AN: [seen playing the fiddle to the very specific tune of a certain old west show from one of Disney and Pixar's greatest trilogies.]
Sora: Wow, he must be really excited if he's playing that song on the fiddle.
Roxas: Forget about that. I'm surprised he knows how to play the fiddle.
Ven: Well a lot of his family has done something with music, himself included, so maybe it's just a matter of being something in his blood.
Sora: Yeah, like how midiclorin levels determines how strong a Jedi someone can be.
Kairi: Um Sora, I'm pretty sure that only determines how strong someone would be in the Force. It doesn't have anything to do with whether or not they would be a Jedi.
Riku: Still, shouldn't we get on with the story? I know I'm not in this chapter, but I'd like to hurry things along so that we do get to a chapter where I finally show up again, and the next time it happens, I won't be acting like a total jerk! Hurray, at last!
AN: [stops fiddling but the music still continues, showing that it was just a recording] Hm? Did you guys say something.
Everyone other than AN: [deadpan looks between AN and the music player] Really?
AN: What? I'm not a violinist, but I do like this song. [hits pause on the music player and tosses fiddle somewhere off stage] Anyways, welcome back everyone to the next chapter of Dual Keys and to our story's next original world!
[audience applause]
Yeah, you all know you're excited for this, and some of you did already guess where we're going to end up this time too after the last chapter's preview. Props for you guys. Here's hoping this chapter will be just like rootinest, tootinest cowboy in the wild, wild west!
Donald: Just answer some reviews so we can start already! It's been days and you said this would be up sooner!
AN: Hey, practically this whole chapter is original content and I got busy with other stuff, like as in stuff that would help pay the bills, so give me a break, huh? Ahem, anyways, let's do just as the rather impatient, short-tempered duck here has suggested and answer a review or two before we ride on into the fun.
Donald: Hey!
AN: Don't deny it, Donald. We all know it to be true.
Donald: Aw phooey. [grumbles incoherently]
AN: Let's start off with "Keeper of Worlds", I like the idea you suggested regarding backstory for the Nobodies we don't know anything about yet, and the example you gave. I might take it under advisement later if I can figure out a way to work it in, but I won't make any promises just yet. I don't want to say I'll do one thing and then turn around and forget to do it later, ya know.
Next, let's have a little shout-out to "rmarcano321". I get what you mean when you say that you find it interesting, both in regards to Ahsoka and the KH stuff, and I appreciate it, really, but there is a time and a place for that kind of thing. I wasn't telling you all of that to be mean, I was just simply making a small request/suggestion before things got a little too out of hand with that and you just ended up forgoing writing reviews that had nothing to do with the story content of that chapter at all. Sorry if I made you feel that was not the case.
Let's move it right along to "Dragon Rider 66". I don't really know about Axel just yet, but I can confirm that Roxas will appear two more times in this story at most. One time after the second trip to Hollow Bastion, and a second time will be in the epilogue for this story. That is the plan as it stands for the moment.
Roxas: Yes! I get to show up more!
AN: Hey, don't get too excited. It's not like you're going to have any action scenes or something. As for your guess about where they end up, it's not something from Buzz Lightyear, but it is something that features a hero from Toy Story, so you were close in that regard.
Next to be answered, it's none other than regular reviewer "Monkey D. Conan", don't worry about anything too much. You'll get quite a few answers to those questions soon enough. Oh, and just allay some of your worries, Kairi will not be stuck in the Realm of Darkness at the end, but I do have to admit that she will end up separated from Sora.
Kairi&Sora: Awwwwwwwww! Why?
AN: Because there will still be work for Sora to do before he can go home. We all know what I'm talking about at this point, right?
Anyways, I can neither confirm nor deny if Ven will be joining Sora and the others for their journey through Castle Oblivion and their resulting year-long nap without giving away major spoilers at this time, or if he and Aqua will have a moment together before everything in this adventure is over.
Aqua: You're kidding, right? We all know that you're going to figure out a way to do that, assuming you haven't already. You're a sucker for romantic stuff, so why keep that kind of thing from happening?
AN: You mean aside from how it would make an even bigger impact in the sequel?
Aqua&Ven: [Both glaring at him slightly]
AN: What? You know I'm right. But yeah, you do have a point. Anyways, back on track with our previous review answer to our good buddy, I like that suggestion you made about giving Ven and Aqua a moment that's similar to the one from Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Mickey officiating and all that, and I've actually got a few ideas already forming as a result now. I may run with that later on, but I don't think it will be in the sequel to Dual Keys. If anything, it'll more than likely be in the sequel to that story, which would put us at this continuity's version of KH3, so there's that to have fun with. Though in terms of Ven actually proposing to Aqua...Well, that may very likely be an entirely different story. Hard to say for now.
Ven&Aqua: [both blushing heavily with small smiles]
AN: Now, let's wrap this up with the guest reviewer "Guest" from 3/25/18. No, I don't really have any plans for Kairi to gain Sync Blade from linking her heart to Sora's at this time, and I don't really thing that's going to change any time soon. Yes, she will most likely gain Drive Forms, like we saw she had in Keyblades of Future Past, which would allow her to use two Keyblades, but that would be it. As for your question regarding Namine and why she was born in Castle Oblivion, I can't say that I do know why that was. Maybe it was for a similar reason as to why Roxas was born outside the old mansion in Twilight Town or something, but I don't think Namine was all that scared about where she was born. In case you haven't noticed, the girl does have a bit of a thing for the color white, even she does do a lot of drawing.
Namine: I'm pretty sure everyone's just basing that off the fact that the dress I'm always wearing is usually that color. I do have other colors in my regular attire too you know.
AN: But the all white dress is the most notable part. No need to be getting all that technical or upset about stuff. Besides, it is your color, so why change that?
Namine: Okay, that's fair, I guess. Can we start the story now?
AN: Yes we can, so let's get right to it. Run like the wind to the chapter, everyone!
I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter XIX
A loud sputtering noise could be heard echoing from atop the cliff overlooking a large canyon, and the source of said sound could only have been the damaged Kingdom as her crew tried to get her started up again. After their crash landing, they had all been doing whatever they could to get something on the ship working again, but even after a few hours of hard work, the only things that they were able to get working besides the most basic of systems, like life support was intership communications and the main hatch. None of that was going to be of much help with getting the team off the world that they had landed on, and with the Heartless now stronger than ever, thanks to the Keyhole to darkness being completed, they could not afford to stay here for very long. Sadly, the decision to stay was currently out of their hands, at least until they could get the ship flying again, and it did not look like that would happen very soon, given how the sputtering engines only drew an agitated sigh from Ventus before he shut off the main engine.
The blonde then picked up a handheld radio that the crew had been using to communicate with each other in an attempt to save power, and hit the button to call down to the main engineers so he could report on the most recent failure in their attempts to get the main engines working. "Sorry guys, but that didn't quite do it. The engine's still sputtering like the main batteries are dead," Ventus reported.
"Yeah, we noticed," Chip replied from the other end of the radio. "We're gonna try something else in a minute."
"But it would be easier if we could see what we were doing a little better," Dale added just seconds behind his brother.
"We're working on that," Ven reassured the chipmunks. He then set his radio down so he could turn to the two who were trying to get the basic systems of the ship back online, or at least fix it up so that they could turn the lights back on again. "How's it going over there you two?"
"Just a minute, Ven," Kairi called over from where she was kneeling next to a console that she and her repair work partner had just opened up. She looked into the small opening and asked, "How're you doing, Jiminy?"
There were a few sounds of things being connected, disconnected, reconnected, and sometimes even hammered before Jiminy shouted back, "Need a couple more minutes."
"Need a couple more minutes," Jiminy's echo suddenly rang out in response, making the little chronicler pause for a second as he looked around, wondering how he could have an echo in the console he was working inside of for a minute.
"That's what I said," Jiminy finally noted after not figuring out the answer. He then went back to the wiring he was reworking, trying to fix any that were broken in either the attack or the crash, putting all of his attention on that and nothing else, until he ended up with a very shocking surprise after connecting one particular wire. When Kairi saw the inside of the console suddenly light up, she quickly moved back just in time to avoid being hit in the head when Jiminy was sent rocketing out of the console and into the wall behind her by a small static jolt. "Whoa…That hurt a lot more than a lock I once had to try and open for Pinoke," Jiminy woozily commented before he slid off the wall.
Kairi quickly rushed over and caught Jiminy in her hands before the poor guy dropped to the floor, and once she had, she quickly cast a healing spell to reverse any injuries he might have gained after that little jolt. "You okay, Jiminy?"
"Yeah. Thanks Kairi," the cricket nodded in gratitude, and his smile quickly grew a little more when the lights in the room all suddenly flickered on, followed by the ship's main console.
Goofy immediately dropped what he was doing, having been helping Sora and Donald with trying to repair any fried circuits that were necessary for the ship's primary flight and weapons controls at the time, and quickly checked the monitor at his usual station to see what they just restored. "Hey, looks like all the basic systems are back online," the knight cheered happily.
"Great job, Jiminy and Kairi," Donald praised the two, knowing that they had to be the ones to do that.
The two smiled in thanks for Donald's praise, while Sora asked, "Does this mean we can finally lift off again?"
"Afraid not, Sora. Until we get the engines fixed up, we're still not going anywhere," Ventus informed the kid as he set aside the walkie-talkie he had been using. "But, we don't have to worry about draining power using the ship's intercoms and our other communicators anymore, and we can finally figure out just where in interspace we've landed."
