(Within the deepest parts of the Cave)

Jafar stood within a large circular chamber with the unconscious form of Jasmine at one side and the suppressed Genie in front of him. With the lamp held in his free hand, he turned to the magical being and said demandingly, "My first wish Genie. Show me the Keyhole."

Genie frowned at his cruel master, and with a snap of his finger, the other end of the chamber broke apart to reveal a large, smooth wall in the shape of a keyhole, with the world's true Keyhole at the center of it. Jafar cheered with a wicked laugh of victory. The Keyhole was now his! "Excellent, Genie! With your power, I could rule more than just Agrabah. I could rule this entire world! Perhaps I don't need Maleficent, after all?"

Genie was more annoyed, not liking he had to use his powers for evil intent but unable to do anything about it and simply crossed his arms while muttering, "Give me a break, Master."

"Jafar, are you thinking of setting out on your own?"

Jafar jerked with shock at the familiar sound of the de-facto leader of their villainous council. Sure enough, as he looked back to the center of the room, there was Maleficent with her loyal raven Diablo perched upon her shoulder. That warning tone in her voice made Jafar concerned that he'd given himself away. But he calmed himself down, not wishing to seem suspicious...though considering everything that Maleficent heard, it was difficult to be convincing. "Ma-Maleficent! Ohohoho no, not at all. It was but a jest." he said in his attempt to assuage her.

Despite the implication of sedition from the vizier, Maleficent wasn't concerned. "Indeed. It certainly took you long enough to find the Keyhole." she commented, thinking it best to deal with his insubordinate attitude later. Business came first after all. And fortunately for Jafar, it gave him a chance to focus on something more than his blunder. "There were a few setbacks, but indeed. I found it." he said, a bit calmer than when Maleficent dropped in unexpectedly.

The mention of setbacks made it clear to Maleficent what he really meant. "Setbacks, you say?...That boy again?" Jafar nodded in response to her assumption. "He's more persistent than I expected. And the red caped huntress is just as much of a nuisance as that Cinder woman said. Worse still, she seems to have united with even more fellows from her destroyed world." Instead of feeling concerned, Maleficent smirked with intrigue. The huntress in question continued to rouse interest in her, just as Sora did. But of course, Sora was the one who was of most concern, as he had the means to lock the Keyholes and potentially damage their plans. "Why not explain the situation to that boy, Riku?" Jafar suggested. "Doing so may actually prove useful to our-"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" The shout from Ruby caught the vizier's attention, as well as Maleficent's. Those meddling fools had caught up with him! Jafar's face contorted with displeasure, while Maleficent seemed hardly concerned by the intrusion of their persistent foe. As the group skidded to a halt, they readied themselves for a fight. Sora however looked up at the horned witch, not remembering seeing her when they first encountered Jafar. "Wait a second. Are you Maleficent?"

The horned witch said nothing however, and without a moment's pause...suddenly vanished from sight. "Hey!" Ruby yelled out futilely. Now they were left with only the wicked vizier who had the unconscious body of Agrabah's princess at his side.

"Jafar, let Jasmine go!" Aladdin demanded furiously. His demand amused Jafar who knew that Aladdin was in no place to demand anything. HE held the power here, and could easily deal with these interlopers without Maleficent's aid.

"Not a chance," Jafar replied, bored by Aladdin's behavior as he looked down at the prone form of the unconscious royal. "You see she's a princess. One of seven who somehow hold the key to opening the door."

His vague statement caught everyone's attention. Goofy and Donald respectively repeated his words, the most curious of them all. It sounded like he knew about more than just this world, like they all did.

"Open..."
"The door?"

"What 'door' are you talking about?" Pyrrha asked, as her ginger haired teammate growled with a greater desire than before to smash the vizier's face in.

A little haughty, Jafar took out the lamp. "It doesn't matter if I tell you. You fools won't live to see what lies beyond it. Genie! My second wish. Crush them!" Everyone was surprised and looked to Genie with dread. He wasn't actually going to do it, was he? Weiss, Pyrrha, and Aladdin respectively cried out to try and stop Genie from following Jafar's orders.

"That's a stupid wish!"
"Don't listen to him!"
"Genie, no!"

