Sorry for the wait. I finally got this part finished! Enjoy! And please leave comments!

I couldn't believe it's already been a year since we first discovered Kingdom Hearts. When we first got home, Derek, my brother, acted like it was all a dream, but everyone knew better. We traveled to Kingdom Hearts and ended up fighting to protect it. Annie, my sister, was relieved that we got Merlin's Talisman over with, and I agree with her. It was so hard finding all the ingredients, not to mention activating it when I couldn't even get hold of it. Mom's just happy she didn't end up with Kanapar, "the most powerful wizard of both worlds." It turned out he had a huge crush on Mom and was willing to kill anyone who got in his way to make her his wife. What made me loath him even more was the fact that he summoned millions of heartless to kill us all. I can often hear his last words echoing in my mind; "I'll be back…"

"Hey, Kiara!" Annie's words snapped me out of my thoughts. "Can you help me with a spell? It's a level two, and Mom won't help."

"You broke my chain of thought for that?" I snapped at her, perfectly annoyed. "You're still a level one witch, level two's too hard."

"Oh, come on. Please?"

"No, absolutely not. I've had enough witch training for today." I knew that was a bad excuse for not helping my sister, but I was too irritated to care.

Annie, though, knew what was wrong. "You can't get a hold of anyone in Kingdom Hearts, right?"

"No. Kairi said she'd call me tomorrow and get me caught up on news there. Tomorrow was three months ago. I wish that she'd just hurry up and call." As if on cue, my communication necklace starts "ringing." I immediately grab it and rub it (as that's the only way to turn it on). "Kairi?"

"Uh, no, Alice," I heard the person on the other end say.

"What are you calling for? I'm waiting for Kairi! Why doesn't she call anymore like she used to?" I was about ready to hang up.

"We need you to come back tonight. It's been a year since you guys left, and already we have a major issue on our hands. Please come ASAP. It's very important."

Already I sensed danger. "Should I bring anybody?" I asked, staring at my sister playing Kingdom Hearts II.

"No, well, not if you need to. Just make sure you bring the keyblade and your sister's box of cards."

"What? I can't take my sister's cards! I'll lose them!" I heard the doorbell ring. "I gotta go. Call you soon." I "hang up" the necklace by giving it a tap. "Come in!" The door opened to reveal my best friend, Briana. "Briana, what are you doing here?"

"I thought you said I could come over to study," she said in a surprised tone. I totally forgot I promised to study with Briana for the big test tomorrow.

"I'm so sorry, but something's come up and I can't study tonight. I'm sorry."

She glared at me. "Another family thing? You've been getting lots of those since last year. I think I know why, though."

Annie and I exchanged nervous glances. "You do?" I said in a weak voice.

"Yeah. You don't want to be my friend but you never say anything. I thought we told each other everything."

'That's not true,' I thought. 'I just don't want to reveal my secret yet.' "No, wait," I blurt out. "It's not that. I really like being your friend, but I can't study right now. How about next time?"

"That's what you always say. I'm leaving." Before she left, she noticed my bracelet with the keyblade attached. "When did you get this?"

'Oh, no,' I thought. "I got that last year as a gift from my grandma," I finally said.

She glared at me again. It was really starting to creep me out. "I thought your mom doesn't let you get Kingdom Hearts stuff. Now I see everything as Kingdom Hearts bracelets, games, costumes, even someone who looks like Alice outside the window."

I froze with fear. "A-Alice is r-right outside th-the window?" I stuttered. This was so very bad. I couldn't let my best friend know about this. I turn my head around. Sure enough, Alice was peering in through the window. Annie left the room so that she didn't have anything to do with this. "Oh, snap. Uh, Briana, you should probably leave now."

"What? No way. Not until I find out what's going on around here. Hey, stop pushing!" I pushed her out of the house before she says anything else about the subject. I rush over to the window and let Alice in, making sure Briana wasn't watching.

"Alice, what do you think you're doing? You almost cost me a friendship."

"Sorry, but it was very urgent that I come. Why did you hang up on me? I wasn't done."

"You call me right before my best friend comes over, and then you show up when she's still there? What kind of a friend are you?"

