Sidequest: The City of Lights

by Mirror and Image

Complete - Set during Kingdom Hearts II, Sora and his friends arrive in a strange city called Paris.

Sidequest: The City of Lights
Mirror and Image

---

Hallow Bastion was a city under construction; it was a city of stonework, exposed pipes and electrical grids, metallic ramparts, in stark combination with cottages and pewter houses, Scrooge's oddly duck shaped bank, and the ruins of the old castle. The population of Hallow Bastion hadn't completely returned yet, leaving a slightly empty feeling to it. It was a contradiction of old and new, small and large, nostalgic and reborn. It was a sad city, trying to get itself back on its feet.

Agrabah was a city of a different flavor. It was a hot, breezy city with stout, rectangular buildings built to handle the desert heat. It, too, was a city of few people, more often than not because the locals were all hiding from the Heartless. Agrabah had the sense of a jewel in the desert, but not so proud of itself that it didn't realize it could vanish into the sands if the winds so wished.

Atlantica was an underwater city, but there had always been very little time to actually explore it, and locals were, to Sora's mind, non-existent to his knowledge. The Imperial City in the Land of Dragons was full of people, but they were all soldiers, encased in armor and trying to look important. Halloween Town had a flavor all its own, wrapped around the holiday of spooks and fright as it was, and more often than not was slightly dangerous to walk around in for fear of traps or acidic sewer grates or working guillotines.

Sora realized he hadn't actually been to many cities. He'd seen encampments, coliseums, forests, and even the inside of a whale, but cities were indeed a rare visit, and those he had been to he'd only ever caught brief glimpses of. So when he and Donald and Goofy had landed quietly in the back alley of this new city, he wasn't sure what to expect; but it certainly wasn't this.

The city was alive.

They turned the corner to what was apparently a main square of some kind, and Sora and his friends took a moment to just stare at the sheer number of people who were there. The square was packed with bodies, all in colorful, ornate, often ridiculous costumes, masks, etc. They were eating, drinking, singing something about being topsy-turvy, laughing, and celebrating.

"What do you think's going on?" Sora asked, marveling at the crowd even as a grin threatened to split his face.

"Gawrsh, it looks like some kinda feast," Goofy replied, examining a sticky bun of something that a man had cheerfully handed to him. The man handed pastries to Sora and Donald, too, and, after close inspection; Sora discovered it was some kind of cinnamon roll that had been dipped in honey. It was absolutely delicious, making him think of Pooh and hoping the poor bear would get all his memories back soon.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" a voice called out. Sora and the others looked up to see a thin man with spindly arms and legs on a wooden podium. His was the most fancy costume yet, yellows and purples and an odd pinkish mask hiding his pointed nose. He was waving his purple hat, an earring glinting in the noon sun. "This is your last chance to try to become the King of this Feast of Fools! We all remember last year's winner! Let's see if we can't find someone to outdo him! So! Make a face that hideous and frightening! Make a face as ugly as a gargoyle's wing! So you too can be crowned the King of Fools!!"

Everyone cheered, thrusting fists into the air.

Sora turned gleefully to his friends, who knew immediately what he was thinking.

"Come on, let's sign up," he said. "We can make really good faces!"

Goofy looked hesitant, but Donald was already jumping up and down. "Oh boy!" he squawked, before running off into the crowd. The Captain of the Guard just half smiled as Sora chased after him, before shrugging his shoulders and giving chase.

Sora wandered around, looking for a line or a particularly thick knot of people that would indicate that he could sign up to make faces, but none looked indicative of such an event. Frowning, he walked the entirety of the square. There were shops along the edges, but Sora could not read the language to know what they sold, he turned to Goofy for help. "Do you know what that sign says there?" he asked, pointing.

"A-hyuck, no, but everyone that leaves has bread, so I guess it's a bakery."

"Oh!" Sora dropped a fist into an open hand in understanding. "I get it. That's pretty smart, Goofy."

"A-hyuck, thanks, pal."

It was much easier to figure out where the important shops were after that. Sora found a particularly useful earring, but at seeing the price he knew Donald would blow one of many gaskets. Sighing, he kept walking before finally finding a Moogle in the corner of the square. They did some quick trading, and Sora was pleasantly surprised he had enough materials to synthesize a few items.

Satisfied, he began moving with the flow of the crowd as they gathered closer to the wood platforms. People were everywhere, scrunched together trying to get a better view. One man, however, was sitting in a chair shielded from the sun with a colored and very rich looking tent. He was dressed in black and wore a funny hat. Sora also spied in the sea of bodies several men in armor, one of which was a sunny gold color who looked enviously at the stage. Sora followed his gaze and saw a remarkably dressed woman with a thick tousle of raven colored hair dancing about. She was good, and Sora found himself smiling, too, though he suspected for entirely different reasons than the man in gold colored armor.

When she finished her dance, a line of men in masks lined up, and the spindly man worked the crowd before pulling off each mask, revealing a man making some kind of hideous face. Donald was hopping up and down, trying and failing to get a better look before Sora took pity and lifted the duck onto his shoulders. "Aw, we didn't enter in time," he lamented.

"That's okay," Sora replied, still smiling brightly as he watched a goat butt each contestant off the stage if the crowd didn't like the face.

It was only when they reached the last man on stage that the crowd all gasped in disgust of the face. Sora agreed it was ugly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you have asked for the ugliest face in all of Paris," the colorfully dressed man shouted, "and now, I, Clopin, can present it! I give you the bell ringer of Notre Dame!!"

Sora watched as a paper crown and well-worn red cloth were put on the winner, a carved scepter was handed to him, and the crowd was cheering madly. Sora saw that the winner was actually crying, so happy was he, and the wielder of the Keyblade felt gladness well up in his heart. He didn't know the circumstances, but he was truly and deeply happy that this winner was so happy.

Imagine his shock, then, when one of the guards threw a tomato, followed quickly by an egg.

"He's even uglier now!" someone shouted.

And that was how it started. More foodstuffs were thrown, rope appeared from somewhere, and the winner was quickly tied to a wheel, being spun around as the crowd continued laughing and jeering, throwing food and laughing some more. Even from where he was in the crowd, Sora could hear the winner crying out.

"Master! Master, please!"

But no one answered him.

"Come on," Sora said, even as he started pushing his way forward. "We've got to help him!"

Donald and Goofy adamantly agreed.

When they climbed onto the stage, the three fighters positioned themselves around the abused man, and Sora's instincts quickly took over as he eyed the fruit and cabbage and food that was arcing in the air. The Keyblade appeared in his hand with a flick of his wrist, and he swung at the first thing he saw, an apple, and hit it cleanly, the fruit arcing back the way it had come. Sora did everything he could to keep the mayhem down, to keep the King of Fool's despair from rising, knocking back food and scraps and other atrocities that the crowd was tossing.

Finally, the dancer from before appeared, a small knife in her hands. Deftly, she cut the ropes and helped the winner up. "It's okay, Quasimodo," she whispered, "It's okay."

"Gypsy! Unhand that creature this instant!"

Sora whipped around to see the man from the tented chair standing up, looking irate.

"Yes, your honor," the gypsy said, her voice hard, "just as soon as I free this poor boy."

"Captain, arrest that gypsy-girl!"

The man in sunny colored armor drew a sword and advanced.

The dancer grabbed Sora's elbow and whispered harshly in his ear. "Get Quasimodo out of here. I'll handle the guards."

"What? I can't just let you--" But the gypsy-girl had disappeared in a puff of smoke, like Yuffie, and reappeared twenty feet away, happily waving to the guards. "Oh, boys! Over here!" Sora wondered briefly if gypsy was the word used here for ninja.

"Sora," Donald squawked, "This way!" The Keyblade master turned to see the King of Fools, Quasimodo, disappearing into the doors of an incredibly ornate building, covered in statues and columns and a giant circular window of stained glass reflecting the clouds as they gathered around the square. The three travelers quickly followed suit.

After running into the building, Sora and his friends took a moment to marvel. The inside was even more stupendous than the outside! Stained glass, rows of ornate and sturdy benches, clusters of candles that glowed where the sunlight didn't fall, colored light of all kinds filled the cavernous building. A chorus was singing a Gregorian chant from somewhere, and Sora felt in his heart that this place was profoundly... spiritual.

"What is this place?" he asked in an awed whisper.

"Notre Dame Cathedral," a voice behind them offered. The three other worlders turned to see the captain in sunny armor. "I take it this is your first time in Paris?"

"Maybe," Sora offered with a slight flare of attitude. This was the man who was in charge of abusing that festival winner, Quasimodo, the man charged with capturing the dancer.

"Then let me offer you a bit of advice," the bearded man said. "Claim sanctuary."

Sora summoned his Keyblade, Donald and Goofy following suit. "Considering I'm not running away, I don't need any sanctuary."

And that was how the fight started. The Captain drew his sword slowly. "I don't want to hurt you," he said, but Sora would hear none of it as he charged the guard, jumping high and then jumping again, landing behind the enemy and landing a series of hits. He ended off with an explosion and started another combo; the momentum lifted them up into the air, and Sora kept at it even while Donald cast three lightning spells in a row, followed by a Blizzaga, and Goofy charged in while riding his shield.

When Sora and the Captain finally landed, he swung his sword and landed a surprisingly good hit on the Keyblade master, breaking his guard and giving the Captain an opportunity to get in a combo of his own. Thrown back, Sora took a moment to suck in a breath that he was dearly missing before recovering in the air. He dashed forward and pierced through the guard's guard with the Keyblade, giving Goofy a chance to launch into a tornado and for Donald to cast a Firega. Sora leapt into the air, starting another aerial combo, getting several particularly good hits in with his finisher.

