It wasn't a short while after when Dawn, Kairi and the others had been thrown to their cells, by order of the Red Queen. They probably had a worse fate in store, so they were grateful that Hatter was able to provide a diversion, so they could be able to come with up an escape plan. Unfortunately, they weren't able to hold any group conferences together since two Card Soldiers had taken their post and were standing just a few feet away from their cells. If they were to think of anything, they'd have to keep it to themselves. Vanitas was bored out of his mind, as he took a piece of metal he found on the floor to scrape on his cell wall and drew random things. Dexeres, who was beside him, was deep in thought. They couldn't use their Keyblades to get out of their cells, since he was sure this would end up making a mess of things, sending the castle into an uproar. As long as the Card Soldiers remained, none of the Keyblade Wielders could even think of summoning their Keyblades to escape.
"This reminds me of something from a long time back..." Gilgamesh suddenly said. Dawn, who was right beside him, tilted her head.
"Of what, if I may ask?" she asked.
"Oh, well, it was the time when I first laid eyes on my most legendary of swords, Excalibur! I was a younger warrior back then, and I had just started my weapons collection, and as I roamed the land to find another perfect specimen to add to my collection, I had been imprisoned by a greedy king! I was locked in prison for quite a while, and every time the king would come to check on me, I would always admire his marvelous sword! One day, I proposed a deal to him! The deal was that we were to participate in a duel, and if I won, I'd get to have his sword, but if he won, he would be allowed to kill me! And so, he accepted those terms, and when we dueled, ha, I outsmarted him, and while he was quite the fine swordsman, I prevailed in the end and earned Excalibur, which I now proudly possess!" he explained, and Dawn looked at him questioningly.
"And, um...other than the whole being imprisoned part...how does this moment right now remind you of back then?" she asked.
"Well, it reminds me that now we are in the house of royalty! And as such, royals always put their pride above all else, so I reckon that if you challenged the Red Queen, we could be freed!" he suggested, and Dawn actually considered the idea, but one of the Card Soldiers laughed.
"Ha, the Queen will never accept a match with you in a million years!" the Card Soldier said.
"Oh, we'll see about that..." Gilgamesh whispered mischievously. Dawn smirked and knew that this would be a good idea. Then she looked over to Riku, who was on the cell right across from hers. He was wincing in pain, and Dawn felt horrible seeing him like this. Riku noticed Dawn's concerned face, and that's when he decided to suck up the pain.
"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm fine! I'm actually healing quite better than I expected! I'm at least able to fight, so that's good..." he said, but Dawn shook her head.
"Are you crazy!? If the Queen hadn't opened her mouth that moment, I'd have slapped you! You could've gotten hurt!" she exclaimed, and at that, Riku smiled.
"Dawn...I know that you're worried, but really, I'm fine...I just need a little more time to recover, that's all..." he said.
"When we get out of here, I'll finish tending to your wounds!" Dawn said.
"Quiet, both of you!" the other Card Soldier commanded, and they fell silent. Kairi was in the cell besides Riku's, and her mind seemed to be somewhere else. Mickey, who was with her, also seemed to be quite distant. No doubt he was probably still thinking that something had happened to Minnie and Disney Castle.
---
At that same moment, Alice was quickly walking through one of the hallways of the castle, when suddenly, Stayne came from out of the blue and cornered her, holding her close and breathing heavily on her. She was quite alarmed by this, but Stayne wouldn't let up.
"You are the most gorgeous creature that I have ever laid eyes on..." he whispered.
"S-stop that!" she protested.
"How is it that you've suddenly appeared like this...? Well, that doesn't matter...your beauty obviously rivals that of both the White and Red Queens..." he whispered, as he held Alice closer, but she was able to struggle out of his hold, and she backed away.
"Stay away from me!" she exclaimed, as she ran off as fast as she could. Stayne smirked and rubbed his chin.
"Oh, you will be mine, Um...of that much I can assure you..." he said, as he walked away.
