Author's Note: For those of you who haven't seen the scene from Unchained X or have seen or heard of it's update "Union X(Cross)", this chapter will reveal more spoilers that'll put you into major shock.
I still don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH 8: Battles of Shock.
Sora, Riku, Roxas, Lea, Isa, Cloud, Zack, Vincent, Angeal, Genesis, Jack, Will, Dulor and Aced were in the thick of the fight. When not viewed for the reason which they were fighting in the first place, it was nothing short of an amazing sight. All thirteen men, three of them just being teenagers, most of them being in their twenties, two who were previous dead but were brought back to life, two who'd been alive longer than they should have yet have not changed their appearences, and one who is now revenge-mad, all of them having different fight styles with one of them being the former Nobody of another, thrown together in a setting that would challenge them in ways that they had never before experienced.
In the minds of Sora, Riku, Lea, Isa and Zack, they wanted this fight to stop and getting sense into the others. In the minds of Roxas, Cloud, Angeal and Genesis, there was very little choice and bend on finishing off both Aced and Dulor. In the minds of Jack, Will and Dulor, winning was their goal in order to claim the Key. And in the mind of Aced, domination and leadership, power mad set course through his vains and his heart. Swords, Keyblades, Chakrams and Claymore all flashed over by the sunlight as the weapons were clashed, some of them casting magic and dangerous powers would cause some damage.
Though both the Key and stopping both Dulor and Aced were on everyone else's minds.
Sora leaped into air and clashed against Aced's powerful thrusts and clashes before being forced to the beach once more, in which Riku and Cloud both took over in thrusting the mad Keyblade wielder to the ground before he landed on his knees. But he then thrusted out his Keyblade in the air, creating a powerful cross of light, sending it forward towards the trio. Fortunately, Cloud, with the power of Materia from Midgar, fused his sword in blue light before he thrusted it onto the ground, sending a wave of upper-cut that was met with Aced's power, both attacks exploding slighty before vanishing into dust of sand and water.
Vincent fired shots from his gun, Cerberus, at Dulor who either blocked the gunshots or rolled out of the way to dodge them, before the former Turk easily jumped out of the way to avoid the former Nobody's Cards which were sliced into oblivion by Zack who then blocked Will's sword, swordsman vs swordsman. Dulor then thrusted out like fifty cards all around the area around everyone in an attempt to capture them. Fortunately, Genesis and Angeal both leaped up and thrusted Fire Spells at 25 cards before slicing up ten more into oblivion. Lea tossed his Chakrams duely that sliced through the rest of the cards with ease and the said weapons continued to fly around knocked Jack down, causing him to drop the key he managed to grab from Dulor about two minutes ago.
Isa saw his chance to grab the key and toss it into the air as he had enough of it, before being forced to leap out of the way as Aced then changed targets, but was still knocked back onto the sand and water where he landed with a crash, causing Lea to cry out his name, before he caught his weapons and then tossed them again at Aced who blocked it, knocking them back. Lea caught the Chakrams with ease and was about to be knocked back as well had Roxas not toss his Keyblade at Aced's head, knocking him down as well, but the crazed Keyblade wielder managed to recover from this attack.
Will then saw his chance as he found the key on the sand and picked it up before anyone else could get the chance to grab hold of it and he tried to make off for it.
"Bugger!" Jack cursed before getting up and once again clashed with both Will and Dulor, and then with Sora and Riku who both tried to get the three of them to stop, three swords and two Keyblades clashing with series of clings and bangs and sometimes punches and kicks that echoed into the air, while at the same time, Cloud, Zack, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Angeal, Genesis and Vincent all attempted to block Aced's powerful and surprisingly fast thrusts from his Keyblade that was starting to wear all of them down, but none of them refused to give up.
Aced then leaped up in the air and then unleashed a powerful shockwave that send everyone on the beach to fall onto the ground while he landed safely. However, Jack, seeing the key having fallen out of Will's hand, quickly picked it up before hurriedly climbed to his feet and narrowly avoided Will's sword while running away towards the jungle towards the deserted building and graveyard, while everyone else quickly stood up, half preparing to chase Jack, half to stop Aced, only for Dulor to grab hold of Lea and Isa's hoods of their coats and pulled them back, shoving them into the rest of their friends except for Angeal and Genesis who both then took on Aced alone as the trio ended up going into another direction.
Dulor then kicked sand at the group who had to shield their eyes, then mocked a bow, "By your lead, gentlemen." before taking off to get the key from Jack.
As the rest of the group were recovering and then immediately went to go after Aced, Dulor, Angeal, Genesis and Jack, Lea couldn't help but comment, "I think I liked Dulor better when he would do nothing but play poker or go fish!"
Meanwhile, down at the beach near where Sora and his friends had found the chest, another problem was raising from the tides and shores of the ocean's water as the Flying Dutchmen had arrived to claim it's prize. The undead cursed crew that had mutated into monsterous sea life, wielding strange alien-like weapons that was possibly even beyond the Realm of Light, made to kill without mercy. The crew clambered up from the sea and up the beach. They made it to the hole that had been dug some time before, and the open, empty wooden box beside it. They paused, gazing in disbelief and wondering and muttering unintelligible amongst themselves as to where the Chest could be. Obviously, they had gotten there too late, and though they were all beyond the normal sphere of emotions as their hearts were beyond even the darkness, they were not yet incapable of feeling the terror that the disapproving rage that would no doubt give them severe punishment.
BONG! BONG! BONG!
Just by one bong, the mutated crew gazed up and as in the distance in the abandoned ruins of the church, it took them only a moment to realise that they were not alone and the ones who were responsible for taking their master's Chest were no doubt in the jungle or at the ruins. Either way, at least they could get the chance of not only taking the chest, but also slicing off the heads of pitiful mortals which saved them from Davy Jones' wrath. Letting loose chilling and monsterous yells, the entire crew charged forward, fully intent on recovering the stolen property that had been stolen from their master, and dolling out the proper punishment to the thieves.