Jiminy quickly got the hint, and hopped over to the computer that accessed the ship's main star charts, while Donald let Chip and Dale know the good news as well. Everyone only made a mild note of how the chipmunks said that they would have a full status report on the ship's remaining damage soon enough though, as they were far more interested to learn what world that they had landed on. What they found out turned out to be far more surprising than some of them were expecting though, as Jiminy just hummed in thought for a few seconds before turning a surprised look to them. "You fellas are not gonna believe this," Jiminy declared. "But wherever we are, it isn't on any of the world listings in our database."
"You mean we're lost," Kairi worriedly asked, praying that was not the case.
"No, we're not lost. The maps clearly indicate that were somewhere around halfway between Hollow Bastion and Neverland," Jiminy clarified for them, drawing sighs of relief from everyone. The last thing they needed right now was to be lost in interspace. "If anything, this means that the world we've landed on hasn't been discovered until now. In fact, the coordinates of it were not even in the computer until Goofy spotted it as we were about to fly past in an attempt to escape the Heartless."
"So basically, we've just discovered a whole new world," Sora asked in awe, feeling his excitement rising despite the circumstances.
"I wouldn't necessarily say that it's entirely new, Sora," Ventus told the boy, drawing looks from both Sora and Kairi. "Yes, it is new in the sense that no one has ever been here before, but it's clearly been around for some time. We all saw that there were some signs of people living here, so whatever this world is, it's definitely populated, and we're likely the first outsiders to ever land here. But either way, since we've discovered it, that does make it a new world from our perspective." At that point, Ventus found a small grin of excitement etching its way onto his face as he sighed happily, "It actually makes me think about some of the stories regarding earlier days of Keyblade wielders when they would go out to not only protect the worlds, but to discover just what they were like as well."
"You mean the early Keyblade wielders were not powerful fighters that fought the darkness," Sora asked, finding this very intriguing.
"No, they've always been especially gifted warriors, but they weren't always focused on just battling those who would upset the balance between light and darkness," Ventus explained. "Back in the earliest days, people were just discovering other worlds, at least in the sense of what were considered other worlds back then, so Keyblade wielders often acted as the leading pioneers in discovering the mysteries, wonder, and dangers of whatever world they happened to find, ensuring that others would not have to fall prey to anything they would not be ready for. Even after the Keyblade War, some Keyblade wielders would spend their lives discovering new worlds so that other wielders would not be too terribly lost and confused when they happened upon them. But while exploration of the worlds is a vital part of being a Keyblade wielder, our first and most important responsibility will always be to act as guardians of the balance between light and darkness above all else, especially since there are so few of us now."
"In other words, now that Sora and I are Keyblade wielders, we also have a mission to protect all the worlds from darkness and other similar dangers, to seek out new worlds and learn about their ways of life, and to boldly go where no one has gone before," Kairi asked.
"Pretty much," Ven said with a grin. "It sounds like a regular star trek, huh?"
"Yeah, and we've already discovered a new world now," Sora cheered happily. "I can't wait to go out and see what it's like here!"
"Sora, you do remember what I said about how our first priority is to keep the worlds safe from anything that would bring harm to them, right," Ventus deadpanned in response to the kid's excited outburst.
"Well we might actually be here for a while, because the ship's definitely not going anywhere," Chip's voice suddenly squeaked, and the bridge crew quickly turned around to see said Chipmunk scampering into the room with Dale not too far behind him.
"What've you found out," Ventus asked. He was very worried about the answer, but he knew it was going to come whether the question was asked or not.
"Everything on the ship is completely toast," Dale replied, getting right to it with the bluntness of a sledge hammer. "That battle has torn the Kingdom up so bad that any patch work we do will be about as effective just tying it together with some flimsy rope or something."
"And that's not the worse news! The main engines are so damaged that we won't even be able to get the ship off the ground for so much as hovering in the air, let alone leaving the world," Chip revealed. "All the shields are practically gone, save for what we would need to leave this world, and the weapons systems are barely functioning anymore. We're going to have to get back to Traverse Town if we want the Kingdom to be anywhere close to acceptable working order again, at least for a flight that doesn't include use of the Warp-G."
"What about the Warp Gummi itself," Donald asked.
"It's offline, but we can definitely fix it. It'll just take a lot of time, and that's without accounting for the work we'll need to do on the engines and shields so that we can leave and start flying again," Chip revealed.
"And I'd really recommend against getting into anymore fights with Heartless ships, because so much as one small hit could end up tearing the whole ship apart in seconds," Dale added, just to make sure that detail was crystal clear to everyone.
Ventus nodded in reply to that report, and quickly crossed his arms in thought. To be honest, the damage was not sounding as bad as he originally thought it would be. Yes, they no longer had weapons or proper shields, but they did have enough shielding for leaving the world. All they needed at this point was to get the engines fixed up so that they could take off again, and if they got the Warp Gummi fixed, they could get back to Traverse Town without having to worry about anymore in-flight skirmishes with the Heartless. "Can you get the engines, shields, and Warp-G up and running again if you focus on those and nothing else," the blonde finally asked after another few minutes of thought.
"Sure, if we work around the clock," Chip replied with a smile.
"At least, we hope so," Dale admitted
"Well turn that hope into a solid belief, and make it happen. I don't care of this thing is held together by chewing gum. We need to get back to Traverse Town so we can start planning our next moves, especially with the Heartless now stronger than ever," Ven ordered. The two chipmunks immediately saluted in response and scampered off the bridge, leaving Ven to turn to the rest of the team so that he could give out their assignments. "While those two are doing that, we've still got a few jobs of our own to do; the most important one being to seal this world's Keyhole. If the Heartless didn't know about this world before, then they definitely do now, no doubt thanks in part to us having to land here, so we need to make sure the Keyhole here is locked up tight for when they come."
"But what if they find the ship while we're looking for the Keyhole," Donald asked. "You heard Chip and Dale. The Kingdom can't take much more damage from the Heartless, or we'll never be able to leave."
"Not to mention, there's no telling what might happen if some local person were to find it while we were looking," Goofy pointed out.
"At this point, I don't think we need to be too concerned with protecting the world order, at least beyond the basic rule of not letting anyone know we're from another world," Ven pointed out. It really did seem like that was all they were really able to do these days in order to preserve world order, because meddling in the affairs of other worlds had started to become something of a habit for them over the course of this journey. Then again, they would not have to meddle so much if the Heartless were not around, but that was not the point here. "Still, you guys do make a good point on not being able to leave the ship here, which is why the only solution is for us to split up."
"Split up? But we all just got back together again," Sora protested.
"I know, Sora, but right now, that's all we can do if we want to make sure the Heartless don't cause anymore damage to either the ship or this world," Ventus pointed out. It took a little while, but the boy did eventually nod in acceptance of that, prompting Ven to continue on with laying out the plan he had formed in his head. "Donald and Goofy, you guys stay here and help keep the ship safe. Do what you can to assist Chip and Dale, but your main priority is to keep anyone away from it, or even noticing it." The Disney Town duo immediately saluted in response, and Ven then turned to the other three. "Meanwhile, Sora, Kairi, Jiminy, and I will head out and start getting the lay of the land while looking for the Keyhole."
"Are you sure it's a good idea for me to come with you, Ven," Jiminy asked while Sora and Kairi exchanged a quick high-five in celebration of the fact they were on the same team. "I'm pretty sure I'd be of more help with fixing up the ship."
"True, but I seem to recall that your main mission was to chronicle the journey, and as Hollow Bastion proved, the most exciting stuff seems to happen around anyone wielding a Keyblade," Ventus argued. "Besides, we need someone to take note of everything and everyone we encounter while we're here, especially in regards to what we learn about this world, so who better to do that than you?"
Jiminy placed a hand to his chin as he mulled that logic over, and after he had done so, he let out a small smile as he admitted, "Well, I guess it would be fun to be the cricket who notes down everything we learn about this world that we've discovered. Okay, I'm in."
"Perfect," Ventus nodded, and he then turned to the two, young Keybearers. "And while we're going, you two will also be doing some serious training."
"What? How come," Sora nearly whined. Nearly because he did not mind training, but he was hoping that they would be putting it aside for a minute so that they could learn about the world that they had all just discovered.
"We need to find out if having Kairi's heart extracted from you has had any effects on your abilities, Sora, like in regards to your magic abilities and control. Even before that fight with Xeha…er, Ansem, you could've been relying a little on her heart's magic without even realizing it. Plus, after just getting pulled back from falling into darkness, you will most likely need to shake off any lingering side effects from being in such a state," Ventus explained as simply as he could. "Meanwhile, Kairi's just recently gained a Keyblade, and while I will admit that she's a rather gifted natural when it comes to magic, raw talent alone can only get you so far before you start to hone it to its fullest. She's going to need to learn everything you did when you started, but much more quickly."
"But I already know about all of this stuff from watching you train Sora," Kairi protested. "Doesn't that count for something."
"Watching someone perform an action and doing it yourself are two different things, Kairi. Why do you think there are so many things in movies or television that tell you not to try certain stunts at home," Ventus countered, throwing in a small bit of a joke at the end just to help with making his point while keeping the mood light. "Any other questions?" When everyone just shook their heads in the negative, Ventus started moving towards the door as he said, "All right then, let's move out, and best of luck to us all."
