Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the back of the whale’s throat they could see a demolished wooden ship, which the whale had swallowed as well. It looked like Pinocchio was headed there. Sora ran after him until his foot stepped into a liquid. “Guess we have to swim there.” He shrugged and jumped into the water to go after Pinocchio. Donald and Goofy jumped in with no hesitation as well.
Reluctantly, Kairi dipped her foot into it. “Uh, you sure this is water?” she asked hesitantly, knowing that they were still in the mouth of a whale.
Slightly disgusted, Sora lifted his arm out of the “water” which left a trail of slime behind. “Let’s just assume…!” he said hastily and swam on to get out of the liquid as quickly as possible.
Kairi shrugged her shoulders and came to the conclusion that situations like these were probably part of every adventure. She covered her nose in disgust and finally jumped into the liquid, swimming after Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

They reached the ship and found Pinocchio. Another person was with him, and they were talking animatedly.
“What have you got there, Pinocchio?” an elderly man asked him in a friendly voice.
He had white hair, a white mustache and a cherry-red nose with small glasses on top of it.
“With this, we can get out of here, father!” Pinocchio replied.
Kairi listened closely. The older man was obviously the one who’d built Pinocchio, as he called him father. Nonetheless, she couldn’t figure out how he could make the puppet so alive. Except for the fact that Pinocchio was made of wood, he was no different from other boys his age.
The older man now looked at the object that Pinocchio had brought him.
“Really? With this big block? You think so?” he asked skeptically. After all, he had never seen such material before. However, Sora recognized that the block was made of the same material that their Gummi Ship was made of.
“It’s true,” he said.
Pinocchio and the older man looked over at him.
“So, how did you end up here, Pinocchio?” Sora asked.
“Oh my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too? My goodness.” The man turned to Sora and his friends and gave them a welcoming smile.
“Yeah, looks like it,” Sora replied.
“My name is Gepetto,” he said, introducing himself to them. “I’m Pinocchio’s father. When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we’re together again.”
Kairi thought about what Gepetto had said. Their situation was grave, but Gepetto didn’t seem to mind much. As long as Pinocchio stayed by his side, he didn’t seem to care much where they were. Obviously, he loved the boy a lot. Kairi could relate well to his way of thinking.
Gepetto took the log that Pinocchio had brought him and carried it to his workbench.
“So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence.”
Goofy rubbed his aching head that Pinocchio had hit, but he didn’t want to call out the little puppet.
“Well, we’ve all had quite a journey,” said Gepetto, putting the log down. Then he looked over to his two pets, who were with him on the ship. One was a little goldfish that stared at Donald with amorous eyes. Donald peeked irritatedly into the fishbowl, and the fish pressed her lips against the glass to kiss him.
Then there was a kitten that snuggled around Kairi’s legs and meowed at her.
Kairi laughed and picked up the kitten to pet it.
“His name is Figaro,” Gepetto said with a smile.
While Kairi was playing with the kitten and Donald was wondering why everyone kept falling in love with him, Sora suddenly noticed that Pinocchio was gone.
“Hey, where’s Pinocchio?” he asked.
“That boy again!” Jiminy said, sighing. “Can’t let him out of your sight for one minute!”
“Pinocchio? Pinocchio!” called Gepetto, but there was no answer.
He concluded that Pinocchio was back on one of his scouting trips to find a way out of the whale. Worried, he asked Sora and his friends to bring Pinocchio back to him, as it could be very dangerous inside a whale. They nodded and then went to look for him.

“Hm, let’s go that way,” Sora said, pointing to a dark cave in Monstro’s tissue.
“So…we’re really going further inside?” Kairi asked, shuddering.
Pinocchio couldn’t have taken any other route though, so they had no choice.
They finally came to an area of Monstro’s innards that looked rather confusing.
Colorful mucous membranes surrounded them and every step felt slippery on the wobbly tissue.
They looked around and saw Pinocchio further back. He was about to wander deeper into Monstro’s innards. The wooden boy kept getting himself into further danger, and Sora lost his patience. They were on an important mission and didn’t have time to babysit Pinnochio.
“What are you doing? Come on, let’s go back,” Sora called to him.
“You know, Gepetto’s awfully worried about you,” Goofy added, appealing to his conscience.
“Pinocchio, stop fooling around! This is no time for games!” Sora stated. He wanted to grab him and haul him back to Gepetto when he suddenly heard a voice.

“But Sora, I thought you liked games.”