Angeal's sword and Aced's Keyblade were met in a heavy clang with sparks flying while the said two were hovering in the air before leaping down to the ground once more, Aced having twirled to land safely. He then casted Barrier to block Genesis' fire Materia spell and expertly blocked the said man's crimson sword, thrusting him and Angeal back with a mighty swing from the Keyblade. Genesis and Angeal summoned their wings to righten their position and glared down at Aced who glared back up at them.
"The darkness has taken a heavy toll on your hearts, as well as the hearts of those who are with you." Aced growled. "The worlds shouldn't remain this way! I have to fix it, and restore it to it's former glory!"
"What you're attempting to do will only make things worse." Angeal warned with a frown. "Xehanort made the mistake in attempting to recreate a war that caused this to happen in the first place!"
"Had it not been for Sora or his friends, the Realm of Light would've been lost to Xehanort." Genesis added in agreement.
"ENOUGH!" Aced roared and leaped up and attempted to deliver heavy blows against the said two, which, given how this fight was proving to be far too dangerous even for the Caribbean, both Angeal and Genesis grunted before they glanced at each other and gave each other a firm nod of agreement.
The trio then leaped further into the forest as the two old friends then held up their left hands which was starting to form a massive spell of light just as Sora, Riku, Roxas, Cloud, Zack, Lea, Isa, Terra, and Vincent arrived while Will chased after Dulor who unfortunately knocked him back, though this gave Jack a better chance in escaping for a short time. The rest of the group, their minds off Jack and Dulor at the moment, gazed up in shock and horror as the light was covering up Aced, Angeal and Genesis as the latter two gazed down at them.
"What are you doing!?" Sora cried out, realising along with the rest of his friends that the trio above were clashing heavily while starting to disappear.
"Giving you a chance to set things right, and holding off this madman as much as we can!" Genesis replied.
"But-!" Sora started.
"You can do this. Trust me!" Angeal said, encouragingly. "Sora...the rest is up to you now!"
"Angeal! Wait! Stop! Come back!" Zack cried out in dismay. He couldn't lose his best friend. Not again. Not just when he got him back and had come back to life and had set things right by finishing off Xehanort and now was needed to defeat Chaos and if they had to, Bhunivelze.
"What're you guys, crazy!?" Lea demanded in shock.
"There's nothing we can do." Vincent told the others, firmly understanding despite wanting to go after Angeal, Genesis and Aced as well.
Vincent was right. Plus, as he had been attempting to make a move, he stopped short as he sensed they were going to have unpleasent company, and just one second after he finished his sentence, morphing out of the ground and appearing from the darkness while surrounding most of the group and Will, Heartless appeared and encircled around Sora and the others who became alarmed before holding tight grips on their weapons. Sora, Cloud, Roxas and Zack gazed up as with a final clash of a broadsword, crimson sword and Keyblade, the clash was so heavy as the light engulfed Aced, Angeal and Genesis that they and the others were forced to shield their eyes as the light brightened the area before fading. When they looked again, to their shock, the fighting trio were nowhere to be found.
"Where did they go?" Will asked as he had arrived and found that Angeal, Genesis and Aced were missing.
"Will, behind you!" Riku cried out before leaping over the former Blacksmith and cleaved a rather new looking watery jelly-fish Heartless into oblivion before landing beside him, the two then standing back to back.
"Ugh, back off!" Sora grunted as he then shielded himself with his Keyblade when one of the Shadow-Heartless attempted to scratch him with it's claws, before he knocked it back and thrusted his weapon down at it and clashed and slashed at other Heartless, with most of his friends following his lead.
Zack ended up knocked away from the others who cried out to him but couldn't reach him as they were too busy handling the Heartless problem. As the swordsman gazed up, he saw both Jack and Dulor race into the ruins of the Church before feeling conflicted on whether to go after them or not. He didn't want to abandon his friends, but he didn't want Jack to do anything stupid with the Chest or Dulor to deliever Davy's heart to Maleficent.
His dilemma was solved as Cloud, also noticing, shouted to him, "GO! We'll fine!" as he side-cleaved a trumpet-wielding Heartless in half with his Fusion Swords and going after another in attempt to clear the way out of this mess, while Vincent shot another one through the head before reclipping his pistol while grunting at the fact that he was running low on ammo.
Sora and Roxas both tossed their Keyblade in a double boomarang move which was added by Lea's Chakrams which were now covered in flames under his command as the redhead had tossed them like frisbees that caught the Heartless off-guard, while Isa swiped at a much larger Heartless, a massive gust of winds sending them flying, giving Riku and Will the chance to cleave at them despite the latter not being skilled in the same kind of mastership as the worldly travellers but he still managed.
Finally, Zack knew that Cloud was right and silently promising himself to help his friends when he could, took off running to try and catch up to Jack and Dulor despite not being that fast of a runner. If he could get the Key, maybe he then keep it out of sight and try and figure out with the others on what to do with the dumb thing since they had to find a way to how to remove Jack from Davy Jones' curse as well as prevent the said latter from being used by Maleficent which would spell disaster.
While that was going on, Jack continued to run and even managed to cleave away Heartless that appeared and ran into the church, climbing up the stairs that seemed to still be in good condition consider. However, Dulor managed to catch up and attempted to stab Jack with his own cutlass. But the Pirate Captain managed to see this and blocked Dulor's movements, kicking the latter in the stomach to stumble back. On the old wooden platform the higher up they went to the ceiling that wasn't much left anyway, Jack attempted to run again, but fell forward onto the platform when Dulor caught him by his left ankle and pulled him off his feet.
The two then got up and were met in a struggle, Jack's left wrist caught in the tight grasp and the said Pirate was forced back into the corner. Dulor then saw the Key dangling from his enemy's grasp and to Jack's dismay, grabbed it from his grasp which had weakened due to his wrist having been caught. Despite this, the pirate was able to free himself and attempted to slice off the former Nobody's head, but the latter had ducked, causing Jack's sword to collide with the withered bricks that were still strong.
Dulor then moved behind Jack and shoved him off the platform to the ground below which, given their current position, was a good 100 feet up that would cause damage.
