Disclaimer: I don't own Full Metal Alchemist. If I did, the ending to that dumb movie would have never, I repeat, NEVER existed in a million centuries. I also do not own Kingdom Hearts.
Author's Note
There is one thing that I, first and foremost, ould like to say to all of my readers and reviewers.
(on knees) PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!
The reason why this chapter was so delayed was because of a case of very bad writer's block. There were times when I opened up the document on my computer and just stared at it for I don't know how long!
I tried to break away from it by doing other stories, but...it didn't work. Those who would like to see info about the progress of my other stories, look at the author's note on the bottom of this chappie.
This chapter is MUCH longer than the last one, and I'm grateful for that. I hope it can remedy the fact that it wasn't updated for five months. :(
To tell you the truth, I was going to upload this tomorrow instead because I had just finished it today after 4-5 long, grueling hours at the screen. But I felt so bad about not updating in so long, I decided to take the risk and upload it today. I'll try fixing any mistakes by tomorrow. (sighs) I hope there's not too many...well, as long as you guys enjoy it, then I'm okay with it.
I would like to especially thank Cerulean-San for constantly pushing me towards the finish and even adding in some extra little tidbits of help. I would also like to thank the rest of my reviewers for their reviews. Looking at them from time to time helped make the finish of this chapter possible.
I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 6: Second Day
No one spoke a word. The silence that hung between them was a heavy blanket, one that promised comfort yet threatened suffocation at the same time.
They all waited for something from the other. Edward lay on his side facing away from them, silent. Winry was kneeling on the bed with the sunlight dancing pink and yellow patterns across her nose and eyes as she stared out the window, and Paninya was sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring up at Winry.
He sighed, and their eyes flickered toward him, startled. Both of them had been oblivious to his presence throughout the night.
A golden eye peered over his upper shoulder with the slight turn of his head. His hair hung lazily to one side. He stared at them, thinking, calculating.
"From the way that story was stopped...I don't think that was the end."
Winry's eyes widened by the slightest fraction. Was...was he really going to...?
There was the sound of metal fingers rubbing together, and then he eased himself into a sitting position upon the bed. He kept his back to them as he stood up and made his way for the door.
"...Tell the rest tonight."
The door closed shut, and this time the two women heard a loud click.
Edward walked towards the audience hall with his hand held to his forehead. Rejecting that executioner was even worse than it was yesterday. After being told that there would be no execution that morning, the man had choked on a sudden intake of air. It took several pats on the back from a nearby servant to get him breathing again.
'Why do I have such dramatic idiots working for me?'
The hall was empty when he stepped through its brass-beaten double doors. He ascended the steps to his throne and settled himself onto its stiff metal frame, stifling a quick yawn as he did so.
He leaned a cheek on one hand, then jerked back as though touched with fire.
Of course. How could he have forgotten? That was his left cheek that he was leaning on. It was still bruised?
Edward frowned deeply and clenched his fist as he fought to contain the anger that ensued from yesterday's...occurrences.
What did she slap him for anyway? What did she think gave her the right to do such a thing to him, the sultan and her husband no less? She must have been a peasant or something of the sort; that was the only explanation he could conceive for her crude behavior.
Inhaling once to calm himself, he leaned his head on the opposite hand while tapping the fingers of the other against the armrest of the throne. Soon the northern gate will be opened to the citizens already lined up there, and then they would one by one enter the hall to express complaints or concerns...all day long.
Of course, there would be the off-chance that there were less people today...which meant that he could take a break. Then he would be able to do some training with his swords, or take a relaxing soak in one of the baths, or finally retire to his library...
Or take a walk in the gardens.
Edward stopped tapping his fingers to stare off into space for a while, reminiscing of a time long ago that he would rather leave forgotten, a time when...
He abruptly shook his head and reached over one of the armrests to pick up a book kept there for reading in between his audiences. He gently ran his left hand over the cover, feeling the worn leather and hearing it crackle beneath his fingers. Origins of Alchemy, the faded title read. Slowly, he opened the book to a marked page.
"Wow. Look Brother, it says here that alchemy was born in the kitchen!"
"What? That can't be right! Let me see that!" An eight-year-old Edward snatched the book out of his brother's hands and scanned his eyes over the page. The frown on his face soon gave way to an expression of disbelief.
"...Really? Something as cool as alchemy was started in a place so...boring?"
"Brother, I can't believe you just said that!" Alphonse's voice was ripe with indignation. "That's where our food comes from, you know!" Alphonse had always loved good food, just like his big brother.
Edward placed a finger on his chin and lifted his head upwards to stare at the intricate designs swirling across the ceiling. "Uh...no, not really, Al. That's only where the food is cooked. I think someone else makes the food and brings it to the palace."
