Chapter 9 Arendelle
Chapter 9
Arendelle
AFTER THEY LEFT TWILIGHT TOWN, SORA, DONALD, AND GOOFY arrived in a new world.
“It’s cold!!!” Sora wrapped his arms around himself, shivering. It was nighttime, and they were standing in the middle of some snow-covered mountains. Everything was white as far as the eye could see, and the snow was still falling.
“Donald, gimme a coat!” Sora shouted, almost frozen to the bone. I can’t stay in this world with short sleeves!
“The magic doesn’t work that way,” Donald snapped, turning away.
“Guess he’s too used to the beach!”
“Hey, I’m an islander! What can I say?” Sora complained back to Goofy, rubbing his arms to keep warm. Snow was unheard-of on the blue waters and blue skies of the Destiny Islands. Sora had been to Christmas Town before, so he wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with this kind of weather, but he’d never been this cold in his life.
“You guys have long sleeves, but I don’t!”
“Aw, you’ll be fine.”
“No, I won’t!” Sora complained, turning around toward Donald, when he suddenly noticed something. “…Huh?” The water’s freezing over, but it’s starting from the shore by that cove… “Donald, this isn’t your magic, is it?”
Donald shook his head. He’d noticed the water, too, but he seemed just as confused.
“Do ya think it’s the Heartless?”
Sora took off running for the shore to see if Goofy’s fears were right. “Might be. Let’s go.”
The cold isn’t so bad if I keep moving, at least. This world is so quiet and dark—and freezing, too, obviously. I don’t know why, but it makes me really…sad.
As they approached the edge of the water, Sora and his friends spotted a woman dashing across the surface with her purple cloak flapping behind her. With each step, the water froze beneath her feet. Sora also noticed the expression on her face, full of regret and grief.
“I wonder what happened.”
“Maybe the Heartless? We should talk to her,” Goofy suggested with concern as they watched her hurry off into the mountains. Maybe he felt the same as Sora.
The snow was still falling, but not as heavy as before. The winds were dying down, too. Where had she gone?
It’s kinda hard to walk in this snow; my feet keep sinking down.
Sora and crew found the object of their search just as they were approaching a valley.
“Hey, hold up!” Sora called, and the woman turned their way. She was wrapped in a purple cloak, and she seemed frightened. She was wearing only one glove, on her right hand.
“Why are you here? Where did you come from?” she asked.
“Hi. I’m Sora, and I—” Sora was about to answer honestly, until Donald shot him a look that shut him up. Oh yeah, world order! “Uh…I’m from…let’s just say someplace…a little warmer.”
Nodding in satisfaction at Sora’s discretion, Donald introduced himself. “I’m Donald.”
“And I’m Goofy.”
The woman watched them carefully, then paused in thought for a moment. “Are you visiting Arendelle? For the coronation?”
What’s a coronation? Sora wasn’t sure, but Donald and Goofy were nodding. Maybe the best way to keep our cover is to just play along and act like I know what she’s talking about. “Uh… You got us! So, what’s your name?”
The woman clasped her hands in front of herself. “Elsa… Queen Elsa of Arendelle,” she replied, her voice firm and resolute.
“What? The queen?!” Sora and friends exclaimed, snapping to attention.
If she’s a queen, she must be really special. Well, not all the queens I’ve met were on the up and up, but I can tell Elsa isn’t like that, at least. She’s very royal—just maybe having a rough time right now.
The queen averted her eyes. “You shouldn’t be out here. Please go back to the village,” she said, then turned and began to walk away.
“Why? Your Majesty, you look like you could use a friend. Don’t you want to talk?” Sora asked, concerned for her.
Elsa stopped, but she didn’t turn around. “Please leave,” she said curtly, rejecting his attempt at kindness. “I need to be alone. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Sora wasn’t about to stop trying, though. “Oh… Is it that bad? You must’ve been through a lot.”
“We know what that’s like, don’t we?” Donald added, trying to help get through to her.
Goofy jumped in, too. “Sure, adventuring’s fun, but it definitely has its ups and downs. When the going gets tough, us friends have to stick together!” It was so important to have others by your side.
“Exactly! Although, Donald, you do lose your temper a lot, so…I can relate to wanting some alone time,” Sora quipped before the conversation could get too heavy. He stepped closer to Elsa.
“What? I don’t do that!” Donald quacked back, taking the bait.
However—while they were busy bantering, the snow had started to pick up again.
Elsa’s head lowered, her hands clenched into fists, and then she spun around toward the trio. “Enough!” she cried, and as a glow burst from her left hand, spikes of ice jutted out of the ground toward them.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy were stunned.
“Elsa… Did you…”
She shrank back in fear, as if shocked by her own actions, and the blustering, snowy winds began to wane. Several dark forms appeared behind her.
“The Heartless!”
Sora and crew rushed to Elsa’s defense with Keyblade, staff, and shield.
“Don’t worry. We got ’em. Take cover!”
The queen complied with a small nod and backed away while Sora and his friends went for the Heartless.
Fittingly enough, the Heartless of this frozen world were particularly icy. The ones they were fighting now resembled white deer with antlers made of ice.
“I bet something hot will do the trick. Something like…Fire!” Donald’s spell melted away the antlers of one of the deer. Sora shot off a Fire spell of his own, then followed it up with a strike from his Keyblade. While their icy nature made them a little more resilient than usual, these weren’t exactly the strongest Heartless he’d ever seen.
“And that takes care of that!”
Once all the creatures were gone, Elsa cautiously crept out of hiding and made her way back to Sora.
“Elsa, are you okay?” Sora asked.
“I…I’m sorry I was so upset. Thank you for your help.”
However, one more foe remained. As Elsa offered her thanks, a Heartless burst out from under the snow and pounced at Sora, Donald, and Goofy from behind.
Elsa was the first to notice. “Look out!” She held out her gloveless left hand and shot a bolt of ice from it that vanquished the Heartless instantly.
“That’s amazing. You can control ice,” Sora said, marveling at her incredible ability, but Elsa only lowered her gaze and hid her left hand with the right one.
“Control it?” she said softly. “No, all I ever do…is hurt people.”
“It’s okay. Those were just the Heartless,” said Goofy, trying to reassure her.
After a moment, Elsa looked up and asked, “You said that word before. What are they?”
“Monsters that are after people’s hearts. Wherever they go, there’s trouble,” Sora explained. Of course she wouldn’t know why such creatures were appearing in her world.
“They’re after people’s hearts?” Her eyes lowered again to her hands.
“Yes, they’re dangerous! You should go home before it gets any worse.”
Elsa’s definitely strong, but that doesn’t mean she’s safe, thought Sora. The worst thing about Heartless was they took advantage of the darkness within people’s hearts—and fear was one such form of darkness.
Elsa only shook her head, though, having already made her choice. “This is my home now. I can’t go back. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“What?” Sora asked, worried.
“Arendelle is safer with me staying here,” Elsa declared firmly, then made to take her leave.
“Not safer for you!” Sora persisted, but then a wall of ice rose up from the ground in front of him, Donald, and Goofy—embodying Elsa’s rejection of them in her heart.
“Please, go away!” she shouted from the other side of the barrier.
They had no way of going after her now.
“Elsa…” Sora pressed his hands against the wall.
“Aw, don’t worry, she’ll be okay,” Goofy reassured him. “Seems like she’s pretty strong.”
“You gotta let her go. She wants to be alone,” said Donald.
