Kingdom Hearts Keyblade Legion

by lyokoMARVELanime

Sequel to Dual Keys. Sora, Donald, Goofy return to the worlds after an event that caused them to have their memories modified, and they're off on a new adventure with Ven. But this time they've some new friends with them. Can Roxas and Xion help to save the worlds from this new evil group? Is there some deeper mystery surrounding the two siblings? Find out along with the new team.

11. The Heroes of China

AN: Hello one and all! And welcome back to another thrilling chapter in the adventures of the Keyblade Legion!

[audience applause]

Xion: And another chapter in which I get to really show how awesome I am!

AN: Careful! I don't wanna have to use any spoiler prevention gags on you, girl.

Xion: You didn't have a problem with it in Keyblades of Future Past.

AN: Uh...touche. How about we just move along with today's review answers before anyone says something they regret, myself included.

Let's start things off simple with a response to "Greatwestern1522", and say yes, there will eventually be some Riku/Xion in here. Maybe not quite as much as the other pairings, but it will still be in here.

Next up to "rmarcano321", there's actually a couple lessons to be taken from last chapter. One is the age-old wisdom that many people need to relearn time and again as to why you should not make a girl mad, and another is that you should not underestimate what can be expected of Xion or any character in this series. You never know what may happen to them later on down the line. Although I will go ahead and say that no characters will be getting killed off entirely, unless they're certain bad guys *cough* Xehanort *cough*, or someone like Eraqus, who's already dead, and likely going to just be like some kind of Force Ghost if he ever does appear in the main story.

Rolling it along to "Dragon Rider 66", the ideas for Roxas and Xion's Unique Command Styles and Shotlocks are all still a work in progress, but I will go ahead and say that some of them will take inspiration from one or two abilities that they held in 358/2 Days, or other fights. Whether or not your suggestion (Which I did get, by the way), has any grounds to influence those respective abilities for Roxas still remains to be seen. As for your random question, I went with the game's version of the story because that's the one I know best, and quite frankly, I think it worked a bit better than the manga one. Plus, I really don't like that little punk, Chi-Fu, and if I went with the manga version of the story, I would have to include him. As for the matter on Aelita, she will not be a summon in this story (at least its not intended for her to be one at the moment), but she will be in it. If you can't guess when she'll show up, you'll just have to wait and see.

Xion: Here's a hint: it's at a certain point during one of our later trips to Hollow Bastion.

AN: Shush! Don't be saying things that are a dead giveaway!

Roxas: Oh, and by the way, I did get that Christmas present you sent me, so thanks for that. I just haven't had a chance to really use it yet, but I will if a certain someone doesn't watch himself around Xion. [throws a warning glare coupled with an "I'm watching you" gesture at Riku]

Riku: [pales upon hearing that and seeing Roxas's look] Mommy.

AN: Okay, moving on before someone turns into a big baby, *cough Riku *cough*, to "CT7567Rules", yes, it will be in the Clone Wars era. As for your question about when I return to work on those specific stories, it may be a while, given that most of, if not all of my focus is centered on my Kingdom Hearts related stories, but I am going to try and update any of those other stories as soon as I can. Just, expect more updates to anything Kingdom Hearts related for a long time to come.

To our old pal "Monkey D. Conan", don't worry about the rant, everyone's allowed to have a moment or two to do so, especially if there was something that they did not like about something as epic as Kingdom Hearts 3, but I did promise that I would try and make my version of it at least a little better, and I intend to keep that promise. Yes, I will be using the KH3 outfits when this series reaches that point, because frankly, those were indeed very awesome, though I may have a few changes made to Xion's, and maybe even Namine's when we see them in that time period, at least for the moments during the adventure when they're fighting and stuff. And now that you had mentioned it, I have started to at least brainstorm on some ideas for new looks for Ventus and Aqua to adopt in my version of KH3, which, if you guys have seen my profile recently, would be Kingdom Hearts Trinities. Oh, and yeah, there will be a Ven and Aqua wedding in KH3, but it won't be happening during the battle with Davy Jones. Wouldn't want to step on Will and Elizabeth's special moment, you know, even if it was overshadowed by a battle against cursed pirates.

As for your other questions regarding this specific story, I'm not entirely sure if I'll really be covering all of the events of Atlantica in this story, mainly because I'll be having something else going on at the same time with some of the other characters, but I'm sure you'll recall that in an earlier chapter, I did imply that Roxas had a good singing voice. He just did not enjoy singing for a large audience or in public because he believes otherwise.

Roxas: It was back during the Summer Vacation arc if you need to double check on that. Which day was it again? Day 2?

AN: No, it was Day 3.

Roxas: Oh, right. Day 3.

AN: As for all of your other questions...Sorry, but I'll be keeping most of those answers close to the vest for the moment.

Moving on to the "Guest" of 2/24/2019, who I'm assuming is the same guest reviewer that was asking about Ven's appearance for drawing purposes, I suppose that is a reasonably close comparison, if we were to use that.

Sora: Hey, here's another one from "CG", and it looks like he's got questions for all of us.

AN: Well, let's not keep the guy waiting. We'll answer those questions in the same order they were posed, so Sora, start it off.

Sora: Okay. Hm, it's actually a little hard for me to really say for sure. I mean, Final Form allows me to use two Keyblades, which I can control telekinetically, but Ultimate Form is a power that's drawn out from the Ultima Weapon, which is pretty powerful on its own in any and all of the games. I guess it really boils down to a matter of opinion really, but if I really had to make a choice myself, at least in this case, I'd probably say Utimate Form of KH3. Because again, Ultima Weapon powers it, and that Keyblade is really hard to get, so it had better be really powerful. Not that Final Form wasn't hard to get too, but there is an easy trick to unlocking it, while in the case of Ultima Weapon in any of the games...no trick what so ever.

Kairi: My turn! I'm pretty sure my ultimate Keyblade in this timeline will still be Royal Radiance. There just doesn't seem to be anything that fits better in my opinion. Regarding your questions about Ava, I do think there might be a possibility that she might've been my grandma, but I wouldn't put money on it. Though if I was related to Ava somehow, it would be pretty cool. I mean, she's the only foreteller that's actually got any kind of sense in her head (you know, since the others were so willing to follow Xigbar and basically started the first Keyblade War). As for improvements to my character in future Kingdom Hearts games, here's one: stop making me a plot device and/or a damsel in distress! Especially after having me say that I'm not going to be either one of those things so much! Ahem, aside from that, I think another great thing would be to see my canon character become really gifted with magic, like Aqua, and maybe see me get trained by Aqua as well, because, let's face it, if the events of KH3 canon were any indication, Merlin failed in his job of training up me and Axel.

Riku: Okay, so in my case, yeah, I'll be using Braveheart eventually, like I did in KH3, but as for the question of ultimate Keyblades for me, I'd kinda like to think that maybe Braveheart was my ultimate Keyblade. It certainly gives off that feeling in my opinion.

AN: Yeah, let's not answer the question regarding the Final Fantasy characters' lack of screen time in the game. Trust me, that's a can of worms that even I'm not willing to open in this.

Ven: No kidding. I'm pretty sure I saw Serah and Snow from FF13 trying to hold Lightning back from going over to Square Enix and blasting all of them with her gunblade at one point. Anyways, my answer to "CG"'s question for me is that it is possible that a counterpart isn't created for Keyblades wielded by a Princess of Heart, but given that the only Princess of Heart to become a Keyblade wielder was Kairi, I wouldn't be too sure of that.

Roxas: If Ven's heart wasn't in Sora when I was born, how would my hairstyle have looked in comparison? Hmm, I guess it would be pretty similar, but maybe a much lighter shade of color, and maybe parting in a different direction, and spiking up in a different direction as well. But that's just a guess.

Donald: As for my sister, Della, I guess we'll just have to wait and find out if she shows up in the series. I mean, we've seen the boys and Uncle Scrooge, so who's to say we won't see Della too?

Goofy: And as for Maxie, I guess he hasn't been mentioned because it just never came up. And he's probably off at college at that time, or being his own man, or some other thing like that. I'm so proud of my boy.

AN: Easy there, big guy. Don't go crying tears of joy on us just yet. To the "Guest" of 2/25/2019, who asked about Ven and Aqua, I will indeed try to give those two a moment to really be alone and talk about all the things that they had been through after they reunite, along with a moment to show the kids what they're made of when they're both together. Don't worry about that. I just hope I can pull it off right.

"Anonymaton", it's a little hard to say for sure if that ability Xion had in the game will come into play at any point in this story so far, but considering I'm trying to go for a theme of Xion becoming her own person, at least for the most part, I wouldn't count on it too much.

Riku: Also, I don't know the answer to that question you asked me, but I have to know, why do you ask?

AN: Moving on, to the "Guest" of 2/25/2019 that asked about Ven and Aqua using D-Link to contact each other, part of the reason is that at least one of them doesn't know for certain that the other is really out of the Realm of Darkness, or where she could be. The other reasons I will explain when we get to the chapter in which Ven begins training Sora, Roxas, and Xion in how to use the D-Link as well.

In answer to "Arthogawa", Ven constantly putting Sora in a position where he teaches someone something isn't really all that intentional, nor is it intended to lead up to something. It just sort of happens. Though I guess you could say it's Ven's way of teaching Sora responsibility for others, and especially that of being a senior, sibling disciple to Roxas and Xion, in a way.

As for your question about how much earlier Aqua got to Castle Oblivion than Mickey, I would have to say that it was definitely before Riku's battle with Lexaeus, so she will be there for both that and Zexion's schemes, but perhaps sometime after or at the same moment that Riku met the Riku Replica. (Seriously, someone really needs to come up with a better name for the guy besides Repliku), but rest assured, Mickey will be showing up earlier in that adventure as well, thanks in part to the help he had received from Aqua. You'll find more about that in Aqua's next journal entries.

Finally, to the "Guest" of 2/26/2019, namely, who asked about the BBS pairings, yes, we all know that Aqua&Terra make a bit more sense since they're both legal adults and all that, at least based off that information, but at the same time, Ven's still not that much younger than Aqua, so they also make a fair bit of sense as well. Plus, keep in mind, this was at the point of BBS. Given that they are all technically at least ten years older now, I don't think age would really matter that much to them, do you?

Whelp, I think that's a wrap on review answers, and it looks like we don't really have much time for any funny stuff today again, at least not here in this note, so let's get everyone onto the story, shall we?

I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

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Chapter XI

The team had made it a point to try and make their training with Mulan beneficial for all of them, especially considering it had become just as essential for them as it was for her. After the battle in the camp they all needed to know just what sort of strengths and limits the Drive Forms came with in addition to having Roxas and Xion learn at least the basics of the Command Styles, especially if they really intended to fight in a war along with Shang and his troops. As such, Ven worked hard with teaching the twins how to use the common Command Styles, probably even harder than he did Sora from what the blonde's first apprentice could see, while Sora did everything he could teach Mulan some fighting basics. Sure, Sora was mostly self-taught when it came to basic sword fighting and such, but after training with Ven, he did know a lot more about other fighting styles to help the disguised woman out at least a little.

The first thing Sora did was help her to fix her fighting stance, if not by much than certainly to the point where it was not so awkward and likely to make Mulan trip with every move or attack she made. Afterwards it was all a matter of helping her to get a better feel for fighting with a sword. Sure, she had held a blade, but there was a strong difference between simply holding a weapon and actually fighting with it, as Sora could attest from his early days of what he would call sword training with Riku. To be honest though, coaching Mulan through sword training was probably harder than helping her to fix her fighting stance, because while most of her strikes and slashes were good, they were also really slow and a bit hesitant. Sora figured that part of the problem was in the fact that her armor was too heavy for her, which did make sense since it was her father's armor, but he knew that they could not do anything about that since Mulan insisted that she needed to wear the armor in order to better maintain her disguise. It seemed like a bit of a flimsy argument in Sora's eyes, but if Mulan said it helped her to appear less like a woman, then he was not going to try and argue too much. He was going to leave that to Xion when it was her turn to try her hand at training Mulan.

They did not have to wait long, as Xion proved to be very quick on the uptake when it came to Command Styles. In fact, she was able to get a basic handle on the three common styles even more quickly than Sora had, much to the Kingdom Key wielder's shock and slight jealousy. Then again, she did have a good deal of Sora's memories within her, so he had to figure that might have had some sort of effect on it. Either way, he was not complaining too much when he was finally allowed to take a break from teaching Mulan so that he could help Ven with getting Roxas up to speed on Command Style training. Mulan herself, was a little more hesitant given the fire in Xion's eyes seemed to promise a great deal of pain in the training regimen she had in store for the Chinese woman, and while it was making her respect Xion a little more, it also served to make Mulan a little afraid of the younger, smaller girl as well. From the sounds of pained grunts and groans that followed shortly after Xion took over, Sora got the impression that her worries may have been well-founded.

Sora eventually just shrugged off the concerns about Xion's method of training for Mulan and decided to focus on helping Ven with Roxas's Command Style training for the moment. This was proving to be more of a challenge for everyone, because while Xion was a natural with the Command Styles, Roxas had quite a bit of a struggle in getting anything out of said training, and the reason was actually rather simple. Since the energies within a wielder needed to be directed through their Keyblade in order to activate a Command Style, Roxas was not entirely sure if he had to direct the power through just one of his Keyblades or both of them at the same time. Sure, that was not a problem if he was only using one of his Keyblades, but since Roxas naturally used two most of the time, they needed to know one way or the other. That was why Ven and Sora were helping Roxas to experiment to see how it would work for him. At one point while they were doing so, Sora had a random thought that he could not help but give voice to.

"You know, if Roxas doesn't need to channel the power through both of his Keyblades simultaneously for one Command Style, do you think that means he could build up power for two styles and activate one with one of his Keyblades while activating the second with the other," Sora asked. When he had received confused looks from the other two, he tried to simplify what he was aiming for. "I mean, sure it would be great to see him using just one Command Style, but if he could channel one Command Style through one Keyblade a piece, who's to say that he would be unable to use that kind of ability to create some kind of combination of two Command Styles."

"I don't think I follow, Sora," Ventus admitted, with Roxas silently saying the same with his eyes.

"Hmm…Well, think of it like this," Sora suggested, trying a little harder to explain what he was getting at. "Say he could activate Firestorm with one Keyblade while he used the other to activate Diamond Dust at the same time. Maybe by doing so, the two could mix together to create a combination of the two styles, like one that creates fire that freezes things, or maybe one that shoots ice shards that summon fiery explosions when they hit a target. We could probably call it something…Fire Dust, or Diamond Storm…No, wait! How about Diamond Fire?!"

