Fanfiction ► The Xehanort War

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 53: Steady As The Beating Drum:
The New Word – Jamestown Settlement:

"Well that could have gone better," Terra commented as he and Ludor returned to their tent after John's attempt to convince the other settlers that the natives weren't hostile ended with Ratcliffe declaring a death sentence to anyone who didn't kill any savages they saw on sight.

"Indeed it could have," his fellow conspirator remarked. "But as long as Ratfliffe is in a position to contact Xehanort if we betray him, we can only sit here and watch or else it's back to being mindless drones for us." Terra nodded his head in agreement. After finally regaining his free will for the first time in years, he was terrified of being made a slave of Xehanort again. So they could only sit and listen to the settlers arguing about whether or not the "savages" were really hiding the gold, resolving to subtly use their magic to prevent fighting if it came down to it. Terra smiled a bit when he heard a few men argue that Ratcliffe had been lying to them since they left London. He stopped smiling though, when he looked out the tent and saw John sneak outside the fort.

"John's sneaking out again," he said as he turned back to his partner.

"Probably to see that girl he made friends with," Ludor suggested as he aimlessly shuffled another deck. Terra had informed him of what he'd seen earlier that day. Apparently John Smith had befriended a girl named Pocahontas from the Indian tribe that lived nearby, and regularly snuck off to spend time with her. Terra had been sworn to secrecy on the matter, and had even run into Aqua and Ven while he was out as well. He'd gotten into an argument with his friends about doing the right thing, during which he'd broken down and admitted that he was terrified of being possessed again. After some comfort and reassurance from his friends, the three Key bearers quickly made up before Terra had to return to the camp.

"I think a few people saw him leave though," the young man added. "And if Ratcliffe finds out…"

"It could be disastrous," the Gambler finished. "Alright, Alright. I'll keep an eye on Ratcliffe. You follow John and make sure he stays out of trouble with the locals. Your friends can vouch for you, but not for him. Terra nodded his thanks before teleporting outside of the settlement's perimeter in time to overhear Ratcliffe order the young man, Thomas, Terra believe his name was, to find out where John was sneaking off to, and report back to him. Terra winced in sympathy when Ratcliffe called the young man a "slipshod sailor and a poor excuse for a soldier" before warning the boy, who was only a few years older than Ven, not to disappoint him again. As the young man jogged into the wilderness, Terra silently followed, hoping to avert any potential catastrophes.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be easier said than done. Ratcliff's greed had caused Heartless to start appearing throughout the forest, meaning that every time one showed up, Terra had to break away from following Thomas in order to prevent them from harming the young man. By the time he caught up with the red headed boy, it was too late. Kocoum, a young man who'd only been a child the last time Terra was here, had found Pocahontas meeting with John and attacked him. The white-haired Keyblade Wielder arrived just as Thomas shot the tribal warrior to save John's life. Aqua and Ven knelt over the body while John tried to hold Pocahontas back as she screamed at Thomas for killing the man. Terra stood and put a hand on Thomas' shoulder. The young man was clearly in shock over having killed someone for the first time. As the warriors of Pocahontas' tribe could be heard racing through the trees towards the sound of the gunshot, Aqua and Ven told Terra to get Thomas back to the village while John remained behind with Pocahontas and the other Keyblade Wielders.

When Terra and Thomas returned to the camp, things quickly worsened. By the time they got back, Thomas was panicking and told the others that Smith had been captured by the "savages." A chorus of angry shouts rose up as Thomas insisted that they had to save him. Terra attempted to explain what had really happened, but that battle was lost the moment Governor Ratcliffe emerged from his tent. With a few words and an unbearably catchy song, the greedy governor quickly goaded the men into a bloodthirsty frenzy. There was no stopping the settlers now. Terra shoved Ludor into a tent and explained what had actually happened, and the two decided that they weren't going to stand aside in fear while innocents were slaughtered on both sides. So they snuck out of the camp to meet up with Aqua and Ven in the hopes of stopping this situation from escalating further.

When they arrived, the tribes stood above the settlers on an upraised cliff while the chief prepared to execute John Smith. Before any of the four could do anything, Pocahontas threw herself in front of her lover. When the chief ordered his daughter to stand back, Pocahontas refused, telling her father that she loved John.

"Look around you," she said, gesturing at the scene of two armies prepared for war. "This is where the path of hatred has brought us. This is the path I choose, father. What will yours be?" After a moment of contemplation as the wind blew past, the chief held his staff in the air with both hands.

"My daughter speaks with wisdom beyond her years," he said. "We have all come here with anger in our hearts, but she comes with courage and understanding. From this day forward, if there is to be more killing, it will not start with me. Release him." Pocahontas and John embraced once his bonds had been cut. Terra and the other off-worlders smiled in satisfaction as both sides lowered their weapons. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and a body fell to the ground.

The New World – Open Plains:

I really should get paid for all of this, Lea joked to himself as he dodged a blob of Darkness Sephiroth hurled in his direction. He, Tifa, and Cloud had been fighting the One-Winged Angel since sunset, and the fight was beginning to come to a draw. It's time to end him for good, Cloud thought to himself as he parried another blow with his sword. His genes can't protect him forever. Xehanort gave him the DNA of some Inhuman monster, Jenova, that attacked Radiant Garden centuries ago in the hopes of endowing his creation with the powers of that monster. But that doesn't make him invincible. He can still be killed. A massive column of fire jolted him out of his thoughts as the three warriors ran away from the flaming pillar's magnetic pull. The battle continued to rage until the sound of a gunshot momentarily distracted everyone. By the time everyone had turned their attention back to the duel, Sephiroth had already lost interest in the fight.

"Another time, Cloud," the winged man taunted before disappearing in a flash of darkness and feathers. Cloud growled in frustration that his arch-nemesis had escaped yet again. The longer the hunt for Sephiroth went on, the longer it would take for him to avenge Zack. The black-haired warrior had been a surrogate older brother to Cloud after Radiant Garden fell. But when Sephiroth was born, his first act was to hunt Zack down in Olympus Coliseum and murder him. When Cloud first confronted the monster about it, his only response was "family makes you weak." Since then, the man was determined to destroy the demon who had killed the closest thing he'd ever had to family.

Yes, capitalizing the i in Inhuman was intentional. If you've seen the latest season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., you'll understand what I'm getting at with Jenova's origin.

So Sephiroth has escaped yet again. Where will he go next? Will he be focused on Cloud for the whole story? Find out next chapter.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 54: Savages:
The New World – Shore:

"Is he going to make it, Thomas?" one of the settlers asked. Ratcliffe had attempted to murder Pocahontas father, only for John Smith to take the bullet for him. He survived, but he needed to return to England for medical treatment. I wish we could just heal him now, Aqua thought to herself as she, Ven, Terra, and Ludor stood and watched, but this is one of those worlds where they're really into the whole "burn the witch" routine.

"The sooner he gets back to England, the better," Thomas replied as the men finished loading the last bit of "cargo" (actually an armored Ratcliffe gagged and bound with chains) onto the rowboat. The settlers attempted to move John's stretcher back to the ship, but he refused to be moved until Pocahontas came to see him off. True to his word, Pocahontas soon emerged from the woods, accompanied by several of her fellow tribesmen and women, each carrying a basket of corn and other foods. Pocahontas gave John a sample of bark from Grandmother Willow, a talking tree Terra, Aqua, and Ven had met on their last visit to this world. Her father gave the Englishman his cape as a gift, telling him that he will always be welcome among the tribe.

Although John asked Pocahontas to come with him back to England, she reluctantly replied after a long moment of contemplation that she was needed here with her people. She and John kissed one final time before they loaded his stretcher onto the boat to return to the ship. As the ship sailed away, Pocahontas took off through the woods, following the ship as it sailed out of the river until she stood on top of a cliff overlooking the sea. As this was happening, Terra, Aqua, and Ven said their goodbyes. While Aqua, Ven, Lea, Cloud, and Tifa planned to stay for one more night, Terra and Ludor had a deadline to meet, and returned to the World That Never Was, although not before Aqua gave Terra his armor back, condensed into its gauntlet form. Terra gratefully slipped it on under his coat and gloves before giving Aqua a kiss goodbye and vanishing into a Dark Corridor.

The World That Never Was – Hall of Empty Melodies:

Something's wrong, Terra thought as he and Ludor emerged from the Corridor into the Hall of Empty Melodies to find Xemnas, Braig, Isa, and Master Xehanort waiting for them. We've never had a welcoming committee before. What happened? He and Ludor stood calmly at attention, waiting to see what would be said and what would happen.

"And where is Ratcliffe?" Isa asked in his usual demanding tone. "Your mission was to bring him back here after he'd started the war he sought to instigate. Why didn't you?"

"There was a bit of a complication with that," Ludor replied calmly, taking the lead. "His attempt to ignite a war between the settlers and the tribes failed, and he was killed when his men turned on him. They attempted to kill us as well, so we got out of there as quickly as we could."

"Interesting…" a familiar voice called out as a large, black-haired man emerged from the hallway leading to the Grey Area, accompanied by Xehanort's time-travelling younger self. "I don't feel dead," Governor Ratcliff remarked as Terra and Ludor stared in horror at his pointed ears and golden eyes. There goes our cover, Terra realized. But he and Ludor kept their expressions neutral just in case.

"Imagine my surprise when I found myself in London a few years after you were sent to that world," Young Xehanort added. "And when searching the prison for suitable candidates should our deal with Ratcliffe pan out, I found the man himself locked away. Once I let him out, he had some interesting things to say about what had happened. Particularly regarding your true allegiances."

"And you would believe this greedy, opulent, self-serving man who would say anything to get what he wants over your older self?" Terra asked, speaking with his older voice and struggling to keep calm.

"Perhaps," Master Xehanort answered in his ancient, gravelly voice. "Or perhaps not. However, there is only one way to find out." In the blink of an eye, the old man summoned his Keyblade and fired a blast of Dark Fire at the two conspirators. Terra raised his and instinctively to block, summoning his original Keyblade, Ends of the Earth, in the process. "It's been a long time, Terra," Master Xehanort remarked as three dozen Sniper Nobodies materialized around the two traitors. "It seems that my control over your heart has grown lax in recent days. A pity. But at least that's what backups are for." With a gesture of the old Keyblade Master's hand, the Snipers opened fire.

Terra quickly began blocking every shot he could while Ludor pulled out his playing cards and began using them as shields to deflect the shots that Terra couldn't. Compared to their own power the snipers weren't even a challenge. The two deserters cut through the low-level Nobodies like a hot knife through butter. In less than a minute they'd fought their way out onto Naught's Skyway. That was when things got harder, as Berserkers spiraled down from above. The Berserkers were harder, but still nothing compared to facing a fellow Organization member. In a few minutes they had fought their way down to the lower levers of the Hall of Empty Melodies. And that was when the path ended.

Master Xehanort began cackling evilly as the ramps leading to the central plafrom retracted, leaving the two escapees stranded on a tiny island floating above a near-bottomless chasm. Terra turned and glared accusingly up at Braig, who simply flashed the young Key bearer an apologetic smile that said "Sorry dudes, can't help you. My cover is more important than yours. You're on your own."

"I am disappointed in you Terra," the old man called out from the upper level. "So much potential wasted."

"Wasted because of YOU!" Terra spat defiantly as Ludor constructed a bridge of cards to get them to the entrance to Twilight's View. Terra unlocked the door with his Keyblade and the two fled the hall. They're toying with us, Terra realized as they raced down the stairs into Twilight's View, panting heavily as they ran. They have no intention of letting us escape the castle alive. They're just trying to demoralize us by giving us hope that we'll make it out and then crushing it. As the realization dawned on him, Isa appeared at the bottom of the stairs in front of them, blocking the door to the Crooked Ascension. Behind them, Young Xehanort warped in to block the stairway back to the Hall, cutting off their escape.

"Your hearts have led you to obliteration," Xemnas taunted as he appeared in midair, floating over the empty space between the castle walls and the walkway on which the escapees stood. With a flick of his wrists, ten thousand ethereal blades appeared in the air in a half-dome surrounding the two traitors, ready to rain fire upon them from above. As Xemnas pulled back his arms to fire the lasers, Ludor quickly brought up his cards to form a small box that protected them as the cards began to vibrate as the firestorm began. But they wouldn't hold for long.

"Open a Dark Corridor," Ludor shouted as the continuous laser fire started making dents in the cards.

"To where?" Terra asked incredulously as the floor began to vibrate as well. He looked down to find another dome of ethereal blades firing laser bolts as the glass.

"Anywhere but here," the Gambler shouted back as he began sweating profusely from the strain of keeping the shield up. "The shield won't hold forever, so HURRY UP AND OPEN THE BLOODY CORRIDOR BEFORE WE BOTH DIE!" So Terra quickly opened up a small black portal beneath his feet before jumping in. Ludor timed his jump just right so that he could summon the enchanted cards back to his hand and jump through. The portal closed a millisecond before the glass floor of the walkway shattered from the strain of laser fire. Xemnas quickly dismissed the blades as Isa and Young Xehanort ran to inspect the scene of the battle.

"Contact Sephiroth," Xemnas ordered as he floated down. Tell him he has two new targets. Top priority. Double his pay if you have to but those traitors need to be hunted down and killed. Isa, tell Braig to start tracking them and…."

"There's no need for that," a voice called out. Everyone turned to find the One-Winged Angel himself standing at the top of the stairs. "They've landed on my mother's prison. I can sense it. I can easily find them there and kill them."

"And how do you know they won't run for their lives once they figure out you're on the same world as them?" Isa inquired curiously.

"Because on the desolate world mother was imprisoned on, the weather is tied to her moods," Sephiroth answered. "My pilgrimages there have revealed that my presence there has the same effect. All I need to do is be in a murderous mood and the weather will herd them right to me. Fear not, they'll be dead soon enough." And in a flash of feathers and darkness, he was gone.

Unknown World:

"Oh thank goodness, you're alright," Terra heard a woman's voice say as he opened his eyes to find himself lying on his back inside a small cave. What bothered him the most about this situation was not the fact that they were underground. No. It was that he and Ludor were currently lying in a large cage. Groaning as he sat up, he took in his surroundings. Standing in front of the cage was a young woman with short hair. Her voice had an English accent so maybe they'd landed on a world that was connected to London at some point in time. Behind her, a tall man with short, dark hair leaned against the wall glaring suspiciously at him. Terra temporarily halted his examination when he heard his fellow fugitive regaining consciousness next to him.

"Where are we?" Ludor asked cautiously as he took in their surroundings, unsure of their captor's intentions.

"If you're talking about the planet, I don't know," the girl replied. "Nobody knows what this world is called. I've only been stranded here for two months. Will's been stuck here for twelve years, and even he has no idea what it's called."

"Don't give them my name," the man, Will apparently, called out from the cave entrance. "We can't even be sure if they're real."

"Of course they're real," the girl retorted. "How else would you explain them falling out of a portal in the ground."

"Excuse me," Terra began, interrupting the argument that had broken out between Will and the girl. "But now that we've established that everyone here is real, can we get on with the introductions so we can get let out of this cage?" Blushing embarrassedly, the girl came over and opened the cage.

"Thank you," Terra replied as he took off the Black Coat before walking out of the cage with Ludor right behind him. Beneath his coat, Terra was wearing his old shirt (without the straps to form a Recuscant's Sigil, since he'd removed those once Aqua had warned him about that back in Arendelle) and a pair of khaki pants that were skinner than his old ones. He still wore the Organization XIII boots, but now he felt more like himself again. "I'm Terra," he said as he shook hands with their two former captors. "My snarky friend over there is Ludor."

"Jemma Simmons," the girl introduced herself. "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

You didn't really think Terra was going to get away with everything forever, did you?

After I came up with the Terra and Luxord on the run subplot, I had this idea of them rescuing Simmons from the Monolith planet while on the run from Sephiroth and I just couldn't resist. No, they're not going to take her with them or actually stay on Earth for long. They're just going to drop her off at the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D. base so I can have an early FitzSimmons reunion and then continue on their way. Just a tiny little plot bunny I came up with to satisfy my favorite Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pairing and move on.

KingdomKey · Apr 5, 2016

Funny enough, I actually thought Terra would get away with it for a lot longer than this. xD Anyways, I like seeing him team up with Ludor. Of course, it's a shame they got caught. Thankfully Braig can carry on his agenda without a problem. Anyways, I do love seeing our number one couple hook up together finally. (Talking about Sora and Kairi here. Damn time it happened too.) Of course, seeing the world Frozen was pretty damn awesome too. I love a load of these chapters and finally caught up again.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 55: Oakey Oaks:
The Lanes Between – Sora, Donald, and Goofy's Gummi Ship:

I hope Kairi's okay, Sora thought to himself as he laid down in his bunk aboard the Gummi Ship while Donald piloted the ship towards their next destination. Even though he trusted Riku and Mickey to protect her, he was still terrified at the thought of her getting captured by Xehanort. Thinking about everything that madman had done made Sora eager to finally put an end to the maniac's schemes. The only reason they hadn't stormed the World That Never Was yet was because unlike other worlds, which moved in fixed orbits, Xehanort's stronghold drifted aimlessly through space, and was only accessible by Gummi Ship if someone arrived via Corridor of Darkness and used the Auto-Pilot remote to summon their ship to the world's current location.

And thinking about Xehanort had only reminded Sora of his brush with darkness in the Realm of Sleep. He'd talked to his parents and gotten over the trauma of having his heart shattered, but every now and then he still had nightmares about what the insane Keyblade Master had put him through. Even though he knew in his head that darkness itself wasn't inherently bad, Xehanort's actions made it hard to accept in his heart, even more so after what had happened the first time he'd failed the Mark of Mastery exam. He was glad to have earned the title of Master, even if it was only a meaningless formality at this point, but the scars Xehanort had left him with still lingered.

Although his test at Castle Oblivion had taught him to bear the pain of others without being broken by it, he still had nightmares about succumbing to the darkness and becoming Xehanort's puppet. Being forced to do horrible things he would never dream of doing. Hurting Kairi. He knew that darkness wasn't evil. Everything Riku had been through was proof of that. But Xehanort was, and he needed to be stopped. As Sora sat up in his bunk, Goofy walked in.
"Can't sleep?" the dog asked as he sat down on his own bunk.

"Yeah," Sora admitted with a sigh. "I'm just… I'm scared… of what'll happen if I fall into darkness a second time. I'm scared that if Xehanort makes me one of his vessels, he'll make me hurt Kairi. If that happened..."

"It won't," Goofy reassured his young friend as he came over and put a comforting hand on Sora's shoulder. "The whole point of your test at Castle Oblivion was for you to prepare your heart so that you wouldn't have a repeat of what happened the last time you took the exam. Besides, as long as you still focus on doing the right thing, you're not gonna fall into Darkness again."

"Thanks, Goofy," Sora replied, slightly reassured. He was still nervous, but talking about it had helped to ease his worries a bit. Not a lot, but enough to make him feel a little better. When Donald's voice came over the intercom announcing their arrival at a new world, he and Goofy raced to the cockpit to grab their gear and prepare to disembark.

Oakey Oaks – Cluck House:

After exiting the Gummi Ship, the three heroes found themselves on a quiet street late in the evening. The sun had gone down and everyone who lived nearby had clearly gone inside for the night. As they walked down the street, they heard a familiar voice singing loudly. As they snuck into the backyard of the house they'd heard the singing come from, they heard their old friend, Chicken Little, talking to someone. When the other person in the room left, Sora called out quietly to get their friend's attention.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy!" Chicken Little greeted as he gestured for the Keyblade Master and his companions to come on up. "It's nice to see you guys again," he said once the three of them had quietly climbed in through the window. How have you guys been?"

"Pretty good," Sora replied. "Just flying around the universe fighting bad guys. What have you been up to?" Chicken Little regaled them with the story of how a piece of the sky fell on his head, and how he turned it around by joining the school baseball team and winning the big game. As the four of them talked, Chicken Little hopped up on the window and looked up at the sky. As he told them how he'd wished on a star, which he then pointed out to them, for a chance to finally live down the falling sky incident, Donald and Goofy gasped as they noticed the star starting to get a little bigger… and bigger… almost as if…

"It's falling out of the sky!" Sora exclaimed as they backed up from the window. Chicken Little stopped for a moment to clean his glasses so he could see, causing the start to smack him in the face. Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared in shock at the blinking lights that lined the underside of the hexagonal panel. After snapping themselves out of their stupor, they scrambled to help their friend out from under whatever this thing was. Once Chicken Little was free, they all gasped as they looked in horror at the section of the sky with the exact same star they'd just been looking at. Chicken Little was about to scream when Sora put his hand over the young chicken's beak and a finger over his own mouth. Chicken Little nodded to show he understood before.

"Not again," he whispered. But before they could do anything else, his dad, Buck Cluck, came upstairs. Sora, Donald, and Goofy hid behind the bed while Chicken Little covered the panel with a blanket. The trio waited silently in the corner while Chicken Little explained to his dad that the noise he'd heard was him falling out of bed. Once he was gone, the three visitors stood up as Chicken Little gingerly lifted up the blanket to find that the piece of the sky was gone. Satisfied that he didn't have to worry about it anymore, the young chicken took a step forward, only to trip on the edge of the panel and fall flat on his face. Sora ran to help his friend up as a light blue hexagon pattern began shimmering all over the panel. It didn't disappear, Sora realized. It camouflaged itself.

After helping Chicken Little lift the panel off the floor, the off-worlders leaned it against the wall so they could examine it. As soon as they did so, it immediately changed its camouflage to match the wall behind it. After holding his arm between the panel and the wall to test the camouflage system of whatever this thing was, Chicken Little picked it up and carried it over to the window. When the camouflage changed to match the sky, the chicken dropped the panel in shock. Fortunately, Sora and Donald caught it before it could crash to the ground and make more noise while Chicken Little raced off to call his friend, Abby. When Abby and his other friends, Runt of the Litter and Fish out of Water arrived and were introduced to Sora and the others, Chicken Little showed them the panel.

"Okay," Abby began after commenting on how bizarre the panel was. "Let me guess, you haven't told your dad yet."

"Well…" Chicken Little replied nervously.

"I knew it," Abby added with a satisfied smile. "And why haven't you told him? Because there hasn't been any of you, your dad, talk talk talking." When Chicken Little tried to protest she cut back in. "Alright, that's it," she when on. "We are doing an intervention. You have got to stop messing around and deal with the problem."

"She's right," Runt commented.

"Abby please," Chicken Little begged. "This is exactly what fell on me the first time. There's no way I'm bringing this up again with him.

"No he's not," Runt commented.

"Runt," Abbey warned.

"Sorry," the pig replied. "I'm a gutless flip flopper."

"Okay," the duck continued. "I'm sure there's a simple, logical explanation. I mean, it could be a piece of weather balloon. Or maybe it's part of some experimental communications satellite."

"If it were part of a weather balloon, though," Goofy commented, "wouldn't it be made of fabric instead of metal?"

"I don't care what it is," Chicken Little replied. "I just want it out of here, gone from my life for good. Everything back to normal."

"Hey, remember when that icy blue stuff fell out of the sky?" Abby asked. "Everyone thought it was from space and stuff, and it just turned out to be frozen pee from a jet airplane."

"That does not look like frozen pee," Sora retorted with a look that said "that frozen pee story sounds disturbing."

"I don't care what it is!" Chicken Little nearly shouted while Fish turned the panel over and began pressing buttons on the back. "Now are you going to help me get rid of it or not?" he asked as Fish pressed a button and the panel started glowing brightly. After a pulse that knocked everyone back, the panel began to hover. Fish experimentally climbed onto it just before it began flying around the room. Everyone ducked as the flying fish careened overhead before floating out the window. "NO!" Chicken Little gasped as the panel carried Fish up to where it had fallen before slamming back into place. Fortunately, the glow-stick fish had been carrying had snagged along the outside of the panel, giving the group something to follow as they raced off after whatever it was that had taken Fish.

Everyone except Runt (who kept crashing into everything) leaped over fences as they raced after the flying glow-stick. The entire group was panting heavily as they raced through the forest towards the town baseball stadium. Abby pointed out the glow-stick hanging in place overhead as everyone caught their breath. Before anyone could think of what to do next, the glows-stick, or whatever it was hanging out of, began to spin rapidly, forming a large green circle as the strange object descended from the sky. Everyone stood still in confusion as light bulbs shattered and a tornado of dirt kicked up around them. Everyone ran to avoid being crushed as the camouflaged panels above them began floating down towards the ground. When the dust finally settled, the group of six looked over to see a large, circular spaceship sitting in the middle of the baseball field.

Everyone hid in the dugout silently as two large metallic aliens with six long legs and glowing green eyes emerged from the ship. Everyone stifled a gasp as the two aliens marched out of the field, doing something that caused the wooden fence to rise up over them to let them out as they headed into the forest. While Runt began panicking over all the worst possible things that could have been done to Fish, Sora, Chicken Little, and the others were looking at the ship, until Abby spotted Fish waving at them from the empty cockpit.

"Oh snap," Chicken Little remarked as the group got out of the dugout and made their way towards the ship. Once inside, the two trios made their way through the dimly lit corridors of the spacecraft. After a long time sneaking around (and with a lot of panicking by Runt), they finally found Fish standing behind some kind of alien X–Ray machine. But before they could leave, they quickly realized that Runt had wandered off. They found him standing in a large circular chamber, looking up a massive star chart on the ceiling. On the map, every world in this solar system had been crossed out except for one: this one.

"We're next," Chicken Little whispered as Runt fainted with shock.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 56: The Big Game:
Disney Town – Castle Security Center:

"How'd it go?" Max asked as his best friend PJ walked into the room.

"My dad agreed to the deal," PJ replied. "He'll give up everything he knows about Maleficent's plans in exchange for protection from her allies."

"Are you okay, PJ?" the young Royal Guard asked as he walked his friends to the castle dining hall for lunch. "I know talking to your dad was hard, but I'm here if you want to talk about it. That's what friends are for."

"Thanks Max," PJ replied. "But I think I'm going to be okay. Mom and Pistol are gonna visit him tomorrow. I think… I don't know. He's done so many bad things, but at the same time, he's shown that he's willing to make amends for everything he's done. I think maybe I'm finally ready to start forgiving him."

