A real challenge, this one. Brightly-colored chaos, up and down and sideways in patterns that make no sense. A hedge maze stretching farther than the eye can see, white roses dripping red growing from the green. A dark forest sized much too large, blades of grass as tall as trees and a tree that rivals most buildings in size. A room fit for a giant, or perhaps just a giant-sized trick.
All in the golden afternoon.
Wonderland
"Guys," Sora says, surveying his surroundings with a critical eye, "I think we might have shrunk a little."
They stand in a dark forest, a dirt path stretching out before them. They're surrounded on all sides, but not by the wooden trunks of trees. Thin, brittle blades of grass, ranging in color from dull brown to putrid yellow, rise up around them. A few flowers, taller by at least a foot than any member of the trio, are dotted here and there.
"This is certainly… different," Telary remarks. He reaches up to touch a flower, only for it to recoil from his hand. Startled, the wizard backs off.
Azlyn, looking suddenly intense, holds up a hand. "Hang on, guys. Somebody's coming."
Moments later, the boys can hear it too. Something rustles through the grass behind them, moving quickly and making no attempt to disguise itself. Wary, everyone prepares their weapons, just in case hostilities are about to break out.
"I'M LATE!"
A cluster of grass blades part to reveal yet another unusual sight: a small white rabbit, dressed quite dapperly in trousers and a red waistcoat, hops out onto the open. He holds a giant golden pocket watch in one hand, and he looks like he's about to throw up.
"Uh, what?" Sora declares, startled enough to drop his battle-readiness. "Who are…"
"No time to say hello!" the rabbit rants, shaking his head fast enough to blur his features. "Oh, she'll have my head for sure this time! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"
His piece apparently said, the little guy takes off down the dirt path. The trio watch him go for a long moment.
"Unusual," Telary finally comments, scratching his head. "To say the least."
"I liked his outfit," Jiminy comments, his head poking out of Telary's pocket.
"What was he saying about having his head?" Sora asks, frowning at the implication. "You don't think he meant…?" The boy makes a slicing motion across his throat.
"Probably," Azlyn agrees. "Good reason to freak out, if you ask me. Looks like this place is weird and dangerous! We should feel right at home, then."
"Maybe he's in some kind of trouble," Sora suggests, his "resolute hero" face kicking into high gear. "Let's follow him, see what's up."
"Pursuing the first lead we find has yielded us good results before," Telary says. "Onward, then."
They continue down the path, still able to hear the white rabbit's occasional cries of distress. Eventually they come upon a deliberately parted pair of grass blades, brighter sunlight shining through. Nudging them apart even further, the trio step into what might as well be an entirely new world.
The sun shines brightly down from above, illuminating the tall green hedges surrounding them on either side. The hedges continue stretching in either direction, the path into the darker forest accessible by walking straight through a hedge.
"Which way now?' Telary asks, a bit nervous. Mazes have never been his thing, not without having a map to study at least.
"I can't hear that rabbit's screaming anymore," Sora notes, cupping his hand to one ear in a useless gesture.
Azlyn, meanwhile, scans the ground. Finding what she was looking for, the knight smiles. "Footprints in the grass," she announces, pointing out the small depressions in the immaculately trimmed maze path. "They go this way. C'mon."
The trio take off again. A few moments later, the bright sound of a trumpet rings out, very close by. Turning the next right corner, they come upon a heart-shaped hedge. Roses grow out of it, red and wet-looking. Through the arch, some kind of gathering is going on.
A girl stands behind a wooden podium, leaning against it. A tall wooden desk looms ominously over the smaller stand, a large woman in red and black leaning forward to peer suspiciously at the girl below her. She wears a crown, which indicates some kind of royalty.
The white rabbit stands by the queenly woman, looking as nervous as before. But there's something in his eyes, too, looking down at the girl behind the podium. Something like sympathy, or even pity. That's how it looks to Telary, anyway.
"What's going on here?" Azlyn asks in a whisper, obviously not really expecting an answer.