That earned a laugh out of the master of the three, which led to amused smiles from both Sora and Roxas as well. "First off, I think the name Diamond Storm is already taken by someone or something. I'm not sure by who or what, but it definitely sounds like something that's already being used," Ven chuckled to his first apprentice. "Second…you actually make a good point. That could be a possibility, but that'll have to be something we look into another day. Right now, we should try to focus on helping Roxas activate normal Command Styles before we start experimenting to see if he can use any Combo Command Styles."

Ven's reasoning may not have seemed like much fun to either of the two boys, but they did know he was right to say that they should not be trying to make anything new right now. That was the type of thing that was better left for when they were in the gummi ship's simulator deck and not when they were in the midst of a mission like right now. So, they focused on figuring out how Roxas would be able to activate Command Styles, and as it turned out, they were partially right in how he did it. He could in fact activate one Command Style with just Oathkeeper or Oblivion, but only if he was just using the one Keyblade. If he was using both of the Keyblades, he needed to channel the powers equally through both Keyblades at once, and that was probably the most difficult thing of all for him to do. After at least six failed attempts at activating a Command Style while using both Keyblades, and learning that he could still summon out a second Keyblade after activating a Command Style, Roxas determined that he would just settle for what he managed to pull off and work on everything else later. After all, their training was far from done after that point.

The next thing that they had to deal with was the limitations and strengths that came with Xion and Sora's Drive Forms, and the two were both quick to start doing just that. As it turned out, they could not use any Command Styles at all while in the Drive Forms. Even Sora's Unique Tier One Style was inaccessible while he was using Valor Form. Not only that, but it turned out that even if they were using a Command Style before transforming, the power would instantly vanish the moment that they had changed, much to Xion's disappointment when she made the attempt. Thankfully, they discovered that there were still some special skills that they could use while in Valor Form, and the most important of those was the ability to use Shotlocks. More than that, Sora discovered that he could fire off a Shotlock from one Keyblade before using another through the second one without draining his energy too greatly. Sure, it was not much use to Xion, since she did not yet know how to use any Shotlocks at all, but it was still better than nothing, so the two were willing to take that over not having any form of long-range abilities while in Valor Form.

The only other thing that they learned about Valor Form was that it made it easier for the two utilizing it to get a better handle on learning the magic powers like High Jump. Sure, Sora already knew this ability, but given how his other magics had regressed because of his year-long sleep, Ventus had a feeling that the same could be said for Sora's magic control. He was not entirely wrong, as Sora found that his use of High Jump only helped to get slightly higher than he normally would with a regular jump. It was still an impressive height, but not quite the height that Sora was able to reach a year ago with this same ability. Thankfully, Valor Form made it so that one's normal jump was able to reach heights that you could only achieve with a certain level of High Jump, depending on the wielder, so it was not long before Sora was able to reach the height he could with said ability again. Working with Valor Form also allowed Xion to at least reach a quarter of that height as well, but that still left Roxas with having to learn the ability the old fashioned way. Not that it was too big of a problem given that High Jump was the simplest of movement enhancing magic to learn, but he definitely would have liked to have had a shortcut to figuring it out like Xion had been given with Valor Form.

You would think that after getting all of this figured out that Ven would have finally started the next step in Command Style training for Sora, and allowed the others to put all their focus on getting Mulan ready for their mission, but before he could even think of uttering the words, Shang came in to say that it was time for them to start scouting out the mountain pass for his troops, and the team had no choice but to leave any further training to in-field experience. Thankfully, Mulan did not seem nervous or scared anymore, at least not as much as she had been when they first met her or when they were fighting the Heartless in the camp, so that was of some benefit to the team at least. The Heartless that were prowling all along the mountain pass they were scouting out for Shang's troops on the other hand, not so much.

As they went, they encountered quite a few Heartless, old and new, and they would have been very lost on how to deal with the new ones were it not for Jiminy shouting out information from inside of Sora's hood. Thankfully, a good majority of the Heartless seemed to consist of Soldiers and Shadows, but there were still quite a few Nightwalkers floating around as well, slashing at the heroes as they tried making their way forward. In addition to that, there was also another new Heartless that held the appearance of a large centaur with a long guan dao with an angular, silver blade and an orange and purple handle, and when these came charging at any of them, they did so with enough power to send any of the group flying with hard tackles. Jiminy said that these new massive beasts were called Assault Riders, a name that was given to them due to their battle prowess and their horse-like lower body, and given how much of its attacks were based in close-combat, it would be less dangerous to use long-range tactics against it. Not that such words of caution stopped Roxas from moving in and showing the large Heartless just what the dual-wielding Keyblader was made of. As a result of such rash and hasty charges, Roxas found himself knocked into the air quite a few times by the Assault Riders and their bladed staffs, but thankfully, he did have the others close at hand to make sure that he would not end up hurt when he landed, and if he did, Donald, Sora, or Ven were always quick to cast a healing spell to get him on his feet again, or toss him a potion that would do the same.

The climb through the mountain pass was definitely filled with battles for the seven, but that did not stop them for even a second. If anything, it only made them all the more determined to get through, and that was especially true in the case of Mulan. Sure, she was still pretty scared of what was happening around her, but now, after all the help that the others had given her in learning how to fight, she felt more than ready to face those fears and the enemies that were attacking them, and she did so with gusto. Of course, Mushu provided some assistance as well by letting loose a few blasts of fire like the dragon that he is, but for the most part, any enemy that Mulan felled, she defeated with her own blade. Xion could only smile in approval for Mulan's newfound courage, even though she was still a bit upset about how she was hiding behind her guise as Ping, and that made it much easier for her to stick close and provide whatever assistance she could for the young woman in disguise without getting agitated.

In the end, through their combined efforts, the team had managed to clear out the trail to where the army would be setting up their big ambush for Shan-Yu and his forces in what was practically record time, leaving both the soldiers and Shang rather impressed. Yao and his friends even stopped by to offer up congratulations and words of praise for the team, and especially in the cases of Mulan, or rather Ping, and Xion, as they seemed to have carried most of the workload in the three's eyes. Not that anyone had a problem with them thinking that, because the boys all had a feeling that Yao was just doing his best to make sure he did not end up on Xion's bad side again after seeing her in action. That did not mean that they were any less genuine in their praise of Ping. Shang on the other hand did a much better job at keeping his impressions at bay, as he merely said that he was willing to let Ping join his troops despite thinking that he did not have what it takes to be a worthy soldier. It left Sora and the others feeling a little upset and annoyed with Shang's stubbornness, but Mulan waved it off and said that it was fine so long as she got the chance to show Shang what she was made of in order to prove her worth in the end. That earned her a small smile from Shang, indicating that the captain was happy to see that Ping's determination was not wavering at all despite have reached the goal that the team was aiming for, and he left it at that.

Afterwards, the troops had managed to set themselves up in a nearby village within the mountains, guaranteeing that they would be ready for when Shan-Yu finally appeared, and that was when Ventus finally managed to put aside some time that they could use to finally begin the next stage of Sora's Command Style training. "All right, everyone, listen closely," Ventus instructed his three apprentices. "I know that this bit of training is mainly for Sora, but all the same, I want all of you to pay attention. I'd rather not have to repeat any more of this than I have to when it's your turns, Roxas and Xion."

The twins both quietly nodded in response, small smiles on their faces that showed they knew they were just here to get a sneak preview of what was to come, but Sora's response was just an excited grin that had barely faded at all since Ven had told him he would be taking this next step in his training. "Come on, already! Let's get started," Sora cheered. "I can't wait to start using some more powerful Command Styles!"

"Easy there, Sora. If anything, you should enjoy this while it lasts, because hearing this little lecture is probably the easiest part of Tier Two Command Style training," Ventus laughed in reply to the kid's eagerness. He quickly turned serious again as he began his lecture. "Now then, Tier Two Command Styles are some the trickier abilities to learn, at least when you first begin using them. This is due mainly in part to how you access and activate them. Sora, do you remember what I told you about Tier Two Styles when we first talked about it a year ago?"

Sora crossed his arms in thought for a minute, combing through his memories of said times before he gave an answer. "You said that you would need to already be in the middle of using a Tier One Style because they draw on a lot more power from your magic reserves and your heart. And that when you start using them, you typically have three at your disposal: one that's unique to you and you alone, and two that you share with the people who are closest to your heart. Right?"

"More or less," Ventus smiled in response, satisfied enough to see that Sora remembered that much of his lesson from so long ago. "I also mentioned that sometimes it would also be the other way around, in that you would have two unique to you and you alone, and one that you share with someone else, and that the one you shared with others would only be true if those people were Keyblade wielders. Those are things that are all dependant on the wielder in question though."

"So then, how do you know which it would be when you start learning," Xion questioned, feeling rather curious about that from the moment she heard it.

"You don't," Ventus replied. "Knowing what kind of Tier Two Command Styles you would get at the start is impossible to determine until after you've actually started learning them, and then discovered what the styles are. Of course, there are some Tier Two Styles that anyone can learn, some of which have been used to help someone practice and get a feel for how to activate those abilities."

"So how do you activate them," Sora asked, wanting to know that answer more than anything.

Ventus smirked at that question, and did not hesitate in answering it. "Activating Tier Two Command Styles is something of a two step process. The first and easiest step is to have any Tier One Style already activated, as I've already mentioned, but the second step is both the most important, and for some, the most difficult to master: timing."

"Timing," Roxas questioned, clearly not getting it anymore than the other two were.

"Yes, timing," Ventus confirmed, having expected this bit of questioning. "Sora, you know that rush of power you feel as your building up to a Command Style's finisher?"

"Kinda hard not to," Sora commented, as he knew just what Ven was talking about. Even just thinking about it now made him feel pretty giddy sometimes, and that feeling was only stronger when he thought about the rush he would get from his Unique Tier One Command Style's finisher.

"Good, then that should help a little," Ventus nodded. "You see, in order to activate a Tier Two Style, you need to use a specific spell or ability right at the moment that the energy of your Tier One Style's finisher would be unleashed. If you use it too soon, it won't work at all, and if you try too late, you'll just have to settle for using the finisher of whatever Tier One Style you're already using. Knowing how to measure the speed in which your Command Style's energy builds up is a particularly essential part of activating Tier Two Styles, but not quite as much so as knowing just which spells or abilities you need to use in order to activate your Tier Two Command Styles."

"So I guess I need to practice a little more with the Command Styles I already know in order to measure how quickly I can build up the energy for their finishers before I make any real attempts at activating my Tier Two Styles," Sora guessed.

"That would be part of it, yes. However, it also helps if you have a Tier Two Style that you can practice with. Fortunately, I know of a general use Tier Two Style that you can use in order to get a feeling for activating these abilities: Rhythm Mixer," Ventus revealed, getting an eager smile from Sora, showing that he was eager to learn it. "In order to activate the Command Style, you'll need to build up the energy in a Tier One Command Style, and then, when the time is right, cast a lightning spell, or use anything that has a lightning element to it. Just keep in mind, only you can discover what the requirements are for activating your three Tier Two Command Styles."

"How am I supposed to do that," Sora asked.

At this point, Ventus could not help but chuckle a little. "See now, this is the part that I'm sure is going to make you feel like I'm being a bit of a broken record, because that answer lies within your heart. When you're first trying to use Tier Two Command Styles, as in making a conscious effort to access them, your heart will be giving you a small nudge on what abilities you need to use in order to activate the ones that are unique to you, and the ones that you share with people who are close to you. In the case of the latter, it's easier to figure out just by thinking of those people, because when you do so, the instructions come to you a bit more quickly."

"And my Unique Tier Two," Sora asked.

"No one really knows for sure what allows a wielder to discover that, because it's always different for everyone. Most of the time, it's all just a matter of experimenting a little until you finally figure out what works best. In essence, it's really no different than how you would figure out what your Unique Tier One Style is and how to activate it," Ventus admitted.

Sora nodded in reply and then said, "Okay, then I guess I'd better get started on learning how to activate Rhythm Mixer so I'll be ready when I figure out what my big three are going to be, huh?"

"That you should," Ventus confirmed. "Just remember to not try and push yourself too hard, and don't try to rush it. There's no need for you to know your Tier Two Command Styles just yet."

Sora could only grin with a thumbs-up in response before he moved to find another area close to the village where he would be able to safely practice trying to activate the Tier Two Style that Ven gave him, with Ven promising that he would join Sora as soon as he checked in with the others along with Roxas and Xion. Anyone could tell that Xion wanted to keep practicing with Mulan to make absolutely sure she would be ready when they finally faced off with the Hun army, and besides, they had already left Mulan and Mushu alone with Donald and Goofy for quite a while now. No one should have to suffer through that insanity for longer than necessary, even if it was usually a barrel of laughs most of the time.

---

It was not that big of a surprise, but it was also no less frustrating for Sora that after working hard for several hours, he still had not managed to activate Rhythm Mixer even once. After his previous experiences with learning the Tier One Command Styles, Sora knew that he was likely to have trouble with learning how to use the next level of said abilities, but he did not think it would be this hard. Ven was not kidding when he said that getting the hang of the timing was difficult; every time Sora thought he was getting close to the right moment, he would always be too early or too late in casting the necessary magic, and it was definitely beginning to get on his nerves a little. Not only that, but he did not even get the smallest indication of what kind of spells or abilities he would need to use for any of his personal Tier Two Styles as he was practicing, but he figured that would probably be due to the fact that he had not learned how to at least activate one such style thus far. Sure, Ven said that doing so was not necessary for that, but Sora could not help but think that figuring out the timing on activating Rhythm Mixer would be a huge help for him in figuring out what he needed to know for his personal Styles.

Thankfully, Ven was able to join Sora quick enough to help him improve a little bit in his timing, and it turned out that more often than not, Sora was casting the spell too early. Not that Sora was unable to figure that out on his own, considering he not unleashed any of the finishers for his Tier One Styles, but it was still nice to have some confirmation on that fact. The two then figured that maybe having a small sparring match would help him to get a better idea on how to activate a Tier Two Command Style, and were about to do just that, when Roxas came rushing over shouting that Mushu apparently had a huge discovery that he needed to share with them right away. It was a little frustrating that Sora had to put such important training on the backburner for the moment, but they both knew that it must have been important if the others had sent Roxas to tell them about this, so the two Keyblade wielders quickly hurried back to the mountain village with Roxas.

