Author's Note: So many news and interviews of KH3 from E3 and even a few days afterwards is coming from left to right. It's crazy!
Anyway, after careful thinking, I've finally decided which disney we're visiting next. Read on to find out! Though it probably won't be as long as most of the other worlds. By the way, I'm using the original name "Blaine" from Union X since "Brain" doesn't seem right to me.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or Final Fantasy.
CH42: The Tangled Adventure.
Back at their base, Aced, Lamuria, Arlene, Shelke and Shalua were having another meeting regards to the recent events, and from what they discovered, it wasn't good news, and Aced was more furious than ever.
"The Goddess of the Sea has been released." Aced hissed angrily, clutching his fist tightly.
"Goes to show that those kids really messed up this time." Arlene smirked, throwing her arms about. "And they thought they can do the right thing."
"It wasn't their choice to release Calypso." Shelke pointed out, her eyes having glowed orange briefly before returning to normal. "It was that Pirate Captain Barbossa who believed the Goddess would destroy Beckett and Davy Jones. Sora and his friends tried to stop him, and even Captain Jack Sparrow had his doubts."
Lamuria leaned forward a bit in his chair, stating, "Many had doubts of the Goddess being forgiving or caring. To be fair, though, Davy Jones is finally destroyed. Yet the price was an ultimate sacrifice. There was no changing that."
"Despite that, the situation is now worse. With Calypso as well as Eris the Goddess of Chaos on the loose, both can easily side with Chaos himself as they have cruelty against mortals." Shalua pointed out gravely. "Who's to say that the enemies we'd seen earlier are not recruiting candidates to join Chaos's side and reawakening Bhunivelze?"
"And then there's Strelitzia. Cosmos has revived her even before Xehanort has been destroyed. She was meant to be the fifth Dandelion chosen by Ava, but was killed before she even met with her fellow leaders." Lamuria added in agreement. "Yet, her memories are supressed on who had actually killed her."
"Not to mention Maleficent wants that Book of Future tales or whatever it's called and some black box." Arlene scoffed. "Good luck to her trying to find them. It won't happen."
"Indeed she won't. Neither will Sora and his friends." Aced nodded in agreement. "While I know not of the 'Black Box', I know of the Book of Prophecies, as well as the Lost Page. Both are hidden in a secret place. We need to find them before our enemies do."
"And the Princesses?" Lamuria inquired.
A pause.
"Seven Lights...Thirteen Darknesses. The second Keyblade War may have been prevented, but Chaos could still use them to his advantage, to bring about Kingdom Hearts, and Sora is only making the situation more dire." Aced replied. He then stood up and made his decision. "Arlene, see to Sora and his friends in the next world they are approaching."
Arlene grinned as she half-saluted, "Yes sir." before saying, "Though they're tricky to find and need I remind you, I busted their Gummiship which made them crash land in Romanov Empire to stop them from entering Olympus Coliseum."
"I can sense their next location. You should go there now while you have the chance." Shelke informed her.
"Hopefully you're right this time." Arlene grumbled as she stood up, "I want to throw many knives at them as I want. Especially on Axel and Demyx."
"Shalua, Shelke. See to Strelitzia and her companions." Aced commanded to the two sisters, ignoring Arlene's statement.
"Yes, Master." The two Rai sisters nodded.
"Lamuria, find the Book and the Box, and make sure Maleficent and her cohorts do not get to them first." Aced continued.
Lamuria nodded, "As you wish, Master."
"I will speak with our prisoners before I infiltrate Radiant Garden." Aced concluded. "I'm counting on all of you."
The group then began to make their move, yet as Lamuria walked down the passage after he opened up a Corridor for himself, he grinned as he pulled out a book with an old pattern from his coat pockets. Finding the original book would be easy now that he had the chance. As he opened it, he grinned when the familiar name was on the first page.
"Perhaps soon the time will come for us to meet again, Ventus, Skuld, Ephemer...Strelitzia." Lamuria muttered to himself. "Pity that Blaine isn't here to see this."
As the group sailed through the Lanes Between towards their next destination while trying to figure out the situation, for some reason they felt a bit empty considering that Jack wasn't travelling with them anymore. Well, Myde had once again fallen asleep.
"Gawrsh, I can't help but feel like somethin's missin'." Goofy muttered, a bit sad.
"Yeah. It feels a bit weird that Jack's not with us now." Sora sighed, placing his hands behind his head. "I miss him already."
"I think we all do. But it's for the best, and it is Jack's decision." Riku reminded, having understood the pirate's decision to stay in his home world. "He probably already made up his mind before Davy Jones and Beckett died."
"Yeah, probably. But you gotta admit, he really did do a lotta good things, considering what happened back in his world." Lea said.
