Maka fell and fell, it seemed like time was bending itself to no form to make the fall longer and more tiring. As she fell, Maka observed the walls of the hole, which were decorated with nonsense. As she passed a sink that seemed to be defying gravity and falling upwards, Maka began to ponder her earlier conversation with Kid, er, The-Kid-Who-Is-Not. Firstly, what was up with his name? He was most definitely Kid, for who else looked exactly like the symmetry-obsessed boy?

And secondly, why was he calling her Alice? And who's the Snake queen? And the Nice queen? And what in the name of all that is buttery and good was going on?

These questions and many more danced through Maka's head as she continued her dizzying fall downwards towards the center of the earth for all she knew. Maka then came to the decision that Kid seemed to know the most about this, so when she reached the bottom of this hole, she was going to go searching for him.

She eventually drifted asleep, not at all concerned for going splat at the bottom.

Thunk.

Maka groaned in pain and groggily sat up, rubbing the spot where her bottom had connected with the marble floor. She blinked in surprise when she found she was not wearing her usual outfit, but instead a light blue dress that came to rest just above her knees and a snowy white apron. White tights and black mary janes shined innocently up at her. Her hair had been let down out of their usual ponytails, and was soft and fluffy from being blow-dried on the way down. A big black bow sat atop her hair.

"When did I-Hey! Crona!" Maka yelped. Crona once again ignored her, and continued to run towards the small door at the very end of the hall. Maka had to look twice as she was sure she hadn't just seen Crona shrink to fit through a small door!

"What the heck is going on?" Maka wailed, tugging at her hair in distress. She made a mad dash down the hallway in the direction Crona had headed, only for her hip to connect with something hard and her to cry out in pain. Glaring at the glass table that had appeared in her path, she cradled her hip in delicate hands.

"Heh, jerk." she huffed.

Peering closer at the table, she noticed a coffee cup sitting squarely in the middle of the rounded glass table. 'Who would waste a perfectly good cup of Deathbuck's finest?' she wondered, picking up the cup, still warm to the touch. Shrugging and tipping the cup back, she let the warm coffee swirl in her mouth. She blinked in surprise at the sudden cold feeling that flooded her body. Ripping her lips away from the cup she dropped it, the dark liquid spreading across the floor. She stared at her hands in confusion as the cold feeling spread to her fingertips and made her numb. A prickling sensation filled her senses. Maka screamed as her hands begun to shrink as well as her whole body. She desperately grabbed at the folds of her dress which was becoming much too big for her rapidly.

The dress caved in on top of Maka's tiny body, and she had to battle her way out of the blue fabric. When she finally made her way out of the jungle of a dress, she finally realized that she was wearing pumpkin panties and a white camisole. 'It's better than nothing…' she told herself, disgusted at wearing the very same type panties her father adored so much.

Maka stared across the long expanse of the hall, the glass table hovering over her. In the near distance should could see a door, the exact height as she was. Maka sprinted to the door, relief on her face at finding an exit to this weird place. When she reached the door however, she had the misfortune to find out it was indeed, locked. She groaned, "Why does this always happened to me!" she wailed.

She turned in disgust away from the door, only to watch, shimmering in all it's glory, a key, fall from the domed ceiling, and land squarely on the glass table. Maka stared in disbelief. Of all the things…

She raced back to the table, staring up through the table's glass top at the key strangely shaped like Shinigami-sama's mask. Maka tried scaling the glass leg of the table, sliding back down every time. "I just can't get a grip on this thing!" she muttered through gritted teeth. She wished more than ever she had Kid's flying skateboard.

Sliding down the leg, she slumped against it in defeat, pulling her knees to her chest. 'What am I going to do…I have to get through that door…' she thought. A small clink rang through the long marble hallway. Maka looked up, surprised and alert. A ornamental box sat at her feet. Staring at it, she gingerly pushed the lid open with her toe. She leaned forward to see it's contents. A cigarette sat in the box, a small silver lighter laying in the satin with it.

Crinkling her small nose, Maka grasped the cigarette with slender fingers holding the cigarette at eye level. Very faintly, she could read the words light me written on the side. Suddenly, Maka was dying for a smoke. She grasped the sleek silver lighter with her other hand and flicked it open. Instantly a flame ignited, a light orange like her soul. She held it to the end of the cigarette and it instantly caught flame, prompting her to hold it to her lips. The second Maka inhaled she started hacking, black smoke coming out of her mouth and nose. 'I don't know how Professor Stein smokes these all the time.' she thought between gasps. So caught up with her coughing, she didn't realize she was growing until her head made a very painful noise of contact with the stone ceiling.