It did not take too long to track down their team, considering that most of them were gathered up on the outskirts of the village and gathered around the small, red dragon, but they were a little suspicious of how it seemed that Mushu was glancing around like he was making sure no one noticed them. Then again, it was obvious that Mushu was trying to keep himself hidden from the other soldiers, so they figured that it was some kind of family guardian thing and put it aside for now. Not that it was too hard for them to do so after they heard the news that Mushu had for them.

"Okay, girl, here's your chance," Mushu declared, directing most of his information towards Mulan as he began. "I just saw this real shady guy, and I know it's Shan-Yu."

"Shan-Yu," the team all exclaimed, not expecting for Mushu to have discovered the Hun leader was already here.

"If he's here, then the rest of the Hun army, or even the Heartless can't be too far behind," Ventus determined aloud.

"We've got to tell the captain," Sora decided, and the others all agreed completely.

"Waaait wait-wait-wait WAIT," Mushu shouted just as the team was turning to head into the village and find Shang, and startling everyone with his cries as a result. "Everybody use their heads a sec."

"What for," Roxas asked. He thought that Sora's suggestion made the most sense, and the others all agreed. If Shan-Yu was here, then Shang needed to know so that he could prepare the rest of the troops for whatever the Hun leader was planning.

"I'll tell you what if you just listen," Mushu replied with a grin. "Now, why are we here? To make the captain see Mulan's—I mean, Ping's talents and bring honor to her family."

"Yeah…" Ventus prompted, but he had a bad feeling in his stomach that he knew where Mushu was going with this.

"So, let's go find out where Shan-Yu is, by ourselves. Then, if we're lucky, we can fry him up good," Mushu suggested. "Though just tracking the guy down should earn us our stars, Captain Musclehead will have to notice my girl!"

"Yep, I should've known," Ventus groaned in exasperation. "Tracking down Shan-Yu is one thing, but doing so without letting anyone know where we're going is way too risky. Not to mention the whole thing could be a trap."

"Ven's right. We should at least let the other troops know beforehand so that they can be ready for any surprises," Sora agreed.

"But if Shan-Yu is close by, he might get away while we're doing that," Roxas reasoned. "This may be our best chance to stop him and put an end to the war all at once, and as a bonus, we'll have helped make Ping a war hero. Sounds like a win-win to me."

"Hey guys, how about we let Mulan decide. I mean, if you think about it, this whole thing is really her decision," Xion pointed out.

Everyone turned to the Chinese woman in question, wanting to see what she would do, and after a moment of contemplative silence, she seemed to turn serious and said, "Okay. Let's go."

"We've got your back," Xion promised with a grin, obviously happy to see that Mulan was going with Mushu's plan, while Ven grimaced a little in worry.

"Now we're cookin'," Mushu cheered.

"So where did you see Shan-Yu," Donald asked.

"He's over in a cave outside the village," Mushu revealed, pointing in the direction of the cave he had seen the Hun in.

"Oh, well that isn't terribly convenient or anything," Ventus muttered in obvious sarcasm.

"Yep, that definitely screams trap so loudly, it might as well come with a bright, glowing sign," Sora groused in agreement.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you, Sora," Ventus teased, referring to Castle Oblivion.

"Can we please let that go and focus on the fact that Shan-Yu's baiting us to leave the village," Sora asked his master.

"Or Shan-Yu could've just been careless. Either way, the only way we'll know for sure is if we go there," Xion told the two, and she immediately raced off with Mulan right beside her in the lead position after Mushu had slithered up into her scarf again and Roxas hot on both of their heels.

Sora and Ventus could only let out tired sighs at this, before the latter looked to the last two members of their group and said, "Donald, Goofy, you guys stay here at the camp, just to be safe. If this is a trap, then I'd rather not have the whole group caught up in it."

Both knight and magician snapped out a salute in response to Ven's orders, and with that done, the blonde master and Sora took off to catch up with the rest of their friends. Not that they had to go too far, as the cave turned out to be practically right outside the village gates, it was so close. Seeing that had made Ven even more worried about Mushu's claim, and Sora could not help but think back to how he had ended up in Twilight Town the more they moved further into the cave. Sure, he did not remember anything about Castle Oblivion, or even seeing the place, but considering that it caused him to lose a year of his life, no one could fault him for feeling a little anxious, and his nerves were definitely at that point at growing as they moved further into the cave. When they took notice of some candles lining the walls of the cave as they moved further in, suspicions of this whole thing being a trap became more valid, but when they finally reached the end of the path inside, all they found was a large, empty chamber that had a shrine against the wall opposite of the entrance, more candles along the walls, and not a single soul in sight, let alone Shan-Yu.

"Dead end," Roxas asked in disbelief.

"Here's a better question: does this look like a trap to anyone but me," Ventus posed, though it was obvious that he was being sarcastic, since it would have been obvious to a blind man that this was a trap, assuming Shan-Yu really was here.

"I don't know. There aren't really too many hiding places in here or along the trail that led us down here, so maybe Mushu was just seeing things before," Sora suggested.

"No way, Mister! Everybody knows that dragons have great eye sight, and I'm telling you, I saw Shan-Yu coming into this cave," Mushu insisted, slightly offended that Sora doubted him like that, and still insistent on what he saw. "Check again!"

"Check where? Behind a rock? The only thing in this place is a bunch of tiny candles," Xion pointed out.

Ventus still kept his guard up, waiting for anything to spring out at them, but after not seeing anything or anyone for all the while that the others were conversing, he finally sighed and said, "I don't think we're going to find anything here, so let's just go back before anyone notices we're missing."

Roxas had to agree with the older blonde, and he did not hesitate in following Ventus back to the cave entrance. Just when the two had crossed the threshold into the chamber though, the whole cave began shaking, and everyone could tell that it was not an earthquake. "Uh-oh," Xion whispered.

"IT IS A TRAP," Sora cried out. "RUN FOR IT!"

Neither one of the girls needed any prompting from Sora, as they were already booking it out of the cave chamber. Sadly, they were too slow in their attempts at escape, as a flash of light signaled the appearance of a barrier forming to cut them off from their blonde companions, as Xion found out after she had collided with it. Hearing his sister suddenly cry out in pain, combined with the worries he had gained from the sudden earthquake made Roxas spin around just in time to see Sora moving to help Xion up to her feet after the barrier had sent her sprawling onto the ground. "Xion," Roxas called out in worry, moving to help as well, only to collide with the barrier like she had.

"Sora! Ping," Ventus shouted as well, only just noting how, unlike his sister, Roxas had remained standing, and he was quickly hacking at the barrier with both of his Keyblades. Not that the blonde was having any success in doing so, mind you.

"What's going on," Roxas demanded when he realized that he was not making a dent in the energy that was blocking him and Ven from the others. "Why can't I get through this?!"

"Roxas, enough," Ventus shouted as he pulled Roxas back before his younger doppelganger hurt himself. "That's a battlefield barrier. Nothing's going to get through until the caster is knocked out or the combatants inside defeat whatever enemies are linked to it."

Before Roxas could ask what combatants Ventus was talking about, he saw several Heartless suddenly materialize into the cave chamber with Sora, Mushu, and the girls, providing him with an immediate answer. Not that the four were completely unprepared for the attack, as seen by how Sora already had his Keyblade out the minute he realized the barrier was there, but even with Mulan and Xion drawing their own swords for battle, Roxas was not any less worried. "We can't just sit here! The others need our help!"

"Who said we were going to just sit here," Ventus asked, confusing Roxas a little. "Do you think the Heartless could set up a battlefield barrier on their own? The caster has to be close by, and if we can find him…"

"We might be able to free the others by taking him down," Roxas finished. He did not really like the idea of leaving his sister behind, but he knew that Xion could take care of herself. Besides, it was not like she was all alone, so he probably did not have too much to worry about. With that in mind, Roxas could only sigh, "Okay, Ven. Let's go find the guy."

Ventus nodded in response and then motioned for Roxas to follow after him, and as they rushed out of the cave he revealed, "I think I spotted someone leaving the cave just after the barrier went up, so our chances of catching him may be really good."

Back on the other side of the barrier, Sora had overheard Ven's plan, even as he slashed through some more Shadows and rolled aside to avoid an Assault Rider's spinning spear, and became all the more determined to keep the others safe as best he could until they found the battlefield barrier's caster. That is assuming that they were unable to defeat all of the Heartless in the chamber before the two blondes had gotten back, but given how good he knew Xion was, and how much Mulan had improved with their coaching, he had a good feeling about their odds, so the wielder of Kingdom Key was not too worried. If anything, he felt like this just made things into a race to see if his group could fight off the Heartless before Roxas and Ven took down the person who had trapped them down here, and Sora was not one to let someone easily win a race against him. With that in mind, it was no surprise that his attacks against the Heartless became a little more excited and slightly more vicious, making him the perfect person to deal with the Assault Riders that had just materialized to replace the first one after Xion had destroyed it with a blast of Blizzard.

With Sora focusing on the two larger enemies, the girls turned their attention to the Shadows surrounding them, and they let loose in every way that was available to them. As they were fighting, Xion could not help but shout out suggestions and advice to Mulan on how she was dealing with her enemies, feeling like a bit of a backseat driver, but Mulan did not seem to be complaining. If anything, she looked a lot more grateful, especially given that some of the advice Xion was giving had helped her to cut down three Shadows at once, much to her satisfaction. Of course, that had also caused her to pause and celebrate too soon, giving a couple Shadows a chance to try and pounce on her. Luckily, Xion was able to intercept them with both a quick blast of Fire and a swing of her Keyblade before they had so much as touched a hair on Mulan's head, but she was not going to let Mulan's mistake slide so easily.

"Stay focused, Ping," Xion called out, her tone having a little bite when she uttered Mulan's alias. "You can't afford to celebrate when you're in the middle of a fight, no matter how cool or impressive one of your achievements may have been."

"R-Right. Sorry," Mulan stuttered in response before spinning around as fast as she could to cut through another Shadow. A part of her was still feeling a bit of despair at seeing how upset Xion was with her on her decision to pretend to be a boy in order to bring her family honor, but in Mulan's mind, Xion just did not truly understand why she had to do this. Being from another, faraway place meant that Xion came from a different culture with another set of customs, so Mulan did not think that the younger girl could ever know what it was like to have to live in the world that she did, trying to be something that she was not in more ways than one, and having to hide behind a mask even when she was trying to be herself. It was pretty upsetting for Mulan, and actually made her a little mad at Xion at times, but right now, she could not afford to be getting upset with the girl over something so petty.

Xion did not seem to notice the way Mulan's face had scrunched up in frustration due to her attitude, but that may have been because she was so focused on the fight. Not that it was a bad thing, because that same focus was what allowed Xion to bust out the Firestorm Command Style and add a little extra firepower to their side of the fight. After burning several Shadows into dust, Xion glanced in Sora's direction to see that he had also activated a Command Style, his being Thunderbolt, but from what she could tell, he was having a bit of trouble with the last Assault Riders even with the power boost. Reacting quickly, Xion turned to provide whatever assistance she could, but when she unleashed the fiery finisher of Firestorm, some Shadows jumped in the way, blocking her off from her intended targets and getting destroyed in the Assault Riders' place. Xion could only curse under her breath at the rotten luck, and was about to try and shoot out another spell to help Sora when she was suddenly forced to spin around and block an attack from a Nightwalker that had just joined the fight. She was about to tell Mulan to go and back up Sora, but when she saw that the disguised woman was occupied with fending off some Soldiers, she knew that it was unlikely her friend would be able to provide anymore assistance to Sora than she could at the moment.

Upon ducking out of the way of another charging Assault Rider, Sora had come to the same realization as Xion had, and he knew that at this point, he really only had one shot at beating these things on his own. It may be a long-shot, but it was also the best chance he had right now, so he had to at least try and go for it. Moving quickly, Sora attacked once again, hitting the Assault Riders over and over in an attempt to build up the energy of his active Command Style a little more, until finally, he felt that it had reached the point it needed to be at, and he took that as his cue to jump back. Saying a quick prayer in his head, Sora quickly held his Keyblade up high, and shouted, "Thundara!"

The lightning spell easily hit its intended targets, but it did not destroy them. If anything, it only seemed to make them mad, but thankfully, Sora had not been aiming to destroy the Assault Riders with that spell. Instead, he could only grin as a new surge of energy unlike anything he felt before raced through him, and he immediately began channeling that energy into his Keyblade like he had so many times before with all of his other Command Styles. Apparently, the energy he was tapping into could be felt by everyone in the room, as the Heartless had all stopped moving out of trepidation while the girls just turned to him in curiosity of what the source of this new energy was. When they locked eyes on Sora, they were surprised to see that the aura of his Command Style was changing from bright green with electric sparks, into an electric blue color while two pulsing cubes of energy started to take shape and orbit around him.

"Hey, what's going on with Sora," Mushu asked as he peeked out from Mulan's scarf.

"I think…I think he's doing it! He figured it out," Xion whispered with a smile, and the next thing Sora shouted made her smile a little more, because it proved her belief beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Command Style: Rhythm Mixer," Sora shouted loudly, and cries were punctuated by a sudden pulse of an electric beat while his new aura settled into place. When he realized that it had actually worked, Sora could not help but pause to look himself over for a minute and take in the feeling of using a Tier Two Command Style for the first time, and judging by the grin on his face, it felt really, really good. Sora then turned to see that the Heartless seemed to still be stunned by his sudden change, and he grinned a little more at the fact that the dark creatures had unknowingly given him the perfect opening.

Faster than you could blink, Sora rushed at the Heartless and began to attack them with a speed that was likely on par with if not faster than that of his Destiny Blaze Command Style, and with every attack he unleashed, a rhythmic sound seemed to follow and damage the enemies he targeted even more. When an Assault Rider finally snapped out of its daze and made to charge him, Sora reacted on instinct alone and created four large cubes with a wave of his Keyblade, and those same cubes soon exploded in the centaur Heartless's face, knocking it back into a couple of Nightwalkers before it was destroyed. He had to pause and glance at his Keyblade for a minute in surprise for that unexpected move, but a few seconds later, he was grinning widely again and repeating that same action in order to take down a large group of Shadows and Soldiers, giving the girls an opening to attack, which they immediately took. Seeing that all three of their targets were now on the offensive again, the Heartless scrambled to do something, but their efforts only succeeded in hastening their destruction, either by Xion's magic and Keyblade, Mulan's sword, or Sora's newest Command Style, which he was enjoying more and more every minute.

