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.

124. Radiant Rollercoaster Ride

A/N: We got some trigger warnings for suicidal ideation and what I'm going to call "general horror."

...

"Okay, this should be the last stop!" Aang declared as he led Zuko through the castle. "The courtyard!"

"I…really like this place," Zuko said with a soft smile. It felt so strange, simply being able to say that. He knew that with a certain former partner of his, he would've had to tone it down, say it wasn't awful. Or maybe pretend it was. But Aang was so excited, so full of wonder about this world that Zuko found it so easy to express how he felt: "It's not like anything I've seen before. It's beautiful. I'd like to visit this place more often, especially since almost all my friends are here."

"Don't worry," Aang replied. "You've still got Ty Lee back home."

Zuko let out a little chuckle; "No one can really forget about Ty Lee."

As they entered the courtyard's open air, they were greeted by a net that divided it in two. On the opposite side of the net from Zuko and Aang, Sora stretched an arm up high to wave while Riku folded his arms and smiled.

"SURPRISE!" Sora cried. "We set this place up so you could have even more fun!"

"And also because Sora wanted to try out this game," Riku revealed with a smirk.

"Game?" Aang's eyes lit up and he shot toward the net. "I love games!"

"Volleyball?" Zuko asked tentatively, remembering the last match he'd played along Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. More than a little awkward now.

"Uhhh…sort of?" Sora shrugged. "It's Fruitball, so the ball is giant fruit. And that's already way more fun than volleyball."

"Not to mention the special abilities the fruit has that a ball can't do," Riku said smugly. "I dunno…you guys might not be up for it. You've gotta be pretty fast and pretty skilled to win at Fruitball."

"Heyyyyy!" Aang whined. "I'm fast! And I have lots of skills!"

"He's baiting us into trying to beat him," Zuko clarified. "And you know what? I think I want to prove him wrong."

"Sora and I make a pretty unstoppable team." Riku placed an arm about Sora's shoulders to pull him close. "You guys think you're up to it?"

"You're on!" Aang cried.

"We're not pushovers, ourselves," Zuko added.

That was how Sora, Riku, Zuko, and Aang ended up in an intense Fruitball match the likes of which hadn't been seen in Radiant Garden in centuries (likely because the only other Fruitball game that had been played in this kingdom was Kairi, Aqua, Kazuichi, and Sonia's ill-fated match a short time ago).

Aang used his airbending to turn Zuko's fire into a cyclone that carried a bunch of grapes over the net and also broke them apart into individual fruits, bouncing along to threaten docking Sora and Riku's score. However, the two Keybearers put up their hands, summoning a massive blade that they each held half of; it cut over the field, slicing every grape and discarding it to the ground. Sora then took the initiative to bat a watermelon over to Zuko's position, hoping to get a stun out of him.

"I GOT IT!" Aang quickly dried the fruit out of water, taking the "water" out of "watermelon" as its shriveled skin collapsed to the ground.

"Careful, Aang," Zuko chided. "You keep dehydrating the fruit and we won't have anything to throw back."

"But they DO have water in them," Aang realized, "which means I can probablyyyyyyy – "

With the gesture of a hand, he sent a rain of pineapples that had been headed his way down over Sora and Riku, who cut through them with thirteen spinning blades. Riku bent over and Sora placed a hand on his back to vault, backhanding a banana toward Aang and Zuko.

"WATCH OUT!" Zuko cried, throwing an arm out in front of Aang as the banana fell to the ground and skidded. Then Zuko realized, as the peel split open, that its slide was headed straight for him, since he'd put himself between it and the original target. But it was too late; the open peel connected with Zuko's feet, causing the Fire Lord to slip and fall rather embarrassingly with a "WHOA!"

"THAT'S IT!" Aang attempted to threaten – but it was undercut by his laughter. He leapt into the air and then stomped both feet into the ground, kicking up several pillars of earth that propelled the apples from the fruit-scatterer over to Sora and Riku's side. He then performed a spinning kick as the scatterer expelled still more projectiles, causing the pillars to break and carry the fruit over on the waves as well as several small boulders. Sora and Riku faced a hail.

"Time for that trick we learned from Yen Sid!" Sora declared.

Riku nodded.

The pair stood across from each other, plunging their Keyblades toward the ground. A seven-pointed seal of gold forged around them, spawning seven translucent illusions of colorful crystals. The crystals sank into the seal's points, charging it up; just as the hail of projectiles was about to hit the Keybearers, a monstrous golden beacon of light, taller even than the castle, erupted from them, disheveling a good bit of the earth around them in the process.

The fruit never stood a chance. Nor did the rocks.

Zuko and Aang were literally and metaphorically floored, respectively, and could only watch as the attack rose higher into the sky. When it cleared, Sora and Riku slapped a high-five.

"Winning this game just got way harder," Aang sighed.

"EH-AHEM."

All four boys turned to see a new crowd having entered the courtyard: Kairi, Jaune, Ruby, Nora, Ren, Sonia, and Suki.

"We kiiiiiind of have this place reserved for the usual practice?" Ruby pointed out with a shrug.

"At least that huge attack they did left us with a field hazard," Nora sighed, gesturing to the impacts in the ground from the blast.

"Is this normal around here?" Suki asked.

"Oh! Sorry," Sora said as he rushed to start taking down the net. "Forgot about that part."

"I dunno." Riku smirked over at Zuko and Aang. "Since we didn't finish, I'm tempted to call this a tie game. On the other hand, we definitely were winning…"

"Let's play again later!" Aang suggested. "And we'll decide the score based on that one!"

"That'll give us some time to strategize counterattacks for your moves, too," Zuko agreed, finally getting up to his feet.

"Don't worry about the net," Sora told them. "We'll take it down for you guys."

"I never agreed to that," Riku teased with a playful shove.

"Go have fun exploring the rest!" Sora urged, unhooking half the net.

"Have fun practicing, guys!" Aang told Kairi and her contingent as he and Zuko passed by.

"Thanks!" Kairi replied. "You have fun too!"

"So what now?" Aang mused as he and Zuko re-entered the hallways. "We've seen everything there is to see in the castle…"

"Maybe the town?" Zuko suggested. "Or are tensions too high there for it to be diplomatic?"

"I mean, they don't know who we are," Aang reminded him. "And even if they did, we could solve that with some easy disguises."

But that proved to not be necessary, as coming down the hall crossways from them were Nani, Lilo, and Stitch, the eldest holding an elongated and colorful board that caught Aang's attention. "Hey!" he called out, pointing. "What's that?"

"Oh, this?" Nani held up the board, smiling at Aang. "You've never seen a surfboard before?"

"I know some waterbenders surf," Aang mused, "but I've never seen anything like that."

"Waterbender?" Lilo mused, tilting her head. "That sounds like a useful move against the vampire apocalypse."

"Is…that something we have to worry about?" Zuko asked.

"Not for another few hundred years," Lilo replied. "I hope."

"Ih!" Stitch agreed. "Robot apocalypse sooner!"

"If you've never been surfing before," Lilo said with a bright smile, "then you should come with us! We're taking the train down to the beach to test out the waves."

"We can round up an extra board or two," Nani added. "Surfing isn't the easiest to learn, but if nothing else, I bet we'll have fun."

"Yes! Fun!" Stitch said with a frantic nod.

"We like fun!" Aang cried. "You in, Zuko?"

Zuko laughed; "I'm there."

...

Practically speaking, the WHAM ARMY was a long way off from being able to bust down the gates of Atlantis. At first, Mozenrath had written up a very definite schedule to stick to, and things had been going nicely to plan, but now he was realizing that some of his potential recruits would be harder to find than others, and to make matters worse, he had ended up finding new ones, and then he had moved away from recruits to the matter of weaponry and realized just how much magical firepower they would need that they did not currently have, factored in with the time it would take Zorg and Otto to design better technology than the Jack-Bots, and that wasn't even touching the fact that he knew, an itch in his brain, that at least three of his associates in the inner circle were going to approach him to ask about some personal quest for glory or revenge that he would have to put off progress in order to achieve –

Needless to say, the schedule wasn't going to work out anymore and was now more of a general batch of "things to get done, more or less, before launching empire."

Mozenrath didn't like that, but that was how life just so happened to work, so he was stuck with it. That didn't mean he couldn't still prioritize and organize. And he'd secured several unbroken hours to do exactly that in his study. Up to forty-eight of them, if he wasn't bothered.

He threw open the doors, strode inside the room, gave Mr. Mistoffelees an idle scratch behind the ears, turned on the coffee pot, nodded a greeting to Tala, and sat down to review his –

Wait.

"Is…there a problem?" Mozenrath asked tentatively as he glared up at Tala.

"Oh, no, none at all," Tala replied in a syrupy tone that Mozenrath definitely did not like. "In fact, I was hoping to provide some…solutions." She leaned over the desk, both hands planting down onto it. The cloth around her neckline was conveniently loose, offering a view to things rather left unseen.

"We've been over this, Tala," Mozenrath sighed, giving his eyes a roll in the direction away from her. "No women."

"Oh…I…I know," Tala said, sounding strangely out of her element. "But there are more ways to a man's heart than through what's below. Surely there is something I can offer you in this trying time to relieve all of your tension. Perhaps more flavor to your coffee, or a pillow on which to rest your aching neck?"

"What are you even shooting for here?" Mozenrath asked.

"Why, not much," Tala replied, straightening up. "Only to remind you of my value. There are many, many things I can offer, most of which I can demonstrate right here. Matters of convenience, matters of power…and some matters of pleasure, should you so desire them." She flinched. "Which I know you don't."

"What I want is for you to leave me alone," Mozenrath told her. "Is that so hard?"

"Oh, but I can be of use to you in so many ways!" She had slunk behind him, her hands resting on his shoulders. "Ah, but your neck IS so tense – "

"GET. OFF."

Tala flinched away. "Nothing unruly was meant by it," she said, sounding again so strangely vulnerable. "Only to prove my usefulness to our most powerful and handsome leader."

Mozenrath was not normally a perceptive person when it came to other people. However, in one great flash of clarity, he realized he had absorbed just enough perception power off the other members of the core in order to know what was going on. "This is all you know how to do, isn't it?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you – "

"Men want you, you throw yourselves at them, they give you what you want in exchange for 'favors.' Carnal or otherwise."

"Well…some women," Tala brought up.

"My point stands," Mozenrath told her. "You don't have to do that here. No, wait, let me rephrase that; DON'T do that here."

"But it is the only way I have ever gotten respect," Tala said softly. "By offering what I can."

"How pitiable," Mozenrath sighed. "Unfortunately, I also don't do pity, so you're out of luck on two counts. What might gain you some favor among the others is if you leave me alone to work quietly in peace."

"But then how will I know - ?" She shut herself up.

"Do I really have to do this…?" Mozenrath gave a dramatic sigh. He then stood and turned to face Tala, saying in the coldest, angriest tone possible: "You're valid, you're valuable, you don't need a man's approval to define you, GET OUT OF MY STUDY."

"…I suppose," Tala relented at last. "I won't inconvenience you any longer."

She made to stride out of the room, a certain swagger gone from her step.

"Why am I turning into a babysitter for these people?" Mozenrath asked under his breath before saying, "Tala."

She stopped in her tracks, not looking back.

"I've heard whispers that Wuya and Irmaplotz are conspiring to better outfit the quarters we had to remodel for Gwen. It sounds like something that might keep you busy."

"…Then I shall pay them a visit," Tala said, sounding just the slightest bit more chipper before taking her leave.

Mozenrath locked the doors behind her via magic. "No, I don't feel bad for her," he told the black-and-white cat, "nor do I think this is anyone's fault but her own."

