I'm sorry this chapter took so long. Not only have I been juggling multiple tasks, leaving me with less time to work on this chapter, but I always struggle coming up with fight scenes from whole cloth, so those made this chapter take extra-long, too.

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR (MOST) DISCLAIMERS

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGE

-CHAPTER START-

A crown-shaped magic rune formed on a hilltop overlooking a beach-front town, and a flash of light accompanied four people being teleported in atop the sigil. Sora, Donald, Goofy, & Aqua looked out over the small city and the bay it bordered, and immediately noticed things out of the ordinary. In addition to a few of the buildings, otherwise normal human civilian structures, having hints of an elegant, almost crystalline design, there looked to be an enormous statue of a lower body and legs made of bright pink crystal, 'standing' beside a fancy-looking beachfront house.

"That's an interesting piece of artwork" Goofy remarked.

Aqua called up her Omnitool (standard issue for all DDF personnel by now) and ran a scan. "…It's not a statue. It's a spaceship!"

"I don't see any signs of panic or battle or anything like that" Donald observed. "Maybe whoever that thing belongs to is friendly."

"We might as well go find out" Sora replied. "We'll check in and see how the locals are-"

Suddenly, Aqua summoned her Keyblade – Stormfall, finally reclaimed alongside her Keyblade Armor thanks to Ienzo managing to unlock the chamber containing them in Ansem's lab's basement. She'd also been working on wielding it and the Master Keeper at the same time, though it was proving a bit difficult due to how long and heavy her old master's weapon was…

"I can sense Heartless" she announced. "They just emerged down there, in the town!"

"Let's step on it!" Goofy said. "The folks down there might need our help!"

-Break-

As the quartet neared the beachside house, they could hear the sounds of combat. Soon, they saw several figures fighting against various low-tier Heartless (Soldiers, Shadows, Armored Knights, Bizarre Archers, and Flutterings). A heavyset boy projecting a pink hardlight shield from his arm was fighting alongside a brown-skinned girl wielding a large pink sword, the two of them perfectly coordinating their movements as they cut through Heartless. There were also several women with odd colorations fighting alongside the two humans. A tall, rail-thin, pale woman wielding a trident-staff was stabbing and slashing Heartless left & right; a short and stocky girl with a purple hue, wielding a spiked whip against a pack of Soldiers; A tall woman in red, with a visor, power fists, and a square-shaped afro, effortlessly avoiding Armored Knights' strikes and crushing them the moment they left split-second openings for her to exploit; a blue girl wearing a sleeveless top and loose dark-blue pants was psychically controlling water, making spears and hammers to take out Archers and Flutterings; a smaller figure, bright green with a yellow triangular helmet (or was that her hair?) psychically controlling shards of metal to slash and crush Heartless; and a big, stocky woman with greyish-blue skin and multicolored hair crushing Heartless with her bare fists.

"Doesn't really look like they need much help" Donald observed.

"Still," Sora replied, "the Heartless might have some tricks up their sleeve. And we should make a good first impression."

With that, he summoned his Keyblade and leapt into the fray, slashing a couple of Flutterings as he fell and using a Shadow as a landing pad. The local fighters turned in surprise, seeing the newcomer, but when Sora gave them a friendly grin & wave and then cut down two more Soldiers, they realized he was probably not an enemy. The rest of the gang jumped in after him; Donald used Thundara to zap a few Flutterings trying to attack the water-user from behind, Goofy came down shield-fist on a Bizarre Archer, crushing it, and Aqua threw a Strike Raid to cut down a pair of Armored Knights trying to encircle the polearm-wielding woman and then warped herself to her weapon.

With all this heroic firepower directed against them, the Heartless didn't last much longer. Soon, the last one fell, cut into fourths by simultaneous strikes by Aqua and the glaive-wielding local.

"Glad that's over with" the short purple woman said. "So, who are you guys and what the hell were those things?"

"They're called the Heartless" Goofy replied. "They're what happens when someone's Heart – their metaphysical Heart, not the organ – is consumed by the power of darkness, or by other Heartless."

"My friends & allies and I go wherever the Heartless are causing trouble and put a stop to them" Sora said. "I'm Sora."

"Donald Duck!" "Name's Goofy!" "I'm Aqua; nice to meet you."

The heavyset boy with curly hair came over, a friendly grin on his face to match Sora's.

"Good to meet ya then, Sora! I'm Steven. And on behalf of the Crystal Gems: Welcome to Beach City!"

BEACH CITY

Once everyone was inside the big (and freshly-repaired) beachside house, the rest of the Crystal Gems introduced themselves – Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Lapis, Peridot, Bismuth, Steven's human partner Connie, and Steven's father Greg. Team Sora told what they could about the Heartless and other dangerous creatures, as well as the evil alliance commanding them. In turn, the Crystal Gems told an abridged version of their history, culminating in the recent conflict against the three living Diamonds that ended with Steven winning them over one by one, and all the "corrupted" Gems being purified and returned to sanity. Most of those Gems had chosen to settle here on Earth, in or around Beach City; those Gems were all listening in via comm channel as explanations were passed around.

"Man, you guys are knee-deep in it, huh?" Bismuth remarked.

"More like neck-deep" Sora replied.

"Hey, I thought you guys said there was a 'World Order'" Amethyst chimed in. "Wouldn't that stop you from telling us any of this?"

"The Order is in place to keep certain people from knowing there are other worlds" Donald replied. "Seeing as you guys are aliens, that means you and the locals already know. So that gives us enough leeway to give you more details than we normally could."

"So, what's our next move?" Pearl asked.

"Besides handling the Heartless whenever they show up," Aqua replied, "we need to figure out which Seeker of Darkness is skulking around, unless the Heartless found this world on their own. We should also find this world's Heart and seal it so the Heartless can't get to it."