Eventually, the number of Heartless had dwindled to a measly few, and Sora could feel that his newest power had reached its ultimate peak, so he saw no reason to not end things in style. With that in mind, Sora jumped into the middle of the remaining Heartless, and raised his Keyblade high as he shouted, "Command Style: Rhythm Mixer Finisher!"

Instantly, a large music set seemed to appear around Sora's position, while the Keybearer himself vanished into the ground. Before the Heartless or the girls could start looking around in an attempt to find Sora, the music set began letting out several beats and tones, damaging every Heartless with the sound waves that were created. When the three circles of the music set suddenly slid together, one final note was struck, and a powerful shockwave was immediately released to signal Sora's reappearance, and the total destruction of all remaining Heartless. Glancing around the room in both study and admiration of his handy work, Sora could not help but smile a bit more when he realized that his last move had gotten rid of the last Heartless, and he felt that it was finally okay for everyone to relax, so he had no problem dismissing his Keyblade after a few seconds.

That did not mean he was prepared for when Xion suddenly tackled him in a surprise hug, still smiling brightly at what Sora had managed to pull off. "Sora, you did it," the former Nobody cheered. "You activated a Tier Two Command Style, and you were awesome every second you were using it!"

"Well what did you expect? I always manage to pull something off in an awesome way sooner or later," Sora informed her in a moment of false boasting. At least, Xion assumed he was not actually boasting, but then again, there could have been at least a small amount of an inflated ego in his statement. She was willing to let him have it, though, seeing as he did have a right to brag right now. Plus, there was also the fact that he turned it around and started praising her and their friend in turn a moment later. "Don't sell yourselves short though, Xion. You and Ping were pretty amazing too."

"Thanks Sora," Mulan smiled in return, while Xion just nodded with a grin after releasing Sora from her hug. Just before Xion was going to say something to Mulan as well, the three all heard Ventus and Roxas calling out to them, and they turned to see the two blondes running back into the cave, proving that the battlefield barrier had been removed after they defeated the last Heartless.

"Are you all okay," Ventus asked.

"Yeah, thanks to Xion and Ping," Sora confirmed with an easy-going smile while resting his hands behind his head.

"What do you mean thanks to us? Sure, Mulan did save my neck a few times back there, but you were the one who landed the final blow using Rhythm Mixer's finisher," Xion corrected, her smile still holding fast.

"Wait! You used Rhythm Mixer," Ventus cut in before any kind of argument could begin. "You actually activated and unleashed the full power of a Tier Two Command Style?"

"And dominated the last half of the fight while he did," Xion confirmed before Sora could try and say anything in an attempt to be modest.

Ventus was silent for a few minutes after hearing that, until finally, he let out a groan of misery that had caught them all by surprise. "What's the matter," Sora asked. "I thought you'd be happy that I managed to do it?"

"And I am. Really, this is great news," Ventus reassured Sora. "But I was hoping to be there and see it when my first apprentice activated a Tier Two Command Style for the first time."

That got a bit of laughter out of the three Keyblade apprentices, each amused by how Ven was acting like a parent that had missed seeing their child take their first steps, and eventually, even Ventus had to laugh a little at how he was acting. Yes, he was disappointed that he missed such a monumental moment in Sora's training to become a Keyblade master, but he was still happy that Sora had managed to reach that next step regardless. They went back to business soon after when Sora asked, "So, did you guys catch whoever had set that trap?"

"No," Roxas sighed with a shake of his head. "We know that he had been in the cave and we caught a glimpse of him before he left, but by the time we had gotten outside, he seemed to have just vanished into thin air."

"Still, I'm pretty sure that whoever it was, it had to have been Shan-Yu. Don't ask me how he figured out how to create a battlefield barrier, but I just know it was him," Ventus informed them.

"Well, his trap failed, so all we can do now is go and report to the captain how that old-news-Hun tried to trap us down here with thousands of Heartless, only to have them all taken out by Ping, here," Mushu determined. He knew that was not entirely true, but then again, they were doing whatever they could to show Shang that Mulan deserved to be a soldier as much as the rest of his troops, so what would harm could a little white lie be.

While the others seemed to think that Mushu's idea was a good one, something about the dragon's words did not sit right with Ventus, and it made him stop and think for a few minutes. "Something doesn't feel right about this," the blonde master suddenly muttered.

"What do you mean," Mulan asked, not really getting it.

Roxas seemed to catch on pretty quick though, and was happy to help Ven point out the problem with this scenario. "If Shan-Yu really does have control of the Heartless, then why didn't he send something a little more dangerous to try and destroy us? More importantly, if he could create a battlefield barrier like that, then why didn't he do it the minute we had all walked into the cave instead of waiting until it was just you, Xion, and Sora who were in here?"

"He has a point," Xion agreed, seeing the point that the two were making. "If the objective of the trap was to get rid of us, he could've sent a lot some Heartless that were a lot more powerful, but the most dangerous of the ones we fought were the Assault Riders, and there weren't even that many of them for most of the fight."

"Unless…this wasn't meant to get rid of anyone," Sora finished. "Maybe, this was all just a way to keep us out of the way."

"Out of the way of what," Mushu asked, but the answer quickly came down on them all like a ton of bricks, and they did not like it at all.

"THE VILLAGE," the four Keybearers all shouted as one, with Mulan only gasping in worry.

"We've got to get back there! Now," Ventus determined, even as he had spun around and started racing out of the cave as fast as he could without the use of any of his magic powers.

No one needed to be told twice, because they were all speeding out of the cave, hoping against hope that they were not already too late, but they all had a feeling that wish would not be granted.

---

They were too late. By the time the five friends had made it back, the village had already been burnt to the ground and some of the fires were still burning. They did not even see a single sign of the other soldiers or Donald and Goofy, but none of them were willing to think that they were all dead, so they quickly set to work trying to find any survivors. Thankfully, it did not take too long to find Donald and Goofy, but the two were pretty banged up, showing that they did not go down without a fight. Luckily a little healing magic from Sora and Ventus, plus a couple of Potions helped fix up the two so they were good as new, and able to help search for other survivors. Xion ended up being the one to find Yao, who had no problem admitting that he was glad to see her, partly because of the fact he was pinned under a heavy beam, and with the stout soldier now freed to help in the search, the others put their focus on trying to find Shang. Not that it took too long to do so, as Mulan spotted the captain by the remains of the bell tower shortly after Xion had found and helped Yao, and Shang did not look like he was doing too well.

"Captain," Mulan called out. Whether anyone noticed that she had used her real voice instead of her false one or not did not seem to matter, given that there was an injured man in need of help.

"Hey, easy there," Ventus cautioned as he watched Shang struggle to stand, using a destroyed wall for support.

"Don't overdo it, Captain," Sora added, already holding out a Potion for Shang to use.

"It's just a scratch," Shang tried to insist, but given his slow movements and pained grunts, it was obvious that he failed to convince anyone of that. His attempts only failed further when he dropped into the snow again, and he likely would have face-planted into the snow had Xion not caught him in time.

"Yeah, that looks like a lot more than a scratch to me, so I suggest you drink the Potion that Sora's offering for you," the young girl stated, her tone indicating that she would not hear any arguments.

Shang just nodded in response, seeing that he was beat, and slowly gulped down the Potion after he had accepted it from Sora. While Shang was drinking the healing liquid, Donald had also set to work using a steady stream of healing magic to help deal with the captain's injuries, much to Shang's gratitude, but there was still something else that they needed to know. "What happened," Ventus asked when he was sure that Shang was well enough.

"An ambush," Shang replied with short breathes. "Shan-Yu and those creatures…the Heartless all just came out of nowhere and attacked. We fought them off as best as we could, but…their numbers were overwhelming, and they just kept coming for every one that we destroyed."

"Captain, the enemy! Where did they go," Mulan asked as she bent down to better look at him in her own inspection of his injuries, just to make sure that they were healing as well as it seemed.

Shang needed to pause for a breath before he finally replied, "They went toward the summit…if they get through there, they'll have a straight shot to the Imperial City."

"Don't worry. We'll stop them," Mulan then promised. She was not sure where this sudden surge of bravery was coming from, and frankly, she did not care. All she knew was that this had all happened because she and the others were not here to help. Sure, there was a chance that it would not have made a difference even if they were here, but that did not make her feel any less responsible.

Apparently the others shared her feelings on that, because Roxas had quietly muttered, "It is kinda our fault that this had happened."

"You mean MY fault," Mushu sadly corrected while he hung his head low in shame.

"No it isn't," Sora insisted. "Shan-Yu and the Heartless are the ones who tricked us into leaving, and they're the ones who did this to the village too."

"Maybe, but you and Ven were the ones who tried to tell us that the whole thing could have been a trap, and we didn't listen," Xion argued. Apparently, she was just as disappointed in them as Mulan, Mushu, and Roxas seemed to be.

"Uh-uh," Donald denied.

"I'll admit, I did think that it might've been a trap, but it's not like I really did too much to stop you. Sure, some inflated egos may have been in play as well, but there are some lessons that everyone can't help but learn the hard way, even if others with more experience try to teach those same lessons before that can happen," Ventus reassured the group. That seemed to raise their spirits a little, and Ventus then pressed on to say, "Besides, like Sora said, Shan-Yu and the Heartless did this, not us, so we're going to be the ones who set things right by stopping them."

Everyone nodded in agreement with that, their resolve strong again after hearing that mini pep talk, and Sora knelt down before Shang and said, "Captain, if you help Yao and the others track down the villagers and any other soldiers, we'll handle this."

Shang could see that he was not going to win this argument either, so he conceded to their arguments and agreed to do as suggested. Just as the team was about to head out, Ventus looked to their resident magician and said, "You stay here too, Donald."

"What?! Why me," Donald demanded.

"Because you're the only one in our group who can use healing magic without a Keyblade, and there could be more injured soldiers that need that kind of help. You'll be of more help here than you would be in the kind of fight I think we'll be getting into," Ventus calmly reasoned.

Donald let out a miserable moan in response to that, but he could see that Ventus had a point, so he did as the Keyblade master asked. With all of that settled, and after making sure that Goofy would be ready and able to fight, the team set out to face off with Shan-Yu and the Heartless, determined to make them pay for they had done here, and to not let them get any closer to the Imperial City than they already had.

---

For the longest time, the team did not seem to encounter any Heartless in their pursuit of Shan-Yu, and they all knew to take that as a foreboding sign of what they would face when they finally caught up. When they did finally reach the summit, they quickly came to a stop, knowing that such a large area was the perfect place for an enemy to strike from. They did not spend much time looking, as they soon spotted someone up on the top of the summit. None of them could see who it was from their current distance, but given the dark presence he held, the hawk that had come to rest on his shoulder after it had circled over their heads, and the army of Heartless that had slowly come up from behind him, they all knew in an instant that he could only have been Shan-Yu himself, and it was obvious that he was waiting for them. Obviously, the Hun did not want to take any chances that someone would try to stop him, and he was willing to unleash the full force of his army to ensure his success.

"Prepare for battle, everyone. You can say that you're willing to go down fighting if you want, but let me make one thing clear: no one is allowed to die here today, be it because of the Heartless, or anything else," Ventus ordered, and the team all drew weapons to show they were ready. Even Mulan seemed to be more confident than ever before, as she met the army above them with a determined glare of her own that actually made Xion smile a little bit.

Apparently, seeing his enemies readying themselves for a fight was all that Shan-Yu needed to see before he gave the order to attack, and like that, an avalanche of Heartless came racing down at the heroes, with more forming within their ranks along the way. Most of the Heartless were all small, yellow flying creatures that Jiminy told them were called Rapid Thrusters, while the larger, towering ones were known as Bolt Towers, and there was no denying that these creatures were vicious in their attack. The Rapid Thrusters on their own were not too difficult to deal with, but given how they were constantly swarming at the team in large groups, it was easy for anyone to see why the six were having a hard time with the little creatures. Even Goofy was barely able to keep up a strong defense against the Rapid Thrusters, and given that there was an endless warm of those things around them, it was almost hard to believe that they were making a dent in the enemy ranks.

The bolt towers were another story, as just one brought a great deal of power to the battlefield. So much power that one hit from them was enough to send Roxas flying when he was unfortunate enough to land too close to one. If that was not bad enough, the blonde was soon caught in a beam of electricity that the tower emitted from its head, but thankfully, he was able to power through the pain and used one of his Keyblades to send the beam back to where it came from. The shock from having its attack redirected like that had left the Bolt Tower stunned long enough for Mulan to destroy the beast, and she quickly showed that she was not going to be stopping any time soon when she parried an attack from a Rapid Thruster with her blade. Before another squad of Rapid Thrusters could make a run at the young woman, Xion had managed to jump in and wipe them all out with a single swing of her Keyblade, plus a quick blast of fire magic, just to make sure that no others got any ideas about getting near her friend.

Eventually, Ventus got more than a little annoyed with the enemies overwhelming numbers, and it was at that point that he finally unleashed the power of his Tier Two Command Style, Wingblade in an effort to finis things. With the power of six light swords at his command, Ventus was able to destroy a good chunk of the attacking Heartless, and he was not alone in his assault. Sora had soon joined the barrage of powerful attacks by unleashing his Radiant Blade Shotlock, and once he had powered up that ability to its maximum, several Heartless found themselves being destroyed by the long energy sword that had formed around Sora's Keyblade, or by the aura of light that had surrounded both Sora and his trusted weapon. When the two unleashed the finishing strikes of their respective attacks, barely that many Heartless remained, making it all the more easy for Roxas, Xion, and Mulan to finish things up. For a moment, they thought that it was over, but they quickly realized that Shan-Yu had not joined the fight at any point and turned to see that he was still standing at the top of the summit.

"Looks like that was just the first wave," Ven panted, feeling a little winded after all of that. Not that you could fault him. None of them had ever dealt with so many Heartless at once before, and the last time Ven himself had faced odds that were even a little like that was eleven years ago.

A new, massive line of Rapid Thrusters forming up along either side of Shan-Yu proved Ven's statement to be true, and this time when Shan-Yu let loose a battle cry, he charged alongside all of the Heartless. The team quickly braced themselves for the attack, but just before they could move against the closest Rapid Thrusters, they were all suddenly blasted out of existence by a barrage of lightning that could only have come from a blast of Thundaga. Turning to the source, everyone was relieved to see that Donald had finally joined the action, and had brought Yao, Ling, and Chien Po with him, with the shortest of the three soldiers carrying a canon on his shoulder.

