This fic is still only archived at Keyblades Crossed and Fanfiction.net. It better not be anywhere else without my permission (I'll probably say yes if you ask ^__^)
I know some of you are probably annoyed that I've seemingly removed Cloud, Yuffie, Squall/Leon, Aerith, Ansem and Sephiroth from the story. I wouldn't worry about it to much. I never said Hollow Bastion wasn't going to be in this story. It will be, although not likely the way any of you think it will be. Ahahahahaha ^__^
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Route Unknown
Chapter Two
Li Xiang
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Rose swiped a strand of ebon hair out of her eyes, glaring at the two boys she'd unofficially adopted. First it had only been Seifer-- poor, broken, angsting Seifer Almasy-- and then, a few months later, the guilt-ridden, harried Sora who seriously needed a distraction from life. She hadn't really thought she'd get attached to them; she'd just thought she'd jump in and out of their lives to keep the pair from wallowing in their guilt-- be it killer's or survivor's-- or going off the deep end and into a berserk mode. She'd seen it happen before, with people who held less on their shoulders than the fourteen and the nineteen year old pair.
As it was, she _had_ gotten attached to them, and the thirty-something woman was officially in over protective mode as she hovered around the site of where 'her' boys would be taking their leave of Traverse Town, as well as the world the sprawling city occupied. She didn't think either one had been outside the city before, but then, most out-worlders didn't leave the confines of Traverse Town. Unsurprisingly, considering that outside the brick and mortar city was land unending, villages, towns, and tribes, none of which actually knew about other worlds. There was the occasional big city out there, as well, but again, they had no knowledge of out-worlders.
But that didn't really matter at the moment. What mattered was seeing Seifer and Sora off.
The pair exchanged exasperated stares as Rose stood over them, her imposing six and a half feet of black-haired, violet eyed, navy-armored amazonian build lecturing on keeping safe and healthy. Sora finally rolled his eyes.
"Relax, Miss Rose!" he laid a hand upon her arm, looking up at her with placating features, although there was the faint spark of mischief in his eyes that had slowly been growing as both the ebon tressed woman and blonde haired gunblader helped him realize that he wasn't alone. An impish smile came to his lips, "It's not like we're going to go _die_ or anything!" And he ducked under her swat, laughing and running for the gummi ship that had been gifted to he and his house-mate. He _really_ didn't want to get hit by the woman-- as she had demonstrated not that long ago, she was _very_ skilled with her swords, and she was _very_ strong. Must have had something to do with being a former guard of this world's king, before she'd vanished into Traverse Town.
Seifer smirked at the irritated woman, "Right, like the Kid said; we're not gunna die. We've both got to much to do before we kick the bucket!"
"Shut up, Seifer," Rose poked his nose, "You keep Sora safe, you got me? If I hear that you let him get hurt on this wild goose chase of yours--"
"It's not a goose chase," Seifer frowned at her, "We're going to Bastion, and we're going to get help, and then we're going to beat the shit out of Sora's Heartless."
"You know, I think that's the first time I've ever heard you call him by his name."
The blonde snorted, "Don't get used to it. And don't tell him, either. The Kid doesn't need a swelled head."
"I think you're the one with the swelled head, Almasy," she chastised, eyes glinting with mirth as she caught sight of Sora making faces at them from the gummi ship's cockpit window. Such a child that boy was. It was to bad he had to grow up so quickly what with the destruction of his world... "In any case, you two had better get a move on it."
"Yeah yeah, I'm goin' I'm goin'," Seifer drawled, sauntering away, white trench coat billowing almost playfully around him, and Rose wondered, not for the first time, why the immaculately clean coat had such rough edges. Rips, tears, and small holes lined the bottom edge, the collar, and the cuffs of the sleeves. It was almost a saintly white, but with the tattered edges and torn hems, it made the nineteen year old appear to be a world weary man, fighting to be what he could-- what he _should_-- be.
She closed violet eyes, and took a deep breath as she heard the engines engage, and then the two teenagers lifted off into the air with the ship, heading straight up. Before they were even out of the range of the tops of the apartments crowding Traverse Town, they had vanished. If it were a cloaking system, or a jump out of their world, their reality, Rose didn't have a clue.
All she knew was that her boys were gone, and would be gone for a long time.
Then she felt something coming up behind her, and she was spinning around, fluidly removing the one sword from her belt with one hand, and the sword strapped across her back with the other. The Blade mistress' face blanked.
Seifer had been right.
The Heartless hadn't attacked because the two who had previously defeated them had still resided in the city. Looked like Rose would have some work to do, after all. Not that she minded. She had rather missed the thrill of adrenalin in her veins as she fought tooth and nail. Once it had been for God, King, and Country. Now it was for her boys, her people, her world.
---
"So where's your world supposed to be, any way?"
Seifer glanced over at the brunette who was staring out the window at the strange warp they were in as the gummi ship drew them from Traverse Town and out into the realm in-between worlds.
"No idea."
Sora gave his friend an exasperated look, and Seifer scowled mightily, "Come off it, Kid. I used an unstable time-jump to get to Traverse Town when I was trying to commit suicide. I don't have any idea how far away we are-- and it's not like _you_ know where your island is."
Sora snorted, "Of course I do. It's _gone_ Seifer, and don't call me 'Kid'."
The scarred man winced. He'd forgotten that Sora didn't have a world to return to should he ever want to go back. Seifer did-- it was only a matter of finding it. He was pretty sure he was going the right way to get back to it, as well. He could still feel the darkness of his former mistress humming in his soul, and knew that the psychotic Sorceress came from the war-torn future of Bastion, his home world. Since she, technically, wasn't born yet, but had made him her Knight, forever and through eternity, he could still feel a strong connection to the world she would be born upon. All it took was following a vague sense of 'home'.
"You think this get's radio?" Sora broke the silence after several moments, poking at the 'dashboard' of the gummi ship. Almasy chuckled; that had been something Sora had fallen absolutely head over heels for when he'd learned of it. Sure, they had music back on the Destiny Islands, but nothing like the radio. Or the instruments played on the radio-- he'd never heard an electric guitar, or a keyboard until coming to Traverse Town. It had been a welcome distraction from the harsh truth of reality.
"Don't know, maybe," and the two males began to poke at said dashboard, trying to see if there was a radio, or a disc player-- Seifer was hopping for the latter, since he had a whole bunch of discs he'd had stuffed in his trench coat when he'd attempted suicide all those long months ago. He really liked those discs, and the power source of his portable player had died, and it hadn't exactly ever been seen in Traverse Town before.
Generally, one knew not to mess around with the instruments showing them their flight path, and what they were supposed to be doing, but Seifer had never been one to follow the rules-- he made them-- nor had he ever been big on common sense-- how he'd ended up as Ultimecia's Knight. Sora, of course, had come from a much more primitive Island-- despite the fact that they had a thriving clothing industry; mostly due to the fact that on the main island the ratios of female to male was three to one-- and didn't even know what a dashboard on a car was, let alone all the sensitive equipment for a machine like a gummi ship.
So it should come to no surprise that the pair managed to mess something up.
Seifer, being seated as he had been the one driving, was jerked back into his chair, at the same time Sora went flying and slammed into the fair wall. Light flared around their ship, and Seifer clenched his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut to keep from being blinded by said light. Sora, who was upside down, with his face planted into the wall, didn't have to worry about it, since his retina were most assuredly facing away from the cockpit windows.
When the light faded-- and Sora had awoken from his pressure-induced nap-- the brown haired, key wielding teenager blinked out at the world they were in orbit of, "That's Bastion??"
"Not hardly," Seifer grunted, trying to stand up, and finding his legs seemed to be made of jell-o, "Now that was some trip!"
Sora snickered, "Nice face-plant, Seifer. Since that's not Bastion, I guess we're going to skip over it, right?"
"Wrong," Seifer shook his head, "We're almost out of fuel. I don't know what the hell we did, but somehow we drained the ship's tanks, and all we've got left is enough to go back to Traverse Town."
"Oh..." Sora set his hands on his hips, staring at the ground with a furrowed brow as he thought through their options, "I guess this means we're going down to see if they have anything we could use for fuel?"
"You got it, Kid. If we don't find anything, it's back to Traverse Town, and this time we bring extra fuel."
"Stop calling me 'Kid', dammit!"
Seifer chuckled, settling back into the pilot's chair, "Whatever you say, Kid."
"I hate you..."
"You say that a lot."
---
There was nothing quite like the feeling of free fall, Seifer thought, somewhat irritably as he and Sora rocketed down the tunnel that had opened right under their feet almost as soon as they had left their gummi ship. Seifer was annoyed. Sora was trying to see the bottom, and gauge how hurt he'd be. He was well versed in falling from heights-- like the roof of his mother's home, or from the rope in the cove on the Destiny Islands, or from being shoved off the side of the boat at the seashore by Tidus or... well, he fell a lot. Most of the time not his fault.
To the surprise of both males, their decent began to slow as the floor came into sight. Confused and wary, Seifer had Hyperion in hand, even as his feet brushed the floor and he settled into a defensive stance. Sora's Keyblade had shimmered into being just as quickly, neither teenager all that trusting of their surroundings. After all, they were on a world they'd never been to before, and had no idea what to expect.
Most assuredly not a large, walking talking rabbit to rush past them babbling, "I'm late, I'm late!" over and over again, interspersed with the occasional, "The Queen will have my head!"
"...shall we...?" wondered the fourteen year old, as Seifer returned Hyperion to her scabbard in the small of his back.
"Why not?" wondered the blonde, and the two teenagers went followed the passage of the talking rabbit. The environment about them was strange and confusing, a twisting, turning irregular shaped world to walk through. The scenery annoyed the nineteen year old, but the fourteen year old accompanying him thought it interesting. He'd never seen anything quite like it before!
And then there were the multiple doors that opened on their own, inviting the two men into the room. Sora had been half expecting the door to slam shut on them, and to find themselves locked in the next room with no way of escape.
This, of course, did not happen, and Sora had to wonder if he'd been watching to many horror movies. They were just so, so, so interesting, though! He'd never seen anything like television before arriving in Traverse Town. What did happen, once in the room, was quite a surprise in and of itself. The rabbit-- who was now, very, very small, rushed through a door with a golden handle, before it slammed shut.
Snorting with derision, Seifer laid himself out on the far to small bed laying against one wall, "Wonder how mister bunny there got so small."
Sora, of whom had been kneeling down and staring at the door handle and wondering the exactly same thing, jumped back with a yelp when the handle responded to Seifer's idle question.
"You're simply just to big," the handle sounded rather annoyed, "and must you be so loud? I was trying to sleep."
"Uh... right..." the doorknob wasn't talking, Sora informed himself firmly. It's just someone behind the doorknob, and the keyhole is not moving like it's a mouth. Nope, no siree.
Seifer, who had seen stranger things in his lifetime, raised a cynical eyebrow, "Wow, a magical morphing rabbit."
"Don't be stupid," sniffed the golden handle, "he used the blue potion on the table over there." And what both teenagers had assumed to be very oddly designed linoleum, rose and to become and honest to bloody god three dimensional, sturdy white table.