"…I think I might know where it is" Steven said.

-Break-

Steven led Team Sora to his mother's fountain, a place brimming with Light and healing magic. Closing his eyes, Sora summoned his Keyblade and extended his focus, being led up to the statue of 'Rose Quartz'. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes just as a shimmering white keyhole appeared at the statue's base.

Holding his Keyblade up, Sora pointed its tip at the keyhole. Light gathered at the tip of his weapon, and then a thin glowing beam shot forth and into the keyhole. There was a sound like a giant lock clicking, and then the keyhole disappeared into mots of white & pink light.

"One less thing to worry about" he said. "Now the Heartless can't devour this world. Of course, we still have to focus on protecting this world's people."

"And my friends & I will help you with that," Steven replied, "every step of the way. Now, come on! It's almost lunch time, and Amethyst makes the best sandwiches!"

-Break-

Later that day, Peridot was putting together a detector to scan for the unique energy signature of Heartless. A few of the recently-purified Gems were hanging around – Crystal Gems, as well as a few Homeworld Gems that the Diamonds stationed on Earth as extra security. One of the latter, however, was not doing anything to interact with everyone else, instead hanging out off to the side, glowering at everyone.

Jasper was not a happy Gem. Learning that Pink Diamond had faked her shattering, that Pink Diamond was Rose Quartz, had come to care for the dirty little organics on this mud-ball, had defied and fought against the other Diamonds, and had ultimately sacrificed her life to bring a Gem/organic hybrid offspring into existence, and that little hybrid had won the other Diamonds over to his & his mother's way of thinking…

"Okay," Peridot said, "that oughtta do it. Now, let's fire it up and see what it can find."

The device she'd constructed was about a meter high and half that width, with a crystalline antenna sticking up out of it pointed skyward, along with a screen to show what the sensor pulses the device released would pick up. She turned it on, and after a few seconds the antenna began to pulse with light. Onscreen, a topographical map of everything within scanning range soon appeared, overlaid with pinpricks of red that showed areas where Heartless were camping out or patrolling.

As a few Gem teams were directed toward Heartless locations in & around Beach City, Peridot noticed and pointed out something odd: a few Heartless signatures right on the edge of the scanner range, over the open ocean just beyond the bay.

"They're in the sea, too?" Goofy said.

"Well," Sora replied, "we know there are aquatic Heartless. Maybe they went out that way to patrol?"

"No," Pearl pointed to the screen, "it looks like they're heading for shore, coming from further out. Peridot, can we increase the range on the scanner?"

"Maybe we can boost it with magic!" Goofy suggested.

"It's not something you can just brute-force by pouring magic in" Donald replied. "Still… I'm pretty sure I could channel a scanning spell into her machine to multiply its range. Should I?"

After a moment's thought, Peridot nodded. Donald came over, incanting a spell as he touched his staff against the scanner. After a few seconds, the scanning antenna glowed brightly and released a supersonic scanning pulse that raced out over the horizons. As the display screen changed, the gang realized he had boosted its range to hundreds of miles, rather than the few dozen he'd expected. And on the outer edge of the scan's range, there was a noticeable Heartless signature coming from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

"The middle of the ocean?!" Sora said. "What are they doing way out there?!"

"Looking for something, maybe?" Garnet suggested.

"Whatever reason they're out there for," Goofy said, "we oughtta set sail and take 'em out before they can cause any damage."

"I don't think it'll be that easy" Aqua spoke up, looking at the readings. "According to this, the Heartless out there aren't on the ocean surface. The signal's coming from below – way below…"

Looking at the readings, one of the "purified" Gems quirked an 'eyebrow'. "Why would these 'Heartless' be all the way down on the ocean floor? What's even down there?"

"Maybe a relic or wrecked sunken spaceship from the Gem War thousands of years ago?" Peridot suggested.

"If they're in the ocean," Jasper spoke up, "couldn't Lapis get them?"

The blue Gem shook her head. "I'm more used to surface-level stuff. I can't be precise enough to take out Heartless all the way down near the abyssal plain without causing a lot of collateral damage to the local environment and creatures, maybe causing a tsunami that would do a lot of damage to the coasts…"

"So we need to find a way to go down there and deal with them personally" Donald surmised.

"Which means we not only need to build a submarine that can withstand the pressure at that depth," Pearl said, "but also be able to move & fight down there…"

"Lemme call the royal engineers," Sora suggested, "the ones who built our Gummi Ship. Maybe they've got some ideas…"

-Break-

With Chip, Dale, Pearl, & Peridot working together, the heroes only needed a few hours to design and then construct a deep-sea combat submersible, a hybrid of Gummi and Gem technology. It had combat-grade armor and magic-based energy shields, as well as missiles and blasters of the same offensive magic type used in Gummi Ship weapons. It had room for a three-man crew, and was enchanted to pull oxygen from the surrounding water so they could theoretically stay down there for days. It even had launchable beacons to mark points of interest in case the crew saw anything worth note down there besides Heartless.

"So," Amethyst said, "who's goin' down?"

Sora and Aqua looked at each other for several seconds, and then he sighed and backed out while Aqua raised her hand. The young Keyblade Master then thought on who to take with her.

"…Goofy, Garnet, I'd like you two to be my crew for this op."

Garnet nodded, and Goofy saluted.

"Let's go take care of those things before they can cause any serious trouble" the fused-Gem said.

-Break-

("LEVEL" MUSIC: Star Fox 64 (3D) – "Aquas")

As the sub descended through the inky blackness, soon they could finally see the 'ground' in their sights. The sub leveled out around 50 meters above the seafloor, lights shining in different directions.

"The abyssal plain…" Garnet said, seated at the weapons station. "We've been on this planet for millennia, but we've never tried to explore this deep below the waters. It's… desolate."

