Chapter 14
As the gummi ship raced through the depths of space, chaos and destruction reigned upon the once peaceful city of Hollow Bastion. Organization XIII was about to enact one of their greatest schemes to date: the invasion and takeover of Hollow Bastion, in order to retrieve the machine that creates Heartless and the documentation concerning the aforementioned. Minor earthquakes had been plaguing the town for two days, causing minor destruction and little injury; however, with each passing tremor, the earthquakes began to get larger. Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Cid, and Merlin had set up an evacuation site in the town square away from all of the buildings that could collapse onto the evacuating citizens. Geni also just happened to be visiting the day before the earthquakes started, and remained to help with any injuries and the evacuation of the populace to the center of the city. The Heartless and Dusks had not stormed the city yet, but their numbers were increasing exponentially outside of the city walls.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy landed in the suburb just outside of Merlin's house, near the bailey. It was eerily quiet; a sound from neither person nor animal was to be heard.
"Where is everybody?" Sora asked aloud.
"I don't know," Goofy replied. "Are they all playing hide and seek?"
"Oh," Donald warbled at Goofy. "The monitor said Hollow Bastion was covered in darkness, which means that everyone is probably hiding somewhere safe from all of the Heartless and Nobodies." Just then, the door to Merlin's house creaked open and Yuffie stepped outside.
"Hey guys! You're just in time!" she shouted. Running over to them, she continued. "Leon and the king are over at the castle postern; we think we've found the lab Ansem was using to produce the Heartless! When you're done with that, you can help the evacuees in the town square. Everyone else is over there now." Just then, the ground began to heave and rumble. "Uh oh, hang on everybody!" The earth shook under their feet, causing Goofy to dive to the ground and cover his head. In less than a minute, the tremor stopped.
"Yuffie, what's going on? Why is Hollow Bastion having an earthquake?" Sora cried.
"Not just one, dozens! This has been going on since yesterday; and every time we have an earthquake they seem to get bigger and bigger!"
"What's causing them?" Donald asked.
"We don't know! Hollow Bastion has never had earthquakes before; Leon thinks it might have something to do with the Heartless and Dusks swarming around outside of the city walls. I have to go and help everybody in the town square, so head over to the castle postern." Yuffie turned and started running towards the center of the city.
"Wait, Yuffie! Where's Geni?" Sora shouted after her.
Yuffie turned and yelled back, "She's at the first aid station in the town square helping with any injured citizens. She's fine – now get going!"
"Okay guys, let's go," Sora said. The trio began to run towards the bailey. Running up the stairs and inside of the darkened passageway, they came upon three small treasure hunters: Yuna, Rikku, and Paine.
"Excuse me," said a tiny voice. "Are you three with the Restoration Committee?" Sora looked around, and finally saw three small flying people in front of him. "What are Leon and his friends up to?"
"They have things to do over by the castle postern," Sora said, looking at them curiously. "Why do you ask?"
"Scoop! Yeah! Let's report." The three small people started flying around excitedly.
"Report to whom?" Donald asked.
"Our leader, of course!" the person with the long yellow scarf replied. "It's Malefi–" she squeaked out before the dark-haired person covered her mouth.
"Don't mind her. Now, let's get going." The solemn person vanished in swirl of light, followed by her two friends.
"What was up with them?" Sora wondered. Donald and Goofy shook their heads, and they continued on towards the castle postern. Little did they know that Organization XIII were not the only ones after Ansem's machine. Running along a very familiar passageway, the same one in which Sora had followed Geni only a few weeks before, they soon came to an old dilapidated castle. Walking inside, the walls were dreary with decay, and not much of the castle had escaped the ravages of time. The many hallways led them to a bright room, one that had been well kept, but was still quite messy. Books lay strewn about the floor, glass cylinders had been smashed, and spiders with their lacy cobwebs had taken residence on the shelves.
Looking around, Sora noticed a familiar face on a nearby painting. Taking a closer glimpse, he noticed how different the two faces really were. "Ansem..."
"I guess this must have been his room," Goofy said as he studied some of the items on a bookshelf.
"Is the king here?" Donald asked. "Hello? Anybody there?"
