Author's Notes: Sorry for making you all wait. I believe this is my 1st update for the New Year. Has it been that long already? Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. This is the continuation and final chapter of "Wonderland."
Also, it's my B-day today (June 1st). (:D) So give me the best birthday gift ever and review! This summer also marks the 7th year that I've been writing fan fiction. Time sure does fly by, huh?
Title: Wonderland, Final Chapter
Summary: Lisa and Kaze have a fight. In a rage, Lisa storms off and gets lost in a dark jungle where nothing is as it seems. There a lost boy, with a familiar pair eyes, asks Lisa to help him find his "home." Now stuck in the Inner World's version of Alice and Wonderland: Lisa is a princess, Kaze is a dark knight, and Ai is the Queen of Hearts that is after her head! Can the lost boy, Kai, help her find a way out? Or should she trust the "Black Knight" Kaze? Better yet—does Lisa even want to return home when she could stay and be with the man of her dreams forever?
Disclaimer: I don't own FFU. That is owned by Square Enix and whoever animated it. I just own the plot.
"It Doesn't Take Seven Days to Love You..."
--7 Days--
Thursday
"Stop it!"
Lisa pulled away from Kaze, snatching her hand out of his grasp and her body as well. Dancing was the last thing she needed. With the rip of a needle on a record, everything in the ballroom stopped and looked at her.
It was almost like before, when she had yelled at the real Kaze and ran away from him and everyone else, except that this time Lisa had a legitimate reason for her anger.
Enough was enough; if she stayed here any longer she would lose her mind.
"My lady..."
"I'm NOT your lady! I'm not anyone's lady! I'm just... I'm just me... I want to go home, to my real home with Ai and Yu and Cid and Miles and...and..."
"I want Kaze." Were Lisa's unspoken words. She broke down into tears and collapsed on the floor, exhausted from trying to fight against the bizarre rules of this world.
Wordlessly, Kaze, the Black Knight, signaled for the festivities to continue then kneeled down in front of his princess. Lisa kept slapping his hands away when he tried to embrace her, and instead he settled for wiping away her tears and signaling for one of the stuffed animals to summon a couch. Lisa stopped struggling long enough to allow herself to be picked up by two stuffed animals, a horse and a bear, and placed on the couch. On its own it began to move on clawed feet toward her—no the princess's—bedroom.
Knave wiped at his face with a handkerchief. "Oh no, what ever could have gotten into my bride? And we're to be married in two days time. Sir Kaze?"
Kaze appeared lost in thought, and subconsciously his fingers twitched for a gun that wasn't there. "...Maybe..."
"Maybe?"
"The fungi will know what to do."
Knave nodded at Kaze's logic. "I will send for the mage right away."
With that being said, Knave disappeared and left Kaze to his thoughts.
Lisa curled up in a ball in the center of a canopy bed and cried. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried so much and with such anguish, the only thing that even came close was when she was ten and her mother died.
Even though it was weak there was nothing else she could do, the possibility of being stuck in this topsy turvy world forever was enough to either drive her insane or to tears, and Lisa willingly took tears over insanity.
When she finally couldn't cry anymore, Lisa sat up in the luxurious bed and wiped away her tears. Analyzing the situation from a different perspective, she should be happy. This room, Kaze, everything was from her dreams. The dreams of a child. A child who had, in her loneliness, clung to fairy tales and mystic lands. That part of herself was one of the reasons she had willingly agreed to watch the Hayakawa's and hadn't hesitated to follow Ai and Yu on to the train to the Outer World. And it was also one of the reasons why she was stuck in this wonderland. If she hadn't acted so childishly toward Kaze, if only she had been able to control her emotions, Lisa wouldn't be in this mess.
To distract herself Lisa paced the room, letting her eyes focus on one expensive item after another. Anything was better than looking at herself or the door, which didn't exist anymore. After she had been tucked in by the stuff animal servants, (a sheep, ironically, had offered her a sleeping pill), they had left and taken the door with them. Literally.
Lisa sighed and juggled a heavy easter egg, which opened one eye and glared at her for disturbing its sleep. How was she going to get out of here?
Putting down the egg, Lisa strode toward the window and gazed out over "her" kingdom. It was like a labyrinth of lights and colors, buildings reaching as far as the eye could see past the ivy covered walls of her castle and the sagiso flower gardens. Somewhere out there however was Kai, the boy that Lisa had promised to protect.
