" Woah!" Kairi snapped to attention as the both Goofy and Donald jumped out of the Gumi ship, albeit rather calmly. She held out her arms as if to catch them but noticed that the weren't immediately falling, more so like feathers drifting downward.
"Uh…" She looked down warily before jumping in after her new friends feet first. As they all fell slowly there were oddly shaped doors and clocks that remained in place as they passed by, only adding to strangeness of this new world. She and Donald landed relatively safely, both chuckling at the sight of Goofy crashing into a sofa in the room not realizing how close he was to the ground.
"I'M LATE! I'M LATE! FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE!"
A rabbit in a waist coat caught their attention as he sped past them quickly jumping on Donald's head in doing so, effectively slamming the mage's face into the ground.
"NO TIME TO SAY HELLO, GOODBYE! I'M LATE I'M LATE I'M LATE!"
He continued to yell as his voice faded in the distance.
"...What was -"
Donald erupted in a series of unintelligible quacks, dashing after the rabbit in a fit of rage.
"...That?" She turned towards Goofy for some sort of explanation but he just shrugged his shoulders with a distant look in his eye, clearly within his own world. Between Donald's abrasiveness and Goofy's absent mindedness, she wondered how to two managed to function as a pair.
In the room down the windy hall Donald was on his stomach, seemingly threatening...a door?
"You're simply too big." It responded?
The door knob had eyes and a mouth, talking just like it was a person. This didn't seem to phase Donald or Goofy, probably because they were used to seeing things like this. However, in both cases, if one could get Donald angry enough, he could probably overlook any kind of oddity, and in Goofy's case...
Kairi turned towards the Guard who for some reason was turned around looking around the room with glassy eyes.
Perhaps Goofy had his own way of adjusting to new worlds.
Donald was still yelling at the small door, something about the rabbit but the Door knob just yawned. "Must you be so loud? You woke me up."
"Oh, Good Morning." Goofy responded.
"Good night! I need a bit more sleep."
"Wait! Kairi fell to her knees as Goofy pulled back Donald who was now squirming in his hands. "Did the rabbit run through here?" She asked, noticing the mouse hole in the wall nearby.
The Door knob yawned again, " He did, no time to say Hello, Goodbye, he said."
"Okay, but how do we get through?"
"Why don't you try that Bottle on the table over there?"
"What table?"
From the ground suddenly a table was lifted into it's legs with two potions, both marked with different colors sitting on top.
"...right." Kairi huffed out nervously. After that the Door knob began to snore again, so it was unlikely they were going to get any more out of him. She stood near the table, looking at the bottles that seemed to be filled with potion. Luckily they were labeled, but she still stood there holding the blue one in her hand.
"Well?" Donald asked.
She looked at him nervously, "Have you two, done anything like this before?"
" Like what?" Goofy responded.
"Drink something that came from another world?"
"Trust me, we've done worse."
"Oh," Her interest was quirked, " Like wha-"
"JUST DRINK THE POTION!"
She obeyed, if only to quell the Duck's murderous intent geared towards the rabbit. In a puff of smoke they all shrunk down so small that the sleeping door knob's face looked enormous in comparison. In fact, the entire room was enormous in comparison to their now mouse like size.
"Now, Time to find that rabbit..."
"You mean The King." Goofy corrected.
"Yes...The King..." But something devious had sparked within Donald's eyes, something that his two teammates felt that they could address later.
As it turned out, this world had it's own unique set of Heartless, ones that were a hassle to case down, but easy to defeat once caught. They were led through a rose garden, the sounds of yelling caught their attention as the three spied into a remote section of the garden, where it appeared there was a trial taking place. There was a young blonde girl arguing with a rather large woman acting more childish than well...a child. Still, Kairi couldn't help but feel bad for the girl who looked so out of place in the tense situation.
"Shouldn't we help her?" Kairi asked.
"No way." Donald shook his head. "We can't meddle in the affairs of other worlds."
"But-"
"You want to find your friends right?" Donald pointed out with an authoritative tone in his voice.
"Of course, but-"
"We have to focus on our mission, besides, if we mess with other worlds, who knows what could happen."
Kairi sighed, looking back to Goofy, who seemed to be in the same boat as her but he still agreed with Donald with a shake of his head.
"Now, come on, we've got work to do." Donald remarked as he lead the way away from the trial.
"The court finds the defendant, guilty! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart...OFF WITH HER HEAD!"
"No, please!" Alice was surrounded by cards
"WAIT!"
In a moment Kairi was by Alice's side.
"WA-" Donald took a double take as the keyblade wielder who was suppose to next to Goofy, was in the middle of what, now was, disruption of the court.
