Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys

by lyokoMARVELanime

Spin-off/Sequel to Keyblades of Future Past. The legend you know returns, but this time it's not just Sora, Donald, and Goofy racing to save the worlds, but this time, they'll be working alongside the newest Keyblade Master and Sora's new teacher: Ventus. Experience the first KH adventure you know with a new twist as the forces of darkness face two keys in the battle for the worlds

15. Second Star to The Right

AN: Wow, we got this one out pretty quickly compared to the last few updates that some of my stories have seen lately, but either way, it's time for the next round of adventures in Dual Keys!

[audience applause]

Sora: Wait, if you're updating this story so soon, doesn't that mean...

AN: Yes, yes it does. We're getting close to the end, and this story is starting to enter its ending stages! Exciting, huh?

Ventus: Yeah, and it also means that a lot of stuff we and other people have really been waiting for are soon to come.

Roxas: Like mine, Xion, and Namine's return to the action, for example.

Xigbar: Or some real bad guys getting to tear the Key-boys apart. Assuming they have been good boys. [suddenly gets zapped by a few thousand volts of electricity before getting blasted out of the room]

AN: Yeah, heroes appearing early are one thing, but that wannabe pirate? No way he's gonna stick around.

Xigbar: [from somewhere in the distance] I'm not a pirate!

AN: I know, that's why I said "wannabe pirate". Anyways, let's get into some review answers really quick. First off, to "ronin warriors fanatic", I'm afraid that the whole image training thing in DBZ just doesn't really fly here, mostly because in this story, I view the Keyblade training being a bit more involved than just something of the mind. In essence, it's something that requires a great deal of physical involvement, so having them do something that only happens in the mind kind of...detracts from that.

Xion: I kinda think it could look pretty cool.

AN: Yeah, there's actually another reason why I'm not going to be doing that, which will be revealed in the sequel.

Moving on, "Dragon Rider 66", the main reason as to why I can't do the parody you requested is because it's just not up my alley. I honestly did try, but I couldn't really pull it together effectively. Sorry, but if I could do it, I would most likely go for it.

Next up to our old pal "Monkey D. Conan", for starters, let me just say that yes, I have indeed seen Hook, it's one of my favorite movies, and you will likely see one or two things from that in here. As for your other questions regarding events in Neverland, you'll find out today, and you'll find out the answers to the questions regarding Hollow Bastion events in a couple chapters or so. Rounding it out, the matter of what will happen after that final point you mentioned, we will be ending at the same point as KH1, and you might be surprised by what happens in the end.

Riku: And that's without mentioning what you're including in the epilogue for this story, right?

AN: Yes, Riku, that is correct. Now, let's wrap up with an answer for "Mr. Nobody or YARN", Present-Day aka Young-Sora does in fact still have the fragmented version of Ven's heart inside of him, however, the heart that Future Sora returned was a fully recovered version of Ven's heart. So our favorite blonde master is indeed complete, and we are in fact going to see Roxas come to be due to Sora having the fragmented version of Ven's heart inside of him. Of course, it's still going to have a purpose, just not the original one that it had before in canon. You'll see what I mean soon enough.

Now enough chit-chat. We've got some action to get to, a codfish to sink, and some happy thoughts to think of.

Xigbar: [finally makes it back into the room] My happy thoughts normally involve shooting people, like little Keyblade wielding brats. [suddenly gets swallowed by a massive inferno, which then dies to show one specific thing] MY BUTT IS ON FIRE! MY BUTT IS ON FIRE! MY BUTT IS ON FIRE! MY BUTT IS-[gets frozen solid by Elsa, Roxas, Xion, Ventus, and Sora]

AN: Thanks you guys.

Elsa: Always happy to help.

Sora&Xion&Roxas: What the snow queen said.

AN: Now then, as Peter Pan said, come on everybody! Here we go! Off to Neverland!

I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

---

Chapter XIV

"Whew! As much as I liked being a merman, I have to admit it feels good to have my legs back again," Sora stated as he and friends teleported onto the Kingdom, having just left Atlantica a minute ago. The team had not left right away because they felt they should inform King Triton that they had sealed the Keyhole, and they wanted to say one last goodbye to Ariel and the others before they headed out again.

Ventus just grinned in agreement with the boy, and had to smile a little wider when he noticed Sora stumbling a little as he walked around the room, showing was not quite used to the feeling of walking around on land again instead of swimming around like a merman. "I have to agree with you, but try not to rush into things just yet. It always takes a bit of time to regain the feeling of your normal form after the first time you go to a world where a form change like that is necessary."

"You mean there are other worlds where I could become part fish," Sora gasped, only to suddenly trip over his large feet as he tried to walk forward again.

Thankfully, Ventus was able to catch the kid before he face-planted onto the deck, and then answered, "There may be one or two out there, but there are other worlds where similar changes could occur. Worlds where you could even turn into a full-fledged animal, or something that doesn't walk at all, for example. The number of worlds is endless, Sora, so the possibilities on what you may find on each of them or what you may have to turn into in order to protect the world order has to be just as so."

"Wow," Sora breathed in awe, his excitement growing a little more, even though he still needed to let Ven guide him up to the cockpit. He was a bit relieved to see that Donald and Goofy were just as wobbly as he was, but then felt a bit downcast as he asked, "So does that mean we'll feel like this every time we go to a world where we need to have a form change of some kind?"

"No, not every time. Besides, you only feel this off-balance because this is the first time you've gone through a change like that, so don't worry too much. You'll get used to it eventually," Ventus reassured the kid while settling into the pilot's seat. After pulling the gummi ship away from Atlantica, he prepared to set the ship on course for the next world when Sora suddenly remembered something that caught his attention.

"By the way, we found another page from Merlin's book while we were in Ariel's grotto," Sora exclaimed, holding out the page for Ventus to see.

Hearing that, Ven immediately set the ship on auto-pilot, and moved to get a look at the page. After a few seconds, he grinned in confirmation, glad to see that they had in fact found another one of the missing pages from Merlin's storybook, and making the same mental note that Sora had before on how they now had three pages left to find. He was about to jump back into the pilot's seat again and request a destination from Goofy, when the knight in question actually revealed something else. "Hey, fellers, just before we left, Sebastian gave me this. I think it might be another one of the missing pages from Ansem's report."

"What? Where did he find that," Ventus asked in surprise as both he and Sora jumped up from their seats to see the page that Goofy had just taken out of his vest pocket.

"He said he saw it in Ursula's lair and thought it might be important," Goofy explained, handing the page over to Ven.

"Well, what does it say? What does it say," Donald demanded in excitement, thinking that this might tell them something important about the Heartless.

Ventus quickly took his seat back, with the others quickly gathering around him, and then looked at the page so he could read its contents aloud. "The shadows that crawl beneath the castle…Are they the people who lost their hearts, or incarnations of darkness? Or something entirely beyond my imagination? All my knowledge has provided no answer. One thing I am sure of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps further study will unlock the mysteries of the heart. Fortunately, there is no shortage of test samples. They are multiplying underground even as I write this report. They still need a name. Those who lack hearts…I will call them the Heartless." He then paused for a moment, looked to the other three to see that they were waiting for something else, and then sighed as he said, "That's it. That's all there is in this report. Just how Ansem had decided to start studying the Heartless and how he first named them."

"So then it's no more helpful than the other pages that we found so far," Donald moaned in despair, while Goofy let out a sad sigh of his own.

Sora looked a bit downcast as well, but he quickly took notice of the pensive expression on Ven's face, and quickly became curious. "What is it, Ven," Sora asked.

Ventus hummed in thought for a minute before explaining, "This doesn't make much sense. Remember what Leon and the others told us, about how their world was ruled by someone named Ansem?" When the others nodded in reply, Ventus went on to add, "Well I only know of one world that's ruled by someone who goes by that name, and that was Radiant Garden, yet they said that their world is Hollow Bastion. Not only that, but the more of these reports that we find, the more that this doesn't seem like the Ansem I know. This most recent report actually says that he was experimenting with the Heartless, but I know for a fact that while Ansem did discover the Heartless, he didn't go so far as to experiment on them, at least not more than what was necessary for discovering that most of them do in fact come from the Realm of Darkness. Add in the fact that he had shut down his research into the Heartless and the realm they come from when he found out it was too dangerous, and I can't help but wonder if these reports might have been written by someone else using Ansem's name, or if this really is another person who goes by the same name."

"Hmm. That is very strange," Jiminy mused while the others assumed their own thinking poses. "Maybe you're right to think that it's someone else, but are you sure that the Ansem you know really stopped his research when he said that he did?"

"Well that's what he told both me and Mickey on one of our last visits to Radiant Garden, and we didn't really get much of a chance to double check on that because I was still in the middle of my training. By the time we did get another chance to go and visit, something had happened to Radiant Garden. I'm not sure what exactly, but every time I've looked at the star that I know to be that world, I've always felt cold…dread…and several other feelings that you would associate with darkness," Ventus explained. "I'll admit that you do have a point to be suspicious like that, Jiminy, but Mickey and I know Ansem the Wise. He wouldn't do anything to endanger his people even for his own scientific curiosity."

"Well maybe finding another one of these reports will help clear this up for you," Goofy suggested. "After all, Aerith and Leon did say that Ansem's report was very detailed, right?"

"Yeah, so that must mean that there's still some missing pages left to find that will clear up any confusion left," Donald offered.

"But how come so many of the bad guys we've fought had the pages," Sora asked.

Everyone had to pause and think for a minute, until Ventus theorized, "Maybe because Maleficent found it first, or at least most of the report. That's probably how she learned to control the Heartless in the first place."

"Do you really think so, Ven," Jiminy asked.

"It's the only thing that I can think of that makes sense," Ventus shrugged in admittance. "Either way, it doesn't matter that much for now. We've got to focus on our mission and head for the next world. Goofy, if you wouldn't mind giving me the coordinates."

Goofy immediately nodded in reply and turned to his monitor so he could find those coordinates. While Goofy was doing that, Sora suddenly felt a sudden spike of anxiety coming from Kairi's heart, and he quickly became concerned for his friend. So, once he had settled back into his seat again, he closed his eyes for a minute and mentally asked, "Kairi? Is everything okay?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine, Sora," Kairi tried to reassure him.

"Are you sure? I can feel that you're getting a little…tense or something," Sora questioned, not wanting to take that easy answer so quickly. He may be oblivious to a lot of things, but Sora was not stupid. He could always tell when something was bothering his friends, especially in the case of his best friends.

Kairi did not say anything for a moment, and Sora had to wonder if she had cut off the connection so that he would not question her too much, but eventually, she did say, "It's nothing really, but…for some reason, when Ventus mentioned that Radiant Garden place just now, I felt like…like I had heard of that place somewhere before, and not just by name either. Not only that, but the more I hear about him, or at least his name, the more I feel like I've heard the name Ansem the Wise somewhere before too. I can't really explain how or why."

Sora had to admit, that had him a little stumped too. How could Kairi have heard of either of those things? Neither of them had so much as heard the name of one other world until after Sora had first landed in Traverse Town, and this whole adventure began. Then Sora remembered that Kairi did not remember anything about her homeworld, and had a possibly crazy idea follow afterwards. Could it be that Kairi was originally from Radiant Garden? If both the name of the place and its ruler felt familiar to her, then that certainly was a strong possibility. He was actually just about to suggest that idea to Kairi when he realized that the level of anxiousness he was getting from her heart was not just limited to a sudden feeling of familiarity. "Is there something else, Kairi," Sora immediately asked.

"Well…I feel like I can sense something is coming for us. I can't really tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's definitely coming at us, and its coming fast," Kairi explained.

Sora was about to ask if she was sure about that, even if he knew that it was probably a redundant question since Kairi's ability to sense things was supposedly unmatched due to her nature as a Princess of Heart, but the ship's proximity alarms going off quickly answered the question for him. "Incoming off the port stern," Goofy reported.