Immediately, Sora and Kairi turned around. The voice was unmistakable.
“Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?” Riku asked, teasing him further.
Sora and Kairi couldn’t believe their eyes. Riku really stood before them. But what was he doing in the belly of a whale? Had Monstro swallowed him too?
“Riku…did you come to save us?” Kairi asked hopefully.
“Nah…just playing with Pinocchio,” he replied.
Sora felt mocked by him. Riku certainly hadn’t let himself be devoured by a whale just to play with a wooden puppet. “Quit the games! Are you coming with us now or what?” he asked angrily.
“Maybe,” Riku replied and shrugged. “Catch us and I might change my mind,” he said, taking Pinocchio by the hand and running away with him.
“Really?” Kairi knew that Riku was just teasing them. She was eager to get a hold of him though and then confront him.
“That’s ridiculous. Why is he acting like that?” Sora asked, confused.
Donald and Goofy sighed. It looked like they would have to fight their way through Monstro’s innards to find Riku and Pinocchio.
However, this turned out to be even more difficult than expected. Monstro’s innards all looked the same, and as more and more time passed, they felt as if they were walking in circles.
“I think we haven’t checked this place yet,” Sora said, leading the group through another cave. When they stepped through, they were back at the entrance to Monstro’s mouth.
“Wak?!” Donald shouted, trying to pull his feathers out.
They sighed and eventually went back to Monstro’s chambers.

Kairi was confused. What was Riku up to? And what was his sudden interest in Pinocchio all about? Was he really only here because of him?
Suddenly, Heartless appeared and surrounded Sora and his friends. It seemed like Monstro had eaten them for lunch as well. Either that, or they were drawn here by something else.
The group got ready to fight and followed the Heartless. It seemed like they were luring them deeper into Monstro.
Kairi paused and thought. “If we follow the trail of the Heartless, maybe they’ll lead us to Riku.”
“Huh, why?” Sora asked, looking at her.
Now Kairi felt rather uncomfortable. Obviously, Sora hadn’t noticed how much Riku had changed. She could feel the darkness spreading further in Riku’s heart, but how should she explain that to Sora? To him, Riku was still a role model, without fear or blame. “Well…his heart might be attracting them…” she tried to explain.
Sora noticed that Kairi was having trouble answering his question. But he also knew that something was wrong with Riku.
“Alright, let’s follow them,” Sora said, and they set off.
While Sora fought, he continued to think about what Kairi had said. Could she mean that Riku and the Heartless were in league, like what had happened with Clayton in the jungle? Sora shuddered at the thought. Riku was his best friend and they had always been inseparable. Whenever Sora didn’t know what to do, he would turn to Riku. He was not only his best friend, but also an important pillar in his life. He couldn’t lose him. Maybe Riku thought that Sora wouldn’t need him anymore, now that he had the Keyblade. But deep down in his heart, Sora knew he still needed him.
“Look!” Donald interrupted his thoughts and pointed to Pinocchio, who ran further into Monstro.
“After him!” Sora called, and the group ran after the wooden boy until they finally caught up with him. Pinocchio hurried past Riku and then disappeared into another cave. Finally, they had him. Sora now spoke what was on his mind. “Riku! What’s the matter with you? What are you thinking?!”
“I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora,” he replied in a dark tone. “You only seem interested in running around and showing off with Kairi and that Keyblade these days. I get it, they’re both yours now.”
“W-What’s that supposed to mean?” Sora asked, irritated.
“Gee, jealous much?” Kairi said in a huffy tone. It annoyed her that Riku still treated her like a trophy that he and Sora had to fight over.
“What…” Riku said, perplexed by Kairi’s blunt question. She had hit a sore spot and had called out what Riku would never admit.
Then Kairi walked up to him and grabbed his arm. “Gotcha. Now you have to go with us, like you said you would.” She looked at him with determined eyes.
“I never said—” Riku wanted to talk his way out, but suddenly a scream interrupted them. It was Pinocchio.
They had to postpone their rendezvous for better or worse and quickly rushed to Pinocchio’s aid.

