Cid and Jim sat at a table inside of the town pub. Cid ordered a beer and lit up another cigarette. Jim just had a water.
"So, you really think the Overlords are here?" Jim asked.
Cid took a swig of his beer before answering.
"The Overlords are fuckin' everywhere," Cid answered, "I told you, they've got Acolytes on every world."
Jim still had trouble wrapping his mind around that part. He wondered who their Acolyte on Montressor was.
"Jack mentioned something called 'The Guardians'," Jim said, "Think they'll be allies?"
"I'm still not sure about Jack," Cid replied, "But he did save our asses out there."
"Yeah," Jim said.
He began to stare off into space, when, suddenly, he realized that there was familiar face in the crowd outside, with that all too familiar smug on his face.
"Cid!" Jim said, jumping up from his seat and spilling his water all over the table, "It's Loki!'
"Shit, kid, ya spilled water all over me!" Cid cursed.
Jim grabbed Cid's shoulders and turned the man to face out the window. Sure enough, Loki was out there in the streets, leaning on a lamp-post. His attire had changed to match the local clothing, but it was still unmistakably Loki.
"Son of a bitch," Cid said.
The two raced out into the streets over to Loki. Loki smirked devilishly when they reach him.
"Would either of you be opposed to speaking in a more private location?" Loki asked.
Before either had a chance to answer, Loki waved his arm and, in a flash of light, he and Jim were inside of an immense cave-like cavern that was, strangely enough, perfectly lit yet with no recognizable light source. Cid was nowhere to be found, presumably left out of Loki's spell. Here, Loki was wearing clothing more resembling the clothes he was wearing in Asgard. The only difference was that these clothes were more ornate and outlined in gold armor. In addition, he now had a flowing green cape and a gold helmet with ram-like horns.
"Where have you taken us?" Jim asked.
"Oh just a small pocket dimension," Loki replied, "Nothing worth getting excited over. Here, time can be perceived in a non-linear fashion. I figured it was the perfect place to obtain privacy."
Jim raised his eyebrow at this, but Loki didn't explain any further. Loki waved his right hand in a small, circular pattern around his side. In his hand, an archaic looking staff with a blue crystal spear-head materialized.
"What is that?" Jim asked, eying the spear.
Loki held it up in front of him.
"Oh, this?" Loki said, "Well, I couldn't just steal back my Tesseract staff, now could I? Well, I mean, I could have, but the staff is a beacon for a Mad Titan that I especially do not want on my tail. I needed a new weapon."
"Where'd you get it?" Jim asked.
"Inquisitive, aren't we?" Loki smirked, "It is another world's counterpart to Odin's staff, Gungir. It was being used to keep a formerly sunken city afloat. I merely restored balance to that world."
Jim was shocked. He knew Loki was ruthless, but to condemn an entire civilization to die a watery death? It was definitely a new low.
"Why didn't you bring Cid here?" Jim asked.
"I thought the two of us could have a nice little chat," Loki replied, "The coffin-dodger just gets in the way far too much."
"Since you're feeling so chatty," Jim said, "How about telling me how you broke out of your prison in Asgard."
Loki chuckled in a way that sent a cold shiver down Jim's spine.
"I would never have been there if it hadn't been a part of my plan," Loki answered, "I had to warn you of the Overlords to keep my home world from their greedy clutches a while longer."
"But why me?" Jim asked, "I was just a kid passing through! How could you have possibly known that I'd wind up in Asgard at just the right time."
Loki gestured around him.
"This pocket dimension has been an excellent utensil for that," Loki explained, "It's a little trick an old... friend taught me. As I said before, time can be perceived in a non-linear fashion to us while in this realm."
Jim thought on this for a moment. The concept of time was too surreal for Jim to fully grasp. But, if he was understanding Loki correctly, this pocket dimension could be used to see things that will happen in the future.
"So, we can see the future here?" Jim asked.
"We can see several possible futures," Loki clarified, "The future is not set in stone. The past is the only thing that is concrete. The future is a wide array of possible outcomes entirely dependent upon the choices that we make."
"So we do have free will?" Jim asked.
"Indeed," Loki answered, "But only in the present. The past is set in stone. Even if we were able to travel through time to the past, no amount of free will that we posses can change what has already been done. Concepts such as 'The Butterfly Effect' are utter fallacies. Movements through time are already documented by time itself."
"As much as I appreciate the lesson on time," Jim replied, "Do you mind cutting to the chase and telling me why you've brought me here?"
"Hmph," Loki smirked, "Very well then."
Purple lightning crackled throughout his spear. Loki tapped the spear against the ground and streams of purple lightning began to course through the floor in a sunburst-esque pattern. When the streams of lightning reached the wall of the cave, the wall suddenly became coated in purple and black flames that fluttered about in a demented looking dance. Jim was taken aback by all of this and moved closer to the center of the area, away from the fiery walls. Loki spun his spear around and then held it in an offensive position.
"I would test your metal," he added.
Before Jim had the chance to speak, Loki swung his spear, full force, at Jim's head. Jim barely had time to duck out-of-the-way. Jim quickly crawled away as Loki brought the sharp point of the spear down in the spot where Jim had been. Jim hopped to his feet and reached for his pistol. As he pulled it out, a blast of lightning from Loki's spear knocked it out of his hand and into the fiery wall where it dissolved into nothingness.
"Damn," Jim cursed.
