"Riku!" Sora shouted.
He ran over to Riku, who was unconscious.
"Wake up! Riku, Wake up!" he kept yelling.
"They'll be here soon. Don't you worry", Cid said.
About five minutes passed and then the sounds of engines came. Sora looked up and saw a large craft with large spinning propellers and wings with powerful engines. It amazed him at how large it was.
"What's that?" Sora asked.
"That's Cid Jr.", said Cid. "Come on; let's get your friend up there."
They both walked over to Riku and picked him up. They carried him to the craft, which had decreased in altitude and lowered a boarding ramp for them to walk on and go into Cid Jr. They carried him in and took him to the rest center, where they laid Riku on a bed, while the Queen, Simon, and Roxas went to the passenger seats. They took off and went to the city. After roughly five more minutes, they landed hovered just above the top of the castle and dropped them off on the off. They rushed Riku to a bedroom in the castle at Radiant Garden.
--------------------------------------------
The King, Goofy, and Donald carefully snuck through the halls of the castle, trying to avoid the guards. They came to a point where they could not proceed without detection.
"Okay, guys, here's the plan", Mickey said. "All the windowsills have banners hanging from them. Now the windows are high up there, but we can climb up the banners and escape through the window. This is our only way out."
Goofy and Donald nodded in approval. Donald began climbing, followed by Goofy and then Mickey. Donald got near to the top and stood on the windowsill. Goofy got up there and tried to stand on the windowsill, but did not quite have enough room to balance himself correctly. He fell off and Mickey, who was still climbing, spared an arm and grabbed Goofy. Mickey could barely hold on to the banner and Goofy. As Mickey's hand began to slip, Donald grabbed it and tried to pull them up, but he lost his footing and the weight of Goofy and Mickey pulled him down and they all collapsed, hitting the ground with a crash. There were four guards in that hallway and they all heard them and ran over to them and put lances to their throats. They heard to gunshots and two of the guards were frozen in full body ice cubes. The two other guards turned around and were punched out by a man.
"Your Majesty", we need to get you out of here.
"Who are you?" the King asked.
"My name's Dack", said the man. "I'm here to help."
"How do we know we can trust you?" Donald said testily.
"He did save us", Goofy said.
"Yeah, I think we can trust him", Mickey said reassuringly.
"Good, come on, I know a better way out, a way with less guards", Dack said.
"Let's follow", said Mickey.
Dack led them through the halls, armed with his gun. They came to a hallway intersection where Dack halted.
"Wait, they've got guards here", Dack whispered.
A general was talking to one of the guards.
"Now if Naminé does not cooperate, torture her until she will", the general said.
"Aye, sir", the guard responded.
The general left and the guard preceded to Naminé's holding cell.
"Naminé…why does that sound familiar?" Goofy mumbled.
"Jiminy mentioned that name, remember?" Donald said. "Thank Naminé was what he told us.
"Naminé…of course the girl that can control Sora's memories", Mickey said. "How did they get her? And, why would they need her? You think they want to erase his memories?"
"Sora? You mean the Keyblade Master?" asked Dack.
"Yep" replied Mickey. "That's him."
"This is bad", said Dack. Listen, Simon and I discovered this was conspiracy was going to happen before you arrived. I told Simon to send a letter to the island where you would be, but it did not get there in time. I do know that island is the residence of Sora. If he found it, then he's our only link to the outside that can spread the word and get us help. If they get Naminé to erase his memories, we have no way of informing our outside allies of helping us."
"Wow, you're right", Mickey said. "We'd better follow that guard."
"Right", Dack said.
He stepped out into the open, fired a shot at the guard, and froze him solid.
They all went down the hall and took a left and saw the guard in the distance. They quickly pursued him, but he passed through a door that was quickly locked behind him.
"How do we get in?" Mickey asked.
"We have to wait for someone with some keys", Dack said, disappointed.
"Can't you use your keyblade, King Mickey?" Goofy asked.
Mickey frowned and said, "No…I can't."
Meanwhile, Naminé was in her cell, tied to a chair. The guard stepped in and, in dark green flames, Maleficent materialized.
"Now Naminé, all I want is for you to help us with Sora", she said with an evil humor.
"I won't do that. I won't betray Sora", said Naminé.
"You know your orders", Maleficent said.
