After finding Riku, and he agreed to come with them, the group found that Leon and Aerith were leaving Merlin's place, which meant that this was perfect timing as Leon beckoned for them to follow, bringing them to a building that was near the entrance of the third district, where Cid and Yuffie were waiting. This appeared to be a meeting place of sorts, since there was a table and bed with next to nothing else in the living room, allowing Sora's group to tell their new friends that they had found Traverse Town's Keyhole and sealed it after beating up the Heartless that appeared near it. Such a thing came as a bit of good news to the group, even though they were interested in Riku, since none of them had assumed Sora would find one of his friends in the town after all the searching he did earlier, though neither boy knew where Kairi was, meaning they had more worlds to explore. To that extent Cid informed them that the new navigation gummies had been installed, he added a couple of armor pieces to keep them safe, and he beefed up their weapons, as the portion of space they were heading to next was supposedly tougher than the portion Traverse Town was in.
While they were talking Riku told them that he had been teleported to an entirely different world, one full of darkness and an imposing castle that was surrounded by water, something Leon's group recognized as Hollow Bastion, the base of operations for Maleficent, an evil and vile witch that caused them to flee their home world, and her allies. He had found a way to climb up to the entrance of the castle and, through sheer luck, found a dark gateway that the witch used to warp from one place to another, as it brought both of them here, but he had no idea where she had gone. Sombra sensed that he was lying about a few things, that there was more he didn't want to say right now, but decided not to say anything as she took note of their main target world, Hollow Bastion, a world that would be fun to take down when they finally found a way to land there. For the time being Riku was planning on taking them up on their offer, because Kairi was still out there, on any of the remaining worlds that they might visit, and he was going to help Sora find her so they could explore the rest of the worlds together.
With that in mind the group bid their Traverse Town friends farewell, since there wasn't too much more for them to learn at the moment, and returned to the Gummi Ship, where Riku looked at the inside as they teleported aboard, though while Sora got them underway to one of the new points on the map, Warp Zones Cid had called them, Sombra got to work on manipulating the material into another room.
"How are you doing that?" Riku asked, because while he was interested in the ship, and seeing Sora pilot it, he figured he could see more of it before they got underway, even though the portal to another world seemed totally strange to him, and what Sombra was doing was interesting.
"Magic, mostly." Sombra replied, though at the same time she realized that this would be the last time she would be able to do such a thing, at least until they figured out how to expand the existing material that was available to them, and she had a feeling Cid might have something in mind if she asked him about the topic.
Riku raised an eyebrow for a moment before joining Sora in the cockpit, where he got a glimpse of how to use the controls that moved the ship around, all while his friend targeted one of the Warp Zones that was nearby, as he was eager to see what a new world had to offer them. Following that Sombra checked the kitchen and found that Yuffie had been true to her word, it was beyond stocked and she was sure they would have food for a few weeks, especially with Fluttershy's part being part of the equation, causing her to chuckle as she got to work. Riku got a taste of her cooking when it was time for dinner, where he had the same reaction that Sora had when he and the others ate the meal that was prepared, finding that it was far better than what their parents had made and that he agreed with Sora, Sombra was definitely the chef, as he knew he couldn't make anything like this. Sombra chuckled and thanked him, just like she had done when the others said the same thing, though even then she had more ideas in mind for what to prepare in the future, especially with all of the options that were available to her with a fully stocked pantry.
While they traveled through space, however, Radiant pulled Sombra aside for a time, making sure no one would disturb them in the privacy of the farm dimension, and told her all about the female body so she'd know about things to expect, stunning Sombra for a time before she regained herself, thanked Radiant, and got back to work.
Eventually they reached a rift in space that caused Sora to stop the ship in it's tracks, where they found that it was a large swirling vortex off to the left side of the ship, as they had flown in the direction of Wonderland after leaving Traverse Town again, though after glancing at the others, who nodded, he piloted them into the rift. It took a few moments before they appeared in another part of space, where Sombra noted a slight purple tint to the space around them, which had to be the ship itself reacting to this portion of the space between worlds, though after that Sora got the ship moving again as all of them kept an eye out for any new worlds. Everyone knew that it would take another day or two to reach the next world that they would explore, though none of them dared to rush Sora as he made sure the ship got there intact, though he had to admit that Cid's upgrades worked like a charm, as he was able to deal with any trouble with ease. Riku spent most of his time training in the arena Sombra had set up, allowing him to get more prepared for whatever the next world might throw at them, even though working as a team was something he would have to learn while in the field.
When they finally found the next world, however, Sombra found that it appeared to be a sandy desert area that had some odd looking large palace on it and an odd lion head on the bottom side, though Sora simply activated the ship's systems before teleporting them down to what appeared to be the start of a city.
