Kingdom Hearts: The Next Generation

Okay. I'm back. It has been over three and a half years since the fic's cancellation, because… even condensing everything that was going to happen was nearly impossible to become passionate about, but, still far more passionate than I'd have been about the actual story. Anyway… I'm still not completely done summarizing everything that would have happened, but I've decided to start posting it anyway. So here you have it.

So, to start off with… here's a list of all the Disney movies that I chose to use as worlds in this story:

National Treasure (2004)
Up (2009)
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000)
Tangled (2010)
Gargoyles (1994)
WALL-E (2008)
Cars (2006)
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Just before the cancellation, I'd been intending to muse about how recent the lineup of Disney worlds was, with Gargoyles being the only one from before 2000. I realized it was comparable to Kingdom Hearts II, which favored more recent content over older stuff. Timeless River and Hundred-Acre Wood were the only really "classic" Disney worlds, since every other world was from the 89-99 Renaissance, apart from the two worlds based on live-action movies, which were from shortly before and shortly after.

I was going to express the hope that Kingdom Hearts III similarly favors the new, since so much stuff has happened since KH2 that just screams "Disney's back!" And in the intervening years, I haven't been disappointed. They started by announcing a return to the Hercules world—good, because it would suck if every KH3 world was completely new, give us some closure of classic worlds. Then came Tangled, and boy did they prove that they can adapt a CGI film… we haven't seen Rapunzel herself yet, but they've been subtly showing off the amazing physics of their grass and water, that's a pretty good sign that they can handle her hair. Then Big Hero 6, a movie that didn't even exist yet when the first KH3 trailer was released. And most recently, Toy Story, which, sure, first came out in 1995 and has already been deleted from both KH1 and KH2, but returned to being an amazing world-shattering phenomenon in 2010.

Speaking of Kingdom Hearts III… my gosh. I first commented on the announcement and first trailer back in Chapter 21 of this fic. Chapter 21. That was over four years ago. And we've just now gotten a release window. Sometime next year. My God, have they been teasing us for an eternity.

Recap

Well, it's been so many years that I'm sure nobody will need a recap… I highly doubt any of this story's original audience are going to return, I'm sure everyone reading this will have just read the entire story, buuut I'm gonna do it anyway, that was my plan. Even if you have just read the story, I recommend reading the recap anyway, because it's full of details that don't actually appear in the story's text, like the names of the worlds, names of Heartless bosses, and how I imagined everything working in a gameplay sense, because I did imagine the whole thing as a game while writing it. I'm going to try really hard not to write this is a script or list format so it doesn't break the rules, please don't report me.

Crystal Spheres

Chapter 1: History of the Key

We meet Skye, a 13-year-old graduate from the Keylade Academy, a short and scrawny boy with robin's-egg blue eyes and matching hair in the style of young Sora. He comes to a world called Crystal Spheres, a world created by Master Sora for the purposes of learning and training.

There, he befriends Max Goof, the son of Goofy and a soldier who fights with a lance, and Webby Vanderquack, Donald's apprentice, who channels magic through a little pink crystal… and who, I've learned only recently, is not Donald's niece as I spent the entire story referring to her, but is in fact Mrs. Beakley's granddaughter. I can't believe I didn't know that. Sure, I bet not a lot of people could have picked that up from watching DuckTales, given her status as an honorary niece, but I could have sworn I researched every character on the Disney Wiki, and yet when I watched the Nostalgia Critic's episode on DuckTales only recently, the revelation of Webby's exact family relationship took me completely by surprise.

Chapter 2: Illustrious Master

Skye meets Master Sora. To test his abilities, he first battles Donald and Goofy—cue the first boss battle, a simple skirmish against the two of them.

