Sorry for the delay, it's been a heck of a week. Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy.

Inverted Sky: Kingdom Hearts II

Chapter 35: Wonderland part II

Sora rushed together with Leon, Yuffie and Alice as they neared the edge of the forest. However, upon arriving at the clearing, a large swirl of black energy spread out from the ground in front of them. It being almost ten meters in diameter, allowing for hundreds of Nobodies to begin emerging from within the darkness.

"They definitely don't want us going near that door." Leon whispered while bringing out his gunblade.

"Well...we can handle these guys, you two run on ahead." Yuffie claimed as she pulled out a large ring that had multiple layered blades sticking out from one side.

But as she spun the ring in her hand, the blades seemed to position themselves in an 'X' formation. This allowing the weapon to take its full shape as a giant shuriken, to which Yuffie herself took on a fighting pose. Yet before she could initiate an attack, Leon spoke up in a firm voice. "No...you go with Sora and Alice."

"Huh?" was all the raven-haired teen could utter out while blinking many times.

"I can handle these small fry. All of you just keep going." the man stated as bright flames coated his blade, to which he swung this weapon through the air and destroyed several of the advancing Nobodies.

"You need to use that spell Master Yen Sid taught you, and if the Organization is there...you'll need more than just one other person with you." Leon continued, him glancing over to Sora specifically.

Said teen narrowed her eyes before looking from the Nobodies, whom kept rising out of the darkness almost endlessly. She then looked toward the door that seemed as if it shouldn't lead anywhere, but she knew better due to her previous visit. But as the girl turned back to Leon, she gave a slow nod in response. "Stay safe." she urged softly while bringing her arms around both Alice's and Yuffie's waists.

A split second later, the three were over five meters on the opposite side of the black swirl. The trio then rushed on toward the door, them now being mere minutes away from their destination. All the while, Leon just smirked lightly and took on a more relaxed pose. "Now that they're out of the way...I can go all out." he whispered, his whole body quickly starting to glow a bright white.

"Renzokuken." Leon said in a deceptively calm tone, narrowing his eyes while doing so.

Immediately after saying this, he moved forward at a blinding speed that made it impossible for any of the Nobodies to follow him. However, almost twenty of them vanished within a blink of an eye after the man's movement. His gunblade slashing straight through each of them with a single strike, to which he then looked around with a sharp gaze. The first movement having placed him in the center of the surviving Nobodies, yet it was far from an accident as the white aura continued surrounding him.

With a quick spin of both his body and his weapon, half of the remaining Nobodies were defeated in less than a second. Instantly after this, the other creatures finally seemed to react and turn toward the man for their own attacks. But they were far too late as three more slashes later, all of the Nobodies were gone. Though, the last one had been into the center of the swirl of darkness, causing it to disburse. Leon now standing there with his blade pierced into the earth, yet his eyes were closed tightly as his hands weakly shook for a few seconds. 'Five strikes still seems to be my limit.' he thought to himself while exhaling heavily.

"Now then...I assume you followed us to this world for a reason." the man said silently, lifting his weapon from the ground and turning to the right.

Where of which several figures approached Leon, but the one that took the lead was a figure clad in a white sheet-like robe. However, what stood out the most was that most of his face was covered and that he was in a wheel chair. Meanwhile, the person pushing him forward was in fact Rude, whom maintained his typical stern expression. The others coming up behind him were Reno and two other people dressed in similar attire.

The first was a young woman with a small stature, brown eyes, and neck-length blond hair that appeared to be longer on one side. The second was tall man with dark brown eyes, and shoulder-length black hair. Of which he had tied in a ponytail, allowing the tilak in the middle of his forehead to be seen.

"Especially if you brought 'this' many of your Turks with you." Leon uttered as he looked to each of the five people with a narrowed gaze.

"Sharp as always I see." the man in the wheel chair spoke, his voice being calm, yet filled with a strange amount of confidence.

"After hearing about our little Keyblade Master's deeds from a year ago...as well as the news that she's come back...how could I not make a request for help?" he continued with a soft chuckle, a small smirk barely being seen on his features.

"Which is exactly why I plan on making sure she stays away from you. Because unlike most of the others in Hollow Bastion...I know what kind of man you are, Rufus Shinra." Leon claimed firmly, his tone showing clear signs of dislike toward the man.

"Oh come now...I'm a changed man, you know that." Rufus stated, yet his halfway sarcastic way of saying it left little doubt about his true intentions.

This just making Leon all the more suspicious, but it remained impossible for him to figure out what the man was actually up to. "Right...and what does this 'changed man' really want with Sora?" he all but demanded, his grip tightening slightly on the gunblade in his hand.

"As I said...to request for her help, that's all." the man in white responded, it sounding like he was being genuine.

Deep down however, Leon still knew better than to trust Rufus and remained on guard. "That's never all there is to it." was all he said while moving slowly into a fighting stance once more.

Noticing this, each of the Turks did the same with their own weapons, yet stopped when Rufus raised a hand up. "It's alright, he's cautious. That's smart of him." he uttered out as another smirk could barely be seen from under the white robes.

"We'll leave things here for now...at the very least, Leon won't be cruel enough to ignore our pleas to the Keyblade wielder." Rufus claimed, all while making a gesture for Rude to take him away.

Said tan-skinned man immediately followed this unspoken order as he began pushing his boss's wheel chair to the side. "She'll hear of us, one way...or another." Rufus continued softly as he gave Leon a quick wave of farewell.

"Until then." he finished, the other Turks quickly trailing after him and Rude.

