This chapter is gonna be a bit shorter, but it was the only way I could save it from being about forty pages long. The next chapter will be around thirty pages. Anyway, onward!

Chapter 4: New Developments

On one of the Star Destroyers around the world Disney Castle...

Captain Piett stood on the bridge as Grand Moff Tarkin approached.

"They got away," Piett reported.

"Was the homing device secure onboard the small vessel they used to land?" Tarkin asked.

"Yes sir," Piett replied. "However, I believe that the boy Riku discovered the tracking device. We found three men slaughtered near where the ship had landed. After examining their wounds, we have reason to believe Riku killed them."

"And the tracking device?"

"Still operating sir, but-"

"But what then?" Tarkin asked angrily, whirling on Piett. "If the tracking device is secure, then how will we not find where the Castle went?"

"Riku doesn't know where the device is yet," Piett answered. "Or he is leaving it on purposely to lure us into a trap."

"WHAT DOES IT MATTER?!?"

"That he didn't go with the Castle," Piett replied, wiping a bit of spit off his face. "He plotted his own course."

Tarkin didn't respond for a while. Then, he said, "Very well. Go report our-... your failure to Lord Vader on his ship."

"Ye... Yes sir," Piett said nervously, and, with a quick bow, walked off the bridge, an cloud of dread surrounding him.

In Sora's chambers on Disney Castle...

Sora woke abruptly from his light sleep. He had dreamed about something... What was it?... He couldn't remember. He shrugged, stretched out on his bed and looked at the ceiling. His room was nothing more that a small circle with stone walls and a bed. There was a small wardrobe and a door that lead to a bathroom.

It was then that Sora realized that his clothes, toothbrush, and DS were on the Mabrik. Along with his best friend.

To sum it up, it sucked to be Sora right then.

In Kairi's chambers on Disney Castle...

Kairi had just come to the same realization as Sora. Her room was just the same as Sora's except for the fact that it had a small square window that looked out on the Castle's courtyard. She opened the door to her wardrobe and was shocked. It was filled to the brim with pants and tops. And there were a few other cabinets inside that contained... well... more private stuff.

Well, that certainly made life easier.

"Hello!"

"GGHHAAA!!"

Kairi screamed at the voice from no where. "Who... who's there?"

"Up here!"

Kairi looked up. The top of her wardrobe had a face.

Oh. Well then.

"Uh... you're a wardrobe," Kairi said, staring dumbly at the face.

"Well, I hope you're right or otherwise I think I've gone crazy!" the wardrobe replied with a laugh. It... er... had a female voice, so... she?

"Yeah..." Kairi said with a nervous chuckle. She almost said, "I'm sure I've gone crazy," but she kept her mouth shut.

In the courtyard...

Max and Goofy walked somewhat bleakly down a long hall of the corridor of the castle, gazing out the window at the endless reaches of the cosmos.

"Dad?" Max looked up at his father.

"Yeah?"

"Did Mickey say that we were going to Radiant Garden? You know, where Leon and all those other people live?" Max left out the fact that there were lots of Heartless.

"Well, yeah. Why, you want me to introduce you?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah... sure," Max answered. Goofy didn't notice when Max sighed.

Meanwhile, in the World that Never Was...

Finally. Maleficent had found and captured a huge castle that was teaming with Heartless. She had a huge army behind her. She had Pete, even if he was useless. Oh, she was ready to take over the worlds.

... Ready as ever.

... Any day now.

Oh yeah, she was stranded.

That complicated things.

Corridors of Darkness didn't work for her because she was already in the dark realm. So she was stuck.

But since when had little issues like that ever gotten the 'Mistress of All Evil' down?

"Pete!" Maleficent yelled to her bumbling assistant. They were in a new computerized room of their own creation.

"Yes, your evilness?" Pete asked, looking up from the jumble of cables he was trying to untangle.

"Is the device ready yet?"

"Almost. You can't rush perfection!" Pete said with a bit of a sing-song tone.

"I'm not rushing perfection. I'm rushing you!"

"Hey, I'm doing this as fast as I can, but a device like this takes a while to finish!" Pete replied, flustered.

