"With everything that we've been through, I don't doubt that.", Logan said. "Still, it will be very difficult... and I'd be wrong not to say that I'm worried what awaits us.".

Jasmine nodded, "We'll figure it out as we get closer, my dragon prince. We will keep our faith strong and have our hearts be brave.".

Logan smiled warmly, kissing her lips softly before speaking, "We will see what brings us as we head out tomorrow and the next day after that.".

Jasmine warmly grinned, "Indeed.", laying her head on his shoulder, and Logan chuckled softly as the couple kept watch and relaxed for their part of the job.

In the morning, the army, all rested and reassured to see that they haven't been attacked at all, set out on the march once more, continuing through the valley.

The nerves were still high as the units kept marching; the final battle was coming closer and closer by the footstep, and many were privately worrying if they would be of the many not to make it home, even if victory could be achieved.

The day went peacefully well, with the Griffins on high alert, not wanting to overlook one single thing. Same thing for the Ketaks and Martags as some of the Atlanteans drove them along the path.

"It's getting colder, love...", John admitted as he and Emma kept close while marching. "I know... it's got to mean we're getting closer to Frollo's fortress.", Emma said.

John nodded, "And the sooner we take a look, the sooner we can figure out Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, right?", and Emma chuckled, "Couldn't have said it better, John.".

Then shouts and screeches of alarm sounded out from the back of the march, and the couple looked back, seeing specks approaching, and Mickey shouted, "What's going on?!".

Jason whipped up a spyglass from some metal of the armor and some glass from decorative stuff, and looked through it, and he blinked in surprise, "It's Pegasi, lots of them with riders, and hell, there's dragons made of ice too, people riding on them! It's King Edward and Queen Elsa in the lead!".

"Are they engaged in battle or something?", Logan asked as Jason kept looking. "Not fully sure...", Jason admitted. "I don't think so...".

Emma asked, "Are they coming to us?", and Jason nodded, "Yeah. Oh, now I see King Edward clearly. He's smiling!".

Mickey ordered the army to make room for them to land, "Quickly, now!", and not even five minutes later, the Pegasi and the snow dragons landed, numbering up to 60 total. King Edward got off, patting with a smile, "Thanks, Fortune.".

The Black Pegasus snorted with a nod as Queen Elsa got off her ice dragon, "Nice work, Bruni.", and he tittered happily.

Mickey and the other leaders were both happy yet shocked to see the rulers, with Mickey replying, "I thought you didn't want to come on your husband's behalf, Queen Elsa.".

Elsa smiled, "Let's say Edward convinced me, especially after we both felt the echoes of dark magic destroyed yesterday.", and glanced at Edward, "And of course, he was very persuasive about coming here to help with plenty of soldiers.".

Edward laughed, "The Pegasi herds felt it too, and they wanted to help too. And I was a teensy bit wrong about my wife, Nancy being sick. Apparently, we didn't know until one of the healers checked on her, and in short, she's three months along with my son!", with a fond smile.

"Congratulations.", Mickey smiled as he shook Edward's hand. "Thanks... I take it we're not too late for the battle?", he asked.

"Certainly timed it better than most would suspect. Usually, you probably might show up while the fighting was going on...", Logan chuckled.

Elsa looked relieved, "Thank goodness, and I suppose I was wrong. It's definitely cold enough for me not to worry about the heat. I am ready to be the Ice Queen for the sake of my family and kingdom.".

Emma smiled, "Oh, don't worry, you will be making the enemy despair for mercy once you're done with them, Elsa.".

"Especially if your powers are as strong as we've heard.", Haku said. "A crippling mini blizzard on the battlefield will be good, especially amongst dark creatures. Pitch black monstruous skin and armor surrounded by white snow. It'll be a field day for the archers.".

Elsa laughed warmly, "I can easily do that. Tadashi and my family have helped me with control and my emotions. And my ice dragons can shoot ice balls, almost like fireballs, and my soldiers are ready to be archers from the sky.".

Mickey grinned, "Brilliant. And the Pegasi?", looking at Edward who chuckled, "My soldiers are swordsmen, so the Pegasi can fly low for the riders to cut/slice the enemy in the face.".

"That'll certainly help, surely... it'll be something that Frollo won't see coming.", Emma said.

John replied, "Let's keep going, and find a position to spy on the fortress, and figure out the plans.", and Mickey nodded, "Yes, you're right, Silver. After all, we're pretty close, perhaps a half day, but it's already afternoon...We can't afford to attack at night.".

"Nor get close to it at night.", Mickey added as well. "We really could use someone to get pretty close to at least finally get a sighting of it.".

The Talons looked to each other, all thinking the same thing: a small group of them should go on ahead to be the first to see the fortress, hopefully without being noticed.