"Really...who?"
Edward shrugged his shoulders, his face blank. "I don't know."
"Oh." Alphonse stared at the ground for a few seconds, and then suddenly leaped up. "Hey, let's go find out what we're gonna get for lunch today!"
Edward grinned. "Okay. Race you!"
The two of them ran out of the sunlit library, their bare feet pounding hard against the tiled floor.
The corners of Edward's mouth twitched at the memory.
Click, clack. Click, clack.
He looked up.
"Your honor?"
It was Grand Vizier Bradley.
The sultan straightened and closed his book shut. "Yes, Grand Vizier?"
The vizier regarded him through his uncovered eye for a moment, then brought a fist up to his mouth. Clearing his throat, he said, "I've heard about your bride. Is it true that she's...still alive?"
Edward's face was expressionless. "Yes," he said in monotone.
"Why so?"
He didn't reply. For some reason, he felt too embarrassed to do so- and that had never stopped him before.
The vizier's eye softened. "Well...if you don't want to tell me, then that's fine. But don't forget-"
"I know," Edward said, his voice low. "I haven't forgotten. She's going to be executed by tomorrow, so..."
He mentally searched for the right words, awkward.
"Don't...you don't have to worry," he said at last.
Bradley smiled fondly and turned to exit the audience hall, though not before bowing first. "I shall attend to my duties, your majesty." He shut the door behind him.
Was this real?
Winry lay flat on her back on top of the bed, her eyes wide open as Paninya snoozed somewhere on the carpet.
'Am I actually alive? Or am I in a dream?' Winry looked around at the lavish carpet and the beautiful carvings on the walls. The sunlight, bright as ever, reflected off a couple gold chests and shimmering golden chalices. 'A bittersweet dream?'
The good part of all this was that she was in a place she had never dreamed of stepping foot in: a place of nothing but luxury and wealth. Literally, she had gone from rags to riches in one day.
But the bad part of this was that her supposedly good fortune wouldn't stay with her for long. Soon, she would be dead, and the only thing good that she could hope for then was a place in paradise.
Her fingers inched toward the bottom of her sleeve, raising it up to reveal a thick bangle tight-fitted around her upper arm. It was quite beautiful; made of gold and inlaid jewels, it dazzled and sparkled in the sunlight streaming onto the bed.
How she wished she could tear the thing off.
The bangle represented- no, proved- the fact that she was married, that this was all not a dream, that everything that had happened to her so far and is happening to her right now was and is real.
Oh, how she wished it could be torn off!
Winry covered her face with her hands, and decided to think of other things. She sat up and fingered the rest of her wrinkled wedding clothes.
There were many things that she didn't understand. For instance, why was the sultan keeping her alive?
The answer was obvious. 'Because of the story.'
But then that led to another question. Was he really awake all night listening to that story? And if so, why? It was a mere child's tale, one of the many that her mother and father used to tell her when she couldn't sleep or when she had bad dreams.
Wait...bad dreams.
Winry blinked.
'Didn't he wake up from a bad dream the other night?'
If so, then that would explain his attentiveness to the story; he wanted to keep away from his own nightmares. But...what was he dreaming about?
Winry had to admit that she was a bit curious. After all, what kind of dreams could spook the sultan? Didn't everyone say that he was someone with no fear whatsoever? But then she squashed that curiosity as quickly as it had come. As far as she was concerned, he was someone not worth knowing about.
Well, as soon as that story was finished, her life was over; that was most certain.
But it wasn't her life that she feared for the most- it was Paninya's. She could deal with threats to her own life, but not Paninya's.
After her parents' death, she had been lonely, wandering the streets with hardly anything to her name. There were days when she didn't want to live, not with the love of her father and mother gone forever.
But then Paninya had come into her life. And slowly, she found that she had someone to care for and care for her in return. Together, they had built a strong bond of love that had helped ease the throbbing pain lodged deep within her heart.
No, she couldn't let Paninya die. It would be worse than her own death.
"Hmmm...Winry?"
She turned and flashed a smile at Paninya, who was sitting up and blinking her eyes. "Finally you're awake, Paninya. You snore louder than an elephant."
"I don't snore!" Paninya answered, adamant. After a quick moment of silence, they burst out into weak giggles.
Paninya placed a hand on her stomach as the laughter died. "Ugh...I'm starving." She looked up at Winry. "What are we supposed to do for food?"
She kept silent. 'Then what is the use of eating if you're going to die soon anyways?'
"...Winry?"
