Roxas and Xion reappear in the gummi ship, they look to the front of the cockpit to see Namine doodling away on her sketchbook, their presence has gone unnoticed.
"Hi Namine, we're back." Says Xion, still tired from using the power of darkness in their last battle. Namine turns around and closes her sketchbook.
"Hey! Are you feeling any better?" asks Namine
"Yes. Much better." Xion says. "But I'm still really tired. . ." Says Xion, leaning against her significant other a bit. Namine smiles and turns to the terminal.
"Alright. Well, since we'll need you fully rested up before going to another world, let's go someplace nice and calm." Says Namine.
"Atlantica?" asks Xion, too which Namine nods. Roxas and Xion take adjacent seats before the gummi ship blasts off. Upon arriving at their destination, the three descend to the world below and take their usual mermaid forms. They look around but find no sign of Ariel.
"Where could she be?" asks Roxas.
"Maybe at her usual spot?" Namine suggests. They have no other leads so that's where they go. The three arrive at Ariel's special room, where she collects all of her human artifacts and sees Ariel holding a gold necklace of some kind.
"What's that?" asks Roxas. Ariel snaps back to reality and looks at her three friends.
"Oh! Hi guys! How have you been?" asks Ariel. She turns the necklace around to give them a better look. "It's a necklace that belongs to that prince up in the surface world. He dropped it while looking out on the beach. I wanted to return it to him." The three move closer to Ariel to get a closer look at the necklace.
"Have you tried talking to him yet?" Asks Xion.
"No. . ." Ariel sighs "I don't know what he'll think of me, I mean-" But as Ariel is about to finish speaking, a familiar voice is heard coming from the entrance.
"And just who is this he?" asks King Triton, entering the room, a harsh look of disapproval on his face.
"Dad!" Ariel says in shock, she looks around to try and say something, but King Triton has none of it.
"Ariel, you know how dangerous humans are!" bellows the sea king.
"You don't even know him!" Ariel fires back. She turns to look at the statue. "You've told me that you don't trust humans. But they can't ALL be as bad as you think." Ariel says, turning back to face her father. "And I'm-" she hesitates, before finishing. "I'm gonna prove it to you!" Ariel says with confidence.
"So help me, Ariel, I am going to get through to you." Says the king, as he holds his mighty gold trident with both hands. "And if this is the only way. . ." Says the king. His trident glows brightly and he begins to take aim at the statue. "So be it!" Yells the King. Ariel swims towards her father and reaches out to try and stop him, while Roxas swims in front of the statue and prepares to block the oncoming attack with his keyblade. A large beam of light is shot from Triton's trident, Roxas's Keyblade keyblade blocks the beam for a moment, Triton focuses his energy, and light shoots from the trident at a much faster rate, catching Roxas off guard and knocking the keyblade out of his hand, causing him to be hit right in the stomach by the beam of light. Roxas is sent flying into the back wall of the room, knocking him out. The beam of light connects with the statue and it explodes, leaving nothing but rubble.
"Roxas!" Xion and Namine cry, swimming to their companion on the seafloor. Ariel stares in horror at the broken statue and her friend lying on the ground. She looks at her father in betrayal, and swims off, holding back any tears she may have. The king looks at his daughter as she leaves. He turns to look at Roxas, Xion, and Namine. He leers at them before turning to leave them.
"Roxas, Roxas are you okay!?" Asks Xion holding him close. Roxas opens his eyes and nods a little Xion wraps his arm over her shoulder and helps him up, allowing himg to use her as support until he's able to support himself again.
"My keyblade. . ." Roxas says weakly. He materializes the blade, revealing to Namine and Xion the true scale of the attack he had taken. His keyblade was incredibly damaged, showing many large cracks throughout the blade.
"What are we supposed to do?" Xion says, looking around as if any of the normal human artifacts can help fix a keyblade.
"I don't know if there's anything we can do. . ." Says Namine, guiltily. It was her idea to come to Atlantica. The two girls help their companion swim out of the cave. They spend their evening searching for their friend, but they do not find her. They do, however, encounter Flounder and Sebastion, who deliver unfortunate news.
"Ursula's alive!?" Namine says in shock. The book that chronicled Sora's adventure had described the sea witch's downfall.
"She really did give up everything for her love," Xion says, as she looks over to Roxas, his arm still wrapped around Xion.
"What do we do?" asks Roxas, weakly.
"We can't do anything. We'll just have to watch and help when we can," says Sebastion. Roxas, Xion, and Namine stay in the world of Atlantica for the next few days, taking the time they need to not only look after Ariel from afar but also make sure Roxas regained his strength. They watch as Ariel and the prince, named Eric, grow closer as time passes. The moon is high in the sky as they look on during the second night.
