Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Hearts Route B ❯ The Warehouse ( Chapter 9 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, nor any of the Disney Characters in this story. The following is purely fan made. Please support the original work.

 

Chapter 9: The Warehouse

 

 

 

"So far there's nothing in front of you, but I'm getting some strange readings from further up the street."

Sora listened to Wilbur's voice through the special headset that Lewis had made for him. He gave Donald and Goofy a thumbs up and the trope moved down the street. They had been slowly and carefully walking through the city. Goofy held onto the bully detector, while Sora communicated with Lewis and Wilbur. The father and son duo were flying over them in the time machine, keeping an eagle's eye out for any suspicious activity that may be lurking nearby.

It had been an hour and a half since they had started and they hadn't run into the invisible monster, or even a single heartless. Sora was starting to get a little annoyed. Just once, it would be nice if the heartless appeared when they actually wanted them to.

They passed another busy street and walked into the park on the other side. The playground was full of children running, hiding and climbing the monkey bars while their parents and grandparents supervised.

Sora stopped to stare for a moment. He watched a little boy and his two friends playing in the sand. One boy had an talent for making sand castles. The other boy was excitedly cheering on his friend's creation without doing any work. A girl watched the two of them and decorated the sides of their castle with flowers.

Donald poked Sora in the side.

"What are you smiling about, eh?"

"Aw, they sure do look cute," Goofy cooed.

Sora blushed. "I was just thinking about home. You know, earlier when we met Wilbur's family, I missed my mom. I wonder if she's worried about me."

Donald and Goofy looked at the all the children on the playground.

"I miss my family too," Donald admitted. "I wonder what Huey, Dewey and Louie are doing, if Daisy misses me back at the castle, what kind of crazy, money making scheme Uncle Scrooge is up to and even if Uncle Ludvig has made some crazy invention."

"Wow, you have a big family too?"

"We all have people we left behind, Sora. Gosh, I miss Maxie everyday."

"Who's Maxie?"

"Max is Goofy's boy. I sure hope he's not slacking off on the castle guard back home."

Sora's jaw dropped. "You have a son?"

"Yup. Ahyuck. He's a real good boy, my Max. You kind of remind me of him, Sora."

The bully detector started beeping loudly.

"Guys," Lewis screamed into Sora's headset, "the playground!"

The children's laughter had mutated into screams. Heartless rose up from the sand, grabbing hands and ankles, dragging the kids down. Darkness pooled behind the swing set, and the bowler hat heartless appeared, grabbing children, hoisting them into the air and blocking the panicked parents that had tried to help their sons and daughters.

Sora, Donald and Goofy summoned their weapons.

"This is beyond low, even for heartless! Let's get them!"

Goofy charged, his shield raised high. He crashed into the battalion of heartless that had surrounded a group of toddlers. The kids sat and cried, calling for their parents, and were luckily reunited moments after Donald blew away the heartless that had been holding the adults down.

A few families escaped, but the heartless were still coming. A father punched a heartless that flew at his wife and child, while a Grandmother whacked a shadow heartless on the ground with her cane to protect her grandson and husband, but it was no use. The heartless rose up and grabbed the father's legs, pulling him down, while the elderly lady's cane was knocked away and she was helpless as the heartless leapt up in the air, ready to slam her down onto the ground.

Sora jumped in front of the grandparents, stabbing the heartless between the eyes with the end of his keyblade. He smacked the next group of heartless backward and once they were a few feet away, he hit them from above with a thunder spell. Then he dashed forward, slicing through the heartless that had dog-piled on top of the father, freeing him.

"It's clear. Go!"

The young father, mother and child moved to escape, but the grandmother and grandfather weren't as fast. Sora stayed in his spot to guard the grandparents and their grandson, repelling incoming heartless with magic.

Goofy managed to free several more children, and Donald reunited them with their parents, even healing minor scraps with magic before sending the families away. The last heartless went down, and finally the bully detector stopped screaming.

Sora turned to the grandmother and grandfather, who were busy trying to soothe their crying preschooler.

"Are you all right?"

The old woman ruffled Sora's hair.

"Oh, thank you, young man. That was very brave."

Sora grinned. "No problem. It should be safe now."

Grandfather had managed to calm the little boy down. He thanked Sora, Donald and Goofy by giving them each a piece of hard, caramel candy. The family walked off hand in hand. Sora watched until they were across the street.

