Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys

by lyokoMARVELanime

Spin-off/Sequel to Keyblades of Future Past. The legend you know returns, but this time it's not just Sora, Donald, and Goofy racing to save the worlds, but this time, they'll be working alongside the newest Keyblade Master and Sora's new teacher: Ventus. Experience the first KH adventure you know with a new twist as the forces of darkness face two keys in the battle for the worlds

9. Getting a New Groove

AN: Hey guys, we're getting back into the adventures of Sora and his pals with another update to my second Kingdom Hearts story!

[audience applause]

Yeah, yeah, exciting. I know. Any-who, we're doing the entire story of a world again with this chapter, just like we did last chapter, only this time...we're heading to a world that has NOT been in any of the Kingdom Hearts games so far (At least to the best of my knowledge, and that is quite extensive). In case it wasn't clear enough after the preview in the previous chapter, we're groovin' on down to the world of...The Emperor's New Groove! Yeah, you heard me, we're going to be seeing Kuzco, Pacha, Kronk...Oh you know the guys from that movie right?

Ventus: Hey, do you think we could answer some reviews before we start this? Some of the ones we got after the last chapter was posted seem pretty interesting.

AN: Don't worry, I fully intend to do just that. Let's start off with "Nerdman3000" who asked about the story we learned about in the recently released Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, namely the story that was revealed in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage. First off, I'd like to say that I really enjoyed playing that. The visual graphics, the little sneak preview of what we can now safely assume will be the game mechanics for when Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out (And let me just say that I'm excited for that trailer that's going to be coming out next month (it is currently June where I am and when I originally posted this chapter, for those of you who are reading this after the fact)), the story we uncovered...Just wow! And uh, let me just say that Aqua was incredible in multiple different ways in said story, both in terms of her character development, her show of abilities, and of course, her overall appearance. Seriously, I thought she looked hot in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, but in this newest rendition...

Ventus&Terra: Ahem. [looking at AN pointedly]

AN: Sorry, I'm off track. (Doesn't change my opinion though, or that of several other fans). Anyways, to answer the main question that was posed, that story will actually factor into this story later on down the line. Even before it was unveiled and the game was released I had intended for it to play some small part in this story, so you don't have to worry about that. Things from the original KH story will be changing in many more ways beyond just adding Ventus into the first adventure and a few more worlds and summons. You'll see what I mean soon enough.

Goofy: Hey, didn't someone ask if we were still gonna visit Agrabah soon?

AN: Yes they did, thank you for that reminder, Goofy. The question that was mentioned comes from "readingchameleon", and I can confirm that yes, Agrabah will be visited soon for two reasons. One, like you said, that world is important plot-wise (which incidentally confirms that all the Princesses of Heart will remain the same. I wasn't ever planning on changing that), and two...I just really love Genie! That guy is so much fun, be it in the game or in the movies when he was voiced by Robin Williams, God rest his soul. To ask me if I was not going to include Agrabah would be the same as asking me if Genie was not going to appear here, and there was no way I was going to allow that!

Riku: I'm surprised that no one's asking about that summon charm that Sora got from Cloud, or even about how your little poll regarding the Star Wars summon would affect the story of the sequel, considering that...

AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]

Riku: [suddenly gets ran over by a pack of roadrunners] ...Owwww.

AN: Not to worry everyone, no KH characters or any other variety of characters have ever been harmed in the making of this or any other story, or these author's notes. I say this only for those of you joining in on my stories for the first time and are reading author's notes like this for the first time. Anyways, I've kept you all long enough. Let's get on with the story! Pull the lever, Kronk!

Kronk: Uh...this lever?

AN: Just pull the lever.

Kronk: [pulls one of the levers, and music starts playing]

Ventus: Uh...is this the theme music to Power Rangers Samurai?

AN: Whoops...uh, not exactly...

---

[cue opening theme music of Power Rangers Samurai]

[0:00-0:10]: Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ventus each appear one by one as they summon weapons before displaying a montage of clips from their battles

[0:11-0:12]: "All for one and one for all!"

[0:12-0:22]: Displays each of the main characters in order as they sound off in the following order:

Sora slashing through Heartless "Sora."

Ventus blazing across the Olympus Coliseum stadium "Ventus."

Donald blasting off-screen enemy with magic "Donald Duck."

Goofy jumps in with shield forward to block an attack "Goofy."

Kairi glows with a bright aura, Keyblade in hand "Kairi."

[The rest of the video is basically a montage of the heroes fighting while listing Riku, Mickey, Leon, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith, and Maleficent as other characters. And cue lyrics]:

"Go go Keyblade Masters!"

Na-na, wa-na-ah-ah.

"Go go Keyblade Masters!"

Na-na, wa-na-ah-ah.

"Masters forever! Dual Keys stand together!"

(Repeat)

[Displays story title and end song]

---

Sora:...what the heck the was that?

AN: Sorry. I've kinda had little parodies of certain Power Rangers theme songs running through my mind for these Kingdom Hearts stories. See this is what happens when you watch too many fan-made videos that set such theme songs to other franchises. Anyway, what do you guys think?

Everyone else: [mutters incoherently among themselves voicing nothing that is heard, be it approval or otherwise]

AN: Ah, whatever. Not like it matters. It's not like this is going to be anything more than a mention/joke in this story. Anyways, Kronk, please pull the other lever.

Kronk: You know, I don't think even Yzma's ever had something like this happen to her with this gag. [pulls the other lever]

AN: Yeah, tell me something I don't know. Moving on, go easy on me for that, it was one of my first times writing an opening sequence like that, and enjoy the show everyone!

I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

---

Chapter VIII

Everyone on the team was happy that they were all friends again, or to be more accurate, they were all happy that Sora and Donald had made up and were no longer fighting each other instead of the Heartless, and while their spirits were diminished by the fact that they had not found any signs of the king, Riku, or Kairi, they were still uplifted by the fact that they had sealed another world's Keyhole, ensuring its safety from the Heartless. By the time that they had gotten back to Jane's campsite, they received more good news from Chip and Dale, who reported that they had finished all repairs on the ship, which meant that it was time for the four to head out to their next destination. Sure, it was a bit of a downer to say goodbye to Tarzan and Jane, but they still had a job to do. They were more thankful that they just accepted them saying that their ship was not too far away when Jane asked where it was.

Before they departed from the campsite, Tarzan looked to the two Keybearers and said, "Sora, Ven, Tarzan, friends."

Both Keyblade Master and Apprentice nodded to Tarzan in thanks for that, but what they did not expect, was for Tarzan to walk over and hand Sora a Keychain of all things. Ventus was honestly surprised that the ape man had such a thing on him, but when he remembered how a page from Ansem's reports on the Heartless was among Jane's research notes, he figured that he probably should not have been that surprised. That, and he also remembered how Eraqus had once told him and his friends that Keychains would often end up in the strangest of places with little to no explanation, other than the possibility that the corresponding Keyblade would likely resonate with the world it ended up on in some way. Ventus informed Sora of this later on when the boy asked him about the matter back on the ship, and that served to raise Sora's levels of excitement quite a bit at the possibility of finding even more Keychains.

Seeing the kid's excitement, Ven felt the need to caution Sora against hunting for other Keychains too much, since he needed to remember that despite whatever outward appearance it would take on, Sora's Keyblade would always remain the Kingdom Key, and Sora would need to rely on its power above all else in order to truly become a Keyblade Master. Sora assured his teacher that he would remember and that he was just excited about getting some Keychains that would make Kingdom Key stronger, and seeing the honest look in Sora's eyes, Ventus could not help but accept that. Even if he did not have the heart of a Princess of Heart inside of him at the moment, there was just something about the kid that made Ven want to believe him in this regard. More than that, he had a strong feeling that Sora's desire to find other Keychains was actually shared by Kingdom Key.

Whatever the case may have been, there was another more pressing mystery that the team needed to figure out. "The gummi block that came out of the Keyhole really isn't like any of the others we have. Wonder what it's used for," Sora commented as he came up to the bridge with Ventus, after having Chip and Dale analyze the gummi block in question.

"Couldn't tell you. Most of the time, Mickey and I would get to other worlds using my Keyblade Glider or some special magic that his master had taught him how to use. We really only used the Gummi Ship as sparingly as possible, or if we felt that it was absolutely necessary," Ventus shrugged. What he did not mention was that most of the times they used the Gummi Ship was to travel to Radiant Garden after Mickey started to regularly speak with Ansem the Wise about certain projects they had undertaken, but part of that was because he really only knew about one of those projects more than any other. It was everything else that he was not entirely knowledgeable on.

"Maybe Leon'll know," Goofy offered. "I mean, he does seem to know a lot about a bunch of different things."

"He might," Donald agreed. After getting more nods in agreement with this, Donald looked to his friends once again and then asked, "So we're going back to Traverse Town, then?"

"Yep, it sure looks like it, and I doubt we really have much time to lose. Let's put the pedal to the metal," Ventus said as he moved to one of the seats on the bridge.

"Oh! I wanna be pilot," Sora suddenly exclaimed as he tried to jump into said seat.

"Hey! Stop it," Donald snapped as he raced over to what he now come to consider his seat on the bridge.

"Oh, come on! I'm a Keyblade master," Sora whined as he struggled against the duck for the pilot's seat. When Ventus coughed and gave him a small look for that declaration, Sora quickly amended, "Or…I will be."

"I don't care who you are now or in the future! No," Donald snapped.

"Here we go again," Goofy playfully moaned.

"Oh, I don't think so," Ventus stated, and he immediately jumped right in between the two, splitting them apart. "Until we finally teach Sora how to fly this thing, and until you can learn to let him and be okay with it, Donald, I'll be flying the ship!"

"But don't you need to be training Sora," Goofy asked.

"Most of the stuff I can teach him on the ship is basically the textbook material and things that involve meditating, that is unless you want us to blow up the ship by letting him practice the Command Styles or Shotlocks on board," Ventus revealed. When he received rapidly shaking heads in negative response, Ven finished, "Then unless it is important enough for me to actually leave the flying to someone else, I'll be flying the ship. Now if there's no other objections…strap in, everyone. It's time to fly."

