Voiceless Silk
First off, I'm sorry for not writing for an entire week. Our Internet was cut and we couldn't go online from our computers. Plus, I can't submit stories from my phone and I don't have an iPhone. So, in any case I still got to write this chapter. So please enjoy!
Warning: Contains DDD spoilers.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They're the sole property of Square Enix and Disney. I only own the unknown and the plot.
Kailee couldn't believe she was going through with this. She was positive that it wouldn't have been this strange. At least, she thought it wouldn't. All in all, she was wrong. As soon as Silver Star had told them that the thing they had to give up was a part of their soul, Kailee's mind had begun to reel with questions. Where they still going to be alive once Silver Star collected? Would Silver Star even take care of that precious part of their soul? Which part exactly would she take from them? If Kailee were killed, would she actually die? Or since Silver Star took part of her soul, would become partly invincible because part of her was safe somewhere else?
Silver Star had assured Sora and her that the portion that it took would immediately return to them once they sealed the keyholes in all worlds infested by Shadow Crossers. Kailee had breathed a sigh of relief once Silver Star had told her. But, being Kailee, she asked if it were possible for them to die once they gave that portion of their souls or become invincible once they gave it to Silver Star. The Shadow Crosser just told them that their souls would be in safe and capable hands. After that stimulating conversation, Silver Star had escorted Kailee and Sora through a safer path back to their camp.
Just as soon as they arrived, turmoil was at their feet. Riku was now awake but he was not what they expected him to be like. Strange, purple snake-like things came out of his back and had wrapped around Donald, Goofy, Tiana, Naveen, and an alligator apparently. His eyes were now a disgusting brown with cracked red underneath. Two of the snake-like coils were supporting him while his arms and legs were strapped tightly to his body. A web of charcoal black smoke wisps was wrapped around him, pooling in a circle on the mossy floor. Riku had been casually trying to strangle the life out of his victims when they had arrived. Now he had turned his attention over to them. Especially, Kailee. A snake coil lashed out at Kailee, but she was quick to slice its head of with the sharp, crystalline ends of her keyblade. Sora had begun to slice away at the other coils that had wrapped themselves around Donald, Goofy, Tiana, Naveen, and the mysterious alligator.
Silver Star had remained standing silently, completely unnoticed by the possessed Riku. It had been nonchalantly watching the fight as if amused by seeing two people fighting to their death. Kailee and Sora had been fighting Riku for almost an hour, and their limbs were already screaming with pain. No to mention that their wounds were still yet to be healed and were oozing more blood as they fought. Soon enough, Silver Star decided to finally jump into it and stop the whole charade. It had emitted a white glow that instantly vaporized the snake coils and sent Riku tumbling to the ground, facedown. It then had trotted over and cut open its forehead with a sharp rock that had been conveniently placed by Riku. It then had directed Sora and Kailee to cut open Riku's forehead so it could do the blood bond already, since he was the one that needed the most help. As soon as their foreheads had been placed together, a slight tearing sound was heard in the minds of those who were conscious. Riku had emanated a moan as the tearing was heard. A fluorescent blue light had passed through Riku's body and had knitted together his calf wound. His body then slumped to the floor, asleep apparently. Sora and Kailee had managed to get a few scratches and soon to be bruises, but other than that, they came out unscathed. The rest of the group explained to them that they had met Louis, an alligator with dreams of playing jazz up on a stage in front of a crowd that adored him. After he had confessed he knew of someone, named Mama Odie, that could do voodoo, but in a good way, Riku had woken up and that was when all hell had broken loose. Kailee and Sora reminisced about their time finding Silver Star and what they had to do, and now, they had to keep their promises.
