Sora the Maelstrom

by KHGiggle

Sora is a nice boy. A very nice boy. But what if he was raised by the Tsviets in DEEPGROUND? Slight crossover twist. May contain OOC and butchering of characters. Chapter nine fixed.

11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11! Sorry it took so long. I've been busy with college, but I finished this during spring break. They're gonna be in Agrabah! I still own nothing. I can't really think of anything to say in this AN…except if you didn't read the fixed chapter 9, please do so now.

-line break-

"So, how do we use that navigation gummi?" asked Sora.

"Cid gave me some instructions," said Goofy waving around a piece of paper. Donald snatched it and looked at it.

"That guy has really messy handwriting," muttered Donald. "Okay, it says fly in innerspace and go through the glowing swirling vortex…What? !"

"Wow, that sounds simple," said Sora. Then he grabbed the steering wheel and started the gummi ship.

"Hey, wait a minute! We can't just go flying into a random vortex. There's no telling where we'll come out!"

"We kind of need to," said Goofy. He was right of course. Donald consented soon after this. Sora grinned and started looking for any swirling vortexes while shooting the Heartless ships. About half an hour later, Sora saw what seemed to fit the description.

"Well, here we go. Hold on tight." With that, Sora steered the ship towards and into the vortex. This was different from innerspace. There was a lot of turbulence, and something seemed to be repeatedly hitting the gummi ship everywhere, especially the wings. Then the gummi ship spontaneously turned upside-down, and started flying sideways. Two minutes later there was a flushing noise, and the gummi ship was ejected out of another vortex somehow rightside-up and flying straight again. The travelers shook their heads, groaning. Even Sora was shaken by that.

"My gosh. That was almost as bad as the time Rosso spiked the punch," muttered Sora.

"Let's not do that again," said Donald, looking a little green.

"What if we need to go to more worlds though?" asked Goofy. There was silence. Goofy had a point. They probably would have to do that again. Thankfully, not too long after coming out of the vortex, they came upon a new world. It was really sandy with what looked like some sort of palace on the top and a cave that looked oddly like a cat on the bottom. The small group quickly disembarked. They ended up in a city full of buildings that seemed to be made of sandstone.

"Great, a desert," muttered Donald.

"Do we have any water rations?" asked Sora. "If we do, we're gonna have to ration them."

While they were discussing this, there was another conversation going on in another part of the city. The woman that had been talking to Riku was talking to a man with a pointed face, red and black robes, a black turban with a red feather, and a staff shaped like a cobra. At this moment, the woman was speaking.

"…And the Keyhole?"

"The Heartless are searching for it now," said the man. "I'm certain we'll find it soon enough. So that just leaves…" He trailed off when he saw a red parrot and blue tail feathers flying over to them. It landed on the man's shoulder.

"Jafar! I've looked everywhere for Jasmine. She's disappeared like magic!" Seems this parrot was capable of talking. The man was not happy about the news.

"Tch. The girl is more trouble than she's worth."

"You said you had things under control," said the woman. She didn't change her tone, but it was obvious she was not pleased.

"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in," said Jafar. He turned towards the woman. "But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours when we find the keyhole." The woman gave him a rather pointed look.

"We need all seven princesses of heart to open the door. Any fewer is useless."

"Well, if the princess is that important, we'll find her." The man waved his hand, and several Heartless with turbans and curved swords appeared. "Find Jasmine and bring her to me at once." The Heartless went off. The woman looked unimpressed.

"Don't steep yourself in darkness too long." She turned to leave. "The Heartless consume the careless." The man laughed.

"You're concern is touching, but hardly necessary." Hiding behind a stall, listening to the conversation was a pretty young woman with dark hair, blue clothing, and tanned skin.

"Why would they want me?"

Back with the main characters, they finished talking about their preparations.

"We should be able to stay a week with that much water," said Sora.

"If we find more water, we can stay longer, right?" said Goofy.

"Yeah, but we'll have to do something about food immediately…" said Sora.

"We have some back on the gummi ship," said Donald, pointing over his shoulder.

"Great…Does anyone else think it's strange that we haven't seen any people since we got here?" said Sora, looking around the area they were in. The place was completely deserted. They went forward a few steps, and several heartless showed up. There were five Heartless about the size of Soldiers but with turbans and curved swords. There was also one that looked like a Large Body but with a turban and desert clothing. Sora took a quick look at them. "Bandits and Fat Bandits. Not too different from Soldiers and Large Bodies." "Don't attack the big one in the front." And with that the fight started. Donald shot a Fire at the Fat Bandit. It opened its mouth in a silent roar and fired a fireball at Donald. Fortunately, Donald was able to scramble out of the way. Sora had engaged in a swordfight with a couple of Bandits. They may have swords, but they didn't seem to be experts in swordplay. Sora was easily parrying and countering their attacks. Meanwhile, Goofy was trying to keep the other three Heartless from attacking anyone, which was rather difficult. Donald hit one of those with a Fire. Goofy sent Donald a grateful look.

"Thanks!"

"Don't mention it!" And then Donald used a Blizzard on the Fat Bandit and dodged a body slam. Meanwhile, Sora managed to disarm the two bandits he was fighting and smirked.

"You should've stuck to claws." Sora heard something whizzing towards him and leapt to the side. Two glowing swords flew through the air where he'd been standing. Sora raised an eyebrow. "Remote control swords?" The Bandits grabbed their swords and attacked him again. Goofy had managed to destroy one of the Bandits he was dealing with, leaving only one, but now he had to dodge the sword, which was flying around. He did notice that the Bandit seemed to be controlling this with his hands, so he threw his shield at the Heartless, aiming for the hands. It hit, the Heartless stumbled back, and the sword dropped to the ground. Goofy took advantage of this to get up close to the Bandit and bash its head in. Donald had also managed to finish off his opponent. Seems Fat Bandits had more health than Large Bodies. At this point, Sora disarmed his two opponents again, and beheaded them before they could try anything with their swords again.

"I guess the Heartless are here too," said Goofy.

"It explains why we haven't see anyone," said Sora. "They're either afraid to come out of their houses or have already fallen victim to the Heartless." Sora sighed. "Guess we'll need to find the Keyhole as well as information on Kairi and your king."

"Any idea where to start?" asked Donald.

"Let's see if we can find anyone out here," said Sora. "If we can't, we'll just have to go into some of the houses and ask anyone we find in there."

So, they walked through the mazes of the large town, making their way towards the palace in the center. There were a lot of Heartless to deal with too, and Sora summoned Simba a couple of times to get used to him. The three got a rather nasty surprise at one point.

"There's something up with that pot," said Sora, pointing at a group of pots. The anthros looked at the pots, each other, and back at the pot.

"Sora, it's a pot," said Donald.

"I know that, but for some reason it has an aura." Sora snuck closer and tapped it with a dagger. The pot suddenly grew four legs and tried to attack Sora. Sora quickly smashed it with the dagger before it could do anything, although he did see that it was called 'Pot Spider.' Donald went wide-eyed.

