BLP 27:

"Sanji?!" Sora shouted in surprise as he spotted a blond-haired man ahead of him swimming after a small group of others who Sora did not recognize, as well as one girl he did. He saw Ariel turn his way and a sad look on her face as she met his eyes. Then, the large woman next to Ariel put a hand around her shoulders so that her arm blocked Sora from the girl's sight before whispering something to her that got Ariel to keep swimming in the direction of the palace. "Hey Ariel! Who's that with you-"

Although Ursula kept her mouth shut, Sanji heard the witch give him an order in his head and he stopped swimming after her, the eels, and the beautiful princess they had with them. Sanji clenched his teeth hard but turned his head to look towards the source of the voice that he did not want to see. Sora, he thought, spotting the younger boy swimming his way with a confused but excited look on his face.

"Wait until Luffy hears you're here!" Sora shouted excitedly. "He's going to be, so," Sora faded off, remembering the awkwardness that was going on between him and Luffy at the moment. He shook his head around and said in a softer voice, "They'll all be happy to see you." Sanji swam in Sora's direction then stopped when he was twenty feet in front of the younger boy.

"That's another one of Luffy's crew?" Goofy asked while turning to Sora.

"That's the last one, right?" Donald asked, annoyed already that so many had joined up with them on their journey across the worlds. He was even more annoyed because Triton just called them out on it and he felt like it was his duty to protect the world order.

Sora thought about the question, and though there was someone else he knew was not with the crew, he nodded his head. "Yeah, Sanji's the last one who was missing," he said.

Not including Roronoa, Smoker thought. The Marine Captain narrowed his eyes at the pirate in front of him who looked back at him cautiously. "What are you doing here, Smoker?" Sanji questioned.

Smoker opened his mouth, but Sora responded quicker, "We started traveling with him. He's a good guy now."

Smoker got a bead of sweat dripping down the left side of his head. "Now?" I've always been one of the good guys. It's the pirates who're acting strange by helping the worlds. Smoker felt like it was not worth it to say all that aloud, but as he thought it, he got a strange sensation from the blond man in front of him. "Oi, pirate," he started in a low voice. He swam a little to the right, and like he thought, Sanji moved a little to his own left to stay right in front of him.

Sora's smile dropped and both of the royal envoys behind him got nervous looks on their faces. "Hey Sanji," Sora began in a hesitant voice. "Who was that person you were with? The one who led Ariel away?"

Sanji clenched his teeth shut tighter, and then he said in a dark voice, "Sora. I cannot let you pass." His eyes darted back over to Smoker whose fists clenched as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Wh-What?" Sora asked, a wide-eyed look filling his face. Donald's hands tightened around his wand, and Goofy swam forward with his shell ready to attack.

"This isn't good," Donald whispered, getting a bad feeling about all of this.

"Enough of this," Smoker growled. He did not care about the reason, but he got a seriously bad vibe from that creepy octopus woman he saw swimming away with Ariel. "If I had to guess, that person you're with is seeking out the Keyhole," Smoker said while swimming forward, his green tail kicking behind him and his fists raising into a fighting position. "And she's the type who shouldn't be getting their hands on it."

"I don't know what that is," Sanji said, his voice low and serious, even though Sora could see his expression was sad too. He lifted his lowered gaze though and glared back into Smoker's eyes, "But Lady Ursula does not want you interfering with her plans."

"Sanji! Wake up!" Sora shouted at him. "You don't know what she's doing-"

Smoker shot forward, not going to wait any longer for them to try and convince this pirate to stand down. He did not care that this was one of Straw Hat's crew, he was a threat. Smoker shot towards the man, but Sanji sped to his left and avoided the Marine Captain who missed his first punch. Smoker turned and glared harder at the man who backed away from him. "You're new to these oceans, Smoker," Sanji said. He did not have a confident look on his face, but he did not appear to be afraid of the Marine either. "I've been here for weeks. I might not be able to hurt you," he said, not even bothering to try and attack the Logia eater in front of him. Smoker charged at Sanji but the chef did a backflip and the top of his tail lifted just over Smoker's fist. "But you can't touch me," Sanji said, and he did a circle around Smoker before stopping behind his back.

Donald looked at Sora who he saw looked so conflicted, then he lifted his wand with a hardened look on his face, "Wawawa!" Donald called down lightning that struck the blond man and made him gasp in pain that filled his whole body. As Sanji was getting zapped, Smoker spun around towards the flash of light that happened behind him and he charged at the pirate. He slammed his right fist forward hard, extending his arm just a little right before it would have collided. If he had done it any farther away, the water would have dispersed his smoke, but as it was he managed to add a little extra force behind it by slamming the fist into Sanji and then slamming the rest of his body weight behind that force.

Smoker's fist in Sanji's chest felt like getting slammed by a pile of bricks, and Smoker did not even use Haki against the man. The Marine Captain was just that strong on his own, and Sanji gasped out into the water in front of him. "Stop it!" Sora shouted and swam towards the two. He reached them right as Smoker was punching forward his other fist, using the first one to grab Sanji by the shoulder to hold him still.

"I don't know why you're stopping me," Smoker said in a low voice as Sora had his left wrist grabbed and was holding him back. Smoker felt like he could tear his hand out of Sora's grip at any time, but Sora had the Keyblade and he had been following this kid because of that.

"Because he's my friend," Sora said, and Sanji turned his head to look at the young boy with wide eyes. Sora turned away from Smoker and met Sanji's gaze, "Sanji. You don't need to attack us. You can stop this, and help us. We're just trying to help this world. Luffy's been looking all over for you." Sora smiled and he was really trying to keep himself optimistic here. "Tell me this isn't really what you want to do. Tell me, you don't have a choice. Please Sanji," Sora begged. "You don't know how much we need this right now. You don't know how much we just need you, to be our friend."

Smoker looked out the corner of his eyes at the kid floating next to him, such desperation in his eyes for a positive answer from the chef in front of them. Sanji's eyes were huge at everything Sora said, and he opened his mouth, "Sora, I-"

"Attack them now! You swore your life to me when I saved you, which means that it is mine!" Sanji froze with his mouth open and his eyes opened even wider at the voice shouting in his head. "If you disobey this order, I will remove your gills and you will die right now. WHAT WILL IT BE?!" The high-pitched scream in his head made Sanji start shaking. His eyes darted from Sora to Smoker to the other two strange creatures behind them. His eyes did not even linger on the strange dog-turtle or duck-octopus for more than a second. A hundred images flashed through Sanji's head: Zeff, the cooks at Baratie, his mother, his sister, and the faces of his nakama. I don't, want to die here. Sanji's eyes snapped back to Smoker who had seen the hesitation in his face and loosened his own grip on Sanji's shoulder. He wished he hadn't.

Sanji's tail snapped up so hard that when it hit Smoker's arm, the Marine had to let the tail break through his arm thus releasing his hold on Sanji. Sanji did not stop with breaking through Smoker's arm though, spinning around and snapping his tail out to his right side this time and hitting a shocked Sora who really thought Sanji was about to stop there for a second. Sanji then kicked his tail hard in front of himself and shot backwards away from Smoker's left fist that he finally punched forward without Sora holding him back.

He's right, Smoker thought as his fist did not even come close to the pirate. He's too fast down here, as Smoker thought it, Donald called down more lightning magic, but the chef was ready for it this time and accepted the blows before turning and gaining some more distance between him and them. He swam to his left and Sora started chasing after him while calling out his name, but Smoker turned his head the other way and narrowed his eyes. I saw that look in his eyes though. As much as I want to just fight this pirate, something else is up. He doesn't want us going that way, the same way those others went. "Kid, wait," Smoker called out. Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked back to see Smoker facing the other direction.