"It'll be quiet without him around. But it's bound to happen sooner or later. When this adventure is over, we most likely have to go our own seperate ways as a group." Terra informed, and everyone realised that he was right, making them sad now that he mentioned it. Some of them sighed.
Sora nodded, "Yeah, but even though we're apart, we'll always be connected in our hearts. Leon once told me, "We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other". As long as we have each other in our thoughts and memories, we'll always be together."
"Except that one time last year when we forgot, no thanks to Organization XIII." Donald groaned. "I still don't remember Castle Oblivion."
"Maybe it's because those chains haven't connected yet." Xion suggested with a shrug. "I mean, I remember everything that's happened to me, but maybe it's because Roxas, Namine and I were made human."
"She has a point." Roxas nodded.
"Chains?" Ven asked, puzzled.
"The chain of memories. That's what Xi's talkin' about." Lea spoke up. "Our hearts hold our memories with chains hookin' them up together. Then we forget certain memories, the chains disconnect. But deep down, those memories we forget are still in our hearts, sleeping."
"Even if memories are not safe from the darkness." Aqua stated, shaking her head. "Being alone in the darkness makes you forget a lot. Makes you lose yourself until you're one with darkness."
Skuld frowned in concern as she turned to face the blue-haired woman. "Even though I was lost in the Realm of Darkness, I still have certain memories of my past. Yet, neither of us had fallen into the Darkness. Must be what Master Ava said when she chose me and others for the Dandelions. But now, I'm beginning to remember a bit more of the past. I remember meeting someone from a different Union who also met Ephemer and those two were friends, despite being from different Unions. How I was lost in the Realm of Darkness, it's still a blur."
Ven sighed, "Yeah. I still don't remember much of my past either."
"It'll take some time. Not everyone can remember everything." Kairi pointed out. "I didn't remember being in Radiant Garden until two years ago."
"She's right. Gosh, forgetting and remembering is part of life. Everybody knows that." Mickey agreed.
"You can say that again." Isa nodded.
Aqua was about to say something when she softly gasped as the familiar sudden spark hit her before everything around her turned black and again, she soon found herself in a vision or a nightmare.
It was the same vision as before, but this time, Riku seemed to have been defeated in battle, while Mickey is caught in some kind of vortex that is preventing him from moving. They were in the Realm of Darkness, at the shore where she first met and was rescued by Xion. Aqua's gaze then turned to a strange looking Kingdom Key, dark in appearence with a resemblence of the Star Seeker, with the same golden Hidden Mickey Keychain as the Kingdom Key-D. A shadowed her picked it up, covered in darkness.
"You're too late, Mickey." She heard herself say in the dark voice.
"Aqua...?" Mickey asked, sounding horrified and shocked.
Aqua soon discovered the darkness faded, but her clothes took on a different appearence. She found herself turning to face the other two, saying as she said in the previous vision, "I had no choice."
"Aqua!"
The familiar and very welcoming voice brought Aqua back to reality and she gasped again, and panted a little. She then realised that almost everyone else had gathered around, and looked very worried. She realised it was Terra who called out her name.
"Are you alright?" Lea asked, worriedly.
"I-I'm sorry." Aqua replied, lowering her gaze, frowning in concern. "That vision...it happened again, and it advanced. I somehow did give into the darkness. There was also this...mysterious Keyblade, shaped like Sora's and the Keyblade of Darkness. It even had the same chain as the latter. It was coloured dark and similiar to Mickey's. I'm not sure where it came from."
"Another Kingdom Key?" Mickey asked, confused. He then asked again, "Y-you are okay, right?"
Aqua nodded, "I feel fine. I just don't know why I'm having these visions all of the sudden."
"That's really weird. It happened back in Jack's world, right?" Sora replied, worried as he folded his arms to think. "On my second visit, that's when Vanitas showed up in my head."
"And since it was the rest of our second visit, the visions began in Aqua's mind." Skuld continued.
"But why Sora and Aqua?" Xion asked, worriedly.
Everyone shared a very concerned glance, thinking about it when a loud snort startled them before they all groaned and turned to where Myde was slumped in the chair, snoring his head off. Again.
"What was that you said about quiet?" Isa sarcastically asked Terra.
Donald, very annoyed, stomped towards the sleeping mullet-haired man and took a deep breath before yelling with in his ear, "WAKE UP!" which scared Myde wide awake as he screamed.
"Huh-wha-wha!?" Myde blinked, wondering who rudely woke him up, before he groaned as he fiddled with his ear that was badly ringing from Donald's yell, whining at him, "What was that for?"
The others shook their heads, while the scanner beeped, causing everyone to hurry to it, as it blinked to let them know that they had arrived at another world, which that had a tall tower, and magnifent Kingdom.
