AN: I'm back already! I decided to work on the interlude chapters and get those out first before really getting into planning Volume 7. I started replaying Arrowfell to make sure I knew how to adapt it. I'm liking the ideas I'm coming up with and it's making me eager to finally get there.

It feels really good to get a few chapters out quickly again like I used to.

Anyway, onwards!

Chapter 132

"Oh, good morning, Your Highness," the man running the fruit stand greeted Rapunzel as she eagerly approached him. She smiled warmly at him.

"Good morning!" she greeted, still not used to being called "Your Highness". After spending 18 years of her life locked up in a tower by Gothel, a woman that she had always thought was her mother but turned out to have kidnapped her when she was a baby for her hair's magical healing powers, it was taking a while to transition to being a real, bona fide princess. There were a lot of things to love about her new life, don't get her wrong. Having a real place to live was nice, for one thing. She also had two parents that loved her. Actually loved her. She got to go outside and socialize with the people of Corona, which was a lot of fun.

And she also had her wonderful, formerly-criminal boyfriend, Eugene.

All that said, there were still a lot of growing pains for a young woman suddenly becoming a princess. Holding court bored her to tears, and the dresses they had her wear were just so stuffy and uncomfortable. Hence why she chose to wear the simpler, cute purple dress she always wore.

She bent forward to get a closer look at the man's produce, lightly brushing a strand of hair out of her face.

Oh yeah, there was something else to get used to. For so long, she had golden locks of hair cascading for literal feet due to never having it cut for 18 years, but after Eugene cut it off, it had since returned to its original, natural brown color. And the new style was absolutely adorable, if she said so herself.

She felt something poke her cheek, and she looked to see her faithful chameleon friend, Pascal, excitedly point to a bundle of cherries on display. She giggled and turned to the man running the stand.

"How much for the cherries?" she asked.

"Oh, I couldn't possibly take money from you, Your Highness," the man said.

"Sure you can," Rapunzel said. "Everyone has to pay for stuff, right?"

"I insist, take it."

"But…" she said, totally uncertain. She really didn't want the man to give her anything for free. After all, he needed the money. But he was being so persistent.

"Then how about me?" a familiar voice asked. "You can take my money, right?"

"Eugene!" Rapunzel said happily, jumping up to hug her boyfriend. Eugene Fitzherbert, who went by Flynn Rider when she first met him, was the one that saved her from Gothel, alongside his sidekicks, Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Or at least, he claimed they were his sidekicks. He was the sweetest man that Rapunzel had ever met, and was brave to boot.

And he was just soooooooo hot.

He had dark, wavy hair, and a goatee on his chin. He wore a purple jacket that marked him as the Captain of the Guard, but true to form, he wore the jacket open, with a white tunic underneath left open near the top to show off his pecs. It was certainly doing it for Rapunzel.

After catching the princess, Eugene lifted her up and spun her around once before putting her down. He tossed a coin to the man running the stand.

"One bundle of cherries for the dear Princess," he said in that suave voice of his. The vendor laughed heartily, catching the coin a handing Rapunzel the bundle of cherries Pascal was eyeing. His tongue shot out lightning-quick and snatched one of them. He happily swallowed it, and Rapunzel smiled at her old friend.

"Thank you!" Rapunzel said to the vendor, who smiled back at her. She turned to look at Eugene, who held out his arm for her.

"Shall we, my lady?" he asked. She giggled and hooked her arm around his.

Rapunzel sighed happily, leaning against Eugene's shoulder while they sat on the docks, their bare feet dangling above the water.

"So, how's the castle treating you?" Eugene asked.

"It's great!" she said enthusiastically. "My parents are so nice!" She snuggled closer to him. "But this is nice, too." She sighed. "It's just… kind of overwhelming sometimes, you know?"

"Yeah, I bet," he said, wrapping his arm around her. "It's not everyday you go from 'cute girl stuck in a tower' to 'princess of the kingdom'. Good thing for you, you've got your trusty bodyguard to keep you company." In addition to being made Captain of the Guard, Eugene had also been assigned as Rapunzel's personal bodyguard. Which she, of course, had absolutely no problem with.