After making sure that Stayne wasn't following her, Alice then resumed to walking, and then she made her way towards the Red Queen, who was in a fancy room, and she was sitting on a chair, while Hatter made hats for her. Alice could hear comments such as: too big, too small, not big enough, too heavy, and the like. Hatter was obviously starting to get annoyed, but he managed to maintain his composure, and then, as Alice walked in, the Red Queen stood up.
"Ah, Um, good, you're here!" she said.
"Hello, Your Majesty." she said as she bowed.
"And here I was, just about to look for you! Well, at least you saved me the trouble! Now then, come with me! We're going to put those nasty conspirators in their places!" the Queen proclaimed boldly, and then Hatter, in a last ditch effort to distract the Queen, brought out another hat, possibly his best one yet.
"Ah, wait, Your Majesty, before you go...wouldn't you like to try this majestic hat? It's the pride of my collection!" he boasted, and the Queen, who hesitated at first, then decided to head towards Hatter, and she chuckled excitedly.
"All right, put it on me!" she said. Then, Hatter put the hat on the Queen, and then he looked at Alice with relieved eyes, and she, in turn, gave him a relieved glance.
"Those people the Queen has imprisoned...some of them seem familiar...I could have sworn that I've met them before..." Alice thought to herself as she tried to recall where it is that she had met them. But then, her thoughts were cut short, as she was brought back to reality by the Queen, who was infuriated. Hatter was trying to calm her down, but the Queen's face had literally turned red! A woman, who was standing by the Queen's side, looked at Alice with disgust. Alice then knew she was in trouble.
"Is what this woman is saying to me true!? Was Stayne trying to fancy you!?" the Queen accused, and Alice stuttered for a moment, but then she stood firm.
"Yes, he tried to, but I swear, I didn't mean for any of it to happen. He's the one that came up on me!" she said, defending herself, and then, footsteps were heard coming from the hallway, and a startled Stayne was breathless.
"My Queen, I swear to you, what this woman is saying, it's all lies! She was trying to seduce me, to get to you!" he said, and the Queen's expression only turned worse.
"This is...unacceptable!!!" the Queen shouted furiously, and that's when everything was at its boiling point. Alice was doing her best not to break under the pressure. After all, the Queen didn't know her true name, so at least she was still safe! That is, until...
"Alice!!!" a familiar, small voice shouted. When everyone looked down, it was the little white mouse from Hatter's house, and when she realized what she had done, she gasped and covered her mouth. That's when the Red Queen's eyes flared up, and now things were getting even worse! Hatter raised his hands in the air.
"Run!!!" he shouted, and instantly, Alice ran away. The Queen, her face full with anger, tapped her foot on the floor, and then she raised her hand.
"Capture her, and off with her head!!!" she shouted, and her command was echoed practically throughout the entire castle, and all the Card Soldiers began their pursuit.
---
Back in the prison cells, the Red Queen's voice echoed through, and the Card Soldiers immediately spurred into action. They didn't want to anger their Queen any further, so they left the cells unguarded without the slightest bit of hesitation! And now, Dawn knew that this was their time to act. As soon as the last Card Soldier left his post, the Keyblade Wielders summoned their Keyblades, and they got out of their cells effortlessly, and then they went upwards and approached the garden where they had been through before. To the far right, in one of the hallways, they could see a considerable amount of Card Soldiers pursuing none other than Alice! Kairi knew that Alice needed a chance to escape, so she went towards Dawn and tugged at her arm.
"Dawn, we have to distract the Card Soldiers so Alice can get away!" she said, and Dawn nodded.
"Right! Come on everyone, let's go!" she said, and everyone charged towards their foes. Dawn walked over to Riku and touched his face and then kissed his lips lovingly, and he kissed back. They then pulled away.
"Are you sure that you're alright?" she asked, and Riku nodded.
"Dawn, I can do this, don't worry about it!" he reassured, and after a few seconds, Dawn nodded, and they went towards their friends, as increasing numbers of Card Soldiers surrounded them. The Red Queen herself stood in front of them, Stayne tagging along as well. She then pointed at the Keyblade Wielders.