"Another new world?" Sora muttered, not recongising it.
"Wonder what's there?" Kairi asked, curious.
"Well, the only way to find out is to take a look." Lea shrugged. "Given the Heartless, I wouldn't be surprised that there're problems there too."
Once it was agreed, even as Myde still complained for having his beauty sleep ruined, Mickey and Donald sailed the Gummiship to hover before they activated the teleporter to teleport them and their friends into the new world, unaware that another familiar enemy was already there, waiting for them.
{Kingdom of Corona}
As soon as the worldly travellers disembarked, their eyes widened as they looked around to see they landed in a beautiful green forest clearing with a crystal clear waterfall and pond, and the ground had multiple coloured flowers. In front of the waterfall was a tall tower that had a purple roof, but for some strange reason, it had no door.
"So beautiful." Kairi breathed in awe.
"I've never seen a forest so lovely before." Xion added.
"And I thought Snow White's and Cinderella's worlds were beautiful." Aqua agreed.
"What a lovely place." Skuld concluded.
"Seems deserted to me." Lea shrugged, before asking skeptically as he pointed at the tower in the distance, "And what's with that Tower if it doesn't have a door?"
"Maybe it's there for decoration? Or maybe somebody who build it forgot to add a door and has to use a ladder to get in and out." Myde suggested lamely.
"I think we can agree that the latter makes more sense." Sora pointed out.
Donald gazed at both Myde and Sora skeptically, asking, "How can anyone do that with a tower that high?"
It wasn't until they heard an unfamiliar voice sequelling close by which startled them.
"Sounds like trouble!" Roxas exclaimed, only for Mickey to grab his wrist and stop him.
"Actually, that kinda sounds like somebody's excited. It's probably best not to rush in and just take a look carefully, just in case." Mickey suggested.
"Gawrsh, the King's right. We should look before we leap." Goofy agreed.
"Who would be out here in the middle of nowhere?" Isa asked.
"Guess we're about to find out." Riku said.
That sorted, the group ventured off to find out whoever was sequelling, and when they did and peered through the bushes, their eyes widened as there were two people, a young man and a young woman, along with a small green Chameleon who was sitting on a rock. The man was wearing a green vest with a white shirt underneath and brown khakis pants with brown boots. The young woman was wearing a long purple and pink dress with no shoes or even socks or stockings, and, to everyone's surprise, was a long blonde hair that was possibly 60 or 70 inches long.
And another strange thing, she seemed to go from happy to shock to happy again and then to guilt and depression, and this went on back and forth.
"I can't believe I did this!"-Happy.
"I can't believe I did this."-Worried.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THIS-" Excitedly.
"...Mother would be so furious."-Worried.
"Well, that's okay! I mean, what she doesn't know won't kill her, right?"-Optimistic.
"...Oh my gosh...It would kill her!" Worried.
"THIS IS SOOOON FUN!"-Excitedly.
"I'm a terrible daughter. I'm going back."-Guilty.
"I'm never going back! WOO-HOO!"-Excitedly.
"I'm a horrible person."-Guilty.
"BEST DAY EVER!"-Happily.
"Worst day ever!"-Sobbing.
By then, the young man sighed, "You know, I can't help but notice you seem a little at war with yourself here."
"What?" The girl asked, turning to face him as he leaned against a tree.
"Now, I'm only picking up bits and pieces here, of course. Overprotective mother, forbidden road trip. I mean, this is serious stuff. But let me ease your conscience. This is part of growing up. A little rebellion, a little adventure, that's good. Healthy, even." The young man explained.
"You think?" The girl asked.
The worldly travellers shared a glance as the conversation went on, as the young man continued, "I know."
"Am I the only one thinking she came from that lame tower?" Myde whispered.
Before anyone else could answer Myde's question, or the young man talking to the girl to continue, the duo-er, sorry, I meant trio, counting the Chameleon-were surrounded by Flower-like Heartless, causing the girl to scream and raise up...a Frying Pan?, to defend herself, while the young man flinched and even nearly screamed.
"Oh, come on! As if things aren't complicated enough!" The man complained.
"What are these things?" The girl asked, terrified.
"You're askin' me!? I don't think anybody's seen these weird-whatever they are-before!" The young man exclaimed.
"That's our cue!" Sora exclaimed to his group who nodded and bursted out of the bushes, weapons in hand and knocked away several Heartless from the quickly stunned trio whose eyes widened at their sudden appearence.
"We'll handle this!" Ven told the two people, quickly tossing his Keyblade at two Heartless that destroyed them instantly.
"I'll take that offer!" The young man quickly said and pulled the girl aside behind a tree along with the Chameleon, leaving the worldly travellers to handle the Heartless problem.