Sora had bravely volunteered to go first, gaining more points of bravery in Kailee's mind. Silver Star had told him that they were to exchange blood from cheek to cheek, since its forehead was still healing. Sora kindly agreed and slit both of their cheeks. The bond was clearly seen this time. Sora's pupils dilated and his heart was seen beating rapidly in his throat, visible to anyone who paid close attention there. Sora's face had also scrunched up in fear and agony. That same tearing sound was being heard, except much louder this time. Possibly due to the fact that Sora's soul was a bit more unaffected than Riku's had been. After the exchange, Sora had gone to sleep, curled up on his side. Kailee had sighed with pity and a bit of happiness as she had seen him fall asleep. Pity because of how tired he must've been of having to save so many worlds at once and never having enough time to rest or at least take a quick nap. Not even on the gummi ship could he do that because he was always chosen to drive the gummi ship so he could destroy the Heartless ships. She had felt happiness because of how cute he seemed asleep. Now, it was her turn.
"This won't hurt will it?" Kailee asked, pretty sure of the answer.
It will pass by quickly. Although, giving up part of your soul won't be so easy.
"Thanks for telling me," she murmured, turning to Donald and Goofy. "Will you guys be able to manage taking us to Mama Odie while we sleep?"
"I don't think it'll be that difficult," Donald said.
"Yeah. Donald here can just whip up one of them flying clouds for you three and have them follow us on the way," Goofy commented.
"You guys can always manage to cheer me up," Kailee smiled. "Did Riku hurt any of you at all?"
"He just gave us some bruises but I'm sure we'll be fine," Tiana answered. "Right Naveen?"
"Sure. But I don't know if bruises will look especially fine on a prince," Naveen huffed, looking away.
"Don't worry about him. He's a downer, that's all," Tiana reassured. "Now go on and get yourself healed before you end up like Riku!"
"Thanks Tiana, Donald, Goofy," Kailee said, turning towards Silver Star. "Time to get healed."
Kailee bent down to pick up sharp twig, lying by her feet. She gritted her teeth as she slit open her wrist. Silver Star had specifically told her that they were to do this bond, wrist by wrist. A few drops of blood plummeted down onto the mossy earth, turning it a disgusting brown.
Let's get this over with before I end up losing too much blood.
Kailee reluctantly cut Silver Star's wrist and watched in amazement at the color of blood that she had. She couldn't get a clear view of its blood when it had shared it with Riku and Sora and now she could see why. It was completely transparent; invisible. It didn't even seem as though Silver Star was bleeding; only that it had a slight opening on its wrist. Kailee took several deep breaths before approaching Silver Star. Just as Kailee was feeling the effect of the bond tearing at her soul, a horde of Warnless appeared out of nowhere in the sky above. They swatted at the trees, sending them flying into who-knows-where. Each of their heads was crying out, practically destroying Kailee's eardrums. One even managed to send Kailee flying back, crashing into a tree. She looked at her arm to see that her wound was completely healed, but she didn't fell any different at all. She knew that something didn't go right when she didn't hear the tearing of her soul.
Kailee summoned up her keyblade, too stubborn to complete her thoughts. She was set on one thing. To protect what was important to her. She made a mad dash towards Sora and Riku, trying to cover both of their bodies with hers. She clutched to both of them as all Warnless were releasing a poisonous, black fog to envelop them. Kailee managed to see that the Warnless weren't even paying attention to Tiana, Naveen, Donald, Goofy, or Louis who were trying to get their attention. Silver Star was unconscious on the floor, its blood turned red by the bond not being fulfilled. Kailee made one last desperate attempt of keeping Sora and Riku safe by calling up her keyblade and placing all of their hands on it. Just as a Warnless grabbed them all, she slipped into darkness, the last thing seen were a pair of yellow eyes.
Eliza smiled to herself as the plan was accomplished. She had a feeling that Kailee would've been healing herself by the time that the Warnless would've captured her. Eliza just wished that they had captured her sooner, so the keybladers would have a Shadow Crossed Riku on the loose, a dead Sora, and Kailee being in the clutches of Xehanort. She was so glad that Xehanort had given her part of his heart so they could join forces against the light. Also that she would spend as much time with Xylen as possible. She was also ridiculously happy that they had taken out her outcast soul. She never really like herself that much.
