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.

88. The Awful Truth

Having only one outfit to last you an extended stay in an unfamiliar village all on your own is bad enough. When that sole outfit happens to be your supervillain costume, you will realize pretty quickly that you need to expand your wardrobe.

That was what brought Harley Quinn, bedecked in red and black with face in full makeup, into the small clothing store in Higanbana. She still had a small purse of munny left over from her time spent with Maleficent, and intended to spend it on a new ensemble: something that would let her blend in as a civilian.

The selection amazed her. Here in Remnant, the populace was snappy dressers. Mannequins were displayed wearing layer upon layer, jackets and tanks coordinating satisfyingly and shorts topping off leggings. Skirts were lined with enough chiffon and ruffle to prevent lascivious eyes from getting a glance at undergarments, and this added a pleasant fluffing effect to the skirts as well. Harley was amazed at the selection of trenchcoats and crop tops, of corsets and kimonos, of blazers and vests.

Weighing out her munny carefully, she selected garments off the clearance rack – which were still no slouch compared to their more expensive brethren. Red, black, and even a little bit of pink filled Harley's arms.

She plopped her pile of treasure down on the counter, where the shopkeeper proceeded to ring each up and remove its protective ink tag. Harley's attention was turned to her purse, where she doled out the cash. The shopkeeper was temporarily confused by the multicolored crystals in place of lien, but figured they were valuable enough that this was an even trade.

Harley scooped up her purchases without taking a bag, telling the shopkeeper, "Thanks, an' have a nice day!"

That was when the shopkeeper noticed the single ink tag she'd missed. Moving out from behind the counter, she called out, "Miss…"

Harley rolled her eyes. "What? There a problem?"

"Yes." The shopkeeper swiped the red, lacy tank top out of Harley's grip and held it up before her. "This."

Harley's eyes zeroed in on the tag. Immediately, she knew – or thought she knew – what the shopkeeper must suspect. That she'd stuffed the tank in among her purchases and tried to smuggle it out without paying for it. "So you're just gonna jump to THAT conclusion, are ya? I paid for that with my own munny! You saw!"

"Miss, please," the shopkeeper begged. "Calm down."

The Joker had beaten and threatened her. Maleficent had made it clear she didn't belong. Roman had thrown her to her doom. Garfield and Peter had abandoned her. Terminus and Hoagy had lives to run that didn't involve checking in on her. Harley had tried again and again to pretend that she was finally fine and free: that she could be calm.

But she absolutely was not calm, and as soon as she was instructed to be, the walls came tumbling down. Everyone would either hurt her or leave her. Sure, she might have said they should get on with their lives, and that had seemed right. Surely Terminus and Hoagy had done more for her than she would have even expected. But at the end of the day, she had no one. She'd settled in Higanbana alone, and alone was how she was destined to live out her life. No one would trust her. No one would stick with her. No one would give her the benefit of the doubt. And that included this shopkeeper, who was determined to accuse her of a crime she hadn't committed.

Yet, anyway.

"I AIN'T GONNA CALM DOWN!" Harley reached for the first object she could grab – the arm of the nearest mannequin – and ripped it clean off. "I PAID FOR THAT TOP FAIR AN' SQUARE, AN' YOU'RE GONNA GET OFF MY BACK!"

The mannequin arm went slamming directly into the shopkeeper's stomach.

As the shopkeeper tumbled to the floor and scrambled for her scroll, a couple things occurred to Harley. One was that she quite obviously had some unresolved issues she hadn't been willing to admit to herself. The other was a strange sense of déjà vu, as though this had happened to her before, though she couldn't remember such a circumstance. (Had she recalled the parallel worlds Maleficent had informed her of, she might've had a clearer picture.)

"L-look," she stammered, approaching the shopkeeper, dropping the rest of her purchases and the mannequin arm to extend a hand downward. "I'm sorry. This was all just a big misund – "

The shopkeeper had already placed the call: "I need a security team to the boutique NOW! I've just been assaulted by a madwoman!"

"So that's how it is," Harley sighed, preparing to run from the officers (or, in this case, Huntsmen) who would inevitably come for her. "This is gonna be a long day, ain't it?"

...

It ended up being midafternoon by the time the Brotherhood had geared up to make their final power play. They suited up in the hopes of cutting a more intimidating figure. The stolen artifacts were unceremoniously stuffed into a duffel bag; Wanda made a passing comment about how it might be disastrous if any of them were to break and unleash the power inside, but that went completely ignored.

With Pietro in the lead, they exited the house and made a direct beeline to the castle gates.

The castle foyer had been temporarily transformed into a sparring ring. Sora, Riku, and Kairi had been particularly elated to show off the new techniques they had been studying under Master Yen Sid, and there was no shortage of friends willing to help them test their abilities out. At the moment, Riku, equipped with a foam sword in place of his Keyblade so as not to cause accidental grievous harm to his opponent, was squaring off against Stork. Arranged along either side of the double stairway that curved around the room were Sora, Kairi, Jaune, Kazuichi, Ruby, and Papyrus, all cheering on either one or the other.

"C'MON, RIKU!" Sora yelled as Riku executed a complex combination strike. "SHOW HIM WHAT YOU GOT!"

Stork deftly dodged each of Riku's strokes, quick as a wink, to the tune of Kazuichi screaming, "KICK HIS ASS, STORK!"

Riku darted, breezing past Stork and pulling up behind him; Stork twisted to wrench Riku into a light headlock. Riku's foam blade whacked Stork in the face, prompting him to let go. Stork whirled and aimed a kick, his ankle locking with the foam blade. Riku ducked and charged; Stork leapt over him easily.

"Not bad," Riku laughed. "Maybe I should stop goin' easy on you."

Stork gave him a look of concern; "You were doing WHAT NOW – "

That was punctuated with the sword battering him from several angles consecutively. Stork eventually found his opening to duck below the blade, swinging a leg at Riku's ankles; Riku deftly hopped over the kick, springboarding off it to flip through the air over Stork and land on his other side, sword pointed so that when Stork twisted to look at Riku, the tip of the false blade rested just beneath his chin.

"Well played," Stork congratulated.

Both those who had been cheering Riku and those who had been cheering Stork erupted into applause at Riku's victory. "I KNEW you could do it!" Sora cried.

The noise of the ovation masked the sound of the front door scraping open. No one present realized they had guests until all five of said guests had arrived in the foyer. As Quicksilver, Avalanche, Scarlet Witch, Blob, and Toad entered the room, all eyes were suddenly upon them. They, in turn, got a good look at their welcoming committee, and recognition dawned across everyone in a massive jolt.

"RIKU?" said Avalanche.

"LANCE?" said Riku.

"KAZ?" said Toad.

"TODD?" said Kazuichi and Stork.

"Princess," said Blob.

"FRED?" said Kairi and Jaune.

"WANDA?" said Sora.

"SORA?" said Scarlet Witch.

"PAPYRUS!" said Papyrus.

And as Quicksilver and Ruby's eyes locked on each other, they hardened into a gaze of utter malice, both growling the word "YOU."

"Wait, wait, stop." Avalanche put both hands up, palms out. "How do we all KNOW each other?"

"That's Wanda!" Sora explained. "Papyrus and I met her on our morning run yesterday! She's the one we showed around!"

"And I ran into Riku while scoping out guitars," Avalanche added.

"We met Fred while we were out on our walk," Kairi chimed in.

"Found Kaz an' Stork while I was lookin' for bees," Toad clarified.

"And you." Ruby zipped down the stairs, planting herself directly before Quicksilver. "You're the one who RUINED MY ICE CREAM, RUINED MY SHIRT, AND STOLE FROM MR. MCDUCK!"

"And you're the slowpoke who couldn't catch me," Quicksilver reminded her smugly.

"Slowpoke?" Ruby repeated. "SLOWPOKE?"

In a blink, Quicksliver had edged around her, facing the rest of the group. "I'm not here to rehash the ice cream incident," he explained. "I'm here to cut a bargain."

"A bargain?" Kairi tilted her head in confusion.

"You don't need to bargain with us for anything," Sora told him. "It sounds like we're all friends! You can just ask for whatever you want!"

"Friends?" Quicksilver repeated. "Obviously we all KNOW each other somehow, but I wouldn't say we're FRIENDS."

He became aware of Avalanche muttering an "Actually…" and Toad contributing a "Kinda…" behind him.

"Okay, so some of us are friends," Quicksilver hastily corrected. "That doesn't change anything." And both Avalanche and Toad nodded, emphasizing that point.

Ruby was now in front of Quicksilver again. "I KNEW I'd see you around again," she growled, "and I KNEW you'd just make more TROUBLE!"

"Will you get out of my face?" Quicksilver gave Ruby's forearm a rough shove. It wasn't enough to move her. Quicksilver blinked at her in surprise; he hadn't expected a girl shorter than him to be that strong.

"Ruby," Riku said firmly. "We should hear what he has to say."

Ruby jammed two fingers at her silver eyes, then pointed them at Quicksilver as she backed off to stand next to Riku and Stork.

"We have something of yours that I think you're going to want back," Quicksilver explained.

"Y'know, I was half expectin' those other guys," Toad admitted. "Sure am glad it ain't them."

"You think they were lyin' about needin' that stuff more than these guys do?" Blob wondered out loud.

"What other guys?" Riku asked, now suspicious about who else was involved in this bizarre chain of events.

"That doesn't matter," Quicksilver dismissed. "What matters is that you probably want your – " His hand dove into the duffel bag, retrieving, displaying, and replacing each item he named in quick succession. " – glass ball, different-colored glass ball, bottle of wine, rainbow crystal, broken glowy thing, paintbrush, jar of hearts, green box, space rock, smaller rock, knight armor, and weird-shaped jewels back."

A collective gasp rang out. Then Kairi yelled, "Where did you GET those?"

"From a locked safe in this castle," Quicksilver said casually.

"How did you get in without anybody noticing?" Jaune asked in astonishment.

"How'd you break into the SAFE?" Kazuichi added.

"With a little Quicksilver speed," Quicksilver boasted. "That's what you can call me, by the way: 'Quicksilver.' My friends here are Avalanche, Scarlet Witch, Blob, and Toad, and together, we are the Brotherhood of Mutants."

"THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS?" Papyrus repeated. "WELL, THAT NAME SOUNDS OFFICIAL. IT CARRIES WEIGHT! BUT THERE'S SOMETHING ELSE ABOUT IT I CAN'T QUITE PLACE…"

"It sounds fucking evil," Kazuichi volunteered.

Papyrus snapped his finger-bones. "AHA! YES! THAT IS IT! THE NAME ITSELF IS INNOCUOUS ENOUGH. IT DOES IMPLY SOLIDARITY, AFTER ALL. BUT THE PRESENTATION OF IT SOMEHOW GIVES OFF ENTIRELY THE WRONG IDEA. IT ALMOST SOUNDS LIKE THE NAME OF AN ORGANIZATION THAT'S JUST OUT TO MAKE TROUBLE, AND YOU DON'T WANT THAT!"

"I think that's exactly what they want," Ruby hissed.

"Slowpoke is the only one here who gets it," Quicksilver said with a smirk. "Anyway, we're asking for 50,000 dol – munny per item. Something tells me you'll be able to foot that bill."

"Wha – " Kazuichi shook his head. "C'mon, guys, this isn't funny! Todd, you're not being SERIOUS about this!"

"Dead serious," Toad replied with a grin. "Look, Kaz, this ain't personal. I still like ya. But it's business, yo."

"What about you, Lance?" Riku asked. "Is this really what you want?"

"You bet it is," Avalanche affirmed. "I ain't happy that it's gotta be YOU I mess up, but this'll set us up for life."

"WANDA?" Papyrus asked. "SURELY YOU DON'T THINK THIS IS RIGHT. NOT AFTER WE WERE THE WELCOMING COMMITTEE AND HAD OUR GRAND ADVENTURE WITH YOU!"

"It's what's best for the Brotherhood," Scarlet Witch insisted. "And we're NOT friends. We only met yesterday. You're just another part of the system."

"Fred…?" Kairi looked imploringly to Blob.

She was rewarded with a malicious smile. "I don't play nice with princesses!" Blob insisted. "And you don't wanna play nice with thugs like me!"

"I should've known," Stork sighed. "It was only a matter of time before this blind trust in strangers Sora instilled in all of us would end up biting us in the sensitive parts."

"You gotta listen!" Sora insisted. "All that stuff's really important! There are a lot of different worlds depending on – "

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait!" Toad cried. "There's more than just the two? Worlds, I mean."

"WAY more!" Sora insisted, spreading his arms for emphasis. "Everything you have comes from a different world, and they all need it back! Well…" He thought it over. "Okay. There's some stuff we could let you keep if you really wanted it. There's plenty of Dust. That's the rainbow crystal. We don't need that back. And there's more of the Spirit Waters where those came from. It isn't wine."

"And we replaced the broken Aurora Stone," Riku added. "That's the one that glows. We won't need it either."

"But if you don't give the rest of it back," Sora pleaded, "then none of the gods that knew Amaterasu can use the Celestial Brush to fix anything on that world, the families of those six souls won't get to put their lost kids to rest, the World of Twelve can't ever use the Eliacube again, Darkness will take over Disney Castle, Midna won't be able to use her full powers, and Equestria will stay covered in Plunderseed vines! And we don't even KNOW what the two rocks do!"

"Not to mention you have the Dragon's Eye," Riku said sternly. "You don't even know what kind of Darkness you're messing with when you play with that. Maybe the worlds are better off without it, but so long as you have it, you're in grave danger."

"Well, if you want it all back so bad," Quicksilver insisted, "then pay up."

"Maybe we should just do what they said," Kairi suggested. "We need those things back. They're worth the price."

"BUT WON'T THAT MUNNY BE NEEDED FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION EFFORT?" Papyrus inquired. "WE WERE ALMOST READY TO START SENDING REFUGEES HOME!"

"They can stay here a little longer," Kairi insisted. "We'll take care of them. But those worlds are DEPENDING on us to get those things back to them safely. I'll talk to Leon and the others." She looked directly down off the balcony to Quicksilver. "We'll have your money in a minute."

