Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Down.

Down.

Down.

Sinking slowly, deeper into darkness.

Three dreamers, one dream.

On three different worlds, three different minds are having, at the same time, the same dream. They cannot see each other, cannot hear each other, but the founder of the dream can see and hear them all. He speaks from the void, his voice deep and powerful and silent:

So much to do, so little time… 

Each of the three dreamers find themselves standing at the top of a tower made of stained glass. The colorful panes of glass depict fanciful images of characters they do not recognize.

Take your time. Don’t be afraid. The door is still shut.

As each of the dreamers steps forward, three pedestals rise from the tower around them, a magical item floating above each one.

Power sleeps within you. If you give it form, it will give you strength. Choose well.

Above the first pedestal floats a silver sword with a golden hilt. Above the second pedestal floats a crimson kite shield. Above the third pedestal floats a green and blue magical staff. Each of these items is emblazoned with a sigil that none of the dreamers recognize, made from three intersecting circles. As the dreamers approach these items to inspect them, the voice gives a description.

Of the sword it says, The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction.

Of the shield it says, The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all.

Of the staff it says, The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin.

The first of the dreamers chooses the Shield without hesitation. The second of the dreamers deliberates between the Sword and the Shield, but in the end chooses the Sword. The third of the dreamers examines all three thoughtfully before at last choosing the Staff.

Now, what will you give up in exchange?

The first and third dreamers both choose to give up the Sword; the second dreamer gives up the Staff.

Your path is set. Use this power to protect yourself and others.

The stained glass floor shatters into colorful shards, and the dreamers fall through the disintegrating cloud of colors into the darkness below. After a moment of terror, they each find themselves outside their childhood home, no longer falling through darkness but instead facing three of their childhood friends.

Hold on. The door won’t open just yet. First, tell me more about yourself.

One friend asks, “What’s most important to you?”

The first dreamer answers, “Being my true self.”

The second dreamer answers, “Rising above expectations.”

The third dreamer answers, “Learning new things.”

The friend responds to each, “Is that really such a big deal?”

Another friend asks, “What do you want out of life?”

The first dreamer answers, “The freedom to live it.”

The second dreamer answers, “The comforts of success.”

The third dreamer answers, “To broaden my horizons.”

The friend responds to each, “Oh, is that all?”

The final friend asks, “What are you so afraid of?”

The first dreamer answers, “Losing my voice.”

The second dreamer answers, "Being revealed as a fraud.”

The third dreamer answers, “Never having another adventure.”

The friend responds to each, “Is that really so scary?”

Once all the answers have been given, the three friends begin to melt into shadows. Every detail of their bodies dissolves into darkness, with the exception of their eyes, which turn a glowing unblinking yellow.

Your adventure begins in the dead of night. Your road won’t be easy, but a rising sun awaits your journey’s end.

The dreamers are once again standing atop a stained glass tower, now surrounded by small horrible yellow-eyed monsters made of shadow. Each dreamer finds themselves holding the weapon that they had chosen at the beginning of the dream.

There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong.

The first dreamer fights cautiously and defensively, striking out at the shadow monsters only when safe and mostly hiding behind the shield.

The second dreamer fights with great agility, clearly no stranger to combat. The sword flashes with blinding speed, striking out at the shadows as the dreamer easily evades their attacks.

The third dreamer fights strategically, striking physically with the staff when necessary but primarily using knowledge of spellcraft to dominate the battlefield with magic.

Once the last of the strange small shadow monsters is defeated, the strong silent voice from the void speaks again:

The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes.

Each of the dreamers turns around to see their own shadow rising up from the stained glass floor, stretching and growing into a towering beast of shadow, vaguely humanoid with glowing yellow eyes and a great hollow heart carved into the middle of its chest.

But don’t be afraid. And don’t forget…

Each dreamer finds themselves paralyzed, unable to move, unable to scream, as the great shadow monster rears back to strike.

…You hold the mightiest weapon of all.

The shadow monster’s great clawed hand speeds toward the dreamers, and with a sudden gasp, they each awaken in their own home.

Three dreamers. Three worlds. One new adventure.

Chapter Text

Ariel woke with a start from her dream. She put a hand over her chest to feel her pounding heart, trying to calm her breathing. It was just a dream, she told herself. She took a deep breath, savoring the sensation of breathing air, still a relatively new sensation to the once princess of the ocean. She distracted herself from the strange dream by wiggling her toes, an activity that still never failed to make her giggle giddily. She had really done it; she was living where the people are, as part of their world!

Ariel turned to look at her new husband, Prince Eric, sleeping soundly in their bed. She could still hardly believe it. It had only been a week since their wedding, and everything was all still so fresh and new to her. With a small smile, she sighed happily and told herself, Now I really am the girl who has everything.

—

Aladdin sat bolt upright in bed, grasping for a sword that wasn’t there. Carpet popped up expectantly, looking for the danger, while Abu snored groggily. Aladdin sighed and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Sorry, Carpet. It was just a bad dream.” It was still the middle of the night, but Aladdin wasn’t sure he could get back to sleep after that, so he decided to get up and go for a walk around the palace.

At Jasmine’s request, the Sultan had been kind enough to offer Aladdin a room in the palace so he didn’t have to keep living on the street. He and Jasmine had been officially courting for a little over a week now, not counting their time together when he was pretending to be Prince Ali. Palace life was much better than life on the street of course, and it’s been nice to be able to date Jasmine without constantly hiding his true self, but it’s a bittersweet kind of joy with the Genie gone. They hadn’t known each other all that long, but they had grown quite close in their time together. And now with Genie off seeing the world and Aladdin no longer on the run from the guards, his life, though pleasantly comfortable in all the ways he had always wanted, was unfamiliarly quiet.

—

Belle suddenly lifted her head, blinking a few times as she tried to get her bearings. She had fallen asleep in the library again, her head resting in her latest book of spells. What a strange dream, she thought to herself, stretching out her shoulders. I need to break this habit of falling asleep in my books, she told herself. It isn’t good for my back.

She stood up and stretched, looking around at her library. She smiled at the thought that it is her library; the room and all its hundreds of books were hers, a gift from the Beast—or, Prince Adam as she should get used to calling him. Now that the curse had been lifted, Belle and her father Maurice had moved out of the poor provincial town where everyone hated them, and into Prince Adam’s castle where their intelligence was actually appreciated. There had been much to do to get the castle back up and running without the enchantments, so Belle had been left largely to her own devices in the week since. She had spent that time in her library, studying the books of magic she found there. She had begun her studies shortly after the Beast had gifted her the library, but this past week she had been particularly studious, growing in skill and knowledge as a fledgling Wizard.

—

Three dreamers. Three worlds. One new adventure.

As each of them slowly woke from their strange dream, there was a rumble as of an earthquake.

—

Ariel, having never experienced an earthquake before, panicked, pulling the blanket up to her chin. “Eric! What’s happening!?” she asked frantically.

Eric sat up, his eyes opening and quickly scanning the dark room. “I don’t know. It seems like an earthquake, but…” the rumbling got louder, as though getting closer. Eric lit a lamp on the bedside table, and he and Ariel both gasped as the light only illuminated half of the room. A wall of shadow, black as pitch, was moving slowly toward them from across the room.

Eric quickly got between the shadow and Ariel, saying “Don’t worry, I’ll protect y—” and then he vanished as the darkness washed over him. Ariel scrambled unsteadily to her feet, still not used to bipedal locomotion, and did her best to run.

—

Aladdin whirled on his heel as he felt the rumbling in the ground. Abu scampered out of their room and up his leg, perching on his shoulder and grabbing at his face in a panic. Afraid that Jafar might have found some way to return, Aladdin whistled for Carpet as he began to run. When Carpet caught up, he hopped on, steering them toward the castle armory. Unfortunately, when they turned a corner, Carpet stopped suddenly, seeing their way blocked by a solid wall of obsidian darkness.

“Carpet! Turn around! Find Jasmine!” Aladdin shouted, yanking on Carpet’s tassels. They flew back the way they had come, headed toward Jasmine’s room, but when they got there they found her room already shrouded in creeping shadow. “I wish Genie was here,” Aladdin groaned as he steered Carpet away again. As shadow encroached on them from both sides, they were forced to fly out of a window and toward the Agrabah marketplace. Abu shrieked in horror as he looked behind them, seeing the entire palace enveloped in shadow… a shadow that seemed to be chasing them.

—

As the rumbling shook the library, Belle glanced around worriedly. That’s odd, she thought. Earthquakes are hardly common in this part of the world… She picked up the candelabra from the table and got up to investigate, when she noticed that the candlelight stopped at the end of the room. Her eyes widened as she saw that the wall of shadow was slowly creeping toward her. Quickly, she grabbed her book of spells and turned the other way, only to almost drop the book in horror as she saw another approaching wall of darkness coming from the other direction.

She was trapped in her library.

As the opposing walls of darkness came closer and closer, they slowed, eventually stopping a few dozen yards apart. Belle squinted her eyes to try to make out any details. The walls of darkness almost seemed to be bulging outward away from her, as though she were standing in a bubble of light walled in by a convex film of shadow. She stepped toward one, hoping that perhaps it was the light from her candle holding them at bay, and that she could push it further back by getting closer, but this was not the case. As she got closer to one of the walls though, she started to see details in it, as though a reflection in a dark mirror or an image through a dark window.

The darkness itself seemed to have spiderweb like cracks through it, as though she were looking through shattered glass, and on the other side she could just make out… something… not her library, but some other place. Not any place she recognized, in fact it almost seemed like… she squinted to focus through the darkness… like a marketplace in a desert town.

—

Ariel fled from Eric’s castle, wending her way through the town, trying to get to the beach, to the ocean. Her father King Triton would know what to do! Unfortunately, she wasn’t halfway through town when she saw another wall of shadow coming straight at her, from the direction of the beach. She turned to the left, hoping to find a way around it, but to her horror the darkness was coming from that way, too. It seemed to be coming from all directions, penning her in in the town square.

Eventually the walls slowed and stopped, a few dozen yards apart, with one building wholly within the bubble of shadow: the general store. Ariel ran up to the door, only to find it locked—it was, after all, the middle of the night. She began knocking fiercely, shouting, “Help! Please!”

She felt a tingle in her throat as she used her voice; ever since she had gotten her voice back from that wicked enchantress Ursula, it seemed to tingle with residual magic. She hadn’t yet tried to use it for anything, afraid of what it could mean, but in desperation she commanded the door, “Open!” There was a loud knocking sound as the door unlocked itself. Quickly, she opened it and ran inside. As she whirled around to close the door behind her, she saw several pairs of yellow eyes peeking out of the shadow, as several strange small shadow monsters began creeping into the bubble of light.

—

As Aladdin sped toward the market on Carpet, from his vantage point high in the sky he could see the circumference of shadow closing in from the horizon on all sides. He aimed for where he judged to be the center of that circle, as that would put him farthest away from the encroaching walls of shadow. When he got there, he started looking around for a weapon of some kind. Not that a blade would be of much use against an incorporeal wall of darkness, but if this was some ploy of Jafar or some other evil sorcerer, Aladdin would feel more comfortable facing whoever it was with a sword in his hand.

As he looked around, he felt a strange tingle in the palm of his hand. He looked at it expectantly, not sure what the feeling meant. Somehow, instinctively, he knew there was magic at work, and that he was just on the cusp of activating it, as though it were a word on the tip of his tongue. Not knowing precisely what he was doing, nor how he was doing it, he drew his hand through the air as though pulling a sword from a sheathe, willing the magic to activate.

With a tinkling sound as of a handful of chimes and a shower of starry sparkles, something appeared in Aladdin’s hand. The weight and balance of it felt like he was holding a sword—and one ideally suited for his arm at that—but in appearance it resembled nothing so much as a gigantic key. Instinctively, though again he didn’t know how or why, he knew that this thing in his hand was called The Keyblade, and that it was an enchanted sword of considerable magical power. As the walls of shadow closed in around him, he readied the blade in two hands, preparing to fight whatever was to come.

—

From her library, Belle watched through the cracked obsidian wall with fascination as a young man arrived in the place she could see, riding on a flying carpet. She was of course very familiar with enchanted objects like this, but she had only known those that were under the same enchantress’ curse as the Beast. With even more wonderment, she watched as the young man pulled a great key out of thin air, and then proceeded to hold it as though it were a sword.

Before she could wonder too long about that, she heard a skittering sound behind her. She whirled around to see a pair of yellow eyes scuttling along the ground toward her. With a shock of surprise, she recognized it as the same shadow monsters she had fought in her strange dream last night. Had it been a divination? Some sort of prophetic dream, triggered accidentally by a spell she was working on?

There would be time to worry about that later. For now, she whispered an incantation and traced a somatic rune in the air with her hand, weaving the necessary spellcraft to cause one of the tongues of flame from her candelabra to burst forth, striking at the strange shadow monster with magical fire. It worked! The strange monster flickered and dissolved into a wisp of shadowy smoke which then faded away to nothing.

—

Ariel opened the door just a crack and peeked outside. She didn’t see any monsters, but she knew they were out there somewhere; she had seen a glimpse of them just before slamming the door shut. Quickly, she shut the door again and started looking around the general store for something, anything she could use to defend herself. She found a set of kitchen knives on a shelf, and grabbed the biggest meat cleaver from among them, holding it in front of her in both hands. Her hands were shaking, as she had never used a weapon before, and she still felt shaky and unbalanced walking on land; she would be much braver and more confident if she were in the water with her old fin back. There were many reasons she was incredibly glad to be a human, but being a mermaid was still much more familiar to her.

