Chapter Fourteen:
Mysteries

A/n: Ooh. My chapter count has been off because I had two chapter fours early in the story... My bad. I'll go back and fix those in due time. xD Last chapter had more comic relief than I intended. Oops. I bet the same could be said of this chapter.

Disclaimer - I don't own Kingdom Hearts, any characters from Beauty and the Beast or any characters from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

'Tell me it's you or nothing at all.

'Cause I stole your soul;

you said I'd never be able.

But all the whole world's still on my string.'

-"This is Twice Now" by Lydia


Shawn watched as the portal of darkness misted away to nothing in the air although he gazed at it longingly. Following Larxene was the better alternative to... His eyes dropped to Riku's still unconscious form. He prodded Riku in the stomach with his shoe. Riku's eyes did not open immediately, but his mouth did. "Shawn, you are the sorriest excuse for a keyblade wielder that I've ever seen."

"Isn't that a little bit of a harsh judgement, Riku?" replied Shawn through gritted teeth. "How long have you been listening?" he added with such nervousness that Riku opened his eyes and raised his eyebrows.

"All I heard was you exchanging your goodbyes with Larxene instead of, you know, beating the shit out of her," answered Riku as he sat himself up on his elbows. "Guilty conscience, Shawn?"

Shawn earnestly shook his head. "Of course not," he mumbled in a barely audible whisper. "Anyway, we should probably get back to the Castle and make sure that Sora and the others are alright."

Riku nodded his agreement as he pushed himself off of the ground. As they headed in the direction of the looming Castle, a tree behind them rustled as a bird took to the sky, but they ignored it. What was to be earned by watching a bird take flight?

The raven in question soared upward until it was over the dead forest. It glided through the air, flapping its wings every few moments, and effortlessly flew into the Ballroom via the balcony's open doors. It soared up, to the very top of the room, and landed on the Chandelier. The action below made its movements impossible to hear.

Sora jumped backwards and raised Kingdom Key in order to block another onslaught of lasers from Xigbar's Gun Arrows. "Sora, I'm disappointed. This is a lot less fun than last time," remarked the Nobody as he shouldered one of his weapons. "Should we kick things up a little?"

"Only if you're eager to fade away again," replied Sora breathlessly. He was more than a little disappointed in himself for getting so exhausted early in the fight. It wasn't even like he was out of practice. Maybe Xigbar was just... stronger. Maybe that was because of Dempsey.

Dempsey. Of course. Sora turned in time to find said man hurl Belle against one of the pillars. He ignored Xigbar and started after Belle. Adam noticed Belle, shouted something incoherent, and stared away from Xaldin. Xaldin swung one of his lances at Adam and knocked him toward the balcony, in the opposite direction, before summoning a barrier.

Roaring something else incoherent, Adam rushed at Xaldin with his sword. A smile twitched at the corners of Xaldin's lips. Just as Adam reached him, the cutting, protective wind of Aera appeared around Xaldin, damaging Adam something fierce.

Sora jumped up and swung Kingdom Key down at Dempsey's shoulder. "Leave Belle alone!" A magical shield rose over Dempsey's body and knocked Sora away.

"I am a most renowned sorcerer, Sora. Surely you do not expect my defenses to be so open?" murmured Dempsey as blue lightning shot out of his hand. Belle groaned and fell to the ground as her eyes closed. Satisfied, Dempsey turned toward Sora. Sora was hunched over in his battle stance, but, before he could move forward, both Gun Arrows were suddenly at the back of his head. Dempsey waved Xigbar away. "Let me have my fun with the Keyblade Master, Xigbar. Why don't you return to Headquarters?"

Xigbar shrugged lightly as he shouldered one of the Gun Arrows. With the other, he shot at Sora's foot. "Because being there is no where near as fun as being here, but," he paused and his weapons disappeared, "I'll bite. Sayonara, Sora." He disappeared into a portal as a barrier rose around Dempsey and Sora.

"Come, Sora. Let me see what power you truly hold," said Dempsey as his falchion suddenly appeared in his hand.

