Chapter 38
Shadow Dance
The Gargoyle Knights and Warriors closed in on Mickey, Donald and Goofy. The king, wizard and knight looked around at their adversaries, who remained still, as if both parties were waiting for the other to make the first move.
Mickey nodded to Donald and Goofy. One of the Gargoyle Knights stabbed at Mickey, but the mouse blocked the stone sword downward with his Keyblade, using it to vault himself into the air. Donald stood close to Goofy and cast Firaga, holding the statues back with a revolving circle of flame. Goofy held his shield up and Mickey bounced off of it, launching himself higher into the air.
"Faith!" he shouted, pointing his Keyblade down. He spun around and emitted a burst of light which released multiple orbs of light that showered upon the possessed statues. This damaged the statues and immobilized them, having countered the Possessors' influence over them. Donald cast Magnera, pulling the statues up into a vortex that was just above Goofy's head. Goofy stood in the eye of the storm with the Heartless revolving rapidly around him. He performed a tornado spin attack, spinning in the opposite direction to the Heartless, and broke through the rock with his shield. Before the vortex began to disperse, Goofy ducked out of the way and Mickey dropped down, driving the point of his Keyblade into the center of the spell. This created a blast that emitted radially from the disrupted vortex, shattering the stone into dust and dispersing the Possessors into specks of smoke.
Mickey, Donald and Goofy took a moment to catch their breath. "Everyone alright?" Mickey asked. Donald and Goofy nodded. "So, the intruders aren't here, but they expected some of us to fall into a trap out here. That means they knew we would split up to cover more ground." His eyes widened at the realization. "The others are in trouble!"
Goofy pointed up at the window to the Beast's room. "I saw someone up there," he informed Mickey.
Donald looked up to where he was pointing and gasped in shock. He saw two Hook Bats fluttering outside of the window, and realized that this could only be because there was not enough room in there for them. "Riku and the Beast are being swarmed!" he announced.
"Then we'd better get up there!" Mickey declared, running over to the west side of the castle. Donald and Goofy followed, running as fast as they could, though neither of them could tell what he intended. Mickey held his left hand out, palm face-down. He then tilted it upward ninety degrees so that his palm was facing the wall. "Graviga!" he invoked. A black-purple energy orb shot out of his hand and hit the castle wall. The surface and the vertical parts of its decorations turned black, though the slanted and curved surfaces retained their normal color, and a purple plane extended from where Mickey's hand was. The air between the plane and the wall was filled with shimmering purple particles that flitted about. When Mickey, Donald and Goofy stepped through the magic plane, they felt a strange force pulling them to the wall. They were lifted off of their feet, no longer being pulled to the ground, and their bodies turned until their feet were pointed at the wall. They landed feet-first on the wall, feeling as though they had simply jumped from a slightly higher ledge.
"Nice trick," Donald complimented, looking around to get an understanding of the spell that Mickey had used. Mickey had used a Gravity spell to distort the field of gravity in the localized area to change the direction of the gravitational force, specifically by ensuring that all objects within this area were drawn toward the south wall of the castle, while ensuring that the field ceased at the wall so that nothing beyond, particularly the foundations of the structure, were caught in this modified flow.
Mickey nodded, accepting the compliment, and began running up the wall as easily as if he were running on level ground. Donald and Goofy began to do the same. Donald suspected that Mickey would have been able to scale the building in almost the same way without a specialized Gravity spell, but he chose to account for his comrades following him. As they approached the balcony, Donald wondered if Thunder magic was affected in this field in any way, and decided to experiment on the Hook Bats, which had to their befuddlement found themselves floating sideways. The lightning appeared above the Heartless, appearing to be in front of Donald and his friends, and shot toward the ground. Mickey and Goofy had to frantically run to the side to avoid getting struck by bolts that flashed right past them. Donald chuckled nervously while still running. Of course lightning would not be bound to gravity; electricity would follow a path of conduction, and it would flow through the air or any interfering objects until it inevitably reached into the ground. He figured as such, but he probably should have considered that he and his friends would be in the path of the magic lightning.