She jumped and almost dropped the knife when she saw one of those small shadow monsters squeezing in under the doorframe. It seemed to slide along the ground perfectly flat, as though it were just a shadow cast by an object, but then once it was inside, it stood up from the floor, its beady yellow eyes staring emptily at her.

Bracing herself and summoning all of her courage, Ariel lunged forward and swung at it with the cleaver. The blade passed right through the monster as though it were made of smoke, having no effect that she could see. Panicking, she stepped back and threw the knife at it. It thudded into the floor at the monster’s feet, clearly stuck straight through it, but the monster didn’t even seem to notice, its glowing yellow eyes still focused on her. In desperation, she filled her voice with power and shrieked, a wordless scream forcing sonic power into the air around her. The air rippled with a thunderclap, and the shadow monster flinched as though struck, then seemed to pop like a smoke bubble, dissipating into the air.

Ariel couldn’t help but smile as she mustered her courage. She had once faced down a great white shark and escaped from it unscathed, and that had been without any magic. She might still be unsteady on her feet, but she could handle this. With the power of her voice, she knew she could do this.

—

Aladdin whirled as he heard a scream, followed by a sound like a thunderclap. It sounded close by, yet also muffled as though far away. Looking in that direction, he saw nothing but a wall of obsidian darkness… though, as he squinted and looked closer, he could see spidery cracks in the darkness, and through it he could see… a building? But a building unlike any in Agrabah, in a town square unlike any town he had ever seen. The ground wasn’t sand, for one thing. Where was that? And why was it suddenly right here?

Hearing another voice, he turned to look in a different direction and saw… a library?? Through the darkened glass-like wall of shadow, he could make out what looked like a young woman holding a candelabra, making a strange motion with her hand. She seemed to be saying something, though her words were muffled so he couldn’t make them out, but then suddenly the candle in her hand flared and the fire jumped from it toward… what was THAT!?

He got his answer as an identical creature to the one that woman had just incinerated crawled out of the shadow wall toward him. He recognized it as one of the strange shadow monsters he had fought in the dream… was he still dreaming? None of this made any sense. The shadow creature lunged toward him, and without thinking he swung the Keyblade at it. It connected, and the monster was torn asunder by the strange key, dissolving into shadowy smoke that dissipated into nothingness.

“Hey, you! With the candle!” Aladdin called out. “Who are you? What’s happening?”

—

Belle turned back to the wall of shadow as she heard the young man there call out to her. So he could see her as well! Fascinating… She wasn’t sure if she dared approach the wall, as it seemed to have consumed what of her library had been behind it, and replaced it with this… other world. But she called out in reply to his question, “My name is Belle, and I don’t know what’s happening! It seems like some kind of magical anomaly, perhaps caused by these shadow creatures!”

Their conversation was interrupted by another rumbling, louder and closer than before, and Belle’s attention was drawn sideways to another part of the wall. She could see yet another different world in the direction that she had heard a scream and a thunderclap moments ago, but at the point directly between that landscape and the one with the young man and the flying carpet, there was rising something much more terrifying. Another shadow monster, but not one of the small skittery ones; a towering hulking monstrosity with a hollow heart shape carved out of its chest. Her stomach lurched as she recognized it as the monster that had ended the dream by crushing her.

She started mentally flipping through her spellbook, trying to remember if she knew any magic of a type and power that would be useful here. She hadn’t had much cause to or interest in learning combat magic; the simple flame spell she had used moments ago was one of the few spells she knew that had any combat utility at all. Still, she supposed it was better than nothing, and she began reciting the incantation again, drawing the rune in the air with her hand…

—

Ariel poked her head out of the building, and her face went white as she saw, not another small shadow monster, but a huge shadow monster. The perspective made it difficult to look at; it seemed to be somehow straddling the wall of darkness, or perhaps rising up from it, or even made out of it? It was hard to tell, and almost gave her double-vision when she tried to look at it too hard.

She swallowed hard, feeling the tingle of power at the back of her throat. This monster out of her nightmares terrified her, so she would turn that fear against it. She gathered her magic on her tongue and began to whisper dissonantly at it, trying to use her magic to make it as afraid as she was.

She couldn’t read it well enough to tell if it was afraid, but it certainly lurched in reaction to her whisper. She had managed to hurt it at least a little bit. She kept up the dissonant whispers, driving the magic of her voice deep into the shadow thing’s mind. From across the shadow wall there was a burst of fire, and it seemed to reel in pain from that as well. Someone on the other side is fighting it too! Ariel thought excitedly, as she forced more power into her spell. We can take it down together!

—

Aladdin locked eyes with the huge monstrosity that rose up from the shadow wall between worlds. It reeled in pain as it was hit by magic from the other side, yet its eyes remained focused on the oversized key in Aladdin’s hands. It reared back, a ball of black shadow forming in one of its hands, then it threw the shadowy sphere straight at Aladdin.

Aladdin ducked to the side, just barely dodging the dark sphere. The ball of shadow missed Aladdin and instead collided directly with Carpet. Carpet and the dark sphere both scattered into black smoke, dissipating into the air. "Carpet! NO!" Aladdin shouted. The monster drew back, preparing to throw another sphere. Aladdin didn’t intend to give it the opportunity. He gripped the Keyblade in both hands and charged forward, stopping just shy of the wall and swinging with all his might into the place where the monster rose out of the wall.

There was a loud cracking sound as of glass breaking, as the obsidian wall at the creature’s feet seemed to shatter, leaving black smoky tendrils in its wake. The giant monster screamed in pain, a horrible grating sound like nails on a chalkboard. It struck out with one of its great clawed hands, but Aladdin dodged the strike, bringing the Keyblade down onto the back of its wrist before it could draw it back.

It seemed to be taking more hits from the other side of the shadow wall as well, groaning and shrieking in pain. Aladdin dodged another thrown ball of shadow, lined up a strike, and charged, slamming the point of the Keyblade directly into the creature’s base. There was another shattering sound, then a strange sort of sucking sound as the creature dissolved into black smoke. But instead of dissipating into the air as the small shadow creatures had done, the smoke began to swirl down into the ground.

—

All three dreamers had a sickening sensation of vertigo as the swirling smoke seemed to pull their entire worlds down with it, sucked into a shadowy whirlpool until, with a gurgling burp, all became darkness.

Chapter Text

Down, down, down they sank, through shadow and the void. After measureless time, they landed softly upon the ground. Looking around, they found themselves in the same landscape they had left, but without the dark obsidian walls separating them. The sandy market stalls of Agrabah stood next to Ariel’s oceanside-village square, and both of them bordered Belle’s now open and wall-less library, standing free in the open where the shadow bubble had severed it from its old reality. And surrounding these three disparate pieces was a landscape even more eclectic than this: every few dozen yards in any direction, a new pocket of landscape started, most with buildings or parts of buildings, each with a different type of ground beneath them, stretching as far as the eye could see—which, in this maze-like streetless collection of buildings, was not actually all that far in any one direction. It was like a dense forest of buildings, with no organized roads between them, only the twisting chaotic alleyways naturally formed by the random position of disorganized disconnected buildings.

This was Traverse Town, the Pacific Garbage Patch of the multiverse, where the flotsam and jetsam of destroyed worlds collected at the bottom of the drain to form a conglomerate world all its own.

Aladdin was the first to move, pushing himself up and immediately raising the strange Keyblade, his eyes scanning the chaotic skyline of mismatched rooftops and twisting alleyways. "Is everyone okay?"

Belle sat up, brushing dust from her blue and white dress, her eyes wide not with fear, but with overwhelming curiosity. "I believe so. Just… disoriented. This place… it's impossible."

Ariel pushed a lock of vibrant red hair from her face, her legs trembling slightly as she tried to stand. "Eric… the castle… it was all swallowed by that darkness."

Aladdin offered her a hand, helping her to her feet. His expression was grim. "Same with Agrabah. It took the whole palace. Jasmine was in there…" He shook his head, forcing the panic down. "My name's Aladdin, and this is Abu," he said, gesturing to his shoulder. A small monkey poked its head out from Aladdin’s vest where it was hiding, tipping its little fez and saying "Ewwo!"

"Hello," Ariel said quietly, smiling at the monkey while doing her best to hold back tears. "I’m Ariel."

"And I’m Belle," Belle added, her gaze finally pulling away from the architectural chaos to focus on Ariel. "I saw you through the… the darkness. You did magic with just your voice?"

Ariel nodded, a faint blush coloring her cheeks. "It's new. I'm still learning. And you used fire magic?"

"It's from my books," Belle explained, gesturing to the spellbook she still clutched protectively. "I've only just begun to study."

Aladdin hefted the Keyblade. "And this thing just… appeared. It’s called The Keyblade, though I’m not sure how I know that. It's what finished off that big shadow."

"When you’re attuned to a magic item, you learn its properties automatically," Belle recited. "Or at least, so I’ve read. But attuning takes time and effort and physical contact with the item. I've never heard of anyone becoming attuned to a magic item unknowingly and involuntarily and without touching it first."

The three fell into an uneasy silence, the reality of their situation settling in. They were from different worlds, brought together by a cataclysm of shadow. Everything they knew was gone.

"We can't just stand here," Aladdin said, his street-rat instincts taking over. "We need to find out where we are, and if anyone else is here. Maybe there's someone who knows what those shadow things are."

Belle nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. This place seems to be a confluence of… everything. There must be other survivors."

Ariel, though clearly frightened, set her jaw with a determined look they would soon come to know well. "Then let's stick together. My father always said the ocean is less dangerous when you swim with a school."

Cautiously, they picked a direction—a narrow alley between a thatched-roof cottage and a sleek, metallic wall that hummed with unknown energy. The air in Traverse Town was cool and carried a mélange of smells: baking bread, ozone, sea salt, and desert dust, all swirling together without any logical source. Many buildings had torches, lanterns, or electric lights, but none of them were lit; the landscape was lit only by the faint ambient light cast by the starscape above. Belle took a pinch of wychwood out of a pouch at her hip, whispered a magic incantation and traced a rune in the air, and the pinch of wychwood transformed into a small floating ball of light, lighting their way.

They had wandered for only a few minutes when a skittering sound from a pile of discarded wooden crates made them freeze. From the darkness, three pairs of glowing yellow eyes emerged, followed by the familiar, insect-like forms of the small shadow creatures.

"Not again," Aladdin muttered, stepping forward and raising the Keyblade.

Ariel gathered power in her throat, then let out a sharp, concussive note that struck the closest of the creatures, causing it to stumble and dissolve into smoke.

Belle was already tracing a rune in the air, whispering the incantation. A bolt of fire shot from her fingertips, engulfing a second of the shadow creatures.

Aladdin lunged at the third, the Keyblade flashing in the soft magical light. It connected with a solid thwack , and the creature vanished. The trio stood back-to-back, breathing heavily, waiting for more.

"They're weaker here," Aladdin observed. "Or we're getting better at this."

A new voice, low and laced with a weary gravel, cut through the alley. "Or you just got lucky."

They spun around. Leaning against a doorway they could have sworn was empty a moment before was a man. He was tall, clad in a battered leather jacket, with spiky brown hair and a scar across the bridge of his nose. One hand rested casually on the pommel of a massive, futuristic-looking sword slung across his back. His eyes, sharp and assessing, were fixed on them.

"The name's Leon," he said, pushing off from the doorway. He didn't approach, but his presence was imposing. "And you three shouldn't be out here after dark. Heartless are everywhere in the darkness, but they’re particularly drawn to light." He gave a pointed look at the floating light globe Belle was holding, and with chagrin she extinguished it.

"Heartless?" Ariel echoed. "Is that what they're called?"

Leon’s gaze flickered over each of them, dismissively at first, then stopping dead when it landed on the weapon in Aladdin's hand. His casual demeanor vanished, replaced by an intense, almost hungry focus. His body tensed.

"That weapon," Leon said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Where did you get it?"

Aladdin tightened his grip on The Keyblade. "It came to me. Magically. I don’t really know how it works…"

"It's called The Keyblade," Belle added, sensing the sudden shift in the air.

"I know what it's called," Leon snapped, his patience clearly worn thin by some old, deep pain. He took a step forward, his hand now firmly gripping the hilt of his own sword. "You have no idea what that means. The power you're holding… the responsibility. You're just a kid from some backwater world."

"Hey!" Aladdin shot back, his own pride stung. "I've handled more power than you know. I've escaped the Cave of Wonders, befriended a Genie, and saved all of Agrabah from a mad sorcerer!"

"Then you should know better than to play with things you don't understand," Leon said, his voice cold. In one fluid motion, he drew his massive gunblade, the metal gleaming ominously under the lantern light. He pointed it directly at Aladdin. "The Keyblade is a danger to everyone around you if you can't wield it properly. Hand it over. Now."

The friendly, bewildered atmosphere of their first meeting shattered. The alley felt suddenly claustrophobic. Ariel and Belle looked at Aladdin, then at the armed, serious man challenging him.

Aladdin stood his ground, the weight of the Keyblade feeling both alien and right in his hands. He met Leon's hardened stare with a defiant one of his own.

"I didn't ask for this," Aladdin said, his voice low. "But it came to me for a reason. I'm not giving it up. Not to you, not to anyone."

Leon's eyes narrowed. "Then I'll just have to take it."