"Well, I see you really can take care of yourself," the Captain of the Guard said. He held his ribs for a moment before straightening. "My name if Phoebus, and, believe it or not, I'm here to help you."

"Help us? With what, Feeble?" Sora demanded, not about to trust this guy completely. He did lower his Keyblade, however, as a sign of good faith.

"Look," Phoebus said, "you're obviously new here and you don't know what's going on. I'm one of the good guys in disguise, all right? I came in here to make sure you and the boy, Quasimodo, were alright."

Sora gauged the man, trying to see if he was telling the truth. Finally, he straightened as well.

"Excellent work, Captain Phoebus, you've caught the vermin."

The man in black from the tent appeared at the doors of the Cathedral, a smug look on his face as his beedy eyes raked over Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The former was gazing daggers at Phoebus, but the man gave them a meaningful look before turning to the man in black.

"I'm sorry, Judge Frollo, but the three have claimed the sanctuary of the church. There's nothing I can--"

Frollo's thin lips pursed into an even thinner line, and his eyes hardened. "Then drag them outside so that--"

"Frollo! I've had enough of this."

Yet another man came up, this one dressed in white robes. "Have you already forgotten the inviolability of claiming sanctuary? I would have thought you'd already learned that lesson several years ago."

Frollo paled, his pallor becoming sickly, before he composed himself. "Very well," he said with a nod that was not quite deferential. He turned to Sora and his friends. "You have chosen a most beautiful prison; but it is still a prison." He turned to Phoebus. "Post a guard at every door; as soon as any of them try to leave the Cathedral, capture them immediately."

With an almost dramatic sweep of his robe, Frollo turned and left. Phoebus cast another meaningful look before sighing and following suit.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at each other. "... What was all that about?" they asked in unison.

Also in unison, they shrugged.

"Well, it looks like we're gonna be stuck here for a little while," Goofy observed. "Maybe it's best we make the most of it and try to find that poor fella what was gettin' picked on?"

"Yeah, good idea," Donald agreed.

And so they split up. Sora felt the best person to go to was the man in white. He introduced himself as the archdeacon of the priests that worked there, and Sora asked where the winner of the Feast of Fools was.

"The what?"

"The Feast of Fools. He had the ugliest face so he won, but then the crowd got really mean and started throwing stuff at him."

"Oh, poor Quasimodo," the priest said. "He is a boy with a gentle heart, but many would be happy to proclaim him a monster."

"Oh, he can't be that bad," Sora said, waiving a hand. "Where can I find him? We wanted to see if he was okay after everything that happened."

"He is most likely in the cloisters," the archdeacon said, a sad look on his face as he looked up.

Sora sensed there was more going on, but he knew not to press. Things like whatever the archdeacon was thinking about were best told in their own time. Waving the attention of Donald and Goofy, the three cohorts began a laborious climb up a series of steps.

The upstairs was not as elegant, the wood infrastructure was left largely unadorned, and massive wooden beams crisscrossing each other. There were also the bells. Big bells, small bells, fancy bells, gilded bells, bells so large that all three travelers could not wrap their arms around the circumference of them. Sora was once again in awe, and he remembered what Clopin, the spindly man in the colorful costume had called Quasimodo: the bell ringer of Notre Dame. Sora couldn't even imagine what a job like that must have been like as he crawled under one of the bells and marveled at the echoing sound it made as he gasped in awe of it. "Woah," he whispered, and even that took on an ethereal, magical quality when amplified by the bell. Donald and Goofy were in similar straights.

Finally, however, they climbed a series of stairs to find where someone obviously lived. There was a worn, ragged mat on a thin layer of straw, a sturdy wooden table with a stunningly accurate model of both the cathedral and the square, filled with little wooden dolls of the people in the square.

"Wow, even these are cool," Sora whispered. "Hey, look," he added, beckoning Donald and Goofy. "It's the Moogle of the synthesis shop. And this one is the man at the accessory store."

"A-hyuk, whoever made these sure is talented," Goofy offered.

"Sora, I don't think he's here," Donald said. "We've looked everywhere."

Sighing, Sora straightened from his examination of the table. "I guess," he admitted. "Come on, let's get out of here." He turned and made his way to the ladder, but a red head was just coming up then, and there was a spectacular crash. Sora sat up slowly, rubbing his head. The person underneath did not move so quickly. "Hey, hey! Are you okay?"

Then he saw his face.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Sora cried out in dismay. "I squashed your face when I fell on you! It's all my fault I--"

"No! No! It's alright, it wasn't you." He looked away sadly. "I've... always been like this."

The pain in the voice plucked a heartstring in Sora, and his face etched in sympathy when he realized the truth of this bell ringer.

"I've always been... a monster."

"You know," the Keyblade wielder started, "You remind me of someone. He thinks he's nothing but a monster, too. He believed it so much; he tried to push everyone away. He even threw out the person that was most precious to him. But you know what happened? They wouldn't let him. They wouldn't leave; she wouldn't leave. It's because they all knew something he didn't. They all knew he wasn't a monster. It's not what you look like. It's your heart. And his was one of the strongest."

Sora smiled gently. "I'm Sora. This is Donald, and Goofy."

"I'm... Quasimodo," the young man said, looking away shyly.

"It's good to meet you, Quasimodo!" Sora replied, taking and shaking his hand vigorously. "We're sorry about the crowd out there. They just don't realize what a gentle heart you have."

"Gentle?"

"Sure! Anyone who can make all those wonderful figurines over there has to be gentle."

The misshapen young man looked down with a small smile.

"Oh, boy!" Donald exclaimed, holding up a small carving. "This looks like that girl who helped save you!"

Quasimodo's smile grew. "That's Esmeralda." He took the figure from Donald and gazed lovingly at it. "She's very kind. She claimed sanctuary here once. A safe place. But she had to leave."

"How come?" Goofy asked, sitting down on the thin straw mat.

"She needed to see how her people were doing."

Sora blinked. " 'Her people?' What does that mean?"

The bell-ringer raised a deformed eyebrow. "The gypsies of course. There are normal people, gypsy people, and monsters. My master is a normal person. Esmeralda is a gypsy. I'm a monster."

Sora blinked again, still confused. "But people are people. We all have hearts; we all have hopes and dreams, fears and anxieties. We're not different." Behind him, Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

Quasimodo tilted his head. "You sound like Esmeralda and Phoebus. They say I'm not a monster either."

"Feeble?" the Keyblade master took his turn to tilt his head. "That gold-armored guard from downstairs?"

The hunchback nodded. "He's very fair. He doesn't like the way the gypsies are treated and tries to prevent their harm when he can."

Now Sora felt guilty. "So he is a good guy. Now I feel bad for fighting him."

"You fought him? In the cathedral??" Quasimodo gaped at them. "On holy ground?"

Sora ran a hand along the back of his head. "Sorry, we're not from around here. I'm guessing this building is important?"

"Not very bright is he," came a wisened old woman's voice from behind them.

"Come now," a more cultured voice replied, "what would you expect from a foreigner? Anyone who isn't from this city couldn't possibly comprehend how majestic and reverent Notre Dame is."

"I just wish the goat was here," said a third voice, with a graveling tone that reminded Sora of Phil from the Coliseum.

"Huh?" the Keyblade wielder turned around. Now having spent a lot of time helping Beast and Belle at their tall castle, Sora had learned one thing very well. Gargoyles liked to jump out and attack you. So it was only natural for him to summon his mystic blade and stand protectively in front of his new friend. Of course, these gargoyles were a little different than the one's in that far off castle. For starters, they didn't look anywhere near as mean. There was no black smoke dirtying their appearance. And they looked like they'd been chopped off at the waist. The female looking gargoyle had pigeons swarming around her, trying to rest on her stone feathers, while the plump pig-like gargoyle was snacking on some bread and cheese, with a bottle of some kind of drink in his other hand--hoof. The dignified gargoyle had a book in hand and was only glancing up at them.

There was a moment as everyone looked around at each other, completely and utterly shocked. Donald and Goofy stayed by Sora, standing protectively in front of the pole-axed Quasimodo. The three gargoyles stared, glanced at each other, then stumbled over each other to try and hide from the nasty-looking sword.

"Aaaahhhh!!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down!" Quasimodo reached a gnarled arm up to put a hand on Sora's shoulder. "Those are my friends!"

Sora glanced back, confused. "Really? Any other gargoyle I meet usually wants to hurt people."

"We won't! We won't!" the pig gargoyle shouted, trembling behind the old lady gargoyle.

The dignified gargoyle shuddered behind the pig. "Worry not! We are made of different stone than any you have met before!"

"Oh," Sora straightened, his Keyblade disappearing back into his heart, while Goofy and Donald kept glancing back and forth.

"A-hyuk. I guess these gargoyles are kinda like what Mushu is for Mulan."

"Geez," Donald squawked. "That would have been rude for us to attack them, then." He turned to the shuddering stone figures. "Sorry about that."

"Yeah," Sora said to the hunchback. "We're sorry about misunderstanding things." He sighed. "We seem to be misunderstanding a lot of things today."

"Gawsh, maybe you can explain a few things for us so that we don't keep going after your friends by mistake?" Goofy offered, sitting on a wooden crate.

"If it's all the same to you," the old gargoyle interrupted, taking the two hiding behind her by the ears, "I'll take Victor and Hugo here and knock some sense into them about a few things, Quasi. If we see anything strange in the streets, we'll let you know."

"Thanks, Laverne," the misshapen boy said.

The three gargoyles hopped away (or rather, Laverne hopped away dragging the other two by the horns) and Sora found a sturdy crate to sit on and folding his arms behind his head. "So, where is here and what's been going on?"

