The seat felt just that much more plush than the one she'd been sitting on during all her previous trips to and from the various planets that she and hers tended to go between in the smaller ship that they had used for every trip they'd made before, but that had probably been because that ship had been older.
Once they'd passed beyond the atmosphere of Traverse Town's home planet – whatever its name might had been, if it'd even had a separate name at all – Sarah smiled with a certain sense of satisfaction as she took hold of the triggers of Fere Invictus' formidable armaments. The swivel-guns that she and Cid had collaborated on more than proved their worth during their trip to whatever new planet she and hers were going to end up finding themselves on.
Soon enough, that new planet started coming into view through the cockpit windows. However, there was one tiny little problem…
"So, how are we going to be getting around on Waterworld?" she asked, looking down at the tiny, blue marble they were currently orbiting.
It looked more like Earth than anywhere else she'd seen before, but there were both fewer continents, and said continents seemed to be smaller, as well.
"I'll use my magic to transform us into forms that can survive in the water!" Donald exclaimed, cheerfully brandishing his staff.
"Well, I guess that works," she said, sitting back down in her seat and letting go of the triggers for Fere Invictus' forward guns and swivel-guns. "I think we should probably have some food first, though," she continued, pulling out her supply-pack so that she could open it up, taking out one of her turkey sandwiches.
She would hardly be able to carry her supply-pack underwater, after all, so it was best to have what she could while it was so close at hand.
"That's a good idea, Sora!" Goofy enthused, making his own way over so he could grab some food for himself.
"I guess," Donald allowed, though he didn't seem to be markedly less enthusiastic about a meal than Goofy.
The three of them ate in relative silence, though Donald seemed to be focused on something besides the meal in front of them. Perhaps it was the spell he was going to cast, since it stood to reason that such a thing would require substantially more in the way of concentration than the battle-magic they all used on a regular basis. Once the three of them had all finished their respective meals, Donald directed her and Goofy to close their eyes.
The feeling of Donald's magic rushing over them resembled – fittingly enough in this case, she supposed – being hit by a rather small wavelet. Opening "her" eyes, Sarah looked down at "her" body. It seemed that Sora's legs, feet, and seemingly hips, had been replaced with what looked like the lower half of a blue dolphin. Interesting, she mused.
Looking up at her traveling companions, Sarah found that Goofy had been transformed into a sea-turtle-dog kind of thing. As for Donald-
"Really, a duck-topus?" she drawled, raising an eyebrow and feeling "her" lips curl into a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah," Donald groused, looking down at himself with an expression of rather pronounced annoyance.
The sounds of people talking – what sounded like a young woman and an older man – began drawing closer, and Sarah had a moment to be grateful that Kuromaru had agreed to remain behind. With no real way to hide him, considering that she'd been forced to leave her supply-pack behind, it was simply better for everyone if Kuromaru remained behind with it.
"Relax, Sebastian. None of them look like any of those monsters," the red-headed mermaid said, as she and her own companions swam up to Sarah and her companions.
"Hi," she said, giving the mermaid and her traveling companions – a small red crab and a pudgy, yellow fish with two-toned blue fins – a wave as their two groups came within arms-reach of each other.
"Hello," the mermaid said, looking a bit surprised. "Where are all of you from?"
"We're explorers," she said. "You probably wouldn't have heard of where we're from originally. It's a long way from here."
"You're explorers?" the mermaid enthused, seeming as though she could barely hold back the veritable stream of questions all but lighting up her eyes. "Wow! That's so wonderful!" she exclaimed, kicking her tail and circling the three of them with the natural sort of ease that all swimmers eventually developed.
Before anyone could say anything else, the water in front of them trembled, bubbling ominously, before a rather large group of clearly aquatic Heartless appeared before them.
"Perfect," she muttered, recalling the Keyblade with a distinct feeling of annoyance.
Forced to rely more on her Thunder-Whip for clearing out large groups of the jellyfish-looking Heartless that had an annoying habit of splitting into three smaller, identical Heartless when they were struck by any kind of magical attack – at least those that didn't manage to obliterate them outright – Sarah also found herself using precision-aimed bolts to headshot the taller, diver-looking ones.
"Come on!" the little red crab shouted, frantically tugging at "her" right arm. "We have to get out of here! Those monsters could be back any second!"
"Come on, this way!" the mermaid exclaimed, tugging Sarah along by "her" right arm.
The lower half of "her" current body didn't seem to have joints, per se, so much as it seemed to possess the pure flexibility of a cat's tail. It was an interesting experience using the thing, insofar as not being limited to two or three distinct joints – depending on how one was counting – did seem to make swimming just that much easier. She'd no real way of knowing if that kind of thing made her any faster.
Not under present circumstances, at least.
