Kingdom Hearts RETOLD Chapter 7: The Keyhole, a kingdom hearts fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, related characters, trademarks, etc. in any way, shape or form. However, I do own any kind of Chibbi, Skyler, Skyler's dark side…the list goes on and on…OH! I also own Plushie/Mysha, but I have no further use for her after this chapter… : (

Ok, I know you had to wait reaaaaally long, but it's finally here! Yeah, I had to brood for a while XD. Anyway, I was originally going to make the battle with Clayton a random contest, but that turned out to be waaaaay too weird, so instead we've got a math contest (special thanks to Skyler's "Fifth Grade Mathematics"). Yes, it's still slightly weird.

Also, numbers referring to the footnotes section (at the waaay bottom) have a forward slash in front since Fanfiction (don't own it!) erases asterisks and brackets -.-

"Look!" I cried. "They're after that gorilla!"

We charged into battle with the monkey-like Heartless.

"These Heartless…" muttered Sora. "They look like primates…"

"Well, of course they look like primates!" I shouted over the noise of battle. "They've been busy stealing primate's hearts!"

Then it struck me. What if Plushie was all alone because his parents had their hearts stolen? And where was Plushie now? Was he…?

"Plushie's ok," soothed the voice in my head. "As for Plushie's parents…well, I don't know. Just concentrate on fighting. FOR EXAMPLE, THERE'S SOMETHING ON THE LEFT!"

I pivoted left, Keyblade copy up to block any attack. I had turned just in time to block the swing of sharp, black claws. These Heartless were tough!

How long would I have to block these things? I wondered. There had to be something I had learned about getting tired in battle…

Flashback: 13-year-old Riku is teaching 7-year-old Skyler fighting techniques.

"So, remember," Riku says, "If you ever get tired, just let your opponent push you back, then kick forward, like this." Riku demonstrates.

Skyler nods, though she thinks this will never be a useful tip.

So it can come in handy, I thought. I allowed myself to be pushed back, then waited for the right moment. A Heartless was standing over me, ready to deliver the finishing blow.

I readying my legs, I thrust forward and pushed the Heartless back. While it was still startled, I whacked it with my Keyblade copy, and it was soon gone.

I looked around. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were staring at me.

"What?" I asked, becoming somewhat self-conscious.

"That was the last Heartless," said Sora. "We were watching you fight it."

"And you didn't help because…?"

"Well you were doin' sucha good job there. It didn't look like ya needed any help," said Goofy.

"Um….thanks," I said, though I really could have used some help.

"Well, was he there?" asked Jane. We were back in the tent, only Mr. Clayton was missing.

"No," said Sora sullenly. "We did find a bunch of Heartless, though."

"Oh…" Jane looked worried and angry at the same time. "I do hope he hasn't gone and gotten himself into some sort of trouble…He can be very greedy sometimes… Please make sure he doesn't do something stupid."

Upon Jane's request, we dashed outside. After fighting off another batch of Heartless, there was an extremely loud noise, then a scream.

Mr. Clayton's gun had gone off.

"Do you see him?" I asked. We were in the bamboo thicket where we heard Mr. Clayton's gun.

"Oh, yes, of course I see him," said Donald sarcastically. "Do you THINK I see him, genius?"

"Well, no, stupid!"

"Well," said Sora, wanting to break up the fighting. "I see something."

Lying on the ground was Mr. Clayton's pipe. Sora ran and picked it up.

"There's some ash in it," he observed. "Mr. Clayton's been smoking it recently."

"Does it have his spit on it?" I asked, cringing.

But before my question was answered, a cat jumped out of the bushes. And it was a very. Big. Cat.

"Sabor!" cried Tarzan, and rushed at the animal with his spear.

"What is that?" I asked, shocked. "A lion? A saber-toothed tiger? Someone give me a hint!"

"It's a leopard, genius!" shouted Donald, who was already frantically shooting fire spells at the animal.

I hacked at the animal, which was mostly dodging (with excellent agility) rather than fighting back. Once or twice he might have scratched one of us, but no more than that.

The bad things just kept coming. After "Sabor" was defeated, we heard a shriek coming from the tent.

"Jane?" said Sora, and we rushed for the tent.

Jane wasn't in the tent.

"Where's Jane?" Sora posed the burning question.

"What's wrong, Tarzan?" Goofy asked. Tarzan looked like he knew something.

"Something coming," grunted Tarzan. "Jane, danger. Jane near…near treehouse."

"Jane jis jin janger?" I slurred.

Sora gave me a disapproving look.

"What?" I asked. "It's hard to say."

Although he frowned, all the way to the treetops I heard him mumbling, "Jane is in danger," in several different ways.

