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.

109. Tunnel Vision

A/N: Trigger warning for some dubcon elements. I don't think I need to tell you which plotline has those come into play.

...

"This must be Melty Monster Galaxy!" Sora cried in awe as he and Riku sailed on their skimmers around tiny planets made of magma. From each of these fiery spheres, enormous heads made out of the same substance, shaped like a cross between a reptile and a hippo, would emerge, maw gaping, before plunging back down below.

"It's like…the planets themselves are alive," Riku mused. "Maybe their hearts can be more active than larger worlds'."

"It's so awesome!" Sora gasped, wide-eyed. "Let's fly closer!"

Through and around the belt of magma planets the two flew, zigging and zagging, sometimes splitting up to go separate ways around a planet before waving to each other as they met on the other side.

The largest planet yet (which was still pretty small) lay at the edge, several small moons (each probably only the size of a walk-in closet's floor area) forged of gray and brown rock surrounding it. The monstrous lava heads erupted constantly, biting down onto the moons again and again.

"I wonder what they're doing," Riku muttered. "It almost looks like they're trying to eat something."

Sora gasped; "OH NO!"

They both saw it at the same time: the small white rabbit, each ear tipped with a star shape, that hopped desperately from moon to moon, barely missing being caught up in the monsters' mouths each time. Upon further inspection, there were actually multiple rabbits, all panicked and leaping for their lives.

"WE GOTTA HELP THEM!" Sora cried, pulling his skimmer down to intercept the nearest one.

"I'm with you!" Riku veered toward another.

As Sora scooped the rabbit up into his arm, he yelled, "Gotcha!"

"Thank you!" the rabbit squeaked. "But my friends are trapped here, too!"

"Don't worry!" Sora told him. "Riku and I will handle it!"

By then, Riku had also picked up a rabbit. Sora swooped in to collect one more, not needing either arm to drive his board-like skimmer, and once the rabbits confirmed that there had only been three of them present, Sora and Riku blasted away from the lava planet. As they departed, the hundred hungry heads loomed up out of their lava lake, watching their prey get away.

Across some distance was a set of tiled stone platforms in a light lavender, simply hovering in mid-space. Here, Sora and Riku landed their skimmers, setting down the rescued rabbits.

"Thank you so much!" one of the rabbits breathed in relief. "We were just trying to play tag, when we hopped to the wrong planet!"

"Normally, we like to challenge people to play with us and catch us if they can," another chimed in. "But this time, we're glad you caught us right away!"

"We're just glad you're safe," Riku told them. "That's a hostile environment if I've ever seen one."

"Somebody needs to teach those guys a lesson!" Sora cried with a clenched fist and far too much enthusiasm.

Riku gave him a knowing look. "Why do I already know what you wanna do?"

"'Cause it'd be fun!" Sora insisted to him. "C'mon, what adventure of ours would be complete without an epic fight?"

Riku chuckled; "Got me there."

Sora was once more aboard his skimmer; "LET'S GO!"

As Sora and Riku approached the living planet, the multitude of monster heads roared at them, ready for another bout. The two dismissed their skimmers, Keyblades zooming to hand as they landed on the nearest of the moons. The magma monsters surged toward them; they put their blades up in a defensive position before casting a Blizzaga that froze several of the advance over.

The battle was just long enough to be fun, with Sora and Riku leaping from moon to moon and staying largely airborne as they hit the monsters with every attack they could think of: their newly-learned Water spells, the Pirate Ship, Nightmare's End, even a burst of Balloonga. They finished it off with an Eternal Session, blades clanging before they blasted off their separate ways and fired bursts of Light and Darkness that converged on either side of the planet.

After this, the lava finally calmed. The monsters sank down into their pool, their eye-spheres remaining above to give Sora and Riku a baleful look.

"Now behave," Riku warned.

"And don't chase any more innocent bunnies!" Sora added.

The monsters gave a collective and sheepish nod.

"I think we've done just about all we can do here," Riku observed.

"Then let's keep moving!" Sora encouraged. "The next one is the one I've been most excited to see of all!"

They blasted off, two celestial bodies disappearing into space, and the rabbits watched after their heroes in awe.

...

Terra Vapos was a bustling civilization of marble columns and citizens clad in robes and togas, carrying clay pots of wares to and from the forum. This land had been thought of as mere myth for ages, and the Storm Hawks had attempted to keep the secret, but an unscheduled invasion by the Murk Raiders had let the cat out of the bag, and Terra Vapos had rejoined with outside society.

One such citizen, having spied a light rainbow mist in the air, had followed its trail, curious as to the source of the colors. Her journey ended at the end of a back alley, with Lady Caine's fist marking the finish line.

The citizen incapacitated, Lady Caine slipped on the robes that were just a stitch too big for her and strode out onto the street as if she'd lived in Terra Vapos all her life.

For once, Vexen had actually managed to talk the team into a legitimate stealth operation. And by "the team," what was meant was "Lady Caine," as it was agreed upon after some argument that all six of them would not be able to travel as a pack without attracting some sort of attention. Therefore, they had drawn lots to see who would go.

And if Vexen had managed to fix the drawing so that the least ostentatious of the group would end up with the job, well, no one needed to know about that.

Lady Caine had been given strict instructions: take only from the treasure room in the palace. Said palace almost looked more like a temple in its construction: grandiose, squarish, framed with columns. It stood out like, well, one of the WHAM ARMY at a black-tie event. Lady Caine casually meandered in that direction, though her stride did betray some purpose – it was simply that those around her couldn't conceive of what purpose she might have that demanded secrecy.

Inside the palace, the king, an elderly man who walked bent to half-height, chatted with several of his court. It was easy for Lady Caine to stick to the sides of the room and slip past without anyone noticing. From there, it was just a short wander around, during which time acting like she knew where she was going excused her from any and all questioning, until she happened upon the treasure room, which was not locked – a foolish move on the part of the court, really.

Gold coins and artifacts were heaped in haphazard piles. Lady Caine's mouth practically watered at the sight of them; however, she wasn't here for that, and anyway, if Ravess was right, the riches wouldn't stay on her person after she left, anyway. No, she was here to find a box and only a box.

"That just sounds so stupid on paper," she grumbled. "The mysterious and powerful villain goes on an epic quest to find some box. Zhan Tiri forbid."

Locating a box in the first place wasn't hard. Several chests overflowed with riches; however, they were too large to lug around. It took some searching to finally locate a small box, one meant to hold a single sculpture forged of crystal and glass: a dove with wings spread, tinted a delicate blue that deepened at the intricately carved feathers. This dove, the family heirloom of the royal line of Terra Vapos, was said to be a talisman that promised hope to come in trying times.

Lady Caine casually tossed the dove over her shoulder, where it shattered into irreparable shards. She then picked up its container: a small chest that fit easily in her hands, yet was big enough to hold the conjoined crystals.

"Mission accomplished," she remarked.

Turning to leave, she noted that in her confusion in locating this room, she hadn't realized it was almost a straight shot back from the audience chamber. "That's what I get for operating without a map," she muttered.

As she set foot outside the treasure chamber, the cacophony sounded. It was, in this order: a chorus of plasma blasts, the rising scream of a crowd of people, a thunderclap of magic, a mass thud as though several human bodies had hit the ground hard, the crackling of flames, the clanging of a sword against other metal weapons, and an impact that sounded like someone getting flung into the wall.

So, in other words, like Terra Vapos had just been invaded by five people, who wielded a blaster, magic, fire, a large sword, and some sort of powerful force like crystals, respectively.

Which was not all that hard for Lady Caine to figure out, and she gave a groan upon the realization.

She stuck close to the wall, sliding carefully and silently through the corridor until she was peering around the edge of the door back to the foyer. There, as she'd suspected, Cyclonis, Warp, Zhao, the Dark Ace, and Amora were wreaking havoc, flinging Vaposians around at their whims and destroying everything they could.

At last, Cyclonis barked, "ENOUGH!", and the quintet ceased their onslaught.

Though after a pause, Warp shot one more man in the knees just because he felt like it. Cyclonis shot him a glare, and he sheepishly put his blaster arm behind his back.

Cyclonis turned her gaze upon the king. "Now that you've seen a little…demonstration of what we can do to you," she told him calmly, "you're going to surrender your Terra to us as our base of operations. You will treat us as you would treat your Domo. We want your finest food, your most comfortable accommodations, and enough space to work on whatever we please…such as interrogating our captive."

The king stared Cyclonis down. "You may sow as much destruction as you wish, Cyclonis," he told her icily. "However, Terra Vapos shall never surrender to you. Your name holds no fear anymore."

"So you would surrender your subjects to our mercy before you surrender your territory?" Cyclonis retorted. "A bold move. And yet, in the end, it will mean nothing." Her tone took on a sharp undercurrent: "Darkmatter. Show our new servants what will happen to them if they refuse to acquiesce."

"Gladly," Warp said with a smirk, using his jet pack to blast across the room toward a tall sculpture of a woman standing over a stone bowl: a fountain known as the "Flame of Vapos."

"HIM?" the Dark Ace said, wincing. "And whatever happened to my station?"

"I don't seem to recall you being that happy to take my orders," Cyclonis said casually without even turning to look at him. "Besides, even you were impressed with Darkmatter. I think we can all see who the better man is."

The Dark Ace scowled, suddenly finding Warp far less attractive than he had previously.

Warp plunged his metal claw into the waters of the Flame of Vapos, closing the fingers around a small, hard object at the basin's nadir. He brought out the elliptical green crystal, water dripping off it as he held it high.

The Vaposians gasped collectively. What Warp held was the Serpigris: a mystical substance born from the digestive system of a dragon, binding the life force of everyone in Terra Vapos to their homeland.

"Oh," Warp taunted. "Is this something important? Maybe I should be careful with it, then. Maybe I shouldn't do THIS."

He gave the Serpigris a hard squeeze with his metal fingers. A hairline crack appeared on the crystal's surface.

In that instant, every Vaposian doubled over, crying out in pain, and then, as though they were holograms whose projector had stuttered, flashed out of existence for a single second and then right back into it.

Lady Caine flinched. She had been contemplating trying to pass herself off as one of the victimized Vaposians and escaping through the foyer in the tumult, but she couldn't possibly have pulled that off. They would have caught her instantly.

"Did that change anyone's tune?" Warp asked.

The king looked mournfully from him back to Cyclonis, then bent the knee. "My liege," he croaked hoarsely. "Terra Vapos is yours to command."

"Much better," Cyclonis said with a smirk.

"I'm keeping this, by the way," Warp said as he slung the Serpigris around his neck by the thin gold chain it was fastened to.

"Shall I bring the prisoner?" Zhao suggested.

"And as long as I am here," Amora asked, "may I demand some of the more attractive men to serve as my personal valets?"

"Affirmative to both," Cyclonis replied.

"I am gonna like it here," Warp said with a smirk as a throng of Vaposians rushed to him to prostrate themselves, afraid of what he would do with the crystal about his neck that kept them all alive.

Lady Caine didn't need to see more. She had to find another way out of this palace in case Warp decided to mess with the Serpigris again. To that end, she turned back, heading into the treasure vault; she vaguely recalled having seen natural light illuminate it, indicating a window somewhere.

The window was rather high up in the wall, but a conveniently high heap of gold allowed Lady Caine to scramble up to it. From there, it would have been a nasty fall if not for a conveniently placed tree that grew near the outer wall, a lone branch extending out toward the window. After stowing the box in her purse, Lady Caine leapt off the window, catching the branch in her hands, then clambered hand-over-hand along the branch's length until she had reached the trunk. From there, she sprang down from branch to branch until she could land safely.

Now she had a decision to make as she hurried toward the rendez-vous point. She could tell her teammates about what she'd just seen, which seemed to be the obvious choice any good teammate would make. However, once they took the box off the Terra, they would only have a short window of time until it dissipated to reappear in the Terra Vapos vault, which was now that much more difficult to access. Getting the team off topic by bringing this up would reduce the precious time they had still further down.

Therefore, Lady Caine decided that what her teammates didn't know – well, it absolutely could and would kill them, but it just wouldn't do so for the time being.

...

" – and then, they threw me out the very face of the clock!" Stuart explained hurriedly. "If I had not had mein parachute on at the time…then I might not be here to speak to you now!"

"That's pretty bad," the boy he was speaking to replied. He ran his hand through his deep-crimson hair. "Did anyone else ever show up to try and help you fix the Timepulse?"

"Nein," Stuart told him. "…Wait, nein, that is not true. Another ship arrived. But you, Aerrow, were the only Storm Hawk to make it here."

Aerrow flinched. "What does that mean?"

"The ship – " Stuart suddenly gasped, pointing over Aerrow's shoulder. "MEIN GOODNESS!"

Aerrow whirled about. The two of them stood at the base of the tower on Terra Glockenchime, exposed to the sky. Winging their way toward the Terra was a flock of monsters Aerrow had never seen before. At first, he thought them Nightcrawlers, but then realized they were quite different. They seemed almost humanoid in shape, varying in size; all were armored and came borne on wings that seemed mere ribbons of flesh curled into a spiral pattern.

Heartless, though Aerrow didn't know it. Air Battlers, and their evolved forms: Aerial Masters, Artful Flyers, and Sky Grapplers.

"Get inside!" Aerrow barked at Stuart. "I'll take care of these guys!" With a flick of both wrists, Aerrow held both blades of the Lightning Claw, which burned an electric blue.

Stuart didn't need to be told twice; he rushed for cover, slamming the door behind him. The Heartless, drawn in by the despair that hung about the tower, descended upon this bright young heart that dared to defy them.

Aerrow was ready. As the Heartless plunged, he began to spin and slice, the Lightning Claw whirling through them and cutting them down into dark wisps. Red, glittering flashes of hearts rose before Aerrow's eyes, rising into the sky and vanishing as they hit the stratosphere.

Though Aerrow had felt confident at first, he soon realized he was outnumbered; the winged Heartless thronged him like a cyclone. Worse still, those that weren't distracted by him were scratching at the tower door, eager to get at all the thrumming hearts they could hear inside. Aerrow began to fear that the Glockenchime residents would be taken by these monsters whether or not he lived. "There are too many!" he cried to no one.

Suddenly, a flash of red and pink, rose petals trailing in its wake. It cut through the wall of Heartless, landing and taking a solid form in front of Aerrow. He did a double take; it was a girl, around his age, her back to him as she had landed with knees bent to absorb the shock. In her hands, an enormous metal scythe of bright crimson, which she'd used to take out a staggering number of the creatures in one fell swoop.

As the Heartless regrouped, Ruby Rose fired a smile at Aerrow over her shoulder; "Need a hand?"

Aerrow wasn't going to question this bolt from the blue (or perhaps, in this case, the red). He braced into his stance, Lightning Claw at the ready. "Let's do this!" he cried.

