Hello everyone and welcome to the Eighth chapter of DBF. Sorry it took so long to update, I was procrastinating a little.
Just a note before you read this chapter but Jafar is a creation of Disney, there was a Vizier in the original story but he was no great harm. The evil in that story was actually an African magician and his brother. So mashing it all up in my head and the evil in this chapter became the Vizier's son. Also no one but Aladdin is named in this chapter, because it was like that in the original story and I like the effect it has. I apologise in advance if it annoys you. The three wishes thing also isn't in that story but it fitted the KH story line better. It's also the same with the wishing Genie free thing, but I decided that my Aladdin is a nice enough that he'd do that sort of thing no matter what. Anything else I've changed you'll notice as you read, some of it was rather uncreative of me I warn you though.
Oh, and all my villains are hot. So no one's ugly, not even Captain hook would you believe it. Though strangely he's the one who created the hot trend, I just decided to keep going only with it.
Enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts, Square Enix does.
The glories of the desert
Walking down a dusty street Zlo suka enquired of a finely dressed man by her side, "And the Keyhole?"
"The Heartless are searching for it." He answered "We'll find it soon. So that leaves only-"
"The Princess." Zlo suka finished for him.
"Yes." The man replied with some contempt, "She's nowhere to be found. The girl is more trouble than she's worth."
Snorting the woman by his side reminded him, "You said you had everything under control."
"Oh I assure you, I do, but Agrabah is full of holes for Rats to hide in." He argued in his defence, "But why worry about the Princess, surely this world will be ours once we find the Keyhole."
Zlo suka sighed and shook her head, "Without all seven Princesses of heart we cannot open the final door. One less than that is useless."
"Well then." The man said, "If she's that important we'll find her." Waving one arm outwards he summoned Heartless into being and ordered them "Find the Princess and bring her to me."
Knowing their purpose they rushed off at once to fulfil their command.
Zlo suka stopped walking, but the man continued on. Watching him leave she noted his extended use of Heartless minions, and decided to leave him with some parting words of warning, "Don't steep yourself in the darkness to long, the heartless consume the careless."
But the man simply laughed off her warning, "Your concern is touching but hardly necessary. I'll be fine." Still chuckling to himself he walked off and Zlo suka took her leave.
Neither of them noticed the set of eyes that had been watching them for the entire conversation.
…:…
The journey to the next world was uneventful. There was no unexplained turbulence or accidentally found coliseums. Just a straight ride punctuated by Crowtassha as she quietly taught Sora sign language. It was a relief really. And thanks to the uninterrupted flight it wasn't long before they found themselves in another world.
All around them was desert, but just up ahead in the distance they could make out what looked like a town. So, wishing greatly to get out of the stark heat they headed that way. As they walked Crowtassha slipped a question into the universe.
"So, you think we'll find anything here?"
Luke shrugged his shoulders in response.
Frowning at him, Crowtassha smacked his arm, "That's always your answer, couldn't you ever give something more useful." Tiring of him she turned to Sora.
"So, do you have a legitimate response to give, or are you going to be no better than Peridot over here."
Hesitating under Crow's over expectant gaze, Sora scratched his head, "Ahh, I guess we'll just see what we find."
Pursing her lips while she decided whether she liked his answer or not, Crowtassha relaxed and settled back into an easy stride between the two boys, "Yeah that be about right. Can't do much else if we don't know what's here."
Mentally relaxing that Crowtassha hadn't snapped at him as well Sora followed by her side as they continued on to the town that was looming ever closer.
Entering the town they set about searching for something of value-or someone- but the place was deserted. There were obvious signs of people having lived there recently but not a body was to be seen. It polluted the air with an eerie feeling, an eerie feeling that quickly manifested itself in the form of heartless. The heartless came in the shapes of bandits, large and small, but all dangerous. The large ones were treated with special caution, because like with the large heartless found in traverse town, they turned out to be the deadliest.
Defeating the heartless one by one, the three of them stood up straight. Sighing exasperatedly Crowtassha complained loudly, "They're here too."
"Looks like it." Sora replied, but for all it did it only seemed to make Crowtassha look more down.
To the side of him Luke signed something to them. Sora couldn't make out enough of it to fully translate it, but Crowtassha read it's meaning as; 'We can only presume that they'll follow anywhere the key goes.'
Sighing again Crow slapped her face, "Great." She said with much sarcasm, "Well we'll have that to look forward to now won't we? Not much we can do I guess, the worlds seem infested with them anyway."
Letting her hand slip from her face, she gestured to the path ahead of them, "On we go then, we might as well try to see what we can find in regards to this heartless infestation." Nodding in agreement at her words, they set off in the direction she motioned.
Walking alongside his companions, it was on a lucky whim that Sora looked down a nondescript path and saw a glimmer of movement. Whoever it was caught his eye in their own and froze. Curious, Sora took a few steps towards them. Seeing what he was doing Crowtassha came up behind him with Luke on her tail.
