CHAPTER VI
Where Was Life when it Had a Meaning?
(NOTE)
I'm mainly making this chapter because I won't have time to make one tomorrow due to another football game that lucky me gets to march in. Plus, I need to get this plot rolling a little farther. So, I hope you enjoy it:D
(/NOTE)
The next morning, it was storming heavily. Just getting up and out of bed was hard enough for Charity; she always slept the best during storms. She couldn't tell if it was because it was nice to know that something was happening outside, or that the plants were getting watered. The second part was probably because watering the plants was a chore for her back at her old home in Azure Daybreak.
Azure Daybreak...
"I've been thinking," Charity told all of them, "What happens if Azure Daybreak is restored?" she asked them all. "Will everyone still be alive? Or did they die with Azure Daybreak?"
Kairi sighed, "When Hollow Bastion was destroyed, the people were only scattered into different worlds, but they all came back when the world was restored, so you should be alright."
"But," Sora called from the computer, which he periodically would kick Cid off of so he could check what world they could go to next, "we're never going to get that Heartless to restore Azure Daybreak if we can't even enter The World that Never Was."
"Or find out why they want to kill Charity." Broden mentioned.
"Or get rid of the Organization members." Quince finished.
"Or get back Axel, Roxas, and Naminé." Nessa added.
"Or—..."
"Okay, okay, I get it," Charity stopped Riku before he could talk, "we've got a lot to do. What's the next world?" she asked Sora.
Sora gave a face that only a mother could love as he stared at the screen. "Whoa, we haven't been to this one before." he remarked. Charity sprung out of the couch to go see, and the rest of them followed suit.
"Isn't that where Aurora comes from?" asked Kairi.
"And Goofy, Donald, and I met those three fairies at Yen Sid's tower. They came from here, too." Sora told them.
"That's also where Maleficent comes from." Riku said, pushing his way through Broden and Quince to see the screen. "Why is their world just now appearing? Maleficent can't be back, can she?"
"I don't know." Sora sighed. "We destroyed her. Maybe it's just that the world's keyhole has finally been unlocked."
"I hope not." Kairi remarked, "That would mean that somebody's going around unlocking keyholes. That could mean that the keyholes that we've already sealed back up are being unlocked."
"Doesn't look like it." Sora said, checking the past few worlds they have been to.
"Then why just now?" asked Nessa.
Sora shrugged, "World's move. It's probably always been there, just off the radar." That seemed like a good enough explanation.
"Well, we can't sit here and decide why it's there, as long as it is let's go. What's this world called?" she asked them.
"Spinning Wheel." Sora said dumbly as he stared at the screen. "Weird. Anyway, let's go!" They all set off to get on the Gummi Ship. They could hear a newly woken up Cid cussing them out from the other side of the door for leaving the computer on. At least Merlin hadn't shown up in the past few days. Author's Note: I believe I might have jinxed that.
Sora, of course, took his seat in the cockpit, but was immediately pushed out of it by Charity, "I don't trust your driving. I'm taking the wheel." After all, at least she had gone through Driver's Ed while Sora was stuck re-building a town.
Her lift-off was perfect, and she destroyed every ship in sight, even the unnecessary ones.
"You're wasting the ammo!" Sora complained.
"Shaddup." she told him, simply. At least her landing didn't make anybody on the ship nauseous; that could probably have been achieved from the constant spinning and breaking to escape enemy shots.
"We're here." Charity said happily as everyone else stumbled out of the ship. They were in a forest; a very clean and pretty looking one, at that. It would have been better if two birds weren't chirping annoyingly above them in a tree.
"Shut up." Broden said tiredly as he pointed his Gunblade at the poor birds. They squeaked in fear and flew away.
"Broden!" Kairi shouted.
"There's a cottage up ahead," Riku said, who never seemed to hesitate in a world for too long. As they stumbled through the forest, avoiding any branch that they could make to make a cracking noise after seeing way too many horror movies, they came to a clearing with a tiny cottage up ahead. There was obviously a lot of hustle and bustle happening in there, because Sora could already hear the voices of the three fairies.
"Wonder what they're doing." Nessa said.
