Authors Note: Hey guys! I suppose I should say good morning...I'm sorry this wasn't up earlier today. I got tied up with the bank trying to pay my tuition today, and I was go ticked off, that uploading slipped my mind. Anyways, thanks to SpringBorn, kingdomdisney, psychicshipping, and one Anon. for their reviews. I'm still in awe that you guys waited around for me this long. So here's the conclusion of Port Royal. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Just Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.
Rushing back to the docks, Sora and Katy found Will, Donald and Goofy, staring off at the horizon.
"Okay, why are we all staring at the sky like it killed our puppy?" Katy asked, looking at each of them in turn.
"Oh, yeah." Sora laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
Katy raised an eyebrow in question and Will sighed dejectedly.
"We were too late. Those pirates kidnapped Miss. Swann and took her to their ship. Now they've sailed and I'll never be able to find her."
Before anyone could offer any words of encouragement, a voice that sounded slightly accented and mostly drunk slurred;
"Then she's long gone. The Black Pearl is neigh uncatchable. Best find yourself another girl, mate."
Will's eyes widened when he realized the source of the voice was coming from the deck of a naval ship.
"You! What are you doing aboard the Interceptor? She's off limits to civilians!"
"Ah, good thing I'm going to commandeer her then. She'll make a fine pirate ship."
Sora's face lit up.
"A pirate?"
"Yeah, because the last ones we met didn't give us any trouble." Katy mumbled, rolling her eyes.
The man aboard the Interceptor jumped down to the dock, revealing his face to them.
"Captain Jack Sparrow, if you please."
Will, after surveying the man and the ship ready to sail behind him, made a decision.
"Take me with you. Help me hunt down the Pearl and save Miss. Swann." When Jack didn't look too interested, Will added, "I got you out of that jail cell, Sparrow. Do this, and your debt's repaid."
Still not sold on the idea, Jack shook his head.
"You'll have to win fair lady's heart alone, mate. I see no profit in it for me."
"Aw, c'mon, Captain." Sora wheedled.
"Are you sure you can sail her? All on your own?" Will asked, eyebrows raised.
Jack opened his mouth to reply, and then closed it abruptly. Obviously he hadn't thought of that.
"You've a point there."
Will smirked and nodded, boarding the ship.
"Thanks, Sparrow."
"Captain Sparrow." Jack replied automatically.
"Will Turner."
"That'd be short for William I'd imagine. No doubt named for your father?"
"Yes." Will answered, looking at Jack curiously
Jack grinned, muttering something about his luck changing under his breath.
Sora came up next, introducing himself and the others as they boarded with Katy bringing up the rear. Just as she was about to reach the deck, Jack stepped in front of her.
"It's bad luck to have a woman aboard a ship. Even one of such a diminished size."
Katy gave him a puzzled look.
"Did you just call me short?"
"It doesn't matter what I called you. I'll not have a woman aboard me ship…even a miniature one."
Giving him a glare that would put Maleficent to shame, she shoved hard at Jack's chest, trying hard to get him to budge.
"I don't think you understand. See the kid with the obnoxious hair? Where he goes, I go. End of story."
"Fine." Jack shrugged, turning to Sora, "Oi! Lad! Off my ship."
Katy stomped her foot, frustrated.
"That's not what I meant!"
"Look, lass. It's nothing against you personally. But either you stay and he goes or you both stay. I might not be able to sail this ship all by me onesie, but it's frightful bad luck to have a woman aboard and I'll not risk it. Savvy?"
She continued to glare at the pirate, hands fisted at her sides. She caught a glimpse of Sora, who was looking helplessly from her to Jack. She knew what he was thinking. It was better for just him to go than for no one to go at all.
"Fine." Katy gave in. "But I swear if anything, and I mean anything happens to him over there, I'll know about it and make the rest of your life miserable, clear?"
"Crystal, darling. Now if you would kindly get off me ship." Jack lifted her by the forearms and placed her back on the docks, her glowering at him the entire way. He patted her lightly on the head before re-boarding the Interceptor.
"Well than Mr. Turner, you get us ready to make way. I have some effects to liberate."
"Aye, Aye!" Will replied, getting into the whole pirate thing. "But hurry!" he added.
"Naturally." Jack called over his shoulder.
"Sora, you really wanna be a pirate?" Goofy asked, confused
"Of course not!" The teen replied, probably leaving the knight even more confused as he walked off the ship and over to Katy.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." He looked around, warily. "It's you I'm worried about. We never found the person you thought was watching you. And Dusks attacked you before—"
"I can handle Dusks and some Heartless. Just…just get back here as soon as you can. You know how it is when I can't get to you."