Winry bent her head and fisted her hands among the sheets. "It's no use, Paninya. He doesn't expect us to live any longer." Her eyes hardened as bitterness poured out of her voice. "Apparently he doesn't see the logic in wasting food on doomed prisoners."
"Oh..." Paninya didn't know what to say. There were no words that could repair the shattering impact the truth had on them.
Winry lay back down and closed her eyes. Perhaps if she tried hard enough, she could find solace in her dreams.
Edward sighed as he walked up the stairway to his room.
A massive number of people had requested an audience with him today, which left no time at all for leisure. That wasn't what annoyed him the most, however- it was the fact that some of his citizens' problems and complaints were little more than trivial.
'Give out privileges, and they'll return to you abused.'
When he reached his room, he stopped and put an ear to the door to listen for any sounds coming from within.
There was not a rustle, nor a snatch of chatter...nothing. He frowned as he opened the door softly.
They were asleep. His wife was curled up on one side of the bed, and her friend was on the carpet with her eyes closed as well.
His frown deepened as he closed the door and went to his side of the large mattress. He turned over on his side and away from his wife with his head propped upon his hand.
Now that she was asleep, he wouldn't be hearing any of that story tonight. He might as well stare out the window since he certainly wouldn't be getting any sleep either.
Unless he woke her up.
He sniffed to himself in contempt. Absolutely not.
She is going to be punished. She wasn't good enough. She will die.
Rough hands threw her on top of a large wooden surface covered in blood.
She didn't say anything. It was no use now.
She looked up and saw the sultan in robes of the deepest, silkiest red- the kind that makes one want to hold it to one's face and have the skin drink it all in at once. She almost tried to strain against her binds, just so that she could touch it- or touch him?- but his stony expression immediately erased that thought from her mind.
"I'm sorry," she wanted to say, but when she opened her mouth, she couldn't speak. Even her voice was afraid to face him.
She watched him slowly raise up a large, jeweled scimitar above his head, the blade shining ruby red. She wondered how it would feel to die. Would it be quick, or slow? Would it be painful, or would she be gone before she could feel anything?
She kept her eyes on the ruby red, shiny red, lustrous red blade. It was entrancing. Captivating. Red.
He brought down the scimitar very slowly, and the suspense made her twitch once in irritation. "Do it now!" she wanted to shout.
But then the sword stopped midway, as if it had hit some invisible hard surface. It started quaking and shaking and shivering and wobbling...
She looked at the sultan, and saw that it was his hand that was doing the shaking. Why?
And then all of a sudden he changed. Deformed. Transformed. All of a sudden he was not a man, but a small child, a small boy, and his robes were actually liquid blood that began to stream off of him like a fountain and tears were coming out of his eyes and he was crying and-
And the ruby red blade dissolved into a big stream of blood, ready to pour on her like the tears coursing down his small, pale cheeks-
Winry's eyes popped open and she bolted upright, panting and huffing with her hand held over her heart.
"About time."
She whipped her head around and saw the sultan lying sideways upon the bed.
"I thought you had a story to tell?"
She watched him lying there as if in a dazed wonder, still caught in the remnants of what she had just glimpsed in her sleep. Him, a crying child...?
He turned his head and took note of her heaving form and half-lidded eyes. "...Bad dream?" he questioned.
Winry stiffened and scowled at his dry remark.
"I'm touched," she spat, her voice wracked with sarcasm, "that you are so...concerned."
He sat up, his eyebrows now furrowed. "Spare me your gratitude," he spat back. "You and your friend over there will have to exchange it for mercy once morning comes- though it would never do you any good, I assure you."
"And if I exchange a story instead?"
Her bold inquiry shot out from her lips, unbeckoned. It rebounded against the walls of the room over and over, and its echoes drowned them in still-breath silence.
The sultan leaned in towards her with smoldering eyes, his nose mere inches from hers. "A story could never be enough equivalent exchange...for a life." His voice came out as half a whisper and half a hiss. "You would do well to remember that."
Winry blinked once from the sheer intensity of his glare. "A story is a life of its own," she retorted. "Isn't a life equivalent to a life?"
He leaned away, their eyes still locked. "Yes," he said slowly. "A life for a life."
The angry scowl on Winry's face vanished as her eyebrows rose- but then it reappeared as confusion set in. She couldn't help but feel that she had missed the full meaning of his words just now. She opened her mouth again, but was interrupted by a rustling behind her.
"Winry? Who are you talking-" Paninya had sat up and peered above the mattress line, her breath catching at the sight of the sultan. He spared her a sidelong glance, and she narrowed her eyes a bit.
"Oh," she said, a little sour. She looked up at Winry. "So...how about I hear the rest?"