Sora shook his head. "Wouldn't be surprised if they were fighting." He remembered when he first saw these fairies; they had given him the drive outfit that he always used. It was almost too bad he outgrew it; but there wasn't enough pink.
"Let's go in," Riku said, who had already approached the door. The second he put his hand on the handle, Author's Note: Are you expecting another moving doorknob? the door swung open, practically taking Riku's arm off.
"Company!" came the three fairies in some sort of a harmony sing-song. They were all old looking; there was one skinny, tall one wearing a green hat and clothing, who seemed to give the lowest and most unamused portion of the harmony. The other two were rather fat, one of them wearing blue and the other wearing pink. Sora knew them as Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, but all three of them looked slightly busy.
"You're not Aurora!" said Merryweather happily, a huge grin on her fat face.
"Good! We're hosting a party for Aurora! She's picking berries! Come in!" Flora exclaimed, yanking Riku in by his slightly bruised hand. Without hesitating, everyone else followed, but Broden was shut out.
"Oh, sure, leave me out here." he told them.
"Okay!" Fauna called back.
"We really don't have time for a party... you see, we're trying to lock a keyhole... Oh my God, would you let go of my boyfriend?!" asked Charity angrily to Flora, who was still holding his bruised hand quite hard and whisking him towards the kitchen.
"Taste the cake!" Merryweather told them.
"No thanks..." Riku grunted.
"Taste the cake!" Flora repeated.
"That's okay, I don't want—"
"TASTE THE DAMN CAKE!" Fauna yelled angrily, shoving her hand in the cake and stuffing it into Riku's mouth.
"It's for Aurora!" Flora started, and then began to laugh somewhere between sweetly and maniacally.
"Obviously having your keyhole unlocked has done a great deal of damage to your mental health," Kairi started, "so can we please go and unlock it now?"
"FIRST EAT THE CAKE." Fauna exclaimed and fell on her back.
"What happened to her?!" asked Sora.
Merryweather shook her head, "Oh, dear. You see, we've been under a bit of emotional stress since Aurora went and knocked herself out by stabbing her hand on a spinning wheel. We like to pretend that Aurora's just out picking berries so we throw a party for her when she comes back!" The fairy's eyes twitched.
"Aurora?" asked Sora. "She stabbed her hand on a spinning wheel?"
"Her thumb, to be exact." Flora nodded.
"What if I told you we could go wake her up? Would you let us go?" asked Sora.
"ONLY AFTER YOU EAT THE CAKE." Fauna cried from the floor. Nobody paid attention to her. "Eat the cake..."
"Of course." Merryweather decided, and opened the door. They practically all sprinted outside once they were given the opportunity, only to find a huge surprise on the cottage's footstep. Broden was talking to a man about his age that almost seemed to be out of a fairy tale. He was dressed like a knight and had his face in his hands.
"Guess what, guys?" Broden told them, "A girl's asleep so he's gonna kiss her and wake her up." He looked over at the boy.
"What the hell will kissing do to wake up Aurora?" asked Nessa. Charity punched her in the arm lightly.
"It's a fictional story!" the man cried to them, "The curse she was given as a baby means her one true love has to wake her up by kissing her and I'm the only man in the story besides her father and a bunch of black creatures are on the way and I'm scared!" He then shoved what looked like a Big Mac in his mouth. Author's Note: I should tell you ahead of time, I'm sorry for all of the comic relief here; but I need some of it. XD
"Okay, okay," Kairi started, trying to comfort the man, "first of all, eating isn't how you should deal with your stress. Second of all, we'll help get rid of the Heartless. See these?" she asked him as her flowery keyblade appeared in her hand, "These are keyblades. They can get rid of them. See?" she asked the disturbed man.
He nodded and wiped away his tears, "My name's Prince Phillip. My father's name was Prince Phillip, too. And my grandfather's name was Prince Phillip, and my great—..."
"He does that for comfort." Broden shuddered. "He got to about eight 'greats' when you guys all came out." he shook his head at the mere thought.
"I suppose everyone's emotionally challenged since Aurora left." Charity shook her head. As Kairi helped Phillip up by his hand, they all trudged through the forest.
