I feel like I’m takin too fackin long to get this next chapter of Keys out so here, have a free preview or whatever I guess cause :P
The trio shared a startled gasp as they all spun around, immediately on the defensive as they watched the pair of old foes emerge from a dark corridor. “Maleficent! Pete!” Sora exclaimed, instantly summoning his Keyblade as Donald and Goofy did the same with their own weapons against the dastardly duo. “Let me guess: you two are the reason the Heartless are here, aren’t you?!”
“Certainly not,” Maleficent denied evenly. “We’ve come to this world on much more important business than merely spreading mindless chaos.”
“Oh yeah?” Sora asked suspiciously, still maintaining his offensive stance alongside his companions. “Like what?”
“That is absolutely no concern to you,” the dark fairy rebuffed with a haughty scowl.
“Say, Maleficent…” Pete interjected with a smug, almost goading grin as he looked over to the trio. “I dunno about his sidekicks, but Kid Keyblader here looks way punier than the last time we saw him. I say we finish him off while we still can. It’d be a piece of cake for sure!”
Upon hearing such callous, almost cruel remarks, Sora said nothing, even though a large part of him did want to fiercely argue against them. But instead, he simply tightened his grip on his Keyblade and glared at the wicked duo firmly, trying his best not to come across as weak, even though he knew that’s what they saw him as. He wondered how it was so apparently obvious to just about everyone, including even Maleficent and Pete, that his strength had been sapped to such an extensive degree. He could feel it, of course, in just how much of a struggle taking out what should have been even minor foes seemed to be for him now, just how much even the tiniest battles seemed to tire him out, just how much he was seeming to fall behind when he should have stood strong. So how then, was literally everyone else able to see that he wasn’t even half the Keyblade wielder he knew he could be anymore?
“Waste no time with the boy,” Maleficent said dismissively just before Donald or Goofy could say anything to Sora’s defense. “He’s inconsequential, as are his companions. We have a far more pressing matter to attend to.”
For a moment, Pete was admittedly confused by this, until he happened to remember why they had journeyed to this world in the first place. “Oh yeah! We gots to find that black box!”
“How many times do I have to tell you to be silent, you fool!” Maleficent snapped harshly before her henchman could get another word out. Her anger was still just as apparent as she turned back towards the trio, her longstanding disdain for them apparent through her expression alone. “As for you three: we shall meet again… when I have time for such trifles…”
And with that, the dark fairy turned to leave through the darkness from whence she came, though Pete did linger behind for just a moment more to taunt the Keybearer one more time. “Yeah, and you better get your act together before then! Later, twerps!”
“Wait!” Sora shouted, hurrying after the pair with the intent of putting a stop to whatever their unknown schemes were. Though of course, before he could reach them, their shadowy portal disappeared, leaving the trio alone and in the dark about whatever it is they could be up to.
With Pete and Maleficent both finally gone, Sora finally let out the disgruntled sigh he had been holding in for quite some time now. Neither Donald nor Goofy had to ask where they young companion’s sudden bout of melancholy was coming from, but it still certainly concerned them both all the same.
“Sora?” Donald spoke up first, his tone fretful, especially as he overheard Sora sigh once more. Even so, the Keybearer was quick to turn to the pair with a small, halfhearted smile, one that neither of them really bought.
“I-it’s fine,” he said, though he didn’t make eye contact with either of them as he did. “I can take it.”
“Garwsh, it sure don’t sound like it,” Goofy said knowingly. “Did Pete sayin’ those mean things bother ya?”
“N-no!” Sora protested, crossing his arms and glaring away. “Like I said, I’m fine! I can take it!”
“Don’t worry!” Donald reassured as encouragingly as he could. “You’re gonna get stronger!”
“Yeah! We know you!” Goofy added just as heartily. “You can take it!”
“That’s what I said!” Sora snapped, suddenly quite frustrated with the pair. After all, it was bad enough that their foes were going around calling him out for his newfound weakness, but for his own companions to be effectively talking down to him like this? It was more than a bit embarrassing and a bit annoying to say the least, even despite their kind intentions. “Ugh, can we just… stop talking about this already?” he sighed once more as he averted the duo’s surprised looks over his outburst. “We still have people we need to help, remember?”
Donald and Goofy couldn’t help but share a worried glance as Sora pressed his way past them, his expression bitter and his hands clenched into tight fists as he continued on ahead. Neither of them could really blame him for being so upset, but they were rather perplexed by the fact that their open encouragement had done basically nothing to help him this time when it usually did the trick. Of course, they both wanted to do whatever they could to support their young companion, just as they always had. But this was an issue that neither the captain nor the magician knew how to solve, a problem that was plaguing the two of them almost as much as it was plaguing Sora himself. And for as much as Donald and Goofy both wanted to help, they both fretfully realized that all they could really do, at least for now, was to stand by their young companion’s side, no matter what might come their way.