"It was a Heartless? !" he shouted.

"Gawrsh. Who'da thought?"

This seemed to explain why there was no one around outside. Anyone who did go out of their house would likely be ambushed by the camouflaged Heartless. After fighting several more Heartless, exploring several streets, and finding another set of Dalmatian puppies, they still hadn't found anyone.

"Okay, time to start checking houses," said Sora, going over to a house and opening a door.

"Is that legal?" asked Goofy. Sora was already looking through the house.

"I don't think it matters. There's nobody here," said the Tsviet. As it turned out, all the houses they checked were empty.

"The Heartless must've gotten everyone already," said Donald.

"This would be a lot easier if Ash were here," muttered Sora.

"Maybe we should check the roofs?" suggested Goofy.

"Might as well," said Sora. This was easy for him. He was acrobatic and could jump onto the roofs with no problem. It was a bit more difficult for the anthros. Plus, they still had to deal with any Heartless that showed up. This meant there was a lot of falling off. Finally, Donald found something.

"Found something!" It was a wooden pole going up into a building. It seemed as good a lead as any, so they climbed up it. It led to a small room with a hole in the wall, which gave a good view of the distant palace. There were also three more puppies sniffing around a block and a glowing green circle.

"More of them?" muttered Sora.

"At least this time there's a circle close by," said Donald. He started herding them towards the circle. Sora noticed that there seemed to be something under the block the puppies had been interested in. There was a bit of purple cloth with two tassels sticking out from under it. Thing is, it was twitching slightly and had a slight aura around it. Sora rammed the block and knocked it over. Goofy gave him an odd look.

"Sora?" Then the purple cloth, some sort of purple carpet with odd designs on it, flipped up, and started doing some stretching motions. Everyone had wide eyes.

"It's alive? !" shouted Donald.

"That's a first," admitted Sora.

"Hello!" said Goofy, with a wave. The carpet shot up in the air, flew around in the air a couple of times, and then flew out the hole. "Oh! I get it! It's a flying carpet!" Sora gave Goofy a dubious look.

"Those are real?" The carpet shot back in, circled around the three, and shot back out.

"I think it wants us to follow it," said Goofy. Not much else for them to do. They jumped out the window and followed the carpet through several streets, ignoring the Heartless, until they reached a side alley, where the carpet stopped. Sora narrowed his eyes.

"Who's there?"

"Hello?" The woman that had overheard Jafar and the woman talking earlier stood up from behind some boxes. She looked at them in surprise. "You're not from Agrabah…"

"No…Who are you?" asked Sora.

"I'm Jasmine. My father is the sultan of Agrabah." The three travelers blinked a couple of times. Goofy pointed at her.

"So…that would make you a princess." Jasmine nodded.

"Yes…But father was deposed by Jafar." When she said the same 'Jafar,' Jasmine got an angry look on her face and clenched her hands in anger. "Now Jafar rules the city. Him and his monsters!"

"Who's Jafar?" asked Goofy. It was probably something that a native would know, but the situation seemed dire enough to forego some tact.

Jasmine gave Goofy an odd look. "You don't know?" The three shook their heads. "He was the royal vizier, but he somehow gained…evil powers and then took control of Agrabah by force. I overheard him talking about a 'keyhole.'" The three stood straighter at the world, and Sora narrowed his eyes slightly. "He seems rather desperate about it. I assume this keyhole is important for some reason, although I don't know why. Right now, I have to stay in hiding from Jafar."

"That's not all of it," said Sora. "Jafar wouldn't just let the daughter of the former ruler escape. It's too risky. You might try to take revenge, or supporters of your family might try to put you back on the throne. There's something more." Jasmine nodded.

"Yes, I had help escaping. He was staying with me, but he left just a little while ago." She sighed and seemed to wrap her arms around herself. "I hope Aladdin's okay."

"Aladdin?" They all spun around, with the three travelers taking out their weapons, to look at the opening of the alley. Jafar was standing there with some Heartless. "Where might I find this street rat?" Jasmine glared at him.

"Jafar!"

"He's controlling the Heartless," muttered Sora. "Like Clayton…" Jafar gave the Keyblader a withering look before returning his attention to Jasmine.

"Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. These little rats…" He gestured towards the three travelers. "Won't do you see." Jasmine gave him a glare. Sora suddenly appeared behind one of the Bandit Heartless and beheaded it, shocking Jasmine. Sora looked right at her.

"Get out of here!" Jasmine didn't need to be told twice. She ran out of the alley with Sora preventing any Heartless from following her. Jafar made an odd growling noise. "The boy with the key…You're going to be trouble." At that, Jafar somehow teleported away, leaving the three travelers to deal with the Heartless he'd brought with him. There were only Bandits though. Sora cast a Fire on one and cut off its head. Donald cast Thunder while Goofy hit one over the head and into the ground. Sora blocked a couple of sword strikes from another Bandit before impaling it on the Keyblade. Goofy started spinning around again, cutting up any nearby Bandits. Then Donald finished off the remaining Bandits with another Thunder spell. Goofy grinned.

"Y'know, I think we're getting better at this," said Goofy.

"Yeah…" said Sora. That was unexpected. He was getting used to fighting enemies with these guys helping him. It felt…odd…

"We're gonna have to do something about that Jafar guy," said Donald. "It's dangerous for people to use the Heartless. They usually end up losing their hearts or cause their world to disappear."

"They cause their world to disappear?" Sora suddenly thought back to when Destiny Islands had disappeared. Riku hadn't seemed too bothered. "Riku wouldn't…Would he? I'll ask next time I see him." "Jafar will probably go after Jasmine, but it sounds like he'll go after this Aladdin guy too. Thing is, it seems he'll probably kill Aladdin as soon as he finds him…Let's see if we can find Aladdin. We might run into Jasmine while we look for him."

As soon as Sora finished saying this, the carpet from before flew down from above and started circling them.

"This thing again?" asked Donald.

"How does it fly anyway?" asked Sora. "I get that it's probably magic, but it's strange, even for me."

"Hey, do you know where Aladdin is?" asked Goofy. The carpet landed for a second in a pseudo-standing position and made a nodding motion. "Could you take us to him?" The carpet nodded and went limp on the ground, almost looking like a normal carpet. Goofy got on and sat down. Donald shrugged and sat down on it too. Sora gave it a bit of a nervous look, but decided it couldn't be too bad and sat down on it. Then they flew off. The destination seemed to be far off so they took a nap. Well, Donald and Goofy did. Sora kept his eyes on the terrain while gripping onto the carpet.

A few hours later, the sun had set, and there was still no sign of anything of interest. Sora was getting tired of sitting on a flying carpet. Feeling very silly, he talked to the carpet. "How are we gonna even know when we get there? Everything looks the same from up here, and I have night vision…" He didn't get an answer, unless that tassel was waving in a gesture to make him look forward. Sora, not seeing anything to lose, looked forward and blinked at what he saw before turning around and shaking the two anthros. "Guys! Wake up! I think we're here!"

