Within the dark fortress where Maleficent and her allies kept council, the dark fairy watched as Ursula was slain. Hades, Cinder, and Emerald watched it keenly as well. "How foolish. To have all that power and still be defeated. Ursula was as arrogant as she was foolish." Cinder said with a derisive shake of her head. "She was pathetic. Just like Jafar. Just like Clayton. I wonder if the rest of you are any different." Cinder said, looking up at Maleficent and Hades.
"Whoa now, Cindy-poo. I think you're judging the rest of us a little prematurely. See, unlike those idiots, I'm still here." Cinder's eye twitched at the comment, followed a furious Emerald drawing her weapon, Thief's Respite, holding it furiously in front of Hades' unfazed face. "Call her that again, and I'll make you wish you weren't here." The threat made Hades smirk smugly as he retorted by saying, "Styx and stones, my chocolate chip minty friend. I think you should probably cool down a little." His attitude irritated Emerald even more than Mercury, That was an achievement in and of itself. Especially as she could hear the snicker of the metal legged man himself from around the corner.
Just she prepared to swing her weapon at the God of the Underworld, Cinder stopped her in her tracks. "Stand down, Emerald. He's not worth the aggravation." she said coolly. While Emerald was still irritated, she lowered her weapon all the same with an obedient, "Yes ma'am..." Something which Hades chuckled at, mockingly mimicking her "'Yes ma'am.'", further irritating Emerald.
"Enough." Maleficent interjected, stopping the squabbling. "They were short sighted. Blinded by the desire for power. By the darkness in their hearts. I warned Jafar about steeping oneself in darkness too long, but he sealed his own fate through that petty desire. Just like Ursula with that trident she coveted so deeply."
"Ridiculous." Cinder interjected, making Maleficent curiously raise her brow as she listened to her most enigmatic ally. "The darkness had nothing to do with their downfalls. It was the power they had, but squandered. They obtained power that was never theirs to have and and were too shortsighted to properly use it. They deserved their fates."
"Well, she here ain't exactly wrong." Hades interjected. "Trust me, in my eons of living? I've seen plenty more people fall because they got some sort of Achilles heel. I mean that's the thing, everyone's got a weakness." Hades gave a nonchalant shrug a shrug as a waft of black smoke rose in one of his hands, where a solid black box with a skull image for the lock suddenly appeared. "For Pandora, it was the box," As the box vanished, a wood carving of a miniature horse rose up from a billow of smoke in his other hand. "For the Trojans, hey, they bet on the wrong horse." Cinder crossed her arms with a raised brow, wondered where Hades was going with this. She got her answer when the flame headed man smirked at her and finished his statement. "So basically, you might want to make sure you practice what you preach though, Villain McEvildress. Cause you're as much a megalomaniac as the rest of us. So don't go repeating the mistakes of those who kicked the bucket if you don't wanna be a hypocrite. M'kay?"
Emerald was about to lose it but Cinder's deadpan expression and tone was enough for her to calm down as the woman she followed replied with a blunt tone, "I don't need you looking out for me. I can take care of myself. Worry about your own well being, you temperamental stiff."
Hade stiffened at the name Cinder called him, his face contorting with anger. His blue flames became an intense yellow and orange, and his blue skin shifted to a deep orange as he all furiously shouted, "Who are YOU calling a temperamental stiff?!"
His shift in demeanor was enough to make Emerald and even Mercury jump in surprise. Cinder however stared right back, unfazed. A moment later, Hades cleared his throat and backed down while the color of his flames returned to blue. With a more composed chuckle, he said, "Right, of course. You handle things your way and I'll handle mine. To each their own, eh?"
Mercury and Emerald lowered their aggressive stances as Hades backed off and cooled down. Though Mercury smirked and muttered under his breath, "Pfft. 'Villain McEvildress.' I gotta remember that one." "I heard that, Mercury." Emerald muttered angrily. Why of all the underlings to survive Remnants destruction did HE have to be among them?
"If there is nothing else, excuse us. We have business to attend to." Cinder stated vaguely as she turned to walk out of the council chamber with Mercury and Emerald following close behind.