"WAAGH!" Jack screamed as he fell, while he automatically grabbed one of the ropes that was still attached to the old church bell, and as he fell while hanging on, his weight had caught the bell to bong severel times(also triggering this knowlage to Davy Jones' crew).
This was helpful to Zack however, as when he just arrived, an idea perked up in his head and held onto another rope that was attached to the bell, using this to his advantage to get the key. Zack held on tight and felt himself being lifted up, passing Jack who continued to scream as he fell, the younger man teasingly saying, "Elevator goin' up!" while thankful that Jack was too busy to hear this.
Zack then grasped the key from the rather shocked Dulor's grasp and swung himself onto a higher platform, now at the very top of the ceiling and grinned, mocking at the former Nobody, "By your lead, Dulor!" before making a run for it to try and keep the key from the two and hoped to get Dulor and Jack to come to their senses.
Unfortunately, Zack was stuck when he had to stop himself from falling off from the edge of the roof. But had to draw his sword and clashed against Dulor who attempted to either capture him with his cards or slice him into bits. Zack counterattacked by slicing the cards into oblivion and blocked Dulor's sword. The two men fighting while going over to the lower roof of the building which ended at an old water mill that had seen better days and continued to futilely beat each other, neither of them giving up. Jack in the meantime, having recovered and was making his way back up, managed to find them and as silently as he could, followed them so that he could silently grab the key without being noticed. Being good with his balance while walking carefully acrossing a wooden plank from the bell room's roof to the other roof, he now stood behind Dulor who was too busy to notice. Jack had to carefully avoid in getting his hand chopped off and trying to get the key.
While Jack had finally managed to get the key, unfortunately he hadn't been very careful as Dulor noticed that his hand was lighter due to the lack of the said key and turned around in shock which also caught Zack's attention when he earlier had lost the key. Startled, Jack then had to clash against both of the other men, but unfortunately, his cutlass was swiped out of his grasp and onto the ground in the grass below, stuck with two swords pointed threatenly at him.
"Do excuse me while I kill the man who made my life more miserable." Dulor growled at Zack with murder, death, kill in his eyes.
"Not in a million years. All I wanna do is knock his head into a coma for a week and knock sense into him." Zack growled back, which, given circumstances, he would happily put Jack into a coma for a week, no more than that. Despite Jack being a pirate, he was Sora's friend, and Zack wouldn't forgive himself if Jack was killed.
"Let us examine that fate former Organizer, shall we?" Said Jack, always had some quick, clever response for getting out of trouble. "Who was it, when, at the very moment you had come so close in retrieving your heart with the aid of a Keybearer who joined sides with a notorious pirate, thought fit to help said pirate on his own revenge and unexpectedly helped to save the world from a leader who caused more problems to many others than pirates would. Aye?"
Both Dulor and Zack had no idea on the mumbled words Jack was saying, though the former was considering his thoughts on the situation. This was what Jack had been aiming for. "So whose fault is it really that you've ended up getting your heart back only to end up a rum-pot deckhand what takes orders from pirates?"
"ENOUGH!" Dulor roared, attempting to kill Jack with a furious swing of his sword
Luckily for Jack, he managed to duck and lean to his right and slid down, but he used this to roll and then leap from the roof like an acrobat and then landed safely onto the ground with a rough skid, but the grass and years of moss had cosined his landing, and to add to his luck, he landed next to his cutlass where it had landed.
"Unfortunately..." Dulor began after he and Zack had watched Jack land, "Even though he's right...Xemnas is dead...so I have no choice...but to take my anger out on YOU!" With a roar, Dulor turned and attempted to kill Zack who blocked his attacks and once again the two were clashing their swords, though this time, in Zack's case, it was a matter of survival and Dulor's case, a blind fit of rage that was seeping darkness into his restored heart.
Standing up and not wanting to get involved in anymore fights, Jack put away his sword as he called up to Zack, "I'm rooting for you, lad!" before running to escape again.
Once Jack was in a safer distance, he slowed his run into a confident walk while drapping the string attached to the key around his neck to head back to the beach...and didn't pay attention to where he was going, as his foot was met with air below him in a hole, causing him to stumble, "Whoa-!" and fall into the not so steep hole below with a thud, "-Omph!"
Really, it was a burial hole for whoever's grave would've been, but was never completed and was left open for several years. Jack sat up from within the hole and briefly wondered how this happened, before realizing it was his clumsiness that caused this, and muttered a deadpanned, "Oh."
Luckily that he didn't come out just yet, because Sora, Riku, Roxas, Will, Cloud, Lea, Isa and Vincent came parralling through the trees while continuing to fight off the Heartless, unknowingly leaping over the hole were Jack was currently 'hiding'. Sora, Riku and Roxas then leaped into the air and preformed a rather comiedic slashes and karate chops with their Keyblades at flying gothic-like Heartless who stood no chance against two young Keyblade Masters and a former Nobody of one of them, though Roxas was doing a faster job at it, having done the similiar thing in Neverland a year ago during a mission with Axel, only without pixie dust.
Sora twirled his Keyblade at another Heartless after landing on the ground before deciding that it was by time to use a little bit of an extra boost, calling upon his powers from his clothes and turned into his valor form, turning his clothes completely red and summoning a spare Keyblade since, despite no longer having Ven's heart within his own heart and that both Roxas and Xion are capable of sharing their Keyblades, Sora could still double-wield. The Keyblade in his left hand was rather a new one, which he took notice briefly; It was very similiar to his Kingdom Key, but the teeth of this new one was shaped like a star with a star-shaped hole in it, the hilt around the inner hilt was a night-sky blue and the same was said for the keychain instead of the 'Hidden Mickey'. Deciding to worry about this later, Sora then focused on double-clashing against a double-sword-wielding Heartless, fighting it almost equally until he used some of the powers he learned from the Realm of Sleep and sent the Heartless into oblivion.
Will slashed and stabbed the Heartless with Elizabeth's sword before rolling out of the way to continue to do this, becoming frustrated since he was no-where in reaching Jack or Dulor for the Key, and he really wanted to keep to his promise to free his father by killing Davy Jones, too stubborn to even pay heed of Angeal's words from earlier.
