Well, here's the sixth chapter of the Kingdom Hearts Novel! Sorry if it seems somewhat rushed at times, I was in a big hurry. I'm going out of town and will be gone for a week, meaning no writing! Anyway, rushed or not, I like the way it turned out!
So… read on and have fun!

Chapter 6: Framed!

The first sound they heard as they walked through the hole was birds chirping happily. The second sound was a loud trumpeting and then a voice, a vaguely familiar voice, saying hoarsely, "Court is now in session! Her majesty, the Queen of Hearts, residing!"

"What in the…" Donald quacked softly as he took in the sites around them. This was quite a strange world. With talking doorknobs and shrinking potions, it was bad enough! But now he was looking at a perfectly green garden of some sort... but that's not what was weird about it! There were strange… cards surrounding a small podium, on which stood a cute girl with blonde hair dressed in a light blue dress that reached her calves.

The cards themselves were just that. Looking like they were taken straight out of a deck of playing cards, they each had different symbols—spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs—and numbers of those symbols. Each of them had a weapon, an ax or a lance.

In the not-too distant distance, just past the girl, was an even larger podium. A major difference with this one was the fact that it had a large throne situated on it. Behind the throne was a painting of large heart. Half of the heart was red while the other half was white. In the red section of a heart was a much smaller white heart, and in the white section there was, likewise, a red heart. Beside the podium with the throne, there was a large cage. It was covered with a red tarp of some sort and looked to be a big birdcage.

Next to the throne was a raised platform. On this platform, the rabbit from before was now holding the trumpet. He had been the one that had said something about the trial!

Surrounding the area was a large hedge maze that seemed to go on forever.

"I'm on trial?" The blonde girl questioned, her voice rising with a bit of fear. "Bur why?"

"This girl is the culprit! No doubts about it! And the reason is…" Sora caught a good look at the person talking. She was a portly lady sitting in the throne. She was dressed in a lavish robe with hues of red and black forming a heart over her chest. "Because I say so!"

Sora's mouth simply dropped at that. "Because she… says so…?" He whispered to himself in confusion. "What kind of court is this anyway…?"

The girl let out a cry of disbelief. "But that's so unfair! How can your saying so mean anything? What ever happened to evidence? What about a chance to prove myself innocent?"

"Do you have anything to say in your defense?" The Queen of Hearts asked, a smirk on her face.

"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" Her voice gained a slight defiant tone to it. "You may be queen, but that doesn't give you the right to be so…" She paused, searching for the answer in her young mind. "So… so mean!"

"Silence!" The queen boomed, standing from her throne to lean over the edge of the podium. "How dare you defy me?" The girl shrunk back in slight fear of the large queen.

"This isn't a court! This is just plain wrong! Come on, guys, we have to help her!"

"We can't though! It'd be—" Donald said before being cut off by Goofy.

"Muddling! We'd be muddling!" Goofy finished.

"Meddling! Why can't you get that right? Med-dling!" quacked a frustrated Donald.

"Oh yeah…" Goofy said, ignoring most of Donald's comments besides the initial correction. "Meddling. Anyway, that's against the rules?" Sora scowled slightly and turned back to watch this real life court drama unfold.

"The court finds the defendant…" The Queen paused to add suspense. "guilty as charged! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart..."

Sora gasped and his eyes widened. At once, everything came into place. "The Heartless!" He hissed, looking at Donald and Goofy. "She isn't guilty, she's—"

"Off with her head!" The Queen of Hearts finished, a smirk slowly inching its way onto her face.

At once, the card soldiers began moving closer to the girl. The closest one, a six of clubs that held a large battle-axe, raised his weapon and prepared to bring it down on her small neck.

"No, no, please!" The girl screamed as two other cards grabbed her roughly and forced her to lean down, exposing the pale skin of her neck.

"No!" Sora suddenly cried out forcefully, already charging straight through the ranks of cards. "Stop!" The card about to behead the girl stopped in mid-swing and stared at Sora with frustration.

