Aladdin was wary of me after my outburst, but with Jafar's disappearance the cause of my irritability was also gone, and in those cases I seldom stay irritated for long. He pulled me up onto the carpet, not being concerned with Iago as he was still on Jafar's side for now, and we headed back to Agrabah itself.

From our aerial approach, we had a perfect view of the city. The commotion caused by Pete in the marketplace was clearly visible, though showed signs of starting to clear up, workmen repairing damaged stalls and market guards busily doing whatever it is they do in those cases.

Also visible were the gardens just inside the imposing gates to the Palace. Behind those closed doors was Data-Sora, busily trying to evade two more familiar figures: The Blizzard Lord and the Volcanic Lord Heartless. He didn't seem to have figured out how to handle them, only figuring out that he was able to do marginally more damage to them if he used the spell matching the other one's element, and casting that left him open to attack. Without anyone else around he had no means of distracting them.

I signalled Aladdin to direct us down toward them, sending Magnega on ahead to draw the two Heartless together. The duo struggled to reach Data-Sora, who looked puzzled until we flew out from behind them and into view as the Heartless were pulled together, making them explode out into many tiny versions of each other.

Data-Sora started to clear them up as we disembarked the carpet, which wandered off to safety when we joined in. A few bursts of magic from me and some short attacks dealt with the lot before they managed to merge again.

"Didn't I ask you to keep Jasmine safe?" I asked him.

"Easier said than done. Jafar-" he broke off then shouted, "Duck!"

"Quack, quack," I muttered, throwing myself to the ground, a blast of something very hot shooting through the air where I had been. "What was that?"

Aladdin peeked up over the raised flowerbed we'd taken cover behind, then ducked down again as another blast shot at him.

"Jafar's staff," he answered.

"Jafar's attacking us?"

"No, his staff is," Data-Sora corrected.

"I think you'd better tell me what's been going on here, Sora."

"I managed to save Jasmine from Jafar, who asked me to walk her to the Palace. Only when we got here, Jafar showed up with the lamp in his hand. His first wish stole her from me, and his second empowered his staff with the ability to defend itself and keep us busy. It summoned those two Heartless then disappeared and left me to it."

"We're trapped here, you know," Aladdin put in. "If we get up, it'll attack us."

"Maybe," I said. "But it has three targets now, and this garden has a lot of flowerbeds like this one. You go one way Aladdin, and Sora the other. Take it in turns to go around the garden, keep it focused on you. Leave the rest to me. I'll give it a distraction so you two can make your first dash. Ready?"

"You do know what you're going to do to it, don't you?" Data-Sora asked sceptically.

"Trust me," I said easily. "I have a plan. Or at least, I will in a few moments."

"I knew it," Data-Sora groaned. "Making it up as you go along again."

"Whatever works," I shrugged. "Now, ready?"

The two of them set themselves just out of sight, while I peeked out through the flowers. The staff was in the center of the courtyard, the cobra head topping it watching the patch we were hiding behind.

I stood up then, and called to it, "Hey, snake-eyes – looking for someone?" The staff glowed, the snake's eyes going blue as it focused the magic it had been given. "Move," I muttered, nudging the two of them. The staff fired, I ducked, and they bolted for the next beds around. The sound of the magic blast went overhead, a blue beam that blackened the sandstone wall behind. When it passed, I got up again and taunted, "Missed me!" distracting it a second time to ensure Data-Sora and Aladdin had the chance to get in position.

They were able to take it from there, darting back and forth, sometimes twice forward then one back, varying which way and how far. The staff continued to blast away at them, never quite seeming to catch on to their subterfuge.

I meanwhile took out Neku's book and started to write.

'I've got a plan forming,' I told him. 'But I'm not sure if it will work.'

'Explain it and I'll tell you,' Neku replied.

'Data Aladdin here is picking up on some of the real Aladdin's memories through me, right? And the data Jafar is doing the same, otherwise he wouldn't recognise me. Wouldn't that mean the Genie would see data Jafar and the real Jafar as the same person?'

'I think so, why?'

"That the best aim you've got?" I heard Data-Sora taunt the staff, which responded by bathing the entire courtyard in a barrage of attacks, blasting several of the flowerbeds apart. I hastily moved to one of the remaining ones, then answered him.

'If I remember the real Genie, and Data-Sora uses the original journal data you gave him too, wouldn't the data Genie know that? And if he knew that, wouldn't he then realize that Jafar has had five wishes because of his data version here?'

'I get it. That would mean the Genie would be well within rights to revoke those two wishes, which would rebound on Jafar and destroy him. Or at least, it will if I have anything to say about it,' he added, giving me the impression of a nasty grin.

'Go ahead and make the preparations,' I told him. 'I'll let Sora know what we're up to.'

'No need, I can handle it without him having to do anything. You realize though, this is going to seriously bug up the data for this section a great deal more. The system access portal is already heavily corrupted; we're going to have to do a second run through this area to properly debug it.'

"Whatever works," I murmured, stowing his book away again, then standing up again. The staff was facing away from me until I called, "Look out behind you, you old stick!" The staff turned to face me, glowed as it had the first time, then the glow stuttered and failed. "What's wrong? Out of magic?"