"Tarzan!" cried Jane. We had found her at last.

"Are you okay?" I asked, bending down to reach her. She was huddled on the floor with Plushie and that other gorilla.

"Yes, we're fine," said Jane, attempting to stand up and brush herself off. Instead, she hit her head on a tree branch. "Ouch!"

The tree was in the way. Sora quickly cleared a path for her with a fire spell, then proceeded to question her.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Clayton came to the tent…" she muttered vaguely. "That's the last thing I remember."

"Clayton?"

"I knew this had something to do with him," said the voice in my head. "Quickly, the gorillas are trapped. You've got to help them!"

"Gorillas trapped. Turk, Mysha, ran," said Tarzan.

"We've got to help the gorillas!" exclaimed Jane, standing up and preparing to leave.

"Yeah," said Sora. "Come on, Skyler. Let's go!"

They left the clearing. I, however, stayed. I picked up the female gorilla.

"Mysha," I muttered. "That's your name, is it? Well, it's a better name than Plushie, I guess."

"Skyler!" scolded the voice in my head. "You've got to go!"

"Bye," I said quickly to Mysha, and I was off.

"No!" cried Sora. Mr. Clayton was and some Heartless were surrounding a gorilla.

Clayton turned around slowly. In his hand was his loaded rifle. He looked at us oddly.

"That's not a man," said the voice. "That's a Heartless."

"Clayton?" said Sora carefully.

"Not Clayton!" exclaimed Tarzan. He grunted something in gorilla, and then said, "Not Clayton!"

Clayton began blindly shooting at us with his rifle. We were able to dodge pretty well, but we couldn't get close to him. There was no way we could do any damage. We COULD have Donald do some magic with his staff, but then again, who trusts Donald?

The voice in my head was getting worried that eventually he would hit one of us, and that would rattle the others. He got REALLY worried when a bullet just narrowly missed my shoulder.

"This is hopeless," said the voice. "You've got to find some way to beat him. Challenge him to a duel or something. Yeah, that's it. Make a sort of…contest. Careful, though. He hates losing…"

"Clayton!" I shouted.

Clayton looked up from his shooting.

"What?" he said in a hollow voice.

"This is getting tedious. Let's have a contest instead."

"What?" said Sora. I gestured for him to keep quiet and just trust me.

Clayton lowered his rifle. "What is this all about?" he asked.

I made my Keyblade disappear. In its place, two computers materialized.

"We're going to be having a math contest," I announced.

"WHAT?" screeched Donald. "But you stink at math!" That has been Donald's opinion ever since I was giving coordinates for landing the gummi ship and instead of landing in the correct position, it had landed an inch from the parking space.

Ignoring him, I continued. "You know how to do math?"

Clayton nodded.

"Then let's go, then! Sheesh, you're kinda slow…"

Clayton slowly meandered over to the computer. I decided to add a microphone, as Clayton seemed very confused at the concept of a keyboard.

The rules were simple. We would take turns solving math problems and saying the answers clearly into the microphone. Only there was a catch. The problems got increasingly harder.

"16," said Clayton in his new hollow voice.

"Correct," said the computer.

"6-a2," said the computer. "Solve the value of 'a.'"

"4," I said.

"Correct," said the computer.

The contest went on in this manner (I would fill you in on all the details, but that would make the chapter boring) until the computer asked Clayton to solve "9x2 +c."

"WHAT?" roared Clayton.

"Incorrect," said the computer. "The correct answer is D. The winner is Skiiler."

"Skiiler?" I said. "What?" /1

Clayton ignored my comment. "I can't lose…" he said desperately. "No one beats me…NO ONE!"

As Clayton reloaded his rifle, the wall behind him exploded, and he began to float up into the air. At first he looked at little confused, but then he accepted it as a cool power working to his advantage. Tarzan charged at him, but was stopped and somehow thrown back by the space below Clayton.

I summoned my copy of a Keyblade and Sora summoned his real one, and we began to attack. Clayton wasn't much of a problem- all he did was shoot his gun, which wasn't very accurate anymore, as the space below him wasn't very steady.

But the space below him was a problem. It was some sort of invisible creature- no, not creature…Heartless.

While Tarzan jumped up and hit Clayton, Sora, Goofy, and I attacked the invisible Heartless below him (which wasn't very easy). Donald stayed on the sidelines and cast healing spells or threw potions whenever we needed them (coward).

After taking some damage, the Heartless below Clayton fainted and became visible. It was an immense, chameleon-like creature, and Clayton had been riding on its back.

