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.

96. The Blitz

A/N: We're starting to get into territory where major Kingdom Hearts III spoilers will be referenced in the form of hypotheticals, and soon enough, we will plunge directly into plot points involving Kingdom Hearts III's events. You can no longer consider this a spoiler-safe zone from Kingdom Hearts III! Proceed with caution!

...

It had to be admitted: Kairi was falling behind in her Keyblade studies.

Ever since Yen Sid had begun the stricter regimen, teaching such techniques as Attraction Flows, skimmer summoning, Shotlock, and much more, Kairi had watched Sora, Riku, and Lea pick up the skills almost immediately while Mickey found them to be old hat. Donald and Goofy were given different training exercises, but they were already mastering them; Donald had improved his Flare spell, and Goofy was learning a lot of handy tricks to carry out with a shield. Kairi, however, was finding some of the new combat techniques difficult. Not to mention that magic had previously been her strong suit, but for whatever reason, the new spells didn't come so easily to her. She could still cast a mean Blizzara, but loosing a Shotlock often ended up in a spray of minor magic bursts that went wild and did little damage to what they did manage to hit.

It had to be admitted. But only to herself. She couldn't tell anyone else who hadn't been in on the training yet. She couldn't even bring herself to admit to Jaune that she hadn't been excelling, though she knew he would understand. Nor could she tell Ienzo.

That day, both were already tied up with other business anyhow. Ienzo and Mickey had teamed up for a "secret project" that involved them setting up a workshop back in the Gummi garage of Disney Castle, so they were off world perfecting whatever innovation they'd come up with. Jaune, Ruby, Nora, and Ren had declared it a Team RNJR bonding day and gone out on the town to catch up. That left Kairi to her own devices.

She had intended to breeze past Leon quickly. "I'm going out!" she'd told him as she'd passed him in the entryway. "I wanna practice my Keyblade techniques!"

"Kairi," he'd said sternly, and she had halted to hear him out.

"I'm not gonna beat around the bush," Leon stated firmly. "Lea told me you've been struggling with Master Yen Sid's teachings."

Kairi nervously brushed her hair back behind an ear. "That's why I'm going to practice," she told him. "So I can get better and keep up."

"Be careful," he told her. "Know your limits. You're getting too important to the operations of Radiant Garden to be a liability. I don't want you picking a fight you can't win. If you end up dying on the battlefield, we'll all suffer for it."

The words had struck Kairi to her very core, but she stood tall, determined not to let her lack of confidence show. "I won't fall that way," she insisted. "I'm going to get strong enough to protect Radiant Garden."

Leon nodded. "If you think you know what you're doing, then I'll trust you."

Yet those words had come with a fair amount of inherent distrust.

So Kairi found herself in the fountain court, where the cascade of the waters made a sound that soothed her, inciting a prickle over her scalp. Ren had told her that on Remnant, "Kairi" came from a word that meant "sea" or "ocean," and so was actually a name found on that world due to its association with ocean blue. It seemed all too fitting, then, that Kairi should be calmed by the presence of water.

"Okay," she told herself. "We're gonna learn how to do this, and we're gonna do it right."

She aimed high, thinking of the most difficult Attraction Flow to maintain. The Magic Carousel required not only a summon but a constant recast of magic to keep it in play. If she could call up a Magic Carousel, she could do anything. So she pointed her Keyblade straight up into the air, pouring her will into it.

Light surged around its shaft in two intertwining beams, erupting into the sky. A grand carousel studded with multicolored lights, its horses pristine white, rose from the ground before her, and she cheered inwardly. Yet the work was only half done.

She vaulted onto the nearest horse, taking the ride for a spin. The key to a successful Magic Carousel was watching the bands of light that originated beneath it and recasting the spell every time they hit peak, which was when they reached the diameter of the carousel. Kairi kept an eye below, watching the first ring of light expand. She swung her Keyblade, casting.

She missed the timing entirely.

As she did the next two times: once too soon, then once too late.

The carousel dissolved beneath her, dropping her ungraciously onto the stone of the court. The hard fall hurt, but that wasn't what was nearly bringing tears to her eyes.

She forced herself to stand back up. "No," she told herself. "It's okay. I just have to start with something easier."

Mad Tea Cups. Those were easy. She whipped her Keyblade through the air, and the cup-shaped cart began to rise up beneath her –

Only to shudder and fall apart in a shower of sparks.

Maybe she just wouldn't be able to cast an Attraction Flow today. She decided to practice something else, launching the Keyblade into the air with strong intent.

The blade began to morph, changing into her personal skimmer –

And then all at once collapsed back into the shape of a key, Kairi's distraught emotional state doing her no favors in keeping her focus on the magic.

That was the final straw. She retrieved the key, regarded it for a moment, then hurled it as hard as she could into the shallows of the fountain. She then sank down to sit on the steps that led down into the fountain's waters, knees pulled up, arms crossed, and face buried in those arms.

"It's no use," she said in a shuddering voice. "I'm just no good."

Now the tears did come, flowing rapidly as she gasped for air. "What if I was never meant to be a Keybearer?" she moaned after some silent crying. "What if I don't have the strength to protect what matters?"

Another long pause before she asked herself the worst question of all: "What if I am just going to die on the battlefield? Maybe I shouldn't even try! Maybe I'm…useless."

She was becoming a failure, as she had feared from the moment Yen Sid had first contacted her about training, shortly after Riku had passed his Mark of Mastery. Now all she could think about was how she couldn't possibly arise to the challenges that awaited her, and she would have to choose between waiting on the sidelines or risking her life in a situation that was sure to end in –

"You 'spectin' me to answer, or - ?"

The sudden voice breaking in startled Kairi into looking up and screaming rather loudly. This sudden motion, in turn, startled the one who'd addressed her, making him give a yelp of his own.

Kairi was looking at Todd Tolansky, waded into the shallows of the fountain and gripping Destiny's Embrace in one hand. He stared back at her, his normally wide eyes even more so. "I was gonna give it back!" he protested hastily. "Promise!"

He must have mistaken Kairi's expression of lingering shock for one of accusation, for he then sighed and admitted, "Okay, I saw you throw it and that you weren't lookin', so I was gonna try and trade it for some cash. But then ya started talkin', an' I thought you was talkin' ta me, but then I wasn't SURE, so I thought I'd ask, an' apparently all that did was blow my cover."

Kairi stood quickly. "Give me back my Keyblade," she demanded, hand held out firmly.

"Okay, okay," Todd muttered. Then, taking a closer look at her face and seeing the puffy pink skin around her eyes, he noted, "You look like you just been through the wringer. What, your dog die or somethin'?"

"No," Kairi replied. "I just…feel a little useless right now, that's all."

Why had she even bothered telling him that? It wasn't as though he was going to have anything to say to that that she would want to hear.

She was mildly taken aback when he replied, "Man, been there, done that."

"You have?" Kairi tilted her head slightly. "What – "

"Look," Todd said sharply as he shoved Destiny's Embrace back into her hand, "I ain't gonna tell no sob story to YOU, capisce? It's none a your business. Now if you'll excuse me, princess, I'm gonna get back on my way to the arcade like I was headed in the first place."

Now Kairi was simply curious about one particular thing he'd said: "Radiant Garden has an arcade?"
"Ain't you the princess?" Todd countered. "You're s'posed ta know this stuff."

"I don't have the city memorized, okay?" Kairi snapped. "And I haven't lived here that long!"

"You ain't lived here – how are you even princess of this place, anyway?"

"You don't actually care about my story!" Kairi accused.

Todd shrugged. "You're right. I don't. Well, see ya."

He began to tuck into a crouch so that he could more efficiently leap away, but Kairi bade him, "Wait!"

Todd rolled his eyes as he straightened back up. "What now?"

"It's just…" Kairi bit her lip. She didn't particularly want to deal with Todd, but she needed a distraction from her current situation, and he'd just offered her an idea. While she was by no means an avid player of video games, she was sure there was fun to be had in that activity. "Could you…show me the way to the video arcade? I'm ONLY asking because this is the quickest way I can find out without having to go all the way back home to get a map!"

Todd thought it over. "Okay, here's the deal," he told her. "I walk. You follow. We don't talk."

"Right."

"I'm just givin' you directions, basically. Then you get off my back and you can't say I never did no favors for ya. You owe me a pass for this one, you get me? What I mean is if you catch me stealin' or doin' a vandalism, you let it slide."

"Done!" Kairi agreed, dismissing Destiny's Embrace so she could fold her arms assertively.

"Okay, then." Todd decided to forgo leaping and stick to bipedal transportation. "Don' fall behind, 'cause I ain't waitin' for ya ta catch up. An' I ain't stressin' this enough: WE DON'T. TALK."

Kairi made a gesture of zipping her lips shut.

Todd resumed his quest, feet sloshing through the shallows of the fountain waters, and Kairi followed, close enough behind him to keep an eye on where he was going but far enough away that they both kept their due personal space. It was a business agreement: nothing more.

She was desperate to leave her failures behind, if only for a few hours.

...

Cadance, Shining Armor, and Spike gathered around Celestia's throne so all four could hear the tale of events on the moon as told collaboratively by Riku, Sonia, Luna, Mal, Lianna, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.

"And then I turned into Daring Do, and I was all like POW!" Rainbow Dash swung her hoof through the air. "And Fluttershy turned into that half-bat thing, and she was like WHAM! And Applejack became the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well, but with even more power, and she was all KA-BAM!" She twirled a 360 in the air dramatically.

"I am glad you were all able to defend yourselves," Celestia broke in, "but I must say hearing all of this disturbs me a good deal. If I'd have known that the Boogeyman were using our moon as a hideaway and would attempt to corrupt you further, Luna, I never would have sent you there."

"I am well aware, sister," Luna said with a slight bow of the head. "I know now that you never meant to truly inflict any cruelty upon me. We were both deceived. But perhaps it is for the better, for I have learned from the experience, and I daresay my knowledge of nightmares is as good as it is because of it."

"That's good, at least," Cadance stated.

