Hey there guys! So we are finally at the final chapter of New Orleans! Man, it took me awhile to get here but here we are! I do feel like I owe you guys an explanation as to why I've been so inactive. To be honest for the last few months there's been quite a bit of hurtful drama within my small group of friends that brought me to tears more than once. That combined with discovering one of my close relatives has cancer has made me pretty depressed and as a result made me unable to progress with any of my fanfics. I tried to push myself to write but I could only manage to get a few sentences out at a time. Don't worry, noting serious happened to me but I did come close to harming myself. Luckily, my boyfriend was there to pull me back. I realize not everyone is as lucky as I was and if you are going through something serious I strongly encourage you to get help either professionally or through loved ones.
I'm still not feeling like myself with everything that's going on in my life so I hope you guys can understand and I'll do what I can to get my last two requests done and chapters updated. I really don't like having to burden people with my problems so I often say that egerything's fine when it's really not. But, it has been a long time since I updated so I felt I owed you guys an explanation. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter and again I'm really sorry for the wait. Be sure to leave a review.
Chapter 74: Friends on the Other Side
There was an air of tension as Lydia, Roxas, Naminé, Xion and Oswald glared up at Durol. Charlotte could only gaze at the scene before her with her jaw dropped in a mixture of shock and confusion. One minute she was about to be married to the prince of her dreams and in the next second her prince had transformed into a total stranger.
"W-what in the world is goin' on?!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Prince Naveen, what happened to ya?!"
"Charlotte, get away he's not who you think he is!" Lydia exclaimed as she glared darkly up at Durol. "He's not Prince Naveen. Believe me, he's the farthest thing from a prince."
Durol raised an eyebrow and glared at his daughter. "Is that any way to speak to your father, young lady?"
Lydia snarled at him. "If that father is a gambling addict who caused his home world to disappear then yes."
"Still blaming me for that are we?" Durol scoffed. "You are still such a child."
"What are you doing here, Luxord?" Growled Roxas, trying to get back on topic. "Why did you disguise yourself as Naveen?"
"Now, I am known as Durol, number thirteen." Durol groaned in annoyance. "It seems only fitting that I call myself that now seeing as I've reobtained my heart. And a piece of Xehanort's heart."
"A piece of Xehanort's heart?" Xion parroted with confusion written across her face. "What does that mean? What are you talking about?"
"Who cares?" Growled Lydia. "So it's true that you're working with Xehanort. I guess this means we really are enemies."
"Lydia, you should know I don't want to fight against my own daughter." Durol shook his head.
Roxas shook his head. "Sure you don't. So why disguise yourself as Naveen? Was that part of Xehanort's orders?"
"If you must know, number thirteen I'm simply here to help in a scheme of one of Maleficent's allies." Durol explained. "The plan was for a fake to marry miss Charlotte so Dr. Facilier would have complete control over the city by association. Since he couldn't disguise himself, he needed someone else to be in disguise. I simply agreed to help and took a gamble to see if you and Lydia would pass by this world."
"Sure you did." Scoffed Lydia.
"I did, Lydia. I only wanted the best for my family. It's why I don't want to fight you." Durol held out his hand to his daughter. "Come with me, I can protect you from all this. I never wanted to loose you, just like how I threatened Axel to break your heart so you wouldn't be used for Kingdom Hearts."
"You... what?" Lydia gasped in shock, her expression one of confusion. Her own fathe4 was the reason Axel said all those horrible things to her? He was the reason she was so mean to Lea now? Lydia shook her head as she looked her father directly in the eye. "You really can't call yourself a caring, overprotective father when you put me through all that, caused my world to disappear and allowed me to be alone for so long. Well, I have friends now who don't let me feel alone anymore unlike you!"
Durol lowered his hand as his eyes narrowed at his daughter. "So be it. You can't say I never gave you a chance." His signature cards appeared in one hand while in the other he still clutched the blood talisman. He glared darkly at the heroes before him, ready to fight in the middle of the Mardi Gras parade. Charlotte and the rest of the citizens could only look on in shock, unable to move from their places.
