A/N: I have to admit something about these fics: ALTERED BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION FROM ORIGINAL COPIES. Seriously, when I wrote these by hand about three years ago (yes, I'm slow, leave me alone), they were totally different. There was this thing, it was called a Soulblade... It was lame as hell, so I got rid of it. Mizu's personality was also completely different. Remember how she acted way back when in "Memories Forming," then in "New World" and "Brother, My Brother"? How completely pathetic she was, not to mention a total crybaby? Yeah, that was her original personality. Personally, I like her a lot better the way she is now. Bitchy and stubborn, I mean. As opposed to maleable and whining, of course. She was also the epitome of Mary Sue-ness: polite, proper, considerate, and totally incapable of hating or being hated by anybody. She got along great with everyone she met, she liked everyone she met, and there were no problems. Then I figured "Fuck that's boring!" and completely overhauled her personality. Now she and Donald get into random shouting matches, she loathes Maleficent and Xehanort and most of the members of Organization XIII (the exeptions being Axel, Roxas, and Namine), she's mouthy and impatient, swears up and down at every available opportunity, and loves the occasional practical joke which will usually run right along side her twisted sense of humor. Not as sick and twisted as mine, though. Seriously, I start laughing my damn fool head off if my brother says "balls." It doesn't even have to be balls, it can be "stick," "hard," "stick 'em up" (this said while threatening the dog with a stick, as in from a tree, mind), "tree," "cup," "meat," "bacon," (mostly because I'm a bacon freak and whenever I order bacon at a restaurant, either he or Mom will yell "BACON!" like that dog in the Beggin' Strips commercial) "pole," "rod," "sword," "Life Savers," and "moo." He moos every now and then, it's actually a little disturbing. And there's a story behind the Life Savers one. Involving Legos and Star Wars. Guy was laying on ground dying, buddy comes up and asks "What happened?" Dying guy replies "I didn't eat all the Life Savers..." and dies. This, by the way, acted out with Star Wars Legos by my cousin Mike who is approximately four years older than me. Closer to three and a half, actually. And I'm eighteen. We were younger at the time, of course, but it was still hilarious. Anyway, what was I talking about? The fic, right! Yeah, altered beyond all recognition, made Mizu less of a Mary Sue, and got rid of the Soulblade. Honestly, if I ever come up with something that lame again, somebody please shoot me... On the other hand, Rebecca was upset when I got rid of the Soulblade because she liked it. Me? I got rid of it, remember? And Mizu died, like, I don't know how many times. They were alternate endings, you understand. But still, she died at least once every fic. I think it's quite obvious how far the altering went for that! And if you think there was a butt-load of altering and editing and whatnot for these, wait 'til you see my compilation fic! But anyway, now that you've had the history lesson, here's a new chappie for ya. Merry Christmas! Yes, I know it's July.

Sora burst into the chamber, followed closely by Donald, Goofy, and Mizu. They had left Cloud and Serenity back in the Library after a quick chat. The chat had consisted of "Hi Cloud. Hi Serenity. Bye Cloud. Bye Serenity," as Mizu dashed on through, dragging Sora along behind by the hand. When she had heard Cloud start to get up to either follow or stop her, she called back "We can handle it, be back in a jip!" Sora had thought he'd heard Cloud chuckle weakly. Or maybe it was sigh in exasperation. With Mizu as the intended recipient, it could have been either, or maybe even both.

Of course, as soon as Sora stopped just a few feet into the chamber he had just burst into, he noticed that the chamber wasn't as empty as he had originally thought. Maleficent was standing across the way, apparently ready for them.

"Hey, witch," Mizu quipped, her sarcasm evident and almost thick enough to cut, "how's tricks?"

"I remember you from Traverse Town," Maleficent admitted, narrowing her eyes. "How noble of you to come to rescue your friend and lover. A real pity."

"You should remember me from a bit earlier than Traverse Town," Mizu pointed out with a feral grin. "The name's Mizu. Mizu Hikari, of Nibelheim." She bowed mockingly and grinned up at the witch, taking evident pleasure in Maleficent's surprise.

"Impossible!" Maleficent protested. "I killed you myself!"

"Better make sure you actually finish the job this time, Maleficent," Mizu responded, straightening up from her mocking bow. "Unfortunately, your dark magic, though admittedly powerful, can't possibly hope to destroy me as easily as you thought. Not alone, anyway. And with the help I had, you're gonna need a lot of allies to get rid of me."

Sora, of course, was staring at her in shocked amazement. First of all, she looked pretty healthy for someone who was supposedly dead. Second, he had known her for over a year and could vouch personally (and so could a few bruises) that she was very much alive. Third, when had she had the time to tangle with Maleficent?

"But I do have to admit," Mizu continued with a mocking laugh, "it took me the better part of the last year to get over our last encounter."

Well, that explained two and three. Now what about one?

"But how could you have survived?" Maleficent demanded. Sora was loving that, of course. He didn't have to ask the stupid questions this time! "I plunged you into darkness myself! You could not have possibly survived. Your heart is too full of light."

"Well," Mizu drawled, "there was a little matter of a friendship with someone named King Mickey..."

Now it was Donald and Goofy's turn to stare. Maleficent, on the other hand, looked completely stunned.

