Author's Note: I am so bad of keeping up updates. Sorry about that, guys. I don't know if either of you noticed in my other updated story "Life DEFINATELY not Normal", but as I learned, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 will not be released this year. Due to the delay of FFXV, KH2.8 was forced to be delayed by one month to January next year.
Sigh. Square's needs desperate help in thinking before going too far ahead with their updates of games and release dates. Anyway, here's the long waited chapter.
I still don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH 5: Even more Concerns.
Sora had no idea how he came back to the World that Never Was that was supposed to no longer exist, or at least in the dream version of it. His first thoughts was that he somehow returned to the Realm of Sleep or something, despite that he was still in his original body and not having time-travelled to his 14 year old self, since it was hard to tell after falling asleep on the Black Pearl. Since his Mark of Mastery, Sora was finding it hard to tell if he entered the Realm of Sleep or was simply asleep these days.
"Why am I back here?" Sora asked himself. "Is...is this a dream, or was I taken into the Realm of Sleep?"
"Aw, what's the matter, sleepyhead?" A familiar taunting voice echoed around him. Alarmed, Sora looks around for the source of the voice. It was familiar, but how can it be?
Suddenly Sora sensed something and jumped out of the way of a familiar bolt as it strikes the ground, before looking up and gasped in shock. A familiar man in an Organization coat, atop an adjacent skycraper. The familiar black and gray hair, the eyepatch and the single glowing yellow eye, the crossbow weapons. The man then jumped down to street level, gazing at Sora...or, at least that's what Sora thought at first.
"You're a part of this?" Sora suddenly heard himself say, but he realised that he didn't say or even thought about it. Instead, it was as though is voice was right next to him. Looking at his left, Sora gasped in shock at the sight of...himself, in the realm of sleep clothing in the body of a 14 year old, except something was different.
Rather than the Omega symbol, Sora noticed an X symbol on his...dopplegerself's clothes. The real Sora then realised that this was a dream of some sorts. But how? And why?
"Hey. Let's hit these plot points in order, Sora... Roxas." Xigbar spoke to the dream Sora, by also calling him by Sora's Nobody's name. "First, you must be wondering about your revised itinerary. "Why am I here, not back home?" The answer's simple. We brought you to this place!" he grinned, "Hijacked your little slumber party before it started. And ever since, we've been both your companions and your constant guides."
Sora shook his head, stepping back slightly, unable to believe what he was seeing. Suddenly, everything changed all around him, and he found himself in another area of the Organization's world, and to his horror, his dream-self or whatever was lying on the ground, with darkness seeping all around him, and the teenage Xehanort kneeling by his side.
"Your heart will sleep forever." Young Xehanort said to the other Sora. "Goodnight, Sora."
The other Sora finally lost his battle against the darkness before losing consciousness. The real Sora was horrified beyond belief, while absentmindly clutching his chest where he could feel his heart at his fingertips. This wasn't what happened. Genesis had made sure Sora stayed out of Xehanort's clutches. Xehanort himself was gone, and so was Xigbar. Why was this happening?
"This is what would've happened if your Nobody didn't save that redhead." Another voice spoke suddenly next to him, startling Sora again. He turned to his right and blinked in shock and confusion. Standing next to him was another boy who was a spitting image of him, except with multiple differences to tell the two apart. The other boy's spiky hair was black, his eyes were yellow, just like Xehanort's, and his outfit was just like when Riku was possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, except in red instead of purple.
"Who're you!?" Sora demanded in a defence stance, not taking any chances.
"Me? I'm just a ghost." The other boy said darkly. "Or maybe...a connection between you and Ventus. It's thanks to you that loser's heart even survived while sleeping inside you. Even though he destroyed me twelve years ago, my heart, spirit and mind floated in the darkness."
At first Sora didn't understand, but then memories of Ven telling him what happened between him and Xehanort returned, and a mention of his darkness that formed into a being named Vanitas had sounded terrifying. Suddenly it made sense and the young Keyblade Master glared hard at the...apparently ghost of Ven's darkness.
"I get it. You're Vanitas-Ven's darkness that was taken out by Xehanort!" Sora exclaimed accusingly.
The other boy, Vanitas, smirked and chuckled. "Well, at least one teenage Keyblade wielder managed to get me figured out a lot quicker. Looks like you've got more brains than Ventus and Terra put together, just like Aqua."
"Leave them out of this!" Sora shouted, having a feeling that he would have to fight. But then suddenly thought of something and asked, "So wait, this is a dream. Why are you here?"
"Oh, looks like you've got half the brains then." Vanitas sighed, shaking his head as if what he just heard was the most pathetic thing he's ever heard. "Like I said, this is what would've happened if Roxas didn't cure that redhead friend of his through you. Without Axel, or Lea, or whatever, the outcome would've been that Roxas and Xion would've still been stuck inside you, Ventus's heart stuck inside you, Namine stuck inside Kairi, and Lea losing Isa to Xehanort by the time he's recompleted, and you wouldn't even know about Genesis."