Then he faces Master Sora himself, who uses his "Keys of Nine" ability, in which he uses nine Keyblades at once. I'm sure there was significance to which nine Keyblades he was using, but silly me, I've forgotten what they were. Kingdom Key in his right hand, of course, and the one he was standing on like a hoverboard would have been one of Terra's, and then there was one in his left hand and six floating around him… perhaps there would be Oathkeeper and Oblivion to represent Roxas and Xion, and maybe others representing… Aqua, Ventus, Axel, Naminé, Vanitas…? That's too many. But I'm pretty sure they would have represented all the lost people, who in this continuity never came back after the events of the Xehanort Saga. I dunno. Anyway, it's another boss battle, a trickier one to teach advanced techniques.

Chapter 3: Midghosts

A message is sent throughout the worlds: "Rally at Crystal Spheres". Skye, Max, and Webby join their respective teachers on the highest sphere. Several individuals arrive: Master Riku, who now dresses much like Master Xehanort and has waist-length hair that covers almost his entire face… this was before Riku got a haircut for KH3D, up to that point I'd assumed his hair would just keep getting longer. He's accompanied by his apprentice Lando, a 15-year-old black guy with bright red dreadlocks and green eyes, very attractive and muscular, with shards of Terra-like armor. Also appearing is King Mickey, and the one who called the meeting: Geri, the archmage of Pixar Palace. Picture the guy from Geri's Game in a long gray robe. Geri has a report from his king, André, about creatures called Midghosts who dwell between life and death and are menacing all of the worlds. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are prepared to set off on a new journey, but Mickey has other jobs for them—so they instead send off their respective apprentices.

So Skye takes his Keyblade Glider, and Max and Webby ride alongside him in one-man Gummi pods, as they set off to scan a few worlds for Midghosts before meeting back up with Master Sora at Disney Castle. And so, thought we don't get to experience it until the next world, this introduces Max and Webby as party members. Max is speedy and strong, wielding his lance as easily as a rapier, spinning and slashing and leaping about, and Webby is a magician, whose magical abilities significantly outstrip those of Skye at any given point in their level progression, and has some spells of different Final Fantasy elements that KH heroes don't usually get. In short, it's a similar arrangement as Sora, Donald, and Goofy, but differently-flavored in both temperament and gameplay.

Skye can Limit Break with either of them for extra physical or magical power, or both for a good old-fashioned triple-stack. Nothing novel there, really. They are also provided with two summons: a trinket from Sora to summon Tinker Bell, who heals and grants flight abilities, and Wally B. from the first Pixar short, The Adventures of André and Wally B., who acts as Jiminy writing the journal as well as being a summon who occasionally delivers powerful stings to enemies.

Meanwhile, the Phantom Blot, an obscure villain from old Disney lore, is rescued from his interdimensional prison by Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog, who invites the Blot to join a new Brotherhood.

Ancient Catacombs (National Treasure)

Chapter 4: Beneath the Ground

Oy, my chapter titles are the worst. And I really don't know what I was thinking, opening with National Treasure of all Disney films to turn into a world… Anyway.

Skye, Max, and Webby drop into their first world, where they detect activity going on in an old church, where they are captured by Ian Howe along with National Treasure's four heroes: Ben Gates, Patrick Gates, Abigail Chase, and Riley Poole. They're just finding their way to the final clue to the treasure, the ancient dusty dungeon beneath the church. Ian forces our well-armed trio to go in first.

Chapter 5: Status Quo

The trio goes underground, fighting the Heartless who have festered in the catacombs. They and the NT cast take the dumb-waiter system down to the final room, where Ian abandons them after they provide him with a fake clue. Ben then leads them all to the real treasure room, which includes a way out. While the treasure hunters go on their own way to get the treasure to a proper place, Skye, Max, and Webby go after Ian.

Chapter 6: Something Gathers

The trio confront Ian at the Old North Church. He turns his goons into Heartless, and an enormous Heartless backs him up, creating a double boss battle, inspired by the one with Clayton in the Tarzan world. Ian is armed with a pistol and numerous signal flares, and his backup is called the Statue of Corruption, a Heartless based on the Statue of Liberty which fights with its torch and stone tablet. Numerous Soldier Heartless accompany the battle.

