Chapter 25: Arabian Daydream:
Agrabah – Palace Balcony:
By the time Sora and Aladdin returned to Agrabah, the guards had already woken up. Razoul, possessing a strong dislike for Aladdin, went to Aladdin's room to confirm his suspicions. Finding both Aladdin and the strange young man who Jasmine had claimed was a friend of theirs missing, he had reported the incident to the sultan. When the two young men returned to the palace, the guards quickly dragged them before the Sultan. The four of them, along with Jasmine, Donald, Goofy, Abu, and Carpet, stood on the balcony outside the Sultan's bedroom waiting to see how the impromptu and informal trial would go.
"I know what I did," he said before either the captain or the sultan could say anything. "But please don't blame Sora for my decisions. He only came along to keep me from going through with a more risky plan of getting my father out."
"Alright," the Sultan began as he gestured for the guards to release the Keyblade Wielder. "But frankly, my dear boy, your actions were most disappointing.
"It's tragic your highness," Razoul added. "But the street rat has obviously followed in his father's footsteps. Aladdin is a criminal."
"I object, your honor," Genie replied, turning the balcony into an outdoor courtroom with a snap of his fingers. "I object to that outrageous comment. And I object to a tertiary character having any lines during my courtroom scene. Here." He handed a briefcase to Razoul. "Take this to a higher court. Chao." With a snap of the blue man's fingers, Razoul was rocketed up and out of the palace. "Your honor," he continued, addressing the Sultan. "I'd like to petition a plea of insanity."
"Genie," Aladdin interrupted. "I can handle this myself." He marched over to help his future father-in-law up as the courtroom furniture vanished. "Sultan," he continued with a sigh. "I convinced my father to come here. It was my fault. I would have been better off if I'd never known him."
"Aladdin, you found your father," Jasmine added as she walked over and placed a hand on her fiance's shoulder. "A father who risked his freedom to see your wedding, and you risked everything to help him. Just as I would for my father." The sultan looked thoughtful for a moment before responding.
"Aladdin," he began. "I could not overlook your father's crimes." Everyone braced themselves for the verdict. "But what you have done," the sultan continued, "you did it out of love. And you came back to take responsibility for your actions. Let us put this matter behind us." Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. "I believe we have postponed the wedding long enough," the man finished as he walked back inside as Genie began cheering and leading him back indoors with a giant blue hand. Their celebration was interrupted by a shriek from above. They all looked up to see a familiar red bird streaking toward the balcony.
"Iago!" everyone shouted in surprise as Carpet slowed the parrot's descent and the bird began gasping for breath and babbling incoherently.
"Al! Dad!" he managed to get out in between exhausted gasps.
"Just take a deep breath, Iago," Jasmine interrupted. "Now what about Aladdin's father?"
"It's Sa'Luk!" he cried out. "The guy that Al beat. He's not beat. He's back! And he's got Cassim!"
"Then that's his problem," Aladdin replied angrily. "He chose to go back to that life."
"Al," Genie interjected, "I know your dad made a lot of bad choices, but that doesn't mean you have to."
"He's your father," Jasmine added. "How can you do anything else?"
"I'm being as stubborn as he was," the young man replied sadly after a moment of contemplation. "Show me the way," he told Genie as he turned around. Everyone grinned. It was time to gear up!
Agrabah – Vanishing Isle:
Magnificent! Sa'Luk thought to himself as he stepped out of the boat onto the shores of the Vanishing Isle. He was quickly followed by 8 red monsters that Maleficent had dispatched to assist him before his group had set off on their voyage. Now all we need to do is find the Hand. Once we have that, Maleficent will have all the funding she needs. Meanwhile a large red and yellow spacecraft flew across the ocean towards the mythical island so fast it nearly broke the sound barrier.
"The Vanishing Isle!" Aladdin gasped as he gazed at the island that had dominated his dad's life through the cockpit bubble of the Gummi Ship. He would have preferred to take Carpet, but Sora had argued that their ship would be able to hold them all.
"It's on the back of a giant turtle!" Jasmine added, astounded. While the Sultan had wanted her to stay at the palace, she had argued that she was safer with Aladdin and the others, and that had settled the matter.