"I'm sorry. If it makes you happy, I'll leave and take care of the curse myself." She was about to leave when we heard a knock at the door. "On second thought," she whispered, "I'll hide." She squeezed herself behind the TV set. I opened the door and Briana was still there.

"Look," she started, "before you say anything else, I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"I've gotta…huh? What do you mean, 'I'm sorry?'" I was confused.

"I got really mad at you all because I never knew about this stuff, and it made me feel that I was losing a close friend. From now on, let's promise to tell each other the truth."

I thought for a moment. "Sure, come on in." In my head I was thinking, 'What the heck am I doing?'

"But, I thought you couldn't study. Why are you letting me in?"

"Because I'm gonna tell you my biggest secret." I led her into the family room. "Bri…I'm a witch." I pulled Alice out for the next thing I was going to say. "I'm from Kingdom Hearts. This entire family is."

Briana stared at Alice. "Alice is real?" she half-whispered. She shook her head. "Wait, you say you're a witch from Kingdom Hearts?"

I nodded. "I didn't want anyone to know just yet. That's why I didn't tell you anything. I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. And it explains a lot."

"I don't mean to be rude," Alice interrupted, "but we have to take care of a really bad curse that's overcome Kingdom Hearts, so Kiara has to go now." She grabbed my wrist and started for the door.

"Wait!" Briana cried. We stopped in our tracks. "Can I help?" She made the puppy dog pout she uses to get people to help her, give her something, or let her do something (like stay up an extra half hour sometimes on school nights). The puppy dog pout is irresistible. We had no choice but to give in. "Yay! I finally get to use my martial arts for real!"

"Oh," Alice said gloomily. "This is a magic curse. Martial arts isn't going to really help." Briana frowned. I stepped into the conversation.

"But there might be a way you can help," I shared. "I don't know how, but maybe once we get there we might find a way." Briana smiled and threw her arms around my neck.

"Thank you so much, Kiara!" My lungs were quickly deprived of air and started to shrivel up from the lack of air and my face started turning blue.

"Choking, not breathing," I choked out. She quickly released her arms, allowing me to breathe again. "Thank you," I gasped as my lungs returned to normal. "Alice, get Annie and her cards. Briana, get me a glass of water." As Alice went down the hallway, Briana rushed into the kitchen, who returned quickly with a tall glass of fresh, cold water. I gulped it down as Annie and Alice joined us. "Okay. I'm better now. Alice, how did you get here?"

"I had to open up a portal that led to your house."

"So, if you created a portal, it should still be here, right?" Briana asked with an optimistic tone. Alice shook her head sadly.

"I opened one to get me here, not to stay here. I was hoping Kiara and Annie knew a way back." All eyes were on me.

"Don't look at me! I'm still a witch in training!" I shouted. Annie came running into the room. She was holding our grandma's book of spells.

"Boy, is this thing heavy!" she groaned as she handed it to me. "I overheard your conversation and thought this could help."

"Where'd you get it? Grandma isn't even here."

"I went into her room and swiped it. I'm sure grandma won't mind if we use it." She opened the book up and pointed to a spell. "Does this spell help at all?" I glanced at the spell. The spell talked of opening and closing portals.

"Yes! This should be able to help!" We all went outside into our backyard. I read the spell aloud. "Portal, portal, open here. Send us far or send us near. Portal, portal, close behind. So that there's no portal to find." Silver dust circled us, then came together in the trunk of the big tree in our backyard. The dust joined to form a silver portal. "Cool! Everybody jump in!" I jumped in first with everyone else following behind me. I pretended there was a board under me and started "surfing" through the silvery tunnel. It was fun! Soon, a wooden floor appeared below us. I crashed into it first, followed by Briana, Alice, and Annie (in that order). "Ow!" I moaned in agony. "Get off, get off, get off! You're gonna break my bones!" Everybody scrambled off me as I slowly stood up. I glanced around. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were staring at us. We crash-landed in their shop.

"You know, you could just use the front door," Huey said. "You didn't have to drop in." I gave a sarcastic glance at Huey's joke.

"Well, how else were we supposed to get here?" Briana asked. "We had to open a portal."

