Inverted Sky

Chapter 9: Wonderland part 2

"And you're sure they looked like this?" Sora asked with a raised brow while holding a drawing made by the Queen of Hearts herself.

Whom just nodded in response with a confident expression on her features; "Of course! Do you doubt my artistic skills?!" she demanded while pointing at the girl with her heart-shaped staff.

The depiction appeared like a stick figure with a strangely shaped head, large pointy feet and big claws for hands. "You really don't want me to answer that." Sora muttered silently with a shake of her head.

"Alright..." she started quickly just as the Queen opened her mouth to speak once more; "...we know for sure that it was a Heartless. So the solution is merely to take out as many of them as possible."

"Gawrsh...but don't we have to take out the leader too? That'll keep most of the smaller ones at bay, right?" Goofy added as he tapped the side of his head at the start.

"That's right...we should split up." Donald said with a quick nod of his head.

"One should stay here to protect everyone...another should start taking out the smaller Heartless to lessen the risk of attack...and the last should find the leader of the Heartless." Sora said, her glancing between each of her two new comrades, whom nodded in response.

"I'm taking down the leader." she called quickly as a small grin curled her lips.

"Then I call taking out the smaller Heartless." Donald said with a wide smirk on his features.

"Whelp...I guess I'll be lookin' out for everyone's safety." Goofy said, him giving a brief shrug when he turned to the Queen and Alice beside her.

"Please stay safe...all of you." the blond-haired girl said with a short, yet nervous gaze to each of the three.

"Don't worry...we'll be back soon." Sora said with a wider grin and wink before she and Donald went running off into the forest next to the large field.

"Guess we'll just have to wait here till they get back." Goofy said silently, yet he was soon knocked to the ground as a figure rushed at Alice.

Whom wasn't able to even let out a scream before she vanished from sight, which left the cowering Queen alone in the field. "Please don't come for me next." she whispered out in fear as she kept her head covered by her arms.

All the while, Sora helped Donald fight a large group of Heartless during her search. Though the brown-haired girl found it odd that the creatures only began to appear after the two entered the forest. 'You'd think that they'd be everywhere.' she thought briefly before finishing off the next 'wave'.

This lead for Sora and Donald to finally split up and venture to different areas of the forest. But most of the area around the blue-eyed girl was just a lot of oversize grass, flowers and mushrooms. "Hmm...this place is bizarre, but it's actually kinda interesting." she muttered out to herself with a small smirk.

"'Bizarre'...'interesting', are they not always one in the same?" a voice spoke out from the side, to which Sora quickly looked around to find the source.

Yet she couldn't see anything as she continued to search, though it wasn't until a widely grinning mouth appearing in the shadows of one of the mushrooms that Sora let out a brief yelp. "W-Who're you?" the brown-haired teen all but squeaked out with blinking eyes.

"'Who'? Who indeed. But why ask 'who'? When you can ask 'where'?" the mouth said as a pair of eyes rolled down from the shadows to stop the correct spot over the mouth.

Though Sora blinked even more to this as a body soon took form around the eyes and mouth to create a rather fat, purple striped cat. "Um...alright, where?" the girl questioned with a raised brow.

"'Where', what?" the cat asked with its' calm, yet somewhat playful voice as he jumped on top of the mushroom and tilted his head to the side slightly.

"You just told me to ask 'where', rather than 'who'." Sora explained with a light sweat drop at the feline.

"Who went where?" the cat questioned as he turned his head so far that it went upside-down, while the rest of his body remained stationary.

"No...I..." Sora started before groaning and rubbing her eyes; "Well if you're not going to tell me who you are, then at least tell me if you've seen any large creatures that aren't usually found here."

"Oh...well it's quite easy for the Cheshire Cat to know who belongs where, but finding anyone who isn't found is truly a challenge." the purple cat said with a light chuckle midway through.

Yet just as Sora sighed and started heading off on her way once more, the Cheshire Cat spoke up once more. "But if you'd really like to know, he went...that way." he said with a clawed finger pointing back the way she came.

"Who did?" was all the brown-haired girl could ask as she looked back at the cat.

"Why Riku of course." he responded, to which Sora's eyes widened in response and she quickly rushed toward the open field once more.

"Though I'm afraid you can't catch up to him now." the cat started, causing the girl to pause in her steps and glance back to him.

