"And to think…we used to think of all this as a game."

~Princess Zelda

Chapter 12: The Key to Victory

Mario's House

Mushroom Kingdom

"Mario…"

Mario sat up in bed and bumped his head on the ceiling, drowsier than a Sleep-Stomped Dry Bones. He looked around his small bedroom—a simply decorated room with wooden floors and square windows with starry blue curtains. The covers on his bed—the top bunk—were a conspicuous fire engine red, while those of Luigi's below were a verdant grassy green. Everything in their house was color-coded in this way, which made it easy to keep track of their belongings (unless one of them suddenly became colorblind one day).

"Wha?"

Mario rubbed his aching head, dazed and confused by the figure he saw at the base of his bed, the slender purple shadows of her body curving up to her bubblegum pink curls and red-and-white witch's hat. The only reason he could see any of this, by the way, was because her body was giving off a faint but luminous glow—as if she were a nightlight that had come to life.

Vivian smiled and spoke softly. "Don't be afraid; I'm not a Boo or anything."

"Vivian…" Mario was finally beginning to register what was going on. "But you're…a ghost?"

"'Ghost' is a relative term," she said, brushing her hair over her shoulder. "Personally, I don't like it; it just sounds so…spooky. Like we're back in Twilight Town with Doopliss running around. Don't worry about me being dead; I'm not here to foretell your death or anything. I just…" She seemed at a brief loss for words. "How are you? With everything?"

Mario wasn't quite sure what to say. "I'm a-well," he said finally. "Except for the bad guys controlling my a-Kingdom, and most of my friends under the Heartless' spell. And a-Smithy…I thought he was a-gone forever. I thought Nintendo had finally found a-peace. But here we are."

Vivian nodded and slunk a little closer, her formless purple matter stretching up until she was nearly level with Mario. She had long outgrown the girly shyness that had once inhibited her. "I know; it's kind of overwhelming, isn't it? You've come so far, stopped so many villains: Bowser; the Shadow Queen; Nightmare; L.O.G….maybe you feel like it'll never end, like you're some kind of piece in someone else's game?"

Few things had ever resonated with Mario's feelings as much as Vivian's statement of pure truth. "If I don't control my a-destiny," he said, "what does?"

Vivian took Mario's hand in both of hers. He knew he couldn't really be feeling it…but it felt so vivid. "The Hand of Fate," she said simply. "You're worried about your destiny, Mario…but it's just so far beyond anything you could ever imagine. You need to stop worrying about the future, and focus on the present. Focus on the ones you love, the ones who are counting on you to be their hero. Me included."

Again, Mario felt unsure of what to say. That it was too late to save her? That he'd already let everyone down by allowing the Heartless to get inside his head? His heart was beating as fast as if he were having a nightmare—but a strangely pleasant, surreal one. "I'm a-sorry I let you down, Vivian. I should never have a-let Fawful—"

"Shhh." Vivian put a finger to his lips. "You know that was my choice; you're a hero worth dying for. I have no regrets—only that I didn't tell you how I felt long ago, even back in our Rogueport days. Even though I always knew you and Peach were meant to be together."

Mario said nothing.

"I just…I just needed you to know that I believe in you; Peach believes in you; all of the Mushroom Kingdom and Nintendo and the universe are safe in your hands, because you can be trusted to always do the right thing."

Images of some of the things he'd done—some of the people he'd attacked as Smithy's asset—flashed across his mind. He shook his head. "Not always."

Vivian squeezed his hand again. Such a tangible illusion. "Don't listen to Xehanort's lies; you and I and all of us have darkness in us, sure…but when we're really at liberty to choose, when there aren't Heartless or abusive sisters hovering over us and compelling us to do bad things, that's what defines us. You don't have a pure heart, Mario; no one does. But you've got something even better: a good one."

"I…" But next thing Mario knew, Vivian was gone. He was alone in the room, save for Luigi's gentle snoring below (the other Smashers had bunked in other areas throughout the house). Suddenly he wished he could have said more to her. His heart ached in a way that was different from when he missed Peach, but still enough to tell him that his feelings about Vivian were anything but imaginary.

