Author's Note: Sorry for the delay again. Computer problems(most likely have to get a new one before KH3 comes out, which, I originally intended on getting a new one after the game's release, *Sigh*), family health problems(It's not as bad as it sounds, but I'm worried), writer's block and edging to begin another KH story I've been meaning to do for years now(Yep, it's "Second Being" which I only managed to do a preview story which will be set after "Second Chance" and before "Second Life"), everything in random.
Well, at least a new chapter's here now.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or Final Fantasy.
CH33: Bizarrah's Scheme.
While the group knew that searching for their friends through out Agrabah wouldn't be easy, especially with Heartless around-which was nothing Sora, Kairi, Xion, Skuld, Ven, Aqua, Donald, Goofy, Jack, Myde, and Prompto couldn't handle-everyone followed Shantotto in hopes of finding Riku, Mickey, Terra, Roxas, Lea, Isa, Noctis, Ignis and Aladdin.
"If the crux of our problem is this force, we need only follow it to the source." Shantotto was saying after being told about Bizarrah.
"I do wonder how Bizarrah managed to escape?" Jasmine thought, worriedly. "I mean, I know that rubbing a lamp is the only way to let out a Genie and a wish to set them free is the only way to free Genies from lamps forever. But who could've let Bizarrah out?"
"Magica?" Sora guessed with a shrug.
"I don't think so." Goofy said, thoughtfully. "If it were Magica, Bizarrah woulda been with her, right?"
"I don't think it was Aced either." Kairi added after thinking about it. "He's too focused on saving the you-know-what to even think of something like letting Bizarrah out."
Skuld nodded in agreement, "You're right. Aced wouldn't do something as foolish as that."
"Maybe it was Pete. You know how much trouble he's causing." Xion shrugged.
"Could be." Myde shrugged, "Plus, with that guy and Maleficent looking for the Book of whatever it is and they like to gather up villians that's sorta like Organization XIII."
"Who're Aced, Pete, Maleficent and Organization XIII?" Prompto asked, confused. Genie, Abu, Iago and Jasmine shared the confusion.
"I thought you guys stopped Pete, Maleficent and Organization XIII." Iago pointed out to Sora, Donald and Goofy.
Sora nodded, answering, "We did, and we stopped the guy who was behind the whole thing since a little over twelve years ago. Pete and Maleficent are bad guys who're messing with the Heartless, and well, those two are still around, looking for a book that might be an answer to what's going on since we're looking for it too. But the ones we have to worry about are Aced and Chaos."
"And this whole thing started twelve years ago?" Jasmine asked, shocked.
"Yeah, and Aqua, Terra and I were in the thick of it twelve years ago. It's a long and complicated story." Ven shifted uncomfortably.
Shantotto suddenly hovered in front of Ven, startling him as she then said, "And considering how you and Aqua had not aged, it's obvious that you both were tormentedly caged."
"Wait, what?" Prompto blinked, confused.
"Being caught in some dark hook, the two of them are older than they look." Shantotto grinned while hovering back onto the ground. The worldly travellers suddenly shared an uncomfortable glance, knowing that, given how the mage managed to figure this out with Ven and Aqua, they all had some explaining to do.
She wasn't finished, however, as she turned her attention to Skuld, adding, "Same as this Warrior of Light. Brought here to join this questionable fight."
An uneasy pause.
"I think she's some sort of an Oracle." Genie whispered to Jack.
"Either that, or she's a mind-reader, given that she can use magic." The pirate whispered back.
Donald looked between the others with his eyes, until something caught the corner of them to his left and looked to see what caught his attention as they passed a Rug Shop. He blinked in confusion as one of the rolled up rugs seemed to be...glowing a bit and wobbling on it's own, before approaching it to see what was going on. Funny enough, the owner of the place wasn't there despite that they had passed a few streets which had everyday people in the Marketplace.
"What's this?" Donald wondered aloud, before glancing back and forth to make sure the owner wasn't around, before carefully picking up the rug and flipped to unroll it on the ground, which the noise made everyone else notice.
"Donald, this isn't the time to go Marketplace shopping." Sora scolded, rolling his eyes in annoyance.
But as Donald got a good look at the rug, he yelled out in shock and fright. "Look!" He cried out.
Now concerned while wondering what caused their friend to have such a fright, Sora and the others gathered to see what was wrong. When they did, their eyes widened in shock and confusion as well.
"Riku! King Mickey! Roxas! Terra! Lea! Isa! Noct! Ignis! Carpet!" Sora cried out, alarmed this time.
Inside the picture pattern of the rug, were the group's said friends who, like inside a mirror or something, could move but couldn't get out of the rug as they realised Bizarrah's magic had them trapped inside.
"Noct! Iggy!" Prompto cried out in alarm, relief and worry, recongizing two of them.
"Well, this is a surprise. Bizarrah's powers are quite an uprise." Shantotto admitted.
