Chapter 9

Kingdom of Corona Part 3

With the kingdom of Corona now taken over by Cassandra and the Heartless, Molly and her friends desperately tried to think of a way to save the kingdom. In order to stop the Heartless, Molly and the others decided that they should all work together if they were going to stand any chance against Cassandra.

The group of friends made their march over to the kingdom, along with the citizens of Corona, where they all gazed at the castle in silence. Molly and Libby couldn't help but wonder if things could have been different if they could have just talked with Cassandra instead of relaxing at the festival. They didn't have time to think about it now since they needed to focus on saving Corona.

"Cassandra is somewhere in the castle, isn't she?" Libby asked.

Rapunzel nodded. "She has to be! If we don't stop her, Corona is going to be overtaken by darkness isn't it?"

"Yes, but let's stay positive about this! I'm sure Cassandra's heart isn't completely lost. If we find her we can still convince her to come back to the light!" Molly assured.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Lance stepped forward, only for Eugene to hold out his arm in front of him.

"Lance, wait! Look over there!" Eugene pointed towards the castle.

At that moment, the doors of the castle flew open before countless Heartless showed up and surrounded the group of friends. Molly and Libby immediately summoned their keyblades as the Heartless aimed their swords and lances at everyone.

"Oh, right. We forgot about the Heartless." Varian realized.

"Looks like we are going to have to fight our way through." Eugene commented as he drew his sword.

Once the Heartless attacked, Molly, Libby, and the citizens of Corona fought back to the best of their abilities. While Molly and Libby fought back with their keyblades, Rapunzel used her long hair as a whip, and Varian threw potions of amber to freeze the Heartless in place, giving Eugene and Lance to finish them with their swords.

One by one, the Heartless slowly disappeared until Molly and Libby were able to see a clear path to the castle. Seeing their chance, they decided to get Rapunzel's attention.

"Rapunzel, look! We can get in the castle now!" Libby pointed out.

Once she noticed what was going on, Rapunzel said, "That's great, but what about the others?"

"Hey, don't worry about us! We can handle ourselves!" Lance assured before defeating another Heartless.

"Lance is right, Blondie! You just go with Molly and Libby and talk to Cassandra!" Eugene encouraged.

""We'll be just fine on our own! We promise!" Varian said before throwing a potion at another Heartless.

Seeing that her friends could handle themselves, Rapunzel made her decision. "Molly. Libby. Let's go!"

With a couple of nods, Molly and Libby followed Rapunzel into the castle. As they entered the castle, Molly, Libby, and Rapunzel noticed that it looked just as dark and depressing on the inside as it did on the outside. All of the light was drained from the castle as it was filled with more black sharp rocks. It broke Rapunzel's heart to see her home in a devastating state, but she still had to press on.

As they explored the castle, not a single Heartless could be found, but it didn't make the castle any less creepy. After exploring the seemingly endless halls for awhile, they came across what appeared to be Cassandra's old room. Just like the rest of the castle, the room was destroyed as well. The only thing that caught Rapunzel's attention was a white headdress that Cassandra used to wear back when she was still Rapunzel's handmaiden.

Rapunzel picked up the headdress as she silently thought back to all of the good times she and Cassandra had back when things weren't so complicated. Despite everything that had happened, Rapunzel knew that she had to make up with Cassandra no matter what.

At that moment, the princess turned to Molly and Libby and asked, "Do you two think that there is still light in Cassandra?"

"Of course!" Molly answered without a moment's hesitation. "We just need to remind Cassandra why you two are friends in the first place!"

"Molly and I already spoke to Cassandra before, and we know that she is not really a bad person." Libby explained. "There is still a chance for us to bring Cassandra back to the light!"

Rapunzel smiled. "You're right! Thanks, Molly and Libby! Now, let's go! Cassandra shouldn't be too far!"

After leaving the room, Molly and her friends got back to searching through the castle's hallways. They explored the castle for what felt like hours until they were suddenly stopped by the Heartless. In response, Molly and Libby summoned their keyblades as they got ready to fight. Before anyone could make a move, Cassandra showed up as well with her sword in her hand.

"Cassandra!" Rapunzel gasped.

"If you're here to reason with me, you are wasting your time!" Cassandra stepped closer, to which Molly and Libby tightened their grips on their keyblades in response. "I already chose my path in life!"

"And that path you chose is darkness?" Libby asked.

"Do we ready have to fight? We can just talk about this instead." Molly suggested.

"You know Molly, ever since we met, I have always been sick and tired of your happy attitude." Cassandra admitted. "You need to stop living in a fantasy world and grow up! This is the real world and bad things happen in the real world! I have learned that the hard way. Now its time we finish this."

Rapunzel soon reached her hand out towards Cassandra as she tried to reason with her one more time. "Cass, please! It doesn't have to be like this!"