"Now that's what I like to hear," Quicksilver replied, smugly satisfied.

That was Ruby's absolute tipping point. "WHAT?" she exploded. "NO! WE ARE NOT JUST GOING TO LET THESE PEOPLE WALTZ IN HERE, RUIN OUR FRICKELDY-FRACKING ICE CREAM, AND HOLD A BUNCH OF REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF FOR FRICKELDY-FRACKING RANSOM!"

"You know it's serious when she breaks out the frickeldy-fracks," Kazuichi muttered.

"WE ARE NOT PAYING FIFTY THOU – " Ruby paused. "Wait. Fifty thousand times twelve. What is that? No, and we don't need the Spirit Water, the Dust, or the Aurora shards, so that's actually fifty thousand times – oooooOOOHHHH FORGET IT!" She stamped a foot hard on the ground. "We are TAKING THAT STUFF BACK! NOW!"

"You wanna fight?" Quicksilver challenged.

"You know I do," Ruby growled.

"Wait a minute!" Avalanche objected. "I don't wanna fight Riku!"

"And I ain't deckin' Kaz!" Toad added.

"I'm here too," Stork reminded him.

Todd considered it. "…Nah, you I can deck, no consequences."

"I don't like the idea of fighting you either, Lance," Riku insisted.

"Then don't fight each other!" Quicksilver groaned. "Pick somebody else to fight! It's five on eight! You have options!"

In one synchronized movement, Sora, Kairi, Papyrus, and Jaune vaulted over the stairway railings, landing beside Stork, Riku, and Ruby on the ground floor. Kazuichi considered it, made a half-attempt, then decided instead to slide down the banister until he had reached the lineup.

"You do know you're challenging a bunch of incredibly powerful mutants," Quicksilver reminded them. "And also Toad."

"AND YOU ARE CHALLENGING A BAND OF TRAINED WARRIORS!" Papyrus retorted. "AND ALSO KAZUICHI SODA. WHO DOES TRY HIS BEST, MIND YOU."

"This is your last chance," Kairi said as she balled her hands into fists. "Give us the bag. We don't HAVE to fight." Ruby's words had inspired her; no longer did she want to make deals with thieves over such important devices.

Quicksilver was now focused on establishing the hierarchy. It would've been easy to simply leave, but these people needed to know exactly what they were messing with. It was high time the Brotherhood made its mark on Radiant Garden and left a reputation to be talked about. "Of course we don't have to," he agreed, his words picking up speed. "Butnowwewantto."

He turned and launched the bag toward Avalanche, who slung it over a shoulder while throwing out his arms and crying "LET'S RUMBLE!"

The entire atrium began to shudder violently.

"GET THAT BAG!" Ruby screamed, pointing directly at Avalanche before stumbling on the unsteady ground.

"ON IT!" Sora flipped into the air, breaking into a glide that allowed him to avoid the unstable floor on his way to Avalanche.

He was intercepted midflight by Toad, who tackled him, sending both rolling head over heels across the floor. "GET OFF!" Sora yelled, easily throwing Toad aside. The moment he leapt to his feet, however, he was tripped again, Toad's tongue wrapped around his ankle.

"Whatha go'ha oo how?" Toad attempted to taunt.

What was Sora gonna do now? He knew he was facing enemies, but all but one of these enemies had made friends among his group, and despite what the Brotherhood had said, Sora still believed these bonds were real. He wasn't about to summon his blade; he couldn't use it against a friend of Kazuichi, a friend of Wanda. So, instead, he just tried to kick Toad hard in the face.

He succeeded.

Scrambling to his feet, Sora made another run for Avalanche only for Toad to pounce on his back, sending him down yet again. "Say, uh, what happened to all that 'trained warrior' talk?" Toad asked idly.

"I'm not gonna HURT you!" Sora insisted.

"Oh, man," Toad laughed, "an' I thought those X-freaks were bleedin' heart types."

"I GOT IT!" Kairi yelled, leaping high into the air and performing a flip herself.

She was stunned to find herself frozen in midair, held in place by a strong force. Eyes flicking over the room, she located the source of her predicament: Scarlet Witch holding a hand up toward her, keeping her unmoving. Avalanche's quake was kept centered around him, leaving his allies on slightly steadier ground; Scarlet Witch quivered but did not topple.

"WANDA!" Kairi cried. "PLEASE LET ME DOWN! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

"Call me Scarlet Witch," Scarlet Witch seethed. "And I know exactly what I'm doing. Securing my freedom."

A red streak leaving rose petals in its wake blazed past both of them, surging toward Avalanche only to get broadsided by a wave of silver. Quicksilver paused to admire his handiwork as Ruby was knocked onto her back. "Nice try, Slowpoke," he jeered.

He then ducked as Stork aimed a kick at him from behind; Stork's leg sailed over him. "Really?" Quicksilver sighed. "Do you NOT understand how out of your league I am by now?" He was suddenly behind Stork, seizing the Merb's upper body and using it to throw him down. By then, Ruby was flying at Quicksilver, fist drawn back, only concerned with socking that pretty face of his. He evaded, grabbing Ruby's ankle and slamming her down on top of Stork.

"Sorrysorrysorry – " Ruby babbled as she scrambled off Stork's body.

"I did NOT mean to get that close – " Stork insisted at the same time.

Quicksilver barged between the pair, slamming a fist into each of their faces. They reeled momentarily; when they straightened up, they gave each other a look of determination.

"Take down Quicksilver?" Stork asked.

"Take down Quicksilver," Ruby agreed.

The silver blaze was already on his way back around toward them; they each aimed a blow, and both missed.

Riku's eyes zeroed in on the cracks running up the wall nearest to where Avalanche stood as a result of his tremor. If nothing else, Avalanche had to be stopped. Riku bolted for him, a little wobbly as he got closer to the source of the quake but refusing to be tripped up.

When Blob stood in his way, however, he was faced with a bit more difficult of an obstacle. "All right," Riku decided. "You wanna do this the hard way."

He made to dart around Blob, but the tremor made him lose his balance; Blob picked up the faltering Riku and launched him all the way across the foyer, landing him in the fountain with a great splash.

"HEY, HEY, HEY!" Kazuichi cried, activating his armor plate and zooming toward Blob at full speed. "NO ONE FUCKS WITH MY FRIENDS! How do you like the taste of THIS?"

He turned both of his blasters on Blob, full throttle.

This had absolutely no effect. Blob simply stood in place, laughing at the feeble attempt to displace him.

"Thiiiiiis is not going like how I planned it," Kazuichi moaned.

He was Blob's next target; his ankle was seized and he was twirled around twice before being launched at Riku, who'd only just managed to get out of the fountain before Kazuichi's collision course knocked him right back into it.

As pieces of stone began to dislodge from the wall, Jaune turned to Papyrus. "We need to shut that guy's power off before he brings down the room!" Jaune insisted.

"BUT HOW?" Papyrus asked. "HE DOES NOT SEEM TO BE IN THE MOOD FOR NEGOTIATION!"

"We kill two birds with one stone," Jaune realized. "If we get close enough to take that bag from him, he'll have to stop doing what he's doing so he can protect the bag. Can you do any bone tricks that would help us out?"

"ABSOLUTELY!" Papyrus confirmed. "ONWARD! TO SAVE THE CASTLE!"

Two platforms made of bones held together like the logs of a raft appeared at Papyrus' will. Papyrus and Jaune each leapt aboard one; the boards responded to their thoughts, tearing in Avalanche's direction, all the while circumventing the squabbling others who stood between them and the helmeted earthshaker.

Before Avalanche knew it, Jaune and Papyrus were upon him, making grabs for the duffel from their flying boards of bone. "HEY!" Avalanche ceased the quake, ducking to avoid the pair. "NO WAY!"

Jaune and Papyrus circled him again from above before diving.

In a panic, Avalanche sought to get rid of the bag before it could be taken by force. "BLOB!" he yelled, getting Blob's attention. "HEADS UP!"

Blob turned to face him just in time to see the duffel sailing toward him; he caught it solidly. "Let's see you try and take it NOW!" he crowed.

That was when Kazuichi, who'd been sneaking up overhead with Riku in his grasp, let Riku plunge directly down on top of Blob.

The resulting collision let off a shockwave of Darkness; Blob wasn't toppled, but did find he had to concentrate to keep his balance. Riku was now perched on his shoulders, swiping for the bag. Desperate, Blob called out "WANDA!" before launching the bag at Scarlet Witch.

The duffel was captured in Scarlet Witch's energy, levitated up at Kairi's height. Furrowing her brow, Kairi focused on the bag, lifting an arm that felt heavy in Scarlet Witch's hold. "MAGNEGA!" Kairi cried.

The duffel shot toward Kairi. That was bad enough, but the connection between the word Kairi had used to cast her spell, the resulting effect, and the power Scarlet Witch had seen her father use was not lost on her. A rage coursed through Scarlet Witch, and it was unleashed in the form of a raw wave of energy that blasted Kairi and the duffel both across the room. Kairi was thrown upward, grasping onto the edge of the vast blue chandelier that dangled overhead. As for the bag, it ended up on a trajectory toward another of Scarlet Witch's allies; she shook away her anger enough to give him the heads-up. "TOAD!"

Toad froze in place. "Saywhatnow?"

The bag landed on him and knocked him to the floor.

Scarlet Witch gritted her teeth in frustration.

Sora seized both his chance and the bag; as he grasped its handle, Toad managed to get a hand on the strap's other end. They temporarily locked in a tug-of-war, but Sora knew he would win given his strength, provided Toad didn't resort to any dirty tricks.

Toad's next move was, of course, to pull an incredibly dirty trick, in both the metaphorical and literal sense. Sora was unexpectedly hit in the face by a blinding clod of green mucus. As Sora cried out in disgust, he let go of the bag to claw the substance off his face.

Toad knew he couldn't be in possession of the bag for long. He also knew who could. "YO, PIETRO!"

Quicksilver slowed down just enough to make himself an easy target. Toad chucked the bag at him; Quicksilver looped the strap over his shoulder and went right back to running circles around Ruby and Stork.

It was into this madness that Mozenrath strode proudly, flanked by Yzma, Wuya, Snatcher, Scarlet, Vexen, and Xayide. "I'm glad you've all had fun," he remarked, "but I'll be taking back what's mine now."

He went completely ignored. The Brotherhood and this segment of the Cinnamons were utterly distracted by each other, not even having noticed the presence of the WHAM ARMY.

"I SAID," Mozenrath growled more loudly, "I'M GLAD YOU'VE ALL HAD FUN, BUT I'LL BE TAKING BACK WHAT'S MINE NOW!"

Sora and Toad rolled across the floor. Avalanche had seized the edge of Papyrus' board and was trying to shake it to pieces while Jaune leapt at him to peel him away. Kairi managed to safely land her drop off the chandelier, raising two hands cold with Blizzaga at Scarlet Witch. Riku assaulted Blob from all angles only to be knocked back, with Kazuichi hovering overhead and trying to figure out how he could help. Stork and Ruby collided directly with each other trying to apprehend Quicksilver, who paused long enough to point and laugh at their embarrassment before taking off like a bullet once more.

Mozenrath sighed, rolling his eyes as his right hand went up. He snapped his fingers.

An explosion of bright blue magic rocked the room, sending out a shockwave from its center. Everyone suddenly froze, looking about for the source of the disturbance until all eyes fell upon Mozenrath.

"I'm glad you've all had fun," Mozenrath sighed with considerably less gusto than before, "but I'll be taking back what's mine now. Did that sink in, or do I need to find a DEADLIER way to get your attention?"

The change was sudden and significant. Sora, Riku, and Kairi summoned their Keyblades to hand. Jaune and Ruby dove for the wall where Crescent Rose and Crocea Mors had been set aside, taking up their arms.

Upon noticing the specific people who accompanied Mozenrath, Toad and Scarlet Witch cried out "IT'S HIM!" at the same time that Quicksilver, Avalanche, and Blob yelled, "IT'S HER!" Then, in surprise, the five looked to each other, chorusing: "It's THEM?"

"And they're all working for HIM," Quicksilver realized, glowering at Mozenrath.

"I think we just learned who 'the other guys' are," Stork observed. "And by my calculations, we're all doomed."

"How'd you even get in here?" Sora yelled.

"There are wards on top of wards!" Jaune added.

"We used the front door," Mozenrath replied, rolling his eyes.

"All these Keybearers," Stork muttered, "and not one of them thought of locking the front door."

"Wait a minute!" Kazuichi realized. "You're not working for them, are you?"

"No," Quicksilver scoffed, "though apparently not for lack of trying on their part." He zipped right up to Mozenrath, pointing an index finger into the sorcerer's chest. "So you thought you could get our stuff for free by splitting us up."

Mozenrath's eyes flicked to the duffel bag. Quicksilver whipped it away before Mozenrath could react; Avalanche caught it once more.

"Look, Pietro," Mozenrath sighed, "we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. It turns out your Brotherhood is made up of people who are SLIGHTLY less idiots than originally perceived. You managed to see through our lies, so we owe you the truth." He casually pushed Quicksilver's hand away from him with the back of his wrist. "After all, your people and my people all want the same thing."

"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, QUICKSILVER!" Sora cried. "HE'S TRYING TO TRICK YOU!"

"That is his mode of operation," Quicksilver affirmed.

"Just hear me out," Mozenrath demanded. "Yes, my agents in the WHAM ARMY attempted to break you up so we could take possession of your stolen goods."

"I'm sorry, the WHAM ARMY?" Quicksilver repeated, cracking a smile. "Any worries I had that 'Brotherhood of Mutants' was a stupid name are now completely gone. At least my team isn't called the WHAM ARMY."

"IT'S AN ACRONYM!" Mozenrath raged.

"For what?" Quicksilver asked. "Weak Half-wits Always Making Asinine, Ridiculous Machinations Yesterday?"

"I'm…kinda impressed he came up with that on the spot," Scarlet admitted.

"The name doesn't matter," Mozenrath insisted. "We are an organization of conquerors, thieves, and general ne'er-do-wells assembled from many worlds. Those valuables you stole were part of a critical ritual we were about to perform in order to take control of all the worlds in existence."

