Kingdom Hearts III

The Three We Lost

At the Mysterious Tower, Mickey told Riku and Kairi what had become of Aqua.

"I saw her. In the realm of darkness."

He told them the whole of it: the ruined Castle of Dreams and the silent phantom of Terra she had found wandering it, the glass coffin holding Ventus's own likeness in the Dwarf Woodlands and the three mirrors that pulled her into a fight with her own doubled self, the two of them made real again for a moment in Enchanted Dominion before Xehanort took Terra over, his own finding her at last, the swarm that came for Riku at the door, and what she had given up to hold it back.

"I thought. I heard her voice in the distance."

Riku had heard enough of it to know what it cost her. "She sacrificed herself to save me? Why did you keep it from me for so long?"

Mickey did not try to make it sound better than it was. "I had to respect her choice."

"What about us? You could've given us a choice. We could have gone and helped her."

"I know."

He did not stop there.

"But, now we can help Aqua. You and I, we're gonna go find her!"

Yen Sid took up the rest of it himself. "The great battle with Xehanort is almost upon us. As you know, we must take action to keep the seven pure lights safe, and thus we must hasten to assemble the seven guardians of light. It is time to return to our world the three Keyblade wielders we lost over a decade ago. Ventus, Terra, and Aqua must be saved from their sad end, for they have more to achieve. Following their first battle with Xehanort, Ventus's heart refused to awaken, and so Aqua found a safe location to conceal him. But when she set off in search of her other missing friend Terra, she fell to a place from which there is no return without outside help."

Riku asked him the question he had already asked Mickey.

"Why keep it secret?"

"Do not be rash, Riku. As Mickey told you clearly in his story, reaching the realm of darkness the first time was not a simple task. And even if we had found a way back in, regrettably none of us possessed the necessary means to get Aqua back out safely. So I forbade Mickey from telling you, let alone going after her."

"That much is obvious. If not you, then certainly Sora would have staged a reckless attempt at rescue."

Riku did not wait to be asked. "Yeah! Count me in!"

New Vestments

Kairi looked at Riku for a while before she said anything about the mission at all.

"Who's this new Riku and where's the old one?"

"New me?"

"Yeah. You're more like Sora."

Riku considered that for a moment. "Should I be flattered? I try too hard to be the role model. It's more fun to just listen to my heart. Which is Sora-esque."

"Well, we still like you."

Then she turned to Yen Sid with the question she had actually come to ask. "Master, I came here because I wanted to help somehow. What can I do?"

"I have entrusted the wizard Merlin to oversee the training for our new Keyblade wielders, yourself and Lea."

She did not know the name.

"Lea?"

Mickey supplied the name she would know. "He means Axel."

"What!?"

"He's a regular person now. He even saved Sora for us. You can trust him!"

Yen Sid had one more thing for the two who were leaving. "Mickey, take these along with you. The three good fairies asked that you be presented with them. They are new vestments which will shield the both of you from the darkness."

Riku and Mickey thanked him in the same words.

"Thank you, Master."

"Thank you, Master."

Mickey was already turning to go. "C'mon, Riku. It's time for us to go. First, we gotta find an entrance to the realm of darkness."

"Okay, let's go!"

They left for the Dark World, and the tower was quieter for it.

These Things Take Time

Sora, Donald and Goofy came back from the Sleeping Worlds to a tower with two fewer people in it than he expected.

"Heh heh heh. Secret. I'm back!"

"Huh? Just us?"

"That's great. They coulda said good-bye."

Donald said something back, and Sora would not have it.

"It is not. I just like to say good-bye to all my friends."

"I'm here now, right?"

He was told, not for the first time, that he had lost his own abilities again.

"Whatever! Happens all the time."

Yen Sid explained where the other two had gone before Sora could ask.

"The others all had important work to do. So I sent them on their way."

He put a stop to an argument that had already started.

"We have matters to discuss."

"In order to defeat Xehanort, there are allies we must gather, acting now to rouse them from their slumber. We have discussed this before, Sora."

"Your Mark of Mastery exam was conducted in the hopes you would acquire the power to wake them. However, the darkness nearly took control of you, and your grasp of your new abilities leaves much to be desired. Furthermore, Xehanort nearly made you his vessel, and in the process stripped you of most of the power you had gained by then. I suspect you have already noticed this, correct?"

Sora had no argument against it, and Yen Sid went on.

"Yes. Chip and Dale are currently analyzing data that Ansem the Wise provided to Riku and which could offer us a clue to retrieving our friends' lost hearts. I have very high hopes for this data. However, our greatest chance of stopping Xehanort's plan still lies with you, Sora. If you trust the guidance your heart gives, I know we will find all of the guardians of light."

"But first, you must regain all the strength you have lost. Perhaps it is foolish to expect a complete recovery, but it is absolutely vital you perfect one power, the power of waking, which you failed to master during your exam. There's someone who lost his strength and found it again, a true hero to whom you ought to pay a visit. Perhaps he can point you in the right direction."

Then he gave Sora over to the two who had come with him every time. "I would have it no other way. I put Sora in your hands."

Sora was glad of the two of them all over again. "Donald! Goofy!"

Sora had heard enough to be moving. "Let's go! Count on us!"

Aboard the Gummi Ship, none of the three of them could find a way to anywhere.

"How're we supposed to get there now?"

"Gimme a break, I'm trying. These things take time!"

"Sorry, I got nothin'. What did you expect?"

Goofy remembered something Yen Sid used to say.

"Huh? What's that?"

"Really? Ring a bell?"

It did.

"'May my heart be my guiding key.' I've got it!"

"All right! Olympus Coliseum, here we come!"

Zeroed the Hero

Sora, Donald and Goofy missed the Coliseum entirely and came down on the mountain above it instead.

"I was a little off again. Sorry! We'll find him. But we need to go!"

They tried to climb it and went in circles until there was nothing left to do but call for Hercules by name.

"Yeah. 'Up' is the usual direction."

What answered them was not Hercules.

"All right. I know I dotted my I's, crossed my T's, zeroed the hero. So what gives? Who could possibly be trying to give me a migraine by yodeling that yutz's name?"

"Oh, it's just you. Oy vey."

"It's just us? Even for you that's cold."

Hades did not deny it.

"Don't forget, I can always turn up the heat!"

"What is everyone's infatuation with that dolt?! You know what? Never mind. Never mind. I'm cool. I'm good. Because, Wonderboy'll be outta my hair soon enough."

He had the Titans blow all three of them down the mountain and into Thebes.

Hercules got to them before anything else in the city did.

"You guys are here! Sora, Donald, Goofy! You literally dropped in. Gotta say, I'm impressed."

"Take a guess. Starts with an H."

He did not sound surprised by any of it.

"All of it, huh? Nice of him to show a little self-restraint. Well, whatever he's planning, I'll send him running back across the Styx."

"So Sora, is there a reason you guys are visiting? I'm guessing it's not just for the cheese and olives."

Sora told him what Hades had already guessed at. "So you're up to no good again!"

"Do you remember the last time we were together? You were feeling down and out. How'd you get your strength back, when you jumped in and saved Meg?"

"All my strength is gone from me too. That's why I need you, because I was hoping you might have a solution, or something."

Hercules did not have one ready to give him.

"Hmm, that's tough. All I know is that she was in trouble. Suddenly, I wanted to save her with all my heart, but, it's not like I could tell you how."

Full Marks

Fire came down on Thebes out of nowhere, and Hercules stopped being a host and started giving orders.

"Let's talk later!"

"No, not with the Heartless involved. We're just lucky our friends showed up."

"Meg, you need to stay someplace safe. We'll search the city and make sure everyone manages to get clear of the fire."

He was already dividing up the work.

"Phil, you should go with Meg."

"You gotta keep her safe."

Megara had arrived already knowing the worst of it.

"Hercules! You're okay!"

"Boy, that didn't look so fun."

Hercules launched Sora, Donald and Goofy up onto his own statue when he saw who else was still inside the fire.

"Oh no! There's a little girl caught in the fire!"

"Wait. Running's too slow!"

"Get the people out!"

They got her out, and Hercules made light of what it had taken.

"It's nothing. That's what these are for."

"Well, whaddaya know? Sora, Donald, Goofy, guess I owe you a big thank you."

Sora found two people in the smoke who were not there to help. "Hey, now, that ain't no way to say hello, 'specially to your old friends."

"Well, if it isn't Sora and the King's pawns."

Sora asked her outright whether she was behind the attack. "Certainly not."

"Say, Maleficent, I dunno about his sidekicks, but Kid Keyblader here looks way punier than the last time we saw him. I say we finish him off while we still can."

She was not interested in him either.

"Waste no time with the boy. He's inconsequential. We have a far more pressing matter to attend to."

"Be silent, you fool! As for you three, we shall meet again, when I have time for such trifles."

"Yeah, and youse better get your act together before then. Later, twerps!"

Sora and company helped Hercules pull citizens out of a temple that was already coming down when somebody else stepped out of the smoke to watch.

"Oh, wow! Very nice, full marks."

"All this altruism is giving me the warm and fuzzies. So then, does having a heart of light come with an extremely good insurance policy?"

He did not wait to be asked what he meant.

"Oh, but I did though. No good will ever come from putting other people first."

"Because you've got friends in high places, you mean. Tricks like that don't fly for your average joe."

He went on before anyone could answer that.

"I don't admire one guy leaping into danger if it means someone else might have to jump in to save him. You're all just lining up to lose out. Dooming others to take the fall with ya. Oh, and you can spare me the usual party line. Yes, hearts are powerful when they're connected. But if you put too much of that power in one place, some of those hearts might end up breaking. Still, Sora, that doesn't mean you should change. Accept the power you're given. Find the hearts joined to yours."

"I was able to save Meg's life because I was ready to risk my own."

"As if! You don't have any choice but to follow this sweet little trail of bread crumbs. And at the end, you'll finally realize what destiny has in store for you. In fact, your reward might be right around the corner. You're so close!"

He left before anyone could answer him, and Hercules answered him anyway.

"Sora, don't let him bother you. He's just trying to get under your skin 'cause he thinks he can. But we'll prove him wrong. We'll show him that our sacrifices haven't been for nothing."

The Realm of the Gods

Megara sent them off toward the mountain a second time.

"Be careful, Wonderboy."

"Break a leg then, heroes."

Hercules had already worked out why the trouble kept getting worse.

"Guys, this is getting worse by the minute. I hope I'm wrong, but my family may need me."

"Sora, I'm gonna fly ahead. You've been a big help, but, leave the rest to me."

"Yeah. Dad's king of the gods."

They climbed back up Mount Olympus and put down the Rock Titan on the way.

"Don't get too comfortable, Hades!"

"Whoa, easy, what is this, Sparta? Kind of on a schedule. Don't have time to toss around the old fire and brimstone. The whole cosmos is basically waiting for me to, you know, conquer it!"

Nobody waited for him to finish deciding.

"Sora, Donald, Goofy! It's on!"

"Where are my Titans? Show me your power!"

"Ahh! Love the breeze."

They beat the Titans between them, and Hercules sent them flying.

"Ahh. That sent 'em sailing. Sailing right to where I left. Eh, no biggie. Nice work, boys! So, back to the whole cosmic coup thing?"

"No, I'm the one giving orders now, bolt boy."

He set the Titans on them again.

"Get them!"

"Actually, I think I can make it five."

Zeus was free before Hades understood he had lost.

"Hades. The exit is that way."

"Hold on. I almost forgot. That one's for trying to wreck Thebes."

Hades came up out of it furious rather than beaten.

"I can't believe it! I put eighteen years into that plan and you've blippin' ruined it! I really don't like you."

"Enough already! I did not come this far to be ridiculed by Zeusy high and mighty, his little sunspot, and a trio of clowns! You know what? I'll just go ahead and destroy you!"

Zeus sealed him away in the middle of his own threat.

"You'll pay for this! I have a very, very long memory! I can still dunk your little Nut-Meg in a river of de,"

Somewhere else in the same city, Maleficent and Pete had tracked Hades down on their own. "We are not here for you. I have my own business to attend to. All I need to know is if there is a distinctive black box somewhere in this world."

"Ugh. Really? Are you kidding? Geez Louise. Seriously, when it rains, it pours. Okay, who's the new pest?"

"Black box, huh? Hmm. Black box, black box, black box. Wait. Don't tell me. You're after the one Zeus hid on earth?"

She did not deny it.

"Possibly. If I were, where might it be?"

"Oh, perfect. Now I gotta put up with you two. Funny, I don't remember you doing me any memorable favors. So, you can keep your Heartless this time. I'm going back to my original plan. All right? So, toodle-oo! Exit's thataway. Hey, it was great seein' ya! Happy trails!"

Left to themselves, Pete gave the game away before Maleficent could stop him. "Oh! We gots to find that black box."

"Be quiet and dig, you imbecile. I must find that Book of Prophecies and make it my own. His was the only clue we have. We cannot afford to dismiss it without a thorough investigation."

"Are you sure this box with the Book of Prophecies is for reals? I think that dingbat in black was pulling your leg."

He found something anyway.

"Yes sir-eesy, this has gotta be that Pandora's Box Hades mentioned."

"What is it? Have you found something? Show it to me at once, fool."

It was not what she wanted.

"Leave it."

"What? After all that diggin'?"

"That is not the box which I desire. We are finished with this world. Come."

Somebody had been watching the two of them the whole time, from above, and got no further than the start of an old saying before he stopped himself.

"May your hear,"

What happened after that had no witness this book can call on. Somebody else came and stood behind him and asked him, without saying so outright, whether the black box was his own business rather than the Organization's. He gave no answer, and the one asking let it go rather than press him for one.

Something to Fight For

Sora got one more shot in at Hades before the fight was over for good. "Just give it up already! You'll never beat Herc, no matter how many times you try."

Hercules chased him off and did not go home himself.

"I can see my family anytime I want. If I stayed, I'd have to be apart from the person I love most. And that life would be empty. I finally know where I belong."

"Nice job, Wonderboy. We checked the whole area. It looks like everyone's safe."

"You heroes have been busy little bees."

Hercules remembered the question he had never answered.

"Sora, we never got back to your question. Can I help?"

Sora had already found the answer without him. "Mmm, it's okay. I think I'm meant to figure it out for myself. I'll find my strength the way you found yours. Something to fight for. With all my heart. I guess you did have the answer."

"Well, you've got heart, Sora. Just keep at it and I know you'll be stronger than ever."

Poor Thing

At the Dark Margin, Aqua sat with Ansem the Wise the way she had since Entry XI's own meeting between them.

"I can't shake the feeling that these waters touch another shore I've visited."

"Tell me, will you stay here?"

"You've heard of them?"

He answered her plainly, the way a man names a place he has thought about often.

"The Destiny Islands."

"Yes. They are quite lovely, a far cry from this wasteland."

"I'm staying. Someone will come for me."

He offered her something closer to hope than either of them had reason to expect from that shore.

"These waters are the in-between of dark and light, its shores the margins of day and night. They brought you and I together, so why not also you and another?"

Aqua heard something before she saw it. "Who's there?"

"I think you should go."

Ansem the Wise knew the voice that answered her before it named itself.

"'Master'? So now you mock me."

He put himself between them anyway.

"No more! I'll go."

"A lost guardian of light? You wait here, for the King and his fool."

He turned to Aqua next. "Where's your Keyblade?"

"Don't need it!"

The offer was refused, not out of mercy.

"You are wise."

"Poor thing. I mustn't leave you with nothing."

"What. Is this feeling?"

Strength to Protect What Matters

Riku and Mickey went into the Dark World separately from whatever had just happened to Aqua, and found it changed from what either of them remembered.

"No, just. I've been here. I should know this place. But that all seems like another life."

"What's wrong, Riku? Are you tired? Do you need a break? We can stop."

He told Mickey what was actually different. "I remember my first time here. I was so scared. But now, my doubts and fears are gone. If anything, I feel exhilarated. And it's not because there's darkness in me, I know too well what that rush is like. This is different. And it's not adrenaline either. I know Aqua needs us, but I'm ready. I'm in control now. Maybe it's because you're with me this time."

"Well, gee. Think of all you've seen! All the feelings you've felt. Why, you've done years of growin' in almost no time at all."

"It's not me. I think it's because you've finally found inside you that special strength to protect what matters. Sometimes you care so much for somebody that other feelings disappear. And then, there's no room for fear or doubt."

Riku recognised the phrase before he placed where he had heard it. "Is that it? 'Strength to protect what matters.' It reminds me of a promise I made."

"Yeah. While we're reminiscing, Mickey, does any of this look familiar?"

"Sort of, but the realm of darkness has changed since I was here with Aqua."

They reached the Dark Margin itself.

"I've been here, too. With Sora. This is where we found our way back to the realm of light. Hey, maybe Aqua did, too!"

Mickey had been counting on more than memory to find her. "Usually, I'd just follow my heart, and Aqua would show me the way. But the closer I get, the hazier our connection feels."

"It's gone. I'm positive Aqua was here. But now, her trail's gone dim."

"Aqua has fallen into an even darker abyss, somewhere I can't see her. And I don't think we're equipped to dive any deeper than we already are."

What was already in that part of the realm did not wait for them to decide anything.

"Oh no! Riku, be careful. Even the least threatening Heartless are stronger in this realm."

It went badly enough that Riku went down. "Riku. Wake up. Riku. Are you okay?"

"I got more than half of 'em, and the rest vanished. But, they spit you out first."

"I know ya feel invincible, but we're not."

They agreed there was nothing left to do but go back and come better armed.

"Yeah, thanks to the new gear. But, your Keyblade. The Heartless here are stronger than what we expected. I guess we probably should've powered up our Keyblades before we came in here, huh? I think we need to go back to Master Yen Sid's tower so we can regroup."

On the way out, in a part of the realm that was his own alone, Riku found the one person who had never needed the story explained to him.

"Didn't expect to see you again. Why did you even come here?"

"Because somebody needs me."

"Do you want some help?"

The Way to the Dawn was broken clean through, and no longer his to carry.

"Right. Can't use this Keyblade anymore. Might as well leave it here, for the other me."

"Me? I'm."

Whatever came after that, Riku did not hear. He was gone before his own Replica finished the sentence.

Strong Like Sora

Donald and Goofy were already back at the tower when Riku and Mickey returned, which meant Sora's own party had beaten them home.

"Hey there, fellas. So, what've you three been up to?"

He gave Yen Sid the shape of what had happened before either of them asked him to. "All traces of her vanish into the great abyss, beneath the realm of darkness."

"I'm not sure who's even left to ask. Ventus is hidden, and Aqua's the only one who knows where. Plus, nobody's seen Terra in ages. Aqua was the last."

"Good plan, sir. Riku and I will retrace her steps and see if we can find any sort of clues, but first. We got hit pretty hard in the realm of darkness. My Keyblade was damaged, and the Heartless broke Riku's clean in half. So, we're gonna need to get replacements before we can continue."

What Riku actually wanted to say came out later, once the two of them were alone again. "But Aqua's still down here, alone. Facing enemies like that. What if she's feeling as scared and alone as I felt the first time I came here? How long are we supposed to keep her waiting in this awful place?"

"But Aqua. She's like Sora."

Riku did not follow the comparison. "No no no. Strong like Sora!"

"Okay. Good. Then I guess she's gonna be all right. Sora could fall into any darkness and swim his way out."

A Man Calling Himself Xehanort

Dilan led Riku and Mickey to the Central Square at Radiant Garden, where Aqua had last stood in the Realm of Light.

"Where Aqua fell into the realm of darkness after she dove in to save Terra."

"Yeah, she said he was acting strange."

"She sensed darkness in him, and they ended up getting into a big fight."

"Right. And in the aftermath, the two of them disappeared. Around the same time, the guards found a stranger with white hair lying unconscious here in the square, a man calling himself 'Xehanort.'"