After scanning the area for more heartless and making sure it was safe, the trio regrouped and made contact with Wilbur and Lewis.

Sora pressed the button to communicate from his headset. "Goofy was right. The bully detector does sense when darkness is nearby."

"Looks like the experiment was a success," came Wilbur's voice.

"Yes. I was able to see the attack coming from my monitor, even from up here." Lewis said next. "I'm so glad it worked! I can't believe those things would attack little kids."

Donald fumed. "Stupid heartless."

"We should keep patrollin' the city," Goofy said. "We can't stop until we find that invisible creature."

The bully detector worked like a charm. Within the next few hours, Sora, Donald and Goofy scanned the whole town, taking down heartless in alleys, rooftops, and even in the city streets. It wasn't until sundown when the trio finally reunited with Wilbur and Lewis.

Completely drained, Sora, Donald and Goofy sat back to back on the floor of the time machine.

"Where is that stupid invisible creature," Donald panted, "we're never going to find it at this rate."

Lewis checked his screen. "I'm not picking up anything on the radar. Seems like we've taken down everything in town."

Wilbur tapped the steering wheel of the time machine. "What do we do now? We can't go back to the future until that invisible monster is killed."

"That creature only attacked my inventor's table at the science fair and it hasn't appeared for as long as I've been in the time machine."

Wilbur turned around sharply. "Lewis, you're not suggesting to be bait for that thing, are you?"

"We don't have any other leads, do we?"

"That's a terrible idea. We're not doing it."

"Hey, I'm your father, you have to do as I say."

"Don't play the dad card on me! What if something happens to you?"

"Can't you have a little faith in me? I already saved the future once. And besides, we don't have a better plan."

Wilbur pressed his hands on his face. "I swear you're just as annoying now as when you're older! If mom were here and she were listening to you, she would karate chop your bully detector, sick her frogs on you and laugh as they make you sleep with the fishes. I'm not exaggerating."

"Yes, you are. Franny would never do that."

"That's not the point! You know she's always right and she would think you're being crazy! Let me be the bait. Nothing will happen to the future if I get hurt here."

"Hey, don't bring your mother into this. And this is about protecting both of our futures. I'm not going to put you in danger!"

Wilbur and Lewis glared into each other's eyes until Sora got between the two of them.

"Who said anything about putting anyone in danger?"

"That's right," Donald chimed in. "We're not going to let anyone go in as bait."

"At least, not alone," Goofy said.

Wilbur tapped his foot on the ground. "I really, really, don't like this plan."

"Keep moving forward," Lewis said.

Wilbur glared. "Oh, you just had to use that one on me, didn't you?"

Lewis grinned. "Not fun when your own tactics are used against you, is it?"

"Fine, Dad," Wilbur relented. "So what's the plan?"

 

 

 

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Wilbur crouched behind some bushes. Wilbur kept the radar tight in one hand while eyes searched every direction for movement where there shouldn't be. His other hand rested on top of a can of paint.

Across the street from their hiding spot, Lewis was acting completely normal, as normal as a twelve year old boy could be while wearing a metal headpiece with a mini satellite on it. The bully detector was tucked into his pocket. Lewis sat with a much younger looking Grandma Lucile and Grandpa Bud at a cafe, eating a sandwich. His parents didn't pay attention to the contraption on their son's head as they talked excitedly while sharing their lunch.

Sora watched the people on the street. A fancy car was parked across from the cafe, and a woman with a ridiculously pouffy fur coat walked out of it and down the street. A young man jogged by Lewis' table. A group of kids bought some ice cream from a truck that was parked nearby.

Wilbur, ever vigilant, glared at anyone that came too close to his father's table. A dog ran up to Lewis to get some free pets and Wilbur growled until the dog's owner called it away.

Sora put a hand on Wilbur's shoulder.

"Relax," he said. "If something were to attack, the bully detector would go off."

"I can understand how you're feeling, Wilbur, but I agree with Lewis. I wouldn't want to put my Maxie in danger either."

"You guys are really cool, but you don't understand. Parents always talk about how they would do anything for their kids, but they never think about how hard it would be for us to lose them and my Dad should have been the first person to realize that."

"Why?"

"Lewis grew up in an orphanage. My grandma and grandpa adopted him. He should already know what it's like not to have parents."

Sora and Donald opened their mouths to say something, to comfort Wilbur, but couldn't come up with a good pep talk. Only Goofy's good natured kindness was able to give Wilbur some guidance.

