Taking Back the Crown

by JCMorrigan

Mozenrath. Archibald Snatcher. Roman Torchwick. Mad Madam Mim. Yzma. The Huntsman. Wuya. Ayam Aghoul. Their mission: take over the multiverse, or look fabulous trying. Rated M for swearing, steamy implications and VERY bloody battles. Contains slash and het shipping.

69. Disorganized Crime

69. Disorganized Crime

Roman found himself wandering through a main street of Vardaros in which the aesthetic had been thoroughly disrupted. The brown, lopsided buildings were now interspaced with colorful tents that spoke of happiness. Roman didn't like that.

"What a fucking waste," he muttered.

He suddenly heard a voice pierce the air: "Heeeeeey!"

Roman shrugged it off, figuring someone was calling out to a friend.

"Hey!" the voice continued. "Hey Roman!"

Now Roman knew exactly who it was. He thought about how best to discreetly answer the call. At least its origin hadn't called out his full -
"ROMAN TORCHWICK, OVER HERE!"

Roman rounded on a heel to see Demyx charging toward him. "WHAT?" he yelled. "WHAT is so important that you just had to yell my full name to an entire city? I'm trying to at least put up a SEMBLANCE of stealth here!"

"Aw, it's not like anyone here knows who we even are," Demyx said with a wave of his hand; it was true, for no one on the street had even reacted. "Anyway, wanna hear what I found out?"

"What?" Roman asked.

"The princess organized a giant festival today," Demyx explained. "Actually, it's a multiple-day thing. The Goodwill Festival. There are all kinds of games and stuff set up around town, and Rapunzel and her friends are running it. I guess tomorrow, they're going to finish it off by having everyone try and catch a gopher? Which is weird, but this whole world is weird. Anyway, I thought this festival might give us a chance to do some major recon."

"You just want to goof off because there's a festival on, don't you?" Roman sighed.

"You're getting to know me better already!" Demyx laughed.

"Fine," Roman groaned. "I will humor you. At the very least, we can figure out where the princess is in the first place."

She wasn't hard to locate. They spotted her from afar: clothed in a purple dress, an absolutely enormous braid – about as thick as her whole body – of golden hair cascading down her back. When Roman and Demyx first laid eyes on her, her face was hidden, as she was in the act of dunking it in a barrel full of water and floating apples. She surfaced, an apple in her mouth, taking a bite out of it before tossing the apple aside. Absolutely no one was joining her in this activity. "That's ten apples for me!" she proclaimed. "Come on, somebody, try and beat my record!" Her smile annoyed both Roman and Demyx; it was too sincere and upbeat. Everything else about her was taking runner-up for annoyance.

"Found her," Demyx muttered.

"Good," Roman replied. "Because now I don't want to go anywhere near her unless I absolutely have to. It's like somebody grafted Blondie's hair onto Red's attitude."

"Does she seriously think bobbing for apples is fun?" Demyx whispered.

"That's like the first game kids figure out is stupid at any given birthday party!" Roman hissed back.

"You actually got invited to birthday parties?" Demyx replied.

Roman was about to make a snarky reply when he realized that Demyx's tone wasn't mocking; he was amazed that Roman had been invited to social functions as a child when Demyx himself had never had that opportunity. "Yeah, and I've never been to one that didn't suck," Roman ended up saying.

Meanwhile, across the street, a crowd was gathering. "I wonder what everyone's looking at over there," Demyx observed, getting close to the group, which was forming a rather disorderly line.

Roman followed Demyx's lead, settling himself into line. As they edged closer to the front, they became aware of what was going on; it was another Goodwill Festival game, in which people plucked apples from a basket and chucked them as hard as they could toward a young woman with short black hair and a long sword. The swordswoman would then expertly slice the apple in half.

"Still stupid," Roman commented, "but at least it shows more effort than bobbing for apples."

"I wanna throw one!" Demyx said eagerly.

Rapunzel's eleventh apple, with a solitary bite taken out of it, rolled over to nudge Roman's foot. "All right," he resolved, "we'll bite. Figuratively speaking."

Their time in line came soon. "HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!" the swordswoman, known to most as Rapunzel's handmaiden, bodyguard, and friend Cassandra, urged.

Roman handed the apple off to Demyx. Demyx tossed it up and down in his hand once before pitching it.

The apple veered several feet away from Cassandra and smacked into a nearby building.

"Come on!" Cassandra taunted. "I've seen toddlers throw better than that! Please tell me your redheaded friend knows how to REALLY throw!"

"I do believe you have issued me a challenge!" Roman laughed, taking a second apple from the basket. "Watch and learn, Dishwater. It's all in the wrist."

Roman threw the apple fluidly; Cassandra's sword whacked through the air and sliced the fruit in half. "Nice throw!" Cassandra complimented. "And I actually mean it."

"Aw, c'mon, give me one more shot!" Demyx whined. "I swear I can do better!"

"Then prove it, Dishwater!" Cassandra laughed, picking up on Roman's nickname for him.

The people behind Roman and Demyx in line took up the chant: "DISHWATER! DISHWATER!"

"You see what your constant nicknaming DOES to people?" Demyx whined as he palmed a third apple.

"Which is exactly why I do it," Roman said with a grin.

With an entire crowd cheering him on, Demyx wound up for the next pitch. He gracefully let the apple fly, and it soared through the air in a perfect arc.

Then it beaned Cassandra directly on the forehead.

As Cassandra reeled, Demyx was ridiculed with booing and laughter. "I think maybe we better find something else to do," Demyx muttered.

Roman laughed, throwing an arm around Demyx. "Come on, Dishwater. You and I might be able to have some fun today after all." Together, they sauntered away.

Just in time, too, for had they lingered a moment longer, Sora, Ruby, Papyrus, Stork, Jasmine, Katara, and Kazuichi would have spotted them, all seven having entered the festival grounds.

"So this is Vardaros," Sora observed.

"It's got a kind of rustic charm," Stork commented.

A sudden shifting made them all jump; they had passed a sharp black stone, which had previously been sticking out of the ground at an angle. As the group got nearer, the stone had pivoted until it was pointing directly at them. This was the seventh time such a thing had happened since they had entered Vardaros.

"That's still ominous, by the way," Stork declared.

"It's strange," Jasmine observed, stepping closer to the stone. "It looks like if it's any sort of magic, it would be Darkness. And I can feel the Darkness coming from it. But I can't tell if it means us harm or if it's something more like the Twilight."

"COULD THEY BE FRIENDLY ROCKS?" Papyrus asked. "AFTER ALL, I AM KNOWN AS A BENEFACTOR TO ROCKS OF ALL SORTS. YOU CAN ASK SANS' PET ROCK IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME." He suddenly gasped; "HE'S PROBABLY FORGOTTEN TO FEED IT ENTIRELY SINCE I LEFT HOME! HE'S ALWAYS IRRESPONSIBLE ABOUT THAT! THAT POOR ROCK!"

"They definitely seem…interested in us," Katara observed.

"Can we not talk about the rocks like they're alive?" Kazuichi requested. "It's creeping me out!"

"Well, we haven't entirely discounted the possibility that they are alive," Stork reminded him.

"Forget the rocks!" Ruby had noticed all the colorful tents. "Something's going on here! Something fun!"

"Sure looks like it!" Sora confirmed. "We should ask someone to tell us what it is."

"Excuse me!" Jasmine waved down a brunette man, slight but strong all the same.

This man turned to look at the gaggle of travelers. "Oh, hey!" he greeted. "I already know I can be of assistance; you just need to tell me how."

"Thank you," Jasmine replied. "We're new to Vardaros. Can you tell us what's going on?"

"What's going on?" the man repeated, smiling. "It's the Goodwill Festival! Everyone loves the Goodwill Festival! Fun games, good food, the works! And this is the best Goodwill Festival Vardaros has ever had! Well, I mean, it's the FIRST Goodwill Festival Vardaros has ever had, but it's setting a pretty high bar for the years to come, if you ask me."

"It's a festival!" Ruby cried. "I knew it!"

Now, had the travelers flagged down any ordinary person on the street, it might have been left at that. However, the man Jasmine had spoken to just so happened to be one Eugene Fitzherbert, beloved of Princess Rapunzel. Eugene had earlier observed Rapunzel and Cassandra having a tiff over who could organize the more popular festival events, and it was becoming painfully clear that at least in the first round, Cassandra's apple-slicing was far more clamored for than Rapunzel's apple-bobbing. "Say, uh…listen," Eugene said softly. "Could I ask you a favor? This entire thing was set up by Princess Rapunzel, and she had some really great ideas for activities for the general public to participate in. It's just that…well…now, I'm not saying her ideas aren't fun, and I'm not saying the people of this city have bad taste, but she hasn't exactly gotten a turnout. So if you wouldn't mind just stepping on over to her apple-bobbing station and giving it a shot – "

"Bobbing for apples?" Ruby cried. "I LOVE bobbing for apples!"

"That's the spirit!" Eugene said, swinging his arm enthusiastically.

"We'd love to see what the princess organized!" Sora emphasized. "We were actually hoping to meet the princess, anyway."

"And she is going to love to meet all of you!" Eugene replied. "You can find her right thataway." He gestured in the direction where Rapunzel could be found. "Now, I have other things to attend to, but you all go have barrels of fun!"

Eugene parted ways with the group, who changed their direction to head where Eugene had indicated.

"I WONDER WHAT SHE'LL BE LIKE," Papyrus mused.

"I hope she's friendly," Ruby added.

"I bet she couldn't hold a candle to Sonia," Kazuichi commented. "No princess could. No offense, Jasmine – "

"None taken," Jasmine replied with a smile. "I know how you feel about Sonia."

When the group arrived, Rapunzel was face-down, fishing out her fifteenth solitary apple. "That's gotta be her," Sora whispered. "She has the hair!"

Ruby skipped forward, skidding to a halt near the apple tub. "Hi!" she greeted.

Rapunzel quickly looked up, water trailing from her face as she emerged with the apple. She quickly bit, swallowed, and discarded the fruit. "Hi!" Rapunzel greeted, excited that someone had shown interest in her game. "Welcome to the Goodwill Festival's official apple-bobbing station! Go on ahead and try for an apple!"

"Um, Ruby?" Katara warned. "If other people have been dunking their heads in that tub and biting apples, it's probably not very sanitary – "

"YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!" Ruby asserted before plunging her head into the water.

"I just…" Katara let out a sigh.

"I know you're trying to look out for her," Jasmine sympathized.

"Does she have to make it so difficult?" Katara groaned.

"You must be Princess Rapunzel!" Sora greeted. "We've heard a lot about you!" He extended his right hand.

Rapunzel gladly shook it. "It's nice to meet you!" she said sweetly. "So, have you been having fun so far today?"

"We actually only just got into town a few minutes ago," Sora explained. "We heard about the festival, and some guy told us – "

"We DECIDED to check out your apple-bobbing," Stork interjected.

Rapunzel was at first confused, as most people were, by Stork's appearance, but she shrugged it off. After all, there were still all sorts of people she had never seen in her youth due to her imprisonment by Gothel; perhaps green skin and ears like his were more common in Vardaros. "Well, thank you," Rapunzel said gratefully. "You're the first people I've had all da – " Realizing she didn't want to admit that to perfect strangers, she edited herself: "I mean, you're the first people to get an apple all day. People have been LINING UP to bob for them, but it's trickier than it looks!"

"I got another one!" Ruby cried as she fished out her second prize.

"Anyway, I'm Sora," Sora introduced.

"Ruby Rose!" Ruby said cheerfully as she held up the apple she had just won.

"I'm Stork," Stork chimed in.

"AND I AM NONE OTHER THAN PAPYRUS!" Papyrus declared.

At his introduction, Rapunzel was taken aback yet again; she was sure talking skeletons weren't normal in Vardaros. Yet she didn't want to be rude, and nodded politely at each greeting.

"Jasmine," Jasmine chimed in.

"I'm Katara!" Katara added.

And then silence.

"What about you?" Rapunzel asked cheerfully, turning to Kazuichi. "What's your name?"

Kazuichi's heart was caught in his throat. From the moment Rapunzel had surfaced from the tub, her face dripping wet, apple in her mouth, Kazuichi had been struck by how absolutely gorgeous she was. As she had gone on to speak, her upbeat demeanor had caused Kazuichi's heart to leap higher and higher. She was pretty, she was friendly, she was fun. She was perfect.

"I…" Kazuichi sputtered. "Mechanic. Ultimate Mechanic. No! Wait! Soda. Kazuichi…Soda. That is my name." A crush-drunken grin spread over his face, showing off every one of his pointed teeth.

"It's really nice to meet you!" Rapunzel replied.

She had meant everyone present when she said "you." But Kazuichi took it as a personal response. "It's nice to meet you too, Miss Rapunzel," he said in his daze. "Can I call you – no, I insist on calling you Miss Rapunzel!"

"Kazuichi!" Katara scolded. "You can't just DECIDE what title you're going to give her!"

"Miss Rapunzel," Rapunzel laughed. "That has a nice ring to it. It's a little formal, but I don't mind."

That was when the horror overtook Kazuichi: was he cheating on his feelings for Sonia? Sonia was the only person he had thought of with such passion for years and years, and he prided himself on his devotion to her, sure it was what would eventually win her over to him.

Then again, Sonia was preoccupied with Gundham. He had known it for a while. There was a distinct possibility that Sonia would never choose Kazuichi over Gundham. On the other hand, as Kazuichi was (unfortunately) unaware of anyone else vying for Rapunzel's hand, this was someone who might actually reciprocate his feelings on the grounds of no one else being in the way. Maybe it was better to focus his energy on someone new.

"A little formal?" Katara repeated. "You're a princess."

"Well, I'm not really much for formality," Rapunzel admitted.

"I CAN SEE THAT," Papyrus realized as he looked Rapunzel over. "AFTER ALL, YOU AREN'T WEARING SHOES. DOESN'T THAT HURT?"

Rapunzel shrugged. "I'm kind of used to it. I really hate shoes."

"Your feet are so perfect," Kazuichi squeaked.

Stork, realizing what was occurring in Kazuichi's corner, sighed an "Oh no."

