I rather liked writing this chappie, actually :D Anywho, sorry for the late update. Life/swimming/midterms called.

So yeah, this chappie involves some KH2 plotline, some info as to Anxclof's powers (because come on, as a member of the Organization, she's got to do something besides be madly skilled in swordplay), foreshadowing as to what Anxclof's gonna do next, some Char-to-Sora reminiscence, and one of my wittier lines IMO.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer- Oh yeah, I so own Kingdom Hearts. That's why Roxas never found a way to get his own heart and travel with Sora. D: WHY ROXAS WHY?

Sora normally wouldn't mind sticking his neck out this far to help someone, and the feeling was amplified even more so when he performed this kind of task for a friend, but even he had to admit that the peddler's request had been a little… over the top.

"I can't believe you told him we could pay him in 'royal treasure', Donald…" A sigh issued from Char's mouth, sounding like it had been dragged from her throat, and she shook her head with a reproving glare at the mage. "Nice job. Now we actually have to go get some treasure worthy for a sultan."

"Oh, like this is my fault!" Donald squawked indignantly.

"Calm down, guys!" Aladdin urged, shifting his anxious dark gaze from girl to duck and back again. He addressed Sora. "I wish I could say that we could just go get some from the palace, but it's not mine to take. And I don't want to worry Jasmine or the sultan…"

"Still, where're we gonna get that kind of treasure?" Goofy wondered aloud, one nervous hand braced against the bottom part of his face.

"I bet if we'd told him that the fate of Agrabah rested on us having this lamp, he would've relented," Char remarked.

"But this has to stay as secretive as possible," Sora reminded her. "We stopped Jafar from destroying Agrabah last time we were here, before he could cause too much damage. We don't want to send these people into a panic."

"Yeah, that'd make things much harder on the sultan and Jasmine."

Up until this point, Iago had been unnaturally silent – probably because earlier, he'd had to wait outside the peddler's shop with Aladdin while Sora and the others negotiated with the short peddler; an awkward affair, to put things lightly. Now, however, the bird spoke, his voice rending the unnaturally-quiet air in a way that made them all jump slightly before turning to him. "How about the treasure in the Cave of Wonders?" Iago suggested, flying up to Aladdin.

Sora folded his arms, not taking his eyes off of Iago. Until then, Sora had been starting to nurse a grudging little seed of trust for the bird – after all, he hadn't tried to betray them yet – but at Iago's words, the brunette couldn't help but feel a little surge of suspicion. How did they know that Iago wasn't ready to lead them into a trap?

He glanced over at his friends and saw that they felt the same way; Donald's eyes were narrowed and his feathered arms crossed, while one of Char's eyebrows had vanished into her bangs, and even Goofy seemed a bit perturbed.

However, Aladdin's suspicion didn't last very long. "All right, Iago. You lead the way! And after we get the treasure, I might believe your apology."

"You can count on me," Iago chirped, oblivious to the others' emotions.

He took off toward a tunnel leading out of the marketplace, his crimson form conspicuous against the adobe of the buildings. "Wait up!" Sora yelled, charging after Iago with his companions behind him. Abu let out a chattering cry that seemed to mimic Sora's demand and the monkey hopped onto Aladdin's shoulder.

"You're really gonna trust him?" Char muttered to Aladdin, slightly breathless from running.

The young man shrugged. "It's not like we have a choice," he pointed out, his voice steady. Clearly, he was used to this kind of dashing through town. "If he's really telling the truth, then I'll believe him. If not, then we're gonna have to be ready for whatever happens."

"I guess," Donald panted.

