AN: Wowowowowow. I so don't have time to be writing anything but essays for school, let alone shitty rewrites of ages old fanfiction... Well if nothing else here's to the HD re-release of KHII 3 Leave me some reviews..
Eleanor set her hands on her knees as the bright light of the Gummi ship's teleportation beam faded and her feet hit solid ground. A wave of dizziness made the new green world around her blur. She fought the urge to puke all over the grassy ground
"Hey you okay?" Goofy knelt to find her gaze.
"Oh peachy. The magic teleporting is just going to take some getting used to I'm afraid." She waved her friend away. "Just a little dizzy mate."
"Well you're gonna have to open your eyes eventually to look at where we are! Which is.. where exactly? I don't recognize this place at all." Sora set a hand on her back, but narrowed his eyes at the bright bamboo grove they had ended up in.
Donald turned. "Err.. Beats me. I can't remember ever being here actually."
Eleanor stood shakily and rubbed at her hair. Sora patted her back and took a few steps towards the dense bamboo. "You mean to tell me you don't know where the magic teleporter has dropped us?"
"Well no, but if there was a distress call then you know we're needed here for something." Goofy explained.
She only shook her head and turned her gaze on Sora. The brunette had crept up to the edge of the bamboo. She took a few steps up behind him and peeked over his shoulder. "What is it?"
A huge shadow cast itself over a flat rock on the other side of the bamboo grove.
"Monster!" Eleanor hissed. She turned to run away but ran into Goofy.
"Heartless?" Donald and Sora began to creep forward. Sora's gleaming keyblade appeared in his hands as they made their way to the huge twisting shadow.
"Wait fellas, doesn't that sorta look like.." Goofy rubbed at his chin.
"You mean to tell me you know that monster?" Eleanor dug her heels into the ground as Goofy tried to make his way after Sora and Donald. "No you cant."
"Wait a sec, is that-"
"Quake with fear, mortals before the undefeatable Mushu! You know not the toil which you have brought upon yourselves by entering my presence!" The shadow shrank down as a tiny lizard climbed to the top of a rock. "There will be hell to- Sora is that you?" He gave Sora a sharp toothed grin. "Look at you boy! You finally grew into those skinny legs didn't you? What'd you think I was, some kinda heartless?"
"Well we couldn't be too careful!" Goofy pulled Eleanor forward through the bamboo shoots. "You understand dontcha?"
"Mhmm. Whatever you say. Whose this one? Don't recognize her." He zipped off the rock and up Eleanor's back to glare at her from her shoulder. "You don't look familiar at all."
"Er.. Hello. Can't say I've ever met a dragon before."
He laughed. "And not likely to ever again behold power as great as mine."
"Mushu.." A soft voice came from the other side of the clearing. "We're supposed to be keeping a low profile." The new girl tucked a lock of her thick black hair behind her ear. Her dark green armor clinked against itself as she stopped awkwardly at the edge of the group.
The tiny dragon zipped down from Eleanor's shoulder and over the girl's, with a huge dramatic sigh. "Everybody put on a nice face. This here's Mulan. She's gonna be a war hero when I'm done with her."
"It's supposed to be a secret Mushu." The girl set a hand on her forehead. "It's Ping as long as we're here. And you are?"
"Sora!"
"Donald!"
"Goofy!"
"And I'm Eleanor."
Goofy bowed. "At your service."
"Great. Exactly what I need. Another girl to sneak into the army." Mushu narrowed his reptilian gaze at Eleanor.
"You've gotta disguise yourself as a boy to get into the army?" Donald asked thoughtfully.
"My Father's too sick to fight for the Emperor, so I'm going instead. The law says that women can't join the army. So I ran away with my father's armor to be sure that he wouldn't try to fight." Mulan explained.
"Well, we can help you sneak in! Can't we guys?" Sora said excitedly.
"It'll be so much easier to blend in with all these guys around, don't you think?" Donald asked with an excited squeak.
"Well I hate to break it to you, but I'm still a girl." Eleanor touched Sora's arm. "What now?"
Mulan's eyes lit up. "I have an idea."
Eleanor walked as close as she possibly could to Sora's back, holding his jacket between two of her fingers. She watched the seedy men around her warily. She had been in plenty of unpleasant bars and small pirate towns thanks to Captain Jack Sparrow, but something about the threat of being in severe trouble for her mere presence at the encampment made her more uncomfortable then she'd ever been in even the slimiest bar in Tortuga. Mulan had given her a spare set of itchy loose fitting brown pants and an olive colored shirt to hide her obviously girly curves. She had also tied her braid up in a tight knot on top of her head to match the style of all the men.