"I think you should have faith in him like he has faith in you."

"Faith in me?"

"He wouldn't have asked you to help protect him if he didn't think you could not do it. Family has each other's back, ya know. Just like how us friends do. We won't let anything happen to Lewis."

Sora punched Wilbur softly in the shoulder. "That's right."

Wilbur smiled. "But I still don't like how that lady in the fur coat is smoking so close to my dad."

Sora looked. The fur coat woman was sitting a few tables from Lewis. She was reading a newspaper while green smoke puffed from the long cigarette holder she held between her bony fingers. She was a strange woman. It was too warm to wear such a coat, and her hair was black on one side, and white on the other.

Lewis' bully detector began to beep.

Wilbur looked down at the radar in his hands and then pointed.

"Look over there."

Just a few parked cars down, the leaves on the pavement were moving. There wasn't any wind and the leaves were crunching flat, even though nothing was crushing them. At least, nothing visible. Nodding to each other, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Wilbur watched the movement of the leaves. They moved, paying attention to the leaves, using then to slowly creep up on the invisible creature.

Wilbur opened the can of paint and held it carefully under his arm as they got closer. The creature must have been moving very slowly, for there wasn't any sounds of its footsteps, but the cars it passed on the street did sway slightly from its passing.

The beeping from Lewis' headdress had caught the attention of the people on the street and the cafe, but Lewis refused to turn it off. All of the bystanders left the cafe out of annoyance, except for Wilbur's parents and the black and white haired woman in the fur coat.

The beeping was a lot faster now, the creature must have reached Lewis. Wilbur jumped out of the bushes, raced across the street and threw his can of blue paint up into the air. It sprinkled down over something and then everyone could see the spiky back of some kind of monster.

The civilians on the street screamed as the paint moved in midair. They began to run away. Lewis' parents grabbed him and began to flee, but the creature let out a roar and chased after them. Now it was Sora, Donald and Goofy's turn.

They burst out of the bushes, sliding between Lewis and the creature. Sora and Donald blasted it with fire spells, while Goofy threw up his shield, just in time to deflect a blow from the creature's invisible jaw. They spread out, attacking the creature from the front, the side, and the back.

The paint on the creature's back spun as the creature turned, throwing Sora, Donald and Goofy back as something thick and muscular hit them from from the air. Caught off guard, Sora he fell onto his back and barely had time to react when he heard the stomps of the creature as it approached him.

He threw a fire spell into the air, hoping to push the creature back. The fireball hit something directly in front of him, and the asphalt to his right cracked. A second later, he felt as though someone had broken an egg on his head and then blue paint dripped onto his shirt.

He looked up. Wilbur was above them in the time machine, dumping paint down onto the ground. The creature was now completely covered and they could see its entire outline. Sora rolled away and regrouped with Donald and Goofy, who were staring at the monster with open mouths.

It was a T-rex, and it had turned around to charge at the three of them. Sora, Donald and Goofy split up. Donald ran into a nearby alley, where the creature couldn't enter because of its size. From his safe spot, he threw ice and lightning spells at the T-rex, while Sora and Goofy engaged it from the ground.

Goofy shielded Sora from the T-rex's bite, giving the keyblade master enough time to move under the T-rex and slash at its underbelly. The T-rex reared back on its hind legs and tail, roaring. Goofy took this moment to throw his shield at its face.

Sora attacked the two legs, and the T-rex lost its balance and fell on its side, crashing into the parked cars on the street. Donald came out of the alley, a lightning spell buzzing at the end of his staff. Goofy jumped up in the air, his shield under his feet. Sora charged at the creature's belly.

The thundaga spell shocked the T-rex's entire body, Goofy smashed down on the creature's neck with his shield, and Sora gave one powerful, final slash at the creature's belly. There was an explosion and then the painted outline of the creature was gone. Goofy landed in a heap on the paint splattered floor, but stood up with triumphant smile.

"So it was a heartless after all," Sora said, watching as a glowing, pink heart flew up through the air, disappearing into the clouds.

Donald jumped a full three feet. "Yeah! We did it!"

Wilbur landed the time machine on the ground. But when the glass dome of the time machine opened and Wilbur tumbled out, he didn't look happy. His face was green, his legs shaking. A second later, he fell to his knees.

Sora, Donald and Goofy were next to him in seconds.

"Are you okay?"

