All credit to respective owners!

P.S. Also my transcribing of this chapter to my new device from my old device was a bit... wonky so try to ignore and spaces and odd paragraph gaps that may occur during the chapter, I did my best to address them, but my editing skills are not top-tier. I hope you understand.

P.P.S. Constructive Criticism and Reviews of the same nature are appreciated!

-Y.A.R.N.

We wandered back to the first district to see Cid waiting for us and telling us that he had installed the navigation gummi in our ship. We all thanked him and he mentioned that the navigation gummi did lead us through a wormhole that would apparently lessen the distance between us and the new worlds that it was leading us to. We exchanged worried looks at that as we had no idea if wormhole required any adjustments or bolstering to our gummi-ship or needed some special shielding. Fortunately Cid told us he did a look-over of our ship and said it would handle the passage like a champ, the wormhole wasn't any more dangerous, it was simply a shortcut. It may be a bit of a shake and shudder, but it shouldn't rip our ship apart or something like that.

With that assurance given, we all got into the gummi ship and blasted off of from Traverse Town back into space. While Goofy set the auto-pilot to take us through the wormhole and to the next world, Donald decided to teach us one of the more defensive spells in case we needed to shield ourselves from more powerful attacks that were too much from just our keyblade or coming from our blind spot. Sora and I agreed almost immediately on the basis that the more defensive options we had, the better off we'd be in the long run. With that in mind Donald decided to show us the first tier of wind spells.

Donald demonstrated by raising his staff and shouting at the ceiling, "Wind!"

Almost immediately a miniature whirlwind rose up around the duck sorcerer's body and the winds formed a visible haze of rippling air. No not quite rippling but spinning around the duck as it tugged at our clothing and ruffled our hair. Donald offered to let us take a swing at the attack and Sora and I looked a bit apprehensive but complied. To our amazement, when we swung our keyblades, they glanced off the tornado of air that surrounded the duck sorcerer, keeping said duck safe from our attacks.

"Is that the novice level?" I inquired, gingerly pressing my hand against the air and finding it solid like an invisible wall before it pushed my hand to the side.

The duck sorcerer shook his head, "This is actually Aerora, the level below the Tier 3 spell Aeroga, which is usually the fastest to cast when in battle. You probably noticed some of your magic spells getting stronger, which means your spells probably have at least reached Tier 2 in potency, but new spells will usually start at the Tier 1 level and grow alongside usage. Aero as a defensive spell won't be able to block really powerful attacks, but at the very least it can blunt them and deflect some of the weaker attacks; as it grows, it defends against more."

"Is there more than Tier 3?" Sora inquired curiously.

Donald nodded, "Tier 4 spell are similar to command styles that repeated usage of a Tier 3 spell will make it easier to build up the magic necessary for a Tier 4 version of that spell. Your magic isn't strong enough to sustain a Tier 4 magic spell yet, that's something you just have to train and practice for. There are even higher levels, but they are really strong and'll knock out a user for hours."

"Like..?" I prompted.

Donald looked at the floor and muttered, "Flares."

I blinked, "What tier are those?"

Donald shook his head, "Don't ask. It's not a spell I will ever show unless there's no choice. Flare is already a cut above simple fire spells, Megaflare is even more powerful and is like a explosion, Terraflare could burn someone to ashes, and Zettaflare... there wouldn't be a trace left, no ashes, no nothing. Devastating, but not just to an enemy, the price you'd pay for those spells would leave weaker magicians comatose, and others utterly exhausted to the point of total collapse."

I looked at the firm expression on Donald's face and shrugged, it was his choice ultimately. If Donald — official sorcerer of a kingdom — wasn't going to teach us spells of that caliber, then there was probably a very, very, VERY good reason.

Ah well, thoughts for a later date.

"Wind!" I shouted as I raised my keyblade.

I panted as I recovered after a trying session of failed wind casting.

Which made all too frustrating that Sora was having a much easier time with wind magic than I was. I personally felt it was because Sora himself was a free spirit, he went where he wanted and did what he felt was right. Though Sora was allowing himself a bit of fun as he would send swirls of wind to different areas of the room, a large smile on his face. Sora had asked that I try it out — with everything I had — after he formed his own Aero barrier and I swung my keyblade at the barrier of wind as hard as I could, only for it to crash through the wind shield. I shouted a warning and tried to pull back and adjust my attack as Sora let out a squawk of surprise and was sent down skidding as the flat of my keyblade struck him in the side. Sora had glared at me as I tried to apologize about hitting him.

Wind magic — even in Tier 1 form — was difficult to keep in the shape of a all-around shield even if 'visualizing' and feeling the wind wasn't hard. On the island it would caress your face and dance through your clothing, each breath taken was you pulling air into your lungs. The problem was, air was never meant to be contained or held in place, it wanted to swirl through the air, gamboling playfully through wherever it arrived.

