"Get back!"

Sora tried to keep Rapunzel at a safe distance before he charged forward, Kingdom Key in hand, swinging at the heartless. He was quickly surrounded, significantly more had appeared than he had initially thought. He quickly pointed his Keyblade up and called out "Thunder!"

Thunder reigned down on the heartless, taking out a few and stunning a lot more. They weren't all down though, and he spun around, swapping to his Olympian Keyblade and using its shield to block a large tackle form 5 or 6 smaller enemies. A large fist protruded from the shield and took them out, granting Sora a brief moment of respite from the action.

Or so he thought, for the larger cotton ball heartless had regained balance and began stacking the smaller ones on top of itself and began swingin the stack wildly at Sora.

Rapunzel was just watching her companion duck and weave between the monsters, with some semblance of grace that diminished the more of them appeared. She had no time to question the giant Key or the magic or the sudden shield, she was just fearing for his life. Then, a large one with... an umbrella took aim at Sora as he was dodging the heartless stack. So instead of doing the sane thing and calling out to Sora so he wouldn't be hurt...

Rapunzel jumped in and smacked it with a frying pan.

The monster turned to dust as the pan made a satisfying clang against the monster's head. Sora got a free moment to turn away and see Rapunzel smacking things with a frying pan and whipping them with her hair. "Rapunzel, you okay?!"

"Y-Yeah!" was the nervous stammer that responded, "I'm not afraid to... to fight them."

Sora grinned at her, as if to show her that she was being really brave or that she was doing a good job. That grin was a hell of a motivator, as Rapunzel's nerves and unease melted away as she continued to fight of the weird invaders.

Marluxia hated this kind of work. He hated these missions when he was originally a member, before Castle Oblivion, and he didn't hate them any less now.

Getting Mother Gothel to cooperate with him took predictably little effort; she coveted Rapunzel and her youth restoring powers over anything. She would make any agreement to reclaim her "daughter." It was going as planned. Now, to make contact with Sora, persuade him that he has the light's best interest at heart for this world.

That was the plan, before another corridor appeared in the tower room, and out stepped his old boss. "Xemnas, looking gloomy as ever."

The former leader of the Organisation stood, unfazed by Marluxia's snide remark. "There has been a small change of affairs."

"How so?"

"Sora has already made contact with the light of this world," Xemnas paused and refocused his vision on the pink haired reaper, "They're already connected, I find it unlikely that he will relinquish her to us under these circumstances."

"I hardly expected him to in the first place, I saw how wound up he got about fake memories. I'm sure he's a lot worse with real ones." Marluxia's face curled into a sly grin. "Does that mean a change in operation is required?"

Xemnas only smirked before answering his subordinate. "Only a slight change. Isolate Sora from the girl and proceed from there."

Summary? Force was required.

"You're a THIEF?!"

"I never said I was a good person just that I have... certain loyalties to you, see?"

"Gawrsh, I get that, but stealing's a bit much don'tcha think?"

"Half a day I go I wouldn't have agreed but..." Flynn looked back to see the guards that were chasing them away from the tower, "If a better moral compass spared me from this... I'd take it!"

None of them were watching where they were going, so it wasn't much of surprise when they fell off a cliff they hadn't seen. Good news? The branches broke their fall and the guards weren't chasing them off a cliff. Bad news?

They fell off a cliff.

Upon arriving at the bottom, in a stack that went Donald, Flynn then Goofy on top, all that could be heard were a series of painful groans and a scornful quack that echoed in the nearby woods.

"Well," Flynn exhaled, pushing Goofy off of him and pulling Donald to his feet, "At least we know this Sora wasn't at the tavern!"

"And how is that good news...?" Donald huffed exasperatedly.

To my knowledge, that's the only rest point between here and the Kingdom, so chances are we passed him at a much earlier point. See?" Flynn achieved his smoulder, "I'm a great help."

Donald practically flew up ready to bonk Flynn before Goofy held him back, "Uh, so should we go back to find him?"

"Hmmm... no best stay around here. The path back branches off, we don't want to take the wrong road and miss him completely. If we stay here, and he definitely is en route this way, we shouldn't miss him!"