"Um, little girl…" the white rabbit begins, playing nervously with his collar.
"Alice," the little girl provides, offering a curtsy.
"Yes, Alice, alright, yes," the rabbit stutters. "Do you, um, do you understand the charges being levied against you?"
"Charges?" Sora mutters to himself.
"A trial, then," Telary says, nodding as he catalogs the information.
"Well, naturally I must say I don't!" Alice protests, planting both fists firmly on her hips. "I've done absolutely nothing wrong…"
"HA!" The black-and-red wearing woman laughs boldly, the sound harsh and unpleasant. She leans back, shaking her large head. "If you wish to lie, you little wretch, at least attempt to tell a convincing one."
"I would never lie in a court!" Alice retorts indignantly.
"Very well," the apparent judge says. "If you insist on keeping up with this 'I don't know' charade, I shall tell you your crime. You are charged with aiding and abetting the Heartless that threaten my kingdom!"
Sora, Azlyn, and Telary's jaws drop. This little girl, an accomplice to the Heartless. It hardly seems possible.
"That is the most ridiculous…" Alice murmurs, shaking her head. "What evidence do you have of this crime, might I ask?"
The queen frowns, looking almost constipated. "Evidence? Well, if you must know, the evidence is… I've forgotten!"
"Excuse me?" Alice asks, thoroughly taken aback.
"What kind of court is this?" Sora declares, clenching his fists angrily.
"You've stolen my memory, you little minx!" the queen continues, her bluster only increasing.
"This is a very serious crime, young Alice," the white rabbit explains, wringing his paws nervously. "If the Queen of Hearts is without her memory, we haven't any way to rid the kingdom of the Heartless!"
"And what makes you think I've got it?" Alice says. "Being queen doesn't just give you license to bully others simply because you're forgetful."
"I am not forgetful!" the Queen of Hearts yells, slamming a hand against the edge of her desk. "I have never forgotten anything else before, ever! Insolent girl, I'd suggest you learn some respect for your betters!"
"I've plenty of respect," Alice shoots back. "For those that are deserving of it." From their hiding place, Sora, Azlyn, and Telary laugh amongst themselves. This little girl, it seems, has some spunk about her.
"You little trollop!" the queen declares, clutching a (strangely small) hand to her chest. "And to think, I would have been willing to let you go with a warning, had you simply apologized."
Judging by the bewildered look on the white rabbit's face, that certainly isn't the truth.
"Now," the queen continues, "I am forced to act. Guards, seize this girl! OFF WITH HER HEAD!"
Sora can't take this anymore. As a cohort of playing card guards march forward, he rushes out into the outdoor courtroom. Leaping up to stand beside Alice on the podium, he summons the Keyblade.
"Oh, my!" the little blonde girl, already recoiling from the approaching guards, declares upon seeing Sora's weapon.
"What is the meaning of this?" the Queen of Hearts rages, slapping her desk again. "Who is this brazen boy?"
Sora frowns. "Hey, who's the brazen one? This trial is so stupid! You're gonna kill this girl without having any evidence of what she did?"
"An anarchist!" the queen declares with an affronted glass.
"What?" Sora turns his glare's intensity up a notch. "I just want things to be fair, okay."
"Who are you to tell me what is and is not fair?" The Queen of Hearts leans back, suddenly cool and composed again. "It seems that you, young man, are completely lacking in evidence yourself. I can only assume, then, that you know who the real culprit is in this crime?"
"Uh…" Sora's mouth works uselessly for a long minute, trying hard to form some useful words for the situation. Nothing comes to him. But still, he just knows that Alice is innocent. Overall, this whole situation is giving him the nastiest case of déjà vu.
"TELL ME!" the queen bellows, leaning forward again. Her palms press so hard against the wood of her desk that Sora swears he hears it splintering. "Give me a name, boy, or I shall be forced to carry out…"
"ME! I'm the thief!"
The outdoor courtroom goes silent, Sora's voice still echoing through the air. The Keybearer pants heavily, his left hand still resting on the spot where he'd slammed it into the podium.