"WHO ARE YOU?! HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE WITH MY COURT!" The Queen of Hearts pointed her scepter towards Kairi, who didn't flinch away from her boisterous yelling.
Instead she took a deep breath and took a step forward, "Please your Majesty, this girl isn't the culprit."
"That's nonsense, have you any proof?!" The Queen rested her head on the palm of her hand, tapping her scepter rapidly as proof of her temper beginning to rise once more.
"Yes!"
She didn't. And she could almost hear Donald's quacking from behind her.
"Oh really?!" The Queen eyed her suspiciously. "Then where is it?!"
"It's...It's run away from the scene of the crime, leaving this poor girl to take the blame." She insisted, exchanging a glance with Alice who looked slightly relieved at this new person supporting her.
"Run away you say?! Well then that is not evidence, THAT IS LIE!"
"It's not!"
It probably was.
"Then you had better find a way to make this lie a not, otherwise I will have BOTH OF YOUR HEADS I SAY!"
Almost immediately Alice was thrown into a cage next to the Queen of hearts and Kairi was thrown back to her friends outside the garden. Goofy helped her up while Donald stood there with crossed arms and a furious expression on his face.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" He yelled enough to make her take a step back.
"I was thinking that that girl was going to get her head cut off for no reason." She reasoned.
"That's not our-"
"It is!" She insisted. "That queen said that something tried to steal her heart right, well what is this place is crawling with heartless. It's not so out there to say that maybe it was a heartless that tried to take her heart."
Donald still narrowed his eyes while Goofy looked between them in concern, however, he stepped to Kairi's side.
"And isn't it our job to deal with the Heartless?"
This immediately made Donald mad, looking between his two team mates. He opened his beak to say something, but then lowered his guard, still radiating anger however.
"You'd better be ready to deal with the consequences of this."
Kairi nodded. " I will, don't worry." She smiled at Goofy and a thank you before running off ahead of them, summoning her weapon.
Meanwhile Donald looked up at his old friend with an annoyed expression on his face. "You're spoiling another kid."
But to this Goofy shrugged, "Gotta give 'em a chance, right?" He said with a smile, before leaving Donald in an exasperated expression.
Running into the new area would have been ill advised if someone had told her that there was a disembodied cat's head dancing around. As her teammates caught up with her, the cat's body appeared, as it soon re-attached it's head.
"Who are you?!" Donald quacked at it.
"Who indeed, Alice will soon lose her head and she's not guilty of a thing."
Kairi and Goofy looked back at Donald triumphantly as he rolled his eyes.
"Excuse me, if you know who the culprit is, would you mind telling us?" Kairi asked politely.
"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers- but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat, all lie in darkness." It then disappeared as soon as it was done speaking, but it's voice was still heart. " They've already left the forest, I won't say which exit. There are four pieces of evidence in all, three are a cinch to find, the fourth is tricky, but a big reward if you find them all."
"Reward?" Kairi questioned.
"Should we trust him?" Donald questioned, eyeing the cat.
" To trust or not to Trust, I'll leave you to decide!" The disembodied cat voice echoed through the garden.
"...This is fine." Kairi said, ignoring Donald radiating anger.
...
...
Kairi opened the box to reveal an armored Heartless, it disappeared as soon as the lid was removed, but seen altogether.
"What is that?!"
"Your culprit ma'am. There's your evidence, Alice is innocent!"
"Rggggggh!I am the law of the land!" The Queen suddenly shouted."Article 29: Anyone who defies the Queen is Guilty! Off with their heads!"
The guards began to approach Kairi with their lances pointed.
"Wait a sec!"
The Queen's face began to grow red, "WHAT IS IT NOW?!"
"Um…" Kairi held up her hands in defense, speechless, she looked around between the Queen, Alice, and her friends.
Friends...
She widened her eyes in realization, "Your majesty, if you would repeat yourself?
"WHAT IS IT-"
"No, no; before that. Article 29, anyone who defies the Queen is guilty? Well, we are not from this land, and you, are not our Queen. That means, you can't cast judgment against those who are not part of your Kingdom."
There was a silence that took hold of the court as Kairi was now panicking internally, all eyes were on the queen who was frozen in place.
"...Technically she speaks truth my Queen-" The rabbit spoke up.
"I AM THE QUEEN, AND THE QUEEN CAN DO WHATEVER SHE WANTS TO WHOMEVER SHE WANTS, AND THE QUEEN WANTS THEIR HEADS, ON A PIKE!"
Uh oh.
The Keyblade disappeared from her hand once all the cards were down for the count and there was no one left to cause trouble. The Cage that Alice was captive in was lowered gently as Donald and Goofy moved the gears.
