The Gummi Ship flew by several gummi debris as it routed its way toward another world. Everyone was mostly quiet on the journey as they had grown pretty tired from all of the adventuring they had done. Dan was more alert, having already rested some, but was content at looking out the windows at the colorful atmosphere of greens and blues swirling around them. Sora was holding the orb given by Cloud in one hand and one of the strange gummi pieces that came out of the glowing keyholes they had seen in his other hand. Donald checked some readings on the navigation panel and grew concerned. "Looks like we're heading back to Traverse Town."

Goofy perked up at hearing that. "Really? It'll be nice to see Leon again. We can ask if Mickey has stopped by."

"Yeah, but why are we going back there?" Dan asked. "Pretty sure we didn't run out of worlds." He waved a hand at all of the lights in the sky.

"Actually…" Donald paused as he tried to think of how to explain this. "This is the only path we can find. Remember, there's a barrier between each world, and we have to rely on the barriers being broken for us to get through."

"There must be some way to get to other worlds?" Sora shot up from his chair. "We haven't found Riku or Kairi yet, or your King." Having not found Sora's friends yet was putting a damper on their adventure. Sam had already questioned to herself multiple times just how long this voyage might last based on what their goal was. If all these people were alive somewhere on different worlds, which ones could they be on, and how did they get there, let alone how this Gummi Ship could get to those worlds.

"We'll just have to rely on the gummi blocks from these barriers giving us a path." Donald decided. He looked at the block that Sora was still holding. While the strange keyholes that Sora's Keyblade locked were unusual enough to the group, it was even more surprising that gummi blocks were coming out of the keyholes as well. "We can ask Leon if he knows about that gummi block. It's different from the normal ones we used to build this ship."

"That's a good idea. You three can look for him while Dan and I gather more supplies." Sam added. "It is about time we get some new gear."

Dan looked questioningly at his sister, but her stern look back at him swayed him to her side. "Yeah, we've got nothing better to do, right?"

"That's settled then." Donald would have worried about the two picking up supplies on their own, but since the Heartless for some reason dropped munny when defeated, they had a nice surplus to go through. "I'm pretty picky with my rods though, so you better not buy something that looks ridiculous." Sam figured she'd be able to find something to his liking, though his tastes were already questionable based on how his current rod had a wizard's hat as a totem on top of it.

"Since you have that squared away," a strange voice said from near Sora's head. "I'd like to show you my progress on documenting everything that's happened before we get to Traverse Town."

"Uh, Sora, did you suddenly catch a cold or something?" Dan looked over to the Keyblade wielder.

"Oh my, I forgot we haven't been properly introduced yet." Dan finally noticed the cricket wearing a waistcoat and tophat standing on Sora's shoulder. "Jiminy Cricket's the name, and I've been tasked by King Mickey to chronicle your adventure. It is nice to meet you, Daniel, Samantha." He held his hand out to the two of them, who awkwardly shuffled over and extended a finger to shake his hand with.

"You can call me Sam," Sam said as she shook his hand. "Have you really been in Sora's jacket this whole time? That must have been a pretty bumpy ride."

"While it may have been a bit difficult for me to hold on a few times, it is the perfect place for me to see what all is happening." Jiminy took out a journal from his pocket. "Let me just add a note to correct your name in here, Sam…" The cricket jotted down a quick sentence in one of the pages of the journal. He then flipped over to the beginning of the book where it was labeled Table of Contents. "There we go, now you can see here I've separated the journal into parts. I've got the main chronicles where I wrote down all that has happened in the worlds you've visited." Jiminy pointed further below. "Over here is a character glossary of everyone you've met. I've also taken the liberty of describing all of the Heartless you've fought.

"Really," Sora turned his head to look at the journal. Surprisingly, it was quite readable to him even with its small size. "Wow, you even gave them names." He looked at the entry for the Heartless that wore armor and saw that it was labeled "Soldier." "Yeah, that's pretty spot on." He then saw the colored bell enemies. "Red Nocturne, Blue Rhapsody, Yellow Opera and Green Requiem. Wow, you went pretty fancy with those."

Daniel saw the entry for the giant lizard that Clayton rode in battle. "Stealth Sneak is…accurate, I guess. It did turn invisible."

"This is great work," Sam chided in. "It'll be a lot easier for us to communicate with each other if we know what to call all these Heartless."

"Uh, how about Heartless?" Dan deadpanned.

Sam smacked her brother in the back of the head. "Yeah, try doing that when there's four different types of them. 'Hey, you go after the flying one while I take on the fat one. No, not that flying one.'" She mimicked pointing at the imaginary Heartless. Dan simply rolled his eyes at her theatrics.

"We're here. Now children, be on your best behavior." Donald instructed them all as he slowly landed the ship. Dan and Sam will stick to the First District since that's where all of the useful shops are. Sora, Goofy and I will…We'll search around for Leon, Aerith or Yuffie. It should be a lot easier than when we were looking for only Sora."

The group went their separate ways, with Sora, Donald and Goofy heading up to the Second District. They didn't get far before they noticed Yuffie next to a mailbox in front of the accessory shop ran by Cid. "Oh hey," Yuffie waved at them as they approached. "Didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon. Where are the others?"

"Dan and Sam are gettin' more supplies for us." Goofy answered. "We're lookin' for Leon. Have you seen him?"

"Leon's probably at the underground cavern. He trains there often." She pointed toward an area left of the Second District. "You know, the channel in the alleyway is connected to the cavern. He'll be interested to see you, though he's still a bit annoyed that the siblings left without talking to him." Sora, Donald and Goofy looked puzzled at that. "You know," Yuffie reiterated," you guys all left before Leon got to talk to them."

"We thought they did talk. It took so long for them to get to us." Donald pondered why they would lie about meeting Leon.

"Maybe they forgot and didn't want to trouble us any further," Goofy suggested.

Yuffie shrugged. "Beats me, I don't really care either way. If I see them I'll point them in the same direction, I guess."

While they were talking with Yuffie, Dan and Sam had entered the item shop to the left of them. Inside was a small room with a counter filling up most of the left side and stairs leading up to a second entrance on the right. Behind the counter were shelves full of boxes, cans and fruits. Three ducks, similar to Donald but smaller, occupied the room. One with a red shirt and cap sat directly on the counter, one with the same clothing but green stood in the middle of the room, and the blue-clothed duck was sweeping the floor near where the siblings came in.

"Welcome to our Item Shop!" the trio of ducks said in unison with high pitch noises. They seemed to be a bunch of kids running this store. The blue duck continued to sweep while the green duck looked to be counting inventory. The red duck kept his gaze on Dan and Sam. Sam walked up to where the red duck was sitting on the counter and Dan followed from behind, satisfied in letting his sister take control of things.

"Hi there, we're looking for some potions and ethers, and possibly some weapons if you have any." Sam looked over the shelves in the back while she was talking.

"Well you came to the right place," the duck in red cheerfully replied. "My name's Huey. The one in green is Louie and Dewey is over there in the blue." He pointed to his brothers as he named them. "We've got plenty of items, just let us know how many you'd like. As for weapons, we did recently get a shipment of some. What are you interested in?"

"We'll take a look at any swords you have for my brother here," Sam waved her hand towards Dan. "Then we need a new shield and rod…" She hesitated before asking, "Do you know a Donald?"

All three of the ducks looked up at her. "Oh, you know Unca Donald?" The two on the shop floor dropped what they were doing and walked up to her. They then all started asking many questions over top of each other like, "What's he up to now," "Is he getting good sleep," and "Did he ever get rid of that mole on his neck."

Sam tried to answer some of them but couldn't get a word then, then she failed to try to get them to stop asking questions. Seeing how much trouble she was in, Dan piped up and shouted, "He's doing fine, now can we buy some stuff!?"

The trio looked abashed as they went back to work, muttering apologies. "Sorry about that, it's been awhile since we've seen him." Huey said. "Here's what we've got for those weapons, but don't expect a discount just because you know our uncle."