But, she was still a bit pissed off that she had to follow orders. Turned out that if she wanted to rule all worlds with Xylen, then she had to obey Xehanort for a while. She had laughed at the idea, but soon, reluctantly, accepted it since he had control over the things that were taking over the worlds. After that she could relax in any place she wanted to because she would own that world all to herself.
Eliza sighed. "That'll come soon. I just know it."
A black portal opened up behind her, Xylen stepping out. She turned her electric yellow eyes to him and grinned. "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes. I was just making sure that the Warnless got everything."
"Not everything. We only need Kailee," Xylen answered.
"Apparently they're too stupid to know the difference," Eliza scoffed.
"What do you mean?"
"Kailee called up her key thing and wrapped her's, Sora's, and Riku's hands around it. Since the Warnless didn't know what to make of that, they decided to take all three instead," Eliza explained. "Looks like we have to make room in the torture chamber along with Mickey."
"I don't think that'll happen."
Eliza turned, an eyebrow raised. "Don't try joking with me now, Xylen. What? Mickey can't handle a few more people with him in there?"
"It's because he's not there anymore," Xylen stepped back.
"You let him go?" Eliza yelled angrily.
"Of course not! Some guy named Lea took him from me! I don't even know where he is because he completely escaped my radar!" Xylen yelled back.
"You're telling me that you didn't fight back for the other thing that we needed to completely take over the worlds?"
"I did fight back!" Xylen sighed, frustrated. "I was caught off guard. Turned out that he had these weird circle knife things that he would keep throwing at me. And then, he even summoned a keyblade! A KEY-BLADE! How ironic is that?"
"We'll that just means we have one more to fight. God, why did taking over worlds have to be so complicated? I wish Master Xehanort had just told us to keep out of the way while he and Terra did all of the work," Eliza scoffed.
"You know he can't do that. He's busy making up alliances and capturing princesses. Besides, Terra has his own keyblade wielders to destroy. We just have to make sure that we have the one key to making our plans a success," Xylen opened up a portal again. "After you."
"I just hope the Warnless don't end up eating the three key-geeks. We might need Riku and Sora to do our bidding if they cave in the end," Eliza said, stepping into the portal.
"I'll make sure of it," Xylen followed suit, disappearing.
"Sora! Riku! Kailee!" Donald hollered up into the sky.
Donald, Goofy, Tiana, Naveen, and Louis had been untouched by the Warnless and were trying to save the trio to no avail. Donald had tried to utilize his magic, Goofy his shield, but it seemed as though the black fog was neutralizing his magic and sending Goofy's shield backwards. They turned to throwing rocks and even Louis tried to scare them off if they entered the water. But the Warnless got away with Riku, Sora, and Kailee hanging from their claws. Some of the heads amounted to burning down a few cities ahead, barely missing the one Tiana inhabited.
"No!" Tiana shrieked, reaching up a green hand.
"It's hopeless. We have to look for Mama Odie now," Naveen said, grabbing Tiana's shoulders and turning her towards Louis. "Where to my fine, scaly friend?"
"Wait! Shouldn't we look for them at least?" Goofy suggested.
"How? They could be in another city by now," Tiana retorted. "Naveen's right. We have to look for Mama Odie. She's our only hope to becoming human. She could maybe even help us find Sora, Kailee, and Riku. Right, Louis?"
"Well, I don't know if she can do that but I'm sure we can ask her," Louis supposed. He dove into the swampy river and turned his head back. "Let's go before the sun sets."
Tiana and Naveen wasted no time before climbing onto Louis' back. Donald had conjured up a boat big enough for him and Goofy that could row itself. He had also made sure that the shelters had been disposed of by waving his staff wand. Goofy had cleared out some stubborn branches that were blocking their path with his shield, receiving a thank you from Louis and Tiana, granting them access to a more open bayou. Donald and Goofy made one last glance up towards the sky, their eyes filled with longing and hope.
"I hope we save them in time," Donald worried, sighing.