They defeat Ian and leave him for the authorities to find. Seconds later, they come across a pair of Midghosts, humanoid figures in gray hooded cloaks. Everyone who looks into the Midghosts' hooded faces sees their own eyes. The creatures gush blood and the slightest injury, and unlike most monsters they leave corpses behind… yeah, that's the one aspect of this story that would never possibly make it into a Disney game. This encounter with the two Midghosts is essentially a boss battle, though they become normal enemies later on. The battle is difficult and frightening, but they triumph yet again.

Riku and Lando join King Mickey in Disney Castle, where he reveals the backstory of the Phantom Blot—once ruler of the Timeless River, and the reason the land had no color, before a young Mickey discovered the Keyblade, overthrew him, and built Disney Castle. The Blot's magic makes him as versatile and powerful as a Keylade wielder, and Mickey believes he has escaped.

On a plateau in the Keyblade Graveyard, Dr. Facilier introduces the Phantom Blot to the other assembled members of the Brotherhood: Randall Boggs, Chick Hicks, Mother Gothel, and Dominique Destine.

Paradise Falls (Up)

Chapter 7: Next Adventure

Skye, Max, and Webby land on the magnificent plateau leading to Paradise Falls. They are attacked by Nobodies, creatures they are completely unfamiliar with. Before they can learn of their nature, Carl Fredricksen's floating house comes upon them, towed by Russell and Mr. Fredricksen himself.

Kind of a weird recurring thing in this story, starting the Disney worlds midway through the movie and then going on to the end. Sure, that's what most of the Disney worlds have done since KH2, but at least those tended to start a bit closer to the beginning. Well, it all depends on how each world works as a story, I guess. Plus, at least I changed most of the dialogue in all the scenes I reenacted. Several KH worlds haven't even had the decency to do that…

Anyway, Carl tries to load Dug and Kevin off on Skye, but before any real introductions can take place, Alpha appears, commanding a whole squadron of Nobodies. After the boss battle, Skye is forced to surrender.

When I wrote this story, the only KH game I'd actually played was BBS, so I'd never actually encountered any Heartless or Nobodies firsthand, so I treated every single variety of Heartless and Nobody as if they were only as tough as Shadows, because, well, it never occurred to me that this wouldn't be the case. Hence why there's an entire army of Berserker Nobodies in this boss battle. Yup, boss battle with Alpha where he basically uses all the Berserkers as cover and concealment.

And this introduces our first guest party member, Mr. Fredricksen. A physical combatant, both fighting and defending with his cane, and occasionally throwing cans of dried prunes. He also has a move which deals massive damage but also causes him to throw out his back, leaving him temporarily helpless. For his Limit Break, Skye picks him up by his cane and swings him around, Carl damaging his enemies with kicks, and then the two stand shoulder-to-shoulder and fight as an impenetrable stone wall. I had originally put the Limit Break in this first battle, but a reviewer said it seemed out of character for Carl to be so cooperative to someone he'd just met, so I put it in later, and that made it a better moment, I think.

Chapter 8: Not What We Expect

Alpha escorts the group to the hideout of Charles Muntz, where they are invited aboard the Spirit of Adventure. Skye is all at ease with the presence of the Nobodies (who have replaced Muntz's dog pack, sans Alpha, in this story), and Carl soon begins to share that feeling as Muntz's deranged obsession with the bird becomes apparent. Kevin helps clear a path through the Nobody-infested cave as they escape with the house. The escape leaves Kevin injured.

Chapter 9: Let It All Out

The group brings Kevin back to the entrance of her labyrinth home, but Muntz swoops down and captures her. Carl breaks down and furiously sets off to bring his house to Paradise Falls. After a moment of hopelessness, Russell takes off to rescue Kevin on his own, and Carl has his change of heart in time to join Skye's group as they go after the Spirit of Adventure.

