Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, or Disney characters, locations, etc. And yes, I am using movie dialogue with few changes. Sorry. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Nine- Topsy Turvy

Riku's halfway decent knowledge of computers came in handy once the trio had deactivated the force field holding them back, as Hojo's computer contained a veritable mine of information. Though most of it was concerning things Vincent had already told them about Kadaj and Yazoo, the most interesting thing they found was a program that tracked their coordinates, which indicated they were both on the same world. Riku memorized the coordinates, and punched them into the Gummi Ship's navigational system, letting the autopilot fly, for once, instead of Sora doing the flying. Oddly enough, they weren't running into any Heartless or Nobody ships as they approached the world, but then again, said world was fairly backwater. After a few minutes, they were hovering above said world, just out of gravity's influence.

The defining feature of this particular world was a massive, beautiful cathedral which towered above all of the other buildings. Sora exchanged a nervous glance with the others before noting, "Guys, I haven't been here before."

"Neither have I…" Riku added, staring at the surroundings.

"Nor have I, but I have a bad feeling about this place." Vincent stated calmly. "This world is a fair distance away from any of the worlds you've likely visited, and looks very much like the kind of place where anything odd would get treated as witchcraft. We shouldn't use our powers if we can avoid it…"

"But Kadaj and Yazoo are down there, so we're going." Sora answered in a way that made it clear that was the end of the matter.

As they prepared to land the ship in a narrow, shady alleyway, Vincent rolled is eyes, and murmured ironically, "What could possibly go wrong?"

As they stepped out into the street, they could feel their clothes altering. Kairi's hair got tied back by a blue bandana, and her outfit altered into a long, deep blue skirt with dirty, off-white corset-top short, which was accented with a black sash. A necklace with a talisman appeared around her neck, and her skin darkened somewhat to a pleasant tanned tone, as if she had been sunbathing back on the islands. Sora had on what could only be described as a jester's outfit in garish combinations of red, orange, white and green, and a poofy hat with bells hid his spiky brown locks. Vincent was wearing a burgundy and gold tunic, paired with white hose and black, polished-looking shoes. He looked much more high-class than the rest of them, though his skin remained stubbornly pale as his eyes mellowed slightly from bloodred to reddish-brown. Riku, of all of them, looked the most like a peasant and was dressed the most normally with a plain, dirty off-white tunic bound below the waistline by a length of cord and plain brown hose and shoes. His skin, like Kairi's, darkened slightly to look more tanned, and his eyes remained the same aquamarine shade they always were- and unfortunately, his silver hair also maintained its hue.

Upon looking on his silver locks, and realizing they had not changed colors, Riku swore under his breath, earning an admonishing look from Kairi. Vincent walked out of the alley, and returned mere moments later with a bandana and some ink. "These might help out slightly."

Riku nodded, forgoing the bandana in favor of dying his hair with black ink. "This will be less likely to get torn off or otherwise damaged, and will do a more complete job of hiding my hair color…"

Riku moved quickly and quietly, working the ink into his hair as thoroughly as he could in the time allowed. Their lingering in an alley would not likely go unnoticed for long. When he thought he had covered his hair as much as he could, he looked towards the others. "Do I have a salt-and-pepper thing going on over here?"

Sora shook his head, almost speechless at the difference that simple change had made in the older boy's appearance. "Nope. You're good. I almost wouldn't recognize it was even you, so I think you're okay."

The boy's hair was now almost as raven black as Vincent's own locks, but there was still a problem left- the ink on his hands. He rubbed it hastily on the already-dirty tunic, and said, "Worst comes to worst and someone asks, I can always claim to be a scribe's apprentice or something."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Good thinking. Well, let's see what's going on in this new world! I'm excited!"

"Understandably, but remember, children," Vincent stated, a slight patronizing tone coming into his voice, "we can't afford to stick out here. We need to try to blend in."

And with that, they stepped out of the alleyway towards the town square.

.-.-.-.

Across town, as of yet unaware of the new arrivals, Judge Claude Frollo stood, overseeing the whipping of his former captain of the guards, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new captain so that the cleansing of the streets from those pitiful gypsies could finally begin. Seeing the captain silhouetted in the doorway, firelight glinting off of his golden armor and locks, Frollo smirked. "Ah, so this is the gallant captain Phoebus, home from the wars."

