Chapter 10
Kingdom of Corona Part 4
After getting captured by Zhan Tiri, Molly, Libby, and Rapunzel tried to think of a way to escape from their cage. Rapunzel couldn't do much to escape because she no longer had her powers. Not even Molly and Libby's keyblades were able to break through the cage.
While Molly and her friends were trying to escape, Cassandra sat huddled in the corner as she was overcome with guilt for what she had done. It was at that moment when Libby noticed how upset Cassandra was, so she took a moment to take a breather as she sat down next to Cassandra.
"Hey, are you okay?" Libby asked.
"Oh, sure. I'm terrific. I have betrayed everyone I ever loved and doomed all of Corona." Cassandra said in a sarcastic tone. "I really am an awful person."
This time, Molly took a break from trying to escape as she tried to comfort Cassandra as well. "Hey, don't say that! I'm sure that we can fix everything!"
"Molly is right, Cass! We can do this! We can stop Zhan Tiri if we just-"
"No we can't! I can't do anything!" Cassandra interrupted Rapunzel as she broke down. "Why don't you just give up on me? Can't you see what I've done? Look around you! It's all my fault! I've done terrible things! All this time I tried so hard to prove that I was more than everyone thought, but they were right!"
As Cassandra broke down in tears, Rapunzel embraced her friend in a comforting hug. Both, Molly and Libby started to feel bad for Cassandra. Despite all of the terrible things she had done, Molly and Libby knew that it was all a result of Cassandra's traumatic childhood. Unable to see Cassandra so upset, Libby tried her best to make Cassandra feel better as well.
"Cassandra, I'm sorry. I know that you have been through a lot."
Cassandra shook her head. "No, Libby. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hurt you like that when I assumed that story about your father was a lie. We have both been hurt by parents who didn't really care for us."
"You are right about that, but we shouldn't let out childhood trauma define who we are. We are both stronger than we think we are, and it is thanks to the support of our friends that we realize that." Libby explained.
"Exactly! I'm always here for Libby through thick and thin and I will always be by her side no matter what." Molly wrapped an arm around Libby's back as Libby blushed slightly.
"And the same goes for me too. I never gave up on you before and I promise to always be your friend no matter what!" Rapunzel promised.
It was at that moment when Cassandra gave a slight smile before letting out a slight chuckle. "You know Raps, you always have looked on the bright side of things, just like Molly. I can see why Molly is your best friend, Libby!"
"Aww! Thanks, Cassandra! Now, let's see if we can find a way out of here." At that moment, Molly took notice of something shiny on Cassandra's chest before realizing what it was. "Hey, isn't that a piece of your moonstone?"
Curious, Cassandra looked down before picking up the tiny shard of her moonstone. She stared at it for a few moments before she came up with an idea.
"That's it! Rapunzel, you can use this to fight back against Zhan Tiri!" Cassandra explained. "This is your destiny!"
With a smile, Rapunzel touched the piece of the moonstone. Touching the moonstone not caused an explosion to free everyone from their cage, but also restored Rapunzel's powers as her hair returned to its usual golden color. Despite that, Rapunzel took notice of her hair flickering from golden back to brown.
"This doesn't look like it would last very long." Rapunzel noticed upon realizing how limited her power now was.
"Then, you'd better get a move on, Blondie." Cassandra replied.
Suddenly, a bunch of Heartless appeared in the room as they all got ready to attack with their swords and lances.
"Looks like the Heartless are back." Rapunzel sighed.
"It's okay! Libby and I can handle them!" Molly assured.
"Are you sure?" Cassandra asked.
"We'll be fine! We'll keep the Heartless distracted while you two fight Zhan Tiri." Libby said as she got ready to fight.
With a couple of grateful smiles, Rapunzel and Cassandra left the castle as they joined Eugene and the others in fighting back against Zhan Tiri. Meanwhile, Molly and Libby ran through the castle as they defeated as many Heartless as possible. Whenever a Heartless tries to slash one of the girls, the other would protect her girlfriend by countering the strike. This continued until no more Heartless could be found.
"Is that all of them?" Libby asked.
"I think so." Molly looked around the castle as she couldn't find a single Heartless. "Let's go, Libby! Rapunzel and the others need our help!"
Before Molly and Libby could leave, Chirithy suddenly appeared in front of them. "Wait, I feel that there is still a powerful dark presence in the castle."
"There is? I don't see anything." Libby looked around, confused.
"I don't either, but we should still be careful." Suddenly Chirithy let out a gasp. "Look out behind you!"
Molly and Libby turned around just in time to see a green fireball flying straight towards them. Thinking fast, they both leaped out of the way, barely missing the fireball by an inch. After getting over their shock, they turned to see that it was Maleficent who attacked them with the fireball.
