Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me. Instead, it belongs to its rightful owners.

"Woah, this place is huge."

That statement couldn't have been anymore correct. Who knew that there were giant twists, turns, and caves underwater. It was like a giant playground that you could get lost in. Easily lost. Thank goodness we had Ariel or we would have been doomed.

We looked at all the little fish that seemed to be enjoying their lives as they swam around, looking for things to do. They were so many colours. It looked like an underwater rainbow. The reflection from the sun high in the sky beamed down into the waters, creating flashes of pinks, blues, yellows, greens, oranges, and purples from the scales of the fishes. It honestly looked prettier down here than it did up there on land. The only thing that I would change was the fact that down here, my strength was kinda useless. My twig arms couldn't shove boulders out of the way like Goofy could, or even swing a key like Sora could. It was a defining moment for me. It meant that I would have to push myself harder to catch up to them.

But that was when the Heartless showed up again.

Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder swam away to take cover until we were finished fighting. Sora had told me to go with them as well, to take cover so that I wouldn't end up hurt just in case, but I didn't want to. You don't get stronger from hiding, you get stronger from fighting. He of all people should know that because it was something Riku told us on a daily basis. He wasn't one to hide and if he seen that we were, he'd make sure that we never heard the end of it.

"Why'd you stay?" Donald asked me once the attack was over. Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder had come out of their hiding places. Sora was moving his shoulder around as if it had cramped up during battle. Goofy was wiggling around as if his turtle shell was making him uncomfortable. I made my Keyblade disappear. Though I had only managed to defeat one of them this time, it was still more than nothing. "You know that you didn't have to . . ."

I cut Donald off with a gasp. Partly because he surprised me with the fact that he was concerned for my wellbeing, and partly because of the giant, golden castle that Ariel was leading us to. The entrance, like the Olympic Coliseum, was lined in columns, though these were a sea green colour and wrapped in sea weed. There was a marble-type finish to everything.

I didn't have too much time to marvel it, sadly, because more Heartless spawned behind us. The others didn't see them, so I shoved Donald and Goofy out of the way, only for a blast of light to defeat the Heartless anyways. We looked around in confusion for the source of it.

"That was too close."

We turned around to see a merman sitting on a throne, a long, white beard sprouting from his chin, a gold crown atop of his head, and a large trident in his hands. A grin creeped onto Ariel's face as she swam closer. It was the King. The King that we had heard so much of in Sora's mother's fairytales. Despite us almost being hurt by the Heartless a few moments ago, we couldn't help but to smile. He actually existed.

The King cleared his throat, returning Ariel's grin as if he was happy to see her. "As long as I have my trident, I will not tolerate those creatures inside this palace," he said. His voice was strong and stern, also laced with a hint of wisdom and old age. Even though he had long, gray hair and a raspy voice, his muscles didn't show anything over twenty-years-old. He was buff . . . and I meant the he-can-snap-me-like-a-twig sort of buff.

"Daddy!" Ariel shrieked, swimming up to his throne.

Our eyes went big. Daddy? She was the King's daughter? That meant that Ariel was a princess. Oh, man, I thought, the princess just had to command someone to teach us how to swim . . .

"Ariel!" King Triton snapped. Ariel instantly froze and her once loving expression shifted into a scared one. He was pissed. "When will you listen? It's dangerous out there! Strange creatures lurk outside."

Ariel, just like everyone else, was at a loss for words. The King was right. She shouldn't have been out of the palace if she wanted to stay safe.

Sebastian broke through the silence with a sigh. Lifting a claw up to motion toward the King, he began, "Behold. You swim before the ruler of the seas: His Majesty, King Triton."

"And who are they?" King Triton asked, nodding his head toward Sora, Donald, Goofy, and I. I fidgeted and ran a hand through my black-blue hair.

"They helped us fight off those creatures," Ariel explained.

"They don't look familiar . . ."

Sora was the one to respond, "We're from an ocean very far away."

"Yup, we came to find the Keyhole," Goofy said. It didn't help that in that exact moment, his body turned, floating upside down. To the King, we must have looked like a bunch of losers by now.

"The what?" Triton frowned.

Ariel tilted her head, and asked, "What's that?"

"Well, it's a-"

"There's no such thing!" The King interrupted. His gray eyes narrowed at us and I found myself scooting back a bit. His stare was so cold, so uncaring about what Goofy had to say. It was almost as if he didn't want us here at all. Feeling the negativity, Donald crossed his arms over his feather-covered chest. "There's nothing like that here."

"But, daddy-"

King Triton cut Ariel off with a huge hand. "Ariel, not another word!" That shut everyone up, and he continued to say, "You are not to leave the palace. Is that clear?"