"I knew it! Accomplices!!! It'll be off with all their heads!" she shouted furiously, and the Card Soldiers quickly charged towards them.
Riku and Mickey stood back to back and they formed an impenetrable wall of light and darkness, and in addition, they cast Thundaga on the wall, ensuring that anyone who would attempt to pass would end up being stunned and paralyzed. A good number of Card Soldiers weren't able to pass through, but the ones that were already inside the wall were still quite numerous, and some of them stronger looking than others. Dexeres again tried to summon his Nobodies, but to no avail, and so he resorted to stabbing his Keyblade into the ground, then using his powers of Twilight to form a sigil around him. After a few seconds, spikes came out of the ground and pierced through numerous Card Soldiers, while the others dodged the spikes. Vanitas tried summoning his Unversed, but he couldn't, and he cursed under his breath, questioning himself as to why he couldn't be able to summon his allies. But, with no time for thought, he simply leapt back and enveloped himself in a sphere of darkness, multiple shadowy copies of himself emerging every few seconds to strike everywhere, taking out numerous foes. Kairi made sure to cast Haste, Protect, and Curaga, all the while holding her own against the numerous foes surrounding them. Gilgamesh laughed gleefully the whole time.
"Ah, how glorious! It seems we didn't have to resort to battling the Queen in a duel after all! All we had to do was wait for a ruckus to occur, and voila, here is where we are now!" he said as he effortlessly dispatched numerous Card Soldiers with his Katanas.
"It would seem so. But then, this means that the Red Queen didn't know that the blonde woman was Alice...which means that someone must have accidentally blown her cover!" Dawn suggested, as she repelled the unrelenting foes with Firaga.
"Could it have been the funny looking man with the hat?" Gilgamesh asked, and Dawn quickly shook her head.
"No, I doubt it. Hatter's crazy, but he's not that crazy! He wouldn't expose anyone like that!" she quickly answered.
"Well, whatever the case may be, it seems Alice managed to get away!" Gilgamesh said as he pointed out. And indeed, Dawn noticed that Alice had made her escape. And now it was high time she and her friends did the same. With that, she signaled everyone at once.
"Everyone, run!!!" she shouted, and instantly, everyone started running as fast as they could.
"Conspirators!!! They are conspirators!!! Get them!!!" the Queen demanded, her voice echoing throughout the hallways.
The Keyblade Wielders were now running all over the castle, trying to find the exit as fast as they could. They descended the higher floors of the castle and then proceeded to go through a few rooms, a giant pool, a giant dining room, and an expansive courtyard. The more they continued to run, the more Card Soldiers came, and it seemed that there was an endless horde of them! But, right now, none of the Keyblade Wielders had the strength to endure a lengthy fight. Granted, they could hold their own, but with the exhaustion they've carried since the battle with Xylek, they couldn't afford to stand and fight for too long. And so, they did nothing more than run. Vanitas launched multiple Firaga spheres and Blizzaga crystals in the hopes of slowing their pursuers down. And, for the moment, it seemed to work, as numerous Card Soldiers were being incinerated or frozen solid. The others panicked and tried to free their hapless comrades from their predicament! Mickey suddenly saw a shining light in the distance.
"Everyone, over there! I think that's the exit!" he shouted, and everyone ran faster, until finally, they made it outside, and luckily, the drawbridge was lowered, so they could finally get out of this crazy castle! But then, suddenly, a cloaked person appeared before them, and they all came to a sudden stop.
"Huh? Who are you!?" Kairi demanded, and the cloaked person, whose body indicated was a woman, crossed her arms and simply stood there.
"Well, aren't you the lively bunch? I can see why my higher ups wanted to keep an eye on you." the woman remarked casually. At that, the Keyblade Wielders glanced at each other.
"Higher ups? What are you talking about?" Dexeres asked. The woman simply snapped her fingers.
