We'll get back to the fallout of last chapter's revelations in a few chapters. Right now we're just popping back in time a bit to see what Riku and Mickey were up to during the Castle Oblivion trip.

After all the running around to get the Princess, we finally go to a new world.


Chapter 28: Empire of the Sun:

Empire of the Sun – The Secret Lab, 30 hours ago

"The space is ready," the diminutive gerbil – like creature said as he and his red-furred henchmen began moving the beakers and brews into what the green woman had called a Corridor of Darkness. As part of the alliance that Yzma had made with Maleficent shortly after deposing Kuzco, she would serve as a mad scientist, brewing her potions for the cabal of villains' use in their plans for conquest, and in exchange, they would support her claim to the throne. A table of beakers and an extra potions cabinet would remain here in her secret lab, but the rest of her equipment was being moved to the groups' main laboratory on a world called "San Fransokyo." From there she could come and go to provide potions work for Maleficent's new empire.

"Very well," Yzma replied. "Once everything is set up, I can start making potions again. But tell Maleficent I expect a full contingent of Leroys as my personal guard as payment."

"No need to be impatient," the green-skinned woman interrupted as she appeared from another dark corridor. "You will be given enough weapons and guards to destroy an opposition to your rule."

"Perfect," Yzma answered ecstatically. "With my position on the throne secure, I can help with your potions with ease. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put up with the formality of holding my successor's funeral." With that, the horrifically ancient hag left the room to change for the ceremonies, a squad of Leroys following behind as her personal bodyguards.


Empire of the Sun – Open Fields, Now

"I don't think any of us have ever been to this world before," Mickey said as he and Riku teleported from their Gummi Ship into a large field. Lea had uploaded all of the reconnaissance information that the Organization had collected on different worlds into the navigation computer before their departure, so the fact that there was no information on this world meant that they were more likely to find Maleficent here than Xehanort. But that still meant that they needed to figure out if Maleficent was even on this world to begin with.

"I agree," Riku replied as they started walking toward the mountain that appeared to have some kind of palace on top. Eventually, they found a man in green sitting near a herd of llamas. As they approached him, he looked up at them, and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their heads. Before the two visitors could say anything, he spoke.

"You two aren't from around here, are you?" the portly man asked. Surprised that the man had figured them out so quickly, and knowing that there was no point in being subtle about it, Riku and Mickey went ahead and explained who they were to the stranger. They explained the whole "other worlds" story, but left out the parts about Xehanort and Maleficent, figuring that until the worlds of the alliance began trading with each other on a regular basis, there was little point in freaking out the citizens of worlds that weren't part of the alliance yet.

The man, who introduced himself as Pacha, told them about how Emperor Kuzco had been summoned the village leader to the palace to be informed of his plan to demolish the village. Riku and Mickey were appalled by this, and Pacha explained how he'd returned home to find that the emperor had somehow been transformed into a llama and ended up on the back of his cart. The two Keyblade Masters admired the fact that Pacha continued to follow the self-obsessed emperor because despite his arrogance and vanity, Pacha felt that the newly-transformed llama didn't deserve to die, and the Key bearers couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of the pair's adventures.

"So there we were, standing on the cliff," Pacha said as he described the reason he felt that the emperor-turned-llama could still change. "And the ground started to rumble. And just as it started to go, he grabbed me before I fell. Do you believe that? You know, call me crazy for following this guy all the way out here, but as much as he tries to deny it, I know he's got some good in him. Besides, I couldn't just leave him out here all alone. He's a lousy Llama. He's a lousy llama. I mean a really lousy llama." He smiled as he looked up. Riku and Mickey turned around to see a llama with red and black fur standing nearby. This guy must be Emperor Kuzco, then, Riku thought as Pacha walked over to the llama.

"Hey listen, Pacha," the llama, who they figured was Kuzo, said. "You know, what I said to you back at the diner, that… I… I didn't really…" he stopped as Pacha, raised his hands.