"Well hopefully he really can be redeemed then," Max said as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "We'll have to get in touch with the King to report on what intel he gives up. Hopefully it'll be useful in bringing Maleficent down for good." With that, the two friends headed into the dining hall for lunch. The two of them had decided that today would be a good day to visit when their wives had gone out for a shopping day, leaving the two friends to their own devices. But they didn't mind. For PJ, talking to his dad was another step in the road to Pete's redemption.

Oakey Oaks – Alien Spacecraft:

Unfortunately, the aliens returned to the ship as the seven were running away from the map room. Runt screamed as the aliens pursued the group through the ship, everyone oblivious to a small orange blob that was following behind them. When they reached the airlock chamber, Donald, Goofy, and Fish were the first ones to dive through.

Predictably, Runt got stuck in the hatch, forcing Abby and Sora to push him out from one end while Donald, Goofy, and Fish pulled from the other while Chicken Little held the door closed to keep the aliens from coming into the room. Eventually Abby and Sora were able to force the rotund swine through the opening before jumping down out of the hatch themselves, with Chicken Little right behind them.

"Come on, guys!" He shouted as the aliens emerged from the ship to pursue them. "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" As the seven heroes raced through the forest, the aliens swung from the trees by their mechanical tentacles to keep up. After Runt distracted them by causing them to crash into a low hanging branch, everyone except Sora, Donald, and Goofy tripped and tumbled down into the cornfield. Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran into the maze of cornstalks to find Chicken Little and his friends, but something familiar emerged from the shadows to interfere with that goal.

"Heartless!" Sora cried out as several new breeds of Heartless rose up from the ground to attack. The young man quickly transformed his Keyblade and attacked. But for every one the trio cut down, more rose up to face them. While the aliens cut their way through the cornstalks searching for the others, Sora and the others were too busy fighting the Heartless to run over and help. Eventually, the swarm of demons grew so thick that Sora was separated even from Donald and Goofy. As he looked around frantically for his friends while slaying Heartless, the swarm stopped, and a familiar figure with long white hair stepped in front of him.

"Ansem," Sora spat in disgust. "What are you doing here?"

"I merely came to talk to you," the man replied, trying to sound hurt that the young man was suspicious of him.

"Like you'd ever do something so casual if it didn't benefit you," Sora snapped.

"Then answer me this, boy," Xehanort's Heartless retorted with a huff. "How can you say Darkness is not bad, yet declare those who walk its path your enemy? By that logic it should be impossible for you and Riku to work on the same side. You should have spent the last two years at each other's throats."

"Because darkness may not be evil," Sora began, "but people like you are. Riku may use both Light and Darkness, but when every villain I face uses the power of Darkness for their own sinister goals, it's hard to see darkness as anything but a force of destruction. Something that only people like Riku have the strength to use without being corrupted by."

"Then I have one gift for you before I go," "Ansem" replied with a satisfied smirk. When Sora declared he wanted nothing from the man, he simply gestured with his outstretched hand, and an aura of Darkness emanated from the young Keyblade Master's chest. What's happening? Sora gasped as he struggled to breathe from the pressure this completely new, alien sensation was causing him.

"What did you do!?" Sora demanded when he finally gasped for breath.

"I only whispered to the darkness that already exists buried deep within your heart," the humanoid Heartless replied, trying and failing to sound innocent. "Just a little friendly reminder. No matter how much you rely on the light, you will always be tainted by Darkness. Only your beloved Kairi and the other six princesses are completely free of its influence." With that, the Seeker of Darkness disappeared into a Dark Corridor. For a moment, Sora just stood there in silence, processing what had just happened.

The ringing off a bell snapped Sora back to the present as he fought his way back into the horde of dark monsters. The bell stopped ringing as he reunited with Donald and Goofy while they fought their way through the storm. But by the time they finished off the last Heartless and made their way to the source of the noise, there was nobody there. However, there was a trail of footprints leading back towards the baseball stadium. The three off-worlders followed the trail and reached the fence outside the stadium just in time to hear Chicken Little's dad tell the assembled crowd how embarrassed he was by his son's behavior. Sora's heart went out to Chicken Little (not literally) when he heard everyone complaining about this being "the acorn thing all over again." The ship must have already taken off by the time Chicken Little was able to warn anyone, he realized as the townspeople walked out of the stadium. Despite the urge to run over and give his friend a hug, when he saw Chicken Little walking sadly home, Sora realized that their friend just wanted some time alone. We'll talk to him in the morning then, he decided, resolving to stay and help their friend.

In the morning, they found Chicken Little sitting alone in his backyard while his father argued his way through every hate-filled phone call he received over his son's "behavior" last night. Sora, Donald, and Goofy tried to comfort him, but his father's refusal to believe him had still left him feeling upset. As the young chicken sat on a tree stump moping, Abby tossed a magazine in front of him as she, Runt, and Fish came into the back yard.

"It there was ever a time to talk to your dad, it's now," she said with a reassuring smile.

"It's too late for that," Chicken Little replied sadly as Runt began to cry.

"Just try to think about it," she suggested as they walked away sadly, having done all they could to reassure their friend. A few minutes later, they heard more crying and turned to find a small, furry orange blob sitting in the back yard next to the tree stump. Everyone except Goofy and Fish started freaking out until Fish gurgled and stopped everyone.

"Awww…" Goofy said. "He's just a little kid." After a large amount of reassuring and started cuddling with the little three-eyed alien. Being a father himself, it was only fitting that he was the first one to interact with the alien child. As goofy comforted the young extraterrestrial, Fish somehow managed to communicate with it before relaying what he'd learned to the others.

"His name is Kriby?" Chicken Little began.

"They left him behind?" Abby finished.

"Don't cry," Goofy said as Chicken Little raced over to help comfort Kirby. "We're right here for you. We're gonna do whatever it takes to get you back home, okay?" Chicken Little held up a tissue to help wipe Kirby's tears. After a few moments of adorable "aww"ing as the young alien sneezed, causing his fur to poof up. The amusement came to an end though, when the ground shook. The eight of them looked up to see large cracks appearing in the sky. I've got a bad feeling about this, Sora thought to himself as the cracks began to meet and form large hexagonal shapes. Everyone in Oakey Oaks looked up in horror as the cracked sections of the sky split apart and de-cloaked, revealing a massive alien armada. Within minutes, there were only eight people in town who weren't running around screaming as alien spacecraft large and small flew by overhead.

"Those are your parents?" Chicken Little asked as Kirby began dancing around excitedly while Fish translated the kid's babbling. "And they brought the Galactic Armada?" Everyone freaked out as Kirby started running past swerving cars to get to the approaching spaceships.

You'll find out what Xehanort's Heartless did to Sora soon enough. His conversation with Sora was inspired by a similar scene in another Kingdom Hearts 3 prediction fanfic called Keyblades of Destiny.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 57: Chase to the Cornfield:
Cable Town – Floating Islands:

"My, my," Maleficent remarked as she watched the holo-projector depicting Terra and the other man's escape from the World That Never Was. "What a pleasant surprise."

"M' lady?" Diablo asked, curious as to what she found pleasant about the situation.

"This development has presented us with a new opportunity," she replied. "If we can capture those two before Sephiroth does, it will mean more leverage for us against both sides of this conflict."

"Brilliant as always, sweetheart," Hades commented as he strode into the room. "A squad of Leroys won't be enough but if we send Diablo and a few others after them, we should be able to net ourselves a rather large prize. Or better yet, create a cell that's impenetrable against all forms of magic, including Dark Corridors, and can only be accessed by one of Hamsterviel's teleportation devices. We set up a trail of breadcrumbs around various worlds until those two stumble into our laps and throw them in a cell from which they can't escape."

"Excellent strategizing as always, my dear," Maleficent replied as she leaned over and gave her lover a quick kiss. After dispatching Diablo to prepare both the cell and the hunting party, the two megalomaniacs headed back towards Maleficent's chambers. "Now," she continued with a seductive smirk. "I believe we had other plans for this evening..."

Oakey Oaks – Main Street:

"Son," Buck cried out as he grabbed Chicken Little's arm before he could run off after Kirby. "There you are. Quick, get in the car, we've got to go!" Chicken Little tried to protest and explain about Kirby but his dad still wouldn't listen. When Chicken Little finally explained that the aliens were here to rescue their missing kid, Buck was still incredulous.

"Forget it," Chicken Little said. "You wouldn't believe me anyway." With that Chicken Little raced off after the alien child, with Sora, Donald, Goofy right behind him. Buck followed after them, with Abby, Runt, and Fish in the rear trying to explain to Mr. Cluck that his son was telling the truth. As the alien ships flew around overhead, the flying saucers began disgorging alien troops to attack on the ground. One bystander (apparently the town bully, Foxy Loxy) started throwing rocks at the invaders, only for them to fire some kind of disintegration weapon at her. The panic only intensified after that as Sora, Chicken Little, Donald, and Goofy raced through the streets to catch up to Kirby. Sora breathed a sigh of relief when Chicken Little saved the kid from being hit by a car by flinging himself off another car's antenna, causing both of them to land inside the town movie theater.

While all of this was happening, only the three heroes noticed more Heartless rising off the ground to take advantage of the chaos. After exchanging a few hand signals with Donald, and Goofy, the trio began wading through the Heartless to protect the civilians. As the alien ships flew by overhead, the Keyblade Master and his friends defended the people of Oakey Oaks of an even worse threat. Within a few minutes the main street was clear. They were just about to move on to the next cluster of Heartless when in a burst of green light, Donald and Goofy were gone. For a few moments Sora just stood there in shock, processing what he'd just scene. Two of his best friends…. dead. Vaporized right in front of his eyes.

"Donald..." he whispered as tears started to flow down his cheeks. "Goofy..." After a few minutes of grieving, another explosion knocked the young man out of his stupor. After taking in his surroundings for a moment, Sora did something he had never done before. He screamed.

This was not the scream someone made when they were scared or surprised. This was a deep, primal roar, fueled by a burning desire for righteous vengeance, the likes of which the worlds hadn't seen since the battle in the Keyblade Graveyard over a decade ago. And deep within the young man's heart, something else, something older stirred as well. If anyone looked at the furious young man in that instant, they would have thought they were seeing a ghost, since there was no other way to describe the rapid shifting of the boy's features. But because everyone was too busy running for their lives to pay attention to one grieving seventeen year old standing in the middle of the street, nobody noticed the way the young man's eyes briefly flickered between blue and gold, or his hair flashing between light brown and jet black.

With another angry roar, Sora tore through the heartless swarming the town, cutting through them like they were made of paper. Within minutes, they were all gone as the enraged Keyblade Master turned his attention to the fleet of spacecraft flying over the town above. With a running jump he practically flew up into the sky and began slashing the underside of each ship, eliminating their thrusters and causing them to crash. As the ships were eliminated, he saw Chicken Little and his dad standing on top of city hall, with the alien mothership floating in the air above them. As he flew through the air to bring it down, a voice snapped him out of his rage-driven rampage of revenge.
"Sora, don't!" Roxas called out in his head. "This isn't you."

But… Donald and Goofy are…he mentally protested.

"It doesn't matter," Xion added. "If you destroy that ship, how will Chicken Little get Kirby home? Are you really willing to prevent an innocent child from reuniting with his parents just for petty vengeance?"

Realizing that his Nobody and Replica were right, Sora took a deep breath and calmed down as his enhanced jump carried him down to where Chicken Little and Buck Cluck stood on the roof of city hall. Chicken Little was holding Kirby up in the air, shouting at the kid's parents that their child was alright and to stop the invasion. As metallic alien troops rose up from the ground to attack, Sora smacked them away with his Keyblade. Just as he was about to let out a victorious cheer, they were hit with the laser, and everything went black.

Sora jolted back to consciousness to find himself, Chicken Little, Buck, and Kirby floating in an empty black void. The three terrestrials looked around to find everything and everyone that had been hit with the aliens' death ray floating aimlessly in this empty space. Everyone's okay, Sora thought to himself as he realized that the ray was a teleporter rather than a disintegrator. That means…

"Donad! Goofy!" He shouted as he spotted his friends floating in the void.

"Sora!" his friends shouted as they swam through the darkness towards him. Once they reached him, he started crying tears of joy as he hugged his two friends. He was relieved that they were alive. Their tearful reunion was cut short, however, when a large, three-eyed red blob appeared in space in front of them, Chicken Little, and Buck.

"WHY DID YOU TAKE OUR CHILD!?" The alien, most likely Kirby's dad, demanded in a loud, booming voice.

"Hey! Hold on there, buddy!" Buck shouted back. "You're the one that left him behind!"

"THEN WHY DID YOU ATTACK OUR RESCUE FLEET!?" Kirby's father asked angrily.

"You were flying around attacking innocent people!" Sora shouted. "Is it really that hard to figure out!?"

"SILENCE!" The alien father commanded as two more copies of him appeared around the room. "RELEASE THE CHILD!"

Buck complied and Kirby drifted down to what appeared to be the floor, where he promptly ran over toward a space in what was apparently the wall, where a door opened, briefly flooding the room with light as Kirby was reunited with his mother. The group's relief that the child was safe was short lived, however.

"YOU HAVE VIOLATED INTERGALACTIC LAW 90210!" Kirby's father boomed. "A CHARGE PUNISHABLE BY IMMEDIATE PARTICLE DISINTEGRATION!" Everyone in the small group braced themselves as they were quickly surrounded by weapons in all directions. Kairi, I'm sorry we'll never get to have our second date, Sora thought as he prepared himself for the end. Maybe we can still be together in our next lives. Suddenly, a small orange blob that could only be Kirby appeared next to his father. He babbled something to his dad.

"Melvin, honey," a yellow blob that was clearly Kirby's mother appeared in space on Melvin's left. "He's saying they're telling the truth. It was just a misunderstanding."

"Well…" Melvin replied. "This is awkward."

"Yes," Kirby's mom said. "Yes it is."

"I suppose I should…" Melvin began.

"Put the big guns away," his wife instructed. Sora and the others breathed a sigh of relief as the disintegrator cannons retracted. Then they abruptly dropped to the floor after Kirby's mother instructed her husband to put everyone down. Then she instructed him to turn off the "big voice" despite his protests. After that, everything went dark as all the electronics in the room were shut down. Light enetered the room when the door opened to reveal two of the mechanical aliens from earlier, which quickly opened to reveal Melvin in one and Kirby and his mom in the other.

"Hi," Melvin said sheepishly. "Anyone want to try the big voice?"

After the entire mess was sorted out, the aliens quickly set about rebuilding the town and putting back everything and everyone that had been teleported onto the ships. Melvin and his wife explained that they stopped by this world to collect acorns every summer on their way to visit his wife's parents. The armada left once everything had been put back, explaining that because of the incident there was going to be an investigation by the Galactic Federation to determine whether or not to court martial the military leaders who had approved the invasion. Nevertheless, everyone parted ways on good terms. Kirby and his parents returned home and Chicken Little was finally accepted by the citizens of Oakey Oaks. Sora, Donald, and Goofy returned to their Gummi Ship after the initial post-invasion celebration to get caught up on finding Xehanort's new targets.

Unknown World – Cave Hideout:

After going to great lengths to convince Will Daniels that they were real and not illusions, Terra and Ludor gave the astronaut and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent a rough explanation of how they'd wound up in this Kingdom Hearts-forsaken wasteland. Both had been initially skeptical of the magical aspects of the Keyblade, but after Terra had demonstrated by summoning his blade and casting a few random spells, they'd been more willing to accept the explanation of the story of the Keyblade War. Simmons in particular was fascinated by the idea of the ancient conflict, although the enthusiasm to learn more about it was tempered when Terra explained that that curiosity was what lead Xehanort down the path that lead to his and Ludor's current predicament.

Once Terra and Ludor had told their story, it was Will and Jemma's turns to share theirs. Will had been an astronaut sent through a portal to protect the scientists who came through to study the planet. Terra cringed a bit when Will described how the scientists eventually committed suicide (or in the case of one, attacked Will, forcing him to kill the man in self-defense) after an encounter with an apparently living sandstorm, leaving the astronaut stranded on the inhospitable world alone. Jemma's story, though less intense, was no less tragic. The portal Will and the scientists had used to reach this place was apparently contained inside a large stone that, despite looking solid, would periodically liquefy. This was how Simmons found herself dragged through the portal into this hellhole minutes after her long-time friend and fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist Leo Fitz asked her out on a date.

Once they'd all traded sob stories about how they got there, Terra finally asked what the deal was with the sandstorm. According to Will, the sandstorm was merely a cover used by a powerful entity that had been killing everyone who came through the portal for centuries, confirmed by his discovery of ancient artifacts from past eras in the entity's favored haunt, which he'd dubbed "the No-Fly Zone." Terra explained to Will and Jemma that creating portals was part of his and Ludor's curse, and offered to bring them back to their world when they all heard it. The sound of a sandstorm raging above ground.

"Something's wrong," Will said as he stood up. "It's never come near here while we stayed inside."

"Can you feel that?" Simmons asked as she instructed everyone to place their hands on the wall. And they did feel it. A rapid but steady vibration reverberating through the rock. "It almost feels like music." And she began humming to the tune the vibrations created. An intense feeling of dread came over the two fugitives as they recalled hearing that nightmarish melody every time the One-Winged Angel unsheathed his blade.

"Sephiroth," Terra whispered fearfully as the tune Simmons was humming reached a point where the beats lined up in perfect sync with the syllables of that monster's name.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 58: Treasure Planet:
The World That Never Was – Round Room:

The crowd feels a whole lot smaller, Braig mused to himself as he sat on his throne in the Round Room, noting with distaste that Governor Ratcliffe and Prince Hans now took the seats once held by Terra and Ludor. But then again, alone is how I work best. Terra and Ludor can't rely on me for help, which is exactly why I gave shrimpanort the idea to check the prisons in London for potential vessel candidates. I'd done my history research. I knew those two would throw Ratcliffe under the bus eventually. All I gave them was their freedom and the information they needed to act against Xehanort. They don't need my help, and they don't need to trust me either. Things will work out better for me if everyone wants my head on a pike anyway. He turned his attention back to the meeting as the old man's Heartless reported in from his mission to the world of Oakey Oaks.

"It's as you predicted," Xehanort's Heartless reported. "Vanitas' connection to Sora through Ventus allowed him to survive by burying himself so deep inside Sora's heart that even when the boy reawakened Ventus, Vanitas' consciousness lingered within Sora." Shit, Braig cursed mentally. And here I was hoping that was just a wild goose chase. Looks like I've got one more thing to take care of. "However," the Heartless continued. "There was a complication with the experiment. While I was able to reawaken Vanitas, there were two obstacles that stood in the way of his complete emergence."

"Roxas and Xion," Xemnas said matter-of-factly.

"Indeed," the Superior's Heartless confirmed. "Their influence was able to bring Sora back to his senses before Vanitas was able to regain enough awareness to take control of the boy's body." Well in that case, Braig thought to himself as his eight thousand year old mind immediately began calculating plans and contingencies to prevent or otherwise delay Vanitas' addition to the Organization, the kid's desire to give those two their own lives can't be allowed to come to fruition. Sorry Kiddo, Poppet, but keeping Vanitas buried in Sora' subconscious takes precedence over you two getting your freedom. He returned his attention back to the gathering as Hans questioned how they were to remove Roxas and Xion as obstacles to Vanitas's awakening.

"Isn't it obvious?" Isa retorted. "They need to be separated from Sora, be given their own bodies." How ironic, Braig thought. Saix hates Xion with all his guts and was right up there with Ansem the Wise in the whole "she shouldn't exist" department, and yet here he is, the first one to argue for giving the replica her own existence. Isa went on to explain the Key to Return Hearts, and how they could create it.

"In other words," the incarnation of Xehanort from immediately after his possession of Terra thirteen years ago summarized. "In order to obtain our final member, we need to gather all seven Princesses of Heart regardless of whether or not we get the battle of seven guardians and thirteen seekers we've been preparing for."

"Precisely," Xemnas confirmed drolly.

"And what effect will Vanitas' awakening have on that boy, Ventus?" Ratcliffe inquired from Terra's chair, having been informed of the specifics of Vanitas' existence.

"None whatsoever," Isa replied. "Ventus's heart spent the last decade within Sora's body healing. When it was returned to his body, Vanitas' soul clung to Sora strongly enough that he was split off from the rest of Ven's heart without harming him. A form of metaphysical mitosis, if you will." With that line of topic of discussion over with, the conversation turned towards the recent defection of Terra and Ludor.

"Sephiroth will find and kill them soon enough," Isa commented.

"Indeed," Xemnas added. "We need not concern ourselves with those traitors any longer."

"Oh, but we must," Master Xehanort interrupted from his seat at the top of the room.

"Buy why?" his Heartless asked curiously. "We already have twelve vessels and despite the setbacks, our plans to reawaken Vanitas are still right on schedule. Why trouble ourselves worrying over deserters?"

"Because," the old man replied, "even if we have twelve vessels now, that can still change. After all the effort we put into ensuring that they became my vessels, it would be a shame to let that effort go to waste. Which is why I instructed Sephiroth to bring them back alive so that I may re-plant pieces of my Heart within them to ensure that there will be no more trouble." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, and after discussing their next move, the meeting adjourned.

The Lanes Between – Sora, Donald, and Goofy's Gummi Ship:

Roxas and Xion must be thinking of their favorite song or something, Sora thought as he found himself absent-mindedly humming an unfamiliar tune to a song he'd never heard before, yet seemed strangely familiar. Must have been something from either the virtual Twilight Town or some other world they'd been to on a mission, he guessed as he walked through the corridors of the Gummi Ship. His thoughts then turned to how Kairi was doing. After leaving Monstropolis, she, Riku, and Mickey were headed for the Pride Lands to check in with Simba and see if Maleficent had hidden any bases there. It was unlikely, but because no one would suspect it that made it the perfect place for Maleficent to hide allies and supplies. Kairi'll probably love it there, Sora thought as he imagined what his girlfriend would look like in lion form. He just climbed into the cockpit when the ship lurched, knocking him out of his thoughts.
"What happened!?" He shouted as he regained his footing.

"The star we just passed went supernova!" Donald answered as he started turning the ship away from the storm. Suddenly, the ship's short-range radio crackled as someone spoke.

"Attention unidentified ship," a woman's voice called out, "This is Captain Amelia of the RLS Legacy. Your ship is too small to survive the supernova on your own. You'll have to dock with us in order to ride out the storm."

"Thank you captain," Donald spoke into the intercom before flying the Gummi Ship up to the coordinates Captain Amelia provided in order to dock inside the lower level of what appeared to be a flying ship. Not something more modern like a cruise ship, but an actual, space-faring sea galleon. Deciding to worry about how such a thing was possible later, Donald, quickly moved the ship up into the Legacy's launch bay while Sora and Goofy quickly jumped out to tie the ship down. Chip and Dale, notorious for preparing their devices for every possible outcome, had installed cleats on all Gummi Ships had cleats for situations like this when the ship needed to be tied to something. As Sora and Goofy tied down the ship, Donald informed Captain Amelia of their arrival, and received instructions to head up to the deck and help the crew escape the building black hole. They reached the top deck in time for Captain Amelia, who was apparently some kind of cat-like alien, instruct the octopus-like helmsman, Mr. Turnbuckle to take evasive action.

"All hands, fasten your lifelines!" A large, rock-like alien shouted as everyone dashed to their stations as the ship raced to escape the oncoming wave of fire and death. Sora, Donald, and Goofy immediately joined in. Nobody said anything to them, since apparently Amelia had informed everyone of the trio's arrival to prevent accusations that the three heroes were stowaways. Captain Amelia began shouting orders to the rock alien, Mr. Arrow, who then relayed them to the crew. "SECURE ALL SAILS! BRING THEM DOWN MEN!" The rock-man bellowed as the duck, dog, and Keyblade Master joined the rest of the crew in folding up the sails (which Sora was amazed were simply solar panels made of cloth) so that they wouldn't get damaged by debris from the supernova. The trio pulled on the ropes with the crewmen to finish closing up the sails while one alien down on the deck used the ship's laser canon to destroy any incoming fireballs before they reached the ship.

"SILVER!" They heard a young man's voice scream as they looked down to see a kid around Ventus' age pulling a large man with a mechanical arm off the ship's prow. Who is that guy? Sora wondered before everyone stood still in horror as a massive meteor tumbled through space towards the Legacy. Suddenly, the meteor reversed its course as the supernova devolved into a black hole. Mr. Turnbuckle lost control of the helm as the ship was caught in the pull of its gravity well. As the ship was buffeted by the waves of energy periodically erupting from the center of the swirling vortex of death, Sora and his friends heard Captain Amelia talking with a dog-like alien about something before she ordered Mr. Turnbuckle to unfurl the sails again. Everyone except the three outsiders, who immediately figured out the captain's plan, grumbled as they climbed back up the riggings to undo all their hard work.

The Keyblade Master and his companions raced to untie the sails as the boy, Hawkins apparently, went to secure everyone's lifelines. The sails were quickly unfurled as another wave buffeted the Legacy, throwing Mr. Arrow overboard. As Sora raced up the mast to pull him in, his heart sank when Mr. Arrow's lifeline snapped, sending the stone-sinned man tumbling to his death in the abyss. The dog alien's proclamation that the last wave was coming snapped Sora back to reality.

"HOLD ONTO YOUR LIFELINES GENTS, IT'S GONNA BE A BUMPY RIDE!" Captain Amelia shouted as the ship began to fall into the vortex. Please work, please work, Sora mentally repeated to himself from where he, Donald, and Goofy clung to the railing on the deck as they tumbled into the darkness. And then, in a blinding flash of light, they were free as the RLS Legacy rode the final wave out of the dark depths like a rocket. Everyone cheered as for the captain as she walked down the stairs. She brushed off all complements for her handling of the situation and praised the dog-man, Doctor Doppler, for his astronomical advice being helpful for dealing with the solar waves. Sora chuckled as the doctor accidently fumbled his response. He's definitely got a crush on the captain, Sora realized with a smirk. He'd slipped up the exact same way in front of Kairi enough times to recognize how people felt about each other when they did that.
The excitement and celebration died down however, when the rest of the crew realized that Mr. Arrow had fallen overboard. A spider-like alien came forward carrying the rock-man's hat.