Lea and Vincent both chanted Firaga in which the latter used to his advantage in actually going through it and surprising five more Heartless before firing ranges at them, oblierating them while the former then decided to give his Keyblade a shot for a change to keep in practice as a new Keyblade wielder. He rolled out of the way while remembering as quickly as he could in summoning it. 'Snap of the wrist.' He reminded himself.
Successful this time, Lea then slashed at one Heartless before leaping out of the way and cleaved another, before finding himself struggling to the point of summoning one of his Chakrams to make this easier, fighting the Heartless with his Keyblade(Fire-Emblem, he decided to call it) in his right hand, and one of his Chakrams, the Eternal Flame, in his left hand. But it was still awkward as he cleaved and sliced the Heartless. "Man, Rox' and the others make wielding and fighting with the Keyblade look easy!" He admitted as he fought.
Cloud, Isa and Riku in the meantime ended up joining forces with three of the bulky Heartless that was causing them no ends of trouble and the trio then launched themselves over the Heartless and attacked them as these type of Heartless' weakness were their backs, destroying them with combinations of slashs, powerful gusts of wind-spells and Firaga Spells as Riku decided not to use his darkness for the time being.
Zack and Dulor in the meantime were still fighting one another to the point of jumping on top of the mill wheel to continue their clash. However, their extra weight had finally worn down the years of old wood as the support holding it finally snapped, causing it to land onto the ground with a thud, surprising the two before continuing their fight briefly. However, their movement was now causing the wheel to move and roll away from the building and off course. Both men had to now struggle to keep themselves upright while also continuing to fight each other agressively, Zack walking backwards with Dulor walking fowards on the mill wheel.
A sight which, as the mill wheel had unexpectedly and helpfully squashed some Heartless along the way while making a slight U-turn to the direction where Jack was, was very odd in and on itself, noticed by Sora and the others who stared in dumbfounded shock, unable to believe what they were seeing.
"What the hell?" Vincent asked, in utter disbelief.
"Didn't see that comin'." Lea blinked, just as dumbfounded as his friends.
Sora on the other hand, while confused, noticed something he and the others didn't earlier, because as Jack was climbing out of the hole once the Pirate thought it was safe enough to do so, realised that the wheel was heading into his direction behind him. So the young Keyblade Master shouted out to him, "Jack, behind you!"
Unfortunately, Jack heard too late, as, while he did feel the the rather odd soft tremor that was getting a little stronger and louder, was completely oblivious on what the hell was going on. Unexpectedly, the wheel ran over his head, but due to the wood being weak and that he was still halfway in the hole, Jack was run right through halfway and ended up having his arms pinned to his side, stuck and lifted up by the turning turn wheel, being lifted upside down as he screamed in alarm, with the bottom half of his body sticking outside of the wheel, which nearly caused the alarmed Zack and alarmed Dulor to nearly fall off as the two were dumbfounded briefly on how this actually happened.
"Is he always this clumsy?" Cloud asked, while quickly slicing another Heartless in half when he sensed it before it could launch a surprise attack.
"Blame the rum for that!" Will answered, once again fighting off the Heartless, which were now forcing him, Cloud and the rest of the group back into the jungle in an all out huge fight that was starting to get out of hand, and the group were starting to see why despite the sky remaining normal.
Jack in the meantime, mentally groaned as the key, due to him being briefly upside down while he was rolled around, slid off from his neck and the string got caught in the nail from inside the wheel. Being forced to wait until he was the right-way up, once his feet touched the ground, it gave Jack a chance to free himself and go right into the wheel, running along inside it like a Hamster in an attempt to recapture the key. Unfortunately, the lower attactment of the wheel, a metal pole, only being the same height as his fore-head, came into few and to his dismay he was about to hit it...
CLUNK!
He was hit so hard on the head by the metal pole that Jack lost consciousness and fell out from the side and slumped to the ground, while the wheel was rolling away. Quickly coming out of unconsciousness seconds later, Jack shook away the dizzy-spells and, seeing how far the wheel was getting away, cursed to himself before scampering to his feet and took off chasing after it, while Sora and the rest of the group continued to fight the Heartless all over the jungle.
Meanwhile, completely unaware of the events that was going on, Pintel and Ragetti were dashing madly through the forest, carrying the prize Chest between them, cackling and laughing delightedly. Despite not yet knowing what they were going to do with their prize, others wanted it and that was a good enough reason to steal it.
But as they were congratulating themselves on their escape, their said escape had come to an ultimate stop when a familiar voice spoke out cockingly, "And what are we up to?" and changing by the tone, the owner was grinning.
The said owner of the voice belonged to none other than Reno who, along with Ven, Aqua, Xion, Kairi, Elena, Myde, Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Elizabeth, blocked the two would-be thieves' path, the redhead shouldering his Mag-Rod with a grin, and most of the others glaring at the two pirates, their weapons in hand. Except for Elizabeth who just smiled and sastifaction and reached out for her sword to join her friends in a fight if they had to...only to feel nothing but air from her hip, and quickly remembered that Will had it since he didn't have one of his own. This was noticed by the others as she glanced up at Pintel and Ragetti, her smirk melting into that of embarrassment.
"Next time, carry two instead of just one." Myde suggested to Elizabeth.
"Ah, relax. The rest of us can handle these two losers since we out-number them." Reno said confidently with a shrug.
Despite the Turk's words, Pintel and Ragetti exchanged gleeful looks. Dropping the Chest, they drew their swords in a threatening manner, and Pintel saying challengingly, "Oh 'eally?"
Both Myde and Goofy gulped nervously, while most of the others held tight grips on their weapons, with Aqua having Elizabeth behind her so that, since she was left weaponless, she can be protected, while Mickey grunted at the two pirates, "You can't even open the Chest without the key, anyway. Not with Sora and the others too busy trying to keep Dulor away from it!"
Pintel and Ragetti were a little daunted by this, but still, they weren't about to relinquish their stolen property so soon. They began advancing on the group who, despite having larger numbers, knew that it was a better decision to back off a little in order to find Elizabeth a better place to keep her safe before they can consider on fighting the two piates.