They emerged in an area that merely looked like a smaller version of the marketplace they had just entered; Aladdin explained that this was the bazaar of Agrabah. The five of them made their way carefully through the town, keeping their eyes open for any Heartless that might come along. Char in particular kept a sharp eye out, somehow worried and relieved that the sight of Avenger Nobodies materializing never greeted her eyes. It struck her as odd, that Anxclof still hadn't shown up yet. Maybe she's just in a different world; it's not like she could plant some sort of tracker on Sora, after all, Char reasoned mentally. While Anxclof, as Number XIV and the Organization's Blade of Vengeance, did have an array of skills unlike those with her Keyblade – as Axel had specialized in fire, Roxas in light, Vexen in ice, and so on – Char was fairly certain that tracking wasn't one of those skills. From the limited amount of Roxas' memories that Char had seen – and she cursed the fact that she had just had to get hungry and bored then – she had also watched Roxas and Anxclof train together, and seen their elemental powers develop.

"The palace walls are right outside," Aladdin announced after cutting a shadow Heartless down with his scimitar. He pointed with his blade toward the wooden doors along the opposite wall. "That should be our best bet for getting to the Cave of Wonders."

Sora had just barely caught his breath and lowered his Keyblade when a series of translucent dark orbs announced the arrival of still more Heartless. This time, however, the bandits were accompanied by gypsy-like members of their species, gypsies that balanced icy-blue orbs in their dark hands and glared out with pale eyes. Sora groaned aloud. "Looks like we'll have to take care of these guys first," he called back.

At least they're not the fire-breathing ones, Char thought, more than a little relieved. She drew her own blades and charged into battle.

After a few moments of thought, Sora gave a running leap toward one of the gypsies, deciding it was best to take out the unfamiliar enemy first. It made as if to give an aerial dodge, but the shaft of the Hero's Crest caught it in the side of the head, knocking it to the ground. Aladdin, who was nearest, let out a cry as he slashed at it with his sword. However, the gypsy had already regained its senses and it seemed to concentrate for a brief moment before a shard of ice suddenly shot from one of its blue orbs, grazing Aladdin's arm as it went past. Donald was busy casting an ice spell of his own on one of the bandit Heartless, so Goofy took it upon himself to give Aladdin a Potion. The young man nodded gratefully and downed the light blue liquid; the wound on his arm seemed to close up immediately and he threw himself back into combat.

As for Char, she had already pinned one of the gypsies against a crate and was currently rending its pink-clad body with both swords at once. She crouched for a brief moment and then lunged forward, driving all six blades into the Heartless' middle; it quivered and then disappeared. A blunt object suddenly struck her in the back and she whirled around to see one of the bandits with one of its scimitars raised. However, the impact of its blade never came – it froze in that position, and then vanished in a puff of dark smoke to reveal Sora standing there, slightly slumped with exhaustion and his Keyblade still poised where the Heartless had been.

"You okay?" he asked, sapphire eyes anxious.

Char rolled her eyes. "Of course," she replied. "I think right now the only things we have to worry about are Jafar and those lard bucket Heartless."

"Good point." Sora closed his eyes for an instant, during which the Hero's Crest disappeared, and then opened them again. He turned to the others and opened his mouth, but Iago beat him to it. "C'mon, let's go!" the parrot was shouting, looking around nervously and fluttering his wings frantically in order to stay in midair.

Donald growled under his breath and raced over to Iago. "Then you help out!" he shouted, shaking his staff threateningly. He got a whimper and the action of floating a ways backward as a response.

"Breathe, duck boy," Char sighed, tapping the top of Donald's head with the hilt of one of her blades as she passed him. She ignored the indignant retort her gesture induced – a snort that sounded suspiciously like "hypocrite" – and focused on Aladdin. "You said that this was the way out, right?" she queried, nodding toward the gate. At his nod of response, she turned toward the doors. "Let's go, then."

"Back again, Anxclof?" the larger of the two demons inquired, leering at her with sharp teeth bared.

The brunette rolled her eyes and slapped a few coins into the obese creature's claws, and both demons' smirks promptly widened at the sight of the munny. "Just get me into another round of the Underdrome, got it?"

"Of course," the skinny demon simpered, and lifted a claw. Across the fog-wreathed lake, a bridge coalesced from the central cavern to one of the walls bordering the toxic water. Anxclof didn't give them the satisfaction of a thank-you, merely inclining her head and stepping carefully onto the crude bridge; she had learned all too well the first time that just sauntering casually across was entirely the wrong approach to take toward anything in this part of this world.

