The Disney Castle... one of the odder looking castles I've come across, it has to be said. What really gets me are the doors to the audience chamber – massive great doors, with only a small bit in the bottom of them that opens. But then, such oddities are what these places seem to thrive on.
Chip and Dale, the two chipmunk Gummi Engineers, met us in the hanger. The first time I'd ever pulled the Gummi Ship into a hanger actually. You don't see Sora do it, so you miss what actually happens. It's not as easy as you think it is. Thankfully, since the Gummis that make it up are flexible enough to snap back from snagging on smaller things, I managed to pull in without too much trouble.
I can't tell those two chipmunks apart, I admit it. The two of them let us know the castle was in danger, and the Queen was waiting for us in the library, then they scampered off again.
"So you really did see," Demyx murmured afterwards. "Do you know what kind of trouble the castle's in, Sora?"
"Sort of. I'm not keeping things from your deliberately, it's just I think some things are better left not mentioned. Come on – we shouldn't keep the Queen waiting."
"Are you sure she'd want to see me?" Demyx asked as we started up the stairs. "I mean, I am a Nobody."
"And you're one of my friends now. So if she wants to see me, she'll see you too. Stop worrying about it."
The stairs exit out into the courtyard, where in the first game you see Donald wake up Goofy with Thunder. Or at least, I assume so, anyway. Here the Heartless kept to only three forms, Shadows, Soldiers and Minute Bombs – not the first appearance of the last, but out of all of them the most troublesome. Best way to deal with them is a bit of fire magic normally, but we all tried to avoid using anything but thunder magic for the sake of the garden. Don't say I don't think of other people's property at times like this – I hate to think what Mickey's gardener would have said if he'd noticed us using Fire magic.
From the courtyard we made our way up to the Colonnade. Here you'll find a limitless source of Shadow Heartless by the stairs, and until you come back with Queen Minnie, they're the only Heartless here. Needless to say we had little trouble progressing past the barred off doors to the audience chamber and onward to the Library.
"Your Majesty!" Donald called, pushing past me to stand to attention before her. "Queen Minnie! We're back!"
"Did ya happen to summon us, your Royal Highness?"
"Of course she did, I already told you that," I said, then gave her a respectful nod. "Your Majesty. I'm Sora, and this nervous Nobody behind me is Demyx – don't worry, he's working for us now."
"The King's told me about you, Sora. He says you're a very brave young man, you know."
"I know. Mind you, he's probably going to call me a few other things later on, but that can't be helped. Has he told you I often know what's about to happen?"
"He mentioned something like that. Do you know what's going on already?"
I nodded, then explained for the benefit of the others. "There are Heartless here in the castle because something's happened to the Cornerstone of Light underneath the Audience Chamber, and you summoned us because you need our help to solve the problem. We'll go down there and find the cause of it is Maleficent, then we'll have to get Merlin from Hollow Bastion before we can do any more. Oh, and you forgot to warn everyone else, and since neither Demyx or I have any clue where anything is around here, Donald and Goofy should let them know to take cover."
There was a long moment after I said that where everyone took that in.
"Would you two care to warn everybody then?" Minnie asked Donald and Goofy eventually.
"Sure thing," Goofy said. "We'll catch up with ya as soon as we're done."
"Uh... where will we meet you?" Donald asked.
"Just go to the audience chamber and down the stairs," I replied.
"What stairs?"
"Trust me, there'll be stairs there. Go on – we don't want anyone to be turned into a Heartless if we can avoid it."
Once the two left, I turned back to the Queen.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Yes, Sora. Let's be on our way."
Demyx held the door open for her to leave after me, then we noticed the Bolt Towers that had cropped up along the Colonnade.
"Sora, can I suggest something?" he asked me.
"Sure thing. What's the idea?"
"Let me protect the Queen. I can create a barrier that'll keep me and her safe, and leave you free to handle the Heartless."
"This isn't just so you can get out of fighting is it?" I asked him slyly, then quickly added, "I'm just kidding with you. Go ahead – if you don't mind if course, your Majesty."
"Not at all, Sora," she answered. "Don't worry about me."
"But your Majesty, that's what I'm meant to do?" I replied with a grin, then turned back to the Bolt Towers. "Alright," I murmured. "Who's first?"
