A/N: For those of you picking this back up from the first post, I revised the ending of the first chapter. It's not plot-changing, but it was a nit-picky thing that I changed. Plus I like it a little better. (It'll be referred to here.)
I think I read this chapter a million times, and I still don't like the editing. Perhaps I'm just being picky, though. Tell me what you think?
P.S. - I've started to get a little gory with this one. Just a warning. C:
A Small Dream
Chapter 2 – The Alices
Kairi rolled over in the dirt, her body stiff and sore. Where was she?
As she lifted herself from the ground, she felt dead leaves crinkle and fall from her hair and back. She tugged on the fabric of a scarlet dress that she was wearing. What the hell was going on?
She almost felt sad that the white apron tied to her waist had already been soiled with dirt before she'd even seen the dress clean, but that thought was quickly dismissed with a quickening of fear. Wasn't she just on a bus ride with Riku and Sora? Her head swung to the left and then to the right, but no one was there. Just Kairi and the trees.
Kairi scrambled to her feet as she surveyed the area. The woods were empty of human life. With nothing else to do, she walked forward with no sense of direction. "Riku!... Sora!..." She knew her cries were in vain, but she had to try.
As she quieted her cries for a moment to catch her breath, a realization dawned upon her. Naminé's constant train of thoughts that Kairi was usually blocking out subconsciously were gone. Kairi's knees almost buckled her as she felt immense grief. Half of her own soul was missing. Just maybe, this was a horrible dream. It had to be.
Tears began to run down Kairi's face in a mix of fear and sorrow. She had to find Sora and Riku to find the way back home. She'd been to many different worlds before, but she had a horrible feeling about this one.
Riku awoke to find an unfamiliar man staring straight into his eyes. Riku gave a startled yelp, which surprised the man who was analyzing him from above.
"Are you alright, young sir?"
Riku blinked hard, and then again. What was he doing just before this? Wasn't he trying to take a bus to the main island?
The complexity of the situation hit him hard as he suddenly swooped to a sitting position. He regretted the decision after he'd done so—the world spun in dizzy circles around him. "You don't look okay—sir?..." Riku's vision faded and blacked to nothing.
When he reopened his eyes, he found himself on a mattress. What was going on? He sat up, slower this time round and took a look at his surroundings. He seemed to be in a bedroom, but it was as basic as one could get—just the bed and a vanity. He swiveled himself to jump off the bed. When he looked at his pants, he realized, those were definitely not the clothes he put on this morning.
He rose to look at himself in the vanity mirror. He donned a green tailcoat, and underneath he wore a white button vest. A matching green-patterned ascot was wrapped around his neck, though it was coming undone in Riku's ruffled state. He looked down to peer at the charcoal dress pants he was wearing. His feet were dressed in dark slacks—and he found the black shoes he was missing neatly lined up by the door.
Of all clothes, why these? Riku had worn some crazy stuff back in the day, but nothing so… fancy. It was weird and not to mention uncomfortable.
As he was tugging the annoying ascot off, the door creaked open. A young but voluptuous woman dressed in a red evening gown approached Riku. "How are you doing my dear?"
Her voice was elegant but had a sharp edge to it. Riku immediately didn't trust her. "I'm fine," he replied, "Just a little tired."
"You poor boy!" She reached out to cup his chin in her palm, in which Riku instinctually backed away from. Maleficent had loved to do that. Her hand withered back to her side. "Perhaps some dinner will give you some energy. Meet me down at the dining room at six o' clock." She turned to leave, but twisted on her heel to look at Riku once more. "I am Meiko, by the way—Meiko Sakane."
"Riku." It was all that was needed. She was gone in that moment, down the steps to attend to some other business.
Sora awoke to a similar situation, finding himself in a strange bed. As a sigh left his lips, he heard shuffling from nearby. "Are you awake?" Sora groaned, unable to find any words. What happened after the bus flipped—
"Wait, who are you?"