Together, the teenagers began to cut into the blanket of Heartless, carving their way toward the tower to stave them off from the door.

"I'm Aerrow!" Aerrow called over to his new companion as he plunged his blades through two Air Battlers. "What's your name?"

"Ruby!" Ruby called back, whirling in place to halve a particularly tough Sky Grappler. "Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you!"

"Same to you!"

They kept at it, but even with his new reinforcement, Aerrow was losing hope. "I think they've got us outnumbered!"

"It'll be fine!" Ruby assured him. "Backup's coming! I just kinda ran ahead when I saw the Heartless!"

"Backup?"

A single crystal-tipped bolt sailed through the Artful Flyer Aerrow had been facing, pinning it to the tower wall momentarily before the creature dissipated. Aerrow, knowing that weapon, whirled around, eyes wide.

"CHICKA-CHA, DUDE!" Finn yelled from the edge of the Terra, loading up his crossbow for another snipe.

"Good to see you, Finn!" Aerrow called back at him.

"Same, dude!" Finn yelled. "But look out!"

Aerrow returned his focus to the battlefield; several Aerial Masters had converged on him. Before they could sink their claws in, Ruby had carved them all out of the air.

"I owe you one!" Aerrow told her.

"We came all this way to make sure you weren't dead!" Ruby told him. "It would be nice if you didn't die!"

"Got it!" Aerrow replied.

Another streak of color, this one bearing all the colors of the spectrum. Rainbow Dash punched and kicked her way into the crowd, remarking, "Now, THIS is a good time!" She turned into an upward trajectory, arced over, quickly pulled down to make a Sonic Rainboom that flung the uppermost Heartless as far away from the Terra as possible.

"YO, PUNZIE!" she called down. "SET 'EM UP TO THE FRONT LINE! THESE TWO CAN HANDLE IT!"

Aerrow and Ruby had by this point cleared a wide berth in front of them, and Ruby yelled back, "REEL 'EM IN!"

Golden whips flicked through the air, slapping around the farther Heartless and binding their wings and limbs down as they were dropped to the ground to make easier pickings for Ruby, Aerrow, Finn, and Rainbow Dash. As Aerrow took out the downed Heartless with his signature finisher move, sending wings of blue energy to evaporate them, he danced around behind where they had been, and then he realized the whips had in fact been immense strands of hair, wielded by a young woman who twirled more locks in her hands, ready to toss.

Two more blurs rushed out onto the field, differing extremely in size and color – one tall and green, one tiny and blue. Aerrow's face lit up when he recognized them; "RADARR! STORK!"

"Can we save the pleasantries until we know we're NOT gonna die?" Stork yelled at him; he and Radarr darted through the crowd, kicking out, punching, pinning the Heartless down so Finn could snipe them out.

The crowd was thinning, and it seemed all it would take was one last offense. Just as Aerrow entertained that thought, he became aware of two final presences appearing in the center of the fray.

"Geez," Lea remarked. "A person's gotta wonder how these guys ever got anything done without the two of us to bail 'em out!"

"Ready to finish this?" Roxas asked.

"Just like old times," Lea replied. "Only this time, it's good to know we're actually fightin' for the RIGHT side."

They braced back-to-back, then began a Limit pattern, first Roxas surging into the crowd surrounded by columns of Light, then Lea following with a trail of flame in his wake. Again and again they assaulted the Heartless, thinning the crowd all the more, until Lea rose up, his Keyblade spinning around his body as his chakrams once would have. He drew in his limbs, then threw them out, an explosion of fire radiating from him like a solar flare.

All but one of the Heartless were immediately incinerated; the last Air Battler that tried to get away succumbed to a kick to the head from Rainbow Dash.

Lea wiped his brow as his feet touched earth; "Man, being whole sure does take a lot of the risk factor out of THAT attack."

"Am I ever glad to hear that," Roxas told him with a smile.

"GUYS!" Aerrow turned to look at Finn, Radarr, and Stork in turn, spreading out his arms. "You're back!"

"YOU KNOW IT, DUDE!" Finn charged Aerrow at full speed, leaping into his arms. As Aerrow closed the embrace, Radarr leapt up on top of them both to make a veritable dogpile.

Stork simply crept close, watching with a surprisingly soft smile. When Finn and Radarr released Aerrow, the redhead gave Stork a sly grin. "I've only ever seen you give THAT look to the Condor."

"What?" Stork's expression immediately snapped back to a scowl. "You think I'm incapable of certain forms of human emotion?"

"It's good to see you all again," Aerrow sighed. Then, a heavy silence, unspoken words: it would be even better with Junko and Piper here.

"We're gonna find 'em, okay?" Finn assured Aerrow. "That's the whole point! We're gettin' the Storm Hawks back together!"

"Good!" Aerrow replied. Then, after taking a closer look at Finn: "Wow. You didn't get out of that explosion that good, did you?"

"I've just got a bunch of new scars now that prove my awesomeness and manliness," Finn boasted. "You WISH you had these."

He and Aerrow laughed, Radarr gave a chuckle-squeak, and Stork couldn't hide the way his mouth twitched into the beginning of a grin.

Aerrow then turned to Ruby, obviously flustered and at first unable to meet her gaze. "You, uh…you and your friends really saved me. Thanks for stepping in."

"No problem!" Ruby told him proudly, hands on hips as she straightened up. "We're here to kick butt and make friends!"

Now Aerrow fixed his vibrant green eyes onto Ruby's silver irises – such a unique color, he thought, cheeks flushing. Like the sky before rain. "That weapon of yours is really cool. Where'd you learn to use it?"

"Oh, you know…" Ruby's confident posture was all of a sudden gone, and she found herself fidgeting with her hair. "Just…learned a few tricks from my uncle…he's the real Huntsman, not me…"

Lea gave Roxas a mischievous nudge with his elbow. Roxas at first didn't understand; "Huh?"

"Eh-ahem." Lea inclined his head toward Ruby and Aerrow.

Then Roxas understood. "Ohhhhh."

"Uh, hello?" Rainbow Dash broke in. "You know there are people besides Ruby who saved your tail, right?"

"Oh, yeah!" Aerrow gave a start. "Thanks, all of you!" He turned to look at everyone in turn. "So. You're Stork, Finn, and Radarr's new friends?"

"Don't look at me," Finn told him, and Radarr chattered agreement. "Stork found all of these guys. I guess he turned into the life of the party after all."

"No way," Aerrow laughed. "Stork, go out and make a bunch of friends? Was that by choice?"

"Um…not at first," Stork admitted, shuffling a foot. "You could say I sort of…fell into it. Or didn't fall. The details aren't important."

"It's nice to meet you!" Rapunzel stepped forward from where she'd been trying to gather her lengthy hair up into its thick braid once more. "I'm Rapunzel. You've gotta be Aerrow, right?"

"I'm Rainbow Dash!" the pegasus broke in.

"Call me Lea," Lea stated. "Or Axel. Whichever comes more natural. And this is my pal Roxas."

"Hey!" Roxas waved.

Lyrae descended from the sky in a shower of sparks; "That was SO COOL! I'm with the awesomest team! Oh, I'm Lyrae, by the way! I brought everybody over here from the Far Side! You're welcome!"

"It's nice to meet you," Aerrow said with a smile. "I'm not gonna lie: you're…not what I'd expect to see around Atmos. I'm guessing you have something to do with the wizard who showed up a while back. And if that's the case, then you aren't even FROM Atmos, are you?"

"Well, that saved us one long and grisly explanation," Stork sighed.

"It's a long story," Ruby told him. "But…I mean…if you have time…"

"I'd love to hear it," Aerrow replied.

"Maybe…not right this second," Rapunzel broke in, knowing just how long that story was, if you went all the way back to the first signs of Mozenrath activity.

"Speakin' of stories," Finn interrupted, "how'd you get back over here to the regular side?"

"Turns out there are a couple passageways like the one on Aquanos," Aerrow explained. "Small ones. Weirdly enough, I actually ran into Domiwick, and he was the one who showed me the way. Looks like now that he found the Far Side, he's finally got something to focus on that lets him do something good."

"We zoomed here through Aquanos!" Lyrae proclaimed.

"So, where next?" Finn asked. "We still gotta find Piper and Junko."

"We can radio Piper anytime," Ruby reminded him. "We need to focus on finding Junko."

"I actually might be able to help with that," Aerrow stated. "I've noticed members of the Wallop resistance on a few Terras. It looks like even though Cyclonia is dismantled, most of Terra Wallop still acts out of allegiance in case Cyclonis ever comes back with allies. …Guess that isn't as ridiculous now as I thought it would be.

"Anyway, the resistance is still going. When I got back to this side, I started working where I knew I could help, right up until now, when the Timepulse went dead and I knew someone had to come check it out. I think if Junko found one of the passageways back, the same way I did, the first thing he'd do is go back to his home Terra and try and help the resistance gain some ground. He won't be out on the open, though, which is why I wouldn't have heard his name."

"So we need to get to Terra Wallop…" Ruby smacked her fist into her opposite palm. "And track down Junko."

"Both of those things are way, WAY easier said than done," Stork pointed out. "First of all, need I remind you, the Timepulse is still broken. And unless we can fix it…"

"I don't think we can," Aerrow sighed. "Not without access to better technology on other Terras."

"Or magic," Rapunzel volunteered. "I wonder if we could send somebody from back home."

"We'll make Merlin come back," Lea said offhandedly. "I mean, he probably already fixed this place once, right?"

"Which leaves us with no way to get to Terra Wallop unless we go ALL THE WAY BACK to Radiant Garden, then come ALL THE WAY BACK here," Stork reminded the group.

"But didn't you fly there all the time?" Ruby asked. "Couldn't you go by landmarks?"

"Couldn't we go by LANDMARKS?" Stork repeated. "COULDN'T WE GO BY LANDMARKS? WE – " He stopped short. "…Actually, we could go by landmarks. I KNEW obsessively memorizing the topography of everywhere we ever flew would come in handy one day. But that brings us to our second problem! The head honcho of Terra Wallop already doesn't like us! If a whole squadron of non-Wallops lands in the middle of public space asking about a known rebel, we'll be lucky to not get thrown right off the side of the Terra!"

"Just let 'em try it!" Rainbow Dash swung her hooves through the air. "I'll fly right back up and give 'em the old one-two – " She then kicked her hooves. " – three-four!"

"Maybe we start with a more diplomatic way," Rapunzel suggested. "How about instead of all of us infiltrating, we just send a couple of us to sort of…sneak around and get information?"

"Hey, Roxas!" Lea nudged his blond friend. "Sounds like they need somebody to do a recon mission, am I right?"

"What, you want somebody who can stick to the shadows and not be noticed?" Roxas laughed. "Piece of cake after the Organization! Axel and I can go together and see what we can find out!"

"Maybe even bring the guy back for ya," Lea agreed.

"That sounds perfect!" Rapunzel cried.

"Okay," Ruby muttered. "We'll take the first ship we can find to the nearest point where we can land without being seen. From there, Lea and Roxas sneak into Terra Wallop to find Junko."

"Getting a ship will be the hard part now," Aerrow mused. "Then again, I wonder if Stuart and the others here on Glockenchime will be able to help us out."

Within minutes, the group had met up with Stuart and his fellow clockworkers, the latter faction giving their extreme thanks for the disposal of the Heartless brigade. As Aerrow explained the plan, one of the maintenance workers volunteered up his ship, a small but worthy craft.

"She's no Condor," Stork huffed, "but she'll do."

"Great!" Aerrow cried. "Then, after we get Junko, we can radio the actual Condor and meet up with Piper! She's gonna be so excited to see all of us together!"

"But that is what I have been trying to TELL you!" Stuart broke in. "The Condor was the first to arrive when the Timepulse went down! But the villains who destroyed it took the ship, and if the Storm Hawk fraulein was on it, then they have her as well!"

"What?" The word rushed out of Stork breathily. "You're saying…that Cyclonis has the Condor…and she also has PIPER? AND SO DO ALL OF THOSE OTHER HORRIBLE PEOPLE?"

"YES!" Stuart insisted. "The fraulein and her ship are surely doomed!"

"WE DON'T KNOW THAT!" Ruby cried hurriedly. "We still have a chance to save them both!"

"No," Stork babbled softly. "No, no, no, it's over. They have Piper. They have the Condor. They know how much that ship means, and they're going to tear it apart panel by panel, gear by gear, and then, when they're done, they're going to do the same thing to Piper. Why would they want her alive? Cyclonis has wanted revenge on her for just about forever. She's…she's probably already dead."

He sank to the floor, sitting down, pulling up his knees to his chest. "She's gone," he kept muttering. "They're both gone. Piper and the Condor. They're gone, and I lost them, and it's my fault, I didn't – I should've – "

His gaze had gone out of focus, and his breathing became much quicker, louder.

"STORK!" Rapunzel dropped to her knees immediately, the Gummi bag falling from her side. "Stork, it'll be okay! Look at me! Please!"

"Piper…" Stork murmured, not looking at her. "Con…dor…"

"Oh, no," Aerrow said softly.

"What is it?" Ruby asked nervously. "What's happening?"

"These are the early signs of Post-Traumatic Sky Shock," Aerrow informed the others. "Stork thinking there's no hope to save Piper and the Condor must've…pushed him over the edge."

"I didn't believe we could save her," Stork muttered, now rocking back and forth. "I didn't believe it, and now we can't, and I'm right because I knew it, and she's gone…"

"What happens now?" Rapunzel asked, looking back to Aerrow. "What can we do to help him?"

"I…don't know," Aerrow admitted solemnly. "The last time this happened…we had to wait it out. And the situation got fixed. But I don't know what can snap him out of it. He's going to be disoriented and not know where he is."

"Can he hear me?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yeah," Aerrow told her, "I think so."

Rapunzel then turned back to Stork; "Can you hear me?"

"I don't want to," he replied, his voice dry, creaking. "I don't want to hear it…"

"It'll be okay," Rapunzel told him.

"NO, IT WON'T!" Stork cried, now looking at her with frantic, wide eyes. "YOU KEEP SAYING IT'LL BE OKAY, BUT THEN SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS! IT'S NOT! GOING! TO BE! OKAY!"

Rapunzel flinched, then adjusted her approach: "…Maybe you're right. Maybe it won't be. But no matter what, we're going to be here for you. You have so many friends now who are willing to help you. And I'm going to be here. We're going to do our best to see if maybe, just maybe, we can get Piper and the Condor back. But for now…it's okay to feel hurt and scared and just overwhelmed. It's a scary thing."

Stork regarded Rapunzel in wide-eyed silence, lower lids twitching. Then, as if on the verge of tears: "I can't help you now…"

"You don't HAVE to help us," Rapunzel told him. She reached out – then, remembering his aversion to touch, withdrew her hand. "It's okay if you need to rest. We'll do all the work for you. Actually…no. I won't. I'm going to stay with you as long as you need someone."