"Hey, Dulor's fighting Zack on a old wood ferris wheel that's rolling on it's own." Goofy spoke up, in a tone of confusion as he gazed to his left when he heard something unusual.
He was right. As everyone else heard the sounds of something very big that was barreling through the forest, and the slash, faint but addible of metal upon metal. They looked in the direction of the sound where Goofy was looking and were met with one of the strangest sights any of them had ever beheld. It wasn't a ferris wheel as Goofy had thought it was. Instead, it was the mill wheel that was rolling right by them. The fact that such a thing was happening in the middle of a seemingly deserted forest might have been odd enough in itself, but that was nothing compared to what was going on top of the wheel. Dulor and Zack were locked in what seemed to be a death struggle on top, somehow managing to keep their balance on the continually rolling wheel at the same time. Jack was running after the wheel, waving his arms in agitation while shouting "Bugger!" repeatedly in his attempts to catch up.
Ven, Aqua, Xion, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Myde, Elizabeth, Reno and Elena stared at the bizzare sight in opened-mouth disbelief and shock before most of them glanced at one another, all of them wondering at the same time on how in Kingdom Hearts did Zack, Dulor and Jack get into this mess and where Sora and the others were, though it was possible they were still busy fighting against Aced. None the less, Ven could only mutter in dumbfounded disbelief, "Okay...?"
"That's...weird." Myde muttered, blinking.
Pintel and Ragetti on the other hand, only glanced at each other in a short confusion, the former shrugging, before the two decided to forget about the odd situation and turned their attention back to the others who looked back at them and now knew that their situation was only about to get worse. The two pirates had their wicked eyes gleam at them, now more serious and forced the others to have Elizabeth behind them though it was starting to become a slightly bad case of trying to keep her safe as well as getting the Chest.
However, the retreat/advance came to a halt as Heartless then appeared surrounding the group, causing everyone to freeze in their tracks, with the two pirates now becoming quickly nervous at the familiar monsters.
"Not the Heartless!" Donald groaned in exasperation.
"We'll have to take them out." Aqua told them, standing her ground as she summoned her Rainfall Keyblade she hasn't used in twelve years.
"Easy for you to say." Reno said, eying the Heartless nervously while standing his ground. He's never seen or heard of these things before, but by the looks of them, they were definately not friendly.
However, before anyone else could do anything, bolts of light then appeared above them out of nowhere and quickly eliminated the Heartless instantly, before suddenly, much to everyone's shock and confusion, a figure leaped down from the trees above and took out the remaining three Heartless that survived before panting a little and wiped away invisible sweat from her forehead. It was a young girl about Kairi's age with long raven black hair that went down halfway her back, gentle amber eyes, a black and pink leather short jacket with her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, a white top underneath, dark skirt and shorts underneath, long dark navy socks that went up to her knees, black small boots, black guanlets on her wrists that went up to her elbows, chains on her skirt shorts, and to the group's shock...
"A Keyblade?" Kairi asked, shocked as she and her friends eyed the Keyblade that resembled to both Sora's Keyblade and Mickey's Kingdom Key-D Keyblade, but silver bladed with the outside hilt being a night-sky blue, the teeth at the tip was star-shaped which was matched by it's keychain.
Either ignoring Kairi's comment, or simply not having heard, the new girl sighed, "And to think that these things still exist. I just can't believe it!"
"Who are you?" Aqua demanded at the new girl. "Why do you have the Keyblade?"
Turning to Aqua and her group, the girl rubbed the back of her head, saying, "Weeelll...I was about to ask the same thing about you guys." until her gaze turned to Ven and...for some reason, she seemed rather shocked which confused him.
'Why does she look...familiar?' Ven thought to himself. He couldn't understand why, but for some reason, this girl felt familiar. Could it be that he still had no memories of his past at all? How did that make any sense?
His suspictions were confirmed as the girl stuttered, in a tone of disbelief, "...Ventus? Is that you?"
"Huh?" Ven blinked, asking, "How do you know my name?"
"You don't remember?" The girl asked, even more shocked and...dismayed, before she told him as though trying to trigger memories out of the boy, "Ven, don't you recongise me? It's me-Skuld."
"Skuld...?" Ven repeated. He tried hard right now to remember if he remembered anyone by that name, but for some reason...he couldn't.
"Do you know this girl?" Elena asked, puzzled.
"Well, this kid certainly knows him, that's for sure." Reno commented.
Mickey, trying to clear up the confusion, gazed at Skuld and asked, "'Cuse me, Skuld. But uh, how do you know Ven if he doesn't know who you are?"
Skuld looked crushed by this, and gazed at the ground, muttering, "...He really doesn't remember, does he? Which means...none of you know where he really came from?"
"I'm really sorry, but...I have no idea what're talking about. To tell the truth...I don't even know where I originally came from." Ven apologized, feeling bad for the hurt that was on Skuld's expression.
Pintel was dumbfounded as he asked Ragetti, "Any idea what's goin' on?"
"I 'hink that kid lost 'is memories and 'oesn't know what's going on." Ragetti supplied.
But before this could continue on, at the very instant when the tension seemed to be at it's breaking point, as axe zipped out of nowhere from behind Ven's group and buried itself in a tree right beside them and the others. Ven, Aqua, Kairi, Xion, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Myde, Elizabeth, Reno, Elena, Skuld, Pintel and Ragetti looked at the axe, than looked behind them and what they saw caused the blood to freeze in their veins and their hearts nearly stopping the growing fear. The mutated fish-men of the Flying Dutchman were crashing through the forest, yelling and screaming terrible things that none of them could really understand, but which they none of them wanted to find out about, and to make things worse, the crew was heading straight towards them.
"Whoa!" Reno cried out in fright as he and the others turned and backed away along with Skuld into Pintel and Ragetti who both froze in sheer horror at the mutated crew coming straight at them that were out for mortal blood. He had known that Davy Jones to be very dangerous considering the pirate could summon a giant ocotpus for a coursed meal, but no one ever mentioned that the guy himself and his crew to be mutated into ugly, mutated, Jenova-like, humaniod fish!