Inside, she was still cursing herself for not being constantly on the move, not searching eternally for Sora and Char. But, well, Hercules and Phil had mentioned that the Keybearer and the redhead had passed through; that had to count for something. Anxclof felt her lip curl in the beginnings of a sneer. She felt certain – no, scratch that; she knew – that Char had been sent along as a guardian to Sora, and that had it not been for Char's timely intervention when Anxclof had shown herself, Roxas would be walking at Anxclof's side right now and Sora would be suffering in Kingdom Hearts.

Besides, taking out Heartless helped to vent some of Anxclof's lingering stress. From the looks on Hercules and Phil's faces when the brunette returned every night from the Underworld, she figured that they had to suspect something. She had already spent a few days in this world, most of which were spent entering the Underdrome; fighting Heartless, sometimes using her Avengers when things got too difficult, much to the awe of the demonic audience she gathered; and then killing some more Heartless within the Underworld itself to get more munny and repeat the process. The demons that were always at Hades' side didn't seem to mind the extra publicity; if anything, they reveled in the fact that she was spending so much cash on this. She mostly ignored the "sweet" façades they gained when she approached.

Almost the instant her foot landed on the small platform within the cavern used for the coliseum fights, light flashed briefly, blinding Anxclof for a moment before she became used to it. She mostly tuned out Hades' commentary – the first time, the way he had scorned her as just another novice had grated massively on her nerves and she'd had to fight the urge to use a few gamma rays to slice into Hades and the audience's flesh, just for the hell of it; the next few times, it was just annoying. However, she couldn't hold back a small smirk when he mentioned her occasional use of her Nobodies. Obviously he had heard of the Organization and he was bound to suspect something. The pervasive use of her Keyblade didn't help much, either. She guessed that the only Keybearer Hades had seen before her had been Sora, and that he wasn't too fond of them due to that little first impression.

Strange, she mused as the first few Heartless materialized and she summoned her Keyblade. Only a little while ago, Anxclof would be concerned about keeping her reputation and identity to herself; she would be banging her head against the wall for making that information so public. But, well, it was just one world; and things weren't like before. All of the villains that had previously challenged Sora had dissolved their alliance to one another when Sora had last defeated Maleficent.

And to think that Anxclof wouldn't even have known that if Roxas hadn't relayed it to her.

Then again, Roxas had almost always been ahead of her in everything. He had discovered his light powers before her radiation powers had become clear to her; he had approached her with a triumphant smile and glittering blue eyes after he'd summoned his Samurai Nobodies, while Anxclof herself had been struggling with her own Avengers. And memories of Sora had begun flowing to Roxas in the form of dreams long before Anxclof's own true name had become clear to her.

She figured that that little complication just came with Nobodies whose Others were still alive; after all, Xemnas and all the ranks up to her and Roxas had obviously never had to deal with that little issue. So, that meant that Falcon was still alive somewhere. For some reason, that gave Anxclof a small amount of comfort.

The brunette shook that thought out of her mind and charged forward with her blade in hand.

For the most part, the round went fairly smoothly, except when one fire-breathing Heartless proved to be nearly too much and she'd had to summon some Avengers to keep it distracted while she pounded on it from the back. As the crowd roared its approval of her victory, Anxclof glanced up at where Hades stood on his platform. "Think you could start bringing out some harder enemies next time?" she called cockily, to 'oohs' from the crowd.

Hades rolled his eyes almost imperceptibly. "That concludes the first round, folks!" he called to the audience, who began murmuring amongst themselves. "You guys know the drill – come back later and all that." He narrowed his eyes at Anxclof, and she swore she saw the tiniest tip of golden yellow flame take over the ice-blue fire on his head, if only for a moment.

