Rating: Rated T for violence, minor suggestive content, and dark themes.

Disclaimer: I own none of the locations or characters depicted here.

"Does anybody live up there?"

Cinderella stopped walking and glanced up, brushing aside a strawberry-blonde lock of hair that had fallen out of place. The voice belonged to a little girl standing on the drawbridge. She pointed up at Sleeping Beauty Castle, above the sparkling gray stones of the lower walls, to the higher floors and turrets walled in rose-pink. Her mother shook her head and continued to pull her along, towards the archway that led through the castle and into served as the entrance to Fantasyland.

"No, honey," she said. "It's not real."

The blonde Princess couldn't help the frown that crept onto her face. Someone did, in fact, live inside the Sleeping Beauty Castle: Princess Aurora. She, Cinderella, and many of the other Disney characters inhabited the Park, all of them very much alive and real. This woman, however, was doing nothing to help her daughter's belief. And that was what all the characters relied upon. That's what kept them there.

"Bigger on the inside, realer than it seems," Cinderella murmured.

She straightened out some wrinkles in her silvery-blue skirt and kept walking, down the path away from the castle. On her right were dense trees, on her left was a black metal railing barring the slope down into the castle's moat. The crowded Hub of the Park was before her; she could see the Partners statue above the heads of the people around it, Walt Disney and Mickey facing away from her. Cinderella had known Walt; she'd been in the Park since its very beginning. But he'd been gone for a long, long time.

"Oh, look who it is! Cinderella! Come join us!"

The Princess winced as a feeling of dread settled into her stomach. She knew that voice. It was the last one she wanted to hear at the moment. It was clear, however, that there was no escape for her, so she put on a smile and turned around.

Ariel stood by the moat with a line of guests waiting beside her. She tossed back her long waves of brilliantly red hair and beckoned to Cinderella again. There was a glint of something in her sea-blue eyes. She had the other Princess cornered and she knew it. Cinderella walked over to stand beside her, her heels clicking on the sidewalk, and smiled graciously at the children arrayed before her.

It didn't take long for Ariel to get to the point. In Cinderella's experience, it rarely did. Between signing autograph books and taking photos, the redhead whispered, "I was just on my way to the other Park. My ride is so popular."

"I've heard."

"Have you been on it yet?"

Cinderella was careful to keep her gaze away. "No. I haven't."

"Oh, you should! They really outdid themselves. My hair actually looks like it's floating." Ariel brushed her fingers against a lock of her own real hair with a fond smile. When Cinderella didn't respond, she continued, "You know, it's really helped support the Mouse's decision to put me in charge of California Adventure instead of one of those Pixar characters."

Cinderella knew exactly where the conversation was going. It was always about the Council with Ariel lately. Always about making sure she was in charge and that everyone knew it. And Cinderella hadn't missed her comment about the "support" the ride was giving her. It was a blow she'd been using on the blonde Princess with increasing frequency since the attraction opened a few months before. Mickey had given Cinderella the position as head of the Fantasyland representatives from the Council's founding years ago, even though she only had a recently installed shop as a tie to the Park.

"I don't know why you don't just give the job to Peter."

Despite Ariel's breezy tone, the words spoken without malice, it still felt like a blow. The soft, smiling façade Cinderella had kept up throughout the conversation faltered and she took a deep breath to right herself. Without so much as glancing at Ariel, she flashed another smile that held no trace of her pain at the guests and said, "Excuse me, please."

She walked away and around the Hub, keeping her chin up. As she walked, she let the pixie dust enchanting her gown change into something more suitable. Her blue dress melted away in a shower of soft, golden sparks and was replaced with a knee-length brown jumper dress over a pale blue blouse. The glass slippers on her feet shifted into a pair of canvas flats. Her strawberry-blonde hair was pulled back with a blue ribbon, keeping the thick, shoulder length waves away from her sun-kissed, heart-shaped face. None of the guests around her noticed. They never did, not when she didn't want them to. That was the magic of the Park. To them, she appeared to be no more than a normal, nineteen-year-old guest… albeit one with a striking resemblance to a certain Princess. After fifty odd years of living within Disneyland's walls, she'd learned that the only way to hide was to forgo the gown and don street clothes instead.

She slipped into the crowd and followed them through the rough wooden gates to Frontierland, around the Rivers of America, before finally sneaking away upon reaching New Orleans Square. Once she was sure no one was watching too closely, she crept over to one of the doors and knocked three times. Several moments passed before door opened a fraction of the way.

"That you, Cindy?" a voice asked from inside.

"Yes, it's me." Cinderella kept her eyes on the crowd to make sure no one was watching. "Is this a bad time?"