"We haven't finished telling you about the AWESOME DREAM BATTLE!" Pinkie screamed. "Rarity used the same power as the Inspiration Manifestation spell, except this time she used it for good, so all the stuff she made was like golden chariots that ran over the Nightmares, and I remembered the time I got in trouble with the Mirror Pool, so I just made a bunch of doubles of me, and then I gave them all PARTY CANNONS for a PINKIE PIE ARMY! And then TWILIGHT made herself six whole Keyblades to use against the Nightmares! What made you think of that, Twilight?"

Silence.

"Uhhh…Twilight?" Applejack said in confusion, looking around.

Everyone glanced about the audience chamber. Twilight Sparkle was nowhere to be found.

"I hope nothing bad has happened to her!" Sonia said worriedly.

Celestia smiled knowingly. "Twilight may have wanted some time to think over events by herself."

Riku flinched. He had a pretty good idea of what might have caused Twilight to want to sequester herself. "You think she'd let me talk to her?"

"Well, there wouldn't be any harm in asking," Celestia told him. "I would check the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the royal library if I were you."

After Celestia gave Riku directions, he nodded and took off. "Keep telling the story!" he called over his shoulder. "I'll be right back!"

Mal smiled at Lianna. "I think we're gonna like having him as our family for real."

The royal library was stuffed with books, shelf after shelf after shelf. Riku found Twilight nestled in between two of the bookcases, a plethora of tomes spread out open before her. "No, no, no…" she muttered as she pored over the pages.

"Something wrong?" Riku asked her.

Twilight's head snapped up, and she turned to look to him with an obviously false smile. "Nothing!" she chirped. "Absolutely nothing is wrong! All good here! Just catching up on my reading!"

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine," Riku told her. "I just thought that if you left in the middle of sharing our story, it had to be for something that was really weighing on your mind."

Twilight sighed, knowing she'd been figured out. "I'm just…trying to put the pieces together."

"It's about the Darkness, isn't it?" Riku supposed. "When Luna and I pointed out how strongly you were able to use it."

"Actually, no," Twilight said in a tone that was so sincere, Riku realized he must have been wrong. "I trust what you and Luna said. I'm not afraid of the Darkness, so long as I remember to use it with caution. Maybe one day, I can get as skilled with it as Luna is. I'm more worried about something else."

"Well, if you wanna talk, I'm here to listen," Riku told her.

"It's just…" Twilight sighed once more. "I became the Princess of Friendship because it was the role I chose for myself after the battle with Tirek. But now that you've pointed everything out, I just don't know. The castle springing up just for me, the map that only works with me and my friends…and now it turns out I have this capacity for Darkness, too. Even when I was young, Princess Celestia took me on as her student because I showed potential like nothing she'd ever seen before. It's like…fate is lining me up for some kind of destiny, and I thought I could choose what it was. But what if I'm misreading the signs? What if I'm meant to do something else, and I completely and totally don't know what that is? That's why I'm looking at these books. This section of the library has the most advanced magic and the most in-depth exploration of Equestrian lore in all of the land, and if there's an answer, then maybe it's here. But somehow…I just don't think I'm gonna find what I'm looking for."

"I think maybe," Riku suggested, "if fate has something special in mind for you, it'll let you know later. It won't pass you by."

"I almost wish I could go out into the worlds with you and Luna and Cadance," Twilight admitted. "Even just to visit Radiant Garden. It sounds like there's more knowledge there than I could ever hope to find here. And I'd love to see all the different worlds and the creatures that inhabit them. Maybe, if I'm really supposed to do something big, I'll find it out there."

"So come along with us," Riku told her.

"I can't," Twilight replied. "Because if there's one thing more important to me than knowledge and magic and destiny combined, it's my friends. I can't just leave them behind. They need me, and I need them. Even if the curiosity eats me alive, I'd rather play out the rest of my adventures with them."

"I know the feeling," Riku told her. "The thing is, friends do have to go their separate ways sometimes to do what they need to. Even lovers need to do that. Sora and I had to split up to carry out our missions. That said, you should go where you feel your heart is. And if that's here, with your friends, then this is where you belong." He smiled warmly. "If you ever change your mind, though, we'd be happy to welcome you to Radiant Garden."

"Thank you, Riku," Twilight replied. She stood up; "Guess we should get back to the throne room. Kiiiiiiinda rude of me to just walk out, wasn't it?"

"Maybe a little worrying," Riku replied, "but I don't think anyone was offended."

"Just give me a second to put all the books back first," Twilight requested.

She zipped from row to row, levitating each book back to exactly its place. Riku smiled, instantly reminded of how meticulously Ienzo kept the Radiant Garden library in order back home. When she had finished the task, she and Riku walked back to the throne room together.

They entered just in time to hear Rarity saying "…If Twilight agrees to it, of course."

"If I agree to what?" Twilight asked as she and Riku rejoined the crowd.

"We've just been doing some thinking out loud," Cadance stated. "To tell you the truth, coming home made me realize just how much I missed the Crystal Empire…and Shining Armor. I'm glad to have gotten the opportunity to help out and see other worlds…but I think it's time I settled back down and stayed here."

Riku flinched in surprise. "We'll miss you," he told her.

"We'll just have to find ways to keep in touch," Cadance told him with a smile.

"It does make sense," Riku realized. "I wouldn't wanna be kept away from Sora for that long."

"And I might love the Crystal Empire," Shining Armor asserted, "but I'm nowhere near as good of a ruler as she is. Also, I'm not gonna lie…I really hoped she'd be coming home soon. I'd never hold her back, but I missed her."

"I am afraid that here is where I, too, say farewell to you," Luna told Riku, Mal, Lianna, and Sonia. "At least for the time being."

"It is far easier on both me and Equestria if there are two princesses to watch over day and night," Celestia explained. "Now that we know what evils could lurk on our very moon, it is important that we give it extra attention."

"Besides," Luna admitted, "I too missed my family."

"As I missed my sister," Celestia agreed.

"You've already done so much for us," Riku told Luna. "It's gonna be weird not having you around the castle…but thanks for all your help. I'm glad we can at least think of you being happy where you belong."

"We're not sending you back empty-hooved, of course," Cadance brought up. "Well, we still have to consult Twilight about it, of course…"

"WHAT do you want to ASK me?" Twilight burst out.

"Well, you see," Rarity explained, "we thought we might simply do a bit of a trade. If Luna and Cadance stay here…"

"Then the six of US can go back to Radiant Garden in their place!" Pinkie cried as she bounded up and down. "And we can travel the worlds and have adventures and eat ice cream flavors that don't exist here – "

"And fight the bad guys!" Rainbow Dash made a few more blows in midair. "Look out, Mozenrath!"

"That is, um, if you don't mind us coming," Fluttershy murmured, face half hidden behind her soft pink mane.

"And if Twilight agrees," Applejack stated. "'Cause we ain't doin' this without ya, Twi. You say the word an' we'll call the whole thing off. We know how much ya like yer stability, especially with gettin' that whole new castle an' all."

"You're saying…you all WANT to go to Radiant Garden?" Twilight replied. Then, in a gesture that surprised everyone but Riku, she began bounding around the crowd in a circle, crying out, "YES! YES! YES YES YES YES YEEEEESSSS!"

"I'm guessing she's on board," Mal remarked.

Twilight halted. "But what about you, Spike?"

"Well, SOMEPONY'S gotta keep running the library while you're gone, right?" Spike said with a shrug. "I don't think I'm ready to leave the nest juuuuust yet. But I can help take care of everything back here!"

"We WILL need to cover a lot back here before we can go," Twilight muttered. "We'll be leaving Ponyville down its chief dressmaker and animal caretaker as well as its librarian. The Apple family will be one short for the harvest, the pegasi will have to carry water to Cloudsdale with two sets of wings missing, and Sugar Cube Corner will be understaffed. We'll have to arrange replacements and schedules."

"If anypony can figure it out," Spike told her, "that pony's you!"

"You're right!" Twilight stomped her front hoof down hard. "It'll take some organization…but organization is what I do best!"

"Perhaps that is what you should have been princess of," Sonia joked.

"Oh, believe me," Twilight told her, "I thought about it before landing on 'Friendship.'"

That got a laugh out of the crowd.

"I just can't believe we're actually going home," Mal sighed.

"It never was our home," Lianna reminded her. "Not really."

"Sure feels like it," Mal replied. "It's the only home we've ever had."

"We'll make it your home," Riku asserted. "And this time, it's gonna be filled with people who actually care about you. Though we might be tight on room."

"I mean, we could room together," Mal suggested.

"If you would not mind," Sonia told her, "I will also gladly share my room with you."

Luna turned to Cadance. "We are leaving this mission in good hooves," she stated.

"And hands," Cadance said with a grin.

Luna returned the expression. "How could I forget?"

...

Snatcher had to bring himself to an abrupt halt to avoid slipping and falling in the blood spill on his lengthy heels. Peter actually did slip, but managed to turn it into a backward handspring and landed on his feet again before noticing the blood on his hand and wiping it off awkwardly on his tunic.

"What happened here?" Garfield asked as Neo pouted upon realizing what action she'd missed.

"Oh, just the usual," Aghoul related. "Cutting down a few guards and two very pretty witnesses. Almost a shame we had to get rid of them. The witnesses, I mean."

Garfield and Peter both knew exactly where to look. Harley caught their twin worried glances and bounced them off with a smile.

"Can we get back to the point?" Roman asked, key in hand. "What exactly am I stopping?" He then thought to look down at his shoes and pant hems. "Gods dammit, I wouldn't have changed back to this outfit if I'd've known I was gonna get this much blood on it…"

"It's a trap," Snatcher said breathlessly. "It's all been a trap, from the moment we entered. Doom targeting you, my assailant targeting me, a third incident you weren't present for. We have been spotted, we have been BAITED, and we are walking EXACTLY into the enemy's hand."

"Whose hand?" Roman asked. "Odin?"

"Not Lord Odin," Snatcher corrected. "We'd've been arrested, sure as your eyes are the color of a summer meadow. No, we're dealing with – "

"Aww!" Roman cried, making no attempt to mask his flattery and in fact exacerbating it. "No one's ever said that about my eyes before! See, these are the perks of dating a poet – "

"LYRICIST, Torchwick, and come off it; I'm trying to tell you something important!" Snatcher asserted. "We've somehow made an enemy within these very walls! One who has been out to sabotage through subterfuge! The only reason anyone was willing to tell us where this vault was is due to this being the cornerstone of their plot! Beyond that door lies some intricate death device they've set up specifically for us!"

