy whispered.
He was older than the last time Sora or Luffy had seen him. His eyes locked directly on Luffy's. Zoro stared down towards them, and then those down below heard a voice roar out closer to their level, "RAAaaahh- ahh," the roar was terrifying but also sounded like it was in pain.
Sora spun towards his front and looked up the floating platforms towards a gateway at the top of the hovering islands. A hairy beast stumbled back through the stone archway up there that he had seen before. Sora spotted someone else there too, and his eyes grew huge at the sight of the silver-haired teen with a red and black sword who had his blade risen up to the side of his head pointed at the roaring creature. "Riku," he whispered and grasped his Keyblade tighter.
Zoro turned his back on those down below him and walked away from the ledge. "Zoro!" Luffy shouted up. He threw both arms up above him so they stretched a hundred feet up and grabbed onto the top of the ice wall.
"Wait!" Donald exclaimed.
"Go, Luffy!" Sora called at his friend who was not going to stop anyway. "We'll meet up later!"
"Sora! That's not-" Donald spun to the spiky-haired kid, then he spun back as the other keybearer shot up into the sky like a slingshot releasing.
"Luffy!" Goofy called up after him.
"Luffy can't fight Zoro alone," Usopp said. He turned to Smoker who was already turning his lower half into smoke. Then he looked towards Sanji who grit his teeth but nodded right back at the muscular sharpshooter. Robin nodded her head in agreement as well and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"Should, all of us?" Nami wondered.
"Riku's just up there," Sora said. He stared ahead and got his Keyblade ready at his right side. "I'm going for him." Sora ran forward and jumped up onto the next ice platform when it dropped to an elevation easy for him to hop to. He slashed back and forth and hit all three Shadows that leapt at him. He started a combo and then dropped Thunder magic around him and finished them off. Sora ignored the Munny and health and mana balls that dropped to just jump straight to the next glacier.
"WawawAA! After him, Goofy!" Donald called out.
Usopp was staring at Nami since her question. I don't trust that Zoro won't just cut you down. "Someone needs to stick with Sora. Make sure he's alright," Usopp told the orange-haired woman who looked back at him in surprise for asking her to split up from him. Smoker flew up into the air, though some of his smoke flew around Usopp, Chopper, and Sanji's sides. Wings sprouted out of Nico Robin's back and flapped down below her to send her flying after her captain. Usopp allowed Smoker to grab him as did a frustrated Sanji who just grimaced as the Marine's smoke surrounded his body. "Go with him. Protect the kid," Usopp flashed her a smile right before Smoker carried him up in the air and left Nami to chase after the other three hopping one platform at a time and bashing through Heartless with every step.
"Hey! Wait for me!" Nami called after the others. The dog man in front of her stopped and waited for the woman who chuckled and flashed Goofy a grateful smile before the two continued on and jumped to the next floating platform where Sora and Donald were back to back fighting enemies together.
"Donald, hit them with Fire!" Sora shouted. "Goofy, here!" Sora nodded his head at a flying Heartless swooping down at his right side. He did not want to cut off his combo against the stronger Armored Heartless he was slashing back and forth at in order to protect himself from the purple flying one. Goofy ran up and jumped in the way, blocking with his shield and knocking back the flying one for long enough that Sora could finish his other combo and then swing his Keyblade towards the parried Heartless. "Gravity!"
Nami looked at Sora in surprise and then leaned her head back in shock and amazement at the magic he just cast. The winged Heartless dropped out of the air fast in a sphere of purple gravity that flattened it to the floor, making it an easier target for Goofy to smash his shield down on and destroy. Sora slashed his Keyblade out to his side again and then ran forward and jumped as the next platform just lowered to its lowest point and made it easy for them to hop to. "Come on!" Sora called out. The platform was about to start rising again and he darted a look back which made Nami rush forward and jump to join him before she would be left behind.