With a sinister chuckle Cassandra replied, "Sorry, Raps! If my destiny is to walk down this path to darkness, so be it!"

Without another word, Cassandra ordered the Heartless to attack. Thinking fast, Rapunzel untied the braids from her hair before countering by swinging her hair at the Heartless, while Molly and Libby slashed the Heartless with their keyblades. They were all able to effortlessly defeat the Heartless, but that turned out to merely be a distraction as Cassandra charged at Rapunzel with her sword. Rapunzel tried to counter with her hair, but Cassandra was too fast and barely missed Rapunzel by an inch, causing her to lose her balance.

Seeing that Rapunzel needed help, Molly and Libby joined in on the fight as well. Cassandra was about to swing her sword at Rapunzel, only for Molly and Libby to block the attack with their keyblades before pushing Cassandra back.

"Wh-What?!" Cassandra gazed at Molly and Libby in shock as she underestimated how powerful their keyblades were. Even the most powerful swords ended up shattering from contact of her sword.

It was at this point when Cassandra started to take the fight seriously. She used the power of her moonstone once again and summoned more black rocks to impale Molly and the others. They swiftly dodged ever single rock before Molly and Libby clashed swords with Cassandra, giving Rapunzel the chance to knock her down with her hair.

Now enraged, Cassandra used her powers of darkness to hit Molly, Libby, and Rapunzel all at once with a powerful blast. This sent them all crashing through a nearby wall into another room of the castle. Molly and the others slowly got back up, only for Cassandra to trap them all in a circle of black rocks.

"I'll admit you put up a good fight, but you won't stand a chance against me once I take Rapunzel's sun drop!"

At first, Molly and Libby were confused with what Cassandra meant by that, but soon got their answer when Cassandra raised up her arm and summoning Rapunzel's sun drop to use as her own. With Rapunzel's source of power gone, her blond hair reverted back to its natural brown color. Cassandra was about to take the sun drop for her own before Zhan Tiri suddenly showed up and jumped on Cassandra as she stole her moonstone. Cassandra only had enough strength to shake Zhan Tiri off of her before collapsing to the floor in a weakened state. Her blue hair reverted back to its black color as the black rocks surrounding Molly and her friends disappeared.

"Finally! They're mine!" Zhan Tiri grinned as she held the sun drop and moonstone in her hands.

"Hey, I remember you!" Molly pointed an accusing finger at Zhan Tiri. "You're the woman who was manipulating Cassandra!"

"You are correct! My name is Zhan Tiri!" Zhan Tiri introduced. "I would like to thank you all for taking care of what rightfully belongs to me!"

It was at that moment when Zhan Tiri absorbed both of the sun drop and moonstone before she began to grow and transform into a more demonic form. Her body now had a shadow-like appearance to it and had a pair of horns on her head, along with two different colored eyes that were blue and yellow in color.

"At last, the power is mine! I have dreamed of wielding the moonstone and sun drop for centuries!" Zhan Tiri let out an evil laugh.

Despite losing the sun drop, Rapunzel still had enough strength to grab Zhan Tiri's arm with her hair. "I am all about people living there dreams. But today? Not so much!"

Unfazed by this, Zhan Tiri replied, "You may have been a worthy adversary once before, Princess, but now you are nothing!" With one swing of her arm, Zhan Tiri knocked Rapunzel to the floor.

"Rapunzel!" Molly and Libby rushed over to Rapunzel's aid before helping her back up.

"And you!" Zhan Tiri grabbed Cassandra in her hand. "You lost before you even began, girl! Just like your own mother! Failed by your own ego!"

Without another word, Zhan Tiri threw Cassandra across the room, much to the shock of Molly and the others. They kneeled down towards Cassandra to make sure she was okay.

"Cass, are you okay?" Rapunzel asked, concerned.

Cassandra slowly opened her eyes before looking away in guilt. "Wh-Why are you worried about me? I have been so awful to you."

"None of that matters now. Ever since we first met you, Molly and I knew that you weren't a bad person. We can still see the light in your heart!" Libby explained.

"How touching." Zhan Tiri mocked. "You have such a good friendship, perhaps you should spend even more time together!"

At that moment, Zhan Tiri summoned golden colored rocks around Molly, Libby, Rapunzel, and Cassandra, trapping them all in a makeshift cage. With her enemies captured, Zhan Tiri turned to leave.

"Now to destroy Corona!"

As Zhan Tiri left to fight Eugene and the others, Molly and her friends silently tried to comprehend what just happened.

"Wh-What have I done?!" Cassandra asked, feeling guilty over her actions.

It was at this point when Molly and Libby were now more worried than ever for the fate of Corona. Now that Zhan Tiri was more powerful than ever, there was nothing stopping her from enveloping the entire kingdom in darkness.