On board, they have a Heartless boss battle, the Turtle of Six, a truly massive Heartless modeled after the giant leopard tortoise in Muntz's trophy room, where the battle takes place. It's bright yellow with a razor-sharp beak and six legs. It breathes green fire, crushes Nobodies and heroes alike underfoot, and has a shall that deflects blows, so it must be overturned or climbed to be defeated. After that, Muntz's pursuit forces them to the outside of the blimp.

Chapter 10: Creeping Evil

On the top of the Spirit of Adventure, Muntz confronts the heroes. Boss battle! Muntz alternates between using his sword and his gun. Sometimes he throws his sword and can't use it again until he retrieves it, and can also use the butt of his rifle as an effective melee weapon.

After the skirmish, they flee to Mr. Fredricksen's house, escaping before the house floats away and Muntz falls to his death. Kevin is returned home, and Carl and Russell take the blimp. Skye, Max, and Webby proceed to the next world, but not before Skye finds a curious white diamond. This diamond is eventually revealed to be able to summon Bolt. This summon has all the powers he does in his fictional TV show: martial arts expertise, heat vision, and a super-bark.

At the Keyblade Graveyard, Dr. Facilier introduces to the Brotherhood to their sponsors, a pair of youths named Xefrii and Ciexu. Xefrii is an Indian-looking teen boy with spiky black hair that seems to have its own life, constantly shifting and emoting as he does. He has crystal-blue eyes, wears a crisp black suit, and never seems to touch the ground, always floating around mysteriously. Ciexu is an eerily pale girl in a little white dress, with metallic gray hair in tall, fluffy pigtails. Her eyes are solid orbs of pink without pupils, and she never moves a single muscle other than her lips, teleporting when she needs to move one place to another. Observing Skye in the scrying pool, Ciexu realizes that he is the one they're looking for, someone called the "Last".

Sora visits Destiny Islands (or, apparently, it's actually called the Destiny Islands, which I guess makes more sense as a place name) to check in on his wife and the mayor, Master Kairi, as well as her student, Skye's other good friend Oceana, a 14-year-old Hawaiian-looking girl with long black hair, brown eyes, a beach-going outfit (midriff top, shorts, sandals) and a huge red flower in her hair.

Atlantica (The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea)

Chapter 11: Quite Striking

Skye, Max, and Webby land on an iceberg in a frozen sea. Webby turns them into sea creatures: Skye a shark-like merman, Max a walrus, and Webby a jellyfish. They practice fighting underwater against some aquatic Heartless, and then they run into Melody, out to steal the trident from Atlantica to become a mermaid permanently. Max and Webby are suspicious of Melody's motives, but she and Skye have swiftly developed crushes on each other.

Chapter 12: Always a Way

They arrive in Atlantica. It is easy enough to sneak into the castle and steal the trident, but only Melody escapes before King Triton returns to his throne room with Ariel and Sebastian. That's when it sinks in for Skye what Max and Webby figured out easily: that Melody is being duped into stealing from her own family. Skye promises Ariel that he will watch over Melody, and she decides to tail them as they return to Morgana.

Chapter 13: On the Surface

Back in the frozen north, Melody returns to Morgana's lair. Ariel catches up and attempts to reason with Melody, but Melody feels betrayed and lied to and gives the trident up to Morgana. Morgana imprisons Melody, captures Ariel, and leaves Skye, Max, and Webby to have a boss battle with Undertow, returned to his normal size. The gigantic shark is fought in Morgana's ice cave. He is nearly immune to weapon damage, but vulnerable to magical attacks. He can also be damaged by dodging his swift and powerful charging attack, which tricks him into crashing into the cave walls.

After defeating him, they free the now-human Melody and return to the surface and their normal land-going forms, where Morgana has disabled King Triton from the top of her sinister ice castle

Chapter 14: Choose Wisely

Skye, Max, Webby, and Melody climb up Morgana's castle. Melody is recklessly charging up the path, requiring Skye to protect her from the Heartless swarming it, so it's an escort mission (hence Skye's remark of "Oh, it's turning into one of these", that was a joke a lot of people didn't get). They free Ariel from Morgana's grasp and have a boss battle with the sea-witch themselves.

