Chapter Seven

Disney Castle

Sora sat in his seat fast asleep snoring and Kairi could only laugh at the nose bubble that kept shrinking and growing each time he breathed. She turned to look out the cockpit window and watched as stars and moons flew past the Gummi Ship. Riku, Donald, and Goofy paid most of their attention in front of themselves in case Heartless ships appeared. So far that day, nothing showed up on radar.

"BANG!"

"What was that?" Sora woke up with a fright as it sounded as if he said it as one whole word.

"Dunno." Riku replied.

"Was it a meteor?" Kairi asked Donald.

"No," he answered. "It came from the cargo hold."

"I'm up anyways, I'll go check it." Sora announced.

"We'll all come and look with ya." Goofy said. Donald set the Gummi Ship to auto-pilot and they all stepped onto the elevator. They walked down the hall to the third door on the left. Sora and Riku took out their Keyblades while Donald and Goofy took out their staff and shield.

"Who's there?" Donald shouted into the cargo hold.

"Tidus, quit movin' n' take it like a man!" Wakka yelled aiming his blitzball at the spiky blonde's head. A girl with neck-length brown hair and wearing a yellow dress giggled as she watched the oldest of the three try and hit the second youngest.

"You have to be quicker than me to actually hit me, Wakka!" Tidus teased. He turned and noticed an angered Sora, Riku, and Donald. He gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, uh… hey man." Wakka tried to play cool, but he was just too nervous.

"Can I go and talk to Kairi?" the girl asked.

"I'm over here Selphie!" Kairi waved over at her. The girl waved back and got up off the floor and walked out of the hall with Kairi and Goofy.

"You think they're gonna get it pretty rough, Kairi?" Selphie asked as the door shut behind Sora, Donald, and Riku. "They looked pretty mad."

"They will, but then they'll just laugh about it afterwards." There was a bunch of loud sounds coming from the cargo hold right after she said that.

"Uh… maybe we should check up 'em." Goofy suggested. Kairi and Selphie nodded at him. The three tip toed quietly over to the door and opened it slightly.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU THREE ARE DOING ON HERE?"

"We wanted to see what other worlds looked like."

"SO YOU JUST STOW AWAY? YOU COULD HAVE JUST ASKED!"

"We didn't know, ya?"

"THIS IS MEDDLING SORA! WE SHOULD JUST SEND 'EM BACK TO WHERE THEY BELONG!

Kairi, Selphie, and Goofy couldn't help, but laugh at the five of them. They stared at the three in the doorway and stared back at each other and started laughing all together. They stopped laughing after three minutes and wiped the tears that were dripping down from all the laughing.

"Well, it's too late to bring them back." Sora told Donald.

"Alright, you can come, but no more meddling!" Tidus and Wakka gave a salute to the Court Wizard and didn't do anymore searching on the ship.

The Gummi Ship flew to a white and blue castle with stars one the steeples. There was a beautiful hedge garden with sculptures of a band. In the middle was a miniature castle and a cobblestone path that led to the entrance hall of the castle. The ship hovered in the air for a few seconds and floated down into the hangar.

After exiting the ship, Donald looked around with caution looking out for Heartless. He ran off with his staff in hand ready to take anything that got in his path.

"DONALD!" Sora and Goofy shouted back to their friend, but he didn't come back. Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Goofy took out their weapons, but stopped right in their tracks.

"Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie don't have any weapons to fight the Heartless with." Kairi told them.

"You're right," Riku replied. "If they don't have weapons they're sitting ducks for the Heartless."

"Ah, don't worry!" Goofy interrupted. "I found a sword and uh… um… whatchamacallems over here!" He was holding a long sword and nunchaku. The long sword had a red blade and a silver lining around the sharp edge. The nunchaku was two white staffs chained together. One of them had a yellow crescent moon; the other had a yellow star. Tidus grabbed the sword while Selphie took the nunchaku. They walked out of the docking bay.

They walked onto the courtyard and saw Donald and two mages fighting of Shadows and another type of Heartless. They were a little bit taller than the Shadows, but had the Heartless emblem on their chests. Their heads were encased in a metal helmet and had sharp red fingernails. These Heartless were known as Soldiers. The mages helping Donald wore black robes and wielded wooden staffs. They were having a bit of trouble.

"Okay guys, let's move in!" Sora shouted. They all rushed in and attacked. Sora slashed through a few Shadows and kicked a Soldier before it scratched Donald's back. The duck jumped in surprise and looked up at Sora. They turned back to the Heartless and started to attack. Riku sent a Dark Fire at one Soldier and relentlessly slashed five more Heartless. Kairi cut through a Shadow, but three Soldiers jumped onto her back and knocked her down. They got off of her and she quickly got up. A Soldier was about to do a spinning kick, but Kairi dashed at it at high speed and cut it in half. She attacked the two other Heartless and looked for anymore.

Donald cast a Blizzard spell and froze two Soldiers and five Shadows and knocked another Shadow over to Goofy. Goofy threw his shield at it in midair and destroyed it. He grabbed the shield, did a flip in the air and fell to the ground crushed a Soldier underneath it. Tidus ran around aimlessly slicing Heartless while Wakka threw his blitzball at three other Heartless and hit them all with one shot. Selphie swung her nunchaku and knock multiple Heartless away from her. She screwed the two end of the nunchaku together and spun the staff around and cut through four Heartless and bashed the remaining Heartless in one fell swoop.

"Master Donald, thank you for your assistance. We'll stay here and keep a look out for Heartless." One of the mages said.

