PrismRain13: *hiding from angry mob outside* okay I get it! I haven't updated in awhile, now everyone's mad at me!
Ling: Serves you right! You left us hanging for... *starts counting on his fingers*
Yao: The point is that you didn't update! You should be ashamed!
PrismRain13: I get the point already! But I was busy!
Chein-Po: We apologize for the wait. PrismRain13 still does not claim ownership of anything she writes about other than the plot and her original characters. Nor does she own the selected theme song. Now enjoy the latest chapter of Reconnected.
Chapter 29: The Golden Dragon of Unity
Kairi sighed deeply as she gazed out on one of the balconies of Qui-Gong's palace. Night had fallen, yet the city glowed brightly from all the courful lanterns among the crowd. It seemed as though the entire city had come for the wedding that was about to happen in less than thirty minutes. Everything had happened so quickly; when the three of them had arrived and explained their situation, Qui-Gong's Lord Chin had been furious and was about to declare war. But before he could, Mulan had stated that she, West and Kairi would be taking the princesses places. Lord Chin had been impressed with Mulan, but was anything but pleased with the two female world-travellers. But, he had agreed to Mulan's proposal.
Kairi was now dressed in a long, flowing Chinese wedding gown like the one Mulan once wore to impress the matchmaker, but in various shades of pink and light purple, while her hair was tied into a loose bun. However, despite the celebrations happening in the streets, all that was on Kairi's mind was Sora and Riku. She just couldn't believe they had been taken away from her so easily. And Sora... she never got to tell him how she felt about him. A group of tears soon streamed down her cheeks. Then Kairi's thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of West squealing. The princess of heart turned around to find the thief's bodice on her dress being tightened by one of the maids.
"Calm down, dear," the maid said calmly, "You look lovely."
"How do you people breathe in these things?!" West demanded, indicating her tight bodice, "I feel like I'm suffocating!" West's wedding dress was similar to Kairi's only in different shades of green and small touches of bright yellow and her pigtailed hair had been tied into two low buns. At that moment, Mulan walked in the room dressed in a red wedding dress matching Kairi and West's. Her hair was pulled into a bun as well with a pale blue comb with a white lily on it in her hair. The maid ignored West's complaints and bowed in respect to the three girls.
"The ceremony will begin shortly, Lord Chin and the princes will see you ladies soon." The girls nodded as the maid bowed again and left the room. As soon as she was gone, Mulan went over to West and loosened her bodice as the theif let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks," West wheezed, Mulan only nodded and moved over to the dresser where her matching headdress was resting. As Mulan picked it up, Mushu appeared from behind the mirror and climbed down on the dresser.
"Looks like we won't be a team after all, Mushu." Mulan said sadly as she placed the headdress on her head.
"Mulan. I would give up a thousand pedestals if I could stop this." Mushu replied as he and Mulan hugged.
"I doubt even the Golden Dragon of Unity could stop this," Mulan sighed, returning the hug, "Bye, Mushu." Mulan then placed Mushu back on the dresser and left the room. West and Kairi were silent for a moment before they picked up their headdresses and placed them on their heads.
"Mulan's really missing Shang, isn't she?" West asked as Kairi nodded.
"Can you really blame her? They really loved each other." Kairi replied as tears streamed down her face again, "I just can't believe they're gone."
"This is all my fault," Mushu sighed from the dresser, "If I hadn't been so selfish maybe Sora, Riku and Shang would be here." Feeling sympathy for the dragon, Kairi knelt down to Mushu's level and stroked him.
"Mushu, you can't blame yourself for what Isa did." She said, "He's the one to blame, not you."
"I just though that if I was gonna see either of you get married it would be to Sora and Riku; not a bunch of rich snobby princes."
"Yeah, that's what we thought too," West sighed, gazing out the window. At that moment, the maid stepped in again as Mushu hid under the dresser. The maid held the door open, motioning for the two girls to step out. Kairi and West gave each other looks of encouragement before leaving the room and Mushu watched them sadly.
~*KHIII*~
Meanwhile, just outside of Qui Gong's boarders, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Max, Lea, the soldiers and the princesses were running through the dirt roads. The group paused just as Qui Gong came into view to catch their breath.
"Think we're gonna make it, Your Majesty?" Max asked the King.
