Rapunzel stared at the churning mass of Shadows that had just consumed Sora, her eyes huge and unblinking in her shock. Then with a grimace, her gaze slowly, reluctantly drifted over to her opponent. Kairi was unhurriedly stalking towards her. It was just the two of them now. Well… them and the raging whirlwind of Heartless doom, but that thing had stopped advancing on her for the moment, seemingly otherwise preoccupied with ripping Sora asunder.

Rapunzel gave herself a shake, steeling herself and puffing up her chest. Okay, she had this! She just needed a plan. Yes! She liked plans, plans were good. Okay, step one of the plan: …uh… save Sora! That's it! How she was going to pull that off? Not sure exactly, but it was a start. Alright, good! Annnnnnd step two? Hmmm… oh! Utterly trounce Kairi in a head-to-head, awe-inspiring, grisly battle to the death! …hm, not liking that whole 'death' part of step two, but ya know… she could keep workshopping that one.

Otherwise, the plan? Perfection!

Alright, let's do this!

Kairi was closing in on her from the left, so Rapunzel took off running to the right, circling around the demon tower. She wasted no time, her hair lashing out in rapid fire at the roiling mass of Shadows, slashing and swatting the little monsters away from the rest of the herd as she ran. The whole time, she kept the malevolent spire of Darkness and glowing eyes between her and Kairi. If the enemy couldn't reach her, then they couldn't kidnap her, right? Right!

"Ha! Not so tough now, are ya?" Rapunzel called out to Kairi from the other side of the tornado of pure evil as she continued to hack away at it. "You thought yourself all big and bad and so scary, especially when you had that big goon of a Stabbington brother to boss around and do all your dirty work for you, but take away your muscle and pffffft, you're nothing!" Her taunting was getting smug now. Maybe a bit too smug. But really, what was her opponent even gonna do about it? She had no way to get to her besides maybe with a Corridor of Darkness-

In a sudden blur of motion, Kairi surged forward, barreling straight through the demon tower and exploding out the other side directly in front of Rapunzel, blade swinging high over her head.

…no way to get to her besides a Corridor of Darkness or by freakin' doing that!

"Eep!" Rapunzel squeaked, barely dodging in time, the winged sword instead sinking into the ground where she'd just been standing. Rapunzel stumbled, floundering to avoid the next few strikes that were aimed at her, scrambling to hurl her hair at a tree branch and swing out of harm's way.

Crud! Crud! Crud! Now what? Now what? Now what?!

As Rapunzel's mind reeled, desperately trying to come up with her next plan of attack, she was nearly blasted out of the air by a sudden beam of golden light that rushed by, instead scarcely missing her nose by millimeters.

Where had that even come from?!

As her head whipped around looking for the source, it only took her a second to spot it: a second blinding ray bursting out of the demon tower, shooting off into the night sky. Then a third, piercing the ground. Then a fourth and fifth. They were coming more rapidly by the second, and the cracks between the writhing Heartless flared up with a dazzling radiance. Something was glowing at the core of the cyclone of Darkness, something searingly bright and pure.

The demon tower violently shuddered, rumbling and quaking as it shined more fiercely from within. Then there was a white flash so brilliant, Rapunzel had to close her eyes against it. When the light had faded, the spire of whirling monsters was gone, utterly eviscerated. In its place, wrapped in an aura gleaming as brightly as the sun itself, now stood-

"Sora!" Rapunzel laughed in relief. "You're okay!"

He smiled at her with a nod before his gaze hardened as he pointed his Keyblade at Kairi. "Now it's time to end this!" Sora dashed towards her, leaving a golden streak in his wake. Seemingly in answer to his glowing brilliance, she became wreathed in an inky miasma of shadows as her blade came up to counter his. Light and Darkness fought in a blur of motion, sending wild cascades of both good and evil energy flying in all directions.

"Punzie!" Sora shouted over her shoulder as the girl in question swung into a landing nearby, getting ready to assist once again. "Do you think you could heal her?"