"...Didn't see them at all like this before!" Mickey muttered, terrified beyond belief while Donald, Goofy and Myde were nearing a hysterical terrified panic attack.
Pintel and Ragetti, the first to move to a quick exit when danger reared its ugly head, began scooting backwards. They almost bumped into Elizabeth, unconsciously handing her their swords as they passed. Elizabeth was still staring in horrified shock at the monsters which were coming rapidly nearer, but when Pintel and Ragetti picked up the Chest from where they had dropped it and began dashing off into the forest, and neither Elizabeth, Reno, Elena, Ven, Kairi, Xion, Myde, Aqua, Mickey, Donald or Goofy were slow to follow.
The crew of Davy Jones chased after the group, and the fear they had felt only increased the longer the chase went on. In fact, Kairi, Xion, Elizabeth, Elena, and even Aqua all abandoned their normal firm resolves and screamed in terror, unable to look back as they could feel more than see that the deadly crew were catching up. Donald let out a terrified squaked scream while Goofy had to leap up to avoid an alien-like knife from knickering him in the bottom.
"Are they catching up!?" Myde cried out hysterically.
"No way in hell I'm takin' a look!" Reno replied.
Pintel and Ragetti, running with the Chest between them somehow managed to smash the thing into a tree, knocking it from their hands. They all stopped, looking at the place where it had fallen, but before any of them could think of picking it up, the crew of Davy Jones barreled down upon them, which pretty much expelled any thought of retrieving the Chest from their minds.
One of the monsters came at Kairi who, remembering the lessons she learned from Sora and Riku before the duo's Mark of Mastery, raised her Keyblade and blocked the attack just in time to avoid in getting her head sliced off. Beyond that, everything at this point became nothing but a blur in the group's memories. It was a constant route of run, stop, fight, run, stop, fight and over and over again. Reno even fully charged his EMR to it's highest level in hopes of electrocuting the ones he was fighting into crisp and was shocked when they were only rendered slightly half-unconscious and had to kick away others. Elena shot fires from her gun at the chests and/or heads of the ones she was fighting while making sure she wasn't running out of ammo, but then had to rely on her martial arts skills.
Ven tossed his Keyblade expertly at five of the mutated crew several times before blasting magic spells at them along with Aqua, Xion, Mickey, Donald and even Skuld who seemed perfectly skilled herself and they even teamed up to counter attack as much as they could. Kairi and Goofy tried a double-twirled-tornado skill with both her Keyblade and his Shield to knock back the ones they were both fighting, though this didn't seem to do much at all. Myde attempted to use his Water Abilities by creating watery clones of himself to do the job in taking out the ones he was stuck fighting with, and even water pillers to knock them further way, but they just kept on coming back. Even Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti were having trouble themselves, especially since they only had two swords to fight with to pass between the three of them, it proved to be quite a challenge of knowing when to throw the sword and who should catch it.
It soon became clear that the crew were not only mutated, they were also immortal and that not even the Keyblade can solve this problem, and they had a distinct advantage over Ven's group. Not only that, there were too many for to handle on their own because they were mere mortals, wielding magic, Keyblades or not. It was evident that though they might be able to slow them down, Ven, Aqua, Kairi, Xion, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Reno, Elena, Myde, Elizabeth, Skuld, Pintel and Ragetti were all fighting a losing battle.
During the fight, one crew member with a shell for a head, grabbed hold of the chest while drawing away from the fight and smirked, before taking off on his own through the jungle to head back to the Flying Dutchmen, believing to have achieved the goal of reclaiming the Heart of his captain.
Jack had finally managed to catch up with the mill wheel and leaped back inside, running along with it in hopes of catching the key that was drawing closer and closer to his reach while both Zack and Dulor still continued their fight before the youngest man nearly fell off, but managed to hang on, though caught sight of the Key in front of him, much to Jack's dismay.
Just as Zack grabbed hold of the key, he was forced inside the wheel while hanging onto one of the wooden supports as Jack drew out his sword again and did the same as the younger man and clashed against him. Dulor, seeing this unfold, leaped in and did the same as the other two, clashing their blades while hanging on for poor life as the wheel still rolled on it's own through the jungle. Though in retrospect, doing this was now becoming apparent to keep their minds off the fact that they were repeatedly going around and around up and down repeatedly which was starting to feel queasy in their stomachs as well as making them feel dizzy.
Eventually, Jack managed to grab the key and pulled it loose from Zack's grasp while yanking it from the string and broke it in half. The pirate then avoided the young swordsman's sword and climbed out of the wheel, carried up until he noticed a steep hill in front of him. Acting quickly, he jumped up and grabbed hold of large leaf of a palm tree, dangling in the air while the wheel, with both Zack and Dulor still inside it and hanging on for dear life, quickly rolled down the hill that was increasing the speed, leaving the two men to now try not to get themselves killed while they fell.
Once again in possession of the key, Jack easily slid his way down to solid ground, with super hard fruit landing around him. As he put his sword away, the Pirate captain noticed from a short distance away as one of the crew of Davy Jones was running in glee, with the Dead Man's Chest in hand. Seeing how he needed to get to it and it was going to make his day a bit easier and quicker, Jack then picked up one of the fruits and tossed it in the air, weighing his chances of success. He then carefully aimed and threw it. It hit it's mark, knocking the fish-pirate off-course and stumble to the ground, and not only he dropped the chest, but his head was knocked off as well, several feet from his body.
"Uagggh!" The fish-Pirate groaned, before calling out to his body, "Anido! Anido! Follow my voice, follow my voice!"
The body surprisingly stood up, headless as it somehow could hear it's head calling out to him. But since it had no head, it was blind. "To the left!" He instructed, before realising that it was tthe wrong direction as his body was walking towards something that would knock it down, calling out, "No, to the right! Go to the right!"
As Jack, oblivious to the comical scene happening behind him, knelt down to the chest and righted it up, prepearing to open it when...
SMACK! Thud!
