Kingdom Hearts: Quest For Mickey

Part 8: This Is It!

We make our way down the steps to reveal a secret corridor. "Somehow familiar..." I tell the guys. "I can't say I've ever been here." Sora replies. "Me either to be honest." We make our way through twists and turns and end in  a big center clearing. "Seems like this is the place." Lea points out. There is a sliver ladder I start to climb up. "I have a hunch that you're right." We make our way up the ladder to lead to a spiral staircase. "Great, more walking, why can't anything just be simple?" Lea complains. "Shh do you hear that?" Sora says. Donald grips to his staff, Goofy moves closer to him. I listen for a good while..."Seems like we're going on the right track, we aren't the only ones here." "Braig must be after us again?" Sora asks. "No...I feel he's too much of a coward to try and fight us again." "And he should know better than to tell Xehanort we're after him." Lea remarks. We head up the stairs to see a big glass pane window with broken shards all over. "We must have made our way to the clocktower." I point out, seeing the gears above us. Up ahead is another door, I open it. "Well...I imagine this is the lab...but..." Sora says. "Where's the King?!" Donald continues Sora's sentence. I walk up to the tables, papers scattered everywhere, test tubes lying about, who knows which ones could be usable. The pages read about Dream Eaters. Sora takes a look. "Those are the things we saw in the sleeping worlds!" He says. "Hmm, then that means they must have been here not too long ago...let's search for clues." A bit of time goes by, still no answers. "Maybe they're in another room." Goofy says. We head outside the lab/reading area to find a circular table in the center of the next room and furniture tossed about..."This is where the foretellers gathered for important matters." I say. Lea picks up a flower, that looks to be a dried up dandelion. "This whole world has shown little life, then this must be what resembled the survivors." "I didn't know you knew the tale Lea." I question. "I don't but being around these parts seems all but familiar. Once an old lady told me stories about how the dandelions survived a war in a town much like Radiant Garden, I never believed her until now." Lea philosophizes. "Wow...we must be missing something, there needs to be a reason they came here of all places, but what?!" I yell. I look up at the ceiling...it's a symbol. "Lea did the lady happen to tell you anything about that symbol?" I ask notably. "Now that you mention it, yes! It's the Lux symbol." "It almost looks like a paopu fruit." Sora suggests. I think for a moment. "The wayfinder!" I remember seeing a shape similar to the Lux symbol on what the previous keyblade wielders called 'wayfinders' they used them as good luck charms and it resembled that since each of them had one, they would never be apart. "I know what we need to do now!" "And what's that?" Lea asks. "You'll see." I give a thumbs up and wink. 

We start heading to the Gummi Ship when another dark portal appears. "Seems the party has come to us." Lea says. We all prepare for battle. A younger person walks out with a black coat on and white hair. "Hmm, looks like you have things all thought out here huh?" The man says. "Who is this ?" I ask. "Young Xehanort." Sora and Lea say simultaneously. "Great, another Xehanort!...Sheesh how many of you are there?" I kid. "Funny, but I'm not laughing...I believe there is a certain someone your looking for..." He shows off a amber colored wayfinder. "You set this up!" I point out. "Clever right?" he remarks. "Why are you doing this?" Lea says. "He's delaying...trying to buy time...but for what?" Sora says. "Right again, you guys are on a roll! How about it...3 for 3?" He jokes. "It seems our time has run out as well as our patience." Lea threatens. "Very well." Xehanort summons his keyblade as a dark glow appears around him. "Watch out for this attack, it's gets hard to keep up." Xehanort teases then leaps at me. He disappears just before he hits, as I expected. I turn but he's above me dropping down a reign of these dark pulsating rays. I grip my keyblade close my eyes and take a leap of faith in the air. It felt like never before, like I was moving freely, without any sort of thing pulling me down. I dodge one bullet of darkness after the other, I do a spiral, lifting my keyblade into the air and then...*clash* Xehanort hits my keyblade, I can feel the power beaming off him, and it's almost like he's on a whole other level but I keep pushing. He disappears under me and forms his keyblade into 2 light bluish blades, this is his next form of offense. I decide to move to a more defensive rather than speed position, blocking his hits. He starts grumbling with this angry tone and speeds up his attacks, this time my guard is low and he gets me a few times. He disappears leaving me to fall to the ground. Lea and Sora step in, Lea holds out his keyblade blocking Xehanort's but he uppercuts Lea, knocking him leaving Sora to take him. Sora's speed keeps up really pretty well, every now and then Lea throws in a few chakrams of fire. I get back up. I look to Lea and say "He didn't expect us to be this good, he's started going full blast." "Yeah but he's trying to knock us off one by one." Sora comes flying down like a comet, I chase after him. "GO!" Donald says casting a lightning bolt on Xehanort. His eyes start to glow and his lifts his hands creating a dark barrier around Sora. Lea was right! "That's It!" Xehanort says pushing his hands outwards. A blue illuminating clock appears behind him. "He's a time traveller!" I say. 