"What's he doing here?"

Pit was not yet privy to the whole Master-Hand-helping-them-stop-Xehanort situation. In three sentences, Link summarized his initial meeting with Master Hand on Koholint so that they could move on to the matter at hand. But despite his ominous presence, Master Hand let the Smash Brothers do most of the talking.

Mario still stared at the floating hand doubtfully. "How do we a-know you really want to help us? What's in it for a-you?"

"If I did not, you would already be dead…and Link would never have left Koholint Island in the first place. Your suspicions are understandable, Mario…but pay heed to how you feel. I cannot presently explain to you my motives, and so you must listen to your heart. What does it tell you?"

Mario said nothing for a long moment. Only then did he realize that underneath his natural distrust of anything that so much as resembled Master Hand, he didn't feel endangered in this being's presence—not even concerned for Peach's safety. That, he supposed, had to mean something. And from the looks on the other Smashers' faces, they seemed to feel similarly. So he nodded and turned to Link.

"Okey-dokey."

"If what you and Master Hand say is true, Pit," Link said, picking up where they had left off, "and this Castle Oblivion is above Hyrule Castle with Sora inside, then we're not going to be able to trick our way in and out like we did here. It'll be a full-on castle-storming—at least, as far as the rest of Peasley's Invisi Beans can take us."

"But you chumps don't have the numbers to invade a fortress like that!" Bowser said. He and Peach were there to support them as far as they could. "You'd need an army to take down all those Heartless…not to mention that traitorous thug Ganon and Xehanort himself."

"Maybe…" Red paused, trying to formulate his thoughts correctly. "Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. It's not like we're actually gonna put Xehanort down with this attack, right? I mean, we're just jailbreaking Sora, taking down Ganon on our way out if we can, and then moving on."

But Link and Mario shared a meaningful glance. "We'll have the Kingdom Key, though," Link said. "If all of us together can wear Xehanort down just enough, like we did with Cyber K. Rool, then we might be able to end this once and for all, and then all the Vassals will be drained of their pieces of Kingdom Hearts and will be a lot easier to deal with afterward."

"It's a-worth considering," Mario said, trying not to sound too pessimistic.

"Either way…" DK stretched his limbs, which for an ape tended to involve a lot more unconventional movement than most people (such as standing on one hand and pulling a leg toward his head). "How are we getting over there? Where's the nearest portal to Hyrule, Pit?"

Pit frowned. "For some reason, the Mushroom Kingdom's pretty sparse on unguarded portals; I guess all those Warp Pipes and Gadd's artificial ones usually make up for it. The only one that goes to Hyrule at all is in the caved-in tunnels of Dry Dry Ruins—and that one coughs you out into the middle of the Gerudo Desert."

"Suck!" Kirby said.

"I will take you there."

They all turned to Master Hand, whose movements didn't change at all.

"Pika?" Pikachu inquired, meaning, "How are you gonna do that, exactly? Are we all just going to ride on your knuckles?"

"No; I will hold onto you. You will be safe. And you will not be seen until the time is right. It is the only way."

Luigi could think of several other ways, but all of them were much more complicated, much more unpleasant, and involved a much higher risk of them being killed than the one being proposed.

"Let's eh-go," he said reluctantly.

They were stocked up and ready to leave, carrying supplies Peach had been able to procure from Toad Town. Mario and Luigi stood before Princess Peach and Bowser, rather reluctant to leave their kingdom behind.

"Don't you worry about us," Bowser said. "We'll hold the fort down here; keep up the Heartless charade for Smithy; and then by the time you get back from Hyrule in a couple days, that fiendish Forger won't know what hit 'em."

Peach hugged Mario tightly and kissed him on the cheek. "Get Zelda back too, if you can; once this is all over, we have a long-overdue ceremony to finish. Two angry brides deprived of their wedding night are more dangerous than anything the Heartless can do to us."

Mario nodded. "I a-will."