"I'm sorry, are we interrupting something?" a voice suddenly asked. Rapunzel and Eugene quickly stood up, and saw two men wearing identical black coats looking at them. The one who had spoken had shaggy pink hair, and the other one had close-cut blond hair and a goatee, with several earrings. Both of them had the same shade of yellow eyes.

Something about them screamed "bad news".

"Can I help you?" Eugene asked, standing up to face the two men.

"You can't," the blond man said, before pointing to Rapunzel. "She very much can." Rapunzel stood up, and got behind Eugene.

"What do you want with me?" she asked.

"We're here to whisk you away, Princess," the man with pink hair said, holding out his hand as if offering her to take it. "We have something we need your help with."

"What if she doesn't want to go with you?" Eugene asked, stepping in front of her defensively, while Pascal stood on her shoulder and made a threatening gesture at the two men.

"Do you think you can take the two of us on?" the blond man asked, a hand of playing cards suddenly appearing in his hand. "Would you be willing to stake your life on it?"

"Of course," Eugene said.

"Well, then, I'll take that bet," the blond man said, before thrusting his hand forward and sending a wave of cards cascading at Eugene, knocking him off his feet.

"Eugene!" she called out in concern. Before she could go to check on him, however, the pink one shot an orb of darkness at her from his hand. She found herself trapped in a dark sphere and lifted off the ground, unable to move. "Hey! Let me go!" she shouted. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Like I said, Princess," the pink-haired man said. "We need your help."

"And you couldn't just ask me?!" Rapunzel asked, trying her best to thrash around in the dark sphere.

"So, if we had simply asked you if you wanted to be sacrificed to create out new world, you would have come willingly?" the blond one asked.

Rapunzel felt her face pale. Sacrificed? "W-What?"

"Not if I can help it!" a high-pitched voice yelled, and with a slash, the sphere keeping Rapunzel trapped disappeared, and she fell to the ground. She looked up, and saw a small creature with large round ears standing in front of her. He was holding the same weird weapon that Sora had.

"Are you alright?" the creature asked. Rapunzel nodded, still confused about the whole situation.

"King Mickey," the pink-haired one said, giving a mocking bow. "What a pleasant surprise."

"Marluxia. Luxord," Mickey said, finally identifying the men. "I won't let you take her."

"Rapunzel!" a familiar, almost indecipherable voice called out.

"Are you okay?" another familiar, sillier voice asked.

"Donald? Goofy?" Rapunzel asked, recognizing two of Eugene's three supposed sidekicks.

"We're here to get you out of here," Mickey said. "There are a whole bunch of other girls that these guys are trying to kidnap, too. We're going to protect you."

Marluxia scowled, and summoned a pink scythe with a green handle to his hand. Mickey charged at the two of them, swinging his Keyblade wildly. Goffy grabbed Rapunzel's wrist.

"Come on!" he said. "While His Majesty's keeping them busy!"

"We've gotta get you to the Gummi Ship!" Donald said.

"Wait, but-!" Rapunzel tried to say.

"Warp!" Donald shouted, and the three of them were engulfed in a bright light. When the light faded, they suddenly found themselves in some sort of a ship. Outside the window was a void of some kind, and floating in front of them was…

"Is that my home?!" She exclaimed. Donald hopped in a chair and pressed a button. Some kind of weird machine whirred to life, and Mickey appeared in the ship with a flash.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked. Donald and Goofy nodded. "Good," he said, and jumped into the lead seat. "Then let's get outta here!" A loud noise suddenly filled Rapunzel's ears, and the view of her home quickly began to recede into the distance.

"Wait, what about Eugene?!" She asked, but the vessel she was in suddenly rocketed off into space before anyone had the chance to answer her.

"HAH!" Kairi exclaimed as she swung her Keyblade at her sparring partner, Lea, the two of them wielding their Keyblades with far more proficiency than when they had started. Lea, of course, had an advantage over her the whole time, since he was already used to combat, even if it wasn't with a Keyblade, but according to Merlin, her own training was coming along very nicely, as well.

Kairi backed away from Lea, holding her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, with both hands in a stance loosely mimicking the one she always saw Sora use. Her weapon appeared to be made of flowers, and complimented the pink minidress Yen Sid had given her very well.