"So," the village leader said warmly. "You tired of being a llama?"

"Yeeeeessss!" the human-turned-llama sobbed as tears formed in his eyes. After introducing Riku and Mickey to Emperor Kuzco, the group of four took off through the jungle. They were going to make a quick pit stop at Pacha's village before making their way back to the palace. Kuzco explained that his former advisor, an incredibly ancient woman named Yzma, had turned him into a llama after an attempt to poison him failed when her assistant, a muscular man named Kronk, accidentally got the poison mixed up with a potion that transformed the young emperor into a Llama. When they were attacked by Heartless along the way, Riku and Mickey explained to the emperor about the events leading to the formation of the Daybreak Coalition. Horrified at what Xehanort and Maleficent had done and were capabale of, Kuzco agreed to add his empire to the alliance once he was turned back into a human.

"Okay," Pacha said as the four of them raced out of the jungle towards his village. "We're just going to stop at the house and get some supplies."

"Then we'll be on our way right?" Kuzo asked as they reached the bottom of the hill.

"Right!" Pacha answered before they were interrupted by a pair of elderly villagers sitting at the base of the hill playing checkers.

"Hey there, Pacha," the fat one greeted. "You know, you just missed your relatives."

"My relatives?" Pacha asked confused. Mickey and Riku exchanged a glance, if this Yzma woman and her henchman Kronk were hunting for Kuzco, then it was possible that if they could link Kuzo to Pacha, they might try to pass themselves off as distant relatives in order to search his house for the missing emperor-llama.

"Yeah," the skinny old man replied. "We just sent 'em up to your house."

"What did they look like?" he asked.

"Well you see there was this big guy," the skinny one went on. "And this older woman who was… how would you describe her?"

"Scary beyond all reason," the fat one offered.

"Yeah, that's it," the skinny one finished. Must be Yzma and Kronk then, Mickey guessed from the way Kuzco's jaw dropped.


Empire of the Sun – Pacha's House

"So," Chicha, Pacha's wife began as she poured a cup of tea for the tall skinny woman claiming to be related to her husband. "Remind me again, how you're related to Pacha."

"Why I'm his third cousin's brither's wife's step-niece's great aunt," the tall skinny woman replied she gestured with the hand holding her cup. "Twice removed." She's lying through her teeth, Chicha thought as she looked at her guest with a deadpan expression. But who is she really and what does she want with my husband? "Isn't that right, Kronk?" the woman called over to her companion, who was busy playing jump-rope with Chaka and Tipo. The woman's clearly an enigma, Chicha thought as she started speculationg mentally. But her partner clearly wouldn't hurt a fly. At least I don't have to worry about the kids being in danger.

"You know," Chicha said as her guest started with exasperation at her partner's antics. "I am so sorry you had to travel all this way. But as I said to you before, you may recall, Pacha is not here. I'll be sure and tell him you came by."

"Oh, would you please?" the woman asked. "That would be just great." As her guest spoke, she "accidentally" knocked her tea cup off the table. "Oops," she said with a fake nervous chuckle. "Clumsy me."

"No, no," Chicha said as she put up a hand to stop the woman from attempting to clean it up. "Allow me." She could tell that her guest was trying to create an opportunity to search the house with her partner, but Chicha knew that her kids would instinctively follow the two out of curiosity and find out what they were really up to. So Chicha arduously strained to crouch down and pick up the cup while out of the corner of her eye she saw the old woman dart out of the room. A minute later, her guest cartwheeled back into the room just as she finished picking up the cup.

"So," she began, "while we're waiting for Pacca…"

"Pacha," she corrected.

"Why yes," the impossibly ancient woman continued, gesturing with her hands. "Perhaps we could have a tour of your lovely home?"