"What ya looking at?" She asked.
Sora pointed to where he could still see faint movement, "Someone's over there."
Squinting at where he was pointing, Crow seemed to see what he was talking about, and followed him down the path into a little closed in area that was walled in on three sides, the fourth being the entrance. And sure as he'd said they were, someone was cowering behind a variety of jars, trying to make themselves unseen.
Treading closer to the person, the woman, for that was what they were, flinched. Backing away a little Sora put up his hands, "Ah, I didn't mean to scare you. We're not here to hurt you if that's what you're afraid of. Just, do you know what's going on around here?"
Looking around fearfully and then back to them, the woman got up hesitantly and stepped away from the jars so she stood in front of them. She had dark skin and beautiful black hair that was braided into many different strands and a turquoise sari made of a flowing fabric. Fidgeting slightly with her clothes she lifted her head to look them in the face.
"I am the daughter of the Sultan of Agrabah. This city was taken over by the son of his loyal Vizier. The Vizier wished for me to marry his son but when I refused, his son showed his true colours and became very angry and set these monsters you see upon the town and refuses to rein them in until I agree to his commands. The people of Agrabah have been forced deep within the town to hide from the monsters, which is why you see no one about; it is too dangerous to be here."
"Oh," Sora hummed in understanding. "One thing though," he asked, and the Sultan's daughter looked intently to him, "What's a Sultan?"
Eyes widening in surprise, the woman placed a hand to her chest, "You don't know?"
"No." Sora said, shaking his head.
Seeing the woman think of how to explain, she eventually answered, "He is the ruler of Agrabah, the Vizier is his advisor."
Nodding his head, understanding it now, Sora said, "So he's sort of like a King."
The Sultan's daughter nodded, "Yes."
"Ah," Crowtassha hummed, from beside Sora, "So you're like a Princess!"
Again the Sultan's daughter, now Princess nodded, "Yes."
Seeing Luke throw a questioning look the Princess's way, Sora remembered their original topic. "So what are you doing out here then?"
Frowning slightly, the Princess answered, "A kind man helped me escape from the Vizier's son. He was hiding with me a little while ago, but he left saying he had something to deal with." Deepening her frown, she raised her hand to her chest again, "I hope he's alright, Aladdin is a good man."
A strangely lilting chuckle sounded out from above them. A gasp erupted from the Princess's throat as she recognised the voice, and they all followed her gaze as it went skyward. Their eyes settled on a man, dressed in fineries of red and gold, with a handsome face. "Now this Aladdin," he breathed, "Where might I find such a street rat?"
The princess stared back defiantly at the man who Sora and the rest quickly surmised to be the Vizier's son she had spoken of. But she was stopped from hissing out the words of malice that were ready on her lips by a light touch on her right shoulder. Looking up to see the face of who had stopped her, she saw Crowtassha. Quietly but with an unquestionable firmness, Crowtassha pointed to the entrance of the alcove, "Go."
It was short, but its meaning was to be heeded. Wordlessly the Princess left, leaving Vizier's son to them.
Staring at her retreating form forlornly, the Vizier's son returned he sights to Sora, Crowtassha and Luke. "Did you really have to let her go? If you had given her to me this whole trouble could be resolved so easily."
Ignoring his complaints, Sora stood up straight and shot back at him strongly, "We'd never hand someone over to you who doesn't want to be."
Smiling charismatically at Sora's reply, the man shrugged, "Well then, have it your way. I must say you would have made better allies than enemies, but there's nothing I can do about that now." With a snap of his fingers he summoned a bunch of heartless, and by the time they descended upon them, he was gone.
Disposing of them quickly a short search was conducted to find the man, but he was gone. Leaving the alcove and walking back out to the main part of town they had previously inhabited. They wandered closer to the entrance of town, no longer having an idea of what to do, they inspecting the houses around them briefly. No one showed any signs of having people in them, so as the Princess had said the citizens must truly have been somewhere else in town.
The entrance in sight now, the sound of someone whispering to them attracted their attention. Looking in the direction the sound was coming from they were once again faced with the Princess's graceful form. Her eyes flicked to one side then another now more watchful than ever. Approaching them she said in a quiet voice, "I'm dearly sorry to ask this of you, but seeing as you could defeat those monsters of that man who no one else could, I was wondering if you could do me a favour." Pointing to the archway leading into town she said, "Aladdin, the man who helped me escape the Vizier's son, he headed out there saying he had something to do, but he hasn't come back yet and I'm worried. I was hoping you could search for him for me. I would never last out there and I have no one else to turn to. Would you please do this for me" She clasped her hands to her chest to empathise her plea.
Turning to Luke and Crowtassha, Sora checked what their reactions to her words were. Crow if anything just looked like she was dreading stepping back out into the sun, but had no obvious objections. Luke signed something to him, but all of which he picked up was, '…have no choice…'
Though that gave him enough to turn back to the Princess and nod his head and agree to her request, "Yeah we'll find him for you. Just, do you have an idea where he went?"
