Chapter 4 Heart

The crack of a shotgun blast cuts through the quiet air of the morning making both Sora and Jane wake suddenly in alarm. Exchanging a worried glance, they both throw off their covers and hurry outside, shivering slightly in the predawn air. The sky is just beginning to turn pink as they squint around, trying to determine where the sound came from.

"Jane!"

They both whirl around at Tarzan's shout and see him pointing down a path that leads into a bamboo thicket. "Clayton," Tarzan says before running out of the camp grounds with Sora and Jane following him.

They enter the bamboo thicket and slow to stop, looking around. Clayton isn't there but lying on a rock in the center of the thicket is his pipe. Walking over, Sora picks up. He nearly drops it in surprise when another gun shot rings out. It is close by and Tarzan leads them once more to rockier terrain where Clayton is standing with his gun pointed at the gorillas. There are heartless as well that Sora recognizes as Powerwilds. He has read about them in the extensive collection of information on heartless that Leon had back in Traverse Town. Sora is shocked to see the heartless seem to be on Clayton's side, helping contain the gorillas.

Clayton's finger goes to the trigger of his gun, but before he can pull it, Sora shouts, "No!"

Clayton turns to them with questioning look. "Clayton…" Jane says, her hand at her mouth as she looks from the gun and the heartless to the gorillas.

"Not Clayton!" Tarzan says glaring at the man. "*&&X%! Not Clayton!"

With Clayton and the heartless' attention now on Sora and the others, the trapped gorillas break out of the line of Powerwilds and disappear into the jungle. Clayton takes a step to follow them, but is met instead by Sora's keyblade pointed at his throat. At the threat, Clayton merely smirks.

"Sora!" Tarzan shouts his name and runs to his side just in time to knock back the Powerwild that had leapt at Sora. It a quick motion, Sora turns to the heartless and stabs down with his keyblade, killing it with one hard hit. He falls into a battle stance as the heartless close in around him. Looking over them, he sees Clayton standing at a safe distance, watching without much interest.

"Get out of here Jane," Sora says as Tarzan readies his spear. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Jane head back into the bamboo thicket. Sora turns to the Powerwilds as they start jabbering in excitement. "Thundaga!" He shouts, raising his keyblade to the sky and forks of lightning strike several of the heartless making them jump back, shrieking in pain. With a grunting cry, Tarzan lashes out with his spear at the nearest heartless and knocks it into one of its comrades. Sora leaps forward, taking advantage of the distraction his thunder spell had created to land to hits on the heartless in front of him and getting the combo on one to his right. As both hearts rise into the sky, another Powerwild jumps at him with its claws moving so fast they are just a blur. Sora blocks it with his keyblade and counterattacks with a blow that knocks the heartless back on its butt. As it tries to get to its feet, he throws his keyblade at it, catching it in the chest. It fades and his keyblade returns to his hand.

Looking around, Sora sees that Tarzan has eliminated the rest of the Powerwilds and is advancing towards Clayton. Clayton has his back to a wall with no chance of escape, but he still smirks. Suddenly, the wall behind him starts to shake with an immense pounding force behind it and then it tumbles down.

Coughing as the smoke clears, Sora looks up and squints at the slight mirage in the dusty air. It is the shape of a huge monster on four legs and a curled up tail. The dust settles and the shape becomes completely invisible. Tarzan lets out a growl and runs for Clayton with his spear out. A shrill shriek echoes around the area as an invisible force slams into Tarzan mid jump and throws him back against the rocks.

"Tarzan!" Sora shouts looking to his fallen friend, but the sound of a shotgun being reloaded makes him face Clayton again. The man is in the air, sitting astride an invisible beast whose outline is just visible in a shaky mirage if Sora looks carefully. The barrel of the gun is aimed right for Sora and he readies himself for the fight.

Before Clayton has a chance to shoot, the invisible heartless underneath him leaps forward. Sora feels a rush of air from claws cutting through the air where he had been standing as he jumps back. He swings his keyblade at the fuzzy outline in the air and is able to land a hit, causing another shrill shriek to echo. The heartless moves away for a moment to recover and Tarzan is back at Sora's side. They exchange a glance for a moment before nodding and charging together.

Clayton points his gun and fires, but Sora raises his keyblade in a block and deflects all the bullets aimed at himself and at Tarzan. While Clayton relaods, Sora swings at the legs of the heartless and Tarzan jumps into the air to attack the head. Overwhelmed by both attacks, the heartless shrieks again and it becomes visible as its eyes begin to glow a bright blue. Sora has just enough time to take in the green and yellow lizard body before bright lasers shoot out of the glowing eyes and race straight for him. Caught off guard, he has no protection against them as they slam into his chest and knock him back against a rock wall.