Blinking Quasimodo gave a quiet chuckle. "You must be really lost if you don't even know where you are."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy all laughed rather sheepishly.

"Welcome," the hunchback gestured to the broad expanse of city they could see, "to Paris, the city of lights."

"Pear-ii?" Sora stumbled over the pronunciation.

"Yes. And you're in the holiest of buildings here, the cathedral of Notre Dame."

"No-tr Daam."

Quasimodo chuckled. "Close enough." Thus came the long story of what had been happening. Apparently, some normal people disliked having gypsies in their city. Gypsies were the poorest of the poor, begging and thieving to get by, performing and sneaking to their next meal. In order to remove the stealing and darker motivations of the gypsies, normal people were pushing the nomadic people out of their city. Mostly, it was simple arrests and then removal, but there had been a lot of disagreement lately. People like Phoebus, home from the wars, saw no need to remove gypsies, but instead, tried to help them when they could. Normal people who sympathized would make a safe home for the gypsies on their travels, offer food, and if possible, loan munny. But things were slowly getting more violent. Phoebus was in a position where he couldn't disobey orders, per se, but he did anything he could to try and help the gypsies out and provide back doors for them if he needed to raid home.

"Geez, now I'm really sorry I attacked him," Sora mumbled. Donald put a feathered hand on his shoulder from where he sat on the table and nodded.

"It's okay," Quasimodo replied. After all, Phoebus's acts of kindness were meant to be hidden from his superiors, and because of that, he was very limited on what he could do when a ranking officer was on the scene, like that afternoon in the festival.

"I was wond'rin' though," Goofy commented, one hand supporting his elbow while the other hand rubbed a brow, "what that girl has to do with all this."

The hunchback gave a very gentle smile. "La Esmeralda." She was a gypsy that had often gotten in trouble with the soldiers while standing up for her people. Once, with nowhere to run to, she was chased into the cathedral. Like Sora and his friends, Phoebus encouraged her to claim sanctuary. She and Quasimodo became friends and Phoebus would visit when he could, bringing food and amenities. The captain, one night, gave some very important information about what was going to happen later that night to a known haven for gypsies, and with Quasimodo's help, Esmeralda had left the cathedral in order to warn her people.

"Quasi!" Just as the hunchback came to the end of his story, the sun starting to set in the distant sky, Laverne came hopping in as fast as she could, pigeons trying to cling onto her as she hastened toward them. "Something really strange is going on in the streets. "The guards posted around our little church here are starting to run screaming."

"Come on," Sora shouted, jumping to his feet. "Let's go check it out!"

Sure enough, once they'd all raced downstairs, there was indeed screaming outside of the cathedral. The Keyblade appeared in Sora's hand as he raced forward, shoving the heavy door open as quickly as he could. The guards were the ones with the high-pitched screams, and they were all running down the street as the shadows darkened in the fading light of the day. The darkness seemed to stop, turning towards Sora in a manner he was very familiar with, as two yellow eyes started at him.

"It's the Heartless!" Goofy shouted, leaping forward with his shield to crush the Shadow.

"Hah!" Donald cried out, throwing an ice crystal at another Shadow. "Where are they coming from?"

More shadows condensed and started to rise from the ground. "Don't know!" Sora replied, finishing a combo with an explosion that sent the Shadows flying.

"Over there!" Quasimodo called from up the pillars in front of the church. "They're coming from the Palais du Justice!"

Sora didn't miss the mild panic in his new friends voice. "Pa-lay du Ju-steess?" Really, this world had odd sounds in its language. But Quasimodo's concerns came first. With a sweep of his Keyblade, Sora rose into the air, striking a Shadow in a consecutive series of combinations until he was high enough to see what the hunchback meant. Indeed, a large ornate building in the distance seemed to be generating darkness and Sora could feel in his heart the negativity emanating from that building.

"Wait a minute," Sora cried out as he landed. "Didn't you say that Phoebus works there?" No wonder Quasimodo was concerned. "We need to get moving!"

---

Whereas the building called Notre Dame had an inexplicably spiritual quality to it, and ethereal beauty that had taken Sora's breath away, the Palais du Justice was, while equally grand, the exact opposite in feeling. It was a down to earth, businesslike, and pragmatic structure, with narrow windows and dark corridors and very straight and practical lines; vastly different from the elegant arcs and overpowering artwork of Notre Dame. That it was radiating the presence of the Heartless wasn't helping.

"Oh, ooooh," Quasimodo muttered to himself. "This is no good, no good at all. I should be at the cathedral, ringing evening mass, and I have the cloisters to clean, and the triplets need maintenance, they're out of tune. I shouldn't be here, this isn't - "

"Quasi," Sora said slowly, putting a hand on the hunchback's uneven shoulders. "It's okay, okay?"

"No, I'm not supposed to leave the tower," Quaismodo worried, "Ooh, Master will be very mad if he finds out. Especially after the Feast."

"Then he's not a very good master if he's like that," Sora commented as they carefully made their way through the dim halls.

"No, no, he's been very good to me. I am a monster, you know; after my heartless mother abandoned me, anyone else would have drowned me." Sora visibly cringed at the very idea. "The only way to protect me is if I stay in the cathedral, it's the only sanctuary for monsters like me."

Sora stopped walking and turned. "Quasi..." but anything he was about to say was cut off via an iron grip on his arm that yanked him into a dark room. He managed a startled, "Wha--?" before an equally iron hand clamped over his mouth. Dragged further into the room, Sora watched with wide eyes as Goofy and Donald moved to give chase; Donald's staff was already high above his head to cast a spell, but the gloved hand on Sora's mouth released and held itself up to stop them.

"Wait, wait! It's me!"

Sora recognized the voice. "Feeble?" Twisting his head, Sora's cheek brushed against the blond fuzz of Phoebus's beard, his chin and nose coming into view.

The taller man grinned, looking down at the boy. "We're going to have to cure you of that nickname," he said in a wry tone, before his face slackened to a much more serious look. "What are you four doing here? Frollo will hang you if he sees you here."

Sora unconsciously put a hand to his suddenly bare-feeling neck. "Heartless attacked the guards you put around No-tr Daam, we followed them here," he said quickly.

"Heartless? Do you mean those creepy shadow things?"

"Yeah, whenever there's Heartless, there's trouble."

But Phoebus had a hand to his chin, his brow furrowed in thought. "I wonder if that's how he found out."

"Found out? Found out what?" Donald asked.

Phoebus straightened. "Frollo's discovered the location of the Court of Miracles."

Quasimodo gasped. "How?"

"I don't know," replied the man in sunny armor, "My guess is the Heartless. He's going to attack them at dawn. We have to stop him, but I don't know where the Court of Miracles is. I was hoping Esmeralda gave you some kind of hint."

Quasimodo wrung his hands, his own gnarled brow furrowing in thought, before his eyes widened, and he reached into his tunic. "Esmeralda gave me this," he said, pulling out a woven necklace. "She said if I ever needed sanctuary of a different kind, that this would guide me."

Phoebus snatched it out of Quasimodo's hands. "Ah, yes. Great." He paused. "What is it?"

"I don't know," the hunchback replied, annoyed.

"Hm, maybe it's some kind of hieroglyph, or secret message pointing us in a direction, oh! Maybe it's..."

As Phoebus continued to putter out ideas, Quasimodo became more thoughtful. "When you wear this woven band, you hold the city in your hand..." he whispered. "It's a map!"

"What?"

"It's a map; see, this blue part is la Seine and this is Notre Dame and..."

"I've been in the war for twenty years I know what a map looks like..."

"I've lived in the bell tower all my life I know what the city looks like..."

"And this is not it!"

"And this is it!!"

Sora, Donald, and Goofy bounced back and forth between the two as they argued, before looking at each other in confusion and simply shrugging.

Phoebus threw up his hands. "Alright! Alright! It's a map! So how do we get there?"

"That's very simple," a new voice, deep and rich and menacing, said. "You don't."

The five spun around to see the dark countenance of Judge Claude Frollo. His beady eyes efficiently swung around the party, his eyes lingering on Quasimodo, who seemed to shrink from his gaze. "This is a most interesting assembly, Captain," the black clad man said in an almost conversational voice. Almost. "I would think that this would be a moment where you would be rewarded in your diligence in your capturing of these... heathens... were it not for the fact that I overheard you planning on going to that gypsy stronghold so foolishly dubbed the Court of Miracles," his dark eyes hardened, "to save them."

Phoebus straightened, his own face hardening, but said nothing.

"It's a shame really. You had a very promising career. Too bad you had to throw it all away for some trash. Heartless! Arrest them!"

It wasn't long before the small troop was completely surrounded by Heartless; Shadows, Soldiers, and several color coded bell shaped varieties. Frollo disappeared back into the hallway to carry out his plans, leaving the Heartless to devour his prisoners.

He didn't really realize the outcome of such an encounter, however.

"Quasi! Goofy! With me!" Sora shouted as he leapt into the fray. "Donald, Feeble, see if you can find a way out of here!"

Sora only had time to hear, "It's Phoebus!!" before a Crimson Jazz encased him in a triptych series of orbs, their energies quickly turning red and preparing for an explosion. Sora double jumped into the air, the triptych following him. He was halfway through his fall before it finally exploded, and he breathed a moment of relief before cycloning around three soldiers, sliding in behind them and obliterating them with his Keyblade. He threw up a Magnega and Goofy took the opportunity to leap up into a tornado, his shield bashing and crashing into the swarm that was caught up in the ball. When he landed, he offered his shield, and Sora used his Keyblade like a golf club to shoot the weapon repeatedly at the Shadows, taking out entire swarms of them before he was caught up in the tornado of a Silver Rock.

