Hey everybody! I'm really sorry that this update took so long! This chapter was almost finished on my old laptop, and then it died, so I lost all my work :( I now have a new laptop, so please pardon any kinks in the layout of this chappie as I am still getting used to the ins and outs of OpenOffice! That's about all I have to say, so on with the show!
Chapter 19: Sora and Kairi's Grand Adventure
Sora and Kairi came racing down the street towards Grandma Rose's house. The others were already all there waiting for them. Selphie spotted them first.
"Did you find them!" She asked, looking back and forth for them.
"Yes! I mean no!" Sora announced. He then looked completely confused. "We found them, but now they're gone..." He said slowly. Lulu looked unimpressed.
"What do you mean they're gone?" She asked. Kairi shrugged.
"Well, one minute they were there, and the next minute they weren't." She explained slowly. Wakka shook his head.
"You sure you're alright Kairi? That's impossible, ya?"
"I was there too. One minute they were right behind us, the next minute they're gone. But at least they're okay. I think they went back to deal with that guy that kidnapped Skye." Sora said. Kairi nodded.
"Yep. Sounds like that Dax guy made a real mess of things, from what they said."
"Well, then tell us what they said." Irvine urged, looking anxious.
"Umm, okay. Skye was kidnapped by Dax, because he wanted her to be a sacrifice. They caught Riku when he jumped through the portal after them, and they tried to use him against her to make her do what Dax wanted. Then there was a bunch of escaping and recapturing... I can't remember, it was really confusing. Anyway, it ended up that Skye was caught and Riku was free, and he found a bunch of Skye's old friends and they went and helped her escape. Then they all went to a place called the Rebel City, and then Skye and Riku came back here to let us know that they were okay. And... then they left again to go deal with Dax" Kairi said, seemingly all in one long breath.
"Dawn's Oceans..." Sora muttered. "Dawn's Oceans..." He repeated, turning the idea over in his head. The others looked worried.
"But what if something happens to them when they go after him?" Selphie asked uncertainly.
"I'm going after them." Sora stated. There was a long silence.
"...What...?"
"I know where they are, and there's safety in numbers. If I can drag Donald and Goofy along with me, there'll be five of us instead of only two of them to take on Dax and his Heartless. Besides, after everything that's happened, we could take on an army of Shadows with our eyes closed." He said smugly. Kairi nudged him.
"Well, don't actually close your eyes." She warned. Sora grinned.
"Duh. I'm going to see when Donald and Goofy can come with the gummiship. I'll see you guys tomorrow morning." He said, waving and walking back towards his house.
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A dull roar and loud splash greeted Kairi as she approached Sora, who was standing on the beach, watching as the gummiship splashed down onto the water. Sora had gone to say his goodbyes to everyone a little earlier, and Kairi had come to see him off. Sora offered her a quick kiss as the gummiship beached itself and Donald and Goofy came out.
"I'll be back soon." He said. Kairi nodded, keeping her own thoughts to herself. Sora greeted his friends and boarded the gummiship. It took off and Sora looked down at the beach, intending to wave to Kairi, but she was gone. He sighed a little in disappointment. Goofy and Donald were both looking at him with expressions that demanded an explanation.
"Skye and Riku disappeared to go fight Dax. They're on a planet called Dawn's Oceans and I was hoping that you guys might know where that is."
"Can't say I do." Donald answered. "But the King might."
"Can we go see him then?" Sora asked, sounding a little more hopeful.
"Hyuck! Of course! The King was thinking about summoning you soon anyways, if things got out of hand." Goofy answered.
"Out of hand?" Sora questioned.
"Yeh, there's been lots of Heartless running around on this one certain planet... what was it? Started with a 'd'..." Goofy said slowly, his voice trailing off in thought.
"That's Dawn's Oceans!" Donald answered, clearly exasperated.
"Oh...right."
"Wow, the Heartless there must be worse than Riku and Skye let on..." Sora said thoughtfully. "We'd better hurry."
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"Welcome back!" Minnie greeted Donald and Goofy as they got off the gummiship. "And you must be Sora. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." She said a little more formally, curtsying. Sora blinked awkwardly, having no idea what to do.
"Uhh, likewise." He said finally, bowing quickly. Goofy looked like he was trying to keep from laughing and Donald looked utterly humiliated at Sora's complete lack of grace. Minnie smiled, amused, and motioned for them to follow her.
"The King is waiting in the library to meet us. He's very interested in what you have to say."
