Sora, Ruby, and their friends weren't the only ones fighting the Heartless. Further within the castle, it appeared that Ansem's machinations had left Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury with quite a mess.
"Jeez! And I thought the Grimm were annoying!" Mercury shouted with annoyance, kicking a Wyvern that attempted to swipe him with its talons and knocking it into a Sorcerer.
Emerald meanwhile seemed to take this more seriously as she vaulted over a Defender and stabbed her weapons into its back. "Cinder, they just keep coming!" she called out as, sure enough, as they destroyed one Heartless, it was like two more took its place.
The Fall Maiden in question was felling one Heartless after another with an unconcerned expression and voice as she ordered her underlings, "Just keep holding them off. Sora will reach the Keyhole soon enough, if what Adam said was true." If what they'd heard from their White Fang associate was correct, then their chance to have Remnant restored may not have been dashed as much as they feared.
Meanwhile, Sora, Ruby, and their friends, after cutting down swathes and swathes of heartless, finally found themselves in the chamber where they fought Maleficent. This time, however, they were met with a much more reassuring sight. Instead of a single Heartless in the chamber, they group found themselves in the presence of the other five Princesses! Two of which Sora and Ruby were particularly glad to see again as they respectively called out their names. "Alice!" "Jasmine!"
The two familiar princesses met them halfway, Alice taking the initiative to speak first. "It's ever so good to see you again. You've made more friends along the way, I see." she said, looking at the much larger group of friends behind the pair with fascination.
Jasmine spoke afterwards to Ruby. "We were telling the others here about you and everything you've done to help us, before. These are the other Princess' of Heart."
The other three princesses gathered to introduced themselves to their saviors with elegant curtsies. The blonde haired princess with her hair done up wearing the pure white gown introduced herself first. "We've been waiting for you, Keyblade Master. I am Cinderella." The golden tiara and necklace toting, lighter blonde haired princess with her hair down loose, clad in a royal blue dress introduced herself next. "My name is Aurora." And last, the black haired princess with the red cape, blue and yellow dress. "And I am Snow White."
Sadly now no time for pleasantries. Time was of the essence. "Sora, please hurry! Darkness is pouring from the Keyhole." Jasmine urged. "We've been doing all we can to hold back the darkness." Alice added fearfully. "I don't know how long we can manage even that." Snow White added just as uncertainly. The weariness in their voices was faint, but there. They'd been using every bit of the power within their hearts to stop the darkness from consuming Hollow Bastion.
But that begged another question. "Wait. Where's Ansem?" Pyrrha asked. Surely the one responsible for this had to still be here. He wouldn't risk them sealing the Keyhole he manipulated them all into opening, would he?
The princesses looked at each other uneasily at the mention of the true mastermind of this calamity. "Gone." Aurora's answer left Sora and his friends with further confusion and worry.
"Gone? How?" Weiss asked.
"He couldn't have his own gummi ship. We never saw anything like it the first time we came here, or now." Pyrra said, placing her hands on her hips. How could they have missed Ansem, or any kind of vessel of his?
"When the Keyhole appeared, darkness poured out of it. It swallowed Ansem, and he disappeared. Though Ansem is gone, the flood of darkness hasn't stopped. We're working together to hold it back." Cinderella explained. Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to make of this information.
"Wait-wait-wait...You're saying he LET himself get taken by the darkness?" Neptune inquired incredulously. Everyone figured that such a thing was dangerous at best, certain death at worst.
"I cannot forget the look on his face." Aurora spoke up again with an even more unnerved tone. "As the darkness engulfed him, he was smiling." The image alone seemed to unnerve everyone else just as much. Especially Donald and Goofy who visibly shivered.
"Well hey, at least Ansem's not here to mess with us." Nora said, trying to be optimistic.
Sadly, everyone knew better. With all that's happened thus far, this couldn't possibly have been a good thing. "I don't think it's that simple, Nora. This must have been part of his plan." Ren interjected skeptically.
"But how is getting swallowed up by darkness part of his plan? What does he gain from that?" Jaune inquired, scratching his head with confusion.
"Yeah. You'd think that he'd be trying NOT to become Heartless chow if he's got some kinda big evil master plan." Sun added, just as confused as everyone else. Were they missing something?
"When you say it like that, Sun, you sound like as much of a simpleton as Jaune." Weiss said with an unamused frown...and a disappointed little whine from the Arc in question. One which Pyrrha had to console him for.
Goofy hummed thoughtfully as he scratched his head as well. "Maybe he went somewhere? Kinda like how Maleficent used them dark holes that appear outta nowhere to go other places?"
Blake hummed as she touched her chin in thought. "It's possible. Given how much he's studied the Heartless, there must be even more about the darkness that he knows and we don't..." What could it be though? That was the million munny question they had no answer for.
"We can think later. Every moment that Keyhole is unsealed is another moment more darkness pours out." Ruby said, reminding them why they came here. Their current task was far too important to get distracted from. A sentiment that everyone in the room shared as they gave a mutual nod and made for the door to the Keyhole.