"Hey, you!" The three jumped, turning around to see a young woman dressed in black behind them. She wore a black tank top with a black skort attached to an even longer black skirt on the back of it. She also had on a pair of high heeled high kicks with black gloves. "Have you seen a guy with really spiky hair?" Sora tugged at his own locks for a moment, making the girl laugh. "Spikier. Mind if I look around?" Without waiting for an answer, she went around the room, knocking on the walls, looking under the desk, even kickboxing one of the walls. "Sorry to bother you," she said as she smiled and walked out.
"Who was that?" Sora wondered. By the look of her, Sora didn't want to see what happened if anyone crossed her.
"So you made it," a deep voice said behind them. Turning, Sora saw that Leon was standing next to an empty wall where he hadn't been only moments before. "Follow me." Pressing on a panel next to him, the wall opened up to reveal a hidden door. Walking down a metal passageway, they came to some kind of lab with a large computer inside.
"What is this place?" Sora asked Leon.
"We happened to find it when the earthquakes started yesterday. The lock on the door must have been sensitive to vibrations, and it opened during one of the first earthquakes. We've been trying to access the data inside, but the going has been quite slow."
"I wonder..." Sora said as he ran up to the computer and started typing. "Where's Kairi? Where's Riku?" He began pounding on the keys when the computer would not give him an answer.
"Hey, easy! You want to break it?" Leon reprimanded.
"Oh, sorry. Guess I got a little carried away," Sora said sheepishly.
Goofy was looking around the lab when he noticed some movement high above him. "What's that?!" Goofy cried, looking up towards the ceiling. A little blue fuzzy creature was crawling along the ceiling with large claws. However, it seems that its claws were not strong enough to keep him up there, and the creature fell onto the computer.
"Get offa there!" Donald shouted before he jumped up and tried to chase the little creature away. His webbed feet clicking across the keyboard, a warning sound came over the intercom.
"Attention current user. This is a warning. Further misuse of this terminal will result in immediate defensive action," said a robotic voice.
"Who's there?" Goofy said, his voice slightly trembling.
"I am the Master Control Program; I oversee this system." Donald tried stepping off of the keyboard, but ended up typing on more keys instead. The warning sound got even louder now. "Decision gate reached – you are now under arrest."
"DONALD!"
"I'm sorry!"
Suddenly, Leon noticed that a circular panel behind them was beginning to glow. Sensing danger, he yelled "Run!" However, it was too late. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were struck with a laser beam that disconfigured their physical data and dematerialized them into the world of Space Paranoids.
Now inside of the computer, they met a security program named Tron who told them about the Master Control Program taking over. His user, Ansem the Wise, would be able to unlock the data space known as the DTD and allow Tron to access his backup programs. Once done, he could delete the Master Control Program and allow the users to have free reign over the system once more. Also, in helping Tron, Sora, Donald, and Goofy would be able to have access to all of Ansem's research once they figured out the correct password. With Tron's help, they managed to rematerialize themselves in the real world and went in search of the password.
Figuring that the password would be somewhere within Ansem's room, they began looking through books, papers, anything that had been written on. While doing so, the girl in black from before came around looking for her friend again. Lifting off the portrait of Ansem, she punched the wall behind it looking for yet another secret doorway of some kind. However, behind the painting were drawings of a heart surrounded by machinery of some kind. Once she left, Sora began to study the doodle more closely.
"What is this? Part of Ansem's research?"
"Hollow...main...security...Tron...door to..." Donald began to decipher all of the words written on the wall.
"Looks like a diagram of some kind," Goofy mused.
"Door...to...darkness?!" Donald finished, surprised.
"Oh! I get it! DTD stands for the door to darkness!" Sora said, pointing at each of the letters as he spoke them. "This must be what the data space is!"
"What is?" Leon said as he joined the group. He had still been in the computer lab, trying to unlock the system. "Well, what do you know. However, that still leaves the password."
"Say, fellas, did someone mention the door to darkness?" a squeaky voice said. Spinning around, the group saw King Mickey standing in the doorway.
"Your majesty!" they all shouted. King Mickey shushed them, looking around before he closed the door behind him.
"Long time no see!" Sora added as Donald and Goofy hugged their little monarch senseless.
"Shh! The Organization might be listening!" he warned as he gently pried Donald and Goofy off of him. "So what's this about the door to darkness?"