"Uh, you wanna run that by the rest of the team first?" Lea broke in.

"No," Ruby snapped at him, glaring. "Stork needs help as much as the others do. Rapunzel has a good chance of getting through to him. We can pick up the slack." She then turned to Aerrow; "Is this the only symptom?"

"There are four phases," Aerrow told her. "This is the first. After this, he'll go temporarily paralyzed and not be able to move or talk. Then there's a 'delusions of grandeur' phase where he'll basically lose touch with his surroundings and act like he's someone else. At least during that part, victims usually seem a little happier. They think they can fix the source of the shock with their own willpower as a coping mechanism. Then, when it's all over, memory loss that goes back as far as the first phase. Hearing about Piper's capture will be the last thing he'll remember."

"How long will it take?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," Aerrow told her. "It depends. I think…a lot of it will even depend on if we're able to rescue Piper and the Condor in one piece each."

"Then we'll have to do that," Ruby asserted. "Where would Cyclonis take her?"

"Back to Cyclonia," Aerrow murmured.

"But didn't Cyclonia go…" Finn made a whistling noise as he plummeted his hand toward the ground.

"Yeah, until the WHAM ARMY dug it back up," Ruby reminded everyone.

"And now I'm pretty sure it's floating through interspace, acting as WHAM ARMY HQ," Lea sighed. "The point is, she can't go back THERE anymore."

"Looks like we're figuring this out on the fly," Rainbow Dash suggested. "Lucky for you guys, that's the only way I roll."

"We can't just wait for a clue to drop out of the sky," Ruby resolved. "We have to go looking."

"Ruby's right," Aerrow affirmed. "Actually, I'm not sure where to start, but we do still know the best bet for going after Junko. And that's better than doing nothing. Maybe if we focus on that first, we'll get a marker in the right direction."

"Looks like recon's still on," Lea remarked.

Roxas clenched a fist, holding it up; "For Junko AND Piper."

"Can you still get us that ship?" Aerrow asked Stuart.

"Of course," Stuart said with a nod. "Follow me."

As he turned to leave, Aerrow fired a concerned look down at Stork.

"Are you up to walking?" Rapunzel asked the downed Merb.

"No," Stork panted. "No, I'm not…"

"Hmm." Rapunzel thought it over. "We might have to carry you out, then. I just wish there was a way we could do that without touching you more than you'd want…"

"I can do that, remember?" Lyrae volunteered, gently descending over Stork. "And without having to touch him at all!"

Stork was lifted into Lyrae's gravitational field, framed by the gentle fall of silver and gold stardust. As Lyrae moved forward, Stork was brought along with her.

Rapunzel then rose. "I think we're ready as we'll ever be," she sighed.

"Then let's go," Aerrow and Ruby declared in unison, before lightly blushing at their accidental synchrony.

...

The sun was low in the sky; soon, the moon would rise, marking the optimal time for Lady Caine to charge Tsumugari. As far as Vexen was concerned, the timing was perfect. He, Yzma, Wuya, Ravess, Zevon, and Lady Caine had arrived at the Key's latest Terra target with a decent window of time before the box was due to fade away, and with enough time to spare to catch one's breath before the retrieval – perhaps even indulge in the sort of frivolities Yzma and Wuya usually went for, or, rather, watch them as they indulged in frivolities and feel reassured that they would complain a lot less later.

The Terra was Neon: the amusement park, alive with lights, bells, and fried scents. It had been reconstructed yet again and was in full working order, ready to assault the senses of any self-respecting villain who set foot on the grounds. The twilight backdrop was just starting to make the colored lights pop all the more garishly.

"Where IS IT?" Vexen hissed as he stormed through the crowd, eyes trained on the compass needle, not caring when an accidental bump caused a child to drop her cotton candy and begin wailing. "Any longer and it will warp again!"

He stopped in his tracks. The needle was moving. At first, he thought that meant the Key had warped again, but then, the needle went back the way it had come. It fluctuated back and forth like a metronome without rhythm. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" he yelled at the compass.

"Yell louder," Wuya said dryly. "I'm sure the compass will answer you if you do."

Vexen glared daggers at her. He very nearly thrust the compass into her hands, but he knew if he did, his game was up. Instead, he held its face up so she could see it; "YOU explain this!"

"Hmm." Wuya watched the needle move. "It's almost like it's on some kind of vehicle. Maybe a skimmer or an airship."

Yzma walked up behind her girlfriend and gently tapped her on the shoulder with a long, bony finger, her eyes trained upward.

"What?" Wuya asked, turning to look at Yzma, then following her gaze up. "…Oh."

"What ARE you two gawking at?" Vexen seethed.

Wuya and Yzma pointed in the same direction.

Vexen turned his own gaze upon the sight. "It's JUST a thrill ride!" he sighed in exasperation at the view of the rollercoaster with its many loops and hills. "I don't see what this has to do…with…"

Then he realized the motion of the train on the coaster track was exactly synchronized with the compass' needle.

"Oh," he growled. "Of course."

"REALLY?" Ravess sighed.

"Why me?" Yzma moaned. "WHY ALWAYS ME? WHY IS IT NEVER THAT EASY?"

"Oh, come on, kitty." Wuya tickled her beneath the chin with a finger. "I think we can have some fun with this. You do love rollercoasters, after all."

"…All right, what are you thinking?" Yzma asked.

Wuya whispered into Yzma's ear, and the latter's eyes lit up. "Oh. Ohhhhh. Now, that I can do."

"Just get ON with it!" Vexen snapped. "We don't have much time before both the crystal AND our box vanish!"

"I STILL think we should've gotten another box to put the first one in, just in case," Yzma muttered.

"ENOUGH ABOUT THE BOX!" Ravess seethed. "JUST GET THE CRYSTAL!"

"Back in a flash," Wuya said cheekily as she gripped Yzma's shoulders, vanishing both of them in a literal flash of green light to illustrate her point.

The pair rematerialized in the rear seat of the rollercoaster train, looking at the whole ride ahead of them. As the train ascended another hill, they saw a glimpse of a sparkle in the also-empty front car.

The problem being that every car between them and the crystal was occupied. Though that wouldn't be a problem for long.

"Ready to ruin some days?" Wuya asked Yzma.

"Consider this revenge for all the times Kronk told me to put my hands in the air," Yzma replied.

The two women clambered over the cart where they'd shown up, forcibly wrenching forward the safety bar of the cart ahead of them and throwing the occupants overboard with a pair of screams in order to clear their way. They repeated the process for every single car, not discriminating by age or gender of the passengers one bit.

(Luckily, some of the passengers were wearing parachutes. Unfortunately, only some of them.)

At last, they arrived in the frontmost car, where the Key and its warp crystal rattled around. "AHA!" Yzma cried, swiping the crystal and holding it aloft. "NOW TO – "

"GET DOWN!" Wuya cried in a panic. The train was about to circle a loop-de-loop, and while physics dictated anyone and anything inside the carts would remain there, anyone and anything that hadn't stayed inside the cart at all times would probably meet with a rather nasty fate.

Therefore, Wuya seized Yzma by the shoulders again, forcing her to sit down in the car as the train made the inversion.

In the scuffle, Yzma completely lost her grip on the Key, which tumbled.

Instinctively, Yzma cried out "NO!", and, just when the train was at the apex of the upside-down loop, she jumped right out.

Wuya, of course, had no choice but to follow right after.

It happened in less than a second. Yzma's fingers closed around the dual crystal when she was already below the track. Wuya's hands seized Yzma's ankle. Wuya's legs twisted to catch on the bars of the track, stopping their descent suddenly so that Wuya was dangling upside-down from the coaster track by her knees and Yzma was even more precariously swinging back and forth in her grip like a clock's pendulum.

"HA!" Yzma cried victoriousy. "AND NOW, FOR THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE!"

She produced the Vaposian box from her own enchanted purse, snapping it closed around the crystal. At that moment, the box vanished, and the crystal went right along with it.

"PERFECT!" Yzma cried. "ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! THE BOX SENT THAT CRYSTAL RIGHT BACK TO TERRA VAPOS! Hmm…seems we didn't need to put it inside of another box after all."

"See, I told you this would be fun," Wuya reminded her. "I'm having plenty of fun right now."

"Yes," Yzma sighed, "I suppose you a – " Then it sank in. "Wuya…are you looking up my skirt?"

"It's nothing I haven't seen before, Yzma."

"…You've got me there."

"Yes. I. Do."

As the two women returned to their cohorts on the ground, Vexen threw out his arms in exasperation; "WELL?"

"Don't get your bangs in a tangle," Wuya told him. "We got it in the box, and the box zapped it out before it could go."

"CONGRACCOLADES!" Zevon cried. "I knew if anyone was up to the task, it was my mother and my…" His brow furrowed. "What are you to me? You're something."

"I'm your voice of reason," Wuya told him dryly. "Or I might as well be."

"Now," Yzma went on, "all we have to do is return to Terra Vapos, break into the vault where the box came from, charge up Lady Caine's sword with the light of the moon, and sever the Warp Crystal from the gem!"

"For ONCE," Ravess sighed, "a plan from you that isn't RIDICULOUS."

"Yeah, you might wanna hold off before signing the lease on that one," Lady Caine broke in.

"Whatever do you mean?" Vexen asked, suspicion rising.

"I mean I didn't tell you this because we were on borrowed time," Lady Caine went on, "but when I was there, I caught wind of a little invasion. Remember the five annoyances from the clock tower? Yeah, they just took over Vapos. So we have to get past them to get our thing."

Yzma's jaw dropped. Vexen looked like he was about to explode all over again. Zevon gasped dramatically. Ravess barked "WHAT?".

Wuya sighed, "So I guess going out for clubbing and cocktails while waiting for the moon to rise is now out."

"They can't be in Vapos," Yzma seethed, making her words slow and deliberate. "If they were, that would mean that we…have to beat…the enemies…that sent us…PACKING FROM THE CLOCK TOWER! OOOOOHHHH!" She began to pace back and forth. "WHY ME? WHY IS IT NEVER THAT SIMPLE FOR ME? WHY CAN I NEVER JUST HAVE ONE TINY LITTLE THING GO RIGHT? I SHOULD'VE KNOWN THAT ROLLERCOASTER BIT WAS TOO EASY!"

Then, in gloriously irate harmony, Vexen stepped up to Lady Caine, gesticulating wildly; "And you didn't think to tell us this BEFORE WE LEFT? DO YOU REALIZE HOW FAR BACK THIS SETS US? IF THEY DISCOVER THAT CRYSTAL BEFORE WE DO, THEN EVERYTHING WE'VE WORKED FOR IS LOST! ALL OF THE SWEAT AND HUMILIATION WE HAVE POURED INTO THIS ENDEAVOR, FOR NOTHING!"

Ravess, being the one who would know, could practically hear music as the two angry voices undulated in pitch:

"IT'S JUST A GOOSE CHASE! A WILD GOOSE CHASE! THAT'S ALL IT EVER IS!"

"I DID NOT BRING US THIS FAR IN ORDER TO BE THWARTED BY THOSE UPSTARTS!"

"AND TO THINK I THOUGHT TRAVELING WITH VEXEN WOULD BE ANY BETTER THAN KRONK!"

"NOW SHE'S GONE AND COMPARED ME TO THAT IMBECILE KRONK, AND THIS WILL NOT STAND!"

"I think we should intervenfere," Zevon whispered to Wuya.

"No," Wuya whispered back. "Let them get it out of their system."

Ravess was busy mentally composing a violin duet that was a harmonization of two loud and aggressive melodies that moved from dissonance to points of perfect union.

At last, the rants culminated:

"I SHOULD'VE KNOWN FROM THE VERY START IT WOULD COME TO THIS – "

"I CANNOT BELIEVE I ACTUALLY HAVE TO GO THROUGH WITH THIS – "

As one, Yzma and Vexen yelled, "WE HAVE TO DEFEAT THEM!"

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Wuya asked. "For one, we got our butts kicked last time. And for another, Vexen can't seem to get close without – "

The glare she received from Vexen cut that sentence off.

"The point is," Wuya concluded, "I'm literally asking. How are we supposed to do it?" She looked toward Yzma.

"WHAT are you getting at?" Yzma sighed.

"Obviously, the head-on approach won't work," Wuya reminded her. "We'll have to come up with something a little more…brilliant."

"A PLAN!" Yzma cried. "OF COURSE! I'll just put together a new ingenious multi-step plan that will allow us to circumvent our foes with minimal interaction! Now, how to begin? Oh, I think I've got it! First, we ride the rollercoaster again – "

"How about I come up with the plan this time?" Ravess snorted. "After all, this is MY home territory. I know far more about Terra Vapos than YOU."

"I would defer to her," Vexen told Yzma flatly. "It will make all of our lives that much less painful."

"Very well," Yzma seethed (and Wuya deflated a bit that Yzma didn't get the chance to shine strategically). "How would YOU go about it?"

"The same way any self-respecting Atmosian warrior goes about anything," Ravess responded. "With the right crystals."

...

Out of breath, Kazuichi momentarily leaned on the tree he'd jogged up next to in the gardens. Once he'd crossed the threshold, he'd finally slowed down, realizing just how far across town he'd gunned it.

He then resumed his approach, at a walking pace this time. "Miss Sonia?" he called out.

"Kazuichi!" a familiar tone called back. "Over here!"

The sky was dark, a full moon risen. Kazuichi slipped between the trees to see her standing in a beam of moonlight, golden hair lightly tossed in a breeze Kazuichi hadn't felt blowing. It was the most beautiful she'd ever been, and she didn't notice him at first. He was almost overcome by nerves, wondering if he should perhaps just turn back.

For one brief moment, wondering if this was right after all.

But it had to be. Jasmine had said so. And more importantly, he had believed for so long that they would end up together, even holding out hope when he'd thought he'd given her up to Gundham.

Therefore, he didn't turn back.

"Hey, Miss Sonia!" Kazuichi sauntered toward her as coolly as he could, heart pounding.

"Oh, Kazuichi!" Sonia looked to him, her eyes lighting up. There was something odd about the expression. Usually, her eyes had a definite sparkle to them, one that Kazuichi found gorgeous and endearing. It was dulled somehow tonight, and this did seem abnormal, but Kazuichi figured everyone's eyes had off days. No matter what, her eyes were always beautiful, because they were hers.

When they stood only a few feet apart, Kazuichi said, "You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh, yes, yes!" Sonia cried, hopping a little in place (when had she ever done that before?). "Most certainly! …Oh, but now I'm just too nervous to say it! I know! Why don't YOU tell me something you had on YOUR mind first instead! It could be anything, anything at all."