"Ansem the Wise took the stranger in, but that was a mistake. Xehanort betrayed his master, stole his research, and along with his fellow apprentices, separated his heart from his body. Xehanort's heart took his master's name, 'Ansem,' and traveled to the past to give his younger self instructions. He even briefly had control of you. His empty body stayed in the present, took the name Xemnas, and founded Organization XIII. Their goal was to prepare thirteen vessels for Xehanort's heart."

"Until we put an end to the Organization. But all the while Young Xehanort had been visiting the future to choose thirteen vessels of his own, hearts with strong enough ties to him to begin a new Organization, the real Organization XIII. And now they're looking for a fight with us. But what happened to Terra? I thought you said that Aqua saved him."

"Yep. Master Xehanort told us 'another on our list' belonged to him. He was talking about Terra. Turns out, Aqua saved more than just her friend that day."

"No way! That was Terra? Master Xehanort was using Terra?"

Mickey went back further, to make the shape of it clear. "Yep, she did. The problem is we didn't notice. You remember the end of the Mark of Mastery exam, when Master Xehanort made his grand return? That's the Xehanort I remember. He was already a pretty old man then. But how do you explain Ansem and Xemnas, his Heartless and his Nobody? Isn't it strange how young they look? Why aren't they old men? It's because Xehanort was using a different body when the split happened. That face from the portrait I mentioned, it wasn't just some stranger that Ansem the Wise took under his wing. It was the young man whose body Master Xehanort possessed."

"Okay, but Master Xehanort is an old man again now. Where did Terra's body go?"

Mickey had an answer for that too. "Hmm. It's because Master Xehanort's collecting vessels! He claimed to have two of our seven lights. We got Sora back, but Terra must still be on Xehanort's side."

"He's with Organization XIII? We should warn Sora."

A call came in from Sora before they could act on it, wondering aloud how Roxas might be brought back.

"No, Riku and I are visiting Radiant Garden. Actually, we were just about to call you guys, but it looks like you beat us to the punch."

Riku thought of the one answer he actually knew something about. "Replicas. Well, replicas are basically human."

"Oh, yeah. You wouldn't remember. The previous Organization XIII developed 'replicas': realistic vessels to place hearts in. They're so real, in fact, that you'd actually mistake them for people. And with hearts, the replicas will become people."

"Yup. The replica takes the form of the heart inside it."

Mickey had been thinking about who to ask. "I'll talk to Ienzo. He was in the Organization back then, so he might know more."

"Aw, it's okay. But there's something you guys should know about one of their members."

"So, let the rest of us worry about Roxas and Naminé for now. You journey on, and keep an eye out for Terra."

The call ended there. Mickey watched it go with something close to fondness. "They don't change, do they?"

"Nope, that's their best quality."

"Welp, we gave Merlin the vestments for Kairi and Axel. Let's go stop by Ansem the Wise's study."

Ienzo heard them out. Mickey wondered aloud whether Even could have simply walked out through a corridor of darkness.

"The dark corridors."

Ienzo told them plainly that the only one of them who had ever gone that deep into the work was Even himself, and that Even was nowhere in Radiant Garden to be asked.

"But not everyone's. What if Even was taken?"

"Of course! The Organization could also use the replicas!"

Riku got there himself before Mickey finished the thought.

"To fill out their ranks."

"Maybe, except Aqua's the only one who knows where he's hidden. We still have to find her first."

"We'd better go tell Master Yen Sid. And Sora, and the others, too!"

What About My Outfit

Sora got back from Olympus with nothing to show for it. No shortcut, no quick fix. Whatever his own strength was going to take, it was going to take the long way.

"I see. You could not regain your strength."

"Regardless, Sora, you will need the power of waking."

Yen Sid did not treat it as a failure. "Perhaps it could be something that is as simple as that. Whenever you are in need, magic happens. That is your greatest strength, Sora."

He turned from Sora to the two who had come back with broken weapons and no Aqua.

"Yes. Their teacher, Master Eraqus, would have been another possibility, had Xehanort not mercilessly struck him down."

"Sora, you must focus on regaining your lost power of waking. Mickey and Riku, I recall that Master Aqua journeyed to many worlds, and connected with others who could be the link we need."

He had already decided where they should start.

"In that case, rendezvous with Kairi and Lea. They are continuing their training under the tutelage of the wizard Merlin. Also, I would like you to deliver these for me."

"Yes, they are the same as the ones I gave you. Special vestments to shield Kairi and Lea from the darkness."

Sora came back to the tower from Olympus with a new set of Keyblade armor and Donald and Goofy each with new coats of their own, and found nothing waiting for him.

"What? No fair! What about my outfit, Master?"

The Master gave him one anyway, drawn to match the strength he had already shown rather than anything still owed to him. "I knew you'd come through for me. Thanks!"

Yen Sid was not finished with him. "Good. Now, to mark the beginning of a new journey, I wish for you to have this, Sora. That is a Heartbinder. Think of it as a good luck charm made just for you. You have a gift, Sora, for connecting with others, and this makes that gift stronger."

Both errands went out from the tower within the hour.

"May your heart be your guiding key."

He had no orders waiting for him either, only the pull of his own heart toward wherever Roxas's own heart had gone. He knew the place. He gathered Donald and Goofy and set out for Twilight Town.

The Photograph

Nobodies met them the moment they arrived in Twilight Town, and a Demon Tide rose up out of them in the same square where Hayner, Pence and Olette were standing.

"What? Hold up!"

"Get the ice cream later!"

Sora, Donald and Goofy fought the Demon Tide off before it could reach any of the three.

Pence wanted to know at once whether the strange creatures from before were back.

"So does this mean that weird stuff's going down again?"

"Hmm, I guess it is. The creatures from the last time were bright white. These things must be new. Man, I can't wait to get to sleuthin'."

Olette was glad to see the two who traveled with Sora again. "Donald! Goofy! How are ya?"

"Whatever's going on, you wouldn't be here unless you had a good reason."

Sora took out the photograph he still carried, the one from the mansion grounds, and told them about the boy in it. Roxas.

"Roxas?"

Hayner had heard the name somewhere before and could not place it.

Olette took the photograph from Sora's hand to look at it more closely. "This photograph."

She recognized the place in it at once, and told him where the answer would be waiting.

"Mm-hmm. Sora, you three should go to the place in the photo. It's the old mansion. The three of us'll cover places in town."

The Other Twilight Town

The old mansion held what Sora expected: the same doorway into a virtual Twilight Town that Roxas had spent his last days inside, built out of Ansem the Wise's own data.

Hayner heard the name Roxas again there and still could not place where he knew it from.

Pence had an idea about that.

"Maybe we bumped into him somewhere."

He found the same photograph inside the data town that Sora had brought with him, and set the two side by side. "Yeah. We've got the same one."

"It's like one of those 'spot the differences' puzzles, except really easy. I guess in that town, we're friends with this 'Roxas' person."

He proposed the obvious next step.

"Great. Then let's all go ask around town. If alternate-us knew Roxas, then maybe alternate-other folks did too."

It came to nothing.

"Nope, 'fraid not. The asking around thing was a total bust."

Pence turned instead to the transporter that was meant to carry them into the data town itself, and remembered the password from before.

"Here we go! The password was, uh, 'sea-salt ice cream,' right? Okay, I'm in. Let's get that transporter working. Oh, man. The transporter's been protected."

"I guess from us? We can't use it to get to the other Twilight Town."

Doesn't Belong Just to You

A call reached them at the blocked transporter before they could try anything else.

"The data has been encrypted, so we've only deciphered some of it."

Sora had not spoken to the voice on the other end since the castle at Radiant Garden fell quiet.

"Oh. I guess we haven't spoken since the castle. I'm Ienzo. Aeleus is here too."

Aeleus said nothing, and Ienzo spoke for him, setting aside whatever still stood between him and Roxas. "Aeleus, whatever's between you and Roxas, it's in the past."

Ienzo explained why he was calling at all.

"Sora, the reason we're here is because you and your friends defeated our Nobodies, thereby 'recompleting' us. We cast off our hearts by choice, make no mistake, but we didn't know that Xemnas, or rather, Xehanort, was deceiving us."

"Not anymore. Xemnas and Xehanort have no hold over us now. We're just students of the heart, exactly the same as we were before all of this began."

"We have friends we want to bring back to this world, just the same as you. To do that, we have to work together. In that spirit, Sora, we found some intriguing data in the bit of code we deciphered."

He came to what their teacher, Ansem the Wise, had found while studying Sora's own heart in order to piece Naminé's scattered memories back together.

"Yes. In order to piece your memories back together, our teacher, Ansem the Wise, took a close look at your heart. And what he found is that your heart doesn't belong just to you."

Sora offered the one thing he actually knew for certain, that Roxas's own heart had always been part of it.

"Interesting. Well, no one knows your heart better than you. To be honest, we still have a plethora of questions on our side, but the idea has merit. It's incredible enough that you and your Nobody are able to coexist. If you share a heart, no wonder someone as remarkable as you caught Ansem the Wise's eye. We'll keep investigating based on your hypothesis. I'll be in touch."

The Network

Ienzo called again while Sora was still standing at the mansion's own terminal, and asked whether he was in front of a computer. "Hello, Sora. You wouldn't happen to be in front of a computer?"

He explained why he was asking.

"I was tinkering with Ansem's computer, you know, to decrypt the Code that was left in it? And I noticed that someone had logged in from another terminal. I figured it might be you."

"Then, uhh, who was it that logged in?"

It was Pence, not Sora, who answered him. "Oh, hi. This is Pence. I'm the one who logged into the computer."

Ienzo took that in stride.

"Good. As long as it's a user that we know we can trust."

Sora and Pence told him between them what the terminal had shown, another Twilight Town reached through a transporter that would no longer let them in.

"Another Twilight Town? And a 'transporter'? Okay. A virtual world inside the computer, made of data."

Ienzo saw a way through it.

"Maybe I can do something. Pence, let's get a network set up. My address here is."

Pence gave him what he needed on his own end, and Ienzo confirmed it a moment later.

"Okay, sharing is enabled."

"Now that our two computers have been successfully networked together, I can take control of the terminal there and change the privileges."

He set out what the reward would be, beyond simply getting them back inside the data town.

"Yes. For the virtual world to be completely realized, Ansem the Wise would've included Roxas's full data in the construction. Meaning, somewhere on your machine there's a log of that data that. Uhh, basically, we can decipher Ansem's Code more quickly, and we can analyze the virtual Twilight Town while we're at it."

Pence followed the explanation well enough that Ienzo did not need to repeat it.

"Glad you're following along. Don't worry, we'll handle it. Chip and Dale will be helping me out here on this end. I'll call you back as soon as we know anything more."

Set Your Heart Free

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas were waiting outside the mansion when Sora came back out into the courtyard.

"So, you think you can bring Roxas back?"

"Do you even realize what you are saying? The other Twilight Town is just data."

Xemnas spoke over him. "Roxas should never have existed in the first place. What you seek is impossible."

"And in the unlikely event you did manage to separate the two, where is it you think you can put his heart?"

Sora told them he meant to bring Roxas back regardless of what either of them believed was possible.

"In that case, by all means."

"Nothing would please us more than Roxas's return, of course."

"Go on then. The shadows are never out of reach."

Xemnas was not finished with him yet, and told him the one truth he still refused to hear. "Still so blind. A Nobody is what's left behind when one gives his heart to darkness. There is only one way to bring Roxas back, which is for you to give your heart up as well. Sora, have you finally decided to call upon the darkness?"

"Now, set your heart free."

Sora refused. Neither of them pressed him further. They left him standing in the courtyard and went their own way.

Never Just One Iron

Xigbar met the other two once Sora had gone, wanting to know why they had let him walk away unpressed.

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness answered him first. "Yes. Just look at them. They wouldn't get far if we did not spell it out."

Xemnas explained what the two of them were actually for. "We were instructed to guide him."

"That is why we never have just one iron in the fire."

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness made clear what would happen if the guiding stopped working. "If he wavers from the path we lay, we destroy him."

Just Gone

Ienzo called once more before Sora left Twilight Town, with news that had nothing to do with the network or the data town at all. "Oh, before I forget, a bit of troubling news. It's about one of the Organization's former members. You knew him as Vexen, but to us he was Ansem's apprentice Even. He was recompleted like the rest of us, but hadn't regained consciousness yet. Then, sometime after Lea left, Even vanished. Aeleus and Dilan, the two you knew as Lexaeus and Xaldin, they went out looking for him, but he's just gone. And I'm starting to worry."

Sora asked whether Even might have been taken the same way Terra had been.

"I think it's a real possibility. He's a devious researcher. You should be careful."

Andy's New Toys

Rex and Hamm were watching a commercial for a game called Verum Rex when Woody switched the television off.

"Ah, sorry. But this is no time for television, Rex."

"Gotta say, that Gigas is pretty impressive."

Woody tackled Hamm without warning, and Hamm did not understand why until he saw what Woody had already seen.

"Woody? What gives?"

Heartless had appeared in the room, and Woody rallied the others to meet them.

"All right, guys. Today we teach those masked intruders who's boss. Is everybody in position?"

"Okay. We go on three. One, two."

Rex was not ready for a fight, and Hamm tried to steady him.

"Would you calm down? Don't worry. I got ya covered."

Buzz asked Woody whether the intruders were back, and readied himself the moment he had the answer.

"Are they back?"

"It's go time."

Sora, Donald and Goofy arrived in the middle of it, shrunk down to the size of the room's own toys, and helped drive the Heartless off before they had time to take stock of where they were.

"What in the world? Where are we? Oh my gosh! Have we been shrunk?! And. and look at us!"

Buzz was not ready to trust the newcomers either.

"Stay back! For all we know, the intruders sent them."

"Gotta be smart, Woody."

Woody had already noticed them himself.

"What are you doing?! Who are those guys?"

"Are they new?"

Rex looked at Sora and saw someone else entirely, a hero from the game he and Hamm had just been watching. "Slow down there, Rex. We don't know them."

"Yozora!"

Sora had never been mistaken for anyone quite so polished before. "Well, I never look this good. The clothes kinda match."

Several of the toys crowded close around him to look him over.

"Could you guys take a few steps back? You're givin' me the heebie-jeebies."

Woody asked plainly whose toys they were.

"So, you're. Andy's new toys?"

"Yeah, Andy's mom must've bought 'em for him."

Sora tried to explain who they actually were instead. "Um. basically. we've come from far away to get rid of these creatures causing trouble. We're like. exterminators?"

Woody had seen enough of the fight already to make up his own mind.

"You sure did a number on those intruders."

"Okay. In that case, you're all right by me. My name's Woody. Put 'er there."

"Call me Hamm. It's a real honor."

Buzz introduced himself last, still holding back.

"And I'm. Buzz Lightyear."

Woody would not let him press the newcomers further.

"Take it easy, Buzz. What matters is that they got those intruders out of our way, for at least a little while. No need to interrogate 'em."

Buzz wanted answers all the same. "Excuse me. You said that you've battle those intruders before. Tell us where and why."

"Well? You must have come from somewhere."

Woody told him the intruders were new to this house too.

"No, they just showed up a little while ago."

We Keep Waiting

Woody told them what had happened to the house.

"It wasn't always this lonely. One day we all woke up, and we were the only toys left here. Nobody's heard from Mom, Molly, or Andy. We keep waiting for Andy to come home."

"Yeah. He's the best friend that toys like us could ever hope to have."

Buzz added what he knew about the Heartless themselves.

"In fact, those 'Heartless' materialized, right after all of our friends up and vanished."

"After everyone went MIA, the intruders didn't come alone. They arrived with a guy wearing a hood, dressed in black, just like you. As a matter of fact, he's the only other toy we've seen, outside of you three."

"Seems like you have a lot of enemies."

Woody remembered a clue he had almost forgotten.

"Well. Hmm. There's one thing."

"You know who it is?"

He decided then that the search belonged to all of them, not to Sora and his friends alone. "I'm sorry. But we're not gonna leave this to you. If that guy had something to do with our friends vanishing, then he's our problem too. We've got to work together."

"Then Galaxy Toys is where we're going. Sora. Follow me. It's out the window and down the roof."

Buzz was still not convinced they should leave at all.

"Not so fast, cowboy. You seem pretty gung ho about going, but shouldn't we stay and wait for Andy?"

Woody had already tried that, and it had gotten them nowhere.

"Well. You've got a point, but. We've tried waiting. Look, if we go with Sora, we might find a clue. Are you with me, Buzz?"

Splitting the Heart and Body

The group reached Galaxy Toys and found a display Gigas standing motionless among the shelves.

"I guess it hasn't figured it out."

A stranger in a black coat answered him instead of Sora. "I can make it move for you."

Sora recognized him from before. "I'm so honored you remember me."

He had a Heartless take hold of the Gigas and set it moving.

"One heart's shadows fill the emptiness of another. See how they bring him to life? Like Heartless and Nobodies, they fit together."

Sora asked him what any of it had to do with the toys, or with this world at all. "There's a darkness we are missing and must reclaim. The way hearts connect in this world can provide us with a clue. So we made a copy of the world, and then pulled those hearts apart. I wonder how you'll handle the strain."

"Don't let me down."

He left the possessed Gigas behind him.

"Oh no! He can move!"

"Way cool!"

They fought the Gigas off, and Woody was left turning over what the stranger had said.

"I'm confused. That guy in the black coat, did he say he made a copy of the real world? What's that mean?"

Buzz refused to take any of it seriously.

"You can't be serious. Oh! That's right, you're from a video game. Well, maybe in your game, that's how things work, but here in reality, you can't 'split worlds.' This is ridiculous."

Woody was not so sure Buzz was right to dismiss it.

"I admit, it does sound just a little far-fetched. But, say we have been taken to some kind of alternate world. That would explain why your laser's real. And is it really that crazy? Worse than 'evil emperors' and 'protecting the galaxy'? Any of that ring a bell?"

A Green Army Man broke in on the argument to report that Rex, Hamm, and the Little Green Men had all gone missing, and Woody turned the conversation back toward Sora.

"Sora's right. They helped with the intruders, so they might help find our friends. They have been there for us so far. You can't deny that. Come on. Every toy deserves a fair shake. Am I right?"

"Well, Buzz? Do you really think we can save our friends on our own? We didn't get very far before. We gotta take all the help we can get."

"See, they don't seem bad. Am I right, Buzz?"

Every Toy Accounted For

The group searched Galaxy Toys floor by floor. They freed Rex from the Supreme Smashers, pulled a Green Army Man out of a Musical Toad, and broke Hamm loose from the Angelic Amber's own dollhouse.

"Too bad we're not strapped to a rocket, huh?"

"Nice moves, Rex."

Woody was starting to come around on the newcomers himself.

"I think they really are good guys."

"Come on, Sora. You've never used a record player? Like this!"

Hamm was glad to be out of the dollhouse.

"Talk about cabin fever. Thanks for the save."

"Yeah, aside from being locked in, the accommodations were fine."

The Angelic Amber itself reappeared once Hamm was free of it, and Hamm knew it at once.

"She's back! That's the doll that pig-penned me!"

"Uh, copy that. One stay in the dread-and-breakfast was enough for me!"

Looking at the doll's own lifeless face after the fight, Buzz wondered aloud whether he, or any toy, could end up the same way.

"Hey, hey, hey! What is going on?!"

"Why didn't you tell me a little sooner?"

Sora and Woody told him that so long as he did not lose his own heart, he would never fall to darkness the way the Angelic Amber had.

"Buzz, you're overthinking it."

"Well, that's good. Because I know you, Buzz. You'll never lose heart when it comes to your friends."

A UFO swept the Little Green Men away soon after, and Sora destroyed it before it could carry them off.

With everyone else found, Woody remembered Rex was still missing.

"I think I know who that might lead us to. Come on, guys."

They found him at the video game section, watching Verum Rex play through its own story.

"Aw, he took off. Said he wanted to prove to you you could trust Sora. He's up there by the video games."

"Hmm. You're right, Buzz. Now that we're all accounted for, we should meet up at the entrance and go home."

"You're right. Sora, Donald, Goofy. Any chance you could help us one last time?"

