Sora Versus Toon Link Part 5: The Ultimate Showdown!!! -Act I
Somewhere far away, in the not-to-distant past.......
Act I
"........Where am I? Is anything real this time, or all just another dream?.........."
The young man struggled to awaken from his slumber, it felt to him like it had been years since he had suddenly ceased to exist. And yet, Sora was finally awake somewhere and for some reason. What had happened to him before wasn't quite apparent yet to the Keyblade Master, but it was obvious that he wasn't alone in that cold, gloomy foyer of Hollow Bastion. Sora had company, and they were closing in fast. He didn't know why he was in his current situation, but it was apparent to the teenage hero that if he unless he readied his guard then it wouldn't be long until Sora returned to the dark abyss from whence he had just emerged.
"Sawra, yurr'e alive! Downald, come quick!" "It's a miwracule!"
Fortunately for the still-groggy hero, it wasn't hostile company that awaited him this time around. Instead, Sora easily recognized the voices of his best buds in the whole world- Donald Duck and Goofy, the two brothers in arms that had stuck with him through the good times and the bad. The Disney heroes flew down the steps to greet the person they had thought dead just an hour before. At the bottom of the stairway, in front of the fountain where they had first dueled Dark Riku, Team Disney was finally reunited. The oninous mood of the musty foyer belied the excitement of the meeting that was taking place at the moment.
"What happened to me?", the Keyblade Master weakly asked to his best friends. "How did I end up here?" Sora struggled to come to his senses, but he dimly realized that for him to be reduced to his current state, lying prone in the middle of an unfamiliar hall with little recollection of his own identity or the events of just a few minutes before, that something very significant had just occurred- to Sora, it was almost as if he had died and somehow returned to life.
Fortunately for him, Donald and Goofy seemed to be very relieved to have found their leader. Realizing the currently amnesiac state of the Keyblade Master, the pair decided to elaborate from the beginning.
"Hyuck Hyuck, it's such a rulief to see you again! We thought you were a gwoner for shure! One moment you were standin' in front of Kairi, and then you just vwanished in to nuthin'!"
The name seemed to rouse the revived hero back to some semblance of mental clarity. After all, Kairi was Sora's best friend of all and he swore an oath to do anything for her. The thought slowly crept in- if this is what happened to Sora, then where's Kairi? Didn't Riku say that-
"Donald! Where's Kairi? Did it work, is she okay? Did I really.... you know.....die???" The Keyblade Master pleaded with the despondent duck for some answers, but the mallard, replendent in his wizard robes and showing a rare moment of calm, only glanced down and began to utter what he had to do. To Donald, it was somewhat of a vindication for himself. He and Goofy had tried to warn Sora, but the reckless teen hero actually had gone through with the deed. The duck was more than a little surprised that Sora had revived, to be sure, but now was the moment that he and Goofy had feared. Now was the time for them to reveal the truth.
"Sawra, cawm down for a sec. We twied to warn you, but you picked up Riku's Keybwade and impawed yourself with it! And then... you just evapowated. Kaiwi..... didn't wake uwp. Her hawt was inside yours, but she's stiwll lifewess.........It didn't work, something's still missing but I'm gwad your'e okay!"
Predictably, Sora wasn't cheered up by Donald's news. After all, he thought to himself, wasn't Kairi's heart the final one needed to open the Hollow Bastion keyhole so the world could be sealed from the darkness? That's at least what Maleficent and Riku had thought, although Sora realized the folly of trusting those who made their fortunes from decietful behavior. However, that didn't quite explain why the two were aiming for something that clearly had not worked. Perhaps, the Keyblade Master thought, Donald would have some more answers for him.
"How....did I end up here, Donald?" The last place Sora remembered being at was in the keyhole room, but that was at the other end of the castle. "Wewlll, uh,..." the duck responded with hesitation, "you were a Heartwess for a while. We would have killed you when we saw you, but something brought you back when Goofy was about to do it. Something guided you back here, and your body just came back somehow. We still thought you were a goner, and so we ran to spwead the news. I don't know how you came back to life, but we need you more than evwer!"
