The final battle. Gabriel Vs. Aline. Let's get to it!

Also, as a heads up so I don't have to keep saying who's speaking each time:

"This speech type means that Donald is announcing!"

"And this one means Goofy is announcing!"

With that out of the way, let the Tournament continue!

The stadium was abuzz as the last match was about to begin. All of the contestants were watching, other than Berry and Adam (whom we know were captured by Ditto), as well as Rachel, who was tracking down "Adam" for what he did to Jasiri (but Ditto was a bit too slippery for the sword mage). Luckily Jasiri had made a full recovery and was ready for the final match.

"Are you ready for the final round?" The crowd cheered out, rocking the stadium. "Okay then! Donald, announce our final contestants!"

"You got it, Goofy! First up, the high-class girl with a quartet of cats! She's been on a win streak that puts more people to sleep that an enchanted spinning wheel, Aline!"

There were quite a few voices in the crowd that booed as the Aline-Cats entered the arena, but the girl had some supporters as well. Although, most of her support seemed to come from villainous factions. Aline took it in stride and gave a curtsey, then watched as her opponent entered the ring.

"And her opponent needs no introduction! Ever since he showed up, this bird-of-a-feather has been helping people out whenever they need! Let's give a round of applause to the Dream Keeper himself, Gabriel!"

The raven waved as his team stepped onto the field. The crowd went wild, with Gabriel's friends all cheering him on to win. His fellow Dream Keepers teammates nodded with conviction as they were ready to fight.

"After today, they'll be calling me the Dream Keeper," Aline smirked.

"Not a chance," Jasiri growled.

"We're gonna win, and have fun at the same time," Kairi added.

"This fight will be one where the victory is taken with honor," Brooklyn nodded.

"The only place you'll be the Dream Keeper is in your dreams," Lena said.

Aline laughed, bringing her hand up in a very 'Anime Villainess' way. "That's the idea. Now then, let's begin."

"Yes, let's," Gabriel agreed.

The bell rang, and Aline immediately started her song. Surprisingly, The Dream Keepers didn't try to avoid the attack, letting themselves fall into dreamland while Aline smirked. "Now then, let's have a little fun before I…" She let out a yawn. "That's odd… I feel… tired myself…" The girl was soon put to sleep herself, with her cats following soon after.

"Um… It looks like both teams have fallen asleep."

"Luckily, we can just use this here Dream Camera from Ludwig Von Drake to see what's going on in here!"

Inside the dream, Gabriel awoke and smiled as he saw his teammates beside him. "The spell going well, Lena?"
The duck nodded, her body glowing faintly with magic. "Yep. Good idea using the lucid dream spell to keep us all 'awake' inside of here. Now we just have to wait for our prey to spring the trap."

Suddenly, Aline and her cats appeared, looking confused. "Why did I fall asleep?" she asked aloud.

"Oh, that was me," Kairi explained. "I put up a Reflect to bounce your spell back at you guys. Now we're all trapped in here!"

"And that means that we play by the rules of dreams, where we can do anything we put our minds to!" Gabriel exclaimed. His teammates all suddenly transformed into dream versions of themselves: Jasiri gained a magic aura with her mane glowing purple, Kairi donned Keyblade Armor, Brooklyn became decked out in futuristic armor with his motorcycle appearing, and Lena went into her Super Sorceress form with a star pattern flowing through her magic.

"I can do that too!" Aline called. Her outfit changed to be that of a combination of a princess dress and wizard robes. "I'm the master of the Siren's Song, and a combatant in Dream magic!"

"Yeah, you say that, but you've gotta have creativity to win in here," Brooklyn said. "Okay guys, let's split them up!"

The gargoyle raced forward on his bike and scooped up Oliver, followed by Jasiri jumping over Figaro and picking the cat up by the scruff of their neck. Kairi zoomed ahead to take Marie away, unaffected by her cute looks, while Lena got a hold of Dinah and canceled out their teleporting skills. "That's all of them!" Jasiri called.

Aline stomped her foot in frustration. "No fair! I'm supposed to be the dream magician! I'm supposed to win."

"But you only rely on one trick," Lena noted. "A real magician has many cards up their sleeves, and you only use one. Poor showmanship if you ask me."

"This isn't about you! It's between me and Gabriel!" Aline shouted, her voice throwing everyone else back, save for Gabriel.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that," the raven said. "What made you this way to feel so entitled to my job?" He held out a hand, humming as lines of music surrounded Aline, binding her in place. "Reveal what's in the past, let all your memories flow. Tell me where you began, to see where you shall go."

Above the two of them appeared a cloud, which they entered to find one of Aline's memories. In it, a young Aline sat on the floor, watching Alice in Wonderland while holding a stuffed animal version of Marie. She hummed to "In a World of My Own" while her parents had a discussion at the dinner table in the other room. Judging by the state of the house, it was clear that Aline's family was very rich.

"Is that you as a kid?" Gabriel asked.

"This is the day I made my vow," Aline said.

The young Aline got up from her seat and went to pull on her dad's pant leg. "Daddy, can I have my own cat like Alice?" she asked.

Aline's father patted her on the head. "Now sweetie, you know that taking care of a pet is a big responsibility, for a big girl."

"I can do it!" young Aline puffed her cheeks out.

"But you'll forget to feed it, or change the litter box," her mother sighed. "We don't pay the maids enough to take care of it for you. When you're older, then you can have a cat."

The memory flashed forward to a slightly older Aline, still wearing fancy dresses but now doing dance lessons. "Can't we have some more fun music?" Aline asked her mother. "I want my parents to see how well I'm doing, not do some simple song."

