Author's Note: Depending on how this will go, I think this will be the final chapter of the story before I make preperations for my version of KH3. Speaking of which, Square Enix just made a statement last week that the game itself will not be released until at least in 2018 next year...unless they change their minds again like they normally do, so we'll wait and see.
I still don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
CH 9: The Beginning of the End.
It has been at least half an hour since the group made it back onto the Black Pearl when Will had finally began to regain consciousness when he became aware of the rocking movement of the ship. The first thing he saw was the relieved expressions of Elizabeth, Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Xion, Mickey, Donald and Goofy hovering over him. Since the beginning of this adventure, this was a very nice thing to wake up to instead of the things he'd seen lately.
Then, as memories came back to him, Will immediately asked, "What happened to the chest?" still feeling a little groggy, but remembering enough of the past few hours to ask that question (and to think, somewhat sheepishly, that he had kind of behaved like an idiot).
"Dulor took it to drove them off." Elizabeth answered, softy, subdued at the idea of what had happened.
"So we're pretty much empty handed. Sorry." Sora added with an apologetic shrug, while he and his friends, even Aqua, Ven, Terra, Riku, Cloud, Zack, Vincent, Reno, Elena, Lea, Isa, and the newcommer Skuld, who were having seperate conversations of their own, were ignoring the rest of the crew doing their usual chores, and purposely ignoring Pintel and Ragetti's arguement even though they could clearly hear them.
"You're pullin' too 'ard!" Pintel yelled.
"You're not pullin' 'ard 'nough!" Ragetti yelled back, as the two said pirates were hauling the two longboats back onto the deck.
"We're not even sure where Angeal and Genesis are either." Mickey added to Will as they all stood up, with Sora, Roxas and Goofy helping Will to stand, while the king continued, "Wherever they may be, they took Aced with 'em."
Sora was about to say something when he felt the familiar pressence materialize next to him in his vision, and the ghostly form of Vanitas appeared as well. To Sora's surprise, the former darkness of Ventus actually looked concern. Either that, or maybe he was faking it. The young Keyblade Master couldn't tell.
"Master Aced...I barely even know him much." Vanitas said, thoughfully. He then smirked and gazed at Sora, adding, "Then again, like you, Ventus is easily forgetful."
'What's that supposed to mean?' Sora asked in his mind, not wanting to voice it aloud, knowing that if he did that, the others would think he was a lunatic, and he had a feeling that they would be right. He pretty much felt like one right now. None the less, he glared at Vanitas, still not trusting him and really wished that the dark part of Ven's heart would just go away.
Vanitas rolled his eyes, thankfully being able to commuciate even with Sora's thoughts. "Whatever thoughts flows in his thoughts, they flow into my mind since I'm a ghost now. Heck, even I don't have a clue on where that idiot originally came from. But considering this new Skuld girl, I'm willing to bet he came from where she comes from."
'Skuld?' Sora blinked, gazing his gaze at Skuld herself, speaking with Ven, Terra and Aqua.
In the meantime, Lea and Isa were trying so hard to ignore the fighting between Pintel and Ragetti until finally the latter two's bickering got so loud that the redhead finally snapped, and growled, "Oh, for Moogle's sake, SHUT UP!"
This did the trick, as the two said pirates froze and then silently continued their job after seeing the heated and scary glare from the former Flurry of Dancing Flames who sighed, rubbing the back of his head which was messing up his hair a bit more. The reason for this is because his yelling also made everyone else somewhat nervous, except for Isa, Reno, Cloud and Vincent who all smirked.
"Sorry 'bout that." Lea said to everyone else on the deck. "Post-Traumatic-Stress."
"Hey, don't feel too bad 'bout it." Reno said, smirking a little. "I was actually just one second away from doin' the same thing, with the exact same words..." before admitting a little sheepishly, "Except I would've used Ifrit instead of Moogle in my sentence."
Lea shrugged at his fellow redhead, and replied, "Yeah, whatever. I'm still more than a little shaken in seeing those creepy mutant-fish people."
"And I'm not?" Reno asked, skeptically. "Those guys scared me crapless."
"At least they can't turn ya' into a statue." Lea muttered under his breath, still more than a little traumatized in when Sa'luk's Heartless form briefly turned him into a statue in Agrabah.
Jack, a little bit freaked out by Lea's exclaimation himself, shrugged it off while clutching the jar of dirt close to his chest while heading up towards the helm, believing that things had turned out just fine. In fact, he was back to his usual cocky self, which made everyone else oblivious as much as he was oblivious of the actual out-come.
Gibbs, noticing there was one party member missing while having questioned on why another young woman had joined them, went up to Jack and asked, "Where's Dulor?"
"Fell behind." Was Jack's less than sorrowful reply.
Gibbs stopped, the full implications of that statement coming clear to him. "My prayers be with him."
However, Gibbs had never been one to mourn for very long, "Best not wallow in our grief." He said, his tone becoming sunny once more. He followed after Jack up to the stern. "The bright side is, you're back and made it off free and clear."
He may have spoken a little too soon, because at that very instant, the sea trembled violently, and with a great roar of rushing water and foam, the fearsome bow of the Flying Dutchman rose out of the water, right beside the Pearl. The unexpected and frightening entrance of the legendary ghost ship caused everyone, including every crew member on the Black Pearl to freeze in dumb terror. Kairi, Xion, Elena, Aqua, Elizabeth and Skuld all gasped and raised their hands to cover their mouths at the sight of the monsterous ship before them, utterly terrified. Reno's eyes widened in sheer terror, speechless beyond belief, Lea's breath was shaking in horror, blinking as he felt his heart almost freeze instantly.