"That trick might have worked on Amora," Loki said, "But not so with me."
He turned back to face Loki, but, as he did, a blast of purple lightning hit Jim in the chest and sent him falling back. It felt as though he had just been punched in the chest, but, other than that, he felt no burn or electric jolt, indicating that the blast was merely intended to be concussive. Loki walked over to Jim and pointed the spear at Jim's neck.
"I had hoped that you'd put up more of a fight," Loki groaned, "It would appear that you're not the hero I thought you were."
Loki raised his spear up and stabbed it downward towards Jim's heart. Jim held out his hands in a last-ditch effort to block it and closed his eyes, waiting for the end. To his surprise, he didn't feel the spear piercing his chest. Instead he heard the clanging of metal and a strange weight in his hands. When Jim opened his eyes, he saw Loki with a look of shock on his face and in his hands was what appeared to be a giant black key.
"He was right," Loki muttered, "You do have a destiny about you."
However, immediately afterwards, a shimmering orb of white light that resembled a pearl blasted Loki off of Jim, and, just as quickly as it had come, the giant key vanished. Watery mists with the same color scheme as the orb began to descend over the flames, putting them out. Once the flames had dissipated, five young women ran into the room and stood in front of Jim.
"Meddling quims," Loki spat, directed at the five women, "You dare interfere in my affairs?"
"We're not going to let you get away with spreading darkness here," the woman in the middle, obviously the leader, spoke up.
"Insolent little fools," Loki growled before vanishing into a Corridor of Darkness.
"Are you alright?" one of the women asked as she helped Jim to his feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered, "Just a bit confused."
Standing up, he was finally able to get a good look at the women. All five were exceedingly, and almost magically, beautiful. The one that helped him to his feet had chestnut colored hair and wore a dress of blue and white. The woman in the center that had spoken up against Loki has dirty blonde hair and wore the clothes of a household servant. The woman to her right had lighter blonde hair and wore a dress of light blue with an eccentric, lace-like quality in several places. The next woman had reddish-brown hair and wore a ragged dull green dress. The fifth woman had short dark brown hair and wore a teal, skin-tight shirt and black leather pants.
"My name is Belle," the woman who helped him up said, "This is Cinderella, Alice, Anya, and Marina."
As she spoke, she gesture to the women in respective order.
"We're the Princesses of Heart," Cinderella spoke up.
"I'm Jim Hawkins," he replied, "Look, there's a lot of question that I have, and -"
"There's no time," Marina interrupted, "This pocket dimension is way too close the darkness. We need to get back to base. We can talk there."
Cinderella nodded and the five held hands. A white aura began to glow around them. A swirl of glimmering energy manifested in front of them. To Jim, it looked like a very intricately designed water fountain.
"It's a corridor of light," Anya said, gesturing to the swirl of energy, "It'll take us back to base."
Jim nodded and stepped through the Corridor of Light. On the other side, he found that he was in an elaborate workshop with yetis all over the place building what looked to be children's toys. The five women walked in behind him.
"Jim Hawkins," Alice spoke up, "Welcome to the North pole!"
"No, no, no," Yzma growled, "I'm sure the map Shan Yu's secretary gave us is pointing north of here! We landed too far south."
"I'm in charge of this operation," Mozenrath declared, "And I'm telling you, the map is pointing RIGHT HERE! I have an excellent sense of direction."
Aghoul had his hands pressed against his ears.
"Would you two quit bickering?" Aghoul groaned, "You're loud enough to wake the dead!"
"Oh no you don't!" Mozenrath said as he fired a blast of blue magic at Aghoul, "You do not get to make bad puns. Your name is insufferable enough already!"
Aghoul dodged the blast of magic expertly.
"Someone's feeling a bit trigger happy today, isn't he?" Aghoul muttered.
"Speaking of trigger happy," Yzma said, "Where did Mim go?"
"Hmm? Oh, she went to go burn down a farm-house," Aghoul answered, "She was getting bored, and, frankly, I wish I'd have gone with her."
"Why, oh Hades, WHY?!" Mozenrath groaned, "Why was I saddled down with such incompetent allies?!"
In a puff of smoke, Mim reappeared next to Aghoul.
"So, has Mozenrath finished his diva tantrum yet?" Mim asked.
"Nope," Aghoul groaned.
A Corridor of Darkness opened in front of the four bickering sorcerers, and from it stepped Pitch Black.
"Finally! Help from the Overlords!" Mozenrath sighed with relief.
"Ove- oh, yes, of course," Pitch lied, "That would be me. Aid from the Overlords. I am Pitch Black."
"I'm Mozenrath," he replied, "The old relic is Yzma, the batty one is Madam Mim, and the bag of bones is Ayam Aghoul, and, yes, that is the worst pun you'll ever hear."
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Pitch said, extending his right hand to shake.
Mozenrath eyed Pitch's hand, but did not shake it back.
"We're trying to find a boy named Jim something-or-other," Mozenrath explain.
"Hawkins," Yzma groaned, smacking her face into the palm of her hand.
"Right, that's it," Mozenrath said, "Anyways, we need to steal a golden sphere from him."
"I see," Pitch replied with a nod, "The Overlords have an outpost set up. Let's continue our discussion there, shall we?"
"Agreed," Aghoul interjected.
The five proceeded back into the Corridor of Darkness, which promptly vanished behind them.