Sanji's eyes opened wide and he tssked as his plan was seen through. "I'll take Sanji," Smoker said, using the man's name for the first time while turning back to face him. Sanji did not see the same look of animosity on Smoker's face as he did a minute ago, but the man still looked serious and Sanji faltered in his decision to swim back and get on Smoker's other side. Getting closer to the man who was not much slower than him was not an ideal move, but he could not let them keep going.

Sora saw where Smoker was looking at first before turning back for Sanji. "Ariel," Sora whispered with worry laced in his voice. He glanced over his shoulder again towards Sanji, then back to Smoker and nodded at him. He started swimming towards the Marine while Smoker swam towards him, and Donald and Goofy chased after Sora as was their mission: following the Key. As Sora passed Smoker though, the boy whispered, "Don't hurt him."

Smoker's head did not turn to show he had heard the kid, but he frowned deeper at how much the kid actually cared about this man. It's not about it being this Sanji, Smoker thought. He'd care as much as if it were someone we just met. He knew this was true too, because when Sora realized that he was telling the kid to go after Ursula and Ariel, he saw the same look of concern on Sora's face for her as he did for Sanji. Sanji started swimming forward after the three had passed by Smoker, but the Marine was not going to let him get by him. Smoker hunched his body over and out of his back exploded a huge cloud of smoke that pushed out on both sides of him, making a large wall of white that Sanji stopped while staring wide-eyed at it. Smoker had to keep pushing more and more out continuously which was straining his body, because as soon as the smoke got out of his body it started to shift around oddly in the water. The fact that he was underwater did not seem to merge well with his Devil Fruit powers, likely a side effect of water having a negative effect on people like him in the first place, or so he assumed. He wondered how his smoke powers even worked at all considering the environment they were in, but as he was able to breathe underwater as well, he did not argue much with the physics of this strange world.

"You will not get past me," Smoker said, narrowing his eyebrows in again at the pirate before him. "I don't know what your circumstances are, pirate, but I'm working with your captain as things stand now. You're either with us, or you're against him. What's it going to be?"

"I already attacked my captain earlier," Sanji said in a dark tone, his hair shadowing both of his eyes as he said it. He started kicking his tail behind him hard while racing forward, and he snapped his gaze up and glared into Smoker's eyes while shouting, "There's already no going back!"

"Luffy, where are we going?" Nami asked as she chased after her captain. Luffy had been moving nonstop since they decided to find another route to chase after Sanji. The tunnels were full of currents too strong for them to swim through, so they had to go above the rock formations, but that was only getting them more lost. Nami wanted them to stop so she could get her bearings on where they were but Luffy was not having it.

"We have to find him," Luffy said without looking back. Nami turned to her left to see if Usopp could talk some sense into their captain, but some of Usopp's long curly hair was covering his face and shadowing his eyes. Nami knew what he was thinking about, and she herself gained a dejected look as they imagined how Sanji reacted to seeing them again after so long.

"For three years," Usopp whispered. Nami turned to him again and saw his head lifting up. "I imagined meeting up with everyone again for three years, but now that it's finally come…" He clenched his eyes shut while continuing to kick his tail behind him. "I never thought these would be the circumstances of our reunion. A race against the clock where if we fail, the whole universe is destroyed? And to top it off, half of my nakama have turned against me?" He clenched his fists at his sides.

Robin was swimming behind them closer to turtle-Chopper, but she shifted her gaze away after hearing what the man in front of her said. "I trusted you!" In her head she saw the trusting face of the long-nosed man asking her how long they had left in Halloween Town, right before he rushed off to save as many people as he could. "…I won't make that mistake again." She saw him rushing by the shark that had attacked them, dodging it masterfully and slicing its side to defeat it. She saw him and Nami getting out of the Gummi Ship after being spat out from Monstro, and the red faces they had when people brought up what happened to them in the whale's stomach. "Robin, I will not forgive you for this." She kept hearing his words from Agrabah echoing in her head. Robin stared back over at Usopp's back, and then what he just said repeated in her mind, "Half of my nakama have turned against me." …Two members is not half. Three would be. Three of your six crewmates. I may be reading too deeply into this, as he is more likely exaggerating… Robin shook her head around to shake off the strange thoughts she was having that she always managed to ignore. Sanji, I believed I had a good read on that man when we met. The way he acts towards women, but also to the other members of his crew. I am scared of Zoro, but I still do not believe that Sanji would hurt me after seeing his expression earlier.

"Whoa," Chopper said, as the water all around them shook. The pirates stopped swimming and all five of them started looking around wondering what that just was.

Luffy got a bad feeling in his chest, and it got even worse as a Keyblade appeared in his right hand. He looked down at it oddly, staring at the yellow hilt with a silver blade sticking out of it with a strange gaze. I didn't summon it, so why did it… Luffy lifted his head and looked into the distance as a shadow cast over him. The other pirates behind him stared that direction as well and lowered their bottom lips at the sight of the water darkening fast. Nami and Chopper started leaning back, and they each screamed as the wave of darkness washed over them.

After the dark color swept over them, they all lowered their arms and looked around the dark blue ocean surrounding them. "Well," Usopp said, "that's just terrific." His tone was sarcastic, but he was sweating while looking the direction that dark wave that took over the entire ocean started from. "Guess we should, go check it-" Luffy started swimming forward as fast as he could in the direction that the ocean darkened from. "Yeah, that," Usopp finished, and he chased after his captain, the other three not far behind him.

"Ursula no! I didn't want this!" Ariel held her father's arm as he lay back weakened on his throne. She shook her head at the witch holding her father's trident up in the air and laughing while the ocean around them darkened in color.

"HahahaHAA! Why not? Aren't you tired of following daddy's orders? Isn't that why you want to go to other worlds so much?" Ursula started cackling again while the two green eels near her swam in circles around the throne. "Oh yes, we had a deal didn't we. Now it's time I sent you to another world: The dark world of the Heartless!"

"Not so fast Ursula!" Sora shouted. The witch whose name he heard from Sanji turned her head and saw Sora swimming her way with Donald and Goofy not far behind him on either side.

"Ah, your friends from another world have come to help you, how nice," Ursula said, before laughing some more while she held her trident up victoriously.

Sora looked behind her towards Ariel who he had lied to earlier when he mentioned where he came from. He wanted to apologize to her, but he had to save her first. He had his Keyblade drawn and charged towards Ursula, "I won't let you do whatever you want!"

"Too bad!" Ursula shouted back at him. "I've already got the trident, and just yesterday…"

"We found the Keyhole," the two eels on opposite sides of the throne room hissed in their creepy voices.

"No," Triton whispered from the throne that he could not move from, powerless to do anything without his trident.

Sora's expression hardened and both of his hands tightened around the yellow hilt of the Keyblade he was holding. "With the trident in my power, I can now control the Keyhole to enslave this entire world! No one can stop me now! HAHAHA!" The sea witch laughed and laughed, and then a cloud of lightning appeared above her head and rained a half dozen bolts down on her fat face. Her laughs stopped and she snapped a furious expression down at the young merman who dared attack her.

"I'm not letting that happen," Sora said in a firm voice. Donald and Goofy swam up to his sides and readied for a fight, and Sora lowered his Keyblade back down to hold it in a ready fighting stance after raising it to call down Thunder magic. "You're going down!" He shouted, and he and his two friends swam up towards the witch and her trident. As they got close to her though, Flotsam and Jetsam swam over on Sora's sides and intercepted his comrades who had to turn and block the swipes from the electric eels.