"No one ever asked you," Dewey snapped at her. He started squinting at her like he was trying to figure something out. "You don't look familiar. And we recognize everyone that comes into our shops. And you're not one of them."

"Uh, she's new around here," I butted in. "She's my friend from the mortal world." The three ducks gasped.

"A mortal?" they cried out at the same time. "Mortals aren't supposed to come here! That's why there are two different worlds! Let's get her!" They immediately charged for Briana. She really was a black belt, because she got them pretty good. A little too good. They had bad bruises and ruffled feathers all over. Louie dragged himself over to a button on the counter. He slammed his fist on it. A loud, and rather obnoxious, siren started blaring. Terrified, we ran out of the small shop and hid behind barrels as a rather large crowd rushed over to the shop.

"Oh, great," Alice whispered. "Now, we've got an angry mob after us."

"Technically, they're after Briana. Not us," Annie whispered back. Briana glared at her and gave a thanks-a-lot look. I peeked out from my barrel and saw the crowd splitting up. Some were heading our way.

"Everybody, duck down," I commanded. Everyone did. "And whatever you do, don't make a sound." We kept as silent as we could until everyone was gone. When the coast was clear, I stepped out first. No one was in sight. "Come on out." Everyone came out, all except for Briana. "Briana, please come out."

"No. I caused this whole fiasco, I'm ending it." I couldn't believe my ears.

"What? No, you're not. I thought you wanted to help."

"And I do. If that means turning myself in, then I'm willing to do it. Promise me you'll turn me in if I come out."

"I'm not gonna do this to my best friend. I told you my secret just like friends should and I'm not gonna let our friendship fall apart just because the world I'm from doesn't take kindly to pure mortals." My response was silence. "Briana? Are you there?" Still no response. I peeked behind the barrel she had been hiding behind, but instead of seeing my friend, I saw a black Shadow. "What happened to Briana?" I cried out as the Heartless attacked. I successfully dodged the attack, but Annie wasn't quick enough. As soon as she got hit, the Heartless disappeared. Alice rushed over to help Annie. Instead, Annie's hand shot out and grabbed Alice's wrist. An evil grin spread across her face. "Annie? What's gotten into you?"

"Don't you remember?" a terrifying voice said. I turned around. Right there in front of me was Kanapar. His clothes were as black as the Darkness he called upon last year. "Don't tell me the most powerful witch doesn't remember last year." I froze. "Ah, so you do remember."

"I do remember. You used the Heartless to turn everybody evil. If it failed last time, it'll fail this time."

"That's where you're wrong, Kiara. I already have your sister. All that's left is you, your brother, and grandmother, then I'll be the most powerful wizard of all!" He gave an evil laugh as I rolled my eyes.

"You? 'The most powerful wizard'? That'll be the day!"

"You think you know so much, yet you understand so little. You might be the most powerful, but you are not the most wise." He knocked me against a wall as Alice screamed in fear.

"What makes me the most powerful witch?" I groaned with pain.

"You do not even know what makes you so powerful. Let me explain it in the simplest way I can." He grabbed me by my shirt's collar, then hoisted me up in the air. "I was more skilled than you when you first came to Kingdom Hearts, yet when I casted a spell on you, you broke free of it. And it was a very powerful spell, too. No one has been able to break free from a very powerful spell before." He threw me to the ground. I hit my head hard against the wall. I stared up angrily at Kanapar as he gave an evil laugh. My anger grew more and more powerful by the second. "Once you're out of the way, I'll use the Seven Princesses of Light to open the heart of Kingdom Hearts, where my darkness will spread undefeatable." Before he could do anything, I used all my anger as energy as I unleashed a series of attacks, ranging from simple spells to devastating combos. I never stopped until he collapsed. I panted as I watched him struggling to stand up. I turned toward Annie. She had a look of shock on her face and she was still holding Alice's wrist. Poor Alice looked shocked, too. I was about to walk over to her when I got hit in the back of the head with something hard. The last thing I heard was Alice's screams and Kanapar's evil laughter. Then my vision went black. I woke up when icy cold water got splashed on me. I was in a room where everything was mainly red, except the bed that I was on, which was white. I looked around at the strange-looking people surrounding me. I got a splitting migraine. I placed my hands on my head.