The princess nodded. The movement made some strands of her hair fall over her shoulders, so she pushed the strands back behind her ear and pointed to the town's entrance again, "Out in the distance you can see something sticking up out of the ground, he headed that way. Hopefully if you do the same you'll find him."
"We'll find him for you for sure." Sora reassured her.
"Yeah." Crowtassha added on.
Luke nodded his head to state the same.
The Princess smiled a little, somewhat cheered by their certainty, "I hope your right."
"Of course we're right." Crowtassha exclaimed, "But make sure you stay safe while we're gone okay. She tacked on with some concern.
The Princess nodded her head to show she got it, "I'll be alright, just go find Aladdin." Without a word she slipped off into the shadows to hide.
Watching her go, Sora turned to the exit, "Let's go then."
Crowtassha sighed loudly at her obvious reluctance to step back out into the blazing heat but made no verbal complaint as they began their search.
Ten minutes in and the land feature that the Princess had pointed out to lead them towards Aladdin could be made out clearly. It was a rock formation that curved in a semi-circle around a certain location in the desert. Once they reach it they saw that the land within its perimeter then began to slope down til the opposite side of the rock formation, where there lay what seemed in be a pool of quick sand, and in it confining depths was a man fighting not to sink.
Realising the danger the man was in the three of them rushed to his aid, but before they got to him a herd of Heartless materialised in their path.
Swearing under her breath, Crowtassha mumbled with a misplaced happy tone to her voice, "Great, just what we needed." Drawing her dagger she made no further complaints and lunged into battle, Sora and Luke quickly following.
Killing the heartless as fast as they possibly could they were quickly to the man's side and pulling him out of the sand. Words of thanks still on his lips more Heartless appeared in an instant, far more than they could dream of getting away from with ease.
Readying their weapons none the less they prepared themselves for what seemed an unavoidable battle. That was until the nameless man pushed in front of them, and pulled a weirdly shaped object from where he had stashed it on his person and rubbed it in desperation.
"Genie!" He yelled, "Get rid of these guys!"
Much to their surprise, from the strange object came of huge puff of smoke and from it an even huger apparition that with a click of its fingers made all of the heartless disappear. Settling down the apparition crossed its arms and hovered by the man. Interestingly a wisp of it was still connected to the object it had burst from.
Blowing a sigh of relief, the man extended is hand out in greeting, only Crowtassha beat him to speaking first, screaming.
"What the hell was that?!"
Flinching from her loud reaction, the man obliged to explain to them, while Sora and Luke still hadn't managed to recover from their shock. Holding up the object in his hands he said, "I've been out here exploring this cave that's here, it's where I found this lamp. And him," he said pointing up to the giant apparition, "The Genie of the Lamp."
The Genie nodded at hearing his name.
Staring up at him Crowtassha asked, "So you grant wishes then?"
"Yes." The Genie answered, "But to each person I only give three. This man here has already used his first wish, so now he only has two. Personally I would have recommended something a little more flashy like becoming a rich prince, most do." He smiled faintly as he said this, showing a side of mirth most wouldn't have thought was there.
"Huh," The man hummed, thinking it over, "Well maybe I'll do that next time, but when we get back to Agrabah."
"A prince," Sora cut in, "Why a prince?"
"Ah." The man scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well you see, back in Agrabah there's this girl, but well, she's a Princess."
Snapping to attention at the mention of a Princess, Crowtassha pushed Sora to the side so she stood in front of the man, "You're not Aladdin are you?"
Staring at her strangely the man replied, "Yeah, how'd you know?"
"The princess sent us to look for you, she's in trouble."
Jumping in surprise, Aladdin took action straight away, "Then what are we doing here. Let's get going we have to help her."
Agreeing wholeheartedly, the three of them followed him and the still summoned Genie as they made their way across the desert back to Agrabah and the Princess's aid.
Along the way they stuck up a conversation. Aladdin turned out to be a very nice man, in no way exaggerated by the Princess at all. He smiled at them, asking, "So what are all your names then?"
Reflecting his smile back at him Sora outstretched his hand in greeting, "I'm Sora." Aladdin took his hand and shook it. Looking up to Crowtassha she replied enthusiastically "I'm Crowtassha, the guy behind us is Luke, he's a mute so you weren't going to get that from him any time soon."
"That so." Aladdin responded, "How come?"
Crowtassha shrugged nonchalantly, "Who knows, he just doesn't talk."
Mulling that over, Sora took the chance to examine the Genie. Watching him he said to him, "So you're the Genie of the lamp hey, what's it like?"
"There's nothing like it in the world, there's nothing I cannot do, I am all powerful." Giving an odd sort of frown he added, "Though I have to say the small living space is a rather big downer. I'm lucky to get out every century or two."
"Really?" Aladdin piped up, hearing Sora and the Genie's conversation, "Well then how about with my last wish I wish you free?"
