Author's Note: Okay, so I saw both 0.2 and Back Cover on Saturday and well, I actually enjoyed 0.2 better than Back Cover despite not being able to understand Japanese. So this chapter and well, the final chapter of this story will most likely have heavy spoilers which I can only do my best until the english versions come out.
In the meantime, let's continue onward as we're getting closer to the ending.
I still don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH 7: Discoveries.
It wasn't long before Sora, Jack, Kairi, Xion, Lea, Roxas, Donald and Goofy were piled in one long boat, and Ven, Vincent, Elena, Reno, Elizabeth, Dulor, Pintel and Ragetti were piled in another since it wasn't much room to fit all of them despite it being a bit of a tight squeeze and Reno had point blank refused to wait on the ship, which Donald agreed full heartedly on that one. Sora and Lea both rowed their long boat, while Pintel and Ragetti were rowing the other, and as usual, the latter two were arguing while doing so.
"You're pullin' too fast." Pintel remarked to his companion.
"You're pullin' too slow." Ragetti remarked in return. "We don't want the Kracken to catch us."
"I'm savin' my strength when it comes." Pintel said iritatedly, before continuing, "An' I don't think it's called the Kracken anyways. I always heard it pronounced as Kraken."
"What? With a long 'a'?"
"Yeah."
"No, no, no. Krocken is how it's pronounced in the original Scandinavian, and kracken is closer to that."
"Well, we ain't original Scandinavians, are we?" Grumbled Pintel, before sticking to his own pronunciation, which, in his opinion, was the only correct way to say the word. "Kracken."
Elizabeth and Dulor shared a look, as did Ven and Elena, while Vincent looked unimpressed and Reno was skeptical and confused, so the redhead asked the two idiots that were pirates, "What the hell are you guys talkin' about?"
"You haven' heard about the Kracken?" Ragetti asked in disbelief after he and Pintel paused when Reno had spoken.
"The what now?" Reno blinked.
"Davy Jones' Levaithan." Vincent spoke up, remembering the earlier meeting in Yen Sid's tower. "You remember what Roxas, Lea and teh others had spoken earlier, right?"
Reno thought about it, before his eyes widened and began to glance nervously at the water, muttering, "Oh, right. The oversized man-eating squid. I forgot about that." before gazing at the two Pirates again and said, "Well then, in that case, why don't you guys quit worrying about what to call it and worry more about getting us to shore."
Pintel and Ragetti were intelligent enough to take the message despite the redhead not being a pirate, so with nervous glances at the water, they continued rowing, faster this time.
On the other boat, Donald took notice of the jar of dirt being cradled tightly in the rather nervous Jack's arms and couldn't help but ask in annoyance, "Why do you have a jar of dirt?"
Jack, clinging onto the jar as if he was afraid that it would simply vanish, not to mention that he was a bundle of nerves, was too distracted to give out a long answer, "They expendable."
"Huh?" Donald slumped, dumbfounded.
"Huh?" Goofy blinked, confused.
"Okay...?" Sora muttered as he heard this and decided to ask Lea who had been here with Xion and Roxas earlier later.
Both boats made it to the shorelines minutes later and Jack, who had tossed his coat into his longboat, had recovered enough to curty an order to Pintel and Ragetti since he knew leaving Sora and the others behind was a bad idea, "Guard the boat, mind the tide, don't touch my dirt."
As the group walked on, Sora quirked an eyebrow at his pirate friend before turning to Lea, asking, "Why does Jack have a jar of dirt anyway?"
"Kind of a long story." Lea shrugged, "Short version; a creepy voodoo lady gave him that to protect him and the crew from the Kracken, or Davy Jones, or both even."
"Why's that?" Elena questioned.
"Because he can't step on land but only once every ten years." Lea replied, "Something to do with his heart being inside the chest, or somethin'."
Goofy, despite being, well, goofy, he was still intelligent enough to understand and said, a little nervously, "Oh, ya' mean Davy Jones is cursed just like Cap'n Barbossa." remembering the cursed treasure that the group had sank into the ocean a year ago.
"I guess that makes sense." Sora thought as they walked into the mainland of the island. But then...why did Jack want the Heart in the first place? Something was up, and he had a feeling that there was more to this venture than Jack had told them for the last few days.