After leaving the Kingdom and watching Donald hide the ship behind an invisibility spell, the three Keybearers and their cricket friend began a long trek across the rather vast desert, making sure to keep a lock on the ship's location via the device Ven would use to signal for when they wanted to teleport aboard. As they walked, Ventus made sure to run Sora and Kairi through various drills to determine each of their individual status in their abilities as Keyblade wielders. Sora was able to shake off any side effects from being a Heartless rather quickly, and his magic abilities all seemed to be just as strong as ever, but his magic control seemed to need a bit more work now than it did before. Ven's remedy for that was to have Sora spend most of their hike using Glide for as long as possible, since it required a precise level of magic control for various aspects of its use. The goal there was for Sora to practice how he flew through the air using said ability until the kid was able to adjust his magic for the various aspects of Glide with as minimal thought as possible, and in doing so, Sora's magic control would not only increase greatly, but so would the amount of magic he held as well. It was a little tiresome and boring for Sora, but if it did help him in the long run, he was not going to complain. Too much.
Kairi on the other hand was the one that Ven was most focused on. As he had mentioned before, the girl was definitely a natural at magic, and her level of control over magic was vastly more impressive than Sora's, as she quickly proved when she managed to get a handle on both High Jump and Glide much more quickly than Sora had. However, what Ventus was most focused on was her swordplay skills. While said abilities were not necessarily bad, they were also not too great either, and the main reason that Ven could see for that was because Kairi was trying to fight like Sora did. Not all of her swordplay was similar in style to Sora's, of course, but Ven could definitely tell that she was trying to put more power into her attacks and strikes than she was probably capable of, and that was going to hurt her more in the long run. He learned all of this by watching as Kairi ran through some basic drills, and when he saw Kairi go for a powerful swing only to trip over and tuck into a roll in order to regain her balance, Ventus decided that enough was enough, and it was time to fully address the matter.
"Okay, that's enough of that," Ventus stated, immediately moving to stand next to Kairi as she stood up again. "We've got a serious problem that needs to be addressed here."
"What're talking about? I can still keep going," Kairi insisted, obviously not seeing what Ven had.
"I'm not saying you can't, but you're also not going to get any better like that," Ventus clarified. "You're trying too hard to go for power strikes and attacks that would finish the fight quickly, or to put it another way, you're trying to be too much like Sora, or me, or even Riku, if I'm guessing right." Kairi said nothing in response to that, proving Ven's point easily, and prompting him to continue. "While it is good that you're following the examples of others, you can't just take one person's fighting style and expect it all to work just as well for you. You need to learn how to adapt and improve a style so that you can make it into your own while finding your own rhythm to flow into."
Kairi just stared at Ventus for a minute before she finally said, "I don't think I get it. Are you saying I'm not strong enough to fight like you guys?"
"Not…entirely," Ventus hesitantly replied, thinking over what he was trying to say in his head. "You see Kairi, Sora's attacks are so strong-handed because he's able to use such tactics, but at times, he does know that he can use his speed to his advantage as well. You're not built like Sora or me, so you're not going to be able to do what we do and get the same results, but at the same time, you can have a better advantage over us. You should try focusing a little more on your agility. Your naturally more flexible than me or Sora, which means you can also be a bit more agile than us. Being able to avoid an enemy until you're in a position to land a critical strike is just as effective as just blasting your way through, if not more so."
"So I should try to run away more," Kairi asked.
"Not run away. Just don't put so much energy into your attacks, especially when you're not able to finish a fight by overpowering the other guy," Ventus clarified, spotting a small stream close to where they were currently walking when he did. He quickly waved her attention towards it and explained, "Imagine a river, similar to this one if you will. Many things will often stand in its way from trees, to boulders, to even mountains, but the water continues to flow. Patient, persistent, the water finds a way around, eventually wearing down whatever lies in its path, until only the water remains. I can see your own fighting style often being similar to this. Simply going with the flow and letting your opponents waste their energy until the ideal time to strike. Understand?"
"I think so," Kairi slowly replied. "Basically, I need to not waste too much energy trying to muscle my way through, but let the other guy wear himself out before hitting him with my own attacks. Right?"
"Exactly," Ventus confirmed. He then summoned his Keyblade and assumed a ready position as he prompted. "Let's try it out, and remember, be flexible with a steady flow, like the water. Don't try to muscle your way through, and use what you can to your advantage."
Kairi nodded in response, and assumed a ready position as well, while Sora landed on the ground in time to watch the two. A moment later, Kairi had lunged towards Ven in an attempt to drive her Keyblade through him, but Ventus simply sidestepped the strike, and let her rush past. Kairi stumbled for only a moment, but easily spun on the heel of her foot so that she could avoid the blonde's attempt at retaliation. Coming out of the spin, Kairi quickly leapt back to gain some ground, leaning to the side a little in order to avoid another swing before aiming a swing of her own up towards Ventus. The blonde easily parried the strike and attempted another counter, but only found his Keyblade meeting air as Kairi quickly dropped down to dodge him and slash at his legs. She managed a glancing blow only, since Ven managed to jump back at nearly the last second, but that still gave her enough time to throw out a blast of Blizzara with her free hand that forced Ventus to retreat even further.
"Good, that's much better already," Ven praised. "You're already taking advantage of your smaller size to dodge me while keeping your moves as unpredictable as possible. Adding in the use of magic without channeling it through the Keyblade itself is definitely a nice touch and shows even more of your natural talent for it. Keep going."
The redhead nodded in reply, but this time did not make an attempt to charge. Instead, she simply assumed another ready position, waiting for Ventus to come to her, and the blonde did not let her wait for too long. When Ven saw that she was waiting for him to attack her, he instantly rushed forward and began a furious blitz of attacks through use of the ability known as Ars Arcanum, but Kairi managed to dodge a good number of these attacks while deflecting whichever ones she could not. She then slipped around Ven on his last strike and attempted to hit him from below again, only for him to suddenly snap his leg out and kick her back, making her tumble over backwards as a result. After getting to her feet, Kairi attempted a quick charge, thinking Ven would not expect it, but the blonde proved otherwise when he blocked her next few strikes, and parried the last one before erecting an Aero Shield that served as protection from the next blast of ice magic that Kairi tried on him.
"Don't let yourself become predictable. Let your actions flow and adapt, never letting your opponent get an idea on how you'll move," Ventus coached, while noting that Kairi was waiting for him to strike again. "And another thing, don't wait for your opponent to come to you. It will only leave you more vulnerable. Take the fight to them at every viable chance you have."
To prove his point, Ventus quickly rushed in and unleashed a fury of strikes on Kairi that left her very little room to block or parry. She was able to dodge most of them, but whichever ones she could not dodge or block left a very noticeable sting on her. "You're holding the Keyblade too tight," Ventus cautioned, prompting her to loosen her grip much more than she should have, and allowing Ven to knock it out of her hand with his next strike. "Now too lightly," Ventus stated as he pinned the Keyblade to the ground with Guardian Wind, while aiming his free hand at Kairi, a wind spell quickly building up in his palm. "Try to keep a steady grip at all times to guarantee the best results, and block as many distractions as possible, whether they come from your opponent or from others."
"Good advice," Kairi admitted as Destiny's Embrace suddenly appeared in her hand, much to Ven's surprise. The blonde's shock nearly lead him to be struck by Kairi's next attack, but he immediately jumped back before she could hit him, and he had to smile a little at the fact she was learning quite quickly. The fact she used his own moment of pause to teach as a distraction so she could retrieve her Keyblade certainly showed that.
"Impressive," Ventus complimented, standing down when he did as a silent signal to end their spar. "I think you're starting to get it. Just keep what we just went through in mind, and improve on it whenever possible."
"Right. Don't try to outmuscle everything, and don't go for moves that have more power than I can manage, right," Kairi recited.
"Exactly," Ventus nodded. He then silently added, "Though I still get the feeling that Aqua would be a better teacher for you."
His latter comment went unheard, but mostly because Sora spotted something that they had missed up until now and called their attention to it. "Hey guys, I think there's a town up ahead," the boy informed the other two. "Maybe there's someone there who can tell us a little more about this place, or give us a clue on where to find the Keyhole."
Ventus and Kairi both turned to where Sora was waving, and quickly spotted the town that Sora had sighted before following after him in a rapid rush to reach it. When they reached the town, they saw that it was mostly made up of small buildings that only reached three stories at most, all made out of wood, with one or two larger buildings here and there that looked to be either barns or storage houses of some kind. A large sign hung over a couple of buildings to designate those buildings were the school house and the saloon, while a third one had the word sheriff over the entrance, with a large star embedded on the doorway. Looking around, one would be hard pressed to not think that this was similar to a town right out of the old west, and while Sora and Kairi were a bit apprehensive about how empty the place seemed to be, Ventus actually appeared to be getting more excited.
"This reminds me of all the Old West movies that Terra, Aqua, and I used to watch back when we were all training together," Ventus noted in fond nostalgia, finally explaining his excitement to the other two a little bit.
"You actually watched movies like that with your friends," Sora asked.
"Well, mostly Terra. Aqua usually preferred musicals or a good romance story, but she would join in on one or two of the Old Western films that Terra and I watched," Ven admitted with a shrug. He had to go to a lot of effort to keep down a blush at the memory of watching some of Aqua's favorite musicals with her, and how he could swear that her hand had almost intentionally slipped into his once or twice at some of the sweeter scenes. Even now, he was almost positive that she had been trying to give him a subtle hint about her feelings for him back when she first started doing that.