"Impressive! It seems that it takes a lot more than that to defeat you!" Maleficent said with a menacing grin.
It took a moment for Molly to find her voice before she replied, "Y-You are Maleficent, aren't you?"
Maleficent nodded. "That is correct! You two don't need to introduce yourselves. I know all about you, Molly McGee and Libby Stein-Torres."
"You know who we are?" Libby asked in shock.
"Indeed. I am well aware of two girlfriends who went on this journey to save their home from the Heartless, and even managed to defeat Xehanort. How ironic it is that you now wish to become his friend."
"Hey! The Xehanort we recently encountered is a version of Xehanort from the past! He isn't even consumed by the darkness yet! If we are able to befriend Cassandra, there is no reason why we can't do the same for Xehanort!" Molly explained.
"Yes, while you were able to bring Cassandra back to the light, she wasn't able to handle the darkness in her heart. As for Xehanort, his darkness is stronger than you think. Even his past self is intrigued by the true power of darkness. You have no hope in bringing his heart to the light." Without another word, Maleficent slowly walked over to the window to see all of the chaos being caused outside by Zhan Tiri. "I must admit, I am a bit jealous of this Zhan Tiri. She is able to consume this world in darkness like it was nothing. It won't be long before this world is completely enveloped in darkness. The only thing left is to get rid of you two."
In response, Molly and Libby raised their keyblades.
"Oh, don't bother! Do you truly believe you can defeat me? The mistress of all evil?" Maleficent taunted.
"W-We are not afraid of you!" Libby tried to sound brave, despite how scared she really was.
"But you should be!" Maleficent gave a menacing grin.
At that moment, Maleficent blasted a fireball from her staff before Molly and Libby dodged out of the way. The girls soon ran towards Maleficent as they both got ready to attack. They swung their keyblades, only for Maleficent to teleport out of the way. While Molly and Libby were distracted searching for Maleficent, she teleported behind them before attacking with a powerful fire spell. Molly and Libby turned around just in time before countering with ice magic.
Unfortunately, even their ice magic combined wasn't enough to stop the green flames. The impact of the attack sent Molly and Libby flying across the hallway, leaving them both covered in burns. Desperate, they tried casting reflect spells on each other to defend themselves from Maleficent's powerful spells. Unfazed by this, Maleficent summoned a curse to destroy Molly and Libby's reflective shields before hitting Libby with a lightning attack.
"Libby!" Molly yelled before getting hit with a lightning attack as well.
It was at that point when Molly and Libby were too weak to move at all. All they could do was kneel on one knee as Maleficent slowly approached them.
"How disappointing. I expected more from the keyblade wielders who defeated Xehanort." Maleficent said, now standing above her weakened enemies. "No matter. It's time to bring an end to you fools!"
Before Maleficent could make another move, she was suddenly knocked back by a beam of light. That was when Mickey suddenly should up as he stood in front of Molly and Libby to protect them.
"Molly! Libby! Are you two alright?" Mickey turned to face Molly and Libby.
"Mickey!" Molly and Libby smiled, happy to see their friend again.
"So, the meddlesome king decided to show up." Maleficent quickly recovered from the attack. "Looks like you would be sharing the same fate as them!"
At that moment, Maleficent fired a green fireball from her staff. As the fireball flew straight at Mickey, he attempted to block it with his keyblade. Thankfully, Goofy showed up right on time before blocking the fireball with his shield.
"Goofy! You're here too?!" Molly asked with a smile.
Goofy nodded. "That's right! We can't leave you and Libby hanging! You're our pals!"
Suddenly, Molly and Libby felt a lot better when Donald showed up and casted a healing spell on the two of them. This caused all of their burns to go away as the girls were able to stand up once again.
"How are you two feeling?" Donald asked.
"We feel much better! Thank you, Donald!" Libby thanked.
Once Molly and Libby were better, Mickey brought his attention back to Maleficent.
"What are you doing here, Maleficent?" Mickey demanded, aiming his keyblade at the witch.
"So glad you asked, 'Your Majesty!' I am merely here to make sure that this world gets taken over by the darkness, and thanks to Zhan Tiri, I have no reason to stay here. Molly and Libby, consider yourself lucky. I suppose I'll just have to finish you some other time." Without another word, Maleficent disappeared as she left Corona.
Now that Maleficent was gone, Molly and her friends took a moment to relax. After the fight they had with Maleficent, Molly and Libby could only imagine what would have happened to them if Mickey and the others hadn't showed up to save them.
"Whew! Thanks for saving us!" Molly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't mention it, Molly! We're just glad that you're both okay!" Mickey smiled.