She mentally told her Keyblade to return to its chain form and stepped back outside. In the back of her mind, the knowledge of how she was failing to accomplish her task nagged at her, jabbed at her with near-mosquito-like fingers. Her brow furrowed and she sighed, bringing up one hand to massage her temples.

How was she supposed to find Sora, anyway? It wasn't exactly like he was just waiting for her at the World That Never Was… And Char would always be a setback.

Yet Anxclof couldn't help but feel like she was just making excuses in that regard.

But then memories of her and Roxas and Axel, traveling the worlds and fulfilling missions for Xemnas, rushed back into her mind, and she gritted her teeth with the force of her newly born determination.

Still… there was almost no way to find Sora at the moment, was there?

Unless…

Anxclof had been trudging along the bridge, head bent with her hair falling to obscure her face in thought, but now she jerked her head up, eyes wide in realization. She ignored the way the long piece of land precariously trembled at her sudden action.

Of course… She felt like smacking herself upside the head and then hitting it against the wall; she had been approaching this entirely the wrong way. The only issue now, however, lay in how exactly she was going to lure Sora to her.

Anxclof's shoulders slumped in a sigh and she resumed her journey across the bridge, muttering a small curse when something from the depths of the lake bumped against the underside of the path and caused it to tremble. As she walked, only half-focused on putting one foot in front of the other, she searched her memories for anything that could possibly be important enough to Sora to instantly drop everything and come running. Of course he held Donald and Goofy in high regard, but they were currently accompanying him. And while Char and Sora had a kind of mutual respect for one another – Anxclof nearly snorted aloud; from the way Char was constantly protecting him and vice versa, even Anxclof could see that that little "respect" had evolved into something more – the redhead was also traveling with him, so that possibility was out.

Something Roxas had said came back to her, and the recollection of the way he'd looked at her, hand tentatively grasping hers while honey-rimmed sapphire eyes earnestly met hers, the Twilight Town sunset framing his form in an iridescent gold, summoned forth tears to her eyes.

"Well, Sora did like Kairi, after all, so I guess that emotion must have carried over to me, because Nobodies remember what their Others felt…"

Kairi.

Abruptly Anxclof lifted one arm and put out her hand; at her mental command, a portal of darkness formed in front of her, tentacles of wispy black and pale purple twisting together almost invitingly. Without hesitation, she walked right into it, not even looking back at the unpleasant scenery of the Underworld's caverns as the shadows swallowed up her former surroundings.

Because who said that Sora didn't still care for Kairi?

"This is the place," Iago confirmed, the energy in his wings replaced with weariness.

Sora gave a slow nod, more for Char's benefit than the others', as the redhead was the only one who had yet to set foot in the Cave of Wonders. Char herself was giving the parrot a slightly suspicious glare, but Iago returned the eye contact with an earnest stare of his own and lighted down on her shoulder. "Get off, you stupid bird," she muttered, waving him off.

Aladdin smirked just a bit at Iago's crestfallen face, but his expression became firm again when he focused his dark gaze on the eerie-looking entrance to the cavern. Indeed, even though Sora had once passed through the bright, treasure-lit corridors of the Cave of Wonders, the sight of the huge tiger-head-like entrance, yawning out with sharp fangs, didn't fail to make Sora or the others shiver just a bit. Sora still couldn't help but feel a little shudder of nervousness at the thought that the tiger was going to swallow them all whole if they weren't careful enough.

"Well, we still have to get that treasure, right?" Goofy quipped, almost as if to reassure himself.

"Yeah," Donald agreed, a little too hastily.

Sora sighed under his breath; when they had stopped to rest for a little while outside the palace walls, Donald had wondered whether there would be enough treasure to satisfy not only the peddler, but the mage himself. Needless to say, this had induced a none-too-gentle flick on the side of Donald's head from Char and chuckles from Sora, Aladdin, and Goofy.