Noticing the angry glares originating from every card around him, Sora willed the Keyblade to appear in his hand, which it did with a bright flash. Silently commanding it to go into 'battle mode', Sora watched solemnly as the squared off ends became sharp. Seeing this, the cards willingly moved from his path, but held onto their own weapons, ready to strike at any time.

"Who are you?" The Queen demanded, her eyes alight with fury. "How dare you interfere with my court? I could have you—"

"Excuse me." Sora said, annoyance in his voice. It probably wasn't smart to talk with such disrespect to the Queen, but he no longer cared. She didn't deserve his respect in any way. "But we know who the real culprit is!"

Goofy and Donald ran up behind him, weapons also ready for battle. And Goofy decided to help Sora out in any way he could…

"Yeah, it's the Heartle—" Donald elbowed his hard in the gut and, realizing his mistake, Goofy clamped his mouth shut.

Sora looked at him in surprise and rolled his eyes. Turning back to the Queen, he calmly looked into her eyes, showing no fear. "Anyway, she's not the one you're looking for!"

The Queen looked at him furiously. It wasn't every day that someone came up and challenged her supreme authority! Evidence or not, she'd show this snot-nosed kid what happens to those that did!

"Impossible! Have you any proof?" She questioned, playing along with this little game.

Sora's eyes widened quite a bit and he turned to his friends. "Proof, guys? Do we have any—"

He was cut off by the Queen's obnoxious laughter. "You come here, defying my authority and ruling, without anything to back up your childish beliefs!"

"They aren't childish! I'm telling you, she is not the one that tried to steal your heart!"

The Queen glowered deeply. "I could have you executed just for saying that, you know. A snap of my fingers and your blood would stain my grass!"

Sora shook slightly and gripped the Keyblade tighter. "You'd have to catch me still first…"

The Queen smirked. "Very well, then. I'll let you go now. Wouldn't want to kill my lawn." Sora relaxed. "However, there's a catch…"

"A catch?!"

"Yes, you must bring me evidence of Alice's innocence! If you fail… it's off with all your heads!" Sora's mouth dropped. "You have two hours! Starting… now!"
***

"Idiot!" Donald quacked as the trio walked through the dark Lotus Forest. They had just come back from meeting Alice. Abruptly after proclaiming Sora, Donald, and Goofy's near-death sentences, the Queen of Hearts had thrown Alice into that birdcage.

After that, they had gone to Alice, hoping to get some kind of clue on how to gather the mysterious evidence, but then they learned that she herself was new there and she didn't have a clue!

"Well, how was I supposed to know that the Queen had a temper worse than you on a bad feather day?" Sora questioned. Donald only replied with a dark glare.

Someone cleared his throat to their right and the trio turned to face a large tree stump. But that was all they saw, a tree stump! "Bicker, bicker, bicker." A voice without a body said.

"What the…?" Sora wondered, looking around for the origin of the voice.

"Looking for something?" The voice questioned mischievously. Once again, it came from the stump, yet Sora couldn't see anything there!

And then a purple outline began to form. And then a smile, a gigantic, toothy smile. Deep violet stripes appeared and its body began to take form. Bright yellow eyes with black pupils appeared above its snout that encased the impossibly large smile. A large, striped tail appeared. Four legs, only two of which it actually stood on, materialized. And finally, as the final details—the nose, eyebrows, and face in general—appeared, Sora could see that it was some kind of cat creature.

"Who are you?" Sora demanded, grip tightening on his Keyblade just in case this cat was a threat.

"Who, indeed!" The cat said, as if everything was a joke. "Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, but not guilty of a thing!" Even with these solemn words, he kept the grin and still made it sound like a joke.

"If you know who it is, show us! It'll get us all out of hot water!"

"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers—" He answered, still grinning. "But he doesn't always tell! The answer, the culprit, and the cat all lie in darkness."

Sora watched in amazement as the Cheshire Cat's tail simply faded from existence. It was followed by his lower body and then the rest of him, except for his head.