With a laugh, Seifer stood, accidentally kicking the bed as he did so. A blonde eye-brow arched over blue-green eyes as the bed sunk into the wall and became a painting of a sort, opposite to the recently revealed table. How... very, very, weird. He was getting the feeling that this entire world was looney, "Want to try it, Kid?"
Sora, who was laid out on his back so that he didn't have to look at the door handle, and could easily pretend it wasn't actually talking, looked up at his partner, "Uh... I guess so..." it wasn't like he hadn't eaten things without knowing what they were before.
He was ignoring the fact that most of the things he'd eaten had been eaten only when dared to by his missing, silver tressed best friend.
So he took the jar with the blue liquid in it from his companion, and downed a good portion of it in one swig. Pale grey smoke swirled up and around him, and the teenager panicked, dropping the potion on the ground, the glass shattering all around the rapidly shrinking islander. Blue eyes darted this way and that as he went from being five feet tall, to being five inches tall. It was a terrifying experience to see the world suddenly increase in size around him.
And then the pale smoke was gone, and he was let among the shards of glass, blinking warily. Thick, black boots came to a halt several feet away-- it seemed like miles to him-- and then Seifer was kneeling down, staring at his friend, "Well now, this was unexpected."
"You're still big!" Sora yelped, inwardly thankful that his voice didn't sound high and squeaky like a mouse's... or, at least, he hadn't thought it had changed until he saw Seifer wince, and stick a black gloved pinky into his ear, to pop his ear drums.
"Nice and high there, Kid," his voice was like a rumble of thunder to the tiny teenager, "Did you have to break the bottle?"
"I'm sorry!" wailed the teenager, completely missing the fact that Seifer had had to jamb his hands over his ears to keep them from exploding at the high pitch Sora was screeching with his eyes clenched shut.
"Calm down!" Seifer bellowed, and Sora went flying end over end for several feet, crashing into the inside of the fireplace within the room. Seifer eyed said fireplace with irritation. Why didn't anything make sense in this bloody world? Oh right, it was designed by fucking _lunatics_! He could feel his temple jump with his annoyance, and with an exasperated sigh, he settled into one of the brown leather arm chairs.
Fingers came up to rub at the scar between his brow, in a familiar gesture of annoyance, "Kid."
"Ye-yeah?" stuttered the tiny youth. He wasn't in the mood to get squashed for shouting at Seifer to stop calling him 'Kid'.
"There's probably more of that junk in the other room," he motioned to the closed and locked door, and the entrance right beside it, that had once been hidden by the bed Seifer had kicked, "Just bring some in here, and I'll join you at being a mini-me, alright?"
"Okay," Sora nodded, slowly, warily. The last time he'd been alone to do something, his entire world had been destroyed. It was only right that he should be fearing being sent off on his own. While Seifer would, normally, have noticed this, Sora's current size prevented any such insight.
Nervously, Sora passed through the gateway into the next room, hand clenched around the hilt of his Keyblade, and sweat dribbling down his neck into his grey and green jacket. He _really_ didn't want to be alone, but there was no other choice. _He_ had been the one to break the potion's bottle, after all was said and done.
It was like stepping into another world. One moment he'd been in a room decorated in pastels, and the next he was in a grassy field surrounded by green hedges that towered over his head. His eyes practically fell out of his head as he realized that the so called men standing by the entrance were actually _playing_cards_. Playing cards! It was unbelievable!
"Court is now in session!"
Sora jumped, startled out of staring at the playing card men, as the talking rabbit's voice carried out across the small green grove he'd found himself in. He moved forwards, to stand just inside the hedge-gated entrance to the larger part of the small field, and stared in no little awe. At the far end of the field was what appeared to be almost a courtroom-- the judge's... Sora couldn't remember the name of where the judge sat, and thus settled on 'box'; was large and wide, with an equally large and wide woman dressed in a white, red and black heart-motif outfit. Her pudgy face was settled into a deep scowl, black hair held out of her face by her absurd crown.
"I... I'm on trial?" the stuttered question hauled Sora's attention onto the area that served as the court's floor. He couldn't see the face of the girl, but her backside was certainly pretty. Golden blonde hair fell to mid-back, dancing over a soft sky-blue dress complete with crinoline. White knee socks and classy black dress shoes decorated her feet, "But... but why?"
The rabbit warbled again, although there was no answer in his words, "Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!"
This was a queen? She certainly failed to look like any queen Sora had seen on the television, or like the visage that Rose had proclaimed to be queen of the world Traverse Town was built upon. They had been elegant, beautiful women bedecked in jewels and finery. This red-faced, oversized almost-not-female did not fit the image of royalty Sora had built into his mind.
"The girl is the culprit," even her voice was harsh and grating, "There's no doubt about it. And the reason is..." she paused momentarily, and Sora-- not to mention the blonde girl!-- awaited her words, "Because I say so, that's why!"
"That's no reason!" the girl yelped, and Sora found himself agreeing. What sort of reasoning was that? Well, sure if the woman really _was_ a queen she could say something like that, but he was pretty sure queens were supposed to do what was best for the country. That's what Rose had told him. Coming from a village on an island that was essentially 'Marxist'-- or at least, that's what Rose and Seifer had called it when he had told them of how things had worked back on the Island-- he was still a bit fuzzy on the whole royalty and nobility thing.
"Well, have you anything to say in your defense?" The queen looked rather bored and uninterested, actually.
"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" trilled the blonde, "You may be queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so... so... so mean!"
"SILENCE!" bellowed the queen, and Sora was really starting to wonder if it would be a good idea to jump in with his own opinion, or if that would just make things worse. And he still had to get Seifer down to his size! The Queen of Hearts continued in her rage, "You dare defy me!?"
Furious was the least of the words to be used to describe the red-faced woman seated in the judge's box, and her words thundered over the so-called 'court' with finality, "The court finds the defendant... guilt as charged! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart--" Her heart?! Well, _that_ certainly sounded familiar!-- "OFF WITH HER HEAD!"
As the card-guards started towards the 'guilty' girl, and she cried out her protests, Sora came to a decision. He'd just have to go through with it, and take the consequences as they came. The brown haired, grey-garbed teenager sucked in a breath and charged into the Queen's Court, "Hold it right there!"
"Who are you?!" thundered the already _very_ annoyed queen, "How dare you interfere with my court...!"
"But I know who the _real_ culprit is!" Sora threw all he had into his irresistible Puppy-Dog Eyes. Neither Kairi nor Riku had ever been able to deny him anything when he used them. Hell, he could even get Wakka to put his blitzball down for a few minutes when he used them-- and that was something no one else had ever accomplished. The Queen took one look, and was wrapped around his little finger, "She's not the one you're looking for."
Sora had to give the Queen some points for effort. She was certainly doing an admirable job at trying to maintain her pride and not capitulate immediately to his wishes, "Have you any proof?"
"Er... no, not really," Sora scratched at the back of his head, and the Queen had to resist the urge to coo and call him cute. That was _not_ something she would do-- no matter what! She opened her mouth to condemn him, and he scrambled for his next words, "But I'm sure I could find some!"
Imperceptibly she chewed her lip, then nodded once, "Very well. Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence! Fail and it's off with both your heads! Report back here once you've found all your evidence." Before he could even wonder what would happen to the blonde in the meantime, the cards had hauled her off and into a gold gilded cage to the right of the Judge's Box where the queen was settled.
Great, just great, Sora thought bitterly. Not only do I have to find a way to make Seifer my size, but I have to find evidence that this Alice girl is innocent and it's really the Heartless who tried to steal her heart. Won't this be fun.
Shoving his hands into his pockets, he rolled his eyes and spun in a circle, looking for an out. There was the entrance he had come through, but he still had to find Seifer's own minimizing potion. So that left... the big black space that hadn't been there a moment before. Or had it? It was just a gaping space of emptiness in one of the hedge walls-- was it even a door? Eh, only one way to know...
Hesitantly, he approached the 'hole', and hesitantly, he crossed the threshold, Keyblade summoned to a nervous hand.
And then the darkness made sense as he found himself ensorcelled within a gloomy forest of giant plants. He was sure they wouldn't seem to large had he been his regular height but at only five inches tall, it was rather frightening. Sora was barely two steps in when movement caught the corner of his eye.
Whirling around, he found himself soon coming to the same conclusion Seifer had already made. This world was absolutely crazy. There was a cat on the rather large stump beside him. Or rather, there was a cat's body, standing on it's own head. The feline was surprisingly pink, with lavender stripes. He had the feeling that whomever had created that cat had been smoking up something awful.
"Who are you?" the Keyblader wondered, fingers clenching nervously around the hilt of his blade. The cat's lips curved into an off balanced grin.
"Who, indeed...? Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!"
He knew...? This cat knew, and hadn't bothered to tell anyone? "H-hey! If you know who's guilty, then tell me!" It would certainly help and he could get back to making Seifer five inches tall. At least if they were the same size as everyone else they could get some fuel or something...
"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers-- but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat... all lie in darkness."
"What the...?" a riddle? A god be damned _riddle_? How the hell would _that_ help him? Why didn't people-- or cats, as the case appeared to be-- give straight answers?!
"They've already left the forest," the feline purred as he vanished into nothingness, "I won't say which exit. There is little evidence, some simple to find, some not so simple. To find them all is to get a reward."
Sora's eyebrow twitched rather spastically, "Oh yes, _that_ helps..."
He jumped when the cat's voice rippled from everywhere around him, "A big seed makes small."
"A big seed?" Oooooooh-kay... the cat was absolutely nutters. Right, then. Sora's eyes swept around the area, somewhat unwilling to move away from his comfortably safe haven. He would have just stood there staring, until he noticed the large brown seed upon a tangled mass of leaves and branches. Eyes focused on that spot, he began to move towards it, searching for a way up; searching for a way to get up to that seed. The Cheshire Cat's final riddle didn't seem all that hard to figure out.
It was getting past all the Heartless that had popped up as soon as he moved away from the entrance that was the problem.
---
Tired and bruised, Sora had finally made it up onto the branches that held the seed, and was currently trying to catch his breath laying beside it. The thing had to be half his current height, at the least, which would make it a bit of a problem to move. Oh well, he'd gotten this far. No point in giving up now, eh?
With a pain filled groan, the grey-garbed youth rolled over onto his stomach, pushed himself up onto his knees then rocked back onto his feet and stood. He was positive that he was going to murder whomever thought up the idea of Heartless in the first place. Stupid evil shadow-made things. Popped up at _the_ worst moments possible, they did.
He settled his hands comfortably onto the large seed, focusing his will. A deep breath was followed by a hard shove, and the seed tumbled down off the branches to the ground below. Sora bit his lip and desperately hoped that the seed didn't shatter on impact. His breath whooshed out between his lips as it landed-- there was a slight crack, but it wasn't broken-broken.
Thus, he followed it's path down, landing in a deep knee bend just beside it. The cushy over-sized fallen leaves and broken grass that made up the ground he stood on having made the landing even easier than he had hoped for. Warily, he began pushing the seed through to the other end; back to the entrance he had come in. Just because he had painstakingly almost killed himself-- repeatedly-- to rid himself of any Heartless in his path didn't mean there weren't any there. It didn't mean that they weren't awaiting the perfect moment to attack. Being preoccupied with the seed would have made it that perfect moment, too, had Sora not been able to split his attention.