"No." Wilbur croaked. "I don't think I can hold out much longer. Something's wrong. Lewis."

It was just then that Sora looked around the street and spotted Lewis' parents. They were speaking to a police officer. While Donald and Goofy looked after Wilbur, Sora went toward Lewis' parents. Just a few steps away, he heard the terrifying news.

"She was wearing a white coat, and she drove a long, sleek, red and black car."

Sora raced back to his friends. Goofy lifted Wilbur's head off the floor and Sora put Wilbur's arm across his shoulders. Together, they helped Wilbur back into the time machine and sat him down in one of the chairs. Sora went to the controls and grabbed the steering wheel.

"Can you really drive this thing," Donald said.

"Can't be that different from driving the gummi ship."

Too frantic to put that much thought into what he was doing, Sora let instinct take over, and luckily, they were up in the air in a few moments. He let the time machine hover for a little while and then checked on Wilbur.

Donald was funneling healing spells into him and Goofy had given him potions, but Wilbur didn't look like he was getting any better.

Wilbur coughed. "It's Lewis. What happened to him?"

"That weird lady you were worried about earlier, I think she kidnapped him."

"I knew she was suspicious!"

Wilbur's outburst made him hack and he turned over, looking as though he were about to retch. Goofy produced a bucked from somewhere and Wilbur hurled. When he had finally stopped, he reached out for Sora with a pale, sweaty hand.

"You have to find him and fast. The future."

"I know."

"But how are we going to find them? We don't know where to look," Donald said.

"The radar, and the bully detector," Wilbur pointed to the front seat.

Sora gathered up Lewis' inventions. The radar was still beeping.

"Lewis made them so that they can track each other. Hurry."

Goofy took the radar from Sora.

"I'll keep an eye out. You drive."

Wilbur turned on his side and curled up into a ball. Donald casted another healing spell on him.

"Thanks," Wilbur whispered and then feinted.

"We have to hurry," Donald said, "the magic isn't going to last forever."

The yellow dot, which indicated Lewis' position, on the radar, was moving. The friends flew over the city, chasing it. Sora parked the time machine in the air over a warehouse on the outskirts of town. From above, the building looked as though it could collapse at any second.

Carefully, Sora landed the time machine in the alleyway next to the warehouse. He climbed out with Goofy right behind him. Donald didn't leave Wilbur's side.

"I'll stay behind with him. Get Lewis out of danger."

"We will," Sora said.

Goofy handed Donald an ether. "I'm running low. We may need to stock up again soon."

"Be careful," said Donald. He closed up the time machine.

Sora and Goofy stepped around to the side of the warehouse. All the window and doors were barred and covered by wooden planks. The front door didn't have a lock for Sora to open with his keyblade. It too was boarded shut. The only way in was the old fashioned way.

Hiding behind Goofy's shield, the two friends rammed the front door, breaking through the wood and crashing into the warehouse. The first thing they noticed was the dust. Sora and Goofy picked themselves off the floor and sneezed. A nice layer of brown covered the old, yellow, linoleum floor.

Shelves of moldy cardboard boxes, rotting wood, and rusted metal were laid out before them. The shelves stretched up toward the high ceiling and into the darkness that obscured the innards the warehouse. Broken lightbulbs hung from the ceiling, swaying back and forth, making a high pitched creaking that echoed through the large space.

Sora and Goofy stepped carefully down the aisles. They passed by the shiny, red and black car Sora had seen parked on the street when Lewis was at the cafe. From the front, the headlights of the car looked like scowling face.

The car's location marked the end of the aisles. The dark warehouse suddenly burst with lights, blinding them for a moment. When Sora finally got used to the brightness, he felt cold, wet dread lick the back of his neck.

The block long warehouse ended in a large empty space filled with broken scaffolding on the back wall. Shards of glass and old, forgotten materials were littered all over the floor. All the way across the room, sitting in a lonely chair, right in the middle of the huge space, was Lewis.

Ropes were tied around his body and his mouth was hidden under a white cloth. Next to him, breathing out a long, thin line of gag inducing, green smoke was the black and white haired woman from the cafe. Sora and Goofy raced forward, their weapons drawn.

"Ah, ah, ah," the woman wagged her finger.

The bully detector in Goofy's hand beeped. Heartless appeared next to Lewis.

Sora and Goofy froze.

"Don't you know how a hostage situation works, you fools? You don't want the future ruined, now do you?"