There were only one or two options for each weapon. The rods shown were either a slender one with a star on top or a wooden rod ending in a hammer with small wings under it. "Pretty sure Donald would rather have the rod with more magic use than one with brute strength," Dan mentioned. "Then again, if we just keep making him angry…" He smiled as he got Huey to laugh at his joke.

Of the two shields, one was a small, circular one with a curled up cross symbol on it, or a much larger shield with a more typical bullet-shape. It had rectangles and an arch decorating the plate and three large, black screws on the bottom and top two corners, though they didn't appear to be holding anything in place. The small shield was designed for attacking while the big shield was designed for defense. "Which one do you think Goofy prefers?" Sam asked her brother.

Dan shrugged. "I've seen him go both ways. Maybe give him the big shield just in case? He does like to protect Sora."

With that out of the way, they looked at the only sword available. It was a simple short sword designed to be wielded with a single hand. Dan decided to keep it just in case his current sword got too worn out, though he wasn't sure how good he would be at a one-handed weapon. "What about you?" He asked Sam. "Do you need a new weapon?"

She shook her head and pulled out her rod in its compact form. "This is pretty special, I don't think we'll be finding something to replace it so easily. I can always fall back to just magic if it breaks." She paid for the three weapons, several potions and ethers and a backpack to store them in. The shield barely fit in, with the top of it protruding out of the bag. "We might as well check out the accessory shop. Maybe the old man has found some better looking jewelry for us." They went up the stairs to the other exit to avoid Yuffie and then walked over to the accessory shop.

While that was going on, Sora, Donald and Goofy found themselves in front of metal bars blocking them from the waterway. This more seemed like an illegal waterway than a secret one. The three tried to find some sort of switch to raise the bars, but turned up with nothing. "Gah, this is ridiculous!" Donald ranted as he started to whack the bars with his rod. "How did Leon get through this and how come Yuffie didn't tell us?"

"It's hard to tell if she forgot or thought it funny to not tell us." Goofy pondered the morality of the ninja girl. Donald had switched tactics to slamming his body into the bars. "Oh, that gives me an idea." Goofy pointed a hand into the air. Donald's face paled, which is a feat in its own right considering he was covered in white feathers, but it was too late to stop Goofy's thoughts as, with a strength Sora had never seen before, Donald was picked up by the dog and then thrown at the bars, followed by Sora, who yelped as he was picked up by the back of his collar. Goofy, being unable to pick himself up, simply ran into the bars, head held forward, with Donald and Sora partially cushioning his fall since they were still in front of him. The bars barring the entrance to the underground cavern broke off and tumbled into the water.

Sora and Donald rubbed their heads as they got up, now completely soaked from falling into the water leading into the cavern. "I really hope we never have to do that again," Sora mumbled. Having not found any walkable path into the cavern, they swam through the water and eventually found a bank that Leon and Aerith were standing on. Leon was practicing his sword swings while Aerith stood further back, observing.

Aerith first noticed the three as they climbed up onto the bank. "Oh, you're back." She held her hands up, palms together like in prayer. "How have your travels fared?"

Sora, Donald and Goofy recounted their adventures in trying to save a girl from a mad queen, protecting gorillas from a hunter and participating in a tournament of heroes. They eventually got to the subject of the strange glowing keyholes that they had found on two of the worlds.

"So, you found the Keyhole." Leon pensively looked at Sora.

"Yeah. The Keyblade locked it automatically," Sora explained.

Aerith smiled as she heard that. "Good."

"Every world among the stars has a Keyhole," Leon continued. "And each one leads to the heart of that world. There must be one in this town as well."

Sora didn't quite understand the importance of these Keyholes. "What do you mean?"

"It was in Ansem's report," Aerith answered. Ansem the Wise, as he was once known and was explained to Sora before as someone who had experimented with the darkness and had written a report on his findings about the Heartless. Though was he really so wise if he decided to venture into such dangerous territory?

Leon crossed his arms. "The Heartless enter through the Keyhole and do something to the world's core."

"What happens to the world?" Sora piped up.

Aerith looked down to the ground. "In the end, it disappears."

Sora, Donald and Goofy all looked shaken at that. Donald and Goofy had been told by their king that the worlds were disappearing, but to now find out what was causing it made it seem less likely that there was something they could do to protect all of the worlds. "That's why your key is so important." Leon pointed at Sora.

Aerith nodded in agreement. "Please lock the Keyholes. You're the only one who can.

Sora looked glum at the thought of needing to go to every single world out there and lock their Keyholes. It seemed like a daunting task that could never be fully finished. And as they travel to find these Keyholes, the Heartless could be finding them in other worlds even faster. Was that truly the only way to protect everyone? "I don't know…" Sora meekly sputtered out.

"Seeing other worlds would probably serve you well." Leon suggested, as if that wasn't the same excuse he initially gave Sora when Donald and Goofy had asked him to join them.

Donald agreed with Leon though, and Goofy brought up a good point as well. "We gotta find your friends! And King Mickey!"

"I guess you're right…" Sora had momentarily forgotten about the real reason he was traveling to begin with. His friends, Riku and Kairi were waiting out there for him. He just knew he wasn't the only one that made it off of his world when the Heartless attacked. "Okay!" Sora took out the gummi block, remembering now the reason they had looked for Leon. "Hey, Leon. This gummi block's different from the others. Do you know what it's for?"

Leon held up a hand to his chin and stared at the gummi block, but no words ever came out of his mouth. Sora furrowed a brow as Leon continued to remain silent. As he opened his mouth to ask if Leon was okay, Aerith quickly piped up with, "Ask Cid. He should know."

Leon came out of his stupor at hearing Aerith speak and said, "Wait, Sora. Take this with you." He placed a small stone into Sora's gloved hand. "This stone holds some mysterious power. I've been carrying it for luck. I want you to hold onto it."

Sora smiled at hearing the description, though after turning the stone over in his hands a few times, asked, "How do you use it?" Leon went back into his silent stupor, his eyes glazed over like he was stuck in some sort of daydream. "Uh, Leon?" He did not budge from Sora's concern. Aerith simply shook her head at them.

"Say, how did you two get here, anyway?" Donald grumpily questioned them. "We had to split some heads open to get past the bars: our heads!"

"Oh, there's a way down here from up those stairs." Aerith pointed behind her toward a man-made hole in the cavern wall that had the start of a staircase visible. "There is an abandoned house at the top that leads to the Third District. Speaking of, there's another house in that district we're using as a base now. You should meet us all there later."

"Will do," Sora responded as they heard toward the stairs. "I'll make sure to bring Dan and Sam along, too."

"Good, I'd like to have a talk with those two." Leon broke out of his stupor once again. A loud gong from a far away bell rang out through the tunnel before they could ask what Leon needed Dan and Sam for.

"That sounded like the bell over the Gizmo Shop," Aerith noted.

"The Heartless are probably up to no good there. Make sure you check it out before you leave." Leon added.

Sora, Donald and Goofy said their farewells and walked up the flight of steps to find a circular, brick room. A brick platform that looked like it would fit a hole in the ceiling floated near the floor. The three stepped on the platform and it slowly brought them up to the abandoned house above. This house was the same size as the room below and also made of bricks. There was a raised platform of bricks in the middle with steps along the side of it to get to its top. Above was a wood plank ceiling going across that indicated there could be another room above them.

As they took a good look at the place, Sora heard a girl's voice from behind him. "There's something about this musty place…" That voice could only belong to one person, but he couldn't believe that he would find her in such a place. Sora whirled around to see his friend Kairi walking slowly around the room, holding her hands behind her back. "It reminds me of the secret place back home, where we used to scribble on the walls. Remember?" She looked toward him and smiled. The secret place on their islands, where they drew on the walls as kids, and where he last saw her on that fateful night when the Heartless attacked.

"Kairi?" Sora finally blurted out. Something felt off about her. If they had really found each other, why would she be acting so nonchalantly?

"Sora?" He turned to glance at Goofy, who was curious at what the boy was looking at so intently. When Sora turned around, Kairi was gone.

