KHA: I swear... If the exams didn't kill me, I am truly invincible...
AKyra: What TOOK you so long... (sob)
KHA: May I say I did a spectacular job on my Chemistry, Greek and English exams.
Audience: What about your French, History, Math, Physics and Career Choice exams?
KHA: O.o Let's not go there... Anyways, now that I'm on summer vacation, I'll try my best to update at least once a day. This fanfictionWILL be finished by the end of summer!
Everyone: YAY!
Roxas: NU!
Akyra: What's the matter?
Roxas: (sob) No more ice cream... (sniff)
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, COM or Kingdom Hearts 2. Got it memorized? XD.. ...I don't own Axel. O.o
"There is something strange about this place…" Akyra sighed.
"And why is that, Akyra?" Goofy asked.
"I don't know…" she replied, "But I have a weird feeling that this place is going to freak me out…"
Akyra had a weird taste for her surroundings. Either something dangerous or supernatural amuses her, or it freaks her out beyond belief. For example, she'd find a beastly, purple, behemoth monster adorable. But she'd scream with horror when a fully dressed rabbit carrying a pocket watch jumps out of a patch of bushes. Which is exactly what happened. The white rabbit scurried past them, muttering something under its breath, and Akyra, naturally, screamed and jumped back in surprise.
"What is it?" Donald quacked, alarmed by her screech.
"I-I-It's a rabbit! A dressed, walking, talking rabbit!" she shuddered.
"Akyra, you've got problems…" Donald replied, putting away his unused staff.
"I've got problems? Donald… the rabbit was wearing CLOTHES!"
"I'll admit that's odd but you don't have to scream!"
"I…. erm…. wanted to… alert everybody?" Akyra said, shrugging her shoulders and putting on her most innocent look.
"Smart aleck…" Donald muttered.
"I'm late! I'm late!" the rabbit interrupted as he scurried past them, "I'm dreadfully, awfully late! The queen will roast me for dinner! If I'm late for the trial, it'll be off with MY head next!"
"What do you mean 'off with your head'?" Sora called out.
"Oh my fur and whiskers! I'll never make it!" the rabbit continued, as if Sora had never spoken. He hopped a short distance and scampered towards a large bushel of trees.
"Off with his HEAD?" Sora asked louder, turning to face his friends.
"Oh no! The poor bunny!" Akyra sobbed.
Donald shifted his head and glared at her as he tapped his foot on the ground. A couple of seconds ago, she was afraid of it. And now, she's concerned for its well-being.
"It's called sarcasm, Donald…. SARCASM," she said when she noticed Donald's angry expression.
"You guys, listen up!" Sora said, "Maybe there's trouble here… We should follow him."
The group looked at each other with vigilant looks and agreed. Within a matter of seconds, the four of them trotted off side-by-side, as if they were in a military parade.
They eventually found a crack in the forest, which led to where the rabbit was headed only moments ago. This new place was much different from their last surroundings. In the forest, everything was larger than life. The flowers were roughly Goofy's size and the mushrooms were taller than any mushroom they had ever seen. In the new area, nothing was bigger than usual and everything seemed to be normal. Except for the sky, which didn't look like a sky at all. I was painted various colors to resemble a sky but the group quickly noticed that it had corners in it, as if the sky was boxed in.
Some sort of trial seemed to be in order. A small throne in the centre of the room held a short, blonde girl wearing a blue dress as well as a horrified look on her face. On the other side, a smaller platform connected to a little flight of stairs held the white rabbit the group had been chasing. Finally, a large throne resting against the wall held an old haggard queen with a bright red face and a large mole on her chin. Sora and Akyra both caught sight of the mole and turned to face each other.
"Eww…." they muttered silently to each other.
"Hey, this must be that trial the White Rabbit was talking about!" Donald whispered.
Just then, the queen stamped her fists quite rudely on her table, signalling everyone to remain silent. The group stood tall and held their breaths, not wanting to disturb the queen, who looked like a ticking time bomb that will go off at any second.
"Alice! Do you understand the charges against you?" The White Rabbit asked.
"Of course not!" the girl named Alice yelled, "I've done nothing wrong!"
"Feigning ignorance, dear?" the queen said in a raspy voice, "You are charged with aiding the Heartless who threaten this kingdom!"
"Fiddlesticks! Where's the evidence?" Alice inquired.
"The evidence is... I forgot! That's the evidence! Because you, Alice, are the one who stole my memory!"
"What kind of evidence is that?" Sora muttered through gritted teeth, his temper rising.
"We can't rid the kingdom of Heartless until we get Her Majesty's memory back. This is a serious crime!" The Whit Rabbit added.
"This is so unfair! So what if you're a queen! Don't blame me just because you can't remember things!" Alice whined.
"Such insolence! You're talking to the Queen of Hearts! And I'd have let you go, had you apologized straightaway! What a brazen thief!"
"Who's the brazen one?" Sora growled.
