While Ariel took over showing them around the palace, which was really bare since it was underwater and didn't have all of the items that Sombra had seen back on her home world, Sebastian told them that he needed to have a word with the King and departed without delay. Sombra, of course, made sure to link a bit of her darkness to him so she could listen into the conversation, where she learned that there was a good reason for him accompanying Ariel during her excursions, the crab was trying to track down where the Heartless were coming from. Sebastian informed King Triton that the Heartless were coming from Ursula's grotto, informing her of who they needed to go after to save this world from being consumed, due to the fact that beating someone who was endangering a world usually revealed the Keyhole. Apparently there was some sort of history between King Triton and Ursula, a 'sea witch' as she was called, which was likely the latter trying to take the place and power of the former, something that interested Sombra a little, before she focused on Ariel and the others.
Eventually they found that the mermaid wanted to be alone for a few moments and that she swam back to her father's throne room, though it wasn't even a few minutes before she came swimming out with tears in her eyes, meaning that the conversation must have gone south in record time, and that Ariel told them of a place she liked to visit, no doubt to help calm her down.
Since there were Heartless out there Sora told Ariel to show them the way, but to fall back to safety in case they were attacked on the way, causing her and Flounder, who seemed to go everywhere that the princess went, to nod as she swam away from her father's palace. Sure enough they found more Sea Soldiers, Sea Neons, and the oddly placed Ghosts roaming around the front of the unguarded palace, where Sombra raised her hands and struck several of them with fireballs so the others could take her targets down, while Fluttershy and Radiant slashed through their foes, freeing more hearts for Sombra to capture. Sora and Riku swam around a few other Heartless and struck them down before they could retaliate, leaving the way for Donald to use his magic to strike those that Goofy stunned, reminding Ariel as to why she had brought them to her father in the first place, they could deal with the Heartless. As they made sure that the area was clear of enemies, Sombra noticed that Fluttershy's treasure looter, Squeak, was swimming around and looting chests, with what appeared to be a bubble of air around him, meaning they wouldn't have to worry about it while they helped Ariel get over her argument with her father.
As they left the palace grounds, and started to follow Ariel to her grotto, as that was what she called the place that was her private area, Sora found a few more groups of Heartless that were made up of the same enemies they had encountered so far, but this just allowed them to get more used to their new bodies before entering her private grotto.
"So, what do you guys think?" Ariel asked, showing them the inside of a large cavern that had a hole in the ceiling that let light into the area, while there were shelves carved out of the stone and had an assortment of items resting on them, as in containers that had forks, knives, spoons, pieces of a ship that Ariel could haul off on her own, bits of jewelry, and all sorts of items she must have pilfered from somewhere, "Flounder and I collected all of these items from the various ship wrecks that we've found over the years... Sebastian knows about this place, but doesn't really approve since he's supposed to be keeping me from anything human related, or even humans in general. So we collect things, to stave off my curiosity and keep me around daddy's palace... but it's never enough, because someday, I don't know when, I'm going to find out what's out there, beyond the place I've called home. I... want to see other worlds. Does that seem strange?"
"Not at all. Everyone longs for such a thing... I did once, not that long ago." Sora admitted, as he and Riku had sought to find a way to leave their island, and the main island, to see what else was out there among the stars, and now both he and his friend were seeing worlds that neither of them had imagined when they and Kairi first thought about this sort of thing, so he understood Ariel quite well.
"Sora's right, everyone longs to leave home at some point and see more of the world." Riku added, though at the same time he and Sombra glanced at something that seemed important, a cyan blue indent that looked like a trident head could fit inside it, which seemed far different from everything else they had seen so far, meaning it might be what they were looking for, "It will either pass with time, or you'll fulfill your dreams."
"Still, it isn't safe out there, not with the Heartless swimming around... if you want something new, maybe we can stick to an area near the palace?" Fluttershy asked, as she could tell that Ariel seemed to want to go exploring while she cooled down from her argument with her father, maybe find something new to add to her collection, and it was easy for them to see that she seemed pleased with the idea.