“Yeah, I hear you…but I just wanted to know why she was so sad,” he muttered softly with concern. The sadness on her face had been obvious, but it wasn’t the only emotion there.
Sora fell into thought. Even if Donald and Goofy are right and we should leave Elsa alone, what do we do now?
The three of them were mulling it over when they heard a woman’s voice out of the blue. “And how is it any of your business? Read the room, kiddo.”
They whirled around to see a blond-haired woman wearing one of the Organization’s coats. For some reason, her hair was all slicked back except for two pieces that stuck up like antennae.
“Who are you? That’s…the Organization coat. You new?” Sora asked. He’d never seen her before—never seen any girls in the Organization, actually. Either way, she had a major attitude.
“Excuse me? Oh yeah, you forgot. The name’s Larxene. Next time, remember. And we’ll take care of Elsa, so don’t you worry,” she haughtily informed Sora.
“Why are you after Elsa?” So the Organization’s up to their tricks here, too.
“No one’s gonna hurt her. But we’re not about to put up with your meddling. Stay here and behave yourselves.”
Larxene extended her hand toward the wall of ice and shot a powerful bolt of white lightning from her palm. The whole thing exploded into chunks that began piling up around Sora and his friends.
“Wawawak!”
“Wait. The ice!”
“It’s going to wall us in!”
Larxene smirked at their panic. “Ice is so not my style,” she sighed, just as the final hunk of ice slammed down in front of Sora, Donald, and Goofy to complete their prison.
“Larxene!” Sora yelled, but his voice couldn’t reach her through the wall. They were completely, decisively trapped. “What’s with this place…?”
A look around revealed they were now in a whole labyrinth built of ice.
“Anybody see a way out?” Sora sighed and sagged in defeat. The ceiling, the walls, the floor—everything was all ice, so he had no idea what to do.
“No, not me.” Donald’s head swiveled back and forth anxiously.
“Well, we just gotta find one,” Sora said reassuringly.
“Elsa’s in real trouble now.” Goofy was right. For now, they had to keep on pushing ahead.
“Yeah. Larxene promised not to hurt her, but I trust those guys as far as I can throw ’em.”
Elsa could definitely hold her own against the Heartless, but if the Organization was involved, that was another story.
Donald didn’t want to abandon Elsa, either. “They’ve gotta be up to no good!”
“Let’s go, then!”
Sora and crew set out to find an exit to the maze.
No one understands me.
Elsa was trudging through the snowy mountains alone.
She possessed a special power, a magical ability to create and control snow and ice. She’d had these powers ever since she was born as the first princess of Arendelle, although no one knew why. As a child, she used to play with her ice and snow, but ever since she’d hurt her younger sister with it, she had come to fear her power. There was no telling when it might harm someone else…
Her sister’s life had been saved thanks to the trolls, but her power grew stronger with each passing day, until Elsa had begun to lock herself away in the castle in terror of what it might do. When her parents, the king and queen, perished in a tragic accident at sea, the time came for Elsa to assume her role as ruler of this land.
Today was meant to be her coronation. However, she had failed to control her magical ability before all the visiting dignitaries who had come to see her take the throne. They had called her a monster, and she fled the castle. Now, the verdant countryside of Arendelle was covered by ice and snow. And it was all because of her…
Elsa walked on in solitude.
As long as I have this power, I’ll never be able to live with other people. I’ll always be at risk of hurting someone. And if that’s how it must be…
After dealing with tons of annoying tricks and tedious numbers of Heartless, Sora, Donald, and Goofy finally burst through the exit of the icy labyrinth.
They took a breather on the mountaintop, where the snow was still falling.
“See her?”
“I think she mighta gone in that direction,” said Goofy, who was looking down a path leading farther into the mountains. Any footprints Elsa might have left had been covered up by the snowfall, but Sora and his comrades weren’t about to let that deter them.
“Okay, c’mon!”
They continued making their way up the snow-piled ridges, and as soon as they reached the summit, they were blasted by a full-on blizzard.
“Man, what gives…?” Sora groaned, just as he heard singing coming from somewhere. The snowy winds were carrying the voice from far away.
The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation
And it looks like I’m the queen
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn’t keep it in, heavens know I’ve tried
“…What?” Goofy with his sharp ears was the first to recognize the singer.
Sora and Donald quickly perked up as well. “That’s Elsa’s voice!”
The melancholy in her singing made their hearts ache, but it was also truly beautiful.
Don’t let them in
Don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel
Don’t let them know
Well, now they know
Sora took off running against the winds of the storm and toward the song—and he soon found Elsa not much farther ahead, up near the very top of the mountain.
She threw away her single remaining glove, and countless snowflakes, each as beautiful as flowers, danced in and out of existence on her bare palm. Then, she created a little snowman.
Let it go! Let it go!
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go! Let it go!
Turn away and slam the door
The look on Elsa’s face was far more peaceful than when they had first met her. The little crystals of ice around her glittered like jewels.
I don’t care what they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway
Elsa shed her cloak with radiant joy, and the wind carried it away. The melancholy was gone from her song, and the blizzard had subsided as well.
It’s funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
Can’t get to me at all
Elsa broke into a run toward a place where she would be truly alone.
It’s time to see what I can do.
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I’m free!
She created a frozen stairway from her hands and placed her foot on the first step. Snow became ice, and with a flash the stairs became a magnificent sculpture. Elsa raced up its steps with glee.
Let it go! Let it go!
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go! Let it go!
You’ll never see me cry
Here I stand and here I’ll stay
Let the storm rage on
Sora and crew stared up at her handiwork in awe. When she reached the top of the stairs, Elsa stomped her foot. A crystal of ice like a royal crest formed out around her foot, and from it, a castle began rising from the ground to greet her.
My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
Most people saw ice as something frigid and lifeless, but these structures were like beautiful flowers welcoming her home. Sora, Donald, and Goofy watched, breathless.
The past is the past
Let it go! Let it go!
And I’ll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go! Let it go!
That perfect girl is gone
Elsa abandoned her tiara, and her beautiful, exquisitely arranged hair tumbled to her shoulders as a braid. Her clothes transformed, too, into a gleaming blue dress and a swirling cape with thousands of tiny ice crystals like diamonds.
Here I stand in the light of day
Let the storm rage on!
The cold never bothered me anyway
With the last line of her song, the sun broke through the horizon.
Elsa strode to the balcony as a true snow queen, full of confidence, gazed at the breaking dawn, and grinned. With a swirl of her cape, she marched back into her castle, and the doors of the balcony slammed shut behind her.
“Wow. I don’t know what we just saw but…wow. That…was Elsa?” Sora whispered in awe as he took in the view of the castle.
“She looked different…,” said Donald.
“And a lot happier, too…,” added Goofy.
His friends seemed as starstruck as he was, and they were having trouble even finding the words.
Still, the Organization was up to something in this world, so they had to speak to Elsa.
Unfortunately, Larxene chose that very moment to appear right in their way from a Corridor of Darkness. “Please don’t tell me that you’re spying on her now.”
“Larxene! Don’t turn this around on us. You’re following her,” Sora retorted, ready for a fight.
Larxene answered with a mocking snort. “Ooh. Look at you get all sassy. Okay, I’ll admit Elsa is a person of interest to us. Maybe she’s one of the seven pure lights we need—the New Seven Hearts. Gotta make sure though. Fortunately, we’re in the best position to tell. Can’t pick out that special ‘glimmer’…unless you’re standing in the shadows.”