Sora lowered his weapon. "What do you want?"

"That ridiculous contraption there." She pointed to Goofy's bully detector.

"How do I know you'll let him go if we give it you?"

"By my name as Cruella De Vil, you have my word that I'll let the brat go. Now hurry up. I can't guarantee what those heartless will do."

Sora took the bully detector from Goofy and slowly approached the skeletal woman. She snatched the walkie-talkie out of his hand with a wide, pointy smile. Then she raised her cigarette into the air and the smoke at the tip hardened and congealed into a green fireball. She aimed at Lewis.

Goofy didn't hesitate. He threw himself forward, shield up, crashing into one of the heartless just in time to protect Lewis from the fiery attack. The green flames burst around his shield but Lewis was unharmed.

Sora lunged at the woman, Cruella, but heartless appeared in his way. As Sora and Goofy battled a wave of heatless, a familiar shadow loomed over the back wall of the warehouse. Sora recognized that long, thin silhouette. It was Dr. Facilier.

Cruella threw the bully detector and the shadow caught it with one hand. Then it snuck up behind Goofy and Lewis and lifted the other bully detector from Lewis' belt. Goofy thrusted his shield at the shadow but it quickly sank into the ground, sliding away with the bully detectors.

Sora slashed through another wave of heartless and barely had any time to defend himself as Cruella threw another ball of green flames his way. Using his keyblade like a baseball bat, Sora knocked the spell away from him and the fireball crashed against the weak roof, making the entire warehouse shiver.

The shaking walls distracted the heartless, allowing Goofy to finally untie Lewis. The boy jumped out of his seat and ran. Goofy chased after Lewis, deflecting heartless as he ran back into the aisles of the warehouse. A group of heartless jumped in the air, ready to dog-pile Goofy, but Sora destroyed them with a lightning spell, finally allowing his friends to escape.

He moved to follow his friends, but heartless appeared in his path. As Sora made quick work of them, he sensed something hot on his back. Sora jumped to to the left, just in time to see a green ball of fire char the heartless he had just been fighting. Turning around, he saw another fireball coming at his face.

Sora rolled out of the way. Across the room, Cruella's already messy hair was spiking up hideously around her face as she threw fire spells nonstop. Her spells fanned out like a whirling hurricane, attacking Sora and the remaining heartless. He jumped and ducked, but the spells were sticking to the floor and walls, giving Sora less and less space to maneuver.

"First you stopped my plans to make the perfect puppy coat and now this!"

The smell of cigarette smoke was Sora's only warning that another fireball was coming his way. He dodged to the right, barely avoiding the green flames as the spell zoomed past and crashed into the aisles behind him. Then he was backed into a corner, pushed between the warehouse wall and a barricade of fire, all he could do was smack the incoming spell back at Cruella. It flew at her head, but she simply spread out her fingers and the fireball dissipated before it could burn what little skin was left on her thin face.

"Puppy coat?" Sora panted. "What are you talking about?"

"My Dalmatians, you imbecile. If you and your disgusting animal friends hadn't found them all, I would have had a glorious new fur coat by now."

She summoned a fireball three times as huge as the last and it seared through the air. There was no way to block that one, and Sora had no choice but to roll through the flames on the ground to avoid it. The fireball slammed into the warehouse wall where he had been second before, leaving a black hole in the concrete.

Sora patted down the green flames on his clothes, casting a healing spell on himself to ease the burns. Fury roared in his heart. His grip on his keyblade tightened until his entire arm twitched.

"You were the one that separated Pongo and Perdita from their puppies? All to make some stupid coat?"

Cruella lifted up her arm. Another blast was coming, this one almost as tall as the warehouse aisles. "And I was so close too," she hissed.

"How could you kill puppies for a fur coat? What's wrong with you?"

"Naive boy, don't you know that animals only exist for the enjoyment of people?"

Sora felt an anger eat away at his bones, and he charged through the fire toward Cruella, ignoring the burning on his legs and the crackling of the flames in his ears. Just a few feet away, he raised his keyblade, ready to throttle her, but she simply flicked the giant fireball at him.

The impact was like hitting a burning, sandpapered wall. Sora fell against the ground, smoking from head to toe, barely able to lift his arm and cast a healing spell on himself. The warmth of the cure spell did little good, only keeping him conscious.

There was a whisper in his ear.

"Sora, are you okay?"