Sora dodge-rolled and avoided the attacks from the monsters before he chanted Blizzaraga that froze them and he finished them off with an Orb of Light spell. He then teamed up with Donald and Goofy as the trio worked together with their usual teamwork efforts, while Kairi teamed with Xion and Skuld to take out the Shadow Heartless, as did Ven, Terra and Aqua, while Mickey teamed with Riku, Roxas and Lea as the King preformed his triple-air-somersault to take out the Soldier Heartless, leaving Riku to slice them into oblivion, Roxas to take out the annoying Flying Heartless and Lea to burn the Flower-Heartless into crisp. Isa eliminated the bulky Heartless with his Claymore and Myde had his water-clones to drown the rest of the Heartless.
Eventually the coast was clear and as the worldly travellers dismissed their weapons, the young woman and the young man approached them again.
"Thank you so much. You saved us." The girl said.
"Are you okay?" Kairi asked, worriedly.
"Ah, we're fine. Nothing to handle. I could've easily taken them out like a dime." The man waved off, only to flinch when the Cameleon, who went up to the girl's shoulder, and the girl glared at him. "What?"
The girl shook her head and before turning her gaze back to the group with a smile, saying, "Anyway, I'm Rapunzel. This is my best friend Pascal." gesturing at herself and the Chameleon, before adding to the man, "And this is Flynn Rider."
"Hi, how ya' doin'?" Flynn waved, unenthusiastically.
"Hey there. I'm Sora." Sora introduced himself with a smile, then introduced his group, "This is Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, Terra, Ven, Aqua, Skuld and Myde." and each of them gave their own greetings of hellos and waves as he said their names.
"So, what were those things you guys fought?" Flynn asked, referring to the Heartless.
"They were the Heartless. Nasty bad guys who like to cause trouble." Myde explained, which quickly made Rapunzel grip her very long hair in sudden fear and panic.
"They weren't after my hair, were they?" Rapunzel asked, worriedly.
Flynn rolled his eyes, "Seriously, Blondie. Why would anyone want your hair?"
"I was just about to ask the same question." Lea commented, placing his hands behind his head. "Sure, none of us have seen hair so long before and it is really amazing, but stealing people's hair is a waste of time."
"Lea!" Xion, Roxas, Aqua, Skuld and Kairi scolded.
"Okay, okay. Sorry. That was rude of me." Lea quickly held his hands up in surrender and apologetically.
"What are you guys doing here anyway?" Riku asked this time.
"We're going to see the lanterns!" Rapunzel said excitedly. "Every year, they appear on my birthday, but I could only see them from the tower. It's been my dream to see them up close!" She then added sheepishly, "Sorry. I'm really excited. This is the first time I've been out of the tower, and it's thanks to Flynn here."
"Excuse me, but I thought you were in a war with yourself a few minutes ago, and considering you're worried about your mother, I'm letting you out of the deal." Flynn pointed out, before smiling smugly, "How 'bout we turn around, get you home and I get my satchel back while you get back a mother-daughter relationship based on mutual trust, and violà, we part ways as unlikely friends."
Rapunzel glared at him heatedly, "No, I'm seeing those lanterns."
"Well, ask them to take you! They're more bodyguard material." Flynn argued.
"I have a better idea: We all go together, and that includes you! Besides, they're probably not from around here." Rapunzel beamed happily, turning to the group and asking, "Will you come along too?"
Sora and his friends shared a glance, until Terra said, "I don't see why not."
"It would be a good idea, considering the Heartless around." Skuld agreed.
"Sure. We can go with. Besides, it's not very nice of Flynn if he breaks his promise to a girl, right?" Mickey replied happily.
This made Flynn groan in dismay, "Oh, come on! What is it going to take for me to get my satchel back?"
"I will use this." Rapunzel warned as she held up the Frying Pan again.
This made Myde and Donald try not to laugh, which prompted Flynn to pout at them, "Don't laugh! She hit me with it earlier when she tied me up with her hair in a chair! It's even worse when the Frog was too close to my face!"
"He's a Chameleon!" Rapunzel reminded.
"Just face it. You're not getting out of this one." Roxas said to Flynn who sighed dramatically.
"Fine, you guys win." Flynn grumbled. "So, who's hungry?"
Besides the Heartless that the group took care off, with the aid of Rapunzel and Flynn, the latter lead everyone to what it looked like a building in the middle of the forest, and, immediately, Flynn was the only one who wasn't suspcious about the place.
"Here it is. The Snuggly Duckling." Flynn told the group.
"We're not goin' in there, are we?" Goofy asked, worriedly.
