"I don't believe you," Prince Ecila says boredly, examining his black nails.

I frown, "But it's true! Your world is in trouble!"

He glances my way and sighs, "I highly doubt that. Lowland has never been involved witht he Light's Realm in all its history. Why would they bother us now? We've done nothing to them. So I don't believe you."

"Just.. Hear me out, Your Highness!" I try, "Please, what I say is true!"

He leans father back in his throne, his head hanging over the arm rest as he folds his hands across his stomach. As his tophat hits the ground I see the boy has white rabbit ears, and he orders one of the shadow people to hand the hat to him, and it does. He puts the hat over his face, "Start making sense, Light. You're boring me."

When he says I was boring him, the shadow people all turn and look at me. Feeling their gazes on me makes me nervous, "Look, Prince Ecila.. If my friends were here, they could tell you everything, show you proof.."

"And you cannot?" he asks.

I swallow, the shadows move closer to me. I try to keep my eyes on the little prince, "I.. Don't have the evidence with me."

He sits up, turning straight in his throne as he sets his hat back over his rabbit ears. He crosses his legs and grins at me, "Your friends are looking for a way here also, yes? We shall wait then. And while we wait, Light, please tell."

I swallow again as the shadows still move to surround us. Prince Ecila doesn't seem to notice this, but I do. The light within me recognizes the danger approaching. I can't attack though, that would lose me Prince Ecila's favor, and I can't afford to do that. I have to do my job while I wait for the others. I have to keep the prince interested, and get him to understand the danger his world is facing if H gets here.

"Well.. You see, there's this guy.. A guy in white.. He's trying to rid all worlds of darkness, he believes if only light remains, the worlds will be perfect," I start, "If he gets to this world, and destroys the darkness here, your world will cease to exist."

Prince Ecila frowns, "I see. And what do you think, Light?"

"I believe that the worlds of light and dark have to coexist in perfect balance. There can be no just light of just dark. And my name is Sora, Yoru Highness," I reply.

His smile is slow, and chilling, "Except for here, you mean? Soarah?"

I shiver, "I know the balance is different here. And.. My name is Sora, Your Highness. Ss-Ore-ah. Sora."

His smile grows and he leans back, "You know this, do you, Soarah?"

"I do. I understand the balance is different in this world; there's a small glimpse of light here, to maintain the original balance, and these worlds are overpowered in darkness. These worlds are where the original Heartless come from," I explain.

The prince tilts his head, "Original? Are there copies of our Heartless?"

I nod, "There are. A scientist called Ansem figured out how to use the balance of light and dark to create such creatures in our worlds. When he did, he opened rifts between here and there. So your heartless get into our world now. Or they used to through the Keyholes connecting all the worlds. The first copies have long since been gone."

He nods slowly, "How... Intriguing."

"Uh.. Could you please make the uh.. Shadows back up. I think they want to attack me.." I say.

Prince Ecila laughs, "Of course they do, you have light. They can sense it, even through that pendant you wear. It's a faint scent, but even I can catch it. And they might be responding to me. I don't do so well with... Boring people. I'm all 'Off with their heads!' You know?"

I shake my head quickly, "No, I don't know."

He chuckles and waves his hands and the shadows go back to painting white flowers purple. Prince Ecila smiles at me again, "Fell better? More at ease?"

"Yeah," I reply, As much as I can being in a world of darkness.

"Good," the prince nods, "Now, you said you had friends coming? Where are they? I do hate waiting, you know."

"I.. Didn't. I'm sure they'll be here any minute now," I reassure him, or myself.

He nods again, "Good. I hope they hurry up. I'm becoming quite bored again."

The shadows turn to me and I swallow. They return to work and I relax slightly. the Prince of Heartless doesn't seem to notice. I look around his courtroom and he eyes me wearily, "See something interesting?"

"This world.. It's... Different. it's not like anything I've really seen, and I've been to many, many worlds," I reply.

Prince Ecila nods, "So I see. I do hope my world doesn't strike you as evil. It isn't really. Of course, that depends on our depiction of evil itself."

I nod in return, "You're right. But no, I don't think this world is evil. It's just.. Well, dark."

He laughs, "I would hope so."

The first Prince of Heartless I meet, and he's not as bad as I thought the Darkened Seven would be.

"Sora!" I hear Kairi call to me and I stand, turning to her voice. When I stand and turn, I see Kairi waving to me as she and Aqua and Ven come running my way.

"Guys!" I call then over, then turn to Prince Ecila, "These are the friends I was telling you about."

My friends come to stand around me and we all face Prince Ecila as he bows to them, "I am glad you arrived safely. Welcome to Lowland, strangers," he sits back on his throne, smiling, "It seems we have many things to discuss. Do make yourselves comfortable. So says I, Prince Ecila of Lowland."

"It's good to meet you, Your Highness. I am Aqua," Aqua is the first to address the dark prince.

Ventus speaks with a shrug, smiling, "I'm Ventus, but I usually go by Ven."

"My name is Kairi," said princess smiles at Ecila as Ven had.

Prince Ecila nods at their introductions, and his eyes hold Kairi's gaze. He smiles slowly, "Well, well. Look what we have here. Such a great light shines bright against my dark world. You certainly do not belong here."

Kairi looks nervous, "Is it that obvious?"

"Afraid so, darling. It's almost as if you have no darkness in you at all," Ecila replies.

Kairi frowns, "That's.. Because I don't."

Ecila's eyes widen and he leans forward lightly, "Truly?"

At Kairi's nod, he leans back, smiling lightly, "So he rumors are true."

"Rumors?" Aqua asks, "What rumors?"