"Well, well." The three looked over to the entrance of the house, which was a large hole in the wall with a curtain covering it, and saw Dan and Sam standing there, though they were also looking behind them at where the voice was coming from. "You've arrived sooner than I expected." An old man with a long white beard with a simple blue gown and nightcap stood tall over the siblings. In his hands were a carpet bag and a wand.

"Wha… You knew we were coming?" Sora wasn't sure how that was possible since they didn't even know they were coming.

"Of course," the man stated matter of factly.

"Are you…a Heartless?" Sora had never seen a Heartless that looked so much like a human, but Blue Rhapsody did have a similar design to how he looked.

Donald didn't agree so much though. "He doesn't look like one."

"Oh, my. No. My name is Merlin. As you can see, I am a sorcerer." He didn't actually provide any evidence of being a sorcerer, but his strange mannerisms for some reason did give everyone in the room the idea of one. "I spend much of my time traveling. It's good to be home. Your king has requested my help."

"King Mickey?" Goofy was happy to hear mention of their king, though wished that they could see each other again.

"Yes, indeed. Donald, Goofy, Daniel, Samantha." The siblings looked surprised that he knew their names. "And who might you be, young man?" Merlin looked toward the Keyblade wielder. Sora responded with his name. "Ah. So, you have found the key."

"What did the king ask you to do?" Donald knew they were still currently stuck with nowhere else to go, so wondered if maybe Merlin would guide them in the right direction.

"Just a moment…" Merlin stepped up to the platform in the middle of the room and set his carpet bag down. He then lifted his wand high into the air and started chanting out words that didn't seem to have any apparent meaning. The bag opened up and furniture started to float out of the bag, growing from the small size they started at into what they normally would be. All of the desks, chairs, shelves, cups, plates and more marched around the room in line as Merlin conducted them with his wand until they reached their individual destinations and left the march line. When the last book found its way onto a shelf and there were no more items in the air, Merlin stopped his chanting and slumped down into the chair that was accommodating the table on the platform now. The fully furnished room felt very homely.

"There, now. Ahem." Merlin stood back up and turned toward Sora. "Your king asked me to train you in the art of magic. We can start anytime you like." Sam's eyes grew wide at the idea of Merlin teaching them magic. Sora looked happy at the idea of improving while Dan rolled his eyes at the whole idea, not being able to use magic himself. "Let me know when you're ready to begin the training. Oh, and one more thing." He turned toward the entrance of the house where a small, white carriage stood on the floor to the left. Sparkles appeared floating around the carriage as it slowly disappeared and a woman with white hair wearing blue robes with a hood drawn over her head appeared. A pink bow around her neck kept her from lacking some color variant that merlin was missing.

"Hello," she greeted them. "I'm the Fairy Godmother. Your king asked me to help, too. I will assist throughout your journey."

"I do not know how much I can be of help, but do stop by anytime." Merlin announced the end of his explanation.

"That was a lot of information," Donald stated. He decided not to mention that none of it was actually useful for their current dilemma of not being able to travel to any more worlds.

"How did you two end up here?" Goofy asked Dan and Sam.

"Cid just wanted us to deliver this book here." Dan held out a large, hardcover book. "I was not expecting all of this to happen."

"Uhuh, well I guess we should go give the book to Merlin," Sam began to push Dan toward the middle platform. "You can see what the Fairy Godmother says."

Sora decided to go with what Sam said and walked up to the Fairy Godmother. "Um, hello, it's nice to meet you?"

"And it is a pleasure to meet you," the Fairy Godmother responded back. "I know I can't be of too much help, but if you have any magical items, I can help you understand how to use them.

Sora gasped as he pulled out the sphere that Cloud gave him. "Oh, like this?" He showed the yellow, shiny orb to the godmother.

The Fairy Godmother tapped a finger to her chin as she took a look. "That's not quite what I was thinking of, but I do know what it is: it is a command materia. This little orb can connect to your weapon and give you a powerful ability to fight with. This specific one gives you Sonic Blade. It allows you to dash multiple times toward enemies to attack them." Sora instantly understood what she was talking about as that was what Cloud repeatedly used against them back at the coliseum. If he now had the ability to use it as well, it would certainly spell trouble for the Heartless in his way.

"Hey, what about that stone Leon gave you?" Goofy brought up.

Sora wasn't sure if that would be what the Fairy Godmother was thinking of either, but he pulled it out anyway. "Do you know what this is?"

"Oh, the poor thing!" The Fairy Godmother held up a hand to her cheek as she sadly looked down at the stone. "He has turned into a summon gem."

"A summon gem?" Sora questioned her.

"This little creature lived in a world that was consumed by darkness." Donald and Goofy glanced at each other, thinking of how the king had told them worlds had been disappearing, now of how Leon mentioned the Heartless were the ones behind them. "When a world vanishes, so do its inhabitants. But this one has such a strong heart, he became a gem instead of vanishing with his world." The Fairy Godmother's explanation was disheartening to Sora. He had barely escaped his own world's destruction, just like the rest of the people who had ended up in Traverse Town. While he hadn't found Riku or Kairi yet, he knew that they must have gotten off of the islands like him though. Riku had disappeared in a portal of Darkness right before his eyes, and Kairi disappeared right in front of Sora's face before he was sent away himself.

"Can he regain himself?" The stone felt a lot more fragile now in his hand.

"Yes, but only his spirit." She pulled out a wand from her wide sleeve. "Now, watch!" A flourish of her wand and a "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo" later, and the stone went from a dull brown to a dark orange color. Sora could feel power emanating from it and also what felt like appreciation, like the entity in the stone was content with what had just happened. "It can only be for a short time, but you can summon Simba out of the stone.

"Simba?"

"Yes, that is his name, dear. I believe he should be a powerful ally if needed." The Fairy Godmother smiled down at Sora. "If you find any more of these, bring them to me. Don't worry, when their worlds are restored, they will return there. Sora, please help save them."

Sora wasn't sure how exactly he could restore worlds, but he felt all fired up thinking about the possibility. "Don't worry, I will."

Dan had brought the book to Merlin while Sora was talking to the Fairy Godmother. "Oh, that book…" Merlin did a once-over of the book, looking content at how the repair went. "So, Cid asked you to bring this. Thank you."

"He said that it was pretty torn up when you brought it in. Was it some sort of spell book or something?" Dan didn't really care about magic, but Merlin didn't seem like the kind of person to damage his own property like that.

"Oh no, it was such a more curious book than that. I don't even know, myself, what kind of book it is. In fact, it's not mine. Somehow it found its way into my bag one day. I asked Cid to repair it for me. Well, I guess I'll put it here somewhere, for now." The wizard cleaned up a spot on a little table just the right size for the book, then looked back at Dan. "This book holds a great secret. The missing pages will unlock it. I'll leave it over here. Do look at it whenever you like. My best regards to Cid for repairing it for me."

Dan stayed over at the book while Sam was literally shaking in anticipation while waiting for her turn to talk to Merlin. "Is there something that you needed, Sam?" Merlin quizzically looked down at the girl.

"Yes, or, well, I was just wondering if…" Sam surprisingly was having a hard time coming up with words. "Could-could you help me improve my magic?"

The wizard had a gleam in his eye from hearing that. "Young lady, it would be my pleasure to help you in any way I can to master the mystical arts." Merlin straightened himself and stood tall and proud as he stated this. "Now, is there something in particular you feel like you are lacking in, or perhaps you want to strengthen what you are already good at?"

"That's the thing, I'm not really sure where to go next." Sam looked down at her feet. "There's still plenty of spells to learn, I can tell that, but I feel like I'm useless once I run out of mana. Is there something I can do to make me last longer in combat? I don't want to end up being some damsel in distress just because I rely so much on magic." She looked over at Donald, who was staring off into space as Sora talked to the Fairy Godmother. "Donald has the same issue, but he and Goofy work really well together when fighting physically."

