-Naminé-is making mozzarella sticks-
Sora53: Um...Naminé? Whatcha doing?
Naminé: . Making mozzarella sticks!
Corita: Ooh, let me have some!
Joe: No, me!
Fans: ...There's no sauce.
Everyone: NO SAUCE?
-dies-
Naminé: Umm...oops.-

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or CoM. I own Corita...and the mozzarella sticks! They will rule!

As they left Agrabah and headed for the next floor, Goofy stared at the ground, looking sad. They moved up the stairs and stopped in the middle of the next white and blue hallway.

"What's wrong, Goofy?" Corita asked kindly. Goofy looked up at her slowly.

"It's that castle I mentioned earlier." He said, looking at her and speaking sadly. "I'm sure we didn't make it up. That was the castle where Sora used the Keyblade to save you and free Kairi's heart. Then he disappeared for a while, and you brought him back remember? I'll never forget how worried I was."

"Oh, yeah!" Sora cried. "When I turned into a Heartless and Corita carried me back to the entrance! Wait... That happened in...a castle?"

"You forgot? Well, I remember it perfectly." Donald said smugly.

"What was the castle called then, genius?" Corita asked him.

"Easy! It was..." Donald started, but he was stopped by the memories that no longer existed. "Hey, Jiminy. You wrote down everything that happened in your journal, right?"

"Every letter!" The cricket said merrily, poking his head out of Sora's pocket.
"I finished off the first volume right before we got to this castle. Let's see if I can find the old book..." Jiminy went rummaging through Sora's pocket for a short time, and then came back out and lept onto Sora's head with a book much larger than he was. "Ah, here it is! Let's have a look..." Jiminy said merrily as he opened the book and looked through it. A strange expression crossed his face, and he looked at the group in horror.
"Th-This isn't possible! All the entries have vanished! Every page, blank!" He cried, waving the journal around.

"What?" Corita cried, running over and scooping the cricket and his journal into her hands. She began looking through the pages and nodded her head.

"He's right."

"How could this happen? I take such good care of my journals! All that hard work, gone..." Jiminy moaned as he crawled sadly into Corita's pocket.

"This can't be...I mean..." Corita stuttered as she looked through the journal. "I was reading it right before we left for the last world! You too, Sora! Remember?"

Sora cocked his head and stared at Corita for a moment. "I...read Jiminy's journal?"
"Yes!" Corita cried.

"What kind of castle is this..." Sora muttered as he turned away from Corita and looked towards the next set of stairs. Sora, Goofy, and Donald headed up the stairs to the next pearl-white hallway, but Corita lingered for a moment as she gently placed Jiminy's empty journal in one of her other pockets.

"Hollow Bastion." She whispered to herself as she walked to the stairs.


"Something funny's going on...how could everything Jiminy wrote vanish like that?" Corita wondered as they headed down the next hallway.

"Maybe it's not just stuff we write down. Goofy said we've been to some other castle. But I don't remember it at all. None of us really do. Maybe...Maybe we don't remember because those memories are gone."

"Yeah...Hollow Bastion...probably just a name I invented." Corita told them.

"Wait, gone? Don't be ridiculous!" Donald cried.

"Wait! Remember what that guy in the black hood said? 'In this place, to find is to lose and to lose is to find.' He was talking about memories!" Jiminy called out from Corita's pocket. He was poking his head out, but he was still upset about the loss of his precious journal.

"So if we keep going, we'll lose our memories... No wonder they call it Castle Oblivion." Sora sighed.

"So...the higher we go, the more we forget? What if we forget everything and can't get it back?" Donald asked nervously.

"I'd forget Riku and Kairi, too..." Sora muttered. The group was silent for a moment.

"Maybe we should turn back?" Donald suggested.

"Don't worry! We might forget where we've been or what we saw, but we'll never forget our friends or each other." Goofy said confidently.

"What makes you so sure?" Donald asked.

"First of all...Sora, when you turned into a Heartless, did you forget about us?" "Of course not! I'd never forget you!" Sora cried.

"Secondly, I've got this." Goofy said, reaching into his pocket. After digging for a few seconds, he pulled out his green thalassa shell, the one Corita had found in Atlantica and given him.

"Oh yeah!" Corita said, staring at the shell. "I've still got mine, too!" she said, pulling out her blue thalassa shell.

"I'll never lose mine." Sora said, holding out his red shell. "Thanks to this little shell, Corita brought me back to you guys."