Haku smiled, "Count me in. I am the smallest dragon, and besides, with fire transportation, it should be really easy.", and Logan replied, "And I can blend in the darkness, thanks to my dark pelt and all.".

Queen Kida replied, "I grew up on stealth and tracking. I will join you two.", and Emma nodded, "Three is enough for a small group.", with a smile.

"I can't order you three to do this.", Mickey said. "It could be incredibly dangerous.".

"Well, it's better than just walking in blind. We stand the best chance of getting close and not being spotted.", Logan said. Mickey nodded as he relented, "Very well, but please... just be careful... last thing we need is another tragedy before the battle.".

The trio nodded, and headed off, and the scouts helped show them a trail off the main path, and the trio thanked them, and went on the trail, with the boys shifting into their dragon forms while Kida used Logan's dark pelt to hide her in any open areas while she's not climbing/hopping among the dark trees as the sun got lower and lower between the mountain range.

"Certainly a good scouting path... but no army could go through here.", Kida said as she kept up with the two dragons with the rough and difficult mountain pathways. "And lucky we're not dealing with terrible weather... this whole path probably would be buried under many feet of snow if the temperature dropped.".

Logan snorted with a roll of his eyes, saying 'Ain't that the truth.', and Haku thrilled quietly with a gesture of his paws, saying 'We're lucky.'

Kida nodded, "Indeed. Can you smell anything?", and Logan sniffed for any sign of foreign scents or dark magic and pointed with a paw up one twisted pathway over some boulders. They carefully tiptoed on the pathway, slinking into the darkness, with Kida slipping on the mask to hide her crystal, glad that she had clothed up into cold weather clothes.

'I think we're close.' Haku growled lowly as the other two followed him through a few more pathways as the small passes got even tinier. Only a small animal could truly get through it with ease, but the trio was able to make do.

"Little cramped here.", Kida whispered as Haku held his paw up for them to stop.


It was rather a narrow ravine, and with careful and quiet movements, Logan laid as tall as he could, with Kida kneeling around his shoulders, and Haku sat on her head, and they looked through the crevices of the ravine, the views not quite 240 degrees, but altogether, made a pretty good view of the terrain and the fortress from bottom to top.

"There it is...", Kida said as they looked at it. It was a black rock fortress with sharpened angles all around like it was a blacker version of Minas Morgul; a dark purple glow shined from it as if to show it was radiating with evil. And that wasn't just all they were seeing as, of course, the fortress had a few defensive walls ahead of the citadel itself, similar to Tremaine's fortress though not as large.

Still, the evil that it gave out and the large army that manned the defenses certainly made the trio uneasy.

Kida muttered under her breath, seeming to count, "Couldn't be more than 11, 12 thousand.", and Logan nodded his head, agreeing, and Haku can see numerous torches, and multiple spots where arrow-windows are, along with normal windows on the citadel itself. And of course, they all can see the triple-layered shield, one tightly close on the citadel, with the second on the courtyard wall, and the third on the front defensive wall with the huge iron gates.

The mountain range where the fortress/citadel laid is quite enormous, figuratively and literally the reason why it's called the Dark Black Mountains, and somewhere underneath the citadel, deep, is the Chernabog. Frollo calls the citadel Mizeigh Muria.

"11 or 12 we can see...", Logan quickly shifted his head back as he took cover behind a few rocks. "Who knows how many are inside?... It might be the swarm.".

"Either way, trying to take it will be a nightmare, even without the shields.", Kida said. "We'll have to figure out how to fully take care of that. And there's the Chernabog somewhere around here... probably buried into the mountain itself. If he comes out, he'll tower over this range.", Logan replied.

Kida nodded, "Indeed.", and Haku patted her head, and Kida looked up to see Haku gesturing with a paw to look again, and Kida looked again, and quietly spoke, "The terrain is low-sunken, and yep, there's the river streaking across the terrain. Lord Arthur was right..It's a vast field...If we somehow lure the army to cross the river, Triton can sneak from the back, and attack the shields while Elsa could build a massive ice wall so they can't turn around and retreat...", ducking back in cover after a minute of canvassing the terrain.

"Easier said than done though... I don't know if Frollo is in command, or he's got some underling leading them, but they might just simply hold back and force us to attack.", Logan said before leaning over to Haku. "Similar to Wellington at Waterloo where he goaded Napoleon to attack his army.".

Haku looked once more before he tapped Logan and Kida and pointed to one of the walls; specially at one figure. "Think we found our commander...", Haku shifted his head too so he could say it to the others.

"Is that who I think it is, Haku?", Logan asked. "It's her... Zira... or at least a human version of her.", Haku said, with that last bit under his breath.

Kida hissed in shock, "I heard rumors that Scar took upon a wife years ago but didn't realize that he would do that as he was so deceptive and dangerous...She's the general now, huh?".