Ariel looked like she was going to have a hear attack, like she wanted to scream loud enough so that the people on land could hear her. I could see her blue eyes watering as her bottom lip quivered. She was going to cry. I opened my mouth to say something, but there was no point. I was only fourteen. Why would they listen to me? Ariel turned around and swam away as fast as she could, wanting to get out of there so that she wouldn't have to face her father anymore. I followed after her, not wanting her to be alone, and Donald, Sora, and Goofy followed, too.

Once we were out of the luxurious palace, even though we weren't supposed to be, Ariel turned to us, wiping away the one tear that escaped. "Come to my grotto. I want to show you something," she said, pointing to one of the many caves in the ocean. "There it is, see?"

We swam over to the cave, noticing there was a giant rock covering the only entrance. But, being the nice guy he is and hopefully always will be, Sora opened it for us. "Ladies first." He grinned, then stepped aside so that Ariel and I could go in. When everyone was inside, he closed the makeshift door back.

Inside, there seemed to be nothing but artifacts. The shelves of the cave were filled with pots, boxes, mirrors, and other few human-made things that would have been found on land. It was amazing. Most of the stuff that she had in here, I remembered playing on the island with. For example, she had a yellow ball with a red star in the middle of it on the shelf. Kairi and I used to play with one just like it back on the islands. The memory brought a smile to my face.

"Look at all the wonderful things Flounder and I've collected," Ariel sighed with happiness. At least the frown was no longer on her face. "We've collected so many things from the outside world. Someday, I'm going to see what's out there. I want to see other worlds. Does that sound strange?"

Sora and I exchanged glanced before shaking our heads in unison. "No. Not at all. We used to feel the same way."

"Used to?" Ariel asked.

"I mean . . . I still do." Sora glanced down at his long fingers.

"Hey, why don't we try looking for that Keyhole you were talking about," Ariel suggested.

"But your father said-"

"Oh, he treats me like a little girl. He never want to let me do anything. He just . . . he just doesn't understand."

I nodded my head in understanding. Though I didn't really know my parents, I could imagine what she's going through. With that said, she swam toward the exit and we followed her. As long as she was willing to search, we were too.

3rd Person P.O.V.

"Ha, those impudent fools will never find the Keyhole." Ursula laughed as she stared at the image in front of her.

Those teenagers were swimming around, four of which looked like they couldn't tell their left fin from their right one. It was such a tragic sight. But, it was also a hilarious one. It was probably the reason why Ursula couldn't stop herself from laughing. Laughing as the black-haired one accidentally smacked her mermaid tail against a rock and groaned in agony. It was the funniest thing in the world to her.

"But the older girl could prove useful," she started. "And I've got the Heartless on my side."

It was the truth. Ariel was the princess and she could come in handy later. When did a princess not come in handy? Never, that's for sure.

"Triton, my old friend . . . your day is coming."

After swimming around the caves for about twenty minutes, Ariel had led us to what she had referred to as "a marvelous and adventurous find," whatever that meant. She had been talking about it nonstop, saying how she was exploring one day and came across it. Though, she failed to mention what it was. At this point, I didn't know what to expect. Just about everything down here was amazing and unexplored. I didn't think she could show me anything else that would fascinate me more than everything itself did.

That was until I seen it.

"Here it is, guys," Ariel explained, motioning to her marvelous find.

It was a sunken ship, like ones that pirates had. Judging by the decay and moss on the wood, it had been there for a while. Ariel was obviously proud of it. The artwork and carvings on it were still fresh. It was amazing, such a shame that it had sunken.

My jaw dropped at the sight as I dumbly asked, "Is this real?"

"Of course it's real, silly!" Ariel giggled, swimming over to a hole in the side of the ship. Though we were hesitant, we followed her inside. "What do you guys think?"

"Woah," Sora breathed. His eyes were wide and scanning every nook and crany of the ship.

Paintings were still on the wall. One, in particular, showed a man and a woman. The man's arms were wrapped around her as they smiled for the portrait. I swam closer to get a better look. It must have taken hours to do this. The details in the man's smile and the glimmering in the woman's eye showed true talent and hard work. If it weren't for the fact that the painting had been framed in glass, the salty ocean waters would have washed away it's colours long ago. My hand lifted up to run along the man's jaw. If this was down here, then what was up there?

"Sasuke, watch out!"

I turned around, expecting the worst, as Donald knocked me out of the way. The glass wall that the painting was next to burst open, a shark reaching its mouth inside. It was huge. Ariel let out a scream and swam to the other end of the boat with Sora, Goofy, and Flounder to get away from it. Luckily, it gave up and swam away.

