Chapter 18: Not Quite Radiant
It had been a few days since Agrabah and things had once again returned to routine aboard the Highwind. Time was spent cooking, cleaning, helping Jiminy fill in the journal, or helping Donald navigate. But as time went on and they performed those same actions day in and day out, Xion found herself growing anxious; and it didn't help that while the ship had some room it still wasn't all that large.
As for Xion, she didn't want to just sit around forever and wanted to contribute more beyond what was asked of her, if only for the sake of doing something beyond wasting time in her room. Unfortunately the day she had taken it upon herself to make dinner for everyone did not go well, and she ended up on the receiving end of a very angry and very spaghetti-covered Donald's incomprehensible shouts. He stomped off after that, and at Goofy's questioning he shouted that they were having leftovers for dinner.
Ultimately the source of the problem was that they really didn't have anywhere to go. Wandering aimlessly wouldn't get them any closer to finding Riku and they didn't have any leads on his whereabouts.
Or rather, that's what Xion thought.
It was on the fifth day inside the Gummi ship that their course was set. Xion sat in a seat in the cockpit next to Donald (who had calmed down since the spaghetti incident), helping him map out where they had been so far while the ship floated along slowly on autopilot. Her right foot was bouncing impatiently against the tile floor as the stylus in her hands went over the digital map, marking locations of new worlds they had seen in the distance. Sora and Kairi, meanwhile, were watching out the window ready to take the controls at a moment's notice if something jumped in front of the ship.
Things were rather quiet overall. The only sound was the light scratching of pen on paper as Jiminy jotted notes down in his journal. It was an almost serene peace, and Xion would have welcomed it if it weren't for the aforementioned impatience. She marked another world on the map and glanced over to Donald, who was muttering under his breath as he flicked switches and pressed buttons on the dashboard. When this had started Donald had said he'd help her with the charts, but then the controls had distracted him and he hadn't looked up since.
"Are these lights supposed to be blinking?" Donald asking, pulling Xion's attention away from her work. She glanced up at him and looked to the light he was pointing at, which was flashing red.
"I'm not sure," she said with a shake of her head. "Aren't you the pilot? You should know."
"But it's not something that's happened before…" Donald frowned and turned to another area of the dashboard. He pressed a few more buttons and flipped one more switch, causing static to flare from the speakers hanging above them.
"Donald? What's up?" A high-pitched voice asked from the other end. Dale had answered Donald's radio call.
"Dale, can I talk to Chip? There's a weird light flashing here-" There was a scuffling sound on the other end. Xion figured Dale was probably moving away so Chip could come in. A moment later an even higher voice spoke up.
"What's it like, Donald?"
"Well, uh…" Donald laughed and turned to the flashing light. "It's red and blinking?"
"How often does it flash?"
"Um…" Donald trailed off, watching the light carefully. Kairi and Sora looked up from their jobs watching for anything in the ship's path and listened in to the conversation. Donald counted every blink under his breath. "Once every two seconds?"
There was incomprehensible gibbering on the other end; Chip and Dale speaking quickly to each other, if Xion had to guess. A moment later Dale spoke up. "Which light is it, again?"
"It says Navi-G under the light. I guess like the pieces we gathered on our first adventure?" Xion looked to the light one more time. Sure enough, it was labeled as being for Navigation Gummis. Well that wasn't a good sign. The chipmunks spoke a bit more amongst themselves.
"Well," Chip began, "we really can't do anything without seeing it. Why don't you come back to Disney Castle for now?"
"We've barely been out," Kairi said, speaking up for the first time.
"If somethin' is wrong with the ship, then ya don't want to be in it!" Dale warned.
"Okay, then we're going back home!" Donald moved Kairi and Sora aside and sat down at the ship's controls. Xion shrugged and put the stylus in her hands away, turning off the world map for the time being. "Everyone fasten in, we're far from Disney Castle so I'm gonna use the Warp Drive."
"Wait!" Chip and Dale screamed. "Donald, if the Navi-G piece is broken then the Warp Drive-"
Too late. Donald's hand wrapped tightly around the lever and he pulled down. Purple lights lit up outside the Highwind and generated a swirling mass of energy in space in front of them. The vortex began drawing them in…and the power began surging. Chip and Dale's shouts of protests were cut off as the radio went dead, the lights flared brightly and then dimmed, circulating between blinding them with pure white light and utter darkness.
"What's going on?" Sora's voice was laced with a nervous concern.
"Does this usually happen?" Kairi asked, speaking loudly to be heard above the surging sound of electricity coursing through the ship.
"Say, uh, fellers," Goofy said, walking in with an uncooked bag of popcorn, "the power's dyin'—whoa!"