Rex had finally seen enough of the game to believe what he was looking at. "Whaddaya know? They are video game figures. See? I told ya, Buzz. They're toys, just like the rest of us."

"Yeah, stuck like pigs."

A Moment's Rest

The group turned to head back for Andy's room, Rex found and the others with him. Before they reached the entrance, the man in the black coat was standing in their way again.

"Oh, but you needn't rush off."

Sora told him plainly that they were finished here and meant to leave. "I have more to observe. I can't let you leave yet."

Sora refused to be held up any longer and moved to get past him. "You would say that, champion of light. Very well, let's skip to the final stage."

A Heartless closed over Buzz before anyone could stop it, and he went rigid, then turned on his own friends with no recognition left in him. Sora started for him, only for the black coat to come between them first.

"Not this time!"

"Haven't you heard? In this world, you come from a video game. So now, you can watch my experiment from inside that screen. That is, if you manage to find a moment's rest."

Sora was pulled from the aisle into the screen itself, and it was some time before he broke free of it and found his feet again in Galaxy Toys, Buzz still gone from himself in front of him.

"C'mon, Buzz. Quit fooling around."

"I can't believe it! Buzz has been taken over?"

"Does that mean we'll all be like Buzz, if we don't find Andy?"

The Heart's True Nature

Word reached them that Buzz had been carried off to a dark corridor opening in the Kid Korral, and they went after him there.

"Look. Such tremendous darkness. All because he was ripped away from the boy who cares about him most."

Sora told him that friends were a source of strength, not a weakness to be used against them. "What? 'Your friends are your power'? Ah. How very true. But if the light of friendship is a form of power, the darkness of being alone is a power even greater. Darkness is the heart's true nature."

"Xehanort, you're so caught up in finding the shadows, you forgot about the light that cast them."

He went on as though Sora had not spoken. "I thought I made it clear. I am testing the strength of their bonds. In this world, toys have hearts. And those hearts come from a powerful bond. So what happens when those bonds are stretched to their limit? When they are worlds apart, can cloth and plastic hold on to their hearts? All I needed was a wedge to widen the divide, someone like you to fill them with distrust and doubt. And that chasm you created can be filled with a vast darkness. Witness it for yourself."

Woody had heard enough of it.

"Whatever you're talking about, I don't care. Put Buzz back the way he was, then get lost!"

"Or else what, toy?"

"Yeah, I am a toy. And a friend. My guess is no one's ever loved you before. Because you know nothing about hearts and love."

Sora and Woody pressed the darkness back together, and Woody was the one who finally pulled Buzz free of it. "No!"

"Woody. Wait, how did I get here?"

With Buzz himself again, Sora answered what Woody had asked back at Galaxy Toys, about whether they would all end up the same way if Andy was never found.

"There are hearts all around us, trying to connect. Your 'loneliness' only made Woody and Buzz's connection stronger. That's the heart's true nature, to never, ever let go. Wherever they are, Andy and the other toys haven't let go either."

"So, even empty puppets can be given strong hearts. I am going to have to remember that."

Woody was not about to let him have the last word.

"Yeah! You can't keep us from Andy. We're going home no matter what. And taking Buzz!"

"And that's something you'll never understand, because you're hollower than any toy."

Buzz added his own answer beside him, turned on the man in the black coat himself. "Remember this, our hearts will always be connected to Andy's. No matter what you do!"

"But now I know a heart can be placed in the vessel of our choosing. For that, let me give you a parting gift to play with. Find the hearts joined to yours."

He left them a Heartless shaped like a toy king, and the group fought it together in the corridor until it fell.

Part of Our Hearts

Back in Andy's room, Sora could not help feeling sorry that Andy, Molly, and their mother were still missing, and that he and his friends were leaving without having brought them home. The toys told him they did not regret any of it, meeting him and Donald and Goofy included, and for the first time since the trio had arrived, Buzz let his own guard down with them.

"After all the adventures we've had, we're not quite ready to say, 'so long.'"

"Besides, if we do go back to the real world, we'll never see you again, right?"

"If we follow our hearts, we'll find him again. So, Sora, are you goin' after the guy in the black coat?"

Sora told him that he was. "That's okay, because you've become part of our hearts. So let us become a part of yours."

Woody wanted the whole group to come together for it, and Sora went along with him, embarrassed as he was. "Whaaat? Ugh, if you insist. Everybody join in!"

Buzz saw them off with the same line he always gave his own friends before parting, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy left Andy's room and Toy Box behind them.

Meant for Me

A mother's voice had told a much younger Rapunzel that the outside world was too dangerous a place for her.

"The outside world is a dangerous place. You must stay here, where you're safe. Do you understand, flower?"

"Why can't I go outside?"

Alone in her tower every year on her own birthday, she watched lights rise into the sky and could not shake the feeling they were meant for her.

"Those lights appear every year on my birthday, only on my birthday. And I can't help but feel like they're, they're meant for me. I need to see them. And not just from my window. In person. I have to know what they are."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrived in the forest of Corona with no idea why they had come, and a stranger burst past them fleeing a swarm of Heartless.

"Make way! Make way! Make way!"

As the trio turned to fight the Heartless instead, he saw his chance.

"Say, since you three seem to know what you're doing, mind if I leave this to you?"

Another set of hoofbeats seemed to be chasing him besides the Heartless.

"You have my thanks. The horse was enough. Don't need any monsters on my trail."

He gave them his name in passing and vanished into the trees.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Name's Flynn. Flynn Rider. Ohh! Watch out, they look mad! Slowly. Slowly. Outta here!"

That Is My Deal

Following the secret passage the trio found at a dead end of the forest, Sora, Donald, and Goofy came to a hidden tower where a young woman was holding Flynn Rider captive.

"Who else knows my location, Flynn Rider?"

He tried his usual charm on her first.

"How you doing? The name's Flynn Rider. How's your day going? Huh?"

"All right, hang on, Blondie."

Only once he reached for his belongings did he notice what was missing.

"Gesundheit. Here's the deal. I was in a situation, gallivanting through the forest when I stumbled upon a, Oh! Oh no no! No no no! Where is my satchel?"

She had already hidden it, and turned his own panic back on him.

"I've hidden it. Somewhere you'll never find it. So, what do you want with my hair? To cut it? Sell it? Wait. You don't want my hair?"

He had no idea what she meant by it.

"Why on earth would I want your hair? Look, I was being chased, I saw a tower, I climbed it, okay? End of story."

She got to the point instead.

"Okay, Flynn Rider. I'm prepared to offer you a deal. Look this way. Do you know what these are?"

"A deal?"

He guessed at what she meant before she could explain.

"You mean the lantern thing they do for the princess?"

"Lanterns? I knew they weren't stars. Well, tomorrow evening they will light the night sky with these 'lanterns.' You will act as my guide, take me to these lanterns, and return me home safely. Then, and only then, will I return your satchel to you. That is my deal."

He refused outright, twice.

"Yeah. No can do. Unfortunately, the Kingdom and I aren't exactly 'simpatico' at the moment, so I won't be taking you anywhere."

"A horrible decision, really."

She was not asking anymore.

"Something brought you here, Flynn Rider. Call it what you will: fate, destiny. So I have made the decision to trust you."

With the satchel still hers to withhold, he gave in.

"Let me get this straight. I take you to see the lanterns, bring you back home, the you'll give me back my satchel?"

"I promise. And when I promise something, I never, ever break that promise. Ever."

Just Like Your Face

Outside the tower at last, Rapunzel felt the ground under her for the first time in her life.

"It's so soft! I'm free! I'm really free!"

Joy gave way at once to guilt and back again.

"I can't believe I did this! I can't believe I did this. I can't believe I did this! Mother would be so furious if she knew I disobeyed her and left the tower. But that's okay, I mean, what she doesn't know won't kill her. Right? Oh my gosh! This would kill her. This is so fuuuun! I am a horrible daughter. I'm going back. I am never going back! I am a despicable human being. Best. Day. Ever!"

While she argued with herself, Flynn was already working out how to keep his own satchel safe from the monsters still roaming the forest.

"Oh, what to do? I cannot let her find that tiara. Okay, just think. I need the satchel and Blondie has it. There might be more monsters out there. I've got it! The three guys in the funny outfits. They looked tough enough to come in handy."

"All right fine, I'll take you. But on one condition: my three sidekicks come along."

"Guys! You're here, and just in time."

Rapunzel had not met them yet.

"Stop right there! Who are you?"

"I told you before: my sidekicks. May I introduce, ehh."

Flynn did not actually know their names, and Rapunzel supplied her own introduction instead.

"Sora, Donald, and, Goofy. It's, nice to meet you, too. I'm Rapunzel."

Flynn filled them in on her.

"Uh, that would be Rapunzel. Something tells me this could be her first time outdoors. Give her a few minutes to get used to it."

"I notice you seem a little at war with yourself here."

He laid out what he actually needed from them.

"Look, she really wants to see the lantern show tomorrow night. Now, I'm a nice guy, so I've decided to help her. Only problem is those monsters might show up again. I can get her to the Kingdom, but you guys are clearly more cut out for combat."

As they made their own way toward the Kingdom, Sora tried to put her at ease. "The outside world seems so big and scary. I know how she feels. Lucky for me you two came along at just the right time, and the rest has been unforgettable. Yep, unforgettable, just like your face!"

Rapunzel splashed in the water and chased after rabbits, delighted by something new at every turn.

"Oh, look! What is that? It's so fluffy!"

Precious Gift

Back at the tower, Gothel found the room empty.

"Rapunzel? Rapunzel!"

A stranger in a black coat answered her instead.

"Who's there?"

He offered her a bargain of his own.

"Missing someone? She's such a precious gift. Allow me to assist you in getting her back."

Elsewhere, a flower-like pod the group had stumbled on split open into a Reaper Nobody, and Flynn's nerve went first.

"All right, I hate to say it, but I'm lettin' you outta this deal. It's way too scary out here. Let's just turn around and take you home."

Rapunzel was not ready to give up on the lanterns.

"No. I am seeing those lanterns. It's okay. I'm not afraid to face them."

"Oh, come on!"

More of the pods opened around them.

"Okay. That's suspicious."

Rapunzel had learned her own lesson about the local flora.

"Don't worry. I know to be careful around flowers now."

"Mother said the outside world would be filled with ruffians and thugs."

She left the fighting to Sora and the others. "All right. Please be careful, Sora."

Flynn was already pulling her away from it.

"No problem. Knowing when to flee is one of my specialties. C'mon, Rapunzel. Gotta go. Look, I wanna stay and slug it out too, but my sidekicks have it covered."

Once the Nobodies fell, their own master appeared to Sora. "'Has-beens'? Now why would you say that?"

"My name is Marluxia, and yes, that is correct. How interesting it is to see you again, Sora."

"A shame you've no memory of me, because I remember you exceedingly well. Although, it's those memories I'd soon erase."

Sora had no patience for him. "Because, bossing around Nobodies? That's the old Organization. Why? Are you in the 'real' one too? Good for you."

Marluxia brushed the question aside and came to the point. "Nor should you. Nor will you ever, for that matter. Now, if you'll permit me, I've come to ask a favor."

"Please hear what I have to say. I'm sure you've noticed, well, perhaps not. But you should know that maiden with you, Rapunzel, is the very light of this world. I would see you guard her from its dark horrors."

"All the Organization seeks is balance. You must understand, our ultimate objective is not to clash with the light. We seek to complement it. Use that Keyblade, to keep Rapunzel safe."

A New Dream

Separated from Rapunzel and Flynn after the fight, Sora, Donald, and Goofy searched a marsh for them and ran into the same woman who had spoken to Marluxia.

"Excuse me, good travelers. Do you know Rapunzel?"

"My apologies. I'm Rapunzel's mother. The poor child left home without a word, and I've just been worried sick. Please tell me: where is my dear, sweet girl?"

They had no answer for her, and she had no more patience for them.

"Lost her? You're of no use to me. I'll find her myself."

Elsewhere, at a campsite, Rapunzel and Flynn found themselves face to face with the very horse that had been hunting him.

"Wh-wh-whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy, boy, easy! Settle down. Whoa, whoa! You are such a good boy! Yes you are. Are you all tired from chasing this bad man all over the place? Nobody appreciates you, do they?"

"Excuse me? Oh, come on. He's a bad horse!"

The horse was already won over.

"Ohh! He's nothing but a big sweetheart! Isn't that right, Maximus?"

"Wha. You've got to be kidding me."

Rapunzel talked the horse into a truce.

"Look, today is king of the biggest day of my life, and the thing is, I need you not to get him arrested. Just for twenty-four hours, and then you can chase each other to your hearts' content. And it's also my birthday. Just so you know."

With Maximus won over, the two of them found their way back to Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"You're here. And you're okay! And look! I made a friend. Meet Maximus. You could say Flynn introduced us. And where one goes, the other follows. This is Sora, Goofy, and Donald. They've been helping me."

"Come on, the Kingdom's not far."

As they walked, Rapunzel admitted what frightened her about the night ahead.

"I've been looking out a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what it might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be? And what if it is? What do I do then?"

"Well, that's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream."

Something to Take Care Of

The Kingdom was already alive with its own festival when they arrived, and Rapunzel noticed a mural of a princess the kingdom had lost long ago before anyone had told her a word about it. In the town square, she pulled everyone into a dance.

"C'mon, everyone! Come dance with us!"

As the lanterns began rising into the night sky around them, she gave Flynn back the satchel she had held onto since the tower.

"I have something for you, too. I should've given it to you before, but I was just scared. And the thing is, I'm not scared anymore. You know what I mean?"

"I'm starting to."

He left her watching the lanterns alone.

"I'm sorry. Everything is fine. There's, just something I have to take care of. I'll be right back."

A New Seven Hearts

Marluxia found Rapunzel alone once Flynn had gone. "Oh dear. He's run off with the crown and forgotten you."

"Forget Flynn Rider. You know where you belong, and it's not with him. Now."

"No. He wouldn't. Who are you?"

Gothel arrived before he could answer her, pulling Rapunzel away while Nobodies broke out across the festival.

"Rapunzel! My precious girl. Are you all right? Are you hurt? I was so worried about you, dear. So I followed you. And I saw them attack you, and, Oh my. Let's go. Let's go, before they come to."

"M-Mother, how did you."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy, fighting through the same Nobodies, saw Gothel take her and tried to follow, only for Marluxia to block their path.

"Show some decorum. The girl has found her dear mother. You should let them be."

"Because Rapunzel is far too important. Atop her tower, she must remain out of sight, and live out her days with Mother Gothel."

"That is exactly what it's like. Rapunzel's hair holds the powerful magic of healing. And yes, Mother Gothel wants it for herself. As do others. And, if Mother Gothel's actions will protect Rapunzel, preserve her, then she is doing the Organization a favor."

He went on before Sora could press him further. "Let's say she's keeping Rapunzel on the shelf for us. An extra pawn in case you fail to find the remaining guardians of light, and we have occasion to call on other hearts of light instead. A New Seven Hearts to fill out the ranks."

"Yes. Seven who inherited the princesses' light after their role was fulfilled."

He put Sora to sleep before the argument could go any further. "Hmph. I just knew you would go and make a scene. Very well, then it's lights out for you. You always were such a sound sleeper."

Some distance away, still hunting the black box, Pete was losing what little faith he had left in it.

"Another world where we got doodly-squat. You sure this box thingy's even real?"

"Yes."

He wanted to know how she could be so sure.

"It is etched."

With nothing found here either, she was ready to move on.

"Come with me."

Pete wondered whether they ought to tail Sora's group instead, since the Organization seemed just as interested in whatever they were after. "Who said anything about following them?"

Aren't I?

Back at the tower, Rapunzel worked through what she had just seen and what it meant, and Gothel grew impatient with her own silence.

"Please speak up, Rapunzel. You know how I hate the mumbling."

"I am the lost princess. Aren't I? Did I mumble, Mother? Or should I even call you that?"

"Oh, Rapunzel. Do you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?"

Rapunzel understood everything now, not just what she was but who had taken her.

"It was you! It was all you! I've spent my entire life hiding from people who would use me for my power. When I should have been hiding from you!"

"Everything I did was to protect you."

She would not be talked back into believing that.

"No! You were wrong about the world. And you were wrong about me. And I will never let you use my hair again!"

Gothel dropped any pretense of gentleness.

"You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I'm the bad guy."

"Rapunzel, really! Enough already! Stop fighting me!"

Once she had the upper hand again, she played her last card.

"Where will you go? He won't be there for you."

Rapunzel had no way to answer that.

"That criminal's to be hanged for his crimes. Now, now, it's all right. Listen to me. All of this is as it should be."

Just Let Me Heal Him

Flynn found Sora still unconscious where Marluxia had left him.

"Whoa, Max! Whoa, boy. Is Sora okay?"

He had Maximus try the obvious solution.

"Hmm. Unresponsive sidekick. Wait a minute. I know how to fix this! Max, give him a wash!"

It worked.

"Well, that did the trick. Nice work, Max!"

With Sora awake again, Flynn told him and the others where Rapunzel had been taken. "That's right. In her mother's tower. This calls for a rescue. Are you with me?"

He was caught before he ever reached her, and chained for it.

"In case you get any ideas about following us."

Only the next day did he manage to break free and ride Maximus back to the tower himself.

"Rapunzel! I thought I'd never see you again."

Gothel stabbed him as he reached her, and Rapunzel begged to be allowed to heal him in exchange for giving up everything else.

"No! I won't stop! For every minute of the rest of my life, I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you! But, if you let me save him, I will go with you. I'll never run. I'll never try to escape. Just let me heal him, and you and I will be together, forever, just like you want. Everything will be the way it was. I promise. Just like you want. Just, let me heal him."

Flynn would not let her trade herself for him.

"No! No, Rapunzel."

"No. Rapunzel. No! I can't let you do this."

He warned her what returning to Gothel would actually cost her.

"But if you do this, but if you do this, then you will die."

"And I can't let you die."

He stopped her the only way he could.

"Rapunzel, wait."

He cut her hair with a shard of broken glass rather than let her heal him, and Gothel aged to death before their eyes.

"No! Oh no. No. What have you done? What have you done?!"

Marluxia turned what was left of her into a Heartless before it could settle. "Fallen to darkness. We can't allow her near our pure light now. Her presence would only cast a pall over it."

Sora and the others fought the Grim Guardianess until it fell.

My New Dream

With no magic left in her cut hair, Rapunzel tried anyway.

"Don't go. Stay with me, Eugene. Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine."

He spoke what he believed were his own last words to her.

"Rapunzel. Hey. Rapunzel. Rapunzel. You were my new dream."

Her tears, carrying the last of her hair's own power, brought him back.

"Rapunzel. Did I ever tell you, I've got a thing for brunettes?"

Rapunzel could hardly believe any of it herself.

"I know! I mean, I can't believe it! I can finally be with my real family! I couldn't have done it without your help."

Eugene thanked Sora and the others in turn. "Well, from where I'm standing, the Kingdom couldn't ask for a better princess. And I couldn't have asked for better sidekicks! Thanks."

"True. But nevertheless, I won't let her out of my sight."

He finally told them the name he had been going by for years was not his own. "Oh! That's my real name. Eugene Fitzherbert. That's right. I never told you guys."

"Hey! I thought I was the only one you were gonna tell."

He was not done teasing her back.

"Don't worry. I've saved plenty of Fitzherbert-y secrets just for you."

"This one is none of your business."

Sora sent Maximus and Rapunzel's own chameleon after him one last time before they parted ways. "You have got to be kidding me!"

That Googly Bear Eye

Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrived outside Monsters, Incorporated already unsettled by each other's own new monster shapes, and more confused still by a sign reading that the company scared because it cared.

Inside, one of the monsters noticed them first.

"Hmm? I wonder who those guys are."

His own companion panicked at the sight of the child beside them.

"What?! Careful, Sulley. If they see the K-I-D."

Sulley was unmoved.

"But you're the CEO! You set the example."