XxxxxX

Even though they were able to cut time in half by using a portal to get back to the Cottage, they knew it was too late by the time they appeared in the yard. The door was flung wide open, there was absolutely no wildlife near the house, and everything was too silent. With their keyblades in hand, Katalin, Kairi, and Darcie started toward the house, but Naminé stopped them. "I don't think heading inside is the best idea, do you?" she asked, biting lightly down on her lip. "Snow White said that we could find her in the kitchen. Isn't the kitchen's window just around the corner of the house?"

They had to agree that Naminé's plan was certainly the safer of the two, so they ducked somewhat and headed around the side of the house. The smell of a freshly baked pie reached their noses and, sure enough, they found it sitting on the windowsill. As quickly as it appeared to them, it was gone as a woman's hand reached out and grabbed it. They heard the metallic ring of a pie pan and assumed that the woman had either dropped or thrown it.

As if she sensed their presence, she poked her head out of the window and smiled grimly. "Ah, the others. Maleficent told me that you would return, if only because of your promise to my step-daughter. My darling step-daughter. I trust you sealed the keyhole to this world, then?"

Darcie nodded. There was really no point in trying to hide it. If Queen Grimhilde planned on unsealing the keyhole again, then they could deal with her easily. The Queen's form abruptly disappeared from the window and reappeared directly before them. "It's just as well. The last thing I want to deal with is Heartless roaming around my kingdom. Maleficent is a good acquaintance, but I would never risk myself to help her." A smile appeared on Darcie's lips because, somehow, she found herself unsurprised to hear the Queen's words.

"At any rate," continued Queen Grimhilde, "Maleficent would not allow me to kill that fair Snow White, not that I have to deal with her being the fairest of the land if she is gone from this world." Kairi, Katalin, and Darcie's hearts sank at the news. Snow White had not been killed, but captured by Maleficent, as promised. "But she told me that the four of you would be named as such in her place. Well. Perhaps two of you," she added, her eyes on Kairi and Katalin. "But not based on looks. Based on your hearts. However, Maleficent forbade me killing anyone but you." Queen Grimhilde's eyes only held Katalin's now. "The spare. That much I am fine with."

Kairi took a few steps forward. "But we're going to leave right now. There's really no point in us sticking around with Snow White gone and the keyhole killed. You don't have to kill anyone..."

Queen Grimhilde held up a silencing finger. "That may be true, but Maleficent also reminded me that I have a... Ah, debt to repay. I can do this much for her, then, I'm thinking."

"'The spare'?" repeated Katalin, her eyes narrowed as her fingers toyed with the quartz heart hanging around her neck. "What exactly does that mean?"

The Queen cackled. "Exactly what it sounds like, my dear," she replied as darkness engulfed her body. The darkness flew off of her like a breeze, divided around Katalin, and pushed away the other three as a barrier rose up.

The only time Katalin had fought by herself, aside from her dreams, had been when she had first gotten her keyblade, but that had been against mostly minor Heartless. Katalin tightened her grip on Beautiful Disaster until her knuckles turned white. She planned on showing Queen Grimhilde exactly what "the spare" was capable of.

XxxxxX

Several things occurred in the Ballroom as a ball of purple fire knocked Sora into another pillar in the room. The doors were thrown open as Shawn and Riku entered, a little bloodied up but no worse for wear, more than surprised to see the chaos in the room. "Belle, guys. Help Belle," Sora managed to croak as he wiped some blood off of his mouth with the back of his hand.

As they rushed toward Belle, a green and black fire rose before them. The raven perched on the chandelier croaked and flew down, gracefully landing on Maleficent's arm as her form became solidified. Maleficent gently stroked the raven's head with her middle and index fingers. "Good, Diablo. I am sure that you have much to tell me, but not here. After we take care of the second Princess of Heart."

"Second?!" demanded Shawn who was brandishing Eye of Truth in a threatening manner.

Maleficent side-glanced at him with somewhat of an amused expression. "Yes. Snow White has been secured. And I see that you, Dempsey, have made my job here much easier. For that, I thank you."

Dempsey turned away from Sora and narrowed his eyes at the witch. The barrier audibly shattered as he strode toward her. "Maleficent, you will leave to me what is mine," he growled.

"She is not your property, fool," she hissed. The amused smile quickly returned to her lips as her eyes widened. "But, isn't it amusing that I can be far more victorious than you despite the fact that I do not have twelve people to follow me?"