"So," Rapunzel asked, "did anyone else want to try for an apple?"
"I'll go!" Sora volunteered.

"Did no one listen to what I said about that water not being sanitary?" Katara cried in frustration.

"I heard you loud and clear," Stork told her. "I'll pass."

"So will I," Jasmine said politely.

"Well, I'll bob for an apple!" Kazuichi proclaimed. "And I'll get one on my first try, too! I can't believe no one else in this town is coming to play a game made by someone as fun as you!"

Katara caught on and muttered her own "Oh no."

Sora and Kazuichi plunged their heads into the water at the same time, Kazuichi coming up with an apple that his sharp teeth had positively mangled. Papyrus lined up behind them for the next try, followed by Ruby going for her third.

"At least eat the apples you come up with!" Stork hissed to Ruby.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Ruby retorted as she held up her fourth apple.

Kazuichi swiped it out of her hand. "Miss Rapunzel hand-picked these apples herself!" he admonished. "How could you let them go to waste?" He bit into the apple happily, having already reduced his own prize to its core.

"Is he…?" Ruby whispered to Stork.

"Yup," Stork whispered back.

"Oh no," Ruby sighed.

Cassandra had, further down the road, set up her second game: a crossbow shooting contest, with targets set up at the end of a long range. The crossbow she had provided was weighty, forged of solid iron. Many Vardarans had trouble even lifting it. Demyx only had mild difficulty hoisting it up; it was heavy, but so was his sitar. "All right," he declared. "Time to build back up my good name."

As soon as it was clear that the person who had smacked Cassandra in the face with an apple was holding a dangerous weapon that fired deadly projectiles, everyone in the immediate vicinity, Roman included, backed up several paces.

"Oh, come on!" Demyx whined, turning to groan at the crowd behind him. "I know what I'm doing – "

As he turned to face them, his whole body pivoted. He accidentally triggered the crossbow, which fired upward at an angle. There was a sound of glass breaking.

"You sure about that, Dishwater?" Cassandra asked slyly.

Loading up his weapon with a new bolt, Demyx begrudgingly turned back toward the target. He managed to plant his bolt right at the target's edge. "I was aiming for that," he muttered.

He passed the crossbow off to Roman, who was able to carry its weight easily. "Time to show you how a real marksman does it," Roman bragged. The crowd gathered closer around his back to watch him demonstrate.

The bolt pierced the target's exact center.

"Nonono," Roman said to quell the applause that had sprung up around him. "The show's not over yet."

He loaded up with a second bolt, taking careful aim and pulling the trigger. The second bolt split his first bolt right down the middle, stabbing into the target's heart.

"NOW you can applaud," Roman said smugly as he set the crossbow down; the cheering was even more raucous than before.

"Nice shooting, Redhead!" Cassandra complimented.

Roman bristled a bit at the nickname, but he still waved to her all the same.

"You are taking all the fun out of these games," Demyx grumbled as he and Roman faded back into the crowd.

"Really?" Roman teased. "Because I'm having a GREAT time."

At another booth, Rapunzel introduced her next game, showing her seven companions a jar of beans that sat on a counter surrounded by plush penguins. "All you have to do is guess how many beans are in the jar!" she explained. "Whoever gets it closest out of all of you wins a penguin!"

Kazuichi immediately began inspection of the jar from all sides, putting his brain into overdrive thinking of how to make his guess the most accurate. After making several "Hmm"s and "Ehh"s, he gave the jar one full rotation, watching the beans rattle.

"So are you going to guess, or…?" Stork sighed.

"This takes time!" Kazuichi asserted. "I'm figuring out exactly what kind of mathematical formula will give me the best estimate of – "

"TWO THOUSAND AND THIRTY-SEVEN," Papyrus said.

"How'd you come up with THAT number?" Ruby asked.

"I JUST HAVE A GUT FEELING," Papyrus told her.

"But…you don't have any guts," Ruby reminded him.

"I don't believe this," Rapunzel said in awe, "but there are EXACTLY two thousand and thirty-seven beans in that jar."

"Because of course there are," Stork grunted.

Rapunzel handed Papyrus a plush penguin. Papyrus squeezed it affectionately, promising it, "I WILL TAKE AS GOOD OF CARE OF YOU AS I DO OF SANS' PET ROCK!"

"But I was going to impress her," Kazuichi muttered, pulling his hat down over his eyes in shame. "I was going to treasure that penguin forever…"

"I'm sorry?" Rapunzel asked him. "I didn't quite catch what you said."

"Nothing," Kazuichi said mournfully.

"Is it just me," Jasmine whispered to Katara, "or does Kazuichi…?"

"He has a thing for Rapunzel," Katara whispered back.

"Oh," Jasmine replied.

Cassandra's next move was to lead the crowd to a great wooden wall dripping with a viscous liquid, making sure to keep the people back a good distance. "All right, everyone," she announced, pulling one man – a diminutive elderly man, sporting a long white beard and a dazed expression – from the crowd's forefront. "This is Shorty."

"I seriously cannot beat that," Roman whispered to Demyx.

"And this," Cassandra went on, gesturing to the structure behind her, "is a honey wall, provided to us by Captain Quaid. Whoever makes Shorty stick to the honey wall longest is our winner!"

A burly woman stepped forth as the rest of the crowd chanted "HONEY WALL! HONEY WALL!". She hoisted Shorty high, tossing him through the air; he landed with a splat on the honey wall, where he stuck for a minute before sliding off.

"I get it," Roman muttered. "It's all about how hard you throw. Dishwater, I have an idea. You might be good at one of these games after all."

"Gee thanks," Demyx snorted.

"Whatever I win, we split," Roman promised. "All I need you to do is play a little song."

"All right," Demyx grunted, "I'll go with it. What's your plan?"

The soft sound of a sitar tune filled the area; the crowd all looked upon Demyx, awed by his song. Roman took the moment to stride forward; "I would like to have a crack at throwing Shorty at this honey wall!"

"Let's see if Redhead can keep his winning streak going!" Cassandra laughed.

Roman grasped Shorty by one wrist and one ankle, spinning him around and around to build centrifugal force. When he had reached peak speed, he let Shorty fly toward the wall.

Demyx struck a forceful chord. A current of water exploded in the air, propelling Shorty even harder at the wall. The small man hit the wall hard, remaining there for five minutes.

"Ah," he remarked, "nothing like a honey wall to soothe the old pinky toe."

No one else could even touch Roman and Demyx's record, and Cassandra awarded Roman a fat purse of coins. As Roman walked back to Demyx, counting out the latter's share, Demyx groaned, "Awww, no fair. You got all the glory. Everyone still thinks I'm a loser."

"Wait for it," Roman bade him.

"Hey, Dishwater!" someone in the crowd called out. "Play us another song!"

"Yeah!" another agreed. "Another song!"

Before long, the whole crowd was clamoring for an encore.

"Heheh…" Demyx laughed sheepishly, feeling his ego swell from the attention. "I guess I could – "

Roman elbowed him in the side, gesturing toward the sun's position in the sky. "We're already late," he whispered.

"Maybe I'll play for you later!" Demyx said as Roman dragged him away.

"Oh, you'll play for them later, all right," Roman muttered. "You'll play them right into our hands."

"Smooth thinking on the honey wall," Demyx complimented.

"Smooth moves with the water," Roman replied.

They smacked a high-five.

"You really aren't so bad," Demyx said with a smile.

"And oh, how I WISH this day had turned me around on my opinion of you," Roman replied slyly.

"Awww, no fair!" Demyx moaned. "Wait. Was that friendly banter?"

Roman gave him a shrug and made the "I dunno" noise in the back of his throat.

"Roman!" Demyx whined. "Was that a joke or not?"

As they moved down the street, they failed to notice Ruby Rose sitting with her face angled directly toward them. She would have seen them had her eyes not been closed while Rapunzel painted a bouquet of lively red roses upon her cheek. By the time Rapunzel declared, "There. Done!", the two men had moved out of sight, and Ruby opened her eyes to see no one she recognized but Rapunzel.

Rapunzel passed Ruby an ornate hand mirror to admire her design. "You'll have to let it dry for a bit," the princess cautioned.

"Eee!" Ruby squeaked. "It's so pretty! Thank you!"

"That leaves one more," Rapunzel declared. "Sora? You want anything on your face?"

"Hmm…" Sora had been given time to think about it and had still come up with nothing. "I still can't decide. I know I want SOMETHING."

"I know," Rapunzel told him. "How about I give you a patch of blue sky with a sun in it? No, wait, I can do better. Something about you just makes me think of the sun setting over the ocean. I'll paint you a small ocean with a little sunset. How's that sound?"

"That sounds perfect!" Sora cried.

As he sat down on the chair Rapunzel had prepared, Stork (now bearing a black painted spider on his face) muttered to the others, "So are we going to address the sky shark in the room?"

"YOU MEAN THE FACT THAT RAPUNZEL IS IN IMMINENT DANGER FROM MOZENRATH?" Papyrus (whose bony forehead was designed with a blue heart) asked.

Stork opened his mouth to make a rebuttal, then realized Papyrus wasn't entirely wrong. "I was, uh, referring to the OTHER sky shark in the room."

"What are you talking about?" Kazuichi asked.

"Well," Jasmine (bearing a bluebird on her cheek) said gently, "we've all noticed that you seem to be…enamored by Rapunzel."

"I thought you were in love with Sonia," Katara (whose face depicated a small wave rippling out of a tiny ocean) pointed out.

"Wh – how did you know about me and Miss Rapunzel?" Kazuichi asked in amazement.

"It's kind of obvious," Ruby pointed out. "For starters, you're acting really weird around her."

"And as our conclusive piece of evidence," Stork observed, "you asked her to paint LITERALLY EVERYTHING on your face."

Kazuichi's face was a masterpiece canvas, with a blue sky sporting a sun in the style of the Corona emblem taking up half his forehead, a butterfly's wing covering one cheek, a field of tulips emblazoned upon the other, a sea of fish and bubbles covering what was left of Kazuichi's forehead, a bright pink heart on his chin, and lightning bolts down either side of his nose.

"I'm actually surprised she agreed to do all that," Katara said in awe.

"That was the best fifteen minutes of my life," Kazuichi sighed.

"But Sonia," Katara said sternly.

"And I aren't official!" Kazuichi finished. "I also might have forgotten to mention this earlier, but, uh…there might also be a guy…who she likes…better than me."

"And you're still AFTER her?" Katara said in awe.

"Why am I not surprised?" Stork sighed.

"I know this is like cheating!" Kazuichi moaned. "But I can't help it! Everything about Miss Rapunzel is perfect!"

"You have known her for an hour," Stork reminded him.

"All I needed was ten seconds!" Kazuichi argued.

"Meanwhile, the rest of us don't have proof that she isn't secretly worse than Mozenrath and using her sun powers to wreak tyranny upon Corona," Stork retorted. "I think all of us suspect that to some degree."

"No we don't," Katara said sternly.

"I'm pretty sure she's not evil," Jasmine added.

"I CERTAINLY DON'T THINK SHE'S EVIL," Papyrus chimed in.

"You are literally the only person who thinks that," Ruby told Stork.

"Okay, fine," Stork huffed. "But I have a bad feeling about this little crush of yours."

"Crush?" Kazuichi was taken aback. "I don't think it's a crush. I think I…might LOVE her…"

"Um…no," Ruby said with a shake of her head.

"It's kind of soon to say it's love," Jasmine agreed.

"Just don't make it weird," Stork growled.

"I'm not going to make it weird!" Kazuichi insisted.

"Because we NEED to make sure she doesn't end up in Mozenrath's hands," Stork reminded him. "And if you end up scaring her off from us – "

"I won't!" Kazuichi said indignantly. "I'll do anything to protect her! I'd even take a bullet for her!"

"That does not reassure me for some reason," Stork said weakly.

"Just…be careful," Jasmine warned.

"You don't need to worry about a thing!" Kazuichi said proudly. "I'm going to make sure Miss Rapunzel is protected from Mozenrath, same as you!"

"All done!" Rapunzel declared, letting Sora have the mirror to look at the small sunset over the ocean on his cheek.

"That's pretty good!" Sora declared.

Rapunzel sighed as she looked back over the others, who had all fallen silent about Kazuichi's affections the moment Rapunzel's attention was turned upon them. "You know, I really have to thank all of you," she said. "I think you kind of figured out how good of a turnout my events were getting. I had this whole big fight with one of my best friends about which of us could hold the more fun events, and it looks like she was right. I'm at least glad I could make someone happy."

"We had a lot of fun!" Sora told her, and the others nodded fervently to back him up.

"I think that might be all I have in me for today," Rapunzel sighed. "If you want to go check out some of Cassandra's events, you'll probably have fun with those too."

"Well…there's kind of something we didn't mention," Sora admitted. "And it's kind of going to sound weird."

"What is it?" Rapunzel asked.

"We think you might be in danger," Ruby said plainly.

"Danger?" Rapunzel was taken aback. "Why do you think I'm in danger?"

"This is going to sound a little…unbelievable," Katara told her, "but we saw a magical vision that someone was coming after the power of the sundrop."

"I'm not going to say I don't believe in magic visions after the things I've seen," Rapunzel promised. "What kind of 'someone' did you see?"

"An old enemy of ours," Jasmine said bitterly. "A sorcerer who's been collecting magic."

"We just wanted to make sure we could protect you before he showed up to hurt you," Sora stated.

"THOUGH I HAVEN'T SEEN ANY SIGN THAT HE OR ANY OF HIS FRIENDS ARE HERE," Papyrus recalled. "IF THEY ARE ON THIS WORLD, THEY ARE LIKELY VERY FAR AWAY."

Rapunzel nodded. "You think we should still stick together in case? Just for a bit?"

"YES!" Kazuichi yelled.

"What if they're not even here?" Katara asked, suddenly aware of the possibility.

"Ohhh, they're here, all right," Stork told her. "That feeling of constant ominous dread that follows me around permanently is stronger than usual."

"So what do you wanna do?" Ruby asked. "See if your friend's events are getting more attention?"

"I DEFINITELY don't care enough about how Cassandra is doing to keep SCORE!" Rapunzel said unconvincingly.