Before Mickey could reply the group was surrounded by a group of heartless; big and heavily armored assault riders, small quick flying fish-like rapid thrusters and a group of soldiers. The world travelers all raised their weapons preparing for a fight while Yao, Ling and Chein-Po all held their princesses closely.
"If the heartless are here then we'd better make it!" Mickey replied as he jumped over an assault rider and slashed it in the back. Goofy threw his shied like a frisbee at a group of soldiers, knocking them off their feet while Max finished them off by riding over them on his skateboard and stopping next to his dad where father and son high-fived. Donald and Lea stood back-to-back surrounded by a ring of rapid thrusters. The duo nodded towards each other before Lea's chackrams burst into flames and were thrown at the flying heartless, slicing and burning them. Donald followed by raising his staff and summoning shards of ice and bolts of lightning. Mickey slashed through a few soldier heartless easily, landing in the middle of the battlefield. His head instantly snapped up seeing two assault riders riding towards him in opposite directions. Mickey stood in a ready stance and at the last minute, jumped out of the way causing the heartless to skewer each other.
Soon, all the heartless were gone. The team let out sighs of relief as they dismissed their weapons. The three couples ran up to them out of their hiding places.
"Are you all alright?" Mei asked with concern.
"Yeah, we're fine." Lea replied as he quickly drank a potion, "But we better get going." The entire group nodded in agreement before running back towards the city. Mickey was behind the rest of the group but stopped running as something in the dirt caught his eye. The king skidded to a stop and pushed away some of the dirt to reveal a summon charm. He picked it up and held it toward the sunlight; revealing the design to be a red and gold circle with two silhouettes of a dragon and a boy with spiky hair. He named it the Dragon Charm.
"Your Majesty! Ya coming or what?!" Donald called as Mickey nodded, pocketed the summon charm and ran to catch up with the others.
~*KHIII*~
Back in Qui Gong, Kairi, Mulan and West were standing in front of Lord Chin, a short tubby old man dressed in gold, black and red chinese robes and matching hat, he had black hair that was starting to grey in some areas, a black mustache a pointed beard. The statue of the Golden Dragon of Unity towered over them with the palace behind it. There was a prince on either side of the girls, none of which looked focused on the wedding at hand. Lord Chin cleared his throat before beginning the ceremony.
"My people, the Golden Dragon of Unity, who guides us in all we do, today sanctifies three unions that will be a blessing for all of Qui Gong!" Lord Chin proclaimed proudly. Watching from above, Mushu looked on sadly, trying to think of something he could do. "Tonight we shall unite not only two lives, but two kingdoms-" Lord Chin continued, but before he could say anything else, a loud whinny was heard. The entire city turned around to find Shang, Sora and Riku riding on Shang's horse right in the city's entrance. Mulan, Kairi and West all released equal gasps of shock, then their faces instantly lit up as the boys jumped off the horse and ran over to them. Gasps and murmurs spread throughout the crowd, but the girls ignored them as they each embraced their love. From above, Mushu looked equally shocked, but that was soon replaced with a smug expression.
"Yeah! The guys to the rescue! Lucky for Lord Chin, cos I was about to whip his butt." The dragon cheered.
"You're alive." Mulan barely whispered, as she touched Shang's face, almost expecting him to disappear at any minute.
"I couldn't let you get married without me." Shang replied with a genuine smile, as he stroked her face lovingly.
"I thought I'd lost you!" Kairi exclaimed, pulling Sora into a tight embrace.
"Trust me; no one's getting rid of me or pulling me away from you that easily!" Sora flashed his cocky grin, but still returned the hug and soothingly rubbed her back. Then, Kairi slowly pulled away from the hug and kissed him on the cheek. Sora blushed brightly and ran his finger down her cheek.
"Don't you ever, EVER! Do that to me again, mister!" West exclaimed as she threw herself onto Riku with a force so strong, he was almost knocked to the ground. Riku only smiled and undid the two buns in her hair, letting her pigtails fall freely down her back to her waist.
"You came back to me once, why shouldn't I be able to come back to you?" Riku asked as West blushed and they hugged again. Lord Chin looked just as shocked as the rest of the city, then turned to his sons who only shrugged as though losing their brides wasn't that big of a deal. Then, Lord Chin's expression turned to one of anger.
