We had finally gotten back to the French Quarter, we had come to the city being lit up and full of energy. We told Louis to stay back, seeing him would make people panic. Ray stayed with him. It looked like the parade had just started. The city was crowded and it was hard to see anything.
"We have to find Charlotte, Ayame!"
"I know." Tiana and Naveen were scouting for Charlotte on my shoulders as I pushed through the crowd. We continued pushing through as the large displays of the parade rolled by. As I pushed through I kept hoping to find Charlotte on one these floats.
"Look up there!" Tiana said.
I saw that Charlotte and her father were on one of the floats. Her father was being crowned as Mardi Gras King.
"They'll drop them off down the street."
I pushed through as quickly as I could so I could get to the end of the street. By the time we reached the end of the street they were getting off the float.
"Charlotte!" I waved. She turned around and waved dramatically. I ran over to her.
"Hi Ayame! Haven't seen you in a few days or Tiana. Where is that girl? She said she'd be here."
"I'm right here Charlotte." Tiana spoke from my shoulder.
Charlotte stopped yapping for a moment and confused expression crossed her face. "Tiana? Is that really you?"
"Yes, it is."
"What happened to you?" It was already 11:52
"I don't really have a lot of time to explain. But we need you to kiss Naveen."
"But isn't that him over there." She pointed to the servant who masked in the appearance of Naveen, making a fool of himself.
"No Charlotte it's not. This is him. They messed with the voodoo man." She looked at the frog prince and he smiled and waved.
"Why do you need me?"
"Only a Princess can break the curse. You must kiss Naveen so we can be human again. And because of the Mardi Gras you're a Princess."
"Look we don't have a lot of time. It's 11:55. Will you help or not?" I said.
Prince Naveen stepped forward and got on one knee. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Princess."
"Alright, I don't really understand all this but if it helps Tiana I'll be glad to kiss you!'
She knelt to pick up the frog prince and the she started to reminisce. "Oh this'll be just like that book, remember the one Tiana? That your mom would read us. I've always wanted to kiss a frog prince and be just like that princess in the book." She continued rambling on about this fairytale It was 11:59
"Charlotte!" I yelled.
"Oh right sorry...well, here I go." They both closed their eyes and puckered their lips and began to lean closer. And just when their lips were about to touch the town bell rang as it struck 12. Both their eyes widened in shock and Charlotte smiled awkwardly.
"Now maybe it'll still work. Maybe that old clock is too fast!' She then gave Naveen quick pecks. "Don't worry it'll work!" Then she began to kiss him furiously.
"It's 12:02." I said. "We're too late."
"Oh, I'm sorry Tiana." Charlotte said as she put Naveen down. "I'm so sorry." She began to tear up.
Tiana sighed. "It's ok Charlotte."
"But no matter how you look. You'll always be like a sister me and I'll do what I can to help."
"Thank you, Chalrotte." Tiana smiled.
I then grabbed them and picked them up and put them on my shoulder. "Ok you two, let's go see if we can find another way."
I walked away with the two of them on my shoulder. Tiana looked heartbroken and Naveen just looked concerned for Tiana. He hopped over to where she was and put his hands on his shoulders. She began to cry.
"We'll never be human again Naveen. I'll never get my restaurant How will we live like this?"
"It hasn't been all that bad. I think we've done well so far. And, as long as we stick together we'll be fine."
"I guess so...if we're gonna be frogs forever, might as well make it work."
"That's my girl."
We reached the outskirts of town to where Ray and Louis were waiting for us. Louis was slumped on the ground, frozen. When we reached him we saw teary eyed, holding Ray in his hands. His body was still, his eyes were closed, and his light was out.
"Ray!" Tiana yelled. "Louis what happened?!"
"It was the shadow man and his shadows. He took Ray away. Ray fought hard...he was fearless. He squished him."
"We must give him a proper funeral..." I said. Tiana began to cry and Naveen leaned toward her to comfort her. She cried harder and let him comfort her."
"Now before y'all do that I'm gonna need them little frogs you got there." We all heard a menacing and greed filled voice. We turned to see who I'm assuming was the voodoo man, Dr. Facilier, who was indeed the man I saw in the street that day.
I summoned both my keyblades as Tiana and Naveen hid behind my neck. "You two hold on to me tight and don't let go no matter what!"
Dr. Facilier chuckled and lifted up his hand. This is gonna be fun. The same large heartless that we saw before appeared, it seemed different this time. Its stance seemed more hostile than before. Its orange eyes were angry and the green glowing bells hanging on its ears were shaking. The cage on its stomach was seeping darkness. And the claws on its hands and feet were glowing green. Louis screamed and took Ray's unmoving body with him while he ran away.
"I'll catch up with y'all later. I gotta take care of Ray!"
"Go on now my pet," Dr. Facilier said. "Have some fun!"