"I will protect you," the memory of Kai's voice made Lisa smile. How was a little boy supposed to protect her? Yet, at that moment, he had sounded like Kaze.
Lisa turned to go back inside and contemplate her future when a hand grabbed her arm. Stifling a scream, Lisa turned back toward the window to see Kai hunched on the window sill.
"Kai!" It was almost unbelievable how happy she was to see his face. For one second Lisa was tempted to bury her head in his shoulder and cry with relief.
Kai smiled and stepped through the window, landing gracefully like a cat. He didn't say anything but took her hand in his and squeezed gently.
"I thought I would never see you again!" Lisa reached out and smoothed back Kai's long hair, looking deep in his eyes to make sure that this time he really was the Kai she knew and not an impostor.
"I told you, I will protect you. It's not safe here. We should go." Kai pulled away before Lisa could embrace him and dug into the pockets of his cloak, bringing forth a gun that look similar to Kaze's shotgun.
"Where did you get...?" Lisa asked as Kai attempted to drag her across the room toward the outline of where the door to the room used to reside. "Kai, where did you get that gun? You were the one that saved me from Ai and Kumo weren't you?"
"There's no time to explain. We have to leave right away!" The grave edge to his voice silenced any further questions Lisa had.
Just then, footsteps could be heard on the other side of the wall. Kai quickly let go of Lisa's hand and dimmed the lights, pushing Lisa on to the bed and leaping toward the window seconds before the door reappeared once more and Kaze, this world's version of Kaze, stepped into the room.
"I came to see how you're feeling... Lisa."
"Kaze." Lisa tried to keep a straight face as her heart fluttered madly in her chest. Did Kai escape in time? Did Kaze notice anything or hear anything before he entered? And more importantly, why did the sound of her name from Kaze's lips bring her both happiness and sadness?
"I thought you would be sleeping. Shall I call for a servant to fetch dinner?"
Lisa snapped out of her trance at how odd it was to hear Kaze speak to her or take interest in her in time stop him from ringing for a servant. "No! I mean, I'm alright. I'm not hungry."
A long silence settled between them, during which Lisa wondered why Kaze didn't just leave the room. Instead of leaving, Kaze closed the windows and then the curtains to her room. Lisa jumped as his hand rested on her shoulder briefly before he searched the room one final time and left. The comfort in his touch made Lisa both envy and wonder about the real princess. What was the relationship between her and Kaze? The woman she had switched places with when she had fell through the mirror must have been important to Kaze for him to risk his life for her and be comfortable enough to call her on a first name basis in private. Or maybe he only did so because she had screamed at him to leave her alone and that she's not his princess.
Assaulted with guilt by her thoughts of what she had done to both the Kaze in this world and the one in her own, Lisa pulled back the curtains and looked out into the night.
Kai was gone.
The next morning, Lisa left the castle with Kaze. After being followed out of the city by a royal procession or dolls, stuffed animals, and fairies and such, Lisa and Kaze made their way over land and then over sea (a sea filled with what appeared to be talking fish that tried to sell her wrist watches and artifacts from Atlantis) to a humble island where plants towered over people like skyscrapers. The air was filled with the fragrance, pollen, and the chatter of various flowers and the light was a muted, greenish shade as it passed through the foliage to finally reach the forest floor.
As they proceeded onward on a trail in the forest to who Kaze mysteriously referred to as "the mage," Lisa suddenly found her and Kaze were the only ones left on the path.
"Kaze, where are we? And don't give me that junk about seeing "the mage" again." Lisa huffed as she avoided yet another lecherous plant. The fact that she didn't have petals or leaves gave them, in their twisted little plant brains, a reason to feel her up. Typical, in this world flowers were sex crazed monsters. But then again, if you were a flower and were continuously groped by bees and your very survival depended on groping I supposed you would be perverted too.
"We're going to seek the advice of the mage, Fungus, on what action we should take in regards to the mad Queen of Hearts Ai, the White Knight Kumo, and your pre-wedding jitters." Kaze calmly replied as he helped Lisa extract herself from the grip of a leafy fern.
"Um... Thanks." Lisa blushed as Kaze knelt to help free her leg from a vine, momentarily forgetting that Kaze had said something important.
"It is my duty." Kaze stood up and brushed some pollen off of Lisa's shoulder, reminding her about last night.
"Kaze," Lisa stepped back bashfully, trying to focus on what she was saying instead of his warmth. "What is between you and me?"
"You and me? I do not understand."