When the winds dissipated and he was left suspended momentarily in midair, he had a moment to see Quasimodo in action. The uneven shape of his arms belied the enormous amount of power in them, the hunchback had an Emerald Blue in a death grip as he swung the Heartless around in circles before launching it into a crowd of Shadows, the toss freeing dozens of hearts as they floated up to freedom. One powerful punch had similar effects, and Sora quickly decided that the bell ringer's gentle heart didn't need any help, so with a quick slapshot Sora launched into the air to land a series of slashes on the Crimson Jazz of earlier, belaboring the Heartless with a long series of horizontal slashes before destroying it with an aerial finisher.

He landed and cast three quick Thundagas, the lightning cutting a wide swath and giving Pheobus and Donald a chance to dart ahead. Donald was already out of magic, thwacking his enemies left and right with his meteor staff while the captain of the guard was swinging his sword this way and that.

Goofy was spinning around on his shield and Quasimodo slammed both fists into the ground, generating an appreciative shockwave, while Sora had yet to land, his momentum carrying him from one enemy to another as his Keyblade freed more and more hearts.

"I got it! This way!" Donald's squawk was barely heard over the din, but all three fighters, took the hint and sprinted for the doorway, even as more Shadows and Soldiers crept up from the darkness, swarming again.

The five dashed down the hallways, following Phoebus' lead as he darted left and right. They cleared the building with little effort, but just as Sora thought they were in the clear, a beam of light whizzed through the air over his head, embedding itself in Phoebus' shoulder.

"Feeble!" he cried out as the man went down. Donald dashed to him, but the others were cut off as a large Heartless floated down to them. At first glance Sora thought it was an Invisible, but on closer inspection he saw there were some very distinct differences. It was three times larger, for one, and had five horns instead of two. Chains bound it like the giant Darkball in Beast's castle, and it gave a massive roar. Sora bent low, Goofy and Quasimodo flanking him as they mentally prepared themselves for a fight.

The Heartless lifted its hand, and Sora and his friends learned very quickly where the light had come from, as a stream of five embedded themselves in the ground mere inches from where Sora had leapt back. The three split up, Goofy charging in with his eyes covered, while Quasimodo jumped up and pounded his fists into the ground to make a shockwave. Sora leapt up and then dodged aerially a swing from the massive sword. Finally in close, he let off a string of combos, his Keyblade spinning in the air and casting elegant arcs of power as he berated the Heartless. The pseudo-Invisible caught on, however, and lifted its broadsword up to guard, before throwing Sora back in a massive swing and left Sora stunned as he plummeted to the ground.

Goofy dashed by and tossed him a potion, which Sora took quickly while casting a Blizzaga and a Thundaga. Neither spell seemed to faze him, so Sora quickly ran up to the Heartless, getting it in range before casting a Firaga. That did almost no damage either. Now depleted of magic, Sora leapt up again and went into a berserk rage, relentlessly hammering the Heartless while Quasimodo and Goofy continued to give chase, neither fast enough to hit the pseudo-Invisible more than once before it flew away; only Sora's lighter-than-air countenance seemed to keep pace, pressing his endless string of combos before the Heartless again knocked him back. His guard broken, Sora entered a world of pain as he slid across the cobblestones, rolling and trying to stay conscious at the same time. His magic still hadn't been replenished yet, and Donald had all the ethers.

"Right, new strategy," he muttered, staggering to his feet once more. The Heartless was floating over to him at rapid speed, and Sora knew he couldn't take another hit, and so he simply ran, he and the Heartless circling each other. Goofy threw him another potion, and Sora was grateful, as he felt more aware of his surroundings and slightly less pain. The pseudo-Invisible lifted it's free hand, and Sora had to do some quick running to avoid the stream of light arrows were shot out, clearly it preferred distance attacks.

Finally, after four waves of arrows, he felt a starry glow in his heart, and Sora lifted his Keyblade high above his head. "Heal!"

Now completely healthy, Sora did something else. "Give me strength!" And Goofy disappeared as his energy encased Sora, turning his clothes read while Oathkeeper appeared in his left hand. Energy crackled around his fists and Quasimodo was slack-jawed in shock as he watched the boy leapt so high into the air that he cleared the impressive height of the Heartless and began two-bladed attack on the creature's vulnerable back. Sora felt the power melt off the Heartless, and so he pressed the attack, landing two finishers before the creature gave a final scream, melting into blackness as its heart floated freely up into the air.

Sora took only a moment to catch his breathe, suddenly acutely aware that his arms were numb up to his shoulders with all the swinging he had been doing, before he followed Quasimodo through the maze of arrows sticking out of the ground and to Donald and the hurt Captain.

"Feeble! Feeble, are you okay?" Sora cried out, dropping to his knees.

The blond guard grinned, "I'll break you of that habit yet," he muttered. He hissed Donald poured a bottle of some kind around the arrow in his shoulder. "Ahh," he groaned, but smiled again. "That was not a good year for wine," his eyes started to cloud. "You know, if you don't mind, I'm going to pass out now..."

"Donald, I'm out of magic still, can't you heal him?" Sora begged.

"Wah? With the arrow still in him?!" Donald squawked. "You've gotta be kidding me. I have to get it out first - and you can't just pull it out!" he added quickly, swatting Sora's hand away with his staff. "That might risk more damage. The magic for this is pretty complicated."

"Okay," Sora replied, not getting everything the duck was saying but understanding the gist of it. "You can take him back to No-tr Daam and heal him there. The rest of us will find the Court of Miracles."

Donald gave a hefty sigh. "You expect me to carry him?"

"A-hyuck, I'll help ya," Goofy said, getting his white-gloved hands under Phoebus and managed to get the unconscious man around his shoulders. "You just make sure I don't jostle nuthin', okay Donald?"

"Good," Sora said, straightening. "You two take care of Feeble, Quasi and I will see if we can find the Court of Miracles and help the gypsies."

The trinity nodded as one, and Donald and Goofy carried Phoebus to safer ground.

"Quasi, come on, show me where the Court of Miracles is."

But Quasimodo was stock still, his misshaped eyes wide. "Oh, oooh," he moaned. "My master saw me, he knows I left Notre Dame. This is terrible, terrible!"

Sora blinked, the information sinking in. "You mean Frollo is your master?!"

"I have to get back to the cathedral right away. If I do, he might see it in his heart to forgive me. Ooooh, I can't believe this is happening."

Frustrated and pressed for time, Sora grabbed the hunchback's shoulders and spun him around. "Listen, it's time for you to decide which is more important; a master who will destroy all your friends, or your friends who want to see you happy! Even gentle hearts need to be strong at times like this! Do you want Esmeralda to be hurt?"

Quasimodo said nothing, only looked away and started walking.

---

Judge Claude Frollo considered himself to be a highly pious man. He did God's work, felt no sin, and had led an exemplary life. He never went into the clergy, only because he felt he could do God's work with more efficiency in la Palais du Justice. Sure enough, his hard work had made him a judge, allowing him to perform the cleansing of the people of Paris that Frollo felt God must desire. He'd spent decades stamping out the heathen gypsies, but they always crept back like the vermin they were. When he'd had Phoebus recalled from the army to handle the war here in Paris, he was certain that he would finally gain the upper hand.

But, as he looked into his fireplace and reflected, the devil seemed to have decided to throw temptation at him. The siren known as Esmeralda. It wasn't his fault; he wasn't to blame. It was that gypsy who had lit that hated flame in his blood. The... desire. For over half a century Frollo had ignored and resisted the bedeviled temptations of the feminine half of society. The cursed woman who had bitten from the Tree of Knowledge because she was the devil's plaything. Their advances had never turned Frollo, nor had their attempts to gain his attention.

Then he had seen Esmeralda. Gripped her thin arms and smelled her hair. The clever witch had twisted his words of course; cast spells on him to forever put her image in his mind and set his blood boiling. Frollo had resisted the witch as best he could, but he'd come to a realization earlier with that awful Feast of Fools humiliation. He'd been the epitome of piety, virtue, and purity for his entire life. God would forgive him for having one moment of weakness with the gypsy witch. She would be his or she would burn.

Recently, he was pleased to see that God understood his needs, supported him, and sent him these misshaped angels to carry out his plans, to match the hideous Quasimodo who served him (though no more). These shadowy creatures would do whatever he bid them to do, and he somehow understood them. He knew they were after those strange newcomers who accompanied Quasimodo here to la Palais du Justice. That could only mean that they were a danger to Frollo. A warning from God that enemies would appear to block his path.

And Frollo always knew how to deal with his enemies.

---

Sora was holding a torch up high for him and Quasimodo to see as they quietly crept through a creepy crypt. The woven band had taken them into a dark and isolated graveyard. Sora, after all his time in Halloweentown, actually found the place rather charming, since nothing was jumping up to attack him. The hunchback, however, was on edge, muttering prayers and worrying about his master, Phoebus, and Esmeralda.

"Come on, Quasi. Everything will be fine. We'll find Esmeralda, warn her about the attack, and get back to No-tr Daam. Donald and Goofy are taking good care of Feeble, you'll see."

"I know, I know," Quasimodo replied, "but it seems no matter what I do, I'm betraying someone."

Sora sighed. Nothing he said seemed to calm the nervous hunchback. They eased deeper into the crypt, the torch casting a flickering glow over the corpses and stonework. In an odd way, it reminded the Keyblade wielder of Riku. No doubt Riku was suffering such worries about his own "betrayal". Sora felt that Riku's time with Maleficent and possessed by Ansem were merely distractions from his path. Sora rather doubted that Riku felt the same way about it though. So he sighed and looked at his new hunchbacked friend.