"Hey, wait!" The boy cried, still trying to get a hint from the strange cat. But by then, it was too late. The Cheshire Cat disappeared completely, his creepy smile the last to fade…

"They've already left the forest, but I won't tell which exit. There are three pieces of evidence to find. Hidden throughout the forest and in other various places. In fact, there may just be one very near! Up, down, and all around is where your next clue is. Traitors are in our midst. One of them may even hold another piece! Find them all and you should have no problem!" The Cheshire Cat spoke on, even though his body had disappeared.

Goofy and Sora bent low at Donald's insistence. That way, he could whisper and they'd hear him. "Do we trust him?" Donald questioned.

Sora opened his mouth to reply, but the Cheshire Cat interrupted him. "To trust, or not to trust. I trust you'll decide! After all…" His voice began to fade. "Your time is running low…" And then he was gone.
***

"Well… that was strange." Donald commented after staring at the empty log for a while.

"Yeah…" Goofy agreed.

"Let's not worry about it right now." Sora said, looking around. Something felt… odd about this forest. It was very different than any other forest he had been in. Something in the air maybe. "We're running out of time. Let's get started."

"Hey, didn't he say there was one near here?" Goofy wondered. Sora nodded and began looking around.

Nothing. There was nothing. No Shadows moving along, parallel to the ground. No Air Soldiers flying overhead. No Soldiers charging forward with flying kicks. No chubby Large Bodies doing poor but painful moves reminiscent to sumo wrestling.

"Okay, let's move on." Donald said while scowling deeply.

"But he said that there was one around here!" Sora exclaimed, still scouring around.

"Well, he was lying!"

"What if he wasn't?"

"He was!"

"We don't know that!"

"He was!"

Goofy looked at the two in confusion. Shrugging, he kept looking around until he spotted something… something very bad.

"Uh, guys?" He was ignored, like usually.

"Why can't you get it through your head? He was either wrong or lying!"

"What if we just haven't looked enough?" Sora said in reply, face red with frustration.

"Guys?" Goofy interjected once more, watching in fear at the changing surroundings.

"Get over yourself! I'm not seeing any evidence! I'm moving on!"

"Well, I'm not!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Donald screamed in a huff and turned away. Sora did the same, facing the other way. It was only then that they saw the crowds of Heartless that had gathered around.

"Tried to tell you…" Goofy commented quietly while raising his shield to a defensive position.

"Next time, Goofy, just push us or something. It'd be easier." Sora said dryly.

The group of Heartless looked at them hungrily. It was a simple Shadow that first attacked, moving across the ground at a high speed, heading straight for Sora. It was destroyed when the Keyblade slammed into the ground, right where he was at for the moment.

"Get ready…" Sora said, pulling the Keyblade out of the ground and watching with satisfaction as a glowing heart rose from the ground and flew into the sky. "This could be a long fight."
***

Yelling a war cry, Sora dove forward, pushing a Soldier back. As soon as the Soldier let his guard up, he drove his Keyblade into its chest, causing it to erupt in a flash.

And that was the last of the Heartless. They had dispatched them quickly and decisively, ending up with only a few minor cuts and bruises. Nothing a quick gulp of a potion couldn't fix!

"Come on, I guess the evidence really isn't around here…" Sora said, slightly downcast. He walked forward, but tripped on something.

"Oof!" He cried as he hit the dirt. "I can take down a horde of Heartless, but a simple… thing can take me down! How is that fair!" He looked to the object he had tripped over and froze.

It was a slightly dented, but still very recognizable… Air Soldier's hat. Complete with goggles laying to the side and a propeller that had nearly been broken in half, it was distinctively a clue! Evidence to Alice's innocence!

"Guys!" Sora cried, scrambling to his knees and crawling to the hat. "Guys, get over here! Hurry!"

It didn't take long for Donald and Goofy to reach him, each spouting off their own opinion about the hat. Donald called it a 'piece of somewhat useful junk'. Goofy simply asked what it was. But Sora… Sora thought it was like a precious jewel—a solution to their problem and a way out of an unjust death penalty.

Standing up and grabbing the hat in his hand tightly, he looked at his companions with tears threatening to pour over. "This is it, guys." He said quietly, trying to keep his voice from cracking. "This is our evidence!"