Somehow seeing what he just seen of his dreamself made sense to Sora as he summed up, in slight horror at the very thought of it, "So you're saying that if Lea wasn't revived, Roxas, Xion and Namine wouldn't be made as humans, Genesis, wouldn't have woken up, Zack would've still been dead, Aqua would still be trapped in the Realm of Darkness...and Xehanort would've taken me as his vessel. Then Chaos..."
"Bingo." Vanitas mocked an applued. "You figured it out, Sora. For someone who isn't the true Keyblade's chosen one, you might as well be for figuring things out it's no wonder it changed it mind about Riku."
"Okay, so I'm being shown of an Alternate Universe inside my head." Sora thought, before asking skeptically, "But what does that have to do with you being inside my dreams?"
"Exactly what I said, idiot." Vanitas grunted. "I'm a ghost, or a connection between you and Ventus since you kept his heart within your own heart. Yeah, I've seen almost everything you two morons had gone through." He grinned sinisterly as he continued, "So, I guess you could say that I'm sort of like Roxas. Before you kept Ventus's heart, at your birth, it was your heart that had given him a second chance, which is why I look like a darker version of you."
Sora's eyes widened at the new information that made half-sense, but at the same time, no sense what so ever. His heart...was the main reason how Ven survived four years after Xehanort extracted his darkness out of the former? At Sora's birth, his heart... But then that meant...was Vanitas inside him now instead of Ven? Or were the two still connected?
The teenager's expression was amusing to Vanitas as he approached Sora who gasped before taking steps back, as the former said, "I guess this means that your pirate friend isn't the only one having inner demon problems."
Before Sora could ask what Vanitas was talking about, suddenly his head spinned and his vision began to darken. Sora's hand quickly reached to his forehead, though he then realised that he was having trouble breathing, and the last thing he saw was Vanitas smirking, and the last thing he heard was the darkness of Ven say, "Don't worry...you're just waking up. See you soon, Sora."
The next thing Sora knew, his world went black.
Bolting upright in the lower cabins on the Black Pearl, Sora panted as he nearly screamed in fright. Looking around while feeling a bit disorientated, memories of the previous night returned to him, before he sighed in relief. His heart raced at the intensed fear of memories of the nightmare he just witnessed. He then frowned in concern as he recalled every single detail from his dreams.
The possibly of what would've happened if Lea didn't get his heart back sooner than a year later. That Xehanort would've turned Sora himself into a vessel. And now...Vanitas could be inside his heart despite having revived Ven. What could this mean? Why did Vanitas appear in his dreams like that? And the only pirate that was Sora's friend was Jack. What did this have to do with the Captain of the Black Pearl?
Groaning, Sora slumped to lie down again to progress on his thoughts, only to come face to face with a familiar face overing over him, and deja vu quickly happened.
"Whoa!" Sora cried out in alarm, before turning and gave the giggling Kairi an annoyed look. "It's not funny, Kairi."
"Sora, I can't believe you're still such a lazybum." Kairi shook her head. "Everyone's been up for an hour now."
Sighing and deciding that it was best not to burden his friends, especially Kairi, on the dreams he just had, Sora shrugged as he stood up, saying, "I guess I haven't slept right last night." stretching his arms and suddenly realised his back felt a bit sore. "Next time, remind me to sleep in a hammock rather than the floor. I've slept on the ground, but the Black Pearl's wood is the most uncomfortable place I've ever slept on."
Kairi sighed before grabbing hold of Sora's arm and pulled him with her up onto the deck as she told him, "Come on, you big baby. What kind of Keyblade Master that oversleeps anyway?"
"H-hey! Kairi, slow down!" Sora startled.
Another hour later found Sora and Kairi having met up with Lea, Ven, Xion, Donald, Goofy, Jack, Elizabeth and Gibbs on the deck while the rest of Jack's crew were busy with their duties, the new ones, the sour Dulor included, were scrubbing the decks while ignoring the conversation Sora and his friends were discussing. While Sora and his companions shared a few new details to Jack, Elizabeth and a bit stunned Gibbs about Xehanort's demise and the arrival of Chaos which, as Lea had mentioned the night before, was a lot worse than Jack ever imagined.
Though the pirate Captain still hadn't come clean with his deal with Davy Jones or that he was the one responsible for Will's imprisionment onboard the Flying Dutchmen in the first place(though Lea still suspected something was off), Jack had to admit, just the very thought of Chaos would be enough to possibly give him nightmares that were worse than his nightmares with the mutant pirate.
On the other hand, what Elizabeth was revealing was just making the situation in both cases of Davy Jones and Chaos a lot worse.