"Really, Sora?" Azlyn declares, breaking the silence with a snort.
"Of course not!" Sora quietly hisses back at her. "But what else was I supposed to…?"
"Guards!" The Queen of Hearts has recovered quite nicely from her shock. Her face twists into a rictus of rage and vengeance. The card soldiers respond to her command, snapping to attention with their weapons at the ready. "You heard him. Seize the thief, and his accomplices too!"
The card soldiers, some red hearts with spears and others black spades with large axes, charge Sora and Alice's podium. Luckily they aren't too bright, the front line ramming right into the wooden front of the podium and the back two lines keeping them there.
Happy for the advantage, Sora grabs Alice's wrist and turns to run. The pair sprint towards the exit together, catching up with Azlyn and Telary on the way. They're just about to the archway when a cohort of soldiers steps out, weapons primed and ready.
Azlyn skids to a stop and hurls her shield, knocking down two hearts. Telary fires off a blizzard spell, spreading its effects as widely as he can. The ice crystal and cold energy hits the cards right in their faces, causing much consternation and discomfort.
With their would-be captors incapacitated, it'd an easy feat for Azlyn and Sora to shoulder their way through the soldiers' ranks. The quartet hits the hedge maze running, Alice's wrist still firmly in Sora's grip.
"YOU IMBECILES!" the Queen of Hearts bellows, banging away at her desk's surface in sheer rage. "You're letting them get away! Catch them you fools, and off with their heads!"
"Which way was the exit again?" Sora asks, frantically looking around for the slightly parted hedge leaves. An intersection waits a few feet ahead, dividing into two paths going opposite directions. Judging by the sound of feet thundering behind the group, a wrong move here is not an option.
"Left!" Azlyn yells, already angling herself for the turn.
"No!" Telary practically screeches. "We went left when we were going to the trial, which means it's a right turn!"
"You sure about that?" Azlyn asks, somehow managing to speak deadpan despite the fact she's yelling.
A group of three spade soldiers come rushing down the righthand path, axes raised to swing. Letting go of Alice, Sora sprints to the head of the group. His Keyblade appears in a flash of light, just in time to block an ax swing. Another solider goes in for the kill, but a quick turn of his blade allows Sora to parry that as well.
Telary reaches Sora's position, raising his staff over the younger boy's shoulder and unleashing another blizzard spell. The card soldiers fall back, clutching at their suddenly cold faces and bodies.
It's a reprieve, but not much of one. Turning around to take the opposite path, Sora nearly gets his head impaled on a red lance that's been hurled from behind. Looking to the weapon's source, the Keybearer blanches upon seeing a veritable horde of soldiers zeroing in.
"Move!" he yells desperately, gesturing down the path.
Azlyn shakes her head quickly. "No time! New plan!" Screaming defiantly, the knight plows shoulder-first directly through the hedge wall.
It seems as good a strategy as any, and so the boys follow suit in charging straight on through. They don't take the impact well, though, tripping and ending up in wild somersaults that end with them landing on their backsides. Hard.
"Ow," Sora notes, shaking his head at the pain.
"Worry about that later!" Telary commands, standing quickly. "We gotta hurry up and get moving before… Wait a minute!"
Sora looks up, surprised by his older friend's outburst. He immediately understands its cause though. The open and sunny area of the hedge maze is gone, replaced once again by a dark section of the Lotus Forest.
"Huh?' is all the Keybearer has to offer at first. He stands, slowly taking in the new surroundings. "What happened? Why are we back here?"
Telary just shakes his head, feeling quite incredulous himself. "Beats me." The wizard's eyes widen, a thought occurring to him. "Where's Azlyn?
"And Alice?" Sora adds, looking all around for any sign of a girl with blonde hair.
"Over here!" a familiarly accented voice speaks up. Alice's head pokes out between two blades of grass, the rest of her body soon following. "I must say, that was certainly an odd turn of events."