The air crackled with tension, a fight brewing under the strange, patchwork sky of Traverse Town. The moment stretched long, then suddenly a new voice broke the tension.

"HEY! LEON!" A voice shouted from around a corner, with an accusatory and rebuking screech to it. 

Leon’s eyes snapped shut in a wince, and he let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, Shera?" he responded meekly, lowering his weapon.

The owner of the voice came into view, walking around the corner. It was a woman, looking to be in her late 20s or early 30s, wearing a yellow turtleneck and khaki slacks under a white lab coat. She pushed her large glasses up her nose as she looked over the three newcomers.

"Oh, good, you found the Keybearer," Shera said matter-of-factly, turning to look at Leon directly. "You weren’t, for example, about to fight him to try to take The Keyblade for yourself, were you?"

"No…" Leon grumbled annoyedly, stowing his gunblade on his back. "Come on, let’s go," he sighed resignedly, motioning for the three newcomers to follow himself and Shera. "You should meet Cid."

—

Leon and Shera led Ariel and Aladdin and Belle through the twisting alleys of Traverse Town, navigating them expertly despite the darkness and the confusing maze of corridors. Eventually they came to a large squat building with a flat roof, and a sign outside that it was too dark to read. Shera opened the front door and ushered everyone inside.

The inside of the building was lit with lamplight; all the windows were shuttered to ensure that none of the light would leak outside to attract Heartless. "We're back, Sir," Shera called out in a much softer, sweeter voice than she had used when talking to Leon. "Leon found the Keybearer at last!"

"Good!" a gruff stern voice called out from another room. "Y'all take a seat, I'll be with ya in a moment! Shera!" he suddenly barked. "Make us some tea!"

"Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir," Shera said deferentially with a subservient bow, and hurried off to the kitchen. Belle and Ariel exchanged a glance as they all took seats in the furnished living room, but said nothing. This sudden change in Shera from authoritative to submissive was odd, but it's not like they were unfamiliar with the idea of servants. Perhaps this was simply that.

A few minutes later, a gruff looking man came in from the other room. He had short blonde spiky hair, and wore a denim flight jacket and a pair of aviation goggles up on his forehead. His eyes were immediately drawn to The Keyblade in Aladdin's hand, and he let out a boisterous laugh.

"Well I'll be damned! It'd been so long I was starting to wonder if the damn thing actually existed, but here you are in the flesh, holding The Keyblade just as The King predicted!"

"The King?" Belle asked, curious.

"Yes," Cid said musingly, chewing on a blade of grass. "Mysterious figure, he is. Told us very little about himself, and swore us to secrecy about most of it. He's on some kind of secret mission to fight the shadows that are consuming the universe, and that there Keyblade is vital to his plans, whatever they are."

"Where are we?" Aladdin asked.

"Ah, of course! Where are my manners. This is Traverse Town, and I'm Cid, the local mechanic. I was a rocket scientist on my own world, but someone ruined those dreams, and now… well, I guess I did get to go to space after all, technically, but not at all the way I'd planned…"

Shera came back in at this point, carrying a platter with a tea pot and several mugs, blushing and looking very abashed. "Here's your tea, Sir," she said meekly.

"Yes, fine," Cid waved her off dismissively, then continued. "Everyone who lives in Traverse Town is a refugee, the last survivors of destroyed worlds consumed by shadow. Near as we can figure, when a world is consumed by shadow there's always a last bit that it chokes on, can't quite get rid of the whole thing. When it finally does swallow that last piece, it gets swallowed whole rather than destroyed, and those bits end up here, sewn together at the seams by who knows what to form a pseudo-world, made out of leftovers." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at Shera. "Shera and I are the only exceptions. Our world is still alive and well, as far as we know. The King found us on our world, somehow knew we were rocket scientists and wanted our help designing a ship that could sail the multiverse from world to world. I don't know where he got the designs we worked from, but together the three of us put together a prototype, and hells bells the damn thing worked! Our maiden voyage brought us here, to Traverse Town. We set up in this old building and turned it into our garage/workshop. Once we got that first ship refined and completed, The King took it for himself and flew off into the stars on his own mission. But he told us before he left that we were to build another ship just like it, and that someday someone bearing The Keyblade would show up in Traverse Town, and that were to give them that second ship." With a wry grin he finished, "And I guess that's you!"

"Your world was destroyed?" Ariel asked Leon, her voice brimming with compassion.

Leon's jaw clenched. "Yes," he said simply. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I'm so sorry," Ariel said quietly. "That's awful…"

"And you're telling us that… our worlds have been destroyed, too?" Belle asked cautiously.

Cid nodded. "Near as we can tell, anyway. We've never found any trace of any worlds consumed by shadow, nor of anyone caught up in it." His face fell a little awkwardly. "I'm, ah… sorry for your loss. I'm not good at touchy-feely crap."

"The King said he's trying to fix it," Leon spoke up, his voice almost but not quite breaking. "Said there might be a way to bring back the worlds that were taken by darkness, and the people in them. And that Keyblade is supposed to help somehow." His eyes locked hungrily on the blade, and suddenly it became clearer why he would covet it so strongly; he had lost everything, and The Keyblade was his one hope of possibly getting it back.

"The King left us this to give to you, along with the ship," Shera spoke up quietly, pulling something out of her lab coat pocket. It appeared to be a thick silver chain, about ten inches in length with a clip on one end and a silver charm on the other end. Ariel and Aladdin and Belle all recognized the charm immediately: it was the three-circle sigil that had been emblazoned on the weapons in their dream.

"I've seen that symbol before," Belle said, and Ariel and Aladdin both turned to look at her.

"So have I," they said in unison, before looking at each other in surprise.

"In a dream," Belle continued, and Ariel and Aladdin nodded. They all started talking at once, describing the dream they had all had just before waking to their worlds being consumed by shadow, realizing at last that they had all had the same dream.

"It's The King's symbol," Cid cut in. "His royal sigil. If y'all dreamed it, y'all must really be some kinda chosen ones or somethin'. Not sure how even The King would manage to set up dreams for chosen ones, though he does have some mighty powerful magic… but I'd reckon both he and y'all are caught up in something even bigger than just him."

Shera handed the strange chain and charm to Aladdin, and it suddenly dawned on him that it was an oversized Keychain, sized to match The Keyblade. He hooked the clip onto the loop on The Keyblade's pommel, and instantly he could feel The Keyblade increase in power. Its appearance didn't change, but he knew through his attunement that the chain was called The Kingdom Keychain, and that its enchantment had empowered The Keyblade with Light magic. Surely it would be even more deadly to shadows now.

"Well, no use sittin' around scratchin' our noses," Cid said, standing up. "Let's show ya to yer ship!"

—

Neither Ariel nor Aladdin nor Belle had ever seen an airplane before, but an airplane is exactly what awaited them on the roof of Cid and Shera's workshop. It was small as airplanes go, with short stubby wings and just enough room in the cockpit to seat three people, with no space for other seats or cargo. It had one rocket engine on the back, and one machine gun turret on the front below the nose cone.

Cid gestured to it proudly as he said with a broad smile, "Here is your Gummi Ship! The Highwind!"

"It works as a magic item," Shera explained, "so one of you will have to attune to it to be its pilot. Preferably whichever of you has the most experience with magic items." She pulled a small satchel out of another pocket in her lab coat. "This is a Bag of Holding, magically linked to the Gummi Ship. Its flight is magical, fueled by gemstones as is common for high level magic spells. The King left us enough gems in this bag for one world-to-world hyperjump, and programmed a destination into it where he was confident you would be able to get more. Whenever you find gems, just put them in this bag and the Gummi Ship will be able to use them as fuel. You can also use it as a Bag of Holding for anything else you need to carry; only gems will be consumed by the Gummi Ship, other items can be stored within it safely."

Belle and Ariel and Aladdin exchanged glances, then Belle stepped forward and took the bag. "I guess, we all have at least a little experience with magic, but it seems like I'm the most well read in its technical workings… So, I guess that makes me the best choice to be the pilot."

Ariel and Aladdin agreed, and they climbed into the two rear seats while Belle climbed into the front pilot seat. She ran a hand gently over the dashboard, and began the magical process of attuning.

As Ariel slid into her seat, her foot bumped something on the cockpit floor. What is this? she thought, picking it up: it was a small yellow book. There was text on the cover, but the text seemed to be gibberish. Her first thought was that it must be written in a language she didn't speak as she didn't recognize the alphabet, but every time she blinked or looked away and looked back, the symbols seemed to be different. She opened it, and on the first page there was a large rectangle where an illustration might go, but instead of an image there was just greyscale fuzz. She had never seen a television before, but if she had she would have recognized the strange fuzzy image as TV static. There was text below the rectangle, but it was also written in the strange gibberish alphabet that changed every time she looked away. As she flipped through the book, every page was covered in this nonsense text, and she noticed several places through the book where a page seemed to have been torn out. She tucked it into her dress pocket, resolving to show it to Belle later; she didn't want to interrupt Belle's focus, as she seemed to be concentrating on attuning to the ship.

After about half an hour, Belle sat back in the pilot's chair, taking a deep slow breath. "I think… I think I've got it." She reached forward and put her hands on the controls, and the ship came to life, information panels lighting up as its magitech systems came online.

"Your first destination should be pre-programmed in, all you gotta do is tell it to go!" Cid called out from the roof outside the ship. "Once you get there, you'll need to find a source of gems to fuel further jumps. The King didn't tell us how you're supposed to do that, or where you're supposed to go after that, but you're the chosen ones! I'm sure destiny or some crap will tell ya where ya need to go!"

"Good luck!" Shera called out as well, waving goodbye.

"Come back in one piece," Leon said gruffly. "And don't lose that Key!"

Ariel and Aladdin and Belle strapped themselves into their seats as Belle tightened her grip on the controls. The Gummi Ship levitated up into the air, humming with magitech energy, then she pushed forward, and with a whir of magitech the Gummi Ship initiated a hyperjump.

Chapter Text

The Gummi Ship hyperjump took eight hours to complete, giving our heroes plenty of time to rest and recover from their recent ordeal. Belle explained (based on the understanding she gained from attuning to it) that the ship wasn't really flying through space; the ship was capable of flying through the air, and through space if necessary, but a world-to-world hyperjump was accomplished through a magitech modified Planeshift spell, which was begun instantly but took eight hours to complete. She hypothesized that the eight hour casting time was a sacrifice to keep the cost in gemstones down, as Planeshift is very high level magic. Most of her description went right over Ariel and Aladdin's heads, as they were not versed in arcana the way Belle was, and by the time she finished explaining, the two of them had drifted off to sleep in their seats. Belle sighed, understanding that arcane esoterica isn't for everyone, and returned her attention to the controls. There wasn't actually anything she needed to do during the hyperjump, however, so after a few minutes she let herself drift off to sleep as well.

The three of them awakened to a chime from the Gummi Ship instrument panel indicating that the hyperjump was complete. Looking out through the cockpit's dome window, they could see that the ship had parked itself in the air amidst the canopy right at the edge of a forest. Going one direction would lead them deeper into the forest, while going the opposite direction would lead them along the banks of a river, across a field of grass and flowers to a small town built at the base of a cliff, on which stood a large castle.

"Well, something tells me that castle's treasury is the source of gemstones we were sent for," Aladdin said thoughtfully. "The question is, how do we gain access? Should we try to break in?"

"That would be incredibly foolish," Belle said dismissively. "We'd be captured in an instant and locked up in a dungeon where we wouldn't be able to do anybody any good. No, we need to be smarter about this… Are either of you nobility? We could pose as nobles of a far off kingdom looking to establish trade."

Aladdin shook his head. "I'm just a street rat," he paused, then continued, "Although, technically I am betrothed to a princess, and I definitely have experience posing as royalty…" He glanced down and grimaced at his bare feet and simple canvas pants and vest. "I'm not exactly dressed for the part right now though."

"I'm familiar with the mannerisms, but I have no experience portraying them," Belle said. "I do live in a castle, but not as a noble."

"...I am actually a princess," Ariel said, a little bashfully, "but I was never any good at courtly things. I'm the youngest of seven sisters, so there were always other princesses for official meetings and formal functions and whatever, so I would usually ditch, or get distracted or forget. I never liked all that stuffy royal stuff, I always preferred to explore and find new places and new things…"

"But you grew up around it," Belle interjected, "you have been taught how to behave as a noble in a royal court? Could you put on the airs if you had to?"

"I guess I could if I had to," Ariel conceded reluctantly. "But I'd really rather find some other way…"

"Well, the royals of this castle are unlikely to just give a bunch of gems to three peasants just because we ask," Aladdin said, scratching the back of his neck. "Heck, they probably won't even give us an audience at all. How many gems do we need for this thing anyway?"

Belle considered through her attunement for a moment, then blanched. "A lot," she said with a grimace. "Certainly more than they would just hand out to peasants as charity. Probably more than we could get even as a trade deal, since we have nothing to bargain with except empty promises…"

"I still vote we try to sneak in and steal what we need," Aladdin said. "Big castle like that, they'd never even miss it, as long as we don't get caught." He glanced at the Bag of Holding that was currently slung over Belle's shoulder. "I'm assuming that bag is magically bigger on the inside? If we need a lot of gems and we're supposed to put them in that little bag, it would have to be." Belle nodded, and Aladdin continued. "Well then, we sneak in. One or both of you girls cause a distraction while Abu and I sneak into the treasury, stuff as many gemstones into the bag as we can, then we sneak out again! We don't even need to worry about where to hide the mountain of gems, we have a magic bag! Super easy!"