"And what about Riku?" The Keyblade suddenly recalled his former friend turned dangerous enemy. the leader of the Heartless, known only as Ansem, had lured the older boy to the side of darkness through promises of a Keyblade of his own. As it turned out, Sora used that same weapon in an attempt to free Kairi's heart. It obviously hadn't worked......
"Golly Gee, what ever did happen to him?", the amiable dog thought aloud. Goofy was resplendent in his yellow and green uniform and held the his Knight's Shield at the ready. As the captain of King Mickey's guard, that had been his training over a lifetime. Besides, without Hollow Bastion's keyhole being locked the Heartless still had free reign of the old place. They could expect a fight around any corner, and now that Sora was still alive, even the dimwitted dog was sure that Ansem, wherever he was at the moment, would keep coming for them.....
"Goofy, you big lug! Remwembwer, Sowa beat him right befowe our idiot buddy here killed himself!!! But then..... Ansem rose up and took him along again, and we haven't seen him since!!! He's still around here somewhere, and we need to get moving befowe he finds us!"
"Hyuck Hyuck, we didn't do so well against Ansem by ourselfs last time, did we?", Goofy blurted out before he realized the significance of his words. The dog was right, however- right now, with Sora just waking up, they were the prey of anyone, and any moment they could be wiped off the map like their leader just nearly was. They needed to find the others- Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, anyone else- and fast. Or else, the Seeker of Darkness would have his way and Hollow Bastion would go crashing down with them inside.
Despite his mental fog, Sora seemed to have the same realization as the others did right then- things usually worked that way for them, since they had been fighting the Heartless wherever they had appeared for several months now. Of course, it seemed to be a longer amount of time than that because the team was so in tune with each other. In any case, the Keyblade Master was grateful to the duck and the dog for having spared him from eternal slumber. Unfortunately, he thought, the same wasn't true at the moment for Kairi......
"Who's watching over the Kairi and the other princesses?!?!?!?", Sora demanded to know of his allies. He was gaining awareness of his surroundings fast, and the memories of recent events seemed to come at him all at once. "We have to save them, they are the only chance we have left against Ansem!" As of this moment, there were a number of princesses gathered whose hearts were needed to open the keyhole of Hollow Bastion. That, Sora realized, was why they were in this lonely castle in the first place- The plans of the late Maleficent had been to use their hearts to unlock the hole and gain ultimate power from it. Unfortunately for her, Team Disney had arrived just in time and they narrowly defeated the Mistress of All Evil. Riku, who was possessed by Ansem, then turned on the witch and smited her with the same dark Keyblade that Sora had just used on himself. While they were recovering there in the chapel, the unguarded and unconscious princesses could be attacked by the Heartless- or worse, used by Ansem or someone else to secure thje victory for ultimate darkness. If it was true that Kairi still hadn't been revived, then she would be in the utmost danger!
"Come on guys, let's go get Kairi before the Heartless do!", the Keyblade Master shouted, as the youthful hero leapt to his feet and his Allies struggled to keep up. For some reason, despite almost meeting his end Sora felt more alive and powerful than ever before. That silver and gold weapon of legend, the Keyblade, seemed to be as comfortable a partner as ever as the Keyblade Master ran at a breakneck pace through the orange-lit halls and past the glittering old statues of the castle. For as cursed as this place was, Sora figured, there was something majestic about it- perhaps the castle did have a life of its own, after all. Such were the passing fancies of the teenager's mind as he dashed through the halls. Donald and Goofy probably weren't happy with Sora's current pace, but if anything mattered to the Keyblade Master at that moment it was Kairi. He had sworn an oath to never leave her, but alas even his own sacrifice hadn't been enough to restore the innocent girl to life. There had to be something else, another piece to the puzzle, but it just didn't work out right now..... In any case, her welfare was Sora's first priority.
