"Sora, she's evil." Donald complained even as the brunette young man dabbed a damp cloth on the unconscious villain's forehead.
Sora sighed as he understood his companion's complaints, he'd been hearing them for the last few hours. "I know Donald but she stood up against the organization to help us. It wouldn't be right if I didn't help her back."
"Garsh, that's really nice of you Sora, but… did you have to bring her onto the Gummi ship to do it?" Goofy questioned as he knew Sora's heart was in the right place; he just questioned if that was still a smart thing to do.
All Sora could do was shrug. He didn't want to just leave Maleficent completely defenceless in Hollow Bastion, even after fighting off the army of Heartless and Nobodies, there were still dangers present and if the sleeping woman wasn't awake to use her magic, she'd be easy pickings for anyone who wanted to do her harm.
His cartoonish companions sighed as Sora had been using what healing magic he knew to tend to one of their greatest villain's wounds. "She's not going to thank you for this Sora," Donald said as he climbed back in his chair.
"I know," Sora smiled as he covered Maleficent with a blanket. "But I don't help people so that they thank me, I help them because it's the right thing to do." He took his spot in the captain's chair and piloted the Gummi ship to the next world.
Maleficent groaned as she woke up. The last thing she remembered was fighting off those nobodies to buy-. Her eyes widened as she looked around the place she had awoken. "Where?" Maleficent said as she tried to get her bearings when she heard scrambling nearby.
"You're awake," Sora cried out happily as he hopped out of his chair and came over to her side. His rapid approach made the woman back up against the wall.
"Where am I child?" Maleficent demanded to know as she didn't have a clue as to where she was.
"Good morning," Sora rubbed his nose with a chuckle. "You were out for a few days and you're on our Gummi ship," he said as he moved his hand to point around the cockpit.
"You have abducted me then." Maleficent reasoned as she had no idea why this child would have brought her aboard his strange vessel.
"See Captain Goofy, she couldn't even say thank you," Donald laughed as he spun around in his chair.
Goofy scratched his head. "Well she seems more confused than anything, Donald."
Maleficent took a few deep breaths to calm herself as being surrounded by her enemies was not a good position to be in. "No no," Sora quickly said over his friends. "You aren't a prisoner. Saix and all those nobodies did a number on you and I just… you really helped us back in Hollow Bastion and it wouldn't be right for me to leave you on the ground."
"Foolish child," Maleficent suppressed a gag as she knew the boy was being honest about why he was helping her. The keyblade wielder was too pure to have done this for nefarious reasons. She moved to stand up and winced as she felt a pain run through her body forcing her to lay back down.
"You need a little bit more time to get back to full strength Maleficent, it's fine, just rest okay," Sora smiled as he put a potion next to her for when she felt up to taking it.
Maleficent watched out of the corner of her eye as the keyblade warrior moved back to his seat to pilot the ship. On one hand she knew the boy wouldn't poison her, but she was not a trusting woman, so she didn't even touch the vial that would help ease the pain she was feeling. It was an hour later when she was suffering silently from the pain that a new issue arose.
Stepping over to the captain's chair she reached over and placed her hands on the backrest of the chair. "I require the use of a restroom," Maleficent said startling Sora out of his seat.
After a much needed moment to bring down his pulse Sora chuckled that he'd been so spooked by someone he knew was there. "Sure," he smiled and pointed towards a doorway that led to other parts of the ship. They didn't spend too much time in the Gummi Ship because they were usually on the move but the ship was bigger on the inside and had what they needed for travel. "It's the third door on the left." He said as he turned back to the controls.
"Sora!" Donald smacked his friend on the back of his head. "Don't let her walk around our ship unsupervised. What if she sabotaged it and ran?" The white duck wizard said as he kicked Sora out of his chair.
"She's just going to the bathroom guys, even villains have to pee you know," Sora grumbled as he stood up from the floor. Donald had folded his arms and Goofy had just tossed up his hands as he didn't think it was a great idea to let Maleficent walk around freely. "Fine, I'll show her where the bathroom is. But only so that she doesn't get lost."