Sora assumed the child was in danger until he saw how happy she looked, which only left Mike more rattled. "Guys! Guys, it's not what it looks like. Okay, listen. That kid over there just popped out of nowhere! We gotta call the CDA. Uh, it's a, uh, Oh yeah, a Code 835!"

Sora pressed him on whether they meant the child harm. "Yes! I mean, no no no! We're done with scare power. Nobody's gettin' scared."

Once Sora greeted the girl without any fear of her, Mike could hardly believe it.

"Hold on! You guys really aren't afraid of humans?"

The girl mistook Donald for someone she already knew. "Well, you can see the resemblance. That googly bear eye."

Mike corrected her himself.

"Come on, Boo! I'm Mike Wazowski."

Sulley started his own introduction, only for Mike to talk over him.

"Well, my name's Sulley. And this is."

The introductions ended there, as something new appeared in the room.

"Those guys are right, Sulley. This has got 'bad news' written all over it."

Sulley moved Boo out of the way at once.

"Stay here. Kitty will be back."

"I'm on it."

Between them and Sora's own group, the creatures, unlike anything Sora had faced before, did not last long. "Heh, still runnin' circles around you, butterball."

"Nice, Sulley. Even with those extra pounds you put on."

Boo had not enjoyed the encounter.

"They sure gave Boo a scare."

"So, any ideas who those guys were?"

A Couple of Exterminators

Donald accused the two of them of causing the attack themselves. "Hey, I told you we're through using that! Besides, we have no idea who or what you're talking about."

Sora explained that they had come from far away to deal with creatures like these. "Just how far away?"

"Hmm. Okay, okay, let's just say we buy all that. Are those creeps dangerous?"

Sulley decided the newcomers could be trusted with the truth.

"You're right, Mikey. Let's get our girl home."

"So, Monsters, Incorporated used to rely on scream power from human kids for energy, but now we collect their laughter instead. It turns out laughter's ten times more powerful. And we'd never have figured it out without Boo."

Mike was more concerned with getting her home safely than with the company's own history.

"Sulley, I know you've missed her, but it's time to postpone our playdate."

"It's kind of a long story, but Boo's from another world, and we gotta send her back there, to keep her safe."

Sora and the others offered to help. "Great! We could use a couple of exterminators around here!"

Sulley turned back to Boo before anything else.

"Boo? Hold on. Don't want you to get hurt."

He told them about the one other danger they knew of.

"The creep we banished for trying to collect screams by force. He used to be Boo's scarer."

"We have got to get Boo to safety first. Then, we can take care of Randall. Time to find a way out!"

A Walking Energy Generator

Mike led the way to the Laugh Floor, singing his own worry to himself the whole way there.

"Gotta send her home right now, or so help me. So help me! So help me!"

But the Unversed had already broken in, using the closet doors themselves to hunt for scream energy, and Boo's own door was swept up with the rest of them.

"Look! There's Boo's door! Go get Boo!"

They chased it through the Door Vault instead, riding whatever stray doors they could find.

"Ride's here! Grab onto the door when you're ready."

"Boo's door, here we come!"

Not every door was ready to open.

"It's offline! We'll have to power it up!"

"Sora, we gotta make Boo laugh to open the door!"

Sulley had already worked out a better way through the locks that stood between them and Heartless mixed in with the Unversed.

"Hang on! Think I've got a better idea. If we can just short it out, the lock will disengage. And, lucky for us, Boo is a walking energy generator."

"Ready? It's time to hitch another ride."

The Last Turn

What they thought was Boo's own door dropped them into the Factory's own basement instead.

"Wait! How'd we take a wrong turn?"

Someone was waiting for them there.

"Who cares? All that matters, is that it's the last turn that you losers are ever gonna take."

Mike recognized him at once, and had assumed he was gone for good.

"How did you even get back here? The door we sent you through is sawdust!"

Randall was gloating already.

"Yeah, and I almost got turned into somebody's wallet. Lucky for me, a real nice guy came along and fixed the door. So here I am. And starting today, I'm numero uno! Top of the leaderboard, baby."

Mike was not impressed.

"Ha! You, a top laugh collector? In your dreams, Randall. My laugh totals are off the charts."

Randall corrected him. "Who said anything about collecting laughs? I'm after negative emotions. And my new friends have kindly invaded the factory to get 'em for me."

"Laughter's just not sustainable. Once junior chorts his last chortle, you've gotta start over. But negative energy? Especially sadness? Give 'em something that really breaks their little hearts, and they'll stay sad forever. We'll never have to worry about energy again."

Once he was gone, Mike knew better than to relax.

"That weasel means business! He'll never quit."

Randall's own parting shot proved him right.

"Just try and stop me. You'll see soon enough. I am gonna be a legend around this place. Now, consider your careers officially over. And that goes for the rest of you, too."

Not What I Had in Mind

The basement's own machines had been thrown into chaos.

"Hey! What's with the machines? They've gone totally bonkers! There's no way we can take Boo through here safely."

Randall's own voice carried over the noise.

"We're in control of this factory now. And I suggested a few improvements, some real doozies I just know you're gonna love. In fact, you're not getting out of here alive."

Mike spotted a way through.

"Okay! We know what to do. Gotta find. Bingo!"

"Yep, take it away!"

Sulley was not going through the painting booth alone.

"Nice try, Mikey. I'm not doin' this alone!"

Mike ended up painted along with him, and did not take it well.

"Wha? Wait! Hey! You, not me. C'mon. Sulley! Woah! No. Stop! Sul-ley! Not what I had in miiind!"

Boo wandered off toward the Heartless before either of them could stop her.

"Come back! You can't run off, kid!"

Once the paint had washed off him again, Mike was relieved.

"Woo! This is way better!"

Sulley tried a joke on Boo while they worked their way toward her.

"I don't think Boo's gonna get it, Mike"

"Yeah, it's 'cause his eye's so big. The joke is you can't lose a contact the size of a dinner plate."

With the Heartless dealt with, Mike pulled Boo back to safety.

"Sulley, let's get her outta here."

Show a Little Finesse

Reaching the Accessway, Mike recognized what they had found.

"Yup! This is the central control unit for the whole factory! Now whaddya say we get outta here?"

Randall was waiting for them there too.

"You boys aren't gonna leave without saying good-bye?"

Sora and Donald fought over the controls while trying to short the system out.

"Hey, hey! Show a little finesse!"

"Rats! Randall must've messed this up. Nothing works!"

"It's no use. We need a bigger burst of laughter."

Mike would not let Randall's own interference stop them.

"Give a rest, Randall. You're not gonna get away with this."

Randall was already threatening worse.

"Maybe you will. Or then again, maybe you won't. I have still got an ace up my sleeve. Now, I command you to destroy them!"

His own trump card refused to cooperate at first.

"Hey. Come on! Move. Move, you stupid, What a pile of junk!"

Mike could not resist rubbing it in.

"Didn't you learn your lesson with that pile-of-junk fiasco?"

"Oh, I learned a lot."

Mike was unconvinced by whatever Randall meant by it.

"Oh, please. It's just more junk."

Making Children Laugh

The junk pile Randall had been fighting with rose up animated against them, and Sulley called on Mike to meet it head on.

"Mike, time to reach down and let the scary out."

"Oh, I'm ready, Sulley. I'm ready!"

Randall set it loose on them himself.

"Finally. This is exactly what I need to take over the company. But first, I am getting rid of you. Attack!"

Once it fell, so did his own confidence.

"Whyyy?!"

Sulley finally told him what the company had become without him.

"There's no place for you here anymore, Randall. Now we're in the business of making children laugh."

"You think it's funny?"

Mike and Sulley sent him back through the same door he had come from.

"All right, and in ya go."

"Hilarious! The more that you whine, the funnier it gets."

Randall shouted one last threat before the door closed on him.

"You clowns are gonna be sorry when I find my way back and I finally take over this place!"

"So long! Smell ya later."

The Half of Me That Sleeps On

Before the group could return Boo's own door, a figure Sora recognized from a vision at La Cité des Cloches stepped out to meet them. "Gotta say, that strange facade had me fooled at first, brother."

Sora was already bracing for another riddle. "This is the part where you spout some mumbo jumbo and disappear, right?"

"We haven't ever met in the flesh. I am Vanitas."

Mike still thought this was about scare power.

"For the last time, we already stopped doing that!"

Vanitas corrected him. "This whole world was powered by scream. They converted the screams of human children into energy. And this very company was what made it all happen. It's as rich a source of negative emotion as we'll ever find."

"Yeah, and the whole time they were trashing our company in the process!"

Vanitas had his own use for the wreckage. "Did you? Then how do you explain all these canisters of surplus scream? This facility was everything I could hope for. And I was lucky enough to find a pawn whose heart was darkened by thoughts of revenge."

Sulley understood at once what that pawn had been.

"All Randall ever cared about was winning. And this guy took advantage of that weakness."

Vanitas explained what all of it had bought him. "My heart is made of just one thing. And the Unversed collected enough screams and sadness from those children to reconstruct it."

"But, even with all this negative emotion, my heart is still incomplete. I need something else. The half of me that sleeps on, inside of your heart."

He turned his own attention on Sora directly. "Ventus. What a strange place to slither off to, you insignificant speck."

"Oh, you wouldn't remember. When you were little, you formed a special bond, with a boy named Ventus who joined with your heart."

"Now, you will return Ventus to me."

Donald and Goofy moved to stop him.

"Stay out of this."

"Join your heart, with mine!"

Sulley caught him from behind before he could finish it.

"Made you look."

Mike had a door already waiting.

"Over here, Sulley!"

"Let me go!"

Sulley threw him through several doors in a row and shredded the last one behind him.

"Close it, quick!"

The Most Laughs

Boo's own door had finally settled back at the Laugh Floor.

"And finally, we found her door."

Sulley and Mike said their own goodbyes to her first.

"We'll catch up soon, kid."

Boo reached for Donald again on her way through. "No, that's Donald, Boo."

"Better. I'll see ya, kid."

With Boo home, Sulley turned to Sora and the others. "No, we should be thanking you. We never woulda managed to get Boo this far if you hadn't come along to help."

"Don't mention it. And actually, it was kinda nice havin' a little adventure for old times' sake."

Mike offered the same before they parted.

"The door's always open!"

"Happy exterminating!"

Mike could not let him have the last word.

"For the record, I still get the most laughs!"

All I Ever Do Is Hurt People

The sea itself was turning to ice by the time Sora, Donald, and Goofy noticed, and a woman was running across it in the distance.

"It's cold! Donald, gimme a coat!"

They caught up to her and she rounded on them at once.

"Why are you here? Where did you come from?"

"Are you visiting Arendelle? For the coronation?"

"Elsa. Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

She wanted them gone.

"You shouldn't be out here. Please go back to the village."

The group's own questions only pressed on her further.

"Please leave. I need to be alone. I don't want to hurt anyone."

Sora understood the feeling better than she knew. "Exactly! Although, Donald, you do lose your temper a lot, so, I can relate to wanting some alone time."

Her own temper broke before his did.

"Enough"

Ice burst from her hands, and the fear it left behind drew Heartless out of nowhere. Once the group fought them off, she was shaken by what she had done.

"I. I'm sorry I was so upset. Thank you for your help."

A Winterhorn lunged at Sora from behind, and she brought it down herself with a blast of her own ice. "Look out!"

Sora was impressed rather than afraid, which only unsettled her more. "Control it? No, all I ever do is hurt people."

She had never heard the word he used for the creatures before. "You said that word before. What are they?"

"They're after people's hearts?"

Not About to Put Up With Your Meddling

Frightened by her own strength, Elsa threw up a wall of ice between herself and the group and fled toward the North Mountain. Sora reached the wall only to find it would not give way, and a woman in an Organization coat spoke up behind him before he could try again.

"And how is it any of your business? Read the room, kiddo."

Sora did not recognize her at first. "Excuse me? Oh yeah, you forgot. The name's Larxene. This time, remember. And we'll take care of Elsa, so don't you worry."

The group turned back to the wall instead of answering her.

"Excuse me! I'm right here?"

She warned them off Elsa herself.

"No one's gonna hurt her. But we're not about to put up with your meddling. Stay here and behave yourselves."

She shattered the wall with a bolt of her own lightning, and the ice fell around them into the shape of a labyrinth instead.

"Ice is so not my style."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy had to find their own way out of it.

That Special Glimmer

The group found a dark portal through the labyrinth's own twists and turns, and it set them down near the Mountain Ridge. Climbing after Elsa, they caught up with her just as she raised a palace of ice out of the mountainside itself, singing as she built it, and stood speechless at what she had made. Sora moved to greet her, only for Larxene to step into his path first.

"Please don't tell me that you're spying on her now."

Sora pushed back, and Larxene answered with more than he expected.

"Ooh. Look at you get all sassy. Okay, I'll admit Elsa is a person of interest to us. Maybe she's one of the seven pure lights we need, the New Seven Hearts. Gotta make sure though. Fortunately, we're in the best position to tell. Can't pick out that 'special glimmer' unless you're standing in the shadows. And maybe, Elsa doesn't have it. I mean, just look how icy her palace is, made of magic she forced herself to keep hidden until now. What if it's dark magic?"

She turned the question over out loud, as though genuinely unsure of the answer herself.

"Actually, it's still too early to call. Depends on how she sees it. If she believes her magic is darkness, that's what it will become. Accepting her power, whatever it is, is the only way she can set her heart free. So what will Elsa accept? Light or darkness? I know I wanna know!"

Sora insisted Elsa would never turn to the darkness. Larxene was not interested in continuing the argument.

"It's her choice to make, not yours. You know, I'm starting to understand why she gave you the cold shoulder. You wanna help her? Then stop trying to be her hero! Let her figure things out her own way!"

She blasted the group down the mountain before either side could press further.

Nobody's Ever Come Along

Falling from the mountain, the group found themselves caught in an avalanche below the North Mountain, and rode Goofy's own shield down the slope like a sled.

"Good thing snow's so soft. We could do this a hundred times."

Three Frost Serpents ambushed them partway down, and once those were beaten a second avalanche buried the group entirely.

Coming to, Sora found himself face to face with a talking snowman. "Wow! Look at all the pretty colors. There's blue, and green, ooh, I love green! And look, black. Just like my buttons. Hmm?"

Sora was too dazed to answer him at first, and the snowman spoke to his own foot instead. "Silly spiky grass. Give me back my foot."

Sora asked how he even walked at all. "Um, well, I guess, my feet."

He denied knowing Sora and the others at all. "Nope! Never met 'em. Don't know anyone blue, green, or who's oddly spiky."

Once Sora and the others found his own head, he recognized him at once. "Hi, Sora!"

"I was starting to think nobody'd ever come along and find me."

It Was All My Fault

Climbing on toward a frozen pond, the group found Olaf already walking alongside three strangers.

"Hello. Olaf, are these your friends?"

"I'm Anna. And I know they're strangers, but, they seem pretty nice to me."

"I'm Kristoff, and this is Sven."

Both parties, it turned out, were looking for the same person.

"And to do that, we need to find my sister, Elsa."

"You know Elsa?"

"We're going to try and put an end to this crazy winter."

Sora told them Elsa might be in danger. "Trouble? Are you sure?"

Anna decided to trust him with it anyway.

"All right. I know we just met, but, Sora, was it? I get the feeling that you're someone to trust."

"I'm right there with ya."

Kristoff left the explaining to her.

"Ya know, I should go find some moss for Sven. He's looking a little hungry. C'mon, Sven."

Anna warned Sora what he was in for. "I just hope you like long stories."

"When we were little, my sister and I used to be really close. It was all my fault."

She sang for him the words she had once called out to Elsa herself.

"Please, I know you're in there. People are asking where you've been. They say, 'have courage' and I'm trying to. I'm right out here for you. Just let me in. We only have each other. It's just you and me. What are we gonna do? Do you want to build a snowman?"

Sora thought of Riku, who had once believed the same thing, that pushing someone away could be a way of protecting them.

"And I think, maybe that's why she looked so sad. It's just like when Riku disappeared. He thought he had to push me away, to protect me. Maybe Elsa's the same."

Anna's own resolve only hardened.

"I shouldn't have upset the way I did. Elsa ran away because she was frightened. I have to bring her home."

Fallen Apart Again

Kristoff took Olaf along with him as the group set out together.

"C'mon, Olaf. You're with me."

Olaf mixed up the reindeer's own name along the way.

"The reindeer is Sven."

Kristoff's own group had crashed into a knot of Heartless not long before, and Olaf had come apart in the collision.

"Hey, guys! I need some help!"

"It's not a stick. Well, it is a stick, but it, It's Olaf's arm. He's fallen apart again."

"The pieces can't be too far from here. Could you guys help us look for him?"

They found enough of him to put him back together, though not quite right the first time.

"Wait, why does everyone look all wobbly?"

He fell apart again almost at once.

"Huh? Wha, Oh no."

The second attempt left him taller than before.

"Anna, question. When did you get so small and tiny?"

"You're right! What a great view!"

Goofy pointed out that this was not right either, though Olaf did not mind. "Aw, but I like being tall."

Anna was not troubled by any of it.

"Oh, it's no big deal. He's a snowman. We'll just, put him back together."

Once every piece was found and set right, Olaf felt like himself again.

"Wow, I feel so much better."

Only his own nose was still missing, and Kristoff turned to Sven for it.

"Sven."

"Wait! Where's my cute new nose? The one Anna gave me!"

Kristoff answered for the reindeer himself.

"'Someone had to pick it up!' You're right, buddy. Thanks for finding it, and not actually eating it. 'Aw, you're welcome.'"

Olaf was delighted to have it back.

"My nose, it's back! Oh, I love having a nose!"

The Heartless found them again before they could celebrate for long.

"No. I've already fallen apart today."

We Should Team Up, Big Guy

The climb back to the ice palace brought them to Elsa herself, and she would not be swayed.

"This is my home now. I can't go back. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Arendelle is safer with me staying up here."

"Please, go away!"

While Sora stayed outside, Anna went in after her sister anyway, trying to end the eternal winter herself. Elsa, still certain she could not control her own powers, struck her with them by accident. Sora felt something go wrong inside the palace before he even saw it, and Elsa's own bodyguard threw Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf out before he could enter.

"Go away."

In his own distress he turned on the group itself, splitting Sora off from the others in the chaos. "Elsa."

Sora caught up to him and made his own case. "Hey, wait up! Are you, looking for Elsa, too? Whoa! Eeeasy! Do you wanna save her from the bad guy? We're on the same side. Hey. We should team up, big guy."

Marshmallow agreed to it.

"You, go."

"I, wait."

Olaf knew what it would take to save Anna now.

"An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart."

Completely Turning to Ice

Making their own way back up the mountain with Marshmallow now beside them, Sora and the others spotted a man carrying Elsa's own unconscious body and felt something dark and wrong coming off him. Together they gave chase.

Catching up with Kristoff and Sven along the way, Sora learned that Anna had been struck in the heart by Elsa's own magic, and that only an act of true love, which everyone assumed would have to come from the man now carrying Elsa away, could save her from freezing solid. Kristoff, mistaken for Anna's own love interest, corrected them only long enough to say he was her guide and nothing more, before a blizzard drove him and Sven back toward the kingdom in fear for Anna's own safety. Marshmallow sensed Elsa was in the same danger, and the group ran for the storm together.

They found Anna walking the frozen fjord on her own, just as she caught sight of the man raising his sword against Elsa in the distance. Anna threw herself between them, her own body turning fully to ice as the blade struck her instead, and the impact knocked the man out cold. Darkness poured out of his own heart and pulled Sora, Donald, and Goofy into it, where a massive Heartless rose to meet them with Marshmallow fighting at their side. When it fell, the force of its own end threw all four of them over the edge of the fjord.

Two in One World

Sora and the others woke on the frozen fjord to find Elsa mourning over her sister's own frozen body, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf standing in silence around them. Before anyone could react, the ice began to thaw on its own. Just as the group's own relief turned to joy, time itself stopped, and Larxene appeared to explain why.