"There's still life down here" Aqua replied from the pilot's seat. "No matter how deep in the ocean you go, you'll find living creatures. It says something about how adaptive life is…"

"Well," Goofy remarked as he checked the scanners, "we know there's somethin' down here that ain't supposed to be. Might as well get lookin' and clear it out."

"What's that up ahead?" Garnet pointed out.

The sub soon came upon a large mass on the seafloor that was clearly artificial – a mass of wood, dozens of feet long, painstakingly constructed, laid out on its side, broken masts half-buried in the sediment.

"A sunken ship!" Goofy exclaimed. "Looks like it's been down here a while, too."

"A wooden sailing ship…" Aqua said, slightly awed. "This thing's been down here for at least 100 years, probably much more. Do we know which one it is?"

Garnet checked the records. "This wreck is uncatalogued. We're the first people to see this ship since it sank."

"…Place a beacon so we can study it later. We need to keep moving."

Goofy deployed a beacon at the wreck, the little Gummi-based probe flashing softly as it sat in the sediment beside the sunken ship. In response to that disturbance, a pack of "Screwdiver" Heartless emerged from their hiding place inside the shipwreck, charging at the sub with spears brandished. Immediately Garnet opened fire with the sub's magic-bolt blasters, the white bolts of energy lighting up the darkness of the ocean floor as they burned through a few of the Screwdivers.

"Well, we're on the right track…" Aqua remarked.

They pressed on, heading in the direction of the main signal. Soon, they were beset by a type of Heartless not seen before: "Sea Sprites", Heartless in the shape of fish with long, eel-like bodies trailing behind big heads with big jaws full of big teeth. Some of them were blue, some red, some yellow, and some white; scans revealed the three colored ones were imbued with their respective elemental magic (Blizzard, Fire, Thunder). The fish-type Heartless charged at the sub from multiple angles, but Chip & Dale had built in secondary point-defense weapons in addition to the larger-'caliber' forward-facing blasters, allowing Goofy and Garnet to start blasting all of them. Thankfully, these Heartless seemed to be small-fry and couldn't take much punishment.

After clearing out the initial pack of Sea Sprites, the submarine kept following the trail. They encountered a pack of Sea Neons and a Sheltering Zone and blasted their way through; one of the jellyfish-like Heartless tried to cling to the sub, but its shields foiled the Heartless' grip and left it easy prey. As they advanced, the scanners soon picked up a hotspot of activity up ahead in the darkness. However, instead of a pack of Heartless, they soon came upon a swarm of creatures – crabs, isopods, even deep-sea sharks – congregating around a huge dark-gray mass on the seafloor.

"What the heck's that?" Goofy asked.

"Whale-fall" Garnet replied. "Sometimes, when a whale dies, its corpse sinks to the bottom of the sea, where it becomes a buffet for the creatures down here. …That is the biggest goblin shark I've ever seen."

They pressed onwards, fighting through a few more packs of lesser Heartless. Finally, the scanners picked up something that soon came into visual range, 'illuminated' by the sub's lights half-buried in the sediment: a small ship (half-again the size of the sub) of obviously Gem construction, with a faded symbol on the side.

"That's… the old emblem of the Crystal Gems" Garnet said with shock. "From back during the Great War against Homeworld. It's one of our old ships!"

"I'm picking up something from inside" Goofy said, looking at the scanners. "It's really weak. Does this look familiar to either of ya?"

He forwarded the scan data to Aqua and Garnet's terminals, and the latter gasped. "It's… It's the signal from dormant, 'poofed' Gems. After all this time, trapped in a slagged ship at the bottom of the ocean… they're still alive."

"That must be why the Heartless are down here" Aqua said. "They must've sensed the presence of the dormant Hearts. Let's get them out of there before the Heartless find them."

"Something big just popped up on radar" Goofy suddenly announced. "It's headin' for us!"

(BOSS MUSIC: Star Fox 64 – "Boss B")

Heralded by a quartet of glowing yellow eyes, a massive shape loomed out of the darkness. The Heartless that emerged, looking like a cross between an anglerfish and the "opee sea killer" from Star Wars Episode I, was at least twice the size of the sub, covered in purplish-black thick hide with bits of chitinous armor. It had a pair of anglerfish-like feelers ending in two glowing red orbs that crackled with evil energy, and when it opened its mouth wide (way too wide…), it appeared to have two sets of huge shark-like teeth.

"Well," Goofy said with a nervous gulp, "I'm sure glad now that Peridot decided to overengineer this thing in terms of combat ability."

The huge Heartless, hereafter referred to as the "Deep Dweller", rushed at the sub with jaws wide, and Aqua immediately jerked the craft to the side, barely avoiding being crunched. As soon as they got a bearing on it, they opened fire, mana bolts peppering the Heartless' chitinous hide. The Deep Dweller wove around in an attempt to shake the sub off, and it raised its two lure-stalks which glowed with gathering power. After a few seconds, it released a pair of big crackling orbs of red & purple Darkness energy that curled out and came at the sub, forcing them to break off their attack and take evasive maneuvers. They managed to blast the incoming energy orbs with rockets to destabilize them, the resulting flashes briefly lighting up the inky blackness.

The Deep Dweller turned around to face the sub again, spitting out a wave of water 'bullets', the high-velocity concussive projectiles zipping through the water towards the sub with alarming speed for being in such a high-pressure environment. The sub's shields flared as it took some hits while making evasive actions, returning fire with mana blasters and a few missiles. The beast let a growl that was more felt than heard as it took damage, flinging a few more 'torpedo orbs' from its antennae and also opening its mouth wide and disgorging a small school of Sea Sprites. The sub was soon boxed in – unable to take sufficient evasive maneuvers to dodge the orbs because of the Sea Sprites attacking it, and unable to bring its arms to bear properly against the Sea Sprites because of having to try to avoid the orbs.

