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

11. Arabian Nights

AN: Hello all, and welcome back once again, after a very long absence to the tale that re-imagines that of the first Kingdom Hearts game in a whole new way, while also acts as a spin-off to my first Kingdom Hearts story, Keyblades of Future Past!

[audience applause]

Riku: Couldn't you just say welcome back to Kingdom Hearts: Dual Keys?

AN: Well I could, but that feels a little boring. Anyways, this chapter's a long one because a lot of stuff is being unveiled here, so I'll try to keep this as short as possible. Thankfully, we're not having to use manual controls to start this time, so that will be a big help. No lever-pulling here today. Anyways, let's kick things off by answering a few reviews. The real question is where do we start on that?

Sora: Hey, how about with this one? It looks like a regular reviewer for both this story and some of your other ones.

AN: [looks at the name Sora's pointing at] Hey, "Monkey D. Conan"! How ya doing? Glad to see you reviewing another epic! Anyways, I'll get right down to it, and answer all the questions you're last review posed to me. If I tried answering them all, I'd probably just be reminding you of things you already know now. Anyways, first off, we're going with the Clone Wars version of Ahsoka for this story, but just to be clear, I'm talking about Ahsoka as she appeared near the middle/end of the series, you know, when she got that new look and a second lightsaber. And speaking of which, I'm actually going to end up closing that poll a bit sooner than I expected, because the votes are all swinging more in one direction than any other from what I can tell. So, with that being said, as of this chapter, that particular poll, the one on which Star Wars character you all would like to see appear in this story as a summon, is now closed. If you haven't been looking at the results that people have been sending in before, then you'll just have to wait until we reach that chapter to see who it is that gets to jump into the fun.

Kairi: Why can't you just tell them now? It's not like it'll be a big spoiler.

AN: I know, but I feel like being a little dramatic so that it would still come as a big surprise when we reach that point. Anyways, Mickey's help for Riku at this point in the story will not be possible, since he's already off on his own, but Mickey and Riku will be teaming up for something else later on down the line, and it will be beyond what they did together in the first game too. You'll just have to wait and see what that is, but I'm sure some of you can probably guess what that thing is already. Oh, and yeah, that whole idea you had about Sora trying to tell Riku about Kairi but Riku won't listen? Yeah, that's going to happen. And I like the idea you suggested regarding Sora's unique Command Styles. I just might go with that.

Next up, let's address a reviewer by the name of "Guest", namely the one from Jun 26. I didn't say we wouldn't go to Pooh's world at all, it will get mentioned, but we won't actually see it happening, at least not as it happens. I can't really see it being that of that much importance as anything more than filler right now, but that might change later on.

Ventus: Hey, there's a guest review addressing me about the fear I displayed when I talked with Aqua and Terra about the x-blade. Can I answer that?

AN: Go for it.

Ventus: Well, let me just say now that I'm not entirely sure how they plan to handle that in canon, but as for the me in this story, it was more due to learning a little more about it with help from Yen Sid, so I knew just how dangerous it would be in the hands of someone like Vanitas and Xehanort.

AN: Well said. Now for our final review answer for today, I'll be addressing the reviewer "ronin warriors fanatic". Namely, the non-generic review, and let me just say, wow man. You really know how to show some love to a story like this. Glad to see you're enjoying it so much. And more than that, you've actually got a pretty good guess or two about things that may or may not happen later on in this story at a certain point. Don't worry, I don't plan on abandoning this story, and I really do try my best to not abandon any of my stories if I can help it, especially when it comes to the ones I put so much hard work into like this one here. As for the meeting with King Triton, I think you might find how that meeting as a whole goes quite surprising and satisfying.

Well, I'd say that just about covers everything I wanted to talk about here. Shall we enjoy the show now? What am I talking about? Of course we can!

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

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Chapter X

The gang did not want to leave Traverse Town again too soon, and that was proven due to how they spent a few more minutes there hanging out with Leon and the others, even after Cid had informed them that he had finished installing the navigation gummi on their ship, and added a few other upgrades just because he was "feeling generous." Still, the four knew that they had to get back out there again, especially knowing how much was at stake, so after spending a few more minutes exchanging stories with Leon and the others, and doing a little bit more magic training with Merlin, Ventus started leading the team back to First District, and to the world's departure hangar. They would have gone straight there after their meeting at the small house, but Sora was still training, and Merlin's place did offer an excellent training area that you just could not find while you were out in the middle of a mission on another world, so it was only natural that they held off on leaving right away. Of course, there were a few other reasons as well.

The first of those reasons was that Cid had insisted on showing them what his real job here in Traverse Town was before they left, and since it did not look like he was going to take no for an answer, the quartet figured they might as well hear him out. It was not like they did not need to go by the area anyway. They had to stop at the item shop so that they could restock on things like potions and ethers before heading out. Ventus was a little worried that they would have to deal with a Moogle running the shop, mostly because while the little guys were cute, they could haggle like pros, and Keyblade wielders were no exception to their businessman rules, so he was very relieved to see that it was not a Moogle running the shop, but three young boys that he, Donald, and Goofy were all very familiar with. Those boys being none other than Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Ventus knew that the three had taken off at some point a few years back after they had raised enough money to set out on their own adventure, much to their Unca Donald's displeasure, but the boys were definitely proving their mettle as both adventurers and businessmen now, seeing as they had started up the shop all on their own and had been running it with very little help ever since. Donald had to admit, he was proud of his nephews for following their hearts in becoming adventurers like him and his rich uncle, but that did not mean he was not still upset that his boys were still charging them full price for everything.

"Sorry Unca Donald. No family discounts," Huey had said.

"And there's no discounts for good friends or Keyblade Masters either, so don't even bother asking, Ven," Dewey added in warning to the blonde.

Ventus just smiled as he put his hands behind his head, showing that he had been at least thinking about it before the blue clad duck had said anything. Louie then stated, "It's nothing personal, but we're never going to be great adventurers like Unca Donald and Unca Scrooge if we're just giving handouts to people all the time, right?"

Donald just sighed when his third nephew said that, mentally blaming himself and Scrooge for teaching his boys things like that, but he was still proud of them all the same. So, after paying for the items that they needed, they headed out to see Cid and find out what his real job actually was. What they did not expect was to run into someone else that they knew along the way. Or to be more accurate, someone that one of them knew, and he still could not believe that they were actually here even after one of them had called out to him. "Hey, I'd know that head of spiky hair anywhere! Sora! How're ya doin', man," rang the familiar tones of a certain Islander that Sora knew too well to not recognize it right away.

"Wakka," Sora gasped when he spun to face the speaker. Sure enough, there was the tanned, red-haired boy from Sora's home, just as he remembered the guy being, right to the point where Sora could see his lucky Blitzball in one hand, and Sora could not help but run over excitedly, glad to see another friend of his was okay.

"Hey, don't forget about me. What am I, a bad paopu fruit," another familiar voice asked, and Sora immediately turned to see Selphie standing just a few feet away, and he was soon wrapping her in a huge hug as well, his happiness at seeing friends from his home sky-rocketing even more.

"How'd you guys get here? More importantly, when did you get here," Sora asked once he had calmed down a little as Ventus, Donald, and Goofy approached.

"Just a couple days ago, actually," Wakka revealed. "I'm not sure what happened, but one minute I was hanging out at Tidus' place planning for a friendly little Blitzball game with some of the other islanders, and then the next thing I know, some weird storm rolls in, and after I blacked out, I woke up in one of the rooms at the hotel in Second District."

"Wish I could say the same. I ended up in the middle of the street over in Third District, and I was almost jumped by some of those crazy monsters had it not been for Yuffie," Selphie huffed. Clearly she was jealous that Wakka got to wake up in a much more calm and comfortable setting than she had when they arrived here. "What about you? When did you get here?"

"Umm…" Sora had to pause and think for a minute. To be honest, with everything that he had been doing during his travels with the others, he had lost all track of time, so he was not sure how long it had been since he landed in Traverse Town the first time.

"It was about over a week ago, now," Ventus filled in for Sora, alerting the other two of his and the others' presence. When he noticed their curious gazes, he immediately smiled and said, "Hi, I'm Ventus, but my friends call me Ven."

"Nice to meet you, bruddha," Wakka nodded with a smile, while Selphie did the same, and they repeated the process after getting introductions from Donald and Goofy as well, until she realized something off with what Ventus had said.

"Wait, if Sora's been here for over a week, how come we haven't run into him or you until now," the girl asked.

"That's actually our fault," Ventus admitted. "You see, Sora's been granted a very special power that could help save other worlds from suffering the same fate as yours, and since its one that I also possess, I decided to take him on as my apprentice. Plus, we've also been helping him look for his other friends while visiting other worlds and saving them from the Heartless."

"Let me guess, you're mainly looking for Riku and Kairi, right," Selphie asked Sora.

"Yeah," Sora sheepishly admitted. In all honesty, he felt a little bad about not looking for any of his other friends too, but to be fair, Kairi and Riku were a lot more important to him than anyone else, so it was a little understandable if he would make them the highest priority in his searching.

"Oh Sora. It's sweet that you care so much about us, but you really shouldn't just forget about the others like that," Kairi sighed in his head.

"I didn't forget about them! I just…I was more worried about you guys," Sora thought in response.

The mental argument with his heart's passenger was quickly put on hold though when he realized something was a little off in what the two had said, "Wait a second. Haven't you guys run into Riku? I mean, we just saw him over in Third District not too long ago."

Wakka and Selphie quickly exchanged shocked looks between themselves before looking back to Sora as the latter replied, "That's the first we've heard of it."

"Yeah. Among your little trio, you're the only one we've met, Sora," Wakka added.

"Still, it's nice to know that Riku's okay," Selphie admitted, not noticing the confused looks on the quartet's faces. If these two had been in Traverse Town for a few days, then they should have run into Riku at some point, even if he just appeared here today. Maybe Riku was just too focused on finding his best friends to really think about finding anyone else like Sora had inadvertently been, but still, he should have at least stopped to say hello to the two. Ven's face had fell a little, having his own suspicions about why Riku had not stopped to check on Selphie and Wakka if he had ever found out that the two were here, but right now was not the time to give them voice. Besides, he did not want to soil this little happy reunion that Sora was having with his two friends. He found out he would have to do so a little bit though, when Selphie suddenly asked, "Say, have you seen any sign of Kairi yet?"

Sora knew why Selphie would be asking that. Even though Kairi had not been born on Destiny Islands, she and Selphie had always shared a kind of sibling relationship that was almost like the friendship between him and Riku in a small way. It was not entirely the same though, since Selphie typically spent most of her time with Tidus and Wakka while Kairi was with him and Riku, but Sora knew that the two girls would often get together and do whatever it was girls do on days when it was just them. Knowing this, Sora was a bit hesitant on telling Selphie what he had learned just a little while ago, even with Kairi encouraging him to say something to her about it in his head, but just when he was about to, Ventus cut him off and replied in his place. "I'm afraid not. We've found one or two small clues, but nothing really concrete yet," the blonde fibbed, earning a small look from Sora.

When the blonde Keyblade Master shot his apprentice a look that cautioned him to not say anything to the contrary, Sora discreetly nodded in understanding while making a note to ask Ventus about this later before turning back to his friends, hoping to steer the conversation away from that with a question he had been wondering about since meeting them. "What about Tidus? Isn't he with you guys too?"

"I was kinda hoping you knew where he was," Wakka admitted. "We haven't seen any sign of him at all since we got here, and Leon and them said that they hadn't run across anyone who even looks like him once since Destiny Islands disappeared."

"Well don't worry too much. I'll bet that your friend is doing just fine, wherever he is," Goofy reassured the two. When the two did not seem to cheer up all that much, he then added, "Hey, ya know what? Why don't you let us look for him for ya? I mean, we're already looking for our own friends, so we can keep an eye out for yours while we're traveling to other worlds."

"Why not just let us come with you," Selphie asked.

"We can't," Ventus replied. The two looked ready to protest, but Ven immediately preempted them with his counterargument. "I'm sorry, but the fact that you two are here now is already as much as can be allowed when it comes to people going to other worlds. If we bring you with us, we'd be disrupting the world order. Sora and I are special exceptions because of the power that we both wield, and Donald and Goofy are the same since they're close allies of ours that are well aware of other worlds and have traveled to some of them before now."

"Besides, there's not really much room left on the ship. Maybe for one other person, but even that's just barely," Donald revealed.

Wakka and Selphie seemed a little disheartened by this news, but the former quickly perked up and said, "Ah no worries. If you guys are out there looking for Tidus, then we don't mind at all. Just do me a favor: if you do find him, make sure you give him a good hit to the head for making us worry about him so much, ya?"

"And make sure that you bring both him and Kairi back safely too," Selphie added.

"Don't worry. We were planning on doing that anyway," Sora reassured them.

The two nodded in thanks for this, and the conversation then fell into what the two had been doing in Traverse Town since they woke up. It turned out that they had learned quite a bit about the Heartless from Leon and the others, and ever since, they had been doing what they could around town to help the people who lived there, even going so far as to fight the Heartless when necessary. Apparently, Wakka had asked Aerith to enchant his Blitzball so that it could be used effectively against the dark creatures, while Selphie had somehow managed to convince Yuffie to loan her a set of Nunchaku to use in place of her jump rope, which she was now wearing around her waist like a belt in case the actual weapon was ever lost to her for some reason. Sora was not sure what had possessed Yuffie to say yes to Selphie's request, but considering how similar the two were in his opinion, he figured that it made a weird kind of sense. Either that or she was just intimidated into doing so after seeing how deadly the girl could be with her jump rope alone, which made a little more sense. He should know since he and Riku had a couple of bruises to prove it, much to Kairi's amusement when she had found out later on. Besides fighting the Heartless though, the two were mainly just doing some small stuff like helping out at some of the shops or keeping folks entertained in some way, so it was definitely good to see that these two were around, because the people needed whatever reassurance they could find in these times, especially after they first arrive in this town.

Wakka and Selphie actually had the chance to prove how much help they had been around Traverse Town as they joined the four in meeting up with Cid, because the entire time they were walking over to the man's real place of business, people were stopping and waving to the two at minimum, and they would both return those greetings with a smile of their own. Even Cid had to smile a little when he saw the two arrive with the quartet, and Ventus could not help but tease the man a little when he saw that. Surprisingly, Cid just brushed it off, said that he could not get into much of a foul mood with Selphie and Wakka around, and then told Wakka that he was looking forward to the next Blitzball game that he played before turning to explain his real job to the four world travelers/defenders. It turned out that Cid was mainly in the business of all things gummis, both in terms of ships and blocks, and since he enjoyed working on the team's ship so much, he said that the next time they spoke with him, he would give them a special discount. Even went so far as to give them a new weapon gummi to install onto their ship the next chance that they had, the Comet-G laser to be specific, as a special giveaway. Looking back on things, it made sense that Cid would be into that sort of thing. There was just something about him that made it seem like he was the type to be right at home working on various different scientific fields, especially in the case of things like gummi ships. Ventus had already known that Cid had been really into working on the ships since he spotted Cid working on one specific ship at the Traverse Town hangar a few times, which Cid explained was his own personal ship, and the blonde figured that since they were here, they might as well get some information about something that he had been wondering about for a little while now.