Myde, Donald and Goofy all screamed and while the latter two clinged onto each other with their eyes bulging out in terror, Myde himself leaped into Isa's arms while the said blue-haired man stared in terror at first, before he glanced at the man that leaped into his arms, before unceremonily dropped him onto the deck, the younger man landing with a thud and grunting, "Omph!"
Mickey took a step back, unable to hold back a soft whimper of fear due the sight being so scary that he was hoping that it was all but a terrifying dream that he wanted so badly to wake up from. He never forgot the first time in seeing the ship so up close. To see it by the side on board another ship now only made things worse.
Even Cloud, Zack and Vincent took a cautious step back, their eyes widened in utter disbelief, with the oldest man muttering, "Dear Holy..." with the former two glancing at each other, knowing the dangers everyone was in now.
Sora(who had forgotten about Vanitas who disappeared again), Riku, Roxas, Ven and Terra were so stunned with awe and horror that none of them could even say anything and for a split second, Sora could somehow feel his heart feeling pulled rather painfully, as though it was being torn away from his chest at the mere sight of what he quickly came to realise was the Legendary Ship itself, and by the stern of the opposite ship in the pirate hat, Sora was certain, by the tentacled face, was the legendary Captain himself; Davy Jones. He had expected the guy himself to at least be a bit more human. Now he knew it wasn't the case, because like the crew, the Pirate Captain was...well, a mutant fish.
On the rigging and the deck, the monstrous crew of Davy Jones jeered and shouted contemptuous insults to the Black Pearl, waving all manner of fearsome and alien weapons. And above it all, standing like an evil lord over his gruesome court, the immense figure of over Davy Jones towered over all.
"Lord on high, deliver us." Breathed Gibbs, crossing himself in terrified awe.
Jack on the other hand, being possibly the only one not as terrified, possibily even being rather confident, brushed past his First Mate, saying, "I'll handle this, mate."
The mortal Pirate Captain strolled to the railing, and held up the jar of dirt while calling out mockingly, "Oi, fish-face!"
This comment alone caused everyone onboard the Black Pearl to glance up at him with disbelieved expressions, with Reno holding an expression that said, 'Did-I-hear-that-right?' on his face. While he did want to call Davy Jones that, he held it off due to the terror. He never thought that Jack Sparrow to do that or have a similiar personality to him, Lea and Sora combined.
Even Davy was puzzled as he glanced down at Jack, mentally wondering what that idiot was trying to accomplish now, especially since the said younger man was holding up...a pathetic jar of dirt?
"Lose somethin', eh? Scoungili-Eh-Whoa!" Unfortunately, Jack had sort of forgotten to look where he was going in the midst of his gloating and had stepped wrong. He toppled head over heels down the stairs, causing everyone who saw him to flinch visibly, with mumbles of "Oh! Ooh... Ow...Ouch." from most of them, especially Elizabeth, Pintel, Sora, Zack, Lea, Goofy, Mickey, and Reno with sympathy.
As usual, Jack was fine. In fact, he was still quite cocky of his chance. What was most important was that the jar of dirt was still in tact. He held it over the rail; he wanted to make sure that Davy got a good look at it. "Got it."
While Davy was still dumbfounded, Jack scrambled to his feet, and started swaggering along the deck, "Come to negotiate have you, ya slimy git? Look what I've got." Jack started speaking in a sing-songy tone of voice, clearly wanting to taunt Jones. "~I've got a jar of dirt; I've got a dirt, and guess what's inside it~."
Jack only succeeded in sounding totally absurd. Most of the crew, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Ven, Aqua, Terra, Skuld, Myde, Cloud, Zack, Vincent, Reno, Elena, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Elizabeth and Will could not believe what they were seeing, as the those from other worlds glanced briefly at each other before looking back at Jack while he had sang.
"...What is he doing?" Sora muttered, dumbfounded beyond belief.
"How should the rest of us know?" Cloud responded with a skeptical look that said, 'You're-asking-us?' on his face.
"You do realise that you're actin' like an idiot, right?" Reno spoke up to Jack who either didn't pay attention or chose to ignore him.
Davy Jones on his part, was very unimpressed by this display, before turning to his crew and grunted, "Enough."
Jack had greatly underestimated his advantage and he was about to get a sign that he had gone a step too far and had caused Sora and all of his friends to be in great danger. The gun ports along the Dutchman's side suddenly began opening their great jaws and extending their individual cannons, all aimed straight at the Pearl. When Jack saw this, his confidence more or less shattered. Everyone else all took another step back, as Mickey mumbled a terrifed, "Uh oh..."
"Uuuuuuuh ooooooh..." Donald echoed, more shakingly than his King.
"Gawrsh!" Goofy exclaimed in fear.
"Oh great." The real Sora muttered, with a freaked out expression.
"Hard to starboard." Jack muttered, so softly that it was a wonder anyone was able to hear him, but someone did, and that someone was Sora.
"Hard to starboard!" Sora shouted.
"Hard to starboard!" Elizabeth echoed, and with those three words repeated twice, the entire crew, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Cloud, Zack, Vincent, Reno, Elena, Myde, Terra, Aqua, Ven and Skuld erupted into action.