"Aqua" Garnet suddenly spoke up. "I have control?"

"…You have control" Aqua nodded.

The Keyblader relinquished piloting control to her fused-Gem ally, who opened the throttle and zoomed the sub toward a tight grouping of Sea Sprites. At the last second she tilted the sub on its 'side' and slipped between the little Heartless, who then took the tracking energy orbs head-on, destroying most of them. She then fired a few missiles that locked onto and struck the Deep Dweller's tailfin, damaging it and compromising the big Heartless' ability to maneuver. The big Heartless, its movements now slower and less precise than before, charged at the sub with jaws wide while the heroes were busy mopping up the Sea Sprites, and Garnet just managed to get them out of the way in time, snapping off a few shots at the monster as it passed.

"I've got a plan" she told Goofy & Aqua. "It'll be risky, but I think it's our best shot on taking this thing out. Listen up…"

The two parties jetted around in the darkness, firing shots at each other, for another couple minutes. A mana bolt from the sub's cannons managed to take out one of the Deep Dweller's eyes, and the beast roared and oriented itself to charge straight at the sub again. The Heartless fired two of its orbs again, but this time the sub kept charging; they both hit, and its shields were completely drained but the armor held strong. The Deep Dweller closed in, opening its massive jaws wide…

…And, at the last second, the sub fired a pair of missiles right down its throat. The warheads went off inside, ravaging the Deep Dweller's insides. The giant fish Heartless seized and flailed, its body soon coming apart into wisps of Darkness that dissolved and vanished in the blackness of the ocean floor.

(MUSIC END)

"Phew!" Goofy wiped his brow. "Glad that's over with! Now, let's go an' rescue those Gems."

-Break-

When the sub returned to the surface with a handful of dormant Crystal Gems in toe, the other CGs were stunned speechless. Apparently, being in dormant/"poofed" state so deep below the ocean had protected them from the Diamonds' corrupting attack, but the positions they'd ended up in inside the sunken, twisted wreck had prevented them from reforming all this time. Thankfully, they were soon restored, and Pearl & Bismuth set about giving them the very lengthy explanations of everything they'd missed. Meanwhile, Sora was surprised to learn that Heartless could operate in such an extreme environment as the bottom of the ocean.

The next day, the gang was hanging out on the beach just outside the Crystal Gems' house, having a little barbecue with Steven's father Greg manning the grill. Steven was taking a quick break from playing in the water with Connie, Sora, & Amethyst, Goofy and Bismuth were talking about shields, and Aqua is still in her normal attire (she owns a bikini, but is a little too shy to just go showing off her sizable bust like that).

Pearl sighed as she kicked back in a beach chair. "It is nice to just lay around in the warm sun once in a while" she said.

"…Then why do I suddenly feel a chill?" Peridot replied, eyes widening.

Aqua snapped to attention. "It's not a physical feeling" she said, her tone serious. "I know, because it's something I'm familiar with by now. There's a Dark presence nearby. And it's powerful."

At that, everyone in earshot got on guard, followed by everyone else as they saw or felt the tension; Sora came out of the water, ready to summon his Keyblade at a moment's notice. All was quiet and still for a few seconds. Then, Steven abruptly formed his pink hardlight shield and put himself between Donald and a few high-velocity thrown knives that shimmer with dark power, his protection deflecting the deadly projectiles. A few seconds later, everyone hears soft chuckling.

"Good situational awareness, boy" a tenor voice said.

Steven scowled. "It's something I've developed out of necessity. Why don't you show yourself, whoever you are?"

In response, the air shimmered in a certain spot several meters away, the shimmers taking on a diamond-shaped pattern. A figure appeared with a red cape/shawl over a diamond-patterned white bodysuit, with unnaturally pale skin and white hair that covered one of his eyes. The Crystal Gems all drew their weapons as they recognized the 'man' from the dossiers Team Sora had shown them: Ghirahim.

"Why are you here?" Aqua near-growled, Keyblade in a defensive ready stance.

"Well," the humanoid demon replied with his usual calm smirk, "I sensed something on this world and came to investigate. …Hmph. Since their previous incarnations were known as the 'Princesses of Heart', I never imagined one of the New Seven Lights would be a boy."

He looks at Steven as he says this. In response, Sora, Donald, & Goofy draw their weapons and take position between the two.

"New… Seven Lights?" Amethyst tilted her head.

"Ah, they didn't get to that part yet, did they? Well, basically, the ritual to re-forge the χ-Blade requires seven Hearts of Light to clash with 13 Hearts of Darkness. In the event that the seven 'Guardians of Light' – Sora and his friends – are unable to put up enough of a fight against us to fulfill the conditions, we have a contingency plan: utilize seven pure-Hearted individuals from across the Realms as sacrificial catalysts for the ritual to forge the χ-Blade!"

At that last 'sacrificial' part of the explanation, all of the Crystal Gems immediately drew weapons and got ready to throw down, glaring hatefully at Ghirahim.

"You're not taking Steven" Pearl snarled.

"Well my dear, you'd best hope that Sora and his little friends manage to fulfill their part so I won't have to come for the boy."

"Right, that's great and all" Sora frowned. "Now if that's all, you'll be going now."

"Oh, no~" Ghirahim took a pose that somehow looked like he was lounging on an invisible sofa while still standing. "You see, in addition to seeking one of the New Hearts, I am so terribly bored. I haven't had a good fight in ages!"

(BOSS MUSIC: Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword – "Ghirahim Battle 1")

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly a shimmering bronze-hued barrier sprang up, encompassing an area with him at one end and Aqua – who was closest to him – at the other. The Keyblade Mistress overcame her shock and got ready.