"What is it," Ventus asked, his hands already switching off the autopilot and grasping the manual controls so he could move the ship out of the way at a moment's notice.

Goofy looked at his sensors for a minute before he reported, "It looks like a big ship is catching up to us."

"The Heartless," Sora asked, already reaching for the weapons controls.

The young Keybearer got his answer a minute later, when a massive ship suddenly flew right past them, and from the quick look they all got, it was clearly not a Heartless ship. "No! That's a pirate ship," Donald squawked. Indeed, a large, brown sailing ship with the skull-and-crossbones flag that was common among all ships of such nature had just flown right past them, and when they saw the back of the ship, they all quickly spotted another skull on the back, along with a name plate that read Jolly Roger. Seeing that ship immediately started striking a few bells of familiarity for Ventus, but what concerned him more was the fact that the ship was coming back around towards them. "Uh-oh," was all Donald could say after that.

"It's going to ram us," Ventus shouted. "Sora, open fire!"

"I can't! It's too close to us," Sora protested, knowing that any damage inflicted on the other ship would end up cascading back onto the Kingdom.

"Everyone brace yourselves! Maximum power to the shields," Ventus ordered.

"Here we go again," Goofy hollered as he ducked down with his hands over his head, just seconds before everything went black for the team right when the two ships collided with one another.

---

The sound of gently crashing waves was what eventually roused Sora from his unconscious state, but when he finally came to, he found himself wishing he was still knocked out, because he found out that he had been knocked off of the Kingdom and onto the deck of the pirate ship that had just rammed into them. His worries only increased when he saw no sign of Ventus, Donald, or Goofy anywhere around him, and he immediately jumped to his feet so that he could look around the rest of the deck, hoping that they were just somewhere he could not see them at and not being held prisoner somewhere down below. Sadly, by the time he had reached the front of the ship, Sora was sad to see that none of his friends were anywhere in sight, which meant that they had to have been captured by the pirates who commanded this vessel. Well, to be more accurate, he did not find any of the friends that he had been traveling with up until now.

"I didn't think you'd come, Sora," a familiar voice commented, drawing Sora's attention back to where he had just come from, and he was shocked to see Riku standing up on the deck just above him, and his friend was clearly glaring down at him despite the small smirk on his face. "Good to see you again."

"Where are Donald, Goofy, and Ven, Riku," Sora demanded, not in the mood to play any games right now, and after their last encounter inside of Monstro, Sora was intent on making that very clear to Riku this time.

Riku's smirk quickly turned into a full-blown scowl as he asked, "Are they that important to you? More important than old friends? Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking…about her."

Sora was a little confused what the older boy meant by that, until Riku stepped aside to reveal the limp, practically comatose form of the girl he had been searching for all this time. Or to be more accurate, the body of the girl whose heart was currently resting inside of Sora, and while Sora was glad to see this, the fact that said body was resting next to Riku had him far more worried. "Kairi!"

"My body," Kairi exclaimed from inside of Sora, and he could feel her heart start lightly reacting from being so close to it, almost like it was trying to push its way out of him and back into where it belonged.

"That's right. While you were off goofing around, I finally found her," Riku boasted.

Sora just glared up at Riku, and he could feel Kairi was doing the same as well from inside of him, so it was no surprise that he tried to rush forward so that he could scoop Kairi's body up and carry it away from the danger it was obviously caught in. What was surprising was when a hook hand suddenly flashed in front of Sora, making him stop short and look towards the red-clad, dark haired pirate that it belonged to. "Not so fast. No shenanigans aboard my vessel, boy," Captain Hook grinned as a number of Heartless that looked like pirates with large cutlasses suddenly materialized all around Sora just seconds later.

"Riku, why are you siding with the Heartless? You know you don't need their help. We can save Kairi together," Sora pleaded, hoping to reach his friend.

"I don't need your help to save anyone," Riku practically growled. "The Heartless obey me now, Sora. Now I have nothing to fear."

"Will you stop being stupid and just listen to me for five minutes?! Sooner or later they'll swallow your heart," Sora snapped, his patience finally running thin with Riku.

"Not a chance. My heart's too strong," Riku scoffed in disbelief, and the conviction in his voice showed how much he truly believed that.

"Riku, I wasn't done talking. If you really want to help save Kairi, then you need to let me help, because…" Sora started to say in an effort to reveal what he knew about Kairi and where her heart currently was. He knew that doing so was probably a bad idea with someone like Hook standing right there, but if this was going to be his last chance to reach his friend somehow, he had to take it.

Kairi on the other hand, was of a different opinion. "Sora, no! You can't reveal that my heart's inside of you with all of these Heartless around!" Even as she said that though, she could feel her heart continue in its efforts to burst out of Sora and reenter her real body, but she knew that she had to resist for the moment. Not that she was having to try too hard, because it seemed like her heart was not strong enough to break free on its own for some reason.

Kairi's protests were not all that necessary though, because Riku interrupted before Sora could get much further in his explanation. "How about you listen, Sora! I don't need your help. Now that I have the Heartless, I'll be able to save Kairi's heart all on my own," Riku stated. He then smirked a little, waved his hand in Sora's direction, and said, "I've picked up a few other tricks as well. Like this for instance."

Sora was not sure how else he could react after that, because one minute he felt an odd, cold feeling sweeping over him, and the next, he was jumping back in shock as his shadow suddenly jumped up from beneath his feet like it had a life of its own. The next thing he knew, Kairi's heart seemed to finally cease in its efforts to reach her body, and Sora looked up to see Riku was carrying said body away while he remarked, "You can go see your friends now."

Right when Riku had said that, a trap door opened beneath Sora's feet, and both he and Kairi were letting out screams of surprise as they dropped down into the ship, leaving their best friend with the Heartless and the pirate captain. "Let's get under way, already," Riku ordered. "And keep Sora away from Kairi until we're ready to land."

Hook refrained from saying anything until Riku was out of earshot and sight, but when the kid was, he immediately let out an indignant huff and irritably said, "That scurvy brat thinks he can order me around!"

"What shall we do, Captain Hook," the captain's first mate, Mister Smee questioned.

"Nothing," Hook exclaimed. "The hold is crawling with Heartless. Let them keep an eye on that bothersome Ventus and the brats."

"B-but, Captain, you-know-who is also down…" Smee started to protest, only to be hushed by his captain a second later as Hook started glancing around nervously.

"Did you hear that, Smee? Oh, that dreadful sound," Hook whispered, fear clear in his voice.

"No, Captain."

"Are you quite sure? Did I imagine it," Hook demanded, giving Smee a small shake after grabbing his first mate by the shoulders. When Smee nodded in reply, Hook released the short, chubby pirate and sighed, "Oh, my poor nerves!"

Smee could only offer his captain a comforting pat, because he knew just what Hook was referring to after that little jump scare. After all, there was only one thing that Captain James Hook was afraid of, and Smee could certainly understand why, so he settled for just doing as his captain ordered and left the Heartless to watch the prisoners. Hook was a far more important priority for Mister Smee.

---

While he may have landed in the ship's brig after dropping down through that trap door, Sora was glad to see that he had landed in the same place as the rest of his friends, but that was not the only reason why he was in such a good mood. The other three quickly took notice of this, and they were all quickly becoming just as excited as Sora when they learned the reason for his joy. "You don't say," Goofy asked.

"Yeah, it was definitely Kairi, or Kairi's body. I finally found her," Sora confirmed, grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

"All right! Then let's go up and get her so we can put her heart back in her body," Goofy declared, sounding just as excited as Sora.

"Yeah," Sora cheered.

"Sounds great," Donald agreed, but there was something else that he needed to mention to the other two first. "Okay, but first…how about getting off!"

"Oh, sorry," Sora chuckled. You see, when the kid had landed in the brig, he ended up dropping down right on top of the other three, and as a result, the four had found themselves in yet another pile-up.

"Well, look on the bright side, Sora. At least you're not the one on the bottom this time. Speaking of which, perhaps all of you guys could hurry up with that matter of getting off," Ventus requested, partly teasing and partly annoyed, since he was the one on the bottom this time.

"Sorry," all three of the others chorused in reply.

Once they had untangled themselves and gotten back on their feet again, Ventus immediately moved to the door so he could take a peek outside the locked room. Granted the window in question was too small for him to really get a good view on whether or not there was anyone standing guard, but he could still see that the room appeared to be empty for the most part. Ventus was not going to take any chances though, so he quickly asked Sora, "Did you happen to get a good look at our captors? I know you said that Riku was here and that he was controlling Heartless that looked like pirates, but was there anything else we should know about?"

"Well there were two other pirates," Sora recalled. "One of them was really short and wore a striped shirt and a red cap, while the other one was clearly the captain. He was dressed in red and had a black mustache and long black hair, and had a big feather in his hat."

Hearing the description of the captain made Ventus pause for a minute before he quickly turned back to Sora and asked, "Did you ever see him freak out because he thought he heard the sound of a clock, or something?"

"Uh…no, but he did have a hook for a hand," Sora revealed.

"A hook for…Oh my Kingdom Hearts," Ventus exclaimed with a grin on his face before he broke out into a small bit of laughter. "Of all the bad guys in all the worlds, Maleficent actually recruited that old codfish? Now that is too funny!"

"Do you know who that is, Ven," Donald asked, watching as the blonde continued laughing.

"Yeah, his name's Captain Hook, and I think I know where we've landed too. I've been to this world before, years ago when I was on my first journey," Ventus revealed once he managed to calm down enough. "And if Captain Hook is here, that can only mean that at least one other person isn't too far behind."

Before the others could ask Ven who he was talking about, another voice suddenly spoke up, surprising them all. "How ya doin' there? Looking for a way out," the person asked, and the four all turned just in time to see a young boy who was probably about twelve years old at most dressed in a green outfit with a red feather pinned into his hat flip out from behind the crates that were stacked near the back of the room.

"Who're you," Goofy asked.

"I'm the answer to your prayers," the boy boasted with a smile, drawing doubtful looks from three of the four.

"All these years, and it looks like you haven't changed a bit, have you, Peter," Ventus chuckled.

The green-clad boy immediately turned to the blonde, finally taking a good look at him, and then gasped, "Ven? Is that you?"

"The one and only. It's been way too long, Peter Pan," Ventus confirmed with a grin.

"Yeah, you can say that again. You've really changed a lot since I last saw you," Peter grinned in reply, exchanging a high-five with Ventus as he did.

"Not really, and not ever," Ventus told Peter with a smile, making Peter grin a little wider when he did. Ventus then heard Donald let out a small cough, and remembered that the others were in the room with them. "Oh right. Peter, I'd like to meet some friends of mine. Donald, Goofy, and my apprentice Sora. Guys, meet the hero of Neverland, the leader of the Lost Boys, and the ultimate pain to all pirates, Peter Pan."

"Apprentice, huh," Peter asked as he looked Sora over. "What's an apprentice?"

"Well…I guess you could say that he's kinda like my own lost boy, at least in the sense that I'm teaching him everything he needs to know about how to handle himself in a larger world," Ventus explained as best as he could, or at least in the best way that he felt Peter could understand.

"Oh, I get it," Peter nodded. "Well it's nice to meet you guys."

"Same here. We haven't really had a chance to meet too many of Ven's friends just yet, so it's really cool to meet you," Sora admitted as he shook hands with Peter. "But what're you doing here?"

"Hook captured someone very important to me, and I'm here to rescue her," Peter revealed. When he saw the worried look on Ven's face, he quickly revealed, "Don't worry, Ven, it's not who you're thinking of. It's a girl named Wendy. She's really awesome and tells great stories about me. I would often fly over to the window of her house to listen in so I could tell the stories to the Lost Boys later. On one of my last trips, I got separated from my shadow, and when I went back to get it, I finally met her face-to-face. That's when I learned she was going to be growing up the next day, so I brought her to Neverland, since she would never grow up here. Besides, she told me she had dreamed of coming here for a long time, so I figured why not?"