"And you just figured this out now," Roman reiterated.

"I had theorized it for a while," Vexen admitted, "but it was only confirmed recently, yes."

"And you didn't think to SAY ANYTHING when you first noticed we were being MANIPULATED?" Roman cried.

"I DON'T PRESENT CONCLUSIONS WITHOUT PROPER EVIDENCE!" Vexen barked back.

"How did they even notice us getting in here?" Roman asked. "We blend in! Nothing we did drew attention to us!"

"If I am forced to hear anything of that ilk one more time…" Vexen muttered.

"It's a mystery to me," Snatcher told Roman.

Vexen bit his lip and tried not to explode on the spot.

"The long and short of it is we've been tricked," Snatcher went on. "Utterly bamboozled. Made nitwits of! And the second you open that door, the vultures descend!"

Roman nodded, taking a moment to think all of this over. The others watched him, startled by this revelation and wondering what their team leader's response would be.

Roman looked Snatcher directly in the eye, and, coming to his conclusion, asked, "So?"

"SO?" Snatcher repeated. "So we're ten steps away from certain doom, that's SO!"

"Are we, though?" Roman argued.

"Mr. Vexen is QUITE sure – "

"Ap-ap-ap-ap-ap." Roman held up his hands to silence Snatcher. "I'm not asking if Iceman's theory is right or not. I'm not asking if we're walking into a trap. I'm asking how badly it REALLY matters if we are."

Snatcher couldn't really think of what to say to this.

"Think about it," Roman went on. "Sure, we've gotten into some bad scrapes before. But we're still standing here, aren't we? Look. We're five hardened criminals – one of whom is a master assassin and has the power to actually mindfuck people – one master manipulator with killer dance instincts, two really powerful sorcerers, and a glorified refrigerator."

Vexen took a deep breath; "YOU WILL NOT REFER TO ME AS SUCH A DISRESPECTFUL – "

"You in charge?" Roman snapped. "Seriously? No? Then shut up. My team, my mission, my rules. Or has rank stopped mattering to you?"

Vexen glared daggers at Roman.

"Now, AS I was saying," Roman went on, "we can put up a damn good fight. And, if need be, we can cut a quick escape. Worst comes to worst, we all die, Righty eventually figures that out and pulls us out of Hell again. The thing is, there is a VERY good chance that the Tesseract is actually in that room. Now, that is admittedly a gamble, but you're talking to a very seasoned gambler here. Would the bad guys really set us up to come all the way down here if there was even a chance that the thing we were looking for happened to be in a completely safe, trap-free room we could stumble upon by accident? Because that's not how I'd set up a gambit! And if these people know us well enough to manipulate us, then they have to know that that kind of accidental stumble is exactly what we'd get into if left unchecked! Meaning if we want that Tesseract, if we REALLY want that Tesseract, then we have to go deal with what's on the other side of that door! And like I said, our odds are probably better than the bad guys figure. Have they even seen us all in the same place at the same time? Because we have rarely all been in the same place at the same time since we got here! We might still have an advantage of surprise on our side! So what do you have to say to THAT?"

"That…makes altogether too much sense, really," Snatcher realized. "Couldn't argue it better myself. Well, actually, not doubting I could, but I didn't come up with the idea; that was you."

"No risk, no reward," Garfield added.

"No pain, no gain," Peter chimed in.

"Gotta break some eggs to make an omelette, I guess," Harley said tentatively.

Neo gave Roman an obvious thumbs-up.

"Logic as sound as my mind and body," Aghoul stated.

"Perhaps there's something to it after all," Xayide said smugly.

Vexen gave a flat "No."

"No?" Roman repeated. "NO? What part of that was NO?"

"The enemy has OBVIOUSLY prepared for us!" Vexen barked. "The ONLY sensible thing to do would be to turn back and either return with suitable reinforcements or forgo the Tesseract altogether! Or would you have our lives forfeit? After all, Mozenrath cannot resurrect us if he DOESN'T KNOW WE ARE DEAD!"

"Yeah, but they can't kill Corpsey, right?" Roman argued. "He skips on back to base and breaks the news."

"Which he cannot do if he is taken hostage," Vexen snapped, "which will be the EXACT response the enemy has to our arrival, knowing his status."

"We're not going home without the fucking shiny cube," Roman said, folding his arms. "We're not going home without at least TRYING to get the fucking shiny cube. I have money riding on this, okay? You're outvoted eight to one. After I finish this sentence, I am going to turn around, ignore you, and unlock this door."

"We should be armed first," Xayide pointed out.

"Right," Roman realized. "Okay. Starting now, I'm going to ignore you, we are going to load up on weapons, and then I will unlock the door."

Vexen gave an indignant huff before suggesting, "At least compromise. If we find ourselves in over our heads, we are to leave IMMEDIATELY without engaging the enemy."

"You know what?" Roman replied. "That, I can actually live with. Turning around without trying, not so much. Anything else you wanna say? Too bad, because NOW I am ignoring you."

Vexen nodded. "Proceed."

Roman made finger guns toward Xayide. "Boat Lights! I think you know what I'm gonna ask!"

Xayide nodded. "As you desire."

Garfield and Peter became recognizable in the distinct costumes of Firefly and Ragdoll. Snatcher was outfitted in his trousers, long red jacket, and tall top hat, his gun-mallet-kusarigama in his hands. Neo took care of replacing her own outfit, though Xayide had to return her parasol with its hidden blade. Vexen was given back his usual wear, trusted to summon his own shield.

"Another bat?" Xayide asked Harley.

"Maybe make it metal this time," Harley suggested sheepishly, and the deed was done; she clutched a shiny steel baseball bat in place of the broken wooden implement.

"All right," Roman declared. "We're ready to party. Let's go get us a fucking shiny cube."

He inserted the shining key into the door's lock and turned it with a satisfying click.

The vault beyond was definitely worth the secrecy and security. Pedestals placed around the chamber held up valuables of all sorts: gemstones, weapons, artifacts. A full suit of golden armor studded with jewels was propped up against one wall. It was a thief's treasure trove, and the thieves among the group couldn't help but ogle a little.

Xayide brought everyone's focus around by pointing; "There."

It lay glimmering on the furthest pedestal from the door. The small, otherwise-unassuming cube radiated a blue light that suggested its ethereal origins.

"No security thus far," Vexen noted. "No traps. No alarms. Almost as if they've been disabled to let us get this far."

"Then we'd best be on guard, shan't we?" Snatcher asked, more coy than anything as he gripped his weapon in preparation.

The group approached the Tesseract slowly, deliberately, weapons at the ready. "Um…I am noticing a distinct lack of ambush," Roman pointed out. "I could be wrong, but I think they're actually gonna let us just take the thing."

All at once, in a rush of black smoke, Blackheart appeared between the group and the Tesseract, his back to the shining cube as he shielded it with his form.

"Gotcha," he said with a smirk.

"Wha – who's THIS clown?" Roman reacted.

"HEY!" Harley snapped.

"Oh, right," Roman realized. "Calling you guys 'clowns' is an insult to Harls. Let me rephrase: who's THIS shithead?"

Roman was surprised to hear the absolute venom in Ragdoll's voice as he greeted, "Oh. It's YOU."

"Feel the suffering yet?" Blackheart asked him.

"You got me once," Firefly seethed. "You're not gonna get me again."

"What the HELL did you do to my friends?" Roman accused.

"Oh, not much," Blackheart replied. "Just brought back some cripplingly traumatic memories and reminded one of them that he's an unstable time bomb, then watched the other finally lose his naïve optimist act over it. But you're here for the Tesseract, aren't you?" He spread out his arms. "Think you can get past me to take it? You're welcome to try."

"If he thinks he can challenge us this way," Vexen hissed, "then he KNOWS he has us overpowered!"

"Nine to one, emo boy," Roman stated. "I don't like your odds."

"Oh," Blackheart replied as though he were only just realizing this. "That is bad, isn't it? I could actually lose to you. Maybe I should call for some help."

The clanking of metal boots across the floor drew everyone's attention to the man who had seemingly emerged from the shadows. "Doom is no one's assistant," Doom insisted as he took his place beside Blackheart. "You are but an assistant to Doom."

"An assistant of Doom," Blackheart repeated. "Actually, I like the sound of that."

"Who broke you out of the Darkness?" Xayide asked calmly. "Who freed you from the ice?"

"All of that was done by Doom," Doom related, "and Doom alone." He fixed his eyes on Roman Torchwick. "So you think to rob the vault of Asgard."

"Uh, yeah?" Roman said with an overdramatic shrug. "Are you surprised here?"

"…Not that you picked up on the trail," Doom admitted, "but that you chose to follow it anyhow."

"I do believe that means you have lost and I have won, Victor."

The owner of the third voice materialized out of thin air – or appeared to, anyway; in reality, he had merely camouflaged himself with an illusion. Loki stood before Blackheart and Doom, smirking as he stared Roman down.

"That was the wager, after all," Loki explained. "You are a gambler. You understand, don't you? Victor and I each expected a different outcome of you. We both knew you would figure out eventually that you were being manipulated. As I said, however, you were both smarter and more idiotic than anyone else accounted for. Knowing full well what lay in wait, you entered here anyway."

"Two questions," Roman replied, keeping his tone casual. "One: what would've happened if none of us had figured you out?"

"Why, then, none of us would have gotten anywhere," Loki concluded, "and we would have had to make ourselves even more obvious in order for you to reach your goal and make a decision. Had you simply forfeited without realizing the game in the first place, however, I suppose all of the winnings would have gone to Blackheart by default."

Roman nodded. "Okay, two: who the FUCK are you?"

"I am Loki," Loki introduced. "Loki Liesmith, son of none or may as well be, ruler of Asgard and known even to some as the god of mischief. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Yeah, no, I get that part," Roman replied, "but have any of you even seen this guy before?" He turned around to poll his compatriots, receiving a bunch of "No"s and "Nuh-uh"s and head-shakes in response. "Anyone?" Back to Loki. "So you're the sit-on-the-throne-and-let-your-goons-do-the-dirty-work kind of guy."

