LOST WORLDS
Chapter 8: Treasure at the Heart
Written by: Lynx and Rebmakash and hosted through the generosity of Organization VI
Rating: G (K)
Summary: After the battle against the thousand Heartless at Hollow Bastion, a whole new ring of worlds appears for Sora, Donald and Goofy to explore.
Disclaimer: We do not own Kingdom Hearts II or any of the Disney movies shown here; they are copyright to Disney and Square Enix. Please see the first chapter for the full disclaimer.
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"Doc, we've got the map! Wake up!" Jumping out of the hole, Jim looked relieved to be back at B.E.N.'s home. The area was dark and hard to see into, but he could distinctly make out a form lying on the ground.
Sora looked around after pulling B.E.N. up. "Donald, were you able to--" He trailed off as he watched Jim's face. A giant mechanical hand reached for the map.
"Fine work, Jimbo," Silver complemented, coming out of the shadows. "Fine work indeed."
Growls from all around alerted the youths to an alarming fact: pirates had surrounded them. One glance behind him let Sora know that Amelia, Doppler, Goofy and Donald had been bound and gagged.
Sora summoned the Keyblade and pulled it back, readying himself for a massive swing into some tentacled pirate. Instead, his weapon was grabbed from behind by a rather repulsive mountain of flesh and torn from his grip.
Jim tried to make a run for it, but was seized just a moment before Sora was restrained. The key-bearer fought as his weapon was thrown to the side, but with little luck. He called the weapon back, but with two massive hands holding back each arm, there was no way to use it. He heard B.E.N.'s distressed voice, but could do little about it.
"So the doctor was tellin' the truth 'boutchya," Silver commented to Sora. "Seems ya do have somethin' real special." He turned to walk over to Jim, tossing the map casually into the air. "You're like me, Jimbo," he taunted. "Ya hates to lose." Smiling, he turned to activate the map, only to find it wouldn't respond. Frustrated, he tried various tools out of his mechanical arm, varying from the most delicate to a vice grip. "What the devil's the..."
Jim smiled, shaking his head before Silver thrust it in his face. "Open it," he ordered, shoving it into Jim's hands. He only stared back with an insolent look.
"Yer forgettin' there's more than one person who can open 'tings, least accordin' to the good doctor." Silver looked back, eyeing the Keyblade.
Sora gave Doppler an annoyed look, but replied, "Yeah, right. Besides, there's no lock on it, I don't think it would even work that way."
"Well, then..." Silver switched his metal hand for a pistol, looking first to the others and then back to Jim. "I'd get busy."
Jim glared back, but with an astonishing lack of effort, he pushed a couple buttons and twisted the sphere a couple times. It powered up, and a flood of blue-green and yellow sparks flew from it, forming a brilliant model of the planet itself above their heads.
"Whoa..." Sora marveled, illuminated in green.
Silver grinned in awe. "Oh, powers that be, would ya look?"
The planet dissolved and formed a brilliant trail of emerald designs that traveled out the entrance. Orange pulses traveled along it to show the way. Silver ran to the door to watch.
He laughed before ordering, "Tie 'em up. And leave 'em with everyone else 'till we get—Wha?" Suddenly, his road to glory devolved back into sparks, flying back to Jim's grasp on the map.
"You want the map?" Jim asked after he closed the device. "You're taking me with you."
Silver snarled, his cyborg eye glowing red a moment before cooling back to yellow. He shook his head and smiled, ordering, "We'll take 'em all."
------
Sora pulled at his bonds, but only felt the pain of the ropes on his wrists. He gritted his teeth, less than happy to be held at sword point. With hands tied, it was pointless to summon the Keyblade.
Even so, he couldn't help but feel particularly uneasy. Though none could keep up, they sped past a rather disturbing number of Heartless. Their ranks desperately needed to be diminished.
Something was very wrong.
He looked on, noticing Jim had a similar expression to his own as the young man watched the green path they followed. The longboat sped along just above the surface of the world, slipping through air smooth as glass.
"Fine mess this is," Donald grumbled, but glad his gag had been removed. His staff had been taken, and since they apparently knew what he was capable of, his hands were just as tightly bound. Goofy's bonds weren't as bad, though just because they were less involved did not mean they were carelessly done. He looked to the back of the longboat where his shield had been tossed with Donald's staff. "Gawrsh, think we're gonna find th' treasure?"
"I wish I knew..." Sora sighed, shaking his head.
"Pst!" A soft voice came from Sora's pants pocket. Sora looked down to see Jiminy looking quite pleased with himself. He had managed to sneak out of the jacket hood to where the potion bottles had been crushed. The cricket held up a shard of glass Sora had missed when shaking out his pockets. Though small, to Jiminy it was the size of a sword.