Ariel and Flounder knew of another ship that she wanted to investigate, so the pair swam over to the area in question as Sombra, Sora, and the others focused on tearing through the Heartless that happened to be in the way, since more and more happened to be showing up. With the number of Keyblade wielders among their number it was easy to get rid of the Heartless, allowing Sombra to capture their freed hearts as she blasted her targets with magic, even pressing one against the floor with a bit of gravity so Riku could take it down. While they did so Ariel revealed that the best way to get to the ship in question was to ask one of the dolphins if they would be willing to take them to the ship, something Fluttershy was able to do with ease, causing the princess and her fish friend to look at her in disbelief, as if they weren't expecting her to do anything. The dolphin in question took several trips to get everyone to the area in question, pushing through a strong current to get them to their destination, and once everyone was together Radiant found that it was an old ship, since it was far more damaged from being under the water for so long.
There was nothing around the ship for them to focus on, so they swam into the ship's storage area without delay and found that a good majority of it's goods were gone, destroyed by age most likely, though there was an elegant chest that seemed important and drew their attention to it. While they did so a large shark burst through a glass window and tried to bite at them, though Fluttershy swam up to it, tapped it on the nose, and started talking to it, where Ariel found that the shark seemed to falter under the other mermaid's gaze, as if it was listening to her. Thanks to her efforts she was able to convince the shark to back off and go do something else with it's time, allowing them to focus on the task at hand as they returned to the chest, though as it opened they found that the item inside it happened to be a crystalline trident head, just like the shape in Ariel's grotto. Ariel took it before the others did and started to head back to her collection, because there was nothing else in the ship for her to collect, due to a good portion of it being wiped out in the crash and the rest taken by time, and to leave they used an underwater vent that ended up pushing a large chest out of the way.
The chest had an odd material inside it, a light green item that was either a gem or a piece of metal that radiated power, an item Radiant collected as they headed inside the grotto and Ariel slipped the trident head into the indent, like the two had been made for each other, and yet Sombra could feel something happen, a seal being undone, and realized that they might not need to beat Ursula after all.
"Ariel, you have disobeyed me once again!" an angry voice said, where they found that King Triton was entering the grotto with Sebastian swimming right behind him, meaning the crab told his boss about what they were doing and had brought him to the one place that Ariel had thought to be her own little sanctuary, before he laid eyes on the crystalline trident.
Sombra, sensing that he was about to get angry, readied her magic and formed a barrier that King Triton didn't see as he leveled his trident with the crystalline one, blasting it with the energy he had used to destroy those Heartless earlier, which caused a bunch of smoke to emerge as Ariel swam out of her own grotto, completely angry with her father.
"Young man, I know that you and your friends are not from another part of the seas, much less another ocean, but rather you are from a number of different worlds... none of you know your dorsal fin from your tail." King Triton stated, which was a first for the group, that someone would actually figure that piece of information out despite the fact that Donald and Goofy's forms should have given them away long before they reached this point, before he pointed at Sora and Riku for a moment, "The two of you must be Keybearers, at the very least, which means that you're looking for the 'Keyhole'... let me tell you something that all people like you should know: one MUST NOT meddle in the affairs of other worlds, which is what you have done several times no doubt."
"To be fair, King Triton, that's how we find the Keyholes. We MUST meddle, because that allows us to bring down villains, which, in turn, reveals the Keyhole." Sombra remarked, though at the same time Triton found that her magic was resting around the indent, which was shimmering as his eyes widened, confirming that this was, in fact, the Keyhole, but there was something blocking the lock from appearing before them, "The Keyhole is right here, waiting to be sealed, but it has yet to appear before us... let us help you beat Ursula, before she does something drastic, then we'll seal the Keyhole and be on our way."
"And you can trust Sombra... when she makes a promise, such as this, you can be sure she'll keep it." Radiant added, as she knew her more than anyone else, had seen most of her acts and knew that, even as the Monarch of Shadows, she was known to uphold the vast majority of her promises, even if they turned out to not be how someone might envision, but there was no reason for King Triton to know that.
King Triton stared at them for a few moments, clearly debating whether or not to believe them, before telling Sebastian to bring them to Ursula's grotto as he dealt with Ariel, though as that happened Sombra weaved a bit more power into her barrier and kept the Keyhole locked up tight. With that done the group followed the crab out of the grotto and swam over to the area that their target's lair was in, which involved going back to where the ruined ship was resting, which caused the crab to move around part of another fallen ship and activated something that lowered part of the rock wall to reveal a new path. Of course there were more Heartless in the new cave, which made sense due to the fact that they were heading right to where the villain of this world was resting, though that didn't stop them from tearing through all of the sea type Heartless as Sombra collected their hearts. After taking care of the first couple of groups of Heartless they found the end of the cavern, a round underwater chamber with a magical cauldron right in the center of it, where everyone found a fat octopus lady, similar to Donald without the duck parts, glaring at them from a conch that seemed to be her bed, though she was definitely annoyed with them.
