J. Tom: I must say your ideas are interesting. Sadly, I never watched Gravity Falls. I don't really think that Simba's Pride would be feasible with the timeline (particularly the second half where the next generation is fully-grown). And I'm sure that you can determine from a certain trickster's presence that Age of Ultron will not be an arc explored in this story. I won't tell you what else will or won't appear, as I would like to keep it a surprise, but I appreciate the suggestions.
As a side note, doesn't Simba already know that Sora, Donald and Goofy aren't Pride Lands animals? He was a summon in the first game, and when he recognizes them in KH2 he sees them in their normal forms.
Chapter 64
Turbulent Seas
Sora walked around the Black Pearl, helping out wherever he was needed. He also showed Kairi the different roles to fill on the ship. They were introduced to the rest of the pirate crew. Mr. Gibbs had been a sailor in the Royal Navy before deserting and turning to piracy, and he was a longtime friend of Jack Sparrow and had known Elizabeth since she was a child. Pintel and Ragetti were among Jack's original crew who had been cursed along with Barbossa. They had snuck away from prison and avoided the gallows amidst the chaos of the curse's resurgence. Ragetti's right eye was replaced with a wooden eye that would sometimes fall out of its socket, much to Kairi's disgust. There was an older, bearded sailor, named Cotton, who had a parrot on his shoulder. Apparently, his tongue had been cut out, so the parrot would speak for him. The last member of the main crew was a short, bald man named Marty, whose weapon of choice was a large gun. Kairi wondered why he used such a bulky and powerful weapon when he did not have the mass to hold up against the recoil.
Mickey set to work maintaining the rigging and checking the stock. Gibbs watched him get into gear enthusiastically.
"Lad seems pretty comfortable on a ship," the first mate commented.
"Well, he did work as a boathand a long time ago," Sora explained. "I guess he's getting back into the groove."
"Interesting. What about you? You have any experience on the sea before you met Jack?" Gibbs asked.
"Not really," Sora admitted. "Me and Kairi, and our friend Riku, too, built a raft that we wanted to use to sail to new worlds. But we never got to use it, since a storm hit and our islands were swallowed by Heartless."
"Well, Jack seemed to think of you and your friends as a good crew. Shame I couldn't meet them."
"Don't worry. I'm sure they'll catch up soon."
Sora broke off from Gibbs and walked across the deck. He found Jack standing at the prow. The captain alternated between staring at the horizon and studying his shifting compass. He walked over to join him and leaned against the railing.
"So, that compass leads you to what your heart desires most, huh?" Sora asked.
Jack nodded. "Aye. I've been using it as a guide to find the Pearl since I got off of that godforsaken island," he replied. "But now, when I need it most, it refuses to help me."
Sora shrugged. "Hearts can be tricky things. Maybe what you think you want isn't quite what you really want the most, deep down."
Jack chuckled. "When did you become so wise, lad? I remember it taking you a while for you to realize that pirates aren't to be trusted."
"Says the guy who sold his soul to an evil immortal Nobody," Sora retorted.
"Davy Jones ain't one of those white monsters. His heart that he has in that chest of his is the beating variety, not the kind you lot preach about."
"How does that even work?" Sora asked, disgusted. "How do you even live without an 'actual' heart?"
"They say it still beats for him even when outside. But if you stab the heart, Jones will die."
"So that's why you want the chest? To kill Davy Jones and weasel your way out of your deal by default?"
"No, lad. I want the chest because I want Jones to not want me to do that. You see, I'm not afraid of Jones or his Flying Dutchman. But Jones has a beastie, which he sends after those who get on his bad side."
"A 'beastie'?" Sora repeated questioningly.
"The fearsome Kraken!" Pintel answered, approaching from behind. He pronounced it as "Kray-ken".
"It's pronounced 'Krah-ken'," Ragetti corrected.
"Eh, shut up," Pintel shot back.
"Now, you see, Jones might not want his heart, but he also doesn't want any harm to come to it," Jack continued, ignoring the interruption. "If we can get our hands on that chest, his heart would be at a risk that would force Jones to do whatever we asked. Such as, say, sinking that dread beastie. Savvy?"
Sora nodded. "Or make him free someone from his service," he added. "You could order him to completely forget your contract with him, and also free Will."
