A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait. I appreciate your patience and support! :)
Shout outs:
Yamichaos27: I completely forgot about the opposite armor fight! :0 And yess! I thought it would be cool if Kairi had Jiminy's role. Since she's always writing Sora letters, I thought that it would be perfect! :)
Jankitty13: The four of them def need to beef up for sure! XD
Guest: Thank you very much, I'm so glad you're loving the story and the idea of Sora and Kairi staying together. Like if I can write about it I will! Hehe :)
MoreSoKai Plz: We can talk about how cute Kairi is ANY DAY! :D
Tryingthisforsomereason: Thank you so much for the follow! :)
Twelve: Agrabah Pt1
(Kairi's Pov)
"Who's there? Hello?"
A gentle voice spoke from behind a huge stack of barrels and boxes. I caught a glimpse of dark hair.
"Hello!" I greet back, dismissing Destiny's Embrace. "It's okay, you're safe now. Those creatures that attacked you are gone!"
I peer behind the boxes to see a girl with long dark hair as she emerges from behind the boxes. Her long hair was tied back in a loose ponytail. She wore a teal headband, crop top, and poofy pants, all in teal. She looked a little older than Sora and I, maybe around Riku's age.
"I'm Jasmine." Jasmine replies, looking relieved. "My father is the Sultan of Agrabah."
So Agrabah must be the name of this world. I'll make a mental note to add this in my new sketchbook later!
"But," Jasmine continues. "He has been deposed by Jafar, who now controls the city."
"Jafar?" Sora parrots.
Jasmine raises her eyebrows. "You haven't heard of him? He's the Royal Vizier. He gained evil powers and seized Agrabah. He is desperately looking for something-called the "Keyhole."
Sora and I exchange a nervous glance.
"Jafar caught me trying to escape but…he helped me."
"Who helped you?" Sora asks.
Jasmine's face lights up.
"Aladdin! He left a while ago to take care of something…I do hope he's alright."
"We can help find him!" I remark, "And we'll make sure that Jafar goes nowhere near that keyhole!"
It was foolish of me to make promises that I couldn't keep. I had no idea where the world's keyhole could be, but we had to find it eventually to save it from darkness.
"Who are you guys?" Jasmine asks.
"I'm Kairi, this is my boyfriend, Sora. And our friends Donald and Goofy." I gesture to everyone. "Don't stay out in the open too long, Jasmine! We'll be back as soon as we can!"
Jasmine nods.
"Please be careful, and please find Aladdin!"
"Aladdin? Where might I find this street rat?" A sinister voice came from above.
I look up in the direction of the voice to see a tall slender man with a goatee, dressed in a dark robe. On his head he wore a turban and he held a gold staff. On the top of the staff was a cobra with red eyes.
"That's Jafar!" Jasmine whispers to us frantically.
I gently push on her arm in the opposite direction.
"Run, Jasmine!"
Jasmine scurries off instantly, her long hair floating behind her. Jafar's eyes flicker to me and a nasty smirk spreads across his lips.
"What do you want with the world's keyhole?" Sora demands as his keyblade appears in his hand.
"Ah, the boy who holds the key….and the princess of light." Jafar's eyes seem to sparkle, his voice sickeningly sweet.
"What?" I sputter.
Jafar only laughs as he saunters off.
"After him!" Sora shouts, "We can't let him get away! He's after the keyhole!"
The four of us sprint through the marketplace. Warm air clung to our skin and the hot sun dried us to the bone.
"Where could he have gone?" Donald questions once we reach the dead end of the marketplace.
"Anywhere." Sora huff, wiping sweat off his forehead.
"Maybe Aladdin would know." I suggest, as I fan myself with my hands. In desperate need of cooling down. "We just need to find him first."
"Do you think we could step in the shade first?" Donald wheezes beside me."The heat is killing me!"
"Wait, wait. Do you guys hear singing?" Sora asks, cupping his ear with his hand.