After Sora related the story everything that had happened since Skye's arrival on the Islands, the King explained that he had been keeping a close eye on Dawn's Oceans since the Door had been closed. After the events at the End of the World, the numbers of Heartless slowly reduced as Sora fought off the last of their kind in his search for Riku. By the time the two boys had found each other and returned to the Islands, the numbers of Heartless left of any planet were of no concern. Except for on Dawn's Oceans. The numbers of Heartless there had maintained itself, fluctuating occasionally, but neither decreasing nor increasing. Mickey kept his eye on the Heartless of that planet, taking care to ensure that their numbers never grew by any significant amount.
"After hearing your story, I'm beginning to see why the Heartless have always had a significant presence on that planet... I never knew that Ansem had a son..." Just then, the doors to the library burst open, with Chip and Dale scurrying in, followed closely by...
"Kairi!" Sora asked, surprised. Kairi grinned sheepishly.
"I guess this makes me a stow-away." She admitted. Chip and Dale ignored them and spoke instead to the King.
"Dawn's Oceans!" Chip cried, out of breath.
"Heartless!" Dale shouted at the same time.
"What's wrong!" Sora asked, looking stricken. Kairi didn't quite understand what the worry was, not having heard the conversation beforehand.
"Your Majesty! Sora!" Chip said, breathless. "We've been watching the numbers of Heartless on Dawn's Oceans, as the King requested."
"Their numbers just skyrocketed!" Dale finished. Sora blanched. The King looked grave.
"Sora, Donald, Goofy, I need you to go and if I understand you correctly, you wish to go also." He said, addressing Sora. Sora nodded in reply.
"Hold it!" Kairi said, holding up her hand. "I'm not going to get left behind again. There's no way I'm staying here while you go after them." She said, looking sternly at Sora. Sora took a deep breath, only just realizing then that he'd been holding his breath.
"I don't want anything to happen..."
"I stowed away this far, and you can't make me stay behind." She announced stubbornly. Sora nodded.
"I still don't like it, but I can't really expect you to stay behind." He admitted. She looked taken aback by his words, but then she smiled and walked over to stand beside him.
"We'd better go." Goofy noted. "Your friends are probably in trouble if there's all those Heartless around."
"Is there anything else we need to know before we leave?" Kairi asked.
"I'm sure there is, but I've told you everything I know. Just be prepared for the unexpected." King Mickey answered. "Chip and Dale, program Dawn's Oceans' location into their gummiship."
"Yes sir!" Came the unified reply from the chipmunks. The pair scampered out of the library, with Donald, Goofy, Sora and Kairi following behind. They reached the gummi hangar and took off with few problems, Chip and Dale wishing them good luck as they left.
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The gummiship landed in a the smoldering remains of a farming field. The ocean's shore shimmered on the horizon, lit by the moonlight. There was a mountain range not far off and a pile of wet, waterlogged wood that looked like it used to be a village. It was near dawn. There was mass destruction evident all around them, for as far as the eye could see. Off in the distance, there were random patches of light, lanterns bobbing around. Not that the small group new it, but those were the remains of Dax's army, fleeing the Phoenix after having seen most of their comrades destroyed by either the flood or the ensuing flames. Sora looked around.
"You think we're too late?" He asked.
"I hope not." Kairi answered. The moon disappeared as the sun rose over the mountains.
"You think there's anyone in the farmhouse?"Goofy asked. Donald shrugged.
"Let's go see." He said, motioning for the others to follow. The door was barely hanging on its hinges and when Sora tried to open the door, it fell completely away from its frame. The inside was ransacked. Anything of value had been stolen, and tables and chairs were overturned. There was evidence of a fight. Someone had resisted the invaders. In another room, Kairi found a bed on its side. The blankets had all fallen off and were sitting in a ball on the floor. The mattress was torn to shreds, and stained with blood. She let out a cry and jumped back with the blanket moved. Sora's face appeared in the doorway a moment later.
"What's wrong?" He asked. But she wasn't listening. The blanket had fallen away to reveal the terrified face of a woman. Her own clothes were stained red, and she was cradling the body of a man Kairi feared to be dead.
"Who...you're not soldiers..." She said weakly. Kairi shook her head.
"What happened here?" She asked in reply. Sora disappeared for a moment.
"The soldiers came. There was an army of them. They tried to arrest us and..." the woman stopped, choking back tears, looking desperately down at the man in her arms. Sora returned, this time with Donald in tow. They walked up to the woman, and she pulled away, suspicious of them.
"We want to help." He said sincerely. "Donald is a healer. We want to see what we can do to help you." He said. The woman smiled bitterly.
"There's nothing you can do for us now." She answered. "There's only one thing... are you part of the Resistance?"