Blinking in surprise, having obviously never having heard such words from someone before the Genie expressed his great surprise, "You'd do that for me?" From the sound of his voice it seemed like he couldn't believe it.
"Sure." Aladdin replied without hesitation, "I mean you've helped me right, what kind of person would I be if I didn't repay the favour. After we help the Princess I'll wish you free."
Letting a great smile overtake his face, the Genie did a twirl of delight, "Well that would be amazing; no one else has ever offered me such a kind favour before. If all it takes to have my freedom is to help this Princess of yours then I'll do so with fervour. You are a kind man, I'd be happy to call you my friend."
"Friends we are then." Aladdin replied with a kind hearted smile.
"Friends indeed." The Genie added.
Behind them Sora definitely could see that the Princess hadn't exaggerated about Aladdin, but he just hoped for the sake of both him and the Genie that she'd be safe when they got back.
…:…
She wasn't.
They wandered through town with the sole purpose of finding her but their search turned up no results. Knowing that she wouldn't have made finding her impossible for them, they were alerted to something being off. Surely she would have stayed somewhere close to the entrance if she was concerned about them returning with Aladdin. But she was nowhere to be found.
They looked high and low for her, but she was nowhere. They even had quick look over of Aladdin's place but that still yielded no results. Eventually their search forced them to go further into the city, where they found themselves, on a high shelf, overlooking the gates to the Sultan's palace.
Where, eliciting a yell of surprise off Aladdin, stood the Vizier's son holding the Princess in his vice like grip jostling her forward to the palace. Obviously they were just too late to stop him getting her.
Jumping from their high perch without a moment's hesitation, the four of them ran to the two figures. Halting a couple metres away Aladdin yelled, "Princess!"
Turning around at the sound of his voice the Princess breathed in return with excitement on her tongue, "Aladdin."
Sighing rudely to break up the moment the Vizier's son pulled on the Princess's hand to remind them all of who was in control of this situation. Throwing them all a self-conceited look he said to all of them, "Aren't you all aiming a little high, isn't 'Heroically saving the Princess' just a little bit too big for your plates? Why don't you and your street rat friend here just go away and crawl up into some hole and leave me be?"
Laughing at his egotistical words, Crowtassha shot back as confident as ever, "Hah, say what you want, but we came here to save a Princess and that's exactly what we're going to do."
Smiling back at the Vizier's son intensely with their intentions written on her face, Crowtassha locked eyes with him, praying he didn't notice Aladdin's slight change in movement. The moment the vizier's son's eyes weren't on him he had lifted the lamp to his hands. He rubbed it and whispered only loud enough for Sora, her and Luke to hear, "Genie, help the Princess."
But Crowtassha's efforts at diversion were useless because somehow Aladdin's actions were noticed anyway. Smiling almost unnoticeably, the Vizier's son lifted a hand up as the Genie appeared behind him and picked the Princess up, "I'm sorry street rat, but this wish is denied, so sorry." Before Aladdin had the chance to react one of the Shadow Heartless appeared from behind the group and tore the lamp from his grasp, and carried it all the way over to the gates, where he dropped it into the hands of the Vizier's son and disappeared.
Likewise, so did the Genie, uttering the last words, "I'm sorry Aladdin." The Princess fell from his grasp as he dissipated and was dropped into one of the many pots that decorated the area.
Laughing maniacally to himself the Vizier's son examined the lamp with vigour, "So this is the Genie's lamp. How great it is to possess it now."
Angered by both his treatment of the Princess and his mindless objectifying of Genie's lamp, Aladdin yelled at him, "Give them back!"
Sighing again, the Vizier's son shook his head tediously, "I think not." He mumbled. Raising his voice he added, "But I will give you something else, and this is to Keyboy in particular." Clicking his fingers all the jars around them rose to life, distorted horridly into Heartless form. They formed into a giant centipede, headed and tailed by black balls of being with small antenna and beady yellow eyes.
Lastly the Vizier's son said before taking his leave, "I know you came to this world to find the Keyhole boy, but I'll see to it you'll never find it."
Then he was gone, and the battle began.
Summoning his Keyblade Sora struck a mighty blow to one of the pots as it passed him. It shattered with surprising ease and the darkness that warped its form evaporated into the air and disappeared. Relieved to see that the pots no matter how many there were, were only small fries, he thought for a second that this might be an easy battle. Seeing as the only hard opponents seemed to be the head and tail of the centipede monster. But following it into another area of the city he realised with something akin to horror, that the amount of pots that made up the heartless were not only restricted to the ones that were already within it. No, anywhere it stepped, all the pots near it would come to life as twisted heartless and joined their brethren.
All his woes were accurately depicted by Crowtassha's rather verbal reaction.
Her first thought was to screech. Then to mindlessly throw her dagger at one of the pots nearest to her screaming, "Come one, if there wasn't already enough godforsaken pots did you really have to makes it so that all the pots in this freaking city became it's body as well! That's it! When I see that Vizier bastard next I'm going to kill him! Yeah that's right, kill him!"