"Exactly."
"So, wait. Why did he cut his heart out, anyway?" Sora asked, afraid to hear the story.
Kairi walked up beside Sora, wanting to hear the story as well.
Jack sighed. "The legends tell that Davy Jones loved a woman as fierce as the sea. He sailed in duty to her, even taking up the job of ferrying the souls of those who perished at sea, in which he would spend ten years at sea, only able to set foot on land for a single day after that time. But when he returned, his lover was nowhere to be found. The betrayal caused him more pain than he could bear, so he carved his own heart out and locked it away from the world."
"That's so sad," Kairi said sorrowfully.
Sora raised his eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something, but he remained silent for several seconds as he attempted to process the tale. "So, he cut out his physical heart… to cut himself off from his emotions? It sounds to me like he confused the spiritual and organic hearts too."
Jack chuckled, realizing that he was right. "I suppose. One can hardly understand the logic of a heart in turmoil, especially one that belonged to a monstrous tyrant." He turned around and leaned his back against the railing. He glanced over at Sora, studying his expression. "Speaking of which, something tells me that your crew is not so ship-shape."
"Huh?" Sora turned to face Jack. "What gave you that idea?"
Jack shrugged. "For starters, it seemed to me as though you and your friends, Donald and Goofy, were an inseparable team, and I'm sure the same fit for the other guy you said had been with you. But when you land in this corner of the world where you need as much loyalty as you can get, you split up. Second—" he turned his gaze over to Mickey "—it looks as though he's trying to keep himself distracted. So, mind telling me what's wrong?"
Sora allowed himself a soft smile. "Keen-eyed as always, Captain." He sighed. "It's kind of complicated. We found out that he knew things that he could have used to prevent a lot of bad things from happening in the first place, but he didn't because he felt guilty for not being able to stop some previous suffering and made himself believe that all the earlier trouble wasn't in vain."
"I see," Jack replied. "And what do you think of the matter?"
Sora shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not too sure. Riku was hit hardest, since the guy responsible for everything bad that happened took over his body. But really, I don't know what to think. I mean, I know Mickey shouldn't have kept all that to himself, and he should have done something before things went wrong, but… I don't know…"
Jack contemplated his indecisive compass. "But, I would surmise, deep down you wonder, if the bad things hadn't happened, would you be who you are today?" he finished for him.
Sora nodded. "Yeah. I guess you're right," he said.
"And I guess that if none of that had happened, I might never have met Sora and Riku," Kairi added.
Jack snapped his compass shut and tied it around his belt. "Let me tell you something, lad. So much has happened to all of us. Even if we wanted it, we can't take it back. All we can do is learn from our pasts, for better or worse, and sail onward. But you can't do that with a divided crew. Savvy?" Sora and Kairi nodded. "Now, you can tear yourselves and each other up over it, or…" Jack shook his head. "Actually, I don't know. I suppose that's all up to you lot."
Sora and Kairi contemplated the captain's words for a moment. They turned to look back out across the sea. The corner of Sora's mouth curled into a slight smile.
"You're right," he said. "Thanks, Captain."
"So, you all went to that Tia Dalma lady to find out how to find the key, and she told you where to find the Flying Dutchman," Goofy paraphrased the story that Will had recounted to the trio. "Then Jack told you to go on board, and you were put on the crew in his stead?"
Will shrugged. "That's not quite it. Jones said that Jack's soul was worth one hundred others, and he only counted me as one," he corrected. "But the old pirate's a sly dog. He didn't really leave me to take the fall for him; he just wanted me to get the key!"
"The key to the Dead Man's Chest?!" the ship's captain asked in bewilderment.
"Aye," Will replied.
Riku laughed. He held his hand up and summoned his Keyblade. "Kinda redundant now, huh?" he joked.
Will let out a chuckle. "I suppose. But it was worth it," he admitted. "I got to meet my father."
Riku raised an eyebrow. Goofy stroked his chin, remembering something that had been mentioned during a previous visit to this world.
"Your father? You mean Bootstrap Bill Turner? The one guy from the Black Pearl whose blood Barbossa needed to lift the curse?" the dog knight asked.