"Don't worry, Donald. We always find a way," Goofy said, softly patting Donald on his back.
The Warnless had been careful when they had captured their prey. They cheered silently to themselves at how easy it was to detain the keyblade wielders. Thanks to Xylen, he had updated the Warnless with a new feature of sleeping gas that could neutralize magic and weapons that could injure them easily. Xylen had also made it clear to them to bring all three of them alive until further notice. The Warnless had made sure that their claws wouldn't create as much damage to the fragile bodies as they picked them up. Since there were only three Warnless, they divided up the prey evenly. They then had decided to enjoy themselves a bit more by burning down a few cities on the way. A gray portal, the size of the sun, opened in the sky, awaiting the Warnless.
Passing through the portal, they flew through a dimension corridor, conveniently placed by Realm Chasers to grant easy passage for Shadow Crossers and themselves. The Warnless scooted off onto the corridor's edge, fear showing for the first time in their eyes. A couple of menacing Shadow Crossers mad dogged them on the way to other worlds. Warnless were sure to steer clear of the higher rank Shadow Crossers. Mostly because they would receive torture sessions or endure a brawl with that same Shadow Crosser which would end up with mortal wounds or dead. They finally arrived to their destination: The Dark Depths.
Kailee woke groggily. She slowly opened her eyes to be greeted by a shining red light. She quickly shut them again and groaned.
Why can't Jules just try, for once, not to shine her new flashlight in my face?
"Jules. Please turn off that flashlight. I'm trying to sleep here," Kailee grunted.
Kailee opened her eyes again to be met by that red light again. It took her a few seconds to realize that the light didn't resemble her younger sister's flashlight. It was more of an eerie, ruby red light; not the light cherry red she was used to. She tried getting up, only to go back down as an ear splitting headache reached her. She clutched at her head trying to grit through the pain. She slowly propped herself up and checked her surroundings. She was in a jail cell, apparently. Igneous rock jutted out from the walls and floor, Kailee lucky enough to be sitting on a smooth surface. The "light" she had been staring at was really a round ball of human flesh, lit up by something unfamiliar to Kailee but what seemed to look like a red light bulb. The bars to her cell were pulsing purple strands of intestines.
Where's Sora? Or Riku?
She checked to see if there were any shadows or a body that she hadn't seen only to come up empty. She got to her feet, cupped both of her hands over her mouth, and took a deep breath.
"Sora! Riku!" Kailee hollered repeatedly, her voice echoing throughout the seemingly empty corridor outside her cell. "Sora! Riku! Where are you?"
"Keep it down! You'll disturb the rest of the prisoners," a voice answered from the darkness.
"Who's there?" Kailee said, her keyblade appearing in her hand.
"That won't be necessary," the voice said. "I don't think you would want to put your friends' lives in danger."
"Where are Sora and Riku?" Kailee challenged.
"Are you sure you should be asking that?" Xylen answered, stepping out.
"Xylen," Kailee breathed. "Where the hell are Sora and Riku?"
"Shouldn't you be worrying about your family, instead?" Xylen confronted.
"Where are they?"
"Now that's classified. But don't worry, we have them in a comfy place," Xylen took a few steps forward. "So how's life been for you?"
"How do you think life's been for me with all this crap going on?" Kailee seethed. "It's been nothing but a living hell ever since I met you. Now tell me where my family, Sora and Riku are before I rip your heart out."
"Ouch. That hurt. You shouldn't be so rough to the only person that can help you right now," Xylen said, a smirk on his face.
"I wouldn't want your help even if I was about to die and you had the last healing potion left," she retorted.
Xylen chuckled. "I'm sure you'll change your mind after tomorrow."
"What happens tomorrow?" Kailee asked but Xylen had already disappeared through the darkness.
"Hey! Wait up!"
Sora and Riku had been racing around the island all day after sparring. Sora was sure that he would've been able to beat Riku, but soon gave up once Riku had gained on him.
"Too slow, Sora! See ya at the finish line!" Riku answered, running faster.
