The sudden update is because Waterdog reviewed. Readers should thank her.

Waterdog, you get biscuits and the appreciation of fellow readers. And a prize, so PM me if you read this.


"To the matters at hand," Leon said, obviously trying to not notice Tucker.

"The Heartless," Sora stepped up.

"Yeah, what are they? They came from that strange darkness." Brief flashes of memory came to Danny of the wave in the Ghost Zone and the masses of creatures on the disintegrating Amity Park.

"They're creatures of darkness. We call them Heartless because they don't have hearts. Because they don't, they attack people to steal their hearts. They attack worlds too, and once they consume the heart of a world, it disappears into the darkness."

"And the other ones? They felt different." Danny realized that the twisting feeling was gone, but he could remember it clearly.

"The other ones are called Nobodies. When the Heartless attack people and consume the hearts, the bodies usually disappear too with nothing to fill them anymore. But sometimes the stolen hearts are so strong that memories are left imprinted on the empty shell to hold it together and the person becomes a Nobody."

"Your world," Leon focused on Danny; "how did the darkness get there?"

"There was this Door, in the Ghost Zone--"

"Ghosts!" Goofy interrupted, and he shivered.

Donald shouted loudly at him not to interrupt.

"What is the Ghost Zone?" Sora urged Danny back to what he had been saying.

Danny continued after a glance at Goofy and Donald. "The Ghost Zone is like a separate part of our world, parallel to it. There are holes that connect the two."

"A dual world..." Leon said, understanding why it had been referred to as such.

"I was chasing an enemy, because he stole something that I needed to bring back, and he led us to the Door. It didn't seem normal, out in the middle of nowhere, but none of the doors in the Ghost Zone are really normal. So we were fighting over the map when--"

With a bang, the doors opened roughly and Danny was interrupted again. Turning to see who it was, he was surprised to see a mouse. Until he glanced at Goofy and Donald again.

"King Mickey!" "King!" "Hi, your Majesty!" came from assorted members of the room.

Aeris, who had left the room to prepare refreshments for Danny and his friends as well as Sora, Donald, and Goofy, returned to the room through another door in response to the greetings with Kairi in tow.

"Where's Riku? Wasn't he with you?"

"Riku is still investigating. I came to tell you that Beast's castle has been invaded by Heartless. They can't hold out for long, Sora."

"We'll go right away!" The issue of the dual world and its door was temporarily gone from Sora's mind.

The King turned to the newcomers, recognizing them for what they were almost immediately. "You can fight, right?" The two nodded. Tucker, his attention diverted by the slamming door, had finally caught up with what was going on and nodded a second later. "Good. Will you please go with them and help?"

"We can do that," Danny said, surety in his voice.

"Be careful; there's a new Heartless commander."

Danny had a suspicion that he knew who it was, but did not give it voice.

The King left again, back to wherever he'd arrived from and presumably back to Riku. Danny, Sam, and Tucker crammed into Sora's Gummi ship which, while adequate for three people, could barely fit six. Tucker didn't have room to stare at the pilot's console, though he did note that this Gummi ship was apparently equipped with hyperdrive. It was significantly faster, anyway, and the trip took less than an hour.

Upon landing on the new world, apparently only referred to as Beast's Castle--Sora, Goofy, and Donald had all taken part in briefing Danny's group on the place and it's inhabitants Beast (i.e. The Prince), Belle, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, Chip, and Wardrobe--the six of them saw a dark forest surrounding a castle under siege.

"No wonder the King was anxious," Sam commented as the Gummi ship landed.

They all leapt into the fray and were soon clearing a path through the Heartless that swarmed around them. Danny, Sam, and Tucker all kept some attention on the more experienced fighters to watch the techniques they used and try mimicking them. Danny less so, because he had much more experience fighting directly, but even he was distracted when he saw Sora transform at the side of his field of vision. Danny quickly focused on him and saw that his appearance had definitely changed, and apparently he had more powers to access. His clothes were red now, anyway, where they'd been mostly black before, and a second weapon was spinning beyond his hand.

Danny caught Sam's attention with a meaningful glance that flicked over to Sora before another strong flash lit the area briefly and Danny transformed. He hadn't noticed the twisting feeling in his chest before, because it had been faint, but now it was much stronger and definitely noticeable. A quick 360 determined that nothing on the battlefield had significantly changed, so Danny put the feeling towards the back of his mind again and resumed fighting with his own transformation-augmented abilities. His weapon, which he still didn't know what to call, also seemed to be more powerful, and the blade trailed ribbons of energy that harmed the Heartless.

Phantom flowed through the Heartless to Sam and Tucker, who were fighting back to back. "Guard me for a sec; I'll use the Ghostly Wail." His two friends shifted to be on either side of Phantom and he charged up energy within himself--a technique he discovered that did not cause the Ghostly Wail to immediately exhaust him. His ghostly aura quickly grew brighter in several moments, and then he jumped clear of the Heartless and then to a spot that put the five fighters at his back and a large portion of the Heartless horde before him.

The Ghostly Wail echoed far across the forest as the destructive energy dispelled the Heartless from nearly half the field, running to the fringes of the area suddenly exposed by his attack, Phantom proceeded to attack normally again. Using a few of his own specialty attacks, Sora also cleared large numbers of Heartless in one go. The outside of the castle was quickly cleared, and any remaining Heartless fled away to darkness or inside. There were doubtlessly more there, and this was confirmed when they ran thorough the grand entrance.

Nobodies were among the Heartless swarm inside, which Danny especially noticed upon entering the room fighting. The Heartless attacked immediately, only ceasing when defeated. The Nobodies froze in their unnatural motions and all turned, wherever they were in the room, to face Danny. Danny, Sora, and Sam took note of this, but none were able to react to the Nobodies' next action.

They shot to Danny, covering him in a writhing mass and blocking him from view of the others. A big bubble of darkness appeared, rising around the group; a large portal, made from the Nobodies collectively. The energy sparked there, spinning slowly, but before anyone realized what was happening, it shrank away and vanished.

All the Nobodies were gone.

So was Phantom.

"Danny!" Sam screamed, calling everyone's attention, but they were in the middle of a fight and could do nothing. Sam was forced to focus back on the battle as a Heartless took a swipe at her.

Sora activated another transformation and fought harder, thinking that if the Heartless were taken care of inside the castle as well, they would be able to go after Danny. Briefly her wondered why the Nobodies had focused on him immediately and why they had ignored everyone else, even himself, who the Nobodies were usually focused on.


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