Splitting attention as such had come through the painful lessons of Tidus, Selphie and Wakka as they triple-teamed him.
But it seemed as though he had gotten them all, rolling the seed out through the dark entrance-- shouldn't it be light? Oh, what did it matter on this world?-- and back into the hedge-ringed grove that settled as a court house for the overbearing Queen. Sora could feel her curious eyes on his back as he rolled the seed over to the hedge-gate. Then he moved around the seed and began to roll it out of the main grove. It only took a couple rolls to get it through the secondary grove and through the hole in the wall that lead him back into the homestead.
Seifer appeared to be sleeping.
Annoyed, Sora left the seed near the table and ran the distance between seed and leather armchairs. Almasy needed a waking up present-- it wasn't fair that the blonde got to sleep while he'd been fighting fiercely to get the seed that would shrink his partner down to his size. At least... that's what he hoped the Cat's riddle had meant. If it didn't, well, he'd just blame that stupid feline for not telling him exactly what to do.
Like a little brown mouse, the brown haired teenager scrambled up the side of the leather chair, eyes narrowed with mischief. He did so love getting on Seifer's nerves-- it was almost like getting on Riku's. Which made him momentarily sad as he remembered that his oldest friend was missing. He was pretty sure the other wasn't dead-- Sora had survived the cloying darkness that had enveloped them on the Island, and Riku was infinitely stronger than he was, so it was only obvious that he should be able to survive. Kairi... he didn't have any idea what had happened to his crush, but something inside told him, point blank, that she was still alive. Lost, but alive.
Then he shook his head free of any such thoughts, grabbing hold of the white silk of Seifer's trench coat, and hauling himself up to ear level. Bad, bad Almasy. You're a mercenary, he thought somewhat sadistically, you're supposed to know I'm here... with that, he sucked in a breath and _screamed_.
"SHIT!" roared Almasy, jerking straight up, and knocking Sora from his collar. Ocean eyes wide and panicked, he was on his feet with Hyperion in hand before he'd even realized he was awake. The tiny brunette laying, dazed, on the chair groaning in a high pitched, mousey-squeak, and Seifer blinked down at him several times. A black gloved finger came up to pop his eardrum, "Dammit Kid..."
Shaking himself out of his daze, Sora grinned up at his friend, "I brought you a seed."
"SeeD?" wondered the former mercenary. Had the kid actually...? No, wait, he could see the large brown seed that the younger male was pointing at, laying beneath the table, "What's this supposed to do?"
"The Cat said it 'makes small'. I think it's like the potion," he offered in a squeaky voice that made Seifer want to grind his teeth. A bit hesitantly, the blonde reached down and picked up the seed. After a moment's investigation, he shrugged, brushing it off on his blue-black vest-- gods knew his trench coat was so dirty he'd probably die from wiping whatever was on it onto the seed-- and then popped the whole thing into his mouth.
A most assuredly disgusting taste flooded his mouth, bitter and acrid. He desperately wanted to spit out the vile seed, but forced himself to choke it down. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd tasted worse before, during his SeeD Cadet training, and had forced that down as well.
It wasn't until the disgusting seed was fully down his throat, and sitting heavily in his stomach that he began to shrink. It was a decidedly uncomfortable feeling-- the feeling that he _knew_ there should have been pain as his body compressed, but he could feel nothing more than being pleasantly numb. Uncomfortable was an understatement. And then it was gone, and he only had the after-taste of that vile seed in his mouth, and he was a grand total of six inches tall.
He was rather grateful that he was still taller than his brown haired companion.
The other jumped off the chair, landing lightly, and in such a way that Seifer briefly wondered how well the teenager would have preformed as a SeeD, or even a member of SOLDIER-- which was actually the Estharian predecessor to SeeD, what Cid Kramer had based his idea of Garden and SeeD upon. But such thoughts were quickly banished, as Heartless began to form out of nothingness. Hyperion and the Keyblade in hand, the pair glanced at each other before racing off to do battle.
Sora was _really_ beginning to hate these thrice damned creatures.
Eyes narrowed sharply, it seemed as though a haze settled over them. Crouched over, his head swung slowly, from side to side. Then one of those funny, flying red Heartless shot a burst of flames at him. He bared his teeth in agony, before the animalistic fury that had driven him back in Traverse Town burned within his veins again and he launched himself into the air with a violent slash of his Keyblade. Even as he fell he swung his blade again, and the red Heartless shattered into pieces with a startled 'eep'-like noise.
More began to appear around him, crowding in, desperate to get their ethereal shadowed claws into him, to pull his heart from his body, to destroy the husk that remained and add another to their ranks... and Sora fought them off viscously. He had slacked off in fighting them on the Island. He had let them run free instead of destroying all that had been in his path back then...
The shadow within him drew strength from his negative emotions, feeding itself and reaching spidery claws out to curl around the heart that lay in his breast. It would not allow outsiders to take that which belonged to it, and fought off the encroaching darkness just as fiercely as it's host. It would take Sora's heart in time, but for now it lay in wait, hiding unless it sensed danger to it's own plans. The darkness rarely planned, but when it did they were plans of magnificence and destruction. Such was the way of the darkness.
Sora felt a cold shroud fall over his mind, steeling his heart. He could feel Seifer... an area of difference... of shadow and destruction, but muted, contained, tainted with time... and he knew his partner had no need of his help. Seifer Almasy could take care of himself. For now, Sora had to fight to defend himself. Fight to destroy his opponents.
And then they were gone. Sora stood, panting from exertion, eyes glazed, head swinging back and forth, search for another enemy. Seifer stood from his own crouch, slipping Hyperion back beneath his trench coat. The movement caught Sora's attention, and he wrestled with the shadow inside for control. The shadow wanted to destroy the blonde that could be a danger, but Sora's heart was strong, and in the end he pulled through.
Blinking tiredly, he stood straight, letting the Keyblade vanish into nothingness, "We've got evidence to find."
"Evidence?" wondered the ex-Knight, "What do we need evidence for?"
"To prove Alice innocent," the brown haired boy returned. At Seifer's confused look he elaborated, "I got involved with her trial when the Queen said Alice was guilty of trying to steal her heart."
"That Queen must be beautiful for another chick to be trying to get her heart," grinned the blonde, and the dirty thoughts running through his mind were obvious. Sora wondered for a moment why he was the most mature of the pair, before Seifer's words caught up to him and he started laughing, "Hey! What's so funny?"
"The Queen... beautiful?!" he laughed harder, "Only if you like red-faced women bigger than most tables!"
Almasy gave his friend an annoyed scowl, crossing his arms, "Okay, okay. So she's not beautiful. What's the deal with her heart being stolen?"
"Almost stolen," Sora corrected once he'd caught his breath again, "Apparently a Heartless tried to take her heart like they tried back in Traverse Town; the Queen decided to blame it on Alice, and now we've got to find evidence to prove Alice innocent."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me get this straight. You _voluntarily_ got involved with another world's politics? Sora, have you ever heard of the term 'meddling'?"
---
After a quick introduction of Seifer to the Queen, the two teenagers had finally gotten back into the Lotus Forest to begin their investigation.
"Where to first, Kid?"
"We'll split up," Sora muttered a bit distantly, "You can over there--" he pointed to their left, "--And I'll check out over here, okay?"
"If you think you know what you're doing," but Seifer's jibe fell on deaf ears and the man shrugged. Sora was in one of his 'moods' again. The blonde was positive the younger male was worse than any number of the girls he'd grown up with in Garden. Well, at least he didn't kick him in the shin like Fujin used to... on that melancholy note, he shuffled off towards the left, letting Sora search out to the right of them.
All he found was an astonishingly large yellow flower. Curious-- but wary, Seifer had grown up around plant-like creatures who were rather lethal-- he poked it with Hyperion's hilt. The giant black blade nearly slipped out of his grasp when the plant plaintively whined at him to give it... a potion? Oooookay, this was really weird. Why would a plant need a potion?
The urge to walk away and continue his search for evidence to free that pretty blonde in the cage beside the Queen's 'throne' was hastily overpowered. He didn't listen to his common sense very often, which generally meant that his taking one of the small potion bottles out of his trench coat should have been expected. A soft grunt and the stopper had been pulled out, the glowing green fluid within swirling gently.
"Alright flower," he muttered half to it, but mostly to himself, "here's a potion."
And then the silvery-grey mist that had made Sora smaller swirled around him and his skittered backwards. He couldn't possibly be getting... smaller could he?!
He needn't have worried. Instead of getting smaller-- he was returning to his normal height. How interesting. To bad there didn't seem to be any way out when this big. And where had Sora gotten off to?
---
"Bottled stench," Sora made a face. Only in this world. With a sigh, he shook his head, tucking the small glass jar into his pocket, beside the small box containing the footprints of the Heartless that he'd managed-- somehow-- to get out of the dirt without damaging them. He attributed it to the strange world he was currently within. It was certainly easier than trying to find a logical explanation.
Sighing, he turned to head back to the Lotus Forest... and groaned pitifully. Summoning the Keyblade into his hand, he raced forwards to take on the ever annoying Heartless. Why couldn't they just leave him alone for once?!
---
Sighing, the now regular sized Seifer shuffled around a bit uncomfortably-- he was certainly far to large for this place, having to crouch so that the branches of the small trees that surrounded him didn't scratch his face up. That stump to the right of him certainly didn't help matters. Somewhat annoyed with it, the blonde kicked the stump.
Nothing happened.
He'd half been expecting something to happen. This world was so messed up.
Perhaps if he took a seat, he'd be able to think something out. With a grunt, he settled himself down on the stump-- only to have it sink into the ground beneath him! Scowling mightily, the former Knight glared up at the barely visible sky, "Oh yeah, yuk it up!"
And then his eye caught on a spot of brown up in the trees. Blinking, he stood up, subconsciously brushing the dirt off his jacket, and moving closer to the brown, "Well, I'll be damned..."
It was a seed-- not only that, but a seed identical to the one that had made him small in the first place. With a grin, he reached out, scooping the seed into his hand; failing to notice the black 'twigs' that stuck to his fingers as he did so.
Sure, he'd be small again, but at least he'd be able to get out of this damned Forest. Besides, there still was that red bottle back in the only actual 'room' they'd come across. He was pretty sure that would get him back to normal size, and as he popped the bitter size-reducing seed into his mouth, he made a note not to let Sora drink first. There was no need for another broken bottle!
Once that disturbing transformation was over, he stretched out his arms over his head-- and felt something fall down and smack him in the face. With a start, the ex-Cadet's eyes popped open, and he looked down at his feet. There were... sticks? Stooping down he got a better look at the black, shadowy sticks-- they had to be the antenna of the basic Heartless. Which meant-- "Evidence!"
"You found some too?"
Seifer started, looking up to see Sora peering down at him over the edge of out of the more bushy areas of the tree-tops. How had the boy... no never mind. Seifer didn't really care, "Yeah, apparently your Heartless shed, Kid."
