The portal opened to a gruesome scene. Marnie, Gwen, Sophie, Dylan, Ethan, and Cid were all floating in midair, suspended in animation, but not dead. Clearly Kal wanted them alive to suffer under the Dark Curse, but they looked pretty scraped up. Meanwhile, Kal and Cora were tending to a fire inside of the giant pumpkin, while Hook stood off to the side observing. Kal looked up to the portal and grinned.
"Well, well, well, Aggie Cromwell," he chuckled. "I was wondering where you were. Like the collection we've made out of your family?"
"You'll never get away with this, Kal!" Aggie shouted back.
"How cliché of you," Kal replied. "I expected you to have better material."
Aggie made a motion to go forward, but Jim grabbed her arm to hold you back.
"He's baiting you," Jim whispered to her. "He's too emotionally involved with you for you to fight him. Let Jack and I handle him. You deal with Cora."
Aggie nodded in agreement.
"Graham, can you hold off Hook?" Jim asked.
"Yes," Graham nodded, "But I need a better weapon. My hunting knife's not going to bode well against his sword."
"Here." Aggie snapped her fingers and a sword materialized in Graham's hands. Graham adjusted his stance to be more offensive. Jim summoned up his Keyblade, and Jack readied his staff. Hook drew his sword, and the three magic users prepared themselves to hurl spells.
Kal's smirked widened to the point where it looked like his face was about to crack. "Let's do this!"
The four heroes all rushed towards their respective villains. Graham was the first to reach his opponent.
"Well aren't you a handsome one," Hook said with a slight chuckle as the two began to lock blades. "Still not quite on my level, though."
"I remember you from Regina's palace," Graham said, refusing to acknowledge Hook's comment. "You were the one she sent to kill her mother."
"Ah, so you know the Queen?" Hook asked as he parried Graham's swing.
Graham dodged Hook's lunge. "Intimately."
Graham used his blade to pull Hook's down to the ground. However, the sneaky pirate latched on to Graham's leg with his hook and tripped the former huntsman, knocking Graham down on his back. The pirate used his hook to pin Graham's sword wielding arm to the ground and hovered about the man with his sword to Graham's throat.
"You're a lot scruffier than the last person I had on their back under me," Hook said with a laugh. "It's a shame that I'll have to kill someone with such a pretty face."
"Funny, I was about to say the same about you!" Graham lifted his leg and kicked Hook off of him.
Hook smirked devilishly. "Round two?"
Cora and Aggie slowly walked in a circular pattern around one another, neither breaking eye contact. Aggie was extremely careful to keep Cora at a safe distance; after all, this woman was infamous through out the worlds for her ability to remove hearts. However, she was careful to not let her opponent get far enough away to help Kal or Hook. The result was this circular dance of chicken to see who would make the first move, as is often the case when two such powerful mages do battle. Cora was the one that broke the stare off. She moved her hand up as if she were about to hurl a spell, however, it was a ruse, and Aggie fell right into it. Aggie fired a beam of energy meant to counteract Cora's spell. The energy beam swirled around Cora's hand and shot back towards Aggie, sending the elderly witch flying backwards.
"Grandma!" Marnie mumbled out as loud as she could when bound by Kal's spell.
"I was under the impression that you were this world's most fearsome witch," Cora mused as she began walking towards her opponent. "It seems I was misinformed."
Jack immediately rushed Kal with barrages of ice magic. The young warlock skillfully dodged and redirected the blasts while firing retaliation blasts of black lightning. Meanwhile, Jim pelted Kal with the beginner spells that Aggie had taught him. They were nothing more than a minor nuisance to Kal, but every spell from Jim distracted him from the onslaught of ice coming from Jack. This made things far more difficult for the young Acolyte.
"Get back!" Kal shouted, sending a wave of energy to knock back both Jim and Jack.
Kal scanned over the area, looking for something. At last, his eyes located it: the box containing his mother's heart. The young Acolyte leapt down from the podium and began to dart towards the box.
"We have to keep him from completing the curse!" Jim yelled out.
Jack nodded and began to dart after Kal.
Hook and Graham continued to clash blades with neither one really managing to get an advantage over the other.
"You're a skilled swordsman, mate," Hook said. "When this is all over, I'll be sure to give you a swift death rather than leave you for the curse. Never let it be said that I'm not a man of honor."
"Honor? You wouldn't know the first thing about that!" Graham grunted as he parried another blow. "What man of honor aids a woman as wicked as Cora?"
This seemed to strike a nerve with Hook.
"I'm doing what's necessary!" he shouted.
However, as Hook became angrier, he sword fighting became sloppier. Graham was able to disarm Hook by sending the blade flying from his hands. As Hook attempted to lunge towards Graham with his hook, the former sheriff side stepped the pirate's attack and hit the back of the pirate's head with the handle of his blade. Hook fell to the ground unconscious.
Graham looked down at the pirate. "Today, true honor prevailed."
Aggie pulled herself up from the ground. Her vision was blurred, and she was disoriented. A hot light seemed to be racing towards her, and Aggie instinctively leaped out-of-the-way. Her wits came rushing back to her, and she realized that she had just narrowly dodged a fireball. Another sphere of blazing flames materialized in Cora's hands. Aggie once again narrowly leaped out-of-the-way to avoid the spell. The blonde witch summoned up a ball of energy in her hands and was about to retaliate when she realized that Cora had vanished. She scanned over the area, but Cora was nowhere to be found. She heard a whistling sound from behind her. She quickly whirled around just in time to see Cora firing a blast of magic. Aggie tried to block the spell, but it connected with its target. The blonde witch felt as though all of the energy in her body had been drained out of her. The Overlord proceeded towards her with murderous intent.
