Chapter 103: Trouble
The duck like squid chuckled slightly as he talked to the king of the sea and his royal court composer, finding out that Ariel was now on land with Prince Eric, happily married to the human as she enjoyed her life up above the sea. The mage was truly happy for his mermaid friend but without Ariel to help convince her father, there may be the chance that King Triton might push them away, despite helping the world more than once. "You're not here to deal with Heartless again, are you?" King Triton asked him, the tone of his voice sounded as if he was both happy and unpleased about Donald's appearance.
"No Heartless problems, your majesty." Donald shook his head. "There are a terrible group going around known as the Order."
"The Order you say…" The king fell into thought.
Sebastian looked at the duck in worry. "Is our world safe?" he asked.
"Just keep an eye out for anyone with shadow marked hands. You should be able to get rid of them without any trouble with the trident." Donald assured them.
The red crab raised his brow as he asked. "Where is Sora and Goofy?"
"Yes." King Triton looked down at the duck once more. "Where is the Keyblade Master?"
Donald sighed slightly. "That's another reason why I'm here, your majesty." He began to explain, "There's a virus going around, something that the Order uses to recruit new members. Sora managed to get infected and we need something from this world to not only aid in the cure to help Sora but to get to the Order's world so that we can stop Vanitas and his-"
"VANITAS!" King Triton rose up from his throne with pure anger. "That rotten Keyblader is behind this?" He raged, demanding answers.
Donald didn't expect the King to suddenly lose his rage, making the duck jump up in surprise and fear. "Y-you know him?" He shook slightly.
"This Keyblade was the one that aimed a pirate ship towards the King's musical lagoon twelve years ago." Sebastian answered for the King, seeing as the King's angry expression wasn't looking as it was going to move. "It was because of this keyblader's bored attics that we lost our beloved queen, leaving his name to taunt the king of his loss."
"When I see that Keyblader, he'll get the justice that he'll deserves." King Triton muttered with pure anger.
"So you'll help?" Donald looked up hopefully.
"Absolutely not!" The King told him, making Donald gasped in shock.
"Why is that, your majesty?" The royal court musician asked.
"Vanitas's appearance those years ago was the entire reason why I strictly followed the rules of the worlds as one much not be involved in other worlds affairs." The King of the sea explained. "If Vanitas is the head of the Order that is going around changing the worlds then I would rather seal the world away to protect my daughters."
"But your majesty-" Donald tried to speak reason.
"Not another word!" King Triton rose from his throne, grabbing his trident. "I'm truly sorry about the Keyblade Master but so long as that dark creature lurks within the worlds, I will not allow anyone visit this world. Surely you understand the rules?" He looked down at the duck mage.
Donald sighed in disappointment. "Yes. Your majesty."
"Good." King Triton turned to face the red crab. "Sebastian, escort Donald on his way out." He ordered. "I must go tend to my daughters." He said sadly as he left the royal chamber.
"Yes, your majesty." Sebastian bowed to the order before he and Donald began to head out of the royal chamber and back into the lobby where Brian and Max should be waiting. "Will Sora be alright man?" Sebastian asked with concern.
"We need the King's help to help Sora." Donald sighed sadly and disappointment, feeling that he has let the team down. "I would have thought that King Triton would have agreed to help."
"Well, the king was heartbroken from the loss of his beloved queen. He had banished all music from the kingdom. The rule was shortly lifted soon before you, Sora and Goofy arrived." Sebastian explained. "The king will come to his senses, once he deals with the reminder of his lost wife."
"I better report to the-" The two had arrived at the lobby, only to find the absents of a shark boy and a dog like turtle. "Wak! I left them right here!" Donald raged, his day can't get any worse.
BOWBOWBOW
Brian had magically managed to convince all six mermaids that he was the Keyblade Master and that he had returned to the underwater world to carry out a 'dangerous' mission. Though he was questioned on why he wasn't with Donald talking to the king or why he had shortened his spiky hair and dyed it red, only to hear something along the lines of that Donald requested to see the king himself because he was being stubborn and that he needed a change of identity because evil villains were coming after him. Before any more questions could be asked, Brian had whipped his guitar out of nowhere; much to Max's surprised, wooing the girls completely.
Max shook his head in humour as he watched the scene in front of him, seeing all of the six mermaids hover around Brian in interest, listening to him.
"Ohhhh Sora! Tell us about your journeys to other worlds?" The red fin mermaid pleaded.
"And play another song for us, please!" Another mermaid requested.
"You're soooo dreamy." The blue fin mermaid awed.
