Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Mickey: "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Your majesty, I-

Mickey: "We know about finals, we know about the pressures of college, we know about your new job, we know about the craziness around the holidays, we know about you and your beta's busy lives. But frankly, you've exhausted your excuses."

Okay, okay… I'll try to avoid it in the future.

Mickey: "Good, good. Now I can do the disclaimer. DarthKingdom does now own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else."

!

Chapter 86: Under the Sea

Sora (not for the first time) found himself quietly (very, very quietly) singing Sebastian's song under his breath.(1)

The world of Atlantica was almost entirely ocean, ruled over for the most part my the merpeople, ruled over by King Triton from the underwater city of the same name as the world. The only dry areas of the world were a handful of islands inhabited by regular humans.

It was only common sense that they'd need to take on new forms to operate on this world.

Sora had become a merman-like being. But rather than a typical fish tail, the lower half of his body was that of a dolphin, with sleek blue skin. His crown pendant was still around his neck, which was odd, since he couldn't remember it being there last time.

From the waist down, Donald was an octopus. He had six light blue tentacles, with yellow undersides with a line of powerful suction cups. Goofy was all sea-turtle aside from his head. He had a turquoise-colored shell, and four black fins.

Kairi had a pinkish dolphin tail like Sora's. The upper half of her body was covered with a pink, clam-shell bikini top. Sora was suddenly finding it hard not to stare, and it ashamed him to a degree. She didn't seem to mind too much though.

Riku looked like a more conventional merman. He had the fluked tail of a shark, with sharp, silvery scales overlapping each other. He had a shark's large dorsal fin on his lower back. On his forearms, there appeared to be another set of silver fins, which could (in theory) be used to maneuver better.

Yuffie also had a shark fin, though hers was black, and had a slightly shorter dorsal fin. She, too, was wearing a black bikini shell top that Riku was having trouble looking away from. Her black headband and wristbands were still firmly in place.

Axel had become an octopod with eight crimson tentacles sprouting from below his waist. The underside of the suction cup-lined tentacles were jet black.

Nehrut had a dark blue dolphin tail almost totally identical to Sora's. The only difference from his was that along its center was a slightly green line.

Likewise, Bariss had a greenish dolphin tail and green shell bikini. Her small dorsal fin was slightly smaller and more rounded than those that Sora, Kairi, and Nehrut were 'wearing.' And along its center was a slightly blue line.

The lower half of King Mickey's body resembled the tail of a sea horse. The curled tail was mostly red, with a few bright yellow markings. One mark on his stomach resembled his royal emblem in bright yellow.

"This is going to take some getting used to..." Riku said, looking at his new arm fins. "Anybody want to take a guess what these things are for?"

"Maneuverability?" Nehrut guessed. "They look pretty cool, though."

"I've been here for five seconds, and I already don't like it." Axel said, holding one of his tentacles, and looking at it disgustedly.

"Why not?" Yuffie asked.

"Water." He answered simply. "Way too much water."

"Your fire is magic, genius." Sora said. "It'll work here."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

They had appeared in the sea itself, and were now in the open ocean. They were so far out that they couldn't see any trace of land, or the ocean floor miles and miles below them, for that matter.

But Sora could see activity far, far to the west of them. Sora could vaguely see what might have been the bottom of a large, wooden vessel of the same general design as the ships of Port Royal. A few specks lingering below them might have been merpeople.

"Hey guys!" Sora got their attention. "Let's check that out over there."

"I hope the merpeople aren't mad to see us..." Goofy said.

"Nah, I think we'll get a warm welcome this time. Don't you think we've earned it?"

"Let's just get out of here, huh?" Nehrut said, glancing around, slightly uncomfortable. "I uh, kind of have an irrational fear of open water."

"Oh, come on!" Bariss grabbed his hand, and swam off, dragging him along with her. Sora noticed that his nervous expression had been replaced by one of barely restrained excitement.

Sora looked at Riku and Kairi, grinning. "Bet I can beat you both there."

"You're on!" They both exclaimed.

The group of ten took off toward the gathering around the ship. Sora was slightly ahead of the group, but Riku and Kairi were following almost directly behind. As they got ever closer, Sora's earlier guess that there were merpeople hanging around the boat was confirmed.

A mixture of merpeople, and anthropomorphic sea creatures were floating and swimming around the boat. Most had their heads out of the water, as if to see the activity on deck. Sora considered this slightly odd, since last time they had visited this world, most merpeople hadn't typically associated with humans.

That seemed to have changed, however.

As their heads broke the surface of the water, they were nearly blinded by the dazzling sun over the ocean. The clear blue water was broken in a few places by the heads of dozens of merpeople, floating idly by the ship.

Sora immediately caught sight of two people he recognized near the heavy chains for the ship's anchor. He swam over to them immediately, followed soon after by Donald and Goofy. Seconds after, Kairi joined them.