Mickey leapt over the balcony ledge and pushed against the railing to vault himself over. He looked into the room and saw Riku and Beast completely surrounded by Hook Bats, and they barely had any room to move. Before he fell into the window, he shot a Pearl spell into the room. The sphere strafed a few Hook Bats and forced all of them to disperse, giving Riku and Beast room to breathe, at which point they started fighting the Heartless. Mickey dropped into the room, and normal gravity took over, dropping him into the ground. He quickly jumped in and joined Riku and Beast in fighting the Heartless. Donald fell in next and shot a few Hook Bats with Blizzard. When they tried to close in on the group and limit their range of motion, Donald cast Aero to scatter and disorient them. Goofy fell in next and threw his shield to destroy two Hook Bats. Between Riku and Mickey's Keyblade strikes, Beast's claw swipes, Goofy's shield, and Mickey and Donald's magic, it was not long before the Heartless were all gone.
When the fight was over, Mickey, Donald and Goofy turned to Riku and Beast. Beast roared in anger, indignant. Riku was covered in scrapes and cuts. Donald cast Cura on him and Beast.
"What happened?" Mickey asked. Goofy was busy trying to calm Beast down.
"A clown and a witch doctor were here. They're definitely with Maleficent," Riku explained. "Whatever they were looking for wasn't here, and the rose was of no interest to them."
"We were just ambushed by the Gargoyle statue Heartless things," Goofy told him.
"By now, Sora, Kairi and Belle must have fallen into a trap as well," Mickey warned. The mention of Belle in danger reignited Beast's fury.
Before the Beast could enter another outrage, Cogsworth and Lumière entered. At first they peeked in nervously, but they were relieved to see that whatever danger the group in the room was facing had passed. Everyone turned to meet the servants, eager to receive whatever news they came to bring.
"What is it, Cogsworth?" Beast asked.
"Ahem. I regret to say that Sora and Kairi have been taken captive by the Heartless," the timepiece majordomo revealed.
This took everyone aback. "WHAT?!" they shouted.
"What about Belle?" Beast asked, worried.
"Alas, we did not see her," Lumière answered. "We only saw a group of the tall Shadows carrying Sora and Kairi off. I suspect that they are bound for the dungeon."
"Wak! We've got to save them!" Donald said. He started to run for the door, rudely stepping past the clock and candelabra.
"Wait," Mickey ordered. Donald stopped instantly, his hand only inches from the door. All eyes turned to Mickey, curious to hear what he had to say. "If Sora and Kairi are being taken to the dungeon, that means the Heartless are under orders not to kill them or at least take Sora's heart, and the clown and witch doctor have no interest in taking them back to the Vale. That means the most they plan to do with them is to get them out of the way of their search and maybe distract us by letting us plan a rescue effort. They will be fine, and I doubt they wouldn't be able to get out on their own. In the meantime, Belle is still unaccounted for, so it is entirely likely that she avoided capture and is on her own in a castle filled with Heartless. Not to mention, two members of Maleficent's cabal are roaming around the premises in search of something, leading the Heartless. We need to coordinate our efforts on the infiltrators and thwarting their machinations."
Riku nodded. "I hate to leave Sora and Kairi in their predicament, but Mickey's right," he concurred. "We need to stop these guys and make sure the castle stays safe from the Heartless."
After a moment, Donald, Goofy and Beast nodded in agreement. "So, uh, where do we look?"
No one answered for several moments. They were thoroughly stumped. Then Cogsworth had an idea. "Well, there are a few places that we have not searched that they might not have been…"
Sora and Kairi struggled against their bonds. The two of them had been shackled by the wrists and the ankles, the manacles holding their limbs together and the chains pulling at them so that they were both stretched to their maximum length. Despite his great strength, the iron was still secure enough and his position was compromising enough that it served no use to him. Neither he nor Kairi were in any position to summon or wield their Keyblades.
Sora sighed in exasperation. "Well, this is a fine mess," he griped.
Kairi chuckled. "You know, when I imagined going on adventures with you, I did not imagine it would involve this much trouble," she told him, wiggling her wrists to make the chains jangle.
Sora did his best to shrug. "To be honest, it's never been this difficult," he admitted. "I mean, there was this time I had my memories messed with, but I don't even remember that and I only have secondhand accounts from Lea and Even. But really, I've never been prone like this."
They laughed together for a moment, then fell silent for a minute. It was a boring minute, and they both had trouble keeping their minds off of the uncomfortable feeling of their joints being stretched and the chafing of their wrists and ankles.
"So, now what do we do?" Kairi asked.