"No one is going to buy this Sora. It's not exactly the most convincing disguise." She whispered to the back of his neck.
He grinned back over his shoulder. "Just act natural. And try to talk with a deep voice or something."
She rolled her eyes. "If you say so."
"So where are we headed Mulan-" Donald started before the disguised girl jumped to stop him from talking and walked backwards with her hand over his mouth.
"Remember its Ping here." She glanced around nervously, but none of the men seemed to be paying attention to the small group. "We have to find the captain. Otherwise I'll never get enlisted-"
Before Mulan could finish her thought, she ran into a small heavily muscled man with an oof. The man turned slowly with a deep scowl.
"You got a problem pretty boy?" His voice was low and full of gravel.
Eleanor jumped and grimaced.
"Oh it was.." Mulan cleared her throat and tried to lower her voice. "It was just an accident you know?"
The man grabbed her by the collar and pulled her down to his level. "No I guess I don't know."
"Hey lay off man." Sora stepped forward, and set a hand on the man's shoulder.
Without missing a beat, the man swung his huge fist and hit Sora hard in the nose, knocking him to the ground.
Eleanor managed to throw her hands over her mouth before she screamed and fought every instinct to rush to him to be sure he was okay.
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy stumbled forward in defense of their friend as the man scowled at the boy on the ground.
"Yao what did you do?" A tall thin man ran from a nearby tent followed by an even taller huge man.
"What do you mean what did you do!" Sora struggled to stand from the grassy ground. "You punched me in the face that's what!" He wiped at the blood that was already dripping from his nose.
"And what're you gonna do about it? Huh?" Yao challenged, setting his hands on his hips.
Sora growled and scrambled forward, tackling the man to the ground. Donald and Goofy did their best to stop the other two men, but they group only ended up in a heap on the ground.
Eleanor rushed forward and grabbed onto Yao's arm to keep him from hitting Sora again. "Don't you touch him again!" She said in the deepest voice she could manage as she struggled to keep hold of the man's giant arm.
Mulan looked on nervously. "Come on guys, cut it out." Her words did little to break up the fighting. She dropped her fake voice in frustration. "Please?"
Immediately the fight stopped, as the men turned to her in shock.
"Did you say.. Please?" The lanky man narrowed his gaze at her.
"Uh.." Before Mulan could explain herself a man in glowing golden armor appeared out of one of the tents.
"What's going on here?" His authoritative voice made all the fighters stand and instinctively fall into line. "Not fighting I hope." He eyed Sora's bloodied nose and lip.
"No sir, Captain sir." The tall thin man deadpanned.
"Oh of course not Ling." The Captain stopped his stroll up the line and narrowed his gaze at the newcomers. "I am Captain Shang of the Imperial army, head of this camp and the troops stationed here. Who may I ask, are you?"
"Er, Sora."
"Donald."
"Goofy, sir."
"I'm Ping."
Eleanor hesitated. "It's Jack, Captain."
Captain Shang seemed satisfied. "Chan-Po, Ling Yao, report back to your tents. I suppose you all can train here. But, we don't have long before we have to march so you'll have to work hard to prove yourselves. Grab a tent and report back here at dawn. You're dismissed." He was gone with a swoosh of his red cape.
Ocne they were alone, Eleanor turned to Sora and took his face in one of her hands to examine his bruised lip and nose.
"Hey I'm fine." He said with a laugh.
"You're bleeding." She commented.
"Obviously." He laughed again, meeting her gaze with hooded blue eyes.
"Yeah Sora, that guy got you good." Goofy's voice came next.
He touched the bridge of his own nose and flinched. "Is it broken?"
Eleanor rolled his eyes. "Come with me. I'll get you cleaned up."
It wasn't long before the sun set and turned the sky red and then a velvety blue. The group had found a huge tent at the very edge of the camp. Goofy and Donald had settled into the pile of blankets and had immediately fell asleep. Mulan had disappeared into the night to find somewhere to wash up. This left Sora and Eleanor alone, to deal with the blood on his face.
"Ouch." He hissed as she prodded at the red skin around his nose. "It really hurts."
"I don't doubt it." She leaned in closer to him to wipe at his nose with a cool cloth. "I hope it doesn't swell. It'll ruin your handsome face."
He went cross eyed, trying examine his injuries for himself. "I can't believe he hit me." He muttered.
She watched him for a moment and dipped the blood stained rag into a bucket of water. "You've still got some blood on you."