From within the rug, the said group trapped inside were relieved that help had come and while Noctis and Ignis were surprised and relieved to see their friend, Prompto, Lea called out, "Hey, guys...Uh, a little help?"
Iago, seeing this, sighed while shaking his head, "The others being stuck in there by Bizarrah, I can still handle. But a Rug inside a Rug? She couldn't've done something a bit more creative?"
"Hey, there's a keyhole above them." Goofy pointed out, and he was right. A keyhole somewhat floated above the trapped group inside the rug.
"How's that going to work in getting them out of a rug?" Jack asked, dumbfounded, before shrugging, "Unless, of course, we use the Keyblade to do what Sora did to free Kairi, Xion, Skuld, Aqua and Jasmine."
"Not a bad idea." Myde shrugged in agreement, before asking, "Uh...how do we do that, eactly?"
"Maybe if we hold it up, that would give Sora a better angle to use the Keyblade and free them." Jasmine suggested with a shrug.
"Good thinking! I'll do the honors!" Genie piped up, before carefully picking up the rug from the top and made it look like the trapped group were standing up. "Free away, Sora!"
Sora nodded and while the others moved away a bit to give the Keyblade Master a bit more room, he summoned his Keyblade before holding it out, and as promised a beam of light hit the Keyhole, and the entire rug shined in bright light which caused everyone to shield their eyes until it dimmed. When Sora's group looked, the rug was gone, and in it's place, were the rest of the worldly travellers and the Magic Carpet, all looked around before realizing that they were free and sighed in relief.
"We're out!" Roxas cheered happily.
"Great work, Sora!" Mickey congratulated as Sora and the others approached in relief.
Lea stretched, groaning in relief, "Ugh, man. That was so not comfortable inside that thing." before he, Roxas and Isa were caught off-guard when Xion threw herself into all three of them happily. The trio then smiled and hugged her in return, relieved that she was okay.
"Is everyone alright?" Aqua asked, as she and Ven both made sure Terra was okay, while Sora and Kairi did the same with Riku and Donald and Goofy did the same with Mickey, and Prompto was happily reunited with Noctis and Ignis.
"Apart from being stuck inside that material, we're okay." Riku replied, before asking, "Um, so, what happened? How did we all end up seperated and inside that rug?"
"There's this evil genie named Bizarrah. She's the one who's caused all of this. She trapped me, Donald, Goofy, Genie and Iago in the Palace Dungeons, trapped Kairi, Aqua, Xion, Princess Jasmine and Skuld in mosaic artworks, and Ven, Jack, Abu and Myde inside pottery." Sora explained as briefly as he could.
"We also met Prompto and Ms...Um...Shantutu, uh, sanrurur, um, sally..." Goofy once again had trouble pronoucing Shantotto's name.
"Shantotto here helped the four of us get out of that old pot. That's what Goof's trying to say." Myde quickly continued while gesturing at Shantotto who smiled.
"Good day, I say." Shantotto greeted.
"Hi-ya, Shantotto, and Prompto. It's nice to meet ya. I'm Mickey." Mickey responded with a beaming smile.
"I'm Riku." Riku added.
"I'm Terra." Terra added.
"My name is Isa." Isa nodded.
"I'm Roxas." Roxas added.
"My name's Lea. Got it memorized?" Lea added with a smirk.
"My name is Ignis, Ms. Shantotto. This is Noctis." Ignis greeted politedly.
"We call him Noct." Prompto added with a grin, before waving at the other worldly travellers friendily.
Noctis nodded to Shantotto, and even to Jasmine, Iago, Abu and Genie, "Hey there."
"Any of you guys seen Aladdin?" Sora asked, noticing that Aladdin was still missing.
"Nope. We've been stuck in there for most of the time." Lea shrugged apologetically, before admitting, "Come to think of it, for me that's minor compared to what Sa'luk did the last time the four of us and Namine were here."
"Minor compared? Something worse happened the last time you were here?" Jack asked, puzzled as were everyone else.
The redhead shifted uncomfortably, before answering, "Uh, long story short, but when Sa'luk touched that Hand of Midas by the gold hand part, it turned him into a solid statue. Problem is, due to the darkness in his heart, he turned into a giant Heartless that, if he touched anything or anyone, they'd turn into pure gold and couldn't be reversed unless he was defeated. I ended up turning into a statue after I saved Roxas."
"YOU!?" Sora, Riku, Ven, Mickey, Terra, Donald, Goofy, Myde, Noctis and Prompto all exclaimed in shock and horror, while Aqua, Skuld, Kairi and Jasmine all gasped.
"You didn't say anything about that part!" Iago exclaimed, horrified himself.
Lea shuddered, "Yeah, and believe me, that was a horrible experience, one that I hope to never have to go through again."
"Who would?" Isa muttered, while giving his friend a comfort pat on the shoulder.
