Niko looked down sadly. He was only trying to help and he only made things worse. Knowing that and Sapphire were right, he sighed. Cloud, however, was feeling no amount of sympathy as he just huffed and turned to leave. Niko knows it was best if he just left. Yuffie looked to Sapphire and finished helping Donald heal her. Niko walked away and sat on a rooftop. A voice from behind him chuckled.
"Mine if I sit here?" There voice asked. Niko nodded and the figure sat down. "What's on your mind?"
"I'm a monster." Niko said. "My wife almost gets killed by Cloud and I...well I lose my marbles and almost kill him in respons. He tells me i shouldn't have the Keyblade, but what if I was meant to have it? What if...I was allowed to have it because of my strength, not my fault? I wish I knew."
"A friend of mine asked me the same thing." The figure said. "He wanted to know too. I never knew the answer and I don't think he ever got the answer he needed either."
Sapphire inclined her head toward Yuffie and Donald as thanks, feeling her energy return to her and her breathing go back to normal. Her clothing was still pretty messed up, though, and that one slash across her cheek remained.
She frowned as both Niko and Cloud took off. She put her Keyblade on her back and hurried after her husband. Husband... It was weird thinking that. It didn't feel like they were married, especially since the wedding had been crashed.
"Niko, wait!" she had called out after he had taken off. But, after following the path she had assumed he had gone, she could not find him. She sighed and rubbed her eyes with her fingers.
"is that her?" The figure asked. "She's looking for you."
"I know." Niko said. "I'm not ready to face her just yet."
"You've gotta talk to her." The figure replied."it's better now than later."
Niko nodded and stood up. Turning to the figure he bowed.
"Thank you sir." Niko said.
"My name is Lea." The figure said. "Got it memorized?"
"Yeah." Niko chuckled.
Sapphire had never wanted to go home more. She was so homesick after what had occurred. She wanted to go back to what was familiar, to settle down. Hell, she'd rather jump back into the Insurgents than be stuck in whatever world she was in. She folded her arms tightly, turned around, and started back toward where she had come from, watching her feet.
She just wanted to leave.
"Sapphire!" Niko shouted landed behind her. "We need to talk."
As soon as she heard his voice, Sapphire turned around to face Niko. Her face lit up slightly, but darkened once again. "Yes. We do," she replied, frowning, her arms still folded, her voice both cold and concerned at the same time. She was good at using that tone.
"I want you to go home." Niko said. "When I lost it, my mother told me that I would hurt you in this state. I don't want to hurt you, I want you to be safe. I need you to let me handle this. Please go back home."
Sapphire blinked. That... Hadn't been what she expected. Yes, she wanted to go home, but not because of Niko. No, certainly not because of him. He was what was keeping her there. And now, he was asking her to leave? She didn't know whether or not to feel upset or thrilled.
Her face softened, and her tone became gentler. "Niko, while I may want to leave... I won't leave for a reason like that." She paused, looking down before looking back into Niko's eyes. "You're my husband, and I'm not about to just leave because you're afraid of hurting me. I can take care of myself; You know I can."
"I know." Niko said. "And I'm glad for that. I love you with all my heart and I want you to be the safe. If you think you can handle it, them I don't have a choice. Just one thing though."
Slowly, Sapphire nodded. "Of course, dear. Tell me," she replied, tilting her head ever so slightly to the side.
"I want you to open your mind to what you'll see from here on out. Suspend your disbelief." Niko said. "I've suspended my disbelief when the journey started, now it's your turn."
As Niko spoke, her softened expression vanished, replaced by one of irritation. She sighed and turned her head away from him. "We've talked about this," she told him without looking at him. "I can't do that." She wrapped her arms around herself and looked down. "I can't do that..," she repeated.
"I understand." Niko said just as irritated. "But why not? What has caused you to close your mind so much? Why won't you tell me? If you don't wanna tell me it's fine. I'll never ask again."
Niko looked around and saw the world had frozen in time and a figure appeared above them. The figure giggled and hopped down from her perch. The figure wore a silver hoodie and a pair of bluish pink cargo pants.
"Having a lover's spat are we?" The girl said. "Something I think we all should've seen coming."
"Who are you?" Niko asked. "How do you know us?"
"I'm someone close to you, brother." The figure said. "It's me! Flora?"
Niko took a closer look at Flora and it took a while to see it was in fact Flora. He walked to her and hugs her tight.
"Flora!" Niko said."you're alive?! How?!"
"Let's just say that I had help." Flora replied. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it to your wedding. But congrats!"
Sapphire sighed inwardly. More people. She shook her head and turned away from Niko and the one called Flora, waiting for time to unfreeze so she could get on her business. Maybe she would just return home. She loved Niko, truly, but this was all insane and ridiculous and it was just so hard to deal with.
