"So how'd he take it?" Kairi asked when Rachel and Bryan returned. She'd been waiting on the Tower steps for a while for them to come back. Jiminy had also been waiting on her shoulder.

"About as well as you'd expect." Bryan said. "He freaked."

"I think he had to fly around the world a few times to burn off his frustration that someone would have the gall to defile his handiwork." Rachel added.

When Rachel and Bryan came back to the Tower, the Sky King looked good as new. On the inside though, it was still a mess. Every broken, torn, shredded, dented or bent item or fixture had been repaired but everything was still on the ground where it had been thrown. Still, small price to pay, considering.

"It needs a bit of cleaning but everything is fixed." Bryan said as he and his sister disembarked.

"That is so good to hear." Kairi said. "It looks great, by the way."

"Do we know any more about the attack?" Rachel asked.

"'Fraid not." Jiminy reported. "At least we won't know more until you both clean up and tell the rest of us if anything is missing. If there isn't, the best anyone can guess is that Xehanort is just trying to shake your nerves."

"Well score one for him." Kairi said dryly. "Nobody can guess why else the King would be vandalized. A drum set and a dart board are hardly treasures to anyone but the one who owns it. And anything powerful or super important is kept at the Tower, right?"

"Right," Bryan said. "I mean, yeah, I have a few magic thingys around the ship and so does Rachel but they're nothing really all that powerful. At least nothing I'd think the 'all powerful seeker of darkness' would need to further his big plans."

"And powerful magic gives off its own energy right?" Kairi asked, thinking of a past magic lecture from Merlin. "Xehanort should've been able to tell there wasn't anything super powerful on the ship, right?"

"Right," Bryan agreed. "Sometimes that energy can be well hidden but for all that's on the ship and what it does there's no need. I mean, I've got this big polished rock that can show and accurately predict the weather of wherever you're at if you look into it."

"Cool!"

"Not really,"

"Why?"

"Mostly I use it for a doorstop."

"I'm going back aboard and get started." Rachel said to Bryan.

He nodded. "I'll be back in a while to help."

"I can help." Kairi offered.

"I'm going to start with my cabin." Rachel said. "I know best what all is in it so I'll know if anything's missing. I'd best do that myself."

"C'mon, Kairi. We can get the others and put the lower deck back together later." Bryan said. "Oh, and is Riku back yet?"

"I think so,"

"What did he find out?"

"I don't know." Kairi said. "I've been out here waiting for you two."

As Bryan and Kairi walked back to the Tower doors, Jiminy turned around on Kari's shoulder. He thought he saw something when the heroes returned on the battered ship but didn't understand it so he didn't give it further thought. That is…until he saw Rachel again. He wasn't sure what he had seen but it had made him uneasy. And…maybe it was nothing, but, did Rachel seem eager to get back to the ship without her friends and brother? No one else seemed to notice anything so was he imagining it? No, as an official conscience he could tell when someone had something on their mind and Rachel most certainly had something weighing heavily on hers.

Riku's news about the flower left behind on the Sky King certainly didn't ease any minds. No doubt it was meant to be seen as a promise of what was to come. But just as the discussion began, Jiminy whispered his concerns to King Mickey and they excused themselves.

Mickey boarded the Sky King with Jiminy on his shoulder. Rachel said she was going to work on her cabin so Mickey climbed the steps to the upper deck. But as they neared, a worrisome sound met their ears. Gasps…sniffs…crying. Mickey hurriedly jumped the remaining steps. Rachel was sitting just outside the door to her cabin, knees up and face in her hands.

"Rachel! Are you all right?" Mickey exclaimed.

She jumped when he cried out. Immediately she tried drying her eyes and act like nothing was wrong. "Mickey, Jiminy. Sorry I-I didn't hear you come aboard."

In just a few quick jumps Jiminy went from Mickey's shoulder to Rachel's knee. "What's happened? Is something wrong?"

"No. No, everything's fine."

Jiminy crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "Now see here, if there's one thing I can always tell is when someone is lying. And you don't need your nose to grow for me to know that's not true."

King Mickey put his hand on her shoulder. "You wouldn't be crying if nothin' was wrong. You can tell us. And we won't say a word to the others if you don't want us to. I promise."

Rachel looked at him gratefully before collecting herself. "I feared the worst when the King got attacked. I think…I was so worried it was my fault."

"Now you can't go blamin' yourself," Jiminy told her. "It's not your fault Xehanort would suckerpunch-."

"That's not it. At least, there's a chance it wasn't. I checked and everything's okay now but…" She trailed off for a second. "I just get so scared thinking the worst could've been all my fault."

"Rachel," Mickey said calmly. "You're not making any sense. What is it? Tell us why you're so worried." It was as much a command as a request.

"I'll tell you…but not out here. No, I'll show you." Rachel held out her hand for Jiminy. He hopped into her palm and she stood up.