"It was a trick!" Sora yelled. "Khartoum just set you up to take that spell! If you cast it, it'll DESTROY the worlds, not let you rule them!"

"A little late for lies, isn't it?" Mozenrath retorted. "That wasn't even a good one. The point is, as Wanda figured out, the items you're holding for ransom are in fact incredibly magically powerful. We did make a mistake in trying to approach the Brotherhood individually to try and talk you into handing them over. Truth be told, your resilience is actually impressive. Not to mention your powers are nothing to sneeze at. Well, except the amphibian's, but on the whole, you pack a pretty good punch. And, finally, you have an anti-authority streak that aligns well with our purposes, combined with a history of several impressive crimes from the sound of it. So now, I would like to make our REAL offer. If you, and I mean all five of you, team up with us to crush these do-gooders and keep the stolen items out of their hands, you will have a permanent place in the WHAM ARMY. Think about it. Like minds, a share in RULING THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE, and, as a bonus, you get to eradicate the exact kind of people who have been making mockeries of you your whole lives."

"QUICKSILVER, NO!" Sora yelled. "HE'S JUST GONNA BACKSTAB YOU!"

"Is he?" Riku wondered out loud. "He's gathered plenty of other villains on good terms so far. And maybe he wants with them what Maleficent wanted with me."

"WILLYOUSHUTUP?" Quicksilver yelled back over his shoulder. "You don't get to decide what the Brotherhood does."

"Exactly," Mozenrath affirmed. "They're going to try to fence you in with rules and regulations. Now that we've come clean about OUR intentions, we're offering you a place to be yourselves and do what you want."

"You really think we're gonna believe that now?" Quicksilver retorted, staring Mozenrath down. "THEY might be annoying, but at least THEY never dumped a bunch of lies on us to get us to distrust our best friends."

"And you SERIOUSLY lied to me!" Avalanche pointed out. "What were you gonna do when I found out the truth? Off me?"

"You found out my insecurities," Scarlet Witch growled, "and you played them against me. You tried to BREAK me."

"You made me think the only people who like me were laughin' at me!" Blob added.

Toad attempted, "Look, ain't that I was bothered or – "

"And you made Todd think we were gonna LEAVE HIM BEHIND AGAIN!" Blob insisted over Toad's denial. "And 'cause of you, WE ALMOST DID! You ain't gettin' away with that!"

"And for the icing on the cake, you pitted me against my boyfriend," Quicksilver concluded. "To make a long story short, there is no way in this or any other world that we're gonna be joining you to crush them. If anything happens here today, we're going to be joining THEM to crush YOU."

"REALLY?" Sora's face lit up. "You mean it?"

"But ONLY UNTIL THIS MESS IS TAKEN CARE OF," Quicksilver informed Sora. "After that, we are NOT FRIENDS."

"I have incredibly mixed feelings on this," Ruby stated.

"I don't think you understand," Mozenrath insisted. "I offered you the WORLDS."

"And I'm offering you one chance to get out of here before you end up embarrassing yourselves," Quicksilver replied.

"No!" Mozenrath balked. "NO! HOW ARE YOU TURNING ME DOWN? I CAN GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT! THEY REPRESENT EVERYTHING YOU HATE!"

"Lord Mozenrath," Snatcher sighed, "WHEN will you learn to simply let me do the talking in these cases?"

"Oh, I don't know, Snatcher," Mozenrath replied sarcastically. "Maybe when I send you to break the spirits of five teenagers and persuade them to hand over what we want, AND YOU ACTUALLY MANAGE TO DO EXACTLY THAT."

"We will discuss the reasons why this is NO FAULT OF MINE when we return home," Snatcher argued.

"You can still leave," Kairi insisted. "You came in through the door. You can turn around and go the same way."

"Or you'll what?" Mozenrath jeered. "Look at all of you with your adorable little toys. And not one of you has the nerve to make the first mo – "

Quicksilver disappeared from Mozenrath's vision. The sorcerer then felt a punch broadside his left cheek, followed up by an identical one to his right. Quicksilver pulled to a halt in front of him, smirking proudly; "Maybe they don't. But we have that villainous streak you like, remember?"

"Enough…TALKING," Mozenrath growled, his right hand charging up with energy. "GIVE ME THAT BAG!"

Quicksilver neatly dodged the beam of blue that surged across the foyer, struck the snake-shaped fountainhead, and reduced it to a pile of falling stones that splashed down into the pool below.

"Get that bag," Mozenrath commanded, "and try to leave as few survivors as possible."

"I like that plan," Wuya said with a grin as she launched herself forward, Scarlet, Snatcher, and Yzma in hot pursuit. Xayide and Vexen hung back, a thick aura of magic blanketing each as they sought their targets.

As Scarlet charged, Blob planted himself firmly in her way. "You ain't gettin' past me!" he threatened.

Scarlet gave a short laugh. "Freddie, you don't know the half of what I can REALLY do. I'm getting past you, all right. I've fried bigger fish than you."

"I'd like to see you try," Blob threatened. "I ain't scared to hit back this time!"

"Ohhhhh, scary man," Scarlet replied with a fake shudder. "Let's see how scary you are after I'm finished with you."

Before either could make a move, Toad rocketed toward Scarlet from almost nowhere, crashing into her and pinning her to the floor, hands seizing her shoulders. "You got some nerve goin' after my Sweet Cheeks," he growled. "Last night an' now. You think messin' with his head is some kinda joke? Lemme tell ya, ya wanna mess with him again, this time, ya gotta go through ME, and I ain't lettin' ya past Go. I – wait. Why're you smilin'…?"

Scarlet's body cracked like a whip; one high-heeled foot rammed into Toad hard enough to send him flying backward across the entire room until he hit the wall, back first, upside-down. Dazed, he peeled off the wall like an aging sticker and slumped on the floor.

Scarlet turned to watch the results of her handiwork proudly. "And the boyfriend wants revenge in three…two…"

She dodged neatly, Blob's flying fist missing her by an inch. He struck again and again, and Scarlet danced to safety each time, throwing in pirouettes for the simple flair of it. Now Blob was starting to get the point: he could probably break Scarlet in half if he could actually land a hit, but she was making that impossible.

Scarlet was, however, very nearly tripped up by the energy beam that struck the floor where her feet had been but a moment before; as the beam slid toward her, she flipped head over heels in the air to evade it.

"You just kicked my pal into the WALL!" Kazuichi yelled from his hovering position near Blob and Scarlet. "You're toast now!"

Scarlet flashed him a coy smirk. "Two on one? That's so unfair! …For you guys."

Blob and Kazuichi shared a knowing look before the former ran in for another punch and the latter set off another energy beam, both of which Scarlet avoided easily.

Now regaining his bearings, Toad visually scanned the room, looking for the best place to rejoin the battle. The man in blue seemed to be the one in charge of the evil organization; he seemed the most obvious target. Toad made two great leaps toward him –

And was frozen solid in a block of ice halfway through the second, thudding to the floor unceremoniously.

"I do so hate having to waste my energy on imbeciles," Vexen sighed.

Kairi and Jaune gave each other a nod before rushing the Toad-sized chunk of ice, Crocea Mors and Destiny's Embrace slashing in unison and the latter lit up with a blazing Firaga. Freed of his prison, Toad rolled across a carpet of ice splinters.

"Watch it with the sharp objects, will ya?" he snapped at Kairi and Jaune, who had already left him behind on their way to Vexen.

"You would challenge me once more?" Vexen posed to Kairi. "I'd have thought you would have learned from our last encounter."

She pulled into a spin, Keyblade outward; the ice that formed around her was immediately shredded. "I still wish you weren't this far gone," she told him. "I wish you could accept the way people loved you. I wish you could have been happy with your friends."

"Such selfish wishes," Vexen dismissed. "I'll have you know, Kairi, that I have arrived in a place where I am loved, and I do accept it. I am, as you put it, 'happy with my friends.' These companions, however, accept me for who I TRULY am: something you have proven on multiple occasions that you could never do."

"Then I'm going to ask you one more time to stop hurting us," Kairi responded, admittedly stinging a little from having been so gauche as to not realize Vexen – Even – could never have been happy in Radiant Garden, and wanted things the Committee and the former members of Ansem's household could never provide. "You cared about me once. Please remember that and – "

"I will stand for NO such accusations!" Vexen barked, and a wall of icy spikes protruded from the floor, forcing Kairi to backpedal. "You were never more than a hindrance! I pity those who have to endure your outpourings of emotion regularly. Wearing your heart on your sleeve is no fashionable look."

"HEY!" Jaune roared. "Those 'outpourings of emotion' are what I LIKE about her! She actually GIVES a damn about the worlds and everyone in them! Don't you talk to her like she's a burden on ANYONE! If you can't stand her, that's YOUR problem!"

"Jaune…" Kairi said, rather stunned, "it's okay. He is right about one thing. I never thought about what would be best for him – "

"Yeah, but you tried!" Jaune directed his attention back to Vexen: "She TRIED, okay? Is it HER fault you're only happy when you're trying to destroy the world?"

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE!" Vexen barked, and Kairi's quick action pulled Jaune out of the way of another crowding of spikes. "You dare speak to me with such INSOLENCE?"

"It's not being insolent," Jaune insisted, "IF YOU NEVER GAVE ME ANY REASON TO RESPECT YOU!"

The floor beneath Jaune and Kairi froze, and the two immediately clung to each other as they attempted to keep their balance.

"I will stand for this no longer!" Vexen growled, storming past the slipping pair. "You will get what you deserve after I have acquired what I came to claim!"

"Jaune," Kairi said in a hushed tone, "spin me around and – "

"I got you EXACTLY," Jaune replied.

Turning the slipperiness of the ice to his advantage, Jaune moved his grasp from around Kairi's body to simply holding her hands, then pivoted, letting Kairi build up momentum over her arc of sliding; when Jaune let go, Kairi was launched across the room at Vexen, casting a Graviga that threw him down long enough for Kairi to position herself in front of him, Keyblade braced. "You're not getting that bag!" she insisted.

Jaune slipped, stumbled, and slithered, but eventually he made his way off the icy patch, scrambling behind Vexen with weapon drawn. "I'm here!" he called out to Kairi.

"If you wish to stand in my way," Vexen growled, "so be it. I shall simply have to prioritize your demise sooner rather than later."

Ice stalagmites erupted around him; Kairi and Jaune sliced through them on their way to get to Vexen, who had his shield at the ready to fend them both off.

Todd had decided there was a better target to focus on than Mozenrath: the person who'd given him grief the night prior. Landing squarely in front of Snatcher, he taunted, "Whaddaya think you're playin' at, huh? Thought you could get away with makin' me feel like dirt?"

"That was never my intention," Snatcher replied coolly, a smirk gracing his face. "Comparing you to dirt would be a compliment. You are in fact MUCH lower, and I aimed to instill that fact in your mind. Of course, your subhuman brain could hardly be expected to process such conclusions."

"Keep talkin' like that," Toad snapped. "It's gonna pay for your one-way ticket to smackdown town."

"You?" Snatcher almost laughed. "Deliver physical blows to me? Laughable. For one, you're an unusual creature to be sure, but a feeble one. For another…" His pistol aimed directly at Toad's head. "You're unarmed."

Then, to Snatcher's surprise, he no longer held his weapon. Mallet, chain, gun, and all were whipped in Toad's direction, borne on his lengthy tongue.

"Not no more," Toad said wickedly as he looked over the intricate weapon. "Ooh, this baby is NICE! I am keepin' THIS, yo!"

Snatcher stormed toward him, murder in his eyes; "YOU GIVE THAT BACK THIS INSTANT – "

Toad didn't think twice; he positioned the gun to aim at Snatcher and let off a shot quicker than Snatcher could react.

For a moment, Snatcher's heart skipped a beat; then he realized without any action required on his part, the bolt of ensuing lightning had missed him by a good six inches, putting another pockmark in the already battered wall. Furthermore, the kickback from the weapon had blown Toad completely backward, landing him face-up on the floor.

Snatcher strode casually over to the fallen Toad, bending quickly to wrench his weapon out of the teenager's hands. "I will be taking THAT, thank you."

A tap on Snatcher's shoulder alerted him to instinctively turn his head; Quicksilver's fist slammed into his face, and his assailant was gone as soon as he'd come. Snatcher's attention was now focused on trying to locate Quicksilver; the white-haired boy reappeared at Toad's side, hissing at him, "Get outta here! I'll handle this creep; just go find somewhere you won't get killed!"

"Sheesh," Toad groaned as he followed Quicksilver's order and got out of dodge. "I totally had that under control, but if Mr. Ego wants it…"

Snatcher opened fire; lightning crackled across the foyer. Quicksilver shot this way and that, not even touched by a single bolt. Before Snatcher could even process what was happening, he was dealt a strong blow to the gut, followed by a kick to the back of his knees that brought him down to the front of them. In desperation, he holstered his weapon, selecting the item he now carried as a backup plan.

Quicksilver's third attempt to batter Snatcher was interrupted by a veritable cyclone of wind that erupted around the man; Snatcher was slowly but surely returning to a standing position, the Sword of the Storm braced in hand. The heavy winds acted as a deterrent, pushing Quicksilver back.

"I've had quite enough of this nonsense, child," Snatcher growled. "I've made myself unapproachable, so don't even think about approaching!"

Quicksilver cheekily licked a finger, prodding Snatcher's windy shield to determine its direction. Then he took off running. Snatcher's summoned wind was definitely headed clockwise, so Quicksilver set a course for directly counterclockwise, faster and faster until he built up his own current. The air he stirred up directly neutralized Snatcher's cyclone, leaving him wide open.

"WHAT – " Snatcher sputtered. "HOW HAVE YOU – "

A direct hit to his face silenced him. He could already feel a rivulet of blood trailing down from his nostril to his upper lip, and Quicksilver had a lot more where that came from.

Yzma hoisted the atlatl up to her shoulder's height, a dart loaded. "Now, which one should I turn into a literal fish out of water?" she mused as she circled the perimeter of the room. "Choices, choices."