Abu shivered in fear and whimpered before he was being comforted by the Magic Carpet who was seen for the first time by Prompto and most of the worldly travellers who'd never seen it before.
"Whoa! A magic Carpet!" Prompto exclaimed in amazement.
Jack on the other hand, as though the obvious was painfully seen before the younger man even mentioned it, gave Prompto a sarcastic look while asking in strong sarcasm, "Really?"
"Uh, anyway." Lea quickly spoke up before an argument could start, "You said somethin' about Bizarrah? Who's she and who freed her?"
"An evil mean Genie, and well, none of us have any idea how she got out, to be honest." Genie answered, "I think the next thing to do now is find Al' and quickly!"
"Hey, Shantotto? Do you have an idea where Aladdin could be?" Ven asked as he turned to the mage who quickly went into deep thought.
She paced slowly while thinking, "If Bizarrah had also captured Aladdin, she would have kept him in a place that is well hidden. If my speculation is right, then she imprisoned him in a place that is magically tight."
"Uh, not to ruin your thoughts here, sister, but don't you EVER say anything that isn't in a rhyme!?" Iago exclaimed in sheer annoyance, sick to death with Shantotto's constant poerty speech. "It's getting on my nerves!"
He was quickly grabbed by Donald who glared at him while saying, "Your shouting is getting on MY nerves!"
"You're not the only one." Genie rolled his eyes, while also glaring at Iago in equal annoyance.
Shantotto glared at Iago, saying in warning while pointing her staff at the bird threateningly, "Watch your mouth, insufferable Parrot, or I will take great pleasure and turn you into a Carrot."
That was enough to make Iago stay silent as he gulped nervously. Everyone else shared a little scared glances as well. It was Noctis who finally broke the awkward silence, as he asked, "Uh...so...you got an idea where he could be?"
"Hmm...In order to be in the right direction..." Shantotto thought deepily, before an idea hit her, and then she turned to face the worldly travellers while pointing at Sora, "Is the one who has a chosen connection."
"Me?" Sora asked.
"I think she's right." Mickey realised, "Sora, you're more connected with Aladdin than most of us are. Everyone's with you in your heart, and we're all connected by the invisible chains."
Sora absorbed what the King had told him, and realised that he was right. His friends were his power and he was theirs.
"May my Heart be my Guiding Key." Sora almost automatically mumured.
"This is getting old." Vanitas's voice groaned in Sora's head, and the teenager had to mentally shake off those words. Now wasn't the time for that guy to interfere. Instead, Sora closed his eyes and tried to think and focus on his Heart and Aladdin at the same time.
At first, nothing happened. But the more Sora concentrated, the more he could see an image in his mind's eye...of a boarded up place in an deserted street. Then, as though stepping into the building which looked like an old laboratory with objects and such older than possibly the Sultan, with a mirror on the side, and at the back of the room...was some kind of vortex and inside it, struggling to get out...was Aladdin!
Snapping his eyes open with a stop gasp, Sora exclaimed, "Al'!" before rushing towards a direction of a street close by, as though he knew where Aladdin was and that he was in deep trouble.
"Sora! Wait!" Kairi cried out, as she and everyone else hurried to follow him, with Riku calling out Sora's name.
The group followed Sora while fighting or avoiding the Heartless along the way down the street, until they eventually arrived at an boarded up building which Sora recongised as what he saw before he slashed through the wood with his Keyblade to make an opening and raced inside, with the others close behind. Everyone gasped in horror as a vortex was slowly pulling Aladdin right inside.
"Aladdin!" Jasmine cried out, horrified.
"Jasmine! Sora! Guys!" Aladdin called out, before grunting as he was being pulled in slowly further into the vortex, "I-It's not safe! Get outta here or you'll get caught too!"
"We're not leaving without you!" Sora protested.
"Reality check! How can we get Al' outta there if we-" Iago suddenly cut himself off when he noticed what was on the table. Immediately, his eyes lit up, as did Abu's, before the duo, without thinking, went over to the table which had a few broken jars and inside them, were jewels of Rubies, Emeralds, Sapphire, and Gold. "Riches! My favorite things ever!" He exclaimed as he greedily eyed the items.
"Don't go near there!" Riku warned.
Too late, as the Vortex somehow sensed more victums, the winds picked up a little which, given how Iago and Abu were up close the vortex, was starting to pull the two inside as they realised too late before screaming. Donald and Myde reacted quickly by grabbing them, but soon it was becoming to the point where everyone was slowly starting to get sucked into the powerful winds.
"Grab Aladdin and make it quick!" Shantotto shouted, while struggling to hold her staff while aiming at the vortex. "Are your skulls unbearably thick!?"
"But if we do that, we'll get sucked in too!" Xion cried out while she struggled not to get pulled in herself.
"Just do it!"