Winry stared back at the sultan for a few more moments, then turned around and put her full back to him. He did likewise, once more settling himself into an outstretched position on the mattress and staring out the window.
"Of course the three were more than surprised at the booming voice that had sounded out of nowhere..."
"What was that?" Sora exclaimed. He looked to Goofy and Donald for an answer, and his face fell in dismay.
The two of them were clutching at each other tightly with their legs quivering and their teeth chattering like woodpeckers. He sweatdropped.
"Uh...guys?"
They snapped out of their fearful stupor; Donald immediately pushed Goofy away once he saw their arms around each other. "Get off of me!"
Goofy slumped to the floor with a crash.
"C- come on, Sora!" Donald gave an impatient wave of his shaking hand and began heading back to the landing shore. "This place probably doesn't have what we're looking for anyways."
"Wha...wait!" Sora quickly helped Goofy up and ran to catch up to Donald. He leaped in front of the duck's path. "How do you know? We've only been here for five minutes! Kairi and Riku could be here!"
"He's got a point, Donald," Goofy said as he walked up to them. "You can't decide to leave just cuz you're scared, ahyuck!"
"What do you mean I'm scared?! You were the one who- oomph!"
Donald's rant was abruptly cut off by something white and fluffy that landed on his head. It hopped straight off, shouting,
"I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello goodbye, I'm late I'm late I'm late!!"
It was a three-foot high, cotton-tailed, floppy-eared rabbit.
'In a waistcoat?!'
It was true; not only did the rabbit sport a dressy waistcoat, but a fashionable pocketwatch in his right paw and a closed-up umbrella hung over his other arm. He kept looking at his pocketwatch with murmurs of "I'm late! I'm late!" as he hurried along.
Sora and Goofy stared, dumbfounded.
"...What was that?"
Donald fumed as he rubbed the top of his head. "Let's follow!" he yelled. He stormed after the rabbit without waiting for anyone else.
"Wait up, Donald!"
"Ahyuck!"
The three of them ran after the nervous animal with all the speed their legs could muster.
Soon they followed him along a paved path into a large building. They paused near the door for a few minutes, huffing and puffing and trying to figure out where the rabbit had gone.
"Which...huff...way...huff...Where's that bloody rabbit?!" Donald raged.
Sora looked around. "I wonder where he...ah!"
He had glanced down and found the rabbit running between his legs.
His gigantic legs.
The rabbit was now a mere ten inches from what Sora could see. And when he raised up his head in bewilderment, he was surprised to feel it brushing against the ceiling that was now mere centimeters away from his eyes.
"...Eh?"
The rabbit scuttled across the tiled floor and slammed a tiny door on the opposite wall.
Donald's mouth opened and closed as he sputtered and gasped. "Wha...how the...how did he..."
"Wow, Donald, looks like all three of us had growth spurts, ahyuck!"
The duck turned irate at this comment. "You big lummox! This isn't a growth spurt, you idiot!" He pounded a fist into the side of Goofy's head and earned a satisfactory Ow in return.
"How'd he get so small?" Sora asked, bending in front of the door the rabbit had disappeared into. He prodded the doorknob. 'Wow, this door is so tiny
"I believe the problem is not that I'm too small, but that you're too big."
Sora let out an undignified "Eek!" and jumped three feet away from the door. Did that door just now speak?
'What the heck?!'
True to his startled senses, he saw the doorknob move as if it had a mouth. "You don't have to be so loud. If you want to get through, just ingest the contents of that bottle over there." It paused to sigh. "And would you please hurry on with it? I don't have all day, you know. I've got plenty of sleep to catch up on."
Donald and Goofy huddled around the doorknob while Sora snapped out of his daze and searched for the indicated bottle.
"It speaks!"
"Afternoon sir, ahyuck!"
"Hmm...a bottle? Ah!" His eyes caught a dark green bottle on top of a beautifully carved table in a nearby corner. "Is this it?"
He drank a few drops and shoved it in the others' hands. "Drink up, you guys."
Donald frowned at first, but then took a drop before gagging. Goofy, on the other hand, took a nice long swig.
They waited.
"Uh...Sora, what's supposed to happ-"
All of a sudden the centimeters between them and the ceiling turned into whole meters. And all of a sudden the tiny door they were bending over loomed in front of them.
In other words...
"Wow! We really did shrink!"
Sora's eyes were bugged out in fascination. "Unreal, man! It's just like they say! The worlds beyond really are filled with mysterious things and stuff!"
"I don't know, Sora," Donald said. He looked spooked. "They ain't supposed to be this mysterious, I don't think..."