That brought her up short, blinking a couple times. "Heal…?" Heal who? Wait, no. He didn't… he couldn't possibly mean… "...Kairi?! You want me to heal Kairi? Uh, Sora… not sure that's the best idea, cuz er… well, one, I don't think we've even managed to injure her in the first place and, two, she's kinda sorta, ya know… the bad guy! Even if she was hurt, wouldn't healing her be the last thing we'd want to do?!"

"Not that kind of healing!" Sora grunted back through grit teeth as he blocked a swing before counterattacking. "I'm pretty sure Darkness has swallowed Kairi's heart, and she's not in control of herself! I've seen it happen to someone else, back in Arendelle where I met Elsa and Axel. When that guy got possessed, it wasn't exactly the same as Kairi is right now but it's close, so I think something similar has happened to her!

"With the other guy, I was able to cast out the Darkness from his heart using the Keyblade, but Kairi's-" he hissed, dodgerolling narrowly out of the way of a lethal strike. "She's just too dang fast! I haven't been able to land a hit on her! But maybe… maybe your hair can also banish the Darkness inside her! So I dunno, maybe with me trying to strike with my Keyblade while you try to grab her with your hair, at least one of us will succeed and be able to help her! So do you think you can heal her?"

Rapunzel bit her bottom lip, hanging her head with a slight shake of it. "I… I don't know! I've never healed anything like that with my hair before, I'm not sure if it even can…" But then she looked at him again, squaring her shoulders with a tiny determined huff. "But I can certainly try!"

With that, the pair of them redoubled their attacks with a renewed resolve, desperate to get a strike, any strike through Kairi's seemingly impenetrable and tireless defense. But now, Rapunzel's strategy had changed. Before she'd been trying to ensnare the enemy's feet to get her to stumble or whip at the face to distract her - attacks that had been more focused, harder to land. Now she just needed to latch her hair somewhere on Kairi's body, really any old limb would do, just as long as she could hang on long enough to work her magic. Theoretically, Rapunzel's job had just been made easier, she just needed a little luck on her side.

And after a few tense seconds of a furious three-way battle, she got it! A sling of her hair managed to capture Kairi's wrist, halting her winged blade mid-slice toward Sora's head. "Yes!" Rapunzel whispered in a quiet cheer beneath her breath, before wasting no time in starting to hum. From her scalp, light began to pour out down the strands like molten gold, wending their way down the length of her hair towards her captive. Not hesitating himself and wanting to take advantage of Kairi's sword hand being entangled, Sora tried to land a stab with his Keyblade as well.

But their opponent would have none of it.

In the space of a heartbeat, Kairi had thrown up her free hand, blasting off a putrid wave of Darkness at Sora and sending him flying backwards. At the same time, she wrenched her other arm - the arm entwined in hair - towards her, pulling the mane taut. The motion yanked Rapunzel off her feet with a surprised yelp, interrupting her tune and causing the magic to fade from her locks. Kairi kept looping the hair further around her arm, slowly reeling Rapunzel in closer and closer to her even as the blonde scraped and dug her heels into the ground, trying to pull back.

Rapunzel frantically kept trying to hum again as she fought to keep her distance, but she'd barely get a single solitary note out before she'd cry out in pain again as Kairi gave another jerk of her hair, dragging her even closer. Sora was still struggling to recover from the shadow blast he'd taken to the face, trying to stand but stumbling to stay upright - aka no help from that corner any time soon. So Rapunzel turned to the only defense she had left.

Her gift for gab.

"Ooooh, why would you even want to kidnap me, huh?!" she huffed out in frustration, leaning back as she tried to anchor herself and not budge another inch. "I'm not that special! Really! I mean, sure, my hair glows and has magical healing powers… but so what?! Whose hair doesn't do that?! Now I know what you're thinking! You're thinking, 'gee Rapunzel, my hair doesn't do any of that!' But here's my question to you: have you even tried? Don't lie to me now, cuz I know you haven't! Go on, give it a go. Right now. Just… lemme go, twist your hair 'round something, whistle a chipper lil tune and give it a try! Go on, I'll wait!"

Kairi just stared at her, her black-eyed expression unreadable.

