A/N: I'm throwing this in front to address a point early in the chapter, rather than bring it up at the end and leave you wondering about it for the whole chapter: Fairies do speak the same language as them (or at least a language that can be translated by the Keyblade's magic). But due to their size and the sound made when they move, it is difficult to discern what they are saying to normal-sized humans, although Kairi's Pure Light neutralizes the filter for her. Those who spend enough time with a Never Fairy can learn to understand them, however. When Aqua and Mickey are Tink's size, they can understand perfectly.
Chapter 141
Pixie Hollow
The fairies led Kairi, Aqua and Mickey in a flight over the island, soaring up above the clouds so that they would be able to clear the highest mountain peak without running the risk of anyone getting lost in the fog. Shortly after taking off, Mickey had cast a Mini spell on himself and the other Keyblade wielders, so that they were now the same size as the fairies and would be until he used a counterspell to restore them to full size. After several minutes, the fairies stopped and flew in a circle a few times, signaling for their charges to stop moving as well. They then dove down through the clouds, and their charges followed. Kairi gasped in awe as they broke through the clouds and saw a great tree that was surrounded by swirling lights—more fairies like Tinker Bell and Fawn. The valley surrounding the tree was split into four quadrants, which appeared to be the same field but under the conditions of each of the four seasons.
"Welcome to Pixie Hollow," Tinker Bell said. Aqua and Mickey were surprised to realize that they could understand the fairy perfectly. "Fawn, should we give them a tour, first?"
The brunette fairy nodded. "Sure. We don't get many visitors."
The two fairies and their charges flew down to the quadrant that was covered with red and gold leaves. "All four seasons coexist here. It's our job to prepare the seasons and bring them to each world," Tinker Bell explained. "This is the Autumn Forest. Up ahead is the Summer Glade, and in the opposite corner is the Spring Valley."
"So is that place back there where you have winter?" Mickey asked, pointing back to the snow-covered quadrant.
"Yes. Those are the Winter Woods. Of course, warm-weather fairies like us can't go there without protective gear, or our wings will freeze and break, so we won't be going there today," Fawn answered. Tinker Bell giggled, seeming to be recalling good memories of the Winter Woods.
They exited the Autumn Forest and entered the Summer Glade, where they immediately felt the cool breeze turn into summer warmth. The sun seemed to shine even brighter in this sector. They flew over a meadow of sunflowers, where fairies in pink, yellow, and purple dresses flew around. The fairies in pink tended to the flowers; the fairies in yellow flew above everything and drew rainbows in the air with their hands; fairies in purple seemed to flitter with the wind.
"Are the colors of everyone's dresses supposed to signify something?" Aqua asked, noticing the pattern regarding the fairies' roles and uniforms.
"It's our talents: the innate skills that fairies are born with. Our roles are set by what we're good at," Tinker Bell explained. "Fawn's an animal-talent fairy: they take care of animals and help raise the babies. The fairies in pink are garden-talent fairies: they help plants grow. The ones in yellow are light-talent fairies: they control and redirect light, and they also give fireflies their glow. The ones in purple are fast-flying-talent fairies: they control the air to create wind, and they're the fastest out of all of the fairies. There are also water-talent fairies: they wear blue, and their tasks include creating fountains and placing dew drops."
"So, what's your talent, Tink?" Kairi asked.
Tinker Bell smiled proudly, and she seemed to glow a little brighter than usual. "I'm a tinker-talent fairy. We use tools to build and fix things and help out the other fairies."
"Oh, so you're like the engineers of the fairy community," Mickey said.
Tinker Bell nodded. "Exactly."
They continued to fly, soon crossing over to the Spring Valley and flying over a forest of magnolias. "So, Fawn, what's happening in Pixie Hollow?" Aqua asked. "What's the trouble?"
"These strange creatures appeared out of nowhere a few hours ago," Fawn answered. "They're nothing like any of us have ever seen, and they just started attacking everything in sight. We can't get them under control."
Tinker Bell looked back at Kairi, Aqua and Mickey, a worried expression on her face. "What did these things look like? Did they have some kind of symbol?" she asked her fairy friend.
"Um… yeah. It kinda looked like—Down there!" Fawn pointed down to a pond where two water fairies and a garden fairy were being attacked by some creatures that resembled honey pots that each had a pair of bee wings and a large red-and-yellow stinger on the front. A shadowy head with a jagged antenna and a pair of motorcycle goggles poked out of the top of the pot. A familiar symbol was visible on the pot's rear end. Kairi gasped while Tinker Bell glared as they identified the creatures.
"Heartless!" Aqua shouted. She summoned her Keyblade and dove down into the fray. She went straight for a Heartless that had just jabbed the garden fairy in the butt with its stinger and swatted it away from her. She then followed up with two more hits before blasting it with Blizzard, encasing it in ice.
"Rosetta! Are you okay?" Tinker Bell asked as she and the others caught up to the garden fairy.
The pink-dressed fairy with long auburn hair that was curled up at the end nodded. "Yeah. I think so. It's good to see you, Tink." Her wings faltered for a moment and she lost a few inches of altitude before she recovered. "Whoa. Actually, I feel kinda funny," she amended, rubbing her bum.
Kairi put a hand to Rosetta's forehead and felt that she was warm. "You have a fever," she diagnosed.
"I was fine a minute ago," Rosetta remarked.
"These Heartless must carry a poison," Mickey surmised.