"I...well... sort of. We're on our way to the Rebel City." We just have to find it first. Kairi assured the woman, though she wasn't feeling so reassured herself.
"Make sure that my daughters made it. We sent them out just before the army reached us. Make sure they reached the Rebel City."
"What are their names?"
"Kayla and Annika." The woman smiled and rested her head against the upturned mattress. She looked like she'd fallen asleep. Kairi and Sora bowed their heads. Donald cast a short series of gravity spells, so that the bed was turned back upright and the couple was laid on it, looking peaceful as the dawn sunlight poured through the window. The small group were silent for a moment before leaving the farmhouse. They stood out in the doorway and looked both ways down the dirt road. In one direction, the wrecked town. In the other, fields and forest for as far as the eye could see.
"Where do we go?" Kairi asked after a long silence.
"We can go that way and hope that there's another town within walking distance, or we can head towards the wrecked village, where we know that there's nobody who can help us." Sora answered, making it clear where he wanted to go.
"Wait!" Goofy said, pointing at the wreckage. "There's people!" Indeed, upon taking a closer look, there were figures moving about the ruins. They headed towards the town, knowing that it would be a good while before they reached it. As they approached the village, nearing noon, they encountered a small group of armed men and women standing along the road. Once one of the guards spotted the group, he signaled to his comrades and they were all on their feet, approaching Sora, Kairi, Donald and Goofy with weapons out, looking suspicious of the newcomers.
"Who are you?" An older man asked.
"What happened to the village?" Sora asked in reply.
"Flood." the man replied tersely. Kairi nudged Sora.
"They're from the resistance." She noted. Sora nodded. He was thinking the same thing.
"Is Skye here?" Sora asked. Suddenly all the guards were on edge.
"Who wants to know?" The man asked, brandishing his sword.
"I do." Sora answered dumbly. Kairi let out an amused sigh and answered for him.
"This is Sora, and I'm Kairi. We're from the Destiny Islands. These two are Goofy and Donald, a knight and a mage from Disney Castle."
"I don't trust royalty." The man answered, glaring at Donald and Goofy. Sora grunted in exasperation. The man shook his head. "And anyway, the ruins are dangerous for travelers. There are no ships coming to or going from port for at least a week. Head east and you'll find another port town there. Though whether the ships will be sailing from anywhere is a matter of when news reaches...ung" The man tried to explain, but a younger woman elbowed him in the middle of his sentence.
"Look, there was a flood so we're fixing it, which means its dangerous for travelers. Now get out of here." She said gruffly. Kairi touched Sora's arm.
"Let's go." She murmured. "We know where the Rebel City is now. We'll come back later." Sora nodded and walked away, motioning for the others to follow him. Once they were out of earshot of the guards, Sora glanced over his shoulder.
"Wait until nightfall and we'll sneak in." He said simply.
"Why?" Goofy asked.
"The Rebel City is there." Kairi answered. "But what if the guards are still there?" She asked.
"How do you know that's where the Rebel City is?" Donald asked at the same time.
"There are guards there and there's no way that they're standing around making sure that the likes of us don't wander into a flooded village. They've got something to protect. And besides, that woman wouldn't have sent her daughters to the Rebel City if it was far from the farm." Sora said to Donald. "And if the guards are still there, then we'll go around them. It's easier to sneak past them under cover of night."
Sora, Kairi, Donald and Goofy waited for nightfall under cover of trees, out of sight of the guards. Dusk passed and the stars started to come out. The small group followed the road for a short distance, until they saw that the guards were still on the road with a small camp fire burning. They left the road and walked through what was left of the farmer's fields, skirting around the guard post and entering the ruins of the town. There were handfuls of other people wandering through the wreckage, but none took any notice of the newcomers. They searched the ruins for some sign of an entrance to the Rebel City, but no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find anything. The other people wandering the ruins began to disappear, but Sora, Kairi, Donald and Goofy couldn't see where they were disappearing to, though they did see a few of them leaving the town, presumably to go home to farms that hadn't been ransacked by the invaders. It was getting late, and all were getting tired.
"Let's find a place for the night on this side of the guard post. I don't want to have to sneak past them again." Kairi said.
"We can't stay in the village though." Sora noted.
"Caves?" Goofy suggested. The others blinked, unknowingly at him. "There're probably caves in the mountain. Maybe we could stay there." He explained. The reply was a resounding yes, and the group immediately began climbing the foothills. There was a surprisingly well-beaten path that passed by a series of caves in the mountainside, but each of them were too shallow for them to ensure that any guards wouldn't see them. Then, they came across a deeper one. There was a burnt out campfire already in the cave. It looked like people stopped here often.