The mazes of the old castle continued, old staircases and stone walkways and bizarre old machinery, all a blur to Sora. For all he knew, it could have been already been too late. After all, since waking up he hadn't seen one person in his journey through the castle. The sense of uncertainty began to take hold, as the group finally came across the old Chapel where Maleficent had met her demise. For some reason, Sora didn't feel out of place here; the old gargoyles and dusty stained glass seemed like the perfect place to pause for a second and let his winded allies catch up for once.
"Gawrsh", Goofy said, breaking the stale silence of the abandoned Chapel, "this place gives me the Creeps! Downald, ya hangin' in there buddy?" The cantankerous duck, who relied mainly on his purple Mage's Staff for attacking and wasn't exactly accustomed to the exercise, didn't find amusement in the dog's encouragement. "Yeah wright," he retorted, "we're awmost to the sanctum. Let's gwo, and save the bantwer for when-" Donald was unable to even finish his joking sentence, and for good reason.
A thundering crash shook the foundations of the sturdy old Chapel, and the group realized it at once- the fight for Hollow Bastion, and the universe, was still going on! Sora, as usual, reacted first.. "Come on guys! We gotta go now! I'm not letting Ansem get away again this time!" Sora hadn't remembered the last time that someone had really gotten to him emotionally, but never before had the world that he and his friends called home been this close to oblivion. There was no time left anymore- no second chances, no time to regret or plan or apologize for the past- this time, the entire universe was at stake, and the only hope for it staying intact rode on the shoulders of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The ground shook ever more loudly as the brothers in arms passed the atrium where not too long ago the Dragon of Maleficent had met its end. "At least then," Sora thought as the situation became more apparent to him every passing moment, "I had been in control of my destiny. Slay the dragon and win. If I can't make it to Kairi in time, I'll never forgive myself......all for the worst choice in the world!"
The roars and disturbances of battle grew ever louder as the brothers in arms approached the dark portal which led to Hollow Bastion's Inner Sanctum. This wasn't a war that was going on, it was a massacre. Whomever or whatever was responsible for the carnage inside those walls was obviously enjoying it, the evidence clearly echoing as deep laughter and roars of triumph through the dreary hallways. Sora, Donald, and Goofy hesitated to imagine what twisted being Ansem had turned into as a result of his lust for revenge against everything that stood for light in the world, or if it even could be him anymore. What sort of thing could possibly be so depraved as to not even spare the innocent? Such a concept hadn't really been apparent to Sora before- he had faced some heinous villains to be sure, but nothing of the repugnance of what lay just a few steps ahead of him. With just a second of caution, the three heroes entered the purple vortex- and their rendezvous with destiny......
The Grand Hall, previously the scene of so many prior struggles, fell silent as the Keyblade Master and his friends rushed up the stairways. No more yelling, no more explosions, just a quiet that saturated the air as if the graves had already been dug for the monster's victims. In fact, Sora would have ignored the mortally wounded hero, Leon, entirely unless the soldier had called out to him from a corner obscured by the shadows-
"You..... are too late.....Sora. That man.......came out of nowhere.......he won. We tried to stop him..... but there was nothing we could do for the others. Yuffie is dead.....Aerith and Beast also. You don't have a chance. Run for your lives, and don't return........Save yourselves.........for your future............."