"Don't call me that-- they seem to like breathing into bottles, too," was the cheeky response, before the teenager flipped himself off the branches, wincing slightly as he landed. He hadn't done so properly, and thus pain lanced up through his legs, forcing him to grit his teeth against it. Apparently that latest fight had been a bit rough on him, "Think we've got enough?"
"Antenna and breath--"
"And Footprints."
"--Well, if it's not enough we can always ask for more time," Seifer grinned, "I just want to get out of here. We'll probably have to head back to Traverse Town."
"Eh? Why?"
The blonde threw an arm around his companion's shoulders, "Because, do you _really_ think they have fuel around here?"
"Oh. Right."
Somewhat cheerfully, the nineteen year old guided the fourteen year old back into the Queen's Grove, ready to present some evidence. Well, that was the plan, any way. With the way this world worked, who knew what could happen?
The Queen was, for once, not watching the pair entire. In fact, it appeared that she was having a quiet argument with Alice. So the pair shuffled for a moment in front of the Queen's throne, before Seifer rolled his eyes and caught one of the walking playing cards by the 'shoulder'. Said card looked upon the blonde knight with such a look of disdain that any lesser mortal would have cowered at it. But Seifer Almasy was no mere man; he was a Sorceress' Knight, and had lived through glares of accusation that put whatever this card had to shame.
"Do you have the evidence?"
"Yeah, we got your evidence, card-man," Seifer smirked infuriatingly, "Can we get this on with?"
"Present your evidence, then!" the card snapped back, glaring at the arrogant human. Seifer just seemed to be able to get on peoples' nerves with only his presence. The Queen of Hearts looked up at the sharp tone in her guard's voice, only just noticing that the two males had returned. She smiled pleasantly at Sora, and shot Seifer a warning look.
"Yes, present your evidence."
The box that contained the footprints, the bottle containing the stench of putrid breath, and the baggy with the antenna were all laid out before the so-called throne. Had she been anyone but the obese Queen of Hearts, the pout that graced her face would have been sultry. As it was, Sora was positive he'd have nightmares of that frown into eternity.
"That's quite the amount of evidence," she spoke, "But I'm still not convinced. Cards! Bring in my evidence!"
The red card that had been sneering at Seifer and his black companion each brought forth a box, setting them onto the ground on either side of Sora and Seifer's evidence. Muttering under her breath, the Queen cast a spell that Seifer didn't manage to catch, each bit of evidence being surrounded by a pink box, and then magically distributed. Both teenagers began to scowl. The Queen smiled, "Since checking all the boxes would be a waste of time... chose one box and I will decide who's guilty based on that!"
"What?!" squawked an annoyed Sora, "After all the crap I had to go through to get all that--"
"You dare object?!" the Queen interrupted, "The price for objecting is beheading!"
"Fine!" Sora snapped, "I chose... that one!" and he pointed directly to the center box.
"Are you sure?" came the woman's sly purr, "You have no second chances."
"I'm sure!" he barked back, glaring. Seifer was mildly impressed. The kid would have made for a pretty good SeeD. The Queen scowled, momentarily wondering why she had felt so strongly against beheading him just over twelve hours earlier. Right now, she'd gladly have the interloping twit's throat torn out by rabid wolves. She made a motion with her left hand, and one of the Cards trooped forwards, popping open the box. Inside was another box, and the two out-worlders smirked.
The Card opened the second box-- and the two teenagers lost their smirks as out of the footprints it contained arose another Heartless. It snarled viscously, lunging at the Card, clawed hand reaching out to pierce through the Card's torso area to take a swipe at it's heart. Before it could, however, a voice rang out, "No Mercy!"
Green light and black blade combined, shattering the Heartless in an instant. Seifer grinned ruthlessly, holding up a small golden stone, before tucking it back into his pocket. At Sora's curious look he elaborated, "Aura Stone. They don't last long, and I've only got two, so I try to stretch them out."
"What was that?!" the self-made Queen was shrieking, and Sora turned his attention back to her.
"That was your culprit, your majesty. Alice is innocent."
"SILENCE!" her voice echoed over the glade, "_I'm_ the law here! Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is guilty!"
"Sounds like one of Mistress' laws," Seifer muttered as an aside to his companion.
"CARDS! SEIZE THEM!"
The two were suddenly back-to-back as the Guard of Cards surrounded them. Out of the corner of his eye, Seifer saw the cage holding Alice shoot up to the top of the flag standard it was next to. Sora heard the clang of metal on metal when it reached the top, "You ready?" growled his partner.
Sora's blue eyes hardened to diamond, his inner shadow curling up and around his heart for extra protection, "Are you?"
"Hell yeah," the mercenary crowed, launching himself forwards and into the Cards. Melee battle soon commenced, and Sora threw himself into the crowd coming from the other side. His darkness pushing him forwards, Sora bared his teeth in a ruthless grin, eyes hazing over and becoming like dark glass.
The shadow that had hidden within him sunk it's claws that much deeper into his soul as he tore into battle. The Keyblade hummed with magical essence in his gloved hands, tearing through Cards at a viscous rate but, surprisingly, not causing any serious harm. This infuriated Sora, and he doubled his efforts until the Cards were actually running away from him.
Seifer had much the same lack of injury problem on his side, but he didn't let it get to him. Hyne knew there had been monsters in the Training Center in Balamb Garden that hadn't physically shown injury until they had collapsed dead before the attacker. A T-Rexaur for example.
But this wasn't time for remembrance. He had a blonde girl to save. Once they got Alice out of that cute little cage, they could flee back to Traverse Town. Maybe set the girl up with an apartment-- preferable close to his. She was quite the pretty girl after all.
So he maneuvered himself to beside the standard baring the cage, Hyperion held defensively. One of the Cards lunged at him, in a desperate attempt to lop of his head; and Seifer dodged. The blade the red card carried sliced through the rope holding the cage up, causing it to plummet to the ground.
Thank Hyne for Seifer, however, as the blonde man leapt up to grab the rope and slow the decent to keep Alice from getting whiplash or something similarly nasty when she landed. Broken Bones were quite feasible. But when he tore the cloth away from the gilded bird cage that the Queen had locked her in... it was empty, "What the hell!?"
The Queen swivelled, turning her attention to the bloodthirsty way the brown haired fourteen year old was fighting, to the broad shouldered blonde. The her eyes shifted to the cage, "It's empty!"
"No shit," Seifer muttered, as the Queen started screeching about someone finding the blonde haired girl in the blue dress. Seifer settled for slapping his hand on Sora's shoulder and running in the direction of the exit. Better to get out _now_ then to be killed by the psycho queen. It took the Islander a moment to shake off his darkness' influence and run after his companion. As they slipped from the glade they heard the Queen of Hearts bellow that she 'didn't care how' but that someone had to 'find the ones' who took Alice.
Back in the strange tea-room, the two stifled irritated sighs.
"Well, that was pointless," muttered the younger of the pair.
"See, this is why we don't meddle," was his companion's response. "C'mon, let's get back to our normal sizes, eh?"
"What about Alice?" the too nice for his own good teenager wondered.
Seifer have him a flat look, "They'll find her, she's probably just hiding in that freaky forest."
"You would believe that, yes?" Seifer stiffened, whirling to the voice, and Sora settled for glaring at the dimension-hopping cat.
"Do _you_ know where Alice is?" the brown haired boy wondered idly, and the Cheshire Cat grinned widely.
"Perhaps she is with the shadows? The best view is from higher up." And he abruptly faded out.
"Who the _hell_ was _that_?" questioned the blonde who was officially questioning his sanity. This had to be some drug induced haze, and he was laying unconscious in an alley somewhere in Dollet. That was the best answer he could come up with for this wacked out world he'd suddenly found himself apart of.
"The Cheshire Cat," Sora sighed, "Don't know if he's helping or just doing it to get some kicks. How are we supposed to get big again?"
"The red potion," Seifer pointed up at the table, "We can scale the chair and jump up onto it from there. Shouldn't be to hard."
"And how are we going to drink from that bottle? It's pretty big."
"We'll figure it out when we get there!" he returned with a maniac cheerfulness that produced a small rock in the pit of Sora's stomach. He just _knew_ something was about to go seriously wrong. He _really_ hated that feeling. He'd gotten it the day prior to Destiny Islands being destroyed all those months earlier, and he had it again.
He just hoped this world didn't end up destroyed as well. That would be... bad.
"Understatement, Sora," he muttered sourly, beginning the arduous climb up the side of the chair. Seifer had already pulled ahead of him and was jumping up, stretching out as far as he could to grasp onto the edge of the table and haul himself over. The feeling in the pit of Sora's stomach only increased.
---
"God be damned!" Sora roared angrily, hissing as he rubbed at the burns on his chest. Seifer, ragged and bloody gave him an evil look.
"Oh, like you've got it the worst."
"I'm covered in burns from head to toe!" Sora snapped back, glaring evilly. That giant Heartless had just come out of nowhere, startling both teenagers. Both were battered and bruised from the battle, but there was a sense of exhilaration along the lines of their bodies. Sora was exceptionally happy, despite his veneer of pain and fury, because the world hadn't been destroyed before or after the battle. It was something to be proud of.
Especially after having seen Destiny Islands destroyed from close up.
"What a racket," a tired voice interrupted their verbal battle, and the to males found the doorknob glaring blurrily at them, "How's a doorknob to get any sleep...?" and he yawned widely.
Sora gave a startled-- and pained, as he was, indeed, covered in burns from head to toe-- yelp as the Keyblade still in his hand jerked upwards. It aimed itself at the still yawning doorknob, and a thin beam of golden light raced from the tip out and into the doorknob's mouth, "What the...?"
"That's pretty freaky," Seifer muttered, eyes wide as a 'click' echoed loudly around them, sounding like... a door had locked itself? How very, very bizarre. He couldn't wait to get out of this world, and he definitely had the feeling that Sora wanted to as well.
A fist-sized computer chip fell from the doorknob's 'mouth' as he finished his long yawn and settled back in for a nice nap. Seifer stepped forwards to pick it up as Sora dropped the key to whimper and hold his aching, burned arm. Stupid red and black paper-Heartless, and it's stupid flame throwing tricks. If it hadn't been for the potions that both he and Seifer carried on them, he was positive that he would have died.
Seifer shook his head, stuffing the piece into a pocket of his trench coat. He turned back to his friend, and promptly whined, "Can we _go_ now?"
---
End Chapter
Author's Notes:
51kb minus author's notes. Not to shabby. Like I said last chapter, this is likely only to come out once a month or so. It's bloody hard to write, despite having the plans right here beside me. To be perfectly honest, over the past month I sat down maybe eight times and only wrote five or six paragraphs a shot.
Long and tiring it may be but... well, that's just the way things are, ne? I hope you liked this chapter as much as you liked the previous one. And don't worry, the chapters are highly unlikely to get shorter than this. Believe you me. Oh, and for those wondering, I've got twenty-three chapters planned out. That means twenty-three chapters that covers Kingdom Hearts from beginning to end, plus a lot of stuff thrown in for the hell of it. Expect there to be some pointless chapters here and there, however.
