Author's Note: It's been a long time coming. You've probably wondered if I simply shut down this project all together. But, I can assure you, I'm still grinding away. I'm nearly finished with Atlantica, and I pray on every literary deity that Squaresoft would so much as peruse this manuscript one day upon completion. With that in mind, I don't really want to provide the entire text, but since you are the most amazing readers I could ask for, I'm placing some of my favorite little portions thus far to whet your appetites. I hope you enjoy what you read, and I promise to finish!

Snippets

Chapter 12

Friend Lost to Fate

"You see?" asked the witch, her long, green fingers rested on Riku's shoulder. Maleficent pointed inside the building, through the black fog she had created to conceal her and the boy. "It's just as I told you. While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with new companions. Evidently, he values them far more than he does you. You're better off without that wretched boy. Now, think no more of him, and come with me. I'll help you find what… who… you're searching for."

-

The streetlamps had all changed to a silky blue, like the one in the building, and their light seemed to walk ahead, shining their way down to the fountain.

As their gaze once more rested on the fountain, a blue light grew from below it. The water inside fired up into the air, drawing a large crowd from the nearest apartments. A sweet music began to play as the bursts of water erupted like fireworks in the air, each with a distinctive blast.

The fountain below drained empty, to show an elegant mural behind it. As the crowd cheered, there was a sudden, deafening crack, and the mural exploded to reveal a radiant blue light.

It was a blue light surrounding a grand keyhole.

One hundred yards across the plaza, Sora lifted his Keyblade, feeling a surge of excitement rise from his feet to his hands. "I will seal this world," he thought, and felt as all of the surmounting energy thrust from hilt to key, then into a beam of violet light with a silver core, piercing directly into the Keyhole, which vanished in a flaring yellow flash. Everywhere and all around, the night hummed with the sound of the closure, and the blue lights dimmed to their normal, gentle hum. The music in the air vanished, and the fountain spurted soft, plain water once more.

As the crowd stared around for the source of the mysterious light, they were disheartened to find that the mystery of the Keyhole would never be solved. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had long since retired to the Gummi Ship, and had no intention of returning for a long, long time.

Chapter 13

The Royal Vizier

"You said you had everything under control!" she snapped, powerfully and menacing. "We become fewer and fewer as this… Keybearer… continues to seal the worlds. Every time he lands, he destroys one of our company. We cannot grant him any more victories or it will cost us exponentially!"

"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in. But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours when we find the Keyhole."

"You fool! We need all seven princesses of heart to open the final door. Any fewer is useless."

"Well, if the princess is that important, we'll find her." The vizier raised his gnarled hand, the other clutching his staff that bore the head of a menacing cobra with yellow, sunstone eyes. Darkness pulsed around his fingers, and then leapt into the ground, summoning forth a flank of Heartless in robes and turbans, brandishing lethal scimitars in their bandaged hands.

"Find Jasmine and bring her to me at once!" he ordered.

As the Heartless dispersed through the desert city's streets, Maleficent raised her head in disgust.

"Do not steep yourself in darkness for too long," she warned. "The Heartless consume the careless."

Jafar laughed a cold, throaty cackle. "Your concern is touching but hardly necessary."

"Is that so?" she asked, and put out her hand. Her green fire spewed out like a moonlit fountain and flushed around her, eventually fading away to reveal her disappearance.

Jafar and his bird stood alone.

Chapter 14

The Cave of Wonders

In the sunlit plaza, a lone figure stood waiting before the palace gates. Jafar's black and red robes christened the area with battle stained distinction, pointedly drawing attention to his exposed location before the square. As the shadow of the carpet washed over his bony hand clutching his serpentine staff, Jafar's face simultaneously turned to the sky.

"Setting your sights a little high, aren't you boy?" he sneered. "Back to your hole, street rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princess any more." Jafar raised his staff, and a beam of thick darkness leapt out, stealing everyone's gaze to a place directly behind them. Jasmine, bound and gagged, was struck by the force, and as she desperately cried for help, she vanished into the swirling mist.

"Genie!" cried Aladdin, turning to the lamp. "Help Jasmine! Please!"

"Do I hear an 'I wish?'"

"YES!"

Genie rolled up his sleeves, or rather the blue skin where sleeves would be, pulling his flesh away from his shackles and leaving an empty gap where his arms had just been. As he raised his hands, though, nothing happened. No magic spurted from his fingertips, and no sign of Jasmine popped into the tension.

"I'm afraid your second wish has been denied," laughed Jafar. Everyone turned around to see that Iago, Jafar's parrot, had stolen the lamp and brought it to his evil master. Abu, the monkey, leapt out angrily, shaking his fists at the bird.

Genie conjured a playbill and began scanning its innards. "It seems the role of master will be played by a tall, dark, and sinister ugly man," he observed.

-

Slowly, Jasmine awoke. She sat up, and looked around. There was noise coming from beneath her. In the floor was a massive crater, looking down to some cavern below. There was a sound like a vacuum, and then a puff. Someone said something about space.