I could feel my body tense as the heartless began to roar. I pushed my right foot back preparing for launch. Its roar became louder as its body began to shake. Several black shadowy arms erupted from its body. This time this heartless was serious, it was really going to try and attack this time. I took a deep breath to ready myself and let my feet take me. I jumped into the air and shot a fire ball at its stomach, that same shimmer from before danced over its body. It was the shield. I was preparing to do a back flip so I could avoid the impact that happened last time. However its multiple arms came dashing toward me and they were fast. I used fire to push me up higher and took my blades to crash down on its arms. When kneeling on the ground those few arms vanished, it was then that I found its weakness. When I destroyed those arms there was a shimmer over its body. The shield disappeared! But it was probably only for a short amount of time so I had to strike now. I probably had to destroy more arms to lengthen the amount of time that the shield would be down. I can do this.
I used darkness to teleport myself in the air and lunged myself forward, feet first so that I could land on its body. I hit it multiple times in the head as quickly as I could and once again I saw the shimmer appear, the shield was coming back! I pushed myself off it so I wouldn't get hit from the impact. When I stood back noticed that the arms I destroyed before grew back. I knew that the only way I could do damage was to get that shield down. I charged at it again and when it tried to attack me, I dodged its long arms staring to close in. I summoned a small lightning storm with my blade to shock it and destroy more arms from before. The shimmer of the shield disappeared when I began to give consecutive strikes as much as I could. I heard the heartless making gurgling sounds as black darkness started to pour from its mouth. It looked like tar. In that small moment of distraction I heard Tiana and Naveen scream.
"Ayame!" Tiana screamed.
In the corner of my eye I could see one of the shadowy hands trying to come from behind and snatch up Tiana and Naveen. I swung quickly and destroyed them. I then went back to hitting the heartless and summing up as much magic as I could in the short time frame I had before its shield came back. Fire, ice, wind....I had to destroy this thing as quickly as I could. I then summoned a quick ball of light and shot it in the open cage. It roared in pain as its body appeared to be melting onto the ground.
"Is it over?" Naveen asked.
Dr. Facilier chuckled, "Not quite my little frog." The melted pool of the heartless expanded across the ground and shot up on all sides creating a new scenery of darkness around us. The heartless then appeared again. "Now my shadowy friend lest give you a boost!"
He waived his hands and disappeared into his green voodoo magic and went into the heartless' cage. It roared and rattled and suddenly the heartless grew to the size of giant. Its body grew to have more muscle its face changed to resemble a bone voodoo mask. It roared as the green magic seeped through his mouth, ears, and its cage. I needed to focus on this and not have to worry about Tiana and Naveen. They screamed until I grabbed them to calm them down.
I used light magic to make a impenetrable shield, hopefully. I knew that I wouldn't be able to focus if I was worried about them every second. The heartless roared and launched forward. He swung his long arm and slammed on to the ground. I barely escaped it. Multiple arms came launching from its stomach. I jumped up and kept moving, using its arms to push me higher. I embedded it with light and came crashing down as I spun like a top, severing the arms. Once I landed I dashed towards it and launched as many attacks as I could. I used the ragnarok technique. Hopefully I could so as much damage as possible as soon as possible. When I planted my feet back on the ground I was breathing heavily. Doing that technique always uses quite a bit of magic, it roared again and swung around trying to hit me. I ran and slid between its legs.
It was then I saw that black tar had been pouring out of its stomach was all over the floor, I had no choice but to stop just before it. The heartless turned around slowly as if was having trouble handling the weight of its arms. Dr. Facilier's evil chuckled floated around the air.
"You or your light won't last much longer. Those frogs will be mine!" Then hundreds...maybe thousands of arms came charging toward me. They were moving so fast they were hard to pick up. And before I knew it I was surrounded by the darkness. I couldn't see anything the only thing I could see was the ball of light around Tiana and Naveen. Being surrounded by so much darkness was not good for me. It could awaken something I couldn't control. I felt light headed and weak as I dropped to my knees.
"Ayame!" Tiana yelled. "No you have to be strong!"
I groaned from the pain, "I cant...see..". I looked down at the blurry image of my wrist. I could faintly see the bracelet that Pocahontas gave me. "I need...help.." I heard a light sound. It was like the sound of wind blolwing chimes. The bracelet started to glow and my vision started to clear.
Each individual leaf started to flow like they were being blown by wind. But there was no wind. My keyblades started to glow with light as I heard a whisper in this invisible wind. The darkness went away and I saw the clear blue sky with clouds. I could feel the green grass beneath me, and I could actually feel the wind blowing through my hair. I heard the whisper again and looked around. I could see and image of Pocahontas in the sky, her hair blowing as she began to walk forward. And somehow as she walked she was suddenly in front of me. As she moved the wind and leaves moved with her. They were one
"Pocahontas?!" But even though I said her name, she didn't seem to respond. She smiled as she came forward and took hold of my hands.