Lydia simply glared at her father and raised her tambourine in response and Naminé and Oswald raised their own keyblades alongside her. Lydia, with Naminé and Oswald at her side rushed to attack Durol. Fortunately, since Durol was distracted with the three of them attacking, he failed to notice Xion running up to him from behind and grabbed the blood pendant right out of Durol's hand with a tug. And thanks to Oswald, Naminé and Lydia relentlessly attacking Durol, the former nobody didn't even notice the pendant was gone.
Once Xion had the talisman pendant, she immediately started running towards the graveyard with voodoo heartless and gambler nobodies hot on her trail the moment a Durol realized the talisman was gone. Roxas and Ray took it upon themselves to attack the heartless and nobodies that started to surround Xion.
"Xion? Where are you going? What are you doing?" Roxas questioned, worried for her safety as he cut through a gambler nobody.
"We need to take this to Tiana! We need to show her that Naveen didn't abandon her!" Xion explained.
Ray hooded in agreement as he used his light to damage a nearby voodoo heartless. "You got that there right! C'mon we gotta go!"
"Right! Let's move!" Roxas agreed. And with that, Xion, Roxas and Ray started sprinting towards the graveyard. However, they were unaware of someone watching them from the shadows and after sending more voodoo heartless after them, followed them all the way to the graveyard.
Durol simply smirked at his opponents and snapped his fingers, causing a barrier to appear around him, Lydia, Naminé and Oswald but also trapping Charlotte and the imprisoned Naveen in with them. The three knew they had to keep the princess and the frog safe so they tightened their grips on their weapons, ready to fight.
But being trapped didn't waver Lydia's determination to fight and settle the score with her father. Durol attacked Oswald and Naminé first with powerful strikes from his sharp deck of cards. His battle style was strangely cryptic and he gave the impression that he saw this battle like a game, stating that the first one to run out of time wold be the looser. Oswald didn't understand what he meant, and he didn't care. All that was on his mind was surviving this battle with his friends.
Lydia was able to evade most of her father's attacks by casting haste on herself and her teammates but it wasn't enough to prevent her from taking damage that Naminé struggled to heal. Oswald attacked Durol with thunder magic from his keyblade but it wasn't enough to deal a reasonable amount of damage, leading him to use his keyblade to deliver brute force. Naminé did her best to keep up with healing her teammates and defend against Durol's gimmicky attacks. Unfortunately, both Charlotte and Naveen who was still trapped in his locked box weren't able to fight back so the three world travellers did everything they could to shield them from harm.
Knowing that Naminé's magic and Oswald's health was getting low, Lydia took it upon herself to end the battle with her father.
"Let's leave this up to Lady Luck!" Lydia exclaimed as she raised her tambourine up above her head as rolls of a slot machine magically appeared underneath her feet. The slots began to roll faster and faster as Lydia focused all her energy on stopping the slots on what she wanted. One by one, she managed to stop the slots on a triple seven; exactly what she was going for. Lydia couldn't help but smirk. She tossed her tambourine directly at Durol and let it fly all around him, slicing at him every few moments with powerful brute force. By the time the tambourine was done flying around him, Durol was on his knees with the battle won. "Don't underestimate the slots!" (1) She grinned triumphantly as she caught her tambourine flawlessly.
With the battle won and Durol defeated, the barrier vanished. The former nobody slowly got up to his feet and glared daggers at his own daughter.
"Lydia, you have to stop fighting against me." Durol sounded not like he was asking her but alost ordering her. "If you continue to fight against Xehanort like this then I can't be held responsible for what happens. Lydia, please. The last thing I want is to see my daughter come to any harm."
Lydia shook her head. "I won't deny that I always hoped you'd come back, but not like this. You have no idea how upset I was when I found out from Jiminy's journal that you became a nobody and joined that Organization." She snarled, a hint of sadness slipping into her thick accent. "Xehanort is the one that needs to stop, not us. I hate that you're still part of the Organization and I hate what you've become."
A corridor of darkness appeared behind the former nobody as he rose to his feet, a look of disappointment directed at Lydia in his eyes. "So be it. But know that when we meet again I won't be holding back." With that, Durol dissapeared into the corridor, leaving the world entirely.
Naminé looked up at Lydia with concern in her bright blue eyes. "Lydia? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Lydia said in a tone that clearly stated she didn't want to talk about the encounter with her father. "I'll just have to be ready to face him again."
