Title: We're All Mad Here
Full Synopsis: Xemnas is gone. The rest of the Organization, however, is back, with Marluxia at its head. Naminé has also come back unexpectedly...but it may have something to do with the fact that Kairi, along with Riku and Sora, are being held hostage by the Organization. She doesn't know what to do, when suddenly she falls...down a rabbit hole? The Organization has cooked up something dreadfully mad this time, and Naminé must find her way through this dark Wonderland while still retaining her sanity, knowing that not only could Kingdom Hearts be at stake, but the lives of the people she cares about the most.
Rating: T - for language, violence, and some slightly sexual content. (Meaning, a certain pervertedness from both Axel and Marluxia.)
Pairings: Naminé/Repliku. A bit of Naminé/Axel and Naminé/Roxas, but even less of the latter. One-sided Marluxia/Naminé. Also, on the side, Sora/Kairi. But all in all, this is not a romance fanfic, though there is romance in there. If you don't like any of those pairings, don't read this, please! Or rather, you can read it if you like, just don't flame me for the pairings that I choose. Once again, this is not really about the romance, and as there are so few mushy bits I don't think it really matters all that much.
Disclaimers: Mine. Totally mine. No, honestly, I wouldn't even be writing a fanfiction if I owned Kingdom Hearts. So, I don't own Kingdom Hearts, nor do I own the concept of Wonderland - that belongs to Lewis Caroll. The plot idea, however, that's mine. Nothing else do I own. Ideas for the Organization's Wonderland are taken from the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland, and some ideas are even spurned from the computer game American McGee's Alice. None of those belong to me, otherwise...? I'd be filthy stinkin' rich.
Prologue
"What are we going to do now?"
The question was ringing in the air about every five seconds. Not one member had a clue - with the Superior out of the picture permanently, the air was thick with uncertainty…well, as much uncertainty as a Nobody could manage to muster up.
The question was announced once again from a frail, slender Nobody with violently red hair and catlike green eyes. They were narrowed at the authoritative figure of the room, whose hood was up. The one standing on a little white chair in the little white room with the little drawings on the walls as the only color. The red-haired man folded his arms across his thin chest, his lips pursed.
The hooded figure paused, glancing around the room. True, he'd betrayed them all once before - and he counted ten of them there, besides himself - but they'd all had their fair share of lies and deceit and treachery, hadn't they? Especially Eight. Why, Eight had no right to glare at him so - teaming up with the Keybearer? Unthinkable. Unheard of. But it had been done, yet here he was, among them, as if he didn't have that ounce of good inside him.
Well, the good certainly wasn't showing itself now, and it probably wasn't about to. Only under extreme circumstances did Eight allow his will to crumble to the light. Darkness still reigned in the little white room.
All of them, the whole of the Organization…they were looking at the hooded figure as if he were their last hope for survival. Well…he was. After all, he was the one who had brought them all back. And he'd done more than that, which they were about to witness.
"What are we going to do now?" The hooded figure repeated the heated inquiry, casually tugging off his black hood, revealing dusty, rose-colored locks and cold, ice blue eyes. "That, indeed, is a very good question."
At that moment, the door to the white room slowly creaked open, and inside stepped two figures.
One was in a black cloak, but his hood was down, revealing a teenage boy with blonde hair and light blue eyes, and a strangely vague expression. The authoritative figure of the room heard the redhead's little intake of breath and smiled coldly.
The other was a young man with long, silvery hair and teal eyes. An exact replica of the Keybearer's best friend. He stared coolly around the room, seemingly unnerved, almost sneering.
Marluxia continued to smile at the room.
"I propose…we play a game."
-
Marluxia was, much to the unpleasant surprise of some of the older members, in charge of the Castle Oblivion again. But after all, he did have a point - he had brought them back.