Pulling to a halt, she locked her gaze upon one victim in particular. She'd already gotten him once, and he'd managed to bounce back. Which meant he was unfinished business. Yzma launched the dart, and it whistled through the air.

Stork's senses prickled; he threw himself backward at the last possible moment, the dart meant for him soaring right past and embedding in the opposite wall. Turning to regard Yzma with a look of condescension, he groaned, "You really thought that was gonna work on me again?"

"Well, they do say insanity is trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results," Yzma replied, "so it only follows that a sane person would expect you to turn into a fish again."

"It was a bat last time."

"…Oh," Yzma realized. "That does change things. Oh, well. Sane or not, I'm finishing what I started with you!"

She rushed Stork, bringing the atlatl up again before realizing, just as she got close, that she didn't know what she was going to actually do with the weapon; she hadn't loaded another dart, and now she was at too close of a range to waste time doing so.

Stork cringed, expecting Yzma to make some sort of blow at him, and slowly eased himself into a straightened position once he realized she had halted. For one awkward moment, the pair simply looked from each other to the atlatl back to each other.

"Memo to self," Yzma muttered, "upgrade this into a melee weapon."

"So, uh…" Stork choked out, "are we…you know…"

"Fighting?" Yzma filled in. "Yes, yes, just give me a minute!" She fumbled to replace the atlatl on its garter holster.

"I'm waiting," Stork informed her.

"I SAID to GIVE ME A MINUTE! Wretched thing…"

"It's been sixty seconds."

"I didn't mean a LITERAL minute!"

Stork just rolled his eyes as Yzma finally clipped the atlatl back into place, letting her skirt cover it. "Got it!" she cried, looking triumphantly up at the unimpressed Stork. "All right. We may resume."

After a couple seconds of blankly staring at each other once more, they sprang at each other. Stork's flying fists missed the dodging Yzma by inches. A roundhouse kick from Yzma was barely evaded by backpedaling. Stork zipped behind her only for her to duck, his strike sailing over her bent back. She kept tipping forward, turning into a cartwheel as her feet attempted to smack into Stork on the way up; he sidestepped by a hair. Stork launched himself into the air and aimed a kick toward Yzma; she casually stepped aside, letting Stork sail past her until his foot unintentionally connected with Toad's face and sent the latter tumbling head over heels.

Staring after Toad in mild confusion, Stork thought it over and decided, "Yeah, no, I don't feel sorry for him." Then he went right back to sliding out of the reach of Yzma's fists.

Xayide raised her hands high, clouds of deep plum building over the battlefield and crackling with bright red lightning loaded up to strike down all enemies in range. Before she could let loose, however, she found the clouds dispersed by a shift of energy, like a strong wind blowing them apart. It didn't take her long to spot the source of the disturbance; Scarlet Witch was storming toward her, rage in her eyes.

"I understand now," Scarlet Witch proclaimed. "It's not a mutation. What you and your friends have is magic."

"How observant," Xayide jeered. "Our prowess, of course, far outpaces your own." She then forged several crimson spheres in the air, each fizzing with electric magic; with a wave of Xayide's hand, the spheres rushed toward everyone on the field who wasn't WHAM ARMY, curving and weaving to reach them.

Scarlet Witch hastily pointed to each sphere, her own power allowing her to dispel the ones she could catch, but she was well aware that many of them were slipping out of her grasp.

A rain of bones pierced through the remaining spheres she could see, causing them to erupt into sparks. Papyrus skidded into place beside Scarlet Witch, and though she had thought someone with no lips would be locked in a perpetual smile, he was now more than ever clearly beaming.

"DO NOT WORRY!" Papyrus cried. "I HAVE ELIMINATED ALL OF THOSE PROJECTILES!"

A sharp, high-pitched shriek from Toad informed him he had missed one.

"He'll be fine," Scarlet Witch said, deadpan.

"But you will not," Xayide said with a smirk as an array of blades comprised of red energy surrounded her. She let them loose, watching them sail in all directions before a wall of blue bones sprang up from the floor and surrounded her, intercepting the projectiles completely.

Xayide angrily exploded through the wall, shattering the bones into fragments. Scarlet Witch was quick on the uptake, catching the fragments with her power and forging them into small cannonballs that she used to pelt Xayide's head. Xayide took a rain of blows before batting the rest aside, drawing up two crimson drills in the air that spun threateningly, aimed at Scarlet Witch and Papyrus. Papyrus instinctively threw up a bone wall before Scarlet Witch; Scarlet Witch overrode Xayide's magic as best she could, driving the drill intended for Papyrus into the same wall that her drill was now hitting. Papyrus threw bones of every length and thickness at Xayide; Xayide collected them telekinetically, arranging them into forms intended to slingshot back at Papyrus and Scarlet Witch; the former created more projectiles while the latter broke Xayide's attacks apart and scattered the fragments.

Wuya soared through the air, weaving through the other warriors with only one item in her focus: the duffel bag. As she drew closer to Avalanche, she brought back one fist, a fist glowing with emerald flame and ready to deliver a package of pain. Avalanche noticed her arrival a second too late; he had no time to move.

Riku, however, was right on time, a Dark aura coating his body as he intercepted Wuya's path and knocked her off balance. She splayed over the floor; Riku stood over her, Keyblade drawn. "Back off," he warned.

"Or what?" Wuya smirked. "You'll kill me? You're too weak to do that!"

"Refusing to kill someone isn't weakness," Riku asserted. "And I can still fight you without killing you."

"Is that so?" Wuya launched into the air, flipping onto her feet. "Why don't you show me what you can do?"

She began simply enough, throwing first a kick then a fist at Riku and transforming it into a dance of blows. Each limb merely ricocheted off the shaft of the Keyblade and a small burst of deflective magic as Riku shifted the weapon into position to block each attempt.

"Oh, whatever shall I do?" Wuya said sarcastically. "The Keybearer is able to keep up with me. I suppose I'm just going to have to keep trying until I get through to him."

That was Riku's warning that she was about to change strategies, and he had a good idea of what, exactly, she was aiming for. He couldn't abandon her until she'd made her move, however. He leapt back, letting off a Dark Firaga at Wuya.

Wuya leapt over it easily, letting the shot go wild. (No prizes for guessing who it hit.) With a hop, a skip, and a jump, she had positioned herself directly in front of Avalanche, hands thrust outward to unleash an absolute barrage of magic.

As Avalanche watched, wide-eyed, Riku leapt between the two of them, blade raised. The wave of green energy rushed over Riku, and where he held the blade, he parted it, diverting it into two streams that rushed around Avalanche. "YOU'RE…NOT…STRONGER THAN ME!" he growled.

Avalanche's hands twitched; his instincts were telling him to shake things up, but he knew that vibrating the foyer again wouldn't just bring down Wuya but also Riku, and he didn't want the wrong one to figure out how to subvert his power. So he resorted to just cheering Riku on: "GET HER!"

The wave of green subsided, but Wuya's smirk did not. She snapped her fingers, and suddenly the air was filled with daggers, forming a bubble around Riku and Avalanche and all pointed inward. Riku bent slightly at the knees, waiting for the onslaught to begin.

Wuya pointed at Avalanche, and one by one, the daggers flew, pattern staggered. Riku burst from knife to knife, reflecting them all with his blade and refusing to let one even get close to Avalanche. As they were deflected, the blades tinkled to the floor, where they evaporated.

As Sora and Ruby skidded in front of Mozenrath to block his path, the sorcerer smiled wickedly, reveling in the opportunity. "Now, what should I do?" he taunted. "Should I go directly after the artifacts I came to get? Or should I take this moment to rid myself of my constant nuisances in a slow and painful torment? Decisions, decisions. But if you insist on standing in my way, you've made my mind up for me."

"Shut up!" Sora snapped as Mozenrath crouched low to the ground. "You can't get rid of us! We already know you can't beat us in a fight!"

"Uhhh…what are you doing?" Ruby asked as Mozenrath pressed his right hand to the tile.

A surge of magic crackled through the floor, shooting up into Sora and Ruby through their feet and electrifying them from the inside out. Two screams of pain rang out across the foyer, and had Riku not known the importance of protecting Avalanche and the crucial bag, he would have abandoned his battle and come charging to attempt to beat Mozenrath witless.

"Now, that's more of what I want to see out of the two of you," Mozenrath remarked as he straightened up. "You're actually tolerable when you're writhing in pain."

Though Sora and Ruby had been badly shaken, both were far too strong to be grievously harmed by Mozenrath's attack. They recovered, forcing their limbs to stop shaking from the massive jolt. "THAT'S IT!" Ruby yelled, drawing back Crescent Rose.

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Sora added, Keyblade spinning in his hand.

The two weapons swung at Mozenrath over and over, but he blocked them off with partial deflection shields, leaving open patches around his body for him to loose bursts of electric blue magic. Sora responded with some magic of his own, shooting off every spell he knew, but Mozenrath was quick to counter, blowing the Firaga away with wind, melting the Blizzaga with a rush of flame, and absorbing the Thundaga into a sphere that burst and let that energy back loose at Sora, all while a blue cylindrical wall held Ruby in place and resisted her attempts to scythe her way out. While Sora brought down the wall around Ruby, the explosion of Mozenrath's lightning-collecting orb washed over them both, dealing them another shock.

Mozenrath's lips parted to reveal a toothy grin of glee as he let a waterfall of magic pour from his hand into the floor tile, utilizing the strategy of attacking from beneath once more. A large area of the floor, including where Sora and Ruby stood, glowed a soft blue, heralding the impending attack.

In the single second it took Sora to process the sudden glow, Ruby had sprung into action, grabbing onto Sora and speeding him to safe ground in a comet tail of red. When Mozenrath's attack erupted, sending columns of energy up like geysers, neither Sora nor Ruby was anywhere near the blast.

Toad, however, was dead center of it. Not by any design of Mozenrath's, of course; he hadn't even noticed the boy. It was still a nice surprise to see someone get caught in the blast, as far as Mozenrath was concerned. The explosion threw Toad all the way up to the upper level of the foyer, where he caught onto the edge of the spacious blue chandelier and clambered onto the platform it offered in order to shake off the awful ache that attack had left him with.

Sora and Ruby stared up at the chandelier for a moment before Ruby decided, much as Stork had before her, "Yeah, I don't feel bad for him."

A well-placed kick from Wuya knocked Riku aside long enough for her to surge toward Avalanche. Avalanche knew the only course of action was to get rid of the bag. He looked about in a panic for someone to pass it off to.

Then it was gone, a rush of wind left to ruffle Avalanche's bangs beneath his helmet. Wuya halted in her tracks to watch Quicksilver take off running, the bag he held a blur caught in his streak.

"SNATCHER!" Wuya snapped. "GET HIM!"

A whirlwind from the Sword of the Storm enveloped Quicksilver in a cyclone, lifting him up off the ground and carrying him toward Snatcher with a host of protests. Quicksilver was dropped on the tile flat on his back; Snatcher took advantage of this window of vulnerability to drive the Sword of the Storm straight downward into the speedster's body.

"NO!" Avalanche cried in anguish.

Quicksilver thought, for a brief moment, that he'd finally met his end. However, it became clear to him instantaneously that despite it looking for all intents and purposes as though he were impaled by a sword, he felt no pain, and in fact none of the pressure that should be present when a sharp metal object has been run through you.

Noticing the absence of a bleeding wound, Snatcher jostled the sword about, watching its blade phase right through Quicksilver's body. "What in the blasted – " he muttered.

"It doesn't work like a normal SWORD, you idiot!" Wuya snapped. "It can't actually stab anyone! It just summons storms!"

"Oh, pardon me," Snatcher retorted. "My error, of course. I was foolish to think that a metal object fashioned in the shape of a sword WOULD FUNCTION AS A SWORD."

Quicksilver was soon on his feet again. "You are just zero for two today, aren't you? At LEAST."

Before Snatcher could react, Quicksilver had taken off once more, and in case Snatcher tried any more funny business with the sword, he passed the duffel off to the first ally he breezed by: Stork.

"I DON'T WANT IT!" Stork yelled as he desperately played keep-away from Yzma's grabbing hands, finally finding an opportunity to launch the bag across the room.

Sora caught it, temporarily fumbling it.

"THAT'S MINE!" Mozenrath roared as he charged Sora, hand blazing.

"WAH!" Sora threw the duffel up into the air.

It was neatly caught on Crescent Rose's edge, Ruby gave a spin and, with a triumphant "HYEAH!", sent the bag flying toward Kairi and Jaune.

Kairi leapt, grasping the strap of the incoming bag. She took off running as a fence of ice spikes jutted up in her wake, trying to catch her. Up she looked, finding the perfect place to get rid of her cargo. "KAZUICHI!"

The armored mechanic had only a moment's notice to realize that he needed to catch something being launched at him. He settled the bag in his arms, declaring, "Okay, NOBODY gets to touch this now!"

Scarlet aimed a well-placed airborne kick into his back mid-leap, causing him to pitch forward and drop the bag.

The duffel was then suspended in midair by Scarlet Witch's power. Knowing she couldn't focus on protecting the bag, Scarlet Witch levitated the bag upward quickly, soaring it over the edge of the chandelier and resting it on the platform.

Toad, now accompanied by the bag, latched onto it and wrapped his whole body around it protectively. "Ain't nobody gonna get me OR this up here!" he declared triumphantly. "Toad, one, evil organization, zero."

The sight of Mozenrath rising through the air with Wuya and Xayide at either side of him, all three surging with auras of blue, green, and scarlet, came into Toad's view and struck him with abject terror – though he still had enough bite to sigh, "Turns out EVERY world loves provin' me wrong."

Before any of the trio of mages could get in a blow, they were all crashed into by the flying Kazuichi. "No fair attackin' a guy while he's trying to swing from the chandelier and live like tomorrow doesn't exist!" Kazuichi proclaimed.

"Well, what do you know?" Mozenrath declared as he righted himself in the air. "Two halfwits for the price of one."

"It's almost like we're fighting one whole competent person," Wuya chimed in.

"You wanna rumble?" Toad dropped the bag, standing up as straight as he could manage. "Fine. I can take ya."

