Chapter 8

Kingdom of Corona Part 2

Ever since they met Cassandra, Molly and Libby tried to think of a way to restore her friendship with Rapunzel. However, they took notice of Rapunzel spending time with Cassandra, or Faith, as far as Rapunzel knew, so Molly and Libby thought it might be for the best to leave them alone and let them spend the day together. In the meantime, Molly and Libby thought they might as well enjoy the festival themselves.

Everyone in the kingdom started to have a fun time as music played and everyone danced together. Libby even got a chance to play along to the music as one of the citizens let her borrow an accordion to play. As Libby started playing polka music with the accordion, Molly gave a smile, happy to see her girlfriend having such a fun time.

After a few moments of playing the accordion, Libby returned it to its owner before holding out her hand towards Molly, silently asking her to dance with her. With a blush, Molly took Libby's hand as the two of them danced together. After all of the dangers that they have faced, they were both happy to finally relax and have a fun time together for once. Before long, the song along with Molly and Libby's dance came to an end, but they still held their hands, neither of them wanting to let go.

"Well, that was fun! I have to say, you were great with playing that accordion, Libby!" Lance complimented.

"Thank you, Lance! As an Argentinian, I really enjoyed sharing a slice of my culture!" Libby smiled.

"Well, as fun as today is, I think we should check in on Varian." Eugene explained.

Thinking back, Molly recalled Rapunzel and Eugene mention a guy named, Varian, so she asked, "Who's Varian?"

"Varian is this alchemist friend of our's." Eugene answered. "He is helping us with a certain project."

"An alchemist? That sounds so fascinating! Can we meet him?" Libby asked.

Eugene shrugged in response. "Why not? Just as long as you don't ask about the project he is working on."

At that moment, Molly and Libby followed Eugene and Lance throughout the town before they were led to a nearby lab. As they entered, Molly and Libby took notice of all kinds of potions and gadgets. Whoever this Varian guy was, he seemed to be quite the genius.

Once they reached the end of the lab, Molly and Libby took notice of the alchemist named, Varian. He was a boy who looked to be around their age with black hair that had a blue streak in it. As for his attire, he wore a brown vest over his white shirt, brown pants, and a pair of goggles resting on his head. Varian was tinkering with his latest project before taking notice of his friends.

"Ah, Eugene! Lance! Right on time! I have been ironing out a few bugs, and I think everything should be working smoothly with a few more tests!" Varian spoke up.

"Great. Guess that's one problem out of the way." Eugene commented.

"So, how are you handling the monster situation out there, anyway?" Varian asked.

"It could be better. Luckily, we have these two warriors helping us fight back against those creatures." Lance gestured towards Molly and Libby. "We'll let you to get to know Varian better while Eugene and I keep an eye out for any more of those Heartless creatures!"

It was at that moment when Eugene and Lance left, so the girls stepped forward to introduce themselves.

"Hi! My name is Molly!"

"And I'm Libby!"

Upon meeting Molly and Libby, Varian stood up from his seat before shaking their hands.

"Well, it's nice to meet you! I am the castle's alchemist, Varian!" Varian introduced. He soon took one glance at Molly before giving her a concerned look "Hey, are you okay? It looks like your arm is injured."

Surprised by this, Molly took one look at her arm to see that Varian was right. It seemed that she got slashed by one of the swords without realizing it, leaving a small cut on her arm.

"It must have been when Libby and I were fighting the Heartless." Molly guessed.

"Not to worry! I have been working on a potion that is able to heal any wound. Now where is that list of ingredients I wrote down. I know I put it around here somewhere."

As Varian searched around in his lab, Molly and Libby were surprised to see a raccoon scurrying across their feet. The raccoon climbed a nearby table before handing Varian a piece of paper.

"Ah, thank you, Ruddiger!" Varian thanked his pet raccoon before getting started on creating a potion.

A few minutes had went by before he finished the potion and handed it to Molly. Molly took a tiny sip of it before her wound was completely healed.

"Sweet baby corn! That is incredible!" Molly exclaimed by how fast it healed. "How did you do that?"

"Through lots of experience with alchemy, I suppose." Varian replied with an awkward smil. "Here, you two can have this list of ingredients if you ever want to make more potions like it! Right now, I need to get back to working on Project Obsidian."

"Project Obsidian?" Libby repeated. "What's that?"

"Just a little self defense for the kingdom. We need this project to work if we want to protect Corona from Cassandra."

Upon hearing Cassandra's name mentioned, Molly and Libby stared at one another in shock. Neither of them knew why everyone in Corona needed protection from Cassandra. She didn't seem like that bad of a person when they first met her.

"Are you referring to the same Cassandra who is Rapunzel's friend?" Molly asked.

Varian nodded. "None of us want to do this, but we don't have much of a choice. She is really powerful and if she attacks us again, we need to be ready."