Haku nodded, "Looks like it. It makes sense. I mean, being his wife and all, Scar must have trained her to be a bloodthirsty, power-hungry, manipulative soldier.".

Logan frowned, "I think we have gathered enough information. Let's head back to camp and tell the others. We stayed long enough, eh?", before sighing quietly, "If only there was a Harry Potter-style pensieve to put the memory of this for everyone to see as Adam's mirror can't work with so much dark magic here.".

Haku blinked in surprise before grinning, "Actually, I have a better idea. Hologram map. If we somehow infuse our memories in the map, we could literally make plans of plans.", remembering the hologram map on the war table back in Cair Paravel.

"Is that another one of your powers you can do?", Logan looked at him. "Well, it's worth a try at least... I think I can.", Haku said.

Kida replied, "All the same, Prince Consort Logan is right. We have stayed long enough. Let's depart before we stay much longer to get caught.".

"Good idea. We don't want to overstay our welcome... should be places for us to deploy and prepare for battle.", Logan said as the trio quickly moved back the way they came, hopeful that a brilliant plan could be hatched to win them the day.


Before too long, they were far off from the border of Mizeigh Muria, the citadel, and it was nearing 8 o'clock when the small group came back to camp, with much relief and happiness, especially Logan and Jasmine when they reunited.

Haku grabbed the biggest paper map, and asked Jason to conjure up a wooden table as big as the map, and so Jason did, and Haku laid it all across the table, and with a deep focus, Haku listened to Mind, and his hands glowed yellow as he set them on the map, and the map changed into an incredibly 3-D hologram.

"Impressive...", Emma said with slight awe at what Haku was able to accomplish. "Thank you.", Haku smiled as he sat on the ground to give himself a bit of a breather... The trio used up quite a lot of energy on the way back to the main camp.

"Can't get a better view of the fortress before seeing it than that.", Kida said. "But just as we feared... it's a nightmare of a defense that Zira has been setting up. From our position, I think Frollo's planning on staying behind his walls rather than go out to meet our army.".

Phoebus narrowed his eyes, "He's intending to do something majorly important...I do not know what, but I do know Frollo, and it must be very dangerous in our perspective yet invaluable in his perspective.".

Mickey nodded, "Yes, but the shields are quite strong of dark magic. I believe I must work together with Triton to break down the shields for some of us to go into the citadel itself and find out why he's staying behind.".

"Breaking the shields and getting through is one thing... but the vast number of troops in between those shield layers will be very difficult even in our dragon forms.", Logan pointed out.

"And there has to be a way to permanently destroy the shields before we push in; giving only a small window of opportunity... if things go wrong, we really could use those shields to be down for us to easily escape.", Pippa added.

Kida then nodded, "That's why I think Queen Elsa's gift and her small army could help out. If she sends out the ice dragons and the archers, the archers on the other side wouldn't even touch the ice dragons while her archers would slim down the first line of Zira's army, and the ice dragons would release their ice balls to destroy the rest of the first line, earning the army to be impatient, and they could come across the river, and then bam, Elsa would do an ice wall, and that small powerful blizzard, and more ice creatures to keep Zira and her army to be contained on our side of the river with the ice creatures pushing the army toward us, trapped like roaches for us to dispose of.".

Daniel grinned, "And we can do my plan of alternating waves of different tactics within our armies to thin Zira's army.", and Triton spoke with a nod, "And with the ice wall containing the enemy, I can sneak through the river, break down the shields by aid of my trident, and with Mickey's help as he's a magician, and my soldiers can keep the extra troops, between each shield breakdown, distracted with your help, United Talons.".

"That might actually work. It's probably the best idea we have with what we're given, and time is probably of the essence.", Emma said. She then looked back at the image before taking a closer look at Zira. "Haku... is it just me or does Zira look... off?", she asked.

Haku blinked and peered closely, and nodded, "Yeah, she sure does...Scar was her husband...Frollo had scouts and spies, and those creepy shadow monsters. So, I 100% believe that Frollo has told her that Scar was killed by one of the United Talons, if not me specifically...She is really insanely devoted to Scar, hence probably why she's general now.".

"Agreed... but I'm concerned about that manic look she has there. Do you think Scar's death is affecting her?", Emma replied.

"Probably. Actually, now that you say it, Emma, we might be able to use that to our advantage. More than likely, she wants revenge on probably us.", Logan said.

"And if she's in command... we might just be able to blind her to rage and lure her forces right towards us.", Jasmine snapped her finger as it clicked in her head.

Mulan nodded, "Rage can blind anyone to enemies and friends, and if Zira is manic as you say, wanting to avenge Scar, she will have only thoughts of wanting to win and killing you all, whichever comes first.".

Lord Arthur replied, "As time is imminent, but we need our army to be at their best, sunrise or sometime around there should be perfectly useful to our advantage in a way...".