"I'm afraid Mr. Arrow has been lost," the spider said sadly. "His lifeline wasn't properly secured." Sora thought as he looked around and examined the crew. While he'd always believed in never judging people based on appearances, he had a bad feeling in his gut that they were all going to cause trouble later. And there was something off about what the spider had said. If Mr. Arrow's lifeline wasn't secure, Sora thought, then how was he able to start pulling himself back onto the ship before the rope snapped?

"No!" Hawkins protested, "I checked them all." The guy ran over to where the lifelines were all tied up, only to find that Mr. Arrow's wasn't tied there at all. The young man could only splutter and stare in horror and sadness at his apparent mistake. Something's definitely going on, Sora realized. That spider guy must have murdered him and gotten rid of the rest of the lifeline to cover his tracks. I'll have to tell that Hawkins kid as soon as I get the chance. Captain Amelia delivered a brief eulogy for her fallen friend before instructing the rest of the crew to resume their posts and requesting that the three visitors follow her to her cabin to discuss repairs to their ship.

I had to do a little bit of reshuffling a bit. Originally, I was going to do a world for Riku, Mickey, and Kairi, but the Disney movie I chose ultimately didn't really have any way for me to insert Maleficent's cabal or the Organization into it, so I had to cut that world from the story. As a result, this story will end up being 3 chapters shorter than I originally planned.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 59: The Launch:
Cable Town – Floating Islands:

"Do they actually stand a chance now that the Key bearer and his companions have arrived?" Cruella asked as she and Maleficent re-watched the footage from Treasure Planet. Boggs and that hunter had been dispatched to obtain the teleportation device Captain Flint once used to reach his hideaway without anyone ever finding it, but with the three "heroes" now aboard the vessel, their cover was all but blown.

"Most likely not," Maleficent replied in her stoic voice. "They have seen Gaston's face, and will inevitably rat him out once they realize he's aboard. However, there is a positive to be drawn from this. Sora and the others have yet to meet Randall Boggs, and so have no idea what he looks like. If Gaston's cover is compromised, Boggs can still salvage the mission. We need that teleportation system in order to expedite our troop movements." Neither one of them needed to say how important the acquisition of Flint's teleportation system was beyond expediting troop movements. With the system contained within the map to Flint's trove, they could almost completely eliminate the need for space travel. Oh, they would still need space ships for warfare and to keep planetary populations in line, and the Corridors of Darkness would see continued use for transport of small groups. But this device would allow them to move entire armies from one place to another in an instant, with no extra time to walk through the corridors or to fly between worlds.

"Anyway," the green-skinned fairy continued. "What have you heard from the hunting party?"

"Diablo and his hand-picked hunting team are scouring the known worlds for any sign of Xehanort's two fugitives," the fur-wearing fashionista answered. "There has not been any trace, but they will keep looking on every world known and unknown until we find them."

"They had better," the dark sorceress remarked. "For if Xehanort retrieves them himself, we will lose the potential bargaining power. And we cannot allow that."

"How much of this have you planned, exactly?" Cruella asked as they turned off the holo-projector to go eat dinner.

"Enough," Maleficent replied with a smirk. "Beyond the unexpected developments, I have prepared enough plans, contingencies, and even counter-contingencies to ensure that no matter the outcome of each individual skirmish with Xehanort's forces or the heroes of light, we will ultimately be the ones to come out on top."

The Lanes Between – RLS Legacy:

When Captain Amelia heard the trio's story of the conflicts with Xehanort and Maleficent, she told them that once their current expedition was complete, she was going to offer her ship and her services to the coalition. She was furious when Sora told her that Scroop had framed the boy, Jim Hawkins, by untying Mr. Arrow's lifeline to hide the fact that the spider had cut the line himself during the chaos, even more so when they were able to identify another member of the crew, Gaston, as one of Maleficent's underlings. She and the three heroes made plans to have the two thrown in the brig the next morning. Until then the three heroes had no choice but to go along for the ride. The damage done to the Gummi Ship by the supernova was worse than they initially thought. The concussive force of the explosion had left their ship with damaged life support, jammed weapons, and a fried navigation system. The only positive things to be said were that the shields still worked and that it could still fly. They'd need to be towed back to Radiant Garden or Disney Town for repairs, making Sora extremely restless.

While he was grateful to the captain for letting them stay on her ship, he was anxious to get back out there and help in the fight against Xehanort. Which was why later that night, he found himself pacing the top deck to keep his mind off of everything that could go wrong while he, Donald, and Goofy weren't there to ears perked up when he overheard Jim Hawkins talking to Mr. Silver, the ship's cook.

"It wasn't your fault, you know," Silver said while smoking a pipe. "Why half the crew would be spinning in the black abyss if it weren't for –"

"Look, don't you get it!?" Jim shouted as he climbed down from the rigging and leaned against the main mast. "I screwed up. I mean, for two seconds, I thought maybe I could do something right. I just… I thought…. Forget it. Just… forget it."

"You didn't screw up," Sora interjected as he walked forward to comfort the younger teenager. After exchanging introductions with the cook and the cabin boy, the Keyblade Master continued. "Look Jim, Mr. Arrow didn't die because you didn't make sure his lifeline was secure. I saw him start pulling himself back towards the ship when he fell overboard. He wouldn't have been able to do that if you hadn't secured his line. Someone cut the rope and made it look like you forgot to tie it in order to cover their tracks." He didn't mention that it had been Scroop for two reasons. One was because Doctor Doppler and the captain explained that Scroop and Jim had apparently developed an animosity towards each other since the voyage started, and Sora didn't want Jim to confront the spider alien now and get himself hurt. The other was because despite Silver's friendly demeanor, they didn't know if Scroop had any accomplices, and no one wanted to risk their plans being overheard.

Jim and Silver were shocked by the news, but once Sora explained that Captain Amelia had a plan to flush out the killer, the conversation turned to more mundane topics. Silver showed Sora his pet, a pink, shape-shifting blob named Morph, before the three humanoids spent the rest of the night talking and sharing stories until they were all tired enough to head down to the cabin to sleep (or back to the Gummi Ship in Sora's case. He, Donald, and Goofy were sleeping aboard their ship to because of the security it provided and because they were just used to it). Sora really liked those two. Having learned from Jim that they were on a treasure hunt, he really hoped Jim was able to find enough treasure to rebuild his mom's inn.

"Remember, Jimbo," he hear Silver tell the fifteen-year old. "You've got the makings of greatness in you. But you've got to take the helm and chart your own course and stick to it, no matter the squalls." Sora smiled. He felt sorry that Jim had never had a father growing up, and was happy for the guy that Silver seemed to be filling that role. As he walked aboard the Gummi Ship (which he was thinking of officially naming the Highwind), Sora got a warm and fuzzy feeling in his chest. He knew what that meant: Roxas and Xion were seeing what he saw and getting a little nostalgic. Seeing Silver being a surrogate parent for Jim must remind them of Axel then, he realized as he climbed into his bunk. He'd been communicating with them in his sleep for the last few days after he reawakened Ventus, but after Oakey Oaks, he hadn't been able to talk to them at all. Hopefully that'll change soon, he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep. But I wonder what happened?

The plan was a complete success. Scroop and Gaston were caught and thrown in the brig before the rest of the crew had even woken up. Captain Amelia made the announcement to them a few hours later once they were all awake. Hopefully with that Scroop guy locked up, nobody else will die on this voyage, Sora thought to himself as he, Donald, and Goofy walked around on the upper deck while the other crewmen discussed the revelation of Scroop's crime below decks. Too bad Jim slept through the whole thing. He would have enjoyed seeing the guy get locked up. He was about to head down to the cabins to check if Jim was finally awake when a voice called out.

"PLANET HO!" The small, multi-eyed alien in the crow's nest shouted. Everyone raced to the railings to take a good look at their destination. So that's Treasure Planet, huh? Sora mused as he looked at the world's green rings. I guess the whole "X marks the spot" idea was a dead giveaway. Sora, Donald, and Goofy stood in awe as they entered the planet's atmosphere from their spot near the entrance to the captain's cabin as Silver headed back to the kitchen to fetch a telescope to get a better look at the planet said to contain "the loot of a thousand worlds." A few minutes later however, the mood darkened when Jim came up.

"They're all pirates!" Jim gasped frantically to the trio as he raced into the captain's cabin without a moment's hesitation. Just as the three heroes registered what the boy had said, the rest of the crew turned to face them with murderous looks on their faces. Seconds later, Silver scrambled back onto the deck, blowing a whistle to get the crew's attention.

"CHANGE IN PLANS, LADS!" he shouted. "WE! MOVE! NOW!" At this a cheer rose up from the crew as Silver's multi-purpose mechanical arm transformed into a large cutlass before stepping away from the stairwell as Scroop and Gaston climbed out of the hold behind him. So Silver is… a bad guy? Sora thought as he, Donald, and Goofy quickly began to fight off the pirates with a combination of Keyblade transformations, magic spells, summoning magical theme park rides, and good old fashioned swordplay. After a few minutes the pirates began to break out the laser guns, forcing the trio to retreat to Captain Amelia's cabin and lock the door as Jim filled her in on the secret meeting he'd overheard. Before he could finish, the young man began to choke. Sora noticed that Jim's shadow appeared unusually round and way too thick for someone his size, and quickly deduced that one of the crewmen could turn invisible. Using the shadows to gauge the position of their head, Sora swung out with his Keyblade, causing a large purple, reptilian looking creature to become visible as it hit the wall unconscious. With the threat taken care of Jim caught his breath and finished explaining the situation to Amelia.

"Pirates on my ship? I'll see they all hang," she remarked as she started handing out laser pistols to both Jim and Doctor Doppler. After the doctor proved to be comically inept with guns, she turned to Jim.

"Mister Hawkins," Amelia instructed as she tossed him the map. "Defend this with your life." Just before Jim caught the golden sphere though, Morph grabbed it out of the air with his gelatinous mouth. Once Jim finished fighting the pink blob over the sphere, the group quickly blasted their way through the floor right before the pirates forced their way into the captain's cabin.

"We'll take our ship," Donald suggested as the six raced through the ship's lower levels down to the launch bay. "Most of the systems are still damaged but she's in good enough shape to get us down to the surface."

"Get in quickly!" the feline captain shouted as she locked the door behind them and used her laser rifle to melt the locking mechanism. Everyone quickly clambered aboard the Gummi Ship as Captain Amelia opened the bay doors. But before they could leave the ship, Morph grabbed the map from Jim's pocket just as the pirates broke through the door.

"Stand back!" Sora shouted as he and Donald fired spells at the approaching pirates, causing them to either be blasted back towards the door or slip and fall down to Treasure Planet below. I hope they survive the fall, Sora winced as he pictured what the result might look like if they didn't. There's a difference between destroying demonic monsters like the Heartless and sending living beings plummeting to their deaths, but right now, we don't have a choice. His worries were compounded when Doctor Doppler leaned out and shot at something hanging from the ceiling, sending it crashing through the catwalks and bringing four more pirates down to the surface with it. Despite the gravity of the situation, he chuckled a bit when the captain asked the doctor if he'd actually been aiming for whatever it was he'd hit, and the dog man's incredulous surprise that he actually had.

While Sora and Donald's spell work kept the pirates from closing the hangar door, Morph had finally been cornered with the map. Jim stood on one end of the walkway, and Silver on the other, each trying to convince the small pink shapeshifter to bring them the map. Confused as to which way to turn, the floating blob flew into a coil of rope piled on the floor. Silver tried to reach for it, but his aging prosthetic slowed him down enough for Jim to race in and grab the map first. As soon as Jim, Sora, and Donald, leapt aboard the Gummi Ship, Goofy took the ship into a nosedive towards the world below. When the door closed, Donald scrambled up to the cockpit to take control only to find that Captain Amelia was a quick study when it came to flying a Gummi Ship. The pirates tried to shoot their vessel down with the Legacy's plasma canon, but thankfully the shields were one of the few things not damaged by the supernova. Within moments, the ship landed without further damage on the surface of Treasure Planet.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 5, 2016

Chapter 60: Jim Saves The Crew:
Treasure Planet – Forests:

Once the group had exited the Gummi Ship, Captain Amelia instructed Jim to bring out the map so they could figure out where to get to the treasure. But when Jim pulled out the golden orb, it quickly transformed into a familiar, translucent pink blob.

"Morph!" Sora exclaimed as the tiny shapeshifter flew around Jim, giggling. "Morph, where's the map!?" Jim asked frantically. To demonstrate its location, the little blob turned into the coil of rope he'd flown into earlier. "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" he shouted, "IT'S BACK ON THE SHIP!?"

"We need to sneak back up there and get it then," Goofy suggested, interrupting Jim as he tried to chase Morph in circles. "Before the pirates figure out it's there."

"We need to find a more defensible position first," Captain Amelia commented. "That way some of us can stay behind while a small group sneaks back onto the ship to retrieve the map." Suddenly, they all heard the approaching whine of an engine. "Get low," she whispered as they crouched in the shadow of the Gummi Ship. "We've got company." As they crouched in the shadows, they all looked up to see a flying longboat streaking over the treetops. No doubt the pirates were aboard. They must not have found the map then, Sora realized. Otherwise they would have taken their time getting down here. If they're following this quickly, then they're probably trying to catch up because they thing we still have the map. After relaying this conclusion to the others, the group set off in search of a place to hide.

After an hour or so of moving through the jungle, they began to uncover part of the planet's secrets when Sora tripped over something in the ground. They'd previously discovered that the world's surface was covered in moss, but when they'd dug through it to figure out what Sora had tripped over, they discovered that beneath the moss was a thick layer of metal, rather than soil. A quick fire spell also revealed that a nearby rock was in reality a small metal dome. The group quietly opened the dome to discover that the inner reaches of Treasure Planet were entirely mechanical. A mechanical world huh? Sora thought to himself as they closed the dome and resumed their search for a defendable hiding place. That kinda reminds me of Space Paranoids.

A few minutes, later, Sora and Jim, who were walking far in front of the rest of the group to scout ahead, were discussing Silver's betrayal when they found it. A small, spindly-legged robot emerged from the bushes and tackled Jim in a large hug.

"I can't believe it!" the robot shouted. "Carbon-based lifeforms come to rescue me at last! Oh, I just want to hug you and squeeze you and hold you close to me." After pulling the robot off of Jim, the automaton, who was able to remember after a century of solitude and insanity, that his name was B.E.N., began rambling about what the pirate captain whose treasure they were after had been like. But when asked about the location of the treasure, the robot appeared to suffer some sort of breakdown, rambling about a big door opening and closing repeatedly, and the treasure being buried in the "centroid of the mechanism," before his memory crashed, forcing the robot to reboot, resulting in the duo having to introduce themselves as the rest of the group caught up. Jim tried to get B.E.N. to leave, but when the rusting automaton began talking sadly about how alone he'd been for the last hundred years, Sora decided to bring him along on the condition that he not be so loud.

Thankfully, B.E.N. ended up providing the solution to their problem, when he asked if they could make a pit stop at the cave that he called home. The entire group quickly made their way inside the cave, where B.E.N. offered Doctor Doppler and Captain Amelia drinks, thinking that they were a couple. Those two are definitely going to end up together, Sora thought to himself as he watched Captain Amelia give the doctor a warm smile when he denied that they were a couple. The doctor then uncomfortably changed the subject to the markings on the cave walls, speculating that they were the hieroglyph writings of the ancient culture which created the map. After all, he pointed out, Captain Flint likely hadn't built this place himself, but simply repurposed it. The discussion was cut short however, when B.E.N. remarked that he saw more of their friends and began shouting from the doorway. A minute later, Silver called out to Jim, asking to talk to him, claiming it wasn't a trick.

"Doubtless he's come to bargain for the map," Captain Amelia remarked from here seat in the corner.

"That means that he thinks we still have it," Jim said what they were all thinking as their theory was confirmed. A few minutes later, Jim went outside to talk to Silver and stall for time while the others quietly debated who to send back for the map. Sora winced as he heard Jim and Silver start shouting at each other outside while those inside agreed that Jim and Sora would return for the map while Donald and Goofy stayed behind to defend the doctor and the captain. A few minutes later, Jim came back inside and relayed Silver's ultimatum, after which Captain Amelia briefed him on the plan while discussing how best to sneak past the pirates' camp. B.E.N. only added his contributions to the group when he revealed that his cave contained an entrance leading down into the planet's miles and miles of inner machinery.

Based on where they'd come from their landing site, Sora, Jim, and B.E.N. walked through the world's inner workings until they emerged from the hatch that the group had discovered near their ship hours ago.

They silently made their way up to the ship, where B.E.N. took off to disable the Legacy's laser cannons while Jim quickly grabbed the map from its hiding place. As they made their way through the ship's corridors to bring B.E.N. back to the ship, the alarm went off. Groaning at the robot's incompetence, the duo ran up to find him before he could do any more damage, only to be confronted by a familiar spider-like being.

"Look who's here," Scroop remarked menacingly as a battle quickly broke out. Sora quickly started casting spells and swinging his Keyblade at the oversized arachnid while Jim started shooting with the pistol Captain Amelia had given him earlier. After a few minutes of fighting, B.E.N. accidentally turned off the ship's artificial gravity, causing the two boys to start tumbling upward into space while Scroop clung to the mast. Sora quickly pulled himself and Jim onto the pirate flag at the top, and looked down to see Scroop clambering up after them.

"Do say hello to Mr. Arrow for me," the spider remarked menacingly as he began cutting the rope the duo was holding onto. When they scrambled to grab the mast, Scroop quickly came up to kill them himself. When Jim's gun floated out of reach, he and the Keyblade Master quickly leapt over the spider and down the mast.

"Tell him yourself," the cabin boy retorted as he kicked Scroop into the flag, causing the partially cut rope to snap in two, sending the spider tumbling off into the abyss of space. After taking a moment to catch their breath once B.E.N. restored the gravity, the three of them (along with Morph) stealthily returned to their hideout in B.E.N.'s cave. But to their horror, they arrived to find Doppler, Amelia, Donald, and Goofy captured, and Silver's crew waiting for them. The cabin boy, Keyblade Master, and robot were quickly captured despite their best efforts to fight off the pirates.

Fortunately for them, however, none of the pirates could figure out how to open the map, putting Jim, the only one who knew how, in a position of power to negotiate, demanding that the group be brought along in exchange for Jim leading them to the treasure with the map.

The heroes' power only increased when none of the pirates knew how to fly a Gummi Ship, putting Donald back in the pilot's seat. After an hour or so of flying along the path indicated by the map, they ran out of land to follow. Donald set the Gummi ship down next to the green line marking their path, which ended right at the edge of a cliff. Agitated at the lack of treasure, one of the pirates knocked Jim into the dirt. Sora broke free of his bindings and raced over to help his new friend, only to stand back in shock when he planted the map into the dirt, causing the cliff to emit a bright green glow. A glowing star map appeared in the air above the golden sphere, while seven beams of green light raced over the landscape of treasure planet like circuits to converge on the edge of the cliff.

The converged beam shot up into the air before stopping and widening until a triangular doorway made of energy appeared before the assembled crowd. That's what BE.N. meant by a big door, Sora realized as Jim voiced the thought aloud. While Jim experimented with the different points on the star map, Sora quickly spotted Radiant Garden. He silently took out his camera and took a picture of the map so that he and Donald could plot a course from Montressor Spaceport, where the expedition began, to Radiant Garden so that they could get repairs once this was over. Silver started getting impatient and began pressing random planets on the holo-map while B.E.N repeated his "centroid of the mechanism" ramblings. Sora and Jim quickly realized that the mechanism was Treasure Planet itself, and that the treasure was buried at its center. When Jim made that connection aloud, the pirates quickly began to dig until their implements promptly broke on the planet's metal shell. As Silver started complaining about how they were supposed to reach the treasure, Jim pressed the holographic Treasure Planet, causing the door to open to reveal the treasure room.

Everyone silently walked through the doorway and stood in awe to find the largest supply of treasure in existence. Jim, Silver and B.E.N. stood in awe while the other pirates immediately dove into the veritable ocean of reaches. Realizing that Gaston and that purple reptile weren't among the pirates, Sora turned back to the door and noticed the red beam across the bottom of the door, and the blinking light on the metal posts on either side of the door. Uh oh, Sora realized as he looked between the red light and the massive laser cannons looming overhead. This whole place is rigged so that if anyone tries to take the treasure, the whole planet will self-destruct. We've got to get everyone out of here. I just need to make sure the others are free though. Taking out his communicator, he quickly called the Gummi Ship's comms, hoping that someone would answer.

"Sora, this is Doppler," the canine doctor answered. "The captain, your friends, and I managed to free ourselves and throw the pirates in the brig. What's going on in there?"

"The entire planet is booby trapped," he answered frantically. "The planet is rigged to self-destruct if anyone tries to steal the treasure, and the pirates already tripped the alarm. It's only a matter of time before this place explodes."

"Understood," the doctor replied. "Donald and Goofy, and the captain stepped out to deal with a few of Maleficent's agents who showed up attempting to steal the map. They just returned now. We'll take your ship back to the Legacy so we can use the portal to return to Montressor Spaceport."

"Got it," Sora nodded as he spoke. "I'll round up everyone else before the place blows." With that, he hung up and leapt into the sea of treasure to find Jim. He found his friend on board Captain Flint's ship just as he planted something in the back of B.E.N.'s head. He found B.E.N.'s memory chip, Sora realized. But if it was on Flint's ship, it must be because the guy didn't want B.E.N. telling anyone about the self-destruct. We really need to get out of here.

"Guys," he shouted as he leaped onto the ship. "We've got to get out of here. The entire place is rigged to blow if anyone tries to take the treasure."

"That's right!" B.E.N exclaimed as his memories returned and his eyes glowed electric blue instead of their former sickly green. "Flint took my memory chip so that I could never tell anyone about his booby trap." As if on cue, one of the cannons became disconnected from the ceiling and plummeted into the sea of treasure, causing an explosion that sent coins and jewels everywhere. Knocked off target by the falling comrade, the other cannons began directing their laser fire through the sea of treasure rather than into the vents they'd been firing into earlier.

"Donald, Goofy, Doc, and the Captain went back to get the Legacy," Sora shouted as Jim ran over and attempted to hotwire Flint's ship. "We're going to get everyone out of here and set the portal to Montressor Spaceport."

Understanding that he didn't need to hotwire the ship, Jim sent Sora and B.E.N (whose memory chip had been found clutched in the hand of Flint's skeleton) to go rescue the others in the core while he tried to grab at least some treasure so that he could help his mom. Once the surviving pirates were safely locked away in the Legacy's brig, Sora went back to get Jim and Silver. He found Silver trying to hold onto Flint's loot-laden ship with his cybernetic hand and reaching to help Jim, who was hanging onto a ledge on the other side of a widening chasm for dear life, with his organic one. Hang on, Jim, Sora thought as he raced over towards them. Sora smiled a bit when Silver let go of the ship and raced over to catch Jim before he fell into the planet's molten core.

Sora reached the two in time to help them both up from the ledge, and together the three of them raced out of the portal back onto the planet's surface. Captain Amelia shouted for Sora to set the portal to Montressor Spaceport, and after taking a moment to find it again on the map, they quickly boarded the ship and flew through the portal with one minute to spare before the planet's destruction. Once the heroes had left, Gaston and Randall emerged from the trees and snatched the map out of the ground before departing through a Dark Corridor just seconds before the world blew up.

San Fransokyo – Akuma Island:

"Here you go, Doc," Randall Boggs said as he presented the diminutive gerbil-like creature with the golden sphere that functioned as they key to Treasure Planet. "We couldn't cut out pieces of the mechanism like you wanted, but we were able to use the 3D subterranean scanners you invented to create specs for the mechanism so you can reverse engineer it."

"Excellent," Dr. Hamsterviel replied as he hastily accepted the orb. "Once I've had the opportunity to study it, we can duplicate it and allow us to expand our empire faster than we originally planned to."

"Speaking of plans," Gaston commented. "How's the robot you've been working on coming?"

"It is coming along very well," the hamster-like being replied. "I have successfully created a system which will allow the large robot to control the smaller ones that were found with it. We have already begun mass-production of these "Micro Bots" in order to meet our needs. The project should be complete within a few more days. At which point, we will be ready to finally test it on the unsuspecting population of this world." The mad scientist continued cackling evilly over his project even after his two visitors were long gone, only stopping when Yzma shouted for him to be quiet so she could focus on potion brewing.

I figured it would make sense for Sora to carry a camera with him on his travels so he could take pictures. And regarding the communicator mentioned earlier, I just figured it would be a small radio earpiece to use for contacting the Gummi Ship if necessary.

KingdomKey · Apr 6, 2016

That was EPIC! I absolutely loved seeing Sora lose control of himself, when he thought Donald and Goofy were dead. Vanitas appearing within him was awesome. <3 I like that we get Vanitas potentially back. I feel bad for Braig, because he was trying to help and ended up going back to square one. At least he's trying his best, when everyone else keeps screwing up his plans. I like the visit to Chicken Little's World and Treasure Planet thus far. Great chapters, KeybladeOrder.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

And now for something completely different, as two Organization members bond over video games.

Chapter 61: Game Central Station:
Radiant Garden – Residential District:

Okay, let's do this, Lea thought to himself as he made his way through the streets of Radiant Garden to the address he'd been told was Ienzo's new workplace. As he rounded the corner, he had to double check the address to make sure he'd come to the right place. At the address that Even had reluctantly given him stood a small wooden building with a sign on the roof that read "Radiant Arcade." An arcade? The former Flurry of Dancing Flames asked himself as he crossed the street and entered the arcade. Really Ienzo? True to Even's word, he found Ienzo inside the arcade dressed in black shoes and his usual black pants, but instead of the white lab coat and grey vest, he now wore a blue shirt that said "Video Games ruined my life. Good thing I have two more," with two red, pixelated hearts beneath the text.

"Isn't that shirt a bit macabre considering our pasts?" he asked with an amused chuckle as the former Cloaked Schemer turned around to face him.

"That's exactly why I got it in the first place," the young man laughed as he finished taping an out of order sign to one of the game cabinets. "It's been a slow day today, so what's going on?"

"Nothing," the red haired man replied. "I just… I wanted to apologize. I never really got the chance to say this earlier, but I'm sorry. For destroying you back in the Organization."

"It's alright," Iezno replied. "Sure, I'm a little mad but since I'm whole again because of it, I can't really complain."