"Got it. Esuna!" Kairi raised her Keyblade over the garden fairy's head. A white light washed over Rosetta, and she immediately straightened up, feeling much better. Mickey followed this up with a Cure spell that healed the stab in her butt.
"Thanks. Hang on. You don't look like any fairies I've ever seen. Who are you?"
Fawn stepped up to introduce the newcomers. "These are Kairi and Mickey, and the blue-haired one over there is Aqua. They were with Peter Pan when I went to find Tink."
"We shrank down so that we could follow Tinker Bell and Fawn here," Kairi clarified.
"Rosetta, what are the Heartless doing here?" Tinker Bell asked.
"So, those things are the Heartless?" Rosetta shivered, recalling stories told by fairies who had spotted the monsters around the islands and while spreading the seasons in other worlds. "I have no idea. They've never come to Pixie Hollow before."
"Let's deal with these, then figure it out," Mickey said, casting Thundara to destroy a trio of Ratty Rats that had materialized.
"Right," Kairi agreed.
Meanwhile, Aqua used her Bubble Blaster Shotlock to defeat or stun many of the Nimble Bee Heartless that were chasing the water-talent fairies. With their number brought down, the blue-clad fairy with long black hair, Silvermist, flew next to her companion. "I have an idea," she said before leaning in to whisper her plan to her friend. They dipped their hands in the water, kicking up a spray behind them that splashed the Heartless' wings. The Heartless slowed down and lost altitude, unable to flap their wings properly, and hit the water. The water-talent fairies then flew in circles around the Heartless, raising cyclones that lifted them up. Aqua flew in, a foot skimming on the water as if she was ice skating, and destroyed the Heartless with a pair of Fira spells.
"Nice job," Aqua commended as she convened with the water-talent fairies.
"Thanks for the save," Silvermist replied. They all introduced themselves. When the rest of the Heartless had been defeated, the fight concluding with Tinker Bell punting the last Ratty Rat into Mickey's pitch-spin strike, the other Keyblade wielders and fairies joined them.
"Hi, Sil. How bad is it around here?" Tinker Bell asked.
"There's a ton of them! Some stayed around here to bug us, but the rest went right to the Pixie Dust Tree. What are those things?"
"The Pixie Dust Tree?" Tinker Bell gasped. Fawn and Rosetta nodded solemnly. "We need to hurry."
"Most everyone is already rallied there. I figured it was an all-hands-on-deck situation, so I figured we could use your help," Fawn explained.
"Well, it's a good thing you did," Rosetta commended, sizing the Keyblade wielders up.
"We didn't see any Heartless in the other regions, although we didn't fly over the Winter Woods," Mickey reported.
"Then let's hurry to the tree!" Tinker Bell said. She turned in the direction of a great tree in the center of the Hollow, between all four seasonal regions, and flew toward it as fast as she could, with her friends following close behind.
"Those swords you have… I haven't seen anything like them," Silvermist remarked as they flew.
Aqua conjured Master's Defender to show it to the fairy. "They're called Keyblades. It is our duty as their chosen wielders to protect the worlds from the forces of darkness, the Heartless included," she explained.
"And are they where you get your talents?"
"Do you mean our magic?" The water-talent fairy nodded. "Hmm… They make it easier to learn and control, but our magic really comes from our hearts. Of course, our Keyblades are also linked to our hearts, so I suppose it really is all the same."
"Magic that comes right from the heart. Just like the belief that gives us our life and talents," Rosetta mused.
"Master Unei's notes did say that Neverland's magic was powered by belief," Kairi recalled, wondering if Pixie Hollow was where they needed to go to find the first piece of the puzzle to the Power of Waking. "Does that extend to the fairies?"
"Yup," Tinker Bell confirmed. "A fairy's heart is created with a human baby's first laugh, carried on leaves, petals, and seeds until it gets to Pixie Hollow, and is given form in pixie dust."
"Just humans?" Mickey asked, mildly offended by the implied rule.
"Um… As far as I know, anyway. I don't know if your kind's laughter creates fairies or something else, or if they might come to life somewhere else," Tinker Bell answered sheepishly. I did wonder the same thing when I met Donald and Goofy."
"We're approaching the Pixie Dust Tree," Fawn reported. Everyone faced forward, and the newcomers saw that the tree, which was visible from all around Pixie Hollow, was truly enormous. Glowing yellow lights shone out of every knothole and crack, as well as a large opening at the top of the tree. As they drew closer, they could see hundreds of lights flying around the tree.
"Wow! There are so many fairies!" Kairi said, amazed.
"Yep. There ought to be a fairy for every boy and girl alive," Tinker Bell stated.
"Ought to be…? Isn't there?" Kairi asked.
Tinker Bell scoffed. "No, unfortunately. Children learn so much as they grow up, and they soon forget the things they held value in when they were younger and more innocent. Soon, they'll lose their belief in fairies, and every time they say—" Rosetta and Silvermist gasped, causing her to catch herself before she said the actual phrase. "Erm, every time they voice that disbelief, a fairy falls down dead, completely at random."
"That's awful," Kairi said, horrified.
"Some people have taken out multiple fairies on their own by expressing it repeatedly. When something exists that goes against their limited worldview, some people just can't leave well enough alone," Tinker Bell continued bitterly.
"Well, I'll never stop believing in you. I promise," Kairi said. Aqua and Mickey nodded in agreement. Tinker Bell smiled, and all of the fairies seemed to glow brighter.