Morgana is a fairly frail boss who relies on magical attacks. Melody acts as an assist: occasionally, Skye can remove the trident from Morgana's grasp and into Melody's, and the two can jointly fire a beam of light at Morgana until she manages to take the trident back.

At the end of the boss battle, Melody returns the trident to Triton, who defeats Morgana. At the bottom of the ice castle, Skye finds another diamond which summons Perry the Platypus, a remarkably speedy and efficient physical combatant. Melody makes amends with her mother, and shares a romantic moment with Skye. In the end, she tears down the wall that separates her kingdom from the sea, and kisses Skye goodbye.

Back in the Keyblade Graveyard, Xefrii attempts to ask Ciexu about the Brotherhood's plans. She is unresponsibe, but lets slip that she's dedicated her life to finding "the beloved primordial light".

Disney Castle

Chapter 15: Toughest Lesson

The trio pull in at Disney Castle, where they meet with Lando, Queen Minnie, and Daisy. In the castle courtyard, Skye meets up with Master Sora and gives him the report of what he's seen. Sora is concerned about the fact that Skye has seen only two Midghosts despite everyone else reporting that they're a constant presence. Sora gives Skye a quick lesson on the nature of morality not always being black and white, and he and Master Riku help him test out the summons he found. Sora informs Skye that his journey is not over, that he wants the student to travel to a few more worlds before meeting him or Master Kairi at the Islands.

Chapter 16: Life's Grand Questions

Skye takes his Master's advice to get some training at Disney Castle. He consults with the king, who directs him to those whom Sora might have had in mind.

So Disney Castle is the mini-game world in this story! The first mini-game is an obstacle course designed by the Chip and Dale, accompanied in this iteration by the Rescue Rangers. The "Obstacle Course" mini-game tests Skye's combat skills, reflexes, and defenses, with rotating floors and jets and blades shooting from the wall. In game terms, it would in theory be a test of your action controls. Maybe. I don't design video games. After the one seen in the actual story, there would be several other levels of the obstacle course increasing in length and intensity.

Later on in the throne room, Donald introduces Skye to Panchito and José, his fellow magicians, and the three help him build his magical skills against a series of mechanical warriors without use of his Keyblade. In the "Magic Training" mini-game, Skye has to fight automatons with magic only; each type of enemy is resistant to certain types of magic. In different rounds of the challenge, he'd have to deal with tougher enemies in different rounds of the challenge.

After this, Skye and his two companions head out into the streets of Disney Castle.

Chapter 17: True Companions

Max's best buddies Bobby and PJ appear, shortly followed by their rival Bradley. After some taunting, Max and Bradley agree to face each other in a race around Disney Castle and its catacombs. And that's the third mini-game, "X-Games Racing". That's pronounced "chi-Games", like the X-blade. Max and his friends (Skye being the playable one, naturally) face off against Bradley and his crew of enchanted brooms in a series of races that combine the Rumble Racing from BBS with the final X-Games event of An Extremely Goofy Movie: a triathlon of rollerblading, biking, and skateboarding… plus lots of dirty tricks, all magic and weaponry allowed, including causing damage to the arena. Max wins the race and goes off to celebrate with his girlfriend Roxanne.

Chapter 18: Enigmatic Youths

The next morning, Skye, Max, and Webby take off for their next bout of exploring the worlds. Goofy warns them that the Phantom Blot has returned.

In the Lanes Between, they run into an esteemed Keyblade Master, Kermit the Frog, who has been travelling the worlds with the Electric Mayhem and dealing with many Midghosts. Skye gets only a moment to wonder why he's had such a hard time finding Midghosts when Xefrii and Ciexu appear out of nowhere and begin to battle him right there in the darkness between the worlds. The two young adults engage Skye, Max, and Webby in a dangerous brawl.

