It is time for chapter 29. Vanitas is in control and in Deep Jungle. How will this go? Well only one way to find out!
Ch.29
The incompetent man led them away from the treehouse to a series of thick moss covered tree branches. The man jumped onto one and began to slide down it, gliding along by his feet. Vanitas smiled at this, maybe this world wouldn't be a complete bore after all. He jumped onto the large branch and began to slide down, letting the wind whip against his face.
They slid down branches and Vanitas enjoyed every moment of it, though it didn't take long for them to arrive at a camp where tents were laid out and there were some long tables with equipment placed on them. Tarzan led them to an orange tent where a woman was fumbling with a projector.
"Jane!" The wild idiot called out.
"Tarzan!" She greeted happily then saw him standing there with his arms crossed, "Oh and who is this?" She asked walking closer to him.
"My name is-" Vanitas started but was cut off.
"Oh, you speak english! So, obviously you're not related to Tarzan…" She said seeming despondnt at this. Vanitas scoffed at that, but Jane didn't seem to notice. "Well then, does that mean you are here to study the gorillas?" She questioned.
"Highly doubtful," another person spoke as they entered the tent. Vanitas glanced at the man and saw he was tall with a large rifle on his back. But, Vanitas could also see a small bit of darkness around the man. Behind him though stood Donald and Goofy.
"Sora!" Goofy called out cheerfully.
"Goofy," Vanitas returned trying to give one of Sora's smiles while he ignored the duck. Though internally he was screaming at himself for trying to sound so nice and friendly, he knew he had to. It was either that or Ventus would end up taking control, and Vanitas wanted as much time as he could to be the one in control of everything.
Donald scowled and crossed his arms.
'Vanitas…' Ventus stated warningly.
'I know! I'm just going to ignore the duck, I won't say anything to him until Sora wakes up.'
'Just.. if you want to say something mean, perhaps let me know and just repeat what I tell you to say?'
Vanitas gave a huff inside his mind. 'Only if I can't think of what to say to at least somewhat pretend to be Sora.'
'Good enough I suppose.'
"A circus of clowns," The newcomer said dismissively. "Not much use for hunting gorillas." The man turned and started walking out of the tent.
"Mr. Clayton, we are studying them, not hunting them," She reprimanded. "This is research."
She sighed as the man, Clayton, had already left, and probably hadn't heard a word she said. "Well the more the merrier. Do make yourselves at home."
Vanitas just nodded. It seemed now he would just have to look for any signs of Riku.
"I'm staying," The duck muttered surprising Vanitas. But he choose not to give any comment to whatever the duck chose to do.
But he narrowed his eyes at the duck. But then Goofy spoke up before any tension could arise. "Sora, look what we found. Look at this."
Vanitas glanced and saw it was a red block, similar to the stuff that the gummi ship was made out of. Gummi ship, honestly whoever named the ship that had to be obsessed with those candies.
"It's a gummi block, the same stuff used to build our ship," Goofy explained, though it wasn't needed.
"I figured," Vanitas stated briefly with a nod towards Goofy.
Donald gave an annoyed huff, "Which means the King could be here! We gotta work together to look for him!"
Vanitas gritted his teeth a bit, biting back the first response that came to his mind. "I'm not looking for your king right now, I'm looking for my friends." Vanitas then went back to ignoring the duck as he turned to Goofy, "If you want to help me find my friends, you are welcomed to join."
Ventus gave another sigh, but didn't comment. Vanitas turned towards the woman, Jane. If it was at all possible, maybe Riku was actually here. That would be not only helpful but a relief to Sora. "I'm looking for some friends of mine, has anyone else shown up in this camp?"
She shook her head, "No, sorry."
Vanitas frowned. "Tarzan said something my friends being here, and some word in a strange language."
"He was speaking in gorilla… maybe we can show some slides and see if he reacts to one of them. You never know what may help" She suggested before looking around. "Oh where are those slides? I know they were somewhere around the came."
He sighed, "I'll help you look for them."
Vanitas really didn't want to help look for anything, but he knew it was something Sora would try to do. And he still was trying to not have Goofy and the duck be too suspicious of him. Thankfully it didn't take long for them to find the slides and return it.
The first slide had him narrowing his eyes, and Ventus gasping. The slide showed a castle, large and grandiose. It stirred a familiar feeling within him, though he wasn't too sure how to explain it.
'I recognize that place… but I can't remember the name.'
