ToL: Chapter 9
Today was the big day. King Mickey's gummi ship had finally arrived at Radiant Garden in the early afternoon. Everyone on the ship beamed down to the world, stepping out of the green warp point to see their surroundings. The three Eds and the girls noticed how many flowers and flower beds were around, as well as all the houses around the strange mechanical-like castle that was in the middle of the town.
"Whoa…" Ed awed at the sight of the castle, "Way cool!"
"Yeah, this is awesome!" Ebony cheered.
Double D looked towards Eddy, noticing he was holding the plastic bag with the seven jawbreakers in it, "I guess we will be eating those as soon as the meeting is done, right Eddy?"
"Huh?!" Eddy jumped a little at what his hat-wearing friend said, "Uh, yeah! Of course!"
Double D stayed silent to him, remembering the letter he found last night, 'Eddy and Katrina must be nervous about meeting this Iris girl and who she could be,' he thought, 'I don't exactly blame them for feeling that way.'
Ebony, Shayla, and Katrina looked around the town square they were in, "So, which way do we need to go?" Shayla asked.
"Just up ahead and to the left," King Mickey stated as he pointed to some stone steps leading up to the castle. The group soon went towards the stairs to climb them.
"I got a call on the gummi phone a moment ago," Riku started to say as they made their way up the stairs, "Everyone else has already gathered at the castle entrance, waiting for us before the meeting starts."
"… I-I think I'll go on ahead!" Eddy stated in a hasty voice with Katrina right behind him, "I'll join you!"
"Whoa, looks like they're really excited to meet everyone," Kairi commented.
Shayla turned to Double D, noticing the worried look he had on his face, "Double D, is there something wrong?"
"N-No, not really…"
Both Eddy and Katrina ran up the stone steps as fast as they could; they had to know for sure once they got there. Once they got to the top, they could see many people standing inside the entrance area of the castle on the other side of the gate. There were the two castle guards, Dilan and Aelus, standing in front of the actual doors to the castle, guarding it for now until the meeting started. In one group, we could see Aerith and her friends Leon, Yuffie, Cid, Namine, and Merlin. The other group next to them was Aqua, Terra, and Venus. And the final group there was Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, and…
Eddy and Katrina came to a halt when they saw Iris; she was a lot older than they expected her to be. Iris looked to be almost their age, if not a few years younger; a preteen! Her hair was a pale light blue, and her skin tone was a very light pink. Everyone turned to see Eddy and Katrina near them; they could see Iris's eyes were the same color as Katrina's eyes.
"Oh! Hello there," Aqua greeted them with a smile, "Are you here with King Mickey?"
"… … … Hold on a second," Eddy muttered before running off to the side where no one could see him before making a very loud yell in frustration. Katrina only sighed as everyone else looked on in confusion.
"I'm sorry about that," Katrina started to say, "Both of us have been very stressed for the past few days…"
Soon they could hear King Mickey's group coming towards them from the castle gates. Ebony noticed a person missing from their group, "Huh, where did Eddy go?" she asked.
Double D spotted Iris in the crowd; he could immediately tell she was Alex and Irene's child because of how similar she looked to Eddy and Katrina, 'So it WAS true!'
Eddy came walking back over to them, "Okay, I feel better now."
Iris looked at Eddy for a second before widening her eyes in shock, 'Father…?'
Without any hesitation, Iris ran up to Eddy to give him a hug, "Y-You're here!" she started to say, "I-I knew it! I knew you were still alive!"
Everyone else (except Katrina and Double D) looked on in confusion again. Eddy did not say anything back at first, only giving her an awkward pat on her head before replying, "I, uh… I'm not who you think I am, sorry."
"H-Huh…?"
Iris looked at Eddy once again when she let him out of her hug, only to see how young her dad looked now, "… When did you get so short?" she asked.
"Hey! I'm still taller than you!" Eddy snapped a little at that comment before making a heated sigh.
Everyone stood there, even more confused than before, "Eddy? Do you know her?" Ed asked, "I've never seen her in Peach Creek before…"
Shayla turned to Katrina, who she could see was starting to tear up as she walked over to Eddy and Iris, "Katrina…?"