Xion felt herself stretch between two points as the vortex suddenly pulled on the ship, like her heart was being tugged away while at the same time her body was rooted down by some immovable force. An instant later the odd sensation broke as she snapped back into normalcy, only for the Highwind to suddenly surge forward at maximum speed and dive right into the vortex.
"YAAA-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!"
A clatter of sounds out the door told Xion that Goofy had been sent flying down the corridor and crashed hard into something. The cockpit was filled with a symphony of horrified screams as the lights continued malfunctioning, and Xion witnessed Donald get electrocuted when he tried to get a grip on the controls. The windows outside were a blur of purple, green, and gold streaks and the electricity sound grew ever stronger.
Then it all stopped without warning and Xion was flung from her seat onto the cold tile floor. The light bulbs up above finally reached their limit and exploded, sending tiny shards of glass raining down on them. As the orange emergency lights lining the floor came on Xion climbed up to her feet, careful to avoid the glass, and glanced around. Sora and Kairi had their arms wrapped around each other protectively and were huddled against the wall, Donald sat in the pilot's seat with his hands charred and smoking, and Jiminy's pen had snapped in half as he was knocked all around the room. The only sound was the soft static coming from the radio.
"Gawrsh, what was that?" Goofy came back into the room, rubbing a bruise forming on his head.
"Donald used the Warp Drive even though something's wrong with the Navigation Gummi." Xion picked up Jiminy in her palms as he fixed his hat.
Donald let out a sound halfway between a grumble and a sigh and flicked the radio switch off and on. "It's broken."
Kairi stood up, breaking herself away from Sora as she did so. "So…where are we now? Where did the jump take us?"
Jiminy scratched his head. "Well, I reckon that we could be anywhere in the universe. Why don't we get to work figurin' out where we are?"
"How?" Donald snapped. "No power means no map."
"Well, we just gotta look with our eyes then!"
Xion nodded silently and moved to the window, Jiminy jumping up onto her shoulder as she did so. It was almost totally empty out there, at least on her side; distant worlds shimmered as stars in the sky, but they were way too far to reasonably get to. The blue and green colors outside made Xion queasy after going through such a bumpy ride, and she had to look away.
"You see anything, Xion?" Jiminy asked her, standing on the tips of his toes to get a good look out the window.
"Nothing." Xion glanced once more out the window just to make sure, but there wasn't any nearby world. She turned to see Donald messing with the dead controls while Goofy watched over his shoulder, and across the room Sora and Kairi were looking out the opposite window. The ship rotated slowly in the vast emptiness, turning ever so slightly as the momentum from the Warp Drive wore off. Then it turned just enough, finally putting a world into sight out of Sora and Kairi's window.
"I see something!" Sora shouted, planting his hands on the window and pressing his face closer. While he wasn't facing Xion, she saw his reflection in the glass grin.
"It's Hollow Bastion!" Kairi exclaimed happily.
Those words pulled everyone else to the window like a magnet, the six of them squeezing together to all look outside and confirm what those two saw. Donald, too short to see over the window, shoved his way past Goofy and pulled himself up onto the window sill, only to lose his grip and tumble onto his back. The ship continued to turn, finally putting the world down below into perfect view.
It was indeed Hollow Bastion, though to Xion's dismay it didn't seem much more repaired than it did in her last visit; although given the distance, there could be smaller details she couldn't see. But the town looked larger, at least, and the castle didn't have as many massive cranes surrounding it. Actually, though, it gave off an ominous feeling; the same sort of feeling it gave off in Sora's memories of his first visit. And that's when she remembered: Braig had taken the castle as his base of operations. Well, with that preoccupying them it was no wonder the town hadn't improved much.
"Gawrsh, we sure were lucky to wind up here, huh?" Goofy said with a laugh.
Donald crossed his arms. "I guess so, but it doesn't do us much good. Nothing is working so we can't get down there."
"And whose fault is that?" Sora asked.
"Bah!"
Xion frowned in thought. How to get a dead vehicle up and running again? Could they jolt it awake with a Thunder spell? No, the way to the engine was from the outside… That was a design flaw if she ever saw one; hindsight is 20/20. What else… A memory nagged at Xion, taunting her just out of reach. A day in Twilight Town with Hayner, at the lot behind the school. What was it, what was it…?
Ah.
"Donald, are their power cords running underneath the dashboard?"
"Huh?" Donald glanced at Xion and then at the controls. "Uh…I think so. Why?"