The more Sora and the group ventured into the mainland of the island, the more they began to be aware of it's very strange nature. There was not a sound to be heard, beyond the crashing of the waves against the shoreline. The wind sounded a lonesome and haunting song across the empty land. In all directions, there was no sign of life, either of humans or animals.
As they continued walking along the sandy beach, following the point of the compass that was still holding steady for Elizabeth, they caught sight of the crumbling remnants of a church tower and the scattered gravestones of a cemetery. It was obvious that at some point in the past the island had been the sight of human habitation. That was almost more disturbing than if the island had always been unpeopled and empty.
"Okay, that's just a little beyond creepy." Reno commented at the sight of the ruins.
Ven shrugged, saying, "Oh that's nothing compared to what I've seen. Plus, it's Xehanort and Chaos that scare me."
Roxas nodded in agreement, as he said, "Yeah, even Xehanort's Keyblade takes the cake of being really creepy." before adding as he recalled something, "And though I'm not sure if it was my imagination or not, but I could've sworn that the blue eye on the blade...actually moved."
This made everyone stop and turned to face the young former Nobody with shocked and slightly disturbed expressions, wondering what in Kingdom Hearts was Roxas talking about.
"You mean the creepy eye-design on the Keyblade before Riku and I destroyed it?" Sora asked, blinking in disbelief, before shaking his head and said, "Come on, Roxas. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. It's already crazy enough that Davy Jones even cut out his heart and put it in a chest while not turning into a Heartless."
"I agree with Sora here, lad." Jack nodded, a little more spooked out but tried to keep it hidden, before cringing in disgust, saying, "Besides, why would anyone put a real eye in that sort of thing and why would it still be moving if eyes don't move on their own without anybody having said eye? Unless, of course, it was a wooden eyeball like Ragetti's."
"Wait, so that demented eye in that guy you hired is actually a wooden eye?" Reno asked, almost flabbergest.
"Ew!" Kairi, Xion and Elena groaned in disgust.
Even Lea shuddered along with everyone else, as he groaned to the Captain of the Black Pearl, "Gee, thanks for putting that image in my head."
"Mine too." Dulor shuddered as well.
"I believe we should get moving, before one of us has placed nightmare upon us all." Vincent suggested, seemingly a little fazed himself.
Deciding that it was the best course of action, the group continued onward and thankfully they were all visibly relieved by the fact that the compass didn't lead them anywhere near the spooky ruins, but towards the dunes of the shoreline a little more than half-a-mile from where they had left the longboats. They were wandering among the dunes, which were little more than big heaps of sand placed in random patterns along the shoreline, and they began to wander about them in such an aimless way, though Kairi began to wonder how the compass really worked all the time.
But, in between two hummocks of sand, something strange began to happen. Elizabeth, who was in the lead suddenly stopped. The compass which had been pointing straight ahead, shifted back in the direction that they had just gone. Elizabeth, confused, tried backtracking a few paces, only to have the compass shift yet again. Elizabeth looked in the direction that the compass was pointing, only to find that she was looking straight at Jack, who gazed ahead before taking notice.
Sora and the rest of the group looked back and forth between Jack and Elizabeth, wondering what the latter was really doing, especially when she shook her head and shook the compass a little, only to have it point in the same direction. She blushed at the implication that this meant. Except, Jack wasn't the thing that she wanted most.
At last, overcome by frustration, Elizabeth plopped down on the sand. "It doesn't work." She flustered, "And it certainly doesn't show you what you want most."
"So we actually-Omph!" Donald began only for Goofy to clamp his bill shut to avoid in letting his annoyance out, as usual.
Sora and his friends looked annoyed as they glanced at each other, while Dulor shook his head. Jack on the other hand, hearing what Elizabeth said, and seeing how the woman had plopped the compass next to her, walked up to her as he saw the needle in the compass shift yet again, this time pointing directly where Elizabeth was sitting. This made him realise that this was what was needed to be done to find what they were after.
He immediately perceived what the compass was trying to say. "Yes, it does. You're sitting on it." Jack told Elizabeth.
The young woman turned her head to look up at Jack, with a puzzled expression, as she asked, "Beg your pardon?"
