Returning back from the Rivers of America, Riku and his party arrived back on Mean Street and met up with Sora at the flagpole, Kairi was resting on a bench nearby.
"That's three down and two to go," Riku proudly stated as he and Sora gave eachother a bro-fist with a wiggling thumbs-up (for a reference, it's that hand sign that Arnold and Gerald do in Hey Arnold). Just then, Kairi woke up with a yawn.
"Sora...?" she said weakly. Sora rushed to her and sat to her eye-level.
"Kairi, I am releived that you're awake. But I don't think you'll like what you see in the mirror."
Kairi gave Sora a quizzical look, after which Lea showed her Heartless reflection in the mirror. Kairi looked sad and then quickly shook off the feeling knowing that she would turn back to normal after all of this was over.
"I mean, I have a heart of pure light. Chances are it would turn out alright," she said. "Where are we supposed to go now?"
"Into that..." said Riku, pointing towards the Heartless Castle. Kairi's yellow eyes grew wide. She had a lot of bad memories of that place.
"Don't worry Sora," said Mickey "We will accompany you."
Mickey was with Oz, Donald, and Goofy. All four of them had their weapons, with Goofy having a sword just to be safe and Oswald wielding a magic paintbrush created by Yen Sid. Sora held Ultima Weapon up at an angle.
"All for one..." said Sora.
"And one for all!" said the others forming a pyramid of weapons.
Sora's party of heroes rushed into Hollow Bastion's twisted version of Fantasyland, felling Unversed along the way. As they entered the main courtyard of the bastion, they were met with the death god Hades.
"Oh hey Sora, how ya doin'?" Hades said quickly.
"We don't have time for this Hades," Riku said bluntly. The rest continued walking.
"So that's the way it is, huh? Well what if I told you that there was a way to just end all of this nonsense? Like say turn Kairi back to normal?"
Sora stopped. "Turn her back?"
"Just as simple as that. You do me a solid, I change her back. We dance, we kiss, we schmooze, we carry on, we go home happy. What do you say? Come on. "
"No deal," said Kairi. "We can do it on our own."
Hades vanished in a puff of smoke and reappeared infront of them. "Well, it happens that this solid involves getting revenge on those villains that corrupted the resort. It was my idea in the first place to unleash the Dark Resort, but what do I get in return? Bupkis!"
"Still no."
Hades started turning red and his flaming hair started to get redder. "I went through 8 months of planning just to see this through, it gets approved only for me to be left off of the benefactors list, I offer you to help me to help you, and you turn me down, and do you have ANY IDEA WHAT THIS WILL DO TO MY STREET CRED?! IT'LL RUIN ME!" the god shouted, causing one of the brambles nearby to combust. "OK, fine, fine. I'm cool. I'm fine," he said, cooling down back to his regular blue tint.
Riku sighed and shook the god's hand. "Oh and there's one thing I forgot to mention. Hook's in on this sort of idea too, he was left off fo the benefactors list as well." The pirate stepped into view.
"Aye, and besides, I owe you one for defeating LeChuck yesterday, Riku."
"So where should we go?" asked Oswald.
Sora looked in the general direction of Toontown to see a massive spiralling cloud of voodoo magic. The party of heroes and the pirate ran towards the cloud to find that Facilier was one of the benefactors of the takeover: He got an entire swamp to work with in order to feed souls to his friends on the other side.
Sora and the party headed into the former Toontown and entered Facilier's shop. Much like a TARDIS, it was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. While it looked like a regular apartment from outside, on the inside was an Aztec altar to serve the Voodoo gods. Facilier was chanting something:
"Ade due damballa. Give me the power I beg of you. Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endonline pour de boisette damballa! Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Endelieu pour de boisette damballa!"
While he was chanting, the talisman in front of him was beginning to glow a green color.
"I think I know what to do about this!" exclaimed Oswald. Oswald painted a grand piano and musical instruments with matching sheet music.
"Just a few more minutes, Samedi. And then you'll have enough power to conquer the world!"
"Hey!" shouted Oswald. "Has it ever occured to you that you need some music at a time like this?"
Hook began playing piano as Oswald began singing in the voice of Sir Paul McCartney:
When you were young and your heart was an open book
You used to say live and let live
(You know you did, you know you did you know you did)
But if this ever changing world in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry
Say live and let die
(Live and let die)
Live and let die
(Live and let die)
Facilier looked confused as to what was going on as Oswald, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were playing as if they were the Wings.
What does it matter to ya
When you got a job to do
You gotta do it well
You gotta give the other fellow hell
While he was distracted Sora, snuck behind Facilier and swiped the talisman from the altar. "Sorry Facilier, time's up!"
You used to say live and let live
(You know you did, you know you did you know you did)
But if this ever changing world in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry.
Say live and let die
(Live and let die)
Live and let die
(Live and let die)
Sora threw the talisman to the ground and it shattered. Facilier watched in horror as the voodoo spirits he was conjurring grabbed him and pulled his entire swamp into the other side. "It worked. It was a stupid idea but it worked!" exclaimed Hook. Sora was about to say something, but then he realized that Hook and Hades helping them defeat Facilier was what Lincoln meant by "a house divided against itself." It was as if Lincoln knew about Hades and Hook's treachery.
As they left Toontown, a blanket of fog rolled in and engulfed the three teenagers, the god, the Mouseketeers, and the pirate. Sora found himself on the metal floor of a submarine with Riku and Kairi laying on the floor. The others were sitting in chairs waiting for them to come to.
"Where are we?" asked Sora.