Skidding to stop and slipping under a blow given out by the monster's head Crowtassha retrieved her knife and jumped back into the fight with a vengeance. If it wasn't so scary a scene Sora would have envied her fighting Skills.
The battle continued for quite some time, as the more area the centipede covered the more pots it had to make its minions. The twin black beings heading and ending it were forever sending shots of magic their way and blocking all means of attack so that all hits only made for pain. It wasn't the hardest of fights in ways of attack, but it was long and never ending. Luke's was swamped by having to continuously heal his companions and Aladdin as they fought. He barely had the chance to attack due to all necessary healing.
On and on it went, hit after hit smashing down on the tail and head but it was still a long time until with a final blow, the head crumbed in defeat. It disappeared, and all the pots returned to normal.
They caught their breathe, but the Princess and the Vizier's son were truly gone. No amount of searching was going to find them.
Trying to figure out what to do next the four of them came together in a circle to hammer out a plan.
"What next?" Crowtassha ask, "cause I have no idea where to search for those two."
Scratching his head, Sora replied, "Beats me."
Going silent, thinking for a moment, the two of them turned to Aladdin who hadn't offered a word of advice. Looking at him now, they saw him to be staring hard at something in the desert.
"What are you looking at?" Sora asked him.
Staring a little while longer he turned to the three of them and without warning told them firmly, "We must go to the desert."
"Huh, how come?" Crowtassha responded
"I don't know how, but I know that man's gone there, back to the cave I found the lamp."
"And who's to say he is?" Crowtassha argued back, "We could be wasting our time."
"We're wasting our time standing here, trust me, I know he's there, I just do."
Staring at him a little uncertainly she gave a look to Sora and Luke, "What do you to think?"
Sora shared her uncertainty, but Luke showed no sign of it at all, in fact he signed to her while she was turned his way.
'Trust him, they're there.'
Raising her eyebrows at him, she turned back to Aladdin. She might find this guy's assumption a little farfetched, but Luke intuition was faultless.
"Ok," she replied, giving up the argument, "We'll go to the desert."
Looking relieved Aladdin turned on his heel, "Good because the sooner we get to them to sooner we can help Genie and the Princess."
Following him to the exit of the town, Sora whispered to Crowtassha, "What convinced you to trust him?"
"Luke and his faultless intuition Sora. Trust me it's creepy how accurate that guy can get, and if he says Aladdin's right then you better bet Aladdin's right."
Nodding, he didn't raise anymore complaint as they made their way to the desert.
…:…
Once there it quickly became obvious that Aladdin had been right.
They began down the slope that led up to the entrance to the cave the lamp came from, but once they got to that entrance, that the Vizier's son had been here was made obvious. Where the entrance was, something extravagant began to happen, and dark mists began to stir. They swirled and swirled until gradually they formed themselves into a solid form of a ferocious feline's head. It roared and stook the entire landscape. Heartless were summoned by its call and all shot forward in attack. Its eyes glowed bright purple and emanated evil. A fight had begun.
Summoning the Keyblade Sora batted off the heartless who were attacking them and dealt them all fatal hits. They all fell and dissipated. Turning to the main target of the fight, Sora called to Luke and Crowtassha, the latter of which seemed just about to snap, "Crow, Luke, I'm going to go for the head can you take care of the heartless?"
Luke gave a nod and set to work on the ever gathering herd of Heartless and Crowtassha yelled back in a voice filled with insanity, "Do what you want; we'll deal with these guys for ya!"
Racing up to the head and jumping onto its side he seemed to gain some footing, so he began slashing again and again at its eyes, which were its only visible week point. Every now and again it started to shoot blasts out of them, but these were easily deflected by his Keyblade. Though he didn't always manage to on time and looking over at his friends, he saw this held true for them as well.
Every now and then the head would shake viciously and Sora was thrown of it onto the ground. Here he was placed right again into the Heartless herd, where he would have to fight his way back to damage the head once more. As the battle was drawn out this got harder and harder to do, as the head did its best to stop Sora damaging it. But every time he was thrown off Sora got back on and continued his attack. Luke also helped with his magic now and again which turned out to be a godsend.
Eventually the feline headed monster split the air with a screeching roar, and exploded outwards, fading silently into the air until it was no more. The battle done, all that was left was the entrance to the cave. With it now free and open to them, they walked inside.
…:…
Deep within the cavernous depths of the cave the Vizier's son stood, the Princess's senseless form by his feet. In front of him floated the Genie, dejected and listless.
Smiling greedily, the Vizier's son asked with all the arrogance in the world, "Now Genie my first wish, tell me where the Keyhole is."
Sighing sadly, Genie lifted his arm and flicked it in a direction to the side of him. Instantly a wall that had stood strong collapsed, revealing the very thing the Vizier's son wanted most. The Keyhole.