The five – or rather, six – of them entered, eventually emerging down past the tiger's jaws after taking out a couple more of the gypsy Heartless. As solid ground became more defined after the slope of the tiger's "tongue", Char allowed a little murmur of awe to escape her lips. A few slightly-raised blocks were scattered about the valley-like area, blocks with treasure chests along the top of them, and the mostly-violet room sparkled conspicuously.

"This room…" Sora let his voice trail off, equally in wonder.

"It sparkles like this because of all the treasure embedded in the walls," Char briefly surfaced from her awe to point out.

"Yeah," Aladdin agreed, looking a bit impressed. "How'd you know?"

The redhead shrugged, averting her eyes self-consciously. "I've read a few books," she muttered.

"More than a few," Sora corrected, remembering something she'd told him while she had been recovering in Hollow Bastion. She had explained that she had had to cover most of her master's library in both his study and the smaller dwelling where she and her fellow students had lived.

Then he frowned just a bit at the remembrance that she had refused to disclose the names of her friends and the identity of her master.

They all made their way through the large catacomb, and Char noted how un-cave-like the place seemed. No trace of the dankness or shadows typically associated with caves hid in the Cave of Wonders. Maybe it's due to all the treasure, she assumed, for while the books she'd read about Agrabah had informed her of this place, she had never gotten an actual coherent picture of what was inside. She felt a small grin flash across her face. Another one for the books: first, that Char Nightblaze actually listened to something Riku said, and second, she got an actual glimpse inside this place.

But at the thought of the former her smile faded just a bit, because the thought of Riku heralded so many dark thoughts and the painful knowledge that he wasn't here, of how she – and not just her, but Sora, Donald, and Goofy as well – of how they all were walking down a path wreathed in danger and shadows. Gods, she missed those days in Twilight Town, where the most troubling thing had been checking Sora's vital signs and her ever-growing crush on Riku.

Yet now, the thought of Riku didn't make her face and back feel hot, didn't make her heart pound as quickly as it used to.

She banished those thoughts hastily when a flicker of darkness announced the arrival of still more Heartless. She didn't need to inform the others, as they had already drawn their weapons and thrown themselves into the fray. Abu and Iago cried out in contrasting shrill and hoarse screeches, respectively, and made a beeline toward the edge of the path, away from all the Heartless.

Char cast her gaze about and spotted a swarm of small flame-shaped, lava-coated Heartless, accompanied by a gypsy, moving toward Donald. With a cry, she charged at them, her swords whipping through the air as she took out the smaller ones in a single twist of her body.

However, the gypsy Heartless still remained, and it raised its hand and fired a jagged shard of ice at Donald. Instinctively he brought up his staff to guard, and the fragment embedded itself into the witch-hat-like piece at the very top of the staff. The duck swore loudly and began shaking his weapon frantically, apparently trying to get a small bit of mana out of it, but it only gave off a few sparks before ceasing to work altogether. Fortunately, Aladdin's scimitar carved into the remaining Heartless before it could use another ice attack on Donald, and the enemy vanished, its energy depleted.

"Uh-oh," Goofy murmured, staring at Donald's impaled staff.

Char glanced sharply at the knight. "What?"

"The last time Donald's staff got hit like that, he had to have His Majesty go make him a new one," Goofy explained nervously. Donald himself looked ready to spit fire.

"Of all the stupid things!" he spat, hitting his staff against the ground as though that would get it working again.

"It's fine," Sora tried to reassure Donald. "We found plenty of new weapons for you and Goofy on our last journey, right? I'm sure it'll be the same now."

"Or maybe there's one in the treasure room," Aladdin added, raising and lowering his shoulders helplessly.

All they got in response was an irritated grumble from the mage. Char rolled her eyes. "C'mon, duck boy. I'm sure that there'll probably be some kind of staff for you around here; it's the haven for this world's treasure, after all."

"I guess," Donald muttered. Somehow, Char got the feeling that he was only agreeing with her to make them all stop talking about his current inability to fight.

However, it did make the journey through the remainder of the long corridor more difficult, as they had to cover Donald and Donald himself was forced to pick a hiding place with Abu and Iago. The mage looked positively livid by the time they entered the next room.