"So," Lea added, turning and gesturing to the video game cabinets. "You really decided to open up this old arcade?"

"Well," the former Number 6 replied, "I always loved this place when I was a kid, and after everything I've done in the Organization, I have no desire to be a scientist again, so I thought, why not? What I find funny is when I started exploring the city I discovered that not only did it survive the destruction of our world the first time, but that during their occupation of the castle, Maleficent and her allies would periodically come down and play some of the games themselves. Urusla and Hades still hold the highest scores on Mortal Kombat, and Hook takes up the entirety of the top ten rankings for Pac-Man." The two former Nobodies laughed at the mental image of Maleficent and her allies standing around playing arcade games when they weren't going around destroying worlds.

"So what's up with that one?" Lea asked, pointing out one game cabinet the younger man had just posted the out-of-order sign on.

"Something was up with Felix-it Felix Jr. this afternoon," the former scientist replied. "The game kept glitching, characters wouldn't show up. In general, the game wouldn't run. Which was strange because it was working just fine this morning." Suddenly, an idea popped into Lea's head.

"Hey Ienzo," he began. "You know how Ansem's computer had the whole Grid inside of it?"

"Yes," Ienzo replied, but just as he was about to ask why Lea was asking that question, he suddenly realized what the red-haired man was suggesting. "You don't think…?"

"Only one way to find out," the former Number 8 finished. While a few kids trickled into the arcade, Ienzo quickly put one of his new employees in charge for the day before he and Lea walked over to the Fix-it Felix Junior cabinet.
"So how are we going to get inside?" he asked. "It's not like we can just digitize ourselves into the game like we do to access the Grid."

"Simple," Lea answered as he summoned his Keyblade. "Sora, Aqua and Ven have all used their Keyblades to open gateways to other worlds. If I repeat the technique in front of the cabinet, my theory is that it will allow us to enter the game." With that, a beam of light shot out from his blade, the Oath of Flame, causing the screen to emit a bright glow beneath the orange laminated paper taped on top of it. After taking a moment to grab his old spell book, Ienzo and Lea were transported into the gaming world.

Game Central Station – Niceland:

When the light faded, Lea and Ienzo found themselves inside the eternally night-time world of Fix-it Felix Junior. The apartment building looked so much more vivid compared to the 8-bit resolution of the screen outside, and for a moment, the two former Organization members just stood there, marveling at the fact that they were now inside a video game. Reminding themselves why they had come there, the two of them walked over to the crowd of small, stout citizens gathered at the base of the large apartment building which served as the game's main setting.

"Excuse me," Ienzo called out to get everyone's attention. The entire crowd's collective jaws dropped when they turned around and saw who was talking.

"Oh my gosh," Felix exclaimed as he freaked out. "You… You're…"

"Yes," Ienzo bluntly replied. "It's me. The guy who runs the arcade. As for how I got inside the game, it's a long story, which judging by your panic I don't have time to explain right now. What happened here?"

"The game's been put out of order," all the game's NPCs wailed. "Ralph didn't show up this morning and now we're all doomed."

"What do you mean doomed?" Lea asked curiously.

"If Ralph doesn't come back," a stout NPC named Gene replied, "our game will be unplugged. We'll all lose our homes, or worse, our lives. Those who make it out before the plug is completely removed will be left homeless and unemployed. But the unlucky souls left behind will die with the game as our world implodes in a wave of death and destruction." Unbeknownst to the chubby denizens of the game, Ienzo and Lea's faces were contorting into various expressions of horror, guilt, and disgust. Unplugging a game sounded disturbingly similar to what happened to a world when it was destroyed by the Heartless. I'm never going to unplug a game here, ever, Ienzo resolved as he shot Lea a glance to indicate how he felt about the entire situation.

After promising not to unplug the game, Felix suggested that Wreck–it Ralph, the game's antagonist, had probably fallen asleep in the washroom in the bar game Tapper's again. Although Ienzo noted that the use of the word "again" implied dissatisfaction with his life as a potential motive for Ralph going AWOL, he still couldn't help but chuckle about the idea of a restaurant game being used by the characters as an actual restaurant when the game wasn't being played. Nevertheless, the two former Nobodies followed the crowd to a nearby train station out of sight from the screen as a train slowed to a stop and an orange blob with legs and a long snout hopped out.

"Oh, it's Q*bert." Felix announced to the crowd before turning to face the visitor. "What brings you here neighbor?" Q*bert responded with a series of unintelligible sounds accompanied by a speech bubble with random symbols over his head.

"What's he saying, Felix?" Gene, one of the leaders of the Nicelanders asked.

"Stand bye," the repairman replied. "My Q*bertese is a little rusty." Lea shot Ienzo a confused glance as Felix began conversing with Q*bert in the same unintelligible sounds, before the orange sphere made a set of sounds whose meaning apparently shocked the small repairman. After apparently asking Q*bert for confirmation that what he was saying was true, he stood still.

"Ralph's gone Turbo!?" he stated incredulously as the other Nicelanders gasped in what sounded like shock and horror. I guess Turbo is what they call when someone leaves their game, Ienzo thought to himself before asking what it meant as confirmation.

"You see," Felix began. "Back when the arcade first opened years ago, Turbo Time was by far the most popular game. Turbo… He loved the attention. So, when Road Blasters got plugged in and stole Turbo's thunder… Boy was he jealous. So jealous that he abandoned his game and tried to take over the new one. Turbo ended up putting both games and himself out of order, for good."

"Yikes," Lea remarked. "Not good. So, any idea where he's gone?" Felix turned back to Q*bert, who was able to confirm that Ralph was headed for Hero's Duty, a brand new FPS game that Ienzo had acquired and installed a week ago when he officially reopened the arcade. So Felix, Ienzo, and Lea hopped on the train back to Game Central Station, the transit terminal located inside the arcade's surge protector, before catching the next train to Hero's Duty. The entire the time, the two outsiders couldn't help but marvel at the elaborate nature of the world within the games.

Unknown World – Cave Hideout:

"Terra, we need to go," Ludor remarked, snapping Terra out of his horror driven-stupor. "Now."

"But what about them?" Terra asked, gesturing at Simmons and Will. "We promised we'd take them home."

"That was before they sent the bloody One-Winged Angel after us," Ludor snapped.

"Hang on," Simmons interrupted. "What's going on? What is Sephiroth?"

"The most dangerous man in the universe," the Gambler of Fate answered bluntly. "He's a laboratory experiment gone horribly right who works as a freelance mercenary for hire when he's not slaughtering villages for fun. Once he's been given a goal, he will not hesitate to kill everything and everyone who stands in the way of achieving it. And since he's hunting us, he will slaughter anyone who gives us shelter in order to get to us."

"If this sandstorm is caused by him," Will began, "then I've been surviving him for the last twelve years just by hiding in this cave, so as long as we stay here, we'll be fine."

"No," the Organization's former number 10 replied. "The only reason you're still alive right now isn't because of this cave, it's because he was toying with you and he's had more important things to worry about. Now that he's after us, he'll never let anything as paltry as a few feet of rock stop him from getting to us. Now, where's the exit to this cave. Assuming he hasn't blocked it already, we'll need a quick getaway." Grumbling, Will quickly packed up his supplies while Simmons pocketed her phone (the only thing she'd had on her when she'd been sucked through the portal), before leading the group towards the ladder leading up to the surface of the planet.
Before they departed though, Will had to run back to the sleeping area to grab a few things he'd almost forgotten. He made it fifty feet from the ladder when the cave roof collapsed on top of him. When the dust cleared, everyone stared in horror as the astronaut lay face up on the cave floor with a ten-foot katana piercing his chest. Holding the sword was a man dressed in black and red, with long silver hair that reached past his hips, and a single black, feathered wing emerging from his back. Sephiroth.

"GO!" Terra shouted as he launched a Firaga Burst spell at the winged assassin while Ludor and Simmons quickly began climbing the later. "WE NEED TO MOVE NOW!" Fortunately, the fireball bought the three survivors enough time to get out of the cave. Terra handed Simmons his Organization robes for her to wear as they ran through the desert. They needed to get out of Sephiroth's line of sight in order to get away without being followed. A massive pillar of fire emerged from where the cave had been as the Gambler, the Key bearer, and the scientist raced across the hellish landscape in the hopes of outrunning the relentless warrior.

Yep, I nipped the Will, Simmons, and Fitz love triangle in the bud. As much as I love that show and the twists and turns of its plotlines (and I am hoping that Fitz and Simmons end up in together eventually), since the version of the MCU I'm creating for my post-KH3 stories is very streamlined and heavily tweaked, I decided that I could give a nod to what happened on Agents of Shield season 3 without diverging from my twisting of the MCU canon too much.

The idea for the Wreck-it Ralph arcade being in Radiant Garden was part of some theory I read online years ago shortly after that first trailer came out, which suggested that Ienzo and Even would run the arcade as a get-out-of-imprisonment/execution-for-their-crimes-free card. As with a lot of other ideas I borrow from other theories, I liked it and altered it slightly to fit the story I'm trying to tell.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

Chapter 62: Wreck – it Ralph:
Game Central Station – Hero's Duty:

The trio quickly arrived in Hero's duty to find a dystopic, hellish landscape eerily reminiscent of the ruins of Hollow Bastion. Looks like this is one of those sci-fi shooter games, then, Lea thought to himself as they emerged from the futuristic military train. Unfortunately, Felix's loud jumping sounds set the soldiers on edge, causing them to open fire on the trio the instant they exited the train tunnel. Guess these guys are a little trigger happy, Ienzo remarked as they dodged the hail of bullets and energy fire. Fortunately, none of them were harmed thanks to Felix's insane skill at dodging projectiles and a few Reflega spells. Eventually, an explosion knocked Felix forward, causing him to land behind the group of space marines, where the leader knocked him to the ground with a swift kick to the gut.

"Slick Tiddlywinking, Pint-size," the woman obviously in command of the unit commented as she pointed her gun at the repairman's chest. The two former Nobodies jogged down the ramp to try and diffuse the situation, ignoring the guns trained on them by the other troopers.

"I'm Fix-it Felix Jr., Ma'am," Felix introduced himself as he cringed in fear from the gun. "From the game Fix-it Felix Jr." When he opened his eyes however, the repairman was astonished by the beauty of the woman in front of him. Great, Lea thought to himself. Love at first sight. This is going to drive us bonkers fast. When asked what their business was, Felix replied that he was looking for his colleague, Wreck – it Ralph. The woman in charge, Sergeant Calhoun, told them that the marines had neither seen nor heard of him when they were interrupted by the loud sound of metal buckling coming from the tower in the distance. As they made their way towards the large imposing structure, a small ship blasted off from it. As the ship flew around erratically, it flew low enough over the bridge they were currently standing on that Lea, Ienzo, Calhoun, and Felix could see a figure matching the Nicelanders' description of Ralph sitting in the cockpit struggling with some kind of sci-fi alien monster clinging to his face.

"Cy-Bug," Sergeant Calhoun whispered in horror as the ship dove into the train tunnel. It's gonna crash in the station, Ienzo realized as he and Lea raced back to the tunnel with Felix and Calhoun in hot pursuit. Along the way, Ienzo and Lea introduced themselves and explained that they'd come into the game world to fix Felix's game from the inside. When they reached the station, the Surge Protector, a holographic security guard, walked them over to the game the shuttle had flown into.

"Yeah, he flew in here like a hot shot," Surge Protector complained. "Then he flew into that sweet place like a crazy person." He indicated a station labelled "Sugar Rush" as he walked away.

"Cy-Bugs will chew up that game faster than a chicken-hawk in a coop of crippled roosters." The Sergeant summarized. Ienzo raised an eyebrow at the blonde woman's unusual analogy before Felix expressed confusion at what was going on. "What are you thick?" she asked the repairman. "There was a Cy-Bug on that shuttle." Seeing the others were just as incredulous as Felix was, she asked if they even knew what a Cy-Bug was.

"Can't say that I do, ma'am," Felix replied.

"Cy-Bugs are like a virus," she explained. "They don't know they're in a game. All they know is eat kill multiply." Sounds uncomfortably like the Heartless, Ienzo summarized mentally. "Without a beacon to stop them," the sergeant went on, "they'll consume Sugar Rush. But do you think they'll stop there?"

"Yes," Felix answered enthusiastically.

"Wrong," she snapped. "Viruses don't stop. Once those Cy-Bugs finish off Sugar Rush, they'll invade every other game until this arcade is nothing but a smoking husk of forgotten dreams." Remind me to track down the developers of Hero's Duty and have a nice long "talk" with them about the dangers of creating Heartless-like A.I. programming, Ienzo thought to himself as Calhoun ordered one of her men to give her the three cruisers they'd brought along, one for herself and two for the gamers. While she and the two former Nobodies walked towards the train tunnel to Sugar Rush, Ienzo and Lea overheard Felix ask one of the marines, Kohun, if the sergeant was always this intense, only for the man to inform him of Callhoun's tragic backstory. How her fiancé had died on their wedding day because she'd neglected to do a perimeter sweep.

"Wait!" Felix called out as the three warriors readied their hover-boards. "I'm going with you."

"Like fun you are, Short stack," Calhoun replied as she checked her weapons. "You die outside your game, you don't regenerate. At least these two gamers have weapons that can cut through Cy-Bugs like a hot knife through butter and can actually defend themselves."

"Well you won't regenerate either ma'am," he replied sternly. "And it is my job to fix what Ralph wrecks. And I cannot ask you to risk your life cleaning up his mess. No flex on this one Ma'am. I am coming along with you." With an exasperated sigh, the sergeant snapped her fingers and indicated her hover-board, giving the handyman the silent order to join her. Once he was aboard, the four of them took off down the train tunnel to destroy the Cy-Bug before it could reproduce and destroy Sugar Rush.

"Well," Calhoun remarked as the three cruisers flew along the trail of destruction Ralph's escape pod left in its wake. "I'll say this much, they don't call your friend "Wreck-it" for nothing. There's the shuttle." As they approached the crashed ship, Calhoun, Ienzo, and Lea jumped off their boards and raced to the open cockpit, readying their weapons as they went.

"Is he in there?" Felix asked as the other three drew their weapons.

"Nope," Calhoun bluntly replied. "Lucky for him, otherwise I would've slapped his corpse." This caused Ienzo and Lea to emit barely suppressed chuckles at the woman's humorous comments and analogies. "No Cy-Bug either," she added. "Gotta find it before it lays its filthy eggs." With that, she pulled out a hand-held scanner as she led the group into the candy-cane forests. "It came this way, but the sugar particles in the atmosphere are jamming my sensor. I can't get a reading," she complained as they walked past a pool of frosting. "So what is it with this Wreck-it joker anyway? Why'd he go AWOL?"

"I wish I knew ma'am," Felix replied. "He was acting all squirrely last night, going on about cake and medals, but I never thought he'd go Turbo." Looks like I was right about Ralph being dissatisfied with his role as a villain, Ienzo thought to himself as Felix filled in the sergeant on the story of Turbo.

"The selfish man is like a mangy dog chasing a cautionary tail," Calhoun remarked when she heard the story, ignoring the giggling of the two gamers at her choice of analogies.

"I don't think he was being selfish," Ienzo interjected as they climbed onto a fallen candy-cane tree that stretched over a small canyon. "From what I've been hearing it sounds like he was tired of the fact that the heroes of the games got all the recognition off-duty while as a villain he was shunned by everyone even though he's a nice guy on the inside, and went looking for a game where he could get that kind of recognition."

"I never realized Ralph felt that way," Felix replied sadly. "He never said anything and so we all just ended up ignoring him. If only we'd treated him better, then he'd probably never have gone Turbo in the first place." Suddenly, there was a quick beeping sound, and all four heroes plummeted down into the canyon as the branch disappeared.

"What is this?" Calhoun wondered aloud before noticing the sign. "Nesquicksand!?"

"Seriously!?" Ienzo shouted incredulously. "We're drowning in chocolate!?" Felix's attempt to hop out and grab a few vines failed spectacularly, causing the small repairman to launch into a frenzied panic, causing the quartet to sink faster.

"Get ahold of yourself!" Calhoun shouted as she slapped him across the face. Suddenly, the vines overheard began laughing, revealing that they were made of laffy taffy, and apparently laughed at whatever they thought was funny. This led to an amusing scenario as Calhoun repeatedly (albeit reluctantly) punched Fix-it Felix in the face as he used his magic hammer to heal himself each time. With each punch the Laffy Taffy snaked closer and closer to the chocolate quicksand, and the former Nobodies couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. After a few dozen rounds, the candy vines were low enough that they could all grab on and ride the rubbery candy back up into the trees (or in Calhoun's case, Felix held the vine in one hand while pulling her to safety with the other). This led to a semi-romantic moment between Felix and Calhoun which was quickly interrupted by the sergeant firing her pistol into the air to stop the romantic music the laughing vines were singing.

"Enough with the goo-goo eyes," she remarked. "We've got work to do let's go." She groaned when the scanner lost track of the Cy-Bug after they climbed down from the tree. Realizing that they could get a better view from the air, Ienzo asked Felix if his hammer would be able to fix the broken shuttle.

"Can do," he remarked with a smile that Lea could only describe as lovesick. He's totally head over heels for her, the red-head realized with a smirk. And based on the look she gave him before the Taffy vines started singing, she feels the same way about him. A short while later, the group of four was flying the escape shuttle through the cotton candy clouds of Sugar Rush. Ienzo and Lea stood in the back while Calhoun sat in the pilot seat with Felix sitting in the corner to her right. They flew in silence until she noticed Felix with the same look on his face Lea had seen him with earlier.

"Your face is still red," she said bluntly. "You might want to hit it again with your hammer."

"Oh, that's not blunt force trauma ma'am," he replied. "That's just the honey-glow in my cheeks." The two former Organization members raised an eyebrow at the repairman's choice of euphemisms before he went on to tell her that she was a "dynamite gal." They both noticed when she stiffened up at his statement. That must have been what her dead fiancé called her, they both realized as she screamed before taking the shuttle down to the ground. And Felix accidentally caused her to have a flashback to that.

"Get out," she told the man.

"But all I said was…" he tried to figure out what was wrong.

"I said get out!" she snapped. As he climbed out the shuttle's open door, Lea jumped out as well.

"Someone's got to keep Fix-it over here out of trouble," he told Ienzo before the younger man could ask what he was doing. As the shuttle took off again to search for the Cy-Bug in the air, Felix and Lea walked towards the large castle nearby to inquire about Ralph's whereabouts.

Unknown World – Desert:

S.H.I.E.L.D. Scientist Jemma Simmons ran like her life depended on it, which it did. They'd been running from Sephiroth for the last hour, and every time she thought about stopping, the fear of death (Combined with her two travelling companions periodically deflecting multi-colored flaming projectiles as the One-Winged Angel snapped at their heels) gave her the adrenaline boost needed to keep going. Terra had explained that they needed to put enough distance between them and Sephiorth that he couldn't follow them when they teleported off the planet. Which was why they were still racing through the desert in search a place safe enough for them to teleport from.

The long black coat Terra had given her weighed heavily on her body as the three fugitives darted across the landscape. Thanks to the assassin's superhuman speed, they had yet to actually make any progress. If anything, distance between them and him had actually thinned rather than widened. Mercifully, after another two hours of running, the managed to get enough of a lead on Sephiroth to crouch down behind a rock outcropping without being spotted. After peaking out to see if it was safe to use the portal, Terra nodded to Ludor, who quickly opened a swirling black and blue portal on the rock wall behind them. Without hesitating, the trio quickly dashed into the darkness and left the hellish planet behind.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

Fellow Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans and FitzSimmons shippers, break out the tissues and rejoice.

Chapter 63: Turbo Flashback:
Earth – Playground Laboratory:

Simmons breathed a sigh of relief as she emerged from the "Corridor of Darkness" as Terra called it to find herself standing in the chamber that housed the monolith that had taken her to the other side of the universe just a few months ago. Quickly discarding the black coat, she took a moment to collect herself as the dark portal closed behind her. Terra and Ludor had fulfilled their promise to bring her home but were unable to actually follow her into the new S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters for fear of inviting Sephiroth to attack the facility in pursuit of his quarry. Mouthing a silent thank you to the two former Organization members, she cautiously edged over to the chamber that housed the Monolith, hoping to avoid getting sucked back to the other planet immediately after being returned to her own. Thankfully, the glass chamber had been sealed once more. She breathed a sigh of relief just as the door opened to reveal the man she thought she might never see again.

"Jemma?" Fitz dropped the box he'd been carrying in shock, but neither of them paid any attention to it. A thousand questions were running through his mind right now. Is it really you? How did you get back? What did the Monolith do to you? And she answered the first one with a single word.

"Fitz," she began, "I…" she never got to finish her sentence as the man she loved raced forward and gave her a long passionate kiss, right on the lips. After a minute, the two of them came up for air. And Simmons non-verbally admitted her feelings for Fitz by pulling him in and kissing him back. Their tender, emotional reunion was marred only when Lance Hunter walked into the room to find the two locked in a passionate embrace. Stunned to see Simmons back alive and well, the mercenary-turned-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent nevertheless bottled up the questions and excitement before silently slipping the two scientists a wad of cash with a note reading "Dinner's on me, lovebirds" attached. Fitz cried a silent tear of joy as he held Simmons in his arms. Explanations for how she got back could wait, he decided. Right now, all that matter was that she was alive, and she was home.

Game Central Station – Sugar Rush:

"Come on, I know you're out there," Calhoun mumbled as she and Ienzo stalked through a field of red licorice in search of the rogue Cy-Bug. The arcade manager remained silent to focus his energy towards keeping a Reflega shield in place around the duo so that they wouldn't be eaten if the bug ambushed them. Grumbling about the sugar-saturated nightmare of Sugar Rush, Calhoun shook her static-filled tracker, only for the surrounding area to quickly turn green with Cy-Bug energy signatures. "But… where…?," she remarked, confused, before the ground gave way beneath them, sending them tumbling into the darkness below. They only survived by clinging to licorice vines dangling from the ceiling of the massive cavern they'd fallen into.

Unfortunately, as they clung to the rope, the tracking device slipped from the sergeant's hands and tumbled down to the cavern floor. The impact was immediately followed by a sickly green glow, revealing thousands and thousands of Cy-Bug eggs coating the cavern floor as dozens of candy-coated monstrosities scurried about as the glow of hatching eggs began to spread. It's like the Fall all over again, Ienzo thought to himself while mentally letting out a lengthy string of expletives in six different languages as he and the sergeant surveyed the nascent apocalypse preparing to explode into action beneath their feat. While the situation was too serious to laugh, he couldn't help but give a small smile at Calhoun's assessment of the impending anarchy as "doomsday and armageddon having a baby."

Meanwhile, in the castle where Felix and Lea had hopped off, the duo in question were currently sitting in a prison cell inside the palace dungeons. They'd arrived in search of a lead on Ralph's location only to be immediately thrown in jail. Lea had spent the last hour using his fire powers as a blow torch to melt through the bars, but had only succeeded in cutting his way through one bar. Felix had been lamenting his horrible treatment of Ralph the entire time, since despite his desire to help, Lea refused to let him put the magic hammer that fixed everything anywhere near the bars on the window. Before the fiery Key bearer to finish melting his way through the second bar, Wreck-it Ralph himself burst through the wall of the cell.

"Ralph!" Felix exclaimed joyfully. "I'm so glad to see you! I'm so sorry for how we've treated you all these years. I promise I'll make it up to you somehow."

"Thanks Felix," Ralph replied with a joyful tear welled up in his eye. "Right now, I need you to fix this go-kart for me, pronto. There's a little girl whose only hope of making her life better is this cart. Please, Felix, and I promise I'll never try to be good again." Felix didn't even need Ralph's promise. He immediately set to work on repairing the cart as Ralph explained how he'd met Vanellope Von Schweetz, and helped the young outcast, only to be tricked by King Candy into destroying the cart. Lea sympathized with the large man's guilt and frustration when he realized that everything he'd been told about Vanellope being a glitch was a lie, finishing with Sour Bill's confession that Vanellope crossing the finish line at the race that was about to start would reverse the megalomaniacal king's tampering with the game's code. Within minutes, Ralph was pushing the newly restored racecar through the newly destroyed door to Vanellope's new cell in the Fungeon (Lea cringed at the king's pathetic attempt at wordplay).

"I know, I know, I know," Ralph said sadly before Vanellope could say anything. "I'm an idiot."

"And?" the young girl offered drolly.

"And a real numskull," Ralph added apologetically.

"And?" she offered again.

"And a selfish diaper baby," Ralph continued exasperatedly.

"And?" Vanellope asked one more time. I like this kid already, Lea chuckled to himself from where he stood guard in the hallway.

"And… a stink brain," Ralph finished with a smile.

"The stinkiest brain ever," the little girl replied happily.

By the time they reached the starting line, the race had already begun, but it wasn't too late for Vanellope to catch up.
"Now remember," Ralph reminded her as they drove towards the starting position. "You don't have to win. You just need to cross that finish line and you'll be a real racer."

"I'm already a real racer," she replied confidently as the three hitchhikers jumped off the cart. "And I'm gonna win." Atta girl, Lea thought to himself as she raced ahead and crossed the starting line.

"KNOCK 'EM DEAD!" He shouted as the group watched the race on the jumbo-tron screens overhead. The red-haired man chuckled a bit when one of the racers got a power-up in the form of an ice-cream cone cannon that fired a scoop of vanilla that knocked the wheels off another car on impact. He, Felix and Ralph cheered as Vanellope quickly moved up the ranks. Within minutes, she had already reached seventh place. Not quite first, but a definite improvement over starting from sixteenth. The trio let out a round of applause as she used her "glitching ability" to deftly avoid a chain of cherry bombs and advance all the way to second place. Now it was between her and the nefarious King Candy.

"Okay, kid," Ralph said aloud. "Let's finish this thing without any more surprises." The instant he said that, Calhoun ran up and punched him in the face.

"Hope you're happy, junk pile," she snapped. "This game is going down and it's all your fault." After shutting down Felix's energetic hello, she continued. "That Cy-Bug you brought with you multiplied."

"No," the wrecker replied. "It died in the Taffy swamp. Believe me." And as soon as he said that, the swarm chose that exact moment to attack.

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" Ienzo butted in sarcastically as he prepped his spell-book for battle.