Everyone had instantly scrambled into their seats and buckled up just before Ven took the ship out of the orbit of the world that they had all come to call Deep Jungle. They were all sure that they were likely going to fly into another battle zone while the Keyblade Master was manning the flight controls. Oddly enough, the flight remained very peaceful. Not single Heartless ship came into their path or crosshairs, and the path that they had chosen for the flight back to the world they had all first met up on was relatively easy to navigate. Donald had even taken it upon himself to joke that this route was so easy to fly that even Goofy could have handled it, a fact that Goofy did not argue with, since he was well-aware of how bad his skills at piloting the ship were. That opinion quickly changed though when they suddenly found themselves facing a rather difficult problem.

The problem in question was not the Heartless, but a meteor shower that would've done severe damage to the ship when they initially came upon it had it not been for Ven's quick reflexes kicking in and allowing the ship to go to evasive action. Once they were sure that it was okay to do so, Sora had immediately moved over to the weapons controls while Donald checked in with Chip and Dale to make sure that they had not suffered any damage at all when they came upon the meteors. Goofy quickly checked the ship's maps to see just how bad the meteor storm was, and what he reported was far from good news. In fact, it would likely have been more appropriate to call this a meteor hurricane, because space rocks of various sizes and shapes were swarming all over the path forward, and it did not seem like it was going to pass over any time too soon. Looking at his own display of the map, which Goofy had sent over to his nearby terminal after he asked, Ventus had to bite back a curse when he saw that there was no way they were going to be able to get through this storm and back to Traverse Town in one piece, even with him at the helm controls and Sora's rather impressive abilities with the weapons controls. That meant that if they wanted to get through this and still have a ship that could fly afterwards, they only had two options.

One of those options was to turn around, go back to Deep Jungle, and find another route home. The only problem with that idea was that they would be putting the meteor hurricane at their backs, and there were many times when that would end up being far worse than flying into the storm. Ventus could still remember a few times when that had happened to him and Mickey when they were coming back from Radiant Garden, and he had no desire to repeat those experiences here when they were on such an important mission. With the first option sufficiently cast aside, Ventus instantly looked to Goofy and shouted, "Find us some place where we can wait out this storm! It doesn't matter if it's an immobile meteor we can set the ship down on or if it's a world we came go into orbit around!"

"But there's no telling how long we'll have to wait before this storm passes, and we can't afford to waste too much time if we want to find any of our friends," Donald protested after he heard that plan.

"Hey, it's either that or we turn around and find a different route, and that will more than likely take even more time," Ventus argued.

Goofy had ignored Donald's protest and instantly set to work finding what Ventus had requested, and as a result, he did find something that would work the minute that the blonde had finished giving his argument. "Ven, there's a world we can safely park the ship in orbit of just a few feet ahead," Goofy revealed.

Upon locking the ship's navigation systems on the coordinates, Ven was able to spot a small, peaceful point in the meteor hurricane that they could use to get to said world, and immediately gunned the ship forward, with Sora firing the ship's weapons at any and all meteors like crazy in an effort to keep up with the blonde. This was not so easily done, as Ventus was flying like crazy to get the ship to their new destination, and when you combined that with the fact that they were still flying through a dangerous meteor storm, no matter how peaceful it was in comparison to the rest of the hurricane it was a part of, they were having anything but a peaceful ride. Then again, what do you expect the ride to be like when you are trying to fly out of a dangerous area and to a safe haven, for it to be a cake-walk? Finally, the ship came into visual range of the world that Goofy had located, and not a minute too soon, because just seconds later, the storm had picked up once again, cutting the team off from any chance of turning back. Ventus was just glad that they were now able to catch their breaths and bring the ship into an area that did not have a chance of being pounded down on by meteors.

After seeing that they were safe for the moment and bringing the ship into a stable orbit, the team looked out of the ship to see what this world that they were parked at looked like. From a distance, it actually looked pretty similar to Tarzan's world, given that much of it appeared to be a jungle, though the trees were much thicker and denser, and there was no bamboo to speak of from what they could tell. They could also see a few mountain ranges as well, but the one that stood out the most was the one at the top of the world, which had a building that looked a bit like a person's head resting atop it. The building in question also possessed a gold color to it, and from what details they could see, it was definitely of the extravagant variety, which likely meant that it was either a palace or some other similar place of importance. The final thing that the team noted was that there were a couple of different hilltops that served as the location for small villages. It seemed a bit odd to the team that people build a village on a hill, but then again, every world had its own different set of rules, so they were not going to judge.

After studying the world below them for a few more minutes, everyone finally turned to Ventus to see if he knew what this world was. When the blonde just shrugged in admittance to not knowing, they then consulted the ship's computer to see if there was a record of it on there. After searching for a few minutes, Jiminy finally found it in the database. "According to the computer, this world is known as Llama Empire. Apparently, it's placed in a much earlier age than what most of us are used to, and is ruled by a young emperor named Kuzco," the cricket reported. He then hummed in thought for a minute and added, "Well that's interesting."

"What is it, Jiminy," Donald asked.

"From what I'm reading, it looks like this emperor thinks the whole world revolves around him," Jiminy informed them, the barest hints of disgust seeping into his voice. This did not surprise most of the team, given that Jiminy was an official conscience, but they did still want some context. "He basically lives in the lap of luxury and thinks only of himself while disregarding others completely. And according to this, he's planning on having an entire village destroyed just so he can make way for his own summer home."

"That's terrible," Sora exclaimed.

"I agree. If it weren't for the fact that we can't meddle too much in the affairs of other worlds, I'd be more than happy to give him a piece of my mind," Jiminy nodded.

The others nodded in agreement with the two, and Ventus then said, "Well, you might have to do just that. If someone like that is in charge here, the Heartless might have already been lead to this world. We should get down there, find the Keyhole, and if he we have the time, straighten this Emperor Kuzco out. You all with me?"

"Yeah," the rest of the team said, and with that, they all raced over to the transporter to head down, thinking they were ready for whatever they would find down there. They did pause to make sure Chip and Dale would be able to repair whatever damage the ship had suffered on the way there, but aside from that, they had little doubt that they would be caught off guard by what this world had to offer.

---

After landing on the world of Llama Empire, the team had immediately found themselves in the middle of the dense jungle that they had seen from the ship, and given the fact that it was currently night time, the whole place had a rather bone-chilling atmosphere to it that left some of them feeling a little jittery. "Gawrsh, this place sure is spooky," Goofy moaned in worry. "Do ya think there might be some kind of monsters somewhere around here?"

"Aw phooey. This place isn't that scary," Donald scoffed, but they could all tell that he was just trying to put on a brave front, considering how his legs were shaking.

"Yeah, I seem to remember you saying something very similar to that in Traverse Town before Aerith scared the feathers off of you," Ventus pointed out, earning a few small chuckles at the duck's expense, along with a soft bit of grumbling from said duck. He then focused his senses for a minute and added, "Still, it is strange that I'm not sensing any Heartless at the moment, but I'm not sensing anything else either. What about you, Sora?"

The boy did the same as his teacher, but it did take him a few more minutes to do so since he was still new to the matter of sensing other beings based on the light and darkness in their hearts. Eventually he finally reported, "No, I don't sense anything either. Maybe there just isn't anyone out here."

The sound of someone yelling quickly proved that theory wrong, and the four were immediately racing off in the direction that said cries had come from as fast as they could, all fears and concerns about what may have been hiding in the shadows forgotten. When they were getting closer to where they thought the screams had come from, they started to hear the sounds of rushing water, and instantly spotted a huge water fall that likely had sharp rocks at the bottom. The small riverbed it lead out into was soon becoming filled with pieces of broken wood, and they quickly spotted a man surfacing from the water a little while later, dragging a llama with black and reddish-brown fur onto the shore. The man in question was rather large, had black hair, and wore brown pants and what looked like a green poncho, while a brown cloth adorned his head like a hat. From what the group could tell, the man was trying desperately to save the lama, and it was not going well.

Seeing that there could be a problem, the four rushed over to offer their assistance, but the minute that the man laid eyes on Donald and Goofy, he immediately freaked out and started backing away. "Demon duck and demon dog," the man shouted.

"Where," the group exclaimed in equal panic, all readying their weapons for action. When they saw nothing anywhere around them, they quickly figured out he was referring to the two anthropomorphic animal members of the team and dismissed their respective weapons in an effort to calm the man down.

"Sir, please. Just relax. They may be a duck and a dog, but they are definitely not demons," Ventus reassured the man. "We're all friends here. My name's Ventus, and this is my apprentice Sora, and our friends Donald and Goofy."

"Um, Pacha," the man nervously said after a minute. He then remembered what he was doing before and scrambled back over to the llama. "Hey, he's not breathing! Please tell me you can help."

"I've got it," Donald replied as he brought his staff out again. With a simple wave of his staff, accompanied by the name of a healing spell, a green glow shone down over the llama, and it was soon coughing up water as he stirred back into consciousness.

"Hey, you okay, little guy," Sora asked as he brushed the llama's mane in an attempt to keep him calm. He was not prepared for the response that he received though.

"No touchy," the llama groaned, startling all four of the people who were not native to this world.

"He talks," Donald exclaimed.

"Again, you are aware of the irony behind you saying that, right," Ventus asked, only earning a blank look in response.

Like Pacha, the llama freaked out over both hearing Donald speak, and seeing both the sorcerer and the knight of Disney Castle. What came as a shock though, was that he tried to stand up on his hind legs and run away like he was a human being, only to fall over on his face and crash into a nearby tree. "Oh come on! I can't take much more of this," the lama groaned. "First I get turned into a llama, kidnapped from the palace, chased by jaguars, tied up to a long, sent careening down a river uncontrollably, thrown over a waterfall, and now this?! When is this nightmare going to stop?!"

The four looked at the llama in confusion for a minute, barely understanding most of what he was going on about, before they turned to Pacha, silently asking for answers. "He's had a hard day, which has also made it a hard day for me. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you," Pacha explained.

"I don't know. We've seen some pretty unbelievable things and can do stuff that's equally hard to believe. So, try us," Ventus offered.

"Wait, hold up a minute. Who are these guys," the llama asked Pacha.

"They said their names are Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Ventus," Pacha replied, pointing to each member of the group as he repeated the earlier introductions for them, getting a nod from each person to show he had gotten it right.

"You can just call me Ven," the blonde of the group said.

"Good to know," the llama replied. "Anyway, if we're done, I need to get back to the palace so I can have Yzma change me back."

"Maybe you shouldn't go there. We heard that the emperor isn't very nice to other people," Goofy cautioned.

"And is really greedy," Donald added, earning some knowing smiles from Goofy and Ventus when he did.