Yes, this could work! Xion helped Jiminy off of her shoulder and onto Sora's, then moved over to the dashboard and kneeled down to investigate the bottom. Sure enough, there was a small compartment under the piloting controls that held them. "I think I can give the ship a jump start in power. Not much, but enough to get us to Hollow Bastion."
Donald frowned but backed up to give Xion room. Getting down onto her back, she slid under the dashboard. "How do you know how to do that?" Donald asked.
Xion grinned as she worked, opening up the compartment hanging above her and sifting through all the wires and cords. "Hayner took an auto repair class in school and showed me once. Well, I guess he never actually did…though I have memories that never…" Her eyes grew downcast and she looked back to the cords, trying to find the correct ones to connect together. "The point is I know how. Though I've never actually done it before, but I think…"
She trailed off because she had found two wires that, if she were right – and it was kind of hard to tell in this mess -, would work. Grabbing a piece of a shattered light bulb, Xion cut the two cords and then pieced their halves together. A blue spark jumped from one to the other and the lights above flickered on; they were dim to be sure, but they were on. "Got it!" Xion grinned as she climbed out and stood up.
Donald eyed the dim lights warily before sitting down in the pilot's seat. He slowly moved a finger to the ignition switch and flicked it, then braced himself for some explosion. Xion listened with bated breath. As a soft rumbling arose from the ship around them she let out a sigh of relief. Donald wrapped his fingers around the controls and turned the ship left. It moved.
"It works!" Donald exclaimed, looking over his shoulder at the others.
"Way to go, Xion!" Sora said happily, pumping a fist in the air. Xion blushed and rubbed the back of her head. She didn't do much, if anyone needed congratulations it was Hayner.
"Everyone strap in and get safe," Donald said. "I'm going to take this slow and steady. We'll go very carefully."
While everyone sat down somewhere safe (and cleaned off shards of glass from the seats before doing so), Jiminy hopped down from Sora's shoulder and found safety in one of his pockets. Goofy, for his part, had a bit of trouble with the seatbelt but eventually wrapped himself up tightly, if not necessarily safely. And as Donald said, the Highwind moved very slowly on its descent to Hollow Bastion—even slower than it had been while on autopilot earlier. Xion nervously glanced to the hanging wires below the dashboard, worried that at any moment it would stop working. But the ship still chugged along, moving ever forward.
As they got closer, more details on the state of the city started to become apparent. The town had gotten some repair work done, though given the few months' time it hadn't really expanded that much. The bailey was more worked up as a gate to a large wall that now surrounded the entire town, which appeared to be rather hastily constructed as the stones making it up weren't all uniform. As the ship lowered they flew over a fountain area with several levels and jets of water streaming into the air, though some of the jets were broken and one of the levels was collapsed. But the most noticeable change to the city wasn't a new addition, but rather a lack of something.
"Where is everyone?" Sora wondered.
Indeed, the streets were empty, with not a soul to be seen. Xion's first thought was that the Heartless had taken the world as they had before, but there were none of them wandering around—and no Nobodies either, for that matter. And it wasn't totally devoid of life - for example, there was the occasional rat and Xion spotted a raven flying above them - but as for the townsfolk, nothing.
Donald carefully landed the Highwind in the hangar, wincing as a rattling noise came off the back like something had fallen loose. When everything was settled, Donald slowly stood up, hesitant to release his hand "We better go find Cid. Hopefully he can fix this."
"I'd like to find anybody right now," Kairi said.
Entering the marketplace proved that it wasn't just an illusion from above; the town really was completely empty. Xion watched a scrap of paper blow by in the wind from the weapons shop over the wall, where it fell into the ravines down below. Following it with some curiosity, Xion climbed up the new wall and glanced over the edge.
"The heartless and Nobodies aren't fighting here," Xion said with surprise. Indeed, there was no storm of black and white in the canyons and ravines outside Hollow Bastion. Her words pulled the others to examine the wall as well, an air of worry suffocating all of them.
"But why is town abandoned?" Donald asked. "And why build the walls?"
"That's what I'd like to find out." Xion climbed back down from the wall and moved up the stairs, heading towards Merlin's house. As she passed by Scrooge's shop, activity flickered to her right, just outside her vision. "Hello?" There was a flicker of light coming from inside.
"Did ya see somethin'?" Goofy asked.
"I think so…" She moved over to the shop and leaned over the counter, trying to see around the corner into the back. "Is anyone in here?" There were a few tense moments, and then…
"Xion, is that you?"
"Boys!" Donald cried, running up and jumping over the counter to land inside the shop. It took Xion a moment to understand that he was calling out to the voice, so did he mean-
"Unca Donald!" Three blurs of blue, green, and red ran out from their hiding place and tackled Donald to the ground, wrapping him in tight hugs. Huey, Dewey, and Louie then jumped off their uncle and stood in a row while Donald climbed back onto his feet.