"The court has reached a verdict! The sentence is death!" The Queen of Hearts boomed.
"That lady's insane!" Akyra screeched.
"We have to stop this!" Sora yelled, running off towards the Queen's throne, "Hold it!"
"Sora, try not to do anything rash…" Donald prayed as he followed closely behind the rest.
"This trial is a farce! You should investigate before you arrest innocent people!" Sora threatened.
"What is the meaning of this?" The Queen said in her screechy, raspy voice, "Are you saying Alice didn't steal my memory? I suppose you know who the real culprit is, then!"
"You see, that's what I meant…" Donald said, shaking his head in disbelief at Sora's stupidity.
"Huh? I…erm…" Sora stuttered, clearly in a sense of panic.
"Speak! Or Alice's sentence will be carried out! Now, out with it! Who's the thief?" The Queen roared even louder.
"Um...uh..." he hesitated, looking desperately to find an answer, "Um… I'm the thief!"
Akyra, Donald and Goofy whirled around to face Sora so quickly, you could have sworn they generated a strong breeze while doing so. They were astounded by Sora's statement. What was he talking about? And most importantly, how will they escape the trouble they just got themselves into?
"Say that again?" The Queen asked as innocently as possible.
"Gawrsh, really?" Goofy asked.
"Of course not! But what else am I supposed to say?" he answered in a low voice.
"CARDS!" the Queen screamed so loudly and so suddenly that it caused the group to jump back in surprise, "Seize them all!"
"Cool!" Akyra said with a grin as she was being transformed into a card, "It's a card on card battle!" Sora chuckled at her lame joke and jumped in the air to catch the cards, ready for battle.
"Whew…" Sora puffed, watching his friends materialize from their card forms.
"Hey! Where's Alice?" Akyra asked, looking around for her.
"Looks like she escaped!" Goofy said with a wide grin.
"Perhaps she did. But YOU won't!" The Queen roared as she ordered more of her army of cards after them.
"I think we've been trumped!" Donald quacked.
"Run!" Sora ordered. The rest didn't need to be told twice. They sped off towards the crack in the wall they had come through before, hoping to find sanctuary.
"Ow… That Ace of Spades hurts…" Akyra said as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Ace of Spades?" Sora said, patting his wrist where one of the cards took a mean slash, "At least you didn't get hit by that Nine of Clubs…"
"You came!" said an innocent voice. Alice, who had popped out of nowhere, approached them to greet them.
"Things got a little crazy back there, but at least you're okay," Sora said, smiling.
"I don't mean to be ungrateful, but..." she started, looking rather worried, "was that true, what you said? Are you the thief?"
"What? Of course not! Why would I steal the queen's memory?"
"Yep," Goofy agreed, "Sora only said that 'cause he wanted to save-"
"-to show off!" Donald interrupted.
"Is that right? Well, you saved me all the same. Thank you, Sora," Alice thanked, as she took a small bow. Nobody took notice, but as Alice curtsied in thanks, a purple and pink striped cat had appeared on Donald's head. It stood on its hind legs and began dancing, as if it was trying to make fun of the way humans danced.
"Hey, Donald! There's a cat on your head!" Akyra pointed out.
"WHAT? Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!" Donald quacked, hopping up and down, screeching like mad.
"Why? It's doing nothing to har- huh?" Akyra's voice trailed off.
The cat on top of Donald's head was just about to hop off until it spinned around, looked Akyra straight in the eye, put its paws around its neck and…. popped off its head! Akyra screeched like crazy and fell to the floor.
"Akyra, are you okay?" Sora asked, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her up.
"Cat…. head… popping… head… gone… head… gone…" she mumbled, her eyes wide with horror.
"What's so scary about a-" Donald asked, turning around to face the oh-so-scary cat…. or should I say oh-so-scary-headless-cat?
"WHACK!" Donald quacked.
"Oh, look! It's the Cheshire Cat!" Alice said merrily, pointing to the cat that had now put his head back on straight. Sora had finally managed to pull Akyra to her feet and snap her out of her state of shock. Pretty soon, everyone watched the Cheshire Cat in awe, waiting to hear what it will say next.
"Feeling better after that mad dash? You're not out of the woods yet. The queen's stickler for justice! She won't forget you till she remembers! She won't stop hounding you till you get her memory back! Did she forget because she remembers? Does she remember that she forgot? Doesn't matter, I suppose," the Cheshire Cat said. He seemed to love speaking in riddles.
"I don't know… I think we oughta just stay away from her," Sora suggested.
"That's all well and good for us, Sora," Jiminy chirped, "but what about Alice? If the queen catches her again, it's off with… well, you know…."
"Then I guess we'd better do something about the queen," Sora concluded.
"You should do something. But you don't have to do anything," said the Cheshire Cat.
"What?" Akyra wondered, perplexed by the Cheshire Cat's answer. Instead of answering her, it merely vanished and reappeared atop a tree branch, dancing its mimicking dance.
