A Keyblade Wielder from Daybreak Town discovers an unknown world steeped in darkness, and is compelled to protect a peaceful forest and a nearby summer camp. But she won’t fight alone – joined with a group of magical, multicolored bears, will their combined powers of light, love and caring be enough to push the darkness back? A retelling of the second Care Bears movie through the lens of Kingdom Hearts Union X.
This is a story I’ve been wanting to write for a while. A crossover between Care Bears and Kingdom Hearts Union X (a Kingdom Hearts mobile game that is sadly now defunct, but still exists as an offline experience). The main character of the game is player-created – this story and the below image follows my own player character. My vision for this story (for the most part) is to show the events of the second Care Bears movie as if they were part of the Union X game. I hope I’ve managed to do that here.
Shion slowly opened her eyes as she stepped from the Dark Corridor into the next world calling for help from the darkness. Blinking, she looked around her. It was late afternoon, and sunlight streamed from the tops of hundreds of tall fir trees. It was very hot, and Shion judged that she had arrived in this world during the height of summer.
There was a puff of smoke as Chirithy appeared beside her. He looked around, then paused for a moment to think.
“Strange,” he murmured, “I haven’t heard anything about this world before.”
Shion tilted her head questioningly.
“I’ve talked with other Chirithy who’ve been to many different worlds, but this one just doesn’t sound or feel familiar.” Chirithy shook his head.
Shion shrugged. She was still a very new Keyblade Wielder, and she hadn’t yet been to many worlds. The fresh, exciting feeling she got as she entered a new world was still the same, and this world wasn’t any different.
“Anyway,” Chirithy continued, “let’s get going! We have to find the cause of the darkness invading this world!”
As they walked, Shion wondered what sort of Heartless would show up in this world. She had enjoyed the last few days sparring with other Keyblade Wielders, but duty called, and she was looking forward to fighting more Heartless and collecting more Lux for the Vulpes Union. Vulpes was currently the top Union when it came to collecting Lux, and Shion was sure her contributions, however small, helped greatly.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a series of shouts in the distance.
“Help! Help us!”
Shion whipped her head in the direction of the shouts, and immediately called her Keyblade into her hand. As she ran through the trees, Chirithy jumped up and disappeared with a puff of smoke.
The shouts came from a small clearing. A boy and a girl, both with blond hair, were standing and clutching each other. They both had similar features – Shion figured that they were twins – and they both wore shirts with a strange blue circle and white triangle on them. In front of them were a horde of Heartless, jumping and clawing at them.
Before Shion could attack with her Keyblade, a blast of light came from out of nowhere and hit one of the Heartless, knocking it down.
“Don’t worry! I’ll take care of this!”
A cream-colored bear with a multicolored star symbol on her belly appeared. Facing off against the Heartless, the bear shot more beams of light from her belly.
Shion, meanwhile, stood nearby with her mouth hanging slightly open. Someone else could fight against the Heartless? And they weren’t a Keyblade Wielder?
“Don’t just stand there!” Chirithy shouted, appearing beside Shion. “Help them out!”
Shion shook herself out of her reverie and lunged at the Heartless, destroying a few with her Keyblade.
After a few more light beams and Keyblade attacks, the Heartless were completely destroyed.
The strange bear turned toward the two kids. “Are you all right?”
They nodded. “Who… are you?” the boy asked.
“I’m True Heart Bear,” the bear said in a bright, cheerful voice. “I’m a Care Bear.”
A rustling sound came from a backpack on True Heart’s back, and a little blue rabbit popped out.
True Heart giggled. “And this is baby Swift Heart Rabbit.”
The boy smiled. “I’m John, and this is my sister, Dawn.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dawn answered.
“We’re from Camp Thunderbird,” John added.
True Heart turned to Shion. “You were amazing against those dark creatures. You’re not from around here, are you?”
Shion glanced around quickly and her heart sank when she saw Chirithy was gone. It was just like him to leave her hanging at times like this!
