Chapter 4
-Radiant Garden-
The trio was heading for the Gummi Ship to leave Radiant Garden when a figure dressed in black robes called out to them from a few yards behind them.
"Had a fun time with your old friends? Bet spending time with them brought back...memories?"
The figure stepped forward and removed his hood. He had a youthful appearance and had straight orange hair.
"It felt nice, didn't it...Sora?"
Sora looked at him and gritted his teeth, "Who are you?"
Donald and Goofy stood defensively.
"He's got a black coat..."
"I wonder if he's with Organization XII..."
The man walked over to Sora, stopped and pretended to examine him closely.
"I wonder... Are your memories really yours...? Are you the you...you think you are?"
Sora glared at him, "Buzz off, creep!"
The man smirked, "It's not nice to call people names when you've just met them. I am Nexus, and I am just like you: a keyblade wielder searching for supreme power..."
"How do you know what I'm like?", asked Sora, "For one thing, I don't give a hoot about 'supreme power', I am a keyblade wielder because I want to protect the people who are important to me!"
Nexus threw his head back and laughed, "People who are important to you?! They don't even know you. Allow me to knock some sense into you!"
Two keyblades appeared in Nexus' hands and he lunged at Sora who pulled out his and blocked right away.
/Notice: Defeat the mysterious foe...
"Man...he could have seriously hurt me just now...", Sora thought, "Why does he have two keyblade?"
Donald pulled out his staff and Goofy, his shield. Goofy shoved into Nexus so he was away from Sora and Donald started charging his magic.
"Firaga!"
The attack blasted Nexus and he bent over, seemly out of breath.
"You can't...fight for yourself...?"
"My friends are my power...", Sora said proudly.
Nexus smirked, "You know how lame that sounds...?"
He jumped back a few feet and held out his arms. A third, hilt-less keyblade materialized in front of him and he grabbed it in his teeth. Sora, Donald, and Goofy went wide-eyed.
"Th-three keyblades?!", they shouted in unison.
Nexus' eyes went shadowy and each of his keyblades began charging with one of the three basic magic elements, fire, thunder, and blizzard. He charged at the three with the two keyblades in his hands pointed straight at them.
"Triple Magic Slash!"
He ran right through them and then sheathed his keyblades. There was a large explosion of fire, ice, and electricity, and the three fell to the ground. Nexus turned around and looked back at them.
"What a pity...", he said sounding disappointed, "And to think this is the up and coming new keyblade master. What a joke..."
He started to walk away when the Kingdom Key flew at him like a boomerang, he dodged it just in time and it flew past him before returning to Sora who was on his knees and slowly getting up. He was bent over and his hair was casting a shadow over his eyes.
"Who are you to come out of nowhere, mock me to my face, and hurt my friends...?"
Sora stood straight up, still bent over. Donald and Goofy's motionless bodies began to dissolve into light and the light flew into Sora causing his body to glow. Suddenly his clothes turned silver and he rose into the air. A second keyblade appeared in his left hand and he was ready to end this.
"This must be Sora's power...duel wielding...", Nexus thought, "but absorbing the power of his comrades? How is that possible...?"
Almost as soon as he finished his thought, Sora appeared behind him and smacked him into the air with his keyblade. Next he appeared high above him and knocked him to the ground. Finally he spun his keyblades rapidly, creating a small tornado and throwing Nexus high into the air.
Sora pointed the ends of his keyblades at Nexus, and dark energy balls started growing from the ends.
Nexus' eyes grew wide, "Ragnorok...double...?"
Both of the balls exploded and launched at Nexus in pieces. In what felt like slow motion, he fell to the ground in too much pain to move. Sora landed gently on the ground before falling to his knees and passing out. His companions Donald and Goofy re-materialized next to him, just as still as he was.
Nexus breathed heavily and after a few seconds he painfully got up, looking at Sora.
"He's still too weak...", he said disappointedly, "I wouldn't call him my 'counterpart' as he is now..."