Those looks earned the two a glare from Donald, but before he could retort, the llama suddenly said, "Hey, I'm nice! Besides, everyone in the kingdom is happy to cater to my every whim. Well, everyone but Pooka here."

"It's Pacha," the large man corrected, but the others were more hung up on what the lama had said.

"You're the emperor," the four exclaimed.

"Yeah. Of course I'm Emperor Kuzco. Who'd you think you were talking to," the now identified llama asked.

"A talking llama," Sora deadpanned.

"Oh. Right. Yeah, that's something of a long story that you can thank him for," Kuzco said, indicating Pacha with a small glare.

Pacha just sighed in defeat, clearly not wanting to put up with Kuzco's wild stories and attitude any longer, and looked back to the team as he explained. "See, Kuzco here was somehow turned into a llama and ended up on the back of my cart as I was returning home to my village. He doesn't remember how it happened, but he thinks that by getting back to the palace, he can have his advisor change him back to human with a snap of his fingers, which are now hooves."

"So why does he need your help getting back," Ventus asked.

"Because he doesn't know how to get there from where we are now," was the simple reply.

"I do so! I just want to make sure that my innate sense of direction is completely accurate, and that I'm going the quickest way," Kuzco argued. He was ignored though, something that clearly did not sit right with the emperor-turned-lama.

"Well why can't you show him how to get home? If that is the only way he can be changed back, it only seems fair that you help him out, even if he isn't the nicest person out there," Sora asked.

"Because I can't let him go back unless he agrees to build his summer home somewhere else," Pacha stated with his arms crossed.

"What does that have to do with anything," Donald questioned, voicing the entire team's confusion.

"Oh because I'm planning on building Kuzcotopia where his house is after I destroy both it and his village. It'll even have a waterslide," Kuzco answered like it was no big deal, though his tone did turn a little more excited at the end. "Pretty great, huh? It's my birthday gift to me!" When he actually looked at the team's expressions though, he did not see any that agreed with him. Instead, they were all just glaring at him disapprovingly. "What?"

"You really don't see the problem with forcing an entire village of people out of their homes just so you can have a summer house," Sora asked.

"Uh, maybe you weren't paying attention, but it's a summer house with a waterslide," Kuzco pointed out. "You know, you look like you spend a lot of time getting some sun or something. Can you really tell me that doesn't sound awesome?"

"I prefer going to the beach, and going to places that weren't made by forcing people out of their homes," Sora evenly replied.

Before anyone could go any further, Donald suddenly squawked in fright, drawing everyone's attention away from the llama, and right onto the shadowy forms of the Heartless springing up from the ground to surround them. No one needed any prompting to do anything, as Pacha and Kuzco already ran for cover, while the other four readied their weapons for battle. Thankfully, this particular swarm of Heartless was nothing too big to deal with; mostly just some Shadows and Soldiers, with some Powerwilds and a few, female versions of the monkey-like Heartless that Jiminy quickly dubbed as Bouncywilds popping up here and there. The former two that the group had long since gotten used to dealing with were not too difficult to handle, but the two monkey varieties were a bit more difficult, given that they were clearly more agile and powerful than the Shadows and Soldiers. Combine that with the fact that the Bouncywilds tended to fight at a distance, and it was a bit challenging to deal with them at times when Donald and the two Keybearers did not have enough energy to cast magic spells in order to destroy them.

At one point, the two monkey-like creatures of darkness got on his nerves so much that Ventus resorted to using a pair of Shotlocks in order to get rid of them. The first he unleashed was the Meteor Shotlock he had used against Cloud, and as a result, the entire area of the jungle was lit up by the lights of the star-like projectiles. There were still some monkey-like Heartless left afterwards, but Ventus still had a few tricks up his sleeve, which he proved by unleashing one of his personal Shotlocks. Upon leaping up into the air, Ven unleashed a wave of energy blasts from his Keyblade that quickly bombarded the Heartless with a series of small explosions. The thing that made the final blow was when Ventus unleashed one final Shotlock on the remaining Heartless. Instead of firing off any kind of blasts, Ventus this time used a Shotlock that allowed him to quickly rush forward and release a more up-close attack, one that allowed him to unleash a barrage of attacks utilizing blades of energy. When he finally came to a halt in the center of the remaining Heartless, he jumped into the air and began rapidly spinning around, conjuring up a powerful whirlwind that seemed to be filled with stars, which continued to bombard the remaining creatures of darkness until they had all burst into their usual plumes of dark smoke.

Seeing his teacher do all of this had left Sora in awe once again, as Ventus had proven just how great a warrior he really was. More than that, Ventus had also shown various displays of patience and wisdom along with his skill and power as a swordsman, and as such, Sora could not help but wish that the day when he became a Keyblade Master would hurry up and come soon. When that day came, he figured he would be just as awesome and powerful as his teacher, but that ended up becoming a much more sobering thought than he had expected it to be. Ventus had experienced so much in his time as a Keyblade wielder, even before he became a master, which the blonde had indicated many times before now, and even through all of that, he was able to acquire a great deal of abilities that were unlike anything Sora had ever imagined were possible for anyone to obtain. Realizing this, Sora could not help but wonder if it was even possible for him to become just like Ventus, especially with his current rate of progress. He was still learning how to master the basic Command Styles, after all, and when you added in the fact that he still had not discovered any of his Shotlocks or his Unique Tier One Command Style, you could see why Sora was currently lacking some self-confidence in his abilities at the moment.

He put that aside for now though, as he noticed that the battle was over, and Ventus was approaching him as he dismissed his Keyblade. "So Sora, what did you think of my personal Shotlocks, Pulse Bomb and Multivortex? Just as cool as the first one you saw me use, or better," the blonde asked, clearly expecting Sora to start geeking out like he had after the first time he had seen Ventus use said ability.

"Yeah, they're definitely just as cool. Better since they're your own," Sora nodded, simply, though his smile did not quite make it all the way to his entire face.

It was definitely apparent to Ventus, and the response that his apprentice gave him was a far cry from what he had expected. If anything, he had expected Sora to start off by acting like an excited kid who had just woken up on Christmas morning, and then go on to whine a little about how he wished he could hurry up and learn his own Shotlocks so that he could do stuff that was just as cool. This much more subdued response was definitely not that at all. Taking a quick study of his apprentice's face and posture, Ventus was also able to see that there were a few other things about Sora that seemed a bit out of character for the kid. He was not really carrying himself as confidently as he normally did at the moment, and his usual child-like levels of excitement had apparently dimmed a little bit, even if they were still there. Aside from that, Sora seemed somewhat like his usual self, but that did not mean that Ventus was any less concerned about this sudden shift in mood his apprentice had taken on.

He was just about to call the boy out on it when Kuzco and Pacha came back over from where they had been hiding, and the llama asked, "What were those things? How'd you guys do all of that? Are you like some kind of sorcerers or something?"

"Well Donald is," Goofy admitted.

"The rest of us are really just uniquely gifted fighters with special abilities," Ventus finished for the rest of the team.

"Well then why am I sticking with Pacha in an attempt to get back to the palace? You and your little pals could get me back easily without any problems at all, Ben," Kuzco stated.

"First off, it's Ven. Second, we're not helping you either, Kuzco," the blonde replied.

"What? Why not," Kuzco asked.

"Because we know that once you get back, you'll just destroy Pacha's home for your summer house," Sora reminded the emperor.

"Besides, maybe if you really looked, you could find a better place to build it and leave Pacha's home alone," Goofy offered.

"And why would I do that," Kuzco asked, earning a few barely suppressed groans of irritation from the others.

"Because deep down, you must realize that doing that would mean that you're forcing people out of their homes just so you can build a place that'll be filled with stuff for you," Jiminy said, hopping out of Sora's pocket so that he could make himself known. Thankfully, Pacha and Kuzco did not freak out over the cricket's appearance. They were now starting to find that very little about these strangers was going to be what they were used to.

Still, that did not stop them from asking the obvious question. "Who're you," Pacha asked.

"Oh, sorry. Cricket's the name. Jiminy Cricket, at your service. Royal Chronicler for Disney Castle, and official conscience. Back to what I was saying though, you do realize what doing all of what you're planning to do to Pacha's village is, right?"

"It's…bad," Kuzco asked, as if the idea was completely foreign to him.

"Well, yeah. I mean, nobody's that heartless," Pacha laughed in good humor.

"I'd beg to differ," Ventus quietly murmured as his mind wandered back to a certain, disgraced Keyblade Master, along with a particular evil fairy that he had once encountered a long time ago.

Kuzco was silent for a minute, and everyone was thinking that meant he was mulling their words over. That hope was dashed when the emperor-turned-lama just shrugged and said, "Now take me back."

"We're not taking you back," Sora and Ven both repeated. The latter of the two then added, "Besides, we're new in the area, so we don't even know how to get there."

Kuzco deflated a little, but only after he heard that second part, and Jiminy saw this as an opportunity to step up again. "There, you see what all that selfishness gets you? Even when you don't do anything, every action and every choice has a consequence to it, and when it comes to the bad choices, the consequences that follow are always going to come back to bite to you. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if this whole mess you're in was the result of something that you did to someone else earlier."

"Hey, I never did anything! I'm the victim here," Kuzco protested.

"You know what? Someday you're going to end up all alone, and you'll have no one to blame but yourself," Pacha tried to warn Kuzco.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Jiminy nodded. "Well, I would have added that it would be because of that attitude of his, but the point remains the same."

Kuzco seemed to think about this for a second or so, running the two's words through his mind, but it in the end, he just brushed it off as nothing important. "Thanks for that. Like I'm really going to take advice from a whiny peasant and a cricket," the lama scoffed. "Now for the final time, I order you all to help me get back to the palace."

The others just stood there, staring at him in silent disbelief that the guy was actually ignoring everything they just said, until Pacha finally said, "Looks like you're stuck out here, because unless you change your mind, I'm not taking you back."

"And we're not really going to be of any help to you even if we wanted to be, because again, we're new to the area and we don't know how to get to the palace," Ventus added. He then turned away from Kuzco, who simply trotted off to the side so he could get some sleep, and faced his friends as he said, "All right, there might still be some Heartless in the area, and since it is late, we should expect them to be out in droves. After all, creatures of darkness are drawn to dark places, and there are plenty of those at night."

"So we should do some patrols to make sure that Kuzco and Pacha stay safe, right," Goofy asked.