"You're friends do not trust me," Maleficent stated the obvious.
Leaning against a wall Sora took a deep breath as he thought about what he was doing. "Well I wouldn't say I trust you, but you aren't really in any shape to do evil and you're just going down the hall."
"Oh so you believe yourself to be safe because I am weakened," small green flames appeared on her shoulders even as Sora looked at her calmly.
"Yup and I also believe you need to pee more than you want to start a fight right now so..." Sora pointed to the bathroom door as Maleficent frowned at him.
"You're lucky that you're correct child," the evil sorceress grumbled as she stomped into the bathroom.
Sora chuckled as he knew he won that round with Maleficent and he strode back towards the cockpit. He heard the door open a few minutes later and didn't even have to turn around to know Maleficent had returned to the spot she woke up in.
"You know, we do have beds if you wanted a more comfortable place to get some rest," he offered as he could tell the bench was not a comfortable place to rest but it had been the only place he could both keep an eye on her when she was unconscious while also piloting the ship. He'd needed to keep chasing the organization and stopping for who knows how long until Maleficent was awake would only lead to more problems later.
"And leave you three alone to scheme, I think-" Maleficent grunted as the hard bench was indeed not a good place to try and recover on.
With a sigh Sora stepped away from the controls again and went over to where the villainess was laying. "Come on Maleficent, you know I'm not a schemer, that's your schtick. Once you're fully healed then you'll be able to go back to whatever evil lair you have and that'll happen faster if you're able to relax."
While she didn't want to admit that the keyblade warrior was making a good point, the hard bench was not something she wanted to remain on for much long. "Fine, I accept your offer but know that if this is some plan to… I don't know… I will-" she started to threaten as Sora shook his head, but being tired and sore made it more difficult to concoct a good threat.
"Painful torture, eternal suffering, being forced to listen to Pete sing," Sora interrupted before the witch could begin monologuing. "Look I get it, just take the room next to the bathroom," he said as he did need to get to business.
Just before the door completely shut Maleficent heard a comment from the shield warrior Goofy. "But Sora isn't that your room?"
"Sure but, she needs a bed more than I do right now," Sora said nonchalantly as he took the ship around to Halloween Town.
It was later when Maleficent was awoken to knocking on the door. She elected to ignore it until she heard the voice of that annoying keyblade wielder. "Maleficent, it's been quite a few hours, you should eat something," Sora's voice carried through the shut door.
"And have you poison me?" Maleficent said back through the door.
Sora rested his head against the wall. "I don't even have poisons if I was going to do that and I wouldn't do that anyway."
"Your friends might, they understand the war that we are in, now would be the perfect time to take out a major obstacle," Maleficent countered as while the Keyblade wielder was an honest person, the other two had been fighting this for far longer and wouldn't be above such an action. She wasn't, but she also wasn't in a position to do so.
"They wouldn't," Sora said in defense of his friends. He couldn't imagine them deliberately trying to kill someone.
The door slid open and Maleficent stood in the doorway looking down at Sora. "You really do try and see the best in everyone don't you?" she said almost not believing someone could be this naive.
"I know they aren't perfect, but… they wouldn't try to kill you," Sora said firmly.
"We shall see then," Maleficent said as she walked past Sora who turned and followed her.
"The food looks great Donald," Sora said with a smile as the duck typically handled cooking the food for them when they weren't on a world where they could easily get meals. It wasn't five star quality but it sure beat whatever Sora could put together.
The wizard happily put down plates in front of everyone, digging into his own meal with gusto. But before Sora could touch his food with his fork a hand shot out and grabbed his plate. "What?" Sora said in confusion as Maleficent switched her dish with his.
"I told you, I do not trust that you would not poison my food, but you would have to be very brave to poison your own as well," Maleficent said as she figured that Donald and Goofy wouldn't have done anything to Sora's food.
"Maleficent they wouldn't have done anything to the-" He shook his head and stuck his fork into what had been the witches meal when a gloved hand grabbed his wrist. Looking up slowly from the appendage Sora watched as Goofy took the plate away from him. "No," Sora gasped in shock that Maleficent had been right. "You didn't," said almost not believing what he was seeing.
