The clouds above grew into an overcast white then grey, shielding away every ounce of blue that was large into smaller spots. The time was around 7:30 in the morning and the seven travelers were just about waking up to a sky of blue, white and dark grey mixing into a perfect watercolor scenery with no sun in sight until it came out of the utmost darkness, reflecting the hidden nature of their current destination.

"Looks like we are in for some weather."

Almost after he said this, Goofy's right hand materialized his signature shield and he immediately placed it above his hat, fearful of the raindrops that would patter onto his head. It was fortunate that there weren't any, because from Donald and Sora's perspective, storms in this world passed quickly.

Moana, however was still asleep. Underneath her eyelids, her vision had turned to the sight of her home.

There was a bump that brought her mind back into consciousness and her eyes opened at the rays of sunlight pouring into her irises, her hair shining with light until it could have bleached from black to light, into a blonde color not seen until generations later. The sky was much, much blue then when she had last seen it, as if she had not seen so much blue in years, even though some shades of white were painting the blue with blank streaks and sailed on into the endless horizon. One long look at the sun and she would be blinded by its rays, preventing her from seeing what she would have seen next.

It was a small beach with some black rocks on the surface. She stood up wondering if this was the place for Maui's fish hook to be. Excited and not caring if anyone else was behind her, Moana ran five steps up the beach, stopping with her right hand on a thin, barnacle-coated palm tree at the sight…

…of Motunui in its unspoiled, pristine nature…

…but not for long…

When Moana's emotions went into shock, it was emphasized by the tree she was touching turning into blackness and it crawled from the roots upwards toward the leaves, turning into particles of dust that blew away into the wind and any remnants of the tree solidified into coal and fell into blocks that littered the earth where the tree once stood.

And a second later, Moana could have heard her father's voice, along with her mother's booming like a spirit of the mountain. As the dust of darkness littered her hair, she could see the struggling to hold on, as it was the end for them…

The whole island and it's civilians were covered by the darkness, turning them into skeletons that disintegrated and immediately blew into the wind without so much as a happy note coming from the whistling that blew across the sea…

Moana was all alone.

But it was not long until she heard another voice that woke her up. It was Sora calling her name.

"Were you calling me?" Moana asked, standing up with her heart pounding from the traumatizing dream.

"Yes. I wanted to let you know that…we're here."

In front of the travelers about a mile before them was a tall island. Its mountain stood at least a hundred feet high into the sky, with a small hill on the right with trees and bushes. Flat edges of rock scoured those beaches, while the right side of the mountain was almost flat going all the way into the ocean. The sun touched the peak with a monarch-esque display of magnificence and its rays shimmered down on the green flora of the island.

"Are you certain that your hook is there?" Moana asked Maui once they had reached a barrier of pentagon rock formations.

"If anyone has my hook, it might as well be Tamatoa."

"Who?" asked Donald, looking displeased with his hands on his hips. "Is Tamatoa?"

"You'll know him when you see him," Maui smiled devilishly, his demigod-enhanced ears understanding Donald's quacky speech. "He is a scavenger who collects stuff to make him look beautiful…not to mention awesome. I already told Moana about him while you were sleeping."

The bowsprit of the canoe made contact with rock, generating a small bump that Moana felt in her dream and it slowed to a stop altogether upon the bow being ten inches away from the wall. She skipped over to the rocks with the rope in her left hand and moored it carefully to the first rock that was a step further away from where she was standing.

"Does he live up there?"

She asked this once she took a closer inspection of the tall mountain before her. A seagull flying into the sun and then away from it towards the mountain going over it proving to her that it looked dangerous.

"Actually, he lives under the mountain. It serves as the entrance to Lalotai."

That was what Maui said before he placed his right hand on the nearest rock, followed by his left foot for support. Memories of her grandmother's stories floated back to Moana when the name came swirling into her ears, followed by the mental sound of an alarm going off. The alarm sounded more like a drum, beating foreboding notes that accumulated with an emotion of fear penetrating her mind, making her feel like a typical hapless female.

"Lalotai? The realm of monsters and the dead?!"