"Say Cid, when we sealed the Traverse Town Keyhole, this gummi block fell out of it. I figured it might be another one of those navigation gummis that we showed you before, but it wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion, if you don't mind," the Keyblade Master said, pulling out the gummi in question when he did.

Cid looked over the block in question for a few seconds, until he finally nodded and said, "Yep, that's another navigation gummi all right, but I can't install it on your ship right now if that's what you're hoping for."

"Why not," Sora asked.

"Simple. This is one of those blocks that come in sets," Cid explained. "Some of them do a lot of times, especially in the case of blocks that are crucial to specific systems on a ship or for a set of blueprints for a type of ship. Lucky for you, this one is a case of the former. All you gotta do is find the mate to this one, and I'll be able to install it for you no problem."

"No problem," Sora confidently smirked, and after Ventus managed to convince Cid to let them hang onto the gummi for safe-keeping, the four bade both the gummi ship builder and Sora's friends goodbye, and returned to their ship, ready to depart.

They did not leave right away, since they wanted to install the new weapon that Cid had given them first, but the minute that it was locked into place and primed for action, they immediately set course for their next destination: the first of the worlds that were now reachable for the Kingdom. Of course, there was one important question that had to be asked, and Goofy was the one who eventually brought it up shortly after they had left Traverse Town. "How long do you think it'll take to get to one of these new worlds?"

"First off, it's not technically a new world so much as it is a world that the ship can now reach thanks to the navigation gummi that Cid installed," Ventus clarified for Goofy from up in the pilot's seat. "And second of all, to answer your question, if we were to take the straightest route there, I'd say we'll reach the closest of those worlds in about…three weeks to a month."

"A month," the other three gasped in shock.

"We can't wait that long! We've gotta hurry if we want to find Kairi's body and get her heart back into it," Sora protested.

"And for all we know, the king could be on that world too, so we've gotta get there as fast as possible," Donald added.

"Calm down, you guys. I did say that it would only take that long if we took the straightest route there," Ventus reassured them. "Fortunately, that navigation gummi also revealed a couple of shortcuts that should let us get there much more quickly. I'd say a few days at the most if not about ten hours."

Goofy was quick to check the computer to confirm this, and he immediately nodded in response, saying that Ven's measurement of time was accurate if they were going to take the shortcut that he thought the blonde was referring to, and the others were soon breathing sighs of relief at the news. With all of that said, Sora figured he might as well busy himself with a little bit of meditating, aka pretending to meditate while in reality he was mentally talking with Kairi. Naturally, Kairi had gotten on his case for it by calling him a lazy bum, as usual, but Sora just laughed it off and went on with regaling her with the stories of what he and the others had done so far. Not that Kairi really needed the recap, she was technically there the entire time, but she did like hearing how Sora would tell the stories. He always seemed to give it an extra, dramatic edge that others would consider as being over exaggerated, but to Kairi, it just made it all the more fun. Of course, she might have been a little biased, but Sora did not need to know that anymore than Sora believed that Ven needed to know that he was not really meditating.

What Sora did not know was that Ventus was well aware that the younger wielder was not actually meditating, but he did not stop Sora from doing what he was actually doing, because he figured that talking with Kairi like that was actually going to prove to be a little more beneficial than just sitting around trying to look within himself on his own for hours on end. Sure, Sora could hold a conversation with Kingdom Key if he wanted to, but those talks never really involved words in the typical sense. It was really more like feelings that translated into words for the wielder of the Keyblade, and it was not the same as talking to an actual person. Besides, he knew that he had an easier time with his training thanks to the support and aid that his friends gave him, so maybe Sora would benefit just as much with Kairi's help. The only other reason he was not getting on Sora's case was because at the moment, he had to focus on flying the ship, and making sure it got through the shortcut in one piece.

You see the shortcut that Ventus was planning to fly them through was actually a wormhole between two interspace quadrants, and he and Mickey had quickly learned firsthand that those things were not always the safest things to travel through. The first time they went through one, they had to scramble to keep their ship from falling apart, since the armor was not quite up to the task of handling the unexpected strain that the wormhole had put on the hull at the time, and they later found out from a trusted friend of Donald and Mickey's that they had actually been one of the lucky ones. It turned out that in some cases, those wormholes could actually tear a gummi ship clean in half if the armor was too weak, and Ventus was hoping that the Kingdom could handle the trip. Sure, Cid had reassured them that the work he had done on the ship when he was installing the navigation gummi would ensure that they would be all right, but the blonde could not help feeling a little bit nervous all the same. Plus, there was also the reaction that the others would have after their first trip through such a wormhole to worry about.

He would find out just how bad or good things would go soon enough, because it was only a few hours after they had flown past Olympus Coliseum that they had come up on the wormhole, and Ventus easily turned the ship to fly through while calling out a warning for everyone to buckle up, prompting Sora, Donald, and Goofy to jump into their seats and fasten their seatbelts as quickly as they could. A few seconds after they were all strapped in, Ven gunned the ship straight into the swirling vortex, and everyone was soon feeling as though they were constantly spinning round and round, over and over, while their insides were twisted about in the same rotation as the wormhole's vortex appeared to be spinning. It was not a pleasant feeling, even for Ventus, though since he had been through such things a few times before it was not as bad for him, and thankfully, it was not long before the feeling had finally come to an end, right at the same moment when they came out the other side of the wormhole. Still, despite the moment being over, they all felt really woozy, Goofy even feeling like he was going to throw up in a minute, but they somehow managed to shake it off after a minute or two. Donald and Sora actually ended up getting over it the quickest, the latter because he had been sailing between islands so much since he was a kid, and the former because of his own exploits out on the open sea and through various other adventures as well. By the time Goofy, Chip, and Dale had all recovered, since they were the last to do so, they were all soon able to stop and take a look out the viewport and observe their new surroundings.

They were easily able to see that they had arrived in another quadrant quickly enough, just from the shifting colors of the void outside. Instead of the flowing, deep blue and sea green that they had seen so far, the void around them was now a mix of red, violet, and blue that seemed to waft around them like a fog bank in a mysterious sort of way. More than that, some of the random space debris and rock formations around them had seemed to change as well, as they were not quite as smooth and flat as before. Yes, there were a few like that, but for the most part, they could also see a number of jagged clusters and spiky rocks. Along with that, there also seemed to be some asteroids that had massive holes in the center of them that they could easily fly through like a tunnel. The final difference of course was that the space debris were also of different colors as well, mainly being either purple or red with some faint orange spots as opposed to the being bluish-green with yellow spots. Seeing all of these things really did prove that they were now in a whole new area of interspace, and that promised a whole new experience of adventures as far as they could all see.

It was all quite beautiful indeed, but now was not the time to be taking in the sights. These four still had a mission that they needed to complete, and they all knew it. That was part of the reason why Ventus was able to shake himself out of his awe and return his attention to the task at hand. The other part being the fact that he had seen such sights many times before so it was not quite as wondrous for him as it had been the first time. Turning his attention to the regular navigator of the ship, Ventus immediately asked, "Goofy, how much further to the closest world?"

Goofy immediately jumped over to his computer and checked the map, only to blink a couple of times before he rubbed his eyes and looked again, just to make sure he was not seeing things. He was not about to make a mistake that let him live up to his name in this instance. When he confirmed he was not seeing things, the royal knight turned back to the current ship's captain and reported, "Looks like it's just a couple minutes away from here now. In fact, if I'm reading this right, we should actually be able to see it real soon."

Goofy was right, because just seconds later, the world came into view, and the crew was soon taking the time allowed in their final approach to study the world. From what they could see, it looked like the world had a desert landscape to it, and a grand palace seemed to sit atop the entire world. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the world, they could also see what looked like a giant lion's head with eyes and a mouth that glowed like a fire, and much like how the palace seemed to reside on a side that was almost constantly daylight, the side with the lion's head seemed enshrouded in night. It was not a world that Ventus recognized from his travels, but he did feel like he had read about it once before during his training under King Mickey, a fact that he soon informed the others of once he had brought the ship into a stable orbit of the world. Seeing as Ventus was not one hundred percent sure about this world, Jiminy wasted no time in jumping over to a ship's terminal so he could look it up, and he easily found it in no time at all.

"This is the world of Agrabah, city of mystery, of enchantment, and of incredible treasures of all varieties," the cricket reported.

"Oh yeah. I remember reading about this place once in the royal library. From what I remember, Agrabah is also home to various different kinds of special magic that can't be found on any other world. In fact, there's even this one place known as the Cave of Wonders, in which one could find treasure beyond their wildest dreams, including magical artifacts that could make someone able to rule an entire world," Ventus recalled.

"Do you think maybe there would be something in there that could help us get Kairi's heart back into her body," Sora asked the hope in his voice transparent.

"There's always a chance," Ventus assured him, earning an excited fist-pump from Sora in response, along with a cheer of joy from Kairi that only Sora heard.

The excitement was quickly killed though as the ship's alarms suddenly went off, making everyone jump in fright. "What's happening," Donald asked.

"The ship's sensors are detecting a massive amount of darkness down there," Chip's voice reported from the engine room.

"There must be a whole lot of Heartless down there causing all kinds of problems," Dale then added a second later.

"Then there's no time to lose! Everyone to the ship's transporter, and be ready for a fight the minute we land," Ventus ordered the team, and like that, they were all scrambling to said location so that they could get down to Agrabah as soon as possible.

Just as Sora was about to step onto the transporter pad with the others, Kairi suddenly called for his attention, making him pause for a minute to see what was wrong. "I can't explain how, but…I can sense something down there. A powerful light without even the faintest hint of darkness in it, but it's hard to really tell where it is because it feels like there's a shadow surrounding it," Kairi revealed.

Sora had a good idea what Kairi was getting at, so he immediately reported what Kairi had sensed to Ventus. The minute the blonde had heard all of that, his worry immediately became panic, and he quickly explained, "That must mean that the last Princess of Heart is here on this world, and if what Kairi's saying is true…"

"Then she must be in a lot of trouble," Goofy finished.

"So we've got to hurry and save her," Donald added.

"But how come Kairi was able to notice that so quickly? I didn't even feel anything at all, and it doesn't look like you knew either Ven so how did she figure it out," Sora asked.

"Being a Princess of Heart herself, Kairi would naturally be able to sense the lights of the other six, as well as the lights of a Keyblade Wielder like you and me. Even without knowing such things, she would've been able to tell who they are, simply because they would give off a sense of familiarity to her that can't be matched by anyone else. Not like the kind you get from a family member or a loved one, but one that transcends the boundaries of a world," Ventus explained. "Either way, it's a good thing that she's now awake and able to speak with you Sora, because we may need her help if we want to reach the princess of this world before it's too late."

Hearing Kairi agree to help in his head, Sora immediately nodded to Ventus to show that they both understood, and with that, the four were soon teleporting down, bracing themselves for whatever dangers they were about to face in Agrabah, and hoping that they could handle them.

---

Were it any other day, the market place of Agrabah would be packed with vendors, customers, and more, all alive with bustling activity and some form of life, even if some of them were more down on their luck than others, but today was a different story. Today, the streets were all but abandoned, with only a few of the bravest of stand owners open for business, and even those were small in number. In point of fact, the only ones that you could really say were actually out and about in the square were two very distinct dark figures, who were discussing a dark plan for a dark purpose. These two were none other than Maleficent, Mistress of all Evil, and Jafar, the royal vizier who had somehow seized power of the city from its rightful ruler, and was now the sultan of Agrabah. While that might have been enough for some, Jafar wanted more still, and Maleficent was able to grant so much more so long as Jafar upheld his end of their bargain. That was actually the reason why Maleficent was here right now: to make sure that things were going as well as Jafar said they were.

"And the Keyhole," Maleficent inquired at last, having heard about how well Jafar was doing already for what seemed like an eternity to her. It was a good thing that Maleficent was very patient when it came to these plans; otherwise, she likely would have destroyed the vizier by now.

"The Heartless are searching for it now. I'm certain we'll find it soon enough," Jafar reassured her. "So that just leaves…"

A loud squawk suddenly interrupted Jafar, and the two looked up just in time to see a red parrot with bluish-green tips to his wings, and blue tail feathers descending until he finally came to rest on Jafar's shoulder. "Jafar! I've looked everywhere for Jasmine. She's disappeared like magic," the parrot known as Iago reported to his master, much too said master's displeasure, and that of his partner's as well.

"The girl is more trouble than she's worth," Jafar grumbled under his breath. Maleficent on the other hand, was of a different mindset.

"You said you had things under control," the evil fairy irritably reminded Jafar.

"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in, but why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours when we find the Keyhole," Jafar pointed out. It really did not seem to make sense to him. After all, they had already caused several different worlds to fall to their power by doing so, and each of the other princesses had fallen into their grasps as a result, so it did not make sense for them to wait until Jasmine was within their grasp before plunging this Agrabah into darkness to Jafar. Really, why was Maleficent suddenly being so cautious with securing the princesses? That was the question that Jafar had been wondering for a while now.

Naturally, like any good leader of villainous cabals, Maleficent had her reasoning already on the tip of her tongue even before Jafar had asked the question. "We need all seven Princesses of Heart to open the final door. Any fewer is useless," Maleficent explained as simply as she could. "And with Ventus now hunting the Heartless and likely our allies, we need to make absolutely certain that they fall into our grasp. Nothing can be left to chance."

"Well, if the princess is that important, we'll find her," Jafar sneered in response. He then glanced over his shoulder to where a squad of Heartless quickly began to materialize, each brandishing a sword and decked out in attire that was appropriate for a person who lived in Agrabah, and ordered, "Find Jasmine and bring her to me at once."

Iago and the Heartless were soon racing off in the city, leaving Maleficent and Jafar on their own for a moment, which gave the Maleficent the chance to provide the vizier with a quick word of caution. "Don't steep yourself in darkness too long. The Heartless consume the careless."

Jafar merely laughed in response as he said, "Your concern is touching but hardly necessary."