"And never in the same place twice," Aladdin said as the pieces of the legend his father had told him put themselves together in his mind. "Let's get closer," he continued as Donald gently steered the ship.
"TIME TO ROCK AND ROLL DUDES!" Genie shouted as he parachuted in dressed as a shoulder and began firing laser blasts at the remaining thieves. The seven bumbling minions hit the deck as the blue maniac fired in every direction. While Sa'Luk grabbed Cassim and headed the other way, Genie's distraction bought the rest of the group time to disembark. Jasmine and Goofy remained on the ship to ensure that Xehanort couldn't grab her while everyone was distracted with the fighting (Goofy was glad it was designed to block any attempts to board the ship through the Corridors of Darkness. Riku and Mickey had apparently done the modifications and testing during the year the trio had spent asleep after the events of Castle Oblivion.). As much as Jasmine would have preferred to fight the thieves off with her bare hands, she understood that for all her skill in a fight, she, like Kairi, was not yet a match for any of Xehanort's incarnations or allies.
While Jasmine reminded herself to start doing some self-defense training during her stay at the Mysterious Tower, the Leroys, who had taken cover behind the empty structures at the end of the walkway, began to return fire. Genie's barrier spell held the plasma bolts at bay while the other three took care of the seven thieves. Once they were taken care of, Sora and Donald quickly began to cast Reflega to give Aladdin an opening to rescue his father while Genie provided another distraction. While genie flew into the turtle's mouth and did something that caused it to shriek, possibly in pain, Aladdin lunged at Sa'Luk, knocking him unconscious in a couple of hits.
"It took me years to find my father," he said as he stood between the unconscious new King of Thieves and his dad. "I'm not going to lose him again."
"You came to help me?" Cassim asked incredulously as his son undid his bonds.
"How could I do anything else?" the young man asked back. "Now let's get that treasure of yours."
Sora smiled as he watched Aladdin and his dad wake up. But before they could join them in looking for the legendary Hand of Midas, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he and Donald quickly cast Reflega as a blast of Dark Firaga slammed into their shields a fraction of a second later.
"Who's there?" He shouted as he looked around for the source of the fireball.
"Oh really, Sora?" Sora and Donald's eyes widened as a familiar voice shouted back. "I thought it was obvious." Their eyes finally landed on a lone figure standing on the ledge above them. He wore the same outfit Riku had worn when he was possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, wielded Riku's Soul Eater, and even had Riku's face. If Riku hadn't told them what had happened at Castle Oblivion and why they'd spent a year in a coma, they'd have thought the young man in front of them was Riku. But they knew better.
"You're the clone of Riku that the Organization made at Castle Oblivion, aren't you," Sora asked, even if it was more of a statement instead of a question. They knew this wasn't the Riku they knew. The Riku Replica looked three years younger than the original Riku did now, as if Xehanort had gone back in time to the last time he and Riku had fought and brought him to the present. If the "you can only travel to time periods where an incarnation of yourself exists" rule applied to clones and their original, then that's probably exactly what happened, Sora thought to himself as the Replica leaped down from the ledge.
"And what if I am?" the fifteen-year-old clone replied harshly. "I don't care what you think of me. It doesn't change the fact that I'm a fake." Up close, Sora could see that in place of Riku's blue-green eyes were the striking yellow-orange eyes of Xehanort. His suspicions confirmed, Sora responded.
"Because even if you're not the original, you still deserve to be your own person," he answered.
"As if you care," the Replica (who Sora decided to refer to as Repliku in his head to avoid getting confused when differentiating between Riku and his clone) fired back. Sora was surprised. He didn't remember much about Castle Oblivion (once Riku and Namine (through Kairi) had explained what had occured there, his memories of the event had been coming back in bits and pieces), but he still remembered that he and Repliku had parted on semi-friendly terms. This hostility from him surprised the young Keyblade wielder. Unless Xehanort promised him something in exchange for joining the group.
"I do care," Sora retorted. "I've got a lot of different hearts sharing my body, and one of them was meant to be a copy of me. But even when she was forced to sacrifice herself to help me, she still fought to be her own person. Whatever Xehanort promised you, it doesn't have to involve us fighting."
