Another day (or night in my case), another addition to CotP. After playing MGSV for a while, I can finally take a break from that and do some writing. Hope you like the chapter and feel free to leave a review or follow for more from this and other stories.
Chapter 44
The Other Way
Luna, Astra and the others soon ran into Sulley and Mike, who looked absolutely mortified at the thought that some random monster might have found Boo, causing a panic.
"Absolutely no one, no one at all, saw her on your way here? You're sure?" Mike checked after they announced their presence and showed off Boo as proof of their success.
"I don't think so. Anything that happened before we found her though, I'm not sure," Luna said. She turned her head to look at Sora for a second before looking back at Mike and Sulley. "You… is this really the only way?"
"What do you mean? The kid?"
"No, not just her, I mean… all of… this." Luna pointed at the doors lining up down the room. For some reason, it immediately brought to her an unsettling image of tombstones in a graveyard. "Is there really no other option to get your energy? You have to use the doors?"
Mike's eyes narrowed in confusion. "You wouldn't happen to be an alien or something?"
"Excuse me, I'm not an alien, I'm a-"
"What my friend is asking here is have you explored any possible alternatives aside from just frightening little kids?" Astra interrupted. "I mean, look at Boo. What, she's… three years old now?"
"I don't see the problem in it. A whole lot of people rely on us to supply energy to them constantly and children's screams are pretty effective when it comes to that. I mean it's true that kids are becoming harder to scare and because of that we have a scare shortage on our hands and a bunch of perfectly good doors that are decommissioned. I'm sure it's just a short passing period. It happens every now and then," Mike explained. The way he talked and appeared, it really did seem that he had no idea why it was such a bad thing. Maybe he actually didn't. This world was just like any other out there, Luna had begun to realize. Ignorant, though not of their own fault, to the thoughts and feelings of others. Monsters they may be to Luna and her friends but they were only that by name to themselves. In their own standards, there was seemingly nothing wrong with what they were doing and she was the abnormal one for thinking differently.
"You keep using that excuse as if trying to justify your actions but that doesn't change anything for me. Just because it's good in your eyes doesn't mean that it's right. Anyway, let's just… send Boo home first before anything else. You do know her door, right?" Luna asked with a sigh of resignation.
"Of course we do." Mike flashed a giddy smile that said he was more than glad to be rid of Boo. Her door in particular turned out to be one of the doors that stood out amongst the others. This was due to the five floral shapes that had been painted on the bottom half of her door, one of them a lighter shade of violet than the rest.
"Well, it's been fun kid but you really need to be going back now. Chop chop!" Mike tried to usher Boo forward but she let out a whimper, shook her head and ran behind Rhea. Now that Luna thought about it, Boo could probably see her and Astra in human form too.
"Is there something wrong, Boo?" Rhea asked. She bent down to wrap her arm around the small girl in support. Boo put up her hands and started roaring and walking around in circles mechanically, one foot in front of the other each time.
Donald frowned and shook his head. "We're wasting our time here."
"You said it," Mike agreed. "Who cares what the sultana needs now? We're at the home stretch now, baby. We really need to do this now otherwise Randall will have our heads and-"
"Wait, Randall? What about Randall?" Sulley asked.
"Who's Randall?" Sora asked.
"Judging by Sulley's reaction and how Mike talked about him, not a very good person I'd presume?" Rhea theorized.
"The worst," Sulley confirmed. "And what did you mean by that Mike?"
"Sulley, are we going to do this or not?" Mike grabbed and gave the door knob a twist before pushing it open. "Because we might never get another chance at this if we don't do it now."
"Might wanna listen to him, big guy. Hohoho!"
The group didn't even need to turn around to recognize the rather gruff voice as Pete's. Next to him was a strange purple chameleon-like monster sporting a sly grin. He extended his hand towards them as if expecting something.
"Randall, what are you up to?" Sulley asked.