"Um, pardon me for interrupting." Naveen's voice emerged from the locked box on the middle of the ground. "But could someone please get me out of this box?!" He shouted as the box comically and angrily jumped up and down.
Both Naminé and Oswald looked at each other sheepishly then giggled to each other.
"Hold on, Naveen. I'll get you out in a second." Naminé blushed embarrassingly as she took her keyblade and shot a beam of light at the keyhole, unlocking it. Immediately, Naveen jumped out and took in a deep breath of fresh air.
"Ah, yes that is so much better!" Exclaimed Naveen. "You would not believe how cramped it is in there." Naminé giggled softly 8nto her hand in response.
Shyly, Charlotte approached the group with a look of confusion on her face. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt but what in the Mardi Gras is goin' on?"
Lydia, Naminé and Oswald all looked towards one another awkwardly, unsure how to even start explaining the situation to the Mardi Gras princess. But, before any of them could utter a single word, Naveen jumped right in front of Charlotte's feet. The young woman realeased a startled gasp as her face contorted into one of disgust and uncertainty.
"Miss LeBoeuf! Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am the real Prince Naveen!" The frog announced.
Charlottle didn't know how to react at first but then out of nowhere, her face lit up. "Did you say prince?"
~*KHIII*~
Roxas, Xion and Ray ran as fast as their legs could carry them through the graveyard with the voodoo heartless hot on their heels. They scratched at reached at both friends, but mostly Xion, trying to take back the blood pendant she had tightly clutched in her hand. Ray's light proved to be effective against the heartless just as Roxas's keyblade was. Which proved to be a good thing since Xion couldn't summon her keyblade without almost loosing the pendant.
After what seemed like ages of running from the heartless, they finally lost them and finally earned a breather. Then, they quickly spotted Tiana sitting atop a gravestone, crying. Kyra, Rusty, Dragon, Myde and Louis surrounded the small frog with worried, concerned looks on their faces. They looked like they wanted to comfort her but none of them had any idea what to say to the heartbroken frog.
Unfortunately, there wasn't any time to waste so Xion, Roxas and Ray rushed to their friends.
"Tiana!" Roxas exclaimed, capturing their attention.
"Roxas? Xion? Ray?" Tiana asked, wiping the tears from her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"We had to let you know the truth." Xion gasped, slightly out of breath. "That wasn't Naveen getting married to Charlotte!"
"What!?" Exclaimed Dragon. "Then who was it?"
Ray immediately took the pendant and tossed it into Tiana's arms. "An imposter! That's what! This proves what we saw ain't what we thought."
"What? What is it?" Tiana asked, confused and concerned.
"It's some kind of voodoo talisman." Said Ray.
Roxas took over the explanation. "It caused someone we know to disguise themselves as Naveen."
"So this is great news! That means that Naveen didn't betray you!" Myde suddenly exclaimed with a wide grin on his face.
Kyra glared down at the talisman. "And I think I know who's behind this." She growled.
As soon as those words left Kyra's lips, the group became surrounded by countless voodoo shadow heartless, preventing her from revealing her thoughts. The team of world travellers immediately surrounded protectively Tiana as she clutched the pendant tightly against her chest and the others drew their weapons, ready to fight. The voodoo shadows sprung to life and attacked without mercy, their sights on Tiana and the talisman.
Roxas jumped in front of Tiana and slashed at one of the heartless with his keyblade, the light of the weapon doing critical damage to the dark creatures. Xion and Dragon closely shielded Tiana with their weapons and all of their strength. The attacks of the heartless grew even more frantic and deadly the closer they got to the talisman so that Tiana got most of the damage. Rusty was frantically trying to heal her but he was getting really overwhelmed so Kyra offered him her support.
Ray flew closely beside Roxas and Tiana, trying to defend them against the heartless with the light he produced but since he was so small, he took much more damage than everyone else. Myde and Louis took it upon themselves to protect Ray and the rest of their friends with Myde's water attacks and Louis's brute strength. Dragon used all his strength and the training he learned from all his time fighting to defend his friends and slice through the heartless.
Thanks to the teamwork, they were able to get rid of all the heartless. However, they didn't have long to catch their breath before a dark, sultry largh echoed throughout the graveyard.
