Sora, Ruby, and their friends searched high and low...or at least what passed for such within the bizarrely structured, such as it was, environment that was a giant whale's gullet. Yet all they seemed to encounter when they felt they'd caught up with them were more and more Heartless. A state of affairs Weiss continually found herself questioning, despite the more pressing concerns they had.
In the midst of their search, a certain Corgi poked his head out of Ruby's backpack, sniffing the air audible before giving a bark. Everyone turned to look at Ruby as Zwei suddenly scrambled out of the pack, landing on the squishy ground. "Zwei? What is it boy?" Yang asked as she and the rest of Team RWBY gathered around their leader. "Oh, I do hope his wittle nose isn't bothered by the smell of this place." Weiss cooed in an affectionate voice as she knelt down and gently smooshed his fluffy face with her hands.
Brushing aside Weiss's doting, Ruby knelt down as well, asking, "What is it, boy?" she asked, drawing a bark from Zwei who hopped with a rotation toward one of the many...passageways that intersected in...whatever part of Monstro they were in. As he scampered off in its direction, everyone broke into a sprint after the dog...with Blake bringing up the rear with an ever so annoyed look on her face. What they found was another chamber littered with broken pieces of boats and ships Monstro had consumed.
But what caused Zwei to bark in the first place was not what they expected. For as Sora and Ruby looked around one of the piles, they saw Zwei inside what looked to be a treasure chest, hind legs sticking out with his stubby tail wagging up a storm as he pulled something out and fell backwards, landing on his rear. Rolling over to get back on his feet, the excited corgi bound up to the pair as their friends rounded around the debris as well to see Zwei...holding a torn piece of paper.
"...THIS is what he smelled?" Donald said with deadpanned disbelief as he pulled the paper out of Zwei's mouth. Only for a HEAVILY displeased Weiss to come face to face with the duck and say with equal displeasure, "Hey! Don't speak about Zwei in that tone of voice, Donald! I'm sure he had good reason for being so excited about it." A gesture which made Ruby and Yang look at each other with a snicker.
Pyrrha fortunately was able to throw some cold water on the situation as she looked at the paper and said, "Wait a moment. This looks just like the torn page we found in the Cave of Wonders. Do you think this might be another one of those pages to Pooh's book?" she wondered. Goofy smiled with an enthusiastic nod as he said, "Ya know, I think it is! Good goin', Zwei!" The praise made the corgi pant as he happily accepted it.
Pyrrha's inquiry drew a confused look to Nora and Ren's faces. "Pooh?" Nora asked. "The one who lives in the book that Merlin showed us before we met you guys in Agrabah." Blake said, hiding around the debris, peering to make sure Zwei was with everyone else and not paying attention to her. "Ah. So these pages are the key to restoring that book then." Ren said with a mostly understanding nod. He and Nora were going to have to get acquainted with their other friends the next time they visited Traverse Town.
Jaune however realized that despite their find, they did have more pressing matters. "Uhh, guys? I'm glad we found another page of Pooh's book, but maybe we should-" "Oh no, that's right! Riku and Pinocchio!" Sora exclaimed, remembering that they needed to find them. Ruby snapped to attention as well, holding out her backback so that Zwei could climb back in. "Come on, guys! Let's keep looking!" Ruby said, leading the way with Sora, back into the passage-like innards of the whale.
The silver haired boy in question was casually walking through the innards of Monstro, not keeping an eye on the little wooden puppet boy. The way Sora reacted was certainly convincing, but Riku wasn't buying it. If Sora really cared about him and Kairi, he wouldn't have been going around all these different worlds like he was with those new friends of his. He definitely had a lot more of them now.
"Why do you still care about that boy?" Riku stopped hearing the familiar voice of Maleficent behind him. And sure enough, there she was, smirking wickedly at her most reliable helper. "He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions. And my, what a gathering he has now with that red caped huntress and those from her world. If that isn't sign enough that he cares nothing for you, I do not know what is."
Riku grimaced with irritation. He didn't need Maleficent telling him something he already knew. "I don't care about him. I was just messing with him a little." Riku said flippantly. He knew how to get a rise out of Sora better than anyone, after all. Maleficent smirked at Riku's denial, not quite believing him. "Oh really? Of course you were." She could see that he still had some care for his old friend. Care that was giving way to quite a lot of darker emotions within. Buttons which she knew precisely how to push. "Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it. And if they do not consume you, our dear friend Cinder's Grimm may instead."