"YES IT DOES!" Repliku snarled, his voice suddenly taking on an unsettling vibe, as if two people were speaking instead of one, and the second voice was much older and much more powerful. The piece of Xehanort's heart inside him must be taking control, Sora thought as he and Donald readied their weapons. He barely had time to cast Reflega before the possessed clone lunged at him. After parrying the first few strikes, Sora went on the offensive, driving Riku's doppelganger down the path toward the entrance to the temple. After a few combos, the Replica struck back, knocking Sora into a nearby wall.
"SORA!" Donald shouted before casting Blizzaza at Repliku while the young man recovered.
"I'm alright," the teen responded as he ran cast a Cure spell to heal his injuries. When the replica charged again, Sora parried the strike before launching into a few more combos. The duel began to slip into the predictable back and forth that Sora and Riku's childhood duels on the Destiny Islands with wooden swords. Each possessed enough memories of the other's (or of the original Riku in Sora' case) fighting style to predict and counter their opponents blows. Except this time, it isn't a game, Sora thought to himself.
After another ten minutes of this, Repliku let out a dark blast that struck Sora in the chest as it knocked the duo backwards.
"You may have prevented me from getting the Princess," Repliku gaped as he stood their panting, speaking once more in his normal voice. "But Xehanort will still win in the end. He always gets what he wants." With that, the clone vanished into a Dark Corridor.
"Are you alright?" Donald asked as he raced over to help Sora to his feet.
"Yeah," the almost-eighteen year-old replied as he and Donald headed back toward the Gummi Ship. Water began pouring out from the plumbing system of the temple as they saw the sea rising towards them. The turtle was submerging again.
"What about Aladdin?" Sora asked as he and Donald were about to board the Gummi Ship.
"Look!" Donald called out as he pointed to the top of the temple before pushing Sora into the ship. "Up there!"
"After all these years, you finally have your treasure," Aladdin told his dad once they climbed out onto the roof of the chamber where the Hand of Midas once resided.
"This thing? No," his father replied. "It almost cost me the ultimate treasure. It's you, son. You are my ultimate treasure" Aladdin smiled proudly as his dad pulled him in for a hug. "The Hand of Midas can take its curse to the bottom of the sea," he added as he hurled the magical object over the edge of the island. On the edge of the submerging turtle shell, the seven thieves floated scrambled in the water as their boat turned to solid gold and sank.
"I'll explain later," Aladdin told Cassim as the Gummi Ship rose to the summit of the temple and the soon-to-be prince of Agrabah dragged his father aboard.
"Genie!" Aladdin called out as the Gummi Ship turned away to fly back to the city. As if on cue, the giant turtle poked its head back up long enough for their blue-skinned friend to sail out of the turtle's mouth in the form of a Genie-based facsimile of a younger Mickey before his days as King, piloting a replica of Pete's old steamboat from the days when Disney Town used to be called Timeless River.
"Present!" the not-quite-all-powerful Genie shouted as he teleported next to the open Gummi Ship door.
"Let's go home," Aladdin stated as he shared a look with Jasmine. "We have some unfinished business."
"But what happened to Sa'Luk?" Donald asked. They could all see the remaining thieves and red Stitches be swallowed up by a corridor of Darkness. Iago had informed them on the way that he'd overheard Sa'Luk mention working for Maleficent before he'd escaped to warn the heroes. No doubt she wanted to punish her minions for their failure.
"He touched the hand of Midas and got turned into solid gold," Aladdin explained. Everyone cringed at the bandit's fate before the ship flew back to the palace.
A few hours later cheers and miniature fireworks erupted all over Agrabah as Aladdin and Jasmine finally tied the knot. Jasmine's pet tiger Rajah held up her bridal train as she and Aladdin walked down the aisle where Sora, Donald, and Goofy stood near the exit waiting to beam all of them up to the Gummi Ship. Aladdin smiled as he caught his father watching from the sidelines out of the corner of his eye. Since his father was still a wanted man, Cassim couldn't exactly show his face in the palace. However, after being given the whole "other worlds" speech, the former King of Thieves had offered to put his skills as a thief to use as a spy on behalf of the burgeoning alliance in exchange for a pardon and the opportunity to explore the worlds, and the Sultan had agreed.