The man who had spoken to Sora, who Sora now saw was a tall man dressed in a lab coat, stood by his side and pulled Sora to sit upright. "My name is Gakupo. I found you lying nearby my lab, so I brought you in. How are you feeling?"
"Not the best, actually," Sora confessed. His head was pounding from a strong headache. He reached to rub the ache on the back of his head when he felt a foreign cloth touch his hand.
It was then he discovered his new wardrobe. A blue muffler was haphazardly strangled around his neck, and his t-shirt and shorts were replaced by a clean white suit. "What the heck am I wearing?" he added, becoming more bewildered by the minute.
"That seems to be your attire for this place," Gakupo said as he rubbed his chin. "Fascinating…"
"Just where is 'this place?'" Sora asked.
"Wonderland."
After taking a restless nap in the bedroom, Riku managed to stumble down to the dining room, which took him a few minutes to find in the house, where Meiko was seated at a long table alone. She had a bowl in front of herself, and another bowl was set in an empty spot a few places down. "Sit down, dear," she said. "Have some dinner."
Riku knew something was amiss as he sat down in front of the bowl of… well, what the fuck was that? As he stared down, all he saw was a brown soupy broth with pieces of meat and green vegetables. He wasn't sure if this was going to give him energy or suck it right out of him.
"I know it doesn't look quite right—I had to finish it myself after the cook quit."
"The cook?"
"He was the one who brought you in. But he matters not anymore; please eat." And promptly, Meiko began to stuff her face.
Riku wondered if she had any other servants, like maids or butlers or the sort. But the house was so quiet, it seemed impossible. As he analyzed the slop, for some reason he couldn't place, the sight of it began to disgust him. Perhaps this whole situation was working on his nerves—and his appetite.
He suddenly pushed the bowl away and stood. "I'm sorry, but I'm just not hungry," he said, being mostly truthful.
"Oh, okay. Then… could you pass that here?" For a second, he thought she was kidding. But the savage look in her eyes indicated that she was quite serious. Wordlessly, Riku pushed the bowl down the side of the table until it was within her reach. She nodded gratefully and continued to eat.
As Riku walked away from the table, however, he realized how incredibly parched he was. She wouldn't mind if he just got a drink from the kitchen, right?
It wasn't hard to find the kitchen; it just through one hallway and a door and he was already there. An overwhelming smell hit his nose right away—it was sort of familiar, but he just couldn't identify what it was.
Pots and pans were carelessly laid about the countertop and stove, more than likely from Meiko's attempt to finish her meal. He took a peek in what he assumed was the refrigerator (and when he opened the door to find a chill creep out, this guess was affirmed) but found nothing to drink there.
He looked at the faucet. The metal from the spout was beginning to turn a corrosive ugly green. Staring at the sink, while he decided he didn't trust whatever liquid came out of that, realized the air was a metallic smell.
Blood, was the first metallic-like smell he could think of. It stinks of blood in here.
Morbidly fascinated and disturbed at the same time, he turned to face the trashcan. His own blood ran cold as he noticed the red rivers that had dried on the side of the trashcan. Dead animal? he guessed, horrified that animal remains could be so gruesomely tossed into the disposal.
But he wanted to see it. He didn't know what it was that compelled him to walk over to the trashcan—but all the same he did, and couldn't stop himself as he gingerly lifted the lid. When he looked inside, and he realized just what it was he was looking at, he turned and promptly vomited on the floor.
As he spat the last of acid on his tongue out, he could feel his stomach lurch again. He was in so much shock about what he saw that he had to look again just to make sure he hadn't imagined it. And look again he did—to which he had to cover his mouth to contain what was left of his stomach contents.
The head of the cook had been staring at him from inside the trash, wide-eyed and soaked in blood. Stacked around his face were bones that were undeniably human, but they were stripped clean of all meat.
He thought about why the bones would be picked clean, and when he thought about what he'd been doing moments before he was in the kitchen, he managed to find nasty bile back in his throat.
"Wonderland?" Sora asked. "But… I've been there before. This definitely wasn't it."