"What's so bad about it?" Flynn shrugged. "This is the safest in the whole forest!" He then looked at Rapunzel. "Don't worry, it's a very quatint place, perfect for you. Don't want you scared and giving up the whole lantern thing now do we?"
"Well, I do like ducklings." Rapunzel admitted with a smile. The rest of the group though still looked uneasy and/or suspicious.
"I...don't know about this place. Sure it looks normal, but it's the inside I'm worried about." Sora muttered, giving Flynn a suspicious glare.
Myde groaned, as memories of Mudka's Resturant filled his mind. "Plus, the last time we went into a normal-looking resturant, they served cooked large beetles with yellow, gross gooey stuff in it."
This made Skuld moan softly and she began to look a bit green in the face, "Please don't remind me, Myde. I still get nauesous just thinking about it."
"What did you want me to say? The last cook we were served gave us Beacon Grease?" Myde grumbled sarcastically, even though just thinking about that made his stomach groan in dismay and he shared that feeling. He then yelped Isa tugged his ear again.
"How about keeping your mouth shut?" The blue-haired man suggested in annoyance.
"Not to worry, this place has amazing food too." Flynn replied, before cringing, "And who would eat cooked bugs and Beacon Grease anyway? That's disgusting."
"Well...it might not be that bad." Mickey hesitatedly replied, shrugging.
"Great!" Flynn grinned, pushing the door open and guiding the group in. Immediately, Rapunzel and the Worldly Travellers softly gasped as while the outside wasn't too bad, the inside was the opposite; it was dark, lit up by candles, and from one side to another, were thugs and thieves seated at tables, some missing limbs and having hooks or peglegs, some were short, some were tall. Immediately, Rapunzel held her up Frying Pan in defense, terrified.
"I was right." Sora hissed, having Kairi stand behind him as she looked terrified herself. Lea and Roxas both kept Xion close to them.
"I was wrong. It is that bad." Mickey shuddered.
"Why did you bring us to this criminal place!?" Donald demanded to Flynn who held his hands up.
"Hey, it's not as bad as it looks." He replied, and when one thug made a comment about Rapunzel's hair, he quickly replied to the guy, "She's growing it out."
Aqua looked really peeved, already helping to guide Rapunzel out of the place, "I say we leave and continue on to the Lanterns. The Kingdom is most likely a far better place than this!" The rest of the group nodded in agreement as they glared at Flynn.
But before they can even step out and leave, one of the thugs who noticed them immediately stood and slammed the door shut and forcing the seventeen of them to step back in completely alarm. But what alarmed Rapunzel and the worldly travellers even more was the man holding up a wanted poster of none other than Flynn, only with a very long and fat nose.
"Is this you?" The Thug asked dangerously at Flynn who gazed at the picture.
"Oh! Now they're just being mean." Flynn groaned at the picture of himself.
"You're a criminal!?" Xion exclaimed, angered at Flynn as where her friends.
"Okay, I confess. That's why I didn't want to go the kingdom in the first place! I stole the lost Princess's Crown!" Flynn argued, only to be grabbed by the shirt and quickly pinned to the wall by the Thug as other Thugs began to gather around.
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him!" Donald growled, only to cry out in alarm when all of the thugs pushed him and the others aside and became busy with how to deal with Flynn.
"Someone call the guards! The reward money will get me a new hook!" The Thug proclaimed.
By then, all of the thugs began arguing and then fighting each other into an all rally brawl while Flynn was still pinned against the wall. Rapunzel and the worldly travellers stood leaning against a corner, unable to decide what to do.
"This is like the Brethren Court all over again." Roxas groaned.
"Where's Serah when you need her?" Lea groaned, remembering how Serah managed to stop the Pirates from fighting by just yelling and lecturing them. Heck, she even scared them into listening.
"What do we do now?" Kairi asked.
"I say we leave Flynn and get the heck outta here." Myde suggested.
"I agree!" Donald was the first to agree.
Rapunzel disagreed, "But we need him! Otherwise will be lost and end up missing the lanterns!" and before the group can stop her, she took a deep breath and mustered up her courage, before taking out her frying pan and hurried over despite the group's protests to stop. She then whacked the thug holding Flynn on the head which made him grunt in pain before he and everyone else stopped what they were doing before turning to face her in confusion and disbelief.
"PUT HIM DOWN!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. She then gulped nervously as the thugs glared at her. "Okay, I don't know where I am and I need him to take me to see the lanterns because I've been dreaming about them my entire life! FIND YOUR HUMANITY! Haven't any of you ever had a dream?"
A complete silence spread in the entire tavern until the Hook Thug hung Flynn onto a nearby Hook on the wall before approaching Rapunzel with a battle axe, approaching her until she was cornered which spread fear in the hearts of Sora and his companions, worried for the girl's safety.