Dempsey scowled as an orb of darkness appeared between his two hands. "I am warning you, Maleficent... Wait. Did you say that you only took one Princess of Heart from that world, that... Snow White's Cottage?"

"Indeed it is," agreed Maleficent, her smile slipping away as her expression became puzzled. "Why?"

A smile twitched at the corners of his lips, and the dark magic faded as soon as it appeared. "No reason, my dearest adversary. You have won this fair enough. Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers."

When Riku made a move to stop Maleficent from picking up Belle, Dempsey flicked his wrist and a whip made of darkness knocked Shawn and Riku away from the witch. Rightfully suspicious, Maleficent picked up Belle's unconscious form and draped her over one arm. "I do not know what it is that you are up to, sorcerer, but I expect that I will in due time," she stated as she gave the arm with Diablo a light twitch. Without another word, the green and black flames engulfed her once more and she disappeared.

Dempsey jumped backwards a great distance when Riku lashed out with Way to Dawn. The barrier Xaldin had been holding disappeared and a rather bloodied Adam fell to the ground. "Do not worry yourselves, keyblade wielders, we will meet again soon enough. It sounds like your Princesses of Heart lucked out when they met with Maleficent."

"I'm sure Naminé separated herself from Kairi so that Maleficent couldn't get them both at the same time. And, if she did that, then I'm sure Maleficent decided to take what she could get, for the time being. That person being Snow White. Sounds like you and the Organization are falling a little behind, though," pointed out Riku.

"Or are we?" replied Dempsey in a mysterious tone. "Enjoy your breathing time for now, boys, because it will not last for long." He snapped and both he and Xaldin disappeared into portals.

A small smile appeared on Sora's lips as he glanced over at Riku and Shawn. "I guess Xigbar'll be disappointed. Once he left, all of the action happened."

Adam groaned, and the three of them ran over to join him. "Cura," murmured Sora with Kingdom Key's tip pointed at the man.

"Wh-what happened?" asked Adam as he put one hand to his head. His blue eyes trailed over to where Belle had been before, then snapped back to Sora. "Belle. Where's Belle?" Sora wasn't sure if he had ever him sound more nervous than angry before.

Sora shook his head slowly. "Adam, I'm so sorry, but Maleficent got her."

"Maleficent?" growled Adam. "When did she get here?"

"It was all very chaotic," replied Shawn. "They played 'finders keepers'... And Maleficent took Belle." When Sora shot him a sharp glare, Shawn fell silent. He didn't have the delicate touch that both Riku and Sora seemed to have inside them.

"Adam, I promise that we'll bring Belle back, safe and sound."

Adam slowly pushed himself off the ground and shook his head. "No. I'll find her again, just like I did the first time."

"Even if your heart can lead you to her a second them, there's no way that you can save Belle and live. Stuff is different this time around, particularly since you're human again. Let us take care of it; we'll save her, Adam," reassured Riku with an intense look burning in his seafoam eyes.

At first, Adam looked like he was either going to hit Riku or yell. Surprisingly enough, he did neither, only nodded slowly. "Fine. Fine," he repeated in a softer, weaker voice. "As soon as you find her, bring her back to me. I swear I'll do better to protect her next time." His hands curled into dropped his hand on Adam's shoulder. "We'll see you soon. I promise."

XxxxxX

Although darkness had completely engulfed Queen Grimhilde's form, Katalin could somehow tell that the majority of the darkness was originating from the ruby brooch on her cloak. Either that, or heart. If it was her heart, then Katalin knew she would have to somehow stab her through the heart to stop her, which she was less than eager to do. Katalin rushed forward, avoiding the spurts of darkness that the Queen was summoning. Once she was within a couple feet of her, the Queen held together her hands and a bolt of purple lightning shot from them. With wide eyes, Katalin stopped somewhat before getting too close to the Queen, but the bolt of lightning knocked her into the back of the barrier and caused a lot of damage nonetheless. The top of her orange shirt was torn somewhat.

Katalin pushed herself up and decided to formulate a plan instead of rushing blindly into battle. "Katalin!" cried Naminé from outside of the barrier. Blinking, she turned back to face the Nobody. "Use your light!"

"My... light?" repeated Katalin.

Naminé nodded earnestly. "Everyone has light within their hearts. Use yours to cut through the Queen's darkness!"

With newfound determination, Katalin nodded and turned back toward the Queen. "But... how do I use my light?"

