Riku didn't let on exactly how he was going to deal with the Heartless in front of Maleficent, heading back down toward the waterway where one of the Angel Stars was hovering in the air, out of reach by most kinds of magic and also a long way out of reach of the Keyblade.

It had been hovering fairly harmlessly until Riku dropped the bag and nudged out the clinking spells, taking care not to let any roll into the water, but the sound of them alerted it. It glowed briefly then threw a blast of wind at it.

Predictably, having learned his lessons well he snapped, "Wind!" at the spell, thrusting one hand toward it. The two spells collided and countered out perfectly. Riku then summoned his Keyblade and dropped it deliberately nearby, turning back into his hawk form. He swooped up, circled round and then back again to grasp the handle in his talons, swerving slightly off course due to the sudden extra weight but correcting himself quickly.

The Angel Star meanwhile realised the nature of its opponent had changed, flapping its wings to try to escape, but it wasn't fast enough for a streaking hawk. Riku shot up through the two wings on one side, disorienting it, turned up above it then with the Keyblade in perfect position he dived straight down. The force of the impact on top of the Angel Star knocked it neatly out of the air and down to the ground far below.

It managed to recover long before it got down that far, but Riku had already gone into pursuit. Two more similar strikes and it was destroyed, leaving him to soar back up to the spells.

While he'd been busy chasing it, I took all the spell orbs except the lion one and concealed them down in the lower gardens, then transplanted some of the illusion Heartless into position guarding them.

If he wanted these spells back, he'd have to really touch on his wild side. I even left a trail for him to follow, too weak for a hawk or human to even notice, but a lion would have no trouble. Then to nudge him further on the right way I added a Shadow beside the waterway, rolling the lion orb away.

Riku rose back up into view not long after I re-concealed myself. He might not have been aware of what I'd done yet, but he did spot the Shadow and recognise what it was doing. Naturally it barely lasted one hit, smashed into the water when he slammed the Keyblade into it too, dismissing it and then checking the almost-stolen orb.

"No one steals my damn spells," Riku muttered, pecking at it to turn himself into a lion. Once transformed by it, he had no need to worry about touching it again to roll it back, and it was only then he realised he'd been robbed.

"It must have happened while we were going after that Angel Star!" Jiminy exclaimed, while Riku poked about inside the bag. "Are there any left?"

"None," Riku growled, emerging. "When I find the Heartless that did this..."

"Well, they can't have gone far. That Shadow hadn't gone too far. We'll just have to hunt for them."

"Hunt, huh?" Riku said thoughtfully. "I'm in the right form for it. But first, gotta do something with this orb – can't let it get stolen too."

He nudged it back into the bag, then closed the bag by standing on it, catching the drawstrings in his teeth and tugging. It was awkward, but he finally managed to close it. Given the mentality of most Heartless, there was no need to worry about it any longer.

Once that was done with he sniffed at the air, searching for scents. Lions don't normally hunt by scent, but they can follow trails – as long as there aren't too many conflicting scents. Since the Heartless had already caused the mass evacuation of this Radiant Garden though, that wasn't a problem.

I'd given each of the Heartless unique scents, so he was able to follow five blurred scents from the bag, one of which dropped off when he reached the place where he'd defeated the Shadow. The other four continued on down, retracing the route he'd taken to find Maleficent, but in reverse.

Along the way he passed a large reservoir, noticing near the bottom the green form of the single Screwdiver watching him pass. While stuck as a lion until he retrieved the remaining spell orbs, there was nothing he could do about it for now – but at least he knew where to find it.

The second Angel Star hovered high above the lower gardens, but it too was out of reach and paid him no attention. He tried to cast fire at it and ended up accidentally scorching one paw instead.

"Maybe not such a good idea," he grumbled, licking at his paw. "At least the scents are still here though," he added. "Bit blurred by the scents of the plants, but I think I can still follow them."

"Want a few ideas on how to use your Keyblade in this form?" Jiminy offered. "I remember watching Liam and Roxas fight similarly."

"Nah," Riku replied after a moments thought. "I'm a lion. Teeth, claws – what do I need a Keyblade for?" he grinned.

He scratched a mark in the ground where each scent diverged so he knew where to pick them up again then followed one of them toward a nearby bush. One of the Bully Dogs leapt out of it at him, barking at him.

Riku leapt at it, baring his teeth and snarling as he snapped at its flanks. The Bully Dog clearly didn't like that, drawing back from him, but now it was on the retreat Riku just kept on going for it. When it got near the edge of an upper garden he turned and kicked it the same way he had the pillar before, sending it flying down where it slammed into a tree and vanished, defeated.

He roared after it with a smirk playing over his face, then padded back to the bushes it had been hiding in. After rooting about for a moment he took a sturdy branch in his mouth and used it to push the missing snake orb out into the open.

"Maybe you should put it back?" Jiminy suggested. "After all, we don't want another Heartless to take it now we've found it, and we know where to find it."

Riku said something around the branch, made unintelligible by it.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Jiminy told him. "Put it back for now, Riku. Once we've got the reset orb back we can come back and collect it."

He grumbled a bit more, but nudged it back into concealment, took his stick to the mark he'd made and left it there, then went after another trail.

The fish orb was found second, concealed behind some rocks near the retracted machinery and guarded by another Bully Dog that fared no better than the first, then the hawk orb not long after hidden in the remains of the rubble that had held the pillar in place originally.