"They only have until sunset tomorrow." Says Namine, staring off at the two as they ride in a boat together.
"Shh! Look!" Xion says, peeking behind a rock. Roxas and Namine join her in the rock peeking to see The two leaning close to one another as they close their eyes.
"Are they gonna-?" Asks Namine with delight. The two almost meet halfway, when the boat suddenly rocks back and forth and nearly causes the two to fall over.
"Dangit! And they were so close. . ." Says Xion with frustration in her voice. The two make their way back to land, leaving Roxas, Xion, and Namine watching from the distance. The three dive back into the depths of Atlantica and rest, the dawn of the final day awaits them. The next day, the three arise from the depths below and takes a gander at the surface world. The sky is a bright orange since the sun had just risen, but Prince Eric was nowhere in sight, instead, there was only Ariel, crying on the beach in front of flounder. Before they can ask what's going on, they hear Ariel's voice singing not too far from where they are.
"Oh no. . ." Says Namine, as the three begin to swim to the location of the singing. Upon arrival, they find a girl with brown hair and in a purple dress, singing in Ariel's voice to Prince Eric, whose glassy eyes stare blankly at the girl. Around her neck is a familiar nautilus-shell necklace.
"Ursula. . ." Xion says as tension rises in her voice. "She can't get away with this!" Xion summons her keyblade and fire a small beam of light, knocking the witch back, but more importantly, freeing Ariel's voice, and returning it to her. The witch quickly disappears as Eric snaps out of his trance, he looks around.
"What happened? Where is-?" But before he can start looking for her, Ariel already comes running to him.
"Eric!" she says, her face lightened up compared to how it was just a few moments ago. She approaches her prince, who is both happy, and confused.
"You. . . you can talk!" The prince smiles as he recognizes her voice immediately. "You're the one. The girl who sang to me after that storm!" Eric says in amazement. "You, you're the one I love. . ." The two hold each other close, but the joy doesn't last long.
"Not so fast. . ." Ursula reappears, arising from the sea, and taking her true form. "We had a deal you brat!" Yells the sea witch, grabbing Ariel by her ankles with one of her tentacles and dragging her to the depths below. The magic begins to wear off as they go deeper, reverting Ariel back into a mermaid, and dragging Ariel to her lair.
"S-Stop!" Roxas yells, his body still straining after the major blow from days ago. The sea witch listens and actually stops, much to their surprise. Roxas, Xion, and Namine catch up with them.
"Stay out of this, fool!" Ursula snaps. "Triton's precious little daughter signed the contract! And she broke it! She belongs to me now!"
"She wouldn't have broken the contract if you hadn't interfered!" Xion snaps back.
"Let her go!" A familiar voice bellows from behind. A beam of light passes by Namine, Xion, and Roxas, hitting the contract and knocking Ursula back into the underwater cliffside with immense force, but the gold contract does not break.
"Now, now- even the great King Triton can't go around interfering with binding contracts!" Ursula exclaims. "Now if you'll excuse me. . ." Ariel is suddenly bound by two eels emerging from the underwater crevices. "I have some loose ends to tie!" Ursula turns to approach Ariel, but the King stops her.
"Stop! You win. Just promise you'll let my daughter go." says the king, in a defeated voice.
"But we had a deal! You can't change that. . ." Ursula says with a hint of slyness in her voice. "Unless, of course, you're offering to take her place?" Ursula asks as she waves the golden contract in front of the king. The king sighs and raises his trident, ready to sign his name over Ariels.
"You're majesty!" Roxas groans, putting his resentment toward the king aside. "There has to be another way!"
"I have no choice. . . I'm sorry to all of you." Says the King before shooting a small beam of light from his trident and signing the contract, taking Ariel's place.
The sea witch laughs maniacally. The king is spun around as he's enveloped in a swirling red energy.
"No!" Ariel cries, as her father is reduced to nothing more than a small shriveled-up creature. His trident is massive in comparison. The sea witch picks up his crown and trident, a massive grin form on her face as she does so.
"At last! It is mine!" Exclaims the witch, as she adorns the crown. She turns to the shriveled-up king and aims the trident at him. "Who's the mighty ruler of the seas now?" Ursula asks tauntingly.
"You monster! Let him go!" Ariel cries as she struggles to free herself from the eels. Ursula. Suddenly, however, a spear passes by the sea witch, creating an open wound on her arm, as it lands on the ground. Ursula turns to see Prince Eric, who had dived to the depths with a weapon, coming to take down the witch with sheer determination alone. "Eric!" Ariel tries to warn him, but the witch has already been angered.
"How dare you!" yells Ursula. "Get him!" yells the witch. The two eels release ariel and quickly swim towards the prince, who flees in response. They gain on him, but Roxas, Xion, and Namine cut them off, acting as physical barriers to allow the prince to escape.