"Unless any of us gets caught," Belle insisted. "Whatever our plan, we need a backup plan in case it goes wrong, and the only backup plan if that plan goes wrong is 'rot in a dungeon forever'."

"Nah, I've escaped from a dungeon before, it's not that hard," Aladdin said dismissively. Abu poked his head out from Aladdin's vest and started jabbering angrily at him. Aladdin rolled his eyes and said "Okay, okay, Abu broke me out. I wouldn't have made it without his help." Abu nodded and gave a satisfied grunt, then ducked back into Aladdin's vest. Aladdin reached in after him and gave Abu a playfully affectionate scritch behind the ears, then sighed. "Okay, fine, we need a better plan, or at least a better backup plan."

"Why don't we ask around town first?" Ariel suggested. "We don't know anything about the people who live in that castle, maybe they're really nice and generous, or maybe there's something they're really in need of that we can find to trade, or a problem we could solve for them that we could ask for gems as a reward?"

"Now that's a good idea," Belle agreed with a nod. "We should learn about where we are before we decide what to do."

"Now, how do we get down from here?" Aladdin asked, peering through the cockpit dome window trying to gauge how high up they were.

Belle considered through her attunement again, then reached out and traced a rune on the control panel. Suddenly, all three of them vanished from the cockpit, appearing on the ground below the ship. Aladdin and Ariel both immediately fell to the ground; Belle knew what to expect and just managed to keep her balance.

"Hey, warn a guy next time, will ya?" Aladdin said as he stood up, rubbing his back.

"Sorry," Belle said with a small smile as she helped Ariel to her feet. She glanced over at Aladdin and the gigantic key in his hand, then said, "That key is an odd sight, definitely makes us conspicuous. You pulled it out of thin air, can you… put it away, somehow?"

Aladdin contemplated through his attunement, then nodded and, with a wave of his hand, The Keyblade vanished with a shower of sparkles and a tinkling of bells.

Belle nodded, satisfied. "Good. Now, we just look like regular folks, and hopefully we won't draw too much attention."

The three of them began to walk along the riverside path, eventually crossing over a stone bridge and into the small town. They made their way along the cobbled streets, looking for a general store where they could get a lay of the land.

It was early in the morning, and the town was just waking up. Belle caught the scent of freshly baking bread, and followed it to a bakery. Ariel walked in first, followed by Belle and then Aladdin.

"Good morning!" the baker called out jovially. "Be with you in a moment!" A stout woman with flour-dusted cheeks and a kind, if weary, face, pulled a tray of bread loaves from a great stone oven and placed it on a rack to cool. The aroma was intoxicating. "There now," she said, wiping her hands on her apron. "What can I get for you fine folks? You're not from around here, are you? I know everyone in town, and you three are new faces."

Ariel stepped forward, offering her most disarming smile. "Good morning! You're right, we're travelers. We just arrived and we're… a bit turned around, to be honest. It's so beautiful here." She gestured vaguely toward the castle visible through the bakery's small window. "Is that the royal castle?"

The baker's cheerful demeanor faltered for a fraction of a second, a shadow passing over her features before she forced the smile back. "Aye, that it is. Castle of the late king, gods rest his soul."

"The late king?" Ariel asked, her voice soft with sympathy. "I'm so sorry to hear that. Was it recent?"

The woman nodded sadly. "'Twas about three years ago now, but it still feels fresh. We all loved the King, we did, and his daughter the Princess…" Her eyes suddenly darted toward the door, as if afraid someone else was listening. She straightened up and spoke evenly, "Queen Grimhilde rules now. She keeps us safe, she does. We're all very happy with her." Something in the baker woman's carefully even tone of voice made Ariel suspect otherwise. "Now, would you like a loaf of bread? Fresh out of the oven! Or a pastry, perhaps?"

Ariel kept her expression one of polite interest. "The bread smells wonderful, we’d love a loaf," she said, buying time. She glanced at Belle, who subtly nudged the Bag of Holding. Ariel understood. "We can pay," she added, reaching into the bag. Her fingers closed around a single, cool, faceted stone. She pulled out a small, clear quartz gem—a lesser stone left over from the ship’s initial fuel supply.

The baker’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly at the sight of the gem. She quickly reached out and closed Ariel’s hand over it, her own grip firm and surprisingly strong. Her voice dropped to a hushed, urgent whisper. "Put that away, child. Quickly now."

Ariel, startled, slipped the gem back into the bag. "I’m sorry, is there something wrong?"

The baker leaned closer, her voice barely a breath. "Gems are for the Queen’s eyes only now. She keeps them all. You don’t want to be caught with one if her guards come by." She straightened up again, her public smile returning, though it didn’t reach her eyes. She wrapped a loaf of dark bread in a cloth and handed it to Ariel. "For you. On the house. A welcome to our town."

"Thank you," Ariel said, her mind racing. "That’s… very kind. But why would the Queen take all the gems? Did she not used to?"

The woman’s eyes darted to the window again. "The old King, bless him, he traded with the Dwarfs in the forest. The mine they work is full of gems. They’d bring them to town, and we’d trade goods. It was good for everyone. Now…" She shook her head slightly, a tiny, fearful motion. "Now the Queen’s men take the Dwarfs’ shipments straight to the castle. We don’t see them. And we don’t ask."

"The Dwarfs?" Ariel asked, genuinely curious. The word was unfamiliar.

"Aye. Good folk, if a bit solitary. They live deep in the woods, and work in the mountains beyond. But it’s not safe to go looking for them anymore." She lowered her voice again. "Strange things have been seen in the shadows of the trees in recent days. Monsters, some say. Many folk think the forest is cursed."

"Monsters in the shadows?" Ariel echoed, exchanging a meaningful glance with Belle and Aladdin. "That sounds dreadful. We were just admiring the forest from a distance. It's so vast. It must be terrible for the... Dwarfs, you called them? To have their work and their home threatened like that. Do the Queen's guards not patrol the woods? To keep them safe?"

The baker gave a short, quiet laugh that held no humor. "The Queen's guards patrol the road to the mine, to ensure the gems reach the castle. They don't much care what happens in the deep woods, so long as the shipments keep coming." She began wiping down her counter with a rough cloth, not meeting Ariel's eyes. "The Dwarfs are tough. They've managed so far. Though... it's been harder on everyone since the King died. He made sure the kingdom was balanced. Now..." She trailed off, shaking her head.

"It must be a heavy burden for the Queen, to rule alone after such a loss…" Ariel said carefully, trying to think of questions to ask that might get useful information about the gems without appearing too interested in them.

"Oh, the Princess is still there, of course," the baker said, her tone softening with clear affection. "Sweet Snow White. A kinder soul you'll never meet. A true ray of sunshine, just like her father."

"Oh yes, you had mentioned a Princess," Ariel said. "It's good that the Queen and her daughter can comfort one another."

The baker's eyes turned dark. "The Princess is not the Queen's daughter. Princess Snow White's mother died in childbirth, gods rest her soul. Queen Grimhilde was the King's second wife." The baker's eyes misted and a smile spread across her face as she talked about Snow White. "Years ago, the little Princess used to come down to the village all the time, with her father or a nanny. Always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. Voice like a songbird, she had, and a heart as pure as her name." Her smile faded. "But she doesn't come out much anymore. Not since her father passed. The Queen keeps her close, says it's for her own protection. We all miss her terribly."

The pieces were clicking into place for Ariel. A beloved princess sequestered away. A stepmother queen hoarding wealth and power after the good king's death. A populace living in quiet fear.

"That's so sad," Ariel said, her voice soft with genuine compassion. "To lose a father and then be kept from the people who love you... it sounds so lonely." She sighed, looking down at the bread in her hands. "It's a shame the Queen doesn't see that the kingdom's greatest treasure isn't in her vaults, but in its people."

The baker's eyes glistened for a moment, and she nodded, unable to speak. She simply reached out and patted Ariel's hand.

Recovering, the woman glanced nervously at the door again. "You should be on your way, dearies. Enjoy the bread. And be careful. If you're not from around here, it's best not to draw attention. The guards... they ask a lot of questions of newcomers."

"Thank you for your kindness," Ariel said, her voice full of warmth. "And for the advice. We'll be careful."

With a final nod, the three of them left the bakery, the cheerful bell on the door jingling behind them, a stark contrast to the heavy mood within.

They found a secluded spot by the river, away from the main path and any prying eyes. The gentle gurgle of the water provided a cover for their conversation. Ariel broke the loaf of bread into three pieces, handing one to each of them. The food was a welcome comfort, but their minds were elsewhere.

"Well," Aladdin began around a mouthful of bread, "that was... informative…"

"It's a classic tale of a wicked stepmother," Belle said, her voice low and analytical. "A kind princess imprisoned, a kingdom living in fear, and all the wealth being hoarded by the ruler. Tale as old as time. The only question is, how do we get the gems we need when Queen Grimhilde is hoarding them all?"

"It won't be easy," Aladdin muttered. "She's got the only source of them locked down and guarded. My 'sneak in and steal them' plan is looking a lot harder, and a lot more dangerous."

Ariel hugged her knees to her chest, looking out over the water. "That poor girl. Snow White. To lose her father and then be locked away... I know what it's like to feel trapped. To have your voice taken from you." She looked at her new friends, her expression hardening with a resolve that had been forged in the depths of the ocean. "We can't just take the gems and leave. We have to help her."

"It would be lovely if we could," Belle said cautiously, "but I'm not sure that's within our capability. We can't just go to war with this Queen, no matter how wicked she is. We have no army, and only a little bit of magic… She has a whole castle and enough guards to keep the townsfolk living in fear. What can we do against that? No, our priority has to be getting the gems we need to power our ship. That's why the King sent us here."

Aladdin swallowed his last bite of bread, dusting the crumbs from his hands. "Ariel, I get it. I really do. But Belle's right. We have a mission. A big one. We need to get that ship fueled so we can find out what's happening to all the worlds, maybe even find a way to save our own." He gestured toward the distant castle. "Charging in there on a rescue mission for a princess we've never met? That's a sure way to get thrown in a dungeon, or worse. Then where would we be? Where would everyone be?"

"The baker said the Dwarfs still mine the gems," Belle pointed out, her tone pragmatic. "The Queen's guards only patrol the road to ensure the shipments get through. Perhaps our best course of action is to avoid the castle and the Queen entirely. We could try to find these Dwarfs. If we explain our situation, maybe we could… trade with them? Or even just take from the mine directly. It would be far less risky than confronting a monarch with an army at her command."

"And just leave Snow White to her fate?" Ariel's voice was quiet but firm, her deep cerulean eyes flashing with emotion. "We were given power for a reason. That dream, the weapons, the Keyblade… it wasn't just so we could run away from people who need help. 'Use this power to protect yourself and others.' That's what the voice said. Are we just going to ignore the 'others' part when it gets difficult?" She stood up, pacing slightly on the riverbank. "What if the Queen's hoarding is part of a bigger problem? The baker mentioned monsters in the woods. Shadow monsters. That can't be a coincidence. Our worlds fell to darkness. What if the same thing is starting to happen here? What if the Queen's greed is somehow connected to it, or making it worse?"

Belle frowned, considering this. "We don't really know how Heartless work… The concentration of magical energy from a vast hoard of gems could be attracting them. Or perhaps the imbalance and fear in the kingdom is creating a darkness they can feed on." She looked from Ariel's determined face to Aladdin's conflicted one. "Ignoring the plight of this world might be just as reckless as storming the castle. We don't know what causes worlds to become consumed by shadow, and if that happens while we're here, we could be trapped, or worse."

Aladdin let out a long, frustrated sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, okay. You're both making sense. I'm not saying we abandon her. I'm just saying we need to be smart. Charging the front gate with a key-sword and a song isn't a plan, it's a suicide mission."

Ariel stared at the water pensively. "The baker said the Dwarfs are good people, right? And they're the ones actually digging up the gems. What if we find the Dwarfs like you said, but before we just grab their gems and go, we stop and actually learn what's really going on from their side? They might know more about the Queen, about Snow White, about the monsters in the woods… Maybe they're even trying to help the Princess themselves."

Belle nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense. They would have the most direct knowledge of the Queen's operation. And if we can gain their trust, perhaps we can work together, still to get the gems we need but also to help Snow White, too. If the Queen is forcing them to mine under threat, freeing Snow White and restoring the kingdom's balance would be in their interest as well. Our goals could align perfectly."

Aladdin nodded as well. "That sounds good to me." He waved his hand in the air, and The Keyblade appeared in his hand with the usual shower of sparkles and tinkling of bells. With a confident grin he continued, "Let's fight our way through some haunted woods!"

Belle pulled a thin strip of cured leather out of her pouch and traced a rune in the air with it while whispering an incantation, causing a shimmering field of magic to flicker over her body for a moment before fading. "I'm ready," she said, tucking the leather back into the pouch.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," Ariel said, mustering up her courage. The three of them squared their shoulders and followed the riverside path into the forest.

Chapter Text

Ariel, Aladdin, and Belle followed the path along the riverside into the forest. The well trodden path slowly grew narrower and rougher, and eventually veered away from the water's edge, winding deeper into the woods where the trees grew older and closer together. The cheerful sound of the river faded, replaced by a dense, watchful silence broken only by the crunch of their footsteps on the thick carpet of fallen leaves and the occasional call of an unseen bird.