"Stand back," Yao ordered before he planted the cannon into the snow.

"We'll handle this," Ling assured them while drawing his own sword, intending to keep Yao safe while he took aim at Shan-Yu.

Such a shot was going to be really tricky, and considering that they only had one chance to hit him, Mulan was not so sure that it was such a good idea. Just as she was about to mention this, she caught a glimpse of something reflecting off her sword, and she turned her attention towards that very thing. Her eyes immediately settled on the mountain peek high above them, and like that, an idea had formed in her mind that made her smirk a little, even as she holstered her blade in its scabbard. The next thing anyone knew, Mulan had shoved Yao aside, grabbed the cannon, and raced closer towards the enemy.

"Ping, what're you doing?! Come back," Ventus shouted, but Mulan either did not hear him or just did not listen.

"Now's not the time to try and be a hero, Ping," Sora called out.

"STOP," Xion shouted as she started to chase after Mulan, but she stopped short when she saw the older girl plant the cannon in the ground and start pointing it far to high up for it be aimed at any of the enemy forces. When Xion turned her gaze upwards and spotted the peek, her eyes immediately widened in realization of what Mulan was planning. "Oh, she wouldn't," Xion muttered. "Would she?"

At the same time that Xion was wondering this, Mulan had realized that she did not have a flint on her to ignite the cannon, and no matter where she looked, be it on her person, or her surroundings, she could not find anything that she could use as such. That is, until her eyes landed on a certain guardian of hers. "Wha…" Mushu asked when he noticed the way Mulan was looking at him, and he quickly started to scramble away when he figured out what she was thinking. "Hey, hey! Wait a second!" The dragon was not quick enough to get away though, as he was soon snatched up by Mulan, who then pulled on his tail so that he would use his fire breath to light the cannon, and the minute she released her hold on him, Mushu had jumped up onto the cannon's head without even thinking about it, not noticing how Mulan was holding the cannon steady so that it would fly straight and true to her target until the canon had gone off, sending him flying towards the peek with the rocket when it did. "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!"

Mulan had to disagree with Mushu's words as he flew off, because the canon had struck the peek just as she had intended, and she could only smirk for a moment as the massive amounts of snow and ice began to crumble and fall down the peek in a full blown avalanche of her own making. "Yes," Mulan eventually cheered to herself, but the others did not seem to share her excitement.

"She would," Xion whispered as her shoulders drooped.

"She did," Roxas corrected in a voice that was barely more than a squeak.

"You're crazy," Ventus groaned loudly at the disguised woman.

Sora was about to give his own voice of agreement when he turned and saw someone coming up the ridge to join them, and he could hardly believe who it was. "Captain?"

"No wait! Turn around," Donald shouted, but it did not seem like Shang heard him. Mulan did, and when she saw where Shang was, she immediately panicked, knowing that he would be caught in the avalanche if someone did not act fast.

"LOOK OUT," Mulan shouted as she rushed over to Shang without even thinking, all while the avalanche she caused came thundering closer to them, sweeping up all the Heartless and Shan-Yu as it came, despite their attempts to get away.

"WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAA," Yao, Ling, and Chien Po all screamed while they ran for cover behind an outcropping of rocks, with Donald and Goofy right behind them.

Unfortunately for the four Keybearers, they had all gotten too far out to reach any cover in time, and Ventus knew that there was likely only one way that they could survive being buried alive underneath all that snow. "Sora, Roxas, Xion! On me, and stay close," Ventus shouted, and like clockwork, the three were all huddling around their master while he raised his Keyblade high into the air as he shouted a single word. "REFLEGA!"

In an instant, a sphere of light had encompassed the four Keyblade wielders, and one could hear the muffled sounds of Ventus adding another bit of magic into the barrier just before the avalanche passed over them. All that had gone unnoticed by Mulan as she was more focused on getting Shang out of the way, as the captain soon found out when she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards safety as fast as she could. The two had to make a huge leap at the last second, but thankfully, they managed to get behind cover that saved them from the avalanche. That did not stop them from panting heavily in order to get their breath back from the sudden rush of excitement that they had just had to endure. After another moment or two, Shang could not help but turn to Mulan, realizing what she had done, and he had to smile at her when he did.

"Thanks, Ping," Shang panted.

"It…was nothing," Mulan replied, this time making absolutely sure that she was using her deep voice. She then turned to see the others were approaching them, some of them grinning at her with praising eyes, but that all vanished from her notice when she realized that there were four people missing. "Sora! Ven! Xion and Roxas! Where are they?!"

"I thought they were with you," Goofy worriedly admitted while Donald started looking every which way for their friends.

Everyone was about to spread out and try to find the four Keybearers when Chien Po noticed something off about some of the recently fallen snow. "Hey, I think there's something moving over there," the large soldier called out.

Hearing that made everyone turn and start heading in the direction that Chien Po had pointed out, but when they got close enough, they were forced to try and shield themselves with their arms when a small explosion suddenly sent several piles of snow flying in all directions, with some of it already melted into water. When they looked up again, they all smiled in relief at the sight of Ventus, Roxas, Sora, and Xion crawling out of the recently made hole in the snow, each panting heavily while the blonde master of the four looked much more tired than any of the others. "Ping…do us a favor," Ventus panted as he slowly made his way over, finding himself relying on Sora and Roxas for help part of the way there. "Next time…you cause an avalanche…give us a little…more warning please? Using reflect magic and…protective fire magic that powerful is…exhausting!"

"Not to mention how scary the whole thing is, period," Sora gasped as he struggled to keep Ven from falling into the snow. He was just glad that Roxas was helping him; otherwise, he was sure that he would have failed at that by now.

Mulan could only provide a sheepish chuckle in response, but Shang's smile never once faltered, as he admitted, "I should never have doubted you, Ping. From now on, you have my trust."

"Thank you, Captain," Mulan grinned in reply, and just like that, everyone felt like celebrating, with a certain three soldiers leading the cheers.

"Let's hear it for Ping! The bravest of us all," Ling shouted.

"You're king of the mountain," Yao agreed with a pump of his fists.

"Yes! Yes! Way to go," Chien Po cheered.

All cheering came to an end though when Mushu suddenly leapt up out of the snow bank he was buried in, and he was not happy at all. "First she uses me as a lighter, then she turns me into a cannon ball…The head ancestor's gonna hear about this," Mushu grumbled, apparently not realizing who was in the area at the moment, and he did seem like he was going to stop any time soon, much to the dismay of Sora and the others, who were all quietly signaling for Mushu to stop talking. "You know, that's it! I give up! I can't take this no more. C'mon, Mulan. Let's quit this charade and go home, girl."

"Mushu," Mulan whispered to him, but the damage was already done, and Mushu had only just realized it when he finally took note of who was in the area.

"Mulan? A woman? It can't be," Shang tried to deny as he contemplated what he had just heard, but when he turned to her, Mulan could not bring herself to meet his gaze. That alone would have been all the proof that Shang needed, but when he turned to question the group that had brought her to him, he saw that they were hanging their heads in shame as well. "You all knew," Shang realized. "You knew Ping was really a woman in disguise, didn't you?!"

None of the team could bring themselves to answer at first, until Xion took a deep breath and stepped forward to answer in their place. "Yes, we did, but does that really change anything," Xion questioned.

"Yes! It changes everything! You all lied to me," Shang snapped, though it was clear that most of his anger was directed towards Mulan more than the others.

"Don't be mad at her about it! She only did it so she could save her father's life! What would you have done if you were in her place," Xion snapped back. She knew it was not really her place to reveal that detail, but at the moment, she really did not care. All she knew was that her friend was in trouble and she had to stand up for her.

That revelation did give Shang pause, and he was not entirely sure what to say in response to Xion's words. Instead, he silently looked to Mulan, asking her if what Xion said was true with his eyes, and when Mulan only gave him a sad look in response, he had his answer. Upon reaching his conclusion, Shang turned and marched away from the group, only stopping when he was a few feet away with his back still facing them as he spoke. "The punishment for high treason and dishonoring the Army…is death."

"WHAT," the boys of the team all shouted in disbelief, while Xion's eyes had turned into saucers. This was the first time that they had heard of that! While Mulan seemed just as shocked by the news, it was not to the same extent as the rest of them, and she even seemed like she was starting to lower herself to the ground in preparation for her punishment a moment later, until Shang spoke up again.

"Get out of my sight, now. You're all dismissed," Shang ordered. He then fell silent for a few seconds before he stated in finality, "My debt is repaid."

At that point, Mulan finally did sink to the ground, only this time it was in sorrow, while the others just watched as Shang and the other soldiers all marched away to the Imperial City where the Emperor would be waiting for them. When the others came to stand beside her, they could all feel her pain at the moment, but only Xion seemed brave enough to reach out and offer some form of comfort by placing a hand on Mulan's shoulder. Even that did not seem to do much though, and if anyone was feeling more upset about this than Mulan at the moment, it would have had to have been Mushu.

"Mulan…I blew it," Mushu sadly said in apology, his eyes close to shedding some tears on the girl's behalf.

---

After letting her stew in sadness for a few more minutes, the team all moved a fair distance away so that Mulan could change out of her armor and into something much more comfortable. She did not really see any need to keep wearing it now that her disguise was broken wide open, and she doubted that her father would want his armor back any time soon after all that had happened while she was wearing it. Out of everything in her disguise, the one thing that Mulan was especially happy about was that she could finally let her hair fall free of the topknot she had to keep it in from the moment she had started this whole thing. It had pained her a little to have cut it when she had first made this decision, but she was glad that it was now much shorter than it had been before. To be honest, she actually liked having hair that only reached down to her shoulders as opposed to how it reached her back before. Still, despite the relief it gave her, it did nothing to relieve her of the sadness she felt at how things had turned out.

Before she could descend into another round of sorrow after comfortably settling into the grey and green martial arts attire she had been wearing underneath for so long now, she heard soft footsteps approaching, and she turned to see a very worried Xion slowly coming over to her. Mulan had immediately turned away from the girl, not really wanting to face Xion at the moment, before she bitterly muttered, "I guess you're happy to see that my little ruse is finally broken, huh?"

"What gave you that idea," Xion questioned as she came to stand beside Mulan. She did not sit down next to her just yet because she was sure that Mulan was likely going to tell her to go away at any moment after hearing that statement.

"You don't have to pretend. I know that you hated what I was doing from the start. It wasn't exactly a big secret," Mulan pointed out. When she did not hear or see any form of denial or confirmation from the younger girl, Mulan just carried on. "I get that where you come from, things are different, and you can be whatever or whoever you want whether you're a boy or a girl, but here…it's just not the same. No one's going to just break tradition like I did without expecting to be killed for it. Part of me actually wishes that Shang did execute me for what I did. It would be better than living with this feeling of shame." She then went quiet, knowing that she had probably frightened Xion a little with that last bit, before she muttered, "To be honest…I wish that I could be at least half as brave as you are, Xion. You're a warrior in more ways than I could ever dream of being."

At that point, Xion finally deemed it safe enough to sit down alongside Mulan, feeling that she could not let Mulan think like that for so much as one more second. "You're wrong about that," Xion refuted. "I'm not as strong or brave as you think I am. For a long time, I was scared about a lot of things, and the only reason I even seem a little brave now would be because I've had Roxas, Ven, and all the others by my side no matter how tough things got. Besides, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You did do all of this to save your dad, after all, and any parent would have to be crazy to not appreciate their child looking out for them like that, no matter what any traditions may say."

Mulan could not help but smile a little for what Xion was trying to say, before a contemplative look fell onto her face. "Maybe I didn't go for my father," Mulan wondered. "Maybe what I really wanted was…to prove I could do something right. So when I looked in the mirror, I'd see someone worthwhile." As she finished saying that, Mulan had picked up her helmet so that she could gaze at her reflection, but doing so only seemed to bring tears to her eyes and bitterness to her voice. "But I was wrong. I see nothing."

Xion could not help but jump a little when Mulan threw the helmet aside in disgust, and then looked on as the Chinese woman curled up into a ball so she could cry a little more. When she turned to see her own reflection in the helmet, Xion knew that she could not let Mulan think anything like that for another minute, and she knew just what she had to say in order to raise Mulan's spirits at least a little. "You're not the only one who's ever had that problem," Xion admitted. "The truth is we're both frauds in a way. I'm not actually Sora's sister, or even Roxas's. Hell, the only reason I can at least come close to believing that is because they both see me as such. The only reasons we can even be called related is because of…well, it's a little too complicated for me to explain it in a way that you could probably understand. I can't really say that I understand all of it most of the time. Before I even met Ventus or Sora, Roxas and I were part of a really dangerous group, and we did a lot of things for them that we're not proud of."

"So why did you stay with them," Mulan asked. She had no problem keeping quiet for the duration of the story, but she was curious.

"We didn't have anywhere else to go, and…I guess we felt like we owed those people for at least giving us a roof over our heads, no matter what we had to do for them," Xion shrugged, not really knowing what else she could say that would be believable for Mulan. "The entire time I was there though, no one ever really saw me as Xion. To them, I was always just a puppet, a tool that broke every now and then, or some other person that they knew, either from their past or from something else. It didn't really matter to me so long as I managed to do a good job in whatever job they gave me, and I just wanted to make them see that I was worth keeping around. I guess that's the real reason why I was angry with you. It wasn't just your country's traditions; it was also the fact that seeing you do all of this reminded me of who I was at that time. I would probably still be that way if Ven had never found me and Roxas, and saved us from that group so that we could join him and Sora." She then smiled a little as she said, "At least when you were doing this it was actually for the sake of family."

Mulan smiled a little in response to Xion's last statement, showing she appreciated the sentiment, but it did not stop there, because after another second or so, she slowly wrapped Xion in a tight hug, and the girl was happy to return it in full. "Thank you, Xion," Mulan whispered.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I couldn't let one of my friends feel like she was alone in her troubles," Xion shrugged in reply, trying to sound modest, but she was sure that Mulan saw right through her. After another minute or two, the girls released one another and Xion happily helped Mulan stand up again, seeing that the girl was definitely doing a lot better. "Ready to face the boys again," she asked with a small, slightly teasing grin.

Mulan could only laugh with the smallest of small giggles before she nodded and followed Xion back over to the boys. She had to pause for a minute and glance down at the sword she had been fighting with before she ultimately turned away from it, not willing to take it anywhere with her anytime soon. After seeing the blade though, she felt like she had to struggle a little when she put on a smile for the sake of the others. "Thank you, everyone," Mulan told the group. "Sorry I got you in trouble."