Mistoffelees just licked a paw and used it to clean off his ear.

"All I'm saying is that she wouldn't have lasted a week with Destane. That man was never pleased by anything. If anything, she's lucky I'm sharing with her my boundless…well, it's not 'generosity.' Let's call it lack of Destane-ness."

Mistoffelees purred.

"I knew you'd understand," Mozenrath told him. "And the best part is, you don't talk back. No one-word rebuttals like 'Going soft!' or 'Mozenrath like her?'."

Mistoffelees mewed.

"You're on thin ice," Mozenrath replied as he sat once more to his papers.

...

In one of the empty rooms that had once outfitted the Radiant Garden royal guard, Sokka had been lent a whetstone upon which he was grinding the edge of his blade, kicking up vibrant sparks.

In the hall outside, Finn came investigating, easing the door open only to give a "WAGH!" of surprise.

"AH!" Sokka flinched.

"I didn't think anybody was down here!" Finn protested. "I just wanted to check out the old guard stuff!"

"That's why they let me have the place," Sokka replied. "So I could work on my Space Sword without – "

"DID YOU SAY 'SPACE SWORD'?" Finn rushed to the weapon, eyes wide and sparkling. "THAT IS THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN! YOU GOT THAT THING FROM OUTER SPACE?"

"More or less." Sokka beamed with pride.

"Wait a minute." Finn's eyes traveled the length of the blade. "Where do you put the crystal?"

"Wh – " Sokka grimaced. "You don't. There's no crystal. It's a sword. It works like a sword does. I make it go slice slice."

"Huh," Finn mused. "Weird."

"Who ARE you, anyway?" Sokka asked.

"Oh." Finn drew himself up tall and proud. "Name's Finn. Sharpshooter for the Storm Hawks." He threw finger-guns at Sokka; "Chicka-cha."

"Sokka," Sokka responded. "Boomerang master for the Avatar." A finger-gun of his own. "Water Tribe."

"That's not a boomerang," Finn pointed out.

"I am trained in multiple disciplines!" Sokka argued. "Actually…huh. I am kinda well-versed in the melee weapons of all four nations." He brightened. "Cool! I'll take it!"

"Y'know," Finn stated, "I hear the reason this place is empty is 'cause – "

"Half the guards turned evil. I know. They told me."

"Which means this place needs some new royal guards," Finn pointed out. "You think maybe a skilled sharpshooter and a swordsman from outer space – "

"Sword's from outer space; I'm not."

" – might be able to fill the void?" Finn proposed.

"So you're saying we should just…become vigilante protectors of the castle?" Sokka asked.

"Well, duh!" Finn replied. "Being a LEGIT guard means paperwork and training and school. There's no time for that! We're in a state of emergency!"

"Y'know," Sokka said with a smirk, "you make a very compelling argument, Finn Sharpshooter. I think we just might be the heroes this place needs."

"You wanna run a patrol?" Finn asked, bunching up and hopping like a dog having sighted the leash for walkies.

"You KNOW I do!" Sokka replied.

That was how Sokka and Finn, junior replacement royal guards for Radiant Garden, ended up patrolling the Castle District for potential threats.

An hour later, their assessment was that the Castle District was incredibly large and also incredibly devoid of threats.

"Is this city for real?" Finn panted, leaning against a wall in the town square, crossbow pointed downward. "You're telling me we haven't even left the central district?"

"I do NOT wanna patrol the whole city," Sokka groaned. "Maybe we should just leave this to the professionals. It looks like there isn't even anything here for us to do."

"No." Finn looked up, brow furrowed. "Wherever there are heroes, danger is lurking."

"Are you sure about that? I'm not sure about that."

A Heartless suddenly appeared, causing both boys to scream with excitement. As the Space Sword was drawn and the crossbow cocked, a Claymore swallowed the Dark creature whole.

"WHAT?" Finn cried.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Sokka yelled, gesturing angrily at the scene of the destruction. "THAT WASN'T EVEN FAIR!"

"What, you don't know?" a chestnut-haired shopkeeper (by the name of Wedge) who wore a yellow zip-up sweater broke in. "The Claymores keep this town safe. So long as we stay inside the town walls, they'll destroy all the Heartless for us. And they do a heck of a lot better job than the idiots in the castle, lemme tell ya."

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Sokka cried, filling with hot rage. "THOSE IDIOTS ARE TRYING THEIR BEST, OKAY?"

"Wait." Finn leaned in conspiratorially toward Wedge. "So you're saying that these Claymores don't protect you…OUTSIDE the castle walls?"

"No," Wedge replied. "That's why we rarely leave, unless it's a Summoner on pilgrimage. There's all sorts of nasty things out there. Bigger Heartless, wild animals, and of course…HIM."

"Him?" Sokka and Finn repeated.

"The Headless Horseman," Wedge explained. "Some say he's the most powerful Heartless of them all, and that he was a war general who died in the Zanarkand conflicts a thousand years ago but lost his heart to the Darkness before it could fully expire. His bloodlust was only amplified, and he stalks the wood outside the kingdom, hoping to find an innocent to murder and take the head of for his morbid collection. Then again, some say he's just a scary story that isn't even real. Who knows?"

"Ohhhh," Finn replied, "then we definitely shouldn't leave the town walls or anything to try and fight him two-on-one."

"I should say not!" Wedge affirmed. "You'd never survive! If he does turn out to be real, that is."

"Hint taken," Sokka replied. "But if we wanted to know where to avoid…have there been rumored sightings?"

And that was how Sokka and Finn set out into the forest outside the castle walls, seeking the Headless Horseman himself.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Sokka groaned.

"We can so take that headless loser!" Finn argued. "They say two heads are better than one. Well, we have two and he has NONE! Beat that! And once we take care of him, we'll be the greatest heroes in town!"

"No," Sokka sighed. "I'm talking about the fact that all the sightings were at night. We won't have any luck while the sun is up."

"Ooh. That's a good point."

A rustle in a nearby bush got their attention. Of course, given what they were looking for, their minds leapt to one conclusion and one conclusion only.

"IT'S HIM!" Sokka screeched. "IT'S HIM IT'S THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN GET HIM NOW!"

"GAAAAAAH!" Finn fired several haphazard shots into the brush, the Blizzard Crystals he'd equipped freezing it all over into a hard shell. Then, slowly lowering his now-empty crossbow; "Did we get him?"

Sokka approached gingerly, Space Sword braced. He peeled back one of the frosty branches to reveal the target: a small, innocuous creature now encased in ice.

"It's just some dumb lizard!" Sokka complained, hauling out the iceberg that contained their foe. "Look at this thing; it's tiny!"

"Why's it carrying a lantern?" Finn wondered out loud. Then: "Aww, look at its cute little chef knife! It must be some kinda gourmet lizard!"

"So that was a bust," Sokka sighed.

"I dunno…" Finn mused. "Maybe if we take this thing back to the castle, we'll get points for effort, and they'll legitimize us as guards without all the stuffy paperwork."

"That is not in the least bit logical," Sokka told Finn, "but I'm going to do it anyway because I don't wanna call this whole day wasted."

They hauled the iceberg and their tiny captive all the way back to the castle, entering the foyer as Aerith and Leon exited the lift station.

"Don't you ever wonder what happened to her?" Aerith was saying.

"What happened to her was the same thing that happened to everyone else," Leon sighed.

"But what if there's a chance?" Aerith asked. "What if she's been in hiding all these years, and now that we're back – "

She cut off her sentence with a sharp scream as soon as she saw Sokka and Finn approach. Leon dashed out in front of her protectively, drawing the Gunblade.

"Whoa!" Finn argued. "It's just us!"

"No!" Aerith, having brought out her staff, pointed at the iceberg. "That's a Tonberry! Where'd you find it?"

"If that thing defrosts, it could take out everyone in this castle," Leon emphasized. "They look small and slow, but they're the most dangerous creatures in this world."

"Whaaaaaaa…" Sokka's jaw dropped.

"Where," Leon seethed, "did. You. Find. It?"

"Outside the town walls!" Finn cried. "We were outside the walls trying to hunt the Headless Horseman so we could be the new royal guards!"

"How far outside?" Leon pressed.

"We didn't really get that far," Sokka recalled. "I think I saw a bridge over a creek? So not into the actual woodsy woods."

"That's too close," Leon sighed, lowering the Gunblade. "That Tonberry was headed for town, and the Claymores can't deal with their kind."

"Do these things have a beef with you or something?" Finn asked.

"Tonberries seek out violence for reasons we don't know," Aerith cleared up. "They roam all over the world. They usually stay down in the Scar, which is a huge chasm north of here, but they also go wherever they want looking for trouble. This one must've just gotten curious about our town."

Leon hefted the iceberg out of Finn and Sokka's hands. "Aerith, reinforce the Blizzard on this," he commanded. "We'll talk with Aeleus about a party to deposit it back in the Scar as soon as possible. Or further away than that."

"Great job, you two!" Aerith insisted. "The Headless Horseman is just a silly story, but you stopped something very real from harming a lot of people! Maybe we should get you into guard uniform!" She beamed.

As Aerith and Leon removed the Tonberry to put it in maximum-security lockdown, Finn and Sokka gave twin squeals of excitement, slapping a high-five.

"And so began the crime-fighting adventures of SHARPSHOOTER AND SPACE SWORDSMAN!" Finn cried triumphantly.

...

Dr. Destiny slowly transitioned from a miasma dream-world of writhing nightmares to the waking world, in which he was situated on some kind of medical cot. And to be honest, he would have rather stayed in the nightmares. Those, at least, were the comforting, familiar type of fright.

The last thing he remembered was Tala knocking him out in Arkham. And after that…

"Ah, good. You're awake."

Destiny cringed to see the two onlookers: one taller, one shorter. Both were shrouded in shadow. In fact, it seemed that they'd turned off the lights on purpose so that they could hide in the shadows (an effect suggested by the smaller of the two).

"Who are you?" Destiny gasped. "Where am I?"

"Me?" the taller of the figures replied. "Why…I am but a humble scientist and medic, here to breathe new life into your very existence."

"And I," the shorter said as he stormed into the light, "am DR. DRAKKEN, feared supervillain and future dominator of worlds!"

Now Destiny could see him better. Sort of squarish. Blue. Obviously going for a mad-scientist aesthetic, but with none of the creepy undertones of the greats of horror. The orderlies at Arkham were scarier than him.

"Well?" Drakken turned to face the other. "Your turn!"

"Must we?" the taller sighed.

"This is how it WORKS!" Drakken insisted. "How are they supposed to know and fear your name if you don't introduce yourself in the most intimidating way possible?"

"Fine, fine…"

Now, Destiny couldn't explain why, but the blond man with the angular face was far more terrifying than Drakken without even trying. "Call me Vexen," he said smugly as he stepped into the light. "You happen to be the latest success in my body of work."

"What have you done to me?" Destiny croaked hoarsely.

"Stabilized you," Vexen told him. "Or haven't you noticed the lack of a certain lullaby on repeat in your subconscious? I wouldn't think too hard about it if I were you. We wouldn't want to dredge anything up, would we?"

He was right. Any and all trace of Frere Jacques was gone – unless Destiny thought too hard about it. Which he quickly avoided doing.

"You should also find it far easier to transfer between your more passable look and the face you wear for…special occasions," Vexen went on.

Destiny held up a hand. At his behest, it grew into the long, skeletal claw, gloved in blue, then retracted back into a perfectly ordinary man's hand. "You saved me," he realized.

"But of course," Vexen told him. "I worked tirelessly to balance you with my other incredibly vital projects in order to bring you back into working order so that you may properly assist the WHAM ARMY. It was my boundless knowledge of the human heart and brain that allowed me to put you right."