"Uh-yuck, yes sir. You see, we've been looking for the password," Goofy briefed King Mickey.
"Hmm, like a code, I suppose. Well, the door to darkness can only be opened by the seven princesses of heart. They would be Jasmine, Belle, Snow White, Alice, Cinderella, Aurora, and of course Kairi. What are you trying to do?"
"With that password, we can get access to Ansem's research data," Sora replied.
"So that means you might be able to find out where he is!"
"Quit fooling around, your majesty. We've already defeated Ansem, you know that." Sora looked at King Mickey like he had lost his marbles.
"Oops, looks like I still have a lot of explaining to do…"
"First though, Tron is still waiting for the three of you, so get going," Leon interrupted, walking towards the computer lab. Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked from Leon to King Mickey, wondering what to do first. Help Tron or find out the truth about Ansem?
"Don't worry, I'll still be here when you get back. We can talk then." Nodding, the three walked back and dematerialized themselves back into Tron's world. Giving the password to Tron, they headed towards the data space where Tron downloaded his backup program and was as good as new. However, the Master Control Program accessed the data space as well, allowing him to take over the entire system. It also found the emergency destruct program for the town, which it almost initiated. Tron changed the password just in time, allowing for the four of them to reach the I/O tower to stall the Master Control Program and to try and stop it from destroying Hollow Bastion. Once there, Tron began the arduous task of trying to take the system control away from the Master Control Program. Sora, Donald, and Goofy left with the new password – their names, thanks to their new friend Tron. Tron then sent them back to the user world so they could access the DTD and find out about Ansem's research.
Arriving back to find a thank you message from Tron, the group decided to access the DTD immediately. While Leon went to work on the computer, Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked around for King Mickey.
"The king is checking the situation in town. He'll be back soon, so don't worry. Hey, the log in is asking for a password. You guys know anything about this?"
"Of course! It's Sora!" said person shouted.
"Donald!"
"And Goofy!"
"That is…to the point. That did it – we're in." Leon turned towards Sora. "I have to go into town. There was an earthquake, stronger than the last ones, while you were inside the computer. I need to see what kind of damage it might have caused. Can you start loading the data and copying it down?" Sora looked at Leon with a raised eyebrow. "Hey, don't give me that look – it's just a few keystrokes. Easy, right?" Leon placed his hand on Sora's shoulder. "Good luck!" he called over his shoulder as he walked out.
Sora groaned. "Maybe not for you, but I haven't taken a computer class since my middle school computer basics class." Walking up to the computer, Sora – with his horrible typing abilities (come on, one finger at a time?) – began to search for any references to Kairi and Riku. After a few minutes of processing, the computer screen showed a large box that read "Data Error." "No way; even Ansem's computer doesn't know." Sora walked away, his shoulders hunched in defeat. Sora went over to the far wall; leaning against it, he slumped down onto the floor and put his head on his knees. What am I going to do? Kairi's been kidnapped, and Riku...who knows what could have happened to him? Suddenly, his chest felt warm. Reaching into his shirt, he pulled out the crystal Geni had given him before they had left. The purple glow was slowly pulsing, giving off a slight heat. Wrapping his hand around it, he began to feel better.
At that same moment far from Sora in the center of the city, Geni's necklace began to pulse and heat up as well. Geni smiled, knowing the pulsing reaction meant that Sora was in Hollow Bastion. Hoping he was doing well, and that she might see him soon, Geni went back to putting a band aid on a little boy's finger. He had cut it on a piece of glass when his bedroom window had been broken. Many other people with minor cuts and injuries had come to the first aid tent that morning; thank goodness no major injuries had been reported yet. Sending the little boy off with a sucker, Geni pulled out her own crystal that was pulsing blue and held it tightly, hoping Sora was alright.
As Sora was sitting by the wall contemplating, Goofy had been fiddling with the computer. "Whatcha doing?" Donald asked him.
"I thought I might ask the computer if it could tell us about the Nobodies," he replied as he typed, concentrating hard. Using the same prowess at typing Sora had, Goofy actually found some information on the Nobodies.
"What's this?" asked Sora as he peered at a strange shape on the computer screen.
"The data is corrupt."
"Hmm, how about the Organization?" Goofy began typing again.
The computer began processing again, but after a moment, once again replied "The data is corrupt."