"It's no big deal," Sora shrugged.

"Yeah, some of us have gotten pretty used to getting into some kind of trouble by now," Ventus reassured her while he rested his arms behind his head.

"But next time, how about giving us a little more warning about whether or not doing so would come with a death penalty," Roxas attempted to joke, but he only earned himself some reproachful looks from the others. "Too soon?"

"Yes," Donald snapped while Goofy just shook his head in disapproval.

Sora then cleared his throat in an attempt to get the attention off Roxas's bad sense of timing and asked, "So Ping…I mean, uh, Mulan…what're you gonna do now?"

"Go back home," Mulan replied as she turned to start heading for that very place. "I'll have to face my father eventually."

"Yeah, you know he's gonna be steamed as a chicken dumpling," Mushu cautioned as he began to walk beside her.

Hearing that seemed to bring down Mulan's mood a little, until Xion suddenly stepped forward to place an arm around her shoulder. Not an easy feat, given that she was a bit shorter than Mulan, but Xion still managed somehow, and the girl happily said, "Relax. You won't have to face him alone. I'll take a share of the blame too."

"The same goes for me," Roxas promised, earning him a surprised look from the girls. "What? Did you really think I was going to let Xion get in trouble when I'm just as much at fault as she is?"

"Hey, don't think it stops with you two," Sora pointed out as he threw an arm around Donald and Goofy. "We'll all take our share of the blame."

When Ventus nodded in agreement with this, Mulan finally found herself smiling for real as she replied, "Thanks. You're all wonderful friends."

"And don't you forget it," Xion told her, and with that, the group set out for Mulan's home, ready for whatever trouble they may face when they met Fa Zhou.

They had barely gone that far away from the summit when they all suddenly heard a loud, angry yell echoing through the mountains that made them all jump a little before coming to a complete stop. "What in the world was that," Goofy asked, sounding just as scared as he looked.

Roxas turned towards the ridge and found a sneaking suspicion slipping into his mind as just what could have made that noise. He prayed that he was wrong, but when he finally came to look over the ridge to an area further down the mountain, he learned that his prayers were going to be left unanswered, because he was right on the money. "Uh, guys," Roxas called out. "Do you want good news or bad news?"

"I think I speak for everyone when I say we would prefer good," Ventus informed his younger look-a-like.

"In that case, if you don't look over this ledge at what's below us then you won't get any bad news," Roxas informed them, his tone showing that he was entirely serious.

Now that Roxas had said that, everyone was curious, so it was only natural that they did not heed his warning and came to look down to see what he had. They instantly regretted it a little when they did, because there, down in the small valley below where most of the snow and ice from the avalanche had landed, were a massive number of Heartless, most of them being Rapid Thrusters, and leading them was a very familiar Hun with his faithful hawk resting on his shoulder. "Shan-Yu," Ventus gasped.

"He's alive," Sora exclaimed in disbelief. "How could anyone have survived that?!"

"Maybe the Heartless gave him a little boost in strength or something," Xion shrugged.

"I doubt it. The Heartless devour hearts so that others can fall into darkness and become Heartless as well. If anything, they would've let Shan-Yu perish on the chance that he would become a Heartless," Ventus disputed.

"Does it matter? He's heading for the Imperial City," Roxas pointed out, and everyone knew that he was right.

What none of them were expecting was for Mulan to suddenly race over to where her sword laid in the snow, and then scoop up the blade and slide it into its sheath before tying it onto her sash. Even before the girl had turned to chase after Shan-Yu, Mushu had a hunch what she was doing, and he was not too eager to follow her in that plan. "Uh, home is that way," the little dragon reminded his friend while he pointed in the direction they had just been going.

"I have to do something," Mulan insisted, clearly not planning to head home now.

"Did you see that Hun? Or those Heartless? They all popped out of the snow! Like daisies," Mushu pointed out, making sure he was clear on how freaked out he was.

"Doesn't matter. We've got to go after them and at least warn Shang and the others," Xion informed the dragon as she came to stand beside Mulan. The two girls both exchanged a smile with one another to show how glad they each were to have each other's backs, and they were soon learning that they were not the only ones willing to do this.

"I'm with you two on that," Roxas agreed. "Besides, last I checked, it was part of our job to stop monsters like the Heartless from hurting innocent people. Can't really call ourselves Keyblade wielders if we ignored this, can we?"

"No you can't, and we're not gonna let you go after them alone, either," Donald agreed.

"Me and Donald are with ya on this to the end," Goofy nodded along, knowing that the magician was mostly referring to him when he had said "we".

Sora nodded in agreement with that before turning to Mushu and saying, "Mushu, you're supposed to be a mighty dragon and one of Mulan's family guardians. You're not really going to let your friends and a member of that family face this alone, are you?"

Mushu looked between his friends for a few minutes, and when he came to rest his gaze on Ventus, seeing the blonde master was just as determined as the rest of them, he sighed and decided that he should at least point out one last flaw in their plan. "We're never gonna make it there in time, you know," the dragon pointed out. "Shan-Yu's already got a head start, and it'll take a miracle for us to beat him there so we can warn Captain Musclehead in time."

"Not if we fly there," Sora grinned in excitement, earning him confused looks from the others.

"Uh Sora, I don't know if you've noticed this, but I'm not one those dragons that can fly, and even if I was, I would never be able to carry all of you," Mushu disputed while looking at Sora like the boy had either lost his mind or had just forgotten something that should have been obvious.

"I never said you would fly us there, Mushu. All we really need is a little faith, trust, and pixie dust," Sora revealed.

Now everyone was even more confused, but Roxas quickly caught on to what Sora was suggesting when his brother's words fully registered in his mind, and he was soon grinning as much as Sora was. "You want Ven to use his summon charm for Tinker Bell," Roxas explained for everyone.

"Exactly," Sora confirmed with a nod, not noticing how Ven had suddenly started to look a little uneasy while Xion quietly explained to Mulan who Tinker Bell was. "With her magic, we'll be able to beat Shan-Yu there in no time."

"Um, yeah, about that…" Ventus started to say, getting the attention of his world traveling companions. When he could not think of any way to really break it gently to his apprentice, Ven finally said, "Sora, you might want to check on your summon charms real quick."

Sora was confused as to why Ven was asking him to do that when the blonde was the one who carried the charm that they needed, but he still decided to humor Ven anyway, and immediately pulled out the requested charms with a shrug. "Well, here they are. The charms for Genie, Mushu, and our friendly neighborhood…" Sora started to say when all of a sudden, the charms in his hand began to loudly crack apart. A moment later, they were all watching in confusion as two of the charms completely broke apart and dispersed into faint sparkles of light, while the last one, namely Genie's, just turned black as ash with cracks running all through it. "What? I don't…what just happened?"

"The same thing that happened to my charms a short while ago," Ventus revealed, pulling out his charm for Tinker Bell as he did, and allowing them all to see that the charm was just like Sora's charm for summoning Genie. "Sora, most of the summon charms we gathered on our last journey contained the spirit of someone with a strong heart who had lost their home, and that was the whole reason why they became a charm instead of disappearing along with said home. But when we defeated Xehanort's Heartless, those places were all restored along with the people who lived there including the ones who had become summon charms. So without those people's essence, the charms were completely useless, and were nothing more than simple trinkets that would one day just fade away into dust."

"Oh…right," Sora sighed in despair. He had never once thought about that detail since defeating Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, or even after he had woken up. Maybe it had crossed his mind at some point after they had arrived on this world and met Mushu, but it was not long enough for him to think about it too much. Glancing down at Genie's summon charm again, he then asked, "Well then what about this one? Or Tinker Bell's? They were given to us by the people themselves, so why are they all broken apart like this?"

"In your case, it's most likely because of how your magic had regressed so much due to your year-long nap," Ventus explained. "The summon charms always draw on a small bit of magic energy from their holder in order to remain active. Not enough for you to be concerned about or to really notice, but still enough so that the enchantments remain there. Since your powers were weakened, any magic that was needed for Genie's charm was reverted into you, and the charm had ultimately become…dead, for lack of a better word."

"And in your case," Xion prompted.

"Even with its existing enchantments, I needed to make absolutely sure that my armor would keep me from being noticed or seen by the Organization while I kept you all safe, so I had to concentrate as much magic as I could into those enchantments for that purpose. I didn't really like doing it, but that meant I had to use the magic in Tink's summon charm to supplement my armor's magic," Ventus revealed.

"So then that plan's out," Sora sighed in despair. It was a good plan, but without the summon charms it was also one that they could not realistically act upon.

"If only we had some horses, or a carriage, or even a glider or a sled right now," Mulan groused in thought, knowing that any of those would be a huge help right now.

"Glider or sled," Ventus quietly repeated, and a minute later, everyone could not help but watch as Ven started to smile so widely you would think his face was going to split apart. "That's it! Mulan, you're a genius!" Before anyone could ask Ven why he said that, the blonde looked to his first apprentice and said, "Sora, time for another crash course lesson, and this time, I'm teaching you something I know you've been dying to learn for ages."

"Really? I don't think now's the best time for that," Sora started to argue, but he quickly shut himself up when Ven told him what he was learning.

"So you don't want to learn how to summon a Keyblade Glider," Ventus questioned in a knowing tone.

"No, I do! I do, I do, I do, I do! Please teach me now," Sora rapidly pleaded.

"Hey, what about us," Xion asked as she indicated herself and Roxas.

"You're going to have to wait a little while longer before you're ready to summon yours for the first time," Ventus informed her. When he saw looks of disappointment cross the two's faces, he quickly sighed and said, "Learn your Unique Tier One Command Styles, or discover at least two of your personal Shotlocks, and I'll happily let you both try to summon the gliders."

"Yes," the twins quietly cheered with a fist-pump and a high-five, earning them amused smiles from the others.

Ventus then turned his attention back to Sora, and said, "Summoning your Keyblade Glider, while one of the easier abilities, is also one of the hardest to perform, at least the first time. However, after you successfully do it the first time, you shouldn't have any trouble repeating the process as though it were as easy as walking." He then summoned Guardian Wind into his hand, and drew it back as he continued, "When you're doing so, try to imagine something that gives you a sense of freedom, or maybe think about the feeling you get when you're using Glide or flying in Neverland. Imagine the wind blowing in your face and hair, the sense of ease you get from suddenly becoming weightless, and then, imagine that the Keyblade has become a pair of wings beginning to spread and take you off into the clouds that await you." In a final act of demonstration, Ven tossed his Keyblade high into the air, and the others all watched as it transformed into winged waveboard that Ventus quickly leapt on top of after somersaulting in the air a little. "And then, the rest is just the magic coming to life."

Sora nodded in response and quickly summoned Kingdom Key into his hand while closing his eyes. He did exactly as Ven had instructed, imagining the feeling of weightlessness he had gained the first time he flew in Neverland. It did not stop there though, because he knew that he would need more than that when Ven suggested something that gave him a sense of freedom, and his mind was quick to think of all the times he had been sailing out of the oceans of his home world. For an islander like Sora, there was no greater feeling than being out on the open water, commanding a vessel as you sailed the seas in search of adventure, free to discover all kinds of treasures and new lands, and it was all the better when you had good friends to join in on the fun of that adventure. Upon imagining his Keyblade becoming a set of wings to carry him away, Sora tossed the Kingdom Key as high as he could, and the others all watched with baited breaths. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, until finally, the Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light, and came racing back down in the form of a silver flying motorcycle with yellow hightlights and a pair of extensions at the front that indicated it had some long-range firepower in it. Upon opening his eyes and seeing he had succeeded, Sora grinned and immediately hopped aboard his new vehicle before he gunned its engine a little and spun around in the air for a minute as if to show off.

"Now this is awesome," Sora cheered.

"Not bad," Roxas agreed. "But I kinda like Ven's better."

"You're just saying that because it makes you think about your old skateboard from back in Twilight Town," Xion accused. When Roxas just gave her a small look in response, she ended up shrugging and saying, "Okay, yeah, so I'm the same way, too."

The others all chuckled a bit at hearing this, until Mulan realized they still had a small problem. "Are we all going to be able to fit on either of those things?"

"Nope, but we're not going to try and fit everyone on board," Ven replied. "Donald, you're with me. Roxas, ride with Sora." He then looked at Goofy with a smirk and said, "Goofy, remember that story you told me about what you and your son used to love doing whenever it snowed?"

Goofy tilted his head in confusion for a minute before his eyes lit up in recognition and he replied, "Oh, I gotcha!" He then summoned out his shield, used a little bit of magic on it to make it bigger, and then dropped down on the snow and saying, "Ladies, your sleigh awaits."

"You're kidding, right," Xion asked in disbelief.

"Don't worry. It's perfectly safe. Me and my boy, Maxie used to do this all the time whenever there was a snow day at Disney Town," Goofy reassured them.

The girls looked to each other for a minute until they finally just shrugged and hopped onto the shield, with Goofy ready to push off. When the other two had settled into place behind the drivers of their rides, Mulan gave Mushu one final look and asked, "Are we all in this together, or not?"

Mushu glanced over his friends one more time, just to confirm that they were all dedicated to this idea, before he finally grinned and declared, "Ah, let's go kick some hunny-bun!"

With that, Mushu had leapt up onto Mulan's shoulder, and the team was blasting off, with Goofy hopping onto the back of the make-shift shield once he had given a hard enough push to send him and his fellow riders racing down the snowy slopes, while Sora and Ven kicked their Keyblade Gliders into overdrive, all of them racing towards the same destination in the hope of beating Shan-Yu there, or at least getting there soon enough to warn Shang and his men.

---

The team made great time in their respective methods of travel. Even after they had gone past the area where snow had covered the ground, Goofy had continued to keep his shield-sled going with a little of his own magic, and as such, he, Mushu, and the girls had made it to the Imperial City just minutes behind the rest of the group. They went the rest of the way to the palace on foot, though, since Ven felt it would be better for him and Sora to not risk freaking anyone out over the sight of people flying on strange vehicles, but even so, they still managed to catch up with Shang and his men pretty quickly. Of course, they had to wrestle their way through a large crowd of people who had gathered to celebrate their supposed victory over the Hun army, and the defeat of Shan-Yu, so by the time that they had managed to reach Shang, or at least get within hearing distance of him, the soldiers had already arrived in the palace courtyard. As they passed a few of Shang's men, Ventus and Sora could not help but notice that there was something very peculiar about the way some of them were walking, but they put it aside in favor of alerting Shang to the approaching threat.