"You must be speaking of somewhere within the physical universe," Gakupo said, sweeping over a computer as he conversed with Sora. "This Wonderland is one of the soul."
Sora paused to understand what Gakupo was telling him. "The soul?"
"It seems that this world is where our souls are sent without the body," Gakupo explained. "In other words, this is a dream."
"A dream?... like, I'll wake up in my bed soon?"
"If only it worked that way." Gakupo took a second to type rapidly into the computer before turning back to Sora. "The soul is more so trapped here. And if you don't find your way back to your physical body soon, it can be assumed that your body systems will shut down with time. And then your stay here becomes permanent." He paused for a moment. "I've been here for what seems to be two years, so I can only assume that my body began to rot long ago."
Sora trembled. Was this for real? Was it sure that if he didn't find his way back to Destiny Islands, he would never return? "How do you… you know, find your way back?"
"That, I'm researching." Gakupo said. "But I may need outside assistance for that…"
"But how did I even get here?"
"That is an interesting question." Gakupo stood up and approached his work desk. There from the top drawer, he pulled out a photograph to show to Sora. It was a woman, clad in a green dress that looked like it'd come from a hundred years ago. Her aqua hair was drawn in pigtails that elegantly curled down her sides. The tiara indicated royal status. "This is the queen of Wonderland, Queen Miku. I may believe she have something to do with it; she's always looking for more brainless subjects."
"So I'll take a guess that she's not a good queen."
"Quite the contrary. However, I cannot say for sure how she brings anyone to Wonderland or how she chooses them. I'm not even completely confident that it's her doing. But I've found no one that would have done it for any reason. She's not the only one who has a hand in Wonderland."
"What do you mean?"
"Sora, I must tell you: this world is quite mad." He took the picture back to return it to its resting place. "The demons that lurk this place are unforgiving and possess no reasoning."
Kairi had long since wiped away the tears on her cheeks. She trudged on in the forest, the sunlight slowly fading away. She didn't know what she was going to do when it became nightfall. Her only hope was to find some kind of shelter or cavern, but she hadn't come across any of those.
She found the strength to call for her friends again. "Sora! Riku!" Her voice had become raw and grated from screaming for several hours prior. She had only stopped now because she feared she would lose her voice altogether if she didn't start taking breaks. "Sora!... Riku!"
When she stopped yelling, she realized that her footsteps were not alone. She stilled and heard what suspiciously sounded like crunching leaves and the snapping of a twig behind her.
If they were sneaking behind her, it wasn't either of her friends.
Kairi found herself slowly turning toward the sound out of fearful curiosity. Back about twenty feet was a strange pair of girls, dressed in bright red suits. One girl was thinner, blonde hair in a side ponytail. The other was taller and had a rounder figure, her gray hair tied back with a black ribbon.
There was a pause in which no one moved, staring one another down. Suddenly, the blonde drew a long whip and lassoed it in Kairi's direction. Amazingly it covered enough distance to entangle Kairi, and she was instantly knocked off her feet. She was winded as her back slammed onto the ground.
"Too easy," the blonde said. Kairi kicked and screeched—her voice cutting in and out from strain.
"She's annoying," the other murmured. "Her voice is piercing."
"I guess we'll have to shut her up then." Blonde jerked the whip, which lifted Kairi into the air. That was the last Kairi saw.
"So, tell me how you came here, Sora."
"Well, um…" Sora had to think on that one. That morning felt like a dream. "This morning my friends and I were going on a bus somewhere. Then, it crashed, and I woke up here."
"Hm. Very interesting…" Sora didn't like the way Gakupo was staring at him.
"What is?"
"If the bus did crash before you came here, there's a chance your body is still recovering in a hospital. Which means you have a connection to the real world…"
Sora had a hunch where this was going. "The bus rolled pretty awfully." Sora tried to talk him out of the idea. "My body was probably crushed."
Gakupo's unwavering stare meant he wasn't going to be dissuaded any time soon. "Perhaps. But, we can always try…"
Sora leapt to his feet quickly, calling Oblivion to hand and pointing it at the scientist. "I wouldn't if I were you!"
