ToL: Chapter 10

[Sudden Interference]

It did not take the group that long to meet up with King Mickey at the market square; he was standing in front of the weapons shop.

"Hello there, Your Majesty," Double D greeted Mickey as they approached him, "Is there something you need from us?"

"Yes," Mickey replied with a nod of his head before turning to the shop beside him, "I realized that the girls never picked out a weapon for them to use for their trip."

"… Wait, a weapon? You mean to fight Heartless with?" Katrina asked with a bit of uncertainty, "I-I don't think we can…"

"Oh sweet!" Ebony cheered with excitement before running to the shop beside her, "I'll go find something now!"

"Hey, wait!" Shayla gasped as she went after her friend, "Don't go rushing in like that!"

Katrina made a sigh, "I guess I can go look and find something…" She then walked off into the store with Iris following close behind her, leaving the Eds and the king outside.

"As for you three…" Mickey stated as he reached into the satchel he had on his waist, only to pull out seven more of the same satchels (somehow), "These are for you and the girls; they're magic satchels that you can use to carry anything in; Potions, Ethers, Elixirs, munny, and other materials…"

"Wait, anything?" Ed questioned in confusion, "Even things that are as big as the bag itself?!"

"Oh, no, nothing as big as the bag can fit in it!" Mickey stated, "It's mostly for smaller items, but the bag itself is limitless to said items!"

"Fascinating!" Double D was awed in amazement as they took the satchels from the king, "So it's like a bottomless bag of sorts."

"… Oh yeah! There's something else we need to discuss."

The Eds looked at Mickey with confusion, "What is it?" Eddy questioned.

"Do you three remember when I evaluated what magic skills you all had before we left your world?" Mickey started to ask them as they nodded their heads, "I talked with Merlin earlier, and he told me you all have three magic elements in you; and not just the two you somehow inherited from the girls."

"… Huh?!" The three Eds yelped a little in surprise, "W-What are these other elements?" Double D asked with a bit of nervousness.

"Well, according to Merlin," Mickey began to say, "Ed has Gravity to hold things in place and bring enemies to the ground, Eddward has Reflect to bounce things back to the enemies, and now we know for sure that Eddy has—"

"We're back!"

The Eds perked their heads up to see the girls come back to them from the weapon shop.

Ebony had an iron broadsword and a sheath for it strapped to her back. Shayla had two daggers on each side of her waist, both daggers were also in a sheathe. And Katrina had a short staff that was tucked away to the strap she was now wearing across her chest, to carry the rod on her back. Iris did not have anything on her; at least not yet.

"We came out here for a moment to tell the king we found what we needed, so now he needs to pick up the bill," Shayla stated with a chuckle, "We're sorry if anything is too expensive."

"It's no problem!" Mickey replied to them before he started to walk towards the weapon store, "I'll be right back."

"… Oh! The king gave us these satchels for storing items that we find," Double D stated as they gave each of the girls their satchel.

"That's neat!" Ebony said with a big smile.

The group stood there for a moment, conversing with one another about their choice of weapons. It was then that Iris could feel a sudden chill run down her spine, glancing around the area afterward. Her nervousness was noticed by Katrina, "Iris…? Is there something wrong?"

The group could suddenly hear three echoing giggles around them. The three Eds froze in place, the color started to drain from their faces in fright; they knew who those laughs belonged to.

"No… N-No way," Eddy stuttered.

"Huh?" The girls questioned as they turned to the Eds, who now started to shake and tremble from where they stood.

"T-T-This is impossible…!" Double D started to say in a panic, "How can this be…?!"

The girls were about to ask them what was wrong before all three of them dashed off in fright, each of them in a different direction, "Kankers!" Ed screamed in terror.

"Wait!" The girls gasped in surprise when the Eds ran off separately. Something felt very wrong about all of this, "Iris, can you tell the king that something weird is going on for us? We'll go find the others," Katrina stated to Iris, who only nodded her head as she went back inside the weapon shop to get King Mickey's help.


Author's Note: All three scenes happen around the same time.


Ed's mind was racing with many thoughts as he was running, running away from the familiar laugh he just heard. He made it back towards the area where the Blue Mage's Delight restaurant was located. It was while he was running that a few Shadows appeared in front of him, making him stop in his tracks.

Ed widened his eyes, summoning his Keyblade in his hands to fight the Shadows, "Okay, you can do this!" he stated to himself, shaking off his fear from the familiar laughter from earlier.

One of the Shadows hopped forward to attack him, only to be struck down by a vertical swing of this Keyblade. Ed then pointed his Keyblade to one of the Heartless, remembering the magic spells that the king said he had, "Fire!"

A fireball shoots out from his blade and hits its target, burning the Shadow to ashes.

Ed then raises the handle of his Keyblade to the air before stabbing the ground with the tip of his blade, "Quake!"

The ground started to shake slightly before a sharp piece of rock (a stalagmite?) jutted out from the ground, piercing the targeted Heartless and killing it. The piece of earth then broke apart after the spell finished casting.

