As the group returned to Agrabah, they made their back to the rundown, abandoned room where they found Carpet. A place which happened to be Aladdin and Abu's home. There, Sora and his friends explained Jafar's intentions to Aladdin. "So Jafar is after Jasmine and this 'Keyhole'." Aladdin said, taking in his new friends' words with a frown. "Yeah. We don't know why, but whatever it is, it can't be good if he's got all these Heartless." Ruby said.
Jaune seemed confused. "Wait, I thought Leon talked about it? He said it leads to the heart of the wo-AGH!"
His sentence went unfinished as Weiss yanked his ear and whispered in annoyance, "Jaune! We're not supposed to talk about other worlds, remember? It's bad enough we're all traveling to them and interfering in business' that don't involve us. We don't need to spread anymore chaos!" A sentiment that everyone else shared, though not quite as...painfully as Weiss's methods of stopping Jaune from spilling the beans.
Aladdin was far too focused on a much more troubling thought to notice Weiss's painful reprimand to Jaune. Or Pyrrha's anxious urging for Weiss to not pull so hard on his ear. As he looked out toward the palace, Aladdin's face reflected a sea of concern and worried thoughts about Jasmine and her well being. "Keyhole, eh? I could swear I've heard about that somewhere before..."
The sudden statement spoken by Genie caused everyone to turn and look at him. "Really? Where?" Donald asked. Though it was surprising to see people from other worlds who knew of the Keyhole, if Genie truly knew where it was, then maybe they could save the world from being consumed by the Heartless before Jafar found it.
"Now where was it?" Genie answered, thinking back to when and where. "It's only been two hundred years..." Genie's unfortunately was...not what they needed or wished to hear as they lurched forward with deadpanned expressions of disbelief. Regardless, it was clear what they needed to do. "Well anyway, we've gotta stop Jafar before it's too late."
Ruby and her friends nodded in agreement. They needed to deal with Jafar first and foremost. "So what's the plan then?" Yang asked the group.
"Jasmine told us Jafar took over Agrabah and locked her father, the Sultan, in the dungeons," Ren said in a pondering tone. "If that's the case, Jafar might make the palace his base of operations. That might be a good place to at least start." His suggestion made Nora smile as she raised her hammer and spoke with surging excitement, "Yeah! Let's storm the palace and smash that long faced skull of his, in!"
"Okay. One sec," Aladdin said as he moved to a corner of his home and shifted a brick from the ground then dug his hand into the thin rectangular hole. He pulled out a sword by the handle. A scimitar specifically, going by the familiar curve in the blade. "I stole this from the Captain of the Guard the last time he tried to arrest me." he explained. Weiss's eyes narrowed as sighed, while Blake looked at Aladdin with a smile and shake of his head. Both of them having flashbacks of a certain simian faunus boy.
"Alright, let's go!" Ruby exclaimed, prompting Weiss to finally release Jaune's ear and for everyone to group up and make their way to the Palace. Sure enough, when they arrived, there they found Jafar standing by the gates of the palace. He didn't seem to notice them just yet. "What do you suggest we do?" Blake whispered to Sora and Ruby. Nora had her own little answer to that question as she brandished her hammer, giggling wickedly. But whatever reckless plan she had in mind was shot down by Ren grabbing her wrist gently and shaking his head. She relented with a pout, holstering her hammer again. "I've got an idea." Jaune whispered. "Aladdin, you, Sora, Donald, and Goofy go down ahead of us. We'll keep a lookout for any Heartless that try and make things more complicated." Aladdin and Sora nodded to Jaune, then to each other, taking the initiative and jumping down with Donald and Goofy at their sides.
"Setting your sights a little high, aren't you boy?" Sure enough, Jafar noticed them immediately and turned to face them. "Back to your hole, street rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princess anymore." Aladdin gasped as sure enough, behind the wicked vizier was the worried princess in question. "Jasmine!" he called out to her as Jafar stood between them haughtily. "I'm so sorry, Aladdin." Jasmine apologized, feeling horrible about getting caught and putting Aladdin and his friends into this predicament. If they or the hidden rest of the party dared to try anything, who knows what Jafar might do? So Aladdin was left with only one option. Though he forfeit his one chance to earn the right in the eyes of Agrabah's law to marry her, he cared more about Jasmine's safety than anything else. "Genie, help Jasmine. Please!" Aladdin whispered desperately as he rubbed the lamp. A whoosh of air blew behind Jafar making him turn around, only to blanch with shock when he saw Jasmine in the arms of a grinning Genie. "One wish left! You're making this really easy, ya know?"
Up on the nearby rooftops Jaune a stealthy approach just in time to see Jasmine being rescued. And right on time too! Despite his plans seemingly being foiled, Jafar gave a confident chuckle. "So sorry, boy. I'm afraid your second wish has been denied."