"I do hope" Ghirahim said as he conjured his long, thin blade "that you can entertain me, 'Master Aqua'…"

"That smirk will drop off your face pretty quick once your head's dropped off your shoulders" Aqua replied.

Ghirahim chuckled, and then the two of them rushed at each other, meeting in the middle with the loud clang of blade against blade. For several seconds they exchanged blows, and then leapt back from each other while flinging bolts of Light and Darkness at each other that they blocked with shimmering magic barriers. Ghirahim formed and threw a wave of diamond-shaped daggers that Aqua rolled to the side to dodge, and as she came out of her roll with one fluid motion she fired two Blizzara shots in quick succession. Ghirahim twirled to the side to dodge the first and bent over backward to dodge the second. Aqua then flash-stepped in before he could right himself and landed a kick to his side that would've snapped a normal man's ribs, sending him tumbling.

Bringing himself to a halt and straightening up, Ghirahim rushed back in with a flurry of sword strikes, and Aqua gave ground as she went on the defensive. The moment she saw an opening, Ghirahim extending his sword a bit too far to the right for a split-second, Aqua dispelled her Keyblade, wove in and dealt a series of jabs to Ghirahim's face and upper chest, and kicked him away while re-summoning her blade. Ghirahim then vanished in a warp, reappearing behind Aqua, grabbing and flipping her end over end for a few meters.

Shaking the cobwebs out of her head, Aqua extended her will into the nearby ocean waves and cast Waterga, the sun-warmed salt water surging up first into a person-sized orb of water and then shooting out as a torrent with enough force to dent steel, lunging at Ghirahim like a striking snake. The demon-man braced himself as the attack hit like a truck, knocking him back and obscuring him from view. As the attack was ebbing away, though, a pair of diamond-knives shot out from the mist; Aqua dodged one, while the other cut a narrow slice across her upper arm that she quickly patched up with Cure.

Ghirahim emerged, soaking wet, a frown on his face that then became a satisfied smirk. He warped in, and this time Aqua brought her Keyblade up to block his strike. He managed to nail her with a left cross to the face, but she rolled with the blow and countered with a palm-thrust to the gut that shoved him back a couple feet. He managed to bring his sword up to block her follow-up Keyblade swing, and then gave ground while blocking the successive strikes she made. Getting a feel for her pattern, he used the split-second opening between swings of her Keyblade to warp back a few meters to throw off her groove and then closed back in, pressing his assault again.

Back and forth they went, exchanging blows and spells, switching off between who was attacking and who was defending. Now, as they broke off from another exchange, both of them panting lightly, Aqua decided to pull out a few of the newer tricks she'd learned recently. First, she extended her chakra into the leftover water from her earlier attack, which took the form of a pair of Mizu Bunshin / Water Clones. As they went for Ghirahim, Aqua started channeling magical power, motes of blue light combining in an orb that steadily grew larger and larger.

Finally, once the attack was charged, Aqua signaled her Water Clones, who stopped dodging & harassing Ghirahim and abruptly worked together to bash him her way, the final double-kick sending him flying toward the 'original'. As Ghirahim closed in, Aqua pushed the orb of magic forward and then punched it, releasing the technique she'd picked up from her teammate Subaru:

"Divine Burst!"

(MUSIC END)

The directed blast of magical energy blew Ghirahim back with great force, the shockwave shattering the barrier he'd erected around the two of them. Groaning as he got to his feet, Ghirahim then let out a short, gleeful laugh.

"Marvelous!" he said. "Such grace, such beauty, such skill, such crushing power! Oh, if I weren't a physically-sexless being incapable of feeling sexual attraction… Well, call me entertained! It's been far too long since I had to work so hard against such a skilled opponent. Now then, I suppose I should go check on the others, help find the other Seven Lights, maybe see how Xigbar's little box-hunt is progressing. Ta-ta~!"

The demon-man bowed and then vanished through a Corridor of Darkness. Aqua dispelled her Keyblade as the others ran over.

"That was so cool!" Sora said excitedly. "You matched him blow for blow!"

"He wasn't going all-out in that fight" she replied. "Then again, neither was I… Mr. Universe, what's the E.T.A. for the barbecue? I'm really hungry now…"

-Break-

The heroes, both local and traveler, are a bit worried. Clouds have rolled in, diluting the sunlight over the town and turning the sky whitish-grey. And the air seems to carry a cold, almost oppressive aura that was not just because of the weather, but something more metaphysical. Furthermore, a few of the Gems whom the now-reformed Diamonds had stationed on Earth to help the Crystal Gems keep things together hadn't checked in for a couple hours. Jasper, Calcite, and Jade had been sent out on patrol together, keeping an eye out for Heartless, but they seem to have dropped off the grid…

Suddenly, as the overhead clouds started darkening, the heroes sensed a dark presence. The "core" Crystal Gems (Steven, Connie, Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Lapis, Peridot, & Bismuth) and the quartet of Team Sora headed toward where the 'signal' was strongest, the hills bordering Beach City. As they reached a spot just over the hill from town, a lone figure emerged from the shadows of some trees: Jasper… with a wispy purple & black aura of Darkness faintly clinging to her. Seeing and sensing the Darkness, Sora & Aqua instinctively summoned their Keyblades. Steven steps forward, curious and worried; Sora, Lapis, & Peridot come up right behind him, ready to protect him at a split-second's notice.

"Jasper? What's… wrong?"

In response, the burly Gem gave the boy a look of such hatred that he reflexively staggered back.

"Everything" Jasper snarled. "All because of you, and your cursed mother… Finding out that the 'glorious' Pink Diamond, the one I'd devoted my life to, betrayed Homeworld, came to care about this ugly little mudball and the dirty, gone-in-a-blink fleshlings scurrying around on it! That she gave her life to bring an abominable little hybrid into the world! That the filthy little half-blood corrupted the other Diamonds, made them and everyone else think of anything less than conquering and eradicating you wretched little carbon-based lifeforms…!"

