Keys to the Kingdom

by MiniJen

Thirteen Keys, scattered across the worlds. Whoever holds them all is destined to rule the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts. As both light and darkness scour the worlds for these keys, Sora finds himself caught between standing alongside his friends as they fight for the light and struggling against the encroaching darkness invading his own heart. KH3 AU.

47. Chapter 46: Out of Thin Air

Oof, so this one took a bit longer than I'd wanted it to, mostly since its VERY long and VERY plot significant and also because I got sick while in the middle of writing it. I'm on the road to recovery now, and with that I give you this HUGE chapter in which a TON of stuff happens and Sora has a very bad time, what else is new. Enjoy!

---

Chapter 46: Out of Thin Air

One look at your smile
And I could see the light
Shining everywhere
People like you
Don't come out of thin air

The Forty Thieves had been sold out. Within an hour of their king departing alongside Aladdin and his friends, a massive horde of guards stormed their well-hidden hideout, subduing a majority of the remaining 39 thieves in short order. They were hauled across the desert as prisoners, brought back to Agrabah and locked away in the dungeons to await punishment for their chaotic raid at the royal wedding. And once they're tossed into their cramped cell, they're all able to see who'd managed to not only survive the Challenge, but who'd conspired against his former comrades, betraying each and every last one of them solely for the sake of petty revenge.

Sa'luk largely ignores the angry threats of his fellow thieves as he turns back to the group of guards he'd ratted them out to, far from pleased upon finding who's absent from their number. "He's not in there!" he snarls, brandishing his golden claws. "You didn't capture the King of Thieves?"

"Because he was not at the hideout!" the head guard, Razoul, counters just as crossly.

"He had to be there. Where else would he be?"

"A-apologies, Captain Razoul," another guard interrupts as he steps into the room.

"What?!" Razoul and Sa'luk both snap, annoyed by the intrusion.

"Um, t-the Sultan says he won't be able to sentence your prisoners until tomorrow," the guard reports anxiously.

"What's more important than sentencing my prisoners?!" Razoul practically shouts, infuriated.

"Why, the wedding, of course!" the guard finally smiles. "Princess Jasmine and Aladdin are finally getting married!"

"Aladdin?" Sa'luk grabs the guard by his vest and yanks him forward. "You didn't capture Aladdin with the others?"

"Why would we?" Razoul asks, arms crossed.

"Because his father is the King of Thieves!"

Upon hearing this baffling news, a broad, satisfied smile spreads across Razoul's face. After all, it's exactly the kind of damning evidence he's been looking for to take the lowly street rat who'd somehow found favor with the princess down a peg. To finally put that bothersome boy behind bars where he really belongs.

"Pardon me, gentlemen." Everyone starts as this new voice breaks into the conversation, a voice that comes from a mysterious figure standing in the doorway, clad in a black coat and hood that conceals everything but the steady, calm smile on his face.

"Who are you?" Razoul steps forward, a hand already resting on the sword strapped to his belt. "How did you get in here?"

"Please, you have no cause for alarm," the hooded man assures, raising a gloved hand. "I've simply come to deliver information that I believe you all will find quite valuable."

"...What kind of information?" Razoul asks, narrowing his eyes at the stranger.

"You seek to capture the so-called King of Thieves, correct?" the hooded man counters, his hands positioned behind his back. "What if I told you that he is right here, within the very walls of this town, even as we speak?"

"What?" Sa'luk hisses as he steps up alongside Razoul. "That boy actually managed to convince Cassim to come back here? When he's the city's most wanted criminal?"

"For the wedding, no doubt," Razoul smirks, amused by this turn of events. "I wonder what the princess will have to say when she finds out her future father-in-law is nothing more than a filthy thief, just like her 'beloved' fiance…"

"Unfortunately, the king didn't come all this way merely for the festivities," the hooded man speaks up. "I just so happened to… overhear that he has plans to steal a priceless artifact from the palace. And that he's not alone in such a scheme either."

"I didn't think that 'noble' son of his would have the stomach for stealing that Oracle," Sa'luk huffs, doubtful.

"Not his son," the hooded man clarifies. "But another boy who's conspiring with him. A boy with cloud-white hair and sun-golden eyes."

"...And claws, by any chance?" Sa'luk asks suspiciously.

The hooded man's smile deepens at this. "Precisely. He may not look like much, but mark my words, that child is a monster at his very core. If your aim is to apprehend the King of Thieves, then you'd best lock away his dangerous young accomplice too. For the safety of your fair city…. And the satisfaction of your own ends…"

"And what would someone like you know about-" Razoul stops short as he spares another glance over at their odd informant. Only to find that, almost as suddenly as he had appeared, the hooded man has suddenly vanished.

Though not without delivering the intel that will deliver his elusive thirteenth right into his awaiting hands.

---

Aladdin and the others return to the palace to find that not only has the damage caused by the raid been completely cleared away, but a new wedding pavilion has been erected in its place, one far grander (and sturdier) than the previous one. His spirits are high, while Roxas and Xion's are hopeful, though Cassim remains cautious, as Sora tries his best to not let his rising anxiety grow. Even if it does every single time he sees any of his friends send a warm or encouraging smile his way, as he wonders just how badly what he's about to do will break whatever trust they might still have for him. As he wonders if this risky scheme will even be worth it at all.

"Looks like Genie has everything ready," Aladdin grins as he surveys the new pavilion.

"Genie?" Cassim perks up in interest at this. "You have a genie? Have you used all three wishes yet?"

"Oh please, don't go into it," Iago groans, a wing over his face. "It's just too painful."

Speaking of Genie, he just so happens to appear at that exact moment, absolutely delighted to see Aladdin. "Al!" he exclaims, giving his friend a tight hug. "You're back! And your front! They're both here!"

"Glad to see you too, Genie-" Aladdin chuckles, though he's quickly cut off.

"Security's tight," Genie whispers, casting a suspicious glance around the area. "No big crowd this time. Immediate friends and family only."

"Perfect," Aladdin tries again, sparing a brief glance over at Cassim. "Because this is my-"

"No lowlifes," Genie goes on anyway. "Other than the parrot, of course. We're all armed and dangerous!" With this, Genie splits himself up into dozens of weapon-wielding duplicates, all of them forming a solid perimeter around the pavilion to keep any unwanted intruders from slipping in. "I'd like to see one of those Forty Thieves get within an inch of your wedding this time!"

"Well then," Iago pipes up from his spot on Cassim's shoulder. "Allow me to introduce..."

"The King of Thieves," Cassim finishes with a bold grin.

Genie only has time to let out a horrified gasp before Sora quickly interrupts just in the nick of time. "Who also happens to be… Aladdin's dad!" he professes before Genie can truly panic.

Sure enough, he does freeze up at this information, glancing between Cassim and Aladdin before the latter offers him a smile to confirm it. "That's right," Aladdin nods, though he does tense up a bit when he sees Genie's expression tighten into a stern scowl.

"If you're Al's dad, and the King of Thieves," he begins, approaching Cassim almost threateningly. "I just wanna know one thing."

"Yeah?" Cassim counters just as challengingly.

"...Will you be having the chicken or the sea bass?" Genie cordially grins, taking on the guise of a wedding caterer.

Aladdin and the others let out a shared sigh of relief upon seeing Genie ease up, a welcome sign that perhaps it might not be so hard for Cassim to fit in around here after all. "Come on, Dad," Aladdin encourages, beckoning his father to follow after him. "I can't wait for you to meet Jasmine and the Sultan-"

"Um, Al?" Genie bursts in to stop him. "Don't you think we ought to lose the 'Agrabah's Most Wanted' look?" he asks, pulling a wanted poster down over Cassim.

"What's wrong with the way I look?" he asks, scowling.

"Other than incredibly suspicious, nothing," Roxas remarks with a smug grin.

"Um… maybe Genie does have a point though…" Xion interjects when she notices the cross glare Cassim sends his way for that jab.

"Yeah," Aladdin agrees, pulling his father's hood down. "When you're here, you're not the King of Thieves. You're my dad."

Cassim hesitates at this, shaking his head as he lets out a small, apprehensive sigh. "I've had more practice at being the King of Thieves…"

"Oh, come on," Genie rebuffs. "Enough of this dark past. You've got a big, bright, beautiful future to spend together as father and son! So let's roll out something a little new." With a snap of his fingers, Genie transforms Cassim's blue thieving cloak into attire that's much more elegant and befitting for his son's wedding. A wedding that he feels a bit more equipped to attend, and one that he'd genuinely consider going to… if not for the prize he really came here to claim.

"Lookin' good, Dad," Aladdin grins, clapping a hand onto his shoulder.

"Yeah, we barely recognized you!" Sora adds, equally impressed.

"Speak for yourself, kid," Iago notes as he lands on Sora's shoulder. "At least he isn't out here trying to pull off a band new hair color like you are." At this remark, Sora wastes no time shoving the bird off of him, his expression only growing more disgruntled as he hears the small bouts of laughter Roxas and Xion can't help but let out over it. Laughter that Sora largely forces himself to join in on, a small burst of levity leveraged against the grim reason behind his whitening hair.

"I suppose I could get used to this…" Cassim smirks as he inspects the regal cape that comes along with his new outfit. "I hate to admit it, but this might just be the first clothes I've had in a good while that weren't stolen."

"Well, as long as you're around here, you won't have to steal anything else ever again," Aladdin assures, hoping that his father takes that to heart. That he uses this opportunity to finally escape the life of constant thievery he's clearly gotten so used to, a life that Aladdin had gladly left behind himself, all thanks to-

"Aladdin!" Jasmine's call cuts his train of thought short. He barely has time to turn around before she crashes into him, engulfing him in a loving, happy hug. "I'm so glad you made it back safely. That all of you made it back safely," she says, offering a warm nod of greeting to Sora, Roxas, and Xion.

"And just in time too!" the Sultan exclaims as he trails in alongside his daughter. "All of the preparations have been made. We're ready to try the wedding again whenever both of you are, of course."

"That's perfect," Aladdin says as he and Jasmine part. "Because I brought a guest. Jasmine, Sultan, I'd like you both to meet…"

"Your father!" Jasmine gasps, correctly guessing the relation between the pair just by looking at them both.

"Yes, your highness," Cassim respectfully bows to one knee before the princess. "My boy Aladdin must have been born under a lucky star to find such a treasure."

Jasmine lets out a small, amused chuckle at this kindly compliment. "Oh, you are most definitely Aladdin's father," she says, reminded of her fiance's usual brand of charm. A trait that he clearly inherited from Cassim himself.

"It must have been dreadful, to be trapped by the Forty Thieves for so long!" the Sultan exclaims, clearly sympathetic to the plight the Oracle claimed he had been in. A plight that had, by all accounts, been completely self-imposed on Cassim's part.

"Uh oh…" Genie mutters to Aladdin and the others, though Cassim passes the comment off cleverly enough.

"I try to block out the memories…" he shudders, playing his feigned innocence well. It's clearly convincing enough for the Sultan and Jasmine to believe, even if everyone else knows better.

"Say no more," the Sultan counters firmly. "Not another word on the subject!"

"Yes, let's turn our attention to happier thoughts," Cassim catches the Sultan off guard by sweeping him up into a fond and friendly embrace. "The blessed union of our children!"

"Oh! I-Indeed!" the Sultan chuckles brightly, thoroughly agreeing with such sentiments.

As Cassim continues chatting with the Sultan and Jasmine, Aladdin can't help but smile, both out of relief and excitement as he watches everything from the sidelines with the others. "It worked, Genie!" he exclaims. "They love him."

"It was the hat," Genie jokes, tipping the similar hat he conjures up for himself. "Nothing does the trick like a smart chapeau."

"It's more than that," Aladdin shakes his head, his proud sights set on his father. "All he needed was a second chance to really change for the better."

While he normally would have shared Aladdin's elation over someone successfully turning their life around, Sora can't help but feel worried as he realizes what Cassim's supposedly sudden shift could mean. Namely, the end of a plan that he's counting on, a plan he wants nothing to do with, but has no choice but to be a part of all the same.

"Do you really think he's done stealing for good?" he asks Aladdin, trying his best to mask his rising apprehension.

For his part, Aladdin nods, his smile widening a bit as he notices his father briefly glancing his way with a look that's every bit as warm. "Yeah. I do."

Then that could be a problem… Sora thinks, biting his lip as he looks away. He doesn't get a chance to try and come up with a backup plan to solve that problem, however, before Roxas suddenly grabs his arm and pulls him aside for a private conversation with him and Xion.

"So, we're back," he begins, his tone stern and serious. "I think you know what that means, Sora."

"I-I do?" Sora half-jokes in a ploy to distract the pair from the matter at hand. A ploy that doesn't work in the slightest.

"It means you can finally ask the Oracle how to save your heart," Xion reminds him with a small, hopeful smile.

"Oh, yeah, I-I mean… I can," Sora acknowledges, even though he knows full well he has no intentions of doing anything of the sort. "But don't you think we oughta wait just a… little bit longer?"

"For what?!" Roxas scoffs, appalled by such a suggestion.

"Until after the wedding," Sora nods back over to the others as Aladdin and Genie join them. "Everyone's so excited and happy right now, I-I just wouldn't feel right about dragging all that down with something like… this." He glances down at his claws, as sinister-looking as ever to the point that he's starting to forget what his hands had looked like before the darkness had overtaken them. As he's realizing more and more with each passing day that he's starting to forget a time before he had first been beset by that darkness to begin with.