"… Ah! I see what's going on here," Merlin stated to the others. Everyone turned to him to see what he had to say, "You're Iris's parents, are you not?"
"… … …"
An explosion of voices (mostly yells and shouts of confusion) came from everyone in the big group at what Merlin said, especially from the people who knew Eddy and Katrina.
Even the two teens were surprised at how Merlin could tell, "How did—"
"You both have some of the same powers as she does, I can tell at a glance; not to mention she resembles the both of you," Merlin replied, scratching underneath his chin before saying, "I can only assume you are her parents but reincarnated, yes? She mentioned their names being Alexander and Irene."
"… Y-Yeah, I guess that's the case, huh," Eddy replied.
"What was all that noise a moment ago? It almost sounded like shouting."
Everyone turned to see Ansem the Wise come out of the castle's front door with Even and Ienzo at his side.
Everyone stood there in an awkward silence, which was noticed by the three scientists, "… Did we miss something important?" Ienzo asked.
Two and a half hours passed by in Radiant Garden. Everyone in the meeting learned about the situation, what was going on, and who everyone was. Eventually, the meeting between everyone finally ended with the decision for the Eds to officially go and find their missing neighbors with the help of the other Keyblade wielders, an A Team, a B Team, and a C Team. The A Team would be departing first while everyone else would be staying behind to either train or gather more information on the location of the Eds missing neighbors. After the meeting was officially over, everyone was free to do whatever they wanted around Radiant Garden; at least until tomorrow.
We could see the Eds and the girls walking out of the castle's front door with Iris following close behind them at a distance.
"… Psst, Eddy!" Ed whispered to him, "That girl is following us!"
Eddy sighed, "I-I know…"
The group stopped walking for a moment to turn to Iris, who also halted in her tracks before running off to hide behind a tree that was nearby.
"It's okay Iris," Katrina started to say to her, "You can come over and talk to us!"
Iris pokes her head out from behind the tree before walking up to them, "The others explained to me that you're, umm… You're not my actual parents, are you?" she asked.
"Nope," Eddy and Katrina both replied.
"I-I see…" Iris muttered a little sadly, "I'm sorry about earlier. You… really do look like my mother and father."
"It's alright, we understand," Katrina stated back to Iris with a smile, "This is a weird situation for everyone involved."
"… Oh! I don't think we ever actually introduced ourselves to you, did we?" Double D asked Iris, to which she shook her head no, "My name is Eddward, but everyone calls me Double D instead."
"My name's Shayla," Shayla stated with a small smile.
"The name's Ebony!" Ebony said with a big smile.
"I'm Ed!" Ed stated with a small wave.
"My name is Katrina…" Kartina stated before looking towards Eddy, "… And I'm Eddy," Eddy finished off with a smile.
Iris looked to the other four beside Eddy and Katrina before realizing, 'They ARE my aunts and uncles!' she thought in shock before shaking her head a little, 'Wait, that's not right… It's not really them.'
The group then heard a small grumble coming from Ed's stomach, "I'm getting hungry."
"We should probably find a place to eat or something," Shayla stated, "We never did have anything for lunch."
"Good idea!" Ebony cheered with enthusiasm.
"I remember seeing a place to eat nearby when we first arrived," Double D commented, "Maybe we can go there?"
"Sure," Katrina stated as they started to walk off to the restaurant.
After a few minutes of walking to where they were going, Eddy noticed Iris was walking close to them; she still looked nervous about being with them. A thought then crossed his mind; now that they knew for sure who she was, how did all of this happen?
'Maybe when we go eat at that place, she can tell us what happened,' Eddy thought.
It did not take them long to get to the restaurant; the sign that was out front told them the place was called… "Blue Mage's Delights?" Eddy questioned aloud, "What kind of name is that for a restaurant?"
"I guess we'll find out in a minute," Katrina replied as they all entered the place.
When they walked in, there were not that many people sitting at the tables yet, due to them only opening a few minutes from their morning break. True to the restaurant's name, the place was lined with many shades of blue along with black and white. They could then see someone come over to them; the person was a woman with long, red-orange hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a pink, long-sleeved dress underneath a black sleeveless vest, black gloves, and brown boots.