"Reporting for duty, as ordered, sir." Phoebus answered respectfully. Frollo's reputation preceeded him, and he was not ready to get on the man's bad side.

"Your service record preceeds you, Phoebus. I expect nothing more than the best from a war hero of your caliber."

"And you shall have it sir. I guarantee it."

"You know," Frollo began, apparently changing the subject, "My last captain of the guard was, erm, a bit of a disappointment to me."

Phoebus barely avoided wincing as he hearda tortured scream from the room nearest them and a whip crack. Frollo smirked at the sound, and continued, "Well, no matter. I'm sure you'll whip my men into shape?"

"Th- thank you sir, it's a gr- er- tr- tremendous honor." the captain answered, at a loss for words.

"You've come to Paris in her darkest hour, Captain. It will take a firm hand to stop the weak-minded from being so easily misled. Look, Captain. Gypsies." the judge sneered, gesturing down to the streets where the beautiful dancer, Esmeralda, whom Phoebus had encountered earlier, was dancing, surrounded by a band of gypsies. "The gypsies live outside the normal order. Their heathen ways inflame the people's lowest instincts, and they must. Be. Stopped."

"I was summoned from the wars to capture fortune tellers and palm readers?" Phoebus queried, more than slightly incredulous at the seemingly pointless task being assigned to him as a matter of dire importance.

"The real war, Captain, is what you see before you. For twenty years, I have been- taking care of the gypsies one. By. One." Frollo stated calmly, smushing the ants crawling along the stone with his fingers for emphasis. "And yet, for all my success," he lifted the stone, revealing a veritable nest of insects, "they have thrived. I believe they have a haven- a nest, it you will, within the walls of this very city. They call it the 'Court of Miracles'."

"What are we going to do about it, sir?" Phoebus wondered.

Frollo smirked for a moment, then slammed the block down on the ant colony.

"You make your point quite vividly, sir."

"You know, I like you, Captain. Shall we?" Frollo asked, gesturing for Phoebus to follow. Then, a swell of fanfare rose from the center of the town, and he groaned and rolled his eyes. "Ugh. Duty calls. Have you ever attended a peasant festival?"

"Not recently, sir." Phoebus admitted.

"Then this should be quite an education for you. Come along."

.-.-.-.

After reaching the center of the town, the group of four were in shock and awe at the bright, vibrant colors flying around them. Clearly, they had arrived in the middle of a large festival. Sora and Kairi were entranced by the fire breathers and other various acts going on during the 'Festival of Fools', as it was apparently called. It took Vincent and Riku several minutes of poking, prodding, pushing and shoving Sora and Kairi along for them to get up close to the stage that had been set up, just in time to see another jester-like figure start making a big announcement.

"Come one, come all! Let's see the finest girl in France make an entrance to entrance! Dance La Esmeralda dance!" he shouted before vanishing in a puff of smoke, replaced by a ravishing, dark-skinned, dark-haired beauty in a rather revealing red dress.

"Wow… she's really pretty…" was the first thing Sora had the presence of mind to say, sounding very clearly zoned out to a most likely perverted location.

"... Yeah, she is…" Riku agreed, his voice catching slightly in his throat as Esmeralda, the dancer on stage, pulled out a purple star-and-moon covered scarf from around her waist, and leaped lithely for Frollo, planting a coquettish kiss on his nose before pulling his hat down over his face.

Kairi rolled her eyes, and slapped her hand against her foreheads. She waved her hands in front of the two boy's eyes, saying, "Umm, yoo-hoo! Mission? Finding Kadaj and Yazoo before they cause trouble here? Hel-loo!"

And her words were lost in the crowd's cheering and hooting for more. She turned to Vincent, only to find the raven haired gunman trying very determinedly not to look at the stage, where Esmeralda was now executing some kind of improvised pole dance using one of the guard's lances.

"Oh, Vincent, not you too!" Kairi groaned, seeing his actions.

"She is very beautiful." Vincent admitted, struggling to keep his eyes on Kairi and his mind focused on the task at hand. Not an easy task, given how long he had been without any close contact with a woman. "But-" he summoned up all his willpower, and kept his eyes locked on Kairi's as he continued, "I've only ever… really… had eyes for one woman."

And Kairi nodded her satisfaction is unison with Esmeralda's final nod to the crowd. The gypsy woman was then showered with coins as the crowd roared for more. The jester continued announcing, and a group of about thirteen masked men were pulled onto the stage by various people aiding in the main stage show.