Then she gave the hair another forceful tug, eliciting another squeak from Rapunzel as she staggered forward another step.

Shoot! How had that failed her? The idea had been flawless!

Now almost within arm's reach of Kairi, Rapunzel opened her mouth once more, prepared to spew off more nonsense. But before she could, the ground beneath their feet began to quake with a low rumble. They both froze, looking down at the tremor. Then Kairi glanced back over her shoulder to discover the source a split second too late.

A stampede of Dusks suddenly slammed into her and she disappeared under the mass of Lesser Nobodies as they dogpiled on top of her. Hair finally freed, Rapunzel lurched backwards, nearly falling flat on her rear but managed to catch herself before giving a tiny whoop of delight. As she ran over to check on Sora, Kairi poked her head out of the top of the mound of Dusks weighing her down.

"Don't think I forgot about you, you little snot-nosed runt!" Larxene's voice suddenly rang out, leaving little doubt as to who was to thank for that little onslaught of Nobodies. Kairi turned her head, looking to where Larxene stood on the other side of the backyard still facing off against Elsa and Axel as she continued to shout across the way, "I told you already, Lite-Brite is my toy, not yours! So hands off! Once I finish popping Firecracker over here and putting Frosty on ice, I'm coming for you next and I'm curb-stomping your goddamn teeth in!"

Elsa paused long enough to glance back towards the others. Seemingly unfazed by Larxene's threat, Kairi knocked the pack of Dusks away with an explosion of Darkness before summoning more Heartless minions to fend the Nobodies off as she went back to focusing on her true targets. Sora had finally bounced back and was rushing to meet Kairi head on with Rapunzel not too far behind. From the looks of it, Elsa guessed they had made about as much headway against Kairi as she and Axel had against Larxene. That is to say, basically zilch. At least thankfully Larxene had stopped the raging thunderstorm by now. Maybe it had been using more of her energy than it was worth. Or perhaps she had simply forgotten to keep it up. Or possibly-

"Oh I'm so sorry, am I boring you?!"

Larxene's snarl broke Elsa out of her thoughts. She gasped, sidestepping out of the way to narrowly avoid having her face slashed open by a handful of electrified knives. Elsa blasted off a few ice bolts as she retreated back several steps, Larxene zapping them out of the air as she chased after Elsa.

"Well then I guess I'll just have to try harder to keep your focus!" The Nobody hissed, her daggers a blur of silver buzzing streaks as her ruthless attacks continued to force Elsa backwards. "Oh, I know! What if I sliced off your thumbs, powered them up like a couple of lightbulbs, and then stuck 'em into a pair of matching lamps to spruce up the foyer with, hm? Would that get your attention?!"

"I think you have some twisted tastes in home decor! I mean seriously, ick!" Axel suddenly appeared from a Corridor of Darkness for a surprise attack from above. Larxene was forced to disengage, leaping in reverse to barely avoid being turned into nothing more than a scorch mark as Axel with chakrams ablaze slammed into the ground where she'd once stood, a ring of fire erupting from beneath his feet and blasting outward all around him.

Without pause, he was immediately rushing after her and their weapons clashed into each other, superheated metal meeting supercharged metal. Larxene whooshed backwards, creating some space between them as a sinister gleam flashed in her eyes and a wicked curl tugged at her lips.

"I will break you, you pathetic little man!" she cackled, sparks enveloping her daggers as their blades became pure lightning that grew three times their original length. Then she threw them all at once, the weapons of pure energy fanning out, racing impossibly fast towards Axel. Somehow he managed to be faster, ducking out of harm's way. However as soon as those daggers struck any surface they began to ricochet around, becoming tiny thunderbolts that he had to repeatedly keep dodging.

"Hmph," he smirked, sidestepping another tiny electrified missile that whizzed past him, "two can play at that game!" Abruptly, two Corridors of Darkness burst into existence on either side of him. He flung his arms out wide, sending his chakrams flying, one into each portal. More Corridors popped up around Larxene without warning so she couldn't see where or when each new attack would come from as the scorching whirring infernos that were his chakrams shot out of them and hurtled straight for Larxene. Quick on her feet herself, she evaded the first strike with a backflip but had to stay on the move as the chakrams kept blurring in and out of portals and darting around her, trying to score a hit.