"Sora! It's just a stinking hat! Evidence or not, why would the Queen pay attention to that?" Donald quacked, immediately ruining Sora's mood.

And ruined it was. Sora's happy mood was absolutely shattered at that thought. They had found something, yes, but, in reality, it was little more than a hat. Sighing heavily, he threw it to the ground in frustration and walked deeper into the forest, once again trying to keep himself from crying.

Goofy and Donald watched him as he walked off. "Yeesh! What's his problem?" The duck asked.

"I dunno… Maybe it was because he was so sure that he had found something really special and you told him it wasn't…" Goofy replied.

Donald looked at him in slight surprise. It wasn't often that Goofy was so… well… wise! He made a mental note to double check with Sora later to see if that was the problem. But he would do that later. They had other things to worry about… like catching up to the fourteen-year-old boy that they had lost sight of!

"Grab the hat, ya big palooka!" Donald yelled back at Goofy as he ran after Sora.

Goofy nodded and bent down, grabbing the hat. He loped after the duo, not even noticing the lone card watching them from the shadows…
***

"Don't you find it weird that we can hack through a hundred Air Soldiers but none of them ever leave any trace behind? And now, as soon as we need it, a hat that belongs to an Air Soldier just… well… appears!" Sora said, holding the hat up to his eyes, inspecting it.

"Maybe someone is trying to help us?" Goofy said in reply.

"Maybe…"

"Ahh, who cares why we have it? We do have it and that's all that matters! Why bother wondering about how the Heartless work?" Donald quacked.

"Maybe…"

"Is that all you can say, Sora?!"

"Maybe…" Sora looked at him and gave a boyish grin. His earlier angst had washed away quickly and was replaced with the same optimism that he was becoming known for.

Donald quacked in frustration, but didn't say anything else.

"We have an hour and a half left…" Goofy commented, looking at a pocket watch that he had pulled out.

"Time to play detective!" Sora said, slightly less optimistic, but not by much. "Let's split up, gang!"

"Split up?!" Donald screamed, stomping up to Sora and looking up at him in irritation.

"Sorry, just had to say that. Scooby Doo was always my favorite cartoon."

"What's Scooby Doo? And why are you playing around? We don't have much time!" Sora simply shrugged in reply and started walking ahead, looking around at his surroundings closely.

"What do you think he meant when he said 'Up, down, and all around is where your next clue is'?" Sora wondered aloud, referring to the Cheshire Cat.

"Maybe he meant it was up in the trees?" Goofy answered.

"Maybe…"

"Don't you start that again!" Donald quacked threateningly. "Let's just decide! Should we look around more down here or—"

"Let's go to the trees. On ground or not, we'll have a better look up there." Sora cut him off.

"And how do you suppose we climb these trees?"

Sora looked back at the white duck and grinned. "Quite simply, actually. We just hop from mushroom to mushroom."

"Mushroom to…" Donald trailed off as he saw Sora quickly point to a group of giant mushroom a little ways away. They were almost like stepping stones, each one higher than the other. They kept getting taller and taller until finally, they reached the lower branches of the trees. From there, the group could walk along the extremely large branches that belonged to the even larger trees.

Sora was the first to jump on one of the large mushrooms. The flimsy looking vegetables held his weight easily and he quickly climbed onto the next one. This too didn't even sway under his feet.

Donald climbed up after him, having a little bit more trouble. "Stupid mushrooms… Let's just climb these oversized umbrellas, why don't we? Stupid, stupid, stu—" Thud, Not even looking, he slammed into Sora, nearly knocking him off.

With a scream, the teenager grappled onto Donald for dear life.

"Why'd you stop?" Donald demanded, trying to pry Sora off of him.

"I… I can't…"

"What?"

Sora looked at him, his eyes wide with fear. Then he looked straight down at the ground that got farther and farther away than them with every mushroom.

"I… It's so high…"

"What?! We're ten feet off the ground!" Sora didn't pay attention to him at all, but instead he started shaking in fear. "Are you telling me that the Keyblade Master is scared of heights?!"