"Bullroar," Calhoun bluntly told Ralph before pulling out her gun and opening fire on the swarm as it emerged from a gaping hole in the ground directly behind the stadium grandstands. Lea and Ienzo immediately began firing combat spells at the onrushing horde.

"LISTEN UP, PEOPLE!" She shouted to the panicking crowd as she and the Cloaked Schemer hopped onto their hover-boards. "HEAD TO GAME CENTRAL STATION! NOW!" With that she continued barking orders to hurry the fleeing sentient candy along as she and the gamers resumed firing at the swarm of cybernetic Heartless (and Ienzo had a hard time seeing them as anything else). Lea fired spells and transformed Oath of Flame into dual handguns as he and Ralph struggled to stop the Cy-Bugs from consuming the Finish Line. As Lea and Ralph smashed at the monsters left and right, Felix pointed up to the viewing screen, which was now showing King Candy swinging his car's horn at Vanellope as he attempted to run the girl off the road.

"KID!" Ralph shouted as the duel went on. However, when Vanellope started glitching, something strange happened: King Candy started glitching as well. As the mad king began glitching, his appearance began to change to a form that Ralph and Felix instantly recognized.

"No way," Felix whispered in surprise.

"Is that…?" Ralph asked incredulously. Of course, Lea realized. It all makes sense now. Turbo survived the unplugging of his game, so he latched himself onto the next racing game he found and erased everyone's memories so that people would believe he'd always been in charge, usurping the world's original ruler in the process. Xehanort would love this guy. Sure enough, the grey-skinned, jump-suited racer announced himself as Turbo, "the greatest racer ever" and declared that he would not allow Vanellope to undo all his hard work. The Flurry of Dancing Flames breathed a sigh of relief when the girl he now suspected was Sugar Rush's true ruler used her "glitch" to escape certain death at the hands of the furious Turbo. Considering the similarities to Xehanort, Lea didn't even flinch when the mad racer was eaten by a Cy-Bug that landed in front of the tunnel entrance just after Vanellope raced out. The cheering of the three watchers quickly died down as more and more Cy-Bugs burst out of the ground, knocking the little girl's cart off the road and sending her careening through the forest of lollipops along the side of the racetrack.

"KID!" Ralph shouted as he and Felix (Lea had run to help keep the Cy-Bugs away from the evacuees) raced over to where Vanellope had crashed. After assuring the two that she was alright, Ralph declared that they were leaving.

"But I didn't cross the finish line," she protested as Ralph picked her up.

"There is no finish line," the giant replied sadly as the monstrous bugs descended on the finish line, toppling the glittering banner to the ground as they swarmed across the racetrack.

"MOVE IT OR LOSE IT, PEOPLE! COME ON! EVERYBODY OUT! NOW!" Calhoun shouted as she fired her laser rifle at the approaching Cy-Bugs. Ienzo fired Blizzaga, Stopga, and Zero Graviga spells from his hover-board while on the ground, Lea cut through the digital monsters left and right with his Keyblade in the hopes of slowing the cybernetic horde's advance while the civilians evacuated (Ralph and Vanellope included). A few minutes later, the three warriors (and Felix) raced up the bridge.

"Alright," Calhoun announced when they reached the entrance to the train station. "That's everyone. Now we've gotta blow this exit." Ienzo's heart went out to Vanellope as the little girl told Ralph to go without her, mentally crying that a young child, video-game character or otherwise, would ever have to say those words to anyone.

"What about this game?" Felix asked sadly as they all looked out at the destruction the Cy-Bugs were wreaking on the candy-coated land below. Tears welled up in the two former Organization members' eyes as they were uncomfortably reminded of the Fall of Radiant Garden.

"Nothing we can do about it," Calhoun answered bitterly. "Without a beacon, there's no way to stop these monsters." Suddenly, Ralph raced forward and jumped onto Calhoun's cruiser.

"I've got some wrecking to do!" he shouted as he flew off toward the mountain in the distance. "I'll meet you at the finish line!"

"Fix-it, get behind us!" Calhoun interrupted as she stepped back and opened fire at the sugar-coated Cy-Bugs that were now marching up the rainbow bridge. Seconds later, Ienzo and Lea stepped back and resumed their spellcasting as Felix held Vanellope back and stepped out of the line of fire.

"What's he doing in that mountain!?" Lea wondered aloud!"

"There's a whole cluster of Mentos in Diet Cola Mountain!" Vanellope explained as she realized Ralph's plan. "He's gonna make them all fall into the boiling hot Cola in order to create a beacon. But it he does that…"

"He won't survive the Cola, will he?" Lea asked as he froze another Cy-Bug. Wordlessly, he nodded to Ienzo and the two Organization members jumped onto Ienzo's cruiser and flew off towards the mountain. They arrived just as Ralph prepared to strike the final blow, running over to him so they could drag him away from the eruption in time, but as he swung, a Cy-Bug tail lashed out and knocked the three of them into into the caldera wall.

"Welcome to the Boss Level!" a familiar voice announced, as the three of them stood and faced a large Cy-Bug with the face, characteristics, voice, and personality of Turbo. "Because of you, Ralph," he continued. "I am now the most powerful virus in the arcade. I can take over any game I want. I should thank you. But… It'd be more fun to kill you." With that, the Bug King lunged at the three bad guys (A/N technically Lea and Ienzo were former bad guys but that's not really important right now). With a nod to confirm the plan, Lea and Ienzo darted forward and started jumping all over the monstrous former king. Lea slashed at his back with his Keyblade while Ienzo cast spells at Turbo's legs. After a semi-lengthy battle, Turbo grabbed Ralph by the legs and dragged him high up into the air. Lea and Ienzo tried to knock him down with Blizzara, Aerora, even Gravira, but the insectoid monarch was too high up for their spells to reach him as he toyed with Ralph in his claws. Suddenly, Ralph broke free of King Candy's claws and dove back down towards the ground. Ienzo was about to cast an Aero spell to slow his fall when he saw the giant's outstretched fist. Oh shit, Ienzo cursed to himself as Ralph dove down towards the soda volcano.

"We need to get out of here. Now," he voiced his realization aloud. Lea nodded, and the two broke into a run across the Mentos caldera. With a running jump the two former Nobodies cleared the lip of the volcano a fraction of a second before Ralph's fist truck the center of the crater, sending Mentos cascading down into the hot soda below. The shockwave of Rlaph's impact send Lea and Ienzo tumbling down the mountain. The duo's hearts ached as they mourned Ralph's sacrifice once they'd reached the bottom of the mountain, only for their hopes to lift when they saw Vanellope racing towards the mountain on a previously abandoned racecar. The two of them cheered as the racecar flew out of the side of the mountain with Ralph clinging to the front.

They cheered even louder when the volcano erupted. While the light from the burning hot soda was so bright they had to shield their eyes, they could still tell that it was working. The light from the eruption was drawing the Cy-Bugs toward it like moths to an open flame. From all over this game world they flocked to the volcano to be burnt to death by the hot Cola. The two couldn't help but applaud before breathing massive sighs of relief. Helping to save a world from destruction actually helped Ienzo feel a little better about his actions before and during the Fall. What he'd done was still horrible, but by helping to save the arcade from the Cy-Bugs as the Key bearers did in the real world from the Heartless, now he was finally starting to forgive himself.

Shortly afterwards, Felix finished fixing the finish line, and Ralph rolled Vanellope across it in her custom-made cart. Suddenly, the finish line lit up like a Keyblade near a Keyhole, and Vanellope's cart began to glow.

"Hey, what's with all the magic sparkles!?" she asked as the aforementioned "magic sparkles" lifted her up into the air. As she twirled around in the air, her clothes changed into a magnificent white and pink dress. When she was lowered to the ground, a massive wave of healing radiated out from her, repairing all the damage the Cy-Bugs had done and undoing King Candy's alterations to the citizen's memories as the population of Sugar Rush came racing home along the rainbow bridge. Ienzo's theory was proven correct when a walking green gumball named Sour Bill (who was hilariously still attached to the lollipop tree Ralph had stuck him to earlier) announced Vanellope as the rightful ruler of Sugar Rush. Ienzo chuckled a bit at the restored princess's joking threat to execute her former bullies, before Calhoun announced that the arcade was about to open. Deciding to leave the gaming world from the same place they'd entered it from, Ienzo and Lea walked over to board the shuttle while Vanellope and Ralph said goodbye. Once they'd said goodbye, they flew the shuttle out of Sugar Rush and back to Niceland. Once Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun had returned to their respective games, Lea and Ienzo returned to the real world, but not before promising to come back and visit sometime.

Now that I've had my little FitzSimmons reunion, that's it for Marvel Cinematic Universe worlds and characters (mostly). The FitzSimmons reunion will be expanded on in a post-KH3 story I've already written that explains and expands on every Marvel reference in this fic.

Anyway, while writing the FitzSimmons reunion scene, I couldn't help but notice the parallels between them and Sora and Kairi. So much so that I decided to do a fanart collage pointing out the similarities. If you want to check it out, I titled it "Parallels: Sokai and FitzSimmons" on DeviantArt. My username is Maximus 429.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

And now we come to the first new Disney world we know for a fact will be in the actual game.

Chapter 64: Kingdom of Corona:
Radiant Garden – Gummi Garage:

"How'd they manage to damage their ship so easily?" Beck asked as he and Cid watched Sora, Donald, and Goofy fly off in their newly repaired Gummi Ship. The young mechanic had met the trio the previous day when their ship had been towed in by a flying boat whose captain sought to offer her services to the city government. Cid and Beck had spent the last eighteen hours taking apart and rebuilding the heroes' Gummi Ship, in which time Beck had gotten a comprehensive, hands-on education in Gummi engineering. The structure and consistency of the material fascinated the young mechanic, and as he worked on the ship he thought of potential applications for it in the virtual world of The Grid.

"Apparently they got caught in the shockwave of a supernova," Cid replied. Since the Grid didn't have stars, this unfortunately led to the user giving the program a crash course in astronomy so that Beck would know what he was talking about. As they talked, Cid looked at the cavernous underground hangar and marveled at how much had changed in the last few years. With the increase in travel between worlds thanks to the forming of the Coalition, Radiant Garden was getting more visitors than ever. As the astronomy lesson ended, the two mechanics went on to discuss the Coalition and why it had formed.

"So this guy wants to destroy every world there is just to see what'll happen?" Beck asked, horrified, as Cid finished explaining the threats of Xehanort and Maleficent. "Even CLU was never that horrible," he added, reflecting on how all of the dictator's atrocities paled in comparison to deliberately instigating the apocalypse. "Do we even stand a chance against him if he's so powerful?"

"Our chances against Xehanort are slimmer than our chances against Maleficent," Cid answered glumly. "But neither of them are immortal. They have weaknesses and flaws that can be exploited. We just need to figure out what they are."

Kingdom of Corona – The Tower:

I wonder what kind of world this is, Sora thought to himself as he, Donald, and Goofy walked through the forest of this new world. Cassim's scouting reports indicated that there was something on this world that could allow Xehanort to revitalize his body. Realizing that with that kind of power, Xehanort would be practically immortal, the three heroes headed for the world Aladdin's father had indicated as fast as they could. Having beamed down from their Gummi Ship into the middle of a grassy field, the three heroes had been walking around for the last half-hour in search of civilization in the hopes of beginning their investigation. Eventually, they found a small tunnel that, after following it to the end, lead to a tall tower surrounded by water.

As they emerged from the tunnel and looked at the tower, a new breed of Heartless emerged from the shadows. The heroes quickly sprang into action. Sora started shooting Fire and Aero spells at the plant-like heartless as the small monsters launched a burst of dandelion seeds into the air, each one turning into an identical Heartless when it touched the ground. Sora quickly turned his Keyblade into a cannon and fired at a particularly large cluster of the miniature monsters before summoning an enchanted pirate ship that he used to pummel the ones nearest to him. Within a few minutes, the Heartless had been cleared out of the area, the three heroes walked around the base of the tower looking for an entrance when a voice called out.

"You coming blondie?" they heard the man ask. A minute later, the three heroes were stunned when a length of impossibly long blonde hair came tumbling out of the tower's one window, quickly followed by the girl whose head that impossibly long hair was attached to. She stopped for a minute just before she reached the group, as if reconsidering whether or not she was ready for this. After a moment of hesitation, she gingerly set her feet on the ground. When she and her companion noticed Sora and his friends, the trio walked over and introduced themselves. After exchanging introductions, the girl, Rapunzel, started singing.

"So what's going on with her?" Goofy asked as Rapunzel stopped singing and started switching moods every ten minutes.

"Apparently she's been cooped up in that tower her whole life because her mother is extremely overprotective and convinced that the entire world is out to get her," the man, Flynn Rider, explained. "I wandered into the tower by accident and we made a deal that I'd take her to see these floating lanterns that she keeps seeing in the sky every year in exchange for my stuff that she took when she freaked out and knocked me unconscious back in the tower."

"That's sad that she's never left her house before," Sora remarked as he sympathized with Rapunzel, her desire to see what's outside her home reminding him of Ariel and Riku wanting to see other worlds. A few hours later, Rapunzel was back to moping again.

"You know," Flynn said as he walked over to her. "I couldn't help but notice you're a little at war with yourself."

"What?" Rapunzel asked as she looked up from her disconsolate sobbing.

"Nah, I'm only picking up bits and pieces," Flynn went on. "Overprotective mother, forbidden road trip. I mean, this is serious stuff. But let me ease your conscience. This is part of growing up. A little rebellion, a little adventure, that's good. Healthy, even."

"You think?" Rapunzel asked with a giggle as Flynn shoved her chameleon friend Pascal off his shoulder.

"I know," the man replied. "You're way overthinking this. Trust me. Does your mother deserve this? No. Would this break her heart and crush her soul? Of course. But you've just got to do it."

"Isn't the whole break her heart bit a little too harsh, Flynn?" Sora asked, concerned with his nonchalance about the trip.

"You're right," Flynn answered before sadly deciding to let Rapunzel out of her deal. He explained that he'd take her back home, he'd get his stuff back, and she'd get back a mother-daughter relationship based on mutual trust and understanding. He's manipulating her, Donald thought to himself. Sora and Goofy's raised eyebrows confirmed that they were thinking the exact same thing. Fortunately, Rapunzel decided to see the journey through. As soon as she said this, however, she quickly hid behind Flynn when something rustled in the bushes.

"Is it ruffians!?" she gasped as she aimed her frying pan. "Thugs!? Have they come for me!?" Or what if it's Heartless? Goofy wondered as the rustling continued. Rapunzel frantically climbed onto her travelling companion's shoulders as an adorable rabbit emerged from the bush in question.

"Stay calm," Flynn remarked sarcastically. "It can probably smell fear."

"Oh, sorry," Rapunzel said as she realized the man was joking. "I guess I'm a bit jumpy," she added as she climbed down off his shoulder. As soon as she said that, however, more of the flower Heartless from before, as well as a few new breeds, materialized around them.
"What are these things!?" Flynn and Rapunzel both asked as more monsters surrounded them.

"We'll explain later," Sora called out as he, Donald, and Goofy prepped for battle. "Right now, you guys need to stay behind us. We've fought these things before. We'll take care of them." Without even waiting for an answer, the trio quickly launched into action. Sora swung his Keyblade left and right, Donald cast Fire and Aero spells to keep the dandelion Heartless from spawning more of itself, and Goofy threw his shield at the smaller ones to stop them from growing big enough to re-spawn. To everyone's surprise, Rapunzel got in on the action herself, throwing her hair around like a whip and smacking any monsters that came near her with her frying pan. Within a few minutes, the Heartless were eliminated. One explanation of what the Heartless were later, and Flynn led the quintet in search of a place to have lunch.

Meanwhile, back at the tower, Rapunzel's mother was frantic. She'd been walking through the forest to pick berries for Rapunzel's birthday cake when she'd found a palace horse wandering through the wilderness without a rider. Fearing for the girl's safety, she raced through the forest back to her home. When Rapunzel didn't answer her calls to let down her hair, Gothel tore open the hidden door at the base of the building. When she climbed up and started frantically shouting Rapunzel's name, she searched the entire house, only to discover, to her horror that Rapunzel was not there. As she sat on the floor in shock, she noticed out of the corner of her eye something gleaming underneath the bottom stair. She pulled up the board to find a satchel with a glittering tiara sticking out. Horrified, the deceptively young looking woman threw the accursed object across the room. Noticing a wanted poster for a thief named "Flynn Rider," in the bag, she immediately got up and retrieved a dagger she kept hidden for emergencies. But before she could head back out the door and track Rapunzel down, a familiar voice interrupted her.

"It's terrifying to lose your child, isn't it?" Maleficent said as she emerged from a Corridor of Darkness. "I can relate."

"She can't have gone too far," Gothel replied, barely even acknowledging the other woman's presence. "I'll have her back within a day."

"And once you have her back, what then?" the green-skinned fairy asked, her concerned tone masking her disgust with this woman for taking a child from their parents for the sake of maintaining her own youth.

"I told you before, my answer is no," the human woman snapped. "You cannot have my daughter's hair. Not for anything."

"You can't fool me with your masks," Maleficent retorted. "We both know she's not your daughter, nor do you care about her as anything more than a tool, no matter how good an actress you are to convince the girl otherwise." Although her demeanor maintained its usual calm, inside she was resisting the urge to incinerate this woman with a wave of her hand. All she wanted to do with the girl's hair was cut it, for two reasons. One, because Xehanort had already dispatched Heartless and Nobodies to this world to find the girl, hoping to use the healing power of her hair for the old man to rejuvenate his body. An asset as game-changing as Rapunzel's hair was too valuable to be allowed to fall into the Organization's hands. Two, because she wanted Gothel to suffer for what she'd done. Maleficent may be ruthless, manipulative, and occasionally self-centered, but kidnapping a child or harming them in any way, physically or emotionally, was one of two lines she refused to cross. She might be the self-proclaimed Mistress of All Evil, but she would never wish the pain she'd gone through on another parent. Which was why she'd approached Gothel with a deal, offering her a position of power in the sorceress's new empire in exchange for access to Rapunzel's hair, intending to twist the knife in by convincing Gothel to bring about her own punishment willingly, after which Maleficent would bring the girl home to her real family.

"Fine. Suit yourself," she told Gothel before she left through another Corridor. Time for Plan B, she thought to herself as she appeared again in the wilderness a few hundred yards away, where she instructed Hook and the waiting Leroys to find the girl and cut her hair while also killing every Heartless or Nobody they see on sight. Despite the apparent absurdity of the first part of her orders, the red aliens complied as they followed Rapunzel's trail into the forest.

When I came up with the backstory for Maleficent, I realized I could have both her group and the Organization fighting each other over Rapunzel in this world because after she lost her child, any situation with child kidnapping/abuse/endangerment basically became a sore subject for her, so when she found out that the girl Xehanort's after for the magic hair had been taken from her parents, keeping Rapunzel out of Xehanort's grasp became personal for her. She's still a villain, but what I'm showing with this world is that situations with kids getting kidnapped like Rapunzel bring out Maleficent's inner Mama Bear. I realize this attitude conflicts with the whole Santa Heartless plan from back in KH2, but the way I see it, had she succeeded, she could have always ordered Santa's Heartless to go after the parents and leave the kids alone. Or she just sees parents/kids who lose their hearts to the Heartless as fair game. That plan failed, so it's up to how you chose to interpret how she would have gone about it had she succeeded.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

Chapter 65: Waiting For The Lights:
Corridors of Darkness:

"Are we sure about this?" Terra asked as he and Ludor jogged through the Corridor of Darkness. The two fugitives had stopped to pay a visit to one of Luxord's old gambling buddies, a (to Terra's surprise) talking, centuries old Shar Pei who happened to owe the Gambler of Fate a lot of money. Ludor had cleared the magical dog's debt in exchange for a few capsules of Dreamshade for the duo to use in the event of capture. Both of them had deduced that Sephiroth had been ordered to bring them back to the Castle That Never Was alive, otherwise they'd already be dead, meaning that Xehanort still wanted to use the two of them as vessels. Neither wished to lose their bodies to that madman again, which was why they'd traded the dog's gambling debt for poison capsules, not intending to be brought back alive.

"It's either this or becoming vessels again," Ludor replied snappishly. "Don't worry, we're not going to use them now. As long as we can stay ahead of Sephiroth, the capsules will only be our last resort. But if we get caught, I'd rather end it now that lose myself to that madman again." Terra nodded in understanding as the two ran through the Darkness in search of a barren world for them to hide on. There was one obvious choice, but neither of them had any desire to set foot in the Keyblade Graveyard unless they had no other options. Right now their only options were the deserts of Agrabah, the open plains of the Empire of the Sun, the caverns of the Lost Empire, or the mountains of Arendelle. Eventually, they emerged from their Dark Corridor to find themselves in a frozen wasteland. Ruined fortresses and other buildings dotted the pockmarked landscape, and the place was devoid of any sign of life. The perfect place to hide from someone like Sephiroth without putting innocent lives at risk.

"Perfect," Terra declared as he and his partner jogged across the frozen tundra, hoping to get a head start before the One-Winged Angel finally showed.

Kingdom of Corona – The Snugly Duckling:

Well this is unexpected, Sora thought to himself as he, Donald, and Goofy went on singing, ignoring Xion and Roxas' laughter ringing in his head, hoping that they weren't singing too. They'd walked into a tavern called the Snugly Duckling to get a bite to eat, only for the five of them to be surrounded by the crowd. Apparently Flynn was a wanted thief, much to the trio's irritation, but Rapzunel convinced the assembled diners not to throw him in prison yet because she needed him to help her fulfill her dream. When she asked if everyone else there had a dream, they all started breaking out in song about what they're dreams were. But as the song ended, a patron who'd snuck out the back arrived with a squad of soldiers to have Rider arrested.

Flynn quickly dragged Rapunzel and the three heroes out of sight, where they hid under a table while the guards searched the diner. He panicked when he peaked out and noticed that the guards were accompanied by a pair of redheaded men in chains. Must be old enemies or accomplices, I guess, Sora speculated to himself. As they anxiously crouched beneath the table, Hook Hand beckoned them over to a hidden tunnel that would lead them out of the pub.

"Go," he said. "Live your dream."

"Thanks," Flynn replied. "I will."

"Your dream stinks," Hook Hand retorted as the off-worlders struggled not to laugh. "I was talking to her." Rapunzel quietly thanked the man as they crawled down into the tunnel while the rest of the pub thugs distracted the guards. As they walked through the secret tunnel, Flynn congratulated Rapunzel on her impressive handling of the situation back in the pub. Rapunzel attempted to ask about Flynn's backstory, but he shut her down. Sora, Donald, and Goofy on the other hand, openly told her about where they were from. They mentioned a little bit of why they were there, explaining that they were trying to stop evil monsters like the Heartless from getting their claws on magical artifacts. Suddenly, the ground began to shake, the five of them looked back to see a group of guards running towards them.

"RUN!" Flynn shouted as Sora helped Rapunzel pick of her extraordinarily long hair before they sprinted further down the tunnel with the soldiers in hot pursuit. They emerged from the tunnel onto a cliff at the base of a dam. As they looked down and spotted a tunnel on the other side of the canyon, they prepared to climb down the ladder that led to the bottom of the cliff when another boarded up tunnel nearby burst open to reveal the two red-heads from earlier, armed with swords.

"Who are they?" Rapunzel asked fearfully.

"They don't like me," their guide replied bluntly.

"Who's that?" she asked as the guards emerged from the tunnel with swords and spears drawn.

"They don't like me either," Flynn added. When she asked the same question when a white horse came out of the tunnel behind the guards, he just stopped her.

"Look," he said. "Let's just assume that everyone here doesn't like me."

"Considering you're a thief it's not hard to see why," Sora pipped up with a smirk. Before Flynn could come up with a witty response, Rapunzel handed him her frying pan and used her hair to swing across the ravine. As Heartless and Nobodies appeared along the canyon floor and began climbing up toward Rapunzel, Sora, Donald, and Goofy used Aero spells, a little parkour, and the train summon he'd learned earlier to attack the Heartless and make their way over to protect the young woman. Seeing the thief outnumbered, the guards attacked. With Rapunzel's frying pan, he was able to defeat the guards within a minute. Unfortunately, the horse proved to be a bit more of a challenge as it held a cutlass in its teeth.

"You should know," Flynn called as he dueled a horse with a frying pan. "That this is the strangest thing I've ever done." I've done stranger, Sora thought to himself as the horse knocked the frying pan out of the human's hands. Before the horse could do anything, Rapunzel used her hair again as a whip to drag Flynn over to their side of the canyon. When Flynn landed near the open tunnel, the horse started kicking at the wooden beams supporting the dam in order to create a bridge to cross with. While Donald, Goofy, and Sora slide down the wooden aqueduct sloping downwards, Rapunzel jumped off the ledge above seconds before the horse tried to grab her. Once the girl had swung safely to the ground, Flynn joined the Key bearer and his friends in riding the aqueduct downwards. Sora and his friends reached the ground first, but the aqueduct fell apart and collapsed before Flynn could reach the bottom. Fortunately, he jumped just in time and landed right behind Rapunzel as the quintet raced into the tunnel to escape the horse, the red-heads, the guards, and the onrushing water as the dam burst.

They made it inside just before a stone butte collapsed in front of where they'd been standing, blocking the tunnel entrance. But it wasn't blocked completely as water continued rushing into the small cave. The group raced away from the cave mouth only to discover the way ahead blocked. No, Sora panicked as he and Flynn dove under the water looking for a way out while Rapunzel and Goofy banged their frying pan and shield against the wall of rubble. I'm not going to die right when Kairi and I are finally together. He winced when Flynn cut his hand while trying to push the blockage away.

"It's no use," Flynn said as he came up one last time. "I can't see anything." When Rapunzel tried to dive down herself, he pulled her back up. "It's no use," he added sadly. "It's pitch black down there."

"There's gotta be another way," Sora whispered. "I need to get back to Kairi. I have to."

"This is all my fault," Rapunzel sobbed as the five of them sat against the wall as the water rose around them. "She was right, I never should have done this. I'm so sorry, Flynn."

"Eugene," Flynn said after taking a deep breath. "My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. Someone might as well know."