Lea flashed her a cocky grin and held his Keyblade, the Flame Liberator, in a much more loose and relaxed stance. The handle of his weapon was shaped like the red chakrams he wielded when he was still the Nobody known as Axel, but it had a curving burst of flame coming out of one end. Instead of donning the new battle gear that Yen Sid had gifted him like he had all the other guardians, Lea chose to continue wearing his long black coat from his Organization days. Kairi never really understood that decision, but stopped questioning it.

"You're a little rougher than usual," Lea said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Kairi said, slightly taken aback by his comment. She wasn't aware that they had become close enough for him to notice things like that about her.

That sounded mean.

Okay, she was surprised that she hadn't noticed that they had become close friends. Was that better? It wasn't exactly her fault that she felt like she had a hard time getting to know him. The first time they had met, he had kidnapped her, after all.

…You know, maybe he had a point. Maybe she was off her game today.

"You worried about Sora and Riku?" he asked.

"Of course," she said. "They're stuck in the Realm of Darkness, and we have no way of getting to them. And without the two of them, we're down even more Guardians than we were before."

"Have the two of them ever failed you before?" Lea asked.

"No," she said.

"Then there's nothing to worry about. Mickey told us Sora made it to Remnant, and Riku's probably down there with him. They probably already found Aqua and are on their way back now."

"…I guess," Kairi said, smiling slightly. "Thanks, Lea."

"Take me back!" a girl's voice suddenly yelled. Kairi and Lea looked at each other in confusion, dismissed their Keyblades, and went to go see what the commotion was about.

They made it to the entrance of the forested pocket dimension they used as a training ground, and saw their teacher Merlin, along with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. They were being yelled at by a young woman with brown hair in a cute bob cut wearing a purple dress and no shoes.

"I'm terribly sorry, young lady, but we can't send you back," Merlin said. "We brought you here to keep you safe."

"So what, you stopped them from kidnapping me by kidnapping me yourself?!" She yelled, making the others flinch.

"We had no choice," Mickey said. "We had to get you away from your world so they wouldn't be able to find you."

"But what about Eugene?" She asked. Though Kairi had no idea who this "Eugene" was, he was no doubt important to this girl.

"Don't worry," Mickey said. "The Organization was only after you. With you off-world, there's no reason for them to stay in Corona. Eugene'll be safe."

"Are you sure?" the girl asked suspiciously.

"I'm sure of it!" Mickey said confidently.

The girl took a deep breath to calm herself. "Who were those guys? The Organization? And what did they want with me?"

"They're called Organization XIII," Merlin explained. "They are currently trying to capture you and others like you for their nefarious purposes."

"What others like me?" the girl asked.

"The Seven Princesses of Heart," Mickey said. "Seven girls with hearts of pure light, with no Darkness in them."

"And what do they want us for?" the girl asked. Mickey and Merlin were silent for a few seconds.

"Nothing good," Mickey said, likely not wanting the distress the girl any further.

"Um, excuse me," Kairi said, finally making her presence known. She walked up to the group and held out her hand to the other girl. "I'm Kairi. What's your name?"

"…Rapunzel," the girl said, tentatively taking Kairi's hand to shake it.

"I'm like you," Kairi said, confusing Rapunzel. "I'm a Princess, too."

"So it's true, then?" she asked.

"All of it," Kairi said. "But don't worry. We're going to stop them."

"We?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yeah, we're the Guardians of Light," Kairi said proudly. "Once we get the last two people we need, we'll be able to stop the Organization for good!" She took Rapunzel's other hand and started dragging her towards their living quarters. "Let me show you around!"

Despite how dire the situation was, Kairi was happy to have another Princess around.

And she knew firsthand how confusing all of this could be.

The least she could do was help Rapunzel feel welcomed.

AN: So I'm basically just writing Disney fanfiction at this point. It's kind of weird. I've only seen Tangled once in my life, so I didn't even try to be accurate. I just used what I remembered from KH3 and went with that. I might have made her just a taaaaaad thirsty, though, if you know what I mean.

And I really hope I'll be able to make Kairi actually useful and relevant. Nomura has something against her. He has to.

So, we've got one more interlude chapter, and it's starring a pair of sisters from a movie I've only seen once and think is incredibly overrated. Yay. But that's for next time.

I want to remind everyone that this story has a TvTropes page!

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!