Gibbs immediately was on the wheel almost instantly, turning the bow of the Black Pearl away from the teeth of the Dutchman's fire. The Pearl swung to starboard, the wind catching her great sails and swelling them to their fullest extent. They had no chance in fighting now, and with mutant-immortal fish-people to go up against, that was only asking for a death wish which no one on board the Black Pearl had in mind at the moment.
"Hard to starboard!" Davy Jones growled, storming up to a shark-headed crew member, ordering, "Send his beloved Pearl back to the depths!"
"FIRE!" The shark-headed crew member ordered.
Immediately, the Flying Dutchmen fired at the Black Pearl. Everyone onboard the latter vessel weren't able to miss getting grazed by the Dutchman's canons. However, their move was enough to take the Pearl ahead by at least a few seconds. The Dutchman wasn't going to let its prey escape so easily. She turned after the Pearl and the chase was on. Everyone onboard, including Sora and his friends, were swarming up the Pearl's lines, letting down as much sail as could be had to catch the wind. But here was more to Dutchmanthan at first met the eye. It had been built to destroy, and more than just those obvious arms of destruction had been built into her. The captain would not hesitate to use them if he had too.
One of these weapons were the triple bow cannons that thrust forth from the Dutchman, firing off round after round, the three cannons rotating, so that the fire which pelted the Pearl's retreat was continuous. The iron balls whistled through the air and struck the Pearl, shattering on impact, inflicting damaging and crippling blows. Myde screamed girlishly when one nearly hit him, and then Gibbs gave out a scream when he was nearly hit as well, before he was stuck frozen in paralyzing fear. Jack, still clutching the jar of dirt, scurried up the wheel, and taking over from Gibbs and shoved him over before he began steering the Pearl in a zigzag pattern, the connection which he shared the Pearl somehow telling him where the next round of fire would be coming from and Jack responding fast enough to get her out of the path of most of the cannon fire.
It didn't help that Heartless appeared, which meant that those who didn't belong in this world had no choice but to fight them while everyone else had to handle with the ship and avoiding the cannon fire. As Sora slashed the last of the Heartless fifteen minutes later, and gradually, it began to seem as if the cannon fire was becoming less and less frequent.
"Hey! They're slowin' down!" Goofy exclaimed when he noticed how far back the Dutchmen was getting further and further behind, and sure enough, the Dutchman's canons were now useless against the Pearl's speed. They had fallen out of range.
"They're not slowin' down, we're going faster." Zack corrected, blinking in surprise at how far back the enemy vessel was.
"Aye, we've got 'er." Said Gibbs, triumphantly as he joined Zack, Goofy and even Terra.
"How are we faster then them?" Terra questioned.
"Against the wind, that's how the Dutchman takes her prey. But with the wind..."
"We stole her advantage." Terra finished for Gibbs after realising where this was going.
On board the Flying Dutchmen, everyone saw just how far the Black Pearl has quickly gotten and was simply too fast for them now, even with the winds blowing against the sails. One crew member shouted in announcement, "We're out of range!"
"Break off pursuit, run her light and douse canvas!" Davy Jones commanded once even he saw that chasing them was no longer an optain.
"We're giving up, sir?" Questioned the shark-headed crew member.
Davy Jones said nothing, but instead, he sneered an evil grin, which was quickly echoed by his First Mate. Oh he was far from giving up, and he had already come up with a secret plan beta. It was time to bring out the big guns. Or in this case, the big fish.
By his command, crew members were at the turn-wheel, turning it around and around, and grunted in pain as the top of it slowly rose, while Davy Jones chanted with a growl, "Let no joyful voice be heard! Let no man look up at the sky with hope. And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake..."
Back on board the Black Pearl...
Unaware of the turn of events, Marty noticed the Dutchmen had stopped chasing after them and announced to everyone else, "They've given up!"
The announcement that the Dutchman had fallen behind was greeted with joyous shouts from the assembled crew, some of them throwing their hats into the air and dancing ecstatically. They no doubt believed that the whole thing was over and that they had won. Jack himself was smiling confidently, feeling much better about the way that things were turning out than he had just a few minutes ago.
Sora and his group, however, felt that something was very off. Why would Davy Jones suddenly call off the pursuit and leave them like this?
"Something's wrong." Vincent muttered softly, voicing the others' concerns.
"Yeah, I don't like this one bit." Roxas nodded in agreement.
"I think we should warn that dumb captain friend of yours, kid." Reno suggested to Sora who nodded in agreement, already making his way up to warn Jack of their concerns.
"Jack!" Sora called up as he joined his older friend at the railing at the stern. "I don't think we should celebrate. Something weird's going on and I think we should think about Davy Jones's other dangerous ideas."
"We don't have time for thinking of ideas." Will spoke up as he joined both Sora and Jack as well, continuing, "My father is on that ship. If we can outrun her, we can take her, we should turn and fight."
Sora glanced at Will incrediously, asking, "What? Against a bunch of fish-pirates who're immortal? We nearly got our heads sliced off by those guys at the deserted island!"
"The lad has a point." Jack said in agreement, "Why fight when you can negotiate." He set the jar of dirt on the railing in front of him and said, as if it were the answer to all their problems, "All one needs is the proper leverage."
"With a jar of dirt?" Sora deadpanned.