Sora thought for a moment. "I don't know. If Riku and King Mickey didn't fall into the same trap, they'll probably figure out pretty soon what happened to us. So, unless they decide to keep looking for the guys who put us here, and one of them probably already met the guy, they'll be here to rescue us." He rolled his eyes as he realized something. "And they're probably doing the first thing since if they are aware of our predicament they probably figured we'd get out of here ourselves."
Kairi sighed in a more amused tone. "On the bright side, Belle didn't get caught. If she did, she would be in here with us, or since she's a Princess of Heart they would have brought her back to their base but that would be unlikely since I'm a Princess of Heart and I'm here."
Sora chuckled. "Yeah. That's one bright spot."
Just then, they heard footsteps from behind the door. Sora tensed up, then remembered that there was nothing he could do, so he relaxed and decided to tense up only if it were actually necessary. He heard a lock mechanism turn, then the doors were pulled open. Sora and Kairi grinned when they saw that their visitor was Belle.
"Sorry, visiting hours start at ten in the morning. Come back tomorrow," Sora joked.
Belle chuckled. "Are you two alright?" she asked, running up and setting a stool between Sora and Kairi. She stepped onto the stool and began using a key to unlock the manacle around Sora's wrists.
"We're fine, thanks," Sora answered. The mechanism clicked and the manacles opened. He became slightly less fine when, with nothing holding him up, he fell forward and landed on his face. "Ow."
"Sorry," Belle said sheepishly. She stepped down and went to free his ankles, but Sora lifted himself onto his hands and knees.
"I'm good." He rolled over onto his rear end and summoned his Keyblade. He pointed it at the ankle manacles and sent out a beam of white light, which caused the manacles to pop open. He rubbed his wrists and ankles, then stood up. Kairi wisely grabbed onto the chains above her wrists as Sora used the Keyblade to unlock her shackles. She let go and landed neatly on her feet. Sora cast Cure on himself and Kairi.
"What about you? Did the Heartless try to kidnap you?" Kairi asked.
Belle shook her head. "No. I did what you said when the Nobodies came out and hid. The Heartless didn't see me, but I don't think they were interested in me anyway," she replied. "After I left my room to find and rescue you, I guess I got lucky."
"Well, thanks for the save," Sora said sincerely. "Now, let's get back to looking for the intruder. We can take the secret passageway above the basement and search in there."
Belle raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What secret passageway?" she asked.
For a moment Sora was surprised by the question, but soon understood. "Oh, when we set Cogsworth and the others free and went to talk to the Beast—erm, Adam, the way up the stairs in the hall was blocked, so they led us through a passage above the door leading out of here," he explained. "Come on. I'll show you."
He led Kairi and Belle out of the dungeon and into the main room of the undercroft. He jumped onto the stack of boxes, and Kairi followed suit. They then helped Belle climb up. After that, they stepped up to the ledge that hung over the doorway below. Belle mouthed "Oh" when she saw the door, which was flanked by two suits of armor. Sora opened the door and led Kairi and Belle into the passage.
They entered a large room that wrapped around itself and ascended on a ramp. Belle gaped in amazement, having had no idea such a corridor existed.
"You think the intruders might be in here?" Kairi asked.
"I can sense dark magic," Belle told them. "But it's all over the place in here, and I can't tell where it's coming from."
Kairi took a calm breath and extended her senses. "You're right. I think it's above us," she added.
"Is that so? Wait here. I'll go check on something," Sora said. He ran up to a wall and jumped, then spun in midair and pushed against the air beneath him to launch himself over the wall, landing on the higher area. He ran over to examine the back wall and saw that while the wall was closed up, the bricks were even.
He returned to the others, this time running around and down the ramp. "The exit's closed off," he informed them. "There are some enchanted lanterns above us that have to be lit in order to reveal the trick to opening it. When I was first in here, the lanterns were burning with a dark flame. I'm guessing that the intruder was in here earlier and corrupted the flames with dark magic."
After taking a moment to process and understand what he said, Kairi nodded. "So, how do we fix it?" she asked.
Sora looked to the right and saw a crank mounted on the wall. "Belle, would you mind turning that crank?" he asked.
Belle saw the crank and went over to it. She tested to see which way it would turn and pulled it ninety degrees counterclockwise. The sound of gears and wheels turning reached them and a series of bowl torches descended from above, each one held up by a chain. The torches burned with an intimidating black flame. Belle felt a light pounding in her head from the dark energy radiating from the cursed blaze.