"I wasn't uninvolved," Loki said with a proud smirk. "After all, I had the most difficult task of the three." His very appearance rippled and morphed into the tall redhead. "That being pretending to find Archibald Snatcher the least bit attractive."

"YOU," Snatcher growled. "You knew right well what you were doing the whole time, then! Moreover, you knew exactly who you were dealing with! And now, you're about to learn the consequences of that."

"That's the guy who felt you up?" Roman asked, feeling a burning rage take hold in his stomach, one that hadn't even seized him when Doom had shown up.

"The selfsame!" Snatcher affirmed.

"What are you going to do, then?" Loki asked smugly. "Attack us? Nine against three hardly seems fair. It certainly seems we'd go down easily."

"Do NOT take this bait!" Vexen urged. "All of us combined could barely stand against Doom! These are powerful foes who know our weaknesses, not to mention magic we can barely comprehend! The ONLY way to escape this with dignity and bodies intact is to turn back NOW!"

"You can still turn back, you know," Loki urged, well aware of what choice his opponents would make. "Give up on the Tesseract. Disappoint Mozenrath entirely."

"Wait a minute!" Aghoul cried. "How do you know anything about MOZENRATH?"

"Is the WHAM ARMY not famed throughout all worlds?" Loki posed. "Oh, no, I suppose they aren't, and for good reason, too. I know what your medic is about to suggest. Turn back. Evacuate. Get to safety. This is my offer: do as he says and I will let you walk away unscathed with but a message to deliver."

"We must!" Vexen hissed. "We don't stand a CHANCE!"

"You know something, Iceman?" Roman replied, not turning to look at Vexen but instead keeping his eyes on Loki. "You're right. These aren't good odds for us."

"I am glad you see sense," Vexen replied.

"There's just…one problem," Roman went on, staring Loki down. Loki smirked in response, giving Roman a facial expression that distinctly read: I've got you where I want you, and I know you have no objection to that.

"This is where I regret everything," Vexen sighed.

"The problem," Roman said venomously as his grip tightened on the Cudgel's handle, "is I owe this guy a thorough beatdown for what he did to Archie."

"Likewise," Snatcher chimed in, "I owe Mr. Doom – "

"Dr. Doom," Doom corrected.

Snatcher acquiesced. "Dr. Doom a right thrashing for his near-snapping of Torchwick's neck."

"Meanwhile, I believe I owe a certain someone here a lesson in the true meaning of suffering," Ragdoll brought up. "I merely want to see if he can take what he dishes out."

"Hey, count me in," Firefly chimed in. "I'm not gonna be responsible for letting the guy who almost strangled Roman get off easy."

Neo pointed at Blackheart, knowing that was all she needed to do to get her message across.

"If they wish to challenge my sorcery," Xayide added, "then so be it. They shall then learn why they should not challenge my allies."

"I'm just in the mood for a little more carnage," Aghoul said gleefully. "Vengeance is a bonus."

"I ain't been part a the WHAM ARMY for that long," Harley insisted, "but the thing about 'em is they stand up for each other! Today, I'm a WHAM ARMY! So you wanna mess with them, you gotta mess with ME!"

"No!" Vexen cried, backing away. "NO! I AM BEGGING YOU ALL, RECONSIDER!"

"Are you ready, Harls?" Roman asked.

"Uh-huh!" Harley insisted with a nod.

"Gar and Mister Twister?" Roman continued.

"Yeah," Firefly and Ragdoll chorused.

"Archie?" Roman addressed.

"All right," Snatcher stated.

"All right, fellas," Roman declared, Cudgel held high. "LET'S GOOOOOOO!"

Roman, Harley, Ragdoll, Firefly, Snatcher, Neo, Xayide, and Aghoul surged forth as one.

And from the back, Blackheart calmly said, "Everyone, attack," and as Doom, Blackheart, and Loki spread out to rush up and meet the incoming tide, what happened next could best be described as a "blitz."

Snatcher's pistol fired off an arc of lightning as Firefly turned both gauntlets upon Doom; Doom put out his hands, catching the electricity in one hand and the heat fire in the other. The energy balled up there, and Snatcher instinctively made a quick dodge and Firefly zipped toward the ceiling before their attacks were launched right back at them. Snatcher then rushed Doom head-on, mallet swinging; as Doom batted the implement away from his face, that gave Firefly the opportunity to descend behind him. Without even looking, Doom reached behind his back, grasping Firefly's wrists hard and wrenching him down. Snatcher was by that time close enough to loop his weapon's chain around Doom's neck in an attempt at strangulation, but before he could get the metal links in place, Doom planted a firm kick in his stomach that sent him reeling.

Blackheart was joyous as he entered the fray, his eyes bright crimson like a pair of setting suns. Neo took notice of this and fired him a wink with her own eye, as though she could kill him with it. She rushed him from one side, blade drawn, as Aghoul's scythe came down from the other. Blackheart caught both blades in the palm of his bare hand, using his other hand to cover a false yawn. He threw off the weaponry, loading up a dark flame in each hand; he sent the fire flying, but at the exact same moment, Ragdoll wrapped around him from behind, attempting to strangle him.

Loki had drawn a golden spear and was using it to fend off the Melodic Cudgel and the steel baseball bat at the same time. When the point of his weapon nicked Roman's face, causing a trickle of blood to run down before a crackle of red Aura sealed the cut right back up again, Harley aimed low, ramming the bat at Loki's groin. "YOU LEAVE MY PALS ALONE!" she cried.

Loki's knee went up in time to intercept the bat, and Harley could feel that it was equivalent to the bat hitting a metal lamppost. "So you think you're the passionate one," Loki taunted.

He dropped to the ground, punching the floor, and an aura of bright blue encircled Roman and Harley's feet. Xayide's bare hands slammed down onto the stone before the magical land mine could erupt, cancelling it out with a wash of red. She then brought up one hand immediately to fire off a bolt of red lightning at Loki, which was countered with a blue orb that simply absorbed the energy before returning to Loki's hand.

"I am so tired of thunder," Loki sighed before crushing the orb, the now blue-tinted attack Xayide had filled it with surging right back toward her with a booming crack. A deflection shield went up over Loki just in time to meet the blast from the Melodic Cudgel.

Vexen watched the chaos in disbelief up to that point, then, angered beyond his limit, simply turned around, forged a Corridor of Darkness, and walked out of the vault.

The other end of the Corridor opened up in the back hallways of the Cyclonian warship, close to the laboratory entrance. Vexen stormed down the hall, absolutely fuming. "This is what they get for not listening to me," he seethed. "After they fall, I will report their deaths to Mozenrath, and we will see who is superior then. No more will they take my words lightly! Why, if I had my way, I wouldn't even tell Mozenrath of their demise at all! After all, I could use the quiet."

He then stopped dead in his tracks. Remained there a moment, held down by nothing but his own heart and mind.

Then, quickly, Vexen turned back around and reopened the Corridor that led directly back to the vault where the blitz was taking place. He gave a great sigh before making the trek back. He certainly wasn't happy about having to go play savior to Roman Torchwick and his band of simpletons.

But all considered, it was the lesser of two regrets.

Vexen re-entered the vault to behold how drastically the tide had turned.

Snatcher was knocked out cold on the ground, hat and weapon thrown several feet from his prone form. With him out of the way, Doom was now pinning Firefly to the wall by the neck the same way he had done to Roman earlier, slowly tightening his grip as Firefly struggled in vain to break free. It was quite apparent that both of Firefly's fuel lines had been slashed, as gasoline poured forth from his now-useless gauntlets in a cascade. Aghoul had been dismembered, arms and head separated from his body and all of it lying in a heap near Blackheart. The demon had moved on to picking up Ragdoll and literally tying his body in an immense knot, cackling, "I wanna see how far I can bend you before you break!". Neo was nowhere to be found. Roman and Harley were suspended in a purple sphere of magic fed by Loki's blue at one end and Xayide's red at the other; obviously, Loki was attempting a devastating attack on Roman and Harley, and Xayide's interference was the only thing prolonging their lives.

After staring in disbelief, Vexen cried out, "I was gone for TWO MINUTES AT MOST!"

A light pressure at the side of his shoe prompted him to look down at Aghoul's disembodied head, which was looking up at him in indignation. "I do NOT want to hear you say 'I told you so,'" Aghoul huffed.

"There will be ample time for that AFTER we have escaped with our lives intact," Vexen replied, looking back up to survey the damage. The game plan formed in his mind; it would have to be pulled off with absolute precision timing. A good thing it was up to him, then.

"Neopolitan!" he hissed. "NEO!"

A light tap on his shoulder alerted him to her presence; she'd simply gone invisible with her Semblance.

"I need you to cast one more illusion," Vexen told her. "But only at my word!"

A pale hand came into view, flashing a thumbs-up.

First, Vexen set about working on Doom. That would be the hardest part. If encasing his outer body in ice was ineffective, it was time to take a more invasive approach. Vexen concentrated, casting his hand outward to the armored man. Summoning up more magic than he usually liked to deploy in one go, Vexen began the process of freezing Doom's blood inside of his body, starting with the arm that pinned Firefly.

Doom had enough time to cry out "WHAT?" before he was completely immobilized. Firefly could now wrestle free.

"GET RAGDOLL!" Vexen barked at him before turning to face down Blackheart.

The floor beneath the demon's feet suddenly became coated in slick ice. Blackheart fell ingloriously, and Ragdoll, balled up into the knot he'd become, went rolling. Firefly, whose wrists had finally run out of gasoline to leak, scooped him up by the waist and hurried back toward Vexen.

Vexen opened up a new Corridor behind him, moving aside so that Firefly and Ragdoll could make their way through. "Give me what I asked," Vexen whispered to Neo, "then collect Aghoul's extremities and RUN!"

Loki's attention was caught by Vexen calling out "LOKI LIESMITH!" as confidently as they come. Loki glanced around the magical forcefield he was generating around his hapless prisoners to see, with disbelief, a proudly smirking Vexen holding the precious Tesseract.

"It was this object you wanted, was it not?" Vexen called out before throwing the cube.

Loki, on instinct, reached out with both hands to catch the soaring Infinity Stone, letting go of the magic that held up Roman and Harley in the process. Xayide reeled them in and set them down.

"GET AGHOUL AND SNATCHER AND GO!" Vexen yelled.