"Well, well isn't this a pleasant surprise. Here I go chasing the thieves that stole my talisman and find none other than you, Kyra."
The team turned around to find none other than the shadow man himself, the one who turned Naveen into a frog standing before them. The dark aura of the graveyard adding to his tall, menacing stature. He smirked darkly with his sinister eyes rested on Kyra and Tiana.
"Dr. Facilier." Kyra snarled. "Wish I could say it was nice to see you again. But after you tried to trick me by lying about knowing where my brothers were I'd be lying."
"Well, as great as a reunion as this is, I think we should be going now." Myde said as he started creeping away from the group only to be stopped by several voodoo shadow heartless appearing in front of him, blocking his path and loo
Dr. Facilier chuckled in amusement at the sight of Myde and Louis screaming in terror and hugging each other.
"So sorry, but I can't let you leave here until you give back that talisman of mine." The Voodo man smirked as he held out his hand, eager to have Tiana give it to him.
"Why? So you can trick Charlotte into marrying a fake Naveen?!" Xion questioned.
Dr. Facilier simply chuckled in amusement at the former puppet. "Forgive me for saying so, little girl but I believe this isn't your world. Isn't this considered meddling? This is between me and little miss Tiana over there."
"Me?" Tiana asked nervously, still tightly clutching the talisman.
"Yes, I know a lot about you, Tiana. I know that when you dream, you dream big. Think about your restaurant; it could be the crown jewel of all of New Orleans. I can make that a reality for you, and remove that little froggy spell of yours. All you have to do is hand over what's rightfully mine." Dr. Facilier smirked darkly as he extended his hand towards Tiana.
Tiana shook her head as she backed away back towards her friends. "No, that wouldn't be right."
Dr. Facilier shook his head as he lightly chuckled and sauntered up to the group, setting them all on edge. "Come now, Tiana think of your poor daddy."
"Wait, how do you know that?" Dragon questioned, slightly nervous.
"Oh I know a lot of things, boy." Smirked Dr. Facilier. "Like how Tiana's poor daddy's dream never made it off the front porch. But, Tiana can make her and her daddy's dream come true. Come on, Tiana, hand over my little talisman and I'll turn you back into a human and make your dream a reality."
"...It's true my daddy never got what he wanted..." Tiana murmured, her grip on the talisman loosening. But then, before she lost her grip completely she took hold of the talisman again and glared darkly at the shadow man. "But he had what he needed! He had love and never lost sight of what was important!"
"Easy there! Careful with that!" Dr. Facilier said nervously, afraid that she'd break his talisman; the only way he could pay back his debt
"And neither will I!" Tiana shouted with confidence she'd never had before. "I'm gonna stand up beside my friends and I won't let you hurt Naveen!" With that, Tiana threw the talisman down to the hard ground with intentions to destroy it. But, before it could hit the ground, Dr. Facilier's shadow grabbed the talisman and dropped it right into his hand.
Dr. Facilier smirked triumphantly at the heroes before him. "Ya'll should have taken my deal. Now you're goin' to spend the rest of your life as a slimy little frog."
"Well, I got news for ya, shadow man! It's not slime! It's mucus!" Tiana exclaimed as she hopped back up to her froggy feet and looked back to the team of heroes behind her. "You guys with me?"
Kyra smiled down at Tiana as she adjusted her bow and arrow. "I thought you'd never ask." She said as Rusty barked next to her, ready to fight too.
"Alright guys let's go!" Roxas exclaimed as he lead his team into battle.
Dr. Facilier smirked, ready for a challenge as he held his staff in front of him, just welcoming them to try and attack him. Roxas dove in first and slashed at the voodoo man with a powerful strike from Two Become One. Unfortunately, Dr. Facilier managed to block the attack with his staff, defending him from most of the damage. Tiana was small in her frog form, so she attacked with her webbed feet and water magic, trying to grab the talisman buy was unsuccessful.
While Dr. Facilier was blocking against Roxas and Tiana's strikes, Ray tried to help by attacking the voodoo shadows with his light but unfortunately, he wasn't very durable and was getting knocked down very easily. So as scared as Louis was, he kept supporting Ray and the others by playing his horn, healing his friends.