Nodding, Sora kissed her forehead and ran back aboard the ship just as Jack returned, Captain's hat, pistol, and compass in hand.
"Alright, let's get ready to make way!"
Will untied the ship from the dock and unfurled the sails, the ship started to cruise smoothly out of the harbor.
"No hard feelings, eh lass?" Jack called out, tipping his hat to her.
"We'll be back soon, Katy!" Sora called over the sound of the waves.
Once the ship was out of earshot, Katy let out a shriek of rage.
"Pirates!"
Meanwhile, back on the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann, not going by Elizabeth Turner to protect her true identity. (Totally not obvious she wants to marry Will or anything.) was having similar thoughts.
"You can release me!" She insisted to Captain Barbossa. "You have your trinket! I'm of no further value to you!"
"This is no trinket, missy. This is cursed Aztec gold. One of 882 identical pieces they delivered in a stone chest to Cortez himself." Barbossa replied, his voice low and rather menacing.
"I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore, Captain Barbossa." She scoffed.
"That's exactly what I thought. 'Buried on an island of the dead, that can't be found except by those who know where it is. Find it we did. There be the chest. Inside be the gold. And we took 'em all. We spent 'em and traded 'em and fritted them away, on drink and food and pleasurable company. The more we gave them away, the more we came to realize…the drink would not satisfy. Food turned to ash in our mouths. We are cursed men, Miss Turner. Compelled by greed we were, but now we are consumed by it."
"How very sad for you."
Barbossa chuckled darkly.
"There is one way we can end our curse. All the scattered pieces of the cursed Aztec gold bust be gathered and returned to the stone chest. And the blood of every soul who dared tough the treasure must be repaid. Miss Turner, for ten years we've searched every league of these waters; every town and village, preying on sailors and settlers alike. 881 pieces we found, we despaired of ever finding the last. All these years, you've been safe in your bed, readin' your pirate stories, dreamin' of adventures on the high seas. We've endured torments worse than death itself.
He turned to face Elizabeth, who was pretty creeped out by this point.
"But now thanks to you, we have the final piece, at last. When this medallion is restored to the chest, we'll be free to roam the seas once more as men. No longer will we be ghosts."
Elizabeth gulped and stuttered out.
"And the blood that's to be repaid?"
Barbossa smirked.
"That's why there's so sense to be killin' ya…yet."
Now even more fearful for her life, Elizabeth sprang up and ran to the doors of the cabin, yanking them open. Upon seeing what was outside, she shrieked in terror.
"You see, the moonlight shows us for what we really are. We are not among the living, so we cannot die, but neither are we dead. You best start believing in ghost stories again, Miss. Turner. You're in one." Barbossa said with a grin.
With another scream of terror, Elizabeth ran back into the cabin. Barricading the door, she screwed her eyes shut and prayed someone, anyone, would come for her soon.
She just needed to stay calm.
They had been gone for about an hour, which meant she had been staring off into the distance for an hour. Wonderful. Now pacing the length of the dock, Katy did her best to focus on her breathing pattern, which was starting to become irregular.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
Who was she kidding? She was freaking terrified. Out of all the times she hadn't been able to help Sora and had experienced "Protector Withdrawals", she had always been relatively close to him. In the same room as him more often than not. This was the first time he was so far out of her reach, there was no way at all she could get to him. Trying extremely hard not to have a panic attack, she walked rather aimlessly back to where the Gummi ship was. There was no way she was waiting out here in the open. Teenage girl in the middle of a town overrun by pirates was not a good scenario. Climbing aboard, she was ready to whip out her iPod to kill some time, when she realized there was somebody already on the ship.
Shrieking, she drew her weapons proceeded to smack the person over the back of the head.
"Hey! That's the second time you've injured me today! OW! Katy, cut it out! It's just me!" Demyx wailed, holding his arms up to deflect her blows.
"Funny, that doesn't make me want to stop HITTING YOU!" She yelled, dismissing her swords and continuing her assault with her fists.
Demyx let her attack him until she wore herself out, slumping against his chest.
Oh, shit. It was starting…
"I think I'm going to have a freaking heart attack."
"I didn't scare you that bad, did I?" he joked.
"No, seriously. I-I think I'm gonna pass out." She stuttered, clutching onto Demyx like he was her lifeline.