Kairi ran towards the cage, sliding the curtain by. "Alice, are you ok-"
The armored heartless that framed Alice slashed at Kairi then ran around sporadically, attacking anything in it's path.
"Kairi!"
Donald yelled a series of unintelligible words as he charged towards the Heartless, shooting out lightning bolts, destroying it easily.
"You okay?" Goofy asked in concern, helping her up.
She wiped the dust off of her clothes quickly, wincing slightly at the new wound.
"Yeah, what happened to her?" Kairi looked back at the empty cage, there was nothing in there anymore, but she couldn't help but hope that she'd pop up.
"She must have gotten kidnapped while we were fighting." Donald remarked, notably he was slightly charred from getting struck. "She has to be around here somewhere, don't worry."
Kairi lifted her head up, dawning a small appreciative smile on her face. "Yeah, thank you Donald."
The duck just turned away, his beak sticking up in annoyance.
" I agree."
"QUACK-" Donald was taken off guard by the Cat's head popping out of nowhere in the middle of where the trio were standing.
" The grand shadow arrive at the hour of nigh, what shall you do to keep the light alive?"
"What do you mean? Have you seen Alice?" Kairi questioned.
"Alice, no. Shadows, Yes!"
"Then where are they?!" Donald almost yelled, almost.
"This way? That way? Does it matter? Left, Right, Up, Down, All mixed up thanks to the Shadows. They're hiding out there, and the momeraths outargue. Want to try finding the shadows, try turning on the lights."
With that the Cat disappeared right in front of them, leaving all three very much confused as to what just happened.
"...Did either of you catch that?" Kairi questioned, only to have them shake their head at her.
From within the fire place erupted a Heartless the towered over them, and left them dead tired, all of them covered in both burn marks and frost bites.
All of them knelled over in exhaustion as a rumbling caught their attention.
"What a racket, how's a Doorknob suppose to get any sleep?"
The doorknob yawned loudly, enough that within it's mouth a light began to shine brightly, one shaped like a keyhole.
From her hand, the Keyblade moved on it's own to point towards the keyhole, a light shone from it and the keyhole then disappeared as the Door knob finished yawning.
"...What happened?" She questioned.
"Something important, probably." Goofy reasoned, and within those few moments of confusion, they all accepted the Guard's reasoning, and falling to sleep in exhaustion.
Back on the Gummi ship, all of them were exhausted, no nap could help that so they sat in silence, Donald driving, and Goofy dozing off while Kairi rested her head on the palm of her hand, looking out the window. She was tired, only wanting to sleep for a year, maybe ten, sighing, she reached into her pocket for...
Huh?
Kairi patted down her pockets, now panicking to her friend's notice as Goofy fell over from his seat.
"What wrong?" Donald asked looking back.
"I...I can't find my wayfinder."
"Wayfinder?" Goofy asked.
"Yeah, back home, sailors used to make charms out of them for protect them during voyages."
"Garsh that sounds real useful."
"Yeah..." Kairi lowered her head. "I guess I must've dropped mine before I woke up in Traverse town."
"Do ya remember anything before you woke up?"
"It's a little hard to, but I remember feeling scared and then..." She looked down at her and, almost willing the Keyblade into her hand. For some reason it felt comforting to hold, but she shook away a feeling that grew bittersweet. "It's nothing, I'm sure I'll be able to make another one once I can a way back home."
Goofy and Donald exchanged a glance in concern.
"Kairi?" Goofy caught her attention. "'m sorry we couldn't find Alice."
She lowered her head sadly, "She just disappeared, I don't get it..."
"With the worlds like they are, it's not surprising that someone...disappears." Donald reasoned, but his words slowly waning as he realized how he sounded, triggering a somber silence.
"But, I'm sure that once we find the king, he'll be able to return everything the way it was." Goofy placed his hand on her shoulder with a supportive smile on his face, to with Kairi returned with a nod.
"Yeah, we'd better hurry up and find him and my friends right?"
"Right." Both Donald and Goofy responded with a newfound confidence while Kairi looked back out the window towards the starless sky.
Sora, Riku...please be safe.
Riku woke up with a buzzing in his ear, his vision fuzzy the first time he opened his eyes to a new world.
It was barren, he standing upon one of the floating rocks in the debts of a cavern that sunk below a violet skyline.
A fear clutched his chest as he tried to recall what happened on the islands. All he could remember was someone shouting his name, and then…
He shook to attention immediately looking around, searching for anything - or anyone- familiar.
"Sora! Kairi!"
He yelled, looking around for his friends, unaware of a dark aura, smiling, as they looked down towards a new potential...