Authors Note: So… Next chapter. Time for yet another Operation. This time to somewhere of far lesser importance. But it still houses a General, so that'll be the next target. But, this one is the second of Total Darkness. I don't have much more to say other than that. But I do hope you enjoy. :D

Chapter 36: Operation Wonderland.

Like all of the wielders, Ray tries to ignore the oncoming threat of Chaos. The threats, right now, are Eclipse and Solaris. What fate has in store after them, is a problem that the wielders will fight once it arrives. Looking too far ahead, looking too far into the future, will only take attention away from the present. The present where the Endless War is taking place, where all attention must be focussed on that. Without it, no matter what fate declares, they can't win. Their reality right now, is war. Sometimes you just have to keep a grip on what reality have given you, and fight through it if it's bad, or fight to keep it, if it's good. No matter how reality looks, even if it's broken beyond recognition the wielders know that they just have to hold on. Because answers come even from madness. Ray knows that better than anyone. He does have his Grandfather after all.

On the subject of reality, Chaos twists it. Some even say Chaos has control over every reality. This could be said to be almost true. What one man thinks is reality, can often be a lie. Just because you know only one reality, does not make it the only one, or the true one. War is the reality, but there's always a way to escape that.

Ray and the group aiding him now arrive in Wonderland. Or what they had expected to be Wonderland. Instead they arrived in a city. Packed street and rows upon rows of houses. Older architecture to what Ray had become accustomed to on that of Mt Nova and the Dark City on the World That Never Was. In fact as they explored this place, they found the technology had only advanced as far as using steam.

"This is Wonderland?" Lea asked, as he looked around with the rest of group.

Ray nodded, turning to look at his teammates. Joining him were Lea, Braig and Sephiroth.

Sephiroth obviously deciding his fastest way to redemption and then to joining his former comrades in that heaven like pocket universe was to help out the wielders, even to his great dismay. As Ray was probably the best person to deal with him should he change his mind, his first mission was beside him.

"This is the real side of Wonderland." Ray explained.

"The real side?" Lea continued. "I visited Wonderland enough. I've never seen this side… Are you sure?"

"Perfectly."

"So explain." Sephiroth demanded.

Ray turned to him, glaring. There was no point however, as Sephiroth just shrugged it off, not fearing Ray's power.

"Alice." Ray replied bluntly.

"What about the Princess?" Braig asked.

"Wonderland. It's her creation. Obviously this world isn't too nice, so she created another to escape to."

"So for the past few years we've all seen some little girl's delusions?" Lea asked.

"No. Wonderland is its own world. Is it so hard to believe that her imagination can become a world? We've created worlds from books and data… What about imagination."

"And I guess her Princess of Heart status was rather important?" Braig asked.

Ray nodded. "Her raw power as a Princess of Heart allowed her imagination to create a whole other side to this world. That side is the only side we've seen."

"So, let's just get to the point." Sephiroth began. "Where is Total Darkness ,here or Wonderland?"

"That's just it." Ray began.

"Wonderland." Ansem finally spoke through the telepathic link. "It's just… It's not Wonderland."

Ray nodded. "Alice is dead. Like the other Princess' she was killed when Solaris stole their power."

"How do you know that?" Braig asked. "You were still dead."

Ray looked at him like he was stupid. "The King filled me in."

"Ah…"

"Anyway…" Ray continued. "Without Alice, Wonderland should be empty. Nothingness even."

"But it's not, is it?" Lea asked.

"No. It's just impossibly different." Ansem answered through the telepathy again.

"So it's being controlled by someone else?" Lea asked.

"I expect so." Ray answered.

"But everyone's in the key holes." Braig pointed out.

"Could Total Darkness be in control of it?" Ansem asked through the telepathic link.

"You tell me." Ray replied. "You can scan the world."

"They're there." Ansem replied. "That's not to say they're in control however."

Ray stood there completely still, just thinking for a moment.

Finally he spoke.

"Back down the rabbit hole we go then."