Tiana pulled the door open wider and shook her head. "No. No, your timing's perfect. I was just going back to the restaurant. The apartment'll be yours for a couple hours, if you want it."

Cinderella smiled in relief. "Thank you, Tiana."

"It's no problem. Really." She stepped out onto the porch. Hands on her hips, she gave Cinderella a questioning look. "Was it fish girl again?"

Cinderella's blue eyes lowered. "It's not–"

"Don't say it's not important because it is. She's getting out of control." Tiana rolled her eyes and jerked her thumb towards the stairs behind her. "Go on in."

As Tiana walked out into the Square, Cinderella went up. The stairs ended in a hallway that stretched out over the street below. Windows looked out onto the crowd from either side. She wasn't worried about guests seeing her; they didn't know anything was up there. Most days she thought it was better that way.

Cinderella was still firmly engrossed in a novel when Tiana finally came back to the apartment. Belle had recommended the book to Cinderella, and she'd been avoiding her for days while she tried to finish it. Better that than face the agitated sighs and complaints of, "it's not that long," that she knew she'd receive otherwise. Desperate as she was to finish it, she barely noticed the door open.

"Park's closed," Tiana said.

Cinderella glanced up at the window with a start, and upon seeing the dark sky jumped halfway out of her seat.

"Has it been that long?"

Tiana rolled her eyes. "You're really not good with time, are you?"

Cinderella flushed. Once she caught sight of what Tiana was wearing, her expression faded into one of surprise. At her change in demeanor, Tiana indicated the gown that she'd changed into and said, "The Mouse wants to see us."

"All of us?" Cinderella closed the book. "What happened?"

Tiana shrugged. "He didn't say. I'd get changed if I were you, Cindy. Mickey might have patience, but I know some who do not." She hurried out, the green hem of her gown rustling over the carpet, leaving Cinderella alone.

The blonde girl sighed and put down the book, making a mental note to come back for it later. After taking a deep breath, she screwed her eyes shut and let the familiar tingling sensation rush over her. It always made her nose itch a little. When she opened her eyes again and turned towards the mirror, she was head to glass-covered foot the Princess everyone expected. Satisfied that she was in order, the girl left the apartment.

New Orleans Square was abandoned when Cinderella stepped out the door and onto the street. The lights on the French Quarter-style buildings were all dimmed. It was unsurprising for the area and the time, but it was still unsettling. Between the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction and the Haunted Mansion, it was enough to worry all but the very bravest. The heels of her glass shoes clinked against the ground as she walked down the street and she cast a nervous glance around at the deep shadows that surrounded her. She told herself over and over that she was just being paranoid. Nothing was going to jump out at her.

There was the whisper of fabric rustling over the ground behind her, and Cinderella turned just in time to see a shadowy figure vanish around a corner. A sense of wrongness filled the air; one that she was sure didn't come from fear. It was something dark, something evil. She hesitated for a moment before following them. It didn't take long for her to realize that, whoever it was, they were fast. She never got more than a glimpse of their shadow before they were gone again. Soon she had to start running just to see that much. Her feeling of foreboding grew with every moment and she couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly, horribly wrong.

As she dashed around the corner, her foot caught on something and she went sprawling. Her shoes flew off her feet. She winced, expecting to hear them shatter as they hit the ground. Instead, she heard nothing but a soft clink. Startled, she looked around.

Nearby, the figure of a man was attempting to melt away into the shadows. Before he could, she caught a glimpse of a wide-brimmed hat on his head. Pirates. She'd first seen the shadow near Pirates. That was it!

She pushed herself to her feet and started after him, crying, "Hook!"

"Guess again, love."

His voice was low with a self-assured and taunting edge. So, it wasn't Hook. Then who–

Cinderella actually stopped, blinking in disbelief.

"Jack Sparrow?"

He turned to face her and, sure enough, there he was. Smirking at her. "There should be a Captain in there somewhere."

Her shock quickly turned to anger, and she shouted, "Sparrow, give me back my slippers!"

"Afraid I can't do that, love." He spun one delicate shoe around his finger, tossed it in the air, and caught it before it could hit the pavement.

Cinderella grabbed fistfuls of her skirt and ran at him. He took off with almost inhuman speed, racing through the rest of New Orleans Square and Frontierland. The pirate was already halfway to Main St. before she'd even crossed the bridge leading to the Hub. Her bare feet slapped against the ground as she put on speed. She had to catch him. He had her slippers.