"Exactly," Ventus nodded. "Goofy, you and Donald head over that way and keep an eye on things there. Call out if you find anything. Sora and I will take the opposite side of this impromptu camp. I'll check in with Chip and Dale to see if that meteor hurricane has passed yet while we're looking."

Everyone but Sora nodded in agreement with this. "Actually Ven, could I work with Goofy instead," the boy asked, surprising everyone on the team.

Ventus just looked at Sora for a minute before he said, "Normally I would say yes, but this would also serve as a great time to work on your training. We have to take advantage of every moment we have, Sora. You know that."

"Oh. Right," Sora nodded in remembrance, and with that, the two groups split up to carry out their separate objectives. Though the other three did so while they let their concerns for Sora filter into their minds, Donald and Goofy were both sure that Ventus would be able to either get to the bottom of the mystery, or help take Sora's mind off it by helping the kid to learn something special with their impromptu training session.

---

Ventus and Sora had gone a pretty decent way out from where Kuzco and Pacha had set up camp, and they did not have to guess to know that Goofy and Donald were much farther from them by now since they had gone in the opposite direction, so naturally, Ventus was able to focus on effectively training Sora without worrying about someone overhearing anything they would say every two minutes. Then again, training Sora was not really going that easily even without that concern on his mind. The boy's mind was completely occupied on whatever was bothering him, and it was causing him to slip up in several different areas of his training, some of which he had already pretty much mastered, or at least come close to mastering. Most of the time it was not too noticeable, but when the latter of those two things did occur, one would have to have been blind or not known about Sora's training at all to not realize something was really wrong with the kid. It did not affect how he fought when the two Keybearers encountered some Heartless to any great degree, but Ventus did find himself having to jump in and save Sora on more than one occasion. More than that, he could tell that somehow, whatever was bothering Sora was also affecting the Kingdom Key, because there were also a few times when the Keyblade should have been able to save Sora without Ven's intervention, and yet it did not. That added detail only made Ventus's concern rise even more than already had, and made it clear that he needed to deal with whatever Sora's problem was as quickly as possible.

It was not until they found a break from fighting Heartless that Ven finally got the chance to address the matter. To be more accurate though, it was during such a break that Ventus decided to get to the bottom of things, because they had used that time to go over the basic stances and fighting forms that were associated with the Keyblade and Sora had not been executing any of them effectively. To make matters worse, it did not seem like he was even able to use any of the forms that would have been associated with his own, personally developed fighting style, and that was what finally did it for the blonde. "All right, Sora. What's going on with you," Ventus asked after Sora fumbled one last practice swing with his Keyblade.

"What do you mean," Sora asked, trying to play it off like he did not know what Ven was talking about.

Ventus was not going to have any of that though. "Sora, I can tell that something's been bothering you for a while now, and it's starting to affect your training a bit. You know you can tell me whatever's wrong, right? After all, I'm not just your teacher, I'm your friend too."

He did not seem too reassured by Ven's words, because Sora was still hesitant to open up and say what was wrong. That prompted a few added words of wisdom from the cricket who had taken to riding in his jacket's hood or pocket. "Sora, we all want to make sure that you're okay and safe. You really should tell us if something's on your mind that's making you upset," Jiminy advised.

That got Sora to finally cave in and admit what was bothering him. "It's just…after that last fight, and all the other fights we've been in lately, I've started wonder if I really could be a Keyblade Master. I mean, you've got all of these amazing abilities and talents, and I'm still struggling to master using the general Command Styles at will instead of just in the heat of a moment, never mind the fact that I haven't even figured out what my own Unique style is or what my Shotlocks are."

"Hey, you shouldn't let that get you down. To quote an old proverb I once heard back in Disney Town, no castle was ever built in a day. You'll get there in time. You just need to be patient and not lose confidence, and always believe that you will," Ventus reassured him.

"Do you really think so? I mean, what if I'm never able to be as great as you are," Sora asked, his true concerns starting to shine through.

Now Ventus was confused. "What do you mean? Why should it matter whether or not you're as good as I am?"

"Well…you've got plenty of experience and power behind everything you do, and you've also done so much in your time as a Keyblade Wielder. You even admitted to doing a lot of cool things before you became a master, so what chance do I have of being that good if I couldn't even save my home or my friends," Sora explained, questioningly.

Ventus just stared at Sora for a minute, letting that run through his mind. Eventually, he asked, "You mean to tell me that you're worried about your progress…because you don't think you're ever going to be like me?" When Sora slowly nodded in reply, Ventus found he could not say anything for a minute. After that minute had passed though, Ven could not help but start laughing a little, startling Sora and Jiminy. "Sora, I may be good, but I'm certainly not the greatest. To be honest, there are days when wish I was more like Aqua, King Mickey, or even…someone who is actually a lot like you," Ventus admitted.

"What? Why," Sora asked.

"Everyone has a role model they wish to be like, and that's a good thing to have, but at the same time, if we start to compare ourselves to them too much, we start to lose sight of something really simple: that we are not them. You can't ever be exactly as strong or as good as I am, and you shouldn't try to be. At the end of the day, you're not me. You're you, Sora, and you should never let anyone tell you that you're someone else, be it in comparison or otherwise. Don't train to become a Keyblade Master like me, or the king, or anyone else. You just become a Keyblade Master like Sora."

The two fell into silence, letting this bit of wisdom sit in the air for a moment while Sora let it sink in. Of course, Ven had a hard time telling whether or not the kid was actually going to take to his words to heart right now, but then again, he remembered having to learn a similar lesson not that long ago as well. Even now, he was still having to remind himself of this same lesson. Everyone always had an easy time asking themselves what someone else would do, especially when the person in question was someone they held in some form of high regards, so trying to figure out how they themselves would handle things would be very hard, and that was especially so in Ventus's case since he spent the longest time asking himself what his friends would do in his position. That was why there were still times he struggled to remember this lesson, especially before he began one of Sora's lessons. He could only hope that Sora would be able to learn this little piece of wisdom better than he had ever managed to.

In the end, they never really managed to get a firm idea on whether or not the matter had sunk in for Sora, because they soon heard what sounded like Donald and Goofy screaming out for them about a huge problem. That got them to table everything for the moment and race back to camp, where they saw Goofy waving them over while Donald was trying to rouse an unconscious Pacha. Seeing their newest friend knocked out while Kuzco was nowhere to be found instantly set off warning bells for the three, and it was only natural that Ventus ask the obvious question first.

"What happened here," the blonde requested.

"Kuzco knocked out Pacha and took off right after he told us how to get back to the palace," Donald exclaimed as Pacha started to come around.

"What? Why would he do that," Sora asked, though it was hard to really know if he was referring to Pacha telling Kuzco how to get home, or Kuzco knocking out Pacha.

Whatever the case, Goofy answered both questions easily. "Because me and Donald found out that Kuzco's advisor and her assistant are trying to kill him!"

While that did answer Sora's question, it also left the other three of the team feeling very lost. Naturally, that meant that they needed to ask Goofy to back up and explain what happened from the beginning, and the captain of Disney Castle's royal knights was happy to do just that. "Me and Donald had been fighting a few Heartless every now and then without any problems, when we happened upon someone's campsite. We didn't think it was a big deal, until we heard them say something about a talking lama, and we decided to ears-drop."

"Eavesdrop," Donald corrected.

"Yeah, that, and we didn't hear anything good…"

---

While Donald and Goofy were crouched in the bushes, they watched as a rather old, scary-looking woman glared at a man was clearly larger than her in both height and muscle mass while she scolded him out, indicating who was in charge of whom as she did. "Honestly, how hard is it to track down one talking llama? We've been going around in circles for hours. That's the last time we take directions from a squirrel," the woman griped.

"Well hey, Bucky did his best to point us in the right direction. You can't really fault him for not knowing exactly where he would end up, Yzma," the big guy calmly defended, almost as though he was completely ignorant of the how upset the woman was.

Yzma only growled in irritation in response before she said, "This whole mess is all your fault, Kronk!"

"What did I do," Kronk questioned in confusion.

"If you hadn't mixed up those poisons, Kuzco would be dead now, and I wouldn't be worrying about keeping my hold as empress. There will be no more distractions until we track that llama down and kill him," Yzma stated, making Donald and Goofy both let out shocked gasps in response. Of course, they did forgot to keep said gasps quiet, but quickly ducked out of sight as the two turned to look in their direction and every other which way for the source of the sound. "What was that?"

"I think it might've been an animal or something. It sounded a lot like a duck and a dog," Kronk shrugged.

"Eh, whatever. Back on track, Kuzco must be eliminated. The empire will finally be rid of that useless brat," Yzma snarled, and she then turned to move along down the path.

"Well you've got a point. Nobody seems to care that he's gone, do they," Kronk shrugged as he followed after Yzma, neither of them ever noticing Donald and Goofy racing back to where Kuzco and Pacha had set up camp.

"Kuzco! Pacha! We've got a big problem," Goofy hollered, drawing the two's attention.

"Well can it wait until morning," Kuzco yawned.

"No it can't! There are a couple of bad people looking for you, Kuzco," Donald stated.

"Yeah, a big guy and a skinny old lady," Goofy added.

"Wait. Was this woman scary beyond all reason," Kuzco asked.

"Oh yeah," Donald moaned.

"That's Yzma and Kronk! I'm saved," Kuzco exclaimed. "They'll take me back to the palace and change me back!"

"No they won't! We heard them say that they wanted to kill you," Donald warned.

"Why would they want to do that? Their whole world revolves around me," Kuzco scoffed.

"I don't know. We heard Yzma say something about Kronk mixing up potions and that you woulda been dead now if he hadn't," Goofy informed the emperor.

"Maybe it would be a good idea to avoid them, and if they are after Kuzco, then we should head back to the palace now while they aren't there," Pacha admitted.

Kuzco just looked at Pacha in disbelief, wondering why he was suggesting that, until realization seemed to dawn on his face, but it was not the realization that the other three were hoping for. "Oh I get it. You made it clear you don't want to take me back, and you're just saying you're going to now so you can make sure that I stay stranded out here forever."

"Will you just listen to us," Pacha growled.

"No, you listen to me. All you care about is your…your stupid hilltop. You don't care about me, so just get out of here," Kuzco growled in response.