Naminé's hands were shaking as she pressed them together. Kairi wasn't sure if it was out of nervousness or if Naminé was fading in and out of existence. "Just believe in yourself. Trust yourself. You can do it!" replied Naminé with a confident smile.

Katalin closed her eyes and grasped her heart with her left hand. 'Light. Come on, light.' She thought of her childhood, of all things pure, of her uncle... Something warm began to coarse through her veins. At first, she wasn't sure what it was, but she allowed Beautiful Disaster to disappear as she held out both hands. "Light!" she cried out instinctively.

A large burst of light exploded from her hands and rushed toward Queen Grimhilde, who concentrated her darkness in a last ditch effort to overcome Katalin. At first, it looked like they were evenly matched with neither the light nor the darkness overtaking the other. Katalin gave her light an extra push and it easily overcame the darkness, pushing through it and engulfing the Queen.

Queen Grimhilde's scream of pain made their ears want to explode, but it only lasted a moment as the darkness faded away and the woman fell to her knees. The barrier broke and the girls rejoined each other once more. "You did it!" remarked Darcie, lightly punching Katalin's arm.

She smiled. "I really did," she replied with a remarkable amount of surprise.

The Queen slowly shook her head. "Do you... you fools really think that you haven't beaten... me? No, no... I will not give in so easily..."

"Just give it up, Queen Grimhilde. You're finished," stated Kairi with Radiant Destiny threateningly pointed at the fallen Queen.

Instead of replying, the Queen reached into her cloak and pulled out a vial of some sort. "I will show you who is finished." She threw back her head as she poured the olive green contents of the vial down her throat. Darkness engulfed her body once more, but this time her body began to change and grow.

The girls fell back as one as they found a giant anaconda of gargantuan length hovering way above them. The snake's purple skin had black blotches on it. Its underside was as black as the spots. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing part of the snake Grimhilde were the red stripes on either side of the narrow head. "What is this...?" trailed off Kairi as she stared at the anaconda with true terror reflected in her dark violet eyes.

"This Queen must be quite the witch; I'm guessing she makes potions in her spare time," murmured Darcie with her grip painfully tight on Noir's Blossom's hilt.

"A snake?! Let's get out of here, Vexy!" cried the terrified voice of a man.

They turned at the new voice and spotted a golden blond man with quite the extreme mullet staring at the Grimm Snake with a terrified look in his cyan eyes. Another man with long, greasy light blond hair rolled his eyes at the blond. "Do not be such a coward, Number IX. We have a job to do," he reminded the other man.

Demyx frowned at Vexen. "Do you not see that huge snake thing? I don't feel like being its lunch today, Vexy!"

"Number IX, if you do not help me, then I will have to inform the Superior that you are a traitor to our cause. What do you think he would do with you after that?" asked Vexen with a cruel smile as Demyx clenched Arpeggio, his sitar, with a tormented expression.

"Dance, water! Dance!" cried Demyx as he strummed wildly on the strings of his weapon. Water clones shaped as either musical notes or Demyx himself appeared and began to thwack Darcie and Kairi, pushing them away from Katalin and Naminé.

As Kairi and Darcie quickly became drenched in water from the clones, Vexen raised Freeze Pride and shot a blast of ice from it. Darcie quickly dodged the icy breeze, but Kairi, being distracted, became encased in the ice. "You Nobodies seem to think very highly of yourselves. Guess what? We have bigger fish -- well, snakes -- to fry than you," remarked Darcie as she made to rejoin Katalin and Naminé.

A barrier flashed in front of her face as she turned toward the other two. With her left hand balled into a fist, she turned back toward Vexen with her eyebrows raised. "I've decided that I really don't like you, so you're going first!"

In the meantime, Katalin tried to figure out a plan to take care of the Grimm Snake. On her own, she knew that she had a much smaller margin of success, but there was no way that she could walk away from the anaconda. Besides, if she did, it would probably only grab her and constrict her. Katalin recalled Beautiful Disaster to her hand and rushed at the snake. The Grimm Snake lifted its giant tail and swung at Katalin. She rolled to the side, then jumped up and grabbed it as the anaconda retracted it.