After her seven companions stared her down, she admitted, "Okay, maybe I do want to see how she's doing. She probably got way more than seven people. But you know what? It's about quality, not quantity. And you are seven really good-quality people! You're all just…sweet. Kind of like cinnamon rolls."

"Cinnamon rolls," Sora repeated. "You know, I like that."

"IT HEARKENS BACK TO OUR ORIGIN STORY!" Papyrus realized. "WELL, AT LEAST THE PART INVOLVING ME, SORA, AND RUBY, AT LEAST."

"We should make it our team name!" Ruby cried. "The Cinnamons! I already did try making our initials into an acronym, and nothing worked. We have pretty impossible letters."

"Well," Rapunzel declared, "I would be honored to have the Cinnamons accompany me through Vardaros for the rest of the day."

"Then let's go!" Sora cried.

As they set out, Rapunzel asked, "So, where are you from, anyway?"

"This is where the story gets even more unbelievable," Ruby admitted.

"Try me," Rapunzel challenged.

"We're from other worlds!" Sora said proudly.

Rapunzel was silent for a moment. Then, thinking over certain experiences she had already had – the magical weather-banishing device of Lord Demanitus, the terror of Sugracha, the dimension that imprisoned Zhan Tiri, the black rocks that had impaled an army of automatons – she decided to keep an open mind. "Okay," she declared. "I'm listening."

...

Ren and Madison approached the same point in the hallway, books in hand. "Going to the tower?" Madison asked.

"Yeah," Ren confirmed. "You?"

"Yes," Madison replied. "It's a nice night to get some reading in."

Ren nodded. "It's quiet."

Around sunset, everyone currently residing in the Radiant Garden castle had returned to it and relaxed for the day. Donald was pleased with the outcome of his visit to Scrooge's manor. Cid was less so with the assistance Goofy had given him in the garage.

Together, Madison and Ren ascended the stairways. "What are you reading this time?" Madison asked.

"A compilation of Radiant Garden fairy tales," Ren told her. "Fairy tales turned out to be important to know back in Remnant, so I figured I should get to know them here. What about you?"

"I found a novel that looked pretty good," Madison replied. "It's kind of a coming-of-age story. That's all I know about it from the summary."

Distant noises, heard through the wall, gave them both pause. "Does…that sound like…?" Ren asked cautiously.

"It sounds like screaming," Madison confirmed. "And things breaking."

They hurriedly found a door to an outer balcony, rushing to look over the town.

The destruction lay out before them, bordered in flame. Innocents fled down the streets, some falling midstride and laying unmoving. Homes fell.

Madison and Ren's books both dropped from their grip, hitting the balcony.

"Ren," Madison said shakily, "we…we have to get everyone."

...

Cissnei's shuriken bit into the night air, held poised for the next throw. "Your call," she told Leblanc.

"Hmmm…" Leblanc thought it over, looking up and down the street. "We're starting to get into the wretched district. But I suppose there's SOME value to be found here. Just pick the first shop."

Before Cissnei could make the throw, Madison and Vida leapt into her path, swords at the ready. "Not so fast!" Vida snapped.

"Cute!" Cissnei chirped. "You two look so much alike. Sisters?"

"Sisters who are gonna kick your butt," Vida replied.

"You still have a chance to stand down," Madison stated. "If you just back off and stop doing all this – "

"It seems they want to do this the hard way," Leblanc huffed.

Cissnei let the shuriken fly directly at the sisters; their blades crossed, parrying the shuriken with sparks and knocking it off course. As Cissnei dove to retrieve her weapon, Leblanc sent a burst of wind rocketing toward the Roccas with her fan.

Vida still didn't have much magic, but she had just enough to disperse the wind, parting it to flow to either side around her and Madison. "Looks like you're full of hot air!" Vida proclaimed.

"Full of hot air?" Cissnei rolled her eyes. "Really? But seriously, Leblanc, I think we're in trouble."

"You're not about to suggest we RETREAT!" Leblanc said in horror.

Cissnei was already running. "Come on!" she urged. "Cut your losses! We already HAVE enough stuff!"

Leblanc lingered for a moment before declaring, "Oh, fine," and zipping after Cissnei.

A man had fallen in the street; Stupid caught up to him, raising his baseball bat high over his victim's head, nail pointed sharply down. The man raised a hand, crying, "No! Please, no!"

Before Stupid could bring the bludgeon down, he was smacked aside and down a block's worth of street by Aeleus' own club.

"Th-thank you," the victim, now victim no more, stammered.

Aeleus did not respond, simply hoisting the club high and charging to intercept any other Weasels that were about to harm.

Psycho had a teenage girl backed up against a wall, cackling madly as he waved his razor in front of her. He hadn't yet decided if he wanted to make the kill quick or torture her a little.

In all his deliberation, it took him a moment to notice when the crossbolt knocked the razor out of his hand and carried it right down the road. "Huh?" he said in confusion.

"YES!" Chip cried. "I DIDN'T ACTUALLY THINK I COULD MAKE THAT SHOT! HEY, EVERYONE!" He looked around for his allies. "…Anyone? Please tell me someone saw that."

Psycho immediately began chasing the razor down the street; Chip bounded after him, crossbow at the ready.

Greasy had his own knife ready as he chased down a woman; when Moana skidded into his path, staring him down, he thought nothing of it, simply changing targets to the girl who appeared to be a sitting duck. Moana soon gave him a reason to think otherwise, dodging his blade as she dealt him a mean uppercut to the jaw and a kick to the stomach. "LEAVE THOSE PEOPLE ALONE!" she growled.

Greasy gritted his teeth, drawing his pistol. He took aim at Moana, who flinched. The first bullet flew.

A protective sphere surrounded Moana, and the bullet bounced off. Moana looked around hastily to locate her savior, taking note of Ienzo standing nearby, spellbook open and fear in his eyes. Ienzo then blasted Greasy with a beam of bright green energy, colliding the Weasel with a wall.

As Nora charged him, Wheezy took aim with his own gun, finger tightening on the trigger. He failed to notice the small stream of sand entering the gun's barrel, clogging it up. As he tried to open fire, the gun shook ominously in his hands, the ammo backing up from the blockage Sadira had created from her vantage point. Wheezy pounded the weapon with his fist to make it work; by then, Nora had gotten close. Magnhild's head connected with Wheezy at the same time that the gun exploded, and he was sent flying high into the sky.

Sadira stepped out of the shadows, and Nora gave her a solid high-five.

Kairi ran directly for one of the spreading fires, crying, "BLIZZARD!". Her ice magic permeated the flame, dousing it.

The moment the street became dark again, the Nightcrawlers descended. Kairi, overwhelmed, held up her sword defensively, letting out a scream.

Cid, Lea, and Jaune were there at a moment's notice, blades and spear swinging to bat the Nightcrawlers back. Once Cid had punched out the last one in the vicinity, he turned to Kairi; "You all right?"

"Yeah," Kairi said breathlessly. "Thank you."

"Those damn Nightcrawlers are here because the fucking lights are out!" Cid realized, thinking back to what Stork had said about the Atmos mission from which he'd come back. "Power grid must be down! I bet one of them damn Weasels sabotaged it. Or the Turks!"

"Then someone has to go turn it back on!" Kairi insisted. "I'll do it!"

"It's gonna be dangerous," Cid told her. "They won't have made a move without postin' guards there."

"Then I'll go with her," Jaune stated. "I'm not letting her fight alone, and I won't let anything happen to her!"

"Do you two even know where the plant is?" Cid asked skeptically.

"They don't," Lea replied, "but I do."

"I s'pose I better go too," Cid sighed. "You just – "

A Nightcrawler had taken the time to sneak up on him.

"CID!" Lea, Jaune, and Kairi cried.

Cid turned just in time to clash his spear with a crystal-powered blade wielded by the Nightcrawler. "GO!" he yelled as he fought.

Lea took off first, calling out, "This way!". Jaune and Kairi followed close behind.

Tseng had his phone out, looking at messages flooding in from Turks all over town, Cissnei included. "There's a complication," he noted.

"What kinda complementation?" Smartass asked skeptically.

"Forces are standing actively against my people," Tseng said plainly. "I would suspect they're targeting yours too."

"Let 'em try," Smartass said cockily. "Ain't no way the Weasels are gonna get beat back. We's got a hundred men out there."

"Not good odds," Riku's voice sounded out from behind both, "but we've taken worse."

They turned; Riku slashed his sword through the air and let it come to rest at his side. "And two against one isn't bad, for me," he asserted. "Your friends have been hurting a lot of innocent people."

"Friends?" Smartass snorted. "Them's our lackeys. You're talkin' to the big bosses."

"You're the leaders of the Turks and the Weasels?" Riku asked.

"We are," Tseng confirmed, seeing no need to hide the fact.

"Then it's a good thing I found you," Riku told them. "Now I can take you both out of the game."

Tseng and Smartass' guns both went up. Riku had dodged to the side in a flash, and the bullets fired over empty air. As the barrels pivoted, Riku performed a Dark Splicer, exiting every firing zone the moment it was penetrated. Tseng felt a blade nick his cheek; Smartass was bowled over by Riku's foot.

Dizzied by Riku's assault, Tseng withdrew a spherical materia from his pocket, hoping to freeze him midstrike. The column of ice shot up before Riku a millisecond before he would have reached the spot; Riku put up his feet, sliding up the iceberg's curved side for a few seconds before falling flat on his back. Tseng took his place over Riku, pointing his machine gun directly downward.

Riku was quicker on the draw; a Dark Firaga blasted Tseng upward and back. Riku leapt to his feet to see Smartass advancing upon him with a knife; Riku's sword was quick to parry every blow from the blade. Tseng had repositioned himself with the gun; Riku shielded, not only deflecting all of Tseng's bullets but blocking Smartass' blade as well. Leaving the shield in place, Riku quickly sidestepped, letting multiple Dark Firagas exit his sword and rain down upon his dual opponents. A pained cry and a grunt of frustration let Riku know he'd hit his mark.

Then Tseng was, in a blink, behind Riku, drawing another materia. Smartass drew back his arm, knife in hand, from the front. Riku waited until the last possible moment, then sped.

The knife flipped through the air and lodged in Tseng's shoulder. The material collided with the ground and exploded in a rush of orange flame that left Smartass dazed and charred.

"Maybe…maybe we's best get outta here," Smartass coughed.

"I'm not retreating," Tseng insisted.

"Well, I am!" Smartass insisted, taking off at a run.

Tseng refused to follow, thinking to himself how cowardly the Weasels were when it got down to the wire.

Riku raised his blade, looking Tseng in the eye. "Want any more?"

Tseng raised his hand, revealing more materia between his fingers.

Riku leapt as the materia were tossed, avoiding the explosions and coming down hard from above, blazing with a Dark aura. He knocked Tseng down forcefully, kicking away the machine gun and holding the point of his blade down to Tseng's forehead.

Now deciding the tactical retreat was a much better idea, Tseng dealt a swift kick to Riku's stomach – just enough to knock him back – and sprinted down the opposite street from Smartass.

Riku debated pursuing, but the arrival of several Nightcrawlers brought his attention to a matter closer at hand.

After Donald's Thunder spell had chased away two Turks, a sudden realization hit him. If the entire city was being looted…

"Oh, no!"

Donald began charging down one particular street, a fixed destination in mind. As he ran, he was aware of first Cadance falling into step beside him, then Genie floating above, then Nick joining, then Ren, then Xander.

"We all just had the same idea, right?" Xander said to confirm.

"Uncle Scrooge is in trouble!" Donald asserted.

The six hurried ever onward to the manor, where they knew trouble was sure to have not only brewed but boiled over.

...

The unicorns were fenced in by the ring of spears pointed at them: the reapings of a successful hunt. The Huntsman always enjoyed this part: when they reared and panicked, hooves flying, manes tossing. Unicorns could get violent when truly pressed, but the way his army was equipped, they wouldn't be able to do much damage at all. The best part of all was yet to come: the slaughter.

But he held his men back. Collecting this many unicorns had been no easy feat, and the moon was almost near the center of the sky. Still there had been no sign of the American Dragon. What a pitiful protector of the magical realm, the Huntsman thought, if he couldn't even put in an appearance to stop this.

"Hold your fire," he demanded.

"But the unicorns," someone piped up. "They'll trample us if we don't – "

"HOLD YOUR FIRE," the Huntsman repeated. "We came for the dragon, and we will wait until the last possible moment for the dragon. If the unicorns get out of hand, we can proceed. But I want the trap baited for as long as it can be."

Some of them were backing away, the spears shaking in their hands. What cowardly recruits, the Huntsman thought. Others held firm, pressing in closer. This was the sort of person who he could believe had been through the years of training and conditioning given to every Huntsclan member when the system was in full force, even though he knew there was no way that was possible.

The voice came from a copse of trees to the group's left: "When are you gonna get the message about pickin' on people your own size?"

That voice. It was exactly what the Huntsman had been waiting for. He turned to face his prey: the American Dragon, scales of blood-crimson shining in the moonlight, standing on hind legs at the edge of the trees.

When their eyes met, Jake flinched, one foot scooting back. "It really IS you," he said, astonished.

"You've no idea how long I've waited for this moment," the Huntsman told him.

"Yeah," Jake affirmed, "you apparently came all the way back from the dead to kill me. Not cool, dude." His gaze traveled over the piecemeal warriors: "And who are these chumps? That's not the Huntsclan!"

"I was the only survivor of your crystal skull stunt," the Huntsman informed Jake. "All others perished. Who you see before you are new recruits. They bear no mark of the dragon, but their lust for blood is more than adequate." He tapped the end of the huntstaff on the ground twice. "Let the unicorns go."

"But sir – " one of the recruits piped up.

"LET THEM GO," the Huntsman ordered. "Our true quarry is here."

There was much grumbling as the recruits broke their circle, allowing the hard-pursued unicorns to gallop away. Thirty weapons pointed directly at Jake.

Yet the American Dragon did not so much as flinch this time. "That all you got?" he jeered. "Oh, and by the way, you did your math wrong. You weren't the only survivor of the Huntsclan."