Moana was not expecting to visit any of her deceased relatives that would most likely hinder her quest to restore the heart, sticking to the mission was the best way of making things better. Maui was already three feet above her, already knowing that he was intent on getting the hook back himself. Sora, Donald and Goofy were already preparing to climb all the way up, using Goofy to support the human and the duck. Moana turned counterclockwise back to the boat and faced it pet pig.

"Pua, keep an eye on the boat and watch over Hei-Hei."

Pua snorted a reply that seemed to have meant "Yes".

Then Moana turned to the mountain, placed her left foot on the nearest rock to support her and started climbing.

A red-bellied robin fellow away from the muscular Maui and his large hands that could have crushed the poor fellow if he did not fly out of the way. Once he had reached the peak where the robin once stood, he turned clockwise and sat down (even demigods needed some form of rest), smiling at the boat before he discovered that Pua and Hei-Hei were the only occupants. His head turned to the left by five degrees, not noticing Moana and the travelers three making their way up until his right ear heard a grunt. The grunt, which came from Moana puling herself up onto the next ledge, brought his attention to finally acknowledging their presence.

Those strangers are fine, but that girl is as stubborn as a boar.

But his thoughts drove him to curiosity and he accepted the situation like a true, mature demigod that he was.

"So what is it that you actually do?" he finally said. "Stay on the island where you came from?"

Moana looked back down at him as the three continued on their climb.

"I am the daughter of a chief. I take many responsibilities like dance lessons and helping the people."

"And because of that, your people decided to send you on a dangerous quest?"

"My people did not send me," Moana replied as she was halfway up the mountain. "The ocean did."

"That does make sense," Maui said lackadaisically. "But you can't sail, as true wayfinders stay up all night in order to get where they want to be."

"Then I consider this arrival to be a stroke of luck. The ocean me for a reason and this could be it."

"And if the ocean chose you," inquired Maui as they neared the top. "Why did it not take the heart of Te Fiti back to her?"

Moana looked at her pendant with her right hand just five inches under it. Her thoughts went to the power of the ocean, questioning what made the vast body of water bring the heart to her in the first place all those years ago. Perhaps it was her heart of strong light that attracted the heart and the ocean in the first place, perhaps it was her grandmother's knowledge of the past instilled upon her that had a wisdom that the ocean had not seen for a millennium. She looked back down at Maui and replied.

"That's a very question."

"Some question," Maui scoffed. "I think the ocean only relies on humans who are truly worthy, like you because you are the chosen one."

Those two words of great expectations reached Moana's words, forcing her to stop in her tracks by the time her head and shoulders had reached the top. Sora was already there with his animal allies on opposite sides, admiring the view. He held out his right hand, hoping to help her up, but she placed her hands on the surface and pushed the rest of her body upwards.

"Is he bothering you?"

"Not really."

Going past Sora, Moana was also enamored by the view of the world from a high vantage point. Aside from a ground of sand, barriers of stone marble and scattered pebbles that did not seem to bother her feet, she walked slowly to the other side as Sora looked on. He too was entranced by scenery, with nothing out ahead of them but the ocean herself. The tiniest of gales whipped around their hair and almost stung their eyes peering into the distance where the dark clouds faded into blue. All was silent except for the breezing wind…and Maui's unneeded, but curious reply of…

"What are you waiting for…besides admiring the view?"

Moana turned back in a clockwise direction

"Well I do not see an entrance."

"Because it only comes after a mortal is sacrificed."

Moana's eyes widened in fear until that very moment when Maui laughed heartily.

"I'm just joking!" he shouted. "I swear to the gods above you can be so serious sometimes!"

He huffed a large amount of his breath into his supernaturally incredible lungs and puffed a large lump of breath that created a dust storm and he spun all around, blowing the sand that faded all the way into the water. As the clouds closed in, Sora, Donald and Goofy covered their eyes with their arms while Moana held her breath and when the dust had finally settled into nonexistence, she saw that she was standing at the jaw of a face with no pupils in its eyes and teeth bared to represent a face of hunger and gluttony.

Before either of them knew it, Maui began to shout "Anex! Anex!" as he jumped on the nose he stood on, twiddling his fingers, then he slapped his left hand onto his right elbow and jumped twenty feet into the air, bringing his fists and the rest of his body down to earth, slamming them on the nose. Slowly with a suitable rumble, the mouth began to open and the three watched from the left side, Moana and Maui began drifting apart until the mouth stopped, it's bottom teeth ten feet apart from the top row and she looked down at the path to the underworld.