Chapter Text

Sora and the others hurried to Monstro’s bowels, where they finally found poor Pinocchio, who had now been devoured twice. Once by Monstro, the whale, and the second time by a huge Heartless, with two large tentacle arms and a mouth that looked like a cage. Behind it they could see Pinocchio, who desperately shook the Heartless to get free again.
The monster glared menacingly at Sora and his friends. They had no choice but to fight it if they wanted to help Pinocchio.
Riku summoned a strange sword, which was shaped like a bat’s wing. “You up for this?” He turned to Sora and Kairi. For a moment, it seemed as if the old Riku was back again.
“No problem. Let’s do it!” Sora called with determination. This would be the first opponent all three of them faced together.
Riku was the first to pounce on the Heartless, followed closely by Sora and Kairi, each of whom attacked a tentacle arm with their Keyblades.
Donald was about to wave his wand, but Goofy held him back. “Maybe we should leave the battle to them, Donald.” He hoped that the three friends might be able to solve their issues by fighting together.

“Get me outta here!” Pinocchio shouted while Sora, Riku, and Kairi fought the Heartless. Its tentacle arms were long enough to knock them off their feet easily. Sometimes it would close its arms and try to blow its attackers away. Kairi remained steadfast and quickly healed the entire group. Sora often wondered how she did it because he could only use his healing magic on one person. Her heart seemed to possess a strong light magic.
Riku was also impressed. He would never have thought that Kairi could even keep up with them in battle. He studied Sora and Kairi’s tactics while they were fighting. Kairi fought well with her Keyblade, but Riku noticed every now and then that she was concentrating too much on a target and neglected the danger coming from an ambush. And Sora focused too much on brute force to bring the fight to a quick end instead of studying the opponent’s movements.
Riku quickly jumped in to fend off the other arm, which was about to hit Kairi. “Thanks!” Kairi gave him a friendly smile. For the first time in a long while, Riku felt a feeling of warmth creep into his heart again and for a brief moment he was no longer sure of his goals. Wouldn’t it be better if he gave up on what he wanted and just went with Sora and Kairi? He quickly fended off these thoughts. He had already risked too much and lost too much to have a nice trip with them. At least that was what he told himself. He also made it clear to himself that this fight wasn’t about Sora and Kairi, but about Pinocchio. After all, he needed their help to get the wooden puppet back.
Sora, Riku, and Kairi launched one final combo attack together before the Heartless gave up. It jumped back and spat out Pinocchio, the hustle and bustle no longer worth its prey. Pinocchio fell into a black hole in Monstro’s bowels and disappeared. Riku immediately jumped after him and with that, the two of them were gone.
The Heartless withdrew quickly to recover.
“Come on!” Sora called before he and his friends jumped into the hole to follow Riku and Pinocchio.

The black hole ultimately carried them back into Monstro’s mouth, where they plopped straight down onto Gepetto’s ship. A little further away they saw Riku, who was carrying the unconscious wooden puppet with him. Gepetto turned to him in despair. “Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!”
But Riku showed no compassion. “Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet.”
“He’s no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!” Gepetto cried.
Sora couldn’t watch this any longer. How could Riku be so cruel?
“Riku, what do you want from him? Just leave Pinocchio alone!” he called to him. Nothing Riku did made sense to him anymore. He finally wanted answers as Riku had left them in the dark long enough.
“Have you never wondered why this puppet has a heart? They say it was given to him by a blue fairy and if he proved himself as brave, truthful and unselfish, his heart would fill up with light and he would turn into a real boy.”
“Great, then you could learn a thing or two from him!” Kairi called, glaring at him.
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re after him,” Sora said, confused.
“He’s a back up plan, in case we can’t find the seven pure hearts to open the final door. But his heart still needs time to grow.”
Kairi gasped. He had said the same thing Maleficent had said when Kairi and Jasmine had overheard her conversation with Jafar. Was Riku under her influence? And what were those seven hearts and the door all about? Was that why Jasmine had gotten kidnapped? And Alice, too.
“Wait…you’re…not working together with Maleficent, right?” Kairi spoke her thoughts and looked at him in dismay. She had already had a premonition that Riku might have had something to do with the disappearance of Jasmine and Alice, but she didn’t want to believe that.
“What do you care?” Riku replied dismissively and made off with Pinocchio.
Jiminy jumped out of Sora’s hood and called after him, “I’ll tell you one thing, you poorly brought up brat, under your guidance Pinocchio will never become a real boy! It wouldn’t hurt you to have a conscience yourself!” In his anger he almost fell out of Sora’s hood, but Sora caught him in time.
“Pinocchio! Pinocchio!” Gepetto called after him desperately.
Sora clenched his teeth. He couldn’t believe what Riku was doing. He’d definitely gone down the wrong path, but that he would sink so far and get involved with Maleficent made Sora truly upset. No, he couldn’t let that happen. He had to get Riku back to his senses.