With Aladdin safe from harm, and Kurt Zisa defeated while Sombra had absorbed his heart, Sora and the others wished their friend from Agrabah well before departing once more, quickly returning to the Gummi Ship and blasting off for the second world Sombra wanted to visit: Neverland.
"So you're saying that there's another powerful Heartless in Peter Pan's world?" Radiant asked, because while she knew they had overcome the last one through sheer effort, plus Sombra utilizing her own dark powers to get the job done, she felt a little more clarification would certainly help her and the others in understanding their current objective.
"Yes, which we should be able to find near the clock tower... though given how Kurt Zisa only reacted to Aladdin's presence I would assume this one would be the same." Sombra replied, as she was sure that the two Heartless in question were some sort of assassins, specifically designed to take down annoying foes or targets, so in her mind it was easy to see how Peter Pan's presence might attract the other one, now that the Keyhole has been sealed, "So we'll track down Peter, who I'm going to assume is somewhere near Hook's ship, and then head over to the clock tower to see if we can find the creature... with any luck we'll be done in no time, then we can fly to Hollow Bastion."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Sora said, where he activated the warp system and they warped away from Agrabah, taking the short flight to reach the other world Sombra wanted to revisit, something that allowed the others to go about their one business for a few hours, though he suspected everyone would want to rest after Kurt Zisa.
Sombra shared the same opinion, most of them wanted to rest and that was exactly what they did, though before she did so herself she pulled out her tome and went over the new additions she gained from the massive emblem Heartless, where she found a number of points got added to her stats, at least ten per stat by her reckoning. Such a thing made the fight with the effort on their own, since most Heartless gave her a point or two, or even three if she was lucky, but a base number of ten was far more than what she was expecting, meaning she was already far stronger than she had been earlier and wondered if the other assassin Heartless would give her the same amount of power. In addition to that Sombra thought about the three spells that had appeared in her tome, those being Silence, Silencera, and Silencega, her true prize from Kurt Zisa, which should make battles against magic users somewhat easier for them once she mastered how to use the spell in battle. With that in mind she spent a few moments testing out her empowered stats, finding that she was definitely slightly faster and stronger than before, which meant once they bested the other Heartless she would be ready for whatever was waiting for them on Hollow Bastion.
Once she was sure that her empowered skills were up to par with her thoughts, and had an idea on how to use the new spell, Sombra joined the others in relaxing for a time, getting her energy back for the battle that was in their future, which even Sora did for a time, even though it wasn't long before he returned to the cockpit to navigate the ship.
Eventually they arrived at their destination and Sora brought the ship to a stop, allowing them to look at the world for a few more seconds, just like they did whenever they reached a world, and it wasn't long before he pinpointed Hook's ship, allowing them to warp down to the world without delay. As they appeared on Hook's ship, where it looked like neither the captain or his second were around, Fluttershy flew out over the water for a few moments and seemed to lower herself for a few seconds, only for Sombra to find that she had found the crocodile from before. In that moment she understood the shy one's intentions as she used her companion orb to capture the creature, she had determined that Peter was just using it as a tool to harass Hook and wanted to give it a better life in their private world, just like Sabor. Once she completed her task, and had a few friend to add to their world at some point, Fluttershy returned to the group and they got to searching for Peter, because he was the key to drawing out the other assassin Heartless that Sombra had felt.
As it turned out the boy in question was messing around with Hook's cabin, either roughly using the items that were in it or just messing with everything so that the captain would have to restore everything before their game began again, since he seemed to be of the opinion that Hook would be back, though he paused when he noticed the group.
"Oh, it's you guys... honestly, I wasn't expecting to see you again." Peter commented, where he tossed the lantern that was in his hands onto the bed as he faced them, though it seemed like the lantern was more like a prison to hold someone like Tinkerbell inside it, so they didn't have to worry about the ship burning down on them, "So, did you find that friend of yours?"
"No, but we came back to save you. There's a Heartless coming after you." Sombra replied, because while she felt no real need to save Peter, he was an annoying person to be around and that was something coming from someone like her, she knew he was the key to summoning the Heartless they were after, plus she had to resist the urge to throw him into a wall as he simply raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, "It's a special Heartless, an assassin sent to take you down and take your heart, possessing powers to help it bring you down... we figured that since we were friends, and you tried to help us save our friend, we'd come back and save your life by helping you take down the Heartless."