The New Seven Hearts—that Marluxia guy mentioned them, too.
Larxene turned and admired Elsa’s bastion. “And maybe…Elsa doesn’t have it. I mean, just look at how icy her palace is—made of magic she forced herself to keep hidden until now. What if it’s dark magic?” She seemed fascinated by the idea.
“Elsa would never rely on the darkness!” Sora rejected that possibility immediately. Dark magic? No way.
“Actually, it’s still too early to call. Depends on how she sees it. If she believes her magic is darkness, that’s what it will become. Accepting her power, whatever it is, is the only way she can set her heart free. So what will Elsa accept? Light or darkness? I know I wanna know!”
Elsa’s power was undeniable; she could even take out Heartless in an instant. But that didn’t mean anything.
“Well, good for you, but guess what? I won’t let her fall to darkness!” Sora vowed.
“It’s her choice, not yours. You know, I’m starting to understand why she gave you the cold shoulder.”
Larxene held up her left hand, crackling with lightning, and then blasted them with a powerful gust of wind.
“Larxene!”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy tried their hardest to resist, but…
“You wanna help her? Then stop trying to be her hero! Let her figure things out her own way!”
The crackling electricity around Larxene grew brighter, and the gust hammered against the trio with renewed force while it sucked up the snow nearby.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy could hardly keep their eyes open, and when the bolts of lightning started battering them, too, it was no surprise when the storm sent them right off the edge of the mountain.
Next time, remember.
I said that—but I feel like I’ve forgotten something important myself.
Not that remembering’s done much good for me. But…some things, you shouldn’t forget. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve let a lot slip away already—things I really shouldn’t have. There’s a lot of those.
Recently, it’s been hard to tell if I really remember or not. This isn’t the first time, either. I don’t know how many times it’s happened before—but I can tell it’s more than one. It feels…weird, like waking up from a dream.
Or maybe it’s all in my head.
Ugh, they all look so stupid, scrabbling around to accomplish their little goals. Just like in the castle, when we were trying to take over the Organization. To this day, I still wonder why Marluxia chose me as his partner in crime. I can’t remember, if he ever told me at all, and I can’t even begin to guess.
Ah well.
Maybe it’ll come back to me one of these days.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy regained consciousness in the mountains.
“Donald! Goofy! Are you okay?” Sora pushed himself up as he spotted his friends.
Donald was stuck headfirst in the snow, and he had to kick his feet for a moment before finally managing to pull himself out. “I’m okay…”
Goofy was completely buried in a drift except for his arms. Sora took hold of his hands and pulled. “All good!”
Thankfully, the snow was soft enough that none of them had any injuries.
“I think we should probably go check on Elsa,” Sora said. He never was one to give up.
“And make sure Larxene was wrong about her magic,” Goofy added.
While Elsa’s power was a cause for concern, Sora also wanted to be sure to tell the queen to watch out for the Organization.
“But don’t you tell her what Larxene said,” Donald warned him.
“Huh? Why not?”
“Well, to keep the order,” Goofy reminded.
Sora thought it over for a moment. “Oh… Okay.” Guess I’ll just have to let her know she’s in danger without bringing up anything Larxene said. “All right, let’s get moving.”
Sora had just turned to head back to the castle when one of Goofy’s ears twitched. “Wait, fellas. Do ya hear that?” He stood stock-still with one ear up.
“Look!” Donald exclaimed as he looked toward the source of the noise—a wall of powdery snow barreling down from the mountaintop at tremendous speed.
“Avalaaanche!” the trio screamed.
Goofy swiftly grabbed his shield and threw it on top of the snow. “Quick, climb aboard!”
Sora and Donald hopped on, and Goofy quickly joined them. They were going to use the shield as a sled to stay ahead of the falling snow.
“Here we go!”
To make matters worse, a Heartless shaped like a dragon made of ice called a Frost Serpent emerged from the snow and began chasing them as they raced down the mountain.
“Ack!”
The Frost Serpent’s icy breath hit them full blast, and Donald would have fallen off the shield if Sora hadn’t grabbed hold of his shirt.
“C’mon, c’mon!”
Sora and Donald fired off spells at the Heartless as they wove their way through the trees. They managed to stop the Frost Serpent, but the avalanche finally overtook them and knocked out the three friends yet again.
“Wow! Look at all the pretty colors. There’s blue, and green—ooh, I love green! And look, black.”
Sora heard a strange voice.
“Just like my buttons. Hmm?”
He felt something weird on his head, too. Sora blinked his eyes open and saw landscape covered with the same familiar snow, except—
“Silly spiky grass. Give me back my foot.”
Something plucked a ball of snow from Sora’s head and attached it as its own foot, then tromped off. From behind, it looked like…a snowman?
Sora sat up, confused. “Huh? Uh…did you see that snowman?”
“Snowman?” asked Donald, who had just regained consciousness himself.
“Yeah. And here’s the funny thing: He was walking and talking.”
“Everybody knows snowmen can’t walk. You must have imagined it,” Donald argued, and now Sora wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Huh… I thought he was real.”
I wonder what it was, then.
Goofy had apparently noticed the visitor, too. “Well, maybe we’ll see him again. But if we don’t get goin’, we’ll never reach Elsa’s palace.”
Oh yeah, we were on our way to talk to Elsa. “C’mon!”
Sora and his friends started making their way through the forest. Tiny, twinkling crystals of ice hung from the trees like new blossoms.
It wasn’t long before they saw some people crossing their path up ahead. There was a man in the lead, followed by a woman, a reindeer, and then—
“I can’t wait to meet Elsa. I bet she’s the nicest, warmest, best person ever.”
—the snowman! He seemed very excited about something.
“See? I told you!” Sora crowed. “A walking, talking snowman.”
“Well, whaddaya know? You were right!” Goofy nodded next to Donald, who was paralyzed with shock.
“I wanna look!” Sora rushed over and jumped out in front of the snowman. He had a carrot nose and sticks for arms, and even a few small twigs in his head for hair. “Wow! You really are alive! What’s making you walk?”
“Um, well, I guess…my feet.” The snowman showed Sora one of the two snowballs he used to walk.
Then, the girl who had been traveling with the group approached. For someone who was friends with a snowman, she seemed like a very normal young woman, with auburn hair she wore in two braids. “Hello. Olaf, are these your friends?”
“Nope! Never met ’em. Don’t know anyone blue, green, or who’s oddly spiky,” said the snowman named Olaf, shaking his head.
“‘Spiky’? My hair? Wait, why don’t I get a color, too? My name is Sora.”
“And I’m Donald Duck!”
The two stepped closer to Olaf, not particularly pleased by his choice of description.
“Oh,” replied Olaf.
Goofy, on the other hand, introduced himself as calmly as ever. “And I’d be Goofy the Green!”
“I’m Anna,” said the girl. The man next to her crossed his arms and eyed them suspiciously. “And I know they’re strangers, but…they seem pretty nice to me,” Anna told him.
Finally, he nodded to her and then dipped his head in greeting to Sora and crew. “I’m Kristoff, and this is Sven,” he said, introducing the reindeer next to him.
“Nice to meet ya,” Goofy said back.
“So, where are all you guys headed?” Sora asked, and Anna and Kristoff shared a look.
Kristoff was the one who answered first. “We’re going to try and put an end to this crazy winter.”
“And to do that, we need to find my sister, Elsa,” Anna added, much to Sora’s surprise.
“Elsa’s…your sister?”
