Author's note: Not much to say here, so let's continue on, shall we?
I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.
Chapter 5: Serious trouble.
For the first time in his existance, Vanitas couldn't have been more pleased with any plan that was going right for once. Though he decided not to jinx himself and instead had gone off to find Imhotep at the base of Anubis. He did mentally smack himself for tossing away the Book of the Dead and the Key to the heroes, especially to that little annoying king. But he'd worry about that later and instead would get them back.
So when he did find the Mummy who at first attempted to kill him, Vanitas instead calmly told him in Ancient Egyptain that he was the one who woke him up, but he lied about the book and claimed that the people who dug him up stole it from him and plans on getting it back, if Imhotep agreed to make use of him.
"So you wish for me to take over this world?" Imhotep questioned in ancient egyptain, skeptical. While he was grateful for this 'boy' to have woken him up after 3,000 years of the undead, there was something very unusual he couldn't make out.
Vanitas smirked as he replied, also in ancient egyptain, "The people of today do not know that their true purpose is to just be slaves for you. The guys who took the book away from me are like those Medjai losers."
Remembering the young woman who he believed was Anck-Su-Namun, his deceased lover, Imhotep started to consider in believing the boy and admitted, "They have Anck-su-namun's body. I want that book and the canobic to bring her back!"
"Luckly for you, I think I have a fair idea where they are." Vanitas replied, as his eyes gazed from behind the Mummy and his smirk grew as he added, "He could be useful if you don't kill him."
Wondering what the boy was talking about, Imhotep turned around to see Beni who had just arrived with torch in hand and when the whimp turned around, he was face to face with Imhotep. Beni's scream was so high that he sounded like a girl as he dropped the torch and shivered in fear. The scream was so perfect that Vanitas chuckled, amused.
'He's such a girl.' Vanitas thought to himself.
Imhotep thought about it for a moment about Beni who just continued to shake in fear, before admitting to Vanitas, "Yes. He may indeed be a use. And the rewards...will be great." as he held out his hand and revealed gold and jewels to Beni.
"My prince." Beni whispered as his eyes widened at the sight of the treasure.
Imhotep then held up the broken canobic jar and demanded, "Where are the other sacred jars!?"
Thus the three of them ventured up the surface, just moments after Riku, Mickey, Axel and the others left the City of the Dead behind, though Riku and Mickey both knew that they had to do something in order to try and think of a way to prevent this world from falling into darkness.
The moment the group reached the town of Cairo, Riku and Mickey both separated from Rick and the others, and had rented out a room and had dragged Axel with them since they knew they couldn't take any chances, and the redhead didn't even put up a fight. Though he did complain a little when they had him cornered against the wall.
"Ow..." Axel groaned as he rubbed his sore wrist that Riku, a fifteen year old kid, had even managed to told an uncomfortable tight grip on not that long ago. "Geez, was that really necessary?"
"What do you know about the situation?" Riku asked, ignoring Axel's complaint.
Rolling his eyes, the redhead sighed and said, "Hey, I have nothing to do with this, if that's what you're asking. Really, it was that kid in that stupid outfit of his that dragged me here in the first place, and I still have no idea what that's the case."
"Why did he bring you here, though?" Mickey asked.
"Look, for the millionth time, he just...dragged me here." Axel grunted, while trying to control his anger that was threatening to set something, anything, on fire. He sighed and added, "Worse part is, that ain't any normal kid since he somehow managed to prevent anyone from leaving this world even through a corridor of darkness."
"I don't think I can believe that." Riku said, skeptically.
"Want me to prove it?" Axel challenged. When the two travellers just gave him suspicious looks, he smirked a little and held out a hand. Riku and Mickey both made to summon their weapons, and like fifty times before, Axel came so close in summoning a corridor, only for unusual electricity to zap him in the arm and he was again forced to stop and hissed sharply as he cradled his arm and the small mist of darkness disappeared.
When he noticed the slightly shocked expressions on Riku and Mickey, Axel nodded and said, "See? He even managed to prevent me from getting outta here without hurtin' myself."
Mickey instantly became concerned. If Vanitas could do this, then that meant serious trouble, especially when he woke the Mummy up. Not only that, he couldn't risk in revealing how he knew about the dangerous bad guy with Axel around. Mickey had to tell Riku in privite, though he wasn't comfortable in telling his friend this either. Riku already went through enough trouble as it was and Mickey was afraid of losing him to the darkness again.
"What is he...?" Riku asked, in half-whisper. Vanitas was almost as bad as Ansem.
"Do you really think you want to know, Riku?" A familiar dark voice taunted in his head. Riku shut his eyes as he felt the familiar pain once again. He wasn't certain if Ansem was still in his heart or that he was imagining things. Either way, the teen told the dark voice to keep quiet.
"Whatever. I'm thirsty." Axel said, going over to the sink in the kitchen area and filled an empty glass as he turned on the taps, when all of the sudden something hit the three of them in the head pretty hard, like some invisible electric jolt, and for a quick glimpse of a second, the image of the decayed Mummy appeared in their vision before Riku, Mickey and even Axel returned to reality, and the were quickly alarmed. They also sensed...the powerful darkness...very close by.