By now, the black aura was more pronounced, and Jasper's irises had turned gold. She held up one of her hands, showing a pair of gemstones clutched in it: the dormant, "poofed" forms of Calcite and Jade. Then, with a 'pulse' of Darkness racing down her arm, she closed her fist, and there was a horrible crunching, splintering sound. After a second, she opened her hand to let fall a mess of shattered splinters of crystal. The various heroes reacted with stunned horror; Jasper had just murdered Calcite and Jade right before their eyes.

(BOSS MUSIC: KH Birth by Sleep OST – "Extreme Encounters")

Jasper leapt forward, pounding her huge fists to the ground upon landing to release a shockwave that buckled the earth. As everyone got ready to fight, a huge magic barrier suddenly sprang up around the area – ovoid in shape, around 100 meters long and a third that the width, with Sora, Steven, Lapis, & Peridot trapped inside one end of the ovoid, Jasper several meters in front of them. The other heroes gasped and tried to pound at the barrier; someone or something was keeping them out, keeping them from interfering.

Reaching down to the earth she'd fractured, Jasper pulled up a hunk of soil bigger than she was and hurled it at the heroes. Sora cast Reflega to protect them, then he circled wide and came at her from the side at the same time Lapis took water vapor from the air and launched it as solid-water kunai from the front. Jasper, being a very durable Gem, brought an arm up to block Sora's Keyblade strike while letting Lapis' projectiles hit her to almost no effect. Sora tried to follow up with a flurry of blows, but Jasper hardened her arms and blocked them all, and then she launched him back with a kick.

"Jasper, you really can't let this go?!" Steven shouted.

"Forget it, Steven" Lapis replied, glaring at their foe. "On top of her hateful racism – speciesism – whatever – she just murdered two of her own kind over this whole thing. There's no reasoning with someone who's this far gone."

They then had to scatter as Jasper came down on them head-first, trying to crush either of them with her armored helmet. Peridot was at the far end of the battlefield, deep in concentration, both palms pressed to the ground for some reason. Jasper went to go for her, only for Sora and Lapis to double-team her with his Keyblade and her bo-staff made of ice, battering at her guard. The big Quartz Gem gave ground, and the moment she saw an opening she hit Lapis' staff with a palm-strike that sent cracks spreading through it and knocked her back, then stomped the ground to throw off Sora's footing so she could grab and judo-throw him away several meters.

"A fancy ancient weapon doesn't mean much when it's a feather-weight fleshling wielding it" she growled.

"Hey, I've been bulking up on lean muscle lately" Sora said, cross.

"I can bench-press a truck, brat!"

Suddenly, the earth near Peridot buckled as two large masses of silvery-grey material broke free from beneath the ground, floating beside her.

"This iron ore was pretty deep underground" Peridot said with a little smirk. "Bringing it up here took a while."

She then magneto-kinetically 'launched' one of the masses of iron right at Jasper, nailing her hard enough to send her tumbling end over end. As Peridot recalled her impromptu weapon, Jasper sprang to her feet with a bestial snarl, curling into a ball and extending her mane of wild hair into a spiky shield surrounding her body. She rushed at Peridot while spinning at high speed, her hair making her into a deadly crushing buzzsaw. But then Steven was there, bracing himself and forming his shield, holding it at an angle. The boy strained as instead of stopping Jasper's charge cold, he redirected it, sending the hostile Gem airborne. While Jasper was vulnerable, Lapis pelted her with ice 'bullets', and then Sora – launched high by the water-wielding Gem – came to the peak of his 'flight' above Jasper and formed a Reflect barrier in midair that he then launched himself off of at a downward angle. Even blocking Sora's Sonic Blade, the force of the attack sent Jasper careening down hard enough to leave a crater.

(MUSIC END)

As the dust settled, Jasper staggered to her feet, obviously in pain even as her rage was as strong as ever. The black & purple aura around her was bigger and wilder than before, and her eyes were glowing with rage and Darkness.

"This can't…" she spoke in a low, ragged tone. "This can't be happening! I am the Ultimate Quartz! I can't lose to two Defectives, a cocky fleshling with a giant key, and the traitor's half-blood spawn! I won't let the glorious empire Gem society has built up be corrupted like this!-! I WON'T LET IIIIIT!-!-!"

With a roar, Jasper was engulfed in a huge black aura, her eyes glowing yellow. Then, black 'smoke' and wisps of red, black, & purple Darkness began pouring into and out of her, and soon Jasper disappeared from view in a roiling orb of Darkness. The orb began to grow, an evil wind surging around it, as overhead the clouds darkened.

"What's happening?!" Steven asked. "Is her corruption coming back somehow?!"

"No" Sora replied, deadly-serious. "It's worse. Jasper's turning into a Heartless!"

The Crystal Gems outside gasped, while Aqua, Donald, & Goofy looked on with concern.

"Sis…" Amethyst muttered. "You really couldn't let go of your hate after all?"

(CLIMAX BOSS MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts III – [Davy Jones / Dark Baymax battle])

The mass of swirling Darkness parted to reveal a monster. The Heartless that was once Jasper was quadrupedal, its bulky muscled body a mix of amber, red, and black with a faint crystalline sheen. Claws of sharp crystal were at the ends of its four limbs, and a ridge of large spikes ran down its back, crackling with dark power. A helmet with two huge bull-like horns made of yellow crystal sat atop its large head, over glowing yellow eyes and a big, jagged mouth that let out a bestial growl. Overall, it reminded Sora of the "Behemoth" Heartless type, except a little bigger, gem-themed, and it 'felt' much stronger.

