Finally setting sail again, Sora, Alice and Kairi set off.
With Sora standing behind Kairi as she nervously tries to steer, he calmly walks her through finding the Warp Gate to the next set of worlds.
Taking a steadying breath she steered them straight through it.
Alice, all strapped in, looked amazed at the process, eyes in wonder over the sudden change in scenery. Alighting everything in various hues of blue.
All too soon, it faded away.
The systems updated to their surroundings and uploaded the locations of the nearby worlds.
"First up, Agrabah." He startled them. "That's where Jasmine is. It's also where I met Maleficent for the first time. Who knows, it might be my opportunity to talk to her along with Jafar." He crossed his arms in thought.
He then turned around to face the girls fully. Should he bring them, or leave them here? He shook his head.
"You two stay here, Maleficent is a wild card, but also dangerous. I'm going to use this opportunity to scope her out."
Alice nodded eagerly. She was more than ok staying here.
But Kairi felt like she was being benched again, no matter how Sora tried to explain otherwise. She tried to tell herself it won't be for much longer. Grudgingly, she nodded too..
Sora gave her a look that made it seem he understood her thoughts. Sighing, he absently punched in the sequence to teleport him down.
In a flash, he was gone.
~/~
Agrabah
Sora appeared in the city, right before Maleficent and Jafar as they talked about finding Jasmine.
Calmly, they turned to face him.
Sora easily spotted Jasmine hiding behind an abandoned market stand. He ignored her, not wanting to give away her hiding spot.
"Hello Maleficent, Jafar." He nodded to each of them.
"Oh?" She spoke curiously. "You know us?"
"And who might you be?" Jafar played ignorant.
"You can stop the games, I know you've been watching me. My name is Sora. And I have a proposition for you."
The Witch and Royal Vizier shared an intrigued, yet suspicious glance.
"Indeed?" Jafar spoke while stamping his staff to the ground. "And what do you propose?"
Sora turned to Maleficent.
"I'm going to be blunt. I come from two years in the future where I'm almost 17. You Maleficent, are being played a fool by Master Xehanort in your quest to gather the Princesses to make Kingdom Hearts."
"WHAT?!" The two villains startled.
"If I had not come back to the past, the events would go as follows. You successfully gather the Princesses at Hollow Bastion. My friend Riku becomes possessed by Ansem. Possessed Riku turns around to attack you and turns you into a dragon to kill me. I won and you died. You were nothing but a pawn, like I was."
She stumbled back in disbelief.
"You return however, a year later going around trying to find a castle to turn into a new base. At some point later, you are just wandering around trying to find something. I never asked, so I don't know." Waving off her questions.
"Which brings me here." The two villains regained their composure momentarily and faced the boy.
"Yes, why are you here? To gloat?" Jafar sneered.
"No, to offer you a deal. Master Xehanort played us all for fools, we were pawns. We learned too late that he had the ability to time travel. He knew of everything to come to pass. In the future, I'm known as a wild card!" He grinned. "Without even trying I threw every plan against me to pieces and won every challenge thrown at me. Without trying, nor knowing the endgame."
"And now you do." She stated in dawning realization of the situation being handed to her.
"And now I do." He agreed. "The plan with the Princesses was merely a backup plan to the actual one. But it also holds a lot of possibilities too. Xehanort wants balance between the forces of Light and Darkness. He was willing to destroy the whole universe to start over from scratch."
Bombshell dropped.
"Preposterous! I joined to rule! Not to destroy!" She flared out a bit of fire. Jafar was immune to fire and Sora merely sidestepped it.
"Believe me, I know." Sora smiled. A face she recognized as familiarity. He really did come to know her. "Which brings me back to my deal."
"I'm listening." She gripped her own staff.
"The situation is simple. Xehanort is sitting comfy over events supposedly set in stone. I intend to be as unpredictable as possible to mess with him as much as I can." He grinned putting his hands behind his head. The elder two shook their heads amused.
"So, here's my offer. I already have both Alice and Kairi with me, Jasmine is here in the city, which leaves the rest of the girls. I want you to continue retrieving the girls and bring them to Hollow Bastion. I want to train each of them as future Keyblade wielders. But I want them to be taught by you and the rest of your villainous team."