Shion gulped and spoke up.
“I’m Shion. And I’m… uh…” She scratched her head. She couldn’t say she wasn’t from this world, could she?
Dawn spoke up, not noticing Shion’s hesitation. “Oh, you must be from the camp on the other side of the river!”
“Yeah, they don’t have to wear uniforms like us, and they get to do way cooler stuff than we do,” John added. He sighed. “We do the usual stuff like running, swimming, paddling…”
“Which neither of us are good at,” Dawn said dejectedly. “We always come in last. And we end up doing all the camp chores as a result! Trash duty, laundry…” She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“That’s awful,” Shion commiserated.
“Which is why we’re running away from that terrible place,” John said, “Both of us, and our friend Christy.”
“But then we got lost,” Dawn said hopelessly. “We really aren’t good at anything! We can’t even run away right!”
“We’re just losers,” John said glumly.
True Heart sighed. “Running away from a problem never solves it,” she said gently. “Why don’t you stop thinking of all the things you can’t do, and focus on all the things you can do?”
“Like what?” John said abruptly.
Suddenly, little Swift Heart started squirming and bawling in True Heart’s backpack.
“Aww, don’t cry,” Dawn said, lifting Swift Heart up and taking her in her arms. She rocked Swift Heart to and fro, and John tickled Swift Heart and made funny faces. Soon, Swift Heart stopped crying and started giggling.
True Heart smiled. “See? You can do something. You can make friends!”
Shion nodded. “Everyone has a talent. Maybe running, swimming and paddling aren’t yours.”
John and Dawn remained silent. True Heart thought for a moment, looking back at baby Swift Heart snuggled in Dawn’s arms, then brightened.
“Why don’t you come with me to Care-a-Lot?” she suggested. “You can meet my friend Noble Heart. And the cubs need tending to – I’m sure you’ll do great helping out!”
“Cubs?” John asked.
“There’s more of them?” Dawn added. She patted little Swift Heart’s head and giggled. “I wanna see!”
John smiled. “Sure, we’ll come along!”
“Great!” True Heart quickly summoned a Cloud Car. “Hop in!”
As John and Dawn entered the car, True Heart turned to Shion. “You coming?”
Shion smiled and shook her head. “I’m going to look around a little more. To make sure there aren’t any more… uh… dark creatures hanging around. And I’m going to look for your friend.”
Dawn gasped. “Christy!”
“We almost forgot about her!” John exclaimed.
Shion immediately spoke up. “Don’t worry. I’ll find her. You can count on it!”
They waved as the Cloud Car drove away into the sky. Shion waved back, and Chirithy reappeared in a puff of smoke.
“Interesting,” Chirithy murmured, “That this world has heroes of its own with the power to fight the darkness.”
Shion nodded. She was sure that Dawn and John would learn a valuable lesson in self-worth from True Heart and the rest of the Care Bears.
Chirithy spoke up again. “Let’s go find Christy before the Heartless do!”
Shion nodded and took off running.
Meanwhile, a tired and depressed Christy was in another, deeper part of the forest, sitting on a rotten log and tossing a colored marble into the air.
“This stinks,” Christy said to herself. “The one time I decide to step up and run away from camp, and I end up getting lost.”
In hindsight, maybe running away wasn’t such a good idea after all. Where would she go, and what would she do? She thought about the events that led to her being sent to Camp Thunderbird. Her parents had given her an ultimatum: camp or summer school. She was not to spend the whole summer goofing off doing nothing. Her grades the previous school year were pretty good, and going to summer school, where she’d be seen as an insufferable know-it-all, was out of the question. So she chose camp.
It was the worst choice she had ever made. Christy couldn’t believe how badly she performed at camp activities – she ran like a turtle, could barely swim without drowning, and even if she paddled so hard that her arms fell off, she still came in last.
The only thing that made the situation even somewhat bearable was befriending Dawn and John. They were just as horribly inept as her, and of course, misery loves company.