"Ohhh boy…" Peridot murmured.

With a roar, the "Crystal Crusher" charged, surprising the heroes with how fast it could accelerate. As they scattered to avoid being trampled, the Heartless swung its head low, trying to gore Lapis with its horns. She formed a barrier of water while using a blast of steam to propel herself back and out of range (a barrier of ice would've probably shattered and peppered her with shrapnel), while Steven threw his pink hardlight shield at the Crystal Crusher; it clonked the beast in the side of the head, and as Steven formed a new shield the monster snarled and prepared to rush at him, only to get hit by a Firaga shot from Sora.

Peridot magneto-kinetically levitated the two hunks of iron ore she'd "found", launching one of them at the Crystal Crusher like a misshapen cannonball. The high-velocity projectile bounced off the Heartless' crystalline hide, the transferred kinetic force making the monster briefly stumble. Distracted from its previous target, the Crystal Crusher snarled and began quickly charging a crackling orb of electrical energy between its forward-curved horns, glaring right at Peridot. After a few seconds the blast of Darkness & Lightning magic fired, making a sound like a continuous thunderbolt as it raced toward Peridot. Steven dashed in with shield raised, making it as big as he could without compromising its durability. Not that that mattered, since the resulting explosion of power shattered his shield and flung him & Peridot back, dazed.

As Lapis took position covering Steven & Peridot while they got their bearings back, Sora leapt onto the Crystal Crusher's back and started bashing the beast with his Keyblade, and the Heartless roared and thrashed. Soon, the spikes along its back crackled with electrical power, and Sora had to jump off just before that power released as a crackling electrical field that surrounded the monster's body for a second or so. He fired a quick wave of Light-type Sagitta Magica at the Heartless, which roared and charged at him again.

Lapis, taking a page from Pearl's book, formed a longbow out of ice and started forming & firing ice arrows at the Crystal Crusher, aiming for its face and joints. The monster snarled, trying to shake out the ice arrows embedded in its forelimbs, closing its eyes to protect them as it charged at Lapis. The water-wielder Gem got off a couple more ice arrows before throwing herself out of the way, but the beast then called down a "small" thunderbolt from the darkening clouds above that struck Lapis full-force, the blue Gem unable to hold in a scream as she was left reeling and involuntarily twitching, barely keeping herself from 'poofing'.

'This isn't an ordinary storm…' Sora thought. '…Ghirahim must've been able to tell Jasper was close to succumbing to the darkness, and set things up so a storm-cloud brimming with magical power would be overhead for her Heartless to draw power from…'

Sora cast Curaga on Lapis to get her back in the fight, then he flashed blue as he assumed his Wisdom Form. As the Crystal Crusher came in and tried to trample him again, he skated around while firing Firaga and Blizzaga shots at it. The big Heartless swung its head around as it attacked, trying to catch Sora with its horns, and eventually it got lucky, flinging him back. As Sora recovered, Steven and Peridot moved in, the former using his shield to cover the latter as she repeatedly bashed the Crystal Crusher with her two telekinetically-levitated hunks of iron ore.

Growling as it tried to shake off the attacks, the big Heartless' jagged maw suddenly curved up into a wicked grin. It released an electric bolt at the closest floating iron-ore chunk, and it jumped from there to the other one… and from there to Peridot, blasting her back and almost poofing her, her 'hair' sticking out in all directions. Lapis hurried over to her, forming an ice-dome barrier around herself and Peridot, and the Crystal Crusher started trying to bash through even as Sora & Steven tried to fend it off and do some more damage to it.

Suddenly, there was an explosion of light and force that shattered the ice dome from within, blasting the Crystal Crusher back a little. Everyone watched as a formless mass of light shifted into a humanoid shape, two gems – one yellowish-green, one blue – flowing around within it. Finally, the light faded to reveal a Gem around six feet tall, with one core-gem on each 'breast', a pale-blue body clad in a green-lined blue top with a big yellow star on the stomach and a matching set of pants, her shoulder-length hair blonde with blue streaks in it, a second set of eyes on her forehead above the 'prime' set.

Bismuth's jaw dropped. Pearl and Amethyst gasped. Garnet squeed.

"This…" the Fused-Gem said. "This feels so much nicer than I ever expected. This unity…" She faced the rampaging Heartless with a calm, stern expression. "The strength of my components' bond is beyond what either of us imagined. And it's gonna be more than enough to euthanize the feral beast you've devolved into, Jasper."

[Lapis-Peridot Fusion] held out her hands, and the two chunks of iron ore floated over to her. They glowed as they melted, taking new shapes, and then cooled & re-solidified. Now, they had turned into a crude shield with a handle on the inside and a long sword or lance.

"Not exactly pretty," she said as she grabbed her new weapons, "but they'll do for now."

She then formed a pair of wings made of water with ice-tipped 'feathers' and flew at the Crystal Crusher low and fast, dodging its attempt to stomp her and lashing out with a rapid series of stabs and slashes with her 'sword'. Sora and Steven moved in to back her up, Keyblade strikes and shield bashes battering the big Heartless. The moment sparks began to gather around the Crystal Crusher's back-spikes, everyone immediately got clear in time to dodge the electric field that sprang up around it, with Sora expending his remaining Wisdom Form charge with a Firaza that left the beast scorched and reeling.

The Crystal Crusher let out a deep, bone-rattling roar as several thunderbolts struck all around it, shaking the earth. The monster charged an extra-large lightning orb that then split into two (comparatively) smaller orbs when fired, one heading at Steven and the other at [Lapis-Peridot Fusion]. The fused warrior flew up & over to dodge (she figured blocking an electric blast with a metal shield wasn't smart), while Sora used a Strike Raid to destabilize and set off the attack, followed by another one that hit the Crystal Crusher in the head and chipped one of its horns.

