Reaching the end of the corridor, Logan's group found itself before a staircase leading downwards. All of them stood side by side whilst looking down. "Seems quiet enough," Logan said.
"Famous last words," Liquorice observed with a chuckle.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's stay careful, everyone," Logan agreed and started walking down the staircase with everybody close.
After a long walk, the friends arrived at the bottom of the staircase and found themselves in a large, white room with a lot of empty space. Sora was at the very center of it, his unconscious figure floating inside a chamber of some sorts. Not wasting a moment, Logan ran up to that chamber, ready to strike it down with his Owl Buster.
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." The Inventor once again appeared on a screen above the floor. "That chamber is programmed to disintegrate itself, should too much damage be applied to it. This would also disintegrate everybody inside it, just to be clear."
"Release Sora at once, Inventor!" Sunny barked. "We have defeated your Nobodies and won the game, so stay true to your word!"
"My, for a wolf, you don't seem to have a very good hearing," The Inventor remarked with rubbing his forehead. "Those Nobodies you defeated in that corridor were simply a warm-up meant to see what all of you are capable of. The real game is just about to start."
Logan sighed in annoyance, pulled his sword away, and crossed his arms. "Alright, what are the rules of your game?"
"My original plans for this game were to have the Dream Defenders come over and face against my replicas of Organization XIII. After all, who wouldn't want to see the Magical World's greatest heroes go up against the best group from Disney's greatest video game?" The Inventor explained. "However, those plans have been ruined, and I have to do with all of you instead. So, allow me to explain the rules of the game."
He snapped his fingers, making ten teleportation platforms appear in a circular formation around the room. "There's twenty of you, so we're gonna have ten matches, groups of two from your team against one member of Organization XIII each. I have to offer you a certain level of advantage, after all. Now, you will all form groups of two and step on one of these platforms: they will randomly take you to face one of my Organization XIII replicas. Defeating them will reward you with a key. You need all ten keys to release your friend from that chamber."
Logan widened his eyes in shock. "W-Wait! Our encounters will all be random?! We won't get to choose our opponents?!"
"That is correct, Mister Jindrak," The Inventor confirmed.
"No, no, no!" Logan panicked, taking his head in his hands. "I had planned different strategies for us to win against them... But if we can't decide who to fight, then it all falls apart!"
Tomada came to put a wing over his friend's shoulder. "It's alright, Logan; we'll just make do with our assigned adversaries and improvise. That's what heroes are supposed to do, right?"
Hesitating a moment, Logan smiled at his falcon friend. "Yeah, it's true." He turned to face his friends. "Alright, everyone, it's time for the hard part I was talking about earlier. Your skills and talents will be tested like they have never been before - except maybe for you, Darkmare. All of us must win, or Sora will be lost forever. I'm counting on all of you."
"Fear not, young one; I do not intend to abandon this boy to such a terrible fate," Darkmare assured, Vincent nodding in agreement.
"Yeah; there's no way we're gonna let that big meanie get away!" Jameson beamed, throwing a fist in the air.
"By the time we're done with them, those Organization guys are gonna look like a joke," Roman declared with an almost sadistic grin.
Logan nodded. "Alright then, good luck, everyone. Now, let's all choose a partner and head for one of these platforms. And remember, guys; do not lose your fight!"
After a little discussion, it was decided that Logan and all the friends he had invited would be teaming up with the partner they had brought with them: Logan with Destiny; Tomada with Dory; Ferroth with Kaa; Liquorice with Blu; Almyra with Judy; Jameson with Violet; Roman with Lucky; Darkmare with Vincent; RDJ with Shenzi, and Sunny with Vitani. The duos all took place on one of the ten platforms, and exchanged nods before being taken away by a light.
Sunny and Vitani walked around. They were in a city of some sorts, having appeared in the middle of a station plaza with a distinctive clock tower standing tall. From there, they had a great view of the entire town and could even see the sun shining over mountains on the horizon.
"What is this place?" Vitani asked, sounding almost impressed.
"I don't know, but we're definitely not in Castle That Never Was anymore." Sunny walked over to the edge of the plaza, admiring the gorgeous view. "One thing's for sure, though; this place has a wonderful sunset..."