Her thoughts wandered back to the last race they had, where the three of them had, as expected, come in last place. She remembered the Camp Champ’s annoying laugh as he tossed some trash bags her way, then strode away haughtily.
Christy scowled. “If only I could run, swim, and paddle better than anyone else – that’ll show the Camp Champ!” she said hotly, “I’d wipe that smug smile off his ugly face, and then make him do all the camp chores! Let’s see how he likes that!”
Christy’s face fell as thoughts of reality shattered her daydream.
“Who am I kidding? There’s no way I’ll ever be Camp Champ. Not someone like me, who comes in last at everything. Not when the only sport I’m good as is shooting marbles!” She took aim and deftly shot a leaf off of a tree, catching the marble and the leaf a moment later.
She scowled in disgust. “Marble champ.”
Her thoughts were interrupted by a violent rustling. She looked around fearfully. “Hello?” she asked shakily. It was starting to get dark, and she had never been out in the forest at night. Who knows what could be crawling around?
“Hello?” she called again, “Dawn? John?”
“Hey there!”
Christy whipped around to see a red-haired boy with piercing red eyes, dressed in a red tracksuit. He walked over to her with a strong, confident stance.
“If it isn’t the Camp Champ,” he said.
Christy looked around. “Me?” She laughed harshly. “I’m not the Camp Champ. I’m just a nobody.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” the boy answered. He looked her up and down with a cold stare that made her shiver.
“Who are you?” Christy asked.
The boy nonchalantly hopped onto a rotten log and balanced on it. “Me? I’m from the camp on the other side of the river.”
Christy scowled. “The one where they don’t make you compete in races, or punish you with chores if you lose?”
The boy glanced over at her with a pensive look on his face. Then he hopped off the log and walked closer to her. Christy took a step back.
“What would you say if I could make you Camp Champ?” he asked, “Right now?”
Christy scoffed. “What are you, a magician?”
“Laugh all you want, but it’s true,” the boy answered smoothly, “I can give you the strength, the stamina, and the ability to knock the Camp Champ right off his pedestal, and take it for yourself!”
Christy thought for a moment. Was he telling the truth?
“There is one catch, though,” he added.
“I knew it was too good to be true,” Christy said with a huff.
“Not so fast,” the boy said, “All I need is one favor from you, the next time I see you.”
“What is this favor?” Christy asked suspiciously.
“I’ll tell you when we meet again,” the boy answered with a cold smile. “And I will be back.”
Christy stared at him hard for a moment, then relented. It probably wouldn’t hurt to play along. “Sure. Okay,” she said mockingly, “Go ahead and make me Camp Champ.”
The boy smirked, and snapped his fingers. “Done.”
Christy looked herself over in confusion. She didn’t look any different, or feel any different.
“Do a cartwheel,” the boy said.
“A-a cartwheel?” Christy stammered, “I can’t do a-”
She was silenced by his cold, red glare. “Just do it.”
Christy swallowed, put out her arms… and did a perfect cartwheel.
“I did it!” she cried, “I did it!” She did a few more cartwheels in delight. “You were telling the truth!”
The boy looked back at her with a haughty smile. “Not just that,” he said, “Now you can race, swim, paddle…”
Christy brightened with the realization. “I am going to be Camp Champ!” she said in amazement.
“Enjoy it,” the boy said with a cocky smile on his face. “Just remember, I’ll be back!” He turned, and melted away into the shadows.
Christy looked after him in wonder, then her thoughts shifted toward the Camp Champ. Or the former Camp Champ, after she was done with him! She couldn’t wait to show him up in their next race!
There was a loud rustling and shaking of the trees and bushes that snapped Christy out of her thoughts.
“Hey!” she called out, “Is that you again?” Referring to the boy who had just made her dreams come true, she felt a little embarrassed that she’d never asked for his name. “Trying to scare me?” she asked boldly, feeling braver than she ever felt before. “It won’t work!”