"Why do you keep trying to put this off?" Roxas asks him sharply. "This could save your life but it's like you don't even care!"

"I do care!" Sora protests, but there's little force behind it. Mostly because he doesn't, because he can't. Because there's no use in caring about something that he already knows can't be saved.

"And so do we," Xion professes. As always, she takes the much more patient route than Roxas, though even her patience with Sora's persistent evasion is starting to run rather thin. "That's why we want to get you the help you need as soon as we can. One tiny question is all it'll take, so why not just ask it already? What are you waiting for?"

"Um… t-the wedding-"

"No, Sora," Roxas interjects, not buying that, or any of his other excuses anymore. "What are you waiting for? What's your problem with just asking someone for help already? What are you so afraid of?!"

"I-I… I'm…" Sora trails off, unable to even finish as he glances between the two. Roxas fixes him with a fierce scowl, Xion with a worried frown, but both of them press him with the same exact persistence to force him to ask a question he can't bear to voice, to seek the answers he can't begin to face. And what's worse is that he knows he can't just tell them why he can't ask that question either. He can't admit that Roxas is right, that he is afraid. Afraid of the truth he knows the Oracle holds, of what he's always known to be true as much as he once tried his best to think otherwise. Of the confirmation that there really is no saving him no matter what he or anyone else might do.

Fortunately, he doesn't have to admit that. For their tense conversation is abruptly interrupted just in time before he can. "Excuse me," Cassim begins, largely apathetic and oblivious toward the serious confrontation he's cutting into. "You wouldn't happen to have a spare moment to help me with a… small matter, would you, Sora?"

"Actually," Roxas says, sending the King of Thieves an annoyed scowl. "He doesn-"

"I-I do!" Sora rushes to counter, more than glad for the welcome diversion.

"But Sora-" Xion attempts, though Sora wastes no time in following after Cassim instead.

"Guess we'll just have to wrap this up later," he quickly says as he spares a glance back at the pair. One that comes along with a genuinely relieved smile, one that infuriates Roxas the moment he sees it. "Sorry, guys!"

"Sora! Get back here!" Roxas shouts, catching the attention of everyone else in the pavilion. Xion grabs him by the arm before he can go after Sora, however, silently alerting him of the curious gazes the others are all sending his way. It's enough to get him to back down, at least for now. Though his immense frustration remains as he watches Sora leave the pavilion, still intent on getting him the help he so desperately needs before it's too late. "I swear, the second this wedding is over," he begins, his voice a low, fierce whisper. "He's asking the Oracle that question, whether he wants to or not."

---

Almost as soon as they're out of everyone else's earshot, Sora wastes no time in confirming his suspicions about what Cassim might be seeking his "help" for. "So we're still going after that Oracle, right?"

"Geez, kid!" Iago squawks as he flies in to join the pair. "Keep it down! What, do ya want the whole palace to hear you?"

"No," Sora scoffs back dryly. "Do you want the entire city to hear you? Because you sure are being loud enough."

"Both of you would be wise to stay quiet," Cassim advises as he peers around a nearby corner. "But to answer your previous question, yes, the plan is still on. In fact, we're on our way to do exactly that even as we speak."

"Wait, w-we are?" Sora asks, caught off guard.

Cassim nods as he continues following Iago's lead to the treasury. "Aladdin and the others are busy preparing for the wedding. Which creates an ideal opening to get in, take the scepter, and get out before anyone sees."

"You're… not even gonna stick around to see his wedding?" Sora frowns, already knowing how much that will hurt Aladdin.

Cassim seems to know that too as he lets out a small, solemn sigh. "It's a sacrifice that must be made. In time he'll understand, once I return having claimed the Hand of Midas as my own."

"Yeah, a good bit of gold is plenty to make up for missing some silly old wedding, if you ask me," Iago grins greedily.

"I don't think Aladdin would feel the same way," Sora shakes his head, though he knows he won't do much to change either of their minds. Not that he really sees that as his primary goal right now anyway. "So… once you get that Oracle, you're gonna take it far away, right?"

"Out of Agrabah, at least, yes," Cassim says.

"Yeah, the last thing we want is that Oracle tipping anyone off with that fancy-schmancy light show of hers," Iago remarks dryly.

"Right…" Sora agrees, rubbing his arm. "Nobody needs to know about this." Especially not Roxas and Xion, he internally adds, who would certainly be infuriated if they found out what he's doing. And that's exactly why he has no intentions of telling them, no desire to let them know about the role he's playing in taking what they believe to be his last and only hope away.

"Aha! Here we are!" Iago flies on ahead to the nearby treasury door. Upon peering through the window on that door, the group finds the exact treasure they're looking for on display, the Oracle's scepter, glistening amidst the gold it's surrounded by. "Here's the monkey's lock picks," Iago drops the tool he'd swiped from Abu into Cassim's hand. "You know how to use 'em?"

Cassim nods, using the pick to make quick work of the lock to the fortunately unguarded room. "I promise you, bird," he says to Iago as he leads the way inside. "After this, I go straight."

"Straight to the dungeon." Cassim, Sora, and Iago all freeze at this sudden interruption, though their alarm only skyrockets when one of the palace guards steps out from behind the treasury's golden fixtures. On impulse, Cassim pulls a gilded sword out from a nearby treasure pile, while Sora summons his Keyblade, both of them ready to defend themselves from the immense trouble they're now clearly in.

Yet for his part, Razoul simply grins, knowing he's not the one who's outnumbered here. "We've been expecting you," he nods over to the edges of the room as even more guards emerge, each of them welding bows and swords to stop this theft in its tracks. And with so many deadly weapons aimed straight at him, Cassim knows he has little choice but to fold against them.

"It's over, boy," he says to Sora, sighing as he drops his sword. "We can't take all of them."

Sora pauses at this, taking a moment to assess the dire straits they're in. Sure enough, they're completely surrounded on just about all sides, yet the path to the scepter is still clear. Clear enough that he could still get to it, he could still pull this off, he could still keep that daunting question from ever being asked.

And besides, he can't back down now. Not when he's already dug himself so deeply into the mess that he's made for himself.

"Maybe you can't," he glances back at Cassim while letting his Keyblade disappear. "But I can!"

Without any further hesitation, Sora throws both of his arms up, and his powers react in turn. The entire room is suddenly thrown into chaos as several tall, sharp, blackened spikes burst out from the ground, blocking off many of the guards before they can even try to approach. Sora takes advantage of their initial frightened confusion to charge forward and yank the scepter out of its display, gripping it tightly as he casts even more dark magic to block the sling of arrows flying his way.

"Huh," Iago remarks from his spot on Cassim's shoulder. "Guess that kid does have the guts for this after all."

Cassim has no time to respond as one of the guards swings their sword his way. He dodges out of its path, reclaiming his own fallen blade to fend off another attack. At the same time, Sora continues unleashing his dark magic to keep the guards away from the scepter, unsettling or outright scaring many of them in the process.

"That old geezer was right," Razoul remarks to a nearby guard. "That boy really is a monster. Get him!"

A handful of the guards press forward upon their captain's command, only to be knocked back by several more black spikes. By now, Sora's ready to make a run for it with the scepter in tow, though as he turns back to the exit, he's met with an alarming sight. Despite his best efforts to fight them off, Cassim is soon overwhelmed by the horde of guards surrounding him, ultimately leaving him with no choice but to surrender. At least until he happens to glance over Sora's direction.

"A little help here, boy?" he asks, hoping that Sora's peculiar powers can get him out of this tight spot.

And yet, as much as he'd like to help Cassim, Sora quickly realizes pulling him out of his plight won't be so easy. One of the guards has already latched onto the king of thieves, wrenching his arms tightly behind his back to restrain him while another begins tying them up tight. As he watches another guard grab Iago before he can escape, Sora finds even more soldiers are closing in on him as well, their arrows ready to fly in what will no doubt be a painful strike. A strike that could land him in far more trouble than he can even imagine if he's caught. And that's why he has to make the tough call to do whatever he can to keep that from happening, even if he can't do much to save Cassim from the same fate.

"Sora?" Cassim presses once more, struggling to free himself from the guards' tight hold.

"...I'm sorry," Sora sighs, tightening his grip on the scepter. Just before any of the guards can reach him, he calls upon another burst of energy from below, using it as a boost to launch him high over everyone around him, ultimately landing him right next to the treasury doors. He pauses only for a brief moment, glancing back at Cassim and Iago only to see the sheer shocked looks of betrayal all over both of their faces. Betrayal that he knows he won't be able to ease in the slightest with what he says next. "But I have to do this…"

And with that, Sora turns on his heel, bursts through the doors, and runs.

He only barely hears Cassim's indiscernible angry shout, barely hears the guards' rallying cry to capture him and reclaim the scepter. The most he can really hear is his own heartbeat pounding away in his ears, panic pouring through him as he races through the palace halls. He's not sure where he's going, or what he even intends on doing now that the entire plan has fallen to pieces. But what he does know is that he needs to escape, from the guards, from Cassim, from Aladdin or Roxas or Xion, and most of all, from his own horrible decisions. Decisions he's only starting to regret now that there's nothing he can do to take any of them back.

As he continues running through the winding corridors, he can't help but wonder how it's all come to this. How he ended up stealing from one of his longtime friends, stealing something that could, just as Roxas said, potentially save him, even if he still doesn't think it can. How he ended up committing treason, not just against Aladdin or Jasmine, but against an entire world he's grown so fond of across his many visits to it. Has his heart really fallen so far into darkness that he's willing to stoop low enough to do something so treacherous? Has he really become no better than the very Organization he's spent so long trying to keep himself out of?

And is there any way out of this disaster he's brought solely upon himself? Out of the seemingly endless struggle he can't seem to escape from, even by way of death itself?

Perhaps, Sora considers apprehensively as he looks down at the scepter secure in his arms, there just might be. All in the form of that question he still doesn't want to ask… but knows he needs to regardless. Besides, at least now he can learn the truth in solitude. He can have the privilege of being alone when he finds out, once and for all, that he really is doomed no matter what he does.

Eventually, he manages to find a secluded room, one with a quiet, abandoned balcony. He rushes inside, and uses his Keyblade to seal the doors up tight to keep anyone from following him. And then, there alone on the balcony, he finally decides to ask that question, and face whatever that answer might be. Even if he already knows what that answer most certainly is.

"Hey!" he calls, raising the scepter. "Um… Oracle? I need to ask you something!"

The scepter responds in turn, hovering out of Sora's hold as the Oracle herself appears in her usual ethereal splendor. "What knowledge do you seek, young hero of the Keyblade?" she asks expectantly.

Sora winces at this, wishing she wouldn't call him a 'hero'; because by all accounts, he feels nothing like a hero in light of what he's just done. "I-I… I want to know-" he cuts himself off as a burst of incredible pain floods through his heart, seemingly out of nowhere. It sweeps through him, silencing him to the point that he can't speak. To the point that he can't say the question he desperately wants to ask, the question he needs to ask above all else: "How do I save my heart from the darkness?"

Instead, much to his surprise, another question entirely comes out of his mouth, one that's spoken in his voice, but isn't his own in the slightest. It comes out rigidly as he tries to suppress it, as he tries his hardest to keep himself from wasting perhaps the last chance he might ever get to put an end to this, to free himself from the chains that are meant to keep him bound to the shadows for the rest of his life. Yet instead of asking for that freedom, this is what he's forced to ask instead:

"H-how do I find this world's Key?"

It's a foolish question, a useless one. Each of the Keys he's found have always shown themselves to him in good time to the point that he's never really needed any external help in tracking them down. And yet, through some force far beyond his control, he's made to ask for help with something he doesn't need; all while being denied the help he won't be able to survive without.

For her part, the Oracle dutifully responds, imparting her wisdom seemingly without sensing the question posed to her wasn't sincere. "The Key connected to this world can be forged only by a heart filled with the deepest of guilt."

And that's all she offers him before she disappears. Before her scepter falls slowly back into his grip. And his tears fall silently onto its golden surface.

Pain still grips his heart like a vice as he lets out a choked, miserable sob. He has no idea what happened, no clue as to what possessed him to ask what he did. What he does know is that single wasted question has rendered everything he's just done, from lying to Roxas and Xion, to stealing from Aladdin and Jasmine, to abandoning Cassim and Iago, completely and utterly pointless. Because all he's left with even after all of that is nothing to show for it in the slightest.

And what's worse is that he doesn't even have a chance to begin planning out his next move. A heavy pounding on the doors behind him catches him off guard, startling him to the point that he nearly drops the scepter entirely. The guards have clearly caught up to him, and while they're momentarily locked out, that door won't keep them away forever. Sora begins backing up toward the edge of the balcony, knowing he has nowhere to go and no excuses to make. He nearly makes an attempt at calling upon a dark corridor as a last ditch effort at escaping, yet before he can even raise his hand to try, something abruptly stops him in his tracks.

He's suddenly, painfully struck squarely across the back of his head. His vision blurs violently as he collapses to the ground, the scepter rolling out of his hands as he struggles to maintain consciousness. It's a battle he ultimately loses however, though not before catching sight of a pair of black boots stepping into his dulling field of vision.