The Grimm Snake quickly wrapped the tail around Katalin's midsection and squeezed. Bad, bad idea on Katalin's part. She struggled not to scream, and managed to only cry out in extreme pain as the tail became tighter. Naminé's wide eyes stared at Katalin in shock before glancing back at Kairi, who was still frozen, and Darcie, who had just knocked Vexen into a tree. "Naminé, you have to do something!" shouted Darcie as she turned toward the Nobody after feeling eyes burning into her back. "Please, Naminé. Do something."

Naminé shook her head. "I can't do anything; I'm just a Nobody!"

Darcie glared at her somewhat. "Be optimistic because if Katalin is killed by that thing, then you're going to be the one who pays, got it?" She didn't mean it, not really, but she needed Naminé to attempt to try something to save Katalin. If Kairi could use a keyblade, then why couldn't her Nobody?

"Okay, I'll try," murmured Naminé before turning back toward the Grimm Snake. She closed her eyes and wished with all of her nonexistent heart that there was something that she could do. Anything. Sora and Kairi were both keyblade wielders. Roxas could wield a keyblade (two keyblades, but the second had nothing to do with Sora), so why couldn't Naminé? "I need something. A weapon. Come on..."

As Katalin cried out in pain, a little louder now, and Darcie began to try to tear apart the barrier in an attempt to get out, something beat inside of Naminé. Her eyes flew open and widened as her right hand became heavier. A relatively long keyblade was in her hand, in the shape of an elongated Nobody symbol. The guards were made up by the top of a heart, and the hilt was made up by the heart curving in. It stretched on until it reached the teeth which were the three spikes at the top of the Nobody symbol. The main color scheme of the keyblade was black and white. (A/n: Look up the Nobody symbol. Stretch out the part between the spikes and the heart, flip it vertically, and you have the keyblade.) A hint of gold was here and there on the keyblade.

The keyblade was solid, Naminé noticed with surprise, yet her hand didn't go through it. As her eyes travelled up to her hand, she realized why: her hand, all of her body in fact, was solid. She didn't question anything, and charged forward instead. Naminé climbed up the anaconda's tail and, while holding on with her left hand, slashed at the tail as hard as she could with her right. A bright flash of light emitted from the keyblade as she slashed through the tail, freeing Katalin and lobbing off part of the tail. Naminé jumped down as black blood gushed from the stump.

"This is... very good," remarked Vexen as he slowly pushed himself away from the tree and into a standing position. He eyed Darcie with an interested expression. "Perhaps I should take a piece off data from you..."

Darcie held Noir's Blossoms upwards, and a bolt of lightning exploded from the sky over Vexen, hitting him in the shoulder. "Touch me and I will kill you. Now, take down this damn barrier before I rid your sorry ass from existence."

Vexen grinned, showing his teeth as he did so. "Ah, I knew that there was a larger reason for Marluxia's attraction to you. That is quite fine; I'm sure we will meet again. Demyx, let's go." There was no response, so Vexen looked in the direction where Demyx was standing.

Or had been standing. "Oh, did I forget to mention? Your friend left you quite some time ago. I suggest you do the same," ordered Darcie with her eyes narrowed dangerously and her cheeks cherry red. Laughing in a way that made Vexen sound like an old man (A/n: A shot at his very creepy japanese laugh...), Vexen summoned a portal which he bowed into as he disappeared.

The barrier finally broke, but Darcie didn't move to help Naminé and Katalin. Instead, she approached Kairi. Sora had given them a brief lesson on using magic, so Darcie tried to remember how to use the fire spell. When she did, she made sure to focus the fire into a ring rather than a single ball, and murmured, "Fire." The ring touched the ice encasing Kairi and shattered it with ease.

Kairi rang out her soaking wet hair and flashed Darcie a smile of appreciation. "Thanks."

Darcie nodded. "Don't mention it. Now, let's take care of that Queen once and for all."

"N-Naminé!" exclaimed Kairi, her face painted with surprise when they rejoined Katalin and Kairi.

Naminé touched the tip of her keyblade to Katalin's skin and recited, "Cure." A yellow blossom rose over Katalin's head and its green vines healed her completely.

Katalin pushed herself into a standing position. "I have no clue what happened, but I think we'd better worry about it later." They turned toward the Grimm Snake just in time to see it waver before falling.