"I have magic hair that glows when I sing," Rapunzel admitted with a giggle, figuring that if they were all going to share their dying confessions, she might as well go next. Wait. What? Sora and his two friends all thought as they turned their heads in the girl's direction. Then that means she can get us out of here. Clearly Rapunzel realized it too, as when Flynn expressed incredulous disbelief at her statement, she started singing just as the water rose up over their heads. For a moment, they all held their breaths as they floated in the pitch black water. Then, the darkness faded away as Rapunzel's hair did indeed begin to glow. As her hair started to get sucked into a small gap between two of the rocks in the wall of rubble blocking their exit, Eugene, Sora, and Goofy raced over and quickly started digging. After removing a few stones, Eugene's hand broke through the wall of rocks and reached open air. With enough rocks removed, the flow of water pushed the remaining rocks out along with the cave's occupants.

Everyone gasped for breath as they pulled themselves up onto the riverbank. Rapunzel started cheering about being alive while Donald and Goofy helped the thief from the water as he stuttered about glowing hair. The three heroes shrugged. They had seen far stranger things than glowing magic hair, but when Rapunzel announced to Eugene that her hair didn't just glow, the trio were a little curious to see what she was talking about. An hour later, the sun had set and Rapunzel was wrapping her hair around her guide's hand.

"So," he began. "You're being strangely cryptic as you wrap your hair around my injured hand." Off to the side, Sora and Donald were having a bet over what else her hair could do, with Sora betting 500 Munny on healing powers, and Donald putting 1,000 on rewinding time, arguing that with Xehanort's obsession with time travel, "why else would he send the Heartless and Nobodies after the girl?" The Duo fell silent as Rapunzel began to sing, her glowing all the way.

"Flower gleam and glow,"
"Let your power shine,"
"Make the clock reverse,"
"Return what once was mine."

"Heal what has been hurt,"
"Change the fates design,"
"Save what has been lost,"
"Return what once was mine,"
"What once was mine."

As she finished the song, her hair's glow faded. Eugene unwrapped the hair from his hand and was shocked to discover that the cut in his hand had been completely healed. Her healing power is what Xehanort is after, Sora realized as Donald forked over a thousand Munny. The reason her hair is so long must be because cutting it weakens her powers.
"Mother says when I was a baby people tried to cut it," Rapunzel explained when Eugene asked how long her hair had possessed this ability, and she'd told him forever. "They wanted to take it for themselves," she continued as she pulled back her hair to reveal a patch of brown. "But once it's cut, it turns brown and loses its power. A gift like that, it has to be protected. That's why mother never let me… why I never left…" Sora's heart went out to the poor girl, her experience reminding him of what Lea had told him about Queen Elsa of Arendelle when they'd run into him in Radiant Garden while their Gummi Ship was being repaired, and how she'd shut herself off from the world because she was afraid her ice magic would hurt people by accident.

"Never left that tower?" Eugene finished with a concerned look on his face. Rapunzel nodded.

"And you're still gonna go back?" Goofy asked. "Your powers may make a lot of people envious of you, but you're eighteen, right? One of the things I learned as a parent is that sooner or later a kid reaches the point in their life where they need to make their own decisions. Do you really want to be cooped up there the rest of your life?"

"No…" Rapunzel answered half-heartedly. "Yes… It's complicated." She put her head in her hands, unsure about what to do. After everyone discussed Goofy's experiences parenting his son Max, Rapunzel turned to grilling Eugene Fitzherbert about his own backstory.

"I'll spare you the sob story of poor orphan Eugene Fitzherbert," he replied. "It's a little bit of a downer." When Rapunzel slid closer to him expectantly, accompanied by a few knowingly raised eyebrows from the off-worlders, he relented and continued. "There was this book. A book I used to read every night to all the younger kids. "The Tales of Flynnigan Rider." Swashbuckling rogue, richest man alive, not bad with the ladies either, not that he'd ever brag about it of course."

"Was he a thief, too?" Rapunzel asked curiously. Over on the side, the other three travelers had started up another bet, this time on how long it would take Eugene and Rapunzel to get together.

"Well… No," Eugene replied. "Actually, he had enough money that he could do anything he wanted to do, go anywhere he wanted to go. And, well, for a kid with nothing, I don't know, it just seemed like the better option. You guys can't tell anyone about this okay? It could ruin my whole reputation."

"We wouldn't want that then," Rapunzel promised with a warm smile.

"Yeah," Eugene replied mirthfully. "After all, a fake reputation is all a man has." They're totally falling for each other, Sora thought as the two shared a quiet moment before Eugene awkwardly excused himself to join Donald and Goofy in gathering firewood while Sora stayed behind to patrol the perimeter of their makeshift camp for Nobodies, Heartless, or Maleficent's agents. He'd spotted a few of the red Stitches back at the dam, meaning that Maleficent had heard of Rapunzel's magic hair as well. We won't let them get to her, Sora silently resolved as he walked through the woods, always staying within earshot of the campfire. But I'm surprised that she hasn't already tried cutting her hair so she can go out and have a normal life. There's something off about that. I just can't figure out what it is yet.

Dreamshade is from Once Upon A Time. From the way it's described in the show it's like the magical equivalent of a cyanide pill, so I'm treating it as such here.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

Chapter 66: Realization and Escape:
Kingdom of Corona – Docks:

This was fun, today, Sora thought to himself as he, Donald, and Goofy stood on the pier with Pascal and the horse, Maximus, while Rapunzel and Eugeine rowed a boat out into the lake to watch the floating lanterns up close. Maximus had caught up with them that morning, but Rapunzel had managed to convince him not to drag their criminal companion off to prison until after her birthday was over. The group had a fantastic time as they arrived in the city nearby in time for what was apparently an annual festival. There'd been food, dancing, painting. Rapunzel even had her hair braided and plaited so that she wouldn't have to carry it around everywhere. The only dark note was when Sora overheard the mention of something being for "the lost princess."

While Rapunzel and Eugene watched the lanterns float into the sky together, the others waited over by the shore outside the city gates. As they sat and waited, the three who could talk were comparing notes about Rapunzel's hair and what Xehanort and Maleficent were after. Sora brought up his suspicions about there being more to why Rapunzel was never allowed to leave the tower, and the story he'd heard about the lost princess that he'd heard when he'd asked a few townspeople about it. Donald and Goofy agreed that while they had no definitive proof, there was a strong possibility that Rapunzel was indeed this lost princess. The fact that her birthday was on the same day as the festival held for the lost princess's birthday only added to the theory. They'd have to talk to Rapunzel about it and hopefully get a chance to meet her "mother."

As they held their breaths in anticipation as they watched Eugene and Rapunzel about to kiss through the telescope they'd bought in town, Eugene paused and looked behind the boat. Sora turned the spyglass in the direction the thief was looking in to see the two red-heads he'd referred to as the Stabbington Brothers glaring menacingly at the man as they stood on the shore with a green lantern. They must think that he still has whatever it is he stole that Rapunzel hid, Sora realized as he told Donald, Goofy, Maximus and Pascal what he'd seen. As the two lovebirds (and while the two may deny it the three-off worlders knew it when they saw it) rowed to shore, Sora, Donald, and Goofy told Rapunzel what they'd seen, and Rapunzel told them what she'd done as well. Apparently she'd kept Eugene's satchel hidden with her the whole time, and she'd given it back as a gesture of trust. After Eugene explained that he was going to give the Stabbington Brothers the loot and apologize for backstabbing them, Sora insisted on accompanying the man while Donald and Goofy stayed with Maximus to guard Rapunzel.

Sora stayed behind in the bushes as Eugen slipped back into his Flynn Rider persona and nonchalantly gave them the tiara hidden in the bag while apologizing for his betrayal. But to the thief and the Keyblade Master's collective horror, they didn't want the crown. They wanted Rapunzel. But the only way they'd be able to know about her hair when her mother wouldn't let her leave the tower is if… Sora thought as he raced to process everything and the brothers carried Eugene over to a boat tied up nearby. Her "mother" told them about Rapunzel's hair so she can rescue her from them and manipulate her into coming back of her own free will. Either her mother is extremely overprotective, or Rapunzel really is the lost princess, and my Munny's on the latter. With a shout, he raced over and cast a Thundara spell on the brother carrying Eugene before he began dueling the other one. After a few minutes of back and forth, that guy ran off to try and nab, freeing Sora to focus on the one carrying the former thief. He wasn't worried about her. Donald and Goofy would be able to take care of that brother. Right now he needed to make sure that Eugene didn't get shipped across the lake to prison.

Meanwhile, Rapunzel was waiting on the beach near the boat when she saw a shadow coming towards her.

"There you are," she said. "I was beginning to think you'd ran off with the crown and left me." To her horror however, as the figure approached, one shadow morphed into two, as the Stabbington brothers walked towards Rapunzel.

"He did," the one without the eyepatch said. When Rapunzel denied this, the two thugs gestured across the lake at a boat sailing back towards the city.

"EUGENE!" She shouted sadly. Where are Donald and Goofy? Where's Sora? She wondered as the brothers explained that he'd traded her for the crown to get them off his back. When the two tried to stuff her into a sack, she ran for her life. She panicked when her hair got caught on a rock, only to be confused when she heard what sounded like the two men being beaten up, followed by her mother calling out for her. But is she really my mother though? She wondered as she walked cautiously towards the sound of the older woman's voice. Donald and Goofy had explained their theory to her, but while she still felt like all the evidence that pointed to her being the lost princess was just a coincidence, a part of her was doubtful. Well, she thought as she walked into the clearing to find the two brothers knocked out with her mom standing over them with a club, there's only one way to find out.

"Are you alright?" her mother asked as Rapunzel pushed those thoughts aside as she raced forward and hugged her mother, relieved that she was safe from the two Stabbington brothers, only for those doubts to rise up again when she noticed Donald and Goofy lying unconscious at the edge of the forest. "Are you hurt?"

"Mother…" she began. "How did you?"

"I was so worried about you that I followed you," Gothel explained. "Then I saw them attack you, and I… Let's go, let's go, before they come to."

"But wait," Rapunzel interrupted, pointing at Donald and Goofy. "Why did you attack them? They didn't try to attack me. They're my friends."

"They were going to betray you and cut your hair," the older woman explained.

"No," Rapunzel retorted. "Eugene may have betrayed me, but Donald and Goofy would never do that. They're too nice to do anything like that." Suddenly, two familiar voices rang out through the night.

"RAPUNZEL! WAIT!" She heard Eugene shout as he turned in his direction.

"IT'S A TRAP!" Sora shouted as the two raced into view.

"Get away from my daughter!" Gothel shouted as she put herself between Rapunzel and the others. Suddenly, a voice familiar only to four out of those assembled rang out.

"Must you maintain your charade even as the threads unravel?" Maleficent asked as she stepped menacingly out of the forest. "Almost everyone here has already figured out she isn't really your daughter." Amid demands by the three interstellar travelers to know what she was doing there, Rapunzel voiced what they were all thinking.

"I am the lost princess. Aren't I?" Maleficent grinned in satisfaction, knowing she didn't need to say anything. The look of fear and anger on Gothel's face was all the answer anybody needed. Her attempt to deny it by asking why Rapunzel would say such ridiculous things only dug herself deeper.

"It was you!" Rapunzel shouted. "I spent my entire life hiding from people who would use my power, when I should have been hiding from you! You were wrong about the world! You were wrong about me! And I will never let you use my hair again!" While her outburst might have seemed sudden and angry, the conversation with Donald and Goofy had helped her to prepare for the moment when she found out the truth, and now she was letting it all out. Donald and Goofy heard everything as they regained consciousness and quickly froze the Stabbington Brothers to keep them from interfering.

"You want me to be the bad guy then?" Gothel growled menacingly as she advanced towards the group. "Fine, then I'M THE BAD GUY!" As she walked towards Rapunzel, dark whips of smoke curled around her feet, causing a powerful Heartless to form. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were torn. On the one hand, they need to stop that Heartless before it could attack the city, but on the other, they couldn't leave Rapunzel and Eugene unarmed against Gothel as she advanced on the golden-haired girl with a dagger in hand. Suddenly, a wall of green fire appeared between Gothel and Rapunzel, making that decision for them.

"Go," Maleficent commanded as she walked towards Gothel. "I'll handle this."

"We don't take orders from you," Sora retorted, angry that she expected them to just let her take Rapunzel.
"I am not interested in the hair," the dark fairy snapped. "Mr. Goofy, you of all people should understand the lengths to which a parent will go to protect a child, whether it's their own or not. Now go!" Surprisingly, Goofy nodded and led Sora and Donald into the trees to fight the Heartless.

"What was that all about, Goofy?" Sora asked as they dove beneath the giant monster's long legs. "How could you tell Maleficent was being sincere? How do we know she won't try to take Rapunzel later?"

"Because," Goofy answered as he blocked a fireball launched from the beast's mouth. "I know that look she had on her face. I've seen it in the mirror whenever Maxie gets in trouble. It's the look of a parent who will do whatever it takes to protect a child, whether it's their own or someone else's. Maleficent used to be a mother once. It easy to recognize a fellow parent. And I'm willing to bet that losing her kid was what made her the way she is today." As they finished fighting the Heartless, Sora realized what exactly Maleficent was planning: to cut Rapunzel's hair so that Gothel wouldn't be able to use it anymore, and Rapunzel could go and meet her real parents. Once they finished off the Heartless, they raced back to the clearing to find Eugene lying on the ground with a stab wound while Maleficent lifted Gothel up by the neck with one hand and conjuring a fireball in the other. Sora quickly cast a Curaga spell on Eugene before Rapunzel could kneel and sing her healing incantation. Rapunzel kissed Eugene as she helped him off the ground, while Maleficent extinguished her fireball, grabbed Gothel's knife, and cut the girl's hair.

"NO!" Gothel shouted as Rapunzel's golden hair quickly turned brown, and the woman frantically tried to grab clumps of hair before the healing power faded. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" she screamed as her skin began to wrinkle and her hair turned from black to white. As the woman continued to wither and age, Pascal pulled on a section of hair and caused the ancient woman to trip backwards. As she fell her centuries of abusing the healing power of the magic flower that Rapunzel's power originated from finally caught up with her, and she turned to dust before she hit the ground. Rapunzel reached out her arms, sadly. Emotionally abusive she might have been, Gothel had still raised her, and her sudden death shocked the eighteen-year-old. As Eugene and Goofy talked to Rapunzel to help her work through the shock and confusion of it all, Sora noticed Maleficent walking off into the trees.

"You were a parent once, weren't you?" he asked as before she could conjure a Dark Corridor and leave. "Goofy figured it out." Mentally cursing at herself for letting her mask slip, Maleficent took a deep breath.

"I was," the dark sorceress replied, "until Aurora's father sacrificed the life of my infant son to save his newborn daughter. I may be the Mistress of All Evil but I am not so cruel that I would force fellow parents to share my pain." With that, she disappeared in a green flash. Sympathizing with the fairy, Sora made his way back to the group. They helped Rapunzel start working through the trauma of her whole life with Gothel being a lie until the sun began to climb into the sky. As the sun rose, Rapunzel ultimately decided that it was time for her to meet her real parents.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy smiled as they stood on the sidelines watching Rapunzel reunite with her parents. Even more so when Eugene was pulled into the group hug. Before the celebrations could begin, the three off-worlders met with the king and queen of Corona and gave them the whole Coalition recruitment speech. They thanked them profusely for helping their daughter and gladly pledged their support in the fight against Xehanort. Because they needed to hurry to their next destination, they couldn't stick around for the festivities, but they manage to say goodbye to Rapunzel and Eugene before they left, promising to come to the inevitable wedding if time permitted (and if they weren't busy fighting bad guys). As they boarded their Gummi Ship, Sora caught sight of a familiar, green-skinned figure dressed in black looking down on the celebration of the princess's return with what appeared to be the ghost of a smile on her face.

I figured that having Sora, Donald, and Goofy would change the ending a bit, so the big confrontation happens earlier than in the movie.

And as for Maleficent's thing about not forcing other parents to share her pain and how that might contradict the curse on Aurora, remember that she cast the curse out of revenge, to balance the scales. To quote Sportsmaster from Young Justice, "an eye for an eye, a kid for a kid." But beyond that she's unwilling to force other parents to go through what she went through.
Next chapter we're switching back to Riku, Mickey, and Kairi. As for what world they're going to, I hope you've all been paying attention to Braig's monologues about the Keyblade War this whole time.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

I just want to leave this as a reminder again so nobody gets confused for these next few chapters.
"Normal speech"
Thinking
"Written text"
"Singing"
"Speaking Atlantean"

Chapter 67: The Lost Empire:
Earth – Atlantean Capital; 8,017 Years Ago:

"Your majesty," Kashekim Nedakh, king of Atlantis, looked up to the sound of the guard's voice. After acknowledging the man's presence, the guard continued. "You have a visitor. Foreteller Vulpeus is here to see you."

"Send her in, then," the king replied with a nostalgic smile. Master Ava hadn't visited Atlantis since the demons invaded the World, and she was called away to lead her Union in the fight against these monsters. At twenty-five, she was perhaps one of the youngest Keyblade Masters in history, having achieved the rank when she was only twenty-one. Since she began her training under The Grand Master at the age of sixteen, the Foreteller had become like a second daughter to the Atlantean king and queen, and his young daughter Kidagakash saw her as an older sister. Unfortunately, considering the state of the world now, her visit in the middle of the conflict with the dark monsters that plagued the land did not bode well for his people. Nevertheless, he still smiled when she walked in.

"Your Majesty," she began. "Thank you for agreeing to speak with me on such short notice." Kashekim chuckled.

"No need to be so formal, my dear," the king replied warmly as he walked over and hugged the young Keyblade Master. "You are practically family, and you are always welcome here. I only wish your visit did not have to happen under such troubling circumstances."

"I agree," Ava replied sadly. "Which is why I unfortunately have to get to the point of why I'm here. The unions are on the brink of war. None of the other Foretellers can come to an agreement on what to do and we spend more time squabbling with each other than we do fighting those monsters. The only reason we haven't gone for each other's throats yet is because I hold enough influence to keep everyone in check. They all respect me too much to defy me, which is why we're going to hold a peace summit, in the hopes of coming up with a solution that benefits everyone."

"And you would like Atlantis to host the meeting," Kashekim finished, "when you know I wish to keep my kingdom out of the conflict."

"I know," Ava replied sadly. "And I'm sorry I have to ask you, but Daybreak Town is too much of powder keg to be considered neutral territory and you are the only one I trust besides Triton to be an impartial arbitrator. Unicornis has set up an outpost in Twilight Town, Urusus has established an auxiliary base in a castle in some kingdom, Anguis and Leopardos are feuding over control of Daybreak Town's clock tower… If we don't find a unified solution soon, millions of people are going to die. I know you want Atlantis not to get involved, but… I didn't know where else to turn." The king of Atlantis gave the young Keyblade Master another hug as she started to cry from all the pressure and stress she was clearly under.

"It's alright," he replied kindly. "I understand, child. I do not want my kingdom to become involved in the conflict, but I will make an exception for you, Ava. You are like a second daughter to me, and I will always help you in any way I can. But I will be preparing precautionary measures in the event that the summit turns sour."

"Thank you," she said as she dried her eyes. "I'll have to get back to Daybreak Town soon and finish making preparations for the summit. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, my dear," Kashekim replied. "Kidagakash will be thrilled to see you again. Good luck with your preparations. I hope this summit will bear fruit."

"I hope so too," Ava remarked as she prepared to return to Daybreak Town. "I'll see you in a few days. Tell the queen I stopped by."

"I will," the Atlantean king replied as the Foreteller of the Vulpeus union walked out of his throne room. As she left, an intense feeling of foreboding came over him, as if trying to warn him that something terrible was about to happen. Dismissing it as just being nervous about the upcoming summit, he returned his focus to the guards as they announced that the commander of the Atlantean armada was there to report on the status of the recent construction for the war fleet. I love Ava like a daughter, he thought to himself, but without the weapons I've had my people create from the Crystal, we will not stand a chance against Keyblade Wielders should fighting break out between the unions. Even if the negotiations succeed, Atlantis needs to be ready to defend itself in the next conflict.

The Lost Empire – Ulysses Bridge; Now:

The blaring klaxons jolted Kairi back to reality. She quickly blinked to clear her head of the confusing vision and remember what it was she was doing here. She and Riku had arrived on this world at Aqua's instruction to meet with an old friend of Master Eraqus, a millionare named Preston Whitmore. Initially, their objective was to acquire some of the advanced technology Whitmore developed for the Coalition. But when they arrived, and the eccentric industrialist had told them of his planned expedition to find the lost city of Atlantis, something deep down in her heart told Kairi that she needed to go on that expedition. After a lot of convincing, Riku had agreed, and they'd joined the crew of the Ulysses.

So the next day, she and Riku boarded the submarine alongside linguist and fellow newcomer Milo Thatch. A few hours after the launch, they'd reconnected on the bridge after putting their bags in their bunks. Neither of them had brought anything with them beyond toiletries, preferring to leave their personal belongings in the Gummi Ship. Anyway, on the bridge, she'd hit it off with the ship's lead engineer Audrey Ramirez while Riku stood off on his own. A few minutes later, Milo walked onto the bridge to give a presentation to the expedition's leadership about what they were looking for on this trip. She chuckled at the crew's commentary as Milo fumbled his way through the explanation of the Leviathan. She felt a strange unease when the linguist dismissed it as just being a sculpture. It's probably a real animal, she'd thought to herself, that feeling of unease only amplified when they discovered the graveyard of sunken ships.

The communications officer, Mrs. Packard, playing an ominous moaning sound over the ship's sonar was the final straw. Immediately after sharing her suspicions with Commander Rourke, he ordered the helmsman to tighten their search pattern and find the thing. And that was when the beast attacked. When the monstrosity grabbed the submarine in its claws, Milo and Kairi fell against the glass of the bridge's observation bubble, she fell into a daze while Milo exclaimed that the Leviathan of legend was a machine. Rourke shouting over the intercom to launch sub-pops snapped her back to the present as she raced over and helped Milo back onto the deck.

"We're free!" Rourke shouted as torpedo from the sub-pods stunned the beast long enough for it to release the submarine from its death grip. "All ahead full!" Riku grabbed Kairi's arm as the Ulysses shook from the impact of a laser fired from the mechanical monster's mouth. A minute later, Audrey's voice came over the ship's radio warning Rourke that the ship was taking on water and they had twenty minutes before it reached the sub's boiler. An explosion could be heard on the other end of the line before the sixteen-year old engineer quickly changed her answer from twenty minutes to five. As soon as he heard that, Rourke ordered everyone to abandon ship.

"MOVE IT, PEOPLE!" Rourke's second-in-command, a woman named Helga Sinclair, shouted as she held open an escape capsule while Riku, Kairi, Milo, Rourke, Audrey, medical officer Joshua Sweet, geologist Mole, chef Cookie, Mrs. Packard, demolitions expert Vinnie, and a few dozen other crewmembers scrambled into the mini-sub. "SOMETIME TODAY WOULD BE NICE! COME ON! EVERYBODY GRAB A SEAT AND BUCKLE IN!" The mini-sub launched out of the ship seconds before the Leviathan destroyed the Ulysses in a massive explosion. After a harrowing chase that resulted in the destruction of five of the seven escape vehicles, the group finally emerged into the air pocket Milo had described in his presentation.

After a few hours of unloading vehicles and equipment from the mini-sub to traverse the ancient highway leading to the ruins of Atlantis, Rourke gave a short but heartfelt eulogy for the poor souls lost in the attack. After the brief funeral was concluded, everyone piled into the vehicles and set off along the ancient tunnel leading to the ruins of this lost civilization. As they drove through the tunnels, she shared with Riku her strange desire to know more about Atlantis. He told her that he wasn't upset about delaying their departure from this world, but they would need to figure out how to get back to the Gummi Ship, since the teleportation beam didn't reach underground.

"Just be glad your boyfriend isn't here," he teased. "Sora would've jumped right into this thing even faster than you without a second thought."

The reason I'm having everyone in the flashback scene speak Atlantean is because the movie basically treats the Atlantean language as the root of all modern languages, so I decided to take that and run with it. So all the Keyblade War flashbacks have everyone speaking Atlantean. Other information on little details in the Atlantis movie like the king's name came from the Disney Wikia and backed up by other sources.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

Chapter 68: The Crystal Chamber:
Earth – Atlantean Capital; 8,017 Years Ago:

This is a madhouse, Ephemera thought as he looked out at the assembled Keyblade Wielders seated at the table in the Atlantean throne room. On one side of the large table sat the five Foretellers of the Keyblade Unions, and on the other sat King Kashekim of Atlantis who was there to mediate the summit. Ephemera shuddered as he looked around the room, thinking one of the other four is a traitor. The sixth Foreteller had held Ephemera captive for weeks, and during his captivity the man had let slip that one of the Union leaders was in cahoots with him. He knew Ava was above suspicion, and considering her absolute belief in the light, it was unlikely that Angus could be the traitor either. Unicornis was all about balance and compromise, so that left Leopardos and Ursus as the two most likely suspects. The young man's attention returned to the meeting as King Kashekim concluded his speech outlining the rules of the summit. No fighting on Atlantean soil, each Foreteller was only allowed to have two escorts, no armies or ships were permitted within two-hundred miles of Atlantean shores, the usual stuff. As the speech concluded, Ava stood and got right to the point.

"I found the traitor," she said bluntly.

"Preposterous," Leopardos retorted. "I don't believe there exists one among us. How can you be so sure one even exists?"

"Because Ephemera was held captive by the Outcast for weeks," Ava answered firmly. "And he heard a few interesting things. We all know that our books are missing part of the story: the Lost Page. When he escaped from captivity, Ephemera told me that the Outcast mentioned that his accomplice's book had the Lost Page."
"This is ridiculous," Unicornis said as he stood up. "He's not even in your union. Besides, are we all going to turn against one another over who may or may not have the Lost Page?"

"On the last page of our books, it's written on that page that one will betray all," Anguis replied. "The solution is simple. We all brought our Books of Prophecy. Only the traitor's copy has the Lost Page, so we each open our books to the last page. Everyone except the traitor will have the same ending." As the other Fortellers began arguing about whether or not to go through with this course of action, Ephemera glanced to his right from his post behind the Ursus Foreteller to see his friend Emma standing next to the Leopards foreteller. While she was hopelessly naïve at times, she was still one of the best warriors he'd ever met, which was part of why he'd had a not-so-secret crush on her for a while.