"Miss Sonia, are you okay?" Kazuichi asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Sonia asked.

"Well…it's just…" How could he say this without sounding like a stalker? "You don't…normally talk like that?"

"Oh, that's just jitters," Sonia said as she waved her hands dismissively. "Really, you should go first. Especially if you have something important to tell me that might change the way I see things."

Well, if she was going to invite him…

"Miss Sonia," Kazuichi told her, "I just want you to look into my eyes for a few minutes."

"Okay!"

He reached into his pocket for the flask, retrieving it. His hand shook; he nearly dropped it and shattered the glass, which would have ruined the whole thing. If Sonia had jitters, Kazuichi had super-jitters. But he wasn't about to betray that. He opened the stopper, lifted the bottle to his lips, drank it down.

"Mmm, that looks tasty!" Sonia commented, making a show of smacking her lips loudly.

Kazuichi pocketed the now-empty bottle. "Okay," he said. "Now just…like I said. Look at me. In the eye."

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

Kazuichi looked deep into Sonia's steel-gray eyes – not the same ethereally luminous silver that Ruby had, but something even more beautiful as far as he was concerned. She looked back, gaze piercing through his contact lenses into his own myopic eyes.

How long was this supposed to take, anyway?

"Miss Sonia," Kazuichi asked, "do you…feel anything different?"

The response was a mischievous "Do you?"

"Actually…yeah," Kazuichi told her. "Weirdly warm on the inside."

Sonia then burst into a most un-Sonia-like screech of laughter, backing away from Kazuichi so that she could spin round and round, pivoting on one foot like a ballerina yet looking far less poised. "YES!" she screamed. "IT'S WORKING! IT'S WORKING!"

"You love me, don't you?" Kazuichi said excitedly, his own eyes sparkling.

"No, my boy," Sonia said with a positively wicked grin. "That was never how it worked. That was all a lie! It's YOU who's going to be in love with ME!"

A loud pop. A puff of violet smoke. Then, where Sonia had stood – no, a façade of Sonia – there was now only Mad Madam Mim, pleased as punch.

"WHAT THE FUUUUUCK?" Kazuichi recoiled, his face contorting with fear. "YOU – YOU'RE THAT FUCKIN' WHAM ARMY CHICK!"

"AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!" Mim cackled. "Oh, you didn't REALLY think it was that simple, did you? I was ALSO the one in the shop who sold you the potion! Not to mention I was – no, wait, that one will be MUCH more hilarious for you to find out later."

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO TO ME?" Kazuichi yelled.

"That potion doesn't make you irresistibly attractive to the one you make eye contact with!" Mim screeched. "It makes you fall HEAD OVER HEELS for the one you make eye contact with!"

"I DON'T FUCKIN' LOVE YOU!" Kazuichi yelled, almost matching Mim's pitch and outdoing her in volume, on the verge of running away but too stunned to do so. "I NEVER WILL, EITHER!"

"Oh, it takes time to set in," Mim informed him calmly. "About five minutes or so. But you said you felt the warmth inside, which means it's already taken hold! And here I was afraid those blasted contacts would get in the way."

"No," Kazuichi whimpered. "No, no, no – I'M GETTIN' OUT OF HERE!"

As he turned to bolt, Mim called after him, "LEAVING SO SOON? HARDLY A WISE CHOICE WHEN I'M YOUR ONLY OPTION!"

Before Kazuichi could ask what she had meant by that, he was made aware of another figure bolting toward him from across the garden. "KAZUICHI!"

He knew that voice. "SONIA!" He ran toward her, taking in the sight of her: an avenging angel, blonde hair trailing behind her like seraphim wings, bolting toward him at top speed. "SONIA, HELP ME! THE WHAM ARMY CHICK IS – "

He barely had time to react when Sonia launched up off the ground, twisted into jackknife kick, and slammed her foot into his chest.

Kazuichi hit the ground hard enough to be winded. While he lay there on his back, Sonia stood over him, planting a foot hard onto his sternum. The look in her eyes was of pure hatred, and Kazuichi thought momentarily that while he had wished multiple times that Sonia would step on him, he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to go like this.

"Lowly peasant!" Sonia spat at him – figuratively at first, but then punctuating this with a glob of saliva that hit his face dead between the eyes. "How could you ever believe that I would love you? You are nothing but dirt! I am a princess, and I deserve far better than you will ever be!"

"Miss Sonia?" Kazuichi whimpered. (Again, he'd always wanted her to degrade him, but not like this.) "What…what are you…"

"I would not even be friends with you!" Sonia went on, raising her foot slightly to stamp it down harder on Kazuichi. "Were it not for the others, I would not want you to live in the same castle as me! I wish you would disappear!" A harder stomp. "I wish you would die!" Stomp. "I WISH YOU WOULD JUST KILL YOURSELF!"

Kazuichi's eyes had gone blurry with seeping water, threatening to take his contacts out. "Sonia…I…I thought…" His voice went almost inaudible: "I thought even if you didn't love me…you still wanted to be friends…"

It didn't feel like he'd been stomped on the heart. It felt like he'd been stabbed there.

"Oh, there, there!" Mim cooed from behind him, making no move to intervene regarding Sonia. "It looks like your precious princess will never love you, you poor, poor thing! But don't worry! I'm here! And I'll love you forever!"

Kazuichi's eyes were still soaking wet, but his mouth had gone bone-dry. He'd heard almost the exact same thing once before. Junko Enoshima had said it before taking him to bed, and the next thing he'd known, he was ready to follow her to the ends of the earth. He wanted to scream out "No," that the same trick wasn't going to work on him twice.

But five minutes were almost up, and he found himself faced with an increasingly warm feeling toward the woman who'd said she would love him contrasted with the woman he'd thought he'd loved stomping on his heart.

By then, however, Lianna, Todd, and Jim had caught up. Through the trees, they could see the scene. Lianna had been given enough memory from Maleficent about Mim to know who she was; the other two didn't know or care. What they did know was that Sonia Nevermind seemed to be stamping on Kazuichi and yelling at him.

And they knew that the real Sonia Nevermind would never, ever do that, not even when Kazuichi had been his creepiest.

On their own, neither Lianna, Todd Tolansky, nor Jim Hawkins would have been able to take on the obviously false Sonia (the second one Kazuichi had met that night, though they didn't know that). Together, however, all three of them were able to stand up to the mysterious ally of Mim, launching themselves at the imposter full force and tackling them to the ground.

"GOL DARN IT!" the fake Sonia yelled as they hit the earth, pinned down by the trio. "WHAT D'YOU VARMINTS THINK YOU'RE DOIN'?"

"Huh…?" Kazuichi rose into a sitting position. "Guys…? What's going on – "

Mim seized his face, forcing him to look at her. "Forget about them," she commanded. "The only thing that matters right now is ME."

"I – "

Kazuichi found himself unable to speak. For Mim had just become the most irresistibly beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life. Not by changing any feature, but simply by him realizing how wonderful she'd always been, how unique she was, how much fun she could be when committing heinous acts. So what if he didn't approve of those acts? They could work it out! Moreover, he'd been a Despair before, and if he had to become Despair again to be with her, well, so be it!

"…love you," he finished, a dreamy smile overtaking his face.

"Good," Mim said, quite satisfied. "Now kiss me."

"OH, ALL DAY, ANY DAY!"

He mashed his mouth to hers, and she used her tongue to encourage his teeth to bite, to make indents in her mouth where they were sharpened.

Nearby, Lianna, Todd, and Jim wrestled with the fake Sonia, trying to keep them down. "I don't know who you are," Lianna seethed, "but you are NOT Sonia Nevermind."

In a deep, masculine Southern drawl, the imposter growled, "Took y'all long enough to figure it out. Dunno why you're tryin' to save that one over there…he's got a head fulla beans."

Then it wasn't the image of Sonia but rather the image of Aeleus who morphed beneath the trio, throwing them all aside like rag dolls.

"What the – who're YOU s'posed ta be?" Todd asked from where he'd landed upside-down with his back against a tree, legs curled around the trunk.

"Aeleus," Jim growled, heaving himself up from the ground. "Or a fake one, anyway."

"And how're y'all so sure I didn't just go traitor on ya?" the false Aeleus asked. "Same way my old pal Dilan did."

"Easy," Jim told him, glaring daggers. "You talk too much."

"You're a smart cookie, kid."

The imposter clicked their wrists together, finally revealing their true shape: the oblong, vine-armed Hannibal Roy Bean.

"See, I knew veggies weren't good for nothin'," Todd remarked as he finally got into a standing position, albeit a very unstable one that looked like he was about to topple again at any minute.

Lianna stepped forward, tall and confident. "You are an associate of the WHAM ARMY," she stated.

"Name's Hannibal Roy Bean," the bean confirmed. "An' after all, why have one evil-lovin' shapeshifter when y'all can have two?"

"We've got what we came for!" Mim called over to him; she'd pulled Kazuichi to his feet, and the young man was now leaning on her, practically draped over her like a shawl. "Now let's vanish!"

"NO!" Lianna screamed, throwing herself at Mim.

She landed on Mim's back; Mim gave a screech, spinning to try and throw Lianna off. Hannibal surged forward to help her; Todd and Jim blocked his path.

"Not a smart move, kiddos," Hannibal growled.

He changed his tune when a whip cracked and landed hard around him, temporarily binding his tendrils down.

Jim and Todd gave a synchronized "Huh?" and followed the length of the whip to see its wielder. Then Jim cried out the name: "JASMINE!"

"Leave my friend alone," Jasmine seethed at Hannibal, drawing the whip's handle back to tighten the cord.

Lianna was flung across the garden yet again, landing hard on the ground. "That's what you deserve, you awful, AWFUL girl!" Mim huffed. "And here I thought someone as wonderfully ugly as you would be on OUR side!"

"HEY!"

The scream was accompanied by a surge of green magic that sent Mim herself flying in the opposite direction. Kazuichi quickly ran after her, yelling, "MIM!"

The source of the magic hurried out of the shadows, standing over Lianna protectively. "Nobody does that to my SISTER!" Mal growled.

Kazuichi felt his arm grabbed from behind by someone. A familiar voice pleaded, "Kazuichi Soda, do not go any further! I command it!"

"Sonia?" Kazuichi halted in surprise, turning to look at this now completely ordinary woman. "What're you doing here?"

"Utilizing your obsession with me to save your life!" Sonia stated. "You are to come back with me at once!"

"No!" Kazuichi struggled to break out of her grip. "I want – to go – with Mim!"

"Kazuichi, what has gotten into you?" Sonia cried. "Why are you not overreacting to my every word like a K-pop fan to their idol's social media?"

"Because he's no doubt been enchanted by some foul magic!" This new voice was accompanied by a sparkle of light before Kazuichi and Sonia; Merlin materialized in front of them. "I wouldn't put it past Mim to have cast some sort of enchantment of infatuation! Moreover…Accio!"

His wand flicked. The empty flask shot out of Kazuichi's pocket and into the wizard's hand. He examined the glass, eyes widening as he saw the color of the liquid residue that remained. "Oh, no, no, no…look at me, my boy! Do it now!"

Without waiting for Kazuichi to follow orders, Merlin firmly grasped Kazuichi by the chin, tapping his wand to the young man's temple. His contact lenses did fall from his eyes then, rematerializing as a pair of spectacles in the same prescription that would allow Kazuichi to see properly. Their magenta spread through the lens of the glass to give them a rose tint – rose-colored glasses, Merlin thought. How unfortunately appropriate.

At the center of Kazuichi's eyes, Merlin saw what he'd feared: a tiny heart shape, etched in dark red, superimposed on each pupil. "So THAT'S her game!" the wizard cried.

"Well, well, WELL!" Mim had regained her balance, trotting out toward Merlin threateningly. "If it isn't Merlin! It's been quite a while, hasn't it?"

Merlin turned around to face her down. "Never long enough with you," he snapped. "Confound it, Mim, what did you want with Kazuichi? Is this simply another attempt to make us miserable by dividing our ranks?"

"No, that was just a bonus," Mim said flippantly. "I really wanted him all to myself. He's just so…DELIGHTFULLY ugly."

"WE'RE HERE!" another voice yelled; Aqua and Papyrus came bolting into the gardens as well. Just in time, for Hannibal had transformed himself long and thin to slip out of Jasmine's whip, making for the Sonia who was at last the real one; he was thrown back by a wall of bones and a rain of Thundaga.

"Wonderful," Hannibal grunted from where he lay on his back. "They done brought the whole cavalry."

"Release your hold on the boy, Mim!" Merlin demanded.

"But I wanna go with herrrrrr!" Kazuichi whined.

"Sonia, keep holding him back!" Merlin commanded. "You can't let him go with her, no matter what! He's been enchanted to lust for her unconditionally, no matter how badly she harms him! And whatever she says about him, she WILL harm him!"

"I cannot hold on!" Sonia cried as Kazuichi's struggling increased.

She was immediately backed up by Lianna, Todd, Jim, and Jasmine, who surrounded Kazuichi at all angles. "You're not going anywhere," Jasmine told Kazuichi. "Also, you and I need to talk."

"Oh, man," Todd sighed when he realized exactly what company he was in. "The things I do for my pals, I tell ya. For the record, this don't mean I'm one of ya, yo."

"We do not want you, Brotherhood hoodlum!" Sonia proclaimed.

"Heh…looks like my reputation got out," Todd said boastfully.

In response to Merlin's demand, Mim simply folded her arms. "Or what?" she challenged the wizard.

"I think you know quite well what 'or what' lies in store for you!" Merlin told her.

Papyrus and Aqua flanked him; the latter, Keyblade braced, said coldly, "You're outnumbered."

"AND WE HAVE THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP ON OUR SIDE!" Papyrus insisted.

"Ohhhh, do you?" Mim countered. "Did you ever stop to think about how I might have the same thing now that I'm part of the WHAM ARMY? Hmm? Did you? DID YOU?"

She placed an index finger and a thumb in her mouth and gave a sharp whistle.

First, a small whirlwind appeared in response, solidifying into the form of Ayam Aghoul. He raised his scythe high, threatening to separate Papyrus' skull from his spinal column.

Aqua's Keyblade was faster, blocking the scythe and beginning to clang against it in a fast-paced duel that forced Aghoul to backpedal as the Keybearer advanced.

At the same time, a round of energy bullets shot from one of the taller trees. With a cry of "LOOK OUT!", Mal threw out her hands, creating a half-dome energy shield of green that caught and ricocheted the bullets back. They blasted out the branches and leaves of the tree from which they'd come, revealing the shadowy silhouette of Rémington Smisse perched atop its thickest branch. The rogue, his cover blown, dropped to the ground, drawing both pistols and advancing.

"You may have FRIENDSHIP on your side," Merlin huffed, "but what you don't have are righteousness and intellect! Those are the tools that will allow us to win the day!"