It was dark with only a purple light emitting an indigo hue at the bottom. The length of the pit seemed to be as tall as the mountain itself. Moana inched away from the sight of it while Sora, Donald and Goofy craned their heads down in wonder of the exact length of the pit. Maui quelled their worries.

"Do not worry, it is a lot farther down than it appears to be."

Yelling excitedly, he formed a cannonball position and when gravity kicked in, his body fell into the darkness of the pit. Moana and the trio could still see his silhouette against the purple light as he shouted "I AM STILL FALLING!" for no apparent reason other than a pointlessly obvious statement.

Clutching her left hand to the shell of her necklace, Moana began to fear for his life no matter how immortal he claimed to be, but it was the sound of a splash that broke the tension and she sighed with relief. The others, who were still watching, mentally thought it best to go first. Sora crouched all the way back, sprang his knees and launched himself five feet into the air, spread-eagled until his weight dragged him down. Five seconds later, Donald followed, flapping his wings in vain as he screamed all the way down and it was Goofy, his limbs spread out like a flying squirrel immediately after who made his way down with his well-known holler. Watching Goofy's voice fading away, Moana whispered to herself.

"You can do this."

Without another second to lose, she walked three steps and her right foot gave way along with the rest of her body. Midway to the purple light, she could hear the mouth sliding itself shut. It seemed to Moana that a spirit was in control of the entrance and had a mind of its own. How they would come back out was a question to be saved for later.

The purple light had turned out to be a body of water that was as deep as the mountain pit. It was beautiful with circulating lines of foam and bubbles passing by. Moana could see Maui ahead of her and the three travelers and even though he was a demigod, Maui held his breath as he saw the light getting brighter and brighter until his body leaving water told him that he had entered an upside down ocean suspended over a jungle of dry land, an aquatic kingdom completely deprived of water.

Sora saw Maui grabbing a long green vine and spun around with it, leaping up and twirling ten feet down onto the ground in a perfect aerodynamic landing. With Donald and Goofy holding onto each other's ankles, they repeated the same tactic, landing behind Maui in unique poses: Sora with his right hand on the blue solid ground, Donald with legs spread apart and hands on the floor and Goofy with his legs also spread apart but with his nose to floor and arms crossed to his chest indicating he was upside down.

"A perfect landing!" the demigod clapped twice.

The miniature version of Maui had drawn a scoreboard with Maui on the top left and Moana on the right. There had been little room for Sora, Donald and Goofy, so the tattoo gave the three a silent compliment and with his fish hook, drew a single tally for both his master and Moana. Maui just scoffed at the scored point.

"She is not even here. No mortal can jump into the realm of monsters."

That was until Sora saw her falling straight toward them. He held up his arms, shouting to her.

"I'll catch you!"

It was fortunate that Moana had landed in Sora's arms with the back of her head resting in his left hand while his right held her by her backside. Her heart was pounding and her face was frozen in a wide-eyed, teeth-bearing expression that simulated the kind of face she could make after waking up from the middle of a nightmare that had come true.

"What a rush!" was all she had to exclaim.

Sora lowered the chieftess onto her feet and her eyes were now fully aware of the surroundings that came upon her. Blood red rocks of coral formed the ground, molded into the flat surface. Purple plants that looked straight out of the sea. Orange and blue shells glittered like jewels under the sun the aquatic environment was depraved of. The sky was replaced by the sea, where a whale and six families of fishes swam overhead. Maui took the scenery with a casual tolerance and called to the group.

"Okay! Now let's get my hook!"

Moana, Sora, Donald and Goofy, not really belonging in the underworld so to speak, found that gravity was slightly heavier compared to the blue glowing spirits that swooped around the creatures they passed. Their hair and clothes began to drape with more weight and the movement became difficult for all four of them. As it had seemed, the underworld was not a pleasant experience for them, nor for Maui given his past experiences with Tamatoa. Moana, going barefoot, could feel the rocks and coral threatening to penetrate her feet, releasing tiny smidges of blood. Donald who also had his feet exposed, had no problem since webbed feet were flat, but the coral did cause a bit of irritation, forcing him to hop alongside the group.