[Lapis-Peridot Fusion] formed four long, thin ice blades that fanned out behind her beneath her water-wings, rushing in at the Crystal Crusher and using them and her iron sword to slash and stab at the beast. When the monster finally managed to bash her away, she was able to have her shield take the brunt of the hit, the iron dented by the absorbed force. The Crystal Crusher then leapt high to crush her… only for Steven to appear, pouring as much power into his shield as he could as he used his newest technique, something some members of Blue Diamond's Court had helped him figure out after the big battle on Homeworld: how to reflect the momentum of a physical attack used against his shield.

In this case, the reflected momentum of the Crystal Crusher's attempted body-slam catapulted the big Heartless into the air. Flying up after it, [Lapis-Peridot Fusion] melded her iron-ore shield into a set of huge knuckle-spikes attached to a giant fist made of water that she then began pummeling the monster with alongside her sword-strikes. As the beast fell, Sora used it as a springboard bringing him up beside [Lapis-Peridot Fusion]. He began forming a Rasengan, and she infused her Water-type power into it and added little sharp flecks of iron in to 'orbit' around the growing, swirling sphere of wild chakra and water.

Finally, she gave Sora some extra momentum, flinging him down at the still-stunned Heartless. With a roar, Sora shoved the enhanced, Water-imbued, sharp-iron Rasengan down onto the top of the Crystal Crusher's armored head. There was a sound like screeching metal as the crystalline 'helmet' was grinded through, and finally it shattered, letting the attack bore into the big Heartless' head. Gritting his teeth as the beast tried to shock him, Sora gave his attack one more push.

(MUSIC END)

With a loud bang, the full concussive force of the Rasengan was released downward, blasting the Crystal Crusher's head downward so hard it ended up embedded in the earth. The Crystal Crusher struggled and twitched for a few moments, and then succumbed to the head trauma and collapsed. Soon, its body broke apart into motes of light and wisps of darkness, Jasper's Heart floating up and vanishing. The dark barrier around the area came apart, and the fused Gem came back down to the ground and de-fused into Lapis & Peridot.

"Holy hell, that was a rush" the smaller Gem said, a little breathless. "That felt… felt like it was something meant to happen…"

She then startled a bit as Lapis hugged her. "Same here" the blue Gem said. "After being forced into fusing with Jasper in the past, I never imagined how good it would feel to be in a mutually-consensual fusion. …I'm so glad I came back here. To you."

"It's interesting to see that you guys have fusion, too" Donald remarked to the Crystal Gems.

"Wait…" Garnet perked up. "Your people have fusion?"

"Of a… sort" Aqua replied. "It's a type of fusion developed by a race called the Metamorese. But, Garnet? Unlike what Gems have, the type of fusion we know of isn't as… personal, or intimate. The two fusers have to be of similar enough physical size & structure, or it won't work. They have to perform a sequence of exact positions & movements in perfectly-timed mirror images of each other, or the fusion will fail. And after 30 minutes, the fused warrior comes undone, and they can't fuse again for another hour. The fused warrior is incredibly power, at least a dozen times as strong as the sum of the two components, but…"

Garnet looked a bit put out, almost offended. "It's a kind of fusion that's only good for fighting, just like how Homeworld used to think of Gem fusion. A calculated, mechanical process, a need for physical similarity, a time limit…" She sighed.

"To be fair, of the four Fusion Dance pairs we have… One is a pair of boys who are best friends and always enjoying each other's company; one is a pair of diehard rivals who nonetheless support each other and care for each other like brothers; one is a pair of young girls who love each other dearly; and one is a pair of girls who are the closest of friends just like the boys I mentioned, maybe even developing 'other' feelings toward each other…"

"The kind of symmetry required to do the Fusion Dance properly practically requires a deep understanding of each other amongst the two fusers" Sora added.

The fused-Gem nodded. "I see. So there is something of what we use in it… In any case!" She smiled. "I'm still delighted that Lapis and Peridot were finally able to become one like that! Personally, I think it's a long time coming…"

Lapis and Peridot both blushed, though neither of them had let go of the other yet.

"I just wish it hadn't needed Jasper succumbing to hatred and darkness to happen…" Steven said, melancholy.

Pearl put a hand on his shoulder. "Some people just have more trouble handling big changes than others. And unfortunately, the Heartless took advantage of Jasper's difficulties in that to corrupt her before she could accept things. All we can do is try our best to make sure other Gems can handle the transition without snapping like she did."

The youth nodded. "Right. Now, I think you could use a little rest after all that before you & your friends head out, Sora."

"We'll be ready to do whatever we can to help you & your friends if you need it" Amethyst said.

Sora grinned. "Right. I appreciate that."

-CHAPTER END-

Confession Time: the bit with the submarine exploring the deep ocean was put in solely because for a long, long time I've been waiting for an opportunity to have a scene that has the Aquas music from SF64 as accompanying music. I was originally going to maybe adapt the Teen Titans cartoon, have Team Sora and the Titans use the T-Sub to go deep-ocean exploring, but ended up giving up on bringing Teen Titans into the Travels-verse (among other things, there might be confusion and some upset feelings on the Titans' end upon learning that one of the missing Guardians of Light is a big, muscly, long-MIA male named Terra…)

Also, you may be wondering: If the heroes already have their 7 Guardians of Light, why aren't they heading for the Keyblade Graveyard to finish things yet? Simply put, they want to be absolutely sure they're all strong enough to win (and not put the New 7 Hearts at risk) before they go in to finish things. Ventus, especially, wants some more time to catch up and prepare. In addition, Sora knows that the Seekers, the Sorceresses, and Joker & Infinite are skulking around the worlds, and he wants to be able to head them off and protect people from them, make sure the worlds are safe before he commits to the big finish.