Sora nodded weakly. "I… I've always been afraid of heights… Since I was a little kid…"

Donald quacked in anger. "I don't care if you're scared of heights or not! If you don't start moving, I'll break out lightning!" Sora nodded and moved along the mushrooms, but he was considerably slower.

"So, Donald. I still haven't learned how to use magic yet. When do you think I will?" Sora asked, trying to get his mind off the growing heights.

"I have no idea! If it's anything like your moving up these mushrooms, you'll be dead and buried before it even begins to manifest itself!"

Goofy shook his head and placed a hand on Donald's shoulder. "Don't be like that, Donald. He's trying as hard as he can." He said quietly so that Sora couldn't hear him.

"He needs to try a little harder!" Donald said equally as quiet. Goofy simply shrugged and followed Sora and Donald up the rest of the mushrooms and onto the branch.
***

Five stories. Sixteen and a half yards. Fifty feet. Six hundred inches. It's how high the lowest branch within sight was. And Sora was absolutely terrified. He'd never been so scared in his life.

"I can't move, guys." He said weakly.

"Come on, Sora! You can—" Goofy began saying.

"No! I can't, Goofy! I can't even take a single freaking step! Don't you get it?! I can't move!" Sora cried, suddenly dropping to his knees and wrapping his arms around the gigantic branch as best as he could.

"Sora, I'm warning you…!" Donald said, raising his rod, the end already glowing yellow. Goofy covered the rod's end with his hand and gave Donald a look that said to stop.

"Sora, think about it. Alice is depending on us. We are depending on you! If you don't move on, we'll all lose our heads! We're already down to an hour left!" Goofy said forcefully.

Sora looked back at him and into his eyes. "I… I don't think I… I can't… I… I…" His eyes grew hard and he slowly rose to his feet, making sure that he didn't fall. "C-come on, guys. Let's look around…"

Donald blinked and Goofy grinned. He began to take a large step forward, but stopped suddenly. He stared at a large tree trunk… or more importantly, the large hole cut out in the middle of it.

"Gawrsh, Sora, look! Let's check that out!" Goofy said while already taking steps toward the hole.

"But it's on another branch of another tree! How are we supposed to get over there?" Sora asked, the pitch of his voice rising when he thought about having to climb over the gap.

"We jump!" Donald quacked, pushing Sora roughly. Sora screamed as, once again, he ended up on his knees, trying desperately not to fall, even though the branch was as wide as a boardwalk.

"Yeah, jump! It's close enough!" Goofy said, stepping up to the end of the branch.

Donald stepped up beside him and looked down. "Uh… You go first, Goofy. We're right behind you." Goofy looked at him strangely and nodded, easily leaping over the three-foot gap between branches.

Donald gritted his teeth and backed up some. Running forward, he leapt! …And landed right next to Goofy.

"Come on, Sora! Nothin' to it!" Goofy said, waving at his human friend.

Sora looked at them and slowly got to his feet. Stepping up to the end of the branch, he looked down. All of a sudden, the distance of fifty feet seemed to be a hundred feet and the gap seemed to be ten.

"Use the Keyblade's power, you moron!" Donald cried angrily.

Sora concentrated and immediately the Keyblade appeared in his palm. He stared at it for a while and closed his eyes, letting its foreign power surge through his body, making him stronger, faster, and more alert.

"This is it…" He subconsciously crossed his fingers and, in a blur, leapt…

The wind whipped past Sora as flew through the air in the direction of the branch. But he didn't care any longer. His eyes were tightly closed and he would keep it that way. If he missed, he wouldn't know until he was already dead. If he made it… well, then he'd be safe! It was the perfect solution, in his opinion.

The trip between branches seemed to take hours, even though it was only a split second. But it still seemed longer, even in normal time, than it should have. And then, suddenly, something slammed into Sora's back and grabbed his shirt.

WHAM! His legs hit something hard and unmoving. Sora decided that opening his eyes just this once wouldn't hurt. He wished he didn't do so at all. Directly below him was the ground, not the tree branch. No, he had cleared the branch completely and would have fallen to his death if it wasn't for Goofy.