"From the looks of it, I'd say maybe we're in the Ulysses. Pfft, great... one of the few men to cheat death just to talk to Tiresias," noted Hades, thinking of that one time after the Trojan War.
From above the surface of the water, they could hear the voices of men. It was a longship full of vikings. The captain was holding a leatherbound book with a golden spiral on the front cover. He opened the book to a page showing the northern coast of Nova Scotia.
"Við höfum staðist endanlega merki. Nú, á að gáttina og Atlantis. (We've passed the final marker. Now, on to the portal and Atlantis.)" exclaimed the captain in Icelandic. His first mate nervously spoke to him.
"Herra minn, þú hefur gleymt? Það Portal er varin með skrímsli sem ... (My lord, have you forgotten? That Portal is guarded by monsters that...)" the first mate was cut off midsentence by his captain as he held him to the mast. "Nóg! Ég myndi drepa tugi skrímsli fyrir fjársjóð talað um í þessari dagbók. Rétt eins og ég myndi drepa þig! (Enough! I'd slay a dozen monsters for the treasure spoken of in this journal. Just as I'd slay you!)" the captain threatened.
"Fyrirgefðu. Ég var skakkur! (I'm sorry. I was mistaken!)"
"Hugleysingi! Sigla á! (Coward! Sail on!)" the captain threw the first mate down and barked orders to the rest of the crew.
"We need to follow him," said Riku, finally getting him up. The party went to the controls of the sub and started it up, following the longship its wake. A storm began to rage as the Viking captain shouted orders.
"Stormurinn er blása erfiðara fyrirliði! (The storm is blowing harder, Captain!)"
"Róa þér hundar! Setja rass inn í það! (Row you dogs! Put your backs into it!)"
A monstrous shape flew over the ship and the sub and landed on the other side of it.
"Hvað í nafni Óðins var þetta? A sæskrímsli! (What in the name of Odin was that? A sea monster!)"
"Það getur ekki verið. Halda jafnvægi, menn. (It can't be. Hold steady, men.)"
The quartermaster asked a question to another older sailor. "Er það hval? Það er sjó djöfull! Hvar það fara? Getur þú séð það? (Is it a whale? It's a sea devil! Where'd it go? Can you see it?)
"Það er farið! (It's gone!)" Those were the last words he said as a tentacle wrapped itself around his neck and strangled him. The vikings were shaken up at this moster. Sora was even more shaken up as its eye was against the glass.
"It's no monster... It's a machine!"
The sailors fought despairately for their lives against the Leviathan. "Við erum dauðadæmdir! Spara ykkur! Fyrir aftan þig! (We're doomed! Save yourselves! Behind you!)"
"Ég hef séð verri! Komdu til baka sem þú bleyður! (I've seen worse! Come back you cowards!)" shouted the captain, who was now the last man standing against the mechanical guardian of Atlantis. "Gera versta þinn! (Do your worst!)"
The Leviathan took this as a challenge and shot a beam of energy at the longship, obliterating it into driftwood and sending the journal into the water. The monster turned its sights towards the sub, Sora now on top of it with Keyblade in hand. After a struggle against such an unstoppable force, the moster vanished, leaving no trace behind. The spiral on the cover of the journal begain to glow as Sora fired a beam of light towards it. After the light subsided the sea had turned back into the Submarine Voyage lagoon, and the submarine had become the Nautilus, just as Uncle Walt had envisioned it for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Most of Fantasyland and all of Main Street reverted back to normal, with the Castle remaining as the last object of importance.
Serah meanwhile had taken to looking for a gift to give to Kairi when she was cured of her Heartless form. On her spree through the Emporium, she bumped into a tall, blond, and sharply dressed man.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!"
"I should be the one that's sorry. Forgive me, mi'lady," said the man with an English accent (which sounded a lot like David Bowie (and even looked like Jareth from Labyrinth). "I did not see such a beautiful woman such as yourself." The man offered his hand to her and lifted her off of the ground, and kissed her hand. "My name is Mateus. And what might your's be?"
"My name is Serah Farron." Serah took notice to the crystal hanging around his neck. "What is that?"
"It's a crystal. Nothing more. But if you turn it this way and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But this is no gift for an ordinary girl, who worries for her older sister."
At this, Serah realized that something was up, she never even brought up Lightning. "WHAT!?"
Before she could react, Mateus had zapped her with the crystal and faded away his English pop star look into his real outfit, that of golden armor with violet trimmings. Serah was now inside the crystal that Emperor Mateus had been holding. The Emperor started to give a chuckle.
"I knew that you would be useful," he said to the crystal, "Oh how ironic: My weak mother created you to destroy me out of love, but now I use you to seal this girl of Destiny Islands. Thank you, oh powerful Stone of Iludia."
Mateus turned his head in the direction of the Heartless castle, seeing it to be a perfect location to goad the heroes of the Keyblade into their inevitable doom. Unbeknownst to him, Squall saw everything that happened and called Sora and the rest of the party via cell-phone. Only he forgot his at the hotel room, still charging. Damn, his dad really knew how to talk. So he encountered one of the Cast Members, who was busy talking to Lea.
"Excuse me, sir. I seem to have forgotten my cell-phone."
"Well you should have packed it in the first place." said the employee, name of Reno. Lea, now visibily smoking, held Reno by the collar.
"Commit this to memory: This guy has been helping saving your ass since the all of us arrived, nearly two days ago. So if you don't help this guy out, then you'll be out of a job since their won't be a job when the resort goes up in smoke! Got it memorized?!"
Reno nodded yes in a scared fashion and Squall dialed Sora's D-link.
"Sora, this is Leon. Some man just attacked and captured Serah and headed into the castle."