The body of the fish-pirate had collided with a tree and collasped to the ground, causing Jack to look behind him, dumbfounded at first before he saw what was going on, while the head of the fish-pirate sighed in exasperation at his body, "No...that's a tree."
"Oh, shut it." Jack told the head, getting annoyed by the problem that was not his own. He had enough problems to worry about as it is.
With one Fish-Pirate out of his dilemma for now, Jack instead slid the key into the lock of the chest, unlocking it before he opened it up, somewhat nervous to see the heart. To his surprise, not only it wasn't like other hearts he'd seen being released from the Heartless whenever Sora destroyed them with his Keyblade, but it was also...still beating in a normal, slow, rythm of ba-boom, ba-boom. Jack had actually expected the heart to suddenly fly off to return to Davy Jones, but...it didn't. It wasn't even glowing either.
Perhaps it was because like it's owner, the heart was cursed to lose it's light and become mutated as well. Jack felt his own heart beat uneasily as he gently picked up the heart, gazing at it in wonder. How the heart and it's owner could still be alive was a full mystery to him, but he had a theory on why this was the case.
However, before Jack could ponder further into his thoughts, shouts coming from his left brought him back to reality and when he turned to look, to his shock and horror, the rest of the mutated crew were chasing Ven and the others along with a new girl he didn't recongise, and then from behind him, Sora's group were being pushed into his direction as well, pursued by Heartless that were aiming to get everyone else's hearts. In panic, he hurriedly stuffed the cursed heart inside his shirt and closed the chest before making a run for it, out of sight to avoid in getting into more trouble.
The two other groups in the meantime, reuniting with each other, Sora, back in his normal form, quickly saved Kairi by smacking one of the mutated Pirates on the head with his Keyblade and despite the last of the Heartless defeated for now, he and his group were met with another problem as their eyes all widened in shock and disbelief.
"These guys are Davy Jones's crew!?" Lea exclaimed in horror. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew by the looks of things.
"They're...cursed? Ugh, you gotta be kidding me!" Sora exclaimed.
"Let's worry about that later and get outta here!" Isa suggested.
No one argued with this and while Ven's group were now rejoined by Sora's group, ti was still a losing battle while Terra slashed at the bellies of some of the mutated pirates with his Keyblade and Pintel and Ragetti, with the chest still in sight but not realising that the key was in it's place and that the said chest was now empty, picked it up and made a run for it, followed by Sora and the rest of the group, with the cursed Pirate crew of Davy Jones hot on their heels. Sora and his friends could only hope that Zack, Angeal and Genesis were alright.
Having made it back to the beach, Jack ran madly through the shallows, to the two long abandoned longboats. The tide was slowly creeping up the shore, and already the boats were floating in a foot of water. Time was running short. Jack had not yet thought of whether he should take this opportunity to run for it. He knew that Sora's group would not be very happy if he did so. The last thing he wanted was to have the world travellers even more angry at him, and the last thing he wanted was to abandon them, especially since Sora was at the more risk of getting killed by Davy Jones.
Instead, he focused on making sure that he got his stolen property to a safe place. Arriving at the closest longboat, panting, his eyes darted around the bottom of the longboat, and he immediately spotted what he was looking for, since this was the rigth one, much to his relief.
"Jar of dirt!" He snatched up the jar. Hastily he opened it, and dumped out some of the dirt onto the seat. Taking the heart of Jones from where he had stuffed it in his shirt, he proceeded to stuff it into the jar before replacing the rest of the dirt back into the jar to hide it even more. This may not have been what Tia Dalma had originally intended him to do with the jar of dirt, but in Jack's mind, if he had both land and the heart in the same place, then there was nothing that would be able to hurt him, especially since he had zero chances of claiming his own Keyblade that would free him from his dept.
But just as he snapped the lid of the jar closed, he heard a roar behind him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the crew of Davy Jones had caught up with him and was about to run him through. Before the fish person could go through with it, Jack grabbed up an oar from the longboat and blocked the weapon's thrust since he didn't have time to draw out his own sword. He then realised, as Sora, Roxas, Riku, Lea, Isa, Kairi, Xion, Aqua, Terra, Ven, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Cloud, Vincent, Elizabeth, Will, Myde, Reno, Elena, Pintel, Ragetti, and Skuld came into view and were having problems of their own in fighting the off the mutated crew in a struggle of life and death, Jack wasn't going to make a quick getaway even if he wanted to, especially since they were all heading rapidly towards him. At this moment, he had no idea how they were all going to get out of this mess.
Sora's group were not the only ones who were having problems at the moment. Dulor and Zack were beginning to regret their hasty action in jumping not only on the mill wheel, but also having jumped inside it since they were trapped in the runaway wheel. They had forgotten about fighting, and were now only concentrating on holding on as they screamed their heads off and getting rapidly dizzy. The wheel was rolling crazily, bumping and scraping across both the smooth and rough ground, spinning around and around, always spinning. It seemed to them that the world would never stop going in circles.
As luck would have it, Sora's group were not having the best of luck at all as they continued to fight off against the mutated crew as long as they could, though they were really getting very tired despite the cure spells or potions they repeatedly had to rely on to keep their energy going. Just then, in a twisted fortune, the wheel then rolled towards the shore line and even squashed half of the crew of the Flying Dutchmen into the shallowed waters, witnessed by almost everyone else who stared in disbelief before the wheel rolled into the shallows and collapsed into the water with a splash, finally coming to a stop. The two sides then resumed their fight, even though both Will and Riku noticed how Pintel and Ragetti were trying to make to the boat with the chest. Nodding at each other, the two then raced to stop them from leaving with one of the longboats.
Both Zack and Dulor in the meantime, tumbled out of the wheel, momentarily too stunned to move, with the latter having fallen completely into the water, ending up having some up his nose which felt awful, the stinging sensation that made his eyes water. Zack in the meantime, seeing that the fight was still going on in earnest, rose to his feet and grunted, "Okay!" and moved to help his friends.
Unfortunately, though the wheel had stopped spinning, Zack's head had not yet caught onto the fact that the world was, in fact, solid and unmoving. His sense of balance not being what it normally was, and he got only a few steps before he fell into the water again. He attempted to push himself up, only to fall back in dizzily again.