The Great King of Evil had returned, and Ganondorf was more heinous now than ever. The Gerudo Lord was no worse for wear, which seemed impressive considering that he had been turned to stone just a year prior to this moment. Ganondorf stood where Sora and Riku had dueled just hours previously, staring at the hypnotizing colors of Hollow Bastion's enormous keyhole. He seemed to be fairly amused at the Keyblade Master's arrival, but had nothing more to say about it. Donald, quick-tempered as he was, finally broke the uneasy silence. "Yow're not Ansem.....We fwought him before......Why would you dwo this to us?......" Sora was losing patience quickly, and he decided to interject as well with his own choice words. As he took a bold step towards the silent King of Thieves, he yelled, "Who are you?!?!?!? Come on, let's settle this!!! I'm not going to let the darkness win, especially for you!!! ANSWER ME!!!!!", he dared to call out to the man who had defined evil in another world for thousands of years. Alas, the echos rang hollow through the ancient halls- for all Sora knew, the man in front of him had done away with every sign of life in Hollow Bastion except for the four of them. Awaiting the inevitable response to his bold challenge, the Keyblade Master tensed his grip on the weapon that had chosen him, above all others, to wield it. Though the shining blade gave him a small measure of security, it also brought passing guilt to his mind, just for a second, at that very moment- "Would Leon still be alive if he had my gift instead??? He didn't have to die like this....."
After that passing thought, the Great King of Evil finally broke his silence. "After all," he reasoned, "I may as well gratify these fools by letting them know how they will meet their end!!!" The dialog between heroes and villain finally began, as the Gerudo King opened with a question. "You ask me why I'm here, but have you revealed the same for yourselves? You pathetic worms, I may not know you but I am not impressed by what I have heard. You say that you want to lock this world from darkness? YOU.....ARE.....DARKNESS!!!!! And so am I the great Ganondorf. I'm the one who strives to master it, become one with it! Consider this pathetic girl, one heart apparently above all others, except one-"
"NO!!!! You're not taking her away from me!!! Not like this!!!", Sora interrupted with a roar, as he suddenly realized the fiend's objective. This man clearly wasn't another Heartless, or another one of their puppets- he knew the secret to unlocking any Keyhole in the galaxy, and to do so he would be willing to take an innocent life. There was another Princess of Heart out there, somewhere, and without her power Sora couldn't beat this new enemy at his own game. Without her, Kairi would never see Sora's face, or the light of day for that matter, again. Without her, the Keyblade itself would be doomed.
Ganondorf waited a second, and then responded with amusement. "You got spunk, kid, and I'll give you that. Reminds me of the next person on my hit list.......speaking of which, I've got a score to settle. With both of the Princesses of Heart, in my possession, there's nothing you can do to stop me now-"
The duck had obviously seen enough of this treatment, as he started to loudly squawk to his teammates." Wet's show this piece of meat who he's dealin' with!!!", he shouted to Sora and Goofy. "Come on, wet's take him down!!!" The others agreed, and Team Disney made a direct charge at the Gerudo King. Ganondorf saw it coming before it happened, and his opponents never had a chance- it was a futile effort, as Ganondorf dissappated into a purple vortex of dark magic before the heroes could even strike a blow on him. It was as if the enemy they had just faced was a figment of their imagination, something that they feared Ansem would become but never had........
As the portal faded away, Ganondorf's laughter broke the silence of the Grand Hall one last time.
Goofy had been silent for this entire confrontation, but at last he made his opinions heard. "Well, that fellow ain't gonna stop us, now is he? We've been through everything together, we gotta find a way to follow him wherever he's goin.......I'm not lettin' Ganon win, and I'll say that to my grave!!!" Goofy's words seemed to be obvious, but considering the nearly impossible odds Team Disney now faced, could any of them take him seriously? Had darkness triumphed over the Keyblade Master once and for all? For what seemed like an hour, the Grand Hall was again silent. Eventually, Sora decided to speak up next.
"You're right....", the Keyblade Master replied with a renewed clarity as the shock of what had just occurred started to leave him. "I'm not giving up now- for you guys, for Kairi, for Leon, for myself..... "We'll find that bastard and Ansem as well, I swear it!!!!! Remember, what we promised, Donald, Goofy? All for one and-"
"One for awl.", Donald finished with a determination that was evident from the duck's tone and expression.