"Perhaps that is what you're missing then," Merlin pondered. "As great as a wizard can be, you should never rely on having an infinite supply of mana to cast spells with. I learned that the hard way when I quickly ran out of munny on ethers. I'm still indebted to that rascal duck-eh, but that's not important here," Merlin cleared his throat. "The point is, if the way you are using magic isn't working, you must figure out what needs to change. Donald is able to fight without magic by assisting Goofy. What is it that you can do without magic? Or, to be different from Donald, what is it that you can do with magic to best assist in battle?"

Sam thought about what Merlin had said. Without magic, she was one of the weakest attackers, only really being a distraction with her staff. With her magic, she could cause a lot of damage and attack further away enemies, but that only lasted for a little bit. She was hoping Merlin would have an answer on how to increase her mana, or perhaps require less mana to cast spells, but maybe even the powerful wizard himself wasn't able to rely on that kind of ability. She would need to change how often she cast spells, but to still be effective in battle, she would also need to change how she used the spells. Her eyes went wide as she came up with an idea, but she'd have to wait until they were back in battle to test it. "Thank you, Merlin. I think that helps a lot."

"I am glad to hear that." The wizard cleaned his spectacles with his robe then put them back on his face. "Maybe you could help Donald teach Sora just how useful magic can be as well. I sense that he tends to prefer using only healing spells."

"I can try, but he's probably not used to magic. Going from fighting with a wooden sword to suddenly having the Keyblade is probably not the best way for someone to start out. I'm a bit more used to my brother and his lack of magic. Just point at someone and tell him to attack." She looked over to where Dan was, but a blinding flash of light appeared from the table the book was on. When Sam was able to see again, Dan was gone. "What just happened?"

Merlin also looked over to where the flash of light appeared. The book on the table was now open. The visible pages showed a little hut made out of sticks in the middle of a meadow on a small spot of the page. Around it were smudged looking spots that used to have drawings. "Hmm, well I did say that it was a curious book. Sora, would you care to go after Daniel? I am not certain he'll be able to make it back out by himself."

Sora pointed a finger at his chest and Merlin nodded. While he wasn't sure how he'd be any better at escaping out of a magical book, he obliged and walked up to it. By placing a hand on the open page, another flash of light came from the book and Sora vanished just like Dan had. Merlin turned back toward Sam. "Now where were we? Oh, yes…" He continued to talk about the essence of magic and its uses.

The Keyblade wielder found himself no longer in Merlin's house, but on the open page of the book. The boy was shrunk down so that he could walk on the book a decent amount before running into the edge of the page. The table was visible underneath the book, but everywhere else around the location was shrouded in a mist. If someone were to look at the book, they would similarly be unable to see Sora, similarly to how he wasn't able to see Dan until now. Dan was patrolling around the edge of the book, trying to find a way out of there. Sora called for him and he quickly rushed over, happy to no longer be alone.

"You got stuck here too?" Dan once again looked around the area to see if anything had changed due to Sora's appearance. The only thing of notice was the drawing of the stick hut in a meadow, just like before.

"Merlin wanted me to come after you." Sora was just as confused as Dan as to their predicament. "Did he say what this book was?"

"Just something about it having a mystery and missing pages. I guess that's what these scratched off areas are." Dan pointed at the splotches of blurred white spots on the pages.

"Then maybe we should look at the page that is here." Sora walked up to the meadow drawing. As he looked at it up close, it felt like the drawing was coming to life and he was really in the meadow. Then, he actually was standing in the meadow. Dan was there next to him, and in front of them was a log with a yellow stuffed bear doll wearing a red shirt sitting on it.

The bear was alive though, looking to be deep in thought as he bumped his fist against his head repeatedly. "Think, think. Think, think.

Sora walked up to the bear. "Hi there. What's wrong?" The bear wasn't technically the strangest person he had tried to assist before.

"Nothing," the bear responded. "Just thinking." The way he said this sounded like it was just a normal, every-day activity. Sora expressed concern but otherwise remained silent. He sat on the log next to the stuffed animal. Eventually the bear added, "I was thinking of how to say goodbye to Pooh."

"Pooh?" Dan had sat on the other side of Sora from the bear. He wanted to chuckle at the name, but even he could tell it was not the right time for such antiques.

"Yes?" The bear looked up at the boys.

Dan looked at Sora, then back to the bear, trying to hold back a smile. "Wait a second. You're Pooh?" Sora questioned.

"Yes, I'm Winnie the Pooh. Pooh for short," Pooh replied. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sora," Sora answered, with Dan also giving his name.

"Oh. Hello, Sora, Dan. Have you come to say goodbye to Pooh, too?"

Sora's face fell. "This is kinda dark," Dan commented.

"Well, no. Why would I do that? We've only just met." Sora was right to be concerned about Pooh's thinking after all.

"Well, we all lived here in the Hundred Acre Wood. And we'd take walks together, or play Pooh sticks…" Pooh smiled for a bit as he thought of the fond memories. "And every day, I'd eat some honey. Just one small smackerel would taste very good right now." He rubbed his tummy. "But now everyone's gone. All my friends, and my favorite hunny tree too. Everyone must've gone away while I was napping, I think… So, who knows?" The boys were speechless as Pooh jumped off of the log. "Maybe I shall end up going away somewhere as well. But I wonder, how do I say goodbye to myself?" Pooh then tapped a hand against his head again while muttering, "think, think, think." Dan and Sora looked at each other, silently begging the other to say something. "Oh," the bear grabbed their attention. "My tumbly is getting rather rumbly." Without saying goodbye, to the two or himself, he walked off, eventually disappearing from their view.

"This book is terrible!" Dan finally shouted into the sky. "You'd think it would be all sunshine and rainbows here, but instead we have existential dread!"

"Pooh is really hurting," Sora said. "We have to do something." He got up from the log and ran in the direction that the bear went. Daniel sighed but followed him out. The two reappeared back on the book page in front of the drawing of the meadow. Before Dan could think about how he never actually saw a stick hut in the meadow, a flash of light on the other page of the book grabbed his attention. A new drawing of a house inside of a tree appeared. The two headed to it as there was nowhere else to go.

Whether a tree grew around an existing house or someone decided to take the effort to burrow into the bottom of a tree to build a house, Sora and Dan were unsure, but it did look quite cozy. A dirt path led to the front of the house, where a log laid in front of a spot for a campfire, then the path continued on past the house. A sign above the door read "MR. SANDERZ." The N on the sign was drawn backwards. A bell with a string ran down it in order for it to be rung also had a sign next to it, this one reading, "Rnig also." Either this house was owned by a Sanderz, or someone did a very poor job of writing out "please knock."

Sora rang the bell, but nothing happened. Dan decided to be more aggressive and opened the door directly. Inside was a single room. Directly to the left of the boys as they entered was a sitting chair. Going clockwise around the room next was a window with yellow polka dot on blue curtains, a bed, also matching the curtain pattern, a shelf with pots, a cabinet attached to the hollowed tree wall, a table with a light tablecloth and chair against it, then a cuckoo clock hung on the tree wall to the right of the entrance. Pooh was examining the shelf full of pots, but placed the last one down in disappointment. "Oh, bother. There's no more honey left. If only the hunny tree would visit… Then I could eat my fill." He stood up and left the house, walking right past Sora and Dan as if he could no longer see them, perhaps an indication that he too was close to disappearing like all of his friends and the hunny tree had.

Sora and Dan went outside after him, but couldn't find him anywhere. Instead, an owl flew down and landed in front of the two. The brown colored owl, not being a stuffed animal like Pooh, was only around a foot smaller than Sora. "Let me guess: You'd like to know what happens next," the owl spoke. "Unfortunately, some of the pages are missing, so I can't tell you yet. The pages are scattered over many worlds. Would you find them for us?"

"How do you know where the pages are?" Dan asked the owl.

The owl held up a wing to his chest. "I belong on a few of those pages, so I can feel how far away they are from the book." Sora looked like he was about to ask a question, but the owl stopped him. "Don't expect the others to know about our world and its workings. I do not know why I am different, though I do have my guesses. "The owl smirked and brought up a wing to his face. His ego made him fit well with the two boys.

