Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: From One To Another

It didn't take long for Dash to arrive at the Castle. The first thing she saw was several Darksides gathering in the courtyard and pulling on the rope-like substance that flowed down from the cracked keyhole. With each yank, the crack grew larger and larger. Her eyes drifted lower and shrank when she saw hundreds of heartless pouring in and out of the Castle.

“Rainbow!”

Dash turned around to see AJ, Pinkamena, and Spike hopping from roof to roof towards her. AJ called out to her, “What’s the situation?”

“Heartless are invading the castle and the Darksides are using this… black... thing to yank open the lock!”

“Take out the Darksides!” Spike ordered, taking charge, “AJ you help her. Pinka, since we can take out multiple heartless we’ll head into the castle to make sure Aladdin and Jasmine are alright.”

Without looking at him, Pinkamena sent him a sharp glare, “Spike, you know I hate you ordering me around.”

“Please just do it,” he sighed.

While AJ continued to dash towards the larger enemies, Spike and Pinkamena dropped down and immediately distanced themselves from one another. Scorch marks and deep gashes soon began appearing over the entire courtyard.

AJ glanced back at the utter devastation taking place and cringed, “Ah don’t know if I should feel sorry for the heartless... or the land.”

“Get your head in the game, AJ!” Dash yelled from above. Holding out her arm, she summoned spiral into her grip. Charging the gun with electricity, Dash let out a folly of electric shots at the head of one of the Darksides, blowing it off and causing the body to dissipate.

“Boom! Headshot!” she cheered.

AJ scoffed and jump high into the air. Hopping off Dash’s unsuspecting back, she lept over the head of another Darkside. Lifting her keyblade over her head, she rocketed down, splitting the entire giant in two.

“Shucks. This ain't so hard; we’ll be done in no time,” she whistled as she picked herself up. Looking up she was surprised to see the other Darksides not retaliating at all. Instead, they simply continued to pull on the black rope.”

“AJ, behind you!”

The cowgirl turned around just in time to see several dozen heartless hop on top of each other and merge into another Darkside to replace the others. It didn't take it long for more heartless to do the same.

“Alright, maybe not in no time,” AJ sighed.

~~~

Spike landed at the front door in a ball of fire. Behind him lie dozens of heartless writhing in a large burning mass. Spike glanced behind the flames just far enough to see a pink blur moving back and forth at insane speeds, leaving behind a malicious storm of death. Hundreds of heartless suffered as they were viciously torn apart.

“Looks like she’s got control of the situation here,” Spike muttered. “In fact… if I didn't know any better, say she was actually having fun. Anyway, I need to check on Aladdin.” With that, Spike dashed into the castle. With his incredible speed he zoomed through each and every hallway, making quick work of any sort of shadow in his path. Eventually, he found the gym, and inside of that, the former genie.

Several heartless surrounding him, the man himself stood defiant even as he awkwardly wielded a sword like it was his very first time. Charging forward, the man swung wildly.

Dodging a random swing,  one shadow lept up and scratched his bare back. The nameless man grunted in pain but quickly batted away the shadow. Breathing heavily, he turned to face the remaining dozen. “I… I need to--”

In an instant, all of the remaining heartless lit up in bright green flames. The man turned to face Spike in the doorway, slivers of flame emanating from his keyblade. “Genie! Are you--”

The man immediately turned and bolted through the back exit. Spike faltered for a second but easily caught up to him. Grabbing his arm, Spike stopped him long enough get a word in.

“Hold on. You’re injured,” Spike said, motioning to the black marks on his chest. Dark mists seeped from each of the scratch.

The large man yanked his arm back, “I need to make sure that Aladdin and the others are alright. I’ve searched the whole castle and I haven't found them. The only place left is the master bedroom.”

“Then don’t rush in blindly. Let’s go together.”

The man looked down at the unfamiliar weapon in his hands for a second before turning and giving Spike a sad look. “No… I’m probably useless to them anyway. I don’t even know who I am.”

Spike gave him a piercing look, ”Don’t emo out on me now. We all know who you are. I’m just waiting you to remember.”

“Well you’re here now. you should--”

“No, I said ‘let’s go together’. You already risked your life to come this far so let’s keep going. Spike once again grabbed the man and rushed towards the far end of the castle. Upon arrival, Spike opened the doors and froze at what he saw.

An enormous hole had been blown into the back wall. Through it, a large black mass could be seen.

