Author's Note: So I'm back, and I know that there is no excuse in the world that will make up for all of the time I've been away from this story, so I'm not going to make any. Yes, I am a horrible person, but this horrible person is hell bent on finishing this story and I'm not stopping until I do. I leave for college on August 24th and my ultimate goal is to have this finished by then. I don't care if you don't believe me, I'll show all of you! *cue evil laugh*. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorite this story so far. I've still been getting new readers and reviewers to this day, and even a few PM's asking where I am. I can't thank you enough for your support; you're all the other half of the reason why I'm finishing this. Well, we have quite a ways to go, so I'll let you get to it. The last chapter was kind of a weird one, so there's no recap, sorry about that! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Just Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.

"Uh, Katy?"

Katy looked up from her iPod and met Sora's uneasy gaze. He pointed out the window and she followed his finger to see another ship landing in the hanger of Disney Castle. More specifically, the ship Queen Minnie had given to Cassie when she came to look for her and Ryan. Leaping up out of her seat, Katy ran out of the cockpit, jumped off the stairs by the door and promptly tackled her friend in a rib splitting hug.

"What are you guys doing here?" She exclaimed, hugging Ryan as well, then looking at the pair in disbelief.

"Cass's Spidey Sense was tingling…said the Queen was in trouble." Ryan explained nodding to Sora, Donald and Goofy in greeting.

"Yeah, we got the same feeling." Sora replied looking around the hanger curiously.

It was his first trip to Disney Castle, and, as far as he knew, Katy's too. Realizing this, she copied his looks of disbelief causing Ryan to disguise a snort with a cough. He obviously still wasn't supportive of plan "keep-Sora-in-the-dark". Katy wasn't a fan either, but what could she do. The entire universe was counting on her. Or something along those lines anyway.

"You're back!"

The small group stopped conversing and turned just in time to see Chip N' Dale come rushing into the hangar.

"Move it! Let's go!" Dale exclaimed, out of breath

"Queen Minnie needs to see you!" Chip clarified

"The castle is in danger! Hurry! To the library!"

"I knew it" Cassie muttered under her breath as they all rushed to follow the techno savvy chipmunks.

They ran through the courtyard, down many intricate hallways until they reached the library. Donald and Goofy hurried forward and saluted Minnie respectfully.

"Your Majesty! Queen Minnie! We're back!" Donald said, his chest puffed out.

"Oh, you're here!" She replied, her voice relieved

"Didja happen to summon us, your Majesty?" Goofy asked.

"Yes."

"So where's the King?" Sora asked, striding up

Queen Minnie gave Sora a long look, tilting her head to the side. Donald jumped up, pushing Sora's head down.

"Excuse him. This is our friend Sora."

"Oh, Sora!" Minnie exclaimed "The King told me all about you in his letters. He says you're a very brave young man."

Katy cleared her throat loudly, keeping up the façade of not knowing the Queen.

"And this is our friend Katy and her friends Cassie and Ryan."

"Nice to meet you." Katy said, bowing her head slightly.

"Likewise" The Queen replied, showing Katy that she understood with a knowing glance. "Cassie had told me so much about you and Ryan, I feel as though we already know each other."

"Cassie knows the queen?" Sora asked his girlfriend.

"Yeah, when the Heartless took over our world, Cass ended up here. She flew one of the Queens ships to Traverse Town, where we met." Katy replied

Sora nodded, then turned back to the Queen

"So, do you know where the King is?"

Minnie shook her head sadly, and the party sighed.

"Your Majesty, what are the Heartless doing in your castle?" Donald asked.

"Yeah, they were never here before. I thought you had a way of keeping them out." Cassie added.

The Queen had obviously been kept well out of the loop because she gasped in surprise.

"Oh! So those are the Heartless."

Must be nice to live in a nice, safe, world…

"Don't worry, We'll take care of 'em!" Sora reassured her.

The Queen smiled

"I know I can count on all of you. Now, there's something I'd like you all to see. Would you please escort me to the audience chamber?"