You know me, I just can't help myself. ^___^
- Li Xiang
Self-Proclaimed Goddess of Bandaids and Cows.
I know some of you are probably annoyed that I've seemingly removed Cloud, Yuffie, Squall/Leon, Aerith, Ansem and Sephiroth from the story. I wouldn't worry about it to much. I never said Hollow Bastion wasn't going to be in this story. It will be, although not likely the way any of you think it will be. Ahahahahaha ^__^
-
Route Unknown
Chapter Two
Li Xiang
-
Rose swiped a strand of ebon hair out of her eyes, glaring at the two boys she'd unofficially adopted. First it had only been Seifer-- poor, broken, angsting Seifer Almasy-- and then, a few months later, the guilt-ridden, harried Sora who seriously needed a distraction from life. She hadn't really thought she'd get attached to them; she'd just thought she'd jump in and out of their lives to keep the pair from wallowing in their guilt-- be it killer's or survivor's-- or going off the deep end and into a berserk mode. She'd seen it happen before, with people who held less on their shoulders than the fourteen and the nineteen year old pair.
As it was, she _had_ gotten attached to them, and the thirty-something woman was officially in over protective mode as she hovered around the site of where 'her' boys would be taking their leave of Traverse Town, as well as the world the sprawling city occupied. She didn't think either one had been outside the city before, but then, most out-worlders didn't leave the confines of Traverse Town. Unsurprisingly, considering that outside the brick and mortar city was land unending, villages, towns, and tribes, none of which actually knew about other worlds. There was the occasional big city out there, as well, but again, they had no knowledge of out-worlders.
But that didn't really matter at the moment. What mattered was seeing Seifer and Sora off.
The pair exchanged exasperated stares as Rose stood over them, her imposing six and a half feet of black-haired, violet eyed, navy-armored amazonian build lecturing on keeping safe and healthy. Sora finally rolled his eyes.
"Relax, Miss Rose!" he laid a hand upon her arm, looking up at her with placating features, although there was the faint spark of mischief in his eyes that had slowly been growing as both the ebon tressed woman and blonde haired gunblader helped him realize that he wasn't alone. An impish smile came to his lips, "It's not like we're going to go _die_ or anything!" And he ducked under her swat, laughing and running for the gummi ship that had been gifted to he and his house-mate. He _really_ didn't want to get hit by the woman-- as she had demonstrated not that long ago, she was _very_ skilled with her swords, and she was _very_ strong. Must have had something to do with being a former guard of this world's king, before she'd vanished into Traverse Town.
Seifer smirked at the irritated woman, "Right, like the Kid said; we're not gunna die. We've both got to much to do before we kick the bucket!"
"Shut up, Seifer," Rose poked his nose, "You keep Sora safe, you got me? If I hear that you let him get hurt on this wild goose chase of yours--"
"It's not a goose chase," Seifer frowned at her, "We're going to Bastion, and we're going to get help, and then we're going to beat the shit out of Sora's Heartless."
"You know, I think that's the first time I've ever heard you call him by his name."
The blonde snorted, "Don't get used to it. And don't tell him, either. The Kid doesn't need a swelled head."
"I think you're the one with the swelled head, Almasy," she chastised, eyes glinting with mirth as she caught sight of Sora making faces at them from the gummi ship's cockpit window. Such a child that boy was. It was to bad he had to grow up so quickly what with the destruction of his world... "In any case, you two had better get a move on it."
"Yeah yeah, I'm goin' I'm goin'," Seifer drawled, sauntering away, white trench coat billowing almost playfully around him, and Rose wondered, not for the first time, why the immaculately clean coat had such rough edges. Rips, tears, and small holes lined the bottom edge, the collar, and the cuffs of the sleeves. It was almost a saintly white, but with the tattered edges and torn hems, it made the nineteen year old appear to be a world weary man, fighting to be what he could-- what he _should_-- be.
She closed violet eyes, and took a deep breath as she heard the engines engage, and then the two teenagers lifted off into the air with the ship, heading straight up. Before they were even out of the range of the tops of the apartments crowding Traverse Town, they had vanished. If it were a cloaking system, or a jump out of their world, their reality, Rose didn't have a clue.
All she knew was that her boys were gone, and would be gone for a long time.
Then she felt something coming up behind her, and she was spinning around, fluidly removing the one sword from her belt with one hand, and the sword strapped across her back with the other. The Blade mistress' face blanked.
Seifer had been right.
The Heartless hadn't attacked because the two who had previously defeated them had still resided in the city. Looked like Rose would have some work to do, after all. Not that she minded. She had rather missed the thrill of adrenalin in her veins as she fought tooth and nail. Once it had been for God, King, and Country. Now it was for her boys, her people, her world.
---
"So where's your world supposed to be, any way?"
Seifer glanced over at the brunette who was staring out the window at the strange warp they were in as the gummi ship drew them from Traverse Town and out into the realm in-between worlds.
"No idea."
Sora gave his friend an exasperated look, and Seifer scowled mightily, "Come off it, Kid. I used an unstable time-jump to get to Traverse Town when I was trying to commit suicide. I don't have any idea how far away we are-- and it's not like _you_ know where your island is."
Sora snorted, "Of course I do. It's _gone_ Seifer, and don't call me 'Kid'."
The scarred man winced. He'd forgotten that Sora didn't have a world to return to should he ever want to go back. Seifer did-- it was only a matter of finding it. He was pretty sure he was going the right way to get back to it, as well. He could still feel the darkness of his former mistress humming in his soul, and knew that the psychotic Sorceress came from the war-torn future of Bastion, his home world. Since she, technically, wasn't born yet, but had made him her Knight, forever and through eternity, he could still feel a strong connection to the world she would be born upon. All it took was following a vague sense of 'home'.
"You think this get's radio?" Sora broke the silence after several moments, poking at the 'dashboard' of the gummi ship. Almasy chuckled; that had been something Sora had fallen absolutely head over heels for when he'd learned of it. Sure, they had music back on the Destiny Islands, but nothing like the radio. Or the instruments played on the radio-- he'd never heard an electric guitar, or a keyboard until coming to Traverse Town. It had been a welcome distraction from the harsh truth of reality.
"Don't know, maybe," and the two males began to poke at said dashboard, trying to see if there was a radio, or a disc player-- Seifer was hopping for the latter, since he had a whole bunch of discs he'd had stuffed in his trench coat when he'd attempted suicide all those long months ago. He really liked those discs, and the power source of his portable player had died, and it hadn't exactly ever been seen in Traverse Town before.
Generally, one knew not to mess around with the instruments showing them their flight path, and what they were supposed to be doing, but Seifer had never been one to follow the rules-- he made them-- nor had he ever been big on common sense-- how he'd ended up as Ultimecia's Knight. Sora, of course, had come from a much more primitive Island-- despite the fact that they had a thriving clothing industry; mostly due to the fact that on the main island the ratios of female to male was three to one-- and didn't even know what a dashboard on a car was, let alone all the sensitive equipment for a machine like a gummi ship.
So it should come to no surprise that the pair managed to mess something up.
Seifer, being seated as he had been the one driving, was jerked back into his chair, at the same time Sora went flying and slammed into the fair wall. Light flared around their ship, and Seifer clenched his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut to keep from being blinded by said light. Sora, who was upside down, with his face planted into the wall, didn't have to worry about it, since his retina were most assuredly facing away from the cockpit windows.
When the light faded-- and Sora had awoken from his pressure-induced nap-- the brown haired, key wielding teenager blinked out at the world they were in orbit of, "That's Bastion??"
"Not hardly," Seifer grunted, trying to stand up, and finding his legs seemed to be made of jell-o, "Now that was some trip!"
Sora snickered, "Nice face-plant, Seifer. Since that's not Bastion, I guess we're going to skip over it, right?"
"Wrong," Seifer shook his head, "We're almost out of fuel. I don't know what the hell we did, but somehow we drained the ship's tanks, and all we've got left is enough to go back to Traverse Town."
"Oh..." Sora set his hands on his hips, staring at the ground with a furrowed brow as he thought through their options, "I guess this means we're going down to see if they have anything we could use for fuel?"
"You got it, Kid. If we don't find anything, it's back to Traverse Town, and this time we bring extra fuel."
"Stop calling me 'Kid', dammit!"
Seifer chuckled, settling back into the pilot's chair, "Whatever you say, Kid."
"I hate you..."
"You say that a lot."
---
There was nothing quite like the feeling of free fall, Seifer thought, somewhat irritably as he and Sora rocketed down the tunnel that had opened right under their feet almost as soon as they had left their gummi ship. Seifer was annoyed. Sora was trying to see the bottom, and gauge how hurt he'd be. He was well versed in falling from heights-- like the roof of his mother's home, or from the rope in the cove on the Destiny Islands, or from being shoved off the side of the boat at the seashore by Tidus or... well, he fell a lot. Most of the time not his fault.
To the surprise of both males, their decent began to slow as the floor came into sight. Confused and wary, Seifer had Hyperion in hand, even as his feet brushed the floor and he settled into a defensive stance. Sora's Keyblade had shimmered into being just as quickly, neither teenager all that trusting of their surroundings. After all, they were on a world they'd never been to before, and had no idea what to expect.
Most assuredly not a large, walking talking rabbit to rush past them babbling, "I'm late, I'm late!" over and over again, interspersed with the occasional, "The Queen will have my head!"
"...shall we...?" wondered the fourteen year old, as Seifer returned Hyperion to her scabbard in the small of his back.
"Why not?" wondered the blonde, and the two teenagers went followed the passage of the talking rabbit. The environment about them was strange and confusing, a twisting, turning irregular shaped world to walk through. The scenery annoyed the nineteen year old, but the fourteen year old accompanying him thought it interesting. He'd never seen anything quite like it before!
And then there were the multiple doors that opened on their own, inviting the two men into the room. Sora had been half expecting the door to slam shut on them, and to find themselves locked in the next room with no way of escape.
This, of course, did not happen, and Sora had to wonder if he'd been watching to many horror movies. They were just so, so, so interesting, though! He'd never seen anything like television before arriving in Traverse Town. What did happen, once in the room, was quite a surprise in and of itself. The rabbit-- who was now, very, very small, rushed through a door with a golden handle, before it slammed shut.
Snorting with derision, Seifer laid himself out on the far to small bed laying against one wall, "Wonder how mister bunny there got so small."
Sora, of whom had been kneeling down and staring at the door handle and wondering the exactly same thing, jumped back with a yelp when the handle responded to Seifer's idle question.
"You're simply just to big," the handle sounded rather annoyed, "and must you be so loud? I was trying to sleep."
"Uh... right..." the doorknob wasn't talking, Sora informed himself firmly. It's just someone behind the doorknob, and the keyhole is not moving like it's a mouth. Nope, no siree.
Seifer, who had seen stranger things in his lifetime, raised a cynical eyebrow, "Wow, a magical morphing rabbit."
"Don't be stupid," sniffed the golden handle, "he used the blue potion on the table over there." And what both teenagers had assumed to be very oddly designed linoleum, rose and to become and honest to bloody god three dimensional, sturdy white table.
