Sora opened one of the two giant doors and peered inside the strange structure. The interior was...different from the exterior in its entirety. It had a more simplistic, white marble architecture with infrequent plinths, wall-carving and sculptures made with a flower motif. At the other end of the room was a small set of stairs leading to double doors and at the base was a furniture stand holding a large, clear ball at the side almost at the corner near the stairs. With nobody inside or any sign of danger, Sora walked deeper in, followed by Donald and Goofy. The ceiling went high and mirrored the floor with the diamond patterned trail at the sides, almost marking a walkway. Whatever sort of castle this was, the three friends knew without a doubt it was anything but ordinary.

"Hey, ya think it's okay to barge in?" Goofy asked Donald nervously. He worried that whoever owns this seemingly empty place might not take kindly to trespassing.

Despite his own reservations, Donald answered, "But we've gotta do it if we're gonna find Ruby and the king."

Before Goofy could wonder why Donald thought Ruby was here, his eyes widened and his arms shot out at his sides in surprise at the mention of the one they both started this journey for. "The king!? King Mickey's here!?" Goofy asked, looking around the empty entrance hall.

Donald crossed his arms with a huff, feeling as if he was being doubted. "Something just told me he'd be here, okay?" he said with an edge of indignation.

Sora couldn't help feeling even more curious. Normally if someone else said that, Donald would have been the one doubting them. "Really? Cause now that ya mention it, I was kinda thinkin' the same thing." Goofy replied with a pleasantly surprised tone.

Sora's eyes widened with surprise as he turned to face his other two friends as they shared their thoughts with each other. "Seriously? Me too!" Donald and Goofy looked at Sora with the same look of surprise. All three of them had the exact same thought! "One look at this castle, and I just knew." As Sora explained the feeling all three of them were apparently feeling, a hopeful smile touched his face. "Our very best friends. They're here." Riku, King Mickey, maybe even Ruby.

"A-hyuck! Guess great minds think alike." Goofy said cheerfully. It certainly was a big coincidence, but at least it was for something good.

"Hey wait! Hold on!" Jiminy announced, jumping out of Sora's hood and onto his shoulder, hopping up and down to get the trio's attention. "It can't be just a coincidence." His tone was much less jovial than the others, and far more serious.

"Oh no, Jiminy. You don't mean that-"Donald began saying before Jiminy confirmed it with a nod as he straightened his top hat.

"Yup, I had it too, mhmm. The exact same feeling." So all four of them were thinking the exact same thing?

"Gawrsh! Maybe it's contagious!" Goofy said, much more worried now. Thinking about it more clearly, it was a bit unsettling that all four of them were thinking and feeling the same thing.

An incredulous look crossed Donald's face, unable to believe Goofy could think something like that made a shred of sense. "No, no. Something's screwy. We gotta go take a look." he said adamantly.

Sora certainly agreed that they couldn't just stand around talking about it. Their friends still needed to be found. And if they truly WERE here, then they needed to act. "All right." Sora said, undaunted by the strangeness of the situation as he turned and walked toward the door atop the stairway.

A quack of surprise escaped Donald as he asked Sora, "Wak! Where are you going?!"

"That way. To the door," Sora said, pointing to the door in question. A sly grin touched his face as he turned to his shorter companion and cheekily asked him, placing his hands on his hips, "Are ya scared?"

Donald furrowed his brow with annoyance in the wake of Sora's taunting. "Aw, don't be ridiculous! Come on, let's go, Goofy!" he said as he stomped toward the same spot Sora was going with a huff.

A faint smile creased Goofy's face, glad to see his the two of them had become less antagonistic with their banter in the wake of their previous adventure. "Hey, fellahs, shouldn't we shut the door behind us before we go?" Just as he turned around to go shut the entrance, Goofy stopped with an expression of shocked surprise at what he saw behind them. "Sora!"

There, standing just in front of the doors, was the same hooded figure Sora saw on the road. None of them saw or heard any sign of him until they turned at the sound of Goofy's voice. Even more unsettling was how the door seemed to close behind him all by itself, with the hooded man staring at them under his shadowy hood.

"That's it! Who are you?!" Sora demanded angrily as he summoned the Keyblade to his hand and his friends followed suit with their own weapons. Sora's question was unanswered as the man briskly approached them. Even though they couldn't see his face, the trio had the unsettling feeling this person was keeping direct eye contact on them and not in any sort of friendly way.

"Wak! Heartless!" Donald exclaimed. That had to be the reason that the one at Hollow Bastion attacked them. But whatever this man was, he clearly wasn't a friend to them. "Oh yeah? I'll try some magic!" Donald hopped on one foot, revving up his staff holding arm, as if about to give the hooded man a great big punch. And with a forward thrust of his hand, he yelled,

"Fire!"