Guilt surged through Genie as he looked up at his new friends. He couldn't defy his master, no matter how much he liked Aladdin and his friends. "Sorry Al. The one with the lamp calls the shots. I don't have a choice." he said apologetically.

"But you told us Genie's can't kill anyone! Remember?!" Ruby exclaimed, trying to reason with Genie. He wasn't going to defy one of his three important rules, was he.

The big blue man turned to her with a look of grim sorrow as he said, "You'd be surprised to see what you can live through." A statement that only added further terror to every one of Jafar's enemies.

"I see," Jafar said with an annoyed twitch of his brow. It seemed that the best he could hope for was Genie attacking and keeping them busy "Then I suppose it falls to me to ensure you all perish." he said as he raised the cobra headed scepter in his hand, its eyes glowing with malignant magic.

Jafar made the first move, chanting some kind of incantation of, "Jabba Kabudabra." before thrusting his cobra scepter out toward Sora. The Keyblade wielding boy yelled out in pain as he was struck in the chest by a beam of malignant magics. "Sora!" Everyone else yelled out. "That's gotta hurt!" Jafar taunted mockingly, continuing his assault upon the boy. Goofy glared and intervened, diving in front of the beam with his shield raised, blocking against it as best as he could. Whether Goofy could hold out or not wasn't clear, but they needed to act. "Get Jafar! I'll help Sora!" Donald yelled to everyone else, channeling a Cure spell through his staff.

"Let's get him!" Nora yelled out, swinging her hammer. "Way ahead of ya, Nora!" Yang shouted in agreement, pounding her fists together. As the two hot blooded women charged forward, Jafar smirked and suddenly, transformed into a small, purple whips that whisked out of their reach as fist and hammer struck the platform where he once was. "What the-" "Huh?!" Their moment of confusion was met with a warning cry of, "He's over there!" from Jaune who pointed to the wisp formed Jafar hovering over to the platform to the left of where they came from.

Ruby and Blake rushed toward his position, but Jafar wasn't going to be caught out so easily. Seeing them run at him as the instant they tried to swing at him, he ran his free hand over the head of his scepter, which ignited in a coat of flames. "Take that!" He darted forward, avoiding Blake's strike as he swung at Ruby, knocking her back before Crescent Rose could connect. Thankfully, her Aura protected her from the worst of it, but she had to admit that for a guy as spindly as he was, Jafar was no pushover. As Weiss, Ren, Pyrrha, Jaune, Yang, and Nora tried to gang up on him. Smirking, Jafar ran his hand along his scepter, chanting "Arahm, Kazabudabas." As the hunters converged upon him, he surprised them by lifting his staff, knocking them back with a shockwave of pure magic.

Seeing how Genie was going after Sora, Jaune got an idea in his head. If Sora could somehow get to Jafar while he was distracted with the others... "Pyrrha, back me up!" Jaune yelled to his partner. The red haired huntress turned just in time to see Jaune nod toward Genie. Realizing what he was getting at, she nodded, and both of the shield bearing hunters ran to cut off the chase. "Hey, Genie! You wanna pick on someone, come and get us!"

Genie however was so much more focused on Sora that he barely had time to react before his compulsion brought about by Jafar's second wish took him over. "Aaaah! Watch out!" he yelled out, shielding his eyes as his fist swing at them against his will. The strike hit Jaune, his shield absorbing the worst of it, but he was knocked prone. Pyrrha barely had time to express her concern for Jaune before Genie regretfully turned to her, eyes still shielded as he wound his fist up to smack her. "Oh please, oh please, let me miss!" Pyrrha managed to duck under the punch just enough, but the pair could only keep this up against Genie for so long.

The air immediately became colder as wind somehow started swirling around in the chamber. Everyone tried to keep themselves standing as their vision was blurred from the snowy dust flying around them. Jaune, Aladdin and Yang were hit by massive chunks of ice, groaning in pain from the impact. It stopped though everyone was disoriented. "Let's wrap this up, shall we?" With a wave of his staff, Blake saw materialized straps of white cloth fly around and encase her from ankle to shoulder and toppled over.