"I had a dream once." The Hook Thug replied, which made everyone else drop their jaws in shock and surprise. He noticed this and turned around, asking in annoyance, "What? Just because I look mean and scary, I can't have a dream?"
"N-No! Of course you can have a dream!" Mickey quickly answered, holding his hands up. "Everybody's just really surprised. So um, w-what was your dream?"
The Hook Thug's expressioned turn to that of someone having a nice dream, as he replied, "I've always wanted to be a concert pianist. I always wanted to stand on stage and preform Mozart." which surprised Rapunzel, the worldly travellers and even Flynn.
"Hey, I dreamed of preforming on stage too, but with my Sitar." Myde grinned happily.
"That explains everything." Lea commented to the Mullet-haired man.
Then a short Thug with a large nose came up, commenting, "I have a dream too! I want to find true love!"
"That's so sweet." Kairi said with a smile, and Xion, Skuld and Aqua nodded in agreement.
"Oh, thank you! I'm a lover, not a fighter." The big-nosed Thug replied, and by then, the other Thugs began to exclaim their own wishes and dreams.
"I want to quit being a thug and become a florist!"
"I make cupcakes!"
"I preform a Puppet show!"
"I want to do interior designs!"
"Vladimir collects ceramic unicorns!"
"What about you guys?" The Hook Thug turned to the rest of the worldly travellers.
Sora and his friends shared a look before shrugging and deciding to reveal parts of their own dreams, with Sora going first while gesturing at himself, Riku and Kairi, "Our dream is to see and explore different places together." with his two best friends nodding in agreement.
"My dream is to have a romantic picnic with Daisy at night." Donald admitted, blushing.
"My dream is to see everybody happy." Goofy added.
"Mine is to watch the stars with Terra and Ven." Aqua replied, with both Terra and Ven smiling warmly at her.
"Mine is similiar to Aqua's, except I want to watch the Sunset with Lea, Roxas, Isa and our other friend Namine and eat ice cream." Xion said, and three of her said friends also smiled.
"Mine too." Roxas said.
"Mine was to be a big brother, and these guys are my family." Lea said, gesturing at Roxas, Xion and Isa who smiled at him as well.
"My dream is to protect others and discover new mysteries." Isa admitted.
"My dream is watch the sunset too, but with my gal' Minnie." Mickey admitted, bashfully.
"My dream is to have a normal life and have friends where we can hang out together and have fun." Skuld admitted.
"What about you?" The Hook Thug turned to Flynn.
"I'm sorry, me?" Flynn asked.
"What's your dream?" The Big Nosed Thug asked.
Flynn just smiled as he folded his arms and said, "No, no no. Sorry, boys. I don't share my thoughts." only to have all of the Thugs' swords pointed at him. "Okay, okay! My dream is to live on my own island surrounded by huge piles of money!"
"Oh, how real exciting." Lea commented sarcastically, and the Hook Thug rolled his eyes in agreement with the redhead, before the latter brought Flynn onto the ground.
"Okay, listen guys." The Hook Thug said to Rapunzel and the worldly travellers. "You don't have a lotta time. We sent a guy to get the guards, so they'll be here in any minute. We gotta get you all outta here!"
"And how can we do that?" Riku asked. The Thugs lead him and the others to the corner of the tavern as the Hook Thug pulled down a leverl with a duckling on it. It then opened up to reveal a trap door leading into a secret passage.
"Go. Live your dream!" The Hook Thug told the group.
"I will." Flynn smiled.
"Your dream stinks." The Hook Thug said to Flynn in annoyance. "I was talking to them." He added, pointing at Rapunzel and the worldly travellers who smiled and nodded.
"Thanks, dude!" Myde grinned.
"Thanks for everything." Rapunzel smiled, before kissing the Hook Thug on the cheek which made him blush before she and her companions hurried into the secret passage to avoid the guards, and continuing their way to see the Lanterns.
As the worldly travellers, Rapunzel and Flynn ventured into the secret passage away from the Snuggly Duckling, lit up by lined up torches, Flynn took the hold of one while Lea flared a fire in his hand and Donald used his magic on his Staff to help light up the tunnel.
"You know, I gotta say. I didn't know you had that in you back there. That was pretty impressive." Flynn said to Rapunzel.
"I know! To think we made friends with those guys is amazing. They were really sweet and kind too." Rapunzel said excitedly.
Sora laughed, "Actually, making friends with those thugs is nothing compared to who we made friends with."
"You can say that again. We've met weirder guys with good hearts." Myde added.
"Andwe had a friend who was a pirate but a good guy who went back to sailing the ocean when it got his ship back a little while ago." Goofy added, referring to Jack.
