Sora, Ruby, her friends, and their new beastly companion arrived at the outer walls of the castle where Riku departed to. As they walked along the bizarre construction, each and every one of them felt an unsettling air around them. "Man...this thing's even creeper up close." Yang said, tugging at her collar.
"You're right, Yang. The more I look at this place, it just feels...wrong." Weiss said, equally unnerved. Nothing in this place sat well with them ever since they arrived. And now that they were at the centerpiece of this grim art piece...well, the mutual chill spoke for itself.
"Maybe so, but we have to keep going." Sora said as he made his way toward a beautiful large double door laced with a golden design shaped vaguely like a heart formed by ornate thorns. Try as he, and even Beast might, the door wouldn't budge.
"We'll have to find another way." Beast grumbled out, trying to keep a level head at the presentation of another obstacle between him and Belle.
Pyrrha hummed curiously while looking at the large door and around the architecture of the castle. Some parts of the inner construction seemed unfinished and had pipes or electrical wiring. "This door is probably locked up, given the way everything is designed. For a castle like this, there is likely a mechanism that controls it, somewhere."
Pyrrha hummed curiously while looking at the large door and around the architecture of the castle. Some parts of the inner construction seemed unfinished and had pipes or electrical wiring. "This door is probably locked up, given the way everything is designed. For a castle like this, there is likely a mechanism that controls it, somewhere."
"So we just need to find that mechanism and unlock it, then." Rubu said as she walked back the way we came. "On our way here, I saw another walkway. Maybe if go that way-"
She jumped back when seeing a slowly emerging sphere of darkness floating midair. has a spherical body that is pitch black and streaked with dark blue. It became a living being of some kind with rather small but eerily glowing, yellow eyes, a jagged-tooth mouth making an unsettling smile and the the inside colored blue. There were three thick, black and blue tentacles with frayed, pink tips sprouting out of its body; two on its top and one is on the underside.
"Is that a Heartless?!" Yang exclaimed as she and everyone else drew their weapons.
Underneath the new type of Heartless were four Shadows, shifting about and moving towards them. Just as everyone was about to move towards them, they were surprised as a brown blur moved past them and shouted, "Step aside!" before letting out a monstrous bellow. He tackled through the shadows, making them dissolve away and when it claws swiped through the spherical Heartless, it was cleaved like a hot knife through butter, and destroyed upon impact.
"Whoa..." Jaune said, just as stunned as everyone else with how Beast slew all those Heartless in one fell swoop.
"Well?" Beast said looking back at the others, almost sounding impatient. "We're going this way aren't we?"
Ruby snapped out of it and walked along while saying, "R-Right. This was the way I found another walkway."
Everyone else was ready to move on, still more than a little amazed at how Beast managed to sheer through the Heartless like a sharpened scythe through wheat. Neptune however..."Why? Why is there more water?" Suffice it to say, their current path into the castle was not sitting well with him in the slightest.
Weiss rolled her eyes at Neptune's frightful musings and pushed past him. "Then you can stay right here and let the Heartless or Grimm take you for all I care." she said bitterly.
Neptune winced visibly at Weiss's comment as she followed the others. It went without saying that she was definitely going to be holding that grudge for a while.
"Dude, just close your eyes and walk forward." Sun suggested wearily. As much as Neptune didn't want to think he might be falling into water that he couldn't see...he sighed and closed his eyes and began walking blindly forward. So far he did fine...apart from his goofy tensing every time he heard the splash of his shoes upon the water.
"Hey guys, look. That bubble over there." Sora called out, pointing to a large bubble that was floating above the water next to one of the castle's metallic walls.
"What about it, Sora?" Ruby asked.
"I don't know..." As Sora said, he wasn't certain what it was, but that bubble seemed special somehow.
"Hey...look under the water." Blake said, drawing everyone's gazes to the wall near the bubble. More specifically, a hole in it, likely a runoff for the water.
"Could we use that to get inside?" Pyrrha inquired, eying the hole along with Blake.
"I'm not sure how. This water is like solid ground." Blake pointed out as she knocked her hand against it, only for it to reflect off as if it was a solid surface.
Weiss attempted to try thrusting her weapon into it, only for it to bounce off with no effect. This was puzzling, to say the least. They had to get in, but the only way in was obstructed by a source that defied all logic.
Sora's eyes shifted between the hole and the bubble and in that moment, an idea came to his head. "Guys...let's try touching the bubble."
"Touch the bubble?" Jaune asked when approaching them and looking at Sora as one hand reached for it. "Why?"
The moment he came into contact with it, he yelped from being sucked right in. The bubble went under the water and moved swiftly through the runoff. "Jaune!" Pyrrha said with concern as she ran to them, looking where the bubble vanished.