"Stupid computer!" Sora began whacking the keyboard in frustration. Many different boxes of data appeared and were jumbled, until a picture of an older man with long blonde hair wearing a red scarf appeared. "Who's this guy?" Sora wondered. The three peered closely at the screen.
"Welp, I see you all got things working!" a small voiced said happily. Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned around to see that King Mickey had come back. "The data inside should tell us all we need to know."
"But the computer says the data is all mixed up. All we found is a picture of a man we don't know," Goofy said.
King Mickey stepped forward and studied the screen. Jumping up in the air, he cried "Ansem the Wise!"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at each other and sighed again. "Come on, are you teasing us again, your majesty?" Sora moaned.
"Did you forget what Ansem looked like?" Donald added.
"Of course not! This is him, I'm positive."
Sora, finally getting fed up with the confusion, gently grabbed King Mickey by his small arm. "Excuse me, but could you come this way, please?" Having no choice but to follow Sora, they walked back into Ansem's main room and stood in front of his portrait. "This...is...Ansem. The guy we all worked really hard to defeat at the End of All Worlds? The one who took over and controlled Riku's body?"
"Oh, that's right. I never finished explaining. We'll, you see...the man in this picture is definitely the person who tried to take over Kingdom Hearts – the one you defeated. However, what you really fought was only his Heartless. You see, he wasn't really Ansem; he just told everyone he was."
"WHAT!" three voices cried out. King Mickey jumped at the sudden noise.
"Do you mean we went through all of that trouble just to defeat an imposter?" Sora cried, slumping his shoulders.
"Well, even if he was a fake he still had to be stopped. Now that you know that he was the fake, the picture you found on his computer was a picture of the real Ansem. That is what I am trying to figure out right now; Ansem the Wise should know all about Organization XIII's plans and what has been happening to all of the worlds. I'm pretty sure he will give us some help."
Sora kept shaking his head, confused by all of the new information. Noticing Goofy had a thoughtful look on his face, Sora asked, "Don't tell me there's more?!"
"Well," Goofy started, "Some person named Ansem, who wasn't really Ansem, became a Heartless. Does that mean a Nobody was created when that happened too?"
"Yes. And that Nobody is the leader of Organization XIII. I know I've met this fake Ansem before and the leader of the Organization; kind of felt like being around the same person, you know? Ansem the Wise – the real Ansem – must know the imposter's true identity."
Sora clenched his fists to his sides, shaking slightly. "You...you started all of this! Because of you, Riku and Kairi...oh! Your majesty, do you know where Riku is?" Sora stopped and did a 360 in mid-sentence.
"He's..." The kind paused, and turned away from Sora. It was breaking his heart to have to tell him this. "I'm sorry, I can't help you."
"Really?" Sora came around to face the king. "Why not?"
"I'm sorry, Sora," the king said, turning yet again to face away from Sora's inquiring face.
Sora's face fell, until he thought of another question. "Well, what about Kairi? Organization XIII might have kidnapped her!"
"What! Oh no!" King Mickey turned to face the three, a grave look on his face. "Sora, Donald, Goofy. I was planning on going to look for Ansem the Wise to get his help, but I think I've forgotten the most important thing. Helping others should always come before asking others for help. We are safe and sound, and free to choose; so there is no reason why we shouldn't choose to help our friends. Let's look for Riku and Kairi together." Little did King Mickey know, and thank goodness for Sora's (occasional) short memory span that he had let on that he didn't know where Riku was at the moment either.
King Mickey's monologue was cut short when a giant tremor shook the room. This was the biggest earthquake yet, dwarfing all of the others that had come before it. The room shook, shaking dust from the rafters and causing books and papers to fall off the shelves. The four held on for dear life as the earthquake shook the very foundations of the castle, almost bringing it down around them. Little did they know that this was only the second largest earthquake they would experience that day.
"We have to get outside!" Sora yelled.
"First of all, I think we have to start by helping out here!" King Mickey said as the four ran for the door.