The staff fell to the ground, clattered once then was picked up by an unseen hand. Data-Sora and Aladdin got up to find out was happening, watching in surprise as Jafar appeared.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded. "How dare you force my appearance!"

"Allow me to explain, not-so-grand vizier!" Genie's voice exclaimed as he burst out of the lamp.

"Genie! My final wish! Make me an all-"

"Oh, no – none of that! You got three wishes only, and you've used them already. Getting more, now that's just greedy. And you know what happens to greedy people who steal more wishes?"

"What? Preposterous! I've only asked you for two wishes, how dare you disobey!"

"Wrong again, Jafar," I told him. "You asked for wishes when I first went to Agrabah. You don't remember it, but you still asked for them."

"That's absurd! Who would believe someone as soaked in darkness as you?"

"I do," Aladdin said. "And so does Sora! Go on, Genie – show him what happens to people like him!"

Genie did just that, sending a wave of blue back at Jafar that completely obscured him from view, whipping up a gale around that threatened to uproot some of the smaller plants. All that was left afterwards was the lamp, rattling to the ground afterwards.

"Go on, Al," Genie said then. "It's yours for the taking again. Unless either of you want to take it."

"Thanks for the offer Genie, but Sora and I ought to be going. There's some bugs that need squashing, and we can't let them run amok for too long."

The reset Agrabah was deserted unlike the original pass, and the buildings were not made from bug blocks any longer. They were still pixellated, but at least they were constructed of the right materials this time. It was also dusk now, which replaced the normal desert heat with a light chill.

"What are we doing back here?" Data-Sora asked. "We dealt with Jafar, shouldn't we be going to the next world?"

"We didn't go to a system sector," I replied. "And where Aladdin, Genie and Jafar all caught memories from their real counterparts, the journal got bugged up a great deal. Neku warned me we'd have to take a second trip through, we just need to find the source of the bugs in this sector."

"I can solve that for ya," Mickey's voice called to me. "You're in luck – I just got back. The readings are off the scale in the area just outside the Palace gates. Be careful, Lee – there's other readings there too."

"What other readings?"

"Darkness, and lots of it. It's completely off the scale."

"Should I go in?" a faint voice asked. It was familiar, but it was too faint to identify.

"Not yet, I need you out here for now," Mickey told the voice. "Just keep an eye on things like I asked you to. And you be careful in there, Liam."

"Like I need telling," I muttered. "You heard him too?"

"Of course," Data-Sora replied. "Watch your darkness."

"Stop reminding me," I told him irritably.

The area was just as deserted as the rest of Agrabah, with very little visible by the low light of the stars and moon above. It illuminated a single figure in the center of the area, wearing all white. The blonde hair seemed oddly bright given the low light.

I took in a sharp breath. "Charlie."

"So that's this mysterious Charlie I was told about," the faint voice murmured.

Charlie turned around, but it wasn't Charlie that looked at us. The face was black, yellow eyes staring out at us. The hands were withdrawn from their pockets to reveal similarly black hands, the darkened version of Gilded Light appearing.

"Not Charlie," Data-Sora said. "Your Heartless."

"I can see that, but why was he impersonating Charlie?"

"Because I felt like it." The words had come out as a steely hiss. "And because I can."

"So you've grown to the point you can talk. Don't you have anything interesting to say?"

"You can't beat me," Anti-Liam hissed. "I am you. Sooner or later you'll have to use the darkness, and that only empowers me more. I can squish you like a bug."

"I think you're overlooking something, old boy," I replied, oddly calm. "You need me to have darkness so you exist. Destroy me, and you also cease to exist. Seems a bit counterproductive to engineer your own end, wouldn't you say?"

"You don't understand as much about the darkness as I thought you did," Anti-Liam laughed. "I knew you were limited, but I didn't realize your morals got in the way of understanding too. If I destroy you, all your darkness becomes mine. I'll have more than enough to preserve myself then."

"You have to live long enough first."

"You can't destroy me, Liam. You said it yourself. I need your darkness. As long as you have it, I exist." He glanced to his Keyblade, then dismissed it again. "Enough of this. I think it's time to show you what the darkness can really do."

He held out both hands to his sides, darkness curling around them. He looked oddly like Axel when he calls his chakrams actually. From one hand the darkness cascaded out of his hand as if it was water, spreading over the dusty ground. The other hand arced upward, blacking out the night-time sky.

Then Anti-Liam vanished, leaving his darkness to continue it's work. The darkness now on the ground started to congeal and rise up again, as the part in the air vanished out of sight to restore the low light, revealing what had been emerging from the darkness.

The Pot Centipede rose up and shook itself like a dog drying itself, then the five pots that formed it's body bucked upwards and sent their lids flying. As it did so, the other darkness returned dragging a mass of bug blocks behind it, splitting into five separate streams that flowed into the pots.

"Not good," Data-Sora murmured as we backed away, observing the results. As the bugs flowed into it carried by the darkness, the Pot Centipede grew rapidly in size until filled the area and then even more as it shattered the various surrounding walls.

I stared at it for a few moments, words completely failing me as the gargantuan Heartless gave a hissing, rattling cry at us, then muttered the only two words I could manage.

"Oh bugger."