The two anthros sat up rubbing their eyes and yawning, until they saw what had caught Sora's attention. It was a large black…cave? It was shaped like a giant cat's head and had glowing yellow eyes and an orange glow coming from its mouth. There was a large sinkhole of sand in front of it. In the sinkhole was a young man with black hair, a weird red hat, baggy white pants, a brown sash, and a purple vest trying to avoid sinking into the hole. On his shoulder was a little brown monkey that had a hat and vest that matched his master's. Surrounding the hole were Bandits, Fat Bandits, Shadows, and Soldiers. The guy was trying to get out, but it was obvious the guy was screwed either way.

"I guess that's Aladdin," said Sora.

"He needs help!" shouted Donald.

With that, the three travelers jumped off the flying carpet and onto the sand below. The Heartless lost interest in the struggling young man and shifted their attention to the new arrivals. Sora ran forward and sliced a Soldier in two. A Shadow followed soon after. Goofy started spinning around like he'd been doing lately, hitting most of the Heartless. The Bandits were able to block the attack somewhat. Donald used Gravity, squishing any nearby Heartless. Sora took advantage of this to split a disoriented Bandit in two and impale a Soldier in the head. The Fat Bandits started spitting fireballs at the three. Goofy jumped in front of Donald and used his shield to block the attacks. Sora blocked any that came at him and let loose a barrage of Blizzards that destroyed one of the Fat Bandits. That was when Sora noticed something.

"They're spawning whenever we destroy them!" Then he had to parry a sword strike from a Bandit.

"Are you serious? !" said Donald. Goofy hit a Soldier away and looked around.

"You know, I think he's right." Goofy blocked a swipe from a Shadow, which was incinerated by Donald, and threw his shield at a Fat Bandit. The shield cut through the Heartless's neck before flying back to its owner. "There should be less by now."

"Then we need to get out of here!" shouted Donald. Sora growled slightly. He was not going to admit defeat to a bunch of mindless creature-puppets.

"I'm not leaving!" Fortunately for Sora, the young man in the sinkhole had managed to work himself out of it somewhat and pulled out a lamp, which he quickly rubbed.

"Genie! Get rid of these guys!" Now, doing something like this would usually be a waste of time and effort. Rubbing a lamp and shouting a command usually doesn't help you. This seemed to be an exception though. Blue smoke came out of the lamp, along with a large man. With Blue skin. And pointy ears. And a blue smoke tail instead of legs. The strange man grinned, cracked his fingers, and pointed at the Heartless.

"Wish number one, coming right up!" Then a clock appeared over the Heartless, making them freeze. Then the Heartless were frozen, shocked, crushed, burned, etc. until they were all gone, leaving only purple smoke behind. When the smoke cleared, the sinkhole was gone as well. The young man brushed sand off his legs, still holding the lamp. "Man, those guys were nasty! Good thing you had some help!"

"Yeah." The young man turned towards the three travelers. "Thanks a bunch. Those things were about to jump in when you guys showed up. What were you doing here though?" At that point, the carpet came in and landed in front of them in a pseudo-standing stance. The blue man seemed to recognize it.

"Hey! Carpet! My main man!" The carpet (Was it actually named 'Carpet?') and the blue man high-fived and knocked fists. Apparently, they were friends or something. Sora was looking at the blue man curiously.

"He seems kind of like a summon, except he can stay in this realm indefinitely…and can talk." "Are you Aladdin?"

"Yeah, that's me," said the young man. He gestured towards the monkey on his shoulder. "And this is Abu."

"Hewwo." Well, that's what it seemed to sound like. Monkeys can't actually talk like a human. The blue man suddenly whizzed up behind Sora with a grin, making the young Tsviet jump slightly. That wasn't speed. That was some sort of teleportation!

"And I'm the Genie of the Lamp!" A blinking neon sign appeared behind him declaring this. The three travelers blinked while Aladdin and Abu stared at it curiously. Neon signs had not yet been invented here after all. "But you can just call me Genie!" Then he suddenly was over with Carpet with their arms slung over each others' shoulders. "And this is The Flying Carpet, but everyone just calls him 'Carpet.'" Sora continued to stare at the two. There was magic on Gaia, and he'd grown used to being around it, but none of it had been like this. These two were even stranger than the Heartless, in his opinion. Donald and Goofy were more used to stuff like this due to what their world was like though, and they decided to talk with Aladdin some more.

"So, how did you know my name?" asked Aladdin.

"Jasmine told us," explained Goofy. That got a reaction. Aladdin suddenly stiffened up with a scared look on his face.

"Jasmine? ! Is she okay? ! Jafar hasn't found her, has he? !" Aladdin was obviously worried about the Princess. Considering the circumstances, you couldn't really blame him.

"She ran when we distracted him," said Sora. He sighed. "There's a good chance he'll have found her by now though."

"Well, we better get back," said Aladdin, walking over to Carpet. "Who knows what Jafar's got planned for her?" They got on and started off for Agrabah, but Sora had some questions.

"Something's been bothering me. If you're so worried about Jasmine, what are you doing out here?"

Aladdin chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you see, I needed to get this." He held up the lamp.

"An old lamp?" Donald was clearly unimpressed.

"I saw Genie come out when you rubbed it," said Sora. "It's like a summon materia." Sora turned towards Genie. "I guess that's why you're called 'Genie of the Lamp.'"

"Yep! I usually spend my time in there." Genie sighed. "It comes with the job. PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!" Genie suddenly became huge, stretching towards the sky, and giving an aura of being very dangerous. Sora had to squash the urge to attack him. Then Genie suddenly went back into the lamp with the top disappearing so you could see him crammed inside. "Itty bitty living space."

"That sucks," said Sora.

"Huh? How does it suck?" said Aladdin, looking very confused. Seems there are some very slight language differences.

"Why couldn't you bring Jasmine though?" asked Goofy. Aladdin sighed.

"The Cave of Wonders only lets certain people in. Everyone else gets eaten."

"Why do you need the lamp though?" asked Sora.

"You saw those monsters in Agrabah, right?" The three nodded. "Well, a guy can only handle so many of them. I thought I might be able to get some help from Genie. The only thing is…"

"You only get three wishes!" At this, Genie multiplied into three Genies, each holding up three fingers. "A-one-wish!" The one on the left disappeared. "A-two-wish!" The one on the right disappeared. "A-three-wish! Then I make like a banana and split!" He disappeared and reappeared next to Aladdin, who seemed to have gotten used to these antics. "Our lucky winner has already made his first wish-And what a doozey that was.-so that's two wishes left. So, Master, what'll it be?"

Aladdin seemed to think for a moment. "Well, normally, I'd wish to be a fabulously wealthy prince, but I think I better save that second wish, just in case."

"That still leaves one wish," pointed out Genie.

"Yeah, I'll think about it, maybe make myself a prince," said Aladdin. After this, Aladdin, Goofy, and Donald decided to sleep a little. They woke up a little while later, but weren't quite at Agrabah yet. Genie seemed to be enjoying himself. Sora had noticed this.