"You know why don't you come back when Pacha gets home?" Chicha asked, eager to get these people out of her house as soon as possible. "I'm sure he'd love to show you the…" she trailed off as she spotted Pacha through the half-open front door, anxiously gesturing toward the kitchen window with his thumb. So he knows who these people are then, Chicha realized as she made up an excuse about leaving something in the oven and turned her back on her houseguest, leaving the other woman to communicate with her associate. When she met her husband at the back door, he explained that the Emperor had been transformed into a llama by his adviser in an botched assassination attempt, and ended up in the back of Pacha's cart.

"So we have to get back to the palace, find the lab, and change him back," her husband explained before a llama suddenly stuck its head through the window.

"Hi there," it spoke before Chicha promptly smacked it in the head with a frying pan.

"Um," Pacha said nervously, "that was him."

"Whoops," she commented as Kuzco collapsed to the ground. After Pacha explained that they were also being accompanied by a group of dignitaries from another kingdom who had travelled to the area to forge a trade agreement with the imperial administration, she lead him toward the back door.

"Go," she said. "I'll stall them long enough for the four of you to get a head start.

"You have a lovely wife," the emperor commented as he dizzily recovered from being rendered unconscious. "They're both very pretty." With that, Pacha dragged the llama away before Yzma and Kronk realized that the group was ever there. Riku and Mickey met them at the edge of the front yard and together the foursome fled the village.

"Was it a good idea to leave your family with those two?" Kuzco asked as the quartet ran down the hill, out of the village, and into the jungle.

"Don't worry," the man replied. "They can handle themselves." His statement was confirmed by Yzma's frantic shouting a few minutes later. By then, they had a good enough head start that each time they were attacked by Heartless and Nobodies, the monsters were destroyed fast enough that the four heroes didn't lose their lead. They raced through jungles and over hills with Yzma and Kronk in hot pursuit. When the road ended in a steep cliff, Riku and Mickey created a ramp made of ice that allowed them to quickly slide down to the other side of the canyon. When they saw Yzma and Kronk quickly approaching the higher cliff, Riku cast a Dark Firaga spell to melt the ice slide. The group started to run faster when wings unfolded from the sides of Yzma's palanquin, allowing her and Kronk to glide through the air. But just before they reached the other side, a raincloud appeared out of nowhere, and the duo were struck by lightning before falling to the bottom of the canyon.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they survive that," Mickey said as the four continued their rush toward the palace. Everyone agreed. Yzma and Kronk may be down for the moment, but they were far from out. Eventually, they finally reached the palace.

"Okay," the human-turned-llama said as he walked back into the room with an alligator's jaws closed around his tail. "Why does she even have that lever?" He kicked the alligator off, and it promptly ran away with what sounded like a whimper. Riku couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of it. Kuzco walked back over to the wall panel where the levers were located, and Pacha pulled the other lever. The space they were standing on quickly rotated, depositing the four into a small blue primitive roller coaster car. Really? Mickey thought as the car quickly accelerated down the stone tracks. This is just overkill. The four of them were flipped out of the car when it reached the end of the tracks, and were confused to find themselves wearing ill-fitting lab coats and goggles as they landed on the ground. They all shrugged as they quickly removed the excess clothing before they started to search the lab.

"Let's see," Pacha mumbled as they opened the potion cabinet looking for the one that would turn Kuzco back into a human. Mickey started reading the labels aloud as the quartet's eyes moved from shelf to shelf.

"Lions…" he read. "Tigers… bears…."

"Oh my," a woman's voice commented from behind. The four heroes turned around in shock as a tall, skinny woman stepped out of the shadows.

"Looking for this?" Yzma asked as she held up a single vial of human-transformation potion in her hands.

"I don't believe it," Kuzco gasped. "How did you get back here before us?" Yzma was about to say something when she stopped, considering what her predecessor said.

"How did we get back here, Kronk?" she asked as she turned to her assistant, who was still wearing the charred remains of the palanquin.