"Well, now that that's over and done with, let's go!" Sora cried. He tugged at the doorknob and frowned when it didn't give way. "...Huh?"
He glared straight into the doorknob's eye and found the reason for its immobility- it was snoozing away.
"Oi, open up! C'mon!"
"Hey Sora, we can just go this way!" Goofy said as he and Donald crawled through a hole in a nearby wall. Sora sweatdropped as he got down on his hands and knees after them. 'Geez...'
The three of them soon emerged in a large, grassy garden filled with rose hedges. In the center of the garden was a large court.
And in that court was quite a mess.
"Please, your highness, this is so unfair!"
"Quiet! You are the most definite culprit! Now where are my soldiers?"
A girl- 'She must be Kairi's age...'- was standing in the middle of the court with a hand held to her heart. She was staring, obviously perplexed, at a large queen sitting on the raised platform in front of her.
"But for what reason am I being charged?" she implored. "I've done absolutely nothing wrong!"
The overly-dressed woman answered in a snippy voice devoid of compassion. "You're the culprit because I said so! Get her, soldiers! Cut off the head of the one guilty for trying to steal the heart of the Queen of Hearts!"
Sora started. "You guys, she said something about stealing a heart! We should help out here!" But when he turned towards Goofy and Donald, he saw that they were less than enthusiastic.
"...What's the matter?"
"We can't meddle in the affairs of this world..." Donald muttered.
"Against the rules, that is," added Goofy.
"But guys-"
"No,no! Oh, please!" The girl was being surrounded by several giant card soldiers, who were brandishing dangerous spears that came way too close to her head...
"Stop right there!"
Donald slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, jeez..."
"How do you know for sure that this is the real culprit, lady!?"
Sora fell backwards at her answering bellow.
"AND WHAT MANNER OF CREATURE ARE YOU, SCUM!? HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE WITH THE PROCEEDINGS OF THIS COURT! MANNERLESS, THE LOT OF YOU!"
His legs shaking a little, Sora jumped up and shouted back, "Excuse me, ma'am, but we know who the real culprit is!"
"Ahyuck, it's the Heart-" Donald clamped a heavy wing over Goofy's mouth.
"Information concerning the Heartless is strictly top secret, kapeesh!?" he harshly whispered.
"Hogwash, lad!" the queen answered, not hearing Goofy's slip-up. "Do you have any evidence supporting the defense?"
"Er..." Now Sora felt immensely sheepish. "I...I'm kinda workin' on that..."
He turned his head at the sound of a loud metal clang and saw the girl being locked in a large cage.
"Very well." His attention was turned back to the queen. "I shall humor your claim. Bring me back evidence of Alice's innocence! If you fail, then it's off with ALL of your heads!"
Sora gulped.
"Until you conclude your investigations, this court is adjourned!" And with the pound of a gavel, everyone departed.
Sora stared up at the cage that the soldiers had risen high above the ground. "Don't worry, miss! Just you wait! We'll capture the real culprit for ya!"
"But where the heck are we gonna find evidence..." Donald muttered.
The girl inside the cage stared back warmly for a moment. "There does in yonder wood reside the Cheshire Cat. Do seek and ask him where he thinks this proof is at. And please be careful, now!"
"Get a move on! Visitation hours are over!" shouted one soldier.
"All right, all right! Yeesh!"
0000
Sora sighed in exasperation.
"Can't we just tell them that the Heartless did it?" he asked crossly as he shoved away yet another tree branch. They must have been in the forest for hours now, and there was still no signh of that darn cat. "It's not like we're meddling in their affairs or anything..."
"No, it is!" fumed Donald. He took a deep breath and held out a finger as he tried to explain. "Each world out here has its own particular boundaries, and within each of those boundaries is a different understanding of reality that emerges as a different sort of truth. Two different truths aren't able to coexist, so foreigners tend to introduce chaos and conflict. That's why we have to limit our involvement in local affairs as much as possible."
"I disagree."
All three of them started at the unfamiliar keening voice sounding around the trees nearby.
"I pose that the untruth of this truth upon truths holds untruer."
Sora looked up and saw a striped purple-and-pink cat lanugishing on a tree branch in front of them. When did he get there? He could have sworn that nothing was there a few seconds ago...
The cat grinned eerily. "The Cheshire Cat knows all truths, and finds as yet no contradiction for chaos."
"Ahyuck, it's the Cheshire Cat!" Goofy shouted.
The cat reached behind him and pulled out a small white box from thin air. He tossed it at Sora. "Here you go."
"Within the box there lives perhaps the truth you seek..." explained the cat as the trio gazed at the box in confusion, "Or perhaps there lives not? To trust, or not to trust..."
