A/N: I'm sooo sorry you guys who are still loyal! I have been a major slacker on this story! I have no excuse this time other than the ever-present school. I will try to update every month or so, and if I don't, I give you guys permission to e-mail me with a complaint. Sound good? Good, because you'll most likely fill my mailbox with e-mail... well. No. Nevermind. This story can't be all that popular.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I DO, however, own my characters. This of course does not include anyone you have heard of before you read this story. *poke* Duh.
Chapter 8 – The Evil Juggler
Sora, Herzophia, Donald, and Goofy plodded around the forest, searching for the elusive final piece of evidence. "At this rate, we'll never find it!" Donald said, depressed.
"Nonsense, Donald, of course we will!" Said Sora, happy as usual, as he lead the group through the forest, hands on the back of his head. The others gave him a skeptical look, all three of their confidence, including Goofy's, was dwindling with every minute. Herzophia walked over to a flower and leaned against it.
"You can go on if you want, I'll wait h-" But she stopped talking as a voice entered her head. Give me a potion, and I'll make you bigger. It said. She turned around, looking for the source of the voice. Sora, who was about to tell her not to give up, looked around as well. "Did you hear that, too?" She asked him, and he nodded. Herzophia looked up at the flower to see if someone was on top of it. To her surprise, no one was, but the flower seemed to be... moving?! "Whoa!" She said, and jumped back from it. "It's the flower!" She pointed a finger at the flower.
"Hm..." Sora pondered, and walked over to the flower. "Here!" He threw a potion to the flower. The flower opened its petals and sprayed an odd spray on Sora. Thanks... All of a sudden, Sora began to grow taller, and forced the other three in his party to scramble out of the way of his growing feet. "Who—oaah!" He cried, holding his head to try and stop being dizzy. He stumbled around, trying not to step on Goofy, Donald, and Herzophia, and ended up falling onto the large stump they had seen the Cheshire Cat on. The stump sank into the ground, and, oddly, made a nearby lily pad spring up from the ground, making it possible to get to a door they had been unable to reach earlier.
"Cool..." Herzophia said, looking up at the lily pad. "Hey, Sora! How do you get smaller!" She shouted up to the enlarged Keyblade Wielder.
"I don't know..." Sora said, looking around. He spotted a very out-of-place egg-shaped fruit sitting on a tree branch. Taking the few steps to it, he picked it up. "Well... guess I'll try this..." He took a small bite out of the fruit, and instantly shrunk back to his normal size.
"Wow, that was a good idea, Sora!" Goofy said, confidence renewed for his part, now that they had another door to look in. "Look, now we can get through that door up there!" He pointed at the dark hole in the leaves.
The four walked over to the mushrooms again, and jumped up them and on to the lily pad trees. They hopped their way across the lily pads and over to the door, then entered. For a second time, they found themselves falling down into the strange room. This time, however, they each landed on a spoke of the handle on a giant faucet, having to try and balance so they didn't fall any further. Herzophia turned toward a shelf so she could jump onto it and get a better place to stand, but stopped in mid-turn and looked at the person sitting there.
They were sitting with one leg hanging off of the shelf, the other tucked up by their stomach. They wore a dark green, hooded cloak over themself, hiding their features. In their lap lay a pink and white checkered box, the last of the evidence. They were facing out toward the opposite wall of the room. "Oh... hello. I suppose you will be needing this?" The stranger said, the voice was feminine, and sounded young, between the age of 13 and 16. She stood up on the shelf and walked a little ways over to the faucet, box in hand.
"Uh... yeah..." Herzophia answered, still startled.
The girl nodded. "Here you go then." A strange noise was heard as she disappeared from view. The pink box clattered to the shelf top, no longer being supported by the girl's hands.
The insane laughter from long before was heard, and the Cheshire Cat faded slowly into view. "Well, look what you've found. Nice going."
"And now we can save Alice!" Sora said triumphantly.