The Huntsman knew Jake was baiting him somewhere, so he refused to entertain him. The answer came unbidden: a new voice, one that pierced the Huntsman's defenses:

"I survived too."

Rose walked out of the trees, hair braided back but otherwise clothed in her daywear as she clutched a spear. She struck a defensive pose with the weapon, twirling it as she stood beside Jake.

"Traitor," the Huntsman's voice said in a breathy rush.

"You destroyed me," Rose told him. "You kidnapped me when I was too young to know anything, and you spent my entire life breaking me until you could turn me into exactly what you wanted. Thanks to the American Dragon, I got a second chance. But even getting to live my life over again doesn't change what you did to hurt me. And I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone else!"

"I've had enough of this!" the Huntsman bellowed. "SLAY THEM BOTH!"

That was when Jake cried "NOW!"

Three flashes of color erupted from the trees: dark blue, baby blue, soft pink. Jake leapt, becoming airborne to join the other three dragons as the spears let loose a volley of energy beams – red from everything the Smith had forged and green from the lone Huntstaff. Rose ducked the barrage, somersaulting beneath the ammo before rising to charge directly at her opponents.

"Split up!" the dark blue dragon – Jake's grandfather, Lao Shi – demanded.

"On it!" the tinier pink dragon – Jake's younger sister Haley – affirmed.

The soft blue dragon – Haley's mentor, Sun Park – descended into the fray, whipping her tail to knock over whoever of the enemy she could reach. Haley swooped in to give a well-placed fire breath to the seat of one warrior's pants, causing him to yelp, drop his weapon, and take off running. Lao Shi and Jake landed back-to-back among the crowd, dealing out punches to all who tried to approach; they came one by one, each looking out for themselves as the dragons covered each other's backs.

In a moment of triumph for the Huntsman and horror for Jake, the former launched a net of sphinx hair just right; it descended over Haley, pinning her to the ground. Haley gave a high-pitched scream for help; the Huntsman approached rapidly –

He felt hard pressure on his shoulders as Rose's hands hit him there hard; she vaulted over his head, flipped through the air, and swiped her spear perfectly to cut through the net. Once Haley was free, she hovered next to Rose, who had landed neatly on her feet, and the two slapped a high-five.

The Huntsman charged for Haley, huntstaff at the ready; Rose blocked it with her own weapon as Haley soared out of range to alight the clothing of other members of the makeshift clan. Now, faced with the one who had brought him to his end, the Huntsman was focused not on any of the dragons but on getting revenge; his blade tore through the air faster and faster, though Rose's parrying kept it at bay.

"HOW DID YOU SURVIVE?" he roared.

"Because I had someone who loved me!" Rose growled. "Something YOU'LL never know!"

The tip of her spear sliced through the edge of the Huntsman's cape and tunic, nicking him and drawing a drop of blood. The Huntsman's weapon cut wickedly toward Rose's midsection, threatening to tear her in half, but she leapt over it at the same time that a dragon tail wrapped around the Huntsman's ankle from behind and jerked him down hard so that he fell on his back, spine screaming.

"Stop trying to KILL MY GIRLFRIEND!" Jake bellowed as the Huntsman saw first stars and then the red dragon's face looming above him.

The Huntsman was quick to flip up to his feet, repositioning his weapon to slice at Jake. Jake became airborne again, and the Huntsman was now shooting at him, missing by a hair each time.

His assembled forces were not doing so well either. Lao Shi, Haley, and Sun were battering them, and he had noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that two had already turned tail and run from the field. It seemed whenever one of the dragons was finally held at bay, another would charge the offending warrior and strike them down in order to free the victim.

Still, the dragons were vastly outnumbered, and as the Huntsman kept on trying to blast Jake down from the sky by tearing a hole in his wing, both heard the cry of Lao Shi being wounded by the spear points, Sun gasping as she was surrounded, Haley squealing as she was pinned down, Rose screaming "JAKE!" as a red beam passed too close to her head for comfort –

"SECOND WAVE!" Jake cried. "NOW!"

The first to charge out from the trees were the Oracle Twins. The Huntsman, upon catching sight of them, nearly laughed. What could such feeble, frail youths possibly hope to accomplish against him?

"THE HUNTSMAN IS GOING TO TURN ON US NEXT!" Sara screamed.

That wasn't wrong. They were incredibly easy targets. Jake swooped down, hoisting both girls up as the Huntsman opened fire, missing them as Jake got them out of range.

"THE GUY WITH HALEY IS GONNA GET HIT WITH LIGHTNING!" Kara yelled, in as raised of a voice as her monotone would offer.

"Huh?" Haley said as she looked up from where a spear was pointed at her back.

Lightning could only come from one person, who saw this as his cue. Clooney the unlucky leprechaun barreled into the fray, skidding to a halt before Haley and her captor. "Looks like this is me lucky day after all!" he cried as the storm cloud that often formed over his head to torment him became thick and gray. A bolt of electricity burst from it, shocking Haley's captor. The spear was dropped, and Haley zipped up into the air.

"Mine!" Another warrior claimed the fallen spear, despite already wielding one.

"I'm gettin' outta here!" the disarmed and electrocuted warrior cried; as he took off, another followed suit.

"Oh, no!" Sara cried. "SILVER IS TOTALLY GONNA GET HIT WITH A BEAM MEANT FOR ROSE!"

Despite hearing the prediction, Silver the mermaid, slithering across the ground on her tail, was not inspired to back away from the battle; rather, she now knew where she had to go. She threw herself in front of Rose, taking a red energy beam and collapsing to the ground.

"SILVER!" Rose, her muscles honed, hoisted the mermaid upright next to her as she continued to parry blows with her spear.

"I'm okay," Silver said weakly. "I just know I had to save you."

"Well, the GOOD news is everyone holding down Lao Shi is gonna get easily distracted by something small," Kara groaned.

That was the cue of Reggie the brownie, armed with a sewing needle, to charge at the warriors surrounding Lao Shi at full speed, screaming, "YA PICKED THE WRONG DAY TA MESS WITH REGGIE! I'LL STAB ALL YER SPLEENS, SEE IF I DON'T!"

His needle jammed into the foot of one warrior; it was only a mild prick, but enough to cause the victim to clutch his foot, hopping about in pain. As Reggie darted through the crowd, those who had previously had their attention on Lao Shi each thought they could stomp the brownie out of existence, and so all turned to chase him. Reggie wove in and around their feet, which all ended up stomping on each other instead of him.

"YOU'RE IN MY WAY!" a woman cried.

"JUST LET ME KILL THE BROWNIE!" a man yelled back.

Reggie slapped the tiniest of high-fives with Lao Shi before the latter took to the air with the brownie on his back.

"Ewwwww!" Sara laughed. "Everything's about to stink!"

"That's your cue, Bertha!" Jake called back to the trees.

The giant known as Bertha rose from a crouching position, storming forth into the park. "SMELL BERTHA'S FEET!" she said menacingly by way of a battle cry.

"A GIANT!" one of the Huntsman's recruits yelled.

"HOLD STEADY!" the Huntman cried. "WE OUTNUMBER HER!"

But it was too late; many of his recruits were now fleeing.

The rest ganged up on Bertha, spears at the ready. Before they could fire, Sun and Lao Shi surged at them, knocking them all astray. The two dragons earned their share of nicks and scratches in the meantime, but Bertha was unharmed enough to kick two warriors halfway across the park; once they landed, they didn't dare return to the battle site. As for the rest, Bertha's bare feet were truly as malodorous as advertised, and many were dazed.

The Huntsman's senses alerted him to a presence surging behind him; Sun was now guarding Silver as Rose charged at him at a breakneck pace. The Huntsman whirled to clash his weapon with hers yet again. "You will FALL!" he insisted.

"I'm not the one whose army keeps ditching him," Rose shot back.

The Huntsman was angered then; fueled by his rage, his weapon sliced through the air faster than Rose could parry.

"ROSE!" Jake cried; he couldn't help her while still carrying the twins to safety. "NO!"

Rose stumbled, one thigh bleeding. Sun immediately inserted herself between Rose and the Huntsman.

"Get away from her," Sun seethed.

"She will fall once you have been slain," the Huntsman growled back.

Sun's tail was faster than the Huntsman's strike, and he lost his balance yet again. "FORGET THE GIANT!" he bellowed from the ground. "KILL THE DRAGONS!"

All spears were suddenly turned on Jake and the Oracle Twins; Jake had, after all, been the prize from the beginning.

"JAKE!" Lao Shi cried, surging toward the warriors to try and stop them; he was only successful in knocking three aside. The rest were already lined up neatly in a row to blast Jake all at once.

"NO!" Jake screamed.

"Don't worry your head off," Kara huffed. "They're all about to go flying anyway."

The voice of the next to join the fray called out, "EARTH, SEA, AND SKY, MAKE THESE MISCREANTS FLY!"

Everyone who'd lined up to shoot at Jake was suddenly propelled up into the air and backward, landing hard on the grassy earth as their weapons fired into blank air.

"It's a wonder you get on without me at all," redheaded wizard Nigel Thrall remarked as he strode directly beneath Jake.

"Yeah, yeah," Jake groaned, "we get it, you're good with the whole magic thing."

"That isn't even the best I can do," Nigel remarked. "Feast your eyes on this." He held his wand high, twirling it in the air. "FOUR WINDS THAT BLOW, TURN WEAPONS ON OUR FOES!"

Five spears wrenched themselves out of their owners' hands and began firing on those that previously held them.

A wizard added even more power to the dragon's side of the battle than a giant, the Huntsman realized. This threat would have to be dealt with and now. He rushed Nigel, staff outward.

By the time Nigel realized he was being charged, it was too late to form a spell, though that didn't stop him from trying: "WATERS OF SEVEN SEAS – "

His incantation was interrupted by the huntstaff's bite into his shoulder.

The Huntsman very nearly would have torn him apart, but the moment the blade connected, a set of sharp teeth sank into the Huntsman's shoulder from behind, causing him to cry out. That was unmistakably the bite of a dragon. He whirled, lashing out at Haley, who was just a little too fast for him to catch.

Nigel reeled, transferring his wand to the hand that wasn't attached to a bleeding shoulder.

Jake surveyed the situation. On one hand, many of the Huntsman's forces had just plain given up. Only a few remained. On the other, his friends and family had all taken hits in trying to protect each other, and he worried that one well-placed strike could bring someone down.

"Hey," Kara said softly, "you want the upside of all this?"

"I could sure use one," Jake told her.

Kara's plain-spoken response was "The moon is about to hit the center of the sky in ten seconds."

"Wha – " Jake suddenly screamed, "THIRD WAVE! WE NEED YOU! NOW!"

Those of the Huntsman's forces who remained on the battlefield – that being the Huntsman, the Smith, and one other – were at first astonished to see what appeared to be an ordinary human girl, clothed in a dress of red and sporting long black hair, rushing out onto the battlefield. She already looked to be in a panic, having witnessed so many of her allies be nearly cut down. She was scared and out of place: too easy of a target.

That was what tipped the Huntsman off to the fact that she was something incredibly dangerous.

"DO NOT ENGAGE THE GIRL!" he cried.

"I do what I want!" the one remaining who was neither Huntsman nor Smith cried as he barged toward the girl.

Her name was Jasmine. And as the moon positioned itself at the sky's center, she opened her mouth, taking a deep breath. Once the warrior who pursued her got in range, his jaw dropped open; his soul floated right out of his throat and down hers, causing his body to wander about aimlessly.

"NYX!" the Huntsman bellowed.

The transformation overcame Jasmine in a flash; she lengthened, turning bright green as her skin erupted into scales. She now had the lower half of a snake: a long body that allowed her to tower over her foes, dwarfed only by Bertha. Her eyes flashed bright red, and dark wings burst from her back.

"Stay close," the Huntsman ordered the Smith. "We must work together in order to defeat the Nyx."

"Yeah, yeah, together," the Smith said in what appeared to be agreement.

Jasmine took off flying, headed straight for the Huntsman. The Huntsman put up his blade.

The Smith then shoved the Huntsman directly into Jasmine's path in order to buy himself enough time to run.

As the Smith darted off the battlefield, Jasmine's strong tail whipped into the Huntsman's side, throwing him over the grass. She pursued, smacking him around a good bit before he landed directly in front of Bertha.

Bertha then kicked the Huntsman; he soared away, aiming the huntstaff to let off one last shot at Jake. Jake ducked it, setting the Oracle Twins on the ground now that there was considerably less danger.

Sun didn't let the Huntsman hit the ground just yet, slamming into him from below and sending him higher. Lao Shi met him in the air and whipped his tail into the Huntsman hard. Another blow came from completely nowhere; the Huntsman knew Nigel had cast some sort of offensive spell at him. As he finally descended toward the ground, having taken quite a beating, a stray lightning bolt from Clooney's cloud jolted through him, shaking his skeleton.

His body thudded hard into the grass, making a small crater upon impact. His right arm clutched the huntstaff shakingly. His left arm was radiating pain throughout his entire body, and he found himself unable to move it; the bone, he realized, was dislocated. He wouldn't have been surprised to discover a few cracked ribs as well.

Ribs that were aggravated as Jake descended to stand square on the Huntsman's chest, glaring down at him.

"Dragon," the Huntsman hissed hoarsely, his voice all but knocked out of him. "How…is this possible…"

"'Cause I've got real friends," Jake gloated. "Maybe you should try it sometime."

That pierced in the same way as a blow would have.

Knowing he had no time to think it over as is, the Huntsman gripped the huntstaff tightly, summoning up the energy not for a strike but instead for a short teleportation. A green sphere bubbled up around him, pushing Jake away and making the Huntsman disappear in a flash.

Jake turned back to look over the battlefield, calling out, "IS EVERYONE OKAY?"

"EVERYONE'S GOING TO LIVE," Kara's drone informed him.

First, Jake flitted to Rose, hovering over her. "I'm fine," Rose grunted. "Well, okay, maybe not…fine…but I'm alive. And I think we disbanded his army. Maybe for good. I've seen fear like that in people's eyes. If any trainees showed fear like that…they never came back."

"He better not," Jake asserted.

