Alright, so, I figured it was time for an update. XD What with Thanksgiving coming and all, I also have a little "Easter Egg" at the end, for what is the first of hopefully many TSA specials.
Char: Joy.
Me: In this chappie, we get started on the Disney worlds! And it's one of my favorites, Mulan.
Char: Thank GOD I don't have to crossdress...
Me: Yeah, that little issue'll be resolved next chappie. This one's mainly a filler, anyway...

Disclaimer- YEAH! ...no.

Char awoke to being shaken by the shoulders. Rubbing the back of her head with a yawn, she looked up and saw Donald giving her a hostile look. Déjà vu, she thought dryly, remembering when they'd gotten off the train to Yen Sid's tower.

"About time," the mage growled. "We've left Hollow Bastion."

Char narrowed her eyes. "Thanks."

The duck's glare wavered slightly at her terse response, as though he'd been expecting a long retort.

"What're Sora and Goofy doing?" the redhead went on, inwardly smirking that she'd caught him off-guard.

"They're piloting." Donald jerked a thumb over his shoulder as he spoke, and Char saw that Sora was steering the ship and grinning in delight as the pale green clouds of the World Between Worlds rushed past.

Char made a mental note to pilot it herself sometime, when she wasn't feeling so sleepy. She smirked at the idea.

"Hey, what's so funny?" asked the duck, turning belligerent again at once.

"Oh, nothing," Char replied airily. She picked up her jacket, which she'd been using as a pillow, and donned it, making sure to throw the blanket at Donald as she did so. The mage barely caught it, looking disgruntled.

Sora turned his head slightly. "Oh, hey, Char. You awake?"

"Watch out!" Goofy cried, seizing the steering wheel and making the Gummi ship swerve sharply away from the Heartless ship that had just tried to attack.

"We thought we'd head toward this world first." Donald pointed a feathered finger at the screen.

Tying the laces to her shoes, Char went to her knees to get a better look. Two spheres were hovering, oddly snow globe-like, one southwest of Hollow Bastion and the other southeast. The former contained a violet-walled castle, and the latter somewhat resembled a fighting dojo. Both had Keyholes hovering in front of them. The one Donald was pointing to was the dojo.

If Char's memories served her correctly, then the world they were heading to next was the Land of Dragons. She remembered that place well from her research – she had chosen to do that world for a project about the most unique living style of worlds. And it was all just because it involved medieval swords and fire. The little project had, in fact, been what had spurred her desire to learn the sword. That, and the overabundance of Heartless in the town.

She realized she was grinning openly and stopped at once, because Donald was giving her another bemused look.

"Sorry, it's just…" In an instant, Char decided to tell the three of them this tiny little tidbit from her past. It wasn't like they could guess what her main research had been about through this, anyway. "Back when I was living in Hollow Bastion, I had to do a project on that world. It's called the Land of Dragons – a pretty unique place, really." She shrugged.

Dimly, she noted how the three of them instantly sat up straighter at the mention of her being at Hollow Bastion, and Sora and Goofy, distracted with piloting the ship as they were, had turned their heads slightly in order to listen better. Perhaps it satisfied some of their curiosity about her past, she supposed.

The redhead shrugged again. "But yeah, it's a pretty cool place, from what I've read." She allowed her nose to wrinkle in disgust at her next words. "Horribly sexist lifestyle, though."

Sora turned a little in his chair to directly look at her better and tilted his head confusedly to the side.

Char felt the breath catch in her throat at how similar he looked to Roxas at that moment, but forced back the feeling at once. "Well, you'll see."

Donald raised an eyebrow, but thankfully said nothing.

Goofy suddenly let out a sound of recognition and pointed out at the sky around them, where the beginnings of the world were just starting to appear.

Sora craned his neck to see and grinned. "Hm… Maybe we should land in the forest – it'll be less noticeable."

"Unless we all crash-land in the middle of a glade," Char cut in.

Sora sighed without looking at her. "I didn't ask for your opinion, y'know."

"And did that make a difference either way?"