Genie then had an idea and magically conjoured a rope, "What we need is a volunteer to be tied up around the waist with this rope to pull Al' outta there so we can pull both of them out!"
"I'll do it!" Sora quickly volunteered and before anyone else could protest, the teenager quickly tied one end of the rope around his waist and made sure that it was tight enough that it wouldn't come loose.
"Are you crazy!?" Prompto cried out in disbelief. "What if you end up stuck in there too!?"
"I'll be okay! Trust me!" Sora nodded with determination, and he knew that, if he wasn't careful, he and Aladdin could both be lost to wherever the vortex would lead them. "Ready?"
Despite the hesitation and worry, everyone else nodded and with Genie, held the other end of the rope tightly while Sora then leaped and allowed himself to be pulled by the winds, but when he gave his signal, everyone tugged and held on while Sora reached out his hand to Aladdin who was shocked.
"Aladdin! Give me your hand!" Sora cried out to his friend.
Despite struggling to do so while shocked that his friend was risking his life to safe his, Aladdin grunted as he managed to pull his hand free and while the two young men strained, and when everyone else thought it was no use, Sora finally grasped Aladdin's hand and called out to the others, "I got him!"
"Pull!" Ven shouted the signal, as he and everyone else pulled as hard as they could while hoping that the rope wouldn't break. With a final tug, they all successfully pulled both Sora and Aladdin away from the Vortex as they all landed on the ground with a thud, and Shantotto blasted a small orb of Light from her staff which went into the portal that then vanished instantly the moment the two made contact, and the winds died down.
"Uh...Genie?" Myde groaned, and his voice sounded all muffled. As it turns out, Genie had accidently landed on top of him and Iago who were both stuck underneath the blue magical being. "Could you...get off please!?"
"Whoops!" Genie winced before quickly hovering off the duo, who both looked a bit flattened. "Sorry."
Iago tapped the ground with a feather while resting his head on his right wing, glaring in annoyance at Genie while grumbling, "This is one of those adventures again."
"You okay?" Sora asked, while he and everyone else panted.
Aladdin nodded, "Yeah. Thanks, Sora. I woulda been a goner if you guys didn't show up." before standing up and embraced Jasmine when she threw her arms around him in huge relief.
"We couldn't have done it without Shantotto here." Sora sheepishly replied while he and everyone else stood up, and Shantotto nodded.
"Well, thank you, Shantotto." Aladdin nodded, before asking the group, "So uh, when did you get here?"
"About just before Bizarrah attacked." Lea replied with a small shrug. "What I wanna know is why she did that and how she managed to escape in the first place."
Aladdin sighed, "Well, we can't seal her without the lamp, and this is going to be more difficult than ever."
"Whaddya mean?" Goofy asked, worriedly.
"I'm not sure if this is the right one, but, I found this piece of a broken Lamp when I was stuck in that vortex." The former Street Rat replied while pulling out a black bottle neck of what looked like an old Lamp.
At the sight of the Lamp, Genie's eyes bugged out about at least two feet before he went over and gazed at the piece of the lamp, slightly panicking, "Oooh! Bizarrah sure knew how to make things really difficult! Al', how many pieces did she put her lamp into?"
"As far as I know, three. I saw her break her lamp while she was taking me to this place. I managed to grab this piece and if I remember correctly, she hid the other two pieces somewhere in the desert outside Agrabah. The second piece should be in a cave in the east." Aladdin thought deeply.
"The Cave of Wonders?" Sora couldn't hold back the urge to groan.
To his relief, the answer was, "No. A different one. I've never been inside there before, so I only saw the entrance. The second piece has gotta be in there somewhere and I'm not sure what Bizarrah really like. All I know is that she has to be stopped before she destroys Agrabah."
"If Bizarrah managed to break her own lamp due to being set free, she must have done so to prevent herself in being trapped again." Skuld realised.
"I was thinkin' the same thing." Mickey nodded in agreement. "So, while the journey to find the other two pieces will be dangerous, we still gotta find them if we wanna trap Bizarrah back into her Lamp."
"Sounds simple, but like you said, it won't be that simple." Noctis spoke up, "But there's no way we can just leave this in the open."
"Not simple to do, but simple to remember. Then again, words are more simple in memories than they are in real life. Ay?" Jack commented, which once again earned skeptical looks from everyone else.
"Right...and, who're you?" Aladdin asked, now that he got a better look of the newcommer that was with them.
Sora, remembering, answered apologetically, "Oh, this is Jack Sparrow. He came along with something else happened recently and it's a long story."
Before Sora could introduce Aladdin to Noctis, Ignis, Skuld, Ven, Terra, Aqua, and Prompto, however, a noise was heard from outside and it sounded like a woman's voice.
"...I sense that boy has escaped!" The unfamiliar voice grunted angrily.
"Someone's coming!" Noctis alerted in a whisper.