"When I was with Cogsworth and the others, I mixed the Keyblade's magic with Mrs. Potts' water and Lumière's fire to extinguish the black flames and light normal ones," Sora explained. "They aren't with us, but I think we can manage with Princess of Heart magic and some Blizzard and Fire spells. Shall we begin?"
Kairi nodded. She and Sora walked over to the first lantern. Kairi summoned her Keyblade and pointed the tip at the edge of the black flame. She called upon her light, and the flowery tip glowed with a white light. The dark fire flickered away from the tip, as if it were afraid of the light. "Blizzard," she whispered. The ice magic extinguished the flame.
Sora pointed his Keyblade into the torch. "Fire," he called out, and the lantern was ignited with a healthy orange-white flame. They repeated the process with the other four lanterns. "Okay, Belle. You can let go now," he shouted. A few seconds later, he heard wheels turning and the lanterns, now properly lit, were pulled back up out of sight. He looked over to the back wall and, to his satisfaction, saw that there was a single brick poking out of the wall. He nodded to Kairi, letting her know that it had worked. They walked back down and around and met back up with Belle.
"Do you think you can reach out and see where the intruder is now?" Sora asked.
Belle nodded. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her nose. She meditated for a few minutes, with Sora and Kairi waiting patiently. A few Soldier Heartless popped up around them, but the Keyblade wielders quickly defeated them.
Soon enough, Belle's eyes snapped open. "There's something going on in the ballroom," she informed her companions.
"The ballroom? Then I suppose you should get over there and join the party," a voice echoed around them. The shadow of a man in a top hat appeared on the wall behind Belle and leaned his elbow on the shoulder of her shadow. Belle gasped in surprise and backed away. Naturally, her shadow followed, backing away from the mysterious shadow and causing it to stumble forward. Once it regained its balance, the skinny shadow wagged its finger. It then grabbed its stomach and pulled outward, splitting open a Corridor of Darkness. The shadow's master stepped out. He grabbed Belle's hand and kissed it, then suddenly yanked it, pulling her toward him, and threw her into the portal. He lifted his hat with an air of politeness, revealing an afro of the exact shape and size to fill up the hat in its entirety. He backed into the portal, which his shadow closed before vanishing into the cracks between bricks.
For a moment, Sora and Kairi simply stared in confusion at what happened, but soon came to their senses. They nodded to each other, realizing that they did not have another moment to lose, and ran back up and around to the back wall. Sora punched the brick that jutted out and it slid into the wall. A section of the wall sank into the floor, revealing a tunnel that led out of the secret passageway. Kairi willed her Keyblade to glow at the tip so as to light their way through the pitch-black tunnel and led the way through.
When they reached the end of the tunnel, they found that it was closed off. Sora rectified this by pressing in another brick, causing the wall to sink into the floor like the previous one. They stepped out and found themselves on the platform halfway up the West Hall stairs. They glanced around the hall and saw some familiar figures walking down the area below, heading out into the rest of the castle.
"Hey, guys!" Sora called out. Riku, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Beast, Cogsworth, and Lumière stopped and turned around when they heard his voice. Sora and Kairi ran down to greet them.
Riku chuckled. "We knew you'd get out of there no problem," he said confidently.
Sora scratched behind his head. "Actually, we were kinda tied up in there. Thankfully, Belle came back for us," he admitted.
"Belle? But why isn't she with you?" Beast asked.
"This shadow guy in a top hat grabbed her," Kairi told them, to Beast's horror. "But right before that happened, Belle detected dark energy coming from the ballroom."
"That had to have been the witch doctor Beast and I saw," Riku mused. "Belle must have sensed the clown in the ballroom. We need to get over there, fast."
"Clown? Witch doctor?" Sora asked.
"We have to get to the ballroom and save Belle!" Beast declared. Before anyone could even agree, he ran down the hall. Mickey cast Magnera, pulling him back to them. The spell dispersed as soon as Beast was brought back so he was not forced to spin around a vortex. He turned and growled at Mickey, forcing Donald, Goofy and Kairi to take a step back reflexively.
"We can't just charge in without a plan," Mickey advised. "We need to talk things through before we head into a fight with these two."
"He's right," Riku agreed. "We need to know every possible angle to consider."
Sora nodded. "Okay. So, where do we start?"