"You have righteousness and intellect and all those fancy big words," Mim countered. "I have magic, guns, a scythe, bombs, and a shapeshifter. Which of those is more useful?"

Merlin watched as Papyrus traded blows with Hannibal, Aqua and Aghoul fought their way across the yard, and Mal deflected still more bullets from a zigzagging Rémington. Meanwhile, Kazuichi kept trying to break free of his circle of friends, who took turns shoving him back into place. Mim did seem to have a lot of her bases covered. However, he knew there was a loophole she couldn't resist.

"What say you we settle this the old-fashioned way?" he suggested.

Mim gasped, placing a hand on her chest. "Merlin! YOU, suggesting a duel, knowing quite well I don't intend to play fair!"

Merlin now folded his arms. "I absolutely do," he confirmed. "I also see this is the only way to resolve the issue. The winner will walk home with Kazuichi while the losing party must bid him au revoir."

"Make that adieu, for you," Mim chuckled, "because once I've got my claws in him, you'll never be seeing him again! Now, I know you're up to something, Merlin, or you wouldn't have suggested the game in the first place! Why don't we see if whatever you're up to can beat whatever it is I'M up to?"

She clapped her hands, and from them emanated a sonic boom that rolled over the entire garden. Suddenly, all of the action stopped. Everyone froze, looking expectantly at Mim.

"MERLIN has proposed a duel!" Mim announced. "I'd say a wizards' duel, but not everyone on my side is one, so a regular duel it is, then. Four versus four, and no more! Winner takes all, and we all know who ALL is!"

"Is that me?" Kazuichi cried. "I really, really hope you win me, Miss Mim!"

"MISS MIM?" Jim repeated, flinching.

"And to that end, let's get him on some neutral ground, shall we?" Mim suggested, putting out a hand.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Merlin bopped her hand with his wand. "I'll be taking care of that part!"

A rush of glitter; when it cleared, Kazuichi stood in a magic circle drawn on the ground in shining white light closer to the center of the gardens. He attempted to step out of it only to walk comically into an invisible wall.

"The rules are simple," Mim stated. "We all stand back-to-back. Then – "

"Don't you pay any attention to her 'rules'!" Merlin warned. "She only makes rules so she can break them!"

"Interrupting!" Mim huffed. "How rude! And you claim to be morally superior to me! Righteousness, indeed! Anyhow, the pairs stand back-to-back. Then we count to ten and walk out ten paces from each other. On 'ten,' we all turn around and engage in the duel. At that point, anything goes, but you can ONLY focus on your assigned rival!"

"Very well," Merlin told Mim. "I'll face off against you, as per usual. As for the others, the three strongest warriors we have should stand beside me. Master Aqua, if you would be so kind?"

"I'm ready," Aqua proclaimed.

"Can she be my rival?" Rémington asked slyly. "I can promise you I won't be able to take my eyes off her."

"Just for that," Aqua told him, "I want to defeat you even more."

"I do believe Mal's magic is up to snuff," Merlin went on.

"Ya think the little lady can hold her own?" Hannibal asked.

"I think I owe you for throwing Lianna around," Mal told him.

"As for the fourth…" Merlin thought it over. "Both Jasmine and Papyrus are formidable fighters."

"I'd request Jasmine, myself," Aghoul said smugly. "It will be nice to get so CLOSE to her again."

"Ugh!" Jasmine cried.

Before she could resign herself to fighting Aghoul, Papyrus stepped before her gallantly. "I SHALL DUEL YOU IN HER PLACE!" he proclaimed. "YOU DON'T NEED TO BE OGLING HER ANY MORE THAN YOU ALREADY ARE! THE ONLY SEXY PERSON YOU SHOULD BE STARING AT IS ME!"

"Well, they all do look the same without the skin on…" Aghoul shrugged. "Oh, well. I can always pretend you're her, just without the flesh."

"Ewww," Jasmine hissed.

"Lianna," Merlin addressed. "Jasmine. Sonia. Jim. Todd."

"Hey, I still ain't one a you," Todd felt the need to remind everyone.

"Stand back," Merlin advised. "You don't want to get caught in the crossfire of what is about to take place."

"That would just be so…HORRIBLE," Mim agreed.

"Now, before we begin," Merlin said firmly, "I want to decide what, exactly, defines victory."

"How about – "

"How about I define it?" Merlin countered. "Then we'll see how easily you can break my rules!"

"Very well," Mim agreed. "Proceed."

"When any one person is incapacitated for a count of ten," Merlin outlined, "then that person has lost and must be removed from play. Also, if anyone leaves the battlefield, either of their own will or by force, then they are similarly removed. The field extends as far as the public gardens. All four duelists must be incapacitated or removed in order for the opposing side to win."

"And if any one of you is killed," Mim posed, "that counts as well?"
"I daresay that would have us out for longer than the count of ten."

"Deal."

"I also request a conference between each faction before the duel begins," Merlin stated; behind him, the five he'd singled out had shuffled back to a suitable audience position.

"That would also be quite useful for me," Mim told him. "We'll each take five minutes, then line up."

She scurried off, and Rémington, Aghoul, and Hannibal grouped up with her; Merlin pulled Aqua, Papyrus, and Mal aside.

"Don't take my words lightly," Merlin told his allies. "Mim can and will cheat, and knowing anyone who chooses to hang around her, you can bet they're all the same way. Simply relying on our physical and magical strengths isn't going to be enough to win the fight. We've got to be smart about this and think of a way around their trickery. Think about how your particular opponent might bend or break the rules, and how you can counter it with something perhaps unexpected."

"But we barely know these people," Aqua posed. "What if we have no idea what they can do or how to fight it?"

"There's no shame in admitting you don't know," Merlin told her. "All we can really do is try our very best. After all, if you don't try, you always WILL fail."

Aqua nodded in understanding.

Mim, Aghoul, Rémington, and Hannibal's conference had turned into a gigglefit between the four of them, and Merlin was certain they'd already planned a strategy against the rules down to the letter. Both factions broke apart, then approached each other, lining up to face down their rivals. Merlin glared at Mim, who smirked back. Rémington gave Aqua a come-hither glance that was met with a stone-cold expression of apathy. Hannibal rubbed his tendrils together as he gave Mal a wide, toothy grin; Mal gave him a smirk she hoped put across the façade that she knew what she was doing. Papyrus put on his most serious expression, which made Aghoul burst out laughing.

"READY!" Mim called out. "ABOUT-FACE!"

The countdown was about to begin; no one could back down. The pairs turned, back-to-back, and Merlin was the one to count: "ONE!"

All eight took a step forward. Mim flicked a hand toward the circle where Kazuichi was kept, dissipating the walls that kept him bound.

"TWO!"

Hannibal took the form of a bird to swoop over toward Kazuichi, then assumed a much more familiar shape.

"THREE!"

Aghoul readied a skull bomb in his hand. He had no intention whatsoever of going after Papyrus. It was Jasmine he wanted.

"FOUR!"

That was all Aqua had trusted Rémington with, and as it turned out, her instincts were right on the money. As she ducked aside to move into a cartwheel, he'd already drawn both pistols; his fire missed her by a hair.

"Nice shot, slick," one of the pistols jeered.

"Hey!" Rémington yelled. "Lay off! She moved!"

Aqua kept up cartwheeling around the garden, shifting her movement pattern on every turn, and Rémington blasted away, hoping to hit her.

Rémington's first shot had been the cue for chaos to ensue. First, Mim zipped right past Merlin, shifting in the process. The creature she chose was not a favorite of hers, as it wasn't at all flashy or fun, and it hardly had any physical prowess. However, its certain magical abilities that she gained upon becoming one were worth it.

She gained several inches of height, her body seeming to rot away as it was quickly surrounded by a cloak that hid its new, terrifying structure from view. Gnarled hands reached out, seizing Lianna by each shoulder, and the goblin girl looked up at the cloaked Mim in absolute terror.

She felt helpless simply in the presence of Mim. It suddenly seemed her inner fire had been extinguished; why had she bothered at all? She was just one of Maleficent's toys. What gave her the right to exist? She might as well fade away again, and inside, it felt as if she were doing just that. Smiling and laughing now seemed like distant dreams.

Though Mim was a much plumper and more colorful example, choosing a cloak of lavender, she made a very effective Dementor.

"Yes, you wretched, wretched little girl!" Mim cackled. "Think long and hard about your life! What use is there in being happy? What use is there in feeling safe? You'll never be safe or happy again!" She was also far more talkative than the usual Dementor.

Lianna trembled, unable to break away from Mim's grip.

"One," Mim counted down. "Two…oh, why bother when I can just kiss out your soul?"

And then she felt a tremendous force impact directly into her back: one that positively burned. With a shriek, Mim recoiled; she spun to look at what had collided with her, though she already knew who and what it was.

A pigeon hawk composed entirely of silver light fluttered before her. A rather large pigeon hawk that, unlike most birds, sported a pair of glasses and a long, curling white beard.

"I just knew you'd pick on one of the innocent!" Merlin, in the form of a Patronus, squawked at her. "My only hesitations were figuring out who, and what shape you would take! Do I even want to KNOW how you're going to justify this as being within the rules?"

"You can only focus on your assigned rival," Mim said, matter-of-fact, crossing her now longer and bonier arms. "I simply reassigned my rival to her."

"Well, I'm keeping my assignment to you!" Merlin told her. "After all, I don't need me to be your rival for you to be mine!" He then turned to quickly say to Lianna, "Hold on and step back! We'll have your heart patched up when we get back to the castle!"

Lianna nodded, already feeling less like she was mired in the abyss of despair but finding it hard to completely return to a stable emotional state.

"Ohohohoho!" Mim cackled. "I'm reassigning you back to my rival, Merlin! If you want to play our old game, then let's play!"

"I'm rather glad you didn't set a limitation on the forms we could take, really," Merlin told her. "Now this can get interesting!"

Mim took that as her cue to become the next creature.

Aghoul had been thinking along the same lines as Mim, but with a slight adjustment. When he and Papyrus turned to look at each other, Aghoul feinted, flicking the wrist of the hand that held the bomb at Papyrus without ever letting go of the skull.

Then immediately launched it at Jasmine.

Jasmine, taken off guard, screamed, drawing her whip but not fast enough. However, a wall of tall bones had already erected itself in front of her; the skull ricocheted right off them and back toward Aghoul.

"No," Aghoul cried as he saw his own projectile headed right at him. "No, no, no, NO – "

The explosion sent him rocketing.

Half-bones, sharpened to points, pinned down his clothing once he'd hit the ground, and Papyrus began to count: "ONE! TWO! THREE!"

Aghoul struggled in vain; ten was reached. "HOW DID YOU KNOW?" he yelled at Papyrus.

"HOW WOULDN'T I?" Papyrus countered. "YOU'VE BEEN AFTER HER FOR, WHAT, A YEAR? TWO YEARS? WELL, SHE'S TAKEN, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, HER ANSWER TO YOU WOULD BE 'NO' EVEN IF SHE WEREN'T!"

Jasmine rushed to Papyrus' side, and they exchanged a fist-bump. "Thanks," Jasmine told him. "Though I promise I can take care of myself next time."

"DON'T EVEN WORRY ABOUT IT! WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR?"

Mim's next creature crouched close to the ground, a hard plum-colored shell covering her back. The rest of her flesh was magenta. One eye set dead center of her face glittered at Merlin. "Do me a favor and don't tell Mozenrath about this one," she said.

"A Thirdac!" Merlin cried. "I should've known!"

"Patroni are all magic, you know," Mim told him. "That's why no one's ever been stupid enough to BECOME one!"

Her mouth extended and inhaled, and Merlin felt his very being pulled toward her maw. There was almost no time to change course. He would have to become something whose magic was disgusting to inhale, something that would force her to choke.

What he became next was large, plantlike, a hinge-jawed mouth surrounded by a myriad of feelers and, as ever, a pair of spectacles. The Malboro exhaled the worst Bad Breath he could conjure, sending it right toward Mim's inhalation.

She ingested the putrid fumes, and already could feel her body reacting; her vision wavered, her muscles stiffened as if petrifying, and she knew Merlin knew that the dose of poison she'd taken in would probably kill a mere mortal. "You want to curse my status?" she snapped. "Well, I'll make it so you CAN'T!"

Mal was having trouble even locating her rival to begin with. She cast her gaze wildly about the gardens, trying to find Hannibal. Was he waiting to ambush her from the shadows? Was he disguised as an ally?

"Uh, Mal?"

She turned instinctively to answer; "What is it, Kazu – ohhhhh, no."

Two identical Kazuichi Sodas stood side-by-side, each even wearing the rose-tinted glasses Merlin had conjured. No, one of them was wearing a very convincing replica, and Mal had no way of knowing who it was.

"Okay, which one of you is the real one?" she asked. Not that she expected an honest answer, but maybe Hannibal would give a tell.

"Does it MATTER?" one of them yelled, pointing at the other. "You wanna take the real one home anyway, so take him! I just wanna go with Miss Mim!"

"What? No way!" the other cried in shock, pointing back. "Take HIM home! I wanna go with Miss Mim!"

Mal rolled her eyes.

Aeons were immune to the sort of effects that were carried on a Malboro's Bad Breath. Therefore, Mim had decided to take on the shape of a Shiva aeon in particular. Her skin was now a soft lavender, her bare feet lifted off the ground; her hair lengthened and became deep royal blue. The very air around her seemed to chill. She covered her body with the scantiest of bikinis, a little fabric on the chest and a little between the legs, though the rest of her shape was still very much Mim, and really, that was how she felt she looked the best. (Aghoul and Rémington paused for the briefest of seconds from their own struggles to give a gander and decide they agreed; luckily, Kazuichi also gave a cry and started salivating at the sight, which meant Hannibal had free reign to do so as well.)

Mim pressed two fingers to her lips, giving a seductive twirl and blowing a kiss toward Merlin; in the process, she shook off the rest of the negativity from the Bad Breath, the poison fumes ejecting from her veins and dissipating into the air. She then raised her arms in a flowing dance, sparking a light in her connected hands above her head. She held the light up for long enough to charge it, then drew it back, yelling "FOUL BALL!" as she launched it toward Merlin.

The Malboro was completely encapsulated in ice.

Grinning, Mim extended her fingers, ready to snap them and shatter the ice with Merlin's frozen body inside.

Before she ever got the chance, Merlin erupted from the ice in the form of an Atmosian phoenix, wings ablaze with flame, melting the ice down into water. A small pair of spectacles was still balanced upon his beak.

"Boy, did we ever get front-row seats to the show," Todd remarked.

Rémington was having a rather frustrating time of the whole ordeal, constantly changing positions to take aim again and again at Aqua. However, each time he had her in his sights, she would cartwheel again, angling out of the bullets' trajectory. The ammunition sprayed across the gardens, leaving pockmarks in several trees.