"Move." Jack said, motioning her to get up from where she was sitting. After Elizabeth did so, Jack then gazed at Dulor and ONLY Dulor, whistling as he pointed at the ground at the spot where he knew the compass was pointing at.
The former No.10, who had been stuck carrying the shovels was now stuck with doing all the digging, mentally growling at the fact that Jack wasn't helping, and by the smug look from Lea, as well as the annoyed looks from Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Roxas and Xion, not to mention the skeptical looks from Ven, Reno, Vincent and Elena, neither were they. So with an annoyed glance, the Card-Decker dropped one of the shovels and striking the other one into the sandy earth, started digging.
Minutes passed and the hole only got deeper. Everyone, except for Dulor who was still digging, by now dropped to the ground, with Sora laying flat on the sand, his hands behind his head as he gave out a big yawn of boredom, Lea and Roxas both sitting back to back, having nodded off, with the redhead snoring softly, Ven was chatting with Xion, Kairi and Elena were having a conversation of their own with Elizabeth, Vincent remained silent to his own thoughts, Reno had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves while laying on his back, complaining about the heat, Donald and Goofy were both playing Go-Fish with spare cards the latter had carried with him, and Jack had his legs crossed while doing meditating to kill time.
More minutes passed, and still Dulor kept on digging. This didn't seem to be getting anywhere. However, before anyone could even react to this waste of time...
CLUNK!
The decided sound of a metal shovel striking against an object broke the monotony of the past few minutes. They all heard it and Dulor stopped digging, seemingly staring at something below him. Sora and everyone else immediately stopped what they were doing and stood up(with Reno putting his jacket back on), gathering around the former Nobody and peered into it. Hurriedly Sora, Jack, Lea, and Roxas lifted the box from the ground, though it wasn't what they were looking for, since it was old wood that had seen better days. Despite this, Jack took the shovel from Dulor and with a good thwack onto the aging lock that a Keyblade wasn't needed for it, the lock shattered.
Inside the box was a bunch of letters, dead flowers and necklaces. Kairi took hold of one of the letters and actually opened it, reading through it before furrowing her brows in confusion, muttering, "Who's Calypso?"
"Calypso?" Sora repeated in equal confusion.
"Hang on a minute." Jack thought as he heard this. He gazed back at the and what was actually underneath the letters, "Davy Jones was in love with the Sea Goddess?"
No one said anything about this new revealation. Instead, the Pirate Captain carefully pulled out an iron chest that was covered in carvings of sea life and untouched by weathered hands in such a long time. All of them as much as they could leaned over the chest, listening silently, though not certain what exactly they were listening to.
In the silence, to their disbelief, there was the sound of a steady heart beat from within the chest. This was it; the fabled Dead Man's Chest. Most of the group's eyes widened in disbelief. Donald and Goofy looked rather frightened and quivered, Lea glanced at Roxas in shock, Reno was speech, and Sora muttered in awe, "Whoa... It is real."
Everyone else glanced at each other, stunned beyond belief. It seems all worlds still hold amazing things that not even their inhabits are immune to such wonders. Which, given circumstances, was both a good thing and a bad thing.
"You were telling the truth." Vincent said to Jack.
"I do that quite a lot, yet people are always surprised." Jack replied.
"With good reason." A new voice suddenly pointed out from behind them.
Surprised, they all turned as one to look behind them, only to see the last people they might have expected to see at the moment: It was Will, Riku, Terra, Aqua, Isa, Cloud, Zack, King Mickey, Angeal, Genesis and Myde whom the latter was the most unexpected, and let's just say that Myde was quite shocked and more nervous to the group he was seeing again along with another shocker. Will was admittedly surprised to see that shocker as well, but decided to worry about that later.
Elizabeth's expression instantly melted from surprise into heartfelt relief. "Will!" She ran up and embraced him, "You're all right, thank goodness. I came to find you."
Will seemed no less happy to see Elizabeth, if the embrace he returned and the passionate kiss he gave her was any indication seeing as how the last time they had seen each other, their futures had been uncertain, such relief was hardly a surprise.
The others nearly gathered as Lea and Isa nodded with relived looks and Mickey was once again embraced by Donald and Goofy who were both happy to see their King who was one of their very closest best friends and their brother again. Needless to say, Mickey was happy to see everyone as well, and Terra and Aqua were happily greeting Ven who chuckled.