"Get the point?" Jafar said with a laugh as he waved his staff again. Scimitars emerged above Blake as she gasped, noticing them aimed above her then fall. At the last moment, Ruby rushed in and grabbed her before the blades sunk into the ground. Ren came over, using his sickles to carefully cut Blake free as Jafar made another 'joke' with his words. "I'm just getting warmed up." As before, his sceptor was covered in flames. An incredibly sinister smile creased his face as he laughed in malicious joy.

"...Excuse you?" Before any of the group facing Jafar could say anything about his terrible jokes, a furious, trembling voice drew Jafar's attention. It belonged to Yang who was currently trembling with and surging with a familiar, burning aura. Not because her hair was damaged, but..."Puns are MY thing!" she shouted, bursting with energy as she darted up to Jafar with blinding speed. Jafar barely had time to raise his staff to intercept her first strike, but being the master pugilist she was, Yang immediately followed it up by kicking him in the gut, practically making his eyes bug out. As Yang began beating Jafar into submission, Sora skidded to a halt, taken by surprise by how fiercely Ruby's sister was going ham on Jafar. Ruby herself was just as surprised as everyone else watching. "Well...that's a new one. She never reacted like this to any of dad's dad jokes." she said with a rapid blink.

"Maybe because Yang's puns are always meant to make people laugh? That Jafar guy is being mean with his," Goofy said with a curious face, keeping his shield up. He smiled a moment later before smirking. "Guess that means Jafar ain't very punny? Ahyuk!"

A sigh of annoyance escaped Donald as he facepalmed himself and shook his head. "Goofy? No. Just, no. We already have one bad jokester. We don't need another."

Genie perked up at the sound of Jafar yelling in pain before knocking him down. Turning and seeing it happen, he suddenly had yellow locks of hair and wore a cheerleader outfit before three more versions of himself emerged and moved with him in the same way, making pushing motions but also saying the same thing. "Push him back. Push him back! Ja-FARther! Ja-FARther! Push him back. Push him back! Ja-FARther! Ja-FARther!"

"I said we don't need another!" Donald exclaimed, looking ready to lose his temper as much Yang was.

The mentioned blonde was making one final uppercut to Jafar. Howling in pain as he nearly hit the ceiling, the man looked enraged before taking out the lamp, raising it high at his last words. "I've had enough of this! It's time to finish you all off once and for all! Genie! My final wish! I want you to make me an all-powerful genie!"

Genie's celebration of his less-than desirable master getting the ever loving snot beaten out of him was cut short as he listened with horror to Jafar's third wish. Despite his mortified unwillingness to grant such a wish, he had no choice but to do so. Covering his eyes with his left hand, he held his right hand out toward Jafar in a finger gun pose before launching a stream of magic in the direction of the power hungry vizier.

As it struck him, Jafar gasped as he felt a great surge of power rush through him. Everyone could only watch in horror before suddenly the ground beneath their feet was engulfed in a strange light. The next moment, everyone let out a scream of shock as they suddenly plummeted into a pit which took the place of the ground they stood upon.

Thankfully just below them was a large series of smooth, rectangular platforms jutting out of what appeared to be a pool of lava. Everyone managed to safely land, though some doing so most ungracefully in regards to Jaune, Donald, and Goofy who either landed belly, back, or side first instead of feet first.

"You guys okay!?" Aladdin called out once everyone had safely landed. "We're okaaaay..." Jaune said in a strained tone as he gave a weak thumbs up where he lay. "Where are we?" Sora asked as he and his companions stood up one by one and looked around where they were. This was definitely not some place they'd visited in the cave before. The surge of heat brought about by the lava was certainly the most telling sign.

"Your grave!" A deeper, echoing, forceful voice rang out. One that the group vaguely recognized as Jafar's. The taunt was followed by a great tremor, briefly throwing everyone off balance, and soon they saw the new form of the wicked sorcerer. Rising from the lava was the towering form of Jafar, now a bright red skinned, barrel chested, muscular, evil genie. Everyone balked at the downright terrifying sight of his new form. "Oh, come on! That's just cheating!" Even Yang couldn't hide her anxiety behind her attempt at humor. Something Jafar was more than eager to take advantage of as he raised his fist.