"Quasi, your friends will understand what you do. If you make a mistake, they'll help you how to not repeat it; if you hurt them by accident, they'll forgive you; if they hurt you, they'll ask for your forgiveness. Friends don't abandon each other unless they're brainwashed."

Quasimodo turned, his face shadowed in the flickering glow of the torch. "Phoebus and Esmeralda might understand. But my master is very firm. Very strict. Even if he understood, he must be fair and still give punishment."

Sora shook his head. "Forgive me if I really don't like this master of yours very much."

The hunchback gave a very small nod. "Very few understand him. He is a good man. Only such a good man would take me in."

The Keyblade wielder had something to say about Quasimodo always putting himself down, but he never got the chance.

"Look!" Quasimodo whispered. Sora held the torch higher and saw what the hunchback saw. On the grave in front of them, there was a symbol. The same symbol that was on the woven band that Esmeralda had given the hunchback.

Sora leaned forward. "There's some writing underneath. I can't make it out though." He rubbed a hand over the carvings. "Ugh. It's in the same writing system you use here. I can't read a word of it. Maybe if Feeble was here--"

Quasimodo ignored the writing however, and merely pulled the top of the grave off to reveal a set of stairs descending below the crypt.

"That works," Sora smiled.

They stepped carefully down the stairs, each step damp as the air got thick with moisture. And smell. A really bad smell.

Sora pinched his nose with his free hand. "How can you stand the smell?" he asked his misshapen friend.

Quasimodo shrugged. "It's the smell of death. Whenever there is a funeral in Notre Dame during the summer, it smells like this. And it lingers."

The Keyblade wielder didn't respond, but merely trudged forward. "So, any idea where this is going to take us?"

"No."

"I don't like how we haven't run into anyone. If we really are approaching the Court of Miracles, wouldn't we have seen someone by now?"

The answer to that question came when people seemed to appear all around them in skeletal disguises, deathly cackles, and ropes that quickly bound both Sora and Quasimodo while they were distracted.

Sora quickly wondered if he should bring out his Keyblade, but dismissed the thought quickly. These were people, not Heartless. It would be better to find out what was going on before attacking people. He'd already made that mistake several times thus far and he didn't really want to repeat it.

Quasimodo merely deflated as they were tied and gagged. After Sora's short time with him, he was pretty certain that the hunchback's thoughts were probably along the line of "They tied me up because I'm a monster...", but Sora could say nothing to curb those thoughts with the cloth in his mouth. The darker skinned people were cheering, removing their disguises, and tugging Sora and Quasimodo along by the ropes through the maze of catacombs.

Sora was shocked, however, when they came across a large cavern that housed a mini-town. Where Paris was a mixture of stone and lumber, ornate and practical, this was a town of fabric and tents. With the stone walls of the catacomb, the brightly colored fabrics merely served to delineate property. But what caught Sora's eye the most was the people. He'd seen several of these darker skinned people before (he refused to call them gypsies, that was somehow classifying them as different), begging on the streets for being blind, or crippled.

But the lame could walk.

And the blind could see.

"But the dead don't talk," Clopin sang as he landed in front of them. "So you won't be around to reveal what you've found!'

Sora protested. Loudly. Too bad his words were muffled by his gag.

Clopin continued to sing, enticing the crowd while a small group dressed in black continued to drag Sora and Quasimodo up scaffolding to a pair of ropes.

"Maybe you've heard of the mythical place," the spindly man sang, "Called the Court of Miracles," before disappearing and reappearing right in front of the bound two, shoving his pointy nose in their faces "Hello! You're there!"

Clopin disappeared again to reappear atop the scaffolding were a pair of nooses were waiting. "We have methods for spies and intruders, rather like hornets protecting the hive." With a firm yank, Quasimodo and Sora finally joined Clopin atop the scaffold and a noose was brought around each neck. "Here in the Court of Miracles, where it's a miracle if you get out alive!"

Sora, needless to say, didn't like the sound of this. He didn't want to go in fighting, that wouldn't help their case any, but he and Quasimodo had to warn them of the approaching disaster. If Frollo found this Court of Miracles, things weren't going to go well. But brandishing a Keyblade and then telling them everything wouldn't make them believe him. If anything, it might exasperate the situation. He needed a plan, but he wasn't getting a chance to think. Quasimodo wasn't much help either, as he just passively did as he was told, no doubt thinking he somehow deserved this.

Growling in his gag, Sora tried to motion for Quasimodo to break the ropes, since the hunchback was clearly strong enough, but he merely looked down.

Clopin danced in front of them, continuing to incite the crowd. "Here in the Court of Miracles, I am the lawyers and judge. All in one!" he sang happily, a gavel appearing in on hand and knocking Sora on the head with a wooden thunk, thunk, thunk. A puppet appeared over a hand. "We like to get the trial over with quickly, because it's the sentence that's really the fun!"

The crowd cheered.

"Now, we've seen all the evidence!" Clopin continued, a non-puppeted hand reaching for the lever that would probably release a trap door and send Sora and Quasimodo falling until the rope stopped them.

"Wait! I object!" the little puppet shouted.

"Overruled," Clopin replied.

"I object!"

"Quiet!" the spindly man thrust his hat down over the puppet, effectively squashing it.

"Dang," the hand mumbled.

Clopin disappeared and reappeared between Quasimodo and Sora. These people must be ninja, Sora was certain. "We find you totally innocent," Clopin sang slowly. The Keyblade wielder gave a sigh of relief. "Which is the worst crime of all!"

...What?!

"So you're going to fall!"

Clopin jumped to the lever and firmly grasped it before a clear, throaty voice called out "Wait!"

And thus, la Esmeralda appeared. She was the girl from the Feat of Fools, her thick raven hair bouncing as she rushed up the scaffolding stairs, in a white shirt and blue and purple skirt hitched up over her bare feet.

Seeing her seemed to bring Quasimodo out of whatever dark thoughts he was thinking.

"You can't hang them!" Esmeralda shouted. "The bell ringer helped me escape from Frollo. He's the one who's been getting information from the soldier who saved the miller's family for us." She turned to Sora, gazed at him for a moment, before her smoky eyes lighted with recognition. "And this is the boy who helped at the Feast of Fools."

The crowd seemed to start muttering amongst themselves, confused. Sora took this as an opportunity to finally say a few things, so he summoned his Keyblade, much to the awe of the gathered people, and sliced away not only his restraints, but also Quasimodo's.

Wiping the last traces of fabric from his mouth, Sora let the Keyblade return to his heart and turned to his hunchbacked friend. "Tell them," he said, taking a step back.

Quasimodo's face was white with fear. "I'm a monster, they won't listen to me."

As frustrated as Sora was with the hunchback's continual put downs for himself, he felt his heart pull in sympathy. Quasimodo had spent his entire life being shunned and trained to think of himself as the worst of the worst. Just a few kind words from him, or Phoebus, or Esmeralda wouldn't undo years of low self-esteem. It was going to take a long time for Quasimodo to accept himself.

With the crowd still talking amongst themselves, Esmeralda and Clopin turned to Sora and Quasimodo.

"What's going on?" Esmeralda asked. "It has to be something big for you to claim sanctuary here." She looked around. "Is Phoebus still at la Palais du Justice?"

"No," Sora replied. "He's at No-tr Daam. He was hurt while giving us information about what's going to happen."

"What?!" the dancer exclaimed, worry contorting her face. "Is he okay? Is someone with him?"

Sora smiled. "Yup. My friends are looking after him. He'll be fine."

"But what information did he give you," Clopin interrupted.

Glancing at the scared hunchback, Sora gave a small sigh before continuing. "Frollo has discovered where your Court of Miracles is. He plans to attack it at dawn."

Clopin spared a moment to be shocked before turning to the crowds below and shouting out orders.

"It's worse than that," Sora called out. "He has Heartless with him! They'll try and steal your hearts and turn you into one of them! You have to get out of here quickly!"

Behind him, Sora saw Esmeralda put a hand on Quasimodo's shoulder and start to speak to him quietly. The hunchback relaxed slowly and gave a small, loving smile, responding to something she said.

"There won't be any time for that," came a cold voice. Everyone whipped around to see Frollo at the cavern entrance, Heartless and human guards around him. "You are all under arrest."

Sora's Keyblade appeared in his hand. These people needed time to escape, and he would provide it. With a twirl, he raised his mystical blade high and shouted, "Thunder!" He cast three Thundaga, cutting large holes in the swarms of the Heartless, and sending Frollo's forces into as much confusion as he could, giving the nomads time to flee. Leaping forward, Sora jumped over the crowds and plowed through the guards and Heartless. The humans were simple to take down. None of them had the same fighting experience that he had, it seemed, and could easily be felled in one string of combinations, or a well-timed explosion if Sora was surrounded. The Heartless were not as easy.

One thing in Sora's favor was the number of Silver Rocks hanging around this batch of Heartless. When they turned into energy, Sora took great delight in jumping up for a Slipshot and aiming them into the annoying Crimson Jazzes, particularly those concentrating on creating the triangle of fireballs. However, there were still dozens upon dozens of Shadows and Soldiers, along with a great deal of Air Pirates. The Shadows seemed to multiply in the darkness of the cavern and every time Sora Cycloned around a Soldier, two more seemed to take its place.

It was like a bizarre reversal of when he'd had to guide Queen Minnie to the throne room. Instead of him clearing a path for Minnie to follow, the crowd was being tailed by the Heartless and whenever they mobbed around each other for safety, Sora had to disorganize Frollo's forces and buy time for the nomadic people to flee.