When the six of them came to what looked like an underwater cave with a boulder blocking the entrance, Sarah found herself more than a little curious about just what lay beyond. She found out soon enough, once the mermaid had pushed the boulder – which was either lighter than it looked, under some kind of enchantment, or the mermaid herself was stronger than she looked – aside to reveal what looked very much like any number of storage rooms that might've been found back home. The dual facts of it being both circular and underwater lent it some aura of otherworldliness, of course.
"You're that much of a salvage fan, eh?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow as she took in the scene around her.
"Salvage?" the mermaid asked, turning around to face Sarah's way again, after having devoted her attention to one of her shelves of salvaged odds and ends.
"Yeah. Unless I'm way off the mark, you pulled this stuff out of a bunch of sunken ships, right?" she asked, corkscrewing a bit so that she could face the mermaid more squarely.
"Yes, I do like going into sunken ships," the mermaid said, now looking more interested than confused.
"That's generally called a salvage operation," Sarah said, smiling slightly as she continued. "Mostly it's humans doing that, of course, with ropes and nets and cranes and things," she mused aloud, tilting "her" head slightly.
"You've seen that?"
Sarah jumped, slightly, as she suddenly found the mermaid right in "her" face, fingers digging into "her" lower-arms.
"A few times," she said, not especially eager to get into the technicalities in the face of the sheer enthusiasm she was currently being barraged by. "Now, could you let go, please? You're hurting my arms."
"Oh," the mermaid said, looking down and letting go almost at once. "Sorry."
"It's all right," she said, rubbing "her" arms where the mermaid's thumbs had dug in just a bit too deep for comfort. "Just, try not to get too excited, okay?"
The mermaid laughed, sounding cheerful and a bit abashed at once. "All right."
"Ariel," the Jamaican-sounding crab called, sounding honestly worried, rather than fussy the way he'd seemed to be when they'd first met up. "We should return to the palace! King Triton isn't going to be happy when he finds out you left!"
"All right, Sebastian," Ariel said, not sounding particularly happy about the prospect.
"Not exactly a homebody, are you?" she asked, chuckling softly.
"No," Ariel said, laughing as the six of them all set off; she and hers fell in behind Ariel and Sebastian, naturally, since they were the ones who actually knew where they were headed. "It's a lot more fun going into sunken ships and doing- what did you say the humans called them, again?"
"Salvage operations," she said, as the six of them swam up and over a low rise.
Raising an eyebrow as she caught sight of what seemed to be their next destination – a place that she would forever call Big Shell Valley, for reasons that would have been patently obvious to anyone who'd actually seen the place – Sarah looked back over "her" right shoulder as the six of them passed by.
"Quite the collection," she muttered.
"What?" Ariel called, back, drawing Sarah's attention back to the fact that she wasn't precisely alone.
"That's quite the collection of giant shells," she said, speaking at a more conversational volume.
Ariel laughed. "That's Daddy's coral garden. He's very proud of it."
"He's got good reason to be," she said, as they passed through the last, well-tended part of Big Shell Valley, and moved onto a swept-clean road that she could see vanishing off into the distance.
They ended up in a few fights with free roaming Heartless, of course – no trip to a new planet seemed complete without random encounters, and the ones here did actually have a claim to being random, rather than appearing at pre-determined points; according to the will of some programmer or other – but nothing she and hers couldn't manage, given what they'd already been through. When they arrived at what seemed to be their final destination – a multi-tiered building that incorporated a great deal of tall, Greek-style pillars within its construction – the first thing Sarah took active notice of was another group of aquatic-themed Heartless, directly in front of them. She had only enough time to recall the Keyblade and prepare herself for a fight, before the whole group was engulfed by what looked like the same kind of lightning that Sarah herself preferred in combat, and exploded into a shower of bubbles.
"Thank you," she sighed, grateful to have at least some kind of a reprieve after being forced to fight her way through wave after wave of successive ambushes.
"As long as I possess my trident, I will not allow those creatures to set so much as a fin inside the walls of this palace!"
"Daddy!"
"Oh, Ariel," the large, shirtless, white-bearded merman said, catching her in his arms as she swam up to his throne. "What have I told you? It's dangerous out there! All of these creatures, each of them appearing out of nowhere, doing nothing but attacking everyone they see… This has to be Ursula's work! That Sea Witch has finally gone too far!"
"Daddy, I met some people today who managed to defeat those awful creatures," Ariel said, smiling up at the merman while also clearly attempting to draw his attention to where she, Donald, and Goofy were gathered, watching the byplay with varying degrees of interest.
"They don't look familiar," the merman said, not sounding particularly impressed.
"We're explorers," Sarah said, since she seemed to be the unelected spokeswoman for anyone and everyone they happened to meet. "We don't really make it a habit to stay in one place for too long. We're also looking for someone," she continued, knowing that it couldn't hurt to have some extra eyes on their side. "Has anyone by the name of Mickey passed through here, that you know of?"