"Which way is Maleficent's tower?" asked Sora halfway through the forest after at least an hour of walking. They were all surprised that no Organization member had appeared yet. After he had stopped mumbling, Phillip managed to tell them that she was in Maleficent's tower between his bawling. He looked at Sora.
"The opposite direction!" he cried.
"I can't take this anymore!" Nessa shouted. Her temper caught up with her again as she tackled Phillip to the ground with her hands around his neck, violently thrashing at him.
"Nessa! Nessa! Control your temper!" Charity told her best friend, somehow managing to wrench her off of Philip.
"...Oh. This isn't an angry sex scene?" asked Phillip, disappointed.
Nessa once again charged at him.
xxxxx
"...This is quite odd." were the only words that Calypso managed to mutter out as she watched down on them from a magical device that allows her to see what the group was doing. Somehow, she managed to steal this from Maleficent's old hideout.
"We know Nessa's weakness, at least," Vexen told her, "her terrible temper." Vexen had since been helping Calypso with everything she had been doing because he seemed to be one of the only Nobodies that actually had the ability to help.
"But that doesn't help with Charity." she murmured. "I have no intention of killing Nessa, Riku, or any of the others, but if it's the only way to weaken Charity, then I certainly will."
"What I'm trying to understand," Vexen interrupted, "is how you have absolutely no care about her friends when you were equipped with memories of Charity's life by Naminé."
"I suppose she never got to giving me the 'friends' part." Calypso's hand swelled up as her fist clenched tightly.
"...She certainly is beating him up very well. And she's not even using a keyblade..."
xxxxx
After the little panic attack, the group finally managed to flip the opposite way out of the forest and towards Maleficent's tower, even though they had already lost an hour of voyage time. Riku, for one, was quite afraid of passing Merryweather, Flora, and Fauna's house one more time. He felt that if anyone forced him to drink tea or eat cake ever again he would hate the English for all of eternity. He showed his discomfort by crossing his arms as they walked.
Phillip, however, insisted on singing Humpty Dumpty the whole way through the forest.
"You want to re-enact that scene?!" Nessa shouted at the Prince, causing him to start crying once again. She couldn't decide what she disliked more; the crying or the nursery rhymes. Nessa put her frail hand to her forehead and sighed.
"I think I'm ready to just find this keyhole and abandon the whole idea of saving this princess." Charity murmured and the prince let out an even stronger whine.
"If it makes you feel any better, Aurora might be the only sane one in this world." Sora shook his head. What had even happened to the Good Fairies? Obviously Aurora was a huge part of their life, almost like a grandmother with her prune juice. Or grandchildren; either one.
They finally managed out of the forest, to come to a very shocking sight when the entered the clearing. The three Good Fairies were tied to a tree by their feet, shrieking for help or their medicine; Charity couldn't exactly tell which. Standing next to them was a cloaked figure, laughing as the blood rushed to their heads.
"What do you want with them?" asked Sora.
"Nothing," replied the Organization member, "It's funny." He backed up and began shooting at the three fairies.
"Xigbar!" Sora shouted.
He pulled down his hood, and smiled happily at the rest of them. "Care for a round 'a Shoot The Fairies?" he asked pleasantly, and then pointed his gun arrows at Charity, "Or keyblade wielder?" Charity immediately summoned Savior of Balance and charged at the Organization member.
xxxxx
"She asked you for Charity's weaknesses, then." Roxas said. Naminé was sitting on his bed, and Axel was resting his back against his wall. Roxas, however, was simply standing in the center of the room, talking to them.
"She's probably the strongest being I've ever seen." Naminé admitted, "I could feel the strength pulsating from her. Is that why Charity wields the Savior of Balance? Because she's that strong?" Naminé had never gotten to fight Charity, nor has she ever wanted to, but she could tell that Charity was just as able of a fighter as Sora, but nothing better. Had she not been trying hard enough all this time? Was this all of her potential power.