Outside the bailey, the Heartless and Dusks had finally achieved their goal: breaking through and demolishing the bailey that had kept them out. The earthquakes had been their attempts at it, the largest Heartless being used as battering rams and the heaviest Heartless as wrecking balls. Their efforts had started a chain reaction; the earth beneath Hollow Bastion had begun to shake continuously, causing more and more earthquakes than the Heartless and Dusks actually caused. With one last push that coincided with the rebounding tremors, the bailey had cracked then exploded, causing huge chunks of wall and masonry to fall around them. With a clear entrance into the city, the Heartless and Dusks began their assault.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy began running through the maze under the old castle, trying to keep up with King Mickey. Nonetheless, after a few twists and turns, they lost sight of him. However, a platoon of Heartless and Dusks were waiting for them in the main area outside of Ansem's room. The trio froze in their tracks when they realized who was controlling the Heartless on the other side of the room: Maleficent.
She smiled when she saw the Keybearer and his two lackeys, and disappeared into a cloud of green and black. Her bodiless voice rang out eerily, commanding the Heartless. "Heartless! Leave the white ones. Concentrate on Sora and his friends!" Maniacal laughter followed, fading into the distance.
"I thought we destroyed her!" Sora said as he slashed away at the Heartless. "What is she doing back here?"
"I don't know, but either way, having to contend with her and Organization XIII is going to make our job a lot harder," Goofy said as he smashed a Dusk with his shield.
"Well, we can think about that later! Right now we're probably needed in town!" Donald reminded them as he blasted the rest of the Heartless with Thundara.
"Let's go!" Sora said as they continued through the passageways. Running through the canyon, they came upon Leon and Aerith fighting hordes of Heartless and Dusks. "Help has arrived!" he yelled.
"Sora! Behind you!" shouted Aerith. Four Dancer Dusks had appeared behind them. Using Trinity Limit the three of them took care of the Dusks in no time.
After defeating the rest of the Heartless and Dusks in that part of the canyon, Leon ran up to them and said, "The king is in the bailey, so you had better head over there right away. Aerith and I are heading back into town quickly to see what happened there and are then continuing to outside of the bailey; the Heartless and Dusks are making their way past the city perimeter and towards the evacuation center. We'll meet you there later."
"Got it!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran towards the bailey, seeing destruction and devastation everywhere they went. Halting not fifty feet from the main wall of the bailey, Sora looked around in awe. The wall was cracked from the top to its foundation, and huge chunks of wall had fallen randomly around the area to create a makeshift entrance. All of the construction equipment had been smashed beyond repair. Running towards the entrance to the outer regions of Hollow Bastion, Sora looked on in wonder...
...Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Heartless and Dusks were swarming towards the city. The earth shook with the pounding of their feet, swords being dragged along, giant creatures made of darkness plodding along with the rest. Hollow Bastion was going to drown in a sea of darkness if Sora, Donald, and Goofy didn't do something soon. Running towards the marching sea, the trio was halted by King Mickey.
"Okay, fellas, you have to go find Riku and Kairi now!"
"But Leon and the others are our friends too! We can't abandon them now – even Geni is inside of the city at the moment," Sora pleaded with King Mickey.
"Don't worry, there is a lot of help here already. We'll take care of this fight."
"But I promised Leon –!"
King Mickey cut off Sora. "Donald! Goofy! Take Sora and get going!" he commanded them, his voice stern and unforgiving.
Sora looked down, defeated. "Riku...Kairi...give me a little more time, okay?" he whispered to himself. Goofy and Donald looked at each other, saddened by Sora's reaction. Suddenly brightening up, the two looked at each other and nodded.
"We understand, your majesty. We'll go search for Riku and Kairi," Goofy said.
"Right! Watch for danger." King Mickey was keeping an eye on the approaching hordes.
"You be careful too," Donald added.
"Guys, wait! We can't –"
"You're coming with us whether you like it or not, Sora. Now let's get going!" Donald winked at Sora. Suddenly realizing what they were talking about, Sora smiled. Mouthing the words "thank you" to two of his best friends, he spun around and headed for the armies of Heartless and Dusks. The trio rushed past King Mickey and over the cliff so quickly he didn't have time to respond. Racing towards the edge, he saw Sora waving back to him.
"I'm sorry, your majesty!" he shouted.
"Hope you can forgive us!" Goofy added. The trio ran off to battle, leaving behind a bewildered but understanding King Mickey. Shaking his head and smiling, he knew he couldn't have stopped them if he had tried.