"Yeah, Twilight Town's known for having some of the best sunsets in any world. That's why it wears that name... Even if sunsets and twilights aren't the same." The two female animals turned around to see a red-haired man dressed in a black cloak sitting near the top of the clock tower with a stick of blue ice cream in his hand. He gobbled it all down in one go before jumping all the way down and landing in the station plaza, a few meters away from the duo. "What may your names be, ladies?"
Sunny stepped forward, taking her longsword out so she could speak: "I am the light in the darkness. The sword to vanquish evil. The shield to protect the innocent. The fire to repel the cold and a humble servant of the solar will. I am Sunny the Sun Knight!"
Vitani stepped forward, too. "As for me, I am Vitani, sister of the future King of the Pride Lands and leader of the Lion Guard, sworn to protect both the Pride Lands and the Circle of Life."
The red-haired man rubbed his forehead. "Jeez, I only asked for your names; not for a complete summary of your CVs. As for me, I am Organization XIII's number VIII, Axel. A virtual replica, of course, but nonetheless as awesome as the real one." He summoned his two Eternal Flames chakrams in his hands. "I'd like to stick around and chat with you, ladies, but Mister Inventor told me to take you out. Didn't say I couldn't have fun doing so, though."
Vitani scoffed with a grin. "Yeah, like we'd let you. Ready, Sunny?"
"I'm always ready!"
The two animal friends pushed a battle cry and charged forward, Sunny swinging her longsword at Axel whilst Vitani clawed at him. The Nobody managed to deflect and dodge all the attacks, but in return, it left him with very little room to counterattack. At one point, Sunny mumbled words in a foreign language to summon a fireball she tossed at her enemy. Surprisingly, the attack didn't damage him and even seemed to make him feel good.
"Nice! Thanks for the little dose of fire, girl!" Axel beamed. "Oh, didn't you know? Fire's my natural element, meaning that any attack or spell related to fire cannot damage me and even gives me energy. Got it memorized?"
"What?! He's immune to fire attacks?!" Sunny exclaimed, widening her eyes in surprise.
"Please, tell me you got non-fire spells in your arsenal?" Vitani asked.
The wolfess shook her head. "No... My Oath of Sunlight only grants me spells based around fire and light..."
Axel let out a big laughter at this. "Really? Well, too bad for you, but looks like you just lost a good part of your means to fight. But if you accept to run away, I promise not to follow you, and... Huh, why are you smiling?"
Indeed, rather than looking desperate, Sunny bared her fangs with a big grin. "Running away? Just because I can't use my spells? I hope you're joking! I'm not one of those lazy knights who rely exclusively on magic to do everything! To me, that's not a handicap; just a little extra challenge. I still have my sword, an unbreakable will to reach victory, but most importantly, a faithful partner. Vitani? Don't you think it's time to 'roar' a little bit?"
The Lion Guard leader chuckled a bit as she understood what her friend was referring to. Stepping forward, she took a deep breath and unleashed the Roar of the Elders. Axel widened his eyes and moved out of the way at the last second, the roar damaging a portion of the station plaza in the process.
"What the heck was that?! I knew that lions could roar loudly, but not to that point!" Axel exclaimed before glaring at his opponents. "Alright, you wanna play rough? Then let's. BURN, BABY!" Setting his chakrams on fire, he started attacking the two girls with devastating and unrelenting combos. While Sunny managed to parry most of them with her longsword, Vitani had much more difficulty doing so. Many of Axel's attacks connected, leaving her with burning wounds.
Seeing how the situation was turning out, Sunny growled and actually managed to land a punch into Axel's abdomen to push him away. "Vitani! Are you alright?" she asked her friend with kneeling beside her.
"I've seen better days," the lioness admitted with a frown of pain. She suddenly widened her eyes. "LOOK OUT!"
Sunny turned in time to see Axel's fire chakrams coming her way. She managed to block one of them with her longsword, but the other went to plant itself into her shoulder, making her groan in pain. "Aww, did I hurt the poor wolfie?" Axel asked in a mocking tone as his chakrams returned to him.