I strain my ears to listen, from a far I could make out a man singing with a thick accent.
"Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place where the caravan camels roam. Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense. It's barbaric but hey, it's home!"
"Hey, he's right about the heat being intense!" Sora comments. "Let's go see if he's seen Jafar or Aladdin! This marketplace seems like a common area, maybe he knows them!"
"Do you think he knows them?" I ask, trotting behind him to keep up with his quick stride. I could feel my shoulders starting to burn.
Sora shrugs. "It's worth a try!"
The voice was getting closer.
"When the wind's from the east, and the sun's from the west. And the sand in the glass is right."
My feet slid under me, causing me to stumble off balance and bump into Sora.
"Whoa! Sorry!" I squeal, holding onto Sora's shoulders to stabilize myself.
Sora laughs.
"You okay?"
We both look down to see a purple carpet with gold and white patterns.
"Yeah, someone must have dropped their carpet."
I bend down to gather the soft carpet in my arms, I trace the gold and white spiral patterns with my eyes. They were completely mesmerizing. Just then the carpet flung out from my arms and circled around us frantically.
"WHOA! A magic carpet!" Sora exclaims, his eyes widening.
I watch as the carpet waves its gold tassels at us, as if it were its hands. It looked like it was beckoning us to come with it.
"I think it wants us to come along!" I reply, as I stare at the magic carpet. "Do you know Aladdin?"
The carpet does a backflip in the air before it flattens itself out in front of us.
I look over at Sora.
"I take that as a yes!"
I grabbed onto the carpet as I carefully sat on it, the fabric was silky against my hands and hot from being under the sun. I watch as Sora, Donald, and Goofy follow suit and sit besides me. It was a bit cramped with the four of us on the magic carpet. Donald's hat kept poking me in the face, I was sitting on Goofy's foot and Sora kept elbowing me in the ribs but we would have to make it work.
(*)
"The breeze feels incredible!" I call out to Sora, Donald, and Goofy as the magic carpet carries us throughout the desert.
"This has got to be the hottest world we've been to!" Donald comments just as the magic carpet descends to the sandy ground. Even in sneakers I could feel the intense heat in the sand.
"Gwarsh, not again!" Goofy cries, as a group of heartless appear.
These ones resembled bandits, they all had long swords and below the turbans that they wore on their heads were those shiny yellow eyes.
"I've got this!"
A man with tan skin and dark hair and eyes ran over to us. He was dressed in baggy beige pants and wore a purple vest. I don't know how he could be barefoot in this hot sand.
"Genie, get rid of these guys!"
Just then, a large blue man with pointed ears and a black beard came soaring down from the sky. He wore a red sash around his waist and below, instead of legs, was a long tail.
"Be gone, evil creatures!" Genie commands, snapping his fingers.
Each bandit heartless evaporates from a small blue cloud that the Genie has summoned. The man then turns to look at us curiously.
"Are you all okay? I'm Aladdin, call me Al for short! This is Genie!" Aladdin gestures to the Genie, who is waving at us eagerly.
"Thank you Al and Genie I'm Sora!" Sora says.
"Kairi!" I introduce myself.
"Names Goofy!" Goofy adds.
"Donald Duck!" Donald finishes.
"It's nice to meet you all!" Aladdin smiles.
"What are you doing out here?" Sora asks.
"Same old stuff, hunting legendary treasure. Just paid a little visit to the cave of wonders. I found that magic carpet." He points at the magic carpet that is floating besides us.
"And this lamp. Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp can summon the-"
Genie clears his throat as he floats over to us.
"Please kid, leave the intros to a professional. The one and only Genie of the lamp!"
The Genie swoops down to scoop up the lamp from Aladdin's hands and does a dramatic twirl as he continues on with his intro.
"Rub-a-dub-dub the lamp and have your dearest wishes granted. Today's winner is Aladdin! Congratulations!"
"Any wish?" Donald questions.
The Genie beams as he hands Aladdin back the lamp.