By that time, Sora, Ruby, Scarlet Witch, Papyrus, and Riku had all made it through the library's upper doors to the higher level of the foyer, arriving on the balcony that surrounded the chandelier platform. Scarlet Witch, having heard Toad's last claim, snapped at him, "NO, YOU CAN'T. DON'T TRY."

Sora and Riku pointed their blades in unison, letting off a synchronized "FIRE!". Ruby had Crescent Rose converted to rifle mode, setting off shot after shot. Papyrus cast a wave of bones in a spiral pattern.

Mozenrath, Wuya, and Xayide crowded close together to form a triple-powered deflection shield that fended off these attacks, plus the energy beams from Kazuichi, who buzzed around them still.

Scarlet Witch spent her time assessing the situation. She didn't trust that these long-range attacks would hold the sorcerers off for long. There had to be another way to circumvent them. Or, at the very least, get the bag out of their reach.

"Hold them off," Mozenrath commanded Wuya and Xayide. "The bag is mine."

He performed a relatively graceful front-flip as he tumbled out of the deflection shield, landing on the chandelier. Wuya and Xayide reshaped the shield, shoving it toward the onslaught of projectiles being launched at them from the balcony. A flick of Wuya's hand sent Kazuichi crashing into the far wall.

Mozenrath glowered down at Toad, who was now frozen in place by fear: what to do?

"NO!" Sora and Ruby cried at the same time, vaulting up and over the deflection shield to land on the chandelier across from the sorcerer.

Scarlet Witch panicked. Gone was her ability to strategize. She executed the first action she could think of: severing the luminous blue glass chains that fastened the chandelier to the ceiling.

Mozenrath was not prepared for when the platform dropped; his feet no longer connected to it as he fell. Ruby and Sora flailed as they too fell. For once, Toad was the only one not to be negatively affected, slamming his hands to the chandelier platform and sticking himself to it so as not to lose balance.

Down below, the shadow of the falling platform loomed. Vexen, Jaune, Kairi, Yzma, Stork, Scarlet, Blob, Avalanche, Snatcher, and Quicksilver scattered, avoiding the impact.

The platform crashed down. Mozenrath, Sora, and Ruby all landed ungracefully on it, scrambling to regain their footing. In a sudden moment of clarity, Ruby's eyes locked on the unattended duffel bag. Driven by pure impulse, she seized the bag, taking off in a streak of red toward the door to the central lift station, blowing out of the atrium and into the transport center beyond.

"NO!" Mozenrath screamed, charging after her.

"RUBY!" Sora protectively barged after Mozenrath, afraid of what might happen to Ruby if he didn't follow.

"Noooo, that ain't good, yo!" Toad moaned, taking off after Sora, mostly worried about the fate of the bag.

After some aerial gymnastics, Wuya, Xayide, Riku, Scarlet Witch, Kazuichi, and Papyrus all ended up floating to the ground in a tangle. It was then that Scarlet Witch's intellect finally kicked in. She had an idea, but it relied on trust, which she wasn't sure she had gained from any of her fire-forged allies yet. All the same, it was better to try than to leave be.

"EVERYONE ON THE PLATFORM!" she yelled. "EXCEPT LANCE!"

As it turned out, Scarlet Witch had gained trust. Kairi, Jaune, Blob, Quicksilver, and Stork all hurried to join their allies on the fallen chandelier. As Kairi fell in line next to Riku, the two Keybearers loosed a barrage of Firaga that, combined with a little energy beam from Kazuichi, drove Xayide back. Stork and Blob each seized one of Wuya's arms, working together to launch her off the platform.

Now that all her allies but one were gathered on the platform and all her enemies were off it, Scarlet Witch focused on levitating the fallen chandelier about six feet off the ground. "AVALANCHE!" she yelled. "EARTHQUAKE! NOW!"

"ALL RIGHT!" Avalanche yelled with glee; he'd been waiting for his chance to do this again. His eyes rolled back, and the room began to vibrate harder than before.

Cracks ran up the walls. Vexen, Snatcher, Yzma, and Scarlet stumbled, unable to walk in a straight line, much less run or concentrate on fighting. Those held aloft by the platform were unaffected.

"What now?" Kairi cried.

"I don't know!" Scarlet Witch admitted. "I didn't think that far!"

Riku's mind latched onto a concept that Yen Sid had taught a refresher course in just that morning. "A Trinity Limit!" he yelled. "Kairi! Sora! Help me…" A chill ran through his veins as he realized who was missing. "Sora? WHERE'S SORA?"

"NOT HERE!" Kazuichi yelled back. "DON'T WORRY ABOUT HIM!" He blasted Xayide yet again to prevent her from getting closer.

"I'll help!" Kairi told Riku. "But we need a third person. Whoever's our most powerful!"

"Youwantpowerful?" Quicksilver responded. "Wandayou'reup!"

Scarlet Witch didn't have time to argue. "What do I need to do?" she asked.

Riku and Kairi were already standing at an angle to each other; Scarlet Witch realized she needed to complete the triad, standing in position so they formed the three points of a triangle. The two Keyblades were drawn and held directly out toward the center; lacking a weapon, Scarlet Witch wondered what she was to do.

"Just feel the connection between the three of us!" Kairi explained. "Pour your power into the center and let it grow!"

Unsure, Scarlet Witch raised a hand to where the two blades aimed.

A sphere of light formed where the three intersected; a complex pattern wrote itself in light on the platform around the trio, catching the eyes of everyone else.

Riku and Kairi raised their blades; Scarlet Witch put her hand straight up to face the ceiling. The orb of light now enveloped all three of them, and Scarlet Witch was overcome with a sensation so pleasant, she almost reviled it for being unfamiliar: the feeling of her soul being completely in tune with two others, united to forge something grander.

Wuya was the first to realize what was coming, letting out a shriek of "NO!"

Xayide braced her arms in front of her face. Deflection shields surrounded both her and Wuya.

Vexen, seeing the light at the edge of his vision, had just enough foresight to cover himself in a hemisphere of thick ice, though it was fragile given the unsteady ground.

Snatcher, Scarlet, and Yzma were left to stumble helplessly in Avalanche's quake.

The light was let loose, washing over the entire foyer in a great wave that temporarily blinded all present. When outlines of objects came back into view, Wuya and Xayide had been grounded and Vexen's dome shattered. Thanks to their magical protection, however, they hadn't taken too much damage off the great wave.

The same could not be said for Snatcher, Yzma, and Scarlet. Avalanche's quaking had ceased the moment the Trinity Limit's aftereffects subsided, but still they walked unsteadily, not able to progress forward.

"YZMA!" Wuya rushed to her lover, clutching her forearms lightly from behind to prop her up. "Say something!"

Yzma pointed up to a patch of empty air. "Look out! LOOK OUT!" she cried. "Pink elephants on parade!"

Xayide tentatively approached Scarlet. "Scarlet…?"

Scarlet turned to face Xayide, giggling giddily. "Pretty lights," she said in a high-pitched tone. "Look at all the pretty lights! I'm gonna get youuuuu!" She raked her fingers through the air, grabbing at imaginary targets.

"Mr. Snatcher," Vexen barked as he approached the remaining member of their forces. "Do tell me you haven't been affected by this nonsense."

Snatcher turned to face Vexen, stumbling a bit as he stated quite proudly, "As a matter of fact, Lord Portley-Rind, I've been meaning to tell you for quite some time now where you can SHOVE THAT WHITE HAT OF YOURS."

Vexen shot a look at Wuya and Xayide. "That onslaught of magic knocked them senseless!"

"You think?" Wuya hissed.

"I suggest we retreat," Xayide said worriedly. "We are down by half our forces, and we can't afford to protect them."

"Just get them out!" Vexen agreed.

Wuya scooped Yzma up into her arms, barreling full tilt for the entry. Xayide levitated a giggly Scarlet close behind, and Vexen reluctantly guided Snatcher toward the same path, gritting his teeth at having to make such physical contact.

Once the six were gone, Scarlet Witch finally let the chandelier fall, breathing heavily.

"Hey, Wanda!" Blob addressed. "You doin' okay?"

"I'm fine," Scarlet Witch told him. "I've…never done anything like that before."

Quicksilver, having seen the effect the Trinity Limit had on the villains, knew what must have happened as a consequence. He sped toward Avalanche in a blur, placing a hand on each of the brunette's forearms and begging him, "Come on, please don't be all loopy on me."

"Pietro?" Avalanche replied.

"Yeah?" Quicksilver said in response, sensing a glimmer of hope.

"Your name is fun to say," Avalanche informed him, his eyes almost completely blank. "Pietro. Pietroooooooo."

With a sigh, Quicksilver turned back to the others. "See what you did?"

"It should wear off soon," Kairi informed him. "Sora, Riku, and I accidentally hit Donald with that much power when we practiced the Trinity Limit in this morning's training session, and he started making sense again after about half an hour."

"Well, as much sense as Donald usually makes, anyway," Riku laughed. "But speaking of Sora, where IS he?" Dread crept up his spine.

"Who cares?" Kazuichi countered as he dismissed his armor and dropped to his feet. "We beat the bad guys! High-five me, Papyrus!"

Papyrus' bony hand slapped against Kazuichi's fleshy one. "WONDERFUL WORK!" he congratulated. "ON MY PART ESPECIALLY, BUT TO ALL OF YOU AS WELL!"

"High-five me, Stork!" Kazuichi said next. "Or, uh, high-four."

Stork gave him a halfhearted high-four, his hand lazily pressing against Kazuichi's. "I just have a bad feeling that wasn't the last of it," he muttered.

"Stop with the doom and gloom already!" Kazuichi commanded him. "High-five me, Jaune!"

"We did it, all right," Jaune sighed in relief as he slapped Kazuichi a hearty high-five.

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Kazuichi proclaimed. "Now high-five me, Ruby!"

It was then that he realized Ruby was also missing. "…Ruby?"

"Oh no," Stork groaned.

"Whatever," Blob commented. "Not our problem. Anyway, Todd, you got the bag, righ…"

It sank in that there was, in fact, a third person missing.

"Eheh…look," Stork broke in, "I hate to be the person to make this worse. But did anyone actually happen to see Mozenrath leave the building?"

Now it clicked.

Riku took off for the lift station at once; Quicksilver beat him there.

Outside, Vexen, Wuya, and Xayide hustled to guide Snatcher, Scarlet, and Yzma away from the castle at top speed. "Someone else will need to handle the Corridor," Wuya observed. "My hands are full."

"All of our hands are full," Xayide pointed out.

"It falls to you, Mozenrath," Vexen concluded.

"And spare us your complaining," Wuya added. "At least wait until we get home to throw a tantrum!"

It hit all three of those with working consciousnesses at once that there had been a distinct lack of complaining where it really should have been present.

"…He's still in there, isn't he?" Xayide realized.

"Alone," Vexen observed, "against a veritable army of our enemies."

"He's not coming back out of there on his own steam," Wuya sighed.

When Ruby had surged into the lift station, she had called the central lift down using the crystal that summoned it, hurrying the bag onto the platform. The lift began to make its way through the castle's spine; Mozenrath burst into the chamber, immediately recognizing the crystal-based technology and swatting the gem so that the lift Ruby had boarded began to slide back to its point of origin.

Ruby quickly withdrew Crescent Rose, letting off a single bullet that hit the crystal squarely, sending her lift on a course away from Mozenrath once more.

Mozenrath knew if he tried to summon the lift back, she would shoot it again. He gave his fingers a useless snap, remembering the hard way that he was barred from using any form of teleportation inside the castle. However, that didn't mean he couldn't be creative. A ball of magic formed in his right hand, and he launched it so that it stuck to the lift's underside, a stream of lightning connecting it back to his gauntlet. Then Mozenrath willed the lightning to reel in; he was pulled across the gap instantly as through riding a grappling hook's cord. Once he'd reached the lift, he used just a bit of levitation to get topside of it, facing Ruby down.

Ruby clutched the duffel nervously, backing up right to the edge of the still-moving lift. Crescent Rose lay abandoned at her side.

Sora had entered by that time, seeing the scene that unfolded up high. "HANG ON, RUBY!" he yelled, rushing to call a secondary lift. He could glide to Ruby's aid if he could only get to that height level.

All the while, Toad was ascending the walls of the lift chamber, glancing back over his shoulder every now and again to see if he'd caught up with the lift. He was well aware he couldn't even put a scratch on Mozenrath, and he wasn't about to try, but if he could just snag the bag…

"'Hang on,' he says," Mozenrath taunted as he advanced over Ruby, gauntlet glowing. "Hang on to what? That bag? Your weapon? The futile hope that maybe I won't want to hurt a little girl if she makes adorable puppy eyes at me? It looks like I won't have to choose between getting what I came for and killing you after all. I have both birds lined up right in front of me, and my one stone ready."

Ruby's heel slid off the lift; she stumbled to keep from plummeting to the depths below – though that was probably the exact fate Mozenrath had in mind for her. It occurred to her that this might be where her fairy tale ended, and that realization shook her from top to bottom. She wouldn't even have been able to give her life protecting the volatile magical instruments from falling into the wrong hands; all she could hope for was that Sora would get to the lift in time to salvage the stolen goods, even if he would be too late to save Ruby.

The lift was passing close enough to the wall that Toad saw his opportunity. Ruby held the bag tightly, but if he could latch onto it with his tongue, she'd probably let go. It was rather a letdown that he wouldn't be able to save her, but those were the breaks; why should he have to feel bad about losing someone he barely knew, who'd done nothing but insult him and his friends? The important thing was making sure the bag didn't end up in the hands of the bad guys (or, to be clear, the guys who were worse than the Brotherhood). Mind made up, Toad flicked his tongue at the lift.

He missed the bag entirely.

A completely different object came away, and Toad groaned as he saw what he'd picked up instead. The magical valuables that apparently held the fate of the worlds were still on board the lift, which was now rising out of reach, along with the leader of the evil organization with the stupid name.

All Toad had managed to get was that stupid leather glove the ringleader wore all the time and didn't even bother to match in a set.

"I'd say you had a good run," Mozenrath told Ruby, "but really, it was just pathetic. Oh well. For you, now, it's time to say goodbye."

He thrust his right hand toward her and was greeted with the shocking sight of bare, unprotected, and entirely nonmagical bone.