Three creatures with wings like bats, but upon closer inspection seemed to have eight eyes, brought their attention down on the travelers. Sora, his pupils aiming into their souls, summoned his Kingdom Key Chain and remained on his guard. They came down upon them like birds of prey, and when it seemed like Sora could knock them out of the air, they just simply….flew over them. At the same time, it gave him something of an idea.

"I suggest we find conch shells and split up. Those bats can only spell trouble if they try to eat us."

"Good idea," Moana suggested. "as for the conch shells, where do we start to look?"

Maui eyed a perfectly shaped conch of gold yellow lying three feet away from him on the left.

"Found one."

He picked it up and said, returning to the group.

"As your protector and guide, I should go first and when it is safe, I'll blow the conch."

His fast feet fled to a tall dome coned rock of dark blue and purple that towered above his built body, but undermined by a stalactite where one such bat lay resting. Hearing the sound of a horn that was perfect on the first time it was sounded, the bat, shown to have eight red eyes with black pupils that served a void of death, looked to the rock where the sound had been coming from and jumped down with teeth spitting saliva. It crawled on its wings and legs just like a spider from Hell. Moana, Sora, Goofy and Donald, hiding behind a similar rock they had found while following Maui, cowered in fear. Maui on the other hand, had run away from his hiding spot, further from the group and the monstrous bat that he had to deal with.

It was then that Sora he decided to summon his Keyblade and slay the beast himself. With the creature's focus on the fleeting Maui, Sora's light feet took him to the bat's feet and when he was about five feet away from it, he held the Kingdom Key directly away from his chest and he quietly whispered, "Lightning!"

The bolt of lightning that seemed to generate from his Keyblade looked like a tiny spark which caused no pain to the bat, and this only heightened his anger when Sora saw the bat's hideous face for himself. It's large mouth opened and Sora, remembering his own experience with the three headed dog of Greek mythology, Cerberus, placed the blade of the key in the bat's teeth. It refused to let go and Sora held onto the Keyblade, unwilling to let the monster swallow it, no matter how many times it returned to his hands. This gave Donald enough time to march over to Sora, about five steps behind him and cry "LIGHTNING!" whilst holding the mage's staff in his right hand.

This time, the lightning was larger and it struck the bat for three nanoseconds until he had collapsed with eight patches of first degree burns on both of his wings, legs and forehead. To be exact, two on each wing, one for each leg and two combined together on the forehead. The bat collapsed into a heap and Sora, after removing the blade from the bat's mouth, could only feel the congratulatory kiss of appreciation on his right cheek from Moana. It felt odd and unexpected, even when his right hand smoothed it for a trace of electricity from the lightning.

"Consider it as a token of gratitude for protecting me."

Moana smiled while placing her hands behind her back. Sora turned over his right shoulder and said "Thank you," in return.

Fortunately for them in the distance, there was a thirty-foot-tall cantharis shell. Specifically the home of Tamatoa himself. The quartet peeked inside and there, standing perfectly still on top of a twenty-five-foot pile of Aztec gold, pearls, shells, rib cage, ivory, coins, metals, scrolls, teeth, pebbles, rocks, rings and chalices was the upside-down figure of Maui's fish hook. Its white body reflected the shining materials of the treasure trove that lay under it and it was for the first time in Maui's millennium exile that he had seen the very object that once was lost, but would soon be his again.

"My treasure…" he whispered suddenly.

"Your treasure?" asked Sora, fists to his hips.

"I was referring to my fish hook, in case you did not know. For a thousand years, I have been thinking about keeping my hair soaked, getting my hook and being a hero again. I do not wish to have that dream interfered by four mortals inside a cave of monsters and deceased spirits…except with something…shiny."

And he proved this by placing his hair in a bun, wrapping it in a half-foot long piece of rope from his modesty of green that he often used to keep his perfect hair from battle damage. Before he could find the right shell, Sora, who had a similar idea, opened his right hand and the Keyblade materialized.

"Will this work?"

His eyes of hope went to Maui, praying that he would say yes. The demigod observed the Keyblade for eight seconds and made his reply.

"I think it will."

