Hey everyone,

So here's what I have in mind:

While the Black-Potter family was doing their own thing, the Wayfinder Trio and the others watched Sora, Donald and Goofy collect the emblem pieces needed to open the door to the Lift Stop and watched them go up to where Maleficent and Riku-Ansem are waiting for them.

So the movie, and with that this chapter, will start with a quick recap/summary of all of this and then focus on the first meeting between Maleficent and Riku-Ansem and her deciding to take on Sora, Donald and Goofy by herself.

Let's do this,

Venquine1990

Chapter 62

Harrowing Battles – Part 01

1st of February 1996

Destiny's Haven

Remus' POV

Lily has been moving back and forth between the rooms on both sides of our own for some time now.

At first she went into the unknown room alongside Lea and Jessica, obviously to chaperone, yet she left for James and Roxas' room shortly after.

She then came back in, but again left for Jessica's room. Though this time, potentially through the magic of the room James is in, she had a suitcase with her.

And just now, a few minutes ago, she again moved out of the unknown room and into James' room. Though this time the look on her face deeply worried me.

The woman looked as if she was on the warpath.

"What happened in there?" Angelina asked.

I had no answer. I had no idea. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know.

But while we waited for Sora and Riku to reacquaint their bond, while we waited for Roxas to learn more about himself and while we waited for Jessica and Lea to have their private time, we didn't sit idly by.

The Chasers and the twins helped Terra, Aqua and Ven catch up a bit more and learn more about what had been going on these past five days.

And after they gave a very impressive summary of the events of the last mid-week, we decided to just watch a bit of the movie.

Sora, Donald and Goofy moved up the staircase and through the door on the left of the raised hallway.

They entered a library and gathered small emblems that seemed to be made out of precious gems and stones.

Once they had gathered four of them, including one that was on a platform that dangled above the area where they had previously battled Riku, they went for the door in the back of the room.

All four emblem pieces fitted into the door perfectly.

They formed a strange heart-like symbol.

And after this the door disappeared and a hallway was shown.

"Wow, it looks like a modern day version of the Grand Staircase!"

Angelina exclaims as Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Beast traverse through a brightly lit corridor that has rails made of strange light run along the inside of the pathways and where more lifts like the one that took Sora to the front entrance are stationed at various positions.

It takes me a few minutes and a tilt of the head before my eyes widen as I realize that she's right. While mechanical and using resources that are completely foreign to me, the whole place has a similar level of craziness as the Grand Staircase at Hogwarts.

The group of four traverse through this modern day Grand Staircase, over a set of balconies that are of various heights and up various floors.

And all the while, they are constantly encountering all kinds of Heartless that seem determined to halt them in their tracks. Yet all the beings – and their resounding defeats – accomplish is helping the team of four to gain more strength.

"Jessica will definitely be happy once she knows about this. It might alleviate that concern of hers." Katie mutters.

And just when Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Beast take down two Heartless that look like knights and who have animated dogs' heads on their shields – the doors open.

"Hey, were you guys watching the movie without us? That's our job here."

Sora's tone proves that he's joking, yet I can tell that something has definitely changed. There is something – different – about him and Riku as well.

Obviously a little more happened than the two of them reasserting their bond.

Yet before I can question the youngster, Jordan shrugs and says: "We just really watched you head up through this crazy set of corridors."

Sora looks at the screen and exclaims: "Wow, we got back just in time. I'm about to face Maleficent."

And only a second too late, he realizes what he just said. Instantly his parents and his sister are back in their seats, Jessica's tails wrapped around her form in sheer concern for her brother.

Yet Lea smirks as he sits down beside her and smoothly runs a hand down her fiery-red colored tail. Instantly the girl's whole body relaxes.

We all look at this shocked and yet Sirius smirks as he asks: "Got curious, did you?" Lea shrugs and says that it had happened by accident.

And when he looks at Lily, it all seems to make sense to my best and closest female friend. The woman smiles and nods in understanding. Which in turn seems to explain everything to James as he repeats the two gestures.

"Well, let's just continue the movie, shall we?"

Terra asks and while Jessica softly thanks her mate, the rest of the groups take their seats. And again I notice that, while the two sit together like they did earlier, there's something different about the way Sora and Riku hold onto each other as the movie starts.

Yet as Sora moves into the darkened entrance on the other side, the screen fades to black.

And when it clears up, it seems to have positioned itself behind some of the huge pipes that are littered against the backwall of where Maleficent had called upon the Princesses of Heart and their power.

This time, the woman is standing on the raised platform behind where she stood previous. She seems to be admiring the symbol that was carved in the backwall of the room. She is standing on a huge carpet that looks like it got torn to shreds at the end and resembles a stain on the floor.

