Chapter Text
Sora and his friends were already expected by Riku, Hook, and the Heartless.
Riku held his hand firmly around Kairi’s arm, as she stood next to him.
When Sora saw that, he summoned his Keyblade and lunged at Riku.
Hook grinned maliciously, warning him not to make a wrong move. He finally picked up a lantern, which he had used to hold little Tinkerbell captive.
Sora stared at him in shock. He must have grabbed her when she flew away from Peter.
“And now you’ll walk the plank, or your little pixie friend will have to face the consequences!” shouted Captain Hook and let out an evil laugh.
Sora sighed. He had no choice as he couldn’t let Hook harm Tinkerbell. He eventually let his Keyblade disappear and approached the plank.
“Riku, stop this!” Kairi begged him.
“I will,” he replied. “If you come with me.” He looked at her menacingly.
Kairi gritted her teeth.
“It’s all up to you now. What will you do? Keep playing the stubborn girl or save Sora’s life?”
Kairi hesitated. “I…”
“Kairi, whatever he’s saying, don’t do it!” Sora called to her. Kairi listened as Sora smiled at her. “Whatever happens now…promise me that you’ll trust me, okay?”
Kairi looked at him in surprise. Even though they wanted him to walk the plank, he didn’t seem afraid for his life. Rather, there was a certain confidence in his eyes. Kairi nodded to him. “I do.”
Riku scowled. “Enough of this,” he said testily, summoning his dark blade. He pointed it at Sora. “Move,” he commanded him.
Sora glared at him but gave in eventually and stepped onto the plank.
“Sora!” Donald called after him worriedly, knowing that it would be his turn next. Goofy and Kairi feared for him too. But Kairi had promised to trust Sora, so she didn’t intervene and tried as best as she could to keep her fear in check.
As Sora walked the plank, everyone suddenly heard a strange noise.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock
With each new tick, Hook’s eye twitched in fear as he stared at the sea in horror. There he finally saw him, his most feared enemy. It was a large crocodile that was audibly ticking. Kairi looked at the ticking crocodile in confusion. He must have swallowed something as the sound came from his stomach and sounded like an alarm clock. Hook’s knees were shaking with fear. “It’s him! The crocodile that took me hand!” Panic overcame him. “Oh, Smee! He’s after me other hand! I can’t stay here!”
Smee was overwhelmed by the situation and tried to calm the trembling captain, but the latter had his eyes only on the crocodile. “Go away! Oh, I can’t stand the sight of him! Smee! You take care of them!” Hook pushed the lantern with the little fairy into Smee’s hands and made his way to safety.
The situation was getting more serious now for Sora too. He would no longer just fall into cold water, now he would have to jump into the mouth of a hungry crocodile.
Kairi tugged at her bonds, but Riku held her back.
With their sabers, the Heartless had pushed Sora to the edge of the plank and directly below him in the water, the crocodile was waiting with its mouth wide open as if expecting a treat.
At that moment, Sora heard a voice from afar. It sounded like Peter’s voice.
“Fly, Sora. Just believe, and you can do it!”
Sora turned around and looked at Kairi. She was the inspiration for his faith. She looked at him hopefully and prayed that nothing would happen to him. Sora returned her pleading gaze and smiled at her. Then he closed his eyes and thought of all the beautiful moments he had experienced with Kairi on his journey and of her loving laughter, which always warmed his heart.
Finally, he jumped and fell towards the water. The crocodile swam hungrily towards him with its mouth wide open. However, the moment it tried to snap its jaws shut, Sora flew away.
Sora flew, flew across the ocean and high up into the sky.
Riku and Kairi couldn’t believe their eyes. Kairi had to laugh with joy, and Riku couldn’t stop staring at him, feeling completely duped. Sora had done the impossible again.
Now, Peter Pan came flying and headed straight for Smee. He grabbed the lantern holding Tinkerbell captive and freed her. Smee didn’t dare to defend himself against Peter Pan and quickly fled.