"Okay, we'll be headed for the throne room now, c'mon guys!" Donald said as he walked towards the entrance. Sora and the others followed.

They were about to enter the throne room. Two Heartless appeared and surrounded them. They were fat and wore a spike helm and broken chain shackle cuffs on their wrists. They had weird smiles on their faces. They were known as Large Bodies.

"Oh great, we have more company!" Sora complained.

One of the Heartless suddenly fell flat on its face. A dog-like person slashed it in the back and carried a shield as well. He wore a knight's helm and gauntlets. He ran at the second Large Body and leapt into the air. He cut the face of the Heartless and thrust his shield into the face and it disappeared. The first one disappeared as well.

"Well, two more down!" his voice sounded like he was in his late teens. He turned around and looked at the others. "Oh hi Dad, hi Donald!"

"Hiya Max!" Goofy replied. "You sure have been training while I was away."

"Yep! I have to if I want to be your successor! Are those the Keybearers?"

"Oh yeah, sorry." Sora said. "I'm Sora."

"My name's Riku." Riku introduced himself.

"I'm Kairi." She did the same.

"We aren't Keybearers, but we're friends with them. I'm Tidus. Those two are Wakka and Selphie." Tidus introduced himself and his closest friends.

"Nice to meet you all. The name's Max, I'm Goofy's son." Max introduced himself.

"Well, should we check on the King and Queen?" Sora suggested.

"Let's go!" Donald replied. He knocked on the giant door and waited. A small door opened up and they proceeded into the throne room. There was a female duck in a purple gown and two mice. The female mouse wore a pink dress and had big round ears. She was the queen of Disney Castle, Minnie Mouse. The male mouse wore a red jacket, white gloves, and big yellow shoes and had big round ears as well. He was the king of Disney Castle and a Keybearer, Mickey Mouse.

"You're Majesty! We're back!" Donald announced.

"That's great! I'm glad you six could make…" Mickey got a confused look on his face. "Are those other three Keybearers?"

"No they're just stowaways, your Majesty!" Sora explained.

"Well, anyways I called you all here because I got a letter from someone named Wise Guy. He says he knows what's been goin' on lately. Maleficent is up to no good of course and she has more assistance this time than the last two."

"Well, where do we go to find Wise Guy?" Riku asked.

"He wrote that he is residing in Radiant Garden." Minnie told them.

"Okay, when do we leave?" Riku got a serious look in his eyes. Mickey knew that something was up, but thought it was best not to have him go into details.

"We leave as soon as we can!"

"Well then, I guess that's never." A loud boisterous laugh could be heard throughout the throne room. A vortex of darkness rose up from the ground and out walked Maleficent's two most trusted servents.

"Pete! Mortimer!" Mickey shouted.

"Who's Mortimer?" Kairi asked Minnie.

"He used to be the King's Royal Advisor, but one day he just disappeared." She answered.

"Well, I went on a little vacation in the darkness, that's all." Mortimer said. "And while I was on it I realized that this kingdom would be perfect if I were the king. Ha cha cha!" He started laughing.

"Not if we can help it!" Sora shouted. Sora, Riku, and Kairi ran over to where Pete and Mortimer were. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy did the same.

"Oh… Be careful!" cried the queen.

A brilliant flash of light shone in the King's hand. It was a Kingdom Key Keyblade that had a gold blade and silver hand guards. Mortimer followed suit and summoned a Keyblade of his own. The blade looked like a spinal column and a dragon skull at the top. The hand guards were black and red. Unlike the other Keyblades, his had no keychain on it. It was known as the Fatal Crest Keyblade.

Sora slipped around to Pete's back and smacked him over towards Riku. He grabbed Pete's arm and spun him in the air and threw him to the ground. Kairi jumped at Pete, but he rolled away and threw a handful of firecrackers at her and exploded right in front of her feet. Sora and Riku tripped Pete and sent him sliding across the floor. Kairi jumped onto Pete's back and used her Keyblade as a steering mechanism and made him slide into a wall head first.

King Mickey parried all of Mortimer's attacks and Mortimer parried the king's. Donald pointed his staff at the tall mouse and shot off a Fire spell. Mortimer swung and sent the fireball flying towards Goofy and knocked to the ground. Mickey jumped up and smacked Mortimer in the side and sent him flying, but he regained balance and landed on his feet. Mortimer felt himself being held back. Sora and Riku had grabbed his arms. Mickey ran at his former advisor and hit him on the head. Mortimer staggered and Pete got up and shook his head and regained his balance.

"Oh! You haven't seen the last of us!" Pete raised a fist at them and retreated.

"Yeah, especially since we've got the power to control the Nobodies!" Mortimer added and retreated as well.

Sora chuckled as he watched the two buffoons run away and brushed his thumb against his nose and grinned. Kairi jumped for joy and giggled. Riku stood and watched them run away. Donald and Goofy jumped up and down over and over seeing that they had won. Mickey stared into space and thought to himself. How could Mortimer have gotten a Keyblade? He suddenly lost his train of thought as a bright light shown from his throne. A beam went up and revealed a Keyhole. Mickey raised his Keyblade and a beam of light flew out of the tip and went into the Keyhole. A click could be heard throughout the entire throne room. Sora couldn't help but think about Hono and thought of his revenge.

"Your Majesty!" a knight ran into the throne room and came to a halt and saluted. "The Heartless have disappeared and there are no signs of them left."

"Great! Keep a good eye out though, we are going to leave for awhile and I want the kingdom safe from Maleficent."

"Yes sir!"

'The Nobodies… they still exist? I thought they disappeared alongside Xemnas.' Sora thought to himself.