Jiminy.

"I can't get close," he panted, slowly turning over to stand back up.

From behind his hood, he felt something light fall off of him. Then he spotted a little spec jumping over the green flames on the ground. It was nearing Cruella.

Sora waved his arm. "Hey, Cruella, your fashion sense is so last week."

"Excuse me? All those ridiculous zippers and you call my fabulous outfit outdated."

"Not just outdated, tacky."

"Why you-"

She lifted her hand in the air, a fire spell as big as a semi truck pooling at the end of her cigarette holder. Cruella swung her arm back. Sora covered his face, preparing for the attack. Jiminy jumped on Cruella's hand and pulled her fingers free. The cigarette holder came lose, the fireball flew up into the air, and the ceiling exploded.

Debris rained down on Sora and Cruella.

Panic overruled Sora's exhaustion. He jumped, ducked and weaved as broken scaffolding, metal beams and glass stabbed into the floor. In the midst of all the running, Sora spotted Jiminy on the ground, hiding under his umbrella, barely avoiding the chunks of ceiling that were ready to squash him. Sora turned around, and ran toward Jiminy, scooping him up. He tucked the cricket into his pocket and then had to raise his keyblade over his head to stop a piece of the ceiling from giving him a concussion.

Cruella screamed. Her coat was caught under a fallen beam from the ceiling and she was desperately trying to dislodge it, not noticing that the concrete slabs right above her head were dangling by a single thin, metal string. The slabs came lose, and before Sora could even try to rush to help her, she was buried under several tons of metal and cement.

The ceiling wasn't finished breaking apart, and Sora jumped out of the way as a rockslide of bricks came crashing down toward him. The walls were beginning to crumble inward, trapping Sora. Something shined about his head, and he looked up to see the time machine coming down from the sky.

Goofy was hanging out of the side of the time machine, holding onto Donald's legs.

Donald reached out for Sora. "Grab on!"

Sora leapt, his hands clamping down on Donald's wrists.

Goofy roared from above. "Pull!"

Sora was lifted up into the air. The time machine weaved between the falling pieces of the building. Sora felt his legs get nicked and scratched by runaway rubble, but then Goofy and Donald finally pulled him into the time machine. He crashed into his two friends. Behind them, Lewis closed the time machine's glass dome.

"Wilbur, jump to the future!" Lewis commanded.

The crumbling warehouse vanished. Bright colors erased everything. Donald and Goofy held onto Sora as they flew through the rainbow tube. The old fashioned city with its brick buildings and pollution inducing cars had disappeared, replaced by the bright and shiny city of the future.

Wilbur flew them straight to the Robinson house, and landed the time machine on the lawn just as the entire Robinson family came running out.

Inside the time machine, Donald and Goofy fussed about Sora, but he waved them off.

"I'm okay, I'm okay! Really."

"Why'd you have to take that crazy lady on by yourself," Donald demanded.

"I didn't take her on by myself. Jiminy had my back. Thanks pal."

From behind Sora's hood there was a little chuckle. "Anytime."

"Wilbur, open this time machine right this minute, Mister!"

Franny's furious voice made Wilbur hide behind Lewis.

"Maybe you should go first, Dad."

With an annoyed sigh, Lewis opened the time machine's dome and hoped out. The mere sight of him cooled the fury in Franny's eyes and she threw her arms around him.

"Oh don't tell me you were in danger again!"

"I'm okay. Really. I'm fine."

"We sure are," said a familiar voice.

The entire family turned around to see Cornelius Robinson walking out of the house. Without missing a beat, Lewis went up to his older self and gave him a high five. Wilbur jumped out of the time machine and ran to his dad. Sora, Donald and Goofy watched as the father and son hugged, until the rest of the family pulled them out of the time machine to join in on the celebration.

After getting thanked personally by everyone, and even getting a kiss on the cheek from Mrs. Robinson, Sora, Donald and Goofy found themselves in the grand dining room of the Robinson house. Everyone was eating PB&J sandwiches.

"Have you seen any more heartless in the future," Lewis asked his older self.

"Not since the five of you came back. I haven't gotten any reports from the city."

"Does that mean that the heartless problem is done," Wilbur asked.

"Maybe," Lewis said, "but we won't know for sure. Hey, remember those bully detectors I made when we were kids?"

"Hmm, yeah, we did make something like that. But I remember that they disappeared."