"Maleficent!?" Donald squaked in shock.
"Yes, that's what she said her name was." Elizabeth confirmed. "I don't know how she did it, but she somehow turn Lord Beckett into a Heartless after he arrested Will and myself on our wedding day." with a grim expression.
Sora and the others were not happy with this.
"Maleficent, I can understand, but who is Lord Beckett?" Ven asked, brows furrowed in anger. He still couldn't believe that Xehanort had told Maleficent about the secrets twelve years ago, and now Maleficent was acting on her own and has been for the past two years. It's even worse when she's recuiting villians from other worlds all over again for universal domination.
Jack's face screwed up in disgust as he answered to Ven's question in strong sarcasm, "Lord Cutler Beckett, is the head of the East Indian Trading Company. Or was before he turned into one of those mutant black yellow-eye creepy thingys."
"I guess that's another wedding that was ruined this year." Lea sighed, remembering when the Forty Thieves crashed Aladdin and Jasmine's first attempt to get married back in Agrabah. "And let me guess, this Beckett guy showed up with no invitation, right?" he asked to Elizabeth. Though he couldn't say that he was surprised. Judging by Jack's distaste in this Beckett, Lea figured that he was right.
"How do you know?" Elizabeth asked, blinking in surprise.
The redhead shrugged, "Like I said, that's the second wedding that was crashed as far as I could tell this year. Only just a little while ago, a bunch of thieves crashed into another wedding, and me, Xion, Rox', Namine and I arrived at the wrong time."
"Just like him to arrive without an invitation." Jack muttered.
While Sora gazed at Jack oddly, Goofy said with a frown, "Gawrsh, that's not very nice of him."
"Did Maleficent say what she wanted?" Kairi asked, concerned.
Elizabeth nodded and explained, "Yes, after Beckett arrested Will and I for helping Jack escaping a year ago, Maleficent arrived and had already turned him into a heartless. She threatened to do the same to us, but then she made a bargain with Will for our freedom if he retrieved Jack's compass."
Xion looked at the others oddly, asking, "Why would Maleficent want Jack's compass for if she wants to just take over the world?"
That's when Sora and the others noticed something on Jack's face none of them had seen before on him. Jack seemed concerned and worried, in a way that was totally unlike of him, and definately unlike of a pirate. It was as if his worst nightmares had nearly come true but had been vanquished before it happened only to suddenly change to that of another nightmare that was coming true. By Jack's description of Beckett, Sora could easily tell that his friend didn't like the head of the East Indian Trading Company, but never once Sora could think of anything worse of of a nightmare for Jack than the Heartless and Organization XIII.
But by judging the look in Jack's eyes instantly told Sora that Beckett could be almost as bad as Organization XIII, though not as bad as Xehanort or Chaos. Now Maleficent was a new worry and nightmare for the pirate, and the threat of Beckett turned into a heartless minion for the evil witch.
"I don't like to think about that, missy." Jack eventually replied to Xion. "By what you mentioned on this Maleficent, it can't be anything good. Possibly a lot worse than Cutler Beckett."
"But she did also make an offering for you, Jack." Elizabeth spoke up, as she withdrew a piece of paper and offered it to him.
"What kind of offering?" Ven asked, having a bad feeling about this.
"A commission of joining her league." Elizabeth answered.
Sora and his companions slightly slumped, as he pointed out, "Oh gimme a break. She already tried that through Pete with Barbossa last year. Besides, Maleficent tells nothing but lies." remembering the evil Pirate Captain who was one of Jack's enemies for the past ten years.
"And I'm not stupid enough to be ordered around by someone who likes to cast evil spells on people." Jack added in agreement as he opened the letter, giving it a once-over. "Well, they look almost convincing."
"Yeah, well, she's one of the people who tricked Riku in the first place." Sora shrugged, shuddering at the memories of best friend being on Maleficent's side two years ago.
"Blah." Jack gagged as he sticked his tongue out while he scanned the paper, as though he tasted something foul and disgusting. To him, Beckett and Davy Jones were bad enough. But now Maleficent was after him just as she did with Barbossa? That's worse than a pirate.
"I thought something was up when we met up with him on the Isle of Dead Meat." Lea frowned with a serious expression. "He was tricked into working for her and didn't say anything, especially when he needed the compass."
"Worse part is," Ven sighed as unpleasent memories came to mind, "She's one of the first people who had Terra cast into darkness in the first place."
"But by judging this Beckett person, I'd say he would've done the same thing, with Maleficent there or not." Lea thought, concerned. "He doesn't sound any different than Organization XIII."