Pacha seemed a little hurt by that at first, but he shook it aside and said, "No. If those two are trying to kill you, then I'm not leaving you out here by yourself where they could find you." He then looked to the other two and said, "Now the palace is just down that pathway there and across a bridge. If we leave now, we can be back to the palace before sunrise, find the lab, and turn Kuzco back into a human."

"Maybe we oughta wait for Sora and Ven, first. They'll need to know about this too, and they're the only ones who can really deal with the Heartless," Goofy pointed out.

Apparently, Donald agreed with this, because he immediately started shouting out the two Keybearers' names, while Kuzco just looked at the three in surprise. Despite what he had just said, they were still staying to help him. After a minute or so, Kuzco looked over at the path that Pacha indicated earlier, then back to the three, and finally asked, "So we just have to go down that path and across a bridge to get to the palace?"

"Yeah. That's the quickest way there, and it's a straight shot the entire way," Pacha nodded. "Don't worry, we'll get you back there and reveal what Yzma's done to everyone in the kingdom before you know it."

Kuzco nodded in response to that, and then slammed a hoof into Pacha's stomach, followed by one to his head, knocking the big man out, and startling Donald and Goofy once they realized what had happened. They would have said something to Kuzco, but he had already run off down the path as fast as he could, leaving them to tend to Pacha while they continued shouting out for Sora and Ven. Though as he kept calling out for his other friends, Goofy could have sworn that he saw Kuzco looking back at them with a sad look in his eyes.

---

When Goofy finished recounting the tale, Sora and Ventus were not sure what to think. On one hand, it really seemed like Kuzco did not believe them at all, and was now heading back to the palace to do as he had originally planned, but on the other hand, if Goofy really had seen Kuzco looking back at them in the way that he was said to have, then maybe there was something else going on behind the emperor's last actions before his departure. Whatever the case may have been, it did not matter right then, because they had bigger problems at the moment. "We need to hurry back to the palace before Yzma and Kronk turn around and find Kuzco when they get there. If they are after Kuzco, then there's no telling what might happen if they find him in the palace," Ventus stated.

"Yeah, and besides, what if someone in the palace sees Kuzco and makes the same mistake that we did about him just being a lama, never mind being a talking llama? They might end up hurting him without realizing who he is," Sora added.

"Well we'd better hurry. There's no telling how far behind us or Kuzco those other two might be," Pacha grunted as he stood up.

"Are you sure you're okay to travel, Pacha," Goofy asked in concern.

"I'll be fine. I've taken harder hits than that tending to some of the actual llamas in the empire," Pacha waved off.

"Then let's get going," Ventus nodded, and he immediately led the group off down the path that Kuzco had previously gone down, hoping that they would be able to get there before Yzma and Kronk did, or before something happened to Kuzco.

---

Kuzco had not been running for very long after he left Pacha and the others, mostly because he had managed to get back to the city in almost no time at all, just like Pacha said he would be able to, but right now, a part of him almost wished he had not. Just seconds after getting into the city, Kuzco found out that Yzma and Kronk had in fact told everyone he was dead, practically proving that Donald and Goofy were telling the truth about how Yzma wanted to kill him. I mean, it might have been a little strange to think that was proof of the fact, but then again, considering that he had barely been gone for more than a day or two at best and no one had sent out a search party, it was the only thing that made sense. Despite how disheartening this was, that was not what left him feeling the most upset though.

Everywhere he went, he saw absolutely no sign of anyone who seemed to care about whether or not he was so much as missing, let alone dead, and instead, they were all busy redesigning the place so that it was more themed towards Yzma's likeness instead of his (A scary concept alone to be certain, never mind the actual sight of it). Not one person was crying about how much they missed Emperor Kuzco, or even changed something about their daily lives just to show some form of passing respect to the "late" emperor. It was almost like they did not care. At least, that would be the case if he had not heard a few people talking about how they were actually glad to be rid of the "spoiled brat who was previously running the kingdom." Kuzco could hardly believe it, and that was when he realized that maybe the others were right in calling him selfish before. He was actually prepared to leave the city so that he could live out the rest of his days as a llama forever, when he saw something he did not expect.

There, running up the path towards him, was Pacha, Sora, Ventus, Donald, and Goofy, and they all had worried expressions on their faces. Those worried looks practically evaporated in seconds when they spotted him, and became replaced with ones of smiling relief that never faded, even after they came to a stop in front of him. "Glad to see you're okay, Kuzco," Ven told the rightful emperor.

Even though he shared his master's sentiment, Sora could not help but notice that Kuzco seemed a little down about something, despite Ven's words. "Hey, are you okay? You look kind of upset about something," the Keyblade apprentice asked.

Kuzco sighed as he found a patch of grass on the side of the road to plop down on, and explained, "No, not really. You guys were right. I wasn't the victim here. I let my status as emperor consume me and led others to practically despise me because of my attitude. Now that I'm gone, nobody cares about me at all."

"Maybe if you were a little less greedy, that wouldn't have been the case," Donald scolded, only to receive reproachful looks from his friends in response. Each of which silently said that now was not the time for that.

"Well, don't you have any friends who are worried about you," Sora asked.

Kuzco just scoffed in reply. "I figured my only friends besides me were the people in the palace, and they're all busily redesigning the place to Empress Yzma's desires. I guess the only friend I ever really had was me. No one ever really cared about me for me before. Well, until I met you guys."

"That must be why you knocked out Pacha earlier," Goofy exclaimed, excitedly. "You thought that if what me and Donald were saying was true, then you wouldn't want any of us to get hurt because we're the first real friends you've ever had, right?"

Kuzco was silent for a minute, wondering if that was the case. True, Pacha would only have taken him back to the palace if he agreed to build his summer home somewhere else, but the fact that Pacha was actually standing up to him like that was something that Kuzco had never really had dealt with before. Add in the fact that Pacha had tried to warn him to not go into the jungle by himself, and then saved him from both the jaguars that had been chasing him and from drowning without expecting any kind of reward in return, and Kuzco could see why Goofy would be thinking that. To be honest, while Kuzco mainly thought Pacha had only did that because he was the emperor, a small part of him was hoping that the big villager had done all of that because he really did care about Kuzco's wellbeing.

Looking to Pacha, Kuzco was not really sure what to say now, even though Pacha was smiling at him, but he felt that he had to say something to him. Just as he was starting to stutter it out though, Pacha just raised a hand for silence, and then asked, "So, you tired of being a llama?"

Kuzco could only sniffle for a minute before he burst out crying and sobbed, "Yes!"

"Then let's get you to the palace so we can change you back," Ventus offered.

Kuzco's sobbing came to an abrupt halt at that, and he asked, "Wait. You mean, you guys are going to help me, even after everything I've said and done?"

"Well of course we are," Jiminy said as he jumped up onto Sora's shoulder. "After all, that's what real friends do. They help each other out when they need it, even if it's just by being there for one another. Besides, I think that maybe this will end up being a big help to you later on, right?"

Kuzco looked down in thought for a minute before he finally said, "Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right about that."

"Then let's hurry up and get to the palace before Yzma and Kronk turn around start coming back," Sora exclaimed, and with that, the group was immediately making a beeline towards the palace, at least until Kuzco shouted for them to stop.

"There's no way we're going to get in through the front entrance, but we can get in through the door that Yzma and a lot of the servants use," Kuzco offered, and the team all agreed to that idea and started following after him as he lead the way to said entrance.

---

A few hours later, the team had made it into the chamber where they would find the entrance to Yzma's secret lab, and they quickly began looking around for said entrance, as well as a way to open it. They did not look for long though, as Kuzco already knew where it was, and he proved this by pointing out the gargoyle with two large teeth and saying that the entrance was behind that, and that said teeth were actually levers to open the entrance. The only catch was that they would have to go in two at a time, and that he did not remember which tooth it was that they needed to pull so, Ventus and Sora volunteered to go first just in case the thing was rigged with any traps. When they were all set, Sora at the tooth he believed to be the lever and Ventus next to him, Ven looked to his apprentice and said, "Pull the lever, Sora." The boy then pulled down on the tooth, and while it was a lever, it ended up not being the right one as a trap door opened up underneath Ven's feet, leading the blonde to drop down as he shouted, "WRONG LEVER!"

"Whoops," Sora muttered, while everyone else looked down the trap door in a futile attempt to see if Ven was all right, even after they heard a faint splash.

"Do you think Ven's okay," Donald asked, worriedly.

"Give it a minute," Kuzco advised, and much to their surprise, a door slid open a few feet away, admitting a drenched Ventus and a crocodile whose mouth was latched onto the back of his jacket. Everyone stared at this odd sight for a minute before glancing back to Kuzco to silently ask the obvious question, to which the llama emperor just sheepishly shrugged and said, "Sorry, but I guess I forgot that there actually were two levers. One that leads to the secret lab, and one that…well, you know."

"Okay, why does she even have that lever," Ventus grumbled as he knocked the crocodile off with his Keyblade, causing it to yelp in surprise and then scamper away.

"Sorry Ven," Sora apologized, looking a lot more down now than he had a little while before.

Ventus knew that this recent mistake was likely making Sora think back to what he was feeling earlier, and he was not about to have him beat himself up over a simple mistake. "Hey, it wasn't your fault, Sora. It's Yzma's for making the thing like this," Ventus reassured the kid with a pat on the shoulder. "Just forget about it and pull the other lever this time."

Sora nodded in response and did as asked, and the next thing they knew, they were catapulted into a car that looked a lot like something that was in a theme park attraction. When they were in, the bar in front of them snapped down, and they then heard an electronic voice asking them to remain seated and keep their arms and legs in at all times just seconds before they started moving forward and down a steep drop at high speeds, proving that they were indeed on a roller coaster. The minute that their unexpected ride started, they did the one thing you would always expect someone to do when they end up on a roller coaster: they screamed in both fright and excitement, even going so far as to throw their hands up in the air as they went down. When the ride came to an abrupt halt, they were then sent flying out of their seat and down to solid ground, not noticing that they had somehow been thrown into lab outfits somewhere in between until after they touched down.

"Well…that was unexpected," Ventus admitted.

"And kind of fun too," Sora nodded with a grin, all signs of doubt and depression now gone after that bit of fun. His smile was soon gone again though, but mostly because of the fact that Donald and Goofy came down next, and landed right on top of both him and Ventus. After groaning in pain for a minute, Sora noticed that Donald's feathers were a bit damp and could not help but ask, "Uh Donald, why are you all wet?"

"Goofy pulled the wrong lever when he tripped going over to the gargoyle," Donald grumbled.