"That's really cool of you, Peter, but how are you going to rescue Wendy if you're stuck in here with us," Ventus pointed out.

"Ha! Come on, Ven. You know me better than that," Peter laughed in response. "I'm not stuck in here. I'm just waiting for someone."

"Who," Sora asked, and his answer quickly came seconds later when a small ball of light suddenly flew into and around the room, making Sora turn this way and that in an attempt to keep up with it, along with Donald and Goofy, while Ven just grinned at the sight of the small orb of light, having already figured out what, or rather who it was.

A minute later, the orb came to a stop, floating right in front of Peter before it changed into a very tiny woman with blonde hair tied into a bun, pale skin, blue eyes, and a pair of transparent wings, clad in a short green, strapless dress and green slippers, and it was easy for Sora to figure out the tiny girl was actually a fairy, much to his disbelief. "Hey, Tinker Bell! It's so good to see you," Ven cheered happily.

When the fairy heard her name being mentioned, she immediately turned to Ventus and lit up with a bright smile of her own that seemed to make the light around her glow brighter than it already was, and to further showcase her happiness at seeing the blonde, she immediately flew around Ventus in excitement leaving a trail of sparkles behind her while the sound of rapid ringing bells filled the air, much to Ven and Peter's amusement. "What's she doing," Sora asked.

"Talking of course," Peter replied, knowing that Sora was referring to the bell sounds that Tinker Bell was making.

"So what's she saying," Goofy asked.

"She's basically just going on about how happy she is to see Ven again," Peter shrugged. Tinker Bell then flew over to tell Peter something else, and he quickly replied, "Relax. I was getting to that. Tink also wants to know if Aqua and Terra are here too, and I've gotta admit, I'm a little curious about that, myself."

Ven's smile immediately fell when he heard that, and it did not go unnoticed by either one of the Neverland locals. Still, he could not keep this from his two old friends, so he ended up giving them a reply after a minute. "I actually don't know where Terra is. He just disappeared somewhere into the darkness after a battle we all had against a very dangerous enemy. As for Aqua…well, she's lost in the Realm of Darkness. I've spent most of the last ten years trying to find her while finishing my training and helping Sora with the start of his."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, Ven," Peter offered in condolence, while Tinker Bell gave a sad sounding ring to him to show that she shared the feeling.

"Hey, don't be. Besides, after meeting Sora, I think we've gotten closer to finding an answer on how to get Aqua back, and I get the feeling that he's going to be a big help in saving her," Ventus revealed.

"Well that's good news. Speaking of people that need saving though, how'd your mission go, Tink," Peter asked, getting the fairy's attention. Ventus did not miss how Tinker Bell seemed to frown a little bit at being reminded of whatever job she was given, but she did still give her report all the same. "Great job. So you found Wendy," Peter asked, clearly getting good news. Tinker Bell nodded in reply, adding something else in when she did that caught Peter's attention. "Hold on. There was another girl there, too?"

"That's gotta be Sora's friend, Kairi," Ventus exclaimed, getting confused looks from his two old pals. "Long story short, Sora got separated from his two best friends too, and we're helping him look for them. One of them is most likely the girl that Tink said was with Wendy. The other one…well, let's just say that he's making it a little difficult to help him and Kairi as well, by extension."

"I see," Peter nodded in understanding. A minute later, Tinker Bell let out an obvious huff and crossed her arms as she said something that clearly got Peter a little upset, given his reply to her. "Are you crazy? There's no way I'm gonna leave Wendy there! Besides, if that other girl really is the friend that Sora's looking for, we've gotta help him out, if for no other reason than the fact that he's pals with Ven."

Donald on the other hand seemed to notice something that Peter had either missed or was just ignoring, and he could not help but call the little fairy out on it, despite the silent warning signals that Ventus was trying to give him. "Aha! She must be pretty jealous," the royal magician teased with a laugh, not knowing the fire he had just set upon himself.

Tinker Bell did not find Donald's comment funny at all, because she immediately spun around and glared at the duck before flying up and giving a big kick to his beak to end his laughter at once, and kick-starting Ven's. "I tried to tell you, Donald. Tink may be small, but she's got a spirit that's larger than life," Ventus revealed. He then lowered his voice so that only his three traveling companions could hear him, and added, "And a temper to match."

"Thanks a lot," Donald grumbled, while Sora and Goofy quickly joined Ventus in laughing at their friend's misfortune.

Thankfully for Ven, it seemed that Tinker Bell did not hear the latter half of his statement, because she flashed him with a glowing smile before sending a frustrated look in Peter's direction and flying off. This clearly went against Peter's plan, because he quickly started looking a little worried as he begged his little friend, "Come on, Tink! Open up the door!"

Tinker Bell did no such thing, and Peter knew that likely meant he was now in hot water, no doubt thanks in part to Donald's earlier comment, but he was soon reminded that he did have another way out aside from Tinker Bell when Ventus made a show of clearing his throat while he and Sora both summoned their Keyblades. "Forget something about what these babies could do," Ventus teased Peter.

Peter just rolled his eyes a little before saying, "Okay, you guys can open the door. Besides, I was already planning on helping you all out, anyway, but only 'til we find Wendy."

"I guess that's fair," Ventus conceded with a nod. He then turned back to the door, pointed his Keyblade at it, and with one little bit of magic later, the five were free to step out of the brig and roam the ship.

It came as no surprise to any of the four world-jumping adventurers that a small platoon of Heartless appeared the minute they stepped out the door, but they did still have to adjust their fighting styles in order to deal with the new pirate-like Heartless. It did not help that, once again, Jiminy did not have any information on their enemies, but he did make a few quick notes while naming them Pirates, and he soon figured out the pattern to the attacks that the Pirates used. The one key thing to be noted in fighting Pirate Heartless was that they would almost always rear back quite a bit before launching their attacks, so they always found themselves with plenty of warning to either dodge, parry, or deflect an attack from them, and not only that, but they would also stumble or even fall over depending on how the team responded to the attacks. They also tended to leave themselves open to attacks from behind, since they always focused on any targets directly in front of them, and for someone who used a speed-based fighting style, that gave Ventus quite the advantage. The same could be said for Peter, since he would always bounce around the room, swooping through the air as light as the feather in his hat, and he proved to have no trouble at all in getting behind these tricky swash-bucklers.

Of course, there was one other thing that had grabbed the attention of Sora, Donald, and Goofy in regards to Peter's fighting style. For the most part, every second that Peter was fighting, he was floating in the air, his feet almost never touching the ground. Sure, they had seen Ventus fly across a battlefield, but that was usually through the use of things like Shotlocks, Command Styles, or some other form of magic. Peter was actually flying without any assistance from such things, and he was using this aerial capability to its full extent as he stabbed and slashed at the Heartless that appeared before them as they navigated their way through the ship, be they Pirate or Shadow variety. They knew that they should probably have been focused on getting through the ship to both Peter's friend and Kairi's body, but the fact that Peter was always up in the air, even if it was only a few feet off the ground was a bit distracting for them.

Eventually, Goofy's curiosity won out, and the next time they had caught a break while traversing an empty hallway, he looked to Peter and asked, "So, uh, how come you can fly, Peter?"

Everyone paused at the question, and Peter gave Goofy an amused smile as he revealed, "It's easy. Anyone can fly."

"Really," Sora gasped, looking to Ven when he asked that question.

Ventus glanced over to Peter for a minute, wondering if it was okay to talk about other worlds around his friend or not, until he figured it was better safe than sorry. So he lowered his voice and replied, "Well, as I'm sure you've noticed, there are certain Command Styles or Shotlocks that can allow a Keyblade wielder to gain a bit of flight, and there are also special magic abilities that can allow one to glide through the air, but here on Neverland, actual flight is indeed possible for anyone."

Sora winked to him in reply to show he understood that, and it looked like Peter had missed everything that the blonde had said, because he had just carried on like nothing had been said there. "Are you guys saying you've never flown before?"

"In a ship and with special magic, yeah, but not like you are," Donald revealed.

"Well do you wanna try," Peter asked. The three immediately gave eager nods in response, while Ventus just grinned to show that he wanted to get the chance to fly again too, and when he saw that, Peter quickly whistled for Tinker Bell, getting the fairy's attention. Unfortunately for him, it looked like Tinker Bell was still a little upset with him. "Aw, haven't you cooled off yet, Tink?"

Tinker Bell's only response was to cross her arms, and turn away from Peter with her nose turned up, so Ventus took it upon himself to help his friends out. "Come on, Tink. We just want you to help so Sora, Donald, and Goofy can fly like Peter or anyone else in Neverland. And I wouldn't mind being able to do so again too, so could you do it for me," Ventus asked, pleading to Tink's better nature. Tinker Bell seemed to think this over for a bit, until she eventually smiled and gave Ventus a nod. She then flew up and around the four friends, while Ventus turned to his three companions and explained, "Like Peter said, here in Neverland, it's easy to fly. All you need is faith, trust…"

"And a little bit of pixie dust," Peter finished, right when Tinker Bell began sprinkling some of said dust on the four, and they each began to sparkle a little with the same glow as Tinker Bell when it had gathered on them. "There. Now you can fly."

Donald was the first to make an attempt at flying, and he did so by leaping up into the air and flapping his arms like wings. Naturally, it did not work, as he soon found out when he fell flat on his face, much to Tinker Bell's amusement. Donald fixated a small look on the laughing fairy, not finding it nearly as funny as her, but it was not until Ventus spoke up that Tink stopped for a minute. "Now Tink, just because he does technically deserve it, doesn't mean you should be rubbing it in Donald's face," Ventus lightly scolded. He then waited a second or two before he grinned and added, "Too much."

Donald just gave a deadpan look to Ven as the blonde and Peter both joined Tinker Bell in laughing at him, but all of Peter's laughter ended when he saw that Sora and Goofy were not doing any better than Donald when it came to making an attempt at flying. "Hm, that doesn't seem right," Peter mused to himself. "Maybe you should show them how it's done, Ven."

"Well I am already trying to teach Sora how to be a Keyblade master. I doubt teaching him how you do things here in Neverland should be much harder," Ventus grinned, eager for the chance to fly once again. When he leapt up into the air though, he found himself dropping back down to the ground again a few seconds later, just like the others. This surprised both the Neverlanders and Ventus, and the blonde immediately made another attempt at it. This time, he actually did stay up in the air and even seemed to easily fly along like Peter, much to Sora's excitement, but Ventus had to let the kid down when he revealed that he was not flying like Peter, but instead, had just simply used the Glide ability. "I don't get it. I could fly easily the last time I was here on Neverland, so what's so different this time?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," Peter admitted while he and Tinker Bell both assumed thinking poses. "I feel like there's one more important detail that I'm forgetting about, but I can't think of it. Can you, Tink?"

The fairy just shook her head in the negative, showing she was just as clueless as Peter was on why Ventus was unable to fly right now, but the blonde was not going to let it bother him too much. "We'll worry about it later," Ven said. "We've still got a couple of rescues to make and a codfish pirate captain to sink."

"Right, then let's hurry," Peter agreed, immediately leading the charge once more, with Tinker Bell flying off ahead of them to lead the way, while the other four followed from behind, each hoping that they would be able to get to their captured friends before it was too late.

---

Meanwhile, up in the captain's quarters, Hook had been boasting about how they had finally managed to achieve their ultimate success to Riku, until the boy revealed something that the captain had not been expecting. "What? So Wendy's not one of the chosen ones," Hook demanded in disbelief.

