Battle of the Bastion

Gummi Space could look beautiful, except for the asteroids that always tried to hit the ship, Heartless that scattered through the area and the occasional black holes. But apart from that it was pretty beautiful.

Yuffie never seen it up close and personal before, she had spent so many years in Traverse Town that interdimensional world travel was beyond her comprehension. All the stars were so close that one could practically touch them. Tiny asteroids moved as she looked up, she felt a tinge of excitement and fear as they neared her former home. Memories of her time glimmered in and out, from the lovely streets of the main town to the great castle of the lord of the world. How she used to climb rooftops even then just to train. How she read books on ninja skills in the castle library, which was always open to the public. Back then it was said Ansem the Wise was always happy to those who wished to be learned citizens of the realm.

Home, how she really did miss it.

Her thoughts were soon disturbed as she flinched to see Leon sitting next to her looking out as well. He too had that same look of nervousness and fear, and while he hid it well Yuffie could still see it in his eyes. They were more tense than normal. Always a bad sign that he was nervous, yet he couldn't show it for everyone was looking to him for guidance.

"It'll be okay." Leon said giving what in his way was a faint smile. "Trust me."

Yuffie chuckled. "I'm not worried, so long as we're together we can do this."

"Even without our Keyblade Master?"

Yuffie nodded. She knew that Leon was feeling a bit off since he had to take so few people of the Resistance back with him. It was a tough decision but that's what she admired at Leon, the fact he was able to make those decisions. For so many years she had been by side watching him make those leadership decisions. She could only hope that she would prove herself.

"Get that sail nice and tight Launchpad, and tighten the mount Beakley! This is going to be an impact when we get closer." Scrooge looked out into the sky, the atmosphere around them now was getting darker, being a flyer himself he had been watching over the ship at Leon's behest. "Oh, I can feel a fight coming, I feel the ruffle of me feathers."

"No, that's just the cold." Beakley commented in her normal dry tone.

Cid held the wheel, his piloting skills were definitely useful, although he had never flown a pirate ship before. He was used to things more mechanical. Though he did his best and managed to avoid many of the larger asteroids along the way.

"You know, what's the point of sails if we are in the vacuum of space? Heck how are we even breathing?" Cid muttered as he twisted the wheel to do a hard right.

Aerith shrugged. "Magic, I guess."

"Of course." Cid groaned. "Magic, I'll never get any of that stuff, just give me a good tech job any day."

"Well, Phineas and Ferb did put in atmosphere vents around before we left." Aerith added as she tied another sail together.

"See, there's the science I love!"

From afar, Leon watched and again gave that faint smile. Despite his own leadership skills, he had brought this bizarre diverse group of people together. That was true teamwork, and that's what it would take to defeat the Heartless once and for all.

Scrooge let in a sigh as he too was thinking that, taking out a locket with a picture of his niece Della Duck, and how he missed her. "I'm just glad the boys aren't here. We can die, but they can't."

-000-

Yuffie looked down on how this massive civilization had once fallen by the wayside. His once beautiful home had completely fallen by the wayside. Memories of when he, Yuffie and Aerith were a child running around the lovely gardens, the grand castle looming over them. The festival, the people, the food, everything about this place was once a great city of light. Now it was just a home for the Heartless, and the evil darkness

"So this is home now" She said looking at the ruins that surrounded them, Aerith and Cid getting off. Scrooge, Launchpad and Beakly standing behind to secure the ship before exiting. "This is, this is very depressing".

"Yep," Cid said, picking at his toothpick, "Run down home back then, runned down even more now"

"It was once a beautiful place" Aerith said, her face becoming distraught.

Leon just kept his demeanor, holding on his sword tight, he could feel that Heartless were lurking, "Well, were here ...We need to find Sora and…..

"Steady people." Leon tightened the grip on his gunblade as he stepped forward. "We need to find a way to get into the castle, we won't have the event of surprise for long."

"Oh my back…." Came a gurgly voice from behind them. Leon and the others quickly turned around. "I'm getting too old for smuggling myself into places, granted that wasn't the most cramp space I've been in but still...Ouch."

Stan Pines hobbled from behind the cargo hold of the ship, the other stowaways coming out one by one all realizing that there own element of surprise had been compromised. Doofenshmirtz was right behind him as well rubbing the back in his long almost bird like neck.

"At least, you don't have to deal with this hunchback." The mad scientist complained. "I mean, try hiding in a box with a hunch, it's not good for my already extremely bad posture."