"None of your concern...what matters is that you are taken care of..." she said, and with that, a giant Unborn Heartless hybrid appeared in front of them, and the cloaked woman disappeared into a portal of darkness. The Keyblade Wielders were overwhelmed for a moment, but then they quickly summoned their Keyblades, and even though they weren't exactly at full strength, they were still ready for battle!
"Guys, let's take this thing out before the Card Soldiers gain on us!" Vanitas suggested, and everyone nodded.
"Right, let's do this!" Mickey shouted, and with that, the battle began!
And so, the Unborn Heartless hybrid, who looked like a mixture between a jester and a knight, and who donned armor similar looking to the Card Soldiers, summoned two gigantic swords, and they lit up on fire! It instantly swung its swords, setting the surrounding area up in flames! The Keyblade Wielders were almost burnt to crisps, but luckily, Mickey was able to create a barrier that repelled the flames from them. Kairi then quickly cast Shell on everyone, and they went towards their foe. Gilgamesh climbed up the right arm of the Unborn Heartless hybrid, and proceeded to slash away at it with his numerous weapons. Kairi then climbed up on its left arm, and delivered multiple strikes with her Keyblade, then infusing it with elemental magic, and then she leapt off from the left arm and fired a barrage of quick spells, like how Sora would do so in his Wisdom Form! Riku shot multiple spheres of darkness at its feet, trying to make the colossal beast fall, but the darn thing was quite persistent! Vanitas teleported up to their foe's head and slashed away at it using his Dark Splicer attack, and he managed to stun the best momentarily.
"Okay guys, we need some quick thinking! What do we do now!?" Riku shouted. In the distance, the footsteps of the Card Soldiers could be heard.
"Damn, we're running out of time!" Dexeres exclaimed.
"Fellas, we could try throwing it into that river down below!" Mickey pointed out, and everyone momentarily looked at the river Mickey mentioned, and they saw that it was tainted with blood, and what seemed to be...the decapitated heads of many poor souls! Dawn instantly felt sick to her stomach, and then the Unborn Heartless hybrid roared, and everyone regained their focus, and they were barely able to dodge one of the foe's attacks.
"Everyone, we're almost out of time! We need to take this thing out already!" Kairi shouted.
And so, everyone intensified their attacks, doing their best with the time given to them to take down their foe, but their foe wouldn't give in so easily. Vanitas attempted to bind the creature's legs in order to keep it in place, but his attempt was unsuccessful. Then, Dexeres cast Seeker Mine, and although the spell was able to hit its mark, the creature remained without a scratch. Riku cast Dark Firaga, and actually made a dent in their foe's armor, and that's when Kairi, Dawn, Mickey and Gilgamesh swooped in and delivered as many fatal attacks as they could, and from the looks of it, their onslaught bore results, and for the better, it seemed! Gilgamesh then threw numerous daggers, and Mickey infused them with the power of light, and then Kairi and Dawn cast explosive Firaga Mines on the daggers, and when the daggers finally reached their foe, it exploded in a fiery blaze of light!
"Did we defeat it!?" Mickey asked.
"We're about to find out..." Riku said, half cautious. The footsteps of the Card Soldiers could be heard coming closer.
"Damn it, they've almost gained on us! We have no time left!" Vanitas exclaimed, and then, from the fiery explosion, the Unborn Heartless hybrid came out, considerably damaged, but still able to fight. The Keyblade Wielders were taken aback by this.
"What!? We didn't defeat it!?" Kairi asked in shock.
"It would seem we weren't able to deliver a fatal enough blow!" Dawn said, as they prepared for the inevitable. Suddenly, from the sky, a huge sigil materialized, and from that sigil, a beam of light shot down towards the Keyblade Wielders, and just like that, they seemingly vanished. The Unborn Heartless hybrid, seeing that they were no longer in sight, vanished as well. When the Red Queen, Stayne and the Card Soldiers finally managed to catch up, they noticed that their prisoners had escaped. The Red Queen was furious to no end.
"I will not tolerate those conspirators running free! Stayne, you had better find those wretched fiends, even if it is the last thing you ever do!" she said as she grabbed him by his arm. He bowed his head.