Finding no retort to this, Sora just rolled his eyes and forced the Gummi ship into a sharp turn, heading directly for a large mass of green below. "Hang on, guys," he called. "This is gonna be rough."

This news was a little too late for Donald and Goofy, however, who had fallen backward into the blanket closet and who were now getting dizzily back to their feet.

Char shrugged. "Eh, think of it this way." She smirked, leaning over Sora's shoulder to whisper in his ear. "I could be driving."

The brunette shuddered. "You know, I don't think I even want to know."

---

Thankfully, Sora seemed to be a much better Gummi pilot than Char had been, and so managed to land the vessel without too much trouble.

Unless you counted broken and snarled branches twining around the ship as trouble.

But in the end, these branches really only served for cutting the gang's clothing and, in some cases, feathers; so it wasn't that big of an issue.

Sora stepped off the ladder leading up to the Gummi ship's entrance, and looked around. Aside from the obvious fact that they were in a heavily-forested glade, a dirt path led out of the area, winding off into the early light of the morning.

In other words, he couldn't see where it went.

The Keybearer shivered slightly in the damp, early morning air, and reached into his pocket for the Star Seeker's Keychain. Over his previous journey, he'd gained a particular dislike for darkness and not knowing what to do next, and had hoped that this journey wouldn't herald the same problems. But now, it seemed like it would be an empty wish.

Next off the ship, were Donald and Goofy. The mage growled as he saw their surroundings, apparently feeling the same discomfort as Sora. Goofy just looked around, with a look on his face like he was mentally locking this place away for future reference.

Char came last, her blades already drawn. Sora noted the tightness with which she gripped the hilts of her weapons, the way her icy eyes darted about, and mentally breathed a sigh of relief. The redhead was naturally suspicious; he didn't think he would ever have to worry about Char falling into a trap specifically designed for naïveté.

Looking at them like this, Sora felt rather like a general assessing his troops before battle. He smiled to himself at that. General Sora. Hm… it had a nice ring to it.

He snapped out of his reverie and, making sure he still had the Star Seeker at close hand, headed down the dirt path…

…only to feel something draw him up short.

Looking around, Sora found that Char had seized him by the hood of his jacket in order to keep him back. He sighed. "What?"

"You're just going to go walking in there, without the slightest clue of what to do next?" Char's voice had an even sharper edge than usual. "I'm sorry, but even for me, that's just a bit over the line of reckless."

Sora returned her glare. "Look, it'll be fine. We've gone into way worse situations than this."

Donald and Goofy nodded; they too were remembering the many long battles of the End of the World.

Char's ice-blue eyes narrowed. For a moment, ice fought sapphire in an unspoken debate; then she snorted and let go of his hood. "Fine. But I still don't trust that damnable path."

Sora smiled. He summoned the Star Seeker so he could sling the Keyblade over his shoulder. "Ah, no problem."

The redhead growled and muttered something unintelligible under her breath.

The brunette turned back around, allowing his brow to furrow in annoyance once he was sure his friends couldn't see, and started forward.

---

"Don't tell me," Char murmured as a gray tendril in the sky suddenly caught her eye.

"Hm?" Goofy looked curiously at her.

The redhead pointed up at what had caught her attention. "Smoke."

Sora and Donald, walking on either side of the other two, stopped in their tracks to look as well. Sora's eyes widened, and he gave the others a serious look. "Come on."

The three of them nodded and followed the brunette even further down the twisting path. Char felt a twinge of irritation. How far does this damn thing go anyway?

And then they burst into the clearing, and she saw the source of the smoke. A crudely-build fire, twigs and all, sat in the center of the glade, casting a copper tinge against the rock wall opposite it. The person, masculine in appearance, that was standing across from the rock looked hesitant, apprehensive, like he was being told something he didn't want to know. The shadow cast against the wall was vaguely dragon-shaped, with a long thin body and red eyes.

Instantly Sora and Donald leaped forward, weapons in hand. "Heartless!" Donald shouted, brandishing his staff like a spear in front of him.