But he's long gone before he can even try to see who they belong to.

---

With the pavilion repaired, it doesn't take long for everyone to pull together the last few preparations for the second attempt at a royal wedding. Both Aladdin and Jasmine are once again dressed well for the much more humble occasion this time around, and what few attendees have been invited this time stand by to see it through. Save for two of them who are strangely, noticeably missing.

"Where could Cassim be?" the Sultan wonders as he fretfully paces back and forth. "I do hope nothing's wrong… Perhaps we should dispatch a search party?"

"Now, Father," Jasmine reassures, placing her hands on his shoulders. "I'm sure he's on his way."

On the far end of the wedding hall, Aladdin lets out an anxious sigh upon hearing this, largely hoping the same exact thing. "Where is he…?" he wonders quietly, glancing around for any sign of his father approaching.

"Not to worry, Al," Genie grins confidently. "My guess is he wants to make an entrance."

"Well, if he's making us wait this long, it better be amazing," Roxas remarks impatiently.

"He asked Sora to help him with something earlier, so maybe that's it?" Xion suggests, though she wears a worried frown all the same.

"Uh… if that's the entrance he's making, I'm not so sure about that…" Genie says, pointing to the group barging into the pavilion. Sure enough, Cassim is among them, though he's being pushed along by a handful of guards, his wrists restrained by sturdy metal shackles.

A collective gasp arises from the wedding party at this alarming sight, one that the Sultan is quick to call his captain of the guard out for. "Razoul! What is the meaning of this?"

"Your majesty, meet the King of Thieves," Razoul proudly pushes Cassim forward, much to Aladdin's immediate anger.

"Dad!" he calls, rushing forward to help his father. Only to be held back by another pair of guards before he can get anywhere close.

"We seized him in the treasury," Razoul explains. "Along with one of his accomplices…"

One of the guards holds Iago up at this, his entire body bound by a single chained cuff. "T-this is all just a big misunderstanding!" the parrot pleas sharply. "It's a slap on the wrist and, uh, community service kinda thing!"

"He was after this, again," Razoul continues, holding the Oracle's scepter up. "His other accomplice nearly managed to get away with it too, until we found him out cold on one of the upper balconies."

"...Other accomplice?" Aladdin asks, narrowing his eyes between his father and the guards.

"The boy with white hair and golden eyes!" another guard pipes up.

"He wields terrifying dark magic!" a third guard squeaks fearfully. "He deserves to be locked away!"

"For both that magic and his crimes against the kingdom," Razoul concludes with a cold grin. "And that's exactly what we've done. That kid's being hauled off to the dungeons even as we speak."

"What?!" Roxas hisses, scarcely able to believe what he's hearing.

"Sora…" Xion whispers in horrified disbelief.

"You're wrong," Aladdin snaps, fixing Razoul with a fierce glare. "Sora is my friend; he'd never try to steal from me. Not like you would…" His bitter gaze shifts to Cassim, who simply shakes his head in shame.

"It is true, Aladdin," he admits, carrying a good bit of disdain for Sora in his tone. "Take it from someone who was betrayed by that boy just as you've been. That 'friend' of yours is not as trustworthy as you might have hoped."

"...Neither are you," Aladdin scowls, still refusing to believe such a claim. Especially not when it comes from someone like Cassim, someone who had only ever seen his own son as a means to an end from the very start. "Now I know why you really came back."

"Aladdin-" Cassim starts, though the Sultan interrupts before he can get another word out.

"Your father is the leader of the Forty Thieves?" he asks Aladdin, absolutely confounded. "This is most… ooh!" he exclaims, still trying to make sense of such a shocking revelation.

"Aladdin, did you know?" Jasmine asks, quite taken aback herself.

Aladdin lets out a tired sigh, but nods all the same. "I thought I could change him. I had to try."

"You can change my clothes, Aladdin," Cassim says in solemn resignation. "But you can't change who I am."

"And the law is crystal clean on what we must now do," Razoul interjects, smirking as he pulls Cassim back a bit.

"Father, isn't there another way?" Jasmine asks the Sultan, who can only shake his head sadly.

"I'm afraid there is not," he frowns as he passes his unfortunate judgement. "Take the prisoners to the dungeon."

"Dungeon?" Iago gulps, horrified by such a sentence.

"For life."

"Life?!" the parrot squawks just shy of one of the guards slapping a cuff over his beak as well.

Cassim has nothing more to say to his son as the guards begin to lead him away. Aladdin glances away from him, torn between frustration and despair over the bond he'd so badly wanted to form with his father. A bond that's been broken before it even had a chance to even begin.

"I'm sorry, Al," Genie mutters, placing a comforting hand on Aladdin's shoulder. "But there are some wishes that even I can't make come true…"

At the same time, Roxas and Xion stand by, both of them still completely shaken by everything they've just heard. "Roxas…" Xion whispers, lightly grabbing his arm. "Do you really think Sora would…?" She trails off, unable to finish such a daunting thought.

"I hope not…" Roxas mutters, closing his eyes. Because if it's true, if Sora really did do something that insanely foolish entirely of his own volition… Roxas doesn't even know what he'll say or do the next time he sees him.

"So… what should we do now?" Xion asks, her tone tremulous and uncertain.

"...I don't know, Xion…" Roxas admits softly, wondering just how long it will take for them to find Sora. And what they'll discover once they do. "I don't know…"

---

Summer nights on the Destiny Islands were always warm and welcoming. From the ocean tide quietly washing onto the sandy shores, to the fireflies lazily flickering in and out of sight, there was nothing that could quite compare to the aura of peace those balmy evenings carried. Even at the young age of four, Sora tried his best to stay up as late as possible, solely for the sake of joining his father in one of his favorite pastimes: stargazing.

"Daddy! Daddy! Look at that one!" he gasped, pointing out a particularly beautiful star from their spot on the back porch. "It's so big and bright!"

"Sure is, kiddo," his father chuckled, ruffling his hair lightly. "Just like you're getting to be someday. You know, someone once told me that each and every one of those stars up there is an entirely different world. Isn't that cool?"

"Yeah, it is!" Sora exclaimed, his eyes wide with immense fascination. "Can we go see another world someday, Daddy?"

His father's smile finally faltered a bit at this, and it's only as it does that Sora realizes he can't see his face, at least not clearly, thanks to the odd shadows concealing it. He quickly bounced back, however, forcing out a small, if not somewhat awkward laugh. "Uh… yeah, maybe," he shrugged, but said nothing more on the matter. He didn't really need to anyway, because no more than a second later, Sora let out a loud, long yawn, one that his father picked up on right away.

"Getting tired there, kiddo?" he asked with a knowing grin.

"Me? No way!" Sora protested with a stubborn scowl. "I'm never tired!" Of course, he immediately proved himself wrong as another sleepy yawn escaped him, one that he was powerless to hold back as drowsiness started to overtake him.

"Well, it sure sounds like someone is tired to me," his mother remarked playfully as she joined the rest of her family on the porch. "I think it might be just a little past your bedtime, Sora."

"Aw, why do I still got a bedtime!?" Sora fussed as his father picked him up to take him inside. "Riku doesn't have one!"

"Probably because Riku's parents don't have to carry him to bed every night like we do with you," his mother laughed, gently poking him on the nose.

Sora maintained a frustrated pout after this, one that his father did his best to ease away. "Aw, don't worry, Sora. Someday you'll be old enough to stay up however late you want."

"Just like you do?" Sora asked, curious.

"Wha-hey now! I don't stay up that late."

"Don't lie to him, dear," his mother countered, sliding her hand into his free one as they walked upstairs together. "You are a bit of a night owl."

"Only 'cause there aren't enough hours in the day to spend with you," his father said smoothly, giving his wife a loving kiss on the cheek. Sora stuck his tongue out in disgust over this display of affection, eliciting a shared, warm laugh from both of his parents as they tucked him into bed.

"Daddy!" he exclaimed as soon as he was fully covered up. "Can you sing me that song again?"

"Again?" his father repeated incredulously. "Sora, I already sang it to you three times this week."

"I know, but I really, really like it!" Sora coaxes, fidgeting impatiently under his blanket. "I'm not gonna go to sleep 'till you do!"

"Mm… you drive a hard bargain, but… I guess it wouldn't be too much trouble," his father winked as he took a seat on the edge of the bed. His mother lingered in the doorframe, a soft, content smile on her face as she listened in on her husband's mysterious, yet lovely lullaby as well. A lullaby that never failed to help Sora fall fast asleep.

"The sun, the moon, the stars, are why-"

"We always look up to the sky-"

"Gaze up there and you will see-"

"An endless chain of memory."

"Drop the distance into dreams-"

"A birth by sleep, a flowing stream-"

"Of time, unwinds in dark, in light-"

"The days go by as hearts take flight."

Sora barely even noticed as his mother turned the light out. His eyes grew heavy as he kept them on his father, his face still drenched in heavy, concealing shadow as his comforting song quietly continues.

"And you… precious child, bear your legacy…"

"And you… precious child, hold the key… to your destiny…"

"Dearly beloved, look to the endless sky-"

"Dearly beloved, there your heart will fly…"

"The sun, the moon, the stars, are why-"

"We always look up to the sky-"

"Gaze up there and you will see-"

"The path that's always meant to be…"

He was all but asleep by the time the lullaby reached its end. Yet right before he could slip into peaceful dreams, his father's face suddenly shifts into someone else's entirely. A face that Sora recognizes all too well, but has no time to even be scared of as he drifts off into the dark void of slumber. Though not without his father's voice-or someone else's-bidding him toward it.

"Good night… Sora.."

---

The soft hum of that lullaby continues lightly ringing in Sora's ears as he slowly eases his way back into consciousness. His head is pounding as he weakly manages to open his eyes, only to be met with a dingy sort of darkness on all sides. As the weight of what happened before he was mysteriously knocked out starts to set in, he acutely feels another weight to go with it. The weight of ice cold metal shackled tightly around both of his wrists.

Sora bolts upright, his breathing instantly sharp and short as he surveys the chains binding him this time. They're long enough to allow him to stand, which he wastes no time doing, if only to try and wrench himself out of them. By now, he's largely lost track of how many times he's been restrained like this, but any amount after the first horrific instance is far too many for his liking. He lets out a strained shout as he struggles against the chains, his immense, unspeakable fear keeping him from summoning his Keyblade to free himself the easy way. He barely even bothers to take stock of the lonely, stony cell he's been locked in, and he doesn't even need to take any time to piece together why he's there. After all, it'd only make sense that this is where he'd wind up after what he's just done.

Still, even if he does deserve this, that doesn't mean he has to accept it. He screams as he tries once more to rip himself out of his shackles, his claws digging into his hair as he realizes he can't. As he collapses to his knees, sobbing and knowing he has no right to even try to escape his imprisonment this time. Because by all accounts, he's exactly where a lowly, despicable criminal like himself belongs.

And yet, just when he thinks this can't get any worse, of course, it immediately does.

"Poor child. It appears as though you're in trouble again, aren't you?"

Sora's entire body goes stiff as this voice echoes from behind him, his heavy breathing caught in his throat when he hears footsteps approaching him along with it. A burst of unimaginable agony explodes within his heart, one that he can't even react to as shocked still as he is. His eyes widen in terror as he watches the same boots he'd seen just before he'd fallen unconscious step into the space before him. But he isn't even given enough control of his body to tilt his gaze upward until a gloved, gentle hand perches under his chin to do it for him.

And that's when Sora finds himself face to face with the very man who's been poisoning his heart and corrupting his body for so long now. Master Xehanort himself.

He's never seen the master outside of his own dreams, or rather nightmares before. Never once encountered him in the world of waking, at least outside of his younger incarnation. But the eldery master is the one who stands before him now, fully in the flesh, and for a brief moment, Sora can only hope and pray he's still dreaming. Even when he already knows that he's not, when he knows this frightening encounter is far too real.

Xehanort wears a cool, calculated smile as he stares down at his young vessel, clearly taking in the sheer terror in the boy's eyes with smug pride. For what feels like an eternity, he says nothing, and at the same time, his oppressive power forces Sora into a similar sort of silence. The very same power that had prompted him to ask the Oracle a question that hadn't mattered in the slightest instead of the question that might have saved his life.

When Xehanort finally does speak again, he's still grinning, his golden eyes still locked onto Sora's, despite the boy's best efforts to try and look away. "Where are your manners, my thirteenth?" he asks, raising a wry eyebrow. "Do you truly have nothing to say to greet your master?"

Sora chokes as his voice is given back to him, though what he's made to say with it next isn't of his own volition at all. As a result, his words come out dull and empty, his tone forcibly calm and compliant as he says exactly what Xehanort wants him to. "H-hello, master," he says, his heart seizing up in a whole new wave of agony. A swift punishment for his meager attempts at resisting this humiliation. "It is… a-an honor to be in your presence…"

"Hm," Xehanort notes as he finally pulls his hand away from Sora. "You're getting there… There will come a time very soon when you'll be able to say that entirely on your own. I know I'm quite looking forward to that day, aren't you, Sora?"

Sora answers only in the form of an anguished sob, one that's muffled under the hand he covers his mouth with to keep any more of his master's words from pouring out of it. Xehanort steps away from him, but of course, he doesn't leave. That would be the kind of mercy Sora already knows he shouldn't expect right now. Mercy he shouldn't expect from the master at all.