All reminiscing was put on hold though, when Kairi asked, "Don't you think it's a little strange that we haven't seen anyone yet, though? It's kind of making me feel a bit uneasy."
Sora nodded in agreement with the girl and said, "Yeah, this place is a real ghost town. Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing anyone or anything along the way here, either."
"Yeah, you guys do have a point," Ventus admitted, his expression quickly becoming serious again as he slowly looked around. "Be it out in the desert or even here, it doesn't seem like there's any sign of intelligent life anywhere."
"Hello," a cowboy greeted after suddenly appearing before the three almost out of nowhere.
"HOLD THAT THOUGHT," Ven immediately shouted, while Sora, Kairi, Jiminy and the cowboy all let out cries of surprise or terror. The three Keybearers were immediately jumping back and summoning their Keyblades, either to have at the ready or to point them at the surprised cowboy who had just snuck up on them, and they quickly took the time to study the individual in question. They all saw that he was very tall, had short, brown hair and eyes, relatively tanned skin, and his outfit was that of a regular cowpoke. He wore a yellow, plaid shirt beneath a black and white, cow hide vest that had a gold star pinned to the left side, while a red bandana around his neck was tucked into the collar. Moving on down, they saw he also wore blue jeans and a pair of brown cowboy boots with gold spurs, while an empty gun holster rested on his right hip, hanging down from the brown leather belt that was held in place by a gold rancher's belt buckle.
"Whoa-whoa-whoa! Easy there, partners! Did I frighten you," the cowboy rapidly asked as he waved for the three to wait.
"Um…Yeah! What do you think is going to happen when you suddenly sneak up on someone from out of nowhere in the middle of a nearly empty town," Sora rhetorically asked.
"Right," the cowboy nodded in reply. "Didn't mean to. Sorry about that."
"Well you should be. It's not nice to go around scaring people like that," Jiminy scolded after he had jumped up on Sora's shoulder. He was especially miffed since that little scare almost sent him flying out of Sora's jacket pocket, and he had been doing a lot writing in his journal at the time. He was really hoping that he did not find a huge mess in the precious little book because of that later.
The cowboy did not seem to be too bothered by seeing Jiminy, but instead just moved along from that as he went to introduce himself. "Anyway, let's start over. Hey howdy hey, my name is Woody, and this dusty little town is Roundup Ranch. That's all I really wanted to say, and there seems to have been a bit of a mix-up. See, we were trying to evacuate the town, because of…"
As Woody was introducing himself, Sora took the time to better study the cowboy, looking for anything that might indicate he was going to attack them. Just because the guy's gun holster was empty, did not mean he was not a threat, and the boy's study eventually lead him to get a better look at the badge on Woody's chest. "You're the sheriff of this town," Sora asked, lowering his Keyblade and interrupting Woody when he did.
"Huh," Woody asked, before he glanced down at the badge and grinned with pride. "Well as a matter of fact, I am the sheriff around these parts, which is part of the reason why I asked the rest of my Roundup Gang to evacuate the town."
The others did not really seem to take notice of that last part, as they were more fixed on the fact that they had just drawn weapons on a sheriff. "Oh, we're really sorry about that, Sheriff. We shouldn't have just jumped to conclusions even if you did startle us," Kairi immediately apologized after dismissing her Keyblade, with Ven doing the same an instant later while his expression turned thoughtful.
"Ah forget about it, little lady. After all, it was mostly my fault for scaring you guys like that," Woody waved off. "More importantly though, I'm trying to tell you guys that you need to…"
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute," Ventus interrupted. "You said your name's Woody? And you're the sheriff?"
"Yes, that is correct, and I really need to get you guys out of here before something happens," Woody replied, only to find himself getting a fiercely excited handshake from Ven a minute later.
"Oh my god! You're Sheriff Woody of Woody's Roundup Gang," Ventus cried out excitedly while he shook Woody's hand. "I'm a huge fan! My best friends and I used to hear and tell stories about you and the rest of the gang all the time when we were growing up."
"You don't say," Woody grinned appreciatively, apparently forgetting about what he was saying before. "You know, I don't think I ever got your names."
"Oh! I'm Sora, but you can call me Jiminy, and this is Ventus, Kairi, and Ven," the blonde quickly replied, only to realize his embarrassing slip up a second later. "I-I mean, I'm Ven, but you can call me Sora, and this is Kairi, Jiminy, and Ventus. Ah! No!"
"Easy, easy, partner. Just breathe," Woody coached after finally getting his hand back while Ven started to take a few deep breathes in order to calm down. He then looked to the other two and said, "Maybe I should be asking one of you for your names?"
"Well, I'm Sora, and the excited old man is my master, Ventus, but he likes to go by Ven," Sora explained.
"Hey! Who're you calling an old man, you little runt," Ventus playfully teased while mussing up Sora's hair a little.
"Cricket's the name. Jiminy Cricket, at your service, Sheriff," Jiminy then introduced with a tip of his hat.
"And this is Kairi, my…uh…" Sora was now a little stuck. He was not entirely sure if he could introduce Kairi as just his friend after their little moment back at Hollow Bastion, but he did not want to make her uncomfortable by assuming that they were a couple now if Kairi did not really feel the same way. Then again, she did kiss him, but did that mean she did feel the same? Either way, the rest of his explanation came out a little weirdly. "My…friend, who's a very…very beautiful girl…and who…kissed me…and who I kissed back…and…yeah…"
Kairi's face quickly began to turn as red as her hair at Sora's introduction of her. That kiss she shared with Sora and the words he said to her before his apparent sacrifice were still at the forefront of her mind and making her wonder some of the same things about her relationship with her best friend that Sora was. Still, she was able to keep more of her composure than Sora seemed capable of at the moment, and she quickly held out a hand for Woody to shake in order to save Sora further embarrassment. "It's nice to meet you, Sheriff."
"Well now, no need to be so formal, partners. Just call me Woody, okay," Woody requested while returning the girl's handshake.
"Yeah, definitely," Ventus immediately replied, almost sounding like an excited child on his birthday when he did.
Sora and Kairi could not help but smirk in amusement at Ven's sudden change into a complete fan-boy. Really, one minute the guy was all serious and being a wise, powerful, experienced master, and the next thing you know, he had turned into a little kid who had just met his favorite superhero. It was hard not to find it at least a little laughable, really. Then again, looking between the two, and remembering what they had been through together so far on this journey, Kairi had definitely started to see a lot of similarities between Ventus and Sora, so she had a much easier time believing this was actually happening, which only made it even funnier for her. In fact, it proved to be so funny that a giggle or two actually slipped past her lips, despite her best efforts to suppress them, much to Sora's confusion. That confusion was quickly forgotten though when they noticed their eyes had started to linger on one another, and they quickly turned away with a small blush on their faces.
Even while he was practically dancing with excitement over meeting one of his childhood heroes, Ventus managed to notice that last exchange between the two, and he mentally rolled his eyes in response. It was not a surprise that the two were uncertain of where they stood with one another after all that had happened back on Hollow Bastion, but seeing them act like a pair of nervous school kids who were near their first crush in the way that they were was still somewhat painful to watch. Sure, he was left pretty stunned and out of it after he had his first kiss with Aqua, but they were at least still able to be like they normally were around one another afterwards. Then again, considering that he and Aqua had to go into the final battle of their first journey through the worlds seconds later, and how said battle had the fate of so much riding on its outcome, it was not like they really had time to get nervous and ask the questions that the two kids were clearly wondering right now, so maybe he could not make that much of a real comparison between the two situations. Still, he knew that they were going to need to sort things out, and it needed to happen very soon.
The blonde was about to attempt to tear himself away from meeting Woody when the sound of someone yodeling loudly reached their ears. When they turned to the source, they were just in time to see a horse with light brown fur galloping over to them as fast as possible, and sitting in the saddle on said horse's back was a cowgirl with long red hair tied into a ponytail, and dressed in a white shirt with a yellow collar and cuffs, blue jeans with cowhide chaps, a belt that matched Woody's, brown boots, and a red cowgirl hat. When the horse skidded to a stop, the cowgirl immediately descended from the saddle and rushed over to Woody. "Everything's all clear, Woody," the cowgirl reported. "Bullseye, all the friendly critters, and I managed to get the last of the townsfolk to safety before I told the critters to scurry off to some place safe too."
"Well, I'd hate to break it to you, Jessie, but I'm afraid you missed a few," Woody informed his friend, indicating the three Keybearers and Jiminy when he did.
When Jessie glanced over at the four in surprise before turning somewhat sheepish, Ven was instantly prompted to say something in her defense. "To be fair, we did just arrive in town today, so we wouldn't have known that people were being evacuated until now," the blonde pointed out. "Besides, at least this way we get to meet both Sheriff Woody and more of his Roundup Gang, so that makes things a lot better."
"Well, I guess you're a fan, huh," Jessie asked with a grin.
"Yeah, me and my two best friends, but Aqua especially liked you the best out of everyone in the gang when we were growing up with the stories," Ventus explained. "I still remember her sometimes saying how she wanted to be just like you when she grew up, always happy, fun, and ready for an adventure at any turn."
"Yeee-ha! Sounds like my kind of girl," Jessie excitedly declared. "Well, I'm sure you already know this, but my name's Jessie." Just as she was midway through her sentence, the horse came up and started licking Ven like an excited puppy. "And this here's Bullseye, the fastest, most loyal horse in all the west."