"A city in a desert... I wonder how they survive out here." Fluttershy commented, though at the same time a couple of new enemies appeared out of the darkness, figures as tall as Sora while wearing cloth armor that looked like it was designed to handle the harshness of whatever was outside the city's walls, though the emblem on their bodies told the group exactly what these enemies really were.
"Heartless! Defend yourselves!" Riku stated, which was followed by him and Sora calling their weapons out without even a second of delay, causing the others to follow Sombra's lead as they stared at the Bandits that were in front of them, and as soon as everyone was ready they rushed at their dark enemies.
The Bandits actually had swords, unlike some of the other Heartless that didn't have weapons, so when they fought those ones Sombra and the other melee warriors found that they had to parry incoming attacks before lashing out at these foes, and even then sometimes they had to deal with the Shadows that joined them. It was an interesting change of pace, since most of their enemies didn't have anything more than their bodies to throw at the group, and they reacted accordingly, blocking attacks before lashing out at them, even though they found that there were more inside the other streets that made up the city they were in. Sombra found that Riku's skills were fair, as he slashed at the Heartless and parried some of their attacks, opening the way for Sora to remove them with a swing of the Kingdom Key, though while they moved even deeper into the city they found an area off to their right that brought them to what appeared to be a hidden place that overlooked most of the city. The oddest thing was that there was a moving carpet that was pinned down by a piece of furniture, where the Equestrians realized that it had held some sort of magic inside it, though Sora and Fluttershy, being the kind individuals they were, lifted the furniture and let the carpet remove itself from where it had been trapped.
It even stopped for a moment and bowed towards them, as if in thanks, before taking off into the unknown, though in the following moments Sora found a keyhole in the side of a wall and insert his Keyblade into it, where they heard a click that told them something had opened somewhere else.
With that in mind the group returned to the city streets for a time as they dealt with more Heartless that rushed at them, where Sombra made sure to capture the freed hearts before they disappeared, and when she absorbed a Bandit's heart she found that they possessed a mix of strength and agility. As they searched for an alternate way to enter the area that was in front of the palace, since the main opening was boarded with planks and other items and no one wanted to waste their magic on it, Radiant spotted a few large red shaped pots that ended up growing four spider legs and attacked them, only for them to find it was another Heartless as she slashed it apart and a heart escaped. Sombra made sure to snatch it as well, even though this allowed them to know that Pot Spiders were a thing as well and that it had only agility to offer, a slight disappointment for sure, but it was better than nothing she supposed as she joined the others in searching for the path forward. Fluttershy kept an eye out for any other smaller keyholes that would open up more of the city for them to explore, though for the most part they tore through the Heartless, where Sombra found that Riku struck at what she had to assume were weak points, in his eyes anyway, and that it only made her wonder how good their teamwork would be in the future.
When they entered one of the side passages, however, Sombra heard a slight noise and turned her head towards an area that had a few boxes stacked in a way to be a hiding spot and located a young lady, roughly around their age or maybe a little older, who wore a blue dress that showed off her midriff.
"Don't worry, the Heartless are gone." Sora said, as he spotted the figure as well and hoped that she was willing to listen to them, instead of running off and potentially getting trapped by some unknown evil figure, because if this was what she was doing he had to assume there was a villain to beat up somewhere.
"Gone? That's good to hear. I am Jasmine, and my father is the Sultan of Agrabah," the girl, Jasmine, replied, where they figured that the 'Sultan' title meant the same as a king, meaning that she was technically the Princess of this area, though at the same time both Sombra and Riku seemed to be keeping an eye out for potential dangers, "however, my father has been deposed by Jafar, his Royal Vizier, who now controls the city with an iron fist... and he has dark allies that are looking for a 'Keyhole'."
"Must be Maleficent." Riku commented, where Sombra nodded her head, as it matched what they heard back in Traverse Town, the evil witch was traversing the worlds to find the Keyholes so the Heartless could devour them whole, but there had to be something more than that, causing him to focus on her again, "Is there anything else Jafar might have said while he was looking for you?"
"Only that he and his dark ally are looking for seven special princesses and a 'final Keyhole'." Jasmine replied, something that caused Sombra to raise an eyebrow for a moment, because that could only mean one thing, as it had to be a lock on the Realm of Darkness, the opposite of the Realm of Light that they were living in, and if that was true unsealing the Final Keyhole would place everything in total danger, Darkness seeking to devour the whole World, "Aladdin helped me escape, but he left some time ago to go take care of something... I do hope he's alright."
"Aladdin? Where might I find this street rat?" a new voice asked, where Sombra glanced up at an upper walkway with the others and found a black robed figure with a golden staff, Jafar she reckoned, staring down at them, and based on what she was seeing it sure looked like he recognized her, despite the fact that they had never met before, "Jasmine, my fair princess, allow me to find you more suitable company... a pack of rats won't do."