Flying by him was his trusted feathered companion, Iago... who was carrying the lamp in his claws. Aladdin was shocked as looked to his hand to see that the sneaky parrot had stolen the lamp!. The parrot dropped the lamp into Jafar's hand, drawing a victorious grin to the vizier's face as he grabbed it in his bony fingers. "That's cheating!" Yang whispered furiously, and would have leapt down there had her teammates not stopped her in her tracks. Jaune and his own teammates' brows furrowed at the sudden and most unwelcome change in the situation.
And it only got worse as Genie suddenly his head in a sorrowful manner. "I'm sorry, Al..." he said with deepest regret. Since Aladdin was no longer in possession of his lamp, that meant he had a new master. As such, he could no longer fully go through with Aladdin's second wish and let Jasmine when vanishing in a puff of blue smoke. Jasmine yelped in surprise as she plummeted into one of the big red pots... which suddenly grew a pair of jagged spider legs, followed by another which came to Jafar's side.
"And now, I bid you all farewell," Jafar stated and aimed his staff at the four in front of him, giving the Heartless one simple command. "Attack!" With that, he vanished from sight with a smile of pure wickedness.
"Agh! He's gone! I didn't get to smash his face in!" Nora shouted as she stood up with boiling anger. At that point, it seemed stealth was out of the question. They needed to save Jasmine from those Heartless!
But things only ended up getting more complicated behind Sora and the rest with him, two more of the pots broke, showing a big deep blue Heartless that looked something like a crab mixed with a bug in one and the other of a similar color looking like a stringy tail. "What the-?!" Donald exclaimed as he when jumped back and readied his staff. Everyone else drew their weapons as Team RWBY and JNPR prepared to leap from the rooftops to flank the Heartless.
But just as the huntsmen and huntresses were about to jump, the building they were hiding upon suddenly gave a rough shake. As if something was tearing the building apart from within. They were forced to jump off as suddenly, the building shattered in a shower of rubble and sandstone. The source of the tremor beneath them took the group by surprise, particularly shocking Ruby and her friends. This new foe had the appearance of a giant scorpion, nearly half the size of the district they were standing in. Its carapace was a a familiar bony white color which was shared by the top half of its pinching claws, as well as the front-most mandibles. Around its ten, blazing orange eyes were strange, elaborate red markings that ran up along the vertebrate, ending right where its bright orange stinger tipped tail began.
"Whoa! What is that thing?!" Sora yelled out with shocked confusion. "Death Stalker!" Ren called out, narrowly managing to avoid one of its claws. "What!?" Sora asked, struggling to focus between the Heartless and the new threat. "It's another creature of Grimm." Jaune said, pushing himself back up from his less than elegant landing. He was intimately familiar with this particular Grimm. Far more than he'd like to be. But that was a whole other tale. "You mean like those Beowolf things we fought in Traverse Town?!" Sora asked. "Worry about details later! For now, we need to take these things down!" Ruby exclaimed, brandishing Crescent Rose. "Sora! Aladdin! You, Donald, and Goofy help Jasmine! We'll take care of the Grimm!" The foursome nodded affirmatively, rushing toward the Heartless who all suddenly moved to join together, forming a bizarre centipede-like form as the pot spiders became the legs and body of the two separate ends. These Heartless just kept getting weirder, and these Grimm just kept getting creepier.
"Here I come!" Aladdin said with a battle cry as he charged at the bigger Heartless with his scimitar swinging in a wavy pattern. It seemed to do a decent amount of damage from the way it flinched and backed away for a moment. When regaining itself, the Pot Centipede clamped its pincers and lunged at Aladdin, barely missing as the young man nimbly side stepped and struck at one of the pots, breaking it apart.
Being split in two didn't last long as another Pot Spider emerged, moving to the middle and combining them together again. Donald shot at one of the other Pot Spiders in the middle, making it burst apart but again, a new part emerged for it. "Agh! This is exasperating!" Donald angrily squawked as Goofy charged at the back end of the Pot Centipede with his shield forward.
"Aim for the front or back parts!" Sora suggested as he hacked away at the back end with Goofy.
As Aladdin leaped into the air with an athletic run, he swiped at the head of the Pot Centipede then landed on the ground to sprint around it, out of harms way. "Aladdin! Help!" said the muffled cry of Jasmine, trapped somewhere inside one of the Pot Spiders.
"Jasmine, hang on!" Aladdin said to her before cutting through the back part, Goofy moving to the front of the Pot Centipede to keep it distracted.