"Of course, Your Majesty...everyone, move out!" he commanded, as he and the Card Soldiers started their search.
---
The Keyblade Wielders suddenly fell to the ground with a thud, and they were in quite a daze. At first, they couldn't make out where they were, but only because they were very dizzy. But after they took a moment to regain themselves, they noticed that they were in a familiar place...The Mysterious Tower! Everyone proceeded to walk towards the entrance, and they all looked at each other.
"Gosh fellas, it looks like Yen Sid's magic saved us back there! We should give him our thanks!" Mickey suggested, and the others nodded.
"Agreed. Plus, we'll need a plan on how to deal with the impending Keyblade War, and if there's anyone who can help, it's Yen Sid. And besides...we weren't able to find Sora, Donald, Goofy and Xion, so we need to make haste and rest well so we can be able to look for them as soon as possible!" Dexeres said. Everyone nodded.
"Right. Come on, let's go to Yen Sid!" Kairi said.
And with that, everyone opened the door and went inside. They climbed up the stairs until they reached the top of the tower, and once there, they went into Yen Sid's study. He was standing on the far side of the room, looking out through the window, with his hands behind his back. He seemed to have his head bowed, as if he was meditating. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather were huddled up nearby, all of them in hushed conversation. They sounded terribly worried! When the Keyblade Wielders reached Yen Sid's desk, the old wizard turned around and nodded to them in greeting. His face bore an expression of relief.
"I see that all of you were able to make it here. I am very relieved that I was able to use my magic in time!" the old wizard said as he sat down on his chair, closed his eyes and stroked his beard.
"Yes, thank you very much for saving us, Yen Sid. We were in quite the predicament! If it hadn't been for your magic, we would've certainly been defeated!" Kairi said as she bowed, and everyone followed suit. Yen Sid remained quiet for a few seconds, and then he opened his eyes.
"Things are dire now....much too dire, I'm afraid. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Xion are separated from the rest of you, and the enemy is fast approaching, making their move as we speak...we have been caught off guard by Xylek's machinations...it seems that even now, his actions still beget consequences..." he said with a deep tone of concern in his voice.
"We need to formulate a plan! With things standing as they are now, we can't afford to waste a single minute! The entire universe, and countless other universes are at stake here! If we don't do something, the Keyblade War will bring nothing but ruin!" Dexeres exclaimed, and everyone remained silent.
"Yes...we must take action, and swiftly..." Yen Sid said as he stood up.
---
Meanwhile, in The Lanes Between, Kyle continues to push forward, determined to find his parents and his friends! In his right hand, he held something firmly. He opened his hand momentarily, and then he gazed upon a small, silver, heart shaped locket, and then he opened it and saw a picture of himself with Ventus and Trish. He then closed the locket and held it tightly to his chest. This locket was a gift he deeply treasured. And as such, he needed to see this through. He needed to find his parents! Suddenly, Kyle saw something in the distance. At first glance, it appeared to be a black spot, but then, as he got closer, he noticed that it was a ship! And not just any ship...but a pirate ship!
"I have to be careful..." he said to himself. He didn't want to waste time fighting pirates, so he tried to fly past the pirate ship as fast as he could, but then, the pirate ship started giving chase!
"Damn, not this now!" Kyle said, and with that, he thrust his Keyblade Glider at high speed, doing his best to get as far away from the pirate ship as he could! But he found the effort useless, since the pirate ship was gaining on him!
"It looks like...I'll have no other choice than to fight!" Kyle said, and with that, he turned his Keyblade Glider around, and thrust forward towards the pirate ship, ready for battle!
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The Keyblade Wielders were barely able to escape a sticky situation thanks to Yen Sid's magic, but what course of action will they take now? Will they be able to come up with a good enough plan? And how will Kyle's battle with the pirates turn out? Stay tuned for the next chapter, as the story shifts perspective to Kyle in Chapter Five: "Sky And Raxon."