"You don't get out much, do you?"

"Comes with the job. Three wishes, and then it's back to my portable prison." Genie sighed. "I'm lucky to see the light every century or two…"

"…It must be dark in that lamp."

"Like you wouldn't believe! At least I can watch stuff past, present, or future." That explained the neon lights. "It's just not the same though…"

"To spend centuries at a time trapped in such a place…" "It sounds worse than DEEPGROUND. I didn't think that was possible. I actually feel sorry for him…" The other three seemed to feel the same way.

"Hey, Genie, what if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you think?" Genie blinked in surprise.

"You'd really do that?" Aladdin nodded.

"Genie, it's a promise, after we help Jasmine." Genie got a face-splitting grin on his face at this bit of news.

They arrived in Agrabah not too long after this. They made their way to Aladdin's house, taking care of any Heartless that they ran into. This gave Sora a chance to observe Aladdin's fighting. Aladdin used a scimitar, but he didn't seem to have much experience using it. Aladdin was very good at dodging attacks though, making him difficult to hit. Sora figured that the lack of sword skills wouldn't be a problem if Aladdin wasn't going to be permanent. After going through several streets and climbing onto the roofs, they found themselves in the same place where they'd first found Carpet.

"Well, welcome to my home," said Aladdin, spreading his arms out. Then he dropped them and looked around in confusion. "Weird. What happened to those black and white things that were here?" Donald and Goofy shifted nervously. Sora just raised an eyebrow. "I'll worry about 'em later. For now, we gotta figure out what to do about Jafar."

"You already know that he's after Jasmine," said Sora. "But he's also looking for this world's Keyhole."

Aladdin cocked his head in confusion. "Keyhole? Is he looking for some kind of treasure?"

"Keyhole, eh?" Genie put his fist under his chin in a thinking position. "I could swear I've heard about that somewhere before." The three travelers perked up. If someone knew where the Keyhole was, it would save them a lot of trouble.

"Do you know where it is?" asked Goofy.

"Hmm…I know where it is…I just can't remember…It'll come to me in no time! Don't you worry! It's only been 200 years." The others sweatdropped. Only Genie would be able to say something like that so casually.

"Well, until you remember, we better go look for Jafar and Jasmine," said Sora. "We don't know what he wants Jasmine for. He could want to kill her…or worse…" Sora purposefully trailed off on the worse so the others could use their imaginations. Aladdin reacted immediately.

"Well, what are we waiting for? !" He ran over to the pole and slid down it like a fireman. Donald and Goofy weren't too far behind. Genie gave Sora a look.

"Couldn't you have been a bit nicer about that?" Sora shrugged.

"It got them moving, didn't it?" With that, he slid down the pole as well. Genie shook his head.

"That is one messed up kid." Then he flew after the others. At the base of the pole, the two humans and two anthromorphs were waiting.

"Why aren't we moving?" asked Sora.

"I asked Abu to see if he can see anything," explained Aladdin. At that moment, Abu came down from the roofs and landed on Aladdin's shoulder. "Well?" Abut made a couple of monkey noises and pointed in a direction. "Okay, we'll head to the palace gates until we run into something!" Aladdin immediately ran off in that direction, followed by the rest of the group. They had to deal with the regular Heartless attacks, but these were easily dealt with. All in all, they managed to reach the palace gates after a few minutes and saw Jafar holding Jasmine rather roughly. The attack group made themselves known immediately, but Genie stayed out of sight as Aladdin had to make a wish for him to do anything. Jafar sneered when he saw the rescue group.

"Setting your sights a little high aren't you boy? Back to your hole street rat. I will not allow you to bother the princess anymore." Jasmine looked down out of shame, although it was more likely caused by getting caught by Jafar than befriending Aladdin.

"I'm so sorry Aladdin."

"Surrender now, and your death will be swift," said Sora, pulling out his daggers. Donald and Goofy gave him surprised looks. Aladdin, Jasmine, and Jafar were unaffected. After all, the punishment for stealing an apple is having your hand cut off. Jafar still scoffed at Sora's threat.

"Are you really capable of that boy?" Aladdin took advantage of the situation to rub the lamp behind his breath and mutter a wish under his breath.

"I've killed before."

That was as far as that went. Genie appeared behind Jafar, pulled Jasmine out of his grip, and floated up out of reach. Sora was immediately suspicious when he saw that Jafar didn't look surprised at all.

"One wish left!" said Genie. "You're making this really easy, you know."

Jafar chuckled. "So sorry boy." He held his hand out, and his parrot landed on his hand with Genie's lamp in its claws. Aladdin's eyes widened and his hands went to the back of his sash where he'd been keeping the lamp. Jafar sent the young thief a sneer. "I'm afraid your wish has been denied."

Genie winced. Then looked down. "I'm sorry Al." Then he disappeared and Jasmine fell into a pot with a yelp. Then the pot sprouted legs, showing that it was a Pot Spider. Then several more Pot Spiders appeared, along with what appeared to be a blue bug head and rear end. The Pot Spiders lined up, the head went to one end, and the bottom went to the other end. Jafar smirked and made a mocking bow. "And now I bid you farewell." He then slammed the base of his staff into the ground and disappeared in a blast of red smoke. And then the odd Heatless attacked with a screech.

"Okay. Pot Centipede. No obvious weakness. The head and tail can electrocute you. The head and tail share a life force, but the pots are all separate."

"Aladdin!"

"Jasmine!" Aladdin rushed forward and tried to break the pot her shout seemed to be coming from. He only got in one hit before the head whipped around, grabbed him in its pincers and electrocuted him.

"Courage!" Simba appeared next to Sora. When he saw what was happening, he leapt at the head and started biting and clawing it. This got the Pot Centipede to drop Aladdin. Sora went over and dropped a potion next to him. "Don't rush in like that!" Then he sent some mana to Simba, who roared, sending the Pot Centipede back a few feet. "Simba! Keep an eye on Aladdin!"

"Got it!"

Sora ran forward and shattered one of the Pot Spiders that made up the body. Donald cast Thunder, hitting several of the pots in the middle. Goofy ran up from behind and hit the tail while avoiding the electrocuting stingers. Aladdin and Simba looked at each other for a second before Aladdin shrugged and ran forward. "Jasmine!"

"Aladdin!" Aladdin went for the pot this was coming from and tried to hit it, but after one hit, a couple of other Pot Spiders jumped in front of him and blocked him. Fortunately for Aladdin, Simba pounced on them before they could attack him. Aladdin quickly hit the two pots a few times and shattered them.

"Jasmine!" Nothing. Aladdin looked around wildly. "Jasmine!" Sora looked over from where he was attacking the head. He couldn't use magic or Simba would be dismissed sooner, so he was relying solely on physical attacks. It wasn't that difficult. The thing wasn't very fast and it was easy to dodge the attacks. Sora figured he could see what was happening.

"What is it?"

