Sorry it's been so long since I updated; I've had this chapter typed up for ages, but with a strong computer problem that wouldn't allow me to upload this document, I couldn't do it till now. Anyway, thank you to those who reviewed, though there aren't many of you; and to those who took the time to read; it is all appreciated!!!

Thank you to reviewers: Angel Storm22, Rael-Lirdu, Fushica, and blue-eyed-blond227.

Now on with the story!!!

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Chapter 7

Just falling, falling, falling; when would they land, nobody knew. Sora, Leon, and Yuffie had just stepped out of their ship when they arrived the Wonderland; all three were surprised when they suddenly fell into an empty colorful abyss of nothingness instead of stepping onto solid ground once they teleported out of the ship. No one screamed, or had any fear for some odd reason; they felt like they could just relax and enjoy their fall.

But, the relaxation came to a stop when Yuffie let out a small scream when she saw that they were about to land; into a field of flowers. First to hit the ground was Leon, then Sora, then finally Yuffie. The flowers were an awesome cushion for the group to fall on; Sora and Yuffie laughing as the flowers tickled them, and Leon grumbling that everything smelled too sweet.

"Let's do that again!" Yuffie said.

"No thank you…" Leon muttered. "Let's just go so we can get everything done as soon as possible." As he stood up, he could've sworn he heard other voices besides his own and his friends; he looked down into the flowers with squinted eyes.

Yuffie noticed.

"Leon, what-?" Yuffie began to ask, but she didn't finish her question.

Leon quickly shushed her and he bent down to further inspect the flowers; moving one of the heads between his fingers, he suddenly realized a little mouth of peddles moving.

"Hello…" The mouth said.

Leon's eyes widened; with a gasp, he whipped his hand away from the talking flower.

Now, not only did Yuffie notice Leon's actions, so did Sora.

"What's going on?" Sora asked.

"Take a closer look at the flowers around us." Leon said as he inspected other flowers around him.

Yuffie and Sora looked at each other, they both shrugged at each other; but followed Leon's orders. Yuffie was the first to realize what Leon had seen with the other flowers he was touching when she looked over a little daisy. She could clearly see a little face within the yellow part of the flower, little eyes blinking up at her.

"Welcome to Wonderland!" They daisy said.

Around the new arrivals, the flowers repeated what the daisy said in a chorus.

"Welcome!!!" They hollered.

Sora looked around at all the flowers with wide eyes; everything was just going to get weirder and weirder, he just knew it.

"A young girl's in trouble!" One of the flowers yelled.

The trio listened intently on what the flowers had to say.

"She's going to die if you don't do something!" Another flower said.

"She needs your help!" Another one said.

The flowers kept yelling out and talking, soon it was impossible to understand what they were saying because they were all talking at once. Yuffie was trying to calm them down with the help of Sora; but Leon's attention had drifted from the flowers to a little white rabbit that was hopping along a walking path that wasn't too far away.

"Follow that rabbit!!!" A flower screamed. "He'll lead the way!!!"

Sora and Yuffie's attention went to the rushing rabbit the moment the flowers yelled out about it. Leon dashed after the rabbit, with the other two following behind him.

The rabbit as they soon found out was a fast little creature; with its high long jumps, they all had to keep running just to keep it in their view to see where it was going. Soon, they came a long wall of bushes, and in the middle was an opening; the rabbit went in and disappeared around the corner. The trio soon came to the opening in the bushes themselves; when they turned the corner, they saw that the rabbit had disappeared. To the left and the right were various openings; no one knew which one the rabbit could've gone into.

"Just great…" Leon murmured to himself.

"Where in the world did that rabbit go?" Yuffie whispered.

Sora looked at the openings in the bushes, some to the left, some to the right, then turned to his friends.

"I think we should split up…" Sora said.

Leon looked down at Sora incredulously.

"Are you crazy?" Leon asked. "We just barely know this world. Who knows what can happen if we separate now."