'Yeah, same… I feel as if I have been there before.'
'I agree… maybe it was a world we've been to before… but why can't we remember the name?'
"What's the matter Sora?" either Goofy or the duck asked. Vanitas wasn't too sure as he had been more focused on thinking on the situation with the picture and what else Ventus had to say.
"Nothing."
They quickly went through the rest of the slides. None of the others gave the same reaction as the first one did for Vanitas and Ventus though. "Well Tarzan?" Jane asked eagerly wanting to learn more.
The ape like man shook his head.
Vanitas nearly scoffed, of course the animal didn't actually know where his friends were at. What a waste of time this world was going to be.
"That just leaves one place," Clayton stated as he entered.
He narrowed his eyes at the man, not trusting him, especially since the darkness seemed to have increased a bit in the man. There were clear signs of the darkness growing in his heart by now. "Young man, we've been in this jungle for some time now. But we have yet to encounter these friends of yours. I'd wager they're with the gorillas. But Tarzan refuses to take us to them."
Jane sighed, "Really Mr. Clayton. Tarzan wouldn't hide-"
"Then take us there! Take us to the gorillas," The man walked over to Tarzan, "Go-ril-las," He mimed slowly as if speaking to a particularly dense child. Which might be a pretty apt description for Tarzan.
Tarzan looked hesitant for a moment before he looked over to Vanitas before nodding.
"Tarzan… are you sure?"
"Tarzan go see Kerchak."
"Kerchak?"
"Perfect! Kerchak must be the leader, I will go along as an escort. The jungle is a dangerous place after all."
'As if we need an escort,' Vanitas scoffed inside of his mind, just so he wouldn't say that outloud.
Vanitas left the tent with the duck and mutt following behind him. Sabor attacked once more, but was quickly sent back into the jungle. They were led through the forest and soon followed Tarzan up some trees where they continued for a few more minutes before they encountered two gorillas. "Kerchak," Tarzan said greeting one, before looking at the smaller one, "Kala."
Kerchak narrowed her eyes as she looked sternly at all of them. Tarzan started to speak in gorilla again and Vanitas wager a guess he was trying to get them permission to see the home of the gorillas to look for Riku. Though Vanitas was starting to doubt Riku would even be on this world.
"Uh, did you get that?" Goofy asked with a droopy eyed expression. He looked lost.
"No," Donald stated.
Tarzan once more said, "Kerchak."
The gorilla turned his head towards the treetops before starting to leave. The smaller gorilla started to follow after.
Goofy seemed to be thinking out loud as he said, "Huh, he seemed sorta distracted by something."
All of the sudden Donald took off and Goofy and Tarzan followed after him. With a huff Vanitas followed as well, wondering why they all seemed to be in a rush. He heard the gunshot and arrived in the tree house a second behind Goofy and Tarzan.
"What's the big idea?!" Donald demanded glaring at Clayton.
Tarzan said something to Kerchak in gorilla, as Kerchak walked away with a scowl. The young gorilla followed afterwards as Donald continued to glare clayton.
"You don't understand. I was only trying to… Ah. A snake slithered by, you see. I saved that poor gorilla's life."
Vanitas quietly snorted, that was a lie if he ever heard one. The man clearly was terrible at lying. But it seemed that the others were more likely to believe it, at least that is what he figured. So Vanitas just followed along quietly, keeping an eye on Clayton as they headed back to the camp.
"How could you do such a thing!" Jane shouted angrily at clayton once she was informed of the situation.
"Now Miss Porter, as I told you, I was not aiming at the gorilla."
The sound of skin hitting skin ranged out as Jane slapped Clayton across his face. "You are not to go near the gorillas again!"
'I think I like her,' Vanitas commented to Ventus in amusement as he saw a red mark forming on Clayton's face. Maybe the people around here were smarter than he gave credit to.
"All because of one mishap?" He questioned with a nervous laugh, "Come, now…"
Vanitas glared at him along with everyone else. The man was getting more and more darkness in his heart, and he wouldn't be surprised if Heartless started to show up and he said as much to Ventus. It wasn't much later that a shot rang out and they rushed out of the tent.
"Just as I thought," Vanitas muttered out loud.
'Just how is it that you can sense the darkness of people, while Sora and I can't?' Ventus wondered to Vanitas.