"Shang! Shang, wait," Mulan shouted out, and apparently, the surprise of hearing her voice was what made the captain stop in his march to the palace. Whether that was out of disbelief she was actually here or some other reason, Mulan really did not care, because right now, Shang needed to hear what she had to say. "Shan-Yu is alive! He's headed this way!"

"And why should I believe you this time," Shang questioned, clearly still upset over Mulan's earlier deceit.

His question turned out to be the wrong thing to say, because the next thing he knew, he was being grabbed by the front of his cape, and pulled down to eye-level with a very irate Xion. "Listen, you muscle-headed, uptight, pig-headed idiot," Xion snapped, frightening everyone a little with both her words and how much anger there was in her voice. "Maybe if you get over yourself and got that pole out of your ass for five minutes, you'd be able to see that she's telling you the truth! Why is that so hard to believe? Because she's a girl? Big deal! You said you trusted Ping, so why is Mulan any different? Oh, is it because she lied about being a man? Well maybe if your country wasn't so backwards in thinking that girls can't fight, she wouldn't have even HAD to disguise herself in the first place! She's not here for some selfish reason to prove herself, and to be quite frank, none of us had to come here, either. The only reason we are here is because we're trying to save your ungrateful life, your emperor's life, your troops' lives, and the lives of everyone else in this city because it turns out that the guy we all thought had bitten the dust is still alive and now likely somewhere here in the city right this second!"

"Okay, easy Xion! That's enough. I think we get the point," Ventus attempted to reassure the girl while pulling her back a little and helping Shang relinquish her hold on his cape. At the same time, everyone else could only stare in disbelief at how viciously Xion had torn the captain a new one, and while some of them may have thought she was crazy for doing so, others were of a different opinion.

"Remind me again why I wanted to fight her when we first met," Yao asked his buddies, both impressed and slightly scared of the angry girl, who was still glaring at the captain.

"I don't know, but you have to admit, she has got some serious attitude," Ling mused in what sounded like approval.

"And she's very strong too. After all, not just anyone can take on the captain and win," Chien Po reminded the two.

The boys of Xion's group could only smile after overhearing the three soldiers' conversation, but they put that aside for later, because right now, they had people to save. "Whether you believe her or not, Captain, it is the truth, and despite the harshness of her words, Xion does have a point," Ventus informed Shang.

Donald then happened to glance up in an attempt to think of some way to prove they were being honest, when he spotted the answer flying above them, and squawked, "And there's your proof up there!"

Everyone immediately turned their eyes towards the sky, and gasped at seeing Shan-Yu's faithful hawk circling overhead. They likely would have started searching the area for any sign of the bird's master right after, had Roxas not shouted, "No, there's his proof over there! On top of that building!"

Turning to where Roxas was pointing, everyone gasped once again at seeing Shan-Yu himself perched atop one of the palace towers, and when he saw that the Imperial Army and the team of world adventurers were all gazing up at him, he could only grin savagely before he dropped down to some point that was likely inside of the palace. That drove Shang into action, and he quickly shouted, "Guard the palace! Do not let the enemy get anywhere near the Emperor!" When he saw that only Yao, Ling, and Chien Po were carrying out his orders, he immediately turned to the rest of the troops to see them just limping along like they had not heard him, and added, "That's an order!"

The remaining soldiers just continued as they were until suddenly a powerful gust of wind blasted several of them away from Shang, much to his surprise, and Ventus then came out in front of him with his Keyblade at the ready, while he shouted, "Those aren't soldiers!"

A minute later, the soldiers all became awash with shadows and transformed to reveal themselves as Nightwalkers in disguise, much to Shang's horror. In response to the sudden transformation, Mulan and the others all quickly came to stand in front of Shang, weapons drawn, as Sora stated, "Captain, we'll secure the courtyard, and you can save the Emperor."

When Shang hesitated to take action, Donald turned to the man himself and quacked, "That's an order!"

Shang then nodded in response, both as a sign of thanks and agreement, and finally turned to join the rest of his actual troops in rescuing the ruler of China. The minute that Shang was gone, the team set to work clearing the Heartless out of the courtyard. It was a relatively short fight, but it was still long enough for everyone to see that Mulan was now doing much better since she was no longer being weighed down by her armor. Her attacks were faster, swifter, and had much more accuracy than before, and with Mushu at her side, they also came with a little more literal fire as well. At some point during the fight, Ven and Xion also noticed that Mulan had even gone so far as to switch to using a reverse-grip on her sword like they did, and the two could not help but grin a little at seeing that another person had joined their club. All-in-all, Mulan was definitely proving to be a much better fighter as herself than she ever did as Ping, and if you were to ask Xion, a big reason for it was because Mulan was no longer held back by any lies or deceptions, so there was nothing weighing her down from giving it everything that she had.

In no time at all, the team had cleared out the courtyard of all Heartless, and they immediately turned to the palace so they could help Shang and the others in saving the Emperor. They had just reached the main gates of the palace when they saw the Hun himself standing beside an older man in elegant robes with a long white beard and mustache who could only have been the Emperor himself, and they all quickly skidded to halt knowing that any wrong moves could likely place China's ruler in danger. "Your walls and armies have all fallen," Shan-Yu snarled in triumph. "And now it's your turn. Bow to me."

The Emperor did no such thing, but instead, maintained a calm, assured posture, and replied, "No matter how the wind howls, a mountain cannot bow to it."

While the team was impressed with the Emperor's bravery, Shan-Yu was decidedly much more enraged by it. "Then you will kneel…in pieces!"

Just as Shan-Yu was about to draw his sword back in an attempt to kill the Emperor, Shang dropped in from out of nowhere, and intercepted the Hun's sword with his own. His next course of action saw Shang releasing his right hand's grip on the sword in order to deliver a palm strike into Shan-Yu's chin, and then shoulder jacking him away from the Emperor. Seeing the opening that gave him, Ventus quickly cast an ice spell in order to create a trail of ice that went past the Emperor, and then jumped right onto it using Flowmotion. With that added magic, Ventus was able to speed right over the older man, and then grab him as he went, while he quickly said, "Excuse me, Your Excellency." After allowing his Flowmotion to carry him to the end of the ice trail, Ventus easily hopped off the path he had made and then passed the Emperor off to Yao and Shang while shouting, "Get him to safety and shut the gates! We'll handle the rest!"

Shang and Yao both quickly guided the Emperor inside the palace, and before Ling and Chien Po had completely shut the palace off from Shan-Yu, the captain shot one last nod to Ven and his friends to show his thanks and gratitude. Ven would have returned the gesture had the gates not already closed, and if it were not for the fact that Shan-Yu had just recovered from his dazed state and was now charging at the blonde in anger. "You dare," Shan-Yu shouted as he locked his jagged sword with Ven's Keyblade. A minute later, Shan-Yu proved his skills as a swordsman when he suddenly spun the two blades around and disarmed Ventus long enough for him to punch the blonde hard enough so that he collided with the closed gates behind him. "You took away my victory!"

"No," Mulan shouted before throwing one of her shoes at Shan-Yu. The Hun merely turned to the woman in question, wondering if she was really crazy enough to do something like that, and just in time for Mulan to say, "I did."

That had left Shan-Yu confused for a moment, until he saw Mulan pull her hair back into a topknot, giving her the appearance of someone that he easily recognized. "The soldier from the mountains!"

"You sound surprised. Didn't think you had been bested by girl, did you," Xion easily quipped with a wide smirk, distracting Shan-Yu long enough for Mulan to slip her shoe back on and ready her sword again. Shan-Yu merely snarled before summoning a small number of Heartless that immediately went for the door to the palace and then advancing towards the two girls with rage burning in his vicious, cold eyes. "Guys, you keep the Heartless away from the door. Mulan and I will handle Shan-Yu," Xion ordered the rest of her friends.

"You sure, Sis," Roxas asked, not entirely willing to let Xion fight this warmonger with so little backup.

"Positive. We've got this," Xion promised. She then looked to her partner and asked, "Right Mulan?"

"Right," Mulan nodded in response, and she then fixed a determined glare onto Shan-Yu as she promised, "It ends now!"

The boys all nodded in reply to that, and instantly put all of their focus on besting the Heartless that were attacking the door. The only problem was that it turned out the Heartless were not the only ones trying to claw their way through, as Shan-Yu's hawk was adding a little help to the effort as well, but Donald was easily able to fix that after blasting the troublesome bird with a simple fire spell. The end result saw the hawk losing all of its feathers, and it immediately ran away from the fight while clucking like a chicken, much to Roxas and Sora's amusement. They likely would have been laughing their butts off had it not been for the Heartless that were still clawing at the door, and the sound of Ven activating his Fever Pitch Command Style quickly drew them back into seriousness once again.

Back with the girls, Mulan and Xion were showing Shan-Yu that they were not going down easily as they managed to block, parry, and at some points, push back a lot of his powerful sword strikes, but the Hun was proving to be nothing if not determined. Apparently, he took being buried under an avalanche and then robbed his prize very personally, and he was not about to let it slide even with the fact that the one responsible for both of these things had turned out to be a woman. Xion was not sure if she should take that as a good sign of people's opinions on women in this world or a bad one, but right now, she did not care, because she knew that she and Mulan could not lose to this man. He had far too many crimes to answer for, and she was determined to make him no matter what. Mulan shared that determination, and it showed in how she was happily cutting through Shan-Yu's defenses with her blade while spinning, ducking, jumping, and rolling away from his more dangerous attacks, all of which provided Xion a chance to hit Shan-Yu with some well-placed blasts of magic. At times, Mushu also used those same openings to let loose some blasts of fire that would have roasted the man alive had it not been for the dark powers he had gained from allying with the Heartless.

As the fight progressed, Xion found it necessary to call upon the power of her Valor Form, and with both Two Become One and Midnight Roar now in hand, Xion was able to slash her way through any defense that Shan-Yu attempted. Sure, she was no longer able to provide Mulan with any magic support, but considering that Mulan had a good deal of help from her guardian dragon, she was not too worried about that. They could not keep up this pace forever though, as Shan-Yu proved when he finally managed to get through Xion's impressive display swordsmen skills, and kicked her feet out from under her, causing the girl to fall flat on her back and lose her grip on both Keyblades. Xion quickly rolled away to avoid getting stomped on by the Hun, but the next time he attacked, Xion found herself unable to defend or get away in time. Thankfully, Mulan came to the rescue and blocked the sword strike with her own, but she was just not strong enough to best Shan-Yu's impressive strength alone, and she was soon pushed back into Xion, sending both girls sprawling onto the ground, while Mulan's sword was sent clattering away from her.

After they had landed, Xion's Drive Form had ended up being canceled out, likely as a way to prevent her from receiving serious injury, but that did not stop the two from moving to stand again, Xion calling Two Become One back into her hand as she did, but Shan-Yu found their efforts highly entertaining, as he could only laugh at them. His laughter increased a little when Mulan's best attempt at defense was to pull out a foldable fan she had on her person for reasons that Xion was not sure of, and he then boasted, "It looks like you two have finally run out of luck."

Shan-Yu then lunged forward with his sword, only to find it getting caught in Mulan's fan, which she immediately snapped closed again with her other hand, trapping the sword in place. Using all of her strength, Mulan then pulled on the fan as hard as she could, ripping the sword out of Shan-Yu's grasp, and right into hers. With a spin of the blade, Mulan was once again up in a new fighting stance, with Xion right by her side, as she replied, "Not quite."

"If anything, you ran out of luck the moment when you had to go up against two determined, strong women who won't back down to anyone," Xion finished.

While the two girls were talking, neither of them had ever taken notice of how both of their weapons and they themselves had taken on a glowing, red-orange aura, with Mushu getting a small bit of that same aura as well as he raced up into a position on one of Mulan's shoulders. The sight of this made Shan-Yu step back a little in fright, while Ventus on the other hand, who had just used the finisher of his Fever Pitch Command Style to destroy a few more Nightwalkers, could only look on with wide eyes. "That's a…Command Link," Ventus gasped in disbelief. "But that's impossible! Xion hasn't even had any training in how to use the D-Link abilities yet! Then again…could it be that she's subconsciously doing so through the bond she has forged with Mulan?"

Ven's musing went unheard by all the other combatants, as they were either busy destroying the Heartless, or watching as Xion and Mulan suddenly rushed forward in a fiery haze, with Mushu letting loose a rain of fireballs that destroyed several nearby Heartless while injuring Shan-Yu a great deal. Shan-Yu did not let that stop him though, as he was quickly drawing his fist back to punch one of the girls. His attack never connected, as Mulan merely swung her sword arm forward, releasing a wave of fireballs onto the Hun, and her attack was immediately followed up by Xion rushing in with a few powerful swings of her Keyblade, all of which was coated in flames. The girls repeated this combination of actions several times over, sometimes switching it up to keep both Shan-Yu and his Heartless from guessing, until finally, Mulan looked to her dragon partner and asked, "Ready Mushu?"

"I am ready, baby," Mushu shouted in response.

"Let's go," Xion cheered as she knelt down in preparation to jump.

"FOR CHINA," Mulan shouted as she leapt into the air alongside Xion.

The two girls then thrust their arms up into the sky, giving Mushu an extra boost, and while he was airborne, he spat out a massive volley of fireballs into the air. When the two girls next landed, they were standing back-to-back, tall and proud, and were doing so right in the middle of the fireballs that were now raining down around them like a massive downpour, destroying every Heartless that were caught in said rain, and setting Shan-Yu ablaze in a fiery inferno unlike any he had ever seen or experienced before. When the last fireball had finally fallen and Mushu landed back on Mulan's shoulder again, the Heartless were all vanquished, and everyone could not help but watch as Shan-Yu slowly stumbled from left to right before he finally fell over, defeated by the two girls who were now grinning widely to one another at their victory.

All was silent for a moment until Sora finally broke that silence by cheering, "YEAH! Way to go Xion and Mulan!"

"You did it! You beat him," Goofy hollered happily.

"Oh boy, oh boy! Way to go," Donald cried out just as loudly.

"Now that's what I call girl power," Roxas grinned at both his sister and her friend.

"And it's what I call burning some hunny-bun," Mushu cheered before he started singing praises as well. "Aw, yeah! Mulan's the best! Xion's the best! Mulan and Xion are the best! No, wait a minute—I'm the best! Mushu's the best! Mushu's the best!"