"Yeah. Let's worry about running for now," remarked Darcie as she grabbed Katalin and the four of them ran in the opposite direction of the anaconda. As the snake's body became engulfed by darkness, Darcie felt her heart skip a few bits. So much exposure to the darkness in one day was starting to make it have a very potent effect on her...

And suddenly the snake's body was gone with its heart floating upward in the sky. "That was easy enough," Shawn stated with a large smile as he, Sora, and Riku stepped into view.

"I nearly had my ribs broken, yet you guys don't show up until after the fact?" demanded Katalin with a voice that would have sounded annoyed if she hadn't been so tired.

Kairi all but jumped into Sora's arms. "Sora..." She trailed off, her dark violet eyes boring intently into Sora's electric blue ones. Without another word, she pressed her lips to his. Katalin couldn't summon the energy to make a comment, only smile, and she was relatively surprised to find Darcie in the same situation.

Riku and Shawn passed the two lovebirds and joined Darcie, Katalin, and Naminé. "What happened?" asked Riku with a surprised look at Naminé.

"Yeah. You look terrible, Kat, Darc," added Shawn with a smirk.

Katalin hit him, but there was hardly any effort in it at all. Her eyes trailed down to her chest, to her ripped orange shirt, and she stared at claw-shaped scar. She kept expecting some sort of memory to return with the discovery of it, but nothing had resurfaced.

All she could find herself wondering was why the scar looked years old but had never been visible before the fight with Queen Grimhilde. "I'm so... I just want..." Katalin broke off and shook her head with the knowing that she couldn't form a coherent sentence.

Darcie stopped beside her and helped her up. "I know; I feel the same way." She ignored Shawn, who seemed surprised to find herself and Katalin all business, and asked Riku, "Can we go back to the Radiant Garden? I think we need more answers before we can do anything more." He nodded as Kairi and Sora joined them.

"We should rest up," agreed Sora, a blush on his cheeks, "and check out on the other princesses tomorrow, along with new worlds that might have one of the new princesses."

"Or Wakka and Tidus," offered Kairi, her cheeks the same color as her hair.

XxxxxX

Leon agreed to check Ansem the Wise's computer again for more hints about where the other princesses could be. No one really questioned Naminé's new appearance although Leon did appear mildly annoyed to actually have her taking up space now. The universe was too large to be trying trial and error when it came to discovering the worlds that they lived on. It was nighttime in the Radiant Garden, a good two days after they had left, apparently. The time difference made no difference to Riku, Naminé, Darcie, Katalin, or Shawn; they were all dead tired and only wanted to curl up in a nice warm bed. Sora and Kairi offered to join Leon, being no worse for wear from their journeys, which was surprising enough. Kairi had been assaulted rather badly by Maleficent, and Sora had faced some serious dark magic. Apparently, cure spells were enough for them to keep moving.

Or, at least, that's how they acted outwardly. The way they felt on the inside was a mystery to everyone but Riku, and he wasn't telling. Aerith showed Naminé to another room (Merlin seemed to have made the house rather large with his magic) while Darcie, Katalin, Shawn, and Riku moved upstairs as a group but split in half once Katalin and Darcie reached their rooms. As Darcie headed for hers, Riku grabbed her wrist. She glanced back at him with what would have been a stern look if she hadn't been so tired. "I need to talk to you," he told groaned somewhat. "Can't it wait until the morning?" The look in his eyes told her no, so she folded. "Alright. Come into my room, and we'll talk." Riku carefully closed the door behind him and locked it; her eyebrows shot up her forehead. "Riku, listen. You're hot and stuff, but you're not my type, so if what you want is s--"

"Calm down, I don't want anything like that from you," informed Riku calmly before sitting at the foot of her daybed.

She nodded lightly. "Alright, then. What?"

"Well, for one... What is your type? Marluxia?" he asked, jokingly. When she didn't reply, he raised an eyebrow. "I was kidding. He's a sadi--"

"I have a good idea of what he is, but that doesn't stop me from being turned on," Darcie murmured, revealing once again her nature of not mincing words.

Riku shook his head as he dropped his eyes to the floor. Darcie was relatively surprised at his lack of eye contact. He was not one who was normally easily intimidated, which he showed by staring into the eyes of whomever he was speaking to. Always. She had come to notice this about him. "Maybe it's that way with Shawn, then."