"Hey, guys! Didn't expect you to be here today." Sora greeted to Riku and the others who nodded, except for Myde whom Sora nodded, before grumbling, "And uh..."
Myde's expression, upon seeing not only Roxas, Xion and Lea again, along with a displeased Dulor, but upon seeing both Ven and Reno, the former No.9 was trying and failing miserably to bring out correct words on the sight before him, pointing a violently shaking finger. Eventually he did blutter out, "T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-two Axels and two Roxases!? And Xion!?"
"Nice to see you two, Demyx, or whatever your name is now." Lea replied in strong sarcasm, which made Cloud, Vincent, Angeal and Genesis smirk, before he said, "And this is Reno. Long story."
"Still kinda hard to believe that we're both identical." Reno commented.
"And I'm Ventus, but you can call me Ven." Ven added to clear up the confusion.
Getting the picture while still shocked, Myde's attention turned to Sora, Donald and Goofy and flinched uncomfortably, not sure how to react considering that these days were the ones who got rid of him when he was still a Nobody. It was clear that they were still quite annoyed with him, so he tried to lighten the mood and waved friendily, "Hey, you guys look lively as ever."
"Not you too." Sora groaned.
"Yeah, scram!" Donald grumbled.
"Hold on, fellas. Myde came with us since he followed us when we went to retrieve Aqua's Keyblade." Mickey told the two quickly, having already sensed the tension. Despite this, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Roxas and Xion still looked a little uneasy, but since Demyx, or Myde now, was such a whimp and a slacker, he wasn't such a bad guy. Come to think of it, he was one of the most weirdest Nobodies in Organization XIII.
Kairi was the first to notice that the group looked wet, and asked, "You're soaking wet. What happened?"
"Yeah, how did you get here?" Sora added once he and his group also noticed.
Will turned a piercing gaze on Jack. "Sea turtles, mate," he replied to Sora, with biting sarcasm, "A pair of them, strapped to my feet."
"Sea turtles?" Goofy asked, confused.
"Pair of them strapped onto you?" Reno added, skeptically.
Jack, knowing that since Will came back that he was in trouble, gave an uneasy smile, replying nervously, "Not so easy, is it?"
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Isa commented, shaking his head.
Lea nodded with his childhood friend in agreement, "You got that right." placing his hands onto his hips. Who really did ride on top of the backs of two sea turtles from one place to another?
Will wasn't about to be pacified. He obviously hadn't forgotten the fact that Jack had betrayed him and he wasn't about to let him forget it. "But, I do owe you thanks, Jack."
"You do?" Jack asked, his uneasy smile, not very strong to begin with, faded altogether, clearly having no idea what Will was talking about. In fact, the others didn't know what he was talking about either.
"After you tricked me onto that ship to square your debt with Jones..."
"What!?" Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Ven and Elizabeth all exclaimed, shocked as they turned to Jack in growing astondment and growing anger. Riku and the others in his group were already told of what happened by Will during their venture here in secret on the Flying Dutchmen which, unknowingly to Sora and the others, had dived into the ocean under the cursed Captain's orders.
"What?" Jack unthinkingly mimicked Sora and the others. Reno, Elena, and Vincent all looked equally displeased and quite annoyed with the Pirate's actions.
Will continued while still glaring at Jack, "I was reunited with my father."
"Oh, well, you're welcome, then." Said Jack, trying to make like of the situation, and his role in bringing it about.
Sora, once again hostil towards Jack, stormed up to him, grunting, "You lied to us!"
"Pretty much." Jack admitted, rather awkwardly, even if it was also clear that he had no sense of regret for his actions. "Time and tide, mate."
Despite being furious, Sora just exhaled an exasperating sigh and groaned, "Why am I not surprised?" placing a hand to his face.
"Hey, don't think he's the only one in trouble here, Sora." Riku suddenly spoke up, rather bitterly, causing his friends to all turn, which now he, Aqua, Terra, Isa, and even Mickey gave Sora quite disappointed looks on their faces while Cloud, Zack, Angeal and Genesis decided to stay out of it. Myde, sensing tension rising even further, slinked over towards Dulor, not wanting to suddenly get hurt in what's coming next.
"What?" Sora blinked, now confused. Realising that they staring at him, he asked even more confusion, "What'd I do?"