"Just finish it! I'm getting impatient! The worlds have yet to taste the true darkness!"

"Hey Maleficent? What is this, uh, Bliss of Heart thing anyway?" Pete asked.

"That concerns you not," Maleficent replied snottily. "Your job is to get me off this world. Then you will be informed of our bigger mission."

Pete sighed but didn't have a choice but to keep on working on the large computer-like device which Maleficent had tasked him with building.

Back on Disney Castle...

Sora walked slowly through the halls of Disney Castle towards where Mickey had told him Kairi's room was. Maybe he could hang out with her for a bit to get his mind off of-

Uh... wow.

Kairi was walking through the hall towards him, but she wasn't in her usual pink and white attire. She was decked out in a lose white tank top that exposed her belly-button, with her hair tied back in a ponytail. The look was fluidly accompanied by blue jeans and black sneakers.

Sora prayed his mouth was closed. Apparently it wasn't, because Kairi reached for him and gently closed his slack jaw.

"Um... where did you get the clothes?" Sora asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"They were in my wardrobe," Kairi replied.

"Didn't Riku have our clothes and stuff?"

"Yeah, but my wardrobe is a magic wardrobe," Kairi answered as if it was the most normal thing ever.

"...Right," Sora said slowly, discretely scanning Kairi's body. "It looks... uh... looks good."

"Thanks," Kairi said with a little smile.

"Attention all passengers," Dale's voice sounded over the loudspeaker. "I just want you to know that I have emerged victorious from a burping contest against Chip, Donald and Lady Daisy!"

"YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT OVER THE LOUDSPEAKER!!" Daisy's voice echoed through every corner of the Castle, forcing Sora and Kairi to cover their ears.

"We're approaching Radiant Garden -stop stepping on me Donald!!- and ask that you prepare yourselves to disembark. If you want to of course," Chip said as sounds of fighting broke out. "Gummi Control Hanger Crew out!" he finished just as Donald said some less that decent things and the announcement ended.

"Back to Radiant Garden," Sora murmured.

"Maybe Leon and the others have found something on the Princess of Heart reincarnation thing," Kairi reminded him.

"Hopefully."

Meanwhile, in Radiant Garden...

Things were not going so well for the Restoration Committee.

Aerith's flu was worsening, and she was stuck in bed.

Leon had locked himself inside his house and wouldn't come out. Emo jerk.

And just when Cid and Tron thought they had found a file on the Princesses, they had discovered that it was only available to one user.

"One-hundred munny it's that son of a gun Xehanort's user," Cid muttered.

"Why do you think it's him?" Yuffie asked from the table as Cid and Tron tried to breach the seventh level of encryption guarding the password. Yuffie had only been mildly interested in their exploits and had been caught up in a game of Solitaire.

"This has got his stink all over it," Cid replied. "We've found tons of files recently but they've all been blocked off because of a user barrier. We've been able to access every single one of the old users but one. Our guess is it's Xehanort's, because a bunch of the files were on Darkness and the Princesses and Doors and stuff."

"That could just be the Door to Darkness program," Yuffie said.

"No way," Cid relied. "Just the titles of some of the files that we got a gander at before we were kicked out would make you want to throw up."

"Sounds gross," a new voice said.

Cid and Yuffie looked to the door to see a teenager who looked a little older than seventeen or eighteen. He had almost perfectly black hair that just came shy of his shoulders. He wore rectangle shaped glasses, the left lens of which was cracked a bit. His bangs fell over his right eye, making it a wonder that he could see at all. He had a soft but serious face that was lightly tanned, and his cheeks were covered with freckles. He was wearing a plain white tee-shirt with dirt and sweat smudges here and there. His cackey cargo pants looked a bit too big on him, and their pockets were just barely zipped up from being so full.

"Right then Jacob, what have you got for us?" Cid asked, turning to face the boy.

"First of all, Leon is still locked in his house," the boy, who's name must have been Jacob, replied. He, Cid and Yuffie all gave each-other looks that plainly said, "Big surprise there," before Jacob continued. "I stopped by Aerith's place; Merlin said she's getting worse. He had to put her under so she wouldn't over-excite herself."