"Stand, my thirteenth," Xehanort instructs simply. "I'd like to get a better look at how you're progressing."

Sora has no choice but to do as he says, unsteadily pulling himself to his feet again. He's all but forgotten about the chains binding his wrists until they rattle along with the movement, reminding him that he's a prisoner here, in far more ways than one.

Xehanort approaches him again, this time circling him in the form of a slow, silent inspection. All the while, Sora is forced to stay perfectly still, unable to speak a single word of protest, unable to pull himself out of the master's reach, unable to call upon any means to fight back and flee from this sinister man and his twisted designs. Eventually, Xehanort stops directly in front of him, catching him off guard as he reaches out and pulls one of Sora's chained wrists up, his steady smile widening as he looks over his vessel's crimson claws.

"Fascinating," he notes, genuinely intrigued by what he's seeing. "I must admit, Sora, the more… monstrous traits you're developing are every bit as unexpected as those unique powers of yours. Even so, they're welcome features to set the crowning jewel of my Organization apart from the rest."

Sora's heard such claims before, that he's apparently the most essential vessel needed for Xehanort's plans to succeed. Which of course, only makes him wish even more that there was a way to keep himself from becoming what his master needs, if only to stop his sinister schemes from reaching completion. But now, without something like the Oracle's wisdom to guide him, such a way is as out of reach as it's ever been, if there had ever actually been one at all.

Coincidentally, Xehanort addresses that very thing next, reminding Sora of the frightening fact that his master can read his every last thought. That nothing is safe or concealed as long as he stands in his intrusive presence. "Indulge me for a moment, my thirteenth, if you would be so kind," Xehanort turns away, his hands held behind his back. "It is my understanding that you wished to ask that Oracle a question. What was that question?"

Xehanort likely already knows that question, but the thrall of his power forces Sora to weakly present it to him anyway. "I… I wanted to ask… h-how to set my heart free…" he mutters, hanging his head in grief over the answer he'll never get to have now. The answer that would have either condemned him even further… or the answer that might have finally set everything that's gone wrong with him right.

"In that case, you should consider yourself quite fortunate that wasn't the question you asked," Xehanort glances over his shoulder. His tone has turned from falsely cordial to gravely serious, something that only makes what he says next sting for Sora even more. "Surely by this point, you must already know the truth: there is nothing that can be done to free your heart from my power. There is no cure, no magic, no power under any world or realm that can stop what I have set in motion for you. Accepting that fact here and now will save you the turmoil of trying in vain to find some form of escape that I can guarantee you, child, does not exist."

For as much as this revelation doesn't surprise him, it still hits Sora incredibly hard. A small, strained cry escapes him as he covers his face with his hands, his heart aching far beyond the constant pain his master has already forced upon it. Some small part of him doesn't want to believe it, wants to think that Xehanort is lying to him and that there really is some obscure, yet still obtainable way to liberate his heart after all. Yet every other part of him knows better; knows that his master is right, that there really isn't a single ounce of hope left for him.

That he'll never truly be free again.

"Fret not, my thirteenth," Xehanort turns back toward him, his tone falsely comforting. Sora shudders as he feels his master's hand resting upon his shoulder, his gloved touch somehow ice cold as it sends another spark of agony spilling through his heart. "You are on the path you have always been destined to take, guiding you toward the very purpose you were born for. For so long now the guardians of light have lied to you, tried to make you believe you have a place among them. But you don't; they know that just as well as you and I do. So why do you continue to pretend as if you actually belong with them when you were never meant to from the start?"

Sora gasps when he realizes he suddenly has complete control of his own speech again, and while his movements are still frozen under his master's restrain, he doesn't hesitate to counter such coldhearted claims as much as he's currently able to. "E-even if I don't belong with them," he acknowledges, knowing that's the one piece he can't really argue against. Not when his own loathsome shadows stand in such a stark contrast to pure light. "I still want to be with them. They're my friends, and they-"

"Your friends?" Xehanort lets out a small laugh, genuinely amused by his vessels' ignorance. "Be sensible, boy. Do you really think any one of them would still consider you to be their friend if they could see you now? If they knew what you've done, what you're capable of? Oh, but that's right. If I'm not mistaken, two of your friends already witnessed the extent of your untamed strength firsthand. And they suffered as a result of your actions."

Without warning, Xehanort suddenly skims Sora's forehead with his fingertips, and in an instant, the dark dungeon they've been standing in is gone. The master himself is nowhere to be seen, and instead, Sora finds himself on the sunset-streaked streets of Twilight Town. And he sees a scene playing out before him that's far too recent, far too awful that he's done everything he can to block the mere memory of it from his mind. Only to see it happen again in all it's unspeakable horror.

He sees himself, standing only a few feet away, his own dark spikes piercing the ground around him. He hears his own voice, desperate and distraught as he shouts at his two closest companions. And… he watches in heartbroken terror as his powers explode wildly out of control as a result of his untamable fury; as his dangerous, despicable magic strikes Donald and Goofy before either of them can even see it coming.

"Stop!" he screams at this vision of himself, at the horrible mistake he'd made, one that he knows he'll never be able to take back. He grips his head as he tears his gaze away from that maddening memory, not even noticing as it fades away into the dull gloom of the dungeon once more. In fact, he only realizes that it's finally over when he hears Xehanort continue his cruel, all too convincing conversation.

"Even at this point, with so much room left to grow, you've far surpassed any of the guardians of light in terms of strength." The master is standing just behind him now, leaning forward to the point that his quiet, chilling voice speaks directly into his ear. "And isn't that what you've always wanted, Sora? To be stronger?"

Not like this… Sora laments in his thoughts, staring down at his own twisted, terrible claws. Never like this…

"But of course, all power comes with a price," Xehanort says, walking past him. "Your so-called friends will never be able to understand the kind of strength the darkness has gifted to you. Sooner or later, they'll come to fear your powers; they'll come to fear you. And really, can you blame them if they do? They'd need only look at you to see you for the monster they'd no doubt claim you to be."

"N-no," Sora tries to argue, surprised that he's even capable of that much right now. "They wouldn't-i-if I went back to them, they'd-"

"They'd offer you false promises for safety and salvation, at first," Xehanort counters coolly. "But it wouldn't take them long at all to realize they can't control the rich, raw darkness blooming within you any more than you can, my thirteenth. And what does the light do when it can't subdue the darkness?" The master turns back to face his vessel, his expression icy as the low light of the dungeon casts long, deep shadows across it. "It snuffs it out, along with anything, or anyone that has anything to do with it."

Immediately Sora wants to protest such vicious, vile claims, as much as he wants to profess his belief that his friends, for as kind and good as each and every one of them are, would never bring him any sort of harm. And yet, those thoughts fall short when he remembers just how long he's lied to them for, just how stubborn he's been about keeping everything secret from them from the start. He hadn't been the one to seek their help when all this began, so why would they want to do anything to help him now, when it's already far too late? Why would they waste their time trying to save someone who's already so much of a lost cause? Wouldn't they just take the much easier, much safer route of wiping him and the incredible danger he poses from existence entirely? Wouldn't they gladly take the opportunity to get rid of their weakest, most worthless member once and for all?

As these distressing thoughts swirl violently within his mind, Sora doesn't even realize tears are silently streaking down his cheeks until Xehanort draws a hand in to gently brush one of those tears away. "You have no reason to despair, my boy," he smiles, his tone falsely soothing. "You may not see it yet, but I am awakening you to your true purpose. I know what you are meant to become, far more than any of the guardians of light do. Among them, your role is finite, insignificant, meaningless. But as my thirteenth vessel, you will achieve greatness far beyond what you could ever dream."

Sora shakes his head, wishing he could pull away from this awful man, wishing he could fight him and his corrupting influence away, wishing he could at the very least tell him that he has no desire to have any part of his wicked plans. But as silent as he's suddenly forced to be, the most he can do is morosely accept that he has no choice, no say, no way to escape what's happening to him. Not now or ever, just as he's always known all along.

All the while, Xehanort still stands towering over him, clearly getting some smug satisfaction in watching his helpless young vessel grieve in silence. But of course, he quickly finds a way to dig the knife he's already thrust into Sora's already damaged, devastated heart even deeper. "Even after seeking the Oracle's wisdom, there is still a question burning in your eyes, child, I can see it," he muses, his tone even and thoughtful. "Is it a question for me, by any chance?"

This almost casual prompting grants Sora his voice back, and he uses it to ask the one question that's been eating away at him from the moment this madness began. "W-why?"

Xehanort merely raises a knowing eyebrow at this, giving Sora his unspoken permission to continue. Yet even when he does, the rest of his question comes out quiet and broken, a testament to just how terrified he truly is of whatever answer he might receive. "Why are you doing this to me?" he asks morosely, miserably. "What made you choose me to be your vessel?" "What did I do to deserve any of this?" he almost asks, but doesn't. Mostly because that's the one question he already knows the answer to all too well.

The master's grin widens as he ponders this inquiry, and the initial answer he gives is one that does little to set Sora's worried wondering to ease. "Sora, I chose you because you were the only choice I could make."

"I-I… I don't understand," Sora admits. And though he doesn't expect Xehanort to elaborate any further, surprisingly, that's exactly what he does.

"Tell me, my thirteenth, have you ever played chess before?" he asks, seemingly going off on an entirely different tangent altogether. Confused, Sora shakes his head, though he shudders when Xehanort reaches out to hold the crown charm of his necklace, running a thumb over its silver surface as he continues. "I'm not surprised; I don't see you particularly having the patience or the intellect for it. I, however, spent many hours engaged in the game when I was your age. In chess, there is but one simple objective: to capture your opponent's king, no matter the cost. Any number of pawns, rooks, or knights may be sacrificed in the quest for that king, but in the end, the king alone is what matters above every other piece on the board. It is the most vulnerable… yet the most essential of them all, the key to victory itself."

Sora lets out a small, startled gasp when Xehanort suddenly lifts the necklace off of him, seemingly with the intent of taking it away from him. Yet before he can even have a chance to reach for it, the master simply holds it back out to him in offering instead. "So I suppose you could say… I'm out to capture a 'king' of my own…"

With this, he unceremoniously drops the necklace back into Sora's hands, leaving him with far more questions than ever before. He isn't permitted to ask any of them, however, as Xehanort turns to supposedly, finally leave. "There's still work for you to do in this world, my boy," he reminds authoritatively. "You have been told how to find the Key, so I'm certain it won't be long before it finds its way into your hands. This time, however, you will be claiming it for the cause of your master, and you will personally deliver it to me as a show of loyalty to your Organization. Do you understand, my thirteenth?"

"Y-yes, master," Sora says, without wanting to in the slightest. But by this order alone, he's already been bound, unable to resist it, unable to even so much as try to say no. Only able to follow through on his master's sinister commands, even though he'd do anything to stop them, if only he could.

"Very good," Xehanort nods as his dark Keyblade suddenly flashes into his hand. Sora flinches when the master aims its tip directly at him, and he braces himself for an all new wave of pain. Instead, he's quite surprised when the shackles around his wrists are suddenly unlocked, falling off his arms to dully clatter to the ground. As he grips his newly-freed wrists, Sora watches as Xehanort points his Keyblade at the dungeon door next, unlocking it in a similar fashion.

"Thank you, m-master," Sora is forced to say, forced to bow his head in respect to the man he thoroughly hates.

"You're quite welcome, my thirteenth," Xehanort grins back at him as a dark corridor forms in the space before him. "Farewell for now, Sora. You would do well to think carefully on everything we've discussed here. Even so, I'm quite certain that we'll meet again much sooner than you think."

And with that, the master disappears into the darkness, leaving his final vessel alone once more. As soon as he's gone and the suffocating hold on his heart is diminished, Sora collapses to his knees, a strangled sob escaping him. He's still holding his necklace, and hugs it close to his chest as he lets out all of the fear and anguish Xehanort had refused to let him release. As the sound of his own distraught cries echo across the cold stone surrounding him, Sora does exactly as his master instructed him to. He thinks on all that he'd been told, on how there is no way out of this, on how there never had been any chance for him to escape this from the start. On what the guardians of light, his friends, will certainly think of him if he ever returns to them, on what they'll say about the lies he's told and the deception he's dealt them all with, on what they'll do when they realize there's no saving him.

And, most of all, on how he can't return to them, no matter how much he might want to.

The pain of that thought is what weighs on him the most as he struggles to stand, as he slowly returns his necklace to its usual spot around his neck. He doesn't know what will happen next, doesn't even want to think about it really. But at the very least, what he can do is try to make amends, to fix everything he's managed to break in such a short amount of time, entirely on his own accord.

So Sora wipes the last of his lingering tears away as he steps out of his cell, relieved to find that it's unguarded. The dungeon corridors make up a winding maze, but he figures that working his way out of them will be a good enough distraction from thoughts of his most recent, daunting meeting with his master. Yet while he anticipates having to evade guards on his way to escape, what he doesn't expect is who actually ends up running into instead.

He rounds a corner only to collide with someone squarely as soon as he does. Still on edge from his encounter with Xehanort, Sora jumps back, his hands posed to let his powers repel any guards he might have just tipped off. However, he quickly finds he doesn't have to as he's miraculously come across a familiar face instead. At least, as much of that face he can see between the stretches of blue cloth concealing most of it.