"Sunny, are you okay-ARGH!" Vitani groaned and collapsed on her side.
"Rest, Vitani; I'll take things from here," the Sun Knight assured her partner, resisting the pain and assuming her fighting stance once again.
Both opponents glared at each other in silence for a moment before the wolfess pushed a growl and engaged Axel in close combat, her longsword colliding with his burning chakrams. Under normal circumstances, she could've fought him on equal footing, but her shoulder wound slowed her down, giving him an unfair advantage. Yet, not matter how many times he burned her with his chakrams, she did not stop her fierce attacks.
Eventually, the Flurry of Dancing Flames hopped back with a moonsault and gracefully landed a few feet away before grinning at his opponent. "Ya got spirit, wolfie, I'll give you that. I wasn't expecting my fight to be that much fun. As a thanking gift, I'm gonna show you my best trick!"
Sunny widened her eyes a bit at this. "Y-You have another trick?"
With a twirl of his chakrams, Axel summoned a circular fire wall around them, also setting the ground beneath on fire to hurt Sunny's feet. He leaped into the flames, hiding behind them. "Great. Me who likes fire, here I'm served," the wolfess sarcastically mumbled to herself.
The Sun Knight stood in position, waiting for Axel to strike. Unfortunately, when that happened, she received a strong kick into her unprotected abdomen that knocked her to the ground. She tried to get on the offensive, but Axel disappeared back behind the fire wall before she could swing her weapon. He repeated the same process over and over again, hitting Sunny with kicks, strikes, and fire attacks. Try as she might, the poor wolfess could not fight back, only try to predict where the next attack would come from and defend herself. And the ground burning her feet was not helping!
Before long, Sunny was down on one knee, her armor damaged, her body covered in wounds, and her breath heavy. She needed to rest on her sword to stay up. "Wow, I must've hit you at least fifty times by now, and you still refuse to go down?" Axel asked from behind the wall of fire. "I must admit that I'm impressed, but my program doesn't allow me to throw away the fight. So I'm gonna ask you one last time: abandon and leave this place."
"Abandoning? Don't make me laugh; I still got fire to unleash!" Sunny groaned and rose her sword again. "Logan's expecting all of us to win our fights and save his friend... I have no intention of disappointing him!"
Axel rolled his eyes. "Look, all that heroic talking is cool and all, but you gotta be realistic sometimes. Can't you see I'm too strong for you - that's a fight you can't win. Wouldn't you rather live to fight another day?"
"No! Somebody used one of my Sun Medallions because they needed my help - what kind of paladin would I be if I failed? If there's one thing I learned from playing Ghost n' Goblins and Dark Souls, it's that no challenge is impossible to overcome; there are only easy challenges and hard challenges." With a growl, she assumed her fighting stance. "I strictly refuse to use difficulty as an excuse to lose! So bring it on!"
Axel sighed behind the flames. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn you."
Sunny closed her eyes, rising her ears and focusing as much as possible. She listened to the cracking flames, trying to ignore the ones burning her feet. Then, as soon as she heard a break in the noise, her eyes shot open, and she swung her longsword, the flat side smacking into Axel's abdomen, and knocking him back in the fire. Not wanting to lose momentum, the wolfess charged forward, held her armored arms forward, and jumped through the fire wall, doing her best to endure the burning pain. As soon as she was on the other side, she started swinging her longsword again, forcing Axel on the defensive.
CLING! CLING! CLANG! Sparks flew all around as Sunny's weapon collided with Axel's. She attacked with more ferocity and determination than before, pushing Axel back. However, her stamina inevitably started dropping, giving the Flurry of Dancing Flames a chance to knock her down with a kick. He pointed one of his burning chakrams at her as she rested on the edge of the plaza.
"It's over, wolfie... Just don't feel too bad about your defeat; you probably would've won, had you not been stuck with a magic I happen to be immune against."
Far from looking disappointed, the wolfess actually grinned. "You're right... Good thing one of us have non-fire powers. Vitani, now!"