"You know, it's a pretty good thing I took this idiot's advice and came back here to make sure you actually delivered. We'll be taking the kid now, Wazowski," Randall declared in a way that very much reminded Luna of a cowboy. Even the way his jaw grinded from left to right was incredibly reflective of that.
Pete laughed. "Heh heh, yeah… wait, who's the idiot?"
"If you're working with Pete, that's definitely not a good thing. What do you want with Boo?" Sora asked.
"Who? Oh, so that's her name, eh? Well that's of no concern to you. Just hand her over and scram!" Pete yelled. He blinked as he curiously scanned the face of the person who had just spoken to him. "Say, do I know you from somewhere?"
Sora gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. "Really, Pete? I mean I know I look different but even you should be able to tell."
"Sorrrrrry, don't recognize ya!" Pete exclaimed after a while. His eyes settled on Astra for the first time and his eyes widened in horror. "Wait a tickin' sec, you are… then you guys must be-"
"This is just sad…" Luna said. "Anyway, you can't have her so you can forget it. Instead you can answer to us. How long have you been using this place to spread the Heartless?"
"A pretty nifty idea, ain't it? Maleficent and I discovered this place around the time that old crone Xehanort was defeated. All of a sudden we were opened to so many possibilities. Heartless could travel to more worlds than ever before and Maleficent's power extended because of it."
"And how did that work out for her, Pete?" Sora asked. He couldn't help but gloat about this even though he had to admit it was rather unbecoming of him. "You know what she said me just before she died? 'Help me'. That's what she said. She put on such a tough act until the very end but in those last few seconds, I saw her for what she really was. That was her true nature, Pete. She was a scared little fairy, lying to herself and others and pretending her will was the only will anyone ever needed. In the end, she couldn't even believe in herself, she had to believe in someone else and in that moment she lost."
Pete's constant grumbling and flaring of the nostrils was exactly the opening they had been looking for. Luna and Astra took the initiative, summoning their Keyblades and launching a double Firaga at both targets. Randall's lithe body was easily able to evade Astra's magic but the fire from Luna's Keyblade sent Pete tumbling over.
"Run!" Donald ordered. Sora instinctively grabbed Rhea's hand and followed after the others who all rushed past Randall and his rolling overweight counterpart. They turned left and hurried down the corridor until Sulley brought them to a halt.
"Hey, I have an idea. Take Boo's costume off."
"Boo's costume? I see, you're planning on deceiving them. So we take Boo and after you guys have gotten far away and tricked them, we circle around and get back to her door," Luna laid out.
"Exactly!" Sulley confirmed. Luna helped get Boo out of her faux leather costume and handed her over to Sora at his request. Luna wasn't done however. She had something extra in mind.
"If we want to make sure we get away with it, maybe we should add a little something extra. Let's see… mmph, yep, you'll do great, Donald. We'll have to tuck your little tentacles in but it should be fine otherwise."
"Wait. W-w-w-w-wait just a minute. What are you talking about?" Donald asked.
"The bait we need to make sure they think someone is in this suit. And we're looking at him," Sora helped clarify.
"Oh no you don't!"
But Donald's protests were in vain. Sulley quickly grabbed him and squeezed him into the purple costume. Considering he was roughly the same height as Boo, it was an almost perfect fit, with the exception of Donald's beak sticking out slightly but that would be fine if all Pete and Randall saw was the back of the costume anyway.
"Right, we need to head in the opposite direction then. Goofy, think you can go with them as extra protection?" Sora said loudly over Donald's complaints. "Donald, shush. They'll know if you keep yammering like that."
"This is not going to work. This is really not going to work!"
"Yeah, I heard you the first time. Well, we'll meet up back on the Scare Floor in… thirty minutes, sounds good?" Sora asked. A unanimous approval (with the exception of Donald of course) was heard among the group and they soon split ways with Mike, Sulley, Goofy and Boo's decoy turning back to make sure they would eventually cross paths with their two pursuers while Sora, Luna, Astra, Rhea and Stephanie continued on ahead with the real Boo.