Tinker Bell led them through a knothole and into the tree. It seemed as though the great tree was formed out of narrower trees wrapping around each other, allowing for several chambers to be formed within them. There were thousands of fairies flying around, at least. Kairi, Aqua, and Mickey stared wide-eyed, amazed at how many fairies there were. They were not alone, as Tinker Bell was gaping in disbelief.
Aqua was quick to notice the fairy's shock. "Is something wrong?" she asked.
"I don't think I've ever seen so many fairies in this chamber," Tinker Bell answered. "Even during big events like the changing of the seasons and the Pixie Hollow Games, we all usually gather outside. If we're all packed in here, then the tree is in real danger."
Some fairies stopped moving and looked over at them as they noticed that Tinker Bell was present. They started muttering to each other, and more fairies turned their attention to the group. "Is that Tink?" "Tinker Bell's here!" "Who does she have with her?" "They don't look like fairies." "Is that a tiny mouse?"
"Miss Bell!" Two male fairies dressed in green leaf tunics and shorts flew up to the group. One was roughly Tinker Bell's size and had messy brown hair and green eyes magnified by a pair of glasses that used water droplets to make bubble lenses, while the other was tall and fat and had shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes. "It's good to see you," the smaller fairy said, speaking in a Scottish brogue.
"Hey there, Tink," the larger fairy greeted, in a low, drawn-out yet cheerful tone.
"Hey, guys. Oh. These are Kairi, Aqua, and Mickey. They offered to come to help." To the newcomers, she said, "These are my friends, Clank and Bobble. They're tinker-talent fairies, like me."
"I'm Clank. He's Bobble," the larger fairy introduced, gesturing to Bobble first by mistake. Bobble cleared his throat and repeated his friend, gesturing in the proper order.
"Hello," Kairi greeted with a wave.
"Look out!" Rosetta shouted, looking up. All eyes followed to where she was looking as a Rapid Thruster charged at a fairy and pinned her against the wall with its beak around her waist. While the fairy struggled to free herself, another fairy, this one wearing a skin-tight uniform of different dull colors rather than a single-colored dress, dropped down and dealt a flying kick to the Heartless' head before stabbing it in the eye with a porcupine quill. She shoved it deeper until the Heartless dissolved.
"Quit dawdling! Do you want the fiends to get you?" the warrior fairy scolded the chamber of fairies. The crowd remembered the situation and resumed their flight. Just then, more Heartless—Nimble Bees, Rapid Thrusters, and Yellow Operas— flew into the chamber and targeted the fairies, while more uniformed fairies flew in to fight them, each using porcupine quills as spears, the black and white stripes on the quill matching the sleeves and leggings of the uniforms.
"Those are the Scout Fairies," Fawn explained to Kairi, Aqua and Mickey. "They defend us from predators like hawks and anything they think is a threat." Sure enough, the Scout Fairies proved themselves to be efficient in fighting the Heartless, despite most likely having never seen the monsters before that day. Unfortunately, the vast numbers of the Heartless, which had apparently been rampaging through different parts of the tree only a moment ago, meant that the Scouts could not simply vanquish them all on their own.
Two fairies approached Tinker Bell's group. One had fair skin and long black hair tied into a ponytail with a purple hairband and wore a dark purple dress and pants, while the other had dark skin and black hair tied back into a bun and wore a yellow dress. "Well, of all the times you decided to visit home," the purple-clad fairy said snidely.
"Hi, Vidia, Iridessa," Tinker Bell greeted, repressing a sigh at Vidia's attitude. While the fast-flying fairy was much nicer than she had been when they had first met, she could still be haughty and abrasive.
"Who are these?" the light-talent fairy, Iridessa, asked. Kairi introduced herself and her friends.
"I haven't seen you around here before," Vidia remarked. She flew around the three of them, sizing them up. "Wait a minute… You're humans! And, well, you're a mouse, clearly. Tch. You spend almost all of your time out with Peter Pan, and when you do come back, you bring outsiders." Tinker Bell rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I'm surprised you brought them along. Although I guess you didn't want to leave these girls alone with Pan." She turned to address Kairi and Aqua. "I hope she wasn't too harsh with you. I hear she gets pretty jealous when Pan is with other girls."
"We offered to come help," Kairi clarified. "And Tink is our friend."
"We actually stepped past all that," Tinker Bell added.
"You think you can help with this? Okay, then. What's your talent?" Vidia asked.
Kairi saw a Nimble Bee appear behind Vidia. "Behind you!" she warned before summoning her Keyblade and bringing it right over Vidia's shoulder, pointing it at the Heartless. Vidia reflexively leaned out of the way as Kairi brought the weapon into position and cast Fire at the Heartless, destroying it.
"Wow," Iridessa said, amazed. Bobble and Clank were gaping in awe as well.
Vidia looked back at the disintegrating Heartless before staring down at the Keyblade and then looking up to meet Kairi's gaze. "Okay. Thanks. I'm sorry I doubted you."
"Well, now that we're all introduced, we should do something about these Heartless," Aqua said. Kairi, Mickey and Tinker Bell nodded in agreement.
"Can any of you fight?" Mickey asked. Rosetta, Iridessa, Bobble, and Clank shook their heads. "Okay. Then you should help everyone else evacuate."
The fairies nodded and set about their given task. Aqua and Mickey summoned their Keyblades, and they started fighting the Heartless alongside Kairi and the Scout Fairies. As they worked, Tinker Bell and her friends occasionally glanced up at the Keyblade wielders and were amazed at their skills in magic. Silvermist was intrigued by Aqua's use of Blizzard and Agua spells. Iridessa stared in wonder at the light spells that Kairi and Mickey cast. Vidia smiled in amusement at the Aero spell that Kairi used on a pack of Rapid Thrusters. The Keybearers joining the fray greatly turned the tide in the fairies' favor, with the Heartless' numbers dwindling much faster than before.
