Chapter 23 Timeless River.

From the other side of the door, the door shook around comedically a bit before opening up and spitting everyone out.

Sora and Corrin recovered to see that they were in their old outfits from when their journey began, but everything was all black and white. Their eyes looked a lot more simpler and their arms and legs were more noodle-like.

"Why did we change clothes?" Corrin asked.

"And where did all the color go?" Sora asked.

Sakura and Kaze mostly remained the same, but they too had no color and their eyes were a bit bigger and like Sora and Corrin, their arms and legs were noodle-like as well.

Donald and Goofy looked…simpler in design. While Goofy was wearing his hat, he only had a vest gloves and shoes on. Donald was wearing a sailor's outfit with a white hat as opposed to the blue one he previously wore.

"And I thought the last place was strange." Kaze muttered looking at himself.

"I-I look like some cartoon character in someone's comic." Sakura said.

"What the heck?" A familiar voice called out.

The group turned to see Takumi examine himself. Like Sakura and Kaze, he remained more or less the same, but with bigger eyes and no color and noodle-like arms and legs

"What are you doing here?" Donald demanded.

"What do you think? I'm here to get payback on that witch. If she thinks she can get away with controlling me, she has another thing coming." Takumi said firmly.

"Doesn't matter Donald. We don't have time for an argument on this. We have to find a way to stop those thorns." Corrin said before Donald could go on his usual rant on someone new entering the party.

Donald grumbled but didn't retort.

"But the bigger question is, where are we?" Sora asked.

"I don't know, but this place seems kind of familiar." Goofy said.

"Yeah. Now that you mention it, it does." Donald said taking a look around.

The group was on a hilltop where the Cornerstone of Light was a few feet away. From the distance, they could see a river.

"Have you guys been here before?" Sora asked and Donald and Goofy shrugged.

"I can't remember but this place dose feel kind of..." Donald began trying to find the right word.

"Deja-vu?" Goofy suggested.

"Yeah! That's it!" Donald said.

"There's the Cornerstone of Light. Where are we?" Corrin asked as he began to think but he didn't get far in that.

"Hey you!" A voice called out. The group turned to see a familiar looking fat cat. He wore overalls with one strap over his right shoulder and a hat on his head. "Have you seen any bad guys around here?"

"Pete?!" Sora gasped.

"Yeah I'm Pete! What of it?" 'Pete' demanded.

"Then you're the bad guy!" Corrin shouted as he, Sora, Donald and Goofy summoned their weapons and got the jump on Pete. The three Hoshidans were left rather confused.

"Pete? Didn't we hear that name before?" Takumi asked.

"Oh yeah. That guy the Queen was talking about with Corrin and the others." Sakura said.

"The one working with Malefacent?" Kaze asked.

"Yeah but...If he is? Why isn't he summoning Heartless?" Sakura asked as she watched her brother and his friend beat the crap out of Pete in a dust cloud.

Withn a few seconds, Pete was on the ground beaten.

"That was rather easy." Sora said rather surprised. Sure he didn't know what to expect with Pete having only met the guy once, but this guy went down rather quick and...

"Why hasn't he summoned any Heartless yet?" Corrin asked seeing it surprising that Pete had yet to summon Heartless, when last they met, he was going on about building an army of Heartless.

"Heartless? What are you babbling about? I bet you that you're the ones that stole my boat!" 'Pete' accused.

"Boat?" Donald asked.

"Guys, I think we might have made a mistake." Sora muttered.

Just then, a steamboat's horns could be heard coming from the river. 'Pete' tried to get up, but he fell over just as fast.

"D-Don't move too much." Sakura warned as she ran to the fat cat's side, her healing instincts taking over.

"Sorry for attacking you like that Captain Pete." Goofy apologized.

"If you're really sorry, then get back my Steamboat!" Pete yelled as the group ran off towards the river.

"Bunch of weirdos. And where is that lazy good-for-nothing Mickey?" 'Pete' grumbled.

Near the river:

"I guess we kind of jumped the gun on that one." Corrin said embarrassed.

"Let's just find that Steamboat that Pete was talking about." Sora said.

"Why are we looking for some boat? I thought we were looking for the villains that filled your castle with thorns?" Takumi asked annoyed.

"Well, it's not like we know where to look." Corrin retorted.

"Maybe if we find this Steamboat, we can ask Pete for information on where we are?" Sora offered.

"Or we could just go back and ask him instead." Takumi offered.

"Oh come on Takumi. We should help him after what happened." Sora offered.

"First of all, it's Prince Takumi to you. Second, you guys were the ones that attacked him. Not us." Takumi retorted causing Sora to flinch.

Before anyone could say anything, the group spotted a Steamboat pass by them in the river.

"That must be the Steamboat! Let's go!" Sora declared as he and Corrin jumped into the air and glided towards the Steamboat much to the shock of the Hoshidans

"H-How did they do that?" Sakura gasped.

"Eh it's nothing special." Donald dismissed.

"What the heck is even going on anymore?" Takumi groaned. First it was talking animals, then it was other worlds, now everything is all black and white, and not his supposed missing brother can somehow fly without the assist of a Wyvern or a Pegasus.

Back on the Steamboat:

"Alright you boat thief! Time to give…" Sora stopped in shock at who he saw at the wheel.

It was Pete.

"Wh-What are you bozos doing here?!" Pete demanded.

"What are YOU doing here?" Corrin demanded as he and Sora summoned their weapons.