Mickey was the first to realise what it was and he muttered in shock, "Uh oh..."
Axel had just poured the water in the glass when he felt the same jolt, and when he looked down and about to ask what was going on, his eyes widened as the water in the glass wasn't clear at all. "What the...?" he muttered.
"Mickey, you can sense that darkness too?" Riku asked, worriedly.
"Uh-huh." Mickey nodded.
"I don't know if it's connected or this world's totally whacko, but," Axel began as he returned to the group and said, "But I think the pipes around here are either filled with blood or this world has vampires as well as mummies." and he held up the glass that held liquid that was red and a bit too thick to be water.
Pure horror was placed on Riku and Mickey's faces as the two glanced at each other, realization dawning to them very quickly.
"We gotta warn everybody!" Mickey quickly said.
"Right!" Riku agreed, before turning to Axel and said, "Since we're stuck here, you have to come with us!"
Despite not wanting to work with two of the few enemies of the Organization, Axel knew he had very little choice and shrugged, "Whatever. I certainly don't wanna end up turning into a mummy anyway."
Though when the trio raced out of the room, Axel grumbled to himself, "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?"
Meanwhile, in another room, Burns was wearing a blue robe, with bandages around where his eyes used to be, sitting in a chair, opposite to a figure wearing black cloak and a mask, on the table next to them were two cups of tea. Standing in the middle of them were both Vanitas and Beni, as the former held his cruel smirk on his expression. In reality, it was Imhotep in the cloak and mask.
"I'm so...pleased, to meet you." Burns said, attempting to shake the visitor's hand, but Beni grabs the man's hand and pushes it away from Imhotep.
"His royal highness doesn't like to be touched by others." Vanitas explained. "He can be wary towards strangers, unfortunately."
"Please forgive me." Burns muttered. He was really falling for it, and what will happen to him next will most likely be his very last moments to be alive.
"Mr. Burns. Prince Imhotep thanks you for your hospitality..." Beni began to say to the eyeless man. "And for your eyes...and for your tongue..." the latter's expression turned from confusion into slow realized fear, as he realised who this was.
"But, I'm afraid more is needed." Beni stood to move away, saying to the terrified man, "The prince must finish the job, to consummate the curse, which you and your friends have brought yourselves upon."
Burn's pleads were brought upon to deaf ears as he gave out a final scream while Imhotep removed the mask and held an ugly and nasty skinless evil grin to finish his job that he began at the City of the Dead.
Back to Riku and the others...
When the trio reached the courtyard in hopes to find the others, to add to the bad luck, Heartless suddenly appeared in front of them and blocked their path, causing them to skid to a stop and quickly summoned their weapons, knowing that they had to get rid of the Heartless first.
"No time for you!" Riku shouted as he slashed thinly at the two heartless at attempted to get to him, but were immediately destroyed, before he moved to use a dark-fire with one hand and blasted it onto another one with the same result.
Mickey swished and slashed at three Heartless that attempted to attack him, and were quickly defeated in each single hits he gave, before casting a gravita spell that had two more Heartless stuck in mid-air. He then leaped up and slashed them in a single hit before landing safely on the ground and the spell eased off, but the heartless were already gone.
Axel thrusted his Chakrams outward in a fashion of tossing them expertly, allowing the weapons to do the work as his favorites sliced each heartless in half and disappearing into darkness before the weapons returned to him and he caught them sharply and quickly with eased practice.
"Time's up!" Riku told the Heartless as he and Mickey joined hands and preformed their special team-work attack and twirled around and around and around with mixture powers of light and a bit of darkness which eliminated the heartless that attempted to get to them only to get hit painfully and then disappear back into darkness. Once the attack was finished, the two returned to fighting the heartless solo.
"C'mere, I'll make it stop!" Axel taunted the Heartless as he thrusted against a slightly larger Heartless that was the same height as him and he could've sworn that, like the blue jittery monsters back at the City of the Dead, this Heartless took the form of a mummy. Well, no point on wondering about that now, because the Heartless met a bitter end with his Chakrams slicing it in half.
Eventually the heartless blocking their path were gone for now, but the crisis was far from over. Not a moment too soon when thunder roared and lightning flashed that got the trio's attention. When they looked up, their eyes widened in shock and horror(well, if you count Axel's since he doesn't have a heart), dark clouds formed and instead of rain, fireballs rained down and began to burn or destroy everything on the ground, including buildings.
When Riku and Mickey both glanced at Axel, the redhead held his hands up in surrender and quickly said, "I have nothing to do with this!" while the group quickly went to shelter and for a split second thought they heard a monsterous roar that sounded horribly familiar.
The moment Riku and the others turned to where the roar came from, Beni suddenly came running past them and while the trio wondered where this guy came from since the last time Riku and Mickey saw him was at the City of the Dead and they and even Rick and the others thought he was dead, they and Axel then noticed Rick himself and Evy running up the stairs leading into the guest rooms of the hotel everyone was staying at.