"Where did it come from?" Flounder asked, out of breath.

I clutched my chest, thankful for Donald saving me. If it weren't for him, I would have been shark bait. Literally. But, that was when I got a glimpse of something circling the ship.

"It's still out there," Sora said. He summoned the Kingdom Key and began swimming toward the exit. "I've got it."

"Pft, I've got it," Donald mocked before following him. There was no way we were letting him do this alone.

I went with them to fight the shark off, Sora already attacking it left and right. Thankfully, after a few more hits, the shark was knocked out. It dropped something out of his mouth. A crystal of some sort. Swimming out of the ship, Ariel picked it up.

"This looks familiar," she announced. "I think I have something just like it in my grotto."

"Back to the grotto, then!" Goofy cheered.

"I think this is it."

Ariel swam into her grotto, over to a piece embedded in the rock walls. It was shaped like a trident, just like the crystal she held in her hands. I was crossing my fingers that it would unlock the Keyhole. If not, the ocean was large, and we'd have to search all over it to find it. Handing it off to Sora, we watched in silence as he placed the crystal inside of the trident-shaped hole. Though, we furrowed our eyebrows when nothing happened.

"Ariel, you've disobeyed me again!" someone shouted. We jumped and turned around to see King Triton. He was even more pissed off than he was before. Ariel sighed, knowing that she was busted and she was going to get in trouble. I instantly felt bad for her. "I told you not to leave the palace!" He then seen the crystal trident in the wall and frowned even deeper. Raising his trident, he blasted the crystal, shattering it into pieces.

"Daddy, no! How could you . . ." Ariel cried before swimming off.

I was going to go after her, but the King held out a hand, glaring at us. "You four, you're not from another ocean. You're from another world, aren't you?"

Sora lamely opened his mouth to create the dumbest face ever. "Huh?"

"Then you must be the key bearer," King Triton said.

"How did you know?"

"You may fool Ariel, but you can't fool me. You don't know your dorsal fin from your tail." He pointed to Sora's dolphin tail for effect. At that, the brunet scratched his head full of spikes. "As the key bearer, you must already know one must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds."

Sora frowned. "Of course I know that, but-"

"You have violated this principle. The key bearer shatters peace and brings ruin."

"Aw, Sora's not like that," Goofy defended. I wanted to smile at the way he waved around his little turtle parts, but now was not the time. Especially since we were being yelled at.

The King ignored that comment. "I thank you for saving my daughter. But there is no room in my ocean for you or your key." With that, he swam off, leaving an upset Sora and silence behind.

3rd Person P.O.V.

Ariel sat there crying. Her father never did understand. He always went off on his thoughts and wishes, not the hopes of others. Every time she attempted to confront him about it, it ended up exactly like this. Him destroying what she cared about most. He was always like that and he always will be. There wasn't even a point anymore. Why try to repair something broken when it doesn't want to be fixed. The realization made her cry even more. She should just give up.

"My, my, the poor child suffers such deep sorrow. What a pity. If only there were something we could do . . ." Ariel looked up to see two eels swimming around her. She didn't know where they had came from, or how they had gotten here, but she was speechless. They were talking about her as if they knew all of her problems. And perhaps they did. With the way her dad is always yelling at her, she wouldn't be surprised if all of Atlantis knew. "Wait," one of the eels continues. "Maybe she can be of some help."

"Yes," the other one said. "Maybe she can be of some help to you."

Ariel didn't know who they were, but she was desperate. "Who're you talking about?"

"Oh, she would surely help you," the first eel began. "She'd make all your dreams come true. Ursula can help . . ."

Who in the world was Ursula? Ariel couldn't help but to just watch as a woman appeared next to the eels, her hair a pearl white and her skin a tainted purple. Was this the woman who could help? Though she knew it was risky, Ariel was willing to take a chance. This could probably be the only way she could achieve her dreams.

The woman lowered her onyx eyes to stare at her, her red lips parting into a grin. "You called, my dear?" she asked, her voice coated in sugar.

"Y-you're Ursula?" Ariel stuttered. The woman nodded. "I was just wondering if-"

The woman cut her off with an even bigger grin. "It's all right. Helping others is what I live for. Let me guess. You wish to see other worlds. That shouldn't be too hard. After all, your new friends came from another world."

"What?" Ariel couldn't believe her ears. "But their tails . . . Sasuke is a mermaid. I've seen it-"

"But they had special help-that mysterious key." Ursula watched as Ariel frowned, but then lifted up her chin. "Now, now. Cheer up, sweetie. You have something special, too. Now listen carefully . . ."

Thanks for reading, everyone! Wow, 3,091 words. New high score!