With a laugh, Seifer stood, accidentally kicking the bed as he did so. A blonde eye-brow arched over blue-green eyes as the bed sunk into the wall and became a painting of a sort, opposite to the recently revealed table. How... very, very, weird. He was getting the feeling that this entire world was looney, "Want to try it, Kid?"
Sora, who was laid out on his back so that he didn't have to look at the door handle, and could easily pretend it wasn't actually talking, looked up at his partner, "Uh... I guess so..." it wasn't like he hadn't eaten things without knowing what they were before.
He was ignoring the fact that most of the things he'd eaten had been eaten only when dared to by his missing, silver tressed best friend.
So he took the jar with the blue liquid in it from his companion, and downed a good portion of it in one swig. Pale grey smoke swirled up and around him, and the teenager panicked, dropping the potion on the ground, the glass shattering all around the rapidly shrinking islander. Blue eyes darted this way and that as he went from being five feet tall, to being five inches tall. It was a terrifying experience to see the world suddenly increase in size around him.
And then the pale smoke was gone, and he was let among the shards of glass, blinking warily. Thick, black boots came to a halt several feet away-- it seemed like miles to him-- and then Seifer was kneeling down, staring at his friend, "Well now, this was unexpected."
"You're still big!" Sora yelped, inwardly thankful that his voice didn't sound high and squeaky like a mouse's... or, at least, he hadn't thought it had changed until he saw Seifer wince, and stick a black gloved pinky into his ear, to pop his ear drums.
"Nice and high there, Kid," his voice was like a rumble of thunder to the tiny teenager, "Did you have to break the bottle?"
"I'm sorry!" wailed the teenager, completely missing the fact that Seifer had had to jamb his hands over his ears to keep them from exploding at the high pitch Sora was screeching with his eyes clenched shut.
"Calm down!" Seifer bellowed, and Sora went flying end over end for several feet, crashing into the inside of the fireplace within the room. Seifer eyed said fireplace with irritation. Why didn't anything make sense in this bloody world? Oh right, it was designed by fucking _lunatics_! He could feel his temple jump with his annoyance, and with an exasperated sigh, he settled into one of the brown leather arm chairs.
Fingers came up to rub at the scar between his brow, in a familiar gesture of annoyance, "Kid."
"Ye-yeah?" stuttered the tiny youth. He wasn't in the mood to get squashed for shouting at Seifer to stop calling him 'Kid'.
"There's probably more of that junk in the other room," he motioned to the closed and locked door, and the entrance right beside it, that had once been hidden by the bed Seifer had kicked, "Just bring some in here, and I'll join you at being a mini-me, alright?"
"Okay," Sora nodded, slowly, warily. The last time he'd been alone to do something, his entire world had been destroyed. It was only right that he should be fearing being sent off on his own. While Seifer would, normally, have noticed this, Sora's current size prevented any such insight.
Nervously, Sora passed through the gateway into the next room, hand clenched around the hilt of his Keyblade, and sweat dribbling down his neck into his grey and green jacket. He _really_ didn't want to be alone, but there was no other choice. _He_ had been the one to break the potion's bottle, after all was said and done.
It was like stepping into another world. One moment he'd been in a room decorated in pastels, and the next he was in a grassy field surrounded by green hedges that towered over his head. His eyes practically fell out of his head as he realized that the so called men standing by the entrance were actually _playing_cards_. Playing cards! It was unbelievable!
"Court is now in session!"
Sora jumped, startled out of staring at the playing card men, as the talking rabbit's voice carried out across the small green grove he'd found himself in. He moved forwards, to stand just inside the hedge-gated entrance to the larger part of the small field, and stared in no little awe. At the far end of the field was what appeared to be almost a courtroom-- the judge's... Sora couldn't remember the name of where the judge sat, and thus settled on 'box'; was large and wide, with an equally large and wide woman dressed in a white, red and black heart-motif outfit. Her pudgy face was settled into a deep scowl, black hair held out of her face by her absurd crown.
"I... I'm on trial?" the stuttered question hauled Sora's attention onto the area that served as the court's floor. He couldn't see the face of the girl, but her backside was certainly pretty. Golden blonde hair fell to mid-back, dancing over a soft sky-blue dress complete with crinoline. White knee socks and classy black dress shoes decorated her feet, "But... but why?"
The rabbit warbled again, although there was no answer in his words, "Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!"
This was a queen? She certainly failed to look like any queen Sora had seen on the television, or like the visage that Rose had proclaimed to be queen of the world Traverse Town was built upon. They had been elegant, beautiful women bedecked in jewels and finery. This red-faced, oversized almost-not-female did not fit the image of royalty Sora had built into his mind.
"The girl is the culprit," even her voice was harsh and grating, "There's no doubt about it. And the reason is..." she paused momentarily, and Sora-- not to mention the blonde girl!-- awaited her words, "Because I say so, that's why!"
"That's no reason!" the girl yelped, and Sora found himself agreeing. What sort of reasoning was that? Well, sure if the woman really _was_ a queen she could say something like that, but he was pretty sure queens were supposed to do what was best for the country. That's what Rose had told him. Coming from a village on an island that was essentially 'Marxist'-- or at least, that's what Rose and Seifer had called it when he had told them of how things had worked back on the Island-- he was still a bit fuzzy on the whole royalty and nobility thing.
"Well, have you anything to say in your defense?" The queen looked rather bored and uninterested, actually.
"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" trilled the blonde, "You may be queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so... so... so mean!"
"SILENCE!" bellowed the queen, and Sora was really starting to wonder if it would be a good idea to jump in with his own opinion, or if that would just make things worse. And he still had to get Seifer down to his size! The Queen of Hearts continued in her rage, "You dare defy me!?"
Furious was the least of the words to be used to describe the red-faced woman seated in the judge's box, and her words thundered over the so-called 'court' with finality, "The court finds the defendant... guilt as charged! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart--" Her heart?! Well, _that_ certainly sounded familiar!-- "OFF WITH HER HEAD!"
As the card-guards started towards the 'guilty' girl, and she cried out her protests, Sora came to a decision. He'd just have to go through with it, and take the consequences as they came. The brown haired, grey-garbed teenager sucked in a breath and charged into the Queen's Court, "Hold it right there!"
"Who are you?!" thundered the already _very_ annoyed queen, "How dare you interfere with my court...!"
"But I know who the _real_ culprit is!" Sora threw all he had into his irresistible Puppy-Dog Eyes. Neither Kairi nor Riku had ever been able to deny him anything when he used them. Hell, he could even get Wakka to put his blitzball down for a few minutes when he used them-- and that was something no one else had ever accomplished. The Queen took one look, and was wrapped around his little finger, "She's not the one you're looking for."
Sora had to give the Queen some points for effort. She was certainly doing an admirable job at trying to maintain her pride and not capitulate immediately to his wishes, "Have you any proof?"
"Er... no, not really," Sora scratched at the back of his head, and the Queen had to resist the urge to coo and call him cute. That was _not_ something she would do-- no matter what! She opened her mouth to condemn him, and he scrambled for his next words, "But I'm sure I could find some!"
Imperceptibly she chewed her lip, then nodded once, "Very well. Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence! Fail and it's off with both your heads! Report back here once you've found all your evidence." Before he could even wonder what would happen to the blonde in the meantime, the cards had hauled her off and into a gold gilded cage to the right of the Judge's Box where the queen was settled.
Great, just great, Sora thought bitterly. Not only do I have to find a way to make Seifer my size, but I have to find evidence that this Alice girl is innocent and it's really the Heartless who tried to steal her heart. Won't this be fun.
Shoving his hands into his pockets, he rolled his eyes and spun in a circle, looking for an out. There was the entrance he had come through, but he still had to find Seifer's own minimizing potion. So that left... the big black space that hadn't been there a moment before. Or had it? It was just a gaping space of emptiness in one of the hedge walls-- was it even a door? Eh, only one way to know...
Hesitantly, he approached the 'hole', and hesitantly, he crossed the threshold, Keyblade summoned to a nervous hand.
And then the darkness made sense as he found himself ensorcelled within a gloomy forest of giant plants. He was sure they wouldn't seem to large had he been his regular height but at only five inches tall, it was rather frightening. Sora was barely two steps in when movement caught the corner of his eye.
Whirling around, he found himself soon coming to the same conclusion Seifer had already made. This world was absolutely crazy. There was a cat on the rather large stump beside him. Or rather, there was a cat's body, standing on it's own head. The feline was surprisingly pink, with lavender stripes. He had the feeling that whomever had created that cat had been smoking up something awful.
"Who are you?" the Keyblader wondered, fingers clenching nervously around the hilt of his blade. The cat's lips curved into an off balanced grin.
"Who, indeed...? Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!"
He knew...? This cat knew, and hadn't bothered to tell anyone? "H-hey! If you know who's guilty, then tell me!" It would certainly help and he could get back to making Seifer five inches tall. At least if they were the same size as everyone else they could get some fuel or something...
"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers-- but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat... all lie in darkness."
"What the...?" a riddle? A god be damned _riddle_? How the hell would _that_ help him? Why didn't people-- or cats, as the case appeared to be-- give straight answers?!
"They've already left the forest," the feline purred as he vanished into nothingness, "I won't say which exit. There is little evidence, some simple to find, some not so simple. To find them all is to get a reward."
Sora's eyebrow twitched rather spastically, "Oh yes, _that_ helps..."
He jumped when the cat's voice rippled from everywhere around him, "A big seed makes small."
"A big seed?" Oooooooh-kay... the cat was absolutely nutters. Right, then. Sora's eyes swept around the area, somewhat unwilling to move away from his comfortably safe haven. He would have just stood there staring, until he noticed the large brown seed upon a tangled mass of leaves and branches. Eyes focused on that spot, he began to move towards it, searching for a way up; searching for a way to get up to that seed. The Cheshire Cat's final riddle didn't seem all that hard to figure out.
It was getting past all the Heartless that had popped up as soon as he moved away from the entrance that was the problem.
---
Tired and bruised, Sora had finally made it up onto the branches that held the seed, and was currently trying to catch his breath laying beside it. The thing had to be half his current height, at the least, which would make it a bit of a problem to move. Oh well, he'd gotten this far. No point in giving up now, eh?
With a pain filled groan, the grey-garbed youth rolled over onto his stomach, pushed himself up onto his knees then rocked back onto his feet and stood. He was positive that he was going to murder whomever thought up the idea of Heartless in the first place. Stupid evil shadow-made things. Popped up at _the_ worst moments possible, they did.
He settled his hands comfortably onto the large seed, focusing his will. A deep breath was followed by a hard shove, and the seed tumbled down off the branches to the ground below. Sora bit his lip and desperately hoped that the seed didn't shatter on impact. His breath whooshed out between his lips as it landed-- there was a slight crack, but it wasn't broken-broken.
Thus, he followed it's path down, landing in a deep knee bend just beside it. The cushy over-sized fallen leaves and broken grass that made up the ground he stood on having made the landing even easier than he had hoped for. Warily, he began pushing the seed through to the other end; back to the entrance he had come in. Just because he had painstakingly almost killed himself-- repeatedly-- to rid himself of any Heartless in his path didn't mean there weren't any there. It didn't mean that they weren't awaiting the perfect moment to attack. Being preoccupied with the seed would have made it that perfect moment, too, had Sora not been able to split his attention.