Myde pushed himself forward to help his friends even though he was scared out of his mind of the voodoo man. He strummed a few chords on his sitar, sending strong blasts of water at Dr. Facilier and giving Dragon the opening he needed to strike the villain with a powerful strike from Steel Slayer. Seeing how well magic was working against Dr. Facilier, Xion used her own keyblade to cast a variety of spells including light spells that seemed to be doing a great deal of damage.
Kyra and Rusty stood off to the distance, shooting arrows and magic. The fire and thunder spells seemed to be working the best fir Rusty so he kept firing them until he ran out of magic and Kyra tossed him an Ether. Seeing as how her approach wasn't working, Tiana moved beside Kyra and looked towards her, getting as idea. Kyra smiled at her friend, somehow knowing what she was planning. With that, Tiana jumped on Kyra's arrow and prepared herself for impact. Without another word, Kyra fired the arrow with Tiana holding on tight. She flew straight towards Dr. Facilier and the talisman, grabbing it just as she zipped past the villain. She then jumped off the arrow and threw the talisman to the ground, destroying it.
With that, Dr. Facilier was defeated as he screamed in agony. Seveal voodoo dolls, masks and shadows appeared out of nowhere as he vanished into thin air. Dr. Facilier was gone and so was the threat to New Orleans.
The team sighed in relief as Dragon noticed a small dark Yami Crystal laying on the ground where Dr. Facilier once stood, identical to the one Mother Gothel dropped for Sora's team when she was defeated.
"Well, this looks a little too important to not take with us." Dragon said as he dropped the crystal into his pocket.
"Think it's what they need for the portal to the realm of darkness back in Radiant Garden?" Roxas asked. "Sora and Lea told me about it before we left Disney town."
"I think you're right." Agreed Kyra. "If that's the case we should hurry this over there."
"Ya'll think ya can hold off for a bit?" Tiana asked anxiously. "It's almost midnight! We gotta hurry back to Lottie and Naveen."
"Got dat right Cher! C'mon let's get goin'!" Agreed Ray as he led the team all the way back to the city.
~*KHIII*~
Naveen, Naminé, Oswald and Lydia weren't sure how long it took to explain everything to Charlotte but according to the nearby clock tower, they were running out of time. Midnight was fast approaching.
"Goodness gracious! This is so much to absorb." Charlotte spoke while Naveen was visibly sweating and looking over at the clock every few minutes. "Let me see if I got this right. If I kiss you before midnight, you and Tiana will turn human again, and then we gonna get ourselves married and live happily ever after! The end!" She summarized, an excited tone in her voice while she smiled at Naveen.
"Yeah, more or less." Oswald said. "Do you think we can hurry this along?"
But just then, Naveen spoke up again. "But remember, you must give Tiana all the money she requires for her restaurant. Because Tiana... She is my Evangeline."
Naminé, Lydia and Oswald all turned to look at Naveen with wide eyes and their hearts touched. For the first time in his life, Naveen was truly being selfless. He was giving up his own freedom and happiness for Tiana; the one he truly loved.
"Anything you want, sugar." Said Charlotte as she placed a bright shade of lipstick on her lips and winked at Naveen. "Pucker up, buttercup!"
"Wait!" A familiar voice exclaimed. The group spun around to find Tiana, Roxas, Xion, Ray, Louis, Kyra, Dragon, Rusty and Myde rushing towards them.
"Tiana?" Naveen gasped at the sight of Tiana hopping towards him.
"Tiana?" Charlotte gasped at the sight of hest best friend.
The female frog hopped up to Naveen's side with worry in her eye. "Don't do this." She pleaded.
"I have to do this and we are running out of time!" Argued Naveen, gesturing to the clock tower which was getting closer and closer to midnight.
"I won't let you!" Argued Tiana.
"It's the only way to get you your dream!"
"My dream? My dream wouldn't be complete... Without you in it. I love you, Naveen." A heartwarming smile spread upon her face as the entire team of world travellers hearts melted.
Myde and Ray's eyes started to water and Louis ended up blowing his nose on a cloth that Kyra handed him before he could use her jacket. Roxas, Xion and Naminé could feel their hearts pounding in heartfully in their chests as Roxas and Naminé ended up subconsciously intertwining their hands. Rusty noticed that Dragon was looking lovingly at Kyra and smirked at the brown-haired boy, though he couldn't see it.