Axel turned around to see the lioness getting back up, taking a deep breath, and using the Roar of the Ancients again. But not on the Nobody; she aimed her attack on the clock tower right next to them. As it started collapsing, Sunny, used her strong canine legs to kick Axel away in the structure's line of sight.
"Oh no...," Axel mumbled just before getting crushed under the clock tower.
With the fight over, Sunny staggered over to her partner. "Are you okay, Vitani? You're not hurt?"
"Not as much as you, clearly," Vitani answered with a chuckle. "That guy didn't miss you!"
"Yeah, good thing I have a solid endurance," Sunny admitted, sharing her friend's laugh. "You have my thanks; I would've died back there, were it not for you."
"Anytime." Vitani exchanged a little high-five with her partner.
A little ball of light came out from the clock tower's remaining, taking the form of a little key. Sunny went to take it in her paw. "Looks like we successfully got our key. Let's hope the others will do the same..."
"Where are we?" Jameson asked whilst looking all around.
"At first glance, it looks like we're on a small island in the middle of a hurricane," Violet analyzed. "Which, if is the case, means we are pretty much doomed."
A ball of darkness suddenly appeared on the small island and out of it came a young man wearing a black cloak whose right eye was covered by the layered bangs of his steel-blue hair. "I wish you all welcome to my world... A world of illusions without limits..."
Jameson and Violet blinked their eyes and exchanged a gaze. "Huh, who are you?" Violet questioned.
Smiling with an air of pride, the cloaked man gladly answered the question: "I am a replica of Organization XIII's number VI, the Cloaked Schemer, Zexion. It is nice to-"
"Hi, Zexion! My name's Jameson, and this is violet!" Jameson beamed, waving his wing at the Nobody.
Zexion blinked his eyes in confusion. "Huh... Yes, hi. So, if you have been summoned here, then it means that you are my opponents. I must admit I'm a bit disappointed: I was expecting to be assigned one of the strongest members of the invaders, not some children."
"Hey! We might be children, but we're still capable of defending ourselves!" Jameson bellowed as he took out his baseball bat. "Come on, Violet, let's show that meanie what we're capable of!"
The hummingbird used her mind-based magic to summon a purple mace and followed her friend's charge. They attempted to strike Zexion, who kept teleporting away to escape their attacks. At one point, whilst floating high in the air, he rubbed his chin with interest. "This is quite special... You have a strong scent, young hummingbird... But the black owl's is something else. I can detect many elements and Materia in you - it's almost like you have been conceived by necromancy instead of usual means. Am I wrong?"
"Necromancy? Elements and Materia? What is he talking about?" Violet asked her friend with a raised eyebrow.
"Huh... No idea; I don't even know what necromancy, elements and Materia are," Jameson said with rubbing the back of his head. "Come down here and fight us instead of always running away!"
"I apologize, but close combat isn't really my style." He summoned a large book that he held in his hand. "I prefer using this little wonder called Lexicon. Let me show you the power of illusions, kids."
Opening a page of his Lexicon, Zexion trapped the two birds inside a book, leaving them in the middle of a seemingly endless space where floating books attacked them both with close combat and all sorts of spells.
"Never thought my life would one day be threatened by books!" Violet remarked as she smacked at the books with her mace.
"They never stop coming!" Jameson exclaimed, fending off the attacks with his baseball bat. "Violet, what are we supposed to do?"
"Let me think... If it's like what I've read about Illusion Magic, then our enemy is hidden within one of these books. We need to find and destroy it to force him out!" Violet explained.
"Alright, I got this! Balloonra!" Rising his bat, Jameson summoned multicolored balloons that scattered across the field and hit the books all around. After repeating the spell a few times, he managed to hit a book that revealed a cloaked figure.
"There he is!" Violet exclaimed, throwing her mace at Zexion. However, he managed to duck it in time.
"Missed!" he mocked.
Violet grinned. "Did I?" Pulling at a string made of magic, she brought her mace back, smacking the back of Zexion' head in the process. "Jameson, now!"
At this, the Black Owl jumped up and smacked the Nobody in the ribs, knocking him away. Groaning and clutching his ribs in pain, he glared at his opponents. "You kids are more resilient than I thought. In that case, let me show you one of my best tricks."