'Probably because I am pure darkness,' Vanitas replied before concentrating on fighting the Heatless with magic. He didn't want to summon his keyblade right now, as the duck and mutt would see Void Gear and would question it. He of course stuck mostly to using Dark firga and the darkness claws, which he decided to name Void Claws for now. He tried to use a light Blizzard spell, but using the light version of magic hurt. It wasn't hurting him physically, but his own heart, so he stuck to just using the dark spells.
After they defeated the Heartless and saved the gorilla it gave them a gummi block before returning to Jane. "Don't mind Mr. Clayton, he's not a bad person… just a bit impetuous."
Seeing as Clayton was missing they took a look around fighting more Heartless and protecting other gorillas from the creatures. It was a mindless task to Vanitas, but without much else that they could go on, it was all he could do in the meantime.
"Why aren't you using your keyblade?" Goofy asked as they returned to the tent after clearing out some Heartless.
"Just practicing using magic and fighting with my claws," Vanitas answered in what he hoped was a reassuring voice. "Though now would be a good chance at least."
Judging by Ventus's snort he didn't fair very well. Still the duck and mutt let the matter drop.
Jane bit her lip slightly and spoke up, "I do hope Mr. Clayton is safe…"
Hearing a gunshot coming from the direction of Bamboo thicket they rushed out. As they arrived they found Clayton's pipe on a mound in the center. Sabor attacked them and they fought the giant cat for a bit before they managed to knock it out. The group returned to the tent to find it empty.
'Oh great, now we have to go and rescue Jane. Why are we even wasting our time here, it seems fairly obvious that Riku isn't here,' Vanitas grumbled to Ventus.
'We have to help these people, we can't leave in the middle of it!'
'Hmpf, I'm only helping cause I get to fight some stuff and have some fun.'
'If you say so Vani-boy,' Ventus replied with a chuckle.
"And I swear if I see that stupid leapord again… I will totally-"
Vanitas's scowl and angered thoughts stopped quickly as he saw Goofy walk over to Tarzan. "Where's Jane?"
"Something coming. Jane, danger. Jane near… near tree house,"
"Sounds like trouble, let's go!" Donald commanded and Vanitas was tempted to not go just because of that. But then he huffed, knowing Sora would want to protect her if he actually had interacted with her. Despite being shy and self conscious, he would have easily made friends with the woman because of her kindness. That boy was still very trusting to a degree, even after everything he had gone through. Though it often was because of Ventus's prodding.
They soon came across Jane and a gorilla in a web of vines. They fought off more Heartless and destroyed a weird fruit and released Jane and the young gorilla from before from the cage of vines. She then proceeded to tell them that Clayton had been involved, which wasn't surprising.
The gorilla and Tarzan were talking in gorilla before Tarzan turned to them. "Gorillas trapped. Terk ran."
So they went to a cliff area where gorillas have been rounded up by Clayton and the Heartless. Vanitas saw Clayton load his gun and is about to shoot it. "Don't you dare!" Vanitas shouted trying to distract the man.
He could see that the darkness had consumed Clayton. If it weren't for Vanitas sensing the clear large amount of darkness in the man, then the next key would have been the darkened look in his eyes.
"Clayton?" Goofy questioned.
"Not Clayton!" Tarzan stated.
He said a word in gorilla before repeating what he just said.
Soon they were fighting against the man Vanitas stuck mostly to launching dark firga and using the void claws. There was a giant invisible creature that seemed to be under Clayton's control. But with enough attacks it caused it to lose it's invisibility. The chameleon continued to attack them and a little while later Tarzan managed to knock Clayton from the creature's back.
"Lazy beast!" Clayton spat as he picks himself up and the battle continued. It was a few minutes of fighting later when they managed to defeat the Heartless and Clayton causing both to disappear.
The gorillas gathered around and Vanitas glanced at them waily as Kerchak walked up to them. 'Don't move,' Ventus instructed as Vanitas started to take a step back.
He paused and instantly regretted it as Kerchak closed in grabbed him by his jacket collar then tossed him through the air. "Oof!" Vanitas grunted as he landed on top of the cliff with a thud. The duck and mutt were thrown up as well while Tarzan climbed up.
'Lousy monkeys, what's the big idea throwing us up here! After we saved them, hmph what an ungrateful lot!' Vanitas ranted inside his mind to Ventus.
"Tarzan, home," The ape like man spoke.
Vanitas blinked and followed after Tarzan into a deeper part and they soon saw a giant ancient tree with a glowing nest of butterflies.
"This is your home?" Goofy questioned.