He'd just run out of magic when the Heartless surrounded the crowd once more. Feeling frustrated, Sora jumped high to see where Quasimodo was. The Hunchback was nowhere near him, and was in difficult straights of his own. Esmeralda was limp on his shoulder and the humans in Frollo's army were throwing chains around Quasimodo.

This wasn't good.

Sora was faced with a brief conflict in his heart. The people around him needed help escaping, and so did Quasimodo and Esmeralda. Who should he go to?

A child screamed behind him, and Sora's drive to protect everyone increased. He couldn't do this alone. He needed Donald or Goofy in an ideal situation, but that didn't mean that Sora was currently by himself.

Landing, he launched into a series of blows ending with an explosion that cleared the immediate vicinity around him. He reached into a pocket on his vest and pulled out an oddly shaped charm. A vision of a beach filled his mind, achingly similar to his home on Destiny Island, before a small bullet of fur pounced onto him with a cry of "Sora!" knocking them back and rolling on the ground before slobbering all over his face in the form of a greeting.

Stitch smiled and Sora smiled back.

No longer fighting by himself, Sora and the small experiment set to work at all the Heartless who were after the terrified crowd. Stitch was a summon best left to his own devices sometimes. The little experiment bounded through the Heartless with a ray gun, his small size working to his advantage since none of the Heartless seemed to be able to get a hold of him. Occasionally Stitch would pop up on Sora's back, licking his face again, healing the Keyblade wielder to a small degree, before his magic was restored in his heart.

While Stitch confused the Heartless Sora was able to clear a path for the people to go through, getting them to a small exit. Now all they needed was time to get through the narrow passages. Sora leapt up for a slipshot, aiming into an Air Pirate who was harassing an old man. Just as he landed, he heard and felt a pull.

"Sora!"

There was a yank and Sora was suddenly suspended in the air with Stitch. Below them, the catacomb seemed to be completely still, neither people nor Heartless moving. There was no sign of Quasimodo or Esmeralda and Clopin seemed to be in the middle of shouting orders for the people who were halted in their streaming into the narrow corridors.

Stitch landed next to Sora, a ukulele in his fuzzy palms. Sora grinned, twirling his Keyblade around to hold the Key and strum the guard. Together, they both jammed like they were in a concert, kicking moves, posing for the unmoving crowd, and having a blast. Literally.

With each strum of the ukulele and Key-tar the Heartless jerked as if struck, each blow flinging them higher and higher into the air and dropping all sorts of goodies that Sora's magic drew into his pockets. As the two musicians played, they would occasionally swirl in the air, picking up a different group of Heartless to flip and rob; making sure that everyone in the swarm was attacked and weakened.

Needless to say, Sora felt much better when the pull holding him above the paused crowd dissipated and he landed back where he started. The Heartless were released from whatever had stopped their movements and they floundered, attacks that had begun suddenly thrown off course.

"Gather!" Sora cried out before leaping up into a long string of aerial combinations and finishers. Just about every Heartless he nailed disappeared, its stolen heart gently floating up. A Thunduga wiped out massive holes in Frollo's forces and Stitch had no problem blasting his way through Shadows.

Sora continued to make headway through the Heartless, using slipshot and Magnega to great advantage. The Air Pirates and Crimson Jazzes proved elusive, however, providing Sora with difficulty in getting work done when he was getting dive bombed, or surrounded by a triangle of fireballs.

Stitch solved this dilemma, however, by disappearing and jamming on his ukulele, the soft strums echoing through the catacomb as the flying Heartless were paused and flung around. Sora used this to his advantage and jumped up to land a string of whacks and thwacks on the annoying beings.

He landed on his feet once more, assessing his surroundings. All that was left were Heartless, Frollo and his human detachment had disappeared. The crowd was down to a mere handful, the rest having escaped into the maze of catacombs unharmed.

With a sudden thunk, Stitch landed on Sora's shoulder.

"Thanks," the Keyblade wielder smiled. Stitch blinked, licked his face thoroughly, and faded into sparkles. Sora was tired, but he still had a little bit left to do.

Not even bothering with magic he quickly ran through the Heartless, hitting each with his Keyblade and drawing their attention onto him. Once he had had all of them honing in on him, he quickly healed himself, removing some of his exhaustion, and went into a berserk rage to striking down every Heartless with heavy blows. The creatures fell, their captive hearts escaping, and Sora took a deep breath, glancing around the now empty catacomb.

Time to get above ground, get back to Notre Dame and figure out what was going on.

---

"Haaah," Donald sighed when he'd finally finished. He flopped backwards onto his feathered behind and stretched his legs out, shaking his head slightly.

"Did ya do it?" Goofy asked, eyeing his fellow Captain of the Guard with concern. The blond man was sleeping, his shoulder bandaged and arm bound to his side until enough healing had taken place for him to move it without risking injury. Stripped of his sun-colored armor, he looked much less over-the-top and much more like the warrior he was.

"Yes," the duck replied. "Finally."

Goofy breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Good job Donald," he praised, "once you get your magic back, we can go and look for Sora."

"You forget, we don't know where the Court of Miracles is. So how do we look for him?"

"A-hyuck, you've got a point," Goofy admitted sheepishly.

The pair turned quickly when they heard what was becoming the familiar thud of the three gargoyles, Victor, Hugo, and Lavern. The old bat, Lavern, hopped up first, waiving her hands wildly. "Quick, quick, stash the stiff!!" she whispered harshly.

"Huh?" Donald asked.

"It's Quasi," the pig-like gargoyle said.

"Oh, good!" Goofy said, clapping his hands together. "How'd he and Sora do at the Court of Miracles?"

"You fail to understand the dire situation you are presently ensconced," Victor said, trailing up behind the other two gargoyles. "Quasimodo is indeed here, but so is his master, Judge Frollo. Our dear friend is in chains, one can only assume things have gone very badly."

"So stash the stiff and hide yourselves!!" Lavern repeated, pigeons and other birds startled off her crevices as she flapped her wings in urgency.

"Here," Victor offered, lifting the cloth on the table holding the model of the square. Goofy, already on the move at the name "Frollo," was delicately dragging Phoebus to the offered hiding place. Donald, slower to recognize the danger, caught up quickly and helped. The gargoyles were not nearly as gentle, rolling and kicking as they were; it only exasperated the sense of urgency, and finally the three managed to squash themselves under the table. Victor pulled the tablecloth back down just as Donald spied a black hat emerging from the staircase.

The two travelers watched as Frollo had the hunchback Quasimodo strung up to the columns of the cloisters, the chains locked and interlocked and further bound with weights.

"Master... please," the bell ringer whispered, though it sounded pitiful to anyone's ears.

"You've done quite enough, my boy," Frollo said, looking down at the hunchback. "I wonder if your sins will ever be forgiven. Perhaps your heartless mother was right to abandon you; perhaps it would have been best if you were drowned like any other monster, but I took pity on you, I raised you, and this, this, is how you repay me."

"I'm sorry master," Quasimodo whimpered. Donald couldn't believe what he was hearing, and it was only Goofy's hand clapped firmly on his beak that kept him from Thundaga-ing the judge right then and there.

"For your first punishment, you will watch." Frollo walked out to the edge of the cloisters, leaning out over the grand view of the square. "I must say, you'll have a ringside seat as that gypsy girl is tried as the witch that she is. The others, they will be hanged, but she, oh, she will be burned at the stake if she does not beg forgiveness from me." The judge turned, eyeing the desolate hunchback. "Think on the sins that you have committed. When my work in the square is done, I shall come back so we can best decide how to... deal with you."

And, with a swirl of his cape, the judge left.

Donald and Goofy all but burst out from under the table, the gargoyles coming to life from where they had impersonated statues, and while they tugged and pulled at the chains, the two travelers demanded answers.

"Sora, where's Sora?" was the duck's first question.

"I don't know," muttered Quasimodo, his eyes distant and his face forlorn. "We got separated."

"A-hyuck, we gotta get'cha outta here," Goofy answered, "so we can save Esmeralda."

"I can't," the redhead whispered. "I tried."

"Well, try harder!!" Donald squawked, casting an ice spell in hopes of shattering the chains. It was to no avail.

"I did," Quasimodo whispered, his eyes still very far away. "But what can a monster do?"

Goofy put a hand on the uneven shoulder in sympathy, but Donald was fed up. "Goofy, come on, we've got to get going. If we can find Sora, I'm sure he'll want to do something to stop all this instead of moping around and feeling sorry for himself." Summoning his magic staff, Donald dashed to the wooden stairs and had already disappeared; and Goofy, torn between the two, gave one last sympathetic look before grabbing his shield and charging off after his friend.

Quasimodo looked over to the gargoyles, his last remaining friends. "What?" he demanded, his voice slightly petulant.

"Okay," Hugo placed, turning around. "Okay, Quasi."

"We are but simple creatures made of stone," Victor said, turning as well.

"We just thought you were made of something stronger," Lavern said, gazing at the hunchback sadly before joining the other three. Together, they turned to stone.

Quasimodo looked up over the ramparts, seeing smoke billow up from the square.

---

Hung jury.

That's what Esmeralda was thinking as she looked at her fellow gypsies, Clopin and the others strung up by their necks and standing on barrels that were waiting patiently to be kicked out from under their feet, leaving her dear friends to, if lucky, break their necks on the sudden fall. If not lucky, it would be a messy two or three minutes while they slowly asphyxiated, and she would have to listen to their gasps and rasps and gurgles, watch as eyes bulged, spittle dribble down chins, legs pump and swing in vain. Hanging was never pretty.

And there wasn't even a jury.