Zexion snapped his fingers and created another illusion, which caused the two birds to found themselves in a pitch black room, save for three red spotlights. One blue light rotated between the three lights thirteen times until it came to a complete stop. The Lexicon was in it. Jameson and Violet attempted to get inside, but a barricade appeared to prevent them from entering. Violet then looked up and gasped. "Look out!" The entire area outside the barricade got bombarded by meteors, with Zexion's laughing heard in the distance. Despite their best attempt at defending themselves, Jameson and Violet sustained a lot of damage from the meteors.
Eventually, the attack ended with the illusion, bringing everyone back to the floating island. Whilst standing high in the air, Zexion opened his Lexicon and send some chains to grab Jameson, bringing the little owl to him. "Now, let's see what interesting secrets you're hiding." Zexion placed his hands on Jameson's head and started scanning his mind. Violet used her magic powers to fend off books and try to help her friend, who was struggling to break free, but in vain. Once the scanning was done, he released the owl, letting him fall to the ground.
"Thanks a lot. Those were quite the interesting secrets you had there. I'll be sure to make good use of them," Zexion assured with a grin. Opening his Lexicon again, he summoned a strange red sigil.
"It's an illusion sigil!" Violet exclaimed. "Don't look at it, Jameson!"
But it was too late. Jameson looked at the sigil and found himself in a place of endless dark. "W-Where am I?" Suddenly, two figures appeared before him... and he quickly recognized them. Lena and Poe De Spell. "G-Guys? What are you doing here?" Jameson asked. A smile then formed on his face. "You came to help us defeat that bad guy and save Sora, didn't you?" It was at this moment that he realized the two ducks were in fact glaring at him. "... Guys?"
"Stop pretending: we know the truth!" Lena suddenly exclaimed.
Jameson's heart fell to the pit of his stomach. "T-The truth?"
"Yes," Poe confirmed and stepped forward whilst glaring daggers at the black owl. "We know that you are but a vile creation of my sister's, Magica!"
Jameson gulped and flattened his ears. "H-How do you know?"
Lena suddenly grabbed him by the feathers around his neck and brought him to her face. "How dare you come around us and make yourself pass for our friend, when you're nothing but the puppet of an evil sorceress seeking to satisfy her pettiness!"
"N-No, she's not evil!" Jameson tried to explain. "I know she did horrible things in the past, but there's gotta some good within her! There's good within everyone!"
"Quiet, child," Poe silence him, approaching the owl with a smirk. "It is time to fix my sister's mistake."
At this point, Jameson had tears forming in his eyes. While Lena kept holding him, Poe started shooting a jet of magic that hurt him. "No! Please, stop! Please, Uncle, I'm not evil! I swear, I'm not evil!" Suddenly, he felt a jolt of pain in his wing, and everything stopped. He was no longer in the dark space, but back on the floating island with his friend. "Violet? Why are you biting my wing?"
"Sorry, but inflicting physical pain is the most effective way to snap out of an illusion spell," Violet explained, spitting some black feathers. "From the way you were squirming and yelling, it must not have been a pleasant illusion."
"Not really," Jameson confirmed, wiping his tears away, and glaring at Zexion. "You big jerk! I'm gonna teach you to mess with people's memories like that!"
Zexion once again brought the two birds to his book dimension, where tens of floating books attacked them at once. Jameson tried to beat them all again by using his Balloonra spell, but Zexion kept summoning new ones - and the young owl was starting to feel tired from using the draining spell too much.
Violet then got an idea. "Jameson, get your bat ready!" The hummingbird summoned dark purple fireballs in her hands that she quickly tossed at Jameson before summoning new ones and repeating the cycle over and over again. Understanding the idea, Jameson smacked the fireballs as fast as he could, sending them flying all around and destroying the floating books even faster than Ballonra.
"Your teamwork is quite impressive, I'll give you that," Zexion admitted. "But I'm getting tired of all of this. It's time to finish you off."
He once again brought them in the dark illusion with three red spotlights. "We need to jump in the blue one before it's too late!" Violet said, she and her friend looking at the three lights changing colors, waiting for the right time to jump. "Now!" The two birds hopped toward the blue spotlight... but once again, too late. "Oh no!"