"Yep. We've made so many friends in our adventure together." Mickey nodded.
"Wow, you guys sure travel a lot." Rapunzel said, before turning to Flynn and asked, "So, Flynn, where are you from?"
Flynn stopped short as he quickly said defensively, "Whoa, whoa. Sorry, blondie, I don't do backstory. But I am becoming very interested in yours." before adding, "Now, I know I'm not supposed to mention the hair."
"Nope." Rapunzel shook her head.
"Or the mother."
"Uh uh."
"Frankly, I'm too scared to ask about the frog." Flynn concluded, shuddering slightly at Pascal.
"Chameleon." Rapunzel corrected again.
Flynn shrugged, "Anyway, here's my question; If you want to see the lanterns so badly, why haven't you gone before?"
"I was about to ask the same thing." Ven admitted.
"How come you never went before?" Skuld added.
Rapunzel looked nervous as she began while sharing a glance with Pascal, "Uh, heh, well..." but didn't get the chance to finish as she and everyone else noticed small rocks rumbling. They all turned to see that, to their shock, the guards and a horse running towards them.
"Uh oh...!" Lea muttered, eyes widening in panic.
"Run! Run!" Flynn cried out, and no one argued with him as they all hurried and made a run for it and would've been relieved as they saw the light at the end of the tunnel if it wasn't for the fact that they appeared on a small piece of elevated land with a huge dam to their side which made them stop and gazed down to the lower ground, where coming out another tunnel were two muscular men and the moment the two noticed Flynn, that sent him a death glare.
"Who're they?" Roxas asked.
"They don't like me." Flynn replied, nervously. They then turned and saw the guards emering from where they came from.
"Who's that?" Rapunzel asked.
"They don't like me either." Flynn answered, knowing the guards.
Just then, a majestic white horse came out from behind the guards, pushing them out of the way with its massive body mass, holding a sword in it's mouth, which, if Jack was here, he'd be commenting the unsual sight. In fact, Sora and his companions could practically hear the pirate say, 'That is a very terrifying horse.' and he wouldn't be wrong.
"Who's the horse?" Myde asked.
"Let's just assume for the moment that everyone here doesn't like me!" Flynn exclaimed. They then looked over at the guards as another figure who, to those who remembered, had short blonde hair and cruel looking eyes as she grinned at them. "Who's that lady?"
"She doesn't like me." Myde shuddered, recongising her.
"Or me." Lea added, then gestured to Sora, Donald and Goofy, "Or even the three of them." which made the said trio confused.
"I don't think she likes anybody." Isa pointed out.
"Well, it's about time I finally caught up with all of you." Arlene greeted with a nasty smirk. "Nice to see you all again; Roxas, Xion, Axel, Saix, Demyx, Sora, Donald and Goofy."
"Did she just call Lea, Isa and Myde those names?" Rapunzel asked Flynn.
"Yeah, and for a moment I thought she said something different." Flynn replied with a shrug.
"It's a long story." Roxas muttered, answering the two's unasked questions.
"Nice seeing you again too, Larxene." Lea replied sarcastically. "Lemme guess; you're with Lamuria and causing problems again, aren't you?"
Arlene snickered, "You're half right, and it's Arlene now."
"Well then, my real name's Lea, and he's Isa and this is Myde. Got it memorized?" Lea responded while tapping the side of his head.
"She was with Marluxia?" Sora asked, not remembering Arlene as Larxene at all, and Donald and Goofy both shrugged, just as clueless. Sora then realised as he and the others glared at the woman, "That means she was with Organization XIII!"
"Slow as always but always managing to figure it out. I have to admit, you're a lot quicker this time." Arlene chuckled evilly. "Now then, how about you all come with me while the rest of these guys take your new friend, Flynn Rider?"
"Hey, wait a minute, blondie-no.2! I didn't do anything to you and we only just met! Besides, what'd these guys do if you're a bad guy yourself?!" Flynn pointed out.
"Shut it, loser!" Arlene snapped, her patience running thin. "I'm here for my revenge on these guys, so you and your girlfriend with the ridiculously long hair stay out of it!"
"She's not my girlfriend!" Flynn defensively replied.
"I'm not his girlfriend!" Rapunzel defensively pointed out at the same time, which then made both of them share a surprised glance.
"Why would we go with you?" Skuld asked, glaring at Arlene.
"So that I can take you all down in a single hit. It's thanks to all of you that you ruined everything I ever wanted, and it really gets on my nerves that you escape alive, EVERY, SINGLE, TIME!" Arlene yelled this time, before electricity sparked on her hands and she summoned her infamous knives which were cluthces between her fingers. "But since you won't come willingly, I'll have to take you out myself!"
