Author's Note: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
Ch.28 Out of the Whale
For a second the Parasite Cage simply stood there, looking at the others and glaring at me. I smiled ruefully; I guess having its arm chopped off didn't win me any favors with it. Then it hissed and swung, and I ducked under the blow while Goofy stopped to block it. The rest of us charged and Sora cast Fira, hitting it in the chest with a ball of fire. It hissed and swung at him specifically, catching Sora with a blow to the shoulder that sent him spinning away in a daze. "Here!" I said, and tossed him a Potion. While he chugged it down I charged forward, casting Thundaga. Bolts of lightning shot down and blasted against the Heartless, paralyzing it just long enough for me to deliver a punishing blow to the mouth on its stomach.
The Cage screeched and knocked me away, before it stabbed its arm into the pool of stomach acid. The arm bulged as it absorbed some, before spewing poisonous green gas at us. I shouted and rolled out of the way, casting Esuna just in case I inhaled any of the contagion. Sora was completely oblivious though, having just finished drinking that Potion. And thus cried out as he was hit with a cloud of toxic vapor, before quickly coughing as he fell to his knees, beating his chest. "Sora!" Goofy called, and stood in front of him with his shield raised. I knew that if Sora was going to recover they needed a distraction, and so I yelled "Hey!" As expected, the Parasite Cage looked at me, just as I cast both Confuse and Blackout.
The beast shouted as its sight was almost completely removed, as well as being knocked off-balance and made dizzy by the Confuse spell. I smiled and waved my arms, saying "Yoo-hoo! I'm over here!" The Cage swerved in the direction of my voice, but just as it looked at me I cast Fireworks. Small streamers burst from the end of my Keyblade and whizzed towards its face, hitting it dead-on. It made of a sound of angered surprise, before wiping the soot off of its face and looking at me. Now it was time for the finishing act. "See ya!" I said, and cast both Vanish and Confetti. As the spell suggested, a huge burst of confetti appeared out of nowhere and distracted the Heartless, and when it looked back I was nowhere to be seen, even with the Blackout spell having worn off.
It looked around before giving it up and looking back at Sora and the others, Sora having finally recovered. "Time for a little payback!" he called, and used Sonic Blade. He shot forward at near blurring speed and slashed the Parasite Cage on the side, before turning back around and doing so again. The monster tried to follow him but Sora was too fast, and the Confuse spell had yet to work off. But then I quickly found out that it wouldn't matter. The Heartless shrieked in rage and grabbed the top of the room, swinging itself around like a wrecking ball. Not expecting the move, Sora froze just long enough that he was hit and sent flying into the poll of stomach acid.
While he was shouting in pain and Donald and Goofy did the same, I dropped to the ground and pressed my body against the ground, the Heartless just barely missing me. I stood and the Vanish spell wore off, while at the same time so did the Confuse spell. Now the Parasite Cage was really pissed. Especially at me. It reached into the acid and drained a huge amount, before unleashing a torrent of poison gas at me. I grunted and cast Aeroga, blowing it away before an idea occurred to me. I smiled, and refocused my spell to blow the poisonous fumes right back at the Parasite Cage, making sure that they couldn't spread. Then I called "Do you feel the heat?" before casting Mega Flare.
A large fireball appeared before exploding, and the flames set the poison gas surrounding the Heartless alight. The Cage wailed as it was wreathed in flames, and just as I was beginning to deliver the finishing blow Sora, Donald and Goofy stepped forward. "Let us take care of this, Dexal," Donald said, raising his staff. I raised an eyebrow but stepped aside, curious. It was then that Donald cast Gravity and Goofy threw his shield, while Sora pointed his Keyblade at the Parasite Cage and concentrated. A beam of light fired forward and hit it just as the other two attacks connected, and the world was turned into shades of black and white and a blinding light burst outwards. I grunted and covered my eyes, afterimages burned into my retinas.
Through the light I could hear the Parasite Cage's last cries of pain and dismay, and when both the light and the afterimages faded I lowered my arm to see a single heart rise into the air. I blinked, amazed. I knew that throughout this journey Sora would become stronger, and Donald and Goofy as well. But the sheer power of the move astonished me- and we hadn't even fought anyone like Maleficent yet! Though I privately hoped we would never have to fight that vile witch at all, I kept that in my head and instead said "Man, nice work guys!" Goofy chuckled and smiled while Donald crossed his arms and said "What did you expect?" and Sora dismissed his Keyblade.
Then suddenly the room began to shake. "What in the world?" I said, looking around. "It's Monstro! He's gonna spit us out!" Goofy said. My eyes widened, as did the others. We all knew what that meant; if we were spat out into the space between worlds without being inside the Gummi Ship then there was no telling what would happen. "We have to hurry!" Sora said, and we ran out of the room. The minute we exited the room the ground shook, a gale of wind blasting us as Monstro took in a deep breath. "We need to keep him still for a few minutes!" Goofy said. I racked my brain for any ideas how, when another gale hit us. One more and Monstro was ready. "Then Sora said "I got it!" and he held us his Keyblade. "Stop!" he called and a pulse of energy burst outwards.