Jack didn't say anything straight away, as he gripped his right wrist as he hissed softly in discomfort and pain, like something burnt him painfully. As if he didn't have enough problems right now, and despite that he was never a fan of Beckett, it still brought back very unpleasent memories even by just hearing the dead man's name. But his greatest fear now was that, from what he heard in the last 24 hours about the true nature of the Heartless and Nobodies, if a Keyblade destroys Beckett's heartless, Beckett himself could return and then he'd be the problem all over again.
"I still don't get why Maleficent needs Jack's stupid compass anyway." Donald thought.
Just then Lea remembered something and turned to face Jack with even more serious concern, and said, "She must've learned about you from Beckett before turning him into a heartless, and if she's after you and your compass, there's only one other Heartless that didn't completely give into the darkness like many others."
"Of course." Jack said, comprehending. "She wants the chest."
Sora, Kairi, Ven, Xion, Donald and Goofy's eyes all widened in shock as they glanced at each other, they all suddenly coming to the same conclusion as both Lea and Jack. "She's after Davy Jones' heart!" Sora exclaimed softly.
"If Maleficent controls the heart, she controls the sea." Gibbs agreed, also having come to the same conclusion, with a serious expression of his own, while giving words to their worst fears.
"Then she'll cast this world into darkness." Kairi added.
"A truly discomforting notion, luv'." Jack said to Kairi.
"Is it that bad?" Elizabeth asked.
Lea nodded with a serious look, "Oh, it's bad alright. You'll be lucky to at least be sent into another world if you avoid being casted into darkness yourself. Believe me, turning into a heartless and creating your own nobody, or just disappearing into darkness is a lot worse than death. For heartless and nobodies and those who fall into darkness, there is no afterlife." he whispered to Elizabeth.
"Bad for everybody." Goofy concluded.
Gibbs had a nervous look on his face. It was already bad enough for pirates to be suffering fate that would spell their doom. But the very thought of anyone, pirate or not, turning into a heartless or things like that would be enough to scar him for life. He then looked up worriedly at the sails that were swelled with a southeastern breeze. "I think there's a bit more speed to be coaxed from these sails."
He then left while shouting at the crew to brace the foreyard, leaving the others to continue the conversation on their own.
"Might I inquire how you came by this and avoided in becoming Maleficent's lacky?" Jack questioned to Elizabeth in his charming voice as he advanced her, which earned several eye rolls from Sora, Kairi, Ven, Lea, Xion, Donald and a confused expression from Goofy.
While Elizabeth had no idea what Jack was getting at, she recongised the gleam in his eyes and replied her short answer, "Persuasion."
"Friendly?" Jack asked, interested.
"Decidedly not."
"I'm surprised you even got out okay." Sora thought, a bit nervously to try and step into the conversation between Jack and Elizabeath. "Maleficent is famous in being such a hag. She can lie through her teeth and well, she's not easy to fight, that's for sure."
"I'll say." Ven muttered in agreement.
Lea sighed as he said, "Will's gonna end up regretting in joining forces with her, because in the end, she'll just turn him into a heartless if he doesn't find out soon."
"Then I guess we find the chest first." Sora decided to the group who all nodded in agreement.
"Will strikes a deal with an evil witch and upholds it with honour, yet you are the one holding the prize." Jack told Elizabeth, before reading the letter aloud what Maleficent offered him in exchange for his compass, "World Dominion, commision as an ally in the forces to rid the light and seeking worlds beyond imagination."
He read it with usual flippancy, though there was no doubt in anyone's minds that Jack tone had some sounding of hatred and distrusting, which, when he heard what Maleficent has done and could do, that left no doubt that Jack refused to do such a thing that the evil fairy has offered. Though Sora had a feeling that Jack had a grudge on Lord Beckett before the man's demise by Maleficent.
Maybe Jack met Beckett in the past? If so, why would Beckett arrest Will and Elizabeth instead of going after Jack? Was it because they helped him escape? Sora suddenly had a feeling it was much more than that if the head of the East Indian Trading Company would've done the same thing Maleficent's doing right now. Somehow, Sora thought back on Rufus who, like Beckett, is the head of a company, and if Cloud had a slight distrust in Rufus, then maybe Sora should ask them about their past later to get a better idea.
As quickly as it came, the edge in Jack's voice was gone and he sounded himself again, though it was clear he had no intention on joining Maleficent, which, despite his still distrust in the pirate, Sora was relieved that Jack wasn't that stupid after all.
"As if I can be bought for such a low price." Jack said as he tucked Maleficent's letter into his coat and turned to leave.
Elizabeth, who was caught off-guard by the move, quickly went over to Jack and told him, "Jack, the letter. Give it back."
"No." Jack replied, "Persuade me."
"You do know Will taught me how to handle a sword." Elizabeth warned, not in the mood to play games.