He was slowly fading away right before their very eyes.
"I trust that you'll decide."
His eerie smirk was the last thing that they saw of him before he completely vainshed. For a minute they just stood there with their mouths open. "He vanished!"
Sora looked again at the box hat he was holding in his hands. "Whaddaya suppose is in here..." he wondered as he slowly pulled off the lid.
Shing!
It was a heartless!
"Wait!" Sora yelled as it dashed away. He ran in hot pursuit with his Keyblade at the ready and followed it all the way to the court.
"What in the world was that?! Mannerless scum!" the queen bellowed in her surprise.
"There's your evidence, Miss Queen! Watch out!"
The queen screamed as Sora destroyed the heartless when it was just inches away from her.
"There ya go! Still think that Alice is the culprit?" Sora stood in front of the shivering queen with his Keyblade still held out behind him. "Let her go already!"
"Now's the time," Goofy whispered as he and Donald turned the crank that lowered the cage. A nearby soldier shouted at them, but they paid no heed. The cage lowered to the ground after only a few turns, but...
"Alice!?"
It was empty.
"By Jove, she's gone! Alice has vanished!" the queen bellowed. "Stand to attention, men! The defendant has escaped and remains at large! I order an open bounty for her immediate recapture!"
The card soldiers closed in around the trio in warning.
"They look a bit agitated, don't they?"
"Ahyuck."
"Off with all your heads if you fail!" She shouted once more.
"We're moving already! Geez!" Donald groused as they all hurried away.
0000
And so, they were once again in that deep, dark forest.
"This whole kidnapping thing just smacks of Heartless involvement..." Sora muttered. He stopped walking as he continued to assess the situation. "How did it work, though?" He asked Donald. "We haven't really seen them do anything besides attack people...are they even smart enough to do something like kidnap them?"
Donald scratched his chin. "I got a feeeling that there's something afoot...There's a chance that the Heartless are being manipulated somehow...most likely by somethin' evil..."
The head of the Cheshire Cat popped right in front of their faces.
"Wauugh!"
"Alas, having found the evidence that you sought..." the cat riddled as the trio gathered their breaths, "You now seek the defandant you lost? Poor Alice."
Sora sweatdropped as he tried to follow the cat's words. 'Why can't this guy talk like a normal person for once!?' "Uh...yeah...Have you seen her?"
The cat swung a little by his tail as he continued to hang upside down from the tree branch. "Nope. Negative."
A pause.
"Quit talkin' in circles, you!" Donald sputtered. He hopped up and down for a few moments in his rage.
"The cat, the culprit, and the answer do all in darkness lie," said the cat, gleefully ignoring Donald's demand. "I shall show what shadows lurk in the heart of the world..."
He lifted a beckoning finger before he hopped to the ground and stalked away on all fours. His tail was a great purplish-pinkish plume that waved to and fro as he walked. "Follow me."
0000
The three of them looked around in the great building that they were in.
"Wait a minute...weren't we in here before?"
"Patience, patience," said the Cheshire. He leaped on a table and held up a claw that lit up with a small flame out of nowhere. Sora took a step back.
'Umm...what's going on here?'
"Did you know that the closer the light, the darker the shadow?" the cat inquired.
True enough, the shadow around him did seem to be growing darker...and then there was a bright flash so sudden that no one thought to blink in time.
"Have you prepared your hearts for the worst?" The cat smiled his sinister grin as the enormous fire-juggling Heartless loomed in front of them. "If not, too bad!"
"You...you tricked us?!" Donald yelled. The cat's grin grew wider.
"I trick, you say? Nay, I need not." He raised a paw to his cheek and sprawled himself on a table. "The Cheshire Cat is always here to help the weak."
The heartless threw a fiery torch at them, and they screamed.
"Hot-Hot-HOT!!!" They ran every which way in confusion and pathetic chaos.
"...It seems that you are in dire need of help," murmured the cat as he privately sweatdropped. "It is rather a miracle that you made it this far..."
He pointed a claw straight at Sora. "It is but a pittance, but I shall grant you what strength you lack."
All of a sudden, Sora no longer felt the heat of the fires that were so close to him mere seconds before. Instead he felt a calming chill that thrilled his head as he took in a deep breath. He looked down, and saw hints of blue snowflakes hovering around his Keyblade.
'...Huh?'
"OUCH! ACK!" Donald howled as his backside was smothered in flames.
"Donald!" Sora cried, and then his breath hitched as the Keyblade jerked backwards in his hands. It felt as though something within him was being hooked and pulled towards the very tip of his weapon. A burst of icy flakes spewed forth and headed straight at the oblivious duck.
