Author Notes: I thought which Disney Villain would be the best fit for the arc- I went with Judge Doom. He hates silliness and insanity, so what better place than Wonderland- an even loonier place than Toon Town.
I also felt like Wonderland was vastly underutilized in the games and I hope to expand it in any way that I can.
Chapter 9: Chaos and Order
Tulgey Woods
Sora, Donald and Goofy arrived at an odd forest with signs pointing in very different directions, such as "Up", "Down", "This Way", "That Way", etc; the most prominent was the one displaying the words "Tulgey Wood".
"What kinda place is it?," Sora asked Donald.
"Don't ask anything. It's either there or somewhere else where whatever making the inhabitants disappear is...more importantly, who's doing it. Look for anybody that doesn't look like they belong here.," Donald snapped with little explanation.
Sora reluctantly nodded at Goofy's nonverbal request and moved on.
As the trio went further into the forest, bright eyes began to open; one being a red colored bird shaped like a literal pair of glasses with blue lens with darker blue pupils with its feet being at the end of its glass handle like legs.
It landed on Sora's face to his confusion as a pink bird on another branch with a golden neck and head shaped like a handheld mirror with a plumage of pink feathers on top; instead of eyes, it had a reflective glass lens ending at the top of its yellow beak.
Sora looked at the mirror reflection with puzzlement before Donald shooed the birds away with his staff.
Donald snorted before he saw a group of pink bodied clown horns that behaved like ducks.
"Beat it!," Donald yelled, scaring the birds into the nearby pond as a drum-bodied frog and a cymbal headed frog hopped along, the frog with the drum body's head and the cymbal frog's head bobbed up and down. Pink bodied vultures with blue sclera eyes goofily played in the pond before they noticed Donald.
They glided upwards before landing on a branch, looking down menacingly.
Donald ignored them as well as the green bodied stork like bird with a shovel for a head shoving up dirt.
Goofy waved, but stopped when Donald noticed him doing it.
On the way, Sora noticed a red feathered, bird with a golden cage for a body, long red legs and a large yellow beak chase down two smaller pink and bluish birds that looked like normal singing birds, especially in comparison to the other birds.
"Why you-," Sora said before Goofy stopped him as the larger bird ate the smaller birds. Oddly, all three seemed happy with their situation.
"Things are screwy here. No need to force them to act like everyone else does. As long they're not hurting anybody, let them be happy.," Goofy explained as Sora looked puzzled.
A red owl with a greenish accordion neck flew over them, its neck stretching in and out as it hooted.
How does that even work?, Sora thought as he saw the owl.
Small, purple bodied birds with small blue hammer for heads accompanied by small, green bodied birds with yellow coated pencils for faces, made signs by hammering them down on trees and then writing down directions. It seemed like they didn't know what they were making, just doing it out of predetermined habit.
So that's where those signs come from.," Sora observed in his thoughts as he saw the signs being constructed.
"With things this weird, anything can show up. How do you know when something doesn't belong?," Sora asked aloud.
"Ssh.," Donald hushed Sora as Goofy looked on the ground, searching for something.
"Donald. Mome Raths, they know where we'll need to go," Goofy suggested as he pointed to the small odd creatures that rose out of the ground to meet them. They looked like pairs of legs that joined at the top with no upper torso, colored in various colors, with a few being one color on one leg and another color on the other leg. A pair of bug eyes appeared on the upper part of the legs, with, mops of various colored hair topping off the legs.
The creatures grouped together to form an arrow leading to a pink path.
"We finally have a way to get whoever's doing this!," Sora cheered.
"Don't give your hopes up.," Donald replied to Sora's confusion.
Donald stopped him as a brown dog with a broom tipped tail and a similar yellow broom for a head appeared. It moved its head side to side as it brushed the path away. Sora looked in shock as he saw the first actual lead vanish before his eyes.
"Wish someone would get that dog to stop- so annoying..," Donald remarked sarcastically.
"Argh! Where is the perpetrator?! I wanna know?! I'll burn this whole forest if I have to!," shouted Donald as he began waving his wand wildly.
"Oh no! This place usually gets to him in the worst way! Makes him really crazy! Hold him down before he does something really nuts.,"
"I don't see him getting any worse.," Sora remarked with a dull tone of voice as he held Donald up by the collar.