Leon kept a close eye on the group until they were well out of sight, to which he finally seemed to relax. 'I never thought Rufus Shinra would make a move like this. Something is definitely going on...and while I don't think Sora should get involved, it might be inevitable if he's 'this' set on speaking to her.' he mused to himself, to which he then turned and rushed on to join with the others beyond the door.

Whom of which had gone into the room beyond the door and come across another large swirl of darkness in the middle of the room. Unlike before however, rather than a swarm, one enormous Nobody emerged along with a similarly large Heartless. "Oh great." Sora muttered with a huff.

The Heartless was about ten meters tall, but due to having a somewhat insect-like appearance, its antennas added an extra few meters to its height. Though the body itself was rather rotund, it seemed to be in the shape of a queen bumble bee. The yellow fur that would normally be around a bee's 'neck' area, was outspread into a high-collar-like form for this Heartless. It also having a somewhat similar coloring to the Queen of Hearts' usual clothes as it was even holding a small staff in one of it's four arms. But rather than it having a normal red heart on the top, it had the insignia for the Heartless.

On the other hand, the Nobody was shaped more humanoid in appearance. It looking almost like an oversize human woman with large blades for arms and wearing a Victorian-style dress. Yet because of the solid grey coloration the creature looked extremely plain. Though, the main feature of this Nobody was that its head seemed to be covered, or possibly made up of, a tall golden crown.

After looking these two over for a moment, Sora, Yuffie and Alice glanced to one another. "You two ready for this?" the former of the trio asked with a small smirk.

This lead for the other girls to nod their heads in response, to which they then rushed off in three different directions. However, both of the large creatures immediately began moving toward Sora as she seemed to be their main target. Despite raising a brow to this, the brown-haired teen just lead the pair away from the door before doubling back. At which point, Yuffie threw her large shuriken at the Nobody's chest with enough force to prevent it from continuing its chase.

But it wouldn't last long as the creature's body was very sturdy and was also a close-combat attacker. Making it so that Yuffie couldn't do much to it after the initial attack since she managed to take it by surprise. Each attempt to hinder its movements were useless as the Nobody just kept going, deflecting any other attacks with its arms.

All the while, Alice stepped in front of the Heartless and narrowed both eyes. "White Blaze!" she called out as an inferno of white fire burst out from her outstretched hands.

These flames surrounded the Heartless and preventing it from getting any closer to Sora. At least for a moment. As once its wings began to flap quickly, the flames were mostly blown away. Though, any that remained were easily avoided as it flew over them. Taking to the air also allowed the Heartless to also get out of the way of Alice's further attacks. Its maneuverability being too much for the blond to keep up with as she couldn't prevent the creature from continuing forward.

Yet Sora still easily made it back to the door as she summoned her Keyblade and pointed it toward the lock. Of which lead for the door's mouth to open subconsciously in his sleep, allowing her to lock it once more. But instantly after doing this, Sora felt a sinking sensation. As if there was something terribly wrong with what she just did, yet it was now too late to stop or undo it.

Though, she didn't have much time to think about this further, as she turned around to see the Heartless and Nobody still moving toward her. When seeing Yuffie's and Alice's difficulty with their respective opponents she cupped her hands to either side of her mouth. "Switch!" Sora called out to the girls, her hands allowing her voice to be carried through the room easier.

The two looked at the brown-haired teen with a blinking gaze, yet almost immediately nodded and rushed across the room to trade opponents. At which point, the Heartless' maneuverability was all but useless against Yuffie's far superior speed. Plus, with her shuriken, she managed to slice its wings enough to prevent it from flying. Meanwhile, the Nobody could do next to nothing against Alice as its defenses were quickly broken from her overwhelming powers of Light.

This switch making made it clear for the teens that even if they have opponents they cannot defeat, having friends along side you makes it so that you can overcome any foe. Which was further emphasized when the two defeated the creatures with relative ease. The Heartless and Nobody being completely unmoving on the floor as they appeared to have actually been knocked unconscious.

Yuffie and Alice then turned to Sora and rushed toward her with wide smiles of glee. But these quickly disappeared, and were replaced by gazes of horror as they saw a hooded figure standing right behind the brown-haired teen. Whom immediately spun herself around, to which she saw that this person had their back to her. Though, the soft glow they had emitting from their hand was still visible as he actually seemed to have retrieved something from the Keyhole itself.

"Excellent." the figure whispered softly, causing the brown-haired girl's eyes to widen as she recalled hearing this voice back when she had visited Halloween Town.

"You're..." she spoke out with a surprised gaze, yet the person just vanished in a quick movement.

A split second later, both Alice's and Yuffie's attacks collided on the floor where he previous had stood. This lead for the three to look around as quickly as possible, to which Sora eventually noticed the man standing at the far end of the room. "Be patient! It's not yet time!" he called out before vanishing in a swirl of darkness.

In the same moment however, Sora was already right in front of him with her Keyblade thrusting toward his face. Despite the attack missing by mere millimeters, the force of it created a shock wave that echoed through the room and nearly knocked the other two teens back. The pair still being in front of the door as they didn't even have time to react until almost getting pushed over. But once they stabilized themselves and looked to Sora, they could only blink as the teen had a strange aura of black and yellow.

Though, the brown-haired girl slowly turned around and gave them her signature smile. The three heading toward one another as they met in the center of the room. "Well...I'd say we succeeded." Sora claimed, her smile widening slightly.

At which point, Leon's voice was heard from the doorway behind Yuffie and Alice. "GET OUT OF THERE!" he screamed, yet it was too late as both the Heartless and Nobody had stood back up and engulfed the three in a mass of darkness that destroyed almost the entire room.

There you are, some strange happenings are going on and Rufus Shinra has made his appearance. I hope all of you enjoyed and will let me know what you thought. Until next time.