~~~

Twilight stood up and stretched to catch her breath, “That looks like the last of them.”

Shia gently led the last few people into a safe area before returning to Twilight’s side. “It seems like most of the heartless are gathered at the center.”

Twilight nodded and looked upwards at the lock in the sky, “Come on. We need to go help the others. That crack has gotten larger. I don’t know how long we have until it breaks completely.”

Raising her keyblade, Twilight wasted no time in teleporting both of them directly to the castle entrance.

Unfortunately, Twilight made the mistake of transporting directly into the courtyard of the castle and nearly getting herself torn apart in Pinkamena’s rampage. The sharp knives of Pinka’s keyblade stopped mere inches from Twilight’s face.

“Oh… it’s you,” Pinkamena noted.

“H-hi…”

“We have to stop meeting like this,” she smirked.

“Oh no! Twilight, look! Look!” yelled Shia as she frantically gestured toward the area behind her.

Twilight turned around just in time to see the last of the small heartless gather and morph into another colossal heartless, this time the size of one the castle towers. What caught her attention however, was the fact that it held Jasmine and the twin boys tightly in it’s grip.

“Jasmine!” Twilight’s eyes were drawn down to three figures standing in front of it.

Aladdin lept up to attack the titan. “Give her back!” he yelled.

With surprising speed, the Darkside backhanded Aladdin out of the sky and sent him crashing into the ground. “Filthy streetrat!”

 With pained effort Aladdin glared back up at the monster before him, “Jafar?”

The Darksides eyes turned from bright yellow to dark red. A deep laughter sounded from it’s nonexistent mouth, “How astute, you remember me.”

“So it’s true,” Spike spat, “You are trying to escape.”

The Darkside slowly turned his glare toward Spike. Jafar’s voice continued to speak through it, “Of course I’m trying to escape. Trapped in lamp that’s trapped in darkness? You do not know the torment that you’ve inflicted. You will pay!” he screamed, a depraved cackle echoing through the air.

The possesed Darkside lifted a darkness imbued fist into the air and slammed it deep into the ground. From it, pool of darkness grew, creating a portal from which countless heartless formed. Those heartless began swarming the area and attacking everyone present.

“The heartless shall swarm and you will all fall to darkness!” Jafar’s voice cackled.

Spike acted quickly and began destroying any that came near. Meanwhile, Shia joined Dash and AJ in trying to stop the Darksides from destroying the lock. With more people present, Pinkamena had been forced to stop her rampage and lower her attack range. Even so, she was a deadly force to any that opposed her.

Sword still in hand, the former Genie did his best to fight off the darkness that tried to rush him Unfortunately, outmatched and outnumbered, the man couldn't hope to defend himself against the ravenous bugs. Before long, numerous shadows clung to his body, even as he struggled against it.

Just before they could completely engulf him, Twilight jumped in to blow them away. “Be careful,” she warned,batting away a few more, “If they drag you down you could lose your heart!”

Genie nodded and took up his sword in defence. Glancing over, he watched as Aladdin singlehandedly defended himself. He felt a small tinge of jealousy as he watched his friend make quick work of the things that, before, he could defeat with a flick of his finger.

Aladdin faced the heartless with no hint of fear. Wielding his twin scimitars with complete mastery and practiced ease, he struck down several shadow heartless, spun around, and destroyed several more. When one tried to attack him from behind he flipped forward and allowed it to fly past him. Before the shadow could attack again Aladdin drove his sword down into it. Without missing a beat, Aladdin turned and began to make his way over to his family. “Give them back Jafar!”