"Cassim?" Sora gapes, watching as the king of thieves recovers from his own surprise. Only to quickly discover this isn't the king of thieves after all.

"No, Sora, it's me," he explains, briefly lowering his face covering.

"Aladdin?!" Sora exclaims, even more taken aback by this reveal. "W-what are you doing here?"

Aladdin sighs, disgruntled as he resumes his disguise once more. A disguise that truly makes him look almost identical to his father from a glance. "I came here to break my dad out, even though I shouldn't after what he did. But I came to get you out too. Can you believe the guards think you tried to help him steal the Oracle? They weren't that smart to begin with, but now they've completely lost it."

"Um… A-actually, Aladdin…" Sora begins, rubbing his arm as he glances away.

"Sora?" Aladdin frowns. Though it doesn't take him too long to pick up on what Sora's about to say based on his remorseful expression alone. "No… please tell me you didn't…"

"I did…" Sora admits in a whisper, knowing he can't lie. Or at least that he can't add onto the mountain of lies he's already made for himself any more than he already has. "I'm sorry…"

"Why?" Aladdin asks, still struggling to believe that it's true. That one of his longtime, most trusted friends would conspire with his own father to steal from him. "If you wanted to ask the Oracle something, I already told you that you could-"

"That's… not why I did it," Sora says softly, sadly. "Roxas and Xion really wanted me to ask her something, but I-I didn't want to, so I-"

"So you just thought taking it was the better option?" Aladdin scoffs, thoroughly appalled.

"I just thought… I…" Sora sighs, ashamed upon realizing just how ridiculous his entire scheme had been. And that he has no good excuse for that scheme, none that he can try to salvage now, after it's all gone so wrong. "Maybe I wasn't thinking at all…"

"No, you weren't," Aladdin sharply agrees, fixing him with an angry glare. "You know, Sora, I should have expected this sort of thing from my father. But I would have never expected it from you. After everything we've done, everything we've been through together… you would just… steal from me, like none of that even matters? Dad was right about one thing… maybe I should have never trusted you at all…"

Sora winces upon hearing such harsh words, but ultimately he knows there's not much he can do to argue against them. Still, that doesn't keep him from foolishly trying anyway. "I really am sorry, Aladdin," he ventures earnestly. "I didn't do this to hurt you-that's the last thing I wanted to happen. I was just trying to-"

"I don't care what you were trying to do," Aladdin puts up a hand to stop him. His expression remains sour and severe as he takes a glance around for any patrolling guards before he turns back to Sora, still clearly upset. "You know, Sora, since you and my dad have so much in common, maybe you oughta see if he'll take you in. I'm sure he'd much rather have a son who's every bit as much of a thief as he is instead of me."

"Aladdin, I-"

"Save it," Aladdin succinctly cuts him off, turning to continue on ahead. "Let's just find my father and get out of here."

And with that, the conversation comes to a stark, unsatisfying end. Sora glumly follows Aladdin's lead, silently lamenting the bridge he's no doubt burnt with such a good friend. And as he does, he wonders just how long it'll take before he similarly burns the rest of the bridges he once built with the people he cares about. Before he ends up severing his own ties with everyone he holds dear, from the likes of Donald and Goofy, who've already seen just how terrible he truly is, to Roxas, Xion, and Ventus, who tried their best to help someone who ultimately can't be saved… to Riku and Kairi, who will certainly want nothing to do with him once they find out just how long he's lied to them. Once they find out that he's quickly turning into everything they've vowed to stand against.

Eventually, they come across a cell door that Aladdin has the keys to, since he'd discreetly swiped them off a guard on the way in. He unlocks it, but lingers in the doorway for a moment, to catch the surprised glance his father sends toward his shadow-concealed silhouette.

"Who-?" Cassim stands, the chains hanging from his wrists rattling as he does.

"I've come to say goodbye," Aladdin says as he steps forward, his tone every bit as curt and cross as it had been with Sora before.

Cassim starts, dumbfounded that his son would not only come to save him, but would come wearing his own usual attire, of all things. "Why are you-"

"We don't have much time," Aladdin swiftly interrupts him as he steps in to unlock his shackles. "While the guards chase me, you get out."

Upon hearing such a risky plan, Cassim grabs his son's wrist in the hopes of putting a stop to it. "No. I can't let you-"

"Forget it," Aladdin tersely pulls himself away, throwing his face covering back on. "They can't catch me."

"...He even sounds like me…" Cassim notes to himself, thoroughly impressed by his son's brazen boldness. He wastes little time in releasing Iago from his chains once Aladdin tosses him the keys, though as soon as he follows his son out of the cell, he's met with one of the last people he'd like to see, all things considered.

"You…" he hisses the second he finds Sora standing outside of the cell. "If you've come here to help Aladdin set us free, then you've got a lot of nerve after that stunt you pulled back at the palace, boy."

"You left us hanging high and dry!" Iago accuses just as hotly. "I oughta peck your eyes out for bailing on us like that!"

"I know; I shouldn't just have run off like that," Sora says as evenly as he can under their shared infuriated glares. "I didn't want to leave you guys behind. I was just-"

"Oh, you mean just like how you didn't 'want' to steal the Oracle either?" Aladdin interjects bitterly. "For all the things you keep saying you feel bad about doing, Sora, you sure didn't seem to have a problem while you were doing them."

Once again, Sora finds himself defenseless against such piercing claims, knowing that his own haste, his own thoughtlessness, his own stupidity were what landed him here. He has no one and nothing else to blame for the trouble he's gotten himself into, for the damage he's done to the friendships he might have once forged, other than himself.

"You're right…" he agrees, glancing away from the others. "I… don't know what else to say other than… I'm sorry. To all of you."

"Sorry doesn't quite make up for landing us in the dungeon for life, boy," Cassim sneers unsympathetically.

"Yeah, just like how it doesn't make up for what you did either," Aladdin scowls over at his father, already denying any possible apologies he might make for his own crimes. Cassim softens up into slight remorse at this, though he doesn't have a chance to try and appeal to his son any further as Aladdin begins to press on ahead. "You can get out to the marketplace through there," he points out a nearby hallway. "Roxas and Xion said they'd be waiting outside for you, Sora. Good luck trying to explain all this to them."

Sora nearly thanks Aladdin for that, knowing he'll need all the luck he can get when it comes to telling them the truth. Even as he trails after Cassim and Iago toward the exit, he already knows he can't tell them about his meeting with Xehanort. If the pair had already been awash in worry before, then there's no telling how they'd react to the news that he saw the master in person, much less the reveal of anything that he'd said to him. But he's painfully aware that he won't be able to hide everything from them; that much is clear as soon as they emerge from the underground dungeons out into the nighttime darkness of the market, only to sure enough, find Roxas and Xion awaiting them.

"Sora!" Xion gasps, immensely relieved as she runs over to him first. "We're so glad you're alright! We-"

Roxas cuts her off as he suddenly grabs Sora by the front of the shirt, yanking him forward with a threatening scowl on his face. "You're going to explain what's been going on right now," he orders, his voice low and fierce. "And whatever that explanation is, it better be a good one."

"Uh… maybe we oughta give them a bit of privacy…" Iago notes awkwardly.

"Not a bad idea, bird…" Cassim agrees as he unceremoniously heads down a nearby alley.

As soon as they're alone, Sora folds, lightly pulling himself away from Roxas's secure hold so he can speak his piece. "Ok, look," he says, holding his hands up defensively. "Before I say anything else, just… try not to get too mad, ok?"

"Oh, you won't have to worry about that," Roxas crosses his arms, fixing his other with a piercing glare. "I'm already way past mad by now."

"Sora, just tell us what happened," Xion says, her manner far more patient and calm than Roxas's. "The guards said you helped Cassim and Iago try to steal the Oracle, but… that's not true… is it?"

Sora hesitates as he looks between the pair, gaging Xion's concern against Roxas's severity and knowing that simply lying won't work. Not this time. "It is true…" he mutters, closing his eyes as he wraps his arms around himself.

"W-what?" Xion gapes, taken aback. Roxas on the other hand, reacts much more harshly.

"Are you serious!?" he snaps, his voice echoing through the surrounding street far too loudly. "You were this close to asking the Oracle your question anyway. What would make you want to do something as stupid as stealing it?!"

"I… I-I can't tell you," Sora shakes his head, still refusing to make eye contact with either of them. "It's complicated…"

"Complicated?" Roxas scoffs indignantly. "Complicated?! You mean like how this is 'complicated'!" he catches Sora off guard by brushing aside a piece of his whitening hair. "Or how these are 'complicated'?!" he grabs one of Sora's wrists next, pointing at his crimson clawed fingers. "Or about how everything that's happening to you is just too 'complicated' for you to actually tell anyone the truth and get some help already?! Seriously, Sora, when is enough finally going to be enough for you?!"

"R-Roxas, I-"

"Look! It's one of the escaped prisoners!" The trio starts upon hearing this distant shout from one of several guards emerging from an adjacent street.

"The boy with the dark powers!" another guard gasps fearfully.

"Seize him this instant!" a third guard shouts as they charge on to do exactly that.

"Um, maybe we should run?" Xion suggests, and neither Roxas or Sora disagree. Before the guards can come close, the trio takes off down the alley, hoping to lose their pursuers in the winding maze that makes up most of the city. Yet even as they run, Roxas doesn't relent, as much as Sora desperately wishes he would.

"What was your plan anyway?" he asks, glaring at Sora as he runs alongside him. "What, did you just want to grab the Oracle, ask your question without anyone knowing, and then call it a day? What's the point of even doing that?!"

"That's not what I-" Sora stops himself, knowing he can't reveal his true motives. Not when they're so incredibly flimsy to begin with. "It doesn't matter. What does matter is that I'm sorry," he says, wondering just how many empty apologies he'll end up making before this night is through. "I made a dumb mistake and I-"

"Oh, dumb doesn't even begin to cover it," Roxas shoots back, rolling his eyes.

"Sora, we just want to know why you did this. After all the time we've spent inside your heart, you know you have nothing to hide from us, not back then or even now," Xion ventures, and the sheer concern in her tone alone almost makes Sora cave completely. Almost… but not quite enough.

He prepares to offer another weak excuse, only to witness an alarming sight playing out on the palace wall just up ahead. Aladdin's still leading another group of guards off Cassim's trail by pretending to be him, and while he's largely had success so far, his luck runs out as he's abruptly caught by the leg by none other than Razoul. The captain stands over him, sword in hand, ready to put this chase to an end, once and for all. "The King of Thieves," he grins, raising his weapon high. "Your charmed life is over, your majesty!"

Razoul brings his sword down, only for it to be deflected by a sudden burst of dark energy. Sora follows this initial blast up by using his powers to conjure up a solid, shadowy platform underneath himself, Roxas, and Xion, propelling all three of them upward onto the wall. At the same time, Aladdin rolls away from Razoul, only for the end of his cape to get caught under the captain's foot. A good portion of it tears away as a result, revealing his true identity in the process.

"You!" Razoul exclaims, genuinely stunned by this twist. Still, it works just as well in his favor as he grabs Aladdin by the front of his cloak, holding his blade against the boy's neck with a cunning smile. "Well, I guess I'll just have to settle for the Prince of Thieves. We shall see if the Sultan wants you in his family now."

At that exact moment, however, a sudden black spike bursts out from below the pair, freeing Aladdin as Razoul stumbles back. Sora, Roxas, and Xion arrive seconds later, their Keyblades all drawn and ready to defend Aladdin, much to his surprise.

"Sora?" he starts, still eyeing the other boy distrustfully.

"I know, I know, you're still mad at me," Sora glances back at him, immensely apologetic. "But you still came back for me, so I came back for you."

Aladdin sighs, some of his lasting anger starting to ebb away upon hearing this. Even so, he's even more caught off guard to see who rushes into his rescue next. Before Razoul can even regather his bearings from Sora's attack, Cassim crashes into him from the side, kicking him into the side of the wall for good measure.

"Hands off my son," he threatens just shy of the captain slipping into unconsciousness.

"Dad-" Aladdin begins, only for his father to cut him off as he quickly helps him back onto his feet.

"Hurry, son, we must move," Cassim beckons, hurrying on ahead. "Everyone, let's go!"

Though they're not sure exactly where they're going, Sora, Roxas, and Xion don't have time to argue as another group of guards prepares to pursue them. Fortunately, Carpet flies in to lend some aid to the trio in that escape just in time, while Cassim and Aladdin hop onto the first pair of horses they can find. Together, the group races for the city gates at a rapid pace, breaking out into the desert before eventually coming to a stop between the walls of a canyon a good few miles away.

"Did we lose them?" Aladdin asks, pulling his steed to a stop as he glances back for any signs of the guards.

"I don't know, but I did lose my lunch back there…" Iago groans as he hangs onto the side of Cassim's horse.

"They won't be able to pick up our trail till daylight," Cassim notes, resolved. "By then, we'll be long gone from Agrabah. Though maybe you ought to go back, boy," he sneers coldly at Sora. "You seem to have a penchant for going your own way, after all."

Sora says nothing in response to this, mostly because he knows nothing will be good enough. Not to ease Cassim's frustration, not to make things right with Aladdin, not to explain himself to Roxas and Xion. Which is why he decides to not even bother anymore at all.

"...I'm going back," Aladdin speaks up, his sights still set on Agrabah. Still set on where his future awaits him, whatever that future might be now.