Gakupo gracefully touched a key on the table, and straps shot out to bind Sora's ankles and wrists. One latched itself around Sora's waist, yanking him back upon the bed he'd woken upon.
"Don't be difficult," Gakupo said calmly. "I just need to run a few tests. It may kill you but, for the sake of science, it's worth trying."
"I'm giving you a chance to change your mind," Sora said, his mind racing as he quickly tried to think of a plan to escape. "Or I may be forced to hurt you."
"Those straps are going to be awful hard to struggle out of, dear boy." Gakupo turned his back to Sora, beginning work on his computer. "You were a fortunate find, I must admit… And it is remarkable how much you remind me of the Blue Alice…"
"Blue Alice?" Despite that Sora was in a mode of panic—adrenaline feeding through his heart and pounding in his veins—he managed to choke the question out. It was a bitter attempt to understand and at the same time distract the scientist.
"The Blue Alice," he explained, as he worked through menus on his computer, "is one of five in Wonderland. Their role is quite unclear. It seems to be more of a resurrection process—one falls, and another comes to take their place."
The explanation was like white noise to Sora's ears as his brain worked in high gear. While he may have been slowing the man down, it did not stop him. Somehow, Sora had to stop his progress… or at least disable the computer.
The computer. He had a memory from a few years ago at Radiant Garden; Cid had warned against ever practicing spells near the computer system. He contemplated the consequences of his plan as he felt the Keyblade melt into his fingertips again. As he concentrated silently, focusing the power to the palm of his hand and to the end of the Keyblade, he bargained this was his only solution.
"Which makes this a more interesting experiment, because if you are the Blue Alice, one would…"
But Gakupo never finished the sentence, because the crack of a strong bolt of Thundaga started a shower of sparks that ignited the computer system.
Riku knew that he needed to get out. He turned to leave, but there was Meiko standing at the door. "Where do you think you're going?" Her smile turned upward in a wicked, ravenous way.
Riku couldn't shake the panicky feeling that made his skin prickle. "I need to find my friends."
"But I'm still hungry." Her wrist turned just enough to make Riku notice the gleam of a butcher knife in her hand. Riku side-stepped to avoid a nasty cut, but Meiko's reflexes were much faster than Riku anticipated. He just barely missed the tip of the blade and dumped the trash over in his clumsiness.
Knowing he was in a tight spot, Riku drew Way to Dawn in his hand and pushed against the back wall with all the strength he could muster. The Keyblade met with the knife, Riku's force quite formidable against such a dull blade.
Riku used this strength to his advantage and applied enough power to make Meiko stumble backwards a few steps. He was able to pass by her and dash out of the kitchen.
He ran down the hallway, unsure of which direction was the exit. But he had no other choice but to run blindly.
He heard a horrific screech behind him, and the padding of feet told him that Meiko was soon on his heels. He almost missed it, but he caught the sound of the blade whipping through the air towards him. On reflex, he pivoted on his toes and swung his Keyblade outwards, sending a blow to propel the knife away.
The knife boomeranged back towards Meiko, and with a sickening tearing of flesh, it cut clean through her right arm. Whoa, how did that happen?
Stunned, the woman halted in her step. Riku stopped to watch, though his brain was screaming at him with reason, Run, run! What are you doing?
Meiko staggered towards her arm where it had fallen on the ground as blood freely gushed from her open wound. She fell to her knees and stared at the amputated limb. For a moment her face was blank, and she picked up the arm. Riku had to keep himself from getting sick again. He had a hunch that he knew what she was thinking, but he prayed he was wrong.
The woman inspected the flesh and then brought it closer to her face. A finger lifelessly hung in her face, and she gave the bloody finger a small taste.
Riku couldn't watch.
He knew it was time to leave and tried to hastily leave without having to witness what was about to happen. But as he ran out of hearing range, he was able to pick up the sound of snapping and crunching and the undertone of content grumbles.