As if the battlefield weren't chaotic enough already with thunder-knives and sizzling wheels zipping about every which way, Elsa did not hesitate to add to the mayhem. Hands outstretched to point to the air above Larxene, she conjured hundreds of frozen spikes to rain down on the enemy's head. They plummeted from above, each coming in various sizes, some almost as big as Larxene and splitting the ground as they slammed down into it.

Although Larxene made it look easy the way she danced around eluding both flames and ice, a scowl was marring her face now. As she slipped out of the way of a giant glacial lance that nearly got her, ripping her black coat instead, she ground her teeth in a growl, "That's it! You'd so be grating on my goddamn nerves if I had any, Snowcone!" Her whole body transformed into a ball of lightning that sparked and zipped past Axel in the blink of an eye. Then Larxene appeared again, charging straight for Elsa, her hands flickering with angry electricity, "I think it's time you go night-night with another taser nap!"

Spine snapping straight as she sucked in a sharp breath, Elsa took a tiny step back. Oh-ho no, she was not going to let that happen again! With Larxene closing the distance fast and Elsa scrambling to come up with any way to stop her, she did the first and only thing she could think of in the split-second she had. She thrust her hands forward, freezing the ground between them into a slippery patch of ice.

Larxene snerked, "Pffft, this tired old move again?!" She stopped just short of its frosty edge, leaping into a flip over both it and Elsa as she shouted midair, "Girl, you really need to get some new material!"

"How 'bout just a new punchline?" Axel's voice abruptly called back as he appeared beside Elsa.

"Huh?" Larxene quirked an eyebrow, gaze squinting suspiciously as she landed behind them. Or rather… tried to. But in lieu of coming to a stop on something solid, her feet were instead greeted by a Corridor of Darkness flattened horizontally across the ground. "Oh, you motherf-" was all she got out before falling down the portal as both her and it vanished.

"Ha! Take that, you miserable hag!" Axel crowed in victory.

Elsa rolled her eyes, looking down and pinching the bridge of her nose as she huffed out a tiny sigh. "Okay, what exactly did that accomplish?"

"Whaddya mean, what did that accomplish? She's not here, that's what! I'd mark that down as one for the win column in my book!" Axel planted his fists on his hips and beamed.

Her eyelids drooped. "Yeah, for like three seconds, tops. Then she's just going to use another Corridor to come back and murder us. So again, what did that accomplish?"

"It was funny!"

"Maybe your future attacks should leave humor out of the equation seeing as how of the three of us participating in this fight, I'm the only one who can find things funny and I'm not feeling particularly amused at the moment!"

"Me? Not be funny?" he snorted, tossing his hands up. "May as well ask the sun not to burn so bright! You ask the impossible, woman!"

She facepalmed.

And with that, the air around them began to ominously crackle as a ring of lightning suddenly flared up to encircle them, caging them in.

"Have you ever wondered…" Larxene began as she appeared just outside of the giant sparking halo surrounding them, her voice so deathly calm now that it made one's skin crawl as she stalked around the outer edge. "...what it might feel like…" she slowly continued, stepping straight through the erratic volts to join them in the center, the lightning clinging to her almost lovingly as she crossed, sparks glowing in her eyes and arcing between her teeth as she spoke. "...to have enough electric juice to power the entire northern hemisphere pumping through your worthless, fragile little bodies? Well, today's your lucky day." She flashed a wolfish grin, raising one hand above her head, the tips of her thumb and middle finger pressed together. "Cuz you're about to find out."

Her fingers snapped.

Author's Note: Demon Tower defeated and Sora is okay - but we all knew he would be, the played-up drama is just for fun xD And the baddies are not above throwing punches at each other still, even if it has the byproduct of helping the heroes, so what? All that matters is that the OTHER bad guy keeps their dirty mitts off the prize they're both after x'D But oh noes, Team Fire and Ice are about to get the life jolted out of them - what's gonna happen next?! Tune in next time to find out!

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