"I don't think we should wander too far. This place is like a maze," Astra said.
"It's no Wonderland, that's for sure," Luna said with a cheerful laugh. "I can't believe we're doing this. It's like we're in school again."
"This place is bigger. I certainly wouldn't want to play hide and seek here," Astra replied. For that while that they were running, Luna and Astra were in a completely different world to the rest, and in different forms as well.
They were kids, two years younger than they were right now. Astra's shorter hair and height stood out as the only definable difference of her appearance right now. She liked to pride herself on the fact that she had hit puberty earlier than most of the girls in their year. Luna was different too. Her hair was down, not tied up with a crimson ribbon and she had been undergoing puberty then in contrast—a late bloomer to those in her class. Light poured through the windows of the school as they stormed down the empty hallways like they owned the place. It was usually around 5:00PM that they did this and it would usually end with them on the school roof (for Astra had somehow been able to acquire the keys for this though she never told Luna how) and watching the spectrum-varied noctilucent clouds that were unique to their home.
A light touch on her shoulder shook Luna out of her deep revelries and she gave a questioning glance to Sora.
"Welcome back from La La Land. Rhea was saying we should make our way back now. We should have given them enough time, I think."
Luna was about to agree when she saw someone holding a strange weapon out of the corner of her eye and it was well aimed at Astra's back. Luna called out her name and without a second thought, tackled her friend to the ground just as a blast of green light shot out of the weapon. What used to be an oil painting of Waternoose, or probably someone in his family, hanging on the wall at the opposite end of the hallway was now nothing but a scorching black mark thanks to the blast.
"You're uhm… Gantu?" Sora identified.
"That is Captain Gantu to you and why do you even know my name? Oh, I see… yes the resemblance is uncanny. You're that brat with the Keyblade, aren't you? Well, I must say I didn't expect to find you here but since you are, now is the perfect time to have my revenge!"
"Well, at least you know who I am. I guess not everyone in KRONOS are morons," Sora said with a disregarding shrug at the rest of Gantu's comment.
"We don't have time for this. You guys go on ahead, I can handle this one," Astra said, summoning her Keyblade. The others made to acknowledge her request, all except Luna that is. She appeared hesitant and indecisive, torn between seeing Boo back safely and leaving her friend to fend on her own.
Sensing this, Sora gave a wry smile. "Don't worry about it. Stephanie, Rhea and I can handle it."
Luna gave an appreciative smile in response to his thoughtful and joined up with Astra, making her own Keyblade appear. She looked back quickly to see the trio and Boo disappear around the corner before turning her attention back on Gantu. He was bigger than most and certainly intimidating but by no means did he seem impossible to beat. When she thought of how much more she feared the chimera, he seemed a minor threat in comparison.
"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen you fight, Sea Salt. I'm looking forward to it," Astra said with a smug smile.
"Then I'll be sure to crush your expectations… and then some," Luna replied. She purred like a cat as a joke before launching forward quickly. Gantu tried to focus his aim on her but she moved in too quickly for him to do anything. Within seconds, Gantu was on the floor with his blaster a few metres away from him.
"Well, that was quick," Astra said. "And here I was hoping for a little fun as well."
"I guess I don't know my own strength. Either that, or that was way too easy," Luna said. Unfortunately, it was the latter that was proven right. Unbeknownst to Luna and Astra, Gantu had been silently snuck something out of his utility belt and thrown it when they weren't looking. The small canister hit the ground right in between the two friends forcing them to look at it. This was immediately followed up by a bright light that wiped out their vision completely. Luna could feel vibrations in the inner tunnels of her eardrums ricocheting wildly, the result of which was an annoying high frequency sound that did even more than her lack of vision to make her light headed. It didn't surprise her then, to find her head hitting the ground.