"What?" Cassim turns to him, alarmed. "You can't! The moment they saw your face, your life in Agrabah was over!"

"I have to go back," Aladdin insists, dismounting his horse. "Jasmine is there."

"Kid, it's over," Iago reasons. "You're a criminal now. Heck, by this point, I'm pretty sure we all are."

"Even if we are criminals, we're not cowards," Roxas asserts sternly. "At least, most of us aren't," he mutters, casting a critical glance over at Sora, who can only shrink away in shame. Because by all accounts, just about everything he's done in the past day alone has been the very definition of cowardly.

"Roxas is right," Aladdin staunchly agrees, turning back toward his father. "I won't do what you did. I won't run away!"

"I never ran away from anything in my life!" Cassim argues, marching over to him.

"You ran away from your family!"

"I told you what happened. What else could I do? What else can you do?!"

"...The right thing," Aladdin takes his father's dagger out, offering it to him coldly. "You should take this back."

"Aladdin-"

"I won't walk out on Jasmine!"

While he'd usually admire Aladdin's noble determination, Sora can't help but wince as he's reminded of how he'd left someone he cares about in much of the same way as Cassim had years before. He left Kairi without any sort of real explanation at all, leaving her to wonder and worry and waste her time looking for someone who shouldn't really be found at all. And even now, even still, he can't bear the thought of going back to her, of returning in shame only for her to see just how far he's fallen. He can't go back and face the consequences of what he's done; all he can do is wish that he had even a speck of Aladdin's courage to even try.

"Aladdin!" Cassim snaps, intent on stopping his son before it's too late.

"I may be your son," Aladdin gets back on his horse, offering his father a firm scowl. "But I can't live your life."

"Al, they'll lock you up," Iago flies over to him, genuinely concerned.

"If there's punishment… I'll take it," Aladdin says solemnly, something that sets Cassim off when he sees just how little his son seems to care about saving his own skin. A trait he certainly didn't inherit from him.

"So be it," he relents, turning away.

"But we have the Oracle!" Iago pleads, grinning. "The treasure's just waitin' for us!"

"The Oracle!?" Roxas and Xion exclaim in alarmed unison. At the same time, neither of them hear the sharp breath Sora draws in at this, unable to bear the thought of telling either of them about what happened. Unable to tell them that the question they still want him to ask has already been well wasted by now.

"You really took it?" Aladdin asks, narrowing his eyes at his father.

"I couldn't walk away empty-handed," Cassim counters almost apathetically. "I had nothing left to lose."

"Yes…" Aladdin sighs tiredly, finally turning away from his father, perhaps for the very last time. "You did."

Though Aladdin begins to ride back toward the city, Iago flies back over to Cassim, deciding to venture with him for the treasure they both risked everything to find. Likewise, though Sora tries pulling Carpet to follow Aladdin, Roxas and Xion manage to keep it exactly where it is, knowing they have some unfinished business with the king of thieves.

"Wait," Xion calls to Cassim before he can ride off. "You can't take the Oracle yet. Sora still needs to ask it something first."

"And you're not putting this off any longer either," Roxas hisses, glaring at Sora relentlessly.

"Well, boy?" Cassim raises a critical eyebrow as he pulls the scepter out of his cloak. "Since you were so eager to run off with it on your own back at the palace, certainly you must have an important question to ask after all. So go ahead, ask it."

Sora freezes, realizing all eyes are on him to voice a question he can't even ask anymore. Or at least, a question he can't expect to ever get any genuine answers to. He nearly admits that too, that he was forced to waste his question against his will, but if Roxas and Xion are upset with him already, he can't even begin to imagine how they'd react to hearing that. And so, much like he's gotten so used to doing, instead of facing the truth, he decides to simply avoid it completely.

"...No thanks," he says stiffly, taking full control of Carpet once again. "Bye."

And with that, he swiftly guides Carpet to follow Aladdin's lead back to Agrabah, leaving a largely baffled Cassim and Iago behind. But while he may have escaped whatever questions they might have had for him, unfortunately Sora isn't able to escape Roxas and Xion so easily.

"What… was that!?" Roxas asks, his voice hitching in outrage. "You've had so many opportunities to ask that question now! Why won't you just take one of them?!"

"Because I don't have a question to ask anymore," is what Sora would tell him if he were being honest. But instead, he can only offer another thinly veiled lie as they glide across the desert. One that he can only hope can forestall their instance just a little bit longer, so he can buy himself just a bit more time. "I have a plan," he says simply, rigidly. And he doesn't bother elaborating on that non-existent plan beyond that.

"What kind of plan?" Xion asks anxiously. Her tone is still relatively more even than Roxas', but the exasperated sigh she lets out shows just how frustrated she's starting to get too.

For his part, however, Sora says nothing, despite both of them pressing him for answers he doesn't have even as they eventually catch up to Aladdin. He offers the trio only a terse, silent glance as they glide alongside him, while Roxas and Xion similarly fall into silence when they realize Sora has no intentions of explaining anything to them. And, the closer they get to the city, the more they try and fail to make sense of this mess, the mess they'll all have to face the consequences of, no matter how severe those consequences might be.

---

"Frankly, my boy, your actions were most disappointing," the Sultan says to Aladdin, a stern, disapproving scowl on his face. Within minutes of venturing back inside the city walls, the entire group had been seized by the guards, who wasted no time hauling them back to the palace for proper judgement. And needless to say, after hearing everything they'd done throughout the night, specifically everything Sora and Aladdin had done, Jasmine and the Sultan are far from pleased.

"It truly is tragic, your highness," Razoul remarks with faux sympathy as he stands by the Sultan's side. "But the street rat has obviously followed in his father's footsteps. Aladdin is a criminal, as are his little friends."

"I object, your honor!" Genie suddenly bursts in, dressed as a lawyer, briefcase and all. "I object to that outrageous statement, and I object to a tertiary character having any lines during my big courtroom scene. Here, take this to a higher court," he hands his briefcase off to Razoul before using a bit of his magic to blast him off of the balcony everyone's gathered on. "Your honor, if I may enter a plea of insanity," Genie continues, addressing the Sultan as he appears next to Aladdin once again. "Because I'm CRAZY about this kid!"

"Genie!" Aladdin protests, lightly pushing him away. "I can handle this myself. Sultan, I convinced my dad to come here. It was my fault." Amidst this honest sincerity, he lets out a small, remorseful sigh. "I would have been better off if I'd never even known him…"

"Aladdin, you found your father," Jasmine says gently, her former anger at her fiance ebbing away upon hearing this. "A father who risked his freedom to see your wedding. And you risked everything to help him, just as I would for my father."

Likewise, the Sultan can't help but soften in response to his daughter's compassion, compassion that he decides to extend to his soon to be son-in-law in turn. "Y-yes, well, Aladdin, I could not overlook your father's crimes, but what you have done, well… you did it out of love. And furthermore, you came back to take responsibility for your actions, as did your friends here. Let us put this matter behind us," the Sultan smiles cordially, forgivingly. "Now, I believe we have postponed this wedding long enough."

"Ok! Good call!" Genie cheers, immensely relieved. "Let's give a big hand to the wise and generous Sultan!" With this, he conjures up a large hand to lead the Sultan off so he can finish up the final wedding preparations. At the same time, Aladdin and Jasmine share a warm, loving embrace, though when it ends, the former's gaze drifts over to the group standing on the far side of the balcony. Or more specifically, to one certain member among their number.

"Sora," Aladdin begins as he walks over to him. His manner is reserved, yet steady, his former outrage quelled into tired resignation. "I still don't like that you tried to help my father steal the Oracle, and even if I don't understand why you did it… You still came back to help me, even after… what I said to you. And you did say you were sorry so… why don't we just forget this whole thing ever happened, ok?"

Sora frowns as he looks at the hand Aladdin's extending out to him, as he catches the kind, gentle smiles Jasmine and Genie both send his way. As he realizes he can't accept that kindness, that he's done nothing to earn it in the slightest. "...You shouldn't forgive me…" he mutters, looking away. "I don't deserve it."

"What?" Aladdin asks, confused. "Why not?"

Likewise, Jasmine takes a step forward, equally concerned. "Sora?"

Roxas and Xion share a similarly worried glance as they both see just how ashamed Sora clearly is. While Xion reaches a comforting hand out to place on his shoulder, Roxas finally eases up from his own anger a bit, knowing that he'd likely been far too harsh with his other before. After all, if there's anyone who should know just how much and how long Sora has suffered for, and just how bad of a time he's having with just about everything lately, it should be him.

"Sora," he begins, his tone soft and apologetic. "I'm-"

That apology is abruptly cut off before Roxas can even hope to finish it. A loud, panicked scream from somewhere above the balcony catches the attention of everyone gathered on it. And that scream comes from none other than Iago as he practically falls from the air out of sheer exhaustion alone. Carpet is the one to catch him, though Jasmine rushes in to check on the clearly beleaguered bird as he begins muttering frantic incoherencies.

"A-Al's dad…. Sa'luk…" he pants, out of sorts even as Jasmine scoops him up into her hands.

"Just take a deep breath, Iago," she coaxes calmly. "Now, what about Aladdin's father?"

"I-it's Sa'luk! The guy Al beat!" the parrot exclaims. "He's not beat, he's back, and so are a bunch of the other thieves, and they've got Cassim! They're using the Oracle to try and go after the Hand of Midas!"

"The Oracle!" Xion gasps softly, grabbing Sora's arm. "Maybe it's not too late after all!"

"Was this part of your 'plan'?" Roxas asks, offering him something of a small, wry grin.

"Um… y-yeah!" Sora lies, throwing on a fake smile himself. A smile that can only do so much to hide the tide of dread starting to swell up within him all over again. "I… guess you could say that…"

"Aladdin, it sounds like your father could really use your help," Jasmine frowns, turning to her finance.

"That's his problem," Aladdin scowls, crossing his arms. "He chose to go back to that life."

"Al, I know your dad made a lot of bad choices," Genie coaxes earnestly. "But that doesn't mean you have to."

"He's your father," Jasmine insists. "How can you do anything else?"

Aladdin falters at this, recalling what he'd told Cassim back in the canyon when asked what else he can do when faced with no other options. And just as he had back then, he knows there really is only one thing to do in the face of his father's newfound peril: the right thing. "I'm being as stubborn as he was…" he relents, hoping he can finally break the cycle his father set in motion years ago. That they really can have the new beginning he'd wanted with his dad from the start. "Alright," he grins back at Iago, ready to face whatever danger might be involved. "Show me the way."

"We're coming too," Roxas says, resolved.

"W-we are?" Sora flinches fretfully.

"You're not the only one who can volunteer us for dangerous missions, you know," Xion jokes. The levity is all but lost on Sora though, in light of why they've clearly volunteered for this in the first place: to get the scepter back, to force him to ask a question that will get no answers, not from the Oracle or from anyone else for that matter.

"Great," Aladdin grins, glad to have their help on such a brazen endeavor. And hoping that it already isn't too late to save his father from the mess his greed has gotten him into. "Then let's go."

---

The last thing Cassim had expected to find upon returning to his old lair was almost all of the other Forty Thieves had been captured. Only a handful of crooks had managed to evade the guards that had stormed the cavern, and much to his surprise, those stragglers had been rallied under none other than Sa'luk. By all accounts, he should have known better than to expect his longtime rival to die so easily, but he was quite surprised to find that he'd turned the last few of his own men against him. They'd easily overwhelmed and apprehended Cassim, taking the Oracle's scepter from him as they all ventured out onto the open sea in search of the ultimate treasure, the Hand of Midas itself.

Sa'luk had forced Cassim to use his question, the very same question he had always intended on asking anyway. The Oracle's been guiding their tiny boat through the night with a bright beacon set across the surface of the sea. And, just as dawn breaks, they reach the space of empty ocean the Oracle waits for them at; and they're not the only ones to find it either.

Carpet hovers a safe distance behind the thieves' boat, though everyone on it spots Cassim tied up to its mast even from a distance. Aladdin nearly leaps into action when he sees Sa'luk hold his golden claws up to his father's throat in a threatening gesture, at least until the sudden stir of the sea far below catches everyone's attention. The ocean erupts into a torrent of massive waves, waves that soon give way to something buried beneath the surface. A massive, pristine marble spire rises up from the depths first, followed by several more in turn, golden domes and statues adorning the grand, immaculate edifice. The thieves are awash in shock as they watch this incredible mountain-set castle unveil itself around them, their tiny boat nearly toppling over in the process. A loud, low groan echoes across the ocean as the castle starts to settle, revealing exactly how this impossible landmark has stayed concealed by the sea for so long to begin with.

"The Vanishing Isle!" Aladdin gasps as Carpet glides around the castle.

"On the back of a giant turtle!" Jasmine adds, just as awestruck.

"That's so cool!" Sora exclaims, nearly reaching for his Gummiphone to snap a photo of the incredible sight. Only to stop himself when he realizes just how many missed calls he'd no doubt have to confront if he did.

"This place is actually real?" Roxas balks, just as captivated as Xion is alongside him. "I thought your father was just making it up," he says to Aladdin.

"Honestly, me too," Aladdin notes. As he does, however, he happens to spot Cassim, being dragged off the boat and onto one of the castle's several walkways by Sa'luk and his crew. "Let's get closer," he urges Carpet downward, hoping to form some sort of plan to set his father free along the way.