"Hello there," greeted the woman, "My name's Quistis, and I'm the owner of this restaurant. Would you like me to show you to a table?"
"Yes please," Double D replied with a nod.
The group followed her to a big table nearby as she handed them their menus, "I'll return once you figure out what to order," Quistis stated before walking away.
"… You know, I just realized something when we sat down," Ebony started to say as everyone turned to her, "How are we going to pay for the food? Remember when the king explained to us about munny and how it's different from our world's money… Do we even have any?"
There was a split second of awkward silence before they heard Double D make a chuckle, "Don't worry about it," he stated as he took out the pouch that the king showed to them before they left Peach Creek, "He gave me some to spend for this kind of occasion before we got off the ship."
"… Hey! Wait a minute!" Eddy realized, "How come he gave you some munny but not the rest of us?!"
"Most likely because I know how to hold onto it better than you can, Eddy," Double D replied with a sigh at his behavior, "Don't worry, I can give you all some later to spend; but only for the items you need for your trip. And I'm sure the king will give you some additional munny as well."
Eddy grumbled a little incoherently to himself, raising the menu in his hands to read what was on it. Everyone else went to read their menus except for Iris, she looked at them in confusion at what they were doing before grabbing the menu in front of her, mimicking what they were doing, "U-Umm…"
Shayla peeked over her menu to see that Iris was holding her menu upside down. That's when it clicked to Shayla, "Oh, uh… Iris?"
"Yes?"
"Can you not read what's on the menu?"
Everyone put down their menus for a moment to look at Iris, who only lowered her head in embarrassment and lifted the menu she held back over her face, "No, I can't read it."
Another moment of awkward silence happened between everyone. The Eds and the girls did not even consider the possibility Iris could not read, given the era of time she was originally from.
"That's alright," Katrina started to say to her, trying to comfort her, "Maybe you can tell us what you would like to eat, and they might have it on the menu."
Iris nodded her head, "Okay! Umm…" she thought for a second before stating, "Do they have any fish?"
Katrina looks at the menu to see before saying, "Yes, they do."
"I'll take that then!" Iris stated with a smile.
Eddy looked at the two of them before realizing something, 'Wait, Iris might not be able to read the letter that Katrina and I wrote to her!' he sighed a little, 'I guess we can read it to her instead?'
Everyone then decided on what they wanted right as Quistis came back to take their orders. They then told her their orders, which she wrote down before leaving to tell the chefs to make the food.
"So, Iris…" Double D stated to her, "Do you mind if we can ask you some questions? While we did learn some things from the meeting, there are some other things we don't know about that we would like to ask you."
Iris widened her eyes a little before nodding her head.
"First off, let's try to make things less awkward between all of us," Shayla said with a smile, "Why don't you tell us more about yourself? Like where you lived, your hobbies, and other things like that."
"Well…" Iris started to say, "I lived on a very small island with my mother and father, as well as their four friends; they were my aunts and uncles, even though we're not related."
The six teens widened their eyes; the four friends must have been Ed, Double D, Ebony, and Shayla!
"They told me they flew away to the island after something bad happened to them, but then they realized that there was no way to get off the island," Iris continued to explain, "I was born shortly after they arrived."
"Wait, they 'flew' to the island?" Ed started to question before making a gasp, "That's gotta mean that their past selves were still dragons at the time they got there!"
Iris nodded her head, "Right. They did say to me that they tried to find a way to leave once but gave up once they realized they could not transform back into the dragons to fly away from the island."
"So… They decided to just stay there?" Ebony asked with a bit of sadness, "That must have been rough."
"It was tough, for the most part," Iris stated with a sad sigh before making a smile at them, "But it wasn't all bad! There was a very pretty beach nearby that always had a beautiful sunset when it became nighttime," she closed her eyes to reminisce, "I usually took a walk along it every day, wondering what was out there on the other side of the sea."
Iris then took the flower out of her hair to hold it in her right hand, "There were also so many of these flowers on the island. I always loved picking them from time to time," she opened her eyes to look at the flower, "I never knew the name of these until a few days ago… Ms. Aerith told me that I was named after these flowers."