The fourth Bully Dog was found trying to roll the reset orb even further away and was unaware of Riku creeping up behind it, padding up on silent paws. Once he was almost on top of it he gave a low growl right in its ear. Despite the fact that Heartless are supposed to be incapable of emotion, my illusory Heartless still managed to freeze in terror.

He shoved it over on its side with one paw to hold it still, bit down on its neck, then threw it about while it struggled futilely. It didn't fare too well given the treatment, so it wasn't surprising to see that when it finally did get loose, it didn't last much longer.

With some regret he touched the reset orb, picking it up in one newly restored hand and Jiminy in the other.

"I think I'm definitely gonna ask Lee to see about making that available more often," he remarked, starting back up again. "Fun and effective too."

"You certainly looked like you were enjoying yourself, but don't get cocky – you've still got that Angel Star up there, one more Bully Dog, and the Screwdiver. How are you going to deal with them?"

"I'll think of something," Riku replied. "First I'm going to find the hawk orb and deal with that Angel Star up there. I'll leave this one nearby and keep an eye on it this time. Then all I have to do is get the bag, put this in and collect them again."

The second Angel Star was treated similarly to the first, except with less air beneath it Riku's blows knocked it down to the ground, where the impact finished it off instead. After eliminating another thieving Shadow that was trying to steal the reset orb again, he restored his form and retrieved the other orbs.

The bag was left beside the reservoir this time, and since there was no way any other form could handle the depth, he had to pause.

"I could put the reset orb in," he said doubtfully. "I might be able to swim up, but then the orb itself..."

"Wait a moment, Riku," Jiminy said. "Think about this differently. Remember the first way of countering magic? The way we didn't try?"

"One element beats another," he answered. "The magical version of rock-paper-scissors. Why, what of it?"

"See anything in the water besides that Heartless?"

He took a few moments to check, using a fire spell to get better lighting once. "No, just the Heartless."

"Right. So what magic could help here?"

Riku thought for a few moments, then realised what Jiminy was getting at and sent Thundaga straight into the water itself. Sparks of magic spread rapidly through the water, then earthed themselves into the Screwdiver, which succumbed under the assault.

"I really need to start thinking of these things myself," Riku said afterwards. "I mean, I know I got that one, but you helped me figure it out. I can't keep relying on others like this."

"Well as long as you learn that lesson, I'm sure Liam won't mind too much."

"Optimistic, isn't he?" Neku murmured to me. "Don't worry, they can't hear me. I thought you should know I've finally figured it out. Yen Sid says to hurry up, so give Xion his surprise test and get them on their way."

"Yen Sid should keep his nose out since he didn't want to do it himself," I muttered back, continuing to watch Riku as he started back into town to search for the last Bully Dog. "Unless there's some kind of time-frame to work with, I don't need other people telling me to work faster."

"Hey, I'm just the messenger."

"Well go find out what Roxas and Axel are up to for me while Riku finishes up, will you?"

"Atlantica, clearing up an outbreak of Heartless," he replied immediately. "You don't think I wasn't keeping an eye on them, do you?"

I didn't answer that.

Riku meanwhile had made it back to the central gardens where we'd arrived and was looking warily about for the last Bully Dog. There was nowhere for it to hide there, so he moved quickly on to the district where Merlin's house was, where the girl he'd left there... well, had disappeared because I'd needed the magic since then. Fortunately he didn't think to look for her, destroying a few more Shadows that had gathered outside, dropping the bag and changing back to his lion form to better hunt for the Bully Dog. I hastily added the scent trail for it, having not thought he'd try this, but made the trail fainter to make it seem like it was older.

Riku didn't really notice though, following it all the same to the reactor where I'd fought alongside Terra, Aqua and Ventus to defeat the Trinity Armour. He also spotted Maleficent watching from a high ledge, then decided to ignore that and attacked the Bully Dog as he was, chasing it down and biting and tearing into it until it fell like all the rest.

"Alright Maleficent," he roared up to her. "I defeated your Heartless. Now get out!"

While he'd been fighting, I'd teleported myself up alongside the Maleficent illusion and now overlapped it.

"Very well done, Riku," I called down, overlaying the voices too. To him then, the image faded out to reveal me. "Congratulations. You passed your test. The door is still there, but I'd suggest you change back before you try to use it."

"That was it?" he demanded. "Just defeat some Heartless?"

"And solve several puzzles. You correctly identified the test in the first place – the crowd thinning out and disappearing – protected the girl and used the form spells to navigate the obstacles with brilliant effects. You also didn't fall for the mistake of changing to fish form for the Screwdiver, and you did retrieve all the spells when I stole them. I think that's about all of it. You're right about one thing though – you do need to think of these things yourself, not have Jiminy or anyone else point you in the right direction."

Riku looked at himself, then questioningly back up at me.

"Go restore your form, Riku," I sighed. "I might look into it."

"Might? But..."

"Donald's magic is what changed our forms when we went to other worlds, lasting magic that even affected Demyx when we hit Halloween Town without him," I told him. "You also don't have the benefit of the magic clothes the three good fairies created for Sora and me, so I can't do Drive forms either. If I make this sort of thing available to you, it has to be in a completely different form, and I don't know if I'll be able to get that ready for you before you have to start your journey for real."

"Well... it's better than nothing, I guess," he admitted reluctantly. "Couldn't you just... open the door for me?"

"All those orbs are illusions too, Riku. You leave, and you'll lose that reset orb."

"That wouldn't really be a problem, I don't think," he grinned, then laughed, "I'm joking. I'll go change back now," he said and ran off.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say some of Sora rubbed off on him," Neku observed in one ear.