A rain of meteors once again started falling toward the kids. Violet used her mind magic to create a purple barrier around them, but it wasn't going to stand for long. Realizing the situation, Jameson tossed his friend to the ground and laid on her to protect her from the incoming projectiles.
"Jameson! What are you doing?! Get off!" Violet yelled. However, the black owl just closed his eyes and groaned as he received the meteors in his back, using it as a shield.
Soon, the rain ended alongside the illusion. Zexion stepped forward with a grin. "Interesting move you did there; sacrificing your body so that at least one of you could keep the fight going. Pretty brave... but ultimately pointless-"
Jameson suddenly turned around, his baseball bat glowing with red magic. "RED PHOENIX BLAST!" The powerful, burning attack flew straight into Zexion for a direct hit. Unfortunately, it also used the last of Jameson's magic pool, causing him to drop his bat and then collapse on the ground.
"Jameson!" Violet exclaimed and rushed to her friend's side. "Why did you do this?!"
"Because... that's what... vigilantes... and friends... do...," the owl weakly mumbled with a smile before falling unconscious.
The young hummingbird stared at her friend for a moment before turning to glare at her opponent. Taking advantage of the fact he was stunned by the Red Phoenix Blast, she charged and shot dark purple fireballs at him. The hits prevented him from focusing and using his Lexicon to cast another illusion spell. Once close enough, she summoned her magic mace that she instantly slammed into Zexion's abdomen, and then on the back of his head, knocking him down for good.
"I... can't believe... I lost to a... bunch of children," he comically groaned. "I'll never live this down..."
The defeated Nobody turned into a light ball that itself became a key - probably the one they needed to rescue Sora. Violet grabbed the item and then immediately returned to Jameson to analyze the damage. Thankfully, the meteors did hurt him, but the wounds were nothing life-threatening. With a sigh of relief, she gave a soft smile. "Thank you, Jameson..."
Yet, there was a question lingering in the hummingbird's mind: why did Jameson yell "Please, Uncle, I'm not evil! I swear, I'm not evil!"?
Ferroth and Kaa had apparently landed in a different part of Castle That Never Was. This part actually looked like a terrace outside the castle from where they could see the heart-shaped moon above, and the only way back inside being a door.
"So we're out here, now, huh? Good; I always preferred the outside than being inside buildings," Kaa remarked. She then noticed that her friend seemed to be lost deep within his thoughts. "What are you thinking about, Ferroth?"
He looked at her whilst rubbing his chin. "I've been to this place before, Kaa. Not literally, only in the video game this place is based on. I think I know who our opponent is going to be." As if on cue, a dark portal appeared and out of it came a man dressed in the traditional black cloak of Organization XIII members. He had platinum-blonde hair worn in a Caesar cut, electric-blue eyes, a goatee, and silver piercings on his ears. Ferroth narrowed his eyes. "That's what I thought. Luxord..."
Kaa stared curiously at her friend. "You know this guy?"
"Not formally, but I've played the games he appears in. He's Luxord, AKA the Gambler of Fate, Organization XIII's number X."
Luxord grinned at this and crossed his arms. "So you know who I am. Good, that way we can just skip the formalities and jump straight to the game."
Kaa tilted her head to the side. "A game? I thought we were supposed to fight to get a key?"
"No, you don't understand, I was talking about the fight - it was just a figure of speech," Luxord tried to explain. "Come on, everybody knows that."
"Huh, sorry; she's been away from society for a long time," Ferroth explained with rubbing the back of his head. "I've done what I can in recent times, but she still has a lot of catch up to do."
"Hey! Are you saying that I'm stupid?" Kaa asked with an irritated expression.
"No, no, no! That's not what I'm saying at all!" Ferroth defended himself. "I'm just referring to the fact you've been living on your own in the jungle for almost your entire life, and that you only came out recently. It's perfectly normal that you aren't familiar with everything about the Magical World yet - that's a lot of things to learn. For example, if I decided to move on in the jungle where you used to live, I wouldn't know everything about it within the first days-"
Luxord cleared his throat to get their attention. "Excuse me, but it's not very polite to ignore me when we're about to fight."