However lately they had been arguing about her belief that it was possible for someone to contain the darkness and use it for good. A Guardian who would hold the eldritch forces of the universe at bay to defend the light. It was doomed to failure. He'd seen what trying to hold the darkness at bay had done to the Grand Master during his time in captivity. Apparently the Grand Master of the Foretellers attempted to use the X – Blade as the keystone of a barrier to hold the darkness at bay. He was just glad the Outcast never found it, otherwise they would have been doomed. As it is though, he had to watch the Grand Master of the Knights of the Keyblade degenerate into a larger version of the same dark monsters they'd sworn to destroy. And the worst part was that the Outcast, the Deviant, the Deceiver, had bound the creature his master had become to his heart, so that no matter what shape or form he appeared in, his former master would now be his most loyal servant.

Disgusted with what he'd seen, he turned his attention back to the negotiations as his Foreteller finished reading the last page of his book of prophecy. Once Ursus was done, Unicornis read the last page of his book, and then Anguis after him. Four copies of the book, and none had the lost page. All the evidence points to Leopardos then, Ephemera realized as he watched Emma turn to stare at her Foreteller in shock and confusion. But before they could ask Leopardos to read from his Book, Atlantean guards burst into the room.

"You're Majesty!" They shouted as they raced to King Kashekim's side. "Security patrols have discovered Leopardos troops encamped on the outskirts of the capital city!"

"WHAT!?" both the king and Emma shouted in fury. Immediately shouts of outrage and accusation rose up across the room, only to be silenced by the loud BANG! Of Leopardos slamming his Book of Prophecies down on the table.

"ENOUGH!" He shouted. "Yes, I did it. I did it all. I did it because none of you would listen to me. Light cannot exist without casting a shadow, and yet you're all convinced that the darkness seeping into our world is an abomination meant to be crushed under your armored heels. Unicornis thinks light and dark can coexist, but only if the light is dominant, oppressing anything that is different. I say no. Light and Darkness need to be balanced. And the only way to do that, is with the X – Blade."

"No," Anguis snapped. "You cannot pervert our Master's blade to such despicable ends. If the X – Blade is found, it can only be used to burn away the darkness."

"Now hang on," Ursus interrupted. "The X – Blade is the most powerful weapon in the world, it should be used to protect the people from more important threats. We need more power to protect them. If adding the power of darkness to our repertoire will make us strong enough to protect everyone, then what's wrong with that?"'

"What's wrong with that is using it to rule with an iron fist and calling it protection," Ava retorted. "The power of the X – Blade was only mean for the pure of heart and it's clear from this meeting that good intentions or not, none of us meet that qualification."

"I concur with Vulpeus," Unicornis added. "None of us should have the X – Blade. We need to figure out what to do on our own."

"YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!" Leopardos' voice broke through the silence immediately followed by a scream of pain from Ava. Everyone stared in horror at the large yellow Keyblade emerging from Ava's chest, her pink robes stained red with blood. Behind the chair, Leopardos had a look of sorrow and conviction on his face, as if he didn't want to kill Ava but felt he had no choice. Unfortunately nobody payed attention to him.

"Ava!" Ephemera shouted as he and her lieutenants raced over to catch the Foreteller as she fell from her seat once Leopardos withdrew his Keyblade.

"The light has been on top for too long," Leopardos stated calmly as the other Foretellers raced over and prepared to do battle. "It's time for the shadows to have their day in the limelight. The so-called "Heart of Atlantis" was created by combining a fallen comet with the hearts of the Atlantean people, creating a miniature replica of Kingdom Hearts, if you will. And right now, it is the key to finding the X – Blade."

"HOW DARE YOU!" Kashekim roared. "I INVITE YOU INTO MY PALACE AND NOT ONLY DO YOU VIOLATE THE LAWS OF NEUTRALITY, NOW YOU BLATANTLY ATTEMPT TO STEAL THE MOST CRUCIAL PIECE OF ATLANTEAN CULTURE!?" The king marched back to his throne and activated the crystal-powered intercom on the armrest to contact the head of Atlantean secuirity. "COMMANDER!" he shouted into the device. "The warriors of the Keyblade have violated the laws of neutrality. Our borders are now closed to all outsiders. Every Key bearer found on Atlantean soil is to be killed on sight!

"I'd like to see you try!" Leopardos retorted with a smirk before departing the room with a swirl of his golden robes, with Ursus right behind him. Ursus' other lieutenant walked briskly afterwards while Emma and the other Leopardos lieutenant cast sad, regretful glances at Ephemera before they walked out after their Foreteller. They knew that what was happening was wrong, but he could see in their eyes that they were only going with their leader because they did not want the friends they made in their union to die because of their Foreteller's arrogance and crimes. Tears began to slide down Ephemera's cheeks as Kashekim mournfully directed the remaining Key-bearers to his personal escape craft. Everyone had come to this summit hoping to resolve their differences and come up with a unified solution. But instead, battle lines had been drawn, and sides had been chosen. The war had begun.

"I do not blame you for Ava's death," the king replied sadly, "but I must put my people first. We cannot get involved in the coming war." When Anguis, Unicornis, Ephemera, and the others had carried Ava's body from the throne room, the armada commander's voice came over the intercom.

"Your majesty!" the man's voice boomed. "Several fleets of Keyblade warships are closing in on the perimeter from all directions."

"If they so much as go one millimeter over the line, you have my authorization to fire on that fleet with everything you have," the king replied before he raced out of the throne room to find his wife and daughter.

The Lost Empire – Underground Highway; Now:

Kairi snapped back to the present as Mole's drilling machine roared back to life. Today was the fourth day since they'd set off through the tunnel, and according to Milo they were almost there. The veteran members of the expedition team were a little reluctant as a whole to trust her and Riku at first, but when Heartless began appearing in the caves, forcing the two to pull out their Keyblades and protect the caravan, they'd been much more welcoming. When asked for an explanation of what the Heartless were, and about their own past, telling their story snowballed into telling the entire story of the fight against Xehanort. Everyone was surprised and impressed to hear of what she and Riku had accomplished, and all wanted to visit Radiant Garden sometime after the expedition to Atlantis was over.
Returning her focus to the present, she climbed back into the truck she and Riku were riding in while Mole's driller bored through the thick carved wall. The closer they got to Atlantis, the more uneasy Kairi became, as if she was afraid of what they might find. But that's crazy, she thought to herself. I've never been there before. Unless… maybe Atlantis was some place important to Ava back before the Keyblade War? Although she knew that she was technically Ava's reincarnation, she still saw Ava as a separate person. Braig mentioned in the note that her murder was what started the Keyblade War. Maybe these visions are the events leading up to her death?

By the end of the fourth day, they'd come across a large glowing stalactite hanging from the cave ceiling.

"This is it," Milo said as he glanced from his book, a tome called The Shepherd's Journal which contained detailed directions to the ruins of Atlantis, and the glowing rock formation overhead. "It's gotta be.

"Alright, we'll make camp here," Rourke announced as everyone got out of the vehicles and started unpacking the camping supplies.

"Why is it glowing?" Audrey wondered aloud, asking the question they were all thinking.

"It is a natural phosphorescence," Mole commented bluntly.

"What if it's some kind of firefly nest or something?" Kairi suggested, voicing the thought that had come to her head aloud.

"Well whatever that thing is, it's going to keep me up all night," Vinnie replied as everyone walked back to the vehicles when Cookie rang the bell announcing that dinner was ready. Kairi fought back the bile that rose in the back of her throat as Cookie served platefuls of disgusting, greasy brown slime that did not look remotely appetizing in anyway. As the group ate, Sweet looked over to where Milo was sitting by himself, looking over the Shepherd's Journal as he tried to eat Cookie's food.

"You know," the doctor said, "We've been pretty tough on the kid. What do you say we cut him some slack?"

"I was wondering when you guys would say that," Riku responded with an amused chuckle, causing everyone to start laughing.

"Yeah, you're right," Audrey admitted as the laughter died down. "Hey Milo," she turned around and called out to the linguist. "Why don't you come over here and sit with us?" The young man was thrilled to be included in the group, and everyone yelled at Mole when he tried to put a whoopee cushion under the newbie's seat. As the expanded group ate, Milo talked about how he was confused by the fact that the journal seemed to be missing a page. The two Keyblade Wielders chuckled when everyone in the group admitted that they were on this expedition for the money in perfect sequence, before raising Milo's spirits that they were on the journey for the adventure. They laughed uproariously when everyone dumping their uneaten slop into the fire created a mini-explosion, before they all started sharing origin stories as they pitched their tents for the night.

Kairi felt a sense of kinship with Milo as he told Audrey how his grandfather had taken him in when his parents died. It reminded her of moving in with her uncle. Despite her terrified cringing at Mrs. Packard announcing that she slept in the nude and being handed a blindfold with the warning that Mrs. Packard was a sleepwalker, she enjoyed hearing everyone's backstories. Sweet was drafted into the army right after graduating from medical school, and Audrey was going to use the money from this expedition to help her father open another auto repair shop. She giggled a bit when Vinnie admitted that his family used to own a flower shop, until the day is blew up from a gas leak or something, thus inspiring his obsession with explosives. Then she and Riku shuddered in unison when Sweet warned them that they did not want to know about Mole's story before they all went to sleep for the night.

A few hours later, Kairi was leaning silently against one of the walls of the underground cavern. She'd been tossing and turning in her sleep until finally she woke up again, feeling this strange sense that the group was being watched. As she walked around the perimeter of the camp, she saw something moving in the shadows. Expecting Heartless, she readied her Keyblade, only to realize that the figures appeared to humans wearing menacing looking tribal masks. As she cautiously approached the masked warriors, one of them stepped towards her, and took off their mask, revealing a white-haired young woman underneath.

"Ava?" the young woman said curiously.

"What did you call me?" Kairi asked, confused. Suddenly she clamped her hand over her mouth in shock as she realized she'd just spoken a completely different language. Before either could could say anything however, Kairi was distracted by shouts coming from the camp, and raced back to see what was going on. She raced back to the main campsite to find a raging inferno as Milo ran through the camp screaming "FIRE!"

"GET SOME WATER ON THAT FIRE!" Helga shouted as she directed random crewmen to start bailing water into the flames.

"NO TIME!" Rourke ordered as he emerged from his tent. "GET US INTO THOSE CAVES! MOVE IT! MOVE IT! MOVE IT!" Kairi raced into camp to help with the evacuation. Within a few minutes, she, Riku, and Audrey helped Milo as the linguist scrambled into the back of the truck they were riding in seconds before the one behind exploded. In the mad dash to escape the roaring flames, the truck carrying their supply of gasoline exploded. This, combined with the falling firefly nest, caused the bridge to crack, sending the remnants of the convoy sliding down into the chasm below. An hour or so later, Rourke lit a match as everyone regained consciousness.

"Alright," he called out. "Who's not dead? Sound off!" Everyone gave out a loud groan to signal that they were still alive while the commander turned on a working headlight from one of the trucks before asking Audrey for a damage assessment.

"Not as bad as it could've been," she reported. "We totaled rigs two and seven, but the digger looks like it'll still run. Lucky for us we landed in something soft." As soon as she said this, Mole examined the soil and informed the group that they were standing in the base of a dormant volcano. Well as long as it says dormant we shouldn't have a problem, Riku mused to himself as Mole explained that it would take an explosive force of great magnitude. After that, everyone immediately glared at Vinnie, who was in the midst of putting together a home-made time bomb.

"If we could blow the top off that thing," Rourke suggested as he and Helga examined the volcano's blocked shaft, "we'd have a straight shot to the surface." He started to ask Milo what he thought of the plan when they all realized that their guide was nowhere to be found. Just as they were about to go looking for him, a voice that only two people in the group had heard before called out.

"Oh thank goodness!" a man's voice called out. "More people! I'm saved!" Everyone immediately readied whatever weapons they had as a raggedy looking man with a blood-soaked piece of fabric wrapped around the right side of his face emerged from a nearby tunnel. "I wandered into these caves on a school hiking trip, and I got stranded down here for months," the man gasped as he wandered up to Rourke and hugged the man. "I thought I'd never see another human being again."

"What's your name, son?" Rourke asked as the group lowered their weapons. Audrey immediately put up her guard again though, when Kairi leaned over and whispered to the younger girl who the man really was. He might be able to dirty himself up to convince the crew of his story, but she and Riku recognized the Freeshooter underneath his disguise.
"Ethan Berk, sir," Braig replied with fake weariness and exhaustion. After a lengthy discussion of what each party was doing there, during which both "Ethan" and Rourke omitted their true reasons for being down in the caves, everyone followed the digger as Mole drilled through the caves in search of Milo. As the group jogged to keep up with the large machine, Kairi hung back to talk to the "lost hiker."

"You may have everyone else fooled, Braig," she warned, "but you can't fool me. Whatever it is you and Xehanort want here, we aren't going to let you get it."

"As if you could actually stop me, Ava," he replied.

"Just because I'm the reincarnation of a Foreteller doesn't mean I am her, alright," she retorted quietly but angrily. "I am me. Ava's heart may be a part of me but that does not mean she is me." With that, she jogged back to the front of the group to make sure Sweet, Vinnie, and the others understood who their guest really was. A few minutes later, the digger broke through a wall of rock to find Milo standing on the edge of a cliff looking out. Everyone walked up and stood next to him as they started at the lost city of Atlantis. It's so beautiful, Kairi thought to herself as she suddenly felt a strange feeling of bittersweet joy. But then why do I feel so sad, then?

"Milo, I gotta hand it to you," Sweet said as they all stood on the cliff looking over the mythical city. "You really came through." He took it back seconds later when the masked warriors from earlier appeared behind them.
"Holy cats," Rourke gasped. "Who're these guys?"

"They've gotta be Atlanteans," Milo replied excitedly.

"What?" Helga asked incredulously. "That's impossible."

"I agree with Milo," Kairi said. "It's the only explanation that makes sense." And something in my heart is telling me that we're right, she thought privately to herself. Suddenly, the leader of the Atlanteans in front of them stepped forward.

"Who are you strangers and where did you come from?" the woman asked. Kairi blinked again, realizing not only that this was the same woman as before but that she could understand what she was saying despite having never even hearing of Atlantis until only a few days ago. She chuckled when Milo attempted to talk to the young woman (who seemed strangely familiar to Kairi), only for him to do so very poorly, forcing the Atlantean woman to start correcting his grammar. After the woman revealed her ability to speak French, Mole walked up to her and whispered something in her ear that caused her to punch him in the face. As the remaining Atlantean warriors took off their masks and started greeting the travelers in multiple different languages.

"How do they know all these languages?" Audrey asked what they were all thinking.

"Their language must be based on a root dialect," Milo suggested. "It's just like the Tower of Babel." Having grown up off-world, Riku and Kairi didn't get the reference, but they at least understood the intent.

"Well maybe English is in there somewhere," Rourke mused before introducing the group to the Atlanteans. "We are explorers from the surface world," he said. "We come in peace."

"Welcome," the young woman spoke in English to the explorers. "To the city of Atlantis. Come, you must speak with my father now." With that, she grabbed Milo by the hand and led the group towards a narrow rope bridge leading to the city while Rourke ordered a small squad to return to the volcano shaft and salvage what they could from the vehicles left there.

I was looking around for a translation of what Milo and Kida were saying in that scene at the end, so I found this piece on tumbler: tumblr: post/112331709365/milo-meets-kida-translated-aka-milo-fails-at and I thought it was both funny and cute that Milo screwed up speaking Atlantean in a conversation and Kida has to correct him.
I quoted most of the Foreteller's dialogue at the beginning of the meeting from the 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue announcement trailer last fall. As for why they refer to Xehanort's Foreteller incarnation as the Outcast? Well I needed something for them to call him other than "the sixth foreteller."

Emma and the bit about someone using the darkness for good is a shout out to Emma Swan from Once Upon A Time. The darkness being used for good bit is a reference to a Seaosn 5 episode last fall where she had a conversation with Merlin about that exact same thing (in which he told her that it was possible but he had yet to meet someone who possessed a strong enough heart/will to do so)

Regarding Kairi's thoughts on the whole reincarnation thing, the way I see it is normal people being reincarnated (I know, she's a princess of Heart and a Keyblade wielder, but what I mean by normal is everyone who isn't an Unchained) are kind of like the Avatar (from Avatar: The Last Airbender) where each reincarnation is still technically their own separate person with their own personality and beliefs, while for the Unchained, who retain their memories every time they're reincarnated, reincarnation feels to them more like when The Doctor regenerates.

Ephemera's faction in Kingdom Hearts X is based on whatever faction the player chooses (ex. If you're in Leopardos, then he's in Ursus). I chose to go with Urusus because the play-through I watched on youtube had him in that union, so I went with what I knew.

Just a quick reminder for anyone who's forgotten the who's who for the Foretellers as far as appearance and reincarnation goes: Ava/Vulpeus= Kairi, Leopardos= Ventus, Unicornis= Riku, Anguis= Aqua, Ursus= Terra, the Outcast= Xehanort

And to be clear, I'm basically saying that the Foretellers' master became the Guardian Heartless that we all know from KH1.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 9, 2016

Chapter 69: Going After Rourke:
Earth – Atlantean Capital; 8,017 Years Ago:

Ephemera winced as another hovercraft exploded a few yards from the royal yacht's starboard side, grateful that the airship lacked the open air-design of most Atlantean aircraft. The group had flow out of the palace only to find a battle raging on the ground and in the air. A handful of Leopardos troops managed to commandeer some Ketaks, Aktiraks, and Martags, and were now dogfighting in the sky with the Atlantean armada as their army fought to escape the island kingdom. I hope Emma's okay, he thought to himself as he looked out at the laser blasts streaking back and forth across the afternoon sky. He glanced sadly back at the row of seats in the main cabin on which Ava's dead body had been laid. Even though he'd seen so many horrible things during his time in captivity, the look of shock and pain in Ava's lifeless eyes haunted the young man more than any of the horrors Leopardos and the Outcast had inflicted upon him. He averted his gaze back out the open window to the battlefield in time to see an explosion of blue fire erupt from a cluster of buildings on the outskirts of the capital.

"I'm going down there," He announced firmly. Ava's lieutenant, a pink-haired man named Derax, turned his head from his seat in surprise.

"You can't!" the older man exclaimed. "It's a warzone outisde. The Leopardos union lit this inferno. Let them burn in it. It's the only way we'll make it out of this hellfire unscathed."

"No!" the nineteen-year old Key bearer snapped. "I refuse to allow the girl I love to die because of her Foreteller's arrogance." Before the other man could protest, Ephemera ran to the nearest entrance hatch and jumped out of the ship. With the battle raging in the sky, he used a Reflega spell to shield himself from laser fire as he plummeted towards the ground. After using an Aerora spell to cushion his fall, he took a moment to collect himself before racing off towards the original explosion when he saw another one a few blocks away. Jumping into the air to avoid a crashing Ketak, the young man raced towards the explosion to find Leopardos warriors locked in combat with the Atlantean army while Atlantean-controlled Marags bombed the building that had evidently served as a safe house for the Leopardos troops. As he raced towards the confrontation, he saw one blonde-haired young woman was leading a small group of her fellow Key bearers in holding off the guards while the others escaped.

"Emma!" He called out as he leapt into the fray. "You have to get out of here! It's not safe!" He batted aside the guards' spears as he joined the battle.

"No. I'm not leaving until my brothers and sisters get to safety," Emma retorted. "I can't let my friends die because of our Foreteller's greed and arrogance." Damn, the young man thought to himself as he joined his crush in knocking aside Atlantean soldiers. I hate it when she uses the exact same logic as I do. He knocked an Atlantean soldier on his back with the flat edge of his blade as their fellow Key bearers raced out of the capital. Within a few minutes, the guards were all unconscious, and Ephemera decided that with the battle lines drawn as they were, he wouldn't get another chance to confess his feelings for Emma. So he pulled her in tight and kissed her. For a minute they just stood there in the shadow of the burning building, until the arrival of the two renegade Foretellers ruined the moment.

"Good, you're here," Leopardos said bluntly as he and Ursus darted into the square they now stood in. "Find the other units and tell them to prepare for a counterattack. We need to take this city in order to find the X – Blade."

"No," Emma defiantly refused. "You can't just invade a sovereign kingdom just because they have what you want."

"You swore and oath of loyalty when you joined the Union, Lieutenant Swann," Leopardos snapped. "If you choose to break that oath, then the punishment for treason is immediate execution. It's really your choice." For a moment, the two Key bearers stood off with their former Foretellers. As they glared at each other, Leopardos looked up and spotted an incoming Marag. "And it seems that you've already made it," he replied as he and Ursus vanished through a Door of Light seconds before the Atlantean aircraft fired on the group of Key bearers.

"EMMA!" Ephemera screamed as the blast knocked him into a nearby building as blue fire spread out from the point of impact. The pain as the left side of his face burned left him with no other option than to smother the flames with his scarf as the love of his life was incinerated by the crystal-powered laser of the Atlantean Marag. Pushing aside the searing pain in his face, he dragged himself over to where Emma's Keyblade lay on the ground, the only thing left of the girl of his dreams besides ash. The two Foretellers had condemned him and Emma to die in that blast as punishment for disobeying them while they escaped back to their respective strongholds. For a few minutes, Ephemera just sat on the pavement sobbing as the fire on his skin stopped burning, leaving a few burned holes in his scarf. He only stood up when alarm bells began to ring and a panicked voice rang out over the city's PA system.

"EVERYONE TO THE SHELTERS!" The voice commanded urgently as Ephemera looked out towards the ocean and saw a titanic wall of water bearing down on Atlantis. "EVERYONE TO THE SHELTERS!" Clutching his face after removing his scarf, Ephemera sprinted back to the royal palace. He was still grieving, but he knew that Emma would not want him to throw is life away senselessly. If he was going to be reunited with her in death, he was going to have to die in battle, not in a flood. What happened to the Leopardos fleet then? He wondered as he raced through the streets of the capital as the battle continued to rage overhead. Did they all get destroyed? Are they all gone?

He reached the city's center only to find that he was too late. The Heart of Atlantis had already raised a force-field around the city's central district, leaving those trapped outside doomed to die. Couples embraced each other while others helplessly pounded on the impenetrable barrier with their hands as the tidal wave flooded into the city. As everyone around him stood in horror at the oncoming wave, holding their loved ones in their last moments, all Ephemera did was stand in the middle of the square, glaring at the force of nature. Bring it on, he thought as he faced his doom. The last thing he saw before the wave hit was the force-field sinking underground with the palace inside it, and then the wave struck. The force of the mega-tsunami was enough to knock Ephemera unconscious as it crashed against the force-field. As his vision faded before he passed out, he could faintly make out the shape of an old man with a large, turquoise fish-tail swimming towards him.

The Lost Empire – Atlantean Throne Room; Now:

"Greetings, you're Highness," Kidagakash said as Braig's unwanted flashback to the day Atlantis sank ended when the princess of Atlantis led Thatch, Rourke, and Sinclair into the throne room. "I have brought visitors." Though he hadn't come to the city in thousands of years, he still remembered how to speak Atlantean, and he couldn't help but marvel at how much the young princess had grown since the last time he was here. He kept his mouth closed as he hid behind a column in the open-air throne room, observing the first contact Atlantis had had with the outside world in millennia.

"You know the law, Kida," Kashekim replied. "No outsiders may see the city and live."

"Father," Kida began as that linguist Thatch pulled out a notebook and started trying to translate the conversation. "These people may be able to help us."

"We do not need their help," the king declared bluntly.

"But father…" the princess said.

"That is enough," the ancient king snapped. "We will discuss this later." Indeed we shall, Braig thought to himself, knowing that he and the king would later be conversing about things the older man hadn't thought about since the city sank. Meanwhile, Rourke started talking about what an honor it was to be welcomed into the city, only for the king to shut the speech down and tell the man that they were not welcome in his kingdom. They went on about it until Rourke was able to convince the king to let the explorers stay for one night to rest, regroup, and resupply before returning to the surface in the morning. He's after the Heart, the one-eyed man thought to himself as he warped back outside before anyone noticed he was gone. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew glared at him when he emerged from the shadows. Evidently Riku and Kairi had told them about who he really was. Rourke still brushed off the two Key bearers' attempts to tell him, meaning that there was still at least one person who trusted "Ethan Berk."

When the trio walked out of the throne room, they began to discuss how to find out what the king was hiding, which led to that kid Thatch being volunteered to talk to the princess. Having instantly figured out what Rourke's plan was for that, the Freeshooter resolved to warn the king about the threat the mercenary posed. He chuckled when, after rehearsing how to ask her about what her father was hiding, the girl snuck up behind Thatch and informed him that he wasn't leaving the city until he answered her questions, using almost the exact same wording the young man had been rehearsing. As Kida led the boy off to show him something, he took a look around to make sure he wasn't being watched, and walked into the throne room. When the guards tried to tell him to leave, he froze them with a Stopga spell.

"I apologize for the intrusion, your highness," he began, slipping back into Atlantean for the first time in thousands of years. "But I needed to speak with you alone, without risk of any of my "fellow explorers" overhearing."

"You presume much, to simply barge into my palace," Kashekim replied angrily standing up from his throne. "Who are you and what to you want here? I have already told the others that what they seek does not exist."

"We both know that it does, your majesty," Braig retorted with a smirk he knew the blinded king wouldn't be able to see. "But as for who I am, I have gone by many names over the last eight thousand years. The others know me as "Ethan Berk," but the last time I visited Atlantis was as a lieutenant of Ursus, named Ephemera." After a moment of surprise, the king nodded.

"I thought your voice seemed familiar," Kashekim said. "Ava spoke of you often. She told me you were her closest friend.

"I was," Braig answered sadly. "I still have nightmares about the day she died."

"As do I, my friend," the king added. "As do I. Please, forgive me for my rash actions that day. My order for the death of every Key bearer on Atlantean soil was given out of anger and grief, never of malice."

"I know," Braig replied. "It doesn't make the death of the woman I love any less painful, though."

"I am so sorry," the king said mournfully. "If I may ask however, I presume you have survived all these millennia through the use of the Atlantean crystal I'd given Ava?"