The man's smile widened, now all he had to do was call Zlo suka.
…:…
The insides of the cave were wondrous. They continued on forever and were constantly revealing new rooms, each and every one filled to the brim with treasure. How Aladdin had gone through all of it to find and take only one lamp was beyond them. That said of course that lamp in question could give a man more treasure than what was held in all the rooms of this cave put together, so the incentives were all too acknowledgeable.
For ages they walked through the cave, and the evidence of the Vizier's son's presence here was suffocating. Hundreds upon hundreds of heartless came after them. Seeping up out of the ground one after the other in an endless stream of materialised darkness.
It was tedious and exhausting work just going from room to room, but it had to be done. The Princess was in the hands of the Vizier's son, a man who by himself was a taint upon this world. He was someone who enlisted the heartless as his army. He spoke of the keyhole, specifically of how he was going to stop the Key bearer from getting to it. A job that must be done for the good of this world. So indeed, he was a man better off gone. To leave the Princess with him could lead to nothing but trouble.
Traveling deep into the bowels of the cave they came into passageways of stone corridors where rivers of water flowed through silently. They followed along these corridors for a great time more until the faint sounds of people speaking drifted along to their ears. Following the sound to its source their found a grand set of stairs that led them to a room filled with treasure more dazzling then any that had come before it, and at the end of the room a long dark hallway. At the end of this hallway a bright room could be made out, and two figures conversing. Recognising one of them as the man they were looking for, they began walking.
…:…
Zlo suka stood in front of the Keyhole listening to the Vizier's son pathetic excuses for why he had let that Keyblade brat get so close to him and the Keyhole.
"What's it with this boy again?" She complained.
"He's more persistent than we expected. Why don't you explain the situation to that boy Riku? It might actually prove useful to-"
The sounds of loud footsteps from behind made him stop short. Twisting on his heel he gritted his teeth to see that it was in fact that Keyboy and the street rat.
Stepping into the middle of the room, Sora's gaze landed on the Vizier's son, as well as an unknown woman with long black hair and a matching dress that showed off a lot of her skin. Staring at her he uttered, "Who-"
"Zlo suka." Crowtassha told him, contempt flowing through her voice, "The witch."
Directing his eyes back down to the Vizier's son he saw that they were standing in front of what looked to be a door with a keyhole shape in it. Pausing for a moment he realised what it was. The keyhole.
He didn't verbalise it but sneaking a glance over at Crow and Luke they had obviously realised the same thing.
Without a word, Zlo suka turned her back on them and muttered to the Vizier's son as she disappeared in malicious voice, "Deal with it." Then before their very eyes she faded away.
Not bothering to wonder what had just happened, Aladdin stepped forward.
"Give back the Princess!" He yelled.
But the Vizier's son just laughed in his face. "Oh, I can't do that," He muttered, waving a finger at Aladdin, "No, no, not at all. You see she is a Princess, one of seven Princesses who hold the key to open the door."
Staring at him with confusion in her eyes Crowtassha murmured "Open… the door?" Creasing her face in thought she tried to think of where she had heard that before.
"Yes, The door." The Vizier's son drawled, insulting their dismal knowledge of it, "But alas you'll never live to see beyond it." Clicking his fingers he clapped at the Genie, "Genie my second wish- Crush them!"
Gasping when they realised what that wish was going to entail they all took a defensive step backwards. Waving his hands up in the air Aladdin pleaded, "Genie no!"
But the listless Genie did nothing else but frown and explain, "I'm sorry Aladdin, but the master of the lamp gives all the orders, and I cannot disobey them."
The Genie floated overhead, his arms crossed, so all of them scattered and pulled out their assortment of weapons. Quite expectedly, the Vizier's son as it turned out wasn't going to play this one fairly. When all of their attentions were diverted, he took a rod out of his luxurious garbs; from this rod he expelled a great spell of fire at them all. It was only a last second counterattack from Luke that saved them all from getting hit.
Seeing the rod Crowtassha expelled an exaggerated offended gasp, "That bastards using Heiki Mythacite. Really pulling out all the stops to make this an unfair battle isn't he, like we didn't already need a Genie trying to crash us, now we have really powerful magic to deal with, great!" Bringing up her shield to deflect a shot of magic she stuck her tongue out at the man and dodged to the side to avoid the Genie crushing down on her.
The battle from then on played out with two different states of offence and defence. The state of offence was laying down attacks on the Vizier's son and dodging his magic, which Luke was good to deflect half the time with his own attacks. You had to admit, the man wasn't too good a magician, it seemed that he was using the Heiki Mythacite to make up for what he was lacking in talent. Made Sora glad to have Luke on their side.
The defensive state was the continuous dodging of Genie's crush downs, but luckily for them he warned them of his presence before he got close so he wasn't too hard to avoid. Once a friend always a friend Sora guessed.
The battle played on for a while in that manner, the Vizier's son floating to one location to another, making himself all the more harder to hit and constantly casting his magic. The Genie was no bother; it was an all-round easy battle. So it wasn't long before the Vizier's son collapsed in pain, defeated.
