Something about this woman was daunting. The black horns on her head, the dark cloak. Everything about her seemed to be... I wasn't sure how to put it. Either way, she made me feel so uneasy. But, I was not about to run away or anything. Riku was right there with me, and he got up with me when she showed up.

"Who are you?" I asked boldly, but I must not have seemed brave with Riku standing in front of me.

"My name is nothing important to you, child," she said, taking a few steps closer. I shot a quick glance to the staff in her hand, noticing the green glow the orb on top gave. It was mesmerizing, but I broke my gaze away from it and focused on the stranger. She stopped and chuckled. "My, such a serious girl. It seems your friend is much like you described."

"Huh?" I narrowed my eyes at her and looked to Riku. "What is she talking about? Riku, who is that?"

"It's okay, Kara," he said, locking eyes with me and nodding his head. "She's going to help us get Kairi back."

"Indeed," the woman confirmed. "Name's aside. It is far more important that we find your precious friend, yes? Come, let us go and prepare ourselves to depart."

"Are we there yet?" Sora couldn't sit still in the back seat of the cockpit. The gummi ship had taken its course through the deep space of the ocean of stars, but they had yet to reach any new worlds. "I'm so bored..."

"No," Donald said angrily as he maneuvered the gummi ship around some space debris. "Sit down and play a game or something. Don't bother the pilot!"

"Aw," Goofy looked back at Sora, who was alone behind them. Dropping his voice down to a whisper, he leaned in close to Donald. "Don't ya think he looks a little gloomy?"

Only briefly did the piloting duck peer over his shoulder at the boy, acknowledging the depressed expression he had. It was unfortunate to see him like that, and it was hard to not understand why. But, they had to keep moving and get to the next world to find the king and the Keyhole. Whether or not it was three of them or four, they had work to do. On the plus side, Donald thought, there was more room in the gummi ship.

Suddenly, an alarm went off in the ship that caught them all off guard. Dale came up on the monitor as Donald slowed the gummi ship down. There was a mysterious force up ahead that they finally caught sight of. It was unlike anything they had seen before.

"What is that?!" Sora jumped out of his seat and pointed at the spectacle. "Looks dangerous."

"Looks suspicious," Dale hummed, unsure of what to think about it. "It's some kind of worm hole, I think. Maybe it leads to another world."

Not giving Donald the chance to refuse, Sora took control and flew them straight into the spatial rip.

"Let's go!" he grinned.

But, of course, they flew straight into danger. There were Heartless vessels all over, but their gun power was enough to get them through it. The danger soon passed and smooth flying came to be for a time. At least, it was until they made it to their destination. A brand new world ready to be explored.

A massive world, bigger than any of the others they had ever been to, came into view. It was like a desert.

"Hmm, that looks like Agrabah," Chip showed up on the monitor and identified the new world. "Make sure you guys have plenty of water with you!"

"Right..." Sora went in to land the gummi ship somewhere in the desert, according to Donald's guidance on landing.

"And the Keyhole?"

Two figures dressed in black robes strolled through the empty roads of Agrabah. Teams of Heartless wandered round about them, searching for something... or someone. The witch who was undoubtedly Maleficent walked ahead, disappointed at the sight of this world. However, she could feel that something she desired was there.

"The Heartless are searching for it now," the man walking with her said, impatient in his tone. He paused, clearing his throat. "I'm certain we'll find it soon enough. So that just leaves..."

"Squawk! Ugh..."

Swooping down from the sky was a red bird, plump and exhausted from flying for so long. He perched himself on the Arabian man's shoulder and took a few deep breaths to regain some energy. "Jafar!" he began, still somewhat out of breath. "I've looked everywhere for Jasmine. She's disappeared like magic!"

"The girl is more trouble than she's worth," Jafar, so he was called, scoffed and swatted the bird away.

"You said you had things under control..." Maleficent glared harshly at them both. She was unimpressed by the lack of progress they had made while she was away. Although, it was mostly expected that they did not have the Keyhole found, but the princess was another story. Surely it wasn't that hard to take the girl.

Jafar glared back and planted his golden staff in the desert sand. He was hardly angered by his minion's failure to find Agrabah's princess, but the disapproving look from Maleficent was irritating. "Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in," he excused himself. "But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours when we find the Keyhole."

