Author's Notes: After this point, (or rather the point of chapter six) you should get used to the story jumping around a bit - between Sora and Sakura, Yuri and the Organization, and - hey wait, what about Sakura's friends? Of course they're still part of the story! And by "jumping around a bit", what I really mean is "it will switch point-of-view and perspective every other freakin' chapter".

Enjoy!

(Sakura's POV)

It was the dream again.

I was standing on a stained glass platform that depicted me and several of my friends. Across from me, on the other side of the station, was the girl. As always, the girl was wearing a black coat, and I was unable to see her face, hidden in the shadow of its hood.

"Please… who are you?" I asked.

The girl hesitated. "I was hoping… that you could tell me."

I had been about to say something, answer her, but I was thrown from my dream. My body was waking up, but… where was I?

xXx

I stirred, regaining consciousness slowly. My eyes fluttered, giving me a brief, blurry image of my surroundings and shutting it out just as quickly, like a camera. I blinked a couple times, trying to focus my vision just enough to see where I was.

It was bright. I was in a white room, bathed in brilliant sunlight pouring in through a large bay window. I sat up, staring around the room. The entire room was white, no other colors at all. As I yawned and stretched, I pulled back the covers and got out of the large, four-poster bed I had been sleeping in.

I crossed the room to look out of the window, to see what kind of place this might be. From the window, I could see a lush, green courtyard with neatly manicured hedges. In the center of the garden sat a small guard house, an island floating in a sea of emerald grass. Wrapped around the courtyard was a large, white castle.

"Oh, good, you're awake."

"Huh?"

I turned around; standing in the doorway was a boy with spiked brown hair and ocean blue eyes. He walked into the room and sat gingerly on the edge of the bed.

"Who are you? What is this place?" I asked, both eagerly and uncertainly.

He laughed. "Slow down, there will be plenty of time for a Q and A later. My name's Sora, and this place is Disney Castle."

"So, Sora," I continued my interrogation, "How did I end up here?"

"Beats me, but you were a Heartless when you showed up here in the castle," he answered.

"A what?"

"A Heartless. A creature that's lost its heart to the darkness, um…"

"Sakura," I offered.

"Right. Sakura. Maybe if I tell you everything that's happened since your arrival, you'll remember how you got here," Sora said.

I nodded. Hopefully something Sora said would bring my memories back to me.

xXx

"King Mickey! Sora! Come quick!" Queen Minnie squealed, rushing into the room.

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Sora asked.

"Minnie! What's wrong?" Mickey echoed.

"Something's terribly wrong in the Hall of the Cornerstone!"

King Mickey turned to Sora, who offered a shrug in reply, getting up to follow the Queen out of the room. Queen Minnie had gathered up the edge of her flowing, pink dress to run without it hindering her movement. The King sighed and followed the two down the hall.

Mickey, Minnie, and Sora rushed through the white hallway, passing several unnecessarily large doors en route to the Throne Room. They passed the enchanted brooms at work doing their daily chores, and nearly ran into poor Pluto, who had been hoping that Mickey would take him for a walk that morning.

The three ran hurriedly to the Audience Chamber, a long, white room adorned with a red carpet that covered the entire path from the door to the throne. Sora, Minnie, and Mickey followed the carpet to the far end of the room, where the throne was seated on a blue platform several inches above the rest of the floor. Queen Minnie pressed a switch on the arm of the throne, and the platform slid out of the way, revealing a set of stairs that led deep into the heart of Disney Castle.

A bright light filled the room, temporarily blinding the party. When the light faded, Mickey and Sora followed her down the flight of steps into the Hall of the Cornerstone. At first, neither Sora nor Mickey could see what was wrong. But Minnie frantically pointed to a small, black creature stumbling about in the light.

"Heartless!" King Mickey shouted.

"So that's a Heartless…" Minnie said thoughtfully, having never seen one herself before.

Sora turned his head to the side. "I don't think that's a Heartless," he said. "I mean, it's not supposed to be a Heartless."

"What do you mean, Sora?" Mickey asked.

King Mickey and Queen Minnie watched as Sora walked towards the Shadow.

"Well, it's not attacking anything, and it looks almost like it's scared. Confused, at the least," he answered.

He picked up the Heartless and hugged it tightly.

"Sora! What are you doing?" Mickey cried.

Queen Minnie watched silently as the Shadow revealed itself to be a small girl with mouse brown hair. She wasn't conscious; the girl appeared to be hurt. Sora set the girl back down and smiled knowingly at Mickey.

"How did you…?" King Mickey trailed off.

"I've been a Heartless before," Sora said bleakly.

xXx

"I remember… my room… the park… and that giant monster," I said, trying to recall the events of the night I fought the dark creature.

"Wait," said Sora, "What monster?"

"It was really tall; it had bright, yellow eyes… and there was a hole in the center of its chest, in the shape of a heart," I described, placing my thumb and forefingers together.

"Darkside," Sora stated.

"That's its name?" I asked.

Sora nodded grimly. "Darkside is no ordinary Heartless. It destroys worlds, Sakura."

I thought carefully. "I don't think that's what it was trying to do. Something summoned it."

"Like what?" Sora asked.

I held out The Darkness card to him.

"So… you called it?"

"I didn't call it; this thing did."

Sora looked puzzled. "That's not just a card, then?"

"No, Sora, it's not."

More Author's Notes: Gasp! Notes at the end of a chapter? Anyways, that hug between Sora and Sakura: my special way of saying that Kairi hugging Sora doesn't mean a damn thing. One of the things I like about this story is that the Card Captor Sakura characters are too young to ship (mostly) so I don't have to deal with pairings. Anyone else notice that the first chapter (which introduces Sakura) is called "Cherry Blossom" and the eighth chapter (which introduces Sora) is called "Sky"? (Don't worry; it won't happen again - Sora and Sakura are the only characters whose names I know in both English and Japanese. Or are they...?)