"Yes, what'd he do?" Jack echoed, once again confused.
"Sora, even though you didn't know at the time, you mistakenly preformed the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony a year ago and chose your own sucessor." Aqua told him, quite disappointed.
"Keyblade Inheritence Ceremony?" Sora blinked.
"It's a small Ceremony where a Keyblade wielder choose their successors or say, somebody else to give the power of being able to wield the Keyblade by holding out their Keyblade and allowing that person to hold it as well, even just by a few seconds." Mickey explained, "When the time is right, the new wielder will be able to gain the power of their own Keyblade."
Sora was still confused as he placed his hands behind his head, "Okay, so I'd better be careful on that, but I never did-" before cutting himself off when he remembered that he in fact did let someone briefly hold his Keyblade a year ago. Realization hit him hard like a ton of bricks and he groaned.
"I'm rather still confused on this, mates." Jack muttered.
"Ugh! Of all the people I chose and he's standing right next to me!" Sora groaned, holding his head and coming so close in pulling his hair out at his own stupidty. "Of all the stupid things I could've done!"
"Who's standing next to you?" Reno asked, equally confused. "This whole Keyblade thing is still new to me."
"Sora's successor." Cloud simply replied.
"Who?" Jack asked. When everyone else turned to gaze at him, with quite annoyed and frustrated looks, the pirate captain realised that they were looking at him suspicfically, realization dawned onto him now, and quickly remembering that he once briefly held Sora's Keyblade, he pointed at himself, mystified and shocked, "Me?"
"You?" Reno echoed, shocked, eyes wide.
Donald and Goofy, also both remembering, looked at each other before the latter slumped while the former groaned while facepalming himself in frustration, groaning, "Oooh! I can't believe it!"
"I thought you had to find your own Keyblade." Jack muttered, still shocked.
Terra rolled his eyes while explaining, "It doesn't work like that, and, well, despite that, I don't think it'll work this time since one; you're a pirate, two; you kind of screwed up and three; Keyblades are picky for their owners."
"Despite this, Davy Jones knows about this." Genesis spoke up, "Neither of us know how this is possible though we suspect Xehanort might have something to do with it, by gaining your own Keyblade, Captain Sparrow, it will free you from your dept if you do the right thing."
"Eh?" Jack blinked, before muttering, "I find my desire for a blade like that greatly lessen."
"Good! You don't deserve one anyway!" Donald said point blank, crossing his arms while looking away, still annoyed.
Jack's expression faltered, muttering, "That's hurtful, mate."
"You know, if you do the right thing, you might have a fair shot in becoming a Keyblade wielder." Lea couldn't help but compliment, carefully summoning his own Keyblade with slight ease this time, "Sure took me and Isa quite a while to get a hang of summoning our Keyblades. It's all in the snap of the wrist, or whatever you call that movement" before desummoning it.
"Not quite sure I am worthy to have one at the moment." Jack admitted. Before anything else could be said on the matter (which might have been best considering the direction it was going), because at that moment, attention was drawn to the fact that Will had removed, from around his neck, a key that was threaded through a piece of leather string. It took the rest of the group to realise that it was the key to the Dead Man's Chest.
Will was kneeling by the Chest, the key in one hand and a small, but deadly looking knife in the other.
"Will?" Goofy asked, suddenly getting an uneasy feeling.
"Oi, what're you doing?" Jack asked.
"I'm gonna kill Jones." Will answered, not stopping.
"You're gonna kill Davy Jones." Reno repeated, also getting the same bad feeling as Goofy was feeling. "Why am I feeling that there's more to this than just a stab in the icky heart?"
Before anyone else could answer, Jack had suddenly drawn his sword and had it pointed it straight at Will's throat. When he spoke, his voice had become low and dangerous. "Can't let you do that, William. Even if I have my own Keyblade which is unlikely, with Jones dead, who's to call his terrible beastie off the hunt, eh?"
Everyone else were shocked by this movement. They didn't think Jack would do that, but on the other hand, some of them began to realise that the Kracken was the summoning of Davy Jones to hunt those who made a debt with him and Jack was the latest target unless he gains his Keyblade.