"Aheh," Donald chuckled nervously. "Sora, she's evil." hoping his justification for why he and Goofy had done this would have been enough.
"Come on guys, that's… this isn't a very good joke okay," Sora tried to reach for the plate of food but Goofy kept it out of his reach.
Maleficent wanted to laugh at how childish the keyblade wielder was being but she saw genuine hurt on his face, that took a lot of the amusement out of the situation. "I am not offended, I expected this. The war between Light and Dark has been waged for centuries, long before any of us were born."
"That they had been fighting long before meeting you is something you have to accept and that comes with knowing that they are soldiers child and they also know what it entails." Maleficent continued even as Sora was clearly uncomfortable with hearing all of this. "That soldiers live and die and more importantly they take lives."
"But we…" Sora trailed off as he didn't have a response to this.
"Did you really think everything you did was innocent, that no one got hurt in this struggle?" Maleficent questioned as she was piecing together some details. "I recall on quite a number of worlds that people died."
"No-," Sora shook his head as he denied what Maleficent was implying.
"When you met Mulan, did she not kill Shan Yu? The hydra you battled alongside that demi-god Hercules, did you not slay it?" Maleficent asked even though she knew the answer.
"We didn't," Sora denied even as Goofy and Donald nodded.
Maleficent looked genuinely sad that Sora had been able to go all this time without realizing the true impact of what he was doing. "I assumed you were aware of the lives you took to protect others."
Sora gripped his arms tightly as he began to hyperventilate, he recalled that he had in fact killed over the years and it never registered with him that was what he was doing. He could ignore the heartless and nobodies because they were just monsters that had to be destroyed but, people like Clayton, Jafar and Ursula had all been people and they were dead now.
"Stop it!" Goofy shouted at Maleficent as he was not liking how worked up Sora was getting now.
"Why should I?" the sorceress countered. "You clearly didn't do anything to actually make sure this child understood what he was getting himself into. Don't tell me you just found the person who wielded the keyblade and promised them a fantastic adventure that had a fairytale ending?" Maleficent scoffed as she knew that was exactly what they had done with Sora. Not that she was much better, but at least she corrupted people in an obvious manner.
"I'm gonna be sick," Sora said as he sprinted out of the room, not even bothering to shut the door behind him and that allowed the three still remaining at the table to hear Sora empty the contents of his stomach into the toilet.
"Grr, why couldn't you just keep your mouth shut?" Donald slammed his hands on the table angrily.
"Because the boy deserves honesty, especially if you are going to be dragging children into this war," Maleficent folded her arms and crossed her legs. She might not like these people, but of them Sora was someone who'd been completely upfront with her at every point and as such she would offer him the same courtesy.
Goofy tossed the plate of poisoned food into the sink. "Well you didn't have to be so blunt, we could have eased him into this. Made it easier." He felt terrible that Sora was exposed to the actual ramifications of what they had been doing all this time.
"For him or for you?" Maleficent smirked victoriously as she knew the King's servants wouldn't have a response to that.
Sora came back into the room panting and wiping his lip. "Maleficent can I please talk to my friends privately?" He politely requested as he didn't know what to think right now.
Deciding that she'd stirred up enough trouble she grabbed the plate of food, because she was still famished, and returned back to the room she had been resting in. She could hear yelling even through the door as Sora had it out with his friends over what they had been doing for the past year. That lasted for quite some time until the ship quieted down once again.
Stepping out of Sora's room a few hours later Maleficent could tell the ship wasn't moving and it was mostly dark, except for a light coming from a crack in the door leading to the cockpit. Taking a peek inside Maleficent found Sora sitting in the captain's chair as she could see his feet stretched out on the floor. Creeping over quietly she leaned her head over to find Sora staring directly into her face.
For a moment neither said anything, before Sora sighed and pointed to a chair for her to sit in. "What's up Maleficent?" Sora asked as he spun his chair slightly to face her.