"So, love has filled both their hearts with light. Two in one world. Definitely didn't see that coming."

She spelled out what it meant for them going forward. "Oh, I see, so you bumped into Marluxia. Then why am I explaining this again? I told you before: the New Seven Hearts. If you mess up and don't find your seven guardians of light, we're gonna need another group to fall back on."

Sora demanded she leave Anna and Elsa out of it. She turned the demand back on him instead. "Ohh, look at this tough guy. Such a big boy now. Well, maybe you should do your job, and find the other guardians of light."

Sora pointed out that the Organization itself was still short a member. "Oh no, we're set."

She left it at that, and time in Arendelle moved again.

With Anna and Elsa reunited, it became clear that Anna's own sacrifice had been the act of true love that saved her all along. Elsa discovered that love, not fear, was what let her master her own powers, and the eternal winter lifted from Arendelle at last. Sora could not help worrying what the sisters' own new place in the Organization's plans might cost them, until Donald and Goofy reminded him how much strength the two of them had already shown together.

"You kind of set off an eternal winter, everywhere. Well, it's okay. You can just unfreeze it. Sure you can. I know you can!"

Weigh Anchor, All Hands

Sora, Donald, and Goofy rafted off a waterfall for fun and fell through an abyss instead, landing in the middle of a desert. Trudging on, they spotted a great ship in the distance, and Jack Sparrow greeted Sora like an old friend.

"Hail, Sora!"

He had no time to explain himself before turning back to his own trouble.

"Belay that. Ship absconding! Help me catch the Pearl before she gets away!"

Once they had wrangled it back from the crabs that had carried it off, the ship brought them to shore, where a whole crew of Jack's own acquaintances was waiting: Will, Elizabeth, Gibbs, Tia Dalma, and a Barbossa Jack had clearly not expected to see alive again.

"I thought so. I expect you're able to account for your actions, then. There has been a perpetual and virulent lack of discipline aboard my ship, why?"

Gibbs told him plainly where they had all ended up.

"I know that. I know where I am. And don't think I don't. I'm in Davy Jones' Locker. Assuredly."

He greeted Barbossa next.

"Ah, Hector! It's been too long. Hasn't it?"

Then Tia Dalma.

"Tia Dalma, out and about, eh? You add an agreeable sense of the macabre to any delirium."

Will warned Sora that Jack still believed the three of them to be figments of his own imagination. "Heh. Complete with these three masqueraders."

Elizabeth told him they had come to rescue him.

"Have you now? That's very kind of you. But it would seem that as I possess a ship and you don't, you're the ones in need of rescuing. And I'm not sure as I'm in the mood."

Once they filled him in on everything happening beyond the Locker, he was not pleased.

"Leave you people alone for just a minute and look what happens. Everything's gone to pot!"

He was not eager to let them all back aboard either, given their own history.

"Why should I sail with any of you? Four of you have tried to annihilate me."

He relented anyway, Sora and his friends included. "Aye, so you are, mates. I never could have caught the Pearl without you. Sora, Donald, Goofy, you're hired. Now, as for the rest of you, Tia Dalma, you're in. Gibbs, you can come. Weigh anchor, all hands! Prepare to make sail!"

He put Sora at the helm himself, on one condition. "Now then, Mister Sora. The helm is yours, provided you pass muster. See that island there with the two peaks? Prove you can reach that, and the open sea is yours."

Good Business

While the Pearl worked its own way out of the Locker, Tia Dalma laid out for Sora what had brought them all here. Cutler Beckett was seizing control of the seas by holding Davy Jones's own heart hostage, forcing him to hunt pirates on his behalf. Jones had never forgiven Jack his own debt.

"Sparrow. Your debt to me is still to be satisfied. One hundred years in servitude aboard the Dutchman. As a start."

"That debt was paid, mate."

Beckett had once offered Jack a way out of it.

"Perhaps you'll consider an arrangement. One which requires nothing from you but information."

"Of course. It's just good business."

He wanted the Brethren Court delivered to him.

"Everything. Where are they meeting? What are their plans?"

Jack had named his own price for it.

"Regarding the Brethren Court, no doubt. In exchange for fair compensation, Square my debt with Jones, Guarantee my freedom."

Beckett had held him to it since.

"You made a deal with me, Jack, to deliver the pirates. And here they are. Don't be bashful. Step up. Claim your reward."

Jack was not eager to admit how much of it was true.

"Were I in a divulgatory mood, what then might I divulge?"

Not the Slightest

Two figures in Organization coats had their own reasons for being here. One of them could not stop wondering how Davy Jones lived without a heart.

"Oh, how does he do it? A creature absent a heart and yet somehow able to keep existing. Not even my finest replica can claim that achievement. The secret must be in that box. I have to know what mysteries it contains."

The other wanted him to leave it alone.

"I believe our orders were to find the box and seize it. No more. Put a leash on that runaway curiosity."

Vexen took it as a slight against his own standing. "Always so shortsighted. Why would the Organization seek me out just as soon as I was recompleted, if not to affirm my intellectual prowess and invest in my research? Every stride I make is a stride for all of us."

"Oh really? And what exactly are we striding towards?"

Vexen turned the question back on him. "Luxord, do I detect a hint of treachery in your words?"

Luxord denied any loyalty beyond his own. "What? Don't be absurd. But to be clear, I serve the Organization. I don't share your need to please Xemnas. He's good at wrapping you around his little finger, always has been."

"All I desire is the freedom to continue my research. Ansem the Wise refused to nurture my talents. So I cast my lot with Xemnas, with Xehanort, rather. Simple as that."

Luxord was not satisfied with that answer. "I see. And you don't care how he uses your research?"

"Not in the slightest. All that concerns me is that I complete the perfect human vessel."

Luxord had already noticed Sora's own group nearby.

"That's all well and good. But I know this world better than you. Kindly stay out of the way."

"Oh, of course. Considering those pests have shown up, I'd hardly get anything done."

Luxord had it handled already. "I already know what to do with the 'pests.' Then you can resume your stuffy studies."

"Ah, that's my boy. I'll be watching from the shadows, then."

Suppose You'll Have to Do

Jack was confident about the plan even before the Pearl broke back into the living world at sunrise.

"Never fear. All according to plan."

Moments later the Raging Vulture attacked, and Sora fell into the sea defeating it. Donald and Goofy woke him afterward to tell him their friends had left them and Jack stranded together on an island. Searching it, the three of them found a new ship, the Leviathan, hidden nearby.

"That eager to sail under Captain Jack Sparrow?"

He put the blame for their stranding on Sora himself. "Some pirate! Won't get anywhere without a ship. So, let's go get one."

He was not about to give up the ship once they had found it.

"Are you certain about that? Finders keepers."

"Aye, to which this ship holds no candle. But, take what you can, mate. Now then, my ship has a captain, but it does appear I'm in need of a crew. Suppose you'll have to do. Don't dawdle. Climb aboard!"

He talked Sora through raising the sails himself. "Now, Sora, I know you've made passage through straits far more dire than this. Just follow your heart's command."

Never Count Your Cards

A second ship crossed their own path before they had gone far.

"Not the merry company I'd hoped for."

Its own captain called across the water first.

"Parley!"

Jack would not let Sora move against him. "Sora. Stand down. It's the Code. Mustn't strike a pirate aboard ship, when said pirate offers to confabulate."

Sora asked whether he was back with the Organization. "Yes. Surprising, isn't it, that they'd do me the honor? Never count your cards until they've all been dealt."

"Come now, are you really so unsophisticated that you'd decline a gentlemanly conversation?"

Jack backed him up on the point.

"But, of course the Code is actually more guidelines than rules. Speak your piece."

Luxord explained himself. "Ah yes. And how could I love games and contests without honoring the rules? Because only by winning fairly does victory have any savor at all."

"I am looking for a box. A chest, perhaps. You know the one?"

Jack was cagey about it. "Yes. M-maybe. No! I know of a box. But said box is not a box you want to trifle with, mate. Trust me."

Luxord proposed a way to settle it. "Really? A wager, then."

"And of what nature would this wager be?"

"What say we have a little race to that charming port town which you hold so dear?"

He laid out the terms.

"Yes. Whoever reaches it first is the victor. And the stakes: you tell me all about that chest."

Jack hedged rather than answer him straight.

"Let's just say, there's a potential possibility he wants the chest containing Davy Jones' heart. But I haven't the foggiest notion why he'd covet the blighted thing."

"I will get you whatever it is you want."

"Then we have an accord. Now, let us begin!"

Jack called the crew to their own stations.

"All hands! Prepare to make sail! Drop canvas! With a will, lads!"

He was pleased once Sora understood what was at stake. "Precisely. No purchase, no pay. You might have the makings of a pirate after all."

Luxord goaded Sora directly rather than race fairly.

"I've always been far more interested in the long game. Now, let's see where it takes us. That is, if you stay apace."

"Ahh, you do know how to make good time. Yes, one must simply marvel at your celerity. But, such compulsive behavior is eventually going to bring you nothing but sorrow."

He did not intend to lose fairly either.

"The game isn't over until it's over. Fire!"

"They're closing in! Come about! Make ready to return fire!"

Once the Leviathan crossed the line first, Luxord conceded with grace. "Magnificent! I salute you all, gentlemen."

"Perish the thought. I know when I've been outdone."

Jack allowed him that much.

"You were outdone before you even started, mate. But I admire your concillatory way of conceding defeat."

Luxord asked what he owed as the loser. "Yes. Now, I believe I owe you your prize. But I neglected to ask what it is that you want. Perhaps you'll enlighten me?"

Jack answered without thinking.

"Aye, that's easy. I want the chest that's aboard the Dutchman."

Luxord had gotten exactly what he came for. "Actually, I outwitted him."

Jack realized his own mistake too late.

"Not good? Well, I didn't tell him which Dutchman."

The Surrogate Me

The Leviathan had taken enough cannon fire in the race that it needed repairs, and Jack decided where to make for.

"Nay. There's no point. That's ship's listing near to scuppers with that cannon fire. She'll be needing repairs. Best make berth at Port Royal."

Once they arrived, the fix called for an odd ingredient.

"Look for crabs. They'll set her right. Never mind the particulars, mate. The white crabs. Savvy?"

With enough of them gathered, Jack sent Sora off while he finished the job himself. "Aye, that's all of 'em. Now, to my final task. Be back in a trice."

The ship was seaworthy again by the time he returned, though he had one more question for Sora first. "There, mates. Fit to sail any sea. Now, Sora, one final inquiry: is there any particular reason you wanted this ship?"

Whatever Sora answered satisfied him. "Good answer. You are a pirate, Captain Sora."

Then he told them the truth.

"Ah, It's because this me has run his course, mate."

"Aye, the surrogate me that the goddess of the sea sent here to help you lot. Of course, any me is still me. I may be duplicatable, but I'm always incomparable. The sea, she smiles upon us, Sora, and let's leave it at that, shall we? For now, the real me has a crucial engagement, at Shipwreck Cove, where the Pirate Brethren will meet Beckett and his lot in battle to win back our freedom."

His own task done, he had nothing left to ask of Sora. "No, it's for pirates to resolve. But not you, Sora. You're as free as the winds now, and far you'll go."

The Wrong Box This Whole Time

By now Jones and Beckett had taken Jack hostage, and the pirates had freed Tia Dalma, the sea goddess herself in mortal form, in hope she could help. Sora urged his own friends to keep fighting as the Pearl and the Dutchman were drawn into a whirlpool, the Leviathan following close behind.

"I may still have a lot to learn about love, but I know what it means to share my heart with others. And it will take more than you to break a bond like that."

Luxord had followed them into it as well, more interested in the chest than in the storm. "So that's the Flying Dutchman."

"No one knows what's in the chest we're looking for. If it's a black box, then we are to collect it, simple as that."

He would not say more than that.

"Got me. Regrettably, the higher-ups haven't deigned to tell us. But they did say the box contains 'hope.' That's all you'll get from me."

Vexen had finally gotten his own answer, and it was not the one he wanted. "How disappointing. So this is all they meant when they said 'heart.' We've been chasing the wrong box this whole time."

Luxord decided the Pearl was in his own way. "Hmm, it's far too chaotic to find the box like this. Perhaps I'll remove that ship from the picture."

He summoned the Kraken against it and left to search elsewhere while it fought.

"Now, this should afford me time to look."

The Whelp Has Seen Far More

Freeing the Pearl from the Kraken, Sora, Donald, and Goofy boarded the Dutchman to help Jack, still Jones's own prisoner there.

"You escaped."

"Jack Sparrow. Are you lost? Prisoners don't belong on deck. Your station is in the brig!"

He set his own crew on all of them.

"Hardly. Just a few more maggots to join my crew!"

Jack was ready for him this time.

"Tables have turned, mate."

"The chest. Hand it over!"

Sora moved between them. "Stay out of this, boy!"

"What does a whelp like you know about the heart?"

Jack answered for him.

"The whelp has seen far more of the world than you know."

"You're a cruel man, Jack Sparrow."

Jack held the chest up between them.

"Heady tonic, holding life and death in the palm of one's hand. Cruel is a matter of perspective."

Luxord chose that moment to reappear. "So, you got what you want. Perhaps you're the better player among us. However, I must demand you give that to me."

"Pardon? You must be mistaken, mate. I'll not be giving you anything."

"Then I invoke the right of parle."

Jack cut him off before he could finish it.

"Uhp, no! No parley. Look around. We're a little busy. And besides, I've already got all that I want, mate."

A breath in Luxord's own face was enough to send him overboard. "Yup. Still works."

So Easily Severed

Will and Elizabeth joined the fight against Jones themselves.

"Harridan! You'll see no mercy from me."

Jack kept his own eye on the chest through all of it.

"Easy there, mate. You wouldn't want to damage the leverage, now would you?"

Jones turned on Will directly.

"Ha! What of it? Tell me, William Turner: do you fear death?"

"Is it?"

His own blade found Will before anyone could stop it. Will drove his own sword into Jones in return, to no effect at all.

"Mister. Did you forget? I'm a heartless wretch!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy pulled Jones's own attention away long enough for Jack to guide Will's hand to the chest instead, striking the heart kept inside it. Jones's own mockery of Will and Elizabeth was among his own last words.

"Ah, love. A dreadful bond. And yet, so easily severed."

He turned on the rest of them with what strength he had left.

"You will not forestall my judgment!"

It was not enough to save him.

"Care to surrender?"

With Jones gone, Jack made the hard call about Will himself.

"Part of the ship, part of the crew. The Dutchman must have a captain. Elizabeth, say good-bye."

Elizabeth would not simply accept it from him, and Jack backed down.

"As you command, your nibs."

Back aboard the Pearl, Jack noticed something off about Barbossa amid the Heartless still harrying the ship.

"Barbossa, have you allied with those fiends again?"

"But you did conspire with them."

Time for Hearts to Say What's True

Beckett had Elizabeth and the Brethren Court cornered with his own armada.

"Advise your Brethren. You can fight, and all of you will die. Or you can not fight, in which case only most of you will die."

He turned the same cold reasoning on Jack.

"It's nothing personal, Jack. It's just good business."

Moments later, the Dutchman resurfaced with Will himself in command of it.

"Never actually been one for tradition. In we go!"

Both ships fired together on Beckett's own Endeavour.

"It's just, good business."

It was the last thing he ever said. Gibbs explained afterward that Will had survived only by taking on Jones's own curse himself, ferrying souls to the afterlife in exchange for a single day ashore every ten years. Jack told Sora that was enough.

"Oh, there's always enough time for hearts to say what's true. Sora, you know better than anyone. It only takes a moment to connect with your mates. With your hearties."

Not My Real Body

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were still taking in the city's own skyline when Heartless attacked and sent a girl flying. Two more strangers flew in after her, one of them a machine that looked her over at once.

"Go Go's suit has shielded her from a major injury, but the blow she sustained to her head has caused a mild concussion. We should take caution and not move her until we can fully stabilize her head."

Together the two groups cleared the Heartless off the bridge and made their own way back to a garage belonging to the boy who had flown in with the machine. The team gathered there was still smarting from an earlier loss of its own.

"I don't get it. I mean, didn't they see how awesome we were?! Sure, those things landed a couple of good hits, but we had chem-balls, and laser hands, and fire-breathing!"

"Not cool."

"Yeah, who needs quality reporting when you can just make stuff up?"

The news had not been kind to them.

"People like spectacle, not truth."

"Well, it really didn't matter. They beat us."

Wasabi thought their own visitors might have better luck.

"Well, why don't we ask the guys, who actually stopped 'em?"

The machine introduced itself first.

"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

One of the others followed, in a costume that plainly was not his own skin.

"I'm Fred. Don't be alarmed. This is not my real body."

Sora, for a moment, was struck by how much it resembled a world he had already visited, and started to say so before Donald and Goofy cut him off.

"How're ya doin'?"

Honey noticed the one introduction missing.

"Hiro, you never introduced us."

Go Go still wanted to know where the attackers had come from.

"Where'd they come from?"

When Sora introduced his own group as Keyblade Hero 3, Baymax took it as a medical concern. "I am detecting minute contractions in your faces and shoulders, perhaps due to the garage's brisk temperature. To remedy that, I will give each of you a hug and warm you with my internal heat source."

Fred was delighted once Sora explained what the Heartless actually were. "Ooh, now we're talking! Light versus darkness. Classic conflict!"

Go Go wanted the practical version instead.

"The monsters. Tell us how you managed to take them down."

Shugyo Time

Sora told the team his own group could handle the Heartless alone, but Go Go was not convinced that was the end of it. "Wait. So we're just gonna give up?"

"Very serious. We don't have any way to fight them."

Wasabi tried to settle Fred down before he got carried away.

"Would you calm down, Fred? This is serious."

Fred had an idea anyway.

"We train up! When heroes are brought low, they get new powers. It's shugyo time!"

"Now can we shugyo?"

"Shugyo, shugyo, shugyo!"

Go Go doubted where he had picked up the idea.

"Did you read that in Geek's Quarterly?"

Wasabi wanted something more concrete than enthusiasm.

"Great, buuut, don't we need a plan?"

Baymax had already run the numbers on their odds as things stood.

"With our current skillset, my analysis places our chances at 0.0000."

He had a way to improve them before anyone could dwell on it.

"I can shugyo by installing new combat data."

Hiro gave Sora an AR device to make it work, and Wasabi kept Fred from rushing him. "Not yet, Fred. He's still learning."

Go Go explained what the device would actually do.

"We'll put a tracer on your movements so we can, So we can shugyo."

"Sora, all you need to do is run through some courses that Hiro scripted. Like a minigame."

Change the Weapon, Change the Attack

Go Go led Sora through the Flash Tracer circuit herself. "Try to keep up, Sora!"

Watching him move, she noticed something worth studying.

"Interesting. Gravity, not binding."

Wasabi saw an idea of his own in it.

"Hey, wait. My laser hands, can be projectiles!"

Honey found her own inspiration watching Sora switch weapons mid-fight. "Ooh! Change the weapon, change the attack."

One of her own chemical compounds obscured the Heartless from Wasabi's own view partway through the fight.

"Hey! I can't aim if I can't see!"

"I've got an idea! Better?"

"Much better."

Go Go was already thinking ahead to what else the training might make possible.

"Yeah! Hiro, I think there's a way to."

Diametrically Opposed

The training paid off the moment the Heartless invaded the city in force.

"Just try and catch me."

A Metal Troll loomed over Wasabi, and he was not thrilled about it.

"Ugh! Can't we pick on one our own size?"

Fred noticed something new in how Sora fought it. "A freeze attack! Fire, and ice. Diametrically opposed, or so we thought!"

"Freeze! Whuh? Oh, I get it, It's a combo move!"

He tried his own version of it before the fight was through.

"Watch me scorch 'em with my freeze-nado! The only tornado made of ice and fire."

Go Go and Honey caught up in time to finish it together.

"It looks the right size to me."

"We're here!"