"There are seven, supposedly, and Maleficent says she's not one of them," Riku calmly explained to Hook. He could understand why Hook would think that this Wendy girl was one of the Princesses of Heart, given what he had heard about the girl from Smee and the captain, but if Maleficent said that Wendy was not one of them then there was nothing he could do about it. Well, almost nothing. "Hoist anchor as soon as possible. Leave all the dead weight behind, including her."

"After the trouble of capturing her," Hook demanded, incredulously. Sure, Wendy was not one of the chosen ones, but that did not mean getting her had been any easier. Besides, she still had a great deal of value as a hostage, because he knew that Peter Pan would likely be coming for her, so he could use that to bring an end to his wretched foe. He would have explained that to Riku, but the boy did not seem like he would care, so Hook went for another angle and decided that it was time he tested the boy. Maleficent may have welcomed him in and given him the power to control the Heartless, but that did not mean Hook was willing to accept Riku just yet. "And why those seven? What is Maleficent planning, anyway?"

In truth, Hook's question was not entirely a test, because Maleficent had not shared the full scope of her grand scheme with all of them. She had explained that she had her reasons for doing so, even though she did not give those reasons, but that did not mean that Hook was so foolish as to blindly trust her without question. He had been looking for any opportunity to gain some insight to what that evil fairy was planning, so this served to both test Riku's loyalty to their group and Maleficent, while also giving him the answers that he needed on their dark leader's plans.

Sadly, Riku did not seem to really know, and if he did, he was clearly too loyal to his promise to Maleficent to tell Hook, because the boy's answer was not one that Hook found satisfactory. "Who knows? As long as it means getting Kairi's heart back, I couldn't care less."

It may not have been the answer Hook was hoping for, but he did still notice something that could easily turn the boy to his side, since it seemed that Maleficent had neglected to tell Riku the full truth about what could have happened to the girl's heart. "You're wasting your time! The Heartless have devoured that girl's heart. I'll stake me other hand it's lost forever."

Even though he did not know where Kairi's heart was, Riku knew that Hook would lose that bet. Kairi's heart was out there somewhere, not that Riku was going to tell the captain that. Instead, he just settled for simply promising, "I will find it no matter what."

Hook had to admit, the boy certainly had a resolve that would have made him a fine pirate, but he still felt that Riku's promise would be one that he could not keep. Hook honestly believed that Kairi's heart was gone for good, much like the hearts of all the others had fallen prey to the Heartless. Sure, he was not one hundred percent sure that someone could come back after losing their heart to those animals, but he was still sure enough of the fact that no one had before, so why start thinking differently? Either way, they still had a job to do, and despite Riku's request, he had no intention of dropping Wendy off the ship, not while she still had value as a hostage to use against Pan. That did make him wonder a little about who the seventh Princess of Heart could be if it was not Wendy. Sure, there was no shortage of girls in so much as one world, let alone all of them, but finding one specific girl out of all of them was going to be a great deal of trouble if they did not know for sure who they were looking for.

Hook's concerns about how to find the last of the chosen seven were eventually interrupted when Smee's voice suddenly buzzed over the ship's intercom, and it did not sound like he had good news. "Uh, Captain…"

"What," Hook asked, his tone making it clear that Smee should not beat around the bush.

"The prisoners have escaped. What's more, Peter Pan is with them."

"Grr…Blast that Peter Pan," Hook swore when he heard that, but still, this was a perfect opportunity to prove the point as to why it was better to keep Wendy aboard for the moment. "All right, then! Bring the hostage to me cabin, Smee! Hop to it!"

---

Despite the disappointment at not being able to fly like Peter, the fighting capabilities of the four adventurers did not suffer in the slightest. Sure, it would have been cool to fly, but they figured that adapting that to their fighting style would have taken a little bit of practice, like how doing so on Atlantica had, so they were more than happy to stay grounded for the moment. At least, most of them were okay with it, because to be quite honest, it seemed like Ventus was more disappointed about not being able to fly than the rest of them. From an outside perspective, that certainly seemed to be the case, but in reality, he was a little preoccupied with trying to figure out why he was unable to fly at all, with exception of being able to use the Glide ability. He had been able to do so just fine the first time he came to Neverland all those years ago, and he had all three things necessary for it in abundance now, thanks to Tinker Bell's supplying them with pixie dust, so what was it that he was missing? Ventus was sure that whatever it was, it had to do with that last detail that Peter could not remember, but he was having just as much trouble thinking of what it could be as the boy who never grew up appeared to be having.

Flight or no flight, it still took them a while to fight their way through the various decks of the Jolly Roger, and the Heartless definitely did not make things easier for them. It also did not escape Ventus or Sora's notice how so many of them seemed to be focusing on Sora all of a sudden, and they both had a good idea why that was. Since Kairi's heart had already reacted from being near her body before, there was strong chance that the creatures of darkness had sensed the strong light inside of Sora, and that must have made the kid seem like a five-course meal in their eyes. Despite this sudden increase in attention, Sora did not make it easy for the Heartless to take him down and consume his and Kairi's heart, and he proved that through a continuous use of his Shotlocks and the three common Command Styles. Watching his apprentice work, Ventus could not help but note that Sora was starting to be able to summon any of the three Command Styles he knew much more easily than ever, and he knew it was not just due to adrenaline rush. Sora was definitely improving, as evidenced by how the kid easily flowed from one Command Style to the next after unleashing the previous one's finisher. Sure, it was not quite to the same level as Ventus or his old friends would have done so, but Sora was definitely getting to the point where it was no longer a struggle for him to call upon any of the powerful techniques anymore. His skills with the Shotlocks were still much better in comparison, but Ventus could still see the improvement, and he knew that it likely meant it was only a matter of time now before Sora discovered his Tier One Unique Command Style. Knowing this, Ventus had to wonder if he would even need to teach Sora about the next level of Command Styles before they finished this journey, or if he would even have the chance or time to do so, but he put a pin in it for now, knowing that he could start working on future lesson plans later.

He was quickly reminded of the more important matters when Tinker Bell suddenly lead them into a room and floated up to a grate in the ceiling, ringing excitedly as she pointed up to it, and getting everyone's attention. "What is it, Tink," Peter asked, floating up a little closer to where his small friend was pointing.

Instead of the fairy, another girl's voice actually answered Peter's question, and hearing her voice definitely seemed to brighten Peter's day. "Peter? Peter Pan?" A minute later, they all saw a girl with brown hair in a blue night dress kneeling over the grate and looking down at them, looking both relieved and worried at the same time, and they did not need Peter's excited exclamation to know that this had to be his newest friend, Wendy. They did become more concerned when they found out why she looked just as worried as she did relieved though. "Please hurry! The pirates are coming!"

"What?! I'll be right up there! Just hold on," Peter reassured Wendy, and he immediately started looking for a way to get the grate open so he could fly up and help her.

While Peter was doing that, Sora suddenly felt Kairi's heart surge inside of him, and he knew that could only mean one thing: Kairi's body was somewhere nearby. Looking around the room showed him no sign of the redhead, so that could only mean that she was somewhere on the deck above them, so he quickly looked up and asked, "Wendy, is there another girl in there with you?"

"Oh, why, yes," Wendy replied, glancing up to Kairi's lifeless body, which was still in the dazed state that Sora had last seen it in. Not that he could see from where he was, but he could figure it out from what Wendy said next. "But she seems to be asleep. She hasn't budged an inch."

Hearing that, Sora figured that he had to take the chance and see if there was some way he could get Kairi's heart back into her body. It may have been risky since he was not in the exact same room as her, but if her heart had reacted from being in close proximity to her body before, maybe he could somehow use that to return her heart to where it belonged. Add in the fact that he knew she had been through a Dive to the Heart, and he figured that there was also a chance that she could end up getting a Keyblade the minute her heart returned to her body as well. With that reasoning, how could Sora not at least make something of an attempt at trying. Then again, his attempt was not really anything too spectacular, because he just ended up calling out her name while letting Kairi's heart continue to try and get free of his heart. "Kairi? Kairi," Sora called out, reaching for the girl's hand when he saw that it was lying at her side. Then again, her side and one of her legs was all he could see of Kairi's body, but that was good enough for Sora at the moment.

Ventus knew what Sora was trying to do, but he doubted it was going to be as simple as calling out to the girl, and he would have told Sora as such too, had he not seen Kairi's fingers suddenly jump a little in response to Sora's cries. For a minute, he thought he also saw her hand move a little closer to where Sora was standing too, and it seemed that maybe Sora's idea was going to work. What he did not know, was that he was not the only one who had seen or sensed something from the girl's body, as Kairi had felt it too. "Sora, I think it's working! I can feel my heart getting stronger and my body calling out to me," Kairi cheered. "Keep going! I think I'm almost there!"

Sora grinned happily in response to that, and was about to do as requested, when they heard a long bang come from the deck above them, and a minute later, Kairi's body was dragged out of view from him once again. The pirates must have arrived just then, because they also heard Wendy let out a gasp of fright, and that seemed to spurn Peter into taking much more hasty action. The minute he heard Wendy cry out, Peter had spun his dagger up into his hand and started hacking away at the grate above them in an attempt to break through it. "Come on! We've gotta get up there," Peter growled as he hacked and chopped at the grate.

"Move back, Peter. I've got this," Ventus ordered, and once Pan was clear of the line of fire, Ventus aimed his Keyblade up at the grate, and fired a blast of Fira that blew it open with a bang.

Peter immediately flew up into the room above them, with Sora, Ven, Donald, and Goofy all jumping up to join him seconds later by focusing some magic into their feet in order to jump higher, but all they found when they arrived was an empty room. Peter immediately slammed his fist against the wall in frustration, hating how he was just too late like that, but he quickly calmed down when Ventus placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, while giving him a matching look to show that they would get to Wendy before he knew it. Peter smiled in thanks for that and started scanning the room, knowing that they could not have gone too far, until he spotted a ladder hanging on the ceiling above them, and immediately smirked in recognition of what it could do for them.

"Hey, that ladder goes right up to Hook's cabin! I'll bet that's where he had Wendy and your friend taken," Peter informed the others as he pointed up to the ladder.

"Good eye, Peter," Ventus complimented. "Think you can fly up and get it down for us?"

"I don't know. It looks like it might be locked into place from here," Peter admitted.

While the two of them were talking, they failed to notice Goofy, Sora, and Donald were stacking themselves on top of one another to form a human totem pole, and then reach up to unlatch the ladder from its place on the ceiling, until it had dropped down to the floor that is. "It's open now," Donald announced after he had jumped off of Sora's shoulders.

Ventus and Peter just looked between the three and the ladder before they both eventually just shrugged and said, "Well that works too."

They wasted no more time with idle chit-chat, and all immediately clambered up the ladder to the cabin above them. Despite being an old codfish, Ventus would admit that Hook did have some tastes when it came to interior decorating of a personal space, because Hook's cabin, while nothing too extravagant, was still impressive to look at. The captain had set things up so that he had a very nice sofa of a bench against the far window, while the bed looked like something you would find in a very nice hotel with four posts at the corners that reached up to the ceiling. Over in front of the window, he could see a very nice looking desk and chair that had a large assortment of items resting upon the former, including a quill pen, several parchments, some of which Ven assumed were maps of various varieties, and a couple of small chests. The blonde had to pause for a moment when he felt as though something were calling to him from one of those chests, but it was quickly forgotten when Sora took notice of who else was in the captain's cabin with them, and called out the one of their names, sounding a little desperate and tired when he did.

"Riku," Sora called, seeing his best friend holding Kairi's body in his arms, and the young Keyblade wielder could feel Kairi's heart reacting even more strongly to being near the girl's body than ever in that one moment.

"You never quit, do you, Sora," Riku growled, irritably. No one was expecting him to draw a mocking smirk in the next second though, as he turned to the blonde and said, "But at least now, we have a chance to prove once and for all if we really are in the presence of a true Keyblade master."

"What's that supposed to mean," Ventus demanded, not liking how Riku had phrased that in the least bit.