Suddenly, the dog stopped as if out of primal fear as its eyes widened.
Sora, Donald and Goofy stopped to noice the uncharacteristic fear in the dog. Donald snapped out of his angered frenzy as he scanned the area.
"What's gotten into him?," Sora asked.
It looked frantically around in all directions in panic, looking to see what was hiding.
It tried to run away, only for a group of five weasels in clothes pounce and pin him down. The dog tried to wrestle out, but one of the weasels, one in a green suit pinned him down with a knife.
"They're definitely look or feel like they belong here!," Sora yelled.
"It's gotta be them.," Donald said aloud.
"We gotta stop them!," Goofy agreed.
Donald, Gooffy and Sora took on battle positions to fight the weasels.
"In our investigation, we stumble upon the Keyblade wielder and his rabble...," said a voice from behind the weasels.
Out of the shadows, walked a man in black clothing with shining glasses that obscured his eyes with an eerie blinding light. His very presence felt evil to its core.
The whimsical, nonsensical atmosphere seemed to vanish due to the ominous nature of the man's very existence. His clothes blew like the wind was blowing in spite of the air being still, the few glimpses of his black eyes never blink, he had eerie almost white skin, and his proportions were subtly caricature in nature, with large white teeth, big ears, a long chin, and a hook like nose. He walked with a cane that a skull engraved on its top.
"You had this coming for years...Oh, Look what we got here. A trio of inter-loopers.," said the weasel in the pink zoo suit as the other four snickered as the man in the black trench-coat grabbed the dog by its neck.
"Guys...they brought Heartless with 'em.," Goofy said as he saw more creatures appear from the darkness.
A group of towering, spherical Heartless carried a large cauldron with a Heartless symbol engraved in the center. They moved carefully as if the contents were hazardous not only to themselves, but to the environment as well.
"They're huge!," Sora said in astonishment.
The creatures had enlarged arms and hands, short legs, huge feet, and tiny were clothed in a purple sleeveless bodysuit edged in gold trim; the trim also laced up the front of the body suit across a their big belly. Along with black curl-toe shoes and black silver-trimmed pants, they also boasted massive manacles in purple and silver on each wrist; three links of chain dangling from each manacle, . They were topped off by a high silver collar that covered their lower face, and a tiny silver wizard hat that ended in a curl. Like Heartless that Sora met before, they had shadowed faces and yellow eyes.
"Interlopers...Put it down as I judge him before the execution. We have time before I have to fulfill my obligations to kill the unnecessary third Keyblade owner...the ones in the castle are more than enough..," the man ordered the Heartless as the large beings obeyed without question.
"Where's Kairi and Riku-," Sora demanded before the man stared at him with his black, dead looking eyes. It felt like something truly hellish was hiding behind those eyes and whatever it was, subconsciously terrified Sora.
While Donald and Goofy prepared to fight, Sora was frozen stiff with fear. This was different from his encounter on the home island, this was a truly genuine threat.
"Disrupting travel is a major offense. Roads exist people get on and off to get to their destinations. On and off. Off and On. All day, all night. The foundations of a public road are already here. Signs help travelers to know their path when they get lost. All that is missing is order. Order rise from such chaos, and in its place, a long road with signs with clear directions, no insanity to distract from deterring owns' path. Think of the costumers that would be willing to travel, nay, pay tolls to go on this path. An essential part in progress, business and enterprise that will replace the chaos and insanity with order and logic. It's a rationale that's clear as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful." ranted the man in a long-winded tirade of passion and ambition as he unknowingly squeezed the dog as he ranted.
"W-What does that mean?, W-Who are you?!" Sora asked half angrily and half nervously.
"I'm also looking for a Leporid, who wittingly invites chaos into this world. 'll catch it, and I'll try him, convict him, and execute him...," said the man, causing Sora to breathe heavier and heavier.
Suddenly, a cat with pink and purple stripes manifested near the cauldron. The tension broke down the minute the cat appeared, causing the atmosphere to become comical and unusual.
"Come to watch another vanish before your eyes as you do nothing as usual?," asked the man as he loosened his grip as he calmed down from his rant. The dog took the opportunity to escape while the man's guard was down. The weasels and Heartless were too busy paying attention to the cat to notice the escapee.