Esmeralda glared, full of spite and anger, at her judge and executioner. Frollo was enticing the crowd, in the middle of an impressive harangue, the endless string of pontification giving a glaring and ugly litany of the sins she had, supposedly, committed. Most offensive and odious was the charge of witchcraft, which Frollo seemed to happily linger on, going into exact detail on why it was the ultimate sin, quoting the Bible and gesticulating wildly.

She had been stripped of her clothes, her lavender sashes and scarves thrown to the guards, who were ripping them apart and drawing lots on who would get them while she, left only in a plain white rob, was tied brutally to a steak. She was not blind, seeing the logs and timber gathering around her feet, and she knew darn well the outcome of this farce of a trial, thank you very much. It only served to add fuel to her glare, her smoke green eyes as ablaze as she soon would be, unable to take her eyes of Frollo as he droned on and on. He was the cause of all of this. His bigoted opinion of her people, his abuse and mistreatment of Quasimodo, his narcissistic thought of purging the world of vice and sin, unable to see the corruption in his own soul.

"And so, gypsy Esmeralda, you stand at the precipice," Frollow said, turning his beady eyes to her, "the very edge of the abyss. But even here you can be saved." He was close to her, much, much too close, his foul breath filling her nostrils, his small eyes raking over her, revealing his true thoughts, his true desires. "I alone can save you. Choose me... or the fire."

He actually thought...?

Esmeralda saw red, her throat releasing a guttural growl before spitting in his face and kicking the torch away, the burning wood spinning impressively before lighting a haystack afire.

The excuse of a judge wiped his face and turned hateful eyes upon her, their size shrinking. "As you wish," he said, his voice three octaves lower than it's normal depths.

---

Sora, once he finally crawled out of the grave that served as the entrance to the Court of Miracles, decided ubiquitously that he hated catacombs.

Defeating the Heartless and giving everyone time to escape had been relatively simple. Finding the way out of the catacombs had been another task entirely. It was one thing to be ferried deep into it's labyrinth with the spindly Clopin singing about where they were going, the sea of people pulling and pushing him forward as torches wavered in and out, giving him and Quasimodo varied moments of light. The virtual mob that had appeared kept the important landmarks hidden, the light keeping them from seeing clearly, and Clopin keeping them thoroughly distracted. It was all rather clever in retrospect, but now that he needed to get out, and with no nomads to help him, well, to put it mildly it took him a while.

It was nigh on sunset when he finally could see the sky. A warm breeze kissed his face and bare skin, small strands of his hair dancing with it as he took in a deep and grateful breath - before coughing with the acrid smell of smoke.

"What?" he pulled himself further out of the grave and for a moment could only stare in wonder.

The city of Paris was burning.

Flames as red as and as hot as anything Sephiroth produced billowed and towered over the roofline, the wind whipping it around and making it dance from one building to the next.

Sora stared, unable to quite believe it. Then,

"Donald! Goofy! Quasi! Everyone!!" Sora's feet barely touched the earth, he ran so quickly his lungs began to burn with smoke and excursion as he navigated the streets. People were already running away from the fire in large droves, by the time he was deep into the city there was no one to be found. He all but burst into the main square under the cathedral, and what he saw horrified him.

People standing on barrels, ropes hung around their necks. A giant haystack, presumably the source of the fire, buckling in on itself as it burned to ashes, and Esmeralda, the beautiful dancer whom he'd yet to be formally introduced to and yet already was very kind to him, tied barbarically to a pole as Frollo tended the fire that was steadily rising at her feet.

"Stop it!!" his voice was nearly a shriek. The bells of the cathedral were ringing, or perhaps it was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears as he dashed forward. Donald and Goofy were already dashing forward, coming from the cathedral, and swiftly fell in line with Sora as he ran full tilt towards the catastrophe playing out before his very eyes.

Frollo turned, his beady eyes glaring at Sora and his Keyblade, before making a gesture and summoning a small army of Soldiers and Shadows. One Shadow crept up and reached from the ground to catch Sora's ankle, tripping him and generating a spectacular dive into the waiting Heartless. Donald was already casting spells, trying to clear a path, and Goofy spun back and forth on his shield around the boy, giving him room to get up.

Sora's greatest fear at that moment was that it would all be in vain.

The fire kept growing.

Then, seemingly from out of nowhere, Quasimodo was there. He descended from on high, a rope his only visible source of transportation. For the first time since meeting him, the hunchback's face was not gentle, or scared, or worried, or desolate. It couldn't even be described as ugly, because it was filled with determination, will, strength that Sora had only ever seen from people like Beast or the residents of Hollow Bastion. The redhead easily lifted la Esmeralda, stake and all, out from the platform and with one swift motion ripped the rope tying the dancer and swinging her elegantly, even gallantly, over his shoulder.

"Quasimodo..." Frollo muttered, completely pole axed. "Listen here."

"No, you listen!" he cried out, and there was spine in his voice. "All my life you've been telling me who are monsters and evil and sinful. But she's kind and gentle and strong like I never will be. You called Phoebus a traitor and tried to kill him just because he wanted to help someone as kind as him. You've said over and over that kindness is an illusion and that it doesn't really exist; but you're wrong!! She's kind; he's kind; Sora's kind! Even you were kind when you took in a monster like me, so why can't you be kind again!" Quasimodo was left panting, shifting Esmeralda's weight on his overgrown shoulder.

Frollo's face twisted, becoming as ugly as Quasimodo's face had been at first glance, his eyes bulged, which only served to make them look beadier, as a snarl carved itself onto his lips, his thin face flushing. "I should have drowned you when I had the chance," he growled.

A broadsword appeared in his hand, but Quasimodo would not fight alone, Sora and his friends had cleaned up the Heartless, and the three leapt onto the platform, directly in front of the hunchback and the dancer, weapons drawn. Laden with Esmealda, Quasimodo was clearly not going to be of much use in this fight; that was fine, Sora decided, because it wouldn't be fair for the bell ringer to fight the man who'd raised him.

Frollo was not as elegant a fighter a Phoebus, nor was he nearly as fast, but the first two blows he managed to land on Sora hurt, and when the Keyblade wielder finally had a chance to put up a guard, the strength of the broadsword as it collided with the Keyblade very nearly broke Sora's wrist. That said; those were the only blows Frollo was able to land, because Sora was easily three times as fast. Goofy frisbeed his shield under his leg, letting it spin mercilessly into the judge, and Sora used the opportunity to do an aerial sweep. With Frollo in the air, Sora battered him with combos, landing two finishers and tacking on a horizontal slash before Frollo finally managed to put up a guard of his own. Sora just dodged aerially, spinning in the air before landing on the platform long enough to see Quasimodo dashing - or rather climbing - Notre Dame in order to bring Esmeralda to safety. The boards of the platform creaked under his weight, and Sora temporarily lost balance. Frollo was still running towards him, and the boy decided to be obliging, quickly running up to Frollo and landing a string of hits on the ground.

"This is it!" he shouted, stepping back and taking aim. In one dash, he thrust the Keyblade forward, piercing Frollo's guard and adding: "Take this!!"

Frollo staggered back, clutching his ribs where Sora had struck, his sword falling haplessly aside. The man gave an uncharacteristic growl, clearly not ready to give up, but all attention was forcibly rearranged to Quasimodo.

He stood on he parapet, Esmeralda limp in his hands but held firmly, gently, over his head as he cried, "Sanctuary!" to the top of his lungs. "Sanctuary!! Sanctuary!!"

Sora still didn't understand why that word was so important, but he didn't care as he heard the word gurgle up from corners of the square, nomads and guards alike all shouting "Sanctuary!" in agreement to Quasimodo's triumph.

Turning back to Frollo, he saw that the phony judge was gone, had disappeared with the attention on his former charge. The Keyblade wielder gave a cursory sweep of his eyes, but could spy no traces of where the older man could have gone, and resolved that perhaps it was now his turn to find sanctuary. The man had realized his defeat and was now off somewhere licking his wounds in hopes of rising again. Good luck, Sora wished him, because after his actions no one would grant it to him. The thought made him satisfied and sad at the same time, but such emotions could not overpower the overwhelming sense of pride that burst from his heart as he watched Quasimodo gently lay the dancer down out of sight.

That was, of course, when everything went to hell.

The earth rumbled, shaking the buildings all he way to their bones, leaving Sora and his friends struggling to remain upright as the crowd that had appeared temporarily quickly disappeared from whence they came. There was a deep, ethereal roar that exploded directly underneath the trio, the platform shattering into mere shards of itself; Sora, Donald, and Goofy went flying in multiple directions, and Sora had to twist very creatively as pieces of burning timber dislodged from the buildings and tried to fall on him. One did manage to clip his shoulder, and he grunted as he finally landed on the ground, rolling and flipping until he at last got his feet underneath him.

From the ruins of the platform, a giant Heartless appeared, earth still flying off its stony structure, yellow glowing eyes raking over the square looking for targets as its giant forepaws scratched and pawed the earth around it, its emblem clearly visible on its chest.

A moment of awe passed before Sora shook his head and willed his Keyblade into his good hand. "Donald!" he shouted to where the duck had landed on the steps of the cathedral. "See if you can put out the fires, then help Esmeralda! Goofy, Quasi, and I'll handle the Heartless!"

"Okay!" the mage squawked, sprinting up the steps and disappearing into the beautiful building. Quasimodo slid elegantly down to Sora's side, having appeared from the roofline of Notre Dame.

"Kyrie Eleison," Quasimodo murmured, standing taller than he ever had before. The hunchback had hit his limit.