"But you're not going to hurt her, are you?" Libby asked, concerned for Cassandra.

"Oh, no! You see, this device simply fires amber crystals at Cassandra to temporarily freeze her until things calm down! I promise we are not going to hurt her! Now, if you don't mind, I'd better get back to work. I still have a lot more tests to run to make sure it works!"

Once Varian got back to work, Molly and Libby decided to leave and get back to the festival. The sun started to set, as Molly, Libby, and Chirithy sat down on the grass together. After the day they had, Molly and Libby were happy to just sit down and relax. The two girlfriends happily held each others hand as they admired the sunset.

"Even in other worlds, sunsets never cease to amaze me!" Libby smiled.

Molly nodded in agreement. "You're right, Libby! Just because we are on another journey to stop the darkness, that doesn't mean we can't unwind every now and then!"

"Still, I'm a bit concerned." Chirithy admitted. "If Cassandra's friends are serious about this Project Obsidian, wouldn't Cassandra take this the wrong way, the moment they fire at her?"

That was something Molly and Libby hadn't considered. Before they could even reply, they were both startled by screams in the distance. It was at that moment when Molly and Libby looked up to see citizens running away. Fearing the worst, Molly and Libby summoned their keyblades and hurried to see what was going on.

They rushed towards the castle and were both shocked by what they saw. Here, they found Cassandra attacking the kingdom in anger with Rapunzel unconscious at her feet. Cassandra used the power of her moonstone to summon black rocks from the ground, only frightening everyone even more.

"Cassandra, what are you doing?!" Libby yelled as she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

At that moment, Cassandra turned to face Molly and Libby with a glare that gave them both chills.

"You!" Cassandra pointed an accusing figure at the girls. "You two knew about Project Obsidian, didn't you?

Now intimidated by Cassandra, Molly replied, "Uh, not at first. But it's okay! You're friends weren't trying to hurt you! I'm sure that they had a good reason to freeze you and-"

Before Molly could say another word, Libby placed a hand over Molly's mouth as she gave her girlfriend an annoyed glare. "Molly, you are really not helping!" Libby turned to face Cassandra. "Cassandra, please listen!"

"No! Libby, I trusted you, but you lied to me just like everyone else! I now know that you only made up that sob story about your father just to get sympathy from me!"

Hurt by Cassandra's words, Libby glared at her in tearful rage. "That's not true! I have been hurt just like you have! Why can't you see that?!"

At that moment, Eugene stepped forward to reason with Cassandra. "Cass, please! You were like a sister to-"

"Save it!" Cassandra interrupted before attacking with more black rocks.

In the midst of the chaos, the citizens rushed to the castle, seeking shelter. Unfortunately, Cassandra stood in their way before she used the power of darkness to summon Heartless by her side.

"Sorry, but the castle's off limits!" Cassandra said, her sword in her hands.

"Cassandra, no! You don't know how dangerous the Heartless are!" Molly yelled. "They would consume the light in your heart!"

"So be it! You want me to be the bad guy? Fine! Now, I'm the bad guy!" Cassandra flashed a menacing smile before ordering the Heartless to attack.

There were so many Heartless that not even Molly or Libby were able to handle them. That was when Molly and the others decided to retreat. They were all thankfully able to make it to safety at a nearby house.

Here, they rested Rapunzel on a bed so she can get some rest. After a few minutes, Rapunzel began to stir awake before slowly opening her eyes, much to the relief of her friends.

"Blondie?" Eugene smiled, happy to see that his girlfriend is okay.

As she recovered from her encounter with Cassandra, Rapunzel slowly sat up, "What's going on?"

Relieved that Rapunzel was fine, Eugene hugged her in relief. "Thank goodness you're okay."

With a smile, Rapunzel hugged Eugene back. It was at that moment when Rapunzel realized something.

"What happened to Cassandra?"

Not knowing how to break the news to Rapunzel, Molly and Libby shared a couple of nervous looks with one another.

"Rapunzel, we don't know how to tell you this, but Cassandra just succumbed to the darkness in her heart." Libby explained.

"And Corona isn't doing too well either." Molly admitted.

Without another word, Rapunzel rushed outside to see what was going on. As she rushed towards the horizon, she stopped in horror upon seeing what her kingdom was like.

"No! I don't believe it!"

Right in front of Rapunzel stood the kingdom, now a dark version of its former self. The castle was surrounded by the black rocks summoned by Cassandra and not the tiniest bit of light could be found in the kingdom.

At that moment, Molly and the others stood by Rapunzel's side, each of them just as devastated by what happened to Corona. After getting along with Cassandra so well when they first met her, Molly and Libby hoped that they could have been friends with her, but there was no hope for them to be friends now. As much as they hated to do this, Molly and Libby knew that they would have to fight Cassandra in order to take back the kingdom.