"I don't think she's okay," I heard one of the people say. I didn't bother checking to see who it was.

"Well, what do you think? We saw her get attacked by that maniac," another replied. This time, I was curious to see who spoke. I took my hands away and looked around me. I didn't recognize any of the people. One was a girl with red hair, a white shirt, a purple skort (part skirt, part shorts), a black armband, and a few bracelets; another one was a dog in a green shirt, yellow pants, a green shield with a black Mickey Mouse face, white gloves, and a green-and-yellow hat; and the last one was a woman wearing a fancy yellow dress, yellow gloves that went up to her elbows, and brown hair that was pulled up in a fancy way. They were all smiling at me. My head hurt so bad I bent my head down low and groaned. "Are you ok?" the red-haired girl asked.

"Not really," I moaned in response. "I've got a very bad migraine." The dog held out a tall glass of water. I gave an unsure look at the glass, then at the dog.

"Don't worry," he said in a dorky kind of way. "It's just fresh water." I slowly stretched out my hand and curled my fingers around the cold, smooth surface. I slowly drew my hand back in as I tilted the glass towards my parched mouth. I gulped it down while I was trying to remember what happened. When the last drop had been sipped, I felt my migraine melt away a little. "Did it work?"

"A little. Thanks." I paused in deep thought, debating whether to ask them the one question nagging at me inside my head. I decided to ask. "I hope you don't mind me asking but…who are you guys?"

"You don't remember us, Kiara?" the lady in the yellow dress asked disappointedly. I stared in shock and horror. How did these people know me when I didn't know them?

"You all know me?"

"Of course we do," the red-haired kid said. "How could you not…. Oh, snap." The other two looked at her, waiting for her response. "That blow was a memory wiper. She doesn't remember anything."

"Remember what? What's going on?" I abruptly sat up, which wasn't a smart idea. A searing pain splurged into my side. I glanced and saw a deep cut that was bleeding. "Oh, this doesn't feel very good," I groaned. Everyone stared in horror. The kid ran to a nearby table, where she grabbed a blue jar with a single green leaf. She hurried back over to me, where she thrust the jar in my hands and told me to drink it all. I did and my cut went away. The pain subsided. "Thanks."

"No problem. You saved us last year, so it's the least I can do." I gave a confused look. "I forgot you don't remember. Sorry."

"No worries. But who are you guys?"

"I'm Kairi," the red-haired girl introduced.

"I'm Goofy," the crazy dog said.

"I'm Belle," the fancy lady explained.

"Oh, thanks. Uh, what's going on?"

"To make things short, there's a terrible curse on our world by Kanapar and we really need your help to break it," Kairi told me.

"My help? What can I do?"

"You don't remember it, but you defeated him before," Belle explained. "He wanted to rule both the mortal world and this world, but you foiled his plans."

"But how can I help?"

"You still have your bracelet, right?" Goofy asked. Without thinking, my hand dove into my right jean pocket, where I grabbed my bracelet and pulled it out. I was holding a woven bracelet with a small key with a gold handle and silver body. "Hey, there's something you remembered."

"What's so special about this bracelet, though?"

"That key is really the powerful Keyblade," Kairi took over. "It's used as a weapon, casting spells, activating Merlin's Talisman, and sealing worlds. It's disguised as a charm, but grows to full size when you need it."

"Whoa." There was an awkward silence. "What's this about a curse?"

"It's worse than last time," Belle worried. "Heartless appeared and attacked everyone. Anyone who was touched by them became instantly evil. That was just the beginning. Now, if anyone gets touched, they turn into a Heartless if they're not given the antidote in time."

"'Kay, this does not sound good."

"It wasn't then," Goofy explained. He seemed frightened about something. "You were the only one who broke free of his most powerful spell. No one even knows how. Now, he came back to get his revenge on you. The more that fall under his curse, the more powerful he becomes. But you don't even remember how you broke the spell last year."

"Well, she'll figure it out sooner or later," Kairi assured. Everyone looked at me. "We really need your help. Kanapar's already set out to spread his darkness amongst this world. We need your help to protect these worlds and stop Kanapar. Will you help?"

