Confirmed:

Marie will have a Tron outfit during the second visit! There is a second visit, I think. Oh, and as well as a pirate outfit.

I also wanted to say, that my breath was utterly taken away when I saw this magnificent and beautiful art of Marie and Aura by AppleRawr27 on DeviantART. Please check out her pictures, they're all so amazingly awesome and cute! I'm making this a Christmas gift, and it's the most awesome one yet!

www[dot]applerawr27[dot]deviantart[dot]com/#/d4je0x9

Also, help me out by reading my journal update on Dev!:

www[dot]swirl3y[dot]deviantart[dot]com/journal/#/d4jmyho

Marie's casual wear:

www[dot]swirl3y[dot]deviantart[dot]com/art/I-bring-you-peace-214094964?q=gallery%3Aswirl3y%2F29599925&qo=5

Chapter Eighteen
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Never throw out the furniture!

We walked towards a long hallway, and armoured statues lined up on both sides of it. We stopped mid-way and searched around. Belle told us that the undercroft was around here, but I didn't see anything of the sort. We walked a little ahead, but I stopped when I noticed a wardrobe randomly placed near the wall.

"Hey, guys," I said, looking at the wardrobe. The three of them looked towards me, and I pointed at the wardrobe. "Doesn't that seem out of place?"

"Hmm," thought Sora. He walked up to the wardrobe, and touched it. He then placed his palms on the side and started pushing. When he moved it all the way, he uncovered a door. "Here it is!"

Great, now that we found the door, we can find those serva—

"Do you mind!"

"W-what!" I said, surprised and stunned that a talking wardrobe was…well, talking. It hopped back into place, and I was still shocked. This place is definitely…unique. Sora placed a finger on his chin, and my guess was that he was thinking of a way to move the wardrobe without waking her. It was simple, though.

"Hey, just keep pushing her, and if she wakes up stop," I said. It was clear that by having her awake, she would never move, and we needed to get by. The only option was to push her without having to wake her up, and only then would be able to pass to the undercroft. Sora did what I said, and he leaned against the wardrobe while pushing her. She almost woke up mid-way, and Sora stopped abruptly. Everyone froze still, hoping she wouldn't fully wake up. She went back to snoring, and we all let out a long sigh. This was going to take a while.

ଓ
Aura and Ryan

He stood silently and nervously as Aura walked into a different room. She had told him her name, but he couldn't help but look familiar to someone. He took a deep breath, and he heard the door open from the other side. He was standing in the basement of Twilight Town's old mansion, and he was hoping to get out of there to find Marie.

From the other side appeared Aura, who signalled him to walk behind her. He followed her orders, and he slowly walked into the room. It was dark, and the only light that produced was from a computer screen. A person was sitting in front of the computer screen, and another figure dressed in a black cloak leaned against the wall. Aura stood beside the dark figure, while Ryan stood at the centre of the room.

"So, you're the cousin of Marie?" asked the man sitting in front of the computer. Ryan responded with barely a whisper, and the man chuckled. He didn't know what to do, and all he could do was glimpse back at Aura.

"Well, then, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with her?" Ryan looked back at the man, and he finally turned around from the screen. He was covered in red, and he was only able to see one of his golden eyes. Ryan shuddered a bit, noting how scary the man looked. He got up from the chair, and placed his hands behind him. He walked a little closer to Ryan, and chuckled a little more. "Aura will take you to her, but the journey will be quite difficult."

Ryan heard a slight scoff from the brunette, and he sighed a bit, too. He wasn't looking forward to travelling with a scary girl, but if it brought him closer to Marie, then so be it.

"Thank you, sir!" he said, staring at the man with determined eyes. Aura walked away from the shadowed man known as Riku, and towards Ryan. He looked at her, and nodded a little nervously.

"We can't go directly to where Marie is, since it might put you in danger," she reached in her pocket, and took out a pouch with munny in it. "Go around the town for a bit and see what you can buy, you'll need it."

He nodded, and left in a hurry. He didn't want to stay around any longer, and he kind of wanted to see what the world Twilight Town was all about. As he left, Riku came out of the shadows, and stood beside Aura. She crossed her arms, and smirked. "Does he bring back memories," she asked.

"Kind of, I've always seen him with Wakka and Tidus. I remember him having a huge crush on Selphie," replied Riku. As much as it was a surprise knowing that Ryan was Marie's cousin, he wondered if Marie knew. However, his guess was probably not. "Ryan was always in the hospital. I remember my mom telling me that he had to transfer to the hospital when he was a year old, and they didn't release him until after Marie was kidnapped."

"How inconvenient," Aura replied in a stoic voice. She was wondering if this was planned or truly an inconvenience, either way; Stella had some explaining to do.

ଓ
Marie

"And I was starting to get comfortable," said the wardrobe. She woke up from her sleep, but she wasn't angry or annoyed. She asked us why we were here, and Sora explained that Belle sent us. She was so thrilled knowing we were going to save her friends, and I smiled a bit. She apologized about earlier, and then she went on to saying something that caught my ear.

"I used to be human, you know," she said in a very proud voice, "Until the enchantress cast her spell."