Now that you mention it, Anna and Elsa do look alike.
“What a coincidence. We’re going to see her, too,” Goofy told her.
An apprehensive look passed over Anna’s face. “You know Elsa?”
“Yeah, we ran into her up the mountain. Do you mind telling us what’s going on here?”
Sora wanted to tell them everything he could, especially since she was one of the New Seven Hearts the Organization kept talking about. But he wasn’t allowed to talk about anything Larxene had mentioned.
“We’re worried. We think your sister might be in some trouble.”
“Trouble? Are you sure?” Anna’s calm expression quickly turned to worry, and she looked at Sora closely. “All right. I know we just met, but…Sora, was it? I get the feeling that you’re someone to trust.”
“I’m right there with ya,” Kristoff agreed.
“I just hope you like long stories.”
Kristoff patted Sven the reindeer on the head. “Ya know, I should go find some moss for Sven. He’s looking a little hungry. C’mon, Sven.”
Olaf started scampering around excitedly. “Hey, w-w-w-wait, what’s going on? Tell me. Is something happening?” he asked, but Kristoff just picked him up, too. The situation was complicated, he knew, and he wanted to give Sora and Anna some space to talk.
“C’mon, Olaf. You’re with me.”
“Sure, Sven. Reindeer Sven, too?”
“The reindeer is Sven.”
The two of them bantered back and forth as they walked away.
Once Anna saw they were gone, she sat down on a fallen tree nearby, and Sora joined her.
“When we were little, my sister and I used to be really close,” she said, beginning her tale. “But then, one day, for some reason, Elsa just shut me out. We used to build snowmen together, but now Elsa hardly ever left her room. Years passed and we barely saw each other. Then, finally, it was time for her coronation. Let’s just say I was more than a little excited. I thought we’d finally have a chance to talk. But at the party, I did something that made her mad. We got into an argument, and I lost my temper. I was just so frustrated! And then, well…that’s when she used her magic to push me away. It was all my fault.”
Anna lowered her eyes, trying not to cry.
“I shouldn’t have upset her the way I did. Elsa ran away because she was frightened. I have to bring her home.”
“I’m sure she knows how much you love her.”
Sora did some reminiscing of his own.
Elsa looked like she was carrying some awful burden when I saw her before, and now I remember where I saw it. It was the expression Riku had when he disappeared and we closed the door to Kingdom Hearts.
Sometimes you push people away because they matter so much to you. I know Elsa loves Anna a whole lot.
“If anyone can help her, it’s you.”
That was what Sora wanted her to know, that she and her sister could be as close as they once were, just as he and Riku were fighting alongside each other now.
“Thanks,” she replied with a smile.
Suddenly, they heard Kristoff calling out to them. “Hey, guys! I need some help!”
With a quick look at each other, Sora and Anna stood up from the log and hurried over to Kristoff and the others.
“What’s the problem?”
“This.” Kristoff had a single thin branch in his hand.
“A stick problem?” Donald asked.
“It’s not a stick,” Kristoff replied. “Well, it is a stick, but it—it’s Olaf’s arm.”
This is Olaf’s arm?
Kristoff let out a weary sigh. “He’s fallen apart again.”
“Uh, how come you’re not upset?” Donald asked uneasily.
“Oh, it’s no big deal. He’s a snowman. We’ll just…put him back together,” Anna said in a reassuring tone.
Would that really be enough? Sora and his friends didn’t seem so certain.
“The pieces can’t be too far from here,” said Kristoff. “Could you guys help us look for ’em?”
“’Course!”
The three heroes accepted the task readily and got straight to searching. Unfortunately—
“Everything’s all white; I can’t see Olaf anywhere,” Goofy was the first to complain.
How were they supposed to find the parts of a white snowman in a field of white snow?
“Let’s just search everywhere,” Sora suggested, and the three of them got to work. Now that the snowfall had stopped, the sunlight reflecting off the white terrain was almost blinding.
“There’s a big snowball over here!” Donald called.
“That one’s too big!” Sora replied after taking a look.
“It’s so big, you can even ride it!” Goofy hopped on top of the ball and began rolling it around with his feet.
“C’mon, Goofy! This is no time to play around!” Donald scolded, hopping around angrily, but Goofy was having a great time.
“A-hyuck!”
That was when they heard Olaf’s voice. “Oh, I’m so dizzy! The world’s spinning around and around and around!”
Aha, so he was inside the snowball!
Goofy rammed the ball into a stone embankment, and the snowman’s head popped right out.
“There you are!” Sora scooped up Olaf’s head from the ground.
“The world’s still spinning…”
This wasn’t going to be enough, though.
Sora and the others ran all over the snowfield carrying Olaf’s very talkative head. “Whoop, careful, now! Gently, please!”
“Now for his body.”
“Wak? I see something weird over there.” Donald rubbed his eyes to be sure, but those lumps of snow were definitely moving around.
“It’s a foot!”
“My foot!”
Sora chased after it, still carrying Olaf’s head. “Can’t you make them stop?”
“Huh, my feet? Maybe… Hey, feet!” Olaf shouted, and the feet came to a halt.
Goofy jumped over and grabbed them. “A-hyuck! Maybe we can just stick ’em on his head.”
“No! This is too low. I need my body!” complained Olaf, who was now just a head on top of a pair of feet. Yeah, it wasn’t a great look for him.
“You help, too, Olaf!”
“Okay!”
Sora and the snowman had just started the search again when Donald called to them from a ways off. “What about this? I think it got kinda dirty rolling around.”
“Pffft, silly! I’m clean and snowy, and that’s a ball of mud.”
“Might still work, though,” commented Goofy as he inspected the clod, much to Sora and Donald’s amusement.
“Nuh-uh!”
“No? Okay then, on to the next!” Sora said brightly to Olaf.
But they didn’t have much luck.
“Do you remember where it fell off?” Sora finally asked.
The armless and bodiless snowman fell into thought. “Hmm…”
“There it is!” Goofy was the one who finally discovered Olaf’s body at the base of an iced-over tree.
“Yay! But wait, what about my arms?”
“Anna probably has them. Let’s head back!” Sora told him, and then everyone walked back over to her.
“And that should…do it,” Anna said with an approving nod as she put the last stick in Olaf.
“You sure something’s not missin’?”
“Nah. Looks right,” Kristoff said with satisfaction, but Goofy still wasn’t so sure.
Yeah, there’s definitely something missing.
Now that he was supposedly whole again, Olaf was checking himself over. “Wow, I feel so much better. Wait! Where’s my new cute nose? The one Anna gave me!”
“Uh, Sora… Do you have his nose?” Anna asked.
Sora and Donald looked to each other for confirmation. “I don’t think so.”
“Nope, didn’t see it.”
Meanwhile, Olaf was fixated on the state of his face.
That was when an idea came to Kristoff, and he turned to his reindeer friend. “Sven…”
The reindeer blinked as Kristoff leaned in to look him dead in the eye, and then the jig was up. He opened his mouth, and out popped a big carrot.
“‘Someone had to pick it up!’” Kristoff said in the silly voice he used to speak for Sven. “You’re right, buddy. Thanks for finding it…and not actually eating it. ‘Aw, you’re welcome.’”
While he was busy acting out a conversation between himself and the reindeer, Anna put the carrot back where it belonged on Olaf’s face.
“My nose, it’s back! Oh, I love having a nose!” he exclaimed, rubbing it happily.