"I have never met anyone by the name of Mickey," the merman said, seeming to be taking far more of an interest in them than he had previously; time would tell if that was a good or bad thing.
The merman's body-language was controlled enough that she quite tell if he was lying or not. Either way, he was clearly tense; not surprising, considering his present circumstances, but still something to take note of. Something to remember, while she and hers were dealing with him.
Worth a shot, she mused, sighing softly; it was annoying, having to keep searching on and on, without anything even resembling a concrete lead to point them in the right direction. But, since there wasn't much she could actually do about the situation, Sarah elected to keep her grousing to a minimum.
"Now, young man-"
Whatever else the merman was about to say, however, was preempted by a loud gurgle from "her" stomach.
Sarah chuckled, rolling "her" eyes. "That's timing for ya."
"Yes," the merman said, rubbing at his mouth in that way that Sarah couldn't help but think was his way of trying to hide a smile. "Perhaps we should postpone any further discussion until after our evening meal."
"That'd be lovely," she said, smiling in profound relief. "Thanks."
Dinner was a rather interesting affair, particularly considering the fact that she and her traveling companions ended up having said meal with Triton, Ruler of the Seas. At least, that was Sebastian's rather overenthusiastic take on the situation. Still, it did neatly explain the crown, and the fancy armlets that he was still wearing, even at the table where the six of them – as well as several other mermaids that he, Sebastian, and Ariel all seemed more than passingly familiar with – were having dinner together. Once their meal was finished, they did indeed discus what it was that had brought them to this place to begin with. And, Goofy proved once again that – good as he was to have at your back in a fight – he was not a man to tell any secrets one wanted kept that way.
"Young man, we have no such thing here!" the merman blustered, in response to Goofy's little slip of the tongue regarding the Keyhole. "Now, while I am grateful to you for protecting my daughter, I must ask that you and your traveling companions leave this palace at once!"
"All right," she said, biting back a sigh in the wake of the high-strung monarch's outburst; there was no more doubt in her mind that Triton was either lying outright, or just in denial.
Not many people, after all, got so defensive without something to hide.
When the three of them departed from the castle, Sarah took brief note of the fact that Ariel was clearly planning to follow them to their ultimate destination, whatever that ended up being in this particular case. Still, it wasn't like she'd made any personal promises with regard to the mermaid's safety when she and hers had left the Triton and his palace behind. Sure, she'd warn Ariel about just what it was that she might be getting into, but that was only common courtesy.
Whether Ariel chose to listen or not was entirely up to her, of course.
Calling a halt to their procession, just as they were about to pass through Big Shell Valley again, Sarah corkscrewed in the water, turning to face Ariel for the first time since she and hers had left Triton's palace behind.
"Hi, Ariel," she said, smiling amusedly as the mermaid forced herself to a sudden stop.
"How did you know it was me?"
"I'm a good guesser, and you seem like the type," she said, smiling a bit wider in response to Ariel's obvious confusion, aiming to put her at ease. "You do know that your dad's going to be really annoyed when he finds out you're gone, though, right?"
"I know," Ariel said, a despondent edge creeping into her tone. "You'll still let me come with you, won't you?"
"I'm not your dad, darlin'," she said, with an easygoing shrug.
The four of them continued on their way, with Ariel's easy chatter filling in what had once been a rather comfortable silence. As the four of them continued on their way, however, Sarah began to notice that there seemed to be another pair of presences following determinedly behind them. Waiting for a few, long moments – wanting to be completely sure that there were no other groups of aquatic Heartless waiting in the wings to ambush them – Sarah called another halt.
"All right you two, you can come out now," she called, turning to face the last direction she'd seen the pair of long, sinuous shapes departing in, during the most recent time she'd caught sight of them.
The pair quickly revealed themselves to be Moray eels, both grinning in a way that Sarah could only describe as sly.
"You seek the Keyhole," they rasped, voices overlapping to the point that it sounded like only one of them was speaking, in spite of the fact that both of their mouths were clearly moving.
"Yeah, something like that," she said, having the distinct feeling she knew what they were getting at, but wanting to give them the chance to state such a thing for themselves.
"Ursula can help," the pair of them said, twisting and twining around each other briefly, before the pair of them erupted into what seemed to be a thick cloud of ink.
"You figure to be Ursula," she said, once the cloud had dispersed enough that she was able to make out more than a vague outline.
"Indeed I am, sweetie," the newcomer said.
Her voice was rather deep for a woman, and she had the same stocky, heavyset body-type as the Queen of Hearts. However, the resemblance – superficial as it already had been – most certainly ended below the waistline. Ursula's skin – at least where it wasn't a solid, shiny black – had a decidedly bluish-purple cast to it; one obvious enough that it really couldn't be mistaken for any other color. She had short, stark while hair that floated as freely in the water as any of the others that Sarah had seen before, and in contrast to Ariel and Triton, she had the lower half of a large octopus.