Her eyes wandered upwards, watery and confused. She could only make out a blur walking towards her. It was a girl in a hooded cloak who looked much like herself. Exactly like herself, she corrected herself. She was indeed staring at the mirror image of herself, the same girl who had greeted her in that white room in her dreams.
"Am I… dreaming again?" Luna asked.
"Would it make you happier to believe that?" Her younger self asked back. "As long as there's no more sadness, no more pain, it doesn't matter if it's a dream or reality, right? We can stay here as long as you like. If we have each other, nothing else matters. The pain goes away."
"No… no, it doesn't. The pain, it never goes away and even if it did, it would just be replaced by something worse. Loneliness. The worst pain."
"Interesting, isn't it? You're sad because you're constantly comparing yourself to others but if there was no one to compare yourself to, you would be sad anyway. Where does it begin, and where does it end?"
"You don't know me," Luna muttered. "Don't you dare act as if you know what I'm feeling. I am happy. I am. I have friends-"
"Who fill the large hole in your empty heart. You allow them to define who you are because you don't have the qualifications necessary to define who you are. To put it simply, you're using them. But we don't need them. Just give me a chance and together we can work together to fill that empty hole."
The girl's words and voice seemed promising, tempting even, but Luna refused to give the voice any credence. She wasn't using anyone. She could never do that.
"Of course it would be unconscious. These thing hardly ever are the opposite," said the girl as if sensing Luna's thoughts. "But the sooner you accept it, the easier it will be to help you."
"No… I don't need your help." That's right! Luna had finally decided that she wasn't going to take any more slander from this person. "Get out of my head, whoever you are. Whatever this pain is, I'll find out and get rid of it… with the friends who love and care for me. I don't need you to solve my problems."
"You're making a big mistake here-"
"Then it's a mistake that I will gladly make. Now I'll say it again." Luna walked up to her until the tips of their noses were almost touching. "Leave. Me. Alone."
"Luna!"
Astra's voice pulled Luna out of the recesses of her mind. Astra placed one hand around Luna's waist and another under her arm in support as she helped her to stand up. Luna looked around, her head spinning but her vision clearing up bit by bit.
"Astra, where's Gantu?" she asked.
"He got away. Used some sort of flashbang to do it. You were right. It was too easy," Astra replied. "Dammit, who would have expected him to pull something so cowardly? When I find him again, I'll never let him live that one down. Hey, you okay?"
"Just dizzy is all. Just give me a sec," Luna said. She gently pushed Astra away and leaned her back against the wall, focusing on the fluorescent light fittings above her. She let out a sudden round of laughter that probably made Astra think she was mad and watched as the lights flickered slightly. It hadn't been as much as Boo's but already ideas were churning in Luna's head. As they churned, her vision soon cleared. "Astra, I think I've found the other way."
Sora let out a rather loud yawn that voiced his frustrations. They had been waiting for what he was sure was more than half an hour and Sulley, Mike, Goofy and Donald had not yet returned. He was getting increasingly worried the more he walked around in circles, so he had stopped doing so only to find himself doing it again after a short while.
"I hope your friend Donald didn't take it too personally. I feel sorry for him," Rhea said, watching as Stephanie and Boo held each other's hands and danced around in a circle merrily.
"Don't be. We all make sacrifices in the group from time to time. It's just that we usually have Donald make the most," Sora joked. He didn't think he would be able to converse this naturally with a member of Moira's Crescent, but here he was and so quickly too. It had even come to the point where he wondered what she really thought of him.
Rhea snorted and gave a cute laugh. "It's funny. You remind me of Kohle, our founder. It's the way you both speak, I think. You both have a way of making even the worst of things sound better than they actually are."
Sora blushed and looked away. "Really? I'm not sure about that. That sounds more like you actually. That calm way of speaking… I think it could make even the angriest person smile."