Before long, the path itself gave up the ghost, dissolving into a tangle of roots and ferns. They were well and truly in the wild woods now.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Aladdin asked, ducking under a low-hanging branch thick with moss.

"Not really, no," Belle replied, her eyes scanning the surroundings. "All the baker said is that the Dwarfs live deep in the woods. I have an impeccable sense of direction, but unfortunately 'deep' is not a precise location. The best I can say is we aren't going in circles, but I'm afraid I don't know much about tracking or forestry."

Aladdin turned to glance at Ariel, but she just quietly shook her head. Aladdin sighed and returned his focus to trying his best to look for footprints or a path or any sign that might indicate where they're supposed to be going.

Hours slipped by. The light, which had been dappled and green, began to fail as the canopy above wove itself into an almost solid roof of dark leaves and gnarled branches. The air grew cool and heavy with the scent of damp earth and decay. Soon, they were squinting in the near-total darkness, their hands held out in front of them to avoid walking into tree trunks.

"This is no good," Belle said, coming to a halt. "I can barely see my hand in front of my face." She fished another pinch of wychwood out of her pouch, whispering the incantation and tracing a rune in the air. This time, the magical energy split, coalescing into three small globes of soft white light. They bobbed gently in the air, drifting to hover just over each of their shoulders, casting a warm, reassuring glow that pushed back the oppressive dark.

"Didn't Leon say light attracts Heartless?" Ariel asked in a worried whisper.

Belle shrugged. "Unless you have some way for all of us to see in the dark, it's just a risk we'll have to take. I don't want any of us to trip on a root and break a leg walking blindly."

As they continued moving forward, eventually the soft magical light glinted off of something in the darkness. As it came further into the light, they discerned with horror what they were seeing: strands of thick, pearlescent silk, as wide as a finger, were strung between the trees, hanging from the branches like morbid garlands. They had stumbled into a vast, silent web. The further they looked, the denser it became, until the forest ahead was a labyrinth of sticky, glistening strands, shrouding the trees and choking the undergrowth.

"We'll have to go around," Aladdin whispered, his voice tight. He gestured with The Keyblade to their left, where the web seemed to thin slightly.

"Carefully," Belle added, her own voice hushed. "Don't touch any of it. We don't know what—"

Suddenly, a scream ripped through the silent wood. It was high, sharp, feminine, and blood-curdling. It came from deeper within the webbed area, followed by the sound of frantic, crashing footsteps. Before any of them could react, a figure burst through a curtain of web ahead. It was a girl a couple years younger than Ariel, wearing a dress of royal blue and gold, ripped and torn in her sprint through the underbrush. She wasn't looking where she was going, her head constantly swiveling to stare at every shadow and gnarled branch with wide-eyed terror. As such, she ran straight into a thick cluster of webs.

She shrieked even louder, too terrified to form words, her arms and legs instantly tangling in the strong, sticky strands. She flailed wildly, trying to escape, but the more she struggled, the more ensnared she became, the webs wrapping around her like a cocoon.

From the shadowed canopy above, a pair of glowing yellow eyes ignited. From the branches above descended a monstrous figure the size of a horse, with a bulging striped green body and eight twisting spiky legs. It looked like a horrible parody of a spider, with a gaping maw dripping glowing blue venom, and a distinctive red and black heart-shaped emblem emblazoned between its glowing yellow eyes.

"Heartless!" Aladdin yelled, certain he was correct without really knowing why.

The giant spider reared back, its mandibles clicking. Strangely, it completely ignored the terrified girl caught in its webs, seeming instead to focus on The Keyblade in Aladdin's hand. "Stop!" Ariel commanded, her voice ringing with power. The spider froze in its tracks, a dazed look in its eyes, as though it had suddenly forgotten what it was doing.

Aladdin took advantage of the opening, swinging in with The Keyblade. It cracked against the spider's chitinous leg with a loud thwack. There was a burst of light at the point of contact as the enchanted blade flared with radiant energy. But unlike the tiny shadows which had popped in just one hit, the spider seemed to be a much hardier foe. It turned its gaze on Aladdin, shaking off the daze of Ariel's spell, and struck out with its fangs. Aladdin ducked to the side, avoiding the bulk of the damage but taking a glancing blow to his leg. The glowing blue venom burned with acid, but Aladdin gritted his teeth and shook off the pain, tightening his grip on The Keyblade.

"Belle! Help the girl!" Ariel shouted, before turning her attention back to the spider. She gathered power on her tongue and began whispering dissonantly, sending sonic tendrils creeping into the spider Heartless' mind. It lurched in pain, screeching in fear and agony as the whispers gripped its mind.

Belle ran to the girl tangled in webs, still struggling in wide-eyed terror. With a whispered incantation, Belle gathered a tongue of flame in her hand and began carefully burning away the strands of webbing. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of there," she said, trying to be reassuring, but it seemed like the girl couldn't even hear her through the panic.

Aladdin lunged again, the Keyblade a silver blur in the magical light. He aimed for the joint of one of its spindly legs, and this time, the enchanted weapon bit deep. The spider shrieked, a horrifying, grating sound, and green ichor spurted from the wound. It stumbled, its yellow-eyed gaze fixed on Aladdin with pure malice.

"Keep it distracted!" Belle called out, her voice strained as she focused on precisely directing her flame. One wrong move and she'd burn the girl instead of the web.

Ariel poured more power into her dissonant whispers, the air around the spider warping and vibrating. The creature clutched at its head with its front legs, utterly disoriented by the sonic assault. Seizing the opportunity, Aladdin made three more strikes with The Keyblade, finishing by driving the point straight into the heart-shaped emblem on its face.

There was a sound like shattering glass and a final, piercing shriek. The giant spider dissolved into shadowy smoke which flickered and dissipated, leaving behind only the lingering, acrid smell of ozone and decay.

Panting, Aladdin leaned on the Keyblade, his leg throbbing. "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm fine," Ariel said, her voice a little hoarse from the effort.

Belle had just burned through the last of the sticky strands. "There, you're free!" she said, turning to the girl with a reassuring smile.

But the girl didn't even look at her. The moment the final strand snapped, she scrambled to her feet, her breath coming in ragged, terrified gasps. Her eyes, wide and unseeing, darted from shadow to shadow.

"Wait! It's alright! You're safe now!" Ariel said, stepping toward her with a hand outstretched.

The girl flinched away as if burned. A strangled, wordless cry escaped her lips—a sound of pure, unadulterated terror. She turned and fled deeper into the dark woods, her tattered dress snagging on brambles as she disappeared into the gloom.

"Come on, after her!" Aladdin called out, waving with The Keyblade as he took off after the fleeing girl. Belle and Ariel fell in behind him as the three of them chased after her, doing their best to keep up with her in the dark tangled underbrush.

Less than a minute later, they found themselves in a clearing where the canopy thinned a bit, allowing some gentle dappled light into the forest as the thick underbrush gave way to grass and mulch under foot. They found the girl in the middle of the clearing, curled up on the ground in the fetal position, gently sobbing into her arms. She wasn't yet anything close to calm, but the sheer panicked terror that had had her in its grip seemed to have loosened its hold on her at least a little.

"Hey…" Ariel said in a gentle, quiet voice, approaching the girl and crouching down. "It's okay now, you're safe. We're not going to hurt you."

The girl sniffled and looked up, her eyes focusing on Ariel and seeming to actually see her for the first time. Aladdin approached as well, and he and Ariel were both suddenly overcome by how adorably beautiful the girl was, almost impossibly so. Her face was round and sweet and perfectly proportioned, her hair was black as ebony and—apart from a few misplaced strands—was perfectly coiffed with a cute red bow. Her hazel eyes sparkled with starry innocence so different from the wild panic that shone in them a mere minute ago, her lips were a deep rose red, and her skin was white as snow. Ariel and Aladdin were immediately enamored with the poor young girl, filled with a desire to comfort and reassure her and to keep her from any harm.

Belle approached as well, looking at the girl a bit more skeptically than Ariel and Aladdin were. "Are you done?" she asked cautiously. "You seemed to be having quite the fit back there…" Ariel and Aladdin both shot Belle an annoyed look. How can you be so insensitive? they seemed to be saying with their eyes. Belle ignored them, still focused on the girl. "What's your name?"

The girl looked at Belle with her doe-like eyes and sniffled. "Oh, I'm awfully sorry. I didn't mean to bother you. I don't know what ever came over me. I'm so ashamed of the fuss I've made…" From anyone else, these words would seem unforgivably sarcastic, but her voice was so perfectly sweet and genuine that no one could doubt her sincerity. She slowly rose to her feet, and Ariel and Aladdin both rushed to help her. Once she was standing, she brushed off her dress, grimacing slightly at the rips and tears in it, then she turned back to Belle and said, "My name is Snow White. What's yours?"

"Snow White??" Ariel and Aladdin and Belle all gasped in unison. "The Princess?" Belle continued. Snow White nodded, trembling a little. "What are you doing out here in the forest? How did you escape the castle?" Belle asked.

"Escape?" Snow White asked, seeming a bit bewildered. "No, the Queen's Huntsman brought me out to the field of wildflowers. He…" she struggled with the words, her eyes going wide at the memory. "He…" her eyes filled with tears, and she couldn't continue. It looked like she was about to panic and bolt again.

"Hey hey, sh sh shhh, it's okay," Ariel cooed, patting Snow White's shoulders. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to. You're safe now, that's what matters. We won't let anything happen to you." Belle shot an annoyed look at Ariel but didn't protest. "My name is Ariel, and that's Aladdin and Belle."

Belle took this moment to look around at the clearing to get her bearings, and was startled to notice several woodland creatures approaching. Squirrels, raccoons, bluebirds, even a doe and a turtle, were all coming out of the woods to gather around them. 

Snow White noticed them at the same time as Belle did, but instead of being terrified or confused, her eyes lit up and a bright joyful smile spread across her face. "Well, hello there, little friends! How do you do?" She crouched down and held her hand out, and all the critters came right up to her, sniffing at her hand and nuzzling her affectionately. Ariel and Aladdin watched this as though it were the most adorable thing ever; Belle, on the other hand, watched curiously and analytically, trying to figure out what was going on. Still smiling, Snow White began to sing wordlessly, vocalizing with an angelically beautiful voice. The birds joined in, and Ariel added her harmony to the chorus. Abu poked his head out of Aladdin's vest, and the two of them swayed in place to the sound of the music, as did the rest of the animals, joyful smiles spreading across all their faces. This went on for a full minute, everyone seeming happy and content.

Belle stared at all of this curiously. It seemed obvious to her by this point that something magical was going on, and that Ariel and Aladdin and Abu and even the random creatures from the surrounding forest had been caught up in it, as was Snow White unless she was the source. Belle alone seemed to be unaffected… why? What was happening, and why wasn't it happening to her? She pondered this, watching the scene skeptically. As far as she could tell, nothing dangerous or nefarious seemed to be happening, at least for the moment. Belle determined to keep her guard up but otherwise not to make a thing of it for now.

Snow White finished singing with a cute little giggle, then suddenly stretched and yawned adorably. "Oh my, we'll need a place to sleep tonight. We can't sleep in the ground, or in a nest, like you can," she said to the crowd of animals with another giggle. "Do you know of anywhere nearby where we can rest for the night?" Several of the animals nodded, and Snow White gasped happily. "You do? Will you take us there?" The animals nodded again and ran a few yards away, stopping and turning back to wait for Snow White to follow. She got to her feet and motioned to Ariel and Aladdin and Belle. "Well, come on then, let's go!" she said with a joyful smile. Ariel and Aladdin followed without a second thought; Belle took up the rear, following a bit more warily.

The animals led them through the woods to another clearing. There, nestled amongst the towering trees, was a small cottage. It was charmingly rustic, with a steeply pitched roof, a stone chimney, and a quaint little garden gone slightly wild. It was also, quite conspicuously, far too small for anyone of average height.

"Oh it's adorable!" Snow White exclaimed with a delighted smile. "It's just like a doll's house!" She walked right up to the door and knocked. After a moment, she knocked again. When there was no answer and no sign of any movement in the house, she shrugged. "I guess there's no one home." She went to open the door, only to find it locked. "Oh, phooey!" she pouted in frustration.

"Please, Princess, allow me," Aladdin said with a slight bow to Snow White, brandishing The Keyblade. He walked up and, focusing The Keyblade's power, he tapped it against the door. There was a loud knocking sound, and the door magically unlocked itself and swung open.

"Oh what a lovely key you have there!" Snow White said, clapping her hands. "How wonderful!"

The cottage interior was dim and dusty, smelling of pine sap and old earth. A single room served as kitchen, living, and dining area, dominated by a large, squat, rough-hewn table surrounded by seven tiny chairs. A stone fireplace took up one wall, cold and dark. A staircase led up to a sleeping loft, and through an open doorway, they could see a washroom with a pump handle sink.

"What cute little chairs!" Snow White exclaimed, sitting in one of them and smiling delightedly. "They must belong to cute little children!" As she looked around the room, her face fell a little. "...cute, but very untidy little children…"

Dishes were piled high in the sink and on every available surface, caked with remnants of meals long past. Dust coated every shelf and mantle, and dirty laundry was strewn about the floor. A broom lay on its side in a corner, covered in cobwebs, clearly having given up the fight long ago.