They soon reached their destination; Riku winning of course. He gave a triumphant fist pump in the air as Sora reached him, doubling over, trying to catch his breath. Riku placed both hands on his hips, a semi-disappointed look on his face.
"One more time! You just got lucky!" Sora pleaded after regaining his breath. His friend's eyes flitted towards the wooden bridge that connected the solitary island with paopu fruit to the main one. Sora looked up as well. A young woman, probably 17 or 18, was walking across the bridge; she was gazing at them, too. She was sporting short, blue hair accompanied by same blue eyes. She was currently sporting a black and blue, high-collared halter top, two pink, intersecting belts over her chest, and black shorts. On her arms were bell-sleeves with tan, fingerless gloves on her hands and a small, segmented piece of armor on each of her upper arms. Black stockings reached halfway up her thighs and two strips of blue cloth that drape over either side of her hips, along with a smaller, white strip of cloth tied around her waist, draped in the same manner. Finally, she wore pointed, armored, silver boots with a sharp "hook" on the outer side of each.
She stopped right above them, admiring the innocence of the two boys. She surprised them, Sora mostly, by jumping down and landing without at scratch at their feet. She stayed on one knee so she could be level with them both. Sora blushed and sctrached his head while emitting a nervous chuckle. She laughed as well, completely oblivious to his obvious embarassment. She spent some time looking over them as if comparing them to something else. She chuckled to herself which confused both Sora and Riku.
"One of you might be special enough," she said, only confusing them more. "Hey, you two mind telling me your names?"
"I'm Sora!" Sora answered right away, lifting his hand up in the air.
"And you?" she motioned over to Riku.
"Riku," he responded shortly.
Again she pondered for a bit, but it was only for a second before she asked another question. "Sora, do you like Riku?"
"Of course I like him, he's my best friend!" Sora replied, as if it was obvious.
"Good," she said. "So then, if something happens, and Riku is about to get lost…or say, he starts wandering down a dark path alone…you make sure to stay with him and keep him safe. That's your job, Sora and I'm counting on you to do it, okay?"
The boys just exchanged befuddled glances before looking back to her. She thenk placed both of her hands on Riku and Sora's heads, ruffling up their hair. The two boys giggled, not bothered by it at all. Her eyes betrayed her ever present smile, showing a hint of sorrow as to what would become of the two boys' fates.
Lea had been restlessly pacing around the castle's library. After waking up in that lab in Radiant Garden, he knew that he had been betrayed. Xehanort had been quite the trickster once he made the other ones confess about how they all managed to end up in the same lab. Now, he was out for revenge. He usually wasn't like this, but he didn't care. As long as he would make other people's lives better without him around, it didn't matter. Once Lea had checked his surroundings, he had met a man named Leon. Leon then explained to him all that happened with the Heartless, Nobodies, King Mickey, keyblades, and Sora in the following hours. Lea swore to help out whatever the cost after, considering the fact that he had discovered a few convenient aspects of himself, like the fact that he could teleport wherever he wanted. Leon then told him that Yen Sid had sent out a distress call asking for anyone if they had seen King Mickey because he had been kidnapped under mysterious circumstances and was impossible to find since his body was now hidden, even with the most powerful magic.
Lea had found him almost instantly. He had accidentally stumbled across the exact place where King Mickey was only that he was at the entrance of the prison. He had passed a few prison cells with no luck. The only thing he found were a few skeletons and rotting pieces of meat that almost made him hurl. He shook off the feeling and kept going. Just around a corner, he came across a pair of menacing guards, almost dressed exactly like he was only in a much darker manner. Lea had put up a good fight and burned them to the ground, not receiving a single yelp from either of them. He was met by a gruesome sight when he opened the door. There was King Mickey in the most horrible position Lea had ever seen.