Sora kept swimming up towards the witch who was rising as well, but Ursula just laughed and lifted her trident a little. Out from her body pulsed a force so powerful that it pushed Sora back not just away from her, but a hundred feet away in under three seconds. He kept getting pushed through the water even after he felt her force stop pressing against him just because he was moving so fast, and then he stopped all at once as his back slammed into a stone pillar of the palace. "So strong," he whispered as he swam off of the pillar and back towards Ursula who was laughing down at him from above the palace. He spotted Donald and Goofy having some trouble with the eels, especially since other Heartless were appearing over there around them, and he refocused on Ursula as he realized he was alone in his fight. I can't use Drive Form, and she's become so strong. Luffy, where are- No! I can do this on my own! I have to!

Sora sped up even more while pulling his Keyblade back to his side. Ursula opened her mouth though as he got close, and he thought she was just going to laugh again. Instead, out from her mouth shot a bubble that Sora slashed his Keyblade down at so that he could keep moving in a line straight towards her. It was the wrong move. As soon as his Keyblade touched the bubble, the bubble popped like it was an explosive and the force slammed into Sora so hard that he felt his mind rattle.

"Sora!" Goofy shouted up in worry. He started swimming up towards his friend, but two of the green Heartless swam up in front of him to get in his way. He had knocked out one of the eels a few seconds ago, but there were still so many enemies around him that it was hard to ignore and help Sora. He spotted Donald out the corner of his vision being swarmed by even more than he was, and he rushed to Donald's side instead when the duck got hit by a strong blast of electricity from the other electric eel. "Be careful Sora," Goofy called up to the boy who he saw charging again despite how tired he looked after that last blow.

"Fire!" Sora yelled, pointing his Keyblade at Ursula before he reached her. Unlike Luffy whose fireballs fizzled out earlier after he arrived on the world, Sora's magic was stronger and the fireball was able to fly all the way to Ursula who it crashed into with little to no effect.

She started laughing at the attempt, and Sora just kept charging at her with an angry look on his face at how she was treating him like he was not even a threat. "You call that 'FIRE?'" Ursula shouted. She lifted her trident and the water around Sora started to shimmer a strange orange color that made Sora's skin crawl, and then start to heat up. Sora's eyes opened wide and he opened his mouth, before screaming in pain as a giant pillar of explosion erupted all around Sora from the floor of the palace all the way up high over Ursula in the darkened ocean above. Ursula laughed as the explosion disappeared and a form started falling through the water where it just was, "This is MY ocean!" She roared down.

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy shouted up at the same time, the Heartless around them just finished off. They started swimming towards their friend, while the two eels that looked unconscious uprighted themselves and swam up towards Ursula.

"Now let's get going," Ursula said while turning away, her subordinates swimming up to her sides. "With that artifact you found, we should be able to complete this world's Keyhole. It is time to bring this world to its knees! HAHAHAHAaaa…"

Sora heard the cackling laughter fading in his ears, before he was unconscious for good.

"…ich way did he go?'

"He swam after the witch when they came back our way."

Sora heard voices and he started opening his eyelids. Everything was dark around him even after his eyes were opening, and he realized that the water around him was still its dark blue color from before. He was floating horizontally in the middle of a circle of people, and he stared straight up through the ocean above him as he remembered what happened. I, lost, he thought. The worlds rest in my hands, and I lost. This world, I failed it.

"Why didn't you stop them?"

"I'm not a great swimmer with this thing," Smoker growled back at Nami. He motioned at his tail, then looked inwards in their circle to mention his other reason for going to the palace instead of chasing Ursula. The fact that she had escaped made him worried about the boy who went after her, and he found Sora with Ariel, Donald, and Goofy at his sides trying to wake him up.

When Smoker looked in to mention helping Sora, his eyebrows lifted up instead and he muttered, "You're awake."

The others looked in and Sora straightened himself up in the water. He looked around and saw almost every person in their group surrounding him in the same throne room of the palace that he was knocked out in. Ariel was by his side too, and Triton was still slumped back on his throne. The small yellow fish Flounder floated next to Ariel, and the lobster Sebastian was over next to Triton's throne trying to console the King of the oceans.

"Luffy?" Sora asked, looking at Usopp to see if the man had an answer for him.

Usopp was surprised that that was the first thing Sora had to say after waking up, but Luffy was the only member of their group not surrounding him at the moment. Usopp frowned and said in a soft voice, "He went after Sanji. Don't know why he thinks he'll be able to find him," Usopp added in an annoyed voice. Right after he said it, the ground beneath them shook and the group spun to look at the stone walls around them. Rocks were breaking off of the walls and falling down slow through the water, and the travelers were having bad flashbacks of the previous world.

"Ursula's going after the Keyhole, Sora," Ariel told the boy who had already been sinking from Ursula's powerful attack when she proclaimed that aloud. Sora turned to her and she had an ashamed look on her face as they made eye contact. "I'm sorry," she said. The others all looked to the redhead who the pirates did not really know but who seemed to know Sora. "Ursula promised me that she could take me to another world, like you…"

"No Ariel, I'm sorry," Sora said and floated closer to the girl before him. "I'm sorry I lied to you about where I was from." Sora bowed his head, then he lifted it with a more confident look on his face. "But don't worry, we're not going to let Ursula get away with this." Sora swam past her, and his friends looked at his back in confusion, wondering what he was doing. Sora swam up and into the middle of the throne room where he looked ahead at where Triton was slumped in his chair. "King Triton, I'm going to get your trident back. I know you don't want us here, but!" Sora lifted his right hand and his Keyblade formed in it. "I'm going to prove you wrong! Ursula's trying to make this world fall to the Heartless, and I won't let her!" Sora slashed his weapon across his body, then he turned and looked down towards the circle of his comrades below. "I think I know where the Keyhole is!"

"You do?" Smoker asked, confused considering he had been with the kid almost the entire time since they left the Going Merry.

Sora turned to Ariel and said, "Stay here with your father. We can handle this." She looked hesitant like she wanted to help correct what she thought was her own mistake, but one look at her dad's weak condition and she knew she had to stay there with him. Ariel nodded at him, and Sora swam off for the exit of the throne room into the rest of the palace. "Let's go!" Sora called out to his friends who were still hesitating and deciding what to do behind him.

"Sora! Are you sure you're alright?" Nami called after the boy who was unresponsive when she got there, even to several doses of Donald's Cure magic. His outer burns healed, but he had not been waking up when she tried to stir him.

"I'm fine!" He shouted without looking back. "This isn't the time to be indecisive!" Sora added, and each of his friends agreed, wondering what they were doing just talking and arguing over Sora's unconscious body a few minutes ago. Then again, none of them knew where Ursula or Sanji went, nor where the Keyhole of this world was. Knowing any one of those things would mean finding the others, and Sora seemed to know where one was for some reason.

The group chased after Sora as fast as their new bodies would allow them. It was oddly quiet in the group though as they started moving. Sora interrupted them from their arguments right when he woke up, and with his declaration of knowing the location of the Keyhole, most of their arguments did not matter anymore. Donald, Goofy, and Smoker swam in a line on the right while the pirates were more clustered on their left sides, and everyone was chasing after Sora.

Nami looked to her right and the dog-turtle swimming next to her looked left back at her. He made eye-contact and then lowered his gaze sadly. The last time they were on an underwater world, the two of them had spent the day in Bikini Bottom together. They each thought about that, and then thought about what had happened since getting off the ship here. "What happened to you guys after you left the ship?" Nami asked the knight next to her.

"We went looking for the Keyhole," Goofy replied. Nami frowned and looked away at the response, "Why didn't you guys follow-"

"I got attacked by a shark!" Nami snapped. Goofy's eyes widened at the woman, and she continued angrily, "We would have been right behind you. If you had just waited a second we all could have looked together."