"… So, make a face that's horrible and frightening, as gruesome as a gargoyle's wing, because the face that's ugliest will be the King of Fools!" the jester announced, and Vincent felt his stomach drop several inches. Suddenly, he had started getting a really, really bad feeling about remaining where they were. Especially since that last man's mask… looked way, way too realistic to be a mask…

Sora and Riku booed along with the crowd as the peasants pulled up made silly face after silly face at them. Kairi had initially ignored the spectacle, but seeing Vincent's normally implacable face marred by a concerned expression, she, too, looked at the last figure, a man whose mask had a highly prominent brow, to the point of looking like a tumor over one of his eyes. He had a short mop of red hair, pale skin, and blue eyes, but his most prominent feature was his masively hunched-over back. Suddenly, she got a twinge of dread that this man likely wasn't wearing a mask.

Indeed, he wasn't wearing a mask- it was his face. And the man was the bellringer of Notre Dame cathedral, Quasimodo. Clopin, as Riku surmised the jester was called from the murmurs in the crowd, after a moment's confusion, proceeded to crown the hunchback King of Fools, placing the crown over his head, a staff in his arms, and a royal robe over his shoulders. Quasimodo looked happy to the point of tears to see, for once, everyone cheering for him, and Riku convinced Kairi to join in with the crowd's cheering as confetti flew everywhere.

Vincent, however, wasn't buying it, and he looked over to find, as he suspected, one of the guards shining a tomato to be thrown at the newly crowned King of Fools. The tomato smashed into Quasimodo's head, leaving a rotten red trail on his face. That was all it took- one person thinking they'd be amusing, and the mob mentality took over. Soon, the poor hunchback was getting pelted over and over with various vegetables and eggs. He held the others back from charging the platform because they couldn't interfere with the world's events. It was way too risky. They'd be drawing enough attention to themselves once they found Kadaj and Yazoo and fought them, so they couldn't afford to interfere any more. However, mere moments later, the need to interfere was no longer present, as it seemed Esmeralda was approaching the hunchback, looking pityingly on him.

"Don't be afraid." she assured him. She reached down to wipe the man's face, and he winced. "I'm sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen."

The judge, Minister Frollo, incensed at this turn of events, shouted, "You! Gypsy girl! Get down at once!"

"Yes, Your Honor. Just as soon as I free this poor creature!" Esmeralda shouted back.

"I forbid it!"

Kairi was gasping along with the crowd, but mentally doing a cheering motion as Esmeralda cut the ropes binding the man to the platform where he had been humiliated.

"How dare you defy me?" Frollo asked, his voice a dangerous growl.

"You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people! You speak of 'justice', yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help!"

"Silence!"

"JUSTICE!"

Sora and Riku's eyes widened. This girl had a lot of strength of character. They would be up there with her, but stupid Vincent had to keep them from interfering. Sora was more miffed about Vincent's actions than Riku, but then again, Riku could understand the necessity for them. And mere moments later, as the crowd was sent into an uproar by Esmeralda's theatrical fleeing of the guards, the group of four caught a glimpse of two silver-haired figures. They pursued them far out of sight from those in the town square, and finally trapped them in an alleyway close to where the Gummi Ship was. Believing themselves to be out of danger, Sora and Riku drew Oblivion and Way to the Dawn, Kairi drawing her weapon. The looked around, expecting to hear Vincent's gun cocking as he drew it, but a cursory glance told the teenaged trio that they had lost him somewhere in the crowd.

"Sora…" Riku muttered warningly, realizing they were missing a person.

"It's okay, Riku. We don't need him. We've got this!" Sora assured before charging for Yazoo, his strike blocked by a blade similar to Seifer's and Squall's.

Riku shuddered nervously, and leapt for Kadaj, followed swiftly by Kairi. The silver-haired duo were better fighters than Loz had been, clearly something they inherited from Sephiroth. They were fast- fast, and excellent sowrdsmen, though the teenaged trio managed to score a few rapidly-healing wounds on them in their lightning-fast battle. Sora and Kairi charged up a tag-team Thundara spell on the pair, and succeeded in their strike, only to see the duo changing before their very eyes into two of Frollo's lieutenant's- a heavyset man and a tall man with a moustache. They lay groaning on the ground, calling out for help, and before any of them could think to put their Keyblades away, they heard a swift 'clip-clop' of Judge Claude Frollo's horse's hoofs arriving just outside the alleyway.