Naveen's eyes grew wide, then returned Tiana's smile. "Warts and all?"
"Warts and all." Nodded Tiana.
Charlotte's eyes started watering too. She whipped the tears away, then smiled happily at the two frogs. "All my life, I read about true love and fairytales, and... Tia, you found it! I'll kiss him! For you, honey! No marriage required." Charlotte said as she gently picked up Naveen and brought him up to her lips. Charlotte closed eyes and kissed Naveen just before the clock stroke midnight.
Both Tiana and Naveen became surrounded by golden and green watery and shining light as they began to grow bigger and bigger. In the next moment, the light faded away, revealing two figures with dark skin, dark curly hair and dressed in green, leafy-style royal clothing. These were none other than Tiana and Naveen's human forms.
"Oh, boy it sure does feel great to be human again." Tiana smiled as she twirled around, admiring her new dress.
"Yeah, this is definitely how I remember you." Smiled Kyra. "More human and less slimy."
Naveen smiled and shook his head. "Did I not tell you before? It was not slime, it was mucus!" Everyone burst into laughter as everyone started hugging each other and Ray flew happily all around them.
At that moment, Evangeline started glowing brightly in the sky. Naminé noticed immediately and summoned Recollection to her hand as a glowing crown symbol appeared underneath her feet. A beam of light shot out of Evangeline, forming a keyhole in the sky. Naminé unlocked it with ease, unlocking the gate in turn.
"Wow. Evangeline glowing extra bright tonight! That my girl!" Ray laughed and smiled lovingly at the star in the sky.
"What was that all about?" Louis asked curiously.
"The gate's open; it means it's time for us to get going." Said Oswald.
Tiana looked at the group sadly. "Ya'll really have ya go?"
Kyra smiled at her and put a friendly hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. I want to come back and see your restaurant."
Tiana immediately pulled Kyra into a tight, causing Kyra to release a surprised gasp. "Ya'll will get the best seats in the house! I guarantee it!"
"Now don't go slacking off on us, Naveen." Xion playfully scolded.
The prince laughed. "Not to worry! You are looking at a new and improved Naveen!"
"Well, we better get going." Said Lydia while Kyra pulled away from Tiana's hug. She then looked over to where Myde and laughed to herself at the sight of Charlotte and Myde talking to each other with flirty smiles. A heavy blush was present across Myde's cheeks.
"So, uh, since your whole prince thing didn't work out... maybe we could go out sometime." Myde winked. "Ya know I play the sitar and I hear people in this world are really into jazz-"
But before Myde could say another word, Charlotte leaned in and quickly pecked his cheek. Myde immediately stopped talking as his jaw dropped.
"I'd be willin' to give it a shot. I think I'm done with princes for awhile. Maybe I don't need one." Charlotte giggled. Immediately, Myde's entire face lit up into a wide grin.
"YES!" He exclaimed excitedly as he pumped his fists into the air.
Lydia rolled her eyes, stormed up to Myde and grabbed the back of his vest. Then she started dragging him away towards where the others were starting to head back to the Falcon.
"Come on, lover boy. Let's go." She grumbled.
"Thank you for all your help!" Naveen waved as the group of world travellers got further and further away. "I promise I will work hard!"
"I'll make sure of it." Tiana laughed as she and Naveen held hands. "Y'all better come back and visit our restaurant once it's up and runnin'!"
"I'll miss you guys!" Waved Louis.
"Ya'll really gotta come back and visit ol' Ray!" The firefly said.
"I'll see you soon, sugar!" Charlotte waved at Myde, who ended up waving back while Lydia was still dragging him back to the Gummi ship. As she and the rest of her team boarded, she found her heart beating loudly in her chest as she looked at Roxas and Naminé, Kyra and Dragon, Mr and Mrs. Incredible, Myde and Charlotte and Tiana and Naveen. Maybe there was still a chance for her to have something like that again with a certain red-haired former nobody.
See you guys next time. Thanks so much for reading and all the support you've shown me; it's really been amazing. I hope you guys enjoyed! Next chapter we'll FINALLY be heading back to Radiant Garden and looking into saving our favourite little Aqua. See you guys next time
(1): Lydia's limit; Slots