Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. This applies to all chapters from here on. I also credit the writer of Ikurx, as it's an awesome story and I somewhat based my reason for them entering the castle on the same reason as the writer of Ikurx; it's nowhere near a rip off of Ikurx, but I'm mentioning it just so I won't be called on it and accused of plagiarism.

I started this fic on Monday, August 17, 2009, so not everything (as in much of the main plot points) here follows canon, but were not too far-fetched at the time and actually ended somewhat accurate; though I have gone back through this story many times (it's one of my favorites to reread, err, I mean, edit and proofread) and have made some changes to accommodate recent canon developments such as only referring to Mickey as a Keyblade Master.

Also, please ignore the Cornerstone of Light, I was planning on doing something with it, but I couldn't fit it in.


The three looked in horror at what had become of Disney Castle, Keyblades hanging limply at their sides. The once pristine palace was now tinged gray under the dark clouds hovering in the sky above it; Heartless covered the entire area surrounding it, even more were undoubtedly within the now tainted grand structure. "H-how could this happen?"

The king shook his head slowly, "I just don't know, Sora."

"But your majesty, in the letter you didn't make it sound so bad." Kairi said in despair. Pluto nudged against her leg in an attempt to comfort her; she smiled weakly and bent down to hug him, "Thanks Pluto." She said petting him and the dog licked her face, pulling a more sincere smile from her.

"It wasn't near this bad when I wrote the letter. I'd only had reports and a bad feeling."

"Is everyone alright?" Sora asked concerned, "Where's Goofy and Donald?"

"They're with Minnie and Daisy at Radiant Garden, but they're not able to join us. I sent them there before I realized the full extent of the damage and it's not going to be safe enough to send them a message for a good while."

"So what's the plan, Mickey?" Riku asked.

"Since when has he called him that?" Sora wondered aloud but the question was ignored.

"We don't know much about the enemy, but I'm pretty sure the throne room's where we'll find the source."

"How do you know?"

"That's where a hidden master control panel for the castle's surveillance system is installed in case of emergencies. The Heartless somehow caused all the vital areas of the circuitry to malfunction before we could detect their presence in the castle and employ necessary precautions."

"Wouldn't electricity magic be the most likely cause?"

"That's the thing, we were sure to make it resilient to that kind of stuff."

"Darkness?"

"Sora," Kairi began, "One of the main purposes for the system was to protect against attacks and only people using darkness would force access to the Castle."

He scratched the back of his head, "Oh yeah, that makes sense. I guess I kinda jump to the darkness conclusion pretty quickly, don't I?"

"Though you're usually right when you do; no, they must have disabled it using a different method. It was only recently installed when I first left and only I know the password."

Riku raised an eyebrow, "And you didn't tell your own wife?"

The king blushed and coughed embarrassedly, "I kinda forgot."

"Then what they use to cause the malfunction?"

"Well," Riku said stretching, "there's only one way to find out."

"I'm guessing that's us just fighting our way through starting from the front door." Kairi said with an eyebrow raised.

"Pretty much."

Sora grinned, "I like that plan."

"That's because it's simple enough for even you to understand." Riku said smirking. Sora childishly stuck his tongue out at him.

"Pluto will stay here in town with this letter in case anyone shows up by chance to help us out." The king handed Kairi an envelope to tie to the dog's collar.

"Okay, let's go!"

— — — — — — —

The image of Sora lifting his Keyblade for emphasis shone from screens located in the previously abandoned Castle Oblivion, "Well, well, well, what have we here?"

"It appears the king had taken early precautions and summoned the Keybladers before we launched our fullscale attack." The reply issued from the speakers of a communication line recently established with the newly conquered Disney Castle, "What action do you suggest?"

The man thought for a second, "All three you say? Tell me a little bit more about them, Rould."

"Well, I might have to double-check with Lea, but I know that Sora is the Keyblade bearer of the Kingdom Key for the Realm of Light and Riku wields both light and darkness-hold on, one moment." There was a pause on the line and some conversation the man couldn't make out, due to the mediocre sound quality of the connection caused by being from a only newly hacked into computer system, followed by an exclamation and the rustling of papers.

A cheeky voice with a constant undertone of insolence flowed through the line, "Heya Evey! How ya doin'? Gone blind yet?"

"Lea? Why are you on instead of Rould? And it's Even!"

"Well our dear crumpet is a teensy bit indisposed at the moment, as I just showed him the stuff I found while in the library serving dust duty for pissing off Shorty. Apparently there's more to the Keybladers than we originally thought. It seems we have a Princess of Heart on our hands." Even could just envision that Cheshire Cat grin spanning Lea's face.

"I'll have to consult Braig, for now capture them."

A short scuffle was heard then Rould's voice filtered out from the speakers. "And the mouse?"

"Separate him from them, he's a hindrance—while he might be the Keyblade Master of the Kingdom Key for the Realm of Darkness, he may know how to hack his own castle if he's allowed too close to any equipment. His capture is not worth the risk at the current point but there may be a possibility of another opportunity for his capture and study of his blade presenting itself."

"You got it, Evey!"

The man could almost see the two at the other end shoving each other to regain control of the microphone, this notion was enforced by a grunt and Rould's voice emitting from the speakers, "We'll keep you updated." The line went dead and Even sighed.

Looking back to the screen, the man saw the Keybladers had begun their assault on the castle.

— — — — — — —

The four reached a three-way fork, "Which way should we go?" Riku asked the king.

"Well, fellas, the center route splits again not too far in; so if each of us takes one path, we should reach the throne room at roundabouts the same time as at least one other person. Depending on the number of Heartless, that is."

"I can take the right hall." Kairi offered, "Call me lazy, but I don't feel like deciding on taking a different direction too soon. Could lead to regret, ya know?"

Mickey nodded, "Then I'll take the left. Sora, Riku, you can head straight until the next fork."

"You got it." Despite their confidence, as they split up the four Keybladers had a feeling deep down that all was not as it seemed.


One should probably have noticed but this story suffers from time to time from NaNoWriMo Syndrome, a condition in which more words than terribly necessary are used, such as 'Keyblade bearer of the Kingdom Key for the Realm of Light' and the like.

I also apologize if Mickey doesn't seem to speak the way he should, I'm not so good at writing accents, just speech patterns like the use or lack of contractions to convey how a person talks. This is also why I left Donald and Goofy out, how in the world was I supposed to write them speaking? Plus, I don't really like to deal with the Disney characters—it feels kinda wrong to mess with the characters that practically defined my childhood. (Plus Ursula has the creeper-ness all covered, have you seen her leading up to and during 'Poor Unfortunate Souls'?)

On a side note, sorry Mickey, Donald, Goofy, but Kairi has the best Disney friend in my opinion. Pluto for the win!