What kind of place is this?
Riku found the back door swung wide open and immediately took his chance.
As he found his way back to the outside world, he'd never been so happy to find air that was so heavy and stale of Darkness. But as he took a moment to gaze at his surroundings, he realized he was totally lost. Which direction should he go to find Sora and Kairi?
There was a single dirt path that fed from the house, and figuring it would at least help him keep some sort of direction, he began to follow it.
Roxas found himself face down on the ground, spitting dirt that lined his lips. It was suddenly so overwhelming to him—he was so used to just, being Sora that having complete control over his world again was a strange idea.
He didn't even know what had happened. Where was Sora?
"Need a hand?" He recognized that voice, though he hadn't heard it in such a long time. He lifted his head and peered through his blond bangs to stare at Naminé, who was staring back down at him.
Roxas rolled over and took her hand as she helped to pull him to his feet. "Where are we?" he asked. He found hearing his own voice again foreign.
"I'm not sure," Naminé said. She seemed absent-minded at the moment, walking away from Roxas's gaze. But when Roxas saw what Naminé was examining, he was intrigued.
Nearby there was a giant oak tree, but at the base was a wooden table. Two carved chairs sat at an angle face one another from either side of the table, and an assortment of cups and dishes littered the table top. It was as if someone had been here, having something like a tea party…
Naminé approached the table. Roxas wanted to stop her; something felt dangerous, but he trusted her. And so he walked up behind her, looking for signs of anything suspicious. Naminé's fingers slid a piece of paper from beneath one of the chipped tea cups, and she delicately held it in her hand.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn't exactly a piece of paper, but rather, a playing card. Roxas recognized it from Sora playing card games with his friends on the islands.
On its backside the design looked like a green standard playing card. When Naminé flipped it over to see the other side, it was an Ace of Hearts.
"Are there any other cards?" Roxas asked, gingerly lifting up tea cups and checking under all of the dishes.
"This seems to be the only one…" Her piercing gaze didn't leave the card for some time. And as if reaching some sort of concise conclusion, she began to march forward in a designated direction.
Roxas hastily dropped the sugar bowl he'd had in his finger tips and chased after her as the bowl clattered noisily on the table. "Wait, Naminé! Where are we going?"
"To find the way home."
Sora stumbled out of the debris unsteadily. He throat was raw with dark smoke, and he couldn't suppress the cough that came—he barely heard it over the deafening ringing in his ears.
He rubbed at his eyes, stinging from the ash, and when he could finally see he was appalled at the amount of damage that had been done.
What had once been a lab was a now a graveyard of advanced equipment. One of the consoles were still lit on fire, and underneath a pile of rubble lay the professor's body—his lab coat shredded and soaked in blood. Sora gave a shuddery gasp and looked away. Even though the professor had tried to kill them, a certain guilt in taking a human life nibbled at the corners of his conscious. He had only been trying to find a way home too, after all.
No, but he was going to kill me doing it! He tried to reason with himself as to not feel guilt on top of the desperate feeling of being lost, but he still couldn't wash the feeling away.
A tattered photo caught under a shredded piece of metal quivered in the small wind, catching Sora's attention. Taking note to it, Sora picked it up and realized it was the same photo from before—the queen.
Even if it was a bad option, finding her was the only option he had in that point in time. She may have already caught Riku and Kairi!
Slowly he crawled out of the debris, and found a barren patch of dirt to sit on safely. He took a moment to examine the photo, not exactly sure which direction to take to get to her. But as the ringing in his ears faded into quiet, chilling silence, he noted something he hadn't before.
Roxas wasn't there.
His heart picked up a quickened pace again, the threat of the idea washing over him over and over. What had happened to Roxas—his heart?...
The urgency of the situation willed him to stand up and walk through the forest, winding between the trees and taking care not to trip over branches. There was no sort of path to follow, so he had only his instinct and a photo to work on.