Panicking while trying to keep their voices down, everyone all quickly hid behind broken crates and behind the wall near the doorway, as outside, a red female evil genie flew in before glancing around to see if anyone was here.
"There's no one here." She said to herself, before growling and then sighed. "No matter. As long as the Sultan and those other pieces are not found, the world will be mine to rule!"
Without further ado, she then disappeared in red-smoke which faded, as she had been unaware of the group hiding inside the building before they sensed that she was gone for now and sighed in relief.
"By judging her fiery temper and not very friendly expression, I would venture a guess that she is Bizarrah." Jack muttered as he and everyone else slowly came out of their hiding places.
"I have a feeling that you're right. Who else would be a female genie and say things like that?" Ignis agreed.
"She didn't say anything about where Cassim is, though. Maybe she thought he wasn't worth her time." Iago muttered with a shrug.
This made Aladdin groan, "So she even got Dad too. That explains how you got back here, Iago."
Iago shook his head, "Not my fault that she decided to attack everyone in the area!"
"I hope my father and Aladdin's father are both alright. They and the pieces of the lamp could be anywhere." Jasmine muttered, concerned.
"I'm sure we'll find them. We're not giving up that easily! Right guys?" Sora declared, and his companions all nodded in agreement.
"And we know where the second piece could be. It's the third one, the Sultan and Aladdin's father we have to figure out, though." Mickey said, while placing a hand onto the glass of the mirror on the wall. But as he just touched it, all of the sudden, it glowed in light, which alarmed him and everyone else who also noticed the light.
When it faded, Mickey gazed at the mirror, thinking it was normal. But the sight that greeted him was a shock. Sure it looked like his reflection, but to Mickey's confusion, his 'double' was wearing his traditional red shorts and yellow shoes.(1)
"AH!" Mickey shrieked before falling backwards in fright and his 'double' did the same. Calming down a little, Mickey stood up, edging closer to what appeared to be a mirror or a window, and made slow movements to see if it was real. His 'double' did the same.
"Hm, it looks like my reflection. But something isn't right." Mickey thought, and to make things complicated, his 'double' in the mirror was talking, but he couldn't hear what the reflection was saying. Come to think of it, the other Mickey inside the mirror looked to be in some kind of hallway, and there was a mist forming around the reflection, one that the King recongised as hints of a dream. Or a nightmare.
"What is it?" Riku asked as he approached his friend, before realising that something weird was happening in the mirror, and then everyone else gathered around, now even more confused than ever.
"What's going on?" Sora asked, puzzled.
While he wasn't certain, Mickey thought up a conclusion that the only one that made sense, "I'm not sure. But it kinda looks like I'm...seein' myself in another dimension."
"Another what?" Jack asked, dumbfounded.
"You mean like an alternate world?" Roxas asked.
Shantotto thought deeply about this, "Two of us exist? What a twist."
"What do you mean 'alternate world'?" Aladdin asked, confused.
"Think of it as a place like say, what if you weren't around and where that would leave us." Genie answered, before shivering, "Why, I'd still be stuck in that Lamp!"
That's when Sora realised and remembered something that made his eyes widen in horror as he remembered the dream he had back in Port Royal, one that had Vanitas appear to him for the first time;
Flashback: In "Second Life: Secret Episode"...
"This is what would've happened if Roxas didn't cure that redhead friend of his through you. Without Axel, or Lea, or whatever, the outcome would've been that Roxas and Xion would've still been stuck inside you, Ventus's heart stuck inside you, Namine stuck inside Kairi, and Lea losing Isa to Xehanort by the time he's recompleted, and you wouldn't even know about Genesis." Vanitas told Sora.
Somehow seeing what he just seen of his dreamself made sense to Sora as he summed up, in slight horror at the very thought of it, "So you're saying that if Lea wasn't revived, Roxas, Xion and Namine wouldn't be made as humans, Genesis, wouldn't have woken up, Zack would've still been dead, Aqua would still be trapped in the Realm of Darkness...and Xehanort would've taken me as his vessel. Then Chaos..."
End of Flashback:
So Vanitas was right. Except that, very likely that said alternate universe did exist, Sora's other self somewhere in another alternate universe is still facing Master Xehanort. His gaze lowered to the ground in guilt and realization. Was it really hopeless even with or without Xehanort around? That the Realm of Light would be going into another War?
"Well, that's a first. Seeing another universe through a mirror is amusing." Vanitas' voice echoed in Sora's head, and he could hear the embodiment of darkness smirking cruely.
'Shut up, you!' Sora hissed in his mind while gritting his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut.
Abu's shriek suddenly snapped Sora out of it before he and the others looked up while Iago muttered nervously to Mickey, "Uh, unless I'm mistakin' and I'm hallucinating...THERE'S A GIANT MONSTER RIGHT BEHIND YOUR OTHER SELF!" he screamed out the rest of the sentence.