And with that, each of the Smashers—Link; Yoshi; DK; Red (Pikachu and Jigglypuff inside their Pokéballs); Kirby; Mario; Luigi—climbed onto Master Hand's open palm, each silently wondering how they would all fit, and whether they were walking into a death trap in which they would be crushed and thrown to the ground as soon as they took off. But Master Hand was surprisingly gentle; and as he closed his hands into a firm but non-asphyxiating fist, the seven passengers found the interior illogically spacious, considering Crazy Hand had once carried Zelda by herself without much room to spare. With that, the Hand rose carefully into the air, as if he were carrying a handful of precious antique toys. Peach and Bowser waved as Master Hand sped away like a rocket with the propulsion of his ignited wrist, soaring into the clouds and east toward the ocean, leaving Toad Town and Peach's Castle far behind.

Though space was still somewhat wanting, the inside of the giant flying fist actually felt almost as comfortable as a plane flight. Small cracks between the fingers gave them a limited view of the blurred surface below, which shrank until it became obscured by clouds. The air grew moist and salty as they undoubtedly passed across the eastern shore and over the ocean, giving the mainland a wide berth in case any in the Mushroom or Beanbean Kingdoms, or Hyrule, was watching.

Luigi snacked on a Mushroom to relieve stress while Link and Mario discussed their strategy. He felt somehow more nervous now than he had aboard the WarioWare Ark on the way to invade Microsoft. Maybe it was because there were so few of them, or because there were so many unknown factors, or because they were going up against an enemy they didn't fully understand. Whatever it was, he just had a bad feeling about their mission; it would be a miracle if even a small part of their plan succeeded. The most likely outcome would result in all of them being brainwashed by the Heartless again and returned to their wicked, miserable lives.

The one comforting thought, oddly enough, was that they were with Master Hand. Obviously he wasn't the same Master Hand they had once known; but whoever or whatever he was, he seemed to be on their side—a mysterious force that was invested in their success.

They caught a glimpse every once in a while of the water oscillating below them, the wind whipping through the narrow cracks and allotting them perhaps a little more circulation than they needed. Soon they lost track of time—until finally, the light began to fade, and night fell, and the only light was the full moon reflecting on the rippling waters.

They went in and out of sleeping, and eating, and talking, and those who were awake at the time noticed that they had begun to veer slightly toward the left—and yet the water remained below them for the rest of the night and the next day, which meant that they were rounding the northeastern edge of Nintendo, which was Hyrule. And then, finally, they began to circle over the water, which meant they were nearly there and Master Hand was waiting for the sun to go down as they had agreed. Once dusk had deepened to a midnight blue, their ride took them over the shore and onto dry land.

In spite of himself, Link could appreciate the darkened forms of the Faron Woods below—tall conifers that seemed to stretch out over the curving landscape like a black blanket. Then those curves steepened and became large hills and then mountains, and the treeline gave way to the icy slopes of Snowpeak Mountain. The air was very cold at this point, but Peasley's glowing Insulator Beans kept them relatively warm. Link found himself remembering some of his adventures as the Hero of Twilight—ascending the mountain and racing down it on a frozen leaf against a pair of Yetis called Yeto and Yeta. Those were the days.

Suddenly, the snowy peaks became barren and gave way to the steep escarpments of Death Mountain. Kakariko Village could be seen far below at the mountain's base, sending a chill down Link's spine as he thought of that fateful duel against Ganondorf. As he'd fallen down that well, everything else had gone downhill from there. And his archenemy had been instrumental in paving the way for Xehanort's arrival. But soon, Link would have his chance to claim retribution.

They skirted around the thick smoke of Death Mountain's volcanic peak, an irregular ring of glowing magma scrolling below like a demonic footprint. From the light of the moon and the stars, they could glimpse the wide expanse of Hyrule Field, bordered by Kokiri Forest to the south; the Gerudo Desert; Lake Hylia; and finally Hyrule Castle to the north. But their first look at the castle took all their breaths away.

Hyrule Castle itself appeared more or less the way it had been, although a sort of dark energy seemed to radiate from it even all the way out here—a red glow that reeked of Ganon's evil influence. But ascending from the tallest tower was a winding staircase of luminous turquoise steps which wound their way up toward a sort of mass of violent black clouds, self-contained streaks of lightning threatening all who dared approach it uninvited. Within that swirling mass they would surely find Castle Oblivion. And Sora. And the Kingdom Key—the key to their ultimate victory over Xehanort.