Actually, I wonder why he came apart in the first place? “Hey, Kristoff,” Sora said, “how’d all this happen, anyway?”
“You know, I’m not sure. These weird animals—well, they were more like monsters—they just crashed into Olaf.”
Monsters? Needless to say, Sora and his friends had a good hunch who those might be.
“The Heartless again!” exclaimed Donald, putting a name to the culprits.
“The ‘Heart-less’? Hmm… And I thought the wolves around here were bad.” Kristoff crossed his arms, thinking over the situation, when…
“Kristoff, look!” Anna shouted as she noticed something.
She was pointing at a pack of Heartless a short distance away. They were making a beeline right for them.
“They’re back!” exclaimed Kristoff.
Olaf waved his hands. “No… I’ve already fallen apart today!”
Sora stepped out in front of the three non-combatants and got his Keyblade ready for battle. “We know how to handle them! Anna, Kristoff, keep going!”
“Okay!” answered Kristoff, leading Anna away as Sora and his friends rushed into the fight.
Not long after parting ways with Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Kristoff and Anna arrived at the ice palace.
With Kristoff and Olaf at her side, Anna climbed the staircase so she could speak with Elsa. It was a beautiful castle like nothing she had ever seen before—her big sister had created this magical place.
The quarrel between them had begun when Anna told Elsa she wanted to marry someone. She knew all this had started with her, but Anna never meant for her sister to leave home completely.
Anna asked her companions to stay in the front hall, then ventured deeper inside alone to find Elsa.
And then…there she was. Anna looked anxiously at her sister. Elsa wouldn’t turn around.
“You kind of set off an eternal winter…everywhere,” Anna told her haltingly.
Shocked, Elsa finally looked at her. “Everywhere?”
They were indoors, but snow was beginning to fall between them.
“Well, it’s okay. You can just unfreeze it,” Anna said hopefully, but Elsa only shook her head. The snow was coming down thicker now.
“No, I can’t. I don’t know how.”
“Sure you can. I know you can,” Anna continued encouragingly.
Elsa wasn’t convinced, though, and the falling snow inside was becoming a storm.
Anna stepped closer to Elsa, but her sister clutched her head in pain. “I can’t!” she shouted, unintentionally flinging out ice.
The snowfall ceased in an instant as the magic pierced Anna’s heart.
A sudden burst of stabbing pain shot through Sora’s chest.
When Sora, Donald, and Goofy had arrived at the palace to meet Elsa, they had found Sven at the bottom of the stairs and decided to wait for Anna and the others there.
That’s when the pain hit.
“Sora?”
“Are ya hurt?”
Donald and Goofy huddled around Sora when his hand clutched at his chest.
Why does it hurt so bad?
“No, I’m fine. But…I think something terrible must have happened.”
Sora looked up at the castle of ice where Anna and Elsa were probably speaking right now.
Ngh, and it still really hurts. I just hope everyone’s okay—
The doors of the palace abruptly flew open.
“What?” the three friends cried out in surprise as an enormous snow giant, Marshmallow, came out with Anna and Kristoff in his left hand and Olaf in his right.
“Go away!” Marshmallow rumbled, then hurled Anna and Kristoff away. They slid down the steps and came to rest against a snowdrift. Olaf followed shortly after, in three pieces again.
“Hey! It is not nice to throw people!” Anna shouted furiously, winding up to throw a snowball at Marshmallow.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa, feisty-pants,” Kristoff said as he held her back.
“Let me go!”
“Okay, relax. Just calm down. Calm down.”
“Okay! All right! I’m okay.”
“Just let the snowman be.”
“I’m calm.”
“Great.”
Kristoff let go, believing he had calmed Anna down—and that was a mistake. She launched the snowball, and Marshmallow answered with a bellow of rage.
“Aw, see? Now you made him mad.”
“I’ll distract him. You guys go,” Olaf declared courageously, although it was hard to see how he would be much help in pieces. Still, he must have bought at least a little time, because Anna and Kristoff were able to get away safely.
“We’ll take it from here!”
Now it was Sora and his friends’ turn to confront Marshmallow—but the snow giant’s terrifying, thunderous roar overwhelmed them.
Never mind—we gotta run for it!
Sora, Donald, and Goofy headed for the hills at top speed.
Their sprint brought them to the snowy field, where they weaved their way through the trees with Marshmallow hot on their heels. He was much faster than they had imagined.
Well, at least we’re doing a good job as decoys. I hope Anna and the others got away—I don’t think we’ll be so lucky.
“Huh? Where’s Goofy?”
“Hey, Sora! I got an idea!”
Sora suddenly realized that somewhere in the middle of their mad dash, Goofy had changed course. He was waving at them from beneath a tree—a tree that had bent all the way to the ground under the weight of the snow piled on top of it.
Donald managed to lose his temper, even while he was running. “Goofy, what are you doing?”
“Over here!”
“Huh? Oh, I get it!” Sora said as he realized what Goofy wanted him to do.
Marshmallow was almost on top of them.
Sora and Donald hurried over to the tree where their friend stood. Goofy took hold of the top of the tree, and it tried to spring back upright again. Sora grabbed onto Goofy and pulled to bend it down again. Marshmallow was almost close enough!
“Get ready…Okay, now!”
Goofy let go, and the tree snapped up and smacked Marshmallow right in the face, knocking the colossal snow monster for a loop. He wouldn’t be going anywhere for a bit.
“Oh, yeah!”
Sora and Goofy gave each other a high five, but then Donald butted in between them with his staff. “He’s not done…”
Sora and Goofy responded by holding up Keyblade and shield, respectively.
“Bring it, snowball!”
Marshmallow had come back to his senses, ready to threaten Sora and his friends once more. Sora dodged an attack and tumbled through the snow, sending up thick plumes of white powder. The snow giant replied with a blast of icy breath at them.
“Wak!” Donald yelped as he was frozen solid.
“Donald!” Sora shouted, just as the frigid spray turned in his direction. Marshmallow wasn’t a Heartless, but he was still a tough opponent nevertheless. Relief filled Sora once he saw Donald moving again (albeit stiffly) and cast some fire magic at the snow giant.
“Sora, let’s give ’im another bonk on the head!” Goofy called to him from the bottom of another tree bowed over with snow.
“On my way!”
When Marshmallow reared back for a stomp, Sora dashed by underneath his foot and grabbed onto Goofy. They waited for just the right moment, then let go and dealt another blow to Marshmallow’s noggin with the tree.
The snow giant roared—and icy spikes sprouted from his body. He stomped and flailed around the snowfield, laying waste to everything nearby,
“Whoa-whoa-whoa!”
Sora and Goofy frantically ran this way and that and finally hid behind a boulder. Donald hurried over to join them.
Marshmallow stopped his rampage to hunt for his three targets.
“Now!” cried Sora as he jumped out of cover, but the snow giant had a blast of ice breath ready for him. Sora just barely managed to dodge it, but Marshmallow kept on the attack.
Gasping for breath, Sora, Donald, and Goofy glared at the snowy goliath. He was gradually forcing them farther and farther back toward the precipice behind them. They had to do something—
But then Marshmallow slammed his arms into the ground, filling the air with powdered snow.
And that was when they realized the ground itself beneath them was crumbling.
“Gwawawaaak!”
“Yaaa-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey!”
The trio yelled as they plummeted down headfirst.
“Good thing snow’s so soft. We could do this a hundred times,” Sora mumbled, sprawled out in a daze.
“No! Let’s not,” Donald quacked irritably as he shook the snow off.
