Sorry about the wait, guys! Here's the next chapter! It's a little long, but that's fine! Hope you like it! If you liked the others, I'm sure you'll like this one though!

I'd reply to my reviews, but at the moment, I'm pressed for time, so I'll just say thanks all my wonderful reviewers! Keep reading and keep reviewing! Now read!

Chapter 7: Fury

Thud.

"Get offa me!"

"Gawrsh, sorry, guys."

Sora's eyes fluttered open when he realized that he wasn't falling to his doom or dead. He realized that he was on top of Donald while Goofy had landed on top of him. The next thing he noticed was that the floor was still far below him.

"What in the…?" He quickly pushed Goofy off of him and crawled across the ground beneath him, crawling closer to the tile floor. Instead of falling to the ground, he had fallen to the wall!

"What is this?!" Donald quacked as he stood up. "We're on the wall!"

It didn't feel like they were on the wall though. The ground felt solid and if Sora didn't recognize the room, he would have just thought that it was built sideways.

"This is crazy… Just totally—"

"Sora, watch out!" Donald cried from behind him. On an instinct, Sora called for the Keyblade and whipped around, thrusting it in a stabbing motion. His instinct had proven correct and he had just killed a lone Shadow.

"Let's just get out of here! I don't trust this place!" Donald said while pulling out his Wizard's Rod.

Sora nodded and began walking back to the doorway, which he found was more of a hole in the floor in this bizarre room. But then he stopped, eyes widening. Up, down, and all around… Up, down, and…

"Up, down, and all around is where you'll find the next clue! This is where it is! The clue's somewhere in here!"

"I think you're right, Sora! Wonder where it could be…?" Goofy said while scratching his head.

"I dunno, let's look around." Sora began walking around, keeping the Keyblade ready to battle anything that dared sneak up on them.
***

The Joker card watched the Queen warily from his hiding spot in the bushes. So fat, so ugly. She wasn't even a real card! Yet, instead of stepping down and letting the real royalty of cards take their natural place, she had them killed! Killed!

She was an evil that needed to be destroyed and if everything went as planned, by the end of the day, she would be. But first he had to live up to his end up the bargain. First he had to kidnap the Princess.

But he knew that he couldn't just yet. The entire deck of cards was walking around the courtyard! Two of them guarded the Princess, who was in the birdcage. The rest of them were doing odd jobs, but he knew that at the Queen's command, every one of them would attack whomever the Queen chose.

And then an idea flashed through his mind. It would be dangerous and he could lose everything in the process, but if he knew the Queen, and he knew the Queen, he would be willing to put so much on the line.

The ones trying to save Alice were on a journey of sorts to find evidence of her innocence, and, coincidentally, Joker's guilt. So he'd help them along. Plant a piece of evidence! He knew by watching them, they already had the hat belonging to the Air Soldier, an event that not even he understood how it happened, and he also knew that they were in the Bizarre Room now. There were many exits to the Bizarre Room, so he'd have to put his evidence in a place where they would all find it.

Suddenly, as if by divine leading, he knew where to put it. The Heartless of this world all seemed to by drawn to the boy with the Key, and it wouldn't be hard to plant it on a Heartless! Yes, that's what he'd do!

So with conspiracy in his mind, he melted into the shadows and went searching for one of his Heartless.
***

Downing a Potion, Sora felt revitalized and ready to fight the new enemies that had shown up. The Heartless seemed endless and he was willing to bet that they might as well have been. Sora could fight them for a long period of time, but not forever. He was only human. And even worse, they were running out of time!

With three pieces of evidence left to find, they only had roughly a half an hour before time was up! Things were looking bleak for he and his friends, but he wasn't ready to give up. Not until the fat lady sung, or in this case, commanded that their heads be cut off.

"Thunder!" He heard Donald cry and immediately, bolts of lightning rained down, destroying a majority of the Heartless foes. Once again, Sora was mesmerized by the power in which the small mage held and felt a twinge of pain knowing that he could do the same, yet didn't know how.

CLANK! Goofy's shield, one with razor sharp edges, pounded into a Heartless, stunning it, giving Goofy a chance to follow up the attack by slicing into it. The Soldier evaporated into black smoke.

"I'm outta Ethers!" Sora heard Donald cry. Some Heartless were chasing him and it was obvious that he was worn out.