Lisa cleared her throat and looked away from his concerned gaze.
"Oh," Kaze stepped around Lisa and sat down on a toadstool, his eyes lingered over her still figure. "I am your knight. You created me."
"That's impossible!"
"It is true. Your life gave me purpose. I was lost until I found you. I swore my life to you. I will protect you, my lady."
"I'm not..." Lisa turned away from him, fighting tears. What Kaze said touched her heart, but somehow it seemed wrong. Once more Lisa thought of the Kaze she had left behind, how different he was from this Kaze. Kaze, the Kaze before her, had sworn his life to her—to love and protect her. Yet she longed for something else, somebody else. Lisa wished she could be the lady he wanted her to be, the princess that she had replaced by coming here.
Suddenly Lisa wanted Kai by her side. At least with Kai she was sure of her feelings. Both Kaze and Kai had said the same thing, but with Kai, Lisa realized, she felt protected. With Kaze she felt like a sham, a person not worthy of his protection. With Kai Lisa felt like herself. She didn't need to be anyone else, Kai would accept her unconditionally.
Both reminded her of Kaze, but only one could soothe her heart.
"...My lady?"
"Stop." Lisa clenched her hands into fists. Fighting the urge to cry, (there had been too many tears shed already) Lisa decided that she wouldn't run away this time. Reaching out for Kaze, Lisa cupped his face in her hands and smoothed back his hair like she had done to Kai. There was nothing of the Kaze she knew in his face. He only looked like him. "I can't be what you want me to be. I'm sorry."
Lisa let go of him and stepped back, Kaze reached for her and managed to grab her wrist, pulling him to his chest.
"Kaze!"
"It doesn't matter to me who you are. You are my lady. I will protect you. Like I have always done."
Lisa ceased trying to pull away and held on to him. For once everything was absolutely calm; everything other than this moment didn't exist. The fact that he only held her because he believed she was his princess, and the fact that he wasn't the real Kaze, or that she was stuck in this world didn't matter. Only his arms mattered.
"If only I had fallen in love with you," were Lisa's thoughts. "If only I had fallen in love with you then I wouldn't be feeling any pain or doubt right now..."
All of a sudden Kaze pushed Lisa away from him as a gunshot rang out in the forest. Lisa watched in astonishment as the space they had occupied, or rather the space Kaze had occupied, turned to ashes. In one fluid motion Kaze reached into his suit and pulled out a fully transformed magun.
Aiming the gun at a point in the sky, Kaze commanded, "Show yourself."
With the same grace he had used to climb through her window last night, Kai landed effortlessly in front of Kaze and Lisa.
"Kai...?" Lisa was stunned. Why would Kai try to kill Kaze?
"Impostor!" Kai shouted, ignoring Lisa as he aimed his shotgun at Kaze's chest. "I won't allow you to deceive Lisa!"
"Watch your tone, you are speaking to—"
"I know who I'm speaking to, that's exactly why I won't allow you touch her!"
Without another word, Kai fired his gun. Kaze dogged every shot Kai threw at him. With lighting speed, Kaze bridged the gap between him and his opponent till it was a standoff with both of them pointing their guns at the other's head.
Lisa, finally breaking out of her stupor, ran toward the both of them and attempted to lower both of their guns by force.
"Stop it, I won't allow either of you to do this!" Lisa screamed as she futilely continued to try to get them to stand down. Neither one of them budged an inch. Kai's small, childlike face was strained in an expression of the purest hate while Kaze glared back at the boy with no expression at all.
"Don't you see, this world is trying to trick you," Kai spat at Lisa as he pushed her away from the barrel of his shotgun. "My lady, pretty words for someone who's nothing more than an illusion."
"Oh, I'm quite real. Would a bullet through your head prove it?"
"I said stop!" Lisa struggled to slide between the two, hoping that Kaze's loyalty to her and Kai's promise would prevent further violence.
"Don't be fooled by this...this... Oh screw it!" For once words failed Kai. Finding himself unable to express his hatred or the truth, Kai surprised Lisa and Kaze by grabbing Lisa by the waist and pulling her toward him. Lisa stumbled and fell to her knees, allowing Kai to hold her by the neck with one hand as he pointed his shotgun at her head with the other.
"You...unhand my lady at once." The venom in Kaze's voice was enough to make even Kai wary. Lisa flinched as Kai cocked the shotgun.
"She's not your lady," Kai replied. He forced Lisa to stand up and, with the barrel of the gun pointed at her back and keeping a firm hold on her wrist, the two began to walk backward.