Riku glared, clenching his fists with bubbling irritation. He was getting sick of hearing Maleficent lecture him like this. "Mind your own business!" he yelled at her, only for Maleficent to step through a shimmering purple portal, vanishing from the innards of the whale, leaving Riku to stew in his bitterness toward Sora. As if on cue, Pinocchio ran into the 'room', still thinking that this whole thing was a game, followed by none other than Sora and his entourage.
Riku turned to face Sora who looked at him with utter disbelief. Geppetto was concerned for his son, who was still too young to realize the severity of this situation or the danger his 'playmate' was leading him into. Worse still, Riku was, knowingly or not, keeping father and son apart by using Pinocchio's innocence seemingly just to taunt Sora. "Riku! What's the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don't you realize what you're doing?" Sora asked. Riku was normally the most hard working and responsible of the bunch. Why would he do something like this out of the blue?
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora," Riku replied dryly, placing a hand to his hip. His tone was suddenly so blunt and harsh that it surprised Sora even more. Glancing to the weapon his friend brandished, Riku stated with far less veiled bitterness, "You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?"
That question shook Sora to the core. His frustration died down as his expression turned from disbelieving to sullen. Sora had been searching for Kairi as much as him, but faced so many obstacles and helped a lot of people along the way. Yet he didn't seem any closer to finding Kairi. "I do." his response however did little to convince Riku, especially as he lowered his head in an almost apologetic manner.
Ruby saw how deeply Riku's unexpected harshness affected Sora as she placed a hand upon his shoulder before looking toward Riku. "Look. Sora's been through a lot. We all have. And this isn't easy. He's been through a lot trying to find you and Kairi, just like he helped me find my friends. Maybe we can all work togeth-"
"I wasn't talking to you." Riku said venomously as his eyes shifted sharply to her. His unexpected resentment toward her and the others traveling with Sora making Ruby blink in surprise. "And this conversation doesn't have anything to do with any of you. Stay out of it."
Everyone couldn't believe the way Sora's supposed best friend was behaving. Especially Ruby nearly flat-out recoiled from the venom Riku spoke to her with. Yang marched up beside Sora and Ruby with a stern glare on her face and an equally stern tone of voice. "Hey! I don't appreciate you talking to my sister that way! She's just trying to be nice!"
"What makes you think I care? If you were a better sister, you'd teach her to keep her mouth shut when her opinion isn't wanted." Riku slashed back. His flagrant insults toward her and Ruby made Yang's eyes shift from lavender to red ever so faintly. Whether Riku was Sora's friend or not, he was really ticking her off. Weiss couldn't help but think to herself, 'Was I this difficult with Ruby when we first met?' Blake narrowed her eyes at Riku, unable to fathom how this boy could possibly be Sora's friend with this kind of attitude. Team JNPR looked at each other with mutual unease, or annoyance in Nora's case. Donald and Goofy looked to each other, now thinking that maybe it really was a bad idea to refuse him coming with them.
"AAAAHHHH!" Before Yang could so much as take a step toward Riku, everyone snapped up at the sound of a boyish scream. Even Riku turned toward the passageway, realizing along with everyone else whose voice it was. "Oh no. Pinocchio!" Ruby cried out, dashing forward. "Ruby, wait!" Sora and Yang called out, running after her with everyone else following behind. Riku stood behind for a moment, bitterly shaking his head at how they all seemed thick as thieves compared to him and Sora, who knew each other since they were kids. But he had his own reasons for needing Pinocchio, so he followed after his childhood friend and his new group.
They all soon saw the reason Pinocchio screamed. A large, purple Heartless with two bright yellow eyes was a bizarre bulky, thick body mixed with a mouth. Atop its maw was what looked to be a smaller yellow eyed head with a lighter shade of purple, a jagged grin and two small 'tusks' on its chin and a curled swirl on top of its head. And from that top head were two long light blue tentacle like arms that seemed to split at the 'hands'. This Heartless was like some kind of parasitic cage as it contained the terrified Pinocchio in its maw.
"Ew! That has to be the grosses looking Heartless we've faced, yet." Weiss said with a disgusted cringe as she and everyone else readied their weapons. "Pinocchio!" Ruby cried out seeing the poor puppet trembling in terror within the Heartless's jaws.
As Riku summoned forth the dark blade he wielded in Traverse Town, he turned to Sora. He needed to get Pinocchio out but knew even he couldn't face something like that on his own. "You up for this?" Despite the concern on Sora's face but that didn't deter him from the determination to free the imprisoned little boy trapped in the Heartless' mouth. "No problem. Let's do it!" he said, happy to have Riku's support against the Heartless.