Once the Heartless were cleared, Fred could not stop grinning.

"Was that awesome, or was that totally awesome?!"

Baymax taught Sora something new of his own to mark the win. "Now, we fist bump. To display excitement. Hiro taught it to me. Bah-la-la-la-la-la-la."

Still Alive, in a Way

The whole group rested afterward over ice cream at the bridge. Honey Lemon had noticed enough of Donald's own magic by then to want a closer look at it.

"Your magic is amazing. Do you think I could study it sometime?"

Hiro told Sora about his own brother, Tadashi, who had died before any of this began. He said Tadashi was still alive, in a way, in how much he kept inspiring and shaping the people he had left behind.

Every Bad Baddie Needs a Cool Name

At night, cube-shaped Heartless swarmed the city. Hiro assumed at first they were his own Microbots turned against him.

"Great, they're back."

"Cheee-aaarge!"

"Oh, we got this."

Honey was already sizing them up.

"Time for a lesson."

They proved harder to pin down than expected.

"Guys, I'm really tired of just dodging this thing."

"Freddie getting frustrated!"

"Now he tells us. Let's just say it's a handful."

Fred thought Hiro should study them from the garage instead of fighting blind.

"Hiro, you analyze the Darkubes."

"Yeah, that's not cool."

Wasabi questioned the name before anything else.

"Wait, did you just say 'Darkubes'?"

"Yeah. They're dark, they're cubes. I call 'em like I see 'em. Every bad baddie needs a cool name."

Go Go convinced Hiro to trust the rest of them with the fight itself.

"Hiro. We are a team. And teams delegate. We need you at the garage. We trust you, so you trust us."

Back at his own workbench, Hiro confirmed the Darkubes were not his own creations at all, while the others held the line outside.

"So far, so good."

"Hiro, figure out a way for us to beat this thing!"

Gracias, Sora

Hiro sent Baymax out with Sora's own group to bring the others home. "All right, Hiro. Sora, Donald, Goofy, I will be your personal healthcare companion."

They found Go Go caught fast by the Darkubes first.

"Sora! I don't know how to stop this thing. I tried slowing it down with my discs."

"Thanks. I owe ya."

Honey was ready to make use of the danger rather than just escape it.

"We'll gather as much data from the Darkubes as we can."

"Hey, Sora? I think I'm stuck. See if you can find the residue from my chem-balls. If you hit it with fire or electricity, it might trigger a chain reaction!"

"Gracias, Sora! Next time I won't go so easy on them."

Wasabi had been dragged somewhere he did not care for at all.

"Sora! Am I glad to see you! I am not a big fan of heights. Hey, you think it dragged me up here 'cause it's scared of being attacked from above?"

"Finally! Thanks for the save, Sora. I'll see if anyone else needs help."

Fred was the last one still caught.

"I'm getting pulled in too many directions! Do you think you can free my arms and legs? Gotta find a weak point and loosen the Darkubes' grip!"

"Super juuump! Pure appreciation, my man. My citizens! They need me!"

With everyone free, more of the Darkubes closed in.

"Okay, there's a lot of them."

"I don't think we wanna find out."

Honey held them back from charging in blind.

"But without a strategy, we'd just be wasting our strength."

"I say we destroy this thing!"

Once the fight was finally over, Baymax had a diagnosis for all of them.

"You are all suffering from acute exhaustion. I recommend rest."

Any Me Is Still Me

Heading up toward a rooftop, the group spotted a man in a black coat already waiting there.

"The black coat. He's back?"

"Are you done messing around?"

Sora recognized him from a vision he had once had at La Cité des Cloches. The man held up Baymax's own combat chip, plainly not his to have.

"Funny. As if this stupid experiment wasn't already a hassle."

He tossed it to the Darkubes rather than hand it back.

"Not quite ready. More then!"

"He definitely has the vibe."

"And now, enter the supervillain."

Hiro managed to grab the chip back in the chaos, only for the man to take it from him again just as easily. "Oh, this isn't for you. At least not until we're done."

He turned his own attention on Sora. "Looks are deceiving, but the heart? You know that it's me."

He claimed to be Riku himself. "A reason? When did that ever matter? We've been trying to one-up each other since we were kids."

Honey was more interested in what he was actually doing here.

"And what did he mean about an experiment?"

"Fred. Not now."

"And what do they want?"

Goofy reminded Sora this man belonged to the Organization.

"Smarter than you look."

Wasabi still wanted to know how he had gotten hold of the chip at all.

"Okay, but how'd he get Hiro's chip?"

He answered that too, unprompted.

"Unlike a certain wizard you know, I had to play by the rules to travel through time. Which meant leaving my body behind."

"Xehanort's heart left his body in order to voyage back through time. He needed to tell his younger self of the great plans he had in store. There in the past, his heart stayed, and waited out the years until you and I came along. Xehanort's heart possessed me and became Ansem, the first adversary you faced. The rest of him, the piece he left behind, took the name Xemnas and created the first Organization. It was all a part of a larger plan to bring Xehanort into contact with the right hearts, enough of them to form the real Organization XIII. They could come from anywhere, any when, just as long as he had the right vessels at hand to place their hearts in."

"That's right. The Replica Program was a success. We are as real as people."

Sora asked what any of it had to do with San Fransokyo. "To see if we can recreate a heart from data."

"Sorry, did we steal your idea? That walking balloon over there has a 'heart.' At least that's the nonsense I'm supposed to believe."

Hiro demanded the chip back outright, and the man made him a promise instead. "Oh, well, I'm sorry about that. But I promise I'll put it right back where I found it."

"I think I'll be getting back to work now."

He left them for the night, but not before crossing paths with two other figures skulking through the same rooftops.

"Why are you snooping around?"

"That would be none of your concern."

Maleficent's own interest in the world did not sit well with him. "Overstep, and darkness will consume you again."

"What an interesting thing to say. I shall do anything I please. As should you."

"Oh, I intend to."

He left them to it. Pete had questions of his own once he was gone.

"Who's he? Friend of yours?"

"Yes. Though I could not tell you from 'when.'"

Doesn't Look as Bad as the Last One

Once the fighting had died down for the night, Fred would not let anyone sulk over it.

"C'mon, guys. What's with all the long faces? Did you forget that we WON?!"

The next day, everyone found Dark Riku waiting for them again, Baymax's own chip still in his hand. Hiro demanded to know what he meant to do with it, and got a question back instead of an answer.

"Which adds up to what? Show me."

He explained himself before anyone could stop him.

"Almost there. This pile of junk collected the data we needed. The terror of being attacked without warning. The despair of having no place to run. The longing for vengeance."

"You're right. That's why I made sure our creation fought you. Now the data contains a complete heart."

He wanted the same thing done again, in front of them this time. "What was it you said? I only have to see it for it to become real? So, let's see it. First, we need a vessel."

The corrupted Baymax standing beside him did not stir.

"Don't bother. This puppet has lost his heart. He won't wake up."

"Yes. I did promise I'd put this back where I found it. But there's one piece missing. Sora, you're the one who's going to complete this heart. You can't have a heart without sadness, without loss. You see, you're going to destroy Hiro's friend right in front of him."

Fred was not about to let that happen.

"Freddie want to destroy!"

"Doesn't look as bad as the last one."

Go Go was ready for whatever it had learned since the night before.

"Hope it's learned some new tricks."

Baymax himself was ready too.

"I am ready, Sora."

"Yeah, now it's gotta face all of us."

Support from Friends and Loved Ones

Once the corrupted Baymax fell, Wasabi was not sure it was really over.

"So, did we stop him?"

Hiro considered destroying the infected chip outright, and Go Go pushed back on it.

"Maybe we can find another way."

Hiro apologized for referring to him as the second model in the meantime, and Baymax did not take it as an insult at all.

"I am a robot. I cannot be offended."

Honey was not sure Hiro's own way forward was right either.

"But, are you sure?"

"Yeah, dude, You don't need to go that far."

In the end Hiro used his own resources to save the original Baymax rather than lose him, and Baymax had his own words for the loss they had all been carrying since Tadashi.

"Those who suffer a loss require support from friends and loved ones."

Baymax joined Big Hero 6 as its own seventh member from that day on.

The Key to Finding All Three

Back at the tower, the group worked out what little they knew of Aqua's own trail. "We know Master Aqua made it as far as the beach that Sora and I once visited, but that's where her trail ends."

Riku thought back to his own dive into the abyss during the Mark of Mastery exam. "No. Sora was dragged into the abyss during his exam. And I went in after him. So, I think if we find someone who was really close to Aqua, and they make the dive, they could reach her down there."

"So Aqua, she's gonna be the key to finding all three."

Sora wanted to go immediately, and Riku held him back. "Sorry. Master Yen Sid knows you a little too well. He said you'd try to stage a half-baked rescue."

"Sora, I know you're volunteering because you're worried, about me and Mickey. Well, thanks. But, the power of waking's important. You can come to the rescue once you've got that. Sound fair?"

A Keyblade

Sora did not wait for the power of waking. Once word reached him that Riku and Mickey were in trouble, he trusted his own heart to find a way there instead.

"May my heart be my guiding key. It'll show us the way."

It led him, Donald, and Goofy to the Destiny Islands, where a Keyblade waited for him that he had never held before.

"Why do you think that gate took us here? A Keyblade?"

He used it to turn the door to the Secret Place into a door to the Realm of Darkness itself, and made clear only he could go through it.

"Not you guys. The realm of darkness, it isn't safe for you."

Donald and Goofy wanted to come anyway.

"Come on, guys, think about it. Even the King and Riku struggled in the realm of darkness. Someone needs to stay out here, just in case. If something happens to the rest of us, you two need to carry on."

"Thanks, guys. But I'll be fine. I'll make sure Riku and the King are safe. Trust me."

Now You Can Share It

Riku and Mickey found Aqua again, corrupted still, and this time she caught Mickey in a Demon Tower and took his own Star Cluster for herself.

"This Keyblade."

She meant to leave him there in her own place.

"Mickey. You're too late."

"I'm sorry. It's all my fault."

She would not let him off that easily.

"You abandoned me, that's what. Left me in this shadow prison for more than a decade, knowing what it would do to me."

"I reached this shore after endless wandering. Waited forever for help to arrive. But no one ever came. I lost my Keyblade. Had no means of fighting my way back through the Heartless. You should have known I was stranded. Do you have any idea how lonely it is here? How frightening it is to have no one? All that's left in my heart is misery and despair, and now, you can share it!"

Riku would not take the darkness she was offering. "There's no need. Got my own."

It's You

Sora reached them through the Realm of Darkness with the Master's Defender in hand, freed Mickey from the Demon Tower, and turned to face Aqua himself.

"I. Had a little help. Watch over the King. I've got this."

She fought him with everything the darkness had given her, and it was not enough.

"So, this is the end."

"Sora."

For a moment she saw him and Riku as somebody else entirely. "Ven. Terra."

Then she knew them for who they really were.

"It's you."

Riku told her she was safe now. "You're in the realm of light."

Mickey had told him something about her he had not known before. "Mickey told me that you saved me in the realm of darkness. I should have gone to help you right away. But I was too inexperienced. I'm sorry. I know that I let you down."

Ven's Expecting Me

Sora and Riku brought her back to the Destiny Islands, and for a moment she could not believe what she was seeing.

"Mickey. Are these the Destiny Islands? When did they fall to darkness?"

"You're home."

Mickey was simply glad she was awake at all. "Thank goodness. You're awake!"

Sora offered her someplace to rest. "If you want, we can take you back to Master Yen Sid's tower to rest with Riku and the King?"

She had somewhere else in mind already.

"Thank you. But, Ven's expecting me. I promised to wake him. Said I'd be right back, but I'm not even close. I'm in for an earful."

Sora was not sure she was ready for that yet. "But. You haven't recovered yet."

One Last Thing to See Through

Riku found his own Replica waiting on the Destiny Islands, having followed them home from the Realm of Darkness without a word to anyone. "How long have you known that I was with you?"

He explained what had kept him going since the Heartless had broken his own body down there.

"I didn't make much of myself as a replica. I was a failure, and after you and Sora moved on, my body fell to ruin and the darkness took my broken mind. I was all ready to give up and let it happen, and then you showed up."

Riku asked whether he had come here to end it instead. "Maybe. I'd rather face my end with you than in darkness."

He was not ready for that yet either.

"Yeah. But I'm not done yet. Got one last thing to see through."

No Wonder No One Could Find Him

Restored to the Land of Departure, Castle Oblivion opened the Chamber of Waking to Aqua again, and she led Sora, Donald, and Goofy straight to where Ventus still slept.

"Ven. I'm sorry it took so long. Ven, wake up. Open your eyes, please! Why? Your heart never found its way home?"

A voice answered her instead of Ventus. "That was a neat trick. No wonder no one could find him."

Vanitas had followed them the whole way, and made no secret of why. "Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt your touching reunion, but surely you won't begrudge me a moment with my brother?"

He looked over Ventus's own still body without any hurry at all. "So, Venty-Wenty wants to keep sleeping. What am I ever going to do with you?"

Aqua put herself between them. "Why are you here?"

My Turn to Shine

Vanitas was not worried by her own challenge. "You better settle down there, 'Master.'"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy moved to help her, and Aqua would not have it.

"No. I'm ending this."

She threw up a barrier around the two of them before anyone could argue.

"Sorry, but you've seen me too weak, too often. Now it's my turn to shine."

Call to It

Aqua was winning inside her own barrier, until Vanitas gave up on her entirely and turned for Ventus instead, striking at the barrier itself to reach him. Aqua threw herself between them and took the blow meant for him, and Vanitas moved to finish her while she was weakened.

"I. Have to wake up."

Something in Sora answered him, the same heart that had slept inside his own since he was a child. "The power of waking."

"You never lost it. It sleeps, until someone needs it. Call to it."

Sora called to it, and Ventus's own heart found its own way home.

"Thank you for always keeping me safe, Sora."

Ventus broke the barrier from inside it and drove Vanitas back himself.

"Three guardians is more than I care to face. But now that my brother is awake, I'm just certain that he'll come to visit."

He vanished into a dark corridor before anyone could stop him.

You Were My Second Chance

Aqua found her own feet again in time to see him standing. "Good morning, Ven."

Ventus turned to Sora first, struck by something he had not expected to see.

"Huh?! You're. Sora?"

He understood it all at once.

"I get it. You were my second chance."

Only then did he answer Aqua's own greeting. "Good morning, Aqua."

Sora turned to check on her in turn. "Yes. I'm fine, Sora."

There's No Heart Your Smile Can't Reach

Merlin had brought Kairi and Lea somewhere time itself did not reach, so their own training could take as long as it needed to. Lea found Kairi writing one day.

"A letter? To Sora?"

She read it out to him rather than answer directly.

"I'm sorry I left without saying good-bye. Did Master Yen Sid tell you? I'm training to become a Keyblade wielder like you. That's right. No more waiting for you to come back from your adventures. I want to get out there and do my part to help. Merlin has used his magic to bring us to a place where time doesn't matter. We can take as long as we need to complete our training. He's an amazing wizard. Oh, and by 'us,' I mean me and Lea. He's really sorry for all the trouble he caused. I told him it's fine, but he won't stop apologizing. I'll admit I was a little scared of him at first, but I've gotten to know him better. All he ever wanted was to help his friend. Honestly, it's hard not to like him. Every now and then, I catch him staring at me. When I ask what's wrong, he says, 'I'm not sure. I think I'm forgetting something. Don't know what.' Sora, I think it may have something to do with you. Your journey is all about helping people: some that you've never met before, and some like Lea that you have. They're all counting on you. It won't be easy, but I hope you'll remain the happy and cheerful Sora I know. There's no heart your smile can't reach."

"Ask Merlin. He'll deliver it for you."

She had no plans to actually send it.

"Mmm, technically yes. But I won't send it. It's more for me."

"Yeah, but it's okay. I just like talking to Sora, even if it's on paper."

Trying to Remember

Lea brought her something to mark the occasion. "Yeah, I asked Merlin to pick these up. Ya know, we did both summon Keyblades. Gotta celebrate."

"Ice cream? Really?"

"You're sweet, Lea."

She caught him staring at her more than once after that.

"What? You're trying to remember what you forgot?"

He would not say what it was.

"Something in my eyes. I'm, gonna go. Sorry."

Stop Apologizing

Kairi challenged him to a proper match. "So tomorrow, you and me in the ring. You ready? Don't hold back, Lea. Promise?"

Something in the middle of it caught him off guard, a memory of Xion rising up without warning, and he was crying before he noticed it himself.

"Huh? Are you okay? Lea! You're crying. What's wrong?"

He had apologized to her so many times by now that she was done accepting it.

"'Kay, but stop apologizing."

He agreed, on his own terms.

"Fine, on one condition. Call me Axel from now on. Got it memorized?"

"Yeah. Okay, Axel."

Easy to Remember

Their own new clothes arrived along with everything else Merlin had gathered for them. Kairi showed hers off first. "Hey, Axel!"

"Hey. Liking the look. Cut your hair, too."

She expected the same from him.

"Mm-hmm. So, you gonna try yours on?"

"Uhh, I dunno. Maybe later."

"But you always wear the same thing."

He had his own reasons for keeping the black coat.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This is how you pick me out of a crowd. I make myself easy to remember."

Still Got Me Memorized

He finally told her what kept catching at him.

"I know. Way back when I was a kid, I met this other weird kid. Somehow we became fast friends. Never saw him again, nearly forgot about him, too. Then, I met Roxas. Couldn't believe it. The two of 'em were identical. Oh, I didn't tell Roxas. Didn't want him to go vanishing on me, too. The kid's name was Ventus. He's one of the lost Keyblade wielders we're looking for. Think he's still got me memorized?"

With their own training drawing to a close, he could not help worrying about what waited for them.

"Now that we're going back, I'm worried about everything."

Kairi had a promise of her own weighing on her. "Our training's almost finished. Somewhere inside me is Naminé. If we can free Roxas, we can free her too. Naminé was made when Sora freed me from his heart. So, now that she's a part of me again, I figured all was right. But she can't look at this forest, feel the wind on her face, none of it. And if she could, it would be different for her. Her time was short, but she lived it, and that makes it hers. What right did I have to take those feelings and experiences back? They don't belong to me. Nothing's as it should be. Not for her or Roxas."

Major Brain-Ache

Kairi and Lea's own training finally finished, and Merlin brought them to the tower, where Aqua and Ventus were already waiting with everyone else. Lea introduced himself to the two he had not met.

"Hey there. And that's 'future Keyblade Master.'"

Yen Sid welcomed the whole group together at last. "At last, we are all assembled. First: Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. And you, Aqua and Ventus: we are fortunate to have you back."

"Ah yes. Let us not forget our new Keyblade wielders. Lea, Kairi, you have made tremendous strides."

Lea took one look at Ventus and Roxas and could not make sense of it.

"This is all very touching, guys, but where do I fit in? Ven looks just like Roxas, or is it Roxas looks just like Ven?"

"And now I have to explain all of that to him, which is in itself a crazy long story, and apparently everyone already knows everyone, and this is an insane amount to get memorized!"

"See, see, see? Major brain-ache."

Incredible. It Is You

Aqua thanked everyone for the rescue before anything else. "Thanks. I only wish we could have returned to help sooner. We're grateful to all of you for rescuing us."

Mickey still felt the weight of what they had not managed. "I feel bad for letting you guys down. We tried, but we still haven't found Terra."

Aqua would not let him carry that alone. "Don't. He studied with Master Eraqus, just like us. He's our responsibility."

She turned to Riku next, answering a doubt he had not voiced aloud. "No, just the opposite."

Then to Sora, whom she had met once long before he could have remembered it. "I'm happy to see that you haven't changed one bit. Sora, you probably don't remember."

She recognized Kairi next, and could hardly believe it. "Kairi? Incredible! It is you."

Mickey put it together before anyone explained. "Oh, gosh! That little girl was Kairi?"