"So wait, you'd want to use the Heart to force the guy to call off the Kracken and then kill him?" Lea asked, quickly realising what Jack's plot was. It made sort of sense. If Davy Jones died now, the Kracken would roam free and no one was safe. They would be floating meals for the Kracken for goodness knows how long. On the other hand, who's to say that even with Jones dead after the hunt was called off, wouldn't the Kracken still be free?
Will looked from the point of Jack's sword, to Jack himself. He seemed to get the point that Jack was trying to make. He drew back from the Chest, got to his feet, steathing his knife.
"Now, if you please," Jack continued, holding a hand out for the key to the Dead Man's Chest. "The Key..."
Instead of doing so, however, Will then moved quicker than lightning to draw Elizabeth's sword(since Will stupidly didn't have one himself), and pointed it at Jack, alarming the group again. "I keep the promises I make, Jack. I intend to free my father. I hope you here to see it."
"Hey, whoa. This isn't helping matters." Zack tried to intervene, but Jack and Will both ignored him.
"He's right. The best salution is to wait and speak with Davy Jones himself on this matter." Angeal agreed as he approached the two men, turning to Will, "I suggest that you calm down and think before you act too rashly like you are right now. I know you want to keep your promise, but you don't know the results of what will happen once Davy Jones is dead."
He then turned to Jack and continued, "As for you, even if you do force him to call off the hunt, it will still be alive even if he dies, and who's to say that he won't turn against you even if you use his heart by threatening it."
"You took the words right out of my mouth, because I was just about to say the same thing." Lea spoke up to Angeal, a little awkwardly.
At that moment, Dulor pulled out his own sword in one hand and pointed it at Angeal's neck in one hand, and his deck of cards in another, saying coldly, "I'm afraid I cannot let either of you hold the chest. My apologises."
"Luxord?" Myde muttered scaredly, backing away now from the former No.10.
Instantly, everyone else glared at Dulor in realization, as Lea growled softly, "Dulor, you snake...!"
"Let's just say it's all part of my revenge against every single one of you and those who are allies to you all, Axel." Dulor grinned evilly, his voice harsh and biting. "I've decided to join Maleficent, because domination sounds rather tempting, in a way to get rid of you all easily." He had been waiting for his opportune moment ever since they had arrived. Now that it was in sight, he had no intention of letting anything stand in his way, even if the odds seemed against him.
Jack, as though not surprised, said with a sardonic smile, "Ah, the dark side of ambition."
"You haven't changed a bit." Sora growled at Dulor, quickly summoning his Keyblade, as did Riku, Terra, and even Lea and Isa both summoned their weapons, and Cloud, Zack, Angeal and Genesis all unsteathed their swords to fight just in case. Even Vincent pulled out his gun Cerberus and aimed it at Dulor who's grin only grew.
"Wait, this isn't the right thing to do!" Mickey protested, with Aqua, Ven, Kairi, Roxas, Xion, Donald and Goofy nodding in agreement. Reno and Elena both glanced at each other, wondering if they should intervene or not.
"Can I say something?" Myde pipped up hopefully.
"NO!" Everyone else all snapped in unison at Myde who flinched scaredly with a squeak.
"And this is why without leadership that all you do is fight." A new voice spoke up, causing everyone to gaze to their left, as Aced approached with his own Keyblade in hand. Only Sora, Kairi, Lea, Jack, Dulor, Ven, Xion, Elizabeth, Donald and Goofy didn't recongise him, but the rest of the group did as they glared at him.
"You!" Reno growled, glaring hard and dangerously at the man.
"You! What are you doing here?" Cloud demanded, ready to fight Aced if needed.
Aced glared at the group, saying, "You should leave everything to me. The worlds need leadership. Neither of you are suited for it, nor are you all suited to be wielders of the Keyblade."
"What? How do you know about the Keyblade?" Ven demanded.
"Yeah, who're you?" Sora added.
The man stood there in silence, before summoning his Keyblade, answering, "I am Master Aced. Foreteller of six apprentinces and the first Keyblade War. Now I'm going to erase the remaining threat. Neither of you are qualified to do so."
"Master Aced...You're the master Shelke and Shalua told us about!" Roxas hissed, summoning his Keyblade now as well.
Instead of commenting on this, Aced readied his Keyblade, muttering to himself, "May my heart be my guiding key." before launching himself at the group.