"I'm sure you can figure it out on your own, but I guess I'll make it easy for you," Riku replied. "If you really are a Keyblade master, then prove it by returning Kairi's heart to her body. I've been told that you know where it is, so it shouldn't be any problem for you to give her back her heart right here and now, should it?"

Ventus and Sora both had to pause in shock. How did Riku figure out that he knew the location of Kairi's heart? Did they slip up when talking about it on one of the other worlds, and not notice a time when he was close enough to hear them? Or had someone else found out and told him? Of course, there was also the third possibility of someone, most likely Maleficent if they were to take a wild guess, merely guessing that and telling Riku as a way to lure him to their side while driving a wedge between him and Sora, but whatever the case might have been, it did not matter. What mattered right now was that Riku was finally calling Ventus out on his claims to be a Keyblade master, confirming that the silver haired boy did not ever seem to believe the blonde about that in the first place. Knowing this, it was time to finally get to the bottom of the mystery as to why that was, and Ventus did not hesitate to question the kid on it.

"Why should I have to prove anything to you or anyone else," Ventus asked, the look in his eyes making the question both simple and demanding at the same time. "I know who I am, what I am, and that should always be more than enough."

"Oh really? Then where were you when other worlds were falling to darkness, when Kairi lost her heart, or when your own friend, a woman that you claim to care about more than anything, threw herself into darkness to save another one of your friends," Riku demanded, shocking Ventus with how much he knew. "I've met real Keyblade masters before, and I could feel the power that they wielded just by standing there, and this was back when I was just a kid. You, I only feel and see failure, so if you expect me to believe you, then you know what you have to do to prove it: give Kairi back her heart."

Ventus would have questioned Riku on how he knew so much about him and his friends, along with what other Keyblade masters the kid could have met besides Aqua, but he was honestly too stunned by the revelation of what he knew to really think or speak clearly at the moment. When he finally did, he was only able to answer Riku's demand to return Kairi's heart to her body, and it was not an answer that he wanted to give to anyone. "I can't. I don't know how to get her heart back where it belongs."

"Humph. I thought so. Just some worthless pretender, like I thought," Riku scoffed, and he immediately began to step back as a swirl of shadows began to form around him, and seep through the crack at the bottom of the door he was standing in front and beneath his feet.

"Riku, wait," Sora pleaded, hoping he could explain Ven's reasoning better than the blonde, but he had to stop short when the shadows that had seeped into the room suddenly sprang up in front of him and took on a form that was almost identical to his own, except with the glowing yellow eyes of the Heartless being the only distinguishing feature on its dark face. A minute later, the dark copy of Sora had summoned a duplicate of Kingdom Key into its hand and took up Sora's battle stance, showing that it was ready for a fight, while Riku simply vanished into the shadowy vortex that had opened behind him with Kairi's body in tow.

Seeing this dark copy of his apprentice appear was what finally snapped Ven out of his daze, and he quickly summoned Guardian Wind forth so that they could deal with this new obstacle. The minute that the blonde had drawn his weapon, the others took that as their cue to take up arms and attack as well, and they all immediately charged Sora's evil twin. Peter and Ven made the first strike, having reached what they heard Jiminy dub Anti-Sora first, but they were a bit thrown off when it actually parried their blows in the same way that Sora would. Not only that, but when it charged forward and attacked Goofy, they all quickly spotted more than a few similarities to Sora's fighting style. Luckily Goofy was able to bear the brunt of the attacks with his shield, and it gave Donald an opening to try blasting the thing with magic, only for it to suddenly dive down into the floor like a Shadow would and avoid the attack. When it came out of the ground again, it struck Sora from behind in a powerful sneak attack that sent Sora flying across the room and into the window. Thankfully, it seemed that the window was made of rather strong glass, because Sora did not go through it and into the water surrounding the ship.

Peter immediately dashed over for another attempt, but Anti-Sora just jumped beneath the floor again to try the same trick as before. It failed to hit Peter in a counterattack though, because Pan managed to fly up just enough that he was out of its reach, and it was at that point that Ventus noticed something about this dark copy of Sora. While it did possess some of its own abilities, it only seemed to have Sora's basic combat skills and none of his new ones. It never once used anything resembling Command Styles or Shotlocks, and the closest thing to magic that it seemed capable of was that little shadow sinking ability, and that drew a grin to Ven's face that showed his realization of their advantage. The next time that the shadow sank beneath the floor, avoiding both a strike from Goofy's shield and a blast of Fira from Donald when it did, Ventus immediately started tracking it by sensing its darkness. When he pinpointed where it would spring up, Ven quickly jumped to a safe area from its attacks, and unleashed the power Salvation on the dark being. His blow struck true to its target, and he could see Anti-Sora stumbling after being hit by the light magic, right into Sora's waiting Keyblade.

What they did not expect, was that when Sora struck his shadowy clone, was that it would end up splitting into three, much to their surprise. Peter, Donald, and Goofy were all completely thrown for a loop at this, and from where they were standing, it seemed that anyone of these things could have been the real Anti-Sora. They certainly fought just like him, but Sora and Ven could both sense that only one was the real thing, while the other two were simply copies. They just needed a moment to pin down the real thing, but that was a moment that they were not likely to get, since the three copies were proving incredibly vicious in their attacks on both the two of them and their friends. Realizing this, Ventus immediately told Peter and Donald to tag-team one copy while Sora and Goofy handled the other, leaving the third one for Ventus alone, and they all quickly set to work on taking out the three dark copies of Sora. It took very little time for them to realize that Peter and Donald had ended up with the real Anti-Sora, because the other two were quickly taken down by the other three, and when they saw that it was now cornered, Ventus and Sora immediately charged over to their two friends, Keyblades drawn back for a powerful strike, and sliced through the evil twin of Kingdom Key's wielder in one fluid motion just seconds after Peter and Donald and jumped clear.

At first, they all thought that Sora and Ventus had missed when they swung at Anti-Sora, but that idea was quickly shattered when Anti-Sora finally dropped down into a pool of shadows beneath its feet and then vanished without a trace. Considering that it had dived into the floor for sneak attacks so much, none of them were so quick as to relax their guard right away, but after a few minutes of nothing happening, they all had to breathe a sigh of relief and assume that it was gone for good. "Déjà Vu," Ventus muttered under his breath, having been reminded of something similar happening to him a long time ago, and if the others heard him, they did not show any sign of noticing. He pushed that aside for the moment, because they still had something that they needed to do. "Let's get moving and see if we can find Wendy, or maybe even some small sign that Riku's still aboard with Kairi's body."

"Why do you think that he wouldn't be," Donald asked.

"Dark portals like that one can lead to anywhere, and I do mean anywhere. For all we know, Riku's probably long gone from Neverland by now, but if there is a chance that we can get Kairi's body away from him, we have to try. This may be our only chance to get it to somewhere that we can return Kairi's heart to where it belongs without worrying about getting ambushed by villains or Heartless," Ventus explained.

"He's right. I've finally found Kairi again after all this time. I'm not going to let her slip away from between my fingers," Sora agreed.

"Um, Sora? You do remember that I'm right here, don't you," Kairi questioned from inside of his heart.

"You know what I mean," Sora retorted.

"Yeah, and I also feel as though it's too late to stop Riku from getting away. I already can't sense my body anymore, so I think he's already taken it away," Kairi revealed.

"That could just mean that it's not on the ship. Maybe it's on whatever counts as mainland here on Neverland, and you're just out of range. If your body's still here, then we will find it, Kairi. I promise," Sora reassured her, but he could still feel a doubt or two creeping into his heart, and he knew that Kairi could probably feel it as well.

The mental conversation between the two came to an end there so Sora could help the others with searching Hook's cabin for clues on where Wendy could be. They were not about to go out on deck to look, knowing that they were definitely going to run into the pirate captain and the Heartless there, and they had to play it safe in their searching for now. In the end, they did not find anything until Goofy tripped over a ring on the floor that opened another trap door, this one leading into a room that stood next to the one that they had just climbed out of, from what they could tell, and they wasted no time in jumping down inside of it. Well, most of them did not, at least. Ventus actually paused for a few seconds when he felt that same sensation of something calling out to him coming from a chest on Hook's desk once again, and this time, there was nothing to keep him from investigating, so he immediately did so.

Before going for the actual chest, Ventus could not help but glance at the various papers on Hook's desk, and two in particular caught his interest. The first was one of the missing pages from Merlin's book, while the second was yet another page from Ansem's report on the Heartless. Looking over the newest page, Ventus could only sigh in exasperation at its lack of new information, until he recognized what was said in the report. It was detailing the first time he and Mickey had gone to Radiant Garden to talk with Ansem the Wise about helping them to find a way to bring Aqua back from the Realm of Darkness. They already knew that he had found a way into the dark world at the time when they had first arrived, so that was the big reason why he and the king of Disney Town had gone to Ansem for his help. Looking over the report, Ventus could not help but notice that a few things seemed a little off. From what he was reading, it seemed like Ansem had taken a very particular interest in the Keyblade and the stories around it, and while Ven did admit that Ansem did hold some curiosity in regards to the mystical weapon, it was never quite to the extent that this report was indicating. More than that, it sounded as though Ansem was trying to find another Keyblade wielder to see if the Keyblade had any connection to a door he had opened before, and Ventus knew that Ansem understood how dangerous that door was, so why did this report make it appear that the man was intending to try and tamper with it even more than he already unintentionally had?

With nothing but more questions than answers from this newest find, Ventus decided that he should just pocket the pages and bring it up with the rest of the team at a later time. Namely, a time when they were not dealing with pirates, Heartless, and captured friends. Once he had made certain that both missing pages were secured on his person, Ventus returned his attention to the chest he was reaching for before, and quickly opened it up to see what was inside. Upon doing so, he was quickly greeted with the familiar sight of another Summon Charm, though this one was in a state of inactivity like the ones for Simba and Spider-Man had once been. You could easily tell by the faded image and small, almost unnoticeable crack on it, but Ventus could still make out what looked like a pair of curved wings above what looked like a pair of thin, crossed swords. It was not a familiar symbol to Ventus, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt like he had seen it somewhere before at least once, so that served as all the more reason for him to stuff the inactive charm in pocket before jumping down the trap door after the others.

When his feet touched the ground, Ventus looked to see the others gathered around Peter, who was holding Wendy in his arms. At first glance, Ven was worried that they were too late to save her, but after taking a second look, he was relieved to see that she was only unconscious. Tinker Bell, while glad to see the girl was all right, did not seem so happy to see Peter's reaction to Wendy's current state, and was making it very clear to him. "Come on, Tink! Not now," Peter scolded, getting the fairy even more upset with him.

Ventus was about to go over and say something to the two, but before he could, Tinker Bell just flew off and disappeared from sight completely, a clear sign that she was done putting up with Peter's attitude towards Wendy for the moment. Ventus wanted to go after her, but he had a feeling that Tinker Bell just wanted to be alone for the moment, and besides, there were still other important matters to address, and Peter was already working on the case of one. "Well, this is as far as I can go. I've gotta help Wendy," said the boy who never grew up.

"We understand. You get her somewhere safe, and leave everything here to us," Ventus told his friend, and he was not just referring to their search for Riku and Kairi's body either. Somehow, he just knew that they were going to get involved in getting Tinker Bell to make up with Peter before they left.

Peter nodded in reply and then lifted Wendy into his arms so he could fly her out of there. As they watched him go, the four had to hope that Peter would be able to get off the ship without anyone noticing. After all, they did meet the guy while they were locked in the brig, but Peter had said that he had gotten there on his own and was just waiting for Tinker Bell at the time, so they decided that they should just trust him for now. That was all they really could do regarding Peter's mission at the moment, because they had some friends that they needed to find as quickly as possible, and they had no intention of leaving a single part of this ship unchecked in their search for Riku and Kairi's body.