"Well…" Brian strummed a couple of cords dramatically. "After going head to head against the Nobody formed Organisation, I decided to try and confess my love to my one and only but before I could, I got a letter that I had to be sent out again to save the worlds." He played a couple more chords. "I tried to explain but she just pushed me away, saying that adventure is the only thing I care about. Seeing that she was mad, I decided to head to this new mission of danger and deaths, letting her know before I left that I cared about her."
"What did she say?" The orange fin mermaid asked curiosity, slowly getting wrapped in the story.
"She'd torn my love up as if it was nothing." Brian pretended to sob slightly as he played a bit of his guitar. "So I left for my adventure with a broken heart, hoping that I could find someone that will help put all of the pieces together again." He told, making the mermaids hug him tightly as sympathy took over them.
"Errr Sora!" Max called out to his friend. "Don't you think we should meet up with Donald?"
"There's no rush, Goof." Brian shrugged as he played his guitar. "Surely we can stay and play some more songs for a few more minutes." He shrugged innocently, making the mermaids around him sigh in a dreamy tone.
"We really shouldn't push our luck." Max warned him.
"Can't you see I'm pouring my heart out?" Brian sobbed as he played a sad tone on his guitar.
"Yeah!" The mermaid with the violet fin spoke. "Have some sympathy for your friend."
"Don't worry, Sora." The red finned mermaid hugged Brian closely to her. "She doesn't deserve your love."
"Yeah! She doesn't know what she's missing." One of her sisters added, they wasn't sure which one since Brian was too busy focusing that he was getting hugged closely by a mermaid while Max was just shaking his head.
"When you're done, I'll be in the lobby." As much as Max love to say with the mermaids with Brian, it didn't take a genius to figure out who their father was and he would rather be out of the room before getting caught.
"Awwww, C'mon Goof." Brian whined.
"Wait." The mermaid with the blue fin left Brian's side and swam over to Max, blocking his way from the door. "Please will you stay?" She asked the turtle.
No matter how much Max wanted to get the hell out of the room before the King of the Seas caught them with his six daughters, the look on her face magically made him float down to the sandy floor, his mind shutting down from the sight of the mermaid in front of him.
The Mermaid giggled as she lifted Max up into her arms, "Let's dance!" She said happily, making Brian laugh as he began to play another song.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!"
Everyone froze in the room as the sight of the King of the Seas swan into the room, making Brian and Max beginning to move fast. "We should catch up again sometime." Brian said quickly as he fled his way pass the King.
"Yeah. Another time." Max added, following his friend in hope that they could escape.
It wasn't long until a number of thunderbolts came crashing after them.
BOWBOWBOW
"There it is."
From on top of the cliff, three heads popped up from behind the rock as they looked across the rocky path, setting their sights on the Jolly Roger in the distance. "Right. Here's the plan." Peter began to explain. "When Hikari and the Lost Boys drive the pirates off the Jolly Roger, the three of us will fly over, save Tinker bell, defeat Hook and take his treasure for more treasure hunting games."
"Sounds like a plan, Ah-yuck!" Goofy chuckled slightly.
Riku only looked at the two with a strange expression. "How are we supposed to fly over there?"
Peter quickly floated up as he looked down at the two. "C'mon. It's easy. Or are you still one of them?" He questioned the Wielder of Dawn as he crossed his arms, referring to when Riku worked with Hook.
"All I'm saying is that we don't have the natural ability to fly like you do." Riku spoke, avoiding the question about his past.
"Gawrsh Riku, all you need is some Pixie Dust." Goofy told him.
"Goofy, that's what we are trying to get." Riku reminded him. If they already had Pixie Dust, they wouldn't even need to be on Neverland. "You know what? I'll just help Hikari and the Lost Boys." Riku began to get up from his hiding spot, ready to go where Hikari was stationed, when the boy that never grew up hovered in front of him. "What?" He asked with annoyance.
"How do we know that you won't go behind our back and tell Hook where we're hiding?" Pan question, sensing that no matter what Goofy said to cover him, Peter will not trust him on his own. "You're staying right in my sight."
"How exactly are we going to save your friend if I can't fly over there? I have more use in the other group." He pointed out, trying to past the flying boy, only for the boy to stay in front of him.
"Goofy!" Peter looked over to the humanoid dog. "Have you still got any Pixie Dust from your last visit?" he asked him.
"Hmmm." Goofy dug his gloved hands into his pockets of his trousers, pulling out a small pouch. "Got it!" He cheered.
"How much is in there?" Peter asked.
"Half a bag."
"That will cover you guys travelling over there. You can get the rest from when we save Tinker bell." Peter flew over to Goofy and took the bag off of him, slipping the golden dust within the pouch over him and Riku.