Right after that, she told us that the Beast used to be a prince. Donald and Goofy totally flipped out, but I was smiling. I was right; there was a prince charming in this castle! Sora asked about the spell, and suddenly, the air got moody.

"It was a cold winter's night," said the wardrobe, getting in the mood of telling a story. I saw the boys lean in closer, ready to hear it. I was a little into it, but I was more concerned about the servants.

"And that's enough for now."

…huh? However, she didn't say anything. Uh, oh well. What matters now is the safety of the servants. Sora and the boys were obviously disappointed, but they knew what was important right now. They all jumped from their sad mood, and marched forward into the room. I walked a little behind them, and when they stopped, I looked around.

"This must be it," said Sora. Donald walked around the room, until he reached the middle of the room. A large door stood there, with two statues attached to it. Donald pressed his ears against the door, but something felt off. As soon as I heard a pinging noise, I looked up at the statues, and noticed its eyes glowing.

"Donald, watch out!" I shouted. One of the hands of the statue attempted to attack him, and then I felt my forehead burn up. I grabbed it, and heard Donald's quack. As I looked up at him, I saw a pink barrier around him. I gasped lightly; could this be another example of my power? As soon as the barrier went down, Donald quickly ran towards us. He flashed me a huge smile, and I sighed in relief.

"look out, here it comes!" warned Sora, who already had his keyblade out. Donald and Goofy took out their weapons, and I followed along. As soon as the guardian of the door swung his arm, two other heartless appeared. They were statue-like, but they didn't seem that difficult to beat.

"Sora, fight the door while I keep these heartless busy!" I said, waving my keyblade around. He looked back, and I could tell he wanted to say something like 'be careful', but I already know. He started attacking the main heartless, and I looked at the others. I gripped my keyblade tight, and I eyed them carefully. I had to see what I was dealing with, so all I did was block and dodge.

It swung it's arms around aimlessly, and then it floated and tried to attack me with the bottom part. When it repeated the process, I got a good sense of what I was dealing with. I raised my keyblade, and chanted the spell for fire. It hit the heartless, and I ran in for a couple of attacks. When it recovered, I jumped back and held the keyblade close to my face. It attacked once, and I was able to block it. It attacked again, and I rolled out of the way. I swung around with my blade, and I pressed the trigger down near the handle. The stars lit up, and they tossed themselves straight towards the heartless. It staggered a bit, and I took it as a sign to attack it some more. When I jumped back I chanted the spell for ice, and it broke off a piece of the heartless' arm.

I looked at Sora to see how he was fairing. Donald and Goofy were backing him up, which was good. Everyone needs to be safe, and that's my top priority. I shook my head; this is no time for dilly-dallying! I looked at the heartless before me, and I blocked a couple of it's attacks. My strength has depleted, but I know I'm quick and nimble enough to block and evade. After giving me an opening, I decided to finish off the heartless. I ran up to attack it, and jumped back quickly. I chanted about three spells; fire, ice and thunder at the heartless, and it was down to it's knees. I swung my keyblade harder than I could, and the thing broke into pieces. I sighed, just one more.

I pointed my keyblade at the door heartless, and fired ice at it. It growled loudly, and Sora came in to deliver a devastating blow. Donald came in after to fire up some spells, and I followed with another set of spells. The heartless attacked Goofy, but he blocked it off with his shield. Sora was dealing fast and powerful strikes to the heartless, and I decided to fire another round of my spinning stars. I pulled the trigger, and the stars came out like knives. It cut one of the arms of the heartless, and Sora was able to attack it some more.

There was another growl, and when I heard the last set of attacks, it made an even louder growl. A bright light shined, and a small, purple gas heartless appeared from the door. It passed Sora, and then it passed me. It disappeared in mid-air, and I could only raise my eyebrow in confusion; what was that? Regardless, the door returned to normal, and I managed to heal everyone up before going on.

"Thanks, Marie," said Goofy. I smiled as I nodded, and looked at the door. Was everyone behind it? If so, are they okay?

"I hope everyone's safe," said Sora. I looked at him, a little surprised that he was able to say what I was thinking. Of course, I should know by now that Sora is a little weird, so the things he does shouldn't surprise me. I grabbed his hand, and he looked at me.

"We won't know until we find out," I said as I smiled. He seemed a little confused, and to be honest, I did as well. I let go of his hand, and I looked away. "S-sorry."

He chuckled, and smiled back at me. What was that? Why did I just take his hand? I wonder if his weirdness is starting to rub off me. He started walking through the door, and Donald, Goofy and I followed along. When we entered the room, no one was there.

"Nobody's here," I said, a little worried about the servants. Donald seemed a bit sad, since he wasn't able to rescue anyone. Sora sighed, and then we heard a voice.

"Did someone say 'rescue'?" the voice said, both Sora and I gasped, and we looked around. Other voices kept being heard, and I was starting to panic a little. You don't think there are ghosts, right?

"Oh, but they look like nice folks to me," one voice said, and it was female. Goofy replied saying we are nice, and went one saying that we're they're friends. Sora also added in saying that Belle had sent us.

Then, suddenly, a clock, candelabra, and a teapot with a cup started moving. I was about to scream, but the faces on them started smiling. Amazing, they're like the wardrobe!