"Do I?"
"Don't worry. I'll get it." Eleanor set her hand on his chin and held it in place while she cleaned the red off his face. "I'm used to cleaning up messes. Jack got in more fights then you could ever even imagine. I lost count how many times I had to clean up his face." She smiled briefly and made momentary eye contact with him, before realizing how close she'd leaned in towards him and bashfully sat back on her heels. "He can hardly even tie his own bootlaces without me. I hope he's okay."
"Hey no sad faces! You'll be back before you know it." He dipped his head to meet her gaze again and flashed her a shining grin. "Do I have any more blood on my face?"
She forced a smile. "You're right, you're right. I'm being overly sentimental." Her eyes fell to the rag in her lap. "And no your face is all clean. It'll probably bruise though."
"Maybe it'll make me look more rugged." His smile faltered. "Want to tell me one of your adventure stories? That'll take your mind off things."
"You want to hear a story?" She looked up to him. "Well that's an easy request. Jack's practically a legend. Which would you like to hear? The time he vanished from under the noses of eight East India agents or-"
A shadow passed over Sora's face, darkening the tent. He stood quickly and offered a hand to her. He took a few slow steps forward as she took a few back and narrowed her eyes at the flap of the tent.
"What was that?"
"Don't know." He answered.
"Wait! You're not going out there. What if it's one of those monsters." She grabbed his hand to stop his advance.
"Then we gotta take care of it." He shrugged then peeked outside the tent before disappearing into the darkness.
Eleanor sighed. "Bugger. Wait for me Sora.." She froze as soon as the tent flap closed behind her. "Oh."
"Might wanna run El." Sora didn't turn away from the massive heartless monsters that were creeping around the nearby tents. Each seemed to be shaped like some kind of centaur monster with huge spears. They turned to them one at a time and took battle stances. In a flash, Sora's keyblade appeared in his hand.
"Well, Jack's specialty may be running away, but I think it's time I found my light don't you." Her ancient looking keyblade filled her hands and she gave Sora a faulty smile. She backed against his back as the heartless monsters surrounded them. "Plan?"
"You take those and I'll take these?"
Eleanor felt his shoulders shrug against her back and she rolled her eyes. "Brilliant. Here they come-"
With a loud clang, Sora blocked the falling spear of the first of the heartless. Eleanor turned as he struggled with the weight of its arms. His knees wobbled but he managed to shove it back. "Look out!"
She turned in time for another spear to miss her by half an inch and to instead bury itself harmlessly into the dirt. She hesitated then drove her keyblade up through the creature's middle. It turned to her before stuttering and disappearing into a puff of smoke. Eleanor glanced back at Sora in time to watch him easily defeat two more of the giant monsters with a graceful sweep of his shining weapon before they found themselves once again back to back, slightly more out of breath.
"Are they usually this big?" She asked with a grin.
Sora shook his head. "Not usually. They're coming back."
"Ready when you are.."
"Oh no. Sora look out!" Mulan's voice made them both turn. A bright fire burned towards them, torching the heartless that still swarmed around the camp.
Sora covered his eyes with his arm as the fire cleared up, leaving only a few scorch marks on the grass around them. "That was helpful!"
"Are you guys okay?" Mulan wrung her hands nervously. "What were those things?"
"Heartless. And they don't like fire. You're welcome." Mushu draped himself around Mulan's neck lazily. "Woulda been toast without yours truly."
Mulan rolled her eyes. "You better get some rest. I heard someone talking about scouting up to the summit tomorrow so we'll need to be up early." She let out a breath. "Goodnight."
"Thanks for your help tonight." Eleanor called after her, as the warrior made her way to her own tent.
Sora held the flap of their tent open. "Come on. We won't be any good to her if we over sleep."
As they settled into the blankets again, Sora gingerly touched at the bridge of his nose and Eleanor laughed. He let out a long sigh and set his hands behind his head. Soon enough he was fast asleep. Eleanor watched him slowly drift into a deep sleep. Donald and Goofy were snoring lightly, as they had been, and Sora's bright face had relaxed as his breath came slow and even.
She sighed. Somewhere out in the stars Jack Sparrow was probably swindling honest sailors out of rum or drinking in a seedy bar. She couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of sadness. She wanted to wake Sora up, and cry into his shoulder but she fought the urge. The distant sounds of crickets chirping and running water somewhere finally lulled Eleanor into a light sleep. Her dreams were tinged with shadows that a bright light barely overcame. 'Incomplete' echoed through her head over and over, but she slept through the night.