"No," Braig answered. "Before my time in Leopardos' captivity that Ava mentioned at the summit, I Unchained myself at her suggestion."

"And so you've merely retained your memories with each reincarnation," the elderly monarch finished, impressed. "If only Ava had done so, then perhaps her loss wouldn't have been so painful."

"She didn't Unchain herself," Braig replied. "But her reincarnation is part of this group of explorers I stowed away with. She and the reincarnation of Unicornis joined the expedition at the last minute. And it's only the leader and his right-hand woman you need be wary of, your highness. The others are all good people, and those who are in on the leader's plans for the Crystal will turn on him if the lengths he goes to in order to obtain it are extreme enough."

"I will consider your advice, old friend," the king said. "And though we did not know each other well before the Mebelmok, you are the only link left to Ava. I will speak with her reincarnation tonight and see how much she knows, but the Ava that I knew still died the day my city sank." Braig bowed respectfully to the king before agreeing with the older man's statement. "Now go," the monarch added with a smile. "Enjoy your night in Atlantis. I will send a courier to find your group after dinner." Braig grinned as he walked out of the room just as the Stop spell wore off.

Meanwhile, Riku, Kairi, and the other explorers were off exploring everything Atlantis had to offer.

"Look at all those tattoos…" Audrey commented in amazement as she, Kairi, and Cookie stopped in front of a stall in the marketplace where a man was getting a tattoo on his arm. The two girls turned around in disgust when Cookie pulled up his shirt to reveal a tattoo on his chest depicting "all 38 United States," before proceeding to "make Rhode Island dance."

"That's disgusting," Kairi moaned as she fought the urge to gag at the chef's revolting display.

A few hours later, the entire group was dining with the princess in an Atlantean nobleman's house. Kairi chuckled as Milo struggled to explain the names and professions of everyone in the crew to the princess, Kida. After she finished her meal, Kairi stepped outside to enjoy the view. With the way Mole was eating, it was a mess in there, so she needed a little fresh air. A few minutes later, one of the royal guards ran up to the house and walked in. She could hear the man talking but couldn't make out the words. A moment later, Riku poked his head out the back door.
"The king wants to speak with us," he said.

"What?" she asked incredulously. "Why?"

"All the courier knows is that the king told him to say it was "Keyblade business"," the silver-haired Keyblade Master answered. "So we'd better get going. And for some reason, Braig's been invited, too." Kairi grumbled about that as the courier led her, Riku, and Braig back to the royal palace. When they'd arrived, the king greeted them warmly.
"I apologize for being rude to your comrades earlier," the ancient monarch began. "But there are things about my kingdom that outsiders cannot be allowed to exploit. As Keybearers, you must understand where I'm coming from." Riku and Kairi were shocked. How did he know?

"I'm sorry your majesty," Riku replied, "we're used to being discreet to protect the boundaries between the worlds. What gave us away?"

"Your associate told me," the king replied, nodding towards where Braig stood. "Much has changed in the last few thousand years, but I remember the day the Keyblade War first began... The day my city sank beneath the waves."
"What happened?" Kairi asked curiously, deciding to wait to reveal Braig's alliance with Xehanort until after they'd gotten all the information they could. Well intentioned though he may be, but the Unchained sniper was still part of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness and needed to be stopped. "How did it sink?"

"You don't remember?" the king asked, sounding both hurt and understanding at the same time.

"What do you mean 'remember'?" she asked incredulously. "I've never been here before.

"But you were in your past life," Kashekim replied. "Ephemera told me everything, Ava," he added as he nodded again towards Braig.

"With all due respect, your majesty," Kairi replied, getting a little frustrated at Braig's actions once again. "As I told Braig before, just because I'm supposed to have Ava's heart doesn't mean I am her. Braig or Ephemera or whatever he wants to call himself is convinced that because I'm Ava's reincarnation, I'm supposed to be a carbon copy of her. But I'm not. I'm just Kairi." After she finished venting her frustration with that, Braig announced that he had to take care of some business on another world before departing with a look of pain and sadness on his face.\

"Honestly, my dear," the King said with what looked like a sad smile on his face, "I fell the same way about reincarnation myself. There may be some personality traits or opinions carried over from incarnation to incarnation, but because the soul is different each time, the previous lives are gone forever. The Ava I knew... gone forever."

"How?" Kairi asked, curious to know how the king knew her past incarnation and relieved to meet someone outside her fellow heroes who knew about reincarnation and didn't see her as a carbon copy of Ava. Behind her, Riku stayed silent, knowing that this was something Kairi needed to do herself. He could find out about his own past life as a Foreteller later. Since the king of Atlantis knew Kairi's, this was her moment.

"It was the day the Keyblade War began," the monarch answered sadly. "Ava had come to me a few days prior asking to host a conference between the Foretellers in the Atlantean capital, feeling that their own headquarters in Daybreak Town was too volatile to be considered neutral ground. She wanted them all to put aside their differences and work towards a peaceful solution, but the negotiations failed. There were rumors of a traitor among the Foretellers' ranks. When Leopardos was exposed as the traitor, he murdered her, right here in this room." Kairi's eyes followed the sad king's gaze until they came to rest upon a small square stone discolored from the years it had spent stained with Ava's blood.

"I've been having these visions once we started travelling to Atlantis," she explained as tears welled up in her eyes. "I couldn't remember them for long after they were over and I didn't know what they were at first, but I was beginning to suspect that it was the events leading up to Ava's death. Now I know why. It's because she died here, and because I share her heart, I was having flashbacks to the day she died the closer we got to Atlantis." At that point the princess of Radiant Garden broke down in tears and let out all the pent up stress over the whole reincarnation issue. The king of Atlantis got up from his throne, came over, and hugged her. As she dried her eyes, the king continued.

"Ava was like a second daughter to me, and my daughter, Kida looked up to her as an older sister. When she was murdered, I went made with grief. Leopardos was exposed when my guards discovered his followers preparing to invade my kingdom and take the Heart of Atlantis, the crystal that serves as the collective life-force of our people. In grief I retaliated by ordering every Keybearer on Atlantean soil to be killed on sight, and for our armada to fire on the warships Leopardos was attempting to land on our shores. The weapons we used caused the cataclysm which destroyed our civilization. And we have been trapped down here ever since." They talked about Ava and the beginning of the Keyblade War (specifically the bases Ava had mentioned when asking to set up the meeting) a little while longer until the doors blew open, revealing the crew armed with guns (or tied up in Milo and Kida's cases) and menacing looks on their faces.

"Knock knock," Vinnie said drolly.

"Room service!" Cookie added as he pointed his double-barreled shotgun at the guards.

"Tell them to drop their weapons!" Helga ordered as she pointed her gun at Kida's back. "Now!" reluctantly, Kashekim ordered his guards to drop their spears. "Spread out!" the blonde woman ordered once the order had been complied with, "search everywhere!" The rest of the group, along with the some of the gas-mask wearing crewmen who'd gone back to the volcano shaft earlier that day began tearing the room apart looking for something. The Heart of Atlantis, Kairi realized as Milo told Rourke that the only thing the journal said about the crystal's location was that it "lies in the eyes of our king." Unfortunately, this prompted the commander to interrogate the king, punching him in the gut when he refused to answer.

"I will kill you for that," Kida cursed in Atlantean as she struggled against her bonds.

"Rourke, this was not part of the plan," Sweet snapped angrily as the doctor ran over and examined the wounded king.
"Plans change, doc," the mercenary declared cruelly as he sat on Kashekim's throne. "I'd suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary." As the mercenary sat on the Atlantean throne, he cocked his gun and threatened to shoot the king if he didn't give up the location of the crystal. He was about to pull the trigger when he stopped and looked at the cover of the Shepherd's Journal. Kairi followed the man's line of sight and realized that he'd just discovered the location of the Heart of Atlantis. As Rourke walked into the center of the Atlantean glyph formed from the stones in the water, the raised stone beneath the water line began to sink, revealing itself to be an ancient elevator platform. As it descended beneath the surface, everyone pointed their guns at the Keyblade Wielders to keep them from interfering.

A few minutes later, the four returned, but something was different this time. Kida had apparently become a vessel for the Heart of Atlantis, her entire body now made entirely of glowing blue crystal. Kairi's heart sank when she saw this, and she and Riku joined Milo in glaring at Audrey as she fastened the bolts on the container Rourke had brought along to transport the crystal. Sweet had deserted the mercenaries the moment Rourke punched the king, and was staying inside tending to the old man's wound. It infuriated her that she and Riku couldn't do anything, knowing that once Rourke's men realized that the Keybearers couldn't be hit with bullets, they'd start shooting the Atlanteans instead.

"So," Milo said bitterly as Audry helped load Kida's crate onto the truck. "I guess this is how it ends. You're wiping out an entire civilization but hey, at least you'll be rich." Kairi glanced angrily at the crate while Milo bitterly congratulated everyone on being able to achieve their goals. "Because that's what it's all about," he finished. "Money." Riku and Kairi each put a hand on his shoulder in support as they expressed their agreement through glares.

"I guess money does matter more than the lives of other people," she added sadly. "Good luck with everything, guys."

"Get off your soap boxes, you three," Rourke replied angrily. "Thatch has read Darwin. It's called Natural selection. We're just helping it along."

"Commander, we're ready!" Helga announced from the lead truck.

"Give me a minute!" Rourke shouted back before doing a checklist of everything before punching Milo in the face, knocking him to the ground. Kairi retaliated by punching Rourke in the gut, only for the larger man to slap her aside. Riku raced over to make sure she was alright while the mercenary commander walked over to Milo.

"Look at it this way son," the man said as he stepped on the photograph of Milo's grandfather that fell out of the linguist's bag. "You're the man who discovered Atlantis and now you're part of the exhibit." While Milo sadly pulled the photo of his grandfather out of its shattered frame, Riku helped Kairi to her feet and together they made their way over to stand with their friend. "Let's move people!" Rourke shouted as he walked into the lead truck.

"That was an order, not a suggestion!" Helga shouted. "Let's go!" Seconds later, Audrey jumped out of one of the trucks and slammed the door. She marched over to Milo and helped him to his feet as Riku and Kairi reached him. She glared at Vinnie, who immediately walked over and helped support Milo as he stood up. One by one, Cookie, Mole, and Mrs. Packard got out of the truck and marched over to stand with Milo.

"Oh, you can't be serious!" Rourke commented in exasperation.

"This is wrong and you know it!" Audrey retorted angrily.

"We're this close to our biggest payday ever and you pick now of all times to grow a conscience!?" the commander asked incredulously.

"We've done a lot of things we're not proud of," Vinnie responded. "Robbing graves, plundering tombs, double parking… but nobody got hurt. Well, maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody we knew."

"Well if that's the way you want it, fine!" Rourke snapped as he climbed back into the truck carrying the crystallized Kida. "More for me." With that, he and Helga drove off with the crystal. As the trucks drove out onto the bridge, the city's waterfalls stopped flowing, and the glowing lights of the small crystals the Atlantean people wore around their necks faded.

"We can't let him do this!" Milo shouted as he raced towards the bridge. Rourke already rigged the bridge to blow so nobody could follow him, Riku and Kairi both realized as Vinnie held the young man back. Sure enough, as soon as the trucks cleared the other side of the bridge, the rickety wooden structure exploded in a shower of flaming wood, sending chunks of the bridge falling down into the bottomless chasm between the volcano and the city. Kairi and Milo went back inside to talk to the king, but when Sweet revealed that the elderly man had internal bleeding, all they could do was listen to his last words before he died.

"She has been chosen, like her mother before her," Kashekim said weakly after Milo struggled to explain to the king what had happened to his daughter. "In times of danger, the crystal will choose a host," he explained. "One of royal blood to protect itself and its people. It will accept no other."

"So this thing is alive?" Milo asked for clarification.

"In a way," Kashekim replied. "The crystal thrives on the hearts and emotions of those that came before us. In return it provides us with power, longevity, protection… As it grew, it developed a consciousness of its own, a synthetic Kingdom Hearts."

"You mean Kingdom Hearts is sentient?" Kairi asked incredulously. Everyone knew that Kingdom Hearts was the heart of all that lived but that the idea that it had a consciousness of its own was completely new to her."

"Yes," the king replied as his voice became more gravelly. "But back to the matter at hand. In my arrogance, I sought to use the crystal as a weapon of war. I was able to convince Ava, my advisers, and even myself that it was only for the defense of Atlantean territory, but war was brewing, and my idea of protecting my people involved conquering new territory in order to have a buffer between the capital and the rest of the world as the Keyblade War raged. But its power proved too great to control. It overwhelmed us on the day the war began, and lead to our destruction."

"That's why you hid it beneath the city," Milo realized. "To keep history from repeating itself."

"And to prevent Kida from suffering the same fate as my beloved wife," Kashekim finished gravely.

"What do you mean?" Milo asked. "What's going to happen to Kida?"

"If she remains bonded to the crystal," the dying king explained, "she could be lost to it, forever. The love of my daughter is all I have left. My burden would've become hers when the time was right. But now…" he took off his crystal necklace and handed it to Milo. "It falls to you. Return the crystal. Save Atlantis. Save my daughter." As the king's time grew shorter, he turned to Kairi.

"My child," he began, his voice now a hoarse whisper. "Fate has held many twists and turns for you, but if you wish to change your fate, you must take action in order to do so. You must… find the light in the dark. The kings of the past have written of the Keyblade War's endless cycle of death and rebirth. There is only one way… to end the circle of reincarnation… without… destroying… the…" Kairi's heart sank as the ancient monarch's hand slipped from holding hers, and the royal guards lowered their heads as Kashekim Nedakh, king of Atlantis finally died. Tears slid down her face while Sweet gave Milo a pep talk about not giving up on stopping Rourke. Though she'd only known the king for a few hours, having Ava's heart meant that the connection she'd once had with the man was still there, deep down.

A few minutes later, Milo lead Kairi and the rest of the group towards what appeared to be large stone fish. After showing everyone how to activate the ancient aircraft, the Atlantean armada took to the skies for the first time in over eight thousand years as the explorers, Key bearers, and Atlantean warriors flew towards the volcano to rescue the princess. They were going to stop Rourke before he reached the surface. The fleet emerged from the tunnels into the volcano base to find Rourke's men attaching Kida's crate to the bottom of a massive hot-air balloon. Gunfire and explosions filled the air as the battle was joined.

"YOU TOLD ME HE ONLY HAD GUNS!" Milo shouted from his Aktirak as the mercenaries began unloading collapsible biplanes to take away the heroes' aerial advantage.

"WHAT I SAID WAS HE'S NEVER SURPRISED!" Audrey shouted as she and Kairi flew their own Aktirak towards the balloon. Sweet had offered the use of his medical saw that could allegedly cut through a femur in 28 seconds, but Kairi had argued that hers and Riku's Keyblades would be able to cut through any chains better than any normal blade ever could. In the process of avoiding gunfire, Vinnie discovered how to activate the laser weapon of his Marag, and the dogfight intensified as the Atlantean armada started to gain the upper hand. While the Atlantean warriors started blasting away at Rourke's ground troops while Milo pulled the explorers together to come up with a plan. He, Vinnie, Riku, and Sweet would be decoys while Audrey and Kairi would fly up underneath and use the Keyblade to cut Kida loose. Rourke fired a machine gun at the decoys while Kairi and Audrey quickly severed Kida from the hot air balloon while Milo crashed his ship into one of the smaller support balloons, causing the main balloon to lose altitude.

Kairi cast a Reflega spell to deflect the bullets as Rourke turned his fire in their direction while Audrey secured Kida's crate to their ship. Helga finished throwing things overboard in order to lighten the balloon's load so they could start climbing the shaft again, only for Rourke to throw her off the balloon himself. As the battle continued to rage Kairi and Audrey quickly spirited Kida back to the city while the armada stayed behind to mop up the rest of Rourkes forces. While Riku and Rourke dueled on the Zeppelin's deck, a flare shot up and struck the balloon, causing it to burst into flames as it accelerated its descent. After a brief duel, Rourke was knocked off the side of the balloon, but unlike Helga, he didn't miss the propellers. Riku closed his eyes before the gory, messy impact before leaping up to where Milo was waiting with his ship before the armada flew back to the city. Unfortunately, the zeppelin exploded as it hit the cavern floor, awakening the long dormant volcano.

Everyone raced back to Atlantis to find Kairi and Audrey waiting next to the crate, hesitant to approach it for fear of what might happen to them. An Atlantean guard handed Milo his spear, and the young man quickly pried open the crate. One the crystallized princess was free, every carving in the city began to glow the same blue as the crystal.

"THE FISSURE!" Mole shouted as lava began to burst from the tunnel entrance. "IT IS ABOUT TO EJECT ITS PYROCLASTIC FURY!"

"MILO!" Sweet translated. "MOLE SAYS THE WALL'S GONNA BLOW!" Crystal-Kida rose slowly into the air, accompanied by ten stones carved with the faces of what were presumably previous kings of Atlantis that burst out of the ground beneath the palace. As the humanoid crystal rose up, the carved lines in the city stopped glowing, and beams of light shout out from the crystal, causing titanic stone statues to rise up out of the water while molten projectiles streaked overhead. As lava began to pour from the fissure, the stone guardians marched to the edge of the city and clapped their hands together, each generating a small blue force-field that rapidly grew, combining with each of the others until they formed a large dome overhead.

Everyone held their breath as lava flowed over the dome and was instantly cooled, dried, and hardened by the power of the crystals. A moment later, the lava rock fell away, leaving the city itself unharmed. As the energy dome faded, Kida floated down from the sky as herself, leaving the great crystal hanging in the air above the city as it used to thousands of years ago. When the dome faded, the sections of the city which had previously been flooded were emptied of water, leaving the city better off than it had been before. But before the group left, Kida finally pulled Kairi aside, forcing the princess of Radiant Garden to explain to the new queen of Atlantis the whole reincarnation explanation. Kairi was expecting the new queen to be upset that the girl she'd looked up to as a sister was gone forever, but Kida reassured Kairi that even if she was separate from Ava, she still lived on through her. When Kida had been given the whole speech about Xehanort, she told the two Key bearers that she would love to provide support to the Coalition, but that right now her people needed to recover before they were ready to join the alliance. After saying their final goodbyes, the group (except for Milo, who was staying behind to help the Atlanteans re-learn their written language) returned to the surface with the aid of a narwhal-shaped airship.

After getting back to Mr. Whitmore's mansion, Riku and Kairi promised to send over a Gummi Ship for the explorers to travel the worlds with before Mickey beamed them back up to their own ship, ready to talk to Master Yen Sid about what they'd found.

The names of the Atlantean aircraft come from the movie's merchandise. Aktiraks are the ones that look like hammerhead sharks, Marags are the big ones that fire lasers from the mouth, and Ketak is the one Kida had Milo show her how to fly earlier after the throne room scene at the beginning.

And what I've been trying to show with Braig's manipulations is that while he may have good intentions, that doesn't make him a good guy. He may be trying to destroy Xehanort, but his "do whatever it takes to win at all costs" strategy keeps him in the villain category.

KeybladeOrder · Apr 10, 2016

Chapter 70: DunBroch:
Corridors of Darkness; 24 hours ago:

"Keep running," Ludor hissed as he cast another blizzard spell on his singed coat. Despite the raging snowstorms of the world they'd found themselves on, Sephiroth had been able to find them easily. Terra was able to put up a decent fight against Sephiroth, but he was years out of practice, and Sephiroth honed his skills continuously since the day he was born. Terra shuddered as he thought back to what he'd done that day. The pain he'd caused on that poor boy, Cloud. After his birth, Sephiroth declared his progenitor week, and went after the people close to the boy in order to "make him strong." Sephiroth was an abomination that needed to be erased from the universe. Half his DNA was that of an Inhuman monster, and his human heart was the closest to pure darkness there had ever been since Vanitas.

"Where exactly are we going?" Terra asked as he and Ludor continued their trek through the corridors of Darkness. The good news was that Sephiroth's uncanny ability to track what world they were on didn't work while they were using Dark Corridors. Either that or he was just allowing the two fugitives to pull ahead every so often just to toy with them, but the duo preferred to think it was the former. The Key bearer and the Gambler both panted as they raced through the darkness towards their next stop.

"Some low-tech world," Ludor replied. "I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. I think it was Dune rock or something like that. Anyway, last time I came to this world to do reconnaissance for the old organization, I learned of an old witch who lives on this world. From what I heard, she should be able to help us hide from Sephiroth. We just need to find her."

"How can she help us hide from Sephiroth?" Terra asked incredulously. "Even if Xehanort can only sense what world we're on, Sephiroth can still track a single speck of dust from the other side of the world."

"Simple," the Gambler of Fate answered. "Last time I was here, I asked her about cloaking spells strong enough to fool the One-Winged Angels senses, figuring back then that if anything happened to cause him to go to war with the Organization, we'd all have a means of hiding from him."

"Alright, we'll give it a try," Terra said as they raced out of the Dark Corridor to find themselves standing before a small cottage. He was about to ask which way they needed to go when Ludor answered his unasked question.

"This is the place."

DunBroch – Castle Throne Room; Now:

"So your brothers got turned into bears too?" Sora, Donald, and Goofy struggled to contain their laughter as Merida, the soon-to-be-queen of the world they'd arrived in, told the three heroes the story of how she'd accidentally turned most of her family into bears. They'd just arrived on this world a few hours ago at the request of some old friends. Since this world had yet to have contact with Keyblade Wielders, Mulan and Shang had been sent by the Coalition to make first contact. The couple had landed a few days ago to find that King Fergus, the ruler of this world, had been killed by Maleficent's minions a few weeks ago. Unable to determine Maleficent's motive for assassinating a king out of nowhere when his world apparently held nothing of value to her, they'd asked the three heroes to come and investigate.

"Yeah," the young woman replied with a chuckle. "Right load of trouble they caused around the castle, they did." Although things had been shaky following her father's death, the young red-head had managed to convince the other clans to accept her as their queen, and aside from her ill-advised plan to avenge her father by killing Maleficent she had managed to stop blaming herself for not preventing his death. Her self-confidence had taken a beating, however, after she'd tried to shoot her father's killer, who Sora was able to confirm as Gaston, with her bow and missed. After a few hours of talking and sharing stories, the future queen of Dunbroch went to visit her father's grave once more before the ceremony. A short while later, bagpipes played in the throne room as the coronation began. The off-worlders stood in the front row as the son of the leader of the Mackintosh clan carried Merida's crown down the aisle.

"On behalf of clans Dingwal, Macintosh, and MacGuffin," the bare-chested young man said in a stiff, formal tone. "We freely give this crown."

"Then it is my honor to crown you, Merida of Dunbroch," her mother, Elinor, said as she moved to place the crown on her head, "as our true – " Suddenly the doors burst open, and in strode the white-haired old witch who had helped cause the entire bear situation in the first place.

"Did ya forget to invite me dear?" the eccentric witch asked as she waddled down the hall towards the new queen.
"What're you doing here, witch?" Merida demanded as she drew her sword. "Is this because of that magic I took?" She'd told the visitors about how, when the clan leaders' sons kidnapped her brothers because they didn't believe she was worthy of being queen, she'd sneaked into the witch's cottage when she wasn't home in a failed attempt to use magic to help defeat her siblings' kidnappers. Yeah, Merida broke into the witch's house, Sora thought to himself, but she did what she had to do to save her brothers. Surely this witch would be understanding of that?

"No," the witch answered. "I'm here because of another happy customer of mine, King Fergus." Everyone was clearly surprised at the idea that Merida's late father would use magic, especially after what had happened when his daughter had dabbled in it.

"Lies!" the red-headed queen declared. "My father would never stoop so low."

"He did not stoop," the witch retorted. "Except to get through the door." Sora couldn't help but chuckle at that part.
"But," the elderly woman continued, "he did ask for magic." She then unrolled a scroll with some kind of seal stamped on the bottom. "An enchanted helm to be exact," the woman explained. "One that glistens like the sun."

"Merida," her mother said as she stood up and examined the seal stamped on the bottom of the contract. "I'm afraid that is your father's mark."

"King Fergus died before he could pay me what he owed," the witch explained. "With interest, it was ten thousand gold skirts." The entire audience was stunned by this proclamation, shocked that their former king would waste the kingdom's money so foolishly.

"That much gold would bankrupt the clans three times over," Merida said frantically, saying what everyone but the off-worlders was thinking. Yikes, they all thought as they cringed in unison. There's gotta be another way then, Sora thought to himself. Sure enough, the old woman had an alternative.

"If you don't have the gold you can simply return the helmet," the witch offered. Well that's easy enough, Sora thought as everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"I can't return what I don't have," Merida retorted angrily. Okay then, Sora thought, things just got a whole lot more complicated.

"Then you'd best find it," the witch replied coldly. "If you don't return it by sundown tomorrow, I'll have no choice but to curse the entire kingdom." The coalition delegate's jaw dropped while murmurs of concern spread through the crowd. That's a little extreme don't you think? Sora wondered and was about to say so when the future queen beat him to the punch.

"You wouldn't," Merida growled threateningly. Really Merida? Sora almost smacked his forehead. You could have worded that better.

"One drop of this," the Witch retorted warningly as she waved a small black bottle around in the air. "And all your subjects will live out the rest of their lives as bears!" Goofy, Shang and Mulan held Sora and Donald back from charging over to the witch and taking the jar from her as shouts of confusion and fear rang up from the queen's audience. Now that's just going too far. Sora thought angrily.

"Quiet!" Merida commanded to her subjects. "Keep your heads!" Unfortunately, everyone had already started freaking out at the ancient woman's ultimatum and wouldn't stop jabbering on about it in various states of surprise, anger, and fear.

"Harder than it looks dear," the witch commented softly. "If you want to wear that crown, you'll have to learn to do what your father couldn't: lead." With that, the witch disappeared in a puff of turquoise smoke as everyone looked around, processing what had just happened. As soon as that was over, Merida, Elinor, and the five off-worlders retreated to the family's chambers to figure out what to do and how to find this enchanted helmet, hoping that this piece of magical headgear, whatever it did, hadn't fallen into Maleficent's hands.

So the whole plot for the Brave world is based on Merida's subplot in Once Upon A Time season 5, with an assortment of Kingdom Hearts twists. I quoted a bit of dialogue for some scenes, and let the characters' actions and personalities do the rest.

Fanfiction ► The Xehanort War

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