"This is outrageous! You will leave at once!" Lord Chin exclaimed angrily as the three couples turned to face him.
"Forget it, old man. We're not going anywhere!" Sora stated with confidence as he stood protectively in front of Kairi. Shang and Riku followed his lead.
"How dare you trample upon this sacred ceremony?!" Lord Chin demanded, his anger increasing.
Riku was about to retort before the city's ground began to rumble and shake and a loud roar was heard throughout the city as everyone covered their ears. Everyone looked to the palace to find the silhouette of a dragon rise into the full moon before heavilly landing on top of the palace where it could be seen clearly; a winged completely golden dragon heartless with smokes of darkness evaporating off it. The heartless emblem was clearly visible on it's chest and had its claws digging into the palace roof. It's spiked tail whipped around violently and it's long horns seemed to give off random sparks of electricity as it released another roar. Lord Chin and his sons looked up at it in fear before they all cowardly hid behind Shang.
"Wh-what is that thing?!" Lord Chin whimpered as the guys drew their weapons.
"It's a heartless; something that we need to get rid of!" replied Riku as he raised Way to Dawn, Sora doing the same with Kingdom Key.
"Go fight it!" Shang called as he pulled Lord Chin and the princes off to the side, "I'll protect them!"
Sora and Riku were just about to charge into battle before Sora felt a tap on his shoulder. Both boys turned around to find Mulan, Kairi and West standing there with looks of confidence on their faces as they discarded their headdresses.
"Don't even think about fighting this one without us!" Mulan smirked.
"Then you're gonna need this," Shang stated as he reached behind his back and pulled out Mulan's sword. Mulan firmly grasped the hilt and nodded her head towards Shang, before pointing the Fa family sword at the golden dragon heartless. She, Kairi and West all tossed their headdresses to the side as Destiny's Embrace appeared in Kairi's hand and West pulled out Pickpocket from the sash around her dress.
"Who gave them the right to carry weapons?!" Lord Chin demanded loudly, pointing at West and Kairi as Shang pulled them away from the palace.
"Hey! Be thankful we did!" Kairi retorted as she undid her bun, letting her hair fall down a little ways past her shoulders. The heartless roared before swinging its tail in Sora's direction, but was blocked by a flying chackram. The team looked up into the air and found Lea jumping up and catching his chackram in his empty hand as he landed feet-first in front of the team.
"Didn't miss anything interesting, did we?" Lea asked with a simirk. Sora looked behind him and noticed in the crowd Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Max, Yao, Ling, Chein-Po and the princesses were running towards them.
"Better late than never," Riku rolled his eyes. The golden dragon looked towards the people coming, and roared as its horns glowed and a translucent barrier appeared around it and the six who were ready to fight it. The team outside skidded to a stop just as the barrier appeared and an entire army of heartless surrounded them. They consisted of nightwalkers, bolt towers, soldiers and shadows. The guys all raised their weapons, looking at the heartless with a desire to strike. Yao, Ling and Chein-Po all stood protectively in front of their princesses.
"Go hide!" Ling told them as he slashed at a shadow.
"We can't just leave you here!" Ting-Ting exclaimed to her love. Yao was about to retort before his focus turned back to the battle. The three sisters looked between each other until Mei noticed three discarded lanterns on long poles. The princesses nodded towards each other and each grabbed a lantern. Mei grabbed a pink one, Su grabbed an orange one and Ting-Ting took the purple one. Once armed, the princesses stood beside the rest of the team, pointing their lanterns at the heartless. The lanterns glowed as the princesses attacked the heartless with various light magic spells. As their loves and the world travellers fought alongside them.
Meanwhile, inside the barrier, the golden dragon swiped at Mulan with its claws, but Mulan countered the attack by swinging her sword. Lea followed her lead and threw his flaming chackrams towards the heartless's head, causing major damage. The golden dragon swiped its claws and tail at the team while Riku roughly attacked its tail with all the strength he had and Sora and Kairi attacked it's claws.