Back on the open pages of the book, Sora and Dan were hoping that another drawing would appear, but unfortunately, the smudged areas of the book remained blank. Instead, a glowing circle appeared near the top right of the book. "I don't really care for reading books, but I really want to know what happens next here." Dan commented, mostly to himself. "I guess we've got another thing to look for while world hopping."

Sora looked down at the paper ground. "I thought the Heartless would be the hardest part of this, but it was really hard seeing Pooh like that."

Dan looked at Sora, now more sad that Sora was feeling so down. "You know how people say smiles spread?"

Sora looked up. "What?"

"You know! When you see someone smile or laugh and you just feel the urge to do the same?" Dan gave off a big grin as an example, and Sora did feel the urge to smile back, though his was a lot weaker. "See? The issue is that other emotions can do that too. If you hang around someone who's only ever down in the dumps for too long, you'll end up like that too. We need to make sure that happiness is the stronger emotion here. Let's promise each other that we'll find the lost pages and give Pooh a reason to smile again." Dan held a pinky finger out to Sora, who questioned it for a second before reaching his pinky out as well. Dan grabbed it with his pinky and shook it up and down. "Good, now let's get out of here and find those pages!"

Dan headed toward the glowing circle, assuming that was the way out. Sora held up his pinky again and smiled at it, this time with a genuine smile. "Thank you."

Sora and Dan appeared back in front of the book in Merlin's house to find Sam, Donald, Goofy and Merlin having a tea party around the table in the middle. The Fairy Godmother had gone back to being a carriage, or maybe she was inside the carriage. Dan braced himself for a hug from Sam like the other times he had come out of strange or dangerous situations, but she continued to sip from a tea cup in her chair. "Welcome back, boys. How was the trip?"

"Not…good," Dan answered. "The missing pages are scattered around other worlds and we, uh, definitely need to find them." Sora and Dan explained what had happened in the book and everyone else had agreed that they would keep their eyes open for the missing pages.

"You'd best go see Cid before going anywhere else," Merlin told them as they headed out of his house. Sam and Dan knew this to be true since Cid would be able to add the navigation gummi to their ship. They all made their way to the moving stones. This time Dan took no chances and jumped instantly into the water, swimming to the shore on the other side. Sam showed Sora, Donald and Goofy how to cross the treacherous path, but Goofy only made it about halfway before falling off. When they all made it to the other side, Donald dried off Goofy and Dan's clothes and they headed into the Third District.

Back outside of the door with the fire symbol on it, the group walked toward the middle of the Third District, where a couple Soldier Heartless appeared. Sora began to summon his Keyblade, but a boy with silver hair ran up to the two and struck them down with a single swing of his red and black, wing-shaped blade. The boy wore blue pants, a yellow tank top with black accents around its sides and black straps forming a cross shape over his chest. Silver shoes with blue stripes on top matched the rest of his outfit, while black gloves and wristbands attempted to give off a cool-guy style.

Sora gaped at the boy like a fish out of water. The silver haired boy in turn looked at Sora with a smirk on his face. "There you are. What's going on?" Without saying a word, Sora walked up to him and grabbed the sides of the boy's mouth and stretched them apart. The boy escaped from Sora's grasp and backed away. "Hey, hey, cut it out. He waved a hand in front of his face.

"I'm not dreaming this time, right?" Sora continued to stare at the boy.

"I hope not. Took forever to find you." He ran a hand through his silver hair while giving a chuckle.

Sora beamed at the boy. "Riku!" The others were taken aback at Sora's friend randomly showing up. The two boys walked further to the middle of the Third District plaza. "Wait a second, where's Kairi?"

Riku looked around. "Isn't she with you?" Sora looked down at the ground, a glum look back on his face. Riku waved off the issue. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island, too. "He looked up at the sky. "We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now." Behind Riku, a Shadow Heartless emerged from the ground and readied an attack. "We'll all be together again soon. Don't worry. Just leave everything. I know this-"

Just before the Shadow landed a hit on Riku, Sora leaped behind him and slashed the Heartless away with his Keyblade. It dissipated back into darkness as Riku turned around, confused as to what had just happened. Sora leaned his Keyblade against his shoulder. "Leave it to who?" He smugly looked at his friend.

Riku dropped his smile. "Sora, what did you-"

"I've been looking for you and Kairi, too, with their help." Sora interrupted.

Riku looked at the others, trying to keep a neutral face. "Who are they?" His words weren't as good at trying to hide his annoyance.

Donald stepped forward and cleared his throat. "My name is-"

"We've visited so many places and worlds, looking for you," Sora once again interrupted, really wanting to show how he had grown to his childhood friend.

Riku calmed himself down and went back to his cocky self. "Really? Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed."

Goofy, wanting to help Sora, put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Oh, and guess what? Sora's the Keyblade master." Sora smiled proudly.

"Who would've thought it?" Donald, clearly not getting the memo, folded his arms and looked away from the others.

Sora stomped his foot and raised a fist toward the duck. "What's that mean?"

"So, this is called a Keyblade?" Riku held up Sora's Keyblade as he examined it. Sora gave a double take, looking between his now empty hand and his Keyblade in Riku's hand.

"Give that back," Dan sternly said as he took a step toward Riku.

Riku did not look impressed. "And you are?"

Dan folded his arms against his chest. "Oh, you care about our names now?"

The two glared at each other. Sora looked worriedly at them. "Hey, it's fine-"

"Catch!" Riku tossed the Keyblade back to Sora, who fumbled with it but caught it before it could hit the ground. Dan backed off, though still kept an eye on Riku.

Sora, thinking the issue was now over, said, "okay, so you're coming with us, right? We've got this awesome rocket. Wait 'til you see it!"

"No, he can't come!" Donald rudely shouted.

Sora once again stomped a foot toward the duck. "What?" Donald refused the idea once again. "Oh, come on! He's my friend!"

"I don't care!" At this point, this argument had stolen everyone's attention. Goofy looked back toward Riku to see what his reaction was to this, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Huh? He's gone." the dog noted to the others.

Sora looked around the district, but couldn't find any trace of his friend. "Riku?" He walked forward a few steps and looked at the ground. "Nice going." He then looked back up and placed his hands behind his head. "Oh well, at least he's okay. And who knows? Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon, too." He put a smile on his face, but it didn't look quite convincing enough to Sam and Goofy, who looked at each other in concern for the Keyblade wielder.

Dan was still in a sour mood from their interaction with Sora's friend, but they all went to the house near the entrance to the Second District that Yuffie had mentioned to Sora, Donald and Goofy. Two large, lit up windows filled up most of the visible wall of the house with a door taking up the remainder of the wall to the right. Sam opened the door and they walked into a single room with a table in the middle. A bed was in a corner of the room where the wallpaper above it had a large hole, revealing the wooden wall behind it. Other corners of the room were filled with stacked boxes.

Yuffie, Aerith, Leon and Cid were standing in a group and gossipping, but went silent as the party entered. Dan and Sam looked awkwardly at each other, but then Yuffie smiled and waved at them. Cid gave a gruff grunt in their direction. "You guys ever hear of Maleficent?" Cid rubbed his chin with his thumb.

"Hello to you too," Donald crossed his arms. Sora shook his head in response to Cid. Leon leaned against the wall behind him in thought.

"I hear she's in town." Cid continued on as if they did know who Maleficent was.

"Was her world destroyed then?" Sam was confused as to how someone could make it to Traverse Town. It didn't sound like Maleficent was the kind of person to use a Gummi Ship to travel.

Cid laughed out in disgust. "I wouldn't be surprised. That witch is the reason we're all in this mess!

"She's the reason this town is full of Heartless, "Leon added. "Don't take her lightly.

Aerith looked down. "She's been using the Heartless for years."