"Patience, my fine feathered friend. Any three wishes. One wish, two wish, three wish! Then I make like a banana split! Our lucky winner made his first wish…"
Genie whooshes over to elbow me and Sora playfully on the arms. "And let me tell you.."
He adds in a whisper.
"What a doozy that wish was!"
He gives us a wink before he continues, speaking louder for everyone else to hear.
"So he has two left. So, master, what will you have for wish number two?"
"How about making me a famous prince?" Aladdin suggests.
The Genie rises with excitement.
"WHOA! Money! Royalty! Fame! Okay, you asked for it! A hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold! Just say the word and, I'll deliver it in thirty minutes or less, or your meals are free! Hey, I'll even throw in a cappuccino!"
"Do you think you could throw in a few waters?" Sora grins sheepishly. "It's so hot…"
Genie lets out a hearty laugh as reaches from behind his back and he holds up five bottled waters in his large hand.
"Of course! It's not everyday the Genie is released from his lamp!"
"Thank you!" Sora rasps, as he clumsily removes the cap from his water bottle and chugs from it.
"Why do you wish to be a prince?" I ask Aladdin, as I place my water bottle on my shoulder. It felt nice and cool against my hot skin,
Aladdin rubs the back of his neck bashfully.
"You see, there's this girl in Agrabah…named Jasmine. But she's a princess, and I'm….ah she could never fall for a guy like me!" He exclaims, hanging his head down in shame.
"Jasmine?" Goofy repeats.
"A princess!?" Donald parrots.
"Oh, that's right! She's in trouble, Aladdin!"
Aladdin's eyes widened.
"What? Well come on, let's get going!"
(*)
"Ahhh, fresh air! The great outdoors!" The Genie exclaims as he flies besides us.
"I guess you don't get out much, huh?" Sora looks over at him.
"Comes with the job. Phenomenal cosmic powers. Itty-bitty living space. It's always three wishes, then back to my portable prison. I'm lucky to see the light of day every century or two!"
"If you had a wish, Genie, what would it be?" I ask, as I tuck my hair behind my ears.
Genie's eyes widened.
"Nobody's ever asked me that before…but I would say freedom!"
"Can't blame you." Sora replies. "Centuries in a small lamp sounds awful. And here I thought we had it bad being on our island!"
"Say Genie, what if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you think?" Aladdin asks from behind us. Basically right in Sora's ear from how cramped we were on the carpet.
"You'd do that?" Genie looks down at us in amusement.
"Genie, it's a promise. After we help Jasmine."
(*)
Once we arrived back at the marketplace, we told Aladdin and Genie about the worlds keyhole.
"So, Jafar is after Jasmine and this keyhole." Aladdin states.
"Keyhole, eh?" Genie jumps in. "I could swear, I've heard about that somewhere!"
"Really where?" Donald questions.
"Let me think..its only been two hundred years." The Genie mutters, stroking his beard in thought.
"Well, anyway, we've got to stop Jafar before it's too late." Sora remarks.
Aladdin nods.
"Right, we'd better find Jasmine and warn her! Where did you see her last?"
I narrow my eyebrows in thought as I look at the massive marketplace around us.
"It's hard to say…the sections of the marketplace look so similar! I remember there being a bridge that overlooked the market. Jasmine was hiding behind a few boxes, and Jafar had approached us, and that's when we told her to run and hide and he also ran off."
"Then we lost him." Sora adds.
"Hmm, I may have a hunch where she could be." Aladdin replies, "Jafar too! Quick! Follow me to the palace gates!"
The four of us take off down the streets with Genie floating besides us. The streets were still abandoned and the sun felt stronger on my back, if that was even possible.
"What do you think Jafar wants with the worlds keyhole?" Sora asks me, as we follow after Aladdin.
"I have a feeling that he is in cahoots with that witch Maleficent that Cid told us about!" I responded. "But why did he call me a 'Princess of light'?"
Sora shrugs.
"Maybe he's just a creep!"
