A bit of a short chapter this time but I wanted to save the bulk of the action for the next chapter.
Chapter 20: Beast's Castle:
Agrabah – Lair of the Forty Thieves
"Sa'Luk is gone," Hook reported as he returned to the cave after executing the surviving thieves. They were a hindrance to the cause, and the less people who knew where to find their new treasure vault, the better. "Turned to solid gold and sunk to the bottom of the sea."
"He and Pete are of no great loss," Maleficent replied as she looked out at the Leroys sorting and organizing the funds obtained from the taxes Prince John imposed upon his subjects. The gold would be used to pay for things such as food and technology, freeing up energy and resources for more important tasks like gathering intelligence on their enemies' movements. "What concerns me," she continued angrily, "is the loss of Jones. What happened?"
"Word around Port Royal is that some local big shot got his hands on the fish-man's heart," Hades answered as he walked over to stand at her side. "Turned Jones into his personal attack dog by threatening to kill Jones if he disobeys. I guess it's a good thing we kept all the important stuff on the Jolly Roger instead of the Dutchman then."
"It is," the green-skinned fairy admitted, her anger still evident in her voice despite her calm demeanor. "But the loss of a valuable asset cannot be tolerated. This "Cutler Beckett" cannot be allowed to interfere with our plans. We cannot aid Jones at present with our forces spread thin, so we must find another means of space travel. Our previous defeat taught us the folly in keeping all of our resources in one central location, and until we have the resources to launch an attack on Port Royal, Jones will have to wait."
"Speaking of previous defeat," Hook spoke up as he finished cleaning the blood from his blade. "You never mentioned how you came back from the dead." The two men turned their heads toward Maleficent. While the collapse of their old alliance was a sore subject for all of them, both were curious to know just how Maleficent was able to return after being slain in Hollow Bastion.
"You never truly died, did you?" Hades asked he placed a hand on Maleficent's shoulder. The affectionate gesture did not go unnoticed as Hook raised an eyebrow with a knowing smirk. "I couldn't find your soul in the underworld afterwards."
"No," the sorceress admitted. "After researching, studying, and manipulating the powers of darkness for so long, after being defeated by Sora in my dragon form, I found myself trapped in the Realm of Darkness, unable to escape under my own. I was only able to escape because a portion of my power lingered in my robes. The three good fairies "remembering" me allowed me to escape the dark realm because to deny that darkness exists only gives it more power, but fearful acknowledgement is even better. I believe Ursula was able to return using the same method herself once before."
Admitting the precise method of her return had clearly been a rare moment where Maleficent let down her stoic mask to reveal how such events had affected her emotionally. It was a rare display of vulnerability from the green-skinned fairy. If she had done so in front of anyone else she would have slain them all on the spot. But after several years of conquering and destroying worlds together, she actually trusted her old allies. She couldn't remember a time she'd been so open with people since The Ritual.
"But anyway," she changed the subject, slamming the mask back into place. "Only one Princess remains unprotected. We must act to make sure that the Organization does not capture her themselves. I care not whether the Keyblade Wielders succeed in rescuing her, as long Xehanort fails."
"Then I'll dispatch Gaston and a crew of Leroys immediately," Captain Hook replied with a bow as he exited the cave through the secret tunnel the Leroys had carved through the walls after Sa'Luk and the thieves had left so that they would not have to rely on the continued use of the ocean passageway to access their loot, allowing them to maintain the secrecy of the place.
"We could bring in a few more people to the inner circle, you know," Hades said when the pirate captain was gone. "While I enjoy the more intimate setting, it'd be good to have as many voices as the old group had." He took her hand in his. "You can't hide behind that mask twenty-four seven."
"Cruella is the best candidate to be added to our inner circle," Maleficent said bluntly, changing the subject. "She's driven, ruthless, and knows how to manipulate others."
"You don't have to do that you know," Hades replied as he turned and put his hands on Maleficent's shoulders. "I thought after our date we understood each other. You can keep the stoic mask on all the time but even Evil Overlords like us need to have someone who we can trust to share what we look like beneath our masks." With that, the Greek god of the underworld leaned in and kissed the Mistress of All Evil on the lips.
Beast's Castle – Courtyard
"We'd better hurry," Sora said as he, Donald, and Goofy ran up to the front doors of the Beast's castle. After dropping off Jasmine and the others at Yen Sid's tower, the trio had quickly flown to Beast's Castle to protect Belle. With only one princess left out in the open, they knew that Xehanort would be pulling out all the stops to get his hands on Belle. It had been five days since he'd found that Keyblade on the beach, but everything had been happening so quickly that it felt like yesterday. Returning to the task at hand, Sora turned to the door and started knocking.