Since these Heartless did not require a finishing move to be destroyed, I switched my Keyblades – putting Fatal Crest in my right hand and Hero's Crest in the left. Mostly this was so I could take advantage of the combo chains I could rack up with Fatal Crest.
It took me a few moments to figure out the best way to attack these Heartless, and that turned out to be just to strike before they reacted. They're slow and sluggish until they notice you, and in my case that was perfect – once I got a combo started on one, they didn't have a chance to retaliate unless one of the others got close, and usually by that time, I managed to destroy one and start a new chain on the next.
I glanced back only once during all that, noticing Demyx had projected a hemisphere of water over himself and the Queen, keeping it stable as the two progressed along the Colonnade behind me. When we got to the giant doors, he dropped the barrier on the Queen's command, who then took hold of one of my hands to use her own Light spell to drive away the last of the Bolt Towers. With the kind of effect that could achieve, imagine how much easier some battles would have been if Donald or I could have learned that spell!
"Not here too!" Minnie exclaimed when she saw the audience chamber was also overrun with Bolt Towers.
"Now it's my turn," Demyx said, pulling out his sitar. "Step to one side of the door and enjoy the show, ladies and gentlemen! The water is about to dance!"
At first I didn't realize what he meant and Minnie had to quickly drag me out of the way of the door. Once Demyx started playing though, I caught on. The water figures came out of the sitar, but instead of fighting me they surrounded the Bolt Towers and most of the rest of the room. Then with one hard chord struck from the sitar, they lost cohesion and became a coordinated wave of water, crashing over the Bolt Towers and washing them out of the room. It made the carpet a little wet, and probably watered a fair bit of the courtyard's gardens, but it did solve our problem for us.
"Nice going, Demyx," I complimented him. "That went down like a real hit."
Without the Heartless to hinder our progress, it was easy to reach the thrones. It only took Minnie a few moments to find the hidden switch that revealed the stairs, just as Donald and Goofy turned up. Since I'd already mentioned the Cornerstone, she didn't bother with the explanation.
Once inside the Hall of the Cornerstone though, she pointed out the mass of thorns around the room, and the Cornerstone itself. It's light seemed to have been dimmed somewhat.
"This is the castle's cherished Cornerstone. But these thorns around us... they must be the work of someone very evil."
"Maleficent," I agreed. "Why don't you show yourself – I know you're listening."
"My, someone is observant," Maleficent remarked, the transparent image of her appearing. "You have been busy in my absence, haven't you? You and your Nobody... oh yes," she said with a grin, seeing my surprise at this. "Pete's told me all about the trouble your Nobody caused him."
She likes the sound of her own voice, doesn't she? Roxas observed. I wonder if Pete ever wants to punch the ugly hag.
I had to suppress the urge to laugh at that. Sometimes Roxas's comments caught me off guard.
"Just what are you doing here, Maleficent?" Minnie demanded – though I have to admit, Minnie and Mickey too for that matter, can't really pull off sounding outraged or angry. It's something about their voice that makes it hard to picture either of them being anything but cheerful.
"Ah, Queen Minnie. Radiant, as always," Maleficent greeted her with a bow. "I'm here on a property venture... I want this castle for myself you see. A little bright for me though... so I'll just have to fill it with my own touch of darkness."
"You'd better stop if you know what's good for you!"
"Ooh, how frightening. Very well, I'll stop – when it belongs to me!"
"Don't think I'll let you get away with that," I told her. "If you really want to make this castle yours, you'll have to square with me first."
"All in good time... there are others you have to square with first, you know," she told me, then disappeared.
"What did she mean by that?" The question came from everyone except Demyx.
"Never mind. It's not important. Donald, Goofy – take the Gummi Ship to Hollow Bastion and tell Merlin what's happened. He'll bring you and the Gummi Ship back here. The rest of us will stay here to handle any Heartless that show up, and anything Maleficent tries to throw at us."
Now, at this point, obviously nothing actually happens. But you might say I was a little more careful than Sora – given that I had changed so much, I didn't want that to come back and bite, so I stuck around. Just in case. And just as well that I did.
Normally, the Absent Silhouette of Marluxia shows up in the Beast's room when you team up to go after Xaldin – except obviously, I'd already destroyed Xaldin. So either Sora intervened and gave me something to do, or the Absent Silhouette decided to challenge me right there and then. Like Zexion's one, it appeared at first to be a smaller dark corridor with the signature scythe rotating inside.