"If you can't remember something, it's like it never happened. Likewise, if something never happened, you can't remember it. Try too hard to remember, and your memory might lie to you."
"Lie?" Sora asked under his breath. He had the strange feeling that this comment had something to do with their adventure in Castle Oblivion.
"That's all I'll say," said the Cheshire Cat before disappearing into thin air, "The rest is for you to figure out."
After speaking with the Cheshire Cat, Alice led the troop through the lush forest and into a very different room. It looked like a weird sort of oversized kitchen, with various items hanging from the wall and the ceiling. A lonesome table stood in the middle of the room accompanied by only one chair.
"Gawrsh, what's with the sudden change of scenery?" Goofy asked, staring in awe at two small tables hanging from the ceiling.
"Let's look around!" Alice suggested, turning around, "Oh, dear!" While the five of them were taking their time admiring the surroundings, none of them had noticed The Queen of Hearts emerge into the room with a couple of her card soldiers.
"Thought you'd seen the last of me, did you?" The Queen spat.
"Uh oh…" Sora muttered.
"Game's up scoundrels! For stealing my memory, I sentence you to... I sentence you to...I...sentence...Oh? What's going on? Where am I?" The Queen shrieked, gasping for air, her arms flailing wildly.
"Huh?" Donald asked, confused by the queen's behaviour.
"What in the world am I doing? Confound it, I can't remember!"
"What's wrong with her?" Sora yelled, alerted by the situation.
"Maybe somebody swiped her memory again?" Goofy wondered.
For some reason, this reminded Akyra of something that happened to her long, long ago. She didn't remember exactly what happened or who was involved, but she did remember that someone spoke to them. But what did they say?
"Oh, darn, it's on the tip of my tongue…" she mumbled.
You made it! The shadows will be here soon. Are you prepared for the worst? If you're not prepared, too bad!
"The shadows will be here soon…" she said louder.
"Huh? What did you say, Akyra?" Sora asked.
"Are you prepared for worst?" she repeated, "If not, too bad!"
She jerked her head upwards and stared closely at the ceiling. Something was there that definitely wasn't there before. A kind of paper ball that seemed to get bigger with every second.
"MOVE IT!" Akyra yelled and skidded away from it. It turned out not to be a paper ball at all. Though it WAS made of paper. It had two long, flexible arms that each held a flaming juggling stick. The Heartless symbol on its chest made it clear that it was an enemy.
"So this is what stole the queen's memory!" Sora shouted in surprise, whipping out his Keyblade.
"You there! All of you! What is the meaning of this? Where did that Heartless come from?" The Queen of Hearts roared once the Trickmaster had been disposed of.
"How would WE know?" Sora yelled back, getting annoyed by her sour attitude.
"So, you refuse to answer? You're hiding something! They're plotting against me! Seize them immediately!" she cried as her army of card soldiers surrounded the group.
"Got any ideas?" Akyra asked them with a worried look. Donald exchanged the same look with her and shook his head.
"Please, Your Majesty, wait! It was you who commanded us to destroy the Heartless!" Alice called out over the sound of ruffling cards. The card soldiers never were well organized, so instead of forming a straight line, they usually ended up in shambles.
"Your Majesty, in her prudence," Alice continued, "didn't completely trust us at first. And so, at Your Majesty's command, we fought the Heartless to prove ourselves. Isn't that right, Sora?"
Sora, as well as the others, wore a shocked look on their faces as Alice said this. What else could they do but to play along with her?
"We did?" Sora hesitated, "I mean, we did! Your, uh, Majesty…"
"I...told you...to do that?" The Queen asked.
"Your Majesty, don't you remember?" Akyra asked sweetly.
"Don't be ridiculous!" she snapped, "I never forget anything! Of course I gave the command. Alice, Sora, you did splendidly!" Believing she had heard enough, The Queen of Hearts summoned her card soldiers and trotted off, leaving the group.
"Well, that was close." Alice sighed.
"Way to improvise! I never would've thought of that!" Sora said, amazed.
"But the Cheshire Cat said as much. "Try too hard to remember and your memory might lie to you." The queen would never admit she forgot. So instead, she remembered something...that didn't happen! She ended up fooling herself," Alice explained.
"Well, I guess you'll be safe now…" Sora sighed, as if he had a lot on his mind.
"And that queen won't give us any more trouble! After all, we got rid of the Heartless, just like she commanded!" Goofy pointed out.
"Goofy…" Akyra laughed, shaking her head.
"Don't tell me you've been fooled, too!" Donald added in, letting out one of his loud, quacking laughs…
KHA: I can't wait to start my KH2 ficcy... I already thought about the entire story...
Akyra: Great... More torturing...
Audience: GREAT!
Akyra: It's called sarcasm... SARCASM!
Audience: No, this is called déjà vu!
Roxas: No more ice cream... (sob)
Akyra: By gosh... you're right!