"You know," Rémington grunted, "a lady would actually participate in a duel. Duels are give and take, you know. And it takes two to tango."

"And give you the opening to hit me?" Aqua yelled between turns. "Not a chance!" Then back to the "hep, hep, hep" of making her wheels.

"You can't just cartwheel forever!" Rémington growled.

"No," Aqua snapped back, "but I can – hep – do this – hep – for longer than you want to shoot at me!"

Rémington gritted his teeth, took aim again, and missed.

"So you want to play with FIRE, do you?" Mim growled at Merlin. "Well, I'm just going to fight fire with fire, then!"

She expanded in size rapidly, taking on a reptilian shape. It wasn't her usual go-to dragon; this one had a darker tint, a longer neck, spreading wings that filled the sky, curling horns. Though still quite plump and short-legged, this beast was a particular model chosen due to its resistance to fire.

"A HIGHLAND RAVAGER?" Merlin called out. "Oh, you're lucky it's me you're up against, else you REALLY wouldn't be fighting fair!"

He took to the skies, and Mim followed. For a brief moment, their flares caught the attention of everyone in the entire city; most believed it was just a light show and the remainder thought it was the end of the world to see an enormous dragon trying to use her flame breath to shoot a glowing bird out of the air.

"There's only one thing big enough to give you a run for your money!" Merlin decided, divebombing to the ground. "EVERYONE, STAND BACK!"

Jim, Sonia, and Jasmine pulled Todd, Papyrus, and Lianna back as Merlin sank right into the ground of the gardens. Where he had entered, an immense body of water began to spread out. Aqua had to change her trajectory to avoid being swept up; Mal and the two Kazuichis found themselves wading in the shallows.

Then ten thick tentacles erupted out of the water, hurtling into the sky to wrap around Mim. Merlin had escalated things all the way up to becoming the Kraken, and all who bore witness to the awesome sight were well aware there was a pair of tiny glasses in there somewhere.

"YOU'LL FIND THERE'S NOWHERE TO RUN NOW, MIM!" Merlin cried out as he engulfed the dragon in his nigh-unbreakable grip. "ONE! TWO!"

And as it seemed to all present that hope had turned in the favor of the good guys, Mim began to howl with laughter, insinuating that this was not the impending victory it seemed.

Over in the shallows of the pool, Mal had been agonizing as to how to figure out which Kazuichi was the fake for far too long already. Could she ask a question that only the real Kazuichi would know the answer to? No, because the duplicates were so intent on getting each other implicated as the real one that they would simply refuse to answer. Fretting, Mal chewed her lower lip. Her life would be so much easier if there were some sort of physical difference that Hannibal couldn't possibly have picked up on by looking at Kazuichi, but that would require that Mal would know what that difference was.

Then, recalling her last GummiPhone conversation with Lianna, Mal realized she did know exactly what that difference was.

Confidence regained, Mal flicked her wrist at the doubles; "Beware, forswear, UNDO THESE KAZUICHIS' HAIR!"

The pink of the locks of one of the Kazuichis retreated, leaving raven-black hair in its place. The other's hair fell out completely.

"HEY!" the real Kazuichi yelled as he clutched at his black hair. "I worked hard on that color!"

"Eheheheh…" the one who was bald and obviously Hannibal chuckled. "Would…you believe it's been a wig this entire time?"

Mal concentrated her next spell on Hannibal: "Incense, enrage, lock him in a cage!"

Glowing green bars of light forged a dome over the Hannibal-Kazuichi. Hannibal put out a hand, recoiling as it shocked from the energy radiating through.

"Well played, missy," Hannibal growled in his drawl.

"One," Mal counted.

Hannibal put his wrists together; "MOBY MORPHER!"

In the shape of a much smaller cat, he attempted to slink through the bars.

"INCENSE, ENRAGE!" Mal doubled the bars of light, making that impossible. "TWO!"

Hannibal went down to an earthworm. Mal made the cage a solid dome. "THREE!"

The bean was forced to assume true shape and human size, scowling at Mal through her translucent holding cell.

"I didn't expect YOU to slip up so badly, Merlin!" Mim screeched from her position in the kraken's tentacles. "Don't you remember? Krakens have three hearts! You're all heart in there! And you forgot EXACTLY what I could do to RIP THOSE HEARTS OUT!"

She melted into the shape of a Behemoth Heartless, which actually was fitting enough in both shape and color that it didn't look much different from your average Behemoth. (This made Mim a little angry. She liked to stand out.) Her horn crackled with white-hot energy, ready to surge down into the water and pierce through to extract one or more of Merlin's hearts.

In a sudden rush, the pool of water was cleared. Merlin stood on the sidelines, human in size and shape. The Behemoth crashed to the ground hard.

"Au contraire, Mim!" Merlin yelled at her. "I was COUNTING on it!"

What Mim hadn't realized was that Radiant Garden had had plenty of time to repair its Claymore system, which, of course, only targeted Heartless. And the bigger the Heartless, the stronger the Claymore summoned.

She was engulfed in a painfully hot energy beam, surrounding and permeating through her in a way that reminded her all too much of a particularly strong beam of sunlight. "YOUUUUUU!" she shrieked, locked in place by the Claymores and too stunned to transform again. "I HATE YOU! HATE HATE HATE HAAAAAATE!"

"I knew giving her the old runaround would lead right to her defeat!" Merlin bragged. "ONE! Oh, and by the way, since it is apparently now legal to reassign rivals, I'd think about that! TWO!"

Aghoul was still pinned down and Hannibal caged up, but Rémington Smisse was a threat up until the point that Merlin said that. Then, those who hadn't really gotten a chance to shine in the battle thus far got ideas.

At the same time, Todd flung a spitball of sickly-green slime and Jasmine cracked her whip. Rémington was first blinded by the glob, then halted by the whip cord looping around him and painfully binding his arms down, turning his aim straight to the ground.

"Once again, we did not coordinate that," Todd disclaimed. "I ain't – "

"WE GET IT!" Jim yelled. "YOU'RE NOT WITH US!"

"One," Jasmine seethed, holding Rémington in a lock.

"You know, normally being whipped by an attractive woman while being blinded by any number of substances would be a nice night for me," Rémington sighed. "I have to say this is really an exception to the rule."

"AQUA!" Merlin yelled. "MAL! PAPYRUS! TO ME!"

The four warriors stood together, and they all had a pretty good idea of what Merlin was thinking. "What say you we shortcut this?" Merlin suggested. "After all, you know they're just going to find SOME reason to say they weren't held for a count of ten."

"THEN WE DO IT ON THE COUNT OF THREE," Papyrus suggested.

"We are talking about the whole 'remove them from the battlefield' thing, right?" Mal asked.

"Indeed we are!" Merlin confirmed. "A-one! A-two!"

On "THREE!", he flicked his wand at the Behemoth Mim. Mal added in some sparks of her own, Aqua planted a stack of Land Mines, and Papyrus set up a bone catapult for extra launch power.

Mim was thrown up out of the Claymores' reach and hurled clear out of the gardens, a shrill "CURSE YOUUUUUUU!" echoing as she soared.

Mal taking her eyes off the cage had dissipated it completely, releasing Hannibal, but as he prepared to make a move, he was where the four's eyes turned next. With a growl, he resolved to cut his losses, transforming into a copy of his old Ying-Ying bird and winging after Mim. Similarly, Aghoul had finally pried away the bones holding him down, and in another cyclone, he had gone. Rémington had finally just dropped and rolled until the whip had unraveled, and after giving his face a preliminary wipe of slime, he leapt back up into the trees and disappeared into the dark; after a moment, his silhouette was seen leaping over the skyline in the distance.

"You know they'll be back," Jasmine pointed out.

Merlin sighed. "I find I can never truly get Mim to be well and truly out of my hair. Only temporarily. I take my reprieves where I can get them."

"Why…" Kazuichi whimpered as he approached the others. "Why the fuck did you DO THAT? WHY WOULD YOU HURT HER LIKE THAT? SHE WAS JUST TRYING TO LOVE ME!"

"Kazuichi, no!" Sonia cried. "She did not care for you! She merely wanted you so she could do as she pleased!"

"You're under a spell," Aqua asserted. "You aren't yourself."

"I AM ME RIGHT NOW!" Kazuichi sobbed, tears trickling down his cheeks. "AND YOU GUYS ARE JUST BEING MEAN TO HER! I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIENDS, BUT IF THIS IS THE WAY YOU TREAT MY GIRLFRIEND…I GOTTA GO FIND HER!"

He made to turn and bolt, but Aqua was faster, seizing his hand. "No," she told him coldly. "You're coming back home with us."

"Seriously," Jim added. "This is an intervention."

"And we need to talk about why you went ahead with that potion when I told you NOT to," Jasmine seethed.

Kazuichi fought, but Aqua's grip was too strong, and she led the procession dragging him back through the gardens. Lianna watched him mournfully, and Mal put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "He'll be fine," Mal whispered. "We'll fix this. Somehow."

"I hope you're right," Lianna replied.

Todd watched the others leave somewhat awkwardly before saying, "Yeah, I'm just gonna go, 'cause…I ain't part a this…but could one of ya maybe drop by later an' let me know if Kaz is gonna be okay? Cool? Cool."

That broke Lianna out of her funk; she looked back over her shoulder to tell him, "I will! I promise I will!"

"THIS IS AN EASY THING TO FIX, RIGHT?" Papyrus asked Merlin.

"That particular potion?" Merlin heaved a sigh. "I so wish I could tell you it was."

Across the city, Mim finally descended in a shower of sparks, human once more as she hit the ground and bounced. Aghoul appeared by her side in a matter of minutes, and Rémington and Hannibal descended to flank her.

"Well, drat!" Mim yelled as she shook her fists. "And they're going to lock him up tight and make sure I never get my chance with him again!"

"Oh, dear, don't give up hope!" Aghoul took her hands into his own, staring into her eyes. "We can still capture him!"

Mim shook him away. "Not now that MERLIN is on the case."

"But he still thinks he loves you," Rémington pointed out. "He'll probably bust out and come looking for you."

"Oh, fat chance," Mim huffed. "I know the one thing that can break that spell, and it's the one thing that heroes always seem to come by in spades. I suppose it was fun while it lasted, but…ooooooh, Merlin just has to ruin EVERYTHING, doesn't he?"

"Well, y'know," Hannibal suggested tentatively, "if ya can't have the real fella, there's always the next best thing."

"And what's that supposed to be?" Mim asked.

Hannibal smirked. "Moby Morpher."

He shifted into the exact likeness of Kazuichi once more, replenishing the pink hair and replacing the maroon contacts. "Miss Mim?" he said in a perfect imitation of the mechanic's voice. "I…heard you wanted to see me? Maybe…ask me something?"

Mim's eyes lit up. "Well, now, if that isn't the spitting image!" Her face melted into a sly look; "I just might be able to work with this."

"Oh, I'll do anything for you, Miss Mim!" Hannibal promised in Kazuichi's timbre. "You can have my heart and soul – oh, and ESPECIALLY my body! …Unless you wanted me to play him a little less willin'." While the voice remained the same, its tone changed entirely; "M…Miss Mim? Why are you looking at me like that? No…oh, please, no! Don't touch me!"

Mim chuckled. "Why don't we just take it in the moment? See where the night goes?"

She linked arms with Hannibal, and the two of them strode off, Hannibal still alternating between giving Mim accolades and begging her not to do things of various invasiveness to him.

"…Neither of us is getting her tonight," Rémington realized.

Aghoul shrugged. "We know what we signed up for."

"We do," Rémington agreed.

"Besides," Aghoul went on, "it's not like he can give her EVERYTHING. And I'm confident I'm still her favorite."

"In your dreams, stinking corpse."

They also set off, arguing all the way.

...

Drakken and his fellows had argued for a while over what they could steal with their newfound weaponry that would net them the most money. They could raid more state-of-the-art greeting-card technology, or pawn an ancient royal family heirloom from Rodeghan, or liberate one of Falsetto Jones' valued Lithuanian wolfhounds, or even go after Jackie Oakes' Egyptian artifact haul to sell to the next Anubis wannabe.

It was the Huntsman who settled it, oddly enough. It was money they wanted, and he happened to know where they could find the absolute most of it without having to sell anything.

That was how Mozenrath, the Huntsman, Hämsterviel, Drakken, Shego, Duff Killigan, Monkey Fist, DNAmy, and Gill Moss found themselves sloshing down the waterlogged subterranean caverns beneath the private isle of one Eli Excelsior Pandarus, who was currently on an Odyssean cruise from Troy to Ithaca and making every mythically relevant stop along the way.

"Pandarus has many a time been implicated in the theft of leprechaun gold," the Huntsman had explained. "However, far more times has he actually taken it unnoticed. I happened to affirm the deaths of most of the witnesses."

"Affirm or cause?" Drakken asked.

"I think you know the answer to that," the Huntsman replied.

"What I don't know the answer to," Shego huffed, "is why the richest wizard in the world decided his secret tunnels had to be filled with water."

"Probably for aesthetic," Monty quipped. "Though really, the private island thing is so overdone. Now, a castle in the mountains: THAT is a lair."

"Yer just sayin' that 'cause yer the only one who doesn't work from an isle," Duff accused. "And yer tryin'a get the upper hand before we ask ya why!"

"Why DON'T you use an island?" Drakken asked. "My lair is on an island. Killigan's lair is on an island. The Seniors' lair was on an island."

"NOT EVERYONE NEEDS AN ISLAND!" Monty yelled.

"Some people prefer the snow aesthetic," Amy chimed in. "…Not that I'm defending HIM."

"Some people work better out of a series of abandoned summer camps," Gill chimed in.

"And SOME people," Hämsterviel added, "particularly those who are resourceful, can transform their own prison cell into a base of malicious operations! When has any of you ever accomplished THAT?"

"I ruled my own kingdom," Mozenrath pointed out. "Which had, oh, I don't know, a lot more freedom, control, and actual influence than trying to work out of a jail cell."

"Let us not make it a contest," the Huntsman grunted. "…However, I will stand to remind you I was headmaster of an entire academy of LIVING associates who shared my cause."

They arrived at a turnoff into a cavern where the water shallowed; their damp feet dragged up onto sandstone. Here, an array of benches…pews?...were turned up to face a crude altar at the room's zenith.

Mozenrath approached the altar, looking over the stone plaque that rested there. "No leprechaun gold," he observed, "but there is an enticing-looking prophecy here stating that whoever marries the fairest of them all on the day of the planetary alignment will receive ultimate magical power."

"Mozenrath, don't even think about it," the Huntsman warned.

Mozenrath gave a sigh as he turned back to the group; "I did think about it, and I do want it, but unfortunately, there's no way I can marry myself. Oh, well."