"You got me," the muscular man replied as he pulled down a map from out of nowhere showing the two factions' routes. "By all accounts it doesn't make sense."

"Oh well," Yzma replied, speaking for everyone in acknowledging that there were more important things going on than figuring out the mechanics of how she and Kronk got to the lab first. "Back to business. So you two must be some of those Keyblade Wielders that Maleficent told me about so much about," she countined as she turned her attention to Riku and Mickey. The two Keyblade Masters immediately tensed, preparing for a fight.

"You work with Maleficent?" Riku asked incredulously. He and Mickey had been expecting the green-skinned fairy to at least have spies active in this world but they were still surprised to actually encounter an apparent member of her cabal.

"But of course," Yzma replied as she flourished the potion in her hand. "I provide her with potions, and in return she provides the manpower for me to support my claim to the throne."

"But why?" Mickey asked as the heroes and villains stood facing each other. "Why bother taking over a kingdom in the first place if working with Maleficent gives you a whole universe to conquer. Why limit yourself?"

"Because that ungrateful little worm," she snapped while pointing directly at Kuzco, "fired me for the heinous crime of trying to actually get administrative work done while he spends his entire day partying and having his every whim catered to by a legion of servants. I was cast aside like a worthless piece of trash for daring to pick up his slack."

"Okay," Kuzco said. "I admit it. Maybe I wasn't as nice as I should have been. But, Yzma, do you really want to kill me?"

"Just think of it as you're being let go," the treacherous advisor answered. "That your life's going in a different direction. That your body's part of a permanent outplacement."

"Hey," Kronk cluelessly interrupted. "That's kind of like what he said to you when you got fired."

"I know," the potion brewing villainess retorted caustically. "It's called a cruel irony. Like my dependence on you." Despite the severity of the situation, Riku and Mickey couldn't help but chuckle.

"I can't believe this is happening!" Kuzco wailed.

"Then I bet you weren't expecting this," the impossibly old woman said as she pulled up her dress. Everyone else in the room screamed and shielded their eyes, expecting to be traumatized. "Aha!" Yzma exclaimed as she revealed a knife strapped to her thigh.

"Oh," Kuzco said as everyone else sighed with relief. "Okay."

"Finish them off," she commanded as she tossed the knife to Kronk. Riku and Mickey prepared for battle, but instead of attacking, Kronk looked conflicted, as if he was beginning to have second thoughts about working for Yzma. Maybe he can be redeemed, then, Riku thought as he cast a glance at Mickey. The two had fought together for so long now that each could interpret what the other was thinking based on nothing more than eye movements and facial expressions. Turning their attention back to the situation, Riku and Mickey were surprised to find the bumbling henchman apparently talking to himself. Again, the two off-worlders couldn't help but chuckle at the absurd scene as Yzma turned toward them and gestured toward Kronk, indicating that she was just as baffled by this as they were. The four could only shake their heads and shrug.

"Kronk!" Yzma snapped at her henchman, interrupting the apparently one-sided conversation. "Why did I think you could do this? This one simple thing. It's like I'm talking to a monkey. A really big, stupid monkey named Kronk." The good guys couldn't help but wince at the hurt look on Kronk's face. From what Kuzco said, he seemed like such a nice guy despite his service to Yzma that they couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "And you know what else?" Yzma continued. "I never liked your spinach puffs! Never!" Riku and Mickey pitied Kronk as the man started to cry. This was clearly a low blow for him. Then as he stopped crying, he turned his head as if listening to someone before directing his gaze toward the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

"That'll work," he said as he used the knife to cut the ropes holding up the chandelier, sending it crashing to the ground. However, thanks to her inhumanly skinny figure, Yzma passed through the bars unharmed, instead of being crushed. "Strange," he added as everyone stared at the scene. "That usually works."

"And so does this!" Yzma retorted as she pulled one of the beakers of potion, opening up a trapdoor beneath her former henchman.