Ferroth and Kaa exchanged a gaze before bowing their heads. "We apologize."
"... You guys are weird," Luxord mumbled with a raised eyebrow. "Alright, time for what I like to call the Battle for Time. Basically, this is a time-based battle in which our time gauges will gradually drop with every passing second. Taking damage will cause them to drop faster. The first side whose time gauge runs out loses the fight."
Ferroth raised his hand. "Huh, I'm sorry, but what time gauge?"
Luxord pointed a finger upwards, making the two snakes look up to see orange-ish yellow bars standing high above their heads. "Where those came from?" Kaa questioned.
"Never mind that," Luxord declared as he summoned some cards in his hands. "The Battle for Time begins... now!" Right after he said this, the two gauges started slowly depleting.
Ferroth and Kaa exchanged a nod before slithering toward their opponent and swinging their tail at him from both side. Unfortunately, Luxord summoned two big cards to block them at the same time. He then performed some sort of spell that turned the two snakes into dices.
"F-Ferroth! What happened? I can't see myself anymore!" Kaa exclaimed whilst bouncing around in her dice form.
"Don't worry; this form is temporary! Just try and keep your distances from him until you return to normal!" Ferroth instructed. Whilst hopping around, he himself tried to attack Luxord in his dice form, but the Nobody managed to block and counterattack with his big cards. Thankfully, the spell quickly came to an end, both snakes returning to normal. "That's more like it!"
The two snakes once again got on the offensive, swinging their tails together at Luxord. He used his big cards to defend himself, but some of the attacks managed to break through, making him feel a whipping pain every time. "Alright, that's enough!" The Gambler of Fate threw two small cards to cut at Ferroth's shoulder and Kaa's side, interrupting their attack rush. He then summoned lots of little cards around Ferroth that continuously attacked him. "That should keep him busy long enough for me to take care of the girl."
After getting cut a few times, Ferroth narrowed his eyes and actually ignited some flames with his hands to destroy all the cards in one go. "What?!" Luxord exclaimed just before Kaa smacked her tail into his side, knocking him away.
"I didn't know you also had fire powers, Ferroth," the female snake remarked.
"Actually, that wasn't a fire power; it's just that, just like I'm able to slow down vibrations in the air to create ice, I can also accelerate them to ignite flames," Ferroth explained.
"And why are you mumbling all of this?"
"To make sure Luxord can't hear me, of course. You don't want me to reveal all my tricks to the enemy, do you? We're not in an anime. Now, come on; he has more time remaining than us. We need to cause more damage before our time runs out!"
Before they could attack again, their opponent grinned. "Look closely!" He disappeared, and three giant cards took his place, spinning around the duo.
"Oh no! I know this trick: he's hiding in one of these cards while the others are trapped. We need to flip the right one," Ferroth explained.
"How can we find the right card?" Kaa asked.
Ferroth remained silent for a few seconds, closing his eyes to concentrate, before opening them and grinning. "This one!" He grabbed one of the cards and flipped it around to reveal Luxord, whom he tail-whipped across the face.
Thinking it was just luck, the Gambler of Fate repeated the same trick multiple times, but Ferroth always managed to find him. "How's that possible?! You have a third eye or somethin'?!"
At this, Ferroth chuckled and mumbled to Kaa: "Poor guy; he doesn't know that I can use ultrasounds to know where he's hiding every time." The female snake nodded in agreement with a chuckle.
Luxord realized his time gauge was running dangerously low, therefore deciding to throw his best trick. "Look who's on top!" he exclaimed and tossed many big cards that scattered everywhere on the field's ground. His body emanating an electric-gray energy, he attacked his enemies with a flurry of floating cards alongside many other big cards. Despite their best efforts and slender bodies, the two snakes were unable to escape the attacks, and soon, Kaa found herself knocked to the ground, unconscious.
"K-Kaa!" Ferroth exclaimed as he weakly slithered to his friend's side.