Three hours time passed soundlessly until he found a clearing in the trees. Beyond him was a building, fairly small in size. How much it appeared to look like an office building surprised Sora (almost to a frightening degree), but he mentally noted that he'd noticed the same trend of tendency to build buildings such as these between worlds. What made this world any different?
Still, he was a little shaken and treaded the building with some hesitancy. After all, this world was just plain creepy. Even Gakupo, the man who'd tried to kill him for an experiment, had said not to trust anything.
But Sora tried to ignore the coiling in his gut as he walked to the doors of the building. Timidly, he opened them, and they gave a huge creeeaaaaak sound. Sora hoped that no one had heard that….
BANG.
The noise nearly made him jump out skin, and he had to ground his heels just to keep himself from running. Sora drove them further still as he heard the patting of footsteps across the hallway.
The light shining in from the opened doorway was enough to shine light onto a small pair of tattered shoes. A small voice broke through the dark. "Hey mister?" It was the voice of a girl. "Are you here to play with us?"
Sora dropped his guard a fraction, but still kept skeptical. "Who are you?"
The small girl took a step forward, bathing her form in light. She was petite and thin, most likely from not eating enough. Her black hair was messily tied up in two pigtails. "I'm Yuki," she answered. "And these are my brothers and sisters."
Sora leaned against the back door to swing it open a little more and identify the others she mentioned. Several other children stood behind her, all wearing shredded, threadbare clothing. "Mister!" One ran up to him and grabbed his hand. Sora instinctively flinched, unsure if he should trust what was happening. "Here, play with us!"
"What are we playing?" he asked as he was being dragged into the center of the room.
The door was shut by another one of the children, and the room became dark. Only the flickering of several candles lined by the walls gave off light. Sora's stomach lurched.
"Kagome, kagome." That didn't sound friendly. One of the children sat down in the middle and started to tie a blindfold. The others gathered around in the circle. Yuki motioned to Sora to come over. "Don't you know how to play?"
"No…" he said. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. But it was just a children's game; how bad could it be?
"Luka's in the middle—she's the demon," Yuki explained, "And he walk around her and sing. When we're done, she guesses who's behind you."
"And if she's right?..."
"Then they're the demon!" Yuki gave a loud chuckle in glee. "Come on!" But before Sora could argue, the children held hands and began to walk in slow circles. The children sang,
Kagome kagome, the bird in the cage,
when, when will you come out?
In the evening of the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who stands right behind you now?
And when they halted, it was then that Sora realized that he'd ended up behind her. He panicked, afraid of the consequences of being picked. It's just a game, it's just a game, he had to tell himself.
For a fraction of a section, Sora imagined his name rolling from her lips, but realized that he'd never told the children his name—
"Mister?"
Sora almost replied, when he realized that the girl with bubblegum pink hair was referring to him. She untied the blindfold and turned around, and a wide grin lined her lips in such a way that it frightened him. Luka stood and held out the dirty white cloth to him expectantly.
He wasn't sure what made him take the cloth and tie it around his eyes, but he did just the same as he took a seat on the cold cement floor. His body nearly trembled as he realized he was in the absolute dark. His acute hearing picked up the sounds of shuffling feet and hands sliding together. Steps echoed all around him in a way that drove him nearly to the point of madness. He could even hear the catching of several breaths before the song began again:
Kagome kagome, the bird in the cage,
when, when will you come out?
In the evening of the dawn,
the crane and turtle slipped.
Who stands right behind you now?
The room suddenly become completely still. It was when he realized that he only knew two of the children's names. Well, that narrowed down his choices. As he bit his lip and was about to say Yuki's name, the loud creakingof the door shattered the silence of the room.
Sora tore his blindfold off and felt the Keyblade slide back into his hand as he readied himself for battle.
Vocaloid Reference
Concept for Meiko Sakane was adopted from Evil Eater Conchita
Concept for Luka Megurine/Yuki Kaai (originally Miku Hatsune) were adopted from Kagome, Kagome
Concept for Miku Hatsune was adopted from Alice Human Sacrifice
Others to be revealed later.