"Oh yes, Alice may be innocent, but what about you?" The cheshire cat asked, causing a few of the group to give each other skeptical looks.
"What do you mean?" Inquired Sora.
"I won't tell. But I will give you something." The cat made a motion with his hand and two pieces of paper fell from the sky, landing in Sora and Herzophia's hands. The pieces of paper, which read 'Blizzard', immediately melted. "See you later!" The cat grinned evilly and laughed diabolically as he disappeared again.
"Well... that was weird..." Herzophia said, and made a leap over to the shelf. She picked up the pink box, and turned back to the others. "We got the last of the evidence, finally." She smiled happily. "No more aimless wandering!" Her smile faded as she turned throughtful. "Did any of you see the strange girl sitting here?" She asked.
"Yeah. I wonder who she was?" Sora said, jumping over to the shelf. "Let's go prove Alice innocent, and seal the Keyhole! We don't need so see the last piece, really, and I don't think any of us want to." Sora then jumped down from the shelf, to the floor below. The other three followed suit. The quartet of heros were all in high spirits now, and they rushed through the strange room as fast as they could, so they could get to the queen quickly and help out Alice.
Upon entering the courtyard, they realized that they were in trouble. The queen was ticked off – bad. She sat in her too-small throne, drumming her fingers on the wooden railing in front of her, glaring icicles at the duck, dog, and two teenagers. "Ah... We have all of our evidence..." Donald quacked hesitantly, withering under the queen's glare.
The queen said nothing, but motioned to one of her cards. The card stood at attention, then commanded, "Put your evidence in front of the queen." Sora and Herzophia brought the boxes up, Herzophia placing her one down on the ground near the front of the queen's podium, Sora putting his three down off to the left of that.
"Impressive," the queen said, raising her eyebrows. "Cards! Bring out my evidence!" One of the cards brought forth a fifth pink box and placed it to the right of Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Herzophia's evidence. "Hm... It would be such a pain to look through all of this evidence." She motioned to the card marked as the ace of clubs, which then mixed up all of the boxes, making it impossible to see whose box was whose. "Pick a box, and that will decide who is the winner of the trial."
"What!?" Roared Donald, jumping up and down in rage. "After all that searching?! You've got to be kidding!"
"No! Now choose! One box!" The queen shrieked, slamming her fist down on the arm of her throne, and with her other hand holding up one finger.
"Fine, then..." Herzophia said, surveying the boxes. "I choose-" but she stopped mid-sentence when she saw a dark spot converge in a corner of the room. It was the stranger from before. She turned her hooded head toward Herzophia, and what Herzophia saw made her breath stop momentarily.
The girl's eyes were yellow. (a/n: I could stop here... but, then this chapter would be too short!) The strange eyes under the cloak moved side to side with her head as she shook it. She extended an arm and pointed to the box next to the one Herzophia was about to choose, indicating that that was the one she should pick. She then disappeared in a cloud of darkness.
"You choose which box?" Sora whispered, nudging Herzophia in the side with his elbow. Herzophia snapped out of her state of shock, and moved her arm to point at the one the cloaked girl had pointed at.
"That one."
A card marked as the eight of spades moved forward to open the box. It jumped back in surprise as a soldier Heartless leapt from the box, then disappeared suddenly.
"What was that?!" The queen cried.
"See?" Sora said, pointing to the spot the Heartless had been in. There's your culprit! Now let Alice go!"
"SILENCE!" The queen bellowed. "I'm the law here! Article 29: All who defy the queen are guilty!"
"What?"
"That's crazy!"
"Cards! Seize them!" As soon as the order was made, all but one of the cards rushed over to surround the quartet of heros. The remaining card sped over to a crank on a small tower, and rotated it several times. The cage that Alice was in was covered by a red curtain, and rose to the top of where it was hanging from.