Ed stood there for a split moment, a bit out of breath from the two spells he did; he was still not used to casting them.

"Aww, don't tell me you're tired out after that little squabble! That's no fun!" a familiar voice stated right behind him, "Isn't that right, big Ed?"

Ed turned around to see who was talking to him, only for his body to freeze up once more in terror. It was a teen girl with long blond hair, holding a battle scythe in a shy way behind her back. He could see that the light in her brown eyes was gone; they were now glossed over.

Ed started to back away from the teen girl in fear. Beads of sweat started to form on his forehead as his hands shook violently, which was noticeable because his Keyblade was shaking as well before he unknowingly dismissed it. He then noticed he had walked into a corner without realizing it, his back was now against a wall and he felt himself slide down to the ground, "M-M-May?!" Ed finally uttered out in fright as he gripped his jacket's right sleeve like he was trying to protect himself from hurting his arm.

"Wow, you remembered my name!" the girl named May stated as she now loomed over Ed, "You're so cute when you're scared," she giggled.

May then took the scythe she had behind her, holding it with both of her hands in an attack position, "Sorry to do this to you, but this is an order from Emperor Belindra!"

Ed widened his eyes in shock and flinched in anticipation from the pain that was to come before he suddenly heard a clash of steel in front of him. He opened his eyes to look and saw that Ebony had blocked an attack from May's scythe with her new sword, swatting the scythe blade away to the side.

"Ed! Are you okay?!" Ebony asked Ed, reaching out her hand to him to help him back up. Ed did not say anything when he grabbed Ebony's hand to get up off the ground.

May growled at Ebony, "You…!"

Ebony looked at May and then back to Ed, she could tell he was uncomfortable around this girl. She then turned back to May, holding her broadsword out in an attack position, "I don't know who you are, but please leave him alone!"

May scoffed a little at her, "Seems like you got lucky," she stated before turning around to form a dark portal in front of her, "I can play with you all next time! See ya!" She then walked into the portal, which disappeared afterward.

Ed and Ebony stood there for a second before she could hear Ed collapse to his knees, mostly out of relief. Ebony turned back to him, kneeling to him to see if he was okay, "Ed…?!"

He then did something unexpected, Ed latched onto Ebony in a very tight hug, he was still trembling slightly from the encounter. His actions took Ebony by complete surprise; this was the first time she had seen Ed being terrified of something or someone. He was always jovial and happy for the most part.

"I-I… I don't know what's going on, but you can tell me about it later. Let's try to meet back up with the others…" Ebony stated as she hugged him back, trying to comfort him, "Everything's okay now."


Double D was running as fast as he could away from the familiar laugh he heard before he finally stopped running, he was already out of breath. He then looked at where he was, he could see he was in another section of Radiant Garden that also had houses around the district.

"Oh dear… Why did I have to run so far away?" Double D gasped in realization, trying to pick himself back up, "Shayla and the others are probably worried. I should—"

Suddenly, Double D could feel something start to wrap around his arms and chest, preventing him from moving or running away. Someone had used a leather whip to tie him up from where he stood! He yelped as he fell to the ground when he tried to move, trying to set himself free.

"There, now that's more like it!" stated a familiar voice to him as she made a laugh, "Just like in the old days, right Double D?"

Double D's eyes widened in horror as the person who tied him up rolled him over so he could see her above him. The person was a girl with short blue hair, she held the handle of the leather whip in her hand to keep him in place. He also noticed her brown eyes were glossed over, the light in them was gone.

The color drained from Double D's face for a moment before becoming red at the sight of her, "Marie…?!"

"Nice of you to remember me!" Marie stated with a grin as she loomed over him, bending to get close to his face as she did, "As much as I would love to catch up after all these years, Belindra's orders come first!"

Marie reached into her back pocket to take out a hunting knife, "Scream all you like, your heart is MINE!"

Before she could do anything else, Marie was forcefully pushed away from Double D as another person's dagger blade cut the leather whip in between them, "Gah!"

"Get away from him!" Shayla yelled to Marie. She started to cut the rest of the whip that Double D was wrapped around in, setting him free.

"T-Thank you, Shayla," Double D stuttered as he got back on his feet.

Marie growled a little as she got back up to face them, "I should have expected that," she stated with a glare at them, "Guess the plan failed for now, but I WILL be back!"

A dark portal appeared behind Marie before she started to run into it.

"W-Wait!" Double D gasped a little as he tried to reach out a bit to the portal that Marie disappeared in, much to Shayla's confusion.

Judging by how they were acting, Shayla could tell those two had some sort of history, but she could not tell what it was exactly, "Double D…? Are you alright?"

Double D visibly flinched a little at Shayla's question, "I-It's nothing… I'm sorry I worried you like that," he replied before making a gasp of realization, "Oh no! Her sisters must also be here!" he turned to Shayla with a bit of a panicked look, "We have to find everyone else, and fast!"


Eddy was running up the stone steps towards the castle gates, hoping that the familiar laughter he heard before was now far away. Once he got to the top of the stone steps, three Shadow Heartless spawned in front of him.