"Let's just try it for a few moments." Yuffie said. "We'll set the meeting place right at the beginning of this place when we're done with everything. If we find anything, we'll tell each other when we meet up again. Agreed?"

"Yup!" Sora said.

Leon saw that he was outnumbered, reluctantly he nodded.

"Alright!" Yuffie said. "I'll see you guys later." She rushed down the narrow pathway of openings and went through a random opening at her right.

Leon and Sora walked side by side after she had left; Leon suddenly taking an opening at his left, leaving Sora alone to fend for himself.

After a couple of minutes; Sora just took a right and continued walking.

Unknowingly to all of them, they wouldn't be meeting at the spot they agreed on.

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Sora had been walking alone for a few moments through the bushes; he had just recently come to realize that he was trapped in a maze. He wondered to himself exactly how long it would be before he could find away out of the maze; because he was beginning to think he would be trapped in there forever if he didn't find a way out of there now.

As he walked, he heard a sudden loud scream. Thinking quickly, Sora took to running; hoping he would be able to find whoever screamed.

As he turned lefts and rights, he finally went through an opening which led him into a forest. The moment he was out of the maze; he realized just where the screaming was coming from.

It came from a young girl in a light blue and white dress; she was being attacked by the Heartless. Shadows swarmed her and with wisps of darkness binds they tied up her arms, trying to tug her down to the ground. Soldiers marched around her and were threatening her with their swords. Some of them turned their attention from the young girl to Sora, sensing the power of the Keyblade from him. Instantly, the Heartless that noticed Sora swarmed over towards him; Shadows seeping into the ground and Shadows charging at him.

Sora was quick to draw his blade and started to attack the Heartless. Shadows swarmed around his feet and bound his feet to the ground; Sora had a hard time trying to keep his balance and fighting the Soldiers. All the while during the battle, the girl in the blue dress was screaming.

"Sora!!!" Yuffie's voice yelled.

Looking around, Sora saw Yuffie rushing into battle; she threw her pinwheel and it flew and knocked away about five Soldiers, destroying two of them on impact.

Gunshots sounded a few seconds later, and Sora could see Leon shooting at the Heartless that were attacking the young girl. With Yuffie's help, Sora was able to break out of the hold of the Heartless that were holding him in place; together, the two went to help out Leon.

As Sora battled more Soldiers, he had a sudden surge of power rush through him, a simple little word rushed through his mind.

"Fire!" Sora hollered as he pointed his Keyblade at the group of Soldiers surrounding him.

A sudden ball of fire erupted from the tip of his Keyblade and knocked back the Soldier it hit before destroying it and the two behind it.

"Alright Sora!!!" Yuffie cheered.

Leon was too busy shooting at the Heartless and guarding the unknown girl to notice what had happened.

The fire that came from Sora's blade most likely scared off the Heartless, because before anyone could notice what was going on; the Heartless vanished. The trio and the unknown girl looked around, relieved to see no sign of the Heartless.

"Thank goodness…" The girl sighed as she placed her hand onto his chest.

Yuffie rushed over to Sora and glomped him to the ground; Sora let out a loud grunt and giggled as he hugged Yuffie back.

"Sora!!! That was awesome!" Yuffie said.

"What happened?" Leon asked.

"Sora learned his first magic attack with the Keyblade." Yuffie said.

Leon nodded to congratulations Sora and turned to the young girl. Before Leon could speak, the girl spoke.

"My name is Alice…" The girl said as she did a low curtsy. "Thank you so much for saving me from those awful creatures."

"Oh, it was nothing." Yuffie said. "My name is Yuffie."

"My name is Sora." Sora said Alice.

"Leon…" Leon said curtly.

"There she is!" A loud voice bellowed.

Whirling around, the group saw an odd looking man. They couldn't tell what he was, if he was a huge card himself, or if he was wearing a card like costume.

"Oh no!" Alice said. "Not again!"

"What?" Yuffie asked.

"We have to go!" Alice said. "Those awful cards are after me again!"