Something that she and Donald had in common, interestingly enough.
For all the purely physical similarities that Ursula currently shared with one of Sarah's current traveling companions, however, it was more than clear that she was her own woman. Merwoman, in this particular case.
"So, I heard that you and your little friends are searching for the Keyhole," Ursula said, her manner a bit too overbearing to be anything but trouble.
"Are you saying you could help?" she asked, testing the waters just a bit; it would be best to know just what Ursula's angle was, before she could find a way to deal with it.
"Why, dear child, helping merfolk in need is what I live for," Ursula gushed; really, if she'd been laying on the melodrama any thicker, they could have spread it on toast.
"What're you looking to get in return?" she asked, lacing "her" fingers together at waist height in lieu of folding "her" arms.
People always seemed to read more into that particular gesture than what she meant.
"Why, just the satisfaction of knowing that I could be of help to some poor, lost merfolk in need."
Bullshit, Sarah didn't say; both since it would have been incredibly rude, and because she didn't quite know how that particular idiom would translate in this case. Still, there was a way that she could make certain that the pair of them each understood where the other was coming from. "I draw the line at large-scale destruction, mass murder, and the conquest of a nation by force of arms," she said, calmly waiting to see how Ursula would react.
The so-called Sea Witch burst out laughing, even as the rest of Sarah's traveling companions all turned to look askance at the boy that all still thought she was.
"Well, I do love a man who knows what he wants," the larger, half-octopus mermaid said, an amused, self-satisfied grin spreading across her face. "Still, what makes you think I want any of that, dearie?"
"Just making sure we both know where we stand," she said, shrugging easily, as though she couldn't have cared less for the ultimate destination of their discussion. "Mind telling us what it is you do want?"
"Why, I'm just here to help all of you out with that quest you seem to be on," Ursula said, swimming closer; the lower half of her body undulated in just the same way that Sarah had seen in every nature documentary she'd watched. "Still, if you want to do me a little favor or two, well I certainly wouldn't object."
I'll bet, she didn't say, knowing that there was little point in antagonizing the older mermaid prematurely; it wasn't as though the two of them were going to be on good terms for much longer, after all. "What kind of favors are we talking about?"
"Well, are you familiar with that trident that Triton always seems to have close at hand?"
"I know of it," Sarah said, beginning to suspect that she knew where this conversation was ultimately going to go, but wanting to have confirmation, all the same.
There was still a possibility, however remote, that she could have been reading the situation wrong.
"I'd like you to fetch it for me," Ursula said, the grin on her face – the one that'd never quite left – stretching right back across her face once more.
"Oh," Sarah said, feeling more than a little vindicated that she'd managed to read the situation right, but for the most part annoyed by just what she and hers were going to have to deal with sooner than later. "Well, in that case, no," she said, calmly preparing herself for the battle that was soon to come.
"What do you mean?" Ursula demanded, her false friendliness falling away like the mask it so clearly had been.
"I mean 'no'," she said, shrugging. "I don't deal in stolen goods. Unless you were planning to pay him for it," she adopted a thoughtful expression, though it was slightly exaggerated for effect. "I don't think he'd be willing to sell, though."
"Certainly not, young man," the stern voice of the merman in question rang out, as Triton himself swam up beside their small group.
"Triton!" Ursula snarled, then turned her furious gaze on Sarah herself. "You planned this, didn't you?!"
"Yes," she deadpanned. "Everything proceeds according to my design," she continued, trying for a bit of a Palpatine impression, though the results were rather less than impressive, considering the way Sora's sounded in the first place.
Not that anyone else here was truly equipped to get said reference, but whatever.
"Young man, I want you to escort my daughter back home at once!" the merman commanded; it was a reasonable enough request, so Sarah didn't hesitate.
"Right," she said with a short, sharp nod. "You want me to come back and help once I'm done with that?" Sarah called back, even as she made her way to where Ariel had remained, floating in place alongside Donald and Goofy.
The confused expression on the mermaid's face was quickly replaced with one of understanding, though she didn't look particularly happy. Under the circumstances, Sarah could hardly blame her. Still, while it was always nice to have someone's cooperation when you were trying to haul their butt out of trouble, it wasn't always a strict necessity.
"That's kind of you and your companions to offer, but I can settle accounts with Ursula on my own," Triton said, raising the very trident that Ursula had expressed such an interest in; it made the fact that there was more to said trident than just being a fancy symbol of office pretty damn clear. Just what that might be, aside from making things explode, however, wasn't quite so clear. "You and your companions just get my daughter to safety!"
"We're on it!" Donald exclaimed, before anyone else could say anything.
Goofy wasn't far behind. "Ya can count on us!"
"Come on," she said, reaching out to lightly grasp Ariel's right arm. "The last place any of us wants to be is close enough to catch a stray blast."