"Of course she's strong." Axel dragged, "she got rid of Xemnas." He played with the gloves that were plastered to his hands from sweat; he had just been sent to search an odd world with dinosaurs to see if they were even there when they had gotten off of radius for Calypso to see for one reason or another. They insisted that a brontosaurus was called a long-neck and that leaves shaped like stars were the tastiest.
"She can't be very smart," Roxas commented, "if she has no idea that there are two Organization members and one honorary that are on Sora's side." On Sora's side. That was such a strange thing to say; sure, he had fought with and against Sora, but he was always on some sort of side of his own that he could never really describe.
"There's not much we can do until Charity's gotten rid of every Organization member but us. Once we're sent there, we'll re-join the group. Then she'll have to go over there to see why we aren't fighting, and it's lights out for Calypso."
"Actually," Roxas said, "I wish our members were a little stronger so they could just be held off and have to go back later. That way, Sora and everybody can just seal enough keyholes and come here themselves."
"Lazy." Naminé muttered.
xxxxx
Xigbar fell to one knee, and disappeared into a portal. Obviously, he was going to go recollect his strength to fight them again later. This was probably just the opposite of what Charity wanted, as she snorted and let the three fairies down.
"PERFECT!" Fauna exclaimed, "WE CAN THANK YOU WITH CAKE."
"Nothankswe'regoodlet'sgo." was all Riku mustered as he ran out of the scenery, closely followed by everybody, and especially closely by Phillip.
"Which way's the tower?" asked Sora as they came to a fork in the road.
"North." he cried.
Sora sighed. "There are two choices. East and west. Which one?" he asked him.
"North!" he cried back out to him.
Sora sighed. "West it is." To stop him from going completely off the path, Sora had to violently hold him by his wrist, which caused a lot of 'tee-hee's from the prince.
"Let's drop the dead-weight and get Mikey Way to kiss him or something." Charity suggested, finally siding with Nessa's original idea of just killing the prince. He had somehow progressed from Humpty Dumpty to Jack and Jill. Every time Jack broke his 'crown' he would go into a five-minute laughing fit.
"Finally!" Riku exclaimed as they saw a giant tower in front of them. He fell to his knees. "Thank God!"
Entering the tower, they could immediately smell the stench of rotted fish and something they would do better to not try to identify. Making it to the top of the tower, they saw Aurora laying peacefully on top of a bed.
"...So do I have sex or kiss her?" asked Phillip.
"Ugh!" Nessa shouted angrily. She took his head and shoved it into the Princess's face. She woke up gasping for breath from the kiss, and smiled at the sight of Phillip, although screamed when she saw the rest of them.
"Romantic, romantic." Nessa shook her head, and pushed them out of the tower window.
"N-Nessa! That was a Princess of Heart!" Sora shouted.
"It's a fairy tale. They won't die." Nessa waved it off as they ran down the tower.
"Never again are we entering this world." Riku told them sternly, "Never again." They looked to the side as they listened to the Prince complain of a broken finger and the Princess scratch the back of her head gingerly.
"Forget 'bout me?!" came Xigbar's voice angrily as he materialized where they stood.
"I hate how Nobodies can do that." Charity murmured.
"You jealous?" asked Xigbar.
"No." she said simply, letting Savior of Balance appear back in her hands, and slashed out him as much as possible. He wasn't too hard to fight at all, but that could have been due to the fact that she had already fought him ruthlessly less than an hour beforehand.
"Charity, behind you!" Nessa shouted as Xigbar appeared behind her. Before Charity could turn around, Xigbar had his hand on her throat.
"Let go of her!" Riku shouted angrily, and stabbed him in the stomach with Way to Dawn. Obviously, this had been the final blow, because he disappeared into the air, but not before a lovely cuss-fest at the group.
Sora sighed. "That's enough for one day. Eight members left. Let's go back to Hollow Bastion before we lose our sanity like Phillip."
"I'm perfectly sane!" he cried back at them, stuffing french fry after french fry into his mouth, causing the group to look away in disgust.
The ride back to Hollow Bastion couldn't have been any slower.
Author's Note: ...Well. Ahem. This was a bit of an odd chapter. So much comic relief and I didn't even add Merlin yet. Well. Anyway. R and R. The next chapter will be... er... less... brain melting.