Thankfully Genesis took action first and blocked the attack with his sword, which the first instantly started when Dulor attacked Angeal, Will attacked Jack and soon despite the numbers, Dulor and Aced both took on the group since it was somewhat a self battle, though Sora, Lea, Isa, Cloud, Zack, Angeal, Genesis, and Roxas tried to a stop to it by fighting both two enemies and put sense into two of their friends, all of them locked in a massive fight, three for the key and others to stop them and Aced. In the blink of an eye, they had gone from standing over the Chest, to moving further inland.
"Stop it!" Aqua shouted as she and the rest of the group, including Myde, ran after them to try and get all of the fighters to stop fighting.
Genesis locked his sword with Aced's Keyblade, before being knocked back by the rouge Keyblade Master who then clashed harshly with Angeal's sword, avoiding Cloud's fusion sword that appeared to slice him in half. Aced summoned a barrier with a free hand which held Cloud's attack back. Roxas expertly tossed his Keyblade at Aced who knocked away Angeal and Cloud before blocking Roxas's Keyblade with his own and knocked it back. Though Roxas managed to catch his Keyblade, he was knocked down by Aced, before rolling out of the way.
Lea cried out his friend's name before quickly slicing one of Dulor's overgrown cards that attempted to swallow him up into the card realm into pieces and then flared up his fire ability at his former comrade of the Organization, "Burn, baby!" which knocked Dulor back before he clashed swords with Will and Jack. Isa slashed more decks of cards into oblivion with his weapon before launching himself to knock him back only to be knocked back himself.
Sora ended up clashing against Jack with Keyblade against sword despite the two of them being friends but at the moment, the former was really trying to get him to his senses. The young Keyblade Master leaped back and changed targets when Riku was now clashing Keyblades with Aced by using Blizzard which briefly froze the enemy's left arm. None the less, Sora and Riku both clashed against Aced who was really powerful. Terra quickly joined in with Zack as the two knocked Aced back but the four of them had to block Aced's next attack.
Dulor was locking swords with Will, when Jack snitched the key and dashed off with it. Dulor gave Will a swift kick in the stomach, forcing him to collapse on a heap on the sand. Elizabeth and the rest of the group who weren't fighting ran up to him as she cried out her lover's name worriedly.
But she needn't have bothered. "Guard the Chest." Was his short request, before leaping to his feet and charging after the other combatants.
Mickey and the rest of the group had finally witnessed enough. "No!" cried Elizabeth, as she and the others ran after their friends and the two enemies.
"STOP THIS INSTANT!" Mickey shouted, finally losing his temper that he kept in check for most of his life and he finally understood why Donald was always short tempered. It felt good to let it out once and a while. Still, his command was ignored.
"Stop! Fighting like this will only make things-" Kairi shouted, only to realise that it wasn't working. Sora, Riku, Lea, Isa, Terra, Cloud, Zack, Angeal, Genesis, Roxas, Jack, Will, Dulor, and Aced were too caught up in typical male posturing to listen to any sort of sense. By this time the rest of the group, save for Reno and Myde who both decided to keep their mouths shut to save their dignity and their lives, and even Mickey, Donald and Goofy stayed out of it, had worked themselves into fine tempers. Whether or not what they said actually made any difference to the situation really didn't matter at this point; keeping silent at this point was impossible. So, almost at the exact same time, they shouted.
"Guys, please! Stop it right now!" Ven shouted.
"I can't believe you boys are behaving like spoiled children!" Kairi shouted.
"Fighting like this is pointless and all you of know it!" Xion shouted.
"I thought every single one of you were better than this, but you're worse than children, fighting over things that probably won't make a difference!" Aqua shouted.
"If it weren't for us women, all life would've died out thanks to jerks like every single one of you, both old and young!" Even Elena was shouting.
"Oh, fine, let's just start pulling out our swords, Keyblades or whatever and start banging away at each other. That will solve everything!" Elizabeth shouted.
Their calls went unheeded, the men simply continued fighting, as if nothing in the world was suddenly more important than running around in circles waving sharp objects at each other, risking the chance of impaling each other, all for the sake of one little key...well, at least Sora, Riku, Lea, Isa and Zack were trying to get sense through their friends as well as stopping Dulor and Aced.