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Yuffie asked.

"What ever it is, it ain't no flu, that's for sure," Cid replied before reaching into a drawer and pulling out a fat cigar.

"The gummi ship you tasked me with supervising is almost complete," Jacob said, this time directed exclusively at Cid. "Uh, would now be a good time to ask if you looked at my blueprint yet?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the 'Mobile R.Q.'..." Cid muttered, lighting his cigar. "That thing is huge! You would have to use, like, what, 150 blocks to build that thing?"

"186 exactly sir," Jacob corrected.

"Precisely what I ment," Cid said. "So why in the world should I waist every last little bit of munny we have in our coffers to build a ship that large?"

"Because if we discover that the worlds that are being destroyed are being destroyed in a pattern-," Jacob started.

"And you would know about the worlds being destroyed how?" Cid asked, his eyes suddenly flaring.

"You told me to make the Restoration Committee's operations my operations. So even if I'm not part of the Committee, you technically said that I could spy-... attend the meetings."

"Damn. I hate it when you find loop holes..." Cid muttered.

"Back to the ship?" Yuffie suggested.

"Right..." Cid said, sitting up in his seat. "Why should we build your huge-huge-huge-huge-huge ship?"

"Because if there is some way to predict which world will be attacked next, then we could use this my ship to get people on and off worlds before whatever the mysterious power is strikes," Jacob answered quite smartly.

"Huh," Cid muttered. "Well since you put it that way, I'll consider."

"And it would also make me extremely happy just to see one of my creations leave the computer and fly in the real world," Jacob blurted out.

"Yeah, whatever," Cid said, waving his hand and turning back to the computer.

"Dang it," Jacob thought. "If I hadn't said that, he would probably be setting it up right now..."

"Oh!" Jacob cried out. "And, uh, if we bring people from other worlds here, then that would increase our tax income!"

Oh, music to Cid and Yuffie's ears.

In space over the world formerly known as Disney Castle...

Grand Moff Tarkin was standing on the bridge as usual when Captain Piett walked up.

"So?" Tarkin asked with a little evil smirk. "How did it go?"

"Well, first I explained in detail what happened here to Lord Vader," Piett replied. "Then the meeting was interrupted when one of my men had an urgent message. You will recall how all the spy-bots in Disney Castle were destroyed?"

"I remember," Tarkin answered.

"One of them survived."

Tarkin wheeled on Piett. "What?!?"

"It was in the dungeons, so deep underground that we couldn't pick up any messages," Piett started. "But as the Castle mobilized and left the surface, we regained contact. The spy-bot sent us pictures. It sent us several pictures before the ship left the system, and thus, our range." Piett reached into a small pouch that had been slung over his shoulder. "These are the pictures." He drew them out and thrust them at Tarkin. The old man took them and quickly started flipping through. "The pictures show the hanger, which is also the ship's control room. The pictures which we collected were invaluable."

Tarkin came to the last one. "I see nothing so special."

"Not until we use zoom on the control room pictures. They reveal the exact coordinates of the world which they are traveling to. Recordings state that it is Radiant Garden, the one which we filmed that King and his Queen conversing upon."

"So we have the coordinates to where they flew," Tarkin said, his face showing a hint or two of shock.

"Quite right sir," Piett replied. "And since the spy-bots in the Castle was my idea, I informed Lord Vader."

"What did he say?" Tarkin asked.

"That I now have command of this operation and you are removed to the 'Death Star' project. Effective immediately."

Tarkin scowled, but said, "You can inform Lord Vader that I will be far away from this world before the hour is out."

Grand Moff Tarkin stalked off without another word.

Again, not too much action. But we got to see Maleficent and Pete, so I hope that suffices.

If you are wondering where Jacob is from, you can stop. He is my character, and I own him. THAT'S RIGHT!!! I'M CLAIMING SOMETHING INSTEAD OF DENYING I OWN IT!!!

Wait... I already said I owned Captain Sienex... Ah, whatever.