Ventus could only laugh for a few more minutes as Bullseye continued to lick him, until he finally managed to get a hand on the horse's muzzle to both get the horse to stop and so he could pet him a little. "Hey Bullseye. Who's a good horsey," Ven cooed, earning an approving neigh in response.
Woody then took the time to introduce the four to Jessie and Bullseye, while Kairi moved to pet Bullseye as well, before he finally said, "Well, now that you've met us, you should really leave town while you still can. It's not safe at the moment."
"Maybe we could help out somehow," Sora offered, earning a slightly skeptical look from both cowpokes in response. "Hey, helping others and fighting monsters is something we've become real pros at, so why not let us? What's the problem anyway?"
"Some really dark critters suddenly moseyed their way into town a little while ago and attacked the townspeople. The worst part is that those people that were attacked turned into more of the nasty critters while others kept appearing after the ones that came in first," Jessie revealed, her tone much more subdued than it was before.
Hearing her mention "dark critters" quickly got all of the Keybearers' attention, but only Kairi was able to ask what they were all hoping was not true. "Did they look like…living shadows or have a heart-shaped emblem on them anywhere?"
"Yeah," Woody nodded, and his face quickly turned slightly panicked when he noticed something behind the three, and shouted, "Just like them!"
The three Keybearers immediately spun around to see what had startled the sheriff just in time to see some old foes materializing into the town. Most of them were Shadows while others looked a lot like old west bandits with black hats, dark colored cowboy outfits, and a pair of six-shooter pistols in their hands, but no matter what they looked like, they were all still the same breed of monsters that the three Keyblade wielders were all too familiar with. "Heartless," the three shouted, and they summoned their Keyblades an instant later as they entered battle once more.
Jiminy had taken a moment to jump clear from Sora's jacket, taking cover over at one of the nearby buildings as he studied both the surroundings, the two townsfolk and their horse, and the newest Heartless, and making notes on it all in his journal. Given the circumstances, he felt that it would be better if he was not spending all of his time riding around in Sora's jacket at the moment. Besides, it was really hard for him to write properly while Sora was fighting. "Hmm…another new breed of Heartless, and these guys definitely seem like they would be unique to this place," the cricket noted as his pen rapidly scratched words across the pages of the journal with new notes. "Think I'll call these new Heartless…Gunslingers."
The others were not really paying too much attention to Jiminy at this point, but only because they were more focused on the fight with the Heartless. Bullseye, Woody, and Jessie were all engaging the dark creatures hand-to-hand, with Woody using a lasso he had on his belt to spin a few Heartless into one another on occasion, Bullseye kicking them with his hooves, and Jessie just smacking the evil creatures silly, much to the other three's impression. On a more spectacular note though, the three locals found themselves left in awe by the Keyblade wielders' amazing combat prowess, as they all danced across the battlefield in a spectacular fashion. Even Kairi, who was still adapting her fighting style so that it was not just something that she was copying from watching others fight, was showing remarkable talent and change as she maneuvered around her opponents with elegant grace and agility before dealing a finishing strike on a Heartless or two every few minutes or so. Ventus made sure to make fast work of any Heartless that dared to approach him, striking down both old and new ones with his usual flash of speed and power, while Sora varied between supporting both his master and the girl he loved as much as he could, be it with sword strikes or magic attacks. Ven normally would have said that Sora should focus on his own fights more than the others, but the kid was actually doing a very impressive job of acting as support for both him and Kairi, and he could see that he was managing to keep up a pace that allowed him to fight some on his own when he found an opening to do so. It definitely showed a remarkable amount of advancement in Sora's skills and abilities since he first became a Keyblade wielder, making Ven wonder if it had really been as long since that time as it had actually been.
As the fight continued on, often times leading to a few Heartless getting thrown through the doors of a saloon like some guys often would in some cowboy movies, Ventus was overcome with another feeling in the fight: nostalgia. Fighting alongside Sora and Kairi as part of a team of three Keyblade wielders made him think that this was almost just like the old days when it was him, Terra, and Aqua against the forces of evil, and there was little reason why it would not. Sure, the roles were reversed so that he was the oldest of the group while the other two were the ones who were kids, but aside from that, one could see quite a few parallels here. There was Kairi serving as the natural mage that Aqua had once been, Sora was the excitable, eager apprentice that he was at the boy's age, and Ven himself had become a mix of Aqua and Terra in the sense that he was the sole master of the group, and the powerful, strong warrior that his brother in all but blood had been. It continued to show more and more as the three fought together, as evidenced when Kairi created an opening on a large group of Heartless, paving the way for Sora and Ven to wipe them all out in one fell swoop. Ventus immediately jumped into the air to avoid a retaliation from a couple of Shadows, allowing Sora to slice through them once the blonde was clear. When a pair of Gunslingers tried to zero in their sights on Sora, Kairi quickly discouraged them with a few quick blasts of Blizzara, leading her to activate Diamond Dust so that she could take down a much larger number of Heartless at once.
When Ventus saw Kairi activate a Command Style on her own for the first time, he could tell that it was not just battle instinct fueled by adrenaline like it had been for Sora. In point of fact, it just provided further evidence that Kairi's natural magic talents were proving to be even more apparent than ever. With how the girl was dancing across the battlefield even while unleashing the icy Command Style's power, Ven had a feeling that he would not need to worry about teaching her too much in regards to magic, but he quickly noticed something else. Kairi was clearly going through spells a little too quickly, which would no doubt drain her of her magic energies in short order. Sure, she had a bit of extra magic in her reserves as a Princess of Heart, but all the same, she still had to be careful when using spells so rapidly, otherwise it was going to leave her very exhausted and with nothing to rely on other than her swordplay, which was still in need of some more work, even with her recent improvements.
Luckily, no one had to worry about tiring themselves out in any way, shape, or form at the moment, because shortly after Kairi had unleashed the Diamond Dust finisher, all of the Heartless had been destroyed, and they were all able to relax. "Well, you certainly weren't kidding when you said you could handle a rodeo like that," Woody remarked to the three Keybearers as he and Jessie approached them. "And you definitely seemed to have an easier time dealing with those nasty little critters than we've had."
"Those ain't no critters, Woody. Critters are all nice, sweet, and loving. Those things are just downright bad news," Jessie disputed with a frown.
"You don't know the half of it," Ventus groaned while he dismissed his Keyblade. "They're called the Heartless. Dangerous creatures that prey on the hearts of others so long as there is darkness in their hearts."
"They've actually already destroyed several…uh, towns, including mine and Kairi's home," Sora revealed, a sad frown coming to his face as he thought about Destiny Islands. He quickly shook it off though, and added, "But we're trying to stop them from hurting anyone else, and from destroying anyone else's home."
"Well then, you've got a few good cowpokes right here willing to back you up anyway that we can," Woody reassured them. "So how do we stop them?"
"They're looking for something called a Keyhole. If they find that, they'll be able to destroy the entire town," Kairi informed them. "If we find it first though, we can seal the Keyhole shut and prevent them from getting into it."
"Don't suppose you would know anything about something like that, would you," Jiminy asked after he had hopped back up onto Sora's shoulder.
Woody and Jessie both rubbed their chins in thought, while Bullseye furrowed his brow in a similar manner, until the sheriff of the group said, "Sorry, but no. I don't think any of us have heard of anything like that before, but there can't be too many places where it could be hidden around here."
"You'd be surprised, actually," Ven muttered just low enough for only Kairi, Sora, and Jiminy to hear him, all of whom could only nod in agreement.
"You know, maybe Prospector knows something about it," Jessie suggested, but a minute later she let out a horrified gasp. "Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln! The prospector! Woody, we forgot all about him!"
"What?! Oh no, you're right! We were so busy worrying about the townsfolk we forgot that he had gone out on another gold hunt," Woody exclaimed in panic.
"Wait, wait! Calm down a minute. When you say the prospector, do you mean Prospector Stinky Pete," Ventus asked.
"Yeah, he said this morning he was going up to one of the abandoned mines to look for gold again, but with the attack of those Heartless things, we forgot all about him," Woody explained. "Come to think of it, he's usually come back by now. Something must've happened to him, which means we need to get up to whatever mine he had his sights on this time."
"I think Bullseye knows the one. You went with Prospector to check it out the other day, right boy," Jessie mentioned. Bullseye immediately nodded yes in reply, which served as all that they needed.
"All right, then let's saddle up, partners," Woody declared as he jumped into the horse's saddle, pulling Jessie up so that she was behind him once he was on. He quickly spared a look to the Keyblade team and asked, "Do you think you'll be able to keep up?"
"Don't worry about us; just go! We'll catch up as soon as we can. Besides, if there are any other Heartless along the way, it'll be better if we destroy as many of them as possible," Ventus reassured Woody.
The sheriff nodded at that and turned his attention to the way out of town as he shouted, "Run like the wind, Bullseye!"
With that, the three locals of Roundup Ranch had raced off in the direction of the mine that the prospector was supposedly inside of, leaving the other four with a chance to finally talk freely. "So Ven, how do you really know about those folks," Jiminy asked.
Ventus smiled nostalgically once again and explained, "It's just like I said before. The stories of Sheriff Woody and his Roundup Gang are ones that Aqua, Terra, and I all loved when we were growing up. The only difference is that they weren't stories shared around a campfire or anything like that. It was actually stories of a really old TV show called Woody's Roundup. Each of us had at least one toy based off the characters from the show, save for Aqua who had both Jessie and Bullseye. Even though he's Woody's horse, she always insisted that Bullseye liked Jessie better because she was such a good friend to all critters."