"What?! What's going on?!" Neptune exclaimed while gripping his weapon but kept his eyes closed as his head turned everywhere at once, scared about possibly being in more of a dangerous situation than he already felt.
A new bubble took the place of the other one as Sora hummed. "Looks like my hunch was right. Let's go."
"Wait, Sora, we don't know-" Weiss started saying before Sora leaped into the bubble, going in before it did the same as the last bubble transporting Jaune. Pyrrha rushed in next, Weiss trying to speak rationally. "Wait a minute, Pyrrha!" Ruby zipping by her caught the white haired woman by surprise as she tried again to talk sense into them. "You're all just charging in without thinki-"
"Weeeeee!"
"Nora!"
As Nora rushed in right after Ruby, Ren chased her down and went into the next bubble when his childhood friend was gone. Weiss was blankfaced and sighed. "Why do I even bother?" she muttered before joining them.
One by one the others were going in. Just as Sun was about to be one of the last, he stopped when looking back at Neptune with the same worried demeanor. "I still don't know what's going on."
Sun rolled his eyes before walking back and grabbing his friend by the arm, ignoring his worried protests when saying, "Just trust me." Together they entered the bubble and after going through the runoff, emerged from above another surface of water inside the castle.
Neptune's eyes shot open as he looked around. "What happened?! Where are we?! How did we get here?!"
"I knew it." Sora said as he looked around at their new surroundings. This underground area looked far more grungy than the beautiful architecture of the castle they saw when they arrived. Ornately carved and designed ceramic stones, industrial pipes akin to the ones blowing steam out from the broken parts of the castle.
"See Weiss? Sora was right." Ruby said firmly to her partner, who simply pinched her brow.
"Well, alright, it DID get us somewhere, I admit." Despite her acquiescence, Weiss couldn't help questioning the whole situation once again. As if the rules of logic demanded it of her. "But what if it didn't!? What if you walked us into a trap! You know that Maleficent is here, and Cinder likely is too!"
"Just trust me, Weiss. Please." The seriousness in Sora's eyes and voice as he turned to her actually surprised her. She'd known him mostly as a cheery, silly, and of course dumb as Ruby sometimes, boy. She'd never expected to see him act so seriously. Then again, none of them had seen him act like this.
Still, given what happened earlier...perhaps trust was what they needed more of here. Not skepticism. "Well...okay." Weiss said with a small nod.
"Seriously, how did we get in here!?" Neptune asked again, only for everyone to keep moving. With a sigh, he followed along...only for the group to see no other way forward.
"Is this a dead end?" Jaune asked anxiously. Did they do all of this just to run in to another roadblock?
Before Weiss could come out with another complaint however, Sora noticed something in his pocket. The Naturespark Gem was shimmering. Perhaps the being within it could aid them here. It was worth a try. "Courage!" he called out as he instinctively lowered his wooden sword's tip to the ground. A ball of light akin to that from the gem formed at its tip as Sora rotated in a circle, before flinging the ball at the open part of the floor. A ripple formed where it landed as a dome of light surrounded by radiant flower petals emerged from the center. And as that light faded, rising out of it...was a brown furred, white spotted deer fawn with amber eyes.
The little deer smiled and hopped merrily before skipping around Sora. When they locked eyes, the boy smiled and pet the little fawn as it nuzzled its face to him.
"Awwwww!" Nora cooed adoringly at the fawn.
"This little fellah is so cute!" Ruby said with wide eyes as she looked over the little deer that smiled to her before giving her an affectionate face rub as well.
"A deer?" Neptune asked curiously, his fear and confusion finally gone.
"Awww, I just wanna fawn over this little guy." Yang, as usual, just couldn't help making a pun, much to most everyone's chagrin.
"Wait, Sora," Blake said, realizing something that nobody seemed to have acknowledged. "You can still use magic?"
Sora blinked, realizing that sure enough, he managed to channel the magic necessary to summon Bambi. "Huh. I guess so."
"Well that's good! You can just use your spells to fight if you need to!" Nora said with a congratulatory tone to Sora.
"It could be like in those fairy tales. Some say a magic users power didn't come from the weapon itself but was more of an implement. A way to channel that power with greater control or strength," Ren said as he looked back to the deer. "Either way, who is this little one?"
"His name is Bambi," Sora said with a smile. One that the deer, Bambi, seemed to return as Sora said his name.
Jaune noticed yet another peculiar thing. "Hold on...Sora, in Neverland, you summoned that baby elephant, Dumbo, and knew his name without him actually saying anything. And now you know Bambi's name too?"
Pyrrha rubbed her chin contemplatively. "The Fairy Godmother said the summon gems are people's hearts. The essence and emotions that make up an individual person. Perhaps that's how they also communicate with each other?"
"How does that work? Seems illogical to me." Weiss pointed out.