It took a bit of doing, but eventually she, Donald, Goofy, and even Sebastian were able to convince the young mermaid to come back to the palace with them, instead of of senselessly risking her life hanging around to watch her father and Ursula fight. When the five of them finally reached the palace, a bit weary but none the worse for wear, Sarah found herself wondering just why none of the Heartless they'd been encountering – even if only sporadically – had tried to attack them when they were on the move.
Yes, it was probably because Ursula was calling every one of them she could reach to her side so she could throw them against Triton, but that was only speculation on her part. She would have liked to know for certain, if only for the sake of her own curiosity, but since it was pretty clear that she'd only be able to find out that kind of thing from Triton himself, Sarah decided that she could wait.
Ariel, on the other hand…
"Why don't you show us around?" she suggested, as Ariel swam past her for the third time in as many seconds, moving back and forth in what seemed to be the closest one could get to pacing without actual feet.
"What?"
"Keeping busy is generally a good way to keep your mind off what's bothering you," she said, knowing that it was at least true for some people; reading and listening to music were really best for settling her mind.
"I don't know," Ariel said, turning to look at her for the first time since the five of them had made it back to the palace.
"Come on," she said, keeping her tone gently encouraging. "You could show me your room; I bet you have some really neat things there," she grinned, as Ariel laughed softly.
"Thank you for trying to make me feel better, Sora," the mermaid said, the gentle smile on her face growing slightly. "It helps, having someone who cares," she continued, wrapping her arms around Sora's shoulders and squeezing gently.
"Is there anything you would like to do while we wait?" she asked, pausing for a moment as a thought struck her. "Preferably something that won't have your father wanting to wring my neck?"
Ariel couldn't quite seem to hold back her laughter, but since that had been the whole idea – well, most of it, anyway – Sarah could only find herself pleased with the outcome.
~KH1~
"Your precision is improving," the voice of the man he'd been hearing more and more often as he'd practiced using the Darkness that he'd first been introduced to by Maleficent, and then been helped to refine his budding talents – at least to hear the man he'd begun hearing after his second journey through a Corridor of Darkness tell it – said, sounding about as happy as he ever did.
"Thanks," he said, knowing that the man would hear him, no matter how far apart they seemed to be.
That was what he'd heard, anyway; Riku hadn't had any reason to doubt him so far.
Looking around the open space where he'd tracked the Shadow that the kid still pretending to be Sora spent so much time hanging around with, Riku smirked slightly as he realized that he was standing inside the ship that kid had been working on, the last time the pair of them had seen each other.
The Shadow was sitting in one of the chairs near the front of the cockpit, holding the bag of assorted sandwiches and stuff that the kid pretending to be Sora had always seemed to be carrying with him. The Shadow had the bag in its lap, with the backpack tucked under the chair it was sitting in.
Smirking wider, Riku made his way over to hop into the seat next to the chair where the Shadow – who didn't act anything like any of the other Heartless that he and the kid who kept pretending to be Sora had ended up having to fight – was sitting, smirking slightly as the Shadow turned to look at him.
"Hey," he called to the Shadow, then found one of that kid's fancy sandwiches pressed into his hands. "Thanks," he said, feeling his smirk widening into a smile. "So, they left you to look after the new ship?"
The Shadow nodded, curling its right, three-taloned claw into a fist, then extending the claw on top; Riku wondered what that could have meant, before deciding that it was probably something that the kid pretending to be Sora had shown him. That kid was the only one weird enough to do something like that. But really, just being around a Heartless who didn't want attack him was weird enough for Riku.
Looking back over at the Heartless sitting in the chair, Riku snickered as he saw that the Shadow was drumming his talons against its right leg. Shaking his head, not bothering to hold back a laugh, Riku sat down to wait for that weird kid and his weird friends to come back to their ship.
~KH1~
When Triton had returned from his fight with Ursula, he'd been pleased to know that she and hers had managed to keep Ariel out of any further trouble.
"Young man, you are a Keyblade wielder, are you not?" Triton asked, once the pair of them had finished greeting each other, and he'd pulled her aside for their current discussion.
"That's what most people call me, and I certainly don't have anything better to call myself."
The merman hummed softly, the dour expression on his face not having changed a bit, though Sarah thought that she could see a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"Yes," he muttered, folding his thick arms across his broad chest. "Well, since it seems as though you have honorable intentions, as well as the sense to keep yourself and others around you from getting into avoidable trouble, there's something I feel I should show you," Triton continued, gesturing for her to follow him as he made his way out of what she'd been told was the main room of the palace.
"All right," she said, falling in behind him as the merman made his way back outside.
Maneuvering with only the one lower appendage had proved to be quite a bit easier than she'd been expecting at first, but Sarah couldn't honestly be sure if that was because of the magic that she could still feel thrumming deep within "her" body – magic that resonated all the more powerfully when she used the Keyblade to channel her personal magic into one attack or another – or if it was due to something else that she hadn't thought of. Two days, after all, wasn't nearly enough time to get used to an entirely new body-plan; two, if one wanted to be pedantic.