"You…no, Kai. You will pay for today. I promise it."
In response, Kai grinned cheekily at Kaze and then turned and ran—forcing Lisa to follow him deeper into the woods.
"Kai...Kai stop!" Lisa panted. Finally, after what seemed like hours of running aimlessly, Kai released his hold on Lisa and the two collapsed upon the ground.
"What's going on? What do you mean Kaze's an illusion?"
Kai glared at Lisa. "He's not Kaze."
"How do you even know Kaze? And why should I trust you?"
Kai averted his face from Lisa's scrutiny and stood up, stretching out his right hand toward the sky he declared, "You still don't understand."
"Understand what?"
Kai made a fist with his right hand and then lowered it. "It's not important how I know Kaze. Right now though, we need to find a way to escape from here. Fungus probably knows a way."
"Isn't Fungus an enemy?"
"In your world. But here friends are enemies and enemies are friends."
Lisa stood up as well and rubbed her temples. This was giving her a headache. Nothing was making sense. "Alright, so how do with find Fungus?"
As soon as Lisa asked this question a grayish haze of smoke descended upon them. Both of them started coughing violently.
"My god...what is that?"
"Fungus."
Kai lead Lisa towards a clearing where Fungus resided. Or what appeared to be Fungus.
Smoking a hookah and reclining on a mushroom with a leaf from a nearby plant fanning him, Fungus appeared to be more of a stoned out lump of fungi than a wise sage.
"Um..." Lisa hesitated. Her experience with Yu and Cid made her wary of approaching him. Finally noticing them, Fungus waved them over with one hand while blowing a complicated series of smoke squares.
"....Yes....Princess....of Diamonds..." It seemed to take an eternity for him to speak, probably because his lips were reluctant to leave his precious pipe.
"Princess of Diamonds?" Lisa was confused, this was the first time anyone had actually mentioned the princess's title.
"Queen of Hearts, Princess of Diamonds, like in a pack of cards." Kai added helpfully.
"That... Is...."
"Correct. Just tell us how do we get to the Inner World and out of this trap?"
Suddenly it all made sense; this had to be one of Pist's puzzles. Lisa was both relieved and strangely saddened that the people that she had met and befriended so far, such as Black Knight Kaze and Kai, were not real. Kai's words earlier, about Kaze being an illusion, suddenly made sense.
"You must..."
"Yes." Both Kai and Lisa said at once, impatient for the answer.
"...You must... Go..."
"Go where!" Lisa shouted, exasperated at Fungus for his inability to finish a sentence.
"You must..." Fungus paused yet again to smoke from his pipe.
Finally, having enough of the dim-witted fungi, Kai aimed his shotgun at the hookah and blew it to pieces.
It was almost comical the expression on Fungus's face, or what they could make out on his helmeted face, when he realized that his beloved pipe was no more.
"Now," Kai demanded. "Where do we have to go?"
It turned out Fungus wasn't too clear on the details. He mentioned that the only way to escape from this world was by going forward, not back, left, or right. Except if by going forward they must go back, left, or right. Or if by going forward they have to go up, or down, sideways, or diagonal. Meaning that either they were heading in the right direction, or Fungus didn't have a clue.
Before they left, Fungus gave them one more helpful piece of advice:
"You... Princess...Only you have the power to make your desires possible. Either by confronting yourself or defeating yourself."
"What do you mean?" Lisa asked. For no reason at all her mind flashed on to the image of the broken mirrors she had encountered before she had become the Princess of Diamonds.
"Only you..." Fungus muttered before falling asleep. It seemed that without his hookah to keep him busy, or helping people escape from magical worlds with hopelessly confusing advice, Fungus was pretty useless.
So without anything else to stop them, Kai and Lisa continued on their way.
Eventually the forest dwindled down to a few tall stalks of grass and they could see the sky once more. If Kaze or anyone else was following them, neither Kai nor Lisa noticed. The two came upon a two story house. The chimney was smoking merrily and from outside they could smell something delicious cooking. Lisa stepped forward warily into the house, ignoring Kai's warnings about how it could be a trap. Trap or not, she was hungry and tired. Whoever decided they wanted to kill or capture her would be getting a knuckle sandwich, plus Lisa was tired of being protected.
As it turned out, they didn't had to fight. The occupants of the house didn't even notice them.
Surrounded by rubbish and running around trying to catch what seemed to be a gigantic baby, was Herba. The baby, it appeared, was the Earl Tyrant.