When she reached the edge of Main St., she froze. The hem of her skirt slid back to the ground with a heavy rustle. There was no one on the street. Not a soul. How had he gotten away so fast? And where had he gone? Unless he'd left the Park entirely, heading out into the rest of the resort, there was nowhere else to go from Main St. She tore down the road, searching frantically left and right for any sign of him. Nothing. She spun around. As before, the street was still. At this point, she couldn't afford to leave the Park to keep looking. There wasn't time. Not when the Council was expecting her.

Her arms hung limp at her sides and she sunk to her knees on the cold pavement. This time she hadn't just lost a shoe. No, she'd lost both.

The meeting was already underway by the time Cinderella arrived in the castle's Great Hall. It was an enormous room with gray stone walls. The dark wooden floor covered in a large purple rug woven with designs of stylized roses. Huge arched windows looked down on Fantasyland on one side, and onto the Hub on the other. At the center of the room was a wooden table shaped like a gigantic ring that the rest of the Disneyland Council was already sitting around. A few looked up as she entered, but most were too caught up in the discussion at hand to pay her any attention. Tiana gave her a concerned look as Cinderella made her way to her seat. The blonde shook her head. She'd talk later.

"There is something happening to the Mansion's residents," Jack Skellington said from further down the table. "We've already had to lock Constance in the attic. They're getting violent. It's not safe."

Tarzan quickly cut in, "And it's not just the spirits. Trader Sam says the animals on the river are getting skittish–"

"He makes everyone skittish," Ariel said, rolling her eyes. There were murmurs of agreement around the table. At the red-head's left, Belle shook her head and went back to reading her book.

"I went in myself," Tarzan continued, "and he's right; something's scaring them."

"It might be unrelated," Woody pointed out.

The entire table descended into argument. Some of the characters seemed convinced that the two occurrences were connected, while others insisted that everything happening was just a coincidence. The Pumpkin King shouted above the rest of the voices that there had to be a logical explanation for what was going on.

"There is something on the wind."

Everyone abruptly stopped talking and looked, as one, at Pocahontas. The woman stood. To the bemused Council before her she said, "The animals are growing skittish, as are the spirits. I've felt something coming from the corners of the Park. There is darkness there."

"It could be the Villains."

Groans went up around the table.

"Well, why not?" Ariel asked them all with a shrug. "Have they ever done anything before?"

Silence. A few people shook their heads.

Satisfied, she went on, "And what if they try to take this Park? What if they try to take my Park, too?"

"Your Park?" Woody scoffed. "It belongs more to the Pixar characters than it does to you."

"Why, you–"

The table descended, once again, into chaos. Ariel was the loudest, her red hair flying and her pale hands pressed flat against the tabletop. Cinderella sighed and leaned her chin into her hand as she rested her arm against the tabletop. She rubbed one bare foot against the other, not used to the slippers' absence. Nothing about this argument was new; this bickering over California Adventure always seemed to crop up. Mickey quickly interrupted, waving his gloved hands for silence.

"Please. Enough. If it is the villains, we should be figuring out what they're doing instead of arguing."

He shot Ariel a look. She angrily blew her bangs out of her face, dropped back down into her seat, and crossed her arms.

The rest of the characters quickly set about divvying up responsibilities. Some of them would look into the more vulnerable areas of the Park. Only one problematic area remained.

"We have no eyes inside Pirates of the Caribbean," Mary Poppins eventually pointed out. "If there were an area they would strike, I'm sure it's there."

"Can't we just ask one of the pirates if the bad guys were in there?" Pooh asked, gesturing with one honey-covered paw.

Woody rolled his eyes. "We could, if Sparrow ever decided to show up." He looked pointedly at the one empty seat at the table, the one between Tiana and Tarzan.

"Pirates," Peter muttered darkly from Cinderella's right.

"He never leaves his ride," someone else said.

Cinderella looked away. Not once since Mickey had invited him onto the Council as a representative for Pirates had Jack Sparrow shown up. And nobody had seen him out in several years. They were right: he didn't leave his ride.

So why had he come outside only minutes before? And what did he want with her shoes?

"Right now, we need to focus on what we do have." Mickey pointed across the table at each character in turn as he called to them. "Tarzan, Jasmine, keep a close watch on Adventureland. Tiana, Woody, Pocahontas, the same goes for New Orleans Square and Frontierland. Jack, keep any of the ghosts that turn dark quarantined and tell me immediately if they do. Everybody else should be on the lookout for anything suspicious. You're dismissed."

The characters all started to file out of the hall. Cinderella was one of the last to leave. She glanced over her shoulder. Mickey was talking quietly to Tinker Bell. Deep down, she knew she should have told him about the pirate. Instead she squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and left the castle. She would get those shoes back herself.