"You'd think their mother would—" Snow White began scoldingly, but then suddenly gasped and continued sadly, "Maybe they have no mother… Maybe they're orphans…"

"Or," Belle cut in dryly, "maybe they're the Dwarfs we've been looking for. We were told they live in these woods, and work in a mine in the mountains." Belle gave a meaningful look towards a pickaxe leaning against the fireplace.

Aladdin’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! This has to be their place.” He looked around the cluttered room with a street rat’s assessing eye. “I don't see any sign of gems here, though…”

“If the Queen is taking them, then they probably don’t have any here,” Belle said, her shoulders slumping slightly. “They’d be taken straight to the castle.”

“But surely they'll know where the mine is,” Ariel said, her voice hopeful. “We can wait for them to come home and ask for their help!”

At this, a look of profound determination settled on Snow White's sweet features. She stood up, rolled up the sleeves of her tattered dress, and picked up the dusty old broom. “We can’t possibly ask them for help while their home is in such a state. It’s a disgrace! They’ll be tired from a long day’s work. They deserve to come home to a clean, welcoming house.”

Before any of them could protest, she whirled around, suddenly taking on an air of royal authority. “Well, don’t just stand there! We have work to do! You,” she said, pointing the broom handle at a startled Ariel, “can start by gathering up all this laundry. Aladdin, you seem strong, you can help me move this furniture to sweep underneath. And Belle, you’re so clever, I’m sure you can figure out how to get that pump working so we can wash these dishes.”

Ariel and Aladdin, still utterly charmed by the princess, immediately jumped to action. Ariel began bundling up armfuls of dirty socks and tunics, while Aladdin started pushing the heavy wooden table. Belle stood frozen for a moment, utterly baffled. They were refugees from a collapsing multiverse, hiding in a dwarf’s cottage from a queen who likely wanted this girl dead, and her priority was housekeeping?

“Is this really the best use of our time?” Belle asked incredulously.

Snow White turned her wide, earnest eyes on Belle. “Oh, but of course! There’s nothing a bit of hard work and a cheerful song can’t make better! It’s how I always handled my chores back at the castle.” She began to sweep in earnest, and as she did, she started to sing, her voice clear and melodious.

"Just whistle while you work!
(whistling)
And cheerfully, together we can tidy up the place.
So hum a merry tune!
(whistling)
It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace."

Ariel picked up the tune instantly, joining in in harmony as they worked. Even the animals started chipping in, helping to dust the shelves and clear away the cobwebs. With a sigh, Belle relented and decided to help out as well, walking over to the water pump. She inspected it carefully, determining quickly that it was merely stuck from disuse rather than actually broken. She traced a rune in the air and whispered an incantation, causing a spectral hand to appear floating in the air in front of her. She set the hand to the task of unsticking and operating the pump handle while she herself rolled up her sleeves and got to work washing the dishes. Snow White's relentless positivity and the upbeat song were starting to get to her, and though she was still unaffected by whatever enchantment had a hold on Aladdin and Ariel, she nonetheless found a smile creeping onto her face as she got into the groove.

Over the course of a few hours, the cottage was transformed. What had been a dusty, chaotic mess became a haven of cozy order. The wooden floors gleamed, the dishes were clean and stacked neatly on the shelves, and a fire crackled merrily in the now-swept hearth, casting a warm, dancing light. The dirty laundry was now clean and slightly damp, drying on a line strung near the fireplace. A large pot of vegetable stew bubbled over the fire, filling the small space with a rich, savory aroma.

Snow White set the broom back in its corner, leaning it upright against the wall, and gave a long satisfied sigh. "There, that's better!" she declared happily. "I'm sure those Dwarfs will be so happy to come home to a nice clean house!" She stretched and yawned, saying "Boy, I'm so tired now! Thank you all for helping to clean, but I think it's time we all got some rest, wouldn't you agree?"

The animals all nodded, and started finding little nooks and crannies where they could curl up and sleep. Snow White went upstairs to the bedroom, followed by Aladdin and Ariel, who were in turn followed by Belle. The upstairs room had seven small beds, all much too small for any of them to sleep in, but several of them were close enough together that they could lie across them to sleep, which is exactly what Snow White began to do.

"We'll keep watch while you rest, Princess," Aladdin said in a whisper as Snow White began to drift off to sleep.

Chapter Text

"Okay, what is going on with you two?" Belle asked in a hushed whisper once she was sure Snow White was asleep.

"What do you mean?" Ariel asked, genuinely confused.

"Ever since we found Snow White, you two have been acting… odd," Belle continued. "Catering to her every whim, treating her like she's the most perfect creature in the universe…"

"What's wrong with that?" Aladdin asked.

"She is, isn't she?" Ariel agreed.

Belle had had enough. She reached into her pouch, pulling out a large pearl and an owl feather. She traced a rune in the air with them, whispering an incantation, and her eyes began to glow a soft blue. She touched Aladdin's shoulder, and then Ariel's. After a moment, she nodded, letting her spell lapse as her suspicions were confirmed. "Both of you are under the influence of a magical charm effect. It's making you feel and think differently than you normally would."

Aladdin and Ariel exchanged a glance. "I don't feel any different," Ariel said, confused.

"Yeah, I feel fine. Are you sure?" Aladdin asked.

Belle nodded. "I'm sure. I don't know the precise nature of the enchantment, nor its source, but it pretty clearly has you two unnaturally enamored with Snow White." She raised a hand as Ariel and Aladdin both looked indignant and like they were about to argue. "I'm not accusing the Princess of anything, she doesn't seem to be doing anything malicious or nefarious; quite the opposite, it seems like she doesn't have a malicious bone in her body. But that's exactly what makes me suspicious. Nobody is that perfect; everyone has some amount of darkness in them." She sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. "I don't know what's going on, I just think we need to keep our guard up and stay vigilant. Charm enchantments aren't usually used without some kind of ulterior motive."

"We haven't been travelling together that long. Why should we trust you?" Aladdin asked, his temper rising.

"You only met Snow White a few hours ago! Why would you trust her?" Belle countered.

This argument seemed to finally get through to them, at least a little. Aladdin hesitated for a long moment, then finally nodded slowly. "You're right, it doesn't make sense. I do trust Snow White; I trust her with my life, more than I've ever trusted anyone. And that is strange, I have no real reason to…"

"You're saying the sweet innocent Princess charmed us with magic?" Ariel asked, seeming on the edge of tears at the very idea.

Belle sighed again. "I don't know. I didn't notice her casting any spell. It may be that she isn't the source of the magic, but she is certainly the one the magic has you both charmed to. It doesn't mean for sure that she is malicious, all it means is that we should be wary and keep our guard up. If you're under a charm enchantment, it's at least better to know that you are, even if we don't know anything else yet."

Ariel and Aladdin nodded soberly, struggling to take this in. As they were contemplating this, they heard voices in the distance, very far away and very faint, but slowly getting closer. It was a chorus of several deep voices singing in harmony, punctuated by whistling:

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho,
It's home from work we go!
(whistling)
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho!

The song grew louder, a cheerful baritone that echoed through the quiet forest. Aladdin, Ariel, and Belle exchanged a look. "The Dwarfs are coming home," Ariel whispered. Many of the woodland creatures spooked at the approaching voices and scattered, most running out the front door and into the woods, while a few scurried under chairs or into nooks and crannies, finding places to hide.

From the loft, Ariel and Aladdin and Belle could see out the window a small point of light bobbing as it approached through the woods: a lantern, carried by a small man. As the light got closer, they could see a line of seven little men walking in single file, each of them bearded and carrying a pickaxe. The ones at the front and back carried lanterns, lighting their way through the oncoming twilight.

Suddenly, the one in front stopped and gasped. "Look! Our house! The lit's light! I mean, the light's lit!"

They quickly scrambled to hide behind a tree, poking their heads through the underbrush.

"The door's open!" one said.

"The chimney's smoking!" another said.

"Something's in there!" "Maybe a ghost!" "Or a goblin!" "A demon!" "Or a dragon!" "Mark my words, there's trouble a-brewin'!" their voices started overlapping. After discussing it a moment, the Dwarfs began sneaking up toward their house, holding their pickaxes at the ready to use as weapons.

"We need to explain before they attack," Belle hissed, her mind racing. A violent confrontation with seven armed miners was the last thing they needed.

"We can't let them wake Snow White, she's been through so much!" Ariel whispered in agreement.

"If we startle them, they might not listen," Aladdin said. "We have to meet them outside. Now."

He was the first to move, slipping quietly down the stairs toward the front door. He dismissed The Keyblade to appear less threatening, knowing he could summon it again if violence became unavoidable. Ariel cast a worried glance back at the sleeping princess, then reluctantly followed. Belle brought up the rear, her senses on high alert for any sign of magic or danger.

Aladdin eased the cottage door open just enough to slip through, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. Ariel and Belle followed close behind, fanning out slightly and holding their hands up as well.

The seven Dwarfs, caught mid-creep, froze in a comical tableau of shock. Their eyes, wide in the dim light, darted from one unfamiliar face to another.

"Who are you?!" demanded the one at the front, hefting his pickaxe. He had a long white beard and seemed to be the eldest. "What're you doin' in our house?!"

"Please, we mean you no harm," Aladdin said, his voice smooth and calm, the same tone he'd used to talk down angry merchants in the Agrabah marketplace. "My name is Aladdin. This is Ariel and Belle. We're travelers."

"Travelers?" scoffed a dwarf with a perpetually sour expression, his arms crossed over his chest. "Travelers don't just break into a house and... and..." He sniffed the air, his scowl deepening. "Is that stew?"

"We found a lost girl in the woods," Ariel explained quickly, her voice soft and melodic, hoping to soothe their fears. "She was terrified. We helped her, and she led us here. She's sleeping inside now."

"A girl?" asked a dwarf with a bashful expression, peeking out from behind the grumpy one. His cheeks flushed red.

"The place was a bit of a mess," Belle added, her tone pragmatic. "She insisted we clean it. We didn't touch anything of value, I assure you. We were just trying to help."

The dwarfs exchanged bewildered glances. The one with a happy-go-lucky smile piped up, "They cleaned the house? Aw, that's swell!"

"Quiet, Happy!" grumbled the sour one. "How do we know they ain't thieves, or spies for the Queen?"

At the mention of the Queen, all the dwarfs stiffened, their expressions turning grim and fearful.

"We're not from around here," Aladdin said, seizing on the opening. "We don't know this Queen. We're just trying to get home, and we need information. The baker in town said you might be able to help."

The leader studied them for a long moment. His eyes, though wary, were not unkind. He looked past them into the clean, well-ordered cottage, saw the pot of stew on the fire, and then looked at their faces insightfully, looking for any sign of deception.

"I'm Doc," he said finally, lowering his pickaxe a fraction. "This is Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey." Each dwarf nodded or grunted in turn as his name was called. "The girl you found... what did she look like?"

"Beautiful," Ariel said without hesitation. "Lips red as a rose, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow. She said her name was Snow White."

A collective gasp went through the Dwarfs. Doc's eyes widened in alarm. "The Princess? Here? But the Queen—" He cut himself off, looking around the darkening woods nervously. "We can't be talkin' about this inside here. Get outside, quickly now!" He shook his head, "I mean, outside, inside!" The Dwarfs ushered everyone inside, the last one looking around to make sure they weren't followed before closing and locking the door. The seven Dwarfs formed a tight, anxious circle around the three travelers, their earlier suspicion now replaced by a palpable, urgent fear.

Doc wrung his hands, his brow furrowed with deep concern. "The Princess... alive? Thank the heavens! But this is a disaster! A catastrophe! If the Queen finds out she's here—"

"She already knows," Grumpy cut in, his voice a low growl. He stomped his foot. "That witch's mirror sees everything! Mark my words, she's already sendin' somethin' nasty after the poor child!"

"Something nasty did find her," Belle interjected, her voice calm but firm, cutting through the rising panic. "A giant spider-like creature made of shadow. We fought it off."

The Dwarfs fell silent, staring at her with a new kind of dread. "So it's true," Doc whispered, "the darkness is comin' here, too. Drawn by the Queen's wickedness, no doubt."

"That was our suspicion," Belle agreed with a nod. "Listen, we aren't just travelers," she admitted strategically. "We've been sent to fight the spreading darkness, and we need gems to do it. That's why we were sent here. Can you help us?"

The dwarfs exchanged a flurry of worried glances, a silent conversation passing between them. It was Grumpy who finally broke the silence, his voice a gravelly rumble. "Gems? That's all anyone ever wants from us anymore! The Queen's guards take every last stone from the mine! We're left with nothin' but the dust!"

"But... but if it's to fight the darkness..." Bashful stammered, peeking out from behind Sneezy. "Maybe... maybe we should..."

"Of course we'll help!" Doc declared, pounding a fist into his palm with sudden resolve. "The Queen only takes the gems she knows about," he said with a wink to Belle, tapping the side of his nose conspiratorially. "We don't have much socked away in our secret vaults, but we can surely share some of what we have!"

"For the Princess!" Sneezy added in agreement. The other Dwarfs nodded, though Grumpy crossed his arms and scoffed.

"When we go to the mines tomorrow, we'll bring one or two of you with us, and the other two or one of you can stay here to guard the Princess." Doc suggested. "You can help us dig up gems, and you can keep whatever you dig up, then we can show you to our secret vault in the mountains and you can take as much as you need!"

"Within reason!" Grumpy grumbled. "Don't just empty our whole vault now! We have precious little left since the Queen started hoardin' it all!"

"We do need quite a lot of gems," Belle said thoughtfully.