The duo blinked.
"I'm sorry, care to repeat that?" Jafar was stunned. "You WANT us to keep capturing them, let alone train them ourselves?!"
"Yes."
She squinted at him. "Why..?"
Sora shrugged. "What can be more unpredictable than 7 pure of heart Princesses being trained by their respective villains…" He trailed with a smirk. "And having both Princess and Villain get Keyblades of their own? Xehanort wants balance? Here it is." He smirked.
Silence. Stunned silence.
Sora simply crossed his arms as they absorbed his offer. Then he turned to face the side. "Hey, Jasmine, you can come out now!"
"What?! She was here the whole time?!" Jafar screeched.
"Yup! What do you think, Princess? Want to be trained to defend yourself? It comes with the perks of traveling to other worlds and annoying a senile old man with dreams of interplanetary domination."
Neither villain can blame her for her dumbstruck gaze as she stood up from her hiding spot.
~/~
Olympus
Riku liked to think he's getting the hang of this. Fighting with Donald and Goofy.
In Deep Jungle, they were always arguing. The stress of learning the future hanging above them. The feeling that something was off, simply because Riku was here and not Sora.
He's not Sora, and yet the three of them are adjusting. Donald and Goofy by virtue of never actually fighting with Sora so it was an easy adjustment. For Riku, he's used to being the top fighter of his age group on the Island.
He's used to being better than Sora.
But hearing what they both went through, it was humbling, to say the least.
So now, fighting floating pots and crates in an obstacle course, he's learning. There's no Heartless to worry about. Just the three of them learning how to read each other. Learning how to fight together.
In a flash, the broken pots vanish to be replaced with new ones.
From what he gathered from Sora, as a Keyblade wielder, he takes point of the more difficult opponents.
Goofy, with his shield, takes defence. The ones who slip through the cracks. Riku feels a large degree of safety from Goofy.
And Donald as the mage, is the variety. He can both heal as well as do damage with his spells. Through Donald, Riku has learned Fire, Cure, Blizzard and is now testing out Thunder on the various Pots.
He learned the hard way of Cure draining him faster than the other spells so he has to use it sparingly.
Eventually, Phill called off the pots for a break.
As Phil explained the games, Cloud passed them by.
From what he read in the notebook, he's trying to find Sephiroth and is currently being manipulated by Hades.
He's trying to find the Light.
Riku can relate.
~/~
Agrabah
"So? What do you think?" Sora asked the group.
Jasmine looked rightfully suspicious at Jafar and wary at Maleficent.
"The point is being unpredictable?" Jasmine eventually asked.
"Yes. I am going to thoroughly enjoy messing with Master Xehanort after everything he put us all through!"
She chuckled. "Ok, but why Jafar?"
"Jafar knows a lot of magic, politics and manipulation. Maleficent also knows magic, as well as knowledge of other worlds. Oogie Boogie knows gambling and fear. Ursula knows magic and deals, how to manipulate the sea and her surroundings. Captain Hook knows how to fight with swords, can sail a ship and navigate, and has already been traveling to other worlds with his ship. Hades is Lord of the Dead. I've dealt with a lot of death in the latter point in my travels for I too had died. The very reason I'm in the past."
She gasped. "You died?!"
He looked away. "Yeah… I died."
A deep breath, he continued. "As I said, you can learn a lot from them. You gain knowledge you otherwise wouldn't have, experience in what's out there from the opposite point of view, as well as learning how to defend yourselves from others wishing to take advantage of you."
"I see…" She looked to Jafar and Maleficent. The witch looked stunned at the compliment he gave her.
The witch faced Sora. "You really wish to go through with this? Am I truly to believe you would give even us a Keyblade?" She gestured between herself and Jafar sceptically.
He shrugged. "Why not? The Keyblades sole purpose is to bring balance to the world. There's no rule against using it for harm so long as there are others to help."
The witch stood silent, thinking it over.