"It looks like this place is pretty popular." Kairi noted.
"Let's stay here for the night." Sora agreed. Donald and Goofy began to set up camp and Sora wandered to the back of the cave, inspecting the pattern of cracks in the wall. It looked like somethin had shattered it. His Keyblade appeared in his hand for no reason.
"What the!" Sora felt the tug, and his Keyblade leveled itself with a glowing lock in the stone, formed out of the cracks. The others were all staring at him as the Keyblade unlocked the mysterious lock. There was a click, and Sora lowered his Keyblade, waiting for the door to open. Nothing happened.
"What was thaAH!" Kairi started to ask, but mid-sentence, the lock exploded, leaving a jagged archway in the stone with a hallway carved out of the other side.
"That was weird..." Sora noted. "You think this is the Rebel City?"
"Dunno. We'll see." Kairi answered, walking inside. Sora followed, with Donald and Goofy just behind them. They followed the hallway out into a large hollow in the center of the mountain.
"Wooooow." Donald muttered, looking around.
"Amazing..." Kairi agreed. "Do you think Skye and Riku would be here?"
"We'll see. Let's split up and search. Kairi, you go through there. Donald, you check this area. Goofy and me are going to go up there and look. Okay?"
"Right."
"Okay."
"Let's go!" And so began their search. Sora, Goofy and Donald began to climb the ramp. Donald checked any unlocked rooms along the ramp on the way up. Sora and Goofy went to the top, figuring that the important people in the Rebel City would be up there, and they'd know where Skye and Riku are, if the couple wasn't up there themselves. Kairi scanned the ground floor and then began her search of all the tunnels branching off. They reached the top, and Sora looked down over the edge, impressed by the height. Leaning over, he spotted a long girl walking across the ground far below.
"HEY KAIRI! DID YOU FIND ANYTHING?" He called. The figure looked up, and he saw pigtails. That's not Kairi...The figure pointed and shouted. Then, she seemed to sink into the solid stone. "Uh-oh! Looks like we're caught!" Sora cried, rushing towards the nearest door. Goofy stumbled along behind him, completely confused. Sora pulled on one door, and found it locked. He whipped out his keyblade and unlocked it in a flash. He and Goofy disappeared into the room just as the stone under their feet began to ripple. Venus emerged from the stone, and looked wildly around.
"Intruders!" She shouted furiously. "Someone's broken the lock!" She glanced around, and not seeing the invaders, she figured that they must have gone into one of the rooms. She tried the closest door. Locked, as she expected. She tried the next door, the door to Skye and Riku's room. Open, just like it shouldn't have been. She threw open the door and barged in furiously.
"Who are you and what do you want? And you'd better be honest or I'll make you a permanent part of this mountain!" She threatened. Sora spun around to face her, surprised.
"We don't mean any harm, we're looking for Skye and Riku!" He answered desperately. Venus' expression hardened.
"Yeh, and so is every other soldier and bounty hunter on the planet." She said, holding out her hands. The ground around Sora and Goofy began to ripple, and a moment later tendrils of rock burst out of the ground, trying to wrap themselves around their legs. Sora and Goofy fought them of with impressive precision, but they kept coming.
"Give. Us. A. Chance." Sora said between blows. The attacks relaxed a little, and then stopped completely, though there were still tendrils poking out of the carpet, poised to strike.
"You broke the lock." Venus accused. "Did you expect me not to know?"
"I didn't even know it was there! The Keyblade just does stuff like that sometimes..." Sora admitted, knowing full well that he sounded kind of stupid. Venus glowered at him.
"So it was you!" She shouted. At that moment, Donald burst into the room, shouting,
"HELLOOOOOO" He froze when he saw Sora and Goofy surrounded by the 'rock snakes' and Venus standing in front of them. Jade burst into the room after them. She'd been in the infirmaries below and heard the racket.
"Hey! Just what do you think you're doing!"
"GAH!" Donald cried out as Jade swiped at him with her fist.
"Hey! I didn't even do anything!" He shouted.
"You broke into the Rebel City! You should be dead on that spot for that!" She answered furiously.
"But we're telling the truth!" Sora broke in, angrily. Kairi and Mars, who had encountered each other in the tunnel, appeared in the doorway.
"Sora! What's going on!" Kairi asked. At that, all the arguments exploded again. A moment later, the door to the bedroom burst open, and out stepped Skye and Riku, neither wearing any clothes, with Skye wrapped in a blanket and Riku, a towel. There was a long silence...
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So there! I finally got this thing updated! Aren't you proud? Yes yes. Anyways, updates will come faster again now. Mkay? Okies! Review!