"Gawrsh Nami, I'm sorry," Goofy said softly. Nami's expression softened and she clenched her teeth in annoyance at herself, as she knew there was no reason to be mad at Goofy for any of that. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Yes, I'm fine," Nami assured him. "It's just," she continued, and she looked around to see how their group was split down the middle. The more of their crew that joined the team, the more it seemed like the members of the group who were not pirates were a different group than them. "You could have waited for us," she mentioned in a quiet voice. "We would have been right behind you."

"I think Sora was in a hurry," Goofy said.

"Yeah, I can see that," Nami replied. She thought about the boy's confident smile from back in the throne room, but the part of his face that she could see from back here now was not the same expression as before. His lips were curled down and his face was full of worry. He probably thought we would just lounge around on another world if he wasn't pushing us to move faster. I wish he'd trust us more.

"How strong is this Ursula?" Usopp questioned the duck on his right side. Donald hummed in a low way in annoyance but also some fear. "I'm sure if we all work together-"

Donald turned towards him and quacked, "If we were all working together, we never would have let Ursula take the trident in the first place."

"Don't blame us," Usopp said with a shake of his head. "You're the ones who swam off without us-"

"We knew you would take too long if we waited, but you took too long anyway!" Donald exclaimed. "And now another world's about to fall. I'm the court magician, and I'm not supposed to let this keep happening! WAwawa! I can't wait around for a bunch of pirates who don't care about my mission, and who aren't even supposed to be on it in the first place," Donald added the last part in a lower, more annoyed done as he darted his eyes around the four pirates to his left.

Usopp did not really have a response for the magician. We do care though, he thought. Just because we're pirates, doesn't mean we don't care what happens to these worlds. I thought after traveling around together for this much time, you would have known that, Donald.

Nico Robin stayed quiet while her younger crewmates argued with the royal envoys. Sanji, what is your reason for following this Ursula? The others may think you have just betrayed us, like Zoro, but I know things are not always that cut and dry. How I acted in Agrabah, the things I did were worse than anything you have done. The others are so used to betrayal now that they are expecting it, so they are too willing to accept what may not be the truth. Robin lifted up her frown into a straight line and tried to think of a reason that Sanji could be acting the way he was. Is it because Ursula is a woman? No, that is too simple. She could be controlling him, but if so then he would not have stopped from attacking Nami earlier.

While Robin thought of what could be persuading Sanji into attacking the crew she recalled him loving, Smoker stared straight forward with a dark and intimidating look on his face. That sea witch does not seem as dumb as Oogie Boogie was. She stole that powerful trident before going after the Keyhole, even though she knew where it was before she stole the weapon. If the Keyhole is as powerful as the one on Halloween Town, then there would be no need for the trident, unless by using it… she can control the Keyhole? If so, then this world is not necessarily doomed to destruction, however its fate might be even worse.

Smoker's expression got even darker. Hook, Jafar, Maleficent, Oogie Boogie, and now Ursula. Are they all working together? Maleficent showed up in Agrabah, and Hook mentioned how he had been taking Riku to her in Hollow Bastion. These villains are all connected, and Maleficent is their leader. They are a dark organization who are destroying entire worlds or putting them under their controls, and under the control of the Heartless. That kid Riku, he's joined the wrong side, and he is now my enemy. Smoker's gaze lifted and his eyes focused on Sora's back. He is leading us against this threat, but he is not strong enough to defeat them all. He can't do it alone at least. The Heartless will keep getting stronger no matter what we do here. If we don't end this soon, we won't be able to fight back anymore.

I can't do anything like this! Chopper thought as he swam as fast as he could to keep up with the others. The turtle with a furry reindeer face was struggling to keep pace, and he was panting as he thought, Without the ability to transform, I'm useless in a fight. And Luffy and Sora can use Cure magic. As a doctor I could never compare to something that heals any injury be it burns, or broken bones, or gashes. Maybe I should have stayed behind at the palace…

The group swam out of the palace and as soon as they were outside the gates, all hell broke loose in the ocean around them. Ghost Heartless from Halloween Town appeared all over the water with lights sticking out of their heads as if searching for enemies. Giant jellyfish Heartless appeared surrounded by the smaller ones that they would also break into if they were hit enough times. The green fish-like Heartless holding tridents appeared everywhere as well, and some of them were heading straight up for Sora.

"Over there!" Sora pointed, and everyone followed his finger towards a darker part of the water. Smoker's eyes widened, while Donald thought, I knew it. The boulder in front of Ariel's grotto had been blasted into pieces leaving an opening in the rock wall that showed the water behind it was so much darker than even the darkened ocean they were already in. As he pointed, his eyes opened wider as the large mass of Heartless in front of them doubled in size. An army of dark undersea monsters emerged and all were facing the same direction: Sora and his Keyblade.

The boy with spiky brown hair bit down hard. His hands tightened around the hilt of his weapon, but everyone behind him saw the silver blade start shaking.

Usopp had leaned back when he saw the second half of the enemy army appear, but the sight of Sora's shaking in front of him got him to recover fast. He darted his eyes around to all his comrades. Donald and Goofy shared a hesitant look after looking at Sora, and Donald quacked nervously while backing away using his octopus tentacles. There was a terrified look on Nami's face and past her he could see Chopper shaking much worse than Sora's weapon was. Even Robin looked a little hesitant while she looked around as well, but when she locked eyes with Usopp, he gave her a strong nod and her eyes opened wide at him. "Sora," Usopp began.

Sora did not turn from the army in front of him that started moving his way fast. They were swimming towards him and he tried steadying his Keyblade, but it was hard while faced with more Heartless than he had ever fought before. "Yeah?" Sora asked.

"Go straight ahead," Usopp said. The others all looked to him while Sora's eyes just bulged. He wanted to look back and say something, wanted to tell Usopp that that was crazy, but he didn't. Sora's Keyblade stopped shaking and the duck and dog behind him looked at him in surprise. "Donald, Goofy, go with him," Usopp said, while he started swimming forward. Sora can't beat her on his own. Those three will watch each other's backs. "The world is depending on you. Don't lose again." Usopp shot forward right before the first Heartless were about to reach Sora, and he slashed into them with his broadsword and knocked all of them back. "GO!" Usopp shouted. He spun while slashing again, and this time he knocked all the enemies he hit to his right side, before chasing after them and making it so they could not fill back in the path he opened.

Smart plan, Smoker thought, though he growled to himself as he shot forward leaving a trail of smoke behind him in the water. He did not like that the plan was a pirate's, but he could at least admit it was a good one. As Smoker swam past Sora, he snapped, "You've got your mission don't you? Leave this to us!" Smoker punched his arms forward rapid fire and did not care that the water was messing with his body and spreading him all over the place. "RaaaaAAAA!" Smoker yelled out as he pushed harder and harder to punch his arms out similar to Luffy's Gattling Gun technique.

Sora nodded his head after a second's hesitation. "Donald. Goofy. Let's do it!" Sora kicked his tail behind him and shot through the water with his Keyblade held at his side. He raced towards the grotto entrance that started spewing more darkness than ever. The sight of those black wisps spreading out into the dark blue water around him made Sora even more confident though. Out from the darkness before the entrance to the grotto, strange dark creatures that they had not seen yet on this world started to rise from the ocean floor. They lifted long arms with crab claws at the end, and their pitch black heads popped out to show three beady yellow eyes on each and large mouths of glowing sharp white teeth.

"Donald don't. Save your magic," Sora said, and he just kept swimming straight towards the monsters without slowing down.