Clank caught a Scout Fairy that had been struck in the back and knocked out of the air by a Nimble Bee. Tinker Bell flew up above it and tugged on its wings while planting her feet on the top of its head, causing it to lose control and dive headfirst into a Yellow Opera that was about to strike Bobble with a bolt of lightning.
"Where are the other Scouts?" Fawn asked the warrior.
"Nyx delegated the rest of us to protecting the Pixie Dust Mill, the moonstones, and the scepters," the Scout Fairy explained. "Whatever else happens here, we cannot afford to lose them."
"Which means there are more Heartless causing trouble in critical places," Rosetta mused.
Suddenly, there was a sound like a wood chipper. Everyone looked around for the source of the noise until they noticed a rain of sawdust and looked up to see a section of the inner tree trunk breaking apart. A hole formed in the wood, and two stick-like pointed legs stuck out, scratching rapidly at the air before retracting to carve up more of the wood. When a large enough hole had been made, a moth, appearing much bigger than a fairy, crawled out and down the bark. The creature had a fat brown body with a darker rear end, a red head with vertically-narrow yellow eyes and bent orange antennae, and a pair of large brown wings with thin orange cartilage on the costal margin. The insect's forelegs were green, its middle legs were pink, and its hind legs were yellow. The moth buzzed threateningly at the gathering of fairies.
The Scout Fairy pointed up at the moth. "That's the monsters' leader," she said.
Kairi, Aqua and Mickey looked up and saw the moth. "There's the boss," Kairi called out. They flew up to attack, but it took to the air, its wings spread to display the Heartless emblem, and flapped, sending a powerful wind blast that knocked every fairy down. Bobble's droplet lenses popped, so he took a pipette out of his pocket and squirted two drops onto his spectacles to replace them.
"Okay. That complicates things," Aqua remarked.
A Scout Fairy rubbed the back of her head, having hit the bark when she was blasted. "None of us can even get close to the thing," she said.
"Well, if we can't get close to it, let's hit it with ranged spells," Mickey suggested. He and the other Keybearers flew above the other fairies and cast Fire and Blizzard spells up at the Heartless, but it proved to be incredibly fast, moving out of the way and dodging every spell. Aqua fired a Prism Rain Shotlock, but the moth still avoided the rainbow-colored light blasts.
"This is a problem," Kairi said.
"How did the Heartless even get into Pixie Hollow in the first place?" Tinker Bell whined.
–Three hours earlier–
"Aww, how are we supposed to get in there?" Pete complained as he pressed his hands against the net-like barrier of light that surrounded the Hollow and stared into the Spring Valley. He was able to stick some fingers between the lines, but he could not get a full hand in.
Doug the sheep studied the barrier intently. "We'd have to get something small to breach. Or we could try and see if the barrier has an upper limit. But I doubt we'll get any cooperation to get us to fly," he mused. "Heartless can manifest in different sizes to better hunt smaller targets, right?"
"Uh… I think so," Pete replied.
Doug nodded. "Well, we'll just send a bunch of Heartless to tear the place apart until they find what we want." He pulled a glass tube out of his briefcase, in which floated a blob of Heartless matter. He took out some vials, loaded them into syringes, and injected them into the tube, where they fused with the Heartless matter. "This'll give them the form we want." He shook the tube and turned the metal lid to open it. The Heartless matter flew out and floated in the air in front of him and Pete. Part of the matter solidified into the shape of a moth while the rest remained amorphous.
Pete laughed maliciously. "Well, what're ya waiting for? Go find that artifact for us!" he ordered. The moth turned around and flew through the barrier, passing between the lines of light magic harmlessly. The Heartless matter followed after, and then exploded into tiny flying Heartless.
–Now–
"Do you think we could snare it? Restrict its movements so it won't be able to escape us?" Mickey suggested.
"That's a great idea, Mickey. And I know just what to do. All garden-talent fairies! Over here!" Rosetta called out. The pink-clad fairies that were still in the Pixie Dust tree gathered around her, and she shared her plan with them. They all put one hand on the tree's surface and waved the other in the direction of the Pixie Moth Heartless. Branches grew out from the bark, stretching to sections of tree on opposite sides of the beast above and below it, then wrapped tightly around it to hold it in place.
"Nice work, Rosetta! Now's our chance!" Aqua said. But before she and the others could get close, the Pixie Moth scratched its legs against the branches rapidly, ripping them to splinters. Within seconds, it had broken out of its cage and escaped.
"It carved right through like it was nothing!" Rosetta gasped in disbelief. Some of the garden fairies gritted their teeth, enraged at the destruction of their handiwork.
"Anyone have any other ideas?" Mickey asked.
"I might have an idea to get past the wind blasts," Kairi said. "If that works, we can try to surround it, give it nowhere to go no matter how fast it is."
"That may work," Bobble replied. "But we might need an alternative to fall back on."
Tinker Bell slammed a fist into her palm as she had an idea. "We can make something. With all of the Lost Things in the workshop, there might be some materials that it won't be able to break through!"
"Great idea, Tink!" Clank commended.
Mickey flew over to them. "You think you could use an extra set of hands?" he asked.
Bobble laughed. "Certainly! The more, the merrier!"