"Does Shawn have a crush on you?" asked Darcie without surprise. "Well, he did confess to stealing his sister's straightener, but his attitude isn't really..." She trailed off when she realized Riku was staring at her with an amused expression. "Ooh. He didn't come out to you and confess to being in love with you. 'Kay. So, what are you talking about?"

"Shawn acted oddly toward Larxene, even once she revealed herself. He fell in love with her almost immediately, which was weird enough, but the fact that she's an enemy of ours didn't bother him at all. He didn't even try to attack her. Not once," remarked Riku. It was the first time that he had said anything. Shawn hadn't mentioned it, and all he himself had mentioned was that Larxene (disguised as Sadi) had led them into the forest and knocked Riku unconscious.

Darcie bit down on her lip until she was sure it would bleed. "Maybe he just didn't know what to do. Maybe he was scared or something." She wasn't sure why she was protecting Shawn; she didn't like him. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he had shown an interest in Katalin, that he was, overall, relatively kind to her best friend.

Riku shook his head as he leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "Bold and brash Shawn, Darcie? I don't believe that, and I know you don't, either. What exactly happened in Snow White's world?"

"Oh, you know," she made her accent slightly Canadian, "Snow White got snatched, we sealed the keyhole, we got attacked by too many people to count, Naminé became solid... Everything normal and usual for a keyblade wielder."

XxxxxX

"The truth is revealed, then," murmured Dempsey as he took a few more steps down the sandy beach and stared at the setting sun over the water.

Xemnas narrowed his eyes at the other man. "I am starting to think that you do not have the best interests at heart for myself and the rest of my Organization."

A smile twitched at the corners of Dempsey's lips as the wind's breeze pushed the hood off of his head. "I have my plans. Xemnas, do you think that I would have allowed Maleficent to take the princess if I didn't have any other plan?"

"Perhaps," answered the Nobody. "But I will never know if you do not tell me what your plan is."

Dempsey chuckled. "Do not be foolish, Xemnas. You and your Organization of traitors cannot be trusted so easily." His blue eyes stared intensely at the colors reflected from the setting sun. For a moment, the yellow almost made his eyes appear green.

XxxxxX

It was not very strange for Katalin to find herself back on the tower in the midst of the dark, smokey atmosphere. In fact, she had seen the dream so many times that she had begun to see parts of it during the daytime when she blinked. Again, she was dressed in the long, white dress with the pink lines like veins stretching all over it. As she stepped into the middle of Sora's platform, she was slightly surprised that three platforms with a sword, shield, and staff did not rise again.

Beautiful Disaster flashed into her hand. That was right. Since she had the keyblade, she didn't have to choose between them any longer. As she stepped near where Kairi was depicted on the platform, a set of glass stairs appeared and wound their way further upward. Katalin tilted her head backwards and stared up at the room. She could still see the light filtering through the darkness, and she wondered if she followed the stairs (and even more flights) if she would reach the light. She wanted to know what was in the light. Call her curious.

As Katalin started up the stairs, white creatures she already knew to be Dusks appeared, like before. She slashed them away with Beautiful Disaster and continued, at a run, up the remainder of the steps. When she reached the next platform, it was different than it had been before. Naminé, dressed in the familiar black dress with white stripes (like veins), was in the middle of the platform. Two others were beside her, two people that Katalin guessed to be the other two princesses that led the realms of Darkness and Light. Their features were obscured by darkness and light, respectively. 'You cannot learn what you do not know.' The bodiless voice informed her.

The voice was as familiar to Katalin as Darcie's or Kairi's, so she almost welcomed hearing it. Naminé did not appear on the middle of the platform surrounded by Dusks as she had before. Another flight of glass stairs appeared, and she followed them up without question. No Heartless or Nobodies appeared as she walked up them to the next tower. The next platform depicted her with her dress cut low enough for the scar to be visible. 'Perhaps it would pay for you to ask more questions, Katalin.'

Without warning, the platform shattered and she hurled through the darkness, missing Sora and Naminé's platforms by miles. As she fell, her dress became blackened.

A/n: That's that for this chapter. The name Grimm Snake is obviously a nod to the Grimm Brothers for obvious reasons. This chapter was really on the long side, so I apologize. o.x; Please review. Next chapter should be Spira!