He called a meeting in Vexen's laboratory. Some members were intrigued for what he was going to say - what a way to end their last meeting, "I propose we play a game"; others were blatantly hostile, believing the Organization was going to be permanently stamped out should Marluxia lead them.
The circled the Graceful Assassin, preparing themselves for what he had to say.
"As you know," Eleven began when the rustle of cloaks fell silent, in his usual roundabout manner, "we were once great."
"Were we?" Axel muttered under his breath. Marluxia pretended not to hear.
"But along came that blasted Keybearer."
Several ill-tempered grunts came from some of the cloaked members, shaking their heads in remembrance of what the almighty Keybearer had done to them. He'd permanently wiped out Superior, that much was certain, as Marluxia had been unable to get him back. But, along that same train of thought…how did the Graceful Assassin even raise the rest of them up from the darkness? He was a mysterious man, that much was certain.
The pink-haired man raised a hand, and the room went silent. "Yes, the Keybearer. He and his little friend who would not submit to the darkness inside of him, that Riku, along with that Princess of Heart Kairi." And at the mention of Kairi's name, Marluxia couldn't but remember the little witch who'd once lived inside Castle Oblivion, with him, and he didn't bother to suppress a slight, cold smirk. "But as you can see…Roxas is among us."
He extended a graceful arm, pointing to the blonde figure with a stony expression set upon his face, whom Axel was standing beside.
"What might that mean?" Marluxia continued on. "One cannot exist without the other, yet here Roxas is, separated from him. What, oh what, might that mean…?"
"It means," the Luna Diviner murmured from the group, "that Sora is somehow out of the picture."
Marluxia's smile spread. "Exactly."
The Freeshooter gave a short whistle. "Eh, Marly, how'd ya manage that?"
The Assassin waved his hand nonchalantly. "Another day," he breezed. "You'll hear that story another day. Nonetheless, Sora is apprehended." He gave a short gesture to the figure standing beside the Chilly Academic, the replicated figure of a silver-haired boy. "And Riku has also been suppressed. How else could Vexen be able to gather the data to re-create his little doll's heart?"
"And the Princess?" the Gambler of Fate interrupted, arching a brow. "Has she been subdued?"
Marluxia nodded once.
"Then…where is Naminé?" the Cloaked Schemer inquired quietly, steeping the tips of his fingers and gazing over the tops of them unblinkingly.
"Ah…this is where the game begins."
A glance went exchanged all around the room. "You mean…you don't have her?" the Melodious Nocturne said uncertainly, looking anxious.
For some reason, at that, the Replica's face hardened, as did Roxas'.
"No, he doesn't," Vexen answered for Marluxia, his face already glowing with the prospect of another experiment. "But this is because of an experiment I will be conducting…with all of your help, every one of you." He gestured around the room.
The Savage Nymph snorted. "If you think I'm going to be a guinea pig for you, old man, you've got another thing coming."
Marluxia arched a pale pink brow. "We're all going to be test subjects, including Vexen himself. Hold your tongue, Larxene."
The blonde scowled at Marluxia, but turned her head away. She knew better than to argue with the one in charge…for now.
"So tell us, Vexen - what's this experiment you're preparing us for?" The Flurry was staring at Marluxia when he asked the question, however.
"Let me put it this way…" The Academic leaned forward. "Have any of you ever been to Wonderland?"
A few of them nodded, by now utterly confused.
"Well…our little Naminé's going to fall down a rabbit hole into our Wonderland. But she's going to have a fighting chance to get back out again. The weakest and the most frail of all the Nobodies, and she has a sporting chance to save the Keybearer, his friends, and get out alive. This is an experiment that I'm testing out - what happens when one little girl faces everything she fears?
"I call it… Operation Madness."
A/N: I realize there's a lot of unexplained stuff in the prologue, but of course not everything's going to be explained simply in the prologue! You'll have to wait and see in future chapters what happens.
R&R please! (as a note, the chapters are hopefully going to be a lot longer than the prologue)
-WinterLoveSong