Goofy got a nervous look on his face, but he listened to Sora and just kept swimming forward with the spiky-haired boy. Donald looked around in fear. Not only were there the three dark monsters coming out of the ground in front of the grotto, but the green Heartless were charging from the left of the entrance, and more ghosts were appearing on the right. Donald's wand shook in his hands, then he quacked in reckless abandon and closed his eyes while speeding up after Sora as well. "WaaaAAAA!" He quacked as he prepared for an attack on all sides.

"Sesenta Fleur!" Robin shouted. The dark creatures reaching up with their claws and lifting off the ocean floor suddenly found themselves restrained and being dragged back down. At the same time, a wall of smoke blocked off the left side of the entrance, and a muscular merman swordsman crossed his sword in front of the ghost Heartless charging from the right. Sora did not look around as all that happened around him, he just swam straight through their attacks and into the dark grotto beyond.

As soon as Sora was through, Usopp's sword got parried back and the ghosts slashed at him with their sharp claws. Robin's hold over the powerful dark Heartless faltered as well, and she yelled in pain as one of them snipped its pincers on her arms. Smoker's wall of smoke dispersed in the water, and the man on the other side facing the green Heartless glanced back to see the others were not doing well. The grotto's entrance was blocked off now by those strong Heartless and more of their kind that were coming out of the spreading black floor outside the grotto's entrance.

While Smoker watched the blackness spreading on the ground, he heard a rumble to his left and spun that way. He had to lift his arms and continue fighting the enemies, but like Nami and Chopper who were still farther back and keeping out of the growing army of Heartless, he looked over towards an undersea rock wall that had a crack ripping through it from its base to the top. Rocks crumbled off the wall, and inside the crack they could see more wisps of darkness.

Should Chopper and I go get the Merry, just in case? Nami thought. If we do, if we let this world fall too, I don't think there'll be any hope left. We need this more than just to save this world. We need this win. Nami steadied her expression and reached down to connect the pieces of her Clima Tact. She looked towards Usopp who was surrounded on all sides by different forms of Heartless. You made this for me so that I could protect myself, but in this situation it would make more sense for me to just run. It's not me who needs protecting though, it's you thanks to your reckless plan of taking all the Heartless while Sora goes on ahead. You, and this world, Nami added, and her smile lowered as she thought about that crack she saw in the wall a few seconds ago. "It's my turn," she whispered, and then she kicked her mermaid tail and shot towards Usopp with her weapon in hand.

Inside the grotto, Sora swam through the small tunnel from the outside into Ariel's favorite place. All around the floor were shattered vases. The chests along the wall were splintered and broken apart, and wisps of darkness were rising up from the floor along the lower walls of the round and tall room. The higher up Sora looked, the higher the darkness climbed to. It was thickest at the bottom, but there was a single point that all of that darkness was spilling out of before it even fell to the floor. I knew it, he thought, while he stared at the spot on the wall where the blue trident-shaped indent had been earlier. Sora only spent a second looking around the grotto though, as the second he entered, a shrill voice spoke down towards him, "You are too late."

When Sora looked up and saw the darkened walls with the blackness climbing up them, he saw the sea witch floating in the middle of it all with her two eels swimming around her on her sides. Before Ursula or her pets though, Sora had to look past two mermen floating closer to the middle of the grotto. He gasped at the sight of the pirate in a straw hat they were all looking for, then looked over at the blond-haired man who was floating twenty feet in front of him with a dark look on his face hiding the feelings filling him at the moment.

Luffy, Sanji thought, his chest hurting though he hid it well while looking at the betrayed look on his captain's face. I don't, want to fight- "You will fight, or you will die right here. I am already more powerful than ever. If you cannot repay your debt, perhaps I will just take back my gift."

"Ursula! Whatever you're doing to Sanji, stop it!" Sora shouted up. The sea witch lost her mad grin and snarled at the boy who should not have noticed she was doing anything while she spoke through a telepathic link. Sora did not hear anything, but he knew that there had to be a reason anyway.

Luffy turned his head to look down at Sora. The younger boy swam up to his level with Donald and Goofy behind him, and Luffy's gaze snapped back to Sanji, his face disheartened and sad. Sanji masked his emotions harder at the sight of Luffy's face. First Usopp aged, then Robin kind of… and Zoro! Not you too, Sanji, Luffy shook his head around as this was too much for him. "Why are you doing this?" Luffy asked, looking back at the man who had ignored everything Luffy shouted at him so far.

"Sanji!" Sora swiped his arm in front of his body. "Ursula's the bad guy! Why are you siding with her?"

Ursula's mouth curled into the most furious snarl ever as the people below started ignoring her. "These are my oceans!" Ursula screamed down at them. "I rule the seas now, AHAHAHAHA!" She leaned backwards and started floating up higher until she was out of the grotto. A trail of darkness followed below the octopus woman's tentacles like ink coming out of her only much thicker and more menacing. The eels she left below started swimming down towards Sanji, Sora, and Luffy, while out from the trail of darkness below Ursula, the walls, and the floor of the grotto, dark Heartless creatures emerged and followed after the eels towards their targets.

"Uhh, Sora," Donald said in a worried voice.

Sora's head snapped up to look over Sanji's, and he said in a serious voice, "Luffy, I'm going after Ursula." Sanji turned to the spiky-haired boy in front of him, the kid who he remembered being so carefree back on the Destiny Islands. "She has King Triton's trident, and now she has the Keyhole too. This world is going to fall to the Heartless too if I don't do something." Sora clenched his teeth right before he was going to swim up, "I know, it doesn't matter to you. I know Sanji, is more important to you right now."

Donald and Goofy stared at Sora's back with wide eyes, and Luffy turned his head to stare at Sora the same way. "So get him back Luffy," Sora said. "Let me deal with Ursula, and you can, keep Sanji off my back," Sora said. Then without waiting for a response, Sora kicked his tail below him and shot straight up towards the pack of Heartless descending through the water towards them.

"Wait up Sora!" Goofy called out, swimming after the boy and spinning around in his shell to slam the Heartless coming after him.

"Thunder!" Sora called out, bringing lightning down on the Heartless in front of him. Even one blast did not do it, but then a lot more bolts crashed down into the enemies as Donald swam up behind him.

"Don't think you're leaving us behind too," Donald quacked at Sora.

"All for one and one for all, right?" Goofy asked as he came up on Sora's other side.

Sora looked back and forth at the two of them, then he nodded and spun back to the onslaught of enemies coming at them. The three raced up into battle to chase Ursula, only fighting the Heartless directly in their paths so as to move as quickly as possible. They were racing against the clock, so they ignored any enemies they could, including the two eels that gave them a wide berth before swimming down the sides of the grotto towards the entrance.

Sora swam up through the ocean that got darker the higher up he went. He swam and swam into the darkness above, then he, Donald, and Goofy floated in a triangle formation and spun around looking for the octopus woman who had disappeared. All three of them stopped and faced one direction, their eyes lowering and then slowly lifting up to follow the rising head of the monstrous woman. Her body was growing in size, until she was hundreds of feet tall and towering over them as they floated at her stomach level. They started swimming up while Ursula laughed, "AAHAHAHA! You have no chance!"

"We're going to beat you Ursula!" Sora yelled while he swam up towards her fat purple face. He brought back his Keyblade and started slashing at her head, hitting her on the sides, in the face, in the back of the head. Donald brought down lightning and Goofy started spinning around fast in his shell. Each one of their blows felt as powerful as usual, smashing into the woman who did not have a forcefield up or anything to protect her. She did not show any sign of taking damage, but Sora could tell. He did not know when it had started, but at some point he had discovered that he knew how much strength his enemies had left in them. It was like he could scan them and see how much more he needed to do to defeat them, but with Ursula, even though he could feel his hits doing damage to her, She has so much left! Sora thought, right before a giant force of power expelled from her body and knocked him, Donald, and Goofy flying backwards.