"It's impossible to make us go away forever. Everything works differently here than in other worlds. He's the culprit you know. The one making everybody in Wonderland disappear in his concoction and poor Alice is being blamed for it. Poor thing.," said the cat in a crypt and odd sort of way.
"Cheshire Cat! You crazy fur ball! Don't be anything funny...We got enough on our plate as it is." Donald snapped.
"He's unpredictable. One minute he's helping you. Next minute he's selling you out to the enemy. He's not evil...he's just random.," Goofy explained to Sora.
"Oh the royal magician and the captain of the guard. How is the king doing? Cats like to know about mice you know.," the Cheshire Cat explained as he teleported above the cauldron.
"It's that loco gato!," yelled the weasel in the green zoo suit as he pulled out a gun to point at the cat. The man and the weasel in the pink suit, seemingly the leader of the five weasels stared with wide eyes before the latter knocked the gun out of the green weasel's hands.
"Don't shoot! You wanna get to break it?! You idiots?!" yelled the weasel in the pink suit as he slapped the weasel.
The man recomposed himself rather quickly to save face. The Cheshire Cat snickered as he continued to look at the man.
"If you want to pester me, I'm not going to incline. I'm doing my business as a judge and then my duties as an associate of the Alliance of Darkness by eliminating these intruders that interfere with our plans. As one of the beings representing what's inherently wrong with this world in comparison to other worlds, you will be executed in due time after I execute the accused-.," the man explained as he suddenly noticed that the dog had already escaped.
"You distracted me...You're mad if you think you can prolong the inevitable! But, interfering with legal duties means you're now guilty of direct interference," the man shouted.
"Oh, whoever comes here and lives here is mad. I'm mad. He's mad. They're mad. You're mad. We're all mad. And I'm not all there myself...It's hard to tell what I'll do in any given moment.," the Cheshire Cat replied as he lifted the cauldron to the man's horror.
"Be rational for once...Are you trying to kill us all?!," the man suggested to the cat, trying to hide his dread at what the latter was likely going to do.
"You should know by now...I'm odd. There's no changing that.," the Cheshire Cat replied.
"I knew it. He's gonna try and kill us all because it'll be funny to him as we all go ka-blooey..," Donald snapped.
"Maybe he's trying to help us...I don't know if he's bad or not, yet. Like Goofy said.," Sora suggested.
"I think he's thirsty.," Goofy said much to Donald's dismay.
"He's must value his own life at least. There's no way he'd be that mad-," Donald said before seeing the Cheshire Cat being to drink the cauldron of its contents.
"You fool. I can always make more later, but you've doomed yourself. And saved myself the trouble..., but I now need to return to get more Dip to bring here for next time.," the man explained as the cat vanished into nothing.
"Poor cat...," Sora remarked.
"I gotta a feeling it doesn't work the same way as it does everybody else...," Goofy told Sora.
"Look!," Donald shouted as he pointed towards the air above the man.
The man smirked only to notice the cat grab his hat. The man grabbed his hat as if he wanted to conceal what was underneath.
The Cheshire Cat gave a look that signaled that Sora and the others should take a few steps back, but with a mischievous grin.
"Wonderland is mad. Nothing makes sense here. Someone that doesn't belong shouldn't be telling how we do things here. You must be a weed trying to infiltrate this garden.," the Cheshire Cat said as suddenly the ground sprouted up several flowers that grew to gigantic proportions.
"Weeds?! Get out you weeds! Shoo! Shoo!," said a purple iris with a pompadour like hairstyle as she summoned a Tiger Lily and a Dandy Lion to strike at the man, the Heartless and his weasels.
"Where'd they come from?!," yelled the bluish gray weasel in a raspy, almost feminine voice.
The man pulled a sword form the skull shaped handle, revealing that the cane was a sword.
"You're all guilty for obstructing order!," the man yelled out.
The Cheshire Cat floated above as he watched the ensuing chaos.
He stabbed the root of the Dandy Lion only for the Pansies and Calla Lily to trip the man to fall face flat.
Sora was too scared of the man to say anything, but Goofy and Donald laughed at the man's plight.