"Uh fellas, maybe we should move before Pacha and Kuzco come down," Goofy suggested, and no one needed to voice an agreement before they scrambled to move out of the way, casting off their unexpected wardrobe change as they went. A minute later, the last two landed in the lab with them, but in lab outfits that were clearly the wrong size for both of them, and after Pacha and Kuzco removed said outfits, they all set to work searching the lab for the potion that they needed to change Kuzco back to normal. There was just one problem: they had no idea what said potion looked like, and a good majority of the ones they did find all looked the same, except for the sloppy labels. Kuzco was not that much help in finding it either since he did not know what their objective looked like either, so they could do nothing more than just keep looking through the ones that were present on the lab tables as fast as they could. After a while, it started to get irritating, as evidenced after Sora had set down yet another potion that was not the one they were looking for with a tired sigh, but after doing so, something else caught his eye. Something that he was not expecting to see at all.

There, standing a little ways across the room from him was Kairi! There was no mistaking it this time, and Sora was absolutely sure that there was nothing in the room that could play any tricks on his eyes, at least as far as he could tell. The girl had the exact same dark red hair, the same violet-blue eyes, and even the exact same outfit she was wearing when the islands were swallowed by darkness that he knew could only belong to Kairi, and when the girl in question noticed him looking at her, she turned to face him and let out the bright smile that always made Sora's heart skip a beat or two when he saw it. Seeing her here, Sora was ready to try calling out to her, but before he could, Kairi started silently waving at him and gesturing to a cabinet that was standing next to her, like she was trying to tell him something but could not for some reason. Sora looked between the cabinet and Kairi in confusion for a minute, wondering what she was trying to say, until he eventually asked, "Is there something you want me to see in there?"

While Kairi happily nodded in reply, Ventus just glanced at Sora, wondering who he had been talking to, only to notice that the kid was already moving over to the cabinet. He looked around the room for a minute, hoping to find the person that Sora could have been speaking to on his own, but in the end he saw no one else in the lab but themselves, Donald, Goofy, Kuzco, and Pacha. Looking back to Sora, he saw the kid study the cabinet for a minute before he turned and stared off into space like he was looking at something, but from the way his eyes were so focused, Ven could tell that Sora honestly believed someone was standing right next to him at the cabinet, and that he was talking to said person at that very moment. Another person would probably be a little more worried about their student suddenly talking to someone who was not actually there, but given the circumstances, Ven had to wonder if the kid was somehow sensing something that the rest of them had missed, and that he was being directed to that thing through a person that he had imagined about in his mind. He decided to think about it later and called out, "Sora, did you find something?"

Everyone's attention was quickly turned to the younger Keybearer, who was instantly startled out of his sudden trance before he turned back to Ventus and replied, "Yeah, I think it might be in here somewhere."

Everyone instantly scrambled over as Sora opened the cabinet, revealing multiple different potions inside, each of which was labeled perfectly with both a label on the vial and on a small area of the shelf they were resting on. The others were all quick to give Sora a quick voice of praise, but Sora barely paid them much mind, as his attention had quickly returned to where Kairi was standing, only to discover that she was gone again. This was starting to worry Sora a little bit, seeing as this was now the second time he was sure that Kairi had been in the room with him and his friends, and he was sure it was not a dream, because it felt so real. He wanted to ask his friends about this, but changing Kuzco back to human came first.

"It definitely has to be one of these," Pacha stated as his eyes scanned the cabinet. "Lions…"

"Tigers…" Donald noted.

"Bears…" Goofy continued.

"Dragons…" Ventus announced with a touch of confusion. He honestly had to wonder why and even how Yzma would have a potion for that.

Eventually, they all found their eyes resting on the spot where the human potion would be, only to find that it was not there. They were now just about at the point of panicking, when a voice that was not any of theirs creepily said, "Oh my. Looking for this?"

They all instantly spun around and gasped in shock, because there, standing before them with the potion they had been searching for in her hand and a devious grin on her face, was Yzma. "No! It can't be," Kuzco exclaimed.

"How'd you get back here before us," Donald asked as he pulled out his staff.

"Yeah, we saw you headed in the opposite direction," Goofy pointed out, his shield already out in front of him, while Ventus and Sora readied their Keyblades.

Yzma opened her mouth to respond, only to pause in thought for a minute. When she found herself unable to come up with an answer, she turned to her loyal, if not slightly dimwitted minion and asked, "How did we, Kronk?"

"Well ya got me," Kronk admitted as he shrugged off the mobile tent he had been using to transport Yzma around him and then pulled down a map, seemingly from out of nowhere that somehow was able to highlight the exact routes that both groups had taken, along with the amount of time that both routes should have taken to travel. "By all accounts it doesn't make any sense."

"I've got a hunch that the Heartless have something to do with this," Ventus muttered to Sora, who could only nod in agreement.

"The Heartless," Yzma asked, having overheard them. Her face then lit up in recognition as she exclaimed, "Ah, so that's what those lovely creatures are called." She then snapped her bony fingers, and a moment later, several Shadow, Soldier, and Large Body Heartless appeared around them. "Now then, if we're done with guessing about the logic behind mine and Kronk's speedy return, it's time to get back to business."

The four heroes from other worlds were ready to charge when Kuzco stepped forward and said, "Look, I admit it, I wasn't as nice as I should have been, to put it mildly."

"Very mildly," Jiminy muttered from inside Sora's hood.

If Kuzco heard him, he did not let it stop him from making his point, as he simply pressed on and asked, "But Yzma, do you really want to kill me?"

Yzma's only response to grin evilly as she replied, "Just think of it as…you're being let go. That your life's going in a different direction. That your body's part of a permanent outplacement."

"Hey that's kind of like what he said to you when you got fired," Kronk pointed out, far more excited about the whole thing than he probably should have been, and completely killing the moment for Yzma and everyone else.

"I know. It's called a cruel irony, like my dependence on you," Yzma frowned.

"Wait a minute, if she was fired, then how is she empress now," Sora asked.

Kuzco gained a sheepish look and replied, "Because this whole mess started on the exact same day that I fired her, so the only ones who knew about that were me, her, and Kronk."

"Say, if everyone else knew about this, then how would a new ruler have been chosen," Goofy then questioned.

"That's actually a good question," Ventus admitted. "I mean, would there have been some kind of voting process or…"

"Can we just get back on track, please," Yzma hollered, reminding everyone of the current situation. She then pulled out a knife, tossed it to Kronk, and then commanded, "Help the Heartless finish them off."

Kronk caught the knife, but hesitated to do anything more than that. He just glanced between Yzma and the group of heroes for a minute until a voice suddenly echoed, "Hey, you're not backing down now are you, big guy?"

An instant later, a smaller version of him dressed up like the devil appeared on his shoulder, with a trident in hand. This did not surprise Kronk at all, considering it was his Shoulder Devil, but he was confused by something else. "Uh where's the other guy," Kronk asked, referring to the lighter side of his conscience. A minute later, the Shoulder Angel appeared, sitting back in a comfy chair with his head in a hair dryer while reading a book title Kingdom Keepers. "Yo," Kronk called out, getting his attention.

The minute that the shoulder angel realized what was going on, he quickly cast aside everything he did not need and slipped on his hat and halo, while replacing the book with a harp, as he said, "Sorry I'm late. What'd I miss?"

Kronk then went into a quick summary of what had just happened for the sake of his Shoulder Angel, not realizing how ridiculous he looked from the perspective of everyone else, since as far as they could tell, he was talking to himself while looking at his shoulder. Even Yzma was perplexed by the sight unfolding in front of her, and she immediately looked to the others to see if they knew what was going on here. The six heroes could only shrug in response; they were just as confused about what Kronk was doing as she was. After another minute of watching this unfold, Yzma angrily looked back at Kronk and snarled, "Kronk! Why did I think you could do this? This one, simple thing. It's like I'm talking to a monkey."

"Whoa now," Ventus cautioned, not knowing that Kronk's Shoulder Angel had said the exact same thing.

"A really, really big, stupid monkey named Kronk," Yzma continued.

"Ouch," Sora said, mirroring his master's actions with the only difference being that he spoke at the same time as Kronk's Shoulder Devil. Yzma still wasn't done though.

"And do you want to know something else? I've never liked your spinach puffs! Never!"

That drew shocked gasps from all three versions of Kronk before the actual one started to cry, completely hurt by that, the Shoulder Angel patting his cheek in an attempt to comfort him. The Shoulder Devil on the other hand had a different idea on how to make Kronk feel better as he readied his trident like a shotgun. "That's it! She's going down," the dark side of Kronk's conscience promised.

"Now, now, remember guys. From above, the wicked shall receive their just reward," the Shoulder Angel told the other two. All three Kronks' gazes were soon drawn to the ceiling, namely the chandelier directly above Yzma, and then commented, "That'll work." Kronk then turned and sliced through the rope holding the chandelier up with one swipe, and Yzma only had time to look up in shock as it fell. When it came crashing down, everyone looked on in horror, hardly believing what had just happened. The mere idea that this had happened was horrifying to them all. The moment that the chandelier had hit the ground was what ended up cementing the fact for them all, because Yzma…was still okay. She turned out to be skinny enough to slip through the hole in the center of the chandelier without incurring any injury at all.

"Well that was anticlimactic," Donald deadpanned with others only nodding in agreement.

"Strange….That usually works," Kronk mused.

"And so does this," Yzma stated, pulling on a bottle that was resting on the nearby lab table, and revealing it to be a lever that opened the trap door directly beneath Kronk's feet.

"Ah, should've seen that coming," Kronk admitted, and he then dropped down with a yelp with the trapdoor closing behind him.

That turned out to be the final straw for the heroes, as Goofy instantly tossed his shield at Yzma, forcing her to release her grip on the potion as she fell, and sending it flying into the air. Pacha immediately dived for the vial, catching it before it hit the ground, but Yzma was quick to start trying to get it back. Kuzco came to the rescue by head butting Yzma away from his friend, earning a snarl from Yzma before she turned to the Heartless and commanded, "Get them! And retrieve the vial at once!"