"You must practice at the basics first, then you can have what you want," her mother said.

Young Aline huffed, then the memory went forward again. Just a year later, Aline had just performed at a singing recital, her parents giving her praise. "You did very well, Aline. Enchanting even," her father said.

"Does this mean I can have a cat now?" she asked.

Both parents laughed. "Are you still on about that? Wouldn't you rather have something else?"

As her parents laughed, the young Aline frowned as the memory dissolved. The present-day Aline looked at Gabriel with a scornful look. "My parents told me to do everything perfectly, which I did, but they never gave me what I really wanted. So I just kept doing things to get their attention, hoping that one day they would see how much I had accomplished and give me the one thing I ever asked for."

"Wait, you're doing all of this because your parents wouldn't give you a cat as a pet?" Gabriel questioned.

"Wow, I know you're already a petty person, but that's really petty," Lena noted.

"It's not about the stupid cat anymore!" Aline shouted.

"Okay, then what is it about?" Gabriel asked.

"It's my parents giving me what I want!" Aline replied. "I did everything they told me and more, getting them to acknowledge me and not just their wealth. So, though, I found out that I liked getting power, and impressing people other than my parents."

"So what you're saying is, you wanting a cat was so that you could have something that would actually love you for who you are, while your parents only saw you as a means to uplift themselves," Brooklyn said. He shook his head. "Then it lead you to thinking that you could only be validated and loved by having others praise you. Yeah, that's bad parenting if I've ever seen it."

"But now, here in the Magical World, I can have as many cats as I want, and obtain a position that will have my parents begging me for their love!" Aline screamed, breaking out of Gabriel's binding. She pointed at the raven in a rage. "But YOU, YOU got in the way of MY position!"

"I think her parents wanting her to be perfect caused her to think that winning equals love," Kairi said.

Jasiri sighed. "Great, now I kind of feel bad for her. Still, just because your good at something, doesn't mean that you deserve everything when someone else put in just as much work! You can't win at everything!"

"Oh, but you can," Aline said, laughing. "If you can't win, then you pay someone off to get what you want. If they won't back down, then you just have to take their piece off the board. Which is what I'll do now, Gabriel! Your defeat is now!"

The raven sighed. "You know what, Aline? I think you could have made a good Dream Keeper, back when you were a wide-eyed kid. But instead of becoming your own person, you let your parents twist you into thinking you must win at everything to earn love. But true love and friendship isn't something you can earn with physical things or feats; you get it by making bonds with others." As Aline powered up and attack, Team Dream Keepers all held hands as Gabriel held out his hand to Aline. "So then, let's wake up from this dream and show you the power of my bonds!"

In a blast of light, the dream world was shattered, revealing Gabriel standing over a defeated Aline, with her cats still stuck in sleep. The crowd cheered as Team Dream Keepers all waved for their victory, then turned back to Aline as her shoulders shook. She growled and ran at Gabriel, trying to claw at him with her nails before being stuck in a magic hold.

"I think that's enough, Aline," Yen Sid said, turning the girl to face him as he appeared.

"Master Yen Sid!" Aline said in a panic. "You've seen how strong I am, right? You have to make me the new Dream Keeper, and not THIS guy over here!"

"The only thing I've seen is a girl that's forgotten what it truly means to love," Yen Sid shook his head.

"It's not entirely her fault, Master," Gabriel pointed out. "Aline just needs to be reminded that winning isn't everything, and that you don't need the praise of people that only see you as a means to an end."

Yen Sid hummed. "Well then, perhaps all she needs is some time learning those lessons." With a flick of his wrist, Aline was turned from a human into a cat, mewing as Yen Sid picked her up. "I believe some training with Merlin will help open her heart up again."

Gabriel turned to his teammates, smiling as they all put a hand in and did a cheer.

"And with that, Team Dream Keepers has one the Sorcerer's Arena Challenge!"

"All we have to do now is give them their wish! Which we've got right here!" There was silence as the sound of Donald digging through something was heard. "I said.. It's right here!"

"Uh, Donald, I think that's a Christmas tree topper."

"WHAT!? But the wish was right here with us for safe keeping! The only person that's been up here is when Elsa did that commercial break!"

"You mean me?" Elsa called. She jumped down into the stadium with an evil smirk on her face.

"Okay, that's definitely not Elsa," Kairi said, readying her Keyblade while brooklyn drew his swords.

Rachel suddenly came running in, panting and out of breath. "Guys, Adam wasn't Adam. I found him, Berry, and Elsa all held in these tubes and… Wow I'm out of breath."

"Yeah, I think we found the guy," Lena said.

"A shapeshifter? Didn't we fight one in the first round?" Jasiri asked.

'Elsa' nodded and held the Wishing Star up high. "Indeed, Jasiri. It is I, Ditto, and the Wishing Star is all mine!"

Author's Note

The battle is over, and Gabriel wins! Aline's biggest flaw was that her worldview only centered around impressing others and rising ever higher to get that praise. While her parents are partially to blame for that mindset, Aline took it too far and became a bully that confused praise with love. Gabriel, on the other hand, is a humble hero that sees people for what they are and tries to help out others, even if he gets nothing in return. Let's hope that Merlin can help Aline become a better person in the future.

However, Ditto has made his play and stolen the Wishing Star! If you think about it, becoming Elsa is a good idea because she's such a popular character that no one would bat an eye at her wandering around. What is his plan now that he has the Wishing Star? Well, tune in next week to find out as the Sorcerer's Arena has one last fight to the end!