Leon could feel his temper growing just by looking at all of them, but he tried to keep his calm not wanting to alert the Heartless. Now was not the time to lose his cool, even though he should be furious by having his orders disobeyed. Yet he wasn't going to yell or scream, he was just going to glare at them hoping that would get the message through.

"What are you doing here?!" Yuffie shouted angrily to Leon's surprise,.Yuffie normally was the troublemaker herself. "We told you not to come and yet you came. That's disobeying direct orders from the boss! If it weren't for the fact we were in the middle of Heartless territory I'd clobber all of you."

"Yeah well, we don't agree." Dipper said, his voice stuttering as he tried to find logic in his actions. "We lost our worlds, we lost our homes, and we can't just sit back and let you guys do all the fighting. We're gonna help whether you like it or not!"

Leon sighed realizing that he wasn't going to change anything at this point. "How did you get here?"

"Um…." Dipper cheeks turne red, "We uh...Snuck on board"

Scrooge was fuming. "I told you boys not to come!"

"You too, Webby." Beakley added also fuming from such disobedience.

"Sorry, Granny." Webby pouted. "But we don't back down from a fight."

"Not if you're going to get killed!" Scrooge argued back. "This is dangerous we are about to go up against one of the universe's most powerful sorceresses! She won't hold back just because you're kids."

"We know." Dewey said. "But we don't care, if Uncle Donald can put himself on the line, why not us?"

Leon took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead, it was too late to turn back now.

"Ah, come on, Leon, I'm sure it will be fine." Mabel said trying to keep optimistic. "In fact, I think things are gonna be okay."

BANG!

Mabel was hit by a green ball of fire and smashed head into the rocks landing with a loud thud her eyes rolling her sockets from the impact.

"Mabel!" Dipper screamed.

Stan rushed over to her side as well. "Are you okay pumpkin?"

"Look!" Yuffie pointed to one of the higher elevated rocks, Maleficent stood before them now.

"Oh boy!" Iago grimaced.

"Maleficent!" Leon hissed.

Maleficent snickered holding her staff firmly. "Well, well, well, what have we here? Royalty…" She looked to Star. "Nobility…." She looked at Scrooge. "The gentry." She glared at Leon, finally her eyes darted to Dipper, Mabel, Stan and Marco and laughed. "Oh how quaint, even the rabble."

"Why you-" Stan wanted to clobber her but Dipper held him down.

"I really feel quite distressed in not receiving a notice to your arrival." Maleficent chuckled as she petted her raven Diablo in hand.

Leon clenched her sword. "Sorry, wanted to keep it a surprise."

"Indeed." Maleficent raised her staff as it began to glow a sickly green, other villians appeared by her side, each with malevolent grins as they encircled the enemy.

"Eh,Jafar. Hi!" Iago said seeing his former master standing next to her the evil witch. "Yeah, see um-they pay better, less threats of death."

Jafar sneered. "Insolent bird! Should have expected that you would sell us out"

"Your betrayal doesn't matter." Maleficent interjected standing tall as she too was the leader of this group of villainous fiends. "I'm afraid you are too late, any moment now the final keyhole will be unsealed, this world will be plunged into darkness. It is unstoppable."

"We'll stop it!" Mabel grunted as she got it waking up to Maleficent and the villains defiance in her eyes. "We didn't come this far to let that happen!"

Maleficent glared at her. "You poor simple fools, you think you can defeat me?! Me, the mistress of all evil!"

Summoning all of her magical might, Maleficent conjures the forces of darkness in all it's glory, as hordes of Heartless emanating from her staff of various shapes and sizes. The other villains led the charge using their own powers as they began to head toward the resistance. Leon and the others ready their defenses, they were outnumbered, outgunned, but they were ready to fight.

Maleficent eyes glowed green as she commanded the heartless to charge. "Strike them down!"

Battle ensued.

Heartless swarmed all over the open grounds of Hollow Bastion creating large clouds of darkness in the sky. Some of the larger rocks allowed for cover for Leon and his gang to hide and regroup. The battle was intense was swords were swung, ninja stars thrown. Everyone using their skills to the best of their knowledge just to try to stay alive against the incoming slaughter of darkness that stood against them.

They began pouring down now, spreading as fast as they could, the villains leading the charge as they attacked, firing their magical powers or straight on attacking them in the case of Pete, Oogie and Hook. Everyone spread apart to keep the Heartless and villains away from one another and isolate them. Aerith and Yuffie taking a group of Heartless lead by Ursula down to the watery pits

"Well, no one said this was going to be easy." Yuffie muttered as a blast from Maleficent staff nearly hit the rock.

Aerith nodded. "Yeah, but I wish it could be a little easy."