"Ah," Kronk said calmly, as if having a trapdoor opened beneath you was the most natural thing in the world. "Should've seen that coming." With that, the man screamed as he fell through the open door. As Kronk fell, the battle began. At first, it was simply the four heroes against Yzma for the potion that would turn Kuzco human. But when Yzma knocked over the potion cabinet, identical pink bottles rolled everywhere.

"Oops," she remarked sarcastically. "Clumsy me. Better hurry. I'm expecting company." With that, she pulled a string hanging from the ceiling, opening a set of doors and allowing a platoon of Hamsterviel's red-furred shock troopers to come storming into the lab. As Pacha gathered up the remaining potions, Mickey and Riku flipped the table into the crowd of Leroys. This caused half of the group to be transformed into various animals. After excusing one of the troops who'd been transformed into a female cow, she ordered the remaining red soldiers after the fleeing quartet.

While Pacha and Kuzco continued to experiment with different vials, Riku and Mickey were forced to stay back and hold the line. The animal henchman continued after the peasant and the emperor, while the two Keyblade Masters remained behind to keep the Leroy at bay. Within a few minutes, the red monsters were dispatched, only for a familiar green figure to emerge from the shadows before the duo could catch up with the other two.

"Maleficent," Riku practically spat in disgust as the dark fairy appeared before them in a burst of green fire. "I should have known you'd show your face here eventually."

"But of course," she replied in her stoic and oily way. "One can only avoid getting their hands dirty for so long." Without wasting time on banter or threats, the sorceress began hurling fireballs at the two Keyblade Masters. The two heroes dodged her green flames, waiting for the opportunity to retaliate. Eventually, they were able to land a few combos before she could parry their blows. The battle went back and forth like this for several minutes. Sensing another opening, Riku initiated his Dark Aura technique, but before the first strike could land, Maleficent reacted with surprising agility to deliver a swift kick to the head, sending the young man sailing off the pathway into the draining canals below.

"RIKU!" Mickey shouted as he dove off the bridge after his friend. The mouse barely managed to cast an Aeroga spell in time to prevent them both from being smashed against the concrete floor. As he dragged the young man out of the canals to avoid being drowned when they were refilled, Maleficent teleported herself from the bridge above to stand before him. He glared at her defiantly, putting himself between her and Riku.

"Make no mistake, Mouse," the fairy warned, "the only reason I haven't killed you yet is because at present my allies and I do not stand a chance against Xehanort's minions, but you do. Once he has been eliminated, you will all die." With that threat, she disappeared in another burst of green fire. Even though, she was gone, Mickey stayed by Riku's side until he woke up again, resolving to check him for a concussion in the Gummi Ship's med bay. Once the duo had recovered, they made their way down to the openings used to drain the canals. Lowering themselves to the ground with parkour and a few Aero spells, the two Keyblade Masters emerged from the bowels of the palace to find Pacha, a young, black-haired man who could only be Kuzco, and – surprisingly – Kronk, being lowered down from the walls with an impossibly tall ladder.

Once everyone had gone back inside, the five discussed matters over lunch. Riku and Mickey chuckled when they learned that Yzma had inadvertently turned herself into a kitten by accidentally stepping on one of the vials, but their expression darkened when they learned that she had fallen through a Dark Corridor. Clearly Maleficent intended to keep the potion maker in her service. Afterwards, Mickey and Kuzco discussed the logistics of adding the young man's kingdom to the ever growing Daybreak Coalition. Eventually, it was decided that Kronk would be the ambassador for the empire as a means of atoning for his work with Yzma. After they finished their meal, everyone said their goodbyes. And Mickey, Riku, and Kronk set off for Radiant Garden.


The name of the Emperor's New Groove world is a mythology gag to the movie's original pitch as a lion-king style musical epic called Kingdom of the Sun before production trouble caused it to be retooled into The Emperor's New Groove. I thought it would be fun to have a bit of a nod to that.