Before long, Heartless began to appear in the hallway, much to the surprise of Molly and the others. As they got surrounded by the Heartless, Molly and Libby gazed out the window to see that Rapunzel and Cassandra were the only ones fighting Zhan Tiri as the rest of their friends were unconscious.
"We can't keep fighting the Heartless. Rapunzel and the others need our help." Molly explained.
"Don't worry! Donald, Goofy, and I can handle the Heartless!" Mickey assured. "You two go help your friends! They need you more than ever!"
With a couple of nods, Molly and Libby ran downstairs. They made their way outside to see Rapunzel and Cassandra standing their ground against Zhan Tiri. Upon noticing her friends, Cassandra gave a smirk.
"Glad to see that you two could finally make it!"
"Sorry. Molly and I had to deal with a lot more Heartless than we thought." Libby explained.
"But we're here now! Libby and I will fight by your side until we save Corona." Molly promised.
"It doesn't matter how much help you get! Corona is mine!" Zhan Tiri yelled as she swung her enormous arms as Rapunzel.
Rapunzel dodged out of the way before taking notice of the sundrop and moonstone on Zhan Tiri's hands. Seeing them gave Rapunzel an idea, so she brought her attention to Molly and Libby to let them in on her plan.
"Molly. Libby. I have an idea. If we can merge the sundrop and moonstone together, we should be able to defeat Zhan Tiri. Do you think you can keep her distracted while Cassandra and I try to merge the stones together?"
"You can count on us, Rapunzel!" Molly agreed to the plan.
"Just leave everything to us!" Libby smiled.
With that, Molly and Libby ran towards Zhan Tiri to keep her distracted.
"Hey, Zhan Tiri! Over here!" Molly waved her arms to get the demon's attention.
"Molly? Are you sure this is going to work?" Libby asked, intimated by the large demon in front of her.
"Um, not really." Molly admitted. "But we have to trust Rapunzel and Cassandra."
"How foolish! You truly believe you could defeat me? This kingdom is nothing without its precious light! Now it's time for you to die!" Zhan Tiri let out a menacing laugh.
At that moment, the demon summoned sharp golden rocks before sending them flying at Molly and Libby. In response, the girls blocked the attacks with their keyblades as they ran straight at Zhan Tiri. Now annoyed, Zhan Tiri raised her fists in the air in an attempt to crush Molly and Libby. They were both able to dodge the attack as they leaped on both of Zhan Tiri's arms before running up the arms and slashing Zhan Tiri's face with their keyblades.
With a yell of pain, Zhan Tiri raised her arms up, sending Molly and Libby flying in the air. With a growl, Zhan Tiri tried to grab Molly and Libby, but they summoned light from their keyblades as they hit Zhan Tiri with a powerful light spell, causing her to collapse to the ground.
Now that Zhan Tiri was weakened, she was taken by surprise when Rapunzel and Cassandra used Rapunzel's hair as a lasso to wrap around her arms. They pulled Zhan Tiri back until she was up against the castle wall with her arms pulled on opposite sides. Soon, Cassandra took notice of a nearby shard, giving her an idea.
"Rapunzel, catch!" Cassandra through Rapunzel the shard.
With the shard in her hand, Rapunzel used the sharp end to cut her hair. This caused the hair to loosen on Zhan Tiri's hands, forcing her to slam the two hands together, finally merging the two stones. This caused an explosion that not only caused Zhan Tiri's body to disappear, but the black rocks surrounding the kingdom as well.
For the first time in a long time, the kingdom of Corona was now enveloped in sunlight. Now that Zhan Tiri was defeated, Molly and Libby shared a couple of smiles with each other, knowing that Corona was safe at last. They were just about ready to celebrate before noticing Cassandra's unconscious body on the ground. It appeared that she got severely injured after getting caught in the explosion.
"Cass, no!" Rapunzel ran towards Cassandra's body before kneeling down as she began to cry. "This can't end this way! You can't leave! I won't let you!" Rapunzel brought her attention to the now fused together sundrop and moonstone. "I'm bringing you back!"
Worried for her friend, Molly asked, "Rapunzel? What are you going to do?"
Rapunzel didn't bother answering as she reached her hand out for the sundrop and moonstone. She wasn't even able to touch it before being blasted back with a powerful energy.
Barely conscious from his battle with Zhan Tiri, Eugene tried to stop her. "Rapunzel, don't. The power is too much."
Instead of giving up, Rapunzel turned back to the sundrop and moonstone with determination in her eyes. "I'm willing to take that chance! We did not fight so hard to bring our friend back only to lose her now!"