Splitting attention as such had come through the painful lessons of Tidus, Selphie and Wakka as they triple-teamed him.
But it seemed as though he had gotten them all, rolling the seed out through the dark entrance-- shouldn't it be light? Oh, what did it matter on this world?-- and back into the hedge-ringed grove that settled as a court house for the overbearing Queen. Sora could feel her curious eyes on his back as he rolled the seed over to the hedge-gate. Then he moved around the seed and began to roll it out of the main grove. It only took a couple rolls to get it through the secondary grove and through the hole in the wall that lead him back into the homestead.
Seifer appeared to be sleeping.
Annoyed, Sora left the seed near the table and ran the distance between seed and leather armchairs. Almasy needed a waking up present-- it wasn't fair that the blonde got to sleep while he'd been fighting fiercely to get the seed that would shrink his partner down to his size. At least... that's what he hoped the Cat's riddle had meant. If it didn't, well, he'd just blame that stupid feline for not telling him exactly what to do.
Like a little brown mouse, the brown haired teenager scrambled up the side of the leather chair, eyes narrowed with mischief. He did so love getting on Seifer's nerves-- it was almost like getting on Riku's. Which made him momentarily sad as he remembered that his oldest friend was missing. He was pretty sure the other wasn't dead-- Sora had survived the cloying darkness that had enveloped them on the Island, and Riku was infinitely stronger than he was, so it was only obvious that he should be able to survive. Kairi... he didn't have any idea what had happened to his crush, but something inside told him, point blank, that she was still alive. Lost, but alive.
Then he shook his head free of any such thoughts, grabbing hold of the white silk of Seifer's trench coat, and hauling himself up to ear level. Bad, bad Almasy. You're a mercenary, he thought somewhat sadistically, you're supposed to know I'm here... with that, he sucked in a breath and _screamed_.
"SHIT!" roared Almasy, jerking straight up, and knocking Sora from his collar. Ocean eyes wide and panicked, he was on his feet with Hyperion in hand before he'd even realized he was awake. The tiny brunette laying, dazed, on the chair groaning in a high pitched, mousey-squeak, and Seifer blinked down at him several times. A black gloved finger came up to pop his eardrum, "Dammit Kid..."
Shaking himself out of his daze, Sora grinned up at his friend, "I brought you a seed."
"SeeD?" wondered the former mercenary. Had the kid actually...? No, wait, he could see the large brown seed that the younger male was pointing at, laying beneath the table, "What's this supposed to do?"
"The Cat said it 'makes small'. I think it's like the potion," he offered in a squeaky voice that made Seifer want to grind his teeth. A bit hesitantly, the blonde reached down and picked up the seed. After a moment's investigation, he shrugged, brushing it off on his blue-black vest-- gods knew his trench coat was so dirty he'd probably die from wiping whatever was on it onto the seed-- and then popped the whole thing into his mouth.
A most assuredly disgusting taste flooded his mouth, bitter and acrid. He desperately wanted to spit out the vile seed, but forced himself to choke it down. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd tasted worse before, during his SeeD Cadet training, and had forced that down as well.
It wasn't until the disgusting seed was fully down his throat, and sitting heavily in his stomach that he began to shrink. It was a decidedly uncomfortable feeling-- the feeling that he _knew_ there should have been pain as his body compressed, but he could feel nothing more than being pleasantly numb. Uncomfortable was an understatement. And then it was gone, and he only had the after-taste of that vile seed in his mouth, and he was a grand total of six inches tall.
He was rather grateful that he was still taller than his brown haired companion.
The other jumped off the chair, landing lightly, and in such a way that Seifer briefly wondered how well the teenager would have preformed as a SeeD, or even a member of SOLDIER-- which was actually the Estharian predecessor to SeeD, what Cid Kramer had based his idea of Garden and SeeD upon. But such thoughts were quickly banished, as Heartless began to form out of nothingness. Hyperion and the Keyblade in hand, the pair glanced at each other before racing off to do battle.
Sora was _really_ beginning to hate these thrice damned creatures.
Eyes narrowed sharply, it seemed as though a haze settled over them. Crouched over, his head swung slowly, from side to side. Then one of those funny, flying red Heartless shot a burst of flames at him. He bared his teeth in agony, before the animalistic fury that had driven him back in Traverse Town burned within his veins again and he launched himself into the air with a violent slash of his Keyblade. Even as he fell he swung his blade again, and the red Heartless shattered into pieces with a startled 'eep'-like noise.
More began to appear around him, crowding in, desperate to get their ethereal shadowed claws into him, to pull his heart from his body, to destroy the husk that remained and add another to their ranks... and Sora fought them off viscously. He had slacked off in fighting them on the Island. He had let them run free instead of destroying all that had been in his path back then...
The shadow within him drew strength from his negative emotions, feeding itself and reaching spidery claws out to curl around the heart that lay in his breast. It would not allow outsiders to take that which belonged to it, and fought off the encroaching darkness just as fiercely as it's host. It would take Sora's heart in time, but for now it lay in wait, hiding unless it sensed danger to it's own plans. The darkness rarely planned, but when it did they were plans of magnificence and destruction. Such was the way of the darkness.
Sora felt a cold shroud fall over his mind, steeling his heart. He could feel Seifer... an area of difference... of shadow and destruction, but muted, contained, tainted with time... and he knew his partner had no need of his help. Seifer Almasy could take care of himself. For now, Sora had to fight to defend himself. Fight to destroy his opponents.
And then they were gone. Sora stood, panting from exertion, eyes glazed, head swinging back and forth, search for another enemy. Seifer stood from his own crouch, slipping Hyperion back beneath his trench coat. The movement caught Sora's attention, and he wrestled with the shadow inside for control. The shadow wanted to destroy the blonde that could be a danger, but Sora's heart was strong, and in the end he pulled through.
Blinking tiredly, he stood straight, letting the Keyblade vanish into nothingness, "We've got evidence to find."
"Evidence?" wondered the ex-Knight, "What do we need evidence for?"
"To prove Alice innocent," the brown haired boy returned. At Seifer's confused look he elaborated, "I got involved with her trial when the Queen said Alice was guilty of trying to steal her heart."
"That Queen must be beautiful for another chick to be trying to get her heart," grinned the blonde, and the dirty thoughts running through his mind were obvious. Sora wondered for a moment why he was the most mature of the pair, before Seifer's words caught up to him and he started laughing, "Hey! What's so funny?"
"The Queen... beautiful?!" he laughed harder, "Only if you like red-faced women bigger than most tables!"
Almasy gave his friend an annoyed scowl, crossing his arms, "Okay, okay. So she's not beautiful. What's the deal with her heart being stolen?"
"Almost stolen," Sora corrected once he'd caught his breath again, "Apparently a Heartless tried to take her heart like they tried back in Traverse Town; the Queen decided to blame it on Alice, and now we've got to find evidence to prove Alice innocent."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me get this straight. You _voluntarily_ got involved with another world's politics? Sora, have you ever heard of the term 'meddling'?"
---
After a quick introduction of Seifer to the Queen, the two teenagers had finally gotten back into the Lotus Forest to begin their investigation.
"Where to first, Kid?"
"We'll split up," Sora muttered a bit distantly, "You can over there--" he pointed to their left, "--And I'll check out over here, okay?"
"If you think you know what you're doing," but Seifer's jibe fell on deaf ears and the man shrugged. Sora was in one of his 'moods' again. The blonde was positive the younger male was worse than any number of the girls he'd grown up with in Garden. Well, at least he didn't kick him in the shin like Fujin used to... on that melancholy note, he shuffled off towards the left, letting Sora search out to the right of them.
All he found was an astonishingly large yellow flower. Curious-- but wary, Seifer had grown up around plant-like creatures who were rather lethal-- he poked it with Hyperion's hilt. The giant black blade nearly slipped out of his grasp when the plant plaintively whined at him to give it... a potion? Oooookay, this was really weird. Why would a plant need a potion?
The urge to walk away and continue his search for evidence to free that pretty blonde in the cage beside the Queen's 'throne' was hastily overpowered. He didn't listen to his common sense very often, which generally meant that his taking one of the small potion bottles out of his trench coat should have been expected. A soft grunt and the stopper had been pulled out, the glowing green fluid within swirling gently.
"Alright flower," he muttered half to it, but mostly to himself, "here's a potion."
And then the silvery-grey mist that had made Sora smaller swirled around him and his skittered backwards. He couldn't possibly be getting... smaller could he?!
He needn't have worried. Instead of getting smaller-- he was returning to his normal height. How interesting. To bad there didn't seem to be any way out when this big. And where had Sora gotten off to?
---
"Bottled stench," Sora made a face. Only in this world. With a sigh, he shook his head, tucking the small glass jar into his pocket, beside the small box containing the footprints of the Heartless that he'd managed-- somehow-- to get out of the dirt without damaging them. He attributed it to the strange world he was currently within. It was certainly easier than trying to find a logical explanation.
Sighing, he turned to head back to the Lotus Forest... and groaned pitifully. Summoning the Keyblade into his hand, he raced forwards to take on the ever annoying Heartless. Why couldn't they just leave him alone for once?!
---
Sighing, the now regular sized Seifer shuffled around a bit uncomfortably-- he was certainly far to large for this place, having to crouch so that the branches of the small trees that surrounded him didn't scratch his face up. That stump to the right of him certainly didn't help matters. Somewhat annoyed with it, the blonde kicked the stump.
Nothing happened.
He'd half been expecting something to happen. This world was so messed up.
Perhaps if he took a seat, he'd be able to think something out. With a grunt, he settled himself down on the stump-- only to have it sink into the ground beneath him! Scowling mightily, the former Knight glared up at the barely visible sky, "Oh yeah, yuk it up!"
And then his eye caught on a spot of brown up in the trees. Blinking, he stood up, subconsciously brushing the dirt off his jacket, and moving closer to the brown, "Well, I'll be damned..."
It was a seed-- not only that, but a seed identical to the one that had made him small in the first place. With a grin, he reached out, scooping the seed into his hand; failing to notice the black 'twigs' that stuck to his fingers as he did so.
Sure, he'd be small again, but at least he'd be able to get out of this damned Forest. Besides, there still was that red bottle back in the only actual 'room' they'd come across. He was pretty sure that would get him back to normal size, and as he popped the bitter size-reducing seed into his mouth, he made a note not to let Sora drink first. There was no need for another broken bottle!
Once that disturbing transformation was over, he stretched out his arms over his head-- and felt something fall down and smack him in the face. With a start, the ex-Cadet's eyes popped open, and he looked down at his feet. There were... sticks? Stooping down he got a better look at the black, shadowy sticks-- they had to be the antenna of the basic Heartless. Which meant-- "Evidence!"
"You found some too?"
Seifer started, looking up to see Sora peering down at him over the edge of out of the more bushy areas of the tree-tops. How had the boy... no never mind. Seifer didn't really care, "Yeah, apparently your Heartless shed, Kid."