"It isn't just Xion!" Huey said, jumping up and pointing outside. "Sora, Kairi, and Goofy are here too!"
"That's great!" Dewey and Louie chimed in. The three hurried over to the counter and unlocked something behind it, allowing a section to swing open and let the four of them inside.
Xion smiled at their enthusiasm, but of course there were more pressing matters at hand. Kairi crouched down to eye level with the triplets. "Do you three know where everyone is?"
"Uhh, Unca Scrooge is in the back."
"Not anymore I'm not," Scrooge said, walking up with a smile on his face. "Bless me bagpipes—Donald! It's good to see ye again, but ye've come at a rather bad time."
"What's going on, Mister McDuck?" Sora asked with crossed arms. "The town seems totally empty."
"Ach, it's those confounded Heartless. The town's defense system – Claymore, or whatever Cid calls it – is down for repairs, and no one is going out without it!"
Xion, Kairi, and Sora glanced at each other. "But… We didn't see any Heartless."
"Aye, that's just it! The other day all of 'em just up and vanished!" Scrooge whacked his cane against a crate. "Mark me words, they're plannin' somethin' big!"
Well that was certainly ominous, especially with Pete and Maleficent on the loose. They'd need to keep an eye out. For the time being, however, there were more pressing issues, like the ruined Gummi ship. And on that thought, Scrooge had mentioned Cid.
"Is Cid okay?" Xion asked.
Louie answered that question. "He still can't move around much, but he's out of bed at least. Still needs lost of rest though.
"He says he's been working on a new project but won't tell anyone what it is," Dewey added.
That was a relief. Last time she had seen him was just after the Battle of Hollow Bastion, when Xaldin's lances had pierced his body. It was so nice to have something go well for a change. That just went to show how good of a healer Aerith was, she supposed.
"Do you know if he's awake right now?" Donald asked. "We need to see him."
"Yes he is, Unca Donald. He's repairing the Claymore."
"Great! Then we'll-"
Scrooge stomped the tip of his cane against the floor. "No way, lad! I won't have any nephew o' mine out in the town without the defenses up. Ye and yer friends are not takin' one foot outside."
"But Mister McDuck," Kairi protested, "without Cid we can't repair our ship."
Scrooge smiled and Xion could swear his eye twinkled. "Well then, we'll just have to use the tunnel."
"Tunnel?"
"Aye." He turned to the three ducklings. "Boys, you watch the shop while I take these lads and lasses over to Merlin's. Can ye handle it?"
Huey saluted. "Yes sir, Unca Scrooge! The Junior Woodchuck's Guidebook has a section on protecting-"
"Aye, aye, the Guidebook. I'll leave ye to it, then." Scrooge turned to the back room and waved a hand over his shoulder, beckoning for the others to follow. "Come along. This tunnel was made by Merlin as a safety measure. And it didn't cost me a single munny!" In the back room he kneeled down and ran his hand along the floorboards, clutching an indentation. Tugging on it revealed a trapdoor with stairs underneath it, leading down into a well-lit tunnel.
"It connects to Merlin's house. No dilly-dallying then, come on!"
Scrooge marched down first, followed by Donald, then Goofy, and finally Sora, Kairi and Xion. The floor was smooth and carved from the same blue stone that was the foundation for most of the world. The walls were made of blue-grey stone bricks that fit together perfectly, without any gaps at all. Electric lamps appeared every few yards on both walls, illuminating the tunnel as they went. It also sloped downwards slightly, which made sense as the borough was lower in elevation than the market. At the end of a tunnel was an oak door lined with steel, which Scrooge knocked on three times in quick succession.
"Yeah?" came a voice from the other end.
"Yuffie, open up. We've got visitors."
"Fine, fine. But I'm not sure who could possibly be-" Locks clicked open as Yuffie spoke on the other side, and when she opened the door her eyes bulged out and her mouth hung open for a moment before forming into a grin. "Hey, you guys! Come in, it's so great to see you!"
"Hey, Yuffie," Sora said, resting his hands behind his head as he walked inside. "How have you been?"
"Great! It's been, what, two and a half months? And Xion! It's good to see you, too. We were all worried when these guys told us what happened."
Xion smiled at the enthusiastic girl. "Thanks. I'm fine now, though."
"I see that!"