 "Donald! Catch!" Sora took out one of his own and threw in Donald's way, praying that the duck would be able to catch the vial of red liquid.

Donald just barely caught it and Sora was relieved when he drank it and spun around, sending a blast of icy wind, mingled with shards to huge boulders of ice, in the direction of the Heartless. The multiple Heartless chasing him all evaporated into nothing.

It didn't take long to finish off the remainder of the Heartless, and they ran off before any more had a chance to come along.

"Where could that evidence be…? What is it? Darn cat, he didn't give us anything!" Donald snarled as he silently dared the Cheshire Cat to appear in front of him.

"Well, it's somewhere in this room!" Goofy said with a goofy grin.

"Oh, well, that makes it easy… or it would if we couldn't walk on the walls!" Donald said in retort. He hit Goofy over the head with his rod and walked up to where Sora was walking in front of them.

"Let's just get outta here, Sora! I don't think the King is on this world! Neither are your friends! Why bother?"

Sora stopped and swiveled to face Donald. "We have to save Alice, Donald! She's been framed by the Heartless! Do you just want to let her die?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Hey, guys! Look at this!" Goofy cried from behind the arguing duo, cutting Donald off. "I found something!"

Sora and Donald shared a look and both ran towards the place Goofy had stopped walking. Goofy stood there, looking at a familiar crest that he had picked up from the ground.

"It's the Heartless symbol!" Sora and Donald cried at the same time. Goofy hardly had time to react before Sora leapt forward and wrenched it from his grip.

"This is evidence number two, guys! We're halfway there!"

"It's gonna have to be enough!" Donald said quietly when he reached into Goofy's pocket (Sora grimaced at this) and pulled out the pocket watch. "We only have ten minutes left! We have to go!"

Sora nodded and took off for the opening in the ground and stopped directly in front of it. "Here goes…" He took a slow step forward and in and soon felt the gravitational change. Soon, he was standing half in the hole and half out. "This is so weird!" He said, now grinning.

"Quit playing and hurry!" Donald cried, threatening to push Sora the rest of the way. Sora complied and walked the rest of the way in.

Seconds later, he poked his head back out the hole and looked at Donald and Goofy. "Hurry up, guys! We don't got much time!"

Donald was the next to go. He decided to try to just walk to the hole purposely and not even slow to walk over the corner, figuring that gravity would do it all for him…

…He was very wrong, and he got a sore butt to prove it. "Stupid world! GAH! I hate this place!" He yelled while getting up again, rubbing his rump.

"Watch out, Donald!" Sora cried, but by then it was too late. Goofy, mimicking Donald's entrance, fell right on the irritable duck.

"GET OFF!" Donald screamed, pounding the ground with his fists and unleashing what Sora was sure was a string of curses in 'duck language'.

Goofy quickly got off and stood to his feet, double checking to make sure all his equipment was still there. Donald simply got up and calmly walked past Goofy, but not before pushing him roughly, nearly causing the taller goof to fall over the edge again.

Sora gulped as he began walking across the picnic area towards the tree branches. He had enough heights for today and he didn't look forward to going out there again!

He hesitated, but another angry quack from Donald prompted him to step forward onto the branch. He began walking along the branch, albeit slowly, and outside into the forest again.

"Goofy, you go first again… You know, just in case Sora misses again!" Donald said, giving Sora a condescending smirk.

Sora narrowed his eyes. "I can do it!" He gave Goofy a look that caused him to let the teen go first. Stepping up to the edge, Sora took a deep breath. "Here goes…" And then he leapt, sailing through the air, and landing easily on the other branch.

"I did it!" Sora said, grinning back at the duo. "I did it, guys!"

"Good job, Sora!" Goofy said, cupping his mouth to amplify his voice, even though he was only three or four feet away.

Sora grinned at the two and, on instinct, took a step backwards. The only problem with that was the fact that there was nothing to step on. Yelling out, Sora tumbled backward, falling off the branch.

Falling… Sora screamed loudly and tried to grasp something—anything—to stop himself, but he was unable to do so. He saw Goofy and Donald appear on top of the branch and Goofy tried to reach down and grab him like he had before, but it was far too late.

I'm doing to die! This is it! Sora cried in his mind. The wind whipped past him and all he could hear was the whistling of the air as he broke through it and the rippling of his hair and clothes as the speed of his fall increased.