While Kairi somewhat giggled as she knew where this was going, and Lea tried covering his face with his hand to hide the fact that he was trying not to laugh, though this didn't help since his shoulders were shaking in laughter and he could be heard snickering, Xion was confused by this, and Sora, Ven, Donald and Goofy paled slightly, knowing that Elizabeth who, once upon a time, wasn't that much a fighter, was now even more scary than she used to be with her temper, was actually serious.
Jack wasn't fazed by Elizabeth's words, though. Instead, it seemed to increase his temptation as he turned around and said seductively, "As I said; persuade me."
Looking at him as though Jack's gone completely nuts, Elizabeth then just walked away after a moment. Jack frowned at this almost comically, not having expected to be turned down so easily, and just walked away himself, ignoring the disbelieved looks on Sora and his companions.
"Okay..." Sora muttered, blinking.
"Sora, he's gotta be the weirdest guy I've ever met." Ven noted.
"Aw, who needs to know him?" Donald dismissively waved off.
Goofy on the other hand, thought about the situation and asked, "Hey, y'know. Don'tcha think it's confusing that Jack knows Backet, um, Becker, uh, Bucket...?" though he couldn't say Beckett's name right, as usual, coming up with numberous words to try and say it right, which resulted Donald to facepalm himself in annoyance and impaitence.
"If you're trying to say Beckett, Goof', then yeah, I think you're about that." Lea agreed, having come to Goofy's rescue in pronouncing Beckett's name. "Plus, given how Jack sounded, it's pretty obvious that the two of them aren't friends."
"Who would wanna be friends with Beckett anyway? Especially what he did to Will and Elizabeth." Sora agreed.
"Even when he ruined their wedding." Kairi nodded, slightly disgusted.
"It's almost like the Forty Thieves-" Xion cuts herself off as she suddenly remembered that she and Roxas did promise to tell Sora about Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding a short time ago. She then turned to Sora and said, "That reminds me. Sora, I've got some news for you."
Sora quirked an eyebrow at his former replica and asked, "What kind of news?"
"Heh, oh right. You were friends with Aladdin and them back in Agrabah." Lea spoke up before Xion could continue.
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Sora asked, confused.
"I'll give ya three words with what happened with Al' and Princess Jasmine; They, got, married." Lea answered while using his fingers to count his words on the last words his of sentence. He then looked sheepish and added, "Well, at least try finally did for the third time after the first two attempts failed."
"They got married?" Sora asked, excitedly at the news, before realizing what he and Xion had meant on the thieves part and blinked, "Wait, their wedding got ruined by thieves."
Xion and Lea both nodded as the former said, "Yeah, the Forty Thieves. Their leader being Aladdin's father who didn't know at the time until Aladdin went to find him after realising he was still alive." before she and Lea both briefly explained about the adventure they, Isa, Roxas and Namine went through while on their way to Disney Castle to talk to Mickey during Sora and Riku's Mark of Mastery in the Realm of Sleep, which was after their first visit to this world they were currently in now.
Once Xion and Lea were finished, Sora slumped slightly in disappointment, "Aww...I missed out on their wedding."
"Missed out on who's wedding?" Jack suddenly reappeared, only hearing the ending of the conversation after doing whatever he did, startling the group that they didn't hear him coming.
"Jack, don't do that!" Kairi scolded. "You scared us!"
"Since when were you this quiet?" Lea blinked, surprised.
Jack looked a bit offended by this question and replied, "When it comes to sneaking around, you gotta be." before continuing, "Now then, I believe I've heard there was a wedding that did not involve Will and Elizabeth in whatever conversation you lads and lasses were having."
"Oh, we were talking about two friends Donald, Goofy, Xion, Lea and I know in another place." Sora replied, as casually as he could. "I was just told that they got married not too long ago, which I missed out on."
"Pity." Jack thought. "Don't worry, mate. With any luck, once Will is rescued from the Flying Dutchmen, he and Lizzy will restore their wedding and you would most likely be invited and get to enjoy every moment of it."
Sora couldn't help but smirk and teased, "Sounds like you like weddings if you know so much about them."
"'Course I do. I love weddings." Jack replied with a grin. "If they would like to get married as soon as possible in fact, I could do the honours of marrying them myself."
"You, marrying them?" Lea skeptically. "No offence, but you need a certificate to be a minister to do that." he pointed out.
"Not nescesserly if you're a captain of any ship, pirate or not." Jack told the group, who looked at each other with skeptical and disbelieved looks. After a moment he continued honestly, "No really, it's true."
He made to continue, but then thought better of it, and glanced around the deck where his crew were still working, before gesturing at Sora's group to edge closer to him so he could talk to them a bit more privately. Despite the weirdness of it, Sora and the others shrugged before edging closer to Jack who continued, in a half-whisper, "You see, mates. The rules of marriage is different compared to what you lot are used to, obviously. Besides, I am Captain of a ship. And being captain of a ship, I could in fact preform a...marriage. Right here, right on this deck."