Then, Sora flew straight at Kairi and grabbed her so fast Riku didn’t have time to react as he was still bewildered at what had just happened.
Sora flew high into the air with Kairi and set her down onto one of the ship’s masts. Then he untied her bonds.
“S-Sora…but how?” Kairi asked him in amazement.
At that moment, Tinkerbell flew over to thank Sora. After all, he was willing to give his life for her, so she poured an extra portion of fairy dust over Sora and his friend.
“Fly with me, Kairi!” Sora said, smiling at her.
“I can fly, too?” Kairi asked him with hopeful eyes.
Sora nodded. “Give me your hand.” She took his hand expectantly. “Now close your eyes.”
Kairi closed her eyes and Sora pulled her off the mast with him. She felt the ground disappear from under her feet, but she didn’t feel herself fall. Sora knew Kairi’s faith was strong enough to fly and he wasn’t wrong.
“Alright, open your eyes!” Sora said, and when Kairi opened her eyes, she was high in the air with nothing holding her but Sora’s hand.
“I’m flying!” she exclaimed, overwhelmed. “Sora, look at me, I’m flying!”
Sora laughed with her and together they flew up and down through the air while Kairi cheered.
Riku looked up at the sky and watched Sora and Kairi fly together and laugh.
His plan had failed and feelings of anger and hatred should have overcome him by now. Yet, none of that happened. Instead he just looked longingly at the sky.
Just then, Captain Hook cautiously peered out the door when he heard a knock. “Smee? Did you finish them off?” he asked cautiously.
However, the knock didn’t come from Smee, it was Peter Pan hiding behind the door.
With all his might, he tried not to laugh.
“Aye, Captain. They walked the plank, every last one of them!” Peter called in Smee’s voice. One of Peter’s many talents was being able to copy voices, so Hook didn’t notice the difference and eventually rushed onto the deck.
Peter quietly snuck up behind Hook and poked his dagger into his rear end.
Hook jumped up in pain. He jumped so high that he finally fell into the water, where the crocodile was still waiting for a meal.
When Hook saw the crocodile, he was so scared that he could literally run across the water. In the distance he saw Smee, who was already taking off in a rowboat, and hastened towards him, closely followed by the crocodile.
Peter now flew to Sora and Kairi and together, they watched the chase while hardly able to contain their laughter. Hopefully Hook had learned his lesson, and secretly, Kairi hoped he wouldn’t end up as crocodile fodder after all.
“Heeeey! We wanna fly, too!” Donald shouted angrily from below.
“Tink?” Peter looked at his pixie friend, and she flew down to Donald and Goofy, giving them some more pixie dust.
Donald clenched his fists and tried hard to believe.
“Come on, Donald, you can do it!” Sora called to him and slowly Donald’s rear end rose into the air.
“Woooow!” he exclaimed while his butt flew higher and higher.
“Ah-hyuck, hoo, hoo, hoo!” They heard Goofy laugh as he made swimming movements in the air until he eventually joined them.
“See, I knew you could fly,” Peter said proudly. “Now, let’s go see Wendy, she still needs to fix your shadow, Sora.”
“Oh, is Wendy okay?” Sora asked.
Peter nodded. “Yeah, she’s waiting for you at the clock tower. Besides, she wants to say goodbye to Kairi before you leave.”
Kairi smiled and nodded. “Then let’s fly!” she said cheerfully and took off.
“Oh boy, our first real flight!” Goofy said excitedly and Peter, Donald, and Tinkerbell flew after them.
Sora followed them, but then he remembered something and turned around.
He looked down at the ship where there was no one left but Riku.
He approached the ship and finally called out, “Hey, Riku. Next time we play pirates I’ll make you walk the plank!” He winked at him and then flew away with a cheeky grin.
“Tsk…” Riku hissed at Sora’s comment. As always, it was all just a game for Sora. He watched Sora and Kairi fly through the night sky with their friends until they finally disappeared. Had things gone differently, he might now be flying with them.