Sam lowered his blade, letting out an audible sigh of relief, "Ashe?" a fight right now would have been the worst possible scenario, given that the Microbots hadn't quite finished their work on his arm yet, "The Empire happened." was his response to all of her questions, "Imperators, two of them. They were controlling waves of these grey creatures. We were doing fine until the Imperators decided to butt in." by this point, Sam had wiped the blade of his sword on the prosthetic arm before returning it to the sheathe clipped to his back. He also started walking deeper into the palace, expecting Ashe would keep pace with him.

"We were under siege for days, so we couldn't get any messages out. Like I said, we were doing well enough against those grey things, but then those Imperator bastards decided to get involved personally. One of them got their hands on the Emperor and the Diplomat while I was too occupied with his grunts. By the time I tried to stop him, he had them at blade point and took them through one of those portal things they use. I tried to follow but then the Imperator's partner jumped me from behind. Took me completely off guard. Gah, that's right! That Imperator, the one that jumped me..." his voice trailed off briefly, as if he was still processing the information himself, "...he had a [i]Keyblade[/i], Ashe! A genuine Keyblade that he pulled out of thin air that nearly took my whole damn arm off! What's the deal? I thought Leon said only Sora could wield the Keyblade, so why does the Empire have it?"

"We gotta warn everyone about this." he told her, still walking without even realizing that he was leading them to the throne room, "But I have to check out the palace first, find whoever's still around, maybe even the Diplomat if we're lucky. I don't think it's been too long so who knows? The Imperators might not have taken them offworld, at least not yet." only then did he notice voices coming from the other side of the doors leading into the throne room, familiar voices at that, "Come on!" and without any other word Sam wasted no time and burst the doors open, practically kicking them in.

"Come on, Your Excellency. Is this so-called alliance worth all this trouble? Even now?" It was the red-haired Imperator, who had the Emperor shackled to his throne. Nearby, Daisy Duck - the Diplomat - was being held by a cage made of light energy of all things. And she was currently being guarded by the still-hooded Imperator, very likely the one Sam had described wielding the Keyblade earlier.

"Hah! Trouble, all right. Trouble that [i]YOU[/i] cause!" that was Daisy, but she soon shut up when the red-head suddenly hurled a fiery chakram that slammed against the cage and bounced back to his hand.

"I don't remember inviting you to the debate, so why don't just pipe down and - Roxas, the doors!" Sam's sudden appearance got the Imperators' attention, and the one apparently named Roxas literally leaped into action, placing himself between the intruders and the Emperor's throne. And just like Sam said, Roxas summoned the Keyblade, though it didn't quite look like what Leon had often described. Instead it was almost entirely black in color, and seemed to just pulse with Darkness. As before, Roxas remained totally silent.

"Looks like we lucked out after all!" Sam told Ashe, drawing his Lightning Edge from its sheathe. On one hand, this was mildly terrifying. If what Leon said was any indication, the Keyblade was easily one of the most powerful weapons there is, and so facing one in battle was almost certainly going to be impossibly difficult. On the other hand, however, Sam had a score to settle with this Roxas character.

[@NobodiesHero]