"Jasmine's gone!"

"Well, worry about it after we kill this thing! It's not gonna just let us go look for her!" Sora had a point so Aladdin started swiping at any pot that came close to him. He was caught off guard when one was shattered by an icicle.

"Sorry!" shouted Donald. Aladdin had accepted that Sora and Donald could use magic. He hadn't gotten used to it though. He just shrugged and went for the next pot. Goofy was continuing to attack the tail while dodging the electrical feelers. Donald cast a sudden Thunder spell that destroyed several of the Pot Spiders. Then several more Pot Spiders came in from the sidelines. "Oh, for the love of-"

"Don't worry!" shouted Sora. "It's probably like when we had to destroy that fruit in Deep Jungle."

"What does fruit have to do with this? !" shouted Aladdin. He was confused by this since he was completely ignorant of the fact that there were other worlds. Donald twitched.

"Sora!"

"Yeah, yeah, world order. We've already got the Heartless here! I really don't think it matters!" The head tried to take a bite out of him, but Sora went down, pushed himself under the head, and hit it into the air. "Attack now!" Goofy threw his shield, Donald shot a Fire spell, Sora threw the Keyblade, and Aladdin threw his scimitar at it. These four simultaneous attacks were too much, and the head, along with the tail, exploded in a blast of dark smoke and a loud screech. The Pot Spiders there fell over and started dissolving into dust.

"Okay, it's dead. Now let's go find Jasmine!" said Aladdin.

"Hold on," said Sora. "We have no idea where they went. They could be in the city, but they might have left as well."

"Well, what are we supposed to do then? !"

"Can you think of where Jafar might take her?" asked Sora. Aladdin thought for a second before his eyes widened.

"The Cave of Wonders! Jafar was the one who told me about it." This got him suspicious looks from Sora and Donald and a confused one from Goofy. "I was in the palace dungeon and he was disguised as an old guy. I had no idea who he was!"

"I guess we better go find Carpet then," said Goofy. Sora groaned. He was not looking forward to that.

After finding Carpet outside the entrance to the city, they headed for the Cave of Wonders again.

"Those…things did something to the cave last time I was there. I don't think it's stable, but that means you guys should be able to get in."

"Didn't you say anyone else who went in besides you would get eaten?" asked Sora.

"Well…" Aladdin rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah, but considering how unstable the cave was becoming when we were getting out of there, I think you can get in as long as you're with me."

"Think?"

"I don't know much about magic…If it starts to collapse, you can probably get out of there before anything happens to you." That didn't do much to raise their confidence.

"How much longer until we get there?" muttered Sora.

"Last time, we didn't get there until it was dark," pointed out Goofy. Sora groaned and let his head fall onto his knees. This world sucked.

After flying long enough that it had gotten dark, they group finally reached the Cave of Wonders. It looked the same, sand in the shape of a large cat's head, probably a tiger, with yellow eyes. There was also a horde of Heartless around it. At least there wasn't a sinkhole this time.

"More Heartless?" muttered Donald.

"Is that what they're called?" asked Aladdin. "I'm pretty sure they're what caused the cave to go berserk."

"They'll probably spawn continuously like last time," said Sora. He took a closer look at the scene, and noticed something. "The cave's got an aura!"

"Huh?" Remember, Aladdin doesn't even know the bare minimum.

"Just go for the eyes. That seems to be the only vulnerable part," instructed Sora. "Ignore the Heartless. Don't try to attack them unless you need to defend yourself." Then he jumped off the carpet.

"Is Sora the son of a soldier or something?" asked Aladdin. "He seems really into this."

"He's always like that," said Donald. Goofy seemed to be in thought though.

"You know, we never did ask Sora about his family."

"Shouldn't we be helping him?" said Aladdin, watching Sora cast a Gravity Spell on several nearby Heartless. Then Sora turned and gave the people on the carpet a look that made them quickly jump off to join him.

"What took ya?" said Sora, looking rather annoyed as he cleaved an Air Soldier in two.

"Uh, nothing," said Donald, casting a Thunder spell on some nearby Heartless. Sora summoned Simba, who went over to Aladdin again. Aladdin was busy slashing any Heartless that got close to him.

"Remember, we need to get over to the cave!" shouted Sora. Fortunately, it was very easy to get through the Heartless and over to the cave. Then it got complicated. The cave suddenly pulled its head back, and let out a large stream of fire. They didn't dodge it though. That's right, not even Sora. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had been shocked enough by the cave suddenly moving that they didn't move soon enough. Well, you can't blame them. Most caves don't move. Aladdin had known about this, but his back had been to the cave. The damage done was enough that Simba automatically dismissed himself. Donald quickly cast a Cure on everyone. Sora decided there was a simple way to take care of this problem. He grabbed Donald and Goofy and tossed them onto the cave's head. Aladdin only had enough time to blink before he was grabbed by the teen, who jumped just as the cave brought its head down where they had been. Sora landed on the head as it came up and put Aladdin down. Aladdin was understandably shaken.

"What was that about? !"

"It can't bite or burn us up here, and we can get to the eyes," explained Sora, pointing at the eyes.

"Good idea," said Donald. Then the eyes started emitting laser orbs that went for the fighters. Thankfully, it wasn't that difficult to deal with them. Just swatting them with a weapon was enough to knock the orbs away. The real problem was dealing with the Air Soldiers and the Heartless that managed to climb up to their position. Donald and Goofy took care of the Heartless while Aladdin and Sora started bashing the eyes. You think this sounds easy? It's not. Donald, or Goofy, or both were regularly knocked off by the Heartless and had to climb back up. Until they did, Sora would take care of any Heartless that got too close. Aladdin would've helped, but Sora almost always managed to take care of the Heartless before they got too close. The only things that managed to get past Sora were Shadows, since they could slip past in the shadows. They all also had to deal with the laser orbs continuously. As stated earlier, it wasn't difficult to knock them away, but sometimes one of the fighters would miss an orb and get hit. All in all, it was more a battle of endurance than anything else. After hitting at the eyes for around 10 minutes, the eye Sora was attacking made a cracking sound and the light died away to the black of the rest of the cave. Aladdin's was still glowing. Sora quickly went over to help him, and a few seconds later, this eye darkened as well. This caused the Heartless to start disappearing. There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Man, I'm glad that's over with," said Aladdin.

"Hey, Sora, who is your dad?" asked Goofy. Sora instantly tensed up and turned with an unreadable look on his face and a dark but unreadable aura around him.

"I'm adopted." No one really had the guts to ask anymore about him. Sora quickly walked into the cave.

"Nice going Goofy!" shouted Donald. "What'd you do that for? !"

"Well, Aladdin has a point," said Goofy. "How does Sora know so much about fighting?"

"It's none of our business!"

"Can we go in already?" asked Aladdin. "I wanna get in, get Jasmine and Genie, and get out."

The three walked down into the cave cautiously. Sora was crouched, looking at some puppies, and seemed much calmer.

"It's more of those black and white things," said Aladdin.