Herzophia and Sora spun around, cut off from Donald and Goofy by a wall of card soldiers. Herzophia looked over to the small tower, and realized that it could be easily destroyed, and Alice would be freed. "Sora! We have to destroy that tower!" She shouted, and took out the Heartblade. Sora nodded, his weapon already drawn, and began to hack and slash his way through the card soldiers to the tower. Herzophia came up behind him, and when they reached the tower, she whacked away the attacking card soldiers so Sora could destroy the tower.
Donald and Goofy were on the opposite side of the tower, the mage casting as many spells as he could at the oncoming soldiers, the knight charging through groups of them with his shield. Amid the sounds of battle and screams of "catch them, you fools!" from the Queen, the noise of wood breaking was heard. Sora had destroyed one of the four cranks of the tower. Donald looked over at Goofy while casting Fira on a nearby eight of diamonds, and yelled out, "Let's get over there, Goofy!" The dog nodded, and began to charge through the soldiers to Herzophia and Sora, Donald coming up behind.
"Hoo! Ha! Ha! Hyah!" Sora continued to attack the tower, Herzophia continued to defend. Goofy and Donald appeared, knocking a few cards to the ground. "Hi there – Hiya! – Goofy! Would you – Yah! – mind giving us a hand?" Sora said between attacks.
"Sure thing, Sora!" Goofy turned toward Herzophia. "I can take over from here, hyuck!" Goofy exclaimed, smiling. He then turned back around, and began bashing random cards over the head with his shield.
Herzophia jumped back from the line of battle and spun to face the tower. Running to an unoccupied area, she began hitting it with her blade. She heard the sound of wood cracking again, and Sora appeared in the area where the last crank was. She continued to beat the crank with all her might, and soon the wood gave way. Sora gave her a thumbs-up signal, and went back to his own. Herzophia looked into the space left after the crank had broken, and saw that they needed to destroy the entire tower, and not just the four cranks, to get Alice down from her bird-cage. She began hitting the main part of the crank-tower, and smiled in satisfaction as the wood creaked from the abuse.
Donald stood next to Goofy, shooting fire at the cards that were not hit by Goofy's shield. "These sure are weak soldiers!" He called out breathlessly, trying to strike up a conversation while in the middle of battle.
Sora and Herzophia continued their onslaught of the now very abused tower, which was cracked in several places and ready to burst.
CRACK
The tower split into many large splinters, raining down on the card soldiers, the Queen of Hearts, Donald, Goofy, Herzophia, and Sora. All who were in the courtyard spun to face Alice's cage, which fell rapidly toward the ground. The cage halted at the bottom, and the curtain was pulled back to reveal Alice...
To reveal nothing?!
"She must have gotten kidnapped while we were fighting!" Donald said, gaping at the empty cage.
"You fools!" Wailed the Queen. "Find the one who's behind this!" Came the orders. "I don't care how!"
The group of four seemed forgotten in the panic as the cards ran to their duties. "Well, guess we should go find Alice, huh?" Goofy suggested. The others nodded and trudged through into the strange forest again. As they entered the wood, one of the strange flowers spat out a large boulder, and the Cheshire Cat promptly appeared.
"Have you seen Alice?" Sora asked, knowing now not to hope for an answer, but trying anyway.
"Alice, no, shadows, yes!" Answered the purple striped feline.
"Well where did they go?" Inquired Goofy.
"This way, that way, does it matter? Right, left, up, down, all mixed up thanks to shadows! Step deeper into the forest, to the deserted garden." The Cheshire Cat spoke the riddle. "You might find shadows in the upside-down room!" Purple and pink stripes disappeared as the cat faded from view once again.
The group looked at each other, and began to do the Cheshire Cat's bidding. By now, they had figured out that speaking in riddles and giving incomplete answers was just the way the cat preferred to speak. They fought off the few Heartless that appeared before them on their way deeper into the forest, and came to an opening in the leaves that was previously blocked by a gigantic rock. They stepped through the door of shrubbery and into a strange garden, with a table covered by a pink tablecloth in the center. What caught their eye almost immediately was the painting directly across the garden from them. The painting depicted a human in an extraordinarily large hat and an oversized rabbit, both with looks of surprised horror on their faces. Upon closer examination, Donald found out that there was writing next to the painting that read: A very merry Un-birthday.