"I'll say," Sora agrees, sticking his hands in the pockets of his jacket.
"Is Azlyn with you?" Telary interjects, shouldering the nonchalant Keybearer aside. "The girl with us. Her hair's blonde like yours, but short."
"I'm here!"
The sudden intrusion of Azlyn's voice startles the party, who look up to see the knight peering over the rim of a very large mushroom.
"How'd you get up there?" Telary calls up, concern clear in his voice.
"Beats the hell outta me," his counterpart replies. Swinging her legs over, Azlyn leaps off the tall fungus and lands crouched before the group. "One second I'm jumping through a bush, the next I'm falling down on some mushroom bigger than I am!"
"Wonderland certainly is an odd place, isn't it?" Alice chimes in, seeming pretty happy despite circumstances. "It's like some sort of odd dream, isn't it?"
"Not a pleasant one," Telary grumbles.
"Quite a chancy thing, dreams," a smooth, lilting voice declares from seemingly thin air. Startled, the party jump in shock. Except Alice, who merely frowns.
"What was that?" Azlyn demands. "What…?"
"Ah, the Cheshire Cat," Alice says, nodding as if this is the simplest answer in the world. She looks up, towards a huge tree stump. Sora, Azlyn, and Telary follow her gaze, startled by what they find.
A rather plump cat, purple with winding pink stripes, lounges lazily on the stump. Its eyes are yellow, practically glowing and perfectly offsetting the pitch-black slits of its pupils. Beneath its pink nose, a wide grin shows its perfect white teeth.
"Every night we fall to sleep, never knowing if the fantasies awaiting us will leave behind pleasing memories, or unpleasant." The cat titters, rolling over onto its back.
"Yeah, sure," Sora replies, his voice a little shaky. "Not to be rude or anything, but where did you come from?"
"Where did you come from, my young friend?" the cat shoots back, tilting its head inquisitively. "And where are you going, that's more important I think. You aren't out of the woods yet."
"That queen didn't seem like the kind of person who would take losing well," Telary says, clutching instinctively at his neck.
"Correct!" the Cheshire Cat exclaims, its eyes literally lighting up. "The queen is a stickler for justice, as far as things go. She won't forget you until she remembers!"
"What did she forget, anyway?" Sora asks, more as a general question than one he expects to be answered.
"Did she forget because she remembers?" The Cheshire Cat stands up, playfully regarding the four people before it. "Does she remember what she forgot? What if she forgets she forgot? How is a raven like a writing desk?" It giggles, quite delightedly. "Oh, so many questions. Not enough answers!"
"All we need to do is stay away from her," Azlyn interjects, scowling at the Cheshire Cat and his confusing tirade. "We're trying to get out of this place anyway, right?"
"Maybe that'll work for us," Telary points out, "but what about poor Alice, huh? If the queen catches her, it's off with…" The wizard shudders, touching lightly at his neck. "Well, you know what!"
"So, we gotta do something about the queen," Sora says, nodding as he adjusts to the idea. "She doesn't seem like a very good ruler anyway."
"You could do something," says the Cheshire Cat, leaning its chin on one paw. "In point of fact, you can do everything. But of course, you don't have to do anything."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora asks.
"Well," the cat replies, his grin somehow getting even wider, "if you can't remember something, then it's like it never happened. Conversely, if something never happened, you can't remember it! Try hard as you might, it might not do you good to try hard! Try too hard to remember, after all, and your memory might just lie to you."
"Lie?" Sora says, frowning. How could your own memory lie to you? That's absurd, right?
"That's all I can spare to say, I'm afraid." Chuckling, the Cheshire Cat begins to slowly fade from existence. "The rest is up to you." Soon, all that remains of the tricky cat is its pearly white grin. Moments later, even that disappears.
"What was that all about?" Azlyn blurts as soon as the cat is gone.
"I've met that cat before," Alice explains. "In this very forest, it so happens. He was the one who led me to the queen's court. That's where I was arrested."