So that's how he's moving so fast and disappearing so much, he must be going back in time...Wait that's it! "Hey! You can't win this, tell us where Mickey is!" I yell. He appears in front of me. I slap him with my keyblade...he grabs the end of it and tries to whip it off to the side. I go in and act like I'm trying to grab his weapon. Here it comes! I grab his coat and we disappear, we both are transported to where Lea is, I seeing Sora banging on the barrier. "Don't worry I'll have you out of there." I hope he can lip read. Xehanort pushes me away. I just need to do that one more time, that way I know what his next move is. "Lea!" I yell to get his attention. He looks. "Time to go, let's work together." "On it." We stand back to back while he attacks from both sides. I need to make sure he doesn't know what I'm planning so I need to get this timing right, I may only have 1 shot. "Switch!" I say. We switch weapons and I throw the chakrams at Xehanort then when he disappears Lea hits him with my keyblade. It knocks him off guard and I grab his coat one more time and we go for a ride. We go back in time right before we switched, but I'm in the same position I was in when we started. This way I know his every move, limited time, I have to grab that wayfinder. He appears near Lea and I turn and blast him with my keyblade. He falls backward. I go up and grab the wayfinder while Lea stands over him. The barrier falls, he must be too weak to keep it up. Sora runs out and I say "Unite!" we all gather while I hold the wayfinder in the air, everyone aims their keyblades, Donald and Goofy even aim their staff and shield then hold on to us in case it doesn't work. Our keyblades are unlocking the location of the wayfinder's owner...Terra!

Terra is now fused with Xehanort, or Terranort, so until we get them split up we were transported to where the older Xehanort is, before he has a chance to attack I hold the wayfinder in front of him making him scurry away a little. I realize...this must be what could bring Terra back, give him control again. I hold it closer. I look and Mickey is in the background chained up and watching closely. I nod for the others to free him. "This is where you can stand down." "Never!" I hear a bit of a hiss from Xehanort. I look into the yellow eyes, trying to change but can't, I know this is neither the time or place to finish this. Nor am I the one to do it, so I shed a tear leaving the darkness caged Xehanort, but there is no more I can do to help, so we escape back to Yen Sid's tower.

"Master Yen Sid I have may have a solution to one of the problems with the past keyblade wielders." Mickey says putting the wayfinder on Yen Sid's desk. "Yes, Yes, I see, have the memories come back to him, and overpower Xehanort..." "Yeah, we did that but it was like Terra wanted to escape but couldn't quite become powerful enough, you could feel the struggle as you looked in his eyes...I don't believe I'm capable, maybe someone he knows." I pitch in. "Ah, so there must be someone else to push him over the edge...The one keyblade master that could save him...Master Aqua." We all awe. "You guys have been through enough for today, I can tell, I shall have a new keyblade wielder and a master go on this quest...I shall summon them now." I think long and hard how I can help, but now that my cover is blown...I might mess things up. "Mickey..." I summon my keyblade. "This appeared from the remains of your keyblade, So I believe it belongs to you." He looks at it with sadness. "No Oswald, you stuck through for me and I can't thank ya enough, Gee I mean it's yours, you've earned it!" I see the joy it brings to his heart to say that. "Besides..." Mickey's keyblade appears in his hand. "You...this..." I hold up my keyblade, barely able to speak any words. "They're like boomerangs, always come back." He scratches his ear. He's right y'know, I originally lost mine and it may have took a while but eventually it made it's way back to me...

I start leaving out the door. "Wait, where are you going?" Lea asks. "Well when the keyblade war comes, you know where to find me, until then, I have some unfinished business to take care of. Ortensia is back at the castle she must be worried...besides...I'm a bit rusty on my keyblade, so I'm going to train up on some skills, see what there is to be learned." Mickey looks happy. "Good to have you back." Mickey says. We hug.

My experience as both a person and keyblade wielder has made me realize how different everything can be by perspective, Live life to it's fullest, don't let a good moment pass by without appreciating. This journey has been long and hard, but overall I actually had some fun, made some friends. Now new adventures await and I know it'll be great...