Maleficent was not a blind fool. She could tell that despite how great his control over the Heartless were, Jafar was going to become very careless eventually. All it would take was one small slip in his plans, and the sorcerer would be digging his own grave. Still, she could not say that she did not warn him, and there was also the fact that out of everyone in her little alliance, Jafar held the best control over the Heartless, not counting herself and Hades. Of course, there was also one other person who held better control than her, but she was not currently counting him at the moment, given his current status. Feeling that there was not much else of a reason for her to remain here, Maleficent departed for the time being, just as unaware as Jafar was that they were being secretly watched, and by none other than the very princess that they were hunting for at the moment.

Jasmine could still not believe that Jafar had finally managed to seize power from her father the way he had, nor did she really understand how he came into contact with this strange woman, but she did understand enough to know that it was only with Maleficent's help that Jafar now had such powers. How else could he have gained the ability to call upon such evil and dark creatures as the ones that had just rushed off in search of her than by going to someone whose mere presence reeked of evil? But on a more important note, just what was it that they wanted with her? They already had Agrabah, and with those monsters at their disposal, they would likely find this Keyhole at any moment, so what made her so special? Yes, she had heard Maleficent mention something about a final door, but what had she meant by that? She could not really say for sure, but what she did know, was that she had to make sure that she stayed out of their grasp. Luckily, she knew just the person to turn to for help. She just had to hope that he was still alright, and that they had not gotten to him first. If they did though, she was not sure if she would ever forgive herself.

---

When Ventus said that they were going to get right into the fighting the minute they landed, no one ever thought that he would have meant it literally. In fact, the very second that they appeared at the gates of Agrabah, they found themselves surrounded by Heartless, both familiar and new. There were Shadows of course, but for the most part, there were some new Heartless as well that took the form of Arabian thugs. All of these new ones were clad in white turbans and matching face masks, yellow vests, dark red curl-toed shoes, armbands, and chokers, and they were all brandishing curved swords that bore a strong resemblance to classic scimitars. A quick look into his journal allowed Jiminy to identify these as Bandits, and that they were able to attack from under the sand while being able to attack very deftly with their swords, meaning that the team found themselves with quite the fight for a good amount of time. The fight actually ended up taking a bit longer than any of them would have liked, but in the end, they were able to clear this area of the bazaar quickly enough. Still, it did not prevent anyone from commenting on how sudden this fight was in one way or another.

"You know, when Ven said you guys were going to jump right into the fighting the second you landed, I thought you guys would have at least had a few seconds to breathe before you started fighting," Kairi commented to Sora.

Sora just mentally nodded in response. He was a little too focused on their current task to really have a proper conversation with Kairi at the moment, and Ventus had to admit that he was glad to see that his apprentice was putting so much focus into their mission. That did not mean that he wanted Sora to completely ignore Kairi, she was one of if not the most important person in Sora's life, but there was a time and a place for idle chit-chat, and right now was not the time for either one. They had to focus on their objectives: find the Princess of Heart, stop the Heartless, seal the Keyhole, and possibly take down a major bad guy along the way. When they were finally sure that no more Heartless were going to pop out and jump them, they set to work on trying to locate the princess, with Sora consulting Kairi to see if she could sense anything from within his heart. Unfortunately, Kairi did not seem to be able to pick up on anything specific, but she was able to tell that they were close to wherever her fellow Princess of Heart was. That was good news, sure, but without specific directions, they were not going to get very far, so they switched to getting information the old fashioned way: talking to the nearest person they could find.

The closest person actually turned out to be a man clad in a pair of blue pants, a black t-shirt, and a sleeveless red vest, while his dark hair was concealed underneath a white hat, and this particular individual seemed to be one of the few people who had an open stand at the moment, despite how deserted the bazaar was. When he saw the four approaching, the bored look that was previously on his face was immediately erased and replaced with an excited smile as he welcomed them over rapidly saying, "Welcome to Dave's Antiques, Treasures, and More, home to the finest merchandise this side of the desert dunes! On sale today! And for travelers such as yourselves, I think I may have just the thing to catch your interest." He then reached for an item on one of the shelves behind him before any of the four could say anything, and then continued on by showing off the item in question. "Ah yes! This here is a full-fledged, combination hookah and coffee maker, also makes a million fires." He then banged the item against the counter as he assured them, "It will not break. It will not…" Just before he could finish, the bottom part of the hookah suddenly sprung off, and hung loosely on the spring, drawing a deadpan look from the merchant. "It broke." He then tossed it aside, ignoring the looks that Donald and Ven were both giving him, as well as the confused glances that Goofy and Sora were exchanging, and reached for another item beneath the counter. "Oh, look at this," he cooed in awe. "You know, very few people have seen one of these intact before. This is the famous Dead Sea Tupperware. Listen." He then lifted the lid a little while making a not-entirely-discreet spitting sound of the side of his mouth, before he sighed, "Ah, still good."

"We're not looking to buy anything! We just need some information," Ventus finally exclaimed, spotting a brief break in this man's fast-paced speaking pattern to get a word in.

"Oh…Well then…Not quite as profitable, but I can still help with that. No one knows things on the streets around here better than ol' Dave. That's me, in case it wasn't already obvious. What mysteries can I solve for you," the merchant asked as he slipped the "still good" Tupperware back under the counter.

"Well how long have those Heartless been around here," Sora asked as a starting point.

"You mean those strange creatures? They've been around ever since Jafar seized power from the sultan," Dave immediately replied. When he got blank looks from the four, he figured that they needed a little more than that, and said, "Wow, you guys must be really new in town if you don't know who Jafar is."

"We literally just got here a few minutes ago," Donald revealed.

"I see," Dave nodded. "Well, it's like this: Jafar was once the sultan's royal vizier and most trusted advisor, but anyone who had met the man could probably tell you that the guy was bad news. I'm not just saying that because the guy has a weird thing for snakes and I hate snakes, just so we're clear, but that's beside the point. Jafar's wanted to take over the kingdom for ages now, and then one day, a few weeks ago, out of nowhere, Jafar's suddenly in charge, and those monsters are all throughout the bazaar, silencing anyone who even seems to indicate that they want to go against his rule. If you ask me, he got help from some powerful outside force, and even without that, he also still had a few tricks up his sleeve, or should I say in his staff?"

"His staff," Goofy asked.

"Yeah, you see wherever the guy goes, he's always got this snake staff in hand, and some say it has mystical properties like being able to hypnotize people or shoot a stream of fire. But you didn't hear that from me," Dave informed them, whispering the last sentence at the end.

"Hear what," Sora asked.

"Exactly! I like you kid. I like this kid. He's smart. Care for a desert jewel? Fifty percent off, just for you," Dave declared, holding out a red ruby to Sora.

"No thanks," Sora denied.

"Oh, okay. So, is there anything else I can help you guys with? Or maybe another item you might be interested in buying?" The group had to hand it to Dave. The guy was determined to get them to buy something from his stand, and he did not give up easily.

"You said that Jafar has the Heartless silencing all resistance to his rule. Does that mean that no one is doing anything to stop him," Ventus asked.

"Far from it actually. There are two people who are sort of doing something," Dave revealed. "You see, after Jafar seized power, Princess Jasmine somehow escaped from the palace and into the night. Being the rightful heir to the throne, she could easily knock Jafar off that big cushy chair and free her father, and Jafar knows it. He's been searching for her ever since, using both those monsters and that little parrot that's always hanging around him, Iago, but I get the feeling he's after her for a different reason beyond just the obvious."

The quartet were immediately exchanging knowing looks amongst themselves when they heard that. If Jafar was looking for this Jasmine as desperately as Dave was indicating, then she must be the Princess of Heart they were looking for, which meant they had to find her first. Still, there was something else that they had to ask about. "So who's the other person that's standing up to Jafar," Goofy asked.

"Why that would be the same guy who helped Jasmine to escape: the local, number one thief and trickster of Agrabah, who's easily, become a one-man rise in crime. My man, Aladdin," Dave revealed. "I don't know how it happened, but the guy somehow ran across Jasmine during her escape from the palace, and helped her to get away. No one's seen hide, hair, or even a peep out of his trusted monkey friend ever since then. But word is that Aladdin went out looking for some way to help Jasmine depose Jafar, and possibly even get him to win the princess's heart. There hasn't even been a smallest sign of him or anyone being home, aside from this one moment when something seemed to fly into the large hole in the wall of the building he lives out of which he drew a curtain over so it could act as a window. But again, you didn't hear that from me."

"Thanks all the same," Ventus nodded. "Any chance you have an idea on where Jasmine might be?"

"Weren't you listening earlier? I said no one's seen her since she disappeared with Aladdin. I'd tell you to start at Aladdin's place, but I checked that place out myself, and she wasn't there. If had to guess, she's probably ducking around in the market somewhere, trying to stay as far out of sight as possible, but that's just a guess."

"Well can you tell us what she looks like," Donald asked.

"Why? You going to try and find her?"

"Yeah, we are," Ventus confirmed. "You see, we have special abilities that can destroy the Heartless, but it will be meaningless if Jafar gets his hands on Jasmine. If he does a lot more than Agrabah will be at risk."

Dave studied Ventus for a minute, almost as though he were looking into the blonde's soul in order to determine the honesty in his words, until he finally sighed and ran through a brief description of the princess. "Well, from what I've heard of her, she has an hourglass figure, dark skin, and thick, black hair that she keeps tied into a low ponytail with a blue ribbon and a headband with a sapphire in the center. She also typically wears a blue bedlah outfit with long bustle pants and a top that leaves her forearms and midriff bare. Oh, and she also wears golden earrings, necklace, and shoes."

"Thanks a bunch, Mister," Sora nodded in thanks as the group prepared to leave.

"Not a problem and don't call me 'Mister.' Just Dave's fine. Now are you guys sure I can't interest you in any…" Dave started to ask.

"NO," was the quartet's simultaneous reply.

"Alright, alright. Just chill. You can't blame a guy for trying to make an honest living. I've been living in a hole and struggling to get by even before Jafar took over. Cut me some slack," Dave placated. That earned him a little sympathy from the group, and Ventus immediately reached into one of his pockets to hand over a bit of munny that he had picked up from some of the previous battles against the Heartless, knowing it would become whatever currency was used on Agrabah the moment it left his hand and fell into the peddler's. Seeing this kindness brightened Dave's day quite a bit, and as the four departed, he quickly called out, "Best of luck brave heroes! I'm rooting for you!"

The four waved back in thanks, and then set off deeper into the bazaar, determined to find Jasmine before their enemies could. All the while though, one niggling thought was pestering them at the backs of their minds, and Sora could not help but give voice to it. "Is it just me, or does that guy seem a little familiar to any of you for some weird reason?"

"Nope, it's not just you. I feel like I've seen him before too, or at least, someone like him somewhere," Ventus admitted, his mind wandering back to one of the worlds he had briefly visited on his first journey through the worlds.

"He seemed pretty nice to me," Goofy admitted.

"Yeah, I thought he was really nice too. He definitely doesn't feel like a bad guy, just like someone who's oddly familiar for a reason I can't understand but that I can still trust to help us out," Kairi agreed with Goofy.

"Who cares about that? We've gotta find the princess before the Heartless do," Donald reminded everyone, not knowing that he was cutting off Sora before he could tell them of Kairi's thoughts on Dave.

"He's right. Let's table this matter for now and focus on finding Princess Jasmine," Ventus declared, and with that, they were all putting their minds back into the game.

---

Trying to find Jasmine was no easy feat for our heroes, even with Kairi helping them out by telling them if they were getting closer or farther away. Everywhere they turned in Agrabah, they were running into Heartless, which naturally meant that they had to fight no matter what happened or where they went. Still, it did not stop them from turning the city upside down as much as they could looking for her. In fact, the only places they did not go to were Aladdin's house and the palace, the former because they already knew that she most likely was not there anymore. As for the palace, it was obvious she would not be there because there was no way she was going to go back to a place where she had escaped from, and even if she did, Jafar no doubt had Heartless crawling over every inch of the place, so she would have been captured the minute she set so much as one toe in the building. The only other reason was because the road up to the palace was actually blocked off at the moment, no doubt due to Jafar's meddling, so they would not have been able to look there even if they wanted to. Eventually though, they found themselves checking several places more than once, even going so far as to check out the area just outside the city gates in case she was hiding somewhere along the walls surrounding Agrabah, and needless to say, it was becoming more than a little tiring. At the rate they were going, it was going to take nothing short of either random luck or a miracle to find her.

Thankfully, they happened upon that bit of random luck. They had just walked into an alleyway in their continued search, when they heard something rustling in the shadows behind some large boxes by the wall. "Hey, whoever's hiding back there, you can come on out. We're friends," Sora called to the mystery individual.

A few moments after Sora had called out, the person in question stepped out of their hiding place, and revealed themselves to be a beautiful young woman that happened to be a perfect match to the description of the princess that Dave had given them. Seeing she was still hesitant to approach them, Ventus put on a friendly smile and asked, "Princess Jasmine, I presume?"

"Yes or at least, I was the princess when my father was sultan of Agrabah," Jasmine nodded in confirmation. "Who are you?"

"I'm Ventus, but you can just call me Ven. And this is Donald, Goofy, and my apprentice, Sora. We're here to help in any way that we can," Ventus revealed.

"How? Jafar controls the whole city, and he's gained evil powers that are unlike anything I've ever seen," Jasmine asked. Despite the doubt in her voice, they could all tell that she was hoping very much that they could help, because she did not want to give up just yet.

"We've got some special powers of our own. We can take him, no problem," Donald boasted.

"Uh-huh, and Sora and Ven are both wielders of the Key…" Goofy started to say, but his mouth was quickly clamped shut by Ventus, who was soon laughing sheepishly in an attempt to cover Goofy's small slip. Clearly, the knight was having almost as hard if not a harder time keeping the existence of things like other worlds and the Keyblade a secret than Sora was.

Jasmine was not stupid though, and she quickly thought of something just from that little bit that Goofy had said before he was silenced. "Do you know something about the 'Keyhole'?"

That made all four jump a little in surprise, and prompted Sora to ask, "How'd you know about that?"

"I overheard Jafar earlier when he was talking with a strange woman that I'd never seen before. They were desperately searching for something they called the 'Keyhole'," Jasmine explained.

"This woman that was with Jafar…Did she have pale green skin, dress in a long black and purple robe, a horned headdress, and carry a staff with a green orb at the tip," Ventus asked.

"Yes. Do you know her," Jasmine exclaimed.

"Maleficent," Ventus muttered with narrowed eyes, drawing surprised looks from the rest of his friends. He then turned his attention back to Jasmine, and instead of directly answering her question, he diverted them onto a different topic. "How'd you get away from the palace, exactly? We heard a couple of rumors, but nothing really solid. And besides that, the Heartless aren't exactly easy to fool, especially when it comes to sensing hearts that are so full of pure light, like yours seems to be."