Harley rushed to grab onto the bulk of Aghoul's body while Neo scooped up the limbs and head. Roman rushed to Snatcher, dropping to his knees before the man and shaking his shoulders desperately, practically whimpering, "Archie, c'mon, wake up, we GOTTA GO – "

Loki caught the Tesseract, feeling the chill against his palms. The Tesseract was not that cold. Being a master of illusion, he knew how to dispel one, and with a tap, he had removed Neo's alteration to the perfectly ordinary ice cube Vexen had thrown.

By the time Loki had caught onto the game, Blackheart had regained his footing, and Doom had summoned up the internal warmth to get his blood flowing again, Firefly had carried Ragdoll into the Darkness, Harley had dragged Aghoul, and Neo and Xayide had made it as far as the portal's entrance – Aghoul's head and arms still cradled in Neo's grasp – before stopping to turn back and survey the stragglers.

Snatcher hadn't woken from his stupor. Perhaps he wasn't even alive. Roman was in the act of simply dragging him toward the portal, which, given Snatcher's bulk, was slower going than the group could afford.

"LEAVE HIM!" Vexen cried, his instincts telling him it was better to sacrifice one for the good of the team than the other way around.

"LIKE HELL!" Roman snapped back.

"Then one of you DO SOMETHING!" Vexen yelled at Neo and Xayide.

Xayide immediately formed the game plan. After all, her old mode of operation had been enchanting armor to fill with her will alone and move it where she desired, had it not? And now, she could definitely trust it to obey.

The gilded, bejeweled armor still stood tall near the far wall. Xayide concentrated on it, filling it up with her command. At her behest, the armor charged toward Loki from behind.

When the suit reached Loki, it split wide into all of its various components, then enveloped Loki, armoring every inch of his body. It was now filled with both Loki's physical form and Xayide's will, and Xayide was willing the armor to root to the spot and not move. Loki was temporarily stymied, the armor shaking as he tried first to break out with physical force alone.

"Here!" Aghoul said as his left hand offered up a skull. "This one has a particularly nasty spell that should do the trick!"

Neo pitched it, and the skull exploded over Loki with such heat that it welded the armor's plates together.

Xayide then willed the entire suit to fall over backward, taking Loki with it, and lay there unmoving.

From his undignified place on the floor, Loki growled, "GET ME OUT OF THIS INFERNAL ARMOR!"

Blackheart and Doom began to tear away at the metal holding him down.

Neo's eyes darted across the room to the real Tesseract, but as soon as her glance met it, Blackheart turned to glare directly at her, warning her that this did not serve as an adequate enough diversion for that. Neo gave up, carrying the pieces of Aghoul into the Darkness.

By that time, Roman had finally reached the Corridor with Snatcher, having enough time bought. They disappeared through the portal, and Xayide quickly levitated Snatcher's hat and weapon into her hands before taking her leave.

Vexen disappeared after them all, meeting up with them in the soft blue realm of the Corridor; they'd stopped to catch their breath and get their bearings before exiting through the second portal. Vexen quickly moved to dispel the entry point from the vault –

Only to find that it was being forcibly held open.

Vexen looked back out through the Corridor to see Doom advancing upon it; Blackheart was doing the better job of ripping Loki's armor prison apart with his bare hands anyhow, and Doom strode slowly toward the Corridor as he used what magic he had to hold it in place and prevent the WHAM ARMY division from making their escape. The reason for his deliberate pace, Vexen realized, was to demonstrate that he indeed had all the time in the world. Loki was almost freed anyhow, and soon, the entire trinity would descend once more.

"Tell those who survive this encounter," Doom stated, "if any do, that we have a message for Mozenrath and his army. Maleficent and her like-minded overtakers are expanding their ranks, and we will no longer lose to the likes of you."

Roman skidded up next to Vexen. "Ummm, is there a reason the PORTAL ISN'T CLOSING?"

"He's holding it open!" Vexen said in a panic. "I – I don't – "

Roman scanned the battlefield. "Hang onto your blond bangs, Iceman. It's about to get hot in here."

Loki finally wrenched himself to his feet, Blackheart at his side.

Roman whipped out the Cudgel, aimed it confidently at the gas puddle that had pooled where Doom had assaulted Firefly, and took a single shot.

When the ammo hit the gasoline, the entire vault was awash in flame. Doom, Loki, and Blackheart were swept off course in a rush of fire, and Roman shoved Vexen back as the Corridor closed, sealing them both safely inside the Darkness, the only other egress leading them back to base.

Loki, Blackheart, and Doom got to their feet as gracefully as they could, a few hacking coughs in the process. All around them, pedestals had been toppled and treasures shattered, but the Tesseract remained intact and in its place – as did the other valuable in the vault that Loki had come for, but there was no way that one could have been harmed by an explosion of fire anyway.

As for the trio, they sustained no wounds from the conflict, not even a bruise to show for it. Loki glanced toward where the Corridor had faded away, remarking, "Well, that was mildly annoying at best."

"A pity we could not eliminate them on the spot," Doom harrumphed. "Even more so that we could not follow them to their hive."

"Recall Maleficent's will," Loki told him. "We waste no time on the WHAM ARMY unless they make the first move. They certainly won't be returning here."

"And for how long have you bent completely to Maleficent's will?" Doom posed.

"When it suits me," Loki replied, "and at the moment, it suits me."

"I don't know," Blackheart remarked. "I like playing with toys that are more durable. They may have gotten away now. That will make the chase all the more fun the next time."

"For now, let us focus on the task at hand," Loki redirected. "With that nuisance scratched out of our ledger, we may proceed to what Maleficent desires."

He strode across the vault to a brazier that held a blazing orange fire within. To the untrained eye, it simply appeared to be the torch that lit the chamber. Loki, of course, knew better. He plunged his hand into the fire, bringing a flicker of it out on his palm.

"The Eternal Flame," he stated. "Burning brightly with enough power to sustain an army of – "

"We know what it does," Blackheart interrupted.

Loki scowled at him, robbed of the chance to deliver one of his more poetic speeches. All the same, he turned to leave the vault.

"Let us bring the Flame back to the Forbidden Mountain," he ordered. "Victor, you shall accompany me. Oh, and Blackheart…do run along and see how our agent is progressing. Has everything gone as it should, then escort her to the fortress to join us."

"I didn't hear a 'please,'" Blackheart teased.

"Would it have made a difference?" Loki asked him slyly.

"Yes," Blackheart replied. "It would've made me really not want to do it."

With that, he vanished into black wisps.

"For one of his years," Doom spat, "he acts a petulant child."

"I understand he is young, by the standards of his race," Loki pointed out. "And as you'll recall, he isn't the worst offender Maleficent has recruited." His smirk widened. "I'm thinking of one in particular, in fact. Now, he'll be interested to hear where Harley Quinn's allegiance now lies. Just one of many things about this tale that will be sure to entertain…" He paused. "Now, what was it you called us?"

"Maleficent's like-minded overtakers," Doom repeated, though he knew well that Loki had heard him the first time.

"Overtakers," Loki repeated. "That's got a ring."

Inside the Darkness, the WHAM ARMY contingent's hearts en masse had only started beating again after Doom's advance had (metaphorically) stopped them. The moment the portal closed, Vexen and Roman looked to each other and said, forcefully, "YOU'RE WELCOME."

Without arguing further, Roman hurried back to Snatcher's side, reaching for his wrist. "Come on, come on…" He realized he had forgotten to remove his glove, and stripped it off so his bare finger could seek a pulse. When he found it, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "All right, naptime's over!" he urged. "Will you get up so I don't have to keep dragging you all the way back home? Geez, I know 'drag' is our thing, but not like this."

Meanwhile, Harley had let Aghoul's body lie so that she could join Firefly in disentangling Ragdoll from himself. "You okay?" she asked in concern.

Peter's smile was bright as ever. "It's only somewhat uncomfortable. Nowhere near the excruciating he was going for. Though if you hadn't made your move when you did…well, let's not think about that nasty little possibility, shall we?"

"I will need to be sewn up, by the way," Aghoul commented. "Not that I'm not enjoying the view from here…"

Neo dropped his arms and punted his head, and Xayide let it fly a good distance before telekinetically reining it in.

"We can patch you back at base," Vexen informed him. "For now, you'll have to live with it."

"How about I die with it?" Aghoul asked once his head was floating before Xayide. "But really, it's nothing to get worked up about. After all, none of these parts used to belong to the same body in the first place."

"What a lovely mental image," Xayide huffed.

"And don't think I didn't see that," Aghoul continued with a wink.

"What now?" Vexen sighed.

"You came back for us," Aghoul told him. "You were about to leave, but you came back, because you DO care about us."

"I came back because I didn't want to face Mozenrath's wrath for having left you all to perish on my watch," Vexen huffed. "He will already be none too pleased about the loss of the Tesseract. We may as well call that a lost cause."

"Are you SHITTING me?" Roman yelled.

"Are YOU?" Vexen replied. "We barely managed to escape Asgard as well off as we did! We can't even say we all made it out in one piece!"

"So we're just going to NOT use the shiny cube?" Roman retorted. "Because THAT'S gonna fly like a lead balloon. Who wants to tell Righty that the portal plan is caput now, and he went all the way to get that stupid map thing for fucking nothing?"

"Perhaps we could substitute similar magic," Xayide suggested. "We do have a wealth of worlds at our disposal."

"Yes, perhaps…" Vexen became lost in thought once more.

Roman gave an exasperated sigh. "He is gonna kick my ass so hard."

His attention was brought around by a hoarse, groggy "What's all this, then…?"

Snatcher had finally awakened, and Roman greeted him, "Rise and shine, beautiful. We just got our asses handed to us by an emo, a suit of armor, and a guy who I really don't wanna admit works the eyeliner better than I do."

Snatcher contemplated this a moment from his position lying on the ground before remarking, "Well, there goes the hope that I was worst off."

"You doing okay?" Roman asked.

"More or less," Snatcher replied. "His lordship in the vambraces only managed to leave EVERYTHING in my body sore, thank you very much." He shifted, bracing his arms to prop himself up. "Give me a hand, would you – "

"Yeah, yeah – "

With one arm looped around Roman's shoulders, Snatcher tentatively stood, then let go of his partner once he was more sure of his bearings.