Sora's vision was overcome by darkness for a brief moment before the sound of water splashing greeted his ears and a light source became visible. He blinked to get used to the sudden change in lighting and surveyed his surroundings. This new room was another hallway, except that it was devoid of the sparkling shine that had dominated the previous area, and the walls seemed to be covered by small waterfalls that were falling gently onto the flooded ground below. Abu, who had taken his place back on Aladdin's shoulder, suddenly chattered and pointed at the glowing jewel floating in front of them.

"No, Abu, don't –" Aladdin's protest was cut off when the monkey leaped up and snatched the jewel out of the air.

Abruptly, the walls began glowing an eerie pale blue that soon evolved to violet as the waterfalls vanished. Char's sense of urgency grew considerably when the ground began to vibrate violently below them. She summoned her swords as a few strange-looking statues emerged from the walls where the waterfalls had been. "Not good," she muttered.

To say that Sora agreed with her would be the understatement of the century: a feeling that intensified when the statues' eyes began glowing an ominous shade of tawny amber. Up until now, Abu had been glancing around anxiously, not taking his paws off the jewel, but he jumped back with a cry when a piece of ice shattered just a little ways away from him.

"Oh, no," Aladdin muttered. He signaled toward the statue at the end of the room, and, craning their necks to see, the others managed to spot a slot shaped vaguely like the jewel Abu was holding. "Get the jewel in there!"

Abu didn't need to be told twice; he raced toward it, frantically dodging the ice shards exploding near him along the way and leaping over the rising water. Goofy and Donald flanked him, while Sora, Char, and Aladdin blocked falling ice shards with their blades.

Char narrowed her eyes angrily when she heard Iago screaming, the parrot having just avoided getting crushed by the ice from the statues. "Oh, that won't kill our concentration at all," she grunted. She brought up her blades in the shape of an X when more ice fragments splintered against her swords.

Sora gave a breathless laugh. It reassured her to hear Char applying her dry wit to the situation as usual. As his muscles strained against a particularly strong piece of ice, which had shaken his Keyblade with the force of its shattering, he chanced a look over his shoulder and spotted the rose-colored gem in its slot. Char and Aladdin followed his gaze and lowered their weapons with sighs of relief.

A low whooshing noise caused them all to turn. Mist had briefly engulfed the walls and dissipated. Sora felt a brief burst of alarm when he saw the statues along the walls, but thankfully, their anger seemed to have abided. The main statue – the one holding the slot for the gem – shone a blinding golden before it too disappeared, turning into dust that then sprinkled onto the ground below.

"On to the next room," said Aladdin, raising his scimitar and giving a hesitant grin. Sora smiled to himself as he followed Aladdin, Iago, and Abu, the very latter of which taking his place back on his master's shoulder.

The sound of a little chuckle reached Sora's ears and he turned his head to see the very last remnants of Char's smile. She spotted him staring at her and gave him an expectant look. "What?"

"What's your deal?" he queried, dropping back to speak to her properly.

"The deal with what?" she answered coyly.

Sora sighed exasperatedly. "Char…"

A small huffing laugh escaped her and she shook her head with her eyes closed. She opened them and looked right at him. "Oh, Abu just reminds me of the pet Heartless I had back home, is all."

Sora blinked. "You can do that?" he couldn't help but ask, eyebrows arching up into his bangs in surprise. Perhaps it was all the time he had spent wiping out Heartless that made him so skeptical. And there was the tiny complication that, as the Keyblade wielder, he was practically the "jackpot" heart for those creatures.

"Yeah," Char answered. She seemed lost in memories for a moment, a distant look coming into her eyes. "His name was Shadow; I rescued him one day when one of the other apprentices wanted to kill him." She shrugged, focusing her gaze on the ground, as though ashamed of herself. "I guess I took pity on him – he seemed like… like he was just a baby when his heart was taken. He seemed so lost, like he was searching for his mother. He got attached to me because of that little encounter, so he was my pet for a little while after."