At that very moment, the entire Pearl shuddered violently and came to an abrupt halt. The sudden jolt caused everyone to stumble and grab hold of a solid object. It also caused the jar of dirt to fall fro the railing and shatter on the deck below, much to Jack's horror as he let out a horrified squeal, as if he had just witnessed the violent death of an old friend. Bolting down the stairs, he began pawing through the sand which was scattered around the deck. Horror mounted on horror, as he realized that not only had his precious jar of dirt been broken, the only key to his freedom had not been in it.
"Where is it?" He asked himself frantically, "Where is the thump-thump?"
"What was that!?" Roxas cried out, glancing around while trying to piece together what caused the sudden jolt.
"We must 'ave it a reef." Someone in the rigging yelled.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Roxas, Xion, Ven, Elizabeth, Elena, Reno, Skuld and Lea had rushed to the rail, scanning the waters, and suddenly Lea with the group had a terrible gut feeling, and given what he'd heard recently, his breath was caught in his throat and prayed to the gods that it wasn't what he really thought it was. Still, he couldn't help but comment shakily, "Doesn't look like a reef to me."
"That's because it's not a reef!" Riku exclaimed once he, Aqua, Terra, Cloud, Zack, Isa, Myde, Mickey, and Will all immediately realised, combined with feeling the similiar thing earlier and the words they heard confirmed their fears. "Get away from the rails, now!" grabbing Sora, Kairi, Xion, Roxas, Elena and Elizabeth from the railing, with Sora and the others following once they saw this.
"What's happening?" Kairi asked, fearfully.
"The Kracken!" Aqua exclaimed, "It's underneath us!"
"WHAT!?" Donald, Goofy, Sora, Lea, Ven and Elena exclaimed in horror.
Reno's eyes widened as he muttered, "T-The big, fat, giant, nasty, squid...!?"
"That's why they stopped." Lea realised, referring to the Dutchmen. "They didn't give up. They stopped so that they can summon the darn thing!" which made the rest of the group realise this was what they sensed was wrong.
"WAAAK!" Donald screamed.
"Uh-oooh!" Goofy trembled in absolute fear. "We're sea-food!"
The moment Aqua had shouted, 'The Kracken', those words caused Jack to instantly stop what he was doing and look up, an expression of absolute terror stamped on his features.
"Not if we can help it!" Terra pointed out, as he'd be damned if he was going to let history repeat itself and kill everyone on board the Pearl.
Will had the same idea in mind, as he shouted in command, "To arms!" before descending the steps to the main deck. "It'll attack to starboard. Run out the guns and hold for my signal."
In the ensuing scramble to obey his orders, nobody seemed to remember Jack. He had lost both the dirt and the heart, lost his chance to claim his own Keyblade, he might as well count hope lost as well. No one noticed Jack, disappearing from view, not could they have guessed just what he was planning on doing. Donald, Goofy, and Myde followed Pintel and Ragetti below decks, hurriedly getting the guns ready, as per Will's orders. Suddenly Ragetti caught sight of something that made him freeze. Poking Pintel, he gestured out the gun port, muttering scaredly, "Look!"
When the other four did look, their expressions matched with the wooden-eye-balled Pirate, as the port was covered by an enormous tentacle, covered with huge suction cups that were feeling their way over the ship, looking for a target to strike. To both Donald and Goofy, it gave them a flash of deja vu, remembering their times when they and Sora had to fight the giant Ursula in Atlantica-twice, in fact.
"Easy, boys!" Will called, standing on the stair to below decks.
"Easy for you to say!" Myde quivered, in half sarcasm.
Above deck, the view was no less encouraging. A tense, uneasy silence had settled over everyone on board, as the tentacles began appearing over the starboard side. The rest of Sora's group had brought out their weapons as they, some of the crew and Elizabeth backed away slowly as the tentacles slowly edged closer and closer, practically nervous and beyond terrified.
"Will," Elizabeth said nervously, as the tentacles began sliding over the railing, advancing threateningly towards them, while Mickey gulped scaredly, Lea was losing his cool since the redhead had wished to never let this happen and now was facing the possiblity of seeing the throat of the Kracken as his last sight, and even Vincent was more than a little nervous.
"Steady, steady."
"Uh...Will?" Sora muttered. The tentacles were coming closer and closer and he and the others were beginning to feel more than a little worried.
"Anytime now...!" Lea added, pleadingly.
"Hold." Persisted Will, calm and collected under the pressure of the moment, which made everyone wonder how the devil can he be so calm when they were getting closer and closer to being eaten by a giant Octopus. "Hold."
"What's wrong with you!?" Skuld cried out, almost hysterically.
"Hurry up, you big palooka!" Donald exclaimed scaredly.
"Yeah, I think we've held fire long enough." Pintel said in agreement.
Will still remained firm. The tentacles were coming up faster, they were nearly halfway across the deck, and Sora, Kairi, Riku, Elizabeth, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion and Mickey finally turned to Will in exasperation and shouted, "Will!"
"Now, please!" Reno shouted half a second later.
Then and only then did Will give the order everyone had been waiting for. "Fire!"
Cannon fire burst from the cannons of the Black Pearl, hitting the tentacles of the Kracken at point blank range. The Kraken's eerie screams of agony pierced the ears of everyone onboard. The tentacles writhed, nearly crushing them, coiling about themselves around the charred flesh that had been blasted away from the appendages. With the screams of the Kracken gradually fading in the air, the tentacles slid back into the water.