Aqua told them both what she remembered. "When you and I first met in Radiant Garden, the Unversed tried to attack a little girl. Do you remember?"

"I guess it must've worked, the spell that I cast on you."

Kairi had no memory of any of it, and Aqua did not expect her to.

"Please. You were really, very little. Anyone would forget, hazy memory or not."

She turned back to Sora about the one person still missing. "Leave it to Ven and I. We'll bring him home."

Then to Ventus himself, about everything still ahead of them. "I've been places, too. But pretty soon, things'll be back to normal."

You Don't Have to Worry Alone

Kairi told Lea he had nothing to fear before Ventus even answered him.

"Oh yeah. Very memorized."

Ventus proved her right. "Yeah, 'course! We're friends. I can't believe you became a Keyblade wielder just like me."

Only the new name threw him.

"Axel? Who's Axel?"

Kairi answered for Lea before he could.

"Well, you don't have to worry alone anymore, Axel."

He turned his own thoughts to Roxas instead. "And I'll figure Roxas out. Don't know how, but, I'll get him back."

"Well, Roxas. I shoulda been there for you by now, but here we are."

Kairi found her own way to Aqua at last.

"I'm sorry. Those days are hazy for me. But it sounds like I'd have been in trouble without you. So, thank you."

Her own promise to Naminé had not changed.

"Naminé is right here, safe with me. I know that we'll find a way to help her. Trust me, I'm not giving up."

Nine Guardians

Ventus had not forgotten what he owed Terra either. "Yeah, I made Terra a promise. I said I'd be there for him when he needs me."

Sora noticed Riku had drifted off on his own, and Kairi did not think it needed explaining further. "He said he needed time to himself. Let's let him be."

Yen Sid brought the whole gathering to a close. "It is a shame that all of our friends could not be here. But our seven guardians of light have united. Perhaps you might say that we have nine guardians, with Donald and Goofy. Given time, I know the others will soon stand with us. Today, you recuperate. On the morrow, you journey to the fated place."

Jiminy had prepared something of his own for all of them. "Not to worry, folks. To help us out, I've given each of you a Gummiphone. They've got summaries of everything that's happened so far. That way, you can read up, if you'd like. And if anyone has any questions, we can call each other."

Part of Some Big Adventure

Aqua and Ventus stayed outside together once the others had gone in to rest.

"The stars here are so beautiful. I noticed it when we arrived."

"We've gone without this for so long."

He tried to piece together what he remembered of the years he had slept through.

"I remember dreaming a lot. Of you and Terra. Of Sora and his friends too, I think. And there were some more people I didn't recognize. Oh, and I saw these weird animal creatures! It's like, I've been part of some big adventure."

The rest could wait for Terra to hear it too. "Let's share stories when Terra's back."

Our Toughest Yet

Before anything else, Sora and Kairi sat together on the Destiny Islands and shared a paopu fruit between them.

"Here. Tomorrow's fight will be our toughest yet. I want to be a part of your life no matter what. That's all."

"Kairi, I'll keep you safe."

He could not help thinking of who was missing from the gathering.

"Yeah. But, I do wish that Roxas, and Naminé, and Terra could be here with us too."

Some distance away, Riku sat with his own Replica beside him, a presence no one else on the beach could see.

I Will Hold Them Here

Yen Sid gathered the seven guardians one last time before they set out. "Go, my young champions. I will hold them all here for as long as I can."

The Ultimate Key

The Keyblade Graveyard was waiting for them, and so was Master Xehanort.

"Legend has it that darkness once covered the world. We know so little about the Keyblade War, only that it was just the beginning. If ruin brings about creation, what, then, would another Keyblade War bring? When the darkness falls, will we be found worthy of the precious light the legend speaks of?"

A younger version of him stood at his own side.

"And break you is what we shall do. It has been etched."

Master Xehanort made his own intentions plain.

"Today, we join these other wielders and leave our mark on fate. I have waited patiently, but together, we shall unlock the Keyblade War's secrets. Now we forge it. The ultimate key. The χ-blade!"

"Settle down, boy. The thirteen darknesses and seven lights have clashed nine times, yielding these nine keys. We are four short. But those four keys will be produced here and now."

Torn Heart from Body

Ventus was the first to see him. "Terra! Terra! We found you!"

A newly risen Terra-Xehanort stepped forward to meet them, and Aqua spoke next.

"Terra, please say you're in there."

"I know that you're not him. Now, let our friend go!"

Terra-Xehanort gave her no such comfort.

"Today is the day you all lose."

"We're not gonna lose to you."

Master Xehanort was unmoved by the defiance.

"You forget I plan for every eventuality."

Terra-Xehanort made the stakes plain before the fight even began.

"Before you even face the thirteen, every last one of you will be torn heart from body. But fear not. The χ-blade will still be forged."

The Keyblades of a legion long past rose around them.

"Keyblade wielders, from long ago."

"It's the light of the past."

"Form up! Now!"

Aqua meant to meet the legion herself. "I'll try and break through. Everyone, get ready!"

"Alone? That's crazy! I'll help!"

A greater darkness was rising behind the legion, and Aqua sent Ventus toward it instead.

"No, Ven! Them first. We'll hold off the others."

"We stand together. Mickey, Kairi, Goofy, watch the others."

He was as good as his own word. The guardians fell to him, and a swarm of Heartless rose into the shape of a tide that towered over all seven of them.

"It can't be. No."

Before any of them could recover, the Demon Tide closed over all seven of them where they lay.

Ancient Keyblade Legacy

The same night, elsewhere from the guardians' own gathering, the reconstituted Organization met on its own account. Luxord was in no mood for it. "What? So that we can rot away on the bottom rung?"

"I happen to play an important role. No one 'benched' me."

Demyx was not impressed by the claim. "Oh, please. You couldn't do it last time. You gotta play it smart, like me."

"One must hold one's cards as long as necessary."

Larxene found Marluxia among them.

"Nice way to greet your old partner in crime. So, why do you think the old geezer took us back? He must know we backstabbed the Organization when Xemnas was running it."

"So, why are you back?"

"Husks? Not me. You up for another coup?"

Marluxia set her straight on what they actually were to Xehanort.

"Xehanort doesn't care about you or me. To him, we're nothing but empty husks. The old Organization was the same. Xehanort needs thirteen vessels to hold his essence."

Larxene turned her attention to an easier target. "What?! You're not smart! Or capable, or likeable, or attractive. A cereal bowl would make a better vessel."

"Well, you heard what Marly said. I don't have to be smart."

Larxene was not finished with him. "Why haven't you gone to any worlds? Are you slacking?"

"Whoa now, you are way out of line. I am extremely imposing, when I want to be. Which is, admittedly, almost never."

"'Course not. I got benched."

Larxene had heard about the replicas. "Those windup toys?"

"Saïx brought Vexen on board. They must be planning to use replicas."

Demyx knew that part all too well. "Oh, no. The replicas are way more real than you remember. I mean, one stole my spot!"

"Of course it stole your spot. You're dumb as a brick."

"Har-dee-har."

Marluxia had more to say about the replicas than either of them knew. "Vexen's latest replicas are no mere puppets. The Riku replica we used in Castle Oblivion was just a prototype. The next replica, the one crafted from Sora's memories, was real enough to join our ranks. And Vexen claims the new ones will be human in every way. If he ever finishes them."

Larxene remembered something she probably shouldn't have said. "Oh. The thing is, I kinda told Sora and his nitwits that we're ready. My bad."

Xemnas arrived before Marluxia could answer.

"Ugh. Xemnas."

"Hey now! Pointing is rude."

Larxene ignored him entirely. "Why is this thing a member again?"

"Because our hearts are über powerful."

Luxord arrived on Xemnas's heels, wanting a straight answer.

"You'll just have to ask Xigbar that. Now then. Xemnas, what is this 'purpose'? You didn't invite us back for old times' sake."

"You were listening? So not cool."

Larxene had her own questions for Luxord.

"You're in too? What is this, Organization Rehash?"

"What 'important role'? That stupid box that Xigbar claims is real, but won't tell us a thing about?"

Xemnas answered none of them the way they expected. "Let them believe as much. If they think that we have all thirteen darknesses, then they will panic. And panic leads to a lack of preparation."

"The first six members of the original Organization were all apprentices to Ansem the Wise, and the seventh and eighth members joined thereafter. The thirteenth member was Roxas, a Keyblade wielder. So. What about you? How do you suppose I chose numbers nine through twelve?"

None of them had an answer for him.

"Wrong. You have been brought together for another purpose."

"You four are going to reveal your greatest secret: the ancient Keyblade legacy that slumbers within you."

No Benchwarming

Saïx had approved Vexen's own return before any of this. "Humanity is a precious gift. And yet you desire to return to the Organization?"

"He gave you a second lease on life."

Vexen understood exactly what was being asked of him. "The replicas."

"What excellent tidings. I would hate to think we invited you back into our ranks only for you to fail to deliver our final vessel, Vexen."

Vexen found Demyx alone, away from the others.

"Quiet, you dunce! I cannot let the chosen catch wind of this, understand?"

"But, dude, why would you pick me?"

Vexen took the question badly. "I got 'benched' too!"

"Oh, I see! It's because I got benched!"

Vexen gave him the real reason. "Forgiveness."

Demyx wanted no part of it. "Okay, man, look. Real talk? Backstabbing those guys would be stupid. If they find out, we are yesterday's toast. I mean, what's in it for me?"

"Men like us, in the pursuit of science, we sometimes make terrible mistakes. Lose sight of our mission to help people. But now I can help someone with my research. Now, I can atone."

Demyx tried a different excuse. "I'm not a scientist."

"C'mon, dude. I'm useless, I'm chicken, we're not friends. I can count the number of times you and I have hung out in one hand, less than one hand! I didn't even know you in the old life!"

Vexen told him whose idea it really was. "It's true. The whole thing was his idea. He wants to atone too. But, he is one of the chosen, so his hands are tied. Hence my actions on his behalf, hence my need for you to act on my behalf should all go awry. As you said, we are far from friends. No one would ever suspect you."

That was enough to change Demyx's mind. "Hmm. So I'm not doing any fighting? Ha! Yeah baby! Sign me up. Yes! Demyx time."

"Correct. And more importantly, no benchwarming."

You Are Roxas's Friends

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness had not given up on finding what he wanted from his own former master. "Master. I must have a word with you."

"Please. I have created enough victims."

"Do you recall those experiments of the heart you bade me cease? Among the test subjects was a girl. She had lost her memory, just as I had. But, you can reconstruct memories. You did with Sora. I believe you have seen the girl's memories."

Ansem the Wise gave him nothing. "I told you I did not take her. Her disappearance was why I put a stop to the research."

"Where did you put the girl?"

He would not be moved on the point.

"Roxas and Naminé. If there is any reason that I still draw breath, it is to atone for what I did to them."

"Very well. If you won't tell me here."

"If you do find the girl, what is it that you expect will happen?"

He was made to walk on toward Twilight Town, and stopped once along the way.

"What now?"

"Yes, you have. All the children sacrificed in the name of your research. So make things right."

He pressed on without waiting for an answer.

"And that makes you honorable? You used Roxas and Naminé and threw them away. I doubt there's a merciful bone in your body. You took the girl, and hid her. Now, show me the data you are hiding here."

"The child's memory holds a mystery to unravel, one concerning the battle we seek between light and darkness. You know something and that is why you stopped the experiments."

Ansem the Wise had heard enough.

"You are completely deluded, Xehanort."

"We shall soon see."

A boy stepped into their path outside the mansion.

"Who are you?"

"No one lives here. Begone. No, no, no! Not one more step. Get out!"

Ansem the Wise recognized the boy for who he was.

"You are Roxas's friends."

A pack of Nobodies rose against Ansem, Seeker of Darkness before he could do anything about Pence at all. "I serve the Organization. This is treason. I see what is happening. Have it your way then."

Ansem the Wise recognized who stood behind them.

"Even, is that you? So, those Nobodies were your doing."

Vexen sent word ahead and made ready to bring him further still, to Ienzo.

A Vessel

Ienzo had been trying to reach Mickey and Riku with what he knew.

"Yes. Even would know all about the replicas from his time as Vexen in the Organization. He was recompleted like the rest of us, but he didn't regain consciousness. After Lea left, he must have woken and taken his leave. Aeleus here and Dilan went out and turned the whole town upside down to try and find him. But no Even."

"Unfortunately, his work on the replicas was incomplete. There may still be documents around, but all of them from well before he made any significant progress."

The question of the dark corridors came up next.

"There's no place that he could go now that he's human. He has no means of leaving this world."

"Are beyond his faculties and mine now."

He called Sora next. "So, I have some news about Ansem's Code and the replica we need for Roxas's heart."

"First, the replica. Even is still missing, but we found some of his research. I'll see what I can learn from it."

He had more to share about Ansem the Wise's own writing.

"As for Ansem the Wise's data, we've discovered a very interesting passage. I'll read you exactly what he wrote. 'I have discovered three unique hearts inside of Sora's. One is Roxas. The second has been with Sora for nearly as long. And a third has resided in Sora's heart for even longer, most of his life, in fact. This is a truly astonishing discovery. While these hearts have now melded with Sora, grown silent and indistinct, Sora retains the memories of all three. The memories have been compartmentalized, each placed in its own box, so to speak. I surmise the hearts can be awoken, provided that each of them is returned to the box that contains the correct memories. Unite the heart with its memories, and provide it a suitable body within which it may flourish, and I believe any or all three of these people can be made real again.'"

Alone afterward, he weighed what was still missing.

"We've come a long way toward reconstructing Roxas's heart. But a vessel. Without that. Yeah, right. Bodies don't grow on trees, Ienzo. It's the backup plan or nothing now. But, the backup plan isn't a true solution."

A familiar voice interrupted him.

"Finally. 'Bout time. Ooh. Nice place. Hey, Zexion! Long time! How's humanity treatin' ya? I rejoined the Nobodies, but, like, I just can't shake the feeling I've been sweet-talked, y'know? We have sooo got to have a chat."

"Demyx? Is that you?!"

"Whoa, back up. What?"

Demyx got to the point. "Oh! Sorry, sorry. I'm gettin' ahead of myself. I'm actually here on a top secret mission. Apparently I'm so off everyone's radar, that I'm just the guy to handle a special delivery. Ta-daaah!"

Ansem the Wise stood behind him.

"Ah, well met, little Ienzo."

"Master Ansem!"

"I think what matters is that you recognize the mistake. Peace, Ienzo. It was I who was consumed by hatred, who failed you in my obligations as your mentor. Forgive me."

Ienzo could not let it go so easily. "They told me you'd gone mad. That you abandoned us. I was just a boy, but I should have known better. I am truly, deeply sorry."

Demyx had one more thing for him. "So uh, are we cool to get on with things here? Got ya a present from Vexen. One was all he could manage for the time being, but hey, he figured you guys would know what to do with it."

"A vessel!"

Hanging by a Thread

Sora opened his eyes on a featureless plane, and found he still had eyes to open. A creature was watching him. "Can't stay away, now, can you?"

"The name's Chirithy. And this is The Final World."

Sora asked where his friends were, and what this place was, and Chirithy answered both at once.

"There's nothing else beyond this. You've wandered here more than once before on your visits to the Station of Awakening, but I let that slide. The edges of sleep and death touch, and one can't help the occasional crossover."

Sora asked whether this was the place people went when they died. "Yes. The natural end for those whose hearts and bodies perish together. But some persist, and arrive here."

"Something is holding you here, refusing to let you go. You're hanging by a thread."

Sora asked after Donald and Goofy and the rest.

"I'm afraid that no one else arrived with you. And if they're not here, they're either gone forever, or they're clinging to the world you came from."

Sora said he'd find a way out. "Whoa, whoa! How exactly? You can't just wander out like your other visits."

"I told you. The other times you came here by your own choice. This time is very different. To become your old self again and return to the real world, you'll have to piece yourself back together in this world first."

Sora looked down at himself, whole as far as he could tell, and said so. "What? No, not literally, of course. You're conceptually in pieces. On the inside, who knows, but on the outside you're just fine."

Chirithy studied him a moment longer, and seemed to notice something odd about how solid he still was. "Oh boy. Usually, only a heart can reach The Final World. But since you've clearly managed to retain some kind of form, that can only mean your body was cast into this world as well."

"Okay, so, then if I can find my body, that means I'll be able to go back?"

"Precisely. But there's a lot of you to find. You're going to be busy."

Sora set out across the plane to gather himself back together, piece by scattered piece.

Naminé's Star

Among the scattered pieces of himself, Sora found a star that called his name. "Sora?"

He turned, and found he knew the voice before he saw its shape. "It's me, Naminé."

"I'm so glad that you managed to hold on to who you are."

Sora asked how she had come to be there. "I was in Kairi's heart, but then we were struck by a powerful darkness, and I woke up here."

Sora told her that a debt he owed her still hadn't been paid. "Naminé, I know that I'm supposed to thank you. The datascape doesn't count. I need to say the words myself. But, not like this. You and Roxas can't tell me you're okay with this. I know how much you're hurting. I, felt that pain through Roxas."

Sora asked about Kairi.

"I can feel her heart. She's fighting with all her strength to keep you from fading away."

Sora put together why he still had a body to gather, at least in part. "It's because she's holding you together. Go to her."

Naminé told him not to spend his worry on her.

"It's okay. Really. Kairi is where I came from. So, once she's safe again, Kairi is where I'll return."

Sora wouldn't let her carry that alone. "Wrong. What about me, Kairi, Donald, Goofy? The King! Roxas too, he misses you! And someone else special I know won't let you down."

"He's the one they all miss. It's, not me."

Sora made his answer plain. "Well, then I'm gonna go save Kairi so at least you'll be free of this place. Okay?"

"Sora. Thank you."

He turned to go, and she stopped him.

"Oh, wait!"

"While sifting through memories, I spoke to Terra, the Keyblade wielder you've been looking for. He has a strong will, and it keeps him tethered to the realm of light. I'll try tracing that connection. Maybe that'll be enough to tip the scales in the other direction."

Sora looked at her, uncertain what she meant by it. "Umm. Let's just say I've got your back?"

"That part of you, it reminds me of Kairi. Thanks, Naminé. Oh! That's not the official thank-you! Well, see ya!"

Naminé took the thanks however he meant to give it.

"Uh-huh."

"Be careful."

Sora went on to find the rest of himself.

Our Secret

Another star greeted him as he passed.

"Good day."

"You look like a person. How is it that you retain your appearance? Are you special?"

Sora admitted he wasn't sure of the answer himself. "Umm. I'm a little hazy on the details."

"No one's anymore. They took away my name, everything about me."

Sora refused to believe it went that far. "No way. They couldn't have taken away your heart."

"Only because it pines for another."

Sora asked who she was waiting for. "I cannot be certain. He's been changed beyond recognition, his heart replaced with another's. But, were he to regain his old self again, he would be distressed by my absence. So I choose to wait here, where he can find me."

"Good. You have to believe."

She pressed him on what he meant by it.

"Believe? Oh, you mean know in my heart he will return? Without any proof?"

"Exactly, believe. I thought it was all over for me, but a friend of mine looked me in the eye and said, 'You don't believe that.'"

Sora asked, carefully, what had been done to her. "So, uh, who did this to you? Heartless steal hearts, so, a Nobody?"

"A, somebody."

Sora offered what help he could. "Really? Hmm. Well, I wish I could help, but my situation's no better."

"You must see to the tasks before you first."

Sora thought of everything still ahead of him. "The tasks before me? There's so many."

"All the more reason for you to make an effort."

"Yeah. You're right. I just wish I knew what to do."

She told him what she saw in him.

"Here you are on the brink, and yet you hold on to who you are. You possess a strong sense of purpose. And in that purpose you will find direction."

Sora thanked her for it. "Thank you. I'm really glad we met. You cheer me up. I hope that friend of yours finds you soon."

"Oh, hey. If I see him, I'll tell him that you're here. What's his name?"

She told him, quietly, and asked him to keep it between them.