"We lost our world, thanks to her." Leon's face darkened as he said this. Someone being able to control the Heartless was a terrifying thought. Sora and the others had experienced this with Clayton, and possibly with Hades, but Clayton had fallen into darkness and was no longer himself when that had happened.

"One day, a swarm of Heartless took over our world!" Cid said.

"That was nine years ago." Everyone was shocked by Leon's words. If Maleficent had been controlling the Heartless for that long, then she must have had great control over the darkness to not be consumed by it

"I got out of that mess and came here with these guys." Cid kicked at the ground in front of him. They had known that Leon and the others weren't originally from this world, but they had been here for so long that it felt like it was their natural home. Sora felt bad for not thinking they would still be hurting from having lost their world, just like how he had lost his.

"That's awful!" Donald lamented.

"Our ruler was a wise man named Ansem. He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless," Leon added.

"His report should tell us how to get rid of the Heartless." Cid folded his arms together and nodded.

"I'm guessing you don't have that report." Dan stated. Just a glance at his sister told him that she would die to get a chance to read them.

Leon shook his head. "It got scattered when our world was destroyed.

"I'm sure Maleficent's got most of the pages." Cid continued to look annoyed at everything.

Everyone looked disappointed, except for Sam who stood tall with fire in her eyes. "We'll just add it to the list of things to search for! Any chance of finding out how to take out the Heartless is something to consider."

"What about my Keyblade?" Sora pointed a thumb at himself and smiled.

"Does your Keyblade know how to stop the Heartless from showing up on all the worlds and eating their insides?" Sam questioned the boy. Sora deflated a bit as he answered her with a no. "Exactly. We'll just have two sets of pages to look out for now. We can do that."

As they all were talking, no one noticed a pair of eyes watching them from outside. Riku stood next to a man with dirty, blonde hair and a tall woman in a dark robe with black dragon horns protruding from the top of her head. The woman held a staff with a green orb stationed on top. "You see? It's just as I told you. While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions." She looked down at Riku and raised an eyebrow. "Evidently, now he values them far more than he does you." Riku remained silent, instead continuing to focus on Sora and everyone surrounding him. "Now, think no more of him and come with me. I'll help you find what you're searching for…" The two turned and walked away from the house. The man remained, staring at the people in the house for a bit longer with a smirk held on his face. Eventually he followed suit and left.

Back inside, Dan had mentioned to Cid that the book had been delivered to Merlin. "Good to hear," Cid responded. "Once you give me that other piece of the navigation gummi, I'll get that installed for you."

Dan held out a hand to Sora, who took a second to realize what was going on, but then handed over the gummi piece he had originally tried showing Leon. "Here you go." Dan passed the gummi piece over to Cid. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"No time at all. I'll throw in a warp gummi for the heck of it too. Then you can jump to worlds you've been to before. Find another navigation gummi, you bring it to me." Cid stretched his arms as he prepared to leave. "Well, better get back to my real job."

"Your real job isn't at the accessory shop?" Sam asked.

"Course not. "You'll see me in the First District." He then left the house.

"Is there something else we should do while we wait?" Goofy scratched his head in thought. "I feel like we're forgetting something."

"Oh, the bell!" Sora exclaimed.

"Yeah, somethin' here rings a bell, but I just can't remember what it is."

"The bell, ya big palooka!" Donald quacked. "We're supposed to check out the bell above the Gizmo Shop!"

"Oh yeah, that's it!" Goofy raised a finger up, as if he had been the one to figure it out. "The Heartless might have rung it and we need to go figure out why."

"Do Heartless typically ring bells?" Dan raised an eyebrow. That did explain the raucous he and Sam had heard while they were on the way to Merlin's house.

"That's what we need to find out!" Sora began to walk to the door. The others followed, but Leon stepped in front of the siblings.

"We need to talk. Still." Leon's glare stopped Dan and Sam in their tracks.

"But shouldn't we…alright, fine." Sam gave up. "We'll meet you guys up there" She waved Sora, Donald and Goofy off, who took no time in leaving what looked to be an awkward situation.

"So, what do we need to talk about?" Dan folded his arms to his chest.

Leon stared at the boy for a few seconds. Finally, he responded with, "How do you know who I am?"

Dan took a step back in surprise. "You told him!?" His sister jumped back at his shout.

"You were bleeding out on the ground! I was kinda focused on saying anything that would save you." Sam turned away from the two. "I told you we needed to stay away from him."

Yuffie looked on in excitement as Sam and Dan continued to argue with each other while Aerith frowned at the two. Leon shook his head and brought a hand up to his face. "This is like talking to a wall," he groaned. "A really loud wall."

Daniel paused his bickering with his sister. "A wall…" He rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "Well, I don't really know you, exactly. I know Squall Leonhart."

"But that's his name," Yuffie pointed out in confusion.

"No, he's Leon," Dan corrected her. "He's the guy who fled a destroyed world and decided to protect the new one he landed on. The guy I know, Squall…well, he had a completely different life. He led a group of people to take down an evil witch and there was space travel-wait, I'm doing a bad job of explaining this. He was a student at a school that trained him to fight and that's what he ended up being in charge of by the end."

Everyone around him seemed skeptical of his description, even his sister. "And were you a part of this 'school?'" Leon asked.

"Uh, well, no." Daniel gave off a sigh as he mustered the courage to say the next words. "I only know about all of that because it was all…" He scratched his cheek nervously. "It was a video game I played."

Yuffie laughed. "That's a good one. And are we in a video game too?"

"Yes," Dan's response shut down Yuffie's laughter. "You and Aerith and Cid were in a different game, fighting an evil corporation, and you eventually saved the world from a giant meteor."

"That seems like a jarring change of events," Aerith noted."

Dan averted eye contact with her. "There was a lot of stuff that happened in between." He did not want to mention that her death was one of those events.

"None of this makes sense." Leon gestured toward Dan. "Why would these games have characters that are similar to us? Who made these games?"

Dan shrugged. "Some company, I guess. I just played what was given to me."

"If you didn't choose to get these games, then who brought them to you?" Aerith asked.

"Um…" Dan looked at his sister. "Our parents, I guess?"

"What are you looking at me for? I never played those games." Sam responded.

The room remained silent for a bit as they all thought about this strange information. Leon went back to his normal pose of leaning against a wall with his arms folded together in thought. Aerith and Yuffie awkwardly stood near each other, unsure on what to say. Dan still felt stuck on the concept of where the video games he had grown up on had come from. Sam didn't want to bring it up, but she also was having a hard time remembering things from their past. She was more into watching movies than playing her brother's games, but she couldn't recall how she got the movies or in what order they came out. "I guess our past is…questionable," Sam finally spoke up. "But that's the reason we've been running around with Sora, Donald and Goofy. We don't want to stick around here for the rest of our lives.

"I can tell you've been a great help to them." Leon said. Keep it up and I'm sure you'll find what you are looking for, just like Sora will."

Dan tilted his head. "So does that mean we can go now?"

Yuffie chuckled. "Yup! You've passed the test." She leaned forward and pointed a finger up. "We had to make sure you wouldn't be causing any trouble, but you two seem pretty innocent enough."

"Uh, thanks?" Dan responded back. "I guess that should mean something after our first meeting had us fighting each other. Think we could spar again some time?"

Sam smacked her brother in the back of the head. "You most certainly will not! You almost died last time!"

"I got better," Daniel murmured.

Leon shook his head at the siblings' antics. "I'll think about it."

"That wasn't a no!" Dan cheered as he opened the door leading out of the house. "We'll catch you guys later. Promise not to try avoiding you again." Sam awkwardly waved goodbye at them and they both left with a soft slam of the door.

"They're either hiding something or are in delusion of their past." Leon pinched the bridge of his nose.

Aerith dropped her smile and gave a worried look toward the door. "Which do you think is worse?"

The Second District, while usually deserted due to the rise of Heartless, was brightly lit by the lights left on in the shops and houses that lined the edges of the main street. Sam wasn't sure how people got to these buildings safely, but knew from personal experience that at least the hotel was still staffed, having been brought there by Squall and the others before. She looked up at the night sky full of brightly shining stars and thought about how peaceful this town would feel if it wasn't for the ever-present looming danger of dark creatures coming out and stealing your heart.