Sora bit his lips hard to keep from smiling, and looked away as he felt little shoes make their way to his bonds.
Sheer speed of the craft, however, cut the escape attempt short, since they reached an overgrown area where the longboat could no longer follow the trail. Luckily, it also seemed to be free of Heartless here. Jiminy ducked into the safety of a pocket when the longboat stopped. Still, the bonds were loosened because of the cuts.
Perhaps notably so. Most of the pirates disembarked, and Sora smiled, as one was left on the boat. If there's only one—
Sora's thoughts where cut short as a tentacled pirate pulled him overboard by his hood. Landing with a thud and gasping to regain the wind knocked out of him, Sora was hauled to his feet. "Considering you're pretty close to the boy, you'd make some good leverage," the pirate sneered into his ear.
"Goodie," he moaned, wishing he could rub his shoulder. A sharp prick against his back alerted him to the pirates' sword urging him on. He heard some exclamation up ahead about someone named Lupe, but paid it little heed in comparison to his attention to Silver.
The cyborg paused in awe, turning to say, "We're near, lads, I can smell the treasure!" He thrust a triumphant sword-arm in the air before grabbing Jim by the shirt and pulling him through the trees. Of course, the sword at Sora's back was just as persuasive. Silver slashed though the foliage with an indomitable smile before the path opened.
To nothing.
"It just...stops?" Sora asked. Before them stretched the edge of a cliff, with nothing beyond but an unthinkable drop. The map's green trail ended at the cliff like a cut lifeline.
"Where's the treasure?"
"I see nothing--!"
Protests rose from the pirates as the air began to seethe with unease.
"Jimbo, what'd ya do?" Silver demanded in a voice that made the elusive Morph flinch.
"Nothing!" His fingers tried to manipulate the orb, but to no avail. "It just closed, it won't open anymore!"
A bizarre sailor with two arms for her legs pounced Jim. "This boy was a waste!"
The youth fell, and Silver urged, "If I were ya I'd be fast 'bout getting that going 'gain!" Sora began to pull at his bonds as threats of death and disembowelment ran through the crew. His heart raced as he felt strands popping and the ropes bite his skin.
A whine stopped them all, and a pattern of yellow-green light rippled through the earth like a shockwave from where Jim lay. As he stood, a green globe rose from where he'd apparently planted the map. Sora dared to step forward to get a better look at the sphere he was reaching for, but paused as the air rumbled. Far below, the distant earth lit up. Trails of light journeyed from seemingly all corners of the world, meeting at the base of the clip and shooting upward like some magnificent golden firework. It paused, mid-air, and its green contrail parted at the cliff edge.
Before Sora laid an image of the most beautiful image of Interspace he'd ever seen. "Whoa...!"
Even Silver marveled. "Mercy!"
Jim was more astonished than in awe. "The Lagoon Nebula?"
"Can't be, 'tis half-way 'cross the galaxy," Silver replied with a mechanical finger to his chin.
"Wait, that's REAL?" Sora asked, uneasy. He could feel the Keyblade desperately wanting to be summoned. Probably because of all the Heartless. "How do you know that's not just a display?"
Jim was silent a moment, looking down at the green globe again. "'A big door—'" he mused, putting a finger to an image in the glowing sphere. A set of green bars concealed the image, and then revealed another like a set of curtains. Before them was now some strange civilization with magnificent floating cathedral-like structures. "'—Opening and closing.'"
Sora just stared. "Coooool."
"Okay," Jim thought, looking at the sphere's controls. "Kyan Abyss. Montressor Spaceport," he smiled, pressing a small image.
An inhabited crescent moon was revealed, much to Jim's intrigue. "So that's Flint's little trick! He roamed the whole universe with these portals—"
"Looting ships?!" Sora smiled.
"Exactly!" Jim marveled, pushing another halobutton.
Silver impatiently shoved Jim aside. "But where'd he stash it all?!" He began to search the portals like a child flipping through television channels, revealing a multitude of beautiful and beastly worlds. "Where'd he put that blasted treasure?!"
B.E.N. gripped his metal head. "Treasure!" He pulled his wires like hair. "It-it's buried in—"
"The centroid of the mechanism, you said," Sora said. "What mechanism? Whatever this display thing is?"
Jim rubbed his chin. "Maybe...maybe the planet, what's making the display, what is holding all this machinery, IS the mechanism? Then the treasure's at the planet's core!"
After a brief pause, several pirates grabbed tools and ineffectually began to dig.