The only thing, he wasn't going to let it end there.
Breathing in harshly, he pulled the lamp from within his robes and lifted it into the air, "Genie," he gasped, struggling to his feet, "My last wish, make me so powerful that I can crush all who dare to defy me!"
As the last words of his wish trailed off Genie's face twisted into an expression of horror, but eternally ruled by the master of the lamp, he was forced to comply. He could hardly stand to watch as he clicked his fingers.
In the next instant the world shattered. The ground beneath them gave way under their feet and they fell metres to roughly carven rock platforms, the only solid land mass in the colossal volcanic chamber that they now found themselves. Getting to his feet Sora looked for the Vizier's son. His eyes finally locked on him floating above the magma, the lamp hovering above his head encased in a magical barrier.
Lowering his gaze to stare at his four opponents, the Vizier's son laughed and raised his hands. On cue, a giant spectre of himself appeared behind him. Though it was transparent, the demonic look alike still retained the abilities like that of a solid being. When it clawed at the walls, they fell away and crumbled under its mighty hands.
Gaping at the massive task ahead of them, Sora whispered to the three beside him, "So how do we defeat that?"
"We get the lamp?" Crow ventured, unsure of herself.
"But how, it's in a barrier?"
"Then we break the barrier, that's all there is to it." Crow answered him, the confidence back in her voice.
"Then what?" Sora continued.
"We seal him in it." Aladdin stepped forward. "He can't get out that way."
Looking over at him, Sora asked, "You think we can do that?"
"Well if I wish Genie free it's not like he's going to need it anyway." He answered with a smile.
Smiling themselves, Sora and Crowtassha pulled out their weapons
From where he floated the Vizier's son stopped with his fascination of his new gained powers. Directing his eyes back to them he asked, "Are we quite down with preparing for your doom?"
"It won't be our doom!" Sora yelled back at him defiantly, readying the Keyblade.
The Vizier's son chuckled, "That so? Think what you want, this will be your own Blood bath." He hissed menacingly, raising his hands so that his demonic self behind him followed, and tore at the rocks overhead and chucked them down at his opponents.
Dodging to the side of the projectiles, the four of them enacted their discussed plan. Dodging and weaving past all of the damaging objects thrown their way, they headed for the hovering lamp protected by the barrier. Smashing it, the barrier held strong, but not without giving a little every hit it took. This boosted Sora's confidence, like this their plan would work.
Jumping to the side as the Demonic illusion behind their enemy threw a gigantic boulder at him that it had drawn up of the magma soaked earth; Sora twirled around and turned his Keyblade back on the barrier protecting the lamp. It threw sparks in his face at every blow but he kept on.
Every hit brought them closer to winning this battle. It played out in a continuously circle of dodge and attack, strikingly similar to their last battle. Though this time of course, the dodging aspect was a lot more devastating if you failed. He saw Crowtassha go down to the side of him after having a flaming bouldering scrap her side. She was flung in the other direction, her right side covered with severe cuts. It was only Luke's quick action to heal her that had her up and fighting once again.
Again and again they bashed at the Lamp's barrier until finally with an almighty blast it dissipated. Landing in Sora's hands he held the lamp up to the Vizier's son. Seeing what Sora had in his hands the man in question eyes widened in fright, not knowing what the boy's intentions were.
Locking his eyes with the Vizier's son Sora yelled, "I wish to seal you in the lamp!"
The effects were instantaneous. The demonic illusion behind him began to swirl and twist about, and quite suddenly both it and him were sucked up into the lamp like a vacuum.
…:…
The princess, now conscious, sat leaning over the edge of the collapsed floor watching the scene happening in the chamber below. She breathed a sigh of relief when the man who had caused her so much grief was vanquished.
That was when she heard the sound of footsteps. But that was strange she thought, for there shouldn't be anyone else here, she would have seen them come in. So in curiosity, she turned around.
…:…
She was no longer there when Sora and the others eventually managed to climb back up into the main chamber. Aladdin's first reaction was to panic, he looked for her and called her name but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. When the Princess didn't show up, Sora took on other priorities. Approaching the Keyhole he lifted the Keyblade to seal it. A burst of light erupted from the blades tip and entered the Keyhole, where it then lit up before dissipating and returning to being a normal wall.
But as soon as he'd done that the whole cave began to shake. Knowing their urgency, him, Crow and Luke instantly tried to rush out of the chamber, but Aladdin refused to move on account of the missing Princess. The only thing that made him budge was Crowtassha yelling at him, "She isn't here!" and pulling him away.
Only moments after they had escaped the cave, the entrance sealed itself.
…:…
Back at Aladdin's place Sora and the others as well as Genie gathered around the distraught Aladdin.