"Oh, and, uh, by the way," Roman brought up, "we don't have the shiny cube and we're not going back for it."

"We don't have – " Snatcher looked at him in disbelief. "Why aren't we going back for it?"

"Ask him!" Roman pointed accusingly at Vexen.

"Lord Mozenrath will be beyond displeased," Snatcher argued.

"THAT'S WHAT I SAID!" Roman asserted.

"And I will repeat it as many times as is necessary," Vexen stated. "Another attempt on the Tesseract would end with us all dead – or, worse, beaten to an inch of our lives and brought to capture! We now know that our enemy within Asgard is allied with Maleficent – and is a god, no less! To say nothing of what his companions must be to have dealt us the damage they did!"

"And you'd have us just give up, then?" Snatcher snapped. "I didn't think you such a coward!"

"That's no way to talk to the man who heroically returned to save your life!" Aghoul broke in.

"You did what, again?" Snatcher repeated.

"Heavily considered leaving," Vexen stated, "decided against it, and somehow have been thought of as a hero by Ayam Aghoul for it."

"That's – " Snatcher then did a double take as he looked at Aghoul's floating head. "And what happened to YOU?"

"Evidence enough that we should press our luck with Loki no further," Xayide stated, "and return home."

Vexen gestured toward the still-open exit portal of the Corridor. "That portal leads directly back to the warship," he stated.

"Logistical question here," Roman broke in. "Say Liar Liar tries to open that portal back up to come after us."

"Impossible, even for magical beings of his caliber," Vexen stated. "The only control one has over a Corridor is its start point and end point. The route it takes through the Darkness is randomized, as the Darkness is ever-shifting. The very plane on which we stand is only temporary, and will become nonexistent once we depart it. Our greatest fear would be Loki conjuring a second Corridor to meet us at our endpoint, but if he knows where our base of operations is, he certainly hasn't tried to assault it as of yet. We can operate under the assumption that he and his coterie will not be following."

"Uh, about goin' back to base…" Harley interjected, having finished looping Ragdoll's arm from behind his knee and fully straightening his body out with Firefly's assistance. "Could we maybe…talk about it first?"

"What is there to talk about?" Vexen sighed. "The three of you have obviously proven both your worth and your compatibility with the WHAM ARMY."

Ragdoll and Firefly exchanged a look. They had thought the same as Vexen, but if Harley was hesitating, then that meant hesitation was warranted. "I'm thinkin' we need to regroup first," Firefly stated.

"Perhaps on neutral ground," Ragdoll suggested. "Is Remnant good enough of a no man's land?"

"Ummm, aren't we all forgetting something very important?" Roman brought up. "You know, like OUR SHIP?"

Vexen shook his head. "Compromised. It will have been outfitted to destroy us."

"I doubt our enemies were so thorough," Xayide stated. "Or that they even found the means to locate the ship."

"Very well," Vexen sighed. "If you want to bring us elsewhere, then YOU can relocate the exit portal."

Xayide did just that, dispelling the portal and calling a new one in its place. The group emptied out two blocks away from where the ship was parked, Aghoul being brought along in pieces through Xayide's levitation.

Neo suddenly ran out in front of the group, holding a hand up to halt them. They stopped without question. Neo then turned back to the ship in the distance, focusing on it.

At her behest, an illusion of Roman appeared, approaching the ship and climbing into its door.

The moment that had taken place, the entire ship exploded in a deafening roar.

Gummi bits rained from the sky like hailstones. All gaped in horror at the detonation of the booby trap before Aghoul huffed, "Yes, yes, we know, we KNOW! You told us so!"

"Xayide?" Harley asked. "Could we maybe go back to Remnant now? Anywhere near Mistral's fine."

Xayide inclined her head. "As you wish."

From above the rooftop, the blonde Asgardian who had tipped Snatcher off about the Lithasblot ball watched the group filter into another Corridor of Darkness, cursing that she hadn't noticed them in time, falling instead for Neo's bait and destroying the ship too early.

The stirring sensation of a being materializing beside her. "Kill any?" Blackheart asked.

"No," the blonde woman replied sourly as she turned to face him. "They evaded my efforts."

"They're good at doing that," Blackheart replied with a slight grin. "It just makes the hunt more interesting."

"Perhaps," the blonde replied. "I suppose we are to gather at Maleficent's headquarters, then?"

"You know it," Blackheart told her. "I think you're going to get along with a lot of people there, Amora."

Amora the Enchantress gave him a slight smirk. "We shall see about that. It all depends on which of the men are susceptible to my charms."

"There are at least a few idiots you can kiss."

"Good."

Another Corridor opened up to allow the pair to pass through to the rendez-vous point.

...

As the MLS Vicious passed on through the Etherium, the stars and asteroids beginning to look more sparse all the while, the Huntsman was in the midst of explaining a very complex concept to Mozenrath.

That concept being one of the many inside jokes Discord had started while Mozenrath was up in the crow's nest.

It wasn't that Mozenrath urgently needed them explained, but the Huntsman had offered, much to Discord's chagrin (and Wuya's insistence that you couldn't simply "explain" an inside joke), and Mozenrath figured knowledge was power. Which led to the Huntsman concluding, "The logical speculation in that hypothetical is that he would then use the seesaw trap to murder the rabbit, thus giving him a taste of his own medicine."

"And who said that part?" Mozenrath asked.

"Hannibal," the Huntsman replied.

Mozenrath fired Hannibal a confused expression.

"What," Hannibal questioned, "still don't follow?"

"No, I follow," Mozenrath replied. "I just don't understand why you think that's funny."

"That's 'cause you got no sense of humor," Hannibal retorted, his smile showing off his crooked teeth.

Mozenrath opened his mouth to argue, but then relented, "Actually, that's fair."

"PLANET HO!" Discord cried from up in the crow's nest, now sporting a blue sailor's uniform and holding a comically large telescope through which his blinking eye could be seen in the larger lens. "DESTINATION OFF THE PORT BOW!"

Hearing this cry, Mozenrath, the Huntsman, Draco, Hannibal, Wuya, Snipe, and Hämsterviel all hastened toward the front of the ship, peering over the left-hand railing to see absolutely nothing but distant, glimmering stars and the faint glow of an aurora.

"I REALLY JUST WANTED TO SAY THE PHRASE 'OFF THE PORT BOW'!" Discord admitted. "IT'S ACTUALLY STARBOARD!"

The group hustled over to the other side of the ship, and even Mozenrath found himself impressed by the sight.

It was a massive field of space debris: chunks of jagged rock and metal floating about haphazardly. All of it had a distinct green tint, and two rings of green encircled it from opposite angles.

"It must have been gorgeous when it was a planet," Wuya commented.

"I like it better this way," Mozenrath responded.

"So do I, actually," Wuya admitted.

Discord twinkled down onto the deck. "Well?" he suggested. "Shall we delve in?"

Mozenrath removed the compass from his pocket. "Set a course for…" He gave the needle a glance, then pointed into the floating shrapnel. "That way."

The Vicious was gingerly steered into the wreckage, having to make some tight maneuvers around the larger pieces of rock, some of which were bigger than the ship itself, walls of jagged metal sticking out of them. The Huntsman's work at the helm was gentle, subtle, able to take the ship through turns thought difficult, and Mozenrath guided him all the way, using the compass as his marker.

"It's close," Mozenrath said, excitement building in his voice. "I can feel it. I can almost HEAR it calling out to me!"

A resounding "boom" was definitely audible from a distance.

"I don't think that's the map," Wuya said dryly.

"Then what was it?" Mozenrath asked, a hard edge forming in his voice.

The Vicious floated out into a more open clearing where the debris was smaller and more easily pushed aside by the hull. This must have been the planet's core, once, judging by how far the larger chunks were flung from it, leaving quite a span to sail across. It was practically fenced in by the outer debris at first.

Then the thundering boom came a second time.

"Aw, man!" Snipe groaned. "A storm all the way out here?"

"We are in SPACE!" Hämsterviel reminded him. "There is not going to be any storming of the weather!"

Draco was the first one to spot it. He had Seeker's eyes, trained to spot glittering gold spheres from a distance, and for a moment, he actually thought what he'd sighted was a Snitch until he realized he knew better. He rushed to the very front of the bow, verifying visually what he had seen before calling out, "MOZENRATH!"

Mozenrath popped beside him in a glow of blue. "What is it?"

"There." Draco pointed out into the abyss.

Mozenrath followed his gesture until he, too, saw it: the small glint of copper sparkling in the meager starlight.

Before either of them could fully register that they had come across what they were looking for in the first place, the last big scrap outside the open area exploded, and now everyone could see what had been making the thunderous sound.

It wasn't a storm. It wasn't a galactic phenomenon. It was the RLS Unstoppable barreling through the field at twice the speed of the Vicious, with Hades at the bow blasting through the debris with all his godly might.

"No," Mozenrath gasped upon seeing the ship's arrival. Then, a louder cry of "NOOOOOO!"

"Oh, is it time for Maleficent to rain on our parade already?" Discord remarked, checking a watch he'd sprouted from nowhere. "Seems a bit early, don't you think?"

"Discord!" Mozenrath ordered. "TAKE THEM DOWN!"

Discord rubbed his hands together, ignoring the sting from the cut he'd given himself earlier. "Ooh, now THIS will be fun."

At his snap, the masts and sails of the Unstoppable promptly melted, slowing its progress.

"What the – a draconequus?" Hades said in surprise as he looked out onto the deck of the vicious. "Nope! Not today!"

He snapped his own fingers.

Discord was suddenly bound up in gray-black ropes that pinned his limbs together; he squirmed, unable to break free or even cast a spell. "Oh, dear," he remarked. "It seems I'm rather…without magic at the moment."

With that, he fell promptly over onto the deck.

Hades threw both arms up into the air, and with them rose new, deep-gray masts for the ship, sails shaped and colored like bat wings unfurling from them. The Unstoppable resumed its pace as Maleficent strode to Hades' side at the bow.

Hades pointed across the distance directly at Mozenrath, bellowing, "TONIGHT, YOU BURN!"

Mozenrath watched, frozen in horror, as the Unstoppable barreled toward the Vicious. Then, suddenly, the Vicious tilted dramatically to let the Unstoppable barrel by, hull scraping hull.