Maka stared down at herself in shock, her camisole had stretched itself and was now unbearably tight, the pumpkin panties now two sizes too small. Her feet seemed almost a mile away, pushed flat against the far wall.

"Oh, this is just perfect! Now I'm too big to fit through the door!" she complained, her voice booming in the big, and very empty room.

Maka stared at her feet in anguish, wondering just what to do. Out of the corner of her eye, Maka noted the gleaming key, still sitting innocently on the table. Picking it up between her fingers, she frowned. "I'm too big to fit through the door, what am I supposed to do with this thing now?" she asked the air. She slid her feet down the wall and felt them come in contact with something warm and wet. Craning her neck, Maka could just barely see the puddle of coffee she had spilled, barely a drop now. The effect the coffee had on her the first time sprung into her mind. "Maybe I can…?" Maka questioned, twisting painfully so her face was now near the puddle of coffee, her feet pressed against the ceiling. Sticking out her tongue, she dipped the tip of it in the smaller version of the puddle.

The cold feeling shuddered through her body again, making her fingers numb and her body prickle. Making sure to hold on to the key, Maka watched herself shrink to a size perfect to fit through the doorway. With a whoop of victory, Maka made a mad dash to the door, the key glinting between her fingers. Maka fumbled with the key for a bit, excited to be escaping this mad place, before managing to sneak it into the lock. With a resounding click, the door swung open with a slight hiss, a long dark hallway awaiting her. Thrilled, Maka sprinted, long lean legs flying, down the hallway, until she was fully engulfed in darkness. Maka could no longer see her feet in front of her, nor could she see the floors or the walls, but it seemed as if she already knew this path, as she continued running straight.

'When I find Kid I am going to kill him for making me run so much.' Maka thought in between pants.

A pinprick of light appeared at the end of the long tunnel and Maka whooped in delight, startling herself with her own enthusiasm. She had never known herself to get this excited about something as simple as a bit of light! Then again, it could mean her escape from this mad world. As the light got brighter and hotter, Maka could feel a scorching wind brush her hair past her face and whip her camisole around her tiny frame, the cool marble disappeared from under her feet and she was met with hot sand, which her feet immediately sunk into. Maka hissed at the burning feeling as she was slowly sucked under by the sand, the hot grain-like substance sliding around her body like silk. As it rose higher and higher Maka began to panic as the hot sand covered about every crevice in her body.

'What? I'm being sucked under! What is this, quicksand!?' Maka panicked.

"H-help! Help, somebody please!" Maka yelled over the loud winds as the swept past, carrying more sand that got in her mouth and eyes every time she opened them. The sand was now steadily rising, or was she slowly sinking? It reached her fingertips, then her ribs, and by then Maka was furiously digging at the stinging sands. Finally it reached her collarbone and Maka stopped fighting. She instead stared up at the bright blue sky, the suns mocking face jeering down at her. She giggled a little, her face twisting into a bitter smile.

'All that fuss I made earlier, just to drown in sand..' she thought, just as her head disappeared under the surface. It was so hot. It was like standing on the surface of the sun, waves of sand batting her around and slicing her skin making it irritable and red. There was no air under there either and it was torture to try and breath and get a nose or mouthful of sand.

'This settles it, drowning is the worst way to die.' Maka sighed, releasing the last bit of breath she held dearly, and slipping unconscious under the hot, unrelenting sands.


"You're not supporting her head right.."

"Oh you shut up! You think your'e such an expert, come over here and do it yourself!"

"I can't, I'm steering the boat."

"That's always your excuse!"

Maka frowned a bit at the familiar voices, her eyebrow crinkling a little. Where had she heard them before? "Guys, I think she's waking up!" another voice besides the two arguing chimed in.

"Well make her wake up faster, there's a fee for rides you know."

"Oh my word, do you only think about money?"

Cold water splashed her. Maka screeched and shot up, shivering as goosebumps appeared along her arms and legs. She glared up at the offender, only to be staring directly into the red visor she knew as Harvar. "H-harvar! What the hell was that for!" Maka demanded.

"My name is not 'Harvar' I am Not-Harvar. I simply dumped a bucket on you because Is-Not-Kim said so." he replied robotically, face void of emotion as usual.