Genie is the one who makes the first move. He bursts in out of nowhere before the thieves, making use of his diverse, bombastic magic to send several of them scattering right off the bat. In the immediate chaos, Sa'luk grabs Cassim by one of his tied-up arms, pulling him in another direction to keep his last-ditch bargaining chip from getting away. By now, Carpet's landed, and with it, so has Jasmine and Abu. The three of them join Genie in taking the rest of the thieves on, holding their own against the band of armed crooks surprisingly well. At the same time, Aladdin quickly convenes with Sora, Roxas, and Xion from one of the castle's higher precipices, watching as Sa'luk continues pushing Cassim onward to the castle's entrance.

"Genie, we need a distraction," Aladdin says as his friend conveniently appears next to him.

"Survey says: show me turtle!" Genie readily complies as he swiftly disappears. While his plans are initially lost on the others, they soon become clear when the very turtle the island is resting on begins to tremble. It's enough to stop Sa'luk and Cassim in their tracks, and to give Aladdin, Sora, Roxas, and Xion just the opening they need to leap in to his rescue.

Sa'luk barely even sees the attack coming; Aladdin is the one to kick him to the ground, and surprisingly, that's all it takes to send him rolling off to another walkway several feet below. "It took me years to find my father," he calls to the thief as he lands, unconscious, beneath them. "I'm not losing him again!"

"You… came to help me?" Cassim looks to his son, genuinely stunned by his selfless courage.

"How could I do anything else?" Aladdin smiles as he unties his father. That smile is warmly returned, especially when Cassim hears what his son has to say next. "Now, let's get that treasure of yours. You guys coming?"

"Y-yeah!" Sora quickly agrees, hoping this treasure hunt can serve as a well-timed distraction. Only for those hopes to immediately fall through at that exact moment.

"Wait!" Xion exclaims upon noticing what Sa'luk had dropped in the brief scuffle. "Sora, Roxas, look!" she grins as she picks the scepter up and presents it to them. "The Oracle!"

"Oh no…" Sora mutters to himself as Roxas quickly perks up at such a find.

"Great job, Xion," he says, watching as she hands the scepter off to Sora, who takes it with trembling, hesitant hands.

"Well, boy, looks like this is your lucky day," Cassim offers Sora a broad, casual smirk. "The Oracle's all yours. After all," his smile softens as he glances over at Aladdin. "I've already found what I'm looking for."

"So, are you finally going to ask your question, Sora?" Aladdin asks, thoroughly curious to hear what that question is.

Sora draws in a tight, nervous breath as he grips the scepter tighter, though he does his best to play his anxiety off convincingly enough. "Um, y-yup, I sure am!" he forces on a wide, falsely eager grin. "In fact, why don't I do that while you guys go after the treasure. I mean, that Hand isn't gonna find itself!"

"It certainly won't," Cassim agrees, clapping a hand onto Aladdin's shoulder. Though he hesitates, he ultimately complies with his father, offering the trio a small, brief wish for luck before both groups part ways. And as soon as Aladdin and Cassim are gone, Roxas and Xion don't hesitate to turn to Sora expectantly.

"Well? There's nothing keeping you from asking that question now," Xion says with a hopeful smile.

"And once you do, we'll finally be able to start fixing this mess," Roxas adds, only to see his other suddenly turn away from them, scepter still in hand. "Sora?"

"I… I can't ask the Oracle anything," he admits, his voice so quiet that it's barely audible.

"What?" Xion frowns, confused. "Of course you can-"

"No, I can't," Sora sighs, deciding to at long last be honest with the pair. Mostly because he's finally run out of excuses to give them to keep this going any longer than he already has. "I… I already asked my question."

"Wait, you mean when you stole it?" Roxas asks, surprised. "So… you already asked it how to set your heart free? Why didn't you tell us that before?! What did it say?"

Sora shudders, practically hugging the scepter to his chest now as he fights back tears. "That's not what I asked it…"

"...What?" Roxas asks. The question comes out quietly, but there's an undeniable edge to it that shakes Sora to his core.

"So… what did you ask?" Xion asks, her voice as apprehensive as her expression.

"I asked it… about how to find the Key instead…"

"What?!" Roxas snaps hotly. "Why would you do that?! How could you just waste what could have been your last chance like it's nothing?!"

"I didn't want to ask it that!" Sora protests, spinning around to face the pair. "I tried asking it how to help my heart, b-but then…" he trails off, struggling to tell them what truly happened. To tell them that he has so little control over even his own words anymore thanks to the oppressive, unbreakable stranglehold Xehanort now has over his heart.

"W-well, that's ok!" Xion interjects, already sensing Roxas's rising fury as she races to counteract it. "We can always have someone else ask for you. Maybe we can even see if Aladdin will let us borrow the Oracle and we can take it back with us to-"

"T-to the lights?" Sora fills in, horrified by the very thought. "No, we can't."

"We are," Roxas asserts, not even caring to hear Sora's reasoning on this refusal. Not this time. "Key or no Key, we've wasted enough time here as it is. We should have just taken you back to the others from the start; and now, we have no reason not to."

Though Roxas tries reaching for the Oracle, Sora abruptly pulls the scepter back, stumbling backward away from the pair as his panic begins to mount. "I can't go back to them, Roxas! Not now, not ever!" he cries, tears quickly forming in his eyes. "Don't you get it?! They can't help me! No one can anymore!" He lets out a morose, miserable sob as he reiterates what Xehanort told him, as he mournfully admits his fate, the only thing he knows his future holds in store for him now. "There is no way to stop this…"

"Y-you don't know that for sure, none of us do," Xion counters, though her voice wavers when she does. "I'm sure the Oracle can-"

"The Oracle won't help!" Sora shouts, distraught. "You keep acting like this is my last and only hope, but guess what? There isn't any hope left for me at all" Acting on sheer frustrated despair alone, he tosses the scepter toward the sea, much to Roxas and Xion's shared alarm. But ultimately, there's nothing either of them can do when the scepter ultimately falls into the ocean, the Oracle and whatever wisdom she could have offered them forever lost to the dark, unknowable depths.

"What's wrong with you!?" Roxas yells, taking a fistful of Sora's shirt. "Why would you just throw away the one thing that could have actually saved you?!"

"It couldn't have saved me!" Sora counters harshly, pulling back. "Nothing can! This is just going to keep getting worse and worse no matter what anyone does! And when it's all over, I… I won't be…" He takes a glance at his claws, at the monster he's so quickly turning into, the only monster he can't stop, the only monster he's never been able to stop no matter how hard he tries. "I can't go back to the lights..." he repeats in a strained, sorrowful whisper. "I don't belong with them, I'm not one of them anymore… And I never will be again, not after everything I've done…"

He barely even notices as the world suddenly shifts to gold all around him, a question echoing all around him that only serves to make him feel so much worse than he already does.

"Does your heart bear the weight of guilt?"

"Y-yes, it does..." he sobs, overwhelmed by that guilt, crushed by its devastating weight. It's a weight that's been growing ever heavier from the beginning, with every lie he's told, every mistake he's made, every moment of weakness he's had along his painful path toward the darkness. A path he's never wanted to take, but has never had a choice or a chance to deviate from, just as Xehanort had told him. And in the end, that path has left him with nothing… nothing but the unbearable burden of guilt it's forced upon him… and the lone Key that guilt forges, exactly as the Oracle had said it would.

That Key flashes bright into Sora's hand, not that he pays it much mind as his anguished tears continue falling. Neither Roxas or Xion can say a single word to its appearance, however, as the entire island suddenly rumbles beneath them once more. And as it does, the pair notices water beginning to swell up over the castle's lower levels, a sure sign that the turtle bearing it upon its back is beginning to dive back into the depths it came from. Leaving them with little time for any further discussion or distress.

"We don't have time for you to stand here feeling sorry for yourself," Roxas says staunchly, firmly grabbing Sora by the wrist. "We got that Key like you wanted, so we're getting out of here, and we're getting you some help, and we're not going to argue about it anymore!"

"I told you, I'm not going back!" Sora shouts, tearing his arm away as he maintains his hold on the Key.

"Yes, you are," Roxas argues severely. "Even if we have to make you."

Sora flinches when his Nobody suddenly summons both of his Keyblades, his intentions with them very clear. And yet, strangely, Sora doesn't back down; not when he knows what'll happen, where he'll be forced to go, who he'll have to see, if he does. "Then go ahead and try it," he hisses back just as coldly as the Kingdom Key flashes into his hand.

And yet their weapons only clash once before a second Kingdom Key wedges its way into their beginning brawl. "Stop!" Xion shouts furiously, her decisive strike pushing both boys back. "Both of you, stop it right now! Roxas, what are you even doing?!"

"What does it look like?!" Roxas shoots back. "I'm trying to save Sora here! Someone has to since he obviously doesn't want to save himself!"

"By fighting him?" Xion scoffs incredulously. "How is that saving him?! I want to help him, just as much as you do, Roxas, but getting angry and yelling at him isn't working!"

"So what's your solution then, Xion?" Roxas asks flippantly as his Keyblades disappear. "Being 'nice' and letting him run around wherever and however he wants until it's too late?!"

"No, I just-" Xion gasps as she takes a small glance past Roxas. Only to find no one's there anymore. "Well, it's definitely not letting him run away while we're not looking!"

"What?!" Roxas spins around, only to find that, sure enough, Sora is gone. Fortunately, the pair is quick to spot him upon one of the castle's higher levels, having gained the upper ground by way of his powers as he runs even further away from them. Though exactly where he intends to go on a slowly sinking isle is a mystery, both to Roxas and Xion, and even to Sora himself.

But even so, Sora keeps running, knowing he has to get away, knowing he can't let them drag him back to the lights, knowing that he can't face any of his friends after the momentous mess he's made. He doesn't know where he'll go or what he'll do, but he'll figure something out eventually. He has to, because the alternative, the possibility, however small, of hurting any of the people he cares so much about any more than he already has, is all but unthinkable.

However, there's another outcome that's every bit as unthinkable, one that presents itself as a sudden dark corridor swells to life on the open walkway just a few feet in front of him. And as soon as Sora sees who's stepping through that corridor, he realizes he's in even more trouble than he had been before.

"I'd rather not waste my time or yours on meager pleasantries this time around, my infuriating little Heartless," Maleficent says, a cruel, bitter scowl resting on her face as she walks forward. She's alone this time, with Pete nowhere to be seen following in her wake. Her staff is clutched tightly in her grip, bright, dangerous magic already swirling around its orb as she steadily approaches her terrified prize. "I've grown quite tired of you escaping me each time we meet. Which is why I'm done playing these childish games with you, boy. You are coming with me this instant, even if I have to drag you away in chains like the pitiful beast you truly are!"

Before Sora can even think to react to such a threat, Maleficent makes good on it, shooting a burst of powerful magic his way. That magic takes the form of heavy metal chains, identical to what she'd used on him before, that latch themselves tightly around both of his wrists. Maleficent has an unflinching hold on the other end of those chains, and wastes no time brutally yanking Sora toward her using them.

"Come along, my pet," she finally smirks upon hearing the pained, fearful cry Sora lets out as she continues forcefully pulling him along. As she finally stands on the verge of completing her nigh obsessive campaign to claim the "Heartless" she's been after for so many months now. "Your time to stand within the light has at long last reached its end."

"I couldn't agree more…"

Both Sora and Maleficent are absolutely caught off guard as a blast of immense dark energy slams into the space between them, slicing cleanly through the chains to the point that it all but obliterates them on both ends. Sora only has a brief moment of relief over this mysterious, yet timely save, though that relief immediately shrivels up when he hears his "rescuer" address him from behind.

"You've done well to find this world's Key, my thirteenth," Xehanort says, smiling as Sora anxiously glances back at him. "But now, I do believe you were given very specific instructions on what to do with it, weren't you?"

Though his grip tightens on the Key still shimmering in his hand, Sora can do nothing to silence the compliant agreement he's forced to give, just as he's forced to fully turn to face Xehanort. "Y-yes, master…" he says, carrying the Key closer and closer to the very man he'd vowed to keep them all away from.

"You again…" Maleficent seethes somewhere behind him, keeping her sights set on Xehanort in a vicious glare. "Still insisting the boy is your vessel, I see. What an asinine notion. How possibly deluded can you be?"

"I'd reevaluate which one of us is the deluded one here if I were you," Xehanort maintains his cool composure, though his haughty smirk does widen as he silently commands Sora to come closer to him. "For you see, in contrast to your… barbaric efforts to subdue him, I've already made far more progress in winning his loyalty than you could ever hope to achieve. Isn't that right, my thirteenth?"

"Yes, master, i-it is..." Sora has no choice but to say. Just as he has no choice but to place the newly-claimed Key directly into Xehanort's outstretched hand, his heart unable to resist a direct order from his master, however much every other part of him so desperately wants to. Every bit as much as he hates so easily giving something so important away to the darkness he's well on his way to become part of himself.

"Whatever you think you might have done to the child matters little," Maleficent sneers as she prepares another powerful spell. "His powerful darkness shall still be mine to command!"