"Might want to try and remake those bully detectors. Although I think they might need a better name at this point."

"How about darkness detectors? If those heartless come back, we'll be ready."

Watching Lewis and Cornelius talk gave Sora a headache. Time travel was crazy enough, but Lewis and Cornelius acted as though talking to yourself was like talking to your best friend.

"So what are you guys going to do now," Wilbur asked.

Sora's mouth was too full of peanut butter to talk, but Goofy answered for him.

"Well, if the heartless problem is solved and the future is saved, I guess we should be continuing our travels."

Cornelius dug into his pocket. "Before you go, I wanted to give these to you."

He handed Sora, Donald and Goofy a pin. Donald and Goofy immediately put the rocket shaped pin on their shirts.

"What are these?"

Lewis and Cornelius shared a look and winked. "Think of it as a lucky charm. Might come in handy."

"Wow. Thanks."

"I really should be thanking all of you guys," Lewis said. "For saving me, for saving Wilbur, and for saving the future."

After dessert was served, Wilbur took Lewis back to his time. Sora, Donald and Goofy said goodbye to Cornelius and his family. As they were leaving, just outside the Robinson house, a light flashed in the corner of Sora's eye. Turning around, he saw that the big letter R that hung over the front door of the Robinson mansion was gleaming. Donald and Goofy watched as the letter faded, to be replaced by the shape of a keyhole.

Raising his keyblade, Sora sent a beam of light into the keyhole. There was a click, and the keyhole faded. The world locked, and a warm breeze flowed over the lawn, through the future city in the distance, and through time, giving Lewis a sense of closure when he returned to the past.

 

 

 

The darkness' whispers were soothing but the deeper he fell into sleep, the harder it became to breath.

Stay asleep.

"No."

What good would it do for you to go back?

"I have to go back. I have to see my friends."

What friends? Can you even remember their names?

He didn't have an answer.

You abandoned them. You opened your heart to darkness. They don't want you back.

But he wanted to see them, even if he didn't deserve to. He wanted to know they were safe, he wanted to say sorry, he wanted...he couldn't remember. The darkness smothered him back into oblivion and the more he tried to fight it, the harder it squeezed his heart.

Something sliced through his sleep. It pushed the darkness away and then he remembered something. Names.

Sora.

Kairi.

And one more name.

Ansem.

He resisted the darkness, swimming up against the harsh current of the black depths that were trying to pull him back down, reaching toward a tiny star above the surface of the dark water. The light blinked in and out, yet still he reached for it. Even if it were small, even if were far away, he knew he had to get it.

The darkness spoke.

Why fight?

He didn't answer, he kept swimming.

I am a part of your heart now. You will have to face me sooner or later.

The star was just ahead of him. He reached up to grab it but the darkness gathered around his chest like the claws of a monster, pulling him back.

You've been in the realm of darkness too long. You're mine now.

The star was getting further and further away. He scratched and struggled against the tendrils of darkness wrapped around his body. A weapon appeared in his hand, and he sliced the darkness, but it was not enough. More dark hands appeared to try and drag him down.

Then something came down from above, white and hot like lightning. The dark hands loosened just a tiny bit and he wriggled free, swimming up and breaking through the surface. He rolled over onto a shiny, colorful glass platform, gasping for breath.

Finally able to stand on his feet, he looked down. The dark ocean he had swam through was gone. Instead, he saw a picture of himself on the disk-shaped platform below. A silver haired boy rested against a tree with star shaped fruit. He stood alone, looking out into the sea.

He was finally out of the dark. It was safe to wake up.

Riku opened his eyes. In his half awake state, he could feel the darkness lingering in his heart, but now that he was awake, he was more equipped to fight it. The world around him was completely black. He was still in the realm of darkness, but he knew that there must have been some new light in that realm, otherwise he never would have had the strength to wake up.

His heart seized, and for a moment, Riku thought he heard a familiar voice.

"Kairi?"

 

 

 

Jiminy's Journal

Cruella De Vil (First Appeared in 101 Dalmatians, 1961): A fashion obsessed woman who wanted to use Pongo and Perdita's puppies to make herself a fur coat. Her greed and obsession proved to be her downfall.

Riku (First Appeared in Kingdom Hearts, 2002): A responsible boy from Destiny Islands and one of Sora's best friends. He disappeared into the darkness after Sora and Mickey closed the door. No one knows what happened to him, or if he is still fighting the darkness on the other side.