"Allow me to unfreeze time for ya!" Flora said snapping her fingers. Suddenly the world began moving and setting itself at the proper time. Niko looked at Sapphire and sighed.
"It was nice to meet you again sis." Niko said. "But Sapphire and I have to go stop Xehanort."
"I know." Flora said. "I'm going with you! Riku sent me to help you. Donald and goofy are needed back at Disney Castle so I was told to pilot the Gummi Ship for you."
Sapphire looked over her shoulder. "Let's get moving then. I don't want to waste any time." Her voice was sharp and rough, the most common tone she would use.
"Okay..." Flora said snapping her fingers teleporting everyone to the Gummi Ship.
Flora pushed a button and the Gummi Ship sprung to life transforming into a new ship. The ship was now a shade of floral pink and rose red. Niko looked around at the new cockpit and smiled.
"Nice!" Niko shouted happily. "Nice redesign!"
"Thanks!" Flora responded. "Alright you two! Strap in! We're blowing this popsicle stand!"
Niko quickly did so fastening his seatbelt.
Sapphire in a disgruntled fashion did the same, sitting down and fastening her own seat belt, doing so slowly with narrowed eyes. She hoped they'd be able to take care of the other princesses soon.
The gummi ship warps into a field of asteroids. Flora looked to Niko and Sapphire and smiled.
"Did Riku not mention?" Flora asked. "There are heartless between each world. We gotta take them out too. The gummi ship has weapons systems equipped so that should be something we can do."
"Okay!" Niko said. "Do we each get a turret or something?"
"Yes." Flora replied.
Sapphire got to her feet at the mention of Heartless, and went to seek out the aforementioned turret. A little killing and chaos would be sure to take her mind off of what was going on.
"Just take a turret and kill any Heartless you see." Flora says nonchalantly as she returned to the wheel and retook control of the ship.
Sapphire found the turrets quickly. She sat down behind one and observed the controls, gripping the side and running her fingers over the triggers. She narrowed her eyes and peered out the window in front of her, looking out for Heartless. Niko looked at the weapons system and to a turret and got prepared for the Heartless. As soon as Sapphire spotted Heartless, she gunned them down, a concentrated look on her face.
Niko looked around and Flora turns hard.
"Hang on you two!" Flora shouted. "We're going through an asteroid field!"
Sapphire gritted her teeth as they went through the asteroid field, bracing herself. Niko looked around at the asteroids and held on tight firing at the asteroids as they went. Sapphire was actively shooting down Heartless and asteroids, making sure to take care of anything dangerous and in their path. As Niko and Sapphire took out asteroids, Flora narrowly dodged asteroids and performed loops and flips to avoid enemy attacks. However, she collided with an asteroid, knocking out Niko's turret. Having only one turret left, Flora pushed a button and a miniature ship popped out.
"Setting primary Teeny Ship to Active Attack!" Flora shouted. "Niko take the wheel! I need to repair the turret!"
"Okay!" Niko replied running over to the steering wheel and piloting the ship with the same expertise as his sister, doing flips and dives to avoid enemy fire and asteroids.
"Do a barrel roll!" Saph shouted.
"Not funny Saph!" Niko replied before doing so anyway. "You're lucky it works!"
"Concentrate!" Sarabi shouted. "I don't know about you, but some of us don't wanna die!"
"Calm your tits!" Niko shouted, narrowly avoiding a Heartless ship. "Sapphire you okay over there?!"
The insane amount of movement had started to make Sapphire nauseous, but she continued to fire at Heartless and asteroids both using her turret. She found herself getting dizzy, however. Normally when there were things outside of the ship to fight, the Insurgents would hop on out and take care of it, since their suits of armor protected them. This type of combat was strange and unfamiliar to her.
"I'm fine!" she called back to Niko despite her dizziness, her voice a growl. "Just focus on getting us out of the field!"
"You don't sound fine!" Saph said. "Niko hury up and get us out of here!"
"On it!" Niko said swerving out of the way of an asteroid. Niko hit a button on the control panel and nodded.. "Setting secondary Teeny Ship to Defend!"
"Good job Niko!" Flora said. "You gotta get us out of here! Hurry!"
Niko saw a world nearby and decided to best land there. He swerved towards the world and noticed what it was right away. It was mobius! They were heading home the whole time! Maybe something is up and the Gummi Ship was telling them to go there. WHatever the reason, Niko headed towards Mobius and landed on a nearby beach.
"Are we there yet?" Saph asked groggily before throwing up in a bucket.
"You idiot!" Sarabi shouted angrily. "What is wrong with you?"
"We made it didn't we?!" Niko replied. "Besides the Gummi Ship had Mobius in its coordinates. I was only guiding it to its destination."