Sora suddenly remembered something important. Something he needed to tell the Arabian princess. "Jasmine," he said, catching her attention. "I'm sorry we couldn't bring Aladdin with us...but he asked us to bring you back when we found you."
A rush of delight spread through the princess's heart at the message. The knowledge that Aladdin was still thinking of her made Jasmine smile...only to shake her head apologetically a moment later. "I think until this has been settled, all of us should remain together. We must use our remaining power to keep the darkness at bay. Please...don't tell Aladdin about all this. He will worry to death if you do. I will tell him about it, once I return to Agrabah."
Sora smiled and nodded understandingly. "Then the sooner we finish this, the better." With that, he turned to go and join the others.
As the group found themselves in the Great Hall, Sora looked up, seeing a little of the darkness pooling out from the Keyhole. The place he last saw Riku and gave his own heart to free Kairi. He suddenly remembered something else. The one who protected him from Cinder while he was a Heartless..."Hey... where's Ozpin? We haven't seen him since we got here."
Sure enough, there wasn't any sign of the Headmaster of Beacon. Ruby and her friends felt a powerful wave of worry pass over them. Ozpin was one of the most powerful people they'd known in their time as Hunters. But if he wasn't here...could that mean...Pyrrha sadly had an idea of what happened with the horrified look that passed over her briefly. Her gaze shifted back to Sora again as she remembered the promise she made to herself. Now that Ozpin was nowhere in sight...she felt all the more determined to fulfill it.
"Pyrrha? What's wrong?" Jaune, observant as he was when it counted, would notice her shift in emotion.
Pyrrha's gaze snapped to Jaune, blinking as she realized he must have noticed her thoughts drifting. "N-Nothing, Jaune. I'm fine..." she said, trying to wave it off with a smile. Jaune, however, wasn't fooled. Something was on her mind. Something heavy.
"Watch out!" They didn't have time to go deeper into it as Donald yelled in the wake of a familiar rotund group of heartless bounced down upon where Sora and Ruby were standing. Everyone drew their weapons as the Large Bodies attempted to stop them in their tracks.
"We don't have time for you!" Yang yelled, pounding her gauntlets together and dashing toward thee rotund Heartless.
"Flank em!" Ruby and Jaune called out to their teammates. Ruby and Yang ran toward one of the Large Bodies with Blake and Weiss dashing to its left, while Jaune and Pyrrha dashed for another one with Nora and Ren rushing along its right. With the Heartless focused on the two in front of them, Sora,Donald, and Goofy rushed to help with the rear assault. And as the rotund Heatless attacked, they were struck on the rear.
To their surprise, the Heartless didn't go down when they thought. But they certainly made them angry. "What the heck!?" Nora exclaimed as her thought to have been certain kill blow was shrugged off by a very angry Large Body.
"Uh oh! I think they got tougher!" Goofy said warily, as the angry Heartless slapped its belly.
"Dodge!" Ruby yelled out, diving out of the way.
"Dodge wha-BWAH!" Weiss unfortunately wasn't as quick as she was bowled over by one of the Large Bodies while everyone else managed to avoid or block the others. "Ruby, you do know that yelling 'dodge' is more distracting than helpful, I hope!" she yelled as she recovered.
"I'm getting sick of nothing but Heartless, every two seconds!" Donald shouted before using a gravity spell on the Large Body, making it flattened right away. In that moment, Nora jumped up behind it right as it regained itself. Not seeing the enemy behind it, she swung her hammer right at its vulnerable back and added a release to one of her grenades to strengthen the momentum and do more damage.
Sora did the same to another and with Blake using her Gambol Shroud along with the sheath, cut through them the moment it recovered. Unlike Nora's enhanced strike, The Large Body only staggered and tried slamming its fists at her. Blake was almost hit but thankfully used her semblance to emerge behind it and try again, this time managing to do it in. "They are stronger than before."
"It's like somebody upped the difficulty in a video game!" Jaune shouted in annoyance, using his shield to keep himself from getting repeatedly hammered by another Large Body. But by now, he was getting backed into a corner as the assault continued.
Pyrrha saw her leader was in danger and ran to him, turning her weapon into a spear. Thrusting forward with both hands on the shaft, she struck true, impaling it from behind. But that blow wasn't enough to destroy it. Arching its arm back, the Large Body backhanded Pyrrha and sent her tumbling back.
"Pyrrha!" The moment he saw it, Jaune furiously took that moment to attack while its back was turned, hacking away with faster and stronger swings than usual. It was destroyed then and Jaune calmed down but ran to his teammate. "Pyrrha!"
"I'm a little sore," Pyrrha said assuredly as she got on her side. "But I'll live."
She was carefully helped up by Jaune when he offered his hand. A gesture which Pyrrha accepted, only to suddenly blush as she pulled him right up against him, staring into her eyes. "You sure you're alright?" he asked.