"And I helped," Drakken piped up. "For the record."

Vexen sighed; "Yes, you were moral support."

"I'm cured," Destiny realized. A wicked smile crossed his lips; "Now, I can do as I please. And I think I'm grateful enough to you for this favor that I want to stay with your operation."

"There is one small catch," Vexen told him. "Regard the table to your right."

Destiny did so. On it was one item: a pill organizer. Four compartments corresponding to times of day. Each one packed with pills.

His heart sank. So this was what it would take. A lifetime of monitoring the clock, of knowing that he would collapse into sheer insanity if he weren't a slave to those little capsules. He looked forlornly back to Vexen, summoning up enough grit in his voice to complain: "This was the best you could do?"

"YOU THINK I'M HAPPY ABOUT IT?" Vexen screamed, suddenly hitting a rage that frightened (and exhilarated) Destiny. "LEAVING A JOB HALF DONE, FOR THE MEDICINES TO FINISH?"

"So much for boundless knowledge," Destiny replied.

"I fully intend to bring you into sanity while allowing you to keep your unique power," Vexen went on. "But I only have so much time, and so much work to do. Take this as a temporary solution. One day…one day, I swear I shall disconnect you from that horrid lifeline."

"I mean…it's not that bad, when you think about it." Drakken shrugged. "So you have to take a few pills every now and again. Lots of self-respecting villains do. You see, when you're a mad genius, you have to keep that madness at a controllable level."

"I'm surprised you feel that way," Vexen told him, a little taken aback.

"Yes, well…" Drakken shuffled his feet. "The medication I take may be more about…allowing my madness to not get drowned out by the depression brought by lack of self-esteem, but that's splitting hairs." A pause. "Also for heartburn and blood pressure. I'm also very prone to sinus infections. It's really annoying."

"What my assistant is trying to say, I believe," Vexen stated, "is that you're in good company being medicated. Still, I don't intend to give up. However, I also was encouraged to speed the work along for the sake of an interested party."

"What kind of interested party?" Destiny asked. The only person he knew here was Tala, and there was no way Tala would have been awaiting his awakening.

"You'll see," Vexen sniffed. He then paced to the edge of the med bay, leaning out into the lab proper; "He's awake. And all yours now."

"OH, GOODY!" Mim came twirling into the room. As she came to a stop, she gave Destiny a wild-eyed look of enthusiasm; "You and I are going to have SO much fun together!"

Well, she was already scarier than Vexen. Destiny sat up straight, morphing into a skeletal visage, a cloak of blue. "What do YOU want with me?" he seethed.

"You can cause nightmares, right?" Mim told him. "If people get close enough to you, then you can make their nightmares real, isn't that it?"

"Yes," Destiny told her harshly. "That is the gist of it."

"Well," Mim replied, "I just so happen to think that sort of thing is WONDERFULLY entertaining!"

"Entertaining," Destiny repeated. "How so?"

"Wouldn't you like to do a little practice run to make sure your powers are in working order?" Mim suggested.

Well, now she was scaring him in the good way. "What did you have in mind?"

...

Aang gasped when he saw the waters off the beach. The sun barely had a chance to sparkle off the surface of the sea; the winds made for excellent surfing weather, curling the water into sizeable waves.

"WOW!" he cried. "Zuko, look at this! This is gonna be SO AWESOME!"

"Uh…yeah," Zuko replied somewhat nervously.

"You okay?" Aang looked to him in concern.

"You know water is a natural opposite to fire," Zuko told him. "I know how to swim, but not much beyond that. It's…a little scary, if I'm being honest."

"Don't worry!" Lilo bounded up and down. "All you gotta do is make sure not to enter a rip current, because those'll suck you down and kill you!"

"And we will watch to make sure you don't hit one by accident," Nani said quickly. "There aren't any right now, so no need to worry."

Stitch tapped on Zuko's calf; the Fire Lord looked down at the alien experiment. "Stitch no can swim," the small blue furball admitted. "Too dense. But Nani and Lilo keep Stitch safe. Keep Zuko safe!"

"Not to mention you've got a waterbender here!" Aang reminded him. "If anything bad happens, I can make the sea spit you back out like a melted frozen frog!"

"Thanks." Zuko smiled softly. "So, uh…how do I get started?"

"Our parents had us ride out on the boards on our stomachs first," Lilo explained. "You can get your balance once you're used to the water."

"C'mon!" Aang was already pulling at Zuko's wrist. "This is gonna be a breeze!"

It wasn't exactly a breeze. Zuko felt a little foolish, paddling out into the white foam and summer-blue waters, especially when his board was almost flipped immediately. But he wasn't about to give in so easily.

Aang mastered the art immediately, yipping as he rode the curl of a larger wave to approach the beach. Lilo regarded this with suspicion. As the wave crashed and Aang laughed his way over to Lilo and Stitch's board, Lilo asked, "You're not using your fancy waterbending to make the water keep you upright, are you?"

"Uhhhhh…" Aang's eyes darted left and right. "Oh, hey, look, a bigger wave! Gotta go catch it BYE!"

"Cheater," Stitch huffed.

Zuko stood on his board for all of half a second before losing balance and falling into the ocean with a "WHOA!".

Aang watched with admiration as Nani rode an even larger wave than he'd found, careening with perfect balance, arms keeping her centered on her board.

"Your sister's so cool!" Aang cried.

"Yeah!" Lilo agreed. "She really is!"

"Okay," Zuko huffed, clambering onto his board. "You can do this. You're the Fire Lord. You can master the surfboard! Your honor depends on it!"

He stood. Wobbled. Then caught himself. "I'm doing it!" he shrieked. "I'M DOING – "

And he fell back in with a plop.

As he growled his way up onto the board once more, clinging onto it with all fours, he became acutely aware of Aang's board sliding up beside him. "I heard that," Aang told Zuko.

"The sound of me failing?" Zuko growled.

"No," Aang told him. "What you said about honor. It's not about honor. We're just having fun. Actually, if you wanna know the truth…"

He leaned in conspiratorially to whisper, "I'm using waterbending to keep my board from tipping over."

"Aang!" Zuko chided before breaking out into a chuckle. "I should've known."

"I mean…" Aang gave Zuko his most innocent look. "I could do that for your board, too."

"I'm not about to – "

"It's just for fun. No honor. Okay?"

Zuko realized he was still thinking of himself as worth that had to be proven. No. That didn't matter, here and now. Not with Aang. "Okay," he relented. "I'll let you help me cheat."

"They're cheating," Lilo told Nani as she watched the board carrying them tandem, Zuko standing before Aang, catch a wave.

"Well, Jumba's done worse," Nani reminded her.

"Much worse," Stitch agreed. "Bombs."

The wave curled into an almost perfect cylinder of water over Aang and Zuko, threatening to close them into its fall. Aang just laughed and sped up the board; Zuko flailed, the sudden burst of speed affecting his center of gravity. He very nearly tipped right off, but Aang's arms locking around his midsection from behind prevented that from happening.

Strange, how someone so carefree could make another feel so safe and grounded.

The board shot out of the crashing wave, steering itself around alongside Nani, Lilo, and Stitch.

"This is the best thing ever!" Aang cried. "It's even more fun than riding elephant koi!"

"Elephant koi?" Lilo gasped. "You mean you have huge fish where you come from?"

"More than just huge fish!" Aang gushed. "You ever heard of a Unagi?"

Zuko turned away. He remembered where Unagis were native to. Kyoshi Island, which he'd happened to cause a fair bit of damage to.

"Zuko met a Unagi once," Aang continued. "He was doing bad stuff because his dad was a jerk and wouldn't let him come home. I wish I'd known that back then. Maybe we could've worked something out! Anyway, the Unagi helped me calm him down."

That was putting it so mildly. But now Zuko knew Aang remembered his past sins…and didn't care. He considered them Ozai's sins.

And in the end…were they not?

"You're not even telling her what it looks like," Zuko pointed out. "Imagine an enormous sea serpent that can shoot water from its mouth."

"THAT'S SO COOL!" Lilo shrieked.

Stories were swapped, but as more waves came, conversation had to be abandoned so they could be caught. And Zuko felt himself grow a little closer to the idea of water that day.

...

A meeting of the minds was taking place in the skimmer hangar of the warship.

"So YOU'RE the guy who thinks he's stronger than me!" Snipe smacked his mace against the palm of his opposite hand threateningly.

"Yeah," Alex O'Hirn replied smugly. "What're you gonna do about it?"

"Prove you're NOT stronger than me, that's what!" Snipe growled.

"Think you're just gonna end up disappointed on that front," Alex replied.

"THAT'S IT!" Snipe screamed, hoisting the mace high.

"You wanna go?" Alex replied. "Then let's go."

Snipe charged at Alex, caterwauling wordlessly. He managed to land a hard blow on Alex's back. Normally, a swing from that mace at such speed would have been able to easily kill a grown man.

But Snipe wasn't dealing with a grown man. He was dealing with the Rhino.

Which is to say Alex's protective plating deflected the mace right off like bulletproof glass against a foam dart.

"WHY WON'T YOU SMASH INTO LITTLE BITS?" Snipe yelled, bashing Alex again and again.

"Maybe 'cause I'm stronger than ya," Alex replied. "Now, let's see how YOU like it!"

He gripped Snipe around the waist and flipped him upside-down, bashing him against the floor.

Most grown men would be concussed. But this wasn't a grown man. It was Snipe.

Which was to say his body mass simply impacted into the floor and left an indent that radiated hairline cracks in the stone.

"Oh, you're goin' DOWN!" Snipe roared, flipping back around to leap atop Alex and attempt to put him in a headlock.

"Really," Yzma told Scarlet as the two of them, each holding separate cats, turned to walk into the hangar, "it's a good look on you."

"Thanks!" Scarlet beamed, shaking her head so the pigtails swung. "I guess it brings out my natural self-confide – "

They both stopped dead in their tracks to notice Snipe and Alex wrestling, flipping over each other again and again.

"Let's go somewhere that's not here," Yzma suggested.

"I agree," Scarlet replied.

They backtracked out the door and resumed their walk as though they'd always been doing down the crossways hall. In the hangar, the scuffle continued.

...

"And if you'll look to your left," XR said as he led Yuffie and Toph down into the computer room, "you'll see a pair of nerds in their natural habitat."

"Wow!" Toph replied. "I don't even need to actually be able to look at them to tell that there are three of them there!"

"Huh?" Yuffie stole a glance at the terminal.

"Well, you're definitely right that it seems to be a star chart," Dr. Doppler told Twilight and Ienzo, "but I don't have the foggiest what it means…YET. That said, I always did appreciate a challenge."

"I think it has to do with that entity we're picking up inside Sora's heart," Twilight told him. "The one we can't explain."

"We've all but ruled out Vanitas," Ienzo added. "He would seem to make the most sense…except only half the data supports his identity, suggesting that he isn't alone."

"The 'she/her' pronouns do seem to imply something else altogether," Doppler agreed. "I wonder if this is perhaps a map tracking the worlds visited by this enigmatic entity. Would you happen to have a chart of the known worlds I could cross-compare it to?"

"I'm certain I do somewhere!" Ienzo leapt up to go search.

"Yeah, nothing actually interesting happening here, third wheel notwithstanding," XR sighed. "And I think we can skip the guard barracks. There's only one of them that hasn't completely flipped his lid and gone to the dark side, and believe me, there's NOTHING interesting going on with him. Meaning we can proceed directly to the Chamber of Parties!" He danced in place to emphasize his enthusiasm.