Aladdin hushes us and beckons us over to him. He has made his way up a rickety staircase that overlooks the palace. Sora and I hurry up the stairs to look below us. There was Jafar and Jasmine standing by the palace gates. I couldn't help but try and piece together what Jafar was talking about. I hardly know anything about my home world and Jafar mentioned me being a princess. Was I a princess?
"We're just in time!" Sora says in a whisper. "We can stop Jafar and save Jasmine!"
"Wait. Jasmine is a princess too!" I blurt. "Is she a princess of light? Maybe Jafar is referring to something.."
"Kairi!" Sora snaps, "We can discuss this later! We need to focus on saving Jasmine!"
I blink trying to bat away my thoughts.
"Right, sorry!"
"So what are we thinking?" Aladdin asks Sora, his eyes locked onto Jasmine.
"There are six of us and only one of him." Sora replies. "I say we ambush him."
Aladdin nods in agreement.
"We're right behind you."
(Sora's Pov)
Jafar turned the second the six of us had jumped from the staircase ledge to the ground. A smirk spread across his lips as he sneered at Aladdin.
"Setting your sights a little high, aren't you boy? Back to your hole, street rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princesses anymore."
"Jasmine!" Aladdin cries.
We watch in disbelief as a dozen red pots appear around us, similar to the pot the spider heartless appeared from when we first arrived here.
"I'm so sorry, Aladdin!" Jasmine cries from behind Jafar
"Genie, help Jasmine, please!" Aladdin calls over to the Genie, who flies past us instantly.
"One wish left!" Genie replies, "You're making this really easy, you know!"
He flies by Jafar and scoops up Jasmine from behind Jafar. We all sigh as Genie flies over to us with Jasmine secured in his giant hands.
Jafar laughs.
"I'm so sorry boy. I'm afraid your second wish has been denied."
"Huh?"
I look over at Aladdin to see a bright colored parrot fly by, holding the Genie's lamp in its feet.
"I'm sorry, Al!" The Genie cries, dropping Jasmine into one of the red pots as he disappears in colorful smoke.
"And now, I bid you farewell!" Jafar says, as he waves his hand at the red pots. "Attack!"
At Jafar's command, dozens of spider legs sprout from the pots and start to scamper towards us. To our disbelief, two more heartless appeared and merged with the spider pots. Together they formed a scorpion looking creature.
I looked over to Jafar but he was nowhere in sight. We had to fight this heartless quick in order to save the worlds keyhole from Jafar.
"Aladdin!" Jasmine cries from one of the pots Genie had dropped her in.
"Jasmine! Keep talking to us!" Aladdin exclaims, withdrawing his sword. "We'll find you!"
He then charges after the scorpion as it starts to scurry away.
"Don't worry Jasmine, we'll get you out of there!"
I box around the scorpion heartless to strike it from behind. Only for it to swing its tail and knock me to the ground.
"Please, help me!" Jasmine calls.
I jump back to my feet as the scorpion scatters down the streets of the market. I lunge forwards, bringing my keyblade down onto one of the pots. It shatters from the heavy blow, causing the scorpion to stumble on impact.
"It's empty!" Donald cries as he hurries over to me.
"Keep trying! She's in one of them!" I yell.
I begin to smash another as Aladdin races to my side and breaks through two barrels. They were all empty.
"Come on!" Kairi wails, dodging the scorpion as it snaps at her with its large blue pinchers.
"Jasmine, where are you?" Aladdin cries, as he breaks through another barrel.
"AEROGA!" Donald squeals, as he holds up his wizard's staff.
A giant clear barrier forms around us, similar to the ones Kairi has been casting to protect us. The scorpion charges at us and rams its claws against the barrier. The barrier reflects its attack, sending it flying backwards and into the market stalls. The five of us watch as it falls onto the stall, causing it to collapse and clatter to the ground.
I dash toward the scorpion and slash my blade across its torso while it's still scorpion's eyes roll around as it starts to snap its claws wildly at me. I bloc its grabs, holding the keyblade out in front of me. The scorpion pinches at my keyblade angrily.