With the team reunited and the ghost of danger exorcised for the moment, an inevitable realization suddenly came to Sora's mind- the heroes that had fallen to Ganondorf's cruelty deserved an honorable funeral. The young man, only fourteen years of age, had gone in a few short months from playfully dueling his childhood friends to mourning the real deaths of real warriors. To Sora, warfare wasn't a game anymore- and having gone to the other side and back just a few hours ago, he resolved to do everything he could to protect the lives of his only allies left- Donald and Goofy. But honoring the dead came first and foremost, and they needed to work quickly to set up the funeral pyres- Hollow Bastion was still a treacherous place, after all....
The bodies were carefully lifted one by one onto Goofy's shield and carried outside, where the raging bonfire pierced the chilly night air. It was reminiscent of so many scenes from long-forgotten battles in the lost annals of history, but today it was as real as anything to Sora. Such was the final, bitter end of the road for these fallen martyrs, and one by one Sora eulogized their memories as their corpreal remains dissolved into light and smoke........
"Yuffie, the ninja girl that through her wittiness and sensitivity for others showed us the meaning of friendship.........Beast, whose kind heart belied his intimidation and showed that anyone, no matter how unfortunate, can change his luck.......Aerith, the caretaker of everyone, who would have given her life for any of us and instead did so for all of us..........Leon, the noble man who showed us that truth of life as a Warrior, that a better world is something worth fighting- and dying- for......................
The Chosen Keyblade Master, who had seen battle countless times recently, was unable to continue any further. Those people, now reduced to vanishing corpses, had been his family over this remarkable quest. Now, thanks in part to him, they would never get to witness a future without darkness................They were gone forever.
Donald and Goofy joined Sora in his tears.
The funeral pyre seemed to burn for hours, eventually smoldering into nothing but ashes. The past was dead, never to come back. But slowly, however, Sora realized that it wasn't the end for him- not yet at least. He'd go down fighting for the side of good, for a world still able to be saved from the cruelty of a few. Slim as it was, he reasoned, there was still hope- there was light behind the door, and he was destined to open it one day.........
Suddenly, Sora remembered a recent promise. He reached for his pocket- A charm was still there, a token given to him by Kairi. It was handmade, in a star shape that smiled at anybody who saw it. For the first time that he could remember he was able to do so, Sora smiled back. He'd see Kairi again, somehow, even if he had to travel to the end of the world and beyond. The charm would find its way back to her, or else the young man who possessed it would die trying to return it. The group would have to leave this old tomb soon, for whatever foreign world Ganondorf and Ansem had escaped to. But, they'd find a way to get there somehow, and a whole new land beckoned to be sealed by the Keyblade Master. Whomever lived there needed Sora's help, and he was obliged to provide it. The teenage hero was thus reminded of something else, a poem from Kairi- who was by then infinitely far away-
Thinking of you, wherever you are....
We pray for our sorrows end,
and hope that our hearts will blend.
Now I step forward to realize this wish.
And who knows,
Starting a new journey may not be so hard,
or maybe it has already begun.
There are so many worlds,
but they all share the same sky-
one sky, one destiny.
A new determination emerged in the Keyblade Master's heart: tomorrow was to begin a new chapter in his journey, this time to seal the whole galaxy from darkness.
"You..... are too late.....Sora. That man.......came out of nowhere.......he won. We tried to stop him..... but there was nothing we could do for the others. Yuffie is dead.....Aerith and Beast also. You don't have a chance. Run for your lives, and don't return........Save yourselves.........for your future............."
Sora, for one, refused to take no for an answer. He had known Leon since the beginning of this quest, and the honorable warrior also known as Squall Lionheart was one of the few enemies that had managed to defeat the Keyblade Master himself in combat. "Leon!!!! Don't give up now!!! Don't give up..........," the desperate young man pleaded in vain. But it was no use, and Leon's wounds had proved fatal. The facts were clear that at the top of that purple staircase and in front of the keyhole awaited somebody more cunning and ruthless than any villain Sora had encountered before. As the brothers in arms finally reached the top, a smug sinister laugh became audible-
"Hmmm hmmm hmm haaa haaaaaaa..........I've been waiting a long time for you, kid.............."