Blake turned to her with a raised eyebrow. "After all the worlds we've been to and the many logic defying things you've witnessed with your own two eyes?" she said with a blunt tone before gesturing to the bubble near them. "We just got done entering a basement through a bubble traveling beneath water that you can stand on."
"That..." Weiss began to say as though making a strong protest before thinking over what her friend said, speaking again in defeat. "Is a very good point."
Beast let out a soft snarl of impatience. But fortunately, before he could bellow to keep moving, Bambi suddenly perked up and pranced toward a nearby wall, sniffing it curiously. "What is it, Bambi?" Sora asked, following the little fawn. The wall he was sniffing seemed to be cracked, along with the bars that led out to another bit of likely solid water.
"Hmm...Maybe we could open a way forward by destroying this wall?" Blake theorized.
Seeing that opportunity, Nora brandished her hammer, but before she could take a swing, Beast grunted out, "Move." and brushed past everyone. And it was a good thing they all got out of the way, for a one hefty swing of a clawed hand later, the wall collapsed. Everyone stared with awe at how easily the wall crumbled under the Beast's attack, with even Nora letting out an impressed whistle. Lumbering out first, everyone piled in after Beast to...another batch of walkable water, much to Neptune's chagrin.
Giving an audible gulp, Neptune shut his eyes again and bumbled after everyone, wincing at every wet sound. "Hey look. There's another one of those bubbles." Blake pointed out.
"Well, only one way to go." Yang said as she walked toward it. Weiss simply sighed, not even bothering to argue this time. Not only was there no point, but they were short on options. And so, in they went.
"Ugghh...Another bubble? Seriously?"...with Neptune eventually bumbling after them. The bubble flowed into the water, underneath another metallic passageway, up to another section of the waterway.
"Only one way to go now." Jaune said as the group made their way forward, rounding a corner to anther batch of water. Curiously, there seemed to be a series of ornate gratings of lacing the walls and even in the middle of other pathways.
"This has to be one of the most bizarre and surprisingly clean sewer systems I've ever seen." Sun commented, drawing a grossed out look from Weiss.
"I don't even want to think of how you'd know what a sewer is like." the Schnee heiress said as she shook her head.
"Well I can tell this isn't gray water It doesn't smell anything like it, so we're fine." Blake said while looking to where she was stepping.
"Gray water? It looks clear and blue, like Sun said." Ruby said curiously.
"No Ruby, gray water is..." Blake started saying before trying not to say it out loud for everyone to get disgusted so she gestured for her to come closer and whisper in her ear. "It's a collection of stuff that typically goes in a toilet."
Ruby winced and held her mouth, feeling nauseous. "Oh, gross...Gross. Gross. Gross-Gross-Gross-Gross-Gross..." She had her hand to a wall to lean over and tried to not think about what her friend said but realized she pushed a button near a square shaped machine when feeling it move in like a pressure plate. "Oh no, what did I do?!" she said when backing away from the button.
The sound of the machinery around them began moving. The fancily designed wall behind them moved as another ahead of them at the side went back. As it all happened, everyone was a little on edge but they all relaxed once the sounds stopped. "Well hey," Yang said with a satisfied smile. "Now we can go a little further. Nice work, sis."
"Uh... yeah! I totally meant to do that." Ruby said, rolling with it and sounding proud of herself.
Weiss rolled her eyes before heading to the new spot, noticing something. "Looks like another switch like the one Ruby touched."
"So this is like some sort of hallway that has switches everywhere to close off certain areas?" Jaune asked, not understanding the complexity of it all.
"Perhaps the soldiers who used to work here would use this for any invaders and trap them within these walls? They'd probably need to remember the layout of this basement and which switches opened or closed which doors. Before Maleficent took over, that is." Pyrrha said while looking around, seeing other switches through the cracks or small open spaces of the castle.
"Either that or it was used to filter water to different parts of the castle. But if so, why would they have them here?" Ren wondered.
"Can we please stop talking water!? Just hearing these splashes is torturous enough!" Neptune exclaimed, eyes still tightly shut. With a roll of the eyes from Weiss and Sun, the monkey faunus walked over to the nearest switch, making sure Neptune bumbled up to them first, and hit it.
As the button was pushed, the grating on the wall next to them shifted back, closing the area they just came from. Looking around the opened up corner, Sora saw another one. "Wait here, everyone. I'll go push that one." he said, rounding the corner and stepping onto the ledge to push it. Behind them, everyone else saw one of the gratings move aside to reveal yet another switch.
"Hey, there's another one over here!" Yang called after Sora. As she hopped over to it and pressed it, the grating next to her opened up to reveal the path to... "And another one of these bubbles that'll take us somewhere!" she added.