Everyone was silent about what she said for a short moment before Katrina asked, "Iris, do you know how you got to this era? Can you recall anything about what happened?"
"Well… Mr. Merlin told me what might have happened when I explained it to him a few days ago," Iris started to explain, a few tears started to form in her eyes, "I was actually becoming very sick, very fast; my father and I were the only ones left on the island…"
That statement made everyone's blood run cold; it meant everyone besides Iris and Alex had passed away at that point.
"I was lying in my bed, becoming weaker with my vision started to become blurry. Father was beside me, trying to comfort me, but he knew what was going to happen, and it made both of us upset. I-I didn't want to leave him alone! He then told me he would save me, but I could not hear what he said after that before I blacked out…" she started to wipe away the tears from her eyes, "And then I woke up in Twilight Town, it was another world! I couldn't believe it at first; that I was somewhere different!"
"When I finally arrived here at Radiant Garden, Mr. Merlin told me that I had been forcefully brought here through time. He suspects that Father used a powerful spell that both fully healed me and brought me here, but…" she started to tremble a little, "B-But he said that kind of spell comes with a price! He… H-He sacrificed himself to save me, for me to live! And now I'm all alone!"
Iris could immediately feel herself being hugged from both sides by Katrina and Eddy; she forgot both were sitting next to her, "Listen, Iris," Katrina started to say, "I know we are not your parents, and we don't plan to try and replace them. But you need to know you're not alone; you are here with us now!"
"She's right!" Eddy stated, hugging Iris tighter, "We'll do our best to protect you! It's what Alex and Irene would want, right?"
The others looked on at the scene with a smile, reassuring Iris that everything would be alright. Iris sat there for a moment before accepting their hug back, "T-Thank you…"
"Your yummies will be soon!"
"AH!" Everyone yelped as someone snuck up beside them and interrupted the tender moment.
Everyone turned to see who spoke to them, only to see a very strange creature next to them. They had a large presence, wore a chef hat and an apron, and had a noticeable long tongue.
"Ms. Quistis told me to tell!" the strange creature stated to them before walking (or waddling?) back towards the kitchen, "I go help bring you yummies!"
"Geez, there's no need to give us a heart attack like that!" Eddy growled a little before making a sigh.
It only took a moment for their food to arrive; the food was brought to them by the strange creature from before, alongside Quistis, "Here you go, enjoy your food!" Quistis stated.
"Thank you!"
The group began eating their meal, which all of them enjoyed immensely. They finished eating later and started to leave the restaurant as Double D was paying Quistis for the food, "Send my compliments to the chef if you can," Double D stated.
"You mean Quina? I'm sure they will be very happy to hear that," Quistis stated with a smile, "Have a good day!"
Double D walked out of the building to meet up with his friends, only to hear ringing coming from the gummi phone the king gave him. He quickly went to answer it, "Hello?"
"Oh good! You answered," Mickey stated with a small sigh of relief, "We're sorry to ask you this when it's your day off, but there's something important that slipped my mind back at the castle. Can you and your friends meet up with us at the market square? It's just a bit further down the road from Blue Mage's Delights."
"Okay, we can meet you there," Double D replied before hanging up.
"What was that about?" Eddy asked.
"The king asked us to meet up with him at the market square. Apparently, he forgot something for us; or so I assume," Double D stated.
Eddy made a sigh, "Geez, it always has to be something, doesn't it?"
"Either way, let's go see what he wants," Katrina stated with a smile.
The group started to walk to where the market square was, not realizing that they were being watched nearby in the shadows by three pairs of eyes…
Author's Note (September 3rd, 2023): Oh hey! A new chapter is now ready! After I type up the next chapter (Chapter 10), I think I'll take a small break from this story in particular. The reason is that I want to also focus on some of the other stories for a while before coming back to this one! I hope you guys don't mind that.
Anyway, I recently got Sea of Stars the other day, and it is fantastic! I'm so happy it exists... Please play it if you love old-school RPGs. Same for Octopath Traveler II, even though that was much earlier in the year!