"That's enough!" Xion says, fury filling her voice. The with is shocked, then she grins, and then she laughs maniacally.
"You think you simpletons can get in my way? No! You will all bow before me, and beg for your insignificant lives!" yells Ursula, as she envelopes herself in a shrouding dark cloud as the trident glows. Ariel looks at Ursula, then at her friends.
"Go!" Says Roxas, still a bit strained. Ariel nods and swims off to the surface to try and secure her love's safety.
The skies turn black as a storm begins to brew, Ursula grows many times larger than she originally was and arises from the sea like a Kraken. Ariel helps Eric swim away as massive tentacle thrash where they once were. Xion materializes her keyblade and slashes at the tentacles with all her strength. Ursula Roars in agony. Suddenly, Xion is wrapped around by the two eels and bound. They drag her to the depths below, away from their master.
Roxas cuts them off before they can drag her down any farther, and strikes them with his cracked blade. The two eels release Xion before fleeing from the two keyblade warriors, Roxas and Xion pursue, however. Ursula's massive tentacles swing around below the sea, forcing Roxas and Xion to weave around them while pursuing the lackeys. They catch up to them and Roxas casts a weak magnet spell, just strong enough to force them together, allowing Xion to take both out with one powerful blizzard spell.
Meanwhile, on the surface, the thrashing tentacles separate Ariel and Eric. Ariel weaves around the tentacles, but more root from the water and forces her to get farther from her beloved. Ursula however did not anticipate Namine to interfere, Guiding Eric through the stormy sea and to his small rowboat. Ursula sprouts a tentacle from below and attacks, throwing Namine and Eric into the air. Eric flips over and lands on his feet before catching Namine safely.
"Are you okay?" asks Eric hastily.
"I'm fine. You?" asks Namine. Eric nods his head.
Ursula looks at the two before turning back to Ariel, realizing she's making her way closer to the boat. Ursula makes a massive swing with the trident, and Ariel dives below the water, barely avoiding it. Ursula turns her attention to Eric and Namine, She prepares to swipe at them when Xion and Roxas breach the waves from behind the boat. The two shoot small beams of light from their keyblades. Ursula is forced to block the beams with the trident.
"Flotsam! Jetsam! Come by my side! Deal with these pests!" Yells the sea witch. The two dive back into the water before leaping out yet again to strike the witch, the witch swings the trident, but it's stopped by Xion' using a magnet spell and her keyblade to hold the witch back, while Roxas strikes her right in the forehead. The two fall back into the water before coming back to the surface, while swimming backward, away from the sea witch.
"Hate to break it to you, but those eels are nothing but popsicles now!" Xion retorts. Ursula's face distorts as she's filled with fury.
"Why- you little!" She swings wildly at the two keyblade wielders, who dive below the water in time to avoid the massive witch and the trident she wields. She takes aim at the two and fires a thick beam of light, Xion surfaces and shoots a small beam of light from her keyblade, the two beams collide, and the one coming from the trident begins to move ever so closer to Xion However, Roxas breaches the water at high speed, and strikes the trident with his keyblade, knocking it out of Ursula's hands, and flying towards the rowboat.
Namine thinks quickly and uses all the strength in her arms to push herself into the air and out of the boat. She reaches out and grabs the gold trident as a black tentacle arises from the sea. She turns and throws it to Eric before the large black tentacle wraps around her tightly. Namine struggles but is unable to free herself from the sea witch's grasp
"Namine!" Roxas and Xion shout. They materialize their keyblades, but before they can swim closer, or do anything for that matter, they're both ensnared in the large tentacles of the sea witch as well.
"No!" Ariel gasps, reaching out to her friends, but she's powerless to stop the sea witch.
Eric picks up the trident from off his boat and faces the sea witch, who turns her attention to him.
"Give me the Trident! It belongs to me!" she yells as her grip on Roxas, Xion, and Namine tightens, the three begin to suffocate from the sheer crushing force alone.
"All right, then you can have!" Yells the prince, quickly throwing the trident with all his might. Ursula attempts to grab the trident mid-air, but it glows brightly and pierces through her tendrils, before piercing and flying straight through her body. Ursula's eyes widen as she drops Roxas, Xionm, and Namine. She wails in pain as she falls back and disappears in a cloud of darkness. The storm subsides, and the sea calms as Roxas, Xion, and Namine group together.
"Are you alright?" Roxas and Xion ask Namine.
"I'm alright, But you two-" Namine reaches out to get a closer look at the two's injuries.
"Don't worry, we're just glad you're safe," Xion says. Roxas and Xion, hug Namine tightly, and she returns the gesture. Meanwhile, Eric finally gets to be with his beloved. . . or does he?