Despite the crew breaking into cheers, Sora's group and Will all knew that the kracken wasn't defeated so easily, especially since they only managed to damage it's tentacles for a short time being, and a very short time being. Something this large had more power that one would need to be a merman in order to take it on fully underwater, and Sora didn't think magic would be a wise choice this time. Unlike Ursula, the Kracken was far too dangerous to take on.
"It'll be back." Vincent warned softly.
"We have to get off the ship." Cloud nodded in agreement.
Zack then winced, as he noticed the destroyed long-boat and muttered, "That would've been easy if we had a boat or two."
"There's gotta something we can do to fend if off long enough." Xion said, worriedly.
"Yeah, but how?" Ven asked.
Riku was trying to think when his eyes caught a small barrel of gunpowder rolling out from under the wreckage. An idea began to form in Riku's mind, and idea, which, even if it didn't win them the battle, might gain them some time. He turned to both Gibbs and Will, asking, "Do you guys have a net?"
Suddenly, Will realised what Riku had in mind, and nodded. "Pull the grates!" He shouted, knowing that they had a limited amount of time, "Get all the gunpowder onto the nets in the cargo hold."
The crew, by this time sensing the jig was up, scrambled to obey. Will grabbed a rifle from a passing pirate, and handed it to Elizabeth. He did not have to say anything, she knew already. She was the only one that he could trust to get it right.
Sora in the meantime, turned to Kairi and said, fearing that something was bound to go wrong, and said, "If we survive this, I'm making us a bunch of good-luck charms, because I really wanna apologuise to you and the others."
"Same here." Kairi nodded, feeling the same thing as her friend was feeling. She hoped that they would be able to survive this crisis, or else not only she'd lose her best friends and everything they fought to protect, but the entire Realm of Light would be lost to Chaos and Bhunivelze.
The grates were pulled back from the deck, and in the cargo hold, the Pearl's crew was hurriedly pushing all the barrels of gun powder which they could find onto the net. Unfortunately, the plan ran into an unexpected snag. As Reno was helping load the barrels, he realised that they were short on this and grunted, "Damn it! You've gotta be kidding me!"
"What's wrong?" Cloud asked, concerned as he came down to check.
"We've only got six barrels of the gun powder in here. All this boat's got left is barrels of alcohol." Reno sighed, running his hand through his spiky messed up hair, while careful in know tilting his goggles. "Even though I kinda hoped to die drunk, I think I'd rather put up a little sacrifice in loading them too." which he was met by looks of disbelief from the pirates, while Goofy, Donald and Myde immediately began searching for the barrels of rum.
Gibbs, who was beside Cloud heard this, and began climbing the stairs to find Will above deck. Will, at the same moment, was heading down to the cargo hold. Gibbs stopped him half-way down the steps. "There's only a half-a-dozen kegs of powder."
"Then load the rum." Will snapped back almost immediately, as if it was the most obvious solution to the problem. He knew that it would be the one thing that the Pearlwould always have a guaranteed supply of.
But, this suggestion, perfectly logical to Will, was met with nothing short of sacrilegious to the pirates. Gibbs turned a pleading glance at Cloud, silently begging him to reconsider. The younger man rolled his eyes and muttered, "It's either the rum or our lives."
"You heard the man. Unless you're more than willing in becomin' sea-food." Reno added, already rolling one of the rum barrels in as Myde, Donald and Goofy were doing the same.
Gibbs knew that it was a useless task to argue. Besides, there could be no way of telling if Reno was serious about that last Kracken bit. However, there still could be no mistaking that agreeing was almost physically painful. "Aye, the rum, too." He told the rest of the crew, half-heart-brokenly. It seemed like one of the hardest orders that he had ever had to give.
Gibbs' agony at burning was to the pirates the very meaning of health and happiness was mirrored by the pathetic wails which sounded from the rest of loading crew(except Myde, Donald, Goofy and Reno who were more than happy to sacrifice the rum), but they had no choice.
Sora and the others above the deck were preparing themselves for the huge battle that would no doubt cost so many lives that none of them wanted to sacrifice, when he, Kairi and Elizabeth gazed out at the railing on the other side of the ship and their eyes widened in disbelief and for Sora, the utter feeling of betrayal seeped deep into his heart. Out in the open ocean, where the last remaining longboat was taken, heading towards the island close to them, was none other than Captain Jack Sparrow, who was heading towards it; running away from his duties, abandoning his crew and his friends.
"No..." Sora muttered, devastated.
"How could you?" Kairi whispered.
"You coward." Elizabeth whispered, in hurt and anger. How could Jack do this to them?
Just then, the ship shuddered violently once more, and everyone who again had to try and regain their balance, knew that the Kracken was back, ready for round two, and this time, it will attack will full force. And it did. This time, it thrusted it's massive tentacles with the gun ports, thrusting and destroying everything in it's way. Donald, Goofy, Myde, Reno, Pintel and Ragetti narrowly avoided in being grabbed or hit by the giant, slimy but iron-like tentacles and could only hope for the best that they or their friends wouldn't suffer the horrible fate of becoming the giant monster's latest meal.