"Don't give up, Sora! Grab onto something! Hurry!" He heard a voice in his head say. He knew who it was too.

"You can't die, Sora! You have to keep going! It all depends on you! If we lose you…"

Kairi! I can't! It's too late! I'm practically dead already!  He said in reply.

"You can too! Trust me!"

Sora bit his lip and tried to look around for something to grab. He was still a good ten to twenty feet off the ground and he was falling far too fast to—there!

The Keyblade materialized in his hands and he swung it in midair towards something it had seen. And suddenly his drop came to a screeching halt as the prongs of the Keyblade caught a small, low hanging branch. But he didn't stop moving completely. Because of the shape of the Keyblade's prongs and his speed, his drop was turned horizontal. He swung off the branch and suddenly he was flying through the air again, not having lost much speed at all.

But like all things, what goes up must come down, and soon enough he was falling again. "No!" He tried to find something else to latch onto, but there was nothing. So, at long last, he held his breath, closed his eyes, and welcomed his fate.

If only he had opened his eyes one more time, he would not have seen the ground rushing up to meet him, but would have instead seen the wall of blue water instead…
***

"Where am I? Am I… dead?" Sora asked himself as he got up. Wherever he was, it was completely black. His body seemed to give off its own light, but there was nothing to light up.

"Hello?" He said, cupping his mouth with his hands. "Is there anybody there?"

He frowned and pinched his arm hard, feeling the pressure and then pain of doing so. "I'm not dreaming… I don't think so anyway. But what could that mean? Am I… really dead?"

And suddenly, there was a large ball of light that just appeared in the middle of the darkness. But the light was dim, and once again, it didn't seem to pierce the great darkness all around Sora.

THU-THUMP.

THU-THUMP.

"What's that?" Sora wondered aloud, walking closer to the light.

THU-THUMP. Over and over again, it made that same noise and pulsed to the sound as well, almost like a…

"A heart!" Sora cried suddenly, stepping back once in disbelief. "It's a heart!" A though suddenly passed through his mind. "Is it… mine?"

THU-THUMP.

THU-THUMP.

"What is this…? What's going on?" Sora asked, barely above a whisper. "I am dead, aren't I…? But I don't understand… What is this place?"

THU-THU-THUMP.

Sora froze at the extra beat.

THU-THU-THUMP.

He watched in awe as another heart appeared with a flash, it's dim light still not being able to pierce the darkness.

THU-THU-THUMP. The two hearts' beats had melded into that one triple beat.

"If this is my heart, then who's is this…?" He walked over to it and slowly laid a hand on the pulsing light.

"Sora, you lazy bum! I knew I'd find you here snoozing!" He… no she said. She was standing a familiar beach, looking straight at… Sora!

"Snoozing…? No! This huge black… thing swallowed my up! I couldn't breathe; I couldn't—"

Sora ripped his hand back, breathing heavily. He had seen a memory. A familiar one at that! It was the one where he had woken up from his strange dream yet… it wasn't in his point of view. It was in Kairi's.

"This is… this must be Kairi's heart! But how…? Why…? I don't—" He stopped as he watched the scene before him unfold. The two hearts were moving closer together, coming together! When they had molded into one heart, the light grew brighter and brighter until…
***

Goofy shook Sora roughly. He had just dragged the boy out of the small but deep pond in the forest floor, in which Sora had fallen. When he had checked his heartbeat, he noticed that it was very faint, yet it was still there. But Sora wasn't breathing!

"Come on, Sora! Wake up! Gawrsh, do you know CPR, Donald?"

"Do I look like a doctor?!" Donald quacked loudly, taking out his frustrations on Goofy. "Plus, he has a heartbeat, so he doesn't need CPR!"

"Then what does he need!"

"I need you to stop shaking me!" Goofy's eyes widened and he noticed he hadn't stopped shaking Sora in the least bit. The second thing he noticed was that Sora's eyes were open wide and the teenager was trying to get up.

"Sora!" Goofy and Donald cried at the same time, each hugging the boy at the same time. Sora struggled with the hug for a while, and soon they released him.

"You took quite a fall there, Sora! I don't know how you managed to swing into the pool, but—"

"Fall? What are you talking about, Goofy?" Sora interjected, scratching his head. "I don't remember falling."