He drew his keyblade and summoned a corridor of darkness. He stepped inside and looked back at Sora.
"I want you to discover your true power before we meet again..."
-Pixie Hollow-
Aqua and Jose had fallen a great height from the portal and for a while had lay unconscious. They both lay under an enormous tree. Just then, two winged girls dressed in woodland attire noticed the two and flew over to them.
One girl with brown hair held Jose gently, "There three...Faun's got you..."
The other black-haired girl held Aqua to her chest and stroked her hair smiling, "Now now...Silvermist's got you..."
Faun gave Silvermist an odd look and she smiled weakly. Aqua slowly got up and gasped when she saw the girls so close to her.
"Are you alright?", Faun asked.
"I never seen you around.", said Silvermist, "What kind of fairy are you?"
"I'm not...", Aqua looked around and saw everything was huge.
They appeared to be outside in a meadow but everything was gigantic. Then Aqua looked at herself and realized it may have been the other way around. She had on the same attire she came here in but she also had clear glittering fairy wings on her back. Jose looked more or less the same except he didn't have any clothes on and her looked more like...well..a bird. She then realized that her magic was helping her blend in so she could hide the fact that she came from another world.
"I'm not...from around here!", she smiled, "I'm Aqua...and this is my friend Jose."
Jose took Faun's hand and gently, "I am honored to make your aquantence."
Just then, a fairy passed by with a mouse the size of a horse (it was to Aqua at least). She had a short green her blond hair tied back in a bun. Silvermist and Faun smiled when they saw her.
"Hi, Tink!", they called.
Aqua gasped, "Tink? Tinker Bell?"
Tinker Bell stopped when she saw Aqua and her face went red.
"You...", she started to say.
She flew to Aqua, grabbed her hand and pulled her away.
Faun, Silvermist, and Jose looked confused.
"Pardon, señoritas.", Jose smiled at them and flew after them.
Tink pulled Aqua to the other side of the tree and looked at her furiously.
"I remember you. You came to Neverland out of nowhere and disappeared as soon as you came. It was like, what, twenty years or so ago? And now you are here in Pixie Hollow and now the size of a fairy? Who are you anyways?!"
Aqua felt an odd chilling warmth flow through her. It was the most important rule for a keyblade master to never reveal that they were from another world but somehow this fairy had figured it out by seeing her in two different worlds in two different forms. She was about to speak when she heard a familiar sound; the sound of multiple Heartless spawning. She turned and saw several small Heartless lunge towards them.
Tinker Bell gasped, "The Heartless are back?"
Aqua pulled out her keyblade and one-hit-k. a Heartless.
"You know the Heartless?", she asked clearly surprised.
"Yeah...", Tinker Bell barely dodged one, "They first appeared like two years ago and this kid named Sora came and got rid of them... Then they came back and this time a boy named Roxas saved us..."
/ Notice: Tinker Bell joined the party...
Jose was fighting them off with his umbrella now but there were still a little too many. Aqua was getting scratched up and she was breathing heavily. Suddenly golden dust gently fell down on her and in seconds she was completely healed. Confused she looked up and saw Tink, who winked and flew to Jose and threw some pixie dust to him. With Tink keeping them up, they were able to finish off all the Heartless with minor difficulty.
Aqua sheathed her keyblade and looked at Tink, "Thank you, Tinker Bell."
Tinker Bell looked at her with narrow eyes. Aqua sighed.
"I may as well tell you since you pretty much figured it out.", she said, "Those two you mentioned, did they have anything like this?"
Aqua unsheathed her keyblade. Tink's eyes lit up and she nodded.
"Yeah, they look like keys!", she exclaimed.
"Yes...", said Aqua, "I am Aqua, a Keyblade Master, and it is my job to keep the light and the darkness balanced in the world. That means I'm after creatures like the Heartless and the Unversed."
Tink nodded, taking this in, "So what about how you changed your size like that?"