"I thought you people weren't involved with the Light Realm," Ven frowns slightly.

"We're not involved, but that doesn't mean others aren't. Anywho, the rumors; I heard of seven pure lights throughout that realm, I believe they are commonly called Seven Princesses of Light? Or was it Heart?" Prince Ecila replies, "Funny, that is. We, down here, refer to our darkest rulers as the Darkened Seven, or the Seven Princes of Darkness, or Heartless. Whichever one, really."

"Yes, the names are similar," Kairi says, "The Seven Princesses of Heart are the only ones in all the worldd to be void of darkness completely."

"As we are the only ones in all our worlds to be void of any light. Completely," Ecila chuckles, "Might I presume you, Miss Kairi, are one of those rumored princesses?"

I frown, He gets her name right but not mine? He was messing with me! I shake my head lightly, smiling slightly. He certainly is different. Kairi nods to answer Prince Ecila's question and his smile grows, "Isn't that... Quite intriguing?"

"Very.." Aqua frowns, watching Prince Ecila with narrowed eyes. What's she thinking? Prince Ecila stands suddenly, a strange smile on his lips. I don't know why, I can't figure it out, but I don't want to trust him. There's something about him that freaks me out. It could just be the fact that he's nothing but darkness, but... I don't want to trust him. Am I the only one who feels this way? I can't be..

The dark prince claps his hands once, "Well, is this all the information you can offer me about this figure in white that plans to destroy my world?"

Aqua stands, eyeing him dangerously, "Yes, for now."

Ventus stands with her, "What do you plan to do? Do you believe us?"

Kairi and I stand, but remain silent. Prince Ecila shrugs then, "I don't really know. It's so easy to say you're lying. And I do hate liars. After all, why would anyone bother to try and warn us of some light freak? We've never been warned before about the people from darkness attacking the light. Sure, we wouldn't help anyway, that's against our rules. Darks stays to dark and things stay the same. But when light turns to dark... Things change. I hate change."

I don't like this. This isn't going the way we planned. He's turning on us! Seeing something flicker through the prince's visible eye, I immediately summon my Keyblade. He's going to attack! When the familiar burst of light creates my weapon, the Shadows shriek and cower in shadows. Even the prince himself, moves behind his throne, out of the light. Kairi gasps, "Sora, it's glowing!"

I look at my blade and frown lightly at the bright glow covering my Kayblade. I gasp and turn to the entrance of the Prince's courtroom as the shadow people and swarms of Heartless I hadn't seem upon arrival, come running our way. Aqua turns to me, "Sora! Summoning that thing here has brought all the darkness of this world upon us!"

"We have to go! I don't think we have this Prince's favor anymore!" Ventus says.

"I had to summon it, I just.." I can't think of the right words, and we're running out of time.

"Hurry, let's get out of here!" Aqua summons her Rider and armor and Ven and Kairi follow her moves.

"Wait, they'll just follow us out of the rift, then what?!" I gasp, "We'll be putting Wonderland in danger!"

"We can't stay here, we'll be killed! And attacking the darkness here will lose what favor we have left with Prince Ecila!" Aqua replies.

"I don't think we have his favor anymore, I don't think we ever didi!" I frown, "He was going to attack us!"

"Will the rift close like a Keyhole?!" Kairi asks, hovering above the ground on her Rider.

I look around and groan, the Heartless and shadow people have surrounded us. But for some strange reason, they haven't attacked. My eyes widen when I realize why: They're waiting for Prince Ecila to give the order of attack! I find the dark prince still hiding behind his throne. I know what I have to do now. I have to get him to order his people not to follow us back to Wonderland. My friends think hope for this world is lost now, but maybe we can still save them. If we can close the rift...

"Prince Ecila!" I call.

The young prince sticks his head out from behind the throne, and he glares at me, "Get those light things out of here!"

"Tell your people not to attack or follow us!" I say, "We'll leave, and we'll never come back, but you have to do something for us!"

He frowns, dropping his glare, "What do you want from me, Light?"

"Close the rift between Wonderland and Lowland forever," I explain.

His frown deepens, "Show me where such a thing exists and I shall. I don't want anymore of you creatures roaming here!"

"We're the creatures?" Ven tilts his head and Aqua growls, "Hush, Ven!"

I summon my Rider and armor and my friends and I lead Prince Ecila to the rift we came here through. He crosses his arms, "If I close this, no more lights will come?"

"You have my word," I say, "If it's closed, there's no way anyone from either realms can move through it to the other world. From Wonderland or Lowland."

"Fine, go!" he says, "If I find you back here, it's off with all of your heads!"

We fly through the rift and come out back in Wonderland. I hold my Keyblade up over the rift, watching as the light still glowing off the blade shows us the "rip" in the forest wall slowly closing until there's no evidence there ever was a rift here. I sigh and unsummon my Keyblade and turn to Aqua, "We failed on this world, so what do we do now?"

She frowns, "This is the only other world I know of that has a rift besides the Enchanted Dominion, and that world is gone now. So, we either search another world with a Princess of Light, or go back to the King for advice."

I groan softly, "I know we should search a new world.. But I kind of want to see how Riku's doing."

"Me, too," Kairi says.

Aqua nods, "Okay, we'll head back then. Any objections, Ventus?"

Ven shakes his head, and we get back on our Riders and we head back to the King's homeworld. We land and unsummon our armor. Finding our way to the King's study, we go right in. I call out for King Mickey, but I can't find him. I can't find Riku either. I frown and look around the study. Figuring he's somewhere else in the castle, we split up to look for him. I go alone into the throne room, and standing in front of Mickey's throne, is H.