---

After searching the lower decks of the ship a few more times and finding nothing of consequence, the team had to assume that they only place that their queries could be was up on the main deck, and none of them were entertaining ideas that they would not be walking into a trap the minute they set so much as a toe out there. Still, there was no way it could be avoided now, so they steeled their courage and resolve, and immediately made their way upward and out, breathing in the fresh, salty sea air the minute that they had walked out onto the main deck. They probably would have found the clear night sky and above them and peaceful waters below them a welcoming sight were it not all spoiled by the Pirate Heartless who were already standing at the ready for a fight, while Captain Hook stood at the head of the group alongside Smee with a large, smug grin on his face that gave Ventus and Sora both a very bad feeling. A glance in the other two's direction immediately told the Keybearers that Donald and Goofy were getting the same feeling, and it did not take too long for them to find out why, because they soon found out that answer when Hook started talking.

"Quite a codfish, that Riku, running off with that girl without even saying goodbye," Hook remarked, his smug grin never failing in even the slightest, almost as though he was not even the least bit bothered by how there were four powerful warriors before him that likely had a bone to pick with both him and his current crew.

Hearing that Riku was already long gone with Kairi's body did put a damper on things for them, but given the way that Hook was talking, Sora quickly assumed that the pirate must know something, and he did not hesitate to start making demands, brandishing his Keyblade to show he was not kidding around. "Run off where? Tell me, where did he go?"

"To the ruins of Hollow Bastion, where Maleficent resides," Hook revealed with a sinister grin.

"And I'm guessing that's the same place that most of the Heartless are coming from, right," Ventus guessed, not liking how Hook was so forth coming with the information at all.

"More or less, but you won't be going there," Hook stated. He then plucked up a lantern that Smee had been holding onto, and held it so that the four could see it. When they did, the four all let out horrified gasps at the sight of Tinker Bell locked inside, desperately banging against the glass in an attempt to break out. Apparently, Hook found the fairy's efforts amusing, because his grin grew a little more while he finished, "Unless you intend to leave your little pixie friend behind."

"Let her go, Hook, you witless coward," Ventus snarled, already preparing to charge forward. Just as the blonde had made a single step though, Hook started to move so he was in a position to throw the lantern and its pixie captive overboard, making Ventus stop in his tracks.

"Like I said, if you want her, then you'd best not even think of trying anything," Hook grinned, mockingly. Seeing as they had no other choice, the four let out sighs of defeat and dismissed each of their weapons, though in the case of Ventus, it was really more of an angry growl than a sigh. A moment later, Pirates were surrounding the four, with their large cutlasses pointed at them, while Hook gave one last ultimatum. "Hand over the Keyblades and I'll spare your lives. Be glad I'm merciful, unlike the Heartless. So, which will it be? The Keyblades, or the plank?"

Sora and Ventus were now both glaring at Hook, but only the latter gave a reply to the captain's demands. "You know we can't just hand a Keyblade over, Hook. It doesn't work that way."

"As you wish, but I hope you know, that wish will see to it that you watch your precious apprentice go off the end of the plank first, Ventus," Hook revealed, and the next thing anyone knew, Sora was being shoved away from his friends and onto the plan, despite Donald, Goofy, and Ven's best attempts at preventing this.

"No! Leave him alone, Hook! If you want to take anyone, then just take me as payback for when I beat you years ago! Remember, how I basically humiliated you despite the fact I was still just a kid who hadn't even finished more than half of his training," Ventus shouted, hoping that his mix of begging and goading would make the captain change his mind.

"I remember quite well, yes, and that's why I think this will make my revenge on you all the better," Hook smirked in reply, clearly enjoying Ven's begging.

Ventus was about to make another plea to the captain, when a faint sound suddenly caught his attention. After pausing to make sure he was not hearing things, Ventus gained a smirk of his own, looked to Hook, and asked, "I say, Captain, do you hear something?"

Hook just returned Ven's question with a confused look, but he immediately tensed up at the sound of ticking clock, his expression turning to one of panic, and he slowly turned to look over the side of his ship to see a large green crocodile grinning up at him. "No! It's him! The crocodile that took me hand! Oh, Smee! He's after me other hand! I can't stay here," Hook cried out in fear before he started to scramble away, passing the lantern holding Tinker Bell to Smee. "Go away! Oh, I can't stand the sight of him! Smee, you take care of them!"

The next thing anyone knew, Hook had vanished back into the captain's cabin, while everyone else just looked on after him like they had just seen one of the strangest things ever, save for Smee. "Well, that happened, and I guess now we know why he has a hook for a hand too," Goofy noted.

"But how does he really know that's the crocodile that ate his hand," Donald asked.

"That's because the captain made the crocodile swallow his alarm clock," Smee explained, apparently not too bothered by the fact he was telling these things to his captain's enemies. "So now, when he's about, he warns you as you might say with his tick-tock, tick-tock."

"SMEE," Hook hollered, clearly having overheard from his cabin.

"O-oh, right! S-sorry Cap'n! All right now, off the plank with you," Smee ordered, and the other three soon found they could do nothing but watch as Sora was forced to walk closer and closer to the end of the plank, knowing that a hungry crocodile was waiting to swallow him down below.

Sora was honestly not sure what he could do now. He was not as well-practiced as Ventus was with wind magic, so there was almost no chance of him being able to use it in order to prevent himself from falling to his death in the crocodile's jaws, and he could not summon a Keyblade Glider yet either, since Ventus had still not taught him how yet. Besides that, if he did try to fight back somehow, then Tinker Bell and his friends were likely going to pay the price as a result. No matter how he looked at it, Sora could not see a way out, and that would mean that he would have failed Ventus, Riku, Kairi, and all of the worlds. Just as he was beginning to consider just stepping off the plank and falling to his death with some dignity, a faint voice suddenly called out to him that he quickly recognized.

"Fly, Sora! Just believe, think happy thoughts, and you can do it! That's what I had forgotten about before. In order to fly, you need to think of a wonderful thought. Any happy little thought like toys at Christmas, friends, or the people you care about more than anything, and then, you'll fly easy as pie," Peter called out.

Sora took in Peter's words carefully, and closed his eyes for a moment to try and come up with a happy thought that he could use to help him fly. It was a bit difficult, given all the hard and saddening times he had been dealing with lately, but through it all, there was something that did stand out to him that made him especially happy: all of his friends, both the ones that had been traveling with him during this journey, the ones from his home, and the ones he had made since it began. They had all become a very important part of his life that he was grateful to have, and that definitely made his heart swell with joy. It was right when his thoughts came to Kairi that Sora finally jumped off the plank and began falling down to Tick-Toc's open jaws. Just before the crocodile could snap his jaws closed around the edge of the boy's shoes, Sora suddenly took off into the sky away from the crocodile, and he then flew up so that he was hovering right above everyone still down on the deck.

"Hey, look! Sora can fly," Goofy cheered.

"He can fly," Donald exclaimed in surprise.

"He can fly," Ventus confirmed with a proud grin.

Smee could only stare in honest surprise until a sudden rush of wind past grabbed his attention, and he looked down to see that the lantern holding Tinker Bell had vanished from his hands. Looking around, Smee quickly paled a little when he saw Peter Pan land alongside Sora, and then open the lantern so that his best friend could fly free of her prison. Smee knew that they were all in trouble now, because the one thing no one in Neverland ever did was bring any kind of harm to Peter's friends, and especially Tinker Bell, unless they wanted to be on the receiving end of Pan's wrath.

Sora on the other hand was just glad that he was still in one piece along with the fact that he was now able to actually fly just like Peter, and seeing Tinker Bell now free made him even happier as he turned to the green-clad boy and said, "Thanks, Peter."

"Hey, don't mention it. You didn't think I'd leave you, Ven, and Tink behind, did you," Peter asked with a smile, earning a smile from all of his friends, including Tinker Bell.

While the heroes were distracted, Smee used the chance to run away, jumping into a lifeboat so he could start rowing to safety from the battle that was about to begin. That same battle actually began just as Smee had climbed into the dingy, because Ventus had immediately summoned his Keyblade when he saw that Tinker Bell and Sora were no longer in danger, and the blonde had wasted no time in unleashing a few powerful slashes and magic blasts in order to clear out the Heartless that were still surrounding him, Donald, and Goofy. "Well then, how about we swab the deck with these scallywag landlubbers," Ventus quipped with a grin.

Everyone, even the Heartless paused for a minute to throw Ventus a look after hearing him say that, until Donald finally asked, "Really? Did you have to say that?"

"What? Do you have any idea how long I've been holding in the pirate jokes after I first found out there were pirates on Neverland? I missed my chance to use one the last time, and I'm not missing it this time," Ventus shamelessly shrugged.

A moment later though, more Heartless started to appear, all of them carrying a pirate theme to them, but none of them were Pirate Heartless. In point of fact, these new Heartless were all airborne, and had no problems with showing it off. The first of the new additions to the Heartless forces, and the majority of them, were a group of pirates with large, gold wings which seemed to help them fly through the air as easily as Peter could, while the other new arrivals were much different in comparison. The one notable difference was that one could easily think that it was actually just a Heartless riding a small pirate ship, when in reality, the ship was just as much a part of the Heartless as its captain was. A large propeller sat atop the ship's sail, while another two extended up from the stern, a pair of cannons rested on either side of the ship along with one at the front, and the Heartless emblem could be seen emblazoned on the sail. No one needed Jiminy to tell them that these Heartless were not in his journal, but they were still glad to hear him name these newcomers as Air Pirates and Battleships all the same. It was certainly better than just referring to them as the flying pirate Heartless or something similar to that. The only thing that they were happier about was that there were only two Battleships bearing down on them, because they definitely had all the signs of being difficult opponents. Either way, there was still the matter of how Sora and Peter were the only ones that were capable of matching these airborne foes at the moment.

That quickly changed though when Donald and Goofy both learned what Peter had told Sora about how to fly, and they too were soon flying through the air to face their aerial foes, while raining down a barrage of attacks on the Pirates that were still on the deck. Ventus would have joined in on the airborne fun as well, but when he tried to take off, he found that he was still unable to do so. The blonde was definitely getting annoyed by this now, but he put it aside so he could focus on taking care of the enemies that were on the deck, letting his apprentice and friends deal with the Heartless that were flying around above them. Of course, doing so meant that he missed the concerned look that Tinker Bell had thrown his way, but he did not miss out on seeing Sora unleash Blizzara and Thundara on one of the Battleships in quick succession. Peter was quick to finish off the Battleship that Sora had blasted with his two new spells before turning his dagger on an Air Pirate or two, only to have Goofy jump in and block a shot from the second Battleship. Goofy then barreled forward with his shield in front of him, and blasted apart the front of the Battleship, leaving it without one of its weapons. Not that it mattered too much, because Donald was soon firing off a few rounds of powerful magic that whittled it down to its last legs, and leaving it primed for Sora to finish off with Radiant Blade.

A quick slash at one final Pirate from Peter and Ven saw the end of their rather easy battle, but despite how difficult it may or may not have been, they all still sighed in relief once they were sure that the fight was over. Still, they knew that they had to deal with a certain codfish before they were done here, and Ventus was about to go bust down Hook's door so he could have a few words with the captain, when Tinker Bell suddenly flew around in front of him, ringing like no tomorrow as she was throwing out concerns and questions. Ventus only quirked an eyebrow in response, not understanding anything that Tinker Bell said, before he finally looked to Peter for a translation. "She wants to know why you weren't flying with the rest of us during the fight, and I kinda want to know too," Peter explained. "I figured that if anyone had happy thoughts in abundance it would be you, Ven."