Gazing at the mirror to see what was happening, their eyes widened as Mickey's other self in the mirror was being over-shadowed by a mysterious black monster that resembled to a Heartless, with yellow perching eyes and sharp gagged black teeth and claws. Mickey gasped in horror while the other Mickey slowly turned around in fear and was about to be grabbed by the monster when suddenly the entire image faded as though it disappeared completely.
"No!" Mickey cried out, placing his hands on the mirror, only to see that the image was gone and in it's place was the real reflection of himself, with everyone else in it and the room they were in.
"Huh? Where'd they go?" Donald asked, worriedly.
"That was weird and creepy." Myde shuddered.
"What was that?" Noctis asked, puzzled and shocked.
Aqua, while puzzled herself, muttered, "It must've been another dimension. But, I can sense that Mickey's alternate self was dreaming."
"Dreaming?" Jasmine asked, confused.
"Now that you mention it, I think you're right. Not sure why, but, it looked to me like Mickey's otherself was trapped in a nightmare, and maybe, just as that monster was about to grab him, maybe he woke up just in time and that's why the image disappeared." Riku theoried.
Sora blinked, befor realizing, "Maybe you're right. It did kind of look like a dream. At least I hope it was a dream."
"So you're sayin' that he's other self was dreaming of seeing us in our dimension while having a nightmare of that thing chasing him? That means we're not the only ones having problems." Lea thought, a bit skeptical.
While his friends talked and he listened, Mickey continued to gaze at the mirror where he'd seen his alternate self, placing a hand onto the glass. His real reflection copied him. He was suddenly worried for his other self and hoped that Sora was right. The other Mickey looked younger, and whom what Mickey used to be before he became a Keyblade wielder years ago.
'I wish Master Yen Sid were here. He'd know more about this.' Mickey thought to himself, thinking about his still missing former mentor.
"Mickey?" Riku's voice jarred Mickey out of his thoughts, before the king realised that his close friend was kneeling next to him and had placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I'm okay. Don't worry." Mickey answered the teenager's unasked question with a sad smile.
"Uh...if we're done with the scary magic mirror, can we just go now?" Iago pleaded while gazing at the mirror again. "'Cuz I don't wanna see my alternate-self in a bad place!"
"Iago!" Aladdin and Sora both scolded.
"He is right, as time is wasting. We must make haste against Bizarrah we are chasing." Shantotto agreed as she began to walk out of the building.
"She has a point." Prompto nodded in agreement.
"Yeah and I got a feeling that cave will be dangerous. We have to be prepared for whatever trials waiting for us." Terra nodded in agreement.
"Right. Let's go!" Sora said with determination.
But as everyone walked out of the building to head over to their next destination depsite Aqua's protests that Jasmine should stay behind but had been convinced otherwise that keeping the Princess close by was safer than leaving her at the Palace due to Bizarrah, Maleficent and Chaos, Lea couldn't help but gaze at Sora who was unaware of the redhead's stare. His eyes and brows narrowed in suspicion.
Lately Sora had been acting strange, and this all started back onboard the Black Pearl at Port Royal and even though nothing seemed wrong with the kid, Lea could see that, in some cases, Sora seemed like in a double conversation rather than thoughts.
He was hiding something, and he wasn't telling.
'Just like...I was with Axel.' Lea thought to himself in realization. Suddenly he had half an idea what was in Sora's mind, yet didn't know why, since Roxas and Xion were made human and Sora was still whole.
Sooner or later, Lea decided, he would speak with Sora privately on what was going on.
Meanwhile, just outside of the entrance of a cave that looked more like an entrance of a temple with ancient carvings surrounding it, Pete, under orders by Maleficent, stood there while having his fists on his hips.
"Well, d'at old Cave of Wonders had nothin', and this Vanishing Isle is too wet due to a giant Turtle, I guess this place is the next best thing to find that stupid Book. Got my doubts, though." Pete was saying to himself, before stepping inside...after five minutes of steeling himself.
The cave itself was very creepy. Almost as creepy as the Underworld.
But as he took the first step, the ground gave way, revealing a pitfall trap leading far into the ground. Pete realised too late as he ended up falling deep, deep into the darkness underground, screaming in alarm while the trap itself sealed itself up back the way it was as though nothing happened at all.
It was a rough and hard landing, but Pete finally saw the end of the tunnel while tumbling out face first on the stone floor. He layed there for a short moment before pushing himself up, while having to pull his face off the ground as it was stuck for a moment. Shaking away the dizzy spells, the villian looked around and noticed that he was in some kind of chamber, with a tunnel to his right, and a large sealed door to his left.
Realising that he feel through a booby trap, Pete then decided that he was okay for not and he can easily get himself out. "Well, could be worse." He said to himself, attempting to lighten the mood.