So this boss battle is a "final boss preview", if you will. Xefrii and Ciexu create an arena in the Lanes Between, so mercifully this battle is not a flying/swimming zero-gravity battle. Xefrii tends to be the imminent threat, constantly moving around and using powerful fire attacks: encasing Skye within flaming pyramids, deflecting attacks with fiery shields, and conjuring up two walls of fire which clash together. Ciexu, meanwhile, keeps her distance, but when she contributes to the battle, she contributes big, covering the battlefield in snowstorms, giant glaciers, and icy pillars which crush and slam. The battle requires use of everything Skye has learned thus far… which is how a good climactic mid-point battle would work, yeah?

Story-wise, the threat that Max and Webby will be killed reinvigorates Skye enough to make a full recovery and continue fighting, and the duo flee the instant Skye gains an advantage. Confused, the trio continue their appointed task, now knowing that Xefrii and Ciexu have been commanding the Midghosts to keep their distance from Skye.

Kingdom of the Sun (Tangled)

Chapter 19: So It Begins

Xefrii and Ciexu return to the Keyblade Graveyard and set the Brotherhood's schemes into action: they send Mother Gothel to her world to fetch the powerful "artifact of light" he has been hoarding. The Phantom Blot accompanies her.

I've already mentioned that I didn't know when I named the world that Kingdom of the Sun was the working title for The Emperor's New Groove, but I also didn't know at the time that Rapunzel's kingdom actually has a canon name: The Kingdom of Corona, which is believed to be the name of the upcoming Tangled world appearing in KH3.

Skye, Max, and Webby arrive in a new world and are confronted by the Stabbington brothers, who express an interest in ditching their current scheme to steal the Keyblade instead. The trio are exhausted from their battle with Xefrii and Ciexu, but manage to defeat the brothers and chase them away. In the Stabbington Brothers boss battle, the two are purely physical combatants, unrefined brawlers, though the two can team up for some more powerful defensive moves.

Meanwhile in a tower in a hidden valley, Gothel realizes that Rapunzel has left, and explains to the Blot the nature of the girl's power of light.

Chapter 20: Follow the Light

The trio start feeling a bit reinvigorated as they stroll through the forest, looking for civilization. They run into Flynn and Rapunzel being attacked by Heartless, and team up with Rapunzel to defeat them.

Rapunzel as a party member fights with her frying pan and long, flowered braid, which she has all the time in this story, because I believed a video game engine couldn't handle her normal hair all the time. Perhaps KH3 will prove me wrong. Rapunzel doesn't do much physical damage, but she also has magical golden light which kills the Heartless and heals the other party members. For her Limit Break, her braid is magically unfurled and she releases the full mass of her hair, twirling around like a ballerina and obliterating the surrounding enemies, before sending out a massive shockwave of light that completely rejuvenates the entire party.

Very intrigued by Rapunzel's power of light, the trio decide to team up with her and protect her from those who would covet her gift from the sun. They camp out for the night.

Chapter 21: No Holds Barred

They are all roused in the morning by Maximus, resulting in what's essentially a mini-boss: Maximus using his gladius as well as charging around knocking people over until we deplete his very short HP meter.

Rapunzel pacifies him, and the troupe sets off for the kingdom and the yearly lantern festival. Skye, Max, and Webby realize that the lost princess can only be Rapunzel, but decide to save the revelation for another time rather than kill Rapunzel's enjoyment of the party. I just had to throw that in due to how exceptionally unobservant KH characters are. Flynn and Rapunzel go off in their little skiff to get a good view, and the trio are confronted by Gothel. She explains her plan to them, then attacks.

Gothel fights with her dagger and a wide variety of magic. She's completely relentless, teleporting everywhere, sliding along the ground, and volleying magic at them from the air. The intent was for it to be the most difficult battle thus far, including the previous one against Xefrii and Ciexu, and the most frightening. After the battle is over, the Phantom Blot shows up and knocks the heroes out. Hours later, Maximus wakes them up. They all help to free Flynn, and set off to Gothel's tower to free Rapunzel.