Tarzan stops him and places a hand to his ear.
"Huh?" The duck questioned.
They stopped and listened and heard the sound of roaring water.
"The waterfalls… they're echoing all the way here."
Tarzan repeats the gorilla word he has been repeating.
"Friends there. See friends."
"Oh, now I get it!" She stated happily as she said the word, "It means heart. Friends in our hearts…"
"Heart…" Tarzan echoed.
Vanitas rolled his eyes, go figure the wild man didn't know where Riku was. It was all some dumb heart saying or something in the end.
"Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends. No heart, no friends."
Vanitas lip twitched up in amusement, he didn't think that Tarzan realized just how real that was in Sora's case. Sadly though Sora was still not awake to hear the statement. He would have to remember to tell it to Sora later.
"I'm sorry," Donald apologized.
Vanitas stared at him, trying to not seem so annoyed with his expression. He tried to keep himself, or really Sora's, face unsure and simple.
"I need some time still," He said in lieu of agreeing or disagreeing, he wouldn't make a decision for Sora. If it were up to him, though he wouldn't forgive the duck easily, if ever. Ventus huffed at it until Vanitas told him he was leaving the decision for Sora, which shut up his light counterpart.
Donald frowned at this looking sad.
Vanitas paused as a keyhole revealed itself, he knew that he had to close the keyhole, but that would reveal Void Gear… what was he supposed to do? If he were to summon Void Gear out of nowhere, Donald and Goofy would no doubt be suspicious. And Vanitas was sure no explanation would be good enough to explain a random new dark powered keyblade.
'What should we do? I don't think I can access Sora's keyblade,' Vanitas muttered quickly.
'Let me try then. I can probably do it since it is a light based keyblade,' Ventus replied.
'But you hold your keyblade differently. Wouldn't that still be a bit weird to just summon it like that if it is Kingdom Key?'
'I suppose… but I can make sure to summon it as Sora does if I can. He's done it enough times now it really wouldn't be too hard for me to do it.'
'Fine then. Go ahead,' Vanitas said as he felt Ventus started to come through Sora's heart to take his place. THey had to do it quickly anyways otherwise they feared if too much time was in between Sora could still be unconscious.
It pass of the control went easy and quick and now Ventus stood in control of Sora. He straightened up and held out his hand forward like Sora did each time he summoned it before. He concentrated as hard as he could, as he felt the keyblade summoned to his hand.
He breathed an internal sigh of relief to see that it was in fact Kingdom Key that was summoned. Without much else it to it, the keyblade instinctively started pointing itself to the keyhole.
When the keyhole finished sealing itself a green gummi block fell to the ground. "A gummi!"
"But it's sure not the kings."
The group quickly went back to the tent and Ventus marveled at the feeling of being in control of a body, even if it wasn't his. He had spent so long as a voice in Sora's head, as a disembodied heart, that he had nearly forgotten what it was like to have a body. Having only a few accessible memories of when he was alive hadn't helped either.
"We better get going, my friends aren't here, neither is the king," Ventus said glancing at Goofy and Donald.
"Where is your ship, anyway?"
"It's uh, not too far." Donald answered
"Sora, Tarzan, friends," Tarzan spoke in a kind voice.
Ventus gave a smile. "Of course, thank you. I am glad we are friends."
Vanitas gave a scoff inside of their head. The group made it back to the gummi ship. "This block is not like the others, what do you think it's for?"
"I dunno."
"Maybe Leon'll know."
"He might, back to Traverse Town then?"
"Yeah, sure. I'm gonna go rest up," Ventus replied and went to the sleeping quarters. Once there he flopped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. While it felt nice to be walking around on his own in the real world, he knew it couldn't last.
'We need to wake Sora up.'
'But how? He's been unconscious for awhile…'
'I'm not sure…'
'Well this controlling of him seems to be working out for now,' Vanitas spoke but Ventus could hear and feel the worry coming from Vanitas.
He frowned as he felt as if his grip on Sora's body was weakening.
'Are you trying to take control?'
'No, why?'
'I think Sora might be waking up then, my hold is slipping,' Ventus told him as he felt himself completely lose control.
"Guys? What's going on? Weren't we crashing?" Sora questioned as he looked around to see himself in the sleeping quarters.
'We have a lot to tell you.'
That was quiet the adventure. But now Ventus and Vanitas gotta explain it all to Sora. Wonder how he will react to hearing what went down. Hmmm see you all next time!