"They're called Dalmatians," said Sora, not turning. "They're a type of dog, but these are still puppies."

"Dogs? I've heard about those before. So that's what they look like," muttered Aladdin. They must not have a lot of domesticated dogs in Agrabah. "They weren't here before. How'd they get here?" Sora shrugged and stood up.

"Aladdin, you lead the way. Donald, you do something about those puppies." Lucky for the puppies, a green circle was nearby. Donald would catch up in no time. The other three went on ahead.

"There are some traps you need to look out for," explained Aladdin. "There are some statues that shoot out darts, some more that shoot out pressurized air that will knock you down into that chasm, some that shoot flames, and there are some tracks with huge boulders running along them. They're not too difficult to avoid though." That was when Donald reappeared. Aladdin blinked a couple of times. "How'd you take care of those poppies-"

"Puppies."

"Right, puppies. How'd you take care of them so fast?"

"Teleportation spell." Well, Aladdin bought it at least. "What'd I miss?"

"You need to avoid the statues 'cause they shoot stuff out and there are some boulders," said Sora.

"What about Heartless?"

"They weren't here last time," said Aladdin. "If Jafar's here though…" Sora nodded.

"Right, we'll keep our guards up." And so Aladdin led the way through the cave. There were Heartless of course, mainly Bandits, Fat Bandits, Shadows, and Air Soldiers. Fighting Heartless was a bit trickier since they had to deal with the traps, but Aladdin and Sora were able to keep Donald and Goofy from going into the chasm, which was practically a minor miracle.

"Wow, no one fell this time," said Goofy. Aladdin gave him a weird look.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Last time we did something like this, Donald and Goofy kept falling down, especially Goofy," explained Sora.

"Yeah, swinging on those vines was really tricky," said Goofy before getting shushed by Donald.

"Vines?"

"Long story," said Sora. For once, he didn't say anything that might compromise the world order. Good for him. "Where next?"

"Next is the treasure room, and after that is…Oh…" Why the 'Oh?' The room they were in lived up to its name. There were piles of gold coins and other treasures all over the room, along with another green circle and another set of three puppies. There was also a large stone column blocking what looked to be the only other way out of the room. "That wasn't there before." Sora walked over to the column and rapped the column. It felt very solid.

"Well, that just proves that it can't be moved. Trying to break it with spells may just cause it to fall toward us or collapse into rubble in front of the exit." Sora looked up at the ceiling. Nothing special there. Sora looked down. "Hey, it looks like this is coming up out of a hole."

"Where do these come from?" asked Aladdin, staring at the Dalmatians. Abu had grabbed a coin, and one of the puppies had also grabbed the coin in its mouth. They were now having a tug-a-war, which would've looked cute to anyone who liked puppies and/or small animals.

"They just got lost. Don't worry about it," said Donald. He was waiting for Aladdin to at least go to another part of the room. Then he could send the puppies to the ship. Sora walked back over to them.

"I think that column is coming in here from down below," explained Sora. "We should be able to get rid of it if we take it out at a lower point, but we'll have to go to a lower level of the cave."

"That's not too difficult," said Aladdin. "We'll just jump off a cliff."

"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Goofy.

"A little, but it's mostly water down there." So they went back to the last room and jumped off the cliff, landing in some very cold water in a very dark cavern.

"Where to now?" asked Sora.

"Hard to say. It's like a maze down here," explained Aladdin. "This is actually where I found Genie's lamp. I should be able to get us there at least. Other than that, we'll have to keep looking around." Fortunately, they could climb up on some rock platforms in the water. Sora noticed some pieces of paper under a rock and pulled them out. He raised an eyebrow at what they said, rolled them up, and slipped them into his vest pocket. There were no other notable items found, although they did find a few potions and synthesis materials. On the bright side, there didn't seem to be any Heartless down here, so it was fairly easy to get around. After some wandering around, they came to a large room with a stone column.

"This is where I found Genie's lamp, but that column wasn't here before," explained Aladdin. Sora went up and looked the column over.

"This thing is made of a bunch of smaller, circular stones. If we knock them out one-by-one, it'll get shorter. If it's connected to the column in the treasure room, we should be able to get by. Donald, give me a hand." The two stepped back, pointed the Morning Star and Keyblade at the column, and hit it with two Fire spells simultaneously. It pushed the bottom block about half of the way out. Another hit pushed it all the way out, and the rest fell down to take up the space.

"Those two are pretty powerful magicians," said Aladdin as the two continued to demolish the column.

"Yep, Donald's been learning magic for most of his life," said Goofy.

"What about Sora?"

"Ya know, I don't really know. Donald's been showing him how to use magic, but Sora mentioned something about magic and materia before."

"Materia? What's that?" Goofy just shrugged. It's probably something from Sora's world.

"Okay, the rest of this column is just solid stone. We won't be able to do anything more," said Sora.

"How are we supposed to get back up there?" muttered Donald, waving his staff up above him. He and Goofy looked over at Sora.

"I can't jump that high."

"There are some stairs around here somewhere. We just have to find them." Thank you Aladdin. So, they swam around for a while and managed to find the stairs. The only problem was that they were back near the entrance of the cave and had to work their way to the back while fighting Heartless and avoiding traps. Eventually, they made it back to the treasure room, which no longer had the column blocking the other exit. Now, what has Jafar been doing this whole time?

Jafar, Genie and Jasmine were in the chamber behind the treasure room. Jasmine was leaning against a wall, unconscious, and Genie looked rather unhappy.

"My first wish, Genie! Show me the Keyhole!"

Genie frowned, but snapped his fingers, causing the wall in front of them to crack and crumble. Behind it was the Keyhole.

"Excellent."

"So you've found the Keyhole?" Jafar turned to see the woman he'd been talking to before.

"Come to retrieve your princess?"

"That boy is here."

"What? That boy is more persistent than I thought. We don't even have anything of interest to him."

"The Keyblader has a rather…unique philosophy. I doubt we will be able to understand all of his motives."

"Why not explain the situation to Riku? Doing so may actually prove useful to our-" Jafar was cut off by a dagger flying straight for his face. Lucky for him, the woman stopped it about an inch from his face with her magic. The two looked at the group at the entrance to the room. Aladdin was focusing on Jafar, Donald and Goofy were looking at both of them, and Sora was looking at the woman with narrowed eyes.

"Are you Maleficient?" At Sora's question, the woman disappeared, causing the dagger to drop to the floor. "Tch, figures."

"Jafar! Let Jasmine go!" shouted Aladdin. Jafar sneered.

"Not a chance. You see, she's a princess, one of seven who hold the key to opening the door." Sora frowned.

"What sort of door are you talking about?"

"You fools won't live long enough to find out. Genie! My second wish: Crush them!" Aladdin's eyes widened.

"Genie! No!"

Genie sighed. "Sorry Al, the one with the lamp calls the shots. I don't have a choice." Jafar laughed and floated up and away from the group. Sora pulled out his other dagger, ran forward, and grabbed the dagger he had thrown before. Jafar raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to use those toys?" Sora gave him a dangerous grin.