What was interesting was that instead of her talking to them, in an attempt to inform them of her plans or just to annoy all of them before the battle started, they discovered that she attacked them straight away, where it looked like she had two eels swimming around her that helped her with battle.
Based on what Sombra could tell the eels seemed to be her main weapons as she spun around and used her tentacles to attack those that were around her, where everyone avoided Ursula's attacks and struck her, only to find that their attacks just seemed to slip off her body without doing any damage to her. Sombra found that there was a faint magical barrier around Ursula's body, something that was linked to the cauldron based on what she could see, to which she blasted it a few times with a couple of fireballs, which seemed to shock the sea witch in the process. With that information in mind the way to beat her became clear, all Sombra had to do was keep the cauldron interrupted by blasting it every now and then while the others literally beat her up with their weapons, though both Sora and Riku beat the eels up until they fled, which allowed both warriors to focus on Ursula. If she was being honest with herself, Sombra found this to be unsatisfying, the sea witch seemed to have no powers on her own, no when her cauldron was being attacked, and that meant they were able to beat her in no time at all, causing Ursula to dissolve into a dark mist that Sombra scattered, as it would prevent her from returning for some time.
Such a thing meant they were successful, even though she could see that she wasn't the only one disappointed by what had just happened, though as they started to leave Ursula's cave, to give the King the good news, Sombra found that their tomes had a new spell, Thundara, the second tier thunder spell, and a piece of Ansem's report, plus she discovered a third emotional heart fragment, which was curiosity, which she started to claim as soon as she noticed it.
When she touched it, however, Sombra found herself viewing what appeared to be a memory of whoever this fragment, not to mention the others for that matter, belonged to, where the area seemed to be a wasteland, and while she couldn't see who the fragment belonged to she could see someone else. The individual in question was an elderly man who seemed like he was in his seventies or something, yet walked just fine from what she could tell, who wore an interesting and unique set of attire that made him look like he controlled the Darkness, instead of being afraid of it. One thing she noticed was that he held his hands behind his back, either out of respect for someone or just a habit he had never gotten over, but it did look like he was talking to someone in the memory, though whether it was the one the memory belonged to or someone else she had no idea. She couldn't even hear the conversation either, but this did mean that the more pieces she found the more and more she would learn about whoever these fragments belonged to, until she was able to figure out whose heart she was in the process of rebuilding.
After that she snapped back to reality and found that only Riku seemed to have noticed her odd behavior, causing her to shake her head, as now wasn't the time, as she carefully stored this fragment with the other two, giving her more to think about as they swam back to King Triton to tell him what had happened.
King Triton, of course, was surprised by their easy tale of success and hesitated to believe it, though when Sombra told him that Ursula's darkness had been scattered he seemed to believe her, where he joined them in returning to Ariel's grotto and the Keyhole. This time around the item was glowing far more than before, though as the barrier was undone they found that the King raised his trident and temporarily linked it's power with the crystalline head, where they watched as both powers revealed a shimmering blue panel in the space in front of the indent, with the Keyhole on it. Sora raised the Kingdom Key and fired a beam into the Keyhole, locking it and protecting the world from the Heartless, which would make things easier for King Triton since it meant the dark creatures would have a harder time of things, something that seemed to please him. Ariel, on the other hand, was actually sad to see them go, which might be a side effect of her father trying to break her collection like he had tried to do, though she continued to spin and talking about how she was going to travel to other worlds one day, meaning her hope was stronger than her sadness or anger.
Despite everything that had happened, and how annoyed the King had been with them previously, Sora and the others felt that they had made more friends by visiting this world and wished the pair well as they departed, heads held high as they started to leave so they could make their way to the next world and whatever it had to offer them.
While all of this was going on Xigbar stepped out of the Dark Corridor he had used to leave the castle and travel out into the World, appearing in what appeared to be a white ship, similar to their castle, that was lingering in the space between worlds, a research ship that belonged to one of his comrades.