They all agreed and got ready to leave. Just as they were about to set off, the Queen gasped.

"Oh! I forgot to warn everyone else the castle is in danger! We have to make sure they're hidden somewhere safe!"

"Don't worry, we're on it." Sora said confidently.

Katy snorted.

"Okay then, lead the way."

Sora opened his mouth to retort before realizing he didn't actually know the way.

"No worries" Cassie said. "We'll split up. I'll go with Ryan and warn the others, you guys go help the Queen."

"Just you and Ryan?" Katy asked, warily.

"Hey! I'm not completely useless!" Ryan retorted.

Katy glared at him

"Have you ever actually killed a Heartless?"

"We'll be fine!" Cassie interjected before the two started a fight.

Katy chewed her lower lip nervously and gave Donald and Goofy a pleading glance. Donald rolled his eyes, but nodded.

"Me and Goofy will go with you. Sora and Katy can take the Queen to the audience chamber.

Cassie nodded.

"Okay, sounds good to me."

With everyone in agreement, they set off to do they're assigned jobs.

Cassie sighed as she ran down the halls of the castle, directing its inhabitants to go into hiding. At their insistence, Donald had gone with Ryan and Goofy stayed with her when they split up. She knew it was because Katy would chew them out something awful if anything happened to her two friends in her absence. While she probably should have been grateful, Cassie couldn't help but be a little miffed at her friend. She wasn't helpless and she was getting tired of people treating her as such.

Speaking of which.

"What's going on?"

Cassie groaned at the sound of Riku's voice in her head, causing Goofy to give her a strange look.

"I'm good, just tired" She reassured the Queen's knight before answering the pain-in-her-ass teen telepathically.

"Not much so far. Sora and Katy are here too. Were trying to work out what's going on."

"Are they with you?"

"Not at the moment"

She broke off the connection momentarily to hack at a wave of Heartless that ambushed them. Panting slightly, she checked the last room (thank GOD!) in the hallway, finding it to be devoid of life. She turned to Goofy.

"That's it for our side. Let's go meet the Queen."

He nodded and began walking in the direction of the audience chamber. Cassie followed, lagging behind slightly and reopening the link with the silver haired teen.

"Sorry, had to kill some stuff."

"Where in the castle are you?"

"Headed to the audience chamber. Why?"

"Maleficent is there. I can feel her magic"

Cassie bit down hard on her tongue to keep from whimpering in pain at the sorceress's name. Riku must have caught her mental panic, however because he began reprimanding her again.

"I told you, you shouldn't have gone there. It's not to late to leave."

"And what am I going to tell everyone else?"

"That you can't handle it. That you can't handle her."

"I can handle it. I'll be fine. I'm sick of everyone telling me what to do. I'm staying here and helping the Queen. If you don't like it, come here and get me yourself"

"I—

Cassie forcefully blocked his thoughts from her mind, wincing at the slight pounding it caused in her head. Great, she'd probably just triggered another migraine. Looking up, she saw the audience chamber was just down the hall. Jogging ahead of Goofy, she opened the door and got a glimpse of a room full of Heartless before a huge beam of light came up from the ground and obliterated them all.

"Whoa" Sora said in awe.

"Tell me about it" Katy agreed, trying to catcher her breath. She saw Cassie standing in the doorway and grinned.

"How was it?"

"Piece of cake" The dark haired girl replied with a wave of her hand.

"Oh, good. Next time you get the hard job, M'kay?"

Cassie laughed, all previous annoyance towards her friend gone.

"Deal."

"So what was that?" Sora interrupted, gesturing violently with his hands in reference to the beam of light.

"That was the reason Disney Castle usually doesn't have any Heartless." Cassie replied.

The Queen nodded.

"The room below is called the 'Hall of the Cornerstone'." She explained, gesturing towards the large hole in the ground. " Our castle has always been safe from worlds that are evil…thanks to the Cornerstone of Light which we keep down here."

The Cornerstone…of Light?" Sora repeated to himself before joining Katy and Cassie in their decent to the hall.

