CHAPTER LIV
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS?

"Quiet down in there…" Kronk said sleepily, leaning back in his chair. The dungeon of the temple was just as beautiful as the rest of it, with tall golden bars making up the walls of the jail cell. Even though it was beautiful, Goofy, Donald and Eddy sat miserably on the one bed in the center of the cell. Donald abruptly jumped up and grabbed the bars, trying to squeeze his head through it.

"We didn't do anything, ya big bully!" he quacked, spitting all over Kronk.

"I know, I know…" said Kronk, wiping some spittle from his tunic. "But Yzma's my boss…and I gotta do what she says."

Goofy elbowed Donald as they both thought back to King Mickey…how many times had they disobeyed him? Not very many, they realized.

"Well…at least tell us when we can get outta here," Goofy pleaded.

"Let's see…Kuzco's orders were that he would release you after three days…but then me and Yzma turned him into a llama, so that three days miiight stretch out for a year or two…"

Eddy was knocked backwards as Donald jumped into the air, rage building in his body. "A year! We don't have a year…" he trailed off as he thought about what else Kronk had said. "Did you say you turned Emperor Kuzco into a llama!"

Kronk kept his eyes closed as he reclined, trying to take a nap. "Yeah…Yzma told me to kill him, but I screwed up and now he's a llama. It's okay, though…I threw him into the forest with the black panthers. Did I say too much?" he asked, opening one of his eyes.

"Naw…you said pretty much everything…" Goofy laughed as Kronk closed his eye and went back to sleep.

Pacha pulled his staff out once more, digging it into the ground for balance as he stared down the panthers. The first one leapt straight in the air, landing on Sora's shoulders, pinning him to the ground. Riku dove at the group, slashing one up in the air with a powerful uppercut. Kairi backed away as two of them tried to back her toward the edge of the grass…

Down below there stretched a long, craggy valley. It was quite a drop from where they were standing…and the small riverbed full of crocodiles at the bottom wasn't very comforting, either.

Kairi shouted, "fira!", keeping the panthers at bay as they approached ever closer…

Pacha pushed off of his staff, launching his massive body into the air – with a loud battle cry, he landed flat on the backs of two panthers as he somersaulted in the air. They vanished in a puff of smoke instantly, reducing their numbers to four. Pacha quickly rushed over to Sora, who was wrestling with the largest panther on top of him. Like a professional golfer, Pacha swung his staff and knocked the biggest panther clear off of the side of the cliff down to the crocodiles below.

Riku slid in a sweeping arc and stood up in front of Kairi, keyblade drawn. With two powerful swings, he drew the two panthers cornering Kairi into the center of the cliff. The final panther was spiked downward into the group by Sora, after Pacha had boosted him upward by his foot.

The three panthers looked around the closing circle…Riku, Kairi, Sora and Pacha were closing in from all sides...as a portal opened up in the center of the cliff to reveal the Burning Man once again. Riku screamed in agony as his keyblade seemed to burn within his hands, not allowing him to loosen his grip…

"Back off, Hades…we'll deal with you later…" Riku said, not taking his eyes from the panthers as he crouched ever closer, trying with all his might to drop his keyblade.

"Stop it! Make it stop!" Kairi cried, sensing Riku's pain.

Hades laughed from within his mask. "Gee, kid, as much as I would love that, I'm gonna have to kill you now and take the Dark One back to my master…you know how that is, don't you?"

"Knock it off, hothead!" Sora yelled, diving at Hades with his blade. As he swung it, Hades barely lifted a foot as he sidestepped the blow, turning a full circle around Sora and punching him in the back with a flaming fist. Sora shot forward and slammed into a tree sitting right on the edge of the cliff.

"That's enough of that, kiddo," he said angrily, trying not to lose his temper. "I've got an idea…how about I go find that Flame Salamander and you guys can deal with my new pet…Cerberus Zero…" he said, snapping his fingers as a portal took him away from the site. Riku's grip finally relaxed, as he gasped in pain, trying to regain his breath. Sora shimmied down the tree trunk, rubbing his palms that were now burning from the impact. In the center of the clearing, the three panthers were dragged into a large, black portal by the lashing tendrils…strange yowls and screams issued from the portal as a massive cat bounded back out of it a moment later.

The beast looked like Cerberus, with the only change being the three heads of the dog were replaced with feline panther heads…the tails of the beast were much longer, whipping almost fully past its head, slamming back into the ground with enough force to crumble the rock.

Riku tried to stand up, failing miserably as he slunk back onto a large rock, still reeling with pain from the shock…his hands were throbbing…he never thought he'd be able to summon his keyblade again…

Kairi tried a direct approach from behind – she soon realized it was a bad idea as Cerberus Zero's three tails all slashed into her at the same time, sending her back into the rock behind which the llama was still hiding.

Sora and Pacha looked at each other and back toward Pacha's cart – in a flash, Pacha grabbed Sora by the scruff of his shirt and tossed him into the air. They shouted, "CANNONBALL!" as the limit attack began…Pacha ran toward his cart as Sora spun rapidly in the air over head, gathering magic power…Pacha tossed each bag, pot, and urn one by one into the air as Sora smashed them downward into the Cerberus' three faces, causing it to recoil each time. As the ammunitions were depleted, Sora positioned himself over the other end of the see-saw like cart, with Pacha standing on the other end…he cast, 'graviga!' directly on himself, rocketing straight at the cart…

With pinpoint precision he slammed the cart upward, sending Pacha into the sky. He curled into a ball as he rose over the three headed beast as Sora gathered the remaining energy he had and cast the spell once more on Pacha, sending him pummeling straight into the beast. The resulting force cracked the edge of the cliff as the cat lost its footing…massive claws shot out, trying to grab onto the ground…but Cerberus Zero fell hundreds of feet to the river below, completely defeated.

Sora and Pacha gave each other a high-five as Pacha went to check on Kairi and Sora helped Riku stand up.

"You okay?" he asked Riku.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Riku said, though Sora could tell he was lying.

"Up and at 'em, little miss…" Pacha said, waking Kairi up.

She groggily shook her head as she stood up, meeting her friends in the center of the trees. Suddenly, from behind the rock, they heard the llama whimpering…

Pacha walked over and called out to it, "don't worry, pal…the bad guys are gone…"

The llama stopped sobbing as it came back into view.

"Took you long enough…were you trying to get me eaten?" he said with a snobby tone.

The friends' jaws dropped. "DEMON LLAMA!" Pacha screamed, running backwards into a tree which stopped him dead in his tracks. "Get it away, get it away!"

"Demon llama? Where!" the llama cried, running into Pacha's arms. "Save me, peasant!"

Pacha took a long, hard look at the llama. "Emperor Kuzco?"

"Ah, yeah…what does it look like?" Kuzco the llama said.

"Uh…it looks like a talking llama…" Sora said, picking up a shattered piece of mirror that had fallen from one of Pacha's bags. He held it up in front of the emperor's face and the resulting look of shock told them that he had no idea that he even was a llama, let alone how it had happened.