Elizabeth has had enough. Completely fed up and angered at this unexpected turn of events, she screamed out angrily, "I've had it! I've had it with wobbly-legged, rum-soaked pirates!"
Even Ven, Aqua, Kairi, Xion and Elena who were all equally irriated as Elizabeth, stopped short and stared at her in shock while Donald, Goofy, Reno, even Mickey and especially Myde were now quite scared of the woman as they shrunk back a little in fear, too afraid of what Elizabeth could do to them.
Elizabeth, not content with merely screaming her discontent, picked up rocks and started flinging them at the fighting group. Unfortunately, they landed rather short of the intended target, which did nothing to improve her temper. Even Mickey and the others who aren't fighting just glanced at each other, some with concern, some with worry, and Myde looked about ready to pass out from the fear of the group before him.
Unknown to everyone in this situation, Pintel and Ragetti came running up as they watched the scene before them, confused and puzzled. "'Ow'd this go all screwy?" Pintel asked after a moment of silence.
"Well," said Ragetti, eagerly filling his friend in on all the detailed particulars, "Each wants the Chest for his-self, don't 'e? 'Cept for Sora and 'is friends who are fighting to protect the worlds from Aced who brought 'em together to take over everythin', Dulor, I think 'e wants to join Maleficent for 'evenge, ole Jack's lookin' to save 'is own skin 'ispite of bein' chosen by that kid, and Turner, I think 'e's tryin' to solve some unfinished business between 'im and 'is twice-cursed pirate father."
While Ragetti seemed rather pleased with himself at this explanation as he crossed his arms in a proud manner, Pintel still wasn't entirely sure what was going on. "Sad." He commented.
A moment of silence, as they watched the scene with the shouts coming from Elizabeth, than Pintel glancing toward the now forgotten and unguarded the Dead Man's Chest, said, in a greedy half-whisper. "That Chest must be worth more than a shiny penny."
Ragetti shook his head while clicking his tongue, saying, "Terrible temptation."
"If we was any kind o' decent, we would remove temptation from their path."
Finally getting what Pintel saying, the two pirates grinned, and like two naughty children, chuckled as they snuck away to grab hold of the Chest.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who along with the others with her, hadn't heard the plot behind them and only focused on the fighting in front of them, as she gave up throwing rocks at them, screaming out, "ENOUGH!"
Nothing. Desperate by this time, she tried the old standby.
"Oh! Ohh, the heat." She cried melodramatically and collapsed on the sand.
"Are you okay, Elizabeth?" Goofy asked worriedly as he and Myde both quickly crouched to help.
"She's faking it." Reno sighed, holding a hand to his face, feeling a headache coming on.
Elizabeth waited a few seconds, then opened one of her eyes. The fighting group were still fighting as intensely as ever. Not even Will bothered so much as to throw a glance in their direction. In sheer annoyance, she sat up and began to sulk.
"Even if it did work, they ain't gonna help out since we're here." Reno pointed out.
"There has to be something we could do to stop them!" Xion cried out, worriedly and in frustration.
"But how?" Donald asked, shrugging.
Mickey sighed, muttering, "Well, I guess the only thing we can do is to wait and guard the chest. Besides, Davy Jones' crew could be on their way to steal it right behind us." unaware at first that Pintel and Ragetti were running away into the jungle, carrying the Chest between them.
Myde was the first to notice though, as he said, wincing, "Too late. The Chest's already being taken away." pointing at the direction were the two pirates had taken off.
When Mickey and the others noticed this, now they were caught between going after the chest and also to go and stop the fight. Realising that this was a situation where two groups were needed to both stop Dulor and Aced as well as protect the Chest, Mickey, Aqua, Ven, Xion, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Myde, Reno and Elena reluctantedly came to a silent agreement and nodded before the group dashed off after Pintel and Ragetti.
The chase and the fight was on...but things were about to get a little bit more nasty in the events yet to come for our heroes and their allies.
A/N: Sorry that this chapter was a bit shorter, but I wanted the fight scenes to be long, so they'll be in the next chapter as we're coming up to the ending. See you in the next chapter! And yes, for those who had managed to catch glimpse of the early english release of Back Cover before it was taken down from Youtube, I bet you can recongise what Aced had said and about Xehanort's Keyblade.