The door opened to reveal a familiar, chubby man in a red coat. The trio had never seen him in this form, but the pocket watch dangling from his neck was a dead giveaway of the man's identity.
"Cogsworth!" they all shouted as they recognized the former clock.
"I was wondering when we'd see you three again," their old friend greeted warmly. "Come inside. Belle and Prince Adam will be delighted to see you." The castle majordomo lead the three heroes through the entrance hall and toward the dining room, where they found Belle eating dinner with a red-haired man in a familiar blue coat who could only be the former Beast.
"Sora!" the beast-turned-prince exclaimed as he and Belle got up to greet their guests. "Donald! Goofy! It's great to see you all again." Despite the interruption, the couple insisted that the three travelers join them for dinner. As they ate they discussed various topics from life in the castle, to what their world was like. However, the mood darkened when the conversation turned to the reason for the trio's visit.
"The Organization is going after the Princesses of Heart," he explained. "A friend of ours, a Keyblade Master named Yen Sid, set up protection spells around his home so that the princesses can stay somewhere safe from Xehanort until we can finally defeat him for good." After a lengthy discussion of what to do, the couple reluctantly agreed that Belle should stay at Yen Sid's castle for her own safety. Meanwhile, Prince Adam decided, Belle's father, Maurice, would be sent to Radiant Garden as an ambassador to pledge his kingdom's support to the Daybreak Coalition.
Beast's Castle – Entrance Hall
After Belle had gone to pack and Cogsworth went to speak with Maurice, Adam turned to the three off-worlders.
"I'm afraid I have more bad news," he said as they stood in the entrance hall waiting for Belle and her father to finish backing. "Nobodies were sighted in one of the villages the other day."
"Just great," Sora responded sarcastically. "As if Xehanort wasn't throwing enough at us already. Now we have to deal with the Nobodies again too?"
"I'm afraid so," the prince replied grimly. "The good news is that they haven't been attacking innocent people, so we don't have to worry about them yet.
"Master! Sora! Come quick!" Cogsworth shouted from somewhere upstairs. Concerned, the foursome ran in the direction of the majordomo's voice, weaving their way through the castle's many rooms and passageways until they reached a room in one of the towers with a window overlooking the courtyard. "Look," the man said as he pointed down.
"Whoa!" Sora shouted as he looked out the window to find the courtyard filled with Heartless Nobodies, and the red copies of Stitch at war with each other. The red Stitches fired plasma blasts at Heartless and Nobody alike as all three factions made their way toward the castle. Wading through the mob of monsters was a man dressed in brown hunting boots and a red tunic. The trio had never seen the man before, but apparently Adam had.
"Gaston!" he snapped angrily. "How did he survive?"
"You know this guy?" Sora asked as their friend stormed inside and closed the doors.
"He's a hunter from Belle's hometown who to tried to make her marry him before she came to my castle," the prince answered. "He's arrogant, conceited, and rude. All he cares about is what he wants regardless of what others think." When Maurice arrived from the East Wing, he turned back to Sora. "Can you have your ship hover over the balcony outside my room?"
"Definitely," Donald answered as he pulled out the remote and input the coordinates for their warp point in the prince's room into the autopilot.
"Great!" Adam replied before continuing. "We'll use that as the exit. Cogsworth, have the guards defend the entrance hall."
"But Master, what about the other staff members?"
"The attackers are coming for Belle," the prince countered. "Once Sora and the others have gotten her off-world, they'll leave. The ones that don't leave will be contained to the entrance hall and disposed of. Now go!"
"Yes master," the former clock replied as he hastily went to prepare the guards.
The Lanes Between – Jolly Roger: Corridor
For the first time in decades, Maleficent actually felt happy. It was a truly alien sensation to her. She'd spent her childhood being shunned by the other fairies because of her appearance, and the few human friends she'd made ran away in terror whenever she used magic. The prejudice and persecution of her kind by King Stefan's father drove her down the path to dark magic. She had become a self-proclaimed champion for her people, exacting brutal vengeance against those who harmed her kind and doing whatever was necessary in the name of protecting them from humans, even when King Stefan worked to improve relations between man and fairy. But despite her vengeful nature and refusal to believe that human and fairy kind could ever co-exist peacefully, that crusade was not what drove her to declare herself the Mistress of All Evil.