Donald kept his distance, waiting for an opportune moment and shot a volley of ice at the head. When noticing Sora struggle against the tail of the back end, he used an aero spell to give him a shield, which Sora thanked him for. "I hope the others are doing alright." he said under his breath but focused on their own fight, shooting lightning at the risen head.
Suffice it to say, the others could have been doing better. "Is it just me, or is this Death Stalker tougher and quicker than the one we fought in the forest?!" Nora asked, performing a swing, only for it to be blocked by the creature's claws. Jaune attempted to set up their previous method of taking down the first Death Stalker, but this one was keeping its tail sharply out of reach of Pyrrha's weapon. And without that, Nora couldn't smash its stinger into the Grimm's skull. It was almost as if it had wizened up to their strategy, but that couldn't be. Grimm weren't known for being particularly intelligent, despite not always being mindless. Still, this was very disconcerting, to say the least.
Thankfully, Team JNPR had Team RWBY by their side to pick up the pace. And unlike in the forest, they didn't have to contend with a Nevermore at the same time. "Blake!" Ruby called out, prompting her faunus friend to switch Gambol Shroud to kusarigama mode, and fling it at the monstrous arachnid. However, one of its many eyes caught sight of the weapon flying towards it and it bent its tail, swinging it like a club to knock the Blake away. Ruby didn't have time to be shocked as she was forced to dash out of the way of the stinger headed her way. Weiss managed to intercept the Grimm with the aid of ice dust, but the Grimm managed to inch back just enough to prevent itself from getting frozen. But the delay it received breaking through the ice wall was enough for Yang to finally strike the first blow. Before she could follow up however, both her gauntlet clad fists were grabbed by the scorpion's claws, with both of them struggling for dominance. However, though it had the perfect opening to skewer her, the Death Stalker suddenly released her and gave a sharp downward shift of its body, using its claws to dig under the sand, flinging its tail just out of reach of Nora's hammer as it burrowed out of reach. "What the?" "What is it doing?" Nora and Pyrrha asked respectively.
Aladdin's group remained on their toes, narrowly avoiding the Pot Centipede's attacks as they continued the assault on the surprisingly and infuriatingly durable Heartless. While Goofy and Sora faced it's front, they saw the Heartless get on its belly before it suddenly ran towards them with an unexpected burst of speed. "Look out!" Goofy called out, running to one side and taking Donald with him, while Sora rolled the another way with Aladdin.
"Don't let it get away!" Aladdin said as he recovered and broke into a full tilt sprint to catch up to it. Sora, Donald and Goofy followed him with every ounce of speed their legs could muster.
As for teams RWBY and JNPR, their attempts to stop the Death Stalker's burrowing were met with failure as its tail managed to swat away their attacks as it suddenly tunneeld through the sand under their feet. It was as if the Death Stalker was leaving even though it was nowhere near defeated. Blake turned to one direction as her ears twitched under her bow. "Wait...is it going toward the palace?" she said quietly to herself. Her eyes widened with shock when she realized what it was actually doing. "It's going towards the others!"
"Hurry! We've gotta help them!" Ruby exclaimed, running toward the central part of the city with her fellow huntsmen and huntresses hot on her tail.
As the others caught up with the retreating Pot Centipede, Aladdin raised his scimitar to continue his assault. That plan was dashed however as he felt the ground rumble beneath him. He tumbled to the side as sand erupted near where he stood. The Death Stalker roaring as it rose from the cloud, its many eyes fixing upon its startled, vulnerable prey.
Ren was one of the first people at the front of the group heading to their allies and saw Aladdin facing the Death Stalker. Right as it raised its tail, he acted quickly, getting to the ground and laying his right hand upon it. In that split second, Aladdin was filled with worry that he wouldn't be able to avoid the stinger tipped tail that was rearing back to impale him. But a moment later, he suddenly... didn't feel that fear that he was certain was surging through him. In fact, he wasn't feeling any sort of emotion apart from a sudden sensation of calm and tranquility. He didn't noticed as his entire self turned a gray hue.
The Death Stalker glanced to him and stopped. As if Aladdin had become invisible, it looked to its sides, growling as though frustrated. In that moment, the Grimm's confusion was replaced with a roar of pain as suddenly it felt something stab into its tail. The Grimm was so focused seemingly on the completely gray hued Aladdin, that it didn't even notice anything coming up behind it. In fact, it sensed nothing at all, when it should have noticed something dangerous coming up on it. So what was hurting it? Sora looked up at the tail and gasped when he saw, Storm Flower blades embedded in the confused Grimm, was none other than Ren! "Go!" Ren called calmly to them, just as Aladdin's whole grayed out form returned to color. He blinked rapidly, briefly wondering what that strange sense of deep calm was that washed through him, but he didn't have time to worry about that. The Pot Centipede was getting away! Drawn out of his confusion by Jasmine's cries for help, Aladdin, followed by Sora, Donald, and Goofy gave chase once again.