With a low growl, Jafar raised the hand with Jasmine and the boys in it, rearing back, he tossed them towards the ground.

Time slowed to a crawl in Aladdin’s mind as he raced, swords forgotten on the ground, toward where his family had been tossed. In an instant, he imagined his worse nightmare coming true. The future that waited for him should he not make it in time. The pain and unbearable agony that would consume him. All of this gave rise to a fire in his chest as he raced across the courtyard and caught his wife and children from crashing to the ground.

The first thing he did after crashing into the ground was make sure that they were all breathing. He let out a large sigh of relief before sucking it back in a grunt of pain. He noticed that both his back and right leg were in serious pain. He barely noticed the large shadow that loomed over him.

Aladdin looked up just in time to see the possessed Darkside bring his fist crashing down on him.

Realizing that he didn't have any chance of evading, Aladdin tightened his hold in his family and braced for the end. After a few seconds of waiting Aladdin opened his eyes to see the first being held back by a familiar man.

“G-Genie?”

The former genie grunted with effort, his feet digging into the ground with each second. “A-always savin ya. Huh, Al?”

Before Aladdin could respond, he felt himself being lifted off of the ground by Twilight. Next to him, his wife and children hovered in a light blue magic aura. Twilight wasted no time in moving back toward Rarity.

“Genie!” he grunted.

“I know, I--” Twilight voice trailed off as she was interrupted by the sound of Jafar’s malicious laughter. She turned around just in time to see the man lifted into the air in a ball of darkness that was held in the Darkside’s palm.

“Genie? I must say, this new look suits you; weak and powerless. Before, you were merely second rate, but now--”

A blast to the face interrupted him. Over to his side, Twilight charged another magic missile. While he was still recovering, Spike and Pinkamena both attacked his torso, leaving a scorching X mark and forcing him to take few steps back. On one step his leg refused to lift and the Darkside fell backward completely, demolishing a section of the castle. The vines that surrounded his leg detached and zoomed toward the arm that still held their friend. They wrapped around it tightly and began pulling it down. Shia floated up to the Darkside’s face.

“Um, could you please consider the possibility of… well… letting out friend go?” she muttered.

Before she could get a reply however, something orange fell from the sky, crashing into the Darkside’s face with the force of a meteor. “Let em go, ya varmit!” AJ demanded as she continued to pound away at the Darkside’s face.

“Enough!” a booming voice echoed throughout the city. The sheer voice of it’s volume caused just about everyone to cover their ears. While they were defenceless, black tendrils of Darkness rose up from the ground, wrapping around everybody and forcing them to the ground. Shia and Dash both avoided the ground ones but were taken by surprise when they shot out from the nearby wall.

Slowly, the Darkside lifted itself back up and revealed that it had taken nearly no damage from the group’s assault.

“Verman, all of you!” Jafar’s voice echoed. He turned back to the man still held in his dark grip.  “It’s too late, his heart has already fallen into the darkness.”

“That’s not true!” Aladdin screamed.

The Darkside suddenly closed his grip and crushed the orb containing it’s prisoner, stunning everyone and causing Jafar to cackle crazilly. “See?” Jafar said, motioning to the dark mist that rose from his reopened palm,  “Nothing but darkness that will return to me.” The dark mist began to slowly drift towards the Darkside’s body, disappearing into it.

The possessed Darkside turned toward the group with a piercing gaze. “But this Darkness is trivial to what I will unleash upon you when the keyhole fully reopens.”

With another powerful yank the small Darksides caused the crack in the keyhole to nearly double in size. Countless heartless of various types began flowing from the keyhole and into the city. Flying heartless, fat heartless, large and small heartless. Each one different in appearance and power but each one equally capable of corrupting a heart.