Rejoined by Donald, Goofy, and Ryan. The six heroes stood behind Queen Minnie as she gazed upon a glass ball of light resting on a pedestal, which was surrounded by thorns.

"This is the castle's cherished Cornerstone." Minnie explained. "Oh, but look! The thorns…they must be the work of someone very evil. I wonder what this could mean."

Cassie, who had already been rubbing her temples in discomfort at the sight of the thorns, gasped in pain when green flames erupted in front of the pedestal and an image of Maleficent appeared. She could feel Riku's presence past the wall she put up to block his thoughts. He was frantic…and probably waiting to say I told you so.

"Maleficent!" Donald exclaimed!

"No way…" Sora said in disbelief.

Cassie shuddered again at the mention of the name. She felt slight pressure on her hand and was drawn out of her mind to see Katy's hand squeezing hers. He friend smiled reassuringly at her before turning to glare and the green witches' holographic self.

"Well, well, well. What have we here…? If it isn't the wretched Keyblade holders and their pitiful lackeys!" Maleficent taunted, here eyes sweeping over them, pausing for a moment on Ryan and Cassie, and then glancing down to Katy and Cassie's entwined hands. You could almost see the gears whirling in her head and an evil smirk crossed her lips. However, she made no mention of her new observations and continued. "I promise you'll all be able to partake of my vengeance. But you must be patient."

"Just what are you doing here, Maleficent?" Minnie demanded.

The witches' eyes turned to her

"Ah, Queen Minnie. Radiant as always." She drawled with a mock bow. "I'm here on a property venture. I want this castle for my own. However, it's a bit too…"bright" for what I have in mind. I suppose I'll just have to fill every room with my personal touch of darkness." She tapped the cornerstone with a sharp violet fingernail.

"You'd better stop now if you know what's good for you!" Queen Minnie exclaimed, alarmed.

The party drew their weapons.

Maleficent laughed

"Very well. I'll stop…just as soon as this castle belongs to me!"

Then in a flash of green flames, she was gone.

There was a beat of silence before they all deduced she wasn't going to reappear.

"That lady needs a serious attitude adjustment." Katy muttered, letting go of Cassie's hand.

"What a hag." Sora agreed.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before. I looked through all the records in the library, but I couldn't find a single clue." The queen confessed

"Oh! We oughta ask somebody who knows a lot of stuff that ain't in any book!" Goofy reasoned.

"Merlin the wizard!" Donald exclaimed.

"Yes, that's perfect! Merlin just might know something about this mess. Let's ask his advice." The Queen agreed.

"We saw him in Hollow Bastion, right?" Goofy asked

"Yeah, let's go." Sora said following them in the direction of the ship.

Katy turned to Cassie, looking worried.

"I can stay here if you want. You look a little shaken up."

Cassie shook her head.

"No I'm good. You go. I'm fine, I just need to pull myself together." She stuttered out, head still splitting with pain.

Katy looked over her friend warily, but nodded.

"Okay, I'll be back soon…just think about anything else but her and breathe through it. The headache will go away."

"Thank you." Cassie replied gratefully. Katy smiled and gave her arm a squeeze before following Sora and the other's.

After they left, Ryan began to chat with queen Minnie, probably trying to take her mind off of her castle's invasion. Cassie sat off to the side, taking a deep breath and exhaling before opening the link between her and Riku once more. His frantic voice filled her head.

"What happened? Are you okay? Is she still there?"

"She's trying to take over Disney Castle, I'm fine just a little shaken up, and no, she's gone for now,

"…"

"Well, go on. I'm waiting for the 'I told you so'."

"I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"For not being able to help you. Sora helps Katy, I'm sorry I can't be there."

"It's not your fault."

"Yes it is. I let the darkness in. That's why you're here."

"That's ancient history. It's over and done with. You can't change it, so stop dwelling on it. Katy forgave you, I forgave you, Ryan's okay and I think he's okay with you, Sora and Kairi never blamed you in the first place, so what's the problem?

"You're so optimistic."

"Well, maybe you should follow my example."

"Cassie?"