"What?!" Donald screamed. "How can you not remember?! You tried to jump across that branch up there and ended up falling off the other side! It was by pure luck that you managed to grab another branch with the Keyblade and swing into the pond!" The duck made wild gestures while speaking and Sora was able to gather enough of what they thought happened.

"I don't understand… I fell?"

"Yeah!"

"I don't… remember any of it… I remember getting that piece of evidence and then I remember waking up to Goofy shaking me! Everything in between is blank…" Sora said quietly, frowning as he tried desperately to remember.

"Evidence! Oh, Sora! Look at this! A Heartless attacked us when we were coming down to save you and it dropped this!" Goofy held up a piece of paper with neat writing on it.

Sora grabbed it slowly and began reading aloud. "Whatever you do, do not let this fall into anybody else's hands. If it does, everything could be ruined.

"I don't care what personal ambitions or desires you have. You have one goal and one goal only, and that is to take care of the princess. I have given you what is necessary to complete that task. After infilling you with Darkness, you have the ability to command the Heartless." Sora's eyes widened and his breath came in short. But regardless of that, he continued.

"Use this to capture the princess with whatever methods you choose. Whatever you do, however, do NOT let the Heartless near her! After this, you may do what you wish with the Heartless. Kill the pitiful queen if you wish. However, remember to be off the world when the Heartless finally destroy it, or you will be destroyed as well.

"If all else fails, let the darkness in completely. That WILL give you any necessary power needed to finish your task. Be warned, if you fail, not only will I send someone else to complete this easy task, but that person will also ensure that you will be destroyed long before your world is."

Sora stayed silent for a long time. "There is a traitor in our midst…" He said finally, quoting the Cheshire Cat.

"We think that's plenty of evidence for the Queen!" Donald said, taking the letter from his hand and putting it in a small envelope in which Sora figured it had been in when they found it.

"I guess so…" Sora said, something nagging at the back of his mind. That letter hadn't had an addressee nor a signature at the bottom. Could it not be framed upon Alice or even them?

"Let's go! We don't have much time!" Sora shook the thoughts away, hoping that the rest of the evidence would be enough to support the letter.

The trio began walking towards the exit of the forest, but a familiar laugh, which echoed throughout the air, stopped them cold.

"Well, look what you've found!" The Cheshire Cat materialized on the tree stump once more, this time standing on one hand, with the rest of his body held up in the air, while his head twisted unnaturally to the point where it was right side up. "Nice going!"

"Now we can save Alice!" Sora said with a grin directed at the cat. Not even his mysterious demeanor could hurt Sora's attitude now.

"Don't be so sure." Scratch that; that could shatter Sora's attitude in a second.

"What do you mean? We found the evidence!" The boy cried desperately.

The Cheshire Cat continued without bothering to listen to Sora. "She may be innocent, but what about you?"

Sora froze, his eyes betraying his confusion. "W-what do you mean?" But somewhere, deep in his heart, Sora knew what the cat meant. He knew that he knew; yet he could not reach it. Whatever it was that he knew was just out of Sora's reach.

"I won't tell." The Cheshire Cat said with twinkling eyes. "But I will give you something."

Suddenly the cat disappeared. Sora frowned. "What in the—"

"I know what you want…" A whisper was heard in Sora's ear, but when he spun to see who it was who spoke, he found no one.

"Take the power, Keyblade Master. Use it to further your cause." Now it spoke in his other ear, "Unlock your heart to it and you will become stronger than any other." And then the voice became silent, but Sora felt something inside him become unlocked.

"What a rip-off! He said he was going to give us something and then he disappears!" Donald said angrily, shaking his fist to the place where the Cheshire Cat just was.

Sora opened his mouth to speak, but then decided against it. If the voice was who he thought it was, it meant that the Cheshire Cat had a gift for him and him only. Whatever that gift was, he still had to find out.

"Come on… let's just go." Sora said before walking out of the forest.
***

Compared to the forest, the courtyard was bright. Very bright. Sora shielded his eyes from the sun and squinted. Just a little bit away was the Queen of Heart's throne. And directly in front of that was the podium that Sora had to stand on.

He walked up to it, not meeting the eyes of any of the card soldiers or even the Queen herself until he was standing on the podium.