It was a 'he'? Sora thought skeptically, but he said nothing.

"He always loved to follow me around town, even though everyone always treated him like dirt because of what he was." Char laughed softly. "And my friend always wanted to know why I kept him, why I didn't just carve Shadow into pieces on the spot. I guess… it was because clearly, he was destined to have a good heart." At Sora's questioning gesture of tilting his head to the side, she rolled her eyes and elaborated further. "I'm saying that had he grown up, he would have had a strong enough heart to create a Nobody."

"This is weird…" Aladdin suddenly remarked. Char and Sora halted in their tracks and craned their necks to peer around the others. Just past Iago's conspicuous plumage, Char could see that the tall gates before them had already been opened.

"Are you sure this isn't a trap?" Donald demanded of the parrot.

Iago jerked backward in midair and shook his head desperately. "I told ya, no more tricks! I promise!"

"Either way, we still need that lamp," Sora murmured, and he walked forward to take his place at the head of the group. He cast a wary glance at Iago. "If you really are leading us into a trap…"

"I'm not!" Iago protested fervently.

"Thou doth protest too much, methinks," Char quoted, giving Iago a suspicious look. "Well, lead us on."

Iago entered the door, followed closely by the others. Sora spotted the golden glow cast by the treasure even before he had entered the room itself. The group found themselves in a carpeted room, and they actually had to squint with the lighting given by the golden coins dispersed throughout the room. Donald and Goofy's eyes widened and they murmured in awe as they looked on.

They all ventured further inside, looking around in wonder as they walked. They halted in front of a small stairway that led up to a trophy-like object. It reminded Char of the Struggle trophy from Twilight Town, but it was a much brighter shade of golden than the Twilight Town trophy; and the rubies embedded at the base and at the end of one "arm", along with sapphires and emeralds, gave only a vague resemblance to its less extravagant counterpart.

"There. That one should do it."

Without hesitation, Donald raced up the stairs and grasped the object by its base. "Oh, boy! It's perfect! That guy's gonna like this!"

"Sure looks valuable," Sora remarked.

"Great!" Aladdin said, relief clear on his face and in his voice. "Now let's go get that lamp. We gotta keep Jafar bottled up, or he's gonna destroy Agrabah!"

As for Abu and Iago, they were straining to lift a miniature statue – similar to the one holding the jewel from the previous room – that was holding a ruby toward Donald. The duck stood there with his feathered hands on his hips, tapping one foot impatiently and glaring at them. Finally he just shouted "Stop!" at them, and they promptly dropped it, albeit a little carefully. For a few moments, the pale pink glow of the gem caught Donald's eye and held it, and a greedy grin slowly began to spread across his face.

"Donald, snap out of it!" Aladdin called, and Donald shook his head, straightening with wide eyes.

Char had mostly been watching this exchange with no small amount of amusement, but a sudden noise behind her caused her to whirl around. What was it? It sounded a lot like someone snapping…

Then Sora cried out in shock and she whipped back around just in time to see the last remains of gold before shadows obscured it. The room darkened so that all anyone could see was the circle of light that surrounded them. All five of them backed up close together, with Iago and Abu fluttering nervously. They just managed to spot some Heartless materializing around them and closing in.

"Why does this always happen?" Donald wailed.

Char drew her swords and answered without looking back at him. "Because someone upstairs hates you, Donald."

Indeed, Char. Indeed.

I also get the feeling that people are really gonna like the end of this world XD; Dress/Hair in a Bun!Char plus Tux/Tame Hair!Sora equals love in my book.

-dismissive voice- Oh, and Anxclof and Axel and Kairi are gonna be there too. Lol. And if I'm feeling real inspired I might throw in a FalconCopperhead flashback.

But for now I have to think of a way to write that Lavi x Female!Allen oneshot that's been bouncing around inside my head for the past few weeks, BECAUSE THE BOUNCING'S GETTING KINDA OLD. KTHXBAI.