Donald looked up as the flames sizzled and died on his backside. "Huh?" He caught sight of Sora staring at his Keyblade in wonder. "Sora, was that you just now?!"
Goofy pointed at his own backside. "Ahyuck. Would you mind putting out mine too?"
"You're the one called the 'Bearer of the Key'. It would be a true pity if you didn't know a lick about using magic, wouldn't it?" The cat was hanging upside down again as he watched them.
"Ma- magic?!"
"Sora, look out!"
He turned and saw that the heartless had thrown several torches of fire straight at them. They were somehow able to dodge them, but Sora was pissed from this near-death experience.
"Why you!"
He aimed his Keyblade at that monster and started ice-zapping as fast as possible. The heartless merely dodged the blasts. It giggles as it slapped one of the blasts toward the trio.
"Arrgh! My magic isn't working on him!" Sora struggled to get up and saw that his leg was bleeding profusely from the impact of the ice shards that were reciprocated back at them.
"Cure!"
Sora blinked and saw that the wound on his leg had vanished among a sparkle of green leaves. He turned and shouted his thanks to Donald.
The duck shouted back. "Sora, you've gotta focus! Concentrate all your power at the tip of that thing and imagine it freezing over your opponent! You've gotta focus your heart!"
Sora looked up at the heartless juggling right in front of him.
'I gotta freeze... the enemy...'
He closed his eyes for a brief moment and concentrated hard on that little hook inside of him once more. He let it reach deep inside of him to a place to where the possibilities seemed endless...
'Gotta focus..'
A place of power...
'C'mon...'
The place where his heart was.
His eyes flew open. He glanced down at his Keyblade and saw a brilliant blue cluster right at its tip. He grinned and raised it before him, aiming straight at the spindly heartless cocking its head from side to side.
"BLIZZARD!"
Sora's breath hitched in his throat again as he felt the Keyblade's tug. A whirl of blue and white ice erupted from its tip in an icy explosion and swirled around the entire room. The entire mass of ice moved to concentrate on the heartless with a froce so great that Sora's breath momentarily froze.
The heartless itself was frozen solid. It was balnced haphazardly on its legs, teetering and tottering. Soon, it fell backwards in a crash and broke into pieces.
"Yeah!" Donald and Goofy rushed toward Sora and hugged him so tight that he was turning blue from the lack of oxygen. "You did it, Sora!"
"Ch-chokin'...not...bre-"
"Ack! Sorry, ahyuck!" And they let go and allowed Sora to collapse and breathe in large gulps of air.
"Keep it down, would you?" their favorite doorknob howled. "Thios doorknob can't get any rest around here, can't he?"
"What's with that attitude, you ungrateful doorknob!?" the duck squawked. "We were just now-"
Sora ears tuned out everything as he caught sight of something in the doorknob's mouth.
'Huh? Something was shining just now...'
"A...keyhole?"
Suddenly a familiar jerk tugged at his heart. A bright light focused on the tip of his Keyblade and shot towards the keyhole that he saw.
"Huh?!"
CLICK!
"I wish to just...simply...sleep..." The doorknob's mouth closed as he drifted back to the land of Nod.
"Did you hear that? Sounded like somethin' clicked..."
"What...what was that?" Sora wondered in awe. He examined the tip of his Keyblad in his hands.
"Hey look fellers, a gummi block!" Goofy bent over and picked up something small and beady from the tiled floor.
"A gummi block?"
"It's what our gummi ships are made of," explained Donald. He too the piece from Goofy's hands. "It doesn't look like a normal one, though..."
Clap. Clap. Clap.
"Bravo!"
The Cheshire Cat was grinning like mad. "Superb performance! Great show, that display! Your powers really do bloom true, I say!"
Sora frowned. "Cheshire Cat...whose side are you on?"
The witty feline changed the subject. "Alice is neither here nor there, or available for any occasion. She has passed from this world, to where I cannot speak..."
'Is it me, or is that cat a little blurry on his outlines?'
"Borne off by the shadows, she has fallen to the darnkness of obscurity..." And here Sora saw that the cat was indeed fading away.
"Wait!"
But the cat merely grinned wider and disappeared with a pop!
They stood there for a minute. "Darn cat..."
Sora sighed. "Well, should we just go or should we tell the queen what had..."
"Are you crazy Sora?! She said that it would be off with our heads if we fail!"
Sora and Goofy snapped to attention. "In that case, we should hurry and sneak away while we got the chance, ahyuck!"
0000
Sora rested his head on the railing of the ship as they sailed away.
'We didn't find anyone after all...not Kairi, not Riku, not even the king. And then Alice had to go bye-bye on us...'