"Tell me about it," Kairi moaned, prompting Sora to rub his chest a little in a small attempt to comfort her. It may not have been entirely effective, but the gesture was still appreciated all the same.

"I almost didn't, actually," Jasmine admitted. "Jafar had caught me trying to escape at first, but then he appeared and helped me."

"You mean Aladdin," Sora asked.

"Yes, that's right. We were hiding nearby in his house, and were pretty safe, but it did nothing to hide what Jafar had been doing to the city since he seized power," Jasmine confirmed.

"So where is he now," Donald asked.

"I'm not sure. He left a while ago to take care of something, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. Just that he had to leave Agrabah to do it. Oh, I hope Aladdin's all right," Jasmine said the worry as evident in her voice as the sand in the desert of this whole world.

Seeing how concerned she was for the man who had helped her instantly clued everyone on the team in on a very important fact: Aladdin was far more than a friend to Jasmine. In fact, they would even go so far as to say that she was in love with him, if you could believe it. Realizing this, Sora suddenly began to feel a little giddy; something he was sure that was influenced by Kairi's heart being inside of him. Kairi had always loved romance just as much as she loved grand adventures, hence the reason why she would always insist that it be included in some of the games that she would play with him and Riku whenever they dragged her into one. Usually, it was the typical knight saves the princess type of game, which would end with the princess giving her hero a small kiss of thanks on the cheek, and even now, Sora could not help but blush a little at the memories of every time when Kairi would give him said reward. More importantly, seeing how concerned Jasmine was with Aladdin's well-being as opposed to her own safety also served as further proof that she was in fact a Princess of Heart, which meant that the team could breathe a little easier knowing that they had managed to get to her before any forces of darkness had, but sadly, that relief and the giddiness at seeing evidence of Jasmine's feelings for Aladdin was only short-lived.

Just when Ventus was about to suggest they find somewhere safe for Jasmine to hide, a new presence suddenly made itself known, as the person spoke with a sneer in his tone. "Aladdin? Where might I find this street-rat," the person asked, and everyone immediately turned their gazes upward to see none other than Jafar himself standing on the wall above them, grinning devilishly at how he had finally tracked down his prey, along with her supposed protectors, and he then carried on in addressing the princess, saying, "Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. These little rats won't do, you see."

"Better rats than ones who dwell in darkness as you do," Ventus retorted as he stepped forward, moving Jasmine behind him as a better bit of protection.

"Jasmine, run," Sora whispered to the princess. "We'll hold him off."

Jasmine simply nodded and raced out of the alleyway as fast as she could, and the minute she was out of sight, the four instantly summoned their weapons, ready for action, prompting Jafar to note the blades being wielded by Ventus and Sora. "Ah, the boy who has become the newest Keybearer," Jafar noted with a hiss that was a little too much like the snake on his staff for some of their liking. He then looked to the blonde and commented, "And I believe that would make you the infamous Ventus, would it not?"

"I'm guessing that means Maleficent's told you all about me and my friends," Ventus replied. "What's it to you?"

Jafar simply smirked once again and then waved his fingers, summoning forth a squad of Bandit Heartless before he turned to leave, saying, "I'll leave you to deal with these Heartless. I have far more important things to attend to than a pair of boys and their little friends."

Each of the four warriors could not help but groan a little in response as they entered into another fight, leaving Jafar to make an easy escape. It was not just Bandits that they had to contend with for long though, as they were soon also facing Shadows as well as Heartless that had been disguised as the large pots around them. The minute they had gotten close to those pots, their true nature as Heartless were revealed with the pots suddenly growing four spider legs and then charging at them. Luckily, these Heartless were fairly easy to deal with, since they only seemed to know how to charge and tackle an opponent and nothing else, but the fact that there so many of them in addition to the others was what really gave Ven and the others a hard time, much to the blonde's annoyance. Eventually, the Heartless were even joined by creatures with conical, yellow bodies, spherical heads, and conical, orange hats, with the Heartless emblem emblazoned on their body and despite its nonthreatening appearance, these new Heartless proved to be very fast and very difficult to get rid of. It was not made any easier by the fact that they were able to throw out lightning magic with ease, while also absorbing the same type of magic if they were hit with it.

At some point in the middle of their seemingly endless battle, Sora finally felt like he had enough, so he jumped back and fired off a blast of the Ragnarok Shotlock, unleashing several salvos of energy projectiles that seemed to turn all of the Heartless they hit into dust. When the Shotlock's power wore off, there were still a few Heartless left, but Sora's usage of said power had allowed Ventus the chance to gather up enough energy to unleash his Fever Pitch Command Style, which he then used to rush through those that remained. Any that were left after that point were easily dealt with by Donald and Goofy in one manner or another, though the former did refrain from using any lightning spells, since the newest variety, which Jiminy had identified as Yellow Operas, could absorb said magic. After that point, they quickly glanced around, remaining on guard until they were sure that they had dealt with all of their enemies for the moment. When they were sure that they had eliminated all the Heartless that Jafar had unleashed upon them, Ven and Sora dismissed their Keyblades and started trying to find Jasmine again by searching for the feeling of her light.

For several minutes, they were not able to pick up on anything, and that did not translate into something good to them, but they did not panic just yet. They still had a way of finding her that Jafar did not, and that way was resting inside of Sora's heart. Kairi was still able to get a feel for Jasmine's light, and since they had now met the princess, she had a better idea of what she was looking for when it came to finding said light. Sora did not even need to ask for Kairi to look, because she had started searching the minute that they had eliminated the last of the monsters. In fact, by the time Sora had asked Kairi for some help, she had already narrowed down two possibilities as to where Jasmine might be, based on the areas where her light was resonating strongest from. The first of the two locations was the palace, for obvious reasons, and the second was a tall building in town that they could only assume was Aladdin's home. They had been told that she had been hiding out there, and since Jasmine did not want to be taken back to the palace, they had to hope that she was currently hiding at Aladdin's. Still, Kairi took another minute to determine whether or not Jasmine's light was coming from anywhere else, and when she finally confirmed that those were the only two places that the princess's light was coming from, the four immediately booked it over to Aladdin's.

Getting there was fairly simple since they did not encounter any Heartless along the way, but it was not easy, because it turned out that the only way they could get inside was by climbing up to the rooftops and going from there. When they finally reached the building itself, they slowly made their way inwards, just in case the Heartless had gotten here first. Somehow they doubted that would be the case, but you could not be too careful, which was actually a good thing to be, because Aladdin's home seemed to be so rundown, they were surprised that the floor was not collapsing beneath their feet and that the ceiling had yet to completely cave in. Eventually, they found themselves standing right in the middle of Aladdin's home, which was basically just the one room on the top floor of the building, and they could see what Dave meant when he said that Aladdin's home provided a great view of the palace. The only thing that would have made it enjoyable would have been if Jasmine were here as well, but unfortunately, there was no sign of the princess anywhere, and since Kairi had not sensed Jasmine's light anywhere else in Agrabah, they could only assume that she had ended up at the palace at some point, and that spelled bad news. If Jafar really was working for Maleficent, and if she was the one behind the disappearances of the other Princesses of Heart, then there was no telling how much time they had before Jasmine was taken away from this world like Alice had been from hers.

That was all the reason that they felt they would need to charge the palace gates and rescue her, even if they had to do so without any solid plan on how to get through the blockade in the street and the army of Heartless that would no doubt be waiting for them, and they would have charged right out to do just that had something in the corner of the room not suddenly caught Sora's eye. "Hey guys, hold up a minute," he called to the others just as they were about to leave after seeing the object. "I think there's something else in here."

"Careful Sora. It might be another Heartless," Goofy cautioned, his shield already in front of him so he could take action at a second's notice, while Donald did the same with his staff.

"I don't think it is. I didn't sense any Heartless in here when we came in, so I doubt that's the case," Ventus disputed. That did not mean he was going to let them relax just yet though. "Be careful all the same, Sora."

Sora only nodded before he slowly made his way forward, until he was finally close enough to see whatever it was that was hidden in the shadows, and when he did, he immediately scrambled to move aside the large box that had been placed on top of it. When the box had been moved aside, the object came flying out from where it had been imprisoned, startling Sora a bit, and the others soon after, but afterwards, the boy could not help but let out an amused chuckle when he felt something wrap around him really fast before unwrapping again, coming out into the light at last so that the others could finally see it clearly. They were all stunned to see that the object in question was actually an ornate, Persian carpet with gold lining and tassels, and it was using said tassels for hands and feet. The designs all across its purple surface were very intricate and colorful, and they only seemed to enhance the rather playful and energetic personality it seemed to be showing off. The carpet then danced around Sora one more time, making the boy and his heart's passenger very amused as he finally figured out that it was saying thank you to him, and replied, "You're welcome."

"I don't believe it," Ven gasped in awe. "An actual magic carpet. I've heard about them, but I've never actually seen one in person. Man, Aqua would've loved this."

"But uh…what's it doing here," Goofy asked.

The carpet apparently heard him, and immediately started waving at them all before it flew towards the window like it was about to take off and leave. Seeing this made Sora realize, "I think he wants us to follow him."

"How do we know he's not leading us into a trap," Donald asked, and the others had to admit that he did have a point. The carpet was pinned down in Aladdin's house just a moment ago, so what if Aladdin had done that because the carpet could not be trusted.

"We don't, but at the same time, there's also a chance that he might lead us to Aladdin, and since he's already helped Jasmine escape from Jafar once, he might be our best bet at getting her out of his clutches again," Ventus reasoned.

"So we basically don't have much of a choice," Sora asked.

"Sure we do. We could either take a chance on the carpet and see if it can lead us to Aladdin, or we could storm the palace ourselves in a desperate attempt to save Jasmine without the extra help that Aladdin could give us. What I'm saying is that we should be smart about this and not just rush off without thinking it through," Ventus clarified for Sora.

"You do tend to do that quite a bit at times, Sora," Kairi teased.

"I do not," Sora argued.

"I'm pretty sure that Ventus and some of your more recent memories would disagree. For example, when you first arrived at Olympus Coliseum, or when you were chasing the White Rabbit in Wonderland," Kairi reminded him.

Sora had nothing to say to that, beyond crossing his arms in a huff. He would have done some mental grumbling, but Kairi would have been able to hear it, adding more ammunition to her arsenal. He quickly shook it off though when he realized that Ven and the others had already gone off to chase after the magic carpet, and he quickly rushed after them to catch up, hoping that Ven's hunch about the carpet leading them to Aladdin was a good one.

---

The good news is it turned out that their hunch about the carpet was right, and it had in fact brought them to Aladdin. In point of fact, the magic carpet had flown them out to Aladdin's location himself, though there was just barely enough room for all of them on the flying rug, and it was a good thing that it had, because they had to go across at least half of the desert outside of Agrabah's gates, and all the way to the darker side of the world to reach him. The bad news, Aladdin and his monkey, Abu were both stuck in a sand trap and were slowly sinking further in. To make matters worse, when Sora tried to rush over and help, a trio of Bandits sprung up from beneath the sand in an ambush. Luckily, Goofy was able to react quickly and deflect the Heartless' attacks with his shield, giving Sora a chance to bring out Kingdom Key and destroy his attackers, but that only seemed to encourage more Bandits to start popping up out of the sand, swords swinging and blocking any chance they had to advance closer to where Aladdin was. Seeing as they were going to have to get through the creatures of darkness first, Ventus and Donald immediately summoned out their own weapons and immediately joined their friends in the fight.

You would think that getting rid of these sword-wielding Heartless would have been easy for the group, especially since the Bandits were the only Heartless around them, but you would be wrong. Just like Jiminy said, the Bandits were able to sink down and attack from beneath the sand, and it looked like that initial squad was not the only one hiding in the sand in case anyone tried to come and save Aladdin. Ventus was not sure if that meant Jafar already knew about Aladdin or if it was something else that was drawing the Heartless here, but right now, he had to focus more on the fight than anything else, which was not made that much easier when Sora unleashed his Typhoon Bombardment Shotlock, throwing sand up in nearly everyone's eyes had most of them not shielded their eyes just seconds before they were hit. Obviously, Sora had not thought of that little detail, as evidenced by the sheepish, apologetic look on his face, but there was not time to really get on him for the matter, because the Heartless were still coming after them. Not only that, but even with the number that Sora had eliminated using his personal Shotlock, they were not gaining any ground against the dark creatures, and it was only going to be a matter of time before they were in the same spot as Aladdin or worse. Seeing this prompted Ventus to wave Sora over to him, feeling that it was time for him to teach the kid another new lesson. He just had to hope that this newest mid-combat lesson did not end up having similar results to the Command Styles lesson he gave in Wonderland afterwards.

"Sora, do you remember the fight with Cloud back at Olympus Coliseum," Ven asked the minute the young Keybearer was standing back to back with him.

"Yeah. It's not exactly hard to forget," Sora pointed out as he blocked a Bandit's sword with Kingdom Key. Really, he was a bit offended that his master thought he could forget about such a spectacular battle like that.

Ventus nodded in relief, and then, as he slashed through another Bandit that had tried to jump him, he went on to explain why he brought that up. "Listen carefully. The magic energies a Keyblade wielder possesses can be used to perform more than just spells. It's also used to unleash powerful sword attacks as well. Many of them are abilities that are unique to us, but the rest are ones that we can often times learn just from seeing others perform them. Cloud used a variation of one such ability: Sonic Blade, an ability where you rush an opponent several times over with powerful thrusts that can either devastate or stun an enemy that's struck by so much as even a glancing blow."

Sora could only stare in awe for a minute, even as he parried and deflected attacks from the Bandits around them, and he just had to try it out for himself until he remembered one little problem with that. "How do I use it," he asked.

"Just pick your target, focus your magic into the Keyblade as you imagine doing what I just told you, and then unleash the power," Ventus explained. When Sora just stared at him blankly, Ven knew he was going to have to do better than just tell him, and decided to let action do the talking. "Just watch," he instructed, and a minute later, Guardian Wind seemed to glow a little along its blade, and Ventus was rushing forwards at an incredible speed. Not quite as fast as he would have been moving with his Fever Pitch Command Style, but it was still incredibly close.

Sora just gaped in awe for a minute, forcing Donald and Goofy to save him a few times before some Heartless had gotten him, but when he finally did remember where he was, he saw that Ventus had wiped out several of their opponents with that one ability. Ventus then turned to Sora and nodded, silently telling the kid that it was his turn to try now, and Sora immediately did as Ventus told him earlier, with Kairi cheering him on in his head a bit as he focused his magic into the Keyblade. After thinking for another minute or so about what he just saw Ven do and how he wanted to do the same thing, Sora could feel the energy begging to be unleashed, and he immediately released it, causing him to rush forward in a burst of speed he did not know he possessed. If Sora had been freaked out by the sudden push forward, he had not shown it, because the Kingdom Key was thrust out in front of him the minute his charge had started, and he kept thrusting it forward with every charge he made, until finally, his high speed assault came to an end in a burst of energy that caused the remaining Heartless to go up in smoke.

