(AN: Hi! If you're reading this, thank you! Your constructive criticism and your reviews are very valuable to me c: I hope you enjoy the story!)
Rapunzel found herself speechless when she finally got to see what a gummi ship was.
Her eyes were glued to the large dark silver machine that lied just in front of her. It wasn't very tall, but it was quite wide, with one wing on each side. On its top, there was a thick glass ample cabin with enough space for 3 or 4 people. Did he travel with company often?
Certainly no books had prepared Rapunzel for what she was admiring in that moment. It was impossible for her not to wonder of all the places seen by the gummi ship and all the adventures it might have been a part of.
Yet, it was more exciting to think about all the places it had still yet to explore.
"This is fantastic" She mumbled, hesitant to touch it.
Riku half-smiled. "Wait 'til you see what's inside." Placing his hand on a small screen, the gate turned into a lowering ramp. Riku jumped nimbly into the ship and offered Rapunzel a hand. Pushing her nerves aside, she took it, suspense increasing by the second. But once she was onboard, she didn't even try to contain her excitement anymore.
"Oh my gosh!" She giggled, her eyes scattered everywhere. Unlike the homogeneous color and design of the exterior of the ship, its interior was quite colorful and lively. There were yellow, red, green and blue small blinking lights spread out the white walls, along with square and round buttons, levers, screens and switches of the same colors. A few beeps, clicks and other pleasant metallic sounds added to the inviting and adventurous atmosphere of the cockpit.
"Look at this! What are all these buttons for?" Even if she was extremely curious at that moment, she didn't touch anything, as she tried to be respectful of Riku's property. Besides she had no idea of what could happen if she pressed on anything. Although, she gladly gave herself permission to examine and study closely everything within her sight range. Except for the owner of the gummi ship, of course.
"It's complicated" Riku let out a soft chuckle as he typed something on the digital keyboard of the control panel. He'd clearly done it a thousand times before.
"Can you turn it on?" Her request came out with childish excitement.
"I'm on it, just take a seat." He smiled back and after entering the last word, Riku fastened her seat-belt once she'd sat down and checked it twice. He took his own place at the pilot seat, while his fingers danced smoothly over the control panel buttons in an order that they seemed to know all too well. After he was done, he reached out to the lever that separated the pilot and copilot seats, but his hand paused right in the middle of what seemed like a part of his usual routine.
"Ready?" He looked at her, a flash of doubt vanishing from his eyes after his companion nodded in reassurance. He would have to take that as the most trustworthy sign available from her at the moment.
"Ok" He muttered under his breath as his grip tightened around the lever. "Hang on" As those last words escaped from his lips, he pulled it down.
In that very moment, the rattle of the engine made itself known to both passengers. Each of them with different reasons for being nervous. Without warning, the gummi ship gracefully lifted off the ground, as if gravity didn't apply to it anymore. Riku caught a glimpse of Rapunzel biting her lower lip. But it was too late now for her to change her mind. Riku flipped one switch, and with that, the hyperdrive was initiated.
For less than a second, time came to a full stop. Then the nose of the ship pointed upward and suddenly Traverse Town was left far away.
Still holding his breath, Riku turned his body to face the copilot, knowing she was completely new to all the sensations related to space traveling. She stared wide eyed at the viewport, hair a bit messy and lips parted, but no sound coming out of them.
"You okay?" He did his best to keep his voice from shaking.
She slowly turned her head to stare back at him. For a second Riku was reminded of those stupid horror movies Sora had forced him to watch years ago, in which a girl with long black hair would always murder everyone in ways that he found ridiculous. Riku came to the conclusion that this must be the closest he would be to experience what those poor characters felt.
"That… was… AWESOME!" She burst into a laughter full of joy and amazement. Taking that as an implicit permission to breathe, Riku exhaled, his muscles and shoulders visibly relaxing as he did so.
'Well, that didn't go so bad' He thought. "You know, for a moment I thought I would have to cast a healing spell on you or something" He said, half-joking, still releasing whatever tension may have remained in him from Rapunzel's previous expression.
"You're kidding, right? It must be amazing to experience this all the time. I would never get tired of it. Or the view, look at all those stars! Ohmygosh They're so close! It's as if I can just reach out and touch them! And- and I can't believe these are OTHER WORLDS! I mean- WOW! There's just so much to see! If only Pascal was-" She stopped in the middle of the sentence, the corners of her lips fell, barely leaving sign of the previous bright smile that had been on her pink lips just moments ago. Silence filled the air.
Riku remained quiet and pretended to focus on piloting the gummi ship. He could perfectly relate to what she was going through and knew that as a Keyblade Master, he would do everything in his power to prevent the darkness from separating families and friends ever again. And, much to his heart's content, he was already working on it. Still, he felt the uncomfortable urge to take her sadness away in that very moment and put that jolly smile back on her face again, even if only for a brief period of time. But there was one little problem: he didn't have the slightest clue of how.
'Guess I'll just have to follow my heart on this one.' He concluded to himself.
"Who's Pascal?" He asked softly, after a minute or two of silence.
"Hm?" She answered, caught off guard.
"Is he… your friend?" Riku continued.
Rapunzel stared at him silently for a few moments, as if trying to figure him out, then sighed. "Pascal's my best friend. He's the one I was telling you and Cid about earlier. The one I was hanging out with when… you know."
"What's he like?" Riku asked with genuine interest.