"Do you think it knows who the real thief is?" Sora asks.
"Ah, so it isn't true," Alice says, sounding quite relieved as she looks at the Keybearer. "What you said back in the court. I suspected not, but I wasn't quite sure."
"He just said that," Telary explains. "He wanted to save…"
"To show off!" Azlyn interrupts haughtily.
The spiky-haired boy gives her a glare. "Knock it off, Az. We still have a problem here. Who's the thief?"
"I guess we'll just have to figure that out ourselves," Telary says, sighing. "Where to start though? We don't have any clues at all."
"Then that's what to start with," Alice declares. "Like Sora said, investigation is necessary in any legal procedure."
"A mystery, eh?" Azlyn says, visibly perking up. "Sounds like a job for me!"
Sora opens his mouth to make a skeptical comment, but before he can, the knight takes off. For a moment those left behind just look at each other in bewilderment. Telary sighs, gesturing for them all to follow Azlyn's trail.
The knight leads them down the path, constantly stopping to check for… Well, it's not very clear actually, but her friends and Alice follow regardless. The young blonde girl does occasionally speak up to ask a question, but usually all the boys can think of to say I reply is, "It's Azlyn. Just go with it."
Eventually the mad dash leads somewhere new. Parting aside some thick bushes, Azlyn reveals a clearing below. A long dining table with a pink tablecloth sits empty, a small cottage looming over it.
"What's this then?" Alice inquires as the group head into the silent, empty valley.
"Some kind of party, maybe," Telary suggests, examining the fully set table for clues. "Nobody showed up, though."
"Don't blame 'em much," Azlyn declares. "Tea parties are lame."
Telary frowns at that. As a child, he quite fancied a nice tea party, thank you very much.
"Could there really be a clue here?" Sora asks, opening a tea pot lid to peer inside. As expected, there's nothing useful there.
"Even thieves get thirsty," Alice points out. "The thief may have stopped for some tea."
"Good thought," Azlyn says, setting the smaller blonde girl to preening. With a thoughtful look, the knight turns her attention to the cottage. "And maybe that tea made him sleepy, so he stopped in here for a nap."
"Or he had to pee!" Sora points out gleefully, happy to contribute.
Azlyn takes lead, opening up the cottage door and walking right in, blatantly ignoring Alice and Telary's suggestions to knock first for politeness' sake. What they find inside is strange, even for this world.
It's like they're suddenly just a few inches high, standing on the brightly patterned floor of an enormous room. A mountain of a chair and table rest in the middle of the area, and over by the side is a brick fireplace. In the wall across from them is a door fit for a giant.
"What the…?" Sora begins, looking all around in wonderment.
"Oh, my goodness!"
The voice comes from behind the group, who all whirl around at its exclamation. To their (once again) surprise, the handle of the (appropriately-sized for them) door they just entered through wears a face, its keyhole opening and closing like a mouth.
"Uh…" Azlyn mutters, flabbergasted.
"Where are your manners?" the doorknob scolds, yawning halfway through the drowsily recited sentence. "You woke me up!"
"We're terribly sorry," Alice apologizes, dropping into a delicate curtsy.
Caught up in the moment, Telary bows to the doorknob as well. "Sir, uh, we were just, um, interested to know where…"
"Oh, I haven't any time for silly questions!" the knob snaps, his tired voice taking some bite out of the words. "Just keep it down, you hear?" With a few undecipherable mutterings, the doorknob returns to sleep.
"I feel kinda bad," Sora whispers, glancing guiltily at the slumbering doorknob.
"Why'd you let it go back to sleep!" Azlyn demands, not making much of an effort to keep her volume down. "It could've told us if it saw the thief."
"Oh," Alice says. "Should we wake it up again, then?"
"No need for that, my dear," the familiar haughty voice of the Queen of Hearts interrupts. Gasping in shock, the party turns to see her standing by the large table with a smug look on her face. Several card soldiers flank the boisterous tyrant, weapons at the ready. "The culprits have been quite handily recognized, I should say."