Mickey was tied down to a table, completely unconscious. The skin from his arms and legs had been burned off by some liquid acid, leaving only a few scattered veins and bone. The left half of his face was infested with pulsing black coils that just passed his nose. His ears were nailed to the table, oozing a sort of gold liquid. Lea had never seen such a sight. The worst thing he had ever seen was a scraped up knee. Dealing with stuff like this was going to be a normal thing now, he guessed. He carefully removed the nails, and any other part of Mickey that was nailed down, and slung the body over his shoulder. The sound of footsteps reached his ears and summoned his twin Chakrams. Just as the figure reached the door, Lea flung his Chakrams at the intruder and the new found keyblade he had discovered in Radiant Garden. The intruder instantly collapsed, clutching at its fresh injuries.
"Who do you think you are?" the stranger said calling up Heartless, Nobodies, and Shadow Crossers, Lea believed.
"Name's Lea. Got it memorized?" Lea responded, disappearing through a portal. He was glad for his ability or else he would've never gotten out of there alive without leaving King Mickey behind. He somehow had ended up in Disney Castle, probably due to the fact that it was Mickey's home and where Yen Sid was currently visiting. Lea was greeted by Yen Sid and Queen Minnie instantly as he stepped through the gates of the castle. Queen Minnie burst into tears as she saw the state that her husband was in. Yen Sid just had a tight grimace on his face as he took Mickey's body from Lea and calmly walked towards the infirmary. A flourescent pink hare, with eyes the color of the sun, followed behind him, pink smoke tendrils trailing behind.
After that whole commotion, Lea had been led to the castle's library by Queen Minnie to see if maybe some reading would help the whole situation calm down. She left him there with a few broom servants and went to go check on her husband in the infirmary. Now, here he was, pacing the time away instead of reading. He never really was up for reading. It bored him easily and he never really understood the story because they would always start off boring. He just hoped that King Mickey would be safe that way he could accompany him on freeing the worlds of darkness and misery.
Queen Minnie reentered the library a half an hour later. She had a smile plastered on her face as she approached Lea.
"So? Is he okay?" Lea asked concerned still.
"Thank goodness, of course!" Queen Minnie reassured. "We just finished the blood bond and he's feeling better already. The only thing left is for his skin to regrow back together."
"What do you mean blood bond?" Lea questioned.
"Well, you saw that pink hare that followed Yen Sid to the infirmary?" Lea nodded. "Well, turned out that Yen Sid needed a pure, rare Shadow Crosser to heal Mickey of his wound caused by the darker, evil Shadow Crossers. Once that was done, Yen Sid gave him a healing potion and his skin is now restoring itself."
Lea breathed a sigh of relief. "At least he's safe now. Do you know any whereabouts of Xehanort and what he may be plotting?"
"Unfortunately, no. There hasn't been any news since Mickey last ventured out with Sora a week ago," Minnie apologized. "But I'm sure that we will find out more about his evil deeds soon. There's always something."
"Not to be rude, but can King Mickey talk at all? I need to ask him a few things," Lea asked politely, a hand behind his head.
"I think so. He was talking a bit to me and then I went to go fetch you so would know the news of Mickey," Minnie answered. "Come. I'll take you to the infirmary."
"Thank you, Queen Minnie."
Queen Minnie began walking towards the library doors. "No, Lea. Thank you for saving Mickey. Without you, we would be hopeless."
With that, the Queen and Chakram/Keyblade wielder exited the library and ventured off to the infirmary.
Wow! That's the longest chapter I've ever written. In any case, I'm sure you guys can find out what the Aqua, Riku, and Sora scene was all about. Just a small heads up on what's coming up in the future. If you can't figure out then I'll still explain in later chapters. I still need a few ideas from others. It would help a bit. I think I should also refresh my memory. So, right after finals, I'll play the heck out of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. I'll probably even watch some DDD while I'm at it. Besides, it's been a while since I've played. But for now I'm going to dedicate my time to studying all day tomorrow or today. Sorry it's almost midnight where I am so…yeah. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I would like you guys to voice your opinions. I don't care if they're too harsh, I just want some insight on what to do. I just hope I don't run out of ideas soon. D: Review and rate please!