Arthur opened his eyes to see he was not looking into sand, nor was he gazing into the beautiful sunset sky he saw on his first visit to the Destiny Islands. It was clear he was not outdoors. He didn't get a good look at the place before Sora pounced on him

"You're safe!" The shout was right in his ear, causing him to bolt upright, the pounding in his head had come back, but not nearly as strong as before. He groaned not sure of what even happened. He took the moment to survey the room, whereupon he saw everyone he knew, with the addition of 2 new people. One figure was a boy with silver short hair, and the second was a girl, her hair was a decent length, red, and she looked at him with intense curiosity, he did not understand why. He then heard a loud voice boom above a table

"No need to smother him Sora, though it is impressive he even awoke". All Arthur could see was the brim of a pointy hat, like your typical wizard would wear. Sora and his silver haired companion helped the disorientated boy on his feet, and through his stumblings he managed to meet the figure with the loud voice. The man was no doubt familiar, but the memories seemed beyond his measly grasp, but he worked with what he had. The man had a long cloak of blue, sleeves too big for him, no hair he could see, although he had a beard, long and grey, this man was very old, unique, but he could not remember this man from anywhere. Then, the man spoke "young Arthur, it has been some time, has it not?" Arthur looked at this man and was puzzled, less scared and just curious, like a child, though Arthur refused to be called that. Mickey walked past Arthur and hopped on the desk

"Arthur, this Master Yen Sid, you may not remember him, but you and Ven-" Arthur cut off Mickey when he violently shook his head

"Why does it hurt?!" He fell to his knees Sora was immediately at his side, Arthur couldn't help but lean into Sora's shoulder, Arthur felt the pain subside when Sora rubbed the back of his head, making him exhale in pleasure, it felt nice, Sora saw this too and smiled

"Feeling better, buddy?" He nodded and thanked him, Sora and Riku helped the boy back to his feet and Mickey quickly finished

"You both met a while ago, and now Master Yen Sid believes we need your help… There's only one issue though". Arthur tilted his head, confused

"What's the issue Mickey?" Sora couldn't help but smile due to the fact that Arthur had no trouble remembering Mickey, but still concerned Ventus seemed to trigger some surge of pain.

"Well, we need to find the 3 missing keyblade wielders, and it we haven't been able to find any of them, we believe Aqua is in the realm of darkness, we have reason to believe that Terra is being possessed by Master Xehanort, but we don't know where Ven-" Mickey cut himself off, fearing that he may have triggered another burst of pain, but continued when Arthur merely staggered and claimed he was okay. With caution Mickey said "the only ones who would know where Terra or… V are would be Aqua… Or you". Arthur squinted at the mouse king and asked

"Why did you say it that way?" Riku couldn't help but laugh, thinking that the boy must have been raised as clueless as Sora, so Riku stepped up.

"Because you can't access your own memories without a dangerous level of pain, what's worse is that we believe someone may have done this to you to prevent you from finding Ventus and waking him, these are just assumptions, perhaps no one knows where he is, but if you had your memories forcefully locked from you… Well, it's concerning to say the least". Arthur seemed to ponder this and he immediately brushed it off

"Whatever it is, I can handle it!" Arthur seemed to go back to a cheery mood, not entirely understanding the situation, this was somewhat concerning to Sora, but he pushed it all down, glad his friend was happy. Master Yen Sid also pushed away the feeling of pursuing the issue, but then he turned his head to Riku and Sora.

"We must deal with all of this later, for now, we need to hold a test for you both". Riku and Sora jumped at them being spoken to so suddenly. Yen Sid carried on "I sense the power of the light in you both, and I see it fit to test you both for the mark of mastery". Sora was the first who spoke up

"Mark of mastery? I'm already good enough, I don't need to take this test!" Ignoring the bashful and shaming glares from Donald and Goofy. Riku spoke up

"I'm not" everyone looked shocked "I let the darkness take hold of me, Sora's a keyblade wielder all because of my inability to fight back the darkness, even if Sora doesn't need to do this, I do, I need to conquer the darkness, so it may never take hold of me again". Sora smiled

"well, if Riku's gonna go through with this, then so will I!" Arthur had to sit back and admire Sora and this Riku guy, they seemed to have such a close bond, in fact, it reminded him of- wait, who was he thinking of? Mickey caught on to Arthur's confused expression and asked

"Arthur? You okay? You look like you're thinking really hard about something". He smiled and said

"I'm fine… Uh, who are you again?" All the side conversations stopped as he asked that question. Mickey seemed really off put, not knowing how to respond
"I-I'm King Mickey! You're friend, we met 10 years ago, remember?" Though Mickey sounded confident, his face betrayed that confidence, he looked worried, as if he were given the worst possible news. Arthur looked confused and then shook his head

"No, I'm sure I'd remember someone like you, right Sora?" He smiled and looked over to Sora, who did not reciprocate his attitude.

"Arthur, you don't remember him? You just said his name a minute ago" Arthur smiled and said

"Nope, don't know anyone like him!". He spoke so definitively and cheerfully optimistic that it left no room for misunderstanding, and that worried everyone. Sora asked

"Arthur, tell me who you remember in this room". Arthur looked around the unfamiliar room, he pointed at Donald the Duck, Goofy the dog, Sora himself and that was it. Yen Sid interjected immediately

"This is not good, it was as I feared, it seems Arthur is not only losing access to his memories, it seems he is also losing them in their entirety". Arthur brushed him off with a wave of the hand

"I feel great, nothing's wrong, seriously".

"Sora?"

"Yeah, Arthur?"

"Why am I going in this pod?"

Arthur looked at his best friend, unable to hide his worry and fear in his eyes

"This is to make sure you don't forget anything, in this pod, no one can tamper with your mind, I'd be crushed if you forgot me!"

Arthur smiled

"As if I could forget a goof like you!"

For a moment Arthur was able to push his fears aside, but suddenly Sora asked

"Arthur, tell me, what's the last thing you remember?" Arthur smiled

"Well, I remember… being at… Sunset Town! With Malakai and… Kaiu! Will I see them soon?" Sora felt horrible, but he did his best to reassure him

"Yeah, w-when everything's done, you'll see all of your friends, and we'll all be together".

Though Sora was convinced he had failed at bald face lying to the poor boy, Arthur seemed to eat it up as he shouted

"Yay!" For some reason, Sora felt torn up inside, like his heart was being torn apart seeing Arthur like this. It took everything to not breakdown in front of him, he didn't know how he'd take it if Arthur never recovered from this. It didn't matter though, as the boy ascended the stairs to the pod, Sora could only hope that Yen Sid was correct, and that this would reverse his slow amnesia, or at least keep his memory secure enough it could not be further damaged by whatever was trying to harm it.

Mickey promised to look after Arthur as Sora and Riku took their mastery test, in the abandoned mansion in Twilight Town.