Master Hand bore them low around the rim of Hyrule Field until they were nearly at the drawbridge of Castle Town. Finally, after their roughly two days of travel (they couldn't really tell whether it had been any more or less), they were set down beside the moat, each of them groaning and stretching and regaining their balance after such a long time off of solid ground.

Once they had all disembarked, Master Hand floated back to his usual position and faced them (if disembodied hands are capable of "facing" anything).

"This is where I leave you," he said.

"But…" Link found himself strangely disappointed by the Hand's announcement. "Won't you help us fight Xehanort?"

"Xehanort cannot know of my involvement," Master Hand said simply. "It would be better for you to live under his rule than the alternative. But the Hand of Fate has smiled upon you thus far; and I believe it may yet grant you good fortune once again. Farewell, Smash Brothers."

With that, Master Hand shot away, soon disappearing behind the smoking peak of Death Mountain.

Even out here, the wind from the stormy mass of spiraling clouds above whipped through their clothes and hair as they looked out at Hyrule Castle.

They silently approached the raised drawbridge.

"How do we get through?" DK asked, speaking all of their minds.

As if in answer, a dozen figures burrowed through the earth, forming a ring around them. They were skeletal Wolfos called Stalhounds, with eerily luminous white bodies and glinting fangs and claws and savage scarlet eyes almost as pitiless as the Heartless. And they looked ravenous.

As the Stalhounds prepared to pounce, Link took careful aim and tossed his boomerang, which executed a perfect circle around his enemies, stunning each in turn and moving on to the next like a Dot-to-Dot picture.

With their enemies incapacitated, the other Smashers leapt forward. Pikachu and Jigglypuff burst from their Pokéballs and shattered two skeletons each with Thunderbolt and Rollout, respectively. DK grabbed a pair of Stalhounds and smashed them together like toothpick figurines. Mario and Luigi dismembered four more with Mario and Luigi Tornadoes. Yoshi ate one and spat it out at another, leaving the Smashers standing in a ring of glowing white bones.

Kirby took the opportunity to inhale the Stalhounds' remains, puffed several times until he had both chains holding up the drawbridge lined up in front of him, and spat his mouth's contents out in the form of a large white star, severing the chains in one go. DK quickly moved over and caught the heavy wooden plank with his thick arms before it could collapse with an unfavorably loud crash. Then he slowly lowered it onto the grass and nodded in Kirby's direction.

"Nice one, Gumball."

"Poyo!" Kirby whispered with delight as they all consumed Invisi Beans, waited for the magic legumes to take effect, and stepped quickly but quietly across the drawbridge and into Castle Town.

Link was taken back to one of his most horrid memories: returning to the Castle Town marketplace after being trapped in the Temple of Time for seven years—only to find it completely devoid of life, inhabited only by zombie-like ReDeads.

In a way, this was worse.

He felt a peculiar dread creep up his spine, his hand clenching around his iron sword, needles of fear attempting to pierce his courage from every angle.

Even in the middle of the night, there were Hylians out and about along the cobblestone streets. But they were moving almost as languidly, as inhumanly, as zombie-like as actual ReDeads. As the Smashers tentatively walked past the crowds, Link could see that the Heartless had infected the townspeople with an emotional disease even worse than the greed of Fourside or the idleness of the Yoshis. They were filled with hopelessness. A hopelessness that he had seen only once before: when one of the Heroes of Legend had been too late to return and save Old Hyrule from Ganon and from the deluge which had washed it away into the Great Sea. And that blankness, that permanently bleak expression, was on every face and evident in every person they passed—men; women; children; even dogs and Cuccos. The candlelit streetlamps flickered more like ominous Poes than beacons of hope.