"I guess we didn't get as far away as we needed to," Telary says, his voice shaking nervously.
"Honestly," Azlyn says, a mean grin on her face, "I'm kinda surprised she even got outta that chair of hers!"
"Jokes won't save you now, wretch," the queen declares, regarding her captives smugly. "The game is up for all of you scoundrels. For the theft of my memory, a crucial component in maintaining chaos and disorder in this kingdom, I hereby sentence you all to…"
The lights of the bizarre room suddenly begin to flicker, and in a few moments they give out entirely. Everything is cast into pitch blackness, hands no longer visible even in front of faces. Alice gasps in fright, and the card soldiers let out startled bellows. Small noises of movement sound from nearby, like the soft patter of slippers on a floor, and the slight rustling of what sounds like paper. Not to mention the persistent snoring of the drowsy doorknob
After a panicked moment, things return to normal. The lights go up in the bizarre room once again. Its occupants are momentarily blinded, but when their eyes readjust everything is normal. By Wonderland standards, anyway.
"What was…?" Azlyn begins. Her shield is in hand, drawn instinctively in the moment of blackness.
"I sentence…!" the Queen of Hearts bellows, drawing all eyes to her. Her hand is raised high in her usual consternation, but an odd look of confusion mars her features. "I sentence you all to… Oh, dear. I can't remember what I was just about to say!" She looks around, only seeming to grow more confused. The cards, as always, follow their liege's lead, looking to one another with questioning glances. "What is happening? Where am I?"
"That's odd," Alice points out, head slightly tilted.
"It's like she completely forgot," Sora says, frowning as he thinks the problem through. "One second she was gonna kill us, and the next…"
"Confound it all!" the queen rages, knocking over a spade soldier in her rage. "What am I doing away from court?"
"Her memory disappeared so quickly," Telary says, his face slowly growing more concerned. "Like somebody just…"
"Stole it," Azlyn finishes for her counterpart. She raises her shield once again. "Looks like we found ourselves a thief."
Alice lets out a sudden shriek, pointing up at the room's ceiling."Oh, Sora, look out!"
The Keybearer and his companions follow her finger upward, just in time to see a large figure come leaping out of a shadow in the ceiling's corner. It lands on the floor hard enough to shake the entire room. The creature stands slowly, peering down at the tiny beings below it with ten pairs of eyes, from five flat heads stacked on top of each other. Its torso is red and black, the Heartless symbol decorating its chest. Its arms unfold slowly, with the paper-like rustle that had been heard in the earlier darkness. Long legs stretch down to pointed feet. Reaching behind its back, the monster pulls forth two purple clubs.
"I think we know what swiped the queen's memory now!" Sora declares, crouching into fighting position with the Keyblade drawn.
Speaking of the queen, she lets out a horrified scream before turning tail and sprinting for cover. She screeches for her guards to cover her all the while, but they seem to be too busy scattering themselves.
"No help!" Azlyn growls sardonically. "What a shocker!"
"Cover Alice!" Sora instructs the knight, yelling to be heard over the Queen of Hearts' screams. "I can deal with this!"
"How?" Telary asks, not sounding very confident in his younger friend.
The Trickmaster lumbers forward, juggling its clubs almost merrily as it approaches. It stops upon reaching Sora and Telary, raising its weapons in the air before slamming them down hard to the floor. Luckily it isn't a terribly swift creature, and the boys easily scatter to dodge the blow.
With its vulnerable heads closer to the floor, Sora sees his chance. Gritting his teeth, the boy takes a running leap at the Heartless. He slashes downward, missing the heads but landing a solid smack on the creature's torso.
The Trickmaster shakes its stack of heads, wildly striking out with its lefthand baton. Sora, having just landed from his leap, barely gets the Keyblade up in time to deflect. Its a far from perfect guard, though, sending him sliding back over the smooth floor.
The Trickmaster turns toward him, but a fireball colliding with its back deters pursuit. It turns to Telary, the wizard's staff still raised. He fires off another flaming orb, landing a direct hit on his opponent's Heartless symbol.