"HAHAHA! You fools!" Ursula leaned backwards and then pushed her chest back and snapped her head forward. Bubbles shot out of her open mouth, dozens, hundreds of them. Sora started swimming to the side with Donald and Goofy, but he saw Goofy get hit behind him as Ursula turned her head and fired the beam of bubbles after them. Donald got hit next and Sora had to kick his tail faster behind him to avoid them all. "Ah hah ah hah," Ursula started panting, closing her mouth after breathing out all those explosive bubbles.

"Now!" Sora called out, but he looked back to see Donald floating with his head down in the water behind him. Goofy swam back towards Ursula who they had gained too much distance from, while Sora rose his Keyblade and yelled, "Cure!" Donald flashed green light and his head lifted back up with a shake. "Come on Donald!" Sora shouted while swimming towards Ursula again. Right as he arrived he started a combo, but she had calmed down from losing her breath and started laughing again despite his slashes into her fat neck.

"This is TRUE power!" Ursula yelled, and a bright orange light formed around Sora in a giant pillar. He swam to the right and slashed his Keyblade again, but as the pillar of flames shot through the ocean where he was just floating, a new orange pillar of light surrounded Sora in his new spot. He had to swim around Ursula's head, trying to slash as many times as he could in the time he had to spare between explosions, only getting hit once through it. He thought he had the rhythm down, then he heard Ursula taking a deep breath in, "Aaahhh!" Sora was behind her head so he did not think her bubbles would reach him, but when he looked in front of her face to see if Donald or Goofy were in danger of being hit, he saw five pillars of glowing orange light in front of Ursula's head a few yards, making a semi-circle in Sora's vision. He realized it and started turning around, his eyes widening in panic, right before the entire, full, circle of light pillars filled with explosions.

"AHH!" Sora yelled in pain, as did Donald and Goofy who were on opposite sides of her head instead of behind it like Sora. All three of them fell back from her head, Donald and Goofy both losing the last of their strength and closing their eyes. Sora clenched his teeth hard, trying to hold on, begging his body to move and at least fill himself with some Cure magic. I, I can't lose. Not again, Sora had tears forming in his eyes as his body refused to listen to him. This world is relying on me. Everyone fighting down below. Ariel, King Triton, Donald and Goofy, I'm letting them all down. Sora's hand clenched around his Kingdom Keyblade, and he started leaning back up while Ursula turned around and looked down at him falling through her ocean. "With this, I have become stronger than Maleficent!" Ursula claimed as she watched the Keybearer fall, a faded look in his eyes as he struggled to stop sinking. "While you fail!"

Ursula lifted her massive fat right arm, bringing up the trident she was holding in her hand. She aimed it down at Sora who finally stopped sinking, but who could barely move other than that. He lifted up his Keyblade for protection, but as he tried to call out Cure magic, nothing happened. I'm all out of MP too? Sora thought. No time for the Ether, he thought, so all he could do was lift his Keyblade defensively as Ursula's trident glowed bright gold. "Now!" Ursula yelled as the bright yellow light glowed on the end of her trident. "I'm sending you to Davy Jones Locker!" The light shot out of Ursula's trident and flew down at Sora in a beam so large that his eyes opened wide and his Keyblade started to lower. It covered his entire vision and he filled with so much regret, then he gasped as the wind got knocked out of him, because he was suddenly yanked out of the way of the beam and just to the side of it as it flew by.

"What just," Sora began. He turned his head and looked next to him where the arms of the person who yanked him away let go and pulled back to. The man floating there had a straw hat floating in the water behind him, attached to his neck by a string wrapped around it, and his black hair waved around in the water above his head. "Luffy?" Sora shouted, and the rubberman turned and looked him in the eyes.

2 Minutes Earlier…

Luffy looked back down and around him and saw Heartless filling in on all sides after Sora swam away. They were above, on the walls, and coming out of the floor. Many of them were swimming down and towards the entrance of the grotto where the two eels started zapping someone who had just tried coming through the entrance. Luffy heard a shout down below him of a crewmate in trouble, and then he snapped his attention back to Sanji. "Luffy," Sanji began, looking around at all the monsters around him with a dark gaze. He turned back to the pirate and muttered, "You broke our Log Pose."

Luffy's bottom lip lowered, and then he rose up his arms and crossed them, right as Sanji's merman tail flicked around and slammed into him. Luffy was thrown backwards through the water, but he stopped himself right before the Heartless behind him could slash out and scratch his back. Luffy regained his balance, then he yelled at the blond man swimming towards him, "Sanji! Stop it!"

"I can't," Sanji growled back, a look full of regret on his face as he spun around to launch another kick. Sanji reached a few feet in front of Luffy, and then Luffy's eyes bulged at the sight of Sanji's mouth. No words came out of it, but the chef mouthed the word, 'Run,' at him, right before finishing his spin and kicking at Luffy.

Luffy reached out his left arm and Sanji's tail slammed into his hand. Sanji's eyes widened as his captain stopped his tail with ease. Then again, they both knew that he was not swinging it at his hardest now. Sanji bit down hard and bounced off the kick, then spun it around the other side even harder for Luffy's head.

I don't know what's going on, Luffy thought. I don't get it, he swam up to avoid Sanji's next kick, then he stopped below the ceiling of Heartless blocking him and Sanji in their small spherical battlefield. Luffy spun and looked down at his chef, his friend, his nakama. I don't want to fight Sanji though, and Sanji doesn't want to fight me. But, but I need… Luffy's eyes widened and all the sound around him drowned out. He turned his head and looked at the black walls, at the Heartless surrounding him above and below and before those outer walls. I need, Luffy thought, staring back at Sanji and looking into his sad eyes, even as his tail started kicking behind him again.

"Usopp!" Luffy shouted loudly, right as the two eels at the entrance of the grotto were thrown backwards with their eyes rolled back, the Heartless around them disappearing into dark bubbles.

Sanji looked down and stopped swimming towards Luffy, instead staring at the muscular man down below who looked nothing like the scrawny teen he remembered. Usopp looked up with a glare at Sanji, past a few Heartless in between them, then he shifted his gaze to Luffy in surprise while Sanji spun the rubberman's way in shock. "Take care of Sanji for me!" Luffy yelled, then he punched his fist to the right and his skin pumped. He had to do it again, biting down in pain as he did. "Gear Second," Luffy said, then he lifted his gaze back to Sanji who was staring him straight in the eyes while Luffy was covered in red skin and steaming. "Sanji, I'll come back for you."

Luffy kicked his tail down and shot straight up through a gap between two Heartless. The creatures turned in and slashed but were too slow to hit the rubberman, and Luffy kept racing straight up faster and faster, swerving in and out of Heartless who tried slashing or clawing at him. Two of the green ones at the top of the mass slashed their small tridents in at him as he was about to make it out, and Luffy reached up and grabbed each one by their shafts. He yanked them out of the creatures' hands with a quick spin, then he flipped them and slammed them back into the chests of the Heartless monsters.

The pirate looked back up and then shot away, leaving a steam trail behind him that Sanji tried following up. As Sanji chased after Luffy though, the Heartless he started swimming through slashed at him. The ghost Heartless slashed him in the back of his tail, and then one of the green ones got in a strong blow that sent Sanji back through the water he just swam through. "Even your allies are fighting you!" Usopp yelled as he swam up. Sanji looked down and saw Usopp knocking Heartless to the sides one by one and then swimming up instead of finishing them off, glaring straight into Sanji's one eye not covered by the flip of hair on his face like the other.