"But we wouldn't want to take everything you have!" Ariel added quickly.

"Can you think of any way we could get at the Queen's hoard?" Belle asked the Dwarfs. "Ariel is right, if the Queen is already squeezing you we don't want to make that worse."

The Dwarfs all put their hands to their chins and pondered for a moment, then shook their heads.

"'Fraid not," Sneezy said. "If we did, we would'a done it already."

"Why don't we sleep on it?" Sleepy said with a yawn. "Maybe we'll think of something tomorrow."

The Dwarfs all nodded at that, then Doc asked, "Is the Princess sleeping upstairs?" When Ariel nodded, he continued, "We wouldn't want to disturb the poor girl, we can sleep down here for the night. But maybe you three can keep watch, in case the Queen or the shadows send something to attack in the night?"

"We can take turns keeping watch," Aladdin agreed.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure nothing happens to you or the Princess," Ariel added reassuringly.

With that decided, they each ate a bowl of stew and then settled in for the night.

Chapter Text

The next morning as the sun began to rise, Snow White was the first to awaken. Belle was keeping watch, while everyone else was still asleep. As Snow White began to stir, Belle turned to look at her, and this time she caught it. Snow White looked adorably beautiful, and though Belle once again remained unaffected by the enchantment, this time she noticed the feeling of the charm starting to rise up within her before failing to take hold. Maybe it was her knowledge of magic that made her more resistant to it? It warranted further study. Whatever it was, Snow White didn't seem to be doing it intentionally, or if she was she was very good at hiding it.

With a yawn and a stretch, Snow White smiled at Belle and said, "Oh, good morning, Belle! My my, I seem to have slept straight through the night without supper!"

Belle nodded and responded quietly, "We didn't want to wake you, you deserved a good night's sleep. The Dwarfs came home, they're all sleeping downstairs. They're quite loyal to you; they were very pleased to hear you're alive, and didn't even hesitate to allow you to stay in their home and keep you safe from the Queen." Belle locked eyes with Snow White and pressed, "I know it may be uncomfortable to talk about, but I need to know what happened yesterday, what's happened to you for the past few years. Anything you can tell us about the Queen. I need to know what we're up against."

Snow White's lip quivered and her eyes widened, but she nodded, took a deep breath, and said, "My stepmother, the Queen, she… she doesn't like me. She didn't like my father, either. I don't know why she married him, they didn't seem at all happy together. After he… passed away… she kept me in the castle, working as a scullery maid. She made me wear rags, never let me wear my nice clothes or do my hair… I don't know why. But then yesterday, she seemed to change her mind. She let me put on this nice dress and do my hair up in this pretty bow, and had her Huntsman bring me out of the castle to the field of wildflowers! It was a lovely day, and the flowers were so pretty, but I do wish we could have spent some time in the town. I used to visit all the time when I was little, and I do so miss the lovely townsfolk…"

Snow White's eyes misted as she trailed off into happy memories. Belle was tempted to interrupt and prompt her to continue, but held her tongue and waited patiently. After a moment, Snow White's face fell as she continued. "But it was all a trick. The Queen's Huntsman, he… he tried to…" she swallowed, "...to kill me. He pulled out a dagger and… but then he stopped, and scared me away instead. Told me to run away, to run as fast as I could! I was so frightened! I ran and ran and ran, and… I don't remember exactly what happened then, I just remember being so very terrified as I ran through the dark forest… the next thing I remember clearly is Ariel helping me up from the ground, and introducing me to the three of you."

Belle nodded slowly, taking all of this in. "Thank you for telling me," she said, her voice gentle but her thoughts racing. "You're safe now. We'll figure this out." Snow White's story corroborated what they had learned from the baker in town, but otherwise raised more new questions than answers…

The sound of stirring from downstairs signaled the Dwarfs were waking. Soon, the cottage was a flurry of chaotic and cheerful activity. Snow White immediately took charge of making breakfast, herding the seven little men with a gentle authority they seemed all too happy to obey. While the Dwarfs had been loyal and protective yesterday, it was nothing to how they were acting now; Snow White's charm was clearly affecting them as well. Aladdin and Ariel also remained charmed, and any wariness they had gained from discussing it yesterday seemed to have been forgotten. Belle sighed; it fell to her to keep a level head. At least that was something she was good at.

After a breakfast of stewed root vegetables and fried wild mushrooms, Doc spoke up. "Alright men! We have a big day of work ahead of us, and we have helps to guest! I mean, guests to help!" He turned to look at Belle and asked, "Who of you will come to the mine with us, and who will stay here to watch over the Princess?"

"I'll stay," Belle said immediately. "My magic will be more useful here than in a mine, and I would love to have some downtime to work on my spellbook." And I'm the only one who can keep my wits about me around Snow White, she finished silently.

"I'll stay, too," Ariel said, her protective instincts flaring under the influence of the charm. "That way we can take turns keeping watch while you work on your spells."

Belle sighed and, having no good argument against it, reluctantly agreed. "That's fine, I guess."

Aladdin gave a worried look to Snow White, then said, "I guess Abu and I will go to the mine then."

The Dwarfs grabbed their pickaxes and lined up outside the door. Aladdin grabbed an extra pickaxe and fell in behind them as they began marching off toward the mountains, singing and whistling their working song.

"Goodbye! Be careful!" Snow White called out, waving daintily after them as they left.

Belle sat down at the table and set her spellbook and component pouch in front of her. She pulled a quill and inkpot out of the pouch, spread the book open, and started scratching away at the pages, working out arcane equations and theories of spellcraft as she experimented with various gestures, incantations, and components. Meanwhile, Ariel and Snow White started cleaning up after breakfast, casually chatting and idly singing while keeping themselves busy with chores. Snow White and Ariel instantly became best friends, chatting about their experiences as princesses in different kingdoms. Belle's ears perked up when she heard Ariel drop the bombshell that she used to be a mermaid; that explained the 'swim with a school' metaphor she had used when they first met. Belle had a million questions but there would be time to ask them later; she returned her focus to her spellbook for now rather than interrupt their conversation.

—

At the mine, Aladdin was doing his best to contribute, but he was no Dwarf and had no experience with a pickaxe. He was more practiced in finesse and agility than in raw brute strength, so he didn't make nearly as much progress as he had hoped he would. The Dwarfs, on the other hand, were a symphony of synchronized motion. Their picks rose and fell in a steady rhythm, a percussive counterpoint to their whistled tune. Chips of rock flew, and the air grew thick with dust. Aladdin, sweating and with aching shoulders, could only marvel at their efficiency.

After what felt like an age, Doc called for a break. The Dwarfs gathered around a small, natural spring that trickled from the rock wall, drinking deeply from their waterskins.

"Not bad for a first try, lad," Doc said, clapping Aladdin on the back with a force that nearly sent him stumbling. "But I think it's best if you leave the heavy diggin' to us. We've been at this a long time."

"Happy to," Aladdin admitted with a groan, rolling his sore shoulders. "So, about that secret vault…?"

Just then, a sharp, rhythmic clanging echoed from a metal rod Grumpy was striking against a hanging sheet of iron. The universal signal for trouble. Everyone froze.

"Guards!" Grumpy hissed, his face pale beneath his grimy beard. "On the main path!"

Panic flashed through the group. "The vault!" Doc whispered, his eyes wide with terror. "If they find it—"

"Hide the lad!" Bashful squeaked, half panicked.

With surprising speed, the Dwarfs shoved Aladdin and his meager pile of gems behind a large, precariously stacked pile of ore and rubble. "Not a sound," Doc instructed, his voice a tense whisper. "Not a peep!"

A moment later, the tromp of heavy boots announced the arrival of four of the Queen's guards. They were tall, grim men in polished armor, their faces hidden behind menacing visors.

"You're behind on your quota," the lead guard announced, his voice a hollow, metallic rasp through his closed helmet. He kicked the side of a half-filled mine cart, making the gems inside jingle. "The Queen expects full carts. This is not full."

"We're workin' as fast as we can!" Doc insisted, wringing his cap in his hands. "The best veins are runnin' dry, it's takin' longer to find—"

"Excuses are the currency of failure," the guard interrupted coldly. "The Queen does not deal in failure. She expects the full shipment by nightfall. Or shall we inform her you require... motivation?"

The Dwarfs shrank back, a unified picture of fear. "N-no, sir!" Doc stammered. "You'll have it! Full carts! On our honor!"

The lead guard stared them down for a long, silent moment, then gave a curt nod. "See that you do." He turned on his heel, and the guards marched back the way they came, their footsteps fading slowly into the distance.

For a full minute after they were gone, no one moved or spoke. The only sound was the drip of water deep within the mine and Sneezy desperately trying to stifle another sneeze into his sleeve.

Finally, Aladdin crept out from his hiding spot. "That was close."

"Too close," Grumpy grumbled, his fear quickly morphing back into his default irritation. "They were sniffin' around like bloodhounds! They can't get a whiff of that vault!"

Doc nodded, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "He's right, lad. We can't risk it today. Not with them watchin' so close. They'll be back at sundown to collect, and they'll be countin' every last stone." He looked apologetically at Aladdin. "We'll have to try again tomorrow. For now, we'd best get you back to the cottage. The rest of us have a long, hard day of diggin' ahead of us if we're to meet that cursed quota."

Aladdin felt a pang of guilt as he looked at the armful of gems he had gathered. With a sigh, he held the small pile out toward Doc. "Here, take it. I don't want to get you in trouble with the Queen."

"Oh no no, that's very generous, lad, but you worked hard for those, you keep them!" Doc said quickly, pushing the gems back into Aladdin's arms. "We'll be alright. We're Dwarfs! Digging is what we do!"

"Now, get out of here before those guards come back," Sleepy added with a yawn. "You don't want to get caught here!"

Aladdin sighed and nodded, pouring his armful of gems into a sack and slinging it over his shoulder before heading out back toward the cottage, making sure to stay out of sight of the main road.

—

Back at the cottage, Snow White and Ariel had decided to bake a pie, using wild gooseberries picked from the surrounding woods. Just as Ariel was about to put the pie in the oven, Belle suddenly looked up from her work as there was a knock at the cottage door. That's odd, it's too early for the Dwarfs to be back, and they wouldn't knock at their own door. Something must be wrong.

She closed her spellbook, put her component pouch back on her hip, and stood up to answer the door, but Snow White got there first. Before Belle could protest, Snow White had already opened the door. "Oh, hello. How do you do?" she said with her usual positivity and politeness.

"How do you do," replied the person at the door. She was a wrinkled old crone with a long hooked nose and bulging sunken green eyes, carrying a basket of apples in the crook of her arm. She peered around Snow White's shoulder to see Belle and Ariel, Ariel still holding the uncooked pie. "And how do you do as well, girls. Mmmm, baking pies today, hmm?" Her voice was low and slow and gravelly.

"Yes, gooseberry!" Snow White said cheerfully.

"Ah, but it's apple pies that taste the sweetest, my dearie! Pies made from apples like these!" She lifted a shiny red apple from her basket and showed it off, turning it back and forth in the light. "You simply must buy one, my dear! It will make the most mouth-watering pie you've ever tasted!"

Belle relaxed a little. It was just an old peddler woman selling apples to make ends meet.

"Oh, they do look delicious!" Snow White said.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have any money," Belle interjected.

"Ohhh, that's too bad," the old woman said slowly, drawing out each vowel. "Perhaps a trade, then? I would hate to have to go back home empty handed, and after walking all this way on my tired old feet…"

Ariel walked over, having put the gooseberry pie in the oven to bake. "We don't have much here that's ours to give," she said apologetically. "We're simply watching this house while its owners are away."

"Oh, I see," the old woman said sadly, her eyes darting between the three of them. "How about that ribbon in your hair, dearie?" she asked Snow White. "I would take that in exchange for one shiny red apple. That's a fair trade, wouldn't you say? Hmm?"

"My ribbon?" Snow White asked, her hand flying up to touch it defensively. "Oh but… but I don't…" Belle knew from her story that morning how special it was to Snow White to be able to dress up pretty.

"No? That's alright, dearie," the old woman said thoughtfully. "You know what? I'm feeling generous today. Why don't you just take one? On the house, as a sample. Then maybe next time I come by, you'll buy more, hmm?"

Snow White smiled brightly and clapped her hands. "Oh that's so kind of you! Thank you so much!" She reached out to take the apple from the old woman's hand.

Belle had a sudden bad feeling about this. She whispered an incantation and traced a rune in the air, and suddenly in her vision the apple glowed with a sickly green aura. It was enchanted with necrotic energy.

"Don't touch that!" Belle snapped suddenly, slapping the apple away from Snow White's hand. It tumbled to the floor and rolled a few feet away, but appeared unharmed.

"Oh my! What was that for?" Snow White asked, looking hurt and betrayed.

"What's gotten into you?" Ariel admonished angrily.

"That apple is enchanted with necromancy. I don't know what its magic is but I know it's no good!" Belle turned an angry gaze on the old woman. "What are you playing at? Who are you really?"

Aladdin stopped as he approached the cottage, hearing angry voices ahead. He quickly hid and continued his approach stealthily, trying to get close enough to hear without being noticed.

"You insolent brat!" the old woman shouted at Belle. "Do you have any idea what you've done?? The plans you've ruined?? I was this close to ridding my kingdom of the last remnant of that foul beast, but you and your magic had to step in and ruin everything!"

"Your kingdom?" Belle asked, then gasped. "It's you. You're Queen Grimhilde."