The three of them looked down at Donald, who grumbled and held out his 'murky yellow one.'
"I've still got mine..."

"Well, see, there ya go! No matter what happens, you won't forget your friends. With these shells, we'll always be together!" Goofy said happily, placing his shell back into his pocket.

"Yeah...you're right." Sora said. "Thanks, Goofy."

"I guess there's nothing to be scared of after all. So let's go!" Donald said, moving towards the door that would lead them to the next world from their memories.

"Hey, Donald..." Corita said slowly, moving towards him. "When I carried Sora to you guys when he was a Heartless, who was the one who called me crazy?"

"Yeah, and who was the one who thought she wanted to keep me as a pet?" Sora asked.

Donald whirled around to face them. "THAT's what you should be forgetting!"

Sora, Corita, and Goofy started to laugh at him, and Donald stalked off to wait in front of the door.

"C'mon, Mr. Keyblade Master!" Donald called out. "Come and open the door!"

After the 3 friends had composed themselves, they headed towards where Donald was waiting. Sora chose another card from his small group of World Cards, and held it before the door. Once again, the room flashed a bright white, and they felt themselves being pulled forward. As quickly as it began, they had landed once again in a world with...
"...sand." Sora muttered as he brushed some of it out of his hair.

"More sand?" Corita moaned. "Don't even think about it, Donald!"

Donald sighed and lowered his arm, which had been about to once again throw sand at Corita.

"Stop playing in the sand and look at this!" Goofy said, pointing to something on a large stone wall. The 3 others ran to him, and looked at the poster.

"It's an announcement!" Donald said as he struggled to see over Sora's spiky hair.
Jiminy had better luck than Donald, however, as he nimbly lept to the top of Goofy's head.

"Well, I'll be." Jiminy chirped. "It's for some sort of contest. They're calling it the 'Olympus Coliseum Survival Cup.' Contenders have to run an obstacle course, battling each other along the way. And listen to this: 'The great hero Hercules will also compete for the Cup.' It says here he's never been beaten."

"Sounds like fun. Why don't we enter, too?" Sora suggested.

"Sounds great!" Corita said, moving out of the way so Donald could finally read the announcement.

"I thought you'd say that. Whenever there's a contest, you two are rarin' to join up."

"You're going to compete even if we don't, right?" Donald asked as he turned away from the announcement.

"Uh huh."

"Guess we'd better tag along, then."

"Hold it, everyone. There's more... 'Only contenders who finish the preliminary course may enter the main competition.' It says the preliminary course is just ahead." Jiminy said, pointing to the left of where they'd landed in town.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sora said, and he turned towards where the preliminary course was located. He was quickly followed by Corita, Goofy, and Donald.


"DONALD!"

"What? I didn't do anything!"

"You threw sand at my head again! That's the 15th time!"

"You counted?"

"AHA! So you admit it!"

Corita began pelting Donald unmercifully with sand while he ran around, trying to find somewhere to hide from the Healer's sand missles. Eventually he took refuge behind Sora and Goofy's backs.

"You know, for having a pure heart, she's kinda scary sometimes..." Donald whimpered.

"Don't worry. We're almost through with the prelims." Sora said as they began walking once again.

"How can you tell?" Goofy asked.

"Because, there's the guy who marks the finish line of the preliminaries." Sora told him, pointing ahead. In a small plaza, a short satyr was turned the other way, looking like he was waiting for something.

"Well, what are we doing here? Let's go talk to him!" Corita said, moving ahead of the group.
When they got about 5 feet from the satyr, he turned around and stared up at them, a look of shock on his face.

"Huh? Where did you come from? Don't tell me you guys finished the prelims!" He said in a shocked tone.

"We sure did. And now we want to go for the Cup!" Sora said excitedly.

"Well, you came to the right place. Not that you stand a chance against Herc." "Why not?" Corita asked.

"Two words. You-ain't-heroes."

"You're wrong!" Sora cried.

"Yeah, he said three words." Goofy said simply.

"Not that! I mean, how can we prove we're heroes unless you give us a chance?" Sora cried.

"He's right, Phil." said a voice to their left. Turning their heads, they saw Hercules walking towards the satyr. "They cleared the prelims. I think they deserve a shot."
Hercules stopped next to Phil and looked down at the four 'not-heroes'.

"Hmm...you got a point there, Herc. But still..."

"Of course, we could always cancel the games." Hercules said as he turned his head to look down at Phil, a twinkle in his eye.

"Cancel them? Why?" Corita asked.