Floating by the chains was a young fish. He had mostly bright yellow scales, but also had light blue stripes across his back. His wide dorsal thin was also light blue, and he had tiny fins.

The other was a small crab holding onto the chains by his two claws. His six tiny legs were constantly slipping off the chains, and he seemed to be having a hard time hanging to the chains. But he was still looking up at the ship's deck with excited eyes.

"Hey Sebastian! Flounder!" Sora greeted from inches behind them.

Sebastian the crab nearly fell off the chain in surprise, and then turned around to see who had nearly caused him to fall. He smiled almost immediately.

"Hello Sora, Donald, Goofy!" He greeted with a smile, and thick Jamaican accent. He jumped onto Flounder's head, where he was less likely to fall off. "How nice to see you all again! You're just in time!"

"For what?" Donald asked.

"Princess Ariel and her new husband have just gotten back from their honeymoon! We all thought it best to welcome them back home."

"Her new husband?" Sora asked. "Wait, Eric?"

"Of course! Who else?"

"But... Uh..." It was a slightly awkward question, seeing as Eric was a human, and Ariel was a mermaid.

Sebastian seemed to catch on to Sora's train of thought immediately, and slapped his forehead. "Ah, that's right! You had already left, hadn't you?"

"Why? What happened?"

"The good King Triton was so moved by Ariel's love for the human prince-"

"That he made her a human again so he could be with her!" Flounder interrupted, much to Sebastian's irritation.

"Aw, how sweet!" Kairi gushed. She smiled at Sora. "Do you think my dad would do that to let me be with you?"

Sora paled visibly. Kairi's adopted father (mayor of Destiny Islands) had a reputation for being a bit over-protective of his little girl. He did like Sora, but he had pulled him aside the day after learning that he and Kairi were an 'item', to use his word.

!

"Hey, is that them?" Riku interrupted, pointing up at the deck

The mayor was a balding man with the remains of charcoal-colored hair. He was taller than Sora by a foot at least, and had an arm that looked about the size of a tree trunk. He wore a pair of bifocals that looked slightly out of place on him.

He had ushered Sora to the backyard of his home a few moments ago with one of those tree trunk arms slung around his shoulders.

"Okay now, Sora." He had said. "I've known you for a long time now, and I think that you're definitely a good kid. Especially after your travels..."

His own mother had been hell-bent on sending him to a psychiatrist over that story until he had shown her his Keyblade. It had caused quite a stir on the islands. But strangely, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie hadn't seemed quite as surprised by their tale. Sora had never asked why.

"Sir, I-"

But the mayor patted him lightly on the shoulder, and strode calmly back into the house before he could finish.

When Sora had mentioned it to Kairi in passing one day about a week later, she had merely rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration.(2)

!

Back in the present time, Kairi was laughing at Sora's expression. She knew exactly what he was thinking about, and kissed him on the cheek to snap him out of the trance he had inadvertently gotten himself into.

"Hey, is that them?" Riku interrupted, pointing at the deck of the ship.

On the deck of the ship was now a young woman with bright red hair. She wore a white and gold sun dress, and had her hair tied back into a pony tail. Ariel's bright blue eyes twinkled as she looked down at her old friends from the sea.

Next to her was a young man with dark hair and aquamarine eyes. He wore a white military uniform with gold buttons and trimmings. A saber was shiethed on his belt, and he had an arm wrapped affectionately around the waist of his new wife.

"Yes!" Sebastian answered as loudly as he could over the cheering of the mer-crowd.

A little ways behind it, something was happening. Ten helmeted, heavily-muscled mermen in gold armor were emerging from the water in two straight lines, facing each other. Each one held a short sword, which they crossed with the one in front of them. It was clear that they were forming a sort of honor guard.

From between their ranks emerged another merman.

King Triton looked exactly as Sora had last seen him. He was an older man, though one who was in surprisingly good shape. He had a long white beard, and hair that was longer still. He wore a five-pronged golden on his head, and carried a gold, three-pronged trident in both hands. He had a blue-green fin.

King Triton moved through the waters directly to the ship, and the trident began to glow. The water around him rose up around him, creating a kind of platform that carried him up to be level with the ship.

His eyes twinkling with happiness, he reached over, and hugged his youngest daughter.

It was a sweet, wonderful image of familial happiness, and Sora remembered it for the rest of his days. He found his hand unconsciously linking with Kairi's.

It all fell apart within the window of one minute.

The second King Triton released his daughter from his embrace, a long, green and black tentacle shot from the water, coiled around Ariel's waist, and yanked her under without warning.

She reappeared a second later, still in the grip of the tentacle. But now its owner could be seen, standing on top of a large Aquatank Heartless. Ariel's captor was a female octopod, like Donald, Axel, and the late Ursula. She was very thin, had a greenish skin tone, and three liver-spots on her right shoulder. Her white hair stood up on her head, giving her a slightly crazy look.