Like multiple giant snakes, the tentacles slithered around and up, snapping off wood beams and deck as easily as if the Pearl had been made of twigs. The cannons were thrown about and twisted beyond recognition; any obstacle met with was either destroyed or forced aside. It was not just the inanimate objects of wood and steel that were targets of the Kracken's monstrous appetite. It was also on the hunt for something more substantial, human flesh. The hapless men who were trapped beneath the Pearl's deck could find no place to hide from the ever-searching tentacles. They were dragged, screaming, across the deck and into the sea, where there was only one place for them to end up: the Kracken's crushing maw. It was the stuff of nightmares, but none of them would be able to escape reality by waking up.
Sora immediately slashed against each tentacles that came up towards him with his Keyblade, managing to successfully do a better job than an axe or a cutlass could've done. Still, there were just too many, as though the Octopus had more than just eight tentacles like normal octopus would. But he knew other wise; it just didn't know when to quit. "Thunder!" Sora chanted, using a Lightning spell to at least weaken the tentacles.
Kairi swiped at one tentacle that attempted to get to her, before she was pushed out of the way by Elena when another attempted to grab them both. Fortunately, they were saved by Isa who leaped into the air and successfully sliced off the tips of three tentacles before landing swiftly back onto the deck. The former Nobody of Saix nodded at them as Kairi and Elena nodded in graditude before scampering to their feet and continued to try and hold off the tentacles along with the aid of everyone else who were not taken into the sea to become fish-food.
Cloud, Riku, Roxas, Terra and Zack all slashed their weapons at the tentacles that nearly got most of the crew while avoiding them as well, as Aqua and Xion both used a good combination of twirling around with their Keyblades to give more damage, knocking away the monster's slimy arms as much as they could. Lea set four tentacles on fire which then slithered down into the water before coming back up to cool off. He was then forced to summon his Keyblade and awkwardly sliced one into two pieces, the deafening roar making his ears hurt and ring.
Vincent shot fires at the Tentacles before reclipping his ammo before grunting as he realised that he was down to just two left. So as he avoided other tentacles and was too late to save a crew member who was dragged down to his doom, picked up the dropped rifle and used what was left in it to continue to fire at it. Ven tossed his Keyblade at two tentacles before it returned to him and rolled out of the way before casting fire to at least fry it a little. Skuld leaped into the air and thrusted one tentacle down with her Keyblade which was surprisingly powerful, but even she knew that the Kracken was not giving up until Riku and Will's plan was set.
Despite this, many lives were lost as the Kracken continued it's rampage and assualt, and while Sora and his friends and some of the crew were lucky so far, the said couldn't be said for the victums and there were several close calls. It didn't help when Will, dangling above the deck, was hanging onto the net that had been filled with the rum barrels. And down below him was Elizabeth, holding a rifle, looking up at Will with an expression of fear and expectation on her face. He was shouting at the beast, as if by taunting it, he could lure the kracken into the trap.
Jack had stolen the only boat that was still in tact after the first attack from the kracken, and was now rowing away from the Pearl with all the strength he could muster. He had witnessed the Kracken's first attack. He had to give the worldly travellers and the crew credit for making such a stand and surviving. He knew, however, that Davy Jones wouldn't give up. He didn't keep the Kracken as his pet just because he was fond of oversized squids. The Kracken was ruthless, and relentness, driven by a hunger that was never sated. No matter how many ships or men it digested, it would always come for more. And he had no intention of becoming the latest menu on the Kracken's dinner menu.
But then, there was something eating him on the inside, niggling at the back of his mind, that he couldn't quite get rid of, however much he may have liked to. Jack Sparrow, by his own multiple saying, had never been one to listen to his conscience, but at this very moment, his conscience was shouting to him in a voice so loud that he couldn't ignore it. And he knew why; he was doing the wrong thing, and he knew this, because, well, he is Captain Jack Sparrow, a pirate.
Yet, there were times when he had done the right thing, like a year ago for example. He learned of other worlds, yet had no desire to venture out to them, as the waters of this world were adventures enough for him. Sure, the fancy Keyblades were a nice touch, but one had to be chosen in order to wield those things. And they choose their masters, not the people, and they can be picky. Lea and Isa both struggled to master in wielding their Keyblades.
And as such, Jack never regretted in doing the right thing. But those had been under rare circumstances, only when he could see the benefit that there might be to himself. What benefit could there be to him now? He was not about to start acting all honorable now when there was so much at stake. But what was at stake? Should he let others suffer for what he had done? Maybe once, the answer would have been an unreserved yes. But that was before Jack had found out that not all treasure was silver and gold, the real treasures to be valued above all else were friendship.
Despite himself, the protests were swiftly beginning to diminish in strength. Images began flashing across his mind; Gibbs, William, Elizabeth, Cotton, Marty (even Pintel and Ragetti to some extent), and then, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Kairi, Ventus, Mickey, Terra, Aqua, Cloud, Zack, Vincent, Reno, Elena, Skuld and even Myde. Especially Sora, the teenaged boy who like William had the honest streak, but unlike William, thought more than acted rashly. The boy who inadertvently granted him the possible abilities to wield the Keyblade. The boy who helped him gain back the Black Pearl.
Jack stopped rowing, all his strength drained from his body. He looked at the Pearl; the Kracken had returned and was in the process of slowly tearing the ship apart. The sight seemed to rip at Jack's heart at the same time. The Pearl was a part of him, and been ever since her had traded his soul for the chance to walk on the deck of the ship that had been stolen from him. Even now, when his time was up, Jack didn't regret that bargain, nor did he wish to take back even one second of the time that he had spent on her. Now, she was making a last brave stand, while her Captain was abandoning her like a coward.