Sora sucked in a large ounce of breath and released a deep sigh, then turning counterclockwise by fifty degrees to the left, placed his left foot forward, then his right and before he knew it, he was walking his way into the shell against his own will. The closer he was the gold, the more he realized that the silver nature of the blade was contrasting with the hilt, which had an appropriate color for the treasure before him. He stood precariously on tip-toe, trying his best not to disturb the creature until he heard Maui's whispering voice instructing him.

"If he comes to you, keep him talking. He likes to brag about himself."

"Does he often brag about your battles with him?" asked Sora without turning his head back.

"Not since I pulled off one of his legs."

Sora's eyes widened at such a graphic thought. The blood spilling out, the remnants laying there, rotting for who knows how long since that fateful event occurred.

Before he could answer, the ground rumbled and the treasure that he had been standing on began to shake off some gold flake which fell to the floor, bouncing off into the pearls and shells and directly under where the pile had been coming from. Sora's free right hand held on with all his might as the ledge reached a twenty foot vantage point, revealing that the pile was standing on nothing more than a shell.

What he was now standing on belonged to a lobster of purple skin with some brown hairs around the rainbow claws of yellow, red, and blue. True to Maui's word, he was missing his forward left leg, a detriment to his quadrupedal locomotion, with a chin of fourteen barnacles in gold and turquoise eyes that would have put the ocean to shame. The lobster, Tamatoa, laughed as he woke, forcing Sora to jump back down the ground and confront him, Keyblade at the ready. Upon his first sight of Sora, the lobster eyed him delightfully with an enthusiastic tone.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? A human with a new shiny to add to my treasure?"

"Actually," Sora spoke, lowering his guard, "I came to accept a surprise challenge, once you have told me about yourself first, legend of crabs."

Tamatoa was intrigued by the remark; talk first, battle later seemed to correspond as to how hungry his stomach was. He had just eaten a bat about an hour ago and he was willing to tell a human his life story, intent on consuming the unlucky soul once he had reached the climax.

"I will tell you about it, in the form of poem I have memorized all by myself."

Maui and Moana climbed up to a ledge, ready to jump onto the shell as Tamatoa began.

"Tamatoa has not always been this glamourous.

I was a drab little crab once.

Now I know I can be happy as a clam

Because I am beautiful.

Did your elders say listen to you heart?

Who you are on the inside?

I need three words to tear it apart

They all lied

For I'd rather be shining"

Thus he spoke as Moana and Maui were about to jump and they did once Tamatoa's right claw picked up Sora by his hood and he whispered to the struggling young man.

"Did I ever tell you that I ate my grandmother for a whole week? It went something like this."

He opened his mouth all the way, his eyes closed to avoid seeing any drop of blood that would have been spilled onto his precious gold, should he not eat Sora whole. But it just seemed to be that way until Maui shouted.

"Let him go, you vacuous crab!"

Tamatoa opened his eyes and looked up. For the first time in years, his old adversary was standing above him…along with some woman that he had never seen before, crossing her arms with a smile of bravery as Maui, eyes closed and right hand pulling the hook out as hard as he could, gave a cry of "I'm back!" and looked down at his miniature self.

"Ready to be a giant hawk?"

The chipper agreement of the small tattoo was enough to make Maui whoop for joy, twirling his hook counterclockwise in front, behind his back and then straight into the pile to complete his transformation.

However, in order for a demigod to transform into the specific form of animal they desired, they must form a picture of the specific animal in their heads very carefully, otherwise the transformation would either be skewed or transformed into an entirely different animal. Maui should have remembered this, but his excitement combined with the duration of his exile was enough to make him forget and in a flash of blue light he found himself floating in the air for two seconds before Moana caught him in her hands. The feel of fins, the timidity and puffiness of his body, could only help him to realize that he had transformed into a roly-poly red drum fish with purple fins. Yelling again, Moana dropped him and almost slid off the shell as he turned into a great white shark. This was followed by an iguana, a moose, a fruit fly, an adult boar and finally he was human again, holding his hook with wide eyes and an upset frown, realizing his errors.

The loquacious crustacean twirled around and took the demigod's misfortune with the glee of a pure sadist.

"It seems you are having trouble with your luck. As if you were not swinging your hook right. Why don't he get a life?"

And he shook Maui off the shell to the floor.

"I have to give the gods credit, Maui. You and I are both works of art, we share each other's stories and I am in desperate need of company, so why don't we put away our differences and start working together as allies for a change?"