"Is the guard barracks that way?" Toph pointed.

"Yeah?" Yuffie answered. "Why?"

"Because I wouldn't say it's not interesting," Toph pointed out. "I can sense one of the rooms over there is filled with…this is gonna sound weird, but stone people?"

"Stone people…?" Yuffie repeated.

XR gasped; "AELEUS! He must be creating an army of dormant warriors that he intends to animate with his rock powers and set upon the castle in the ultimate betrayal! WHO WOULD'VE THUNK?"

"We should've guessed!" Yuffie grunted. "He was pals with Dilan, after all, and that never means anything good!"

"Should we maybe do something about this?" Toph asked. "For the record, I'm not asking if you think I should. I know I am. I'm just asking if you're with me or not."

"That miscreant must pay for his crimes," XR seethed.

"He's not getting away with this one!" Yuffie added.

It was the ninja who kicked in the door to Aeleus' chamber, screaming, "WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID!"

"Put your hands up and drop any and all earth-related magical chicanery!" XR demanded, all guns out.

"You're in for it now," Toph said slyly with a wide smirk.

Aeleus immediately threw both hands into the air, looking quite flabbergasted. "What is this about?" he asked tentatively.

"We KNOW you've been making stone warriors that you're gonna turn on the castle!" Yuffie accused. "That's one right…there…"

She faltered.

"You know," XR remarked, "that doesn't really look like much of a warrior."

The "stone person" that took up the center of the room was carved from pure white marble: a regal-looking woman, clothed in a gown with a sizeable train. Her hair was cropped short to her head; a thin circlet was visible around her scalp. Upon a closer look, markings similar to those Lea had worn while Axel were present beneath the woman's eyes. One could pick out a vague resemblance to Kairi, though not an exact match.

"She does look like much of a few other things, if you get my drift," XR went on, the LEDs in his eyes forming hearts. "Hubba Hubba!"

"I would prefer if you didn't speak of Princess Elise that way," Aeleus told him. "Please. She is not a weapon of war."

"So now that I think about it," Toph realized, "what I'm picking up is basically statues. That's it. They're statues."

"Oh," Yuffie realized.

"I don't blame you," Aeleus said quickly. "After Dilan and Braig, trust is difficult. But these are not weapons."

The room was filled with them, as many as it could take. Statues of various people.

"I think he's in the clear," XR said, retracting his guns.

Aeleus lowered his arms, giving a sigh of relief.

"Who is she?" Yuffie approached the central statue, getting a better look at her details. "She looks weirdly familiar."

"Princess Elise," Aeleus answered. "Ansem's wife. Kairi's mother."

"Wait," Yuffie realized. "That's – whoa! I never actually wondered if she HAD a mom! Why would you spend all this time sculpting her?"

"This is the part where he admits his secret love for the woman he could never have," XR whispered to Toph.

"You think I don't know that?" Toph whispered back.

Aeleus had heard. "Not like that," he sighed, turning to look at his creation once more. "A friend. I recreate friends, especially those lost. She was admirable." The misery and wistfulness in his expression were impossible to miss.

"Then why keep it down here?" Yuffie asked. "Kairi would probably love that you made this whole thing. It IS her mom."

"I do not wish to offend," Aeleus said softly.

"I think you're just shy," Toph accused.

"True," Aeleus said, even more softly than before.

"Is that why you never talk?" Yuffie realized. "You're just a big shy guy? I thought your reputation in the Organization was more like the big brute."

"Brutes can be shy," Aeleus told her. "I am no longer a brute."

"Oh," Toph realized, "so he was the muscle of the group and probably a huge sadist, but he just didn't like to open up his mouth."

"Accurate," Aeleus told her. "Mostly."

"And now you just chill out down here alone making eerily detailed statues of dead people!" XR observed. "That's not a weird transition at all!"

"I know stone," Aeleus muttered. "It brings peace."

"So…what happened to her, anyway?" Yuffie asked. "Obviously she's not around anymore."

"A betrayal," Aeleus stated. "A royal guard turned on her."

"Ain't that just the way around here," XR commented.

"Lightning Farron," Aeleus went on. "A comrade until she led Princess Elise away. And others. None came back."

"So the murderer's still out there?" XR gasped.

"Likely perished in Maleficent's reign," Aeleus replied.

"Do we know why she wanted to kill Elise so bad?" Yuffie asked.

"No," Aeleus said simply. "And it was not only Elise."

He gestured to a particular group of statues arranged in the corner to appear as though they were conversing with one another. A tall, statuesque woman with long hair and an ornate crown, dressed in a more intricate gown than the one Elise bore. Another woman, with even longer hair, dressed in simple pants and a jacket, a stone rapier at her side. A woman with her hair piled into a formal updo, wearing a gown that looked quite a bit more avant-garde in its layering, lacing, and asymmetry. And a man, wearing plate armor, his lengthy hair appearing to be blown by a stray wind.

"She killed all those people?" Toph gasped.

"Rude," XR huffed.

"Who were they?" Yuffie asked, approaching the quartet.

"Queen Sarah," Aeleus explained. "Elise's sister. Ansem was third in line to the throne. Celes Chere. Captain of the guard. Sarah's wife. Eve – or Evie. Friend to Ansem. Kain Highwind. Friend to Elise; lover to Evie. Kain and Evie produced Ienzo."

"Oh, I see it now!" Yuffie realized, looking from the woman with the updo to the man in armor and back. "Yeah, there's Ienzo face in there, all right. You're really good at this."

"Ansem lost many," Aeleus said solemnly. "They must be remembered."

"Five friends in one murder," Toph summed up. "That's rough. …Great, Zuko's rubbing off on me."

"I think Kairi would wanna see this," Yuffie urged. "I mean, they're really good. But if all these guys were pals with her dad, and one of them's her mom and two more are her aunts, and the other two are her brother's parents, then she NEEDS to have SOME way to connect with them." Yuffie's face fell. "Sure wish somebody could sculpt my family."

"What happened?" Toph asked.

"Maleficent happened," Yuffie replied. She then shrugged casually. "We tried to escape in a fleet. I was on one ship. My dad was on another. Guess which was the only one to not get bombed by Heartless and explode?"

A heavy hand on Yuffie's shoulder; she hadn't even heard Aeleus approach. "I am sorry," he told her.

"It's fine," Yuffie replied. "I've had ten years to get over it. Besides, I was six. It's not like my memory is super clear of back then. Cid's my family now, and the Committee."

"Too many lost in this world," Aeleus remarked.

"Okay, this is officially getting depressing," XR declared.

"Yeah, I'm out," Toph sighed. "I really wanna get a feel for this Chamber of Parties."

"Think about what I said, okay?" Yuffie told Aeleus. "Don't keep 'em all down here in the dark."

And then she had barreled out of the room to catch up with the other two. So flippant, acting so carefree, as though she didn't have a weight on her shoulders equal to what Aeleus had – to what Kairi and Ienzo had.

To what Ansem hopefully had, not had formerly had. If he were lost as well…

Aeleus pushed the thought aside for the millionth time. He returned to his work sculpting the details on Elise. His broad finger brushed the markings beneath her eyes – an allusion to her youth, in which she had been forced not to cry under circumstances most horrific. Even after becoming able to freely shed tears, she still wore the charms.

He couldn't bring them to the surface. Not yet. It felt too much like bringing up what had to remain buried in order for those above to live happy lives of routine. Five life-sized reminders of those lost in the tragedies of the past would serve no positive purpose. Only to Aeleus, who found solace in recreating the lost, coming to terms with their absence by pouring all his memories of them into his artwork.

Though he'd built more than them. He also sculpted those still living. An Ansem statue took up residence in the gallery as well. Two hefty stone chunks were earmarked to become a Kairi and an Ienzo. Even was hidden in the crowd, turned to face the wall; Aeleus couldn't look him in the eye, but still wanted a reminder close by, even if it was of a falsehood.

There was only one statue he had ever destroyed, and he kept her remnants, because looking at the shattered form brought him an altogether different sort of peace. Lightning Farron had gotten away with her kills, no one ever hearing from her again. Perhaps she was dead. Or perhaps she wasn't. Either way, Aeleus hadn't been able to do his duty and protect his queen and princess from her.

But he had been able to recreate her in stone, down to the last detail, and shatter her in one blow.

The carefully sculpted fragments were piled in the far corner. A reminder that he'd gotten the last word against the murderer who'd taken so much from this home. But sometimes, he caught her unblinking marble eye in the rubble, and though it was a recreation, he felt a shiver run through him, warning him of some unnamed doom.

Yet he couldn't bring himself to throw her out. A reminder, he told himself. Vengeance exacted.

It sounded better than saying he was afraid of what she might do to him if he disposed of her permanently.

...

" – dunno what the whole hullabaloo is about haggis," Duff Killigan was telling Monty Fisk as they strolled down the hall together. "Is just a more unconventional meat. I find it delicious."

"You know, I've never tried?" Monty replied. "But it can't be any worse than sake toro. Ah, how the hoi polloi decry our native dishes based on their biases and easily-turned stomachs."

"…Yer British, man," Duff reminded him. "Yer closer ta haggis than – whatever raw fish thing ye just said."

"Now, hold on." Monty put up a flexible hand. "Speaking of animal innards, do tell me I'm not the ONLY one seeing this."

"Seein' wha – " Duff's jaw dropped.

They stood in the last bit of ordinary hallway. Ahead, the tile and wall seemed to give over to something a lot juicier. It pulsed like a sphincter, extending on, the same size as the hall before, but with the distinct sense that it led nowhere good.

"Are we lost?" Duff scratched his head. "Cannae remember THIS part o' the ship. An' trust me, I woulda."

"How peculiar," Monty remarked. "I'm certain I've come this way before, and it didn't look like this."

"Didnae Mozenrath hire some sorta giant cannibal? Ye think this is her mouth?"

"She isn't THAT large," Monty replied, rolling his eyes, "and furthermore, she's under contract not to devour teammates so long as said teammates don't make a mockery of her. Which you are dangerously close to doing."

"An' yer gonna keep yer yap shut abou' it!"

"I suppose I am." Monty thought it over. "It seems to integrate seamlessly into the hallway. That goes against the idea that some sort of creature from the abyss has latched onto our home base. By all logic, it shouldn't be anything dangerous."

"Well, I'm not about ta find out the hard way!" Duff told him. "I ain't takin' this – "

He whirled around; "AW, NO!"

"Oh, what NOW – " Monty turned as well, and gasped.

Now there was a pulsating fleshy tunnel the way they had come from, too, leaving them with the same choice both ways.

"…Curiouser and curiouser," Monty muttered, trying not to show his distinct apprehension. "Well, I suppose if we are cursed whether we do or don't, we may as well resume our original course."

"I don' like this," Duff told him. "Not a bit."

"Well, you're wearing the Centurion Project, aren't you?"

Duff raised an arm. The silver was slowly creeping up it, reacting to his mounting adrenaline. But he immediately stuffed that arm behind his back; "Won't do me no good when I ain't scared o' no hallway, o'course."

"Of course."

"An' I ain't scared o' no hallway!"

"Then by all means." Monty gestured down the tunnel. "After you."

Duff swallowed hard, then set out. After a pause, Monty followed, not without a glance back over his shoulder.

"It ain't so bad," Duff remarked once they'd squelched partway into the passage of disgust. "Per'aps it's just some ill-thought-out redecoratin'."

"Knowing our hosts," Monty sighed, "this sort of redecoration would be completely thought out."

Then Monty was seized roughly by the golfer's thick arms; something had startled him. "DID YE SEE THAT?" Duff cried. "SOMETHIN' MOVED!"

