Kingdom Hearts III: Final Mix
Disclaimer: I do not own the story or characters featured in this story. They are the sole creation of the Walt Disney Co., Square Enix, Pixar, Tetsuya Nomura and Marvel Comics. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 34: Truth Unraveled
Meanwhile as Sora, Donald and Goofy continue onward through the underground passage, the group was conspicously quiet while walking through the caverns.
"I only hope Flynn and Rapunzel are okay," Goofy interjected, breaking the silence, which were met by nods from Sora and Donald.
"Rapunzel looked like she could really hold her own in a fight. I think she'll be fine." Donald answered.
"Only thing I can't really understand is... if Rapunzel wanted to go see the 'floating lights' so badly, how come she went out before now," Sora added.
Before anybody could answer, a man with a lanky build and another wearing an eyepatch on one side of his face walked forward. Sensing something off about them, Sora readied to summon his Keyblade.
"Easy there," the man on the left spoke, trying to diffuse the situation. "We're not planning on hurting you. We just were looking for someone."
"Someone named... Flynn Rider," the other man continued. "You seen him around lately?"
"We... we were just on our way to join up back with him." Sora answered hesitantly. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, we happen to be old friends of his. Just point us in the right direction, and we'll tell him you're catching up," the eye-patched man assured him.
"Just what do you want with him anyway?" Goofy questioned.
"Oh, it's grown-up matters. I doubt a kid and his faire troupe rejects would understand," the other man rebuked.
"Faire rejects?!" Donald snapped, taking offense to their remark.
"I think I understand enough to know you're up to no good!" Sora retorted, summoning his Keyblade.
"Heh, you wouldn't want to fight us, kiddo." 'Patches' remarked, pulling out a shiv, which made Donald and Goofy start to feel a little intimidated. "There's no guarantee you'd make it out in one piece."
"I'll take my chances," Sora snarked back, ready for a fight. Though as big of a game the two strangers seemed to talk, they went down fairly quickly. "It's best we go warn Flynn and Rapunzel, huh?" Sora asked his friends as they started running towards the end of the tunnel to see the floor level of a dam pit, with the two strangers they fought tailing close behind them. In the distance, they could see Flynn fighting off some guards with Rapunzel's frying pan before a white palace horse fought back with one of the guards' swords until Rapunzel caught Flynn with her hair to swing him over to the other side of the cliffs.
"Rider!" the two men snarled as Flynn swung within range of their blades, which he quickly and narrowly dodged.
"Oh, sidekicks, if only you could see the looks on those two boys' faces because they looked-" Flynn joked to Sora, Donald and Goofy before hitting a wooden extension, leaving him winded. "-ridiculous."
The trio then looked up to see the horse kick away at a upright plank holding the dam together, gulping in concern.
"That can't be good," Donald spoke up in worry.
"Run!" Sora shouted as the three of them scrambled towards another cavern up ahead, fighting off Heartless that got in their way all the while. Overhead, Flynn was surfing on the wooden water filters while Rapunzel swung on forward, leading the way.
"Nowhere to run, Rider!" 'Patches' barked at Flynn as he looked up. "Now give us the satchel!" When Flynn touched back down to ground level to join the others, the dam broke apart, sending a tidal wave sweeping away the guards and the baffled horse. In the seconds that it took to look back at the cascading flood, the pair of adversaries were swept up as well, while they frantically started paddling back to land. Meanwhile, Sora and friends alongside Flynn and Rapunzel were (somewhat) fortunate enough to seek refuge inside the cavern path ahead, though having been sealed off by a oblong rock formation, it quickly began to flood inside.
"Never a dull moment, huh?" Rapunzel asked, clearly a little relieved to see Sora and co. back around, before all of them worked on trying to break out before they could be submerged completely. Throwing himself against the walls, Flynn ended up gashing his hand while looking for a way out.
"It's no use. I can't see a thing down under there," Flynn sighed in frustration, while Rapunzel's hopeful expression began to falter.
"It's all my fault," Rapunzel murmured under her breath. "Mother was right; I never should've left at all. I'm sorry, Flynn. I'm sorry; Sora, Donald, Goofy."
"Hey, it's not completely your fault," Goofy reassured her. "Could've happened to anybody."
"...My name's Eugene." Flynn interjected, catching everyone off-guard. "My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. Somebody ought to know now."
"Eugene..." Rapunzel responded, wanting to come clean about things of her own as well, "...I have magic hair that glows when I sing." Striking a realization, Rapunzel then began to speak some sort of incantation before the water came over top of the group. "Flower, gleam and glow; let your power shine. Make the clock rever-"
To everyone's surprise, Rapunzel's locks of hair began to illuminate under the surface, as Flynn gasped, almost taking in a mouthful of fluid. Pushing away at small clumps of rubble below the surface, the group successfully broke out and trudged back onto dry land in the woods.
"We made it!" Sora said as he flopped onto the grass in relief. Meanwhile, Pascal gave Flynn a knowing, mischievous look.
"Why is the frog smiling at me?" Flynn rasped.
"Chameleon," Rapunzel corrected.
"Her hair glows? How?!" Donald started freaking out, before Rapunzel tried to calm the mallard down too.
"My hair doesn't only glow."
Hey there; I live! Haha... anyway, sorry it's been forever and a half since I last updated, but had been busy with real life matters, and worn out with work during the pandemic, but I'm back! Hope to try and update a little more regularly. Anyways, hope you enjoyed my latest chapter, so please feel free to share your thoughts with a review and I'll see you in the next one.