"Everyone, scatter!" Ruby cried out, realizing that Jafar wasn't wasting any time. "Take this!" Jafar shouted, slamming his hand down around where everyone was. The group barely managed to jump out of the way as the whole platform started shaking and sinking down into the lava. But fortunately, it stopped only after sinking a few inches. Still, that was of little comfort as Jafar was suddenly gone. "Huh? Where'd he go?" Sora asked as he and his companions pushed themselves up. Before anyone could so much as look around, Aladdin caught wind of their foe as he rose from the lava...carrying a massive magma encrusted boulder. "Sora, watch out!" Aladdin yelled out. Sora barely has time to dodge by rolling out of the way of the massive boulder thrown at him.

"Move!" Jaune shouted, just barely able to leap out of the way with Pyrrha as a beam of heated magic energy shot at the group. Even if they avoided it in time, the intensity of the condense fire was enough for them to feel it from several feet away. Jafar had become even more powerful than they could have expected. One blast of that and they'd surely be dead.

"We can't keep avoiding him, we've got to do something!" Ren advised, keeping his eyes on the evil genie floating before them.

"But nothing is working!" Goofy said, keeping himself behind his shield and barely peaking over the edge of it. Jafar was quite crafty and powerful before but now his strength was far greater. They didn't seem to have a chance.

"Whew... is it hot in here or is it just me?"

Blake's faunus ears twitched under her bow as she was drawn to the sound of a super raspy, grating voice, barely audible over the chaos and the lava filled ambiance of the room. Of course it helped that nobody else sounded quite as grating when they spoke as that. "Guys, look!" Blake exclaimed. The owner was Iago the parrot was flying around with something in his claws.

Aladdin realized it right after. "Get Jafar's lamp!" he shouted before running to the winged companion of their enemy.

Iago squawked in fear before flying away, telling him to stay back. Right as Aladdin barely managed to grab it, Sora shot thrust his Keblade out in front of him, yelling, "Freeze!" As he cast the spell, he was surprised by happened next. The ice he launched seemed bigger and covered a slightly greater distance. After it was unleashed, his Keyblade was glowing light blue, feeling ever so slightly more chilly, than the time he first used the spell back in Wonderland. "Sora! Your magic is even stronger now! You know the next level of ice magic: Blizzara!" Donald said with amazement and almost proud...until he remembered where he was, just barely evading a slamming fist from the Genie-Jafar thanks to Goofy.

"He's trying to get away!" Pyrrha shouted as Iago tried to fly upward.

"Well he's not gonna!" Nora shouted as she used her hammer to launch herself up with one last shot. The momentum made her go faster before coming toward Iago, who shouted when seeing the face of Nora's weapon close in on her... WHAM! He plummeted.

Iago's beaked face contorted to a goofy little expression upon the impact of Nora's hammer before he plummeted to the ground, dazed and seeing stars. Or... sultans on carpets? But what mattered most was that he dropped the lamp! The ebony black lamp fell with a clank at Sora's feet.

Jafar didn't notice what they were aiming for, or that Iago was carrying Jafar's newly formed lamp. He was far too occupied with showing off his immense power. "Yeeees! Run! Run you little weaklings! There is nothing you can do against me! The universe is mine to command! To control!" he shouted, utterly utterly obsessed with showing the sheer amount of power he had now. And indeed. There was nothing they could do to harm Jafar in his new form. A gust of wind billowed throughout the magma filled chamber, and swirls of profane magic surged from the wicked genie's hands. "Agrabah is mine! The greatest power of all is mine! I don't need Maleficent and those fools any longer! I don't need the Heartless either! After I destroy all of you, she and the rest of them will be next! I will find all of the keyholes, all seven of the princesses, and open the door myself! And then, I Jafar will rule over ALL worlds!"

"Not so fast, Jafar! Aren't you forgetting something!?" Aladdin interjected. The sheer amount of megalomania that Jafar displayed was nothing short of staggering, but it made what was about to happen all the more wonderfully ironic. "Huh?" Jafar grunted out, wondering what the street rat was blathering on about. Something that said street rat was all the more happy to explain. "You wanna be a genie?! You got it!" Before Jafar knew it, his wrists were suddenly clasped by the same golden bracer-like shackles that adorned Genie's wrists. The symbol of a genie's ultimate curse. Eternal servitude. "WHAT!?" Jafar only just now realized the grave mistake he had made. "Everything that goes with it!" Aladdin called out with confident finality, as he picked up the black lamp.