"Have you found your evidence, naïve little boy?" The Queen asked with a sneer.

Sora glared back at her with equal contempt. "Yes, Queen, I've found three separate pieces of evidence. Each one supports each other and—"

"Why, that's quite a bit of evidence that you have, isn't it?" Sora was taken aback by her uninterested voice. "The only problem is…" She leaned forward so that there was no doubt that Sora could hear her perfectly. "I am still not impressed."

Sora's mouth threatened to drop, but he tried to keep his cool. "But you haven't even looked at it!"

The Queen smirked and then sighed. "How about this…" She said as she said back in her throne. "Just to make it more interesting. You choose one of those three pieces of evidence. Whichever you choose to present, I will look at. If indeed I am satisfied, Alice will be freed. However, if I feel that it is not adequate evidence, Alice will be beheaded and you will join her for the crime of…" She paused, scratching her chin, trying to think up a good crime. Her eyes lit up and she sneered at Sora once more. "Assistance of a crime!"

Sora's mouth did drop this time. "What?! One piece of evidence?! We just spent the last two hours finding this evidence, risking our lives a bunch of times, and you throw it all out! And then you tell us that we'll be—"

"Silence! Do you dare disrespect the Queen of Hearts? I should have you beheaded now! Now choose your evidence and choose well!" The Queen said angrily.

Sora sighed and shook his head in disgust. Then, turning inward, the trio of friends formed a huddle of sorts. "What do we choose, guys?"

"I say we choose the letter! It's perfect!" Donald said, pulling the letter from one of his pockets.

"Yeah, that should do the trick!" Goofy said in agreement.

Sora bit his lip. He still felt that they had found the letter way too easily. They just happened to find it on a Heartless? "Guys, I have a bad feeling about that letter! We just happened to find it on a Heartless! What if whoever's trying to frame Alice planted it on the Heartless? It just seems to coincidental!"

"Sora! The rest of our evidence just happened to fall off the Heartless too! It is a coincidence and a good one at that! Now, let's just present the letter to the Queen, save Alice, and get out of this world before the Queen has us all beheaded for making the her lose her temper or entice her to a game of croquet or something!" Donald said with exasperation. He was getting very tired of this world.

Sora bit his lip and sighed. "We can't take any chances…"

"Exactly! We need to go with our best! If it works, then we get out free!"

"But if it doesn't work…?"

"It will!" Donald said, putting his hands on his hips. Sora sighed once more and nodded, grabbing the letter.

He spun around to face the Queen. "We've chosen!" One of the card soldiers came up to him and Sora handed the letter over to him. The soldier marched the two steps over to the Queen and handed it to her with a bow.

The Queen opened the letter and began reading slowly. "Hmm…" She'd say every once in a while. Sora watched her in anticipation. His fists were clenched tight and he was ready to call upon the Keyblade at any second.

She looked up at Sora and gave him another sneer. Sora's blood ran cold and his suspicions were justified when she shredded the letter and dropped the remains on the ground.

"Guards…! Seize them! They, along with Alice, have conspired against me! They all have tried to steal my heart! They will all be beheaded!" Immediately, before Sora could even react, a dozen cards ran straight for him and grabbed him, kicking his legs out from underneath him and pulling his arms back to a painful position. Goofy and Donald were being treated fairly much the same.

"No!" Sora cried, trying to wrench himself from their grasp. "Let us go, you fat—" A guard clamped a hand over his mouth, cutting him off.

The Queen looked appalled and she put a hand over her mouth. "How dare you! Guards, off with his head! Right now!"

Sora clenched his eyes shut and grit his teeth. "I won't…" A bright light began shining in directly front of him. "I won't… give up…"

"Guards, what is he doing?" The Queen asked, staring at the light.

Sora felt something happening inside of him. Something rising to the top. Whatever the Cheshire Cat had unlocked was happening now! Something surged through his body, originating at his heart and spreading down into his arms, until it finally hit the point where the card soldiers held him.

TZZZAAAP! Lightning bolts shot from his hands to the card soldiers, causing them to release him to avoid being fried. Immediately, the bright light changed into the Keyblade and Sora grabbed it, swinging it around, batting soldiers away with ease.

For a second, Sora froze, realizing that he had used the magic attack, Thunder (although it was a bit different than normal), but then he decided to worry about that later.