West, following Lea's lead, threw Pickpocket at the heartless's head, slashing a deep cut along its nose. The heartless howled in pain and didn't notice when Riku stabbed it in the arm. Pickpocket returned to West's hand just as both Sora and Lea jumped up and attacked its horns with fire and blizzard magic. Once everyone was back on the ground, the golden dragon raises it's horns as they began to spark more violently. The heartless released another roar as bolts of lightning rained down on the team. Kairi and Sora put up reflect spells to protect everyone, but damage was still done. The group moaned in pain as Kairi cast a cure spell and West distributed potions she stole.
From above, Mushu watched the battle until he couldn't watch anymore. The dragon jumped down from the statue and ran all the way to where Mulan was fighting. Mushu climbed on to her shoulder as the two teammates nodded towards each other.
"Mushu!" Mulan shouted, pointing her sword at the heartless.
"I'm on fire!" Mushu replied with enthusiasm as he jumped up and shot small balls of fire at the heartless. Both Mulan and Mushu then levitated into the air and flew around the heartless, attacking it with fire magic and deep slashes from the Fa family sword. Once enough damage was done both Mulan and Mushu stood in front of the heartless again. Then, Mushu breathed on the sword, bursting it into flames. Mulan jumped into the air with Mushu still on her shoulder. She brought the sword down on the heartless, flames erupting as the sword made contact.
"For China!" the warrior shouted as the flames disappeared(1). The heartless roared in pain, then growled menacingly at the team. Sora and Mulan nodded towards each other as the heartless summoned more bolts of lightning, but the duo jumped out of the way just in time. Following their lead, Kairi fired a blast of blizzard magic at the horns, numbing them while Lea used his fire magic to burn its tail and , distracting it. West and Riku stood strongly in front of the heartless, before climbing up its body and attacking its horns, dubbing them as its weak spot. As a desperate attempt to finish the battle, Mulan and Sora jumped into the air with their blades in hand and at the same time stabbed the heartless through the horns as it released a final howl of pain before it began to fade, then disappear completely as a large, glowing crystallized heart flew into the sky.
Once the golden dragon heartless was gone, the barrier vanished along with it and so did the remaining heartless underlings. The team all released sighs of relief as Shang, Lord Chin and the princes emerged from the crowd. Without a second thought, Shang rushed towards Mulan and enveloped her in a loving embrace.
"Are you alright?" Shang almost demanded.
"Yeah, I am now." Mulan replied softly, returning the hug. Then, the entire group looked toward Lord Chin who had his arms crossed and wore a deep scowl on his face.
"Though I must thank you for disposing of that horrid creature, I still had an agreement with the Emperor. Now I must ask you intruders to leave immediately!" Lord Chin demanded with a snooty tone as the team groaned in defeat.
"Great, we save his sorry butt and the guy won't even consider other people's feelings!" Max grumbled.
"Where's the dang Dragon of Unity when you need him?!" Donald agreed. Shang stood protectively in front of Mulan as he looked Lord Chin in the eye.
"My lord, I love Mulan. I don't care what the rules say. If she'll have me, I intend to marry her right here. Right now." Shang stated, as Mulan looked at him blushing and touched by his words. However, Shang's statement only seemed to have angered Lord Chin.
"Insolent dog. Seize them!" Lord Chin ordered pointing at Shang and the world travellers and the guards began to move towards them. However, before the guards could move any further towards them, a giant burst of flames rained down in front of them. The group looked up to find the flames were coming from the mouth of the statue of the Golden Dragon of Unity.
"STOP! What's with all this drama?" A familiar voice erupted from the statue.
"The Golden Dragon of Unity! He lives!" Someone in the crowd exclaimed as the entire city, including Lord Chin bowed before the statue.
"Mushu?" Mulan questioned quietly with a raised eyebrow before Sora realized that the voice really did sound like Mushu. The Keyblade Master squinted, and in the statue's mouth he could just barely see Mushu standing there with a megaphone in his hand.
"You dang right, I live," Mushu exclaimed into the megaphone, "So you best drop your dumpling-eating behind on down and tell me why we ain't busting out the vows!"
"But your greatness," Lord Chin stammered in fear, "General Li-Shang is not a son of Qui Gong."