Too bad he spoke too soon, because as soon as the words went out of his mouth, the door to his left then made a creaking noise, and it slowly slid up. When Pete looked to see not two, not four, but six gleaming eyes in the darkness, and a growl that came from within. As it emerged, Pete's eyes widened in horror as a three-headed Lion with wings stepped into the light of the torches that were in the room.
"Uh-oh." Pete muttered. The first logical thing for him to do was send in the Heartless to deal with it to turn it into a Heartless to be under his and Maleficent's command.
But it attacked so fast that Pete didn't even have time to think about that. So the second logical thing for him to do was make a run for it.
And that's what he did...screaming.
Sora and the others would've fallen into the same trap if they hadn't been riding on both the Magic Carpet and in a plane that Genie turned into. So they flew over the sand pitfall trap while flying into the cave that Aladdin had directed them into before they came to a stop in front of another doorway, and got off both Carpet and Genie who turned back to normal instantly.
"I will never get used to that." Jack grumbled, having found himself being a bit air-sick due to flying in a plane which he never did before. The vehicles at Atlantis were bad enough, but at that time he'd been concentrating on fighting both Rourke's men and the Heartless.
"So, anybody got an idea where the second piece could be?" Myde asked, shrugging.
"If we knew, we would've figured it out by now." Isa pointed out while rolling his eyes.
Shantotto took a few steps closer to the entrance before stopping, and said, "It would be best not to be rash in these caves. There are booby traps in there that could very well end with our graves."
"Our graves!?" Myde, Donald, Goofy and Iago exclaimed in horror, before all four of them hugged each other in fright, quivering.
"Guess we'll have to be really careful. Though there were booby traps in the Cave of Wonders too." Sora realised.
Roxas groaned, "Yeah, I certainly didn't like those boulders rolling around all over the place."
"And the beetles." Xion added, shivering at the memories of her and Roxas being chased by hundreds of beetles in the Cave of Wonders when both of them were still in the first Organization XIII.
"Let's proceed with caution. You never know where or when the traps will activate." Skuld told the group, taking the lead with Riku, Aqua, Terra, Ignis, and Shantotto walking with her.
"Guess I've missed out on a lot since you and Iggy joined these guys, Noct." Prompto commented.
Noctis chuckled softly while shaking his head, "I've only known them for almost two weeks. Other than that, you wouldn't believe what we went through before we came here."
The others followed the group that stepped inside first and all paused when they saw zig-zag paths all leading to the other side, with an abyss of darkness below. There were wall-water falls, and a platform on the other end. There sat what the group recongised was the second piece of Bizarrah's Lamp.
"There it is!" Aladdin called out, but softly. It was as though he was worried that too much noise could trigger a trap.
A moment of pause.
"Well, come on then! Better get it now while we still can!" Jack told the group agitatedly, and was about to go ahead himself while being careful...
Too bad he wasn't that careful, because the moment he stepped onto the ground, he didn't realise until it was too late that he stepped onto a stone slab on the ground which was pushed into the ground. As the pirate froze when he heard that dreaded sound, all of the sudden there was a creaking noise above them and when the group looked up to see what it was, a huge cage with spikes came descending down towards them.
"Look out!" Riku cried out.
Everyone leaped out of the way just in time to avoid in getting caught or killed, but that was only just the start of more booby traps that Jack had accidently triggered. Because only a second later, flying knives came right at them along with Bandit Heartless with cross-swords came charging at them. Not to mention maces on chains hanging from the ceiling came flying at them while swishing at the pathways that one false move or timing could kill them and cause them to fall into the abyss below.
Shantotto, Sora, Skuld, Aqua, Mickey, Terra, and Riku didn't waste time in summoning Barrier Spells to protect all of them and their friends from the knives. Genie then turned himself into a gladiator so that he could smack away the remaining knifes while the Keyblade wielders and the rest of the Worldly Travellers brought out their weapons while Aladdin brought out his own sword, quickly fighting off the numberous horde of Heartless that appeared along with the Booby Traps. Even Jasmine punched a Heartless or two in the face, surprising Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and Iago and Abu had to hide and run each time to avoid in getting killed.
Though it didn't help when the waterfalls suddenly became more violent and nearly washed away Skuld had Ven not pull her to safety, much to her surprise as she gazed at him while he shrugged with a smile.
"For the record, I blame you for this!" Lea grunted at Jack while he slashed another Heartless with his Keyblade before switching for his Chakrams and tossed them expertly at several more before catching them and slashed and swiped at others before yelling when a large Heartless caught him off guard and smacked him towards near the entrance. He only managed to save himself from falling into the abyss before Isa and Roxas saved him from the same Heartless and destroyed it.
"Ugh, this isn't getting us anywhere!" Roxas groaned angrily, standing back to back with Xion.
To make things worse, a caged door was slowly descending from the opening where the group had come from, meaning that if they didn't hurry, they'd be trapped and killed in here. Their only optains were to get out and try again later, or stay and end up trapped. Or so they thought, until Sora had an idea.