While the others just continued their own various forms of celebration for their victory, some of them even laughing a little at Mushu's as they did, Ventus could only look at the lone girl of his three apprentices in wonder. He could still hardly believe that Xion had managed to pull off such an advanced skill, not only without even realizing it, but with someone she had only just recently met. Was that a testament to how much like Sora she really was, or was it proof of her potential as a Keyblade wielder? Either way, it was an impressive feat, nonetheless, and he could not help but smile a little as he muttered, "Well whaddya know?"

---

The team's celebrating had to come to an end eventually, and end it did, because a short time later, the courtyard was filled to the brim with the Imperial City's citizens, while Mulan and her friends all stood before the Emperor, with a nervous-looking Shang standing at his ruler's side. Mulan had a good idea as to why Shang was worried for them, and her suspicions seemed to be well based when the Emperor came to stand before them, or more specifically, before her. Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, Mulan bravely stepped forward and bowed deeply to the Emperor, who kept a stern look on her as he spoke.

"I've heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan," the Emperor began, his tone even and not indicating any sign of being upset or pleased. Though it did turn a little more scolding as he continued on. "You stole your father's armor, ran away from home, impersonated an Imperial solider."

"Yeah, we know, we know. She's done stuff that she shouldn't be proud of, just get on with it," Xion whispered, only to be shushed by Ven a moment later.

"You deceived your commanding officer," the Emperor continued, making Shang adopt a more guilty expression when he did. Apparently the captain could not leave that detail out when he reported the events to the Emperor. "Convinced others to aid you in your deception…"

"Why's he dragging us into this," Roxas hissed to the others, but received no answer to his question.

"Shamed the entire Chinese army, and dishonored your family name," the Emperor pressed on, either not hearing Roxas or just ignoring him in favor of making his point.

"We get the picture," Sora sighed, repeating Xion's point from earlier.

"You're a young woman, and in the end…" the Emperor then stated, earning a worried moan from Donald while Ven and Goofy continued to wait with baited breaths for whatever came next. They were all a little surprised when the Emperor's tone softened a great deal as he smiled and declared, "You have saved us all."

Having not expected that last bit, Mulan slowly looked up, and was further surprised when the Emperor actually bowed to her! She was so taken aback by this she was not sure how to react, and it did not help when she saw Shang, Yao, Ling, and Chien Po all follow the Emperor's example and bowed to her as well. Turning around, Mulan was shocked to see and hear as everyone in the crowd before the palace was bowing to the woman who would now become known as the hero of China, but what really hit home for her did not come until she looked to her six friends from another world. While they were all surprised by this, some of them even chuckling a little happily on her behalf, the boys all joined the crowd in bowing to Mulan in the end. As for Xion, she merely held Mulan's gaze for a few minutes before she smiled proudly and slowly bowed to her friend as well, bringing a brilliant smile to Mulan's face when she did.

"Your Excellency," Mulan nodded, feeling a few tears of joy starting to form, but she somehow managed to hold them back for the moment.

The Emperor then stood straight again as he looked to Shang and commanded, "Captain Li?" Shang merely nodded in response before procuring Shan-Yu's sword and presenting it to Mulan, as the Emperor spoke to her once more, "Take this, so the world will know what it is you have done for China."

"Thank you," Mulan nodded with another bow.

Shang then cleared his throat for a minute before he called out, "Mulan…"

"Yes," Mulan asked with a pleasant smile and, if the others were not mistaken, a small spark of hope in her eyes.

Apparently, Shang had not missed that, or at least, not entirely, because he hesitated in his next words for a minute before he turned to the other six and bowed as he said, "Ventus, Sora, Roxas, Xion, Donald, Goofy…Thank you."

"'Thank you,'" the Emperor parroted with a chuckle that almost sounded teasing. "Is that all there is to say, Captain?" When Shang suddenly started to look nervous, the Emperor knew that he was on to something, and pressed on with his words. "If you wish to win the heart of Fa Mulan, China's bravest woman, you'll have to be a bit more eloquent than that!"

Shang looked really flustered now, and his face was about as red as his cape when the Emperor, Mulan, and all the others started to laugh at his embarrassment. Of course, Mulan's laughter came to an end when Xion tapped her shoulder and asked, "So, can I get an autograph from the most awesome woman who ever lived?"

"I wouldn't know about that, because I think I know a girl who's a lot more awesome than me," Mulan shrugged while giving her friend a knowing look. After a shared giggle between the two, Mulan gave that same friend a very sincere look and said, "Thanks for everything, Xion."

"No, thank you," Xion nodded. "I think we both learned a few things from each other over the course of this whole adventure we shared."

While the two girls were exchanging smiles and thanks, Mushu was dancing in place as he quietly cheered, "Now they gotta let me go back to bein' a guardian! They GOTTA!"

The dragon was not being as quiet as he thought, because Goofy had overheard him, and said, "But Mushu, I thought you already were a family guardian."

"What," Mushu gasped with a start. "Oh, no, no—don't even worry about that, that's just real technical. Just for us guardians."

"You tricked us," Sora angrily accused, proving that Mushu's fib was not fooling anyone now.

"Hmm? Oh, uh, heh heh, no, no, no, no. See, I-I just, um…you know, I just didn't wanna bog ya'll down with all the guardian needs," Mushu stuttered in response, all while backing away in preparation of what he knew was coming.

"Why you no good, rotten little snake," Roxas growled as he slowly advanced towards Mushu with Sora, both menacingly.

"GET HIM," Donald shouted, and like that, everyone other than Xion, Ven, and the Chinese folks were all chasing after the deceptive little dragon in order to get some payback for his trick, even as Mushu tried to spout off a slew of random excuses for his actions.

The others would have laughed at the silly little chase that had begun, had they not been distracted by the fact that Shan-Yu's sword had suddenly started glowing before it floated up out of Mulan's hand. Seeing this, Ventus and Xion both knew what that meant, but only the blonde had attempted to bring the others' attention to it. "Hey guys! Uh, guys," Ven called out, but none of the boys seemed to take notice, as they were all too focused on catching Mushu. He may not have been a lizard, but he was definitely a slippery little snake. "Guys, if you could just…Guys, you should really see…" Ventus kept trying to say, until he finally just sighed in defeat and turned to the only one of their group who was not chasing Mushu. "Well, since they're going to busy for a while, would you care to do the honors, Xion?"

Xion immediately nodded in reply with a smile, and then stepped forward while summoning Two Become One into her left hand. Upon holding it out in front of her with both hands, the tip of Xion's Keyblade began to glow brightly, while the image of the emblem on her gauntlet materialized around her, glowing brightly as a familiar energy surged out from the image's outline. Once again, as the surge passed, Xion found herself surrounded by a clouded, yet bright sky, as Shan-Yu's sword shot out a beam that dispersed into a Keyhole high above it. Without even thinking, Xion leapt back a short distance, spun her Keyblade around in her left hand, clearly getting used to wielding it in said hand more and more with every second, and then aimed her Keyblade at the Keyhole that had appeared, allowing a beam of light to be fired off from its tip the minute she had lined it up with the Keyhole. When the beam connected with the Keyhole, a faint ringing sound reached her ears, over the sound of something being unlocked, just as her surroundings returned to normal.

"Um…what just happened," Mulan questioned, not entirely sure what she and the others from her world had witnessed.

"Let's just say that our job here is done for now, and that little light show means it's time for us to be moving on," Ventus replied, with Xion confirming this with a nod and a sad smile.

"You shall be missed," the Emperor nodded in understanding.

Xion was not quite ready to say goodbye just yet, and could not help but ask, "Is it okay if we come back to visit?"

"Of course," Mulan smiled in reply.

"We will look forward to your return," Shang agreed.

The two Keybearers nodded in return to this comment, and the blonde master then looked to the rest of their group and shouted, "GUYS! You can get back at Mushu some other time! We've gotta get going now!"

That brought the chase to an end, with Mushu pushing his luck by sticking his tongue out at the four. He quickly came to regret when Roxas made a move to look like he was going to charge again and the blonde in question could only smirk at the sight of Mushu flinching away in response. Sora decided to get in a little bit of last minute fun of his own before they headed out, and turned a sneaky smile on Mulan and Shang as he teased, "You two play nice, now."

"Whoa! Watch it, soldier," Shang gasped, once again going red in the face, only this time, Mulan was joining him in the embarrassment, as proved by how she had covered her cheeks to hide how red they were becoming with a shy smile.

The group of six friends could only laugh at the two's embarrassment, and Xion was sure that she heard Mulan and Mushu doing the same before they had gotten too far away, but just as they were getting out of sight, Xion turned back to give Mulan one last hug in goodbye, and said, "Hey Mulan, just so you know, I want to be just like you someday."

Mulan could only smile brightly in reply to that, before she said, "Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you, Xion."

The two girls then began to share one last hug before Xion turned to join her friends, but stopped short when a small light suddenly sparked between the two, and then dropped into Xion's hand. When it faded, it left behind a token that looked a lot like a Chinese pendant that Mulan had seen the Emperor wearing once or twice, connected to a series of black chains. "What's this," Mulan asked.

"I think…I think this is a new Keychain," Xion gasped in excitement. She then elaborated by explaining, "It's a special charm that can allow me to change the appearance of my Keyblade and use powers that belong to another Keyblade, namely the one that this Keychain belongs too."

"That's incredible," Mulan cheered. "What is the Keyblade that it belongs to though?"

"I think it's called…Hidden Dragon," Xion replied, already using her senses to learn the name of her new Keychain.

Mulan nodded in response, not really able to say anything to that, but she did feel a strange, small connection to that name for some reason that she could not shake, Still, she shrugged it off and exchanged one last goodbye hug with Xion like they had intended before allowing her friend to join her friends in their departure, the crowds cheering for the Keybearers and their two friends as they all departed. The minute that they had cleared the cheering crowds and found a hidden area, Ventus signaled for the Kingdom to teleport them aboard. After their adventures in fighting a war for China, they were all more than ready for the challenges of the next world. So, they all immediately headed for the bridge, and the minute that they were all seated, Donald punched in the coordinates for the next world, with the Warp-G set to level three once again.

"Well, that was exciting," Sora commented to everyone as their ship pulled away from the Land of Dragons.

"Yep. One world down, and who knows how many more to go," Roxas agreed.

"Here's hoping they're all that easy," Xion sighed in relief.

"You think that was easy," both of her brothers asked in disbelief, earning a small laugh from her in response.

"Well, don't relax yet, you three. After all, you've still got some training to do, and not every world will be as much of a breeze as that. So rest up and then head down to the simulator deck in a couple hours. We've still got some work to do," Ven ordered.

Despite the groans of complaint that three made, anyone could tell that they were happy to get back to training again. They also knew that Ven had a point. Just because the problems of one world were easy to deal with, it did not mean that others would be the same, and they would find that out soon enough.

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AN: Okay, so part 2 of the Land of Dragons 1st visit turned out to be longer than I thought, but I just couldn't find a good place to divide it any further without making two chapters that were just way too short, and I wanted to have this world's visit done in one chapter. Sure, I had the end of world visits end in the same chapter as another world's began in Dual Keys, but I'd prefer to do things like this for this story.

Xion: And once again, I got a chance to really show off, and alongside Mulan too! How cool are we?

AN: Very. Plus, I'm sure some of you noticed that this chapter mixed in some elements from both the game and the movie here. This was due to those moments being seriously epic/cool in their own ways (at least if you were to ask me), and also to allow us a chance to see more bonding time between Mulan and Xion.

Sora: Plus I got some good showcasing moments too! Like with the fact that I'm now able to use both a Tier Two Command Style, and my Keyblade Glider!

AN: Yep, that is also true. Now, I wasn't really planning on having Sora learn to master Tier Two Styles in this chapter originally, but after all the grief he had in the last story regarding Command Styles, I figured I'd give him a break when it came to the Tier Two stuff, at least when it comes to learning the one Tier Two Style that everybody seems to know, based on what we saw in BBS. As for the Keyblade Glider thing...well, there was just no better time to teach him that, and I wanted at least Sora to have learned how to do that before we get to a specific world that I'm sure we're all really excited to see. Namely a world that's packed with...Marvels.

Speaking of Marvels, yeah, I did have to go into detail as to why Sora and Ven could no longer use the summon charms that they had collected on their last journey, because I felt that it needed to be explained here. What you read was basically my theory on why that was the case in the game's canon story as well, so while Sora and Ven do still have Genie and Tinker Bell's charms, they won't be active until they meet up with those characters again and have them restore some magic to those charms.

Ven: What about the whole Command Link ability that Xion and Mulan did during their final battle with Shan-Yu? Or how Xion now has the Hidden Dragon Keyblade and Mulan seemed to feel a kind of connection to it?

AN: Easy there, hot-shot, I'm getting to all of that. First off, the whole thing about Mulan feeling a connection to Hidden Dragon is a reference to how in Keyblades of Future Past, she was one of three Disney characters who had become a Keyblade wielder as well. The other two being Aladdin and Jack Sparrow, if you'll recall. This is not me saying that Mulan will become a Keyblade wielder again in the future, but just as a little nod to that previous story.

Moving on to why I had Xion gain that Keyblade...well, I think the answer's obvious. Aside from Sora learning a Tier Two Command Style and how to summon his Keyblade Glider, Xion did a lot more here than most of the others, so she deserves a big reward like that, don't you think?

Finally, the topic of the Command Link. This was something that we first saw back in the previous story, Dual Keys, namely when Riku and Mickey finally met up with Aqua in Dark World. In a way, I guess you could say that these are like this series' version of Limit Breaks and such, and I'll explain the mechanics behind them later on in the story. Or rather, Ven will when he begins teaching Sora, Roxas, and Xion on how to consciously use those abilities. We will be seeing more Command Links later on though, because both Sora and Roxas will get to use one before this training begins.

Roxas: So which one of us is going to get to use a Command Link, next?

AN: Well, you can probably draw up a few hints when you move Onto the Preview!...

Another world comes with another reunion, or so the team would think when they find themselves within the castle of their old ally, the Beast. Sadly, their old friend doesn't seem too happy to them, and it leaves a bad impression on Roxas. Just what is going on with Beast, are Belle and the other castle residents in danger, and why does this all smell like a bunch of rats by the name of Organization XIII? Either way, Roxas may be finding himself as the odd man out given how he's not too willing to give the Beast a benefit of the doubt whenever Sora and the others insist on Beast being a good person, and it may cause a bit of tension between him and Sora. Just who is the true man and who is the true beast? Find out, next time.

Looks like next time, you'll get to be our guest in the tale as old as time, but until then...

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!