As always, Goofy took everything in stride. “Ya sure you don’t wanna go again?”
Sora huffed out a big sigh and clambered to his feet. “Nooo, thank you!”
They looked around, but there was no sign of Marshmallow.
“Do you think everybody else made it?”
I certainly hope so.
Goofy and Donald were thinking the same thing.
“I don’t think the snow monster got ’em.”
“They probably went back to the palace.”
They can knock us down to the bottom all they want; we’ll still try to help Anna and Elsa. I’m sure it’s the same for them—they still care about each other, too, even after everything. “Makes sense. For us, too. We still need to talk to Elsa.” So maybe we’ve never managed to stay at the top of the mountain for very long, but whatever! “Back to the ice palace!” Sora declared, steeling himself for what would be their third trip to Elsa’s castle.
I’m getting used to trekking through these snowy mountains, and the slopes are kinda fun to slide down. I think I’ve had enough of falling off the top, though.
Once they reached the snowfield, Sora spied someone in the distance. “Is that Elsa…?” He peered more closely and saw a man carrying the limp form of a woman over his shoulder—a woman who looked like the queen. “Who’s that guy?”
Something wasn’t right, here. Sora had never seen this man before; he was nothing like Kristoff.
“Do ya think someone from the castle came to escort her home?” Goofy proposed.
Sora got the feeling that was only half right.
“That doesn’t look like an escort job to me.”
Yeah, if she was going back home willingly, she wouldn’t be unconscious.
The three of them took another hard look.
“Wak, get a load of that!” Donald cried
A dark mist was emanating from the man’s body.
“Darkness?” Goofy asked with a grim expression.
Sora set his lips in a firm line. “We have to go after them!”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy tried to catch up, but the man was surprisingly quick. They couldn’t seem to gain any ground.
Just as Sora was starting to panic a little, Marshmallow appeared again in a plume of snow.
Everyone prepared for a fight, but oddly enough, the giant snowman passed right by as if he couldn’t see them at all. He seemed to have his sights set on something else.
“Hey! You’d better not have hurt our friends!” Sora shouted, but Marshmallow ignored him and kept on walking.
“Elsaaa!” the giant bellowed.
Sora called after Marshmallow. “Hey, wait up! Are you looking for Elsa, too?”
The snow giant came to a halt and raised his arms in a threatening manner, and Sora realized his guess was right.
“Whoa! Eeeasy! Do you wanna save her from the bad guy? We’re on the same side,” Sora said. Marshmallow lowered his arms, and his expression turned to something sad. The colossal snowman sighed her name dejectedly. “Elsa…”
“I guess all he ever wanted to do was keep Elsa safe,” Goofy surmised.
Yeah, I bet he’s right.
Marshmallow had thrown Anna and the others out of the castle, then chased down Sora and his friends just to keep Elsa away from harm.
Sora took a deep breath and called out to him. “Hey. We should team up, big guy.”
Marshmallow nodded slowly.
“Team up?!” Donald quacked in protest. He wasn’t a fan of the idea; after all, they had been enemies until just recently, and their second fall off a cliff was Marshmallow’s fault.
Sora was not about to be dissuaded, though. “C’mon,” he chided. “We wanna help her, too. Why not?” He looked up at Marshmallow. “So, whaddaya say?”
This time, the giant snowman’s nod was much more enthusiastic, and with that, the four of them set off as a team.
“Sora!”
Donald still wasn’t convinced, so Goofy ambled over to him. “One great thing about Sora—he can always make friends with anybody,” he whispered.
“Yippee…” Donald sighed with a smile, accepting that he’d lost this round.
“Donald! Goofy! C’mon.”
The two of them hurried off after Sora.
Since they were buddies with Marshmallow now, their new recruit gave them a ride on his big shoulders.
“What an amazing view!” Sora stood up and surveyed the gorgeous snow-covered vista.
“This is no time for sightseeing! We’ve got to catch up to Elsa!” Donald snapped in an attempt to hurry them up.
“We know that, don’t we?” Sora said to Marshmallow, who nodded and began to pick up the pace.
Soon enough they heard a voice. “Stop it. Put me down!”
That’s Kristoff. We finally found them! But what about Anna?
“Do me a favor and wait here. If you come along, Kristoff might freak out.”
Marshmallow lowered everyone to the ground as Sora asked.
“No, Sven! We’re not going back. She’s with her true love.”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy came running up to Kristoff and Sven and found them arguing about something. Was Sven trying to get Kristoff to go somewhere? The reindeer kept butting up against him.
“Kristoff!”
“Sora.”
“You all right?”
The quarrel briefly ended as Sora walked over.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m glad you guys are safe.”
“Where’d Anna go?” Sora asked.
She should’ve been with them, but there was no sign of her. Sven lowered his head sadly.
“She’s back at home.”
“Something happen?”
The pain on Kristoff’s face remained as he answered. “Anna was struck in the heart by Elsa’s ice magic. If the ice isn’t removed, she’ll freeze forever. Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart. So I took her back to Arendelle and her true love, Hans.”
True love…? Hans…? What’s going on here?
Confused, Sora asked the first question that popped into his head straight out. “But…what about you?”
Kristoff answered Sora’s question with one of his own. “What about me?”
“Uh, I sorta assumed you guys were…”
“Nooo! I just keep her from getting lost.”
“Really? Oh, but you seem so…”
The two of them were both surprised, so Goofy finished the sentence. “Perfect together!”
“Yeah, like me and Daisy!” Donald added. Daisy was his girlfriend back at Disney Castle.
As Kristoff’s face flushed bright red with embarrassment, a powerful gust of snowy wind howled by.
“What?”
Kristoff raised his head and looked down the mountain at Arendelle Castle, where the blizzard was coming from.
What was going on down there…?
“Anna,” he murmured, then took off running. Sven hurried after him.
Marshmallow arrived next to the trio, who were still a little stunned.
“Elsa…,” the snow giant grunted, a finger pointed at Arendelle.
“Is that where Elsa is?”
Marshmallow answered with a roar.
So Elsa’s at the castle—! Sora looked toward Arendelle, then set off at a run. “Let’s go!”
Donald, Goofy, and Marshmallow followed him into the swirling headwind.
The four of them tried to slide down the slope all the way to Arendelle, but the snow and wind was getting worse. They tried making their way forward one step at a time, but that didn’t go as planned, either. What’s worse, the snow was beginning to sting.
They were almost out of ideas when Marshmallow stepped to the front to shield the others from the elements. That made things a little easier.
“Thanks.”
The giant snowman roared. Still, this blizzard isn’t stopping. Actually, it’s getting worse. We’ve got to hurry.
The sea around Arendelle was frozen solid. Several ships were moored there, stuck fast in the ice at odd angles.
Anna trudged weakly across the icy surface, fingertips trembling slightly, and each breath left her mouth in a cold white cloud. She was about to freeze solid herself.
That was how Kristoff found her.
“Anna!”
Hearing her name, she realized who had come. “Kristoff…”
He ran toward her, but she heard the soft shing of a sword leaving its sheath. A man was about to strike down her sister—a man named Hans.
Anna gave another wistful look at Kristoff, running desperately to save her, then turned away from him and rushed toward Elsa.
Hans’s sword slashed down, but just before the blow landed, Anna leaped between them to protect her sister, her right hand outstretched.
“Nooo!” Anna screamed—her last word as she turned to ice. Just as her fingertips froze, the blade shattered on contact with her hand, and the shock sent Hans hurtling back.