"None of your business!" Pete retorted.

"Give back this steamboat!" Sora demanded.

"Why should I? This is MY steamboat. Now get…" Pete readied his foot. "LOST!" with a powerful boot, Pete punted the two islanders off the Steamboat and flying across the river, landing in the water.

Sora and Corrin resurfaced and started to swim.

"GET BACK HERE!" They both shouted as they swam after the Steamboat however, the boat was too far away and the two lost sight of it.

"Darn he got away!" Sora grunted as the Steamboat disappeared further down the river.

"That was Pete, right?" Corrin asked.

"Yeah! So, Pete lied to us!" Sora growled.

"I don't think so. With the thrashing we gave him, and the fact that we headed straight towards the river with no stops, there is no way Pete was able to get ahead of us like that. There is something fishy going on though." Corrin said.

"Sora Corrin!" Donald called out.

The two islanders turned to see the rest of the group approaching the edge of the river as Sora and Corrin swam to them.

"A-Are you both okay?" Sakura asked raising her wand for the need to heal.

"We're fine Sakura." Corrin assured causing the young princess to lower her wand.

"Did you catch the boat thief?" Goofy asked.

"No, he got away." Sora said as Kaze and Goofy helped the two out of the water.

"But that was definitely Pete in the boat." Corrin said.

"So, he is behind this." Donald declared.

"But we just saw him by the hills, right?" Takumi asked.

"So, there is two of them?" Kaze asked as everyone remained silent in confusion.

"Where the heck are we?" Corrin asked.

Meanwhile with Pete:

Once Pete was sure he lost the two islanders, he docked the Steamboat over to the side.

"I knew I'd feel more at home here." Pete sighed in nostalgia before fear and anger crept onto him. "By why is that brat with the Keyblade here? Oh no! What if they find out about the Cornerstone of Light? What if they're here to stop me?"

Pete them clapped his hands making a white door appear. Pee opened the door and stuck his head in.

"HEY MALEFICENT! THAT BRAT WITH THE KEYBLADE IS HERE! WHAT DO I DO?!" Pete shouted.

From in her throne room, Maleficent simply facepalmed at her lackey's utter stupidity.

'Think for yourself you brainless oaf.' She groaned as the figure next to her rolled their eyes.

"ANYBODY HOME? LOUSY OLD BATTLE AXE!" Pete shouted resulting in electrocution from Maleficent.

"Is insults the only thing you're good for?" Maleficent asked annoyed as she stood over the barbecued Pete.

"I thought you weren't home." Pete groaned.

"Now then, as for the Keyblade wielder, obviously you need to stop him. The thorns still need more time to drain the Cornerstone of its power." Maleficent said as she looked into the distance. "Still, I suppose I should set a trap for them." With that Maleficent waved her wand and castes a spell. She then turned to Pete as he was getting back up.

"Make sure that they don't interfere with our plans for the cornerstone." Maleficent said as she exited through the door back to her castle. The door shut and vanished as she did.

Back with Sora and co:

Before the group could even react to what was happening, a strange door opened up and swallowed them whole. The group found themselves in a small room with multiple furniture and a black hole in the center that immediately started to suck them up.

"Everyone, grab onto something!" Corrin shouted. Everyone grabbed onto a couch except for Sakura who was being held onto by Takumi, but his grip was slipping.

"Sakura…hang on!" Takumi grunted as he tried to pull his little sister to safety, but his grip slipped and Sakura was sent flying towards the black hole as she screamed.

"SAKURA!" Everyone shouted.

Just then, a piece of cloth flung towards Sakura, wrapped around her arm, and pulled her to a nearby chair where she was grabbed by a mouse wearing overalls.

"Your majesty?" Donald and Goofy gasped.

And that's a wrap!

Man this chapter was a pain to write. The comedy of Timeless River isn't easy to put into words. In the end, I am following more of the manga, but I am somewhat doing things differently as well.

Anyway, the next chapter will be a bit longer and might wrap up Timeless River. If not, the following chapter will.

As for that figure that was with Maleficent, I never said Takumi was the only one she picked up. You're free to guess if you want, and the only hint I'm giving is: It's not a royal. Or Silas.

Now onto a few things some reviewers brought up.

To those that wanted a sprite-based look for the Fire Emblem characters, I'm sorry but that made no sense. The Timeless River is supposed to be based off of the 1928 classic short Steamboat Willie along with other classic Disney shorts of that era. So Takumi, Sakura, and Kaze would be in that style as that is how Kingdom Hearts tends to work.

Now onto Takumi. I know some people wanted me to give him a melee weapon, and some have suggested Final Fantasy Job classes. Sadly, I'm not doing that. I might give him a sword once and a while since it has a part of his character (In his relationship with Ryoma), but he is sticking solely to the Fujin Yumi. And if you don't think that you can't be melee with a bow, check out characters like Natalia from Tales of the Abyss, or heck, any of the Bow users in Fire Emblem Warriors. A bow can be used more than just shooting an arrow.

I do appreciate the suggestions, seriously, I do. But I have my hands full enough on thinking and remembering the Job classes for my Golden Emblem fanfiction, and I don't want to add more to my plate.

And on that note, for anyone that reads my Golden Emblem fanfiction. I mostly have things planned out for Part 1, so I should be able to start writing for it soon, when I get the time to do so.

Well anyway, next chapter, Sora and co start to realize where they truly are while Pete puts more plans into motion.