Dulor, having waited a few moments to get his bearings, was able to regain his balance faster then Zack, and he saw Jack being too busy to even notice him, so Dulor used this to his advantage. Racing through the water to the longboat, he found what he had been expecting to find. In Jack's coat were the letter of Maleficent and felt a smile of truimpth. Once he joined Maleficent's side, he could finally put an end to his enemies; Sora, Donald, Goofy, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, King Mickey, Riku, Kairi, Axel, Roxas, Xion, Namine and Saix.
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly noticed the dumped sand that was scattered across one of the seats, and the jar of dirt. Something snapped in Dulor's mind. He believed that he knew what was in that jar, something much more valuable than dirt. Perhaps a back-up item would help if he wants to join Maleficent's regime. Gazing at Jack Sparrow who was still far too busy fighting the fish-pirate to even notice what was going on, Dulor gazed at the jar of dirt once more and finally...he made his decision.
The fight came closer, and soon, Sora and his friends found that they were literally surrounded, by the swiftly closing in of the fish people and the rising ocean tides. The landing party, before splintered by petty internal quarrels, now was united in the more general goal of trying to escape in one piece. However, some of them still wanted to try and lookout for their own interests.
Pintel and Ragetti had managed to get the Chest back into their clutches. Ignorant of the fact that the Chest was empty, and therefore utterly without any value, they threw it into the longboat and tried to make a run for it. Will and Riku, though, had managed to stop in front of them and stopped the longboat from going forward, pointing Will's sword and Riku's Keyblade at the two would be thieves.
Both Pintel and Ragetti reached for their swords, searching for them in the general vicinity of their belts, only to remember after a few seconds, that they didn't have them since they inadvertedly given them to Elizabeth, a sense of deja vu happening, only this time to both of them and they had no allies with them at all. Will and Riku, seeing this, both snorted in laughter at this sight. Looking up at the two younger men, the two pirates shrugged and smiled with embarrassment. Before Pintel grabbed up a net from the longboat and Ragetti got a hold of the remaining oar. Brandishing their "fearsome" weapons, Pintel yelled gruffly, "Come on, brat and Turner!"
They may have been trying, indeed, they have thought that they were looked very fearsome. However, they only succeeded in both looking and sounding generally ridiculous. Both Riku and Will only smirked in amusement, shaking their heads in a gesture of exasperated but amused, 'Oh dear'. But attention was soon drawn in both quarters. Riku, Pintel and Ragetti found that they were under attack by the fish people, who were stepping up their attack on the rest of the group. Will was distracted by the sight of the Chest, which both Pintel and Ragetti had left forgotten on the seat of the longboat.
While Sora tossed his Keyblade expertly at some of the mutated Pirates twice before the said weapon returned to him, it still wasn't enough as he and the rest of the group were still pushed back in one of the most hardest battles of their lives. Jack in the meantime, seeing that Will was holding the chest, panicked as he knew that should Will look inside, it wasn't going to be pretty. Thinking quickly, he swung the oar and banged his opponent back before swining the oar again and banged Will a good one on the side of the face, the younger man dropped like a sack of rocks. It was a little revenge of what Will did to him on the Isle of Muerta a year ago.
But Jack didn't have time to feel the sastifaction of his little revenge and didn't even borther either. The mutated crew were pushing the rest of the group back, trapping them by the side of the longboats. All their best effort wouldn't be able to beat them back. They were defeated.
Elizabeth saw Will fall (though she observed not the cause), and rushed toward him. "Leave 'im lie," Said Jack, "Unless you're planning on using him to hit something with."
Mickey gulped nervously, terrified and for once in a long time, at a complete loss. He had no idea how to get out of this mess, and from the panicked looks on his friends, even the clever Jack Sparrow, neither did they. "Welp. I hate to say it fellas, but we're not gettin' out of this mess."
"You're tellin' me." Reno admitted in agreement.
"Not with the chest, at least." Dulor spoke up, before reaching into the longboat and grabbed hold of the chest, "Leave now, and I'll handle you all later!"
"Are you insane!?" Elena protested, horrified as she saw what Dulor was about to do.
"Just go!" Dulor urged, not leaving the young woman room for an argument, and without hesitation, before dashing past the surrounding fish people, deflecting sword blows. Once he was past them, he turned on a bust of speed and ran toward the forest, the mutated men of Jones' crew hot on his trail.
Despite that the Keyblade wielders of the group felt there was more to this than what Dulor was attempting to do in saving their and everyone else's lives, none the less, they stood stunned. There was no hope for the former Nobody, as he couldn't outrun them for long; he's a dead man. However, there is a time to respect the last brave act of a doomed man, and there is a time to turn tale and run without looking back. And in Jack's mind, the latter choice seemed a rather attractive option at the moment. "I say we respect his final wish."
"I agree!" Myde said hysterically.
"But what about Angeal and Genesis!?" Kairi cried out worriedly, being the first to notice the absence of the said two swordsmen.
"They took Aced to somewhere else!" Sora exclaimed.
"We can't just leave them!" Xion cried out, worriedly.
"Yes we can, because they'll be fine!" Jack argued.
"Aye!" Pintel said in agreement.
Despite this, those who didn't want to leave Angeal or Genesis behind despite that the said two had taken Aced away from this world, everyone else had no choice but to escape now while they still had the chance. So, with hesitation, the group got into the two longboats and despite both rides being a tight squeeze due to increased numbers on their parts, began to row back to the relative safety of the Black Pearl.
Unfortunately, little did Jack know, he would definately be leaving this island empty handed, and that Dulor's 'sacrifice' was really his own escape route that would cause even more problems in the near future, putting the Realm of Light into jeapody once more.
A/N: I am so sorry for the delay, guys. Amounts of stress, visitors, and such, I needed a break before I could write again. So as promised, I've brought you the new chapter. I bet you guys are shocked to see Skuld here in the picture.
Until next time, I'll see you in the next and possibly final chapter of this story.