"No," Mozenrath whispered to himself. Then, louder, "NO! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?"

Sora's lift had caught up by that time, and the Keybearer leapt, gliding across the distance to land on the lift that bore Mozenrath and Ruby. "What's the matter, Mozenrath?" Sora jeered. "Powers not handy anymore?"

"THIS IS BAD ENOUGH WITHOUT YOU ADDING PUNS!" Mozenrath growled as he rounded on Sora.

Sora flicked the Keyblade toward Mozenrath; "BLIZZARD!"

The thick Blizzaga surrounded Mozenrath's upper body like bindings, pinning his arms to his sides. The sorcerer suddenly lost balance, falling to his rear on the lift.

"That was waaaaay too close for comfort," Ruby told Sora.

"Last-minute rescues are my thing!" Sora said with a beam.

Ruby held up the bag as she walked further inward of the lift. "Now we just need to get this back where it bel – "

Mozenrath pivoted, kicking Ruby hard in the thighs.

Ruby pitched backward, letting out a yelp.

Sora rushed to catch her, his hands wrapping around her back and preventing her from falling off the lift. He was not, however, fast enough to stop the duffel from slipping out of her grip and beginning the descent down the shaft of the lift chamber, to where its delicate contents would certainly shatter upon impact.

"NO!" Sora and Ruby screamed as one.

"If I can't have those artifacts," Mozenrath declared, "NEITHER WILL ANYONE ELSE!" Really, that was the best fate he could ask for in this situation.

The hand of one wall-crawler shot out and snagged the duffel strap, preventing the bag from plunging to destruction – though the momentum had very nearly pulled him off the wall and brought him down along with it.

"Toad, one," Toad remarked as he observed the bag he'd just caught, "bad guys with the stupid name, zero."

Sora and Ruby let out a simultaneous laugh of relief.

"Aaaaaand someone caught the bag on its way down, didn't they?" Mozenrath groaned, now well used to the way his life worked.

Sora responded by first pulling Ruby safely aboard the lift, then sealing Mozenrath's legs together with a second round of Blizzaga.

The lift pulled back down to its origin point just as Quicksilver, Riku, Kairi, Scarlet Witch, Papyrus, Stork, Kazuichi, Blob, and one very loopy Avalanche hurried to meet it. Sora and Ruby proudly propped the imprisoned Mozenrath up between them, proud grins on their faces. Not long after, Toad clambered onto the same level, right beside them.

"You're gonna want this," the latter said as he offered up the bag.

Quicksilver snapped the bag right up, rifling through it.

"Hey!" Riku chided. "After all that, you're just gonna – "

"Calm down," Quicksilver told him, shoving the duffel at Riku's chest. "I was just checking to make sure none of it was broken. And it's all fine."

"Got that guy's stupid glove, too," Toad said as he handed the gauntlet up to Sora. "I dunno, maybe you can use it to make fun of him later for only ever wearin' the one."

"NO!" Mozenrath moaned. "MY ALL-POWERFUL GAUNTLET!"

"So THAT'S why Mozenrath wasn't able to use magic against us!" Sora realized.

"Wait a sec," Toad realized. "You're sayin' that stinkin' glove is some kinda all-powerful magic thingamajig that let him do all that crazy stuff earlier?"

"Eeeeeyup," Ruby confirmed.

A pause of consideration. Then Toad asked, "Can I have it ba – "

"NO!" Sora quickly tossed the gauntlet toward Stork before Toad could make a grab for it.

"You…" Mozenrath struggled futilely against his bonds of ice. "YOU'LL ALL PAY FOR THIS. YOU CAN'T HOLD ME FOR LONG! I WILL ESCAPE, AND I WILL GET MY GAUNTLET BACK!"

To this, Riku and Kairi cast a simultaneous Blizzaga toward him to strengthen the ice.

"Can't you put anything over his mouth?" Kazuichi asked.

"I think we might accidentally suffocate him if we tried," Kairi admitted.

"And this would be a bad thing?" Quicksilver countered.

"You know," Riku laughed as he looked to Sora, "you almost had me worried. Then I remembered who I was thinking about, and you always do come through, even if you wait until the last possible minute."

"That's me, all right!" Sora bragged.

"And I'm Lance!" Avalanche volunteered cheerily.

"Whoa," Ruby remarked, taking in Avalanche's state. "What happened to him?"

"He got caught in the line of fire of a Trinity Limit," Riku explained.

"You're…" Avalanche looked Ruby up and down. "Red. You're reeeaaaally red."

"If he isn't fine after half an hour like you said," Quicksilver threatened, "you're catching a beatdown."

"DON'T TALK TO RIKU LIKE THAT!" Papyrus scolded. "HE SAVED YOUR LIFE!"

"No, it's okay," Riku said with a slight chuckle. "I think I'd be the same way if somebody messed up Sora. Though with him, it'd be harder to tell if he went loopy or was just the way he always is."

"HEY!" Sora snapped.

"But that's kinda what makes him cute," Riku said with a wink toward Sora.

"Oh, please," Mozenrath groaned. "At least spare me the lovers' talk."

"Careful," Riku warned. "You're our prisoner, after all. We get to punish you with whatever we think you deserve."

"And if making out with Riku is just gonna annoy you…" Sora picked up.

"FOR THE LOVE OF AHRIMAN, DO NOT," Mozenrath yelled. "I WATCH ENOUGH OF THIS BACK HOME!"

"We kind of have things to take care of before we can get back to…lovey-dovey business," Stork pointed out.

"Right," Sora said with a nod. He then met Quicksilver's eyes: "Hey…thanks for helping us out, Quicksilver." He looked around to the other four of the Brotherhood. "All of you, actually. We couldn't have stopped Mozenrath without you."

"Don't make a thing out of it," Quicksilver grunted. "Like I said, after this, we are NOT friends. We saved the worlds, we stopped the bad guy, you got your stuff back, and now, if we're lucky, we never have to see any of you again."

A few unsure groans got Quicksilver's attention.

"Except Toad and Kaz will probably still have a weird thing going on," Quicksilver reluctantly amended, "and Riku and Lance will have an even weirder thing going on." He turned to shoot a fierce glare at Riku. "You better not be making moves on my boyfriend."

"Don't worry," Riku assured him. "I'm taken."

"As for the rest of you," Quicksilver went on, "I'm not going to miss any of you."

"Well, I'm going to miss you even less," Ruby affirmed before sticking her tongue out at him.

Quicksilver arranged Avalanche's arm around his shoulders, propping him up and making sure he was secure. "Let's bounce," he demanded before turning to leave, taking Avalanche with him.

"Goodbye, castle!" Avalanche said in a bubbly tone.

Scarlet Witch simply gave the others a nod before turning to follow.

Toad clicked his tongue while firing off a pair of finger guns at Kazuichi; "Catch ya on the flipside, Kaz."

"You betcha," Kazuichi agreed.

Toad hopped up onto Blob's shoulders, and the latter made tracks, catching up with the rest of the group.

Stork tugged on the duffel strap, and Riku instinctively let him take hold of the bag. "You know," Riku remarked, "I don't think the Brotherhood is that bad after all."

"I bet we're all closer to being friends than any of them thinks!" Sora agreed.

Stork had confirmed his suspicions as he rifled through the bag. "You do realize," he announced, "that they took the Spirit Water, the Aurora Stone, and the Dust home with them when we weren't looking, right?"

This elicited several groans.

"BUT THOSE WERE THE THINGS WE SAID WE DIDN'T NEED!" Papyrus realized.

(Outside, Blob and Scarlet Witch were turning the three items Quicksilver had stealthily retrieved from the bag after Toad passed it to him over in their hands, asking just why Quicksilver had decided to only take what had been labeled as unimportant; Quicksilver blamed Avalanche's influence.)

"Great," Mozenrath muttered. "So now the artifacts are split up. And I have that much MORE work to do when I escape confinement."

"Will you let it go?" Sora snapped at him. "We told you! That stuff wasn't actually gonna let you take over the worlds! It was just gonna destroy everything! Even you!"

"WE DID YOU A FAVOR!" Papyrus insisted.

"YOU THINK I'M GOING TO BELIEVE THAT STUPID LIE?" Mozenrath snapped.

"Huh," Sora realized. "I guess it does sound pretty unbelievable. I wish there was a way to prove to you that we're telling the truth."

"There is!" Kairi gasped.

"We can show him the hourglass!" Jaune realized.

"Oh, yeah!" Sora agreed. "Before we do anything else, we need to show you what REALLY happened!"

"Let's get him up to the hourglass room," Riku said decisively.

Since Mozenrath was bound from arms to legs, he was practically carried by the rest of the group as they all piled onto the lift. "UNHAND ME!" he screamed.

Stork smirked. "You really want us to let go? Fine. We'll let go."

In unison, the group removed hands from Mozenrath, letting him fall with a thump onto his back on the lift floor.

All considered, Mozenrath had suffered worse defeats, but this was probably high-ranking for most humiliating.

...

Several misunderstandings, one temporarily stolen vehicle, and some accidental destruction of personal property later, Harley Quinn was on the run from every Huntsman and Huntress in Higanbana, their weapons drawn and flailing as the mob barreled down the street after her. Even she couldn't quite have told you how one missed clothing tag had transformed into all of this. All the same, she wasn't exactly surprised in the purest sense of the word.

She made a sharp turn around a corner, hoping to confuse the crowd. This ended up running her into a dead end before a tall stone wall. "Aw, great," she groaned.

The mob filled the entry to the short street, blocking her only exit. "This is your last chance, scum!" the leader of the pack, a young woman with a bright purple ponytail set high on her head, announced, pointing her sharpened battle fans in Harley's direction. "Surrender yourself!"

"You KNOW WHAT?" Harley stamped on the ground. "I'm sick of bein' shot at, chased around, an' accused of stuff that wouldn't'a happened in the first place if I'd just got to keep my clothes! Maybe it's a losin' battle, but I ain't just gonna let ya take me without a fight!" She tensed, forming fists.

"TAKE HER DOWN!" the Huntress commanded, and the crowd surged into the short street.

As Harley tried to pinpoint her fist opening for attack, she was suddenly seized around the waist from behind by a strong pair of arms, then lifted off the ground, out of the dead end, and right up into the sky.

Miffed at being manhandled without permission, Harley struggled against who she believed to be an assailant, kicking and squirming. "LET ME GO, YA JERK!" she screamed. "I AIN'T GOIN' TO WHATEVER JAIL OR ASYLUM YA GOT HERE!"

A familiar voice stopped her heart and her flailing: "What, I save your life, and THIS is how you thank me?"

A lump formed in Harley's throat: "G…Gar?"

"Long time, no see," Garfield responded as he soared over the Higanbana rooftops, Harley in his grip.

"It's only been a few days," Harley reminded him, suddenly aware of the water running from her eye down her cheek and disturbing her alabaster makeup.

"Yeah, well, that time didn't count," Garfield replied.

Down below, the mob was ready to change course and follow the mysterious flying man, but were hindered by the sounding of sirens and the cries from the watchposts of "GRIMM ATTACK! GRIMM ATTACK!" As it turned out, a large and angry mob was the perfect flag for creatures that fed upon negative emotion, and a pack of Boarbatusks had seen fit to spin their way toward the border. Harley was forgotten as the warriors took up their posts to eliminate the speedy creatures.

Garfield and Harley ignored the sirens; they landed on a rooftop across town. As Garfield set Harley down, she turned to get a good look at him, decked out in his armor and helmet. "Ya really came to find me," she said in awe, choking on the words.

A tap on her shoulder inspired her to turn around; she looked over the shoulder that had been touched and saw no one. Laughing, she spun a 360 until she located the perpetrator; "PETER! You came too!"

"Of course I did," Peter replied, removing his mask to look Harley directly in the eye. "You didn't think this was 'toodles' forever, did you?"

"I just…I can't…I can't believe…" Harley took a step toward Peter.

Thinking he knew what to expect, Peter opened his arms, ready to envelop Harley in the hug he knew was coming.

He instead received a sharp slap across the face.

"HOW COULD YA?" Harley barked. "AT LEAST GAR SAID GOODBYE! YOU DIDN'T EVEN DO A THING WHEN YA LEFT ME!" She spun to face Garfield; "AN' DON'T THINK YOU'RE OFF THE HOOK, EITHER!"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna leave this on," Garfield replied, tapping his helmet.

"I know I said go," Harley reiterated. "I thought it'd be the best way for you both to be happy! But after ya left, I didn' realize what that meant for me. I thought ya didn' care anymore. I know now that Mr. J wasn't who I thought he was. Either of 'em." The tears were coming fast and hard now. "But I thought you two…I thought I KNEW ya well enough…an' there's gotta be a point where I start stickin' up for me an' sayin' what I want, ya know? I thought maybe it was best if I never saw ya again, since ya picked that guy with the eyeliner over me. What kinda friends were ya, anyway? But I just couldn' get ya outta my stinkin' head, an' I missed ya so much, an'…" Through her sobs, she choked out, "I'm sorry. I know ya didn' actually kill Mr. J. I don' have any proof who did, but…I think I can put the pieces together to know who it was. He wouldn'a wanted two a him runnin' around. An' splittin' me off from ya was exactly what he wanted from the beginnin', I know it. I don' even wanna know what happened ta his Harley. I know you two still WISH ya did it, an'…you should've. Both of 'em. I should never a doubted you two, an' I can't apologize enough for – "

"WHOA!" Garfield interrupted. "Why are YOU apologizing? That doesn't matter anymore. WE were the ones who screwed up in the end."

"I can't exactly say I blame you for thinking you should wash your hands of us," Peter chimed in.

"We left you to DIE," Garfield insisted.

"Nah, not really," Harley told him. "It was a big world. I coulda gone inta hidin'."

"You…don't know what happened, do you?" Garfield realized. "The Forbidden World blew up. It's space dust. We thought you went with it."

Harley's knees quivered. "So I almos'…"

"If there's anyone who can't apologize enough," Garfield sighed, "it's me. I was the one who left you down there. And I'm sorry. If you can't forgive me, I get it. But at least now we know you're alive and you're okay."