"Earl-baby, hold still! How else will you get better? Hug-hug, come help me with the baby."
Before Kai and Lisa escape, Herba's pet Hug-hug came out of the kitchen dressed (if an animated evil plant can wear clothes) in a chef's apron and hat holding a pot of what appeared to be either skunk stew or moldy meat simmered in rotten vegetables and broth. The strange thing was, outside of the house the stew had smelled appealing.
Kai hosted his gun and retreated to the shadows, digging through the discarded books for another portal or clue out of here. Lisa skirted around Hug-hug as he set the stew on the table and almost managed to go by unnoticed until she tripped over a forgotten pacifier.
Instantly, the trio turned and noticed Lisa.
"Look, it's Princess-baby!"
"She doesn't look very tasty, too much fat up top." Earl Tyrant commented as he looked Lisa up and down by still struggling in Herba's grasp.
"..." Hug-hug was silent, but slowly moved toward Lisa.
Lisa backed away and kept the insult that she wanted to spit at the Earl to herself. Looking for Kai, the boy once again had disappeared.
"Dammit, why isn't he ever here when I need him?"
As the three started to circle Lisa, she put her fists in front of her in a defensive stance. "I don't want any trouble; I'm just looking for a way out of here."
"Princess-baby, we can't just let you leave. It's lunch time..."
As Lisa considered killing Kai if she got out of this one (his advice that enemies were allies proving false), Hug-hug picked her up and settled her into the Earl's high chair. Before Lisa could protest, a bottle—the smallest of two—was placed in her mouth.
Spitting out the contents before she could swallow it, Lisa managed to escape Hug-hug's grasp by throwing random items at him before running away. Running up the stairs, with the Earl, Herba, and Hug-hug on her trail, Lisa barely managed to slam the door behind her after finding a room to hide in.
Now out of harm's way, temporarily, Lisa studied the bottles that she had hastily thrown at Hug-hug. One was a light blue and tiny, half of the liquid still remained, and the other was full and a milky white color. The white bottle was as big as her palm and fit was some difficultly in her dress pocket. Finding an open window, Lisa was just about to dive out of it when the door was blasted down and two new figures stormed in.
"Finally found you!" Ai declared cheerfully while waving both her scepter and Hug-hug's severed head around. It seemed that they really had meant to have her over for lunch. Ai, on the other hand, didn't seem interested in friendly conversations and sandwiches. This was the proverbial jumping from the fire into the frying pan situation.
Lisa leaped away from the window as Ai threw Hug-hug's severed head her way. Now trapped between Ai, her servant White Knight Kumo, and the wall Lisa tried to buy time by reasoning with the young girl.
"Why are you doing this? Why do you want my head?"
Ai laughed, a scornful sound. "You know why? There can only be one!"
"So you'll take her head and become immortal?" Kumo asked stupidly.
Ai turned and whacked her servant upside the head. "Wrong world dumb ass! I want her head because it's pretty and I can't stand it. There should only be one beautiful queen around here, and with you becoming a queen yourself tomorrow now would be the perfect time to attack you before you gain more power. I will take your kingdom, your boy toy Kaze, and then feed your true love Knave to the fishes to be torn apart for all eternity. Now, any last words?"
"Yeah," A voice mocked from out of no where. "Shut. Up."
From behind Lisa, Kai blasted a hole through the wall and then proceeded to tear the house down with his shotgun.
"Kai! Where were you?"
"No time, just keep behind me, and whatever you do, don't lose those bottles!"
"Oh, this is just perfect!" Ai hissed as she deflected a barrage of bullets with her scepter. "First the Adams Family down below and now a pipsqueak in need of an attitude adjustment! Kumo, kill him and bring me that hussy's head!"
Kumo, in a move that the real Kumo would have approved of, threw up a bottle of mist and cut it in half to summon one of his dragons. Kai, seeing that they wouldn't be able to escape from it, shielded Lisa with his body. Thus, while managing to injure Kai with its attack, the dragon also destroyed the remains of the house and sent the four of them plummeting down two stories amid burning wreckage.
While Ai was cursing Kumo for his stupidity on summoning a dragon while they were still in the building, Lisa took this moment to drag an unconscious Kai out from under the remains of the chimney and make their escape.
However, at that moment the dragon that Kumo had summoned noticed the both of them.