"And how in blue blazes do we get there?!" Silver demanded, continuing to push buttons.
It was Jim's turn to push Silver aside. "Just open the right door."
When his finger touched the image of Treasure Planet itself, the portal changed, revealing a warmly-lit space filled with complex machinery. Jim stepped forward, placing an arm though the portal, which swirled and sparked green and yellow at his touch. He stepped through, examining himself to make sure he was all still there. Morph popped out of Jim's pocket, which he seemed to be using as a refuge when needed. Intent, Silver followed, stepping ahead.
"Move it, boy!" The pirate persuaded Sora again with his sword, but that did not deter Sora from the wonder of stepping though. Besides the small lightshow the portal provided, there was sensation, though subtle. His skin tingled faintly upon contact, and any part divided from his torso, from his heart, felt slightly cold for a brief moment. He looked down to examine himself.
The first thing he noticed was a red laser at his feet, and he cocked his head as others stepped through with no harm. Still, a distant sound beneath his feet bothered him. "Hey, guys? Does anyone hear that weird beeping?"
That, too, fell on deaf ears, and for good reason. The group gawked at what laid before them, and Silver looked in utter awe. "The loot of a thousand worlds!"
Stretching out ahead seemed like a planet itself of every precious ore Sora could have imagined, and others he'd never dreamed of. The horizon curved ahead of them, showing the sheer mass of the spoils. Technology kept it floating separate from the mechanism of planet, and giant amethyst beams shot into crater-like holes around the edges of the chamber. Inside each hole lay a massive energy core. The acres of doubloons seemed to form waves, decorated with scattered ornate chests and dusted with precious gems that glistened brilliantly under the warm lighting. Riding the waves was an occasional boat, just as loaded as the crests they floated upon. Crowns and jewelry sparkled in such a glorious manner Sora knew wearing it could endow anyone with the essence of royalty. He even eyed several necklaces he wanted dearly to give to Kairi.
B.E.N.'s stuttering broke into his thoughts. "Y'know, I-I just can't shake this feeling. It's like deja vu but w-with the bonus of impending—"
Jim interrupted B.E.N., looking towards one of the gold-laden boats. "Guys, while they're not watching; let's get out of here, and with a little something extra."
Sora looked back towards the mutinous crew, and watched Silver fall to his knees in wonderment. He thought about what B.E.N. said. "Don't worry, B.E.N., it's not just you; something about this isn't right. Jim, what about Amelia and--"
"Don't worry, the last thing Meltdown will expect is another ship, especially considering his bulk compensates for his brain."
Sora nodded to Jim and pulled at his bonds, feeling slight pops until they slid loose. "Nice work, Jiminy," he said softly. Morph, noticing Sora trying to loosen his bonds, offered his services as a pair of scissors, but cooed delightedly when Sora showed he had freed himself.
Immediately he summoned the Keyblade, trying to discern what was going on, but it seemed confused itself. The area seemed to have massive concentrations of both light and darkness, so strong he felt it resonate within him.
"Y'know, I can't--it's so frustrating, there's something at the back of my mind that's really pesky, and...and I just can't seem to figure out what it is," B.E.N. insisted.
"Oh, I know, I hate it when that happens," Sora replied, climbing onto a large, empty ship after Jim, who looked a little surprised his hands were free. Looking to Morph provided him no answer, as the little creature just smiled.
"No-no, it's worse," he continued as the two hauled him up, missing what was said. "Like a song getting stuck in your head, like 'It's a small—' Yeeeeahhh!" He cried out as he tumbled over backwards, and Sora and Jim looked over to see what had caused the scare.
A rotted corpse greeted their sight. It sat at the helm of the boat, still dressed in its original pirate clothes. The pirate apparently had one golden tooth, but that wasn't nearly as impressive as the six eye sockets. In its hand, it held what appeared to be part of a broken gadget, with snapped wires dangling from it.
"Flint?!" Jim murmured.
"In the flesh!" B.E.N. paused briefly. "K-kinda, except for skin, or organs...or anything that-that-that resembles flesh."
"Whoa!" Sora peered closely at the bizarre skeleton. "So, this is the guy? THE guy?" He looked to Jim, who seemed more interested in the broken machinery in Flint's boney grasp. "Hey, that looks kinda like it would fit into..."
Jim tore the death-grip fingers away from the gadget with a sickening crunch, and Sora took hold of the object.
"My mind. Thrown away somewhere! What a terrible thing to waste!" B.E.N. despaired melodramatically.
"B.E.N., we just found the waste basket!" Sora announced, running over to put a hand on the robot's shoulder to steady him.