"Well, as 'okay' as you can call a person being hunted down by an angry mob," Peter amended, "but that is rather the usual for us, isn't it?"

Harley let out a groan. "I REALLY hate Tuesdays."

"And I'm hardly free of guilt, myself," Peter added. "I, too, left you to certain doom. The fact is Garfield and I both made the wrong choice. How DID you escape the Forbidden World, by the way?"

"Doc Terminus and Hoagy gave me a lift!" Harley said excitedly. "You gotta meet them sometime! They're a real great pair o' pals. Don't know what I woulda done without 'em!" A sigh. "And they ain't here either."

"You have my deepest apologies," Peter told Harley.

She smiled through her tears. "I forgive ya," she said sincerely. "Both of ya. Look, ya both messed up real bad, but you guys wouldn' lie to me about it! I just…I don' wanna be mad at you guys. Not now. Not after ya came to find me. Can we just…start over an' not worry about it?"

"Starting over sounds good," Garfield said in relief.

"I'm inclined to agree," Peter added.

"I'll take that hug now," Harley announced.

They drew together as though magnetized, arms looping around each other and squeezing tightly.

"Hey, wait a minute," Harley realized. "If you're here…how's that work with the WHAM ARMY an' everythin'?"

Garfield and Peter disentangled from the embrace, backing off tensely; Harley could read a rather sheepish expression on Peter's face and knew a similar was painted on Garfield's beneath the helmet. "What?" Harley asked, starting to get suspicious.

"That is a matter of business we need to take care of," Peter informed her.

"Look, you don't have to do anything you don't want to," Garfield added. "He just…wants you to hear him out."

"Hear WHO out?" Harley asked, feeling the beginnings of dread.

Garfield and Peter both pointed over Harley's shoulders. She spun around, looking toward the building's façade.

She hadn't noticed him earlier, the figure sitting on the edge of the roof, his long legs dangling over the gable. He had heard everything, and knew now it was time to make his entrance, straightening up; the sun caught his outline, framing the familiar tall silhouette, his narrow waist and comparatively broad shoulders, the fringe of hair trailing from his rounded hat.

As soon as Roman Torchwick turned to face the others, Harley took a step back, shaking her head. "No," she said firmly. "Nuh-uh. Not him. I ain't gonna – "

"Calm down, Jester," Roman sighed. "I'm not here to throw you off the roof. For your information, the only reason your friends here aren't a pair of popsicles is because I dragged their stupid asses out of Solitas to bring them down here. To find you. A 'thank you' would be nice, but I really don't expect that from you at this point. So all I ask is that you let me say my piece. Then I'll get out of dodge, you can have your happy reunion, and maybe, if you want, you can take up my very special offer. Or you can forget any of you ever had anything to do with me. Your choice."

On one hand, it was Roman, and Harley wasn't inclined to trust Roman by default. He had cast himself as her personal villain time and time again, from Gotham to Blackmoor to the Forbidden World, and she could've forgiven the first two times if it weren't for the third. However, his tone lacked aggression, and she could sense a sincerity behind it. Whether that was a convincing act or not remained to be seen, but there was only one way to know. "Okay," Harley relented. "I'll listen. But don't expect me to believe somethin' that sounds fishy."

"First, let me say this," Roman began. "I never really paid ATTENTION to you. Now, I never thought I had a reason to. After all, you joined up with a bunch of people who tried to kill me on a regular basis. When you were living with her royal Dragon-ness, did you happen to cross paths with a certain fire bitch dressed all in red who had a thing for glass shoes?"

"Cinder?" Harley realized. "Yeah, I knew her. She wasn't much for conversation."

"A fuckface with a scorpion tail and a long-ass braid?"

"Oh, Tyrian? Man, was that guy intense! Reminded me of some of the fellas back at Arkham."

"A guy with a mustache and no sense of humor?"

"Dr. Watts! He reminded me of Arkham, too! Arkham STAFF, that is."

"Big guy, green coat, could snap you in half, liked stabbing himself with rocks?"

"Aw, Hazel? He's a softie. I can tell."

"And a woman who looks like she hasn't seen the sun in over a thousand years. Which, if my sources are correct, is not far from the truth."

"You prob'ly mean Salem. Never got too close to her, to tell ya the truth."

Roman sighed. "Those five ran my life. And, okay, so did their silver-haired hot piece of ass, but he was nowhere NEAR as bad. I've had some shit happen in my life, okay? Neo and I have been through the wringer. And after all that, I just wanted a little freedom to do what I wanted with my friend along for the ride. But Salem and her pals thought I'd be useful to their cause, so next thing you know, I'm walking a tightrope. Sure, it's fun, and I get a hell of an audience, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the rush, but one wrong step and I'm fucking dead. You joined up with THEIR type, so you'll understand if I didn't have the best reason to TRUST you."

"Look," Harley argued, "I knew they done some bad things, but – "

Roman held up his hand, palm outward. "I'm gonna stop you right there. Because on the flight here, I figured something out. This whole time, you've been the lapdog of that Joker freak. Two of him in a row, apparently. Mister Twister and Gar here let me in on how number one used to send you home with black eyes and bruises if he thought you fucked up. And I saw for myself how BATSHIT number two is, so I'm guessing that didn't end up panning out for you."

Harley bit her lip; she had a strong urge to resume sobbing, but she wasn't about to show any more vulnerability in front of Roman Torchwick.

"Now, I'm lucky," Roman told Harley. "I got out. I managed to escape from my bad bosses and get back to the way things should be: looking out for me and joining up with people who actually give a shit about me. You…never did. After we kicked the dragon lady's ass and made off with her magic ball, you came after us looking for that, and I may have…completely and totally fucked up by throwing you to certain doom and hoping I broke a rib in the process. Look, everyone from my friends to my boyfriend to my big-sister-in-spirit tells me over and over that I keep getting into trouble because I rush into things without thinking, and I have just been like…is there a PROBLEM with that? And…yeah. There's a problem with that. They were all right. I'm a pretty smart guy most of the time, but sometimes I'm more of an impulsive fuckup. So here I am, here you are, we all know what happened, and after thinking about everything, this may seem hard to believe, but…" He gave a deep sigh. "I'm sorry."

Harley was stunned. She couldn't yet take her walls down enough to let him into her trust completely, but she hadn't expected this much from him, and it sounded as though his life experience offered him a genuine window through which to see hers. "Thanks," she said softly. "Means a lot."

"So now, we get to the fun part," Roman went on. "I didn't exactly get it before, but now I know why those two like you so much. They actually ran out on me to find you. And I'm thinkin' there HAS to be a better way to wrap all this up. So I have a proposition. You don't have to take it. But I think there's a chance this might work out for everyone involved.

"First of all, I'm going to leave you three here to catch up and work out any last bad blood. Then you all have a choice. If you never want anything to do with me or the WHAM ARMY ever again, fine. But, if that's NOT how you feel, then I propose we have a trial run. We all know it won't be long before there's another scheme running, and whatever Righty needs, it'll be you three, me, and maybe a couple other people from my corner teaming up to go get it. We make it through that without any incidents, and I'll be willing to extend an invitation for one Miss Harley Quinn herself to join the WHAM ARMY. No further strings attached. And they all lived happily ever after."

Harley didn't know what to make of the offer. Perhaps it was a dream come true, to finally be able to work together with Peter, Garfield, and all of their new friends. But after all that had happened, did she really want to have anything to do with Roman? He had admitted he was sorry…and also that he was an impulsive idiot; what was to stop him from lashing out again on another whim?

"But like I said, it's up to you," Roman reiterated. "If you're in for the trial period, just shoot me a text." He withdrew his scroll, tapping at it. "I know both of you probably deleted me from your contacts, so I'm sending you my number again."

He didn't want to let them go. But he realized he had made his bed, and now had to sleep in it. And it was said that if you loved someone, you should let them go, and if they loved you, they'd come back. (And something about words being knives that often left scars, though that might have just been Roman remembering a song he liked.) Surely Peter and Garfield still cared about him, not to mention their other companions among the WHAM ARMY. Surely there was a level of guarantee that they would return. But if not, at least this time, Roman would get closure.

He pocketed the scroll. "Think about it," he said with a coy smile – that immediately downturned. He extended his right hand. "And just in case, well, you know…it was nice knowin' you."

Peter was the first to grasp Roman's hand, twining their thumbs together as he gave a shake that was perhaps a bit too enthusiastic for the situation. "Here's to what we had," he said with his trademark grin.

He then relinquished, letting Garfield take hold of Roman's hand. "Good luck out there," Garfield stated.

Without waiting to see if Harley had any further commentary, Roman took his leave, hooking the Cudgel to the roof's edge and using its cord to rappel down into the street below. "AND REMEMBER WHAT I SAID ABOUT THE SPIDER TATS!" he yelled up before beginning to make his way through streets he'd never thought he would have to navigate again in order to return to the Gummi ship.

If you love them, let them go.

Garfield and Peter each felt a pang of wistfulness as they watched him go – not truly regret, for they knew they'd made the right choice this time, but still a bit of sorrow now that they knew how he really felt. Yet it was unable to tip the scale. They'd finally made it to the person who really mattered, and they were determined not to let her go.

As the trio faced each other, Harley asked, "So whaddaya wanna do? Ya wanna take him up on it?"

"Not exactly a decision that needs to be made this instant," Peter brushed off.

"We have a lot to catch up on first," Garfield added. "So, you got a hideout here?"

"I had a room," Harley explained, "but I don' think I can afford it no more – "

"Say no more!" Peter cried excitedly. "After all, acquiring funds by hook or by crook is our specialty, is it not?"

"Up for a good old-fashioned crime spree?" Garfield proposed.

"After the day I had?" Harley groaned. "I gotta relieve that stress somehow! An' now I actually got backup in case the heat gets on my case again!"

"They may be the heat," Garfield quipped, "but I'll show 'em what it means to burn."

They could hardly have been further from Gotham, but it felt as though all three had finally come home.

...

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Jaune, Papyrus, Ruby, Stork, and Kazuichi escorted Mozenrath to the hourglass chamber, where the villain found himself assessing and critiquing the enormous device before him. "So this is how you've been spying on me," he remarked. "Definite Seven Deserts design, which is strangely appropriate. As for the construction, it's pretty shoddy compared to what a REAL sorcerer of the Seven Deserts could do."

"Well, take a closer look," Jaune snapped, "because a real sorcerer of the Seven Deserts DID work on this, and she didn't cut corners."

"Meaning she's just sloppy," Mozenrath argued.

"Or you're just grasping at straws to insult us," Jaune countered.

Mozenrath was propped up against the wall, where he struggled once more against the ice but in vain. Had he his gauntlet, he could've busted through the bonds easily, but as it were, the garment had become a subject of gawking; after minimal pestering, Stork had passed it off to Kazuichi, who inspected it as though expecting to find some sort of configuration of gears and crystals within that produced its magical properties.

"Ready?" Sora asked, raising his Keyblade.

"Ready," Kairi confirmed, lifting her own.

Riku copied the movement, and all three called out "THUNDER!", striking the crystal at the hourglass' zenith with electricity. The sands in the upper half swirled, agitated.

"Okay," Sora began. "What – "

"Don't ask," Riku told Sora. "He'll think we twisted the question to get the answer we wanted him to see. Let's have Mozenrath ask all the questions he wants."

All eyes turned to the captive sorcerer. "And why should I play your game?" Mozenrath asked.

"For your own good," Riku informed him. "You need to know exactly what you've been playing with. You can't tell me you're not curious now that we brought you all the way up here."

Mozenrath's eyes rolled dramatically. "Fine. I'll run your little obstacle course. What would've happened if I cast the spell involving the artifacts I came to collect?"

The sands emptied into the lower chamber of the hourglass, their vision projecting. Black emptiness was projected across the glass.

"You want to argue to me again how well-put-together your sorry attempt at magic is?" Mozenrath groaned. "It doesn't even work."

"It's working," Kairi insisted. "It's showing you nothing because if you had finished that spell, there would be nothing left."

"Then we'll come at this from a different angle," Mozenrath tried. "Would the ritual have done what I thought it would do?"

This time, there was an image: the twelve artifacts gathered in a ring. One by one, they shattered into fragments.

Mozenrath was a decent interpreter of such symbolism, as it was oft-encountered when trying to gain magical knowledge. As such, he now knew there was something definitely amiss with the ritual he'd attempted, and it boiled in his gut. "Who wrote the spell I was trying to cast?" he asked.

Now the image was of Khartoum, in human form as he had been before the book had imprisoned him, tall and imposing. Though the hourglass did not convey sound, Khartoum was depicted laughing, and Mozenrath could hear the deep, booming guffaw within the recesses of his mind.

"No," he growled.

"Now you know," Riku asserted. "What you saw was true. Aladdin saved your life, and all of your friends."

Mozenrath could no longer argue. He simply gaped at the glass, watching Khartoum's image fade. He wanted to retreat again, to isolate himself and mourn not the loss of his victory this time, but the sad fact that he had never been on the path to victory at all.

And yet he was tired of doing so. He'd already been roused from a funk once, and it seemed rather counterproductive to sink right back into it. What would the Huntsman say to him now? That Mozenrath was the sort of man who would simply find a new plan. Instead of serving to drive his dismay, Mozenrath's current humiliation and helplessness merely fueled his anger and drive. He wanted revenge: against the Cinnamons, against the Brotherhood, against the worlds. He wanted domination. He wanted victory. He wanted to bring something back to the WHAM ARMY that they could divide, share, and thank him for. Before he could have any of that, he had to escape.

He offered no more words to his captors as he thought this over, and Stork suggested, "We should probably get him down to the dungeons now."

"I still can't believe it," Sora reiterated. "We actually caught Mozenrath!"

"I wouldn't celebrate," Stork warned. "The rest of the WHAM ARMY is probably mobilizing to launch a rescue mission for him right now. I'd be surprised if we all survive it."

"I'm ready for them!" Sora insisted. "I can take whatever they can throw at us!"

That was when the wall exploded.