When the Heartless fell, Clayton lost all trust in it and jumped off. He ran around at shot at us with his gun, which wasn't very affective. We soon knocked him out.

Now it was just us and the Heartless, which had woken up, composed itself, and disappeared. Even without Clayton floating directly above it, it still wasn't too hard to find. Wherever it went, it kicked up huge clouds of dust.

The rest of the battle was pretty easy. Once the Heartless became visible again, it became dizzy and fell on Clayton. Clayton got mad and shot it. That did it. The Heartless was dead. Like the Heartless in Traverse Town, the heart this Heartless had held captive for who-knows-how-long was free at last.

The gorillas, including Kerchak, his "wife," Mysha, and Turk. Sora walked proudly over to Kerchak, as if Sora was the president about to sign a peace treaty.

Kerchak, however, didn't look like signing a peace treaty was on his To-Do list. When Sora was close enough to him, he picked Sora up and threw him onto a cliff that had been revealed when the wall behind Clayton had exploded. He then threw Donald, Goofy, Jane and me on the cliff.

Tarzan jumped up by himself.

"Tarzan, home," said Tarzan. He then took off into a cavern behind a waterfall. We followed him into an area where a blue light was shining.

Tarzan grunted that same "word" in gorilla.

"This is your home?" said Sora. "But that means…"

"These are the nesting grounds," I put in. Everyone looked at me. Suddenly self-conscious, I added, "I think."

"Huh?" said Goofy.

"The waterfalls…" muttered Jane. "They're echoing all the way here."

Tarzan grunted that word, then said "Friends there. See friends."

Jane smiled comprehensively. "Oh," she said. "Now I've got it. That word he's been grunting means 'heart.' Friends in our hearts…"

"Oh," said Sora. "So that's what it meant."

"Friends, same heart," explained Tarzan. "Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends."

"I see," I mused. "Clayton was a Heartless. He didn't even recognize us. All he cared about was winning that stupid math contest."

Sora turned to Donald. "Sorry about what I said before."

"I'm sorry too," said Donald.

"Sorry for calling you stupid," I said to Donald.

"Sorry for calling you a genius when I really didn't mean it and was really- oh, you know what I mean!"

"All for one and one for all!" said Goofy (rather loudly).

Goofy's voice echoed through the waterfalls. Sora's Keyblade emitted a blue beam of light, which went straight towards an area where some butterflies were resting. The butterflies fluttered away, revealing a keyhole-shaped opening. There was a locking sound, and everything returned to normal.

A little green ball dropped fell out from behind a rock.

"A gummi!" gasped Donald.

"But that's not the king's," said Goofy.

Donald picked it up and pocketed it. "Oh, well…"

"Hey, Skyler." It was Sora. We were walking back to the tent.

"Yeah?"

"You know, when you were fighting before, you looked a lot like Riku."

"What?"

"I'm just saying. You two have, like, the same fighting style or something. It's weird."

I tried to recall some of the battles that had taken place. When we were saving the gorillas, it was true that I had used that kicking technique. Was that it?

Then I remembered how I was wielding my Keyblade. I hadn't noticed at first. I was holding it near my shoulder, ready to lunge… to think I had done that without even noticing…creepy/2

"Well, guess we better get going," said Sora. We were back in the tent.

"Where is your ship, anyway?" asked Jane.

"Well, uh…not too far," said Donald.

"Sora, Tarzan, friends," said Tarzan.

Tarzan handed Sora a keychain shaped like a butterfly. The keychain began to float.

"What's this?" asked Sora.

The keychain snapped onto the end of the his Keyblade. There was a blinding flash of light, and the Keyblade looked…different. It was still shaped like a key, but it had what looked like moss growing on it, and the handle was made of bone.

And it was more powerful. I could feel it. We could all feel it.

"Wow…" said Sora. "Thanks."

"Can I drive?" Sora and I asked at the same time.

"No," said Donald.

"Hey!" said Sora. "I'm the Keyblade Master!"

"So?" said Donald. "It doesn't matter who you are. What matters is your age! Let me see your ID."

"My what?" said Sora, shocked.

"Hah," said Donald. "Just kidding."

"Hey," said Sora. "They gummi block we got from that keyhole wasn't like the others. Maybe it's for something different."

"Let's ask Leon," I said. "He'll know."

"Why?" asked Goofy.

"Because he knows everything," I scoffed. Leon was such a know-it-all.

Footnotes

/1- Computers always pronounce people's names wrong. ALWAYS.

/2- This is a reference to the way Riku holds his weapon when you have to fight him in Hollow Bastion.

Phew, it's finally done. Sorry for the delay, people. I've got some good ideas for the next chapter…better start writing it!