Chapter 22: A Gift from the Heart

In the tower, Gothel and the Blot prepare to bring Rapunzel back to the Keyblade Graveyard. While they're planning, Rapunzel comes to the realization that she is the lost princess, and attempts to escape. When Flynn arrives with the heroes, the Phantom Blot paralyzes the heroes, Gothel stabs Flynn, and as we all know, Flynn cuts her hair and Gothel dies.

The Phantom Blot attempts to fight his way out. Boss battle! The Blot fights with ink and paint thinner, most of his attacks relying on lingering status effects like poison and paralysis. He also fights physically by turning his fingers into black claws, and by shooting gray laser beams. During this battle exclusively, Rapunzel is in her short-haired version and therefore very different as a party member: she's lost all of her magic, but is much more efficient and powerful with her frying pan due to righteous anger, and the light in her heart makes her nearly immune to the Phantom Blot's magic.

The Blot escapes, and Rapunzel heals Flynn with her tears. Flynn and Rapunzel decide to return home to the kingdom, while Skye continues the journey.

At the weapons gym at Crystal Spheres, Ciexu approaches Lando about membership into the Brotherhood. As he's never been fond of Master Riku's dislike of too much power, he accepts without an instant of hesitation—he has an interest in power.

City of Stone (Gargoyles)

Chapter 23: Stone of Destiny

Dominique Destine takes Dr. Facilier on a mission to her own world, where she reveals herself as Demona, an ancient and evil gargoyle who wants to kill all humans. She has a plan to turn her former clan to the darkness, creating a squadron of powerful Heartless and Nobodies.

Skye, Max, and Webby arrive at the Eyrie Building, a thousand-year-old castle sitting atop a brand-new skyscraper that towers above the clouds. They admire the gargoyles on the battlements, but are confronted by armored billionaire David Xanatos and his assistant Owen Burnett. In this boss battle, Xanatos is in his armored gargoyle suit, fighting both physically and with bombs and lasers. Owen fights with his stone fist. The two use tactics to keep their enemies focused on one of them while the other moves in to attack.

Webby is hurt badly before the fight is broken up by Elisa Maza, who stalls until night falls and the gargoyles awaken. Goliath takes one look at the Keyblade and immediately pledges his service to Skye.

Chapter 24: Protect and Serve

Goliath explains that the Keyblade order and the gargoyle race have a long and rich history together. Xanatos admits that he was only challenging Skye to see how he'd fare in a battle against the Keyblade. Skye and Max check on Webby and begin fawning over her, begging her not to get too involved in combat in the future, much to her irritation. Heartless begin swarming the city, and Goliath sends the clan off in many directions to fight them, and assigning himself to fight alongside Skye.

Goliath as a party member has it all: not only is he strong and sturdy, he's also incredibly agile and speedy, and on top of that he can glide. The ultimate party member. His Limit Break is basically a rip-off of Beast's: he shields Skye with his wings, then the two of them attack by roaring powerfully.

Skye and Max try to keep Webby out of the fighting regardless of how capable she proves herself to be. Goliath spots Demona, concludes that she's the one responsible, and races to confront her. But she summons up a giant Heartless from the Realm of Darkness to fight in her stead.

Chapter 25: No Solutions

They battle the Great Black Dragon, a massive pureblood Heartless. The heroes stand atop a large building, and it menaces them by flying around it. It has significant resistance to both physical and magical attacks, but a few weak spots if you can find them. After some time, it's possible for the characters to jump atop its back and damage it from there, but it also tends to dive straight for the ground and pass through the streets.

The dragon is defeated with some difficulty, and Demona returns. She betrays the Brotherhood, revealing that her plan is to conquer the worlds herself with her new power of darkness. Facilier attacks her, enraged, and she also reveals to Skye that the Brotherhood is based in the Keyblade Graveyard. Demona throws Facilier off the building and battles Goliath and Skye's team. Demona's boss battle uses her trademark mix of science and sorcery: she's got a big-ass laser cannon, using its beams in various creative ways such as you might see from some of the gun-like weaponry from the Final Fantasy games, as well as powerful magic of the standard "fire, blizzard, thunder" configuration, and several darkness-based attacks as well.