"NO!" Jafar screamed with horror. He had all this power now...but he didn't realize the consequences until it was too late. And now, he had condemned himself to eternal imprisonment as his he was pulled by his tail with the strength millions of a million hands. "NO!"

By now, Iago realized what had happened and attempted to take flight. "I'm gettin' outta here." But he didn't get very far as a desperately grasping Jafar grabbed the panicked parrot by his tail feathers. Jafar, taking him with him. "No, let go!"

"Phenomenal cosmic power!" Aladdin said over Jafar and Iago's shouting shouting as they shrunk into the lamp.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" "You're the genie! I don't want-!

Their shouts were silenced as they were pulled into the spout with a great *pop*, thus prompting Aladdin to finish Genie's description of the life of a genie with a cheeky grin. "Iiiitty bitty living space."

Everyone let out a cheer or sigh of relief as they realized the battle was won. All thanks to Jafar's hubris and lack of foresight. Sora put his fists on his hips as he looked at the ebony lamp in Aladdin's hands. "Like your new home?" he asked in a coy tone.

As they celebrated their victory Jaune paused his jovial cries when he noticed something slowly descending from where Jafar once was. It looked to be a piece of paper. The sheet floated down and hit Jaune right in the face, making him stumble with a rather silly noise. Everyone else gradually ceased their cheering when they noticed the paper now firmly planted in Jaune's face. As he pulled it off, Jaune took a look at the paper, wondering "What's this?...An... sem... Report... Number One?"

Ruby immediately perked up at the mention of that particular name. "Wait, Ansem? Wasn't that the name of the guy Leon and the others told us was studying the Heartless?" she observed as she and the rest of her team along with Pyrrha gathered around Jaune, followed by Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"Yeah...Leon said he was sure Maleficent had most of the reports," Yang observed with a rub of her chin. "If Sora was right and that woman we saw was actually her, then it's possible the people working with her have the rest of the report." Blake added with a nod of agreement.

"Of course! That must be how they're controlling them!" Weiss stated with realization, drawing everyone's curious gazes. "Donald said before that normally the Heartless act like animals, but they didn't take Alice's heart. They kidnapped her instead, because somebody must have ordered them to." An observation that Donald affirmed with a nod.

"Didn't Jafar mention 'seven princess'?" Pyrrha asked. "What if Alice was one of them? Like Jasmine apparently is?" Sora rubbed his chin and Goofy scratched his head in contemplation. If Jasmine was like Alice, then...was Jafar, and seemingly Maleficent, so interested in these 'princesses'? What was this door that they sought to open?

Ren and Nora exchanged a pair of highly confused looks in the wake of a conversation they were...very much not knowledgeable about to say the least. "Okay, what's going on? You guys have clearly been through a lot more than we thought." "Yeeaaah, we're kinda lost here." Ren and Nora respectively interjected.

"It's...a long story. We'll explain once we're out of here." Jaune, rubbing the back of his neck. They had a LOT of explaining to do. And knowing Nora, a few things might go over her head...though thankfully Ren was there to make sure they clicked...hopefully.

"Uhh, I believe there's also a Keyhole that you were all looking for? Needs a bit of a locking? Hint hint?" Genie said, nudging Sora who dropped Jafar's lamp on the ground. "What about Jafar?" he asked, just in time to hear...

"Get your blasted beak out of my face!"

"Oh shut up, ya moron!"

"Don't tell me to shut up!"

Genie waved it off like it was no big deal. After all, they weren't going anywhere any time soon. "I think it'll be just fine staying here." Ren said with a faintly amused expression. One that everyone was sharing as they listened to the arrogant vizier's screams of annoyance. "Yeah, no worries kid. Ten thousand years in the cave of wonders outta chill him out. And believe me, ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck." Genie assure him, rubbing his neck, before suddenly pulling it off his body and rotating it around and slamming it back on. The entire group couldn't help but laugh at Genie's little joke. For once, some humor that they could ALL appreciate. But with that out of the way, Sora, Ruby, Jaune, and their friends were lifted out of the lava pit, just in time to hear Jafar scream out an amusingly furious, final,-

"SHUT! UUUUUUUUP!"