There was a door to the left as they stepped into the garden, and, not without a few looks back at the disturbing artwork, the group of four walked into the adjacent room.
"They're hiding somewhere. And the momeraths outgrabe." Said none other than the Cheshire Cat. "Want to find shadows? Try turning on the light." As the Cat once more faded from view, Shadow and Soldier Heartless appeared.
Separating, Sora and Herzophia spun and danced through the Heartless, easily defeating the dark beings. Donald and Goofy sat back, relaxing, watching with approving looks the battle that was going on. Then, there appeared six of the red bell-shaped Heartless and a fat one. The mage and knight leapt up from their restful positions and joined in on the fight.
Herzophia jumped back from the red Heartless, and decided to test out her new spell. "BLIZZARD!" She cried, and even though she didn't know if it was right, she pointed her Heartblade at the red Heartless. Ice shot from the end of Herzophia's blade, speeding toward its fire shooting victims. The Heartless's eyes widened as the ice hit them, then they burst and disappeared. Taking note to use that spell again, Herzophia jumped into battle with the other three against the Large-Belly. Using teamwork, and bait for attacks, the teenagers, mage, and knight defeated the big Heartless.
Looking up to check for any more red fire-shooters, Sora noticed oblong, hollow glass shapes that looked oddly like lamps sitting on things that looked like tables from his point of view. "Hey, look, maybe that's what the cat meant by turn on the light?" He suggested, pointing out the lamps to the others of the group.
"Huh... yup." Goofy said simply.
Sora beckoned to the others, and jumped up, grabbing onto the edge of a table. Hoisting himself up, he pointed the Keyblade at the top of the lamp, thinking that the magic of his sword might do something. It did do something, and a wick inside of the lamp immediately burst into flame.
Spotting a dot of purple and pink out of the corner of his eye, Sora turned to the Cheshire Cat, who then spoke. "It's too dim. Make it brighter."
"What next?" Asked Donald.
"One more lamp that you need to light." The Cat then disappeared again.
Sora, confused, jumped over to the other table and again used the magic of his Keyblade to light the lamp. Again the purple and pink striped cat appeared, this time on the lamp Sora first lit.
"All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon. They'll show in this room, but somewhere else. They might go after that doorknob, too." The cat then, of course, faded into nothingness.
"This gets weirder every minute." Stated the duck-mage.
"Come on down, Sora, we've got to find the shadows if we'll find Alice!" Called Herzophia.
"Sure thing, Zophi." Sora said, grinning. The Keyblade master dropped down from the lamp table, and walked up to the others in the group. "I think I know what that cat was talking about. Have you noticed how this room looks similar to many of the other rooms in this place? Maybe, if we light the lights in all of the other rooms, we'll find the shadows AND Alice."
Donald blinked, unaware that Sora could be so smart, and kept his mouth shut.
"Good thinking, Sora!" Goofy complimented. "Guess we should get goin' then, huh?"
The others unanimously agreed, and they all walked over to the wall, where Herzophia had said she noticed something odd. Looking at a piece of metal hanging from the wall, she pulled it, and the wall in front of them opened into the queen's court. The quartet moved through the door, and opened a treasure chest they found on the opposite side. They then jumped down from the hedge they were positioned on and proceeded to enter the forest for what seemed to them like the hundredth time.
"That cat said everything was messed up, right?" Herzophia asked the others, without even waiting for an answer. "Well, if it is, those doors we went through before won't have the same rooms, or, at least not seem like it, right?"
"Know what, I bet you're right." Donald answered, pondering the question himself. "Come on, let's head up to the door-in-the-tree thing."