Any stragglers that were left after that were swiftly dealt with thanks to a little Thunder spell from Donald, while Goofy simply batted the others away with his shield, and once again, there was nothing around the quartet but sand and the trapped Aladdin. Seeing they finally had an opening, Sora and Ventus immediately ran over to Aladdin to try and pull him out, but just as they were reaching out, the sounds of moving sand caught their ears, and they immediately turned to see Donald and Goofy standing behind them in defensive positions as yet more Heartless appeared to try and push them all in. "Gawrsh, not again," Goofy groaned, and the others could not help but agree with him. They had more than enough of this endless battle, but the Heartless just would not stop coming.

That quickly changed though when Aladdin finally managed to pull himself up out of the sand trap enough to reach into his pocket and pull out a golden lamp. He then rubbed the lamp as fast as he could while shouting, "Genie, get rid of these guys!"

When Aladdin had finished rubbing the lamp and raised it up in the air, a cloud of blue smoke erupted from it, surprising the four other adventurers from another world, but not as much as what came out of the smoke. There, materializing into solid form was a large, blue…person, for lack of a better word, who had a blue wisp from the waist down as opposed to feet, large hands, a black beard, and a short black ponytail, and pointy ears. The only clothing he seemed to wear was a pair of golden bracelets, a gold earring on his right ear, and a red sash around his waist, but the heroes were far more concerned with what the appearance of this new individual might mean for them. At least they were concerned until they heard him speak. "Wish Number One, coming right up!"

When the massive being snapped his fingers, the Heartless all vanished completely, like they had never even been there. Not only that, but neither Ven, Sora, or even Kairi could sense even the small hint of anymore in the area, and they did try to look this time, because after getting ambushed so much, they did not want to take any chances that there might still be some Heartless left. When they were finally satisfied enough in their search for anymore Heartless, Donald finally asked the question that they were all wondering. "What just happened?"

"I was about to ask all of you the same thing. Who are you guys and what were those things," Aladdin asked once he had tossed his monkey out of the sand trap, reminding the adventurers that they still needed to get him out as well.

"It's a long story, but how about we explain it after we get you out of there," Ventus offered.

Aladdin just grinned in agreement, and he happily accepted the hand that Ven was holding out for him to grab onto so that the blonde could pull him free. Afterwards, the team all introduced themselves to the Agrabah local, with Aladdin introducing himself and his pet monkey and friend Abu in reply, and they then went into as much detail as they could about why they were here. They did not tell him anything about being from another world of course, but they did tell him that they were traveling warriors who were trying to help anyone who had encountered the Heartless or creatures and villains like them, and when they heard that he had gone missing, they immediately went to investigate. There was no way that they could hide anything about the Keyblade and their magic powers since Aladdin had seen them for himself, firsthand, but since that was not as big of a secret as the matter of there being other worlds, they did not mind sharing a little bit of information regarding that. They did not tell him everything though. There were still some things about the Keyblade that they kept secret from the "street rat," after all, but Aladdin did not seem to care too much. He was just glad that they had shown up when they did to help; otherwise, he did not want to think about what would have happened.

"Thanks Sora, Ven, Donald, and Goofy," Aladdin nodded in thanks.

"Happy to help, Aladdin," Ventus nodded in return.

"But what're you doing out here," Sora asked.

"Same old stuff. Hunting legendary treasure. Just paid a visit to the Cave of Wonders," Aladdin shrugged. He then waved his hand to Carpet while pulling out the lamp from earlier as he added, "I found that magic carpet and this lamp. Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp can summon the…"

"Please, kid, leave the intros to a professional," the blue being interrupted excitedly, and he did just that with an unbelievable show of magic to accompany his introduction. "The ever impressive, the long-contained, one and only GENIE OF THE LAMP! Rub-a-dub-dub the lamp and have your dearest wishes granted. Today's winner is…Aladdin! Congratulations!"

While Aladdin was getting an overenthusiastic handshake from Genie, Donald gained an excited look when he heard that, and could not help but feel the need to ask for a bit more information about what Genie just said. "Any wish," the duck sorcerer inquired.

"Patience, my fine, feathered friend," Genie waved in reply, startling Donald with how his hand seemed to appear right in the duck's face so suddenly. "Any three wishes! A one wish, a two wish, a three wish, then I make like a banana and split!"

"And of course, there's also a certain set of rules that those wishes have to abide by, right," Ventus added on.

"You are correct, sir," Genie cheered with a wave to Ventus. "Rule Number One: I can't kill anybody, so don't ask," he then started as he made a slicing motion in front of his neck that actually caused his head to fall into his hand, and still be able to talk despite that. "Rule Number Two: I can't make anybody fall in love with anybody else." He then planted a huge kiss on Goofy as a joke while cooing, "You little punim, there." He then moved onto the last rule as he laid flat on his back and said, "Rule Number Three." He then slowly sat up as he turned into a zombie version of himself, and said, "I can't bring people back from the dead. It's not a pretty sight. I DON'T LIKE DOING IT!" He then changed back to normal, or whatever counted as normal for him, and added on, "Other than that, you can feel free to wish away. Oh but ix-nay on the wishing for more wishes. That's it…Three." He then turned into three caballeros as he counted, "Uno, dos, tres." And to wrap up this explanation he turned himself black and white and finished, "No substitutions, exchanges, or refunds."

Sora immediately slipped over to Ven and whispered, "Hey, do you think we could wish for him to put Kairi's heart back in her body?"

"Or maybe to bring my body here first, or at least tell us where it is," Kairi added in Sora's head, prompting Sora to repeat the question to Ven on her behalf.

"I'm not so sure," Ventus admitted. "Maybe if we were the ones holding the lamp, we could possibly return Kairi's heart to her body, but as far as finding her body goes…well, even genies have to obey the rules regarding world order, and I get the feeling that wishing for him to bring her body here would be breaking that rule. Maybe he could give us a clue if we wished for him to tell us where Kairi's body is, but that would be it."

Sora became a little downcast at hearing that, but Kairi was not about to let him become depressed because of that. "Hey, don't worry Sora. We'll figure out some way to find my body, and get me back into it. I already told you I don't mind waiting here for too long. I know you'll find the way to do it sooner or later."

"Thanks Kairi," Sora smiled in reply, and he then returned his attention to Genie as he continued on with his little show.

"Our lucky winner made his first wish," Genie declared before he slid over to Sora with a hand by his mouth like he was talking discreetly, changing his voice a little when he spoke to the kid. "And let me tell ya, what a doozy that wish was." He then slipped away and made a double of himself, and they both spoke in unison when he said, "So he has two left." The two Genies became one again, as he finally came to an end with his ghostly tail turning into a microphone and asked, "So, master, what'll you have for Wish Number Two?"

A loud applause suddenly rang out around them, from where, no one was sure, but Aladdin was a bit too focused on Genie's question to really care. "Hmm, how about making me a fabulously wealthy prince," Aladdin suggested.

"Oooh! Money! Royalty! Fame! Why didn't I think of that," Genie exclaimed with a small hint of sarcasm at the end. He then made like he was rolling up his sleeves and declared, "Okay, you asked for it! A hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold! Just say the word and I'll deliver it in thirty minutes or less, or your meal's free. Hey, I'll even throw in a cappuccino!"

"No thanks," Aladdin chuckled in polite decline.

"Oh okay," Genie shrugged, acting like that was no big deal, which it probably was not, considering.

Before Aladdin could make the wish, Goofy just had to ask, "Uh, why a prince?"

"Yeah. I can understand wanting to be fabulously wealthy, but why add in being a prince," Ventus asked.

"You see, there's this girl in Agrabah named Jasmine," Aladdin explained rather bashfully, but he quickly became a little downcast. "But she's a princess, and I'm…Aw, she could never fall for a guy like me."

"Seriously? He thinks that a girl wouldn't fall for him just because of her status? Why do guys always assume they need to change who they are for the girl they love just because of silly things like that," Kairi questioned. Sora did not answer though, because he was just as guilty for having similar thoughts in regards to Kairi in the past. Granted she was not an actual princess on Destiny Islands, but she was still the mayor's daughter by adoption. That did come with a fair deal of status, and her looks definitely contributed to how she would be one of the most sought after girls on the islands, had it not been for the fact that any guy trying to ask her out would have to go through him and Riku first. It was not just that though. Ever since he learned that Kairi was a Princess of Heart, he felt like she had reached a whole new level of importance that he could never hope to reach, even though he was a Keyblade Wielder now, so once again, he had to wonder if he would be good enough for her.

His thoughts must have become as evident as Aladdin had just made his own, because Ventus immediately stepped up to try and dispute the idea that had wormed its way into Aladdin's head, and that was now worming its way into Sora's. "What makes you so sure that she won't," the blonde asked, bringing Aladdin's attention to him. "Aladdin, girls always prefer a guy who's honest with her and is true to who he is. You shouldn't change who you are just to make the girl like you. You should just be yourself."

"Yeah right," Aladdin scoffed.

"Yeah, right. Take it from someone who knows about that kind of thing," Ventus insisted, surprising the others a little. He then gained a fond smile that was also a bit bashful, and explained, "You see, there's a girl that I…really care about, a lot. I had a huge crush on her even when I was just a kid, but as I got to know her over the years since we first met, it became more than that, and for years I was so sure that she would never feel the same way. Not only was she older than me by a couple years or so, but she was also brave, talented, the most unselfish person I know, and she almost never wavered in what she believed was right and wrong. Meanwhile, I was the youngest of our little trio of friends, short, and way behind both her and our other friend, Terra in my training, and not only that, but she had known Terra way longer than me, and he was pretty much everything I figured a girl would want in a guy. So, I tried my best to be more like Terra, trained like crazy, and did everything I could to try and impress her, even by practicing my magic as much as she did, just so I could spend a little extra time with her. It wasn't until my first journey to defend others from dangerous beings like the Heartless that I started to realize that she didn't want me to change who I was just to get her attention. She liked me for me, and no one else. The fact that she kissed me really drove that point home."

Each of Ven's friends knew that the girl he was referring to was Aqua, and more than that, Ven's story definitely made Sora feel a little better, and it seemed to make Aladdin think a bit about his idea that Jasmine would never fall for a guy like him as well. The main reason he had gone to the Cave of Wonders in order to retrieve the lamp, besides hoping that he could use it to somehow free Agrabah of Jafar's rule, was because he figured it was his best bet at getting Jasmine to return his feelings. Still, from what Ven had just said in his story, it sounded like whoever this girl he was talking about was, she was pretty much the same as Jasmine, aside from the princess thing, and yet she clearly fell for him without Ven really having to change anything about who he was. Could there really be a chance that Jasmine would ever fall for a simple street rat like him? Aladdin was not so sure, but at the same time, he had to wonder if there was a chance that she would. He was about to ask Ventus to tell him more about this woman he cared about so much, when Donald and Goofy started to process something that Aladdin had said earlier about the girl he cared about so much.

"Uh, princess," Donald started.

"Jasmine," Goofy continued, and the minute the two had heard those words back to back like that, Sora and Ventus both gasped in shock.

"Oh no! Ven, we almost completely forgot why we came out here looking for Aladdin in the first place," Sora exclaimed, surprising Aladdin a little.

"Oh, that's right! Jasmine's in trouble, Aladdin! We think Jafar's got her," Ventus revealed.

"What?! Well c'mon, let's get going," Aladdin rushed, and like that, he was jumping up onto Carpet with Abu, Sora, Donald, and Goofy joining him soon after. Unfortunately, that left no room for Ventus, but he made do by summoning out his Keyblade Glider, and with that, the group was flying back to Agrabah as fast as they could.

---

Despite moving at their top speeds though, it was not until morning when they were finally getting close to Agrabah, and during that time, they had a moment to exchange a little small talk, namely regarding Aladdin's third and final wish. Originally, Aladdin was going to use one of the wishes to get rid of Jafar and restore Jasmine's father to his rightful place as sultan, but after talking with his new friends, who had promised that they would be able to help with the evil vizier, he had a feeling that he would not have to use the wish for that anymore. So now, Aladdin still had a free wish, and he wanted it to be a really good one since it was the only wish he had left after his wish to be made into a prince, assuming he still went through with it. The only downside was that he had no idea what to use it for, and asking Sora and the others yielded no better results, so they eventually got around to asking the only other person they could ask: Genie, something he had not been expecting at all if the surprised look on his face was any indication, along with how he had suddenly stopped flying around like it had been the first time he had gotten out of his lamp in forever.

"Are you okay," Ventus asked, worried that they had offended Genie by asking him what he would have wished for.

"Yeah, fine. It's just…no one's ever asked me that question before," Genie admitted with a shrug. "Well in my case…nah, forget it."

"What," Sora asked.

"No, I can't," Genie tried to say.

"Come on, you can tell us," Goofy reassured him.

Genie sighed in defeat of this, and then said, "Freedom."

That surprised everyone a little, even Abu had to let out a sound of surprise when he heard that. "Freedom? You mean you're a prisoner," Donald asked.

"Well that makes sense," Ventus revealed. "The connection between a genie and their lamp has been long-known to be incredibly strong; hence the reason why a genie must grant wishes to whomever it is that holds their lamp."

"That would be correct, sir," Genie confirmed. "Phenomenal cosmic powers. Itty-bitty living space. It's always three wishes, then back to my portable prison. I'm lucky to see the light of day every century or two."

"Aw, that's terrible, Genie," Sora sighed, really feeling for the big guy. He had a pretty good idea of what Genie probably felt, but then again, somehow, he doubted that living on a small world like Destiny Islands was really anything compared to the living space of Genie's lamp.

"But oh to be free! Not to have to go POOF! 'What do you need?' POOF! 'What do you need?' POOF! 'What do you need?'…To be my own master; such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in all the world," Genie sighed in hopeful joy, clearly thinking of his dream right then. He then sighed as he dropped down to seem like he was sitting on the edge of Ven's Keyblade Glider and said, "But what am I talking about? Let's get real here; it's not gonna happen. Genie, wake up and smell the hummus."

"Why not," Goofy asked.

"The only way I get out of this, is if my master wishes me out. So, you can guess how often that's happened," Genie replied.

Hearing that made Aladdin hum in thought before he looked over to his lamp-bound friend and said, "Say, Genie, what if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you think?"