Rachel opened the door to her cabin. Cleaning had been started but there was still a lot to pick up. All the books, sketchbooks and journals had been stacked on their sides on the shelf to be properly arranged later. The stuffed animals had been piled on the bed. Rachel scanned the room then picked something up. It was an intricately woven bracelet decorated with pretty stones and tiny crystals. Mickey recognized it as the bracelet Kristoff had given her for her birthday. At Bryan's suggestion the royal sisters of Arendelle and friends hosted her party some time ago. But Mickey didn't understand why that was important now.

With a bit of magic, Rachel swished them all to inside the Tower. Specifically, her and Bryan's room.

Rachel and her brother shared a very large room on one of the uppermost floors. It was more like a wide hall, really, a rectangle where the width of the room was much shorter than its length. Bryan had the half by the window; Rachel had the half by the door. A silk curtain ran across the ceiling and divided the two sides for privacy, mostly for dressing since they both had four-poster beds and drew the drapes every night. The window at the end took up most of the wall. A ledge had been cut into the stone and was lined with plushy cushions. Another fun thing about it was the panels could be changed to different colors so the room could be flooded by a rainbow. But in its natural state, the glass was paned with a lovely mosaic of rainbow colors anyway.

Each side of the room had a small fireplace. Both had a large comfy chair and rug in front of them. Silver chandeliers glistened from above and contained dozens of magic candles that never dripped wax and shined brighter or softer just by asking. Bookshelves. Polished stone floors. Antique wooden dressers and nightstands. And of course the large four-poster beds. Each had silky drapes of deep, rich hues. Bryan's had forest green drapes with golden threads woven into swirling leaves and animal shapes. Rachel's bed had sapphire blue drapes with silver threads creating the constellations. Next to each of their beds was a writing desk. Master Yen Sid had encouraged them from day one to keep a journal of their experiences and feelings. Perhaps they could be used for reflection, or as inspiration for future Keyblade wielders.

On the mantle of her little fireplace, Mickey recognized yet another item from her birthday. Of course he did. He and all the other occupants of Disney Castle had pitched in to make it. It was a cuckoo-like clock that was a perfect miniature of the castle. There were little characters of Donald, Daisy and Goofy in the gardens in front of the castle. King Mickey and Minnie came out of the clock when it chimed, dancing around a rotating heart. Even little carvings of Chip, Dale and Jiminy were all standing in a castle window.

Rachel held her hand up to the mantle for Jiminy to jump to. She offered Mickey her hand. He took it and Rachel cast another spell. Instantly the two of them were on the mantle and only a few inches tall. Before either Mickey or Jiminy could ask what this surprise was all about, Rachel jogged to the clock. She pushed open the doors that led to the inner workings of the clock castle and waited for them to go inside.

Although filled with gears, springs and the figures that danced around the garden when the clock struck the hour, the inside was very empty and very private. Jiminy, no stranger to clocks, found this spot to be rather cozy.

"So what's going on?" Mickey asked her again.

Rachel took a moment to calm the butterflies in her stomach. "I think the attack on the King might've been my fault."

"You said that before," Jiminy said. "You can't bl-."

"Please…let-let me finish. I…I think it might've had something to do with the Princesses."

"The Princesses? How?" Mickey asked. He certainly wasn't expecting that.

"It…it has to do with where I hid them."

"Hid? Where-? Wait, they weren't on the ship, were they?"

Rachel nodded.

Mickey's face fell. "You don't mean-?"

"No! No, they're still there. That's what I was checking when you came aboard. When…when the King was attacked I feared the worst. I thought maybe a protection spell failed or Xehanort found a way to see through them. I was so nervous when Bryan and Kairi started talking about powerful items and the energies they gave off and worried we might've missed something making the magic book undetectable. But I couldn't just run in to see if the book was still where I left it. I tried thinking ahead, the way Xehanort always seems to. I thought maybe it might be a trick. Maybe he could only tell generally where the Light of the Princesses were but couldn't pinpoint it. What if the ship was vandalized as a way to get our attention? A way to rush to the hiding place to see if it had been taken? Only to swoop in once it had been revealed? I-I couldn't risk that. I couldn't risk leading him right to them. But I couldn't stop worrying. What if I was wrong? What if he found them and we were wasting time not getting them back?"

"But…he didn't." Jiminy confirmed carefully.

"No. They're still where I left them."

"And where did you leave them?"

Rachel held up the bracelet she'd brought with her. "This has to stay between us."

Mickey and Jiminy nodded.

The young Master put the bracelet on the floor, stepped back and whispered, "Felitz,"

After a second or two, the bracelet glowed. The glow then rose up like spotlights into the air above it. Colors began to swirl and morph in the hazy light. After another few seconds images came into focus. The scene showed Rachel's cabin intact and well-lit. It was like watching a security tape when the Rachel from a few days ago came in with her magic book held close to her chest. She put the book on the bed and fiddled for something in the drawer of the dresser the bracelet had been resting on top of at the time. It was a little sewing kit. With the small pouch pinched between two fingers, Rachel then pulled the giant stuffed alligator from the net above the bed. She sat down, threaded the needle, took the gators' head and proceeded to sew its mouth shut.