Ray held up an empty hand and a portal appeared at everyone's feet. Seconds later, they were falling, falling deeper and deeper, to Wonderland.

xXx

Wonderland however, as expected, was completely unrecognisable. No longer was it made up with natures green and the lively colours, but grey metals, crimson fires and black stone.

Shattered images of the outside world were thrown around a seemingly bottomless void. Broken homes floated around, trains shot across floating tracks, spewing out and fire and smoke as they did. Fragments of Wonderland's past were here though. The odd card floated through the void, burning however. Now and again a white rose could be seen, only half painted red.

And of course, darkness had settled on Wonderland. Be it the fog that had enveloped everything, or the blotches of darkness that seemed to be attached to everything.

Maybe guessing that Total Darkness had gained control of Wonderland wasn't as farfetched as first thought.

Dropping out of the rabbit hole that just suddenly ended, the group dropped onto a small stone platform that floated alone in the void. It was the same sort of stone that made up many of the roads of the side of the world the group had just come from. Why had Wonderland become a broken version of the world on the outside?

"Not very welcoming is it?" Lea commented.

Ray looked around picking out many an object from the world they had just come from.

"This is strange. Why would Total Darkness make this world like… Well this?" He asked himself aloud.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Lea replied, being the only one who did.

"Anyway… We'll need a platform…" Ray continued.

"To where? Everything is so… scattered." Braig pointed out.

"To the closest platform I guess." Ray stated the obvious.

Everyone nodded as Ray pulled out an old rag from his pocket.

"No point getting bloody yet…" Ray joked as he tried to make a platform expecting his nose to bleed. Well he expected to make a platform more.

Nothing happened. No blue light, no platform, no blood.

Ray shook his head and tried again, only to come to the same result.

"Are you going to, or what?" Sephiroth asked.

Ray shook his head. "I can't."

"What?" Ansem asked through the telepathy. He was clearly preoccupied with trying to find out what had happened to Wonderland that he only spoke when he needed to.

"I'm powerless." Ray reiterated.

"Like, completely?" Lea asked.

"I guess that power play isn't going to happen…" Sephiroth pointed out.

Ray nodded. "Completely."

"What happened?" Ansem asked. "Is there anything that could have caused this?"

"I guess… I guess this isn't my world. I only have powers in the worlds I'm to protect. Wonderland is Alice's domain. Or it was…"

"So what now?" Lea asked. "Do we continue with the mission?"

Ray paused for a moment. "Yes… I can still fight. I still have the key blade. Well both of them, and I'm sure I'm still pretty strong. You don't just forget how to swing a blade and where to aim it…"

"Are you sure?" Ansem checked.

"Yes." Ray said after nodding.

Everyone paused and looked out onto Wonderland.

"The next challenge is figuring out a way to get around this place." Lea pointed out.

Ray looked over the edge. Noticing a rather large chimney a few miles down.

"Why?" Lea asked, noticing where he was looking.

"Wonderland. It's all about finding the right door. You won't find anything just standing still."

"And you're sure a chimney is a door?" Braig asked. "It's not even attached to anything…"

"Especially as you don't have those Godly senses of yours anymore…" Sephiroth pointed out. "You're running on a human intelligence here…"

Ray really wanted to put a blade through his chest.

"I'm sure. But if you don't want to follow… Be my guest and stay here. And can't you fly anyway?"

Sephiroth nodded.

"But I'm not catching anyone."

"Very heroic of you…" Lea added.

Sephiroth was more effective with his glares.

"Oh come on, both of you." Ray ordered as he took a leap of faith.

Braig turned to Lea.

"I guess I'm old enough." He said as he followed Ray.

"That's alright for you… I'm a lot younger." Lea said to himself as he followed also.

"Idiots." Sephiroth commented as he began his decent downwards with his wing outstretched.

xXx

Falling from the other side of the chimney, that as suspected was indeed a doorway to another part of this new Wonderland, the group found themselves inside some sort of white walled building.

Perfectly white, with no lights on, yet there still seemed to be light coming from somewhere.