"This way!" Clank said. He, Tinker Bell, and Bobble flew down in the direction of the tinker workshop, with Mickey following close behind. The mouse would occasionally slip to the front of the group to cut down any Heartless that got in their way.
When they were gone, Aqua and the remaining fairies turned to Kairi. "So, what's your plan, Kairi?" the bluenette asked.
"Well, when we were in the blizzard in Arendelle, Sora cast Aero to create a wind funnel around himself and Anna to reduce the force of the wind, and Mickey and I followed his example," Kairi explained. "It just might keep the Heartless' wind gusts from pushing us back."
Aqua put a hand to her chin in contemplation. "Aero as a defensive spell? Alright. Let's try it."
Kairi nodded. She raised her Keyblade up and shouted "Wind!" A whirlwind appeared around her much like it had when she cast the spell in Arendelle.
Aqua blinked in amazement. She had never considered that application of the spell. Well, here goes. "Wind!" she invoked, following Kairi's lead and willing for the same outcome. The spell was successful, and she had a whirlwind spinning around herself. Unlike the offensive use of the spell, where she could feel some of the wind blow around her even as she stood in the eye, she did not feel the strong breeze from the wind funnel, although she could see the dust, dirt, and pollen that spun around her.
"Now, up!" Kairi and Aqua flew up toward the Pixie Moth. The Heartless flapped its wings, knocking the fairies below off balance with its gusts, but the Keybearers were unaffected and continued their ascent. Kairi swung her Keyblade at it, but it maneuvered out of the way of her attacks. Aqua flew above and behind the Heartless, watched its movements, and struck where she predicted it would go to dodge Kairi's next attack. Her blow connected, and the Heartless screeched in pain. It then spun around in the blink of an eye and scratched her down the arm with one of its legs.
Kairi took the opportunity to blast it with a Fira spell. It backed itself up and knocked her into a wall, then flew up and landed on another wall. Aqua cast Blizzard at it, but it scurried out of the way, then leapt off and threw itself at her, swiping its front and middle legs ferociously. She cast Barrier to protect herself from the attack, then let it burst outward, stunning it for a moment. Kairi got a hit in, only for it to escape before she could hit it again.
Since when are Heartless this fast? Kairi wondered. I hope King Mickey and Tinker Bell can come up with something.
The tables in the Tinker workshop were the flat tops of mushrooms. Leaves with design schematics drawn on them were hung up on the walls or rolled up in a barrel. There were two bins near the entrance: one containing pieces of wood, nuts, and rocks; and another containing all manner of man-made items from screws and hex nuts to ropes and cables, as well as Gummi blocks.
"Where did you find all these?" Mickey asked, picking up a sleigh bell.
"Sometimes, things from other worlds wind up on the shores of Neverland," Tinker Bell explained. "We call them 'Lost Things'. Although, my sister calls them 'Found Things'."
"You have a sister?"
"I'll tell you another time."
"It was actually Tink's idea for us to use Lost Things to craft tools," Bobble said. "They've really made the designs more stable and efficient."
"A lot of these designs are Tink's, too," Clank added.
"Really?" Mickey said, impressed, as he examined a design for a ladybug painter. It surprised him to learn that ladybugs did not naturally have their patterns without garden fairy help.
"Well, I got a lot of ideas from human inventions in other worlds, when I visited them to deliver springtime and also with Peter," Tinker Bell clarified. "So, what should we build?" She unrolled a blueprint, then shook her head and rolled it back up.
"Well, the problem is that the Heartless is too fast to hit. What we need is to restrict its movements. Trap it or immobilize it so it can't get away. Maybe a cage or a net, but sturdy, so it won't be able to cut through like it did through wood," Mickey said.
"We could use this," Bobble suggested, holding up a coil of nylon cable.
"Or these." Clank held up a green Gummi block. "A lot of these things have shown up in the last several years. They're really tough." He demonstrated by rapping it against the wall, succeeding in only putting a dent in the wall.
"That's perfect! Gummi blocks are some of the most durable materials out there," Tinker Bell exclaimed. She grabbed a handful of blocks from the Lost Things bin and carried them over to her workstation. "Okay, we need to make it the right size."
"I think it's about this big." Clank laid down some leaves to cover the top-down area that the Pixie Moth covered. "We can make it a bit bigger, too."
"Okay, so we're going with a cage, then?" Mickey asked. Everyone nodded. "Alright. We'll need to make the spaces between the bars wide enough for spells to get through." He spaced blocks out around the leaves to mark the perimeter of the cage.
"Designing and assembling the cage should be simple enough. But how are we going to get the Heartless inside it?" Bobble wondered.
After a moment of contemplation, Tinker Bell started sketching on a blank leaf. When she was done, she showed it to her friends. It involved pulleys, gears, and rows of teeth on either side of the cage, which was broken into top and bottom sections.
"That just might work. But it might take some time to fabricate," Mickey remarked.
Bobble waved the matter off. "Oh, no. We have plenty of gears in here, and there are some rows leftover from old prototypes. The most time-consuming aspects ought to be building the cage and setting it all up."
"Well then," Mickey said, flexing his fingers, "let's get to work!"
Kairi and Aqua continued to fight the Pixie Moth for several minutes, only getting one or two hits in at a time. Aqua eventually got the idea to cast Stop and Slow spells, which immobilized the Heartless and reduced its movement for a few precious seconds, but the magic wore off and the Heartless went right back to its high-speed evasion. Scout Fairies had tried to join the fray, but the Pixie Moth kept knocking them back down with wind gusts from its wing flaps.