Frowning and not turning back to him, Maleficent stared out at the open desert beyond their reach. The plan she had in mind was clear in her head.

"We need all seven princesses of heart to open the final door," she revealed. "Any fewer is useless."

"Well," Jafar narrowed his snake-like eyes and smirked, "if the princess is that important, we'll find her."

Waving his hand out to his side, he called for some bandit-esque Heartless to come to his side. "Find Jasmine and bring her to me at one," he ordered them. Jafar sent Iago to lead them in the search, and he walked on ahead of Maleficent to look for the girl on his own.

"Don't steep yourself in darkness for too long," Maleficent gave him words of fair warning. "The Heartless consume the careless."

However, her words were only met with laughter.

"Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary," Jafar turned back briefly with a wide grin. "Those children, however, could use the

Both departed at once for their own works to do, but neither noticed the slim figure hiding behind one of the abandoned market booths...

"So, this is Agrabah?" Riku wiped sweat from his brow as the sun's rays pounded us. We hadn't even walked a mile, and both of us were drenched in sweat. "Can't imagine living in this kind of a world."

I sighed and shielded my eyes from the sun with my hand. There was no telling when the desert ended. Maybe it went on forever.

Which way was which?

"Think Kairi could be out here?" I huffed.

The heat was intense, and I was eager to find a place for shelter to get out from under the harsh sunshine. Riku shrugged his shoulders, saying that it was possible. It was always possible for our friend to be anywhere. Of course it took some looking, but I was sure she wouldn't have been out in the middle of nowhere like us.

For miles, Riku and I walked through the desert in hopes of finding any signs of people. A village or town or someplace with some kind of population. That witch lady who was with us before went in the opposite direction that we were traveling in. Apparently it was because she had a hunch that she needed to be there. A hunch... What was that about?

Maybe hours passed before it actually seemed like we made any progress. I was tired and my feet were hurting from all the walking and sliding down sand dunes. My eyes were all watery from the sand flying into them because of the occasionally strong gusts of wind. There was a lot to complain about!

"Hey, you seeing that?"

All of a sudden, Riku stopped in his tracks. He pointed at something in the distance. I looked and searched with my eyes until finally spotting something blue. It wasn't a steady image because of the rising heat. My amber eyes tried to discern what it was, but it was way hard to focus.

"I wonder what it could be," I folded my sweat-covered arms. Squinting, I tried to make it out once more. A circle...? A little blue circle? There was a little bit of green around it. And then it dawned on me. "An oasis!"

"Oasis, huh?" Riku kicked some sand off his foot and smirked. "Sure beats walking around out here. It'll probably take some time to get anywhere out here, so let's check it out."

"If it's not a mirage, that is..." I slumped my shoulders and shook my head.

A lot of our time in the desert was spent running straight ahead to the potential oasis. Other times, we walked and struggled through the sands. We had the greatest time trying to climb over a dune. At the top, there was a gust of wind that nearly knocked me back down, but Riku helped me over until we got to the bottom of it.

The sun was already going down some time later, which meant that it took us hours to cover any ground. Our reward was so refreshing, though. It wasn't a mirage after all! The oasis was right in front of us, and we got there before dark.

I pushed through the green leaves of the oasis's vegetation and darted for the fresh pool of water in its center.

"Water!"

Dropping to my hands and knees, I splashed the clear liquid onto my face. It felt so cool to my skin, and energizing. Riku did the same and enjoyed the chill of the water. We'd be spending the rest of the night there, until the sun came up again.

There wasn't a lot to work with to make a comfortable spot to rest in, but leaning up against one of the trees did well to provide the slightest bit of comfort. As the sun went down, the desert heat decreased. The wind became chilly, and Riku found the resources he needed to start a small bonfire to keep us a little bit warmer.

I sat cross-legged on the opposite side, arms folded and eyes focused on the dancing flames. He was awfully quiet and poked at the burning wood with a long stick he found somewhere around the oasis. Riku looked a little sad when I saw his face. Perhaps it was the orange glow of the fire and the shadows playing tricks on me.

"I wonder how Sora's doing," I murmured and looked out into the darkness past the shrubs.

"Yeah..."