"Don't worry, we got it!" Sora added, charging toward the rock.

"Gawrsh, guys, maybe we should look before we leap," Goofy said, but his words fell upon deaf ears.

Char sighed, putting the fingers of one hand to her temple. "They're just a bit too reckless, aren't they?"

Meanwhile, the man had cried out in a surprisingly high-pitched voice, stumbling backward in his surprise. Something red flashed out behind the boulder in front of the wall and landed in the person's arms.

Sora and Donald skidded to a halt, and Goofy and Char came up to stand on either side of them. Goofy squinted at the red creature. "Is that Mushu?"

"That's right," came a sudden voice, and the little red dragon popped up over the man's shoulder. "I know you heard of me. I'm little, lethal and legendary!" He coughed slightly. "Now y'all scram, before I get my dragon dander up."

"Hey, Mushu," Sora greeted, lowering his lavender Keyblade; Char noticed that all the ferocity from before had vanished. "We missed you!"

"Y'all better hope I miss you," the "dragon" snarled back in return, "or else, you're… you're…" His eyes lit up with sudden understanding. "Sora! Donald! Goofy!" He fixed a critical eye on Char. "Though, uh, I don't remember this chick over here. You pick her up somewhere?"

Char rolled her eyes. "I'll have you know, I did not get picked up anywhere, you little pipsqueak."

Mushu's temper flared up again at once. "Hey! Who you callin' pipsqueak, you little –"

The man holding the dragon coughed into his hand. "Uh, Mushu, do you know them?"

Mushu nodded. "Oh, yeah, we used to kick all kinds of bad guy butt together," he explained. "Yeah, I helped these guys outta a lot of tight spots. 'Cause I'm a mighty dragon! Right?" As he spoke he leaped off of the man's shoulder and came up to lean against Sora's leg.

Char blinked. She recalled that Sora had had "summons" of sorts, that he had used when he needed an extra helping hand in battle; but she hadn't realized that this "dragon" would be one of them.

The man turned around to face them, and the foursome finally got a good look at him. He had long dark hair tied up in a bun on the back of his head, and he was clad in green and black armor. Char couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. An actual soldier. Thank you, Lord. Now maybe actually I can get a bit of relief from these morons…

Sora laughed. "Something like that." He looked at the anonymous soldier. "And… you are?"

The soldier's eyes lit up. "Oh, I'm Mulan –" He cut himself off as Mushu gave him a frantic look. "Uh, um, I mean…"

"Ping!" Mushu cut in, holding up a finger for silence.

Char raised an eyebrow. "Mulan Ping?"

"Just… Ping," Ping said, voice deepening abruptly in a way that, Char knew, wasn't just from hormones. "I am Ping, son of Fa Zhou."

"You know Mushu?" asked Sora.

"He's one of my family guardians."

"Gawrsh, we didn't know we were borrowin' something as important as a family guardian," said Goofy, looking somewhat guilty.

"Yeah, that's right," Mushu said brightly, slithering up to stand on Ping's shoulder again; the aforementioned person looked uncomfortable. "And that puts you three up to eyeballs in debt to Ping here. Well, uh, now it's payback time! Y'see, Ping here's –"

"Three?" Char interjected, causing the dragon to give her a glare. "I'm sorry, but doesn't that make me not part of the 'debt'?" She did air quotes with her fingers on the word "debt".

"Remember your vow," Sora said, looking at her meaningfully.

"Well, yeah, but –"

"But, what?" Donald asked, crossing his arms.

Char sighed, making her annoyance and frustration at the way she'd worded the request at the mansion well-known. "Just… never mind."

"Anyway," Mushu continued, sounding miffed at being interrupted, "Ping here was just on his way to join the Imperial army."

"So, you're planning on becoming a soldier?" Char asked. Inwardly she was dreading what was coming next. This was where the world's stupidly sexist rules all came into play.

Ping nodded, looking somewhat relieved that someone seemed to believe his – or rather, her – rules. "Will you come with us? It'll be easier to fit in if I'm with guys, like you."