Genie immediately perked up when he heard that, his face becoming filled with an expression of hope as his eyes jumped to Aladdin, looking for any sign that would indicate that the guy was messing with him in any way. He had heard people say that they would do such a thing before only to go back on their word when the time finally came, so he was not going to just take any promise like that at face-value. Naturally, he was surprised to find nothing but pure honesty in Aladdin's face, but just to be sure, he still asked, "You'd do that?"

"Genie, it's a promise. After we help Jasmine," Aladdin assured his friend.

"Yeah, and if something happens that prevents him from doing it, one of us can wish you free," Sora piped in.

"Uh-huh. After all, you just have to be the one holding the lamp in order to get the wishes, right," Goofy asked.

"So that means, if any of us get the lamp, since none of us have ever held it before, we'd all get three wishes each, right," Donald continued, catching on to Goofy's thinking just seconds later.

"Technically yes, that is true, but I'm not so sure if we could wish for Genie's freedom," Ventus informed them, gaining confused looks from the other three. He then flew a little closer so he could quietly explain the reasoning. "Using a magic lamp to make wishes is one thing, but since we're not from this world, we can't technically wish for Genie's freedom. It's part of the same reason as to why we can't wish for Genie to bring Kairi's body to us."

Sora and the others were saddened to hear that news, but that did not seem to bother Genie too much, assuming he heard what Ven said. No matter how you sliced it, Genie was going to be set free from his lamp after helping his new friends out, so he was all the more eager to get to Agrabah now. They were singing a different tune once they had arrived though, because the minute they walked through the gates, they were ambushed by Heartless once again, this time being mostly Bandits and Shadows, with a new variation of the Large Bodies mixed in, which Jiminy dubbed as the Fat Bandits. It probably would not have been so bad had it not been for the fact that the Fat Bandits were able to breathe fire, but all the same, the team of heroes had managed to fight off their attackers long enough to get up to the rooftops of the closest buildings. From there, they were able to see that nearly every street had been blocked off, no doubt on Jafar's orders, leaving them unable to get anywhere on the ground. Thankfully, Aladdin knew the city like the back of his hand, and easily led them across the roofs until they reached his house again, which they were relieved to find completely free of any Heartless what-so-ever.

After casting a couple of quick spells to ensure that the Heartless would not be able to get into Aladdin's house at all, Ven told everyone to take a few minutes to rest up a bit. There was no doubt in his mind that with all of this protection, Jafar would be ready and waiting for them with some form of sneaky trap, so they would have to be ready for anything. The minute the blonde had said that, Donald immediately plopped down and started guzzling up as many Ethers as he could, having exhausted quite a bit of his magic energy in the past few battles, while Goofy passed out some Potions for everyone to drink in order to heal any injuries that they had sustained during the fights, and recover their lost energy. When he noticed that Aladdin was rummaging through his things looking for something, Sora quickly slid over to Ventus, and decided that he needed to get a few answers about something that had been bothering him for a while now.

"Hey, how come you didn't let me tell Wakka and Selphie about Kairi when we met them back in Traverse Town," Sora asked when he saw that he had Ventus' attention.

Ven knew that question was likely going to come up sooner or later, though he figured that it would have been a lot sooner. Still, given the circumstances, it made sense that Sora would only ask about this now. After all, he had been pretty absorbed in the reunion with his two friends, and they had gone right back to work afterwards, so there was never really a time for Sora to have asked until now. He made a quick note to help Sora learn how to better prioritize things later, and then turned to the boy and explained, "Sora, the fact that Kairi's a Princess of Heart alone is something we should be keeping secret, but if too many people know that her heart's inside of you, then we'll definitely attract a lot of the wrong kind of attention. Imagine what would happen if one of Maleficent's spies had been back in Traverse Town, or even anywhere around here, right now. If possible, we need to keep this just between us and people we know for absolute certain that we can trust for as long as possible."

Sora nodded in understanding of that. He may not have liked it, but he could see where Ven was coming from. Kairi was a target for the bad guys on her own, and with her heart inside of him, that made him a much bigger target than he already was. If everyone knew about this, then he knew that he might as well have been wearing a big neon sign on his back that dared the bad guys to come and get him. More to the point, if Wakka and Selphie knew, then there was a likely chance that they could be used to get to him. Sure, that was just as true for Leon and the other survivors of Hollow Bastion, but they were all well-experienced fighters. Wakka and Selphie on the other hand may have some fighting capabilities, but that was really close to the same level that Sora's abilities were back before he gained the Keyblade and ended up in Traverse Town the first time. He would admit that it was likely that the two had gotten better due to fighting the Heartless or some extra training from Leon and the others, but that did not make the risk any smaller for them, so he ended up having to agree with Ventus' judgment on this. That did not mean that there was not at least one person who did not like that answer.

"You've gotta be kidding me! In case you guys hadn't noticed, they're already being targeted every time they go outside whatever place their currently living out of in Traverse Town. How's knowing that I'm in your heart going to change that at all? Besides, you know full well that Selphie and Wakka can handle themselves," Kairi protested into Sora's head, making him wince a little at the volume of her shouting.

"I know that, but do you really want to see the look they would have on their faces if they found out that your heart had been separated from your body, which is now lost somewhere out there on one of the other worlds," Sora asked while Ventus walked over to talk to Aladdin about Jafar's plans, or at least as much as he could talk to the guy about. "Besides, I'm already having to worry about being as careful as possible whenever I get in a fight just because of the fact you're here with me, and I've got no idea what Riku's in the middle of right now. I don't want to drag anymore of my friends into unnecessary danger like this."

"I understand that, Sora, but that should be their choice to make," Kairi pointed out. She did not want to see Selphie getting upset from learning about what had happened to her friend, but at the same time, she still felt that their friends deserved to know.

Sora would have argued further with Kairi when he overheard Genie join in on Aladdin and Ven's conversation. "Keyhole, eh? I could swear I've heard about that somewhere before," the cosmic-powered being revealed.

"Really? Where," Donald excitedly asked on everyone's behalf. If Genie knew where the Keyhole was, then that meant that there was a chance that they could find and seal it shut before Jafar ever had the chance to reach it.

Unfortunately, it did not seem like Genie's memory was all that great in some cases, because he had to pause and think for a minute, even as he muttered, "Now, where was it? It's only been 200 years…"

Everyone had heard that, and found it to be far from encouraging new, but they quickly set it aside when Sora spoke up to get them back on track. "Well, anyway, we've got to stop Jafar before it's too late."

"He's right, and the first step in doing so is getting Jasmine to safety, so we should head out to the palace as soon as possible," Ventus agreed.

"All right, follow me. I know a couple of shortcuts," Aladdin informed everyone, standing up straight to reveal a scimitar in his hand and they were on the move racing over the rooftops of Agrabah once again. Sora took that as his cue to mentally inform Kairi that they would continue their debate later, and had to chuckle a little when he heard her grumbling about it in response. He knew that Kairi hated keeping such big secrets from her friends, but she would do it if she saw good reason, or if she was unable to do anything to the contrary. The latter of the circumstances may have been the big reason as to why she was not able to tell their other friends about her current condition right now, but he still had to hope she would see reason on this eventually. It was going to be hard for him if she did not let it go anytime soon.

---

Despite the fact that the Heartless had failed to eliminate the Keyblade wielders and their friends, Jafar was not very concerned. He had finally recaptured Princess Jasmine, and now all that was left for him to do was wait for Maleficent to send their newest assistant to "escort" the princess back to Hollow Bastion while he located the Keyhole and sent the Heartless into it. Like many typical villains that were at the peak of a moment of triumph, Jafar was now taking his time to bask in the glory of his near success, confident that no one could stop him at this point. Even if the Keybearers actually managed to meet up with the street-rat, Aladdin, Jafar was absolutely certain that they would never be able to stop him before it was too late. Besides, if anything, he was actually counting on them coming here. After all, they had something that he wanted, and he knew it would make finding the Keyhole all the more easier, while cementing his rule of Agrabah for good. In the end, Jafar was not disappointed, because it was not long after he had stepped out of the palace with Jasmine in tow to act as a kind of lure for the heroes that the five all dropped down on the street before him, each of them glaring at him with deep ferocity, though none quite matching that of Aladdin's glare, and Jafar was well aware of why that would be the case.

"Setting your sights a little high, aren't you, boy," Jafar taunted the current holder of Genie's lamp. "Back to your hole, street-rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princess any more."

Aladdin could have cared less about what Jafar had to say to him, because all that mattered was seeing that the princess in question was currently being held prisoner by Jafar. "Jasmine," Aladdin shouted.

"I'm so sorry, Aladdin," the princess cried as she tried to approach, only to be cut off by Jafar as he raised his staff towards her threateningly.

Seeing the girl he had fallen so deeply in love with in trouble, Aladdin knew what he had to do. Sure, Sora, Ven, and the others probably could get to her, but he figured that they would not have been able to reach her fast enough. Sure, it meant he would have to give up his wish to become a prince, but if it meant that Jasmine was saved, Aladdin could not have cared less. So, he discreetly pulled out the lamp behind his back, and gave it a quick rub while he muttered, "Genie, help Jasmine. Please!"

There was no fanfare or explosive show of magic this time, but that did not mean that Jafar was not soon aware of a large presence behind him, so when he turned to face where the princess was supposed to be, he was only mildly surprised to see Jasmine safely held in Genie's arms, and the genie in question merely grinned happily. "One wish left! You're making this really easy, you know," Genie counted down to Aladdin, drawing a few smiles from the rest of the gang.

With Jasmine now safely out of harm's way, the team was sure that they now had Jafar on the ropes, but to their surprise, the vizier did not seem worried at all. If anything, he just continued grinning at them like he knew something that they did not. "So sorry, boy. I'm afraid your second wish has been denied," Jafar chuckled.

Everyone was confused by what Jafar meant when he said that. They all clearly saw Genie pull Jasmine to safety, and it was well within the genie rules, so how could Aladdin's wish have been denied at this point? They got their answer very soon, unfortunately. When they heard a small flapping noise, they turned to see Iago flying over to Jafar with the lamp held in his talons, much to their horror. The second that Iago dropped the lamp into Jafar's hands, Genie vanished from where he was with a sad look on his face, apologizing to Aladdin as he disappeared, and dropping Jasmine from the air. To make matters worse, the princess had fallen right into an open pot that turned out to be a Pot Spider Heartless, and said Heartless was quickly starting to scurry away. Ven and Sora would have charged in to attack the Heartless, but they had no way of knowing what might happen to Jasmine while she was trapped inside of it. Their hesitation ended up being just what Jafar needed to summon more Heartless to the square, including two particular Heartless that resembled a bug's head and rear end, and he soon disappeared from view afterwards as he declared, "And now, I bid you all farewell. Attack!"

The minute that Jafar vanished, the Heartless that Jasmine had been trapped inside of suddenly merged together with the other Pot Spiders that had appeared, and the bug-like Heartless to form one, mid-sized, centipede-like creature. Seeing this prompted Sora and Aladdin to both charge it head-on, only to be repelled by the beast when their respective swords struck its head. A minute after they had been thrown back, the centipede Heartless slapped them aside with its twisted antenna, electrifying them with lightning just so that the two would feel even more pain from the hit. Thankfully, Ventus was able to cast a quick Defensive Aero spell that saved the two from suffering too serious an injury, and with that, he joined the fight with Donald and Goofy right behind him.

Since they now knew that attacking the head was not the brightest idea, they decided to put more focus on the Pot Spiders making up the body of this Pot Centipede, as Jiminy had decided to name it. They figured that it would make the creature weaker if it had less of a body to work from, but that was not going to be so easy to accomplish. For every Pot Spider they destroyed, another two seemed to take its place. When he saw this was happening, Aladdin immediately stepped in and started blocking any of the newer Pot Spiders from getting near the Pot Centipede, and he was soon joined in that effort by Goofy, leaving Sora, Donald, and Ven to deal with the main enemy. Eventually, Donald blasted away the last Pot Spider that made up the centipede's body, and the Keyblade wielders instantly took that as their cue to charge in on the head and tail of the centipede, Ventus with his Fever Pitch Command Style, and Sora with the Photon Charge Shotlock. It took very little time for Ventus to eliminate the head of the Pot Centipede, and in a quick flash of light, Sora was able to easily dispense of the tail, and he soon used the remaining power of his Shotlock to blast away any remaining Pot Spiders that Aladdin and Goofy had already missed.

The main reason for Sora's attack on the remaining Pot Spiders was that they had not found Jasmine even after destroying the Heartless she had been trapped in, so they had to assume that meant she had been somehow traded over into another Heartless during the fight. Ventus was quick to join Sora in his efforts, using his Multivortex Shotlock to assist in the matter, but no matter how many Heartless they destroyed, they were unable to find even a single sign of Jasmine still being there. When he saw how they were not having any luck, Aladdin quickly joined in, smashing and bashing every Heartless that he could to try and find Jasmine, desperately calling out to her as he did, until eventually, they were the only ones left in the city with no Heartless around and no sign of Jasmine.

Seeing that there were no Heartless left and that Jasmine was still nowhere to be seen, the group knew in an instant that Jafar had just played them for fools, and the sound of the vizier's dark cackle echoing around them only reinforced that point. "Damn it," Ventus swore as he punched his palm in frustration. "Jafar must've known all along that Aladdin would find Genie's lamp. He was probably counting on that happening so that he could lure us in and steal it away for himself."

"And now Genie has no other choice but to grant Jafar any wish he wants," Sora finished. "But what could he really want to wish for at this point? He already has control over both the Heartless and Agrabah, and he has Jasmine as his prisoner."

"You're right, but there's one thing that Jafar doesn't have yet: the location of the Keyhole," Ventus reminded his apprentice.

"And even if Genie doesn't know where to find it, he would have to show Jafar where it is because of those stupid genie rules," Donald moaned.

While some would think that Aladdin was not paying them any attention at all, the truth of the matter was that he had at least heard a little bit of what they were saying. He probably would have heard everything if he had been in a calmer state of mind, but with Jasmine still in Jafar's clutches, he really could not care less about anything else. Still, that did not mean he was unable to think straight at all. As such, he was able to try and think for a minute about where this Keyhole could possibly be, and after thinking about what his friends told him, along with what Genie had said, only one course of action made sense in the street-rat's head. "We have to get to the desert! That's where Jafar has probably gone," Aladdin told his newest friends.

"What? Why would you think that," Ventus questioned.

"You said this Keyhole thing was supposed to be hidden somewhere that very few people would be able to get to or know about, right? Well considering that, along with the fact that Genie said he had seen it before, I can only think of one place in Agrabah it could be: the Cave of Wonders," Aladdin explained. "It houses treasures beyond anyone's wildest dreams, but it only ever allows certain people to enter."

"Of course! If you have a place that only specific individuals can get into, then where better to hide something as valuable as the Keyhole than there," Ventus caught on.

