Author's Note: Okay guys, here it is, the 36th exciting chapter of Kingdom Ed: The Beginning. We are quickly approaching the end of this story, and things will begin to get quite dark from here on out. Anyway, please enjoy.

"Guys, get ready!"

The centaur readied another fierce tackle at its human opponents, shuffling its feet and it began its charge, headfirst, at the group of heroes. Nazz, Sora and Goofy all side stepped the attack, but Jasmine stood still, taking the full brunt of the attack and being sent flying into the air, landing only a few feet from the Heartless' feet.

It snarled and rose up its spear to deal a piercing blow, but, before the attack couldn't connect, Goofy had managed to block the strike with his shield and he was still attempting to push the spear away, though the creature's superior strength was slowly sending him skidding back.

In the mean time, Nazz ran up to the fallen princess to help her up. "What were you doing? Why'd you want to get hit like that?"

"I-I can't let it hit the townspeople." She weakly got up and dusted herself off. "If we dodge that monster's attacks then it'll hit the people instead." She pointed to the weary citizens who were still watching the whole ordeal with raised eyebrows. Some of them still thought that everything was just a well-made street performance while a few others were skeptical. "We must find a way to defeat it without injuring ourselves or anyone else."

While the two were conversing, Goofy was still at a standstill with the Heartless, eventually however he lost his balance and the monster used its chance to send Goofy into the air with a powerful uppercut then immediately sent him rocketing back down by hammering its fist. Goofy collided with the ground, leaving a sizable crater where he landed. Stars could be seen in his eyes, indicating that he had been knocked out.

"Darn it," Sora said. "We haven't even landed a hit yet and it's already taken one of us down! Guys, we gotta do something, fast!"

"You got it," Nazz ran up to the beast, nimbly dodging each of its punches and spear attacks, finally she got close enough to it and jumped onto its back, holding onto the monster's rainbow main for support.

In panic, the Heartless began to gallop through the streets, crushing street stores and merchandise and crashing through a few small mud houses, finally it came to a screeching halt directly in front of the palace where it attempted to shake the girl off by violently rattling its body and crashing against the thick walls.

"Hey," Sora hurled his Keyblade at the beast; it hit the monster with a thud, and then spiraled back to the boy's hand.

The Heartless didn't seem to take notice of the attack and instead just continued trashing about.

"Knock it off," Nazz used one of her hands to pull the Heartless' hair as hard as she could and then used the other to punch its lower back, though she only succeeded at hurting her own hand, the Heartless seemed to be made of solid steel. "What the heck?" She continued her flurry of punches and kicks though none of her attacked seemed to leave a dent in the tough protective layer of armor the Heartless had on.

Finally, with one final shake, she fell off the beast and landed on her arm next to its feet, before she could get up she could see the Centaur preparing to stomp her with a kick. She rolled away just in time, getting back on her feet and avoiding the attack that surely would've crushed her to bits.

The Centaur readied another thrust of its spear, Nazz gasped as she saw her surrounding, she was pushed against the wall and there was nowhere she could go to dodge the next strike. However, before the Centaur could push the pointed object further, a long blue whip wrapped around the weapon, pulling it off its course. Immediately afterward, the rope unwove itself and, at the flick of Jasmine's wrist, the Centaur was struck, though, once again, only a diminutive amount of damage was dealt. While the monster was distracted Nazz delivered a weak jab to the Centaur's jaw, which stunned the creature a bit, before running back to her allies.

"This is crazy, we're not doing any damage." Nazz complained, cracking her wrists.

"I know, and without the rest of our party, we may lose this fight."

"Knock it off," Sora scolded the two women. "Don't give up!"

"Rat, you've caused much too much trouble here." Jafar said menacingly, just as he swung his flaming axe/scepter.

For Double D, time seemed to have stopped still, he began to see still images of home, the scams he, Eddy and Ed had contracted, and then of the walk to the fort in the middle of Peach Creek Woods which caused everything to happen. Then he saw brief glimpses of his adventures to the other worlds. Surprisingly he next saw still images of places he had never been before, first he saw himself inside a dense foggy area. Then he appeared to be on a ship, out on the horizon, he could faintly see what appeared to be a tree, large and green and majestic compared to the deep blue of the sea.

He woke back up. "No, I can't die yet, I must find a way out!" Then it hit him. In a fraction of a second he pointed his Staff to the left then cried out a spell. "Aeroblast,"

He was flying swiftly to the left, narrowly dodging the deadly attack, but colliding against the hard wall. Instinctually, he stood up. He managed to chuckle, both at the fact that he had narrowly avoided death and at the fact that he had thought of such a ridiculous manner of escape at the last second.

"Cura,"

A green light enveloped the boy, his cuts, burns and bruises were healed and even his shirt was repaired.

"Okay, I know that Jafar isn't one to be fooled easily. I must think of a…" He stopped when he felt several small pricks at his leg. He looked down to see two small cobras that were seemingly made of flames. He didn't waste anytime to see what they did next.