"Our secret."

Sora promised, and went on to gather the last of himself.

The Guiding Key

Whole again, Sora found Chirithy waiting for him.

"I see that you found them all."

"Then, isn't it time that you left?"

Sora looked at the small creature and thought of everyone else the Final World might be holding. "Hey, Chirithy. You still look like you, right? Would you like me to help you find your pieces?"

"What? I'm doing you a big favor here, you know. Don't push it."

Sora asked whether Chirithy was waiting for someone too.

"Oh, I don't work like that."

"Mmm, sort of?"

Chirithy caught itself, and shied away from saying more. "Uh, no no no no, that's okay. He doesn't remember the past. Besides, I'm sure that he's much happier with his new friends. But I'll wait. He'll arrive here one day."

"Okay. I'll be back to visit you. You and me are friends now."

Chirithy hadn't expected that. "What?!"

"Really? I've missed having friends."

Sora asked how he was supposed to save the friends waiting for him beyond the Final World. "Seriously? Are you a Keyblade wielder, or aren't you? Haven't you already learned how to restore someone's heart after it's been lost?"

"I'm not sure, but, give it a shot?"

Sora made up his mind. "No. This'll take all my heart. Okay."

"Look for the light in the darkness! May your heart be your guiding key."

Sora reached out with everything he had, and one by one he found them. Donald and Goofy came back first, then Riku, then Lea, then Aqua, then Ventus, and at last the King.

"But we're one short. Where's Kairi's heart?"

Before Jiminy could answer, Chip and Dale reached Sora over the Gummiphone with word that a new path to the Keyblade Graveyard had been found. Sora left the Final World, and found Kairi along the way.

Kid, Take It Away

The Demon Tide closed over the guardians, and Terra's own Lingering Will and Yen Sid together turned back the moment of their defeat. The fight began again, this time with the guardians still standing.

"Only when your hopes have been broken by battle upon battle can the key be claimed to Kingdom Hearts."

Xemnas himself had a warning of his own for them. "But first. Your light shines far too brightly. It must be extinguished in order for the truth to be seen."

Elsewhere, Xigbar was speaking with Ansem and Xemnas.

"Aren't you making it a little too obvious?"

"Fair enough. But let's not forget how many times Sora still managed to rain on our parade."

Ansem spoke of destroying Sora should he waver from the path they had laid for him.

"But in that case, we'll have to find ourselves another vessel."

Xigbar turned from that conversation to the guardians themselves, Dark Riku at his side.

"We gotta make sure you're not blundering your way toward a second failure."

"At least you admit it. Well, if you guardians think you brought the goods, you'll have to prove it to the old guy one last time. Kid, take it away."

Dark Riku turned on Sora and Riku both, and Xigbar joined the fight beside him.

"Hey, let's speed it up! Keep the line moving!"

Dark Riku fell at last, still insisting on who he was. "You're not real. I'm the real one."

Xigbar fought on alone, and it was not enough. "Figures. If I had a Keyblade, it'd be different."

"Like you're actually worthy to use one."

Xigbar took the jab badly. "Oh, I am worthy."

"The old coot promised to bequeath me his. Why else do you think I would ever put up with all his nonsense?"

"It'd be wasted on you."

Xigbar had no answer for it but scorn. "As if."

He opened a corridor of darkness and fell through it, and was gone.

A Wild Card

Larxene fell next, and would not hear a kind word about it. "Are you kidding?"

"I didn't ask you for your garbage opinion. I lost! To a bunch of losers like you! But, could be worse. Become that geezer's heart tank? No thanks."

"You're gonna be recompleted."

She had little more to say for herself.

"I was really just along for the ride."

"My secret."

Then she was gone.

Luxord met his own end with more composure. "Exactly what I needed."

He held Mickey hostage among a scattering of cards. "Sora, one final game. The rules are simple. All you have to do to win is find me among these cards and strike me down."

He pressed a card into Sora's own hand before the game began. "You were born for these sorts of games."

"A wild card. You've earned it. Hang on to it. Could turn the tables."

Sora found him among the cards and won. "Play ya again someday, when we're just guys."

"I should like that very much, Sora."

He faded away with the rest.

Marluxia fell last of the three, and something in it seemed to loosen a memory in him. "Oh. So, now it all comes back to me."

"Yes. My heart is remembering how to feel."

"And now, I am on the cusp of reclaiming my identity. My purpose for being. Thanks to you, Sora."

What I Am Is Darkness

Ventus faced Vanitas one last time.

"But I didn't ask for this. To be sifted apart, nice and neat. We should be free to choose. Not just light, not just darkness. We decide what we are."

Vanitas turned instead to Sora.

"I'm the piece of Ventus that was taken away. And you're the piece Ventus needed to be whole again. So, why shouldn't you and I look exactly the same? You define me, Sora, the same way that Ventus does. We are brothers who, together, make a greater whole."

"Then why won't you stand by our side? Instead of with darkness?"

"Because I am darkness. And I do stand by your side. I'm the shadow that you cast. How much closer could I be?"

Ventus pressed him further. "And what you are is darkness?"

"But, Ventus, I did decide who I am. You see?"

"How is that okay? Vanitas!"

He gave them no argument against it, only the plain fact of himself.

"What I am is darkness."

He faded away, accepting it to the last.

Our Bonds

Terra-Xehanort had cornered Ventus, Aqua, and Sora, and bound them in chains of his own making.

"You'll never be able to break these chains. They're our bonds. You have no power over me!"

Ventus called out to the man he still believed was there.

"Come back. Terra!"

"Terra, please."

Terra-Xehanort meant to finish them both.

"Farewell."

Sora reached for whatever of Terra's own heart still remained.

"You have to fight the darkness!"

A figure Terra-Xehanort had trusted turned against him instead.

"How?! You fell to the dark."

Terra fought for control of his own body. "Aqua. Ven."

"One day, I will set this right. One day, I will set this right. I will return to this land, and protect my friends!"

"Terra. Is it you?"

He won himself back, and ran to where Aqua and Ventus had fallen.

"Aqua! Ven!"

"Terra. I kept my promise."

Terra had never doubted it. "Yeah. You never stopped lighting my way back."

"I heard you too, Ven. You found me, just like you promised."

Terra held them both close. "Thank you."

Sora left him to it. "Aqua and Ventus need rest. Terra, look after them."

"Sora, go. We'll catch up with you."

Sora went on ahead, toward whatever remained of the Organization and, past that, toward Xehanort himself.

No One Axes Axel

Sora had already warned Ventus what Xehanort was hoping for.

"That's what he wants. For us to make a mistake. Put ourselves in danger."

Even so, the group split up, and Lea found himself facing a masked figure he did not know.

"Who. Are you."

Xemnas answered for her. "There was a time when I trusted you to deal with traitors. And now, your betrayal outstrips them all. What final words do you have for your superior?"

"Well, let me think about it. How about, 'You were never my superior.'"

Xemnas was not amused. "Ah, ever the rogue pawn. Knocked from the board early in the game. Utterly useless and forgotten."

"You kidding? Do you know how popular I am? I got loads of people rootin' for me. Sorry, boss. No one axes Axel. Got it memorized?"

Xemnas caught Lea's own Keyblade in one hand, as if it weighed nothing.

"Is this supposed to be a Keyblade? Or is it some sort of joke?"

He knocked Lea down. "Our plans have been dashed by you, far more times than I care to count. Now it ends. I will purge that light in you, with darkness!"

The masked girl spoke up before he could finish it.

"We need him alive. You know that."

Xemnas turned the reminder into an order instead. "We only need his heart in order to forge the key. We do not need his soul. Oh, but that's right. You were 'friends.' Then, you take his life."

A voice reached her through a connection she did not yet remember she had.

"Don't do this. Wait. It's all right! You can stop now! It's all right. Xion."

"Xion."

"Roxas."

She turned on Xemnas instead of Lea.

"Changing sides again?"

"Useless puppet."

He moved to finish Lea off himself. "Your Keyblade is no more. And still you think you can play at being a guardian of light? You can wait your turn, also-ran."

Roxas stepped between them. "Hands off my friends."

"My turn."

Xemnas stared at him as though he could not trust his own eyes. "It cannot be!"

"This is impossible. Where did you get a vessel?"

"Same as you."

Xemnas demanded to know what he meant by it. "Same how?"

"Most of the Organization's members, they traveled here from the past as hearts. And you had replicas ready and waiting. One for each of them."

Xemnas wanted a name. "Who told you?"

"I owe my return to many. Some of them people you knew."

The names came to Xemnas easily enough. "Ansem the Wise. Zexion."

"And others, too. It seems you're not as good at winning over people's hearts as you think."

"Ah, I see."

Roxas gave him the last of it. "There was one last thing I needed in order for me to be whole again. A connection. Sora helped me find my way back here, to my friends."

Got It Memorized

Lea left Roxas and Xion to finish it.

"Yeah. When it comes to Keyblades, you're the old hands."

Saïx was waiting for him alone.

"Shouldn't you say good-bye to your real home?"

"I'm not here to fight. Relax."

He noticed the ice cream Lea was still carrying. "You can't eat all this. Why did you buy three of them? One for Roxas, and two for good luck?"

"Got it memorized? Back when we were still friends, we used to sneak into the castle. And we made a friend there, a girl. We apprenticed to Ansem the Wise to rescue her."

"You gave up."

Saïx had his own account of why.

"Following Xehanort's Nobody was the only way to discover what happened to her. She was his lab rat."

"I'm afraid not. Nary a trace. I started to wonder if we'd imagined her. Maybe she never existed. And then, in time, I awakened to a new purpose. I realized I could be stronger."

He looked at Lea as though measuring what was left of him. "Face it. Roxas is just like our other friend. Gone forever. You need to accept that."

"The marks under your eyes. They're gone."

"Always told you they'd stop you from crying. The upside-down tears."

He turned to go.

"I expect no less."

See You, Isa

Lea would not let him simply leave. "Stop it! Isa!"

Saïx fell before him.

"Why, so sad?"

"I thought you outgrew the marks under your eyes. You look like you need them."

"At first. I sacrificed everything to try and track her down. You're the one who went off and made other friends. Left her and me both in the dust. It infuriated me how you just exited our lives. I lost all sense of purpose."

Lea would not let him make it only about that. "You let them reduce you to this?"

"Stop it. The whole act. I thought this was all for her."

"I didn't forget you."

Saïx had nothing left to hide behind.

"Yes. I know. You wouldn't do that. But, I was jealous."

"You admit it."

Saïx would give him nothing more than that.

"Well, if I make it back, you won't get it out of me a second time."

"See you, Isa."

"See you, Lea."

He faded away as himself.

Lea found Roxas and Xion waiting, and the ice cream long since forgotten.

"All right. What now? Guess I shoulda brought some ice cream."

The three of them went together to rejoin the rest of the guardians.

"Sorry we took so long. Had a couple of plot points that needed ironing out."

Bested, Yet Again

Master Xehanort watched the guardians regroup, unconcerned.

"Perhaps. That is, if you survive that long!"

With most of the Organization fallen, the guardians split three ways.

"Sora, I'll go after Xemnas, while you go find the others."

"I'm going after Ansem."

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness met them with one last claim on the legend. "Or will all of creation be instead returned to the shadows? Today, we will recreate the legend and see."

He fell before he could make good on it.

"What, a journey you and I have had."

He turned what was left of his own composure toward Riku alone. "Your strength is vaster than darkness. I knew I never stood a chance. Part of me wanted to defy my fate, but when the others betrayed us, I found I did not care. And then, nothing else seemed to matter anymore."

"You know, it's strange. I think I'm gonna miss you."

"What? It is time to move on, boy. There is more to seek. So go forth now, and seek it."

Elsewhere, Xemnas had already decided Kairi was worth taking.

"I don't need hearts! I will scatter them all to the winds! What difference does one little light make? You have others. Just as we have more darknesses to replenish our ranks."

"Sora!"

Sora, Riku, and Mickey caught up to him before he got far. Master Xehanort himself appeared for a moment, with some demand none of them would meet.

"Yeah, sure. And what makes you think there'd ever be any way we'd help you with that?"

Xehanort withdrew, and the fight against Xemnas continued without him. It ended the same way as all the others.

"Bested. Yet again."

"I know that you have a heart. What do you feel? Was it worth it?"

He answered with something none of them had heard from him before.

"I feel the emptiness where my companions once stood. I took them for granted. And now, I have nothing. My first surge of emotion in years, for as long as I can remember, and it's loneliness. Do you see? A heart is just pain."

"Pain is being human, Xemnas."

"Really? It must take incredible strength."

He faded away for good.

Darkness and Light's Final Clash

Only Xehanort himself remained. "Twelve keys we have now. Leaving just one more! Now, Sora. Darkness and light's final clash."

"If you do summon Kingdom Hearts, we will defeat you, and we will close it again."

Xehanort was unmoved by the warning. "You require motivation."

He struck Kairi down where she stood. "Kairi! Kairi!!! Why her?! Why?!"

"I have done it."

Mickey answered with everything he had. "You'll pay! Ultima!"

"Stopza!"

With the thirteenth key completed, Xehanort forged the χ-blade at last. "Now, the Keyblade War will finally reach its conclusion! The χ-blade is complete. Kingdom Hearts! I call upon your true form. Open now and show me the World to come."

A Portal He Did Not Summon

Kingdom Hearts itself opened above them.

"Yeah, but, he controls Kingdom Hearts now. And Kairi."

Sora would not let Donald and Goofy stand in Xehanort's own way alone.

"Wait. I'll do it. Kingdom Hearts is a much bigger threat. Let me handle Xehanort, while you guys keep it shut."

"Three half-pints together again."

Riku went after Xehanort himself.

"Xehanort!!!"

He had already worked out how to turn Xehanort's own power against him. "It's Xehanort. During the Mark of Mastery exam, we learned that he can transcend space and time. He's a portal. And we can use that to trap him."

"We've still got one hope."

"But, it won't be easy. Aqua, Riku, I'll need both your help if we're gonna push Xehanort out of this world."

Before they could act on the plan, a portal opened from Xehanort himself, one he had not summoned. "What?!"

United in Scala ad Caelum

The portal had not betrayed Xehanort. It had answered the guardians' own trap. "Of all the places to be sent. Behold, this town. Once a seat of power for all Keyblade wielders. It is the nexus from which all worlds spring. Here, I and my other selves can be one. United, in Scala ad Caelum."

He turned on Sora at once. "We are just getting started."

"You thought you could contain me here, knowing all that you do about connections? There is one sky, one destiny!"

He summoned the χ-blade and Kingdom Hearts both, and nearly finished Sora with them. "It ends here and now."

The other guardians had followed their own hearts through Kingdom Hearts before it closed, and arrived in time to see it.

"Kingdom Hearts is closing on the other side. But we managed to follow our hearts to you."

Terra was among them. "Master Xehanort."

"Let's move. The darkness is spreading."

An Old Friend

With the others now beside him, the tide turned, and Xehanort fell. "Why. How."

"It's over now! You lost!"

He was not finished yet.

"No, look. You are too late."

"It wasn't your decision to make."

He answered with the whole of what he believed.

"A purge. The World will be returned whence it started. The World began in darkness. And from that darkness came light. From the light came the people, and the people had hearts. Evil burgeoned in those hearts, begetting more darkness. And that darkness spread across the World like a plague. The light, the symbol of the World's hope, was devoured by shadow. Leaving nothing but ruin. An utter failure. But, the first light, the light of Kingdom Hearts, it can give us a new start. An empty World, pure and bright."

"If so, you're not that person, Xehanort. A real leader knows that destiny is beyond his control, and accepts that."

"Then whose was it? The World needs someone to stand up and lead. Someone strong, to stop the weak from polluting the World with their endless darkness. Someone to dictate their destiny."

He looked at Sora and saw something he had not expected to find there. "You, make me think of an old friend."

Ready, My Friend

Terra stepped forward and made himself known. "Master Xehanort."

Xehanort saw more in him than Terra alone.

"You sly fox."

Eraqus spoke through Terra's own voice. "There's more to light than meets the eye. As I told you. Now, hand over the χ-blade, Xehanort."

"It is too late."

"No. I can do this."

Eraqus would not let him finish it alone. "For us, perhaps, but not for them."

"Enough. Checkmate."

Xehanort yielded at last. "Very well done."

Dying, he was met by Eraqus's own spirit, no longer only a voice inside Terra.

"Terra, Aqua, Ven. Forgive your foolish teacher."

"Ven, I put you through such a harrowing experience. And Aqua, I left you with such a heavy burden. Terra, look after them for me. Please."

"Master!"

Eraqus turned from his own students to the man he had once called a friend.

"Here. Ready, my friend?"

"Yes."

They departed together, and Kingdom Hearts closed behind them.

"It's finally over."

Go It Alone

Riku offered the more cautious path first. "We'll find Kairi. Let's head back to Master Yen Sid. We can figure it out."

Sora would not wait that long. "No, I know what to do. My whole journey began the day I lost her. And every time I find her, she slips away again. I thought we'd finally be together. But she's out there, alone. Not for one more second."

Mickey warned him of the cost one more time. "Sora, listen. The power of waking isn't to go chase hearts around! Even if you do locate Kairi, you might never come home to us again."

Riku overruled him. "Let him go, Mickey. His heart and his mind are made up. Now, believe in him."

Sora said his own goodbyes. "Thank you, Donald, Goofy. But this time, I have to go it alone."

"I will. And we'll both be back before you know it."

"Yeah. Safe journey, Sora."

Safe Journey

Sora reached for the power of waking once more, and brought Kairi back.

Ventus was reunited with Chirithy. Roxas, Lea, and Xion were reunited with Isa. Naminé was restored into a body made from Dark Riku's own replica.

Everyone gathered at the Destiny Islands to rest on the beach. There, they watched Sora fade away beside Kairi, the price of the power he had spent once too often.

I Hope You Like Long Stories

Four of the five Foretellers found themselves summoned back without warning, and Aced said what the rest of them were thinking. "What happened? Why are we here? You tell me."

A hooded figure stood before them, Xehanort's own Keyblade newly reclaimed in hand. "Finally, back where it belongs."

"Did you summon us back?"

"Yep."

The hood came down.

"Is that you, Luxu? You look different."

"Haven't heard that name in a long while. These days they call me Xigbar, but hey, whatever suits you."

Invi was not so easily convinced. "Is it really you?"

"Yeah, but some time ago, I had to cast my old form away. Been through plenty more semblances since, but it's still me underneath it all."

Aced wanted more than that. "I've heard enough! Luxu, what was your role?"

"What role?"

"I had a role to play. And after all these years, it's done."

He looked among them and noticed who was missing.

"I guess Ava didn't make it after all."

"Meaning what?"

Xigbar answered plainly. "I told her, clear as day, what it is I had to do."

"And is that why you decided to exclude her?"

"As if. Ava had her own mission, and she carried it out."

He settled in to tell them the rest of it.

"I hope you like long stories."

Seven Against One

Pete had had enough of digging in worlds that gave nothing back.

"I've had it with this stupid treasure hunt. Every box we've found has been nothin' but a bust."

"I agree. Our search ends today."

That was not the relief he had been hoping for.

"What-a-huh-now?!"

"You cannot find the unfindable. The box does not exist."

"I knew they was takin' us for a ride."

She had not finished.

"Silence, imbecile. I mean the box does not exist now."

"Is that some kinda riddle? Just where we s'posed to be lookin'?"

"Light and darkness are fated to clash. A Keyblade War is upon us. We need only wait for that destined moment. No matter the victors, the box will be revealed."

That much, at least, was a promise.

"You will have it soon enough. Once I possess the box, our real work can begin."

Pete's own complaint, when it came, was not about the wait.

"That's it?! But when's my big moment?"

Maleficent and Pete watched the whole exchange from a distance, and said nothing. When it was over, they turned and left.

In a memory neither Xigbar nor the Foretellers could see, two boys sat down to a new game of Alba and Ater, seven dark pieces ranged against a single piece of white.