"Huh, that's pretty cool. Who would've thought that one of the worlds we would find out here would actually be like your favorite childhood show brought to life," Sora commented with a smile. He then grew a little more thoughtful and said, "Now I can't help but wonder if any of the shows or video games I liked are actually other worlds too."
Ventus could only smirk in response to that, knowing of at least one world that was exactly like that, but he made sure to hide it as best as he could, and simply shrugged as he said, "Who knows? After all, they say that every star in the night sky is the heart of another world, and as I'm sure you know, the number of stars in the sky is endless, which makes the possibilities of what the other worlds may or may not be the same."
Kairi could only smile in good humor, knowing that hearing Ven say that was only to get Sora to start dreaming of teaming up with Buzz Lightyear or something, but she also felt that she had remind the two boys of what they needed to be doing right now. "Maybe we should talk about this more later. Right now, Woody and the others still need our help."
"You're right, so let's stop standing around here and move it out," Ventus ordered, leading the charge out of town and off in the direction that Bullseye and his passengers had run off in, all the while hoping that they would not be too late.
As it turned out, the mine that was closest to the town was a fair distance away, but given what he knew about the prospector's hunt for gold in the old show, Ven just knew that they were lucky it was not several miles away from them. He was able to remember an episode when Stinky Pete had dragged the Roundup Gang on a very long, tiring excursion that spanned across the half the west at minimum quite well when he thought about how long it had taken them to get here, and after informing Sora and Kairi of that, they both had to agree that this was definitely much better in comparison. At least it probably would have been if there were not several boulders blocking the entrance into the mine, and from the looks of things, it appeared like those rocks had only just recently fallen. When the team had gotten there, Woody and Jessie were already trying their best to move the rocks out of the way, with Bullseye helping a little as well whenever he could, but it did not look like they were going to get very far too quickly and time was likely of the essence here if there were any Heartless inside the mine with Prospector.
They found out just how little time they had to help Stinky Pete shortly after the Keybearers had arrived, because Jiminy quickly caught a glimpse of something that the rest of them seemed to miss. "Hey, I think there's something trying to get out of there," the cricket called out.
Everyone immediately turned and saw that a little jackrabbit was in fact trying to crawl its way out of the mine by going between a couple of the rocks that had blocked the entrance, and Kairi and Jessie both immediately rushed over to help the little guy in his escape. Once they had made the opening big enough, the jackrabbit was soon followed by several other small animals that all looked really panicked, at least until Jessie let out a quick yodel that seemed to calm them down. "Hey critters, what's the matter," Jessie questioned.
The critters all started squeaking at about a mile a minute again, while Sora and Kairi just thought Jessie was being silly in thinking that they could really get some answers from animals like these. They were soon proven wrong when Woody's expression became much more worried after the squeaking finally stopped. "What," the sheriff gasped. "Prospector ended up trapped in the mine after it suddenly caved in because of the Heartless, and the prospector just lit a stick of dynamite thinking it was a candle, and now he's about to be blown to smithereens?!"
The jackrabbit from earlier instantly nodded in reply with another pair of similar sounding squeaks, and while that served to make the Roundup Gang redouble their efforts at digging the prospector out, Sora and Kairi could only gape in disbelief at what had just happened. "He got all of that…from just a few squeaks," Sora asked in disbelief.
"How did he get all of that from a few squeaks," Kairi asked in a similar manner, having just as hard a time believing this as Sora was.
Ventus only smiled and replied, "Because he's Sheriff Woody, the rootinest, tootinest, shootinest, hootinest cowboy in the wild, wild west." When the other members of his team all gave him odd looks in response to that, including Jiminy, Ven grinned sheepishly and explained, "What? So that's a line from the show's theme song, but it isn't any less true."
Sora and Kairi ended up able to do nothing more than smile and nod at that point, feeling that any other response was going to lead the Roundup Gang into realizing they were from another world or Ven into fan-boy rant, but their list of responses quickly grew when the Heartless suddenly began to appear around them once again. The two kids both reacted on instinct and immediately summoned their Keyblades so they could rush into battle once again, only to realize a little too late that most of the Heartless were not interested in attacking them. No, most of the dark creatures were putting their focus into attacking the mine, either to make sure that they did not unblock the entrance before the dynamite went off or to cause another cave in that would crush the prospector beneath the rocks. When he did finally realize this, Sora quickly cast a quick blast of Stop to prevent too many more from getting any closer, leaving Kairi an opening to blast the frozen Heartless with a few rounds of various other spells while he took down the ones that were already at the mine with Ven.
The blonde master was quick to tell Woody and Jessie to keep digging while he and the others held off the Heartless, but he knew that it was going to take a lot more than just the two cowpokes and their horse to unblock the mine, even if they did have assistance from him and his fellow Keyblade wielders. Thankfully, that problem had an easy solution: summon charms, and he knew just the summon for the job in this case, which was why he immediately drew the charm for that person from his pocket the minute he found an opening. "Ahsoka, we need your help," Ven called out as he lifted the charm above his head, and a second later, the Jedi Padawan was standing among the group once more, ready for action. "Help Woody and Jessie unblock the mine entrance while we keep the Heartless at bay. Take down any of the Heartless if they get too close only if you have to."
"You've got it, Sun-Spikes," Ahsoka nodded, and she immediately began using her Force abilities to move several rocks out of the entrance at once, while Ven could only look back at her in mild surprise.
"Sun-Spikes," Ventus muttered, wondering why he was dubbed with that nickname, but he quickly turned his attention back to the fight when a Gunslinger suddenly tried to jump and hit him with the butt of its pistol. He would ask Ahsoka about the nickname later.
Woody paused for only a moment when he saw Ahsoka suddenly appear and start lifting several rocks out of the way just by waving her hands at them, but he quickly brushed it off as unimportant for the moment. Right now, his friend was still in trouble, and the strange girl was helping to get him out of there a lot faster than before, so Woody was not going to complain. Instead, he got as close up to the entrance as he could, and called out, "Prospector, can you hear me in there?!"
"Woody? Woody is that you," a voice called back. "Oh thank goodness! Hurry, I don't think it's going to be much longer before the dynamite in here goes off, and there are a lot of really strange critters appearing down here that look like they want to eat me!"
"Don't worry, Prospector, we'll have you out of there before you know it," Jessie promised as she hefted another large rock out of the way, whilst Ahsoka kept another three from falling into the spot where said rock had previously been.
"Well don't worry, I'm sure I'll have managed to put out the flame on this thing before you get here," Prospector reassured them, probably as a way of trying to keep his friends from getting too worried or because he was about to do something stupid. It turned out to be the latter, because the next time they heard him yell, they all figured that he must have tried sitting on the dynamite's fuse in an attempt to put out the flame. "YEOW! My biscuit's a-burning!"
"Suddenly, I'm reminded of the last episode that my friends and I saw of Woody's Roundup," Ven commented after he heard that, having gotten well into the midst of the battle that the Roundup Gang would have been unable to hear him.
Sora soon spun around to stand back-to-back with his master, with Kairi soon after as she unleashed a few more spells, and once she had, Sora took the time to ask, "What happened?"
"Jessie and Prospector were trapped in the mine, Prospector lit a stick of dynamite thinking it was a candle, and the episode ended with Woody and Bullseye trying to jump a large canyon as they raced to their rescue," Ventus replied before using Freeze Raid to encase several Heartless in ice long enough for him to blast them into oblivion with Thundaga.
"Did they make it in the next episode," Kairi asked as she let loose a few more blasts of Fira and Blizzara in two different directions, only pausing in her barrage to slash at any Heartless that actually got close to her.
Ventus frowned a little at the girl's continued overuse of magic, but he shook it off, knowing that now was not the best time to critique someone's fighting style, and replied, "That was actually the last episode of the series. The show was canceled after that."
"What?! Why would they cancel a show before resolving such a huge cliffhanger," Sora demanded, his disbelief nearly distracting him from the Gunslinger that was about to shoot him full of holes had Kairi not zapped it with Thundara at nearly the last second.
"Hmm…I don't really know. The show was a little old even back then, and we never really bothered trying to find out why it was canceled," Ventus admitted just at the same time as when he fired off Meteor Shower.
"Maybe you should have this conversation at a later date," Jiminy suggested as a reminder of their current situation, and the three were soon returning their attention to the fight that was currently at hand.
Unfortunately, that soon became a little harder when something that Ven was worried about ended up happening sooner than any of them would have liked. Kairi was just starting to cast another barrage of spells, but a mere second after firing off the first two, she suddenly felt overcome with a feeling of exhaustion that made her whole body feel much heavier, almost like her limbs had turned into lead weights. Somehow, she managed to stay standing long enough to bat away a few Shadows and some shots fired by Gunslingers, but after that point, she could not stop herself from dropping to one knee as she panted in exhaustion. The question of what was wrong with her at the moment was soon running through her head so rapidly that she completely missed when more Heartless suddenly materialized near her position and made to attack her. Thankfully, Sora did not miss it, and immediately dashed to the rescue, cutting down the vile creatures before they could come within a hair's breadth of laying a finger on the girl he loved. An instant later, Sora's body had lit up with the power of Destiny Blaze, and he was soon racing across the battlefield even faster than ever to tear through whatever Heartless remained, pausing once or twice to throw out a Shotlock or two for good measure.