Seconds away from death, Lisa didn't even have time to pray for salvation when three primary colored lights filled her vision and took on the form of a very familiar summoned creature. As Kaze's summoned phoenix filled Lisa's line of view and sheltered both her and Kai with it's wings, Lisa looked on in amazement as both Kaze and Kumo faced each other.
"Didn't I tell you before? I will protect you."
"Kaze... I...I'm..." Lisa was at a loss for words.
"It doesn't matter, take the boy and run...Lisa. Beyond here lies a doorway. Use the items you obtained and pass through to the Palace of Mirrors. Once inside you should find what you're looking for."
"Oh, this is so very heartwarming. Kumo, get em'!"
Kumo and Kaze locked blades (guns/swords actually) while Ai was blocked from going after Lisa by Kaze's phoenix and Kumo's dragon. Taking this opportunity that Kaze gave her, Lisa ran away from the battlefield with Kai in her arms.
"You should have run away when you had the chance...Black Knight Kaze." Kumo glared at Kaze as the both of them broke away from each other.
"I will not allow you to go any further. Nor will I allow you to harm my princess." Kaze glared back. The two of them were at a stand still, but as long as he could buy time for Lisa it didn't matter if he lost his life. Even if Kai's words were true and he was nothing more than an imitation of the true Kaze, his feelings for Lisa remained the same.
Kaze pointed his magun at Kumo and charged it up for another attack while Kumo threw up another bottle of mist. The resulting explosion of power tore the battleground apart.
Lisa, carrying an injured and unconscious Kai, managed to make it to the doorway that Kaze had described. However...
"Anyway you look at it, it's just a door propped up in an empty field. There is no palace! What do I do now?" Lisa cried with frustration.
Indeed. The door before Lisa was locked against her and the doorknob refused to move. Not only that, the doorway was too small for even Kai's small frame to pass through.
Almost giving up in despair, Lisa noticed a strange sight in the tree branches above here. At first it appeared to be a single pink pompom floating in the darkness above her head. Slowly, along with the pompom, a cape, broken sunglasses, and a furry body came into view.
"Moggle!"
"Yep, that's my name, don't wear it out." Moggle, Kaze's companion and "brother," stretched and yawned as if this whole drama bored him.
"What are you doing here?"
"What do you think I'm doing here?"
Lisa, frustrated at the creature, layed down Kai and picked up a rock to hurl at Moggle's head. Moggle dodgef and managed to keep his balance on the tree branch. Instead of being hurt by Lisa's attack, he just started to laugh and smirked down at her.
"Well, your temper hasn't changed. Unfortunately it won't help you against the Queen of Hearts. Anytime now she'll find a way to get pass the Black Knight and then it's "off with her head!" Unless you can figure out this riddle before you."
Lisa, now throughly exhausted, fell into a martial arts stance to begin her Kigen Arts. "If you don't tell me how to get through here, I swear I'll kill you."
Moggle's eyes widened glee instead of fright. "But then you wouldn't hear the riddle now would you?"
"What riddle!"
"What's small of size, tender of shape, and easy to break yet hard to make? What's weak yet strong, treacherous yet kind and hard to find? What can only be nurtured with two, yet can only be reared by one?"
"That is... That's..." Lisa stumbled over words as she tried to find the answer. She had never been good at riddles, and this one made no sense to her at all. In truth, even if it had made sense Lisa's mind was too full of thoughts of Kai to fully comprehend what Moggle was asking of her. Kai had sacrificed himself for her sake. If not for her he wouldn't be injured. There was no way he could have taken down Kumo, yet for her he had bravely risked his life.
Kai...Kaze... In Lisa's mind and heart the two were starting to overlap.
"Lisa..."
A small voice distracted Lisa from her inner torment. While Lisa knelt by Kai's side, Moggle took this moment to make his exit and disappeared the same way he had appeared.
Now that Lisa had the time to examine him, she could see that a gaping wound in Kai's side was bleeding profusely. There was no way that she could stop the bleeding or save his life at this rate. Lisa, holding back a sob in her throat, tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure with her hands.
"Kai, I'm so sorry. If not for me...If you hadn't... I'm sorry!"
Incredibly, Kai started to chuckle at Lisa's tender expression and the predicament they were in that had produced it.
"I'm really not cool... Am I? This was exactly why I didn't want you to get in my way, yet this time, in this body, I can't even protect you."
"Kai..."
From far away they could hear the sounds of the ground being torn apart by Kumo's dragon and Kaze's phoenix. Lisa was too occupied thinking of ways to save him that she couldn't focus on the meaning of his cryptic words.