I fell silent. I just met these people and already they knew who I was and about something that happened last year. I wanted to say no, because I didn't know these people very well. But then I recalled that they said I got hurt in a way that wiped my memory. Maybe if I helped these people, I could recover my lost memory. I gave a small smile and nodded. "Sure. I'll help." I got off the bed (and good riddance, the bed was soaked from the splash of water). "Where do we start?"

"There are a whole bunch of worlds within this one big world, so we'd better get started," Belle said. "Follow us." I followed them out of the room, out of this hotel, and into another district of the place. I followed them to the tall, wooden doors on the other side of the district. "This is the first world you've arrived at, but we couldn't find the keyhole, so we'll come back to this one." Goofy pushed open the doors where a blinding flash of light appeared. I shielded my eyes from the light as I felt something underneath me. I was sitting on something. I removed my hands and saw what appeared to be an airplane cockpit. I was in the driver's seat, Kairi was on my right, Goofy was behind her, and Belle was behind me.

"Welcome aboard the Gummi Ship," Goofy announced. "This is how we get from one world to another. The worlds that are affected will appear dim, so we don't really know which world is which. But once a world is sealed from the Heartless, they'll appear brighter, so we'll be able to recognize it. Use the wheel to steer the ship and that yellow button to fire the guns. That green button to the right of the wheel fires the cannons (but only fire them when there are huge enemy ships), and that blue button to the left of the wheel initiates invisibility."

"Why am I doing this? If you know so much about it, why aren't you doing it?"

"Because it's more fun to watch someone drive when they're not experienced."

"Don't worry," Kairi said. "I'll help you whenever you get stuck."

"Thanks," I smiled as I faced the windshield. Thin, purple squares and small, yellow ovals started flying towards us. I felt horror and panic fill every empty spot in my body and my smile vanished. "What's that?"

"Those are Heartless ships," Belle pointed out. "You need to destroy those or they'll get backup. Then we're in trouble." I glanced at the buttons. Thanks to stress and panic, I couldn't remember which one fired the guns. I tried the blue button, which made us invisible to the Heartless.

"Oops. Wrong button." Now, it was down to yellow and green. One was for the guns and one was for the cannons. I squeezed my eyes shut as I pressed the yellow button. I heard a sound like something was exploding. I opened my eyes and saw all but one Heartless ship destroyed. I gave a sigh of relief. "I found the gun button." The one Heartless ship that wasn't destroyed grew bigger. Its guns shot with a bit more power than when it was smaller.

"Oh, snap," Kairi said in panic, her eyes wide open. "We've got ourselves an Exchanger."

"A what?"

"A type of Heartless ship that absorbs gunfire and cannon fire and uses it as energy. I read about it in a book, but I never thought we'd have to face one. And the book said that there's no sure way to defeat one." I glared at the Exchanger that was advancing toward us. Absorbs weaponfire, huh? There had to be a way to defeat one. But how? Ignoring the Exchanger, I steered the Gummi Ship away, doing a few flips by accident. Hey, I was still learning how to fly a Gummi Ship. Cut me some slack. Anyway, I steered us toward a blackened object.

"Here's an infected world," Belle announced as she and the other two straightened up in their seats. "Let's disembark here." I nodded my approval as I looked at the many buttons. I found a red one in the center of the dashboard that had "Disembark" over it in red letters. I pressed the button and relaxed as the ship lowered into the darkened world. It stopped, though, as it reached the surface, spitting us out. I thought we were gonna get swallowed by the darkness of the world and would be unable to escape. When we passed through the sky, though, everything changed from dark and gloomy to colorful and happy. We were in some sort of room.

"Bizarre," I gasped in awe. Half of the things in the room were 3-D, the rest was all 2-D. The many things found in the room were a grandfather clock, a bed, a fireplace, pictures on the wall, a chair against the wall, and a book. There was only one way out-and that was through the rather small door. I grabbed the doorknob and gave it a turn.

"Ow! Do you mind?" I let go and stepped back in shock. The doorknob spoke. "I was trying to get some sleep."