Luminary Uprise 85

85: Stormy Seas

Back in Halloween Town, Skellington went about rallying a resistance. The others roamed the Lower sector at their leisure.
“Okay, Clive,” said Myed, “they say a healthy Pokémon has to have a spar a day…don’t worry, I’ll take it easy on you! Clive? Hey!”
Clive had discovered the bright red nose of Zero the ghost dog, and was investigating it fully. Myed just laughed.
Kairi and Camryn were having a lively discussion about Camryn’s sketchbook. “It’s what I use to see the future,” Camryn explained. “Whatever I draw comes true. Look.”
She flipped to the most recent drawing: a sketch of the Cromwells facing off against Aro Volturi with several vague shapes in the back—the party.
“That’s how Alex and I knew we had to be here,” said Camryn.
“I used to draw too,” Kairi chipped in.
“Really? Used to? Why’d you stop?”
Kairi didn’t really know how to explain it. She had never really drawn anything since turning ten, but Naminé had…and Naminé was part of her. Not to mention Kairi had practiced sketching some in her childhood…scratching designs on the walls of the Secret Place on the islands…her drawing hand began to twitch, wanting a pencil, just at the thought.
Skellington reappeared in Guillotine Square later with Sally and Finkelstein in tow. “Shock, Lock, and Barrel wanted to come,” he explained, “but I expressly forbid it. It’s bad enough when they cause mischief here! Of course I couldn’t ask the Mayor; he’s still in jail…and probably still under the effects of that arrow…yuck.”
Zero floated to Skellington’s shoulder. “Arf!”
“You want to come too?” said Skellington.
Zero flew around Sally’s head, trying to indicate to his owner that she would be a good companion while the two waited for Jack to return. “Arf!”
“All right,” said Skellington. “Sora, read us out of here!”
“The arrow,” Luxord muttered. “I wonder whatever became of it.”

Maleficent kept it in her pocket to prevent it from causing any more damage around the World That Never Was. However, she didn’t resent what it had done to her. She kept peering at the one-handed pirate over the top of her copy of Vile magazine (the number one publication in villain fashion) while sitting on a pure white chair.
“Are you staring?” Hook barked.
“Pardon if I do,” Maleficent said coldly.
“I’d better be off to ready the ship for the Neverland raid,” Hook announced. “Thanks to Xehanort, the crew will have the greatest victory of all…but say, you have to place an apple there, correct?”
“That is a truth…”
“You may as well ride along.”
Maleficent stood up in a flash, dropping her magazine on the floor and accidentally dropping the arrow into the fold of the chair. “We shall be off, then.”
The two walked from the room, side by side, as Jafar walked in and surveyed the scene with general confusion. Oh well. He was tired, and needed a rest.
He sat in the chair and stood up in a flash. He removed a pink arrow from the chair…curse that Maleficent for leaving sharp things where he would sit on them. He crushed it beneath his foot, this time ensuring it would lose all its power and be a nuisance no more…not realizing its power, of course.
“What was she reading?” Jafar muttered, picking up the copy of Vile from the floor. It had landed open to an interview with perhaps the most influential evil fashion designer in the multiverse: Cruella de Vil. de Vil herself was showcased in a flattering picture that took up half a page.
As Jafar stared at her picture, the arrow took effect, and his heart beat faster.

“We’re back!” Sora called into the entrance hall of the Radiant Garden castle.
Yuffie walked out of the hall across the way, lips pursed.
“Hey, Yuffie, what’s up?”
Yuffie’s response was “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”
“That bad?” Leon asked.
It all came out in a rush. “Sebastian hid in Elena’s underwear drawer and she threw a fit, Aerith made Elizabeth a dress but she didn’t want it, Will’s water has been waterlogging the carpet, Belle’s crabby because Rude’s reading the book she wanted from the library, and Cait Sith scared the bejabers out of Cogsworth! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!”
“Then I promise to be a quiet guest that won’t cause trouble,” Finkelstein vowed. “But first…am I allowed access to Master Ansem’s former laboratories? I still have to see if my partial reanimation and brain transplant experiments are successful or not.”
Yuffie ducked her head into the snake-head fountain.