"Gosh, I sure hope they're not going where I think the roar came from." Mickey thought, worriedly. His stomach was twisting very uncomfortably and he had a terrible feeling his worst fears were just up stairs.
He, Riku and even Axel all immediately went up the stairs themselves into the room where the two of them, Rick and Evy knew was were Burns was staying in recovery before leaving for home tomorrow.
Or he would've been if Burns was still alive. Problem is, when Riku, Mickey and Axel finally joined Rick and a horrified Evy in the room, he was dead. Riku gasped in horror, Mickey nearly fainted or threw up, or possibly both, and Axel's eyes widened in disbelief. There sat the remains of Burns, decayed, boned, with only his hair intact and still wearing the robe.
"Enjoying the view?" A familiar voice mocked.
When the group looked up, they found Vanitas leaning against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest, wearing a cruel smirk on his expression as though he was enjoying their expressions, and he chuckled a little when Riku, Mickey and Axel glared at him, while Evy and Rick were slightly dumbfounded.
"Vanitas!" Mickey yelled, angrily after he shook off both the dizzy spells and the sickness.
"You!" Axel hissed, just as angry. He wasn't about to let this Riku-wanna-be kid get away this time.
"You're the cause for this whole mess, in waking up a dead mummy!" Riku told Vanitas accusingly.
Vanitas rolled his eyes and sarcastically asked, "Do I look as though I care? Besides, I'm not the one who dried up that blind friend of yours. My new boss did." he grinned as he pointed a thumb at something that the group had hoped wouldn't see again so soon.
Riku and the others looked to where Vanitas was pointing and they felt sick in the stomach when they saw their nightmare standing near the fireplace, rejuvenating. He turned to them as more skin covered his bones and then roared at them when he noticed that he and Vanitas had company.
"We are in serious trouble." Rick muttered scaredly as he aimed his guns at the un-decaying mummy, before firing as Imhotep approached him, and this time the bullets just went through while damaging everything else behind the mummy.
"Vanitas!" Riku screamed as he, Mickey and Axel all quickly went to fight their other enemy.
But Vanitas wasn't concerned. He summoned a weapon of his own, to which Riku and Axel were both shocked to see that it was a red and black geared-like Keyblade and when the black-haired boy thrusted out his arm with his weapon, a gust of wind came along with it, and despite their best efforts to keep themselves from being blown away, the trio were blasted by the gust and crashed into Jonathan, Daniels and Henderson just as they came into the ground, and all six of them ended up in a pile onto each other on the ground.
Rick didn't have much luck as Imhotep shoved him as the former screamed and landed on top of Jonathan and Axel. The group were now weakened slightly by both attacks of both Vanitas and Imhotep.
"That all you guys got?" Vanitas shook his head, disappointed. "Man, you're all pathetic."
Imhotep in the meantime, noticed Evy who backed up in fear, as the former then attempted to lean forward and as everyone else looked up, Axel and even Vanitas(surprisingly) all cringed in disgust, kiss her. Fortunately, he was interrupted when the sound of a "Mureerow." came and when Imhotep turned to look, a beautiful white cat was on the piano keys, stepping on them as the cat walked.
To Vanitas's confusion, Imhotep was suddenly horrified and then the latter turned into a cloud of sand and flew away out of the balcony while closing the door behind him.
"Hey, where you going!?" Vanitas shouted, and for the first time in his existance, he was dumbfounded. Since when was Imhotep afraid of cats? Grumbling, he turned to glare at the similiarly dumbfounded heroes and told them coldly, "Hmph, you got lucky this time. But next time, you'd better brace yourselves for a bitter end." and then vanished into the corridor of darkness.
Everyone stayed silent for a moment, until Axel, dumbfounded himself, asked as he blinked blankly, "Okay...What just happened?"
"We are in very serious trouble." Rick muttered as he gazed to where Imhotep had gone, with a freaked out expression on his face.
"Is everyone alright?" Riku asked around, and was relieved that they were fine...though Henderson and Daniels were distraughted by the loss of Burns, and Jonathan did look rather green in the face at Burns' corpse.
As Mickey got up and approached the white cat, giving it a friendly cat in which, seeing how this new stranger was very nice, rubbed against the king who thought, "Gee, I guess the mummy doesn't like cats."
"But he does seem to like Evy, though." Riku thought with a frown.
Axel in the meantime, gazed at Mickey who didn't notice him staring and frowed his brows. So the king knew the kid with the black-spiky hair, huh? Even knew his name. The redhead suddenly had a suspicious feeling that Mickey knew more about the Riku-Wanna-Be more than just by name.
The question was, how was Axel going to ask Mickey about this? What was Vanitas's motivation?
A/N: Sorry that it's a bit shorter again, but as I promised in the last chapter, Vanitas makes an appearence in more ways than one in this chapter. Look out for the next chapter.