Or perhaps "exploded" is the wrong term. For what had happened was that a large metal vehicle had crashed directly into and through the wall of the chamber, proceeding to scrape across the floor as it filled half the room. Stork, Kazuichi, and Jaune were the first to bolt for the opposite wall, screaming bloody murder at three harmonizing pitches. Sora and Riku followed; Kairi and Papyrus were the only ones who thought to grab onto Mozenrath and drag him out of the crushing path of the ship as well. The metal made slight contact with the hourglass, coming just too close for comfort but ultimately doing no damage to the immense magical device, thankfully.

Upon further observation, the ship that had barged into the room was quite strangely shaped; it was primarily round, and through the gaps in the now-destroyed wall, the group could see thrusters fixed to its rear, as well as a fuel tank composed of glass. The spherical segment of it was fixed to a fulcrum that allowed it to rotate, and for a brief moment, Sora was reminded, amusingly enough, of the sort of wheel one put in a cage for a pet rodent to run on. Come to think of it, that fuel tank almost looked like the upside-down water bottle that usually accompanied such an installment in the cage.

A door slid open, and through the settling dust of the wreckage, a diminutive, rounded silhouette, with rabbitlike ears that stuck directly upward and a twitching tail that ended in a pom-pom of fur, marched out into the chamber, bearing a comically large blaster that was even longer than he was tall. A nasally voice, thick with an accent, blurted from this silhouette:

"Which one of you IDIOTS put a CASTLE in my WAY?"

The dust settled, and everyone now realized what they were looking at. He definitely wasn't human, more rodentine in appearance. He was coated in thick, fluffy white fur that would have made anyone else look nonthreatening, but the way this man bore himself as well as the dead serious expression on his face countered that effect thoroughly. His bright red eyes glowered; his downturned mouth was graced with a set of buck teeth. By way of clothing, he wore only one piece: a crimson cape, fastened at the neck with a brooch in the shape of a golden "H."

"What…the…FUUUUUUUCK?" Kazuichi screamed. "IS THAT A FUCKING GERBIL?"

"HAMSTER!" the interloper cried angrily, jumping up and down in place to indicate his frustration. "I AM NOT GERBIL-LIKE! I AM HAMSTER-LIKE! HAMSTER!"

It took a moment for everyone to calm down long enough for one of them to ask an actually rational question. "Who ARE you?" Kairi managed to eke out over the thudding of her heart. "What do you want from us?"

"I," the intruder introduced grandly, now smiling smugly, "am Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel! And I have come in search of the one who calls himself…Mozenrath."

"You KNOW him?" Sora asked the ice-bound prisoner.

"I have never seen this thing before in my life," Mozenrath said flatly, wide-eyed and barely able to process any of what had just happened or was currently happening.

"What do you want with HIM?" Riku barked.

"Ah, it is a rather amusing story!" Hämsterviel explained. "You see, I am one of the most feared and malicious criminals in all of what you inter-world imbeciles refer to as 'Deep Space.'"

"BUT YOU'RE A FUCKING GERBIL!" Kazuichi protested.

"FOR THE FINAL TIME, IT IS HAMSTER!" Hämsterviel shot back. "YOU WILL LEARN TO HOLD YOUR TONGUE, YOU MALADAPTED MECHANIC WITH YOUR RIDICULOUS TEETH AND UNCOORDINATED COLOR PALETTE, OR I WILL NOT HESITATE TO SHOOT YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"

Kazuichi clamped his lips shut.

"I have spent three years attempting to dominate Deep Space, beginning with the planet Earth, where I dispatched my most incompetent yet frustratingly loyal minion to capture the biological weapons I had created along with my partner in crime, Dr. Jumba Jookiba," Hämsterviel went on.

"Wait a minute!" Jaune broke in. "We know Jumba! Are you saying he was working with you to mess up his world this whole time?"

"We thought his claiming to be evil was all talk!" Kairi said in horror.

"Unfortunately correct," Hämsterviel unintentionally reassured. "The man is an utter invertebrate who collapsed the moment he thought he could call someone else 'family.' Ha! What a ridiculous notion! Family is not more important than evil!"

"This guy should meet Vexen," Jaune muttered.

Hämsterviel had heard that. "Oh, I intend to," he said wickedly. "For you see, as I spent my years imprisoned by the Galactic Federation's league of abstruse bureaucrats waiting futilely for Gantu to retrieve my missing experiments, I managed to retune my observational equipment to observe worlds OUTSIDE Deep Space! And from there, I observed! I documented world upon world's worth of tyrants, miscreants, and traffic law violators! Of course, I could only communicate with those within my own world, and in an attempt to connect to a similarly intellectual mind, I somehow found myself employing an even more insufferable idiot than Gantu." He then looked directly at Mozenrath. "My crucial mistake was writing off your Huntsman as a bungling brute."

Mozenrath blinked. "You KNEW – "

Hämsterviel didn't let him finish. "I finally gathered the resources to launch a final assault on Earth, with an undefeatable army! Which was promptly and unexpectedly DEFEATED! My underlings betrayed me, and my army of Leroys failed me beyond any hope of salvation!"

"Am I hearing things," Kazuichi broke in, "or did he just say 'army of Leroys'?"

"YOUR WARNING IS NOW FINAL!" Hämsterviel shrieked at Kazuichi. "Another word from you AND I WILL LEAVE YOU WITH NO MOUTH FROM WHICH TO SPUTTER YOUR INCOMPREHENSIBLE GIBBERISH!"

Kazuichi now clamped both hands over his mouth. Stork added one of his own on top for good measure.

"When next I escaped from prison," Hämsterviel explained, "I knew I required a more competent ally before attempting further domination of my or any other world. I had seen the exploits of criminal after criminal, but none had IMPRESSED me as much as the gathering that called themselves the WHAM ARMY! Alone, each of them was little more than a floundering fool. And yet when put in combination, they became a force capable of retrieving objects of immense power from worlds of all varieties! And so I sought out their Mozenrath in hopes of proposing an alliance. His unconventional methods combined with my genius brilliance would surely spell the downfall of the known multiverse!"

"I might be opening up a can of worms by asking this," Stork attempted, "but wouldn't the more obvious choice have been to go for Maleficent?"

"That arrogant faery with her ludicrous horned headdress was little more than a bore," Hämsterviel explained. "A partnership with her would have been tantamount to conversing with a brick wall! Further, it was obvious she would not have properly recognized my brilliance! Which brings us to the present moment." Hämsterviel fixed his red eyes upon Mozenrath's bewildered ones. "You! Ally with me, and we shall wreak havoc upon the known worlds! We shall acquire the conquest you have so desperately reached to obtain, going so far as to nearly initiate the destruction of all existence!"

"DID EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT THAT?" Mozenrath growled. He then sighed. "This…was not how I expected to break out of this castle, but I'll take it. Desperate times, desperate measures. You, Hamster-wheel – "

"VIEL!" Hämsterviel shrieked. "IT IS HAMSTER-VIEL!"

"Good luck getting Torchwick to pronounce that right," Mozenrath muttered. "Anyway, all considered, you have a job."

"Then let us get our plans under way immediately!" Hämsterviel declared.

"Hold on!" Sora stepped in front of Mozenrath, and all of his friends present joined him in doing so – even Stork, who had to remove his hand from Kazuichi's mouth to do so, and Kazuichi, who brought down his own hands to make a fist with one and hover the second over his armor plate. "You're not taking Mozenrath anywhere! We're gonna make sure he stays in here and doesn't get the chance to wreck any other world again!"

"If you wanna fight over it," Riku beckoned, his blade rushing into his drawn-back hand, "we'll humor you."

"WE HAVE ALREADY DEFEATED A PARTIAL WHAM ARMY ONCE TODAY!" Papyrus reminded Hämsterviel.

"And if we can kick all their asses," Kazuichi asserted, "we can take a fucking GERBIL!"

That was the final straw. Hämsterviel let out a scream of "HAAAAMSTEEEEEER!" before making good on his promise, aiming his blaster, and promptly shooting Kazuichi.

He had not, however, compensated for his diminutive height. The blast collided directly with Kazuichi's knee rather than any vital organs, and furthermore, it was the prosthetic knee; Kazuichi's flesh was utterly unharmed. However, the prosthesis did crack in half where it was hit, spilling Kazuichi to the floor. And as he collapsed, he happened to drop one crucial item.

The gauntlet fluttered down to the tile.

Mozenrath pitched himself forward, hitting the floor as he snapped the gauntlet in between his teeth, brushing over it with his tongue. (The sad coincidence of him using his tongue to get out of this scrape after having been foiled in the first place by a long-tongued foe was not lost on him, and he tried not to think about how much saliva Toad might have left on his precious gauntlet.) Though the gauntlet was most potent when worn on the hand, any physical contact could produce magic to some extent; lips and tongue were enough for Mozenrath to summon up deep cracks in the ice that held him bound. His own strength did the rest; he burst through the ice, leaving it in glassy splinters across the floor. Quickly as he could, he scrambled to his feet, pulling the gauntlet onto the proper hand.

The Cinnamons turned to oppose him; he let off a strong beam of blue that caught them by surprise, parting them enough to form a path between Mozenrath and Hämsterviel's ship. Mozenrath barreled toward the ship, stumbling only a little on the way. In no time, he'd crossed the threshold, turning to give his enemies a farewell smirk.

"Next time," he told them, "send an invitation and have a pot of tea ready. Then I might actually want to stay!"

Hämsterviel hopped to Mozenrath's side, and the door slammed shut behind them, sealing them on the ship. They could soon hear the sounds of the heroes battering the ship's hull, trying to gain entrance. Ignoring that completely, the pair rushed to the cockpit, where Hämsterviel took his place at the flight controls of the ship.

"First things first," Hämsterviel declared, "we must round up the rest of your absurd allies."

"I have a feeling we'll need to save them from themselves," Mozenrath agreed.

The ship pulled out of where it was embedded in the Radiant Garden castle tower and descended upon the city.

...

Vexen, Wuya, Xayide, Yzma, Snatcher, and Scarlet had hidden themselves in a back alley of the city, huddled in a strategy meeting regarding extricating Mozenrath from enemy territory. The good news was that the mental fog caused by the Trinity Limit had worn off enough for Yzma to come up with a plan.

The bad news was that the mental fog caused by the Trinity Limit had worn off enough for Yzma to come up with a plan.

"The catapult will launch Wuya and myself up to the highest tower," she explained, "and on the way, we will perform a synchronized triple-flip salchow resulting in an arabesque before landing at our destination. When I flash my compact mirror against the sun, that will be Xayide's signal to strike up the band. This in turn will be the cue for Snatcher and Scarlet to start pumping the water up from the sewers, at which point, Vexen will bring in the massive cold front – "

An immense shadow blanketed them all. They looked up to see the wheel-shaped spaceship hovering above. Before anyone could ask any questions, a metal platform powered by magnetism lowered itself from the vehicle; Mozenrath himself stood upon it.

"Well, this will save us time having to learn the choreography," Yzma remarked.

"What's with the spaceship?" Scarlet asked. "Is everyone who wasn't mixed up by that magic stuff seeing that, too, or is it just me?"

"This is our bolt out of the blue," Mozenrath replied. "I suggest we ride the lightning." He then thought that turn of phrase over. "Not…in the sense that usually means."

Aboard the ship, Yzma, Wuya, Scarlet, Xayide, Vexen, and Snatcher got a good look around. Mozenrath gestured to the cockpit, where the pilot was beginning to bring the vehicle out of Radiant Garden's atmosphere and into interspace. "By the way," Mozenrath explained, "this is Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel. He will be joining the WHAM ARMY."

"Lovely," Snatcher remarked. "A rat."

"HAMSTER!" Hämsterviel corrected.

"We'll have plenty of time for introductions and explanations on the ride home," Mozenrath clarified. "Long story short…we need a new plan."

"Acquiring the artifacts will take far more finesse than previously believed," Vexen agreed. "Perhaps it is time we – "

"No," Mozenrath sighed, "we need an ENTIRELY new plan. The artifacts are off the table."

"WHAT?" everyone present who wasn't Hämsterviel cried.

"That will also be explained," Mozenrath went on. "But before we do anything else, I'm in the mood to ruin the lives of a few teenagers. They think they can humiliate me and get away with it. And I think I have their house bugged and can listen to them as long as I want until I find a new weakness of theirs to exploit. In fact, why don't we check in on them now?"

He waved his hand, bringing up the view from the beetle in the Brotherhood house.

The quintet was just getting home, Todd the first to bounce through the door. "Could you imagine it, yo?" he posed to the others. "Me, wearin' that glove an' becomin' the all-powerful Toad. Usin' real magic to, I dunno, make a ton of money come outta nowhere or make it rain chocolate."

"Literally no one wants to imagine the all-powerful Toad," Pietro groaned.

"I dunno," Fred broke in. "I think it sounds kinda neat."

"Of COURSE you do," Pietro huffed.

"Okay, okay," Lance sighed, "real funny, but now tell me what REALLY happened while I was out of it. Y'know, the version where Toad DOESN'T save the world."

Todd rolled his eyes. "I'm tellin' ya, I came through in the clutch! Is it so hard to believe that – "

He paused. On his eyeroll, he'd picked up something in his peripheral vision. Craning his head back, he looked to the ceiling: directly at Mozenrath's bug.

Mozenrath flinched.

"Never seen one that color before," Todd remarked before his tongue whipped at it.

The next thing Mozenrath knew, he was getting a view of a slow trip down an esophagus.

Having no desire whatsoever to see the interior of a teenage mutant's digestive system, Mozenrath dismissed the view from the bug. There was nowhere it could possibly go from here that would be of any use to him anymore. "I hate those children SO MUCH," he seethed. Then, putting up his hands, he decided, "But they can wait. I'll just work their eventual destruction into the new plan."

"Before we go any further," Wuya pointed out, "you're saying we need an entirely new plan. That we're back to square one."

"That is what I am saying," Mozenrath confirmed.

"And…you are okay with this," Yzma ventured.

"No," Mozenrath answered. "I am not okay with this. But I am also tired of wallowing in it. So the door's closed. We tried opening it back up again, and it didn't work. But Dr. Hämsterviel made me realize something today. As it turns out, when a door closes, you can just knock down the entire wall."