Ven noticed Kairi's condition very quickly as well, and immediately rushed in to stand in front of her while firing off a few Shotlocks as well before he passed her an Ether, telling her to drink it all up as quickly as she could. Kairi was not going to argue with him right now, and immediately guzzled it down as fast as she could, nearly choking once or twice when it came close to going down the wrong pipe. The minute the Ether had all gone down her throat, Kairi immediately felt completely rejuvenated, and jumped right back up to join in on the fight once more, instantly going for another magic barrage, much to Ven's displeasure. Really, you would think that she would have learned after draining herself that quickly, but considering the situation they were in, it did make sense that she would fall into a knee-jerk reaction with little time to think it through. His complaints soon disappeared all together when Kairi suddenly began to glow with the power of her own Command Style, and soon enough, she too was racing across the battlefield along with Sora, empowered by the strength of Shooting Star when she did.
Not wanting to be outdone by the two kids, Ven immediately activated his own Unique Tier One Command Style, and soon enough, the Heartless were being blasted away left and right by the powers of the three Keybearers. Even when the dark creatures suddenly gained some extra air support from a few new Heartless that Jiminy identified as Flutterings based on the notes in his journal, the Keybearers did not slow down even the slightest bit. In fact, they actually sped up a little while changing their tactics slightly. While Kairi and Ven focused primarily on the ground forces, Sora turned most of his attention to the Flutterings and unleashed several Shotlocks and long-range spells on them in order to keep them off his friends. Sure, it may have caused him to lose a little bit of power in his Command Style to stop and fire a Shotlock right now, but considering how much better Sora was with Shotlocks than Command Styles, no one was going to complain at the moment.
With all of this going for the three, it made sense that the Heartless were all soon wiped out by the Keybearers, with Ahsoka using her lightsabers to deliver the final blow after clearing one last large boulder for Woody and Jessie. Afterwards, the Jedi Padawan only had enough time to throw out a farewell salute to the three before the magic used to summon her here wore off, leaving the group with the cowpokes and their recently rescued friend. When they looked over to the mine, they immediately spotted Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, and a short, rotund man with a grey beard in a red shirt, blue overalls, and large black hat running towards them as fast as they could, shouting for the Keybearers to either take cover or get back, and they were not really planning to argue considering what they knew had been down there with the prospector. Barely even seconds after they had gotten to a safe distance, the mine exploded with a loud boom, and they all looked back to see that anything that was left of the mine was now long gone, much to the rotund man's dismay, confirming for the team that this was most likely the prospector that they had come to try and rescue. Not that Ven really needed any confirmation, since he knew that the moment he saw the shorter man.
"You okay, Prospector," Jessie asked once she had finally caught her breath.
Prospector nodded in reply before he glanced around and moaned, "Aww, I lost my gold." A minute later, one last rock came falling from the mine, this one colored gold and shinning as brightly as the sun, and it dropped right on top of Stinky Pete's head, much to everyone's surprise. "Found it," Prospector moaned.
"I'm not so sure about that, Prospector," Woody informed his friend with a slight grin as he picked up the rock.
After Woody's grin widened a little more, Ven instantly figured out what that likely meant and said, "Let me guess: it's just a chunk of fool's gold?"
"Yep, got it in one, partner," Woody chuckled. He did not really want to laugh at his friend's misfortune, but after seeing the prospector fail in his quest for gold so many times now, it was starting to get a little funny, and the others soon joined in afterwards.
"Ah tarnation," Stinky Pete sighed in misery, only just now realizing all his hard work for today had been for nothing. His quickly perked up a second later with a smile though when he said, "Well, at least I've always got the best treasure a man can have."
"Really," everyone all gasped at once. While Woody and Jessie were surprised to hear that the prospector had found any treasure at all, and Sora and Kairi were curious as to what that treasure could be, Ven was probably more shocked than anyone. He and his friends had seen every episode of Woody's Roundup, so he knew full well that Prospector never found any gold despite all of his best, yet very humorous efforts. Just what the old man was talking about just now, the blonde could not really say, until Prospector explained it.
"Of course. Great friends who care about me so much," Prospector replied with a smile to the rest of the Roundup Gang, earning smiles from said friends in return. He then glanced over to the three Keybearers and slowly added, "And apparently, that includes a few new ones as well…Who're all of you?"
The Keybearers were about to answer when they all picked up on the sounds of more Heartless forming, and quickly turned to see the dark creatures crawling out from the remains of the mine. No doubt these were the ones that had tried coming after Prospector while he was down there, but from the looks of things, it did not seem like they were going to be able to put up much of a real fight, considering that just about all of them were limping along or just struggling to move period. Still, the heroes were not going to take too many chances, and they immediately moved to stand against the Heartless, with Ven and Woody taking the center position of the group with Keyblade and lasso ready for action.
"Reach for the sky," Woody slowly ordered the Heartless, earning a small grin from Ventus when he did.
"He said it just like the toy Woody I used to have did whenever you used its pull string," Ven thought to himself excitedly. He managed to keep most of his giddiness down though in order to keep up the serious posture that they needed right now, and the next thing they knew, the Heartless actually ended up making a smart decision and vanished all on their own in a hasty retreat, leaving them to breathe sighs of relief that they would not have to get into another fight again.
Prospector then turned to the group once again, ready to repeat his earlier question, but Ven saw it coming and immediately said, "It's been a very long day that's accompanied by a really long story, Prospector."
"Well, considering what just happened here and how long it'll be before we get back to town, I think we've got time," Woody reminded him.
The Keybearers immediately smiled in response to that, and quickly began explaining to Stinky Pete what they already told the rest of the Roundup Gang while beginning their long trek back to town, all of them noting that they were riding off into the sunset as they did in one way or another.
When he heard the details of the Keyblade wielders' story, or at least the ones they could share without disrupting the world order, Prospector did indeed confirm that he knew where the Keyhole could be, and much to everyone's surprise, he informed them that it was near the sheriff's building. When they got back, they were more than set to start scouring around that area for the Keyhole until Kairi informed them that it was indeed there, and immediately pointed to where it could be. When the Keyhole appeared seconds later, they were all left in awe by her ability to have sensed that so quickly, and after the day that they had all had, Ven and Sora agreed that Kairi should be the one to seal this Keyhole, if for no other reason than to commemorate her recent awakening as a Keyblade wielder. Afterwards, the Roundup Gang offered to treat the team to some ice cream as thanks for their help with both the Heartless and saving the prospector, and the team would have taken them up on that offer had Ven not received a call from Donald saying that the Kingdom was ready to take off and return to Traverse Town again just seconds after Kairi had sealed the Keyhole. Despite their reluctance, the group knew that they had to get going right away, so they bade Woody and the others farewell for now with a promise of coming back to visit someday soon if they could.
"We'd like that, because I've got to admit, you all are now my new favorite deputies," Woody grinned happily. "Don't be strangers, partners."
"You got it, Woody," Ventus agreed with a smile, and with that, the three began their trek back to the ship. Of course, Ven knew that there was still something that needed to be addressed, and as soon as they were well out of both the Roundup Gang's hearing range and the town, he looked to his two young charges and said, "All right you two, it's time you got a few things settled."
"What do you mean, Ven," Sora immediately asked with a slight tremor in his voice.
"Don't play coy with me, Sora, you and your girlfriend know exactly what I mean," Ventus immediately replied.
"I'm/She's not his/my girlfriend," Kairi and Sora instantly disputed at the exact same time, earning blushes from them a second later.
"That little scene back at Hollow Bastion says otherwise, and clearly a few other things happened between you two that you don't want to share with me yet. Not that I plan on prying," Ventus pointed out with a knowing grin, causing the two's blushes to grow a little more. He then turned serious and said, "A big part of being a Keyblade wielder is to always be true to your heart, and you can't do that if you're not completely honest with at least yourself about your feelings. Just stop denying what you and everyone else already know and get it out there. Besides, like Prospector said, the greatest treasure is our friends, family, and loved ones, so why deny yourselves of that?" When the two said nothing in reply, but instead just looked at each other a little nervously, Ven knew that they were just seconds away from starting that conversation, so he quickly informed them, "Jiminy and I will try to give you as much space as possible, but do us a favor and at least try to get it all out there by the time we've gotten back to the Kingdom."
Jiminy quickly jumped out of Sora's jacket and onto Ven's shoulder when he heard that, and with all of that now cleared up, the two moved further up to a point where they were giving the Destiny Islanders some space while still being close enough should they need help at a moment's notice. It was a couple of minutes or so before Sora and Kairi said anything to each other, but it still felt like an eternity before they had finally mustered up enough courage to try and speak up. When they did, they ended up speaking at the exact same time, and immediately fell silent again as they waited for the other to speak. They both then tried to speak up again when they realized this, but ended up repeating the process once more, and a few more times again until they finally ended up just laughing at how silly things were between them right now. It took another minute or so for them to calm down, after which Kairi offered for Sora to go first, mostly because she really wanted to hear what Sora had to say more than anything else right now. Sora would have protested and insisted that Kairi go first, but from the look on her face, he knew that it would have been pointless to argue with her right then, so he quickly went into his speech.
"Kairi, I meant what I said when I used that Keyblade to free your heart," Sora admitted, feeling that it would be better to not beat around the bush. "In fact, I've had feelings for you for years now. It started out as a small crush at first, but over time, I found that there was very little I didn't like about you."