"Listen with your heart..." she said as she placed her hand over my heart. Her voice had an echo as if she wasn't really there. The colorful leaves that circled around her expanded and began to circle around us both. "Let the spirits guide you."
She closed her eyes and the winds grew stronger and the leaves flew faster. I closed my eyes to clear and calm my mind and I felt her hands disappear. I opened my eyes to the leaves swirling around and the blue sky was a bit darker and cloudy. The leaves were glowing and sparkling.
I then heard that same whisper again in the wind. "You will understand.."
Soon I was with Tiana and Naveen again. The leaves of the spirits swirled around us as they glowed brighter along with my keyblades. The leaves lifted us in the air to keep up off the ground. I could now have an easier time. I used some of the leaves as if they were daggers and sent them flying towards the heartless' arms shedding them away piece by piece in a matter of minutes. It shield was down and it was enough time for me to make a heavy blow and get rid of the thing once and for all. I tapped into my light as I held my blades in front of me horizontally and began to spin them like batons. As I spun them, the light grew bigger and bigger, until two large beams of light fired from them. The beam would stay for as long as I was able to spin it. The light struck the heartless and started to burn through its body as it screamed in pain.
I could feel my arms starting to get tired the leaves danced and moved to start spinning around my blades to help them keep going. The light shot through the heartless slowly making it fall to its knees and it disappeared. The leaves of the spirits came back and danced around me and began circling around my arm and reattached themselves to the bracelet.
I then heard that whisper again. "You will understand."
Tiana and Naveen clapped and cheered at the defeat of the heartless. "You did it!"
"It's not over yet now you have to deal with me." Dr. Facilier appeared before us. His voodoo magic danced around him as darkness began to float around him. Why are all of these villains so easy to succumb? I felt this feeling of energy this adrenaline. I used my darkness to teleport behind him and attack from behind. I then sent him up in the air and jumped to meet his falling body and began hitting him as hard as I could as fast as I could. He had done so much, imposed on people's lives with no care in the world. At some point time I had lost control of my body. I let myself keep hitting and attacking him, it's like my body had went into a trance.
"Ayame!" Tiana yelled. "I think he's had enough!" I gave one last hard hit and sent him flying into the ground. I groaned as I put my blades away and landed on my feet.
"Ayame, are you okay?" Naveen asked. I took a deep breath I could feel like darkness coursing through my veins. I had to calm down. It could feed off my emotions now.
"I'm fine. Let's go catch up with Louis.
Things had finally calmed down in the French Quarter. A couple days after dealing with Dr. Facilier we had a funeral in the bayou for Ray. It was a beautiful funeral across the river with Mama Odie and all the fireflies going down the river in remembrance of Ray. I looked up at the dark night sky and saw a big star twinkle and appear next to the same star Ray said was Evangeline. I guess love does transcend many things.
Days passed, but I couldn't leave just yet Tiana and Naveen were still frogs. I couldn't leave them like this however they did seem happy. They were so happy in fact, that Naveen proposed to Tiana, completely happy together even if they had to stay frogs for the rest of their lives. They had their ceremony the next day and were ordained my Mama Odie. As soon as they said 'I do' and kissed the Dr. Facilier's magic was voided. Large amounts of gold magic flowed all around them and they transformed back to humans. She was wearing a beautiful green ball gown for a wedding dress and he was was wearing a green suit.
They smiled and hugged. "Of course!" Naveen said. " Once we married you became-!"
"A princess! Sir, you just kissed yourself a princess!"
They both came over to me and hugged me. "Oh Tiana you've been such a great help!"
"I didn't do anything to help you become human again." I laughed. "You guys did."
"No, no! I mean being a friend and protecting us! You could have left a long time ago!" Tiana said.
"Well" I shrugged. "It's kind of my job."
"You are great!" Naveen said. "When we get back to the city Tiana and I must be married again, but won't you come back with us! I'll pay you to be our personal body guard!"
"Naveen!" Tiana elbowed him.
"Ow! I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But really Ayame we wouldn't have made it without you! Now Tiana and I can make our dreams come true! We get her her restaurant and I can play the music!"
"Well, I'm glad I could help."
Tiana came over to hug me. "You got to leave now don't ya?"
I nodded. "I do. My journey doesn't end here."
"I know, but promise me you'll come visit us. Any meal for you at our restaurant will be on the house!"
"I will take you up on that." I hugged her back. "You two have a great start out to your life." I gave everyone a wave goodbye and turned back to head to the city to get my gummi ship. I really did love doing this, meeting new people and traveling to different places. I love learning new things.
I was back flying through the skies and the next world I came across had a normal looking city and the top and beneath it under water, was a different city. A kind of city that looked ancient. My gummi radar began to beep putting me on a path towards a city called Atlantis.