"The entire tunnel is moving," Monty replied, rolling his eyes.

"No' that. Somethin' else!"

"Killigan, I am getting quite tired of – "

He yelped. Now he knew what had caused Duff distress. Because there was a very large centipede traveling along the side of the tunnel.

And suddenly, there were hundreds of them, writhing their way through the tunnel – and was it getting smaller?

"This is – some sort of trickery," Monty said shakily, an arm subconsciously wrapping around Duff's shoulders as they advanced together. "An illusion, or a spell, or – "

With a loud squelch, several lesions opened up in the tunnel. Centipedes crawled into some and out of more.

The Centurion Project immediately activated in full, covering Duff in silver armor. "Is nae funny anymore!" the golfer screeched.

"Well, you now have every weapon at your disposal!" Monty cried. "DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!"

Duff relinquished the kung fu master, pointing his wristlets at a slowly building mass ahead. Something between shadow and ooze. It rose and rose before them, towering over them, filling the hall.

Two red eyes opened up at its zenith.

"Are you afraid?" it asked in a deep, distorted voice.

"NO' ONE BIT!" Duff yelled.

"Too bad," the oozing shadow replied. "You should be."

Teeth, now. Needle-sharp fangs, immense, perforating through the tunnel's flesh to close in on all sides.

Duff turned his weapons on the encroaching teeth, firing rapidly, but they seemed impervious; all of his attacks simply sank into them, absorbed. The ones he'd hit were now glowing ominously.

"If I were you," the oozing shadow said, "I would run."

"Or what?" Monty challenged.

"Or else meet your DESTINY," the shadow seethed.

And a rain of blood trickled down the uppermost teeth, dripping down onto Monty and Duff.

That was the tipping point. They turned and bolted back down the way they'd come, screaming all the way.

The shadow watched them retreat. Then, once they were out of sight, he began to laugh. And was joined by a higher-pitched shriek.

The shadow collapsed, revealing inside the forms of Destiny and Mim. And as they let that part of the illusion drop, the rest that Destiny had conjured, hallucinations that had targeted Monty and Duff's fragile minds, simply melted away. There had never been any blood, fangs, lesions, centipedes, or even flesh walls. It was just an ordinary hallway. One that now sported some pockmarks from the Centurion Project's hits, which of course would do nothing against a vision all in one's head.

"Oh, how WONDERFUL!" Mim cackled. "You have such a devious brain, filled with such glorious nightmares!"

"It comes from watching so many of the classics in horror," Destiny revealed. "Penny worried I was demented for loving them. I guess in the end, she was right."

"Forget about her," Mim encouraged, noting the wistfulness in his voice. "She dumped you for taking up crime, right?"

"Yes."

"Hardly a real woman." Mim folded her arms. "Now, a REAL romance is between two or more people willing to cause atrocities together!"

"And what about a friendship?" Destiny asked.

"Yes, yes, that too," Mim said, waving it off.

"I'd like to think this brought us closer as friends," Destiny told her.

"I just KNEW you'd be all sorts of fun!" Mim chuckled.

"Shall we scare another?" Destiny suggested.

"Oh, of course! I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing!"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" a melodramatic voice practically bawled from behind. "AFTER ALL THE GOOD TIMES WE SHARED CONSTRUCTING THE TORTURE COURSE, OUR FRIENDSHIP MEANS NOTHING TO YOU?"

Mim rolled her eyes, turning to see Discord blowing his nose loudly into a lace handkerchief. "I haven't forgotten about you, you know," she grunted. "But it can't be about you all the time! It's got to be about ME all the time, you see!"

"Another friend?" Destiny asked. "Or a lover?"

"Oh, we're just friends," Discord said, immediately snapping out of his crocodile tears and making the handkerchief disappear. "Just the sort of friends where I couldn't imagine one of us bending reality to scare people WITHOUT INVITING THE OTHER."

"Fine, fine," Mim huffed. "Destiny, this is Discord. Discord, this is Dr. Destiny."

"Discord and Destiny," Destiny repeated. "I do like that…"

"Pleased to meet you!" Discord put out his claw, which Destiny shook. "Already a fan of your work, I must say. You know, I never did have much of a mind for the horror bent. MOST Eldritch beings of my generation tended to lean more toward gruesome and frightening, but, mmmm, I don't know, they just could never capture it the way you did. Maybe because it takes a mortal to scare a mortal? Anyway, I just threw out all pretense and put my efforts toward having FUN. Which it looks like you're doing WHILE scaring!" He hadn't stopped shaking Destiny's hand the whole time.

"How old are you?" Destiny asked, suddenly wary of the creature before him.

"How rude!" Discord let go of his hand abruptly. "Haven't you heard NEVER to ask a cosmic entity their age? Let's just put it in the books that I'm not a day over two thousand."

"Two…th…" Destiny gaped. "That puts you on the scale of Icthultu."

"Icthultu?" Discord had to think on that one. "Oh, THAT one. You're not pronouncing it right, you know, but Deep One accents aren't easy to reproduce in human tongue. In any case, he's a bore, he's not creative, and he never prepared for BOATS. You're much better off running with me. If I get hit by a boat, I just explode into confetti!"

"I'm not sure I want to work with you if you won't be frightening," Destiny admitted.

"Oh." Discord pouted. "Too bad. And here I was looking forward to – "

Lightning flashed, and his face had morphed into a macabre adaptation of what it had been previously: razor-sharp teeth and scales, far too many eyes with hellfire irises, horns that branched like dead trees.

When Discord saw Destiny flinched, he reverted to his more harmless-looking state, falling over on his back and laughing raucously.

"Very well," Destiny relented. "You're in."

"Now, wait just a minute!" Mim argued. "I never said he was in!" A pause. "Discord, you're in."

"Perfect!" Discord cried. "Though it's a good thing I'm definitely here alone and no one who really enjoys scaring people is camouflaged nearby. See, the argument that you were having an outing, just the two of you, would work, but if someone knew you'd invited ME, well, you'd have to invite him too."

Mim groaned. "Where is he?"

Discord pointed to a perfectly ordinary-looking patch of wall. That was Randall's cue to show himself, leaping off the wall to stand upright before the others.

"Look," he said, "I might not be able to pull off the bells and whistles you guys can, but every haunted house needs an Invisible Monster, right? Used to work real well on twins who shared a room. 'Stop touching me!' 'I'm not doing that!' 'Then who is?' Great way to build SUSPENSE."

"You're hired," Mim stated. "Anyone else you two are hiding nearby who wants in?"

"Mmm…no," Discord replied, pretending to have thought it over as though bringing Randall wasn't a planned move from minute one.

"A pleasure to work with you all," Destiny replied. "Now, we – "

"Oh, hold on!" Discord whipped out a pair of opera glasses, peering through them. "We've got a Lady Caine approaching at twelve o'clock. What do you think?"

"She'll be tough to scare," Mim remarked.

"Good," Destiny replied. "I like a challenge."

...

Crescent Rose cut through the air; Kairi leapt over its trajectory, the soles of her boots bouncing off the hull of the weapon to propel her through the air. A well-timed Reflera allowed her to deflect two of Nora's gas bombs back to the ground as she arced over the battlefield. Kairi landed, skidded beneath Crocea Mors' blade, and rose to parry both halves of Stormflower.

When the butt of one of the green guns tapped her shoulder, she let out an "Ugh!" of dismay and dropped to her knees.

"Hey, that was way better than the first time we did a melee!" Nora tried to console her.

"I still lost," Kairi grunted, planting her blade into the ground and using it to hoist herself up. "Oh, well. Guess that just means try again, if you're all up for it."

"I believe in you, Kairi!" Sonia called to her.

"Thanks!" Kairi beamed at Sonia. "You wanna join in? You know how to fight, right?"

"Oh, no, I cannot," Sonia told her. "You see, it is true that I have learned fighting skill. I was advised to pick it up once I became a Remnant of Despair. However, we emphasized brutality in that faction, so I trained in Krav Maga. I fear that if I sparred one of you, I may accidentally kill you."

"Uh…let's not test that out," Jaune said nervously.

"If I may?" Suki stepped closer to Kairi. For the occasion, she'd dressed in the full regalia of a Kyoshi Warrior: green armor, white makeup. "I couldn't help but notice some areas of your technique that could be improved."

"You have advice?" Kairi lit up. "Let's hear it!"

"The way you use your Keyblade," Suki told her, "it doesn't seem like you're treating it like an extension of your body. That's one of the first principles of the Kyoshi Warriors. You hold it awkwardly, like it's a valuable treasure you have to protect."

"It kind of is a valuable treasure," Kairi pointed out. "These are special weapons. They're connected to the heart of everything. The fact that I can even wield one is sort of a miracle."

"The weapon can't be more important than the warrior," Suki told her. "Let me guess…you feel like it's better than you are, or that you need to respect and admire it properly in order to make it work."

"No, I – " Kairi paused to really think about it. "Actually…"

"Your blade is part of you," Suki told her. "I don't care how important or enchanted it is. You deserve it, and you need to forget about its significance when in the heat of the fight."

Kairi nodded. "Got it."

"It might be a hard habit to shake," Suki warned. "If you want, I could walk you through some of the training exercises the Kyoshi Warriors use."

"Sure!" Kairi told her.

"There's more, though," Suki went on. "The other principle of the Kyoshi Warriors is to seek the openings in your opponent's pattern. When I see you fight, I see you evade, then evade, then evade some more, then go after one person with all you have. You have to pay attention to the people you're fighting and watch for them to leave you a place to strike. Don't just focus on running away until you feel safe, then attack without thinking."

"Gonna be kinda hard to watch four people at once," Kairi realized.

"Then halve your melees," Suki told her. "Two at a time."

"Anything else?" Kairi asked.

"Well," Suki replied, "this isn't a hard and fast principle, but I couldn't help but notice how you deflected Nora's ammunition. It was done well…but if you could have aimed it back at one of your opponents, you'd have less to worry about."

"Oh!" Kairi realized. "I didn't even think of that! Okay, are we done?"

"That's all," Suki replied.

"Soooooo," Ruby piped up, "would these particular training exercises work on a scythe, too?"

"I guess it's still hard to think of my sword as part of me," Jaune admitted. "It's my family's sword. I'm not sure I deserve it, either. Maybe that has to change."

"Look," Nora added, "I'm not saying I just whack things without thinking. I am saying training for openings might refine what I do."

"No knowledge ever goes wasted," Ren added. "Mind if we join?"

"Not at all!" Suki smiled. "Oh, and Sonia?"

"Yes?" Sonia answered.

"I have some ideas for how you could soften your own technique," Suki revealed. "Take you from an assassin back down to a warrior."

"That would be wonderful!" Sonia's eyes sparkled.

"Okay," Suki stated, "we're going to start without weapons, first. Put them aside and line up."

Once she had all six of her new apprentices before her, Suki took a moment to realize that she actually had apprentices. Now she, like Zuko and Aang, bore a great responsibility, passing on her teachings to those who fought a grander war. And she wasn't sure she was up to the task. After all, she was just as young as they were.

Well, they were muddling along, weren't they? So could she.

"Now copy my movements," Suki ordered, and the lesson began.

...

"Finally!" Mozenrath said to himself as he scrawled on a parchment. "Time to work without interruption! I can pull together all the threads of the upcoming invasion and figure out the most expedient way to streamline what we have left to do!"

He reached out to pull another parchment into his reach without really thinking about it. Only when his eyes settled upon it did he realize what he had in his hand: a memo.

"To: Mozenrath From: Yzma Re: The State of the Collection of the Gemstones of the Corona Aurora, Which Will Grant Zevon Ultimate Power Over All"

The body of the memo simply read "Got one!"