"I doubt Total Darkness would make a place like this…" Braig pointed out.

"You're in an Asylum. There's one exactly the same in the outside world. Well it's precise in layout. And you'll never guess what else…" Ansem began through the telepathic link. Thankfully even without Ray's powers that still held up.

"What?" Ray asked.

"Alice was admitted there."

"How do you know?" Braig asked.

"They have records… Not computerised, but the computer takes all information it can possible gather and turns it into files for me… Nano bots… Remember?"

Everyone nodded.

"Anyway… Alice was admitted for her delusions. The more they tried to make her forget Wonderland, the more it changed her. She was admitted a year after Sora met here in Wonderland. And spent eight years there, until Solaris kidnapped her. And you know what happens next…"

"So, let's get this right… Alice was institutionalised for being able to go to Wonderland?"

"No. When she went to Wonderland, her body would lie almost asleep. It's the same for you four now. You are sleeping in the street. The people of the world outside of Wonderland couldn't understand how she believed this world in which she dreamed of was real. So they studied her, and finally tried to make her forget. It warped her mind, which in turn, warped Wonderland."

"They stole her childhood from her, and forced the harshness of the real world onto her…" Lea realised. "This is…"

"This is how she sees her 'delusions' now. As unreal, broken shadows of the real world…" Ray realised.

"So how is this still like this if she's dead?" Braig asked.

"That is a question we have yet to answer." Ansem replied.

"And we still have to find and destroy Total Darkness here…" Sephiroth pointed out the obvious.

"That's some more good news." Ansem continued. "Since you arrived the amount of Total Darkness I've been picking up has been decreasing. And the energy hasn't moved… It's being killed. Perhaps Wonderland is fighting back against its invaders."

"How does it distinguish between us and them?" Braig asked.

"It can't." Ansem answered. "Wonderland will begin to attack you."

"And that's another question!" Lea added. "How are we even here? If this is Alice's mind's doing…"

"Wonderland welcomes all magical beings…" Ray answered.

"Oh…" Lea replied. "So… It welcomes us, just wants to kill us when we get here…"

Ray nodded. "Yup…"

"Get ready!" Ansem shouted.

"What is it?" Ray asked.

And then, right on cue the windows of this fake asylum erupted into clouds of glass shooting towards the group. Following by pillars of flame from whatever was outside.

"We see it." Ray continued before Ansem could answer.

"Run!" Lea shouted as he took off down the corridor.

And they did just that. They ran as they were followed by shards of glass and pillars of flames.

Until the floor in which they were running on disappeared at their feet, and they were forced to fall once again.

Sephiroth rather suddenly grabbed a hold of Braig and Lea, but left Ray to his free fall.

"Aren't you going to help him?" Braig asked.

Sephiroth shook his head. "And drop you two?"

They looked up, noticing the fire and glass following them.

"Hold on!" Sephiroth ordered.

They did just that, and Sephiroth flew faster and with more skill than he had ever done so before. Avoiding the relentless attacks from the very world they stood on. Or had been standing on.

They followed Ray downwards. Until they arrived somewhere completely different.

xXx

"We're as deep as Wonderland goes." Ray pointed out when the other three finally caught up.

"You're okay?" Braig asked.

Ray nodded. "Yeah. Gravity isn't too… correct here. Plus there's a bit of Aero magic. I'm not completely useless."

Sephiroth snorted.

Ray shook his head.

"Anyway… Ansem, confer with Sora, this is… something I believe he's seen before." Ray ordered through the telepathic link.

Ray looked around. The four of them stood on a table. A table with cracked tea cups and a completely shattered tea pot.

"Right at the bottom…" Ray began. "Her psyche is still alive. Just… Broken."

"Sora has confirmed it." Ansem pointed out.

"Okay…" Ray looked around again.

"Now where?" Lea asked.

"This is the bottom… It doesn't mean we can't still go down." Ray pointed out. "This is Wonderland. Down is up, up is down and all the rest of the madness you could possibly think of."