All the breath is knocked from his body on impact and he falls to the ground, gasping for air. He looks up just in time to duck down again as the lizard heartless charges him with its wickedly sharp horn lowered to aim at his head. Sora cringes as he hears the horn slam into the rock wall mere inches above his head.

The heartless pulls back and opens its mouth the reveal pointed teeth as it lunges towards Sora. He brings his keyblade up in a feeble block and turns his head, waiting for the pain of the bite, but it never comes. Just as the teeth of the heartless are about to close around him, Tarzan leaps between them, beating the lizard back with his spear.

The small cuts Tarzan is able to inflict only seem to enrage the heartless further. It rears up on its back legs, leaving Clayton clinging to its neck to stay on. As its eyes begin to glow blue again, Sora gets back to his feet and heaves his keyblade in a throwing motion at the heartless, It spins perfectly in a move called Strike Raid, hitting the heartless squarely in the middle of its unprotected underside.

The heartless writhes in pain, sending Clayton falling backwards off it. Clayton is able to half sit up, but that's as far as he gets as the lizard stumbles backwards from the mortal wound and falls down dead on top of Clayton. Its still form glows slightly before it turns into a pink heart that rises to the sky leaving no trace of the heartless or Clayton.

Sora stares in shock at the spot where Clayton had fallen. He has killed thousands of heartless before, but never a man. He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up at a grim-face Tarzan. "Not Clayton. *&&X%," Tarzan says in a low voice, but that does little to make Sora feel better.

"Is it safe?" They both turn at Jane's voice to see her slowly returning.

"Yes," Sora says. "Clayton and the heartless are gone."

When Jane reaches them, Tarzan grabs Sora's shoulder. "*&&X%," he says pointing up at the top of a rock face.

"What? Err...lead the way I guess," Sora says not sure what Tarzan wants from him.

With a quick nod, Tarzan bounds up the rocks with easy, sure movements leaving Sora and Jane to clamber up awkwardly after him. The top is flat and after helping Jane to her feet, Sora looks up to see a beautiful waterfall spilling into a large lake.

Tarzan makes an impatient noise and walks to the entrance of a cave hidden behind the waterfall. Jane and Sora follow him into the narrow area where vines and jutting out rocks make it possible to climb up to the ceiling of the cave. At the top most rock, there is another cave hidden by a curtain of vines.

"*&&X%," Tarzan says, gesturing for Sora to go first. With a deep breath, Sora pushes back the vines hoping to find Ven, Aqua, Terra, and Master Eraqus standing there looking just the same as he remembers. But he walks into a small, empty cavern. He looks around in confusion and then back at Tarzan who comes in behind him with Jane.

"Where are they?" Sora asks crestfallen. "I thought you said my friends were here."

"*&&X%. Friends there. See friends," Tarzan replies walking to a tree covered in butterflies on the far side of the cavern.

"Oh, now I've got it," Jane says. "*&&X% means heart. Friends in our hearts…" She looks to Sora and gives him an apologetic smile.

"Heart…" Tarzan repeats slowly.

"Oh," Sora says looking down at his shoes. "So that's what it meant."

"Friends, same heart." Tarzan puts a hand to his chest over his heart. "Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends."

Sora puts a hand over his heart as well and sighs. This isn't turning out as easy as he thought it was going to be. It seems foolish now to know he had thought he would find his friends in the first world he came to. He is lost in depressed thoughts when the tip of his keyblade starts to glow. He looks up in surprise and feels a tug as his keyblade is pulled towards the tree Tarzan is standing by. As the light at the end of his keyblade gets brighter the butterflies begin to take flight, revealing that they had been hiding the shape of a keyhole carved in the trunk. A beam of light bursts from his keyblade and hits the center of the keyhole. As the light fades, the sound of a lock sliding into place echoes around the small cavern.

"What was that?" Jane asks.

"I'm not sure," Sora says slowly, looking down at his keyblade. "But I don't think the heartless will be a problem again anytime soon."

The three of them turn around as a small gorilla comes running in. She jabbers excitedly to Tarzan for a moment before rushing back out. Tarzan looks to Sora. "Sora go." As Tarzan leaves the cave, Jane and Sora follow wondering where Tarzan is taking them now.