"I'm not even going to comment on this one," Mozenrath sighed as he made to file the memo away – then lingered.

"Actually…the Corona Aurora. Perhaps I haven't been paying as much attention to that endeavor as I – "

His train of thought was broken completely when the locked doors were busted down by Snipe driving through them on a motorcycle, waving his mace wildly.

"WHAT?" Mozenrath screamed.

Alex wasn't far behind on a second motorcycle, having picked up a less formal Cyclonian Talon-issue bludgeon that he was swinging wildly.

"WHY?" Mozenrath yelled.

The two men zoomed round and round his desk, their vehicles making an awfully cacophonous symphony of growls and tire-screeches as they spewed the stench of exhaust. The motion of the two bikes circling the area kicked up a little vortex that disheveled the parchments on Mozenrath's desk; he only just thought to hold onto the memo a little tighter so he didn't forget what he had been thinking about. A thing he couldn't currently recall because there was a pair of brutes driving incredibly loud motorcycles around his desk and trying to kill each other while doing so.

"NO ONE BESTS ME AT MOTO-JOUSTING!" Snipe screamed, swinging the mace at Alex (which involved reaching over Mozenrath's desk and Mozenrath having to duck so he wouldn't be instantly decapitated).

"YEAH, 'TILL TODAY!" Alex jeered back, parrying the mace with his own club. The two crystal-powered weapons reacted at the meeting point, spawning a shockwave that blasted through the entire study.

Mistoffelees was hiding under the desk, a nervous, quivering ball of fluff. The coffee machine was upended, spilling dark liquid all over Mozenrath's meticulously organized chaos.

"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE," Mozenrath roared, "BEFORE I MAKE YOU – "

And just as soon as they'd come, the two men had driven away to continue their fight elsewhere – though not on Mozenrath's account. Mozenrath was highly certain they didn't even know he'd been there.

The office was left in shambles. Parchment sheets were scattered over the floor, many of them crumpled, torn, or otherwise illegible thanks to the tires of the bikes. Coffee continued to seep over the desk. One of the doors fell off its hinges completely.

All Mozenrath could do for a good fifteen minutes was stand there in silence, gaping.

...

Zuko gently sipped hot tea at a tea table that had been stored away in a lounge almost hidden, as though to disguise some sordid history that had taken place at it.

(Not sordid. A romance. A young blond scientist-to-be. The redheaded princess who held his heart in her hand. The table was hidden because Kairi was living proof neither would be returning anytime soon, though for one of them, it was actually possible to.)

It was good tea. He wondered, briefly, what Iroh would think of it. Iroh…Zuko should bring him here. He'd like the place a lot. Especially since they served good tea. But it wasn't Iroh who was primarily on the Fire Lord's mind. In fact, he'd sent Aang on his merry way in order to angst over something he was sure the Avatar couldn't understand, no, not even the Avatar.

"AUGH!" Zuko cried, not taking note of the five figures passing by the door to the lounge. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THIS BY MYSELF?"

He only became aware of the many sets of footsteps when they all stopped.

"Where'd that come from?" someone asked.

"I think it was through this wall," someone else said. "Lemme check." There was a rap – not on the door but on the wall adjacent. "Everyone decent in there?"

"Physically, yes," Zuko groaned.

He fell right backward out of the chair screaming, tea hitting the floor, as a blue woman in modified armor stepped right through the wall as though it weren't there.

"Oh – " Mira flinched. "Yeah, I could've warned you about that a little better. Sorry. Oh, hey!" She rushed to the door, flinging it open. "Guys, there's a door here!"

"Wow!" Rapunzel was the first to reach the door from the other side. "I didn't even notice! It's like this place was hidden!"

She filed in, followed by Moana, Jasmine, and Naminé. "This is adorable!" Moana cried, looking around at the cream-colored walls.

"But a little blank," Jasmine said rather suggestively.

Naminé grinned, holding up the wicker basket that contained their art supplies. "Should we put it on our to-do list?"

Mira put out a hand to Zuko. "Sorry about…uh…all that."

"It's okay." Zuko took Mira's hand, letting her help him up. "There are some things I'm still getting used to around here, that's all. I'm sorry if I was rude."

"No offense," Moana brought up, "but what were you doing in here all alone?"

"In my experience," Naminé added, "sealing yourself up in a small room all alone is sometimes a sign that you need to be in a larger room with someone else."

Zuko gave a sigh. "It's just…I'm not sure you'd get it. It's royal stuff."

He flinched when all five burst into titters.

"Okay, you're gonna laugh," Mira replied.

"You couldn't have picked five better people to talk to about 'royal stuff,'" Jasmine clarified.

"We're the Princesses with Paintbrushes!" Rapunzel proclaimed proudly, throwing up her hands into the air. "Royals and royal-adjacents who put a little more color into everyone's lives with public artwork!"

"We were gonna invite Kairi and Twilight," Moana remarked, "but we accidentally scheduled overlapping with Kairi's spar time, and Twilight just won't leave that computer."

"You think she's…y'know…INTO Ienzo?" Mira asked. "'Cause I'm gettin' vibes."

"Well, I mean…" Rapunzel searched for the words. "She's kind of a…and he's kind of a…"

"A horse and a human?" Moana supplied.

"I don't really see her as a 'horse,'" Mira replied. "She has sentience. That means under intergalactic law, she can provide consent. Believe me, a lot of people who were against Bathyosian/Raenok marriages tried to get that bill shot down hard. The Raenok government wanted to get the Bathyosians officially classified as 'fish,' the Bathyosian rebels were already calling the Raenoks 'pigs,' and you had a LOT of Romeo and Juliet cases, lemme tell – " She realized she was rambling. "Long story short, it's not weird where I'm from."

"Can we get back to the topic of Zuko?" Naminé asked gently.

Jasmine sat down at the tea table across from where Zuko had been planted. "Tell us about your 'royal problems,'" she bade him.

Zuko gingerly sat back down. "It's just…I'm the youngest Fire Lord in recorded history. My father left me a world full of unresolved tension. It just feels like there's so much on my plate, and I don't even know how to begin handling it."

"I hate to suggest this," Jasmine said, "but is coming here part of that stress? Maybe you need to tell your friends you'll visit less often – "

"NO!" Zuko cried, wide-eyed. "I mean…no. Coming here is an escape I need. It gives me a break from all that. It's going back that I don't want to do. How am I supposed to change a hundred years' worth of prejudice in my people, or make up for the genocide of an entire nation?"

"I wish I had the answer for you," Rapunzel groaned. "All I have is the memory of how hard it is to pick between saving your people from a deadly blizzard and saving them from your ex-friend who decided he hates you because you let him down in the worst way possible."

"What I know is that you have to be ready to make big decisions," Moana added. "And they might not be the decisions other people think you should take. But if you're hearing a call from a certain direction, you might have to do something big."

"How big?" Zuko asked.

"I had to sail across the whole ocean and protect the heart of my world's creator from a realm of monsters," Moana told him. "This was after my people had been essentially banned from sailing for generations."

"That's…pretty big," Zuko told her. "I've done big things too, but…different ones."

"I think you should just be careful," Naminé advised. "When you feel like the weight of the worlds is on you…you might be tempted to take advantage of other people. But…when I think back, I don't know what else I could have done. So…weigh your options, maybe?"

"Yeah, I kinda leave the royal stuff to my dad," Mira added. "Ranger work is where I shine. Not looking forward to having to take up the diplomacy mantle."

"Hmm…" Jasmine thought it all over. "I think we can all agree on one thing: it isn't easy."

This brought several murmurs of assent.

"And there's no easy solution to that," Jasmine went on. "Tough choices, taking risks, feeling alone, not being ready…it's part of being a good ruler. It doesn't just go away by magic."

"So you're telling me I just have to grin and bear it because it doesn't get easier," Zuko realized.

They tried to argue, but Moana summed up, "Yeah…pretty much."

"But I think in the end, it's worth it," Jasmine said. "Every day I spend in Agrabah, I spend trying to figure out how I can make life easier for my people. There's so much my father doesn't see from inside the palace walls. So much pain and suffering…I want to help. I want to change Agrabah for the better."

"I love every single person in Corona," Rapunzel added. "Except Monty, but we have an agreement. I want to make them all happy. I want to use what power I have to protect them. Even Monty."

"I may have gone out to the water to find myself," Moana stated, "but I never would've thought to do it if it didn't seem like it would help my village."

"Ranger work is kinda how I make sure I'm still doing my part," Mira explained. "I don't even have to take the throne for a while, but I still care about justice, so I'm helping bring justice without needing the throne."

"I'm still discovering all there is to experience in this world," Naminé related, "let alone others. It's all so beautiful to me. If I can help Kairi and Ienzo protect it in any way, I will. Because I love the blue skies, I love the flowers in the earth, and I love my friends."

"And how do you feel about the people of your nation?" Jasmine asked Zuko.

"Like they…deserve better than what they had under my father's rule," Zuko realized. "Like they need fun, and education about what's going on in the world, and honesty in their systems, and equity for the people who got hurt by our military. It's just that I can't do that all at once."

"Then just do what you can," Jasmine told him. "Being a leader will hurt, and it will be tiring. But it's all worth it for the people you lead, in the end. And if you ask me, I think you already have the makings of a great lord."

Zuko found himself smiling warmly. "Thank you," he said. "It…means a lot."

"We're here to help!" Moana told him. "And also to dress up any walls that need painting."

"Well…um…" Zuko cleared his throat. "I still have a few minutes before I'm due back at the crossing point between our worlds. If you were thinking of painting this room…could I maybe…help out?"

"YES!" Rapunzel shrieked. "Our first Paintbrush Prince! Of COURSE you can help out!"

"What color do you like?" Naminé asked, rooting around in the basket.

"I'm used to working in red," Zuko admitted, "but I'd also like to try some other colors out, too."

"Then let's get to work," Jasmine resolved.

...

Row upon row of books lined the new sub-basement of the Forbidden Mountain: an austere space, without much frivolity, but only because it had been required to exist within such a short timeframe.

"All the knowledge of the Spirit World, at our fingertips." Loki brushed against the spines with said fingertips. "And surely a way to best Odin and his ilk."

"If only it didn't involve so much dreadful reading," Cruella de Vil sighed. "Such a bore."

"I quite disagree," Loki told her. "After all, any text is a form of information, and few things are so interesting as information in the raw."

"I'll tell you what's more interesting than that," Cruella asserted. "Design! Color! Form! The things that draw the eye! Information is only as useful as the situation that calls for it; flair is immortal!"

"Perhaps don't correct an actual immortal as to what is and isn't immortal," Loki grunted.

"GRIMMIE, DARLING!" Cruella cried, spotting the two they'd been waiting for approaching down the bookshelf hallway. She hurried to Grimhilde, who once more wore the face of the queen, and threw her arms around the other woman, pressing up against her affectionately so that Grimhilde flushed quite visibly. "How was your little beach vacation? Oh, do tell me you're inviting me on the next one!"

"I should hardly refer to it as a pleasure outing," Grimhilde responded. "That said, it went better in some respects than in others."

"With Gothel's immortality assured," Doom said, "we were able to win her loyalty, meaning we could finally reunite her with our new guest. Apparently, he hails from her world and plays no small part in her past. Between the two of them, we will finally have leads to answers about the Sundrop and Moonstone. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of the gem of the Corona Aurora. Flurious, surprisingly, took it in stride and declared that he was not angry over the loss."

"Not ten minutes after our return did we sight him, quite displeased, chasing after the goblins with his divine blade," Grimhilde sighed. "His words were but lies. I would expect his rage to boil for some time yet."