Though her crazed laughter helped.

The crowd immediately began to panic, and many of them fled back under the ocean. Sebastian nearly fell off Flounder's head.

"Who's that?" Sora asked, summoning Oblivion.

"Ursula's crazy sister!"

"Morgana!" Triton growled, as if adding on to Sebastian's statement. But so far as he could tell, the king hadn't noticed their presence, nor had Morgana or anyone on the ship.

"I didn't miss the cake and ice cream, did I?" Morgana asked rhetorically, with a voice that could have fooled one into believing she was the late Ursula herself.

Triton brought his ancient weapon to bear. Sora had never seen him so angry –and that was counting the time that Ursula had held Ariel against her will. He had to wonder what made Morgana so much worse. "Surrender my daughter or else-"

"Ah ah ah!" Morgana lifted the trapped Ariel in front of her, using her as a human shield. With her arms bound, there was nothing she could do to free herself.

Grudgingly, Triton lowered the trident.

Morgana locked her free tentacles onto the side of the ship, and slithered up. "Ursula would have simply loved to come! But something came up..."

Wordlessly, Sora gestured to Riku, Kairi, and the rest of their group to be ready to intervene if things got too out of hand.

"Now, now... What was it?" Morgana continued. She sat down on the ship's railing, and a few of the other human passengers (presumably linked to Eric in some way) backed away from her cautiously.

"Oh yes! You all shish-ka-bobbed her!" Morgana shouted. "One minute you're on top, the next, you're sushi!" She grabbed an older man on the ship by the front of his jacket and pulled him towards her. "Now, is that fair, gramps, I ask you?"

She leapt to one of the rope structures of the ship, grasping it with her tentacles. "But then, who said we had to play fair?" She cupped one of her hands by her mouth, chuckling. "Oh, Undertow!"

Suddenly, the water was broken by the huge, black dorsal fin of a massive tiger shark. The rest of him was soon revealed as he emerged fully from the water. He was ridiculously large. He plowed through the remaining merpeople, scattering them immediately.

"Make way, little mer-shrimp! I'm coming through!" He stopped in front of the ship, smiling, and opened his maw wide, displaying his impressive array of hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.

Morgana dangled Ariel directly over his mouth. "Now hand over the trident, or your precious daughter will be shark-chow!"

Triton was suddenly very pale, and every minute of his long lifetime was now visible in his face. "You can have anything you want! Just please, don't harm my daughter."

"This is where the fun begins." Riku said. Sora nodded to him, and they both took off.

Riku gathered Dawn energy into his fist, and delivered a fierce punch to the side of Undertow's head before he even realized he was there. The front half of the shark's body flew completely out of the water, and sank below the surface of the water several feet away.

"What the-!" Morgana started. Kairi aimed the tip of Destiny's Light at the sea-witch. She fired a concentrated ball of Light directly into her chest. It exploded on contact, sending her spinning away to the other side of the ship, and over the edge, back into the water.

Naturally, she lost her grip on Ariel due to the sudden attack, and she fell toward the water below. Sora leapt from the water, and roughly caught her bridal style. They landed as lightly as possible in the water, and Ariel looked at her rescuer in complete shock.

"Sora?"

"Sorry we missed the wedding." He replied, grinning.

Nehrut swam toward them, and lifted Ariel back up to the ship's deck telekinetically. Sora swam under the water about ten feet, and then turned himself back around. Kicking his tail fin as hard as he could, he blasted out of the water, and up to the ship's railing. He grasped it tightly, and was able to pull himself up using his arms only.

Triton and Eric looked extremely surprised to see him and the rest of the group. Sora was one second away from saying 'hello' when a few dozen Heartless appeared in the water. Any merpeople that hadn't already fled after Morgana's appearance retreated immediately at the sight of the creatures.

"Catch up with you later!" Sora said quickly, summoning Oblivion and diving into the water.

It had been such a long time since he had encountered Atlantica's unique varieties of Heartless, that Sora had nearly forgotten what they looked like. They mainly seemed to be composed of Sea Neons and the more dangerous Screwdrivers. There were a few Aquatanks, some of the Great Blacks they had met at Port Royal, and a new breed that Sora couldn't recognize at all.

They looked a great deal like large squid. They had pinkish skin, with a few black marks, and the Heartless emblem on either side of their elongated heads. Their huge eyes were glowing yellow. The suction cups on their ten tentacles were secreting some kind of clear, sticky substance that sizzled when it touched the water.

One of these Krakens reached out with its two primary tentacles at Sora. With one upward strike, he severed them. Before it had time to react, he fired a shard of ice at its main body, destroying it.