“Anna…”
When they finally arrived, Sora, Donald, and Goofy spotted the statue of ice that had once been Anna.
We were too late…!
Hans lay unconscious on the frozen sea, and a pitch-black shadow swirled up from around his body, flowing around Sora and his friends until it had completely swallowed them.
When they opened their eyes, they were face-to-face with a Heartless in the form of an enormous white wolf—Sköll.
Sora readied his Keyblade, while Goofy raised his shield. “Do ya really think this will help Anna?” he asked.
“I don’t know…but we’d better try something!” Sora replied with a steely glare at their foe.
“Let’s get it!” Donald shouted.
That was when an unexpected ally appeared behind the trio with a mighty bellow—Marshmallow had apparently come to aid them in the battle.
The snow giant quickly picked up Sora and placed him on his back, and the two of them went after Sköll together.
The wolf Heartless raked Marshmallow with its sharp claws, but the giant snowman didn’t even flinch. Instead, he brought down his arms like hammers, stunning Sköll.
Donald used the opening to fire off spells, while Goofy rammed it with his shield. Sora leaped off Marshmallow and brought his Keyblade down on the Heartless.
Sköll howled and whirled its tail around, and Sora went on the defensive, flinging himself out of the way.
“We’ve got more company!” warned Goofy.
Sora looked up to see several smaller Heartless that looked like smaller, autonomous versions of Sköll’s head.
“Leave these guys to me!” Donald shouted as he intercepted the new arrivals. Marshmallow joined in, too, and the two of them took care of the Wolf Heads while Sora focused on Sköll.
The Heartless let out yet another howl, warning Sora to lower his center of gravity into a defensive stance and brace for another ferocious tail attack. But instead, the wolf leaped high into the air and transformed into a gigantic black orb. Inky drops poured from its surface.
Marshmallow came and stood over Sora to shield him as the dark sun came crashing down like the sky itself. The black rain was still falling all around them.
“Gwoooorgh!”
Marshmallow took the full brunt of the attack with an ear-shattering roar.
“You got this!” Sora shouted, cheering him on as he whirled his Keyblade to wound Sköll. “Come on…!” Finally, he broke through!
The vicious barrage ended as the Heartless turned back into its wolf form and glared menacingly at its foes.
With its last bit of strength, Sköll turned back into a black sphere, rose into the air, and exploded with a dark flash.
Marshmallow planted himself in front of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, protecting them from that final attack, but it was too much even for him. As the blast knocked all four of them away, the shadows dispersed with a gust of wind.
The next thing Sora knew, he was back. But here, even time itself seemed to be frozen.
All he could hear was Elsa sobbing as she clung to the icy form of her sister. Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf stood watching over her, unable to do anything else.
Elsa sobbed and sobbed—and then, a miracle occurred.
Anna began to thaw, bit by bit, in her sister’s arms.
Olaf was the first to notice, a huge grin spreading on his face.
Then Sven nudged Kristoff, urging him to look up. When he finally raised his head, his face lit up with hope.
Sora, Goofy, and Donald all held their breath, too. Everything was going to be okay!
“Anna! Elsa!” they shouted as they ran toward the sisters, until dark shadows caught them once again.
This wasn’t the same as last time, however. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were trapped within a black dome, and outside it, time came to a halt.
The one who stepped out of the darkness to confront them was Larxene.
“So, love has filled both their hearts with light,” she remarked, watching the two sisters, and then turned away. “Two in one world… Definitely didn’t see that coming.”
“First Marluxia, now you. What’s this all about?!” Sora asked as he stepped closer to Larxene. He couldn’t hide how frustrated he was.
“Oh, I see, so you bumped into Marluxia. Then why am I explaining this again? I told you before: the New Seven Hearts. If you mess up and don’t find your seven guardians of light, we’re gonna need another group to fall back on.”
“Leave innocent people out of it!”
What does Organization XIII even plan to accomplish by dragging Anna, Elsa, and Rapunzel into their little schemes? Sora was furious with them.
“Ohh, look at this tough guy. Such a big boy now. Well, maybe you should do your job, and find the other guardians of light,” Larxene taunted as she leaned forward and pointed at Sora.
This is getting so old! Quit bossing me around and ragging on me! “Please, like you’ve found your thirteen. The king said you’re one seeker of darkness short,” he retorted, remembering what Mickey had told them when he returned from the Sleeping Worlds. Even the true Organization XIII should be missing a member.
But Larxene’s mouth curled into a sneer. “Oh no, we’re set.”
“Huh?” he gasped. He wasn’t expecting that.
Larxene ignored him and vanished in a shroud of darkness without another word. The dome imprisoning them faded away, too.
“They have all thirteen?” Sora said to himself. “Then if we don’t find our seven, they’ll go after Elsa and Anna.”
The sisters were hugging each other joyfully after overcoming their many hardships.
Goofy and Donald walked over to the anxious Sora.
“It’ll be okay. They’re strong.”
“And now, it’s our turn!”
His two friends had stuck by him through thick and thin; they knew what they were talking about. “You’re right,” Sora said as he looked at the sisters. “They have each other.”
“Anna…”
“Oh, Elsa.”
The two embraced, reassured by each other’s safety.
“You sacrificed yourself for me?” Elsa took her younger sister’s hands in her own.
“I love you.” Anna returned Elsa’s gaze.
“An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart,” said Olaf in awe from off on the side.
“Love…will thaw. Love…,” Elsa repeated, then smiled as the pieces came together.
“Elsa?” Anna gave her a curious look.
“Of course. Love!” Elsa beamed at Anna, at her little sister who loved her more than she loved anyone else, and spread her arms wide.
What came from her hands this time was a warm breeze, which began to melt the ice.
The ice danced glittering and twinkling into the air, clearing the skies and thawing the frozen kingdom until it was restored in all its lush, verdant glory.
“Yes!” Sora, Donald, and Goofy cheered at the sight of Elsa and Anna standing side by side.
This world is gonna be just fine!
C’mon, guys. It’s time to go.
After Riku and Mickey had called them back to the Mysterious Tower, Sora, Donald, and Goofy had rushed straight over from Arendelle.
“It’s okay. You got here as fast as you could.” Mickey was already waiting for them there, with Riku right next to him.
The five of them and Yen Sid were happy to see one another again, but Sora got right down to business. “The Organization claims to have their thirteen darknesses.”
“Do we believe it’s true?” Mickey asked thoughtfully.
“Umm…I don’t know, but there’s something else they keep mentioning. They’re after a ‘New Seven Hearts,’ which seems to be code for ‘let’s go bother more princesses.’”
“Well, as the original princesses of hearts’ time for protecting the pure light has ended, they have passed the light to others. Our enemy must certainly be cognizant of this. If the ‘New Seven Hearts’ is what they wish to call it, then so be it,” Yen Sid added upon hearing Sora’s report.
Seven new princesses. He had met Rapunzel, Anna, and Elsa—
“But Kairi hasn’t passed on her power. Is she one of the new seven?” Sora asked uneasily.
“She must be. But still, she chose to wield a Keyblade and fight on with us as one of the guardians of light,” replied the king.
Kairi was currently training with Axel.
“Yeah…”
Kairi was both a princess and a guardian. The fact that she could use a Keyblade was reassuring, but with the way things were going, there was no telling when the Organization might choose to go after her.
While Sora was thinking to himself, Donald spoke up apologetically. “We haven’t found Terra yet.”