"Then we've got to get there quick," Goofy said.

"Right. Come on, let's move," Aladdin ordered everyone. Just as he was about to turn and head for the city gate though, he found his path blocked by the others. "What're you doing? We've gotta go and save Jasmine!"

"We will, but it might be better if you stay here and leave this to us," Ventus carefully cautioned. He knew that if he said the wrong thing right now, Aladdin would likely try to fight him, if for no other reason than to go off and save Jasmine alone if he had too.

"No! I'm not staying! Not while Jasmine and Genie need my help," Aladdin argued.

That surprised everyone. They knew that Aladdin was willing to do whatever it took to help Jasmine, but they had no idea that he was going to go to such lengths for Genie too. "Why do you want to help Genie and Jasmine, Aladdin," Sora asked.

"Well, I doubt I need to tell you why I want to help Jasmine, but Genie…he's the first real friend I've ever had other than Abu," Aladdin explained. "I've grown up out in the slums of Agrabah for years, ever since my mother died, and my father disappeared years ago, so I can only assume he's dead as well. I've always had to fend for myself, and sure, having Abu around is great and all, but…well, I have wanted at least a few other real friends to talk to at the very least. Jasmine was probably the first person I've ever met that I was able to get so close to, and after I met Genie, I just felt like…well, like I could really count on him, not just because of the fact I was holding his lamp, but because he was my pal."

Hearing Aladdin say all of that really made the team's hearts go out for him. To hear that such a good person like him had to endure such a hard, lonely life would break anyone's heart a little. They knew it was rare to find someone who would continue to persist through any hardship they had endured, but it was even more rare to find someone who still cared more about others than himself like Aladdin seemed to, and that just made them all admire him a little more. If it were under any other circumstances, they would have not hesitated to bring him along, but there was still one small problem: unlike any of them, Aladdin had no special powers to keep him safe. Sure, he could handle himself in a fight, as he proved when they were fighting the Heartless just now, but when they ran into Jafar, they knew that there was a chance the vizier was going to throw everything he had at them, along with finding some way to make Genie fight them as well. They could not ask Aladdin to go in there and fight his friend, let alone risk his life while doing so, and they made sure to make that clear to him.

"But how are you gonna be able to help without Genie? His magic isn't going to be able to save us if we need it too, so you'll be in a lot more danger," Goofy cautioned Aladdin.

"Hey, I'm a street-rat, remember? I've been ducking guards and scraping for food for years, and most of the time, I've had to improvise, so I might as well keep doing what I do best," Aladdin confidently smirked.

"You know fellas, I think we should let Aladdin come with us," Jiminy suddenly said, surprising them all. They were not expecting Jiminy of all people to be okay with letting them risk someone else's life like they would be Aladdin's when they went after Jafar. Seeing their surprise, Jiminy quickly explained, "He's determined to do whatever it takes to help the girl he loves and his friend, so even if we do find a way to make him stay here, he's still likely going to find a way to come after us and try to help. He's a lot like you and Sora in that regard, Ven." Ventus and Sora could not help but smile a little sheepishly when Jiminy said that. They knew full well that he was right about that. Seeing he made that point clear, Jiminy continued, "And besides that, Aladdin not only knows exactly where the Cave of Wonders is, but he's been in there before. Namely, when he went to get the lamp, so he knows just what kind of traps to expect when we're in there, and how to avoid them. It just makes sense to bring him along with us for that reason if nothing else."

Looking amongst themselves, not one of the four friends found that they could argue with Jiminy in anyway. Aladdin did know exactly where to find the Cave of Wonders, while they only had a general idea of where to look, and that was only because they were brought there by Carpet so that they could save Aladdin. Plus, there was no doubt that a place like the Cave of Wonders would have a number of different booby traps and things to keep intruders out, even if only certain people could get into it, so having Aladdin with them to help them navigate through those traps would be a huge help in the long run. Really, at the end of it all, they did not really seem to have much choice but to bring Aladdin along. With that in mind, they finally agreed to let Aladdin help them, and after climbing aboard Carpet again, with Ventus flying alongside them on his Keyblade Glider, they were all headed out to the desert, hoping to save Jasmine and seal the Keyhole before it was too late.

---

Jafar was feeling really great right now. Really, he was at the greatest zenith a villain could imagine reaching, in his own personal opinion. He had Princess Jasmine prisoner, he had the genie's lamp, and now, he had the Keyhole unveiled before him, just waiting to be filled with Heartless that would drown Agrabah in everlasting darkness. Everything was coming up in his favor, and not even the Keybearers were able to stop him. They already tried and failed before, and even if they were able to somehow get here now, it would not matter in the slightest. Especially since he had enchanted the entrance to the Cave of Wonders so that its bestial entrance would attack any who would dare to even attempt to approach. Meaning, they would have to survive whatever the great lion head could throw out if they wished to continue chasing after him, and since they had not shown up for several hours now, he was left to enjoy his moment of triumph in peace as he waited for Maleficent to arrive, while Jasmine lay unconscious at his feet, and Genie just sat off to the side, moping in sad dismay at what he had been forced to do for the vizier.

The only downside was that every minute that Maleficent and her new friend delayed was another raise to the risk that the Keybearers may somehow prevail and arrive to save the princess. That was not to say that Jafar doubted his own power, he most certainly believed he could best the Keyblade Master, the boy, and the king's two fools, but he was also a practical man. As he had mentioned once before, that little group was becoming a problem that had to be dealt with, and one of the best ways to deal with them right now was to complete their assignments on their respective worlds as quickly as possible. Of course, it was not very easy to do that when you had to wait around on your compatriots like this for several hours, but thankfully, Maleficent did finally show up, and when she did, Jafar did not hesitate to reiterate once again how much of a problem those four were becoming. It definitely helped that he had good reasons to support his argument this time.

"Ventus and that boy again," Maleficent questioned, though Jafar was a little confused as to why she did not seem all that surprised over how they were here on this world.

Still, the lack of surprise by the leader of this little alliance did not throw Jafar off his game for long, as he went on to say, "They are more persistent than you led me to expect. Why not explain the situation to that boy Riku? Doing so may actually prove useful to our…"

"I hope you don't mind our interrupting, but we need to lodge a few complaints regarding your rule, Jafar," a voice interrupted, causing Jafar to spin around and lay eyes on Ventus, Sora, and the others as they came rushing into the chamber. Having been the one who spoke, Ventus then turned a steely gaze towards the evil fairy that was standing by the Keyhole and added, "Don't think you're going to be left out of this, Maleficent. We've got some unfinished business to address."

"Wait a second, that's Maleficent," Sora gasped in surprise.

Maleficent merely smirked in response and said, "Well, well. It's actually rather good to see again, Ventus. You've grown up quite well these last ten years."

"Oh spare me. Any compliment from you is like poisoned honey," Ventus practically growled. He then summoned his Keyblade and aimed it directly at the evil fairy and demanded, "Now tell me, why are you after the Princesses of Heart, where have you taken them, and what have you done with them?"

"All in good time, my boy. You may be older and more trained now, but you are still just a boy compared to the power of darkness that I wield," Maleficent promised, and with that she disappeared, clearly believing that the group was beneath her notice for the moment, and silently informing Jafar that she would be leaving them to him.

Even though he was confused about what Ventus and Maleficent were talking about, Aladdin did not let it distract him from the reason why they were here in the first place. "Jafar, let Jasmine go," the scimitar wielding boy demanded.

"Not a chance," Jafar scoffed. "You see, she's a princess; one of seven who somehow hold the key to opening the door."

That drew surprised looks from Sora, Donald, and Goofy, since they knew in an instant what Jafar was talking about when he mentioned the seven princesses, and they had no clue how he could have learned about that. At least, not until they reminded themselves that he was working with Maleficent, and she had probably revealed that information to him. Still, out of everything they were currently feeling, they were more confused than anything else when Jafar mentioned that the Princesses of Heart held the key to opening a door. Just what door was he talking about, and how did the Princesses of Heart possess the means to opening it? It was a question that Sora had soon directed towards Kairi, only for her to give a soft hum that sounded a lot like "I don't know," making him feel like he could see her shrugging in equal confusion for a minute.

Ventus on the other hand had a very strong hunch as to what Jafar was referring to, and his worries for the worlds were now at an all-time high. "You can't be serious," the blonde master protested. "Are you and Maleficent really that insane?! That door was closed for a reason, and if anyone were to ever open it, there won't be any worlds left for you to rule. It would be the end of all things, and the light would be forever extinguished."

"Or so you would be lead to believe," Jafar dismissed, clearly not believing a word that Ventus just said. "For beyond that door lies a power that would promise us the worlds for all eternity, with no hope of fools like you ever being able to challenge us. But you fools won't live to see just what that power that lies beyond it is." The vizier then raised the lamp above his head and shouted, "Genie! My second wish. Crush them!"

"Genie, no," Aladdin pleaded, hoping that there was some way that his friend would be unable to grant that wish.

Unfortunately, Genie had to let him down, and say, "Sorry, Al. The one with the lamp calls the shots. I don't have a choice."

"But I thought you said that genies couldn't kill people. Wouldn't this be a wish that does just that," Goofy asked.

"You'd be surprised what people can live through," Genie shrugged. "And besides, he said for me to crush you, not kill you. Unless he actually says the words, it's allowed."

Needless to say, no one was pleased to hear about that little loophole, but that was not going to stop the team from getting the job done. More to the point, it did not change the plan they had made as they were fighting their way through the Heartless-infested Cave of Wonders. It was actually quite simple: while Donald and Goofy kept Jafar busy, Aladdin and Sora would sneak over and take back the lamp while pulling Jasmine to safety, while Ventus raced for the Keyhole in order to seal it shut. If Ven could not get to it, then since he would already likely be close by, Sora could just make a mad dash and seal it himself. Sadly, they were already presented with a problem to carrying out said plan after Jafar used his magic to form a barrier that separated them from the Keyhole, and since it also prevented them from escaping, they knew that they had no other choice at this point but to defeat Jafar before they could do anything else. They just had to avoid anything that Genie threw at them while trying to take back the lamp and beating Jafar.

Without even a single word, the five went to work, with Donald and Sora drawing Jafar's attention so that Goofy and Ventus could move in and attack up close. It was not as easy as one might think, because Jafar was certainly no slouch in a fight, at least when it came to making sure that his enemies could not get too close for his comfort. Every time that one of the adventurers managed to get close enough, they were blasted away by a quick pulse of magic, giving him a chance to try and zap their long-range support with a beam from his staff. Thankfully, Ventus had managed to recover quickly enough to cast a quick Aero Shield in order to defend Sora and Donald from the full force of the blast, but it did still hurt quite a bit. While Jafar was busy cackling over how he had easily pushed them back, Aladdin took his chance to move in and grab the lamp, but Jafar noticed his approach and easily summoned a rain of scimitars down to block Aladdin's advance. Aladdin was glad that none of those swords went through him when they fell, but it did not make getting the lamp back any easier, and Jafar was just barely starting to fight.

Sora then charged in using the Photon Charge Shotlock to get close, and once the Shotlock's power had worn off, Sora took a mighty swing at Jafar. Unfortunately, the vizier was able to utter a quick incantation that allowed him to turn to smoke and swiftly move away before Sora's hit could land, and Sora was instead raising his Keyblade up in defense in order to deflect the boulders that Genie suddenly dropped down on him. Thankfully, Genie shouted out a warning to the kid before the sudden boulder drop, so Sora escaped relatively unscathed. Ventus then charged in using a speed boost from his Fever Pitch Command Style, and switched out for Wingblade right when he had gotten close to Jafar, but like before with Sora, Jafar turned to smoke and escaped just before too many of Ven's light swords could hit him. Unlike Sora though, Ventus was able to land a couple of hits before Jafar had escaped, but he was still having to use a lot of its power in order to avoid being hurt by Genie's forced attack on his person.

This little pattern continued for some time until Sora started really getting frustrated with Jafar's use of mid to long range tactics and constantly running away whenever they got close, and it showed when he shouted, "What's the matter? Too scared to really fight us yourself, you cowardly snake?"

"A snake am I," Jafar questioned with a hiss as he slowly moved towards them. "Well let's see how sssssnake-like I can be!"

Even as he had spoken, Jafar's appearance had begun changing, starting with his face and how his tongue stuck out a little when he had hissed, and before anyone knew what was happening, Jafar had transformed into a massive cobra that was almost too big to fit in the room, much to everyone's horror. Seeing this new transformation, Donald shot a small look at Sora and said, "You just had to say that, didn't you?"

"How was I supposed to know he could do something like that," Sora questioned, but that was as far as their argument got, because they were soon diving aside in order to avoid being hit by Jafar's massive body or being chomped down on by his massive mouth of teeth that were no doubt laced with poison.

Jafar then lunged at Sora once again, but this time, Aladdin and Ven came to the rescue, with the former slipping in to slice at Jafar's head, while the latter then unleashed a burst of the Ragnarok Shotlock afterwards to keep Jafar from coming close to them again. As Sora jumped forward to unleash the same Shotlock, Ventus took that time to say, "A quick lesson for future reference, Sora: when fighting sorcerers, mages, or any other form of enemy that primarily fights with magic like Jafar here does, never assume anything regarding their limits."

Sora just nodded and then focused his powers so that he could unleash a Sonic Blade attack, slashing at Jafar several times over, and since Jafar was now such a big target, there was no shortage of points where Sora could hit him, and the vizier felt every single one of his slashes. Aladdin then slid across the ground towards the snake after Sora had dashed away from Jafar, and swung his scimitar as hard as he could, striking Jafar across the face when he did, and causing the vizier-turned-snake to hiss in pain due to the blow. He would have retaliated against Aladdin, but a sudden barrage of ice and fire magic, courtesy of Donald made him rethink that idea, and Goofy made him forget about it completely when he rushed in and slammed his shield into Jafar's face. Ventus then took that moment to unleash his Pulse Bomb Shotlock on Jafar, peppering the snake with several different small explosions of light magic, until Jafar was backed into enough of a corner for him, Sora, and Aladdin to all leap forward and stab the snake with their respective blades, drawing a loud howl of pain from Jafar when they did.

"Rick 'em, rack 'em, rock 'em, rake! Stick those swords into that snake," Genie cheered, having turned himself into four cheerleaders that had a large letter "A" on their shirts along with a set of crossed swords that looked like Sora and Ven's Keyblades.

"You either crush them or stay out of this," Jafar hissed in annoyance.

Genie instantly turned into just one cheerleader after that, and merely rolled his eyes as he said, "Jafar, Jafar. He's our man. If he can't do it, GREAT!"