"Darkness that I took the first steps in awakening within his heart," Xehanort counters evenly. "Your persistence is admirable, but ultimately, you are mistaken. Sora is one of my vessels, the thirteenth, and most important extension of my own heart. And as such, he's belonged to me long before any of your simpleminded schemes for him even began."

Sora chokes out as much of a tight sob as he's able to upon hearing this, completely disgusted by the conversation that's going on around him. Here are his two greatest, most dangerous foes, bickering between each other about who gets to control him, who gets to parade him around like he's nothing more than a piece of property to be bought and bartered over. And really, that's all he is to them: something to be subdued, to be used, to be owned as if he isn't even a person but a mere object instead, an object that's only purpose is to be possessed by the highest bidder. And yet, even as downright dehumanizing as that horrific thought is, he can't help but think it's the only fate that's fitting for him now. That it's the only thing he really deserves after every awful thing he's done.

"I refuse to let my Heartless be stolen away from me again!" Maleficent snaps, her patience well running thin by this point. "If you're so keen on making him your own, then you'll have to take him from me by force!"

Maleficent lashes out at this with a strong burst of green magic, one that Xehanort easily deflects as he calls upon his sinister Keyblade. "If you insist," the master says simply, pressing forward into this newfound fray. As the two begin exchanging magical blows, Sora finds he's forced to stay standing exactly where he is, unable to flee from the two people who could easily cause him the most harm. His heart is pierced by a nonstop burst of unspeakable, unnatural pain, tears streaming down his cheeks as raw fear continues flooding his every last thought. Above all else, the thought that no matter who wins this battle, he's the only one who will lose either way.

Yet even still, Sora is quickly reminded there's still a third way he can lose here as he hears a shared cry coming from far behind him. "Sora!" Roxas and Xion call, though both of them stop short upon seeing the alarming sight on the far end of the path ahead. Maleficent continues madly flinging magic at Xehanort, who calmly deflects just about all of her attacks with ease while letting loose several of his own. And throughout the brawl, all Sora can do is stand there and watch them fight over who will hold power over him; at least until he turns to see the pair racing toward him, intent on "saving" him in just about the last way he wants to be saved.

And as he stands there, squarely planted between two of his foes and two of his friends, time seems to slow to a crawl for Sora. To his right is Maleficent, who wants him as a monster, and Xehanort, who wants him as a vessel, but despite their conflict, the sentiment between the two of them is exactly the same: to turn him into a slave, into a complacent, compliant being without any shred of freedom of his own. But to his right is Roxas and Xion, who both want him to keep that freedom, yet at a cost; the cost of taking him back to the very people he can never return to, who will inevitably, and understandably, cast him out as the darkness-drenched monster he already knows himself to be. By all accounts, he can't stand the thought of either happening, from falling into the darkness, to being dragged back to the lights. Because now, no matter where he goes or what he does, he'll inevitably be trapped, either by the treacherous forces who seek to constantly control him, or by the endless lies he's told about a problem that has no solution to speak of.

As his heart continues splitting in agony, his mind screams for some kind of escape from that problem, from his enemies, from his friends, from everything, even from himself. He'd tried to make that kind of escape before, an escape that should have taken him out of the picture entirely, that should have given him the rest he's so desperately come to crave. But even that ultimate escape attempt had ended in failure, and as a result, he's only ended up even more trapped than he had been before. There's no stopping any of this, Xehanort had told him as much and Sora had already fully believed that well before he had. His fate is set in stone, his destiny dooming him to something far worse than death itself. He can't free himself from that grave fact, yet he still strives to anyway, he still foolishly wishes for freedom, for release, for escape from it all just the same. And as he continues to silently beg for that escape, as he still stands on the verge of being taken against his will by either his friends or his foes, one emerging, outstanding urge starts to echo through his head.

Run. It pulses through him, instant and instinctual, coaxing him to flight where he knows he's powerless to fight.

Run. It resounds through him again, louder and clearer this time as he looks down at his hands, as he sees his own dark magic starting to swirl over them.

Run! He all but begs himself as he realizes Roxas and Xion are only a few short feet away from him now, as Xehanort and Maleficent continue to battle over who he should belong to.

"Run…" he whispers almost inaudibly, realizing he has no other choice but to do exactly that.

He lets out a strained shout as he throws his arms out wide, his magic bursting to life in the form of a deep, dark pool of shadows beneath him. He's only summoned a dark corridor once before, and even now, he still doesn't know how to connect one to any particular location. But at the moment, where he's going hardly matters, just as long as it's anywhere away from here.

"Sora!" Roxas gasps, both him and Xion stopping dead in their tracks as they realize his intentions. "Wait!"

Sora says nothing, only sparing the pair a brief, tearful glance, wishing he was brave enough to voice all of the endless apologies he has for them. But in the end, they go unspoken as the darkness devours him, as he willingly lets himself disappear from this world into the unknown, entirely on his own. As he finally gives himself the only form of escape he can now, however false and fleeting that escape might be.

"No!" Maleficent yells when she notices her "Heartless" vanishing. She casts a powerful spell past Xehanort, yet it only ends up striking the empty ground where he had once stood instead. "That despicable, lowly creature has slipped away from me yet again! This is all your fault, you wretched old fool!" she practically screams at Xehanort, who simply maintains his cool, calculated grin all the while. "You may think he's already yours, but I can guarantee that by the time I'm through with him, he'll be answering only to me! And if you even so much as try to get in my way again, I swear I'll have your loyal little 'vessel' tear you limb from limb!"

"I'll be eager to see if such a "well" thought out plan comes to pass…" Xehanort says simply as Maleficent conjures a dark corridor of her own, intent on going after her runaway pet, wherever he may be. At the same time, the master turns just in time to deftly block the pair of Keyblades slicing toward him from above.

Roxas lets out a furious yell as Xehanort throws him back with a powerful swing, and he just as easily shoves Xion away when she makes a similar attempt at attacking him. "I see the two of you are still just as futilely persistent outside of his heart as you were when you were still within it," he notes, his grin fading into an irritated scowl. "While I have no need for cheap imitations of my thirteenth, I suppose I'll let you both leave this place with your lives. The guardians of light would do well to have a few spares on hand for the clash that's to come, after all."

"Shut up!" Roxas shouts as he charges for the master again, far too infuriated to say anything else. Despite his best efforts to get a devastating hit in, Xehanort merely deflects his attack away again with hardly much effort at all.

"Why are you so upset, boy?" Xehanort asks, grinning once more. "True, Sora may have left this world behind, but you needn't worry for him. Some time alone will do him far more good than you taking him back to the lights ever could have. For you see, he has just taken yet another step down the path I have laid out for him, the path that he has always been meant to take."

"You're wrong!" Xion counters resiliently. "Sora isn't going to-"

"Instead of spending your time arguing in vain with me," Xehanort interrupts, glancing over the edge of the walkway they're on. "I believe you both have far more dire matters to concern yourselves with."

He's not wrong, Roxas and Xion find, as they notice the sea water quickly rushing in to cover their boots. The island's well on it's way to sinking now, all of the castle's lower levels completely submerged once more as the turtle continues its slow, steady descent back into the sea. And in the split seconds that they take this alarming sight in, Xehanort also makes his quiet, subtle exit through a dark corridor, just as Maleficent and even Sora had done before him.

"H-he's gone!" Xion exclaims upon noticing the master's sudden disappearance.

"Forget about him," Roxas shakes his head, still quite petulant as he lets his Keyblades go. "We've gotta get out of here!" With this, he grabs Xion's hand and they both take off, hoping to gain some higher ground as quickly as they possibly can. After all, they'll never be able to even start trying to find and save Sora if they can't find a way to save themselves first.

Meanwhile, atop one of the castle's highest levels, Aladdin and Cassim emerge, having narrowly escaped their own demise in their quest for the Hand of Midas. Sa'luk, on the other hand, hadn't been so lucky. He'd followed the pair inside, and had nearly taken both father and son out amidst his vicious, bloodthirsty greed. But in the end, that greed had been his undoing, as he foolishly, thoughtlessly touched the mystical Hand itself. And as a result, had been turned to solid, unliving gold, undone by the very treasure he'd been willing to hurt or kill anyone to claim.

Once outside, the pair takes a moment to revel in their victory as Aladdin pulls out the Hand, carefully wrapped up to keep either of them from meeting the same fate as Sa'luk. "After all these years," he offers the Hand to Cassim. "You finally have your treasure."

"This thing? No," Cassim shakes his head, looking down at the Hand with newfound disdain. "This wretched thing nearly cost me the ultimate treasure. It's you, son," he smiles, folding Aladdin into a warm embrace. "You are my ultimate treasure. I'm just sorry it took me this long to realize it. And as for this," he scowls at the Hand as their hug disbands. "The Hand of Midas can take its curse to the bottom of the sea!"

With this, Cassim throws the treasure as far as he can, not even bothering to watch as it flies toward the sea, to be forever lost to its depths right alongside the Oracle. Mere seconds later, however, Aladdin and Cassim feel the island abruptly rumble underneath them, the turtle's low groan echoing across the sea as it plunges even deeper into the waves. Fortunately, they're both quick to find that help is swiftly flying their way just in the nick of time.

"Get up here, you blasted rug!" Cassim calls to Carpet as it soars up to catch them.

"You actually trust this thing?" Aladdin smirks over at him as they both hop on.

"With my life, son," Cassim replies just as playfully.

Knowing there's little time to lose, Aladdin pulls Carpet to rescue the others, starting with Jasmine, Iago, and Abu as they wait atop one of the castle's swiftly sinking spires. They're just as quick to find Roxas and Xion, racing to outrun the rising water before it overtakes them completely. However, as Carpet pulls in to save them too, Aladdin is the first to realize someone among them is missing.

"Wait," he asks, glancing around what little remains of the island. "Where's Sora?"

"H-he… left already," Xion admits with a small, sad sigh.

"Left?" Jasmine presses, confused. "What do you mean? How could he leave on his own?"

"It's a long story…" Roxas replies, beyond tired at this point. "We'll explain everything on the way back."

"...If you say so," Aladdin relents, clearly quite worried for Sora's wellbeing. Worry that just about all of the others share, though none more than Roxas and Xion themselves.

"Genie!" Aladdin calls just as the last of the Vanishing Isle disappears into the depths.

"Present!" Genie salutes as he appears before the group, his work in getting the turtle to sink finally finished.

"Let's go home," Aladdin says with everyone-or at least, almost everyone-finally safe and accounted for. "We have some unfinished business."

---

The tale Roxas and Xion weave for the others on the way back to Agrabah is far from a pleasant one. They leave out some of the more daunting details, but discuss as much as they can, explaining Sora's plight and in doing so, finally clearing up much of his more mysterious motives when it came to the Oracle. They cap it all off by describing his abrupt, alarming departure, the circumstances of which leave them all equally unsettled to say the least.

"So… he's just gone then?" Aladdin asks as they fly into the city.

"Yeah…" Xion says with a fretful frown. "He is."

"Isn't there anything we can do to help find him?" Jasmine offers kindly.

"Not much," Roxas says. "I mean, we don't even know how to start looking for him ourselves, so-"

"Um, actually , Roxas…" Xion interjects, spotting something, or rather someone, on the ground below them as they finally reach the palace. "I think we might just have a way to go after him after all. But…"

"Oh no…" Roxas fills in where she trails off upon seeing who's waiting for them on the palace steps. They ask Aladdin to let them down there, bidding the others a brief farewell before they hesitantly approach who's traveled all this way to find them. Someone who's far from happy with either of them right from the start.

"Took you two long enough to show up," Axel turns to them, his arms crossed and his expression sour. "That Sultan guy said you'd be right back, but you've kept me here waiting for hours, and that's on top of the past several days I've been hunting high and low for you. Care to explain why that is?"

"A-Axel," Xion begins with a nervous smile. "It's… uh… We're glad to see you too!"

"Save it," Axel puts a hand up, scowling. "I'm really not in the mood."

The pair sighs, knowing they won't be able to placate him so easily, not this time. "How'd you find us?" Roxas asks, somewhat confused.

"Through luck, mostly," Axel shrugs, glancing away from the pair. "That, and asking around for two kids in black coats who are clearly in over their heads. That's how I ended up here."

"How much do you know?" Xion dares to ask, even though she knows she shouldn't.

"Enough to figure out that you two lied straight to my face back in Twilight Town," Axel glares back at both of them, clearly hurt from their blatant dishonesty. Dishonesty that had so rarely ever existed between the three of them before. "So, I'm only going to ask you this once, because there are a bunch of people back at the tower who are just dying to know: where is Sora?"

Roxas and Xion exchange a morose glance at this question, knowing it's one they have no answer for. Knowing that now, they're just as much in the dark about Sora's whereabouts as anyone else is, that his sudden, distraught disappearance has left them with no trail to follow, now way of figuring out where he is or how he's doing. No way of saving him, just as he'd mournfully told them before. And in the end, Roxas is the one to admit this terrible truth. And as he does, all he can do is hope that wherever Sora is now, he's still somehow safe, even though he knows he almost certainly isn't. Because regardless of where he goes now, the darkness will only continue to follow him, until it's finally devoured every piece of him completely. "We… we don't know…"

---

Ah boy, looks like our boy is on his own now! What does that mean? Where will he go next? Will things finally start getting better (nope they wont), guess you'll just have to wait and see next time :3 But until then, don't forget to show your love with some REVIEWS PLEASE! Until next time! :)