The Alliance

Maleficent and Pete descended into the deepest levels of the Castle That Never Was.

"So which world are we going to test it on?" Pete asked again.

"Not one" said Maleficent. "Not until I am satisfied with its powers."

Pete started to say more, but Maleficent held up her hand for silence. Pete obeyed and followed her into one of the rooms. It was a large place, complete with a hologram projector and all sorts of communications equipment. Pete recognized some of it. It must have been technology from Hollow Bastion that Xeonhort had stolen during his rebellion against Ansem the Wise. Maleficent went to one of these panels. This was not a machine that was from Hollow Bastion. It was an invention of Maleficent's. It was an All-World Communicator. Maleficent had built one like it in Hollow Bastion so that she could spy on her enemies or communicate with her fellow conspirators. It was a magical object that could allow one to see whatever one wanted to in a certain world. It was very hard to detect. Theoretically, a person could cloak themselves from the device's all seeing eye, but that would take strength that not even the Keyblade Master possessed. At Hollow Bastion, the device had resembled a large stone table with odd runes written into it. Here, it was a large metal sphere that pulsed and shimmered with the green fire of Maleficent's magic. Maleficent laid her hand upon the sphere, and concentrated on the person she wanted to see. She did not wait long. Soon an image formed. It was a man in an elegant outfit and powdered wig. He wore a three-cornered hat, and appeared to be sitting at a desk. He also seemed to be on a ship, because the area he was in rocked back and fourth slightly.

"Ah, Maleficent" the man said. "I was waiting for you to contact me. I trust that Roman Numeral Thirteen is ready."

"Indeed it is" Maleficent said. "I only need to begin the testing."

"That is good. You spoke of testing it on worlds the last time we conversed." He took out a small piece of paper, read it, and put it back in the desk. "And I trust that Roman Numeral Thirteen will be devastatingly useful the East India Trading Company?"

"Quite useful, Lord Beckett" said Maleficent. "This creature has the power of several thousand heartless. Not to mention the dark powers that I awakened in my former apprentice Riku are increased a thousand fold in it already."

"I am overjoyed to know particulars" said Lord Beckett. "I will be even more overjoyed to see it in action." Then his image faded.

Maleficent concentrated again. This time it took longer for an image to appear. The witch's brow wrinkled in concentration. "Come on, Hades" she said irritably. "I know you're there. Just because you happen to be a god doesn't mean that I can't feel you."

Finally Hades appeared, tall, black robed, hair flaming. "Hey, it's Maleficent" he said lightly.

"Enough with the games" Maleficent snapped. "I was trying to contact you! My experiment is ready."

"You mean your thirteenth one?" Hades asked, lounging back in his throne. "Can't you just give up this whole darkness-heartless-genetic engineering thing you've got going on? I mean, I have to tell you, the guys upstairs don't like it."

"You mean Zeus and his little pantheon?" Maleficent asked distractedly. "I couldn't care less. This is the edge of existence. Even the gods of your world couldn't affect me here."

"Maybe" said Hades. "But what if you go to far? Look, I'm just watching out for my own interests here. I can't have anything tall, dark, and horrible knocking on my door."

Maleficent vanished his image before he could say anymore. Fine then. He would come around eventually. And so would other. Oh, so many others.