"I need to disguise myself wherever I go so I don't...scare anyone.", Aqua really hoped she would buy this. Keeping the worlds separated was the most important thing.
Tink looked suspicious but nodded, "Okay, I gotcha. I'll keep this 'Keyblade Master' secret away from everyone else..."
She started to fly off and Aqua sighed with relief. Then she turned back around.
"Hey, I have and idea! You need to take care of those Heartless here, right?", she asked, "It'll be easier to look around Pixie Hollow if you pretend to be a fairy here and do some work around the island!"
"Work?", Aqua was unsure about this, "What do I need to do?"
Tinker Bell took her hand and lead her back around the tree. Jose followed.
"We just need to find your 'talent'", she said.
They ran into Faun and Silvermist again, who now looked confused that Tink was smiling.
"Um...hi, Tink.", Silvermist smiled weakly, "Everything okay?"
"Everything's great, Sil.", she said, "This is my old friend, Aqua. She hasn't spoken to me in at least twenty years..."
She shook her head disapprovingly at Aqua, who backed away. Sil and Faun looked at each other and smiled in relief that Tinker Bell wasn't loosing it.
Tink turned back to them, "So Aqua needs help finding a talent. She wants to help us prepare for Spring before heading back to the Mainland."
Sil and Faun gasped, "You LIVE on the Mainland?"
Aqua was unsure of what to say, "Um...yeah. It's great! Anyhow, don't we have a lot of work to do before Spring? And I need to find my 'talent', right?"
She glanced at Tink oddly.
"Your right", said Sil, "Let's get started!"
Over the next few hours, Aqua, Tinker Bell, Faun, Silvermist, and Jose practiced decorating spiderwebs with dewdrops, feeding fireflies, and flying with baby birds. All of this 'practicing to be a fairy' was also reintroducing Aqua to her keyblade magic. Almost none of her rustiness from being stuck in the Realm of Darkness was showing anymore. Finally they came to a field of flowers. A single fairy was gliding over the flowers and creating tiny twisters between her palms that were extracting pollen from the flowers, plant by plant.
Aqua's eyes narrowed, "That can't be the most efficient way to do that. I should help her..."
She drew her keyblade and held it out in front of her.
"Aeroga!"
A larger twister shot from the end of her keyblade and spun around the field, gathering pollen from dozens of flowers at a time. The fairy looked up wide-eyed then glared at Aqua.
"What do you think you're doing?!", she yelled over the wind.
Aqua was surprised by her reaction and cancelled the Aero spell, which also a surprise to her, caused all the pollen to fall to the ground and around the fairy who went into a fit of sneezing. Tink, Faun, and Sil bursted out laughing but Aqua felt embarrassed and guilty, and flew over to her.
"Are you okay?", she asked bending over her, who was now knelling over and her face was red.
The fairy had dark black hair and wore a purple dress. She glared at Aqua and pushed her away.
"Who the heck are you? Are you a klutz or do you think you're some wise girl?"
Aqua was stunned. The other fairies and Jose flew over to them.
"Aqua was only trying to help, Vidia.", Tink said, "Calm down."
"Si, Señorita.", said Jose taking her hand and helping her up, "Allow me to introduce ourselves. I'm Jose Carioca and this is-"
Vidia slapped his wing away and flew up in Aqua's face.
"Listen here, Princess, or whatever you call yourself: I don't know or even care who you are but if you come near me or my work again, you will wish that you never came to Neverland!"
Vidia flew away, kicking dust in Aqua's face as she left. Tink and the other fairies flew to Aqua's side.
"Are you alright?!", asked Tink, "I'm so sorry... Vidia...she doesn't really like anyone."
Aqua looked past Tink. She wasn't concerned with herself more than she was Vidia.
"I'm worried about her...", Aqua said staring out were she had flown off to.
-
-
Vidia was furious. She tore up grass and knocked into flying insects as she flew around aimlessly.
"Who does that blue-haired tramp think she is?!", she yelled to herself, "There I was, busting my wings creating cyclones and she drops a load of pollen on me. If I see that brat again, she is dead!"