Char raised an eyebrow at the general reference of Ping's final words.

"Don't worry about offending her," Donald said when Ping's eyes widened in recognition of Char's indignation. The duck jerked a thumb at the redhead as he spoke his next words. "She acts like a guy all the time anyway, so it won't really matter."

Char's eyes narrowed into ice-blue slits. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"What d'you mean, 'fit in'?" Sora cut in, tilting his head to the side.

"Oh, uh, um… don't worry about that," said Mushu hastily.

Goofy had kept quiet up till now, but now he spoke, causing the others to turn their attention to him. He pointed to Ping almost accusingly. "You're pretendin' to be a boy, aren't ya?"

"What?" Sora cried, leaping back in shock. He looked at Ping, and Char had to hold back her laughter at the comical look of surprise on his face, and how high-pitched his voice had become. "You're a… girl?"

Ping looked sheepishly at them, fiddling with a strap on her armor. "You didn't notice?"

"Not me," Sora squeaked, shaking his head fervently.

"Me neither," Donald added, looking just as surprised.

Ping smiled at Mushu, still perched on her shoulder. "I think it's working, don't you?"

"I dunno," Char muttered. "Those two would fall for just about anything."

"Hey! We're right here, y'know!" Sora said indignantly, placing his hands on his hips.

Char glared right back at him. "Uh, yeah. I know."

"Why are you dressed like that, anyway?" asked Donald. He appeared to have gotten over his initial shock and was now looking curiously at Ping.

"Women aren't allowed to join the Imperial army," Ping explained. Her voice faltered as she added, "I have to… I have to bring honor back to my family."

Char smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand as she realized what, in this case, "following Sora wherever he went" meant.

"Oh, really?" Sora gave Char a suggestive look.

The redhead glared at him, so hard that he actually took a step backward. "Look, bozo, here's how it is." She put her hands on her hips and leaned in for emphasis. "I'm not going to dress up and play 'war', got it? If I go with you to the training camps, it'll either be as myself, or not at all."

Sora blinked; even Ping and Mushu looked somewhat bemused at Char's firm tone. "Uh, yeah, sure."

Char leaned back and smirked. "Okay. Glad we understand each other." She looked at Ping. "Now, where are these 'training camps' anyway?"

---

To Char's chagrin, the five – or rather, six – of them had to go all the way back up the hill, the way they had just come from, in order to wind their way even more around the path, to reach the camps. Oh, she had always gotten enough exercise back home – fighting aside Heartless everywhere you went tended to do that – and so was used to walking like this.

But this was just ridiculous.

Donald and Goofy were talking about something back home; Char caught the words "King Mickey" and "Disney Castle" and decided she shouldn't interject. She wasn't exactly certain they would extend the same privilege to her whenever she was thinking about Hollow Bastion, but she figured she may as well give them this small mercy. Mushu was muttering into Ping's – or rather, Mulan, since the girl had introduced herself earlier – ear, pep talk, perhaps. Char decided that that, too, was a conversation she didn't want to be a part of.

Unfortunately, that left Sora as her only possible conversation partner. She felt a weird sort of nervousness bloom in her chest at that.

But, she quickly realized, deducing it in her brusque way that beat down the nerves at once, it wasn't like trudging on in silence, being bored out of her skull was any better.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, she slipped out of the position she had taken at the rear. Very, very reluctantly, she murmured the words that would make her blades vanish. She hadn't seen any Heartless on their way so far – she was sure they would come eventually, though.

Meh, she thought almost grudgingly. Maybe letting my guard down once wouldn't hurt.

She flinched at the words, knowing she was lying to herself.

Sora's voice broke through the air. "Are you –" Seeming to realize how loud and blatantly forced his words sounded, he swallowed and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay, moron."

Sora blinked. "Just asking."

"Well… don't."

Char cursed her lack of forethought as the brunette sighed and turned away. She felt a slight twinge of guilt at that.

Well, it wasn't like it mattered much now. She could see the tents of the training camp, glittering obviously in the early morning sun, not too far ahead of them.