"But if I know my dear Victor," Loki said with a smirk, "he would not leave lest he considered himself the victor. Clearly, the Corona Aurora was never as important to you as the Sundrop."

"More importantly, the Moonstone," Doom replied. "I have heard of its destructive properties. Time will tell if fusing it with the Sundrop will yield a weapon of immense power…or a useless trinket, its capacity to destroy mitigated by its capacity to heal. These are the questions that Gothel and Lauriam will find the answers to for us."

"All in all," Grimhilde said with a smile, "I would indeed call it a success."

"WELL, GOOD FOR YOU!"

Ursula was slithering toward the group, practically steaming with anger. "While YOU got to go on your little beach party," she seethed, "I had to deal with the bottom of the barrel! Joker may have proven his worth and his team chemistry, but I'm not taking any missions with him again! That's to say nothing of Zurg and Scar, the pair of divas…but at least that Ozai was finally obliterated for good! If only we could've just skipped the formalities and destroyed him sooner!"

"Oh, but didn't you get a wonderfully luxurious vacation home out of the deal?" Cruella reminded her.

"The Earth Kingdom's palace is quite luxurious," Ursula replied. "Especially with THE REVOLTING MOBS TRYING TO BREAK DOWN THE DOOR AND ESTABLISH A SYSTEM OF ANARCHY IN ITS PLACE!"

"Revolting as in throwing a revolution or disgusting?" Cruella asked.

"BOTH!" Ursula screamed. "Who would've thought that little WORM Archibald Snatcher could've set off such a riptide! When I get my tentacles on him, he's yesterday's sushi!"

"Ah, fear not, Ursula," Loki said calmly. "There are always methods of subjugating the commoners. After all, you are the boot, and they but the ants."

"…That is true," Ursula realized. "And if you knew what kind of a ruckus boots caused where I came from, well, you'd understand why that analogy has special meaning to me."

"I could lend my own silver tongue to counter the Snatcher peasant's," Loki offered. He then chuckled; "The prince had been referring to him by the term, and I must say I like it. Give me an audience with your…earthly problems, and I'll have the matter settled shortly."

"That STILL doesn't make up for the fact that I had to waste my time babysitting GUPPIES in the body of fully-grown men!" Ursula growled.

"For what it may be worth…" Grimhilde produced a box she had been storing away via magical safekeeping. "These treats that Flurious declared are blessed by divinity do improve the mood considerably. I believe they balance the humours."

"What is left is maple twists," Doom added.

Ursula stole a glance into the Big Donut box. Then she stole a donut from it as well. After a bite, she declared, "Well, I am somewhat less angry now. But only somewhat."

"Then do join us in a merry mission to scour these tomes from the Quintessence Wing for key knowledge," Loki bade her.

"The more people do the reading," Cruella added, "the less of it I'm stuck doing!"

"All right," Ursula relented, "but only because you're the actual cool heads around here!"

"Let us first divide the library into even fifths and start at opposite points," Doom suggested. "We will work our way toward the center."

"Always the efficient one," Loki muttered to himself, a little smile playing at his lips.

...

Ventus was in turmoil.

He'd forgotten. How much he wasn't supposed to have survived. How much he'd flagrantly endangered everyone else by living.

Was it okay now? Was it truly? Xehanort was still rampant if in hiding. Vanitas was now known to be buried within Sora. All of these things, he could've stopped, if only he had sacrificed himself.

Maybe he could've saved Terra. Traded his life. He would do it in a heartbeat. Why had he made it about him, when he'd come upon Aqua and Terra in the Graveyard? No…why didn't he fight back, when Terra pushed him away from Eraqus? Why didn't he struggle harder to ensure Eraqus' mission went through?

He should've died that day.

An emptiness crawled up through Ven. He should've died. A waste of space, a harbinger of chaos, the reason for so many problems. The worlds would be better without him in them. And the memory of his master, his father, would be better honored.

Maybe he should just –

But Papyrus' begging and pleading entered his mind before the sentence was finished. And somehow, Ven knew, between the two desires playing tug-of-war with his heart, which he had to give in to.

A quick dial on his GummiPhone. The face of a grinning skull filled the screen; "VEN! HELLO! WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THIS LOVELY CALL?"

"Papyrus." Ven's voice was trembling. "I…I'm thinking about what happened at the factory. About what you told me. There's so much you don't know, and…and I'm starting to feel like everything would be better off without me. I know you wouldn't – "

There was a loud, insistent knock at his door. By the time Ven had looked up to it and back, the connection had dropped on the phone in his hand.

"VEN!" Papyrus yelled from the other side of the door. "OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!"

Ven didn't waste any time in doing so. "Were you already by my room when I called," he began, "or – "

He was stopped when Papyrus swept him into a tight, desperate hug. "VEN, IT'S GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT," the skeleton urged, voice cracking. "WHATEVER MADE YOU THINK THAT WAY…I'M GOING TO STAY WITH YOU AND BE THE MOST SUPPORTIVE FRIEND I CAN BE UNTIL YOU DON'T THINK THAT WAY ANYMORE. BECAUSE I KNOW I WOULD BE INCREDIBLY WORSE OFF IF YOU WERE GONE!"

Gingerly, Ven hugged him back. He didn't know if he believed those words. But he did enjoy hearing them enough that he said, quite softly, "You can come inside if you want."

The door was shut; the two sat on Ven's bed, cross-legged.

"WHY?" Papyrus asked. "WHAT DON'T I KNOW?"

"Because I'm the reason so much tragedy happened," Ven explained. "Aqua being lost in the Realm of Darkness, Terra – and the worlds being in danger from Xehanort. And now Vanitas inside of Sora. It's all because of me."

"DON'T BE SILLY, VEN! THERE'S NO WAY ONE HUMAN COULD CAUSE SO MUCH TROUBLE!"

"But there is," Ven said somberly. "I…I was half of a weapon. The x-blade. If Vanitas and I fought, then all the worlds would…" His hands were shaking. "Would come to an end."

"HMM," Papyrus mused. "THAT SEEMS LIKE AN AWFUL LOT TO HAPPEN JUST FROM TWO PEOPLE FIGHTING."

"I'm pure Light," Ven explained. "The kind that hasn't been seen since the Princesses of Heart. Vanitas was made out of my deepest Darkness. We're the only souls I know of that are like this. Xehanort used an ancient and forbidden magic to tear us apart and make us into separate people, and that was after he…after he…"

"VEN. NORMALLY I RESPECT PEOPLE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO TOUCH SUBJECTS THAT ARE…TOUCHY, BUT GIVEN WHAT YOU TOLD ME, I THINK YOU NEED TO TELL ME ALL OF IT."

"I was Xehanort's apprentice first," Ven revealed. "He was training me for the purpose of ending the worlds. But I wasn't strong enough for him. I've never been…strong. When Xehanort realized I was unfit, he made Vanitas using the old magic. When he did that, he took out the parts of me that actually were competent, and he left behind…all this." He gestured to himself.

"BUT ALL OF THAT IS WONDERFUL!" Papyrus protested. "YOU'RE A KIND FRIEND WHO ALWAYS PUTS HIS BEST FOOT FORWARD! I'VE HEARD WHAT STITCH SAYS ABOUT YOU. HE SAYS YOU WERE A FAITHFUL FRIEND WHO EARNED HIS TRUST IMMEDIATELY AT A TIME WHEN HE HAD DIFFICULTY SPARING TRUST! I BET THE OTHERS YOU'VE MET ON YOUR ADVENTURES WOULD AGREE! OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE DONE SO MUCH GOOD! AND WHAT ABOUT AQUA? SHE FORGIVES YOU, AND SHE WOULD BE HEARTBROKEN IF YOU…IF YOU…"

"She would," Ven sighed. "But…she should know it's what he would've wanted."

"XEHANORT? WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT HE WANTS?"

"Not Xehanort." Ven's voice cracked. "Master Eraqus. He was…like our father. He worked so hard to protect me from the truth about myself, from the danger in the worlds that lay outside our home, but I didn't listen to him."

"WHY NOT?"

"I was young and so stupid!" Ven cried. "I should've figured out there was a reason he was keeping me in the dark – "

"WAIT!" Papyrus cried, throwing up both hands, palms out. "SO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOUR FATHER – "

"My master."

"YOUR MASTER DIDN'T TELL YOU ABOUT THE WHOLE WEAPON THING? AND ALSO MADE YOU CALL HIM 'MASTER' INSTEAD OF 'DAD'?"

"That part's Keyblade tradition," Ven clarified. "And of course he didn't tell me. How could he have?"

"BUT…THAT'S LYING! TO YOU! HIS SON!"

"Sometimes," Ven sighed, "when you love someone, you have to lie to them. It just happens."

"BUT WHY DO YOU THINK HE WANTS YOU DEAD?" Papyrus asked.

"Because…" Ven's heart thudded; his blood ran cold. "Papyrus, what I'm about to say is going to sound…bad. But you have to understand it was the only thing he could've done."

"ALL RIGHT…?"

Ven couldn't even face Papyrus. He turned away in order to say, "Because he was the one who ordered me dead."

"WHAT IN THE – "

"LET ME FINISH!" Ven cried, whirling back to Papyrus. "It was the only way. Xehanort was getting so close to ending everything. It was me or the rest of existence. And the master chose the rest of existence. Why shouldn't he have? We didn't have time to tell Terra…" Ven sighed. "Terra showed up and saw us fighting. He tried to protect me. I couldn't get to him. But Terra transported me to another world to keep me safe, even though that was the worst thing he could've done. And the next thing I knew…the master was dead at Terra's hands. But I KNOW he was just trying to protect me! And Xehanort tricked him! Terra isn't bad either!"

A lot of this story just stank, as far as Papyrus was concerned. He didn't doubt what Ven was saying as far as the facts went, but he had several questions. "TELL ME, VEN…WAS THERE REALLY NO OTHER WAY? COULD NO ONE HAVE THOUGHT TO MAKE PEACE WITH VANITAS? OR SEALED AWAY YOUR POWER SO YOU COULDN'T BECOME A WEAPON?"

"It was the only way." Ven's breath hitched, and all of a sudden, he was sobbing. "It was the only way; I was too dangerous – "

Papyrus' mitted hands were on his shoulders, gently pulling him close to rest against his breastplate. "I DON'T BELIEVE THAT," he stated firmly. "THERE'S ALWAYS ANOTHER WAY. ANOTHER CHANCE. SACRIFICING YOU WAS TOO HIGH OF A PRICE TO PAY."

"It was me or – "

"NO, IT WASN'T. THERE HAD TO BE ANOTHER ROUTE, ANOTHER…ENDING!" But that wasn't the only question he had, nor the biggest. Because he'd put together a piece it seemed Ven was ignoring. "I AM CURIOUS ABOUT ONE OTHER THING, THOUGH."

"Yeah…?"

"WHY DID TERRA CONTINUE TO ATTACK AFTER HE GOT YOU TO SAFETY? WOULD HE NOT HAVE ATTEMPTED TO TALK THINGS OUT WITH YOUR MASTER?"

"I don't know," Ven sobbed. "I don't know what happened. All I know is that if I would've just given in…then they both…they'd both be okay…"

"IT'S JUST…ODD, TO SAY THE LEAST," Papyrus muttered. "SEE, I BELIEVE YOU THAT TERRA WAS ACTING IN YOUR BEST INTEREST. ALL THE STORIES YOU'VE TOLD ME ABOUT HIM LINE UP. BUT IF TERRA ENDED UP KILLING ERAQUS, THAT MUST MEAN THAT ERAQUS WASN'T TOO HAPPY ABOUT HIM TRYING TO SAVE YOU, AND – "

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?" Ven suddenly flared with rage.