"Ha!" the person Maka guessed was Is-Not-Kim laughed in Ox's face. That was when she realized they were on a boat, in the middle of the sand, in the middle of nowhere. Her eyes widened.

She was on a rickety boat with Ox, Kim, Harvar and Jacqueline.

In the middle of the sand that had tried to kill her only moments ago.

In the middle of nowhere.

Maka freaked out. "Kim! Where the heck are we! What's going on?" she questioned her friend. Kim blinked at her in confusion before her face set into her usual light scowl. "I don't know anyone named 'Kim' but I am Is-Not-Kim if you must know. Secondly, we are on the Sea of Sinking Sands, and are in are way to dry land." she informed Maka. She shuddered, and Maka only then realized that her usual schoolgirl uniform ad beed traded in for a long bright pink dress made of feathers and pink elbow-length satin gloves. Atop her head was a hat so bright and frilly with feathers, she could hardly tell if from her bubblegum-pink hair.

"I'm so glad we'll be geting off this boat soon, this sand is absolutely horrible on my feathers." she grumped.

"Do not worry, Is-Not, we'll reach land in only a moment!" Jacqueline piped up cheerfully from the back of the boat, where she seemed to be rowing all by herself. Her usual uniform had also been traded in, for colorful feathery dress that reached mid thigh and striped stockings that were so intensely hued it pained Maka to look directly at them. A feathered newsboy cap sat atop of her glossy brown hair. She blinked at Maka's pained stare. "Oh dear, I didn't introduce myself; I am Could-Not-Be-Jacqueline. My friends call me Not-Jackie!" she chirped.

"And I am the captain of this ship, Who-Is-Not-Ox!" Ox giggled from the head of the boat. The only difference in his usual attire seemed to be the big billowy captain's coat he wore, that was so many different shades of blue, it looked like the whole spectrum resided in his coat. A ridiculous hat much to big for his head slid forward, making him choke on the big white feather that flapped around in the sandy winds. Harvar pounded on his back. He didn't seem to change as much as Kim and Jackie had, though his usual crisp white pants were made of feathers that started brown but gradually faded to white, brown-speckled ones. The sleeves of his jacket did the same, and his shirt had been replaced with one of an eagle on it.

All in all, from far away it looked as if Maka were standing in a boat with large colorful birds.

Ox gasped in delight and giddily hopped and down on the front of the tiny boat, as if he had not been choking only a moment ago. And if it were not for his tight hold on the mast, Maka was positive he'd go head first into the soul-sucking sands. "Oh there it is, land!" he clapped. Maka peered off in the direction Ox was busy pointing in but could not see anything there than miles and miles of more sand. Kim sighed in relief and Jacqueline made a small sound of joy. Harvar grunted his approval.

Maka frowned at her friends. Were they mad? There was no land for miles around- but then again they were rowing through sands that would swallow you whole if you were to fall into them- But that was beside the point! Maka was about to comment on the lack of land everyone was excited about when the boat suddenly jolted forward harshly, and Maka surely would have fallen overboard if it weren't for Harvar, who grabbed onto the back of her camisole at the last moment.

"Thanks," Maka breathed rubbing her stomach which had connected painfully with the side of the boat as she fell, knocking all the wind out of her. Harvar just nodded.

"Land ho!" Ox declared, waltzing with Kim around the deck, who seemed to be enjoying watching her long pink dress fly away from her while twirling. "Where's land? I don't see any land," Maka whispered to Jacqueline. She giggled. "That's because we're on a beach," she whispered back.

'Because that makes perfect sense.' Maka sweat dropped. Suddenly Maka caught a flash of pink flopping ears out of the corner of eyes and she gasped. "Crona!" she yelled after the boy, who seemed to ignoring her once again. The tall boy made his way into the shrubbery located along the edge of the so-called beach, which led off into a thick and colorful forest. Maka's eye twitched at his blatant ignorance of her, it was really starting to irk her. Leaping over the railing and ignoring Kim's shouts about a fee, Maka once again headed off on her adventure to track down Kid, and catch Crona.


A/N: Thus the chase continues! I'd like to clear something up, my dearly loved and few in numbers readers: Yes, both Kid and Crona are playing the role of the White Rabbit. Why? Because they both fit the role in my mind, and it'll make more sense later in the story. I hope you guys enjoyed the latest update. If you have suggestions or questions, feel free to message me! I love hearing from you guys, whether it's to answer questions, or reply to your suggestions! Review please guys, it reminds me to write! Plus, it's a real boost to my self-esteem!