And that wasn't all; scattered among the mindless masses were, in fact, actual ReDeads, wandering around as aimlessly as the rest. Link's eyes widened as he and the others entered the town square, and in place of the fountain was a pile of corpses. He wondered, horrified, how this had come about until he froze at the sight of one of the ReDeads, which had suddenly leapt onto the back of a middle-aged woman, wrapping its rotten arms around her body, and inhaling her life force through its wretched teeth, its blank black eye sockets seeming to rejoice with twisted pleasure, with compulsive hunger. And its victim didn't even attempt to resist.

Yoshi was about to rush to the woman's rescue, but Link held him back, shaking his head. Yoshi's eyes were terrified, and indignant, but he understood. They couldn't help these people if they gave their cover away.

Finally, the woman's corpse was relinquished, and it dropped onto the cobblestones, at which point no one made a move to do anything, as if the disturbance had been as inconsequential as a pigeon pecking at a stray breadcrumb. They didn't even bother stepping around her body, trampling it and staining the stones beneath with red.

Red almost retched, and he knew he wasn't the only one. The stench in the town square was almost unbearable—worse than a room filled with Glooms, Muks, and Weezings. He mostly held his breath during the rest of their torturous trek through town, until the last dilapidated dwelling was behind them and they were on their way up the paved path to the castle.

At first, the torch-lit gate preceding the castle entrance appeared unguarded; but as they approached, they realized that the wall was manned by two of the burliest Heartless they'd ever seen—so black that they blended in with the darkness of the hills and the night sky. Upon further inspection, they each had the appearance of giant, muscular men with claws (what Sora might have compared to a Chernabog), heart-shaped holes in their chests, and heads covered in a Medusa-like mass of black tendrils, their hollow yellow eyes searching for anything out of the ordinary.

Staying out of sight around the corner even though they were invisible, Link turned to the rest. "It's time to split up," he said. "You remember the plan? Mario's group will go up and get Sora, avoiding Xehanort if at all possible, and my group will find Ganondorf down here and hopefully distract him long enough for you to come down with the Keyblade and end him."

Mario nodded. "Let's-a-go!"

Mario broke away with Luigi, Kirby, Yoshi, and Jigglypuff, while Link remained with Pikachu, Red, and DK.

"It's a-time," Mario said, nodding to Yoshi, who pulled out the Blue Koopa Shell (without spikes) they had brought from the Mushroom Kingdom. The dinosaur swallowed it and sprouted wings. Mario and Luigi, in turn, each ingested bronze-colored Feathers, donning yellow capes, while the two Puffballs swallowed Aspiro Beans, which would allow them to keep puffing higher and higher without running out of breath.

As one, they pushed off the ground—not too quickly so that Kirby and Jigglypuff could keep up and so that they wouldn't make much noise midflight. They began ascending at a steep angle toward the turquoise steps winding up into the swirling clouds, glancing down as their friends approached the gate—albeit invisibly.

In spite of the airborne Smashers' invisibility, however, their trip was not a particularly safe one. The closer they drew to Hyrule Castle and the concealed castle hovering above it, dark shapes slipped more and more frequently through the air. Some were amorphous Heartless with spindly wings, while others literally appeared to be giant bats, though they didn't at all resemble the Keese that Mario recalled seeing in the War of the Hands fighting under Ganondorf. Rather, these bats were violet, and cyclopean, and malevolent. Mario felt as if they were all merely extensions of a single consciousness, probes spying for some sinister central source. He sincerely hoped they couldn't see through Invisi Beans with some kind of infrared magic.

Against the buffeting winds of the midnight blue cyclone the five heroes pressed on, narrowly avoiding several unsuspecting Heartless and bat creatures which very nearly flew into them. One bat actually clipped Yoshi's tail, but in the confusion of the gale-force winds, it assumed a nearby Heartless had been the culprit and moved on. The whirlwind grew so strong, however, that the two puffballs eventually had to take refuge on Yoshi's back to avoid being blown away like stray balloons. As icy and oppressive as the wind and the flying monsters were, however, the cyclone's aura of inescapable hopelessness was by far the greatest obstacle to overcome. Yoshi had to fill his mind with rainbows and Heart Fruit, while the Mario Brothers thought of Peach and April, and Kirby and Jigglypuff took comfort in each other's company. Still, the negativity of the Heartless seemed to slowly drain away their willpower, and they knew if they didn't hurry, they would give up and simply drop out of the sky.

