Whoa look at this! We finally remembered to finish this chapter and update! So sorry for the wait but thank you all for the support thus far!

Ch.35

The next world was a place called Agrabah, and just like the rest it was all new and interesting to Sora. Though this was a world that neither Vanitas or Ventus had any familiarity with. All three of them could agree on one thing though… this world was extremely hot and barren. It was a desert land after all.

What Sora didn't expect was to encounter new people so quickly, but he started to realize that meeting new people was just a part of his journey. He was going to have to meet more and more people whether he really felt up to it or not. But again like the other times, the people he had been meeting, while a bit strange, were nice and friendly.

The first person he encountered was a young girl named Jasmine. They had stopped her from being captured by the man named Jafar, but before they could do anything further they of course had to fight Heartless.

Next it was a slightly older boy named Aladdin and a magic blue Genie who was a bit too energetic for Sora's initial liking. But he worked alongside them to fight the Heartless while they all went to rescue Jasmine and to stop Jafar.

Though his journey in the world didn't end on as good as a note as he would have wished. They were able to defeat Jafar in the end, but Jasmine had been captured somewhere long in the fight. Sora felt bad that he wasn't able to save her, but he tried his best to promise Aladdin that he would find her for him.

'Don't get too down about it Sora,' Ventus said once they were back on the Gummi ship.

'I am sure that you will find the missing princess.'

"But… I feel like I could have done more. I should have noticed someone took her… who could have even done that? It obviously wasn't Jafar."

'I don't know… but, I could feel a surge of darkness, I thought it was due to Jafar… but maybe it was something else?'

"Maybe it was Maleficent?"

'I don't know… but it was someone using the darkness.'

"What is that?" Donald squaked, causing Sora to look out into space.

There was something floating around the area before them… and it was rather large. "It's huge!"

The shape turned and flew right over the ship, revealing just what it was.

"It's a giant whale!" Goofy exclaimed.

'A whale... in space?'

'How is it even breathing out there?'

'That shouldn't be possible.'

Jiminy then jumped out and looked at the whale flying around. "It's Monstro! He's a whale of a whale, and vicious besides!"

'Obviously.'

"We gotta get out of here!" Donald exclaimed as he started fiddling with the controls.

But it was too late. The whale had come around and opened its large mouth, ready to swallow them. The ship was swallowed into the darkness and then everything felt like it was being tossed and turned. It only lasted a minute until Sora hit something and blacked out.

For a brief moment Sora had passed out, but at that time he thought back to a memory for years ago. A memory of the time he had went to explore the secret place with Riku. It didn't last long though as Sora's mind was brought back into consciousness.

"Hmm… what happened?" he moaned as he let his eyes adjust to wherever he was.

'The giant space whale swallowed us,' Vanitas deadpanned.

Sora quickly sat up to see that they were in fact in the body of the giant whale. "Whoa… this is… really weird…"

'Hmm if we had something long sharp and very sturdy we could possibly muster enough force to pierce the whale so we can escape.'

'But we have been knocked out of the Gummi ship. We need to find it first," Ventus interjected.

'Hmpf, not very secure that ship.'

"Well I don't think the ship was ever designed to be space whale proof," Sora commented.

'The fact that a space whale is even a thing seems stupid.'

'At least we have a more interesting story to tell now,' Ventus commented trying to make light of the situation.

'If we get out of this creature alive.'

"Vani…" Sora whined. "Can't you be a bit more optimistic? Weren't you just suggesting ways for us to get out?"

'Yes, but I'd rather didn't think you would appreciate my suggestion to burn the creatures intestines.'

"Well there has to be some way at least… let's go see if the other two are okay," Sora replied before finally standing up.

He met up with Donald and Goofy who were just as lost as confused as they were. From a brief inspection around the mouth of the whale, there seemed to be more than the Gummi ship inside of this huge whale.

Soon enough they came Pinocchio, the little wooden puppet that Jiminy was supposed to be the conscious for. Everything was going fine with Pinocchio and his father, who was also trapped in a whale with them. But soon enough Pinocchio had wandered off again and his father, Geppetto, asked Sora, Donald and Goofy to go after the little boy and bring him back.

'Great, now we are having to be some sort of child protection service,' Vanitas grumbled.

'Pinocchio is just a little boy. He doesn't know any better yet,' Ventus replied softly.

"I don't really mind, gives us something to do while we are stuck here at least," Sora said, looking around for where the puppet would be.

Eventually they found him further into the whale. Sora sighed a little. "Oh, this is where you went. How did you get back here so quickly? Whatever… let's just go back."