"Okay... let's say I believe you: where is this Heartless?" Peter asked, though to him this sounded like the work of Hook, as the captain wanted nothing more than to do away with him, despite the fact that there were times where he assumed that his greed might be getting the better of him.
"Somewhere near the clock tower. It should respond to your presence and attack." Sora answered, as Sombra had told all of them where she felt the presence before they even talked to Peter, though it was still strange that a Heartless could be so close to the area that the Keyhole was in and not take the chance to claim it, confirming that the assassin types were totally different from an ordinary Heartless.
Peter thought about it for a few moments before deciding that he had nothing to lose, to which they emerged from the cabin before floating into the air and flew off towards London, where Sombra kept her senses open for the presence, as Kurt Zisa had attacked them first and she wanted to be ready this time. When they approached London it was easy to see that Peter was looking around for anything that might be out of the ordinary, making Sora wonder if he came here often, before meeting Wendy anyway, before something in the air caused them to come to a stop. A figure flew through the air that was around them, a tall figure, about half as tall as Kurt Zisa by the looks of it, whose body was made up of an open robe that allowed them to see nothing was inside it, though while the main body was white they found that the arms were black, with the shoulders having a flame pattern. Sombra understood what they were seeing right now, this was more like a phantom, in fact that was what she decided to call it since the Heartless didn't seem to have a face to speak with, and she could feel the magical power that was inside it, a power that rivaled Kurt Zisa.
The first thing the Phantom did was point at Peter and then made a motion that looked like slashing one's throat, which confirmed that it was here for the boy, before it started to channel some magic in both of it's hands, which allowed it to manipulate the face of the clock that was in front of them, the one the Keyhole had been on, causing the minute hand to start moving.
"Oh, that's not good. It's using a countdown method... must be a 'doom' type spell, one that will likely knock out whoever the Phantom targeted to reduce our numbers." Sombra remarked, as he had heard of this type of power before, but had never bothered to actually use it since it seemed far too easy to defeat her foes if she used such a thing, though Sora also allowed her to confirm something else as the boy flew forward and swung at the Heartless, his Keyblade passing through it while doing nothing at all, "There must be a way to damage it... but first, we need to stop that countdown: Stopra! Silencega!"
She knew that her limited knowledge of Silencega would only allow her to target a specific spell, but that was the point of her casting it, as the energy washed over the Phantom and sealed it's doom ability, preventing it from using that spell for a long time, while Stopra was cast on the clock face, stalling the already existing doom spell. With those spells in place she and the others turned their attention to their foe for a time, lashing out at it with their weapons as they confirmed what Sora had discovered a few moments ago, it appeared that physical attacks would do nothing to it. At the same time they also found that it could certainly attack them with it's claws, causing them to block with their weapons while forcing each warrior to stop before they retaliated, since there was no use attacking it with melee attacks until they figured out how to damage it. The other thing that the Phantom could do was launch energy orbs at whoever it wanted to take down, or just weaken it's targets, something everyone had to block with their weapons, it was the best way for them to deal with this sort of attack, before Sombra noticed something odd.
That something, as it turned out, was a heart container that held the Phantom's heart, something that it seemed to hide to the best of it's ability, even though it occasionally had to reveal it, where it had a blue sheen the first time she noticed it, but Sombra refrained from attacking so she could study it some more. She knew that prolonging this fight would just eat at her mana reserves, cutting into the amount of time she could keep both of her spells up, but she wanted to be sure of this before telling the others about her discovery, allowing her to see three more colors before blue showed up again. The other three colors were red, yellow, and white, where she considered all four for a moment and realized that at least three of them had to be specific spells, red had to be Fire, blue had to be Blizzard, and yellow had to be Thunder, though while white didn't fit with the other three she figured that it had to be melee. Of course she needed to confirm that fact and just waited for a few more moments, as the moment the orb appeared again and changed to a red color she struck it with a fireball, causing the Phantom to shudder in pain as it let out a screech of some kind.