"Bottoms up them." Lea said, being the first to make the next leap.

Braig sighed and followed.

Sephiroth, still completely focussed on the fight and only the fight just jumped without a seconds thought or a second glance.

Ray looked around once again.

"Where are you?" He asked himself before following the rest of the group.

xXx

The group appeared being shot out of the steam funnel of one of the many monstrous trains that ruled the first area they had arrived in. Luckily they were spat out before any fire. Thankfully they all gained balance quick enough, and looked out upon the world they were in.

"We're heading for…" Lea began.

"A giant metal, oozing with lava and flames, dark castle… 'Cause that's never been done before." Braig pointed out.

Ray shook his head. "It's Alice's imagination…" He pointed out.

Lea and Braig nodded.

"Right." They said in unison.

So the four of them just stood on the train, waiting for it to arrive at their rather unwelcoming destination.

"So, are you worried about Liam?" Braig asked Ray as they were waiting.

Ray nodded. "Of course."

"Did you hear what happened in his last mission?" Lea asked.

Everyone nodded.

"I'm sure he's in control." Ray pointed out.

No one seemed to agree.

"And if he's not…" Ray began. "I guess I'll have to do something."

"We'll all do something…" Lea added.

Ray laughed. "Let's just get us ALL through this."

Finally the group arrived at the castle. Upon touching down on its metal pathways, the air became chilled, and the void darkened even more so.

"They're here." Sephiroth examined. "Finally…"

Everyone summoned their weapons, right in time too as a group of Knights already had them in their sights. Sephiroth in all his pent up rage and anger put them down without a second thought however. Lea and Braig barely had enough time to move. Ray was only half way to his first target.

"Come on." Sephiroth said as he entered the castle.

xXx

Upon entering and walking its halls the group only came across a few Knights here and there. It didn't take long to take them down, and it happened with very little difficulty. However, soon they reached some sort of great hall, and sitting there at the far end, like they had expected was the second General of Total Darkness and their true target for this operation.

"Finally." Seemed to be the response from everyone, even the enemy.

However, before the group were even half way across the room, and before the General had even stood up, there was a small knife sticking out of his chest. It's silver shape glinted in another source-less light.

"Who?" Sephiroth asked angrily, dying for a fight.

In an explosion of black butterflies next to the General the knife was removed, and the General became nothing more than dust. But the owner of the blade was not seen.

Until, it was too late.

Ray looked around worriedly, trying to find out where it had come from.

And he was just about to find out. Before he could move a single muscle, he felt the butterflies explode behind his back. He felt the knife penetrate his skin. He watched as the tip appeared on the front of his body, having gone all the way through. He choked as the blood welled up in his throat and mouth.

And finally he felt nothing, as he fell to the ground.

"Ray!" Ansem screamed through the telepathic link.

Lea and Braig held their weapons tightly. Sephiroth took flight so he could avoid the same fate.

"Appear, Beast!" Sephiroth shouted, taunting this invisible enemy.

Lea ran over to Ray's side. "Come on… Curaga! Curaga!"

But it did nothing.

He threw his chakrams around him, trying to hit something, but to find no target.

Braig fired off many a round, but found the same result as Lea.

Sephiroth just watched from the roof of the room as the Chaos unfolded.

"It's late. You're late. It's too late. You're too late." A female voice taunted.

"Witch!" Sephiroth shouted. "Show yourself!"

"Off with their heads! My head? Not my head!" The voice continued.

"She's insane…" Braig said.

The butterflies appeared once again next to Ray, and the knife disappeared once again.

"Be ready!" Sephiroth shouted.

"You can always take more than nothing! Take nothing then take more! I'd very much like more tea…"

Everyone fell silent waiting for the attack.

"She's… Alice." Lea realised.

Finally the attacker appeared.

"I'm afraid I can't explain myself, you see, because I'm not myself, you know." She said as she appeared.

Alice appeared from another explosion of black butterflies.