He then went into his charming mode and made to join Sora and Kairi's hands together, as he concluded, "Right...now."
Realising what he meant, Sora and Kairi both blushed heavily at this and flinched away before awkwardly clearing their throats, while Lea and Donald both bursted out laughing and Goofy chuckled, and Ven and Xion both blinked in confusion, glancing at each other on why the others found this funny.
"W-what!?" Sora exclaimed. He then turned to the laughing trio and protested, his face becoming a darker pink, "Hey, come on, guys! It's not funny!"
"T-totally is!" Lea laughed, having a bit of trouble in stopping. "Admit it, Sora. You and Kairi are seeing one another."
"Are not!" Sora and Kairi both protested in unison.
Jack was baffled by this, since even he thought that Sora and Kairi were, ahem, together, and asked, "Why not? You both tend to be pretty close, and obviously thinking about one another, almost the same as William and Elizabeth."
"Yeah, well, why would I ask you to marry us anyway?" Sora asked him. "Being married by a pirate is like asking to go off in a Easter-Themed Halloween party from someone who doesn't have a sense of honor."
"Or decency." Ven added.
"Or a moral center." Donald added.
"Or even personal hygiene." Lea concluded, asking more in a whisper so that the girls wouldn't hear him say to Jack, "When was the last time you had a bath?"
Jack blinked, before answering, "I bathe, and besides, those are trifles." he then turned to Sora and Kairi and added with a grin, "You both will go over each other's sides, I know it."
"You seem certain despite that Sora and I are just close friends." Kairi said, not really believing what Jack was trying to say.
"One word, missy." Jack said in a low, seductive tone. "Curiosity."
"Uh, what does curiosity have to do with this?" Ven asked, puzzled.
Sora, Jack, Kairi, Lea, and Donald all stared at Ven in confusion, while Xion and Goofy just glanced at each other, shrugging in confusion. In the end, Sora, Kairi and Lea all groaned while face-palming themselves, groaning, "Oh, Ven." at Ven's slight gullibeness. Even Jack was facefaulted at the boy's naiveness.
"Oh, Ven, Ven, Ven." Lea shook his head.
"What? What'd I say?" Ven asked, clueless on the looks on the others's expressions.
"Surely you're not that gulliable, mate." Jack said, his tone saying that he hoped that wasn't the case on Ven's cluelessness. Then again, he hasn't known the boy that long, and in reality, Jack had no idea that Ven was actually a twenty-seven year old young man stuck in a fifteen-year old's body. On the hand, things hasn't changed much for Ven at all since his twelve years of sleep.
Sora was about to reply when suddenly he blinked in sudden confusion as, while no one else noticed, behind Ven was Vanitas who nodded in somewhat agreement. Sora shut his eyes when he didn't hear the others even gasp in surprise or confusion, before opening them and found that Vanitas was gone as quickly as he appeared.
Or rather, Sora had just hallucinated. He rubbed his eyes to try and clear his head. Through out the entire nearly two hours, Sora had completely forgotten about his nightmare he had until now. Now the worry of his dream crept up again. Even worse, if Sora was seeing hallucinations of Ven's darkness, then he knew that he was in trouble.
"Sora?" Kairi spoke up when she noticed an uncomfortable expression on her friend's face. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine." Sora nodded, "Um...I just...need some thinking to do." and then he hurriedly went over to the other side of the ship, leaving the others behind to their concern and/or confusion.
"What happened with Sora?" Lea asked, in a serious concern.
"Gawrsh, he's not sick, is he?" Goofy thought worriedly.
""Course not." Jack replied, "If it were even sea-sickness, he would've had that the first time we sailed together. But since the lad there grew up near the sea-side, it's very unlikely for him to get sick while sailing."
"Maybe he's tired?" Xion suggested.
Suddenly the memories of finding Sora looking rather out of sorts this morning returned to Kairi as she said, "Sora did say that he didn't get a good night's sleep last night after sleeping on the floor. He said that it was too uncomfortable."
"My ship's not uncomfortable." Jack pouted. Despite that he wasn't that concerned about Sora's tiredness problem, he quickly remembered that Davy Jones seemed to know about Sora and the Keyblade, and his own worries about Maleficent finding the heart makes things even more troubling.
"It is too." Donald said, walking away.
After a few moments, Lea then shrugged and said, "Maybe he's just worried that Chaos might appear outta nowhere. I know I'd be freaking out if that thing ends up showing it's ugly face again. That's enough to give even me nightmares."
"Somehow, I don't think that's the case." Ven thought, with a grave concerned look on his face. "I can't explain why, but, I'm feeling that it's more than what Sora said."
"Like he's hiding something he doesn't want us to worry about?" Xion thought, suddenly getting what Ven was talking about, which brought up unpleasent memories of when she had to hide the fact that she was Sora's replica from Roxas.