When the Heartless immediately jumped into action, Sora, Donald, Ven, and Goofy took that as their cue to join the fight, and immediately charged to meet the Heartless head on. What they did not expect was that Yzma would still be joining in the fight by throwing various different vials at them, forcing them to keep their distance from both her and the Heartless they were fighting. In the case of the latter, it was mostly because every time they would stop to knock away or block a potion that Yzma was throwing at them, the Heartless would immediately use the distraction to pounce at them, but in the case of the former, it was mostly so that she could use a potion on herself in order to make herself stronger, or to heal any injuries that she may have incurred the few times that the four were able to slip past her little offensive. The effects of the potions never had the exact same effects too, because sometimes they would find themselves moving slower or feeling really drowsy, and other times they would be changed into a different animal at various times. Thankfully, they did not stay as said animals for very long, proving that the magic of those potions was only temporary, but that did not make it any easier for them to knock out Yzma or any of the Heartless that they were trying to destroy.

It was after he had just narrowly avoided being hit by one of Yzma's potions that Sora finally felt himself getting fed up with the skinny old lady, and before he could even think about what he was doing, he just turned and pointed his Keyblade at her like he was about to fire off a spell, but for some reason, he never once uttered a single syllable of what he wanted such magic to do. Instead, he just waved it around in Yzma's direction along with whatever Heartless were closest to her for some reason. What he found even stranger was the fact that everything around him suddenly seemed to be moving in slow motion, and that was when something clicked in his head. 'Didn't Ven say that I would suddenly start aiming my Keyblade like this while the world seemed to slow down around me when Kingdom Key decided I was ready to use a Shotlock,' Sora thought to himself in awe, and when he felt like something was telling him that he was remembering right, he instantly grinned in excitement at what was likely going to come next.

Letting the Keyblade guide his actions, Sora continued aiming Kingdom Key at any all villains he could before he leapt up into the air, much to everyone's surprise, and started glowing with a faint, light bluish-white energy. Seconds later, he swung his Keyblade around and released what looked like a pair of energy projectiles at a couple of different Heartless, as well as Yzma. What came as a shock though was that when the projectiles hit, they released a small whirlwind that blew away anything and everything that was close to them, at least in regards to everything that was not on the same side as Sora, including Yzma's potions. Sora swung his Keyblade around again, and released another pair of projectiles, and the process repeated itself, throwing Heartless into the air and within the others' striking ranges, while simultaneously sending Yzma's potions far away from their intended marks. He repeated this action three more times, until finally, he seemed to jump back from where he was currently floating in the air, and began spinning around rapidly like he was in the center of a hurricane while releasing magic beams of light from the tip of his Keyblade, all of which instantly destroyed every Heartless that was unfortunate enough to fall into the line of fire, and if they were not hit by the blasts, they were blown away in a powerful gust of wind. Not even Yzma was safe from this new development, as she too was blown back by Sora's barrage of wind and magic blasts, and as a result, she ended up landing on one of the lab tables, right on top of one of her potions, which instantly took effect when she landed.

Smoke filled the area afterwards, even as Sora touched back down, slightly dizzy but still okay regardless of that, and everyone braced themselves for whatever horror Yzma had turned been turned into. The possibilities of what it would be raced through their minds rapidly, ranging from everything that they had seen in the cabinet earlier, to even some form of massive Heartless, and the fact that they heard a deep, foreboding laugh was not helping their levels of confidence either. When the smoke finally cleared, they were all both relieved and a bit disappointed, because it turned out that Yzma had been turned into a small, silver-furred cat. Ventus could not help but gripe over the fact that once again, they were dealing with an evil cat, even though she had not started out that way, but he was ignored for the most part, as Cat-Yzma was still not willing to go down so easily. Thankfully, Donald reacted quickly enough and knocked her out with a simple bonk on the head using his staff.

Seeing that they were finally finished with the fight, Goofy finally asked the question that they were all wondering. "Hey, Sora, what'd you do just now? I mean, you were spinning around and firing magic blasts that turned into tornados once they hit something, and then turned the whole fight around in our favor. It sure was impressive."

"He used a Shotlock," Ventus answered for everyone. "And not just any Shotlock, but one that is most likely his own personal one!"

"It was," Sora nodded with a small smile. "I call it…Typhoon Barrage."

Hearing his apprentice confirm what he suspected, Ventus could not help but laugh and cheer in excitement even as he slapped Sora on the back in congratulations, much to everyone's surprise. They were not expecting such an excited outburst from the blonde, but it certainly was not unwelcome. Realizing that everyone was looking at him oddly, if not a little amused, Ven's excited cheering turned a bit sheepish as he explained, "Sorry, but you guys have no idea how amazing this is. Seriously, words cannot describe just how amazing."

"How come," Donald asked, voicing the question that Sora was silently asking with the bewildered look on his face.

Ventus directed most of his attention onto Sora and explained, "Sora, no one has ever learned a personal Shotlock so early into their training as a Keyblade Wielder, at least as far as I know. Even Aqua had been working hard for a few months before she even came close to figuring out what one of her personal Shotlocks were, and she was the best at learning all of the magic abilities relating to the Keyblade or just magic in general in our little trio of friends. Not even Mickey had learned any of his Shotlocks before at least a year had passed in his own training. You've just achieved something that has taken some of the best Keyblade Masters months to accomplish in mere days!"

Hearing that all that quickly drew a smile onto Sora's face that only grew wider and larger with each passing word in Ven's praise, and the minute that Ven had finally finished, he started joining his master in his excited cheers and celebration. Donald and Goofy were soon following along as well, and all the while, Sora could not help but think back to what Ven was trying to tell him earlier, smiling as he realized that the blonde was right. It was not really fair or smart to compare himself to his teacher, because doing so was only going to hold him back. He just needed to remember that he could only become a Keyblade Master and save his friends by being the best him, and not by trying to be someone else, because in the end, all that mattered, was that he was going to be the one that found Riku and Kairi, and who became a Keyblade Master, maybe even one that would surpass Ventus in terms of ability and power. It certainly seemed like he was well on his way right now.

Thinking of his friends caused Sora to think back to earlier when he found the potion cabinet, or to be more accurate, when he saw Kairi lead him to it. The question that really bothered him though was whether or not he actually did see Kairi, and if so, where did she go after he had turned away? Had she really been there, or was it just his imagination. Then again, he could have sworn that he saw her back in Deep Jungle as well just seconds before she disappeared. Could that be somehow related to something regarding his abilities as a Keyblade Wielder as well, or was he just missing Kairi so much that he was starting to imagine that he was seeing her everywhere he went? He figured that the latter of those two was not that likely, because if so, then why was he not seeing Riku as well? After all, the older boy was his best friend, and sure, Kairi was special to him, but that should not mean that he would not have seen Riku in these…daydreams, for lack of a better word, at least once, right?

Sora shook it off and put it aside when he noticed Pacha and Kuzco coming over to retrieve the human potion from where it had fallen earlier, ready to turn the emperor back into his rightful state, and decided he would try to talk to the others about it later. Sora was not the only one who wanted to talk about what was going on with him though, as Ventus had cast his apprentice a concerned look after he noticed how his excited expression suddenly turned bewildered. He figured that Sora was probably thinking about what had happened earlier when he had wandered over to the potion cabinet, and after seeing his apprentice gaze off into space like that twice now served as reason enough for him to decide he would be talking with Sora about later. Right now, they had an emperor to restore to his throne.

---

A few hours later, Kuzco was human again, decked out in his red emperor's garb and gold crown, and already setting to work on making up for his mistakes, starting with apologizing to an old man he had once thrown out the window. What came as a shock was that said old man was so quick to forgive the young emperor, but it was even more shocking to learn that the old guy had been thrown out the window before. None of the four from other worlds were sure what to make of that, so they just took the old "smile and nod" route and waved it off as the old guy headed home, leaving smiles on both his and Kuzco's faces. Kuzco was about to leave the room so he could call the next person in, or at least the next person that he had most recently done wrong, when he noticed one such person sitting by the model of a hilltop village, with a model of Kuzco's summer home sitting at the top of the hill. Seeing Pacha sitting there and looking so depressed reminded Kuzco of what he had promised that he would do regardless of whether or not Pacha helped him, and after all they had been through, he knew that he owed the older man a great deal more than he had ever owed anyone before. After all, Pacha was his first real friend, at least in his eyes, so it was only right that he do something to show it.

Making his way over to Pacha, Kuzco cleared his throat and declared, "So…you lied to me."

Pacha perked up when he heard Kuzco approach, only to glance from side to side in confusion, not entirely sure what the young emperor was talking about. "I did," he finally asked.

"Yeah. You said when the sun hits this ridge just right, these hills sing. Well pal, I may have been unconscious for who knows how long until you found me, but I'm sure that it was long enough to be dragged all over those hills, and not once did I hear any singing," Kuzco informed Pacha. Hearing that drew smiles onto everyone's faces, as they realized what Kuzco was doing. Despite the fact that he was doing something nice for Pacha, Kuzco did not want anyone to think that he was only doing this because he had made a deal with a peasant.

That did not mean that no one was going to call him out on it. "Oh come on, Kuzco. Why don't you just admit that you're doing something nice for Pacha because you think of him as a friend," Goofy teased.

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that, even if you are an emperor," Sora added, his teasing tone matching Goofy's.

"Now, come on guys. Give him a break. This is a whole new experience for Kuzco, after all," Ventus warned them, though it was clear by his smile that it was not a very serious warning.

"Hey, there's nothing to admit beyond what I've already said," Kuzco assured them, a little too quickly one might add. "I just intend to build my summer home on a more magical hilltop, thank you very much."

Seeing Kuzco remove the model of said summer home from where it stood, waterslide included pretty much cemented it all for Pacha, and he could not help but let out a small chuckle as he handed the model of his house over to Kuzco, playing along with the act as he did. "Couldn't pull the wool over your eyes, huh?"

"No, no. I'm sharp. I'm on it," Kuzco confirmed, still keeping up the act. "Looks like you and your family are stuck on top of a tuneless hilltop forever, pal."

At that point, Pacha could no longer keep up the act, and gave Kuzco a huge, grateful smile, to which Kuzco returned in kind. Seeing this little moment between the newly-formed friends honestly made the hearts of the other four warm quite a bit, as it reminded them all of when they shared similarly touching moments with all of their friends as well. Sure, it reminded them that they still had yet to find some of those friends, but that mattered little, since it was so nice to see Kuzco really was starting to change for the better. Feeling a bit lousy for having to interrupt the moment, Ventus stepped up and said, "Well, I guess we'd better get going. Our friends back on our vessel have just said the storm's cleared up so we can carry on to our destination."