Ventus just glanced back and forth between the two before he lowered his head with a sigh and said, "Well…I guess most of my happy thoughts aren't quite as happy as they used to be. My best friend is lost in the darkness somewhere, the man who was the closest thing I had to a father not only tried to destroy me for the greater good but is now dead partly because of that, and the woman I love is trapped in the Realm of Darkness somewhere. Add in the fact that I've got the fate of so many worlds resting on my shoulders and my ability to teach Sora how to become a Keyblade master, and I think you can see why I've got so many unhappy thoughts at the moment."

Tinker Bell just frowned sadly at Ventus, feeling very sympathetic to the guy and wanting to do something to try and cheer him up. Peter felt the same way too, but neither one of the two Neverlanders were sure how they could do that. Sora, Donald, and Goofy did have an idea though, and were about to act on it, when Peter remembered that they still had to deal with Hook and grinned when he thought of a sneaky way to the captain to come to them. He quickly signaled for everyone to be quiet, slipped over to the door to Hook's cabin, and gave it a quick knock, all the while, doing his best to not burst out laughing even the tiniest bit.

"Is that you, Smee? Did you finish them off," Hook asked through the door, not knowing the rest of the group was already moving so that they were standing on either side of the door once they got an idea of what Peter was planning.

"Aye, Cap'n. They walked the plank, every last one of them," Peter replied in an impressively accurate impression of Smee that made Sora, Ven, Donald, and Goofy all join him in trying to suppress any laughter.

Hook immediately came racing out after he heard that, grinning from ear to ear at the news, but his smile soon fell when he came to a stop and saw the deck completely void of both his first mate and the Heartless that were currently part of his crew. Peter then slowly crept up behind Hook, his dagger drawn, and stabbed the captain right in his butt. Hook immediately let out a cry of pain when he felt the sharp object in his rear, and spun around to glare down at the culprit, only to gasp when he saw who it was. "P-Peter Pa—blast you," Hook roared.

"Ready to make a splash, you codfish," Peter smirked in retort. "Now it's your turn to walk the plank."

Sora and the others were all ready to charge when Peter said that, when Ventus suddenly raised his arms up to stop them, Keyblade in hand and ready for action. "Sorry guys, but I'm gonna have to ask you to stay back this time. He's mine," Ventus growled, glaring fiercely at Hook. "No one threatens my friends and apprentice."

"Then by all means, prepare to die, Ventus," Hook grinned as he drew his sword to meet Ven's Keyblade.

Ventus merely grinned as he shrugged, "To die would be a great adventure."

"A shame that it will be the last adventure for you," Hook retorted, and with that, the two crossed swords.

The sound of blade clashing against blade were soon echoing all across the ship, and while the other boys all wanted to jump in, they were quickly surprised to find Tinker Bell blocking their path, saying that this was Ven's fight and that it was one he needed to face alone. Sora would have protested against this, but after Peter reassured Sora that Ven could handle it, his arguments died in his throat and he ended up just watching as the blonde and Hook traded blows. His eyes soon widened in amazement when he saw Ventus roll under one of Hook's swings while the blonde became coated in an aura of lightning that easily zapped Hook, showing that the blonde had just used the Thunder Roll in the fight. A quick blast of Aerora from Ven's free hand then allowed the blonde to gain a little more space so he could make another leaping strike on Hook.

The pirate captain had been thrown off-balance by Ven's wind spell, but he managed to regain his footing just in time to block Ven's follow-up strike and then push him back. At that point, he expected Ven to charge again, but to his surprise, Ventus just remained where he was, staring at Hook for some odd reason. After another second or so, Ventus finally said, "You know, I remember you being a bit bigger."

"You were a short teenager, so I was huge," Hook retorted, and he immediately lunged forward in a strike that Ven was not entirely expecting. Thankfully, the blonde had managed to raise his blade up in time to deflect a blow or two, but was unable to do anything to keep from getting pushed back against the wall behind him. The next thing that Ven knew, he was shoved right into the wall, and the only thing keeping Hook's sword from slicing into his throat was Guardian Wind, but that did mean that was keeping Hook from trying to push through Ven's defense. "What's the matter, is the poor little master not able to fly away," Hook mocked.

"I don't need to fly to beat you, Hook," Ventus retorted as he tried to push Hook off.

"All evidence to the contrary," Hook pointed out, raising his hook so that it flashed in the moonlight. "Not that it's surprising. The poor little boy doesn't have any true happy thoughts left to carry him up and away, so maybe Riku was right to say that you're not a real master. Just a scared little boy playing pretend."

Ventus' grip was slackening even more now, because deep down, he could not help but think that maybe Hook was right. He had already admitted that he did not know how to safely remove Kairi's heart from Sora and return it to the girl's body, and while he was making impressive progress with Sora's training, Ventus could not help but feel that it was nothing too significant, since somehow, he knew that the kid probably could have managed just as well on his own. The sight of Hook's sword edging closer to Ven's neck more quickly than before was what finally drove the others to action, but not in an attack. If they had tried to hit Hook right now without being careful, they likely would have hurt Ven in the process. No, what they did instead was prove the pirate wrong by reminding Ventus of something very important.

"You be quiet! Ven's got plenty of happy thoughts, and we're all standing right here," Donald snapped at Hook.

"Yeah, after all, we're some of Ven's bestest buddies, and we're not gonna let him try to handle anything on his own if there's something we can do to help him," Goofy hollered in agreement.

"Besides Ven, don't you remember what I told you before? Aqua's okay and close to finding a way back," Sora reminded his master. "Think about how you felt when you heard that, because I remember you being close to the point of shedding tears of joy. She wouldn't want you to give up now, and neither do we."

"Sora's right. We're all here for you, Ven, and we all believe in you, no matter what," Peter agreed.

Ventus looked over the four in awe for a minute or two, hardly believing how sure they sounded, until he noticed Tinker Bell flying over to hover near him with a smile on her face. The little fairy had something to say as well, and this time when she spoke, Ventus did not simply hear ringing bells, but instead, actual words, as he understood exactly what Tinker Bell was saying for the first time. "I believe in you, Master Ventus."

Hearing that, Ven could only smile as he finally remembered the most important lesson he had ever learned, and he proved it by pushing Hook's blade back a little more, until he had enough space to kick the pirate off of him. Hook quickly came out of his stumbling and attempted to charge Ventus once again, but the Keyblade master merely leapt up over Hook's head, somersaulting through the air as he did, and then remained up there as his body glowed with traces of pixie dust, much to Hook's surprise and the others' joy. "Good form, old man, but I guess you forgot one important thing about me, and it's the same thing that my friends just reminded me of," Ventus revealed. "I've always got a happy thought with me in my heart, because all of my friends are my power and I'm theirs."

What followed next was a barrage of strikes against Hook, courtesy of the airborne Ventus, and this time, no one stopped the others from getting into the mix of things, because they were all soon unleashing hell upon the pirate captain. When Hook suddenly pulled out a number of explosive packages to throw, Goofy rushed in and tripped him up, making the packages explode on Hook, while Goofy was protected by his shield. Donald then blasted Hook with a bit of fire magic that caused him to holler in pain as his bum caught fire, much to Peter, Sora, and Ven's amusement. Sora kept the fun going by blasting Hook with another dose of Fira, and the captain let out another yelp of pain as he jumped up into the air due to being set on fire a second time. This time though, Ventus was waiting with a quick ice spell that doused the flame so that Peter could safely grab the captain by his coat. Hook merely glanced around from Peter to the water below where Tic Toc was still waiting, and his expression quickly turned panicked when he realized what they were planning.

Ventus only grinned at Hook's look of realization, and then looked over the side of the ship down to the large animal below as he asked, "Hey Mister Crocodile? Do you like codfish?" When he saw Tic Toc eagerly nodding with watering jaws, Ven's grin grew a little bigger as he said, "You do?!"

"Well then, here's a big one just for you," Peter finished, and he immediately threw Captain Hook overboard, all of them watching with wide grins as the pirate scrambled to keep from dropping right up to the moment when he splashed down into the water.

They all then raced up to the side of the ship so that they could watch as Hook resurfaced and then turn a scared gaze on the eager, hungry crocodile before he jumped up and seemingly started to run on the water to get away from Tic Toc, with the crocodile in hot pursuit. "Help me, Mister Smee! Help me," Hook cried out, only to turn back and see the crocodile gaining on him, and making his cries even more panicked. "SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"D-don't worry Cap'n! I'm on the way, sir! I'll save you, Cap'n," Smee called out as he rowed after both captain and crocodile as fast as he could, all the while, Peter, Ven, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Tinker Bell could only laugh at the sight as it unfolded.

---

It was quite some time before everyone finally calmed down from the laughing fit they all came down with from seeing Hook getting chased off by Tic Toc, but now, a much more somber mood had fallen over them, as the others watched Sora staring off into space, no doubt thinking about what had just happened in his most recent confrontation with Riku, and what they had lost as a result. Goofy was about to comment on it, but was quickly shushed by Donald just to make sure that Sora did not overhear and get even more upset than he already was, but all the same, they all felt like they had to say or do something. The only problem was, none of them knew what to do here.

After another minute of silence or so, they all froze a bit when Sora finally spoke up in barely more than a whisper. "I still can't believe it," he said, and the next thing anyone knew, the kid was looking up at the sky with a huge grin. "I really flew! Wait 'til I tell Riku and everyone else back home! I wonder if any of them will believe me. Probably not."

"I'd hate to admit it, but even I would probably have a hard time believing it if I hadn't seen it happen," Kairi teasingly admitted, but it did nothing to bring down Sora's apparently good mood.

"You can bring them all to Neverland sometime. Then they can all try it themselves," Peter encouraged, already excited at the idea of getting to meet some more new friends.

"Yeah, they can," Ventus agreed. He knew it would probably be going against the world order to bring all of Sora's friends to Neverland, even if it was just the ones from Destiny Islands, but at this point, he had to wonder just how much damage they could really end up doing considering how much they had already interfered on other worlds. He then fell a little downcast as he admitted, "You know, I had always kinda hoped that the next time I came to Neverland, I'd be able to fly along with Terra and Aqua."

"Well hey, like I told Sora, you can always come back with them another time. Aqua may have flown once before, but I'll bet she'll like it even better if you and Terra are both there too," Peter reassured his friend.

"Yeah, because if you believe and always keep happy thoughts in your heart, you can do anything, right," Sora asked, though it was really more of a reminder than anything else.

"Right," Ventus nodded with a laugh. "I'll definitely find Aqua and Terra. I know I will. There's so much that I want to show and tell them about. The adventures, my training and becoming a master, and everything else that's happened, and that includes how I've already gotten my first apprentice."

Sora grinned when he heard Ventus say that, and not just because he was flattered by that comment, but because he felt the same way as Ven. There was a lot that Sora wanted to tell his friends about too, whether it be about the friends he had made, the battles he had fought, or the things he had seen. Sora wanted to tell them about it all, and he truly believed that he would get the chance to someday soon. What he did not know was that day was actually much closer to coming than he thought, because Ven had something that he needed to share.

"Well then, I guess that it's a good thing that we now know where to go from here," Ventus revealed, surprising all of the world-traveling team. "Even if he didn't mean to, Hook confirmed earlier that Maleficent is waiting for us on Hollow Bastion, and Riku's already fled there with Kairi. Since that is the case, then I'm sure you can all guess what else we're going to find there."

"The other Princesses of Heart," Donald and Goofy excitedly exclaimed.

"Exactly," Ventus nodded. "And maybe even more than that. It may also be the place where we'll find the answers to what had happened there to make it Heartless central, and maybe even solve the mystery of what happened to Ansem and the rest of his report."

"So then what are we waiting for? Let's get back to the ship and head there now," Sora requested, clearly eager to get moving as fast as possible.

"Hold on, Sora, we can't just yet for many reasons," Ventus pointed out. "First off, the Kingdom can't reach Hollow Bastion just yet. If we want to get there, we're going to need to find that other navigation gummi that pairs off with the one we found in Traverse Town, and since none of us are gummi block experts like him that means we'll also have to go back to Cid so he can properly install them on the ship. Trying to get there now would be too much for the Kingdom to handle, likely to the point where the ship could end up getting torn apart."