The present Rachel waved her hand and the image sped up until there was only about three inches from the corner of the snout left unsewn. The image of Rachel picked up the book again. She held it close, took a deep breath and cast a spell. The book began to shrink until it was the size of a matchbox. The past Rachel slipped the book in the gap and finished sealing the toothy snout. She cut the thread and admired her work. Only upon close inspection at the tight, but in some places, uneven stitching, would it be possible to see the fair prize hadn't been created that way.

The present Rachel waved her hand again. The colors in the holographic light swirled like a breeze through the fog. When it came back into focus, the room was almost the same except this time it was dark. Suddenly two black shapes materialized. It was a pair of NeoShadows. The Heartless jumped around a bit before they began tearing the room apart. The viewpoint suddenly changed as the bracelet had been knocked from the dresser. Where the bracelet landed and what it had been covered by left the view partially obstructed. However, they could see what was most important.

One of the NeoShadows jumped on the wall. Its claws caught the corner of the net and the Heartless yanked the peg clean out. The toys in the net avalanched onto the bed. The Heartless dropped and slashed at them. But the blow only knocked a few of them into a pile or rolled them over. The blanket and the mattress took the brunt of the swipe. After a minute of this, the room was illuminated. The NeoShadows looked up and out the broken glass before dematerializing. That must've been when the ship caught fire.

But the best part of the viewing was that if the Heartless had been specifically looking for the Light of the Princesses, they hadn't found it. If they had found what they were after, the gator probably would be in pieces and the Heartless would've retreated as soon as their mission was over.

The image swirled once again and then the light faded completely. Mickey and Jiminy were astounded. The king had heard about that spell before. When cast on an object, you could see what had happened around said object. The more powerful the magic of the caster, the further back in time you could see as well a greater circumference of viewing from the object. The fact that this was Rachel's cabin with her own possessions probably played a pivotal role as well.

"Gosh…" Mickey finally said.

"Well I'll be," Jiminy said, equally astonished.

"I started picking up as casually as I could, just in case it wasn't just the paranoia telling me I might still be watched. So when I pressed my hand against the gator's face, pretending to pick something else up, and felt something hard with corners…" She trailed off. "That's why I was crying. I was so relieved that was all I could do. Because if…because if-." Her voice cracked. "Because if it wasn't there it would-it would mean Xehanort had found my book and had taken the Princesses. And-and that would have been all my-all my f-fault. I was responsible for their safety. If it…there would've been no one t-to blame but me."

Mickey put a hand on her shoulder as her eyes welled up. "It's going to be all right," He assured her. "I'm glad you told us."

"But…I still don't understand." Jiminy said. "Why did you hide the book on your ship in the first place?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to think of the perfect hiding place? Then if you do you're flooded with all the kinds of thoughts and worries of how it actually isn't a good idea. I worried so bad about all the 'what ifs' no matter how impossible they seemed. Then I worried if the protection spells were strong enough. What if Xehanort could get a general location of that many pure lights? Would the world I left them on be safe while he searched? Or would he drop every tree and level every mountain to find them? Nothing I could think of I felt comfortable with. And I couldn't be at ease knowing there was even a sliver of possibility any world I hid them on could be in danger."

"That's why you hid them on the ship," King Mickey said thoughtfully, more to himself than anything. "They would always be near and no one from other worlds could discover the book by accident."

"And then the King got ransacked anyway. Xehanort and his Heartless tore apart my vessel with the princesses right under his nose."

"Don't worry," Mickey reassured. "You said so yourself Xehanort didn't find the book. Everything is gonna be fine."

"But I can't stop thinking about it! Even if the book wasn't what he was looking for, what would've happened if he'd found it even by accident? What if-?"

"Rachel, stop," Jiminy scolded. "You can't go and beat yourself up for something that didn't happen. The Princesses are still safe. You've already worried yourself sick when you didn't know that. There's no sense doing the same now that you do know."

"I-."

"No more worrying. No more worries about what's in the past. No more worries about what could have been the future. His majesty's right. Everything will all turn out for the best. Our focus needs to be forward not behind so we can make sure it will all be fine."

Rachel took a calming breath. "Thanks Jiminy, thank you both. I needed to hear that. Now I guess we-."

Rachel didn't get to finish what she was saying. At that point she, Mickey and Jiminy got the daylights scared out of them. They'd stopped hearing the gears go tck tck tck as they talked and had all but forgotten they were inside a clock. That is…until it chimed the hour. Music played at a very non-intrusive volume, unless of course you were right next to the source. The three of them scrambled to get out and not get anything caught in any of the moving pieces. Once they did, they joined the others.