The Great King of Evil had returned, and Ganondorf was more heinous now than ever. The Gerudo Lord was no worse for wear, which seemed impressive considering that he had been turned to stone just a year prior to this moment. Ganondorf stood where Sora and Riku had dueled just hours previously, staring at the hypnotizing colors of Hollow Bastion's enormous keyhole. He seemed to be fairly amused at the Keyblade Master's arrival, but had nothing more to say about it. Donald, quick-tempered as he was, finally broke the uneasy silence. "Yow're not Ansem.....We fwought him before......Why would you dwo this to us?......" Sora was losing patience quickly, and he decided to interject as well with his own choice words. As he took a bold step towards the silent King of Thieves, he yelled, "Who are you?!?!?!? Come on, let's settle this!!! I'm not going to let the darkness win, especially for you!!! ANSWER ME!!!!!", he dared to call out to the man who had defined evil in another world for thousands of years. Alas, the echos rang hollow through the ancient halls- for all Sora knew, the man in front of him had done away with every sign of life in Hollow Bastion except for the four of them. Awaiting the inevitable response to his bold challenge, the Keyblade Master tensed his grip on the weapon that had chosen him, above all others, to wield it. Though the shining blade gave him a small measure of security, it also brought passing guilt to his mind, just for a second, at that very moment- "Would Leon still be alive if he had my gift instead??? He didn't have to die like this....."
Sora quickly shook the thought from his mind, but he didn't have much longer to contemplate his situation anyway. After a few more tense seconds, the standoff was broken as the Great King of Evil finally turned to face his three current opponents.
A smirk came to the man's dark, weathered face as he sized up his trespassers- a talking duck, a dog with a shield, and a youth who barely looked older than his old rival. Surely they weren't the heroes he had heard about from the pathetic boy, right? When he had tried to infiltrate his world with those monsters, it had broken the spell that Link and Zelda had fought so hard to impose on him. Ganondorf the Great had another chance at redemption, without the usual wait of a few hundred years. Why wouldn't the pragmatic Gerudo Lord exploit the chaos that inevitably arrived wherever the Heartless set foot? He had a score to settle with the real enemy, Link, and Riku had promised all the power of the Triforce, and more, in return for a little "help". Of course, the strange young man would be no match for the Great King of Evil later on- after this little errand was run, what little remained of Hyrule would fall to his armies, the ultimate darkness- Moblins, Invisibles, Stalfoses, Behemoths, Darknuts, Wyverns, and plenty more that he didn't even know of yet. Once the Hylian race was extinct and their islands reduced to ashlands, then he could turn his forces against the adolescent fool who was naive enough to break his magical seal. And then......nothing at all would end the reign of Ganondorf the Great. All he needed was the one other true Princess of Heart. That was the current errand Riku had sent him on, and with her latent power Ganondorf could set his own foul designs into motion. The keyhole of the world of Hyrule could be unlocked, and its powers could be used to conquer the universe. In fact, the only other surprise at the moment to the Gerudo Lord was the notion that the supposed Princess in question looked to be nothing but an unconscious corpse, a piece of human trash yet so innocent at the same time. At the moment, she lay on the ground, soulless, at his feet. "Kairi....", he thought to himself. "What a curious name for a princess........".
