Hey, all. Sorry about the huge gap since the last update. The latest chapters that I've been writing have taken way longer than I would have expected (I also might not have been on the ball as much due to schoolwork and other stuff). It might also be a while before my next update, so you all are aware. I want to finish writing the next arc before I start posting it, so that I can go back and revise details as needed, and also so I am a good distance ahead of posted chapters.

Now that this story is continuing, please, read on, and be sure to review. I always love to see what you think.

Chapter 116

Where's the Prize?

Yzma, wearing goggles, gloves, and a mini-lab coat sized for her feline frame, mixed various minerals from her collection and the earth materials from the Realm of Darkness with fluid chemicals in a beaker and heated it over a burner until the mixture took on a thick purple color. She plucked one of her own hairs with a set of tweezers and dipped it into the concoction. After letting it soak in the potion for twenty seconds, she pulled it out, shook it dry over a napkin, and placed it under a microscope. Taking her goggles off, she looked through the microscope in order to view the hair and determine to what animal it now belonged. She was quite curious as to what sort of transformation this potion would induce.

As she attempted to analyze the traits of the strand of hair, she heard a humming noise interrupt her train of thought. She grumbled, although it came out as more of a soft purr, and tried to ignore it. However, the volume only increased as the source came closer into the room, and it was only compounded by a boing sound as the offender hopped with each dancing step. Sighing in resignation, she turned to see what the ruckus was about.

The source was Kefka, who danced around while carrying two distinct items. In his left hand, he held a three-foot-long petrified root with a knotted briar at the top. In his right hand, he held the bruised and bloodied corpse of a three-foot-tall, gray-furred rabbit that wore a tattered pink shirt and ripped-up blue jeans. Kefka danced around the room, swinging the limp rabbit around, at one point forcing Dr. Facilier to duck to avoid being hit, and waving the briar root like a conductor's baton, while singing a whimsical diddy. "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay. My, oh my, what a wonderful day."

Yzma rolled her eyes and returned to her work.

Kefka hopped over to Maleficent and bowed before her. "Your prize, ma'am," he said, holding the dead rabbit out in front of her.

Pete shuddered and gagged. Maleficent scowled. "And what am I supposed to do with that?" she asked icily.

Kefka tilted his head in apparent confusion, then looked down at the corpse and adopted an expression of exaggerated surprise. "Whoopsie! Wrong one!" He swung the body back and held the briar root out in front of him. "The other brother was guarding it, though not too well, I might add. I shaved off most of the patch when I yanked it out so it wouldn't all be a hassle. One more whatever-it-is for the vault."

Maleficent shot Pete a look, and her lackey took the root from the deranged clown and made his way down to the vault to place with the other artifacts. "You're dismissed," the witch said. "Get that thing out of here."

Kefka stood up and waved the corpse dismissively. "Yeah, sure. Whatever. I'll find a place for this. Or I could give it to Cruella. I know she has a thing for animals. Not that I'm judging. Where is the old cat lady anyway?"

"Mademoiselle de Vil is looking around a city with even stranger fashion sense than her," Dr. Facilier replied.

"Well, then I'm sure she's having the time of her life, unless she's arguing with a clerk about the price of an itchy cardigan," Kefka quipped.

"Perhaps she's looking for something more tasteful for you to wear," Kuja said, not even looking up from the A Midsummer Night's Dream book he was reading.

"Bah! Put on some pants and I'll listen to your commentary on this so-called 'taste'," the clown retorted, pointing the rabbit corpse in Kuja's direction.

"I will tell you once again: dispose of that at once!" Maleficent shouted.

Kefka made a salute, then spun around on his toes and started to skip toward the exit.

A Dark Corridor opened, from which Mozenrath and Xerxes appeared in the chamber. As the portal vanished, the sorcerer was suddenly struck in the face as Kefka swung the rabbit's corpse wildly. Angered by this additional slight upon his already-disappointing evening, Mozenrath shot a bolt of lightning at the clown, who jumped back to avoid being hit. Xerxes hissed in Kefka's direction. Kefka blew a raspberry and thumbed his nose in response.

"Where is it?" Maleficent asked impatiently upon noticing that Mozenrath was empty-handed.

The sorcerer sighed. "The assault was a failure," he answered in resignation.

"What went wrong?" the witch inquired, growing annoyed.

"May I have a guess?" Dr. Facilier remarked. He took a handful of chicken bones out of his bag, shook them in his cupped hands, and threw them onto the ground. The bones landed in the shape of a crown, very similar to the shape of a certain necklace and the negative space created by the teeth of a weapon that Maleficent knew very well.

"He and his allies managed to destroy the entire Heartless army, prevented me from torturing the artifact's location out of the old man, and obliterated the drowning bird," Mozenrath explained bitterly.

"That is a disappointment," Maleficent grumbled. "Well, I trust you at the very least handled yourself better than the last of our own to encounter them." She scowled and glanced over at a large dent that she had broken into the wall several days ago, using the Horned King as a blunt instrument.

Kefka let out a laugh. "Aw, I wouldn't worry about it. We can just go back and destroy it all and pick our prize out of the rubble," he suggested.

Dr. Facilier raised an eyebrow, contemplating the practicality of the suggestion. "He just got his butt kicked and lost a thousand Heartless, and you want to go back there before we've even properly recovered our ranks and before we even know if they've left?" he argued. The other villains turned to look at him and seemed to consider what he said. He shuffled his deck of cards and then scattered them to the floor to emphasize his point. "Not to mention, they were already gathered to stop an attack. It won't be hard to get back in gear. Give it a few weeks or something. We're not in a rush or anything."

After a moment of contemplation, Kefka shrugged. "Sure, whatever. I've got a new toy to play with to pass the time. Hmm, I wonder if I can find some other toys to play with. Ta-ta for now!" He waved good-bye with his right arm, wagging the dead rabbit up and down as he did so. He opened a Corridor of Darkness and pranced through.

Yzma groaned. "I thought he'd never leave," she muttered. She went back to determining what her potion had done, but to her dismay, she could not identify the type of hair that her sample of fur had become. She sighed. "Looks like I'm going to need a live test subject." She shoved a cork into her beaker and wrapped it in layers of cloth to prevent it from breaking open, wrote down an enumerated list of minerals that she had used in her concoction, and called Dr. Facilier to help her pack her supplies up.

"So, how do you think you'll test your potion?" the voodoo practitioner asked. "You gonna get an animal from a random world?"

Yzma shook her head. "Nah. There'll be the possibility that the potion would turn it into that animal, and I'll want to know for certain that it works. I'll just have to find a person to test it on."

Pete returned to the chamber and noticed Mozenrath and Xerxes. "Hey, there. So, how'd it go?" he asked.

The sorcerer glared at him, and the eel shook his head, giving Pete an idea of how it went. Maleficent turned to face him. "Sora and his friends were there to stop the invasion," she told him.

"Oh. They're really getting under our skin, huh?" Pete mused.

"Yes, they are," Maleficent agreed.

"Say, I'm startin' to think it'll only be a matter of time before they figure out more about the thingies and start going after them at the same rate as us. And, well, you know, they'll probably then start collecting them to keep us from getting to 'em."

"What of it?" Maleficent asked impatiently.

"I'm saying we should probably do something about them before it gets to that point. 'Cause they're not going to 'just' be in our way for too much longer."

Maleficent nodded. "An excellent suggestion, coming from you." Pete smiled proudly, before he registered the second part of the sentence. The fairy smirked. "I believe I have a few ideas."

Pete chuckled, imagining the sort of trouble that the Keyblade wielder and his pals would be in when they next crossed paths.