"Tell me about it-UGH!" Yuffie pressed down holding her knee a bit of blood dripping from it. "Blasted thing!"

"Here!"

Aerith got down taking out a green potion pouring it on the wound instantly healing it. "Good thing I brought a lot before we left."

"Good thing, you're a good healer."

Another whip and they saw Ursula tentacles grab hold of Yuffie's leg trying to drag her into the water. Aerith quickly grabbed a hold of her to keep her from drowning.

"Ah, come on down here, little one. No need to fear." Ursula chuckled darkly as she continued to pull Yuffie in. "You poor unfortunate soul, your world taken by the Heartless, it's a sad fate all worlds will suffer eventually, even mine."

"Yeah, I don't want to think calamari right now." Yuffie muttered.

Aerith looked around and saw a very jagged rock, quickly she took it and stabbed Ursula's tentacle causing the sea witch to scream and recoil back into the ocean, pulling Yuffie back onto the ground. Although the sudden movement caused Yuffie to be tossed into the air landing right on top of Aerith by accident.

"Sorry," Aerith muttered helping her up.

"Hey, at least I'm not sleeping with the fishes."

Aerith just rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's help the others."

Star and Marco managed to knock back a few Heartless with kung-fu and Star's magic. Both seemed quite used to the idea of fighting monsters, the irony being the monster they fought now stood by their side. A shield protected them from a onslaught of flying shadows and soldiers that zoomed around them like a bug swarm.

Using her magic Star managed to summon a swarm of laser shooting puppies that charged at the Heartless managing to attack them with a mixture of cuteness and deadly laser blasts. It was enough to give them some breathing room.

"Good one, Star!" Marco shouted.

"Thanks!"

Victory was premature for a round of Armored Knight Heartless surrounded them and closing in, the two teens huddling up together. In a moment of fear, they held hands hoping to calm each other down. It looked like they couldn't get out of this mess when suddenly the Armored Knights found themselves swung back with brute force.

Captain Hook watched them and sneered. "Armored Knights, quite useful to suppress the enemies. Cast them aside like bilge rats!"

"Star, lookout!" Marco grabbed Star and pulled her back as a large, fat Heartless almost landed on her. "You okay?"

Star nodded blushing. "Yeah, yeah I'm good."

A few feet south two other rivals Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus stood side by side as a group of soldier Heartless marched towards them. Suddenly, a large beam of energy came from a roaring machine causing all the Heartless to evaporate in a single second. They seemed to be having a field day, yet there weren't used to any battles like this before.

"Behold! My Heartless Destroy-inator!" Doofenshmirtz declared as he held his weapon up high and fired it crazily taking out dozens of Heartless out at once.

"Technically, it's our Heartless Destroy-inator." Phineas interjected.

Doofenshmirtz groaned. "I came up with on the fly, I built it, it's technically my Inator, beside it's a Inator, inators are always my proper, I had it copyright."

"We can discuss copyright law later!" Isabelle shrieked as she lurched back avoiding one of Hades' fireballs.

The trio kept firing for there life, a few feet beneath Cid was having the time of his life.

"Ugh, I haven't felt this young in years!"

Opening a small box he unleashed a large beam of energy, evaporating Heartless in droves, cackling madly all the while.

"Woo! Take that, you no good buggers!" Cid shouted as he struck down a battalion of Air Soldiers, there tiny goggles plopping to the ground..

As Heartless appeared on the ground, some appeared in the air. These particular kind were known Wyverns, a type of emblem Heartless that looked liked winged gargoyles and devils. They flew the skies attack from above striking down at the resistance members.

The only two abone were Zazu and Iago trying to avoid getting attacked.

Iago in particular was starting to regret choosing sides. He wanted to retreat, hide, live his days in exile away from it all. But he knew that was impossible, so long as Maleficent and her Heartless remained so did any chance of having peace.

"Yeesh, these things are a pain. Wish I was back on their side." Iago muttered trying to fly as fast as he could.

Zazu gave him a disparaging look. "Such moral standards. I'm not even a fighter."

The two birds continued to fly down until they heard a high pitch screech and a flash of black. From behind, they saw a black raven hover over them and try to strike them down.

"Diablo." Iago hissed.

Maleficent loyal pet raven swooped down again, it's beak facing forward as it tried to take down the two birds.

They dodged and fluttered away.

"Thinking what I'm thinking?" Iago snickered looking down at Diablo who had lost track of them

Zazu nodded.

Together the two birds zoomed down and struck side by side smacking the birds wings causing it to lose its motion and fall onto the ground. It manage to retreat before a falling rock hit him.