Kairi is lying on the floor between her and the platform she had been on previous. And Riku, once more in the strange black-colored outfit, walks up to Maleficent from the left staircase.

He comes to stand beside her and looks up as he speaks.

Yet the tone of his voice instantly has me on edge.

It hardly sounds like him anymore and has the tone of voice of another resonating alongside his own, this other one much stronger – and darker.

"So, I see the path has emerged at last."

Jessica looks at her brother in bond horrified and mutters: "You were being possessed."

Riku nods, while I wonder how Jessica figured that out that quickly, why she sounds as if she has experience with something like that.

"She wasn't being possessed when she dreamt of Arthur being attacked, Albus assured us of that." I think to myself.

"By that point I think only my heart was still my own. Ansem was well underway with throwing all of me into the Realm of Darkness, so he could use my body as his own."

This idea horrifies me and Alicia asks if we'll see more of that. Riku nods, yet he doesn't say anymore. And so we resume watching.

"Yes. The Keyhole to the darkness."

As Maleficent says this, the camera turns to move behind the duo. Yet it's more so focused on the heart-shaped form set into the backwall. The form has red, blue and green lights flowing through it, while bolts of lightning and thunder shoot at every corner from the very center of the form.

"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world."

"Like they hadn't already."

Lea growls. We all turn to him, but the young man shakes his head.

"Later. You'll see."

"What do I care? The Darkness holds no power over me."

The camera has focused on Maleficent herself by this point.

"Rather, I will use its power to rule all worlds."

"Is she trying to compensate for something?"

Jordan gets hit over the head for his comment, even though a few of us laugh at the whole thing regardless.

And then Katie shocks us as she says:

"Yeah. In the movie, Maleficent actually cursed Aurora with death at age 16, just because the king and queen hadn't invited her to the princess' christening.

So yeah, she's probably trying to compensate for something. Though I wonder what damaged her fragile ego this time around."

And while I can barely believe that someone that vain exists, we watch the movie.

"Such confidence."

The possessed Riku (Or Riku-Ansem as I silently decide to call him) says as he stretches out his arm and conjured another Keyblade.

This one looks somewhat similar to Sora's regular Keyblade, yet the blade itself is thinner and black and the guard is red and a little more pointy at the sides.

"Oh."

Maleficent says intrigued at first as she admires the blade. Yet then she gasps and exclaims:

"Impossible! The Princesses of Heart are all here! It must be her."

The camera had shifted from looking at Kairi over the top of Riku's blade to behind Maleficent as she turned from the Keyhole to Kairi.

The two of them approach the sleeping girl, who seems completely unaware of the danger she might be in as there is a tranquil smile on her face.

For a moment the camera focuses solely on Riku-Ansem's boot-clad feet and Maleficent's dress. Then it changes position and slightly looks down at both of them from the left.

"Without her heart, she will never be able to release her power."

A ferocious roar interrupts the conversation. The two look up and the camera pans out to look at the entrance to the room from the left behind the duo.

"The king's fools are here.

I'll deal with them myself.

You stay here and guard the princesses."

As Maleficent says this, she walks towards and down the same staircase Riku-Ansem used to get up on the platform.

But as she turns her back on him, she fails to notice that, as Riku-Ansem turns to smirk at her, a blue-whitish aura covers him.

Yet I don't need to see this sign of foreign magic to know that this is no longer Riku. The look on his face and the smirk are evidence enough.

This is Ansem – and he's more dangerous than I realized when I just saw his cloaked form slowly approach the defeated boy.

I turn away from the movie and look at both Riku and Jessica, concerned for both of them for different reasons.

Yet both prove me that I have nothing to worry about. At the same time, Sora and Riku again make me wonder what happened between them during the break.

Sora's not seated in Riku's lap anymore. Instead, Riku is now lying across the width of their loveseat with his head in Sora's lap.

And while the boy had been tense with anticipation and self-deprecation before, now he seems to easily submit to Sora's ministrations and his mate's need to keep him relaxed.

And because Lea now knows that caressing one of Jessica's tales can be used to keep her calm, he is making ample use of this – to the point that I wonder if the girl is even conscious enough to realize what she is seeing.

I decide to just accept what I'm seeing and feel relieved that the two of them aren't losing themselves to their stress and concerns.

So I return my focus to the movie.

The movie shows Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Beast running into a room that looks like it came straight out of a church or something.

At the same time I can't help but compare it to the Prophesy room in the Department of Mysteries, thanks to the few times I stood guard there.

Worry over whether or not Jessica – if she had remained as Harry at Hogwarts – could have been tempted to go there hits me once again.

I push this thought aside – for now.

Maleficent is waiting on the team of four and speaks as soon as they reach her.

"I'm afraid you're too late.

Any moment now, the final Keyhole will be unsealed.

This world will be plunged into Darkness.

It is unstoppable."