Not only that, Jack had promised himself not to get Sora involved into his struggles with Davy Jones, and now he realised, with a heavy heart, he had just broken his own promise. Sora had fought long and hard to find his best friends, and maybe that's why both of them were sort of alike. Both struggled to find who or what they were looking for, not willing to give up despite the hardships. But Sora couldn't be anymore different than Jack; that boy didn't deserve this, and neither did his friends.
He looked back at the distant island. There, with land was safety and security, but was it freedom? He looked back once more at Pearl. There was his home, his freedom, and his life. Perhaps even cowardience was darkness too, and Jack had long decided not to let the Heartless devour his heart, but now he realised he couldn't be more wrong.
Heartless craved for hearts that were slowly surcumbing to darkness, and Jack couldn't help but feel that the darkness were entering the cracks in his own heart. A heart can lead one either on the right path, or it could lead them astray. Once upon a time, Lea had done the wrong things, yet he was given a second chance, since his Nobody, Axel, too had made many mistakes in the dark path.
He took out his compass and opened it. He wasn't sure what he should do, but sometimes, it is only when the mind is confused by so many choices, that is when we must listen to our hearts, for there we will hear what we want most. The compass had never before steered him wrong, malfunctioned and drove him to distraction, yes, but its needle had always pointed true when he trusted it.
"May my Heart be my guiding Key." Aced's words echoed in Jack's mind. At first, the pirate didn't know the meaning of the crazy Keyblade wielders' words when the man in the bear mask fought against Sora and the others. But now...Jack started to understand the meaning of the words.
Hearts were the keys to one's life. And the compass was the arrow of Jack's heart. The needle wavered, than swung about and pointed steady. Jack stared at the compass for a moment, and then realised with a small nod of determination, what he had to do, as it was not only his own decision, but it was also his heart's decision.
And for once, he would agree.
Despite that the saying was a little quirky and rather too silly to even say, Jack couldn't help but mutter to himself, "May my Heart be my guiding Key." and picked up the oars before he started rowing with renewed energy, to the direction the compass had shown him. It was what his heart wanted most, after all. He couldn't go wrong with that.
Little did he know, this direction was the key of his freedom all along, as well as his newly discovered destiny.
Donald, Goofy, Reno, Myde, Pintel and Ragetti, who'd all been petrified at first when they earlier had to try not to see the sickening crunch of a poor victum's back being snapped, managed to eventually make their way to the deck while avoiding the tentacles around them. Seeing that their friends were having trouble, Donald, Goofy and Reno then knew that they had to join them and raced into battle. Donald using his magic as much as he could, Goofy twirling around with his shield as he preformed his "Goofy-Tornado", and Reno was electrocuting each tentacle as he could with his EMR while managing to use his back-up gun to shoot at them. While firearm was never his foretee, that didn't mean he didn't know how to use them.
Mickey was shooting away orbs of light from his Keyblade and whipping at the tentacles with his speed and agility, but even he was beginning to become brutually exhausted. Despite the terror of having seen what the Kracken actually looked like, the young king refused to give into his fear unless he had no choice when something would happen that would render him helpless.
Just then, Mickey felt something slimy and strong curling around his waist and lift him up into the air. It took him a second to realise that one of the Kracken's tentacles had got him and now he was about to become the monster's latest meal. So he screamed and despite the others trying to get to him while they were horrified to see him captured, Mickey knew that no one could save him and panic and fear nearly made his heart explode that it made him want to cry. Just as he thought of all of his friends he wouldn't even get the chance to say goodbye, his mentor, his family, especially Minnie, someone decided to keep him alive.
And surprisingly, that someone was Myde who, with his Styer, thrusted at the tentacle as hard as he could, slicing it and causing the rest of it to retreat, while the chopped off part fell limp onto the deck, and lost it's grip on Mickey who decended and landed on top of the former no.9 who collasped face first onto the deck, kissing the damp floor.
At first dazed on his luck of being rescued, Mickey realised who he landed on top of and who had saved his life, before he leaped off of Myde and quickly said, "Sorry, Myde!"
"No, prob." Myde groaned, his voice muffled as his face was still planted onto the black wood of the Black Pearl.
Whether the Kracken actually heard what Will was saying or if it just happened to tangle the net up in it's tentacles and Will's grasp slipped and he became tangled in the net, trapping him. Despite this, Will could only think of what needed to be done. While Sora and the others, including Mickey and Myde who both stood up and continued to fight the tentacles, Elizabeth would get no better chance than this, so even as he saw desperately at the rope which was pinioning his leg against one of the barrels, he cried down to Elizabeth, "Shoot! Elizabeth, shoot!"
Down below, Elizabeth, unmindful of the chaos around her, including Pintel and Ragetti were dashing past her, trying to seek refuge in the decimated captain's cabin. All her concentration was focused on the swinging net. But as she raised the rifle to fire, she paused for half-a-second, hoping against hope that Will would be able to fall clear in time. Despite this, while the group then continued to fight the tentacles, Kairi then noticed a tentacle slithering it's way towards Elizabeth, and gasped, not thinking for a second as she raced and cried out, "Elizabeth, look out!" and pushed her aside.
Though the Princess of Heart did save Elizabeth, the tentacle did not stop as it wrapped itself around Kairi's ankle. She screamed as the kracken pulled her feet out from under her, and she began to be pulled backwards.