"Yes. Thing is, after Barbossa and the crew dropped him to the bottom of the ocean, where the curse kept him alive but he was unable to free himself, Davy Jones found him and offered to get him out of his prison in exchange for a century of servitude," Will explained. "While I was on the Dutchman, I got to know him a bit. When I challenged Davy Jones to a game of Liar's Dice to trick him into showing me where he keeps the key, I wagered against myself an eternity of servitude. But my father joined the game and let himself lose, so that I would be free at his own eternal expense."
The crew of the Edinburgh Trader frowned, sympathizing with the blacksmith. One even sniffled, and another started weeping.
Riku put his hand on Will's shoulder reassuringly. Donald's face fell. "I'm sorry you had to go through that," the duck told him.
Will nodded toward him appreciatively. "Not to worry," he said. "We'll catch up with Jack, and we'll find the chest. And when we open it, I will sink my knife into Davy Jones' heart. Then, my father will be freed."
The crew traded confused and uneasy glances. Riku took notice and wondered what they were concerned about. "Ahem, 'scuse me…" the captain began. However, he would not get to finish his thought.
"Captain! A ship's been spotted!" a sailor shouted from the crow's nest.
"Colors?" the captain asked.
"She isn't flying any," the observant sailor answered.
A look of fear crossed Will's face. Riku, Donald and Goofy turned to follow the sailor's gaze. Silhouetted in the distance, they saw an ominous ship. They noticed that the ship was not coming any closer; rather, it stayed in place, as if watching them menacingly.
"Pirates!" the captain gasped.
"Or worse," Will muttered.
On the other ship, the fearsome captain glared at the trading ship. A blurry eye would notice a humanoid form, but his features were actually a mix of human and various forms of sea life. His head resembled a yellow-green octopus, with forty-six tentacles making up a "beard", and he lacked a nose. His right hand was covered in scales, and his index finger extended into a long tentacle. His left hand was replaced by a large crab claw. His right leg was distorted to resemble a crab's leg, making it evoke the imagery of a peg leg. His tricorn hat split at the larger front corn into two points.
Davy Jones, monstrous captain of the Flying Dutchman, crumpled a parchment depicting the key that he had always kept close at hand, or rather, tentacle. He turned to face his treacherous slave, Bootstrap Bill Turner. Turner appeared pale and sunken, as if he had been drowned, and his face was covered in barnacles, with a starfish attached to his right temple. The previous night, Turner had helped his son off of the ship, and Will Turner took with him the key to the Dead Man's Chest. Two members of the Dutchman's crew, who, like everyone else, had been mutated to resemble fusions of man and sea creatures, flanked Turner. One of them held a sawfish rostrum bone against Turner like a sword.
Jones clamped his claw around the bottom half of Bootstrap's head and pressed his face close to Turner's. "You will watch this!" Jones croaked viciously. He let go and turned away, directing his attention to eight barnacle-encrusted mutant crew members who were turning a large wheel while being whipped by another monstrous sailor. The turning of the wheel raised an enormous pin from the center of the wheel.
"Let no joyful voice be heard!" Jones shouted. "Let no man look up at the sky with hope! And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake…" The hammer reached its apex. "…the Kraken!"
"No!" Bootstrap yelled, knowing that his son was doomed and there was nothing he could do about it. He struggled to break free, but his captors held him fast.
The hammer dropped, striking the bottom of the ship with a resounding boom.
The crew of the Edinburgh Trader heard the noise, and they all rushed to the side of the ship to get a look at the strange ship. The captain took a telescope and peeked through it, making out a barnacle-encrusted ship with tattered, mildew-covered sails.
A sailor screamed "Demons!" Riku, Donald and Goofy turned to see what he was referring to and saw half a dozen Shadows forming from the deck. Three Pirates materialized from thin air around them.
"Heartless!" Riku corrected, summoning his Keyblade. "Leave them to us!" The sailors wisely backed away, allowing the three world travelers to do their job.
Riku locked blades with a Pirate and pushed back against it. As it walked back to evade Riku's onslaught, the Heartless tripped and lost its balance. Riku cut straight through it before it hit the ground. Donald cast Fire to blaze through the Shadows surrounding him. Goofy blocked against a Pirate's strikes, causing it to reel back. He then spun around and brought the side of his shield into the Heartless' neck, knocking it down. He then pounded into its chest until it dissipated. He whirled around and shield-punched a Shadow in the face, destroying it in a single blow. Riku jumped up and drove his Keyblade into the final Pirate's head, blasting it to bits in a fiery burst.