I really hate the overconfident and triumphant tone of the woman's voice.

And Sora proves himself the son of both my best friends as he summons the Keyblade, just like his friends summon their respective weapons and states:

"We'll stop it! After coming this far, there's no way we're gonna let that happen!"

Yet while Maleficent doesn't seem to feel threatened, the boy's words clearly annoy her as she insults them.

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

"Wow, that was almost a perfect quote from the movie!"

Everyone turns to Katie as she says: "In the movie she asks thinking you can instead of you think you can.

It's right after Briar Rose, also known as princess Aurora, pricks her finger on a cursed spinning wheel and falls into an eternal slumber.

Maleficent said this to the three Good Fairies as they had been tasked with watching over her until the night of her 16th birthday. But that had been exactly the night that Maleficent had struck and – yeah.

The wording is pretty similar.

I'm impressed."

I feel impressed myself, but more so with my former student than with the evil fairy. I wonder when the young girl last saw this movie and decide to ask her later.

Instead I focus on the movie in front of me.

Maleficent seems to have cast a non-verbal spell on the floor beneath her as a round platform with earth coming out of the bottom raises up from the ground.

Yet while Donald and Sora cast Graviga spells on the platform to bring it down from time to time, Goofy provides back-up and fights alongside Beast as Maleficent summons more Knight-Heartless.

And all four of them continue to strike at her every time they get the chance.

The "Mistress of all evil" never stood a chance, not even when she – to my utter shock – summons actual meteors to attack the group.

But Sora's defensive skills, Beast's incredible thick fur and Goofy's shield are enough to keep the group from being damaged by the balls of fire and stone – mostly.

And whenever one of them looks to be on the verge of collapse, Goofy shields them and either Donald or Sora casts a Cure on them. Or one of the still active teammates throws them either a potion or hi-potion.

All-together their incredible teamwork and synergy is more than enough to make the evil fairy collapse and for her platform to sink into the floor once again.

AN. Did I make this battle seem too easy? Maybe, but just imagine that Sora is way over-leveled, in gamer's terms. It's usually what I do when I confront this Boss Battle. Same with Riku-Ansem and most of the bosses after this point.

Maleficent stumbles backwards, a hand on her heart and the fairy obviously having trouble breathing.

As she walks, a globe of purple, pink and white light shines from where she walked to and the woman vanishes.

"The globe moved her to another room. We made sure to heal ourselves, check ourselves for new abilities, discuss potential strategies for the next potential fight and then we moved on."

The group proves the slightly older brunette right as, after Goofy pockets a piece of paper with the words Ansem's Report #5 on it, the team follows the evil fairy into the portal.

Yet they are not the first to reach the panting woman, who seems to have moved from one beautifully devastated church room to another.

From a portal, similar to the one Maleficent used, but larger, Riku-Ansem steps out, Keyblade still in hand.

"Do you need some help?"

He asks her, his voice now sounding even more off than before.

"Riku!"

Sora shouts the young man's name as he and the others arrive from the portal Maleficent used.

"Is that –"

Donald asks in shock and surprise.

"Yes. A Keyblade.

But unlike yours, this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts.

Allow me to demonstrate …

Behold!"

Riku-Ansem holds up the Keyblade as he answers Donald. The camera pans out to the far back to show a clear shot of Riku-Ansem and a panting Maleficent on one side of the room and Sora and his team on the other.

It shows Riku-Ansem looking up into the sky as he speaks second to last line. And shows him stabbing Maleficent straight in the heart as he shouts his final word.

"What the hell!"

The Chasers all exclaim.

The stab seems to have been magical as well as powerful. An orb of powerful and malignant magic floats in front of Maleficent's form, right where her heart is.

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

Riku-Ansem sounds eerily delighted as he almost orders Maleficent. He pulls the Keyblade slightly out of her form and then pushes it in even deeper.

Then he pulls it out again and disappears in a portal that is much brighter than the last few.

"This is it! This power! Darkness … The True Darkness!"

Maleficent laughs as she makes this exclamation. And it's obvious what she means as her whole body is surrounded by a bright, but sickly green aura before the woman is engulfed in flames of the same sick-looking color.

And when the flames die out, my eyes widen and all I can think is: "Harry outflew one of those and Sora is still here. He'll be fine."

Yet the huge, black scaled dragon with bright yellow eyes that have no pupils in them, who has purple scales running horizontally over her front and neck and down to the bottom of her tail, who has razor sharp claws and fangs, the same horns as the woman herself and a mouth that seems alight with the fire burning within her is still a worrying sight.

"Huh, that's interesting. She didn't need anyone's help taking on that form in the movie."

Katie's words thankfully halt the movie in its tracks.