Deep down though, Vidia was envious of her powers. For the longest time, she had been the most talented fairy in Pixie Hollow, creating forces of nature.
Suddenly she flew right into a large fairy, at least she thought he was a fairy at first. He was a giant (or small for a fairy: he was a head taller than Vidia at least) fat blact cat who wore what looked like a big leafy nightgown and like all the fairies, had clear glittering wings. He was smiling as he looked down at Vidia.
"Hehehe...", he laughed, "Where you think you are off to in such a hurry?"
"Get away from me, you creep...", Vidia flew past him.
The cat spun around to face her, "Now now, Ol' Pete knows ya was having trouble with that brat with that strange key... Bet you could wipe the floor with that runt if you had those powers."
Vidia gritted her teeth, "What do you know about me or her powers?"
"Oh, not so much about you...", Pete laughed, "But I know a thing or two about about the key-brats. Like how they ain't from this world."
This caught Vidia's attention and she looked right at him, "She's from the Mainland? No fairies live there!"
"First of all, she ain't no fairy. And second of all there's way more than the 'Mainland' out there. Heck, I ain't even from this world!", Pete said slapping his chest.
"Since ya seem so keen on gettin' more powerful and hearin' about these other worlds, how about we go see Lady Maleficent? She the most powerful fairy in the universe!"
Vidia didn't say anything and hesitated before nodding. Pete snickered before leading her deep into the forest. Deep in the forest stood something out of place; a small (even smaller because it was fairy-sized) building with four walls and a flat roof all built of cement bricks. It had a door that looked as if it belonged in a medieval castle. Mortimer stood at the door dressed extreamly better than Pete; he wore a dark purple elfin-style dress coat along with dress pants and shoes, and of course fairy wings like everyone else.
"Right this way please, Doll.", he said holding the door open. All three went inside to see a room that really looked like it was from a castle. Vidia started to wonder if the 'building' was really just part of a real castle that was somehow transported there.
Just then, a round green light appeared and floated in the center of the room. Everything grew dark and the green light expanded into the silhouette of a tall robed woman. After a second the light faded and Vidia could see every detail of her. She looked fairly young and had pale skin and wore a black and purple robe that covered most of her body and she appeared to have horns on her head underneath her tight hood.
She smiled, "Welcome, child. I am Maleficent, Queen of Darkness. I've heard many things about you child, and how you seek power."
Vidia gasped when she saw her and her eyes widened even more when she spoke.
"Qu-Queen Claron warned us to stay away from the darkness...", she said defensively.
Malephicent laughed, "And she's absolutely right. You should stay away from darkness...if you are to weak to use it. You, child, have a gift. I can sense that in your heart, a small amount of darkness exists. If only in was unlocked, your powers would increase tremendously."
"Darkness exists...in my heart...", Vidia was thinking this over, "If I allow my heart to be filled with darkness...will anything bad happen? To me that is?"
"Of course not!", she laughed, "You will be just like I am. In complete control of yourself and your powers. We have more in common than you think."
Vidia was still silent. Malephicent smirked.
She reached out her hand, "Very well, I will give you a small taste of the darkness and perhaps later, after you see it's power you will come to a decision."
She made a pulling gesture with her hand and a shadowy orb appeared at Vidia's chest. The orb desolved and spread throughout Vidia's body. For a moment, Vidia looked like she was about to faint before she straightened up and regained full consciousness.
Malephicent smirked, "Very good. Perhaps you should test your new powers against that keyblade wielder..."
Vidia nodded and quickly flew out of the castle room. She was unsure about that Malephicent person; in fact, something about her scared her. Still, if she could use this darkness against people like Tinker Bell or Aqua, she was more than willing.
Aqua, Jose, Tink, and the others flew past a field of tall grass. Aqua was wiped out; all that hard work and no sign of the Heartless. She was about to give up hope when she heard screaming. Several garden fairies shot out from the grassy field.