That proved to be as much as Jafar could take, because he instantly unleashed a powerful blast of magic from his eyes that sent Donald and Goofy flying into the far wall. Sora was about to rush over and use his Keyblade to cast a healing spell, but before he could get two feet away, he found himself held tightly in Jafar's coils along with Ventus and Aladdin, both of whom were struggling to get free or at least breathe a little better. "Little fools," Jafar cackled. "Did you really think you could defeat the most powerful being on this world? Without the genie or those Keyblades, you are all nothing, while I am without equal!"

At any other time, Sora would have glared defiantly at Jafar, but to everyone's surprise, he did no such thing. Instead, he had to do his hardest to keep a smile off his face, because Jafar had inadvertently given him an idea on how they could win this, and in order for it to work, he needed to keep as cool a head as possible right now. So, once he was sure his features were completely schooled, he merely looked at Jafar with an even gaze, and then shrugged as best as he could and said, "Meh."

"What? What do you mean meh? Why are you saying 'meh'," Jafar demanded, insulted at the boy's attitude.

"Exactly what it sounds like. You're not the most powerful; you're just…meh," Sora explained. "I mean, Ventus is way more powerful than you on his own, even without his Keyblade, and there are so many more beings that have more power than you. Maleficent, the Heartless, and of course the genie just to name a few."

While Ventus was a little confused as to what his apprentice was doing, Aladdin caught on in an instant, and was soon joining Sora in his efforts. "Sora's right. Maleficent gave you the power to control the Heartless, and without them, you never would've become sultan. More than that, taking that power away will be barely even the smallest problem for Genie."

"Al, Sora, what're you doing? Why are you bringing me into this more than I already have been," Genie nervously questioned.

"I've gotta agree. You two really should stop talking before you give him any ideas," Ventus advised in caution, but both he and Genie went ignored by the duo as they kept egging Jafar on.

"Face it Jafar. You're still just second best," Aladdin goaded.

"Honestly, I think saying even that is being generous, and whenever you would ask someone otherwise, they'll just say…meh," Sora finished with a shrug at the end, just to prove his point.

Jafar would have snapped all of their spines right then and there, and he could have done it easily too since he had them and Ventus so wound up in his grasp, but he quickly realized that there was a good deal of truth to their words, and instantly stopped in his squeezing. "You're right. Their powers do exceed my own, but not for long," Jafar hissed, and he slowly slunk towards Genie, making Ven feel like his heart just dropped into his stomach, because he had a feeling he knew exactly what Jafar was thinking.

Apparently Genie shared the blonde's suspicions, because he was quickly trying to talk Jafar out of whatever he was thinking of doing as the vizier-turned-snake slunk closer and around him. "The boys are crazy. They're a little punch-drunk. One too many hits from the snake."

"Genie! My final wish! I want you to make me…an all-powerful genie," Jafar commanded, confirming exactly what both Genie and Ventus feared, while Donald and Goofy could barely do anything more than start quaking in their boots.

Genie did not want to do it, and right now more than ever, he wished that he was a free genie so that he could not grant that wish, but as he had stated previously, the one with the lamp calls the shots, and Jafar had just called his final one. Genie just wished it was not that one. "You're wish is my command," Genie hesitantly nodded. He then threw a small look at the two who had given Jafar this idea and muttered, "Way to go, Al, Sora."

Even as he cast the magic that would transform Jafar, Genie could not help but cover his eyes, and the minute his beam of magic struck Jafar, no one was able to blame him. In an instant, Jafar began to undergo a change so incredible, that the entire cavern shook underneath the sheer power of his transformation. Moments later, the entire room had been shaken so hard that a huge hole opened up in the center of the room, and down into a chamber that was filled with lava, save for a few platforms that made it safe to cross, and Jafar fell right down into it as his snake form vanished in a puff of smoke. The three heroes that had been wrapped up in Jafar's coils had no choice but to follow, mostly because they had been held in the air directly above where the hole in the ground now was. Thankfully, Ventus was able to use a bit of wind magic to both cushion their fall and ensure that they would land on one of the safe areas of the chamber, but it did nothing to hide the fact that their enemy had just become a much bigger problem than he already was.

"Sora, Aladdin…what have you two done," Ventus asked as Donald and Goofy eventually came down to join them, thanks to a lift from Carpet, his eyes completely fixated on Jafar's new muscular, crimson red, yellow-eyed genie form that now loomed over them. The other two did not seem to hear him though, as they were busy looking this way and that for some reason, so naturally, he was more than a little annoyed at that point. "You guys! You just gave Jafar everything he needs to ensure that we don't survive this, and that this whole world is plunged into darkness! Why are you not more concerned?"

"Come on, Ven. Don't you remember the rules of the whole genie gig," Sora asked with a knowing smile. "Phenomenal cosmic powers…"

"Itty-bitty living space! Sora, Aladdin, I take back what I was saying earlier; you two are brilliant," Ventus cheered, having finally caught on to why they had egged Jafar into doing this. "Since he's now a genie, Jafar must have a lamp to go with it, so if we find it…"

"We can use it to trap Jafar inside," Aladdin smirked in conclusion, and the entire group was quickly searching everywhere they could for anything that looked like it could be Jafar's new portable prison. It was not easy though, given that Jafar was taking full advantage of his new cosmic powers to attack them, whether it be by throwing magic blasts at them, or even simply lifting a massive boulder from the molten lava to throw at them.

Eventually though, Goofy caught sight of Iago flying around the room with something held tightly in his talons, and after taking a minute to try and study it, he gasped, "Hey, there it is! Iago's got it!"

The other four immediately turned to see that Iago did indeed have a black lamp held tightly in his talons, and given how fast he was trying to fly away with it, they could only assume that meant it was Jafar's lamp. In an instant, they were all racing as fast as they could towards Iago, dodging everything Jafar threw at them as they went to the best of their abilities, but it seemed that Iago was proving to be much faster than he let others believe. Thinking quickly, Donald cast a quick fire spell in Iago's path, startling the parrot into turning the other way. Seeing what Donald did immediately clued Ventus into what he was thinking, and the blonde quickly cast a blast of Blizzaga in Iago's path once again. Keeping up with the little tactic, Goofy tossed his shield at Iago, and while it did not hit the parrot, it did discourage Iago from flying in the direction he had been beforehand, and he was soon changing course once more. Iago had to make one final change in course when Aladdin suddenly threw his scimitar in Iago's flight path, only to realize too late that they had driven him right into arms-reach of Sora. The wielder of Kingdom Key did not Iago get away when the parrot realized his mistake, because he instantly grabbed the parrot and pried Jafar's lamp from his grasp before tossing Iago across the room.

Seeing that his friend had managed to get his hands on Jafar's lamp, Aladdin turned towards the newly-made genie and shouted, "Hey Jafar, I think you've forgotten something about your final wish!"

When Jafar looked down at Aladdin in confusion, he was shocked to see a pair of gold bands suddenly fasten around his wrists, while Ventus smirked, "You want to be a genie, then you've got it and everything that goes with it!"

"Now, back to your lamp," Sora finished, and he raised the black lamp high above his head, letting it work its magic on its prisoner, as it began sucking Jafar in. The red genie was instantly crying out in disbelief and trying to grab at anything he could to avoid being pulled in, but he only ended up grabbing Iago by his tail feathers, and the two of them were both sucked into the lamp, until they both disappeared inside of it with a pop.

"Aw, you little tricksters," Genie cooed in delight, glad to hand his own lamp over to Aladdin, just to make sure that it would be in the hands of someone that he could trust it with, and bringing smiles to everyone's face.

After that, Sora just tossed the lamp aside, not really caring where it fell at the moment. As long as it stayed in the Cave of Wonders, they would not have to worry about Jafar again for a long time. Besides, right now, they had more important things to worry about, like checking on Jasmine and sealing the Keyhole for instance, and Carpet was more than happy to give them all a lift back up to the chamber they had previously fell from. They arrived in no time at all, but when they dropped down onto the pedestal that they saw Jasmine had been laying unconscious upon before, all they saw was the Keyhole, and absolutely no sign of Jasmine anywhere. Ventus immediately moved to help Aladdin search for the missing princess using his senses, while Sora moved to seal the Keyhole with his Keyblade. A moment later, they all heard the reassuring clanking sound of the Keyhole being sealed shut, and once that deed had been done, the Keyhole disappeared behind a wall of quickly-hardening sand.

With the Keyhole sealed, Sora was ready to join Ventus and Aladdin in looking for Jasmine, but before he could, the whole cave began shaking again, only this time, they doubted that it was going to stop until the whole thing fell in on them. "We'd better get out of here," Goofy shouted as he raised his shield overhead in order to block any boulders that would have fallen on him or anyone close to him.

Ventus could not have agreed more, and he instantly summoned his Keyblade Glider while the others boarded Carpet. The only problem was that Sora, Donald, and Goofy had to drag Aladdin onto the magic carpet, because the street-rat was not willing to leave without Jasmine. It was not until Ventus told Aladdin that she was already gone that Aladdin finally relented and let himself be flown to safety on Carpet, but in their hearts, the four adventurers knew that once they had reached safety again, they would have quite a few things to explain to Aladdin. There was just no way that they could hide what had happened to Jasmine or anything else from him now. They just had to hope he would be able to handle it well.

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AN: So I guess you guys can see at this point that I wasn't kidding when I said this chapter was a long one, huh? I loved the movie Aladdin, and I just had to include a lot of stuff from the actual movie in here, not because the version we explored in the games wasn't fun, but because I felt like it would make things a lot more interesting at least. Plus, who doesn't love Genie when he's being funny, right?

Ventus: Not to mention you pulled another Stan Lee.

AN: Ah yes! I'm sure some of you are already aware of this, but that character Dave is actually an OC avatar I use when I want to make a cameo appearance in my stories. This makes the...fourth story he's appeared in now, I think? Yeah, this is the fourth one, and once again, Dave was a bit of help to our heroes, only he also doubled as that merchant we saw at the beginning of the first Aladdin movie. You know, the one who begins the tale? I'm sure if you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about.

On another note, someone actually suggested in an earlier review that I show what happened to the other Destiny Island kids, and at first I was all like "No way man. They not important." But then I got to thinking and figured that I could probably do something pretty interesting with them. After all, those other three are all from Final Fantasy Games like Leon, Yuffie, Cloud, Aerith, and Cid, so why not include them in a way beyond just being victims? That's why we ran into Wakka and Selphie here before the gang left Traverse Town again. If you're wondering what happened to Tidus or if we're going to see him again, then don't worry too much. He will be appearing again later on, but it won't be on Traverse Town. It'll be a whole different world. On a somewhat related note, we'll also be seeing at least two, not one, but TWO other Final Fantasy characters appearing here in this story. I'm sure some of you have already guessed this, so I'll go ahead and say it. Yes, Sephiroth will be one of those two. The other one...well, I'll leave that as a surprise for now.

Also, yeah, I had to give Ven that moment with Aladdin when he heard about Al's reasons for wanting to be made a prince. Ven knows better than a lot of people that girls prefer a guy who's honest with them about who they are, as we've now seen with the relationship between Ventus and Aqua, at least in this story series, and I'm sure that after learning about Kairi's status, Sora could not help but feel a little insecure about whether or not he and Kairi could be together as well, so having Ven recount that little tale served as a way to teach both of the two that lesson. Or at least get the ball rolling on teaching it to them.

Finally, yeah, I just had to explain why Genie was able to grant Jafar's wish for him to crush the heroes. In case it isn't obvious nowadays, magic can be very picky, right to the point where you have be very specific in what you want it to do, so it makes sense that Genie would be able to grant a wish to crush someone simply because the person did not actually say that he had to kill him. Now, if Jafar had wished for Genie to kill them, he wouldn't have been able to grant that wish, but since that wasn't the case...well, you get it by now, I'm sure. I feel like I'm just beating a dead bush at this point.

Sora: I can't help but feel like the battle against Genie-Jafar was a little cheap.

AN: Well what do you expect to happen there? In the game, you had to focus on hitting Iago and the lamp, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to hurt Jafar at all, and besides, the whole point of convincing Jafar to wish to be made into a genie was so that they could trap him in his lamp, so obviously it's going to be just a simple struggle to get the lamp away from Iago.

Ventus: But why did you make me seem like an idiot this time? I mean, how could I have failed to catch onto their plan until they explained it to me?

AN: Hey don't take it like that. This is more along the lines of that old saying about how the teacher can learn just as much from the student. Sure, Ven's a Keyblade Master now, but that doesn't mean he's some all-powerful, perfect being. He does need a little help from time to time in figuring out a way to win, or what a person is planning. I mean, Aqua wasn't able to solve everything on her own after she became a Keyblade Master in Birth By Sleep, or in Keyblades of Future Past, and don't forget, Sora and Kairi were both masters in that story as well, and even they needed some help from others in order to win. Besides, I kinda felt like Sora had not been getting very many moments to shine in this story, and I figured that this would be the perfect opportunity for him to do so.

Sora: And don't forget about that little introduction to my learning how to use Sonic Blade.

AN: Yeah, I have to admit, that was kinda hard to really figure out. Abilities like Sonic Blade, Ars Arcanum, and other battle abilities like them...I really needed to think in order to figure out how they would be implemented. Sure, you could just say it was a bit of magic channeling and be done with it, but I wanted it to be a little more involved than that. Hence the reason why I had Ven say that the abilities could be learned either over time or by seeing someone else use them, assuming they are abilities that Keyblade Wielders can use. That's not to say that Sora and Ven will be able to learn a bunch of new fighting abilities just by watching other guys fight, but it will be a good way to help explain how they can use such abilities.

Well, I think that covers everything...

Ventus: Except your reasons for ending where you did with this chapter.

AN: Oh that. Well I wanted to do all of Agrabah here, but unfortunately, it started to get too long, and I felt that the best compromise was to just have it end with the immediate aftermath of the fight with Jafar. Don't worry, we'll be getting into what happened after their escape from the Cave of Wonders right at the start of next chapter, but that won't be all that we'll be seeing in the next chapter. Care to have a glimpse of what I mean? Then move Onto the Preview!...

After a brief talk with Aladdin, the team finds themselves joined by a now freed Genie in their quest, via summoning charm, and they are all headed off once again. The only downside is that Ventus can see his apprentice is showing signs of being a bit too confident in their success than he probably should be. Is Sora letting the small number of victories distract him a little more than he should, or is he really feeling that confident in their abilities even despite the serious losses they've now suffered? It may take a real whale of a tale, a living puppet, and another unexpected reunion to find out for sure. And just what is it that Kairi's doing right now that's caused her to go completely silent? Enter the belly of a beast as the adventure reaches a new depth, next time.

Yeah, looks like things are going to get pretty crazy next time. Until then though...

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!