The blonde grinned half-heartedly, not replying right away. "He's funny and very playful. Loyal too. He's always there to cheer me up if I ever need it. We do all kinds of things together... Ever since we met we've been like partners in crime" She chuckled lightly. "I can't even imagine my life without him."
Deep within himself, Riku felt a strange but pleasant sensation of victory at the sound of her chuckles. "Ha, funny. He sounds just exactly like someone I know."
"Is that someone a friend of yours?" Rapunzel inquired, turning her body in his direction to fully face him, even though he couldn't face her back because the gummi ship needed someone to pilot it.
"Yeah. He's also my best friend" He answered, not really having expected her to be curious about him as well.
"Do you guys visit together other worlds?"
"Not very often, especially not lately, but sometimes." His lips pressed just a little after he finished that sentence. He'd never really given it much thought to how much he missed spending time with his friends. Certainly things had gotten more and more complicated ever since he had become a Keyblade Master and now he had other responsibilities. Just as his friends did too. At least Sora and Kairi did spend more time together since Sora was helping her in her training. He smirked to himself at the thought.
"There's a chance you'll get to meet him. As long as he hasn't been sent on a mission by Yen Sid"
"Yen Sid? Are we going to meet him and your friend in Montressor?"
He shook his head. "They're somewhere else, but I gotta talk to Yen Sid first"
"Who's Yen Sid?" Rapunzel adjusted in her seat and made herself even more comfortable.
"He is a sorcerer. A very wise one. He works to keep the balance between light and darkness. He'll help us decipher why the Heartless are after you and what happened to your world" Riku responded. After all he had promised to answer her questions once they were safe. There were no enemies nearby, so-
The gummi ship shuddered with a mighty energy blast.
A hushed curse left Riku's lips before he rapidly started flipping some toggle switches on the dashboard. Of course, it should have occurred to him there would be Heartless especially interested in them along the way.
Rapunzel held on tightly to the armrests of the chair, as her heart raced like a prancing horse. "Riku, w-what's going on?"
"We're under attack." Riku kept typing incessantly in the screen and soon the speed increased dramatically. Rapunzel had trouble keeping her balance. "Hang on!" Riku exclaimed as he dodged the attacks as smoothly as possible and attempted to activate the shields of the gummi ship at the same time.
Another energy blast.
Rapunzel flinched "C-can I help?"
"That's the radar and every dot is a ship. Tell me how many there are"
Rapunzel followed his instructions right away and took a closer look. "Sixteen"
Riku frowned. This was not going to be easy. He made the gummi ship spiral downward.
Rapunzel held on as strongly as she could, trying not to completely lose sight of the screen in front of her and ignoring the fact that her pounding heart would escape from her ribcage at any second. "Shields have- have been activated and are at one hundred percent" She read out loud once the ship came the closest it would in such circumstances to what one could call a steady course.
"Good" Riku felt a brief surge of relief among the chaos. "Let me know if you see any changes"
"Um…"
The relief left as quickly as it came.
"There's a white button that won't stop beeping and blinking. What do I do?"
"Push it"
Rapunzel obeyed once again only to reveal an incoming transmission.
"Hey, Riku!" The enthusiastic face of a boy with spiky, gravity-defying hazel brown hair appeared on a side screen. Rapunzel was startled. "Whoa, and who are you?" He pointed at her.
"Not a good time, Sora" Rapunzel picked up on a mix of mild stress and seriousness in Riku's voice.
"Ok, just listen. Yen Sid asked for you to come. One world is frozen in time, others are being lost to darkness again and-"
Boom!
"SHIELDS ARE AT 75 PERCENT" A flat and mechanic voice spoke.
"What?! Riku, are you in trouble? Where are you heading to?" Sora exclaimed, over the blaze and roar of the gummi ship's guns
"Montressor" He growled, still keeping the focus necessary for maneuvering and shooting at the same time.
Rapunzel hadn't wanted to interrupt the conversation so far, but this time she looked away from the screen. "I thought you said-"
"There's no time now. We need to get rid of the Heartless and for that we've gotta find somewhere safe"
Clash!
"SHIELDS ARE AT 55 PERCENT"
Sora gasped. "Just hang in there, Riku! I'll see you in Montressor!"
"Sora, wait! Don't-!" Before Riku could even finish, the transmission was already over. The silverette sighed in frustration.
"So I assume that must be your best friend…" Rapunzel raised an eyebrow, the slightest clue of a grin in her lips.
"So it is that obvious, huh?"
Two more energy blasts hit the gummi ship. Three. A noise that wasn't there before started coming from the engine.
"SHIELDS ARE AT 33 PERCENT"
"Riku, there are more ships coming!" Rapunzel's voice was shaking.
"We're almost there, I promise." He tried his best to reassure her and help her keep calm, although he wasn't lying.
"There are five more." She gulped. "But they're coming from a star nearby"
Soon more cannons were fired. Rapunzel cringed at the sound and at the sudden movements of the gummi ship that followed after, but found herself catching her breath when several seconds later nothing made any kind of violent contact with the shields. She glanced at Riku, who was still fully concentrated, and immediately proceeded to inspect the radar only to find what seemed to be the most marvelous surprise to her at the moment.
The new five ships were defending them.
"Rapunzel…" Riku said, heavy breathing, as they glimpsed a planet in the near distance with a seemingly crescent moon orbiting it.
"Welcome to Montressor."