Daniel was also looking up, though his sight was on the rooftop of a nearby building where he could see several of the bell-shaped Heartless, "Nocturnals" came to mind when he tried to remember what Jiminy had named them, fly around, with some of them disintegrating after getting hit by a blizzard spell. "I think I know where they ran off to." He pointed out the action to his sister and they both ran off to the entrance of the building.

The inside was a lot more colorful than the outside of the building. Large gears surrounded by red and gold trimming seemed to be randomly placed along the walls, and smaller stone walls jutted out in areas, full of cables and lights. In the middle of all of the chaos was a fixture with a clock face and pendulum. This must be the Gizmo Shop that the others were talking about. It now made more sense to Dan and Sam why a bell would be on top of it, seeing as it was some sort of clock tower.

The two ran through the room to a door on the other side that led back outside. A balcony with a ladder was exactly what they needed to be able to reach the roof, just in time to see Sora, Donald and Goofy slam themselves into a wooden blockade that was in front of the bell they were looking for. The three of them fell through the now splintered hole in the wall and landed unceremoniously on the ground. "That was beautiful, guys." Dan slowly clapped. "Definitely a ten out of ten performance."

"Oh, you finally caught up!" Sora waved a hand toward the siblings as he got off of Goofy and Donald. "So what did Leon want to talk to you about? He seemed pretty mad you ditched him earlier."

"Oh he was just wanting to check up on us. Our first meeting was a bit more brutal than yours." Sam lied. Daniel kept quiet.

"Well he could maybe act a bit kinder to me. He did kick my butt too." Sora smiled.

Donald finally pushed Goofy off of him and stood up. "Please, let's never do that again." While dusting off his shirt, he looked over to the small alcove in the wall that the wood board they had destroyed was covering up. The bell inside had an attached rope that hung off to the side. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"Leon thinks the Heartless rang the bell, right?" Goofy pondered. "Maybe we should give it a go. Must'a been some reason the Heartless were so interested in it."

"I've got it!" Sora ran over to the rope and gave it a good tug. The bell swung back and forth a few times, giving off a good ringing throughout the town. Within a second, rumbling off in the distance took everyone's attention. The Second District's fountain was moving. A mural of flowers slid to the right and was replaced by what was possibly hills. The fountain was a good distance away and hard to see.

"That's pretty cool, and also weird, but why would the Heartless want to move a fountain painting around?" Dan scratched his chin.

"Maybe this bell is broken." Donald took a grab of the bell's rope and tugged on it. The bell once again rang and, just like last time, the fountain's mural moved and was replaced by two spindly trees that bore no leaves on their thin branches.

After a few more seconds of waiting, Sam said, "It looks like there's four sides to this fountain. Ring it one more time?"

Goofy took the rope this time. As the bell rang and the fountain wall moved, jets of water shot out in front of the fountain. The mural displayed this time was of several large butterflies surrounding a single flower. Its stem hooked downward, leaving the flower bud looking toward the ground. As the jets of water turned off, the mural glowed a shimmering blue and a large keyhole appeared over it.

Sora's arm twitched forward and the Keyblade seemingly summoned itself into his hand. "I think I know why the Heartless were interested now."

"Really, why?" Dan deadpanned. Sora looked at him in confusion, but Sam simply smacked her brother on his head.

The five of them rushed down from the top of the building and made their way to the Keyhole. Surprisingly, no Heartless had shown up either to stop them from reaching the keyhole or to go after it themselves. When they got close enough, Sora raised his Keyblade, but right before he could lock it, giant pieces of armor fell from the sky and clattered to the ground.

"Not this Heartless again!" Donald quacked, recognizing it as the same armored Heartless they had fought together right after meeting Sora and Dan. The pieces of armor floated off of the ground and formed into its normal shape.

"Guard Armor, guys! That's what Jiminy called it." Sam remembered Jiminy's drawing of the Heartless.

"It's the only Heartless here, who cares!" Dan drew his sword and readied an attack. He knew this time that they could beat it. Sam took this time to cast a fire spell at Dan's weapon. The sword began to glow a dull red, causing Dan to shout out in surprise.

"You're welcome. Now go hit the Guard Armor and stop patronizing me!" Dan rolled his eyes and begrudgingly ran at the Heartless. Goofy and Donald were already attacking its feet while Sora swung at one of its hands. Dan decided to go after the other hand as he saw it try to spin around the body like a fan blade. A hot knife through butter might have been an overused simile, but his fired up sword really did feel like it was doing a lot more damage. Dan guessed he would have to continue allowing his sister to experiment her magic with him, though preferably not without notice next time.

The Guard Armor did not last long before all of its pieces fell to the ground. "I guess we showed it how much stronger we've gotten." Sora flexed his arm while standing in front of the Heartless pile.

"Don't they usually turn into a heart and fly away?" Goofy asked.

As if sensing Goofy's question, the pieces of armor floated back off of the ground. They formed back into the Guard Armor, but then the Heartless proceeded to perform a handstand. The hands came to the ground and legs moved up to where the hands were. As pieces of the legs clamped open to now be in the shape of hands, the mask of the armor helmet opened up revealing a pitch black void with yellow, beady eyes staring at the group. All the pieces once again floated into the air, looking a lot more chaotic with its swinging movements.

"Uh, is it still Guard Armor?" questioned Sora. He quickly rolled out of the way as the questionably new Heartless raced passed him while backflipping. The feet now having clawed toes made it a lot more dangerous.

"I think it's the opposite of that now." Sam responded. She strung a few shots of fire spells its way, most of them hitting its new hands.

"So it is Opposite Armor now?" Goofy somehow spoke out as he spun himself around like a top with his shield held out, whacking away at one of the floating feet near him.

"I was more thinking 'Attack Armor,' but sure, let's go with that." Sam stopped shooting out fireballs to conserve her magic.

"Stop naming it and start fighting it!" Donald was switching between casting blizzard and thunder spells to hit multiple parts of the Heartless' body and swinging his rod at the torso piece.

Enough time had passed for the newly minted Opposite Armor to decide its routine of backflips was not working. Its head and hands separated from the rest of the body, with the head sandwiching itself between the hands. The head quickly bobbed up and down like a yoyo and then ran after Donald, who took a hit in the shoulder by it. Sora tried to dodge the feet, which flew at him spinning like propellers with the torso right behind them. Goofy quickly got in between them and deflected the attack with his shield. Dan ran off to help Donald while Sam quickly cast a blizzard spell on his blade and then ran over to assist Sora and Goofy.

"For being so big, it sure can move fast." Goofy noted as he whipped his blade at one of the feet, bringing it to the ground. The other foot and the torso continued to propel toward Sora, but he swung his Keyblade and broke the attack off. Sam swung her staff toward the foot on the ground and released several orbs of light at it. The foot took enough damage to fade away.

Donald and Dan were having a hard time attacking the hands and head, which was erratically flying around the district. Donald had used up all of his magic to throw as many thunder spells as he could at the armor pieces and was now trying to jump up to their level to hit them, only occasionally succeeding. Dan had to keep his distance to make sure not to hit the duck. The few times he did hit the hands led to them being slower for a bit thanks to the ice element his sword now possessed.

Before they could break any of the armor, the whole body came back together, though missing a foot. Sora eagerly pointed that out, to which Donald shouted, "you had an extra person!" With the whole team back together, they were able to cause enough damage while avoiding Opposite Armor's backflips to take out the second foot and one of the hands. The armor once again decided to change things up as the torso flipped around to show its hollow underside. The head sat on top and the single arm held on to the side, and the torso began to charge up a large, blue ball of energy.

"It turned into a canon?" Dan ran away, but the armor had focused on him and continued to point itself his way. With a push of its body, the blue orb rushed toward the boy and knocked him to the ground. Donald cast a cure spell on him as the others went back to attacking the armor. Being more stationary, the hand was able to be taken out, and just like the Guard Armor, only the torso and head remained. This did not stop it from trying to charge up another shot.