Sora leaps at the memory thief's leg, smacking it hard with the Keyblade. The blow proves ineffective though, merely bouncing off the limb. He tries another, higher leap aimed for the Trickmaster's torso, but can't get the necessary height.
An idea suddenly sparks in the Keybearer's brain. Height, that's the key! The Trickmaster's vulnerabilities are far too high to reach from the ground, but a convenient solution lies close at hand.
The sound of something hitting metal breaks Sora from his strategic reverie. Looking over, he sees Azlyn flipping through the air, her shield held up as if she just deflected something. Judging by the situation, Sora would have to guess it was the creature's baton.
"Telary!" Sora calls to his mystical companion, who's busy shooting off a fire spell once again into the Trickmaster's torso. The wizard looks to the Keybearer questioningly. "Keep its focus, I've got a plan!"
Telary nods, yelping as the Trickmaster again tries to knock him away with its baton. He lets off a blizzard spell this time, the cold energy staggering it more than fire.
Sora leaps up, just barely managing to grip the edge of the large chair sitting by the table. With a loud grunt of effort he heaves himself upward, standing on the seat and preparing for his jump to the looming lip of the table.
The Trickmaster slams its baton down at the depleted Telary, but Azlyn manages to slip in and deflect the blow. The knight holds her ground this time, still ready when the second strike happens. It unsteadies her, however, and the third hit shakes her arms so hard they feel well on their way to becoming numb.
"Hang on," Sora mutters to himself, pulling himself onto the table with both hands. He slides himself on top on his stomach, repeating those two words like a mantra. "Hang on, hang on, hang on just a second…"
A fireball slams directly into two of the creature's faces, sending it staggering back and giving Azlyn a moment's reprieve. Shaking off her arms' pins and needles feeling, she looks up to see Sora readying himself atop the table. The Keybearer gives her a steady look back, pretending to punch himself in the stomach.
The knight gets it without further explanation, pulling her shield back with one arm before letting it fly. The disc hits the Trickmaster directly in its torso, sending the creature doubling over momentarily.
That moment is all Sora needs. With a defiant cry, he leaps down off the table on a direct course for the Trickmaster's stack of heads. The Keyblade swings downward, cleaving off the lowest head in the stack.
The Heartless hardly reacts beyond a sudden widening of all its eyes. It begins fading immediately once heads are separate from body, disappearing entirely just before its body can slam into the floor.
Sora's landing isn't quite perfect, stumbling forward a bit at the feeling of impact. Telary quickly grips the Keybearer's shoulders, keeping him steady and upright.
"Thanks," Sora says, straightening up as the wizard lets him go. Telary just shrugs.
"My goodness!" Alice declares, emerging from her hiding place behind a potted plant. She approaches the trio with awe and admiration in her eyes. "You defeated that monster so skillfully. I was right to put my trust in you."
"No more memory thief, I guess," Azlyn comments. She places a hand on Alice's shoulder. "Maybe this will finally get ol' Queenie off your…"
Speak of the devil, and she shall yell. "Hold it right there!" Groaning, the trio and Alice turn to face the Queen of Hearts once again. Her soldiers seem to have recovered their gumption as well, once again brandishing their weapons with attempted menace.
"Tell me what just happened here!" the queen demands, her face rapidly gaining color. "Where did that thing come from? What did it want? What is your involvement in all of this?"
"Well…" Sora begins to explain. "We, uh… Maybe it, er…"
"How are we supposed to know?" Azlyn declares huffily. "We're not the Sunday paper!"
"LIES!" the queen rages, her fists balled tight enough for her knuckles to begin turning white. It's a stark contrast to the uniform red the rest of her is becoming. "I see how it is now, oh yes. You're plotting against me, aren't you?"
"WHAT?" Sora, Azlyn, and Telary exclaim as one.
Alice, however, seems largely unfazed. She steps forward, skillfully ignoring the card soldiers readying themselves for a fight.