We walked in a little closer, and bent down almost to their level. Donald and Goofy were amazed, while Sora just stared. He smiled at them, and I examined them. "I'm Sora, this is Donald and Goofy, and she's Marie," he said, pointing at us.

A heard a group of gasps when Donald picked up the clock, and he started shaking it—much to the clock's displeasure. I chuckled, but then I saw the teapot and the little cup come by me. I looked at them, and gently picked up the cup. "Gosh, were you all affected by a spell, too?" I asked.

The clock finally stopped Donald's shaking, and looked at us. "Yes, that's right—you heard! It was the enchantress!"

Sora placed the teapot on top of a box, while I placed the little cup beside her. She sighed, and looked down at the floor. "It was a cold winter's night…an old beggar women came to the castle, and asked for shelter."

"But the master of this castle—the prince—"continued the clock, until he shouted at Donald to stop touching him. Donald placed him on the chair, and he continued with the story. He told us that the Beast turned the old woman away because she was ugly. The prince or the Beast was spoiled, selfish and cruel according to them, and the old woman basically told him not to judge a book by it's cover. He still refused to let her in, and she suddenly turned beautiful while placing a spell fit for a cruel heard—in other words, the Beast. She turned everyone into furniture for further punishing.

"Wow…that's quite a story," said Sora. It's horrible, to be honest, but beauty comes within, not the outside. It's just a shame that the Beast wasn't able to know that.

"Is there a way for us to help with the spell?" I asked, hoping there was a way. The candelabra said they knew how to get rid of the spell, but the Beast was being difficult with co-operation. He was acting weird, what with pushing Sora, Donald and Goofy around. The furniture wondered if the Beast was turned into a heartless, and I had to disagree.

"I'm sure he's still the Beast," I said, placing a finger on my chin. "No…It's more like he's brain-washed or something."

"But if the heartless are involved, it's a good thing we're here," added Sora. I nodded in agreement, and Donald suggested we go find the Beast. The candelabra jumped off the chair, and walked towards the door.

"Come with me, I know a shortcut!" he happily said. The clock, teapot and cup started following with Donald and Goofy, but Sora was standing still. I normally wouldn't be bothered, but something was telling me too.

"Something wrong," I asked, looking at him. I noticed he was looking at the floor, so I lifted his chin with my hands. He looked at me, and started getting flustered. I chuckled, and noticed how often he did that.

"I'm just thinking about last year," he said, which made me tilt my head in confusion. He looked at me, and started chuckling himself. "When I first met you…man, I don't know why I'm thinking about it at a time like this…but…I'm really glad the heartless didn't take you."

He smiled at me, and quickly joined up with the others. I stayed behind for a minute, just to take in what he said. The heartless didn't take you. You know what? I'm glad too, Sora.

I really am.

Never throw out your furniture, indeed! You never know when they might speak. XD

Well, isn't this interesting. Marie seems to be a little more open towards Sora, but she doesn't understand why. Are the locked memories returning to her? Hmm, who knows!

grapejuice101:

Haha, yeah finals are hectic. I love Belle, too. She seems like the more educated ones, and she's so kind. I hope you liked this chapter!

dracula-key:

I know, and you're right. I'm trying really hard to get her away from the whole damsel in distress thing. There will be some scenes where she's taken, but she's not all boo whoo about it, since she'll stay strong in those situations.

SisterOfScarletDevil:

You know, I'm actually confident on who I want Aura to be with. Some, or maybe a lot of people will be disappointed, but these two just have many things on common.

Shadow 1n2:

Haha, well they're not that hard to incorporate. The keyblades on the other hand…I'd be so frustrated to try and build one! Thank you, I hope so too! So far, I've passed three classes, I need to wait for my mark in the other two classes. I have three weeks off, too! Doesn't it feel great? Thanks, I'll be sure to write a story on Christmas eve to thank everyone!

Dracula X:

It does, I got nine classes for next year. D=

Moreover, thanks, I hope you liked this one!

Lvl-ZeR0:

Haha, it's a tradition now! You're right, a break is wonderful. I can finally breathe! I get sugar rushes, but I just laugh randomly all the way. XD Whoa… now you're really starting to make me worry. I know I'm not a hash brown, or green…. So it prompts me to say it again: you SURE you're okay?

starlightmint72:

Welcome back! Don't worry, I was busy with homework and finals to write more chapters, which will change now that I'm on break. Oh, I'd love to hear more about it. I get so pumped up hearing about other people's ideas for KH stories! I'm on almost every day, so don't be afraid to send it! It's not coming yet, but soon! You might be surprised, since Aura is stuck with three guys she likes. XD

Yeah, Aura will probably fight him with another member of Org13. However, it'll be hard for her, I know it. Ryan is going to be the protective brother, so you can bet he'll be eyeing Sora the entire time, especially since he's older.

You know, I was thinking about that. When everything is explained to Ryan, it'll be confusing, but I think it'll give him motivation to protect his baby cousin. As for Marie, finding her identity won't be shown until KH:3D comes out, because believe it or not, a piece of Marie is missing. XD