Sombra didn't care that much, she had all the information she needed and laid into the Phantom, sending it flying with a burst of fireballs, causing it to flee from her while she gathered the others for a time, as they had a limited amount of time before it decided to circle back to the tower.
"Listen closely and no talking back: I've figured out how to hurt the Phantom. It will occasionally reveal it's heart container, so strike it when that happens," Sombra stated, though at the same time she thought of something else that might turn the tide of this battle in their favor, her unique power might allow her to manipulate the container in some manner, but for now she focused on telling them what she had figured out, "it will show four colors: red for fire magic, blue for ice magic, yellow for thunder magic, and white for melee attacks. Keep an eye on the coloration and we should be able to take it down in no time."
The others nodded as the Phantom returned to the battle, though as they scattered and attacked Sombra noticed that it changed up how it revealed it's weakness, if someone hit it with one spell the coloration would change to another one, so any of the other spells of the element that just hit it would be negated, an interesting tactic. The other aspect was that the Phantom only allowed them a short window to deliver three attacks before the orb disappeared for a time, which meant they had to be on the ball in order to deal any lasting damage to the Heartless, otherwise a single hit would do nothing to it except make it mad. Such a thing caused her to focus her mind for a moment as she reached out with her unique skill, where the Phantom shuddered for a few seconds below looking down at itself and found that the heart orb was visible to it's foes, causing her to sweat for a moment as she forced herself to keep a third ability up at the same time. It wasn't the number that was putting such a drain on her, rather it was the magnitude of the powers she was keeping up, since one was a third tier spell, the second was a second tier, and the third was her unique skill, but it was worth it since she could keep the edge in their favor.
Being unable to hide it's heart container meant that the Phantom had to endure constantly being hurt, the group taking turns striking at the vessel as Peter focused on lashing out with his dagger when the white color showed up, and when it tried to attack them Fluttershy pulled back and used the barrier magic she had been given to stop it's attacks. Sombra had to resist the urge to chuckle, because this was a power that most of them had forgotten about since the shy one had been more up close and personal with their fights, which might have been her other side coaxing her to do better, but at the same time she had improved her skills somewhat. This was good, because with her providing support, and Sombra doing her best to keep the Phantom's weakness exposed at all times, the others could lash out at the Heartless, deal incredible damage to it, and weaken it to the point where they could bring it down. Such a thing made Sombra grateful that they had challenged Kurt Zisa first, because she had no idea what they would have done if she didn't have Silencega on hand, and that thought pushed her to make sure her powers were in place constantly as the Heartless was damaged more as time went on.
Eventually the Phantom staggered backwards and braced it's chest for a moment, where Sombra grinned as it's heart was finally freed and she snatched it, allowing her to absorb it without delay and add it's power to her own, along with the fact that her tome glowed, revealing another spell, Stopga, had been added to their arsenal.
"Definitely tougher than Kurt Zisa." Sombra remarked, where she wiped the sweat from her brow as Peter flew off so he could return to Neverland, without even thanking them for coming and saving his life since he didn't have magic, or if he did he didn't care enough to show it off, but she didn't care and was glad to see him go, "But this is good training for all of us, as we have no idea what awaits us in Hollow Bastion."
Sora nodded and called for everyone to follow him as he flew down to the clock tower, as it was time for them to warp back to the Gummi Ship and depart for the final world that they needed to explore, where Riku and Kairi were waiting for them, causing everyone to look forward to what their futures held for them and their friends.
As the fight was wrapping up a figure tapped his foot against the floor of his ship, where Vexen sighed as he watched the scene that had unfolded before his very eyes, especially after seeing the heart of such a powerful Heartless disappear without leaving a trace, though his thoughts were interrupted by his current partner.
"I was wondering when you'd arrive, Xigbar." Vexen commented, as he heard the sound of the Dark Corridor opening right behind him, in the middle of the room that he and his partner had chatted in, and knew that this meant his partner, who he was reluctant to have despite the good questions he asked, the part of him he liked the most anyway, had arrived, no doubt for another progress report.