Lea's expression turned serious as he said, "Well then, I guess we'd better wait until he's ready to tell us. Not that I'm comfortable with it, since I had my fair share of keeping secrets I wasn't happy about." while awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, as his memories as Axel resurfaced.
While Kairi and Goofy both looked gravely worried, Jack ended up turning around so that the others couldn't see his own expression. It was bad enough that he was hiding lots of things, but the fact that Sora was hiding something that concerned the boy's friends was making things ten times worse.
Whatever it was, it wasn't good news at all.
Meanwhile, while waiting for Mickey, Aqua, Terra, Riku, Isa, Cloud and Zack to arrive, Genesis and Angeal were just outside the gates towards the Coliseum in Olympus Coliseum while having sparred a little to keep up in shape. It wasn't long before they noticed eight beams from the sky appear and then formed their seven allies, but were puzzled that an eighth person was with them, that looked more like just an one of those punk teenagers.
The two men then decided to worry about that later, and Angeal said, mainly to Zack, "Took you long enough."
"Uh, yeah, sorry." Zack sheepishly said. "Took a bit longer than we planned."
"Right." Angeal shook his head, before gazing at Myde and questioning, "And you are?"
"I'm Myde." Myde replied with a wave.
"Short version-he was one of the members of the first Organization XIII," Isa quickly spoke up before the former ninth member could continue, "He found us in Radiant Garden and we agreed to have him come with us."
"I see." Genesis thought. "Well then, let us not waste anymore time and go on our search for this Hades on new information on Chaos and Bhunivelze."
"I think Hades would just appear randomly when he wants to." Riku shrugged as he and everyone else began their search. "All he really wants is to take out Hercules."
Zack cringed in distaste as he groaned, "Yeah, he has a reputation to just appear out of nowhere. That guy likes to talk and try and con-art anyone he meets."
Cloud nodded in agreement, "I'll say. To me, Hades is more annoying than anything else."
"I don't think anyone likes Hades that much anyway." Terra thought, remembering his encounter with the Lord of the Underworld. "Too bad he's immortal."
"Well, I hope we're not too late." Mickey thought, worriedly. He was still haunted by both the sight of Chaos and what Caius had said back in Radiant Garden. A war of Gods of Light against Gods of Darkness? What could this mean?
"Do you think anyone else would know about Hades' whereabouts?" Aqua thought, knowing that she had no idea how to get to the Underworld without getting killed, since she spent the past twelve years in the Realm of Darkness.
Just then, the very god they were hoping to find instead appeared out of black mist, startling the group into getting into defence stances as Hades mocked, "I'm sorry, did I hear my name mentioned?"
When the Lord of the Dead gazed at the group, he instantly recongised pretty much all of them and groaned, "Oh, it's you guys again. Though I'm surprised to see Chicken-heart and little blue-bird. Haven't seen you in twelve years. I thought you were all asleep or something."
"Did he just call Terra chicken?" Myde asked in disbelief, though he shuddered since he remembered briefly meeting or at least seeing Hades back when he was Demyx a year ago before he ran off and passed Sora and the others.
"And look, if it isn't the little squeaky king. I've heard you from Maleficent." Hades continued as he gazed at Mickey who didn't find this amusing at all.
"Well, I've heard a lot about you, Hades and how much trouble you've been causing to everybody, including all of my friends." Mickey replied, glaring at the Lord of the Dead.
Hades shrugged dismissively, before saying, "Well, if you're all looking for me, I guess this means you all decided to ditch Sora and the other two to come join my side, especially since the two of you returned from the dead."
Cloud scoffed, "In your dreams, Hades. We're not here to join you, even in a million years."
"We want to know if you ever heard about Chaos and Bhunivelze." Angeal spoke in a tone of authority.
Whatever else Hades had expected to hear, the mention of Chaos and Bhunivelze caught him off-guard for once the group had known him. As soon as it appeared, his shocked expression vanished and he returned to his usual self, saying, "Where did you hear those names?"
"It's more of the case that we have encountered Chaos itself." Genesis replied. "You are a God, so it was best if we questioned you despite your, shall I say, reputation of making bargains."
"Chaos is awake?" Hades blinked, this time he couldn't hide his own slight nervousness. Seeing how the group were serious, he then said, "Only a few details. Chaos was created by Bhunivelze who like me, was banished. But unlike me, Bhunivelze had a more serious issues in wanting to re-create everything and being the only god in existance."
"And you don't?" Riku asked, skeptically.
"Hey, look kid." Hades said, getting annoyed. "But unlike those guys lounging around in the Olympus, I have a full time gig, but even I don't have the power to create other deitys like some of them can. Heck, I didn't even go as far as to kill my own mother with that kind of power, and normally, it's against the rules of gods since you can't kill them because we're all immortal."