Suddenly Monstro froze, and I realized with shock that Sora had temporarily frozen him in place. "Nice one, Sora!" I said, before I continued running. He smiled and ran with me, and we made it back to the Chambers before the spell started to where off. "He's almost ready!" Donald exclaimed. "Not a chance! Stopga!" I called, and I cast the same spell as Sora at a higher level. Monstro froze again, and when burst through the doorway into the mouth. Geppetto and Pinocchio were on the ship, hastily stiffing things below deck and readying the sails. "What are you doing?" Jiminy called. "We're gonna get out of Monstro at the same time he spits out you! We're finally going to escape!" Pinocchio said happily.
Not wasting the time to wonder how they were going to navigate inter-space and just trusting them, we ran back to the front of the mouth where the Gummi Ship was. Just as the lid hissed open Monstro moved again, and I yelled "We have to get in! NOW!" Without waiting I picked up Donald and threw him in, before doing the same to Sora and Goofy. They all landed in a mess of tangled limbs in the cockpit, and I jumped in before pulling the lid down. I was just in time to, because at that moment Monstro fully shook of the Stopga spell. With a one more inhale of air it opened its mouth and spat both vessels out, flying through inter-space likes corks out of bottle. The Gummi ship tumbled end over end, and I hit my head on the control panel and blacked out.
In my dream I was looking down into the room of a ship, inside which Riku and Maleficent stood. And lying on the seat was... Kairi. Riku looked down at her sadly. "So, Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?" he asked. "Precisely," Maleficent said. "And her heart was..." he said, trailing off. Answering his unspoken question, she said "Taken by the Heartless, no doubt." Riku spun around to look at her. "Tell me! What can I do?" he asked. Maleficent smiled evilly, and said "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." Then she raised her arms. "Now, I'll give you a marvelous gift. The power to control the Heartless!" My eyes widened in horror, and I watched as Riku was enveloped in black and green light. He looked back at Kairi, and said "Soon, Kairi. Soon."
I awoke slowly, a throbbing pain in the back of my head. I cast Curaga and the pain faded, at least enough that I could stand and looked around. Sora and the others were seated in their chairs, and I stood. "Where are we?" I asked. "We're back in the space between worlds. We all got knocked out except for Goofy, and he's been driving us along as we woke up," Donald explained, slightly miffed that someone else was touching the controls. Ignoring that, I looked at Sora and asked "You alright?" He nodded solemnly. "Yeah. I just wish I knew what happened to Riku," he said. I looked at him for a second, before turning away. I very much hope what I had seen was a dream, because if it was true then Riku had allied himself with Maleficent.
I bowed my head and sat in my chair, strapping myself in. How could someone with such light fall so far down? I thought. We kept going and I received no answers. But even despite Riku having fallen so far into darkness, I couldn't look down on him. Not just because we had been friends, but because I was no better. I may wield a Keyblade, but that didn't make me any less tainted by darkness. My transformations in Wonderland and Agrabah were proof of that. I just hope that the next world we went to didn't cause it to happen again. Right on cue, Donald called "Hey! Look at that!" I looked up to see a world that looked like it was beneath the ocean, and I wondered how we were going to be able to navigate it.
"Okay guys. Get ready for landing," Donald said. Sora and I looked at him, and Sora said "Are you crazy?! We'll drown!" He smiled. "Not with my magic, we won't. Just leave it to me," Donald assured. I was unsure, but trusted Donald enough to let him go on ahead. As we neared the world he raised his staff and called out, and we were consumed in a flash of bright light.
Beneath the waves in the world of Atlantica, a mermaid with a green tale and fins, bright red hair and lips and blue eyes swam forward. Next to her was a small round yellow fish with blue stripes and aquamarine eyes swam with her. The mermaid looked back and called "Come one, Sebastian!" Behind them a red hermit grabbed pedaled hurriedly through the water, saying "Ariel, wait! Slow down! Don't leave me behind!" Ariel giggled and swam forward, when suddenly there was a burst of light and Donald, Goofy, Sora and I appeared out of nowhere. Goofy had the same head but was with a blue-green sea turtle's body. Donald's lower half was now that of an octopus, and both Sora and I were mermen, Sora with a blue tail and me with a jet-black one.
Sebastian and Flounder stopped right in front of Donald, and all three of them shouted in surprise. Sebastian and Flounder his behind Ariel. "Relax, Sebastian. They don't look like one of them. Right, Flounder?" she said. "I don't know. There's something weird about them," Flounder said. Sora laughed nervously, while I rubbed my head. "What do mean?" Sora asked. Ariel swam forward, moving around and looking at us. "They do seem... a little different. Where are you from?" she asked us. I took the chance, saying "I'm Dexal, he's Sora, and they're Donald and Goofy. We're... kind of from far away. And we're not use to these kinds of waters. Or swimming in them," I said, unsure of how to keep myself aloft.
Ariel stopped in front of us, thinking. "Oh, I see. In that case... Sebastian, can you show them how we swim around here?" she asked, looking back at the hermit crab. "Ariel, King Triton will not like this!' he warned her. "Oh, don't worry about it," she replied, waving her hand dismissively.
And so our heroes go from in the whale to under the sea! Will they be able to find the Keyhole? Or will a certain witch get in their way?
Please review! If you flame me Liam Neeson will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you. (I'm just kidding... or am I?)