That caused Kuzco to look over at the four with a small frown on his face as he asked, "Do you really have to go so soon? I mean, I'd like it if you guys stayed for at least a little while longer. I can even ask Kronk to make you guys a quick dinner to tie you over."

Hearing about the big guy reminded them all of how they found Kronk lying in a river just a little ways down from the palace, drenched but otherwise unharmed, and since he was not so eager to help Yzma with her plans, he was quickly forgiven. Kuzco even offered him a job as the new palace chef, but Kronk had declined, saying that he had already found work as a cook at a nearby restaurant. Though he did promise that he would stop by to make a special dinner for Kuzco and Pacha and his family whenever they asked. As tempting as Kuzco's offer was, the four had to decline, with Sora explaining, "Sorry, but we have to go. We're searching for some missing friends of ours."

"Oh, okay," Kuzco sighed in defeat, sad to see some of his new friends go.

"Don't worry, Kuzco. We'll come back and visit some time," Goofy reassured him. "And besides, your real friends are always with you no matter what, even if they're not right there."

Kuzco smiled in thanks to Goofy for that piece of wisdom, and with that, the four departed, waving to Kuzco and Pacha in farewell as they headed somewhere that they would be able to teleport up to the ship without anyone noticing them. Of course, they did not leave right away, as Ven had sensed Keyhole hidden inside of Kuzco's throne, and he and Sora quickly sealed it without either of the two noticing. They were not too eager to explain just how important it was to them and what it would mean if the Heartless found a way into it, so they made sure to keep as quiet as possible as they locked it tight. The last bit of exchange they heard from Kuzco and Pacha was the latter informing the emperor about some singing on the hill next to his, in case Kuzco was interested.

---

What none of our heroes knew was that somewhere far away, Maleficent was watching the two Keyblade Wielders and their friends as they departed from the world they had just secured from the Heartless. While Maleficent was looking on with a sinister smirk, the others were watching with intrigue about a certain matter. "What drew the Heartless to those worlds? The Deep Jungle and this Llama Empire," asked the regally dressed man.

"The hunter lured them to Deep Jungle," Maleficent replied. "It was his lust for power that was the bait, but it seems the bait was too tasty for his own good."

The large, living sack just laughed at this before he added, "Yeah, he got chomped instead!"

The regal sounding man just hummed in thought before he finally stepped into the light to reveal a man who was dressed as a vizier with a snake staff in his hand and asked, "What about the Llama Empire?"

"It was the chemist and her lust for the throne of that world. Though she was able to control the Heartless for a time, she too suffered the same fate as the hunter," Maleficent explained. "Still, it is impressive that she was able to manage for as long as she did."

That drew another hum from the vizier as he commented, "Impressive or not, she could not hold control for long, and proved to be just as much a weak-hearted fool as the hunter, and as we all know, weak-hearted fools stand no chance against the Heartless, but the Keyblade Master and the boy are a problem. They've now found three of the Keyholes."

Hearing this news drew some looks of concern from the other villains who were assembled around the table as an image of Sora, Ventus, Donald, and Goofy appeared in the center of it, all walking along as they continued onward. Maleficent on the other hand just scoffed and said, "Fear not. It will take them ages to find the rest. Though he may be a master, Ventus could not possibly know the location of the Keyholes for each and every world. No one does. Besides, they both remain blissfully unaware of our other plan."

"Yes, the princesses," the half octopus woman grinned.

Maleficent nodded in confirmation, her evil smirk never once faltering as she informed the other villains, "They are falling into our hands, one by one." She then glanced off to the side when she caught notice of some new movement in the shadows that did not come from her current cohorts, and added, "Speaking of which…"

That served as the cue for an unseen person to shove forward none other than Alice, and the blonde girl could not help but glance around her fearfully, wondering just where she was and what these strange people intended to do with her. It was very clear that whatever it was, she doubted that they intended anything as simple as what that so-called queen had intended to do to her, but all the same, she was still not entirely sure which one would have been worse. Glancing back to the shadows, she could not help but shiver a little when she caught a glimpse of the one who had brought her here. Even though she could not see him, she could still pick up on the dark, terrible feeling that he was giving off, and somehow, she just knew that it was a bad omen of what was soon to come for her and anyone else that crossed paths with him.

---

Ventus's Journal Entry 3

It honestly surprised me a little when Mickey said that we would be having today's training on another world. Sure, Master Eraqus would sometimes take Aqua, Terra, and me to Mirage Arena for training, but considering the kind of things that can be done there I don't really count it that much. If anything, going there was really just like going to a gym to work out or something, so the chance to actually train on a different world is definitely exciting. Turned out that part of that training involved learning how to handle the newest method of traveling between the worlds: the Gummi Ship. I figured it wouldn't be so bad; the thing looked like a spaceship that someone had made out of building blocks, even if the material it's made of is really incredible in various different ways. Boy was I wrong. Flying that thing was like when I first started training to use my Keyblade Glider, only worse because there was so much more to it. Unlike the Keyblade Glider, this thing had a vast array of weapons, and the Gummi Ship also did not have a connection to me like my Keyblade did, so learning its controls took a lot more trial and error. I'm still surprised that I didn't accidentally make the ship blow up before we reached our destination.

Despite whatever troubles we had, we somehow managed to reach our destination in one piece. It turned out that we had actually been heading to Radiant Garden to speak with Ansem the Wise. Mickey didn't really go into specifics about why we had gone there beyond saying that there was recently a meteor shower here that dropped Gummi Blocks on the world and he wanted to speak with Ansem about both that and another matter as well. When I learned what that matter was, you would have to be crazy to think that I wasn't shocked.

Mickey actually wanted Ansem to help him find a way to bring Aqua back from the Realm of Darkness or at least a way to get into said realm so that he could help Aqua find a way out from that side. Being a scientist, Ansem was more than up for the challenge, having revealed that he and some of his apprentices were already doing some research on the creatures who lived in that realm after some of them somehow found a way into Radiant Garden. Both Mickey and I cautioned Ansem to be careful when dealing with these things, but he just smiled and assured us both that he was making sure that every safety measure was being taken while these "Heartless" as he was calling them were being studied, and that they would be while he helped us find the answers we seek in regards to the one thing I have wanted to find for years: a chance to somehow bring Aqua home, or at least see her again. Even with his reassurances, I still have a really bad feeling about what may come from researching the Heartless.

---

AN: So there's all of that. Yeah who else here expected Jiminy to lay into Kuzco like that? Like I've said before, I'm giving our favorite cricket and honorary conscience a little more of a role in this story than he had before. I mean, aside from Chain of Memories, a brief moment in Dream Drop Distance, and Coded, we never really saw Jiminy for very long or even all that much in the KH Games, and he's been with Sora, Donald, and Goofy right from the start. I get that he's supposed to just be in the background taking notes about everything that's unfolded in the adventure, but that doesn't mean he can't be doing something more significant. I think a lot of us tend to forget about that all too often, even when we write fanfictions like this one, and Jiminy's a really big deal ever since he first appeared in Pinocchio. I mean, considering what that little puppet who wanted to be a real boy would get into, it takes a special kind of determination and steal to stick with him, and Jiminy had that and more.

Goofy: Say, how come this iteration of Kuzco's story is different from the movie's?

AN: Well let me answer that with another question. When was the last time you remember Kingdom Hearts doing the exact story of a world's movie aside from adding in Sora and the gang? Obviously I'm going to change a few things around both for the sake of the story, and for the sake of time.

Sora: But why make me suddenly have doubts like I did earlier on in the chapter?

AN: Well, they say that many great heroes will feel like they're at their lowest before they do something great, and I felt that having Sora doubt himself a little was the perfect thing to set him up for a greater level of excitement when he unlocked his personal Shotlock: Typhoon Barrage. Just for future reference, much like the Command Styles I came up with for Sora and Kairi in Keyblades of Future Past, Typhoon Barrage is an original move that I came up with. I wanted that ability to reflect Sora's status as an Islander, ya know, since he's from Destiny Islands, while also being a mid to long-range ability. The hard part was coming up with something that didn't sound like it was meant to be a rush ability and that worked effectively with its name.

Ventus: Well, you're certainly not failing on living up to your claim about putting a lot of focus into the development of Sora's Shotlocks if this chapter's anything to go by, but what about that vision Sora had of Kairi?

AN: Ah yes, you see, most of the time when Sora had those visions in the first KH game, they were at random times and were seemingly...I don't want to say unimportant because they were alluding to the fact that Kairi was a lot closer than Sora thought, but they also did not really carry that much weight for most of the time beyond seeming to distract Sora. This time around, I wanted that to actually serve something of a more helpful or noticeable purpose. This was only the first chapter in which one of those things could happen, or rather, my first chance to do so. Don't worry, Kairi won't just be doing stuff like that for long, and we will be hearing more from her soon enough.

Now, I think that's everything I wanted to cover...

Donald: Wait! What about that whole Meteor Hurricane thing?

AN: That one should be obvious. I needed a reason for you guys to stop at Kuzco's world on your way to Traverse Town other than the fact that it was a world that was along the way. As for the name of said world, well, I just went with one the first things that popped into my head and it stuck, hence Llama Empire.

Oh, and let's not forget about that recent entry into Ven's journal. That was more of a look at how some of Mickey's meetings with Ansem the Wise unfolded from Ven's viewpoint, and one of the projects that they had asked for Ansem's help with before he was betrayed by his apprentices. I figured that if Mickey found out about what Ansem's research was focused on, and since Ven is still around in this timeline, he would probably ask Ansem to lend them a hand in getting Aqua back somehow. Plus, other than Yen Sid, who else would Mickey go to in order to find out about how to get into the Realm of Darkness? Not only that, but we also heard about Ven's feeling regarding Ansem's research of the Heartless, and how it gave him a foreboding feeling of the events that were to come. Guess he should've listened to his gut on that, huh?

Okay, now I think I've covered everything, so let's get Onto the Preview!...

The team returns to Traverse Town to meet with both Leon and Cid about their mystery gummi, and somehow end up running an errand for Cid at the same time. Encounters with new faces soon follow, all leading up to a brief reunion that gets cut short by the Heartless. Even with his old friend fighting by his side, Sora finds that they'll need an extra set of hands if they want to defeat the Heartless that had ambushed them, as well as the returning Guard Armor, which quickly reveals its second form to them shortly afterwards. Mysteries will be solved, friends will be reunited, and revelations are all abound, next time.

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!