"Guards! Seize him now!" The Queen screamed from her throne, getting up to her feet and jumping up and down while pointing at Sora.

Sora whipped around to see the group of guards closest to him and called upon the magic again. This time, a few sizeable fireballs exploded from the tip of his Keyblade and slammed into the cards, sending them falling backward.

He broke Donald and Goofy free and they immediately went to work, helping him subdue the other cards.

Finally when that was all finished and all the cards were unconscious or had run away, Sora stepped up to the podium. "New way of doing things, Queen. Now you listen to me! I've had enough of your pompous, arrogant, self-centered attitude! You have no right even being queen!"

Sora had to give the Queen one thing. Even though she no longer had any protection anymore and she had seen what Sora and his friends could do, she still showed no fear.

"We did not conspire against you in any way! We came here looking for our friends! And neither did Alice try to steal your heart! She's just trying to get home! Someone in your kingdom is the conspirator, Queen! Whoever that is controls the Heartless and they tried to steal your heart! Not me and not Alice! And I'm sick of your attempts to pin it on us!"

The Queen glared at him coolly. "You expect me to believe that? You are the one holding the weapon." Sora sighed and the Keyblade disappeared with a flash. Donald and Goofy put away their own weapons as well.

"Alice is innocent. And you are going to release her!" Sora said with a glare still in his eye.

The Queen smirked. "No. No, I don't think I will." Sora blinked in surprise. He was suddenly in a rut. The Queen had the only controls to the cage, which was raised ten feet off the ground and Sora didn't have much time! The guards could wake up at any time! He had no plan to hurt the Queen, although he wouldn't mind doing so too much. But could he get away with a bluff?

"I'm warning you! If you don't cooperate, I'll…" He hesitated and then the Queen began laughing loudly.

"You'll what, boy? Hit me with that key?" Sora's eyes widened and suddenly the Keyblade appeared in his hands, the edges already razor sharp. The Queen of Heart's eyes widened with fear and she screamed as Sora leapt straight towards her, the Keyblade in an offensive position.

Suddenly a screech from behind her caused her to whip around. There, directly in front of her, was the most ugly creature that the Queen had ever seen! Entirely black, it was tiny, hardly two feet tall. Its eyes were very large, but they glowed an eerie yellow color. It's hands ended in vicious claws and it had two strange antennae sticking up from its head.

She screamed once more, but she was cut short as the Keyblade, glowing with an unknown power, slammed into the Shadow, causing it to evaporate into black smoke.

"That was the culprit." Sora said, a dark tone in his voice. "That was a Heartless." He straightened up and dropped off the thick rail on which he had been standing and into the booth that held the Queen and her throne.

For once, the Queen of Hearts was at a loss for words. After everything she had put him through, the insane tasks, the mental torture, and even trying to have him killed, this boy had still saved her life. She tried to reason that he was saving his own hide, yet she couldn't even use that excuse for very long.

"How do I let the cage down?" There was hardly any question in that voice. Sora was commanding her to show him. The Queen weakly pointed at a lever next to her throne, but she was still unable to say anything.

Sora quickly pulled the lever and immediately, the birdcage began lowering to the ground slowly. Hopping off the throne, Sora ran over to where the birdcage was, and as soon as it reached the ground, he ripped the large cover off of it, revealing what was inside.

"What in the…?!" He suddenly yelled, grabbing the bars to the cage and shaking them roughly. Donald and Goofy ran over to where he was and peered inside the cage. They confirmed what he had just seen… which was nothing. The birdcage that had housed Alice…

…was empty.

***************************************

And that's all folks! Anyway, I had a slight writer's block earlier on in the chapter, and that's why it took me so long to write it. However, hopefully that's over with now!

Can you believe that they are still on Wonderland? How many chapters is it now? Two and a half? Three? Well, don't worry! Next chapter, they will be gone (FINALLY)! Then I can get to work on the next worlds! Speaking of which, give me a review and tell me which world you want to see next! Deep Jungle… Or the Coliseum?

Tell me in a review! At the end, I'll count the votes and whichever world wins will be the next destination… although I'm willing to bet I already know which will win… I'll give you a hint, it involves Cloud Strife.

Anyway, until next time… go read my Sonic story on my other account, darn it! And also until next time… R&R!

--Ben