"It's the Sprinting Thistles again! They are going wild!"
"What's a Sprinting Thistle?", Jose asked.
Before anyone could answer, Aqua flew high over the field and looked down to see an entire heard of what looked like giant moving tufts of tall grass. What really caught her eye, however, was their dark coloration and the Heartless insignia in the middle of their bodies.
"I may not be a fairy but those are no ordinary walking plants..."
She flew back down to Tink, Jose, and the others.
"I need to go after those things.", she said decidedly.
"What?!", cryed Sil, "There's not a fairy alive who can tame the Sprinting Thistles!"
"Even if you could. They're way to fast.", said Faun.
Aqua thought, "How about I ride my keyblade glider after them?"
Jose shook his head, "No way, Jose. You need you're keyblade to fight them; you can't attack with it if you're riding it."
Faun was silent and then jumped into the air.
"I've got it!", she cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled into the air,"Oh, Cheeeese!"
All was silent for a few seconds then loud, swift, foot stomps could be heard. A giant gray mouse darted over to the five, looking back and forth as if looking for something.
Faun smiled, "Cheese is the fastest mouse in Pixie Hollow. He'll help you catch up to the Sprinting Thistles!"
Aqua looked at Cheese oddly and pet his large head, "His name is Cheese?"
"Must be.", said Sil, "He comes running every time we yell it."
Aqua carefully mounted Cheese like a horse and nodded. She never rode a horse let alone a giant mouse. It felt odd but she was confident she could fight those giant Heartless like this.
"I'm ready. Jose, Tinker Bell, stay behind while I go after the Heartless."
"No can do, Amiga.", said Jose, "We're in this together!"
Tink shook her head, "Jose, there are three of us and only one Cheese. Aqua, you can do it!"
Aqua smiled, "Thanks, Tinkerbell."
She patted the top of Cheese's head and he darted of before she could even grab on. He really was fast; they were charging through the field milliseconds after Cheese started running. The blades of grass whooshed loudly as they flew past them. Eventually the Sprinting Thistle Heartless came into view and Aqua drew her keyblade. As Cheese overtook each Thistle, Aqua quickly hacked them down. This looked like it would be an easy job.
After a while, however, there seemed to be even more than there were in the first place. Dozens of Sprinting Thistles surrounded Aqua and closed in on her. She was bashed off of Cheese's back and landed hard on the ground. She painfully got up just to dodge a Thistle that was twenty times her size. She remembered she had wings in this world and flew high into the air before she could get trampled and looked around for her mouse-stead. Fortunately Cheese had broke free and darted to the exit.
Aqua sighed with relief and flew above the tall grass. She was about to leave when she saw a fat black cat and a tall skinny rat flying next to a Corridor of Darkness which was spitting out the Sprinting Thistle Heartless. She glared at them and darted over with her keyblade drawn.
"Get these Heartless out of here!", she yelled.
The cat laughed loudly, "Get 'em outta here?! Ha! And why'd we do somethin' like that? Gotta hand it to ya though, you're as assertin' and noble as you've ever been, 'Master' Aqua?"
Aqua gasped, "Wait...you're...Captain Justice? From Disney Town?"
Once again he burst out laughing, "Cap'n Justice?! Bwahaha, oh that's rich! Haven't heard that phony name in 'round twenty years. I'm Pete, and I'm right hand cat of Maleficent, Queen of Dsrkness herself! I'm no Cap'n Justice, or Cap'n Dark. But I guess ya could call me the Captain of Darkness..."
Pete held out his hand and weaves a giant dark energy ball and hurled in into the field of grass. A giant Thistle grew and extended out from the field like a huge whip. Aqua gasped and turned her attention to it. Pete and Mortimer started towards the Corridor.
Before Pete went in himself, he turned his head, "How 'bout you stay and help take out the keyblade master. When you're done then ya can come with us."