A smirk came to the man's dark, weathered face as he sized up his trespassers- a talking duck, a dog with a shield, and a youth who barely looked older than his old rival. Surely they weren't the heroes he had heard about from the pathetic boy, right? When he had tried to infiltrate his world with those monsters, it had broken the spell that Link and Zelda had fought so hard to impose on him. Ganondorf the Great had another chance at redemption, without the usual wait of a few hundred years. Why wouldn't the pragmatic Gerudo Lord exploit the chaos that inevitably arrived wherever the Heartless set foot? He had a score to settle with the real enemy, Link, and Riku had promised all the power of the Triforce, and more, in return for a little "help". Of course, the strange young man would be no match for the Great King of Evil later on- after this little errand was run, what little remained of Hyrule would fall to his armies, the ultimate darkness- Moblins, Invisibles, Stalfoses, Behemoths, Darknuts, Wyverns, and plenty more that he didn't even know of yet. Once the Hylian race was extinct and their islands reduced to ashlands, then he could turn his forces against the adolescent fool who was naive enough to break his magical seal. And then......nothing at all would end the reign of Ganondorf the Great. All he needed was the one other true Princess of Heart. That was the current errand Riku had sent him on, and with her latent power Ganondorf could set his own foul designs into motion. The keyhole of the world of Hyrule could be unlocked, and its powers could be used to conquer the universe. In fact, the only other surprise at the moment to the Gerudo Lord was the notion that the supposed Princess in question looked to be nothing but an unconscious corpse, a piece of human trash yet so innocent at the same time. At the moment, she lay on the ground, soulless, at his feet. "Kairi....", he thought to himself. "What a curious name for a princess........".
After that passing thought, the Great King of Evil finally broke his silence. "After all," he reasoned, "I may as well gratify these fools by letting them know how they will meet their end!!!" The dialog between heroes and villain finally began, as the Gerudo King opened with a question. "You ask me why I'm here, but have you revealed the same for yourselves? You pathetic worms, I may not know you but I am not impressed by what I have heard. You say that you want to lock this world from darkness? YOU.....ARE.....DARKNESS!!!!! And so am I the great Ganondorf. I'm the one who strives to master it, become one with it! Consider this pathetic girl, one heart apparently above all others, except one-"
"NO!!!! You're not taking her away from me!!! Not like this!!!", Sora interrupted with a roar, as he suddenly realized the fiend's objective. This man clearly wasn't another Heartless, or another one of their puppets- he knew the secret to unlocking any Keyhole in the galaxy, and to do so he would be willing to take an innocent life. There was another Princess of Heart out there, somewhere, and without her power Sora couldn't beat this new enemy at his own game. Without her, Kairi would never see Sora's face, or the light of day for that matter, again. Without her, the Keyblade itself would be doomed.
Ganondorf waited a second, and then responded with amusement. "You got spunk, kid, and I'll give you that. Reminds me of the next person on my hit list.......speaking of which, I've got a score to settle. With both of the Princesses of Heart, in my possession, there's nothing you can do to stop me now-"
The duck had obviously seen enough of this treatment, as he started to loudly squawk to his teammates." Wet's show this piece of meat who he's dealin' with!!!", he shouted to Sora and Goofy. "Come on, wet's take him down!!!" The others agreed, and Team Disney made a direct charge at the Gerudo King. Ganondorf saw it coming before it happened, and his opponents never had a chance- it was a futile effort, as Ganondorf dissappated into a purple vortex of dark magic before the heroes could even strike a blow on him. It was as if the enemy they had just faced was a figment of their imagination, something that they feared Ansem would become but never had........
As the portal faded away, Ganondorf's laughter broke the silence of the Grand Hall one last time.
The three heroes had utterly missed their target, and immediately they started to consider their present situation. Ganondorf had escaped using dark magic with Kairi in tow, and if the Great King of Evil was to be believed he also held the other Princess of Heart- with their powers, he could open any keyhole that he desired and bring forth a new age of tyranny to the universe. That wasn't all, though- Ansem was still on the loose as well, and Sora struggled against the magnitude of the challenge they now faced. Team Disney's greatest allies, who had introduced Sora to his responsibilities and served almost as parents to him, had been slaughtered without mercy by someone who was obviously experienced in the practice of villainy. Any illusion of a choice for Sora and his friends had disappeared; Ganondorf had to be stopped at all costs. Everyone knew that, but the finality of the past events weighed heavily on their hearts. Finally, somebody mustered up the nerve to speak out......