We all turn to her, but then Aqua speaks up and says:

"It must have been the Three Good Fairies. When I was facing Maleficent all those years ago alongside Prince Phillip, they enchanted his sword to make sure it would hit her and take her out. The enchantment must have also blocked her ability."

And while I silently resent Riku-Ansem (or better said Ansem himself) for unblocking the ability, I watch the movie.

And Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Beast prove that they have really gained incredible synergy and teamwork over their time getting up here.

Goofy and the Beast work together to mostly keep Donald safe and healthy.

Sora actually summons Tinkerbell to keep his energy strong and flies across the room whenever he needs to, such as when Maleficent stomps the ground with her massive form.

And Donald, whenever Maleficent jumps up to perform such a slam attack, swiftly ducks under her and attacks her head with strong Ice attacks before Beast makes sure that he doesn't get squashed by the giant reptile.

Yet Maleficent doesn't make it easy on the team as she slams the ground, moves incredibly swiftly for her giant form and swishes her whole body around to strike at them with her tail, snaps at Sora with her jaw whenever he almost flies too close and burns several parts of the arena with blasts and jets of fire.

Yet it's four on one and it's obvious that the team has not only really gained synergy, but also strength, defensive skills and talents on their way up.

"You know, if this were a videogame, I think I'd be around level 55 to 60 – out of a 100, I mean." Sora says with a smirk on his face.

Riku grins at him and quips: "Overpowered, you mean."

Sora shrugs, yet his words – though I don't really get what he's saying – reassure me.

And then the fight is over.

Maleficent roars and groans as her head and neck swing from one side to the other for a few minutes.

She falls down right in front of the group, who still look ready to fight on, even if it's obvious that the fight just now took quite a bit out of them.

The camera shows her whole form lying down across the length of the room.

Then suddenly green flames attack the hundreds of thorns that were situated and growing out of the walls all over the room.

And as these flames burn, the thorns dissipate.

With a shock I realize that the thorns must be Maleficent's work and that they're gone now that she's been defeated.

And the same seems to have happened to Maleficent as her whole body is gone and a torn robe is all that is left of the evil fairy.

It's much smaller, yet it still covers the entire center of the floor.

"How ironic."

Riku-Ansem states as he appears out of nowhere.

He comes to stand in the center of the room, right on top of the torn robe.

"She was just another puppet after all."

"What?"

Donald voices my confusion.

"The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning.

She failed to notice the Darkness in her heart eating away at her.

A fitting end for such a fool."

And as he says this, he steps onto another part of the robe and rubs his boot in. The robe actually vanishes, as if Riku-Ansem cast a vanishing charm on it.

Then, through the same portal as before, he vanishes once again.

"You know, he's a bit of a hypocrite."

We all turn to Riku, who doesn't seem at all bothered to watch his own younger body get used like this. Though that might be because Sora is still softly caressing his hair as he lies with his head in Sora's lap.

"Ansem was accusing Maleficent of being blind, but he had fallen so deep into the darkness himself that he didn't see the value in anything else. To him, all that mattered was the darkness in his heart and how he could use it to manipulate the darkness in the hearts of others.

So calling Maleficent blind, when he himself refused to see outside of his own heart, is kind of hypocritical, I think."

I nod in agreement to the lad and also feel incredibly proud of him for having made this realization. To me, his words and the tone of his voice prove that he has truly made peace with this part of his past.

And yet, I can't help but watch on. I turn back to the screen, which shows the fading portal.

Yet something also falls out of the portal and, after he's sure that Riku-Ansem is gone, Sora moves over to retrieve it.

"It's another summoning gem!"

He exclaims, and a look of discomfort appears on his face.

"It's okay, Sora."

Sora turns to his friends, Goofy having been the one to reassure him. Donald goes on and says:

"Yeah, we've now been to this world and there's a safe point in the other room. We can use the Gummi Ship's warp drive to get to Traverse Town and back."

Sora gives his feathered friend a grateful nod and pockets the gem before they head back through their own portal.

They return to the large, church-like room where they fought Maleficent the first time.

And as they arrive, one of the brick-filled arches in the right back vanishes in a bright light. A hallway is shown to have been behind it, while the safe point is right in front of it.

"That's convenient."

The twins exclaim.

Donald and Sora go to stand on the disc of light on the floor in the right back of the room.

Goofy waves his friends goodbye and Donald tells him to take care. Goofy nods and a bright light makes the duo disappear.

"Quick question, are there any more fights like this?"

Alicia asks, her voice resonating with the concern I feel.

Sora winces and mutters:

"Quite a few. This is the finale of the movie, after all."

That really doesn't sit well with me.

Hang in there, guys.

So yeah, Sora and Donald are on a quick warp-drive trip to Traverse Town and back. I'm not going to cover than in the next chapter, but I will cover their return. And then …

It's Ansem time,

Venquine1990