Lisa started to cry. It seemed that crying was the only thing she was good for now. Unable to save Kai, unable to help Kaze, and completely useless to change her fate Lisa didn't know what else to do.
Kai reached up and softly touched her cheek. "It's okay. You're strong."
"I'm not strong! Even though I said I would help you find your home, even though I said I would stay by your side and protect you, you're—"
"I'm the one that broke that promise. Not you."
"Kai..."
Kai, unable to face Lisa's tears, turned his eyes toward the doorway. "...Even now, I can't say what I want to say even if it's like this. Even though I can finally say it, even though I'm not tied down by any restraints in this body, it seems that clone of mine is really better than me after all. He can say all the things that you want to hear, yet I can only hurt you."
"You never hurt me." Lisa held Kai's hand in hers. She closed her eyes against the fading warmth in his fingers. "You're always there for me, even when I didn't believe in you. You're wrong, more than Kaze I want you."
Kai's eyes widened in shock, Lisa smiled through her tears. The ground shook beneath their feet and the light from the sky began to fade as smoke and mist replaced sunlight.
"...You should go. Use those bottles you found. Inside one of them should be a potion that will open the door."
"Kai—!"
"Just go," Kai pushed Lisa away from him and then gripped his side in pain. The wound in his side bleed profusely and stained his hands and the ground red. "You don't have much time. Forget about me."
"No!"
"The answer... The answer to the riddle is..." At that moment Kai passed out. The life threating injury was too much for his small body to handle.
"Kai..." Lisa reached for Kai and touched his face, his hands, and his shoulders. They were all cold. This time in place of Moggle and Kai she began to inanely laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Why was she the only one left? Why Kai, why not her?
Dimly, the logical part of her brain told her she was going into shock.
"Please! Please... Don't leave me alone! I—"
"What's small of size, tender of shape, and easy to break yet hard to make? What's weak yet strong—"
"—I love you."
"—treacherous yet kind and hard to find? What's can only be nurtured with two, yet can only be reared by one? The answer is a loving heart."
At that moment, Lisa distinctively heard the sound of a small lock falling to the ground. Cradling Kai with one hand, Lisa fished in her pocket for the bottles. Only one of them could help them escape from here.
Choosing the smallest bottle, the one whose contents she had almost been forced to drown by Herba and her servant, Lisa transferred the contents to her mouth before leaning over Kai's prone body and placing her mouth over his. With a minimum amount of difficulty she managed to successfully transfer the contents of the bottle through mouth to mouth.
When Lisa looked up, she and Kai were in what appeared to be a world of shinning glass and silver.
They had reached the Palace of Mirrors. Surrounding them were mirrored walls reflecting their image and none of the mirrors were broken. In the center of the room was a platform with a single mirror atop. The platform was too large for Lisa to climb.
Lisa stood up and gently laid Kai at her feet. Taking out the remaining bottle, Lisa drank its contents and now found herself standing on the platform in front of the lone mirror. It was the same mirror which had pulled her through her world to this wonderland where she had encountered twisted versions of her friends and loved ones. Where her dreams and nightmares had merged together and where she had lost Kai after realizing her feelings for him and Kaze, the real Kaze and the man that Kai reminded her of.
The Lisa in the mirror smiled at her. The mirror Lisa folded its hands in front of itself, despite the sinister smile and lack of blood, grit, or grime; it could have been Lisa's twin. Wearing an elegant white dress and diamond crown, this was the real Princess of Diamonds.
"Let me go back to my world!"
The Princess of Diamonds tilted her head, as if Lisa's question made no sense to her. "Real world? Isn't this it?"
"No!" Lisa shouted.
The Princess and Lisa stepped closer together, separated only by the pane of glass. Suddenly the Princess was Lisa and Lisa was the Princess. Both had lost their glamor or disheveled appearance and were wearing the exact same gear Lisa had always worn, but in back of one was the hall of mirrors and in back of the other, in the distance, was the Comodeen and the jungle that had brought Lisa to this place.
"You say you want to go back," the Princess shifted so that now Kaze could be seen in the background. "But if you go back then things will return to the way they were before. You'll never gain his love."
"But I'll gain his respect. I'll be by his side. I don't need a Kaze that would bow before me."
In the background, the Kaze behind the Princess turned into Black Knight Kaze and bowed elegantly to her, as if congratulating her on realizing her error.