"You know," Goofy added. "Geppetto's awfully worried about you."

"Come on Pinocchio, you can play once we get back to your father," Sora said before turning around. "This is no time for just playing games."

"But, Sora, I thought you liked games."

Sora turned around to see Riku standing next to Pinocchio. Sora started to smile upon seeing his friend, but there was something about Riku's expression that threw him off.

"Or do you think that playing games is under you now that you have the keyblade?"

"Wh-what?" Sora asked as he stepped a bit closer to where Riku was. "What do you mean? How did you even get here?"

"I told you before that I was going to look into something. To try and find a way to get Kairi back. Remember? Or did you have so much fun saving other worlds that you forgot about that."

"No… I didn't forget!" Sora shouted.

"Sure," Riku replied dryly. "I'll believe that."

"But does that mean you found something? Something that could help?" Sora asked quickly.

Riku huffed out a little air, still giving that expression that looked unimpressed. "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. If you catch us… then just maybe I'll tell you what I know." Riku took Pinocchio's hand and pulled him further into the whale, leaving the group behind.

"Riku…" Sora whispered, trying to understand what had just happened.

'Sora… be careful… that darkness around Riku is still growing, I feel like something is clouding his mind.'

Sora pursed his lips, trying not to show his worries to Donald and Goofy as they made their way even deeper into the whale. "What do you mean though? The darkness is clouding his mind?"

'Well… it's like someone has used the darkness to manipulate Riku's thoughts on certain things.'

"Who could be doing that… Either way I gotta snap Riku out of it!"

'That's the spirit, Sora!' Ventus cheered. 'I know we can get through to Riku.'

'Hmm, well seeing as it is the darkness manipulating Riku's thoughts we might be able to clear them away by using the darkness ourselves.'

Sora's widened as he slashed through a Heartless. "You mean… like use the darkness I have to… fight the darkness controlling him?"

'Exactly. But… you are going to have to be stronger in the darkness then whoever is controlling his thoughts.'

"I don't think I could… my darkness isn't that strong yet… and it just feels weird that I would have to do something like that."

'Why do you think it is weird?'

"A bit…"

'I agree… using the darkness to overpower someone else's darkness is a bit unsettling sounding,' Ventus added.

'We would have to use it in order to wipe it away, whoever is manipulating Riku's mind would obviously not want to relinquish control. I'm just saying we will have to be strong enough to stop the person from regaining control of Riku's mind. Darkness is needed to remove it from Riku's mind, but we could use Light to shield his mind from further attempts at regaining control, in fact using a light shield as defense would be the best course of option… but first thing we would have to do is remove the foreign darkness.'

"I guess that makes sense. I just hope Riku is doing okay…"

'He's Riku. I am sure deep inside he must be trying to fight the darkness controlling him,' Ventus added. 'Now speaking of light and darkness, how about you try using your claws again? I think it's been a little while since you last used them.'

"Right," Sora said before dismissing his keyblade briefly and bringing back both his void and prism claws. Right away he went into attack the last remaining Heartless in the chamber that they were in.

"Hey, I haven't seen ya used your claws in a while," Goofy said once all the Heartless were gone.

"And?" Sora said quickly dismissing them away.

"Oh nothing, I just think they are still pretty neat," Goofy answers.

"Ah… okay, thanks," Sora replied, speaking softly.

"Uh Sora," Donald said. Sora didn't look over at him though. "Seeing those claws reminded me… if you still want to learn more magic, I'll still help."

'Oh yes, sure let's learn magic from the duck that doesn't know how to keep his beak shut.'

'Vani,' Ventus said. 'Donald is just trying to make things better than how they were before.'

'And what if he is just trying to regain Sora's trust, only to end up breaking it again? Even if he only breaks it by accident. It's better to not be friends with him as he doesn't ever think to consider how his words and actions will affect others.'

"Guys… can we talk about this later? I'd rather not think about it right now…" Sora whispered to his brothers before looking at Donald. He knew it wouldn't be right of him to just ignore Donald, even if he didn't truly feel like talking to him. "I… I guess… but maybe later…"

"Okay, if you say so," Donald replied, his voice just as quiet as Sora's had come off.

"Riku's the focus right now… that's all I wanna think about and do. Gotta find Riku… gotta find him and talk to him… get him out of whatever trance or brainwash he is in."

'Don't worry, Sora. I know we will find a way. Just like we were talking about. Just like I said before, Riku is still Riku.'

"I know… guess we just gotta keep moving on until we find him again. He can't be too far… we are in a whale after all."

'Oh yes how hard can it be to find him in a giant space whale,' Vanitas remarked sarcastically.