Slightly alarmed, Demyx slid to the floor, taking Katy with him so she was in his lap. He got a good look at her face, she was white as a ghost.
"You need to calm down."
"C-Can't." She moaned. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf, she felt like she was breathing through a tube, and every one of her senses were on high alert. Her eyes were darting around wildly, looking for someone who wasn't there. Her mind was screaming, Sora, Sora, SORA.
"Sora..."
"He's going to be fine. You're hyperventilating. You need to calm down." Demyx said from somewhere very far away.
Trying to pull herself together, Katy concentrated on her breathing again. InhaleExhaleinhaleExhale. Inhale. Exhale.
Slowly, she started to relax. Faintly, she was able to feel that Demyx was playing with her hair, but she didn't have the energy to tell him to stop. She was utterly exhausted and had no desire to do anything that required moving any part of her body.
"Better?" The older boy asked, his tone still unwaveringly calm.
Katy made a non-committal noise and curled further into his chest. She was having slight déjà vu from The Nothing. This was how she felt whenever she came back from "visiting" Sora at Castle Oblivion."
"Wake me up if something important happens." She mumbled
Catching the joke, Demyx laughed and she felt him nod.
"Don't worry, I will. I got you."
Even though everything about this situation was wrong, she didn't have the strength to do anything about it. So she gave in. Gave in to the withdrawals, gave into Demyx, and gave into sleep.
Ignorant to his girlfriend's breakdown, Sora and the others had just arrived at the Isla De Muerta around an hour ago. They had managed to Save Elizabeth from the pirates' creepy Aztec ceremony and get her back to the ship in one piece. Unfortunately, Will had to take some extreme measures in order to secure her safety, so Jack had been left behind when they departed for Port Royal. Halfway through the voyage, they were attacked by Barbossa's crew and Pete and were now being held captive.
"Good work, Barbossa! Who knew it's be so easy?" Pate congratulated his ally.
"Barbossa, you coward!" Elizabeth spat.
"That's the last time I trust a pirate!" Sora muttered.
"The powder kegs are ready, Captain!" One of Barbossa's crew members reported, grinning evilly.
"Then I bid ye farewell!" The Captain said to his captives before leaving the cabin, Pete on his heels.
"What are we gonna do?" Donald panicked
"We'll be blown to smithereens!" Goofy observed as if they didn't already know.
"Why struggle, mate? A pirate knows when to surrender." Jack put in, dully.
"Are you serious, Jack?" Sora yelled, frustrated with the pirates behavior.
"Your average pirate, anyway" he grinned, slipping out of his restraints and setting the others free. "First, we've got to see to the gunpowder. I'm not about to lose this ship!"
"I still don't plan to trust pirates again." Sora grumbled
"Wise policy, lad." Jack replied, clapping him on the shoulder before running to put out the explosives.
They managed to throw all of the barrels overboard, effectively saving their own necks, and turned the ship around, heading back to Isla De Muerta.
Sora had a sinking feeling in his gut. Katy had been alone at Port Royal for almost two hours now. He knew she could hold her own against enemies. That wasn't what he was worried about. He knew her being unable to help him hurt her both physically and mentally. He hoped she was okay…
On the deck of a pirate ship, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were fighting alongside Will and Jack, trying to fend off Barbossa's crew of skele-pirates. They'd been ambushed before they even got to the Isla de Muerta. Sora ran up to where the ships wheel was, bringing down another pirate as he went. Before he could turn around, Barbossa was behind him, the moonlight showing his true form.
"Though we are neither living, nor dead, you can still die."
With that he stabbed Sora straight through the chest with his sword. The teen slumped to the ground, blood trickling through his fingers, which were clutching at the wound to no avail. He fell back to the deck of the ship and seemed to stare off into nothing. Before he closed his eyes for the last time, he gasped out,
"Katy."
"Katy."
"Katy?"
"NO!"
Jolting out of the nightmare, Katy lashed out, propelling herself away from Demyx's body and into the wall across from him. Clutching her knees to her chest, she buried her head in them,
"Just a dream. Just a dream." She chanted, trying to grab hold of reality.
She opened her eyes and gazed at the teen across from her, who looked unsure if he should approach or not.
"I need to get over there."
"You're overreacting."
"You can get me over there."
"You're not thinking clearly."
"THE HELL I'M NOT!" She screamed, rising a bit too fast. Steadying herself, she continued to rant.