"It's too fast for them," Iridessa said, wondering how long the fight was going to go on.
Vidia smirked as she had an idea. "If it's speed they need, who better than the fastest fairy in Pixie Hollow?" She took a porcupine quill from one of the Scout Fairies with only a token request for permission. She then spun around very fast until she created a whirlwind around herself just like the Aero spells that Kairi and Aqua had cast. Holding the quill downward with a one-handed grip, she flew up to the Pixie Moth, flying right through the gusts that the Heartless sent her way. Just as it was realizing what she was doing and how fast she was closing in, she brought the quill up and jabbed it at its chin.
The Heartless gained its bearings and reacted quickly, flying out of the way just as the quill poked through its skin. Irritated, Vidia flew after it, chasing it around. She caught up to it multiple times and stabbed at it, but it flew away before she could get the quill very deep. It tried to smash her against the walls a few times, but she escaped just as quickly. Kairi and Aqua took the opportunity, while it was focused on escaping Vidia, to predict its movements and strike it with slashes and spells when it drew near, always making sure that their Aero shields stayed up so that it would not blast them away.
"Hmm…" Iridessa mused as she watched Kairi cast Pearl spells and Aqua unleashed another Prism Rain Shotlock. "I wonder if I can bend their light spells. If they're following the moth but it keeps outflying them, maybe I can tell them to surround it."
"It's worth a try," Silvermist said encouragingly.
When Aqua fired her next Prism Rain shot, Iridessa raised her hand up and focused on the balls of light that pursued Pixie Moth. She waved her hand and twisted her fingers as she took control of them and redirected their flight courses. Aqua tilted her head in confusion as the balls of light moved in an unfamiliar pattern. Iridessa directed them to head the Heartless off and spin around it, causing it to stop in confusion and find itself surrounded. This allowed Kairi and Vidia to strike from above and below, Kairi blasting it with a series of fireballs while bringing her Keyblade down to strike it, and Vidia stabbing it in the stomach with the quill. Iridessa clenched her fist, causing the balls of light to converge on the Heartless and explode on contact.
Iridessa laughed, hardly believing that it had worked. Fawn and Rosetta cheered and Silvermist laughed and clapped her hands. The Scout Fairies smiled, impressed at Iridessa's trick. Aqua looked down at the fairies and pieced together what had happened. She smiled and gave the light-talent fairy a thumbs-up. Iridessa swelled with pride. "Alright. Give me another one to work with," she said, mostly to herself.
However, Aqua did not use another Shotlock that would allow her to repeat the trick. She would have liked to, but if she uses Shotlocks too much, she will become disoriented and lose her balance, so she had put a limit on how much energy she puts into charging them up and targeting enemies. Meanwhile, it did not occur to Kairi to set up the same trick, and the fight was too fast-paced for Aqua to suggest it to Kairi, (and even if she did think of it, she did not know the qualifying spell to use in the Shotlock) leaving Iridessa as a sitting duck and ensuring that the best trick they had was not reused.
Some time later, Mickey, Tinker Bell, Bobble, and Clank pushed a cart carrying parts of the cage into the chamber. Upon seeing them, all of the fairies turned their attention away from the fight and gathered around them. "Help us set this up," Tinker Bell requested. She unrolled the leaf with the schematics and pinned it to the wall with pine needles.
Following the design's instructions, the fairies worked to assemble the trap. The bottom part of the cage, resembling a bowl with bars sticking up around the rim, was placed in the center of the chamber. Two wooden beams were attached to the sides, extending near opposite walls. Dowels were stuck into the beams and gears were placed around them. With Mickey casting Aero on all of the fairies, Bobble and Clank carried the top part of the trap, assembled to mirror the bottom part, up to the top of the chamber, taking care to avoid the fast-flying fight. Fawn, Silvermist, and two more Scout Fairies set up the vertical rows of teeth so that the gears were locked into them. Rosetta caused small roots to pop up and wrap around the rows to secure them in place. Finally, Tinker Bell took two long lengths of nylon cable, wrapped them around the top and bottom dowels on either side of the trap, and tied one end to a bolt in the middle of the rows of teeth.
Finally, the trap was all set up, with Mickey and a Scout Fairy holding rings tied to the free ends of the cables and ready to pull. But the fight was still raging, and Kairi, Aqua, Vidia, and the Pixie Moth were moving all over the place.
"Okay… Now how do we make sure the monster actually gets into the cage?" Rosetta asked.
"We could corral it," Fawn suggested. "Block it on all sides and force it into the center."
"I could work with that, if only someone would use that light spell," Iridessa said.
"I have another idea," Silvermist said. "Heartless can't get their wings wet, or they won't be able to fly, just like us. Everyone, get clear!" Once the other fairies were out of range, Silvermist rubbed her hands together to create bubbles, then threw them into position around the lower part of the cage. She pointed at some of them, and thin geysers of water shot up from them, reaching almost all the way to the ceiling. The Heartless stopped dead in its tracks, its path cut off by the water that would disable its flight if it passed through it. It turned and tried to go to the right, but Silvermist sent up more geysers to block its path. She then willed the last of the bubbles to shoot water up, surrounding the Heartless completely.
Kairi and Aqua stopped, and Aqua caught Vidia by the arm before she could fly into the jets of water and soak her wings. They looked around and figured out what the others were planning.