"Blizzara,"

The cobras were immediately extinguished, though; when he glanced down at his legs to see the damage that was done he was shocked by the sight. His veins around the areas that were bitten were a bright orange that glowed through his skin. "What in the world is…?" Next he felt another bite on his forearm. Swiftly he shook the fire-cobra off and destroyed it with a quick 'blizzard'. The veins on his arm turned the same color as the veins on his legs, and he could see the neon orange color slowly, but surely advance through his veins.

"Do you like that technique?" Jafar sneered. "I save it only for the most troublesome rats. You see, those Cobras of flame infect their targets with a venom that cause the walls of their blood vessels to burn, this ailment spreads through out the body, boiling the blood and…"

"Leaving the victim die from too high a body temperature," Double D finished. "Once the body's organs overheat, they shut down and cease all operations. That's how you intend to dispose of me, in layman's terms anyway."

"Your logic is correct, however, this technique is a bit more sinister," he smirked again.

"What could you…"

"You see, the boiled blood only affects the outside of the body, core organs are not affected, this means that while your body burns at over 500 degrees Fahrenheit. You will be conscious the entire time."

"That's awful," already, he could feel his body begin to heat up. "Only a truly abominable person would allow someone else to experience that kind of torture!" He pointed his Jawbreaker Staff at his left leg, where he had been bitten. "I must do whatever I can to slow this down." "Blizzara,"

His left leg became frozen in a block of ice; he did the same to his right arm which was also bitten. He had lost all mobility, but at least the flaring red in his veins had stopped expanding, he had bought some time, and he knew he had to make the most of it.

The Centaur made the next move, wildly swinging its spear in nearly all directions; it took everything the three had to avoid the attacks.

"It's no use," Jasmine said in a huff. "We can't do any damage to it."

"There has to be something," Nazz stated, dodging another flurry of weapon strikes. Suddenly it hit her and she jumped away, leaving a reasonable amount of distance between her and the Heartless. "Guys, attack the head!"

"A-alright!" Sora slugged his Keyblade again, this time at the Centaur's head, once it made contact the Heartless reeled back in pain, dropping the heavy spear in the process.

Jasmine was next to attack, landing a few heavy blows to the Heartless' jawline; they heard it screech in horror as it stumbled backwards. Next came Nazz who flew in with a powerful dropkick, this last blow made the Heartless collapse onto its legs, unable to do retaliate. Finally, for one last blow all three remaining fighters came in close, however, they were too slow and Centaur managed to whack them all to the side with the flat end of its spear. It was ready to stand up and deal its final blow to the heroes when a round, heavy, metal shield was beamed at its face. This stopped the Heartless dead and it kneeled its head down in defeat.

"What, who was that?" Sora questioned as he looked for his savior, standing just a few yards away was Goofy who was jumping for joy.

"G-Goofy, thank you very much."

"Yeah dude," Nazz congratulated the knight. "We would've been goners if you hadn't come in time.

"G-gwarsh guys, it was 'nothin,"

While they were all talking they failed to notice the Heartless stand up on its own four feet again, it launched its spear into the air which promptly landed and phased underground with a splash of dark. Suddenly thousands of spikes flew up from the dusty earth instantly impaling everyone but Nazz who, though not skewered suffered severe cuts and scrapes all over her body. She looked at her friends, even though it was dark out she could see small trickles of blood trailing down the shiny, dark thorns.

"G-guys," she couldn't say anymore, she didn't have the energy to speak, and all she could feel was immeasurable pain. The Centaur managed to stand up again and gripped the girl in its hand, letting her arms dangle near-lifelessly on the sides. It crushed her, slowly, making her suffer in pain.

Jafar threw a volley of fireballs at the now partly frozen Double D. The boy had just enough time to set up a "Shell," to help offset some of the damage, but it was in vain and he was still sent flying. Once he landed on the hard marble floor his ice-cast broke into small pieces and he could feel his veins heat up once more. He couldn't take it anymore, his sight was becoming hazy and he could no longer stand. "Everyone, I'm so… sorry…"

He saw the evil wizard slowly walk up to him and grab him buy the neck, slowly he carried him to a window and roughly pressed the boy's face against the glass. "See," Jafar spoke. "This is what you and your fellow rats have caused."

Double D could see the entire city of Agrabah, most of it was in utter shambles, a large portion of buildings were on fire and directly below he could see the large Centaur holding onto Nazz with a crushing grip. Directly in front of it was an ocean of spikes and he could just barely see three little figures that were skewered by the objects. "No, it can't be." It pained him to believe it, but the three people were none other then Sora, Goofy and Jasmine.

"This is what happens when you attempt to overthrow me, now your little rebellion is over!"

"N-no, there are others, we will stop you." He weakly grabbed onto the wizard's bony arms and pulled himself up. "Your rein of terror is… over…" He then blacked out, dangling lifelessly in Jafar's grasp.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party was still zooming across the desert on the magic carpet, they could see the stone gates of Agrabah in the distance, though something seemed amiss. A dim orange light could be seen from beyond the walls and a pillar of smoke was billowing upwards.

"Don't worry Jasmine, we're coming."

Author's Note: Now that Double D, Nazz, Goofy, Sora and Jasmine are out of commission how will Eddy and his team deal with the threat that is Jafar? Stay tuned and review!