She lost it again in the library, as the others told the tale of the holiday towns. All Sora had to do was say the word “Valentine” and Yuffie, reminded of a certain turncoat, threw a shuriken with a shriek. It sliced open one of the pipes in the ceiling, which started leaking unrefined magic onto the floor. The glittery substance gelled into waffles.
“You’d better count yourself lucky that little #%&$& you caused only turned into #$^&&# waffles,” Cid scolded. “Unrefined magic is unpredictable! It could’ve turned into a pile of #$%&*%^* venomous snakes for all we know! You’re cleaning that up, you little #%&$^&!”
“Why did you have unrefined magic running through the ceiling?” Hercules asked, looking up as first silver glitter, then waffle batter dripped onto his eye.
“What else could we use to preserve living hearts?” Xigbar replied.

“Now,” Saïx warned before retreating into his bedroom, “NO ONE is to nail a bedsheet over my door tonight!”
“Got it,” everyone sighed.
“I just hope R…R…gah, I can’t even say the name, that taser-happy cinnamon head gets it,” Axel growled.
“You know his hair is the same color as yours, right?” Sora teased.

Reno, at that moment, was an unsuspecting victim, lounging in the library. Yuffie giggled as she tiptoed away, having lifted his wallet from his pocket.
“Yes!” she whispered to herself. “All mine! Wait…where’d it go?”

“Who knew that little ninja girl had so much money on her?” Jack Sparrow said with a shrug. “I guess it was my duty as a pirate to take that wallet…I mean, she was a ninja, after all. A NINJA. Wait a second, someone’s run off with me loot!”

“I’m SURE this wallet was stolen,” said Aladdin, walking to Leon’s room. He knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Aladdin walked into Leon’s chambers. “Sir, I caught Jack Sparrow with this wallet…hey, it’s gone!”

Rikku happily floated about, lugging the wallet that was about her size. “Riches, riches!” she cried. “I’m gonna be rich!”
She landed on a table and pried open the wallet, only to find it empty of money.

Reno settled back down into his chair, imagining the pixie’s face when she opened the wallet. That, she could keep. All the gil from it jingled in his pocket, where it belonged.