The Princess moved again, this this time to the left. Now the crew of the Comodeen and Ai and Yu could be seen. "But if you go back, you will lose all power. You will be useless to those you love and become helpless. Here you can have anything you want. You will never feel unwanted. You will become omnipotent and all will look up to you."
Lisa shook her head. "I don't need that kind of power. Kai was right. I am strong. Strong enough to stand up to your temptations. Fungus was right too, only I have the power to make my desires come true. I don't want to be all powerful, no one is, I just want to help the people I love anyway I can. I'm not unwanted, and I'm not helpless."
Behind the Princess, Ai and Yu and everyone waved at Lisa and then turned into the stuffed animal servants of the Princess of Diamonds and continued to cheer her on. Even Mad Hatter Yu, the Queen of Hearts Ai, and White Knight Kumo supported Lisa beyond the mirror.
The Princess of Diamonds snarled at Lisa, her face becoming a mockery of the Kigen Arts master as the mirror started to shatter.
"You! You will regret refusing me!"
Lisa reached out and gathered the spirits around her. Summoning the Kigen Dragon, Lisa felt as if Kai was there too, supporting her.
"I regret nothing! I am Lisa Pacifist, and I am not you or your puppet!"
Lisa shattered the mirror with her own power, the Princess of Diamonds screamed and disappeared along with the mirror shards. Behind the mirror, an infinite darkness gaped and threatened to suck Lisa into it. Lisa shielded her face with her arms from the brute force of the wind.
"Lisa," Kai's voice could be heard over the scream of the wind as it turned into a cyclone and Lisa lost her balance and fell through the mirror into the world beyond.
"Lisa, I believe in you. Thank you for loving me. And Kaze as well."
Lisa's journey had taken two horrific days and nights to complete, yet to Kaze (the real Kaze) it had only been a few hours since Lisa had left.
Ai and Yu called out Lisa's name as the Comodeen shined its spotlights to help in the search for the missing woman.
When Kaze found Lisa, she was lying unconscious on the grass as if she were sleeping. Lisa opened her eyes as Kaze knelt down by her side to check her pulse.
"Kaze... Is it really you?"
Kaze just stared back at her; the one blue eye that could be seen was as expressionless as always. Lisa chuckled and rubbed her weary eyes. She was back. Yet...somehow it felt as if she were missing something.
A memory, or a dream, passed through her mind of a little boy in a black cloak looking up at her and smiling sadly. The boy had Kaze's eyes. Now that she had time to reflect, Lisa thought (before the image vanished completely from her brain along with the memory of the events in that odd world), the boy bore a strong resemblance to Kaze. Maybe that is what Kaze had looked like as a child.
"I will protect you..." Whose voice had uttered such loving words?
Kaze helped Lisa to stand. Lisa's head was spinning, she was so confused and disoriented that for a moment she almost didn't hear what Kaze was saying.
"...You kept your promise. And I kept mine. Welcome home."
Lisa's eyes widened in astonishment as, for only an instant so fleeting that if she had blinked Lisa would have surely missed it, Kaze smiled.
"Ah... Thank you?" Lisa stuttered as Kaze grasped her elbow to help Lisa keep her balance. It felt as if, for a second, Kaze had hinted at something that Lisa should remember but didn't. It was something about helping someone find their way home... Someone who had promised someone something... However Lisa would have remembered if she had promised someone something, much less if she had helped someone find their way.
As Lisa stood there staring into Kaze's eyes, she remembered what she had always wanted to say to him. But just as she was about to apologize for her behavior earlier, Ai and Yu finally found them and Kaze let go of Lisa and began walking away as the twins hugged Lisa and apologized for being so mean to her.
Lisa watched Kaze walk away from them, and then followed after him with Ai and Yu trailing after her. Neither one of them noticed the broken shards of mirror left behind or the tiny bottle with one drop remaining in it.
(6/2/09)
Author's Notes: I'm so sorry for not updating sooner. I also apologize to everyone that was begging me to update, I received so many kind reviews for this fan fiction asking for the next chapter that it almost brought me to tears myself. (So much crying in this chapter, lol) Thank you everyone for the support. I would also like to thank Wikipedia and the livejournal community the_comodeen for their help on special attacks and character names.
As a special gift to everyone, I will also post the next chapter as well (which I wrote a while ago, but held back from posting because I wanted to continue the "Wonderland" arc before moving on).
I hope everyone enjoyed this story and will continue to read "7 Days."