Back on his feet, Dan rushed in to help the others, and right as the Heartless was about to release its energy, one last fireball from Donald and Sam sent it tumbling back and the energy ball dissipated. The torso and head stood up, and everyone questioned if it was really defeated this time, but then the head tumbled down into the torso and a large, blue heart of crystal floated away. The Heartless vanished with the heart, leaving the district in silence.

Sora leaned forward with his hands on his knees, panting from the battle. "Did-did that feel easier than last time?" He asked between breaths. He looked up and smiled at the others, who were in different stages of rest between leaning against a wall and laying on the ground. Dan simply groaned in response. Donald glared at the boy, though his beak was still bent in its usual smile. Sam ignored him and Goofy seemed too dazed to pay attention. "Fine, I'll lock the keyhole." Sora chuckled, content with their responses. He straightened up and pointed his Keyblade at the large keyhole that was still glowing over the fountain's back wall. A beam of light emitted from the tip of the Keyblade shot into the keyhole and the usual locking sound could be heard. Another gummi block fell out of the keyhole before it vanished, showing the mural of the flower and butterflies on the wall again.

Goofy picked up the gummi block, which looked like the other two they had found in other keyholes. "Do ya think Cid can use this too?"

"He's probably the only person that can answer that." Sam replied. "We need to check on if he's finished with the ship anyway, so we can ask him. Get up already!" She kicked at Dan's leg, which was planted firmly on the ground with the rest of his body."

"Can't I get any rest?" Dan slowly sat up. "All we do is run around and fight things."

"You had all the time in the world to rest when we were at the coliseum." Donald waved off his concerns. "But if you really can't handle this, I guess we'll just have to leave you on this world." The duck chuckled as he walked away.

Dan jumped up to his feet. "You could show a little concern at least!"

Goofy patted him on the back as he walked past. "Don't worry, I think Donald's startin' to like ya."

"Starting to?" Dan sighed. Not wanting to be left behind, he took a deep breath and ran after them up the steps to the higher level that led to the First District.

There were usually a few people scattered around the First District but they must have went into hiding due to the Opposite Armor's appearance in the district next door. The group didn't see a soul as they made their way into the accessory shop to look for Cid, but they didn't find anyone in the shop either.

"I guess he's still working on the ship." Dan made his way to the wall near the cashier's counter and sat against it. "Ha, looks like I get to rest after all-whoa!" The boy jumped away from a wooden puppet that was kneeling next to him. The puppet, with no strings attached to the body to control it, was somehow knelt down with its hands over its head like it was trying to hide from someone.

Sora walked over to see what the commotion was about and Jiminy jumped out of his hood to take a look as well. "Well, well, as I live and breathe! If it isn't Pinocchio!" The cricket gracefully jumped down to the floor in front of the puppet.

The puppet looked up and smiled. "Oh. Hi, Jiminy." As much as Dan tried, he couldn't find anything that could remotely move the puppet.

Jiminy was not phased by the animated wood. "What in the world are you doing down here?" He waved his hands around the back of the shop floor.

Pinocchio thought for a couple seconds and then responded, "Um…Playing hide-and-seek."

Jiminy began to pace around in front of the puppet. "I just don't believe it. And here I was, up all night, just worried sick about you. Why of all the-" A glow coming from the puppet caused the cricket to stop his story. "Pinocchio!" Pinocchio's nose had grown much larger than it was a few seconds ago. Jiminy switched from sounding like a worried parent to a disciplining one. "Pinocchio! Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes!" Pinocchio responded instantly.

"Then tell me, what is this?" Jiminy pointed to a package that was laying next to the puppet this whole time.

"It was a present." Pinocchio's wooden face worked well as a poker face, but Jiminy was having none of it.

"No fibbing, now! You know you're not supposed to tell lies. A lie only grows and grows, 'til you get caught! Plain as the nose on your face!" Sam nodded in agreement while Sora put a hand up to his own nose in shock.

"But if you want something, why wait? Why not just take it?" The group was appalled by Pinocchio's wanton rule-breaking.

"Oh, my! Who told you that? You need some advice from your conscience!" Jiminy shook his head.

"That's right!" Pinocchio quickly changed his tune. "You're my conscience, Jiminy! I'll never tell lies as long as you're around." No one felt like pointing out that he had just told lies directly to his "conscience." Some fate must have believed him though as his nose began to glow again and shrink down to normal size.

"You need to be good so you can become a real boy." Jiminy wagged a finger at the puppet. "You promised Geppetto you would be, right?"

Pinocchio jolted at hearing Geppetto's name. "Oh! Do you know where Father is?"

Jiminy gasped. "He's not with you?"

Pinocchio stood up. "Jiminy, let's go find Father!"

"Now, hold on!" The cricket held up his hands. "There are all sorts of dangers and temptations out there! I'll go find Geppetto,s o you just wait here. These fellows here will be helping me." He pointed at the five that had been silently watching this event unfold.

Sora was taken aback by the sudden inclusion of them. "We will?"

"Well, shall we go, Sora" Jiminy hopped back up into his hood.

"You could've asked us first…" Sora watched Pinocchio walk out of the shop.

"So, another task to include on our list?" Dan asked. "Has anyone actually written this list down? It's getting kind of long."

"Of course I have." Sam pulled out a notebook from her bag. "We're looking for book pages, reports, keyholes and now a father to a puppet. Anything I'm missing."

From Sora's hood, Jiminy piped up. "I believe that is everything."

Goofy picked up the package that Pinocchio had attempted to steal. "What should we do with this? I don't think it would be safe to leave it here."

"Goofy, are you wanting to steal it now?" Sora laughed as he approached the box. As he got closer to it, he became curious as to what was inside of it, feeling some sort of power emanating from the box.

"Good gravy, this box is possessed by some 'please-steal-me' ghost!" Dan tried slapping Sora's hands away from the package but Sora took the hit and opened it anyway.

A blast of air escaped from the open box and circled around the room. The breeze, while strong, also felt warm and safe. Sora, Donald and Sam closed their eyes as the wind blew past them. Eventually, it died down, leaving the room as it was.

"Wind spells." Sam pulled out her rod and extended it to its regular size as she imagined all the capabilities of this new element. "This is something I can work with." Donald nodded his head in agreement.

Back outside, the gang eventually found Cid outside of a stall next to the Second District entrance. A yellow, glowing smiley face with arched arms that looked like handles acted as a sign above the stall. This did not help anyone know what this shop sold. Cid greeted them as they approached. "Hey, now that was quick!"

Sora put his hands behind his head and leaned back. "Did you expect any less from the Keyblade master?"

Cid scratched his chin with his knuckle. "Is that what you're calling yourself now?" The long toothpick-like stick Cid kept in his mouth quivered up and down as he tried to hold back laughter. "Well maybe Leon'll have a harder time beating you up the next time you fight. Anyway," Cid looked back at the glowing smiley face over his stall. "Now you know. I'm in the gummi block business. Workin' on your gummi ship sure was great." He turned back to Sora. "Come again and I'll give you a big discount."

"Can we cash that discount now?" Sam pointed a thumb over at Goofy. "We have another one of those navigation gummi blocks." Goofy took the block out of his pocket to show Cid.

"And I'll bet you want it installed." Cid took the gummi block from Goofy and examined it.

"I'm glad you can read minds. Yes." Sam nodded.

"Well too bad. Looks like this is another one of those blocks that come in sets." Cid returned it to Goofy. "You gotta find the mate to this one. I think you'll be busy enough exploring the worlds that last set gave ya."

"Add it to the list?" Dan awkwardly chuckled. Sam was displeased.

"Thanks anyway." Sora said. "I wonder how long it'll take to find new worlds. They're pretty far away."

"Wouldn't be much fun if you could just step over a creek and be in a new world, would it?" Cid chided.

"Well that sounds fun to me" Cid simply shook his head at Sora's response.