"Can it be somewhere that doesn't have water for once?" Neptune asked hopefully. With a sigh, Weiss grabbed him by the collar and dragged him along, not willing to wait for him to bumble after them this time. Sora and Beast joined the rest of the group as one by one they filed into the bubble and were carried away to another part of the waterway.
This time, it seemed like another dead end. But Neptune at the very least realized as he opened his eyes and looked down where he stood... "Oh thank heaven. Solid ground." he said, slumping down and practically nuzzling it. A display that made Sun palm his face with embarrassment.
"Hey, is that another one of those switches?" Nora asked, pointing up to one that was a at a higher elevation. Still holding her hammer, she stood on her tip-toes and bonked it with her hammer, activating it.
"Whoa! What's going on!?" Neptune cried out, drawing everyone's gaze to see the platform he was on suddenly rose upward.
The hovered platform stayed up for a moment before lowering itself again. Sora was unsure but something was telling him this was the way then needed to go. Then again, this path they were taking was pretty linear. After he chose to hit the switch again, the platform started raising again but Sora - and Bambi along with him - rushed to stand on it and hopped off once he reached the ledge it stopped at. "What do you see, Sora?" Pyrrha asked him from the bottom of the edge.
The young man peered ahead. "I see a different kind of switch. Looks like parts of the machinery from inside the walls are connected to it. Other than that, it's a dead end hallway."
Using her semblance, Ruby emerged beside him to look. "Yeah. Looks like it's supposed to work with something big."
Bambi moved in front of them, momentarily standing on his hind legs and kicking his front hooves in excitement as he smiled. Sora felt like he was telling him that was what they were searching for. He was starting to fade out and was curious but smiled softly before giving a terse nod. "Guess the magic of calling him out wore off." Sora said before looking where Bambi blinked away. Something was left behind: a yellow vial with a star shape design outside.
"What's that?" Ruby asked as Sora picked it up. Before either of them could figure it out, another new Heartless emerged. It resembled a knight clad in purple and blue armor with white trim and yellow buttons. It also had a zig-zag jawline with a purple head and a silver jaw. The arms and torso were proportioned much larger than the head and legs, one of the arms holding its weapon resting ape-like on the ground: a shield with a blue and light blue pattern with gold trim and a very large, dangerous blue-black dog head with sharp fangs, a spiked collar and three glowing yellow eyes arranged in a triangle formation.
Everyone drew their weapons as the new Heartless seemed to stare at them. Whether it was from the head upon its shoulders, or the canine head on the shield was unclear. But one thing certainly was. It was hostile and the teeth of the canine head were gnashing eagerly to bite. Beast let out a roar, rushing toward the Heartless, bounding on all fours as the shield rotated and unleashed a fireball. Undeterred, Beast simply jumped over the fire and lashed out at the Heartless. It raised its shield just in time to block its attacker's assault, resulting in both of them struggling in a deadlock.
"Frontal attacks aren't going to work against that thing." Weiss observed, eying the monstrous shield.
"Then we hit it from behind." Ren said, readying his weapons as he dashed forward, weaving between the wall and the locked pair, as he rushed behind the Heartless and struck it. It seemed to work as the Heartless lurched, but it also was quite resilient. Forcing Beast off of it, the Heartless swung its gnashing shield at Ren who bent backwards to dodge it. After recovering, Beast took that opportunity to take advantage of the Heartless's vulnerability, slamming his fists down on the back of its head and destroying it.
With that threat taken care of, everyone relaxed. "This really isn't an ideal place to fight. We'd better get out of here before more of those ones show up." Pyrrha suggested, earning a nod from everyone else as they continued on their way.
"I wonder what that thing was guarding though." Jaune wondered as they walked along.
"What makes you think it was guarding anything, Jaune? It's a Heartless. They're no more intelligent than the Grimm." Weiss said.
However, Beast let out a grunt as he followed Jaune down the hall. "No. It's no coincidence a Heartless like that was here. Look." Everyone looked to where Beast pointed along the right wall and saw another switch. This one however was bigger and seemed to be attached to what looked to be ornate gears.
"Huh. That looks important." Sun said, reaching up to hit the switch.
That's the machine I was talking about." Sora said as it was all moving around.
Blake's ears twitched under her bow as she turned to look up at the ceiling. Yang noticed and asked, "More enemies?"
"No," Blake answered in assurance while scanning the ceiling. "I hear more gears moving inside the walls in a specfic pattern. I think they're heading to that spot where that locked door we came across, is."
"Jeez. The locking mechanism to that door is all the way here?" Neptune asked, watching the gears from the switch Sun still move until eventually slowing down.
Blake listened again before saying, "It stopped. I'm sure the door is open now."
"Then we'd better get going." Sora said, leading the way back to the walls. Now they could get inside the castle at last. But they had no idea what awaited them inside.