Papyrus knew he'd gone too far. "I WAS JUST THINKING OUT LOUD," he lied. "AND IT WENT NOWHERE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS AIMING FOR. OBVIOUSLY, XEHANORT'S TRICKERY WAS INVOLVED."

That wasn't a complete lie, actually. Xehanort was definitely complicit. But it seemed that in order for Terra to slay Eraqus, one or the other must have escalated the conflict when Ven was no longer on the board. And while he knew he had no hard evidence, only stories to go on, Papyrus still didn't like that Eraqus' solution to the problem had been to eradicate Ven rather than seek a more complex solution. Not to mention the whole matter of him not being upfront with Ven about his powers.

Papyrus could drop the subject for the night. But he wasn't about to let this go. Because he now had a lurking suspicion of what was making his beloved Ven feel as though his life were worthless, and though Papyrus didn't consider any sin truly unforgivable, that was the sort of thing that required a hefty apology and probably some community service work to make up for.

In short, Papyrus was livid.

But he kept that part hidden. "IT'S ALL OVER NOW," he reminded Ven. "IF XEHANORT WAS THAT TRICKY, THEN OF COURSE HE'S STILL AT LARGE. HE'S A VILLAIN. THEY DO THAT. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DID, HE'D STILL BE OUT THERE. DOING VILLAIN THINGS. PROBABLY WEARING A CAPE AND MONOLOGUING."

"A long coat, actually." Ven found himself, surprisingly, chuckling.

"VANITAS IS STILL AROUND BECAUSE VANITAS DESERVES TO EXIST AS MUCH AS YOU DO," Papyrus went on.

"He's pure evil," Ven reminded him.

"THAT MAY BE SO," Papyrus argued, "BUT…ERM…YOU SEE…WELL, IT DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT NOT GIVING HIM A CHANCE ANYWAY, DON'T YOU THINK? NO. OF COURSE YOU DON'T. BUT I DO. AND I THINK OTHERS WOULD AGREE. I CAN'T…NAME ANY OF THOSE OTHERS AT THE MOMENT, BUT I'M SURE THEY EXIST."

"And…Aqua…our master…?"

"…IF YOUR MASTER LOVED YOU LIKE A FATHER SHOULD," Papyrus phrased carefully, "THEN HE WOULD BE PROUD TO SEE YOU'D COME SO FAR. I KNOW AQUA ALREADY IS. SHE'S OVERJOYED THAT YOU'RE IN HER LIFE!"

"Terra…"

"CAN STILL BE SAVED. I KNOW THAT. AND WE'LL DO IT WITHOUT LOSING YOU OR AQUA." A pause. "DOES THIS…MAKE YOU FEEL ANY BETTER?"

"You've answered all my questions," Ven sniffled, "but it's…hard to just let go of the emptiness."

"DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU MAYBE SHOULDN'T BE ALONE?"

"I don't know."

"THAT'S A 'YES' TO ME," Papyrus decided. "THEN IT'S SETTLED. I WILL STAY WITH YOU FOR THE NIGHT."

"You don't have to do that," Ven replied – though not as enthusiastically as he could have. Because he now understood that he was wanted, but he really needed a constant reminder of that for at least the night.

"WELL, I WANT TO DO IT, SO THERE!" Papyrus argued. "IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE HAVING A SLUMBER PARTY! AND YOUR BED IS BIG ENOUGH – "

Ven flinched, sitting up. "You…you wanna share the bed?"

"IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG ABOUT THAT?" Papyrus asked.

"Just…" Ven bit his lip. "Is that gonna be awkward? Because…you know…sharing BEDS."

"I'M…NOT SURE WHAT YOU MEAN BY THAT."

"Really? Not how when two people share a bed, others assume they're…doing dirty things?"

It clicked. "OH. NO…NO, THAT HADN'T OCCURRED TO ME. SEE, WE SKELETONS AREN'T DESIGNED FOR DOING THOSE SORTS OF THINGS. I FORGET SOMETIMES THAT NON-SKELETONS ENJOY IT. I WOULDN'T BE…EQUIPPED, NOR WOULD ANY OTHER SKELETON FROM THE MOUNTAIN. BUT I SEE NOW THERE IS A CULTURAL TABOO HERE AND WILL RESPECT THAT. I CAN BE PERFECTLY COMFORTABLE ON THAT LITTLE COUCH OVER THERE."

Ven shifted; "Actually…if you're good, then so am I. I've never really been…interested in that stuff anyway." His face went red. "I know that probably sounds weird for a human, but the thought of it…kinda scares me. It's something I gotta get over one day."

"NOT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET OVER IT," Papyrus told him. "YOU COULD JUST BE LIKE A SKELETON AND NOT DO THOSE THINGS."

"Anyone who isn't a skeleton would want it."

"THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE OUT THERE, I DOUBT THAT'S THE CASE," Papyrus told Ven. "BUT IF ALL ELSE FAILS, YOU COULD JUST MARRY A SKELETON!"

Ven smiled. "I'll keep that in mind. But yeah…actually, staying close would kinda be…a relief. I don't want to be alone in the dark right now."

"LET ME JUST INFORM MY ROOMMATES I WON'T BE HOME TONIGHT." Papyrus tapped out a quick message on his GummiPhone. "THERE. NOW, IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME – "

He stepped into the closet and shut the door. When he reopened it, he had inexplicably changed clothes, now wearing a loose sleeveless tee and a pair of striped shorts as pajamas.

"I'll change in the bathroom," Ven said, getting up off the bed.

When he returned in a set of silky white pajamas, the two snuggled into the bed they'd decided to share, facing each other across the pillows. It felt nice, to be so close.

"DO YOU WANT TO TALK UNTIL YOU FALL ASLEEP," Papyrus asked, "OR WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE QUIET?"

"I think…quiet. Just…stay with me?"

"OF COURSE."

Ven closed his eyes and soon was able to find sleep. Papyrus battled his usual insomnia as well as a wave of jealousy that Ven had already been able to drift off. But Ven did look so adorable asleep. Like a puppy. He was, in fact, the cutest human Papyrus had ever met. And so much fun to be around. And sometimes, Ven could make Papyrus feel filled with light just by exchanging a word or two with him.

It was a special sort of friendship, the kind that Papyrus couldn't remember having felt before. Then again…was it friendship? Wait. No. Because what he had with Frisk was friendship, and when the two of them had gone on a date, Papyrus had continued to only feel friendship, but now he was pretty sure that if Ven asked him out on a date, it would actually be fun and heartwarming rather than a societal expectation to fill –

Deciding he could leave Ven asleep alone for a short jaunt, Papyrus went as fast as he could go to get back to a familiar door, meaning he ended up there in five seconds. He then began to pound furiously on the wood, screaming, "KAZUICHI KAZUICHI KAZUICHI KAZUICHI – "

"WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCK!" was the response that came from within. "GIMME A SECOND TO PUT MY GODDAMN LEG ON!"

So Papyrus did, and then gave him a few more seconds because legs weren't easy to attach (he knew from experience), and then Kazuichi pried open the door, less than amused.

"You fucking live here," he growled. "You have a key. You just texted me that you weren't gonna stay here tonight!"

"YES. WELL. THIS IS IMPORTANT."

"And why ME? Stork lives here too!"

"No, I don't," a voice lazily muttered from the background to indicate its owner wasn't getting dragged into this.

"WELL, YOU SEE…" Papyrus fiddled with his fingers. "I HAVE A RATHER URGENT EMERGENCY."

"Fiiiiine." Kazuichi shut the door behind him, stepping out into the hall beside Papyrus. "Now. What the HELL?"

"I THINK I MAY HAVE FALLEN FOR VEN," Papyrus admitted. "AS IN…IN THE ROMANTIC WAY. AND NOW I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO."

Kazuichi stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds before screaming, "WHY THE HELL DOES EVERYONE ASK ME ABOUT THIS? I AM LITERALLY THE WORST PERSON FOR RELATIONSHIP ADVICE! OH, I JUST REALIZED I HAVE A ROMANCE CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT; TIME TO GO WAKE UP THE DUMBFUCK WHO THOUGHT A LOVE POTION WAS A GOOD FUCKING IDEA!"

"I PANICKED!" Papyrus admitted.

"Out of all the HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THIS CASTLE – "

"PLEASE!" Papyrus begged. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO BECAUSE THE LAST PERSON I WENT ON A DATE WITH, I DID OUT OF OBLIGATION, AND I MADE THEM FALL IRREVERSIBLY IN LOVE WITH ME – A CONSEQUENCE I LIVE WITH TO THIS DAY! I FEEL SO GUILTY ABOUT THAT! WHAT IF I ASK VEN ON A DATE AND HE ACCEPTS OUT OF OBLIGATION, AND THEN IT TURNS OUT I'M JUST MAKING HIM UNCOMFORTABLE THE WAY FRISK MADE ME UNCOMFORTABLE, AND HE REALLY JUST WANTS TO BE FRIENDS, BUT UNLIKE ME, HE CAN'T MUSTER THE COURAGE TO SAY NO, AND I JUST END UP MAKING HIM FEEL THE GUILT THAT I LOVE HIM? …I CAN'T TELL HIM. THAT'S THE ONLY SOLUTION!"

"Oh, like HELL it is!" Kazuichi grabbed onto the collar of Papyrus' tee to pull him close. "Listen. You wanna know how this ends? Then you say something fucking NOW before you end up bottling it up for years and then doing something STUPID. If he doesn't want you, he's gonna fucking say, okay? Not everybody's like you. Ven might say no. Or he might say yes. But if he says no, then you gotta listen to that no! But if he says YES, then you gotta go for that yes! And you know why?"

"BECAUSE THIS DIRECTLY REFLECTS YOUR OWN STRUGGLE WITH SONIA NEVERMIND AND HOW SO MUCH COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF YOU'D BEEN HONEST TOWARD HER AND RESPECTED HER BOUNDARIES?"

"BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET WOKEN UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING NIGHT BY MY DUMBASS ROOMMATE WHO HAS A KEY TO OUR APARTMENT JUST FOR HIM TO SOLVE HIS OWN PROBLEM," Kazuichi screamed, "AND DO IT WRONG!"

Several tired voices yelled through the nearby apartments for the two of them to shut up, in terms of various colorfulness.

Kazuichi let go of Papyrus' collar, letting it snap back. "Do it," he seethed. "Because if you got me up this late for nothing, I will END you."

"DULY NOTED!" Papyrus beamed. "THANK YOU, KAZUICHI. YOU ARE A TRUE BLUE FRIEND!"

"Yeah, yeah." Kazuichi gave a halfhearted wave as he trudged back to his room. "Say that again tomorrow when I don't wanna punch you in the skull."

Papyrus dashed back to Ven's room just as Kazuichi realized he'd locked himself out of the apartment and hissed a soft "Fuuuuuuuck" to himself before preparing to bother Stork and everyone who lived within a ten-foot radius.

Ven was still sleeping peacefully where Papyrus had left him. Papryus let out a sigh of relief – while he knew it was unrealistic to think Ven could've taken drastic action in the time he was gone, he still couldn't help but worry. He most definitely loved Ven, because he knew he would always worry for him, even after his problems had long subsided.

Papyrus settled back onto his side of the bed, now allowing himself to admire how beautiful Ven really looked when he was asleep (as equally beautiful as he did when he was awake). He didn't even know how he was going to begin to broach this topic. But it was best saved for another time. After all, Ven had already been through so much.

Now, what he needed was peace, quiet, and a good night's sleep.