The four of them got onto the floating iceberg that was rising towards the top of this low glacial gap and the stone arch they had seen Riku at from a distance. They were almost there, but Nami still glanced over her shoulder just as Donald did ahead of her. She looked towards the much taller walls of the glacier and just caught sight of a few wisps of smoke disappearing over the edge. She lost sight of her crewmates. Nami took a deep breath and calmed down though while looking ahead and at the three still with her. This was not like Wonderland. The rest of the crew had gone off somewhere else, but she still had Sora, Donald, and Goofy with her. She even rose a small smile as she thought of the way Usopp had looked at her before sending her with this group. He trusts them too. Enough that he knows I'm safer here with them, than up there with you, fighting Zoro.
At the top of the cliff, Zoro stopped walking away as Luffy shot up over his head and landed directly in front of him. Chopper already popped a Rumble Ball and bounced over in Jump Point on Zoro's right side but still a bit in front of him. The reindeer with long skinny legs dropped down onto his hands and lifted his anxious face with his horns growing much longer and more dangerous too. On Chopper's left and still on Zoro's right but more behind him, Robin lowered herself down and made her wings vanish as she landed close-by to Chopper.
Zoro's head shifted slightly to his right and glanced towards them. Then he turned a bit to his left and watched as Smoker walked forward out of his smoke on Zoro's back left. Sanji walked farther past Smoker and closer to Luffy, while Zoro darted a look behind him and to the muscular man in a toga who drew the broadsword from his back and held the hilt with both hands in front of his waist. Usopp pointed the tip of his blade forward towards Zoro who looked around at the people encircling him.
Zoro's right hand moved to the top of the three hilts on his side. His gaze locked back straight ahead on Luffy's. "Zoro," Luffy started. "It's great to see you again. I know, it's been a long time, for you-"
"Prepare yourself, Straw Hat Luffy." Zoro drew the top katana from his waist. Luffy leaned back and his face filled with pain as Zoro cut him off. Zoro pointed his sword towards his former captain.
"Zoro wait!" Chopper yelled out at the man.
"Roronoa, tell me where she is!" Smoker demanded.
Sanji breathed out a visible breath of air that hung in front of his face like smoke because of the cold air up on this glacier. Not being blocked by the high cliff walls meant they were a lot more exposed to the frigid temperature of this world. It gave him another reason to want to light up a cigarette right now, like Smoker who had a cigar in his mouth while he growled at Zoro.
Robin's heart was pounding violently in her chest. Her breath hung in front of her face for longer than Sanji's and there was more of it as she breathed out rapid breaths. What is happening to me? The closer we've gotten to this world, and now here it's worse! Something is going on.
"This won't be like last time," Usopp warned his old comrade.
"Zoro," Luffy just whispered again. He looked at Zoro's sword then back at his nakama's face. Then he put his hands together down on his right side again. A flash of light illuminated there, and Luffy gripped his black and white Keyblade tightly that he pointed back at Zoro to match the way Zoro was pointing the katana at him. "I know it's been a while! I know, you don't think of me as your captain right now… So Zoro!" Luffy yelled. He slashed his Keyblade to his side and started sprinting forward at his enemy. "I want you to join my crew again!" Luffy pulled back his Keyblade, ready to fight the man he just yelled that at.
Zoro shook his head back at the younger man. "Luffy…" Zoro's eyes closed then snapped open and he closed the gap. His katana sliced and clashed against the black Keyblade shaft that Luffy swung at him. Zoro glared past the crossing point of their weapons. Luffy's eyes bulged as Zoro said to him, "You broke the Log Pose."
A/N Thanks for reading! This chapter we finally see what happened to Zoro that led him to joining Maleficent. We also see what's up with Tashigi who Smoker's been searching for all this time, and who Zoro's got mixed emotions about as he's uncertain why he found her... Robin's worried about an unknown enemy yet to reveal themselves. Riku, Zoro, and Maleficent are ready for the heroes who have landed on Hollow Bastion, and they've succeeded in separating the group now. What will happen next?! Find out... tomorrow! XD I'll post another chapter tomorrow for sure!