"Vexen, how goes your study of the new Keyblade wielders?" Xigbar asked, speaking to the blond haired individual that was sitting near the window that allowed him to watch the world that he was interested in, or more specifically the group that Xemnas had ordered him to observe, in case they had to use the Replica Program.
"Sit, Xigbar. I imagine that you are weary from your travels." the black robed figure at the table replied, though his eyes and most of his focus were on the world that the group had stopped at, one with mermaids that caused an interesting change in the group he was studying, though as Xigbar took a seat at the table he found a pot of tea and two cups, which meant that Vexen had been expecting company, "The tea is still fresh, in case you are wondering. However, both you and Xemnas will be happy to know that there have been some recent developments: they found one of Sora's friends, the boy named Riku, and it seems that he, too, is a wielder, just like how Radiant is one as well."
"No kidding? That is good news." Xigbar said, where he decided to be polite and poured himself some tea, not his favorite thing to drink if he was being totally honest with himself, but that wasn't why he was here, he wanted to see if there were any developments and this one was massive, as four wielders was far better than two, causing him to take a sip before he noticed a look on Vexen's face, "I take it there is also some bad news?"
"Of course, for every good bit of news comes with a bit of bad news as well: none of the freed hearts have left the worlds they've been to so far." Vexen stated, something that caused him to resist the urge to slam his fist into something or just break something in his annoyance, hence the tea to help him calm down somewhat, which was why he took a long sip as he thought about what Xigbar might say next, "And no, I don't mean the hearts are still on the worlds the wielders have been to... I know the hearts have been freed from the Heartless, but before they get too far they get snatched by some sort of dark power and completely disappear. I have yet to discover what the source of this disturbance is."
"A dark power? What, like Maleficent and her crumbling council?" Xigbar inquired, which would be an easy thing to correct, since all it meant was that the dark witch was calling the hearts back to form new Heartless, though he knew it wasn't that, otherwise Vexen would have said something about her the moment he mentioned the dark power.
"Hardly. That witch and her fractured group are strong, there is no doubt about that, but whoever is doing this has control over hearts themselves... a power I've never seen before." Vexen said, where it was easy for Xigbar to see that not even the greatest researcher in their group knew what was going on, or if he did he had yet to actually say anything about it, but in the following moments he raised a hand and part of the window changed, revealing the three pony girls that were part of the group, "My hunch tells me that one of these three are the key to our problem... take them out and we should be able to undo whatever dark power is stopping the hearts from reaching Kingdom Hearts. Though that raises a question that's been bothering me lately: why haven't you told the others about this yet?"
"Lord Xemnas is hoping that we'll be able to fix this problem before it becomes that much worse." Xigbar replied, which was the truth, both he and their leader wanted to undo the massive problem they had discovered when Xemnas noticed how Kingdom Hearts wasn't adding more hearts to itself, causing him to glance at the images of the trio that seemed to be far more than any of them had thought when they first appeared, "You know that loose lips sink ships, and some of our comrades would cause a panic if they knew about this, which is why we're currently limiting the information to just a few individuals, those who might be able to change the course of this disaster. You've been studying the wielders for a while now... who do you think we should focus on taking out?"
"Now that is an excellent question, one I have pondered since I started my mission." Vexen stated, where a familiar smile appeared on his face, because when he got in the zone there was no stopping him and Xigbar knew that this might be one of those very moments, causing the researcher to focus as his expression almost returned to normal, as there was a glint in his eyes telling Xigbar of his interest in this topic, "One would think that either Sombra or Radiant should be our main targets, because the former seems to be adapting to every type of magic she comes across, though while the latter might be on Sombra's side there is an air of darkness around the latter... however, I believe those thoughts are mistaken. Our target should be the third members of their unique group: Fluttershy. Tell me, Xigbar, what's the best way to hide that you have a dark power that you don't want anyone to see?"
"Act like you aren't important and don't offer much reason for the others to remember you... which, according to the last report you sent, is what she is doing." Xigbar answered, something that caused him to set down his cup as he looked at the images, where his instincts told him that it had to be Sombra, there was something about her that seemed off to him, but at the very least he would present this information to their leader and see what his decision might be, "I'll go tell Lord Xemnas this information at once... I might be back with good news sooner than you think."
Vexen chuckled as he watched Xigbar open a Dark Corridor and disappear, allowing him to turn his focus on the group as they returned to their Gummi Ship and blasted off for the next world, which only made him more interested in what the World might throw at them next when they reached their next destination.