Something suddenly jumped out of the bushes, and Christy let out a scream.
Shion looked up at the scream that just rang out across the forest, and immediately summoned her Keyblade.
“It came from over there!” Chirithy shouted, pointing in a nearby direction.
They ran until they reached a small, dark clearing with several fallen logs. There was a girl with long brown hair and a purple baseball cap, dressed in the same camp uniform as Dawn and John. She was shrinking away from a group of Heartless that jumped and slashed at her.
Shion gripped her Keyblade and shot a couple of Medal attacks toward the pack of Heartless. One Heartless dissolved easily in a flash of of blue light, while other Heartless hit by red and green light remained standing. Shion nodded to herself, realizing what these Heartless were weak against, and deftly switched her Keychain to Counterpoint, which contained her Magic Medal loadout.
After a few more attacks, all of the Heartless were eliminated. Shion de-summoned her Keyblade and turned to the girl.
“Are you all right?” Shion asked.
The girl nodded. “Y-yeah,” she stammered. She gave a weak smile. “Thanks.”
“Are you Christy?” Shion asked her.
“Yeah,” Christy replied, surprised. “How do you know my name?”
Shion smiled. “I met your friends in the forest earlier.”
“Dawn and John?” Christy blurted out, “Are they all right? We lost sight of each other…”
Shion was about to answer when voices called out across the forest.
“Christy! Christy!”
They turned to see Dawn and John running over to them happily. Dawn looked over at Shion. “You found her!”
“Wait till we tell you where we were!” John said breathlessly.
“We met these cute baby cubs,” Dawn added, “and we took care of them! And we didn’t mess it up!”
“We don’t have to win races to be champs,” John said confidently, “We’re friends that always help each other out, and those are the real champs!”
“So we don’t have to run away anymore!” Dawn said, excited.
Christy listened to her two friends, staring back at them like they had grown second heads. What brought on this change in outlook? They took care of baby cubs, they said. Bear cubs? Lion cubs? And they didn’t get their heads ripped off? What? She couldn’t understand.
Her thoughts then shifted to the strange boy she had met and the power she had been given, and her demeanor changed.
“Who’s running away?” Christy said with a cocky smile, “Not me!” She tossed something small to John, who caught it. “I plan on sticking around for a while!” She strode off, with a proud swagger neither of them had ever seen from her.
John opened his hand to see Christy’s prized colored marble. He stared at it for a moment, puzzled. “T-that’s great, Christy…” he stammered.
“We ought to be going,” Dawn spoke up, “It’s getting dark.”
“Do you know the way back to your camp from here?” Shion asked.
John pocketed the marble and smiled sheepishly. “We’re not that far away, actually. All this time, we were going around in circles!”
Shion nodded. “I’ve got to get back as well. I guess this is goodbye for now.”
“Thank you for everything!” Dawn said, waving as she turned around to follow the others back.
“Christy, wait!” John called out.
Shion watched as the three kids hurried back to camp, smiling. It looked as if Dawn and John had gotten their confidence back, and Christy appeared to be a strong, confident person herself. They would be fine.
“A job well done!” Chirithy said with a poof.
Shion nodded.
“But we still don’t know much about the darkness in this world,” Chirithy continued, “What form it takes, and what it’s trying to do here.”
“The Heartless here are weak against Magic,” Shion answered, summoning her Counterpoint keyblade.
“There’s that,” Chirithy agreed. “And then there’s the Care Bears. With them around to fight the darkness, there’s probably not much we need to do here.”
“Would it still be worth it to check up on this world now and then?” Shion asked.
“Of course!” Chirithy exclaimed, “But we won’t need to worry too much about it in the long run.”
Shion nodded. “All right.”
“Off to the next world!” Chirithy said, as Shion lifted her Keyblade, opening the door to a Dark Corridor.
As they disappeared into the Dark Corridor, neither of them noticed a strange red fox watching them from the foliage, laughing evilly under its breath.