At last, they landed on the odd translucent steps, which felt like hollow glass under their feet, and they looked into the swirling clouds.

"Up!" Kirby urged, leading the way up the stairs and disappearing into the unnatural atmosphere. Jigglypuff followed soon after, and then the rest, vanishing as if consumed by the darkness.

The two bulky Heartless—known as Darksides—swept their empty gazes across the path leading up to their gate. Nothing. But they didn't care; they didn't care about anything. They only followed their instinct to attack anyone or anything with a heart intact.

One of the Darksides exploded as it suffered the direct hit of a sourceless Bomb Arrow. The other one perked up and searched for the culprit, but it saw nothing. So it figured it would just attack the entire road for good measure. It summoned a large orb of black energy and lobbed it over the top of the gate. The seething sphere split up into dozens of smaller ones which rained upon the pathway like fire from heaven—or from the other place.

Pikachu's Light Screen gave their position away, but it protected them from the Heartless hailstorm. The Darkside immediately leapt off the gate, its claws raking down through the air toward the translucent blue barrier.

But instead of shredding through flesh, its body met with DK's fist, which tore it apart into a dusty black haze. The four intruders walked through the corruptive particles unhindered, for all of them had taken a sip of Dream Water beforehand to ensure none of them were corrupted by the Heartless anew.

"Nicely done, guys," Red said as DK pounded the iron gate until it fell through, and they proceeded up the rest of the path to the front doors. Colonies of smaller Heartless, sensing the commotion at the gate, were now swarming down the gentle hills on either side, sweeping the path blindly in hopes of intercepting the strangers.

The four Smashers charged forward, and as Heartless began to cross their path, they sliced, shocked, shoved, and somersaulted their way through the mindless creatures until they had reached the front doors, which were guarded by two more Darksides. Link dove forward and drove his sword through one, while Red gave Pikachu a boost by throwing him straight into the other like a football. Both enemies were promptly disintegrated. DK grabbed ahold of the thick wooden door handle and pulled. With a grunt, he managed to heave it open and allow the other three to pass inside, followed by himself.

Castle Oblivion was a mind-bending, nightmarish sight. It was like a Gothic cathedral had been blended in a kaleidoscope with a British clock tower and a Transylvanian castle. With the backdrop of midnight blue currents cycling around them, Mario and the others stepped off the top of the turquoise stairs and along a narrow red rock trail toward the convoluted castle. The building featured mustard yellow walls of stone embellished with gilded Heartless and Nobody symbols. Bright, similarly shaped windows lined the upper levels of each intricate façade. Spidery buttresses held different segments of the castle together, all of which were topped with arrow-pointed roofs that matched the staircase. The strangest thing, however, was that there were also roofs extending perpendicular to the castle walls, and the complex of crisscrossing towers and illogical roofs gave it a sense of highest fantasy—albeit a rather unsettling one.

"Jiggly," Jigglypuff commented, which meant something along the lines of, "Well, that isn't something you see every day."

Kirby, however, barely even paused to glance at it. He was used to people and places as strange as this, if not stranger. He moved on with casual curiosity, feeling small but also resolute, and paused to glance back at the others.

"Sora!" he urged.

They passed by jagged protrusions of purple rock which stuck haphazardly out of the lavender path, as if they were giant claws waiting to close around their prey. The journey up to the gold sapphire-trimmed doors was surprisingly uneventful; the Heartless appeared more intent on continuing their endless orbit through the lightning-streaked torrents than on searching for invisible trespassers.

The five Smashers reached the doors and hesitated. Here they were. Xehanort could be waiting for them just on the other side of this door.

Mario and Luigi grabbed the handles of each door and pulled together. The doors swung open with well-lubricated ease, admitting them almost silently into the castle.

The interior was almost pure white, with alabaster staircases leading in several directions in about as confusing a complex as the roofs and towers on the exterior. No one else was in the entrance hall, but the heroes became privy to a startling fact.

"We're a-not invisible anymore," Luigi said, inspecting himself and for once unhappy to be able to see his brother.