He made quick assessments of everyone else. Lao Shi and Sun had sustained several bruises and scratches, but nothing horrible. Silver was still quite shaken, but slowly recovering. Nigel played off the wound in his shoulder as though it were nothing, capping it with a painkilling spell until he could be brought to better medical attention.

"I TOLD 'EM THEY'D RUE THE DAY!" Reggie insisted, shaking his fist in the air. "AN' THAT DAY'S BEIN' RUED RIGHT NOW!"

"Bertha do good?" Bertha asked.

"Bertha did GREAT," Jake assured her. "Though the real MVP of the night is our friend Jasmine." He flew toward the Nyx. "Nice work. Your training really paid off."

It was well-known that Jasmine had been practicing keeping her control and consciousness while in reptilian form so she did not harm innocents or friends when the moon was high. "Thank you," she said somewhat sheepishly.

"I must say," Nigel commented, "you made an absolutely blinding secret weapon."

"Blinding?" Jasmine repeated.

"You know," Nigel clarified. "Ace."

"I think he's trying to say 'awesome,'" Jake clarified.

"If you want to be COLLOQUIAL," Nigel huffed.

"Well, I couldn't have done it without you holding the others off until the moon was high enough," Jasmine admitted. Then, quickly, "I meant all of you. Not…you specifically, Nigel. Not that you weren't good! You were…blinding."

"Doesn't take an oracle to see where THIS is going," Kara groaned.

"I recommend we see to getting proper medical attention," Lao Shi suggested as he reverted to human form, still sporting his wounds.

"Right," Jake agreed. "We're going to the magical side of downtown."

He remained reptilian so Rose could settle relatively comfortably on his back.

"You really think they're gone?" Jake asked once she was close to his ear.

"I think that army is done banding together," Rose replied, "but until we stop the Huntsman for good, he's not going to stop trying to come after us. All of us."

"Then we'll just have to be ready," Jake insisted.

...

Elena sighed as she lay down another card. "They're having all the fun without us," she lamented; her claim was backed up by the trickling-in sounds of the battle that raged far overhead.

"We have our duty," Rude reminded her, placing his own card in the game. "Without us guarding this plant, the others could not collect the spoils."

"Still seems a good waste of chaos," Reno said as he shook his head. "Oh, and by the way…" He placed his card. "I win."

"You cheated!" Elena accused.

"Just be glad we weren't playing for munny this time," Rude grunted.

"Speaking of," Reno suggested, "what do you say we make the next round…interesting? Say, start the pot at thirty?"

"No way!" Elena barked. "Not if you're gonna – "

"Shhhh," Rude hushed harshly. "Listen."

The sound of footsteps was echoing down the hall. Three pairs, by the sound of it.

The card game had been illuminated by three flashlights; all were quickly switched off. The trio of Turks scrambled to their feet. If all went well, they could dispose of the intruders quickly in the dark, before the hapless victims had any clue what had happened at all.

Lea led the way, a small sphere of fire levitating in his hand to illuminate the way somewhat. He could still only see a few feet in front of him. Jaune and Kairi stayed close behind.

"Maybe we'll get lucky," Jaune suggested. "There might not even be anyone down here."

"Now that you said that," Lea sighed, "there definitely will be."

"We'll be ready," Kairi insisted.

If she hadn't been carrying her blade in her right hand, Jaune would have clasped it with his left. He knew, however, that being armed was more important than bestowing more personal comfort.

As the tiny light got closer, Reno, Rude, and Elena backed up further into the power room, taking cover in shadow. The poor things had no idea.

"All right," Lea announced as his light spilled into a wider area, making it all the less useful. "We've hit the main room. Now all we have to do is figure out what's broken and fix it."

"How are we gonna do that with no light?" Jaune asked.

"Oh, we'll have more light," Lea insisted, dousing the small flame. "I just needed us to get to the room where we'd be working. Allow me to light 'em up."

Reno, not fully understanding the weight of Lea's words, took advantage of the sudden total darkness to sneak closer, electro-mag rod withdrawn.

Lea spread out his hands to either side, and a border of flame engulfed the perimeter of the entire power room, lighting up every control panel and wire.

And all three Turks.

Kairi's question about if it was safe to set such a large fire in such a delicate area was silenced as she, Jaune, and Lea all made eye contact with Reno, who had fumbled halfway to them and fully believed he had been sneaking.

"…Damn it," he muttered. Straightening up, he declared, "Well, looks like we get to do this the fun way at least."

Lea had just enough time to summon his Keyblade and bring it up as Reno came in swinging; the electro-mag rod clashed hard against the metal shaft. Reno at least hoped the futility of using a metal weapon against his electric armament would become clear, but the Keyblade's magical composition refused to conduct the energy to harm Lea.

Then their eyes met, and both flinched, though neither backed down from the clash. "Like lookin' in a mirror," Reno remarked.

"Don't see that every day," Lea added. "Don't suppose I have a twin I didn't know about."

"I was just thinkin' the same thing," Reno replied.

Elena detached several grenades from her belt, pitching one directly at Kairi. Kairi slid aside just as it impacted the floor; it erupted into a rush of flame that quickly fizzled out once it found no target. No sooner had Kairi settled than she was tossed another grenade; this one boomed into a bolt of lightning that Kairi was barely able to dodge.

Jaune's first instinct was to rush to protect her; he was quickly stymied when Rude came at him, fists swinging. Jaune's shield went up, and Rude's fist crashed against it, vibrating the metal hard and nearly breaking Jaune's grip. The other fist came around from slightly lower, and Jaune's quick maneuvering only just put his shield in the way.

Kairi knew she had to go on the offensive, and she could already see how. As Lea and Reno's weapons crashed against each other and Jaune blocked Rude's fists with resounding clangs, Elena pitched a third grenade. Kairi spun, knocking the grenade right back at its thrower, using the flat of her sword as a bat connects with a baseball.

The grenade ricocheted directly to Elena, and Elena had only enough time to yelp an oath before it exploded on her, encasing her in ice.

Freed of an opponent for the moment, Kairi rushed to Jaune's side, thrusting her blade toward Rude. Rude, caught off guard, backed up two steps.

Kairi and Jaune's glances connected for a mere moment; then, suddenly knowing exactly what to do, they slipped into a back-to-back position, Jaune lunging out with his blade before both spun on a heel and Kairi swung her sword again. As she did so, a rush of sparkling magic followed the sword's trajectory and arced outward at Rude, pushing him back further; when they spun again, putting Jaune on the offensive, his swing emitted an arc of his own aura, which threw Rude yet again.

The downside of Lea's method of lighting the room was that Elena, frozen so close to the fire, was quickly melted. The ice became a thin shell over her skin, oozing and cracking as she muscled out of it. Water puddled at her feet as she drew another grenade.

"JAUNE!" Kairi cried, knowing their timing was such that he would be next to step into her line of fire. "LOOK OUT!"

They swapped once more, and instead of striking with his sword, Jaune held up his shield. The grenade bounced off it; he had angled it so the projectile would recalibrate directly toward Rude. It exploded over the largest Turk, showering him with bolts of electricity.

Lea and Reno were still going strong, neither gaining ground over the other. "I'll admit you have the looks," Reno taunted, "but you don't have the skills."

"I'm not so sure you can stand the heat," Lea retorted.

"I think – "

Reno's thought was interrupted when a particularly hard blow from Lea caught him off guard; his electro-mag rod was forced out of his hand, clattering to the floor. Jaune immediately kicked it to the corner of the room.

With Axel's Keyblade now pointed up against his chin, Reno gave a weak smile.

"We need to GO," Rude insisted, still suffering tremors while Elena's teeth chattered beside him.

Lea snapped his fingers, and the flames opened up a pathway for the Turks to escape. They took it gladly, hustling out of the room as quickly as they could manage.

"Thanks for having my back!" Jaune told Kairi. "Though, um…what WAS that?"

"I think we just did a kind of joint attack," Kairi told him. "It's called a Limit. I kind of thought it only worked with real Keybearers, though."

"You are a real Keybearer," Jaune reminded her.

"A Keybearer without a real Keyblade," Kairi recalled.

"Well, you didn't need a Keyblade to do what you just did," Jaune said with a shrug as he collapsed Crocea Mors.

"Man," Lea remarked as he dismissed his Keyblade to scratch the back of his head, "that was weird."

"Did you KNOW that guy?" Jaune asked.

"No," Lea replied. "At least, I don't think I do. That's what makes it so weird." He shrugged. "Guess some things are just like that."

"I've heard of doppelgängers before," Kairi suggested. "Maybe that's what happened?"

"Maybe," Lea said with a nod. "Anyway, we don't have time to waste on that. We gotta find what they broke and fix it."

It didn't take them long to discover the severed wire. "This should be easy to fix," Kairi remarked, kneeling over it. "Hang on…"

Her hands hovered over the fray. She cast a Thunder spell; a network of bolts crackled from one end of the cord to the other, binding it in a makeshift patch.

The turbine roared to life. Lights began to blink on the panels.

"That'll have to do until we can fix it for real," Kairi proclaimed.

"Think that made any difference on the surface?" Lea asked.

"It had to," Jaune insisted.

"Let's go find out!" Kairi urged emphatically, and the three rushed out of the plant and up the now lit hallway to find, up above, that as the lights had all come on, the Nightcrawlers had retreated back to the skies over Villain's Vale and normalcy was beginning to return to the majority of the city.

...

Piloting a Gummi ship with one arm, the Huntsman had learned the hard way, was nothing short of harrowing. For one, he had to ignore the pain building in his dislocated left arm, though he was used to pushing through pain of all sorts. For another, having only his right hand to steer the ship caused it to veer; he narrowly missed bashing directly into bits of interspacial debris the size of the ship itself multiple times. The experience was probably the closest he had come to death outside of the time he had actually died.

And yet, even while his focus had to be given over to driving to survive, his mind was whirling with the implications of what had just taken place in his old hunting ground.

He had only suffered such an injury as he had because the Smith had pushed him into the line of fire. The rest of his recruits had fled like cowards after competing with each other for the prizes. There was no sense of unity among the team. No reason for anyone to protect anyone else.

The dragon and his allies, however, had stepped in for each other. They had each risked their own skin to save the others, taking massive wounds in the name of bolstering their allies. No, not allies. Friends. Jake had called them true friends, and jeered that the Huntsman get some of his own.

What a fool the Huntsman had been.

Rose had survived because she had been loved. The Huntsman still did not quite understand the connection between the two factors, but he did not doubt it now.

As for his experiment, it had only proven that Archibald Snatcher was frustratingly correct. The Huntsman now remembered, suddenly, the simple fact that the American Dragon had in fact survived all of his many attempts to snuff out his life. Even when the Huntsman had an entire army to back him up. It had been the same even with the highly-trained Huntsclan at his back. Never had he won any victory greater than what the WHAM ARMY had brought him.

Never had he won any victory at all as far as the American Dragon was concerned. With the WHAM ARMY, he had actually been instrumental to the successful collection of most of the elements needed for the spell of conquest. With those he called "friends," he truly did have a better record.

How would this scenario have played out with them at his side? Not merely because of their powers, but because of how they would have worked together in battle? Even though Roman would undoubtedly run into a situation that was over his head, he would not flee, not when it was for a goal so important to the Huntsman. Aghoul would not compete with him or get in his way. Wuya, traitorous as she claimed to be, would not sacrifice him.

There was a time Mozenrath might even have taken a near-fatal blow for him.

He had been an utter idiot to cast them aside, as professional allies and as friends. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that even as he mourned his practical losses, he wanted their companionship. The aftermath of such a loss as this was the perfect breeding ground for them to trade bad jokes and hurl insults in such a way that he did not care to partake in, but now found he missed hearing.

Even listening to their banter would have given him more tranquility when it came to steering through this maelstrom of hazards.

The base loomed at last on the horizon; the Huntsman had to calm his own heart as he pulled into its hangar. He was finally safe. Had he perished on the voyage back, no one would have even known he would have died. Mozenrath might have figured it out eventually, but given their current status, would Mozenrath even have wanted to revive him?

He pushed the cockpit door open with his good arm.

He had people to find and much to say.

...

Scrooge McDuck was not oblivious. The sounds of chaos traveled all the way to his manor, and he observed the tumult from afar by view of the upper windows. While a small part of him hoped that his out-of-the-way location would spare his home from any danger, the rest of him knew better.

It wouldn't have been so terrifying if he weren't currently the caretaker of the boys. Huey, Dewey, and Louie had returned from their day out in town, starting a game of indoor baseball that they knew would be interrupted, though they thought it would be more of the "killjoy" variety of interruption.

What they got was Scrooge urging them, "Put down yer things, boys. Ye need ta get ta yer rooms, now. It isn't safe!"

"But Unca Scrooge – " Huey protested.

"Now, boys!" Scrooge said urgently. "I'll do me best ta hold off whatever comes down here. If things get worse, ye know where ta go."

"But we wanna help!" Dewey chimed in.

"Out of the question!" Scrooge barked. "Now upstairs with ye!"

As the triplets ascended the stairway to the upper level, Louie asked, "We're not really just gonna stay in our rooms and wait, are we?"

"No way!" his brothers asserted.

That left Scrooge alone to patrol the lower levels. He walked their perimeter with worry, sure something terrible was coming and not quite sure how to deal with it.

The axe chopped right through the front door as Scrooge entered the foyer for the third time; it blazed with green energy. A few more strokes brought the door down entirely in a shower of splinters; Sykes kicked the rest of the way through, leading Medusa, Scar, the Joker, Horace, and Jasper along with him.

"Ye can stop right there!" Scrooge insisted. "Ye'll get no further!"

"And what will you do?" Sykes asked, his grin slimy.

Scrooge braced his cane as though it were a sword. "Why, I'll…I'll…"

"Oh, he's all talk," Medusa huffed as she waved her arms dismissively, the jewels she'd amassed jingling as she did so. "Let's just blow him to bits and be done with it!"

"Now, now," Sykes said calmly, "let's not rush things. After all, we don't know how to break into the vault. We'll need a tour guide."

"So that's what this is about!" Scrooge cried. "I knew it! Ye're after me riches!"

"Whatever tipped you off?" the Joker asked haughtily.

"Just hand 'em over," Jasper demanded, "an' we'll spare your life!"