"Don't call me that-- they seem to like breathing into bottles, too," was the cheeky response, before the teenager flipped himself off the branches, wincing slightly as he landed. He hadn't done so properly, and thus pain lanced up through his legs, forcing him to grit his teeth against it. Apparently that latest fight had been a bit rough on him, "Think we've got enough?"
"Antenna and breath--"
"And Footprints."
"--Well, if it's not enough we can always ask for more time," Seifer grinned, "I just want to get out of here. We'll probably have to head back to Traverse Town."
"Eh? Why?"
The blonde threw an arm around his companion's shoulders, "Because, do you _really_ think they have fuel around here?"
"Oh. Right."
Somewhat cheerfully, the nineteen year old guided the fourteen year old back into the Queen's Grove, ready to present some evidence. Well, that was the plan, any way. With the way this world worked, who knew what could happen?
The Queen was, for once, not watching the pair entire. In fact, it appeared that she was having a quiet argument with Alice. So the pair shuffled for a moment in front of the Queen's throne, before Seifer rolled his eyes and caught one of the walking playing cards by the 'shoulder'. Said card looked upon the blonde knight with such a look of disdain that any lesser mortal would have cowered at it. But Seifer Almasy was no mere man; he was a Sorceress' Knight, and had lived through glares of accusation that put whatever this card had to shame.
"Do you have the evidence?"
"Yeah, we got your evidence, card-man," Seifer smirked infuriatingly, "Can we get this on with?"
"Present your evidence, then!" the card snapped back, glaring at the arrogant human. Seifer just seemed to be able to get on peoples' nerves with only his presence. The Queen of Hearts looked up at the sharp tone in her guard's voice, only just noticing that the two males had returned. She smiled pleasantly at Sora, and shot Seifer a warning look.
"Yes, present your evidence."
The box that contained the footprints, the bottle containing the stench of putrid breath, and the baggy with the antenna were all laid out before the so-called throne. Had she been anyone but the obese Queen of Hearts, the pout that graced her face would have been sultry. As it was, Sora was positive he'd have nightmares of that frown into eternity.
"That's quite the amount of evidence," she spoke, "But I'm still not convinced. Cards! Bring in my evidence!"
The red card that had been sneering at Seifer and his black companion each brought forth a box, setting them onto the ground on either side of Sora and Seifer's evidence. Muttering under her breath, the Queen cast a spell that Seifer didn't manage to catch, each bit of evidence being surrounded by a pink box, and then magically distributed. Both teenagers began to scowl. The Queen smiled, "Since checking all the boxes would be a waste of time... chose one box and I will decide who's guilty based on that!"
"What?!" squawked an annoyed Sora, "After all the crap I had to go through to get all that--"
"You dare object?!" the Queen interrupted, "The price for objecting is beheading!"
"Fine!" Sora snapped, "I chose... that one!" and he pointed directly to the center box.
"Are you sure?" came the woman's sly purr, "You have no second chances."
"I'm sure!" he barked back, glaring. Seifer was mildly impressed. The kid would have made for a pretty good SeeD. The Queen scowled, momentarily wondering why she had felt so strongly against beheading him just over twelve hours earlier. Right now, she'd gladly have the interloping twit's throat torn out by rabid wolves. She made a motion with her left hand, and one of the Cards trooped forwards, popping open the box. Inside was another box, and the two out-worlders smirked.
The Card opened the second box-- and the two teenagers lost their smirks as out of the footprints it contained arose another Heartless. It snarled viscously, lunging at the Card, clawed hand reaching out to pierce through the Card's torso area to take a swipe at it's heart. Before it could, however, a voice rang out, "No Mercy!"
Green light and black blade combined, shattering the Heartless in an instant. Seifer grinned ruthlessly, holding up a small golden stone, before tucking it back into his pocket. At Sora's curious look he elaborated, "Aura Stone. They don't last long, and I've only got two, so I try to stretch them out."
"What was that?!" the self-made Queen was shrieking, and Sora turned his attention back to her.
"That was your culprit, your majesty. Alice is innocent."
"SILENCE!" her voice echoed over the glade, "_I'm_ the law here! Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is guilty!"
"Sounds like one of Mistress' laws," Seifer muttered as an aside to his companion.
"CARDS! SEIZE THEM!"
The two were suddenly back-to-back as the Guard of Cards surrounded them. Out of the corner of his eye, Seifer saw the cage holding Alice shoot up to the top of the flag standard it was next to. Sora heard the clang of metal on metal when it reached the top, "You ready?" growled his partner.
Sora's blue eyes hardened to diamond, his inner shadow curling up and around his heart for extra protection, "Are you?"
"Hell yeah," the mercenary crowed, launching himself forwards and into the Cards. Melee battle soon commenced, and Sora threw himself into the crowd coming from the other side. His darkness pushing him forwards, Sora bared his teeth in a ruthless grin, eyes hazing over and becoming like dark glass.
The shadow that had hidden within him sunk it's claws that much deeper into his soul as he tore into battle. The Keyblade hummed with magical essence in his gloved hands, tearing through Cards at a viscous rate but, surprisingly, not causing any serious harm. This infuriated Sora, and he doubled his efforts until the Cards were actually running away from him.
Seifer had much the same lack of injury problem on his side, but he didn't let it get to him. Hyne knew there had been monsters in the Training Center in Balamb Garden that hadn't physically shown injury until they had collapsed dead before the attacker. A T-Rexaur for example.
But this wasn't time for remembrance. He had a blonde girl to save. Once they got Alice out of that cute little cage, they could flee back to Traverse Town. Maybe set the girl up with an apartment-- preferable close to his. She was quite the pretty girl after all.
So he maneuvered himself to beside the standard baring the cage, Hyperion held defensively. One of the Cards lunged at him, in a desperate attempt to lop of his head; and Seifer dodged. The blade the red card carried sliced through the rope holding the cage up, causing it to plummet to the ground.
Thank Hyne for Seifer, however, as the blonde man leapt up to grab the rope and slow the decent to keep Alice from getting whiplash or something similarly nasty when she landed. Broken Bones were quite feasible. But when he tore the cloth away from the gilded bird cage that the Queen had locked her in... it was empty, "What the hell!?"
The Queen swivelled, turning her attention to the bloodthirsty way the brown haired fourteen year old was fighting, to the broad shouldered blonde. The her eyes shifted to the cage, "It's empty!"
"No shit," Seifer muttered, as the Queen started screeching about someone finding the blonde haired girl in the blue dress. Seifer settled for slapping his hand on Sora's shoulder and running in the direction of the exit. Better to get out _now_ then to be killed by the psycho queen. It took the Islander a moment to shake off his darkness' influence and run after his companion. As they slipped from the glade they heard the Queen of Hearts bellow that she 'didn't care how' but that someone had to 'find the ones' who took Alice.
Back in the strange tea-room, the two stifled irritated sighs.
"Well, that was pointless," muttered the younger of the pair.
"See, this is why we don't meddle," was his companion's response. "C'mon, let's get back to our normal sizes, eh?"
"What about Alice?" the too nice for his own good teenager wondered.
Seifer have him a flat look, "They'll find her, she's probably just hiding in that freaky forest."
"You would believe that, yes?" Seifer stiffened, whirling to the voice, and Sora settled for glaring at the dimension-hopping cat.
"Do _you_ know where Alice is?" the brown haired boy wondered idly, and the Cheshire Cat grinned widely.
"Perhaps she is with the shadows? The best view is from higher up." And he abruptly faded out.
"Who the _hell_ was _that_?" questioned the blonde who was officially questioning his sanity. This had to be some drug induced haze, and he was laying unconscious in an alley somewhere in Dollet. That was the best answer he could come up with for this wacked out world he'd suddenly found himself apart of.
"The Cheshire Cat," Sora sighed, "Don't know if he's helping or just doing it to get some kicks. How are we supposed to get big again?"
"The red potion," Seifer pointed up at the table, "We can scale the chair and jump up onto it from there. Shouldn't be to hard."
"And how are we going to drink from that bottle? It's pretty big."
"We'll figure it out when we get there!" he returned with a maniac cheerfulness that produced a small rock in the pit of Sora's stomach. He just _knew_ something was about to go seriously wrong. He _really_ hated that feeling. He'd gotten it the day prior to Destiny Islands being destroyed all those months earlier, and he had it again.
He just hoped this world didn't end up destroyed as well. That would be... bad.
"Understatement, Sora," he muttered sourly, beginning the arduous climb up the side of the chair. Seifer had already pulled ahead of him and was jumping up, stretching out as far as he could to grasp onto the edge of the table and haul himself over. The feeling in the pit of Sora's stomach only increased.
---
"God be damned!" Sora roared angrily, hissing as he rubbed at the burns on his chest. Seifer, ragged and bloody gave him an evil look.
"Oh, like you've got it the worst."
"I'm covered in burns from head to toe!" Sora snapped back, glaring evilly. That giant Heartless had just come out of nowhere, startling both teenagers. Both were battered and bruised from the battle, but there was a sense of exhilaration along the lines of their bodies. Sora was exceptionally happy, despite his veneer of pain and fury, because the world hadn't been destroyed before or after the battle. It was something to be proud of.
Especially after having seen Destiny Islands destroyed from close up.
"What a racket," a tired voice interrupted their verbal battle, and the to males found the doorknob glaring blurrily at them, "How's a doorknob to get any sleep...?" and he yawned widely.
Sora gave a startled-- and pained, as he was, indeed, covered in burns from head to toe-- yelp as the Keyblade still in his hand jerked upwards. It aimed itself at the still yawning doorknob, and a thin beam of golden light raced from the tip out and into the doorknob's mouth, "What the...?"
"That's pretty freaky," Seifer muttered, eyes wide as a 'click' echoed loudly around them, sounding like... a door had locked itself? How very, very bizarre. He couldn't wait to get out of this world, and he definitely had the feeling that Sora wanted to as well.
A fist-sized computer chip fell from the doorknob's 'mouth' as he finished his long yawn and settled back in for a nice nap. Seifer stepped forwards to pick it up as Sora dropped the key to whimper and hold his aching, burned arm. Stupid red and black paper-Heartless, and it's stupid flame throwing tricks. If it hadn't been for the potions that both he and Seifer carried on them, he was positive that he would have died.
Seifer shook his head, stuffing the piece into a pocket of his trench coat. He turned back to his friend, and promptly whined, "Can we _go_ now?"
---
End Chapter
Author's Notes:
51kb minus author's notes. Not to shabby. Like I said last chapter, this is likely only to come out once a month or so. It's bloody hard to write, despite having the plans right here beside me. To be perfectly honest, over the past month I sat down maybe eight times and only wrote five or six paragraphs a shot.
Long and tiring it may be but... well, that's just the way things are, ne? I hope you liked this chapter as much as you liked the previous one. And don't worry, the chapters are highly unlikely to get shorter than this. Believe you me. Oh, and for those wondering, I've got twenty-three chapters planned out. That means twenty-three chapters that covers Kingdom Hearts from beginning to end, plus a lot of stuff thrown in for the hell of it. Expect there to be some pointless chapters here and there, however.
You know me, I just can't help myself. ^___^
- Li Xiang
Self-Proclaimed Goddess of Bandaids and Cows.