Donald looked up at Will, who had climbed up to the top of the mast and was staring at the strange ship. "What's going on?" he asked.
"I've doomed us all," Will muttered. "It's the Flying Dutchman!" he shouted down to everyone.
Suddenly, the ship lurched, causing everyone to stumble. Will fell from his perch but caught himself on a rope.
"Mother Cary's chickens!" one of the crewmen cursed. "What happened?"
"Must've hit a reef," another sailor guessed.
Riku sniffed the air. He smelled a new kind of darkness, a scent mixed with what he thought smelled like raw sushi and dried blood (the sushi smell he had picked up during his time aboard the Jolly Roger, the dried blood being from his year as a spy when he had visited some places that had not been all sunshine and forest critters). Something told him that this was not a reef.
The captain got to his feet and ran to the rail, taking a look overboard to assess the situation. He did not see anything other than water. "Free the rudder! Hard to port, then hard to starboard!" he barked orders. The sailors next to him repeated his message. They did not notice a tentacle rise up above the water and grab the captain around the waist, pulling him overboard.
Goofy gulped, having seen this occur. "Everyone away from the rail!" he shouted. The sailors looked at him in confusion, but turned around when they heard something break the surface of the water in confusion, accompanied by a high-pitched scream. They only had a second to take the sight in before it retreated underwater, but it was enough to identify an enormous tentacle which held onto their captain.
"Kraken!" one of the sailors screamed. The crew broke into a panic. One man rang a bell to rally everyone, and they all gathered whatever weapons were available, such as spears, axes, swords, and guns.
In the meantime, tentacles slithered up the sides of the hull. Soon, they rose up high into view. Some of the crewmen swung their weapons, while others threw their spears. A particularly superstitious sailor raised Elizabeth's wedding dress, pleading for the Kraken to take it, thinking that it would leave them alone. However, the tentacles lashed around, grabbing multiple crew members and dragging them to their doom. One man brought his ax down onto a tentacle and grinned triumphantly before the tentacle whipped back and grabbed him.
Riku slashed at the tentacles and launched balls of Dark Fire. A tentacle wrapped itself around Donald, but the duck cast Reflega at the last second. The tentacle failed to squeeze through the force field and was blasted back by the kinetic recoil. Goofy ran to the sailors' defense, but he was unable to do anything against the lightning-fast appendages. He was quickly grabbed himself and pulled overboard.
"Goofy!" Riku shouted, horrified. Donald screamed in rage and unleashed multiple Thundaga and Firaga spells in quick succession, singing and burning the tentacles as they hit.
One tentacle wrapped itself around the center mast and snapped it with ease. The mast tilted and began to fall. Will jumped off and fell into the sail of the next mast, but slid down. He pulled his knife out and stabbed the sail, hoping to slow his descent, but things did not work that way in any sense of reality. He passed the bottom of the sail but caught a rope beneath that. Another tentacle crushed the lower part of that mast. Will put his knife between his teeth to free his right hand and pulled himself onto the frame of the sail. As he stood up, a tentacle rose up to his level. He pulled his sword out and slashed at it before it eventually grabbed the blade and pulled it out of his hand.
While everyone on the deck dealt with the smaller tentacles, larger appendages rose up over the deck, only this time they rose much higher until the tips were level with the top of the remaining mast. They then curled over the ship and came down. They crashed into the deck and crushed the ship in one fell swoop, breaking the hull in two. Most of the remaining sailors lost their footing and fell into the water, followed by much of the cargo.
Donald stumbled and fell overboard, screaming. Riku reached out to grab him, but he was too far away. The Keyblade wielder whirled around, watching the carnage unfurl around him. He couldn't save everyone. He couldn't save anyone.
Actually, there was one person he just might be able to get to.
He looked up and saw Will, still standing on the mast frame. He heard a crunch and turned to see Will's mast snapping in the coils of a tentacle. Will held on for dear life as the mast began to fall.