"What foul beast are you talking about?" Ariel asked, confused.

"The old king," Grimhilde spat angrily. "That vile creature. When I discovered what he truly was, I couldn't bear to allow him to continue to rule! But what could I, a mere princess who but dabbled in the magic arts, do against the power of a neighboring king? But when his queen died giving birth to that monster's spawn, I knew I had to act. I spent years studying magic, learning what I needed to resist his powers, to keep my own hidden, and what it would take to destroy him, and then one day I managed to manipulate my father into arranging our marriage! I vanquished the monster shortly thereafter, but his daughter, ohhhhh she was trickier. She wasn't full blooded you see, the same magic that worked on him wouldn't work on her…"

"What are you talking about?" Belle interrupted. "What monster? What was the king?"

"You fool! You don't even know what you're defending!" Queen Grimhilde in the old crone guise flung a hand out to point accusatorially at Snow White. "That creature is a Dhampir, her father was a Vampire!"

A chill ran up Belle's spine as everything clicked into place. Snow White… her too-pale skin and pitch-dark hair and blood-red lips, her unnatural physical perfection, her supernatural charm, her affinity with woodland beasts, the mindless frenzy when she was terrified… it all fit.

Queen Grimhilde's eyes were wide with hatred and fury as she snarled at Snow White. "I couldn't attack you directly in the castle, the people loved you too much. Your Dhampir charm had a hold on everyone, even my own guards. I thought keeping you plain and ugly and dirty with chores might weaken the charm's power, but to no avail. But here…" she drew herself up, a violent fire blazing in her green eyes. "Here in the woods, I can be direct. I don't need to be clever, I don't need the enchanted apple, I can simply kill you myself!"

There was a roll of thunder as rain began to fall. The clouds had gathered unnoticed during the heated conversation. In the shadows of the surrounding trees, tiny yellow eyes began to appear. The Queen herself began to darken and swell, her shape changing right before their eyes. Her hooded cloak transformed into a fur-trimmed purple wizard robe and a red witch hat underneath a spiked golden crown. Her skin darkened to pure shadow as her eyes turned yellow, and a red sharp-toothed grin split her obsidian face. Her basket of apples grew spikes, and a distinctive red and black heart shaped emblem appeared on its side, the apples themselves beginning to spark and sputter with magical poisonous fire. The murderous intent in her heart had overwhelmed her with darkness, and she had become a Heartless.

"Now you will all share her fate!" the Witch shrieked, her voice echoing unnaturally through the clearing. As the first few small, skittering Heartless emerged from the shadowed tree line, Snow White let out a blood-curdling scream. Her eyes went wide and unseeing as the primal terror frenzy seized her, and she fled blindly into the storm-lashed woods, her cries quickly swallowed by the howling wind and rain.

One of the skittering shadows burst into smoke as Aladdin struck it from his hiding place, summoning the Keyblade and swinging with it in a single motion. "Hey!" he called out to the Witch as he stepped out into the open. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

As the Witch turned her gaze on Aladdin, Belle quickly pulled a piece of leather from her pouch and traced a rune in the air with it, whispering an incantation to cause a thin field of protective magic to flicker over her body. The Witch pulled a sparking poison apple from her basket and hurled it at Aladdin. He ducked to the side just as it exploded, dodging the bulk of the concussive blast but catching a billow of poison smoke right in his face. He coughed and ran out from the cloud before he could inhale too much of it, but the little he did catch burned in his lungs like acid. The Witch cackled, plucking another sizzling apple from her basket.

With a whispered incantation, a bolt of fire shot from Belle's fingertips, striking the Witch square in the chest. The creature shrieked in pain and fury, batting at the flames that licked at her shadowy robes. The small, skittering Heartless swarmed forward. One latched onto Aladdin's leg, its tiny claws digging deep, while more scurried toward Belle and Ariel. Aladdin gritted his teeth, swinging the Keyblade down to smash the creature on his leg into smoke. "There's too many of them!" he yelled, his voice strained.

Belle analyzed the field strategically, then called out, "Ariel! Stand there," she pointed, "and give them your best scream!"

Ariel nodded, running to where Belle had pointed and angling herself appropriately. She took a deep breath in, gathering power at the back of her throat, and then let out a thunderous note stronger than any she had so far. A concussive blast emanated from her mouth, catching several of the small Heartless in the wave, sending them flying and dissipating into smoke. The edge of the sonic wave caught the Witch as well, sending her stumbling backwards in pain.

Aladdin met the Witch head-on. The Keyblade became a blur of light, each swing connecting with a satisfying thwack and a burst of radiant energy. He was a whirlwind, using his agility to dodge and weave, striking where she was weakest. However, for every hit he landed, the Witch struck back just as strongly, and he couldn't dodge her forever. Indeed, one strike with her shadowy clawed hand finally connected, sending him flying and landing on his back. Belle sent out another bolt of fire, striking the Witch in the shoulder, but her eyes remained focused on Aladdin and The Keyblade in his hand. She took another apple out of her basket and threw it at Aladdin.

"Look out!" Ariel called out, using the magic of her voice to spur Aladdin to action. He rolled to the side, barely escaping the poison blast and getting back to his feet. More small Heartless crawled out from the shadows, focused on Aladdin.

"We need help!" Belle called out. "We should run, retreat to the mountains and find the Dwarfs!"

"What about Snow White?" Ariel yelled back.

"She ran off into the woods!" Belle called back, sending out another bolt of fire at the Witch. "We can't do her any good if we're dead!"

Hearing this, the Witch turned and screeched at the small shadows. "Find Snow White! But don't kill her; her heart is mine!!" She then turned her attention back on Aladdin, her yellow eyes gleaming as she focused on The Keyblade. "I'll come back for her once I get that Key…"

Knowing that Snow White was at least not going to be killed, Ariel and Aladdin relented. "I know the way, follow me!" Aladdin called out as he began running along the road toward the mine, Belle and Ariel falling in step behind him. They stayed ahead of the Witch, dodging her thrown apples as she chased after them. Every few seconds when she could spare the focus, Belle would send a bolt of fire over her shoulder at the Witch, keeping the pressure on.

The frantic, rain-soaked sprint through the woods felt like an eternity, but at last the mine entrance yawned before them, a dark mouth in the mountainside. Aladdin, Ariel, and Belle scrambled inside, their breaths coming in ragged gasps that echoed in the sudden stillness. The downpour outside became a muted drumming.

"Doc! Grumpy! Anyone!" Aladdin's voice rang through the cavernous main shaft.

For a heart-stopping moment, there was only the drip of water and the distant clink of a pickaxe. Then, a chorus of startled shouts echoed back, followed by the rapid scuffle of boots on stone. Seven bearded faces, smudged with dirt and etched with concern, appeared from a side tunnel, their lanterns casting wild, dancing shadows.

"By the gods, what happened?" Doc cried, rushing forward. "You look like you just crawled out from a rock slide!"

"No time!" Aladdin panted, leaning on the Keyblade. "The Queen—she's a Heartless! A witch! She's right behind us!"

As if on cue, a piercing, venomous shriek ripped through the mine from outside, followed by the skittering of a hundred clawed feet. The tiny yellow eyes of Shadow Heartless began to appear at the mine entrance, pooling together like a rising tide of darkness. The Dwarfs’ faces went ashen. Moving with a practiced urgency that spoke of past dangers, they led the flight deeper into the mountain. They plunged into a narrow, twisting side tunnel, the walls closing in until they were single-file, the lantern light bobbing wildly. The skittering and the Witch’s enraged cries echoed behind them, growing closer.

The tunnel ended at a formidable-looking iron-banded door set into the living rock. "Inside! Quickly!" Doc yelled, fumbling with a heavy key from his belt. The lock turned with a deafening CLUNK that seemed to shake the very mountain. They spilled into the chamber beyond, and Doc and Grumpy immediately threw their weight against the door, slamming it shut just as the first wave of Shadows reached it. The sound of claws scrabbling against thick wood was instantly drowned out by a thunderous impact that made the door shudder in its frame. The Witch had arrived.

"Bar it! Bar it!" Grumpy shouted. Aladdin and several Dwarfs shoved a massive timber into heavy iron brackets, sealing them in.

Panting, they finally took stock of their sanctuary. The chamber was small and roughly hewn, but it glittered. Piles of uncut gems were sorted into crude bins against the walls—diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and quartz—catching the lantern light and throwing fractured rainbows across the terrified faces of the group. This was their life’s work, their secret hope, and now it was their cage.

"We worked so hard to keep her from finding this place…" Happy said sadly, looking around at their treasures.

THUMP. Another blow shook the door, and a crack splintered up the middle. "It won’t hold!" Sneezy wailed.

"Then we make our stand here," Aladdin said, his voice hard. He hefted the Keyblade, its weight a familiar comfort. "Everyone get ready." Belle readied a tongue of flame, Ariel gathered power in her throat, and the Dwarfs hefted their pickaxes. Aladdin waited until the last moment, then suddenly threw the bar and opened the door.

The Witch came tumbling in, her strike intended for the door unexpectedly finding open air. Aladdin immediately swung down with The Keyblade, catching her in the back of the neck. Belle's tongue of flame shot forward, catching the Witch in the shoulder. Ariel focused on the Witch and began a dissonant whisper, snaking tendrils of sonic power into her shadowed mind. The Dwarfs all charged forward, taking turns striking her with their pickaxes. The ordinary iron picks didn't seem to do as much damage as the magic, but there were so many of them that their strikes whittled away at her defenses regardless.

With a final strike, Aladdin brought The Keyblade straight into the Witch's face, caving in her obsidian head. She shrieked, and began to dissolve into a black heart-shaped plume of smoke, which flickered and dissipated into the air. The smaller Heartless flinched for a moment, suddenly leaderless and disorganized, but they were regrouping quickly, their focus honing in on The Keyblade in Aladdin's hands.

Something glowed in the corner of Aladdin's eye. The lock on the vault door gleamed with a strange light. Instinctively, not really knowing what he was doing or why he was doing it, he pointed The Keyblade at the lock. His arm jolted as if struck by lightning as The Keyblade pulsed with light, shooting a beam from its tip that struck the lock in the door. There was a loud clunk as though a key had turned in a mechanism much larger than the door, and suddenly all the Heartless stopped moving. Their yellow eyes faded, but rather than dissolving into smoke as they had always seen Heartless do when killed, they melted into acrid pools of liquid shadow. These pools bubbled and sizzled, sinking into the earth without so much as a single wisp of smoke.

Everyone stood still, panting, with their weapons at the ready, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it never did. After a few moments, they realized they were safe. "It's over," Ariel breathed. "We won."

"Hooray!" the Dwarfs all cheered in unison. "The Witch is dead!"

Belle noticed something odd as everyone else continued celebrating. A piece of paper had fallen from the point where They Keyblade's beam of light had met the lock, fluttering slowly to the ground. She walked over and picked it up, looking over it curiously. It was a yellow piece of paper, covered in text that she didn't recognize. Even stranger, the gibberish symbols seemed to change any time she blinked or looked away. She rolled it up and tucked it into her component pouch for now, resolving to study it further later.

Together, they all made their way back to the cottage. When they arrived, they found Snow White already there waiting for them, looking so relieved to see them all. "You're back!" she called out joyfully. "You're all okay! Thank goodness!" She was suddenly the center of a huge group hug, including everyone except Grumpy and Belle, but even they smiled slightly, glad to see she was okay.

"What happened to you?" Sneezy asked.

"It was the strangest thing," Snow White explained. "I was so afraid, I ran into the woods and hid. The shadow things ran after me, but they never found me; they walked right by me as if they couldn't see me. Then, after a while, they all melted into dark goo that sank into the ground. And then I came back here." Her eyes widened as she looked at everyone. "Is… is the Queen…?"

"She can't hurt you anymore," Aladdin said with finality.

"You're the Queen now," Ariel added with compassion. "As you always should have been."

"Oh my! That's a lot of responsibility!" Snow White said thoughtfully. After a moment, she nodded and squared her shoulders with adorable determination. "Well, my kingdom is full of good people, I'm sure they can help me as I learn what I need to do."

"Not meaning to be insensitive by getting directly to business, Your Majesty," Belle said slowly, "but the three of us did come here for a reason. We need gems to help us fight the darkness. As the new Queen, you inherit the hoard Grimhilde was stockpiling—"

"Oh, of course! You three are welcome to take as much as you need!" Snow White said. "The rest will be divided between the Dwarfs who mined it, and the townsfolk who were unfairly taxed of it, keeping a reasonable amount behind in the treasury in case of emergencies." Belle and Ariel exchanged a surprised glance, and then a smile. Snow White was going to be a fine queen.

To celebrate their victory, they all gathered around the table to eat the gooseberry pie that Ariel had put in the oven just before the fight broke out; it was a little bit overdone, but they enjoyed it just the same. Afterwards, they all went back to the castle together. They explained the situation to the guards, who all bowed deferentially to Snow White without hesitation; her charm was still working, and would serve her well in defending her throne. Belle and Ariel and Aladdin were shown to the castle treasury, which was filled to bursting with gemstones. They scooped as many as they could fit into the Bag of Holding, which was much larger on the inside but not limitless. Snow White and the Dwarfs assured them that they were always welcome to come back and get more if they ever needed to. After many thank yous and friendly goodbyes, Belle focused on her attunement to the Gummi Ship, traced a rune in the air, and they all found themselves teleported back into the cockpit of the ship where it was still parked at the edge of the forest.