Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: From One To Another

Silence. Nothing but stoic suffocating silence reigned in the room. Twilight stood silently at the head of the table. The rest of the Harmony Wielders, sans Pinkie, sat or stood in various parts of the room. Pinkie decided that she wanted, above all else, to stay with the nameless man. Aladdin stormed out after hearing his final statement, and Jasmine went after him. The man said nothing for the longest, even when others tried to talk to him. Eventually the girls left and found Spike with Dash. They decided to gather together in a different room to talk about recent events.

Fed up with the noisy silence, Spike turned to Twilight. “So… what do we do now?”

Twilight hid her relief at the sound of something other than her thoughts and answered, “While I do think that we should help… him, I think our first priority would have to be to find out where all these heartless are coming from.”

Rarity turned to her with a quizzical look. “Well, with the Darkside gone shouldn't the heartless stop appearing?”

Twilight shook her head, “No, a Darkside is the amalgamation of hundreds of heartless, thousands in that one's case. The problem here is that almost no one noticed them until now.”

“Aladdin said that there have been many sightings and tremors lately,” Spike added.

“But no attacks. There hasn't been a single report of a direct attack. Before now, they were described as bugs scurrying around.”

“Ya'll don’t think that those critters were all gathering together on purpose, do ya?”

“No,” said Spike, “heartless gathering together is normal, it’s instinct for small creatures to gather. But to hide and wait… that takes intelligence.”

“That’s right, Spike. Shadow type heartless, the bug ones, are creatures of instinct. Not thought. For them to wait until they got that big means that they were being controlled.”

Rarity gasped, “You don’t think…!”

Dash jumped up. “No way, we beat her perverted ass so hard that she’s never coming back.”

Spike gave a light chuckle at Dash’s… interesting choice of language. “True, I don’t think that they’re coming back. Especially not so soon after their defeat.”

“Gosh, who do ya think it is then.”

Shia mumbled something almost inaudible.

Being childhood friends, each of the others’ “Shia sense” kicked in and all eyes turned to her. This caused her to shrink down even more.

Rarity leaned over to her. “It’s alright. This is a discussion so all ideas are welcome, darling.

Shia looked up at the others with scared eyes. “I… I was wondering… why was it hiding in the first place?”

“Pfft, easy, to take over this world, right?” scoffed Dash. “They want to overrun it with heartless.”

Spike brought a finger to his chin. “But even a regular sized Darkside could over run such a small world as this with relative ease…. I agree with Shia I do think it’s strange.”

Twilight leaned back in her chair at the head of the table. “Alright, so let’s assume that the Darkside’s controller had another motive. What would it be?”

Silence returned and brutally murdered the otherwise fruitful discussion as everyone thought up some kind of alternative reason for a Darkside to be hidden away.

Several minutes passed before Spike decided to take revenge and revive the noise, “Twilight, I have a theory.”

“What is it?”

“Before I tell you, I need you to keep an open mind here. Don’t flat out reject it like I know you will.”

Twilight scoffed, clearly insulted. “Spike, I trust your instincts completely. Whatever you’ve come up with I’m sure it has merit.”

He told her

~~~

In another, familiar part of the palace, another conversation took place. Although, this conversation was different; as it took place within the silence. A silent conversation that could out speak a stadium full of people.

Pinkie sat by the man formerly known as Genie. Her poofy head leaning on his arm as he remained slouched forward. They had been like this ever since the others had left. Neither said a word aloud. However, Pinkie was saying a thousand words a minute with her continued presence.

“Hey…” said the man.

“Hm?”

“I remembered something just now…”

“What do you remember,” she said in a gentle voice.

“That I was a slave even before I was a genie. I traded one set of shackles for another.”

Pinkie leaned up and tried to look a the man. “Wait, you were a slave before?”

The man nodded slowly, “Back then slaves were legal, some were even used as currency. I was the slave of a traveler. A human mule for his use. Every time we went out I secretly searched for the one thing that could grant me what I wanted. Freedom.

“I spent my entire life looking for a lamp to fulfill my wishes. I was always told that genies were the epitome of freedom. They had all the magic in the world, and all they had to do was grant 3 wishes to the occasional human.”

Pinkie smiled “But that’s not what it’s really like… huh?”

“No… it wasn't. But I don’t regret what I did. I had so much fun with my new life. I could do anything I wanted as long as I didn't break the lamp’s rules. It wasn't the unlimited freedom I wanted. But it was an improvement from what I had.”

The man lifted up his head a gave a sad smile. Eventually the smile faded and he sighed sadly.

“I feel like I’m stuck in a loop. When I was a human all I wanted to do was be a genie. When I was a genie all I wanted to do was be free again. Now I’m human again, and guess what? I miss being a genie.”

“You miss being a slave?”

“No. I miss the magic, the fun, the adventure. It might be because I was a slave for long that I say this.... but I miss being useful.”

Pinkie hopped up and jumped in front of him. She grabbed his bald head and forced him to look at her. As a human, she realized that he had bright golden eyes.  Seeing this, her smile grew even more determined. “You can still do all of that! Even as a human you can still have fun. You can still have adventures. You can still help this world. Come On!”

Without waiting for a reply, Pinkie effortlessly dragged the man off of the bed and out the door.

~~~

“Nope! Nuh uh. Impossible.”

Spike slammed a palm to his face. “See, this! This is what i’m talking about. Just think about it.”

Rarity looked at him incredulously. “Darling, you have to admit that it is far fetched. You believe that there is an enemy forcing the keyhole open from the inside?”