The weasels took time to laugh at the man's humiliation, much to the latter's extreme annoyance while the Heartless continued their attempts to tear the flowers out of the ground. ignorant of what was going on. However, they were ensnarled by the plants' roots and dragged away into the distance, until they had completely vanished from sight.
The weasels tried to flee, but they were stopped by a pair of goofy Daffodils that pinned them to the ground as the roots grabbed him/
The man in black rushed towards Sora with incredible speeds, with the boy frozen stiff with fear. The man was then ensnared by the thorny roots of the white and red roses; one looking like a fair young woman and the other a grandmotherly older woman.
The man grunted, but stopped as he realized something was missing on his face. It was hard to tell as he was quickly dragged away, but he covered one of his eyes in spite of them being thick glasses.
"You haven't seen the last of us. We'll expose of you sooner or later.," the weasel in the pink zoo suit shouted as he, the man in black and his fellow weasels were dragged away as well.
"That's dispose.," Donald yelled out in frustration.
The flowers then sank into the ground and traveled in the direction of their dragged captives.
Sora wasn't sure what he saw during those few seconds, but it truly terrified him. The others hadn't noticed what Sora saw so Donald hit on the back of the head.
"What's the matter with you? Focus on what's happening now! We gotta help Alice since we know who's doing it now.," Donald told Sora as the latter calmed down.
"What was in that stuff that made you all touchy?," Sora asked.
"Turpentine, acetone, benzene...some magic ingredients from his friends and a touch of darkness to make it more potent than it was before. It's called the Dip. Everyone else fears it because dissolves you body, heart, soul, all. You're gone for good.," the Cheshire Cat explained.
"That guy was Judge Doom, he's a bad man who says he's a judge, but he'a killer that hides behind the law. He kills people like the King, the Queen, Goofy, me, etc because we're not...real people in his eyes. And he wants a society of real people.," Donald explained looking down as he spoke. Clearly, he had experienced this man's evil before.
"I don't know about what you're talking about...You're real to me at least. We gotta get that guy so Alice can be saved from the nasty old queen.," Sora replied, which made Donald raise his head up.
"There's no need to...it's impossible to save her.," the Cheshire Cat said to Sora, which made the latter angry.
"So you are a bad guy.," Sora responded as he pulled out the Keyblade.
"It's all in her head.," the Cheshire Cat said, unintimidated by Sora.
"What's that supposed to mean?," Sora asked.
"Maybe it's all in your head? Or my head?...Though I have a hard keeping it on me...In any case, you should be expecting more company...they're back from the hereafter you see...," the Cheshire Cat explained as his head rolled off his body.
"...You're weird.," Sora remarked as he found the entire conversation confusing..
"Nothing as it seems. Not he who wears black, nor Wonderland. Nor Alice. Not even you.," the Cheshire Cat explained as he pointed directly at Sora's heart.
With that the Cheshire Cat vanished, leaving Sora bewildered at these turns of events.
"What did he mean by that?," Sora asked Donald.
"We got proof, let's go back to that big, angry, pompous old hag and show her she's wrong.," Donald replied as he went back in the direction towards the Queen's court.
"And face him-," Sora said before collapsing on the ground and sweating profusely.
"Sora!," Donald yelled in frustrated concern.
"Doom's a scary guy and he's still a boy who just started to fight alongside us...it's ok to be scared.," Goofy replied.
Sora then noticed something odd on the ground and picked it up.
It was a round white glass ball that looked like an eye...an eye with a black iris.
No harm in not keeping it., Sora thought as he put in his pocket.
"Come on.," Donald said as the other two nodded as they ran back to the direction of the Queen's court.
The Cheshire Cat's smile appeared behind Sora before it vanished.
Behind a tree emerged a woman with dark auburn hair, blue iris eyes, and red lips. She wore a purple bonnet with blue lining tied with a blue bow, a purple shaw with lavender lining, and a purple dress. She carried a small red furred kitten with white paws, white front fur, a peach colored face, blue sclera eyes, and a pink bow tied behind her neck.
"Now to find Alice in this odd place.," said the woman calmly.
Next Chapter: The Queen of Hearts begins her trial against Alice, but several revelations occur that will change everything.