"Just what is it that you like about me," Kairi shyly asked, brushing her hair behind her ear with a small smile as she did, a little nervous about what she would hear and eager to know all the same.
"I like your smile when you're truly happy or excited, how you leap at the chance of a real adventure, the fact you're not afraid to speak your mind on something, the way your eyes shine as we're watching the sunset or stargazing together…There's so many things about you that I like that I feel like it would be easier to list the things about you that I don't like," Sora admitted with a shy smile of his own, but despite that expression, he could not help but feel his confidence building more and more with each second.
"And what exactly about me is it that you don't like," Kairi asked, her tone turning slightly demanding when she asked, almost as if she were daring him to say something he would not like.
"Well the fact that you can be really stubborn sometimes would be one thing," Sora replied, though his smile gave away that he was at least partially joking. When Kairi giggled a bit in response, Sora smiled a little more before becoming serious again as he continued. "I've thought you were the prettiest girl I've ever met for years now, Kairi, and that's never changed, not even once during this whole adventure. I said it before, and I'll say it again if you really need me to."
"And what if I just want you to," Kairi asked.
"I'd say it then too, and any other time as well just so that everyone in all the worlds knew how I felt," Sora replied with a smile, noting that Kairi had moved a little closer to him just now.
Kairi was soon standing so close to Sora that she could feel a few hints of his breath on her skin now, but all the same, she kept her eyes on his, staring into the beautiful blue orbs that had her so memorized for so long now, while she whispered, "Tell me then."
On instinct, Sora raised a hand to cup Kairi's cheek, making her gasp a little when he did as she took in the feeling of his hand caressing her face, but her breath was soon taken away when Sora repeated the same four words he said in Hollow Bastion once again, and with all the same amount of feeling and caring that he had given them before. "I love you, Kairi."
In that instant, Kairi did not need to think at all. She just reached up and pulled him close as she captured his lips in a sweet, chaste kiss which Sora had no problems returning with great vigor. It did not stay all that short though, as Sora was soon wrapping his arms around Kairi's waist while she wrapped hers around his neck in order to hold one another closer while holding their kiss a little longer, neither of them knowing that Ven and Jiminy were both shooting them knowing smiles from where they had stopped up ahead in order to wait for them, after realizing that the two kids had stopped as well. When they finally released each other, Kairi's gaze was just as loving and heartfelt as the one Sora was giving to her, and she had to giggle a little when she said, "I get the feeling that this is what you had promised to tell me after this little adventure was over."
"What," Sora questioned, a perplexed look quickly breaking through his loving gaze.
"Remember back in Atlantica? You promised you would tell me why you couldn't think of Ariel as more than a sister after the adventure was over. Or more accurately, after we got my body back, knocked Riku to his senses, and saved the worlds," Kairi reminded him with a knowing look.
"Oh yeah," Sora chuckled a little sheepishly. "Well…I guess we have technically done at least one of those things, so…"
"Shhh," Kairi hushed with a finger to his lips, silencing Sora's small bit of nervous bumbling before it could really start. "You don't hear me complaining, do you?" When Sora said nothing in response but merely smiled as a hopeful look reached his eyes, Kairi went on to add, "To be honest Sora, you're not the only one of us who's had strong feelings like that for a long time now…Because…I've actually been in love with you since practically the moment when we first met."
When Sora heard that, his grin seemed to light up even more brightly than anything else, and he quickly scooped Kairi up into his arms and spun her around with a victory laugh, earning a chuckle from the redhead in reply when he did. After setting her down on the ground again, Sora quickly took the initiative and started the kiss this time around, with Kairi returning it in full seconds later, neither of them knowing that Ven was taking pictures of them from afar, despite any scolding that Jiminy was dolling out to him for doing so. The blonde had quickly silenced the cricket by pointing out that this was a very happy, memorable moment for the two that he figured they would want to remember later on, and after letting the two have a few more minutes with each other, the blonde finally decided to break up the romance so they could get on with their mission.
While Sora and Kairi were hesitant to break apart, they still did so, knowing that Ven was right to remind them of their mission. After all, Ansem was still a threat and so long as the Keyhole to darkness remained open, there was no telling what could happen to the worlds. They had to get back to Traverse Town as soon as possible, because their friends there needed to know what had happened, and it was the safest place for them to plan right now. They just had to hope that they had not been stranded here for too long.
AN: You see? Just it's just like I said last chapter. If you're familiar with how things played out in Keyblades of Future Past, then you most likely know that our heroes went to the world of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command in that story, so it made sense to have them travel into Woody's show in this story. Plus, I'm sure you all caught when I referenced the previous story's adventures earlier in the chapter, right?
Sora: I feel like I got teased a lot at that point, to be honest.
AN: Ah don't sweat it too much, Sora. It's not like it was anything more than some good natured fun. Anyways, I'm sure you can all see why I had them come to this world in the way that they did. If the team had not crash-landed on Roundup Ranch, this chapter would've ended up being nothing but an unnecessary filler, and since I like Woody and everyone else from Toy Story so much, I was not okay with it being just a filler chapter. Plus, it did have the benefit of letting us see Ven figure out what he had to work with now that Kairi's heart is not inside of Sora and how he could help Kairi get started with her training as a Keyblade wielder.
Kairi: I feel like I'm not going to really get that much time training under Ven even if it wasn't near the end of the story.
AN: Well, like the blonde said, there was someone who would be much more suited for training you than him, and she is definitely going to get her chance to become your teacher soon enough.
Ven: I can't help but notice that you did a bit of Star Trek reference here as well. You know, right around the beginning of the chapter.
AN: Well you have to figure that the Keyblade wielders were not always just fighting bad guys all the time back in the early days, so what else could they do besides exploring and discovering other worlds like the crew of the various starships in Star Trek? Personally, I think that it makes a lot of sense that they would be doing that kind of thing. I mean, what's the point of fighting to protect worlds if you don't really go out and explore to see just what you're protecting, right? And when you think about it, a lot of what the team did in KH2 is exactly that as well for a few different worlds. Sure, there were some reunion with old friends, but a good deal of it was still exploring other worlds, even if they were fighting bad guys for the most part.
Sora: He has a point.
Goofy: Yep, and it was a lot fun seeing all these new places too!
AN: Wrapping up the highlights of this chapter is Sora and Kairi's finally confronting the moments they shared in Hollow Bastion, and it having a rather beautiful and touching resolution to it, if my own opinion counts for anything that is.
Ven: I think it would be a little weird if your opinion didn't count for something, considering this is a story that your writing.
AN: Good point. Anyways, part of me did want to just let them deal with all of the romantic stuff that's developed in their relationship after getting back to Hollow Bastion, but I feel like it made more sense for them to deal with it as soon as possible, even if they do need a little bit of an extra push. Plus, it would help them to better focus on the jobs that await them later on in the journey, so there's also that.
Btw, originally, I was going to add in a few more action sequences to this chapter. Namely, a little scene in the mine where Jessie got grabbed by the Heartless, and the team would chase after her in an effort to save her with Woody and Kairi riding on Bullseye while Ven and Sora rode on Ven's Keyblade Glider, Woody and Sora would jump onto the mine train that Jessie was pulled onto for the final dash, and basically a little rendition of that whole scene at the airport from Toy Story 2. It was a good idea to be sure, but I felt like it made the chapter unnecessarily long, and well...I was not entirely sure how to resolve it at the end. Plus, I had already come up with a new breed of Heartless that would be unique to this world, and I did not want to really do that and come up with a new Heartless Boss as well. It just felt out of place to make an original Heartless Boss here, or really add in any Heartless Boss at all. Besides, I'm sure we all want to get on to the stuff that will happen in the next chapter, right?
Sora: Like what?
AN: Let's find out a few clues, shall we? Onto the Preview!...
Our heroes return to Traverse Town and reunite with Leon and the others once again so that they may fill them in on what happened on Hollow Bastion. When they hear of this, the Traverse Town gang quickly informs the team that the Heartless had already grown stronger in the haven world, and that it seemed to be the same in all of the other worlds, indicating that they were running out of time to stop Ansem, Seeker of Darkness much more quickly than they would like. Of course, there is more that is revealed here than that, as Ventus finally tells them the truth about the dark being that has taken over Riku's body, and the new information shocks many of them to a great extent. Revelations aside, they still need to prepare for their return trip to Hollow Bastion, and aside from resting, be it the usual way or through a trip into Merlin's book, Ven knows that the best way to do that is to up Sora and Kairi's training to a level that can only be reached in one place. At least as far as he knows. The Keybearers next destination will lead to even more surprises though, and another reunion or two, but will they survive one of those surprises? Enter the arena and all of its mirages if you dare, next time.
Well, looks like a lot is going to happen next time, huh? Just to be clear, we'll see someone adding the missing pages from Pooh's book back to where they belong before apparently getting sucked into it, Leon and the others learn about what happened on Hollow Bastion, and Ven takes Sora and Kairi to another world for some intense training where they'll meet up with someone they know. Here's a hint: he's the only other notable person from Destiny Islands that we haven't seen yet, and he's not going to be by himself, either.
Kairi: That's not so much of a hint as it is a dead giveaway.
AN: You po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe. Anyway, I'm sure if you all know BBS, then you've probably already figured out what the next and final new world of this story is going to be from the little hint in the preview, so with that said, I guess there's really only one thing left for me to say...
Please read and review, and see ya real soon!