All the while, the Grimm struggled to find the source of its pain, eventually thinking to slam its tail against a nearby building. Ren noticed this and managed to leap off of the Grimm as it flailed about. All in time for the rest of the young hunters to leap into action. The Death Stalker readied its tail to strike, but when it tried to, it realized too late that in the midst of its mad attempt to dislodge Ren, that its stinger got lodged in a building. Now finally with an opening, Ruby, Jaune, and their respective teams wailed on the Grimm. Yang held one of its claws, followed by Jaune using his shield keeping the other one occupied on him. Ruby and Pyrrha sliced at its tail as Nora began to beat its face into submission, followed by precise cuts and stabs at its eyes from Blake and Weiss. The Death Stalker let out a hissing wail at the barrage until finally it went limp, dead from the overwhelming assault.
With one of the two big beasts vanquished, there was only the Pot Centipede remaining. The one Aladdin was charging towards as it neared the front entry to Agrabah. Sora and the others were right behind him but were intercepted by two Bandits and one Fat Bandit appearing out of the air. "Hey! Get out of the way!" Donald irately demanded as he hit them all with a thunder spell. The bandits were left from the sudden zap, giving Goofy the opportunity to slam into one of them with his shield. The Fat Bandit seemed mostly unfazed as it strutted towards Sora.
"I'm not afraid of you!" the boy said defiantly as he pointed his keyblade at the malevolent creature. "I don't care how big you are! I've fought bigger! I'll force my way past you!"
As he courageously yelled that out, Sora's Keyblade suddenly started glowing with a black and purple aura accentuated by small glimmers of light, like the stars in an evening sky. The next instant, an event horizon shaped sphere emerged above the Fat Bandit and descended on it. The sphere seemed to press down on the Heartless so much that it was flattened into the ground to an almost two dimensional shape. Sora blinked in surprise when the Heartless 'popped up' again, dazed. He shook off his surprise and unleashed a Blizzard spell, finishing it off.
Donald and Goofy disposed of the two Bandits as Donald looked to him with an unexpectedly impressed expression. "That was a gravity spell! That's very advanced magic! How did you do that?" the duck inquired. "I...I don't know." Sora answered looking at his Keyblade. "Must be with how much you've been fighting. Good job, Sora!" Goofy said in a congratulatory way to Sora whose face now bore a proud smile. "WAAAK! Wait! Now's not the time for this! We've gotta save Jasmine from that Heartless!" Donald reminded them urgently.
Before Sora could ride too high on his achievement, he snapped out of it and nodded to Donald along with Goofy. They still needed to fend off the Pot Centipede, which Aladdin was hacking away at or avoiding. "Okay. Let's take that one down!"
"Together!" Ruby said, emerging beside him and the rest of her friends joining. All twelve surrounded the Heartless as it noticed there was no opening for it anywhere.
The Pot Centipede tried in vain to fight back, as the team of twelve beat its two halves apart once again, shattering the spindly legged pots. And as the Heartless attempted to call forth more pots to replace its lost body parts, they were easily intercepted by the no longer distracted hunters, giving Sora and Ruby the opening they needed to thrust scythe and Keyblade into the two main ends of the Heartless. The centipede head and end both sparked and convulsed with shimmering energy before they burst, with a familiar crystaline heart rising from where the head stood, rising up into the sky.
But there was one huge problem that soured their victory. "Jasmine!" Aladdin cried out, seeing no sign of the princess. In fact, nobody saw any sign of her from any of the pot spiders they slew. Yet they knew for a fact her voice was coming from the pots. But the answer to their question came in the form of the wicked laugh of her kidnapper echoing through the alleys. Jafar had played them all. "To the desert! Come on, let's move!" Aladdin urged desperately.
"What? Why are we going back out there?" Jaune asked, somewhat reluctant to go back out there, not looking to feel that extra heat on his hoody clad body again. "There's only one place that I can think of that Jafar would go to that isn't the palace. The Cave of Wonders." Aladdin answered, holstering his scimitar. "The what?" Jaune asked, earning a facepalm from many of his companions. The most audible being Weiss and Donald. "The place where Aladdin found Genie's lamp." Pyrrha reminded him. "Oh! Right, sorry." Jaune said, giving an embarrassed chuckle. Which earned a frustrated sigh from Weiss and Donald. Ruby gasped with realization at the mention of this fabled Cave of Wonders. "Wait...if Genie was in that cave, and if Aladdin is right about Jafar being there...Do any of you think..." Sora Donald and Goofy immediately picked up on her theory and simultaneously exclaimed,
"The Keyhole!"