Riku knew what he had to do. He had to try. He ran over to the mast and jumped. He set his feet against the wooden pillar and began to run up its height. As he drew near to the horizontal frame, he jumped and squeezed the sail between his fingers. He dropped down and landed on the frame, then ran straight for Will. The instant he reached him, without breaking pace, he looped his arm around his back and under his arm. Then, he jumped, carrying Will a great distance away from the destroyed ship.
They hit the water and went under, but fortunately, they were out of the Kraken's reach. After swimming frantically for a few seconds, they swam up and broke the surface. They saw a piece of flotsam floating nearby and swam over to it, then grabbed onto it. They took a minute to catch their breath and process the ordeal.
"You okay?" Riku asked, panting.
Will shrugged as best as he could. "Been better," he replied flatly.
Riku nodded. "Same."
They saw a pair of shadows in the water drawing near them. Will tensed up, but Riku remained calm. A small purple tentacle broke the water's surface, causing Riku to breathe a sigh of relief. An orange shell appeared, followed by Goofy's head attached. Donald stuck the top half of his body out of the water and grabbed onto the flotsam.
"What on Earth?!" Will gasped, surprised to see Donald and Goofy in these forms.
Riku chuckled. "Should've figured," he said. "Goofy's handled worse, and try as you might, you can't get rid of Donald so easily."
Donald glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Goofy shushed them. "Look! It's the Flying Dutchman!" he warned them. The group turned and saw that the cursed ship was indeed close by. Hovering just off from the deck, muscular Heartless dressed in blue clothes with blue and white striped bandannas and purple glider wings sprouting from their backs flew around. They saw some surviving crewmen treading water nearby before being pulled up by the Air Pirates, which had swooped down to grab them.
Goofy heard a splash near him. He looked back at the flotsam and noticed someone was missing. "Uh, Riku?"
"Wak!" Donald pointed in the direction of the ship, alerting Will and Goofy to Riku swimming toward the Dutchman. They watched Riku grab onto the side of the ship and begin climbing.
"After him!" Will said. He let go of the piece of wood and swam over to the ship. Goofy followed, changing back to normal the instant he launched himself out of the water. Donald sighed and reluctantly went after them.
They scaled the side of the cursed vessel and reached the deck, peering through the railing to get a good look at what was going on. The Dutchman's crewmen held the survivors of the wreck prisoner as Davy Jones studied them individually. Chills went down Riku's spine, as the mutated captain was even more monstrous than he ever imagined. Will's expression made it clear that he had no desire to lay his eyes upon the terrible figure again.
The boatswain, Maccus, a muscular figure with a head contorted into that of a hammerhead shark, glared up at the Air Pirates for a moment. He turned his attention to the captive sailors, then turned to address Jones.
"The boy's not here," he reported. "He must've been claimed by the sea."
Davy Jones scowled. "I am the sea," he scoffed. He marched over to Bootstrap, who was still being restrained even though he had stopped resisting. "You need time alone with your thoughts," he said matter-of-factly, his tone lacking any genuine sympathy.
Goofy studied Bootstrap's heartbroken expression and felt sorry for him. The man had only just gotten reacquainted with his son and he now believed him to be dead.
"What of the survivors?" Maccus asked.
"There are no survivors," Jones replied. Riku tensed up, sensing the need for an immediate rescue, but there was no time to do anything. The cursed crewmen drew hatchets and raised them above the heads of the captive sailors who apparently were not meant to have survived the wreck.
Donald and Goofy turned away and lowered themselves down, not willing to bear the sight, whereas Riku and Will could only look on in horror. They quickly ducked out of sight as Jones turned around.
Jones turned and marched off. "The chest is no longer safe," he announced. "Chart a course for Isla Cruces. Get me there first, or there'll be the devil to pay."
"First?" an accompanying crewman asked.
"Who sent that thieving charlatan onto my ship? Who told him of the key?" he asked rhetorically. "Jack Sparrow," he spat.
As the mutated crew set to work, Riku, Will, Donald, and Goofy climbed along the barnacle-laced hull until they found a section at the prow resembling an elongated jaw full of sharp teeth. They climbed into that opening and decided it was a good place to stand and rest.
"Sorry you had to see that," Will told Riku sympathetically.