"He's long gone and only the shadows remain. And once they take the key hole...they take the world. Which means even the maddest around will be thrown in the dark, never to see daylight again." he continued, which make Sora's eyes narrow.

"And if you're looking for the darkest of shadows, why...you only need to turn on the lights." the cat said silently as he suddenly appeared on Sora's shoulder.

But despite this feline feeling completely weightless on her, Sora barely paid attention to this as she thought about what his words meant. "Key hole? Lights?" she muttered out silently.

"The room with the door knob!" she stated before she rushed through the forest back the way she came.

However, the Cheshire Cat remained on her shoulder as he continued to grin widely; "You're a sharp one with just the right hint of mad, you're exactly the hero we've all been waiting for." he said silently before disappearing.

This leaving Sora alone to rush through the field and back toward the door she used to get there. All the while, Goofy remained unconscious with the Queen using him as a shield for the emptiness around her. Yet the brown-haired girl didn't bother noticing this as her mind was too focused on getting to the door knob.

Upon arriving at the door, she swung it open, only to see a tall Heartless standing in front of it. This Heartless had spindly legs resembling scissor jacks, along with arms that appeared like they were made of paper. These limbs were black in color, while it held purple and lavender striped clubs in each of its hands. The head of this Heartless was made of several segments balanced on top of each other, which all sported its own face of yellow eyes and a jagged mouth. These segments themselves also alternated in color from red to black. Though it wore black armor with large, red shoulder pads and a black codpiece, it also had a very thin and small red body. Lastly, its flat feet were curled upward at the tips, while much of its upper body and head sported gold highlights.

"Well...you're a tall one, huh?" Sora muttered out as the Heartless stood even higher than the table, despite looking like it too had been shrunk down.

Though immediately following her comment, the Heartless began to juggle the clubs in its hands. These of which shooting out random fireballs that Sora had to jump or roll out of the way to dodge. Said girl's eyes narrowing slightly as she looked up at this Heartless while starting to run further away from it.

'This one seems to know some magic, I wonder if it'll be more difficult than the last 'boss'. Though...if it's a fire user, then ice should level the playing field pretty easily.' the brown-haired girl thought as she jumped away from another few fireballs.

Yet Sora soon found that each of these had followed her a few extra feet before finally hitting the floor behind her. 'Looks like it can use the tracking magic Merlin taught me as well. I guess I'm gonna have to keep track of each of the fire balls it shoots out.' she thought quickly as she quickly turned around to face the Heartless.

However, since its legs were so long, it easily caught up to Sora and was about to stomp down on her with one of its feet. But rather than making the teen rush or jump out of the way, she merely brought her Keyblade up and deflected the Heartless' foot to the side. This causing it to trip over its own leg and go tumbling to the floor as the clubs scattered everywhere.

The brown-haired teen smirked to this briefly before looking around and seeing three fire balls circling in the air before coming down toward her. This leading for Sora to rush to the side in order to bring these magic attacks in a line behind her. Once they were in the correct position, the girl immediately ran toward the large Heartless, which was trying to stand up back to its feet. Yet the moment Sora jumped over its rising body, each of the fireballs hit the side of its head.

Upon impact, the Heartless fell right back to the floor and directly in front of Sora as she gathered up both ice and wind magic. After a brief moment, the teen took on a smile as she pointed her Keyblade at her opponent; "Glacier Wave!" she called out loudly as her whole body glowed a bright blue from her magic.

Upon these words, a huge blast of ice magic engulfed the Heartless, to which it soon froze over within seconds. But moments later, the ice shattered apart and caused the tall create to disappear like the many Heartless before it. However, unlike the others, this one yielded a large heart-shaped crystal that soon vanished after rising into the air.

After this victory, Sora smirked lightly before sighing in a bit of exhaustion; "Looks like everything went as planned, but man...those advanced spells are still pretty tough to pull off." she muttered silently as she looked up.

'Though I'm glad I didn't use other smaller spells before hand, otherwise I would have been just as tired as I was after my fight with Leon.' the brown-haired teen continued in her mind before narrowing her eyes.

'But now that I have a moment...what was Riku doing here? That cat said that he was here and that he left, so it could only mean that he likely didn't arrive here immediately following our island disappearing. So how is he going between worlds? And did he even look for Kairi and me?' she thought to herself as she tilted her head down.

Yet she was soon brought out of her thoughts as Donald and Goofy came rushing thought the door. "Sora!" they both called out in unison.