"MOZENRATH!" the Huntsman roared from the helm as he frantically wrenched the wheel. "WE NEED A PLAN!"

That snapped Mozenrath out of his stupor. A plan they needed. A plan, he suddenly had. "GEORGE!" he yelled without thinking. "FREE DISCORD! HAMSTERVIEL, FULL POWER TO THE ENGINE! HANNIBAL, DRACO, TAKE THE WHEEL! SNIPE, CANNONS BELOWDECKS! WUYA, GUARD THE DECK!"

As all scrambled to position, Wuya hissed to Mozenrath, "Exactly WHAT are we trying to do?"

"Blow them out of the Etherium," Mozenrath told her, "and get the map in the process."

Hannibal and Draco reached the helm at the same time, immediately getting into an argument about which way the ship should tilt next, as the Unstoppable was making a 360 and preparing for another assault. Hämsterviel didn't give them much time to figure it out; the Vicious was soon rocketing across the sparse arena, evading the Unstoppable by a hair. The Huntsman lit up the huntstaff to a blazing green, setting it to the first of the ropes binding Discord and watching the energy slowly cut through it.

"Don't think I don't know," Discord accused.

"I don't have time for your games," the Huntsman barked.

"You're thinking about how easy it would be for that weapon to slip," Discord told him. "One wrong move and it pierces my jugular vein, and all of a sudden you have your precious trophy to stuff and mount on your wall."

"Mozenrath ordered me to do no such thing," the Huntsman growled. "There are others among the WHAM ARMY who might defy his will. But not even the prospect of such a prize would tempt me to betray him so."

"That, and I'm pretty sure you actually bonded with me during our little game session," Discord said with a wink.

"Now that is outright slander." The staff finally managed to cut through the first of the many bindings.

Down below, Snipe activated the first of the nine plasma cannons that the Vicious was outfitted with, landing a blow that shook the Unstoppable's hull. The constant motion of the two ships soon moved the Unstoppable out of that cannon's range, however, and by the time Snipe had rushed all the way to the other end of the chamber to set off the far cannon, the Unstoppable was out of reach again, and the shot went wild. Thrice more Snipe attempted to pick the correct cannon only for the Unstoppable to zip out of the way and miss the blow by a hair.

"GAAAAAH!" Snipe roared. "I need, like, eight more Snipes to man these cannons!"

It took him a second.

"Oh, yeah," he realized, raising the hand where his favorite Shen Gong Wu was wrapped around his finger. "RING OF THE NINE DRAGONS!"

Nine Snipes there were, and each manned a different cannon, setting off rapid fire toward the Unstoppable.

The two light ships circled each other like sharks in the shallows, the Unstoppable now wobbling from the rapid cannon fire. Hades, however, forwent the cannons to go a different direction. He simply unleashed a barrage of flame from the Unstoppable's deck directly toward Mozenrath.

Mozenrath and Wuya worked in tandem once more, first creating a dual-strength deflection shield to protect the deck from Hades' onslaught and then returning fire with a hail of plasma bolts in blue and green, raining from the sky like so many arrows. Maleficent threw in her hand, casting lightning bolts toward the Vicious to allow Hades a chance to deflect Snipe's cannon fire. Mozenrath and Wuya sidestepped the first of Maleficent's bolts on either side before working together to block and redirect the lightning back where it had come from.

"Is it just me," Mozenrath wondered out loud, very smugly, "or does Maleficent seem a lot less powerful to you?"

"I think we just might have taken her down a peg when we wrecked her precious staff," Wuya cackled.

"It's just a shame we're not close enough to gloat to her face," Mozenrath sighed as he sent over a salvo of magic.

"Don't even think about it," Wuya cautioned him. "The only way we're going to get the upper hand is if we keep our distance and play it smart this time."

"…'This time'?" Mozenrath repeated. "It almost sounds like you're trying to make some kind of comment about my strategizing ability."

"If it ALMOST sounds like that," Wuya snorted, "then I'm not doing my job well enough. Speaking of strategy, what happens once Discord is free? Tell me you have a contingency plan to stop Hades from just wrapping him up again."

"Well," Mozenrath began to answer, "I – "

Unfortunately, it was at that time that the Unstoppable and the Vicious passed each other just a hair too closely. The hulls scraped again. The Unstoppable rocked from the Vicious' cannon fire; Hades managed to send the Vicious off balance with a wave of his own magic. As the two ships bobbed back and forth, Mozenrath clutched the railing, pitching forth to see the Unstoppable's helm –

And Hans Westergaard, glancing over to see Mozenrath passing by, took his one good hand off the wheel to wave, smirking proudly.

"NO," Mozenrath growled. "I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"

"MOZENRATH – " Wuya attempted to chide.

Mozenrath was already gone, a flash of blue fading where he'd been. Wuya's head whipped around in horror to see Mozenrath reappearing behind Hans on the helm.

"Why do I only attract idiots?" Wuya groaned before launching herself into the air, propelling herself across the distance between the ships on a jet of green flame.

When Mozenrath appeared on the deck, Hans turned to look him in the eye. "Hi – "

His face was pummeled by Mozenrath's fist, and he went spilling off the helm down to the lower deck.

He really should have seen that coming, he told himself.

Mozenrath jumped down to land on the deck in front of him, looking at the way Hans was sprawled on his back, his eyes traveling over his half-severed arm and a smirk traveling up his lips. "Pathetic looks adorable on you," he said in a slimy tone.

"What doesn't?" Hans returned, his good hand reaching to draw the sword belted at his waist.

"Oh, you know," Mozenrath listed offhand. "Lying, betrayal, cheating on me with the most useless waste of space of a human being that ever existed – "

"Hey!" Hans snapped.

"Oh, right," Mozenrath replied. "My apologies. Demyx isn't the most useless waste of space of a human being that ever existed. That honor belongs to YOU."

Hans had by that time drawn the sword, pointing its tip directly up at Mozenrath. "If you came all the way over here to kill me," he stated, "that means I left an impression. Or is it more like a scar?"

Mozenrath scowled at him down the length of the blade. "You think THAT'S going to hurt me. Oh, Hans, you really are out of your element when you're not playing traitor, aren't you? Your sword is no match for my magic."

"See, that's the thing," Hans told him. "I am pretty good with my tongue. And also at using words to manipulate people. …That one was lost on you, wasn't it? Innuendo did always go over your head. The point is, talking is my strong suit."

"Is there a point to this?" Mozenrath asked, about ready to just cut the pleasantries and slay Hans on the spot.

"Yeah," Hans revealed. "Keep you talking."

Mozenrath glanced up in a panic to see a tidal wave of orange flame rolling over the deck toward him.

Wuya landed in front of him, spinning a spherical deflection shield around them both to protect them from Hades' flame. "You just HAD to try and murder your ex!" she spat.

"SO DID YOU!" Mozenrath barked.

"NO!" Wuya reminded him. "YOU MURDERED HIM FOR ME! WHICH IS WHY I'M PROTECTING YOU NOW!"

The flames subsided, and Wuya and Mozenrath turned to face Maleficent, Hades, and Hans head-on.

For a moment, they traded blows the old-fashioned way, with energies of green, blue, and orange thrown back and forth between each pair of magic wielders, Hans looking on and wondering how he could make himself useful. Mozenrath and Wuya failed to notice the circle developing beneath the feet of their enemy trio until it was too late; a disc severed itself neatly from the deck, rising up with all three on it. Before Mozenrath and Wuya could question this, a barrage of cannon fire rocked the Unstoppable, throwing them both to the ground and threatening to pitch them overboard.

"Oh, dear," Maleficent said in mock concern. "I do wonder how long it will take your allies to realize they are committing a friendly fire?"

She threw her head back and laughed heartily, which was utterly contagious to Hades, inspiring him to chuckle. Hans, not being the evil-laughter type, just shrugged and smirked very hard.

It was the Huntsman who noticed, of course, when Mozenrath (and Wuya, but she was less important by a margin) was no longer beside him to volley magic over at the aggressors. When he looked up from his task of freeing Discord, he gasped, seeing Mozenrath and Wuya's new location. It didn't take him long to realize exactly what had happened.

"HALT THE CANNONS!" he barked. "MOZENRATH HAS JUMPED SHIP AND BOARDED THE ENEMY'S!"

Down below, Hämsterviel's voice piped through a metal tube meant to act as a quick communication device from the engine room to the weapons bay: "Stop the firing of the cannons, you muscleheaded moron! Mozenrath is on the other ship!"

"HEY!" Snipe Prime yelled out. "STOP FIRING THE CANNONS!"

Another Snipe whirled around to point at him accusingly; "No, YOU stop firing the cannons!"

"I'll fire as many cannons as I wanna fire!" a third Snipe chimed in.

The cannons stopped, if only because all nine facets of Snipe's personality had to engage in an all-out verbal brawl:

"I wasn't firing a cannon!"

"You were firing ALL the cannons!"

"I'M IN CHARGE HERE, AND I SAY STOP FIRING THE CANNONS!"

"NO, I'M IN CHARGE, AND I'LL SAY WHEN WE STOP FIRING THE CANNONS! STOP FIRING THE CANNONS!"

"No, I'M in charge, and I say FIRE THE CANNONS!"

"I'm still secretly very insecure!"

"SHUT UP ABOUT THE CANNONS!"

As the Unstoppable steadied, the Huntsman glowered over at its deck. Hannibal was soon beside him.

"Young Draco thought he'd take the wheel for himself," he related. "Iffen that young man's bite is anywhere near his bark, he'd make a mighty good Heylin."

The Huntsman's focus was elsewhere; "I can't believe he's done this."

"What?" Hannibal questioned. "Gone and put himself in danger, or cared more 'bout some ex than you?"

"Neither," the Huntsman growled. "He didn't bring me along to have my own shot at Hans."

By then, Discord was freed save for one band around his tail; he plucked that off with his own claw. "You realize we're going to need some sort of plan to outsmart them," Discord stated. "And with our fearless leader over there, YOU'RE the only founder left onboard. Keeping in mind that his deadness can apparently neutralize my chaos magic at will."

All at once, it struck the Huntsman exactly what should be done. "I have a thought," he admitted. "But first, I must test something. Hand me that last binding."