Hades and Maleficent kept their gazes upon them all the while. "Those three are gonna be more trouble than all the other idiots who went and kicked the bucket, and the ones who still haven't put together. You know that, right?" he inquired the dark fairy beside him. "Perhaps. But they have been especially useful at least. Whatever other objectives they may have, whatever secrets they are keeping from us, it won't matter once we have what we seek beyond the Door." Maleficent said, running her hand upon the spherical, crystalline orb at the top of her staff. "Just don't let her catch you sayin' that. Otherwise, ya might end up eating those words, along with me just on principal. She seems like she'd get even hotter than me if someone managed to push her buttons enough." Hades warned dryly, nodding in Cinder's direction. "Oh? How uncharacteristically prudent of you." Maleficent retorted with a smirk before turning back toward the projection as it began to change. "I wonder how our dear, rambunctious boogieman is getting on." A moment later, the image changed to that of the bizarre, rotund, humanoid sack-like ally of theirs.
She had a feeling that they would soon see what his own Achilles Heel would be.
Meanwhile within the vast void of space, Sora and his friends had departed from Atlantica and were drifting through the cosmos unabated. As they went about, they gathered around to read the now thankfully dry page containing Ansem Report 3.
The shadows that crawl beneath the castle... Are they the people who lost their hearts, or incarnations of darkness? Or something entirely beyond my imagination?
All my knowledge has provided no answer. One thing I am sure of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps further study will unlock the mysteries of the heart.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of test samples. They are multiplying underground even as I write this report. They still need a name. Those who lack hearts... I will call them the Heartless.
After reading it aloud, Jaune looked to the others. "So he's the one who gave them the name of Heartless...Interesting." Sora, Donald, and Goofy rubbed their chins contemplatively.
"If he was studying them then that makes sense. I can't imagine too many people would want to get close enough to do research on something that attacks you like a hostile animal." Weiss said realistically. "They sort of did that back on Remnant though, with the Grimm." Blake pointed out. And of course, all experminte
Pyrrha was cleaning her gun and looked at the ammunition slot of it before turning to the others. "How are all of you doing with your ammunition?"
Each of the Remnant world members with weapons that used ammunition - Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Nora and Ren - looked through their weapons and answered the question.
"I'm fine."
"I have enough."
"Nothing to worry about."
"Everything's good, here."
"I'm all set."
"I still have plenty."
As she checked her own ammo reserves, Pyrrha said, "I have enough as well. Though I'm certain though that whatever world we go to next will have us run low, or even out. So I suggest after this, we return to Traverse Town to resupply ourselves." "I might wanna get us some more potions and ethers, too. I've still got about... erm... let's see, one, two... three of both left." Goofy said, turning out his astoundingly deep pockets to reveal the items in question. They definitely would have to stock up soon. "Well if all else fails, at least we have Donald and Sora's magic to heal us if necessary. It's worked well so far, right?" Nora said optimistically. "Not all of us have such power though. We can't expect Donald and Sora to keep taking care of us without exhausting their magic." Ren pointed out.
"AAAAHHHH!" Before anyone could say any more, their supply check was disrupted by Ruby suddenly shooting to her feet with a shout and darting to the cockpit window like a kid at a candy store. Everyone lurched with shock, surprise, and confusion at red caped huntress's sudden loud vocalization. "What in the world has gotten into you, Ruby!?" Weiss asked with annoyance as she scrambled to her feet with everyone else.
As they looked out the cockpit window to see what she was seeing, they saw on the horizon...another particularly bizarre looking world. This one was...a giant jack-o-lantern with a twisted, impossible seeming tower, an equally bizarre looking building with, a monstrous looking fountain spewing green liquid from its mouth, and a more...official looking building that still bore the same dark, grungy, mildly gothic aesthetic. The world seemed to have a very powerful, profoundly Halloween aesthetic.
Everyone blinked rapidly at the sight of the bizarre world they were approaching. "Well that's...an unsubtle look." Blake remarked with a blink. The look on Ruby's face however...was that of elation and joy and childish glee and excitement, and so many other synonymous words. "It's...It's a world of Halloween!" Ruby squealed out softly. Everyone else looked at Ruby with confusion, but Yang...Oh she let out a knowing sigh. "Oh boy..." she said, putting a palm to her forehead. She knew right off the bat before even knowing what they were going to be dealing with, that Ruby was going to be more excited about this particular world than any other they'd been to.