“Hey, at least we’ve tracked down Ventus. Vanitas told us that he’s in Sora’s heart,” Goofy said, informing the others about one of the discoveries they had made on their journey.
“And so did Ansem the Wise in his data, so it almost certainly must be true,” Jiminy chimed in.
While Ventus’s name was the only one mentioned in Ansem’s data, this finding could join with the other things they knew to bring them closer to the truth.
Mickey seemed pleased. “That’s great!” he said to Sora. “Now we can save Ven.”
“Maybe, except Aqua’s the only one who knows where he’s hidden,” Riku reminded them gravely. “We still have to find her first.”
Sora opened his mouth. “I’ll go,” he declared firmly.
Donald and Goofy shared a worried glance.
I’ll go. I have to save Aqua. But this feeling—does it come from Ventus?
“Is that wise?” Mickey asked uncertainly, but Yen Sid had the real question.
“You need the power of waking, Sora. Do you have it?”
“Uh…no? Probably not.” Sora looked at the floor, confused by his own heart.
“Without that power, you are not ready to face the realm of darkness,” the sorcerer told him sternly with a shake of his head.
“C’mon…”
Sora refused to back down. He may not have the power back, but he was well aware of how dangerous the realm of darkness was. Plus, his heart was calling out to him, telling him he had to help Aqua.
And then Riku let out a laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Sora asked him, visibly annoyed.
“Sorry. Master Yen Sid knows you a little too well. He said you’d try to stage a half-baked rescue,” Riku explained, still grinning.
Donald, Goofy, Jiminy, and Mickey all started laughing, too. Everyone knew how Sora was.
“Yeah! Laugh it up!”
Sora’s face fell, but then Riku continued, gentler this time. “Sora, I know you’re volunteering because you’re worried about me and Mickey.”
“Yeah…”
Riku laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Well, thanks. But the power of waking’s important. You can come to the rescue once you’ve got that. Sound fair?”
“Yeah. All right,” Sora replied, finally accepting what Riku was trying to say. I’m sure Ventus will understand, too. This just isn’t the right time. “But be safe. No reckless stunts,” he said, looking up at him.
Riku answered with a firm nod. “Yes, sir.”
The other three had been watching this exchange from a little bit away and started whispering among themselves.
“Sora’s the reckless one.”
“No, not exactly. He just doesn’t think.”
“If only he listened to Master Yen Sid the way he listens to Riku. That would be a good start.”
As Sora’s constant companions on his adventures, Donald, Jiminy, and Goofy knew him all too well.
“I’m listening now!” Sora warned them, turning around.
After everyone had a good laugh, Yen Sid looked over the assembled team and issued instructions. “Very good. Sora will continue his journey to build his powers, while Mickey and Riku will focus on the search for Aqua.”
“Yes, sir!” they all answered, their hearts and voices as one.
In the barren wasteland, dust swirled through the air amid thirteen stone columns.
“So, why are you back?” Marluxia asked.
“Nice way to greet your old partner in crime,” Larxene retorted, but Marluxia only laughed. “So, why do you think the old geezer took us back? He must know we backstabbed the Organization while Xemnas was running it.” Back in Castle Oblivion, Marluxia and Larxene had betrayed the Organization, but they were vanquished before they could realize their ambitions.
Marluxia calmly explained. “Xehanort doesn’t care about you or me. To him, we’re nothing but empty husks. The old Organization was the same. Xehanort needs thirteen vessels to hold his essence.”
“Husks? Not me,” Larxene complained. She never was good at taking orders. “You up for another coup?”
“Oh, please,” said a third voice. “You couldn’t do it last time. You gotta play it smart, like me.” Marluxia turned to see Demyx, the former number nine, standing on the next pillar over with a sitar in his hands.
“What?! You’re not smart!” snapped Larxene, slightly startled.
“Well, you heard what Marly said. I don’t have to be smart.” Demyx had always been known as a slacker since the days of the old Organization. He even had a nickname for Marluxia.
“Or capable, or likeable, or attractive. A cereal bowl would make a better vessel,” Larxene snapped, jabbing a finger in his direction.
But he didn’t seem to care; he just merely stopped playing his sitar for a moment to scratch his nose. “Whoa now, you are way out of line. I am extremely imposing…when I want to be. Which is, admittedly, almost never.”
Larxene still wasn’t having it. “Why haven’t you gone to any worlds? Are you slacking?”
“‘Course not. I got benched,” Demyx admitted coolly.
“Huh?”
Marluxia joined the conversation between them. “Saïx brought Vexen on board. They must be planning to use Replicas.”
“Those windup toys?” Larxene looked disgusted by the idea. In her opinion, the plan with the Riku Replica at Castle Oblivion was a total bust.
“Oh, no. The Replicas are way more real than you remember,” said Demyx. “I mean, one stole my spot!”
Larxene burst out laughing. He was worse than a Replica? “Of course it stole your spot. You’re dumb as a brick.”
“Har-dee-har,” Demyx muttered in a voice too soft to hear over Larxene’s cackling.
“Vexen’s latest Replicas are no mere puppets. The Riku Replica we used in Castle Oblivion was just a prototype. The next Replica, the one crafted from Sora’s memories, was real enough to join our ranks. And Vexen claims the new ones will be human in every way. If he ever finishes them.”
“Oh… The thing is…I kinda told Sora and his nitwits that we’re ready. My bad.”
Larxene had a tendency toward impulsive behavior—just like Demyx, actually.
Then a fourth member joined the meeting. “Let them believe as much,” a voice commanded as another Corridor of Darkness opened on a pillar.
“Ugh. Xemnas,” Larxene remarked with unbridled disgust.
Xemnas ignored her and kept on speaking. “If they think that we have all thirteen darknesses, then they will panic. And panic leads to a lack of preparation.”
“Yeah, totally.” It was hard to tell whether Demyx actually agreed, but he was clearly uninvested either way.
“Why is this thing a member again?” Larxene asked, aiming a finger at him again.
“Hey now! Pointing is rude,” Demyx retorted, still strumming his sitar.
“The first six members of the original Organization were all apprentices to Ansem the Wise, and the seventh and eighth members joined thereafter. The thirteenth member was Roxas, a Keyblade wielder. So. How about you? How do you suppose I chose numbers nine through twelve?”
Numbers VII and VIII were Saïx and Axel, respectively. Numbers IX through XII were, in order, Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene.
“Because our hearts are über powerful,” Larxene offered.
Xemnas shook his head. “Wrong. You have been brought together for another purpose.”
“What? So that we can rot away on the bottom rung?” The reply came from the darkness gathering on top of another, unoccupied pillar, and Luxord stepped out.
“You’re in, too? What is this, Organization Rehash?” Larxene said, rolling her eyes at the whole situation.
“I happen to play an important role. No one ‘benched’ me,” Luxord informed her.
“You were listening? So not cool,” commented Demyx as he tuned his sitar.
“One must hold one’s cards as long as necessary,” Luxord replied confidently. He closed his eyes for a moment.
But Larxene challenged him to show his hand. “What ‘important role’? That stupid box that Xigbar claims is real but won’t tell us a thing about?”
“You’ll just have to ask Xigbar about that. Now, then… Xemnas, what is this ‘purpose’? You didn’t invite us back for old times’ sake,” Luxord said, deftly playing with his cards.
“You four are going to reveal your greatest secret: the ancient Keyblade legacy that slumbers within you.”
All four of them gave Xemnas their attention.