"So how did Bhunivelze?" Aqua asked while still on her guard. She and the others were not taking any chances.
"If you're thinking about going after him sister, then good luck, because that'll only result in me just seeing your souls just flow into the river of death in the Underworld." Hades said smoothly. "Rumors say that he disliked how his mother created things in peace and other worlds following her, so he figured out how to kill her without turning her into a mortal. The next thing that happened, some chosen one he chose rebelled against him and he just went to sleep in some boring Unseen Realm."
"That doesn't help much." Isa thought, frowning. If that was the case, then there wasn't any way to stop Bhunivelze if he did wake up?
"Oh please," Hades scoffed. "Did you all seriously think you can stop Bhunivelze with those Keyblades of yours? Even Chaos is hard to beat, so good luck in trying to save the worlds this time, kids. Jeeze louise."
Terra sighed, before asking, "Was killing his mother the main reason why Bhunivelze was banished?"
"What else was he banished for? Ruining a birthday party?" Hades asked back in sarcasm. "Hey, I wasn't told the full story, okay. If you wanna get the full details, go ask Zeus." he then grinned and asked, "Now then, are you sure you don't want to come join at my side?"
The others didn't buy this bargain and Cloud was the first to reply bluntly, "Not interested."
"Hades, just for a warning, don't you dare join Chaos." Riku warned as he and the others began to walk past Hades. "He's capable of destroying everything."
"Please, after the distaster with Maleficent, I don't do the other major villian partnership anymore." Hades replied, before muttering as the group were almost out of earsdrop, "Even though I would've liked to ask her out on a date."
Riku and everyone else froze at this, before he, Mickey, Aqua, Terra, Myde, Cloud, Zack, Isa, and even Angeal and Genesis all cringed, groaned and shuddered at the very thought of Hades and Maleficent going out on a date, before continuing on towards the coliseum, while Hades just poofed away to mind his own business(while grumbling at the same time).
"That's an awful thought." Mickey thought.
"Ugh, that's just enough to give me nightmares." Zack shuddered, "I don't even know who Maleficent is."
"You don't want to know, Zack." Aqua shook her head, as unpleasent memories of her encounter with the evil fairy formed in her mind.
But before any of them could continue the conversation, suddenly all of them sensed something and quickly turned around to see an unfamiliar figure plummet straight towards them with a large weapon in hand as he gave our a battle roar, before they quickly dodged out of the way before he could hit them. Quickly, Cloud, Zack, Angeal and Genesis pulled out their swords while everyone else summoned their weapons, Isa and Myde summoning their weapons they used as Nobodies while Mickey, Aqua, Terra and Riku all summoned their Keyblades.
To their shock, the weapon that nearly hit them was a Keyblade as well, similiar to Terra's, but different in design. It's wielder was a tall man in a robe, and a mask that was shaped like a bear that hid his eyes. But by his frown, he wasn't happy.
"Newer generations." The man spoke in a tone of anger. "You should not interfere."
"Who are you?" Aqua demanded.
"My name is no importance." Said the man, "All that matters is that you and the one who broke the chains of the dark Keyblade have broken the cycle and failed to stop the successor from awakening Chaos."
"Gosh, that's not very nice." Mickey pointed out. "We're trying to figure out how to stop Chaos. How do you know about that?"
The man glared at Mickey and replied, "All of you are disqualified as Keyblade wielders."
"Disqualified?" Riku asked, his brows furrowing. "Why do you wield the Keyblade?"
"Silence!" The man ordered. "Only the strong will see to the safety of the worlds. None of you have strength, not even to prevent the war that is coming. Join your friends, and soon, all of you will fall to your doom!"
"Not if I can help it!" Terra yelled as he, Isa, Cloud, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack ran forward to attack the man despite everyone else's protests. But to their shock, the man drew back his Keyblade, before he swung it and an aerial cut of wind knocked them and the others and before they could hit the ground, he pointed his Keyblade to it and a beam of light shot onto it, creating a portal.
"Brace yourselves!" Isa shouted as he and everyone else gave out a cry of alarm before they all disappeared into the portal that was created and soon it closed with them inside.
Once he knew that he completed his task, the man desummoned his Keyblade and said, "None of you or Sora are capable of protecting the Realm of Light. Only I can. I will gather more stronger Keyblade wielders to rule all worlds to secure it. Only domination will prevail. Now then, I must send Sora's nobody as well."
Whoever this man is, things were not looking good at all.
A/N: To those who played Kingdom Hearts X(Chi)/Unchained X, can you guess who the crazy Keyblade wielder in the bear mask is? Meanwhile, I was so looking forward to have Kingdom Hearts 2.8 for christmas, but I guess that's not happening now. I'll have to ask for something else. (Sigh).
Look out for the next chapter. Sorry that it's slow.