Once again, Rapunzel approached the stones before grabbing them. At that moment, she recited her healing incantation as everyone who was injured during the battle slowly recovered. Before long, Cassandra slowly stirred to consciousness before slowly opening her eyes.
With Cassandra and everyone else recovered, Rapunzel stopped her incantation before the sundrop and moonstone flew high into the sky, never to be seen again.
"Cassandra!" Molly, Libby, and Rapunzel rushed towards Cassandra before embracing her in a group hug.
With a smile, Cassandra hugged her friends back. Everyone else soon stood up, all of them happy that their home was saved from the darkness. Now that the kingdom of Corona was free from the Heartless, Molly and Libby decided that it was time for them to leave.
"So, Molly. Libby. Would you like to join us in the rest of the festival now that Zhan Tiri is gone?" Rapunzel asked her friends.
"We would love to, but we unfortunately can't." Libby replied, almost not wanting to leave.
"Libby and I have to leave to protect others from the Heartless." Molly explained.
As much as the citizens of Corona didn't want to see Molly and Libby go, they knew that it was for the best. After all, they would never forget Molly and Libby or what they had done for their kingdom.
"Well, if you have to leave, make sure you remember us when you fight against those Heartless!" Lance encouraged.
"We're all going to miss you two! If you ever come back to Corona, feel free to stop by my lab so we can create more potions!" Varian suggested.
"We will Varian!" Libby smiled. "Molly and I hope that you all enjoy the rest of the festival."
"I'm sure we will, Libby! After all the trouble with Zhan Tiri, I could really use a break!" Eugene sighed.
"You know, I think I might be leaving too." Cassandra admitted, much to the surprise of her friends. "After everything that has happened, I think that it is time I find my own destiny."
After all that they had been through, Rapunzel knew that Cassandra would want to pursue her own adventures. With a smile, Rapunzel decided to respect her friend's decision.
"I understand. Just remember that no matter what, we will always be best friends, and Corona will always be your home."
Both Molly and Libby smiled, happy that Rapunzel and Cassandra's friendship was now restored. After saying goodbye to all of their friends, Molly and Libby decided that it was time for them to leave. They were about to enter their gummiship before taking notice of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in a nearby forest. Grateful for what they had done for them, Molly and Libby entered the forest to thank their friends.
"It seems that everything should be back to normal in this world." Mickey said as Molly and Libby approached him. "I'm sure that everyone in Corona is grateful for how you saved them."
"Thanks, Mickey, but Libby and I couldn't have done it without you guys!" Molly explained. "You really saved us from Maleficent!"
Donald gave a prideful grin before he replied, "Yes, I suppose my powerful healing spells really saved the day!"
Goofy chuckled in response. "Oh, don't mind Donald! He usually likes to be boastful whenever he helps out."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Donald argued before everyone else laughed in response.
This moment was cut short when Libby suddenly stayed silent as her smile faded. She couldn't help but think back to what Maleficent said to her and Molly back at the castle.
"Mickey? Do you really think we have a chance to befriend Xehanort?" Libby asked. "Maleficent told us that Xehanort has always been intrigued by the darkness."
In response, Mickey crossed his arms and closed his eyes, as if carefully pondering Libby's question. He soon opened his eyes before letting out a defeated sigh.
"I'm sorry. I can't really say for sure. One thing I am sure of is that there is light even in the deepest darkness. Even if Xehanort is intrigued by the darkness, I'm sure that there is light in his heart that you can connect to."
Molly smiled. "You're right, Mickey! We shouldn't give up so easily! Who knows? We might even befriend Xehanort in the next world we visit!" Molly exclaimed, optimistic about the whole situation. "Anyway, Libby and I had better be going. Lots of Heartless to defeat and worlds to save!"
"Before you leave, Molly, there is something I want to give you. Donald, Goofy, and I found these on our travels and thought you should have them." Mickey handed Molly and Libby two summon gems.
"Sweet baby corn! Two summon gems!" Molly exclaimed.
Upon taking a closer look at the gems, Molly and Libby noticed that they both looked exactly the same with the exception of one of them having the symbol of a dollar sign on it while the other had the symbol of a 6 fingered hand. They put both of the gems in their pockets as they both looked forward to meeting their new summoned companions.
"Thank you, Mickey! We hope to see you again soon!" Libby said.
"I'm sure we will! See ya!" Mickey waved goodbye before leaving with Donald and Goofy.
Once their friends left, Molly and Libby decided to head back to the gummi ship. Now that they saved Corona, they took off into the sky in search of their next world. As they piloted the gummiship, Molly and Libby thought back to what Mickey said and were both sure that they had a chance to befriend Xehanort after all.