"And what sort of witchcraft do we have here?" he queried as the 'lieutenants' struggled to their feet.

"These three gypsy heathen attacked us when we had our backs turned." Yazoo, disguised as the heavyset lieutenant insisted.

"They used some sort of odd weapon that they summoned in their hands, and the next thing we're aware of, they're calling down fire on us." the other lieutenant, Kadaj in disguise, added.

"Well. The gypsy witch escapes from my grasp, but I find three demons in her place." Frollo stated, a twisted smile crawling across his face. "Lock the three of them up. But first, take this one with the strange hair," he indicated Riku, "to the torture chamber. I have some questions for him."

Riku started at the man's words, and then, for the first time since their battle against the two silver-haired henchmen began, felt the rain which had begun to fall pelting his face. "The dye washed off, didn't it?"

Though the question was directed to no one in particular, Sora and Kairi nodded before all of their arms were slapped in chains, and they were lead towards their likely doom.

.-.-.-.

When Vincent had been searching for the teenaged trio for over an hour in the pouring down rain, he was more than slightly worried that he had not yet encountered them. There were only so many places they could have gone… I hope they didn't get themselves into some sort of trouble…

Finally, tired of being pelted by raindrops, he looked up at the one place he had neglected to check: the cathedral. Now, he wasn't much of a religious man, but somehow the thought of entering a church building with literal demons sharing body space with him had him more than slightly concerned. Aerith's church in the slums had never been a problem, but then again, it was broken down. This structure was large, imposing, and Vincent felt the burden of his sins weigh ever more heavily on his heart as he hesitantly opened the door and stepped inside. When he wasn't met by a lightning bolt from the heavens, or a burning sensation in his entire being, he walked fully inside the building, shutting the door behind him.

On the outside, Notre Dame cathedral had been imposing, worrying, but on the inside, he honestly found it quite… peaceful. The soft candlelight, the distant Gregorian chants echoing, clouds of incense rising, and beautiful architecture would have made him stop and stare for several minutes if he hadn't reminded himself with a violent shake of the head that he needed to find out where Sora, Riku, and Kairi were if they had, indeed, been caught using their powers. The bells, he reasoned, were likely very high up, and Quasimodo had seemed quite out of his element that day, so he likely resided in the tower as well. While searching, he had heard rumors that Frollo had taken him in as a child and raised him away from the 'cruel and wicked' eyes of the world, and after today's events, he wouldn't be surprised if said rumors were true. So, casting a glance behind him to see if he was pursued, he walked up the stairs to what was presumably Quasimodo's room. When he arrived there, he found it deserted, but for the gargoyles, a scale-model of the city, and colored-glass mobiles which reflected the swiftly-setting sun's light throughout the chamber.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" a voice behind him challenged, and Vincent turned around to find himself face to face with the bellringer of Notre Dame.

"Relax. I'm not a soldier here after Esmeralda, if that's what you're worried about." the raven-haired man assured. "My name is Vincent, and… I need your help."

Quasimodo shook his head vigorously. "If it's something I need to leave the cathedral for, then forget it. You saw what happened today. I can't disobey my master again."

Vincent nodded in understanding. "Fine. If you won't leave, at least tell me this: in the confusion after Esmeralda's escape of the guards, three of my friends were wrongfully arrested for witchcraft. Two of them were gypsies, one of them was a peasant, a scribe's apprentice, who was captured along with them. Guilt by association, you know… Believe me when I tell you that they are innocent, and would never harm anyone in good conscience. Where is Frollo holding them?"

"In all likelihood, at the Palace of Justice…" Quasimodo answered hesitantly. "But you didn't hear that from me… I can't afford to get in any more trouble."

"I understand." Vincent replied, starting to exit. "Oh. And next time you see her, let Esmeralda know how you feel, if it's at all possible… I once lost the opportunity to tell the woman I loved how I felt… and it has haunted me for years since."

And on that note, Vincent left the bellringer to muse about the possible love he had for Esmeralda as he himself started thinking of a way to break his friends out of the prison where they likely faced punishment beyond anything they had ever experienced before…

.-.-.-.

Reviews are appreciated, flames are not, and this world will be continued next chapter.