Sora deflated a little when he heard that, but he did understand. The last thing they needed was to fly off somewhere with little to no way back, assuming that they survived the journey there at all. Still he had to ask, "What's the other reason though?"

"We still need to seal the Keyhole of this world. Hook may be long gone, at least for now, but the Heartless could still stumble upon it and drown Neverland in darkness if we don't seal it soon," Ventus reminded him.

When she heard that, Tinker Bell immediately jumped in excitement and started talking a mile a minute, making it too hard for Ventus to properly understand her while Peter had a much easier time. "What's that, Tink? What about the clock tower," Peter asked, getting Tinker Bell to repeat what she had said before at a much slower pace. "You say there's something there?"

"Do you think that could be the Keyhole," Goofy asked.

Tinker Bell immediately nodded to Goofy while saying something else, which Ven translated to mean, "She's saying that she definitely thinks so. She had heard that the clock tower had always had something very special about it that was kept secret even from most fairies. All she knows is that there was something there that was both very special and very powerful."

"Then what're we waiting for, let's get over there," Donald cheered, getting over Ven's sudden ability to understand Tinker Bell faster than anyone else, not counting Tinker Bell herself, and with that, they all took off into the sky once again, with Peter leading the way to their destination.

---

It took almost an hour or so to reach the clock tower that Peter and Tinker Bell were talking about, because it turned out to be on the other end of the world that made up Neverland: a bustling city called London that Peter said was actually Wendy's home. When they saw Wendy sitting calmly at the top of the clock tower with a smile, the others quickly figured out why it took Peter so long to come back and help them, but they saved any possible teasing for later as they all started searching the clock tower for whatever it was that Tinker Bell had said was there. It did not take too long for Sora to notice how one of the four faces was showing a different time than the others, and he had to wonder if that had any real significance. As such, he immediately pointed it out to the rest of the group, and they all agreed to try and reset the clock to the right time to see if that did anything.

After giving a little heave-hoe to the clock hands, the fourth face was soon matching up with the other three, and a moment later, they were all shielding their eyes to block out a bright light that began to emit from all four faces. When they opened their eyes again, they were surprised to see that the Keyhole had appeared on the clock face that had previously been showing the wrong time, and they all immediately grinned in response. Sora and Ventus then raised their Keyblades towards the Keyhole, and a moment later, a beam of light erupted from the tips of both blades and sealed Neverland's Keyhole shut, vanishing from view like the others had before it. What they did not expect was for something to suddenly fall from the clock afterwards, and it would have dropped all the way down to the ground below had Donald not reacted in time to catch it with a Magnet spell so that Goofy could scoop it out of the air.

Goofy immediately brought the item back up to the rest of his friends so that they could all get a better look at it, and the other three quickly grinned in excitement when they saw that it was the other navigation gummi that they needed to reach Hollow Bastion. They did not know how it got into Neverland's Keyhole, and right now, they did not really care either. All that mattered was that they now had a way to reach the world that Riku had fled to with Kairi's body, and where Maleficent was residing with the Princesses of Heart as her captives. It only made sense that they would prepare to leave right away upon reaching this conclusion, but they were not going to just take off without saying goodbye to their friends first.

When they got to the top of the clock tower, they were a little surprised to see Wendy looking at Peter with a sad expression on her face. "Peter, are you really going back to Neverland," Wendy asked.

"Afraid so," Peter confirmed with a sad smile as he reached out to her. "But we can see each other any time. As long as you don't forget about Neverland, that is."

Wendy smiled in reply, happy to hear that as she took Peter's hand to show she accepted his words to be truth, but while the sight was rather sweet, it also served to start getting Tinker Bell riled up again. Donald, of course, burst out laughing when he realized this, but quickly clamped his beak shut when he saw Tinker Bell turn an angry glare at him. He did not want to kicked in the beak again, but he did not mind watching along with the others as Tinker Bell flew off to circle Peter and Wendy both while ringing rapidly at Peter, drawing a slightly surprised look from Pan. A minute later though, they were surprised to see Tinker Bell come back to circle around Ventus until she settled to hover behind the blonde, almost as if she were using Ventus as a shield to keep between her and Peter.

"Oh, boy. She's gettin' steamed again," Peter playfully groaned, having figured out what Tinker Bell was saying with that little show and approving of her decision, while Wendy just smiled at both Tinker Bell and the blonde Keyblade master. Peter's smile became much less teasing and more easy-going as he asked his friend, "Do me a favor, Ven? Look after her for me, will ya?"

"What," Sora gasped as Tinker Bell flew up so that she was hovering in front of Ven's face, with Donald and Goofy both sharing in his confused surprise.

Ventus on the other had quickly caught on to what Tinker Bell and Peter meant by this little display, and gave his small friend a questioning look as he asked, "Are you sure, Tink? I mean, this journey isn't going to be easy."

Tinker Bell simply nodded in reply, and then rapidly spun around as a shower of pixie dust erupted before two items materialized and dropped into Ven and Sora's waiting hands. In Ven's hand was a summon charm that held a silhouette of Tinker Bell's head and wings on the coin, while Sora found himself looking at a Keychain with silver links and a token that was identical to the red feather in Peter's hat. After identifying the Keychain as that of the Fairy Harp Keyblade for Sora, Ventus nodded in reply to Tinker Bell and said, "Okay then. Welcome to the team, Tink."

Tinker Bell cheered happily, glad to be able to help both Ven and all of her newest friends, and somehow, the whole team knew that their journey just got a lot more exciting. Sure, there was no hiding that it was also becoming a lot more dangerous, but with another new summon in their pockets, and a new Keyblade in Sora's collection, they could feel that it was now much easier to really believe that they were going to make it through no matter what got thrown in their way.

---

AN: Well, there you go. We've got not one, but two more pages from the Ansem Report in the team's pocket, another page from Pooh's storybook, confirmation that Kairi and Riku are hiding out on Hollow Bastion, a final or ultimate destination in mind for the team's mission, Tinker Bell's joined the team as Ven's newest summon, Sora's got another shiny new Keychain, and...Hm, let's see, there was something else in there too. What was it? What was it? It's saying to me...Oh yeah, that's right! Another mystery summon charm! Although I think we all know what that summon charm is for, so calling it a mystery might be a little unnecessary.

Ventus: Well it's a mystery to us, so maybe not that much.

AN: True, true, but let's face facts, we all know the charm is to summon a hero from "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." Yes, you heard me right, Ven's now got the story's big Star Wars summon's charm in his pocket. He's just gonna need to take it to Fairy Godmother before he's able to use it, but don't worry, use it he shall, and I intend to make that moment as epic as possible. So, gotta ask, did you guys catch all the various Peter Pan reference that found their way into this chapter? Not that I made them too hard to notice or anything, but I'm really hoping everyone got them all, so just throwing that out there.

Sora: Seems to me like a lot of them focused a bit more on Ven than the rest of us.

AN: Well, this chapter did see Ven reuniting with some old friends once again, so what can you expect? Plus, even the teacher has to learn a lesson every now and then, or be reminded of old lessons in this case. I kinda like to think that this chapter serves as Ven's own version of the story we saw in Hook, at least in the sense that he had forgotten how to really fly like they do in Neverland and needed to discover a new happy thought in order to fly again. Here's hoping I pulled that off well enough for everyone to get that.

Kairi: I was so close to getting my body back in this chapter. Why couldn't we do that in this chapter again?

AN: Well, I'm sure that many of our readers are probably wondering about that too, Kairi, and the answer is quite simple, sort of. Remember, Roxas was born when Sora became a Heartless, and in a way so was Namine, and that happened when Sora used the Keyblade of the Heart to free Kairi's heart. If Kairi's heart were just jump out of Sora's body and into hers here, then Sora would never use the previously mentioned Keyblade, Roxas and Namine would never be born, and a great deal of events would be severely altered by the time we reach the sequel. Besides, as previously mentioned, they were deep in enemy territory, so having Kairi's heart return to her body now would've been a very bad move, because they would essentially be handing it over to Maleficent the minute that the Heartless realized that Kairi was the last Princess of Heart.

Riku: And once again, I'm being a total jerk. Why do you keep making me do this?

AN: Hey, don't blame me! I never told you to go to the dark side and become a major bad guy in the first game. You did that all on your own. Well, you and the Kingdom Hearts creators did, any way, but same thing basically. Besides, we needed to showcase your continuing fall into Maleficent and Ansem's dark clutches, and also give a few more reasons why you would doubt any claims about Ventus being a Keyblade Master. As I'm sure many of you already know, the other Keyblade Master that Riku met besides Aqua was indeed Terra, so no need to scratch your heads trying to figure that out too much if you didn't already know.

Tinker Bell: [suddenly flies into the room, ringing at AN with a smile and a few questions]

AN: Oh hey, Tink! Let me guess, you want to know why you were eager to hear news about Aqua when you clearly seemed like you didn't want her around at first when you two met in BBS, right?

Tinker Bell: [nods]

AN: Well, as we've already seen, Tinker Bell does eventually start to lighten up on any jealousy she has towards other girls, as we saw with both Wendy and her daughter Jane in Return to Neverland, and besides that, how can anyone really hate Aqua. You know, unless your Xehanort, Vanitas, Xigbar/Braig, or any other villain that Aqua has previously met and/or foiled.

Tinker Bell: [nods in agreement and then waves to Ventus as she rings out her next question]

AN: Why make you become one of Ven's summons? It's simple. Part of it is to keep a balance between the summons that Sora and Ven have. The each get a total of three summons in this story (1 granted, 1 original, and 1 found) For Sora, that's Genie, Spider-Man, and another summon that we will see him get after a certain event in Hollow Bastion. For Ventus, that's Tinker Bell, the Star Wars summon, and Simba. I know that there were more summons than that in the game, but I honestly just went with whichever ones I felt were most important, and the ones that would give you a hint as to a world we would be seeing in the sequel to this story, hence the inclusion of Simba, Spider-Man, the Star War summon, and Sora's final summon.

The main reason though, is that it made more sense for Tinker Bell to give her summon charm to Ventus, simply because she knows him better than Sora, and she trusts him. Now I'm not saying that Tinker Bell doesn't trust Sora, or that she wouldn't want to give the charm to the kid, because that's certainly not the case, but she does know Ven a lot better than him, so it makes a lot more sense for her to give the charm to someone she knew really well over someone she had just started getting to know after just meeting them. Does that make sense?

Tinker Bell: [shrugs and nods to say yes]

Ventus: Bigger mystery is how the heck are you able to understand Tink?

AN: [holds up a box labeled "Neverland Fairy Translator" and indicates a device that he's wearing over his ears]

Ventus: Oh. That would be so helpful for so many people.

AN: No kidding. Anyway, don't think that we're going back to Traverse Town and preparing for the first trip to Hollow Bastion just yet, because there's still one more world that the team needs to visit first, and one more villain council member to take down, not counting Hades and Maleficent. I'm sure you know what I'm getting at, right? Well if you need more info, head Onto the Preview!...

You would think that since they now have the second navigation gummi necessary for reaching Hollow Bastion, the team would be setting course to return to Traverse Town as quickly as possible, but unfortunately, they cannot do that. Upon returning to the ship, it's soon discovered that their best way of getting back without too much trouble had actually taken some damage when they collided with Hook's ship, so they end up having to park the ship near another world while Chip and Dale try to fix it. After all, no point in just sitting around and waiting when they could be doing something important. The only downside is that their latest destination has most of the team quaking in their boots, because this spooky city full of monsters, ghosts, and ghouls, while mostly friendly, is definitely a scare-central for many different reasons. Be ready to scare up some fun, next time.

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!