However, as they ran up toward her, the brown-haired teen blinked a few times and squatted down quickly; "Duck!" she yelled as a stray fire ball came flying over her head and and toward Donald.

This leading for said duck to let out a quacking yelp and jump to the side, to which Goofy caught him in midair with blinking eyes. All the while, Sora tilted her head to the side and smiled sheepishly; "Oops...looks like I missed one." she mutter silently.

Though she soon took on a small grin and even giggled lightly; "Although...you look pretty adorable when you get frightened." she muttered with a teasing tone.

Of which lead for Donald to quickly jump away from his friend and puff his feathers at her comment. "Who was frightened? Nothing frightens me!" he declared with his chest puffing up this time.

"Right~." was all Sora said with a wider grin, her simply tilting her head to the other side.

"Why I oughta..." Donald muttered out as he waved a feathered fist in the air briefly.

But the teen just chuckling lightly to him, to which she tilted her head up in thought for a few moments; 'I'm actually kinda surprised that we're getting along so well. We just met a couple hours ago.' she mused to herself with a soft smirk curling her lips.

But she was quickly brought away from this thought as Goofy quickly spoke up; "We don't have time for that Donald! Alice is missin'!"

"What?!" Sora exclaimed with a gasp as she looked to the door, her ready to run through it.

The brown-haired girl only being stopped by Goofy as he brought his gloved hands up; "It won't do any good...the one who took her had gone an' knocked me out first, just moments after you an' Donald left." he started as he pointed to a small bump on his head.

"So we can assume that it wasn't a Heartless or even anyone from this here world." he continued, to which Sora blinked in response.

"How do you know that?" she questioned, her still looking toward the door in order to find the blond-haired girl.

"Because that's what the Queen said." Donald chipped in as he gave a brief shrug of his shoulders.

"That's right...she said it was no one she'd ever seen before. So me and Donald talked it through...and we're thinkin' that it might have been someone from another world." Goofy said with a nod of his head at the end.

Yet this only served to make Sora's eyes widen; 'Someone from another world? And even one who not only appeared soon after I had went into the forest...but also vanished before I had even talking to the Cheshire Cat. But why would Riku talk Alice? He would have no reason to.' she thought quickly before shaking her head of these questions.

Though they continued to plague her mind for a few brief moments, the brown-haired teen soon turned her attention to the door as it closed. This revealing the sleeping knob slowly waking up with a yawn; "What a racket." he said with a light, yet tired groan.

"How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" he continued before letting out another, yet louder and deeper yawn.

However, in the middle of doing this, Sora noticed what looked to be a true keyhole within his mouth. Of which caused the girl's Keyblade to shine briefly and produce a stream of light that went straight into this keyhole. This producing a silent locking noise as the trio just blinked a few times, while the doorknob merely went back to sleep.

"Huh...I didn't see that coming." Sora muttered silently, to which she looked to her Keyblade with a tilt of her head.

"It sounded like something was locked." Donald said with a brief nod in agreement to the girl's comment.

"Maybe we locked the door to this world. That means the Heartless won't be able to take it anymore, right?" Goofy said with a small smile on his features.

Each of them slowly gave a nod in response, to which Sora looked up once more in thought. "Well...if Alice was taken somewhere else, then we might find her in another world. Plus since neither of my friends are here and we saved this world from the Heartless...I guess we better be moving on." she said with a shrug of her shoulders, earning another nod from the other two.

They all then climbed up to the table and drank from the red-ringed bottle in order to return to their natural size. Upon doing so, they headed back to the room they came from and had their ship teleport them onto it. 'It couldn't have been you, right? Riku?' Sora thought briefly as they flew on to the next world.


Alright, the next world will go back to the usual three part theme...even though that was actually unintentional. But anyway, make sure not to miss the next world...there will be a lot of key moments happening there that will have some of the biggest impacts on the whole story. Oh...and just so all of you know, there are indeed going to be new worlds. As in worlds that the series doesn't have (yet). Though I'm withholding a few because of rumors that they'll be in Kingdom Hearts 3...I'm keeping the set ideas I have for them just in case. Anyway, thank you for reading and make sure to let me know what you thought of the chapter...or the series in general. And how can you do that exactly? Um...I'm pretty everyone knows already so I'd be insulting people's intelligence if I answered that. But I digress, until next time everyone~!