"Please, Ariel. . . You can come out now- it's okay." Says the prince, standing in the small boat. Ariel looks down and doesn't respond "Ariel?"
"Eric. . . I'm sorry." Ariel says teary-eyed. "I had to go to Ursula because I'm not human. I'm just a mermaid. I've always been one."
"No. . .This can't be!" Eric says in disbelief.
"I'm sorry. . ." Ariel turns, but Eric interjects
"To think I had all that time and I didn't work on my swimming. . ." Ariel turns her face turns surprised as her prince dives to join her in the water. "But I guess it's never too late to start."
"Don't worry, that won't be necessary." Says a familiar voice, though much calmer than usual. The two turn to look at the newly-unshrivled King Triton, who once again has his Trident He looks at Eric and smiles. "You are a brave and kind young lad," Triton admits. "Please, take care of her." Says Triton, as he smiles and sheds a tear.
"Daddy?" Ariel says with a mix of Joy and confusion. Triton raises his Trident into the air, and Ariel is enshrouded in a blue energy. When it dissipates, She is once again dawning the clothes she had worn while human, blue bow included.
"Please, come visit every now and then. You both are always welcome in Atlantica." Says King Triton.
"Oh, dad!" Ariel swims and gives her father a big hug. The two hold each other for a long time before Ariel lets go of her father and swims to meet with her beloved. He helps her onto the rowboat, before climbing on himself. The two wave goodbye at the four merfolk before they sail to land. The four-wave back as they watch them grow farther and farther away. Once they disappear, Triton finally wipes away a few tears from his eyes, before turning to face Roxas, Xion, and Namine.
"You three had protected my daughter when I could not. And for that, I should thank you." Says King Triton he turns to look at Roxas specifically. "And you, not only had I harmed you greatly, but I have done dealt damage that cannot be undone to your blade. And for that, I am sorry." Roxas closes his eyes and breathes deeply before speaking.
"It's alright your highness. Nothing was done that can't be fixed," says Roxas. "Even if it seems impossible, I know we will find a way to fix the keyblade and keep our promise," Roxas says, before speaking one last time, "I forgive you." The sea king smiles and nods.
"Thank you. All three of you have braved so much, I can tell. There will always be room in Atlantica for you three." Says King Triton.
"Thank you, your highness. Until we meet again!" Says Namine excitedly.
"Indeed. . ." Says the sea king, before diving to the depths and returning to his kingdom. The three are left to themselves, as they float on the ocean's surface.
"I guess it's about time we go back to being human too." Says Xion
"I'm gonna miss being a mermaid." Says Namine as she looks down at her tail.
"It's alright guys, It's like the King said. We can come back whenever we want." Roxas says, lifting their spirits.
"Right!" Namine says as she smiles. Xion and Roxas, wrap one arm around Namine and Materialize their keyblades in their other. They raise their keyblades to the sky and disappearing in a flash of light.
The three reappear in the gummi ship in another flash of light, before promptly falling over.
"You know, I kinda forgot how long it has been since we used our legs," says Roxas as he gets up from off the ground.
"Yeah. . . You're not joking." Says Namine as she semi-struggles to get on her feet.
"I'm surprised Ariel was able to go from one to the other with zero problems," Xion comments as she brushes herself off after getting off of the ground.
"I wonder what Ariel and Eric are going to do now that things are finally calming down." Roxas thinks out loud.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they get married in only a few weeks," Namine says as she opens her sketchbook and takes her usual spot at the front of the cockpit
"What's Marria-?" But before Roxas can even finish Namine explains it in the simplest way she can think of.
"It's when two people who've been together for a long time form a union between their heart and soul and choosing to live the rest of their lives with one another."
"Wow, that was fast." Roxas comments.
"She saw that question coming from a mile away," Xion adds on.
"Yup!" Namine says as she continues to work on her sketch. She stops, and a sly smirk forms across her face, as she gets an idea. "So. Roxas, Xion, when are you two getting married?" Namine teases.
"What the- marriage? Uh-" Xion's face turns a bright red, as does Roxas.
"Oh no, this is what she's gonna tease us over for the next few years isn't it?" Roxas says as he covers his red face. Namine only giggles in response.
"Speaking of marriage, why don't we go visit the happy couple in Agrabah?" Asks Namine as she turns to face the two.
"Uhm, I-. That would be nice." Xion says before sitting down and covering her face as well, pretending that if she can't see Namine, Namine can't see her embarrassed self. Roxas does the same. Namine giggles
"Alright then, to Agrabah we go!" she exclaims as she types away at the terminal. The gummi ship blasts off and the three make their way to the familiar world.