A large clang sounded as an object made a sudden connection with his head. He knelt and moaned in pain before turning towards Donald angrily. "Hey, what the heck was that for?!"
"Stop worrying yourself, kid. Believe it or not, this ship is only able to sail if we think happy thoughts! Your depression is making this thing sink a little more into the waves than usual!" Donald then softened. "Look, Sora, there really is nothing to be worried about."
"Ahyuck!" Goofy added. "We'll find them for sure!"
Two brown shapes scampered up Sora's front and pulled at his cheeks. "If you want to live to find them, smile already!" the chipmunks cried. One of them even stuck the handle of a tiny mop in Sora's mouth and stretched his upper lip with it.
He smiled for real this time. "Okay..."
Then he dashed up to where Donald was at the steering wheel. "Here, let me steer!"
"ACK! NO, SORA!"
They were near another land mass, and Sora had grabbed the steering wheel wrong. The ship was now turning into port with a speed that could kill them if they crashed.
Winry stopped. It was dawn again.
She turned her head and glanced at the sultan. He was now lying on his stomach with his eyes closed and his chin resting on top of his arms. He seemed to be resting in a peaceful sleep, but Winry knew that she shouldn't always trust what her eyes see.
Sure enough, his eyes snapped open a few minutes after her pause and swiveled to the side.
"...So that's it? They die just like that?"
So he was listening to her story.
"No. They don't."
Some more seconds of silence passed before the sultan sighed and sat up.
"Very well."
He stood and walked towards the door, then paused with his hand on the doorknob. "I do not have to repeat anything. You know what this means," he said as he twisted the handle and opened the door.
"Wait."
He halted.
Winry heard Paninya suck in a gasp as he slowly turned his head in her direction. She could feel her own heart thumping furiously against her ribs as he narrowed his eyes, but what was done was done. She swallowed and gathered courage.
"Are you going to feed us now? Or are hoping that we will die of starvation instead?" Her voice sounded the complete opposite of what she felt, but she no intention of letting him know that. She let her eyes speak only of her bitterness.
The sultan turned and left the room without a word.
'Ungrateful wretch. She doesn't deserve to live.'
But he was letting her live. And that just made the situation...complicated.
He ground his teeth together in frustration. She was going to die soon anyways; what use was eating going to be?
He sighed. Exactly. Having a little food wouldn't necessarily do any harm, and he knew it. His pantries and storerooms held more than enough food for twenty thousand people; feeding only two would be nothing.
He waved a hand at a passing maid with a food platter in her hands. "You. Halt."
The maid squeaked and came to an abrupt stop before bowing as low as possible with the platter still in her hands.
"Y-yes, your majesty?"
"Bring that platter to my room. Feed the ones that are in there." It was just as well, he silently noted, that he didn't lock the door this time.
His imperious dispositon seemed to frighten the maid even more. "Yes, y-your majesty." She bowed once more and scurried off to obey his commands.
Edward continued walking down the hall. As he passed the executioning room, he saw that very same executioner open his mouth to address him.
"Not today," he simply said. His footsteps never missed a beat as he crossed his arms and left the fool to once more sputter and stammer in confusion.
Two menservants bowed respectfully as he reached the baths. One of them took his clothes as he undressed, and the other poured fragrant spice into the steamy waters. They bowed once more before exiting and leaving him to his privacy.
He took a deep breath and felt his muscles ease and relax. The calm, lukewarm waters soothed him more than the sweet aroma that rose from their surface. He leaned back and closed his eyes as his worries slipped away from his mind like oil on tiling.
Here, now, he felt peace.
Author's Note:
I hoped you liked this chappie (I finished it while listening to Numa Numa on youtube all day long). :) Here is the info for my other stories:
On the Account: 00 DUDE. Let me tell you the truth here- I was NOT expecting so many reviews for that little thing. Wow. Well, I'm currently typing up the next chappie, but I keep having to revise stuff. Let's just say that it's gonna have a lot of Winry. ;P
Silver Demise: At first I had this long thing typed out, but school and stuff prevented me from continuing it. So for a while I just keep revise, editing...and then one day during a break from math class I looked at it and saw that the whole thing was really cruddy. So I erased the whole thing and started anew. I know what I want in that chapter, but I'm sorta stuck on one part...(sweatdrops) Forgive me...
Those Times: I LOVED the reviews for this thing! I'm glad that so many people enjoyed it! But...should this really be on here? (winks)
Please review! I need more motivation to keep going, 'cause this thing is gonna be LONG. If anyone has plot ideas, don't forget to mention them, okay? They might get added in this jumbly mess of ideas I have in my brain. ;)