"Ugh, I don't have time for this!" Eddy growled in frustration as he summoned his Keyblade to fight them.

He sliced one of the Heartless in front of him horizontally, killing it in one blow. One of the Shadow Heartless went into the ground as the other one tried to jump towards Eddy for his heart.

Eddy held out his Keyblade to the one that was about to attack him, "Blizzard!"

A big rush of cold air and snow came from his Keyblade and hit the Heartless in midair, freezing it. The Heartless shattered as it hit the ground along with the ice.

"Ha! Take that, you dumb bug!" Eddy taunted in a cocky manner.

Unfortunately, the third Shadow Heartless had slipped his mind for a short moment. The Shadow rose back up out of the ground to Eddy's right, ready to swipe him with its claws. Luckily, Eddy did notice the Heartless in time to swing his Keyblade at the Shadow to kill it, but not before its claws dug into his right arm near his hand.

"Ouch!" Eddy yelped as he clutched his left hand to his right arm; the scratch itself was not severe, but he could see that it did draw some blood out, "Geez, that's smarts…"

"Cure!" A voice yelled from further behind Eddy as he turned to see Katrina pointing her new staff toward him. A soothing green light washed over the wound he just received, barely leaving a trace of it behind.

"Eddy, are you alright?" Katrina asked him with worry as she started to walk up to him.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that," Eddy replied, rubbing his hand against where the scratch mark used to be, 'Maybe that laugh was my mind playing tricks on me or something,' he thought to himself, closing his eyes for a moment to try and calm down.

"AH!"

Eddy's eyes suddenly shot open, "Katrina?" He turned to where Katrina was further away in front of him, only to see she had been grabbed by someone who was standing behind her by her wrists, Katrina's staff fell to the ground as well.

"Well, well, well! What do we have here?" questioned the one holding Katrina's wrists, "I'd never pictured you to be the kind of guy to be into the timid type of girls, little Eddy."

Eddy's face grew pale at the sight of the person holding Katrina hostage. The person was a tall girl with curly red hair; her eyes were not visible, but if they could be seen, they would see that her brown eyes had lost their light. She held a metal mace in her right hand, resting it over her shoulder while holding Katrina with her left hand. Eddy was stunned and unable to say anything at first before he narrowed his eyes in anger, shaking his head from side to side to hide his fear, "Lee Kanker!" he growled.

"It's so awesome to see you again," Lee stated to Eddy with a smirk before gesturing to Katrina, "Seems like you've been very busy without me around."

"L-Let me go!" Katrina shouted to Lee, violently struggling to free herself.

"Whoa, you're feistier than I thought you'd be!" Lee stated before pushing Katrina to the ground. Lee then stepped on her back to make her stay there on the ground, "Let's get this over with for Belindra!"

Lee took the mace she was resting from her right shoulder to grip it in both of her hands. Eddy widened his eyes in horror, "Don't you DARE hurt her, Lee!" he yelled as he started to run towards them, Keyblade in hand.

Lee lifted her mace high into the air and started to swing it down to Katrina's head. Eddy's heart almost halted at her actions; he had to do something! Anything to make her…!

"STOP!"

Lee suddenly came to a very sudden halt as Eddy could see a weird force appear around both her and his Keyblade, freezing her in place; her mace had come very close to Katrina's head. Eddy widened his eyes for a short moment in disbelief before he finally came up to them; he DID stop her!

"Are you okay?!" he asked Katrina as he also grabbed the staff she dropped.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Katrina replied. Eddy helped her get from the ground, dragging them both away from Lee and back towards the weapon shop. It was a second later that the weird force around Lee went away as she slammed the mace down to the ground, completely missing her target and leaving an indent in the ground.

"… Huh?" Lee questioned in a baffled tone, "W-What the hell happened?!"

She growled a little in irritancy as a dark portal appeared behind her, "Damn, I was so close too!" she stated as she walked into the portal with it disappearing afterward.


Author's Note: And now, the three scenes converge.


Iris and King Mickey exited the weapon shop in a rush, "Did you see which direction everyone went?" Mickey asked.

"Yes sir, everyone went in a different direction…" Iris started to explain before noticing something, "Oh, wait! They're all back!"

The Eds and the girls all approached Iris and Mickey, all six of them were silent from their earlier encounters, and some of them were visibly shaken. Mickey narrowed his eyes to them, "… Did something bad happen? Tell me."

Iris went over to Eddy and Katrina, making a worried look at them, "U-Umm… Are you okay?"

Katrina and Eddy looked at her, "Yeah, we're fine now," Eddy replied.

"Do you need a hug?" Iris asked.

The two teens were silent for a second before Katrina reached out to Iris to accept her hug. Eddy looked at them before internally sighing, 'As if we didn't have enough problems already…'

The Kanker Sisters had returned and in the worst way possible.


Author's Note (September 7th, 2023): Wow, a lot of stuff happened in this chapter. Kind of surprised myself. Anyway, like I said last chapter, I might take a break from this story in particular so I can focus on some other things and other stories... I'm uncertain though, but we'll see!