Many years had passed since Sora had met that ten year old girl. And the years had not been kind. A twenty six year old Alice now stood before Sephiroth, Braig and Lea. Time had dyed her once silky blond hair black. The fact that the Cheshire Cat had now gone into the key hole had given Alice cats eyes and her years of hardship in that Asylum had made her skinny and pale, the space surrounding her eyes dark. Above her long black hair rested a top hair, battered and crushed it was as white as her skin, with black trimmings. Her dress was very much the same. Resembling a strait jacket in many ways, perhaps because on the outside that was all she had seen herself in for many years.

In one hand she held the now bloody knife. It was seemingly something she had just picked up out of a kitchen drawer. The first thing she could get her hands on. In the other, she held a small pocket watch that had once belonged to a small rabbit.

What had driven her to this state? It was nothing but time. Eight years she spent in an Asylum, being told her world was fake. Then she had the light ripped out of her. And like her mind and heart, Wonderland also had its light taken. Until it was nothing more than a shell of its former self.

Princesses of Heart were just pure light. But they were also human. If they were just pure light they'd be nothing more than the Soldiers. That little extra bit, which made them human, had saved Alice from Solaris. Perhaps it had saved the others too. But in saving herself she was left alone for another seven years. The only one left, and she was already broken. In more ways than one.

"Ready?" Lea asked, turning to Braig and looking up at Sephiroth.

"Braig, fire!" Sephiroth shouted.

Braig took a moment to realise what he was being asked to do.

"Yes." He finally said, pulling the trigger.

Alice held up the stop watch and time slowed around her, but only around her. As the bullets come close she simply walked around them.

Sephiroth screamed violently as he dove in towards her, swiping all around. As time slowed however, Alice just avoided his strikes; moving in close and sticking her knife through his sword hand, making him drop his blade.

She quickly removed the knife, and moved in for another attack.

Lea had already donned his black Organisation cloak and had rushed through a corridor however. Appearing right beside Alice, Lea rushed into her, knocking her to the ground, jumping backwards and unleashing attacks from his chakrams.

Sephiroth had already picked up his blade with his other hand and had moved into attack again, but before he could get close, she disappeared in an explosion of those black butterflies once again.

Braig reloaded his arrow-guns.

"How do we…?" He asked.

"The same way we kill everything else…" Lea answered, as his eyes darted around the room, trying to find Alice.

xXx

The fight was beginning to take a toll on everyone. Whether it was physically or emotionally. In truth, it was both. Anger was the main emotion running high. Everyone knew how important Ray was to this war. And now, Wonderland had made him immortal, and Alice, a Princess of Heart had killed him.

And she was so strong. Madness and Wonderland went well together. She used them perfectly together and she was using them against the surviving members of the group. And at this rate, they wouldn't be surviving for much longer.

But then something happened.

As she reappeared for the thousandth time since the beginning of the fight, Alice dropped her knife and the pocket watch. She pulled the hat from her head and threw it on the ground. And her eyes flashed back into their normal state. Colour returned to her face and clothes, and her dress took the shape and design of the one she had worn a great many years ago.

How had it happened? A little bit of light had returned to Wonderland.

xXx

A Few Minutes Earlier

The Asylum, the real Asylum in the outside world of Wonderland, was bare and empty. Only one person had been there in seven years, and dust and darkness had settled over it.

In one damp, dark and dusty corner, Alice slept. She shook violently and lashed out, but she did sleep. That was how she was in Wonderland.

In this part of the World, the real side, her hair was black also, but she was dressed simply in a tattered white dress. In one arm she cradled a stuffed rabbit toy. In the other, a knife she had stolen from the kitchen. Perhaps to protect herself from the darkness that had found its home here.

But she was not alone here. Footsteps grew louder, and if she was awake she may have possibly ran. Or maybe not, she was about to see a familiar face after all.

Finally Sora came around the corner, noticing her lying there in the corner alone. Running over he removed the knife from her grasp and threw it across the room, giving it a look of disgust as he did so.