She stood, rubbing her arms. There was a sound behind her.

She turned, heard something quick, felt a hand gloved in smooth leather cover her mouth. She couldn't breathe.

She tried to fight, tried to struggle. Then, for some reason beyond her logic, she fell unconscious again.

There was silence.

Chapter 15

Monstrous Monstro

"I wish… for your freedom, Genie."

The air grew still, the breeze stopped waving the curtains, and the humidity dripped in tiny beads to the ground. In the same gravity-heavy motion, the blue smoke below Genie's waist became two legs, tipped in curly golden shoes. The gold bands around his wrists exploded, popped magically into the air, and shot off into nothingness.

"Al… I… I'm… I'm free! Quick, wish for something! Wish for anything!" bellowed Genie. "Wish… for the Nile! Quick, wish for the Nile!"

"I…" said Aladdin, staring with a hopeless grin, "I wish for the Nile."

Genie jumped up, seemingly bouncing off the walls, and shouted: "No way!" With all of the excitement and fervor of a small child, he went hopping about, casting spells on whim, unbound and uncontrolled by anyone. Granted, his power was much more limited, but he felt whole, complete, and new.

Aladdin smiled at him, clearly still in depression about Jasmine, but knowing instinctively that he had made the right decision. "A deal's a deal," he smiled. "You can go anywhere you want, now, Genie. You're your own master."

Genie, speechless, dove out into the air above Agrabah, and to the surprise and delight of every citizen across the city, a torrent of fireworks exploded into the crystalline sky.

For the first time in ages, Sora felt happy. He turned to Aladdin and mouthed a good-bye, disappearing silently through the door. Aladdin turned to him one last time, waved and said, "Find her."

"Jasmine?" Sora asked.

"Kairi," Aladdin replied.

And with a smile, Sora left.

-

Sora could bare his friend's brunt no longer.

He drew the Keyblade in a clean sweep, and bent his knees.

His anger was clear.

"Let Pinocchio go, Riku."

The order was heavy and stern.

"What?" laughed Riku, seemingly unconcerned. "You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?"

"Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience."

"Conscience?" asked Riku, one eyebrow raised above a tilted smirk, as if the conversation was just an amusement for his time.

"You might not hear it," said Sora, fingering the hilt of his blade, "but right now it's loud and clear. And it's telling me that you're on the wrong side."

"Then you leave me no choice," said Riku, dropping the puppet casually aside. He raised his hands directly above his head, showing Sora the muscles he was not afraid to exert. Palms open, he began a spell that Sora was too afraid to admit to recognize.

A thick fog of the deepest black rushed out of Riku's fingers and crashed into the water.

A far too familiar black:

Pure darkness.

Jiminy, completely disconnected, floated down to the deck of the tugboat with his umbrella and then ran to Pinocchio's side. Tiny as he was, the small hand he put on Pinocchio's knee symbolized a much larger heart.

"Oh, Jiminy," sighed the puppet, "I'm not gonna make it."

His nose wobbled and then grew, sticking a foot from his tiny, wooden face.

"Pinocch!" laughed the cricket through the smallest tears.

"Oh!" grinned Pinocchio. "I guess I'll be okay after all!"

"Not so fast," came Riku's voice, ever the mood breaker. He had stopped his spell as fast as he had started, and put out one hand. Darkness consumed him, swallowing him into a portal to a distant land. Sora charged the vortex, but it disappeared long before he reached it.

Riku's steely, cold eyes were the last to fade through.

Below the boat, the darkness of Riku's spell had disturbed the waters.

And what lay beneath.

One large tentacle struck the deck, cutting straight through the wood.

The parasite cage was back.

Chapter 16
Under the Sea

The darkness permeated all, trying to stifle truth and goodness. But there were many victories. Evil had been slain multiple times, and each world was clearly the right path to some ultimate perseverance.

But now… all that in mind, Sora couldn't forget Riku's chilling words.

"Someone who's lost theirs…"

Where was Kairi's heart? How had she lost it?

Where was she?

Where was he?

Was Sora's part in the journey over?

Was it up to Riku now?

Perhaps.

Perhaps he had failed….

-

"Why, if Ariel was my daughter, I'd show her who was boss. None of this 'flitting to the surface' and other such nonsense. No, sir. I'd keep her under tight control."

"You're absolutely right, Sebastian," mused the King.

"Of course."

"Ariel needs constant supervision."

"Constant."

"Someone to watch over her… to keep her out of trouble."

"All the time—"

"And you are just the crab to do it."

Chapter 17

Poor Unfortunate Souls

She clapped her hands. "Flotsam! Jetsam!"

Two moray eels slithered out of the cavern's unlit depths of coral and rose to the witch. Each had one dead eye and one glowing with an ethereal light.

A Heartless yellow.

"I want that girl as soon as you can nab her. Are we clear on that, my pets?"

The eels looked to each other, smirked, and swam out into the open ocean.

The witch stared at her crystal ball, within which was the projection. She ran a jagged, painted nail across its glass surface and smiled. "Triton, my old friend… Your day is coming."