Back to the tunnels they went. "Is there any way we can make this go faster?" Shego groaned. "I don't think ANY of us wants to keep sloshing around getting our feet wet for another THREE HOURS."

"I do," Gill piped up.

"Of COURSE he does," Drakken grunted.

"It is times like this that I find one should turn to mindfulness and see the elegance in the simplest of repetitive tasks," Monty suggested. "For example, feeling the flow of the water against one's ankles. Noting its temperature. Observing – "

"AUGH, SHUT YER YAP!" Duff yelled at him, turning to roll up a sleeve and show him how the Centurion Project was creeping up his arm. "Any more of that new-age optimism and this thing's gonna go instant-kill mode!"

"It isn't new-age!" Monty protested. "I'm talking about concepts that have been honed over CENTURIES – "

"SHUT UP!" Mozenrath yelled. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYONE ELSE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE WATER OR TRYING TO GET US TO LIKE THE WATER. NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO MENTION THE WATER!"

That earned them a brief silence until Drakken was heard softly humming, then muttering, "Quit playin' games with my head…"

"REALLY?" Shego cried.

"Whaaaat?" Drakken protested. "It's a long walk! I thought singing might make it go faster!"

Amy gasped; "Let's all have a sing-along! Why don't we start from the top?" She began to gallivant down the tunnel in a graceful skip; "LET'S NOT ANALYZE WHAT I SAID! I DON'T WANNA BE A COMPLEX – "

"NO!" The Huntsman's roar was almost feral. "I have heard ENOUGH of that song from my former protégé. As have I the rest of the O Boyz' discography. NO ONE WILL SING THOSE SONGS."

"I mean, we could do the greatest hits of Jaren MacArthur if you want," Amy volunteered.

"That is infinitely worse," the Huntsman told her.

At last they came upon a wall with a circular panel in it, twelve animal engravings embedded into the circumference. It looked for all the world like an enormous combination lock – because that was exactly what it was.

"The twelve animals of the Zodiac," the Huntsman observed.

"And only one correct pattern to open up the vault," Mozenrath picked up. "Now, if I were a powerful sorcerer who valued my intellect, what combination would I pick to open up this door? Oh, wait." He gave a chuckle. "I AM a powerful sorcerer who values my intellect. And the combination I would choose is…gauntlet, cosmic energy beams, golf ball, enchanted blade, huntstaff, blaster."

Within moments, Mozenrath, Shego, Duff, Monty, the Huntsman, and Hämsterviel had all lined up side-by-side. Mozenrath fired off a blue energy bolt, Shego tossed in twin beams of green, Duff whacked a beeping golf ball, Monty transformed the Lotus Blade into a bow outfitted with an explosive arrow and fired, the Huntsman let the huntstaff fire full blast, and Hämsterviel peppered the wall with shots from his blaster.

Pandarus' creativity in designing the lock had been for naught after all. Against the onslaught, the wall simply crumbled down into shards. Beyond lay a veritable treasure room with heaps and mounds of glittering golden coins.

"Bon appetit!" Mozenrath declared. "It's a criminal's buffet."

"Question," Drakken brought up. "Before we take it all, can I try swimming in it?"

"You know what?" Mozenrath sighed. "I'm really not going to stop you."

"BUT I AM!" a new voice sounded out from behind the group. The Huntsman, unfortunately, was the only one to recognize this voice.

All turned to see a trio of newcomers standing behind them and giving them the angriest looks they could muster. A tall, broad dragon with red scales. A thinner, ropier dragon with blue scales. A teenage girl, masked.

"And you would be?" Mozenrath asked.

"Seriously?" the red dragon replied, scratching his head. "You don't know the Am-Drag? But you're with my archnemesis."

"Okay, which one of yours is he?" Mozenrath asked, glancing toward the Drakken syndicate.

To his surprise, it was the Huntsman that spoke up from his other side; "Mine. You see before you the American Dragon, his mentor, and…"

"AND?" the third pressed.

"And someone of no import," the Huntsman concluded, "though once, she might have fancied herself my protégé."

"Nice way to greet your niece," Rose snapped. "Then again, I never was that, was I?"

"Just give it up already!" Jake groaned. "This group looks even smaller and weirder than the last one! Don't you get it? You can hire as many disposable underlings as you want, but my FRIENDS and I are always gonna be strong enough to beat you!"

The Huntsman let himself chuckle, then allowed it to grow into a booming laugh. "You are mistaken, dragon," he replied. "What you fought before was a group of expendables. What you see now is what composes MY friends."

"Oh, I'd say we're a little more than that," Mozenrath teased. "So you're the Huntsman's personal thorn in the side. I always wanted to meet you, actually. I think I owe you about a hundred humiliations…or however many you paid to him."

"Wait a minute!" Lao Shi cried. "Monty? Monty FISK?"

"Yes?" Monty said in confusion at being recognized by a dragon. "I mean, yes! Of course you know me as the great and illustrious MONKEY FIST!"

"YOU!" Lao Shi shrieked. "The entire magical community works overtime to keep itself secret and separate from the nonmagical world, and what do you do? Undo centuries' worth of work in a SINGLE DAY by unearthing the Jade Monkeys and all associated with them! Do you know how much we've had to cover up your tracks?"

"In all fairness," Monty argued, "if you'd REALLY wanted the mystical monkey magic hidden, you wouldn't have left it lying around in temples with such mundane traps to guard them."

"AND THAT'S NOT EVEN GETTING INTO YOUR CULTURAL APPROPRIATION OF KUNG FU!" Lao Shi ranted. "YOU ARE A WHITE ENGLISHMAN!"

"Yes, well, OUR mythical warriors aren't as interesting!" Monty protested. "You think I wanted to dress up in cosplay armor like the fools of Rodeghan?"

"WHY – I – YOU – " Lao Shi sputtered before his speech shifted into rapid-spoken Chinese.

"What is he saying?" Mozenrath asked.

"Every curse in the book," Monty replied.

"Hardly appropriate for present company," the Huntsman agreed.

"Language!" Amy scolded. "Ohhh, but I can't stay mad at you! You're just such CUTIES! Who mutated you?"

"Wha – we're not MUTANTS!" Jake protested. "We're DRAGONS!"

"Oh, sweetie, dragons don't exist," Amy told him.

"I'M A DRAGON AND I'M RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!" Jake cried.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Drakken asked. "Are you some sort of magical world-saving teenager or something?"

"Yeah," Jake informed him. "And I was hot on the trail of Pandarus' stolen gold. Then you managed to trip his security system on the way in, letting me know exactly where you were."

"Hämsterviiiieeel!" Drakken moaned. "You said you disabled that alarm!"

"I am not used to disarming your newfangled sorcerous magitech devices!" Hämsterviel protested. "The SCIENCE part of it is good and disabled!"

"So here's the part where you say you're gonna stop us," Shego said dryly.

"That's 'cause we ARE gonna stop you," Jake insisted.

"Well, you're about to have a very bad day today," Mozenrath informed him. "We aren't leaving without the gold…and if I can get your heart on a platter, we'll call that a bonus."

"WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?" Jake cried.

"It's not what you did to him," Rose informed him. She pointed at her former master; "It's what you did to HIM."

"AND HE TOTALLY STARTED IT!" Jake argued.

"Look carefully at whom you face," the Huntsman said, his eyes trained directly on Rose. "The most powerful supervillains on the planet. An interplanetary conqueror. The single greatest sorcerer the worlds have ever known. On the verge of domination the likes of which you couldn't imagine."

"It did seem rather odd that the Huntsman would be after mere gold," Lao Shi mused.

"Awww, poor little dragon," Mozenrath teased. "He's only able to see one thread of the big tapestry."

"This could have been what you would have known," the Huntsman went on, "had you only remained loyal to me, Thorn."

"Don't you EVER call me that name again!" Rose screamed, grip tightening on her weapon.

"I almost regret having to dispose of you," the Huntsman told her, his own grip strengthening. "But then again…you had no such reservation about destroying me, did you?"

"I don't listen to you anymore," Rose seethed.

"Perhaps you should," the Huntsman argued. "Otherwise, things you would be better off knowing would not fall on deaf ears."

"Ugh, let's just kick their butts and get the gold already!" Jake yelled.

Gill moved forward, smacking his fist into the opposite palm wetly. "Oh, this is gonna be FUN."

That was when yet another unrecognized voice called out, "STOP RIGHT THERE, DRAKKEN!"

"What?" Drakken cried. Then: "Nooooooooo! Not here! NOT NOW!"

"Huh?" Jake turned, as did Rose and Lao Shi; the villains craned around them to get a better look.

A young woman, tall and thin with long hair of carrot-orange, stood confidently a ways down the tunnel. Beside her, a young man of her age, his hair blond and short, couldn't quite decide on what pose he wanted to present, and was trying out a few in turn.

"Funny thing about being tapped into the security systems of the richest people in the world," the redhead mentioned. "You get an alert when there's something wrong."

"You know this girl?" the Huntsman asked.

"KNOW her?" Drakken cried. "She's KIM POSSIBLE! And that's her aggravating sidekick!"

"For the last time," the blond boy yelled, "it is RON! RON STOPPABLE! HOW IS THAT SO HARD TO REMEMBER?"

"It isn't," Drakken sniffed. "I simply chose not to acknowledge it."

"So, anyway, can anyone settle something for me real quick?" Ron asked. "Eli Pandarus: is he evil?"

"Ron, we've been over this," Kim sighed. "Pandarus is ethically dubious, but – "

"This is WAY too similar to the Seniors, Kim!" Ron reminded her. "And, like, EVERYONE who owns their own island is a villain!"

"Oh, trust me," Jake assured, "Pandarus is way evil."

"I KNEW IT!" Ron cried.

"Yet HE is not the evil who is present and accounted for!" Hämsterviel cried. "That honor belongs to – "

"Dr. Hämsterviel?" Kim did a double take. "You're working with Drakken AGAIN?"

"Not to mention they've got Shego, Killigan, AND Monkey Fist!" Ron cried. "Just like that one time!"

"What one time?" Kim asked. "Sure, I've seen pairs of them team up, but never all four of them."

"But – no, there was that one time!" Ron protested. "You remember, with the…thing…and the…place…wait, maybe that didn't happen. What am I thinking of?"

Making sure to accentuate every syllable, Shego asserted, "TIME. MON-KEY."

"Just what I expected from the stupid squeeb," Gill broke in.

"Wha – GILL'S HERE TOO?" Ron cried, jaw dropping.

"Oh, I'm here, all right," Gill told him with a wide smirk. "I've actually been looking forward to a rematch, RONNIE."

"Don't forget me, sweeties!" Amy waved. "I'm here too!"

"I can see that," Kim told her. "I'm guessing you're the one behind Gill getting his gills back."

"Bingo!" Amy chirped.

"And let me guess." Kim motioned toward Jake and Lao Shi. "More of your mutant Cuddle Buddies?"

"Heyyyyyyy!" Jake protested. "We're NOT MUTANTS! We're DRAGONS! And we're not with them! We're trying to stop them too!"

"You are?" Kim said in disbelief.

"The leprechaun gold is within our bounds as protectors of the magical realm," Lao Shi explained.

"Excuse me, wait, wha – did you say LEPRECHAUN?" Ron repeated.

"Well…protecting stolen ANYTHING is my job," Kim argued.

"Then you're in the right place," Jake told her. "Seeing how Pandarus stole all that gold in the first place."

"These people are your enemies?" Rose asked.

"Well, yeah," Kim said with a shrug. "Drakken, Killigan, Monkey Fist…I've fought all the big-name villains of this world."

"Not all of 'em," Jake told her. "See that guy?" He jabbed his tail toward the Huntsman. "Bad news, and the fourth greatest threat to the magical community. Though you non-magicals wouldn't know that."

"HEY!" Ron cried.

"Actually," Lao Shi corrected, "as of the demise of the Dark Dragon, he would be the third."

"Aww, look at my man, moving up in the world," Mozenrath cooed.

"And he's dangerous," Rose went on. "More than you can handle."

"Oh, please!" Kim waved a hand dismissively. "I'm Kim Possible. I can do anything. Don't you know my slogan by now?"

"Perhaps we should not argue," Lao Shi suggested. "After all, only by working together can we – "

"CAN WE JUST GET TO THE PART WHERE WE TURN YOU ALL INTO EX-HERO SOUFFLE AND MAKE OFF WITH THE GOLD?" Drakken yelled.

That got Jake, Lao Shi, Rose, Kim, and Ron to turn their attention back toward the villain conglomerate. "Less talking," Jake decided, "more takin' 'em down!"

"Gill was right," Mozenrath said, much to the Huntsman's chagrin. "This is going to be fun."

Both sides charged and collided.

(To be fair, Drakken and Amy remained behind, physical combat not being their forte. Amy gave Drakken a friendly wave; he recoiled, not sure if she still carried a torch for him.)

Shego threw a series of glowing punches at Kim, who dodged them all expertly. In the chaos, she noted a small white sphere headed her way; with a well-timed kick, she sent the golf ball flying right back at Duff. Duff's projectile going wild was enough to enrage him into the Centurion Project devouring him, his tartan ripping yet again.

"I've really got to invest in more kilts," he muttered as he lifted his wrists to blast away.

"THE CENTURION PROJECT?" Kim yelled. Then, steeling herself: "Bring it on!"

Monty and Ron were locked in a dance of martial arts, swooping and darting around each other. "You know, you really were a worthy opponent," Monty said as he drew the Lotus Blade. "Pity it's going to be over so soon."

"WHAAAAA?" Ron yelled. "WHERE DID YOU GET – never mind; I don't wanna know!"

Monty transformed the blade into a much larger and sharper sword, swinging it threateningly. Ron dodged it by a hair's breadth each time, stumbling back again and again.

Jake was flying circles around the Huntsman, doing his best to try and set Amaterasu's pelt alight. The Huntsman, not ready to lose such a hard-won treasure, was blasting away at him full tilt and missing every shot thanks to Jake's airborne agility. Hämsterviel eventually joined in with his own blaster; Jake simply saw that as double the challenge.

Mozenrath, meanwhile, had engaged Lao Shi. He was certain the Huntsman held Jake in the same regard he himself regarded Aladdin – namely, the Huntsman had to be the one to deliver the final blow, but Mozenrath could help by taking out the backup brigade. The sorcerer launched bolts of blue at Lao Shi, who evaded expertly. Lao Shi actually did manage to set Mozenrath's cape alight, and the cape had to be discarded into the shallow waters.

Gill, in the meantime, nearly yelled for Ron's attention to turn onto him rather than Monty – was Gill not his older enemy? Was Gill not the person Ron had wronged more? But then Gill realized it was better if Ron was distracted from him completely. He had an opening, and if he were quick –

Rose ended that train of thought by kicking into Gill's back, knocking the mutant to the ground.