Scrooge was about to say something in response, but Sykes interrupted: "I have a better idea. After all, a little birdie told me THIS little birdie has three other little birdies who run shops downtown. What do you say we go on a little bird-watching trip through this mansion? Anything we find, you get to keep so long as you hand over the right price."

Scrooge was immediately flustered: "Th-the boys aren't here! They've n-never lived here!"

"Oh, dear," Scar observed. "Touched a nerve?"

"I'm thinkin' those bratty li'l kids ARE somewhere in this house at this very moment!" Horace crowed.

"Find them first," Sykes commanded. "Then we'll negotiate."

"NO!" Scrooge placed himself in front of Sykes, arms spread outward. "Ye can't! Ye won't! I…I…" He knew pleas of how much the boys meant to him would mean little to this crowd. He also knew that if they got their hands on the boys, this crowd would not necessarily hold up their end of the bargain. Scrooge could pay whatever they asked and still watch his precious family be harmed.

Sykes was, in fact, already banking on having one of the boys executed after the money was handed over, giving back the other two unharmed as a gesture of goodwill.

Of course, he never got that far.

"Mind if we…let ourselves in?" Genie's voice boomed from the broken door frame.

As the six ne'er-do-wells and their harassed victim faced the frame to see Gene leaning against it, Donald bracing his mage's staff for attack at center, and Xander, Cadance, Ren, and Nick backing them up, Genie waved his hand to go on; "Well, since there's no door, we don't really have a choice."

"YOU LEAVE MY UNCLE SCROOGE ALONE!" Donald warned.

"Or you'll do what, exactly?" Medusa asked, raising her gun and cocking it at Donald.

"FIRE!" Donald's staff flicked toward Medusa.

The flame zoomed toward her, then ricocheted right off her body.

"HUH?" Donald was flabbergasted. He tried it again; "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!"

Three more balls of flame bounced right off Medusa and exploded against other surfaces of the foyer. Medusa, just as confused as Donald was, regarded him with shock, unmoving.

"THUNDER!" Donald attempted; the bolt struck down and seemed to be absorbed by Medusa's presence. "…Blizzard?" The ice splintered and melted upon contact.

"Are you some kind of idiot who can't even cast a spell?" Medusa asked in awe.

"Look at all the jewelry she's wearing," Nick observed, sure he'd found some sort of link to the phenomenon.

Genie gasped. "She's loaded down with so much magic-resistant jewelry, it's like magic has no effect!"

That got a chuckle out of Medusa. "PERFECT! Now you wretches can't lay a finger on me!" She pulled the trigger of the gun.

Donald was surrounded in two layers of defensive magic: a sphere cast by Genie overlaid with a sphere projected by Cadance. The bullet bounced harmlessly off the spheres and to the floor. Donald barged forth into the room, spheres rotating around him, in order to allow his squad to enter the foyer behind him.

"GET OUTTA HERE!" Donald yelled at Scrooge, who gladly obliged, taking off.

"Imbeciles – " Medusa pointed her gun at Cadance next, as the alicorn was making a beeline for her. Cadance put up a shield around her own self just in time to deflect the bullet, then dropped it in order to aim a swift kick at Medusa – one that Medusa barely ducked. If magic didn't work, she was going to have to use her own two hooves.

Donald aimed his next spell at Sykes, but, forgetting the spheres around him, ended up shocking himself good with lightning. "WILL YOU GET THESE SHIELDS OFF ME?" he bellowed.

Genie and Cadance obliged just as Scar leapt directly into Donald's path. "I recall you," the lion stated snidely. "You stood in my way at Pride Rock."

"Yeah, and I'm takin' you down here, too!" Donald insisted. "THUNDER!"

Scar leapt out of the bolt's path, lunging at Donald with his claws extended. A shield of ice sprang up in front of Donald at the mage's behest, causing Scar to effectively run into a wall on his way. As Scar rounded the wall, Donald ran, aiming his staff behind himself to cast Firaga at the lion; he missed.

The Joker already had his trusty multipurpose pogo stick out for a bounce; its blades extended as he hopped high, and he aimed it to come down hard on Ren. Ren sidestepped, aiming both barrels of Stormflower and firing. His aura impacted the Joker enough to make him reel; Ren then found himself on the receiving end of five razor-sharp playing cards tossed in his direction. He expertly shot each one out of the air, slicing it in half.

Jasper and Horace came running at Nick and Genie with clubs raised; Genie outfitted himself in a fencer's costume and mask before drawing an epée from nowhere and crying "EN GARDE!", swiping the sword – surprisingly strong for its meager breadth – to catch Jasper's club while Nick's sword intercepted Horace's. The Baduns had never been fencers, but they found themselves locked in such a battle with their respective swordsmen, swinging wildly only to be parried.

Sykes rushed right for Donald, axe swinging, when its blade was caught and held still by that of another, smaller axe: Xander's.

"Can't we talk this out?" Xander said coyly. "You wield an axe. I wield an axe. I'm sure we have other things in common if we just took the time to figure them out." He hoped Sykes wouldn't notice that he was sweating – or, more importantly, that the silver axe's metal was melting beneath the green energy of the former-Huntsclan axe.

But Sykes had noticed. "Why waste the breath?" he asked, taking a step to position himself closer to Xander, put himself in a more intimidating position. "Your weapon isn't holding up."

"About that…" Xander suddenly leapt back, holding out his partly melted axe defensively.

Sykes, grinning wickedly, advanced.

His foot landed on the skateboard that had just been wheeled out into the room. The wheels shot Sykes' foot out from under him, causing him to fall backward hard.

"NICE!" Dewey complimented Huey, who'd been the one to send out the skateboard. They slapped a high-five.

"BOYS!" Donald reprimanded. "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DOWN HERE!" He continued letting loose volleys of fire at Scar, who dodged every one, claws looming closer and sharper than ever.

"And miss all the fun?" Louie replied as he launched a baseball into the air and whacked it hard with his bat.

The ball planted into Scar's face hard enough that a crack was heard. Blood seeped from Scar's nose as the lion halted to make sense of what had just happened. Now that he was in place, Donald's Thunder magic more reliably hit home.

"I call this one walking the bad guy!" Dewey boasted as he surged forth and whipped a yo-yo in front of him. The toy's cable wrapped around the Joker; Dewey let go of the rope, letting the Joker stumble about for a moment as he attempted to unbind himself.

"Oh, rats!" the Joker muttered. "Of all the irony!"

Ren took that moment to open fire, unloading his aura on the Joker.

Huey scattered a bag of marbles out on the floor; Medusa's shoes became tangled with the rolling spheres, and she crashed down to the floor immediately. As she did so, many of her ill-earned accessories went flying, scattering to the corners of the foyer.

"A-HAAAAA!" Donald yelled, realizing what opportunity had just been bestowed upon him now that Medusa was vulnerable.

As Medusa grumbled her way back to a standing position, Donald was ready for her, flicking his staff: "THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDERTHUNDERTHUNDEEEERRRR!"

Medusa was jolted again and again by the electric shock. Relieved of her opponent, Cadance took over the abandoned Scar, shooting energy pulses at him that pushed him back toward the door.

"I think we'd best get out of here while we've still got behinds to save!" Horace cried, abandoning his duel with Nick to cut and run.

"Right on that!" Jasper chased after his brother.

The Baduns, however, did not escape unscathed; Donald's magic ensured they literally ran out of the mansion with the seats of their pants on fire.

"WAIT FOR ME, YOU IIIIIIIDIOTS!" Medusa cried as she chased after them, giving them déjà vu of Cruella. Scar followed not too far behind.

Sykes pried himself up off the floor, axe in hand. "This is where the men separate from the boys," he growled.

The Joker fell in line next to him, twirling a dagger in his hand. "It really is," he agreed before turning and plunging the dagger into Cadance's side.

"CADANCE!" Nick, Xander, Genie, Donald, and Ren cried.

"I'm…okay?" Cadance responded, confused.

It had been a trick dagger. The blade retreated into the handle. "Hilarious, right?" the Joker taunted, withdrawing it and swapping it out for an identical weapon in his coat. "I assure you, however, this one is quite real!"

"Well, you know what I think?" Genie said as he cracked his knuckles. "I think you two just got front-row seats to the fireworks show!"

Donald and Cadance scooted to either side of him, knowing exactly what he was about to do.

The spell the three of them conjured together was not dangerous: just some pressurized explosions coupled with heat and light to give the appearance of fireworks. It was, however, a sensory overload for both remaining villains, the booming pyrotechnics making them unable to react. At last, Sykes chopped through the fireworks with the axe, figuring it was better to cut his losses; as he and the Joker pursued their allies, the fireworks followed with bangs and whistles.

"So much for the vault," the Joker grumbled.

"They may have won this night," Sykes huffed, "but this isn't over!"

Genie conjured a new door, which he slammed and locked after the fleeing crooks. "And DON'T come back!" he insisted.

"WE DID IT!" the triplets yelled, jumping for joy.

"Oh, you did it, all right!" Donald grumped. "And when I tell Scrooge how much danger you put yourself in, you'll be grounded for life!"

That wiped the smiles right off Huey, Dewey, and Louie's faces.

"Donald…" Cadance said disappointedly.

"Oh, all right." Donald knelt on the floor. "I'm just glad you're okay! Now come here!"

His nephews rushed to him, and he embraced all three of them.

"Looks like we finished those guys off for a while," Nick boasted.

Xander, examining his damaged weapon, replied, "Yeah, but how do you think the rest of the city is doing?"

That cast a somber attitude over the foyer. For as much had been done to repel the onslaught of villainous destruction that night, just as much had been lost throughout Radiant Garden.

...

Snatcher was the first to return to the rendez-vous point. Hans was next, and for once, Snatcher was actually relieved to see him; after Gothel's stunt, he wasn't certain he wanted to be alone with her again. Gothel trailed in third, and finally, Roman and Demyx came in together, fresh off their run playing games.

"All I'm saying is that cookies are basically just cake chips," Demyx told Roman.

"Y'know, Dishwater," Roman replied, "you make less sense sober than I do high."

Once they returned to the group, Roman resumed his cold, aloof, and very silent demeanor; Snatcher could see the change come over him. "What have we found?" Snatcher asked the group at large.

"A royal caravan marked with the Corona insignia," Gothel answered. "No doubt what Rapunzel traveled here in. All we have to do is catch her there. I'll do the honors."

"Oh, no, you won't," Snatcher told her. "You'll only scare her off. We've got to bait the trap with something that will disguise it more. Prince Westergard or I should be the one."

"Well, this was your idea," Hans told him. "I say you get to do it."

"As for taking up the mantle of the previous criminal organization to hold this city," Snatcher went on, "we'll need somewhere very public."

"How about in the middle of all the festival tents?" Demyx suggested. "Everybody's all lined up to throw the short guy at the honey wall."

"You really DON'T make any sense," Gothel said, perplexed.

"There's context!" Demyx groaned.

"I believe we are quite ready to put our plan into motion," Snatcher announced. "All we've got to do is iron out the finer details."

Meanwhile, Rapunzel had finished listening to the travelers' tale of the worlds they had come from and been to. "That's…a lot to take in," she said once the seven had finished up.

"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't believe us," Stork told her.

"No, no, I believe you!" Rapunzel said quickly.

"You do?" Stork replied.

"Of course she does!" Kazuichi insisted. "Why wouldn't Rapunzel have faith in us? I bet she's the kind of person who has faith in everybody!"

"So I'm the next target of this Mozenrath, huh?" Rapunzel reiterated.

"We're hoping he didn't figure out that you're the sundrop yet," Katara told her.

"But, knowing our luck," Stork sighed, "he probably knew before we did."

"Just to be safe, we should probably stick close to you," Kazuichi chimed in. "For days, if we need to. Weeks!"

"Or just long enough to figure out where Mozenrath is," Ruby corrected. "He doesn't really tend to wait around when he wants something."

"So you're saying he could show up at any minute," Rapunzel realized.

"Wait for it," Stork told her.

The group stood in silence before Stork explained, "That would've been his cue to show up."

"That kind of thing only happens in bad manga!" Kazuichi groaned.

"Anyway," Sora insisted, "we want to make sure you'll be safe. Whatever it takes!"

"I trust you," Rapunzel said with a nod.

"Probably not a smart move," Stork told her, "but the right one."

"You should meet all my friends while I'm here!" Rapunzel realized. "Well, okay, not that YOU'RE not my friends now, but I mean my friends from this world."

"We'd love that!" Sora said with a smile.

"Oh, you guys are gonna love Eugene and Lance and…" Rapunzel trailed off, then she sighed. "Cass."

"Maybe you should make up with her," Sora suggested.

"I don't even know how at this point," Rapunzel admitted. "I can't just walk up to her and say I was wrong! Ugh, I need…I need to think. At least tomorrow, after the Goodwill Gopher Grab, the festival will be over and there won't even be anything to fight about."

"What's the Goodwill Gopher Grab?" Jasmine asked.

"It's a game I brought here from Corona," Rapunzel explained. "During Goodwill Festivals back home, everyone partners up and gets let loose on a field where a gopher is running. Then all the teams try to catch the gopher, and whoever gets it first wins! The only problem is we don't have a gopher right now, but Lance and Hook Foot are out looking for one that we can use in the grab tomorrow!"

"That actually sounds really fun," Sora stated. "Count us all in!"

"DIBS ON PARTNERING WITH KAZUICHI!" Ruby cried.

"Rubyyyyyy," Kazuichi moaned, "I kind of wanted to partner with SOMEONE ELSE…"

"No offense," Stork reminded him, "but how are you even going to keep up with a gopher?"

"With willpower and heart, that's how!" Kazuichi insisted.

"I think you can count us in on staying that long at least," Jasmine said with a smile.

"That would be great," Rapunzel told them.

"And maybe then, we could help you figure out what to say to Cassandra!" Sora insisted.

"I should just have that figured out for myself by now," Rapunzel sighed. "Like I said, I need time, and I need to clear my head…I need a drink of water. Be right back, okay?" She took off running down the tent-filled avenue with no further warning.

"Um," Stork commented, "should we really let her go alone?"