The silver haired teen sneezed from the sudden contact of the dust, rubbing his noes as he looked back at the flying boy. "Nothing is happening." He said, seeing as he was still on solid ground.
"Just think of a happy thought." Peter told him as he speeded towards him and pushed the Wielder of Dawn over the cliff.
Riku didn't even have time to calculate what had just happened, finding that gravity had took over as he began to fall down towards the water. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Peter and Goofy looked from the cliff, hearing a huge splash sound coming from the bottom of the rocky cliffs. Goofy looked at the never aging boy with disapproval. "Peter, I don't think that was the right thing to do." He told the boy off.
Peter just shrugged at the comment as he said, "It's not my fault that he didn't think of a happy thought."
BOWBOWBOW
"There it is!"
Hikari pulled the brushes aside to see the side of the ship close to the shore; she still didn't see the point of separating the group and driving the pirates away. It made more sense to go charging in when Hook isn't expecting it. Either way, she was glad that she could get in to position quickly now all she has to do is wait for the signal from Peter's group. She turned to the Lost Boys, seeing them edging to be reckless and play. She shook her head at this in humour before saying, "At least it didn't take us too long to find the ship." She said.
The boy in the bear suit, also known as Cubby, looked up at her at her comment. "Hook always places his ship in the same places. He either places it here or near Skull Cave."
"Well, at least that's good for us." Hikari smiled as she looked back at the ship, seeing some of the Heartless Pirates form from the ship, patrolling the area.
"Hey guys!" The boy in the rabbit suit, also known as Nibs, hopped around with excitement as he remembered something. "Remember when Wendy came to Neverland?" He asked the rest of the Lost Boys, driving their focus away from the mission.
The twin raccoons jumped up in joy. "Yeah! Yeah! Peter would look funny around her." The boys said.
"Tinker bell would get sooo jealous." The fox boy, also known as Slightly began to laugh, "Remember when she told us that Wendy was a bird?"
"And Tootles shot her down." Cubby added, earning a slight pout from the little skunk boy. "Yeah! That was funny!" The boys began to laugh from the memories of Wendy's arrival to Neverland.
Hikari turned away from her scouting duty to turn to the laughing boys. "Guys! We're going after Hook. Remember?" She reminded them.
"But you get that funny look too?" Slightly pointed out to her.
"Yeah! You kinda look like this!" Nibs pulled a blank and dream like face, trying to impersonate Hikari making the Lost Boys laugh even harder.
Hikari shook her before looking at them boys curiously. "And where exactly do I look like that?" She questioned them.
"Umm…" Cubby began to answer.
"WITH RIKU!" Until the twins interrupted.
"Riku?" Hikari's eyes widened as she did not expect to hear the Wielder of Dawn's name.
Little Tootles nodded happily while Slightly looked at her with confusion. "How could you trust him? He worked with Hook." He pointed out with some of the Lost Boys agreeing with the fox boy.
"Well…" Hikari began to think about it. Why was it that she was able to trust the Wielder of Dawn after all of the things that he had done? Then again, he must trust her is he was fully tell her all of his regrets and mistakes in the past back at Little Devon. Did she trust him because he was another person that she can talk freely about her brother and her aim to free her brother of this horrible curse or is he just another comrade? "I trust him because he's changed for the better and that he's my friend." She decided, seeing that Riku had become one of her trusted friends during this journey.
Some of the Lost Boys looked at her strangely before giggling slightly. "It's there again!" Nibs pointed out.
The twin laughed as they jumped in front of Hikari and began to chant, "Riku and Hikari sitting in the tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" From hearing this, the Lost Boys began to laugh once more.
Hikari's cheeks redden from the mention of the song as well as slightly panicky eyes from the amount of volume that the boys were making. "Guys! We have to be quite." She told them, trying to getting rid of the flashbacks of the mistletoe kiss as well as the incident during their little war at the gummi ship.
It didn't take long for the boys and the tomboy fighter to get surrounded by Pirates and Heartless.
BOWBOWBOW
The red head fluttered her eyes open as her face felt the coldness of the Gummi's cockpit floor. Her tired looking violet eyes looked around the cockpit to see that everything seemed to be at check, nothing was on fire, they were still flying and not crashed on some random world or Endless ship and no sounds of incoming fire with heard or felt. The Princess of Heart pushed herself off the cold metal floor before looking around once more, only to gasp in horror. "Sora!"
The armguard that the Devon brothers had given to Sora had bend slightly from the slight growth of the shadow like bone at the size of his arm as his infected claw pulsed brightly between grey and white. His expression was filled with pain as he held Steve within his other arm, protecting him from the warp jump, his hand and claw holding into the armrests tightly as the knuckles on his hand had turned white. His eyes just stared out into space though, either when Kairi told in front of him, his lost ocean blue eyes didn't move an inch.