…

They are walking slowly through the jungle when an incredibly loud crash causes the ground under them to tremble. Hurrying quickly to the source of the sound, they find themselves at the site of Sora's gummi ship crash except the gummi ship is no longer stuck in the tree. At least eight gorillas are dropping down from the branches where the ship used be to the ground where it is now lying. To Sora's surprise, the windshield that had been shattered seems to have been replaced and the dings and scratches that had covered the side are gone, leaving the ship looking brand new again.

Astonished, Sora moves to the door of the ship and it slides open. The inside looks just as fixed up as the outside and the screen in the center of the dashboard reads, "REPAIRS. 99% Complete." The loading bar underneath the words is nearly full and moment later the numbers change to 100%.

"This is your ship?" Jane says as her and Tarzan come to the door and peer in.

"Yeah," Sora says looking around at the perfect interior. "It repaired itself." He moves to the captain's chair and runs a hand over the headrest, remembering how he had last seen his ship. "Why did the gorillas get it out of the tree for me?"

"It must be their way of saying thank you for stopping Clayton," Jane says. Beside her, Tarzan nods in agreement.

"Sora go now," Tarzan says. "Friends waiting." He points up to the sky above.

"Thank you," Sora says waving to both Jane and Tarzan as they move away from the door of the Gummi Ship, letting in slide closed. Sora walks to the captain's and sits down. The screen has changed to say, "Unknown world. Would you like to depart?"

Looking out the windshield, Sora sees all the gorilla have moved to a safe distance and he presses the yes button under the screen. The engines on either side of the ship come to life right away. He can feel them building in power as he grips the steering wheel. For a moment fear crosses his mind. Back in Traverse Town there had been an elaborate launching pad system designed by Cid, but there isn't here. Instead, there are trees hemping in and making a launch seem impossible for the small ship.

His fear is unwarranted though as the ship's thrusters turn vertical and make the ship rise straight into the air. Sora waves one last time to Jane and Tarzan before he breaks through the highest branches of the forest. For a moment he hovers there, taking in the beauty of the wild world, before the engines change direction again and he is shooting off into space once more.

…

"What am I doing?" Sora asks aloud as he flies slowly through the empty space. Since leaving Deep Jungle, he has seen no worlds. He is feeling lost and very much out of his element. Back in Traverse Town, world traveling had seemed so alluring, but now Sora is yearning for the safety and predictability of his home. As much as he wants to find and help his lost friends, what good is he to them just wandering around pointlessly? And alone?

Maybe he just isn't ready, like Cloud said. Maybe he should give himself a few more years of training before trying to take on the universe. And, he decides, the next time he ventures out to look for Ven and the others he won't go alone. He will convince Riku and Kairi to come with him. Together they would be able to bring back the others.

His mind made up, Sora turns to the screen on the dashboard and after a minute figures out how to send a video call to Cid in Traverse Town. A spinning circle with the words, "Calling Traverse Town Home Terminal" is on the screen for a moment before the call is picked up. The image of Cid's workshop comes into view with Cid rubbing his eyes and Cloud beside him, sleeping with his head on the table.

"Sora," Cid says in a relieved and tired voice. Hitting the back of Cloud's head and waking him instantly, Cid says, "Wake up and see who wants to chat."

Cloud turns his bleary eyes to Sora. "Hey," Sora says biting lip. It just occurs to him that he is probably in more trouble than he has ever been in in his life.

All traces of tiredness leave Cloud's face. "Sora," he says in relief, sitting up straight. "We've been trying to call you all night."

"Sorry, I disabled the video call thing after you called. And then there was the whole thing in Deep Jungle..." Sora glances away from the screen for a moment. He swears he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but there is nothing moving in space except him.

"Deep Jungle? Is that a world ya visited?" Cid asks.

"Yeah, I...um…I might have accidently crashed into it." He says in a cringes at Cid and Cloud's expressions of horror.

"Are you hurt?" Cloud asks urgently.

"No, I'm fine," Sora says and adds quickly, "The ship is fine to. It like fixed itself or something." Again he glances out the window, thinking he saw something moving outside the ship, but again he sees nothing.

"It's self healing," Cid says bring Sora's attention back to him. "I designed it like that. Give it enough and it can fix itself no matter how badly you fuck it up."

Just as Cid says that, the ship suddenly rocks violently with an explosion coming from below the hull. Sora cries out in surprise as he loses control of the gummi ship for a moment. As he rights it, Cloud and Cid yell, asking what happened. "I don't-" Sora starts to say, but another explosion, this one on the right side, rocks the ship again. He gasps and the color drains from his face as small orange ships fly in front of him, blocking his path.