"Now!" Tinker Bell called out. Mickey and the Scout Fairy pulled on the cables. The pulley systems pulled the top dowels down and the bottom dowels up, turning the gears through the rows of teeth. The top part of the trap came down while the bottom part rose up. The top part of the cage slammed into the Pixie Moth from above. The Heartless fell out of the air and landed in the bottom part of the cage, which continued to rise until it met its counterpart. With the cage linked and closed together, the mechanism stopped moving. The Heartless let out a furious screech as it buzzed around and tried to smash or rip its way out, to no avail.
"That was amazing!" Kairi commended. She flew down in front of the Pixie Moth and giggled at its futile attempts to escape.
"Now that it's in one place, let's finish it off," Aqua said. She and Mickey joined Kairi, and they, along with the Scout Fairies, surrounded the trapped Heartless. One of the Scouts took her porcupine quill back from Vidia. Aqua cast spells between the bars, while Kairi and Mickey stabbed at it with their Keyblades and the Scout Fairies jabbed at it with their quills. With the Pixie Moth unable to fight back, it was quickly vanquished, its form dissipating and fading away with one final buzzing screech.
Everyone cheered. Tinker Bell and her friends gave each other hugs, then Tinker Bell hugged Kairi and Aqua, while Bobble and Clank hugged each other and then gave the others pats on the shoulders and backs. The Scout Fairies gave everyone similar commending pats.
"That was amazing!" "We did it! We saved the Pixie Dust Tree!" "That was clever, redirecting the Shotlock bursts, Iridessa." "Did you guys just make that? That's so cool!"
Once they had calmed down and their gushing over each other's actions fizzled out, they all looked up to see six older fairies fly in through a hole that the Pixie Moth had bored into the wall up above. The four in the back all wore different clothes, which seemed to be designed to symbolize a different season. Just ahead of them was a plump female who wore a simple green leaf dress and pants, much like what the tinker fairies wore. In the lead was a tall (for a fairy), beautiful female with light brown hair tied into a bun, who wore a flowing gold dress and a tiara made of golden flower petals. The lead fairy was visibly distinct from all other fairies by the gold aura she seemed to emit. While their clothes seemed somewhat disheveled, none of the fairies seemed to be any worse for wear. On their arrival, all of the younger fairies promptly bowed. Kairi, Aqua, and Mickey followed suit, figuring even before then that the elder fairies were important.
"So, you defeated the lead monster? Well done," the lead fairy surmised, speaking in an even, dignified tone as she bade the group to rise. She examined the cage that had snared the Heartless. "That's very impressive."
"I'm so proud," the plump fairy said, smiling at Tinker Bell, Bobble, and Clank.
The lead fairy regarded Kairi, Aqua and Mickey. "Ah. I see we have guests. My name is Clarion, queen of the Never Fairies. This is Fairy Mary, the overseer of the Tinker Fairies. And these are the Ministers of the Seasons: Hyacinth, Sunflower, Redleaf, and Snowflake." The other elder fairies bowed or curtsied when they were introduced.
"Queen Clarion, are there any more of those monsters left in the tree?" one of the Scout Fairies asked.
"Worry not. Many of the creatures vanished when they sensed that their leader had been destroyed," Queen Clarion assured her. "The other Scouts left to pick off any stragglers. They should be finished shortly." The Scout Fairies let out a collective sigh of relief and visibly relaxed at that announcement. "Now, who might our new friends be?" Mickey, Aqua and Kairi introduced themselves. Fawn explained that they had come along when she had called Tinker Bell back. "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you. Hmm. I sense a powerful magic in the three of you, and a great light within Kairi in particular."
"You know, I felt the same thing," Iridessa commented.
"We are all Keyblade wielders," Mickey explained, "and Kairi is a Princess of Heart."
The ministers as well as Fairy Mary gasped, although Queen Clarion simply nodded. "I see. It seems that made you well-equipped to eliminate the dark creatures."
"Then would you have any idea what those blasted things were doing in Pixie Hollow?" Hyacinth asked. "Never have I seen the likes of them here before."
"It is true," Redleaf agreed. "While they have been sighted around the islands, they have never come into our domain before. Would you have any idea why?"
Aqua put a hand to her chin as she considered a likely possibility. "Perhaps they were sent by those that command them in order to take something here that they want."
"What do you mean by that?" Rosetta asked, concerned that someone wicked might want something that belongs to the fairies.
"But generally, their masters would have come to take it themselves, and the Heartless, those creatures we all fought, would have just been backup," Mickey said, reaching the same conclusion as Aqua. "One of the Lost Boys said that human-sized people can't enter Pixie Hollow, so that must be why they sent the Heartless on their own. But they would have to still be nearby."
"We didn't see any Heartless in the Summer Glade or Autumn Forest, just in the Spring Valley and the Pixie Dust Tree," Tinker Bell mused. "Were there any in the Winter Woods, from what you could tell?" Snowflake shook her head. "So, there were just a few stragglers in the Valley, while the rest converged on the tree."
"They must have cut through the Spring Valley to get to the Pixie Dust Tree," Kairi said. "Which means the ones who sent them must be just beyond."
"Come on!" Mickey called. He, Kairi and Aqua promptly flew out of the tree and made a beeline for the outer edge of the Spring Valley. Their flight was unimpeded, save for a hawk that attempted to catch Mickey only to be driven off by an offhand Thunder spell.
Beyond the barrier, Pete stared at the Pixie Dust Tree through a pair of binoculars. "Hey, Doug, I don't think I see any of that Heartless aura popping up," he remarked.