Now that the Unstoppable was stabilized, Mozenrath and Wuya were in a position to once more trade blows with their foes. Hades and Maleficent stymied them, however, by creating a dome over them, first with Maleficent's strongest deflection magic and then covered in Hades' searing flames.

"Hey, would ya look at that?" Hades pointed out. "We were all in sync there. You made the thing, and I was gonna make the thing at the same time, and bada boom!"

"Exactly why we make such a natural partnership," Maleficent replied coyly.

Inside the dome, Mozenrath and Wuya had the same initial reaction: to try and punch their way out with magic. What ended up happening was each of their energy blows ricocheting around and around inside the dome, making them dodge this way and that until Wuya finally caught them both and neutralized them by smashing them into each other. The trapped pair then faced each other.

"Floor?" Wuya asked.

"Floor," Mozenrath said with a nod.

They both sank down through the planks below as though the floor were intangible.

"Now, Hades," Maleficent suggested, "what say you we sweeten our victory all the more?"

"What were you thinkin'?" Hades asked. "Please tell me it's the old rock-and-a-hard-place gambit. You know, those two can either take their chances with us over here or end up in certain doom on that ship over there."

"Precisely," Maleficent replied. "And I know just how to do it."

"Is this a plan where I get to do anything?" Hans asked.

Maleficent and Hades turned in unison to glower at him. "Hey, third wheel," Hades snapped, "do us a solid and shut it."

"You will speak when spoken to," Maleficent added. "All the same…you will have an important role in this plan."

"And that plan is…" Hades asked. "Drumroll please!"

"Listen well," Maleficent said to the both of her companions.

Mozenrath and Wuya emerged from the deck, outside the fiery dome, just in time to see Maleficent and Hades both extend their arms out, toward the space between the two dueling light ships. A jet of flame shot forth from each – blue from him and green from her – and the two intertwined, braiding around each other as they shot directly toward the spherical map that still floated in the center of the open arena.

Once the map had absorbed the magic, it emitted a luminous beam that surged beneath the Vicious, opening out on the other side of it into a massive triangular portal edged in golden light, the combined magic of god and faery negating the need for the planet's mechanism to hold that single portal steady. Beyond it lay a hellscape of a planet: erupting volcanoes sending columns of fire into the yellow sky, threatening to incinerate anything that got too close to the heat.

"There lies your choice, Mozenrath!" Maleficent cried. "Fall to your foes here, or perish with your crew!"

"I am still here, you know," Wuya huffed.

"Yeah, yeah, and the chick has the same choice," Hades said flippantly.

"Yes, that's an impressive portal," Mozenrath stated. "I don't exactly see how that's going to get the entire Vicious to perish – "

The Unstoppable turned sharply, ready to ram the Vicious at a perpendicular angle, and it was only then that Mozenrath and Wuya alike realized that Hans had left the floating disc in order to take the helm.

"He's going to ram our ship into that portal!" Wuya cried.

"STOP HIM!" Mozenrath cried.

They both turned on a heel only to find Maleficent and Hades blocking their path, a wall of fire tinted teal from the combination of Maleficent's green and Hades' blue sealing them away from Hans.

"I fear your efforts shall be in vain," Maleficent taunted. "You will be far too late to save your precious friends."

"Ooh, I LOVE it when you lay down the tragic ending like that," Hades told her. "Chills, babe. Chills."

"Why, thank you, Hades," Maleficent replied.

All of a sudden, Wuya felt Discord's claw tap her twice on the shoulder. "I'll take those Monarch Wings now, if you don't mind," he said into her ear.

Mozenrath, Wuya, Hades, and Maleficent all flinched at the sudden appearance of the draconequus on the Unstoppable. All four were united, for once, in saying "WHAT?"

"Monarch Wings, Wuya!" Discord insisted. "Now!"

"Why would you need – " Wuya began.

Then she got a good look into the draconequus' eyes, and she knew. Not why he needed that particular Shen Gong Wu, per se, but the larger game that was being played.

From the deck of the Vicious, the Huntsman and Hannibal watched the other ship intensely; it was almost pivoted at exactly the angle to ram them.

Wuya passed Discord the Monarch Wings: a pair of mock butterfly wings that allowed a spirit to keep their physical form regardless of the circumstances. Discord affixed the wings to his back, just above his own, before raising his claw high to snap.

Those watching him from the Vicious saw the gesture and knew what to do.

At the moment of the snap, the Unstoppable became bathed in Twilight magic as had plagued Hyrule, a sphere that surrounded that craft alone. Hades, Maleficent, Mozenrath, and Wuya all kept their bodies, anchored by the Darkness within. Hans, however, was reduced to a flickering blue light of a spirit, no longer able to clutch the wheel.

The bow of the Unstoppable missed. Its hull scraped the Vicious once more, making an ugly creak.

"Didn't I warn you?" Hades told Discord as he bound him up once more in dark ropes meant to neutralize chaos magic. "I can do this literally all day."

"Wuya," Discord said before he toppled, "a ride back would be nice."

"I guess we're picking perishing with the crew," Wuya decided.

"What do you know that I don't?" Mozenrath asked, baffled.

"Later," Wuya told him.

She seized Discord's serpentine body with one arm and Mozenrath's waist with another, propelling all three back across the deck to the Vicious.

As soon as they'd boarded, Wuya gave a direct look to Hannibal. "You two were almost convincing," she told him. "I only had you figured out because I know how he plays this game."

"WHAT IS HAPPENING?" Mozenrath screamed.

"Discord," Wuya told Hannibal, "finish them."

The Vicious flipped upside-down against the Unstoppable, affixing itself to the underside so that one ship rode above and the other below, perfect mirror images but for the size and architectural differences of the crafts. Then the Vicious righted itself, flinging the Unstoppable port-over-starboard toward the glowing portal.

Hades and Maleficent poured all of their power into steadying their craft, though they, magical as they were, were not even moved from the deck despite the flipping, and Hans simply floated in place above the helm, still suspended in the Twilight that surrounded the entire ship. When the Unstoppable ground to a halt, just before the entrance to the inferno, the pair hurried to the railing to see how, exactly, such a feat had been pulled off.

"Now?" "Hannibal" asked.

"Not yet," Wuya told them. "At the last minute."

"IS SOMEONE GOING TO EXPLAIN ANY OF THIS TO ME?" Mozenrath roared.

"Discord hasn't been Discord from the moment he showed up on the other ship," Wuya explained. "The real Discord wouldn't have needed to use the Monarch Wings to keep his body in the Twilight. Hannibal Roy Bean, on the other hand…"

"Still impressed ya found me out just by lookin' in my eyes," "Discord" told Wuya.

"You've been pulling that trick for thousands of years," Wuya told him. "Do you know how lucky you are that Hades' bindings didn't neutralize the Moby Morpher and give the game away?"

The Huntsman, returning from the engine room where he'd given Hämsterviel the order to pass on to Snipe the command to resume firing, arrived in time to say, "That is why I thought to test it first. When the Shen Gong Wu proved immune, I knew the switch would work."

"You actually utilized the skillsets of two magical, nonhuman creatures to secure your own victory without sabotaging either in the process?" Mozenrath said, rather stunned.

"I'm disgusted as well," the Huntsman replied. "Moreover, to clear things up, it was Discord in Hannibal's guise who used the Twilight from here. That part of the plan was more or less improvised once we figured out Hans' role in the game. Never do that again, by the way."

"You wanted a shot, didn't you?" Mozenrath sighed.

"He shattered your heart," the Huntsman reminded him. "Therefore I have to stop his. Though this may be the best I get."

Down below, Hämsterviel's order rang out: "RESUME THE KABOOM OF EVERY LAST CANNON!"

The Snipes all stopped griping; if there was one thing every facet of Snipe's personality could agree upon, it was the love of guns. With a ninefold cry of "YEEEAAAAAH!", the Snipe army resumed their positions and opened fire.

The Unstoppable was nudged and rocked, but Hades and Maleficent surrounded it with a shield that held it firm, refusing to let it yield and roll over into the portal.

"It seems we will need one final blow," the Huntsman assessed.

"Now," Wuya told the Hannibal who was really Discord.

The Discord who was really Hannibal smirked. "Moby Morpher."

Maleficent and Hades gaped as before their eyes, the creature captive in Hades' bonds became recognizable as the oversized bean, while the real Discord was free to cast any spell he wished, certainly explaining how the ships had flipped. Before Hades could make a move, Discord had snapped, and an enormous tidal wave of bubble tea, complete with floating tapioca pearls, washed up under the Unstoppable, carrying it the final stretch to the portal.

"And now for the pièce de résistance," Discord declared, clapping his claw and paw together.

The portal closed, then quickly reopened, as if blinking. No longer did it pave the way to the volcanic inferno. Now it led directly to the heart of another collapsing star that had already become a black hole, and the moment the Unstoppable crossed the portal's threshold, it became unable to escape the gravitational pull.

The portal slammed shut then, leaving Maleficent and Hades to their fate as the light retreated back into the map.

Mozenrath leaned back into a long and loud laugh that resounded through the Etherium.

"You do know they're not going to die, right?" Wuya broke in.

"Just let me have thiiiiiis!" Mozenrath whined in response, his body slumping forward.

The Huntsman started sawing away at Hannibal's bindings. It wasn't until Draco descended from the helm, bellowing, "CAN SOMEONE TELL THAT TOSSER DOWNSTAIRS TO STOP FIRING AT NOTHING?", that the others realized the sound of cannon fire was still strong.

Snipe was ordered to stop. And he did. Eventually and reluctantly.

The ship was turned about to point back to the center of the void, where the map of Flint floated. "Finally," Mozenrath said as he strode to the edge of the bow and held out his right hand to receive the sphere. "The power to open portals across all worlds is mine, and nothing will stand in my way!"

"Who's going to tell him?" Discord groaned.

Mozenrath whirled around to see Discord, the Huntsman, Wuya, Hannibal, Hämsterviel, Snipe, and Draco gathered behind him, regarding him with sympathy.

"What now?" Mozenrath sighed.

The other seven pointed off the port edge.

Mozenrath turned to see Sora's Gummi ship speeding directly toward his vessel through the pathway that the Unstoppable had cleared.

His reaction was incredibly loud and suitably wordy.