"Aw, thank you. I know you may not like this but if you could just think about it, that would be great. I was wondering if you would like to come and join Moira's Crescent. It would be great to have you and Luna around," Rhea proposed.
Sora chuckled. "You sure you didn't just come here to recruit me?"
"Are you implying that I'm spying on you?" Rhea shot back with a grin. Of course with Moira's Crescent, he wouldn't have been surprised either if that were the case. She had after all, admitted that they had two of their members follow him just so they could get to Abraxas.
"I don't know," was what Sora finally settled on. "I work better playing by my own rules."
"I understand if you don't trust us and I don't expect that to change overnight. I'm working hard to change the opinions of those in the group that want… you know. It's just that from what I can tell, Astra seems a lot happier and more active with Luna around and I don't want Luna to have to choose between two of her best friends if it comes to that. Plus, being by our side is probably the safest way for me to protect you and we do have the same goal. I know we can work this out."
"I don't need protection but thanks anyway. But if it's for Luna, I'll think about it," Sora said. There wasn't anything more he could say on the issue. She could see it just as well as him, even without sight. Luna and Astra were like completely different people when they were with each other. Astra had managed to bring out an incredibly rambunctious disposition in Luna while Astra, at least in Sora's experience, was more likely to be kind to him with Luna around. If it wasn't for Luna, he probably wouldn't be considering joining up with Moira's Crescent as much as he was now.
"Feel free to take your time. I wouldn't want you to rush your decision," Rhea said before changing topic. "The others haven't returned yet? Something must be wrong."
"I'd like to have a bit more faith that they're alright, but it is worrying me. Oh! Luna and Astra are back!" Sora alerted them before calling them over with a loud voice. "Heeeeey! Gantu wasn't much of a problem, I'm guessing?"
"I would like to report that we took care of him no problem, but he had one last dirty trick under his sleeve and got away!" Luna yelled back as she neared them.
"My poor ears. What in the world happened to indoor voices?" Astra complained under her breath. "Goofy and the others aren't back yet?"
"Appears not. Maybe we should split up again. Some of us stay here in case the come back and the rest go look for them?" Sora suggested.
"I don't mind. You wouldn't mind if Sora and I were the searching party, would you?" Luna asked.
"That's fine. We'll make sure Stephanie and Boo are safe then. Be careful out there you two," Rhea said. Sora gave a final farewell and headed back out of the large hall with Luna. Corridor after corridor they turned, with no end in sight and most of them looking the same as the ones previous. They soon started to fear that they were going the wrong way, and even worse, that they would be unable to find their way back after turning so many times. Their hopes however, were soon ignited once again when they reached what would most likely be called a secret passageway. Leaning against the pipes to the side of the hole was a large metal holder supporting many tools like spanners, cordless drills and screwdrivers.
"This… used to be mounted onto the wall and someone with a lot of strength ripped it out. It's pretty heavy," Sora said while trying to lift up the holder. He quickly gave up and stood back up. "The only person I can think of who'd be capable of this…"
"Sulley," Luna finished. "Then they went through here?"
"Only one way to find out," Sora said. He summoned his Keyblade and took the lead in slowly making their way down the narrow and somewhat claustrophobic passageway. The metal pipes under their feet created dull clunking sounds that echoed throughout the passage but these were drowned out by the voices that they were hearing down the path.
"I should never have trusted you. Sullivan was twice the man you ever were," said one of the voices. If his ears didn't deceive him, Sora was right in matching that voice to Mr. Waternoose, whom he had heard earlier on talking to Sulley.
"I'll ignore that. Besides, once we've tested this scream extractor out and it works, which it will, you won't have any more need for Sullivan, or any kind of monster power for that matter," came the voice of Randall.
"Let me out of this thing! Let me out!" yelled Donald. So they had captured at least him meaning the ruse had worked. That only left Goofy, Sulley and Mike's location unknown, but they had to have come through here.