"Foolish old woman," Cora taunted. "You've failed. And now, you and your precious family will be consumed by the Dark Curse, never to remember one another. Won't that just be delightful?"
"No," Aggie muttered as she staggered to her feet, slowly regaining her energy. "I won't let you win!"
"And what on earth do you think you're going to do to me?" Cora asked mockingly.
"Crepto thunderous!" Aggie shouted. "Be gone!"
In a flash of light, a very stunned Cora was sent flying back and disappeared with a swirl of light. Aggie collapsed back onto the ground in exhaustion. Graham rushed to her side and helped her up.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she answered. "But that spell won't keep her back for long. We need to move quickly."
During his battle with the other Cromwells, Kal had placed a charm over the box containing his mother's heart in order to prevent any of his opponents from performing any spells on the object. Now, that charm was proving to be a hinderance to him as he dashed forward, unable to teleport the heart back to him via magic. Jack Frost was speeding ahead behind him, intent on getting there first. Kal dove for the chest and clutched it tightly in his arms, the charm dissolving at its master's touch. Jack and Jim were rushing towards him from two different angles. Jack swung his staff and sent out a ripple of ice magic towards Kal. The young Acolyte used his magic to redirect the ice into a near by fence.
"I've had enough of this!" Kal shouted angrily.
From his finger tips, he fired a stream of black lightning bolts at Jack. The lightning struck the white-haired boy in the chest and sent him stumbling back, gasping for air. He fell to the ground. No one was sure if he was still alive or not.
"NO!" Jim shouted out.
A lot happened in the next three seconds. Jim felt a rush of incredibly strong emotions all at once: fear, anger, hatred, concern, panic, guilt, love; all of which boiled inside of him until it felt as though he had reached the breaking point. As he shouted, it seemed as though an explosion went off on the tip of the keyblade. Powerful beams of energy shot off into every direction, but all began to alter their trajectory to converge upon a single target: Kal. The young Overlord looked horrified as the beams of light slammed into his chest. A stray beam collided with the box containing the heart and promptly disintegrated it. The light vanished, and Kal fell motionless to the ground. Everyone suspended in midair fell to the ground. The Cromwells managed to use magic to land softly. Cid was not so fortunate.
"FUCK!" he shouted.
Jim didn't pay him any mind, however. He rushed over to Jack. Jim touched his two fingers to the spot where Jack's neck met his head to check his pulse. It was still beating. Jim let out a sigh of relief; Jack was still alive. Jim concentrated on his feelings once more, clinging to his relief and happiness that Jack was alive. A green aura radiated around the white-haired boy as Jim's healing spell set in. Jack blinked his eyes open and sat up with a jolt.
"Jim, next time I have the bright idea to rush an evil warlock, talk me out of it," he joked.
Jim laughed and so did Jack.
"Don't scare me like that again," Jim said. "You might not be able to age, but you can still be killed. I wouldn't know what to do if that happened."
"You wouldn't?" Jack asked.
Jim was a little shocked by his own words, and the more surprising thing was it was true. He'd only really known this other young man for a little under a week, but they'd already developed a bond that Jim couldn't imagine going without anymore.
"Yeah, I mean, you've pretty much become my best friend ever since we met," Jim said. "Plus, I mean, you left your home world for me. I'd feel ridiculously guilty if something happened to you while you were off world hopping with me."
"Hey, love birds," Cid called out, "Save the teen soap opera bullshit for later. We've got two unconscious supervillains to deal with."
"Loki! Loki, where are you?!" Regina asked as she walked frantically around her vault.
"I'm here," Loki said as he rematerialized behind her.
"The boy, the Hawkins kid, he's gone!" she said, panicking.
"I know," he replied. "Rest assured, he is not loose in your precious Storybrooke. He has returned to Halloweentown and, against all odds, defeated the Overlords' Acolyte."
"Then where the Hell have you been?!" she asked.
"Getting you a present," Loki replied with a smirk as he handed her a small scroll. "In the confusion of the battle, I managed to snatch this away. I believe it belongs to you."
"The Dark Curse," Regina said, fumbling with the small parchment in her hands.
"Keep it here," Loki instructed. "We don't want another Overlord trying to wreak havoc with it."
Regina nodded in agreement. She walked over to a wall of shelves holding various artifacts and placed the curse within her dowry box.
"Oh, and just a tip," Loki continued. "Keep an eye on Mr. Gold."
Jim and Jack walked over to where the rest of their group was huddled up. Marnie had already taken precautions to secure both Kal and Hook with magical chains.
"So what do we wanna do with them?" Jim asked.
"I say we pullet a bullet through both of their heads," Cid said.
"And I've already overruled that decision before," Aggie asserted.
Jim wasn't sure whether he was more surprised at Cid's willingness to kill or the fact that this discussion had already happened when he was gone. What all did he miss when Loki kidnapped him?
"We'll turn them over to the Halloweentown Council," Marnie said. "They'll deal them both out a suitable punishment."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible."
The group turned to see Cora atop the podium.
"I'll be taking my two fools back with me," she asserted.
Before anyone had any time to attack, she vanished into a Corridor of Darkness and another Corridor swallowed up Hook and Kal.
Jack put his hand reassuringly on Jim's back. "We'll get them next time."