But now, the green skinned fairy thought to herself as she made her way through the corridors of Hook's ship toward her cabin. I've finally begun to heal. Just before she opened the door to the cabin she was sharing with Cruella, a voice called out from the corner of the room.
"Isn't it a bit late to be out and about, M' Lady?" Diablo asked as he transformed from a rat into his human form.
"Hades and I were discussing potential candidates to be added to our inner circle," she responded as she turned back to the door.
"And I'm sure the moaning I heard coming from Lord Hades' cabin a few hours ago was just the ship creaking more loudly than usual," Diablo replied, a knowing grin on his face.
"Tell anyone, and I'll turn you into a dog," she threatened warningly. She knew he hated canine forms because of their tendency to feast on ravens. She'd saved him from some once. She'd come upon a farmer attempting to trap the raven in a net so his dogs could kill it. Since this was only a few days after The Ritual, she pitied the bird and transfigured it into a man. The transformation was enough to frighten off the farmer and his dogs, and after some initial irritation at his abrupt change in form, the raven, Diablo, had pledged himself as her loyal servant. He had been by her side ever since, handling the cloak and dagger aspects of building her empire and dealing with tasks that could not be trusted to bumbling oafs such as Pete and her old goons.
"Come now, M' Lady," the bird-man replied teasingly. "You know that I only share your personal secrets if you command me to."
"Shut up," the green-skinned fairy retorted back, only half-joking. "What happens between Lord Hades and I stays between us. Is that clear?"
"As crystal, my lady," Diablo responded with an exaggerated bow.
"Good," she replied before slipping silently into her cabin for the night.
Radiant Garden – Central Square
"I must say, Radiant Garden is an impressive place," Cassim remarked as he stood in the square while Aladdin discussed politics and treaties with the leaders of this inter-world alliance.
"It's amazing to see how far we've come," a woman's voice said form behind him. He turned to find a woman in a long pink dress looking up at the castle. "Three years ago this world was a desolate wasteland," she added. "The town had been destroyed almost a decade earlier and the castle had been warped and twisted beyond recognition."
"I'm so sorry," the former King of Thieves said as he took another look at his surroundings with a new appreciation. These people managed to completely rebuild their civilization in only three years, he thought amazedly as he looked up at the castle. Incredible. "I'm sorry," he continued as he turned back to the woman. "Where are my manners? I never introduced myself. I'm Cassim."
"Aerith Gainsborough," the woman, Aerith, introduced herself as she shook his hands. "I take it your world is joining the alliance?"
"Indeed it is," Cassim replied. "My son married the princess of Agrabah, so he was chosen to represent our world in this "Coalition". I had spent most of my son's life trapped in a group of bandits called the Forty Thieves while trying to build a better life for my family, so I volunteered to put my skills as a thief to use as a spy for this alliance in order to atone for my crimes. Who do I need to speak to about that?"
"I'm not sure," Aerith replied, shaking her head. "You'll probably want to talk to Leon and the other ambassadors."
"Alright then," the reform thief said. "I'll have to ask them after the meeting." Aerith and Cassim talked for a while about Radiant Garden and Agrabah before Cassim spotted his opening to introduce himself to the leadership of the new alliance. After working out the terms of his contract, he was free to explore the city. While the first spy for the Coalition wandered the streets of Radiant Garden, the world ambassadors returned to their home worlds in order to prepare their worlds for membership in the alliance and share techniques for fighting the Heartless. The first alliance of worlds was born.
So the whole bit about Maleficent escaping came about as a result of reading the character page on TV Tropes for the Disney Villains in Kingdom Hearts, and some of the comments listed under Maleficent and Ursula gave me an idea for how to explain both of their resurrections in KH2. (To add to the idea that she never truly died, the Organization members in Chain of Memories never even say she's dead. Vexen explicitly says "she cannot return from the Realm of Darkness of her own volition." And in KH2, she just said "during my absence," making it sound like she had never really died in the first place.) I kind of came up with that at the last minute but I decided to throw it in because it made sense.
I came up with Maleficent's backstory after brainstorming a few ideas and recalling from the Maleficent movie the fact that the humans were afraid of the fairies and other magical creatures, and she had become the protector of her people. This gave me the idea of Maleficent starting out in a Magneto-like role to the magical races of Enchanted Dominion.