Disclaimer: Kingdom hearts does not belong to me... yada yada... pretty sure we already established this...
We ended up falling onto the boat in the mouth of the whale. Running a hand through my hair in confusion, I watched as Geppetto ran around searching for his son.
"Pinocchio! Pinocchio!" He cried. "Please, give me back my son!"
Who was he talking to? The four of us glanced up to see Riku standing on a platform furthest away from the boat, an unconscious Pinocchio under his arm like a log. Something wasn't right here; Riku wouldn't do this. "Sorry, old man." Riku sighed. "I have some unfinished business with this puppet."
Geppetto grew even more upset, "He's no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!"
"He is unusual; not many puppets have hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs."
Who was he talking about? Could that be the person he was talking about needed saving? My silver eyes grew wide as I took a step closer. This couldn't be happening. "Wait a minute… are you talking about Kairi?" I pried, looking up at the older boy.
"What do you care about her?" Riku glared. That question seemed to cause a deafening silence as he walked away, leaving us to ponder his true intentions. I furrowed by eyebrows at I stared at the space where Riku once stood. Sora placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder but it didn't help anything.
"She's my best friend, that's what…" I whispered to no one in particular.
I couldn't just stand there while he ran away with the kid. Yeah, even if it was to save Kairi's life, it wasn't worth sacrificing another one from such an innocent person. Before any of the boys could say anything, I crawled up onto the platform and sprinted into the hole that led to the whale's stomach. Perhaps I didn't know entirely what I was going to do if I did reach Riku in time, but I knew I had to do something, whether or not Sora, Donald, and Goofy could catch up with me.
The stomach was filled with neon green acid and held more of a pale pinkish color than the rest of the body. Riku stood in a corner, watching over Pinocchio who was out cold on the ground. It took a full two minutes for the others to reach me, but, by that time, I was pissed. "Hey, let Pinocchio go, Riku!" I demanded. He turned around to glare at me with the sea green eyes that used to look at me like that of an older brother. What happened to him after the islands?
"A puppet that's lost its heart to the Heartless…" He started, taking his eyes off me to look down at the wooden boy. "Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, you two? Let's join forces to save her. We can do it, together."
He began walking closer to us and, instead of running to him, we summoned our Keyblades. Whoever this whack job was, it wasn't Riku. He stopped walking, looking at us with a shocked expression, "What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?"
"Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience." Sora snapped.
"Conscience?" Riku repeated.
"You might not hear it, but right now, it's loud and clear. And it's telling me you're on the wrong side!"
"Then you leave me no choice." Riku grumbled. Jiminy jumped out of Sora's pocket to go check on Pinocchio, much to my pleasure. I really did hope the kid would be alright. Pinocchio lifted his head to smile at the little green cricket. That good; he was going to be just fine.
At that moment, the Heartless we fought in Monsto's throat fell from the ceiling. Riku, who appeared extremely pissed off, disappeared into a portal of darkness of some sorts, leaving us to fend against the beast by ourselves.
Of course…
Sora jumped at it, not wasting any time on attacking it. While everyone moved forward to attack it, I climbed onto higher ground to hide Pinocchio while I scooped out the area. "Come on, buddy." I urged, pointing to my back. Hesitantly, Pinocchio climbed on, probably realizing that I was his best bet at the moment. He wrapped his wooden arms and legs around my torso as tight as he could. "Don't let go, alright?"
He nodded his head, "Okay."
I ducked when the Heartless attempted to swing at us with its long arms. Pinocchio shrieked but didn't cease holding on. Aiming my blade at the monster, I shot a string of fireballs at it seeing as it wouldn't be a good idea to attack up close with him on my back. "Sasuke, get the head!" Sora screeched from below. Was he kidding me?
"No!" Pinocchio pleaded. "Don't drop me!"
"You're going to be fine." I crouched down, getting ready to take a running start. When I took off running, Pinocchio clutched onto the fabric of my shirt with all of his might. With him holding on like this wasn't going to get me far. So, when I got ready to jump, I pried him off my back and tossed him into the air.
"You freakin' idiot!" Donald screamed below me.
I delivered the final blow to the head as quickly as I could, using the head to jump back into the air and catch the kid. "Run!" I shouted while I wrapped my arms protectively around his wooden body. The Heartless was going to come crashing down onto them if they kept standing there like that.
"Wait, Riku! Where's Riku!?" Sora yelled. Landing back onto the ground, I grabbed onto his arm before pulling him back through the hole we came through behind Donald and Goofy. Wherever our best friend was, he wasn't in here anymore. "Wait, no, Sasuke, what about Riku!?"
3rd Person P.O.V.
"So, Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?" Riku hesitantly asked, his face looking at the floor. He didn't want to come to terms with reality but it was about time that he did.
"Precisely," Maleficent answered from behind him.
"And her heart was—"
"Taken by the Heartless, no doubt." She answered yet again. They glanced at Kairi's body which was lying on the wooden floor of the pirate ship. It was obvious her answers were starting to upset the boy, but what could she do? He wanted the truth so she gave it to him. Riku lifted his head and turned around to glare at her murderously.
"Tell me!" He growled. "What can I do?"
Maleficent sighed in defeat, "There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the Princesses of Heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lies untold wisdom. There, you will surely find a way to recover Kairi's heart. Now, I'll grant you a marvelous gift: the power to control the Heartless!"
Riku smirked, gazing down at the sleeping red-head, "Soon, Kairi. Soon…"
"This was the grossest idea ever." I shuddered, buckling my seatbelt in the gummi ship. After we returned the boy back to his father, Donald had the bright idea for us to be sneezed out of Monsto. Shockingly, it worked, but it still was nasty. Hey, I wasn't complaining though; there were worse ways for us to get out of there… ways that I didn't even want to consider.
"I sure hope Pinocchio and Geppetto will be okay." Goofy said from the front seat. Since it was technically our fault we were swallowed up by the whale in the first place, Sora and I had been demoted to the backseat again. We'll be lucky if they ever let us sit in the front.
Donald nodded his head, starting the ship's engines, "Yeah, hopefully the landed safely somewhere."
Glancing over at Sora, I noticed that he was still hung over the fact that Riku just left us like that. I reached a hand up to ruffle his spiky milk chocolate hair to try and lighten his mood. He smiled sadly at me. "Stop or you'll get that bracelet caught in it." He chuckled. I removed my hand from his hair, looking down at the bracelet Cloud gave me way back in Olympus Coliseum. "Where to now, Donald?"
"To another world, I guess…" The duck replied. "But first, I have to stock up on more potions at Traverse Town."
Of course, you can never be too stocked around Donald Duck…