Most likely, Sora thought this meant they were still on good terms because he was willing to help him out. The thought of that made Riku scoff, but Sora was free to think what he wanted. But with their target in sight, Sora leaped up and swiped at the face of their large opponent. Though he landed a hit, the creature didn't seem fazed and swiped one of its tentacles at him, knocking him back. Sora gasped but relaxed when seeing his friend land carefully on his feet and put distance from it.
"Get me out of here!" Pinocchio pleaded, holding desperately onto the teeth like they were bars from a prison cell.
"Hang on, Pinocchio! We'll save you!" Ruby said, charging in with Crescent Rose drawn. Pulling the trigger, she give her blade extra momentum, to cleave through the belly. Despite that, her blade didn't even go in, much to everyone's shock. "That didn't work?!"
Donald noticed one of the two tentacles rearing back and realized Ruby was about to get swatted by it. "Aero!" With his staff raised, Donald cast an aero spell over her. She was still hit but the impact was softened and thankfully she was only knocked back with minor pain at the strike when staggering.
"Thanks Donald." Ruby said, regaining herself before the others scattered around it and fought the Parasite Cage.
Jaune attempted to rush the Parasite Cage, sword and shield raised, only for the giant Heartless to swat him away with one of his tentacles. Despite being only a single Heartless, it seemed very capable of defending itself while outnumbered so drastically, as it swiped at Pyrrha who tried to do the same from another angle, only to just miss her chance as the other tentacle swatted her. As it heaved its tentacle up to try and slam into Jaune, it was suddenly intercepted by Riku's blade, making the Heartless lurch back.
Jaune's initial intent to thank Riku was cut off as the boy looked down at him. "Why are you even here?" he asked Jaune who looked up at Riku, surprised by his derisive question. "W...What?" was all he could say, making Riku scoff again. "Someone like you shouldn't even be here if this is all you're capable of in a fight." With that he turned away and went back to fighting the Parasite Cage with everything else. The Heartless clasped the ends of its tentacles together and wildly flailed them left and right, warding off its grouping up attackers.
Jaune lay there a moment, grimacing sadly at Riku's words. Such words weren't new to him, especially with the way Cardin treated him back at Beacon, but it still hurt to think about. Was he still really so far behind everyone else as a fighter, after his efforts? After everything Pyrrha did to help him get better? "Jaune!" Pyrrha's voice snapped him out of his reverie as she rushed to him. "Are you alright?" she asked, clearly not seeing how Riku belittled him. Jaune tried to brush it off, nodding to Pyrrha as he stood up. "Y-Yeah. I was just careless." Pyrrha seemed to buy it, though she had a feeling that something else was on Jaune's mind. She knew how to read him...but she chose not to press it for now. "Alright. Let's get back into it." Jaune nodded in response, rushing back to the fight.
The Parasite Cage suddenly hunched over as everyone tried to gang up on it again, making the space in its mouth tighter around Pinocchio who fearfully cried out, "It's scary in here!" It was as if the Heartless was trying to torment the poor boy. "Hold on there, Pinocchio! We'll get ya-OW!" Goofy's attempt to reassure the poor terrified boy was met with a smack by one of the tentacles of the Heartless, sending him tumbling onto his back, dazed.
Fortunately, with how much damage it had taken, the Parasite Cage was beginning to slow down. Not only that, but its limited attacks were soon easy enough for the group to read. As the huntsmen and huntresses, along with Goofy who shook off his dizziness, engaged it in close combat, Sora backed off and decided to follow Donald's example. "FIRE!" he yelled out, Keeping his Keyblade steady and pelting Parasite Cage with ball after ball of fire. In the midst of Sora's flaming onslaught, Riku leapt up into the air and delivered a plunging slash down the middle of its body. The Heartless began to shudder from the full fury of the prolonged assault.
But just when everyone thought it was going to collapse and release the heart within, it suddenly rose up and latched its tentacles onto the ceiling, pulling itself up off the ground, leaving a hole where it stood before. Just as everyone readied themselves to fight further, the Heartless suddenly spat Pinocchio out into the hole and pulled itself up through another hole. "Pinocchio!" Ruby and Sora called out. Before they could run for him, both of them were suddenly shoved aside by Riku who darted into the hole first.
Sora couldn't understand why Riku was acting like this. This wasn't like him at all. He never remembered Riku being nearly so harsh. Sure, eh would often push Sora's buttons, but now it felt like he was just being mean. Or worse...cruel. But why? He didn't understand. "Come on, guys! Hurry!" Ruby snapped Sora out of his thoughts, reminding him this wasn't the time or place. They needed to get Pinocchio back to Geppetto.