"What ARE you?" she asked. "Wait a minute…the Lake Wannaweep Monster?"

"You must be Huntsclan," Gill muttered frustratedly through the water he'd fallen face-first into.

"EX-Huntsclan." Rose turned her weapon on Gill. "Though I did learn a few tricks about slaying monsters."

That was when Ron full-on tripped in his attempt to evade the Lotus Blade, knocking Rose over and off Gill.

"HEY!" Rose yelled as Gill rose up. "I had him!"

"Yeah, well…he's my archnemesis anyway!" Ron rose and squared up against Gill, pushing Rose aside. "All right! Final showdown! Stoppable versus Moss! Leggo!"

Gill fired him a semi-charming smirk.

Then Ron was set off charging around the battlefield screaming at his highest pitch as a barrage of green slime followed.

Shego aimed a well-placed kick to Kim's stomach, sending her flying into Jake. Dragon and cheerleader collided against the tunnel wall together.

"Y'know," Jake grunted, "for these people being your archnemeses, you're really not that good at handling them."

"I could say the same about you and yours!" Kim spat. "In fact, why don't you let ME handle him?"

"Deal! And I'll show you how your normal-people villains are child's play for the Am-Drag!"

Back in action, Jake charged Duff and Shego while Kim took on the Huntsman.

Instantly, they realized how much they had run into the deep end regarding each other's skill set and foes. Jake was sideswiped by a blast from Duff and pummeled by Shego's rocketing fists and feet. Meanwhile, Kim found herself cheating death more than usual as the Huntsman's staff barely missed decapitating her.

"Aww, the cute widdle dwagon boy can't handle a garden-variety supervillain or two!" Shego taunted.

"Give it up, girl," the Huntsman warned Kim. "You are but a less polished version of Thorn."

"I don't even know who that is," Kim growled, "and I resent that."

Monty took that opportunity to latch onto Lao Shi's neck from behind with all four limbs. "WHO'S ANGRY ABOUT REVEALING MAGIC TO THE WORLD AT LARGE NOW?" he crowed.

"THAT IS STILL ME!" Lao Shi cried, trying frantically to shake the self-taught ninja off.

Meanwhile, Mozenrath took aim at the blue dragon, seeing this as his opening.

Ron, noting Mozenrath's actions with a "Huh?" as he continued to run from Gill, reached into his pocket. "One shot, buddy!"

A small pink blur rocketed toward Mozenrath, landing on his face and giving him a hard nip.

With a cry, Mozenrath stumbled back, his shot going wild. The tunnels vibrated with the intensity of his blast. His nonmagical hand grasped for the squirming creature that had distracted him. "No," he seethed in absolute rage once he got a good look at the offender. "I will not be humiliated by a NAKED MOLE RAT!"

"Hi!" Rufus the naked mole rat chirped, giving Mozenrath a wave.

"YOU ARE DUST!" Mozenrath yelled, raising his right hand to bring down an inferno of magic onto Rufus.

The mole rat let out a shrill "Uh-oh!"

"HEY!" Kim leapt away from the Huntsman to deliver a sharp kick to Mozenrath's face; the sorcerer reeled, letting go of the mole rat. As Rufus landed in Kim's hands, she spat, "Don't mess with our friend!"

All the while, not noticing the Huntsman aiming his weapon square at her back.

"KIM!" Rose tackled her, the two girls rolling into the waters as the green energy rocketed over where Kim had stood.

"I HAD him!" Kim protested from where Rose had her pinned.

"Really?" Rose retorted. "Didn't look that way to me. Just leave him to me. I KNOW him."

"Um, excuse you! I can HANDLE this!"

Kim literally threw Rose aside; the blonde knocked into Ron, spilling him over into the water.

"Okay, turnabout is fair play," Ron grunted.

Rose leapt up to square off against Gill once again. "I may not be Huntsclan anymore," she seethed, "but I WILL be glad to get rid of you."

The Huntsman glanced over toward her, suddenly realizing something very important. Rose, the one who had betrayed him utterly, stood opposite the one man who potentially threatened his relationship to Mozenrath. They were in such close proximity that if someone were to aim a blow just right…

The huntstaff fired into the ceiling. Rocks tumbled down, and both Rose and Gill looked up at the impending avalanche in horror.

"NO!"

Jake dove to push Rose to safety; Amy did the same for Gill. All four landed clear of the new pile of stones.

The Huntsman cursed his luck.

Mozenrath raised an eyebrow.

"Ahem…" Drakken cleared his throat as he tapped Mozenrath's shoulder.

"What is it?" Mozenrath snapped as he whirled on the scientist.

"Well," Drakken told him, "it's just that…everyone's busy fighting out here…and no one's really paying attention to all the gold in there…"

"And this affects me how?" Mozenrath asked.

"Really?" Drakken snorted.

Then Mozenrath realized. "…Oh. Not how I planned it, but it'll work."

He and Drakken hurried into the vault, and Mozenrath swept up every last coin in an enormous blue whirlwind. He tossed his enchanted purse into the center of the room, and the cyclone funneled the riches down into it.

"Mission accomplished," Mozenrath declared as he picked up the purse. "And now to tie up the loose ends."

Outside, the struggle wasn't as clear-cut as any side thought it would be. Lao Shi was flying circles around Shego while Duff flew circles around Lao Shi. Monty was trying to spear Jake with the Lotus Blade in the form of a trident. Kim and Ron were double-teaming the Huntsman now. Rose and Gill were back to dueling. Hämsterviel had gotten into a slap-fight with Rufus.

"Where'd you even get this thing, anyway?" Jake yelled at Monty, evading the Lotus Blade yet again.

"Really?" Monty sighed. "You're the protector of the magical realm, and you don't even know about Yamanouchi? The Lotus Blade? Monkey Kung Fu? Does ANY of this ring a bell?"

"Uh…should it?"

"REALLY?" Kim groaned from across the battlefield. "Everyone knows that Monkey Fist – AAH!"

She was knocked aside by the huntstaff, hitting the wall.

"KIM!" Ron cried at the Huntsman. "Okay, THAT'S it! You're TOAST!"

Within one second flat, Ron had also been sent flying.

"I have had ENOUGH!" the Huntsman yelled, taking aim for Jake.

"Uhhh, Grandpa?" Jake pleaded, sizing up the Huntsman and Monty at the same time. "Little help?"

Lao Shi slapped Duff away with his tail, zooming out before Jake to loose a blast of fire directly at the Huntsman.

Which was the same time that Kim and Ron had gotten back to their feet, hurrying toward Shego to attempt to tackle her again, and realizing they were right in the line of fire. With a synchronized cry, they ducked the flames.

Rose, meanwhile, lost her footing tripping over Rufus. The mole rat only gave her a shrill "Sorry!" before continuing to strike at Hämsterviel.

"Okay, SERIOUSLY!" Ron yelled as he straightened up. "ONE TEAM OF HEROES NEEDS TO BACK OFF, AND THAT TEAM IS NOT MINE!"

"Are you for real?" Jake retorted. "You guys aren't even DOING anything! You're just messing up!"

"That's just because YOU'RE here getting in our way!" Kim argued.

"No," Rose argued as she pried herself up, "it's because you don't know the first thing about dealing with real magic!"

Soon, Kim, Ron, Jake, and Rose were in a shouting match; Rufus had abandoned Hämsterviel to hop up onto Ron's shoulder and shake his fist at the aggressors. Lao Shi frantically begged the group, "Please, do not argue! We must coordinate our skills and work TOGETHER!"

This allowed the villains to regroup at the vault entrance. "Are…we being ignored?" Drakken asked.

"We're being ignored!" Gill seethed.

"Y'know, we could just blast 'em now," Shego suggested.

"They would see it coming," the Huntsman told her. "The nonmagical ones have striking reflexes."

"Or we could just…leave," Drakken suggested. "We have the gold, after all."

"Before the Huntsman has had his chance to take his revenge on his archnemesis?" Mozenrath scoffed. "I think not."

"No," the Huntsman countered. "The American Dragon can wait. We must take advantage of this opening."

Mozenrath regarded him with surprise before shrugging; "Okay." He then cast a Corridor of Darkness that led right back to the WHAM ARMY warship.

"Is that safe?" Drakken asked.

"Just get into the creepy dark portal, you subservient canine equivalent!" Hämsterviel shrieked at him.

One by one, the villains filtered into the Corridor until only three remained.

"But I wanted to get MY revenge!" Gill whined. "What about Ron? What about the lost years of my LIFE?"

"Is this really what I sound like from the outside?" Mozenrath wondered out loud. "Just put him on your to-do list. We're going to make a clean getaway."

Gill was about to protest, but Mozenrath fired him a sharp look that indicated he had better move. So he did. Then Mozenrath followed, and finally, the Huntsman.

Not without one last look to Rose.

She had made her choice. As far as the Huntsman was concerned, it was her own loss.

He vanished, and so did the portal.

"Uhhh, guys?" Ron cried. "WHERE'D ALL THE VILLAINS GO?"

"WHAT?" Jake shrieked as he realized that not only their opponents but the gold had vanished. "HOW COULD YOU LET THEM GET AWAY?"

"ME?" Kim yelled back. "YOU WERE THE ONE WHO – "

But they were all beginning to realize how foolish they'd been, and Kim shook her head. "You were right," she said with a pointed look up at Lao Shi, who hovered nearby. "We should've figured out how to coordinate instead of getting in each other's way."

"Of course I was right," Lao Shi said proudly. "I am always right. Such is the responsibility of being a grandpa."

"That man – " Rose couldn't bring herself to call him any word that she associated with his rank anymore. " – is loose on the rest of the world. We need to be on our guard."

"And it looks like he made some high-profile friends," Jake told Kim. "Actually, maybe we could use your help learning what it is we're up against."

"And I never knew there was a whole separate person for saving the magic side of the world," Kim admitted. "I could probably learn a thing or two from you, too."

"If Grandpa doesn't mind," Jake pointed out.

"In this case, I think our new allies can be trusted with the responsibility," Lao Shi decided. "After all, they have already seen far too much."

"Don't worry," Kim told him. "We'll keep the lip zipped on the whole magic thing."

"This is gonna be so COOL!" Ron cried. "We should totally hit up a Bueno Nacho and talk it over!"

"Ron," Kim hissed, "they're dragons. They can't just be seen in a public restaurant!"

"Well, since you already know about the whole dragon thing anyway…" Jake shrugged, reverting to human form as Lao Shi did the same. "I could sure go for a naco right about now."

Kim, Ron, and Rufus all gaped. "That is the coolest thing I have ever seen," Ron said in awe.

"Welcome to the magical world," Rose told them. "Now let's get off this island before Pandarus shows up and decides he wants a piece of us, too."

This new alliance that was currently setting out on a quest for nacho-taco hybrids was ultimately to be beneficial to the world for several reasons, including but not limited to: 1. the Seniors not actually being retired, but biding their time until they could make an uninterrupted power play, which dropped right into their hands with the departure of the WHAM ARMY; 2. the gorgon Fury stumbling upon a cache of hidden magical artifacts that would increase her influence a hundredfold; and 3. Global Justice uncovering a hidden internal conspiracy in which half of its agents were actually loyal to Gemini, upsetting the balance of the world's most influential security force.

However, none of that is currently relevant to this story.

What is:

"So what's the deal with that weird sorcerer guy in the blue?" Ron asked Jake. "Is he some kind of magic-collecting final boss wizard?"

"I've never seen that guy before," Jake replied. "I thought he was one of your enemies."

Kim shook her head. "He was so magical, I just assumed you knew him."

"If he isn't your enemy," Rose mused, "and he isn't our enemy, then who is he?"

"A question I fear will come back to haunt us," Lao Shi concluded.

"Doom," Rufus agreed.

The Drakken Crime Syndicate, in the meantime, was getting their first look of the warship control room. "First impressions good," Drakken muttered. "Dark room, lots of ambience…"

"You haven't seen anything yet," Mozenrath assured him. "I'll call up the welcoming committee to show you around. But first, I need a word with the Huntsman. Alone."

"Someone's getting taken to the principal's office," Shego remarked.

"Be nice!" Amy chided.

"NICE?" Duff replied. "Did ye forget who we are?"

Mozenrath was already stalking out of the room, rather regretting he didn't have a cape to billow after him as he did so. The Huntsman had no choice but to follow.

Once they were around the corner and out of earshot, Mozenrath looked the Huntsman dead in the eye and said, with a knowing smirk, "I saw that."

"I am not certain what you are referring to," the Huntsman replied.

"That 'missed' shot that so happened to almost crush our local cryptid?" Mozenrath reminded him.

"An accident," the Huntsman protested. "Nothing more."

"And this has nothing to do with how quickly I made friends with an…inhuman."

"So you call it 'friends,'" the Huntsman said without thinking.

"What else would I – " Mozenrath's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh! Awwww. George, are you jeawous of me talking to the widdle fish? Do you think he's gonna steal me away from you? That is just…so adorable."

"Do not mock me," the Huntsman growled. "You cannot deny the two of you are very similar in many regards."

"And that's the thing," Mozenrath assured him. "We're TOO similar. Do you really think I could put up with myself for that long? There's only room for one me in any given romantic relationship. Besides, back in the tunnels, you wanted to go, despite the presence of the bane of your existence. He wanted to stay and bring down his archnemesis. Now, I'm not going to say or evaluate what I would have done if it were Aladdin, AND YOU SHOULDN'T EITHER, but I will say your decision ultimately netted us a greater profit. Think about that."

"Then do you care to explain why you've been so shamelessly flirting with him all this time?" the Huntsman pressed.

"Because my natural inclination is to banter with other people?" Mozenrath retorted.

"…I suppose that is true." Suddenly, a new angle occurred to the Huntsman. Mozenrath wasn't just getting better at banter. He was getting more used to working with others, and he was either making an effort or finding it easier to be friendly to kindred spirits. He was just so unused to seeing that look on Mozenrath that he'd read far too much into it. "Very well. I relinquish all suspicion."

"And you're going to stop trying to kill my friend?"

"So long as I do not have to be happy about it."

"Good." Mozenrath nodded. "Then we can all get on with our lives. There is a reason I want you with me on this recruitment drive, after all. Gill can make himself comfortable here. I need you with me out there. And Hämsterviel, but he's more for practical purposes and base entertainment."

The Huntsman had to admit that sounded both reasonable and flattering. "I assume you mean to depart as quickly as possible."

Mozenrath was already tapping away at his scroll. "Let me just summon the tour guides in hats and round up Hämsterviel for round two. This next one's going to be fun." He paused; smirked. "Life really is about to be a hurricane over there."

A/N: Axel and Roxas' Limit attack is based on the one designed by Everglow for the Kingdom Hearts Timeline video series.