"Sorry about the delay, Lord Xemnas was asking me why it was taking so long for Sora's group to reach Hollow Bastion." Xigbar replied, which was the truth, they had been keeping tabs on the group so they could strike at them when the time was right, when their guard was lowered so they could remove the one potentially stealing the hearts of the Heartless that were being wiped out, "Have you figured out what they're up to?"
"Yes, actually. They went back to Traverse Town to install a navigational gummi that Neverland's Keyhole gave them, which will allow them to reach Hollow Bastion," Vexen stated, where he walked over to the table and poured some tea for both him and his partner, making sure to hand Xigbar his first, before he tapped a button on the nearby console to show him what he had found out so far, images of multiple worlds appearing on the screen he had been observing, "after that, they returned to the Coliseum for some additional training... then they returned to Agrabah and Neverland."
"...Why?" Xigbar asked, because that didn't make sense, there was nothing there for the group to be interested in, though instead of responding immediately Vexen raised his finger for a moment and pointed to the two screens in question, to which he watched as two incredibly powerful Heartless, specifically designed assassin types he noticed, fought the group and were taken down, "Our readings didn't even notice those two... how could we have missed those two? Where did their hearts go? Can we calibrate the machines so we don't make this sort of mistake again?"
"Calm yourself, Xigbar. The tea will help." Vexen said, where he did the same, taking a drink as he observed the scenes yet again, thinking about the information he had considered since the group left Traverse Town not that long ago, and what they had to do if they wanted to put their own plans into action like Lord Xemnas wanted, "You will forgive me, of course, as our devices have been undergoing heavy updating recently... stronger Heartless have been appearing recently, likely the fault of Maleficent gathering her Princesses of Heart and doing whatever she's been doing, which has likely drawn the attention of the more powerful Heartless. I suspect that these two, who are clearly not normal emblem Heartless, were specifically created to kill very specific individuals and, to ensure they were unable to be detected, given their own unique invisibility or aura erasing power, to grant them the power to sneak up on their individual targets. As to where their hearts went, the answer is the same as before: one of the trio clearly stole them... as for not repeating this mistake, well, make no mistake, I am hard at work making sure this doesn't happen again."
Xigbar nodded as he sipped on his tea and observed the two slain assassin Heartless, their powerful abilities brought low by the group and their hearts stolen, a problem that was becoming more and more dire as time went by, because those would have been good for their Kingdom Hearts and now they were gone.
"Xigbar... Lord Xemnas has a plan, correct?" Vexen asked, a useless question to some, especially since their boss always, against all odds, had a plan and knew how to address the various problems that their organization had, and this one was the most important they could have discovered, since no hearts meant their plans would never be fulfilled.
"Of course he does. We need to wait for them to get to Hollow Bastion, where they were engage with the Heartless that are under Maleficent's command, and where Riku's darkness was awakened." Xigbar replied, where he walked over to the console for a moment, slipped a disc into the machine, and showed Vexen what he was talking about, a scene of Riku and Maleficent, where Vexen watched as a surge of dark energy washed over the young boy and his eyes darkened, taking on the yellow eyes of one corrupted by darkness, "There we will deal with the one that is responsible for stealing the hearts from our Kingdom Hearts, all without the heroes being able to stop us... Maleficent will be filled with arrogance, allowing the rest of the heroes to bring her down and seal the Keyhole of Hollow Bastion. Are you sure that Fluttershy is the one we need to deal with?"
"I've run the calculations, and I'm seventy-five percent sure she's the one... the other twenty-five is Sombra." Vexen said, as the more he watched the group the more his certainty that Fluttershy was the culprit started to go down, but he was still positive that his original idea, that the shy one at the back of the pack, had to be the culprit they were looking for, which meant she would be the target for whatever plan Xibgar and Lord Xemnas had come up with, before noticing that the ship he had been watching started to move, "You have a couple of days to get ready, Xigbar, because they're on their way to Hollow Bastion as we speak... if you miss your opportunity you might not get another one."
Xigbar chuckled and told Vexen not to worry, he wasn't planning on missing the target once he was sure they were in the right spot for the ambush, and he was looking forward to making sure the plan was put in motion without the group even knowing the danger they were in, he just had to wait a few more days and everything would finally be back on track.