Flynn, having just fallen off a cliff, was surprisingly proud in this moment.

The last of the Heartless dissipated into dust, leaving the two teenagers huffing and gasping for breath. Rapunzel fell back into a sitting position, wondering how she managed to keep calm through all of that. Sora, much more casually, just fell back lied down staring at the sky whilst he reclaimed his breath.

After a few moments a grin was plastered on both of their faces. "That was amazing!" Sora chanted as he sat up, "You're a really good fighter!"

"I-I am?" Rapunzel was sheepish. She wasn't naive to think herself as good a fighter as Sora, nor a good fighter at all for that matter.

"Yup! That was really close but you saved me with that frying pan, thanks!"

Rapunzel took some pride in the fact that Sora had seen some skill and talent in her, but then turned her attention to the lack of, "... Your, Key?"

Sora was initially confused but then realised that he hadn't shown her the Keyblade at all prior to this point. "Oh the Keyblade. It's kind of magic, I can make it appear and disappear with the light, pretty cool huh?"

Rapunzel went wide eyed at the mention of magic; was it enchanted like her hair? She then brought her thoughts back to the questions at hand; Sora didn't need to know about the magic hair at this present moment. "How did you get it? If it's magic, I mean."

Sora frowned. The Keyblade had brought so much good into his life, but he had to think about the circumstances that gave him it; Riku falling to Darkness, losing Kairi, the Island's demise. "I,uh, got it when I left my Island." he treid to find the right words to describe the process," When I left, a lot of bad stuff happened to my friends and I. This was the only piece of good I got out of it."

Sora looked melancholic as he stared at his right hand, before grinning and looking up at Rapunzel, "But it helps me save people from the heartless, so I think it's an alright trade."

He only thought that because everything had come back to him in the end.

"The Heartless..." truthfully, Rapunzel wsn't thinking about the Heartless. Everything about this boy seemed to be tied to his Island and his friends, why was he here? "Those things are them...?"

"Yeah, they're creatures born of the heart, and the darkness inside it."

This was an awful lot to take in for Rapunzel, but Sora explained it all so casually. "How long have you been fighting them? Are they common? Oh is this what Mother meant when she said that the outside was dangerous...?!"

"Nonono don't worry!" Sora tried to stop the panic from setting in, "They don't show up usually! Just think of them as a... a-a pest!"

Sora quickly got to his feet. "A-anyway, we need to get moving if we're gonna get you to these lights by tomorrow night, right?"

He extended a hand to Rapunzel to help get her off the ground. She felt a small itch in her head. There was something about everything Sora had said that didn't quite feel right. It all made sense, but it didn't really tell her why he was here in the first place. Was he looking fro something? What would happen when he found it? Di the heartless have something to do with it?

She took his hand and stood up with a smile, "Yeah, I need to see them up close!"

Sora grinned widely. "Best get going then!" and proceeded to casually walk down the path.

Rapunzel didn't need to worry herself with Sora's purpose right now, she just needed to get to lights.

The two didn't notice the robed figure watching them from a rocky outcrop, chuckling to himself. "Oh how I have waited for this, Sora..."

Kairi sneezed. There was a disturbance. SOMEWHERE.

"Ooh, real dandelions!"

Sora and Rapunzel had reached an open area just past two cliffs where there was an open field of flowers, mostly dandelions. Rapunzel ran up to one of them and blew, sending all of its spores flying off like pretty snowflakes. "It would be so pretty to send all of them flying!"

Sora had an inkling of what to do here. "Well where has the most flowers?"

Rapunzel was perplexed but began to look around," Uhhh... there!"

She pointed to a large patch of flowers a few feet from where they were standing. Sora just smiled and pulled out his keyblade, "Wind!"

He pointed it at the flowers and a small gust started up, blowing the dandelions under it and in the immediate vicinity. The two were surrounded by the spores in what felt like a scene out of a picture book. Rapunzel started laughing happily and dancing around in the flowers. She began to twirl like a ballerina, before tripping over her hair and nearly falling.

"Woah! Haha, careful!"

Sora had caught her just as she fell over. Rapunzel smiled nervously, "Thanks Sora...heheh."