"We're here," Mulan called.

"Remember girl – man-ly!" Mushu said, lifting his arms in what was supposed to be a flex of his muscles. Donald sniggered, causing the red dragon to glare at him.

The other three moved toward the camp, and Char made to do the same, mentally steadying herself for the inevitable, "why are you trying to join the army if you're female" rant she was going to get from the army's general.

But a hand pressing against her shoulder stopped her in her tracks. It wasn't that the Keybearer was gripping her shoulder blade hard, but that his grip was firm, signaling that he had something to say to her. Something that he needed to say right now.

Char vowed that his eyes were not going to slip her up this time, and pivoted her body so she was still facing him. "What?" she asked irritably, uncomfortably aware of his half-gloved hand on her.

There was a moment of awkward silence. Char realized she could detect something she didn't want to put a name to flitting in Sora's dark blue eyes, something akin to suspicion. The brunette seemed to fidget for a moment before blurting out:

"Who's Xehanort?"

Char froze.

Noticing the stiffening of her shoulder beneath his hand, Sora instantly tried to cover himself. "I mean, I just heard you yelling out the name in your sleep last night. It was kind of hard to miss. You were saying stuff like 'Don't do it, Xehanort' and 'it's not worth it, Xehanort'." He lifted his free palm up in a helpless shrug.

The redhead's heart, previously hammering against her ribs, calmed slightly. She tried to tell herself everything was fine – at least she hadn't yelled out the reason why she had been so afraid for Xehanort.

Hadn't Ienzo once told her she talked in her sleep, anyway? She inwardly berated herself for not remembering that little fact when she'd decided she needed companionship last night.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she gave her own little passive shrug. "It's nothing, really. Just something stupid back when I was a researcher." She jerked her shoulder out from under Sora's hand – which, after a confused look in Char's direction, Sora ended up placing awkwardly at his side. "Now," she went on, "aren't our companions waiting for us?" She made sure to make it clear that she didn't want to use the word "friend".

Sora's eyes lit up. "Oh! Yeah!" With that, he scampered on ahead.

Char stood there for another moment. She sighed deeply, lifted a hand to push her long bangs back out of her eyes, tightened the hand into a fist.

She had nearly been found out, just because of an idiotic quirk in her personality that she'd forgotten ages ago.

How long was she going to have to keep this up?

Sorry, you all know I couldn't resist the "General Sora" thing. xP I can totally imagine him with the various world-specific partners you get as his army, pacing in a circle and pointing with his Keyblade at a diagram that he paid Char to make.
Char: Damn it, now we have to do the Thanksgiving thing.
Me: OH YEAH! (smirks) Tell everyone what you're thankful for, guys.
Char: Well... you, I guess, because then I wouldn't exist, and contrary to popular belief, I like life.
Anxclof: Of COURSE you do.
Char: (glares) Oh yeah, and food. Especially good, rare meat.
Me: Yeah, she's just slightly predatory that way...
Anxclof: I'm thankful that Saf hasn't gone and killed me off... yet.
Me: (smirk)
Anxclof: And my friends, Axel and... (blush) Roxas...
Roxas: ...
Me: Aw, how cute! How about you other two OCs that haven't been mentioned yet?
Falcon: (eyeroll) Would it kill you to address us by our names?
Copperhead: Yeah, seriously. Well, I'll go first (wink) I'm thankful for food, life, animals, autumn, snow, clouds... (rattles off a huge list of stuff) ...Falcon, hot girls, and my fanmob. Though, really, all three of those are one and the same.
Falcon: ...(blush) Uh... I'm thankful for my friends, and just being here, alive, in a world as messed up as the one we live in.
Me: Wow... I didn't figure your values ran that deep, Fal...
Falcon: Well... they do.
Me: As for me, I'm thankful for my creativity, life, my grades, my parents, my friends, not being a mindless cookie cutter whorish drone, my computer, my PS2, and my cat.
Char: Damn, that's a lot.
Me: Yeah, I know! XD