Goofy nodded, and turned to Sora, who also agreed. So, the four jumped up the large mushrooms and across the giant lily-pads to the door Donald mentioned, and entered. As Herzophia had thought, the room was changed. In fact, the room was flipped onto its side. "Look out!" Shouted Goofy, and lifted his shield to ward off the attack of an oncoming Heartless. There weren't many, and there was a single Large-Belly, so the group of four easily defeated the Heartless. Off to the side, a previously flat pot rose from the ground, allowing the group to jump up onto it and to the other side. More Heartless appeared, disappeared, appeared again, then disappeared again as the group fought them.
There was a large faucet near the wall, and, using his knightly strength, Goofy turned it. Water shot out from the faucet and toward a flat yellow pot that was seemingly glued to the wall, defying physics. The pot seemed to grow as it filled with water, and the faucet turned itself off when the pot grew to its capacity.
Peering into the pot, Donald jumped with surprise. "Wow, this leads to the queen's court! How weird..." He quacked.
"Hmm... yes, weird... now, off we go!" The others stared as the silver-haired teen launched herself through the pot, onto another hedge, and off again. The others followed behind.
Lamps, lamps, and even more lamps. They went into many rooms more than once, and eventually found no new rooms whatsoever. For lack of anything else to do, the quartet of confused heros found themselves, once again, in the Queen of Hearts' court.
"Ugh, the same room over, and over, and over..." Sora sighed heavily.
"What are you talking about?" Asked Donald. "Same room? Those were all different."
Sora shook his spike-covered head. "No... they were all the same room, twisted and turned about on each other. What, didn't you notice that?" Sora's eyes grew wide as he stared at Donald. "We were in the room enough times, after all!"
"As a matter of fact..." Herzophia said ponderously, "you're right. I think it's that big room we followed the rabbit into before, actually. Y'know, the one with the talking doorknob?" The others nodded boredly. "Look, I know we're all tired from seeing the same things multiple times, but hey, one more time really won't do much to us, now will it?" She raised an eyebrow as the others didn't respond. "Oh, come on!" She walked off through the heart-shaped hedge that lead to the room she had spoken of.
"Ooooh! You're finally done!" A mildly insane voice sounded from above. Azure, dark orange, black, and brown eyes looked up to see a pink and purple striped feline perched atop the oh-so-familiar blue table. "Well, you can't see much from down there, can you? Come on up here to get a better view." The Cheshire Cat voiced in a range of tones.
The cat again. At least it wasn't a Heartless. Four tired and slightly annoyed beings climbed a chair to join the crazy feline, and were once again spoken to by an insane-sounding, but yet very intelligent, all-knowing voice. "The shadows are almost here," spoke the brightly colored animal, "oh, yes. They're very close now. I can't bear to think what could happen to you... but you do want to save Alice?" The cat grinned, seemingly more widely than usual. "Oh, your friend has arrived." The cat pointed upward, grin still plastered unwaveringly on its face, and disappeared.
"What did he mean by-" but Sora was cut off, as a very large and very colorful item dropped from the ceiling. As it landed, it made a crinkling noise, as if it was made of paper. Before anyone could raise an eyebrow or ask 'what the heck was that?' the paper thing stood. It was a Heartless, with black, yellow, and red colored paper making up most of its body. The paper was folded up to be like diamond-shaped, miniature accordions. In each of its hands, it held a large stick like one might use at the circus in the juggling act. It was very tall. If Sora stood next to it, he would only reach – maybe – mid-way through what was assumedly its shin.
"...uh..." Sora stared at the thing, which, upon hearing his voice – or sensing his heart? – turned toward the group and shot a very large, very hot, and very painful fireball at them.
BOOMAll four were shot off of the blue table and onto the ground. Rather than stating the obvious, like 'looks like it's time to fight!', Herzophia stood up and shot a fireball of her own at the Heartless. It didn't even reach the thing's head before disintegrating. Donald shot ice at it. Didn't work. Goofy jumped and whacked part of its legs. The thing winced slightly, and began to stomp around in an attempt to squish the canine knight. Success!