For a moment Pyrrha was at a loss for words, but managed to break out of her thoughts as she nodded with an affectionate smile. "Y-Yes. I am. Thank you Jaune..." she said tenderly as she subconsciously started squeezing his hand.
Not noticing her squeeze, Jaune replied to her with a cheery smile of his own. "Hey, no problem, Pyrrha. You're my partner, after all."
His answer struck something harsh in Pyrrha's heart as she barely covered a pained wince. Not from her soreness, but from something...else. "R-Right. Partners. Right to the end." she said rather shakily. Though again, it seemed to go over Jaune's head as he passed a thumbs up to her.
Ren, overhearing the two, found himself shaking his head. "If only he could see what's right in front of him." he said to himself. He may not have been much of an emotional person himself, but he could read clearly what Jaune seemed to miss EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. "Yeah...If only." Nora muttered in a frustrated tone. Faintly picking it up, Ren rose an eyebrow at Nora. "Did you say something, Nora?" he asked curiously.
"N-Nothing! E-Ehehe, no, nothing at all." Confused though he was, Ren felt it best not to push it. They had a Keyhole to lock, after all.
"Come on, guys! We're nearly there!" Sora called out, leading the way with Ruby who cheered, "Let's go seal a Keyhole!...Again!" That final part of her cheer resulted in a roll of the eyes from Weiss as the rest of their team, Team JNPR, Donald, and Goofy followed along.
As they reached the top of the stairs however...they found themselves skidding to a halt at the sight of the three who were waiting for them right in front of the Keyhole.
Clap. Clap. Clap. "Well done, Sora. I knew you'd make it here. I suppose you deserve that Keyblade after all." the leader of the three congratulated with a patronizing smile on her face.
"Cinder." Sora spat her name angrily as he and his friends drew their weapons.
Cinder raised her hand, though to their surprise, it wasn't in an aggressive manner. Neither Mercury nor Emerald made any aggressive moves either. "Now, now. There's no need for that. You should know by now how outmatched you are, Sora. So don't make me follow through with my attempt to destroy you when you were a Heartless."
Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Where is Ozpin?!"
"And here I thought you were the smart one of your group," Cinder said with a disappointed frown turning to a more sadistic smile. "He and I fought, I'm still here and he's nowhere to be seen. What does that tell you?"
Everyone was stunned or in awe for the wrong reason. Some hung their heads in disbelief, Jaune voicing it. "But... Ozpin-"
"Isn't as great and powerful as others believe him to be, apparently," Cinder said, finishing Jaune's sentence for him. "And if he couldn't win against me, what makes you think you'll fair any better?"
"We've faced plenty of huge and powerful monsters! We've even defeated a dragon! So we can defeat you! You're outnumbered, anyway!" Sora bravely proclaimed before charging at the Fall Maiden.
"Sora no!" Pyrrha's cries came too late however. Sora was already leaping at their foe, bringing his Keyblade down upon her. Mercury and Emerald rolled their eyes, not even attempting to stop him as he foolishly repeated the same mistake twice.
Cinder materialized her own weapon: a bright orange, flame-like scimitar that blocked Sora's weapon before suddenly bursting with a force that sent the boy flying back to his comrades. Goofy and Donald helped him back up while patting any stray fires down. Sora glared at Cinder as she looked down at him haughtily and spoke up again.
"Like I said. You're completely outmatched." she repeated sharply. "Don't worry though. I'm won't destroy you Sora, even if it would be as easy as crushing an ant."
Sora groaned as he pushed himself back to his feet with Ruby and Blake's help. "Like I said, it's in our best interest if you succeed. You need to seal that Keyhole. So do it. When you do, make sure you stay out of our business. Since Maleficent and everyone else who worked with her is gone, I don't have to be your enemy anymore. Don't give me a reason."
With those ominous words, she turned and departed with Mercury and Emerald following behind. "Hold it! We're not letting you get away!" Yang shouted as she ran towards them. Before she could get very far, a wall of fire suddenly rose up in front of her, forcing her to stop where she was. It was too high to leap over, and with how close the fire was to the walls, there was no going around. By the time the flames finally faded, Cinder and her minions were gone.
Yang grunted with frustration, slamming her fist against a nearby pipe. She hated being taunted so smugly by that woman, as did everyone else. Neptune and Sun let out mutual sighs of frustration. "Jeez. She loves the sound of her voice." Sun remarked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Y'know, if she weren't so irredeemably evil, she'd be way more attractive." Neptune's attempt however...*STOMP* "Ow!"...earned him a heel to the foot from Weiss.
But there was nothing they could do about it...which only added to everyone's mutual frustration. "As much as I hate to admit it, she's right. We have to seal that Keyhole." Pyrrha said, getting everyone's mind back on the task at hand. With a sigh, Ruby nodded to Pyrrha, and to Sora. A nod he returned in kind to everyone else as he turned to face the technicolor, pipe surrounded Heartless Insignia. Wasting no time, they all ran inside the shadowy void, ready to save the world of the man responsible for all of this.