"I'm not with the Heartless," Sanji growled down at the long-nosed man.

"If you're with Ursula, you're siding with the Heartless!" Usopp yelled back, while bringing his sword down to his side. He scrunched up his face and bit down so hard with his lips pulled apart. Sanji looked at the man baring his teeth at him, and the chef started leaning back as all of Usopp's muscles tensed up. "You attacked Luffy! You're helping this world fall to the darkness! Helping the Heartless!" Usopp started bringing his sword up while Sanji swam down, realizing in a semi-panic that Usopp was not holding back. "I want to know WHY!" Usopp screamed, bringing his sword up right as Sanji slammed his tail down. As Usopp's sword was about to hit, the swordman bit down even harder and his sword turned sideways, keeping most of its power but slamming into Sanji's tail with the flat side instead of the sharp end, just in case he was much stronger than the man whose tail he did not want to cut off. Turning his blade like that made Usopp's muscles hurt as Sanji's tail pushed down on his blade hard, but Sanji was just shocked that Usopp was holding off his kick at all. Usopp pulled his sword down and Sanji's curled tail moved out of the way with it, putting Usopp and Sanji face-to-face from close up. Usopp glared so hard into Sanji's eyes, and he asked, "Why, are you doing this?"

Sanji glanced up and saw the last of the steam trail Luffy left behind vanishing. He got a nervous look in his eyes and stared back down at Usopp, before biting down himself in regret and anger, Why, am I doing this?

Luffy continued swimming up past the top of the grotto. There were Heartless appearing all over the dark ocean around him, more every second it seemed. He ignored them though and swam straight up towards the giant monster in the ocean above him. Sora, Luffy thought. You're wrong. You've always been wrong. Sora, you- Sora! Luffy's eyes bulged and he shot as fast as his tail would allow him straight towards the unmoving form who had a trident glowing with yellow light aimed straight at him. He stretched out his arms and grabbed Sora roughly around the side right before a beam that shot out of the trident would have hit him, and he yanked Sora back towards himself in a single fast movement that sent the pirate skidding back through the ocean a few yards. He let out a breath of relief as his skin finally stopped steaming red, and he let go of Sora who turned to face him.

"Luffy?"

Luffy looked straight into Sora's eyes that looked more confused than anything. "Sora, you're wrong. Sanji is important to me, but he's not more important than any of my other nakama." Sora's eyes started growing wider, and Luffy continued, "You said Ursula's going to do to this world what happened to Halloween Town, right? Then we, have to stop Ursula." Luffy stared up at the giant sea witch who started shouting at him angrily for stopping her finishing blow. Hearing that only made Luffy more assured in his decision though. "Saving this world does matter to me," Luffy said, "but I just came here to help you." He glanced up and spotted a duck and dog shaking their heads around and looking down his and Sora's way. "And Donald, and Goofy," Luffy added after looking towards them.

Sora felt his heart aching, and he thought back on what he yelled at Luffy after they left Halloween Town. "I'm sorry," Sora whispered. Luffy turned towards him with a 'huh' but Sora had already refaced Ursula and continued in a more serious voice to the pirate next to him, "She's so strong." I'll tell him later. "She barely notices when I attack her, be it magic or otherwise. If we stay too close, she can make these explosions go off around her that catch us in them. Look out for her bubbles, and don't-"

"Aaaaahhhh…" Ursula started breathing in hard, so hard in fact that the ocean in front of her started acting like a vacuum. Luffy and Sora were in the center of that vacuum and their eyes bulged as they started getting sucked towards the octopus-woman's mouth.

"No no no no," Sora turned and started kicking his tail hard behind him. "I do not want to be eaten by her!"

"Ah!" Luffy shouted at the thought of getting close to that woman's mouth. He stuck out his tongue and kicked behind him as well, both of them fighting the current sucking them the other direction. They started moving slower, and slower, but they were still heading towards Ursula. Donald and Goofy swam up to the sides of her head and started attacking, but she did not stop. Only when she ran out of breath did she finally lean back and start taking deep breaths to calm down again.

"Now!" Sora yelled, spinning around as soon as he felt the tug lift from his body. Luffy spun and saw Sora swimming back straight at Ursula's panting face, hitting her in the nose and cheeks and around the eyes or even in them. Ursula had the same reaction to all of it, just darting her eyes around at the kid swimming around in front of her, taking in deep breaths to gather up strength for her next big attack.

Luffy swam up next to Sora and he called out, "Gum Gum, Gattling Gun!" He punched forward from point blank rapid fire into the woman's face, over and over and over until she smirked and a bunch of orange light surrounded him. Luffy stopped punching and looked at his hands confusedly as they glowed, then he lifted his gaze straight up wondering the the light was coming from above.

"Luffy move!" Sora yelled, swimming into the pirate and tackling them out of the glowing light a split instant before the entire pillar filled with a fiery explosion. The edge of the explosion hit Sora's back, but he just winced and then spun and swam back towards Ursula. He slashed her in the face then swam to the left to avoid the next beam starting above him. Luffy swam towards the other side of the front of her face when the beam went off down the center, then two more beams started appearing where he and Sora were. They each swam around farther to the back of Ursula's head where a duck and dog were in the middle of bashing away at Ursula's skull with exhausted looks on their faces.

"Donald, here!" Sora tossed up the Ether he had pulled out, giving it to Donald even though he needed the MP himself. Donald's is stronger, Sora reasoned, then he gasped in a deep breath as his body surrounded in green light.

"Thanks!" Donald called out right as Sora did the same. Sora thought Donald had just healed him after regaining his Magical Power, but Donald did not even realize Sora needed the health, figuring the boy would not have given him the Ether if he needed it himself.

Sora looked past the two animals to the other side of the back of Ursula's head, and he nodded at the pirate who had his own Keyblade in hand. Luffy lifted the white hilt with a long black blade sticking out and ending in a key, and he swam forward and started smashing it into the side of Ursula's head while Sora did the same. "Everyone back!" Donald yelled, and the others all saw the circle of red beams surrounding Ursula's body at the same time. They pulled away and watched as an entire cylinder of flames surrounded the octopus woman, burning anything still inside it, though not the four who had pulled away and were waiting for the flames to die down.

As the flames died, they saw Ursula had turned and was facing them. "Get ready for this!" She said in her shrill voice, before pushing her head forward and firing out the beam of bubbles that flew towards the mermen, dog-turtle, and duck-octopus. Three of them started swimming, with Luffy chasing after as Sora called back at him to run as well. Luffy did not know what was so scary about some bubbles, but he did as Sora said and started swimming to the left after him. Ursula pulled to the side to make the beam give chase, but Sora was already cutting in along the edge of the bubbles while still pulling away from the direction she was turning. He swam straight towards Ursula's head but then pulled back and kept cutting to the left, dodging two pillars of fiery explosions and the bubbles at the same time.

Ursula stopped blowing the bubbles and the other three charged straight in at her face. As soon as the bubbles stopped coming out of her mouth though, Ursula opened wide and made an "Ahhh" sound. Air sucked in and the three who were swimming her way could not turn around fast enough, getting yanked in right before Ursula bit down on them. "Yah!" Donald yelled in pain, then he got hit by an explosion a second later that made his body go limp and his wand drop from hand.

"Donald!" Goofy called out, swimming towards him as he still had a lot of health left and wanted to get his friend away from Ursula to have time to recover.