"Cid," Sora says, fear making his voice shake. "Please tell me you put weapons on this ship."

"What's going on Sor-" Cloud starts to ask, leaning closer to the camera, but Cid pushes him out of the way and begins to speak quickly.

"Listen to me kid, hit the green button that's to your left."

Sora looks. "There are two!"

"The bigger one, damnit," Cid says and Sora quickly presses the button. A green glow starts at the tip and washes over the whole ship. A rocket comes flying from the line of orange ships and Sora braces himself for another impact, but when it hits the explosion is muffled and the ship doesn't rock as much.

"Those are your shields," Cid says still talking quickly. "What have you got for steering? A wheel?"

"Uh, yeah," Sora says slowing the ship down to a near standstill so it doesn't crash into the enemy ships. His eyes widen seeing the heartless insignia on them.

"There should be a knob on the steering column. Turn it once clockwise."

Sora does so and nearly yelps in surprise as the steering wheel retracts into the column and a moment later video game controller takes its spot. "Cid…" Sora says now even more confused.

"Press X!"

Sora does as told and watches in amazement as a beam of light is fired from the nose of his ship. It hits one of the heartless ships, destroying it on impact. His moment of victory is cut short be a retaliation volley from the enemy ships. Seeing all the rockets coming at him, Sora presses a random button on the controller and gasps in surprise as the ship does a barrel roll. He is gripping the sides of his seat hard when the flipping stops and he lets out a sigh seeing it worked, none of the rockets had hit the ship.

"Rapid fire, Sora," Cid says and Sora nods. He starts slamming the X button as fast as he can, resulting in hundreds of beams of light firing. He has little control over where they go, but the sheer number means enough hits to take down a good number of the heartless ships. After decimating their numbers, the remaining ships flee from Sora and he falls back in his seat in relief.

"They gone?" Cid asks and Sora looks at the screen to see him and Cloud watching him worriedly. Sora nods. "Good," Cid says. "Now take down the shields. With them up yer burnin' twice the power." Sora presses the shield button again and the green glow slides across the ship again.

Cloud asks, "What were they?"

"Heartless ships," Sora says. "I didn't know there was such a thing." He turns the thruster up and the ship starts moving again. Even with the video game controller instead of the wheel, the ship is easy to steer with the small joysticks. Once he is flying at a good speed, he glances back at the screen to see Cloud frowning angrily at him.

"Sora-"

"I'm sorry Cloud," Sora says, cutting him off. "You were right. I'm not ready for this. I don't know what I'm doing. I…" Sora sighs. "I want to come home."

Cloud's angry expression softens. "It's alright Sora. Just get back here and we'll talk, okay?"

"Okay," Sora says.

"I'll let Tifa know you're coming home," Cloud says. "She and the others have been worried sick about you."

Sora grimaces, feeling bad for worrying everyone, as Cloud gets to his feet and walks out of the frame of the video camera leaving Sora under only the glaring eye of Cid. "I'm sorry for stealing your gummi ship," Sora says. "And, you know, for crashing it."

Cid gives him a long hard stare that makes him shift around guiltily. "I don't care about the damn ship," Cid says in a softer voice than Sora expected. "Just make sure you get your ass home in one piece."

"I will-" Sora starts to say, but all of a sudden the screen goes dark. "Cid?"

One by one all the lit up and flashing buttons on the dashboard go dark. The engines whine and begin to slow before shutting off completely. Sora looks around in confusion as the gummi ship comes to a halt. There is a moment when nothing moves and then a blue light envelops the ship from a source far off in space. Sora sits frozen in shock until the ship starts to be dragged sideways by the light despite the engines being off. Starting to panic, Sora starts hitting random buttons on the controller in his hands and on the dashboard, but without power none of them are working. Knowing he is helpless, Sora gives up pressing the buttons. He will just have to wait and see where he is being taken.

Sorry for the longer than normal wait on this chapter. I've been buried under schoolwork and college stuff these last few weeks. :( One more week before break! :) *praying for snow days*

Dream For Tonight: It would have been quite a different story if Tarzan had been swearing the whole time XD

LightzChristmas22: I love your new pic!

Where's Sora being taken now? Is he really about to give up already on his quest? Will he ever learn how to drive a gummi ship? You will just have to wait for the next chapter to find out!