Aqua looked confused before she turned around and was shocked to see Vidia flying behind her. Vidia smirked then hit Aqua hard with a wind attack, sending her backwards. Tink and Jose flew towards them an stood next to Aqua.
"Vidia?!", Tink was shocked to see her too, "You're...siding with them? But why? What about Pixie Hollow, and the fairies, and Queen Clarron?"
Vidia laughed, "You think I really care about all of those things? The reason I did this was to get rid of you! After all, Tink, I totally despise you. You are so pathetic yet everyone thinks you're the greatest. In the end, I side with the strongest."
"Vidia, the darkness will consume you if you get too close.", yelled Aqua, "Stay in your own world, with your own people!"
Vidia glared and the giant heartless loomed behind her, "My world? My people? Spare me..."
She sent two mini tornados from both sides and the battle began.
/Notice: Defeat Vidia and Wild Thistle*
The Heartless swung itself at Aqua, Jose, and Tink and they broke up to dodge it. Aqua jumped out of range and cast Firaga, which she confirmed was it's weakness. Jose drew his umbrella and started dealing some close-range attacks. Suddenly they were both hit with powerful wind magic. Vidia was attacking along side the giant Heartless.
"Aeroraga!", she cast a large tornado towards Aqua and Jose that buffeted both of them. Tink flew over them and sprinkled Pixie Dust which healed them.
The Wild Thistle began to shake and pollen flew everywhere. As Aqua was hit with it, she began to loose consciousness. The other two were knocked out too and began descending just as the Heartless whipped out and slashed the three awake. Tink cast Regain on all three and as their health recharged the fight continued.
The Heartless tried using it's sleeping powder attack again but Tink threw some dust with an Esuna ability to counter it. Finally, Jose was able to land some heavy blows and Aqua held her keyblade out, charging a next attack.
"Flame Salvo!", a large ball of fire launched from the end of her keyblade and burned the giant Heartless into ashes; a large crystalline heart rose into the air. With Vidia alone, the real fight began.
"Triple Aeroraga!", Vidia shot three giant tornados at Aqua, Jose, and Tink. They managed to dodge them but with her casting wind magic repeatedly it would be hard to get close enough for a good attack. Aqua had enough concentration for one more, but weaker, Flame Salvo. She concentrated her magic into her keyblade then shot a single small fireball at Vidia. It hit her and granted Aqua an extra second. Next, Aqua's body flashed with light and she threw her keyblade into the air and jumped on it.
"Sky Climber!", she flew forwards Vidia riding on top of her keyblade. Vidia cast wind magic in Aqua's direction but it all seemed to miss. As Aqua collided into Vidia, the final blow was delivered in what felt like slow motion; the fight was over.
Aqua stood over Vidia and her keyblade vanished.
"Vidia... Listen to me, stay in your own world and keep away from the darkness...", Aqua spoke seriously before turning to walk away.
Suddenly she was hit in the back and knocked over. Vidia, who was standing up and smirking had just thrown a dark energy ball at her.
"Surprised, Pixie? Maleficent gave me dark powers, remember?", she said overconfidently, "Wait, I didn't mention that? I thought it was self explanatory after I joined the darkness and all that."
Tink and Jose flew to Aqua's aid but she got up before they had a chance. Suddenly a Corridor of Darkness opened some distance behind Vidia. Mortimer stepped out.
"Hey Doll, time to skeedadell!", he yelled, "We need to meet Lady Malephicent at Castle Oblivion."
Vidia glared back at Aqua and darted for the Corridor and they both disappeared inside.
"Castle Oblivion...", Aqua thought aloud, "He can't mean-"
She gasped, touched her shoulder armor and her keyblade armor complete with helmet materialized onto her. Next she transformed her keyblade into her keyblade glider and jumped on.
Jose flew over to her, "Señorita Aqua, where are you going?!"
She didn't seem to hear him as she started the engine and blasted off into the Corridor just as it disappeared.
/Notice: Jose and Tinker Bell left the party...
End of Chapter 4...