Riku nodded, appreciating the gesture. "What is he?" he asked. "What kind of monster kills so many innocent people for just one man? And those men on the deck… he had them killed just because he could…"
Donald shook his head. "I don't know, Riku. I don't know…" he muttered.
Will decided to try to get their minds off of what had just happened, and he figured that a good way of doing that would be to address a task that they could complete. "They'll be sailing for Isla Cruces. That must be where the chest is buried," he said. "Let's hitch a ride until we get there. With luck, Jack will already be there, and maybe Sora will be with him too, and we can put an end to this."
Riku nodded, his hand clenched into a fist, and turned to stare at the horizon, waiting for the island to come into view.
Kairi found Elizabeth sitting on the stairs to the right of the door to the captain's quarters, staring off into the distance sadly. Kairi frowned, recalling her recounted circumstances, and decided that she could use a shoulder to lean on. She walked up and sat down next to her.
"You doing okay?" she asked sympathetically.
"I just thought I'd be married by now," Elizabeth replied solemnly. "I'm so ready to be married."
"Chin up. Sure, things haven't been smooth sailing. But we'll save Will, and you two can get married as soon as you like," Kairi asserted encouragingly.
Jack Sparrow heard the conversation and sauntered up to them. "You know, Lizzy, I am captain of a ship," he said. "And, being captain of a ship, I could in fact perform a marriage. Right here." He started to lean closer. Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Right on this deck. Right… now."
Elizabeth recoiled from his breath. Kairi stood up and took a step away, crossing her arms as she turned to glare at Jack. "No thank you," Elizabeth retorted. She stood up and started to walk away.
"Why not? We are very much alike, you and I," Jack claimed.
"Oh, except for a sense of honor, and decency, and-and a moral center," Elizabeth shot back. "And personal hygiene."
Jack sniffed his armpit and shrugged. He strutted quickly until he was in front of her again. "Trifles. You will come over to my side. I know it," he said with a smile.
Kairi, meanwhile, was starting to regret declining Lulu's offer to let her take her mace while she was packing for the journey.
Elizabeth matched his gaze, as if daring him. "You seem very certain," she said.
"One word, love: curiosity," Jack replied. "You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act on selfish impulse. You want to see what it's like. One day you won't be able to resist."
"Why doesn't your compass work?" Elizabeth asked.
Jack recoiled, offended. "Oh, my compass works fine."
"Because you and I are alike," she shot back, turning his speech back onto him, "and there will come a moment when you have a chance to show it. To do the right thing."
"I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by."
"You'll have the chance to do something… something courageous. And when you do, you'll discover something: that you're a good man."
"All evidence to the contrary."
Elizabeth let out a soft laugh. "I have faith in you. Want to know why?"
"Do tell me, dearie."
Elizabeth turned so that this time she was drawing close to his face. "Curiosity. You're going to want it. A chance to be admired. And gain the rewards that follow. You won't be able to resist. You're going to want to know what it tastes like."
Jack leaned closer. "I do want to know what it tastes like," he said, caressing her face.
"But, seeing as you're a good man, I know you will never put me in a position that would compromise my honor," Elizabeth teased. She waited for him to make his move, testing him.
Jack leaned in to kiss her, but noticed something on his left hand. He leaned back slightly to get a better view of it. To his horror, a gnarly black scar formed on his palm.
The Black Spot, he thought. The hunt is back on…
He closed his hand to hide the Black Spot, which marked him as prey for the Kraken, and leaned back, working to conceal his horrified expression.
Elizabeth noticed that he was backing away, and smiled, not noticing his fear. "I'm proud of you, Jack," she said.
"Land ho!" Gibbs shouted. Elizabeth walked away, getting ready to get to work.
Kairi noticed the terror plastered on Jack's face. She walked up to him, accompanied by Mickey, concerned for him.
"What's wrong, Captain?" Mickey asked.
"I want my jar of dirt," Jack said before dashing off.
Mickey and Kairi traded confused looks. Jar of dirt?
The crew readied longboats, which Jack, Elizabeth, Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Norrington, Pintel, and Ragetti piled into, and which the rest of the crew lowered into the water. With the Pearl waiting in the shallows, the landing party rowed off to reach the beach.