The guard, brandishing club, beat Naminé with it. She screamed painfully. The guard continued to slam the club into her, bashing her face, torso, arms. Naminé screamed louder and louder, tears streaming down her face that soon mixed with the blood coming out of her nose and mouth.
By this point, Dack saw guard approaching. Everyone hid and when the guard came close enough, Dack dashed up to him, elbowed him in the gut, and then pistol-whipped him on the back of the head, knocking him out. He crouched down and checked his waist. He found a ring of keys. He tried them, one after another. The fifth one opened the door, revealing a hallway of holding cells.
"Are you going to help me now?" Maleficent asked.
"N-no", Naminé declined.
"I have no time for this", snapped Maleficent. "Guard, use more drastic measures for the next few minutes."
Maleficent vanished in her trademark flames and the guard walked over to the table in the room and picked up a large sledgehammer. He approached Naminé with it, ready to strike.
"NO! NO! NOOOOO!" Naminé cried in fear.
Dack heard the screams and ran to the cell door from where he heard it. He kicked the door opened and fired his gun, ensnaring the guard in ice.
"Are you Naminé?" he asked her.
"Y-yes", she said groggily.
Dack untied her and said, "I'm here to save you."
He picked her up and held her in his arms.
He left the cell room and proceeded to the door at the hall's end, where Mickey, Goofy, and Donald waited.
"Let's go!" Dack shouted.
They all ran through the halls, carefully avoiding detection.
Maleficent reappeared in the cell room and saw the guard in the ice and Naminé gone. She reappeared before Drazen.
"Where's Naminé?" she asked.
"She's not at the cell?" Drazen asked in confusion. "I'll have the alarm sounded."
"No, your guards are incompetent", Maleficent said. "I'm handling this my way."
Mickey and the others raced across the hall.
"We're almost there!" Dack said.
Suddenly, shadow Heartless cut them off. They all stopped as there were too many to stop.
"Everyone turn back", said Mickey.
They turn around to see more Heartless waiting for them there.
"We're trapped!" cried Donald.
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Riku finally came to.
"Ah…guys what happened?" he asked.
"We got you here, to Radiant Garden", answered Sora. "Do you know how you got hurt?"
"Yeah, when that explosion of light happened", said Riku.
"Oh, how did that happen anyway and why did it hurt you?" Sora began to question.
At that moment, Merlin entered the room.
"Hello, Sora", he said.
"Hey, Merlin", Sora said back. "Do you think you can figure out what happened?
"Well, I'll try, but please tell what it is you need to resolve, Sora", said Merlin.
They both filled him in, each describing their sides of the event in specific detail, as though it had just happened.
"Well…it seems to me that your heart and Kairi's heart have a strong connection, even in the deepest of darkness. The light of your hearts may have connected, producing the powerful energy that destroyed your opponents. It probably injured Riku because he was using the power of darkness to fight the Heartless, which is what worries me", Merlin summed up.
"Why?" Sora asked.
"Well, this may have damaged his heart a little", Merlin said worriedly. "If that is the case, then he may lose control over the darkness in his heart. I must ask, why are you here?"
"Oh, I almost forgot!", said Sora. "We got this letter that was meant for King Mickey to read. It warned about someone trying to overthrow him as King. The King has already left and it may be too late."
"Well, I'm glad you told me", Merlin quickly stated. "I'll go over there."
The blue smoke took the place of Merlin and was the opening for his appearance at Disney Castle. He appeared on the floor directly above where Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Naminé, and Dack were located. The floor provided an over view of the floor below and Merlin saw their dangerous situation.
"They look so desperate, wouldn't you say?" a voice said.
Merlin turned and saw that it was Maleficent.
"MALEFICENT!" Merlin shouted, but not loud enough for the others hear.
"Yes", she said as she raised her staff.
When Merlin saw this, he teleported away to avoid her dark blast.
Merlin appeared with Sora again at Radiant Garden.
"Maleficent was there", he said. "She's too powerful for me. I did see the King, Donald, Goofy, a man and a girl too."
"We need to get there", Sora said.
Cid happened to show up and hear that.
"Let's get the gummi ship ready, then", said Cid.
He spoke into a radio and issued the order.
"Come on, follow me", commanded Cid.
Sora and Roxas followed him throughout the castle and out and then they saw a large gummi ship waiting for them.