"Silence!" Mushu roared as another burst of flames erupted from the statue's mouth and Lord Chin cowered behind Shang again, "I am the Golden Dragon of Unity, and I decide whom to Unify! My all-seeing eye has peered into the very heart of China. And I've never seen two people more right for one another than this lovely couple right here, Mulan and Shang. Give it up for them, would you please?" With that said, the entire city burst into applause as Mulan and Shang embraced. "Now, I command you to proceed at once!"
"Yes, your greatness. As you command." Lord Chin whimpered. Mushu cleared his throat from inside the statued before continuing.
"Let's get to business. Mulan, do you love Shang? Of course. Shang, do you love Mulan? Yes. Moving on. By the power vested in me, by me, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife!" the city's and the world-traveller's cheers grew louder as Shang and Mulan kissed passionately, "You got anything to say, Lord Double Chin?" Mushu snarled at Qui Gong's emperor.
"Yes, I mean, no. I mean, whatever you say." The Lord pouted and cowered more, them Mushu turned to the three princesses and the three soldiers.
"And furthermore, I hereby decree that the princesses of the Middle Kingdom, are released from their vow, and may marry whomsoever they please. And who pleases them, that's very important!" The princess squealed with joy before embracing Yao, Ling and Chein-Po and kissing their romantic counterpart. Kairi hid a snicker behind her hand as she looked up at the statue.
"Excuse me, Mr. Golden Dragon of Unity," She giggled softly before continuing."I think you forgot about us." Indicating herself and West.
"Nuh-uh little lady!" Mushu exclaimed clearing his throat, "As my final decree for the evening; Kairi and West will be free from the vow to unify the two kingdoms and return travelling the worlds with those they truly care about; their friends. And will get married to whoever they want whenever they choose!" The team of world-travellers beamed with excitement before Kairi embraced Sora and West embraced Riku.
At that moment, the statue began to glow brightly with small rings of light surrounding it. Sora and Kairi looked up at the statue, still holding their embrace until Sora motioned for her to unseal the gate. Kairi nodded and stepped towards the statue, Destiny's Embrace appearing in her hands. The tip of the keyblade glowed as a glowing crown emblem appeared underneath her feet, the wind whipping around her. Then, a ribbon of light shot straight up into the sky from the statue, forming the shape of a keyhole. Kairi pointed Destiny's Embrace at the Keyhole as another beam of light shot from the tip of her keyblade, into the keyhole.
Once the light died down, Mulan walked up to the team of world-travellers.
"I guess that means it's time for you to go now," Mulan asked while Sora nodded.
"Yeah, I guess," Sora sighed, not quite wanting to leave Mulan, Shang, Mushu and everyone else. Mulan noticed this and enveloped him in a sisterly hug.
"Hey, it's not forever, okay," Mulan said with a simle, "No matter what, you can't forget your friends." Sora nodded as he returned the hug.
"Yeah, I'll see you around Mulan."
"And soldier," Shang said as he stepped forward and Riku walked up beside Sora, "You two take care of Kairi and West, don't make the same mistake I did and push away." Both West and Kairi blushed as Mushu climbed onto the thief's shoulder.
"Yeah, ya know what the emperor says 'You don't meet a girl like that every dynasty'!" Mushu stated. West giggled as she scratched Mushu behind the ears.
"Whatever you say, Golden Dragon of Unity." She whispered so Lord Chin couldn't hear her.
"Yo Riku," Mushu called over to the silver head, "Ya sure you still don't need a guardian dragon with ya!"
"We'll be fine, Mushu but thanks anyway!" Riku replied as Mickey stepped in front of the group.
"Welp, I guess it's time for us ta go now." The king stated. The team of world-travellers nodded and waved as Mushu returned to Mulan's shoulder, "Thanks for everything guys!"
"Don't ya go forgettin' about us now!" Goofy added.
"See ya soon!" Max waved. Kairi and West suddenly stopped in their tracks, looked down at themselves, noticing that they were still wearing their wedding dresses.
"Uh, your majesty," Kairi called, "Think me and West can get changed first?"
PrismRain13: everyone happy? No need left to form an angry mob? Yay!
Ling: here's a hint for the next world; the villain was seen in Maleficent's new team a couple chapters ago.
Yao: and the summon's a character from a Disney TV series. Guess who!
Chein-Po: hope you enjoyed the chapter; remember to review.
PrismRain13: later taters!
(1): Mulan's Limit; Dragonblaze