Hercules turned his attention back to the group in front of him.
"Old Phil's prelim course was so hard, no one else could finish it." He explained calmly.

"Is that right? Then it's settled! Let us compete, and you won't have to cancel the games! How about it, Phil?" Sora said craftily.

Phil sighed. "Okay, you got me over a barrel, so fine. Here's how it works, kid-"

"It's Sora-not 'kid'."

"All right, all right. Sora, since your team and Hercules are the only contenders —"

"They're not."
From behind, a mysteriously calm voice rang out. A man, with spiky blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, dressed with a deep purple cape, approached them.

"The games have a new challenger. Name's Cloud." He stopped next to Sora and Corita, and he glared down at them with his glowing blue eyes. Sora and Corita gulped.

"The more the merrier! Now the games will really be something to see!" Phil cheered. "Now, I just need to take you through the rules.
"Rule 1! First one through the obstacle course wins!
Rule 2! In the event of a tie, a battle will determine the winner!
Rule 3! You can interfere with your opponents on the course!
And finally...Rule 4! All challengers have to give it everything they got! Now, line up!"

Hercules stood next to Sora, and Sora stood next to Cloud. Corita, Donald, and Goofy lined up behind Sora. "All right, enough with the spiel. On your marks... Get set... GO!" Phil cried, leaping up and down like crazy. Like a bullet, those who'd been lined up shot away from the satyr with blinding speed.


"C...c...can we take a break?" Corita heaved, breathing in and out fast.

"We've...gotta win!" Sora told her, also breathing hard.

"Sora, we've been running for 7 minutes straight!"

"She's right, Sora. Let's just walk for a little while." Goofy said.

"Aw, phooey. I'm not tired." Donald bragged.

"Wanna keep running?" Corita asked. Donald went silent.

"Well, we need to keep going. Hercules and Cloud are still ahead of us." Sora said.

"Alright, let's keep at it." Goofy said cheerfully. The group continued walking for about 2 minutes, until they turned a corner and saw Cloud standing there. He looked down at the twins for a moment. Sora and Corita gulped again.

"Gawrsh, that was nice of him to wait for us to catch up!" Goofy whispered to Donald cheerfully.

"He's not waiting! Remember Rule 3? 'You can interfere with your opponents on the course'!" Donald hissed.

"He's looking to narrow the field!" Sora cried, readying to fight.

Cloud merely blinked and turned his head away from the group. "You can put that away. I'm not looking for a fight with you, so keep walking." He muttered calmly.

"See? He was waitin' for us to catch up." Goofy said.

"Well, we've caught up. Let's take him up on his offer and keep going!" Donald said.

"I don't see a downside..." Sora muttered slowly. The group headed forward, leaving Cloud behind. Sora, however, turned around 10 feet from him.

"Listen, are you sure?" Sora asked.

"I'm not here for the Cup. Just Hercules." Cloud explained softly. "Today he loses more than the competition."

The group stared at the back of Cloud's head in stunned silence for a moment.
"You don't mean... But why! What did he do to you?" Sora cried.

"This is business. Stay out of it. Go win your Cup."

"He sounds serious..." Donald whispered. Corita had heard enough. She reached down, grabbed as big a handful of sand as she could manage, and flung it with all her strength at the back of Cloud's head. Cloud's hand instinctivly reached for where it had hit, and he spun around dangerously slowly.

"Who...threw that?" He growled.

"That would be me." Corita chirped. Next to her, her brother was gripping the Keyblade tightly. Cloud's eyes moved from Corita to Sora, who once again gulped quietly as he stared into Cloud's eyes.

"Do you realize what you're doing?" He asked softly.

"Rule 3! You can interfere with your opponents. Right? You're not the only one who wants to fight Hercules." Sora said boldly.

"Big mistake."

-Sora53: Oohhh! I made Cloud look so evil!
Naminé: I thought you were dead?
Joe: YAY! Corita threw sand at Cloud's gravity-defying hair!
Sora: Hey, I have gravity-defying hair too!
Corita: Well, yeah...my hair isn't gravity-defying cuz I'm special!
Sora53: You're hair looks like mine when I was 6.
Corita: SO IT'S WILTY GRAVITY-DEFYING! BE QUIET!
Sora Fangirls: Aw, siblings.
Riku Fangirls-are dead from lack of Riku-
Sora53: Don't worry...he comes back...or does he?
Riku Fangirls: YOU WILL PERISH!
Sora53: AH-