The barrels behind it clatter to the ground, Jasmine falls out from the first one, closest to the scorpion. I look over at Kairi who comes to my aid, she leaps toward the scorpion slicing its claws off with her keyblade. It screeches briefly before she whacks it in the face, making it vanish into thin air and releasing the heart it captured.
"Jasmine, you're okay!" Aladdin exclaims, as he hurries over to help her to her feet.
Before Jasmine could respond, a thick and dark mist emerged from the ground and circled around her. A sinister laugh filled the air, it sounded like Jafar.
"Jasmine!" Aladdin shouted.
He charged for the mist but it cleared before he could reach it. Jasmine was gone.
"To the desert!" He cried, turning to face us. "We have to go to the desert!"
"Again?" Goofy questions.
"Jafar spends all the time he can in the cave of wonders." Aladdin explains impatiently. "That is where I found the lamp and magic carpet. I bet the keyhole is there too! The cave of wonders is filled with all sorts of treasures!"
"Good thinking!" Kairi replies. "Maybe we can find some of Ansem's report or Merlin's pages there!"
Aladdin gives her a puzzled look.
"I'll explain on the ride there!" Kairi says, as the magic carpet flies over to us.
(*)
The sun was almost set by the time we had reached the cave of wonders. The sky had turned to a dark violet and the temperature had dropped, much to our liking.
"Geeze, Kai! Your shoulders are as red as your hair!" I tease, as the four of us embark from the magic carpet.
"Oh, I'm sure! They're burning so badly right now. I may have to try a potion later, to see if that helps!" She smirks at Donald. "Or we can try and cast heal later!"
"Why not know?" I ask.
"I'd rather preserve our magic, for when we really need it in battle!" Kairi replies.
Donald nods in approval.
"Good!"
"That's the thing about Agrabah." Aladdin says, glancing over at Kairi's burnt shoulders. "The sun is intense!"
"Where is the cave of wonders?" Kairi asks, she slips her hand into mine. "Just so I can know what to look for!"
"We're here, actually!" Aladdin replies, gesturing to a large hill. "It's past that hill, so you can see for yourself!"
I smirk down at Kairi.
"Race you!"
I watch her smile drop into a full on pout.
"Sora, no! I'm so tired from all this running!"
I shrug as I drop my hand from hers.
"Suit yourself, guess I'll be the first one to see the cave of wonders!"
That sends her sprinting up the hill. I laugh as I bolt after her, nearly tripping over my own feet. I watch her small frame as she runs up to the top of the hill.
"You totally cheated!" I call out to her as I make my way up to the hill.
She doesn't respond.
"Kairi!?"
I hurry to her side to see her staring out ahead.
"What is it?" I ask, following her gaze.
Ahead was a massive tiger head made completely from the sands of the desert. Its mouth was wide open revealing its sharp fangs and teeth, past its teeth was this large golden staircase that led to the back of its mouth.
The cave of wonders was inside this thing?
However, the most shocking thing was that the tigers eyes were glowing brightly as its head lolled to the side.
"Oh, this is bad." Aladdin remarks once he caught up to us.
"What's happening!?" I ask.
"The heartless are controlling the tiger!" Donald exclaims, pointing down below the enormous tiger. Out in the distance I could make out dozens of yellow glowing eyes floating in the darkness.
"Let's get going!" I say, as I summon my keyblade. "This has to be Jafar's doing!"
I scramble down the hill as fast as I could without falling face first into the sand. The glowing eyes of the heartless grew closer.
"WATCH OUT!" Aladdin calls from behind me.
I glance ahead to see bright white beams shoot out from the tigers eyes. They rush in our direction along with the heartless.
I jump over one of the bandit heartless and bring the tip of my blade down on another bandit, just as the beam whizzes by me.
"We have to take out the eyes!" I call out to my companions. "That's what the heartless are possessing!"