"Aww, I didn't think you cared," he said looking back, until he caught on to what Sora was trying to do. "Wha-what are you doing? This isn't a practical joke, is it? Because—"
Sora, in typical ignorance of complex hardware, slammed the piece into the back of B.E.N.'s head.
"Whoa!" B.E.N.'s eyes flashed. "Impr0p3r hArD b-b-boot detected: Processing." His head spun, literally, for a moment as his eyes momentarily displayed lines of binary code. "Y-y'know, that slam to the head reminded me of when--wait. Reminded!" He spun around with such a contagious excitement even Jim looked thrilled. "Huzzah! My memories! It's all coming back to me, the true coding! Even when Captain Flint pulled my primary memory circuit so I couldn't blab about the booby trap!"
A shock rattled their footing as the sounds of energy began to crackle above.
"Great, speak of the Sea Devil," Jim muttered.
"Flint didn't want anybody to steal his treasure so—"
"We get it, B.E.N., how do we turn it off?!" Sora cried, looking around. He ran to the boat's railing, leaning over to watch green energy clusters form over the entire curved ceiling. The clusters spread out, forming portals like the one they had entered through.
And to his horror, Heartless began to pour though. The warm glow of the chamber melted, and darkness and explosions followed.
"Run for your lives! Abandon centroid!!!" B.E.N. cried dramatically, not answering Sora.
The Keyblade master continued to watch as the gravity of the situation hit him hard over the head. Heartless swarmed into the craters, jumping into the energy beyond.
The need for the Keyblade earlier, the confusion now...
I've passed beyond the world's door, Sora realized with shock, and now the Heartless are flooding the heart of the world!
I've failed.
"The both of you get everyone freed and leave in five whether I'm there or not!" Jim yelled and slid beneath the control panel, messing with circuits.
"No way, Jim!" Sora protested, pulling Jim out by his feet. "If you stay here you'll be turned into a Heartl—"
Jim, holding two sparking wires, glared at both him and the anxious B.E.N. "I know what I'm doing."
"I know Heartless, Jim, and—"
Jim pulled away to work more. "And Amelia and Doppler know even less, and if your friends are still tied, they need you NOW."
Sora pursed his lips in frustration, but said, "Okay, watch yourself!"
------
"Hey, uh, Donald, ya hear that rumble?"
Donald frowned at him. "Now's not the time to be thinking about food, Goofy." He shifted his webbed feet so he could turn to look around, still quite a feat since he was still bound. It allowed him to see Amelia and Doppler, who were on the other end of the longboat.
"No, I mean the ground below us was shakin'!"
Donald didn't seem to be listening to him, but just sighed, and watched Amelia and Doppler talk. The forest was fairly quiet, despite the sounds of distant Heartless. "At least I managed to get a Cure spell started before the pirates stopped me..."
"Nonsense. Truly, you have been helpful." Amelia replied to Doppler softly, who was bemoaning his uselessness. Still, anyone who paid attention to the way her ribs moved would see she was still in some pain.
"Oh, I'm just hopeless. A sad collection of meager musculature..." He brought his hands to his face, only to realize that he'd gotten his hands to his face at all. The ropes had been loose. "...with abnormally thin wrists," he said in amazement.
Goofy spoke up in surprise. "Wow, Doctor Doppler, you're—YEE-ahhh!" Donald quickly put a stop to Goofy's blabbing by scooting him right off the wooden bench.
The doctor was quick to put his hands behind his back as the obese pirate guard turned around with a dull expression. "Ah, now that I have your attention, mind if I ask you a question?" he asked.
A vulgar noise from the guard was his only reply.
"Well then, considering your bulk, are you compensating for your lack of a brain?" Doppler mocked. Everyone else's eyes widened in astonishment.
"Don't antagonize him!" Donald cried.
The pirate thought a second before becoming irate. "I gonna clobber you somethin' good!" He took a flabby hand and seized Doppler by his collar, raising a fist.
"Oh, yes, I'm sure, I'm very sure, but I have another question for you." Doppler pulled out a pistol, whining as it charged up. "This belong to you?"
The pirate looked down in dim shock, and little else.
"Okay, here's yet another question. Do you want to untie us and let us tie you up?"
The pirate nodded slowly.
"Way to go, Doctor!" Donald exclaimed as the defeated pirate began to undo his bonds.
A familiar robotic voice interrupted the escape. "Guys! Guys, we're here too--!"
"Shhhh!!!" A clang echoed.
The magician hopped from his seat to the edge of the longboat. Sora was futilely trying to stifle the indiscreet B.E.N. "Sora, you're just in time!"