"I don't need the Keyblade to take care of you." Then Sora jumped straight at Jafar, catching the sorcerer by surprise.

"Should we help him?" asked Aladdin. Goofy and Donald shrugged. Then Genie swung his fists at them.

Jafar grit his teeth. Sora was very fast. This normally wouldn't matter since Jafar can levitate, but Sora was capable of jumping high enough to attack him. Jafar was firing his magic at Sora, but the Keyblader was managing to dodge most of them.

"I'm sorry!" Oh yeah, and Genie seemed to be trying to do his job as badly as possible. Aladdin and Donald were actually able to get away from Genie to help Sora with Jafar. Donald's magic was not hampered by levitation and was capable of hitting him. Aladdin couldn't jump as high as Sora, but he was throwing his sword at Jafar. Goofy had decided to stay back and keep Genie from getting near the rest, which wasn't that difficult since Genie wasn't actually trying. Then Sora slashed Jafar across the abdomen. Yeah, this definitely wasn't going to work. Jafar decided to try something else.

"Genie! My final wish! I want you to make me an all-powerful genie!" Genie blinked but raised his hand and hit Jafar with some red magic. The resulting transformation caused the floor to shatter, causing the group to fall down into the area below, which was full of lava. Fortunately, there was a large stone platform that they landed on. Then genie Jafar came floating down from above. He was big, red, and had gotten a lot more muscular.

"Great…somehow this seems to be beyond us," said Sora.

"The lamp!" Aladdin pointed at the red bird, which was holding a black lamp in its talons. "Get his lamp!"

"Right, we can suck him into his lamp." Sora glanced at Jafar. "Maybe I should use the Keyblade." He quickly put away his daggers and pulled out the Keyblade. Donald fanned himself.

"It's way too hot!" Then he cast Aero on everyone. It did help, but they were in a pit full of lava so it didn't do much. Then Jafar threw a huge rock at them, causing everyone to scatter. Then it was time to go for the weird parrot. Donald hit it with a Fire spell.

"Hey! Watch it!" Looked like long range attacks worked best. Sora took a moment to concentrate as smoke started to swirl around him. Then he transformed into his Wisdom Drive and shot several magic blasts at the bird. The bird recognized the threat and brought the lamp up in front of him to avoid getting killed. Jafar didn't seem to like this.

"Iago!" Said parrot squawked and quickly flew away while Sora rolled away from a large blast of magic Jafar sent towards him.

"Since when can Sora do that?" asked Aladdin.

"Oh, he's been able to do it for a while," said Goofy. "I think he just needs the right motivation to use it."

"Then why didn't he use it when Jafar kidnapped Jasmine? !"

"Less talking, more fighting!" shouted Donald, using a Gravity spell to knock Iago to the ground. Sora hit Iago with a Fire spell and felt an odd clicking sound in his mind.

"What the?" Sora cast another Fire spell, which was much more powerful. "Was that Fira?" Iago shot up into the air.

"Enough with the fire already!" Then he started flying away as Jafar threw more rocks at everyone. Aladdin managed to land a hit on Iago though.

"Blizzard!" Sora felt that clicking again. "Freeze!" This spell was also upgraded. "Weird…" The spells had put a lot of frost on Iago's wings. He probably wouldn't be able to stay airborne much longer. Then Goofy's shield came flying out of nowhere and hit Iago. This was the last straw. Iago fell to the ground unconscious with the lamp next to him.

"No!" Jafar pulled back his hand, which was starting to glow with magic, but Aladdin grabbed the lamp and held it up before the magic could be used. The effect was instant. The lamp started glowing and sucking in Jafar, starting at the tail. Jafar let out an angry shout as he was sucked into the lamp in less than 5 seconds. Then Sora grabbed the lamp and threw it off the platform and into the lava.

"That takes care of that," said Sora, changing back. He paused, noticing some papers floating down from somewhere. Frowning, he grabbed them, but was not able to take a look at them.

"You did it!" Everyone jumped. When did Genie get here? He hugged all of them in a bone-crushing hug. "I'm so happy! I couldn't stand having to fight you guys!" Aladdin smiled.

"We're happy to see you too, but-"

Donald cut him off. "You're crushing us! Let go!" Up above, Jasmine, who had regained consciousness, was watching with a smile.

"They did it!" Then a black gloved hand covered her mouth and another arm went around her and pulled her back before she could scream. A moment later, everyone came up out of the lava pit. They all blinked, but Aladdin was the one who voiced what they were thinking.

"Where's Jasmine?" She seemed to have disappeared somehow. Then the Keyhole started to glow. Sora held up the Keyblade, and the beam shot out of the tip and into the Keyhole. As soon as the locking sound was heard, the beam disappeared, and a wall reappeared in front of the Keyhole. Then the Cave started to shake.

"We better get out of here!" shouted Goofy. Lucky for them, Carpet came zooming in at that moment.

"But what about Jasmine? !"

"We can't do anything for her if we're dead!" shouted Sora. This didn't seem to do any good so Sora had to drag him onto Carpet. Then they went flying off and saw just what was going on with the cave. Rocks were falling from the ceiling, and the ground was getting so hot that it was turning into lava and occasionally shooting up like a geyser. Carpet had to dodge all of these threats. There were a couple of close calls, but Carpet was able to avoid all of them and get them out of the cave, and not a moment too soon. As soon as they came shooting out, the cave collapsed into a mound of sand. For a second, they just floated there, looking at where the cave had been.

"I hope Jasmine wasn't in there," said Aladdin.

"I doubt it. I didn't feel any other auras while we were leaving," said Sora.

"…What's going on?" Aladdin gave the three travelers a look. "I know you guys know something." Sora took a moment to look at Aladdin. He was obviously upset and looked like he might have a breakdown if something wasn't done.

"Donald, I'm telling him. I don't think the world order can be damaged any more here," said Sora.

"You can't do that!"

"I dunno…" Donald looked at Goofy in surprise. "I think we should tell Aladdin." Donald looked from Aladdin, to Sora, to Goofy, to Genie.

"Fine." So the whole ride back to Agrabah was spent explaining everything that was going on to Aladdin. It took a while. They didn't finish explaining until after they got back to Agrabah and went to Aladdin's house.

"It sounds like they needed Jasmine for something," said Sora. "That means she's probably alive. They just took her somewhere else, probably their base."

"So, what you're saying is that Jasmine's no longer anywhere on this world?" asked Aladdin. The three travelers nodded. Aladdin looked down at his feet for a moment before nodding and standing up from his sitting position. "Sora, let's go find her." Sora didn't answer. Instead, he looked at Donald who sighed.

"We can't take him with us." This was not what Aladdin wanted to hear.

"Why not? !"

"Gosh, I sure wish we could, but that would be muh-mudd-" Donald sighed and decided to help the knight out.

"Meddling."

"And that's against the rules." Genie decided to intervene.