"But your majesty, how could that be?" the small blonde girl asks, her head tilted curiously to one side. "After all, it was you yourself who commanded us to destroy the Heartless."
The queen suddenly seems to lose steam, her face rapidly fading back to its usual color. Her entire posture changes too, stiff spine relaxing. Anger diminished, she goes back to simply being confused.
Sora and the Disney Castle pair aren't much better of, staring at Alice in wonderment. The girl shoots a quick look over her shoulder to them, winking almost impishly.
"Your Majesty, in her prudence," Alice continues, facing the Queen of Hearts once more, "did not entirely trust us when we first met."
"And why would you?" Sora chimes in. He claps Azlyn on the shoulder. "I mean, who wouldn't doubt this girl was reliable?"
"Yeah," Azlyn agrees for some reason, her voice sickeningly sweet as she grabs Sora's shoulder in her own hand. "Or that this moron was capable in any way?" Her grip increases in pressure, and the Keybearer grimaces as he feels his knees involuntarily bending.
"Either way," Telary adds, quickly stepping up and seperating his younger friends, "you told us we needed to be tested. Our mettle. Just in case."
"And so we fought the Heartless," Alice finishes with a grin. "After all, how could we lowly three pass up on a chance to be of use to Her Illustrious Majesty?" For the finishing touch, the girl curtsies yet again. Sora, Azlyn, and Telary quickly follow suit.
"Really?" the queen asks, quite beside herself. "I asked this of you?"
"Sure did!" Sora confirms, rising from his bow with a cheerful grin. "Or, don't you remember?"
Once again Sora proves himself a rather shrewd reader of people. "Of course I remember, you silly little twit! I never forget anything!"
"Just one of the many reasons you are so beloved a queen," Telary says, his stomach doing a small flip at the enormity of that falsehood.
"That and your beauty," Azlyn manages to get out, barely, without laughing.
"Well, then I suppose a congratulation would not be out of place," the queen says, regarding the trio and Alice for the first time with a positive opinion. "You all performed splendidly. I am quite pleased."
Her piece said, the Queen of Hearts draws up her skirts and marches out of the area with her guards (none of whom know what the hell just happened) in tow. When they're gone, Alice and the trio breathe sighs of relief.
"Nice going there, Alice," Sora thanks the small blonde, giving her his most sincere grin. "That was some good improv."
"Well," Alice says, shrugging, "I was just thinking about what the Cheshire Cat told us, back in the woods. About trying to remember so hard you end up lying to yourself. Like your own memory playing a little trick on you."
"The queen was way too proud to admit that she'd ever forgotten anything," Telary adds on, nodding appreciatively. "In the end, she managed to fool herself."
"She remembered something that didn't even happen," Sora says in conclusion, shaking his head at the whole idea. "Seems kinda ridiculous, doesn't it?"
"This is a ridiculous place," Alice replies knowingly, giggling. "And, now that the Queen of Hearts doesn't wish me dead, I'd rather enjoy exploring more of it."
"Sounds great," Azlyn says, giving her fellow blonde a one-armed hug. Alice reacts a bit shocked at first, but after a moment gives the knight a smile. The boys say their goodbyes as well, and Alice rushes off to roam about Wonderland.
Sora watches her leave, a thoughtful look on his face. When Telary touches his shoulder, the Keybearer nearly screams in fright. He manages to keep it to just a startled gasp, luckily.
"You okay?" the wizard asks his young friend, concern in his eyes.
He nods, chipper as ever. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just spacing out for a second, I guess."
"Do that on your own time," Azlyn harshly instructs him. She regards the bizarre room, arms crossed over her chest. "Now, how do we get out of this crazy place?"
A loud yawn draws the party's attention behind them. The doorknob gazes back at them through heavily-lidded eyes. A slight shine plays over the wood of his door.
"Can't I get any sleep?" the knob complains, yawning once again. Halfway through, he stops, regarding the trio with a confused stare. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"