"Here!" Sora called out after smacking Ursula on the side of her head a few times to regain some MP. He lifted his Keyblade and Donald covered in green light to recover again, only for Ursula to yell out and all of them to be pulsed away from her by the force of that. Sora opened his clenched eyes and glared over at Ursula, but his glare turned into a more wide-eyed and nervous expression a second later as Ursula's face started getting darker.

"I guess, I might as well try out my new position," Ursula called out, her body growing even more and her skin getting darker. Sora had just felt like they were getting somewhere, figuring that they were maybe halfway to beating her. Ursula must have felt herself getting whittled down though, as she started covering in dark wisps. Those wisps that were too big got ripped away from her body though, and brought over to her golden glowing trident where they disappeared in flashes of light. The darkness completely surrounded Ursula, but it pulled tight to her body in a thick veil. It covered her face but then her eyes and mouth showed through, and her big golden crown emerged through the darkness having grown much larger in size disproportionately to the rest of her body. Her eyes got darker with swirls of black moving through the whites of them, and her perfect pearly white teeth sharpened upwards and downwards more like a shark's now. Ursula shouted while her enemies rose their heads and stared at her face that had risen another hundred feet above them, "AS THE RULER OF THE SEAS, AND THE KEYHOLE!" Ursula started laughing in a deeper, more bone-chilling tone as her trident glowed brighter and shredded any darkness that grew out of control on her body. If they had looked down, they would see a constant thick stream of darkness pulling up through the darkening ocean right under Ursula's dress where there was darkness spewing out of as if it were overflowing. "ALL OF THIS WORLD'S DARKNESS IS UNDER MY COMMAND!"

The ocean around them no longer looked blue. It was a navy-black, a color no one would dare drink as they would not have believed it was water but some strange, probably poisoned, liquid. Ursula's scary figure inside that darkness was menacing to those facing her, especially with the trident and all her powers at her disposal, while their attacks that worked on everything else over the worlds were doing so little against her. Despite that, and despite their memory of what happened to Halloween Town making them feel so much pressure over this fight, Sora and Luffy started swimming up together. Donald and Goofy followed them without a word, with only a gulp and a hardening of their expressions. They all swam up to eye level with Ursula, Donald farthest left followed by Sora, with Luffy on his right and Goofy to the right of Luffy and a little back just as Donald was to Sora's left. The four of them stared into Ursula's eyes determinedly even as she laughed loudly and the ocean shook around them at her bellowing voice.

All four of them opened their mouths…

"You're going down!"

"We're going to stop you!"

"Attack!"

"You're fat and ugly!"

All four of them shouted different things, then glanced around at each other like they each thought the others were thinking of shouting the same things. They had been so in-sync until that moment, at least. They spun back to face Ursula and forgot about that, while the woman in front of them snarled furiously, mostly at Luffy. Then, the four of them decided to do what Donald shouted, and they shot forward and attacked.

A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. The final battle for the fate of Atlantica begins! Ursula's gained control over the Keyhole, Sanji's still on the wrong side, and the Heartless are growing out of control as darkness spreads over the ocean. Will they beat the new Queen of the seas, or will this world be just another star going out? Find out next time!

foxchick1 chapter 26 . Mar 4

I can't wait to see what happens next

Thanks! Hope you enjoyed!

kg833998 chapter 26 . Mar 5

great story even though we're already 26 chapters in I think this story has a lot of potential I mean not as good as your other stories cough Nexus cough but still a lot also if you plan to continue this all the way to kh2 or even DDD I think Luffy and the others will have to leave when the world's get restored and also do you have a plan for chain of memories and kh2 cuz I don't think you'll be able to do a one year time skip for the one piece world maybe two you know the new world just saying because if you do the one year time skip then Luffy will still be on the island along with everyone else who is training somewhere else so I'm just suggesting maybe you should do 2-year time skip

Thanks for the review! Glad you like this story too, though Nexus will keep priority so don't worry about that. Haven't decided whether or not it will continue into KH2, since I slowed down on writing it a lot with focus on Nexus. I do have an end in sight for this story though, as well as a few ideas for what I could do after a time skip... Though right now, it's up in the air.

Captain Imagiona chapter 26 . Mar 4

Can have The Straw Hat Pirates, Sora, Donald and Goofy Go to the Aesthetica Of A Rogue Hero World and World Break Aria Curse Of A Holy Sowrdsman Worlds where they meet Miu Ousawa, Haruka Nanase, Chikage Izumi, Kuzuha Duomoto, Ryohei Uesaki, Minami Aihara, Moroha Haimura, Satsuki Ranjo, Shizuno Urushibara, Elena Arshavina and Maya have them join the Strawhat Pirates and the Keyblade trio on their in saving the worlds.

Never heard of those (worlds/shows?) so probably a hard no there. XD Sorry. Thanks for the review though!

CnCawyeah chapter 1 . Mar 15

This
Is
AMAZING
Omg everything so far has been fantastic and i just love the changes that thecrew brings!
Myheart clenched in pain after finding out what happened to zorro and even Halloween town!
And sora-he is much more serious about it all after failing halloween town, it's just a perfect development that makes me wish for luffy and sora to make up before that poor boy stabs himself (not sure if you plan to let it play out like that (please do, the world needs roxas) but i just want luffys reaction)
Please continue your amazing work!

Thank you! I'm really happy you liked the story so much. Getting a little darker than the usual Kingdom Hearts with the rift between the group showing up some more this chapter, but Luffy came to Sora's side at the end, so we'll see what happens between them next chapter too. No spoilers as to what's going to happen later... ;) and really, thanks for the awesome review!

Kareem chapter 17 . Mar 16

Its crazy how you added DB to world's! Sora and Luffy has the potential to rival and beat him in db and maybe... dbz definitely not super though even if they could take the hits! Video game character are limitless with there powers... Sonic my favorite video game character Says he gets more powerful ever second and I seen it how he beat perfect chaos in generation without his super form... and the fact he almost out ran a expanding black hole! So Guy's like Sora Mario and Link are pretty damm strong!

Glad you liked the addition of DB. Def thought it would have been a stretch to have them farther down the line in the DB timeline and still be able to fight on a fair level (pre timeskip Luffy and KH1 Sora at least), though I think they did a good job against the DB characters. Haven't played much Sonic, but yeah I agree that video game characters def have some pretty OP powers. Anyway, thanks for the reviews! (Can't answer the rest of those review questions though, no spoilers ;) ).

Jmw chapter 26 . Apr 14

Glad to have you back missed this story will probably have to reread the previous chapters one more to remember certain points but this was a great chapter overall rest assured I'm still into this story had this story saved on my reading list to and would check every few months to see if it updated here till the end.
Thank you for your response to my questions i hope Ariel travels with sora and the straw hats by the end of this arc Ariel it would be interesting to have her travel the worlds if feel out of all the Disney characters Ariel probably would make the most sense with the little mermaid being all about her trying to leave her home because she wants to explore outside the sea.
Now on too sanji It seems like he is being forced to serve Ursula as I think he made some deal with her at some point I wonder why he is attacking the crew I wonder is he gonna betray the crew like zoro or will he rejoin like robin did.
Now do you plan to go threw all the games I could see this story becoming big and going so many different directions. It will be interesting see where you take this story looking forward to the next chapter.
Ps sorry for the long review
Jmw

Hey, sorry for the long wait but I'm glad you were looking forward to it! I'm going to keep this story going to the end, so I'll try not to have any more year+ breaks between chapters. No spoilers as to the next chapter and finale of the Atlantica arc, but we'll see the resolutions be them good ones or not... Not gonna say what the next world(s) is/are going to be, gotta leave you all in suspense! Haha thanks for the long review, don't mind it at all. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter Jmw! Thanks again to everyone for reviewing or for just reading this story!