Then again, maybe I was going about my usage wrong, Sora was able to form a aero barrier after just a few tries.

I was trying to compress the wind to stay stay still around me — to solidify — but that wasn't at all what Donald had showed us. His barrier had the wind whip around him like a tornado and he was the eye of the storm. Maybe I didn't need to dam it up and hold it but to let it flow and just direct the movement.

I closed my eyes and thrust my keyblade into the sky with a shout of "Wind!"

This time, I tugged at the air to move it around me, spiraling and winding like a spring. I tried to picture the image of a spinning top except that it was hollow in the middle. I opened my eyes and saw the wind swirling around me to from a barrier and sighed in relief. Magic was pretty tricky at times, but it was rewarding to be able to pull off when it was finally finished.

Sora and I sparred a bit before Donald called us up as we were approaching the wormhole, Sora and I both dashed up the stairs to see the spiral purple cloud-like energy that was the opening of the wormhole. I quickly sat down and strapped myself down, Sora hurrying to do the same as the opening drew closer and closer. Right before we hit it, I squeezed my eyes shut, gripped the armrests of my seat, and clenched my teeth behind my lips. I was ready for the impact of entering the portal.

The ship entered and immediately the ship shook and shuddered as the portal's energy dug at the ship's mild shielding. When it stopped however, and alarm began to blare through the ship's system.

"Oh no!" Goofy cried, "An asteroid field!"

To my distress, he was absolutely right about that, apparently the wormhole cut through some sort of asteroid field and we were now somewhere in the middle of moving meteors.

Donald immediately began to run to the front of the ship and grabbed the controls, "We need someone on the guns!"

"Guns?!" I yelped as we began to weave through the rocks flying past us, "We have guns?" Sora's seat suddenly swiveled to the side with Sora letting out a surprised shout, "Wha —"

A single stick with two triggers and a screen popped up in front of him as it showed a targeting reticule and a view of the front of the ship.

"Press the front button for forward lasers!" quacked Donald in a panic, "The button on top for homing rockets!"

Sora began to tug on the stick as he blasted rocks around them so Donald wouldn't have to do and excessively fancy flying so the asteroid wouldn't pummel us and blow up our gummi ship. Every second seemed to be a minute as I kept my eyes shut against the barrage of rocks, I may have known how to fly a gummi ship through the basics of a smooth flight, but there was no way I would be able to pull off the maneuvers that Donald was doing. Either way, it seemed that Sora, Donald, and Goofy had everything covered as best as they could and that there was no need for me to do anything other than hang onto my seat and pray.

After what seemed like an eternity of exploding rocks, upside-downies, and various frantic shouts (which probably shaved years off my life), we cleared the rocks and our navigation gummi indicated that the exit to the world was coming up. I breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that we wouldn't have to go through that sort of experience ever again. I sighted the orange exit portal and Donald skillfully maneuvered our craft into the portal and after a jarring shudder, we were suddenly in front of a new world. We brought our gummi ship to hover over the world and were teleported down onto the world below.

The world was basically a sandstorm waiting to happen if a moderately strong gust of wind managed to get enough traction, if you asked my opinion. We had barely crossed into the city gates when several heartless materialized out of thin air. While there were the vanguard of regular shadows, there were now heartless that looked like desert bandits equipped with scimitars and vests, turban included. We dropped into our stances and braced ourselves as the heartless converged on us. I ducked away from a sword aiming to decapitate me and thrust Abaddon Plasma into the heartless gut before ducking away from a shadow trying to tackle me. Goofy blocked a blade from slashing him and used his Tornado technique to send several bandit heartless flying into their fellows. Donald fired off a round of blizzard magic that froze the bandit heartless solid as Sora shattered them with a round of Strike Raid. I frowned as I dismissed my keyblade and the remnants of the heartless that were frozen melted into shadows.

"Didn't expect a welcoming committee to greet us right out the ship..." I muttered dryly.

Sora looked around, looking a bit wary, "I can feel the darkness is a bit stronger here... but it feels almost... controlled?"

"Do you think Maleficent could be here?" Goofy questioned as he looked around, "She has been controlling the heartless for a while right?"

Donald brandished his staff, "She'd better not be for her sake!"

I didn't know how to answer, it was possible with the fact that she had control over the heartless, but she was supposed to be steeped in darkness, able to drown a world in it. While there was a level of intensity to the darkness here that was a cut above we had seen before, it was nothing like I would expect from someone with that power. If it was her, we would be able to handle it, but if it wasn't her? It just emphasized how much stronger we had to get if we wanted to save the worlds.

"I don't know," I said as I looked down the street, "but I think it'd be better to stay on guard just in case, we don't know what we might face."