Once the group had left the chapel, Sora led the group (Plus Abu and Iago. Genie and Carpet stayed behind to defend Agrabah and the Sultan should Maleficent attempt to seize the city) out of the palace (though not before Jasmine tossed her bouquet into the crowd, to be caught be a startled Razoul), where Donald pressed the remote to teleport them up to the ship in a flash of light.
Radiant Garden – High Tower:
Why didn't she do it? Braig thought to himself as he fumed in solitude over the girl's lack of recognition about what he had told her. Of all people to unchain themselves, why didn't she? Did she not have time or was is just cold feet? Not that Braig could blame her if the latter was indeed the case. As harsh as he could be he would never wish this existence on anyone. Not that it mattered. He was Unchained. Cursed to walk the worlds knowing all that had come before and all that would come. To understand the true secrets of Kingdom Hearts. He grinned at the irony of Xehanort going to such extreme lengths to learn the secrets of the Keyblade War, when his most trusted lieutenant had all the answers he was looking for.
The grin, however, left his face when he reflected over how much had gone wrong. The Keyblade shattering into twenty pieces. Xehanort gaining the power of time travel. Instigating another Keyblade War two thousand years before the universe was ready for it. Being unchained granted Braig a few special abilities, and those abilities told him that there had been Foretellers in the World That Never Was that day when the old man had tried to turn Sora into a vessel. Xehanort was never supposed to learn the secrets that Braig knew as an Unchained, but the presence of two Foretellers among the ranks of the maniac's Seekers of Darkness meant that Braig had no choice but to let enough information slip to allow Xehanort's younger self to time travel all the way back to the last Keyblade War.
While Braig knew that so much had gone wrong, he could adapt. Ava had foreseen something going wrong in the days before the previous Keyblade War. That was why she had asked him and a select few to become Unchained in the first place, but he hadn't had any contact with the others since Marluxia and Larxene bit the dust. He was on his own now. It was up to him to keep Xehanort in check and make sure nothing went wrong when the next Keyblade War finally happened. Deciding to deal with the issue later, he took a dark corridor back to the World That Never Was to check in with the old man, see what was going on, and do what he could to discreetly undermine the madman's schemes.
So yeah, Riku Replica is part of the 13 Xehanorts. I figured that there had to be more to the appearance of the black coated Riku in Riku's side of the Prankster's Paradise story than just a reminder of what he could've been. So naturally I took that scene as a sign that the Riku Replica would come back as part of the Seekers of Darkness.
The term Unchained has only been used once in Chi and wasn't really defined, so I had and idea that I borrowed the name for and worked to include the way the term is used in Chi.
I was debating how soon after the last Port Royal chapter to place the scene with Braig. I ultimately decided that Braig would probably go off somewhere to reflect on how his meeting with Kairi went and it seemed like the perfect time to reveal a little bit of what he's up to, and then reveal the rest of the surprises later. It'll keep readers guessing while also giving a bit of an explanation of Braig's agenda.If you've read the Rebirth theory here on the forums, you can start to piece together some of Braig's motives and agenda.
As for Jasmine not participating in the battle against the forty thieves, there are a few reasons for that, both in and out of universe. In universe, as I mentioned, is because they don't want to risk Xehanort or Maleficent nabbing her while everyone's distracted in the fight. The temple on that island in the movie looks like a maze so they didn't want to risk her being separated from the group. I know, it seems a little weird compared to how Kairi's getting more action despite the threat of Xehanort, but my rationale for that is twofold, 1) The chaos of the battle at the end of the third Aladdin movie is the ideal point for one of the villainous factions to capture Jasmine, but I wanted to throw the heroes a bone after losing to Xehanort the last few times they went to protect the princesses of Heart. 2) Jasmine may be one of the few Princesses of Heart with fighting skills, but she doesn't have as much combat experience as Kairi does, and neither of them are anywhere near the level necessary to beat one of Xehanort or Maleficent's allies/followers in a fight.
As for how the Gummi Ship got back into orbit during the wedding, I figured that Chip and Dale would have pre-programmed the autopilot with different protocols for different situations, allowing the characters so send it back to orbit or summon it down to pick them up.