Before anyone could say anything else, the sounds of marching, pounding feet came to their ears; looking around, the group saw that there was an army of cards forming.

"We have to go now!" Yuffie said as she eyed the weapons the cards were holding.

Leon nodded and grabbed onto Alice's wrist, and turned to rush off; with his friends trailing behind.

"Catch that girl!" A loud voice yelled.

Sora, Leon, Yuffie, and Alice rushed back into the maze just as the cards were readying themselves to attack.

"Hold your fire!" The queen yelled. "Find those children first; then attack; I don't want you ruining my beautiful garden."

The cards bowed and marched off into the maze of bushes.

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When Leon was sure that they had lost the cards, at least for a few minute, he came to a stop; so did the others behind him. Panting slightly, Yuffie questioned Alice.

"What was all of that about?" Yuffie asked.

"Those cards were after me to punish me for something I never did." Alice said.

"Which was?" Sora asked.

"Trying to steal the queen's heart." Alice said.

The trio gasped and looked at each other; they knew they had to help Alice, they knew she wasn't the one to blame.

"I had only been in this world for a few moments when those cards came out of nowhere and started to accuse me of the crime." Alice said. "I tried to explain to them that I wasn't from here and that I was lost and that I didn't even know who the queen was or looked like; but they didn't listen and tried to attack me. I was able to get away, but then those awful creatures got a hold of me."

"They are called Heartless." Yuffie explained. "We know that you didn't try to steal the queen's heart, the Heartless were the ones who did it, they are created for that."

Alice let the new information about her darkened attackers sink into her head.

"Well, we better get going." Leon said. "We still have to find the crystal and the king."

Sora coughed a little.

"And Sora's friends." Leon said with an exasperated sigh; then he added in his mind. 'And Cloud and Sephiroth…'

"Aren't you going to help me?" Alice asked.

"Of course…" Yuffie said. "We wouldn't dare leave you here to deal with all of this alone."

Alice let out a sigh of relief and smiled at Yuffie.

"There they are!!!" An all too familiar voice yelled.

Without turning around, the group took off the opposite direction of the yell and ran through the maze; all the while praying not to run into a dead end.

As they rushed, something odd happened to a part on a bush wall; a sudden passageway slid open. Without a moment's thought, the group rushed through the passageway and it closed after all four of them were through.

The cards didn't notice the group running through the passage way, on account of that they were around the corner, and they all barreled past where their quarry had gone.

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"Where are we?" Yuffie asked as she looked around a weird looking room.

The room looked like a small garden opening; in the middle was a huge table with many chairs around it, on the table was a large tea set, complete with plates, saucers, cups, forks, spoons, knives, and various pots.

"Who are those guys?" Leon asked as he pointed at something on the other side.

Placed on the wall of the bushes was a poster picture; of a weird little man with a weird hat and an odd looking over grown hare, the both of them were sitting at the head of the very large table that was in the room.

"Very Merry Unbirthday to you?" Yuffie asked to herself as she read a little sign that was above the poster.

"That's what it sure feels like for me." Alice said.

"It's your birthday today?" Sora asked her.

Alice nodded.

"I was at home waiting for my party to start. I went to the garden to wait when I saw this little talking white rabbit, I followed it to it's rabbit hole and saw that it was big enough for me to go through; I fell through and ended up here." Alice said. "Wherever here is…"

Just as Sora was about to speak again, he let out a hiss of pain.

"What is it?!" Yuffie asked.

Sora didn't respond to Yuffie as he dug into his pocket, he was sure that whatever he felt came from in there; and he was right. Out from his pocket he pulled out Jiminy.

"What are you doing here?" Sora asked the cricket as he held him in the palm of his hand.

"Take a look at the wand." Jiminy said. "It's doing something."

Sora switched Jiminy over to his other hand and dug into his pocket again, he pulled out the wand and his eyes widened.

"Why is it glowing?!" Sora asked.

To be continued…

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What does that mean, hmmm?

Well, please send in more reviews and you'll find out soon!!!