Goofy had snatched him out of midair, preventing him from falling to his untimely doom. That would explain the slam into his back. And what hit his legs was the branch when momentum carried them forward and then gravity pulled them back, hitting the branch roughly.

Screaming, Sora wiggled around in terror. "Lift me up, lift me up!" Goofy complied and Sora was soon on semi-solid ground.

"When I said to use the Keyblade's power, I didn't mean that much, you idiot!" Donald said, hitting him upside his head.

Rubbing his head, Sora glared at him. "Let's just go." He got up and walked purposely to the hole in the tree trunk.

"Ground! Solid… ground!" The three had found themselves in a strange garden of some sort. A two-story house stood to their left and tall hedges to their right. Directly in front of them was a short, but long table with wooden chairs all around it. Seven chairs in all with plates, cups, and bowls at each seating place. Overhead, strange party lights illuminated the sunless area.

"Gawrsh, nice picnic." Goofy noted as they walked forward, away from the towering trees and their branches, much to the relief of Sora.

"Who cares about the stupid table? Look, there's a house! Let's check inside there!" Donald quacked before stomping over to the house and throwing the door open. He just about took a step, but then jumped back, quacking in fear.

"What is it?" Sora asked while he walked over to Donald. He looked through the door… and more importantly, looked down at the far away ground of that strange room they had been in. There was the table and the talking doorknob far below. To their right was the fireplace. The door led out onto the wall of the room!

"What kind of idiot would put a hole in the wall like that?! Are they trying to—" Sora was suddenly cut off as Goofy ran up behind them, slammed into them, and sent all three of them over the edge of the hole…
*****************

There! Done! All right, as I said at the beginning, I'm going out of town. In other words, no Kingdom Hearts or Prophesy of Chaos (my Sonic story on my other account) for at least a week! And that's not including the time it takes to write a chapter!

Sorry about the long wait you all will have to endure, but when I'm given the chance to visit my old buddies in my old town and top it off with a trip to Six Flags for $12.99 on a special Homeschool Day… well, I simply can't resist!

Now, for replies to reviews… Starting with *kingdom_gurl*: Well, I'll admit to this. I did change some scenes. I deleted others and added a plethora of others. Yes, I'm not going back and forth to see exactly how the characters react or their body movements. But don't say that I'm not putting any work in this. I beg to differ. I've already poured hours into writing this and I will be pouring countless more before I even come close to the end. It is far from easy to novelize a game like Kingdom Hearts, just ask those who have started a novelization, but will never finish it.

Thank you for your constructive criticism, but I believe that you were criticizing an area that did not need to be criticized. Remember, this isn't the game. This is my retelling of the game in my own words… plus many words from the game's script itself.

And on a side note, I just want to say that it's very evident that Sora loves Kairi. **SPOILERS!** You don't just sacrifice your heart and become a Heartless for anybody, you know. Maybe he didn't at the beginning, but he sure did by the end, and I very much so plan to make that obvious throughout my story.

JaguarKitty2006: Ha! You aren't the only one who can't wait until Hallow Bastion! I want to write it all right now! But I can't… but that's good 'cause that'll be good incentive to continue writing this beast!

PIcaRDMPC: Thanks for sticking up for my story and for the review! And even more thanks for not making it into a flame! I hate it when people flame others for their point of views on something as meaningless as a story.

Red Sonic: Thanks again for your reviews! And I really hate how they do that too! …Although Final Fantasy X changed that all, but I won't be giving any spoilers here! Nope, no way!

Callie Gibbons: Well, congrats on beating such an amazing game! And welcome to the Kingdom Hearts section!

Sora: You have my main character's name!!! …Or maybe you just named yourself after him. Anywho, thanks for the review!

And that being said…

Tune in next time for an even more explosive chapter! Watch as Sora and the gang try desperately to find the last two pieces of evidence. And what's this? Double-crossed by a queen?! Keep watching for the next chapter: Traitors and Tricks

--Harvestboy2001 (Ben)