"Let me see." Doug took the binoculars from Pete and looked into them. "Yeah, I think you're right. And it doesn't look like any more holes are being cut into it. Hang on. It looks like three fairies are coming this way. Though I don't see their wings…"
"What? Give me that!" Pete took the binoculars back and stared into them, then gasped. "Those aren't fairies! That's that chump Mickey and the Keyblade girls!"
As soon as they saw Pete and his sheep companion, Kairi, Aqua and Mickey summoned their Keyblades and prepared to strike. Pete recoiled and braced himself. Doug, however, pulled two gas masks out of his bag, threw one at Pete's face while donning the other one, and pulled out a gas canister marked with a biohazard label. He pointed it at the incoming Keyblade wielders and opened the valve, spraying a thick blue gas at them.
Kairi, Aqua and Mickey coughed as they unintentionally inhaled the gas. By the time Doug sealed the canister back up and they flew out of the cloud, it started to affect them. Their senses went wild: first they lost all sensations of touch and smell, then those senses flared back up into overdrive; different sounds seemed louder than they should while others were softer; and their vision swam and shifted, everything melting together and mixing up, leaving them unable to make out what was right in front of them. They were left disoriented, incapable of perceiving what was going on. Kairi flew around in lazy circles; Mickey swung his Keyblade blindly and hit nothing; Aqua merely floated in place while clutching her stomach, feeling as though she was about to throw up.
Pete laughed as he admired Doug's handiwork. "Not bad, pal. Boathand's looking a little seasick, huh?" he remarked.
"Alright. Should we squash them while we've got them? GAH!" Doug shouted in pain as a Scout Fairy, who had followed several seconds behind the Keybearers along with her companions as well as Tinker Bell and her friends, threw her porcupine quill at him, jabbing it into his neck. Fawn and two Scout Fairies restrained Mickey and calmed him down while the others led Kairi and Aqua back behind the barrier.
The sheep glared at the fairy who had attacked him. "Oh, that's it! I don't be—" He was interrupted as Pete pushed down on his head and pressed his mask tight up against his face.
"Whoa, easy. No need for all that," Pete said. He pointed behind them and opened a Corridor of Darkness. "Why don't we just skedaddle?"
Doug grunted. "Fine by me." He picked up his bag and left through the Corridor along with Pete, at which point the portal closed.
"There you go. Just drink this."
Kairi tasted something tangy, and a few seconds later, her senses started to settle back into their normal states. She saw that she was back in the Pixie Dust Tree, and Rosetta was helping her drink from a bowl of sparkling gold liquid. She swallowed the last of the liquid and took a deep breath, glad to be grounded back in reality. She looked around and saw that fairies dressed in brown were helping Aqua and Mickey drink the same concoction. Several fairies stood or floated around them, observing their recovery.
"Ugh… What happened?" Kairi asked.
"The creeps who sent the Heartless hit you with something that confused your perceptions," Rosetta explained. "We made some medicine with panacea herb and pixie dust that neutralized it, however."
"Thanks again, Terence," Kairi heard Tinker Bell say.
"Well, thank you for patching us up," Aqua said.
"What happened to Pete? And that sheep?" Mickey asked.
"Gone. They disappeared through one of those dark portals," Tinker Bell answered.
"And good riddance," Vidia added with a scowl.
"For now, anyway," a Scout Fairy remarked grimly. "Do you think they might come back?"
"Unless we stop them, they will almost certainly try again eventually until they get what they want," Aqua said.
Queen Clarion nodded, understanding what she meant. "Mickey, Aqua, Kairi. Please, follow me." She turned to Fairy Mary and the ministers. "Would you mind leaving me to speak with our guests?" The elder fairies nodded, although they seemed surprised.
The queen led Kairi, Mickey and Aqua through the tree, taking shortcuts through holes that the Pixie Moth had bored into the wood. They soon reached a wide, circular room with several scepters mounted on the wall.
"I believe I know what it is that the invaders were searching for," Queen Clarion said, turning to face the Keybearers. "May I assume that is what brought you to Neverland?"
"Well, not exactly, your Excellency," Aqua replied. "True, we originally set out to prevent our enemies from acquiring all of the artifacts. But we actually came to Neverland because we are following the Duat. You see, my friend's heart has been lost, and we're hoping that we might be able to find it and wake him up by finding a way to access the Power of Waking."
Queen Clarion nodded. "I see. And your search led you to the Dream Pool of innocence. Hmm… I believe I can help you in both matters." She approached the wall and located a particular scepter, which had a floral design and a dull blue stone on the tip, then took it and brought it over to the group. "Your enemies seem to be willing to go to a lot of trouble to get their hands on these artifacts. I do hope that you can keep them safe."
"Thank you. We'll do everything we can," Mickey promised as the fairy queen handed the scepter to him. He promptly slid it into his pocket.
The queen nodded. "Yes. Now, as for accessing the Power of Waking, I don't believe I have the means to directly help you attain it, but we can perform a ritual that will connect you with the heart of Neverland's magic."
"That would be great. Thank you," Aqua said.
"Say, would you mind if we bring some of our friends here before we do that?" Kairi asked. "I don't think it would be right to leave Sora and Riku out of this."
"Of course," the queen replied.
"Well then, I suppose we should be on our way," Aqua said, bowing to the queen. Mickey and Kairi followed her example.
"Take care."
With that, the Keybearers left, saying good-bye to the other fairies on their way out. Tinker Bell joined them on their flight out of Pixie Hollow. Mickey cast the counterspell to restore them to full size once they had passed through the barrier, and they set off to rejoin their friends.