Sora, now knowing where they could hurt the thing, began to jump up as high as he could and take a whack at its legs. Herzophia tried to hit the feet, thinking perhaps they would be hurt as well. Her sword rebounded as if she had hit a rock, and sent a painful wave through her hand that traveled all the way up her arm. Uttering a curse in a pained voice, she shook out the abused appendage and began to use Sora's method.
Donald was lost as to what his course of action was. The others were doing fine, but... the dismayed duck looked around. He then spotted something almost obvious from the start, and wondered why he, with his superior knowledge, didn't realize it could help him out. The bird climbed up to the table, went to the edge near the juggler-heartless, and shot ice at it. This time, it hit. The Heartless went down in a heap on the ground. The three fighters eyed it confusedly for a moment, until it stood up and whacked them all with its large juggling sticks. No, definitely not finished. They continued as they had been doing before.
~~~~~~~
"Oh, dear. It looks like this guy has them stumped..." A soft, musical voice whispered from the shadows. "I wonder... should I help them out, once?"
A moment of silence.
"Maybe they can try again..."
~~~~~~~
Two slouched jugglers later, the fighters, and the mage, were growing tired. The monster hurt them every time it stood up, and they still didn't know what to do when it did that. After another mighty blast of ice from the clever duck, the juggler went down once again. The fighters stood back and waited for it to stand up again.
"Blizzaga!" The voice of a stranger shouted, and a huge wave of ice hit the slumped Heartless. The heartless reeled in pain, and stood up, almost dazed. Herzophia, Sora, Goofy, and Donald blinked, looked around for the sixth being there. They spotted no one, and nearly got stomped in their distraction. They returned to fighting.
~~~~~~~
"Hope that worked..."
~~~~~~~
The juggler slouched again. This time, the fighters warily approached, then hit it. It seemed to cry in pain, but couldn't stand quite yet. They hit it again and again, and finally it stood. It seemed to be having a hard time staying on its feet. It walked drunkenly over to the brick stove, and when it turned to face its foes once again, its batons were flaming like brightly-colored, festive torches. It threw the sticks around, amazingly not dropping them, and began to sweep near its feet with the flaming objects.
"Shoot!" Herzophia dodged, and narrowly missed being bludgeoned over the head with fire, which would have been an undoubtedly painful experience. They would have to be a bit more careful when they fought it now, because they had feet and flaming batons of doom to dodge. Herzophia looked inquiringly at Sora and Goofy, and they both nodded, to say they understood the silent message. The fighting resumed.
After many burns, many stomped limbs, and many much-appreciated healings – courtesy of Goofy's potion supply – the monster fell again. The mage, knight, and two warriors hit the thing ruthlessly, knowing it was on the brink of destruction.
Suddenly, they were all thrown backwards, and a bright, bluish-white light burst from the chest of the Heartless. A pink and red faceted heart rose from the disappearing juggler, and vanished into the shadows above.
"Gods almighty," Herzophia said, ignoring the odd stares from the others at her expression, "that was a tiring fight if I ever fought one!"
"Uh..." Sora blinked. "...where's Alice?"
The others, as if suddenly jolted by static electricity. Alice was nowhere nearby. That meant that the Heartless here didn't take her... which also meant...
"Oh, great. The queen's going to kill us!" Donald quacked with dismay.
"Not if... we leave before she can." Herzophia said, and stood up quickly. After a slight dizzy spell, and a reminder not to do that again, she beckoned the others. "She can think we're lost in the forest or something. Let's just go find Alice. Besides... it's about time we left this crazy world!"
"No arguments there..." Sora said, and stood up as well.
"Works for me." Came the duck's reply. They all sprinted as fast as they could for the way out.
"Huh? Oh! Wait for me!" Goofy cried, leapt to his feet, and followed behind, going through the many small doors, down the twisting, confusing hallway, and back to the Gummi Ship.
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A/N: ...yeah... okay... finally got this out...
Don't kill me! *cowers*