The bells of Notre Dame hummed at first, before ringing louder and louder, their curved shapes swinging back and forth, back and forth. Quasimodo was at home with them, leaping from one to another, yanking ropes to make them ring louder. Sora got into the act as he followed his friend, pulling on ropes himself, until he got the idea to use his Keyblade like a clappers of the bells. And so, Quasimodo took aim and Sora struck the bell with all the strength he could muster, sending a cacophony of audio shockwaves at the creature, the vibrations echoing and resonating of its earthen structure. Quasimodo took aim and Sora struck again, and again, and again, watching and feeling the strength of the Heartless deplete with the string of attacks.

Then, the hunchback pulled out the mother of all bells, Big Marie, and once again aimed it, like a cannon; Sora took only a moment to marvel at the bell's size and weight, before honoring the occasion and putting on Tifa's Keychain, Fenrir, and giving it a mighty strike. The blast sent both of them reeling back, digging their feet into the ground for purchase before they chanced a look up. The Heartless must have lost easily half its strength to the onslaught, and just as it crashed to the ground, Goofy, dwarfed by the size of the creature, spun up in a tornado to keep the pressure on.

Depleted of magic, Sora and Quasimodo ran up to join him, Sora leaping high into the air and swinging his colossal Keyblade. His shoulder was burning, still injured from the timber and strained with his helping the bell ringer, but he pressed on, knowing there would be time to heal once his magic was back.

The shockwaves were limited in that they only affected the ground. Goofy and Quasi were hard pressed to jump over them in time, as neither could remain airborne for nearly as long as the seemingly lighter-than-air Sora as he strung a relentless series of hits against the Heartless. Its rock-like skin proved to be very thick, even to magic as a stray ice bolt from Donald would hit the creature and barely cause a dent. The bells had done significant damage, but regular hits didn't seem nearly so powerful. Sora took a moment to leap backwards and simply study the creature, looking to the Keyblade to point out where its weakness might be.

"Somebody come quick!!"

All thoughts were suspended when Sora realized that Goofy was in trouble. He found the dog flying in the air, having failed to time another shockwave and, after rolling to a stop, struggling to get up. That the Heartless was rearing up on its hind legs, yellow eyes glowing, did not bode well, and he dashed as fast as he could to his dear friend.

"Give me strength!" he shouted to someone, anyone, that he would make it in time. Goofy disappeared into a red light, shimmering towards him, just as a white-blue blast erupted from the maw of the Heartless, hitting Sora just as Valor started to make contact. His shoulder made a horrible popping noise and suddenly it wasn't Sora.

At first glance everyone thought it was a Shadow, it was so dark, it twitched and had a manic, slightly insane grin tugging at its mouth, it's eyes were golden, and it pranced forward on all fours. It was Quasimodo who recognized the shape as Sora's. The creature, whatever it was, leapt up, lightning fast, and clawed at the Heartless, thrusting, grappling, kicking, a vicious and visceral onslaught that was almost too much to watch.

The Shadow-Sora leapt up and raked its claws all over the rocky Heartless, leaving finger-deep gouges in its tough hide, climbing even as the Sora-shaped entity continued to fight, kicking and punching its way up to the monster's head. There, the Shadow-Sora took a bite out of the creature, right underneath the golden eye that so looked like the Anti-Sora's own. The Heartless shrieked, and with a wicked flick of its head, tossed the Shadow back. Quasimodo watched as the Shadow-Sora landed lithely on its feet, and quickly galloped back to the Heartless to inflict more damage.

The hunchback was greatly disturbed by what he was witnessing, and could only run forward, not all together certain what he could do. "Sora! "

The Anti-Sora spun its night-black head around, the yellow eyes fierce and strangely hungry, but the smile faded and the creature seemed to jerk back, as if struck, arching into the air before red light engulfed it and Sora, the real Sora, and Goofy toppled onto the cobblestone. Quasimodo dashed up to them. Goofy was already shaking cobwebs out of his head before turning quickly to his still companion.

"Sora!" Quasimodo called again, putting a massive but gentle hand on the boy.

The child's eyes snapped open, his eyes intensely blue, and sucked in a sharp, almost desperate breath before wincing and rolling over.

"Ugch," he gurgled. "What happened?"

"I don't know," the bell ringer answered quickly, dragging the boy out of range of the rampaging Heartless. "There was light, and then you were this black thing and..."

"Anti-Form," Goofy said, nodding in understanding. "Yuh didn't have a clear idea what you wanted, did ya?"

"No," Sora murmured, working his way to his feet. "I just wanted to get you out of there, out of danger, out of the way..."

"A-hyuck, thanks pal," Goofy offered, "but Donald and Merlin have told ya over and over that yuh gotta know which form you're pulling for when you want one, remember; otherwise things go all screwy."

"I know," Sora said, his voice stronger. "I know. I'm sorry." He finally straightened and turned fully to Quasimodo. "I'm sorry," he said more deliberately, "I didn't mean to worry you." Slowly, his lifted his Keyblade over his head. "Heal!" Green, leafy vines encircled the trio, and yellow bell-like flowers glittered over their heads, washing away their injuries.

Sora rolled his injured shoulder; now back to normal. "Let's try this again," he said, a determined grin tugging at his face. Once more, the three leapt into battle.

Dashing forward, he switched Keychains again, this time putting on Leon's Lionheart. The power was more balanced, and with it Sora had a slightly easier time chipping at the rocky Heartless. He tried out a few spells, but the monster's rocky shell still only took minimal damage, even with a lightning bolt, and so Sora focused instead on the physical attacks. The Heartless reared up again, but this time Sora didn't try to think, he just reacted.

Leaping up, the Keyblade master darted up the enormous body of the Heartless and gripped a particular horn on its nose. From there, he swung around in a circle before stabbing his Keyblade deep into the animals mouth, effectively performing a guard just as the creature began to release it's energy attack; it worked, and the beam bounced back into its mouth, disappearing until a deep rumble exploded deep in the Heartless' chest. The creature toppled forward, Sora landing gracefully in front of it, stunned.

It was the break they needed. Its defenses down, fighters' blows were much, much more effective, and Sora could sense that the damage was much larger now than when the creature was completely conscious. The three powerhouses inflicted an enormous amount of damage on the Heartless, between Sora's Keyblade, Goofy's tornados and his blind charges and his Frisbee technique, and Quasimodo's sheer strength. It did not last, however, but as the rocky Heartless knocked them back, Sora now knew what to look for. Instead of getting up in the creature's face, he hung back, casting Thundaga's and Blizzaga's occasionally, waiting for the creature to rear up again. When it did, Sora repeated his earlier reaction, darting up it's massive body and swinging around it's snout in order to be in the right place to guard against the beam as it tried to escape its mouth. It successfully stunned the creature again, and Sora happily pounded on the creature with the other two.

Finally, in the middle of an aerial combo, the Heartless shot its head up and gave a great wail, before bits of light decomposed and it's trapped heart floated harmlessly up into the air.

Sora waited until he could see the heart no longer, before letting out a massive breath. "Whew!" he panted, wiping his forehead.

Looking around, Sora saw that the fires had gone out; the last of the smoke dissipating into the air while the crystal blue sky began to reappear. For all the flames, the damage appeared to be minimal at best. From the cathedral a small crowd burst forward: Donald, of course, followed by Phoebus and Esmeralda hand in hand, the spindly Clopin, the archdeacon, and the three gargoyles, all giving various cried of "You did it! You did it!"

Needless to say, many, many hugs followed.

Sora was beginning to think he'd be buried in bodies, but when things finally settled down and the cheering quieted, something he'd been half expecting happened.

Quasimodo noticed it first, the woven band that doubled as a map of the city started burning in his tunic, and he pulled it out questioningly, not sure what it meant. Sora did, though. "May I see it?" he asked politely.

The band floated lightly up into the air, releasing a column of bright light. It was instinct after that. Sora closed his eyes, Keyblade in both fists, as Riku's symbol, the crown of Oblivion, carved itself in light at Sora's feet, and Kairi's symbol, the thassala shell of Oathkeeper, beat in his pocket. He swung his Keyblade and aimed, and a Keyhole appeared, the distinctive clicking of something opening filling the crowd's ears as the light finally dissipated.

"What... What...?" was all anyone could muster.

Sora turned around, a relieved and happy smile on his face. "A new road has opened," he said simply, "bringing everyone closer."

Pheobus and Esmeralda glanced at each other; neither one particularly shy but neither one particularly bold either. It was Quasimodo who limped forward and put their hands together. It was all the prompting they needed, and they respectively crushed each other in a kiss. Everyone around them looked more than a little embarrassed, and Sora quickly stuttered for an excuse of conversation as he turned, beat read, to Quasimodo.

"Uh, yeah, uh, the whole reason we came here," he started, "We're looking for our friends, Riku and Kairi, and King Mickey. Riku has silver hair and a bad attitude, Kairi has kind of a reddish hair and really nice eyes..." Sora turned an even deeper shade of red, "and King Mickey, he has a Keyblade like mine."

The three gargoyles looked amongst each other, as did Quasimodo, but finally he turned a sad face to Sora. "I've been looking out over this city all my life, and I haven't seen anyone who fits that description."

The disappointment was instantaneous, deep, and incredibly strong; it pressed heavily on Sora's heart, threatening to drag him down to his knees but, he turned at looked at the still-kissing Esmeralda and Phoebus, looked at the dancing Clopin and the crowds of people that were refilling the city, the life he had seen when he first landed being restored, and Sora couldn't feel the disappointment for long. He'd done some good, at least, and that was what mattered.

"Okay then," he said, forcing a smile on his face until it felt more genuine. "We'll be heading off, then, we'll see you around, alright?"

Quasimodo smiled, nodding. "Don't wait too long."

"We won't," Sora said, waving as he turned with Donald and Goofy and headed back to the secluded alley where they could board the Gummi ship.

There were other worlds to explore, after all.

The End