"This is a lot to process. But I shall think about it and consult the rest. However, I have already the rest of the Princesses barring the ones you claim. They are under my spell that puts them to sleep so they aren't a bother."
"Of course they are... Shall we meet you at Hollow Bastion then? I have another girl who isn't a princess I need to gather. Her name is Ariel and she's on Ursula's homeworld."
"Oh?"
"She's not a Princess of Heart, but by my travels in the future, she was a good friend of mine and only wished to see the outside world. She would've made a good Keyblade wielder anyway, so I wanted to include her with the other princesses."
"Indeed. Very well, we shall wait for your arrival." Maleficent opened a Dark Portal. "Meet us in the Grand Chapel and we shall discuss this further." She and Jafar turned and stepped through.
He turned to Jasmine. "Jasmine?"
"Hm? Oh." She shook her head to clear it.
"I'm sorry for springing this on you. But you would've been kidnapped anyway. This way, you and the others will have a fighting chance."
"I understand. Truly, thank you for helping us."
"You're welcome."
"Are… there really other worlds?"
He grinned.
~/~
Olympus
Riku cursed every swear word he knew in his head as he ran around the stadium as these strange dark things kept shooting up from the ground!
Cerberus is HUGE!
How did Sora beat this thing?! Didn't Hercules tire him out?!
Ok, ok think! The journal said Sora just kept hitting its head to knock it out.
Mentally going over what he's seen Sora do in Traverse Town, he tried to Strike Raid.
It fell short a few feet.
And~ it got the hell hounds' attention.
"Uh oh."
It roared and shot a large fireball at him.
Goofy suddenly appeared in front of him with his shield. The fire fanned around them as a result. Riku had a sudden flash of irony from somewhere. Shaking his head he smiled gratefully at the Captain.
"Thanks!" He huffed.
Goofy looked back at him. "You ok?"
Familiar enraged screaming found Donald running to their side.
The three-headed dog stopped to stare at them, waiting for them to make a move. How considerate.
Nodding to Goofy, he watched the dog growling at them.
"Okay.. ok. I think I got it." Riku nodded to himself. "When it starts raising its heads up, get on its back fast and stay there to avoid all those fireballs and things shooting up from the ground! That seems to be its blind spot. Then wait until after it stands up to do that shockwave thing. After, attack its heads! Keep doing that until we knock it out!"
The trio nodded and ran for it.
Phill watched on from the side with a hint of pride. Finally some progress!
~/~
On the ship, Alice and Kairi were nervously excited.
"Oh! I hope he'll be alright." Alice stared off in the worlds' direction.
"He'll be ok. I know he will." Kairi reassured.
Then a flash as Sora and another woman stood beside them. The girls instantly relaxed.
Smiling, he introduced them. "Allow me to introduce Alice of Wonderland and my best friend Kairi. Ladies, meet Princess Jasmine of Agrabah."
"Hello!" Alice waved.
"Nice to meet you!" Kairi held out her hand and Jasmine shook it with a smile.
"And you as well."
Then she noticed her new surroundings and gaped.
Alice and Kairi shared a look before giggling.
Sora chuckled.
Alright ladies, next stop is Ariel then we go directly to Hollow Bastion. Sorry, but we're going to have to start doubling up on seats." He spoke sheepishly.
"Here, Alice can sit on my lap." Jasmine compromised.
"Oh! Are you sure?" Embarrassed for how small she was.
"I don't mind."
Alice nodded and stood up from her seat and showed Jasmine how to buckle up. Once he was sure they were secure, Sora sat in the front and took off.
Soon enough they came across Monstro but was expertly evaded. The girls were grateful for their restraints!
Jasmine has never felt such a rush!
Eventually, they started orbiting over Atlantica.
"Hmm…" Sora glanced back at them, deep in thought.
"Sora?" Kairi asked.
"Oh, just thinking. Here is Ariel and Ursula's world. With hopefully Ursula as one of your soon-to-be teachers. She controls the Heartless here and King Trident has a good grasp on the Heartless around the Palace making the whole area safe."
Kairi's eyes widened. "You mean..?"
"Would you ladies like to join me on this trip?"
Excited gasps met his ears and he smiled.