While Sora and Yuffie continued to chat, Xion looked around at the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee's base. It was the same size as before, which meant it got rather cramped now with everyone inside. Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith sat at a table nearby drinking coffee while Merlin sipped on some tea. Cid, Leon, and Cissnei, meanwhile, were at the large computer which had diagrams and graphs of something Xion couldn't even begin to comprehend. She did see the name 'Claymore', though, so she figured that must have been the repairs on the defense system that Donald's nephews mentioned.
Cissnei was the first to notice them, walking away from the computer with a smile. "Well this is a pleasant surprise. What are you all doing here?" Donald let out a sheepish laugh.
"We kind of arrived by accident," Kairi explained. "Cid, can you help us repair the Gummi ship?"
"Why? What'd ya do to it?" Cid spun his chair to face them, and Xion winced. He certainly looked better than he had when she last saw him, but given when she last saw him he was comatose and bleeding to death that wasn't saying much. A soft bulge under his shirt gave away that he was wearing bandages, and a lot of them. He smelled like Cure magic and medicine, too.
"Donald used the Warp Drive while the Navigation Gummi light was flashing," Sora said. "We were hoping you could fix that?"
"Donald did what?" Cid groaned and leaned back in his seat, removing the toothpick from his mouth. "Why do you kids trust him to fly that thing? Why do I trust him to fly that thing?"
"Hey! I'm a good pilot!" Donald protested.
"Sure, but you're impulsive and don't think things through."
"Sounds like you're describing yourself, Cid," Yuffie teased with a toothy grin on her face.
"Heh, maybe." Cid nodded his head to the screen. "Yeah, I can help out, but we're a bit busy with this. The town's defenses are down for repairs and the Heartless could attack at any moment because of that."
Scrooge nodded. "Aye, that's what I told 'em."
"Actually," Xion began, "we noticed that the Heartless – and the Nobodies – were completely absent from town. What's up with that?"
"We don't know." That was Cloud, speaking up for the first time since they arrived. He leaned back in his chair, its front legs lifting up off the ground and its back tipping against the wall. "All of a sudden they just vanished, like they got the order to retreat. The Nobodies went back into the castle a little while later; unlike the Heartless, they don't have any interest in the townsfolk."
Leon spoke up to continue Cloud's story. "We were going to use this opportunity to attack the castle and take it back from Braig, but then something shut down the Claymores. We need to work on that and protect the people here before we can do anything else."
Cid slammed an angry fist on the keyboard. "And the hell of it is I can't figure out what's causin' it! The old loon there says he felt some kinda dark magic, but I'm sure it's just a normal, everyday bug—I just can't find it."
"Old loon, you say?" Merlin replied. "Why, I know dark magic when I sense it! Some powerful caster is stalking about our streets and we should be out on the hunt for them-"
"Argue another time," Leon interrupted. He ran a head over his forehead and leaned against the wall. "So, Sora. I bet you're looking for your friend. Riku, right?"
Sora and Kairi's faces brightened. "Have you found him?!" they practically shouted.
Leon shut his eyes and shook his head, which lowered their moods considerably. "Sorry. I don't know anything, just like when you asked on your last visit. But…" He locked eyes with Xion. "If you found a way to save Xion, then I'm sure you'll find a way to save him from whatever trouble he's in."
"I guess so…"
Leon turned away from them and back to the computer. "Cid."
"Eh?" Cid looked up with an irritated glare, having only just gotten back to his work.
"Go work on repairing their ship. Cissnei can handle the repairs." Cid's mouth formed a thin line and he transferred his glare over to Cissnei, who looked between the two men before shrugging.
"Sure, I know how," she said.
Cid wasn't having that though. "You sayin' I can't do my job, Leon?"
Leon shook his head "I'm saying you're the only one who knows about Gummi ships, but not the only one who knows about computers."
Cid looked like he couldn't decide if he should take that as a compliment or not. "Alright, alright…" He stood up slowly and reached for a cane that Xion hadn't even noticed before. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my hangar. I can probably get some spare Gummi blocks from the Shera." He walked out the door with the cane, slamming it shut behind him.
"The Shera?" Goofy asked.
Yuffie waved a dismissive hand in the air. "Some ship he's making. He won't let anyone see it. So, what are you guys planning on doing while you wait for your ship to be repaired?"
Xion frowned. "That's a good question."
Scrooge smiled and stood up straight. "Well, I could always use a few good pairs of hands around me shop. The boys and I are using this lockdown as a chance to take inventory."
"And Cloud and I were just about to go out on patrol," Tifa chimed in from her seat.
Xion nodded and could see agreement on her friends' faces. A bit of downtime and a chance to stretch their legs would be really nice after spending so long cooped up aboard the Highwind.
"Okay, we'll help you guys out," Sora said. "Just point us where we need to go."