...Not a single spark or ember emerged from his staff, let alone launched in the man's direction. Sora and Goofy stared at him incredulously, wondering if Donald may have done something wrong while trying to cast. Donald however was just as confused. "Come on… Fire!… FIRE!" Try as he might, nothing emerged from his staff. "Come on… Blizzard." Donald said with less certainty, waving his staff in front of himself. Not a single snowflake emerged from his staff. "Thunder!" Donald shouted, trying to do at least SOME offensive spell. Again, not a single bolt of electricity arced from his staff when he jumped, staff pointed upward. By that time, the hooded man came to a stop, not beleaguered by any spells. "Why isn't it working?" Donald wondered, hanging his head with embarrassment. He was the court wizard. He was meant to be a master of the arcane.

"I should think it's obvious." the hooded man spoke up, his voice unexpectedly and unnervingly smooth. "The moment you set foot in this castle, you forgot every spell and every ability you ever knew." The three friends looked at each other with great worry at those words as the hooded man elaborated. "In this place, to find is to lose, and to lose is to find. That is the way here, in Castle Oblivion."

"Castle Oblivion?" Sora repeated curiously. He never heard of it during their travels. He wasn't even sure how the three of them came to BE here in the first place.

Rather than answering them, the trio suddenly saw an ovular geyser of darkness emerge around the hooded man, surrounded by small trails surrounding it almost like thorned vines. As it vanished just as quickly as it appeared, they then saw that their mysterious host was gone. So astonished at what he witnessed, Sora had to rub his eyes to be sure he wasn't seeing things.

The trio looked behind themselves as suddenly, the rushing sound that that...geyser made rang out behind them. As it faded again, Sora saw the hooded man appear again as he spoke to the confused boy. "Here you will meet people that you have known in the past. And you will meet people you miss."

"I miss?" Sora wondering what this hooded stranger meant. His eyes widened as the first people to come to his mind were, once again..."Riku! And Ruby! You mean Riku and Ruby are here?!"

The mysterious man remained where he stood as he raised his right hand in Sora's direction. "If what you want is to find them…"

As he paused, the man's hand opened up fully, and from his palm came a powerful gust of wind that almost knocked the three friends over, forcing them to hold their weapons up sideways, trying to block as much of the force as they could. Small trails of bright, pink light flowed along the path of the wind, but there was also something else. Something solid. It looked to be...flower petals. That distraction left Sora open as he turned back to see the man moving toward him with blurring speed. To Sora's rising surprise, the man was suddenly...see-through, physically phasing through Sora, and emerging behind him.

But more shocking was what happened next. The moment the man phased through him, Sora saw a blur of moments of his life flash before him. Events, places, people from his past. By the time he recovered from his shock, he turned toward the man with a glare and leaped at him to deliver a downward strike with his Keyblade.

The instant the Keyblade would have struck him, the hooded man suddenly vanished in a blur. And in his place were a small collection of those same pink flower petals. Sora turned around when he heard the sound of that bizarre form of transportation, and saw the man at the top of the short staircase in front of the door. "What'd you do!?" he demanded as he ran up to the staircase.

The hooded man nonchalantly answered, "I merely sampled your memories. And from them...I made this." Suddenly, appearing seemingly out of nowhere in his right hand, was a small flat object. Sora didn't have time to identify it form this distance before it was suddenly thrown at him at immense speed.

Sora managed to catch it and immediately looked down at it. "What's this? A card?" Sure enough, it was a light blue card with a crown-like silhouette at the top, and a heart on the back of it. At the center was a picture of...a place Sora found oddly familiar. But why?

"It is a promise for the reunion you seek." the hooded man answered cryptically. "Hold the card up to the door. And beyond it, a new world." he added, stepping aside as he raised his left arm to gesture to the door. A new world...from a card that was made from Sora's memory. "Proceed, Sora, to lose and claim anew…or to claim anew only to lose."

With that, the ovular geyser rose up again and enveloped his form. Sora reached out toward the hooded man as he, Donald, and Goofy gasped, as the man vanished from sight. Thus leaving the trio with a strange card, a cryptic message, and a LOT of questions.

Concernd and confused as they were, they couldn't turn back now. If King Mickey, Riku, and Ruby were here, they had to find them. And so they would. "C'mon. Let's go." Sora said, steeling himself for what lay ahead. Jiminy hoisted himself onto Sora's shoulder and gave a nod. Leading the way, Sora climbed the stairs and held the card up to the door, just as he was instructed to. As he did, the marble white doors slowly opened up into a void of shining light. And when he stepped inside, his vision was engulfed by pure white light.