"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed as he raced forward, grabbing hold of his friend by the waist and hanged onto her with Aqua, Donald and Goofy racing to help, but they too were being slowly pulled into the cabin. To their luck, both Pintel and Ragetti were chopping at the wriggling tentacle wrapped around Kairi's leg, freeing her.
The five of them freed for now, the group turned to the rifle while the rest of their friends from other worlds continued to try and shake off the tentacles while avoiding them at the same time. Elizabeth dashed to the rifle which Elizabeth had dropped. But before she could get it, another crew member snatched it, and took aim at the waving tentacles. The fool act of bravery was his last. One of the tentacles came up, whipped around his body and pulled him into the air. The gun slipped from his grasp and landed on the top deck of the Pearl.
Ven and Skuld both pulled Elizabeth out of the way from another tentacle while Aqua, Donald and Goofy raced to help the rest of the group and survivors, leaving Sora and Kairi both looking at each other, then at the gun, and despite not being skilled in using such weapons, the two teenagers headed for the steps. A violent shudder rocked the Pearl. Falling to their knees, Sora and Kairi both crawled up the stairs as quickly as they could.
The two got to the top, both grabbing hold of the rifle only for a booted foot came out of nowhere, stepping down on the rifle, and preventing Sora and Kairi from moving it. Sora grunted in frustration and attempted to punch it when Kairi looked up and held him off from doing so, her expression turning to shock, disbelief and relief. When Sora followed his friend's gaze, his expression matched that of Kairi's, realising that the boot belonged to none other than Jack Sparrow.
He came back.
He had been standing above, looking out over the destruction which was being wrought by the kracken. He glanced down and saw Sora and Kairi. Jack knew what had to be done. "Leave this to a professional." He told them as he reached for the rifle.
Jack raised the rifle to his shoulder and took careful aim, as everyone else from other worlds saw that he had returned and realised what he was about to do, before wisely stepping away while continuing to avoid the tentacles. At the same moment, Will at last managed to cut himself free, and he fell downward to the deck. Then and only then did Jack know it was time. He only had one shoot, and as he had once told Will, Sora, Donald and Goofy, when you only had one shot, it was best to wait for the opportune moment, and the opportune moment was now.
One barrel of rum was enough to set off a chain reaction of thunderous, fiery explosions. The Kracken whose tentacles were wrapped around the net roared in agony as it's flesh was seared and burnt away, and flaming projectiles of wood buried themselves in it's flesh the tentacles wrapped around the Pearl's hull and waving in the air, thrashed violently for several seconds, than their movements seemed to slow, slower and slower, until at last with an eerie, bone-chilling moan, the tentacles retreated back into the water.
Despite this, it wasn't without casualties. The ship was all but nearly destroyed, small patches of fire lingered, a deathly silence surrounded the group of suvivors with their hearts wrenching in horror at the sight before them. This had been the power of the Kracken. The only ones left on the very ruined vessel were Sora, Kairi, Captain Jack Sparrow, Riku, Mickey, Aqua, Donald, Goofy, Myde, Ven, Skuld, Terra, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Reno, Elena, Cloud, Zack, Vincent, Elizabeth, Will, Gibbs, Marty, Cotton and his Parrot, Pintel and Ragetti who slowly gathered around at the devastation before them.
Goofy joined Isa at the railing, and asked, uncertainly, "Gawrsh, is it gone?"
"No..." Isa hushfully replied, his brows narrowing as he knew the full answer. "We've only made it furious."
"So what do we do now?" Cloud asked, sensing the fear in everyone else. In fact, he was feeling it himself. The Kracken would no doubt return to finish it's work.
As Jack, Sora and Kairi came down the stairs, the pirate made his decision, no matter how difficult and heavy this was, Jack knew that there was only one choice. "Abandon ship. Into the longboat."
"What?" Sora blinked, shocked. Even he knew that the Black Pearl was very important to Captain Jack Sparrow. Now he was willing to abandon it? "You're leaving behind the Black Pearl?" with Gibbs equally horrified.
"She's only a ship, mate." Jack somberly replied, with a heavy heart.
"He's right. We have to go." Aqua said in agreement.
"But there's no room for all of us to fit into the longboat." Myde pointed out, knowing that some would probably have to stay.
Or as Terra had realised, as he too said, with a heavy heart, "Then...the rest of us have no choice but to leave this world behind." much to the shock of Sora, Riku, Kairi, Lea, Roxas, Xion, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Myde, Ven, Zack and Elena.
"It's only way." Vincent agreed, though his head was hung low in guilt, but he knew, there was no other choice. "Right now, we're no match against Davy Jones. We'll have to come up with a plan to stop him and Maleficent, as well as Chaos and Bhunivelze."
Cloud, Isa, Skuld, Aqua, and Reno all nodded in somber agreement, as the red-haired Turk said to the devastated group, "Sometimes you have to take orders that are really hard to accept. There's no other choice sometimes in that matter."
"Besides, we have to try, in both ways." Will agreed, as he knew that they had no other choice. "We can get away as it takes down the Pearl."
Even though Sora was torn from whether to stay or not...finally, he made the hardest decision he could ever make, that was just as hard as Jack's decision to abandon the Black Pearl.
A/N: Okay, so this didn't end up being the last chapter as I hoped it would amd sorry for the cliff-hanger, but the next one will be and it'll also be shorter than this one. See you in the final chapter, fellow readers!