The next morning, Sora stumbled down to breakfast. “Hey…has anyone seen Kairi?”
“She went into town this morning,” said Aerith. “I don’t know what she wanted…”
“I’m here.” Kairi walked back into the room with a small shopping bag.
“What’d you get?” Sora asked. “Can I see?”
Kairi removed her purchase from the bag. She had obtained a sketchpad that looked the spit of Naminé’s. “I thought I’d practice,” she explained. “After all, I used to draw all the time when I was eight…and Naminé drew all her life, even if it was only a year.”
Reno barged in and nearly tripped over a chair. “The new allies are here, yo!”
“About time,” said Cloud.
“What do you mean, allies?” Tifa asked. “We were expecting one guy…this friend of Leon’s, what was it? Sauron?”
“Auron,” Leon corrected.
“Just him today.”
“He’s out there, all right,” said Reno, “but he’s not alone. Some kind of winged thing is with him.”
“Sephiroth!” Cloud cried, charging forward with his sword.
When he reached the outside of the castle, however, it became stunningly clear to him that the winged being in question was NOT Sephiroth.
Leon stumbled out after him. “Auron—“ he began, but he stopped short at the sight of Auron’s companion.
“I ran into her on the way here,” Auron grunted, “and somehow, neither of us thought she wanted to miss this.”
Leon approached the other, a young woman with long, dark hair and a pair of white wings, and gently took her hands. “Rinoa.”
“It’s been a long time, Squall,” Rinoa answered, smiling sweetly.
“I go by Leon now…”
“Leon.” She tried the name out. “I like that. But why?”
“Because I failed our world…I didn’t want the name from it anymore.”
“You didn’t fail, not exactly…”
Their conversation was cut short when both Rinoa and Leon were overcome by the impulse to kiss one another passionately on the lips.
Auron grunted and shrugged.
“We’ll leave these two lovebirds to doing that,” said Yuffie, who seemed to be over her temper tantrums. “Come on in!”
“Hey, Auron!” Sora waved. “Long time no see!”
“Sora,” Auron greeted in return. “Likewise.” It was hard to tell if he was smiling under the scarf that covered his mouth. Most likely, he wasn’t.
“So what’s the deal with that Rinoa?” Myed asked.
“Leon’s lover from the world he lived in after leaving Radiant Garden,” Cloud said. He wouldn’t elaborate.
“Well,” said Sora, “it’s good that they met up again!”
“SURPRISE ATTACK!”
Reno pounced from around a corner, attempting to tackle Axel and put him into a headlock. Auron pushed him back with one hand, sending him back into the hallway from which he came and causing him to cry, “HEY!”
From further off, Denzel, Chicken Little, and Marlene giggled.
Cogsworth blocked the others’ path for a moment as he dragged a mop across the carpet. “Sorry,” he said, “but Will’s been through this hall again…”
Reno tried sneaking up on the others, but Dumbo hit him with a jet of water.
“Are things always like this around here?” Auron asked gruffly.
“Well,” said Tifa, “mostly, except as of yesterday, we got a mad scientist back in the labs.”
On cue, there was the sound of an explosion from below, and Finkelstein called up, “Nothing to worry about, nothing twelve buckets of water, a mop, and a roll of bandages won’t fix!”
“Don’t compare us to him,” Vexen sighed. “We were NEVER that destructive.”
“Mostly…” Xaldin cast a glance over to Xigbar.
“I caused less damage than Sugar-High did,” Xigbar growled.
“And who was that?” Sora asked. “You’re not telling me Aeleus was hyperactive, are you?”
“Ienzo, actually,” said Aeleus.
“What? No! That’s impossible!”
“Nobodies and their Others differ greatly in their personalities,” Vexen explained. “There were days when he literally bounced off walls…”
“But I assure you, I DID have the capacity to be serious,” Zexion added.
“He was quite subdued if he was sick, or if he was sad about something, or if he was tired, but otherwise…” Xaldin winced.
“Enough chitchat, please,” said Yuffie, walking straight through Zero and not really caring. “We’ve got the next world set up for you.”

“After the incident with Xemnas,” Tifa explained, “Radiant Garden and Disney Castle decided to form a sort of alliance, to get to know each other better. We lent each other books of our history.”
“We sent them a copy of Radiant Garden Through the Ages,” said Yuffie, holding up a book about as thick as a later Harry Potter tome, to give a reference that those on this side of the fourth wall would understand.
“And they,” Tifa grunted, “gave us THIS.”
She clumsily dropped a book entitled The Unabridged History of Disney Castle, Toontown, and the Surrounding World onto a table. This book was at least three times as thick as the Radiant Garden book, and the table even groaned under the weight.
“I’m guessing that’s how we get to Disney Castle,” said Sora.
“Whenever you’re ready,” said Aerith.
Sora took a deep breath and began to read.

No one expected to hit a storm going over the Sea of Text. No one expected to be thrown off course and into the raging waters, which upon closer inspection were made up of language.
Zexion considered the irony as the waters pulled him under: drowning in words…
That’s when the rescue ship came.

Zexion coughed up water. He looked about the deck; all of the party was present and accounted for.
A woman came and stood over him. “Are you all right?” she asked with a businesslike edge to her voice.
“Yes…” Zexion sputtered. “Where…where are we?”
“You’re on the Rachel,” the woman explained, “the only vessel we could salvage from the wreckage of Moby Dick. This here is the ship of the refugees of Literature, and I’m what you could call the captain.” She extended a hand to help Zexion up. “My name is Thursday Next.”