"You are child," Maleficent answered flatly.
Sora rubbed his nose and chuckled. "Yeah, guess I am, so are you though."
Maleficent rested her hands on her lap as she looked out of the window at the stars. "You and your friends…" she started to say before trailing off.
With a sigh Sora leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, that wasn't a fun conversation." Sora shrugged. "I guess part of me was just, I don't know, pretending that things were like in a storybook. That the good guys win, the bad guys are defeated and no one really gets hurt."
"But that's not how it goes," Sora sadly said as he closed his tired eyes. "I can't be mad at them for what they did before we met, they've been fighting in this war for Kingdom Hearts for years. And I guess I can't put all the blame for how things have gone on their shoulders, not with how I've been there every step of the way."
"Have you considered that those who died were meant to? That you did nothing wrong in playing a part in their demise?" Maleficent asked the young warrior a question on what he thought his role in all of this was.
Sora shook his head. "I don't think I'd like those stories, where people have to die so someone else can get a happy ending. Even if… even if it's really hard, I think it would be better if everyone could be happy and you have to be alive to do that."
Maleficent smirked. "For that to happen child there would have to be someone who would be happy that villains like us were alive." Silence reigned in the room as Maleficent waited to hear Sora agree with her, that those like her would have to die so those in the light could get their happily ever after.
"I am," Sora said finally as he opened his eyes again to look at the evil sorceress. "Maleficent I'm actually really happy that you are alive right now." He didn't know what he would have done if she had actually been poisoned by the food and died on the ship.
"Couldn't handle my death in your conscience?" she taunted as folded her arms across her chest.
All Sora could do was shrug at the question. "Probably not, I made them get rid of any other poison they might have. They didn't want to but I told them if you were poisoned I'd eat whatever remained of your food out of spite. They agreed after that. But I also talked with Goofy and Donald about this war. How one side has to win and the other has to lose," Sora quietly said. "They didn't say it, but… they think for that to happen one side would have to die and I don't want to fight a war like that."
"There has to be a better way to end this that doesn't require so many people to die, to keep dying," Sora bit his lip. "I was told this." forming the keyblade in his hand. "Meant that I was a hero who was going around and saving worlds from the darkness and protecting Kingdom Hearts. But…" he released his grip causing the blade to disappear in a glimmer of light. "Can I really be a hero if I don't try to save everyone, even my enemies?"
"Many before you have tried such a thing, saving everyone they could, eventually they fail," Maleficent said as this was not the first hero to try and do it all. "And when they fail people die."
"Then I can't fail," Sora replied with conviction.
"You are not choosing an easy path young hero," Maleficent said as she knew that trying to talk the chi- young man out of his idea of preventing as much death as possible. "You will create even more enemies than before when you try to make everyone happy, because there exist people on both sides who want nothing more than the other to go away. I may even be one of them," she warned as while he was being nice to her, that did not make them friends. This was at best a period of truce between them.
"If it was easy I don't think we'd have the war in the first place and I think because too many people took the easy path that we ended up here," Sora said as he looked out onto the countless worlds in the sky, each with their own people and stories to tell. "But if I have to work harder than ever so that I can make my dream come true, then I guess that is what I'm going to do." He was barely able to bite back a yawn as he'd been trying to get comfortable in the captain's chair but that wasn't seeming to be possible.
Maleficent shook her head as failed to suppress a small smile from appearing on her lips. "You should get some rest, no one ever heard of a tired hero saving the day before."
"Nah, I'll just sleep… here," Sora finally yawned before Maleficent waved her hand and used a spell to put him to sleep.
Maleficent was not a strong woman as magic tended to do most of the heavy lifting for her, but she found Sora to be surprisingly light and was able to carry him back to his room and tucked him in, she leaned over and pressed her lips to his forehead before stepping out of the room and shutting the door. "For both of our sakes Sora, I hope you succeed," Maleficent said sadly as she opened a corridor of darkness and left the ship, the only thing left behind was a note on his nightstand thanking him for taking care of her.