"You're right....", the Keyblade Master replied with a renewed clarity as the shock of what had just occurred started to leave him. "I'm not giving up now- for you guys, for Kairi, for Leon, for myself..... "We'll find that bastard and Ansem as well, I swear it!!!!! Remember, what we promised, Donald, Goofy? All for one and-"
"One for awl.", Donald finished with a determination that was evident from the duck's tone and expression.
With the team reunited and the ghost of danger exorcised for the moment, an inevitable realization suddenly came to Sora's mind- the heroes that had fallen to Ganondorf's cruelty deserved an honorable funeral. The young man, only fourteen years of age, had gone in a few short months from playfully dueling his childhood friends to mourning the real deaths of real warriors. To Sora, warfare wasn't a game anymore- and having gone to the other side and back just a few hours ago, he resolved to do everything he could to protect the lives of his only allies left- Donald and Goofy. But honoring the dead came first and foremost, and they needed to work quickly to set up the funeral pyres- Hollow Bastion was still a treacherous place, after all....
The bodies were carefully lifted one by one onto Goofy's shield and carried outside, where the raging bonfire pierced the chilly night air. It was reminiscent of so many scenes from long-forgotten battles in the lost annals of history, but today it was as real as anything to Sora. Such was the final, bitter end of the road for these fallen martyrs, and one by one Sora eulogized their memories as their corpreal remains dissolved into light and smoke........
"Yuffie, the ninja girl that through her wittiness and sensitivity for others showed us the meaning of friendship.........Beast, whose kind heart belied his intimidation and showed that anyone, no matter how unfortunate, can change his luck.......Aerith, the caretaker of everyone, who would have given her life for any of us and instead did so for all of us..........Leon, the noble man who showed us that truth of life as a Warrior, that a better world is something worth fighting- and dying- for......................
The Chosen Keyblade Master, who had seen battle countless times recently, was unable to continue any further. Those people, now reduced to vanishing corpses, had been his family over this remarkable quest. Now, thanks in part to him, they would never get to witness a future without darkness................They were gone forever.
Donald and Goofy joined Sora in his tears.
The funeral pyre seemed to burn for hours, eventually smoldering into nothing but ashes. The past was dead, never to come back. But slowly, however, Sora realized that it wasn't the end for him- not yet at least. He'd go down fighting for the side of good, for a world still able to be saved from the cruelty of a few. Slim as it was, he reasoned, there was still hope- there was light behind the door, and he was destined to open it one day.........
Suddenly, Sora remembered a recent promise. He reached for his pocket- A charm was still there, a token given to him by Kairi. It was handmade, in a star shape that smiled at anybody who saw it. For the first time that he could remember he was able to do so, Sora smiled back. He'd see Kairi again, somehow, even if he had to travel to the end of the world and beyond. The charm would find its way back to her, or else the young man who possessed it would die trying to return it. The group would have to leave this old tomb soon, for whatever foreign world Ganondorf and Ansem had escaped to. But, they'd find a way to get there somehow, and a whole new land beckoned to be sealed by the Keyblade Master. Whomever lived there needed Sora's help, and he was obliged to provide it. The teenage hero was thus reminded of something else, a poem from Kairi- who was by then infinitely far away-
We pray for our sorrows end,
and hope that our hearts will blend.
Now I step forward to realize this wish.
And who knows,
Starting a new journey may not be so hard,
or maybe it has already begun.
There are so many worlds,
but they all share the same sky-
one sky, one destiny.
A new determination emerged in the Keyblade Master's heart: tomorrow was to begin a new chapter in his journey, this time to seal the whole galaxy from darkness.
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