"Like that will happen!" Sora retorted as he and his travelling companions all summoned their weapons to prepare to fight, even if it meant fighting the guards and the two thugs down below. They had to protect Rapunzel and Flynn was their only guide into getting to the lanterns.
This made Arlene grin again. "I'll be roasting all of you into crisp!"
Myde shuddered, still terrified of the woman. "Man, even though she's back to her normal self, some things never change."
In response, the guards held up their weapons threatingly while the Horse glared heatedly at the group, mainly focused on Flynn and not caring on whether Sora's group and Rapunzel were unheard crooks or not. Rapunzel tried to thinkk of a way of how to get herself and the others out of this mess until she had an idea.
"Here!" Rapunzel exclaimed, tossing Flynn her frying pan. She then took a handful of her hair and began to swing it like a rope to lasso something. She then threw her hair, which wrapped around one of the wooden pieces holding the dam up. She then grabbed on to her hair and swung from it, and flawlessly landed on the other side of the elevated area.
"You're not getting away easily!" Arlene hissed, tossing her knives at the group, but the Keyblade wielders quickly used their barrier spells to protect themselves and the rest of the group, before she then made the said knives grow which forced the worldly travellers and Flynn to back up a bit to avoid in getting spiked. She then retrieved them and clawed at the group who did their best to block her attacks as well as her Thundaga on their platform until she successfully pushed Lea, Sora and Kairi over the side of the cliff.
"Sora! Kairi! Lea!" The rest of the group cried out, horrified.
"Guys, here!" Rapunzel called out before dropping her hair down to where three of her new friends were falling. Sora and Lea both grabbed hold of it while Sora caught Kairi around the right with his right arm and held her close to him. She blushed and smiled warmly in contact upon being rescued, and Sora smiled a little in return. They and Lea then swung themselves over to another area of land, lower than the piece of land they were on before, but higher then the ground below them. They let got of Rapunzel's hair while she hurriedly pulled it back up despite it being slightly heavy.
This made the Lightning Nymph furious as she casted another Thundaga at the group who screamed while being briefly paralyzed before she raced off and leaped down to take out her anger on Sora, Lea and Kairi first, leaving the others to handle the guards after Aqua, Skuld and Donald casted Curaga on themselves and the rest of their friends.
"I have been waiting a long time to do this," One of the guards said, glaring at the group who stood ready. The rest of the worldly travellers were about to fight the guard when Flynn quickly whacked the guard on the head with the frying pan, knocking him unconscious. Isa knocked away five other guards with a Wind Spell, sending them to the lower ground. Riku, Terra and Roxas blocked the other guards' swords and spears before they defeated them with ease.
Donald, Mickey, Aqua and Skuld casted Sleepza to put the other guards to sleep before hurriedly tying them up, and Goofy knocked another guard with his shield. Xion and Ven paired up and clashed against the other guards and Myde casted a huge amount of water with his Sitar to make a mini-waterfall which washed down the guards he was fighting to the ground below, and even soaked the two men who aren't guards.
"Man, I have got to get me one of these!" Flynn exclaimed, looking down at the frying pan very impressed, since he was done attacking the guards on his own while the worldly travellers were still busy with the other guards themselves, only for the horse to pick up one of the swords and ran at Flynn with it, before the two of them were quickly engaged with a sword and frying pan fight.
As soon as Sora, Kairi and Lea landed on another piece of elevated land, Arlene landed on the same piece of land herself, growlig as she stood to complete her work. This made the trio stand ready, while Lea decided to use his Chakrams for this battle.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I used to really like you until you betrayed us, you jerk!" Arlene hissed at Lea who glared back.
"Yeah, well, I didn't like you that much at all. Can't even imagine why Flower-Boy likes you a lot." Lea retorted while referring to Lamuria.
"Hmph!" Arlene snorted. "Well, in that case, this time you and Sora and his girlfriend are about to have a funeral!"
"Why does everyone say that!?" Sora and Kairi both exclaimed in annoyance, only to blush again when they realised they said it at the same time.
Lea sighed, and while normally he'd join in the teasing, now wasn't the good time. "Forget that! We have to take care of Arlene first!"
Quickly deciding that the redhead was right, and that they were thankful for the interruption, Sora and Kairi along with Lea stood in fighting positions while glaring at Arlene who then grinned and prepared to strike.
"Who are the losers now, huh?" Arlene mocked.
The fight against Arlene was on.
A/N: Sorry that this chapter was shorter again, but I didn't want to make the next one even shorter. I'll try and make the Tangled world at least three chapters long, but I don't see that happening.
We continue the fights the next time, though it'll have to wait as the next few days will very busy, so I won't have time to write for a little bit. I'll try and update again as soon as possible. See you then!