When she realized where the pair of them were ultimately headed, Sarah raised an eyebrow at the form of Ariel's grotto and the comparatively small boulder that covered the entrance, turning what would have otherwise been just another cave into a kind of underwater storage room.
"Ariel already showed me her collection," she said, only half-serious, but also more than a little curious about just what Triton had in mind. "Unless you've got a secret stash here you haven't told anyone about," she continued, grinning teasingly at the merman as he continued on his way to the grotto that did seem to be his ultimate destination.
"Do you do that often? Needle someone until they react to your prodding?"
The merman seemed honestly curious, so Sarah figured he deserved an honest answer. "I've found it's not wise to trust someone too far if they can't laugh at themselves," she said, as the pair of them arrived before the grotto's entrance at last. "Well, this is your party, big kahuna."
"Quite," Triton said, brandishing his trident with an understated sort of flourish.
The boulder that had blocked the grotto's entrance up to that point moved neatly aside, allowing the pair of them to make their way into what looked almost exactly like some kind of underwater storage room. All of the junk inside said room only served to enhance said impression, of course.
"All of these human things," the merman said, sounding like he didn't approve.
"You don't think much of humans?" she asked, though she suspected she already knew the answer.
"They're nothing but heartless fish eaters, without any feeling at all," the merman grumbled.
Sarah resisted the urge to roll "her" eyes, recognizing the tone of someone who had made up their mind and had no desire to be confused by facts; he was really starting to remind her of J. Jonah Jamison, in all the worst ways.
"This is a secret that has been under the guardianship of my family line, ever since the seas had been placed under our authority, and this World could truly be called settled," Triton continued, and Sarah swallowed the laughter that bubbled up in her throat; this guy certainly didn't lack for confidence. "This is the Keyhole of this World," he continued, a stern expression settling on his face as he brandished his trident and aimed it at a certain spot on the shelf-laden wall.
That place turned out to be the Keyhole, and Sarah felt the familiar thrum of magic that she'd become more than a bit familiar with during the time she'd spent on this strange journey of hers. Raising the Keyblade as the – whatever kind of energy it was that Keyholes gave off, she didn't know if it could actually be called Mana, but that was the only real comparison she could make – thrummed through the odd sword and up the both of "her" arms as she held them out. The low, deep sound of a lock slamming closed greeted her, and Sarah watched with a distant sort of anticipation as the Keyblade's appearance shifted once again.
This time, the length of the blade had turned a bright blue, and the teeth of the key itself had transformed into a tiny orange crab, of all things. All in all, it was a nicely colored sort of Keyblade, though the crab did make it look more than a little odd.
"Well, that's just about that," she commented, dismissing the Keyblade so that she could stretch "her" arms.
"You've done this before."
It didn't sound much like a question, but Sarah decided she'd answer it anyway, since it wasn't like Triton was unaware of what was happening outside the bounds of his little planet; not all of it, of course, but he seemed to know enough.
"About three of four times, before I got here," she confirmed. "I'd give you an exact number, but things have been a bit hectic since I first started all this," she said, tagging along beside the merman as the pair of them made their way back to his palace.
Triton hummed briefly, sounding about as thoughtful as she'd ever heard from him; aside from that, however, their return trip was made in relative silence. At least, as silent as two people swimming could ever truly be.
Once the pair of them had finally returned to the palace, Sarah greeted her travelling companions, and the three of them turned to bid Triton and Ariel farewell before they left.
"Sora, what's your world like?" Ariel asked, before Sarah had quite opened "her" mouth.
"I'd imagine it's quite a bit like yours, at least above the waterline," she said, speaking more of Sora's world, since she didn't want to confuse the issue by talking about the particular circumstances behind her presence in this place. "Most coastal towns have broad similarities, I've found, if only by sheer necessity."
"Do you think I might be able to see it, someday?"
"If I ever manage to make it back there myself, I'll see if I can arrange something," Sarah said, less than half of her attention devoted to the conversation she was currently having; she needed to know if there were any other planets like this one, places where she and hers would be called upon to use magic to change their bodies in order to either blend in or just to survive.
She thought that there might have been one more, maybe two, but she'd no real way of knowing that until she'd actually traveled to such a world.
"What do you mean, if you manage to get back?" Ariel asked, an unsettled expression on her face.
"Well, you remember those things we kept running into when we left the palace?"
"Those horrible creatures?" Ariel gasped, her expression twisted in horror.
"They showed up during the night, and I don't know what they actually did, but the whole place started breaking apart almost immediately after they'd arrived," she said, shrugging; she didn't want to worry the mermaid, but she was still annoyed that she hadn't managed to find at least some way to stop that from happening. "I guess they ate it, or something. I met up with these two after it was gone, we'd all ended up in the same place, and I've been hunting those creatures alongside them ever since."