No one seemed to argue with that and we all walked down the street, towards what seemed to be a marketplace. I got the distinct impression that it would usually be bustling with how the wares were all set to be sold, but it seemed like the people had cleared out in a hurry, not caring if they left their stuff behind to be stolen. Our group all glanced around only to immediately drop into our battle stances as more bandit heartless materialized to attack us. One jumped a foot into the air before rolling through the air at us with his blade like a yoyo. I brought my keyblade up to block the strike but was nearly bowled over from the force of the attack. I managed to push myself to the side and out of the way of the attack and aimed my keyblade at him before casting a blizzard spell that blasted it into oblivion.

If the heartless appeared and began to attack people at random, it would explain why the people cleared out and were now in hiding.

Sora ducked and leapt away from the swings and twisted out fo the way of a bandit's heavy overhand swing only to slash the heartless in the back. Donald blasted a heartless out of the air with a cast of Fira and Goofy knocked another into the air as a setup for Donald. With our combined teamwork, we quickly cleared the marketplace of heartless and waited to see if anymore surprised waited for us. After a few seconds we straightened and dismissed our weapons, feeling the moment for battle pass. We headed left at the market seeing as the right led to a dead end and in front of use was the seemingly empty area of some large doorway, probably some sort of castle gate. As we walked to the left, I frowned at the dead end when a voice called out.

"Hello? Who's there?" A feminine voice asked timidly.

A rather beautiful woman with tanned skin, lustrous raven hair, golden jewelry, and light blue garments stepped out from behind some boxes as she gave us a once over. She looked scared if anything, sure the heartless were around and we weren't exactly cool in the heated desert, but she looked like she had been watching over her shoulder for someone the entire time and was beginning to truly tire of it. We introduced ourselves when I asked why she was hiding out here, she explained that she was the daughter and princess of the former sultan and that her father had been deposed by his royal vizier, Jafar. Apparently, this Jafar guy had apparently gained evil powers and then used his newfound abilities to overthrow the Sultan and then put the city on lockdown so Jasmine couldn't escape the city without notice. She didn't disclose exactly why he wanted her so badly, but judging by the fact she was genuinely gorgeous and young, I was sure it wasn't anything containing goodwill.

"He's been desperately looking for something - something he called the 'Keyhole'." She informed us.

We all inhaled sharply, that was not good news; if Jafar was searching for the keyhole and he was the one directing the heartless - which was entirely plausible since the guy seemed like he was more interested in power and domination rather than actually ruling fairly - then he could drown the world in darkness. He had apparently tried to keep Jasmine prisoner, but she was helped by some guy who had apparently gone to the desert to take care of something.

"Oh, I do hope Aladdin's alright..." She fretted.

"Aladdin?" A smarmy voice interrupted, "Where might I find this street rat?"

We looked up to the ledge on our left to see a tall man with a mustache and goatee and dressed in red and black regal robes and had turban wrapped around his head. In his hand was a snake-headed staff which eyes glowed an ominous red as he gave us a superior-geared once over and scoffed. He gave us a disgusted look, and promptly focused on Jasmine with a sleazy smirk.

"Jasmine," He drawled as his tone turned more patronizing, "allow me to find you more... suitable company, my dear princess. These little rats won't do you see."

Sora gestured his hand towards the bazaar, "Jasmine, run!"

Jasmine paused to nod, give Jafar a half-disgusted, half-angry look and then bolt down the way we came. Our group dropped into our respective stances as we eyed Jafar, waiting for him to make the first move.

"Ah," Jafar hummed as he saw our weapons, "The ones who hold the key..."

With a small 'hmph' of dismissal, he swept away and headed towards the bazzar from the ledge he was standing on. We twitched towards him but three bandit heartless swirled into existence and blocked the way as a shadow heartless suddenly began to pile random bits of garbage to block the doorway. We quickly tore our way through the heartless but it was simply too late for us to pursue, Jafar was gone and Jasmine was out of sight as well. In all fairness, it was probably for the best that Jasmine wasn't with us, she wouldn't have been able to escape while leading all four of us behind her. We got back to the bazaar only to find more heartless to contend with; we fought our way back to the city gates and decided to backtrack to the city outskirts in the hope we would gain a bit of a reprieve from the battles. The heat of the world as well as the waves of heartless were far more tiring than any of us thought.

The endless expanse of the desert yawned before us and I gulped uncomfortably at the thought of even trying to cross any distance through that lifeless wasteland.

Just then, we heard a fluttering in the wind like a banner that was dancing in the air. We all looked up towards the noise to see a literal carpet flying towards us, I blinked and rubbed at my eyes. I expected to think it was some sort of hallucination but the carpet landed on its 'feet' and seemed to be expecting us to do something as it waited.

"Um..." I began, "Can we help you?"

The carpet jumped up and down in what I supposed was excitement, so I took that as a yes.

"You want us to ride you somewhere?" Sora queried.

The carpet began to hop excitedly again and with a shrug we all boarded the carpet and took of with amazing speed towards the vast desert.