"Anyway," Mizu continued flippantly, "we're here to kick your sorry ass and stop whatever plans you have in motion."

"I'm afraid you're too late," Maleficent purred, regaining the upper hand. "Any moment now, the final Keyhole will be unsealed. This world will be plunged into darkness. It is unstoppable."

"We'll stop it!" Sora shot at her, readying his Keyblade. "After coming this far, there's no way we're gonna let that happen!"

"Prepare to burn, bitch!" Mizu seconded, drawing one of her knives and lunging at Maleficent. Maleficent, however, merely threw her arms out and knocked Mizu flying to crash against the wall, unconcious.

"You poor, simple fools!" Maleficent roared. "You think you can defeat me? Me, the mistress of all evil?"

In answer, Sora, Donald, and Goofy attacked. Maleficent attempted to counter with her magic, but Goofy charged ahead and blocked it like he had the blast from Riku. Sora ducked and rolled to the side, firing several volleys of fire-balls at the witch while Donald launched a few lightning bolts at her.

Being a witch, and thus capable of using her own magic, Maleficent either blocked or deflected the spells, and too soon for Sora's taste, he ran out of energy for spells. So, sticking true to his nature and the technique he had been honing since long before this adventure started, he ran up and attacked with his Keyblade. Maleficent, slightly distracted by Donald's continued attacks, swiped at him with her staff and managed to land a glancing blow on Sora's shoulder. In retaliation, Sora whacked her repeatedly, dodging and ducking to get around and through her defenses, scoring several hits. Goofy ran up and slammed her into a wall with his shield, knocking the breath from the witch and disrupting her concentration on her own spells. They kept it up with this tactic--namely, whale away on her from up close and blast her from a distance--until the witch retreated in defeat.

When Sora was satisfied that the witch wasn't going to come back any time soon, he walked over to Mizu, who was slumped up against the wall, apparently unconcious.

"Mizu," Sora said, gently shaking the girl. "Mizu, if you keep this up, you're gonna miss all the fighting."

"Tell that to my blades, kid," Mizu replied groggily. "Ow. If there's one thing I hate, it slamming head-first into overly solid objects. Namely walls and floors." She pushed herself to her feet and stood rubbing her head for a moment. "Fortunately, I haven't had any intimate contact with a ceiling yet. Gravity seems to like me."

"Maybe you should stay here," Sora suggested. He backed off a step at Mizu's glare.

"Not a chance," she responded. "I promised Riku I'd help save Kairi, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Besides, it's not like I've been getting in your way or anything. I've been out cold for the last two fights."

"I guess you have a point," Sora admitted.

"You bet I do, now where'd the witch go?"

Sora pointed mutely towards the portal Maleficent had left behind.

"Huh," Mizu said, making an odd noise with her tongue that sounded like half of a tsk. "Looks like she's getting sloppy. Oh well... BANZAI!"

The last was said while running head-long into the portal. Actually, it was more of a leap that would most likely end in a controlled somersault at the other end. Sora, sighing in a way that would have made Cloud and Leon quite proud, plunged in after her, only to find that she had sprinted on ahead and left the Heartless behind for him, Donald, and Goofy to clean up.

"Mizu, wait up!" he called. She skidded to a halt and turned to look, but when she saw the Heartless attacking, she drew both of her knives and began carving up the nearest Heartless.

"Sorry," she said with a shrug when they met up about halfway down the corridor, not sounding like she meant it at all. Actually, she looked like she had been having fun. Sora's glare told her he wasn't fooled one bit, and she shrugged in reply.

"Let's go!" Donald shouted, pushing the two along. They took the hint, and ran towards the next room, only to find Maleficent again. This time, however, she was clutching her chest and gasping in pain.

"Do you need some help?" asked a figure who was painfully familiar to the group.

"Riku!" Sora shouted. Riku turned around, and Sora immediately noticed something that made his blood run cold.

"Is that a--" Donald started to ask, but Riku cut him off.

"Yes," he said, and his voice sounded strange, and somehow evil. "A Keyblade. But ulike yours, this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts." He lifted his Keyblade, almost reverently, and grinned. "Allow me to demonstrate..."

Faster than Sora could have ever dreamt possible, Riku turned and plunged the Keyblade deep into Maleficent's heart.

"Behold!"

"Wha--" was all that Maleficent could get out, but the word was drowned by Mizu's shriek of terror.

"Riku!"

The girl started to run towards him, but Sora's instincts cried out that this was the most idiotic thing to do at the moment, so he half-pounced her and held her back, staring in horror at the scene unfolding before him. Mizu struggled, but only a little, before she went limp in disbelief.

"Now," Riku commanded, "open your heart, surrender it to the darkness! Become darkness itself!"

"Dammit, Riku, this isn't right!" Mizu shrieked at the top of her lungs, straining against Sora's hold once again. Riku merely removed his Keyblade from Maleficent's heart, grinned at Mizu, and disappeared through darkness.

"This is it," Maleficent panted in ecstacy. "This power! Darkness... The true darkness!"

Sora was forced to let go of Mizu and ready his Keyblade as Maleficent transformed right in front of his eyes into a huge, black, fire-breathing dragon. He didn't even notice as Mizu flung herself to the last place they had seen Riku, then draw her daggers as the reality of the immediate situation hit.