I reassured Minnie and Demyx that it was safe, explaining what it was to them, then I reached out to it to accept the challenge, taking me to a station like those seen in a Dive to the Heart, except this one was white, adorned similarly to a white room in Castle Oblivion. Just as with Zexion's it was empty at first but for myself and Roxas.
Unlike last time, I kept both Keyblades. Roxas instead held Zexion's Book of Retribution.
"Trust me," he said. "I've got a plan."
"You figured it out then?"
"Sort of. I'm still working on making it available to you as well, but I've figured out how to use it myself. Only in these places though."
"And will you really turn it on me, Roxas?" Marluxia asked, having appeared opposite us without our noticing.
"After you called me a time-bomb waiting to explode? Think again."
"Time bomb?" I asked mildly.
"During my first few days in the Organization, Marluxia decided that I wasn't just slow to pick things up like the rest, but that I was just an accident waiting to happen – one that would cause the Organization a lot of trouble, maybe even try to reach you before you got to Castle Oblivion and team up with you. I didn't have any clue who you were at the time, so I couldn't have even if I wanted to."
"That was a long time ago now," Marluxia pointed out.
"I've got a long memory," he replied. "Now it's payback time. Go ahead, Liam. I'll back you up."
"I thought you'd never ask," I murmured, and charged Marluxia. He hurriedly brought his scythe into his hand to block my attack, stumbling back until he was forced to warp away to another part of the platform.
"You can't exploit Castle Oblivion this time, Sora!" he called.
"He doesn't need to," Roxas replied. One of his hands dragged over a page in the book, then he waved it toward me. Several images of me split off, forming a line between him and Roxas. Every move I made, the mirror images also made. They all wielded identical Keyblades, and wore identical smirks.
We advanced on the surprised Marluxia, with Roxas muttering words that helped maintain the control over the images to keep them solid appearing, just as dangerous as me, and most importantly, not overlapping each other or me. That would have given away which of us was really me.
Marluxia attempted to slow us by creating a series of black thorny vines, but Roxas created an illusion of a firestorm that affected only the vines, burning them away, and still we advanced.
He then started to swing the scythe at the images as we closed, getting more and more desperate as the Keyblades grew closer. I blocked each strike with one of the images Keyblades or my own, then when the images and I were close enough to attack, I started to coordinate my strikes so that as many of the images struck at the same time I did.
He managed to warp clear again, this time behind Roxas. I worried for a moment, but then Roxas winked at me. The scythe cut through him, doing absolutely nothing.
"You didn't really expect me to leave myself that open did you?" he asked Marluxia scornfully. The image flickered out along with the illusions of me, and the real Roxas appeared by my side. He shared a look with me and I understood, handing him Fatal Crest while I returned Hero's Crest to my right hand.
"Now you're up against two Keyblade Masters," I told Marluxia. "Think you can keep up with us both?"
Marluxia turned into what appeared to be a wheel, spinning fast and headed right for us. I defeated this by slamming down with the Keyblade just before it impacted me, stopping it, forcing Marluxia to come back and shoving him to the floor. Roxas and I both impaled him on the ends of our Keyblades after that.
"How could you... Roxas..." Marluxia breathed as he started to disappear again.
"I already told you," he replied. "And I told Zexion too – I'm getting my own back on you guys for all you did to me. You deserve it."
When Marluxia faded, I picked up his scythe, the only thing left of him, and gave it a few experimental swings.
"You know, I can't see how this thing is meant to be an effective weapon," I remarked. "I suppose you still want it anyway though."
"Hey, don't give it to me, see if I care," Roxas told me. "But you won't keep it when this all fades out. At least if I take it, I can make some use of it."
"Did he really call you a time-bomb?" I asked him as I handed it over.
"That and a good few other things. When Saïx told us the news about his demise, it was hard for me to hide my reaction to the news. The only thing I didn't like about it was that I hadn't been involved in getting rid of him."
"Let me guess, that's the other reason you showed up here, so you could feel like you were a part of it again."
"You know me too well," he admitted ruefully. "Of course, I'm your Nobody, so I'm hardly surprised. Time to go again. Tell Demyx I said I liked his solution to the Heartless in the audience chamber, will you?"
"I'll pass it on," I replied as the view faded back again.