"Noct! I need you to warp me to the Lamp and back out again!" Sora called out, while quickly shielding himself with his Keyblade and prevented another Bandit Heartless from slicing him in half. He pushed it back after a bit of struggle and slashed it at it's waist, destroying it instantly.
"Huh?" Noctis asked, before slashing at another Heartless. He then suddenly realised what his friend had in mind, and while he knew it was a crazy idea, time was running short.
"Are you crazy!?" Prompto cried out, before kicking one Heartless in the chest which caused it to be sent flying backwards and fall into the abyss.
"Guys! Head out to safety and hurry!" Sora called out to the rest of the group.
"Sora, no!" Kairi cried out, horrified as she also realised what Sora planned on doing.
"While overly confident with pride, we best listen as time is not on our side!" Shantotto informed the group, while blasting five Heartless into oblivion with her Firaga Magic.
Despite not liking it, the group knew they had no choice. So after telling Sora and Noctis to hurry, the group raced outside as quickly as possible while avoiding the gate. Sora and Noctis, the only ones left behind quickly held hands before the latter warpped them to the other side where the Lamp piece was and grabbed it, before slashing three more Heartless that appeared to stand in their way. They then repeated the process by warpping back to the side where they came from and ran underneath the gate just in time before closing. But the danger was not over yet as the entire place began to shake and tremble, and the entrance was starting to close, similiar to the secret hide-out the Forty Thieves used to live before they were caught.
"We have to go, now!" Jasmine informed hurriedly.
"Let's move!" Aladdin ordered, leaping onto Carpet with everyone else hopping onto Carpet or on Genie who once again turned into a Plane, and soon they quickly flew to avoid the falling debries and rocks, urging to go faster and faster.
In the nick of time, Sora and all of his friends managed to escape just as the rock doors closed, though they did hit the ground hard in the impact of landing. None the less, they all sighed and groaned in huge relief.
"I-Is everyone all right?" Mickey panted.
"Apart from nearly being skinned to death, I'll live." Myde groaned.
"It's his fault that we nearly got killed." Isa grumbled, glaring angrily at the pirate who winced.
Jack knew that everyone was angry at him, and he was mad at himself for doing something as stupid as not looking where he was going. "I'm terribly sorry. It was a complete honest mistake."
Shaking his head while deciding to worry about lecturing Jack later, Sora held up the second piece of the Lamp and said, optimistically, "Well, at least we got the second piece of the Lamp and we all made it okay."
"Well...almost." Riku muttered, a bit amused as he saw something that made him half-smile.
The group looked to see what he was talking about, and were surprised and a bit amused that Iago, safe as well, had covered his eyes with his wings while his tail, unknowingly to him, was caught between the two rocks, and suddenly Aladdin and Abu felt the sense of deja vu.
"Are we out?" Iago whined.
Abu, deciding to help his annoying bird friend, went over before grabbing him roughly and yanked him out, though the two of them landed hard on the sand as Iago yelped in sudden pain. Pushing himself up and feeling a chill on his tail, Iago realised that, while he was free, his blue tail feathers were still stuck and left a bald spot on his tail.
This made Kairi, Aqua, Skuld, Xion and Jasmine giggle, Myde and Donald laugh hysterically and even Shantotto laughed in amusement at the sight.
"Oh! This is attractive." Iago said sarcastically. He then stormed up to the rocks, yanked his feathers out and plonked them back into their original place and pouted in sheer annoyance while Sora and Aladdin both shook their heads in slight exasperation.
"And you guys said I was a drama queen." Prompto commented to Noctis and Ignis who both smirked and nodded in agreement.
"So, where to now?" Ven spoke up.
The group all shared glances, and then realised that, while they had an idea in getting the second piece of Bizarrah's Lamp, they had no idea where the third and final piece was, or even where the Sultan and Cassim were.
"Ah, great." Lea groaned after a few moments.
"Guess we'll just have to look all over the place." Sora sighed in dismay. "It'll take forever, though."
"How about I help you guys out?" A strikingly familiar voice suggested, which caused the Worldly Travellers to freeze up as they recongised it. They, Aladdin, Shantotto, Jasmine, Genie, Abu, and Iago whirled around and saw the familiar man in the black coat standing there as he had appeared out of nowhere.
"You!" Sora grunted, summoning his Keyblade as he recongised the Master of Masters.
What did the Master of Masters want this time?
A/N: Due to story shortage, I think Agrabah will only be three chapters long this time. Sorry that it's not as good as I hoped, but I wanted to try and make it as action-packed as possible.
(1)The scene with Mickey seeing his alternate self is the same as in my other Kingdom Hearts story "Life NEVER was Normal" as a reference to a slight connection between the two universes.
Hopefully I won't take as long to update this next time as we enter the final stages of Agrabah and then we'll be heading straight back to Olympus Coliseum. See you next time!