Iago and Zazu give a good old fashioned feather high five.

While some thrived others did not, Dipper and Mabel were not used to this type of battle and were running most of the time. Dipper trying to find something in his journal that could fix this. Always more of a thinker than a fighter. The chaos was confusing for everyone and the Heartless continued to come like ants breaking out from the ground. Several Shadows kept managing to sneak up and overwhelm them causing them to retreat deeper into the valley of ruins.

"You know in hindsight, I guess I didn't think this through!" Dipper shouted as Pete stood before them with two Large Bodies as backup.

Mabel grimaced. "You think?"

"Pete, the large bodies are good for frontal attacks." Hook suggested as he tried to slice Aerith with his sword. "Squish those tiny urchins."

"Will do!." Pete cackled cracking his knuckles.

"Oh yeah? Well, GRAPPLING HOOK!"

Mabel took out her grappling hook with swift haste and plastered it right at the two large Heartless as the metal hook shot right towards there face and hit with massive impact.

Unfortunately for her it didn't do anything.

"Ah, poopie."

Dipper sighed. "Gee thanks, Mabel, great help."

With a snap of his fingers, Pete commanded the Large Bodies as they began to jump and land with a large thump both Pine Twins managing to avoid there mass through sheer speed.

Mabel took hold of Dipper and used her grappling to swing them away as fast as they could, Pete still hot on there trail until he cornered them again his shadow looming large, very large.

"Don't make me use this uh-" Mabel tried to think of a good insult. "Tubby."

"Really? Tubby?" Dipper asked.

"I'm under a lot of pressure right now, okay? Don't patronize me with the fact you're smarter."

"So the little pipsqueaks wanna fight do they? Oh, I'll give them a fight." Pete snickered. "Fine then. I'll give ya a fight!"

"Oh yeah, we'll fight on this." Pete turned to see Stan's fist make a impact on his face and knocking him back. "Heh, your Grunkle still got the moves. Ouch!"

"Oh yeah! Give them the one-two!" Iago shouted flighting above them.

Zazu zoomed by too. "Good show master Stanley, good show."

"Aye Pines" Scrooge called from afar, "You may be a cheat, but you treat your family right!"

Pete got up and knocked back as the two big guys had at it now. Each knocking blows against the others, both in top strength and size. Dipper and Mabel did there best to naw Pete down by the legs. The two danced like giants on the ground as they tried to break the other down. Each punching the other hard as the twins watched hiding behind one of the rocks.

"Get him, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel cheered.

Dipper pounded his fist into the air. "Yeah, you get this jerkface!"

"Run kids!" Stan shouted as he dodged another punch. "Find cover or something! I don't know, stay alive!"

The twins nodded and ran off to find a safe space.

Yuffie jotted up another round of ninja stars and struk town two flying Heartless right above her, only to have three more take their place.

"There like roaches." She groaned.

Leon jumped to her side and struck the Heartless down, tumbling on the ground before getting back up. Behind him another round of explosions from one Cid's devices activated causing the rocks to crumbling knocking out a few Large Bodies, but a magical shield of water kept Ursula going, her tentacles through whatever debris she could find straight onto them.

Up above the ledge Leon could see Hook taking on Phineas, Ferb and Isabella in a three way duel, the kids were pretty good at fencing.

"Still think this was a good idea?" Yuffie muttered staying close to Leon's back. "Any regrets?"

"Never."

"RUN! RUN FOR IT!" Leon saw Launchpad and Mrs Beakley making a straight line towards them and directly passing them without even a flinch.

The ground again began to shake as the floor exploded, rocks and debris flying in every direction as a pile of smoke and dust. It took a few minutes but the sound of loud screech came directly from it, as it began to settle the massive shadow of a horned beast on all four legs began to appear. Slowly this creature made its way forward causing the ground to shake beneath it with each step it took. For this was a Behemoth, one of the most massive emblem Heartless, forged from hearts that were consumed by darkness and anger to the point where they became monsters inside.

Leon and Yuffie looked at the beast with horror in their eyes as they slowly stepped back.

"We should probably run." Yuffie commented as she dashed away.

Leon nodded. "Agree, we run."

The Behemoth roared as it began to charge, the Heartless were on the offensive now, and the resistance on the retreat.

"Well," Leon said now in a corner, "Never thought I'd go out like this"

Yuffie seemed confused, "Really? This is exactly how I thought you'd go out"

Everyone gathered around despite the bravado she didn't know what was going to happen next. It was up to Sora now, all they could give him was time, time to end this evil that threatens everyone and all the light and goodness in the world once and for all.