Chapter Twenty-five: The Castle of Lady Kylie

Everyone entered the castle. They were awed by how huge and dark it was.

Veronica started to talk.

Ari interrupted her. "We have to be very quiet."

"Well you don't have to worry. We're meeting someone here," Veronica said.

"Who?" Sora blurted out too loud.

"Phew. I'm hot." Veronica took off her heartless mask. "I'm thirsty again."

"Me, too." Lori went to Ari for another drink.

"Uh-uh-uh. Not until you tell me who you're meeting." Ari took a step back.

"What meeting? Who said anything about a meeting?" Lori denied. She and Veronica grew nervous.

"Busted," Donald muttered.

"All right, who are we meeting?" Lisa asked. "Someone good, or have you made a pact with the bad guys?"

"Who are we meeting?" Chase demanded. "Who told you that?"

"Oh, how delightful for you all to make it in time," Lady Kylie greeted them. Ansem and Maleficent followed her down the stairs.

Basil and Dill said, "Veronica betrayed us! I told you she looked like that greedy beady-eyed ferret."

"Do you guys happen to have any water? I don't think Ari's going to let me have any," Veronica requested.

"Sure, Dear, just go into the other room. You and Lori have been good girls, and you could use a reward," Lady Kylie told her in an elegant manner.

"Yuck," Jessica muttered. "I think I'm gonna puke." True to her word, poor Jessica did puke, right on the carpet.

"EW! How lovely. Lady Kylie, you've got yourself some sick visitors. What do you plan to do with them?" Maleficent tested her.

Jessica warned, "You'd better not make any wrong moves, or I'll puke all over you in your nice clothes. And this isn't like the days when I was in the hospital screaming bloody murder."

"Oh, goody." Ansem rolled his eyes.

Sora congratulated her. "Good one, Jessica."

Ansem turned to Moloch and Diablo. "You two were right. This girl is a real pain in the horse's butt."

Phoenix laid his ears back at that point.

"No more Mrs. Nice Girl, as Veronica said," Jessica warned. "And don't try calling me Big Nose, or I'll kick you into orbit. And I'll call you Mr. Ugly Face."

"Oh, no, not my face!" Ansem mocked.

Sora added, "She really will. She can totally kick your butt."

Jessica pulled out her wand blade. The three villains trembled in fear.

"Alright, little Miss Pinocchio, let's fight." Ansem reappeared right before Jessica.

"You'd better take that back."

"Make me."

"You foul, evil loathsome, evil, heartless little cockroach." Jessica punched him. He tumbled over. "That felt good."

Sora corrected her, "Not good, brilliant."

Jessica got down and held her wand blade to his face. "Do you surrender yet?"

"Not on your life, you little brat." Ansem disappeared in a cloud of smoke and re-appeared cowering behind Maleficent.

"Aww, got beaten by a girl, your highness?" Sora teased.

Maleficent yelled powerfully, "Enough of this dawdling. Come, my minions. Bring those little brats into the dungeon."

The ground shook with the stampeding of many creatures.

Everyone was frozen to the spot. As the minions came in, the girls freaked out. Sora stood tall, keyblade out.

Jessica mounted Phoenix and he reared. She cried out, "Ugly face! Ugly face! Ugly face!"

"Moloch was right. You and that stallion of yours have been nothing but trouble."

Maleficent grimaced at the name-calling.

"Ugly face! Ugly face! UUUGGGLLLYYY!!!"

Odie was climbing up Ansem's pant leg, digging her claws into his leg.

The minions seized the unicorns, but Phoenix pranced out of their reach.

"Jessica, run, save yourself, and get help!" Christine yelled. "You have to canter! We believe in you. You can do it."

Maleficent yelled, "Someone get her and that crazy stallion!"

Jessica and Phoenix cantered out the door. Phoenix raced across the lava area, and out of sight.

Everyone else, besides Veronica and Lori, was grabbed and taken down to the dungeons. They all struggled, but it was no use.

Christine used her TaeKwonDo skills. She bit Ansem's arm, who had grabbed her. When he cried out, she twisted his arm around behind him and stamped on his foot. She ran, but ten heartless blocked the entrance. She took out her wand blade, but the heartless had all swamped her before she could pull it free. She screamed, but sank into the floor. The others did the same.

They appeared to be in a medieval dungeon. There were torches along the halls. There were a few vacant cells. The unicorns were ushered into one, the kids into another.

Ari noticed someone was already in their cell. "Doctor Bohnes?"

"Yes, it's me child. I've been here for quite some time. You finally came to save me, did you?"

"Yes, Doctor Bohnes."

Donald ruined the moment and said, "This is all Lori's and Veronica's fault."

"What? That brat of a Carmichael. I knew she'd never be any good."

"Yeah. Right now she's probably in the kitchen, eating her heart out," Stevie complained. "I'm hungry. But anyway, the point is: Veronica and Lori are so low and greedy, they sold you down the river for a reward."

Sora said, "Wow. I didn't know Veronica was the type to be a traitor."

Carole cooed to Danny, "You knew about this, didn't you? Why didn't you tell us?"

"I couldn't. Veronica would have had me skinned and sent off to the glue factory," Danny whined.

Veronica and Lori were thrown into the same cell.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Stevie said with a satisfied look.

"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't know," Lori promised.

"Oh, sure you didn't," Lisa said, rolling her eyes.

"She had us possessed. Like, well, you know, like what happened to Riku," Veronica defended herself.

Sora said, "Looks like this is going to be a very long journey, before you ever get home. You'd be lucky if you got home before next Christmas."

Prancer said, "I wonder if Jessica and Phoenix made it back to the gummi ship."

Christine walked over to Danny and stroked his mane through the bars. "This isn't really your fault. We know that. Veronica's just a jerk."

"Hey!" Veronica warned.

"We'd be pretty lucky if we ever got out of here alive," Doctor Bohnes speculated.

Kairi said, "I guess it's all up to Jessica and Phoenix now."