Demona almost wins, but makes the mistake of overlooking Webby, who defeats her with magical expertise, reminding Skye and Max that she is not helpless. Goliath goes to imprison Demon in the labyrinth, requesting that Skye return to the Eyrie Building.

Chapter 26: The Way to Dawn

At the Eyrie Building, Skye decides he shouldn't follow the lead Demona gave him; he's not strong enough to deal with the dangers of the Keyblade Graveyard. Atop the building, Dr. Facilier uses his voodoo to shrink down the gargoyle clan and place them in a jar, intending to make Heartless out of them as Demona planned. Goliath returns to assist Skye in fighting Facilier on the castle battlements.

Facilier fights with his cane, uses cards in a similar manner to Luxord (or perhaps Gambit of the X-Men), and a variety of attacks themed around smoke and shadow, including teleportation and blinding. The first half of the battle, from a game perspective, is hopeless and ends quickly.

Seeing that it isn't going well for the heroes, Xanatos sends Owen to assist them, in his true form as the faerie Puck, who is then an assist for the second half of the boss battle.

Facilier is defeated. The clan is rescued, and Facilier tumbles off the side of the building. Xanatos offers Skye a mirror which will allow him to summon Puck at any time. Both as an assist and a summon, Puck acts in a similar manner to Genie, using a randomly selected repertoire of spells, most of them comedic and surreal in nature. With the rising sun, the gargoyles turn back into stone, and Skye sets off.

Oceana is sent to visit Crystal Spheres in search of information about the legendary "Lost Ones"—those who were left behind in the aftermath of the Xehanort Saga: Roxas, Xion, Axel, Naminé, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, and Vanitas. Riku confronts Lando, who claims to be working on a side project. Riku warns Lando not to disappoint him.

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Well, since I only wrote one WALL-E chapter, I'll recap it in the next chapter, the one that tells you everything that would have happened in the latter half of Kingdom Hearts: The Next Generation.

So… other details I'd like to give are the nature of the sort-of-trio's Keyblades. Skye's is called Wide Open Space, and is incredibly huge, double-bladed, maroon in color, has sort of an outer-space theme. Lando's is called Filthy Fang—but mostly referred to as Filthy Fangs, because he is able to split it into two mini-Keyblades, which are steely gray with vicious hooks. Oceana's is called Marine Gem, and is ocean-blue and shaped like a cresting wave, and has a rainbow of gems embedded in it. Hmm, I wonder if I still have my drawings of them.

Also, about the Gargoyles segment… I honestly think I chose Facilier as an ambassador of the Brotherhood who visits numerous worlds just because it gave me the opportunity for Facilier to coexist with Goliath and make fun of him for his melodramatic, overacting tendencies, as the two of them are both played by Keith David. Hehe.

And finally… a follow-up to the pre-note, sort of an endnote I guess, is that even though the oldest world in the story to appear is City of Stone (or technically Atlanica, I guess), much like KH2 there are still a good amount of much-older characters involved, the oldest (among those who have not actually been featured in the Kingdom Hearts series to date) being either José Carioca from 1942's Saludos Amigos, or perhaps the Phantom Blot. The Blot is a gray area. Would his KH journal entry list his debut as 1939 or 1987? My gut says the latter, since they list Scrooge McDuck's origin as 1967's Scrooge McDuck and Money, his animation debut, even though he'd been in comics for years before that. So the Blot, despite his lengthy comics career, didn't appear in animated form until DuckTales.

As for the newest Disney content in the fic, that would be Walter, from 2011's The Muppets, who hasn't appeared yet, you'll hear about his role in future chapters. Yeah, that movie was extremely recent when this fic started. Doesn't really feel that way now.