Kairi grabbed a hold of his shoulders, shaking him slightly to attempt to make him snap out of his dream like glaze. "Sora! Sora! It's alright. We made it!" She told him.
Sora only nodded, keeping up with empty glaze into nothing, his grip on the armrests didn't loosen nor tighten, his face held the painful expression as his claw continued to glow as it matched the beat of the speeding heart, matching his pulse. His eyes only moved and blinked as his female friend rested her hand on his claw, sending a form of comfort.
"C'mon, I'll take you to your room." Kairi said as she tried to get the Keyblade Master to move out of the pilot sit.
"Kairi!" His voice came out forcefully, making Steve jump away from him. "Leave me!" He told her.
If his claw wasn't flashing then she would have growled at him like she did the last time he began to act like this. Instead, she shook her head at him. "You need me." She simply said. She watched him open his mouth to respond only to yell in agony as his claw begun twitch in pain, turning more to white than grey. "Light!" She cast almost instantly on the claw, allowing the light from her palms to engulf his claw. As soon as the light faded, his claw rested calmly on the armrest, hearing Sora sigh in relief.
"Why—why do you think it calms from light attacks?" Sora wondered.
Kairi looked at him with some thought as she realised that Sora had pointed out something important, there has been a number of times that she has had to use light to stop the pain from both his claw and heart as well as calming him down when the virus manages to get control. She looked back at the claw to see that it had faded back to being grey only to look a brighter kind of grey, if it wasn't for the pointed fingertips and blades at the side of his arm, she would have thought that Sora's arm was a bad bruise attempting to heal itself. She looked at him to see that more of his caramel like brunette hair was turning pure white, it looked like that every time he would have an attack, his hair would turn white out of shock. Could be it possible that Sora's element and ability was the same as Hikari's brother's?
"Kairi!" Sora called out to her, shaking her arm slightly. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah…" She trailed off before facing Sora again. "You need to rest." She said as he helped him out of the pilot chair.
Sora's legs felt weak as he stumbled over Kairi, making the Princess lean again the control panel as Sora hovered over her weakly. He breathed deeply, finding it hard to breathe when he was this close to Kairi. Knowing that she concealed the same feelings in her heart as he did, it made it harder for him not to tell her those three special words and keep her close to him for the rest of time. But he knew the risk of being with Kairi, he would only endanger her when the virus decides to strike again and he wouldn't want to hurt her, not in a million years. Still, it was hard to pull away from her emotionally and physically since the sudden pain attack of his claw seemed to drain most of his strength. "Kairi…" he whispered softly to her.
"C'mon." She smiled sadly at him as she pushed him away from her slightly so that she could guild him down to the bridge.
As Sora walked along with Kairi's help, an sudden thought came across him. "Kairi. Do you think things will ever go back to the way they were?" he asked her.
"What do you mean?" She helped him across the bridge.
"Do you think that we could have a normal life after this?" He said. "What if the Keyblade takes me away from everyone again?"
"It won't." She said before sadly adding. "Unless you decide to."
"Kairi…" Sora began to speak.
"Sora. I know you. You would try your best to prevent anyone from hurting, even if you didn't know them yet. Your destiny is the key." She spoke.
"But—" He limped slightly as they reached his room. "I'll be away from you and Riku."
"It doesn't have to be that way in the future." She said. "Me and Riku will always be by your side. We're your friends at heart, as well as many others." She told him as he placed him into his bed.
He chuckled as he looked up at her, resting on his bed with a slight smile before asking, "Where are we?"
She pulled out a device from her pocket that Brian had given to her before the gummi had been attacked and switched it on, showing the beacons of the other communicators on Neverland and Atlantica. "The others made it to the worlds. Looks like we managed to pin point ourselves in between the two." She reported before placing the device in her pocket. "I'll bring your remedy in before I head into the simulator. I want you to rest." She told him.
"But I'll be lonely!" Sora whined like a child, making Kairi chuckle slightly. "Not to mention bored."
She shook her head at him. "Well you what, how bout after you take your meds I sit in here with you until you fall asleep. Deal?" She handed out her hand to form the agreement, smiling as Sora shook her hand strongly before she set out the room.
Steve was the only one in the cockpit to receive Brian's distress call from Atlantica.
A/N: DAMN YOU CHAPTER! WHY CAN'T YOU BE SIMPLE! Sorry for the wait guys, I've had some coursework, personal stuff and cosplay stuff to deal with. I will try to get out of these chapters as quick as I can.
Kingdommad