"Yee-up!" Goofy continued. "Doppler got us outta this mess!" He thumbed back to where Amelia was busily tying the ropes around Meltdown.
Sora immediately dropped any attempt to be stealthy, grabbing B.E.N. and tossing him onboard. "We've got a bigger mess to worry about," he said quickly, trying to hide his pangs of guilt. "Flint set a trap. The world is being destro--!"
He was cut off as panicking pirates ran up, looking quite surprised to see their method of escape had been taken over by their captives.
Sora summoned his Keyblade. "You get on, we tie you up, no hassles, we rescue you, got it?"
They didn't even hesitate. The moment they leapt aboard, they offered their hands, claws and tentacles. Amelia jumped into the pilot's seat, and her eyes grew wide as the ground shook below.
"See, I wasn't hungry, Don—"
"Where's Jim?" Amelia asked in a forceful tone, grabbing the controls.
"He said if he wasn't back in five minutes to leave—" Sora paused as the ground suddenly roared.
"Doesn't matter, by my clock we have three minutes and fifty-seven seconds before we're wiped off the treasure map!" B.E.N. had popped out his compass in a surprisingly coordinated way, doing calculations.
The moment everyone was aboard, Amelia wasted no time in sending the longboat blasting away at full tilt, leaving its occupants falling head over heals. "Please don't stand in the boat, lest you care to capsize it!"
"Aye-aye, Captain," Sora saluted weakly.
Sora had little idea just how fast they were moving, but how his hair moved, not to mention how ruffled Donald's feathers were, gave him an idea. They came up on the anchored RLS Legacy fast, and Sora was grateful the hold's door opened automatically, as they might have crashed into it. The docking was quick and efficient.
"Sora, Donald, Goofy, secure the longboat," Amelia commanded. She tried to stand, but was still a bit hurt. "Doctor, get me to the helm!"
"Yes, Captain!" Doppler answered, and, with B.E.N.'s help, made way to the deck.
Though far from tidy, the trio finished tying the ropes quickly. As they ran up the stairs, they felt the ship jolt as it moved awkwardly.
"What's going on?!" Goofy exclaimed, flailing his arms to keep his balance.
"I'm guessing Amelia isn't driving this boat!" Donald squawked.
"What was your first clue?"
Sora stumbled as the ship started a sudden decent. Crawling onto the deck, he saw Amelia sitting behind Doppler, who was at the helm. Nearby was B.E.N., busy calculating.
"I've only read about this, Captain, I'm not sure if—" Doppler stammered, inexperienced in "spacing."
Sora steadied himself and ran to the railing, seeing the approaching ground and the jade portal at the edge of the cliff below.
Two figures leapt from the green-sparking wedge, and Sora could tell it was Jim and Silver. "They're out! Jim's okay!" he hollered. "Bring her down, Doctor!"
"Howdy, Jim!" B.E.N. yelled as the ship lowered. "Don't dilly dally, we've got two minutes and thirty four seconds till planet's destruction!"
As Sora began to reach out to them, he heard Amelia cry, "Doctor, doing fine, well, for now. Ease her over gently, GENTLY!" The Key-bearer recoiled as the ship broad-sided the cliff Jim and Silver stood on before reaching again. He grabbed hold of Jim and pulled him over, and the two together hauled up Silver. Morph sped up to meet them.
"Let's get going, Metal Man," Amelia ordered B.E.N. as she rose to her feet, clutching her side.
"Aye-aye!"
Sora looked over the side, his heart feeling sick. Explosions of fire and darkness issued from the earth in intricate patterns much like he had seen on the map. From each explosion he could see Heartless emerge like frenzied sharks at the water's surface. They were everywhere, surely on their way from and to their feast upon the world's heart.
"...I should have done something," Sora murmured, still in shock.
Silver leaned over the stair's railing as Jim did. "Captain, y'are truly our salvation, comin' like an angel in flight to—"
"Put aside that waste of breath for your judge," she warned.
That suddenly became a more unlikely possibility. A large flying Heartless, which looked like a Wyvern, suddenly tore through two masts. The crosstree came crashing down, smashing laser cannons and railing alike in a brief but fiery chaos. Those aboard scrambled to get out of the way, and Donald narrowly avoided being crushed beneath a falling cannon.
Sora was thrown against the deck from the blast. His head shot back up as he heard the engines power down.
B.E.N. calculated furiously. "Missile tails immobilized, Captain! Thrusters at thirty percent of capacity!"
Doppler grasped the wheel harder. "Thirty percent?! That means w—" He stopped, looking to all and then to Amelia. "We'll never clear the planet's explosion."