"Funny, if you aren't careful this 'rat' will bite back." Sombra remarked, where she launched herself up to the area that Jafar was standing in and slashed at him, finding that he used his staff to parry the head of her scythe, though as she landed off to the side she gestured to the others and got them to start moving with Jasmine, because if Maleficent wanted her then it was a good idea to keep her safe, "Let's see what you got, Jafar."
Instead of fighting her, like she was hoping, the sorcerer just summoned the Heartless and disappeared, causing Sombra to sigh as she slashed through the Bandits and Soldiers before they had a chance to fight back, before collecting their hearts as she made her way into the city to track down the others. When she caught up with them, however, she found that Jasmine was going to hide somewhere else in the city until they tracked down Aladdin, as he would surely know how to bring down Jafar, so the group decided to let her go on the promise that she stayed safe, especially since she told them that Aladdin was likely somewhere outside the city. With that in mind she followed them outside the city and found that there was next to nothing outside the main walls, save for more and more sand with sandy weather, but since the Princess was asking them to find someone to take down Jafar they guessed they could go along with it. Riku, of course, asked what this had to do with finding Kairi, where Sora told him that everyone they ended up helping usually had some information for them, which was the truth, but it was never about Kairi, though he figured he'd keep rolling the dice until he found her, showing his friend that he had bound two adventures together.
As Riku thought about it they found the carpet from earlier and watched as it landed in front of them, where it seemed to want them to ride it, but since there were so many of them Sombra picked herself, Riku, and Radiant up with her magic as Fluttershy flew with her wings, allowing Sora, Donald, and Goofy to ride the carpet.
The area it brought them to was dimmer than anything that was around it, with what appeared to be a young man in a open purple vest and a small monkey being dragged into the enter of a pool of quicksand, or being pulled to their deaths, which explained the carpet's worry, it's master was dying. Upon touching down outside the pool of quicksand Sombra and the rest of the team got to work, where they found that wave after wave of Bandits, and just them, pulled themselves out of the sand before attacking the group as a whole. Sombra and the others were more than willing to show them the error of their ways, taking each Bandit down like they were nothing, though as Sombra captured their freed hearts she discovered that for each Bandit they defeated two more took it's place, meaning there was a chance that they could be overwhelmed if such a thing were to go down. It provided her with an impressive amount of hearts to capture, that much couldn't be denied, though the seemingly endless waves of enemies would eventually cause them to stop in their tracks, making her wonder if it was time for her to unleash her power and wipe out everything that was around her.
That decision wasn't made by her own choice, rather it was due to Aladdin himself, as he yanked himself free from the pit of quicksand before readying something that happened to be a golden lamp, of a design Sombra and the others hadn't seen before, and he rubbed it for a moment for some reason.
"Genie... get rid of these guys!" Aladdin stated, where a bunch of blue smoke emerged from the lamp and revealed what appeared to be a blue skinned creature with a golden bracer on each arm, though that was followed by the creature saying something about a wish, it being the first one, and then snapped his fingers to dispose of the Heartless, allowing them to stand down as Aladdin collected his monkey.
"That... was impressive." Sombra remarked, though she realized that the blue creature was definitely something she and the others weren't expecting to see, but it did make her remember some of the tales she had heard from the other lands that bordered Equestria, as one claimed to have something similar to this.
Aladdin, despite the fact that he had to use the creature to save everyone, thanked both them and the Genie as they left the area they had found him in, where he explained that he was hunting legendary treasure from the Cave of Wonders, which was where he found both the magic carpet and the lamp, though when he tried to explain it the Genie stopped him.
"Please, kid, leave this to the professionals: with the lamp in hand anyone can call forth the Genie of the Lamp! Simply rub the lamp and have any three wishes granted." Genie stated, where they found that he liked to move around a lot, create more of himself to help demonstrate whatever he was talking about, plus he liked to get close to whoever controlled the lamp, meaning he must have been confined to it for a long time, "So, Master, what will your second wish be?"
"Maybe we should talk about this on the way to Agrabah? Jasmine is in danger." Sombra said, though she had to admit that the idea of having the power to call forth a Genie and grant several wishes interested her, especially since there was no way to know the limits of the creature without asking, and despite herself she could already imagine what she'd do if she got her hands on Genie's lamp.
Aladdin, upon hearing that Jasmine was in danger, got on the carpet as everyone headed back to Agrabah, as it was time to save Jasmine and stop Jafar in his tracks, even though it made them wonder what Maleficent was planning and if they would be able to stop her plans in the future, causing them to focus on Jafar before worrying about the future.