"Quit your yapping, bird brain," Pete addressed the quacking protestor. Sora could almost visualize Pete's grin through his own voice. "Looks like your lil' pals have all abandoned ya! Now this here scream extractor doesn't exactly work against folks like you, but I am pretty curious if it will do anything nonetheless. Looks like your luck's run out. Oh wait! You never had any to begin with, hoo heh heh heh!"
"Let's hurry before it's too late," Luna whispered behind him. Sora nodded and increased his walking speed. When he could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, his tip toeing turned more into a run as if at the behest of Donald's increasing cries. The sounds of their footsteps had attracted the room's attention but that didn't matter now.
Sora emerged out of the passageway and immediately flung the Oblivion Keyblade at the machine that was sucking on Donald's bill. The Keyblade slammed against the metal with incredible force and eventually cut right through the vacuum part of the machine, severing it from the rest of its body.
Donald let out a tremendous sigh as the vacuum fell away from his face and relaxed in the chair. "You know, sometimes I think you actually enjoy giving me a heart attack, Sora."
"That's what you get for travelling with me," Sora half joked. He found that he even gave himself heart attacks sometimes with the things he did so he could only imagine how bad it was for his friends.
"What are you doing? Don't just stand there, after them!" Waternoose ordered once he had recovered from shock.
Sora was about to raise his Keyblade when a door to his left that he hadn't even noticed swung open and Goofy came sliding out of it with his body planted on top of his shield. Sora quickly sidestepped out of the way and Goofy and his shield rammed into Pete who was advancing in on Sora.
"Goofy? Wh-where did you even-?" Sora couldn't even finish his sentence. He was simply too dumbfounded at the moment to comprehend what was going on.
"Oh, heya Sora! Just got done sleighing down a mountain. Yep, it was nothing much," Goofy said. Contrary to his words, he seemed quite dazed by the experience.
"Err, sleighing...? Wait wait wait, forget about that! Where are Sulley and Mike?" Sora asked.
"On their way, I think? They might have gone through different doors. I did end up taking a different path down the mountain now that I think about it. Let's see, was it the third exit… maybe the second one? Or maybe-"
"That's great, let's go!" Luna interrupted quickly, yanking Donald out of the seat and carrying him in her arms back out of the room. Sora helped Goofy up and hastened to join up with Luna.
"Well, now what do we do?" Donald asked.
"Get back to Astra and the others. They're waiting at the Scare Floor," Sora said. Before anyone could say anything else, Sora felt his foot leave the comfort of a surface sending his body forward. He would have classified it as having just tripped, except that his body was now being dragged away from his friends. He could even feel a pair of hands wrapped around both his legs.
Luna pointed her Keyblade just above Sora's feet and cast Blizzard. The spell definitely hit something that had been invisible because it stopped just behind Sora and connected. This knocked the invisible creature backwards and made them visible.
Sora looked at the blue colored Randall for a second before turning his head. "Keep going. Go!" he yelled to the others.
They soon reached the exit and once again tried to navigate the maze of corridors that they had once treaded, or at least they thought they had treaded these corridors before but it was incredibly hard to tell. The more they walked, the less they wanted to go down the same path because they were beginning to question if it had really taken this long on their way here.
"Argh, I think I'm going to tear my hair out over this place. What were they thinking? Why couldn't they just have a perfectly linear factory? I bet they kicked the one rational person who thought to do that right out of the meeting room for mentioning such a silly thing," Luna ranted.
"Luna ranting. Now I've seen it all," Sora said, letting out a laugh at the end.
"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet. In fact, I'll have you know I'm just full of surprises," Luna replied sweetly. The expression on her face changed to one of shock just as Sora's also changed from a grin to a serious expression.
They ended up both pointing each other's way and shouting synchronously. "Duck! Huh?"
The group backed up against each other and watched as their enemy approached on either side, Gantu to their left and Pete to their right.