"We're her bodyguards," Katara insisted. "Not her stalkers. …Kazuichi, where are you going?"
"To be an actual good bodyguard, unlike the rest of you," Kazuichi argued as he made his way slowly down the street.

"No offense, Kazuichi," Sora said, "but you're kinda rushing into this whole crush thing."

"How else are you SUPPOSED to do it?" Kazuichi asked, stopping to turn and talk to Sora back over his shoulder.

"Maybe be a little more subtle?" Ruby suggested.

"I'm subtle enough!" Kazuichi argued. "She hasn't even figured out I like her yet!"

As Rapunzel hurried back to the royal caravan, her mind was buzzing with several thoughts. One was that she knew she had to bite the bullet and just admit her folly to Cassandra. One was that she was glad to have made so many new friends, even if it did mean she was in danger from a malicious world-traveling force. One was worry about said malicious world-traveling force. And one was that she found it rather cute that Kazuichi already seemed to have a crush on her.

She slipped inside the caravan, poured herself a cup of water from the water barrel that made up a prominent fixture of the interior, stepped back out.

A hand seized her wrist.

Giving a cry, Rapunzel wrenched her arm out of the grasp, rounding on whoever had touched her and fearing that Mozenrath had already come to claim her.

"Your majesty!" the offender said in a shocked tone before giving a deep bow, removing his tall hat to do so. "My apologies. Shouldn't have been so forward, should I? But you must listen to me at once. It is quite the urgent matter."

Rapunzel looked this man up and down, curious. It couldn't have been Mozenrath. Jasmine had informed her of the gauntlet he always wore on his right hand and the flesh that was stripped of it when it was bare. This man's right hand was bare of any cloth or leather, instead bearing shining rings. He looked harmless enough, and his tone was pleasant. "What kind of 'urgent matter' is it?" Rapunzel asked, still unsure if she should trust him.

"Of the utmost importance," Archibald Snatcher informed her. "Your very life is in grave danger."

He was ready to speak of whispers of a plot against her. What he wasn't prepared for was for her to say "So I've heard."

It took him a moment to recalculate. "Then you're aware of the gravity of the situation."

"Did you come here with the others?" Rapunzel asked.

What others? Snatcher didn't think it important to ask, which was his first mistake. "But of course," he said quickly, hoping if he rolled with what she said, she would buy into his game. "And they've stressed to me the importance of getting you to safety. Now come along, and be quick about it!"

She hesitated for a moment, then ducked quickly into the caravan to pick up a single item. "Okay," she declared when she re-emerged; "Let's go."

Snatcher was not at all sure why Rapunzel had insisted a frying pan was what she needed at this moment in time, but if she was coming along with him, he wasn't going to ask questions.

He led her down the alley where he and the others had forged their base of operations. Gothel and Hans waited crouched behind a row of barrels. "We'll be safe here for the moment," Snatcher told Rapunzel.

"Where'd everyone else go?" Rapunzel asked.

"They'll be along," Snatcher assured. "What matters now is that we decide on our plan of action before it becomes far too late. Any moment now, those miscreants will step up to fill the void left by the Baron, and – "

"The BARON," Rapunzel repeated, suddenly filled with revulsion; she'd caught Snatcher in a lie. "So this isn't about Mozenrath."

Snatcher's blood froze. "Where did you hear that name?"

"It doesn't matter," Hans said as he rose up from behind the barrels. "He's not what you need to be worried about."

"Who are YOU?" Rapunzel asked, holding up the pan defensively.

Hans bowed. "Prince Hans Westergard of the Southern Isles," he introduced. "Though I think you'll be more interested in our friend than either of us."

"Your FRIEND?" Rapunzel repeated. "You're WITH Mozenrath, aren't you? Is THAT who you have hiding back there?"

Slowly, Gothel stood.

The pan slipped from Rapunzel's hand and hit the ground.

"No, Rapunzel," Gothel said, opening her arms in the gesture of an embrace. "I just want you to come back home."

Rapunzel shook her head, taking a step backward. "No," she said hoarsely. Then, louder, "NO." She turned to run –

And collided directly with Snatcher, who had positioned himself behind her in case of this exact scenario. "Listen to your mother, child," Snatcher said in a tone that was a mockery of calming. "She's only looking out for your best interests."

"We all are," Hans insisted.

"Won't you at least listen to me?" Gothel asked.

Rapunzel whirled on her. "You should be DEAD," she snapped.

"That tone almost makes it sound like you WANT me dead," Gothel retorted. "Is that how it is, Rapunzel? I give you eighteen years out of my life and you want me dead?"

Rapunzel shook her head. "No…I don't want…"

"You seemed to want it back when your little friends cut your hair," Gothel told her. "Which I see has returned. Oh, my little flower, it's jut not SAFE out there for you with your hair in that state!"

It was almost exactly one of Rapunzel's nightmares. "It doesn't have the same magic anymore," Rapunzel insisted. "No one can use it to heal themselves. Or to stay young. It's MINE now. And I'm still looking for a way to get rid of it."

"Why get rid of it?" Hans asked. "It's part of who you are. What you really need is to get somewhere you know you won't be bothered about it. Somewhere you're allowed to be you with no one telling you how."

"Except for you," Rapunzel said, eyes locked on Gothel.

"If your hair can't give me immortality," Gothel argued, "how can I possibly use it against you? Oh, Rapunzel, did it never occur to you that even beneath all I did, I truly did love you?"

"You NEVER loved me," Rapunzel insisted.

"And how do you know that?" Gothel asked. "I protected you from the world!"

"You hid me away so no one would know you STOLE me!"

"I devoted my life to making you happy!"

"So I would keep you YOUNG!"

"I think it's obvious that I did fail you as a mother," Gothel said smoothly, "but all the same, I wanted you to grow up happy and healthy."

Rapunzel took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "You know what? Maybe you did love me. Let's just pretend that was an option. If you did, then you didn't know how to show it. You don't know how to love at all. And if I let you try to love me again, you'd only end up hurting me. Even if your feelings are real, we shouldn't even be TALKING."

"Harsh," Hans commented.

"You'll change your tune soon enough," Snatcher told her. "After all, we've come to offer you a refuge."

"A refuge?" Rapunzel spat. "From the Baron?"

"No," Snatcher corrected, "from those who are about to rise up and replace the Baron."

"This is just another lie!" Rapunzel cried. "You're making up lies about these new villains just to get me to go with you?"

"Are we?" Snatcher asked, a great grin upon his face.

He hoped he wouldn't have to keep her talking too much longer. And he didn't. For there came a great bellow across the area of "ATTENTION, CITIZENS OF VARDAROS!"

Even in times like this, Snatcher had to adore Roman's flair for the theatrical.

Roman and Demyx strode down the street, stopping once Roman's cry had gotten enough attention. "It's come to my attention that this city is lacking a certain something," Roman said loudly enough for all to hear. "What, oh, what could it be? Oh, wait, I know!" He gave a chuckle. "A crime lord! Your last one was run out of town! That's why my lightweight friend and I are here to fill the void!"

"Lightweight?" Demyx repeated.

"Trust me," Roman told him, "when you compare it to all the other adjectives I was considering, it's a compliment. Anyway, from now on, Dishwater and I are going to be running Vardaros. Anyone who has a problem with that, speak now or forever hold your piece."

A tall, thin man, elderly but carrying himself with strength, stepped forth from the crowd. "I didn't take up my position to let people like you push innocent folks around," Captain Quaid announced.

"Aaaaaand we have our first contestant!" Roman replied. "Dishwater, would you do the honors?"

Demyx's sitar bubbled into existence; with one well-played chord, Quaid was sent rocketing down the street on a geyser.

"Aaaaanyone else?" Roman called out. "Actually, before I take any more volunteers, let me give you a little demonstration of what happens if you don't do what you're told."

He raised the Cudgel and opened fire into the crowd. Screams rang out; no one in Vardaros had ever seen a gun before, let alone one as explosive as Roman's. Those who were struck collapsed, bloody messes. Others fell to try to tend to them, though some were past saving.

Those who remained tried to converge upon Roman and Demyx, but Demyx played more notes, creating a water wall that shoved everyone back several paces. "Hands off the merchandise," the sitarist said with a wink.

"Hey, Dishwater," a voice said from the crowd. Cassandra emerged, her broadsword in hand. "Why don't you pick on someone your own skill level? Oh, wait, then that would mean someone way less qualified than me. Maybe Eugene."

"Hey, I resent that!" Eugene stepped up beside Cassandra, drawing a sword of his own. "All the same, I'm going to have to agree with Cassandra for once. If you don't get out of town, we're going to have ourselves a little problem."

"Oh, dear," Snatcher said from within the alley. "Those are your friends, are they not?"

"I have to help them!" Rapunzel tried to charge forth, but Snatcher caught her in his strong grip, holding her back with both arms.

Roman, Demyx, Cassandra, and Eugene seemed to all be keeping each other busy with banter. That gave Snatcher enough time to make his pitch. "Your friends are dead walking, and you know it!" he growled. "You think their swords are going to be any match for that gun and that magic? You think YOU are any sort of match?"

"We're going to get you somewhere safe," Hans insisted.

"But my friends!" Rapunzel argued as she squirmed.

"Are DEAD MEAT," Hans reinforced. "Just give them up and come with us. There's still time to save you."

"Rapunzel, please," Gothel urged. "Let me help you. This time, I know I can make it up to you. You are my precious flower. You always have been."

Rapunzel stopped fighting. "Fine," she said somberly, resignedly. "I'll do it. I'll go with you."

Snatcher removed his arms from around her. "That's a good girl," he said softly.

"Rapunzel," Gothel said as the blonde took two paces back, "I promise, this time, I will be the mother you never truly had. I would give anything to see you safe and smiling. I will do whatever it takes to – "

Rapunzel quickly swept the frying pan up into her hand. She then rushed Snatcher, and as he tried to grab her once more, she whacked him firmly on the side of the head with the flat of the pan, dizzying him up and causing him to reel.

"YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN LIE!" Rapunzel yelled as she barreled toward the scene of the crime.

She skidded right out in front of Eugene and Cassandra, pointing her pan accusingly at Roman and Demyx. "YOU!" she cried. "You're the ones who found some way to bring HER back to life! You sent that man in the red hat after me! This is all some giant plan you're working on together!"

"Don't tell me Archie fucked it up already," Roman sighed.

"Well, there's always Plan B," Demyx reminded him. "B for 'beatdown.'"

"Use whatever weapons you want on me," Rapunzel challenged. "I won't be afraid. Not when my friends are on the line."

Roman's shrewd eyes noted a twitch in her grip, a shake in her stance. "You're terrified right now, aren't you?" he laughed.

"Okay," Rapunzel admitted, "maybe I will be afraid. But that doesn't change things."

"Like the fact that you don't stand a chance against us, Blondie," Roman quipped.

"HEY!" Rapunzel and Eugene said as one.

"You do NOT get to call me that!" Rapunzel insisted.

At the same time, Eugene emphasized, "You do NOT get to call her that!"

A sudden revelation hit Rapunzel: "Wait a minute. You…all of you…you're working with Mozenrath!"

Roman and Demyx flinched. "Uhhh…how do you know that name?" Roman asked.

"Because we WARNED her you were coming!" an all-too-familiar voice yelled from behind Roman and Demyx.

"FUCK," Roman groaned.

Sure enough, when the pair turned, there were Sora, Ruby, Stork, Papyrus, Jasmine, Katara, and Kazuichi, all striking defensive poses and raring for a fight.

"Can you not LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE?" Roman cried.

"No, we cannot!" Ruby answered proudly, hoisting Crescent Rose high.

Rapunzel, Eugene, and Cassandra immediately sensed the turn of the tide of this fight, and they breezed past Roman and Demyx to stand with the other seven.

"I warned you not to mess with my friends," Rapunzel insisted, "and that means my new friends, too!"

"Well, tough luck, Sundrop," Roman growled, "because one way or another, YOU ARE COMING WITH US."

The crowd began to disperse behind him, everyone sensing the situation was under control and feeling the need to rush those who'd survived Roman's blasts to medical aid.

"Dishwater," Roman commanded, "soak 'em."

"Uhhhhhh…not a good idea," Demyx said in a trembling tone. "That's the girl who can mess with my water – "

"I DO NOT CARE, DISHWATER!" Roman roared. "FIGURE IT OUT!"

"All right!" Demyx struck his first chord, and a rush of watery bubbles careened directly toward Sora.

Sora and Ruby stood adjacently to cut each of the bubbles down in sequence.

By then, Snatcher, Hans, and Gothel had rushed to the sides of their allies, filling out the small contingent. On Gothel's scouting mission, she had picked up several knives and a belt to sheath them on, and she drew one then, expertly throwing it at Eugene.

Stork caught the knife in midair, twirling it by the handle.

"Hey, nice moves!" Eugene complimented.

"All right," Sora commanded, "let's drive 'em out of town!"

"GET THE GIRL!" Snatcher roared, pointing at the opposition.

Demyx knew there were too many opponents for him not to at least try with the watery forms. So he summoned up roughly a hundred, willing them to go everywhere but around Katara.

Katara sprang into action, seizing one of the forms and dismantling it into pure water. As Snatcher, Roman, Gothel, and Hans charged, Katara let the water fly full force into Gothel, sending her tumbling.

Hans' sword clashed with both Eugene's and Cassandra's, he fended both off at the same time. With a dramatic yawn, he asked, "Is this really the best the both of you can do?"

Snatcher's hammer flew through the air, taking the chain toward Sora and wrapping around the Keyblade. Sora tugged and jerked the weapon; Snatcher pulled the chain back toward himself. "Not so skilled with that toy now, are you, boy?" he taunted.

Sora gave a heave that freed the Keyblade but sent him toppling back into a sitting position on the ground. Snatcher pointed the barrel of the gun at him; he was fast to raise his blade and block the lightning bolt that ensued. Back on his feet, Sora rushed at Snatcher, swiping the Keyblade at him from the left and from the right; Snatcher gracefully danced out of the way of every swing.