"You don't get it! You don't! This is killing me. Anything can happen to him! Anything! And I can't stop it! He's there and I'm here and god forbid anything happens to him, I'm POWERLESS! "
"He's going to be fine." Demyx tried to reason.
"You can't know that! You don't know that. You don't know anything."
"Even if I take you over there, how are you going to explain how you got there?"
"I'll think of something."
"He already knows you lie to him, Katy—"
"And whose fault is that?"
Demyx stalked over to her and grabbed both her shoulders.
"Fine. I'll do it. I'll take you over there. I'd do anything for you if you asked, but I'm not gonna be the one to take the blame when you and your boyfriend get into another fight. This is your call."
There was a long silence before Katy answered.
"I don't know what to do. I-I can't lie to him. Not again, not two hours after…before. But I,-"
"Listen, babe. You need to have a little faith in him. If I was Sora, I'd be a little offended right now. He's going to be fine. "
Katy nodded, then after processing what he said, glared at him.
"I told you a million times! Don't call me babe!"
Demyx shrugged.
"Sure, whatever." He crossed over to the ship's dashboard where Katy left her iPod before and began to shuffle through it.
"Ke$ha? Really? I thought you'd have better taste than that."
"Hey! She's not that bad! And how do you even know who Ke$ha is?"
"One of the perks of being a Nobody. Dark corridors. I've been pretty much everywhere, and music is kinda my thing so."
Katy gave him a half smile.
"I know what you mean. It's kinda my thing too."
For the next half hour—one of the longest in Katy's life, they continued to go through her iPod, debating over artists and lyrics. Even though she still felt like she might die of a panic attack and even though she was going to hell for fraternizing with the enemy, it felt good to be normal again, just for a little while.
Three hours and 45 minutes. That's how long they'd been gone. After getting back to the Isla De Muerta, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack fought there way to the heart of the island's caves, where they were able to, after a lot of hi-potions and cure spells, defeat captain Barbossa once and for all. Sora unlocked the pathway to the next world, and all was well. He just hoped Katy fared as well as they did…
Peeking out the window of the Gummi ship for the umpteenth time, Katy's heart raced when she saw a ship in the distance.
"They're coming back!"
Demyx nodded,
"Okay. C'mon, I'll walk you back to the dock. No one will see!" He insisted when Katy started to protest.
They walked back down the steps of the overlook and into an alcove.
"Well, this is where I say goodbye." Demyx sighed, opening a dark corridor.
"Thank you…for staying with me. I know I become a nervous wreck, but—"
"It was no problem. Seriously, anytime." Demyx took her hand in his and brushed a kiss over her knuckles, just like he'd done the first time they met.
"See you later, babe."
Something he said before crossed her mind and she stopped him before he left.
"Hey, Demyx! Did you mean what you said? Back on the ship?"
He smiled genuinely back at her and nodded.
"Every word."
Then he was gone.
Katy made her way back to the docks and waited another ten minutes before the ship carrying Sora and the others docked.
Sora jumped off the deck before it was even tied down and ran over to her, looking her over.
"Are you alright? I'm sorry we were gone so long, we got ambushed and—"
"Ambushed?" Katy gasped, remembering her dream.
"Yeah, but I'm fine. Everyone's fine. Not even a scratch." He hugged her tightly. "I'm really glad you're okay. I know how it is when you can't help."
Tears welled in her eyes that had nothing to do with what he just said. She was a horrible person. She'd spent nearly the entire time he was gone worrying about her with another guy, who was working for the people who were trying to end the universe and happened to have a major crush on her.
She deserved to burn in hell.
"I'm glad you're okay too. Are we leaving soon? I just want to get out of here…"
"Yeah. We already said goodbye to everyone before so we can leave right now."
After saying her own goodbye's to Will and Elizabeth (Jack had taken the Black Pearl to god knows where back at the island. Good Riddance.) The quartet, together once more, boarded their ship.
As Sora took them up into space, Katy sat next to the window, music blasting in her ears, thinking about that one thing Demyx said to her that made her want to smile and scream at the same time.
"I'd do anything for you if you asked"
She was in way over her head.
A/N: So...yeah. Not all of the chapters are going to be like this. I'm trying to balance the plot of my story with the Kingdom Hearts stuff as evenly as I can without stuff getting boring. Let me know if you think I'm going overboard though. I have some stuff I have to take care of tomorrow (or later today, I guess), but I might be able to get half of the next world up for you guys. See you then!