Maui, his bun now having gone back to its normal self thanks to the string falling off, could only glare at the crab who took his hook away for a thousand years. He stood up on his right foot and shouted back to him.

"First you take away my hook and you expect me to form an alliance with you?"

"I am a diamond in the rough, a hidden light underneath this heart of darkness. I could use the extra power to overcome our enemies."

"And enemies we will always be."

"But think of what we could do," Tamatoa tried to convince him. "But I guess you do have one good reason my shell is a lot tougher than your flesh and blood. The mortal could send a thousand armies and it still would not bring me down. You can always try you cannot always expect a demigod to beat a crustacean."

Thus he spoke as they slowly approached each other. Moana tried to keep her balance, Donald and Goofy tried not to scream as they watched from the entrance, waiting to see if Sora need help. In fact, Sora was already on his way to help Moana off the shell. He turned counterclockwise to the wall, ran up to the ceiling and flipped upside down onto the shell next to her. The man held onto the young woman by her abdomen, hoping to prevent the both of them from falling off.

As for Maui, he charged at Tamatoa, but his quick pincers caught him by his hair and slammed him to the ground face first.

"Perhaps it would be wise if I removed your aching heart far from the ones who abandoned you."

He said this as his right pincer wiped away his curtain of hair, revealing a tattoo under the back of his neck, yet in-between his scapula, depicting a long-haired woman in a white robe standing before a wilted palm tree, her arms outstretched in front of an infant falling back-first into the waves. Sora and Moana couldn't tell if the woman was trying to save her baby…or worse, throwing it away. Tamatoa's words confirmed their suspicions.

"They did not need you, but you need me. They made you feel unwanted."

The lobster's right claw picked him up by his hair, bringing him to the level of his gesticulating eyes. But Moana was not willing to let her childhood hero fall victim to a lobster's voice of poisonous morality that would urge him to defeat, destroying his self-esteem. Sora, already having had enough of the crab, steadied his way towards Tamatoa's eyes and placed his Keyblade straight towards his head….

"DEEP FREEZE!"

A group of spiky crystals shot out of the teeth and followed quickly through the air, leaving behind shrapnel of ice and frost. Spinning clockwise, it struck the back of Tamatoa's right eye and in an instant, he was frozen solid in a body of ice blue, his mouth fixed with an open smile of a victory that had all been done in vain.

Maui used his hands to push the pincers away from his hair and landed on the floor on both feet. Sora and Moana, who had jumped to avoid being frozen themselves, were now sliding down the shell and somersaulting the floor, landing on their own feet as well. The Keyblader looked back at the ice-covered lobster and said.

"I think we'd better leave before he breaks free."

"Good idea," Maui was still holding his fish hook, treating it like a prized trophy, ironic considering he helped Sora to fight off Tamatoa to earn it.

"And since I have yet to re-learn my transfiguration skills, I do believe there is another way we can get out of here."

Sora grabbed Goofy, whose right hand held onto Donald's bill and they raced toward a hole which glowed a periwinkle blue and the party of five felt themselves flying upwards out of the water and into the air at an altitude of fifty feet. Gravity kicked in and the five travelers fell all the way down at the very spot where they left the boat.

"Well, I am glad that is finished," Moana said, twisting her hair to expunge the water.

Maui helped himself up and walked over to her.

"I want to thank you for what you did down there, but to be sincere, you could have been killed and I could not have the power to defeat him even without the courage of this spiky-haired guy."

Sora dusted himself off as he heard this. It almost sounded to him like Maui was capable of defeating Tamatoa without his help.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that your efforts would have been in vain. Tamatoa would have killed you too."

Sora crossed his arms, visibly trying to make himself look like an Edwardian snob.

"I have killed many monsters far powerful than Tamatoa, he would have been no match for me."

His eyes were closed and his head was facing thirty degrees to the left, ignoring the demigod.

"Well, the chances of beating Te Kā are 100 to 0. The mission is cursed."

Moana's voice was outraged, but confident.

"This mission is not cursed."

Maui looked at Moana with questionable eyes, but he took the matter straight to heart, relieved that had gotten his fish hook back and without another word, the three humans, the duck, the rooster, the dog and the pig were off to the final leg in their journey: the legendary island of Te Fiti.