At the same time, Luxord's power rush ended, and he crossed his arms. "You guys were quite the trouble for me... Though not as much as that smelly pirate captain." He stared at Ferroth, who kept looking at his knocked friend with a sad expression. "Hey, don't take it too bad, kid. You just had the misfortune of crossing paths with an enemy you could not beat. Luck's like that. A window of opportunity can open and close in the blink of an eye. It's whether or not you can jump on the chance when it arises that determines a man's fate."
"... You're wrong," Ferroth mumbled as he carefully pulled Kaa down and turned to look at him. "All of this has nothing to do with luck, Luxord. We all feel moments when we're broken. And we all feel moments when we fly. Remember that, when you're broken, and you feel you have nothing left, you can get up again, often with the help of a friend - even a new friend, and with whatever you have left, you can give your best. When you fly, and you're at the top of the world, be vigilant, because there are more trials on the horizon. Face tomorrow with hope and readiness. Come what may, you can make it. Work for, speak for, and serve yourself with love and respect. Work for, speak for, and serve one another with the same respect and love. There's plenty of good to be done in our world. And plenty of our world who need good to be done!"
Luxord remained silent for a moment before scoffing. "That was a beautiful speech and all, but it costed us both our precious time... and neither of us have much left. So stop talking, and let's end this!"
The two opponents attacked one another again, Ferroth with tail whips mixed with fire and ice attacks, and Luxord with his cards. Just as it seemed the time gauges were going to run out at the same time, Ferroth's and Kaa's rose up whilst Luxord's completely ran down.
"What?! How did that happ...?!" Looking down, Luxord spotted a snake's tail coiled around his leg, glowing with green light. Kaa was grinning at him.
"Too bad for you; seems like I drained away what little time you had left."
"B-But... I took you out!"
"You said it yourself, Luxord: never count your cards until they've all been dealt," Ferroth declared with a grin. Luxord groaned in annoyance as he faded into a ball of light that turned into a key. He picked it up as Kaa slithered to his side.
"Good work, Ferroth. You managed to beat this guy at his own game."
Ferroth chuckled a bit. "We're mostly lucky that I played the games and knew all of his tricks."
"Hey, you just said it yourself in your little speech: one needs no luck, just the will to get up and keep going on."
Kaa planted a kiss on her friend's cheek, causing him to become redder than a tomato.
Author's note: The battle against (the virtual version of) Organization XIII has begun! Let's hope that our heroes can keep their winning streak going on, as even a single defeat would mean losing the game and dooming Sora!
I had already planned for this part of the story to happen before Logan assembled the team; it took me a bit more time to decide who would get to face who. In the end, I decided to keep it to two heroes against one member of the Organization each. Sunny and Vitani were originally supposed to go up against Xaldin, since he, too, is themed after knights, but then I remembered that Axel is immune against fire attacks; this would be a great opportunity to showcase Sunny's mentality of 'always pushing through even against the highest difficulty'. You were probably looking forward to seeing all the spells in the Sun Knight's arsenal, but it's gonna be for another time.
Pitching Jameson and Violet against Zexion wasn't a difficult decision. The Cloaked Schemer is the youngest member of his team, like the two birds, is a lover of books, like Violet, and an expert in mind-related magic, like Jameson. Plus, I really wanted to make a scene where Jameson is pulled into an illusion and has to face his deepest fear.
Things were a bit more tricky for Ferroth and Kaa; I had already chosen an opponent for everybody but them. As I was trying to decide, I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Luxord, the Gambler of Fate. Turns out, he was a pretty good opponent for a duo with limited magic power like our two snake friends. I could just picture them having a Battle of Time against him.
I'd like to end this AN by telling you something important. I'm going back to school tomorrow. Now, you must be saying: "Back to school in the middle of summer?!" Yeah, I decided to take summer classes because I'm REALLY close to finishing my secondary and then be eligible for cegep. I'd like to reach that goal before my vacations in Disney World, that will happen at the start of October, to feel like I truly deserved it. So, starting tomorrow, my chapter publication rate will be slower than the one I've adopted since last June. But don't worry; I'll try to finish this arc before TheDragonSaver finishes 'Across The Mirrorverse'.