"Where do we go from here?" Yoshi said, his mind boggled by the intricate layout.

Mario stroked his mustache thoughtfully. "He's a-bound to be in a dungeon of some kind. Let's a-go down those stairs and work from there."

Accordingly, they proceeded down a winding flight on the right side of the room, oblivious to and apprehensive about what they might find below. Stepping as softly as they could, they came out into a long white-tiled hallway, already "underground," with no windows to give them any sense of where they were. One level down and they already felt disoriented.

Unfortunately, this particular hallway was not empty. A quintet of pale Nobodies barred the Smashers' way to the next downward flight at the far end. And this time, there was no invisibility to protect them.

Though apparently blind, the Nobodies sensed the newcomers' presence immediately and formed a wall of pointed limbs and black teeth which began moving steadily toward their targets.

Yoshi, thinking quickly, suggested a strategy to the others, who agreed—if only because there wasn't any time to argue. He took a couple steps forward and encased himself in an egg, while Kirby and Jigglypuff lined up beside him, already the ideal shape for the rather sporting technique Yoshi had in mind.

Mario and Luigi drew their hammers and raised them back, hoped this wouldn't hurt their friends as much as it hurt their enemies, and swung the heavy tools like golf clubs, each striking Kirby or Jigglypuff.

The Nobodies were knocked over like bowling pins as the pink pinballs sped into them. But the slender creatures were also hardier than the average Heartless, so they were soon back on their feet and lunging toward Mario and Luigi—that is, until both plumbers struck the Yoshi egg at the same time, taking them all down in one go.

Even that, however, might not have been enough, had Kirby and Jigglypuff not allowed themselves to bounce off the walls at the far end and then return like Pong balls, sandwiching the Nobodies between themselves and the Yoshi egg and finally causing them to crumble into white dust—which fortunately did not evaporate into the air and cause any unpleasant side effects.

The three living projectiles, dizzy from their ride, took a moment to reorient themselves, and then they were on their way once more.

They went down another winding staircase, their footsteps echoing through the eerily silent passage. The simple but elegant architecture struck Luigi as having a quaint sort of beauty—the kind that sent chills down his spine whenever he would enter an unexplored room in his once-haunted mansion.

Finally, they came out into a wider rectangular chamber lined with grooved marble pillars and intricate diamond patterns. The door at the other end was wrought of black iron—with a large engraving which resembled a Keyblade.

Mario and his companions would have celebrated their discovery, for this was surely the door through which they would find Sora—but they didn't because they were too concerned with the room's other occupants.

It was Princess Zelda, her dark red dress and pale gray eyes marking her darkened state perhaps more clearly than anyone else the Smashers had encountered. Beside her were three others: a girl in a loose scarlet garment with a long brown tress of hair; Marth, his noble features hardened into a cold mask; and Roy, the usual innocence in his demeanor replaced with an angry jealousy—though of what, it was anyone's guess.

Swords and eggs were drawn. Magic and fire sparked at fingertips. Kirby and Jigglypuff poised their round bodies in preparation for a fight.

"This is where your adventure ends." It was Zelda's voice, but not the Zelda they had known. "You will never stop Xehanort; and once the Heartless have overwhelmed you again, you won't even want to."

Mario narrowed his eyes, surprised to see the three Akanaeians here. He didn't know Linde, the new head mage at the School of Magic, but he'd heard of her replacing Gotoh. "This isn't a-you…any of you. We're not a-gonna fight you; we're gonna set you free."

Yoshi pulled out the small bag with the Time Flutes they had been apportioned, the rest remaining with Link. He made to take one out…and then watched in dismay as the entire bag—its contents included—burst into flames and crumbled to ash in his hands. Zelda had used Din's Fire to destroy the flutes.

"Mama mía…" Luigi felt his heart drop as their most valuable resource was incinerated. Then he narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists and glared back at those barring their way from rescuing Sora. "I guess we'll a-do it the hard way, then."

Zelda smiled wickedly—a smile similar to when she had been briefly possessed by the Shadow Queen in the Battlefields. "Good luck."

And then they charged at each other, and the fight began.