"Alice." He said softly as he moved in closer to her. "Alice." He repeated.

She mumbled and tried to form words in her sleep. Words that made no sense, sounds that meant nothing.

Finally she said something of use. "I'm just trying to find my way home…"

"I can help you find your way home." Sora promised. "Just wake up. Leave Wonderland, just for now."

"Come along it's time for tea." The sleeping Alice mumbled.

"Come on…" Sora begged.

Sora stood up again, and looked up the roof, looking for hope from somewhere.

"Please… You have to know how I can save her. You can help me save the worlds, you can give me all the answers but how to save one girls life!" Sora screamed, before his eyes lit up with blue light. Soon Sora's body was replaced with someone else's. For it was never Sora. Just someone else, trying to give the little girl something that she knew.

Ray knelt down again beside Alice and pulled her in closely to him.

"You're so cold…" He said. "Come on."

And if the sight wasn't strange enough, a sixteen year old boy holding a twenty six year old woman close to him, whilst they lay in the halls of a ruined asylum, whilst that boy's eyes shone a bright and unnatural blue. What happened next could only have been pure madness.

Ray created enormous hands that lifted the roof off of the asylum, quite literally. The dark night was replaced with the sun, shining into the dark streets below. Ray stood up, carrying the young woman out with whatever ounce of energy he had left, and watched as he face lit up once again.

He cried "Curaga!" As he walked.

And in finally reaching the streets, placed the Princess of Heart down, and stood back, watching as she was enveloped in crystal in the shape of a heart. The crystal lit up in the sunlight, restoring the light that had been stolen from here.

Ray fell to the ground in agony; all this magic was putting a great strain on his body. Crystal, for whatever reason was the hardest thing to create, but he had no time to wipe away the blood right now.

"Alice in Wonderland. Your Wonderland… No one else's… I'll make sure it's just for you. And you can sleep, for however long you want to."

Finally the strain was too much, and Ray's head hit the ground once again.

xXx

Ray woke up on the Gummi ship.

"Finally returned to the land of living!" Lea shouted as he saw Ray begin to stir.

"You're okay…" Braig said, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

Ray looked over to Sephiroth. Who, oddly enough showed some signs of worry. However much he tried to hide it, Ray still had that pesky empathy.

"Did it work?" Ray asked.

"What?" Braig asked.

"Wonderland. What happened inside?"

"It's beginning to fix itself. The longer she spends there the quicker it will be restored… And after all it's a representation of her own psyche… So that speaks for itself. Alice, and Wonderland will be just fine." Ansem declared, through the telepathic connection.

Ray too finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good…" He said.

"But she did do our job for us… so I guess it was successful." Lea pointed out.

"Yeah." Braig replied. "Two Generals of Total Darkness down. Three to go!"

Ray smiled.

xXx

Alice stood in her Wonderland. As the forest returned around her. As the void began to fill. As the trains made their final stops, and as the metal walls of those flaming castles fell.

A skinny and rather frightening Cheshire Cat appeared beside her.

"Ah, Alice. We can't go home again. No surprise really. Only a very few find the way; and most of them don't recognize it when they do. Delusions, too, die hard. Only the savage regard the endurance of pain as a measure of worth. Forgetting pain is convenient. Remembering it, agonizing. But recovering the truth is worth the suffering. And our Wonderland, though damaged, is safe in memory...for now. Until it's returned to us."

Alice smiled as she watched a small grey haired man pick up an equally small top hat, and a small rabbit pick up that small stop watch.

"It's not too late, Alice. You're Wonderland, our Wonderland, will be back… In time."

xXx

Authors Note: An extremely extended chapter, I apologise. I didn't mean for it to get on so long. This will probably the longest of the operations. I took some serious inspiration from the video game 'Alice. Madness Returns' and I kinda got carried away. It was a lot of fun to write this though, and a part of me can't wait to share this one with you all. I thought a little happy ending there wouldn't hurt either :P Any questions, please don't be afraid to ask. :P And I do hope you enjoyed. See you next time. :)