Stork and Jasmine had gone back-to-back to punch out Demyx's water forms. Ruby was slicing through them with Crescent Rose as Papyrus stabbed through them with bones. Katara hurled another wave of water at Demyx, knocking him down and getting a yelp out of him. Rapunzel, getting the idea, started bashing at the water forms with her pan.

She froze when she realized Roman's Cudgel was aimed directly at her. "You know, we have to bring you back alive," he remarked, "but nobody said it had to be in one piece!"

"I AM SAYING THAT," Snatcher cried in horror while evading Sora's blows. "I AM SAYING THAT RIGHT NOW!"

"Well, it's a good thing I'm not LISTENING TO YOU!" Roman yelled back.

That was all the time it took Kazuichi to slide in between the Cudgel and Rapunzel. He stood firm, arms spread wide. "If you try to hurt her," he insisted, "you're gonna have to go through me first!"

"Oh yeah?" Roman retorted. "Well, I've got news for you – "

His eyes traveled the length of Kazuichi, taking in the hair, the hat, the bad leg, the colors of his clothing. Roman then burst out in a guffaw. "Where do I even START?" he laughed. "You are giving me WAY too much to work with here! Okay, okay, why don't we go with…" Noting Kazuichi's gritted teeth, he settled on "Shark Teeth. Okay, here's the thing, Shark Teeth. I have no PROBLEM with going through you to get to her!"

"KAZUICHI!" Rapunzel cried. "NO!"

"SOMEONE GET HER OUT OF THE BLAST RANGE!" Snatcher cried.

A wave of water from Demyx crashed into Rapunzel, toppling her head over heels and sliding her a good distance away from Roman and Kazuichi's standoff.

"Nice knowin' ya, Shark Teeth," Roman said with a smile as he pulled the trigger.

There was another yell of "NO!", this one from Sora, who tackled Kazuichi to shove him out of the way of the blast. At least, that was what Sora had intended to happen. Instead, there was a bright flash of light that surrounded both; Sora landed on the ground alone as the blast missed. He pushed himself up on both hands, worried for only a moment before the voice echoed inside his head:

"WHERE THE HELL AM I?"

Sora stood and took note of his current appearance. His clothing was now a bright yellow-green shot through with pink accents. "We're Driving!" he cried proudly. "Kazuichi, you're inside me!"

"Could you make that sound a little less sexual?" Kazuichi asked meekly from inside Sora's mind.

"We have the upper hand now!" Sora assured him. "We can make magic if we move together!"

"You are really not doing a good job at making that sound less sexual," Kazuichi groaned.

"Just follow my lead!" Sora cried, wondering what new power he'd picked up from Kazuichi.

He turned to where the water forms were crowding his friends, aiming the Keyblade and shouting, "FIRE!"

A massive column of flame, much stronger than the average Firaga, burst forth from the Keyblade's end. Ruby, Stork, Papyrus, Jasmine, and Katara all backed away to avoid being singed as the fire took out ten water forms in one go.

"All RIGHT!" Sora cried, realizing that the extra literal firepower was coming from his bond with Kazuichi. "Time to turn this around!"

At his behest, flames sprang up beneath each of the water forms, eliminating them all in one go.

There was a whistle, then a thud; Gothel had tried to pitch another knife at Sora's head, but Stork had, once again, caught it. "You're welcome," Stork muttered as he ditched the knife.

Cassandra and Eugene's swords caught Hans' blade hard between them. "Seriously," Hans insisted, "you two put together have some of the worst swordplay I have ever – "

As a result of the pressure from the other two swords, his blade snapped in half.

"You were saying?" Eugene taunted with a raised brow.

"He was saying we were terrible with swords," Cassandra clarified.

"Oh, right!" Eugene picked up on what she was saying. "So really, we shouldn't even bother with the swords."

They dropped their blades. Cassandra's left fist and Eugene's right fist both drew back.

Hans had barely enough time to let out a whimper before both punches connected.

"Were we actually on the same page just now?" Eugene teased.

"I think we were," Cassandra replied. "Let's never do it again."

Snatcher now had a clear path to Rapunzel. "This is your LAST chance to come quietly!" he insisted.

"NEVER," Rapunzel growled.

They charged at each other. Rapunzel danced out of Snatcher's reach as fluidly as he had danced out of the way of the Keyblade, and when she got into position, she rammed the frying pan into his face.

Snatcher's growl of pain echoed over the battlefield; Roman got three steps toward him, yelling "ARCHIE!", before remembering he wasn't supposed to care. "…I am STILL not talking to you!" he said as he backed off.

"That WAS speaking to me, Torchwick," Snatcher grunted as he pressed a hand to his now bleeding nose.

That was all the distraction Rapunzel needed to slam the frying pan into Roman's face.

"I know I say this a lot," Demyx suggested from the far side of the field, "but maybe we should RUN AWAY!"

Snatcher, Roman, Gothel, and Hans quickly arranged themselves at his side while their opponents, who most obviously had them outnumbered and outclassed, converged and approached. "Okay, Mr. Snatcher," Hans said, "got a plan for THIS one?"

"They WEREN'T supposed to arrive here!" Snatcher growled, the blood from his nose now running through his fingers. His nose was radiating a throbbing pain throughout his whole face, and he wasn't so sure it wasn't outright broken.

Roman bit his lip – which was, incidentally, sore from the hit he'd taken from the princess' cookware. Not caring was getting a lot harder.

"We aren't giving up," Snatcher went on.

That was when the new cry came from behind Rapunzel, Sora, and their forces: "GUESS WHAT WE FOUND!"

All whirled around to see two burly men – one relatively sharply dressed, with a neat beard and a debonair smile, and the other clothed in rags, with a great metal hook replacing one foot – standing to either side of an enormous crate. The former, one Lance Strongbow, announced, "We got your gopher!"

"Now is NOT the time, Lance!" Eugene cried.

"Why do you need a crate THAT BIG for a gopher?" Cassandra wondered out loud.

The crate shook violently; whatever was inside wanted out. A loud roar emitted from within.

"I don't think that's a gopher," Rapunzel said worriedly.

"Great," Stork moaned. "Something ELSE for us to worry about!"

"Unless we make it work for us!" Sora cried. "Ruby! Let's get that crate open! Everyone else, get out of the way!"

Stork, Jasmine, Katara, Papyrus, Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassandra, Lance, and Hook Foot all scooted to either side of the street. Sora and Ruby charged for the crate. Crescent Rose lifted high into the air; Sora used the extra power from his Drive to launch himself high up into a backflip.

"DON'T I GET ANY SAY IN THIS PLAN?" Kazuichi yelled where only Sora could hear him.

The answer to that was no.

The Keyblade and Crescent Rose cut the front panel of the crate loose at the same time.

Here is what had happened: Lance and Hook Foot had been sent to capture a gopher with only a reference image drawn by Eugene to inform them what sort of animal they were looking for. As Eugene had drawn a rather frightening-looking creature by accident, Lance and Hook Foot had mistaken an altogether different beast for the gopher they sought. What they had collected was no gopher. It was an enormous Sneeze Weasel, a mammal native to the area around Vardaros and known for its bloodlust.

When the Sneeze Weasel was loosed, its gaze was immediately fixed upon Roman, Snatcher, Gothel, Hans, and Demyx. It smelled Snatcher's blood. It gave a roar.

"FUCK!" Roman cried yet again.

"RUN, RUN AWAY!" Demyx screamed.

The five turned tail and hurried as fast as they could down the street as the Sneeze Weasel gave chase.

Once it became clear that the massive mammal had run the five miscreants out of town, everyone who'd observed the display of heroics broke out into applause.

The Sneeze Weasel did not let up its chase, pursuing its five targets out of Vardaros and well into the plains. At one point, Roman stumbled, nearly becoming lost to the creature's predatory instincts.

Without a word, Snatcher paused a brief moment to catch Roman, hauling him upright and guiding him along just long enough that Roman could run under his own steam again.

It took until sundown for the five to reach cover; they barged into a forest, finally losing the Sneeze Weasel among the trees. They waited in a clearing with bated breath, terrified that the creature would find them and tear them apart in their now exhausted state.

Once it became clear that the Sneeze Weasel was not coming back, Demyx said meekly, "I think we should maybe tell Mozenrath to find a different Life element."

All Roman had to say to that was "No SHIT."

...

After five stalemates, Vexen finally slipped up long enough for Mozenrath to back him into a checkmate. This came off as a major relief for Mozenrath, who suspected Vexen would be the toughest opponent he had to face on the chessboard. He was not really willing to admit it, but deep down, he knew that a match between them came down to almost dumb luck, and it could just as easily have been the other way around.

That put him in the final match on the bracket, which confused him to no end. For the person who had won the other half of the bracket was Mim.

"I know you're cheating," Mozenrath declared as he walked to his side of the table for the final match.

"You can't prove anything," Mim said haughtily as she drew her chair and sat down in it.

Mozenrath was the first to move; Mim responded quickly. Mozenrath deliberated for quite some time on his next move before making a confident play. Mim, once again, made her move instantaneously.

"This actually got kind of entertaining," Garfield whispered to Peter.

"Now would that Mozenrath only took less than ten years to make a move," Peter replied cheekily.

For every play Mozenrath enacted after deliberate calculation, Mim responded with a move that seemed born of recklessness. Mozenrath couldn't even imagine what sort of play she was building toward. He was strategizing, arranging his pieces for the perfect capture.

When his first knight was taken off the board, he flinched. He had somehow completely missed that coming. He kept silent, however, as a theory built up in his mind. He now spread out his strategy, focusing less on building a strong network and more on placing his bishop as bait.

It was taken, and not from the direction he had expected. "I see now," he said softly.

"Hmm?" Mim replied. "Did you say something?"

"I said I know how you're doing it," Mozenrath stated, louder this time. "You ARE cheating. I'm surprised no one picked up on it before now. Though, then again…" He glanced up at the bracket to see all the opponents Mim had faced, judging their intellect by his own standards. "Maybe I shouldn't be."

"I'm playing perfectly fair!" Mim insisted. "The reason you're losing is because I've had so many decades alone to get good at games like these!"

"You are not playing perfectly fair," Mozenrath rebutted. "You aren't playing fair at all. When your opponent is focusing on moving their pieces, you swap two of yours magically. That castle that just took my bishop? That was a pawn there. I REMEMBER that."

"Oh, so what if I'm cheating?" Mim folded her arms. "Did we ever say cheating WASN'T allowed?"

"If it were ALLOWED," Mozenrath retorted, "it wouldn't be called CHEATING!"

He turned to look at Wuya and Yzma, who had already both lost their matches and returned to their roles as emcees. They soon figured out the reason they were being called upon.

"Don't look at us!" Yzma snapped. "We aren't actual referees!"

"Black and white stripes are slimming," Wuya added.

"All right," Mozenrath said as he turned back to Mim. "We'll play this game your way. If you're going to cheat – "

He shouldn't have taken his eyes off the board. She'd rearranged every single one of her pieces, a single move away from checkmating Mozenrath.

"So can I," Mozenrath threatened.

He snapped his fingers, and all of his pieces swapped squares as well, his king safely out of range and protected by several pawns.

It was perhaps the most entertaining match of the set. All rules were off the table. Pieces switched places at random, and though this seemed like a surefire way to guarantee a stalemate, the audience didn't tire, because once it became clear that Mozenrath was putting up an actual fight, Mim began to do such things as setting his queen on fire and melting his knights. Mozenrath simply gave himself three more queens before sticking her queen to its square with a gummy magical glue. He placed a bishop down, and it promptly exploded. Mim's king swapped spaces with Mozenrath's.

"I could do this all day," Mozenrath said casually.

"Well, my patience is running out," Mim huffed. "So I'm going to bring an end to this game once and for all!"

Every single piece but Mozenrath's turned black.

"Move a single one of my pieces," Mim warned, "and the whole board goes boom!"

"Looks like I have no choice," Mozenrath remarked.

He picked up his king and placed it on the side of the board.

"I WIN!" Mim cried.

"Now, now," Mozenrath said calmly, "that wasn't a gesture of surrender. There is no longer any rule saying my king has to be anywhere on the board, so it won't be on the board anymore. It's still safe and in play."

"But – I – you – " Mim struggled to think of how to respond to this. "All right, then. If you insist!"

She placed a hand on one of her now many queens.

"Won't the board explode if one of them moves?" Mozenrath mused.

"Of course not!" Mim huffed.

"Then I can make a few adjustments," Mozenrath declared.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Mim warned him. "The board explodes if YOU move my pieces! Not if I move my pieces!"

"Well, I'm still going to move them anyway," Mozenrath told her. "After all, your king is on the board, and mine isn't. So if you make a move, well, that would be putting your king and not mine in the blast zone, since it would inspire me to intercept your play. Now, let's see. A state in which your king is in danger if you make a move? That almost sounds like…"

"THEN THE BOARD WON'T EXPLODE!" Mim cried.

"Then I make as many adjustments as I want," Mozenrath told her, "and the game keeps going."

"Ohhhh…" Mim shook as she gripped the edge of the table. "Fine! FINE! You win!" She literally flipped the table, pieces spilling over the edge of the stage.

Mozenrath stood up and gave a playful bow. "That was an unexpected challenge. I have to say I'm actually impressed."

"I have to say YOU'RE no fun," Mim snorted.

"And that concludes the official WHAM ARMY chess tournament!" Yzma announced. "Our winner is – "

The doors burst open. The Huntsman staggered through, the pain finally starting to affect him. All could see the way his left arm hung awkwardly from his shoulder, and when he collapsed to his knees – refusing to let himself fall any further than that – they could tell he was weary.

"Vexen…" he sputtered. "I need…"

"I can see very well what you need," Vexen said as he walked briskly toward the Huntsman. "You'd better be able to at least walk to the laboratory. I refuse to waste time figuring out how to transport you."

The Huntsman nodded as he stood. Just before Vexen reached him, he took in the scene. It was obvious what had taken place here, given the chess table, the spilled pieces, the bracket.

"And when I return," the Huntsman said hoarsely, "I should like to play the victor."

On that note, he let Vexen escort him out.

...

A/N: The "cookies are cake chips" joke comes from Tumblr blog gr8writingtips' post "cookies are just cake chips. think about it. incorporate it into your writing." I swore I would actually do it and I did.