"I'm never going to be able to look at seafood the same way again." Nehrut was suddenly next to him. Presul swung, and took out a leaping Great Black before it closed its jaws on him.

Sora twisted around in the water, and stabbed his blade through a Sea Neon that had nearly wrapped its oversized arms around him. Nehrut flipped over him, and cut another one down the middle.

Not far away from them, an Aquatank was attacking Axel and Mickey. The extension on its head was crackling with electricity. With a splash, it released all the energy. The bolts of electricity bounced across the water at the two in wide arcs.

Mickey leapt out of the water, and caught the energy with his Keyblade. As he landed back in the water, he fired the captured energy into the mouth of a Great Black that was cruising toward him.

Axel was about to launch both chakrams at the Aquatank that had attacked them. But before they could leave his hands, Riku exploded from the water beneath it, driving his blade into its sensitive underside.

So, Axel switched targets over to a pair of Sea Neons approaching him. He tossed them into their jellyfish-like heads, and thrust forward with his tentacles. He yanked his weapons out of them, and continued on toward a Screwdriver.

It advanced toward him with its own silver trident held firmly in both hands. Axel parried its rather clumsy strike with one chakram, before beheading it with the other.

Goofy blocked a Kraken's attack with the shield strapped to his back. Steam rose from the area where its tentacles touched the shield. He could only imagine what that would be like against bare skin.

Donald jumped over him, shooting a fireball into its face, and splashing back into the water safely away from a striking Screwdriver. Kairi jumped over the spot where Donald went under, and ran her blade through the Heartless as she passed in the air. When she landed again, she fired a disk of Light energy that cleaved an Aquatank in two.

Bariss passed by her, and cracked her whip into the side of a Screwdriver's head. Holding her sai in the other hand, she slashed a Sea Neon in two when she decided it had gotten too close for comfort. She weaved aside from the flying tentacles of a Kraken, and slashed one of them in two.

She rushed toward it to finish the job, but Yuffie's flying shuriken took care of that before she got even close. Yuffie leapt high out of the water to reclaim her weapon, and vanished before an Aquatank's lightning bolt hit her.

She reappeared on top of it, and stabbed one of her kunai in between its eyes. She fell lightly back into the water as it faded away. She resurfaced, and threw it into the face of a Sea Neon.

The fighting had only been going for a few minutes, when Undertow reentered the picture. He looked extremely angry, and his glare was focused on Riku.

"You're going to pay for that, tiny!" He shouted. He shot directly at the Keybearer, knocking aside Heartless as if they were goldfish. Riku flourished his Keyblade and charged at him.

Then, there was a beam of bright golden light. It streaked over Riku's head, and struck Undertow full in the face. But rather than the explosion that Riku had expected, Undertow was covered head to tail in the golden energy.

It all compressed around him, and squeezed in on him. When the light faded away, Undertow had been reduced to a tiny little fish smaller than Flounder, with a comically oversized dorsal fin and eyes, and a huge under-bite.

He lingered in the air for a moment, totally still with a look of utter shock on his face, before dropping into the water making a tiny little splash.

"What have you done to me!" He shouted at somebody behind Riku, shaking his fin. He had the same voice as he had before his impromptu transformation. "Look at me! I'm an anchovy!"

Riku turned around, and saw Triton gripping his still glowing trident in both hands. He looked extremely smug.

Abruptly, the Heartless stopped their attack, and began to retreat. Sora was curious as to the reason, but then saw Morgana far out in the ocean away from the fighting. The Heartless were rushing toward her, as was Undertow.

"This isn't over, Triton!" She screamed, pointing a harsh finger back at him. She began spinning in place, her tentacles spread over the water creating an inky cloud. "It's just the beginning!"

"After her!" Triton commanded, roaring toward the sea witch in his pillar of water with the group of off-worlders following in his wake.

Too late, however, the inky waters shot up to cover her, and she (along with Undertow and the surviving Heartless) vanished in an inky cloud.

"You'll never find me! But I'll find you!" Her disembodied voice lingered, and added one thing that nobody had expected. "And your precious grandchild!"(3)

They slowly turned around, mouths agape.

Ariel smiled nervously at her father, sending him a tiny wave. "I didn't get the opportunity to tell you... I'm pregnant!"

Everything was totally still for a moment, before King Triton -mighty ruler of the seas, and holder of the powerful trident- fainted.

Sebastian's eyes rolled up into his head, and he passed out as well. He fell into the water with a tiny splash, as the rest of the group laughed.

!

And so we begin the next world. I for one enjoyed Atlantica the first time, though the second game made it pretty cheesy. But, even so, it's back!

1) Anybody else do this?

2) People have depicted Kairi's father in many ways. Wasn't sure how I should do it. (Yes, this chapter is a bit edited here, now)

3) Don't ask me how she knows, because I don't have an answer.

Please review!