"I see," Triton said, his stern expression softening. "I suppose I might have misjudged you."
"Well, I think it's time for us to go now," Donald said, tugging at "her" right arm as the three of them all gathered together.
"Yeah, I guess the three of you should get back to the World you're staying on," Ariel said, sounding depressed enough to break Sarah out of her musings.
"You know, if you're really so interested in seeing other worlds, and if your Dad's okay with it, you could come to with us back to the one we've been staying on," she offered, wondering what Triton's ultimate answer would be.
Really, the worst he was likely to do was refuse.
~KH1~
When the ship filled with light, and he caught the familiar glimpse of that kid who was still pretending to be Sora, Riku tilted his head as he noticed the extra figure that seemed to be forming out of the light. But, when the light around them had finally cleared, he noticed that the newcomer at least looked normal. Really, going around with a talking duck and a dog-man was just weird; it seemed a lot more like something Sora would do, not like something cool that that other kid would be doing.
"Riku?" the kid asked, raising one of Sora's eyebrows.
"Hey," he said, hopping out of the chair he'd been seated in, grinning as he came up.
"What'd you stop by for?" the kid asked, as the weird Heartless that followed him around hopped down out of the other chair, so that the kid could sit down, and then hopped right back into his lap.
"I just wanted to make sure to let you know that I wanted to talk to you when you get back to Traverse Town," he said, smiling. "And no, I'm not going to be sitting in anyone's lap!" he called, grinning as he called up the Darkness to open a Corridor for himself. "I'll meet you back at the hangar."
~KH1~
Chuckling softly as Riku departed Fere's cockpit, Sarah settled back down into her seat, listening with half an ear as Donald got Ariel settled in the new chair that she'd had installed for any other passengers that might have wanted to hitch a ride. Gripping the controls for the guns and cannons that she'd had installed, Sarah unloaded on the Heartless ships that appeared before them as they made their way back to Traverse Town with Ariel in tow.
Once they'd finally made their way back to the tiny planet that housed Traverse Town, she sighed and leaned back in her chair as Donald started the landing cycle and brought them back into the hangar.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Ariel exclaimed, all but leaping out of her seat to look around Fere's cockpit, once they had come to a complete stop.
"You guys all have fun," she said, rising from her seat, grabbing her supply pack and pausing for a moment as Kuromaru climbed back inside. "I'm going to go see what Riku wants."
"All right, Sora!" Goofy called, happily as usual, as he, Donald, and Ariel all formed a trio of their own. "You and Riku have a good time, too!"
"I'm sure we will," she said, smiling as she pulled her supply pack – with Kuromaru comfortably inside – back onto "her" back.
Falling into step with her compatriots, as their two groups parted company on their way out the doors, Sarah chuckled under her breath as she caught sight of Riku. The pair of them fell into step with each other once she'd come out of the hangar, and together they crossed into the bustling main concourse of Traverse Town's First District.
Well, perhaps "bustling" was overstating things a bit; this place was hardly Hillsdale Mall, after all.
"Hey, Cid," she greeted easily, having recognized the man's broad frame and and distinct stride as he'd moved to intercept her and Riku.
"Welcome back, kid," the mechanic said, nodding briefly at Riku, as the three of them fell into step with each other. "The Moogles said they want to see you. Somethin' about a new kind of weapon?"
"They're already done?" she asked, pleased but slightly curious all the same; she wondered how many of them there actually were, if only just to start with.
"New kind of weapon?" Riku echoed, looking from her to Cid and then back again.
"You might want to take a look at them, considering who you've been working with," she said, as the three of them crossed into the expanse of the First District on their way to Cid's shop, and the Moogles that worked just a floor above him. Once their small group had arrived, making their way in through the front entrance this time rather than climbing up through the ladder that led up through the first floor shop, Sarah found that the Moogles had indeed set out what seemed to be their fruits of their labor on the larger of the two tables that dominated the workroom that seven of the strangely adorable creatures had gathered in.
On the table itself was a cluster of six unadorned, off-white spheres, lined up neatly in a container that looked custom made to hold them.
"You had a good idea, grinding the salt, kupo," one of the Moogles she hadn't had the chance to speak with before piped up, sounding rather pleased. "It goes all over the place! There's no way that Maleficent will be able to get away from it now, kupo!"
One of the other Moogles laughed softly, revealing itself to be one of those she'd worked with earlier.
"What Mogtaro is trying to say is that your idea about grinding the salt into powder will make it spread out much farther than it would have if we hadn't," the self-appointed spokes-Moogle said, smiling widely. "Combined with the cold iron fillings, this is going to be one of the most powerful weapons that we have against Maleficent," the Moogle continued, smiling all the wider as Cid picked up one of the shooter-marble sized spheres and rolled it around in his hand for a long moment.