"Earth to Al. You still have one wish left. Just say the word, and I'll have Jasmine back here for you, lickety split." Aladdin looked at Genie, the lamp, and back again.

"I…I wish…" Genie raised his hands. "…for your freedom." Everyone was caught off guard by this. Genie's cuffs fell off and his tail suddenly turned into a normal pair of legs. Genie stared at his arms and then at Aladdin, who just shrugged. "A deal's a deal. You're your own master now."

"Al…"

Elsewhere, the fight with Jafar was being discussed by the familiar villains. Hades was watching the ball while leaning against the wall. What was so surprising was that Riku was also there. Hades snorted when he saw the part where Jafar got sucked into his lamp. "That smarmy vizier could've had them…If someone had stuck around to give him a hand." He gave Riku a pointed look. Riku shrugged carelessly.

"Hey, I did my part. I brought the princess didn't I?"

"Jafar was beyond help." Maleficient stepped in from the shadows, also observing the ball. "Consumed by his own hatred." She turned to look at Hades. "One should beware of letting it burn too fiercely." Hades waved his hands.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, lighten up. I'm as cool as they come, okay?" Then he grinned and pointed at Riku. "By the way kid, have we got something special for you." Riku raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?"

"We had a deal, yes?" Riku turned his attention to Maleficient. "You help us, and we grant you your wish…" She waved her hand over an unseen object and a hologram of an unconscious Kairi appeared in the air. Riku's eyes widened.

"Kairi!"

"Go to her. Your vessel is waiting." At Maleficient's words, a man wearing fancy red clothing, including a feathered hat, long black hair, a thin moustache, and a hook in place of one of his hands stepped out of the shadows grinning.

"Just remember; this is no pleasure cruise. It won't be a pleasant voyage." Riku frowned at the hook-handed man and turned his attention back to Maleficient.

"Why are you doing all this for me? What's the catch?" Maleficient smiled at him.

"Catch? What's the catch? Silly boy. You're like a son to me. I only want you to be happy." As she finished speaking, she touched Riku's face, but he pushed her hand away.

"I seriously doubt that." Maleficient gave him a rather cool look.

"Believe what you wish. But lest we forget, I kept my end of the bargain." Riku just calmly turned to follow the red-clothed man.

Back in Agrabah, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin were standing in front of the gates of Agrabah. Genie had already left. "Hey, Sora, here." Aladdin handed Sora a charm that looked like Genie's lamp that had a golden chain. Sora looked at it in surprise.

"Where'd you get this?" Aladdin chuckled.

"It's funny. When we got back from the cave, I just found it in my hand. I don't know where it came from. It looks like the thing on your key." Sora nodded and took the Keyblade off his back. He quickly took off the Jungle King charm, put it on the chain around his arm, and put the new one on the Keyblade. With a flash of light, the Keyblade changed form again. The first thing that Sora noticed was that the shaft was much shorter now. The Keyblade also seemed to be made almost completely of gold. The hand guards were curved a bit like the lamp's handle, and the key part was a rather odd shape that Sora couldn't really place, but he knew what to call the Keyblade.

"Three wishes. It's kind of short. I'll have to try it out before I know if it's well-suited for me."

"You guys are leaving now, huh?" said Aladdin.

"Yeah, we need to find the king," said Donald.

"And Sora's friends," pointed out Goofy.

"Do you think you could show me this ship of yours?" Sora raised an eyebrow at Aladdin's question. "I'm just curious what it looks like. It's not every day that a ship used to go to other worlds shows up."

"I don't think it's a problem, do you?" said Sora.

"I guess not," said Donald. "But don't touch anything!"

"Don't worry. I'll be good." They went to where they had hidden the gummi ship, in a small bit of vegetation off to the side of the gates. Aladdin looked it over in disbelief. "This is how you get around? It looks like it's made of fancy building blocks."

"Yeah, weird, isn't it?" said Sora. "We don't have anything like this in my world either."

"I guess we should leave now," said Goofy.

"Well, it was nice meeting you guys," said Aladdin. "Drop by sometime. We can go treasure hunting."

"Sure thing," said Sora. The three off-worlders climbed into the gummi ship and started the engines. As the ship rose into the air, they turned to see Aladdin still watching them. "Let's go." The engines flared, and they shot off into innerspace. As soon as they were away from Agrabah, Sora took some of the papers out of his pockets. "Can you guys put the ship on stand-by? I wanna look at these papers. I think Jafar dropped them. It says 'Ansem's Report #1.'" That got their attention. They quickly slowed the engine down to a stand-still.

"What's it say?" asked Donald. Sora returned his attention to the papers.

"'Much of my life has been dedicated to pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that. I am blessed with people's smiles and respect.

"' But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand. I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times.

"'Darkness...

"'Darkness of the heart.

"'How is it born? How does it come to affect us so? As ruler of this world, I must find the answers.

"'I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness." The three were silent as they digested this. Then Donald sighed.

"That didn't tell us anything."

"Maybe if we find some more reports, we can learn something," said Goofy. Sora shrugged. There wasn't enough in the report for him to have a definitive opinion.

"Let's just go to the next world. Maybe we can find something there."

-end chapter-

That's that. You might think it's a bit odd that Aladdin wasn't bothered by how violent Sora was or when he talked about people getting killed, but if the penalty for stealing an apple is getting your hand cut off, I'm sure Aladdin's seen worse.

Sora did not get Genie as a summon. There is a very good reason for this which will be revealed at the beginning of the next chapter, which will be Monstro. And I apologize to anyone who wanted to see more of Abu, but I think Abu would prefer to avoid the fights the group gets into.

By the way, I like both Pokémon and Digimon. I have nothing against either of them. I just thought it would be fitting for Ash to end up there. And now for the omake!

Omake: What about the Rest? Part VIII

"Boo!" The goggle-wearing boy and blue lizard thing jumped nearly a foot in the air. Ash laughed and turned visible.

"Huh, another grown-up?"

"Nope! I'm a ghost!"

"Seriously? !"

"Davis, I don't think we can have ghosts in the Digital World."

"Really?" The blue lizard nodded. Davis turned back to look at Ash. "Nice try, but you can't fool us!" Ash grinned and stuck his hand into his head. Davis and the lizard's eyes widened. "Okay, then again, uh, Veemon, can Digimon do anything about ghosts?

"I don't think so." Ash frowned.

"This isn't freaking you out? Have you seen a ghost before?" Both nodded. Ash sighed. "Great. Guess I'll have to use the big guns." Then he pulled his rifle out from where he'd hidden it, wherever that was.

"Hey! That's a real gun!" shouted Davis. Ash rolled his eyes.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious."

"What are you gonna do with that?" asked Veemon. Ash gave them a crazy grin, pointed the gun at them, and fired. It clipped Davis's ear. Davis brought his hand to his ear, brought it in front of his face, and stared. Then he exchanged looks with Veemon. The two then turned tail and ran out of there. Ash laughed and gave chase. They weren't nearly fast enough to outrun a Tsviet.