The genie stood by him offering, "You know my friend, you still have one wish, you could wish for me to find her, I could do it easily, she'd be here before you even knew she was gone. "
Aladdin stared hard at that the ground for a moment as if contemplating this, but when a small smile appeared on his face, he looked up to Genie he said "Genie, with my last wish I wish for your freedom." Without a hint of hesitation.
Ceasing his movements, Genie's face lit up in amazement, "Aladdin." He managed to breathe in astonishment as his lower half was uncased in swirls. As they dispersed Genie stopped floating and dropped to the floor, supported by two new legs. Looking back to Aladdin he opened his mouth to offer any words of gratitude he could think of, but the words wouldn't come out he was so wrapped up by his amazement of what had just taken place.
"A deal's a deal." Aladdin told him with a smile, "Now you can go anywhere you want. You don't have to answer to anyone anymore; you're your own master." Pausing, he tacked on hopefully, "But I'd be extremely grateful if you could go with Sora to try and find the Princess."
Genie rubbed his chin in thought, turning to the side slightly as they eagerly awaiting his answer. He hummed to himself and murmured, "You know Aladdin I'm done taking orders from people last I checked."
Letting out a breath he'd been holding Aladdin slumped down in defeat.
He didn't notice the smile that slipped onto the Genie lips, "But," He said, making Aladdin snap his head back up hopefully, "A favour, now that's entirely different."
Beaming vividly Aladdin almost couldn't believe it, "You mean it, you'll do it for me?"
"Of course," Genie nodded, "What are friends for?"
Almost beyond containing his smiles, Aladdin snuck a grateful glance over at Sora and the others before looking back to Genie. The person in question shared the smile and placed his hand on Aladdin shoulder.
"Just leave it to me."
…:…
In another place, a much more different situation was happening.
In a dark room a man with a body twisted by chaos stood tapping his fingers on the stone table that took up the middle of the room. Contrary to his appearance and raspy voice, the words he chose to speak were in no way threatening or dark. Instead he spoke them in a complaining tone.
"That accursed man with all his finery, he might have had them if a certain someone had stuck around to help."
"I did my part; you have the Princess don't you." A voice replied, void of emotion from behind him. The chaos burned man turned his head in direction of the voice and he eyes locked on Riku. His face creased with annoyance at his reply.
"That man was beyond help." Zlo suka bit back at both of them from where she was leaning back against the table, "He let his heart be twisted by the darkness, and so became ruled by anger. Leaving him to deal with that Keyboy and protect the Keyhole was a mistake from the start."
Giving the man a hard look she told him, "One should be careful of cultivating such an ember into a flame."
Backing off the chaos twisting man put his arms off in defence, "Hey, hey no pointing fingers at me, I'm as cool as they come."
Sticking his finger in the air as he remembered something he turned to Riku, his annoyance at his earlier remark gone, "Just remembered kid, we got something special for ya."
Turning his eyes on Zlo suka, Riku asked, "What."
"We had a deal didn't we? You keep your end of it and we'll give you what you want." Zlo suka drawled, waving one of hands over the table. As she did so a hologram of an unconscious Kairi appeared over the stone surface.
Eyes widening, Riku murmured, "Kairi."
Letting herself smirk, Zlo suka waved him off, "Go to her, your vessel is waiting."
Hearing footsteps coming from the end of the room, both Riku and Zlo suka looked up to see a man in rough pirates attire stride onto stage. Playing with the gleaming metal of the hook that served in place of his hand, he forewarned Riku, "Keep in mind kid, this ain't no pleasure cruise, so don't go expecting a pleasant voyage."
Without taking his eyes away from the pirate Riku murmured to Zlo suka, "Doing all these things for me, what's the catch?"
"Catch?" Zlo suka uttered, slapping a hand to her bust as if offended, "Why you're like a son to me, why would there ever be a catch?"
Riku looked her way for a second and gave her an unconvinced stare," Why do I doubt that?" He murmured and began walking off.
Zlo suka's voice followed in his wake, "Believe what you will, but remember boy, I kept my end of the bargain."
Riku left the room, and Zlo suka was left alone in the dark room with the Chaos twisted man. They stood opposite each other across the stone table, neither of them uttering a word.
...:…
In a white realm of nothingness that stretched into the farthest distance a voice came to life in the emptiness. This girl's voice asked "Why don't you fight?"
In return a boy's voice answered her from a place unseen "To fight would mean my death."
The conversation lapsed into nothing for a time, but soon the girl's voice sounded again. Filled with a conviction stronger than steel, "You know I'd never let that happen."
Her reply came back faster than her first one and it resounded though the empty realm with a finality that couldn't be shaken
"It is out of your control."
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
If you don't get the last paragraph there I must warn you you're not really meant to. Of course it's not meant to be completely confusing but I couldn't really fix it up any because my beta said it made perfect sense to her. Though that counts for nothing because she's my sister and knows the way my mind works. So if it's too confusing your free to leave me a review about it, but I can only explain so much this far into the story.
Please review, I'll love you for it.
~Claire Kriess.