Cassie looked up into Queen Minnie's worried looking eyes.

"Are you alright? You seem anxious." She lowered her voice "Is everything okay with Riku."

Cassie smiled to herself. Of course the King had informed Minnie that she was Riku's protector.

"We're both fine, majesty. Maleficent just shook me up a little and he's worried for me. This would be so much easier if I could just find him."

Once again, the Queen spoke softly

"From what the King tells me, Riku is not himself. He doesn't want anyone to see him while he's like this."

Cassie frowned. This is the first she was hearing of this.

"Thank you, your Majesty."

The Queen nodded and went back to the Cornerstone. Opening the link again, Cassie voiced her worries.

"Riku, are you okay?"

She realized that out of all the time that she's known him, that was the first time she spoke his name to him out loud. He must have realized it too, because he hesitated before answering.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine. Why?"

Cassie could detect the lie from a mile away, but she didn't call him out on it.

"Just…it's gonna be okay, okay? We're gonna get through this and everything's going to be okay."

There was another long silence before he responded

"Yeah, you're right. Thank you…Cassie."

It was the first time he'd used her name out loud as well. It was also the first time neither of them cut the connection, the lack of figurative brick wall in Cassie's mind was a relief and she felt her headache reduce greatly. Closing her eyes, Cassie sighed. How had she gotten herself into this horrible tangled mess? She hoped what she told Riku was true. She hoped that in the end, everything was going to be okay.

Donald's babbling shattered the silence in the Hall of the Cornerstone quite suddenly. Obviously he's been trying to tell Merlin what happened, but wasn't doing a very good job. The quartet plus our favorite wizard appeared in the hall with a pop and the ranting mage finally shut up.

"Perhaps I'd better just see for myself." The wizard said, approaching the pedestal while Donald pouted in the corner.

"Mm-hm, interesting."

"What's happening, Merlin?" Minnie asked, by this time quite panicked.

"This is not good. In fact, I'm afraid this is quite serious." The wizard replied, grimly.

He cleared his throat and with an exaggerated hand motion, a door appeared next to the cornerstone.

"What's that?" Sora asked

"It's a door." Katy supplied helpfully.

Sora shoved her shoulder playfully as Merlin explained.

"This is a gateway to a special world. Someone in that world is responsible for what's going on in this castle. Of that, I'm certain."

"Oh, boy!" Donald happily exclaimed.

"We knew we could count on you, Merlin." Goofy added.

"Let me guess, we're the lucky four who get to go in and find the guy." Katy guessed.

"Precisely. But—wait a moment!" Merlin stopped Sora, as he was about to open the door. "The perpetrators must be stopped, of course, but there's something else to do first. Somewhere in that world, there should be anther door, identical to this one. I believe our enemies are utilizing that door. As long as it remains open, the castle will be in grave danger."

"And here comes the catch." Katy muttered to Sora, who snickered.

Sure enough, Merlin continued.

"Listen carefully, Sora. You must find that door, and when you do—lock it with your Keyblade."

"Got it." Sora replied.

"You can count on us!" Donald assured them, giving the queen a salute.

"Now one more thing" Merlin said

GOD this guy doesn't shut up. Worse than Yen Sid, I'm telling you.

"You're headed to a very special world. While you're there, the nature of that world may tempt you to do something dark. You must resist that temptation at all costs!

"Okay, got it chief. Avoid talking snakes and chocolate. Can we go now? Katy whined, growing impatient.

Merlin nodded.

"Whenever your ready."

Katy turned to Cassie and Ryan.

"Are you guys coming?"

"No, We'll stay here and protect the queen. You guys go." Cassie replied.

"But, we agreed that it was your turn for the hard job!" Katy groaned.

"Okay, then me and Ry will go with your boyfriend and you and the "talking animals" can stay here." Cassie teased, knowing what her friends answer would be.

"You know what? Second thought, I'll go with these guys," She said, tugging on the back of Sora's hood. "C'mon, let's go."

Saying their goodbyes to the Queen and Merlin, Sora opened the door and the quartet entered the "special" world.