"This is really somethin'," the man said, beginning to grin.
"Thanks," she said, smirking as Riku picked up one of the powder bombs.
"What gave ya the idea of makin' these things, kid?"
"Well, considering what Maleficent is and what she intends to do, I figured it would be in all of our best interests if we had a weapon to use against her; if nothing else, someone would be able to hold her off long enough to get away or call for backup," she said, taking note of the way Riku straightened suddenly, looking down at the six prepared spheres laid neatly together in their container.
"Now there's somethin' ta help ya sleep at night," Cid said, baring his teeth in a fierce grin as he held up the sphere he'd been toying with.
Chuckling deep within "her" throat, Sarah picked up one of the spheres that had been laid out in their container. They were a sort of off-white shade, and funnily enough each one of them had a Moogle face stamped on the front. They were rather cute, and in that light it'd be all the more amusing to see the look on the megalomaniacal fairy's face when something so seemingly innocuous delivered a payload of what was basically acid right at her.
"Do you mind if I take one of these?" Riku asked.
"I think it would be best if all of us kept one or two of these on hand, just for emergencies," she said, tucking one of the powder bombs into Sora's left pocket, just opposite the one where she kept Marahute's summon gem, in fact.
Grinning, Riku tucked his own powder bomb into the right pocket of his wader-looking pants. The three of them left the Moogles' workshop then, with Cid and Riku looking more than a little pleased with themselves. As their small group made their way back down into the First District's small courtyard, Sarah smiled softly as she caught sight of another group – this one consisting of Squall, Aerith, Donald, Goofy, and Ariel the last of whom was laughing happily at something or other as the five of them continued on their way across the courtyard – Riku slinging his left arm around "her" shoulders a the three of them caught up with the other five.
"Nice to see you guys again," she said, with a soft smile on her face that widened slightly as their two groups intermingled.
"Sora!" Ariel exclaimed, rushing over to throw her arms around "her" waist, face one big, happy grin as she did so. "Thank you so much for convincing Daddy to let me come to visit Traverse Town with you!"
"You're welcome," she said, watching with some amusement as Ariel hugged a clearly unprepared Riku.
"You just-" the silver-haired boy began, sounding more than a little indignant, before swiftly composing himself with a mutter of "Girls."
On behalf of my gender, hey, Sarah mused, slanting a drily amused glance at the silver-haired boy standing next to her.
"So, have any of you guys had dinner yet?" she asked, as their two groups fully mingled into a larger one.
"Leon says that he was going to take me to something called a restaurant, so that I could have some food from your world!"
Sarah laughed softly, as they all headed to Scrooge's place to have the last meal of their respective days. She ended up having a large bowl of sautéed mushrooms and a root beer float, while Ariel herself had what looked like a sample platter filled with an assortment of finger foods. She had a bit of a laugh, along with Yuffie, Cid and even Riku, when Ariel completely misunderstood the role of silverware and tried to brush her hair with a fork.
Still, aside from the inherent entertainment value of Ariel's harmless misconceptions, dinner was pleasantly quiet, something that Sarah truly enjoyed, considering everything that had gone on the proceeding day. Sighing as she leaned back in her seat, having finished her own meal some time ago, Sarah counted out the amount of coins she needed to cover the cost of her meal, set it down, and sat back to wait for the rest of their group to finish their own meals.
Once she'd rejoined Donald and Goofy – with Riku tagging along for his own reasons – the four of them made for the Second District and the hotel they were all staying at.
"So, you going to see if you can rent a room here?" she teased, smirking at Riku as the four of them – plus Kuromaru, but he was still curled up in her supply-pack – pushed through the doors into the Second District and caught sight of the hotel where she, Donald, and Goofy were currently staying.
Riku laughed. "No," the silver-haired boy said, grinning, "I just wanted to make sure that you remembered that I want to talk to you tomorrow."
"All right," she said, nodding sharply.
Riku left not soon after that, a secretive smirk lingering on his face. Tempted to roll "her" eyes but knowing that Donald and Goofy would be curious about why she did it, Sarah bid the pair of them goodnight, then shook "her" head at the silliness of people in general and Riku in particular once she and Kuromaru were alone again. Getting ready for bed once more, Sarah smiled and called her thanks to Kuromaru as the little Shadow switched off the lights.
Climbing into bed, with the subtle feel of Kuromaru as the little Shadow climbed up on top of her like her second-oldest brother's cat, Sarah laughed softly. Yawning deeply as she made herself comfortable, pulling up the covers as Kuromaru re-adjusted his position so that he could curl up against "her" chest, Sarah settled back down.
Smiling softly as she closed "her" eyes, Sarah pulled the covers up to "her" upturned left cheek, settling down to sleep with a last, contented yawn.