“I don’t know, Rares, I think it sounds kinda awesome. Old enemy forcing his way out of his prison using the heartless as his henchmen to break it? Like a movie or something.”

AJ looked over at Dash with a teasing grin. “Whatever, Rainbow, you’re just takin’ Spike’s side cuz ya fancy him. We all know it so no need to go makin' up excuses.”

Dash’s face turned a light shade of red. “Wh-wh-wh-what! No I don’t!” she stammered out, still blushing. “I just think that it would be cool if it was true because we’d get to fight it!”

“And ya fancy him, don’t forget that part.”

Dash blushed deeper. “Shut up! No I don’t! Spike tell them!”

Spike flinched back. “Tell them what?”

“Tell them were just friends or something!”

“What? Fine. Yeah, were just friends! Seriously, guys, she’s like my brother--I mean sister!” Spike immediately clapped a hand over his mouth.

“Wait what!” Dash screamed, getting in his face, “What do you mean, brother?!”

While those two went at it AJ and the others looked on in amusement. Rarity got up and stood next to AJ by the wall. “Now what did you do that for. We’re horribly off topic!” she quietly scolded.

“This room was gettin stuffier than the extra fuzz in a teddy bear. I needed a laugh and Pinkie isn't here,” she replied.

Twilight went up next to them. “You gotta admit, it’s nice seeing them like this again. They won’t show it, but they’ve been acting weird with each other ever since Spike came back with us. Both of them did things that they regret when he was with Chrysalis and both of them are too dense to know how to make it up to one another.”

“Hmph, a simple sorry would’ve sufficed. No need for the awkwardness,” Rarity scoffed.

Shia moved and joined the group by the wall. “That’s not the kind of people they are. Apologies don’t come easy to either of them. But it is nice to watch them when they get like this. Please don’t tell them I said that!”

AJ laughed, “Don’t worry I won’t.” AJ turned back and went back  watched the shorter girl intimidate the powerful half-dragon.

“You didnt have to go and say that!”

“Well what was I supposed to say?”

“What I told you to say!”

“It would've sounded like an excuse!”

“ANYTHING WE SAID WOULD’VE SOUNDED LIKE AN EXCUSE. YOU IDIOT!”

All good things must come to an end however. After getting their fill, the other girls broke the two apart and got back on topic. Eventually the topic turned in Spike's favor after getting the other to decide whether or not it was impossible, rather than flat out denying it. In the end, the group decided to go find Aladdin to get his input.

They found him deep in the castle in his bedroom. He had removed his fez and sat with a similar position to a certain non-genie. Jasmine was on his bed trying to relax him. Her eyes instantly turned to the teens by the door.

“Oh, hello. Can I help you?”

Rarity stepped forward. “Nothing major, we simply want to ask a small question of you two.”

“Alright, dear are you feeling any better?”

Aladdin shook his head. “No, this is all happening so fast. The worst part of it is that I had no idea it was happening.”

Twilight also stepped forward. “About Genie?”

He nodded. “I’ve been so busy with the heartless sightings, I didn't even notice my best friend’s troubles. What does that make me?”

Jasmine continued to comfort him. “It makes you a devoted king. You were so worried about the people. It’s his fault for not telling you in the first place.”

Aladdin sighed and stood up. “Whatever. You wanted to ask me something?”

“Oh! Yes,” said Twilight. “We need to know. When you guys sealed the keyhole to this world were their any enemies that you had to defeat to do it?”

“Yes, we had to defeat an evil man named Jafar. He had used… well he had used Genie’s power to turn himself into one. When we beat him the second time we locked him in his lamp and tossed it into the keyhole, right before Sora sealed it.”

Spike joined the forward gang. “I have a theory as to why the heartless are reappearing. I think that Jafar has somehow escaped his lamp, and is now controlling the heartless from behind the keyhole. I think that he’s sending heartless through a crack in the seal, slowly widening it. Basically, the colossal heartless was meant to fully break it open, releasing him and the other heartless back into the world.”

“That’s a rather, disturbing theory. But I don’t think it’s possible. For him to escape, some idiot has to rub the lamp,” replied Aladdin.

“Heartless have claws don't they?”

“They can’t speak.”

“Do they need to?”

“Well… Genie once bent the rules to save me from drowning.”

“Well I’m surprised someone like Jafar would even follow the rules in the first place.”

Aladdin thought on it for a moment before nodding reluctantly. “Alright. How about this, let’s go to the cave of wonders where the keyhole is located. There we will see if the seal isnt completely secure.”

“Deal.”

Aladdin turned back to his wife. Despite everything he gave a mischievous smirk, “Want me to bring home some milk?”

Jasmine walked up to him. “I think I can manage. Just be careful, don’t do anything reckless, and come back safe. As always.” She then wrapped her arms tightly around him.

He gave her an equally strong hug in return. “Jeez you don’t have to tell me 3 times.”

Spike turned back to his own family. “Are you all sure sure you’re up for this. You did just recover.”

Dash jumped into the air, her wings appearing as they unfolded. “Dude shut up. You know me.”

Twilight and the others nodded.

AJ tipped her hat, “Ahm feelin fit as a fiddle.”

Rarity examined her clothes and skin, “Well, I could use a bath before I can be in pristine health. But otherwise I feel fine.”

Dash punched the air with excitement, “We’re ready to go!”

Shia did a small cheering motion, “I”ll help anyway I can.”

Spike smiled. “Well alright then. To the Cave of Wonders.”